Month: May 2011

Triathlon number 2 of the season went a little better than number 1. Not great, but better.

We had another windy morning, but the rain held off for a day & I had a late start time at 11:41. Very sociable. I screwed up the swim again, which is unusual for a 400m pool swim. This race starts off swimmers every 30 seconds in different lanes, and all are tied to a master time keeper’s clock so you have to go when the man says “go”. Swimmers in each lane have different coloured swim caps so the lap counter can keep track of us all (and a damned good job they did too). Unfortunately the swimmers before me were slow, probably slower than predicted, and I only had seconds to get the discarded swim cap on, then my goggles & get in the water. So in my first 25m my goggles filled with water & I had to overtake 2 swimmers (1 already overtaking the other) & nail the flip turn blind. Great!

The next 200m was spent trying to decide whether to rip my goggles off or sort them out, while vaguely thrashing at where I thought the wall was at tumble turns. My main worry was seeing the lap counter’s “2 laps to go” board so I elected to pause at the shallow end & sort my goggles. Arse. I got chicked in the swim too, & I bet she was swimming beautifully. I don’t know. I couldn’t see a thing for most of my swim. 400m in more than 6 minutes in a 25m pool. Rubbish.

Transition was a lot better this week. Not super fast but clean. The bike was a fight trying to balance effort on a 2 lap course through drags, tailwinds, a long downhill headwind section and a steeper, short climb. I think I got it about right though, trading places on the bike with the eventual winner, only losing 15 seconds to him here and making gains on most other rivals, again on standard road wheels. It hurt.

T2 was fine, and swapping shoes and using toe covers on the bike made a big difference over last week. Feet were warm and my run shoes went on easily. It seems I’ve got bigger over the winter though and my race top is now too tight. So tight that it was restricting my breathing for the first lap of the run. My legs didn’t feel too bad but my chest was awful. My breathing even got noisy, freaking out other runners that I caught. I barely managed 6 min/mile pace over the 5.7km & the leaders left me standing. Out of the wind on lap 2 movement felt good though, so maybe there’s something there.

Result: 4th overall and I was beaten by 2 vets so I got 2nd place in the open category, which is nice. The big thing for me was that 2nd overall was only 19 seconds faster than me. The winner was 2 and a half minutes clear though. Next year?

Another early season race tomorrow, & it’s another local one but local to where I grew up. The new bike course goes past my mum & dad’s house twice & the pool & run course are only a little way down the road. Close enough for me to ride to as I’m staying with them this weekend.

After the fairly disastrous first triathlon of the year last weekend I’m very relaxed for this one. My legs seem to have some form already, I’m not so worried about my calves, and I did well here last year. The weather is looking very windy again, so I’ll check out the bike course this afternoon to feel which way it’s blowing.

It also has a very relaxed start time. The race as a whole kicks off at 9am(!) and I’m not out until 10.41:30. Ish. I won’t need a wetsuit for this swim either. It’s indoors.

Link

TTG Gloucester Triathlon

 

 

This race didn’t really go as planned. For me or for the organisers.

It was a super windy morning, and as the name of the race suggests, it’s right by the sea so it gets all the wind. Luckily the swim isn’t in the sea, but in the north dock. Even that had a bit of chop in it! The bike was on a 17mile out and back route which was going to get hit by a 25mph head/cross wind on the way out, with gusts of up to 45mph. It was going to be more fun coming back. The run was 2 laps on the path right by the sea, so no hiding from the wind there at all. A tough race in store for 288 boys & girls, with some quality competitors in the mix by all accounts. I think the strong winds probably worked in my favour, despite my little legs. Mentally I’m fine in the wind these days, and the gusty wind meant that no-one was using really deep front wheels, something I haven’t been able to afford. A disk on the back would have been fun though.

Wetsuits weren’t compulsory & as it was a 500m swim (I measured it closer to 600m on Google Earth later) I didn’t bother. 286 people wore wetsuits. 2 didn’t. Hmm. The swim was fine sans neoprene, but all my old bad habits seemed to come flooding back under race pressure. I swam straight though, so that’s an improvement on last year. I swam ok but not great & was out 15th in my wave & was in the mid to low 20s overall.

The cold water suggested I might be too skinny for skinny/Lycra dipping when I fumbled to get my race belt on with cold fingers. Then trying to get on my bike was a disaster. A cold brain and legs and numb feet made it impossible to get my feet on top of my shoes (clipped into my pedals). The shoes span & span. I even got off the bike & remounted. At least I didn’t fall on my arse or take anyone else out. Any gains I’d made in the swim disappeared.

Eventually I got going, struggled with cold fingers to get my feet inside my shoes & not get blown off & started pedalling. My legs felt weird, like I was above my lactate threshold effort but my heart rate was low. Arse. I was cold. I took place after place, but couldn’t find my pace. When I got overtaken by a couple of club mates I dropped back, but then the pace felt way too easy. Bugger this. I just turned it on, took those places back & hammered the wind out to the Kidwelly roundabout, & then hammered it back again. My heart rate got to somewhere more sensible & my legs started to feel looser & less lactatey. The water from the dock wasn’t making my stomach feel too good but it stayed in except for the odd docky belch. I got held up by a few cars & had to slow for a roundabout but nothing major happened.

Back into transition & my feet were even colder than when I got out of the water (toe covers got ordered that day). I got off the bike ok (whoop!), racked it, lid & glasses off on automatic, but I struggled to get my right, numb, block of ice into it’s running shoe. The toes catch on the bits of elastic holding the tongue in place. I broke the heel loop forcing my foot in. I even had to sit down to get the left foot in. I’m not racing in those again (I ordered more elastic laces for other shoes that day too).

 

 

Wow, running a fast 5km at the end of a triathlon hurts. I forgot how much it hurts. Legs were moving well though, calves were fine, but my chest was straining. Nothing asthmatic, just musculoskeletal. The monster headwind didn’t help. Apparently I was pushing away from those behind, so although my run fitness is not where it should be right now (my fault, stupid boy) maybe my improved economy is getting me through.

It was weird that no runners were running the other way, back to me.

At the dragon roundabout turnaround the marshalls waved me on, forwards. “Aren’t we looping back here?”

“No, that way.”

Ok, they must have changed the route during the race. Maybe it was too windy for the planned loops.

Still no-one was coming back though. I kept pushing & kept picking up places, really looking forward to turning & getting the tailwind. Eventually I could see runners coming back & I wanted to see how far ahead the leaders in my wave were. Those coming back waved to us though. “There’s no turnaround! We’ve gone the wrong way! Turn back!”

Eh?

288 runners had been sent through the turnaround, instead of back on the correct route. And there were no more marshals after that turnaround, so people kept running. And running. And running. Until they hit Burry Port & had clearly run a lot further than 5km already. Uh-oh.

So I turned back, we all eased up. We chatted. We had the tailwind but weren’t appreciating it. In the lead group we crossed the finish line together, glum and sour faced. The organisers didn’t look too happy either. It was a quiet finish to a race.

I nipped off home as clearly the race was void & Kim had a special karate training course to get to. I’d been pretty psyched for this race, and not just because it was the first race of the season. I wasn’t angry, just disappointed, & sore. I was as disappointed in myself as in the race.

This was a local race, run and marshalled by volunteers. These things happen. If it was a huge profit-making firm I would have been more pissed off, but it was just a local race that failed. I still got a lot out of it: I now appreciate the advantages a wetsuit gives you in the bike, not just in the swim; don’t panic when things go wrong (bike mounting, cold legs); my biking has improved a lot as I had the 6th fastest bike split; triathlon hurts; I can still do it; I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

Ugh. Meh. TTG Gloucester Triathlon next week.

I’m racing my first triathlon of the 2011 season tomorrow morning at Llanelli. It’s a sprint distance race with a short open water swim that I entered for fun, because it’s local, as a test, and as preparation for Windsor next month. The funny thing is how different this feels to last year.

Last year was my first triathlon season, and I broke my foot. Everything was new, I didn’t feel that I could call myself a “triathlete” yet, and didn’t expect much of myself so was very pleased with my results. As the good results came in I probably expected more of myself, but I was still very successful in meeting my goals. This year I expect to be faster than last year. That’s tough, but makes sense physiologically. Right now I should be able to get faster every year, and if I don’t I need to reconsider my training methods. I got used to the good results last year and expect to be able to get better results this year. This makes me put pressure on myself, which is usually a good thing; I perform better under pressure. Will it take some of the fun out of it though?

But what is a good result? How do I gauge if I performed well? How do others perceive my performance? (Is that relevant or important?)

The finishing placing overall and within my age group is at the core of racing, so that’s important, but it’s dependant on the size of the field and the quality of the field. I can’t control anybody else’s race other than my own. But racing for a place is a good motivator for me, so it’s often one of my goals for any particular event. I like to compare my performance with that of others more than I like to compare my own performance between different races or seasons. That’s competition. It is really difficult to predict where you might finish though.

A good swim time, bike time or run time may also be a good result in itself. Last year I had run goals in races and this year I have bike goals, as my focus on improvement has shifted to that discipline. I’m also very interested to see how my swimming will perform tomorrow as I’ve spent a lot more time swimming than running this year. So a good bike result or a good swim result would be good for me too.

I try to race with a positive attitude, but this may be harder to keep hold of this year as I expect so much of myself. Setting overall time goals can also give good results and eliminates concerns about the rest of the competition. Triathlon is a time trial after the swim, so this is a sensible target result to go after. Looking at the results sheets for previous years can help set time goals, but you need to bear in mind changing conditions (it’s going to be very windy tomorrow) and alterations to the course. Setting time targets has links with running races, where runners typically go for time targets and personal best times over placings. It’s harder to have a triathlon PB though, as courses vary so much in style and distance. Nonetheless, racing with a target time in your head can really help you push hard. If you meet that time goal but miss the overall placing goal you still feel good. It suggests you raced as well as you could, and maybe next year you’ll beat those faster guys.

I haven’t really set my targets for tomorrow’s race yet. I have some ideas but they’re a little woolly. I may just settle back into the simple, old, standard target: GO FAST.

 

A fun part of racing (for me) is getting all my crap together, physically & mentally. I’m digging kit out that was put away at the end of last year, checking it over, tweaking it all, putting new tyres on and so on.

 

Thinking about all this means you can’t stress about work (we’ve started redrafting the Embryology at a Glance manuscript for it’s final, print version)!