Since Italy I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the idea of
a DNF, something deep down and primal in me meant I made the decision in Italy that
I would not DNF despite having thrown away any chance of a decent AG position by
wasting 2 minutes returning for my chip in transition and another 4 through
cramp and standing still on the run course hoping the handful of gels I’d just
consumed had something of whatever my muscles needed to continue, I eventually
got going and despite a slow run I was pleased to have finished.
Hopefully, I will continue to enjoy doing this sport for the
sake of swimming, biking and running for a long time, because I’d hate to get
to the stage where it was all about posting a PB, or beating someone and lose
sight of what most people take part in triathlon for…
This brings me onto my next thought, this season has seen a deliberate change for me, last season (my
second triathlon season) I moved up to the vaguely competitive end of the pack,
and decided to employ a coach to help me manage my training more effectively,
this was for two reasons firstly I want to spend more time with my wife and
dog, and secondly because training for 20 hours a week was obviously not the
way for me to be my best.
So bring on my second triathlon of the year, a slight change
in race format, and location to a votwo
sprint tri at Dorney, which was ostensibly my work championships, which was
racing against an aspiring ironman racing with a broken wrist (hard core) and a
group of first timers, the weekend before’s
workouts had shown I still had a lot of fatigue in the legs from Rimini, but I was
confident of a good performance and aiming at a sub 1:01 time, based on last
years time this would get me in the top 10.
I started on the far right for the swim, but on the front
row, after 200m I could see there was someone making a break on the right hand
side so went to cover this, but soon realised holding that kind of pace was
going to be suicidal so settled down in second, at the first buoy I got overtaken by two people but was
frankly startled I was so close to the front, at 5ft 7 I’m not exactly of fish
build! Still I stayed close all the way home.
I fell over as I got out of the water on a slippery mat, and
this threw me off, by the time I got to my bike I’d just got my head together,
and then got started actually getting my wetsuit off, which took a bit longer
than it should but i only saw one person head out of t1 before I was on my way
myself, it was the first time id got the bike mount practically perfect as
well!
The bike was an experiment, I’d made quite a big change to
the bar position on my bike and added a new hydration system to the front end. I
could only put out 240w consistently, which is lower than I sustained for 2
hours in my 50 mile TT, and while the hydration system was good, it pissed Lucozade
all over my bike! But I quickly caught the guy in front and I set about holding
a consistent if not fast power output as I was in first place by this stage and
wanted to make sure I had some gas for the run!
T2 was super slick, although apparently my skin suit is
rather revealing at the back end when bent over :O
It was very satisfying to surprise the marshals on the course
who rushed to get some water in a cup for me, and point me in the right
direction, it’s the 4th time I’ve raced this course and I train at Dorney
every week so I wasn’t going to get lost, I set about holding a pace
consistently below 4min kms, still holding back something to be able to duel
with any challengers by the first turn I realised I was comfortably in the
lead, and for some reason started to think about leaving a little on the table
for another PB next time – the BTS club champs – the run was fairly eventless –
I enjoyed singing at the Hough, and hi fiving club and work mates.
I crossed the line about 1min 50 in front of second place,
and really enjoyed being the first across a line in the race, not really
thinking about later races (not sure if this was over confidence or under
confidence) hung about to congratulate 2-5th place and then back to
the side of the course to cheer on everyone else.
Overall I wasn’t disappointed as one person in the second wave
posted a frankly outrageous swim and run split to blitz my time but I was a bit
annoyed by two people in the third wave posting a time that was at least
achievable for me. On reflection though (and I came up with some pretty wild
excuses) I could maybe have pushed myself harder on the bike and the run, but I’m
still learning, and still have that slight fear of blowing up, that if I’m
going to be really fast.
The point here is that in all my musings about missing a
podium, I completely missed celebrating that I’d got a pb of nearly a minute despite
a poor t1 and an uncomfortable bike.
This Sunday will see Windsor triathlon, a very local –
usually high quality race. It’s the second time I’ve done the race, the swim
and run course should yield slightly faster times this year weather permitting
and I’m hopeful of a significant improvement on my time last year of 2:18:52. I’ve
backed off my bike position a little, and hopefully sort out my hydration needs
with some DIY ahead of a test run of the bike on Wednesday night.
