Hard to believe I've done it when i look back through my blog for this year. First dualathon, First sprint triathlon, First century ride, learnt to swim front crawl, longest non stop run of 90 minutes & now First Half Ironman. Feel quite proud of myself.
Will give a full race report in a bit, just do a quick run through of this weeks training, eased off completely due to the weekends activity
Tuesday - 2 hr 30 min bike ride
Wednesday - 30 min run
Thursday - 1hr bike ride
Sunday - Ely Triathlon
Race report - http://monsterracing.net/triathlon2012.html
Went down to Ely at 12pm on the Saturday as we were camping for the weekend. Registered as soon as i got there & set up camp. Transitions were open till 6pm. T1 was at the camp site but we had to go for a bit of a trek out to T2 to drop off the running gear. Sorted all that out by 5pm & relaxed for the rest of the day.
Race start was 7am so got up at 5am to go check my bike & lay out my T1 gear. For breakfast i ate a bowl of cornflakes, two bananas & drank 2 cups of coffee. I also started necking water as the days temp was expected to exceed 30 degrees.
6.15am we headed off to the swim start, this involved walking the length of the swim course. There was a bag drop off just before the start for you to leave your shoes etc. These were later returned to your T1 spot. Drank an ISO drink on the way & ate the first of many gels.
Seemed to be a bit of faffing at the start & so it was a bit after 7am by the time everyone had got in the water. Was a bit tricky getting in the river, god knows what my feet were sinking into, but once in it was lovely.
I manoeuvred right to the back of the pack on the far side, one so i didn't get biffed, two as i know i would be one of the slowest swimmers & didn't want to get in anyones way.
So, off we went. Learnt from previous mass starts about going off too quick, so i casually went off at the same pace i would normally do at my Wednesday Whit lane open water sessions. Loved the swim down the river, went past lots of old long boats etc. You then swam past the exit point for an out and back round a giant space hopper. There was a safety guy paddling right next to me on a surf board so i assumed i was at the back of the pack. Started to get thoughts that i wouldn't make the cut off but just plodded on at the same pace regardless.
Got back to the pontoon & was helped out, looked at my watch, 51 minutes. Chuffed already, fastest swim I'd done & the furthest I'd ever swam front crawl. Not tired or out of breath at all.
Mind you, i was the 231st person to exit the water out of 234
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| 1.2 mile scenic swim |
It was then time to negotiate the wobbly pontoon, across the wobbly planks then up the bank & through a woody bit & down into to T1. Feeling great & even had time to do a MoBot.
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| MoBot |
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| Banana time |
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| Bonus of being a slow swimmer, loads of room in T1 :-) |
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| Leaving T1 for the 56 mile ride |
Bike ride was great. Nice and flat, it was pretty much all on main roads but marshalls did a great job slowing & at times even stopping traffic. This was the longest ride i would have ever done in a tri suit & i had been a bit concerned about ass pain. This fear came true with the pain in the backside feeling arriving after just 30 minutes. However, after a bit of jiggling, this vanished after another 15 minutes.
Ate a gel each hour & one just before i came into T2, also had a flap jack after 2 hours. Here's the route. http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/168626061
There was a little loop to do which involved a horrible bumpy road so glad we didn't have to go round that more than once.
Nobody passed me on the cycle stage, probably because there were only 3 people behind me after the swim :-) I overtook at least 10. Steady 17 mph average, still felt good as i came into T2 although my knee was starting to ache a bit. Also experienced a bit of lower back ache which i think was due to the extended time i had spent on the aero bars.
Transition to bike. Took my time again, ate another banana & drank a load more ISO drink. Left transition area & made use of the portaloo which cost me a couple of minutes queue time. Sun was right up & temperature must have been touching the 30's.
Set off a bit quick & covered the first mile in around 7 minutes (very quick for me), i think this was my downfall as i was suddenly shot from 2 miles on & the half marathon turned into a run walk which i was a bit disappointed with. Baking hot now, i made use of every feed station, pouring bottles water over my head trying to cool down, drank loads of the running energy drinks on offer. I also ate 3 gels during the run.
Got to about 6 miles & some lovely locals had set up their hosepipe so it sprayed water across the road. Stood in it for a good 30 seconds, think it's the best shower I've ever had. Felt invigorated after that and so my pace & running bursts increased. Turnround at the half way point & headed back. Completing the tri in under 7 hours was looking promising. Stopped for another shower on the way back, trainers were now rather squelchy.
Knee & ankle were starting to hurt in the last few miles but i knew i would get sub 7 hours even if i had to walk the rest so this thought spurred me on to run even more. Came in at 6 hours 40 mins, well under my 7 hours 30 min goal. I finished 201st out of 234.
Split times were
Swim 51.51 mins
T1 3.51 mins
Cycle 3 hrs 10 mins
T2 2.32 mins
Run 2 hrs 32 mins
Overall 6 hours 40 mins
Great event, would recommend it to anyone
Having a rest for the week now, may pop out for a little bike ride & swim at some point during the week. National Club Triathlon Relays at Nottingham coming up this weekend which i'm looking forward to. I'm racing on Sunday but going up Friday to camp & support the club on Saturday as well.
And that will be the end of my first Triathlon season.
Happy training
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