National Club Relays 2012

This weekend was my last Triathlon for 2012 & what a fantastic event it was to end my season.

7 Triathlons done since April, I hadn't even thought about doing one this time last year.
Of the list of challenges I set myself for this year I only have two left now.

 'The Great Barrow Challenge" & Norwich Half Marathon http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

Did no training really last week following the Ely middle distance Tri. I had been suffering with a dodgy knee & ankle, so good to rest them a bit. Bike rides were only to work & back.

Monday - 2 mile bike
Tuesday - 2 mile bike
Wednesday - 2 mile bike & 1 mile swim
Thursday - 2 mile bike
Friday - 2 mile bike
Sunday - Club Relays

National Club Relays - http://www.onestepbeyond.org.uk/national-club-relay-champs.php

Finished work early on the Friday & set off to Nottingham around 4pm. Arrived at Holme Pierrepont at 7pm, located the Tri Anglia gazebo & set up our weekend home.
Campsite was good with decent facilities, although they did run out of water a couple of times & the toilet block had a couple of floods due to volume of usage.
There wasn't much space between tents as we were crammed in, in true festival style.

Trianglia members continued to arrive till around 10.30pm, a few of us then went down to the water centre to set up another club gazebo for the next days event. Rain throughout the night & the best part of a bottle of red led to a good nights sleep.

Woke up around 6 ish, fry up & coffee for Arleya & me. I wasn't competing on the Saturday but was off to support the other club members. We had 4 teams on Saturday, one mixed & 3 ladies teams.

T1 & swim

First to start were the mixed teams. Becky, Kate, Tony & Ian were representing Trianglia & they had a fantastic race, finishing 8th out of the BTF clubs. The ladies then had to rest up as they were in a female team on Saturday afternoon. Amazing, i struggle to even walk for a couple of days after I've done one sprint Tri.

Even though they raced in the morning, the girls still managed a brilliant 10th place finish in the afternoon. Need to appreciate that they were also competing against British Elite triathletes in this competition.

Woman's swim start

Weather was sunny & really hot for most of the day but we had the occasional downpour. One was particularly heavy & included some bonus big lumps of hail to sting the poor cyclists out on the course. The other two teams also had a great time with PB's being broken.

Sunday, men's race day. We had 6 teams competing. Breakfast was a couple of bowls of crunchy nut cornflakes & numerous cups of coffee.

Got my bike out, unscrewed the dust cap & the inside of the valve popped out. grrr, good start. Managed to screw it back in & pump up the tyres. Although it was niggling me now, thinking it could pop out again during the race. Should have replaced the tube really. All was good though.

Registration was at 8.45am with race start at 10.15am. Only Stan & myself were here from our team so we couldn't register yet. Headed down to the venue & found our other team members. Registered & sorted out what order we were going in.
1 - Stan
2 - Ian
3 - Me
4 - Jonathon

So for those who don't know how it works, this is what happens (skip this bit if you were there yesterday). Stan swims first wearing a rubber band. He finishes the swim & passes the band to Ian & so on. Stan & I  had discussed a plan of doing a MoBot to identify each other. Soon discovered this wasn't going to work as loads of teams were doing a MoBot as a signal.

When Jonathon comes in, he passes the band to Stan, who's bike is racked at the swim exit. You then cycle 3 laps of Holme Pierrepont, come in to T1, rack your bike & hand the band to cyclist 2, & so it goes on.

Cyclist 4 (Jonathon) then passes the band to Stan who starts his run from T1. he does one lap of the lake & hands the band to Ian in T2. The final runner then completes one circuit & carries the band down the finishing tunnel & over the line. Did that make sense?

So, I took the band from Ian & entered the water. Bonus of not starting first is not having to deal with a mass start, negative is you don't have chance to acclimatise. My plan was to do about 20 metres breaststoke to get used to the water then front crawl the rest.

Started to plan but again i went too quick on the FC & found i couldn't get a breath properly so had to revert to breastroke again around half way. Once I'd had a word with myself  i got into a relaxed front crawl & finished the final 300 metres comfortably. Handed the band to Jonathon then i headed back to the gazebo to get ready for my bike leg.

Bonus with the relay is you have a break in between disciplines. Only one team member could be in transition at a time so I had too wait for Ian to leave T1 before i could rack my bike. Got my bike ready & waited till i saw Ian come past on his first lap.

Bike racked & stood in the pack waiting for Ian to come in.

Ian hands me the band in T1

The bike leg as amazing, first time I've raced on a closed road. You leave T1 like your coming out of an F1 pit lane (not quite as quick), keeping to the right as riders are already flying round the course on their various laps. The first bit is past the bulk of spectators who are cheering & shouting, it was such a buzz. It's true about support from crowds, it makes you go harder.

Course was great, heading in an anti clockwise direction it got a bit narrow down the far end of the lake on the left handers & you had to make sure non of the fast boys were not coming round you if you were overtaking. Coming round the bends near the swim start then back up the spectator straight again gave you a boost hearing the cheering & shouting.

Starting another lap

Into T1 & rack the bike

  

                          

Band handover to Jonathon. I put it so far up his arm it was nearly round his neck

Part deux completed

Ave a MoBot

I now had a good hour before my run leg so took my bike back to the gazebo & changed in to running shoes etc. Race nutrition so far had just been a gel before each stage plus drinking ISO drink all day. Didn't bother drinking on the bike as i knew i had the break after.

Run went well (for me) didn't get a PB but it was my second all time best. Felt the most comfortable I've done for ages on a run.

Final stage of the run passing the trianglia cheerleaders

My splits for the race were

500m swim - 14.51 min (PB)
15k cycle - 24.27 min (PB)
5k run - 25.04 min

There are 141 pictures of the event & all Trianglia members on 'The Ironman Journey' facebook page. Some great pics, well worth a look.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

It was a brilliant weekend. Great for racing & getting to know other club members.

It is up there as one of my top Triathlon highlights of the year. I would strongly recommend to anyone who is not in a club, join one & put this in your diary for next year.

That's all for this week folks. Will increase the training this week, although running may be an issue as my ankle is quite painful after yesterday.

Happy Training




Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP=

My charity page for event listings & making a donation

http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz


The allotment Journey Blog

http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/