Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Wilmslow Triathlon

11-05-14
Waking to the sound of rain hammering the window I just thought "please stop, I've got a triathlon to do." I'm not particularly fussed about wet weather, not that I would want it all year round, but having done my first bike TT a couple of weeks before in wet conditions, I didn't freak out. Also I'm very accustomed to running it pretty much any weather due to training and racing all year round no matter what the weather gods are hurling at us.

I had a late start for this triathlon, around 2pm, so could chill and take my time in the morning. My wave was called 'Elite Women.' How very exciting, never thought my name would be under the title of elite, not that I'm ready to jump into the ITU world series or anything... My club KTC also had 2 more ladies in this wave, so watch out, Knutsford has some elite triathletes.

Arriving at the leisure centre with sort of enough time, yeah I still managed to make myself kind of late, I registered, tattooed, racked in the mud bath that was transition and breathed... The rain had stopped and it was brightening up a little now. 15 minutes before the start I hung about poolside swinging my arms about and adjusting my swim cap so it didn't look like I'd had an extreme eyebrow lift. I felt nervous because I still hadn't regained my swim mojo so my registered swim time, fastest out of the women that day, was looking optimistic. Oh well, time to race. Thinking that I should just try and hold onto the competitor in the lane next to me, so the second fastest swimmer, I should hopefully be one of the first out of the pool. This worked, although it hurt, and we (3 or 4 of us) ran into transition. Without even glancing at who was around me I dumped the swim stuff, fastened on the bike stuff grabbed my bike and ran, very closely followed by the next competitor. Coming out of T1 in first, I jumped on my bike and set off for a hopefully more successful time.





















Once on the open road, settling into the aerobars, I glanced down at my Garmin surprised by the speed I was travelling with how much effort I was putting in. TT bikes are fab. Although the rain had ceased there was still another weather god that wasn't happy. Wind. Headwind, sidewind and seemingly no tailwind. This made the going tough in places but if it was affecting me, it was affecting everyone else too. Remain calm and don't push too hard. I was in a position I've never been in before on a bike leg. First. It felt great, 'woah I'm actually leading this.' Previously I've been desperately trying to keep in contact with people as they pedal past and into the distance, but not this time. I was actually creating and holding a gap. My Starley TT felt ace to ride, I could really feel the difference between how much effort I put in and how fast I could go by being more aero and having a stiffer, lighter bike. Particularly when the headwinds struck, I just tucked in smaller and kept my cadence up.
I should say I was holding a gap on all bar one. At around 11km, I was overtaken by a particularly speedy cyclist who rode into the distance rather quickly. Okay, just hold 2nd now.





















Returning to the leisure in 2nd, feeling very content with my bike leg, I went into T2, took off the bike stuff, put on the run stuff and set off on a 6.3km run. My mum shouted to me that I was 40 seconds down on first place, easy to make up if she can't run I thought. But I doubt she's a slow runner. After a few minutes with no contact from my wave in front or behind I knew I had to keep the pace up in case there were times to beat from previous waves. It was getting rather warm now and I kept picking off a couple of people from the waves before mine. Soon enough I passed a marshal who said "400 to go" so I picked it up and crossed the line never knowing what expression to pull at the cameraman, so I just ignored him...



I placed 3rd overall in the end, well and truly beaten by first place and roughly a minute down on second. Also securing 1st in age-group and 1st team, I was very chuffed with the results of the day. Our other two elite Knutsford ladies placed 4th and 5th, making us believe we'd scooped the team prize but in fact it was a mixed gender prize so myself, Paul Hawkins and Jon Metcalf claimed that one. I was very pleased with my race here, no major mistakes or problems and good result for my second race this season. I look forward to my next one, Nottingham sprint (World and European qualifier) which will be competitive to say the least, on 31 May.

3rd, 5th and 4th Knutsford Elites

1st Team

Until next time, stay motivated,

Lucy

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Holmfirth is hilly!

It's been a while since my last post, mainly due to the lack of racing or exciting stuff, but I now need to report on two races, the second to follow this in quick succession!

My first race of the 2014 season was in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. First of the Summer Tri (along with Last of the Summer Tri) is a sprint triathlon series run by a Knutsford tri club member, Dave Armitage. It consists of a 400m pool swim, 24km bike and 5.7km run. That latter two stages consisting of many ups and downs!

10 days before this race I returned home from Portugal after a 10 day training camp with my running club. Unfortunately I neither swam nor biked in Portugal, just ran - a lot. So coming into the triathlon, if I didn't have my bike legs or swim arms at least I had my running legs and a tan!

Mum and I drove to Holmfirth the day before to have a little course recce and to avoid the need to wake up at an ungodly hour the day of the race. Driving through the town to the leisure centre I could see cars parked at crazy angles, roads that seemed to go straight up and sheep that appeared to be defying gravity. The idea of racing on my Starley TT bike was slipping out of my mind and I was pretty sure I'd be using my roadie, good job I took both just in case! Upon driving round the course we encountered hills that even the car groaned to get up, but hey, all the more interesting and challenging right?!

The gradient profile of the bike route

After a drive, a cycle and a short run we made our way to the hotel just a short drive from the race location. What we didn't know was that it was Huddersfield's last football game of the season (a sport which I do not follow closely) and so everywhere was pretty packed. Brilliant, I thought. I better not get woken up in the night by loud football fans. Following dinner tucked away on a table for two in a restaurant full of lager drinking football fans, Mum and I went back to the room to chill out and try to watch WTS Cape Town - which failed miserably due to some very awful WiFi. Oh and Huddersfield lost 2-0...

Race day! After a not-too-early alarm, some breakfast and squeezing two bikes into one elevator we made our way to the leisure centre. After registering and racking I hung about in the changing rooms ready for the start. I was the second wave into the water, just 20 seconds after the first...

Having only had one swim session since being home from Portugal I was slightly nervous about being able to perform in the swim. Usually I can tell from the first two lengths whether I'm really with it, and I really wasn't. Nevertheless I completed the 400m and tried to forget about the below-par performance. Getting out of the pool was extremely difficult on my tired shoulders and I then proceeded to slip on the grass into T1 and knock my head on a pole. What a fabulous start!

Out of T1 and onto the bike which consisted of 3 loops of 8km. This worked quite well as my mum was shouting the time gap until the next female competitor behind me, this kept me working to try and hold a gap. I thoroughly enjoyed the bike leg, even with it's short and sharp and long and steady hills, because the downhills were great! Throughout the bike leg I kept my eyes on a guy in front of me and then passed him just before coming into T2.




Jelly legs to the max, I racked, swapped and unclipped various items and headed out for the 5.7km run. Yet upon exiting T2 I passed the second place female just coming in. 'I've got to get a move on'. Up the first long hill I passed a few men and felt to be making good ground however when the gradient switched and I began to stride out downhill my ankle absolutely killed! Not this injury again!? I was forced to slow it up a bit because it hurt too much to maintain the pace. About halfway through I was passed by the 2nd woman who said 'well done' upon overtaking. Even though I was being overtaken I enjoy the sportsmanship we get in this sport. The best thing I could do now was to hold a decent pace and try to place a good time since the race was done in heats, so you're not always racing next to those you're up against. With the end in sight I picked it up for the last 400m and my ankle calmed down a bit after the gradient levelled out.




In the end I managed to hold onto 2nd, only by 6 seconds and claim 1st in the open age-group category. It was hard, it was hilly but I really enjoyed this race because of the challenge and I'd love to do it again.

Stay motivated,

Lucy