Training for a shorter Tri

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  • Yayay for the massage lady!! It's a good hurt tho' image

  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    I

     

     got up this morning when the alarm turned itself off after being on for an hour. Went out for a run, did 30 mins of run 4/walk 1, not including a warm up or the cool down. It was going to be longer but visiting FiL.

  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    Apologies for bad typing, I am using the mobile.

  • well done Steady

    EP - fingers crossed for his results. I am going in to school on Thursday, hopefully there won't be too many tears

    well, lots of school uniform bought, back to normal spending Sunday at in-laws, but went out for a short run/walk when we got back. And I have swimming club tonight so not a total write off in terms of training.

    planning a run and maybe a turbo as well in the morning before the massage - may as well make my muscles work beforehand

    veggie/bean stew with wholegrain rice for tea, I am being a good girl with the foodimage (better forget that pain au raisin I had in costa)

  • I have converted my OH to road cycling image so proud third time out on a road bike and Mrs Seal has mastered clippy in pedals and was a pro sticking to my wheel whilst I paced us up Cheddar Gorge.

    Whoop 52km on the bike today and rock climbing  yesterday = excellent weekend.

  • I've seen pics of Cheddar Gorge - Well done you & Mrs Seal! 

    What pastry MC I saw nothing image

    Good planning EP! And good work Steady image

  • Salford Olympic Tri done With Horse this morning, turned out to be a nice sunny day but a bit windy,

    arrived at 8am and put bottles on bike and went to find changing rooms, could'ntfind them so got changed in the loo image  Wetsuit pulled up to waist we wandered over to the swim start, we had to be there 25 mins early trot race briefing... Into the water for a quick warm up and hooter goes and off we go...

    Swim

     There were about 250 in our wave so it a bit like a washing machine at the start but it soon thinned out and I managed to find clear water... The rest of the swim was uneventful so out in 40'48".. a couple of minutes slower than I expected but ok with that...100 mtr run to T1.... Wetsuit off bike shoes and helmet on and out I go... T1. 5.07...

    Bike

    The route consisted of 6 laps to total 40k..Lap 1 was a case of getting the legs working... A couple of rises over bridges but nothing too bad...each lap  seemed to go by quicker than the last, a GB triathlete Foster flew past me in a cloud of dust ( he was only doing the Sprint) I had a few issues with my gears, couldn't get it to change up to the big ring unless I was going really fast over the downside of the bridges but managed to overcome it by just telling myself JFDI. image Got back to T2 in 1'28". Running shoes and cap on and out I go.. T2  2' 25.

    Run

    This was a 2 laps of 5k around the Quays which had lots of switchbacks over bridges which didn't help trying to keep a steady rhythm going... The legs took about a 1k to settle down but the problem I had was my feet were numb and didn't come back to life until the 4k mark.. At this point I saw Horse coming towards me, we high 5'd and aaarrrggged at each other..image The first lap seemed to take ages to complete maybe because of the feet problem... Finally turned to start Lap 2.... Got into a good rhythm and was running at a decent pace until I hit the switchbacks again.. image ... Got through them and then pushed on.. Passed Horse again coming the other way, he was about 15 mins in front of me, we high 5'd and aaarrrgggd again ... Got to the last bridge with  just under 1k to go so decided to up the pace a bit which felt good and so to the last corner and even sprinted to the finish..Run 58'40"

    so finished in 3'15"56" and really happy with that as its the first Olympic I have done image   Oh and I finished 3rd in my AG...image

    Horse finished in 3'02". Well done mate. image

  • Ew err check you Razor!! 3rd in AG nicely done image

  • Congratulations Razor! image What a great time and to be 3rd too! image

    Eco - there is no way i could cycle up Cheddar Gorge image well done to you both

  • well done razorimage brill time. Well done to horse too

    Eco - well done to you and Mrs Eco

    swimming was hard work tonight. image

  • Well done razor and horse. Good report. I hear that 5live had a team in the race. I wonder if that'll bring more folk in...

    I had a go on a road bike yesterday. It felt weird! Cornering was odd and half the time i didn't feel safe. And using the breaks to change gear takes some getting used to. I'll be out on it each night this week trying to get more comfortable with it.

     

  • Way to go Razor (and Horse), I love a sprint finish, they mostly come with a built in smile.

    just a dawn 4 miles down the trails.  There's normally fresh deposits from the Sunday horses to encourage nimbleness of foot, otherwise a pleasant enough bimble with only a cat and a bunny to wave hello to.

  • Beautifully done Razor, oh and Horse. And an AG finish, I'm not sure we're worthy anymore image. Cracking report too! 

    Pete - it gets better... Does feel a dodgy to start with. Soooo much fun when you get used to it!

    Top cycling Eco and well done DS on the trail run. Must be lovely early doors.

    Good work getting the swim in Maths, especially considering the CBA hanging around.

     

  • got my turbo done as wellimage had to be the turbo as I am alone with the kids. I am going to try and get them out on the bikes this week, but it tends to be at a snail's pace. 

    pete - yeah the road bike does feel different. Changing gears with the brake things is so much better than the little shifter thing on the downtube that I had on my bike as a kid though! Have you got clipless pedals? I must admit I seem to have lost my bike mojo this year and I don't know why. Oh well, it is bloody well coming back for next year. In the lead up to outlaw half I will have to make arrangements to meet people to cycle the route. Or just bloody do it myself seeing as I live here!!

    need to think of some meals, trying to be a bit more wholefoody about meals at the moment, to be honest my diet wasn't that bad anyway, but maybe too much pasta, it is just easy to make and the kids like it, and you can put lots of lovely cheese on it

  • After completing my third tri ever yesterday and my first 70.3 I thought I would impart a chunk of the pearls of wisdom I picked up.

    I took part in the ‘Ultimate’ Half triathlon – which would provide the ‘ultimate challenge’ (according to the sponsors)

    I entered the event due to location and price (it was cheap and close) but it had its shortcomings in terms of route on both the bike and run courses.

    Anyway race day arrived and a leisurely start alarm of 5  for the event start of 8, meant there were was no rushing around and everything was quite calm and relaxed – registering was fine, setting up T1 was fine and the usual last couple of toilet breaks were ‘comfortable as could be’

    So far so good – we had to all go back into transition to start the official walk down to the swim entry – god only knows why they gave us an athlete’s parade down to the water’s edge – everyone I spoke to said they found it quite embarrassing and pretty pointless. So to the deep water start and the crystal clear waters of Dearnford. Yeah right. Having swam there a couple of weeks ago I knew it wasn’t going to be as clean as advertised but I wasn’t prepared for the stench of farm slurry that the water smelt off – it was utterly rank – I hate to think what was in there, but I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face whilst I warmed up.

    So here I am at the start of an event I have used as an excuse to train all year for, for the hours spent on the borderline between fun and pain on long cold bike rides and running through the usual summer downpours. I have only experienced one previous open water mass start before but this was on another level altogether, 700 ish starters in a pretty small space fighting for an inch of room – even in the milling around before the start people were kicking me. After about the third solid boot I was given I became determined to give no ground and fight back harder if need be, including actually using my legs in the swim (something which I am fairly rubbish at)

    So the horn goes off and carnage starts something which would continue for most of the first 900 m lap – due to the nature of the course there would be lots of right handed turns around buoys and so lots of bottlenecks to contend with. I managed to settle into a fairly smooth rhythm quite quickly, despite the grabbing and scratching of my legs and the  fact that the weeds were still out in force in the lake. First 3 or 4 turns were just as bad as at the start people swimming into / over the top of me – some of the slower swimmers who had started at the front causing issues by changing to breaststroke and causing mini underwater pile ups.

     I was delighted to reach the Australian exit in a couple of seconds under 15 minutes and proceed to get way to excited about the dive in again and face planted straight into the water – clearly forgetting that using arms when diving in is advantageous for the face. Luckily when my goggles dislodged they went down and not up so it was a fairly easy fix of getting them back on (I wanted to clean them anyway….) second lap of the swim was fairly uneventful compared to the first until the last 100 metres where I either tired a lot or it felt like the world and its wife came lying past me. Out of the water and the legs were ok, slight twinge on the left hamstring which I have never had before and I jogged up to T1 – with my wife running alongside me shouting at me to run quicker (cheeky little….)

     First realisation that the swim had gone well for me was the number of bikes still in T1 – I had had a recurring thought that I might be towards the back after the swim as I haven’t really had a benchmark f

  • image Well done mate afraid the post didn't show everything that you write through what happens next we are all on tender hooks?

    Razor/horse nice one for the weekend and stuff.

  • First realisation that the swim had gone well for me was the number of bikes still in T1 – I had had a recurring thought that I might be towards the back after the swim as I haven’t really had a benchmark from my OW swimming as hardly anyone does 2k where I swim. So in the excitement I forgot where I had parked my bike which cost me a little time but everything else went smoothly enough and I was out on to the bike – managed to get the feet in the shoes without to many issues, quick drink and I was away onto the course without further issue in 34 mins ish.

     

    As previously mentioned I knew the bike course, as its part of the road I drive to work 5 days a week. So I knew what to expect – bumpy, busy and chaotic. It was definitely all of those things but I wasn’t prepared for the drafting by fellow competitors – it was rife and massively annoying to watch. The course was fairly loopy in design, so lots of roundabouts and switchbacks so you can see fellow competitors and gauge how the day is going.

     

    Being new to this still I was delighted ( actually I was f*cking made up) to see I was within the top 25 riders – clearly everyone was having a bad day J - but the striking thing was the peloton style riding that groups were doing. I get the whole 10 metre, 15 seconds rule and I attempted to apply it every time I either approached someone or got overtaken, but its very disheartening to watch people ignore the rules – apart from by feed stations – and just ride as if in a sportive event nose to tail. It got to the point where I just assumed that we were allowed to draft and asked marshals along the route for confirmation on it, but no one could confirm or deny it (afterwards I asked and you weren’t allowed, as per normal) so I just stuck to my plan of working through the course and not following suit.

     

    The roads were increasingly busy as the morning progressed and I and a couple of others almost came a cropper when a lorry got fed up and decided to attempt a stupid overtaking – this left me staring at the back of said lorry for about a mile ‘enjoying’ the diesel fuels, nice to be able to draft it though…. So round the massively tight turn around point (where plenty fell off apparently) and out on to the second lap of the route. Saw my wonderful noisy wife shouting and screaming for / at me on a roundabout and it give the legs an extra kick.  I did a situational check and all in all everything was going about as to plan as possible, I had been sticking to my fuel plan, my legs felt ok the bike was being its usual fantastic self. At this point I was on for an above expectation swim and bike and this fuelled the legs some more to keep the, for me, decent speed.

     

    Nothing really happened for the rest of the lap, a few more pelotons flew past me but these were guys doing the full ironman distance event – clearly cheating takes place at every distance.

     

    The only other thing to note from the bike was the littering that everyone was doing – gel wrappers, cake wrappers, empty bottles (one of which I saw thrown at a car, I assume by mistake) with people clearly not caring about the effect on the countryside they were riding through. (I drove part of the route this morning to work and there were loads of litter still kicking around and tons of red high 5 bottles on the verges) I am not a tree hugger but surely its not much of an effort to bin bottles and rubbish at feed stations like I managed to do?

     

    Back into T2 and again extremely happy to see not that many bikes in there – quick change and I was away. Very quickly realising that the 13 miles were going to be a painful experience. This would be the furthest I had run off

  • No words to describe how amazing and yet utterly completely drained I was, having my family there saying they were proud of me and I had done well almost started the tears off – but despite my mum crying on my shoulder I didn’t blub J I honestly don’t think that I could have run / walked another 500 metres at that point – soon after I laid down and closed my eyes and the world started to spin in a drunken esq manner – I must have been making some funky noises as a marshal came to make sure I was ok. 

     

    I will be interested to see what happens with the results in regards to people cheating through drafting, taking short cuts etc. but I was only ever racing to finish and hopefully finish under 6hrs. the fact that on twitter beforehand I had put if I had an A+ day I would be around 5:30 and the fact I went under that was incredible. 

     

    It was my first event in a pirate top and it certainty lived up to my expectations that’s for sure – encouragement from marshals and fellow competitors was fantastic – as was a fellow pirate ( Cona) who was supporting out on the bike coming up to me and giving me encouragement – little things like that help massively. I will be 100% getting my own now as I assume I can’t keep cakes top for ever L

     

    To be honest I wouldn’t recommend the event to others for next year – as I said it was cheap (ish) but the drawbacks about the boring, busy bike and rank swimming conditions means I would look elsewhere.

     

    As for going longer ? well at the moment I can’t comprehend how anyone does the full distance. I honestly think I would be ok on the swim and bike but the ‘run’ would kill me right now. That said I did double check last night that outlaw 14 entries hadn’t opened yet………..

  • offical times in;

    Swim 00:30:54

    T1 00:02:31

    Bike 02:42:30

    T2 00:01:40

    Run 02:06:21

    Total time 05:24:05 - 72nd overall and 7th in cat

    image

     

  • Budjude - there is a limit on how long a post can be, you'll need to split it up a bit... oh, and while I was typing that, you sorted it.  Well done!

     

    I was out at lunch for a run.  I didn't want to and all my mates dropped out so I was on my own and it was rubbish and I didn't want to do the park lap at end but I did and I was slow and my head was full of negative thoughts...  48 minutes for 8km...

    But actually, I got out there on my own and did it regardless of what my brain was saying and yes, it was slower than normal but I'm just coming back from injury and my brain can just shut its frontal lobes!

    Another sprint session on the road bike tonight...once I've got my lap time down to 15 minutes I can up the distance again...

  • hopefully resolved now - school boy newbie error image

  • budjude - well done, wow that was a fast time and a great report. image It is disappointing to hear about the drafting and littering, I know the events I have done there have been guys on motorbikes sorting out drafting issues. 

    massage was very painful and I feel shattered now, so going to skip swimming tonight

  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    Great report Budjude. I know of many races where the sweeper person at the end collects the signage and has to collect the rubbish, if any is found by the land owners then the race would not be allowed the following year. I always keep my rubbish with me until at a feed station.

    Rest well MC, massages make you very tired.

     

  • Well that run was pants image all the result of me eating the majority of my lunch at morning tea, it being quite warm outside, going balls to the wall on the way home to see how fast I could go (I got up to 18.9mph for 80%of the ride, hit two hills and I slowed to 17.5 and then had to stop for traffic image but apparently I can go faster so damn it I will go faster!), and residual tiredness (only a tincy bit but it added to the pot) from Saturday.  I perked up after a banana and a whole clif shot block but by that point I had plenty enough - not a good day for mental toughness!

    Well done Budjude excellent report image 

    Pete - I feel your pain!!

    MC rest up - your body must have needed the massage!

     

  • wow buttercup that is fast

  • Yeah I thought so too image and I wasn't on the drops either!  Bodes well for next year when I have worked at a bit - bring it on Outlaw cycle section!

  • not sure I am going to be able to keep up with you if we try to do the outlaw half course togetherimage

  • MC the half is for going hard and doing the best we can as individuals.  You do the best you can do on the day no one can ask for more than that! I will be buying you a full fat coke or icecream at the end image

    The full is for us to pull together as team and kick some girly arse image aye Mrs D.

  • Nice races Razor, Des and BudJude.

    Good training everyone else.

    I had a hard hour's bike Friday, then felt incredibly shattered afterwards, liek I'd ridden all day. Spent the last 3 days in bed, the only running to and from the toilet. image

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