The Tri UK Shropshire tri at Ellesmere last Saturday was a sun drenched affair and a race I really enjoyed!
After shaking off the DOMS from the cramps at Dambuster the week before, I had a steady week of training consisting of short intervals, long rests and plenty of stretching.
I went into this race feeling a lot more refreshed and determined to race better! I was convinced I had a better race in me than Dambuster, after all the hard work I put in down in MPA!
I went into this race feeling a lot more refreshed and determined to race better! I was convinced I had a better race in me than Dambuster, after all the hard work I put in down in MPA!
My swim was a lot better, mainly due to getting myself into a much better starting position and was able to get in to my rhythm almost straight away, with hardly any kicking and punching! I came out the water in 22:47. I was out of my suit pretty quickly and with no cramping!
The bike course was fast (which probably means short!) and practically flat. The 'hills' were short sharp ones with long steady descents which meant you could stay on the aero bars for the vast majority of the course. The winds were also light so I didn't get any nasty twitching from my SRAM 80 front wheel! There were a few traffic problems though, especially through the villages, with up to 5 cars stuck behind a slower cyclist at one point which was pretty frustrating. However, I managed to clock 1:02:52 for the bike.
The run was fairly tough as the sun was pretty hot by now and the route wound through narrow country lanes with high hedgerows, which didn't allow any wind to cool you down! I finished the run cramp free in a time of 38:34. I even managed a sprint finish when I noticed the bloke in front was in my age group, and the snap below shows me checking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't coming back at me!
A good day of racing in the sun, a finish time of 2hr:06min:12sec (which was a huge 1 second in front of Daz Cole!!!) and finished 5th in age group and 33rd overall. Happy with that!
The Interservices are on the same course in July, lets hope the weather is just as good!
My next race is the Cleveland Steelman on Saturday and is a course I like, and actually is not too dissimilar to the Shropshire...as long as the sun shines again I'm sure I'll enjoy it!
Train and race well.
Hey Mal how the devil are you? Hope the season going well. I'm good. Great to be back. Quick one. Millsy is leaving as you know. We will be having a dining out in September/October sometime at Cottesmore. Will block book loads of accommodation. Would you be interested in coming? It's going to be a surprise. Be nice if there were people he was surprised to see. Any chance you could ask anyone at Linton who may know him if they fancy coming? My email is neilmac28@hotmail.co.uk. You get on facebook yet? Take care mate.
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