What a difference a month makes! About 4 weeks ago I was freezing my digits off at the Clumber Du and yesterday was a cracking day for my first tri of the year at sunny Skipton and about 20 degrees hotter!
My 400m swim was a fairly decent 6:17. It was nice to have a clear swim too. Quite often at these large sprint races (over 600 in this one) the swim lanes can be congested to say the least. There were 4 per lane, with a 5 sec staggered start between the 4 of us. I was second away in my lane and caught the guy in front within 2 lengths and after that I had a clear swim and nobody came past either which has never happened before! It was a long jog along a sharp footpath then onto the grassed area of T1. Then it was another long jog with my bike to the mount line at the top end of the park! I was breathing pretty heavy as I got on my bike!
The one lap 20km bike loop was a 'game of 2 half's'. First half came the climbs, nothing drastic but still pretty lumpy with the second half a lot flatter. But what was annoying though was the group of 5 or 6 riders who were taking advantage of the lack of 'draft buster refs' and were taking turns on the front of their mini peleton. GRRRRR! I held back from this group thinking that I didn't want to get caught up with them and suffer a penalty or DQ when the ref on a motorbike comes past...but he never came. I pushed past them and a couple of them tagged on to my wheel then! I made my feelings known (complete with imaginative expletives!) and that seemed to spur me on with a surge of anger fuelled adrenalin and I opened up a gap on them before entering T2. Bike split: 36:52 (17th fastest which is better than my usual efforts on 2 wheels!)
The 5km run was a 2 lap affair over a reasonably hilly route. It was tough going, not made any easier with a stitch (too many gels on the bike me thinks!). I found the second runs at my recent duathlons easier than this one! Run split: 18:04
I finished 8th overall and 2nd 40-50. A nice sunny day at the office!
Well done to 'I'm not that fit honest' Saggers, and Roy at the Cambridge Du!
Train well and make the most of the sun this week!
Nice race Mal! Sorry I missed your result on the tri Shorts email.
ReplyDeletenice work Mal. are you with triuk this year?
ReplyDeleteThat's a negative Roy! Taking a year out from TriUK this year. Lots going on in personal and work life (promoted!) so couldn't commit to many races at the time when they wanted a race plan for the year. Race plan is pretty much 'month by month' this year! C u at Hullavington mate.
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