Peebles Duathlon

Last event of the season, Peebles Duathlon, sprint distance, 5/20/5. Got there nice and early, registered, and met up with JEdgcombe and family.

Tried to warm up with a wee jog – ankle sore from the very start. Not great prep at all. Decided to wear the slightly more cushioning RocLite 295s rather than the lighter, faster Road X 255s.

Run 1 – JEdgcombe set off like a rocket. The Garmin helps me here, knowing that I wanted to run at 4:20 per KM to start off with meant that I did just that, and just plodded around. I did think that Jedg was going to blow after the first lap, but he hellf on to it, and I just overtook him going into T1.

I had a good T1, but the run up the bridge to get to the transition line was a bit odd.

The cycle went well. Easily my fastest ever 20K on the bike – 35 mins. I over took a number of people, and was overtaken by a few, too. Jedg had a shocker of a T1, but caught up a minute on me on the cycle, overtaking me up one of the hills. I was able to pull back and overtake again on the flat parts – my standard chainrings trumping his compact at last!

T2 was long – running down the bridge again, and then through gravel in barefoot. But I was quick, quick enough to pull 20 seconds away from Jedg.

The second run was the usual horrid slog of just trying to get one foot in front of the other. I settled down into 4:25 kilometres, and just tried to hold on. It was enough to push a bit of a gap away from Jedg, which was reassuring – I’ve trained all year, and he just turned up! Total time 1:19:18. Personal bests for each section, and total time. Definitely one to do next year, and compare times.

Monikie Standard Distance Triathlon

My first olympic distance triathlon. Not a great start – I forgot my cycling shoes.

I got all the way up to Monikie before realising, but Emma was coming up later on, so I phoned to get her to bring up the shoes. Further mishap as I managed to drop my kit box onto Peter F’s box, destroying the both of them. I did manage to sign in, find the right spot, and get ready, but still no Emma, and still no shoes. Off down to the North pond for the swim, and Emma appeared, with shoes, and children!

Father in law asked me yesterday what time I expected to do it in. I didn’t really know. Obviously 2:30 is the rubicon to cross to become a “proper” triathlete, but to beat that on my first ever standard is aiming a bit high. The Allerthorpe sprint was flat as a pancake, and I managed that in 1:15, but Monikie is hilly, and twice as far…. I told him that I’d be happy with anything under 2:45….

Acclimatisation swim was fine – a bit cold at first, and quite murky in there, but fine. A land start, and a bit frantic at the start – got punched in the head a couple of times, and dragged back a we bit, but once 300 metres in, I was with a couple of others, and no real problems. As ever, I kept the SPL right down, tried to swim long, not quickly, and when I got out, completely fresh legs!

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A long T1, with a run down into the bike bare foot over concrete paths. It took much longer than it should have done, really, but better safe than overly rapid.

The bike leg – fresh legs from the swim, which makes a change from the Duathlons where I’ve been stuffed from the run! My previous best for 20K on that route is 41 minutes – this time I managed the first 20K in just under 40 mins, and pushed on….. 40K in 1 hour 20, by far the fastest I’ve done that course. I managed to get stuck behind a tractor at one point, so I lost a few seconds there…. It was windy – into a headwind for the first 7K at least. But, I overtook a fair few people, and was only overtaken by about 3 people.

T2 – much more like it. 50 seconds only.

The run was tough. I felt I was barely walking at the start. But, I reeled in a couple of folk on the first loop, another 6 or 7 on the next loop, and came in by by myself in a time of 44:52 – quicker than I could run a single event 10K 8 months ago!

Total time 2:36:30!!!

Jane Tomlinson’s Swim For All 2011

Jane Tomlinson died in 2007 having raised £1.85 for cancer research. She was from Wakefield originally; her family still live there, and they continue her fund raising efforts. Although Jane was known for her running, she was a keen swimmer also, so the Jane Tomlinson appeal now organises a Swim For All in Pugney’s lake, near Wakefield. I registered to do the 1 mile swim, and registered Emma to do the 500m swim.

Emma had never done an open water swim before, not even a practice swim in her wetsuit.

She did very well – 16th out of 50 entrants to the race. She managed the first 1/3 doing crawl, but the cold got to her face, and she reverted to breast stroke. Still, she finished, without stopping, and was the 8th fastest female.

My swim went well – usual steady start from me with everyone thrashing off like mad things. I kept my line, and made it to the first buoy in the top half. Round the first bend, and onto the end of the lake I overtook maybe a dozen swimmers, and pushed on for a pretty good finish – 25:27 on my own watch to the finish line, 26:29 to get to the timing mat 100m further on. The reeds/weeds were a particular nightmare for the last 1/3 of the race, but other than that, it was nice and warm (19 degrees), not too much fighting for space, and it went well.

One thing is that I seem to have one pace – I felt as though I could have swum the same pace for another mile, but when I tried to pick up the pace I could lengthen out, and slow my SPM, but kept the same pace with less effort, rather than speeding up. I shouldn’t worry, really – 33rd out of 318 isn’t bad, given my short experience with swimming.

Loch Ness swim in August to come.

Allerthorpe Sprint Triathlon

June 5th 2011. 0903hrs. The start of my first ever Triathlon.

I managed to get in the water and swim 50m to acclimatise to the temperature; it was actually pretty warm.

I was in the second wave, for predicted times under 13 minutes, but over 11:30. The start was a complete melee – arms and legs everywhere, I was punched in the back, grabbed, pushed, pulled, rolled over, and shoved out of the way. I did manage to find some clear water to swim in after about 100m, and settled into it. What’s very interesting is the heart rate graph on the Garmin – a very gradual increase in heart rate though the swim. I felt very relaxed, and managed to get out of the water feeling fresh-legged, which was exactly the intention when I started learning to swim 16 months ago.

T1 went well enough – a slight delay in putting my socks on, but I don’t think I’m up to cycling in bare feet yet. Perhaps a new pair of softer cycling shoes…..

The cycle is my weakest event, of course. I had planned to take it very easy, to leave plenty in my legs for the run. But when I got going, it seemed easiest to get going up to 22 mph and keep it spinning. Despite me spinning my legs, on the drops, going quickly, for me, within minutes guys on Tri bikes were flying past me. I was still pleased to get through the cycle in under 40 minutes.

The run was great, though. I set off at a pretty steady pace, but realised relatively quickly that I could speed up a bit. The end came, and I felt great!