British Standard Distance Championships - Liverpool

This was the last opportunity for qualification to London. Again it wasn’t ideal timing as I’d been travelling in the US for 2 weeks and in the days leading to it. Training was a bit hard to come by whilst away and struggled to do anything with any meaning, however i had a bit of luck that the customer required the work to take place during the July 4th holiday week which meant i had a chance to pop to Durham, North Carolina to see my old training buddy Nic, who moved out their last year. This meant 4 days of good bike time and the couple of runs.

Back on English soil on Thursday and feeling pretty jet lagged. Friday was a case of finishing work, loading the car and getting to Liverpool before registration closes at 8pm. The time allowed seemed possible until the M6 closed at Stoke and we were diverted. Slight panic but we arrived with 8 mins to spare #turnertime. Checked into the hotel located 400m from the start on Albert Dock and then went out for some food. Found a place to eat which seemed the shortest wait time, but after a nightmare wait and a few stern words with the manager dinner finally arrived at 10:15pm. We dread to think what they may have done to our food for complaining! We inhaled the food and back to the room to get ready for the 5am wake up call. Still jet lagged and struggling to get to sleep my daughter woke feeling unwell at 1:30am. Jessica was able to return to bed around 2:30am, only to be woken by my son hoping he hadn’t missed anything and was first up for the day ahead. I delivered the bad news and finally we all got to sleep, albeit for a couple of hours until our alarm went off.

Down for breakfast and chatted away with fellow triathlete’s competing in my wave. This is the point I first heard that the dock was occupied by numerous amounts of small jelly fish. After my experience in Llandudno that is not something I wanted to hear or looked forward too.

Got my stuff together and cycled down to transition. Bumped into a few familiar faces and made my way to the water. Jumped in, checked out the jelly fish under water which there seemed to be thousands of them. Splashed around a bit and waited for the race to start. The swim started well and I got myself into a nice group. Made it around the first 2 right hand turn buoys and things were going to plan. Went under the bridge and made it out of the next left and right turn buoys without taking on too much water or panicking too much. I was thinking to myself things were going well until I peeled off the group and made a sharp turn around the next buoy on route, only to find that no one was following me! Big mistake on my part as i had actually turned at the sighting buoy, the turn buoy was still quite away ahead. Went back on route, made the further 2 turns on my own and headed home. I was able to catch a swimmer and sat on his shoulder until the final buoy. Made another mistake here and swam to the left of the buoy towards the exit instead of around it. Made a rapid u turn and headed into transition. Overall I enjoyed the swim although not a great time. Need a lot of work on sighting and remembering the course. Also need to find race pace effort as never seem to push myself hard enough. Maybe it’s the fear of not being able to finish if i go too hard or just confidence? Anyhow, these are things i will definitely work on in the swim sessions.

Transition was pretty straight forward. Took a bit of time to get the pedals turning over but settled in and was making up some good time.

Off the bike and out for the run. By now the weather was heating up a bit, I was feeling ok for the first kilometre and then my pace dropped dramatically and I couldn’t do anything about it. It definitely wasn’t nutrition or the heat it was just sear lack of conditioning. Every time someone went passed I tried to respond by couldn’t, I felt helpless and was happy to see the finish.

So, top 100 (97th) finish, just! An enjoyable swim, a good bike split and a very disappointing run. Overall 21st in age group and no chance of London qualification in Standard distance. The event was good and really enjoyed the weekend around Liverpool with my family. Kids enjoyed watching and Ben’s even thinking about giving a triathlon a go!! #happydays

Results

Next race: National Relay Championships – I have an awesome team!!!

Lots to Learn - Llandudno Sprint

Another opportunity for London qualification. Not ideal though as it is a 8 hour round trip and a sprint distance event. I don't enjoy sprint distance and I didn't plan to do another one after Grendon but decided to do this solely as another opportunity for London and to attempt the sea swim. This was a big decision as I generally don't like sand or salt water at the best of times (a childhood thing I guess).

Fortunately it was a 3:15pm start which meant a sensible wake up time. Last minute checking of the bike course forced the decision of the road bike over the TT bike. This was a killer decision for me as I am big believer that a TT bike is always going to be faster on most courses. On this course however I expected long climbs and fast decents which a road bike should be better at, surely? I also opted for a road helmet to keep me cool for the extra effort.

Made the journey up, parking was a nightmare and registration was a tad more stressful than expected. Bumped into fellow club mate Tom Stead who seemed to be having a bit of a #turnertime moment, but had it under control.

Transition was long and narrow and the swim in and bike out was nearly 400m through a narrow fenced channel. Plenty of opportunity to whack your toes if you planned to overtake.

My wave got called into the water as it was a deep water start (100m off the beach). On the way to the start I made contact with something a few times but dismissed it as a fellow competitor. As the horn went I was able to find a nice group and I was making good progress with little effort. As we turned some prick behind me grabbed my leg, I kicked him off and within 10s the legs was grabbed again. This really effected my concentration and suddenly I started taking on water. From that point on it went down hill. I was in the mix and people were making contact with me left, right and centre. One guy even seemed to start a wide recovery stroke to smack me in head to stop me swimming too close. In addition to this my fears of sea swimming started to come true. The contact I experienced at the start had returned, although this time I could tell it was jellyfish. After a couple of good handfuls I was in a bad way and wanted out! Finally made it ashore, but fully loaded with salt water. Again this swim was more indication of more open water swimming needed.

Into the long transition and out on the bike. One guy insisted to overtake me in the run out only to stop at the mount line and balls up getting on the bike and obstruct everyone else in the process. Headed for the first incline still spitting the salt water taste and trying to get a move on. Got passed by a couple of TT bikes which made me question my decision. I wasn't making as much progress as I thought but hung in there and smashed the down hill as fast as I could, although the constant obstruction was starting to take its toll on my vocal cords. #bikerage

Heading into transition was ridiculous as it was a fence channel, just wide enough for the 2 way traffic. People were slowing up to take feet out of shoes and again obstructing progress and a few dangerous manoeuvres were forced. Overall a pretty dangerous setup.

Looking at the profile of the run it appeared to be quite flat then a longish climb to the turn around point which didn't really appear. As the norm legs didn't fancy going any faster than they had too, tried to get them turning over on the down hill bit but again short lived. My running hasn't been any good this year and if anything I've got considerably slower.

33rd overall and 11th in AG. Ok but still way off where I want to be. Glad I did it and got the experience and actually learned quite a bit:

1. Don't leave home without the TT bike and Aero helmet.
2. Don't do triathlons that involve the sea, it could involve sea creatures.
3. Need more time open water swimming. Another 12mths would do the job.
4. Back to the drawing board with Running.
5. Llandudno is too far for a seaside day trip!

Results.

Next - Liverpool English Championships - Standard Distance

Rough with the smooth – Dambuster Triathlon

This race was a big one, not only was it my first standard distance triathlon but the National Championships and a World and European Age Group Championship qualifier. Having the world AG championship this year in London there is a massive interest to qualify and my age group is not the easiest with 132 athletes hoping to do just that. With only 25 places available over 3 events the pressure is truly on.

The buildup to this race was not an ideal one as I flew back from LA Thursday evening and had not rode my bike for 2 weeks. I was able to keep on top of my swim fitness by finding local swimming pools, but my attempt to do a track session at the local high school was rudely interrupted by the cops after an 800m warm up. Apparently a locked gate means no entry even if you are a foreigner. The other down side to this was the opportunity to stuff myself stupid with all the crap food I enjoy eating, which meant I came back a few kgs heavier than I went out. Friday was a case of getting the kit together and trying to rest up enough to have a good crack at the race the following day.

Race day and surprise, surprise, the weather was crap, wet and windy. Due to the wind the swim was reduced to 1400m so we didn’t have to go too far out into the lake. Any tiredness I felt was soon eliminated by the happy juice of HIGH5 extreme caffeine drink I took just before the start. After the very unpleasant beach start which was like running over lego, we were off. Straight away I got into a good rhythm and was making good head way. At the first turn my sense of direction was questionable as I was heading through the middle on the pack. Survived that just and plodded on looking for someone to swim with, but I seemed I had my own route in mind and swam the whole thing on my own. Overall a comfortable swim and really enjoyed it but probably clocked up more distance than I needed and would have benefited from a bit of sighting. Open water training starting this week with GreenlightPT so should get that sorted soon enough.

Out on the bike and it was horrible from start to finish. Hit the first hill and legs drowned in lactate and took a while to clear. I was able to pick up a bit of momentum, but it was short lived as I was seriously blowing at each hill. Nobody passed me but I knew I hadn’t done enough as at I never felt like I was cruising. The wind played a factor on pace for sure and I probably lost a bit of conditioning in my bike legs which made it feel tougher than it was, but in reality I just didn’t have a good ride. Picture says it all!

Dropped off the bike and out onto the run. As I passed transition I see Nick Bundle (Grendon Winner and in my age group) coming in on his bike which confirmed I hadn’t done enough and it was now a case of trying to run as fast as I could to hold him off. However my legs had different ideas and refused to run any faster than 6:00 mile pace and not a second faster. Every time I tried they screamed back at me to go back to 6’s and I was not in a position to argue. Got to the 5k turn around point and a few meters past it, Nick and I made eye contact knowing it was only a matter of time that he would pass me as he is a much better runner, which he did with 2k to go. I tried to go with him but my body was having none of it and I rolled in with a 37:03 10k.

The swim was the best part of the day, although the time was not great. My lack of experience of open water swimming is really showing and is something I must work on. Jet lag probably played a slight factor but overall considering the strong field, 47^th overall and 11^th in AG during my first outing in a Standard distance event, I’m pretty happy with that!

Didn’t qualify on this occasion but will have another go next Saturday, 4 hours away at Llandudno Sprint Triathlon. Don’t really want to do sprint distance but it’s another qualifing opportunity and a sea swim experience.

Failing qualification there I will have one last opportunity at Liverpool in July which is the English Championships and standard distance event. In the meantime I'm back to the US for 12 days after Llandudno so hopefully I can get something done leading up to Liverpool or its going to be a struggle.

Here are the results.