English
It has been a busy few weeks! In between moving house and a hectic work schedule I managed to fit in the Bedford Classic and another 220 Evening Series race. I am very pleased to say I got 5th place in my age group at Bedford and I won the 220 Sprint race. Unfortunately my house is still in complete disarray!
Bedford was an Olympic distance (750m, 40km, 10km) and I was using this as a benchmark for the London tri which is my ‘A’ race of the year. In busy tri starts I always wear 2 swim caps with my goggles between the 2 hats to keep them secure. The plan was to go out fast and stay on the feet of the lead girls and just hang on for dear life. Well, that was all great in theory until 2 strokes in I got hit in the face and the right side of my goggles filled up with water. After some one eye swimming for 200m I pulled over to the side, fixed myself up and kept going. Unfortunately the break was enough that I couldn’t stay with the lead girls. I was happy with my swim, less happy with all the reeds I had to swim through on the last 100m.
Onto the bike and unlike the many flat races I have been doing this season, I had to actually change gear on the Focus Izalco Chrono which was a new experience. Usually put it in gear and hang on! (Wiggle are currently selling the Focus with a 30% discount! If you want a fast TT bike, this is it and now is the time to buy!) The bike leg was quite windy and the rain was threatening. I am completely hopeless when it rains so I was just hoping it would hold off until the run. It was a great course in that it was a 40km loop which makes a nice change from an out and back. I got a few places back on the bike that I had lost on the swim and was really focusing on keeping my aero position and really powering along. I had learnt my lesson a few weeks previously at the Timex Women’s event about eating too much so was careful not to overload my stomach and just had 1 gel plus energy drink.
Back to transition and I did a fast change over and onto the 3 lap run course. It had started raining by this stage but that never bothers me for the run leg. I felt strong and really went for it and was quite pleased with my time. I’m not always a big fan of courses where you run laps but this one was quite nice as you ran along the river through the park, over the bridge and back down again and as it was a large race there was some great support. Overall I managed 5th in my age group and 18th overall which I am very pleased given it was the World Cup qualifier and attracts a stellar field.
Last night was the 3rd race in the 220 Evening Series out at Dorney Lake and I won again! So far I have won all 3 events and will be trying to make it 4 for 4 at the end of August to take out the series. I am constantly surprised that I am enjoying the short distance racing so much and I am showing real improvement. My time for the first race was 1:14, down to 1:12 for the 2nd race and last night to 1:08. I suspect the dramatic improvement last night was also down to the bike course being slightly shorter than last time.
The swim was good and I jumped on the feet of Brad who I train with in Hampstead Lido on Tuesday nights as I know he swims faster than me! I really need to practice swimming in a straight line, I’m sure I did 800m rather than 750 last night as I keep veering off course. If Terry (my coach) is reading this I suspect next week I will be doing a load of sighting drills. :)
It wasn’t as windy as it has been for previous events which meant there were lots of bugs hanging around. I ate at least 10 of them and was so intent on catching Fay who was 15 seconds ahead of me on the bike I stopped bothering to spit them out and just starting swallowing them. It was great to have Fay in the same wave as me as she really pushed the pace on the bike which in turn made me pay more attention. We swapped around for the first few laps and then I sat back about 20m behind her for the last 4 laps to see what she was going to do and pray that I could catch her on the run!
My T2 was fast which means I am getting better, although I did dismount the bike with 1 shoe on the bike and the other on my foot, so maybe only 50% better :) further work required I think. My feet were numb but I could see Fay and Brad out on the run course and they became my target. So ignoring the weird I-can’t-feel-my-feet sensation I caught Fay about 300m in and congratulated her on her bike leg as I went past her injecting a bit of speed to hopefully scare her off coming with me. Thankfully it worked and I managed to build a lead over her. I was running well and feeling as good as you can feel when running sub 4 min km’s. I did the first 1km in 3:30 which opened up the gap and meant I only had to maintain it. On my 2nd and final lap I spotted Rob who always catches me on the last lap of the run and beats me home. This time I was pretty sure that I could hold him off so really pushed hard and beat him across the line! Little did I know he had started the race late so when the timings came in, he had once again beaten me by 1 place! My run leg was the best I have done in ages and I broke the magical 20 min mark that I have been hovering around for some time with a 19:21.
I managed 13th place overall and set a new PB of 1:08, so once again a great night out. Now I am resting for 2 days in preparation for the London Triathlon. Good luck to everyone taking part!
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