English
The last few days of last week and the weekend were dedicated to the Windsor triathlon. I had a 6:20am start time on Sunday morning, which meant the alarm went off at 3:30am Sunday morning… urgh! I remember those pre triathlon days when I used to be getting home at 3:30am on a Sunday morning! In the days leading up to the race, the alarm went off 30 mins earlier each day so my body wouldn’t have such a shock come race day. It doesn’t matter how much I prepare, it is still a rude shock being woken up at 3:30am (It’s pretty clear that I don’t have children isn’t it?).
I wasn’t feeling great on Saturday (a bit lethargic) and put it down to the early starts and being a little bit out of kilter with my normal routine. I went for a quick swim in the Hampstead Lido to loosen up and then headed out to Windsor as you have to rack your bike on Saturday. With rain predicted, I wrapped my bike up in garbage bags to protect it. I was at the race alone on Sunday morning as the Dutchman was away in Nice training for his upcoming trip with BikePlusTours. I wasn’t going to stretch the friendship with my girlfriends asking them to accompany me! I got set-up in transition and headed down to the start for my wave, which was 30-39 age group women.
I was badly placed for the swim start and managed to end up in the 3rd row- which is never good for a big wave start. I was still trying to get myself in position when the gun went. I was immediately trapped with nowhere to go- watching the fast pack sprint off without me. The trick with Windsor is to head to the far bank of the river and swim close enough to the edge to avoid the current when swimming upstream, but not so close that you get caught up in the moored boats and discarded fishing lines. I got myself into a small group of girls but had aching shoulders and lats within about 5 minutes of starting and very little energy to push myself. I drafted as much as I could and went as hard as my aching muscles would allow me- just counting down till I could get out of the water.
Then, into a huge transition which is built around the giant Ferris wheel on the river. Luckily I was positioned in an easy place to spot on rack 1! It certainly wasn’t warm and so I had already planned to put something longsleeved on for the bike leg- my upper body never seems to get warm when cycling. Though it is never much fun wresting into lycra when wet and in a hurry- I should get someone to film sometime it as I am sure it must be entertaining! One of the many great things about Windsor is that it is a single lap bike course which makes a change from a lot of the other races I do, so you get to cover some ground. Given my lacklustre swim I was keen to make up some time.
It didn’t really work out like that. Now my legs were also aching and not really doing what I wanted them to do- which was to go fast! Now! Usually I love racing on my Focus Izalco, but Sunday it was a long old 40km’s to get through- every slight incline felt like riding up Col de la Madone but I know that I am in good shape and that I am capable of riding fast, so I kept struggling and pushing myself even though I was feeling sluggish and leaden limbed.
With almost a wrong-turn close to the end due to poor signage (I later found out some people did go wrong), I was finally back at transition. OK. Time to pick up the game and nail this home! The run is a 3 lap course that takes you up to the castle, back down the little hill and out to a turnaround, back to town and then out and back over the bridge towards Eton. It really is a great course for spectators as they can see participants many, many times. I felt OK-ish on the run, but again I didn’t have that spring in my step to really power me home.
I am in good shape, so I knew that something hadn’t been right and I was feeling a bit gloomy about the whole thing. Until I checked the results… I had bagged myself a 2nd place in my age group! Yay! Very surprising as I really wasn’t that thrilled about the way I had raced. It gave me a lot of confidence that I can have a bad race and still get a great result- either that or I got lucky!
Monday was an unscheduled rest day, as were Tuesday and Wednesday. I spent most of my time in bed with a nasty stomach virus- which in some respects was OK because it explained why I felt the way I did over the weekend. I have now resurfaced and started eating and light training again but unfortunately had to miss a midweek race out at Dorney Lake. Lucky for me, there are 9 of those races scattered across the season this year- plenty of opportunity to take part.
I have a small gap in my race schedule now, so the hard training will commence again shortly to get ready for the Women’s Only Tri on the 2nd July. I have a little warmup out at Dorney Lake on the 1st July for the Marketing Industry Triathlon where I am doing the swim leg as part of a relay with some work colleagues from BE and O2. It’s the first time most people have participated so it is really great to see so many getting involved. These kind of events offer a safe and fun way to have a go and literally test the waters. With triathlon on the up and up in the UK, there can never be too many of them!
Happy training.
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