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Win Win!

It’s been a great week for me. I kicked things off with an age group win at the Shock Absorber Women Only Triathlon and backed it up with a win at the 220 mid week race at Dorney Lake. Nothing like 2 wins to put you in a good mood!

I managed to talk my boss into letting the team take the day off and take part in the Marketing Industry triathlon on Friday at Dorney Lake. We had 10 people split over 3 teams plus our support crew making a racket. It was such a great atmosphere with this being the first time some people had taken part in a race. I had volunteered to do the 800m swim given I was going to need fresh legs for the Women Only race the following day and it gave me a good opportunity to do a reccie of the course. It was so fantastic to see people have a go using surf wetsuits, no wetsuit, breast stroke, having a little break by resting on the support canoes all the way through to super-fast swimmers who were out of the water quick smart.

There were around 110 teams taking part with many of the people from my company all wanting to take part as individuals next year. I really love that there are events such as this one out there that really does make it easy and enjoyable for new people to the sport to get involved. I did warn them that it is addictive…

I was back at Dorney Lake on Saturday morning to do the challenge distance which was a 800m swim, 30km bike and then a 7.5km run as part of the Shock Absorber Women’s Only race. I find it a tough distance to pace myself for, it’s not an all-out sprint but you don’t have to hold back as much as you do in an Olympic distance race. Having had issues with getting my nutrition right in the past I decided to risk not eating at all and shove a gel in my pocket if I needed it on the run, which I did at around the 5.5km mark.

The conditions were perfect, beautiful sunny day, lots of support and a decent breeze which suits me perfectly. My swim time was a mere 8 seconds slower than it had been on the Friday which I was pleased about as I wasn’t going too crazy and felt very comfortable the whole way round. Out of the water in great time and a speedy transition out onto the bike. I didn’t have anyone there counting the girls out of transition so had no idea where I was placed as there was already another 2 waves of people on the course. All that meant was I just had to ride hard! Thanks to Ben the great mechanic at Wiggle who had built up a new Focus timetrial bike for me with the 2011 frame which did the job perfectly and looks amazing. I need to do some tweaking to the seat position as I was in quite a bit of pain after the 30km with my adductors really starting to seize up which caused a slow start to the run as I shook the pain out.

It had started to heat up on the run and was mentally tough with 3 laps to complete and no idea where I was. One of my fellow competitors told me I was in 2nd place and 20 metres off the lead girl which gave me the kick I needed to pull her back in and really push it home. I was really excited to win a bag of Jemma Kidd makeup and a Shock Absorber sports bra, finally a race that understands what women want! That race was one of my season goals so to take first place was indeed very special.

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I hit the gym Sunday morning for a core session and was shocked at how sore my core muscles were from the more aggressive position on my new bike, the session quickly turned into a relaxing stretching session instead and an extra core session added to the weekly schedule post recovery. The Dutchman always tells me there is no better training than racing so I have been trying to do as many of the mid week races as possible. I am beginning to know the road at Dorney Lake quite well now.

The race was a sprint distance and it was blowing a gale. I have never seen it so windy at Dorney Lake, to the point where pieces of kit were being blown around transition. Another good swim and out onto the bike where I was very thankful for my Zipp 808 wheels which consistently perform the best in cross wind testing. I was riding on an angle which I kind of get a kick out of because it keeps things interesting and challenging. I hit the run which has some small bridges you go over and I was quite amused to be blown across the road when running, I wouldn’t have minded a tail wind that strong, but it was coming in from the side and just making feet placement difficult!

I crossed the line in under 1:10 which was the goal, bagged 1st place for the women with a 6 minute margin and got 10th overall. Next up is another mid week race this week and then the London Tri, the big goal for the year.

Happy training.

Cx.