Post 158 - European sprint triathlon championships, Glasgow 2018

The European Sprint Triathlon championships. Held this year, just down the road in Strathclyde Park, just outside Glasgow. Probably the biggest race I’ve ever been in for. A genuine aspiration to finish in a podium position. And I got injured 4 weeks beforehand, with an Achilles strain. This meant I couldn’t do any running. I did everything possible to get it better – ice, rest, compression, physio, massage, foam rolling, rehabilitation, strength work, stretching, hot baths in Epsom salts, Arnica cream, anti-inflammatories, you name it. That was all well and good, but what it really needed, and still needs, is time, and I didn’t have time, and still don’t have time

I trialled a 5K run a week before Glasgow. I had to know how it would hold up. I got through the trial. It was very painful but not really restrictive while running, I wasn't compensating or favouring my good side, or at least I didn't seem to be. The restriction came from lack of training. The legs had lost conditioning, I'd lost top-end sharpness. The trial run set my recovery back too, as it was a lot sorer afterwards. But not cripplingly sore.

I’ve got a trip to South Africa at the end of August for the half-ironman world championships. I didn’t want to ruin my Achilles for this trip. In the end, I decided that if I came through Glasgow similar to how I came through the trial 5K run, I’d settle for that. So I went to Glasgow. 6-8 weeks ago I was really excited about what I could achieve there. But as I was with the injured Achilles, I just couldn’t raise much enthusiasm at all – I knew I’d be compromised, I knew my top-end fitness was down, I knew I was a couple of kilos too heavy, my season was over the hill.

For me, if I’m not going into a race knowing I’m perfectly prepared, I find it difficult to get excited. A conversation with a clubmate about performing when under the cosh, and performing when the chips are down and when things aren’t 100% (and let’s face it, when are things ever 100%?) helped a little, but again I kept wondering about what could have been if I hadn’t picked up the injury. Whatever. I'd do what I could. The new helmet was decent. I taped up the vents to make it more aerodynamic and stuck a shamrock sticker on it.

With a race start at 8am, and transition closing at 6:45am, it was an early start. But at least the weather was dry. I had watched the elite female race on TV the day before – the bike course looked narrow – it would need full concentration. There was a big crash in the female race due to lack of space on the road. I’d have to be on the ball on the bike.

When racking my bike the day before I had noticed a wobble in my front tyre – I brought it to the on-site mechanics, who fixed it. When they were re-inflating the tyre, the valve core came popping out. So they replaced it. But the next morning, on race day, it had gone flat. A stress I could have done without. I legged it over to the mechanics who put it right, and I got on with getting ready. I was in my wetsuit a good 45 minutes before the start, limbering up in the changing tent and trying to stay warm.

There’s nothing like the feeling of peeing in your wetsuit to warm you up when you are cold – the only shame is that the warmth follows gravity down onto your legs rather than up to your core where you need it the most. I’ve often wondered about doing a head-stand or hand-stand wetsuit pee before a swim start to stay warm… what a way to christen my new Ireland triathlon suit under my wetsuit…

I knew we would start at bang-on 7am, as there were a number of events on during the day and they’d need to keep to time. 2 minutes before 7am and we were all still standing 100m away from the pontoon. I was at the back of the queue as I knew it was an in-water start, and I figured the less time I would spend treading water before the start, the less cold I would get.

We then got rushed into the water, and being almost last onto the pontoon, I had literally nowhere to climb in – wetsuit-clad bodies were jam-packed in the water. There were 10 seconds to go. I had to just pile in. The race started. It was total and utter carnage. There were 100 racers all in a very small area of water, aiming for the same first turning buoy just 150m away.

I got an absolute beating, swallowed half the loch, struggled to breathe and keep going, and got one particularly bad smack to my right eye that left me blind and seeing black in that eye for about 5 minutes. Tough going, and nothing like the benign Edinburgh half ironman swim a few weeks previously, where athletes were fed in gradually, 3 in every 5 seconds. It was more like Ironman Wales in 2013 where I spent half an hour fighting to stay afloat and gasping for breath in the melee.

Working as I do for Scottish Water, I know of the efforts that were put in to ensure the water quality was high in Strathclyde Park Loch for the triathlon racing. I’m pleased to say that I haven’t come down with illness, so all involved have done a great job.

The swim calmed down after around half distance but I spent the whole swim on the back foot, and exited the water in 11:40-something. A minute down on what I thought I was capable of doing. I've done quicker 750m swims in the pool, with the 29 turns that entails, and without wearing a wetsuit (wetsuits are faster than skin swims). I got through transition as quickly as I could, the wetsuit came off nice and easily, the new helmet went on nice and quickly and comfortably, but I lost a bit of time (maybe 10-20 seconds) putting on my bike shoes in transition.

Most others attach their bike shoes to their pedals and run to the mount line barefoot, jump on their bikes and then wiggle their feet into their shoes and do up the straps. This is faster getting through transition but I think it loses a bit of time at the start of the bike – I already have my shoes on so all I need to do is clip in and I’m away. I’ve seen people half a mile down the road still trying to get their shoes and straps secured. Plus, doing it “my way” means you can ensure that the soles of your feet are fairly clean and grit-free when putting on the shoes.

It’s the same coming into transition – I hammer it right to the dismount line, brake hard, and run through with bike shoes on. Most others also start undoing their shoes a good few hundred metres out from the dismount line, and leave them clipped to their pedals when dismounting, running through transition barefoot. My way means again my feet are grit-free (and dry if the ground is wet) when putting on my runners. Which way is best? What even defines best? Fastest? Most comfortable? What defines fastest? Does the comfort save you time on the bike and in the run? I don’t know. Maybe I should trial the “conventional” way and see how it goes.

I got away off on the bike and with the amount of loch water I had taken on, and with how hard I was working, I spent most of the bike trying not to spew up. Parts of the course were very fast and narrow, there were a few big braking areas, but by and large I got through the 3-lap course OK. I think my power was fractionally down on what I’d hoped it would be, but I’d say my bike wasn’t bad. I think it was the fourth-fastest overall bike split time. There were a good contingent of Irish supporters and it was always enjoyable to speed past them. I could see the leaders coming back down the hill in the opposite direction when I was climbing up to the turn. A very visual representation of why I need to get better in the water. That's the difference.

Then it was off the bike and onto the run. Usually my strong point. But even though I did the second-fastest run of the race, and did under 18 minutes for the (hilly) 5K course, I was a minute down on what I thought I could have done. I ran the Stirling sprint triathlon 5K, a much tougher course, in almost 17 flat, so had reasonably hoped to break 17 in Glasgow. So narrow was the course that a guy I was about to overtake lost his footing on a tight turn just ahead of me and he hit the deck quite hard. At one point I got trapped behind a bottleneck of maybe 3 runners, going a little slower than me. I wanted to scream at them "hurry up or move over", but caught myself just in time - no point in being the Irish four-lettered word to them - I tucked in for maybe 10 seconds and waited for a gap to open and then cruised past.

My Achilles was hurting. I knew every stride was doing it more damage but I was committed to running as hard as I could. I could feel the lack of training in my legs, and I wasn’t running as strongly as I wanted, I knew I had been stronger in races earlier this year. I had no socks on, and I could feel the undersides of both my little toes were rubbing raw. I finished eighth overall in Europe in my 30-34 age group. I’d hoped to challenge for a podium, and looking at the results, with the time I felt I lost in the water and in the run, this wasn’t unrealistic. But, a few weeks ago I didn’t even know if I could compete at all. I raced as hard as I could with what I had on the day, and that was it.

I could barely walk after it – the undersides of both my little toes were raw and bleeding. My Achilles hurt. Walking was not easy. I got talking to a few competitors who had yet to start. One Dutch man-mountain asked me about the swim. I said it was a massive dogfight for the first 200m. He looked so happy. "I love the fight, ja!" He looked like he would drown you if it would give him a position. I think he was almost tempted to shadow box me on the spot.

I treated myself to some junk food (cheesecake for lunch, a few drinks for dinner, and more cheesecake for breakfast the following day). I really wish I could train properly as I’ve now got less than 3 weeks before the half ironman world championships in South Africa. This is going to be massively compromised too, as I’m not going to be able to do any running training. I hope the Achilles gets better soon.

Always takes a while to clean up and tidy up after a triathlon

I am going to have to bail on the other races I’ve entered, but it was a busy schedule even if I hadn’t been injured: in July I was meant to do the Edinburgh half ironman and 2 olympic distance races (I bailed on both Olympic races due to injury), and in August/September I was meant to have the European Sprint championships, the Kelso sprint tri, the Haddington sprint tri, the world half ironman championships, the Scottish national Olympic triathlon, and the Peebles duathlon. I think I am going to have to bail on everything except the half ironman world championships, and I really hope that my Achilles reovers quickly after Glasgow, and that the half-marathon to finish the half-ironman doesn’t destroy it completely. 

Then that’ll be the end of the triathlon season… bring on next year – I like these shorter races… short races only next year. If nothing else I have learned this year that I can be realtively competitive at them, so I suppose when I look back, I'll say that this first season of short course racing probably went better than I would have thought at the start of the year. Even if the end of the season has been frustrating.

Training done was as follows:

Mon 30 July: RestTue 31 July: Bike 6 x Arthur's seat reps: 3:22, 3:27, 3:32, 3:35, 3:32, 3:34
Wed 1 Aug: Swim 2.6km (single arm drills)
Thu 2 Aug: Rest
Fri 3 Aug: 35 min turbo (single leg drills)
Sat 4 Aug: Swim 2k, 1 hour bike, 5k run
Sun 5 Aug: 2:45 bike (Talla loop - 138bpm, 230/236W, 51.1 miles, 2370ft)

Totals: Swim 4.6km, Bike 95 miles, Run 3 miles

Mon 6 Aug: RestTue 7 Aug: 1 hour turbo
Wed 8 Aug: Swim 1.1k
Thu 9 Aug: 30 min turbo
Fri 10 Aug: 10 mile bike
Sat 11 Aug: European sprint triathlon: 11:44 750m swim, 2:16 T1, 33:08 bike (272/284W)), 1:38 T2, 17:50 run
Sun 12 Aug: 1 hour turbo

Totals: Swim 1.9k, Bike 50 miles, Run 3 miles