Following the Scottish East District 10K, my legs were pretty sore. There was less than a week until the Galashiels sprint triathlon. I’ve entered quite a few shorter-course triathlons this season, and I was starting to question the wisdom of this – continual cycles of racing (and therefore trashing your legs) and then trying to recover are not really beneficial, and looking at my planned racing calendar, there aren’t many 3-4 week blocks available for good consistent training:
Start of April: Scottish East District 10K
Mid-April: Galashiels sprint triathlon
Start of May: Hawick Sprint triathlon
Mid-May: Selkirk Olympic triathlon
End of May: Edinburgh marathon festival (either the half marathon or the relay)
Mid-June: Eyemouth Sprint triathlon
Start of July: Edinburgh half Ironman
Then through July and August, the schedule is just as busy, leading into hopefully competing in the half Ironman world championships at the start of September, in South Africa.
So with the 10K in my legs, I tried to recover as best I could. I took Monday off completely, I “only” swam on Tuesday, not really using my legs, but doing some sprints in the pool for the first time in absolutely ages. I felt decent in the water.
On Thursday I was working down near Galashiels so took the opportunity to drive the bike course. It was a dirty, wet day and I didn’t like what I saw – a terrible uneven potholed filthy road surface, tight and narrow roads, very twisty and turny and undulating. Perhaps not a course for a time trial bike. Time trial bikes like flat, open roads, they like getting up to high speed and maintaining high speed. Road bikes are lighter, more nimble, and easier to handle on climbs, descents and turns. But they’re not as good at maintaining high speeds. So I made the decision to ride the road bike at the Galashiels triathlon, and so then I had to take it for a service as it hadn’t been ridden in anger since the Edinburgh half ironman last year…
I was recovered enough by Wednesday to do some short, sharp intervals on the turbo, getting up to almost 400W during the 15 sets of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. I did a fartlek run on Thursday on my way to pick up the bike from its service. Friday and Saturday were easier training days. It had been a busy week with work, with two trips to the bike shop for the servicing, and with training. I neglected my core strength and stretching work somewhat this week simply due to lack of time.
Thankfully the forecast for race day was good, so the roads would be dry. I’m still probably lacking in confidence on the bike (when I say “on the bike”, I don’t mean cruising to work on my commute, I mean handling high-speed racing).
But at 6am when I set off, the car was telling me it was 1 degree… I got there in good time and was one of the first to register, and as the sun came up, it got warmer. The race start time was 9am. I should have known better though, because with the pool swim, there were heats. The slowest heat was first. I was in the fastest, fifth and final heat. We’d be starting around 11am. I didn’t have enough food with me to get me through to 11am, so I started the race absolutely famished. Error number one.
There were some seriously nice time trial bikes on show. I wondered if I’d made the wrong decision with the road bike, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I watched a guy (the winner as it turned out) next to me clip his shoes into his pedals and then use elastic bands to hold them level so he could jump on his bike and get going straight away. I debated asking him for elastic bands to do the same, but thought better of it. I haven’t practiced this at all.
I’d put my socks and shoes on in transition and then I wouldn’t have to spend time at the start of the bike trying to get my feet into the shoes and do up the straps, I’d be onto the bike and up to full speed straight away, no wobbling around with one hand on the bars and one hand doing up shoes, no looking down and not straight ahead, and plus I wouldn’t be barefoot in transition (try running barefoot in a car park, it’s not pleasant) and I could guarantee that only my feet would go into my bike shoes, and not any grit as well. I did leave gloves on my bike to put on in transition as I was worried about the cold. Triathlon tops are not known for their warmth…
While waiting to be called into the water, I thought about how my last pool triathlon was almost 7 years ago. 7 years! That’s crazy. I got into the water and we were allowed to do a couple of lengths to warm up. Here’s where it started to go wrong. Other competitors in my lane (5 to a lane) were saying they’d be tumble turning. I can’t tumble turn well enough, and in my last pool triathlon 7 years ago, tumble turning wasn’t allowed, I assumed it would be the same here. But no. So there was an immediate disadvantage. Oh well. I do know that my push off the wall is really strong. But another issue became evident. I pushed off to do my warm-up length and my triathlon shorts nearly came down…
I was absolutely raging. But I had no-one to blame but myself. My own fault, I’d never swam in a pool with them before. There was no drawstring to keep them up. I was doomed. Probably not many triathletes have been disqualified for exposure… Could I even start? Would I have to end up pulling out in the swim? There was nothing I could do other than wish I had a one-piece triathlon suit, and to try to tuck my top over my shorts and hope for the best. It was hopeless though, they kept coming down and I could barely push off in the swim, I was losing bags of time and kept having to stop to pull them up, losing more time. A nightmare swim. I reckon I lost at least a minute.
Anyway, I got through it and got to transition. Socks and gloves took ages to put onto wet feet and hands. Another 30 seconds lost. I wore an aero helmet and I always wear sunglasses/clear glasses as eye protection more than anything else, and to stop my eyes streaming when on the bike. It is really fiddly to put on the sunglasses as the aero helmet is tight. More time lost. I hadn't pre-set my Garmin bike computer either so had to switch it on, hope it would pick up satellite signal, and get it going, while trying to negotiate transition. All things to think about. As I was leaving transition it seemed to me like a lot of my direct competitors were already away, as their bikes were all gone.
I got on the bike and was in a bit of a mood, and I took it out on the bike. I flew past a good number of people on the first couple of miles, which ascended up out of town on a badly-surfaced but fairly wide road. I was absolutely ripping it. Certainly here at least, the road bike was the right bike to be on. It was alive, it was dancing, it was taking all the grief I was giving it and it was giving back great speed, flying over the bumps and responding to every pedal stroke. I thought I should tone it down a bit to conserve energy, but then I thought well, take the advantage while it’s there – these uphill sections suit me and the bike well as we are both very light. I knew it wouldn’t be quite as good on the flatter sections.
After my initial overtaking frenzy, things settled down a bit. I got into a bit of cat-and-mouse with a guy on a time trial bike with deep sectioned wheels. It was fairly predictable: on the upward inclines and corners and under acceleration I got ahead, to find that after a few minutes when he had got his machine up to speed, he would come powering past. I was trying to keep as aero a position as possible, but I didn’t even have aerobars on the bike. It was a fairly good and fair battle, there didn’t seem to be any drafting, but my prior knowledge of the course meant I didn’t want to be behind him on the final few miles on the very narrow minor road. So, knowing where the turn-off was, I hammered it to get ahead of him and never saw him again. Ironically this narrowest road had the best surface and coming back towards the town I saw another two ahead – we were all together by the time I reached transition.
Again I kept my shoes on in transition while the other two left them clipped to their bikes and ran through barefoot. We transitioned together and I could keep an eye on their progress. As I was still fighting with my shoe straps to get them off, they were already away. I pulled on my running shoes but I left my running watch on the ground and legged it as quick as I could after them, but it was another 10 seconds lost, and another minute or so into the run before I caught them again.
The run was tough. A short downhill out of transition, a steep uphill on the main road, a sharp turn, a long uphill drag on a residential road, a descent on a muddy, twisty, forest trail, back through transition, and then a second smaller lap, mostly on grass through a park. I passed the two guys and carried on, hoping I’d reel a few more in, but not really knowing how many more were ahead – with the staggered start in heats, there were people running ahead who had probably started in earlier heats, but it was difficult to tell. There was no point in trying to guess. Just run as hard as you can.
Through the park I passed another guy for position, and just kept running, I felt fairly strong when running even after such an intense bike. I crossed the line and found out I was second, almost 2 minutes behind the winner. But look at all the time I threw away, on silly things that should be fairly easy to rectify.
I found out that the winner was the 2017 World and European sprint-distance triathlon champion in the male 30-34 age group. Is that really (close to, at least) the level I am operating at? Off so little training? Was the road bike the right call? The winner’s bike was a time trial bike and it was an absolute weapon. The next race is in 3 weeks in Hawick, another sprint distance race, so with three further weeks of training and a decent pair of shorts with a drawstring, and a few other tweaks, I wonder how much closer I will be to him.
Interestingly, I was talking to a guy after the race who was a bit disappointed with how he'd performed. I asked what training he had done in the lead-up to the race. He'd done 300km on the bike (contrast this with my 100km), and the day before, he had done a hard tempo run (contrast with my easy half-hour turbo and easy 20 minute jog). I'm convinced that less is more and rest is so important.
Not a bad day, a fairly positive result, and lots to learn. I enjoyed the shorter distance. I’d say I’m better at this shorter stuff than the long-course stuff. And a really well-organised event. Hopefully now I will recover quickly from this and get a good 3-week block of training in before the next race in 3 weeks from now.
Results are here: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1R9
Mon 9 April: Rest
Tue 10 April: Swim 2.4km (10 x 2 lengths hard)
Wed 11 April: 15min run, 1 hour turbo (15 x 1min hard/easy)
Thu 12 April: 45 min fartlek run
Fri 13 April: 1:30 turbo (158W/105bpm)
Sat 14 April: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sun 15 April: Galashiels sprint triathlon (Swim 11:51, T1 1:37, Bike 32:25, T2 0:50, Run 16:51)
Totals: Swim 3.2km, Bike 70 miles, Run 16 miles
Start of April: Scottish East District 10K
Mid-April: Galashiels sprint triathlon
Start of May: Hawick Sprint triathlon
Mid-May: Selkirk Olympic triathlon
End of May: Edinburgh marathon festival (either the half marathon or the relay)
Mid-June: Eyemouth Sprint triathlon
Start of July: Edinburgh half Ironman
Then through July and August, the schedule is just as busy, leading into hopefully competing in the half Ironman world championships at the start of September, in South Africa.
So with the 10K in my legs, I tried to recover as best I could. I took Monday off completely, I “only” swam on Tuesday, not really using my legs, but doing some sprints in the pool for the first time in absolutely ages. I felt decent in the water.
On Thursday I was working down near Galashiels so took the opportunity to drive the bike course. It was a dirty, wet day and I didn’t like what I saw – a terrible uneven potholed filthy road surface, tight and narrow roads, very twisty and turny and undulating. Perhaps not a course for a time trial bike. Time trial bikes like flat, open roads, they like getting up to high speed and maintaining high speed. Road bikes are lighter, more nimble, and easier to handle on climbs, descents and turns. But they’re not as good at maintaining high speeds. So I made the decision to ride the road bike at the Galashiels triathlon, and so then I had to take it for a service as it hadn’t been ridden in anger since the Edinburgh half ironman last year…
I was recovered enough by Wednesday to do some short, sharp intervals on the turbo, getting up to almost 400W during the 15 sets of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. I did a fartlek run on Thursday on my way to pick up the bike from its service. Friday and Saturday were easier training days. It had been a busy week with work, with two trips to the bike shop for the servicing, and with training. I neglected my core strength and stretching work somewhat this week simply due to lack of time.
Thankfully the forecast for race day was good, so the roads would be dry. I’m still probably lacking in confidence on the bike (when I say “on the bike”, I don’t mean cruising to work on my commute, I mean handling high-speed racing).
But at 6am when I set off, the car was telling me it was 1 degree… I got there in good time and was one of the first to register, and as the sun came up, it got warmer. The race start time was 9am. I should have known better though, because with the pool swim, there were heats. The slowest heat was first. I was in the fastest, fifth and final heat. We’d be starting around 11am. I didn’t have enough food with me to get me through to 11am, so I started the race absolutely famished. Error number one.
Swim hats on poolside ready to be handed out
There were some seriously nice time trial bikes on show. I wondered if I’d made the wrong decision with the road bike, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I watched a guy (the winner as it turned out) next to me clip his shoes into his pedals and then use elastic bands to hold them level so he could jump on his bike and get going straight away. I debated asking him for elastic bands to do the same, but thought better of it. I haven’t practiced this at all.
I’d put my socks and shoes on in transition and then I wouldn’t have to spend time at the start of the bike trying to get my feet into the shoes and do up the straps, I’d be onto the bike and up to full speed straight away, no wobbling around with one hand on the bars and one hand doing up shoes, no looking down and not straight ahead, and plus I wouldn’t be barefoot in transition (try running barefoot in a car park, it’s not pleasant) and I could guarantee that only my feet would go into my bike shoes, and not any grit as well. I did leave gloves on my bike to put on in transition as I was worried about the cold. Triathlon tops are not known for their warmth…
Galashiels triathlon tool
Stirling duathlon tool - bit of a difference
While waiting to be called into the water, I thought about how my last pool triathlon was almost 7 years ago. 7 years! That’s crazy. I got into the water and we were allowed to do a couple of lengths to warm up. Here’s where it started to go wrong. Other competitors in my lane (5 to a lane) were saying they’d be tumble turning. I can’t tumble turn well enough, and in my last pool triathlon 7 years ago, tumble turning wasn’t allowed, I assumed it would be the same here. But no. So there was an immediate disadvantage. Oh well. I do know that my push off the wall is really strong. But another issue became evident. I pushed off to do my warm-up length and my triathlon shorts nearly came down…
I was absolutely raging. But I had no-one to blame but myself. My own fault, I’d never swam in a pool with them before. There was no drawstring to keep them up. I was doomed. Probably not many triathletes have been disqualified for exposure… Could I even start? Would I have to end up pulling out in the swim? There was nothing I could do other than wish I had a one-piece triathlon suit, and to try to tuck my top over my shorts and hope for the best. It was hopeless though, they kept coming down and I could barely push off in the swim, I was losing bags of time and kept having to stop to pull them up, losing more time. A nightmare swim. I reckon I lost at least a minute.
Anyway, I got through it and got to transition. Socks and gloves took ages to put onto wet feet and hands. Another 30 seconds lost. I wore an aero helmet and I always wear sunglasses/clear glasses as eye protection more than anything else, and to stop my eyes streaming when on the bike. It is really fiddly to put on the sunglasses as the aero helmet is tight. More time lost. I hadn't pre-set my Garmin bike computer either so had to switch it on, hope it would pick up satellite signal, and get it going, while trying to negotiate transition. All things to think about. As I was leaving transition it seemed to me like a lot of my direct competitors were already away, as their bikes were all gone.
I got on the bike and was in a bit of a mood, and I took it out on the bike. I flew past a good number of people on the first couple of miles, which ascended up out of town on a badly-surfaced but fairly wide road. I was absolutely ripping it. Certainly here at least, the road bike was the right bike to be on. It was alive, it was dancing, it was taking all the grief I was giving it and it was giving back great speed, flying over the bumps and responding to every pedal stroke. I thought I should tone it down a bit to conserve energy, but then I thought well, take the advantage while it’s there – these uphill sections suit me and the bike well as we are both very light. I knew it wouldn’t be quite as good on the flatter sections.
After my initial overtaking frenzy, things settled down a bit. I got into a bit of cat-and-mouse with a guy on a time trial bike with deep sectioned wheels. It was fairly predictable: on the upward inclines and corners and under acceleration I got ahead, to find that after a few minutes when he had got his machine up to speed, he would come powering past. I was trying to keep as aero a position as possible, but I didn’t even have aerobars on the bike. It was a fairly good and fair battle, there didn’t seem to be any drafting, but my prior knowledge of the course meant I didn’t want to be behind him on the final few miles on the very narrow minor road. So, knowing where the turn-off was, I hammered it to get ahead of him and never saw him again. Ironically this narrowest road had the best surface and coming back towards the town I saw another two ahead – we were all together by the time I reached transition.
Again I kept my shoes on in transition while the other two left them clipped to their bikes and ran through barefoot. We transitioned together and I could keep an eye on their progress. As I was still fighting with my shoe straps to get them off, they were already away. I pulled on my running shoes but I left my running watch on the ground and legged it as quick as I could after them, but it was another 10 seconds lost, and another minute or so into the run before I caught them again.
The run was tough. A short downhill out of transition, a steep uphill on the main road, a sharp turn, a long uphill drag on a residential road, a descent on a muddy, twisty, forest trail, back through transition, and then a second smaller lap, mostly on grass through a park. I passed the two guys and carried on, hoping I’d reel a few more in, but not really knowing how many more were ahead – with the staggered start in heats, there were people running ahead who had probably started in earlier heats, but it was difficult to tell. There was no point in trying to guess. Just run as hard as you can.
Through the park I passed another guy for position, and just kept running, I felt fairly strong when running even after such an intense bike. I crossed the line and found out I was second, almost 2 minutes behind the winner. But look at all the time I threw away, on silly things that should be fairly easy to rectify.
I found out that the winner was the 2017 World and European sprint-distance triathlon champion in the male 30-34 age group. Is that really (close to, at least) the level I am operating at? Off so little training? Was the road bike the right call? The winner’s bike was a time trial bike and it was an absolute weapon. The next race is in 3 weeks in Hawick, another sprint distance race, so with three further weeks of training and a decent pair of shorts with a drawstring, and a few other tweaks, I wonder how much closer I will be to him.
Interestingly, I was talking to a guy after the race who was a bit disappointed with how he'd performed. I asked what training he had done in the lead-up to the race. He'd done 300km on the bike (contrast this with my 100km), and the day before, he had done a hard tempo run (contrast with my easy half-hour turbo and easy 20 minute jog). I'm convinced that less is more and rest is so important.
Not a bad day, a fairly positive result, and lots to learn. I enjoyed the shorter distance. I’d say I’m better at this shorter stuff than the long-course stuff. And a really well-organised event. Hopefully now I will recover quickly from this and get a good 3-week block of training in before the next race in 3 weeks from now.
Results are here: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1R9
Mon 9 April: Rest
Tue 10 April: Swim 2.4km (10 x 2 lengths hard)
Wed 11 April: 15min run, 1 hour turbo (15 x 1min hard/easy)
Thu 12 April: 45 min fartlek run
Fri 13 April: 1:30 turbo (158W/105bpm)
Sat 14 April: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sun 15 April: Galashiels sprint triathlon (Swim 11:51, T1 1:37, Bike 32:25, T2 0:50, Run 16:51)
Totals: Swim 3.2km, Bike 70 miles, Run 16 miles
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