Post 150 - Hawick sprint triathlon

Training continued, with 3 weeks between races meaning a full 2-week training block. With its ups and downs.

One bike session of 2 x 20 minutes of effort on the turbo with 5 minutes of recovery was slightly disappointing. I averaged 303 watts and then only 297 watts. If I remember right, back in London, I was doing both sets well over 300 watts. Had I been 3-4% better in the second set, I'd have been happy. With only 297 watts for the final 20 minutes, I was a little disappointed. But it's still early days on the triathlon comeback trail...

I had a decent club running session on Thursday night, a reasonably decent swim on Friday, working with the hand paddles. I volunteered at a club 5k on Saturday morning (spectating/marshalling is always a different and enjoyable perspective) and then ran a 40 minute hard tempo run of my own. On Sunday I planned to drive down to the Borders area and cycle the Selkirk triathlon and Hawick triathlon bike courses. Course familiarisation is worth a lot, it helps to know the roads and inform a decision on whether to use the road bike (light, nimble, good handling, good acceleration and deceleration, better on hilly, twisty courses, but poor high-speed aerodynamics) or the triathlon/time trial bike (with its polar opposite characteristics - good at high speed and fairly poor at climbing, descending, cornering, accelerating and braking).

Sunday was mixed weather-wise. It wasn't great when I was driving down and I thought I might end up just driving the courses and coming home and doing a turbo session. But I wanted to ride and the weather improved. I parked at Selkirk swimming pool and set off. The Selkirk Olympic triathlon route was reasonably open and flat, on reasonably wide roads. Along the Ettrick river valley, and then over a mountain (a Scottish "col" or Bealach) and down a hairy, gravelly descent, and along the Yarrow river valley. Not a bad course, apart from the descent. It was definitely a triathlon bike course, not a road bike course, apart from the mountain pass and the descent... I got soaked by a heavy rain shower on the road back into Selkirk. Bah.

Borders scenery and the narrow mountain road
which will feature in the Selkirk triathlon in a few weeks' time

Then I rode down to Hawick to ride the sprint triathlon route down there. The road surfaces were smooth, but it was quite a narrow, twisty, undulating course. Not a clear-cut decision, but with a few “dead-turns” (hairpins which meant slowing to a stop and accelerating up to speed again) I decided it was a road bike course. 70-odd miles later, I was done, and I drove to the nearest shop and ate a fortune’s worth of food. I was disappointed that the hand I broke in the bike crash last year was really sore after this ride – it was my first long outdoor ride since the crash, with road vibrations and a long time holding handlebars, braking and changing gear). In spite of all the rehabilitation work I’ve done, I guess I might end up having to accept that the hand may never be as good again.

The following week – the week before the triathlon – I had a rest day on Monday. I felt terrible on Monday, as if I was coming down with a cold. The soaking on the bike the previous day hadn’t helped. I survived though, and shook it off with the help of plenty of oranges, kiwi fruits, chillis, and a very early night. I trained moderately hard but not too intense nor too long on Tuesday/Wednesday, had another day off on Thursday, then some easy pedalling and jogging on Friday and Saturday. The weather on Sunday was brilliant. I was optimistic for the race. I had stripped the bike bare of all extra weight - no frame pouches, no saddle bag, no spares, no tools, only one small aero bottle, I even removed the tube valve caps. If I punctured, I'd be walking back. I'd take the chance. I knew I’d have a better swim. I had new shorts, they wouldn’t be coming down in the water like they did in the Galashiels triathlon. I had another good block of training banked. It was a nice day. Bring it on. I set off for Hawick in the Scottish Borders early on Sunday morning and got everything set up in transition.

It was a warm day... I like warm racing...

Spot my bike...

As it turned out, I had a rubbish swim, and I don’t really know why. I expected to be 40-60 seconds quicker than last time out. This time my shorts had a drawstring and they stayed up. I had a clean swim. But I didn’t feel strong in the water and ended up only 5 seconds quicker, in 11:35 for the 750m. Giving away nearly 2 and a half minutes to my rivals so early in the race is not good. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I need to learn to tumble turn. A good tri-suit would help my speed in the water. And simply, more swim training is needed. Also, possibly, in the Galashiels triathlon, there were 4 others in my lane, all swimming in close proximity, so maybe I got towed along. In Hawick, this time out, there was one other girl in my lane and she was way faster than me, so I didn’t get any sort of a tow at all.

I came out of the water, almost retched (maybe the pre-race cereal bar) and had it all to do. All my rivals’ bikes were already gone. My transition was far faster this time – no messing about with gloves or socks. Onto the bike and away. I had a fairly clean and strong bike, reeling people in. I say “fairly” clean: it took me a bit of fiddling about to get properly clipped in at the start. Then as I was catching a slower rider, a car overtook me but couldn’t get past the slower rider. So I got stuck for a minute or two behind the slower rider and car. And then a massive 4x4 towing a massive trailer came at me head-on, on a narrow road with not enough space. There was just enough room. One millimetre to the right and I’d have hit the vehicle. One millimetre to the left and my wheels would have gone into the verge and I’d probably have crashed. One loud curse of relief later and I was clear.

Struggling to get feet clipped in at the start of the bike course

On safety grounds, they had eliminated two of the dead turns on the course, shortening the course slightly – had I known this, I might have gone with the time trial bike. But there we go, I couldn’t change it now. I got into transition and less than 30 seconds later I was away and running. And again reeling people in. My running seems to be strong. But like the last race, the question was how many people could I reel in…? There was a flat section along a river, then a left turn and up a long steep hill, then a run along a road and path to the finish. Every time I passed someone, another runner would appear in the distance, another target... I remember thinking that there was nothing I could do only run as fast as I could. I couldn’t run any faster and so if I was fast enough to catch them, so be it. And if I wasn’t, so be it too.

Full flight

With maybe a mile left, I was catching another runner. A marshal said the leader was a minute and a half ahead. I doubted I’d make that up in a mile. But I’d run as hard as I could to the finish. I reeled another couple in and finished. A clubmate had turned out to spectate, and said I was second. Beaten by the same guy who beat me in Galashiels 3 weeks previously. He is turning into a bit of a rival/target/inspiration/nemesis. He was a lot faster than me in the swim, our transitions were about the same, he was only marginally faster than me on the bike (I wonder how much closer I’d have been if I’d been on my time trial bike instead of my road bike), and I was faster than him in the run. So I need to work on my swimming… I was a bit disappointed with how slow my swim was this time out.

Results are here:

https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1Ri

I also heard during the week that I’ve been selected for Ireland for the European Sprint Triathlon Championships in August this year (conveniently for me held in Strathclyde Park outside Glasgow – I know it well). It will be an open water wetsuit swim, which will be to my advantage – I have a really good wetsuit and there will be no tumble turning. The guy who beat me in Galashiels and Hawick is the European and World sprint triathlon champion from 2017 (in the male 30-34 age group). He will be defending his title at Strathclyde. I’m not too far away from him, and hopefully with a good summer of training I won’t be too far away from him at the Europeans.

Next up will be another block of training before the Selkirk standard/Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run).

Training done:

Mon 23 Apr: Rest
Tue 24 Apr: 1:15 turbo (2x20mins, 5min rec: 303W/158bpm, 297W/168bpm)
Wed 25 Apr: 1:30 turbo
Thu 26 Apr: 10 mile run (6 x 3min hard/1min easy/30sec sprint/1min easy)
Fri 27 Apr: Swim 2.1km (paddle drills)
Sat 28 Apr: 50 min run (40 min tempo)
Sun 29 Apr: 70 mile bike (Selkirk/Hawick)

Totals: Swim 2.1km, Bike 130 miles, Run 18 miles

Mon 30 Apr: Rest
Tue 1 May: 50 min turbo (10x1min hard/1min easy)
Wed 2 May: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 3 May: Rest
Fri 4 May: 1 hour turbo
Sat 5 May: 30 min turbo, 10 min run
Sun 6 May: Selkirk sprint triathlon: 11:35, 31, 32:56, 27, 17:48 (1:03:19), 2nd overall

Totals: Swim 0.85km, Bike 60 miles, Run 10 miles