2021 Season — The final stretch
The past month has been quite intense on the racing front. 3 weeks ago I competed in ‘The Guantlet’, a 70.3 distance race run by the Castle Triathlon Series that doubled up as the English Middle Distance Champs. I’d orginally had this one down as one of the more important races in my calendar but I have to admit my motivation leading up to the race wasn’t in a great place, especially as the weather forecast was absolutely dire.
Race morning was all a bit of a rush. We parked about an hour before the scheduled start but even with plenty of time it all became pretty hectic. A longer than expected walk through thick mud to a temperature check (for Covid), more walking to sign-on and then more walking towards transition. Once at transition, the marshals were all a bit panicked trying to fit everyone’s bikes on not enough racks and the lack of toilets for an event this size added yet more stress to what had already been a less than ideal start to the day. Anyway, at 7:00am I was off (As it happens I was actually first in the water because I had forgotten my timing chip) and swimming through the ‘lake’ at Hever Castle. In reality, it was more like a pond and barely deep enough to swim in. Even with my terrible technique it shouldn’t be possible for me to bursh my hands along the bottom of the lake as I swim…
Surprisingly the swim actually went quite welland I came in under my goal time of 40 minutes. As I neared the swim exit the heavens opened and the predicted rainfall came down in buckets. Visibility was really low and it actually made navigating that last little bit really difficult.
By the time I got up to transition it was a mudbath and my feet were caked in mud as I slipped them into my cycling shoes. Out onto a very tough bike course (1700m climbing in 90k) and I had pretty good position thanks to the rolling start in the swim. It was at this point I made made the conscious decision to just ‘get round’ and keep within myself. The rain was still heavy and the condition of the roads was only getting worse. Look at the big picutre, use it as experience.
Despite the added caution my race was nearly ended at around 60km as my rear tyre flatted. I did the usual check by bouncing my rear wheel off the ground a couple of times and sure enough Iwas losing air fast. Oh well I though, race over…
Nope! As it happened a very generous spectator, who I later found out to be called Matthew, was looking for their son on course and had been driving right behind me at the time of the puncture. He pulled straight over and offered me a spare inner tube and the use of his bike pump. I couldn’t thank him enough and was blown away with how lucky I’d been. Lesson learned, always take spares. Anyway back on the bike and a fairly uneventful 30k later I was back into T2 and heading out onto the run.
The rain had abated but it had already done it’s damage to the run course. Through my own poor preparation I wasn’t aware quite how much of the run course was on trails i.e all of it… Luckily I had heeded the organisers advice and brought along my trail shoes but even they weren’t enough to combat the deep mud. In some parts it really felt more like doing a tough mudder than a triathlon and it completely dimished any competitive merit that this race had as it became much more about taking risks than being a strong runner. Add to that the fact there was numerous different races being run (5ks, 10ks, duathlons you name it) on the same singletrack paths it meant you often had to come to a complete standstill to get round people or sidle along as runners came the other way. Yes, they had out and back parts on a single track course.
In the end I got round the run course in 1:43 for an overall time of approx 5:58 (approx as I forgot my timing chip) which I was pretty happy with given the circumstances. You learn the most on the tough days and this had certainly been one of them.
Something I learnt the day after the race was that my body hadn’t got on very well with the water in the ‘lake’ (As had many others as I later found out 🤢). Sparing you the details I wasn’t able to keep much of anything down for a couple of days after the race which is not ideal when your body desperately needs food to replenish and rebuild.
I was forced into 3 days of complete rest. By Thursday I was tentatively back on the bike and on Friday I did some pre race openers before the Club Sprint Champs on Saturday. Obviously prep had not been ideal but as I was only expecting about an hour of racing I was happy to go in a bit below par and just try to enjoy the experience, practice my transitions and have some fun. I came away with 12th in my club and 15th overall. My main takeaway was a strong run off the bike, an 18:48 5k. Something I’d been working on a lot in training.
I began to feel stronger the week after the club champs and went back into full training. Next up, Dorney Lake Standard, a good chance to compare like for like with my first race of the season. In fact even the weather was exactly the same, so hot that it was once again a non-wetsuit swim.
I’ve still only been able to use my wetsuit once this year in a race setting but if I’m realistic I know I have to be prepared for a non-wetsuit swim in Vichy anyway so it’s all good practice. As it happens I managed to improve on my time by 1 minute, down to 31:21. Still slow in comparison to those finishing around me but for the first time I felt pretty relaxed in the water and was able to chug away consistently all the way round. T1 was again an improvement but needs some work. I think next time I do a standard or sprint I might give the shoes already on the bike technique a crack.
Onto the bike and my split was almost identical to last time but for what felt like a much lower effort. I had tweaked my position on the bike the week before and it seemed to work a treat. Being so hot I knew fueling would be key on the bike so I made a point of a taking a sip of water or carb drink at the start of each lap. It slowed me down a touch but as I stepped off into T2 it had clearly been successful as I felt great. I’d also decided to only take on carb drink and gels in terms of nutrition for this race, no bars. One gel before the start, one in T1 and one in T2. This also worked a treat as I’ve struggled with GI issues in the past but had nothing of the sort here.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working hard on my run off the bike and that all paid off with my 10k effort here. For the first time I felt strong and fast, clocking in a 36:50. The course was slightly short so this was likely nearer a 38min effort but I’m still taking it! My run topped off my best race yet, as close to perfectly executed as I’ve got given my current fitness and swim ability. It was good enough for 14th place overall, a pretty huge improvement from my 43rd place last time.
With Dorney Lake done it leaves me around 4 weeks until the big day in Vichy. I’m straight back into a heavy training week having taken some time off work to get in the big miles. I’ll then have an easier week next week before 2 more high volume weeks. The second of those will be in Morzine as we decided to extend our stay in France given the need for expensive covid tests and alike. If we’re going abroad we might as well make the most of it!
That will leave me a week to taper. I did consider a two week taper but I don’t like the feeling of being too fresh come race day and being in Morzine I want to be able to make the most of some amazing roads and trails. I’m not a pro so being a percent or two below my peak is fine if the trade off is some fun in the mountains. I also tend to prefer going into races slightly less fresh than may be optimal just to calm the nerves a little.
It’s all starting to feel very real now and each session feels super important. I’m raising the volume quite a bit and backing off the intensity in line with the reverse periodization plan I outlined earlier in the year. Thanks for reading, I hope to do another update in the week leading up to the race so I’ll see you then!
