Category Archive: Good Fri Tri

1. Good Friday Triathlon and Swicle – Radley College, Oxford, 29th March – Part 2

   April 5, 2013 9:26 pm Leave a Comment

   I remember Simon shouting encouragement as I ran onto the path but I didn’t see him. Steve was also there with his camera waiting to take pictures when I finished the first bike lap. The run through transition was a little too quick, I was only too pleased to jump on the bike and get going for the 22km ride; a two loop course with several shallow hills and a windy back straight.

   I had ridden this route in the past but it had been a while, I knew that the first hill after turning off the Kennington road up Sugworth Lane was half a mile followed by a downhill bit which allowed for some recovery. It’s not a steep hill; I just hit it too hard and paid at the top for the effort. Trying not to panic about others catching up, I allowed for some recovery dropping down the other side and tried to settle into a rhythm. The swim is mainly all arms with legs simply to stabilise the body; they derive little propulsion. The upshot is that there is no ‘odd legged feeling’ as you climb on to the bike and start to pedal, you can virtually settle into it straight away. Having spoken to people that do Triathlons, I understand this can be an issue in the bike/run transition.

   My lungs had settled a bit as I drew up to a junction, the race rules required me to stop, put a foot down and give way which I duly did. After at least 30 seconds, the stream of traffic cleared and I got going again, conscious of the chasing riders although I couldn’t  see any. A period of smooth riding ensued until meeting the northern ring road around Abingdon.

   This was a longish stretch of road with an insidious incline, made a lot worse by the head wind. I had a quick look behind and spotted a lad on a very nice time trial bike.  There was little point worrying about being caught, I concentrated on dealing with the head wind in the hope I would be in reasonable shape when I turned back towards the college.

   The relief from the head wind was short lived on the last mile to the college. I cycle this bit regularly on the way to work and it’s the sort of slight incline that sucks the life out of you for no apparent reason. The lad behind drew level and passed me roughly 500m from the end of the first lap; fortunately Steve didn’t capture this moment on film.

   It was a bit of a shame that the road works outside of the college had not been finished, the organisers came up with a solution to keep the event as fair as possible. It was decided that cyclists should dismount and run through the road works along the path, re-mount at the main college entrance and set off for the second lap. This was fine except for people milling about on the path and not looking out behind them. After the first run to the mount point from the transition area I wasn’t looking forward to a second one; I’d entered a SWICLE for a reason!

   During all the chaos I caught up with the lad who had passed me and tucked in behind him trying to preserve some energy for a strong finish.  When I say, tucked in, I mean I was 7 metres behind to avoid being DQ’d for drafting. The Sugworth Lane hill was taken more sedately and I managed to stay with the lad in front. Everything was going well until half way around the lap about half a mile before re-joining the ring road. I was working at the limit of my lactic threshold but it was under control, then time trial bike man simply put his foot down and went! I tried to up the effort but with the wind and the uphill bit made it grim.

   All I could do was recall the training ride Simon and I had done from work a few weeks prior. There was a windy, straight section which simply had to be ground out; I applied the same logic here. Then I spied third place making a bid for my current second place with 2 miles left. I had made it this far, I wasn’t about to lose second place for the sake of a few minutes of pain. Unfortunately, I was up against another road bike and the gap began to close.

   I gave up looking behind me and concentrated on trying to keep a good pedaling form; if I had to sprint at the end it would be as it would be. We dismounted and it became a sprint to the timing mat; I was in front so I just went for it. I finished 2 seconds ahead but I was third quickest on the bike. I couldn’t suck air in fast enough, it felt like drowning. It’s fair to say that I don’t think I had a huge amount left in the tank upon finishing. My swim ensured second place for me and I was content with this; quite pleased in fact given this was my first multi-event.

   It was clear that all the people taking part were competitive and wanted to their best, but what was more apparent was the camaraderie. It was a pleasure to shake hands and talk about the race; people shared training tips and talked about their build-up to the event. I had been pushed to my limit by like-minded folk who trained hard to compete well; there are worse ways to spend a Good Friday! Or is there..Steve’s picture may say otherwise.

   

2. Good Friday Triathlon and Swicle – Radley College, Oxford, 29th March.

   March 30, 2013 4:36 pm 2 Comments

   Nice early start ruined by a flat rear tyre; it didn’t take long to repair but it was something not in schedule. I had enough pent up nervous energy to run a small village and the tyre issue didn’t help much. After the staple had been extracted from the tyre and everything returned to where it should be, the patch seemed to hold.

   There had been a lot of discussion Facebook about this event, two old school friends were taking part in the triathlon: one in the Sprint event and one in the Novice event. I’d caught up with Andy a couple of years ago but hadn’t seen Kate since we left school in 1988. Facebook and this cycling lark have been good for meeting up with old friends.

   I found out about this event from a colleague at work who had completed the Sprint Triathlon, he mentioned that there was an event for people with rubbish knees called the SWICLE (Swim/Bike), this sounded a great alternative so I signed up early last year. I had spent a lot of time swimming as a child but it took a while to remember what I was supposed to do in training. I have been training for this one event since October last year but the preparation was hampered by a dodgy back in November and a chest infection at the beginning of March; I wasn’t as fit as I had wanted when I lined up in the pool.

   The whole day was excellent but as a total newbie to multi events I was overwhelmed by all the things to remember. The race information e-mailed prior to the event did actually make sense but I wasn’t reading it properly. The race brief was good and I had time to look around to clock all the transition exits and how the pool was set up etc. I saw folks with all their gear in plastic storage boxes, neatly folder for a quick transition; mine was stuffed into a rucksack. I had worked on an order for getting my stuff on at transition but made a last minute change around my top.  The plan had been to expect seasonal weather and not have to worry about winter gloves, socks and a top; the weather had other plans and started the day at 0 degrees warming up to a massive 4 degrees by the time my race left.

   I chose my cycling jacket as the insulation, purely to keep a cool wind chill on the outside. It was a toss-up between this and a micro-fleece; in the end I was happy with the choice.  I left the jacket poolside for transition and lined up with the others for our wave to start. I attached the timing chip to my ankle, worrying that it would fall off and then promptly forgetting it was there.  I grabbed a 10 minute warm up in the diving pool followed by a quick stretch, going well so far.

   Due to the low numbers in the SWICLE, there was only me and another person in my lane so I was confident of a straight swim with no holdups; I was first off followed by my goggled friend 10 seconds later. I pushed off for 16 of the best lengths I could put in, a total of 400m which I planned to swim smoothly for the first 200m and then gradually increase the effort for the last 200m. Once again, I had gained wisdom from Simon about the best way to swim efficiently and had been practicing this in my training sessions. I had swum timed 400m’s in the pool but it was usually after swimming 1,500m or so during a training session. Today, the lack of fatigue was liberating, I had to concentrate to make sure I counted the lengths correctly and followed my plan instead of going out too hard. All good but then I caught up with the other person in the lane and had to get around her. This took a reasonable amount of energy and wasn’t in the plan but there is not a lot you can do. It happened a second time and this time I had to put my feet down in the shallow end which felt like the seconds flying out the window. I finished strongly and was first out of the pool by 30 seconds, struggled to get my jacket on because it stuck to my skin and then hit the outside air to get to my bike. It was a touch chilly as I crossed the timing mat ending the swim time.

   I had practiced transition at home, tried to focus on speed and efficiency to avoid panic and lost seconds. Socks, shoes, glasses, lid, tri-belt (holds race number) and gloves (which stuck to my skin and wasted seconds), un-rack bike and go!

   Steve was lurking with his camera and snapped this during the dash to my racked bike. Notice how he expertly captures the expanding bald bit.

   

   My cycling shoes weren’t that great for running in; I went out at pace and soon regretted that show of bravado!  By the time I had negotiated the gas works and milling people who all seem to go into moron mode I was running out of oxygen!

   Part 2 coming soon!