Pre-Beaver

Post-Wilmslow

Following on from Wilmslow I was really pleased with how the race had gone and decided to enter another Tri asap! After the Oulton Park Duathlon I realised I could have been close to qualifying for a GB Age-Group Team and decided to look into the possibilities for triathlon.

For the European and World Duathlon and Triathlon Champs each year there are an assortment of qualification races and I ended up doing one by accident as Oulton Park was a qualifier for the European Duathlon Champs. 

I'm a far better runner than swimmer or cyclist, but I wasn't sure just how much those events dragged me down - I decided entering the GB Sprint Triathlon Championships at the Speedy Beaver event at the end of May.

With a swim in a lake and taking place in the grounds of Belvoir Castle, this was going to be a pretty big deal...

Preparation:

Swimming in a lake meant some practise/experience of swimming in open water before the event would be a good idea - so I sorted out wetsuit hire and jumped in one Saturday morning at Salford Quays.

Honestly have to say this was not the most fun I've ever had. Cold. Dark. No sign of the bottom. Cold. Dirty. Cold, did I mention cold? I'm not a fan of cold water anyway and will avoid puddles when running! I hadn't anticipated how much my body would tense up on hitting cold water and how off-putting not being able to see the bottom was, but I ploughed out a few laps anyway, realising I'd do better in a better fitting wetsuit and with appropriate Goggles - I had my normal pool racing goggles on and periferal vision is pretty poor in them. Fine when you're going in a straight line guided by lane ropes, not so good for navigating murky water, swan poo and an overly confident swan who set himself on a collision course with me!

Cycling wise I was confident I could improve my cycling hugely just by putting in a bit more practise.

However a couple of things happened that interfered with my plans:

1. My bike was stolen.

2. I was blown off my bike by a gust of wind 6 days before the race.

Luckily the nice people at Dave Mellor Cycles where I bought my first bike, helped me out by setting up a new bike for me to collect the weekend before the race. They did an excellent job of sourcing the exact same bike and having it ready for me!

Unluckily I got blown off my bike by a strong gust of wind the same weekend and landed heavily grazing both hands deeply, jarring my back badly and cutting my knees and thighs - that's what I get for cycling in short shorts and without gloves, lesson learnt!

In the week before the GB Sprint Champs I was hobbling around, unable to run, oozing goo from open wounds...not the best preparation and didn't do a lot for my bike confidence!

Triathlon #1 : Wilmslow

Firstly, what an excellent event! Another one organised by Xtra Mile Events with excellent tshirts and goodie bags.

Beforehand I was ridiculously nervous - as I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be, and I was a bit worried about transition...having not practised this part at all!

I spent ages sorting out all my kit, trying to make sure everything was in the right place and discovered things I hadn't anticipated - i.e. I couldn't wear my trainers to walk to the swimming pool if I needed them in transition for when I exited the pool!

The 400m swim took me just over 8mins and went fine - I got overtaken once and then overtook the man back - everyone was very friendly and it was competitive, but not horribly so - probably a benefit of not being in the fastest swim wave! Arms a bit tired I pulled myself out the pool, jogged across to the transition area, enjoying the good weather! Quite comically I sat down to lace up my shoes and drink some powerade while everyone else zipped in and out of transition. I cautiously wobbled off on my bike and as soon as I reached the main roads I was so happy I'd practised the course before hand. Men on very snazzy bikes were zipping past me, but I managed to catch a woman from my swim wave up! Coming back into transition I dismounted well ahead of the line, just in case, and quickly dropped my bike off. One benefit of not having cycling shoes is I already had my trainers on ready to roll.
The run was my favourite part - all the way round I was catching people up and flying past men who'd given me the same treatment on the bike!

I've never felt such a sense of relief and achievement when I reached the finish line - and I loved every minute of it! I'd also never felt so tired from a race in my life!
I was 12th female, and 5th in my age group - very happy with that and the standard of competition was really high, with Jacqui Slack (Elite Triathlete) taking first place

Love, love, loved it!

Preparing for my first Triathlon

Oulton park increased my confidence hugely as I now felt I could be competitive in the running and cycling elements.
However my swimming to date had consisted of paddling up and down the small pool in my local gym. Luckily I seam competitively from age 5 to 14 so I've got a good swimming background, even if it was a few years since I'd powered up and down a pool. Also luckily, my office is pretty close to the aquatic centre in Manchester and its 2 lovely 50m pools! Great for working on my stamina and practising a front crawl technique I'd not used for 12 years. Instantly I rediscovered my love of swimming and now my biggest challenge is finding the hours in the day and the energy to do all the training I want to do.

In the lead up to Wilmslow I went out to the bike course a couple of times and practised the route-its not far off my normal cycling route and has since become part of a nice hour ride I do on Monday nights. The course has a couple of steep downhill sections and my cycling is rather cautious.

 Kit wise I realised rocking up on my running kit wouldn't be the best idea as I'd be swimming in it as well! I didn't want to shell out on loads of kit given it was my first ever tri, so i checked out the bargains on wiggle and got a nice orca suit wih a strangely padded bum that I've still not got used to! I also picked up some decent goggles to prevent me stopping every length to empty the water out!

 Training wise I added in a couple of bricks and worked on putting in a few more miles on the bike - more to come on training in another post! I was determined to do well as well as just completing my first triathlon! I gave up alcohol for most of April and May, mostly because I was finding training for the 3 sports really tiring and wanted to give my body he best chance possible...and also because I find it very hard to cycle on a hangover!

Oulton Park Duathlon

Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon - my first multi-sport race!

I rocked up at this looking like the runner I am, in running shorts & a tshirt, with "normal" peddles on my bike and what I can now tell was a pretty poor cycling technique...however I LOVED it!

The Sprint & main events started together so I had lots of runners around me, and this helped push me on as I had men doing 2 laps to run with while I was doing 1.

The bike was 5 laps and I found the circuit pretty challenging as it was a bit bendy and a bit hilly - definitely good experience but I did struggle & went backwards a bit here!

Lucky for me there's another run at the end - which I blasted round in an even faster time! I clocked 17.11 for the 2nd run & 18.02 for the 1st! I finished 5th woman and 2nd in my age group - a great result for my first duathlon.

I enjoyed the whole event, the atmosphere was great and Xtra Mile Events did a fantastic job of making the event enjoyable and exciting. Plus the goody bag was awesome & got me hooked on Clif Bars!

I was surprisingly tired after - my first experience of how much duathlons/triathlons take it out of you. Also my first experience of having men to chase down in the same race - they get away on the bike, I claw them back on the run - very satisfying!

1st race = massive success!

Thoughts on my First Season

I started my season with a duathlon, thinking this would be a good introduction to multi-sport racing and prepare me for my first triathlon.

I finished my season with a sea triathlon and qualifying for the GB Age Group Team for the European Sprint Triathlon Champs

My first season went so much better than I could possibly have expected & I found a new sport that I love - a huge win all round!

2011 races were:

• Oulton Park Duathlon
• Wilmslow Triathlon (pool)
• Speedy Beaver Sprint Triathlon (lake) - GB Age Group Champs
• Desford Triathlon
• NewBiggin Bay Sprint Triathlon (sea)

Looking back that doesn't seem a lot of races, but I found each race took a lot out of me and the training took a lot of time!

Oulton Park Duathlon came at the end of my first week of a new job, living in a new city - so it was quite a hectic time finding my feet and training venues.

Between Wilmslow and Speedy Beaver I got blown off my bike by a particularly strong gust of wind and completed Speedy Beaver with a number of cuts and grazes - definitely not my best possible performance.

Between Speedy Beaver at the end of May and Desford at the start of August, I did a fair few track races & focused on getting some speed into my legs. Track running is my first love & it was great to compete on the track for the first time since 2007. Unfortunately I didn't clock any blinding times, but got close to my pbs for 1500m and 800m and had a great time. During this couple of months my training was really unfocused as I had two aims - run fast on the track & to get super fit for Newbiggin Bay to try and qualify for the GB Team.

Next year I'll be looking to structure my season a lot better so I can focus on track or triathlon at one time!

I'll be putting up race reports for all the above races - I'm hoping formally reviewing these beyond the scribbled sentences in my training diary "tired" "very tiring" "enjoyed it but tired now" will help me work out what areas I really need to work on in 2012!

December Update

Well I've definitely let the blogging slide since setting this up - when I started I was really keen to share my training and racing efforts, and also use this as a bit of a motivational tool. If you're publicising your training, it's an added incentive to complete it as planned!

I've let this slide over the last few months because work has been busy - yep I know, I'm lucky and my job is usually 9-5.30, but I work in online marketing and spend all day sat in front a computer. By the time it gets to 5.30 I don't even want to look at a computer screen and my laptop stays switched off most evenings and weekends!

However I'm going to get this going again because I spend a fair amount of tram, train and bus journey reading other athletes and triathletes blogs and it really motivates me to get out and train! I also get some great ideas for sessions and training plans from blogs - hopefully if I can keep this regularly updated I might be able to share my enthusiasm for sport and maybe encourage a few others to get out and train!

My New Year's Resolution will be to keep this updated, so I'm getting a head start on 1st December!

I reckon posts on the move will be the way to go - apologies in advance for any typing errors. I've got a fair bit of catching up to do, so watch out for race reports and training updates covering the last few months!

All comments are welcomed and any feedback on my training/racing plans are appreciated - I'm mostly self-coached and occasionally get stuck in a routine, not realising other methods may be more effective!

Thanks & hope you enjoy reading!