Sunday, November 17. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning
in Shepparton and this was the most relaxed I had ever been before a triathlon
of any kind, even though, there was much more riding on this race for me. I had
higher expectations than ever before but, this time, I had trained for it.
I was in the greatest condition of my life and I was pumped
to see how I would perform with all that preparation behind me. Although, there
was a change on race morning to my start time, it didn’t bother me. I was now
starting at 7:31am, instead of 7:02am. It did mean I wasn’t going to be starting
just behind the professionals but my overall time compared to everyone else was
the important stat to worry about at the end of the day.
The hooter sounded to start my age group swim and I tried to
stay ahead of the main pack for the first 100 metres or so. I was hoping to
find some clear water ahead of me early but I had to contend with many other
athletes for the majority of the 1.9km swim.
Things weren’t going well in the first half of the swim. My
technique was all over the place. I could feel my arms not moving through the
water properly and my legs were dragging far too low. At about half way, I
finally had some more space away from other athletes and got my form in order.
I reached the swim finish and checked my watch straight away. It wasn’t pretty.
Just over 32 and ½ minutes. I was aiming to go under 30 minutes and believed
that was going to be relatively straight forward. I was disappointed but I didn’t
let it get me down because I knew my best work was still to come.
I got through transition quickly and mounted my bike really
fast. I had practiced mounting my bike and getting into my bike shoes – already
attached to the pedals – prior to race day to make sure I would get up to speed
ASAP. I started pedaling in a medium gear and allowed my legs a couple of
minutes to get some good blood flow before going up a gear and settling into a
solid pace.
Conditions were perfect! There was almost no wind to speak
of whatsoever. My plan on the bike was to not even look at my watch or
speedometer until I reached the turn-around point at 45kms and simply go by how
my legs felt. I didn’t want to know if I was going fast enough until that
point. I just wanted to go by what I believed to be the right feeling in my
legs which I was very used to from all of my training. I was hoping to do 2
hours 25 minutes for the 90km ride and at the half way point I was right on
target at 1 hour 11 minutes. My average speed at 38km/h. I was wrapped with
that so all I had to focus on from that point was maintaining the same gear I
had used for the majority of the first lap, push the same cadence and ensure I
took in an adequate amount of food and drink in preparation for the run.
On the flat terrain and having no wind meant I could put my
head down, stay on my aero bars comfortably and maintain a constant speed for
the entire second 45km lap. It was perfect because I had trained like this so
much. I felt amazing and fast! I got to the end of the 90kms and my speedometer
showed 2 hours 21 minutes 59 seconds and an average speed of 38km/h. I did the
exact same pace for both laps of the 90km ride. I was stoked with that
performance.
On to the run and my legs were feeling quite good
considering the effort I had put out on the bike. However, after just a couple
of kms, my VMO – Vastus Medialis Oblique muscle, part of the quadriceps group –
on my left leg began twitching and threatening to cramp. I figured it would
work itself out as I got into my running stride but it didn’t turn out that
way. Although, it never actually cramped, it was uncomfortable and fatigued for
the rest of the run. I don’t feel this had a major effect on my time as the
rest of my muscles fatigued just as much eventually.
On the first of 3 laps on the run, I started at my desired
pace of around 3:50min/km and held that for the first 3kms before it became
clear that this wasn’t possible to maintain for the 21kms. I backed off and
went through the end of the first lap at an average pace of 4:02min/km. I now
aimed to maintain 4:00min/km but the fatigue was really kicking in and I
couldn’t keep this pace as I went through the second lap with a 4:08min/km pace.
It was now a huge mental battle to try not let the pace drop too much. I
focussed on my technique and stride turn-over and tried to remain as consistent
as possible for the remainder of the journey.
I completed the final lap at a 4:15min/km pace for an
overall 21km average of 4:09min/km. My total run time of 1 hour 27 minutes 34
seconds was 2 and ½ minutes faster than last year. However, the most important
time was my overall race time which came in at 4 hours 25 minutes 23 seconds
for a 21 minute improvement on last year. This gave me 5th place in
my age group and 35th from 1500 total competitors.
5 months ago, at the start of my preparation for this race,
I set my goals for the race and each individual leg. They were:-
Ø
4 hours 30 minutes or better total race time.
Ø
Swim 30 minutes or better.
Ø
Ride 2 hours 25 minutes or better.
Ø
Run 1 hour 25 minutes or better.
Ø
Finish in the top 10 of my age group.
Ø
Finish in the top 100 overall from all
competitors.
I reckon 4 out of 6 is a good result.
I will hopefully receive my official race photos soon and I
will post some.
In my next blog I will explain what I have learned from this
race and how I believe I will get faster for my next attempt at a Half-Ironman,
which will hopefully be in Geelong on February 9.
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