Hardly seems a year since I nervously rocked up at London’s ExCel centre to participate in the London Triathlon 2018. That was for one of my very first races and everything filled me with concern. I was entered into the Super Sprint, but even 400m in the docks… Well let’s just say it might as well have been the channel!
So what about this year? Respectfully confident I think is the best way to put it. And even better I have a bit of a plan. Thought I would commit it to a blog post so I can’t ‘adapt’ it after the event. So here is the long and short of it.
SPRINT distance (so not playing to my strengths… I am slower but will keep going rather than having explosive strength) it will basically be a fast and furious race from the get go. I am treating it as a C race and an opportunity to test out some ideas before something more important next week (Calfman at Emberton Bucks).
Having said all that, it is still a race and nobody wants to put in a rubbish performance. And certainly finishing higher in my age group is the ambition.
Swim 750m : Feeling quite confident about this even though I have not done anywhere near enough open water training this season. Also I will make sure I have learned from Centurion about not messing up my goggles! Not worried about the Docks this year as I have been in there before. I lived. Also I see no need to find clear water. So the plan is get into the pack and draft off someone. Accept I will get kicked, but maybe I will kick others too… It will be fine! I would think 16 minutes would be realistic but up to 18min is still OK.
Bike 20k : Embarrassingly I have not yet got organised enough to decide on which bike to take. It’s short, flat and safe so the ideal opportunity to try the TT bike for the first time in a race. Opposing view is that I am still not 100% confident riding the FELT. Ideally I would like another couple of weeks of training rides. Maybe I will take it out tomorrow (day before race) and make a call based on how that is feeling. 30 minutes would be a good time for me. Realistically 35 would still be OK. Anything over 40 minutes is a bad day. So I am going to aim for sub 35 on the bike. The plan will be to try and ride to power for a change. If I can hold onto a steady 220w that will be spot on and will be happy with that. Most important enjoy the ride get some (not too many!!) calories consumed (liquid form) and get some motivation by overtaking people. Want to ride to power rather than speed.
Run 5k : Basically this just wants to be sub 30mins. 28min is a good result off a fastish bike for me. It won’t be close to my standalone PB for sure as I should be pretty knackered if I have worked hard enough on the bike! For a 5k I need the first 1k to get my legs sorted and working and that could be a 10:30 min/mile pace. But after that get a wiggle on and try to hold 9m/m or faster if I can and all is feeling good. Again watch my HR and try to keep it in the mid upper 130’s – not exceeding 140. Focus will be to run my own race and not chase other people. Really take the first 1k super easy with no pressure and then ramp it up quickly after that. Must remember that this is only 5k in total, so super short and over really quickly. Whilst I do need time to adapt (first 1k) after that getting going needs to happen as fast as I can manage.
Generally my Sprint total time is about 1:30:00. Blenheim was 01:37:54 but that had a bloody long run from leaving the lake to getting back to transition and it was up hill. Also the bike was tricky as it was a narrow track and there were people all over the place for all four laps.
Based on the above estimates (and assuming that nothing bad happens in transition, I’m expecting that a great time would be 1:18:00. In practice if I can put together a 1:25:00 or better that is health progress and a reasonable performance for now. Worst case is to get done in sub 01:30:00
In the flash of a blog post now account able to all of you. Who needs a coach 🙂