London Triathlon - Oly distance
MrsM1ggins
Posts: 724 Member
My London Tri report... http://www.thelondontriathlon.co.uk/
My target for the day:
swim 45 mins
bike 90 mins
run 60 mins
total 3:15
After a pretty sleepless night on the sofa in my sister's roasting hot central london flat I was happy to be up and on my way to the excel at 9am. My first challenge - finding my way to the Excel from Pimlico with all the road closures!
45 minutes later I parked up and made my way upstairs. After a quick stop at the coffee shop to get an espresso and some porridge I popped outside to see what was going on. Racing was already under way and there was a constant stream of swimmers, riders and runners all round the excel and a huge number of spectators shouting and cheering. The atmosphere was amazing.
I headed back inside, grabbed my gear and headed in to transition. Even with thousands of competitors there was no queue and it was easy to get through and set up. I laid out my stuff and headed back into the expo to kill some time before getting into my gear and heading to the swim assembly area where the announcer-dude did his best to whip us into a frenzy before sending us outside.
The first thing I noticed is that 1500m looks a lot further when you see it in front of you like that! I jumped in (quite warm actually) and made my way to the middle of the pack where I relaxed on my back rather than waste energy treading water. A couple of minutes later it was the countdown to the start so I got myself ready to go. The horn sounded and we were off! I swam steadily for pretty much the whole distance, only pushing a bit harder when I wanted to pass someone or change position. Swim time 36:13. Wetsuit off and the long run back into transition.
I took extra time in transition to dry off and put on a pair of compression socks in an attempt to help with my dodgy achilles tendon. Helmet on, specs on, shoes on, grab the bike and trot gingerly to the bike mount area. I need to look at tri-specific bike shoes for the future. T1 07:44 (wow, that's a long time!)
Being in the afternoon group meant 2 laps of the bike circuit - out to tower bridge and back. The ride route was great. Closed roads and no big climbs, although it was undulating. It was HOT, and this is where I made my big mistake. I kept my pace steady, enjoyed a couple of tasty gels and drank far too much water. Bike time 1:16:43.
Dismount at the line, search for my stuff in transition, nearly fall flat on my face slipping around in my bike shoes before a quick shoe change and off on the run. T2 04:14.
It became apparent early on that my run was not going to be good. I've only ever run 10k twice before, and the last time 2 weeks ago resulted in a recurrence of the achilles problems I've had before. As soon as I started to run BOTH achilles tendons started complaining and I was also feeling the effects of too much water sloshing around in my stomach so was trying not to puke. I had no choice but to go really slowly and just get round. It was great to see my sister and her family cheering at the side, with the kids holding up banners they had made; it gave me a bit of a boost. Lap 1 was just trudging around feeling like I was barely moving. Lap 2 was more of the same. By the middle of lap 3 both achilles tendons eventually eased up a bit and I was able to run a bit faster.
As I got closer to the end I picked up the pace more and more and finished with a sprint to the line. Run time 01:09:00. Felt like it took forever.
Total time 03:13:52 so pleased enough with that given the circumstances. Now I need to:
1. see a physio
2. work on my running (a lot!)
Next up: Aviemore sprint on 11th August.
My target for the day:
swim 45 mins
bike 90 mins
run 60 mins
total 3:15
After a pretty sleepless night on the sofa in my sister's roasting hot central london flat I was happy to be up and on my way to the excel at 9am. My first challenge - finding my way to the Excel from Pimlico with all the road closures!
45 minutes later I parked up and made my way upstairs. After a quick stop at the coffee shop to get an espresso and some porridge I popped outside to see what was going on. Racing was already under way and there was a constant stream of swimmers, riders and runners all round the excel and a huge number of spectators shouting and cheering. The atmosphere was amazing.
I headed back inside, grabbed my gear and headed in to transition. Even with thousands of competitors there was no queue and it was easy to get through and set up. I laid out my stuff and headed back into the expo to kill some time before getting into my gear and heading to the swim assembly area where the announcer-dude did his best to whip us into a frenzy before sending us outside.
The first thing I noticed is that 1500m looks a lot further when you see it in front of you like that! I jumped in (quite warm actually) and made my way to the middle of the pack where I relaxed on my back rather than waste energy treading water. A couple of minutes later it was the countdown to the start so I got myself ready to go. The horn sounded and we were off! I swam steadily for pretty much the whole distance, only pushing a bit harder when I wanted to pass someone or change position. Swim time 36:13. Wetsuit off and the long run back into transition.
I took extra time in transition to dry off and put on a pair of compression socks in an attempt to help with my dodgy achilles tendon. Helmet on, specs on, shoes on, grab the bike and trot gingerly to the bike mount area. I need to look at tri-specific bike shoes for the future. T1 07:44 (wow, that's a long time!)
Being in the afternoon group meant 2 laps of the bike circuit - out to tower bridge and back. The ride route was great. Closed roads and no big climbs, although it was undulating. It was HOT, and this is where I made my big mistake. I kept my pace steady, enjoyed a couple of tasty gels and drank far too much water. Bike time 1:16:43.
Dismount at the line, search for my stuff in transition, nearly fall flat on my face slipping around in my bike shoes before a quick shoe change and off on the run. T2 04:14.
It became apparent early on that my run was not going to be good. I've only ever run 10k twice before, and the last time 2 weeks ago resulted in a recurrence of the achilles problems I've had before. As soon as I started to run BOTH achilles tendons started complaining and I was also feeling the effects of too much water sloshing around in my stomach so was trying not to puke. I had no choice but to go really slowly and just get round. It was great to see my sister and her family cheering at the side, with the kids holding up banners they had made; it gave me a bit of a boost. Lap 1 was just trudging around feeling like I was barely moving. Lap 2 was more of the same. By the middle of lap 3 both achilles tendons eventually eased up a bit and I was able to run a bit faster.
As I got closer to the end I picked up the pace more and more and finished with a sprint to the line. Run time 01:09:00. Felt like it took forever.
Total time 03:13:52 so pleased enough with that given the circumstances. Now I need to:
1. see a physio
2. work on my running (a lot!)
Next up: Aviemore sprint on 11th August.
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Replies
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Awesome! Thanks for posting. I have yet to get to a start line but am inspired by reading this. You beat your estimated time...and it's clea where you can gain a bit..T1!
Thanks and enjoy Avimore...bet that's a bit hilly!0 -
Good job!! I find that 2 thinks shut your stomach down during a race. Heat stress or intensity stress. Seems it was pretty hot so there is a good bet there. Also during exercise you absorb sports drink better than you do water (osmolality).
All in all a really solid first Oly.0 -
Thanks guys. :drinker:
It's clear there are a few places I can make up time:
1. swim - hope to shave a couple of minutes off that over the next few months
2. T1 - bit of an anomaly due to the extra time to dry off before the compression socks could go on, but I could still have been quicker and tri-shoes would certainly have helped. And it's an excuse to spend money. You know what triathletes are like with new gear...:bigsmile:
3. Bike - I could have gone a bit faster I reckon. Having never done an Oly before I didn't want to push too hard and have nothing left - I think I could get down to about an hour
4. Run - I should have been able to get round in an hour. I reckon with 2 good legs and some serious training I can get down to about 50 minutes.
So my target for next year is:
swim 35 mins
bike 60 mins
run 50 mins
Transitions 8 minutes total (it's huge. Fastest women's T1 of the day was just under 3 mins)
Might as well aim big!
ETA: it wasn't actually water, it was a sports drink that I use regularly, I just drank far too much of it! Was afraid of dehydrating and went too far the other way.0 -
Awesome job!
This summer I started doing sprint tris hoping to do Olympic next summer.
Angie0
