Since
the start of March I've been training for the Wattisham Triathlon
(12/05/2012). It's considered to be a sprint Triathlon and the
distances involved are a 300m swim, a 20km bike ride and a 5km run.
Although I've done quite a few bike races and events before, this is
something new to me and I'm a tad nervous...
A few weeks of illness from mid-March to early April set my fitness back quite a way but I've been getting back into it over the last week or so. I planned on starting back gently but a few wrong turns and some friendly competitiveness on my 1st ride back led to me doing a fairly quick 50miler (oops). The next ride back was similarly competitive but nearer the 35mile mark. Last week I did a few 10mile rides and a couple of 3mile runs mixed with some rest days.
Yesterday I opted to try a full distance ride followed by a full distance run, but cramps (due to eating a stupid lunch) a short distance into the run section meant I cut it short. This had knocked my confidence quite a bit so I decided to replicate the event this morning just to see how I'd cope!
One of the elements of the tri that I'm most unsure of is the transitions from one discipline to the next so I also wanted to try out a couple of things to see how I got on. The main one being, do I want to ride in wet trunks and just pull running shorts over them after the swim or do I swim in cycling shorts and have the cushioning act like a sponge!?! Today I opted for the former...
I started the swim at 8:24 and 12 lengths of the 25yard pool took 6mins 10secs. This is a little under the actual distance as the competition will use a 25m pool instead.
Due to it being a public pool this first transition was a bit more faffy than the one on race day should be. Following a quick towel down I pulled on a cycling shirt and my running shorts over my still wet trunks (lovely image there). I then had to faff around with bike locks etc so, all in, the transition took me about as long as the swim itself!
Riding in the wet wasn't too bad and I dried out fairly quickly. As cycling is my strongest discipline it's the section I'm most confident about and the ride went ok, I ended up doing 21.8km in 44mins 05secs.
This next transition was much easier and just involved putting my bike away, changing my shoes and grabbing a fresh water bottle, this time I took about 2-3mins.
The run was a bit slower than I usually am (I usually average a little quicker than 8mins/mile but this was nearer 9) but fortunately the cramps/stitches from yesterday didn't appear and I ran 5.21km in 28mins 06secs.
End-to-end this session took around 1hr 26mins, so I now have a target for the actual event and my confidence has been restored a bit :)
Now for a lie down!
A few weeks of illness from mid-March to early April set my fitness back quite a way but I've been getting back into it over the last week or so. I planned on starting back gently but a few wrong turns and some friendly competitiveness on my 1st ride back led to me doing a fairly quick 50miler (oops). The next ride back was similarly competitive but nearer the 35mile mark. Last week I did a few 10mile rides and a couple of 3mile runs mixed with some rest days.
Yesterday I opted to try a full distance ride followed by a full distance run, but cramps (due to eating a stupid lunch) a short distance into the run section meant I cut it short. This had knocked my confidence quite a bit so I decided to replicate the event this morning just to see how I'd cope!
One of the elements of the tri that I'm most unsure of is the transitions from one discipline to the next so I also wanted to try out a couple of things to see how I got on. The main one being, do I want to ride in wet trunks and just pull running shorts over them after the swim or do I swim in cycling shorts and have the cushioning act like a sponge!?! Today I opted for the former...
I started the swim at 8:24 and 12 lengths of the 25yard pool took 6mins 10secs. This is a little under the actual distance as the competition will use a 25m pool instead.
Due to it being a public pool this first transition was a bit more faffy than the one on race day should be. Following a quick towel down I pulled on a cycling shirt and my running shorts over my still wet trunks (lovely image there). I then had to faff around with bike locks etc so, all in, the transition took me about as long as the swim itself!
Riding in the wet wasn't too bad and I dried out fairly quickly. As cycling is my strongest discipline it's the section I'm most confident about and the ride went ok, I ended up doing 21.8km in 44mins 05secs.
This next transition was much easier and just involved putting my bike away, changing my shoes and grabbing a fresh water bottle, this time I took about 2-3mins.
The run was a bit slower than I usually am (I usually average a little quicker than 8mins/mile but this was nearer 9) but fortunately the cramps/stitches from yesterday didn't appear and I ran 5.21km in 28mins 06secs.
End-to-end this session took around 1hr 26mins, so I now have a target for the actual event and my confidence has been restored a bit :)
Now for a lie down!
