Early on in July I did the Steelman Tri at Dorney Lake - I was training right the way through with decent sessions in the days leading up to it, and managed to pull out a halfway decent performance. Having a bit of a battle with Charlie Pennington throughout the race he blitzed me on the run, but that was to be expected as he's a top drawer runner. 1.57.56 overall was a good time - accurate bike and run distances but strongly suspect that the swim was long as I came in with a pack on a mid-21 and we'd all been expecting sub-20.
Fambridge Yacht Haven Middle Distance Tri - 24th July
1.9km / 91km / 18km
This race summed up what I was aiming for this season - nice low key races where I could just do my thing and enjoy it. This was the first running of the race so as I'd been in the area a couple of weeks beforehand I drove the bike course to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises.
Race morning started crazy early with a 4am alarm call for a 7am start. It was only my second middle distance so preparations and nutrition etc were still a little bit experimental. 2 bowls of porridge for brekky (not huge though....), a pre race banana, on the bike 100g of malt loaf, 1 bottle of energy drink (with added salt), 1 bottle of water (with added salt), then gels as required on the run. My issue/worry is always dehydration after previous bad experiences, so there's also some serious fluid intake pre and post race....
The swim was tidal in the harbour, and as I swam out across the waves I could not recall my last sea swim - 2 years maybe?? Good start. The swim was 2 laps - out into the waves against the tide through the moorings, then getting pushed all the way back. On the way out I found the feet of the leader and we pulled a decent distance on the rest of the field immediately - there was a lot of swell making breathing quite difficult, but it's the same for everyone. As soon as we turned for home on the 1st lap I took the lead and cruised through the rest on my own, coming out in 22.16 (swim later measured at 1.8km....)
The path in and out of transition were very stoney, so shoes went on in T1 and out I hobbled. The bike course was a 2 lapper, good road surfaces but fairly lumpy and quite exposed to the wind. I had my first attempts at peeing on the bike - great fun, next time must learn how to avoid getting it over drinks bottle etc.... My first lap was good and comfortable, but as usual I started getting chronic back issues on the second lap - this ended up with me having to sit up for a large percentage of my second lap, adding minutes onto my split. I caught a couple of backmarkers but saw no sign of anyone else. My biking hasn't been mindblowing this year so I was pleased to come into T2 in the lead.
What I hadn't accounted for was just how off-road the run was - a 4 lapper make up of about 60% fields/paths/seawall etc. I don't do a lot of off road work so this was a real shock for a whole variety of rarely used stability type muscles. The support through the village was great, and this was a real help as psychologically multi-lappers are pretty tough. After 2 laps I was told that I had 5 minutes in the bank on 2nd place - this was very welcome news and the foot came firmly off the gas for the last 2 laps!
Overall - 4.08.44 (1st)
Swim - 22.16 (1st)
Bike - 2.28.08 (4th)
Run - 1.16.37 (2nd)
No complaints really (well, lots actually - my body felt like death the day after, but apart from that...) - happy with the result. With less back problems I could have knocked chunks out of the bike time, and the compensations I had to make in position on the bike likely added a couple of minutes to the run as well.
