This was my first real race of the year after the up against the elements slog to the death that was Marshman. Was also my first open water dip of the year (I tend not to practice open water so as not to cut further into my tiny weekly swim allowance) and first swim in my lovely new Sailfish G Range Wetsuit.
I was off in the penultimate wave, and managed to actually get myself ready with a minimal amount of rush and fuss, rather than the usual pissing about thinking I've got loads of time, then realising I should already be in the water type affair. I had a little warm up and found myself right in the middle (not my usual position) waiting for the start. The start of the swim was as frantic as expected with a variety of hands and arms trying to pull me back over the first 75 metres. After that it was clear water though, and once I'd recover from the initial oxygen deficit I felt good and swam on my own as the group out front had a bit of a gap on me. I've swum in the G Range Sailfish for 4 years now and am constantly amazed at how good I feel in it. Off the back of an average of 2.5 hours a week in the pool I was out of the water in 5th place in 9.59, and that included a 75 metre run to transition.
T1 was really quite poor. The initial process of wetsuit off/helmet on was fine, but as I took my bike and picked my sunglasses off the bars I dropped them and caught them between my arm and stomach. I was trying to run with the bike and roll them along my arm to my hand, but after about 10 seconds of this I dropped them and had to turn round and get them. Hit the mount line and went for my first jumped mount onto the bike - success. However, I put my left foot onto my shoe before my right, which caused the elastic band on the right to snap before my foot was there and started 15 to 20 seconds of me riding along with shoes getting stuck under pedals/veering about onto the grass etc. Amateur hour.
The bike leg was where I lost all the time today. Once again I'm at a loss at where I'm going wrong on the wheels. My training has all the elements, but on the day I was left 60 seconds down on my peers once again, which equated to 8-10 positions - and could have given an interesting run for the Age Group win.... I pushed, but the splits tell me once again it's just not good enough.
Back into T2 and it was pretty swift. On with the race flats and cap and off for the 2 lap 5.2km run. There were a lot of fast runners out there, so always people to work off and chase. It didn't feel awful, but was reflective of my lack of speedwork - although my pace wasn't bad, it felt like all I had was 3rd gear. Sprints aren't my focus, so the times are always going to be a little way off. I did go over on my ankle on the first lap (again!) but it wasn't enough to slow me done significantly.
Over the line to finish in 1:00:48. 13th overall and 3rd in my Age Group.
I told myself before the race that whatever position I was in, I would be content to go under 1:01:00. It doesn't work like that in reality though. I really shouldn't be dropping a minute on the bike, and if I hadn't, and the little T1 mistakes weren't there it would have been a more pleasing result.
Swim - happy. I've been going through a pretty good phase in the pool and this should equate to a 30-40 second improvement over 1500m from last year with no extra hours, just more focussed training....
Bike - rats. This will be turned around before the racing year is done....
Run - more speed will come. While my short distance speed is very similar to last year I have come endurance-wise which is what I'm after for middle distance.
2 solid weeks then Bala.....
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