Outlaw Triathlon - Part 3 - My Race Performance

This is one of a three part set of posts about my first iron distance triathlon: Outlaw Triathlon 2017. This post contains the analysis of my race performance. You can also read about my training and my review of the event.

In this final post in my series on the Outlaw Triathlon I want to review my performance, look at what I learnt and how to improve if (when) I do another event of this distance in the future.

Context

Prior to this event I'd never done an iron distance triathlon before. In fact, apart from the middle distance event I did in the build up, the longest I'd gone before was an olympic distance tri. I'd also previously run two marathons, including a 2:59:34 at London in 2016.

I've already covered training in another post in this series and felt that I was going into the race in the best possible shape that I could be. No injuries or niggles. Calves felt a fraction tight, but I find that's quite common for me after a taper period.

The Swim

I've been working really hard on my swim in the build up. Made some huge improvements. Prior to starting the training plan the longest I had ever swum in one go was 2.4km. Target pace was 2:00/100m that I'd been practising in training.

The main thing I don't like in a mass start swim is the washing machine that occurs while everyone gets going and jostles for a good position. I hate having my legs pushed down from behind. However, over the last couple of races I've been made a real effort to start in the middle of the pack to help overcome this fear. It worked!

I positioned myself at the front of bay 3 (70-90 minute swim time), figuring that my target time of 75-80 minutes would let me swim at the same speed as those around me. As it turns out this was a great decision. I was able to get away cleanly and by the time we merged with bays 1 and 2 the fast swimmers were already away and I had got into a good rhythm.

I managed to get in with a good bunch who all seemed to be able to swim in a mostly straight line. Got my stroke nice and smooth and my breathing nice and even. Being in a group like this creates a great drafting effect, meaning it's possible to swim quite fast with far less effort. Also the nice straight Outlaw swim course meant I didn't have to spend much time sighting as I have the fortune of generally being able to swim in a straight line in open water.

The swim seemed to fly by and I came out of the water with a swim time of 1:13:52 at a pace of 1:54/100m, so significantly quicker than expected. Got my wetsuit off fine, but a slight touch of cramp in both calf muscles while doing so was a bit worrying. Fortunately it didn't turn into a full cramp and eased off as soon as I started moving into the change tent – but did leave me with calf muscles tighter that I would have liked.

T1

I swam with my tri-suit under my wetsuit, so no need to get changed in T1. Just a quick foot dry and put some socks on. Number belt, gloves, sungalsses and bike hat plus a few essentials into the rear pockets. Transition time of 5:37, which I would have liked to have been at least a minute quicker. Need more practice getting stuff in and out of kit bags!

Bike

I had a brilliant bike leg. During my long training rides I'd been averaging a speed of just over 29kph on a slightly hillier route than the Outlaw. I was therefore hoping that less hills and race day fitness would allow me to push that above 30kph and thus hit the sub-6-hour bike split. It worked!

The bike course is made up of three loops. Over the first two I was averaging around 32kph. By the third lap I was starting to tire a bit but also my calf muscles continued to tighten up. Knowing that I'm prone to tight calves at the end of a marathon I took the decision to back off just a fraction to preserve my legs for the run as much as possible. However, I was able keep the average speed high and come home with a bike time of 5:58:26, so job definitely done.

Given that prior to starting training for the Outlaw I'd only ever done one ride over 100 miles, to achieve such a good bike time was more than I had hoped for. I also feel that I got the bike nutrition pretty much spot on (but that's covered in its own section later).

T2

Nothing particularly special about T2. The marshals rack your bike for you, which is most welcome. Then it's into the change tent to switch to run gear. I decided to run in my Saucony Type A6 racing flats and go with tie up laces. I felt the few seconds spent tying laces was well worth it given the extra comfort and fit over using elastic ones. Time in T2 was 3:15, which was good considering the amount of kit bag faffing involved!

Run

The run was tough: far harder than I was expecting. Given that I did a sub-3-hour marathon in 2016 I was hoping to breeze round a 3:30 with the goal of pushing for a 3:20 if possible. Having never done this distance triathlon before I was slightly caught out at just how hard the run would be directly after such a long swim and bike.

(Note: actually a 3:46:58 as my watch died 8km from the end!)

My run problems were three-fold: not getting my run plan right; not getting my run nutrition right; and the tight calf muscles carried over from the end of the swim and the bike leg. This resulted in a 1:43:53 first half of the marathon, followed by an abysmal 2:03:05 for the second half. I've certainly learnt some good stuff for the future! I think the main problem was that I approached the run as if it was a standalone marathon (something I was already familiar with) rather than the third element of a long distance tri.

A happy face at the start of the run

I'd done all my long brick sessions with a run at target race pace of 3:37/km, with runs up to 1 hours duration. Throughout the training I always felt comfortable at this pace so set my race plan accordingly to just come off the bike and hit and hold this as a steady pace. I also planned a run nutrition strategy around what I would normally do for a marathon (see the nutrition section below).

What I discovered about 18km into the marathon was that this strategy didn't work. I then had to slow down quite a lot and take more time in the feed stations getting my fuelling correct. However, the constant stopping and starting really aggravated my tight calves, meaning that for the second half of the run my form and efficiency were way below normal. The result being that the run became even harder and my pace slowed down to about 5:30/km, which is way slower than even my typical long run pace of 5:10/km.

Feeling the pain towards the end

The final half of the run just became a case of breaking the distance down into a series of short sections from the current feed station to the next, walk through the feed station taking on fluid and fuel, and then sum up the energy to start running to again towards the next feed station. On the plus side I did still manage to pick up the pace for the last lap of the lake and run faster down the finish funnel!

One further problem on the run was that my watch ran out of battery with 8km to go. Not a major issue as by that time I wasn't using it for pacing as I was just moving the best my legs would allow. However, it would have been a disaster if I was close to target pace and relying on the power data from my Stryd footpod.

Overall, happy to have finished the run in an acceptable time of 3:46:58. I learnt a lot and will definitely be planning a different strategy if (when) I ever do another long distance triathlon.

Nutrition

As already mentioned, my nutrition was a bit of a mixed bag. I think I got it pretty much right until I hit the run, as which point my plan was totally broken.

Pre-race was my standard approach of a huge bowl of porridge and a coffee for breakfast, followed by a banana and sipping a bottle of water about 30 minutes before racing.

On the bike I planned drinking four 750ml bottles of fluid: half water and half High-5 Zero electrolyte drink. Aiming to drink every 15 mins. Food wise I went with a mix of Chia Charge flapjack bars and small bags of pretzels. These were consumed as follows:

• 0:15:00 – Chia Charge bar
• 1:00:00 & 1:30:00 – half Chia Charge bar
• 2:00:00 – 30g pretzels
• 2:30:00 & 3:00:00 - half Chia Charge bar
• 3:30:00 – 30g pretzels
• 4:00:00 & 4:30:00 - half Chia Charge bar
• 5:00:00 – 30g pretzels
• 5:30:00 – Chia Charge bar

The first Chia Charge bar was to refuel after the swim. Then eating every 30 minutes was a great way to break down the ride into smaller segments (useful advice I got from a magazine article). This plan worked out at about 55g of carbs per hour, which I think was pretty much spot on for fuelling on the bike.

The only complaint I have about my bike fuel strategy was that I struggled with the very last Chia Charge bar being way too sweet. I don't normally each a huge amount of sweet carbs so I think five flapjack bars was a bit too much.

I came off the bike feeling well fuelled and hydrated ready for the run. (The fact I made it 18km into the run before problems hit shows I probably got it right). However, my run nutrition plan turned out to be rather lacking!

For a standalone marathon, my nutrition is usually to just take on a couple of mouthfuls of water every 5km and a 33Shake chia gel every 8km. This has always worked well for me, so that's what I went for. However, I didn't take account of the fact that my normal marathon nutrition is based on having reserves of fuel and hydration in my body at the start of the marathon, so my race intake is just top-up rather than replenishment.

On the first half of the run I ran through each feed station, taking a mouthful of water as I felt like it and hitting my chia gel intake at 8km and 16km as planned. However, the chia gels only have 11g of carbs each and I probably only drank about 100ml of fluid in the first part of the run. Therefore at about 18km I hit both energy and fluid deficit, which massively curtailed my pace.

Realising what was happening I backed off and make an effort over the next few aid stations to walk through them and take on plenty of electrolyte drink, some flat coke and a goodly number of Jaffa Cakes! It took about another 10km of this strategy before I felt my energy levels starting to restore.

The remaining 14km of the run I switched to a strategy of walking each feed station making sure that I kept fluid and fuel levels topped up. No more energy dips, but by this time my tight calf muscles were the main hindrance to me being able to get back to any measure of a decent running pace.

Learnings

Having never put all three event distances together in one go before there were always going to be lots of things to learn from the experience. This post details my analysis of my race and here are my list of learnings that I will take forward for the future:

• Pre-race massages for tight calves - I know that I generally suffer from tight calves, especially towards the end of a marathon. However at shorter distances it doesn't normally impact on my performance. For long distance events like this I need to spend more time ensuring that there's no tightness carried over from training into race day. A few visits to my sports massage guy in the weeks before race day will definitely be built into my training plan next time!
• More savoury items on the bike - fuelling on the bike was sound but too much sweet stuff, swap at least one flapkjack for something more savoury.
• Different race plan for the run - need to adapt the plan for the fact that it's not a standalone marathon. In particular adjust the target pace to allow for a few seconds of walking through the feed stations to ensure time to fully take on fluid and fuel.
• Better nutrition strategy for the start of the run - plan run nutrition to continue intake of around 55g of carbs per hour plus aiming to consume 1,500ml fluid over the marathon distance. This requires fully utilising the feed stations in the early stages of the run so that fuel reserves never drop too low.
• Different watch configuration - I had my bike watch config set to 'Good' GPS quality (rather than 'Best') but this still consumed too much battery. Reduce the GPS quality to 'Okay' for future long distance events .

Conclusions

It was a tough day with both high and low points. However, I finished my first long distance triathlon and smashed my 11:30:00 target by almost 22 minutes!

Will I do an iron distance triathlon again? Yes, probably

Next year? Definitely not!

I'm planning an easier year next year with some shorter distance triathlons, a few more running events and a bit more focus on athletics. Watch this space for a 2019 event though...

Outlaw Triathlon - Part 2: Event Review

This is one of a three part set of posts about my first iron distance triathlon: Outlaw Triathlon 2017. This post contains my review of the event. You can also read about my training and the analysis of my race performance.

The Outlaw Triathlon is an iron distance event (2.4 mile lake swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run) that takes place at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, UK. This was the 8th year of the event and my first time participating in any long distance triathlon.

Pre-Race Communication

I booked the event back in August 2016 and didn't think much more about it other than having a QR code saved in the Passport section of my iPhone. However, as the event started to get closer the level of communications from OSB Events gradually picked up and my excitement began to mount.

The final weeks had a lot more info arriving, more social media activity and a buzz beginning to build around the race. A couple of weeks before race day the race info pack came out. This was a very comprehensive document and answered pretty much everything you could want to know about the race weekend. The only question I came up with not covered in the pack was whether we would have access to all our kit bags on the morning of the race. A quick tweet to the organisers was answered in minutes with an affirmative. Great communications.

Probably the only (minor) fault that I could find is that the on-site camping at Holme Pierrepont doesn't allow you to pre-book a camping pitch. It's just a case of turn up at the weekend and hope the field isn't full – with advice to make sure you have a backup plan! Not the best way to keep race weekend stress to a minimum. I therefore didn't risk the camping and managed to grab a spare room with some friends 30 minutes away from the venue, meaning a very early start on race day. The ability to reserve a camping spot would be a great improvement.

Registration, Racking and Race Briefing

As with most long distance triathlon events, registration, racking and race briefings are done on the Saturday. It's a great way to get familiar with the site layout, find the routes through transition and reduce race day stress. Loads of on-site parking at the venue is also a bonus and reduces walking distances the day before a race.

Registration was flawless. In and out in less than a minute with a nice Outlaw Triathlon branded blueseventy swim backpack thrown in for good measure. Nice large transition kit bags easily held everything I was going to need for the day. The transition area is massive with more then enough space for the bike. Excellent change tent as well with clear labelling of pegs for kit bags. All-in-all a great set-up for a transition area.

The 14:00 race briefing was slightly delayed, which some people with waiting families found a bit frustrating. However when it did get under way I found it well structured and very informative. I definitely came away feeling much more comfortable with the routes, transition process and feed station set-up than I had from just reading the race pack. Slightly bemused by the question from one competitor related to what to do if you weren't wearing any clothes under your wetsuit!

Couldn't really fault the pre-race set up at all. Great work. 10/10.

With everything in place I made a few purchases in the retail tent and headed off to the apartment my friend had rented and a welcome pasta dinner and a nice comfy bed. not forgetting the race number temporary tatoos....

Race Morning

Alarm set for 3:30am (yikes!) and a nice porridge breakfast with a cup of coffee then off to the race. Arrival was smooth and they parked us in a nice close car park. Full access to transition was great, meaning I could put nutrition both on my bike and in my run kit bag. Then it was in to the wetsuit and off to the swim start. We were allowed in the water 15 minutes early, making it possible to have a short warm-up before the off, which was most welcome.

The Swim

Having the National Water Sports Centre as the host venue means a nice simple swim. It's in the rowing lake, so it's just a straight length up the lake, round two buoys at the end and then straight back again, minimal sighting needed. A nice easy exit slope as well. The water was a comfortable 20 degrees, so perfect for a wetsuit swim.

It's a mass start of 1,200 athletes so the swim start is a bit hectic. They do provide four different estimated swim time bays to help break everyone up a bit. Personally I started out at the front of the 70-90 minute bay meaning I got away cleanly and a lot of the faster swimmers from the earlier two bays were ahead of me by the time I merged into the main swim lane. A friend in one of the faster bays had a less enjoyable swim start, having his goggles kicked off in the melee.

Great end of the swim with marshals to help you out of the water and also wetsuit strippers if you need them. Transition was a bit busy as I was out right among the main mass of swimmers. Could do with it being just a bit wider so that people accessing their kit bags don't block the corridor where others want to get past. Other than that, I think it's a great set up with lots of potential for a fast swim if you can get the positioning right and find some space. 10/10.

The Bike

The bike course is made up of two separate loops. You start doing the southern loop, then the northern one and then finally around the southern one again before heading back to Holme Pierrepont. The southern loop is mostly small rural roads and a couple of small villages. It's pretty flat, very quiet and quite scenic. The northern loop has a few more hills, including one short steepish one, and takes place on some busier roads.

The traffic management company did a fantastic job on all the junctions, keeping the bikes moving at all times. I can't think of any point where I had to stop at a junction or roundabout throughout the whole 112 miles! Apparently the bike course can be wind effected, but the wind was very light on race day, so I can't really comment on that. The only real weakness in the bike course is the last couple of miles where you have to pass down a poorly surfaced lane, over some little speed bumps and along the slightly gravelly drive of Holme Pierrepont Hall, but it's an interesting house architecturally so that made it more bearable.

Feed stations along the bike route were nicely spaced, with six in total. Very well organised and offering water, High-5 energy drinks, gels and bananas. Also toilets at every feed station. The volunteers were fantastic and did an amazing job both at handing out supplies and cheering everyone along. Someone even held my bike for me when I had to jump off to use the loo!

Perhaps the only downside I could find on the bike leg was that there was a fair bit of unpunished drafting going on, despite there being a number of marshal bikes on course. Looking at the results I can see some penalties for drafting but none of those being for names I recognised from out on the course (competitors had names on their race numbers). It's partly understandable on the first loop when the bike course was pretty busy – very hard to leave 12 meters without someone overtaking and cutting in. However, being passed by a peleton of eight riders at about 90 miles, clearly working together, was very frustrating after I had worked so hard to keep in front of them!

Arriving back to T2 your bike is taken from you and racked so all you have to worry about is transitioning to the run. By this time I was further up the field, so the change tent was much quieter and easier to get through. Great thought to have a suntan lotion dispensing marshal at the start of the run.

Great bike course, excellent junction management and feed stations, but better enforcement of drafting rules in the last part of the bike leg required for the non-elite riders. 9/10.

The Run

I found the run tough (but that's the subject of my race analysis post). However, the course did everything possible to make it easy. Nice and flat, not too many tight turns and very regular feed stations.

It's set up as a lap of the lake, out along the bank of the River Trent in to Nottingham and back, another lake lap, another trip to Nottingham and back, finishing with two more lake laps. I know some people didn't like so many laps round the lake, but I found the predictability of the route really helped with my breaking down the run into manageable segments. Finally you finish down the orange/red carpet and through a finish tape to cries of “Chris Turner you are an Outlaw”. Amazing feeling!

The feed stations on the run were awesome. Superbly stocked with water, High-5 energy, High-5 Zero, flat coke, gels, crisps, Jaffa Cakes, bananas and an ample supply of soaking wet sponges. The sponges were definitely needed as mid-afternoon was rather warm and sunny. The volunteers at the run feed stations went above and beyond to ensure everyone was catered for and I'm sure that I'm not alone citing them as a reason for me completing the run successfully.

A great run course with just enough interest to stop it getting boring and enough predictability to allow breaking down into manageable bits. Superb feed stations. 10/10.

Post-Race

After going through the finish line and collecting your medal, a lot of races just leave you hanging to sort yourself out. This one doesn't.

After passing through the medical tent (which I didn't need, but who did a great job patching up one of my friends who came off his bike during the bike leg) you then collect your race t-shirt. Nice to get a good quality t-shirt for everyday wear rather than yet another cheap technical top.

Next up you have to climb some stairs (but there were plenty of offers of assistance if needed) and into a tent for a free post-race massage. Very welcome and a great start to recovery. I was then able to access the transition tent to get changed and collect a few essentials – no rush for you to get your kit out. Finally it was off to the feed tent for a nice meal with some of my team mates who finished just a bit quicker than me. Great choice of three high protein meals (I had a chicken and rice dish) plus pudding and drinks. Again, it's all about the recovery!

I was then able to go cheer a friend through the last laps of the run before going to collect my kit and bike, wander back to the car and return to my apartment for a most welcome bath and sleep.

Great post-race facilities. Getting straight into recovery mode (plus some yoga on the Monday) means that today, Tuesday, I'm mostly recovered apart from slightly sore calf muscles. 10/10.

Atmosphere

One of the best points about the Outlaw Triathlon is the atmosphere. Wherever you went if felt like there was a buzz. The race village was always busy and the feed stations were amazing. The welcome at the finish was superb – even finishing in 193rd place I was made to feel like I had just won a major race!

Only one improvement to suggest to the organisers: while running through Nottingham I heard quite a few comments from the public like “it must be a race as they've all got numbers on”. A few big banners along the run route publicising the race and the distances involved would certainly help engage the support of those interested by-standers (and maybe get them on board for future events!)

Great race buzz that can't be manufactured, only achieved by people who are genuinely passionate about what they do. 10/10.

Summary

A great race on a good course - great if you want to go for a fast time. I managed 11:08:08 in my first attempt at this distance, so I'm super happy! Well organised with a passionate events team. Great atmosphere and wonderful marshals. I'd thoroughly recommend it - especially if it's a first time stepping up to long distance triathlons.

As with all these events there's a lot of organisation involved so the entry cost is pretty high. However, I certainly felt that it was pretty good value for money. I'd certainly consider doing it again at some point in the future. Overall score 10/10.

Immortal Half 2017

Yesterday I took part in the Immortal Half (middle distance) Triathlon at the Stourhead National Trust site in Wiltshire. Managed 67th place (out of 221 finishers) in 5:42:27, 25th (out of 69) in my age group. Here's a quick write up for any triathletes considering this event in the future...

Event was very well organised. Just big enough to have a proper race atmosphere but still small enough to have a personal feel to it. The location at Stourhead is stunning, with the finish line outside of the historic house. It's a hilly place, especially on the run, so not one to do if you don't like hills!

The Swim

Swim was 1,900m in the Stourhead lake. The water temperature was surprisingly warm for the time of year. Only downside is that the lake is very shallow in places so a lot of silt got stirred up and in places you were swimming through dark brown water full of mud – yuk! Still, my swim was good and finished in 36:50, which was okay for me. After the swim it's a 600m uphill run to transition, so a tough way to end the swim section.

The Bike

Bike course was slightly short for a middle distance event at 52 miles, but quite scenic taking in both Wiltshire and Somerset. A two lap course, best described as 'rolling': there were a good few ascents and descents along the route. Also quite exposed in places so the wind was a bit tough at times. Completed in 3:06:08 – not super fast but wanted to make sure I saved plenty for the run.

The Run

Run course is a killer - it's not an event you should do if you hate running hills! Three laps of 4.5 miles. Each lap starts with 2 miles of continuous climbing (albeit quite shallow gradient) on road. Then you turn back into the Stourhead grounds for a steep (leg killing) 500m trail descent followed by about 1.7 miles of further gentle downhill trail. Finally at the bottom by the lake it's half a mile of constant fairly steep uphill back to the main house for the next lap / finish line. Took me 1:51:06 for the (just over) half marathon distance, overtaking so many other competitors and making up over 50 places on the run!

Conclusion

Overall, very happy with my first middle distance triathlon. Great location and an enjoyable event. Definitely recommended – if you like running hills and trail!

First Cross Country Race

I haven't done any cross country running since school. All I really remember was being made to run 5km along local footpaths and alleyways to the country park and back again. I vaguely remember being able to occasionally get into the top group, while the slower runners looked for every opportunity to hide somewhere along the route and then re-join on the way back.

It was therefore with some trepidation that I agreed to make my first outing for my new club (Team Kennet) at a cross country event. The chosen event was the Berks, Bucks and Oxen Cross Country Championships, held at Horspath Sports Ground in Oxford.

The morning of the event dawned fairly bright but cold, with a very strong wind gusting to over 50km/h. Temperature was only a few degrees centigrade and the wind chill made it feel much colder. Pretty much perfect weather for cross country running ;-)

I'd intended to run in just shorts, club running vest and gloves. However at the last moment I decided to add a long sleeved base layer to counter the cold wind. With hindsight this wasn't the best decision as I was rather warm during the race. For shoes I went with my Saucony Peregrine 4 trail shoes as these were the best (only) thing I had for running off-road.

The senior mens' race was made up of 106 runners of all age groups from 18 years and up. All the entrants were serious club runners so I knew it was going to be a tough event.

The course was pretty challenging. It started with a run across some fields and over a dry ditch. Then it was two laps round the main loop - starting with an uphill section on a reasonable gravel/packed mud path; then a flat slightly muddy section followed by a downhill on similar gravel/packed mud; finally a section across some rather wet and muddy fields back to the start of the loop. After the second lap was a very muddy footpath and a final sprint back across a field.

The uphill section was a bit of a killer: one of those hills that you go up and then, just as you think you are at the top, you turn a corner and there's more hill left to go and it's even steeper than what went before! I'm pretty strong up hills so I was able to push it to the top on the first ascent. Second time round I approached it with a bit more respect and adopted a slightly slower pace right from the bottom.

I found the downhill section much more challenging. The secret to going downhill fast is to just go with it and move your legs quickly underneath you to keep from falling head-over-heels. Trying to hold back or control speed through leaning back just doesn't work and tires you out really quickly. Unfortunately I found that running downhill fast aggravated my slightly tight achilles. Also, I wasn't confident with the grip of my trail shoes on the steeper parts. I therefore lost quite a bit of time and a couple of places on the two downhill sections. Running downhill will certainly be part of my training as soon as I get my achilles back in full working order!

The other sections where I really struggled were those where there was a lot of mud. While my trail shoes had reasonable grip on the grassy and packed sections, as soon as I hit a section of deeper mud I found myself sliding all over the place. The last section was a very muddy footpath and I found it really hard work keeping on my feet through here – not what you want in the last 2km of a hard 9km race!

One other thing that I found very different is that in all the races I've done previously, I've been able to make great use of the data from my GPS running watch. I've been able to ensure that I'm maintaining a sensible pace, not going off too fast while at the same time not letting the speed drop too much. In the cross country race this information source was pretty much useless!

Firstly it was really difficult to get a chance to look at my watch as I was so busy trying to stay on my feet and pick good lines through the roots and mud. Secondly, the constantly varying terrain and gradients made any sort of pacing plan almost totally redundant. All I could really do was run to RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) and just use the watch data for post-race analysis.

I completed the 9km race in 42:14, which I was fairly happy with given that my flat 10km PB is only just under 40 minutes. I managed 69th place out of the 106 starters, and 22nd in the veterans (40+) category out of 42 runners. Happy with that in my first cross country event which was also a county level championship.

Learnings from the race:

• Don't make last minute kit or clothing changes, stick with what I know works for me
• Trail shoes don't really cut in when it's really muddy and that lack of grip affected my confidence going downhill. I've added some cross country spikes to my Christmas list!
• Trying to use GPS watch data for pacing decisions is pointless, just race using perceived exertion
• I need to do much more practice running downhill fast and letting myself flow rather than holding myself back

I really enjoyed cross country. It's nothing like I remember it from school, and I will definitely be doing some more of these races for my club in the future.

The 2015 Huntsman Triathlon

Back at the beginning of October I competed in the Huntsman Triathlon, my first Olympic distance event. I delayed this blog post a bit owing to the fact that I wrote a short race report that was published in the December 2015 issue of 220 Triathlon magazine. Here's my full account of the race and my performance.

The Race

The Huntsman Triathlon took place on Sunday 11th October 2015. It is based at the Hawley Lake complex in Minley, Hampshire. The swim takes place in Hawley Lake itself; the bike through the villages of Yateley, Finchampstead and Eversley on the Hampshire/Berkshire border; and the run along the trails surrounding Hawley Lake.

The race offers both sprint and Olympic distance events. After a strong summer of racing and training I wanted to finish the season with a challenge, so I opted for the Olympic distance event (1,500m swim, 40km bike ride, 10km run). This would be my first event at this distance. Pulling together metrics from my training and other performances, I set myself a fairly aggressive goal of a sub-2:45 finish.

Preparation

I didn't undertake any specific training preparation for the race, having trained all three disciplines strongly over the summer. I'd have liked to have got a couple more open water swim sessions in before the race, but other commitments made this impossible.

I did head down to Hawley Lake a couple of weeks before the race and took a ride round the bike course to familiarise myself with the route and conditions. This proved to be a valuable exercise and something I would suggest for every race, whenever time allows.

Pre-Race

The morning dawned with pretty much perfect triathlon conditions: clear blue skies, almost no wind and a predicted temperature of about 12-14 degrees centigrade. Not bad for a day in mid-October!

I got up early and had my usual porridge with a 33Shake All-In-One Shake mixed in, prepared my drinks and nutrition for the race, had a final kit check, loaded the car and set off. Fortunately I'm only about 45-minute drive from the lake so it wasn't a too arduous morning.

I arrived at the lake with loads of time to spare. I headed into registration, which was very professional with iPads for looking up your race number. Interesting set of goody bag items including a nice beanie hat and a miniature blue cowbell!

Then it was off to transition to set up the bike and other kit. There was a really good atmosphere and lots of good camaraderie between the athletes. The only fault I could find was that the bikes were racked incredibly close together, not giving you much space to set up your kit.

The pre-race briefing was perhaps the best I have experienced. Lots of good information, nice and loud and clear and with a good amount of humour and anticipation building mixed in. Always Aim High Events seem to have got this part of the race preparation just about perfect.

The Swim

Leaving transition we all headed down to the swim start. The Olympic swim course was two laps around the lake in a roughly triangle shape. Getting into the water was a slightly painful affair as you had to walk across a small stony area and then along the stony lake bottom until the water was deep enough to swim in.

Just before I got deep enough to swim I felt something sharp on the bottom of my foot, but as the water was a chilly 16 degrees centigrade my feet went numb pretty much straight away and I didn't think any more of it at the time. A future suggestion to the organisers would be to have a small floating pontoon so that competitors could jump straight into deeper water without having to negotiate the stones!

After a quick swim warm-up we were off. I really wasn't looking forward to the swim as it's my weakest discipline and I'm still not comfortable with mass open-water starts: last time I attempted one I panicked and it took me a good few minutes to get my breathing back under control. This time everything went much more smoothly and I took great care to focus on exhaling properly, despite getting a few bumps along the way. After about 100m I managed to find some calm water and got nicely into my (somewhat slow) stroke.

The first lap went by quite smoothly and I was still feeling good. Slightly disconcerted when at the beginning of the second lap, the first yellow hat swimmers from the wave that started five minutes after ours started to overtake me! Still, I kept on with a steady pace and could see other swimmers from my own wave around so I knew I hadn't dropped too far behind. In the end I completed the swim in 33 minutes, which was about what I was targeting.

T1

The main drama of my day occurred at the swim exit. The water was quite murky, so I couldn't really see the edge of the submerged concrete jetty that we were supposed to exit onto. Finally I found it with my knee. The concrete wasn't smooth either!

I managed to recover and clamber out, but, given my disrupted exit, I stood up far too quickly. A wave of dizziness came over me and I proceeded to fall sideways off the jetty, saving myself with a handily located race flag. Fortunately these things are quite strong! Not the most graceful thing to do right in front of the supporting crowd. I recovered just as the marshal came over to help and staggered slowly to my bike.

Pulling down my wetsuit I discovered a trickle of blood running down my leg from a small gash in my knee. I then noticed a hole in the knee of my almost new Huub wetsuit, which at the time seemed like a much greater disaster!

Here's my knee at the end of the race. Don't look too close if you are a bit squeamish about the sight of blood...

I managed to get myself focussed on the transition. It was all a bit slow as I had decided to wear socks due to the coldness of the water. That turned out to be a good decision as my feet stayed numb until well into the run and it would have been much worse without socks. Have you ever tried putting socks on when a bit dizzy? Probably explains why my T1 was just over 2 minutes long.

A message to the race organisers: can you please put some kind of matting or underwater padding over the end of the jetty please? I don't want other future competitors to have to experience the same wetsuit ripping, knee gashing experience that I went through!

The Bike

I don't remember much about the first ten minutes of the bike. I was busy dealing with trying to stem blood loss from my knee and assess the gash to see if I needed to stop and seek medical attention. Fortunately the cut didn't look too bad and after about ten minutes it finally started to clot and stop bleeding. All the faffing probably cost me about a minute on the bike overall. Once I'd got settled in I picked up the pace and started to catch and overtake some other riders.

The bike course was an out section followed by two laps and then a back section in to the lake again. The laps were quite varied. The first half of each was quite undulating with some narrow roads and tricky junctions, as we worked our way from Yately and on to Finchampstead. This part wasn't helped by a number of very hesitant cars who were struggling to overtake some of the slower riders. This tended to cause a bottleneck of faster riders stuck behind them and a fair amount of frustration from those trying to chase a fast time or a specific position. Still, I guess that's the nature of non-closed road courses.

The second half of the lap was a long straight flat section through Eversley Cross and back into Yately, which gave a good chance to recharge a bit before the returning to the hilly sections. I continued to make good progress, keeping up with some fairly fast riders, gaining positions and only being overtaken by a couple of aero-helmeted missiles on slippery bikes that cost nearly as much as my car!

Mid-way through the second lap I overtook a rider who didn't appear to be in the race (well he wasn't wearing a number anyway). He then tucked in behind me, hanging just a few meters back off my rear wheel. I'm not sure what he may have thought when the race marshal car pulled up beside him and had a word about drafting rules! Still, good on the organisers for taking the time to keep a good eye on people who might be attempting to gain an unfair advantage.

After the two laps it was then time to head back towards Hawley Lake. The return section has a big long hill on it, so I'm glad that my course reccy from a couple of weeks prior had prepared my for this. I'd saved enough to push up the hill without leaving myself too drained for the run. It was then a nice downhill and flat back into the transition area.

My finish time for the bike was 1:19, which was about four minutes faster than my course reccy from the previous week. Very happy with this time considering the distractions at the start and the number of times I got bunched behind hesitant cars.

T2

Not much to say about T2. All went smoothly and I was out in under a minute, even though I had quite a long run pushing the bike, as I was about as far away from the bike in point as it was possible to get. Picked up an extra 33Shake Chia Gel and I was off.

I'd considered doing the run in my trail shoes as it was going to be mostly off-road and we'd had some rain earlier in the week. In the end I decided to stick with my normal Saucony Kinvara 5's and this proved to be the correct decision.

The Run

The run was a 10km route, made up of two laps through the woodland circling the lake. It was a bit more hilly than I was expecting with a few areas of quite uneven terrain. Still, it was a beautiful morning with dappled sunlight filtering through the trees and I love running in conditions like this.

It took the first lap before my feet finally thawed out and I got some feeling back in them, but I'd got into a good running flow way before this. I managed to settle down into a good 4:20/km pace with some slower bits up the hills. I would have liked to have gone a bit faster than this, but the terrain pretty much dictated that this was about my best pace. I steadily worked my way up the field, picking off a number of other runners along the way. Then it was a strong finish for a time of 47:40 for the run.

The Finish

I crossed the line with a finish time of 2:43:14, which was just under two minutes better than my target of 2:45:00. Got to be pleased at that given the eventful swim exit and T1. This was also my first Olympic distance event, so doubly pleased with having put in a good performance at this longer format.

I have to mention the post-race goodies, which were way better than anything I've ever come across before. There were the obligatory bananas or course, but there were also bowls of trail mix, various sweets, broken up chocolate bars and a superb selection of biscuits! You even got a little pick-and-mix cup to put then all in. Superb!

There were also cups of Erdinger Alkoholfrei on offer. It's strange that even though I'm a non-drinker and hate the taste of beer and larger, that for some reason I really like the taste of this stuff at the end of a hard race.

Always Aim High don't usually do medals, instead preferring to give out lovely slate coasters with the race name and details on. This has pride of place on my desk and reminds me of the race every time I have a cup of tea. A nice touch.

After gorging myself on sweets and biscuits I headed over to the St John's Ambulance, where they did and excellent job of cleaning up my cut knee and assessing that it didn't need any further treatment other than a good bath and a sterile dressing.

It was at this point that the feeling started to fully return to my feet and I started to feel a pain under my left foot whenever I stood on it (if you can remember back as far as the swim entry and that sharp feeling while entering the water). Removing my sock I discovered a small hole in the bottom of my foot right through to the raw layers of skin underneath. I expect it would have bled quite nicely had it not been for the cold water and the general numbness of my feet! It took a couple of weeks of painful walking for this one to heal fully, but there don't seem to be any ill effects.

Summary

Overall, the Huntsman Triathlon was a great event. The organisation was pretty much perfect and you could tell that Always Aim High Events have a real passion for running the best triathlon they possibly can. The quality of the field was very high, so if you are looking for some serious competition then this event is definitely worth considering.

The lake made for a good swim and both the bike and run routes were challenging but not beyond the ability of most triathletes. Marshalling was good all the way round. From my point of view I'd be much happier if they could improve the swim entrance and exit to give them a bit less potential for injuries!

I was very happy with my performance, especially as I beat my goal time. I'll certainly be looking at returning next year to go faster and have a much less eventful swim.

Newbury Triathlon 2015

This weekend saw me compete in my third ever triathlon - the Team Kennet Newbury Triathlon 2015. This was the same event that I did last year for my first triathlon. It's nice and local to me and has lots of people that I know competing.

This year as well as the event itself I had a little smack-down going with some local friends (Nick and Andy) as we are all at roughly the same performance level but have never raced against each other before. An added motivation to do well!

The race is a sprint triathlon format, based at Newbury's Northcroft Leisure Centre. It consists of a 300-yard pool swim, 22km bike ride and a 5km run. Last year I finished in 40th place (out of about 400 starters) in a time of 1:09:48. This year I'd trained harder and had more race experience, so I was hoping for a much better performance.

Preparation

When I did Newbury Tri last year I'd only been swimming for about eight months and cycling for about five. Since then I've been swimming every week and two or three times a week for the last 4 months. I've also put in a lot more cycling mileage, including a lot of triathlon specific bike training. I've also upgraded my bike, adding aero bars and adopting a much more aggressive riding position. I was therefore much more prepared both physically and technique wise to tackle this event.

In addition, I've also completed in another big triathlon event (Blenheim Palace Tri) and done a lot more transition practice, so I was a lot more confident mentally as well as physically. This was also a close friend's first triathlon event so I'd spent a fair bit of time helping him to prepare, practice transitions and so on. It's amazing how much extra clarity and confidence you get after having taken someone else through the whole event and procedures!

Pre-Race

The morning dawned clear and sunny with almost no wind, but pretty cold. Once the sun got going it started to warm up nicely. Perfect racing conditions. Met up with my friend and we took a nice leisurely cycle for the four miles from our homes to Northcroft Leisure Centre. This made a nice little leg spin to get the muscles moving.

Arriving at the venue we headed into registration. Numbers collected; race timing chip round the ankle; hands graffiti'ed with maker-pen numbers; technical t-shirt grabbed. As with last year the registration process was well organised and effortless. We took our bikes into transition and I helped my friend set up as his start time was 90 minutes before mine. Also met up with Nick and Andy to discuss the prospects for the day and drool over Nick's slippery bike!

Next it was off to pool-side to meet up with both mine and my friend's families and cheer him on through the first stage of the race. Interestingly, I was far more nervous for him that I was about my own looming race. He had a great swim and was soon on his way on the bike.

Now it was time to focus on my race. I returned to transition and set up all my kit. Bike shoes attached to cleats and held level with elastic bands. Running shoes with a bit of talc and some vaseline, so that I could bike and run without needing socks – something I've been practising over the summer and a great speed up in T1. Number belt, bike helmet and sunglasses. Nice and simple.

The Swim

Newbury Triathlon takes place in Newbury's amazing 75 yard (72m) long outdoor heated Lido pool. The original Lido dates back to 1870 with its current form being from the 1930s. It's a lovely place to swim and I've been using it each week for training since it opened at the beginning of summer. Sadly the poor August weather this year meant it didn't get used as much as it should have. Hopefully this won't effect any decisions about opening it next year!

The swim is four lengths of the pool, for a total distance of 300 yards. Competitors are set off in pairs at 30 second intervals. You swim up one lane, move across a bit swim down the next, under the centre rope and up the third lane, and finally across a bit more to the final lane for the last length. Up the steps in the corner and out through a little gate into the car park transition area.

Swimming is by far my weakest discipline, despite all the effort I've put in to improving it. However, the first two lengths I started strong, maintaining a good bilateral breathing pattern. By the end of the second length I was overtaking one of the swimmers who started 30 seconds before me. Lengths three and four I had to switch to breathing every two strokes in order to keep my pace high. Overtook the other person from the pair ahead of me. Out of the water and through the gate in 5:47 – 30 seconds quicker than last year.

Excluding the pool exit part, pace for the swim was about 1:44/100m, which is well above the pace I usually sustain, so very pleased even if there is still a long way to go in my swimming journey.

T1

The first transition from swim to bike is usually the most tricky. Balance is effected from just having moved from a horizontal to vertical position. There's also a few bits to do: sunglasses, helmet and number belt. This year I opted to cycle and run without socks, so that was a lot less faffing than my previous triathlons. My official T1 time was 35 seconds, which was the second fastest of the day and 9 seconds faster than last year. Except...

After crossing the mount line it all went a bit pear shaped: I crossed the line and climbed on the bike and as I did this I managed to steer the bike off the path onto the grass. Failed to slip my right foot into the shoe and while sorting this out my left foot fell off the pedal. The left shoe then dragged the floor and separated from the cleat. Got the right foot in and the bike back on the path but left my other shoe behind on the floor! Had to stop the bike, get off and go retrieve the shoe before finally sorting everything out and getting going again.

Amazingly, the GPS trace shows this only costing me 20 seconds, but that was still two places lost in the final standings. I really need to spend a lot more time practising the bike mount before my next event in October!

The Bike

After a disastrous start, I was determined to push hard on the bike. I knew Andy was starting only a minute and a half behind me, was a similar speed swimmer and a much faster rider so I wanted to stay ahead of him for as long as possible.

Got down on to my aero bars as quickly as possible and was soon overtaking other riders. Powered through the course as hard as possible, overtaking all the way. Heart-rate averaging about 170bpm all the way, which for me is pretty much on my lactate threshold effort. Looking as some estimated power readings (I don't have a power meter), they show a mean estimated power of 199w, normalised at 248w. This is the highest estimated power I've achieved over a sustained effort, so very pleased with this.

The first part of the course is a gently undulating country road. Nice and easy to ride, but requiring care when overtaking other riders as oncoming cars are often not quite as far over their side of the road as they should be. Next comes the gentle climb from Welford to Wickham. It's not very steep, but goes on for quite a long time, with the route's steepest hill at the end. I was buoyed going up this hill as the rider I was overtaking shouted out “you're going pretty fast!”. Thanks, it gave me a boost. The final section back to Newbury is a busier road, but it's pretty much flat or slightly downhill the whole way. Perfect for getting really aero, selecting a big gear and laying down some speed!

Unfortunately there was a bit of bad luck involved and I got slowed significantly by cars at three roundabouts and at a set of temporary traffic lights that had appeared two days before the event. Looking at GPS data, I estimate that these probably cost me another 20-30 seconds over having a clear run through. This equates to another one or two places in the final results.

Overall I've got to be very pleased with my bike leg time of 39:53, which is 2:31 faster than last year even with all the slowness. Nick thrashed me on the bike by just over two minutes (more about this in the summary) and unfortunately Andy had a puncture and had to retire.

T2

My dismount into T2 was pretty much perfect: feet out of the shoes nice and early on the straight before, off the bike with a running dismount and into transition. A quick 26 seconds to rack the bike, slip on the running shoes, remove the helmet and off again. Fifth fastest T2 of the day, 15 seconds quicker than last year.

The Run

The run didn't go as well as I had hoped. Having given it my all on the bike I was unable to sustain the running pace that I am capable of over a 5k distance. Started well with the first half a km at 4:10/km pace while I got into my running. Then got a massive stitch and rather than speeding up to my usual 5k pace, had to drop down to 4:30/km for the next 3.5k while it went away. Finally it cleared and I was able to complete the remainder of the run at 3:47/km pace.

The run course is a mix of footpath, narrow trail and canal tow-path. It's a nice route to run although the trail bit makes it pretty hard to overtake slower runners. I caught a couple up during this section of the run, which I think didn't help my pace particularly either.

Finished the run in 20:21, which was 36 seconds slower than last year and well off the 18 minutes I should have been capable of at my normal 5k pace (the run is slightly short at 4.6k). A solid reminder that triathlon is all about balancing the three disciplines.

Results

My overall time for the event was 1:07:03, which was 2 minutes and 45 seconds quicker than last year. A great result, but a long way from the 1:05:00 I was targeting. Finished in 24th place overall from 343 starters, and 12th in my age group.
My swim was 55th fastest, bike 32nd and run 36th. It's easy to see how bad a run I had as that's by far my best discipline and I'd normally be looking for a top-10 run in an event like this.

Full results available here.

Summary

Overall I'm pleased with my improvement, especially the big strides I've made in the swim and bike sections of the race. Removing a stupid bike mount mistake and some bad luck with the traffic I would have been a few places higher and significantly closer to my target time. I've also got a very clear focus on what to practice for my next event: bike mount, bike mount, bike mount!

I also had a good reminder that triathlon is about three events, not just one. No point pushing hard on the bike to gain a couple of minutes then loosing more that that on my strongest discipline! I think the prospect of our little smack-down and wanting to keep ahead of Andy for as long as possible on the bike may have forced some bad pacing choices. Lesson learnt for the future.

As to the smack-down, Nick comprehensively smashed me with a finish time of 1:03:05 for 7th place. I pipped him slightly on the swim and transitions, but he took over two minutes out of me on both the bike and run legs. Given our similar fitness and running performance levels I can draw a few interesting conclusions:

• Having a really good aero TT bike is definitely worth a couple of kph average speed (mine was 33.5kph, Nick's was 35.9kph over the main Strava segment covering most of the of the course).
• It also looks highly likely that a good TT bike means that this extra speed can be gained from a fractionally lower level of exertion. This result being that you can come off the bike with more energy to invest in the run.
• Nick has also had a professional bike fit on his bike which also looks to have contributed not only to his bike performance but also left him in a much better physical shape to nail the run leg.

Investing in a good TT specific bike looks like a really good option for my future triathlon ambitions. Better get saving!

I thoroughly enjoyed the event. Team Kennet did a fantastic job of organising it and the marshals were excellent. Hope to be back next year, although I may be helping to organise given that I've recently joined up with Team Kennet.

Blenheim Palace Triathlon – 14th June 2015

This part weekend I competed in the Blenheim Palace Triathlon, a sprint distance event set in the grounds of the beautiful Blenheim Palace on Oxfordshire. The event was great and incredibly well organised and I thoroughly enjoyed my first open water swim triathlon.

The Event

This was a sprint distance triathlon, consisting of 750m lake swim, 19.8km bike ride and a 5.4km run. The even took place over both days of the weekend, with me competing on the Sunday. It was primarily a sprint distance event, although there were a few super-sprint waves plus a couple of corporate relay waves as well. Got lucky with the weather, as by the time I started on the Sunday lunchtime the drizzle had disappeared and the bike course had mostly dried out.

My Performance

I was very happy with my performance, finishing the event in 1:23:36, which was just a fraction quicker than my target time of 1:25:00. Finished in 192nd position out of just over 4200 starters, and 36th place in the M40-44 age group. There were 78 competitors in my wave, from which I finished in 3rd place. Breakdown of the time was:

Event	Time	Position Overall	Position in Wave
Swim	15:48	770th	15th
T1	04:06	205th	1st
Bike	39:07	457th	9th
T2	01:21	53rd	2nd
Run	23:17	118th	1st

My full results can be seen here.

The Swim

This was my first ever open water swimming event. Prior to the race I'd done four other open water swims in the local training lake, but if was safe to say this was the part of the day that I was looking forward to the least.

The lake start is a 5-10 minute walk downhill from transition, so make sure you leave in plenty of time. It's also a path with a few stones, so if you have supporters it's worth walking down in flip-flops and getting them to bring them back up. The assembly point was pretty friendly and we collected our wave coloured swim caps . The safety briefing was excellent and ended with a hug with the person next to us. Then it was in to the water and a short swim out to the deep water start.

The lake at Blenheim is fairly deep and you can't see the bottom, so not one for very nervous swimmers. I'd reached a point in training where I knew I was comfortable with the distance, so it was just a case of dealing with the mass start and keeping my breathing under control. The horn sounded and we were off.

The first 300m was horrible! Even though I'd tried to position myself to keep out of the melee, I found myself surrounded by jostling people. People bashing in to me, hitting my legs, cutting across in front so that I hit them. It was almost impossible to get into a good swimming rhythm, my breathing was all over the place and a building sense of panic started to come over me.

I focused hard on keeping my breathing smooth and trying to relax. Then, the field started to spread out a bit and I found some smoother water and clear space. I was then able to get into a good stroke and breathing rhythm and everything settled down nicely. Managed to turn nice and tight to the buoy and even started overtaking some other swimmers during the closing stages.

Then I was at the slip ramp, out of the water, through the shower and heading up the hill towards transition. I didn't think of looking back to see how many people were still in the water, but I imagined that I was a good way down the field at this point (when actually I was 15th out of the water).

The swim part of the event can be seen below. My watch measured it at 870m, but that includes a bit of the run at the end and the fact that my line wasn't perfectly straight due to dealing with other swimmers and my inability to swim straight!

T1

The run from the lake back to transition is 400m, all uphill on a coarse carpet. I was out of the top part of my wetsuit by half way and taking care to try and stop my heart rate spiking too high. Looking at the stats I was fairly successful as it reached 179 just after exiting the water and I had it back to below 170 by the time I reached my bike.

It was at this point I realised I'd actually had quite a good swim as there were very few people in our rack lane of transition.

I'd laid out my kit carefully and it paid off. Wetsuit slid off easily (glad I'd practiced that in the back garden the day before!). Number belt and socks went on quickly as did bike hat and sun glasses. Pushed the bike out and did a smooth mount, including getting into my pre-clipped shoes with no drama.

I was the 205th fastest of the whole event through T1 and the fastest in my wave. Probably the only way I can significantly improve on this stage is to drop the socks and bike and run in just shoes. I'll definitely be testing this out before my next event in September.

One other word of note is that transition is carpeted, but the carpet appears to have been laid over a stone/gravel courtyard. You can feel the stones right through the carpet! I have bruises on the bottom of my feet from standing on these stones during transition. No way to avoid it, but something to be prepared for.

The Bike

I've been working hard on my bike and I think this had a real impact on my bike leg performance. I felt strong throughout the bike leg and the three laps seemed to pass by in a flash. The bike course at Blenheim is pretty undulating, with one longish (1km) steep up-hill (5-11%) and a couple of nice down-hills, including 2km at about 2-3% gradient. Felt strong on the up-hills and took the down-hills pretty fast. Perhaps slightly too tentative on the first lap, but attacked the hills more on laps 2 and 3. Strava estimates my average power at 211w, which is significantly higher than I usually achieve on training rides.

The only complaint I have over the bike course is other riders. Unfortunately the two waves prior to ours were corporate relay waves and thus, by the time I reached the bike, the course was still full of riders travelling significantly slower than I was. On the up hills there were lots of people wobbling all over the place at walking pace, which made overtaking on the fairly narrow paths a somewhat risky endeavour. Then on the down-hills there were lots of people travelling a bit slower than me but still making various overtaking manoeuvres on a number of very tentative riders. I therefore had to hold back slightly in a few places more out of safety concerns for myself and other riders.

I think the marshals could have done a better job of ensuring that slower riders kept well to the left to leave enough space for overtaking. There were some places where I had to brake on a downhill in order to avoid the drafting zone of the bike in front as there was just no space to overtake safely with riders already 2 or 3 abreast. The top bike times from our wave were all slower than most other waves and I think this was largely down to the volume of other riders littering the course.

I also found it quite disconcerting that in a few places there were marshals positioned with white flags yelling at everyone to slow down. I understand this is for safety, due to tight bends or bumpy roads, but after the first lap I felt my awareness of the course was good enough to be able to take these at speed and in full control. However I still felt obliged to back off slightly with the marshals shouting 'Slow Down' at you repeatedly!

Given a clearer course and the fact that I now know all the bumps, turns and hills, I think I could probably shave another minute or so off the bike leg if I attempted it again.

T2

I managed a smooth dismount from the bike, including taking my feet out of my shoes on the final straight with no incident. Quickly back to the bike stand, although I did loose a couple of seconds trying to spot my kit position on the rack, even though I'd mentally marked it's location in line with the advertising hoarding logos. Hat off and into running shoes. Then off again. I was 53rd fastest in the whole event in T2 and second fastest in my wave.

Took the gel that I'd attached to my bike but didn't need so I could fuel up early in the run. A great transition and probably still have a few seconds I could shave off as well in the future.

The Run

The run was always likely to be my strongest discipline and it turned out to be true. I felt really strong through the run and managed to complete this part in the 118th fastest time of the day, and 1st in my wave: more than twenty seconds faster than the next best.

I probably could have pushed a fraction harder in the first lap of the run, but a cracking second lap averaging 4:00/km on a very undulating course made for a strong finish. Lots of overtaking runners from the earlier corporate waves also gave the feeling of moving very fast!

One thing I did find very different was the fact that by this stage in the event everyone is very spaced out, including runners from multiple waves on the same 2-lap course. I was therefore running largely alone without knowing where I was relative to other racers in my wave. This is a very different sensation to a mass start run where you are constantly striving to catch the runner just ahead of you, knowing that each person you overtake is an improved place in the final results.

Crossed the line with a big smile and picked up my medal, bottle of water and a glass of Erdinger Alkoholfrei isotonic beer (I'm a non-drinker and don't really like beer, but this tasted okay – however that might just be because I was really thirsty at this point!).

Atmosphere and Organisation

For such a large event, I'd have to say that the organisation was immaculate. Everything ran pretty much like clockwork. Pre-race packs arrived early and the race guide had everything you needed to know clearly spelled out. Parking was well organised and timing chip collection very smooth

Racking bikes in transition was very well managed. All the instructions were really well presented and the announcements in transition and the swim start were clear and precise. The pre-race briefing was superb. All the marshals did a great job and offered clear instructions and direction, although those on the bike course could have done a slightly better job keeping slow riders to the left of the paths.

With such a big event you always get a great atmosphere and there was plenty of cheering on the way up from the swim and around the main straight in front of the palace building. Race village was good and there were plenty of toilets and lots of good food options.

Conclusions

I had a really enjoyable day, got a great time, conquered the mass-start open water swim that I was really nervous about and put in a very strong bike leg. The event was really well organised, if a bit expensive to enter. I'd certainly recommend it as a great location for a first sprint triathlon.

I'd certainly consider going back again next year, but I'm also keen to step up to standard (olympic) distance events and Blenheim Palace doesn't offer this distance as an option. I'd therefore be doing it as more of a training race, and it's probably a bit too expensive to enter on this basis.

Now going to take it easy for a few weeks, keep up the open water swimming and start thinking about training for my local pool based sprint triathlon at the start of September.

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 4

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the previous post I looked my race preparation and my pre-race strategy.

In this final post I'm going to cover my actual race performance and all the things I've learnt from my journey.

The Race

So, I'd finally made it to race day. I was fully fuelled and hydrated. Legs feeling strong and full of energy. Arrived at the start in Preston Park, Brighton in plenty of time.

Weather

The weather was clear skies and sunshine and probably a fair bit warmer than predicted. However, there was also a fairly stiff sea breeze that made it seem a lot cooler than it actually was. At this point in time I never even considered what impact the weather conditions would have on the race, probably due to a mix of excitement and lack of experience at this length of event.

I learnt afterwards from a friend on Strava that the elite runners considered the weather conditions significant enough to adjust their race plans slightly. Probably shows why they are the elites!

The start

At Brighton the elite group have their own start further along the main road. The remaining runners start in Preston Park and do a lap of the park before merging into the race with the elites. This had the advantage that I was able to work my way pretty much to the front of the start coral, crossing the line just a few seconds after the gun.

The downside of the Preston Park start is that the first mile consists of a tight loop of the park starting with a steepish uphill section followed by a matching downhill. This isn't really the best way to start a marathon as it makes initial pacing really difficult to judge. If I do Brighton again I will definitely be aiming to join the elite start group!

The first third

After the first mile was complete I quickly settled down and got into my flow. Pace at this point settled at around 4:18/km (6:55/mile). This was fractionally faster than my planned pace but it felt comfortable and I didn't feel that I was over-exerting myself so I decided to stay with the flow rather than make lots of little adjustments to pace.

By the time I reached the 14km mark my average pace had quickened fractionally to 4:16/km (6:51/mile) with my average heart rate creeping up to about 167bpm. Maybe I slightly over exerted myself on the first section of the run compared to plan and this probably didn't help with the problems I suffered in the final parts of the race.

However, at this point I was still thoroughly enjoying myself and feeling really strong. I therefore decided to pick up the pace a fraction and try to get my average pace to 4:15/km.

The middle third

Picking up the pace initially felt fine and I covered the next 10km right on my target pace. Then at about 25km (16 miles) things started to get harder. My pace started to slow and become more erratic, averaging out at about 4:23/km and heart rate reached an average of 171bpm.

At 28km I pretty much accepted that the goal of a sub-3 hour marathon was beyond me. I decided to settle for maintaining my new pace as best as possible, which would still result in a very acceptable time.

The final third

The last part of the Brighton Marathon course is particularly mentally tough. After going through the centre of Hove you head out into an industrial area, with a loop around the power station. There's much less crowd support in this area and very little scenery to keep your spirits up. It's just a case of focusing on your running, gritting your teeth, counting down the kilometres and thinking about the finish.

By this time I was really beginning to suffer and my pace got slower and slower, averaging off at about 4:30/km (7:15/mile). I did however have the mental presence to realise that my earlier good pace meant that all I need to do was keep going and I would still be well within my target time range.

The last 3 kilometres

Those final 3 kilometres were a mix of pain, daze, excitement, hell, enjoyment, perseverance and pleasure. By this time my left glute was rebelling and delegating a huge amount of extra effort to the hamstring. This muscle was in turn getting tighter and tighter with every step. As I went past runner after runner stopped at the side of the road with cramp I knew I just had to keep on moving.

Fortunately by this time I'd made it back into Brighton and the cheering crowds along the seafront and promenade were a massive boost. If you look at some of the race photos, you can see me alternating between pained grimaces one minute and happy smiles the next.

Current pace had dropped to an average of 4:46/km (7:40/mile) for each of these last 3km. However, my watch was displaying an average race pace of 4:23/km (7:04/mile) so I knew I was on for a good time and I therefore didn't try to push any harder and risk a blown hamstring.

The finish

As the finish came into sight I tried to muster up everything I had for a final sprint, and I managed somewhere to pull out a 4:23/km pace for the final finish straight. I crossed the line with a huge smile on my face and a finishing time of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 19 seconds!

Yes, 3:05:19 for my first marathon. I was elated and not at all disappointed at missing that 3 hour mark. In fact by the time I'd reached back pick-up I was already planning my next marathon and how I would knock off those extra 5 and a bit minutes. It was also great to fire up the Brighton Marathon App and see that I finished in an amazing 160th position (165th on chip time), far higher up the standings than I ever thought was possible.

Recovery

I met up with my family and, as suggested by my sports masseur, I went and stood in the sea for 10 minutes to give my legs an early ice bath. It was then straight into compression tights and off for a nice meal to celebrate. Sunday evening and Monday morning were a bit painful as my legs started to stiffen up, but another ice bath and keeping active really helped. By Tuesday morning everything was feeling good again and with a couple of sessions on the foam roller I was out doing a 5k recovery run on the Thursday morning.

Race Assessment

So, I've finished my first marathon in a really good time, but I struggled at the end. My recent half marathon PBs suggest I could have gone faster, so what let me down?

Pacing

I did go out at a slightly faster pace in the first third than originally planned, but only by about 3 seconds per km. I also felt that I was running the first third at a relatively comfortable effort. By half way I was slightly up on where I had expected to be but spot on for a 3-hour time. All I needed to do was maintain a steady 4:15/km pace for the second half of the race. This should have been achievable based on my training and recent half marathon experiences.

I'm not sure whether I underestimated how tough the second half would be or whether the weather and hydration difficulties described below caused my pace to drop off, but I still think I'm capable of running the 4:15/km average pace for the entire distance.

Nutrition

I think I got my nutrition pretty much spot on. At no point did I feel depleted of energy and I certainly didn't hit the legendary 'wall'. After the race was complete I didn't experience any post-race energy dip or excessive tiredness so I think I must have got both my pre-race and in-race fuelling correct.

Hydration

It was hydration that I think really killed the final stages of the marathon for me. I found drinking from the paper cups far harder than I expected. I found that at most drink stations I spilt about half the water while trying to collect the cup and squeeze the top together into a funnel. This meant that I was probably only getting a couple of mouthfuls of water per drink station.

Given the weather conditions (see below) I think I was therefore loosing far more liquid than I was taking on board, even though I took a drink from every station. This certainly accounts for the gradual loss of performance in the later stages plus the early signs of muscle cramps in the last few km. I certainly wasn't unique in this situation as I saw so many people suffering during the last 10km, many having pulled up with cramp.

With hindsight I probably should have made the effort to slow down at the drink stations so as to not spill so much and therefore be able to get more water on board. Someone also mentioned in their post-race analysis that they got their wife to pass them drink bottles at a couple of points in the race. I'd never thought of that, but it's certainly an option that I will consider having available in the future.

Weather

Coupled with the difficulty I had taking on water, I think the weather conditions on the day contributed significantly to dehydration problems. It was a clear, sunny and warm day. However, the stiff sea breeze made it feel much cooler than it actually was. I think this resulted in a number of things happening:

1. Extra effort was needed to run into the wind at a few points along the course. This resulted in more exertion that I didn't take account of in my pacing.
2. The higher than expected temperatures and warm sun was causing more perspiration than expected (certainly much more than I'd been used to in any of my early morning training runs), but I didn't feel that I was getting hot at any point due to the cool breeze.
3. The strong breeze was drying perspiration very quickly so it wasn't obvious just how much fluid I was loosing from sweating.

In all my previous races all I’ve needed to worry about was pacing in a head or tail wind or looking out for sunburn. This was the first race where weather had a significant impact on my performance and, given the length of the race, I needed to take it into account, but I didn’t do so successfully.

Learnings For Next Time

So, I’ve completed my first marathon in a really good time. I’ve got my good-for-age time for London in 2016 (unless they change the rules/requirements). What did I learn that I will do different next year?

Training plan adjustments

I was really happy with the P&D training plan that I followed. It seemed to work very well for me and the pacing discipline and strong scientific grounding really allowed me to have confidence in the plan.

The one change that I would make when using it again would be to add some additional marathon pace work and adjust when this occurs in the run.

First off I’d make sure that all of my long runs finish with a couple of kilometres at marathon pace. I feel that this would better prepare my legs for dealing with that last few km of the marathon when they are tired and when maintaining pace is essential for a fast time.

Additionally, in the plan there were a few marathon paced long runs, but I executed them as a short warm-up, marathon pace section and then the remainder of the long run at slow pace. When following the plan in future I will do all of the slow pace work first and then position the marathon pace work at the end. Again, the goal will be not to teach the legs to run a marathon pace (they can already do that) but to teach them to do it when they are tired.

Hydration strategy and practice

If the next race I do is planning to use paper cups for water I’ll be setting up a drinks station in my road and practicing and practicing until I can pick up cups and drink a decent amount from them without spillage! I really should have done that before Brighton but I just didn’t consider it such an issue.

I’m also certainly going to be going away and researching hydration strategies, fluid loss to perspiration and so forth. There are systems you can use whereby you weigh yourself before and after runs at different efforts and in different temperatures. From these it is possible to determine your expected rate of fluid loss and then use this as to plan and influence how much and how often you need to drink during a race. I plan to never go into a race again without having full certainty on how much fluid I need to consume.

Finally, if I have supporters coming along to cheer me on at my next marathon I will be making sure they are each armed with a disposable bottle of water with an added electrolyte tablet. That way if I’m struggling to take on enough water at drink stations I can always be sure that there will be a good alternative option available.

Strategy improvements

I still think my pacing strategy was reasonably sound and I think I followed it fairly successfully. However, for my next marathon I will aim to be much more precise with pacing in the early part of the race and not let myself get too carried away (even if it’s only by a few seconds per kilometre).

I’ve also learnt that as the distance of the race increases I need to take much more note of the weather conditions and adjust my expectations and pacing plan accordingly. In particular, I need to make sure I’m not over exerting into a headwind and getting the most from a tailwind rather than trying to maintain a consistent pace throughout.

The Next Marathon

Now that my first marathon is complete I’m already planning the next. Provided the rules don’t change I’ll be planning to exercise my good-for-age entry into the Virgin London Marathon in 2016. And I’ll be working really hard to get that sub 3-hour time on my next attempt.