Its taken me a while to write this, as I've been travelling, racing, but also getting a bit disappointed. Last weekend's adventure, after all that fun and games in Austria, Italy and Switzerland, was a very muddy trip to Milton Keynes, which paled by comparison to the aforementioned beauty of Venice, Verona, Varese, Annecy and Geneva. But still, I wanted to claim a National Championship, and this was the only way to do it.
Unfortunately I also managed to give myself food poisoning at our club's Handicap swim event - well the BBQ afterwards - 2 days before the race. So things weren't exactly going to plan, but I decided to race and hope for the best. Now, as I've lost a bit of weight lately, it was going to need a triumph of carbohydrate metabolism to get me the 3,000 calories I need to get around a 5 hour half ironman given I don't exactly have a large amount of fat stored that I could go to in case of emergency....
So, on the day, it was a grotty, grey start, with surface water all over the M25, M1 and a dismal mood from most of the competitors when we saw that our beautiful bikes would be racked in about 6 inches of mud.
But race we were determined to, having made it this far. And the organisers were really on the ball, making changes to the course so that we could run without inadvertently entering the bog-snorkelling championships as well as the half ironman. My club, Thames Turbo were out in force as it was our chosen club championship race, which made it a great day out and lifted the spirits when they were flagging. Which they did, at about 2 hours 15, when my energy stores ran out. So that made the rest of the race a real battle. My body wanted to stop and lie down, my mind willed it on. I was determined, as this is my last race in the UK this year, (maybe ever if we are not due to have summer again!) that I would finish. So I just carefully put gels and Powerbar drink into my poor old stomach at a rate it could take and made it to the line without any drama. But it wasn't a great performance, and I had to watch a lot of people that I should have been able to out-run overtake me, which is always a difficult situation. But I wil bounce back. I amazingly managed to sneak the 3rd place on the podium in 4 hours 55. Slower than last year despite a short run. I am really disappointed as I wanted to perform in front of so many of my clubmates, but there's not much you can do about food poisoning. So here are my lessons:
Things that could be improved:
1. I got daunted by the really feisty swim -my goggles were knocked off and I took a good few punches. Took a long time to get my rhythm, although this was the same for everyone, I lost about 2 mins.
2. Getting cold on the start of the bike started to get me thinking negative thoughts, even though I was riding well and was well placed (5th overall) after lap 1. Need to rise above that next time.
3. no more chicken at barbequeues.
Good things to repeat:
1. I managed to focus on the important stuff, and not get panicked by the lack of nutrition.
2. My new Giro Selector helmet is a dream. At least in cold weather. Not sure how well it will stand up to Las Vegas heat as its black though.
3. I made some well chosen adjustments due to the mud that paid off, e.g. ran further with the bike after the mount line to avoid the carnage of other people wobbling all over the place, and I picked up my shoes and ran barefoot til the concrete part of the run to avoid any loss of shoes.
So it wasn't all bad. And 3rd in the Nationals is still a good result. Officially I'm 2nd, so I think there must be a mistake, but I'll update this if that changes. Onwards and upwards. Zurich 5150 next week. A chance to put it all behind me.
Unfortunately I also managed to give myself food poisoning at our club's Handicap swim event - well the BBQ afterwards - 2 days before the race. So things weren't exactly going to plan, but I decided to race and hope for the best. Now, as I've lost a bit of weight lately, it was going to need a triumph of carbohydrate metabolism to get me the 3,000 calories I need to get around a 5 hour half ironman given I don't exactly have a large amount of fat stored that I could go to in case of emergency....
So, on the day, it was a grotty, grey start, with surface water all over the M25, M1 and a dismal mood from most of the competitors when we saw that our beautiful bikes would be racked in about 6 inches of mud.
But race we were determined to, having made it this far. And the organisers were really on the ball, making changes to the course so that we could run without inadvertently entering the bog-snorkelling championships as well as the half ironman. My club, Thames Turbo were out in force as it was our chosen club championship race, which made it a great day out and lifted the spirits when they were flagging. Which they did, at about 2 hours 15, when my energy stores ran out. So that made the rest of the race a real battle. My body wanted to stop and lie down, my mind willed it on. I was determined, as this is my last race in the UK this year, (maybe ever if we are not due to have summer again!) that I would finish. So I just carefully put gels and Powerbar drink into my poor old stomach at a rate it could take and made it to the line without any drama. But it wasn't a great performance, and I had to watch a lot of people that I should have been able to out-run overtake me, which is always a difficult situation. But I wil bounce back. I amazingly managed to sneak the 3rd place on the podium in 4 hours 55. Slower than last year despite a short run. I am really disappointed as I wanted to perform in front of so many of my clubmates, but there's not much you can do about food poisoning. So here are my lessons:
Things that could be improved:
1. I got daunted by the really feisty swim -my goggles were knocked off and I took a good few punches. Took a long time to get my rhythm, although this was the same for everyone, I lost about 2 mins.
2. Getting cold on the start of the bike started to get me thinking negative thoughts, even though I was riding well and was well placed (5th overall) after lap 1. Need to rise above that next time.
3. no more chicken at barbequeues.
Good things to repeat:
1. I managed to focus on the important stuff, and not get panicked by the lack of nutrition.
2. My new Giro Selector helmet is a dream. At least in cold weather. Not sure how well it will stand up to Las Vegas heat as its black though.
3. I made some well chosen adjustments due to the mud that paid off, e.g. ran further with the bike after the mount line to avoid the carnage of other people wobbling all over the place, and I picked up my shoes and ran barefoot til the concrete part of the run to avoid any loss of shoes.
So it wasn't all bad. And 3rd in the Nationals is still a good result. Officially I'm 2nd, so I think there must be a mistake, but I'll update this if that changes. Onwards and upwards. Zurich 5150 next week. A chance to put it all behind me.
Good to see an update Liz, sounds like you need to avoid the BBQs. Bummer! Sounds like you managed to get a good performance in all the same - well done. Best of luck with Zurich.
ReplyDelete