I’ve been pretty tired since Ironman Austria. It took me 3 days to start feeling human again and be able to eat normally. I started some light training 5 days after the race and by the end of week 2 I was starting to feel better. I was planning a big weekend with a long ride and a long run for the weekend 3 weeks after the Ironman and then starting to taper for Canada. As it turned out Chris wanted to do a 2-up time trial on Saturday and I’ve agreed to ride with him, hoping that riding to the start, the race and riding back will be enough of a workout. And what workout it was! I’ve not ridden a bike so hard probably for about two years. Chris is pretty strong at the moment and had to wait for me on the hill. To cut the long story short we ended up in 4th place, in 1:08:06 and I averaged 255W (271 NP!) and 164bpm heart rate. Needles to say Chris was pretty happy to bag another 6 BCF points and get his 3rd CAT license. I ended up with 90 miles in 4:53 for the entire ride on 215W NP. On Sunday I did a long run in Richmond Park with Alex keeping me company on a mountain bike. The run actually felt quite good and I’ve managed to keep a good pace with some hard efforts, but I was shattered afterwards. I had to take it fairly easy for a couple of days afterwards and was going into the London Triathlon, held on the following weekend, feeling somewhat apprehensive.
The London Triathlon is always one of my favorite events in the calendar and the weather has typically been very good for the event. Despite heavy rain on Saturday it cleared up a bit on Sunday and the only problem was quite a strong wind. The swim started well for me and I’ve managed to find some clear water and get into a rhythm quickly. Unfortunately after the turnaround I’ve managed to get dropped by the group I was in and when I looked up everyone was 100 m up the front. The return leg seemed to take forever and eventually I came out of the water in almost 28 minutes, making it my slowest swim on this course. Onto the bike and I was struggling to get going. After the short first lap on the way out to Wesminster I started to finally get into it and was making good progress through the field. Bike split 1:03:06, not great, but reasonably solid in the windy conditions. On the run course I immediately felt 100% better. Running relaxed I was now passing many people and getting more and more confident. At the finish I felt quite fresh and was surprised when I saw the run split – 34:52, making it my quickest run on the course ever. The end result was 2:10:08, good enough for a 27th place in the sub-2:30 category. The run split gives me a bit more confidence ahead of Ironman Canada in 10 days time, but I know that I will struggle on the swim and the hilly bike course, so I will go with no expectations and just try to enjoy the day. Next update after Ironman Canada on the 24th August.
The London Triathlon is always one of my favorite events in the calendar and the weather has typically been very good for the event. Despite heavy rain on Saturday it cleared up a bit on Sunday and the only problem was quite a strong wind. The swim started well for me and I’ve managed to find some clear water and get into a rhythm quickly. Unfortunately after the turnaround I’ve managed to get dropped by the group I was in and when I looked up everyone was 100 m up the front. The return leg seemed to take forever and eventually I came out of the water in almost 28 minutes, making it my slowest swim on this course. Onto the bike and I was struggling to get going. After the short first lap on the way out to Wesminster I started to finally get into it and was making good progress through the field. Bike split 1:03:06, not great, but reasonably solid in the windy conditions. On the run course I immediately felt 100% better. Running relaxed I was now passing many people and getting more and more confident. At the finish I felt quite fresh and was surprised when I saw the run split – 34:52, making it my quickest run on the course ever. The end result was 2:10:08, good enough for a 27th place in the sub-2:30 category. The run split gives me a bit more confidence ahead of Ironman Canada in 10 days time, but I know that I will struggle on the swim and the hilly bike course, so I will go with no expectations and just try to enjoy the day. Next update after Ironman Canada on the 24th August.
