This year I am attempting to qualify for the GB Age group team for next year’s World Championships. The qualifier is in September so I entered the Dambuster in June as a practice event….
Pre race
The training in the build up hasn’t been ideal as I sprained my ankle playing 11-a-side football at the start of May. This meant I have done no running for 6 weeks! And no running off the bike.
However, I have hit all my swimming sessions and starting increasing the cycling - the good thing with triathlon is there is always an option to train. And I felt pretty good going into the race
Nutrition
I often think simple is best. I always have a slow releasing carb breakfast (in this case weetabix) followed by a banana pre race and plenty of water.
Then I work on the basis of around 1g of carbs per kilo of bodyweight after 1hr. With my race plan lasting 2 hours 20 this would mean around 100g of additional carbs - this would be 2 carb drinks with electrolyte on the bike and 2 gels on the run.
This worked pretty well, although there was no option to grab the 2nd gel on the run so I was just going to finish with pure effort!
Swim 28:55 (1:51/100m) 🏊♂️
Not a bad effort for me. The first 500m is always pretty crowded so it think it’s best to keep relaxed and build into it. Then the 2nd 500m was right into the sun (I recommend proper open water goggles to maximise visibility). The final 500m I felt strong and was starting to really pull through the water
Bike 1h 16 (av 34.5kph) 🚴
This is where I get competitive! I can see other people around me and race them! My plan was to stick at a pedal speed of 90 rpm with a heart race of around 160 bpm and this plan worked well. The best bit was the downhill and hitting 66.4kph! 💨
Run 44:24 (av 4:27/km) 🏃🏻♂️
This was going to be the dodgy part. I decided to run with an ankle support. This started well but ended badly - 4k from the end I could feel it rubbing badly, then bring on the blisters from hell. That said I stuck to my pace target of going under 4:30/km, which considering the injury and the heat that was okay
Total time 2h 25 (7th / 38 in my age group)
Now I think my ankle will take it I will start ramping up the running (when the blisters have died down!) and build up through the summer 💪🏼