Nice! Since I had to defer my first HIM, I have now signed up for the my local sprint in Sept. I have some issues to resolve with that race from last year - 
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Iāve got a sprint this weekend!
My head is messing with me already. Itās a super low priority as Iām just coming off some time off so Iām not fit anyway, and yet Iāve put off the super easy little transition practise workout for 2 days because it makes me nervous. No idea what Iām actually worried about 
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We have our first Club Tri this weekend. It is VERY much a C race for me but I will be going all out, cause race. Not super looking forward to the temperature though, 10 degrees seems like a silly temperature to be getting out of a pool sopping wet and sticking yourself on a bike! Luckily theres a pretty big hill in the middle of the course so theres ample opportunity to warm up.
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Race report from this weekend.
While I was ready to throw myself into a hard swim, bike and run, I was 100% sure that I was not ready to throw my dripping wet self onto a bike in a tri suit in 10 degree weather. Luckily for us the weather was supposed to be sunny and in the end it got up to the dizzying heights of 13 degrees.
Our club triathlons are super casual and while I was there and racked in plenty of time because my partner and children were marshalling I was anything but ready. I walked into the pool to find nearly everyone (I was second last) already in the water ready to go. We got to do a couple of warm up laps and then we were away. The pool is an old style one where the wake makes you feel like you are properly in a choppy lake, its also 25 yards rather than meters so its āshortā. 6:07 later I was our of the water and onto the bike. I figured that as this was the first race of the year that transition was neutralised so I took my time and didnt embarass myself by attempting my first flying mount in about 8 months.
The bike course is one of those that are in the UK are described as āsportingā. Which is code for āthere is a big hill in the middleā. Essentially its āfirst half uphill second half downhillā. I managed to pass quite a few of the faster swimmers from my wave on the way up and held my own on the way back down. Average speed was annoyingly close to 30kph, which on that course is pretty good, and I was super happy with how I performed.
2nd transition was just as poor as the first, if not worse, and I was out on the run. Another āsportingā course. Bouyed on by seeing my son ringing his cowbell on their corner I was off and heading up the hill. By this point I hate hills. Eventually reached the downhill just as a stitch kicked in so I took the chance to recover rather than fly down.
Overall time was 1:03:34. We had to make a bit of a change to the bike course this year due to some roadworks with traffic lights, so the bike was a bit longer (2km) than usual. I have had a look back and I did it in 2016 and did 1:06:37 so nice to see the improvement.
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First race report in a few years! Pretty low-key local sprint distance off a broken collarbone and a couple of months of no swimming or running, so no real ambition there aside from a fun day out and a few post-race beers.
Swim was hilarious- canāt put much force through my left shoulder at the moment, so I ended up swimming one armed with the other more or less along for the ride, all the whole violently canting to my left. Managed to lurch in and out of drafts enough to not lose as much as expected, and made up a bit of time through T1. Still got the flying mount 
Bike was uneventful- some fatigue in the legs and a bit slower than expected, but I was fairly sure Iād passed most of the women by the second half.
Ended up with nobody in sight for the whole run, and I wasnāt at all confident I had the course right. (Iād blame the lack of markings if I didnāt zone out for the entire run briefing 
)
Definetly could have pushed more towards the end, which I think was partially due to not really knowing where my fitness was and not having anyone else to chase.
To my surprise I ended up with first overall, and squeezed in ahead of the menās winner- not a super competitive field obviously, but neither was I so Iāll take it for everything itās worth 
definitely a couple of things to work on in terms of transitions and pacing but I think theyāll come with time, and Iām excited to see where I can build to in terms of fitness.
Best of luck to everyone with their upcoming seasons!
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Welcome back to racing and congratulations!
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Reading the race reports Iām not sure if I should envy you guys for taking the plunge, or be happy I donāt āhave toā be racing yet.
I shall begin the multisport season with a 10-60-10 km duathlon less than a month from now (I may have mentioned this in another thread already), and my first run-bike-run brick last weekend ended up destroying my legs. The brick was nothing fancy - approximately a 5-40-10, the runs paced in high zone 2 (just below LT1) and the bike including 8x5ā at half ironman pace (which Iām expecting to be my race bace in the duathlon). The legs felt alright during the workout but pretty terrible the next day! Why am I doing this? LOL
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Nice job!!!
Duathlon Race Report time!
I had originally entered a Sprint Duathlon for last weekend but then due to a cock up of my own (and my partners) resulting in a clash of calendars meant that I came to the decision that I would skip that one and find something else. Luckily there was a Duathlon this weekend at a local bike circuit. It was run by a group of 4 final year uni students as part of their course.
The race was run on the smooth tarmac of the purpose built bike circuit at one of the Universities in Leeds. Its about a mile long with a reasonably gentle hill one way and then a turn at the top and back down again. Wide open bends which were perfect for carrying speed through. Generally built for a LOT of fun.
First run was 1 lap of the track and then down on to a playing field for a couple of laps. I set off with the leaders and very quickly saw a couple of them float off into the sunset, while I was still running at PB 5km pace, always the right way to start a duathlon 
When I say that the course went DOWN to a playing field I mean it went DOWN, there was a steady decline all on grass and dirt which lead to a rugby field. Obviously I didnt change my effort level but the pace dropped significantly. Especially as the laps of the field took you part way back up the hill before cruelly sending you down again!
Luckily I had set off too fast as the run ended up beign just over 4km rather than 5 and I fnished in a time of 17:01.
On to the bike and the first lap was all about finding how the track would feel. The gentle incline suddenly didnt feel that gentle but I was never off the big ring and just had to knock it back 2 gears to get up each lap. I dont think that I touched my breaks unless I was coming up behind someone just to make sure it was all safe. My bike currently needs a little bit of TLC as a couple of the top gears slip and I did run out of gears a couple of times down the hill but I figured it was OK as it was holding me back from completely gassing myself on the bike.
On to the final run and it was once again down on to the field for a lap which ended up being about 2km all told. Running on grass at the end of a Duathlon is HARD! Significantly harder than running on tarmac. Plus it was down and uphill.
Finished 7th out of about 40 in 1:02 which I am super happy with.
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I wish there were more duathlon options near me. I would think it would be easier to put on and cheaper to do for the RD insurance wise in comparison with a triathlon.
Youād have thought so. There is no requirement for any water so venues would be easier to find certainly. There is a really good culture of them here in the UK and one of the best parts is when they are often held at motor racing circuits, of which there are many. The fact that you can race hard on beautiful tarmac while also being entirely traffic free is amazing!
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Yep, duathlons are great, especially on race tracksā¦much better than triathlons!
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Did a race yesterdayā¦ will write up a full report later in the week, as it went well, but gave me a lot to think over!
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Looking forward to the write up. Even if the race didnāt go well (I hope not!), the swim location is really scenic! Where was it?
Looks like Mont Pellier, France.
Wow what a view. Smooth water too, gotta love it! Hope the race went well and eager to hear about your experience.
OK, here we go. Yes, it was the Salagou Triathon, near Montpellier in the South of France. Itās near where I live, and might be the last triathlon there for a while, as the site managers want to make some changes about how events are run. This one has been going for about 8 years and has been run by the MAT (Montpellier Tri Club).
I signed up for the M (Olympic) distance, as my second of that distance. Really I would have preferred to do the S distance Cross race, but it might be the last chance to do the M format, with a really lovely road bike course. Also Iāve already mountain biked the Cross race route a couple of times, and theyād annouced that it would be open to mountain bikes or gravel bikes, which both indicates the lack of technicality, and sounds like complete carnage.
Iām still quite new at this. My main objective was to have a solid swim and a well executed race. My last races were both last year, and for those Iād ended up gassed and gasping for breath on the swim. I have been in the pool a lot since then, and in the sea when possible, doing a lot of technique work including Effortless Swimmingās 5-day catch clinic, and building up interval distances using a progression from a Swim Smooth email newsletter, but I didnāt manange to find a short race to check how I was going before Salagou, so I was pretty nervous.
I arrived in good time, picked up race numbers and bottle of wine and got everything into place.
I left the rosƩ in the car.
While sorting out T1, the annoucer asked me for a few words - he was delighted to find a pale English bloke, so I said a few nice things and endured the inevitable comments about how it was a bit cloudy so perfect for me!
Water was warmer than I expected, very comfortable with a wetsuit (watch recorded 21Ā°C all the way round). I had about 10 minutes to warmup so I swam out and back. Towards the end of swimming I felt more water on the insode of the wetsuit, but didnāt think anything of it, as Iād tried to get a bit in via the neck to avoid feeling constricted. However, just after the start, we all started wading out (bit too stony and gradual for full on running) another participant asked me if it was normal that my wetsuit was completely open at the back! He was kind enough to zip it up for meā¦ As someone commented, the water was really calm - bit of a contrast to the last edition in 2019 where it was so rough due to wind that they had to change the course to two smaller loops! Hereās another prerace lake photo:
There were 250 of us, so not too busy in the water, and Iād made sure to start towards the back and on the outside. Still had to do a lot of looking around and avoiding people though.
First leg of the swim seemed to take a long time, but no explosion, and managed to do more crawl than breaststoke. Felt the fatigue building between the buoys, and then started feeling more water than normal coming in again! Might have to think about a different wetsuit. However, the final leg back to shore went pretty well. I think having the suit open actually helped me - I normally twist a bit too much when breathing, and having less cool water coming in when I stayed straighter really helped feel the position! The water was clear enough to see people a few metres away, and at one point we went over a shallower part where the lake was full of plants - itās amazing how much faster you feel when you have a visual reference. We were going back into the sun and I couldnāt actually see the exit, so I just followed people and ended up in the right place. Came out of the water (again) amongst the last people, but not too wobbly on the legs and pretty happy with how it went. Watch said 46 minutes and 1585m. After the race a lot of people were saying that one of the bouys had moved and there was 400m extra, and lots of them seem to have around 1800m or more on Strava.
T1 was quick, didnāt fall over, put cycling shoes on. Iāve practised the rubber band thing, but there was a short stony patch to get to the road, no-one else seemed to have shoes clipped to bikes, and I felt like playing safe. A quick joke with the announcer about which side of the road to ride on, and away.
Yes, itās a cross bike with road wheels. Good enough for me!
Plan for the bike was to stay around 80-85% of FTP. The course had one long climb, but 5.5% average gradient, so no crazy efforts required, I figured that I could recover a tiny bit on the descent, so just had to avoid surging way over target on the flats and climbs. The course was really nice - a mixture of red earth and canyons, vineyards, flowering fields and mediterranean woodland. Open roads, but quiet.
I managed to stay close to target power all the way - first time Iāve paced like that over that kind of distance. I didnāt go all over the place, but found it hard to stay consistant on the long stretch back to Liausson, the Garmin Extended Display feature worked really well for showing time, distance and 3s power. Drank and ate almost as planned. It got pretty hot towards the end of the bike leg, high 20s maybe more (watch shows up to 32Ā°C, not sure how reliable it is). Managed to slip past two people who were pedalling on the final descent just by tucking downā¦ Span lightly for the last km, slipped off shoes and did a āproperā dismount without crashing or crossing the line (to the approval of the official!) then shoes, visor and out on the run.
This was the hard bit. The fast people were finishing their second (5.5km) lap as I was heading out for my firstā¦ it was proper hot, but just on the limit of ātoo hotā - I didnāt feel like I had to dump water over me, but I was feeling it. After about 500m I felt one of my quads startign to cramp; so stopped for 30s to stretch it out. I knew I wasnāt running fast, but just tried to keep going steady, drank water at the aid stations, had a cola+caffeine gel each lap and pushed to the finish, even managing to pass two or three people Iād been back and forth with. Thereās a cruel climb up away from the lake, with steeper ramps just when you think itās over, then back along bare red dirt trails with a lot of reflected heat. The final stretch through the lakeside woods had a couple of unavoidable puddles that had me doubting my choice to go sockless.
The friendly announcer was happy to get an āOh my Godā from me, followed by compliments on the course, the region and the volunteers.
Overall, 210th out of 251, finishing in 3h44. Put like that, itās not a great result, but I really am still a beginner at this kind of thing.
Positives are that the swim went so much better than the last race, and I seem to be surprisingly balanced now - I held the same position after swim and bike (211) and actually moved up a place overall on the run, holding a pretty steady pace right the way through. Nutrition went pretty much as planned (was aiming for 90g/hr but only hit about 60g/hrā¦ need to drink + eat a bit more on the bike) and recovered OK afterwards, no blisters, no big aches.
Itās pretty impressive how many fast people there are out there, and difficult for me to deal with - Iām coming off a forced retirement from another sport where I could pretty much count on being on the podium at regional champs. I know that I should focus on myself, and have a growth mindset, and be happy with making progressā¦ but itās tough down at the bottom end of races, surrounded by other beginners in our decathlon trisuits. I like making progress, but Iām really not sure if Iām ever going to see the top half of rankings. I think I need to step back to S-distance races, just to ease off the pressure I feel from having to swim a long way, and work on that mindset. I was really happy with how I felt the race went.
That was probably a bit longā¦ thanks for reading!
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Great race report, thanks for sharing and well done.
Itās always good for people to be able to see what racing is like for others, particularly newbies and people thinking of giving tri a go. 
Lots of people always have recordings of longer swims. OW swim recording is totally unreliable. Believe the race directors, not the watches.
Yes, Iām not too convinced by the supposed longer swim distance, although it would be strange if my recording was amongst the most accurate, given the time I spent breaststroking with my hand under the water.
Thinking about it more, it was a good race for me - itās only the 6th tri Iāve done, so I can be pretty happy with my progress.
Now I just need to decide whatās next. Thereās a local Cross tri mid-June, registration for Frodenoās SGrail100 has just opened (220ā¬ā¦ never paid that much for a race entry) or this has just been announced, and the bike route for the middle distance course goes right past my house! That tempts me, even if I really donāt want to get into the idea of doing longer and longer races.
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Well training blocks have been fairly successful for this calendar year since taking some time off late last year to try and heal up a really bad case of plantar fasciitis. My plan of alternating cycling and running focused weeks has allowed me to accumulate more quality time than i did last year and Iām now also doing more weekly volume. Actual paces and power levels have still taken a hit compared to 2019/2020 but i want expecting things to come back that quickly.
About to start my race focused block after a few weeks of high power/speed and cadence shorter intervals. Have a backpacking trip this weekend, but thereās actually a good amount of specificity there due to the amount of elevation weighted down with a pack.
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