Training Log Archive: paul c

Event: Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Triathlon
 

On getting up this morning the conditions were almost perfect, slightly overcast with only a light wind.
I had 3 objectives from this race
1. Hit the swim as hard as I could. Tick
2. Have a strong bike pushing hard and hoping not to fade. Tick
3. Go off normal pace for the 1st half of the run and shut it down in the 2nd half if needed. Tick

C • Ace! 12

The start was a bit of a shambles as nobody knew where it exactly was and we didn’t really have much warning of the horn.
The first 400m were pretty intense for me as 2 guys tried to nearly drown me as they both seemed to want to be where I was. Took in a lot of water and missed a lot of breaths. After composing myself mentally I got a draft as I wanted and pottered along. After a 1/3 I found myself at the front of a group with about a 20m gap to the next. I worked hard to close it which I did and then was next to another swimmer for the last 1/3 of the race. I was feeling good and picking up other swimmers towards the end. The swim was longer than last year as we had to swim past the jetty almost back to the start.
46/427

Started ok and was at the front of a group for the first 5 miles. Then finally 1 of them went past me and we worked hard swapping the lead until the hill. At times we were well within the draft zone with 3 others just sitting behind us. I was going into the red zone quite a bit but I wanted a hard race. It seemed that it was a draft fest today, I suppose this will always happen on a flat course but I only saw 1 draft buster all day which wasn’t so good.
Finally one of the jack bastards behind me started to do some work towards the end of the first lap. The pace started to slow on the 2nd so I made a move to drop him off the back. Then a few faster riders came through and this gave me the motivation (kick up the arse) that I needed to finish it off. The last half lap saw me bridging a lot of gaps but it was only to go to the legal distance and not blatantly draft. I was very happy to have the energy to do this even though my legs were spent by this stage.
I had even laps of 1.10 so am very happy with this and 8 minutes quicker than last year. A little bit sore with the new saddle so will get some miles in before next month.
What I’m not happy with was my nutrition. I took it down for the first lap but completely forgot on the 2nd and had nothing except a gel towards the end. I also only had ¾ of a bottle when I had planned to have double this.
35/427

I took a comfort brake of about 20 seconds after ½ mile and was well into my running. I was running at 6.20 pace for the 1st lap overtaking 10 in front of me putting me in the top 10 of my wave. After this it was hard to work out who I was racing but had lots of others to overtake. I slowed on the 2nd lap by about 1 minute but decided to pick it up again as I overtook a group that looked good with 3 miles to go. I finished the run with plenty of energy left which is a plus. T2 was such a mess that I missed taking the planned 2 gels. I decided to stick to water until I felt tired and pop a few gels if needed but as I didn’t tire I got away with it.
I will not be able to do this next month and will need to keep on top of nutrition just as much as pacing the bike leg correctly to HR.
Very happy with today but it’s not the full distance so I’m not counting my chickens. I also only finished 10 minutes behind Chris Goodfellow who was runner up at Challenge Copenhagen last year in 8.47. I finished 6th in the wave today, 9th overall with a much stronger field than last year and the full run distance.

5/427