I haven't written anything in a while, even though i have thought of it. In the last few weeks i've taken a week off work to study, i've had my first dips in open water this year, i've put some good training in, but also had some down periods where i've been questioning where i'm at & even thought of not going to Turkey for the euro champs. Work has been busy, and i have one particular colleague who irritates the living daylights out of me so that hasn't helped as i've been struggling with that in my head. My uni work has been stressful as my next deadline clashes with Turkey & it's my dissertation proposal so having taken a week off work i did lots of study, but then after meeting with tutors, and thinking things through i realised that the proposed plan wasn't viable so i have had to change it. However, pinning down very busy tutors to finalise plans is difficult which means time passes quickly and adds to the stress. Then there's training...i've been questioning whether i'm improving, whether i should be doing more, whether i've reached my peak and am not all that after all and definitely starting to think i'm "all the gear but no idea"!
A few weeks ago we had the first time trial (TT) of the season and i was looking forward to smashing my only time posted from last year as i now had a fast bike and with the training i've been doing i was looking for improvement. Needless to say i was gutted as i was actually a few seconds slower even though the conditions were perfect (other than bloody great big potholes on the roads!). However, i do now have a new strategy for powering up the small inclines standing, to maintain speed, rather than dropping down gears and slipping right back in terms of speed. So i'm ready for tomorrow to see how i fare...
Last weekend was the first race of the season and the first race that i could compare my performance from last year to. Last year this was my first ever tri so i was looking forward to seeing improvements.
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| heading towards the finish - thank f**k! |
The weather was perfect, no wind, dry, warmish, so there was a great pool of spectators. The car park was full by the time we got there and that was 6:30am! i'm usually one of the first in transition at this time (this is when it opens) but there were already about 20 bikes in there - everyone keen for the first tri of the season. what was also brilliant was the number of celtic triers - we had 50+ taking part and to see how club colours dominate was fantastic, even if i didn't know everyone because of so many new members recently. I was in wave 1 for the swim and my ambitions of mastering and enjoying open water swimming this season are still a long way off as i find the first 5-10 minutes the hardest as my mind is telling me to stop, my breathing is difficult to settle, even though i am going slow, not panicking, etc. it's still so different swimming in the safety of the pool. the swim this year was long, we were all penned into a small space meaning you couldn't float horizontal and get any room so as soon as we were off i moved to the right hand side but then i ended up in the shallow bits so was scraping the bottom of the dock as i was swimming. this meant i had to stop a few times to shift myself over, although i probably should have just swam left as it wasn't like i was boxed in. Anyway, the swim was uneventful, felt OK, and came out with someone who is slightly faster than me in the pool so was pleased with that (even though the actual time was 3 mins slower than last year because of the extra distance!). T1 was OK and onto bike and this is where it all went wrong...i had absolutely nothing in my legs, i had my garmin on so i could see my speed and it was so far off my usual pace it was demoralising. People were passing me that i usually put 2 minutes into at least over a race, and as it was these people beat me by 2 mins on the bike so i was at least 4 minutes off the pace!!!!! All i could do was keep the legs spinning at a good cadence and keep my speed at a steady state (albeit that much slower than normal). I was actually about 30 seconds slower than last year when i didn't get out of my middle chainring last year as it was my first tri and i didnt know how the legs would be!!! It was pretty horrible to see girls glide straight past me because i never get overtaken by other girls on the bike but at least 8 strolled past, even one who had about 3 stone at least one me! So a crisis of confidence was heightened to say the least!
However, it does look likely that i had some type of virus as looking at the days leading up to the race i had been lightheaded the day before, lethargic and achey mid week, headaches in the run up, and a day or 2 after the race a little chesty...the only saving grace was that my run was 'OK', not as fast as i'd have wanted, and again 30 seconds down on my time here last year, but given that i had nothing in my legs, if i had i think i would have gone quicker, so we will have to wait until next year to see! My first race that i didn't enjoy & that went wrong, so not bad really having now done 7 triathlons and 3 duathlons.
In the first few days after the race my mojo was definitely lacking and this wasn't helped by the hassle of the trip to Turkey for the euro champs. There were concerns about bikes getting out there on time due to overbooking by the airlines and not having enough capacity to take all the bikes. Thankfully my bike wasn't affected, but that, along with kit not being ready on time to take with us, plus the crisis of confidence feeling i'm not good enough to be there, and the fact that the euros are dominated by GB athletes with only a few other triathletes from a few countries, it just felt like a whole lot of money for a glorified GB race when the standard would be less than racing in a qualifying event here. Going solo as well, to an unknown country, and an unknown quantity in racing at euro champs is anxiety provoking enough, let alone with all these extra worries. If it wasn't for me losing my money if i pulled out i might very well be writing this having pulled out. Thankfully though i've pulled my socks up, and looking forward to seeing the elites race - alistair brownlee, javier gomez, non stanford, vicky holland, lucy hall, amongst others - woohoo! bring on the end of champs party is all i can say :)
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| On top of the Bwlch |
In order to get my mojo back i decided on a challenging bike ride saturday. 60k was what the training plan stated, but i ended up doing 73k/45miles up over cimla and then bwlch and rhigos mountains, taking 2hr56. the weather was perfect for it and i wanted to see if i could do it, as i had always been concerned i wouldn't. needless to say i felt really strong, keeping cadence steady and never struggling, even though i was in my lowest gear for a little while on bwlch before easily moving up through my gears. what was really pleasing was on the way home, having gone up at least 4100ft, as i was coming along the TT route by resolven i was easily cruising along at the pace i had been struggling to race at least week, and then when i put my foot down, my pace easily rose and i could sustain it, so my legs only went missing for the race it seems! thank f**k for that! Just gotta test them again now in the TT tuesday! the only downside was the pain in my knees and back which makes me question whether i'd ever be able to do an ironman...
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| At the top of rhinos mountain |
The day after there was no obvious tiredness in the legs which was pleasing, and i did a good 10k with 10x 30 secs bursts of speed. I also took another dip in north dock as i'm trying to teach myself to swim non-stop for at least 5 minutes from the off to get used to it in open water. I did miss 2 swims this week through finishing work late, and back pain from the long ride, but next week i'll have at least 3 hours in the pool so that'll be fine.
So, it's been a mixed bag really. I'll catch up with coach this week after her trip away, and see what she says about things, but i have to trust in her methods as they certainly work for her other charges, so why should i think that i know best? It's why i'm paying her after all.
Time to dust off that moto "I can, I will!!"
