Having put a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself to get around, and albeit secretly, get a half decent time I was determined not to get too stressed and enjoy the day. Arriving, registering, racking my bike etc on the Friday afternoon gave me plenty of time to mooch around the site, have a gander a the lake and worry about all the things that could go wrong(!)

I loaded myself with as much baked potato and pasta as I could before heading to the hotel to check in, arrange my drinks and gels and try to get a half decent night’s sleep. Turns out they ran out of food at the event not long after I left, so glad I got there when I did or it would have been Little Chef to the rescue, and nobody wants that. As predicted I didn’t get a great nights sleep – I’d love to say it was because the dog kept us awake (apparently dogs are allowed in Travelodges – who knew!) but it was the anxious, nervous excitement wreaking havoc with my zzzzzzzs.

When the alarm went off at 4am I was raring to go, full of adrenaline already. Once I’d got Jess out of bed and stopped her faffing (she was about to make a cup of tea 2 minutes before we were due to leave – as if I wasn’t conscious enough of the time!) we headed back to Rutland Water.

Rutland Water – Vitruvian swim start @ sunrise

I headed back to transition and sorted my shoes, gels etc out as soon as I could – I wanted as much time to relax as possible. It’s amazing how much the unknowns of a race can stress me out – I was the same before my first Olympic distance last year, but fine at every one I’ve done since.

Anyway, the time of pre-race bowel movements was nearing and right on cue I made acquaintance with the lovely portaloos.

Race briefing just outside transition was due – while waiting I noticed just how many bling TT bikes there were – far more than I’ve ever seen at any other race and a sign perhaps that this race wasn’t to be taken lightly. Once race briefing was over I headed into the lake – I was in the first wave, so it still wasn’t quite light at this point. The sludge underfoot was horrible but in a weird way soothing! I acclimatised as quickly as possible to try and avoid brain freeze. Soon enough the countdown began and off we went.

Vitruvian swim start

A few knocks to the head later, and after a stint of having the back of my thigh caressed (I appreciated the gesture, but there’s a time and a place!) I started to get into a rhythm. Then my insides decided they weren’t quite done with the portaloos. I find it weird enough peeing in a wetsuit, never mind pooing and so I had no intention of finding out what that sensation felt like.

That did however mean that the remaining 1500m or so of the swim was spent playing mind games with myself as I tried to keep the remainder or my breakfast where it was meant to be. The horizontal-vertical-horizontal movement of getting out of the water after the first lap and running back in for the second didn’t help but I made it all the way around without any sewage related issues. It took me a few seconds longer than planned to get out of the water because my entire left hamstring cramped up as I tried to get out – concerning to say the least. Luckily it was a one-off.

Swim time was 38 mins which I was a bit disappointed with – I know I can do a few minutes quicker relatively easily but in the grand scheme of a middle distance race it was a mere blip. Plus, 3 minutes is a small price to pay to avoid a very embarrassing brown situation in T1 as the wetsuit comes off. No more poo talk now I promise. My stomach settled after a couple minutes of being upright so no more to say on the matter. Phew!

End of the swim

The roads were generally good on the bike – I’ve read a lot of people complaining about traffic because the roads weren’t closed, but with another big event on nearby that weekend and the fallout of a major traffic incident the night before it wasn’t that bad considering. It was however, very windy. And I’m not talking about my “issues” again. I suspected this might cause a few problems, and as I’m still not quite used to the handling of my Planet X 82 front wheel, I held on for dear life going down the first big descent. The articulated lorry that overtook me at this point was terrifying – not because it was close but because of the effect it had on the crosswinds around me – almost sent me into the grass verge at what must have been approaching 50mph!

What I did find quite demoralising was that, because I was in the earliest wave and spent the first 20km or so of the bike doing a lot more overtaking than being overtaken, much of the remainder was spent being overtaken by the faster guys from the later waves. Of course this didn’t occur to me at the time and I just thought I was really slow. There were a lot of Army/Navy/RAF entrants and the majority of those are, as you’d expect, phenomenally fit. The big gears they would be in to fly past me were very impressive – and looking at the results they didn’t disappoint in the swim or run either.

The rest of the first lap was uneventful – I grinded up the big (unexpectedly big and deceptively long) hills, didn’t get stopped at the pedestrian crossing in Ketton and managed to clock 27mph on the electronic traffic speed sign! Lap 2 however was agony – and not my legs. I haven’t really done more than Olympic distance in the aero position, and after about 50km my neck and shoulders were screaming at me. I probably only spent half of the second lap in the aero position because of it, likely costing me 5-10 minutes. Bike lap times weren’t broken down so I don’t know for sure.

One thing worth mentioning was the t-junction that we were warned about in the race briefing. Marshalls were there with police, cones, red flags being waved etc. It was made very clear that if you acted dangerously at this point in particular, it would be a straight DQ and possible police action. Now I’m fine with that – safety has to be seen as a priority – I get it. What I didn’t get was why the marshals had been told to say to approaching racers, regardless of whether there was any traffic coming, “if you think it’s safe to go then go”. When I got there, I slowed down, got that shouted to me and watched an articulated lorry hurtle by. Of course it wasn’t safe to go! Surely it would have been safer for them to shout that it wasn’t safe rather than explicitly stating that it was up to me to make that decision?? Madness.

Anyway, bike time was 2:31 which I was really pleased with – I was thinking 2:40 at best.

I set off WAY too fast on the run, I think I was just glad to be off the bike and lapping up the support of the crowd, Jess included – who tried to embarrass me by shouting “you’re my hero” with a not-so-subtle hint of sarcasm that only Jess can manage! By the 1km sign my quads were threatening to cramp so I slowed it down a bit. It took ages, as it normally does, to get into a rhythm – normally it’s about 4 km in an Olympic race but this was more like 7km. Like the run i spent most of the first lap being overtaken by the forces, looking even more hardcore than they did on the bike! The run was out around the lake and back, twice. So in my head this was 4x 5km (plus a little bit extra) – that mindset worked well, and as I headed out on the second lap I felt really comfortable and was really excited about getting to the finish.

I’d seen an old TriCentral buddy, Matt, on the run – I didn’t know he was racing but did know he was a phenomenal runner and so was only a matter of time until he caught me. That came with about 4km to go, and I’m sure he won’t mind me saying – he looked terrible, much worse than I felt! He did though, catch and overtake me – read into that what you will! I stuck with him and actually broke away again until about 100m from the end where he sprint finished past me and pretty much collapsed over the finish line – good effort! I found the last 2km was really tough – I think my body knew the end was nearing and so was starting to act accordingly. I couldn’t wait to get to the finish line!

Edging towards the end of the run and the race!

Then those words I’d been waiting all day to hear – “number 86, Andy Heaps, you are a Vitruvian”. Relief, happiness, sense of achievement, pain and everything in-between. Jess and Noodle were at the finish line cheering me and taking photos (just Jess taking photos obviously!) so it was the perfect end to the mornings activity.

4 hours and 54 minutes later I am a Vitruvian!

My run time was 1:41, which amazingly is a new half-marathon PB for me! That brought me in, in a total time of 4:54 which is over half an hour quicker than I was hoping for – when Jess told me I was ecstatic – even though I looked far from it!

All in all, great event – I’m glad I picked it as my first middle distance. And an amazing goody bag too! If you’re thinking about stepping up from Olympic to middle, I can definitely recommend The Vitruvian.

I’m afraid this post isn’t nearly as exciting as the title makes out!

I’ve read a lot about triathletes and endurance athletes hitting the wall or ‘bonking’, and to be honest it’s always sounded pretty horrible. Taken from Wikipedia, it is described as:
“In endurance sports such as cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy. Milder instances can be remedied by brief rest and the ingestion of food or drinks containing carbohydrates. The condition can usually be avoided by ensuring that glycogen levels are high when the exercise begins, maintaining glycogen levels during exercise by eating or drinking carbohydrate-rich substances, or by reducing exercise intensity.”

Well, on Sunday, for the first time I got first hand experience.

Being the last week of the ‘build’ part of my training for The Vit, it was a heavy week – particularly weekend. Friday night involved getting home from work and doing a 2.5 hour brick session (45km on the bike and about 15km run at threshold). Saturday morning was my only chance to go swimming for the week so I went off to Salford Quays for the USwim session – 3km. Feeling pretty tired by early afternoon I delayed the day’s 3 hour planned ride as much as possible finishing at about 7.

I’d love to say the weekend’s activity so far had prepped me well for Sunday morning’s 3.5 hour brick session with Rick, but it hadn’t. 2km into the 70 km ride and my quads were screaming at me. I soldiered on, trying (but often failing) to stay on Rick’s back wheel chomping down bars and gels to try and get me through. I made it to the end, albeit with legs feeling like lead. And it only got worse.

Our run was supposed to be 12km. 2km in I was struggling to get any blood flowing to my legs at all, and was slowing with every step. Having trundled to 5km, much to the dismay of Rick (who looked like he had a marathon left in him!) my run slowed to a walk. Now I’m not one to give up easily but I physically couldn’t lift my feet. My body was starting to feel like it was trying to eat itself ( I was out of all nutrition at this point). I started to wonder how on earth I was going to get back to the house! That was soon the least of my worries though, as when I tried to get moving again my vision became blurred, I felt like I had no control of my legs / feet and I was weaving all over the pavement, struggling to not veer onto the road. The best visual comparison I can come up with of how I felt, is of Alistair Brownlee’s meltdown at Hyde Park last year:

Dramatic London Triathlon for Brownlee by itnnews

Having cut the run short the last few km of walking / staggering back, needing to hold on to Walls, fences, trees and anything that could support me was hellish. I could barely string a sentence together once we got back to the house, and while chocolate, protein shakes and bacon sandwiches kindly provided by Rick helped a ton, I felt ‘wrong’ for the whole of the rest of the day. The drive home was nothing short of dangerous and as soon as my ass touched the couch I was asleep for 3 hours. Monday at work felt better but not great – almost as if I’d had a really heavy weekend on the ale that my body was trying to recover from – couldn’t be further from the truth!

So – why did it happen? Well I’m no expert but going off how I felt, I’d say too much intense exercise in the run up to Sunday and not enough nutrition during Sunday’s session. I used Nuun electrolyte tablets rather than my normal Lucozade carb drink while on the bike and didn’t have enough energy bars / gels to make up the deficit. It’s the first time I’ve ever truly had nutrition problems during training – I certainly won’t be going out under prepared again, and all I can say is I’d rather have this happen now than in a few weeks during the Vitruvian!

On a lighter, more entertaining note to end – this video of the ultimate bonk in Kona back in the 90′s never fails to amuse me (in a sadistic, “that must be horrible” kind of way) and makes me realise that when you think you’ve pushed yourself to your limits, there are always people who will push it further!

Yep, that’s right – 3 weeks and 3 days until I will be attempting to drag my ass around my first half iron distance race.

Prep is going well. That said, the 2 week Scottish road trip we went on at the beginning of July, just as I should have been really starting to ramp up the training didn’t help. I did a fair bit of mountain biking but nothing that would constitute a significant part of my training plan! That meant that my big training push was delayed by a couple of weeks – and I’m paying the price with the time I need to put in now.

Going to Morzine for a long weekend’s mountain biking at the end of July also didn’t help matters, but worth every minute! Off topic, but here’s a rather amusing head cam video of one of the many crashes I had that weekend:

The joys of full body armour, leg guards and a full face helmet meant that came away with just superficial damage. There was a hell of a lot of it (I was finding new bruises and cuts for days after we got home) but all superficial.

As I eluded to these ill timed trip haven’t been great for training. The last 4 weeks have really ramped up, and while I’ve been getting everything in that I need to, it has left me constantly knackered and without a spare minute! There is a light at the end of the tunnel though – once this week is out of the way my taper begins and the amount of time I need to put in pretty much halves. Then, it’s a case of staying healthy and not getting ill or injured for the next 3 weeks!

Last week was without a doubt the most exercise I have ever done in a 7 day period. For any ironmen and hardcore types this will probably sound like a walk in the park. Trust me though, for me it was very tough! So last week I did 100+ miles of cycling, 25+ miles of running, almost 2 miles of swimming and over an hour of core/strength work. I have had 1 day off training in the past 10 (although there have been a couple of recovery sessions thrown in there) and have 3 more days before a complete day off. Ouch!

All I can say is I hope it’s all worth it – and that in 3 and a bit weeks time I will be very pleased to be writing up my race report!

To motivate me through the last few weeks I’ve set up a Just Giving page to raise money for The MS Trust, a charity close to my and my girlfriend’s hearts. If anybody is feeling generous, all donations, no matter how big or small are welcome and greatly appreciated. You can donate here: www.just giving.com/andy-heaps

I’m a bit late to the party with this one, but I was reading that the Greater Manchester Marathon Is going to be held next April for the first time in a decade.

A decade ago running a marathon was the last thing on my mind, hence it being news to me that it ever existed in the first place! Now that I’m a bit fitter and healthier though, I have to say it’s a little tempting.

I have serious doubts over whether I could run a marathon – not because of fitness, but because I really don’t think my joints could take it – I’ve dislocated my right kneecap twice, ruptured the ACL in the same knee (and had the accompanying reconstructive surgery and rehab) and had loose cartilage scraped off both knees. So they’re not in the best of shape.

I remember at the end of my first (and only at the time of writing) half marathon – Macclesfield – thinking there is no way I could do that over again. I appreciate that a lot of that is psychological, but my legs and knees didn’t half hurt!

Anyway, the reason it’s tempting is because it’s not often there is a marathon on your doorstep – not often at all if you live in Manchester apparently! And this one isn’t far off literally being on my doorstep. The start line is less than a 5 minute walk from my front door. And, I know that on the day, seeing all the runners, I’ll wish I’d entered.

I have got it in my head that id like to do an iron distance tri some day, so I guess I will need to run a marathon at some point anyway! Maybe next time I’m drunk I’ll just think it’s a great idea to enter, and deal with the imminent sinking feeling I’ll get when I see the confirmation email all bleary-eyed the next day! That seems to be how Me and my friends end up entered into a lot of these events!

If you are thinking of doing a marathon in 2012, the course is fairly flat. And, it is organised by Simon and the team at Xtra Mile Events – I’ve been in quite a few races they’ve organised over the past couple of years and haven’t seen anyone come even close to the quality of organisation as those guys, so you should be in safe, comforting hands!

I’ll let you know if drunkenness and / or peer pressure results in me entering any time soon!

I’ve bought a lot of biking / triathlon stuff online over the past year or 2. I quickly learnt there are some terrible and some brilliant companies.

I’m pretty fickle with my bike shop allegiances – I love that wiggle send me haribo / energy gels with every order. I love that Evans cycles price match pretty much anything from anywhere – regardless of how dodgy the cheaper website looks!

Anyway, I can now add Chain Reaction Cycles to my list of favourite shops- I recently ordered a speedfil system off them to replace my Profile Design Aquacell (I’ll save my Aquacell traumas for another post!). For what it is, it’s an expensive bit of kit but I found it £5 cheaper than anywhere else at CRC, and knowing that I could get cash back on it through our works corporate reward scheme I figured what the hell.

I hoped to have it in time for the Liverpool triathlon, but only ordering a few days before and relying on first class post it was always going to be touch and go. It didn’t turn up in time, in fact it didn’t turn up at all. After checking with the neighbours and the sorting office I got in touch with CRC and I have to say the customer service was outstanding. They apologised for my issues – even though it was Royal Mail’s fault – and got a replacement in the post straight away, just asking me to return one if I ended up with 2.

Given that I chose 1st class post rather than recorded delivery, I’m pretty sure they didn’t have to do that – I’ve certainly dealt with many companies that wouldn’t have.

So, thank you Chain Reaction Cycles for your refreshing take on customer service! If only every retailer was the same. Now if you get a price match sorted and send me haribo you’ll have my undivided custom

I’d just like to start by saying that I was born and grew up just outside of Liverpool so it’s ok for me to take the p*ss out of Scousers

Ok, so entering Liverpool Olympic was never in the plan for the year. I toyed with the idea of swapping Chester for Liverpool earlier in the year, but with Chester (2 weeks before liverpool) already booked and paid for I couldn’t really be bothered with the faff. My result from Chester though, Changed that. I was disappointed, thought I could have done better etc so immediately after Chester checked to see if Liverpool was still taking entries. It was, I booked myself in, and convinced myself that I could beat 2:25 and the £72 would be worth it.

The cost was the other reason I hadn’t entered – not because I’m a skinflint or anything, just because I resented paying over the odds just because it was now part of the 5150 series.

Anyway, being a last minute decision and therefore not an ‘a’ race meant I had no taper in the run up to it. In fact I had quite a heavy week of training up to it. My first mistake came in the form of a 10km run that I did on the Friday, 2 days before the race. The Sunday just gone I ran my best ever 10km at the Runforall Leeds 10k (40:23) so a sub-45 10km on Friday didn’t really bother me. The only time I could fit it in was during my lunch hour, on the treadmill of the gym around the corner from work. Not really thinking about it I set off at 14.5km/hr and kind of zoned out – that was until about 6k when I realised I’d been running the whole thing so far in my forefoot. I tried to get used to the pose technique of running a while back but could never do it for more than a few kilometres – calves, feet, shins – you name it, they would hurt. So 6k of it didn’t do my legs any favours at all. I went back to my normal running style for the remainder but it was too late. For the rest of Friday, all day Saturday, and waking up on Sunday morning my calves felt like they had been tied into a knot.

Didn’t bode well for the race! But then I was up, I had spent the time fitting my new tubs to the bike so I figured I’d just give it a go and see what happened. Plus I didn’t want to see my £72 go to waste!

So after a 5am alarm for the 3rd Sunday in a row (why do I do it to myself?!) I packed the car up and headed over to Liverpool. Having registered I racked my bike. I didn’t know anyone else doing the race but a friend of a friend (Ben) came over – he was setting up a few bikes down from me. We had only ever met on very drunken nights out so to see each other in this situation, neither of us knowing the other was into triathlon made for a funny conversation! You’ll hear more about Ben later.

Rant #1- I was amazed to find that there was no race briefing. At all. I guess the organisers just expected everyone to have read the race info beforehand. Luckily I had, so I knew how many laps of the bike and run course I had to do. I’m sure there will have been a fair few who got it wrong though.

Being part of the 5150 world series, the race had attracted some big names – Stuart Hayes and Fraser Cartmell to name a couple – and some very, very nice accompanying bike kit (insert obligatory thieving Scousers joke here). The elites set off in the pro wave at about 8am. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people swim so fast in a triathlon – we got into the water about 17 minutes later as the elites were exiting! The water was surprisingly warm (compared to Chester) – I hadn’t thought about the fact that it’d be salt water because it was in the docks, but it turned out not to be an issue. Neither did the jellyfish. I didn’t come across a single one which was a nice bonus! The narrowness of the swim however did cause me problems. I accidentally found myself starting at the front, in the middle of the pack. Not the place for a relatively slow swimmer like me! Of course I therefore got kicked, punched, swam over, even what seemed like a grope at one stage, albeit a pleasant break from the violence! In the few open water swims I’ve done in the past the pack normally spreads out after a couple of hundred metres. Not here. It seemed like literally the whole way around I was in contact with people or they were in contact with me. Anyway, all things considered I felt strong – I couldn’t really notice my sore legs, and it was over before I knew it.

Swim time – 27:32 – a new PB and a minute and a half quicker than my swim in Chester!

Rant #2 – The run to transition was ridiculous – not because it was long (which it was), but because it was over stoney, gravelly ground. Surely a few mats wouldn’t have been too much trouble?!

My bike hadn’t been stolen – bonus on the downside I got cramp in my hips as I put my bike shoes on. I can’t ever remember getting cramp in my hips before so I had no idea what that was all about. I remember thinking yet again, this doesn’t bode well for the rest of the race! I got into my rhythm fairly quickly on the bike course. It was 4 x 10km laps and it was about 2km into the first lap that I accidentally dropped my bottle of slightly diluted gels. Bugger. Oh well. I was also slightly anxious about the fact that this was my first race on tubs. Not only that but I had relied on my own ability of gluing them to my new wheels properly a few days before, and was also relying on not getting a puncture as I forgot my spare! The bike course was pretty dull in all honesty. Flat, straight, nothing interesting to look at. A one point I found myself counting the number of M-dot tattoos I could find on people’s legs.

Rant #3 – it was a non- drafting event. Well, on paper it was. In reality the laps were so short relative to the amount of people on the course at once that it was impossible not to get backed up on occasion. What made this worse was that a good chunk of the lap was too narrow to safely overtake if there were more than a couple of people in close vicinity (which there often where).

Rant #4 – I got to the end of the last lap but the ‘in’ marker had been moved / hidden / fallen off meaning that I missed it, along with a handful of other people. Annoying, but only costing a few seconds.

Bike time: 1:08.47 – another PB but I could definitely have gone a couple of minutes quicker with less congestion.

I set off on the run at my usual plodding pace. Legs refusing to work, my calfs hips and quads were toying with the idea of cramping up. I adapted my running style to support my knackered muscles as best I could. I’m not quite sure how I did that but it seemed to work! About 3km I saw Ben heading the other way – I reckon he was about 2 minutes ahead of me. I recalled him saying before the race that running was his weakest discipline. I of course made it my immediate goal to catch him! It was starting to get really hot now, and I found myself needing to poor water over my head to stay cool. Most times I either completely missed my head or the water was so cold it took my breath away! Anyway, about 9 km in I was now only about 10 seconds behind Ben but I wasn’t going much faster than him now. It was going to be a close one! I caught him up and sat behind him until he noticed me. At that point the only word muttered was ‘bastard’ before he picked the pace up to try and drop me. I stuck with him and we had my first sprint finish! He had apparently been holding something back though as I just couldn’t stick with him in the last 20 metres. He beat me by 3 seconds – I’ve already told him we need a rematch:). Having something to focus on during the run obviously helped my time though, as I posted another PB for a triathlon 10km.

Run time: 43.47

Total time: 2:23.15 – PB

So mixed feelings really. For the cost of it, and given that it was part of a prestigious world series, various aspects of it could have been much improved. I was however Chuffed to have not only beaten my PB but also gone sub-2:25 which was one of my goals for the season. given that my legs were knackered before I’d even started, i have now inevitably convinced myself i can go under 2:20. So with no other Olympics lined up this year I think I’d better go and find some!

I’m still relatively new to open water swimming. I can count the amount of times I’ve swam in open water (races and practice) on both hands. That said I have learnt a lot of things, often the hard way so I thought I’d share them!

Image courtesy of Flickr

Lube Up!

Not nearly as exciting as it sounds unfortunately. Using Bodyglide, Vaseline or something similar will help you get your wetsuit on and off. Putting it on you forearms and around your elbows, as well as lower legs will help your wetsuit ‘glide’ off when you’re rushing in transition. Also put it on your neck to stop wetsuit chafing. Believe me you can get some nasty sores from wetsuit chafe!

Use Mirrored Goggles

Swimming on a sunny day can often mean quite a nasty glare off the water, making it difficult to see where you’re going. Select goggles that are appropriate for the conditions.

Put Your Goggles on Under Your Swim Hat

If you find yourself surrounded by people in the swim, there’s a reasonable chance of getting a knock to the face. This can often move, or even remove  your goggles. Reduce the chance of this happening by putting them on under your swim hat.

Acclimatise as Quickly as Possible

If you’re anything like me, jumping into a freezing cold lake / river / sea is a bit of a shock to the system. Try and get into the water as early as possible and concentrate on slow, relaxed breaths to control oxygen intake and avoid / stop hyperventilating. Submerge your head as much as possible before the start, and move around for a few minutes before you start swimming to get the blood flowing and avoid cramp. If you get brain-freeze, the more you can get your head in at the beginning, the less of an issue it’ll be once you start swimming. If you know the water is going to be very cold or you know you’re very susceptible to brain-freeze, consider wearing multiple swimming hats.

Breathe Bi-Laterally

If you’re used to breathing to only one side, practice the other side until you’re comfortable with it. There are a lot more unexpected things to deal with in open water than in a pool, and being able to adapt quickly to deal with them is crucial. You might find that there are waves on your normal breathing side causing you to get a mouthful of water every time you try and breathe. Or you might find that there is a fellow swimmer very close to you on your normal breathing side splashing water or their arm into your face!

Practice Sighting

One thing that I didn’t even think about before my first open water swim, having only done pool swims previously, was the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see anything downwards or sideways. Its only at that point do you realise how important the pool floor markers are. If you’re in a pool try swimming with your eyes closed when you would normally look down. Control your direction by looking straight ahead when you come up for breath. Sighting is quite a skill in itself, so here’s a handy video that explains it a lot better than me!

Whatever you do don’t just follow other swimmers!

Prepare Your Legs For The Exit

The buoyancy of the wetsuit, combined with the fact that during the swim you’re probably going to be saving your legs for the bike and run likely means that your legs won’t have been particularly active during the swim. This often means that all your blood is in your upper body. Moving from horizontal to vertical when you get out of the water can cause a blood rush from the upper to lower body, meaning light headedness – not what you need for your transition! To help avoid, when you have 1-200m of the swim left to go, start to increase the amount of kicking you’re doing to get the blood flowing to your legs.

Don’t Trip Over Your Wetsuit!

When you’re out of the water and running to T1, first unzip your wetsuit, and then take your arms out so the whole top half is off. Then take your hat and goggles off. When you get to transition, pull your wetsuit legs down to below your knees. Ideally, try and get your legs out by standing with one leg on the other leg of the wetsuit and pull the leg you’re trying to remove out of the suit. The more you can use your feet rather than your hands, the less chance you have of tripping yourself up – less hopping around! Also, if you end up using your hands to get your legs out, you’ll normally find yourself bending over to do so. That can cause an almighty blood rush and leave you feeling rather faint – not ideal!

Relax and enjoy!

If you’ve prepped with all of the above all that’s left to do is concentrate on getting to the end of the swim as fast and efficiently as possible. Enjoy yourself – after all that’s why you’re doing all of this in the first place right?!

I’d love to hear any additional thoughts, tips, advice etc

Sunday June 12th, 2011 saw the annual Deva Triathlon take place in Chester. It’s very well established and seems to always get good write ups so I thought I’d set it as my first ‘a’ race of 2011.

Having only done shorter distances so fat this year, and actually only having done one other Olympic distance triathlon (Tatton Park in September ’10) I was surprised how calm and relaxed I was about the whole thing – especially as I’ve had nerves building up before each of the sprints I’ve done recently! Maybe it was something to do with having to get up at 5am to get there, or maybe i’ve just started to worry more about the Vitruvian (70.3) in September, and Olympic distances seem nothing in comparison – who knows.

Anyway, I digress. Arriving in Chester at about 6:30 I parked up and headed off n the 10-15 minute walk to registration. Important note about planning ahead – it’s knowing little details like this that can mean the difference between a stress free race build up and a whole load of unnecessary stress and panic. With plenty of time I went through the usual routine of registering, racking my bike kit preparing my kit in transition, going to the toilet several times and wrestling with the tri-suit in doing so.

It was my first open water swim of the year and only my 4th ever in a race so I had forgotten about how restrictive a wetsuit can feel – almost claustrophobic with a swim hat on too. Anyway, that was the least of my worries when I jumped into a 16 degree Celsius River Dee. Hard core swimmers will think that is almost tropical but not me. A usual I spent the first minute or so trying to catch my breath and calm my breathing before getting as acclimatised as possible. I did this by fully submerging my head in the water continuously until the race start. It seemed to work as I managed to get into a rhythm within a minute or so of starting. The first 5 minutes or so were as expected – people swimming over me, me swimming over people etc until it spaced out. I only got 1 proper smack to the face – an elbow right to the bridge of my nose. I expected to be bleeding but didn’t bother to check as there would be nothing I could have done about it anyway. By the time I got out of the water 1500m later I’d forgotten it had even happened!

Swim time 29:00. This was a good few minutes slower than I thought I could do – and I am not sure why as everything felt good about it. More practice I guess!

The run to transition was, well, a bitch. Up a short but ridiculously steep hill, into the field where the bikes were racked. I managed not to fall over or get cramp while taking my wetsuit off, which believe me is a massive bonus based on my experience.

Transition 1 was just over 2 minutes.

Heading out on to the 40km of country roads of the outskirts of Chester and North Wales was pleasant – I dare say enjoyable. I couldn’t help feel sorry for the guy I passed about 10 minutes in wrestling with a tub on his *very* expensive looking bike. You know when someone looks fast even when they’re not on their bike?… It started raining and got progressively heavier after about 20 minutes on the bike. That took away any notion of pleasantries! Coming back towards transition a police woman had stopped traffic to her right at a t-junction. In doing so however, made it look like she was pointing me to turn towards the traffic she had stopped. That of course wasn’t the case and she, and the accompanying marshall chose not to tell me and the other rider nearby until we had gone the wrong way and subsequently shouted back for clarification. After a sharp 180 degree turnaround, cramp in my calf and subsequently cutting the rider alongside me up (sorry to #124!), I was back in transition.

Bike time 1:09.48. Again, slightly disappointed with the time but it was a faster average speed than I’ve managed in any race so far this year so I’m not too disheartened!

The 10km run started as it always does – with my legs feeling like lead and refusing to work. Luckily I got over this pretty quickly, thanks in part to the guy a few metres in front of my who I used as a pacer until I couldn’t keep up with him any more. I got into my stride fairly quickly and while it felt slow it also felt comfortable. Coming back to transition to cross the line was a massive relief and I just wanted to see my time – I felt I’d given it everything I had so was hoping for a good time.

Run time 45:00. Really pleased with that as it felt a lot slower. The brick sessions in training must have worked!

Total time 2:27.38. That was 73rd overall (of just over 300) and 6th in my age group.

At first I was pretty disappointed as I was hoping for sub 2:25 (at least) but the more I thought about it the happier I was – I was able to take positives – my time on the run and, although slower than I was hoping for, the fact that it was my quickest ever average bike speed.

It was my first Chester Tri and I found it very well organised – a big thanks to all of the marshalls, volunteers and organisers for a well run event in what turned out to be pretty wet, miserable conditions!

Having rested up that afternoon the only thing left to do was find another local Olympic tri that had places and was in the next few weeks. So, my next race report will be from the Liverpool Olympic on June 26th, where I will be trying yet again to break 2:25!

Welcome to Just Another Triathlete!

Having got more and more into triathlon over the past couple of years I thought I’d start to write about my trials and tribulations, ups and downs, good times & bad times and everything else that comes with the rollercoaster world of Triathlon!

I’m not yet sure how this blog will turn out or what I’ll *actually* end up writing about. I found out very quickly that there are a lot (seriously, a lot!) of triathlon related questions, considerations and decisions to be made by triathletes far and wide – I know this because I feel like I spend an unhealthy amount of time researching things, asking questions myself. Not to mention spending an alarming amount of time and money on new gear! So, I figured I might as well document what I learn and do along the way.

Hopefully people will occasionally find my experiences and musings useful, I dare say occasionally helpful even – but time will tell. Expect a few rants – I love a good rant, but for my sake as much as yours I hope they’ll be few and far between . I’ll also probably write about things like my race schedule and results, training information etc but that will probably be more for my benefit than anyone else’s!

Right, formalities over. I guess I need to start writing some ‘proper’ posts