Its been a while! Things certainly haven't gone to plan over the last six months and my intended return to long course racing at the Outlaw didn't happen due to me somehow putting my back out not long after this year's london marathon. I'm not sure what the cause was but I suspect it may have been partly due to me riding in a far too aggressive position for long periods of time. It's an issue that pretty much wrote off most of my plans for the year and is unfortunately still not 100% right but very much improved. Thanks mostly to a bike fitting from the guys at the Human Performance Unit
So yet again plans were changed and I decided on a half towards the end of the year. Vitruvian seemed to fit well giving me enough time to start rehab with my back issue and get some training done. So how did it go..?
I'd decided to day run it up to Rutland Water which meant a very early start, up at 2:30am and on the road for 3am so as to arrive at 5am. Not something I'd recommend. Anyway arrived in plenty of time racked and ready to go in the first wave at 6:30am.
Swim 31:28
I've never had a good swim at Rutland and unfortunately this one was no exception. My swimming has been going well, having recently managed a 4k time trial in 60min 48sec I was confident of something around the 28:30 mark for the 1.9km swim. Overconfidence was my mistake. I started the race ridiculously quick and after something like 200m I simply couldn't breathe! Getting myself into a bit of a panic I breaststoked to the side and out the the way of the rest of the swim wave. I immediately decided I would find the nearest exit, jump straight in the car, drive home and give up this ridiculous sport! 5mins later I'd settled down a bit and decided I might just see out the day. I exited the water in 6th in my wave in 31:30 and after cutting my foot and slipping flat on my face I made my way through what felt like a very slow and rusty T1
Bike 2:18
Pretty uncomfortable (due to back still not being right) and uneventful really. A fair reflection of the work (or lack of) that I've done. A few guys came flying past in the first half of the course but I saw them again and moved up the field to 4th/5th over the second half of the ride. I came into T2 alongside another guy who was in and out of transition before I'd even removed my lid!
Run 1:23
I tried for all of about 200m to chase the chap out of T2 but it was very apparent I wouldn't be catching him. I settled into a comfortable pace and ticked along nicely moving up to 4th during the first lap and (after a quick unscheduled visit to the bushes) upto 3rd. Into the lask K a few of the spectators told me the guy in 2nd was just 10-15 seconds up the road and was struggling. I made an effort to chase him down but ended up crossing the line just 4/5 seconds behind him. I think this guy was later DQd as I was bumped upto 2nd (AG) in the official results. By the time eveyone was done and the old men starting in the waves after me came across the Iine I was pushed down to 8th with a time of 4hrs 16mins
All things considered a good result for me. It's certainly given me the confidence that with a good winter I could be competitive come the new season.
No comments:
Post a Comment