I decided to enter this race as I needed to get in a couple of races as part of training before my big race in August; big race, the Duathlon ITU World blah blah blah..
All in all my training week had been bang on with my times improving, including my first 25 mile TT at Bottisham with Turner & Daz, who pretty much smashed it; those boys are at a different level with their cycling at the moment. The same night I set my 400m swim time in training at 7:52, as I needed to put down a time for the wave start at the race. I was pretty disappointed in the swim TT tbh.
On the way to the race I was feeling fairly confident; with Bert tucked away in the car I knew providing I stayed consistent I could get a good time and even in the medals. I knew with my swim time being so slow I would need to perform well on the bike and was fairly confident with posting a decent run time.
Setting up in transition still feels a bit alien to me, I'm still not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing so just copy people around. I was a bit peeved with my position in transition as it was quite far from the bike mount line; I'm guessing it was down to my slow swim time. I still haven't got any tri shoes so didn't want to risk attaching my normal cycling shoes to pedals and having issues getting strapped up so put them by the side ready to put on (another 20secs lost).
After set-up I went to check out the pool and running route, which looked fast! I did my stretches and drills and I was ready to race, pumped up, and game to finally set a sprint distance time! (I'm a bit bitter about being picked for group 4 and not group 1 at the Nationals, so needed the time to argue my case).
Swim, 400m, 16 lengths. I got put in lane one next to a girl who said she would finish around the 6:30 mark so I knew if I could hold her pace that's more than a minute off my PB. After 12 lengths I was still with her but tiring fast so eased off slightly. I came out of the pool at 6:55, so am happy with that!
T1, something I really need to work on. I'm losing 30 secs to the top guys so need to sort that asap! Obviously the shoes being put on pedals will help but I'm just not flowing through it like the others.
Cycle, what a palaver!!! The first 10 I swear was all up hill, and whenever there was a down hill it was a tight blind corner so had to slow; when looking down at the speedo and seeing I'm only doing 15mph up some hills it freaking hurts.
The second half on the other hand was fast! I picked my averages up massively, especially the long hill down getting speeds of 45mph, not long after that I noticed my average was just under 24mph.
Last turn into transition and I was coming in way too fast.. just under 25mph, and getting ready to jump off when suddenly I lost my front wheel and went down gliding along the road into a bush! Game over... I was a mess. Bit gutted I couldn't finish as I was feeling strong that day.
Looking back I haven't learned my lesson as I'm sure if I pulled that corner off I would have made some time on the top lads. It was a very tough cycle route but I'm really looking forward to next year!
MOST IMPORTANTLY.. BERT SURVIVED TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!
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