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First tri this year is 5 days away. Everything seems to be going well at the moment. Got 50+ miles of riding in mid-week by meeting up with some TeamMKers after work. This was good as I hadn’t done a long ride in a while (mostly focusing on race distances) and it was my first ride in a group. Quite different, and a fair bit to get my head around. Not entirely sure I like not seeing exactly what’s coming up when I’m drafting someone else though.

I’ve also been practising getting the w/suit off and can do this sub 30 seconds on occasions.. but now and again my wrists get snagged, which slows me up. I’m hoping this won’t be a problem as this stage will be done on the run from the water and will probably allow me a bit more time to accomplish.

Since my Sprint race is close I held off another long ride on the weekend. Instead I did some more brick intervals on Friday and switched Sunday’s Ride+Run for a Run+Swim+Run. The Swim in the pool felt really good – quite fast and my stroke style I think has benefited from the OW swims in a wetsuit. In fact formwise I’m actually a little disappointed I haven’t booked in a 70.3. I’m fairly sure I could complete one (although I haven’t done the run training for 13 miles), maybe not at my best speed.

My main goal this year is going to be the Olympic Distance MK Tri at the end of July. Right now I’m fairly confident I could probably complete a 70.3, although I have doubts about my knee. I’ve got my first Tri of the year coming up in a couple of weeks, the Big Cow Sprint which takes place at the same venue as the MK Tri. Without compromising my MK Tri plan too much I have started some exercises that I hope will benefit my sprint time.

Sprint distance brick session (Ride)
Road Cycling for 00:48:36
14.77 mi @ 18.2 mph

Swim Drills
I’ve been following some suggested swim drills from 220 Triathlon (“Lunchtime Swims“). I probably need to improve my stroke too, but I think this will have to wait until the winter season now.

Intervals
I hate intervals! They’re always so painful.. but they do seem to work, particularly with my run pace. At the gym I’ve tried mini brick intervals. 5min race pace ride (difficult to judge as the kaiser bikes don’t seem to show speed), followed by 1k run, then 5 min rest. Once the sprint tri is out of the way I’ll bump the distances up, 8/10min ride & 1.5-2k run.

Brick Sessions
My old next door neighbour used to say, “Once you get off your bike, always go for a run no matter how short.” I like it because it feels like it’s preparing me for race day and helps me judge how quickly I need to pace myself. I’ve tried Olympic distance brick sessions, and today a sprint distance.

Sprint distance brick session (Run)
Running for 00:23:41
3.20 mi @ 07:24 min/mi

Transition Practice
I definitely need more of this! I can still make a complete pigs ear of getting out of my wetsuit. I’m still not sure what my bike shoe strategy is through T1 (Run in them? They’re road shoes, so no single strappery, no pull tab on the heel. I’m sure I’d cockup mounting bare foot). Socks? Bike gloves (I always wear them at the moment).. the list goes on. I’ve been practising getting in and out of my wetsuit, at least I know I have to do that (here’s a great video that I’ve found useful “Flawless Triathlon Transitions“)

I went ahead and booked Beverley Triathlon in August (15th). It’ll be cool to compete in the market town I used to school in, and hopefully I’ll get some family support since they’re all pretty local. It’s a pool sprint event and I seem to remember the pool there is pretty good, it’ll be interesting to see where the run route goes too.

I’m toying with entering Roade Sprint Tri again this year too. I’ll see how my July races go first as I’d prefer to focus on the longer course events.

General training levels have gone up by mixing in at least one ride to and from work into the week, plus heading off to the pool on a couple of lunch times for some distance or drills. I had a bit of a break by heading up north to visit family, but at least got a few decent walks in – although my walking boots seemed to trouble my heel a little.

The early morning Saturday OW swims at Brogborough are good as they mean I get something done on Saturdays before I have to look after Jodie, this week I was great as I had ample time to get a mile done and still be back home by 8.30. Since Jodie had a Tennis taster at the gym I also got time to put a 45 minute run in on the treadmill and make sure my heel was okay from the walking.

I finished off the weekend with an Olympic Distance brick session (40k Ride, 10k Run). This was good and bad. I tried out a couple of things. Firstly some SiS gels (The Smart1 caffine / carb gel at about 12mi on the bike, then an Isotonic Carb Go gel at around 22mi ready for the run). I think I prefer the Smart1 although the other was okay too. In a OD Tri I think I’d probably pack a couple more. I also took 500ml of SiS PSP22 on the ride, again this was pretty good.

The other thing I tried was not wearing socks. I think I should have researched this a bit more as this didn’t go wholly to plan. On the ride I had no problems at all even though my dhb R1 bike shoes aren’t Tri specific. The run started off okay except for a tiny bit of grit in my left shoe that kept me distracted, but it was my right that got worse. The first 5k was okay, but after that something started to rub on the inside edge of my foot, then toward my end – possibly because I was changing my gait the heel back to rub too. Probably talc in the shoes would help, I might see if I can identify the seam that was rubbing and coat it in something too. Anyway, I’m sat here typing with two blister plasters on – so a painful lesson learned.