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Although they’re different courses I’ve been comparing my two pool sprint times. Roade 2009 and Beverley 2010.

* Roade Swim is 414m, Beverley is 400m
** Roade Run was 4.5k, Beverley was 5k

This was my last planned event of the year, entered for a bit of fun as it’s up near my parent’s home in the town I used to go to school at. It’s a pool sprint format; 400m swim, 20k ride, 5k run. I hadn’t trained much since MK Tri and the week before rather than cramming some final interval training in I went to Manchester for a beer filled weekend with mates instead. Ideally I was aiming for under 1hr15, 1hr10 would be great but probably unlikely considering.

The swim worked out quite well. I was in the 9.30am wave which seem incredibly civilised since the other races this year have been 7.30 or earlier. In fact I think I’d finished the Big Cow sprint by 9.30am! The wave consists of 8 lanes with up to 4 in a lane, theoretically all swimming around the same 400m time. However I’d given my 9minute/400m time based on Roade last year, whereas in training I’d been hitting around 7m30s. Luckily one of the other competitors in my lane had also given the wrong time and was swimming about the same time as me. Luckier still we were scheduled to head out first with the 2 remaining swimmers in our lane following at 9 minute pace. This meant we didn’t really need to overtake until the end of our 16 lengths so we didn’t get slowed up much. The other good thing was that the lane counters at Beverley Tri give you a 2 length warning so you know when to get out! That was probably my only major worry about this race!

I’d recced the ride the day before from the car and it looked flat enough. In the race I was able to stay on the big cog the whole way round and keep the cadence between 85-95. I was hoping to improve my bike pace a bit and get closer to 20mph average, but this didn’t happen – lack of saddle time really. During the recce it looked like there might be a few places (roundabouts & junctions) which might involve a stop, however during the race this didn’t happen – although I was instructed to bump up onto a path by a marshall to avoid a congested junction, which lead to a few minutes of confusion trying to get off it and back onto the road later.

The transition to run went okay. I didn’t really use my watch to monitor my pace and just headed out (because I was treating it as “a bit of fun” I think I probably didn’t push so hard). I briefly had to stop at the level crossing for a train. Probably about 10 seconds, but not long enough for the marshal to give me a time credit. No matter. The best bit was that this time because of the later start Jodie came to spectate with her cousin, aunt and Gran – so they cheered me on in Transition and across the finish line.

Final time was 1h14m27s, although my Garmin clocked it at 1h13m23s. It seems odd that the timing can be out by so much, and I did notice that the pool clock was registering 9.31.05 when we started not 9.30.05 (as scheduled). I’m taking it as 1h13m then!

It was quite good fun, I had no pressure on. I might be tempted to do it again next year even though the goal is to concentrate on the longer course events.

Now that went well! I’d set myself some rough targets in my head. 1500m swim, 30 minutes. 40k ride, 80minutes. 10k run, 50 minutes. Total time. Total around 2h40, maybe 2h45 with transitions.Well, I beat all those by a couple of minutes each.

Swim. 27m49s, I think this is my favourite discipline at the moment. If anything I should have pushed to the front more for the start as I spent a little while coming through the pack. I favoured a wide line round most buoys so didn’t get into to much trouble. Now and again in the second half I thought I had some cramp coming on but just relaxed and breathed carefully, then picked a target and pulled out 10 big strokes at a time which pulled me past quite a few competitors.

T1. 2m11s, not too bad. Could have been a little more focussed but had no trouble getting my wet suit off even given then I had opted to wear my quite bulky 310xt. Luckily my racking point was close to bike in and out, so didn’t waste too much time running in my bike shoes. Faffed around for too long try to get mounted, wasn’t helped by the fact there was no mount line which was confusing.

Cycle. 1h18m26s, spent a lot of time swapping positions with a fellow competitor. Probably kept us both going quite well, but was concious of not drafting. Took 3 60g gels on the bike, the last one about 5k out from T2 to help out on the run. Dealt with the hills fairly well, never got up out of the saddle. Now and again thought my calves were going to cramp, particularly when I shifted to the smaller cog for hills.

T2. 1m05s, not much to say about T2 as it’s always the easy one. Shoes swapped okay and no time wasted running the bike in.

Run. 48m03s, running off the bike always feels strange however I headed out at 8min mile pace or slightly quicker. I’d opted to wear the 310xt for the whole race, but I would probably have worn it for the run anyway for the pace info. Tried to lock into 8min miles as a minimum which largely worked, spent a lot of time counting and breathing. In the end as I approached the the finish on my 3rd lap I nearly got confused and started an extra lap! The sign said “Lap 2 & 3 left, Finish Right”. Since I was on lap 3 (and in my addled state) I wondered if I should go left. I actually started that way when luckily the 310xt saved the day and bleeped up the 6 mile count. I looked down and saw 48mins so knew that I should really be finishing so ducked under the lane tape just in time and crossed the finish line. Whew! All done. A few nervous moments of wondering if I was going to be DQed for not doing enough laps, then relief at realising I was done and my time was good!

Finish time. 2 hours 37 minutes 36 seconds

Wow. Been busy since Sunday. Anyway, first Open Water Tri Sprint done!

How did it go? Not too bad, these were my splits

Swim (750m) : 16.04
T1 : 02.00
Ride (20k) : 38.44
T2 : 01.09
Run (5.5k) : 25.07
Total : 1.23.04

My pool sprint Tri at Roade last year was 1h22m, and the run there was much shorter than 5k. So all in all I’m quite happy. Afterwards I thought I could have probably pushed a bit harder in all stages. And a few simple changes in T1 would knock off 30 seconds (forego socks for sprints, remember to leave helmet strap unclipped etc.).

I was a little disappointed with the run, although apparently it was slightly longer than the standard 5k. The watch says my 5k came up in 24:11. I seemed to flag a bit in the middle.

So next up is MK Tri in a couple of weeks time.

My first event of the year. I’d never attempted a Duathlon before so this was an opportunity to get out on the new bike without any swimming concerns – plus a chance to ride the famous Grand Prix circuit.

Myself and Chris got there in ample time and were relieved to see that some people had mountain bikes so our fears about coming last were rested slightly. On the other hand transition was quite full of some serious bike porn. It was clear that the chance of wide smooth traffic-free tarmac had attracted quite a number of competitors who’d be looking at very quick times.

The schedule was a little worrying, pre-race briefing at 18:50, race start and 19:00, prizes at 20:00! Maybe I could wave at the medal winners whilst I completed my last couple of laps! Then during pre-race briefing the organizers explained that the revised GP circuit now meant the bike leg would be 12 miles rather than 10.

Anyway, the race started well I did my first 2 miles at a quick (for me) 7.04 and 7.16 before heading through T1 onto the bike. T1 wasn’t too bad, but I failed to clip in properly on the mount line which is just before a steep hump back bridge. The bike flowed quite easily and sharp corners for cars became fast bends on a bike, I think my splits probably got quicker over the 3 laps. I’d planned to spin down approaching T2 but enthusiasm for the speed got the better of me and I came in quickly then tackled the bridge again. This left me completely ruined for the 1st lap of the 2nd run, by the second lap I’d got my breathing back and felt some power come back into my legs.

All done at 1hr10m46s, which for me was a great result – especially considering the bike stage was longer than expected.

Things I can take from this race
- First run pace was good.
- Need to practice clipping on with the new shoes
- More biking required, I’d only done a little over 100 miles ever prior to this
- Stick to the race plan, a few seconds of over enthusiasm prior to T2 may have cost me minutes on the second run