Background

After a successful performance at Rhode Island ½ IM, I’d completely unnecessarily managed to get injured. The injury can best be described as ‘hip-flexor / core damage’ which manifested itself as an inability to ride without blowing up. In particular (and this is relevant), it was pretty much instant-death on the bike as soon as I came close to my LTHR (170) or LTP (330W). In the weeks that followed, I really struggled with training – not helped with the twin derailers of having met my season’s performance goals and being utterly bored with getting up at 5am each morning to train. I’d muscled my way through the humidity of Timberman and having vowed that was the last race of the year, promptly signed up for the Southampton Olympic.

Training

The 3 weeks between Timberman and Southampton were hardly conducive to training as I was both working hard and travelling quite a bit. I only had the opportunity to do a few workouts per week which were generally focused on shorter intervals (100s in the pool, 5 min bike intervals, hill repeats for running).While I felt that my mid season riding power was starting to come back, my HR was 5-8 clicks higher. Even riding the day before the race, I’d noted that my HR was quite a bit higher than usual. At least I was fully rested!

The Course

Swim is a rectangular anti-clockwise loop parallel to the shore. Generally the times run a little slow and in some years it can resemble swimming in a washing machine (not that I’ve ever done that…). The bike course is quite technical for the first 12 miles: twisty-turny-up-and-down with few opportunities to get into a rhythm. There are some very tight bends, not helped by the wet roads. The last 13 miles is flatter and frequently has cross winds. Given the sheer number of people on the bike course, it is quite dangerous on the first half of the bike course so you generally want to be in one of the earlier waves. The run course is easy – flat and shaded in sections.

The Plan

The plan, for the bike at least, was to aim at 300W with an HR of 164. For the first 5-10 minutes, I’d try to keep the HR to the low 150s, and let it drift up from there.  From a power perspective this is the middle of the range for an Olympic distance race, based on an LTW of 330W. For the run, the aim was to go at it hard and keep going. Whilst this all seemed reasonable, given the lack of training in recent weeks, I had no idea what I’d be able to do – especially since I hadn’t run off the bike since Timberman. The weather was at least going to be cooperative – cool, overcast, and a bit breezy.

The Race

The swim was pretty straightforward. There was a bit of chop, just enough to keep it interesting. The turn-around buoy was impossible to sight – good job that I decided not to enter the elite division. My swim time (28mins) was a couple of minutes slower than I would have liked, but since the course runs a little long, I wasn’t too fussed. My HR was really high coming out of transition and for the first few miles on the bike – into the high 160s. I made a few efforts to get it down to the target range, but with little success. I didn’t feel like I was straining too much, so I just decided it was ‘one of those days with a high HR and got on with the job, focusing on the power meter. The roads were damp and a little treacherous, and with the exception of being crashed into in the lane coming back into transition, managed to stay out of trouble. For the ride, I managed 295W and 165bpm – so pretty close to plan. Bike time was 1:02, and the 4^th fastest in the entire field. Starting the run, I was in 40^th position, but since I was in wave 4 (and thus 12 minutes back), I figured that I must be in the top 20 or so. I was fortunate that I had someone to run with (who was half my age!) for the first couple of miles who seem to have exactly the same speed and run cadence as me, so I got into a great rhythm. As I said earlier, the run course is quite easy, so all of a sudden the race was over and I’d put in a PB (by 2 minutes) for an Olympic 10K of 41:30 (hey – I’m a biker, not a runner!). This was only a minute or so slower than what I thought I’d ever be able to do. Overall I was 18^th out of 880 and 6^th in my age group.

TW