by IronGirl » Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:07 pm
Saturday The Little Woody Half Ironman Distance Triathlon
Had a great race. Toughest half I've ever done. Soooo hilly!
9th Lady (2nd Lady vet) but it was a very small field, I think most people had favored the flat Cotswolds Half IM that was on the same day. (bunch of girls!)
Mmm 6 hours 38 min, which the organisers said was good on this course (I dunno?)
SWIM
After getting a minibus from HQ to the swim (Split transition today), I checked my bike which had been racked the night before. Everything OK but why the heck were we stood out here in the pouring rain at 6.30 with 1 hour to go? At least I managed to watch the start of the full IM (with mixed feelings!)
The water at the National diving centre was gorgeous. One of the clearest open water swims ever and around 17 degrees which is perfect in a wet suit. Paddled my way through the swim, totally had to wing it - just done no training!
There was about a 500m run up a hill to get to T1, I knew about this in advance so was prepared for it.
T1
Still pouring with rain, glad in one way that we were using the "Ironman" style transition kit in a bag method, at least it kept things dry. But a bit of a faff.
BIKE
As expected very hilly, with relentless hills. The biggy was English Bicknor, which I've since found out has the nickname English Bitch-nor. It lived up to it's nick name. Wore a HRM on the bike which helped me to keep pushing. I'm mainly going the right pace on feel these days, but at the start I was 5 beats over where I should have sensibly have been, so it was good to know. Then after a couple of hours it told me I needed to pick up a couple of times. Of course this could always be improved upon by getting a power tap, but I'm not winning that argument with Mr I !!!!
Good hills and great descents - Woo Hoo!! A few dodgy back roads,some flooding and mud/clay running across the roads on some descents - played it very safe I'm afraid. In answer to an earlier question, yes it is possible to train for these things on the turbo. Well it's carried me through this year. Had fun and the weather cleared up after a couple of hours.
T2
or should I say picnic! Well that's what I made of it lol!
RUN
Target was 1:45 until I saw the course. I've done a lot of running in the forest including a half marathon a couple of times and thought I knew what to expect. Ha Ha! 800m out of HQ round the corner then straight up a hill, aid station at the top then straight back down. Repeat 3 times. So I was happy with 1:52
Have already done a couple of recovery sessions, feel good, maybe undercooked it? But after the last couple of months it feels great to be back doing things. And wait for it........
STOP PRESS!!!!!!
I was 1 minute inside qualification time for The ITU World Long Course Championships in Belfort, France 2013.
British Triathlon seem to have a complicated process, their website isn't allowing you to declare an interest in advance (which is apparantly needed) so we shall have to see. But a bit exciting. Belfort looks like a tough but beautiful course and I like the idea of Long Course (4k/120k/30k).
