March 31, 2015
Triathlon
By Stephen Scanlon
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The Bicester Triathlon was my second Triathlon of 2015 and my first Sprint distance race of the year. After competing in the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday 22/3, I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings in the pool. I planned not to run as my legs were absolutely shattered after the 1:28:20 Half – I needed to let my legs rest up in time for the 5km run, off road too! My hamstrings were also feeling tender so I made sure to give them a good foam roll and stretch every night. A work conference had me in London late Thursday and Friday I was out with my family for a meal (of course we had wine!) which meant an important rest day was needed on Saturday before leaving Reading at 09:30 on Sunday morning for Bicester. I had never raced this course but my Dad had three or four years ago now, we discussed some last minute race tactics over the phone - pool swim and a flat bike ride and off road run, it didn’t sound intimidating at all! All was looking good until I arrived to Bicester and felt the true brunt of the day’s weather. Anyone who was watching any of the UK or European racing over the weekend won’t be surprised when I say that the weather conditions were ‘Hurricane-like’. The light rain was made worse by the gusting winds, not ideal if you’re racing on a light bike with even lighter wheels! This would turn out to be an interesting race.
Swim:
The swim was managed in waves of 16 people, 2 people per 25m lane. The race distance was 400m. I was feeling comfortable about the swim, mainly down to the fact that I train in a 50m pool. To be honest I didn’t think I’d notice much of a difference but once I set off it felt like I’d take 6 or 7 strokes and I’d have reached the wall, I was loving this. I kept a good pace that I was happy with throughout, it was a bit tricky to build up momentum in the 25m pool, I won’t lie! I ended up passing my lane partner twice which filled me full of confidence, after putting in a good effort for the swim leg – it was time for the bike.
Bike:
The transitions were quite spread out at this event. We left the pool via a set of emergency exits and had a good 250m run down to the transition. The bikes were racked in a football field that was quite muddy at this stage following the children’s and novices race that were held previously. After a quick slip & slide around transition I had my gear on and was ready to mount the bike (I carried my bike the whole was through transition to avoid the mud – maybe I’m starting to take this a bit too seriously???). I have to admit, 1km into the cycle on the way out of Bicester town I missed a sign, heading straight out a main road instead of taking a sharp left turn. I still blame the signage and lack of marshals but maybe I need to suck it up and accept it, ‘Rodney you Plonker!’.
It was only after the second lap that I realised I had made the first lap a little bit longer for myself. Apart from that mix up it was a incident free bike ride. The wind, however, was shocking. I rarely enjoy the cycle at the best of times but this felt like torture, and judging by the moans and groans out of my fellow competitors out on the road, I feel we were all in the same boat. The last 2-3km of the bike were quite sheltered as we looped back around and approached Bicester Town again. I flew along in the TT bars managing to pass a few people on the way in. As I was running my bike into transition a freak gust caught the bike and flung it into the crowd barriers – thankfully only the underside of my wheels made contact and I managed not to drop it, but it scared the living daylights out of the kids on the other side! Sorry!!
Run:
Once I had my bike racked, I slid my way out of transition and started the 5km run. The run was 5 laps of a 1km route that felt like I was running laps of a football pitch! I was worried that I would feel a slight niggle again on my Achilles from the bike leg but one lap in I was feeling fresh and pushed on hard with the run. I really enjoyed the run and caught up and passed most of the people who flew by me on the bike leg – which is always the case. I ended up crossing the line in a time of 01:19:43 and 8thplace in my age group, hopefully I can knock a few minutes off my Sprint time at the next race. I’m still happy with my time considering my little detour on the bike!
Next Race:
The next race on the list is the Hayward’s Heath Sprint Triathlon on the 19/4. It’s another pool swim followed by 2 x 10km laps on the bike then a 5km lapped run. This race will be a special one in my calendar this year as this weekend three years ago, was the first ever Triathlon event I took part in. I even took part in the race on a hard tail mountain bike - hard core beginner style! So returning this time around, three years later with a new bike and a lot more mileage under my belt, I am aiming to race hard and to get another PB for the 2015 season. Thankfully my injury from Abu Dhabi has seemed to taken a back seat for the moment so I am feeling confident on putting in a good performance.