Stena Line Triathlon

Sunday, 4th September 2011

Stena Line Triathlon 2011 

 

 

Stena Line Triathlon

750m Swim - 00:17:22

T1 - 00:01:56

20K Bike - 00:44:51

T2 - 00:00:54

5K Run - 00:21:55

Total time - 01:26:56

80th out of 145 overall.  39th out of 64 in Age Group

 

 

I had been really looking forward to this race today for a number of reasons.  I hadn't had a pool based Tri since the Roe Valley Tri in May and I was keen to see how my swimming and biking had come on over the last couple of months.

 

Things started off a bit ropey for me.  As I was unpacking the bike from the car, I noticed that my front tyre had a puncture and this was despite checking everything rigorously as part of my prep yesterday.  I think I overinflated the tyre and caused a slow puncture.

I managed to keep calm and luckily had about 25 minutes before the Race Briefing started.  I am very proud to say that I kept calm and sorted the puncture in just over 5 mins. A new PB!

 

After racking the bike in transition and having the race briefing I went to leave my bag in the locker room in the leisure Centre.  This is where the rule of things happening in 3s kicked in.

Twice, the bloomin' lockers ate my 20p coin and I had to go up to reception to get them to give me another one.

 

I could feel the hackles starting to rise a little bit - but once again  I kept calm, got sorted and went round to the viewing gallery to watch the first 2 waves of swimmers start in the pool.

 

As I was watching I had a bad feeling and went back out to Transition to check my tyre pressure - and luckilly it was OK.

 

The Swim

I was in the 3rd wave out of 5 and there were only 4 of us the lane which made of a hassle free swim.

I started 3rd in the lane, but pretty quickly moved up to the front and felt great throughout the swim.

I exited the pool first in my lane and in a time of 16.44 mins.  The short run to transition and I was heading for the bike.

 

T1

All went pretty smoothly, although I am going to have to do something about socks - I take a bit of time to put them on, but I seem to be losing about 45secs to 1 min on this.  I might need to try no socks and add some talc.

 

The Bike

The first 5 miles or so are pretty much uphill, albeit only about a 3 or 4% gradient.  I managed to get off to a strong start and passed about 10 people on the uphill section.

The next 5 miles or so are flat but felt a bit tougher as there was a bit of a headwind but I kept turning over and progressed pretty well.

On the run in there is a fantastic downhill for over a mile, and I topped out about 40mph on the hill and loved being tucked in the aero position and going really quick.

Back in to transition and feeling really good - I only got passed once in 12 miles.

 

T2

This went very smoothly and I was in and out in no time.

 

The Run

The run is a 2 loop route uphill for about the first 1K and then levels out slightly and then uphill for another 0.5K - then a good downhill for the rest of the 2.5K loop.

I felt pretty rough for the first 1k, but steadied in to a rhythm and took advantage of the downhill to pick up a bit of speed.  The second loop went very well and I really bombed it on the downhill section back in again and was pleased with my sub 22 min run.

 

Overall a really pleasing event, managing to knock 2mins off my PB for the Sprint distance and 3.5 mins off my last pool Sprint Tri.

 

The next race is Strangford 888 and this will be the last event this season and before the Ironman training really starts.

 

 

On a different note, I stumbled across this band of triathletes called IRONBAND who do some pretty decent rock music - not too heavy and lots of tongue in cheekTri related songs, such as "Who stole my Bodyglide"

 

http://ironbandmusic.com/index.php