This was to be my second event of the season and a chance to test out the previous trading block that I had been undertaking since East Leake Sprint 4 weeks prior.
The event was an replacement for the re scheduled David Lloyd Lincoln Sprint I had done a year ago and therefore my first time on this course. Generally OnestepBeyond.com events are very well run and always see a large and competitive field of athletes. For this event you are required to put in a swim time that you are hoping to achieve so that you can be seeded and your start time determined, with the fastest competitors to go last.
Sign on & transition setup
Sign on was painless enough done in the rugby club house which is situated across the playing field from the leisure centre. Transition was slightly different, bike position stickers which are normally very good by OSB were this time not managed well! Take my advice ask an official! ....even it it seems clear! My bike was moved/turned round by officials along with pretty much all the bikes around mine due to the bad signage, not a good thing when you've rehearsed transition and the route to it a few times. Transition its self is on the rugby field so running to and from the bike mount point is a pleasure in cycle shoes or bare foot.... makes for fast transition times! (I should wish for)
The Swim - 400m pool
I had posted a time of 6mins 30secs, this was going to mean PB but by putting this time it means that you are swimming with only faster people than yourself to spur you on and give you a draft to hold on to. I unfortunately (for the second time this year) drew the outside lane close to the wall. The good thing about OSB (onestepbeyond) is that they tell you this detail on the start list which is published in the days running up to the race. This means there is time to prepare mentally and to also practice if possible. The issue with Southwell's wall lane is there is a rail all the way along that does get in the way!
Feeling totally prepared (to the best of my ability and training would allow) I decided to go off at a moderate pace and not to become involved in a race with anyone in my wave, this worked perfectly as i stayed in charge of my heart rate and watch as the field came back towards me as the race went on. This is for me a vital skill of pool racing, it allowed me to use energy later on in the swim meaning the stronger swimmers that got in my lane after me could be used to draft off.
On completion of the swim there is a matted run from the leisure centre to the rugby field which is approximately 150m where you enter transition and break the beam to stop the clock on your swim time.
My swim time was 6:32 and I broke the beam at 7:38 which made me 108th ranked of swimmers
T1
Feeling good after the swim my run to transition had more of a spring then usual, the bike apperal went on well, I only messed up the order of the shoes and number belt by putting my shoes on first and not taking the advantage of another few seconds of drying my feet on the towel. Because my bike had been moved the pedals had now been disturbed and were not in the correct position for me to mount the bike. The VP pedals I had brought for their wideness worked great! no need to clip in straight away just jump on and mash away clipping in further down the road. For my future development I do need to practice with my shoes in the pedals... but this is to come in a later blog!
My Time in T1 was 57 secs and ranked me 104th (plenty of work to do here)
The Bike - 17.6 km
The bike starts with a small roll down the lane before you join the main road OSB did a great job with stewards stopping traffic to allow for a smooth transition not to the carriageway. Almost immediately as you turn left the road climbs to what is the worst of 5 rolling hills on the way out. Along the way OSB marshals are patrolling on Motorcycles, stationary in vans and situated on the road to check for any drafting infringements. as you come over the last of the 5 hills there is a flat riding part of the course that takes you down to the round about that will send you back in to the hills for the return part of the course. I do have a criticism about this section! at the roundabout there are no marshals to help or guide you on the flow of the traffic, this is a busy junction which has fast moving traffic! also there is a pelican crossing before the roundabout with 2 marshals checking to see if you jump the red light. Wouldn't it be a better use of their tim in that location asking people not to press the button and instead helping people to cross safely? I did get held up at both costing me approximately 45secs. The return section of the bike starts with the flat out Time trial type section and then back to the 5 rolling hills, these are definitely harder this way round as the descents are shorter and climbs longer. On the day of the race the wind was 14-16 mph and was head on in this direction, noticeably there was rest bite from this during the descents as you were protected by the next climb. The last part of the bike is down hill to transition, for me taking my feet out the shoes ready for the run. This was a little scary as it was down hill and fast!
For me I'm still feeling good, I had surged (which was the plan) when I needed to on the flats and down hill and stayed in control on the up hills and tried to maintain momentum. I had passed around 10 riders and been passed by 2 (traffic island and pelican crossing)
My Time on the bike 31: 36 mins ranked me 82nd.... solid (if you take in to account the ability of the field)
T2
Now I am always going to struggle in T2 whilst I am unable to run without socks on! My current Acsics Gt2000 are not the greatest for sock less running and I have historically brought running shoes one size larger for comfort on the run, this just means my sock less foot can move around more and chafes causing blisters! My plan is to run the Belviour trip in my Salamon S3 trail shoes that are the correct size and more comfortably lined for sock less running.
Procedure went well and I came out of T2 in 1min 11secs ranked 278th (poor)
The Run - 5km
The run was and is the bit I dread the most, more so in this race as it is 400m up hill followed by 800m flat then 400m descent and run around the rugby pitch and do it all again! My training had included hill repeat sessions and I felt as ready as I could ever be, bar the fact that my nutrition leading up to the race hadn't been optimum and I was a little heavier then I had liked to be! (I'll come on to this later) despite this I had a great run, passed only a handful of times and surging throughout, like interval sessions trying to hold on to people as they passed me and giving my self time to recover in-between. What i would call a smart race!
I finished the run in 20 mins 28sec ranked 139th (PB)
Overall result and conclusion
Overall I finished in 1 hour 1 min and that earned me 99th place and 12th in my age group I was 4 mins adrift of the podium for my age group. This is a very good result for me this early in the season and fills me with confidence that my training is going well. Today was a very strong field with the 5 fastest swimmers all under 5 mins for 400m and under 5:30 to the transition beam.
Lots of points to work on mainly my nutrition as I weighed in at 92Kgs on the day and I would like to be 85kgs. On reflection I had let my diet slip and I am now looking at this again using My Fitness Pal to tack my calorie intake and training smarter feeling the training sessions and preventing the rampent hunger that normally follows a training session. Also I will be starting fasted training sessions to try and promote fat burning and using L- carnatine to teach my body to do so also.
Transition - Needs to be quicker, main points to be lose the socks! try and mount the bike with shoes attached and move quicker in transition.
One last note
The pictures from the official photographer were poor to say the least! as you can see here they were all from the finish line! my choice would be to have pictures on the bike more than anything!
