Although it wasn't the original plan, but The London Triathlon was my last race of 2014. I have gone into it after a whole month of not doing much at all, maybe doing a total of 3 runs, 4 bike rides and 2 swim sessions, so I entered not expecting much at all other than just to have fun. The goal of this race was purely to share the experience with my wife and son, who haven't seen me race at all this year (my daughter already saw me in my other race in London in June).
This post is a brief recap of this race, plus a more general view of what has gone and what I'm planning next.
The race started way in advance with some logistical considerations. 2 years ago, my wave was supposed to start after 2pm, so I set off with the family in a car at 9am from our place in West London, and I ended up not being able to make it in time for the race start!!! The journey, under normal circumstances, takes about 30-40 minutes, yet on that day 5 hours were not enough! So, this year I wasn't going to take any chances. I booked a hotel that is right at the entrance of Excel, where the race was, and we stayed the night there. My race start was at 07:30am, so it made even more sense to just be close to the action.
Pre-race rituals were still the same. I woke up at 4:30, got ready, had my breakfast, went to transition and got all set up, and I was back in the room by 6:15. I got into my race suit, went back to transition, did my warm-up, got my wetsuit on, and made my way down to the swim start, along with 360 others in my age group.
I was feeling so relaxed, knowing that I didn't have to think about times, and that I was just there to have fun! It felt really nice. Having not swum at all for a whole month, I knew that my swim would be at least 3-4 minutes under my usual time, but I didn't mind, as long as I completed the distance. So, I set off at a very leisurely pace, and 30 minutes later I was out of the water all nicely warmed up and ready to take on the bike course.
I had absolutely no expectations of my bike leg of the race. I knew that my usual minimum power target should be around 190 Watts, but I anticipated that during this race if I got 180 would be ok, and I would have even been ok with much lower than that. I got on the bike and I felt really well. My average power for the first 20 minutes was way above 200 and it felt absolutely fine with a low enough heart rate. The road had a short climb over a bridge, a tunnel with ridiculous top speed going into it with a short climb coming out, and not many bends to negotiate. The only drawback of this course was the road surface which was so rough at certain points, that I had to hold the bottles and the Garmin in place so that they wouldn't fly off.
I made the first turn at Westminster (in front of Big Ben), and back along the Embankment towards East London again. Another shorter lap followed, with the turn around being much closer to transition. I got back to transition in under 1 hour and 14 minutes, with an average power of 189 Watts! This is not amazing under normal circumstances, but for me on that day it just was totally unexpected! I was very happy with that and still felt very fresh indeed!
A relatively fast transition, and off to run the 10km. Again, my aim was just to finish. My normal 10km time (not during a triathlon) is just over 40 minutes (I only went under 40 minutes once, so I can't say that this is my usual time), so during an Olympic distance triathlon, I would usually estimate around 43-45 minutes if I'm in good shape. So, with that month of no training, I was expecting much more than that, and I would have been happy with 50 minutes even.
I set my watch to give me my time every 500 metres, so as I started my run feeling really strong, the first few 500 metre intervals were right in that pace of 45 minutes for the 10k! I thought to myself "ok, you'll probably blow up at any point now, but try to delay that by focusing on your breathing and your hydration and nutrition" and so I did. I just listened to my breathing, making sure that I wasn't overdoing it, had water on the 2 aid stations, and made sure I sipped on my carb/salt mixture at the planned times. I also made sure to throw cold water on my head whenever I could, since it was hot and humid. The run was 3 laps, each lap ending with a short but steep hill towards the finishing area.
On my way to the end of the second lap, I saw that I did the first 5km in 23 minutes. I was still feeling absolutely fine, and I then decided that, even if I don't do this as a negative split (where I go faster in the second half of the run), at least I'll aim for the same time for the second 5km.
I crossed the finish line having run the 10km in 45:07, having lost a few seconds on the third lap dropping my gel flask, and slowing down at the end trying to find my wife and son. But, although I started not caring about the time, and I was so happy I have done it in a much better time than I had anticipated. And, it was that reason that made my wife and son make it a bit later to the finish line :) But it was all worth it when I saw them there at the end. This was the first time this year that I could actually enjoy this with my wife, which was something I really missed during all my other races this year.
My main conclusion for how I performed on the day was that, as expected, the swim is never great if one stops for some time, but the bike and the run fitness and speed do not just disappear, especially with all the training for much longer distances that I have done since October 2013. Yet, I do not think for a second that this would have been the same were it a Half Ironman race. I would have certainly suffered a lot!
As I mentioned in my previous post, this race marks the end of my 2014 season. I shall now focus a bit on family and work before resuming proper training from 1st September. This doesn't mean that I won't try to train in the meantime, but it only means that I'll just go for a jog every now and then to enjoy the scenery, or go for a bike ride to explore places rather than to do specific training.
The main goals for 2015 have been set, the training schedule for the first few weeks is already in my calendar, and the gear is being prepared.
I'm working on a couple of projects that will hopefully be of benefit to most of those who read this blog, so hold on to some really exciting news coming up in the next few weeks!
This post is a brief recap of this race, plus a more general view of what has gone and what I'm planning next.
 |
| With my son at the finish line :) |
The race started way in advance with some logistical considerations. 2 years ago, my wave was supposed to start after 2pm, so I set off with the family in a car at 9am from our place in West London, and I ended up not being able to make it in time for the race start!!! The journey, under normal circumstances, takes about 30-40 minutes, yet on that day 5 hours were not enough! So, this year I wasn't going to take any chances. I booked a hotel that is right at the entrance of Excel, where the race was, and we stayed the night there. My race start was at 07:30am, so it made even more sense to just be close to the action.
Pre-race rituals were still the same. I woke up at 4:30, got ready, had my breakfast, went to transition and got all set up, and I was back in the room by 6:15. I got into my race suit, went back to transition, did my warm-up, got my wetsuit on, and made my way down to the swim start, along with 360 others in my age group.
I was feeling so relaxed, knowing that I didn't have to think about times, and that I was just there to have fun! It felt really nice. Having not swum at all for a whole month, I knew that my swim would be at least 3-4 minutes under my usual time, but I didn't mind, as long as I completed the distance. So, I set off at a very leisurely pace, and 30 minutes later I was out of the water all nicely warmed up and ready to take on the bike course.
I had absolutely no expectations of my bike leg of the race. I knew that my usual minimum power target should be around 190 Watts, but I anticipated that during this race if I got 180 would be ok, and I would have even been ok with much lower than that. I got on the bike and I felt really well. My average power for the first 20 minutes was way above 200 and it felt absolutely fine with a low enough heart rate. The road had a short climb over a bridge, a tunnel with ridiculous top speed going into it with a short climb coming out, and not many bends to negotiate. The only drawback of this course was the road surface which was so rough at certain points, that I had to hold the bottles and the Garmin in place so that they wouldn't fly off.
I made the first turn at Westminster (in front of Big Ben), and back along the Embankment towards East London again. Another shorter lap followed, with the turn around being much closer to transition. I got back to transition in under 1 hour and 14 minutes, with an average power of 189 Watts! This is not amazing under normal circumstances, but for me on that day it just was totally unexpected! I was very happy with that and still felt very fresh indeed!
A relatively fast transition, and off to run the 10km. Again, my aim was just to finish. My normal 10km time (not during a triathlon) is just over 40 minutes (I only went under 40 minutes once, so I can't say that this is my usual time), so during an Olympic distance triathlon, I would usually estimate around 43-45 minutes if I'm in good shape. So, with that month of no training, I was expecting much more than that, and I would have been happy with 50 minutes even.
I set my watch to give me my time every 500 metres, so as I started my run feeling really strong, the first few 500 metre intervals were right in that pace of 45 minutes for the 10k! I thought to myself "ok, you'll probably blow up at any point now, but try to delay that by focusing on your breathing and your hydration and nutrition" and so I did. I just listened to my breathing, making sure that I wasn't overdoing it, had water on the 2 aid stations, and made sure I sipped on my carb/salt mixture at the planned times. I also made sure to throw cold water on my head whenever I could, since it was hot and humid. The run was 3 laps, each lap ending with a short but steep hill towards the finishing area.
On my way to the end of the second lap, I saw that I did the first 5km in 23 minutes. I was still feeling absolutely fine, and I then decided that, even if I don't do this as a negative split (where I go faster in the second half of the run), at least I'll aim for the same time for the second 5km.
I crossed the finish line having run the 10km in 45:07, having lost a few seconds on the third lap dropping my gel flask, and slowing down at the end trying to find my wife and son. But, although I started not caring about the time, and I was so happy I have done it in a much better time than I had anticipated. And, it was that reason that made my wife and son make it a bit later to the finish line :) But it was all worth it when I saw them there at the end. This was the first time this year that I could actually enjoy this with my wife, which was something I really missed during all my other races this year.
My main conclusion for how I performed on the day was that, as expected, the swim is never great if one stops for some time, but the bike and the run fitness and speed do not just disappear, especially with all the training for much longer distances that I have done since October 2013. Yet, I do not think for a second that this would have been the same were it a Half Ironman race. I would have certainly suffered a lot!
As I mentioned in my previous post, this race marks the end of my 2014 season. I shall now focus a bit on family and work before resuming proper training from 1st September. This doesn't mean that I won't try to train in the meantime, but it only means that I'll just go for a jog every now and then to enjoy the scenery, or go for a bike ride to explore places rather than to do specific training.
The main goals for 2015 have been set, the training schedule for the first few weeks is already in my calendar, and the gear is being prepared.
I'm working on a couple of projects that will hopefully be of benefit to most of those who read this blog, so hold on to some really exciting news coming up in the next few weeks!
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