Outlaw Half Triathlon 2016
May 29th 2016
1900 m swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
This was it. The one I'd been waiting for - my big race of the year!
Did I feel prepared? Yes, I suppose so. Tapering week for me is always an unpleasant experience of feeling fidgety and imagining niggles, so I was glad it was race day! It made a nice change to be in a familiar setting (as I had raced the iron-distance Outlaw Triathlon) last year, albeit they had made a few changes. Due to blue green algae at the normal entry point to the lake, the swim start was now under the commentating tower - and I knew my transition point would be along this wall too.
Getting to the race was a bit of a nightmare. Having got me their perfectly the day before, my Satnav had kindly decided that today was the day to direct me to the wrong side of the lake. Rookie error, but this meant I joined the car park queue 10 minutes later than planned. The queue was also quite a bit longer than anticipated based on last year, so I ended up getting to transition just 15 minutes before it closed. Not so much an issue for getting to the start on time (my start was 07:30 - why do women always get lumped with the final wave? this doesn't make it easier for us to make those bike cut-offs...., transition closed at 06:15) but it did make the 1500 m walk down to set up rather hurried.
I set up my space (realising I had forgotten my long glove-option, nevermind) and quickly donned the wetsuit. For the first time there was no sun beaming over the lake as had been forecast, so I made a last minute decision to go with the clear goggles instead of polarized ones, which turned out to be a good one. One inaudible briefing later and I entered the water in my bright white hat (I was supposed to be wearing a blue one but they had run out - great, I now looked like a very late "Male 34-49") ready for the start.
I set myself up halfway within the pack which seemed about right based on my estimated and indeed achieved swim times. However, there must be some very un-ambitions faster swimmers out there as when the race started I immediately got bashed on the head and swum-over a few times. Not pleasant - line up appropriately ladies! It can't be comfortable for you to have to swim through people... The rest of the swim was thankfully less eventful. I didn't do well drafting-wise as I seemed to end up in a gap (I find this often happens to me, not sure why) although on the return journey I managed to catch a few people. The return felt really long as we had to swim around a buoy at the end and then off to the left towards transition, which is a departure from the norm.
Once in transition I did faff a little bit with my wetsuit, but had soon landed myself on my bike and was ready to go. The start around the lake gave me time to rearrange myself and I settled into the ride. On the way out to the northern loop the headwind was pretty tough, but the surface was decent and the road straight, so I didn't mind too much - just got my head down and got on with it. I quite enjoyed the climb up Oxton bank, my high cadence spinning breezing me past those on their TT machines. Coming down they all overtook me again - I'll have to work on my descending. Since seeing someone get very injured during Scottish Coast to Coast I've been a rather nervous descender...
The other disadvantage of the downhill was that I suddenly started to feel very cold. I regretted not having those long gloves, and shifting out of my TT bars I realised I didn't have much feeling in my arms from elbow down, and had no dexterity at all in my left hand! Changing gear became quite the challenge, and once onto the rolling southern loop I had to use my right hand to change both sets of gears. Thankfully I've had practice at this, but there was still the odd swerve into the middle of the carriageway when changing gear.
I started to see my average speed drop a little towards the end of the bike, but I decided not to push it. The end is pretty technical anyway, and I didn't want to overdo it. I also noticed that I hadn't drunk very much, perhaps 400 ml an hour rather than my usual 750 ml. However, it had been much cooler than I expected and I didn't want to overdrink and have the whole loo dilemma repeat from the Monster Mojo.
Off the bike and onto the run when fairly smoothly - oh apart from leaving my Garmin 920xt on my bike in transition and having to run back (only 5 m or so) to get it amidst shouts of "can't lose that Strava segment" from the crowd. Yes I am one of those people who feels a little naked without my watch. However, I had told myself pre race that I would run the first 5k without looking at it, and that's what I proceeded to do. I set off at a pace that felt extremely easy, and kept this up for the river out and back. Compared to the full Outlaw this section is much much shorter, a great relief as it is fairly spectator free and got quite lonely last time. Back at the lack I allowed myself to glance at watch, expecting to see a 9:30 min/miles pace and seeing 8:45 min/miles!
Daring to think I could keep this up, I decided on another 6k without looking - again keeping the pace easy and relaxed using RPE to measure. At halfway I was still at 8:45 pace and decided I'd pick it up a little for 5k, which pushed my splits a little faster. The final lap involved me incredulously lifting the pace again (which in actual fact, given I was tiring, probably just kept my pace the same) and flying past people who'd overtaken me on the bike. I am still astounded by this run - but saying that the conditions were perfect and it is stupidly flat!
Ecstatic with my half marathon PB (standalone, not just tri half) I crossed the line. My target was to PB and go sub 6 hours and I smashed both. "A" race for the year done.
Times
Total time: 05:50:46
Swim: 00:38:26
T1: 00:03:57
Bike: 03:14:36
T2: 00:02:25
Run: 01:51:20
Standings
Age category: 8/24 33%
Gender category: 58/263 22%
Overall category: 560/1105 51%
Swim: 94/263 36%
T1: 84/263 32%
Bike: 83/263 32%
T2: 35/263 13%
Run: 36/263 14%
1900 m swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
This was it. The one I'd been waiting for - my big race of the year!
Did I feel prepared? Yes, I suppose so. Tapering week for me is always an unpleasant experience of feeling fidgety and imagining niggles, so I was glad it was race day! It made a nice change to be in a familiar setting (as I had raced the iron-distance Outlaw Triathlon) last year, albeit they had made a few changes. Due to blue green algae at the normal entry point to the lake, the swim start was now under the commentating tower - and I knew my transition point would be along this wall too.
Getting to the race was a bit of a nightmare. Having got me their perfectly the day before, my Satnav had kindly decided that today was the day to direct me to the wrong side of the lake. Rookie error, but this meant I joined the car park queue 10 minutes later than planned. The queue was also quite a bit longer than anticipated based on last year, so I ended up getting to transition just 15 minutes before it closed. Not so much an issue for getting to the start on time (my start was 07:30 - why do women always get lumped with the final wave? this doesn't make it easier for us to make those bike cut-offs...., transition closed at 06:15) but it did make the 1500 m walk down to set up rather hurried.I set up my space (realising I had forgotten my long glove-option, nevermind) and quickly donned the wetsuit. For the first time there was no sun beaming over the lake as had been forecast, so I made a last minute decision to go with the clear goggles instead of polarized ones, which turned out to be a good one. One inaudible briefing later and I entered the water in my bright white hat (I was supposed to be wearing a blue one but they had run out - great, I now looked like a very late "Male 34-49") ready for the start.
I set myself up halfway within the pack which seemed about right based on my estimated and indeed achieved swim times. However, there must be some very un-ambitions faster swimmers out there as when the race started I immediately got bashed on the head and swum-over a few times. Not pleasant - line up appropriately ladies! It can't be comfortable for you to have to swim through people... The rest of the swim was thankfully less eventful. I didn't do well drafting-wise as I seemed to end up in a gap (I find this often happens to me, not sure why) although on the return journey I managed to catch a few people. The return felt really long as we had to swim around a buoy at the end and then off to the left towards transition, which is a departure from the norm.
Once in transition I did faff a little bit with my wetsuit, but had soon landed myself on my bike and was ready to go. The start around the lake gave me time to rearrange myself and I settled into the ride. On the way out to the northern loop the headwind was pretty tough, but the surface was decent and the road straight, so I didn't mind too much - just got my head down and got on with it. I quite enjoyed the climb up Oxton bank, my high cadence spinning breezing me past those on their TT machines. Coming down they all overtook me again - I'll have to work on my descending. Since seeing someone get very injured during Scottish Coast to Coast I've been a rather nervous descender...
I started to see my average speed drop a little towards the end of the bike, but I decided not to push it. The end is pretty technical anyway, and I didn't want to overdo it. I also noticed that I hadn't drunk very much, perhaps 400 ml an hour rather than my usual 750 ml. However, it had been much cooler than I expected and I didn't want to overdrink and have the whole loo dilemma repeat from the Monster Mojo.
Daring to think I could keep this up, I decided on another 6k without looking - again keeping the pace easy and relaxed using RPE to measure. At halfway I was still at 8:45 pace and decided I'd pick it up a little for 5k, which pushed my splits a little faster. The final lap involved me incredulously lifting the pace again (which in actual fact, given I was tiring, probably just kept my pace the same) and flying past people who'd overtaken me on the bike. I am still astounded by this run - but saying that the conditions were perfect and it is stupidly flat!
Ecstatic with my half marathon PB (standalone, not just tri half) I crossed the line. My target was to PB and go sub 6 hours and I smashed both. "A" race for the year done.
Times
Total time: 05:50:46
Swim: 00:38:26
T1: 00:03:57
Bike: 03:14:36
T2: 00:02:25
Run: 01:51:20
Standings
Age category: 8/24 33%
Gender category: 58/263 22%
Overall category: 560/1105 51%
Swim: 94/263 36%
T1: 84/263 32%
Bike: 83/263 32%
T2: 35/263 13%
Run: 36/263 14%
Comments
Post a Comment