DGtri Athlete - Jamie Harman

Grendon Triathlon Report

Northampton olympic distance was my second race of 2012 and hadn't i really been planned until the last minute but as the Barton marina triathlon had been cancelled due to lack of entrants i needed to race.

Training without some form of competition for me is mentally challenging so i needed to get another event in the bag before the Big cow middle distance. After my second place in the Full Boar super sprint i wanted to make sure that it wasn't luck and that i had actually found some racing consistency and strength paying off after the hours of training. I was not to be disappointed!.

I was up at 5am and porridge with honey was on the menu for brekky. Then a quick shower and off to Northampton. It had been raining all night and i had not held much hope of it stopping in time for the race but it did.
On arrival at the venue the field was an absolute bog and i did worry that i may not get the car back off i but thought to myself i will worry about that after the race. I got my kit ready and went off to registration then to set my transition area up. It was a little wet but not as boggy as the car park and there was plenty of room.

The race starts were in waves and my wave was at 08:40. I planned to take it a little easier at the start of the swim as in the super sprint in may i went off to quick and blew up then ended up having to do breast stroke for a few meters to get myself together. The water was a little choppy and and at 08:40 the horn sounded. The swim down to the first buoy was not bad as we were swimming with the wind and current, I did expect it to be hard going coming back up the lake but to my surprise it was quite easy and i was holding a good manageable comfortable swim pace. My sighting was going well and i was going from marker buoy to marker buoy in straight lines with no issues. Coming back across the lake towards the pylon before the last turn all the other bar a few swimmers seemed to go offline and i wondered if i had missed a buoy. I stopped and had a look and my sighting was correct, A lot of swimmers had gone offline and maybe added perhaps one hundred to two hundred meters to there swim leg. I made the last turn and passed a few people who had made mistakes and seemed to be really struggling with the conditions. I was really cruising quite nicely and exited the water in a comfortable state in 23mins. Happy days.

A bit of a steady run to T1 and on with the bike kit. I had a jacket waiting in T1 but when i got there opted not to wear it as it was quite warm and not raining. My bike split is what i was really looking forward to as i am still getting used to the Scott and new i could put a new Olympic pb bike split in. My previous was 1hr 20mins.

Out on the course and it was really really windy. I was getting blown all over the place with the deep section rims but never the less still holding good speed. I seemed to be endlessly passing people and with ease. I was even singing to myself at one point lol. What did the other competitors think?

It was obvious a lot of people were struggling with the windy conditions and had opted just to get to the finish but thanks to Dermot's super hard turbo workouts and some hill sessions i was strong and my legs felt good, I don't really remember ever blowing hard and i felt like i was riding really consistent and clever, Using the gears without thought as soon as they were needed. That's one thing i have learnt!, The bike has gears and if your thinking maybe i should change up then chances are you should of already done it!. On the few downhill sections i was holding a big gear and hitting 30+mph. On the uphills spinning up to clear the legs of lactic acid. With some tail winds also it was a good idea to back off on power and spin up to clear the legs. The plan worked and i romped home with a big smile on my face to T2 in 67minutes knocking 13+mins of my previous olympic bike split.

T2 and on with the socks and out in 1min 16secs. The run course after all that rain was quite muddy, That terrain is right up my street as i had been doing lots of mixed terrain long runs across fields and up and down hills.

My run plan was to go steady for the first half a lap then pick up the pace for the remainder however i did not find my run legs until around the end of the second lap but was still holding 7min to 7:30 pace. The third lap things started to come together and i was running hard without any issues holding around 6:50 to 7:00min pace. I decided to get it over with on the last lap and started running hard, I was looking at my pace on my watch and holding around 6min miles. That for me is really moving!. I expected to blow up but to be honest i think i could of held that pace for a little longer had i only tried it earlier in the run and just pushed through. My run split was 43mins avg 7:16 pace. I finished the event in 2hrs 17mins knocking around 20mins of my previous Olympic distance time.
I finished 6th in my category and 24th place overall. I am very happy with my result and my plans are to just keep on improving my splits and to be consistent. All is good in my camp at the moment and things are coming together. The next race is The Big Cow middle distance in July. I just need to keep it together now but to be honest if i am clever and cautious during the next Two weeks then we'll be good!

Enjoy the rest of your season and race hard but smart!

Jamie

DGtri Athlete: Richard Kitts

This was my first ever triathlon and it was a cracker. Firstly the swim in open water was a little slow i.e. 16 mins but i started at the back and ended up stopping due to amount of people who decided to slow down. Next the transition which took me 4 mins as i could not get my wet suit off and looking at some of the better triathletes they only took 2 mins-what a novice. Mind you some poor folks fell over whilst trying to take theirs off. I really enjoyed the bike section as it was run on closed roads. I am used to doing time trials and getting shouted out by drivers being daft. I managed to make up time and passed quite a few other poeple who had clearly swam better than me. Then 2nd transition was quick, followed by a nifty 23 mins for the 5k run which felt hard. It was a funny feeling to run on dead legs. My lungs were telling me to run harder but my legs would not move quicker. Great feeling when finished 1.27 2nd in my age group. What a bonus. So plenty to think about, but i do love doing these events. So more interesting then plain running or biking on their own.

Next one liverpool tri in 2 weeks. Bring it on i reckon

 

Richard

DGtri Athlete - Bill Livingstone

European Powerman Championships : Horst, Holland.

Someone had the bright idea of entering the Powerman Duathlon as a good guage of how the winter training had progressed our athletic abilities.

Race Day Minus 2.

On a bright and blustery morning, it was a quick drive to the airport to collect Dermot, then another trip around the M25 to collect Luke, then off to Dover we headed.

Once at Dover, we were told (without any apologies!) that our ferry was cancelled and we were booked on the next one, 3 hours later. Dont you just love British customer services!!

After an uneventful channel crossing ( I was hoping for big waves) we arrived at Dunkirk and headed off for Horst Holland. Luke had worked out that Dermot had actually travelled in 5 countries that day, Malta, England, France, Belgium and finally Holland. I think the journey was starting to take its toll on us!

After our ferry delay we arrived at the hotel late and after the restaurant had closed. As we booked into the hotel, we asked if there was anywhere we could get any food. The chef had already finished for the evening, but willingly went back into the kitchen and prepared food for us, brilliant!

Race Day Minus 1.

A quick test of the bikes in the morning confirmed that everything was running well and no mechanical issues. However the run was a little different, with a certain 2 athletes afraid of some barking dogs. Well, they were BIG barking dogs, but they failed to notice the barbed wire on top of the fence, so the dogs could not get out!!

We arrived in Horst for registration and decided food was required first. A quick bite to eat then back to registration, which was very efficient. An excellent goodie bag was provided by the organiser and a few photos were taken of Luke and Dermot with the Maltese flag!

Race Day.

An easy 5km ride into Horst and we were right into the heart of Powerman! Straight into transition to lay out your kit, a quick warm up, then off to the start line.

Being a European Championship, we knew that the level of athlete would be high, but we were not prepared for just how high. The elite/pro men were running the first 15km as if they were running a 5km race! As the first run was 15km and 6 laps, you could follow what was happening in the race and track how well (or not ) you were doing.

6 laps done and onto the bike ahead of target time, although it was easy to find my bike in T1 as there were not many left! Even running 6:45 pace for 10 miles made no difference, back of the pack it was!

The bike was a flat but technical course, completely closed to traffic and very well supported. 3 laps of 20km soon went quick, especially for the elite/pros. I could hear the carbon rumble in the distance and soon the leaders overtook me at the end of lap 2 as if I was going backwards.

Lap 3 done and back into T2 which was not as full as I expected. I had a decent bike and was ahead of target but had actually overtaken quite a few athletes on the bike.

The second run was torture trying to run at pace without blowing. 3 laps around Horst and it was over. I dropped a few places in the last kilometre as the legs had finally blown!

Finally across the finish greeted by a huge crowd, cheering every single athlete that finished.

Out of the finish area and heading back to transition to collect my kit, I finally caught up with Dermot and Luke. We collected our kit, had a chat with other athletes then cycled back to the hotel as the slowest pace we had done all weekend.

Sitting in the restaurant that evening and analysing our performances, we all agreed that it had been a particularly hard race and it had certainly highlighted the differences between triathletes and duathletes. Even though we had all done extremely well and were way out in front of our target times, we certainly got our butts kicked bigstyle and recognised that!

The post race day analysis took place as we drove back towards England (with Dermot on his 5 country trip again), discussing and analysing the race. It was definitely a hard race but on reflection, an excellent race, and one which will certainly be done again.

Thanks to my 2 biggest supporters, Pam and Sophie, who had a quiet and tidy house for the weekend!

Thanks to Dermot for getting me in good shape for the race despite works best efforts to wreck his plans.

And thanks to Luke and Dermot for the company and laughs over the weekend.

Dont think you will be laughing so much at Antwerp 70.3 in July!!

Bill

113k Malta Middle Distance Triathlon

After a not so happy ending to my European Duathlon long distance Championships in Holland I was looking forward to have good race back in Malta at the 113k Middle distance triathlon organised at Birzebbugia.  3 weeks of solid training followed my disappointing result in Holland.  I went into the race with very realistic expectation on the final result.  In long distance you cannot achieve top form in 3 weeks and knowing that my main rivals were much more advanced with their training timing I wasn't putting too much pressure on myself. I wanted to use this race mostly as preparation for the coming races so my main target was to execute a good performance, test my race nutrition and race gear. 

The conditions on the day were not fantastic.  The wind was blowing hard and the sea was rough which usually plays in my favour but then again in Holland I suffered big time on quite a nice day.  I started with a strong swim coming out of the water in 29mins together with club team mates Roberto Demicoli and Andrew Grech who were both part of relay teams.  After a quick transition I jumped on the bike and tried to find a good tempo which could take me through the 90k ride without digging too deep into my reserves.  Fabio was quickly gaining time on me but I tried not to panic to much and just concentrating on my race.  In longer races if you push hard early in the race you usually pay for it in the run, and I wanted to have a good run so I stuck to my pace. 

Back to the second transition I noticed that I was going a quite a good pace.  I had kept around 36.3k/hr average on the bike which was quite motivating in those conditions so I started the run in good spirits.... that until I saw Brian closing fast on me and eating all the advantage I had with every kilometer.  In the first lap of the run I wasn't feeling too good but I was running quite well but in the second and third lap I felt much better. In the end I won with a new PB of 4hrs 24mins by just 50sec on Brian and 4mins on Fabio.  All three of us managed to break the 4hrs 30mins barrier which is a very good result.

A big thank-you goes to Johanna for really sorting my race nutrition which worked perfectly on the day.  Next race is 70.3 Italy in Pescara next Sunday 10th June.