DGtri Athlete - Simona Carena

The Wild Boar


02/09/2012

Last race in the Full Boar series the Wild Boar is a Middle Distance event at Bosworth Water Trust. The event distance in km is 1.9/84/21. This is my second trial at this longer race and I was looking forward to find out to tackle a more challenging course.

My other aim for the day was to be really relaxed about the race and enjoy it and see if that would further help performance, and avoid being too cautious, and push a little harder. The profile of the race lends itself perfectly as it is a moderate challenging course on the bike and a not so flat run.

I rocked up at race venue feeling very chilled, meeting and greeting all friends and noticing that the venue was already pleasantly full of competitors and buzzing with the race atmosphere. Plenty time to register, chat and one last cup of coffee and set transition… within 5 minutes of it closing.Quick warm up and stretch, race brief and it is time to enter the lake.

The water was quite cold, but not overly uncomfortable and after a few minutes of warm up I thought it was ok. The planfor the swim was to set off at a good speed to get in a group I could draft off. Recently I have been hanging backin the opening stages of the swim due to a few small panic attacks last season, hence my desire to get back where I belong in the world of the fearless swimmers!

All went well. The first lap of two I got quickly in to my stride, and managed to draft a bit. The second lap I could kick harder but somehow lost the crowd at the buoys. Finished the swim in 32:39, 3 second faster than on previous, very pleasing.

T1 was not my best, although I whipped off my wetsuit quickly, I then faffed whilst putting on layers on and stretching a locked knee, and searching for my socks left in the bag by the area perimeter, stupid mistake!

The bike section was always going to be the toughest aspect of the Wild Boar: I do not seem to be able to get in the flow of this course. However I saw this as a challenge to try to push it on one hand, to try to manage its constant change of gradient on the other; and gauge the effect it would have on the rest of my race. An opportunity to test myself, may be with risks attached, but also to discover what I can do for future races. I have no doubt that I paced my bike section well in Antwerp, but I also wanted to know what happens after a harder bike effort.

The course was4 laps affair. The first lap was a war of attrition, not feeling in the zone and labouring hard. My back felt tight and needed time to stretch before taking longer turns on the bars. By the second lap I was feeling better, although my heart rate was higher than planned, was lower than on the first lap. Lap 3 was painful on the quads; by the last lap I was just glad I got there. I purposely not looked at my computer until the last lap, but I found out that all 4 laps were at the same average speed of 16.6 mph! This compared against a 17 mph on the Olympic distance effort in July is satisfactory, but it shows that this course and I are not made for each other! ;-)

Total time for bike 3:10:29, inclusive of 2 unscheduled pit stops …

The question was will a harder bike effort affect my run? The answer is a straight forward: yes! I set off from T2 in 1:47 feeling good, as always Dermot’s training has prepared me well, and surprised my back did not hurt as it has been sore and cranky in the week leading to the race. A quick glance to my watch pointed out that my pace was not great, but I resolved to give the legs time to settle. All went well in the first lap of 2 “there and back” loops. The course is a bit of ups and downs, no major gradients apart from a couple of canal bridges, but has few long drags. By lap 2 with the sun now shining and fatigue building it all started to feel rather punitive.

However I was gunning for a PB, no matter by how small a margin, as even if this course is shorter it is tough. I wanted to feel that I gave it my best. The bike ride did mortgage the run performanceto a point but I kept pushing in spite of the slowly spreading rigor mortis in legs and back. On approaching the waterpark I could not work out how long it was to the finish line, so opened up my stride after the last bridge and hoped for the best. I rallied what energy I had left, and as the ground got on an even level and with the help of a cheering and clapping crowd I could pick up a little more speed. The run sectionwas a satisfactory 1:50:27.

Total time 4:39:09, a 4 minutes PB, plus enormous satisfaction on letting off the brakesin an effort to experiment. A good lessonfor next season.

I would like to thank the race organizers for this top notch event; the attention to details is second to none. Lots of freebies, well-marked course, superb feed station and many other small aspect like post-race massage available, pre-race information, cheap photography, timing chip with print out of result on the finish line between many other positives.

The marshals were the best ever, for the whole duration of the day patiently helping on the course, with encouraging worlds and banter; in particular on the feed stations where I had food quickly offered on demand and even stashed in my back pocket to help save time! Pat on the back and high fives all round guys!

And finally to my super coach Dermot who got me through another very satisfactory sporting year. I have always felt well prepared for each race, the training is very challenging and varied so that I am looking forward to it, no matter how hard it may be a times or how tired I feel. Most notably I have not had any injuries now that I train under his direction for three years and I still keep improving.

Roll on next season!