Grafman Triathlon 2014

Just a quick one about the weekend's race.

Pre race.

Had a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thursday. Not ideal but felt ok by Friday. Simon and I, along with a club mate of his, John, camped over on Saturday night. The wind was pretty strong during the afternoon but died away so it looked like running the deep section wheels would be fine. Lots of carbs the night before. Felt ready to go and do my first triathlon in three years.

Swim. 37:xx

It's a very pretty swim. The water looked a bit murky but tasted ok, I know this as I swallowed quite a lot of it. The course was one large lap followed by one small one. I lurked at the back trying and failing to find feet. My main issue was leaking goggles so I had to roll on my back a few times to empty them. Sub optimal but it gave me a rest. I tried to keep my stroke nice and long which worked for the most part but by the end of lap two I was starting to feel a bit tight in the shoulders and was looking forward to getting out. The time was quite a bit down on what I know I am capable of but I can't complain, considering how little swimming I have actually done in the last six months.

Bike 2:31

Once I left T1 there were not many bikes left in transition and I spent the first 10 minutes not really feeling the love. My legs felt very heavy after the swim and I just wasn't used to transitioning from one discipline to the next. After a while I got my head down properly and started to overtake a lot of people; relatively easy when you are quite a way down after the swim, but I made sure I was not
pushing hard.  The road was quite bumpy at times but it was a flat, fast course with a few technical
bits at each turn around point. There was some drafting but not much, conspiring how busy it got at times and when the road opened up most people seemed to behave themselves.

My nutrition was shotblocks and I had a pack an hour washed down with some nuun and at the last feed station I took a bottle of water. This left me a little light on calories but it went down ok and didn't come back up. I think I'll think about some savoury snacks next time, just to make the rolling buffet a little more interesting. When I came off the main circuit it was another few miles back to T2 and I slowed down too much here, losing time because I was looking for the entrance back to Grafham Water rather than concentrating on the race. So I got back into T2 in a tad over 2.5 hours feeling quite fresh. It was all looking rather good.

Run 1:50

Dam and blast! Another rubbish run. The writing was on the wall almost straight away as I ran out of T2 feeling great, I mean really great, but then after 800 metres my legs started to cramp up and brought me to a halt very quickly. I literally could not walk a step and spent a few minutes massaging my left quad and right hamstring to get them to free up a little. I then managed to get walking before resuming a slow shuffle, on my way to the first aid station at the turnaround point on the dam. I think this was a combination of two factors. My longest ride on the argon in a fairly aggressive tt position and not taking on board enough electrolytes. Aerobically I felt great and my legs did not feel very fatigued but they were very knotted with cramp, so I made the decision to ensure that I was taking on water and high5 at every station. The second half of the run course takes you back to transition, then out again through woods and paths to the second turnaround. By this stage I was going through a black mood, frankly very bored with the whole thing, but I think the energy drink must have kicked in as I perked up and was able to run more freely.

I had one lap to go with exactly 1 hour to get a sub 5. So just over 6.5 miles in an hour. It gave me something to work for so I resolved to run all the way to the feed station on the dam and I managed it! Game on. Ok, now. Time to run all the way back to the water station at transition. I did that too! So it was still on. I necked more water and got running again but I could feel what little energy I had in my legs finally seeping out. The harder I tried, the slower I was getting and it got to a point where I was virtually quicker walking. With about a mile to go I was still just within sight of a 4:59:xx time but without warning both hamstrings cramped and wouldn't let go. It really hurt and I spent another couple of minutes massaging them to get them moving again. It was very, very frustrating.

I jogged across the line in 5:03. I am really delighted and really disappointed at the same time. That's
a 12 minute pb on the time I did at my last middle distance race in the Cowman in 2010, which is obviously great, and I went into this race not expecting to go sub 5. But to get so close and not make it is frustrating, especially when I think that the cramps are something that maybe I could have controlled.

Never mind. Onwards.