A race for jackoatbar - Desford Trathlon

I saw on a tweet from @jackoatbar the other week asking for a brand ambassador to race the Desford Triathlon. Luckily I was the first to respond and promptly secured my place in the race which was being held by RaceTime Events (who jackoatbar sponsor).

The race is a 400m swim, followed by a 18km bike and a 5km run across fields.

My Dad came over to support me for the race and kindly offered to drive me to the event.

I packed for the event with my new trisuit which I have had printed with the logos of companies who have supported me so far.

My new trisuit

I also decided that today would be the first time I would unleash #Rinnie. I didn't want to use her last weekend as I thought the course to hilly for my TT bike.  Before the event I asked the organiser if the course was suitable for a TT bike. he said yes so it was #Rinnietime.

I also decided to use my new Giro Air Attack Shield helmet.

Me and Dad arrived in Desford and I promptly registered and racked my bike. I then applied some jackoatbar temporary tattoos to take part in some guerrilla advertising.

Guerilla advertising

Then it was go time.

I familiarised myself with the ins and outs of transition and made my way to the pool.

Swim

I got in the water and prepared myself for the next hour os so of racing while I waited for the off. I set off on the swim and was slowly gaining on the other swimmers in my lane. I didn't catch anyone this week though but managed to exit the water in 6:23. Although this was 11 seconds down on last week, I have to take the positives. I cut short Tuesday's swim due to a injury in my shoulder buy my physio seems to have fixed me. I exited the water as the first swimmer from my wave and jogged to transition.

Swim done now onto T1

T1

I need to work on my transition as I was caught by the other swimmers from my lane while I was putting on my shoes. I've been speaking to Matt Fisher (another jackoatbar brand ambassador) about this and plan on practising it this weekend.  Matt's advice on this can be seen here http://www.triathletesdiary.com/advice/9-advice/25-semi-flying-mounts-a-flying-discmounts.html

So after being caught in T1 and losing all the hard work I had done in the pool I jogged to the mount line in my cleats. Clip clop, clip clop.

Bike

I mounted #Rinnie and could not clip my shoes in. AAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH, the swimmers who I had dropped in the pool had now overtaken me. Like I said I must work on my "semi flying mounts" 

Now let's see what I could do on the bike leg. I hadn't driven the course but had heard some of the other athletes saying there were a few surprises in store. Oh great that meant hills. So I started putting the power down as soon as I was clipped in and after about half a mile noticed a slight incline in the road. This carried on for most of the next 4.5 miles. Great I had done about half the course and had only spent under one mile going downhill or flat which meant I had been climbing for nearly four miles. Surely the must mean the second half was mostly downhill. You'd think so but it felt more flat than downhill.

Bike course profile

I made my way back into Desford and had unfastened my shoes too early. I must have been pedalling with my feet out of the shoes for over half a mile.

I dismounted and jogged to T2.

Coming into T2

T2

I had racked my bike and thrown on my trainers. T2 flew by which is a good thing and proves I am getting quicker.

Run

Now it was time to see if I had the mental strength to bury my demons as discussed in my last blogpost. I decided to trust in my #runboss and keep my HR in zone 3. The run course was a 3 lap course across fields and to prevent a recurrence of the injury sustained during last weeks off road run I had purchased some more aggressive off-road trainers. Running off the bike never usually bothers me but today I didn't feel that comfortable. I flew (for me) through the first mile in 7:59 but hadn't settled.

The course had a nasty little sting in the tail about half way round with a short sharp hill.  On each of the there laps this hill seemed to sap my energy. 

My Dad was there to cheer me on through each of the laps but I was in another place mentally and knew he was there but didn't acknowledge him as I was concentrating on the task at hand. After about 1.5 miles I noticed a burning on my right foot. Note to self "I should've put my socks on in T2", I stopped to quickly retie my laces. Damn it the burning was still there. Onwards we go. At the end of the second lap I finally found my running legs and settled into my running. I still kept my HR in zone 3 but I just started to feel strong. I even started to reel in some runners. 

On the run

What was that about? I overtook three runners within 50m of one another. Wow this was a new feeling. I don't think I have ever overtaken a runner in a triathlon.

I ensured my HR stayed in Z3 for the rest of the run.

I crossed the line in a time of 1:08:12 and was thrilled to bits. I was honoured to have completed this race as an ambassador of jackoatbar but was elated with my times.

My times were as follows.

Swim - 6:23

T1 - 1:17

Bike - 34:08

T2 - 0:59

Run - 25:23 (a new off-road 5km PB)

Total - 1:08:12

This put me in 68th position and I was over the moon with this. As there were 178 finishers, this was also my first top half finish in a triathlon.

What a wonderful day.

Thanks to jackoatbar and RaceTime Events for the opportunity to race the Desford Triathlon.

That's all from me,

Michael