Race report - Hever Castle - 8th July - 2018

Hever Castle - Middle Distance - 1.9km Swim, 90km Bike, 21.1km Run (1/2 IRONMAN)

Wow it's been a while since I have written up some notes. To think in 7 weeks time I will have a short story to tell you all about from IRONMAN Wales!!

For now, it's just an update and a focus on how Hever Castle middle distance went back on the 8th of July.

Race day

It all started with a very very early alarm @ 3am. I was very lucky to have Mike join me last minute for the event for some much needed support. 

In the week building up to the race I received my first detailed race plan from my coach. This race plan was 2 full A4 pages mainly reminding to either extent, stay relaxed and be AWESOME.

If the above was how I measured success I think I nailed it....

The weather was predicted to be a hot one, something oddly I was looking forward to as I wanted to test out a new hydration/fuel strategy (nothing original, just eat/drink a lot more then I ever had). I even now have a template on excel I can use to work out how much of what I need. I LOVE EXCEL!!

Upon arriving @ T1 it was announced as a non wetsuit swim. At first I was like F***, then I realised that I may not be the strongest swimmer here but i'm certainly in the slightly above average group.

Therefore, I was not one of the majority who surrounded the referee's and pleading for it to remain optional. Unfortunately water at the temperature of 26degrees is non negotiable. 

After completing all the admin and faffing about which happens pre race I made my way down to the swim start. I knew this race was going to be scenic but I didn't expect the the lake look so amazing. We will ignore how grim the water actually was. 

First to the start line

Swim

The race had a 40 minute delay due to poor admin on the organisers behalf NOT COOL. I won't go into too much detail about what happened in this 40 mins, lets just say Mike you're a complete tool and Sophie you're a hero for being so understanding......

Ok so after a quick briefing it was go time. I got into the water with my wave and before I knew it the gun went off. I'm pretty sure half of my wave were still getting in the water, but I wasn't caught out by this and I was off. 

In terms of how I felt during the swim, I thought I was "flying" I somehow convinced myself I was still on for a 30min swim (non wetsuit). I had no idea time wise what my swim was but Mike was waiting for me in T1 and told me I was around 15th.....

I had a super quick T1 and I was off. 

Swim time 33:59

Still haven't learnt to flying mount

Bike

Here is where the race plan comes into play.

Note: this will be my last race where I use HR and Cadence to guide my effort. I did have my new Garmin pedal fitted but we chose to keep power numbers off any screens. 

The first 20 mins were interesting, I caught a couple of people but quite a few went passed me..... I'm not an "uber" biker but in my triathlon experience (except IRONMAN Wales) very few have over taken me on the bike......

Instead of getting worried/annoyed I just settled into my own rhythm. The first lap was interesting, I didn't reccy the course and felt that this cost me a little as I didn't really know where the hills/flat bits were. 

At the 40km mark I had my first stop.... my saddle had worked it's way down. I pulled over spent a couple of minutes adjusting and got back. This was my first stoppage ever on a bike leg and I remained positive, after all it was only around 2-3mins. I went through the first lap in 1:28. At this point I felt good, I knew there was loads in the legs and I actually could push on a little.

Between 45-60km I really started to feel like I had picked up the pace, I could see my 5m splits were slightly faster then the first lap. I also knew I was still riding to my numbers.

At this point I was starting to pick people off, most of these were people who had come past me early on. This was a big confidence booster. 

At the 60km mark I had just climbed the biggest hill on the course and consequently had a speedy decent to tackle. This time I was going to try and hold a higher HR down the decent rather then "rest". It was about half way down doing approx 60kph that the worst happened...

The headset on my bike came completely undone... I was unable to use my front brake as this made the bike uncontrollable. All I had was a pretty piss poor back brake and the option of ditching into a hedge. I managed to stay calm and unclip both feet and dragged them on the floor.... very child like. 

Where I had stopped was a marshall point, I asked the chap to see if the on road mechanic would come to assist. He had little to no interest in doing this with any speed or enthusiasm. Meanwhile I took the whole front end of my bike apart... everything seemed done up and tight, but I knew something was still wrong. 

I decided to get back on the death trap and make my way to the end. I asked the marshall to make a note of my race number/clothing and said that I'm probably going to need to be picked up between here and T2. 

Amazingly, I was able to ride the bike uphills and on the flats..... anymore descending though meant riding with the rear brake pretty much on with my feet unclipped in case I had to bail. This caused a lot of confusion to riders around me.

At 85km even at snail pace my puncture kit managed to fly out the rear bottle cage.... I had to stop and collect all the bits.... more time lost. 

After about an hour I made it back to T2. I was shocked!!

Final bike split 3:09. 

Wow my new bike shoes are BRIGHT

From some analysis on Training Peaks/Strava - I spent a total of 16mins 30sec stationary - and my flicking through some segments I lost about 5-8mins by riding slowly. 

Run

So in T2 I slipped on my trainers and off I went. First kudos to me for the day was I didn't change the run part of my race plan. I think it would have very easy to think I didn't ride as "hard" so surely I can run a little harder then planned....

I didn't know the run course, but from all the information and advice given to me I knew it wasn't a course you could disrespect by trying to go to hard early on. 

Similar to the bike about 10 people came past me within the first 5km, now people normally over take me running as it's probably my weakest discipline and is probably my weakest as I'm normally one of those people going out too hard.

After the first lap I saw Mike by the finishing shoot and yelled how much this was hurting. By this point the temperature was 31 degrees!!!! Absolutely ridiculous. 

On the second lap I was allowed to try and push on and let my HR rise.... very difficult to do with 3 sections of up hill on uneven surface. However, I caught about 6 of those who went past me and it's fair to say all of those people were walking!!!

The last 5km was tough, everyone on the course was walking.... there was a 1/2 marathon and full marathon in progress at the same time, but it genuinely looked like everyone was out for a hike.

There were a couple of sections where it opened up and you could see 400-600m in front, I could see the remaining people who had come past me early doors. I did my best to finish strongly and caught a number of them all the way to the finish line. 

I crossed the line and practically passed out...... I was handed lots of sponges and had water poured over me.... cooling down was really bloody tough. 

Run split 1:44

Overall - 5:32

It would be easy to subtract 20-25 mins off my overall time and look where I may have placed. However, that isn't what happened and it wasn't my day. This was training race for me to test out a race plan, hydration/fuel and to gauge where I am towards IRONMAN Wales. 

Although my swim was slower then Barcelona, it was always going to be as a non wetsuit swim. After watching Age Groupers beat Pro's out the water @ IRONMAN UK this weekend just gone it's now evident to me how much quicker you're in a wetsuit...... I do need a to upgrade my 2nd hand moth bitten number though ;)

The bike was going really well, I have no doubt I was going to get under 3hrs which on a course which had 1600-1700m of climbing would have been a great time. per km thats more climbing then Wales... so a massive improvement on my 6hrs 50mins last year looks to be on the cards....

As for the run, again slower then Barcelona but this was off road run with 350-400m of climbing. I managed to maintain my effort consistently and most importantly I finished strongly rather then run/walking to the finish line. 

I'm really happy with where my fitness is and I know the next 4/5 weeks are going to be really tough but ultimately i'm going to be a better athlete when I stand on that start line in Wales..... and this is the goal!!

Thanks

Ross

Instagram - @Triathon_Ross

Ice cold Cider!!!