TriNSW Club Champs and Training... and not...

On Saturday the 5th of April I raced in the Triathlon NSW Club Championships at Forster on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

It was my first open water swim under race conditions since the mid 90s.

It was also my first swim using the new wetsuit.

Wow! How floaty are these things! It was quite hard to get used to because my feet were so high it was hard keeping them low enough in the water to kick.
It wasn't until about 2/3rds of the way through the swim to figure out an effective kick style.

The Swim (1km):

I was pleasantly surprised with my actual swim time over the 1 kilometre - 18m:32s, from the beach start which was about 30m from the edge of the water to the time I stood up ready to run out of the water. Pretty good considering it was mostly arms...

Thankfully there were no big course corrections necessary. I stayed about mid-pack of the 116 other athletes in my start wave which worked well because anytime someone started to swim across my line it would prompt me to have a quick look at my heading. I mostly used the sand ripples on the bottom for the way out, in and across in the shallower water to help navigate. Something I have learnt from years of diving.

My swim looks a bit wonky but the Garmin does that in open water
I can't tell how accurate it is.

I would be interested to see what my heart rate was just before the start! I was so nervous!

Once the start was called, we were away and surviving the swim out of the surf zone was now my only focus. The surf conditions were small and perfect for the race.

The first 100m or so were okay as we swam the easy flowing rip out past the surf zone. I only had to deal with two, maybe three medium size, clean waves. They had very little power to them.

It seemed like the fast pace almost where the rip met deeper water around 150m out.

Due to the surge, it felt like I was making two strokes forward and one stroke back. That was about the time I was wondering to myself what hell I was thinking... this is only 1km and I got the impression I was the last in the field!
I was having difficulty getting a comfortable kick rhythm. The wetsuit was too floaty so I found myself just using my arms most of the time.

On the next few single stroke breaths I checked, tweaked my course and had a look around for my position. I was around the front quarter of the group with a few bubble trails ahead to follow.

The surge or slight current pushed me over a little too close to the first turn buoy at the 375m mark but the congestion wasn't too bad. I think I swam over the top of one guy and also had it happen to me once. A few breath strokes and back into the again.

There had to be a current sweeping us north because once I cleared that first turn it felt like I could finally settle in to the swim.

I found myself swimming alone most of the time without anyone in front of me which I preferred. I had a few foot tappers and side swipes from others as they or I occasionally course corrected.

We headed north, between two orange buoys, then left around the second turning buoy to head west and found the sand becoming visible again in the murk below.
I could see the sand ripples which meant I could navigate better.
I could now keep my head down and concentrate on my stroke and kicking style.

We had two more turns, one to the (left) south back toward the start and then right into the surf zone and to the beach.

Transition was a bit slow due to the small loose gravel rocks in the transition area. I decided to run to the mount point, around 70m away) in my riding shoes.
I was watching some who didn't run in shoes with great amusement as they tip-toed through the rocks like they were doing the "The Bindi Dance".

The Ride (30km):

After my Google Street View analysis of the bike course mentioned in my previous post I felt well acquainted with what was to come however the course lap seemed shorter than I expected.
The best thing about it was Street View has a fairly wide angle lense and makes the gradient look a lot steeper than it really is.

This was my first ride with the new Garneau Vorttice aero helmet.

For the first five kilometres my neck was feeling the strain while I lifting my head back in a aero position under the extra weight of the larger helmet than I am used to. I was fine after a while. But was occasionally buffered around by a head wind coming from the south east.

It was very hard to adhere to the non-drafting rule which is 7.5 metres between bikes. There were so many people out on the course that it was pretty much impossible.

I just made sure I was making forward progress on the rider(s) in front of me. There were two riders that passed me in the bike leg. I caught and passed both.

One of them was a guy from another club that sat on my wheel for more than 6km. He made a couple passes then died on the pinch climbs which meant I had to surge to pass him again.
Every time I passed him, he just jumped back on my wheel. The officials on the motor bikes even saw what he was doing a couple of times but didn't penalise him. That really pi$$ed me off so I made for a break away close to the end of the last lap where there were plenty of slower riders and a few sketchy corners.
It looked like he wasn't very comfortable cornering at speed so I also used that to my advantage. He looked like a good runner so I wanted to get some distance between us before we got to the run.

My average speed was 36.12kph. Pretty good considering the headwind and course terrain.

The Run (8km):

The run was a fairly flat with two laps of a 4km out and back course. There were only a few rises in the bridge between Forster and Tuncurry.

It was hard to get passed people as the footpath over the bridge was so narrow. My pace started out as 3:55/km but dropped as I hit traffic.

I was hoping to keep a 4:10/km pace, the Garmin says I did 4:18/km but the official results reckon it did 4:01/km. I'm not going to argue.

;-)

My overall time for the race was 1h:46m:12s

Training... and not...

During the week before the race my six year old daughter had been coughing all over everyone in the family. I managed to avoid getting sick until the Sunday night we got back. It was about 8:30pm and my throat felt like I had swallowed razor blades.
It is now Friday and I think I am just starting to feel a bit better. This morning I was able to climb the stairs at the train station without wheezing... Awesome...

I have been stressed out about not being able to train. I was actually looking forward to my planned 2/3rd IM distance on Saturday which included a 2.6km swim, a Strava - 130km - April Gran Fondo and a 28km run.

I was going to back it up with the final MacTri club triathlon race followed by a 2-3hr ride on Sunday.
... Not gonna happen...

With this chest & head cold and achilles soreness I have no chance of doing any of this...

If I am feeling okay I might head out to Appin or Glenbrook for a mountain bike ride.

Next time... My motivation for taking on the challenge of an Ironman triathlon...

Bye for now.
:Pat