Challenge Rimini

Well it certainly lived up to its challenge name!

Before even getting there this race was causing me a headache, my work situation had changed considerably and getting the time off was no longer a simple thing. Also my loyal bag carrier was due to come with me but couldn't due to his work situation! 

The race must go on! 

The race was due to start at 1100 which for triathlon is unbelievably late, and my wave wasn't due to start at 1155. Never-mind worrying about breakfast, lunch was going to be the next issue!

Bike racking was in the morning of the race so I decided the best course of action was to rack the bike, then go back to the hotel for a larger than normal breakfast. Very leisurely...very odd. 

The morning of the race the weather was pretty bad, although not as bad as the day before. Rain but not too much wind. 

Swim got underway and after running out almost 50 meters we were splashing away quite happily. Until about 100m out where it got rough as hell! I always joke that at least the swim is the flat bit, but I felt like I was literally swimming uphill! 

The buoys were really hard to sight and the orientation seemed to bear no resemblance to the map of the swim course. A spectator told me the next day that during the race one of the buoys had blown off course, and was dragged back....during the race!!!That meant some people were sighting to a buoy that was moving! I clearly had my own ideas about where the swim went and ended up swimming just over 2.2km.

Into transition and I found my bike pretty well. Transition was about 300m long, pretty crazy! 

100m out of transition and I went to change gear when I herd a rather disappointing PING. The cable had snapped and I was stuck in the little ring for the whole race. Face palm! 
The bike course was a lot less hilly than the course profile might lead you to believe and I was wondering if I had made the right choice bringing my road bike rather than the TT. However when it got pretty wet at the top of the climb I was glad I had my trusty roady and was cornering with confidence, whereas on my TT I would have probably been better getting off and running with the damn thing!

Back into T2 in just over 3 hours, I was pretty happy with that considering the gear situation, even happier later when I found I had the 10th fastest bike split of the day.

I learned my lesson from Fuerteventura on the run and decided a sub 18min 5km was not the way to go. I tried really hard to reign myself in for the first lap of the 3 lap course. It paid off and on the last lap I finished strong in just under 90 mins for the 21.1km (that was my secret aim). Turns out this was the fastest AG run by over 2 mins and would have been 5th including the pro ladies!

All in all its been another great experience. Im sat in the heart of old town Rimini surrounded by beautiful Italian architecture and sipping on a cappuccino. Fantastico. 

Until next time...Arrivederci

Racing again...all hope is not lost

Unfortunately I had to make the trip up to Leeds on my own, without mule support. However it gave me a chance to crack on with some Open University work and generally do girl things (a.k.a walk around Leeds shopping and trying a bazillion things on).

I stayed at the Radisson Blu, which is in a perfect location for the Leeds-Abbey dash. You are right by the finish area, and the service teams always congregate on the steps of the town hall. I would definitely recommend staying here. Plus you can use the Virgin Active for a small fee. Which I dutifully did on Saturday afternoon, having a little swim and a long sauna/steam room.

Refreshed I popped out to do some xmas shopping and get some pre-race dinner, another advantage of being on my own meant I could go for sushi! (I have a fish hating boyfriend)

Feeling very chilled out after my pleasant day by myself, chatting to strangers and eating nice things, I got my kit ready for the next day. This felt VERY strange and I had to remind myself what to do! I was sure I had some pre-race rituals, but I wasnt sure what!

Having NO pressure to perform well definitely helped me, and I sort of breezed through the next morning, before I knew it i was on the start line!

Of course the first few km's were waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast which I payed for at the end of the race. If it wasn't my lack of run fitness, it definitely was the suicidal starting pace!

Anyway, I finished, much quicker than I had expected. All is not lost! The runner is still lurking inside me somewhere!

Buying a bike

I was lucky to be able to loan
this steel bike from
RAF Triathlon to learn what
features I did and didn't like.

A number of people have asked me for my top tips on buying a bike, so here they are…

It took me almost 12 months to finally decide on the first bike I bought. I had the added dilemma of TT or not since I was an aspiring triathlete at the time. However whether it be road bike, or TT bike, the essential points are the same. After buying my TT bike (a Quintana Roo) and riding that only for about 12 months, I am now the proud owner of a Moda road bike too.

• Set a budget. Bikes are expensive, and there are thousands of them! Working out what you can afford initially narrows down the search.

• What are your needs? Commuting, racing, training, training and racing? Knowing what you wan your bike for will enable you to make sure it is fit for purpose.

• Do your initial research. Have a look on online forums and have a look around some shops too. Be prepared to put a bit of work in, otherwise you will end up with something you don’t love to pieces, and may not be a pleasure to ride.

I LOVE this bike, these wheels were a later addition

• One for the ladies. Yes female specific bikes exist, but if your body geometry doesn’t fit well with a female bike, then don’t feel you have to go down that road just because you are a woman! Why? – Women typically have a shorter torso and arms for the height so the top tube length is shorter. Also the arrangement of the break levers can be slightly different to accommodate out lady like small hands. The length of the head tube is normally longer to accommodate for the longer leg women have compared to men, in order to keep the rest of the geometry tip top! Handle bars can be a bit narrower too to accommodate a narrower shoulder, and often the crank length is smaller to. However, after all that, both my bikes road and TT are male or unisex.

• Learn about the components and what they actually do. If you are in the same position I was, and have no idea about derailleurs, or down/top tubes, invest a bit of time learning all the bike jargon. If nothing else you will have some credentials when a salesman starts spewing technical mumbo-jumbo at you. I watched a lot of the videos by GCN (Global Cycling Network) on YouTube.

• Find a retailer who will let you borrow a bike for a few days. They do exist, or failing that find somewhere you can rent a bike similar to what you want for a few days. This is the best way to work out what you like and what you don’t. One of the big things is the shifting type, eg. Shimano (two different buttons) or SRAM (double tap system).

• FIT!!! This is THE most important thing! No matter how good your bike is, if it doesn’t fit properly, you won’t be any good on it. Plus you could injure yourself, back and knee pain are the most common in bikes which don’t fit well. See post on bike fitting and DrJ here :)

• Material. This will be partly guided by budget.

Me and the Moda on one of our first rides

• Aluminium is commonly found in bikes around and under the £1000 mark. It is cheap, stiff and light. Higher grade alu frames use a technique where the thickness of the tube varies along the length (called butting). This means less weight and more comfort, but of course comes at financial cost.
• Steel is heavier than aluminium but is very comfortable. There are some modern steel bikes on the market which are pretty light and very durable.
• Titanium. It is light and strong but difficult to work with making it expensive, however as techniques are developing it is becoming more reasonable.
• Carbon fibre. Some is available very cheaply, however beware, cheap can mean poorly manufactured and more likely to fail. It is easily manipulated and can me made into very light stiff and responsive frames. Some alu bikes are just as light as carbon, but have a higher spec on the rest of the components, so be careful. Carbon is not the panacea of bike awesomeness.

Happy with my ride at the top of
 the Kitzbuhele-horn

Lastly, you have to love it. If on paper it is the perfect bike for you, but it just doesn’t get you pulse racing like a different bike you have seen does, then don’t buy it because you feel you should. Your bike should be something you want, and something you want to ride.

I love my bike, (now bikes) I keep them inside ontop of a desk or on my turbo trainer, and every day I look at them and smile, even when I'm not riding them.

GOOD LUCK!
















Some good guides to buying are here:

Evans Cycles Bike RADAR

Off on a tangent

I have decided after 2 weeks off work, and generally remembering what its like to be me, not some work crazed triathlon crazed work and train-o-holic, that I have been neglecting a lot of my other interests, therefore this blog is soon to contain lots of other stuff that interests me.

Firstly...
I like triathlon - yes, and I am of the female variety. However there seems to be a lack of female friendly tri stuff (although this is getting better). I like to try (try is an understatement) to retain a bit of my femininity when part-taking in sport. So I will be sharing some tips on things such as swim proof nail varnish, how to remove the ever present smell of chlorine from yourself and other useful stuff for us ladies. Plus I am also a lover of exciting colourful tri clothing, swim and gym wear, which I shall share with y'all too. 

Second
Art, photography and generally making stuff. I do it, some of it is going to be coming your way!

Third
Baking!!! This seems to be something shared by my fellow triathletes. Some recipes, good and bad to follow.








Fourth
Cocktails and eating out.









Fifth
Make-up, clothes and beauty.

Sixth
Yoga. ahhhh yoga. I have neglected thee recently. However a new routine and focus means I am back on the namaste-bandwagon and feeling good :) 

Oh yes....and cats. I really like cats :) 

My First Triathlon

I thought I would reflect on my first encounter with 'proper triathlon' (this I classify as one with an open water swim) was the Dambuster standard distance triathlon in June 2013.

This was also the first EVER time I had swum in open water, more of that later.

Pre race kit checking and packing
N.B headphones are for warm up
not for using during any part of the race

The day began horrendously early, 05someting I got up. I was at registration by 0630 and collected my hat, number and found my space in transition. There was a sticker on the racking with my number and name on, this made me strangely excited. I made numerous newbie errors here, the biggest being - no track pump! Therefore I just guessed what pressure my tyres should have been with a hand pump - oops. After getting everything in transition sorted (sort of) it was time to have about 10 nervous toilet trips and wait for the start!


Swim

The various waves of men were off first, with a beach start and frantic run into the reservoir. We lined up on the beach at around 0830, the klaxon went and we were off into the water. About 300m into the swim I thought "oh dear god, will this ever end?!" I thought about paddling my way over to the canoe, but then reminded myself of how much I had paid to enter, and how I would have to sit about for the rest of the day with a quitting cloud of shame over my head! Not an option. I did a few strokes of breast stroke and remembered some wise words which were given to me - breathe, relax, and stay calm. And I was off again in my finest front crawl (not very fine by the standards of other humans with the gift of sight). 

All ready in transition

I struggled out of the water in just over 30 mins, which wasn't too bad, then I remembered the swim had been shortened by 100m due to it being so rough. However there was not time to dwell on what had just happened. It was into transition.

I had practiced this a few times (on dry land) so I thought I knew what I was doing. However I had not expected to be quite so disorientated after the swim and SO out of breath. I remembered all the important points, kit off and INSIDE my own transition area, helmet on BEFORE touching the bike, number on, glasses on - and away!...Or not, after the dismount line my chain fell off! (Of course it would choose now to have unexplained mechanical issues) and now I am facing slightly uphill, trying to get my chain on, then get my frozen feet to start pedaling! Eventually all parts of body and bike were functioning as best they could and I was away. 


Bike

The bike route is beautiful, undulating and really interesting. At one point I forgot I was supposed to be racing and was just really enjoying being out on my bike. That was short lived though and before I knew it I was back in transition - now to the favorite part...

Run
The day had heated up considerably and the sun was raining down gloriously. The run route goes across the dam, out to a turn around and back to the finish. This provides a good opportunity to see how far ahead the competition are, which in some cases was very far! 

Coming back to the finish was amazing, there was a fantastic buzz and it was amazing to finish. 

The Aftermath I kept grinning to myself all the way home in the car (despite some agonising stomach cramp). I felt elated that I had conquered an OW swim, and the rest of the standard distance tri. 

The first but not the last!

P.S when I later checked my tires they were at 80psi!

T3 - Run --> home --> washing machine

European Triathlon Championships - Kitzbuhel

I have been extremely slow in writing about this event, despite it being super-awesome itself, I had a less than perfect time which unsettled my Mojo for a while.

This time I was lucky to be able to travel with my mule, and we arrived in Kitzbuhel on Monday (before the race the following Sunday) which gave us lots of time to relax, take in the sights and do a little bit of training.

The long way down.



At the top of the horn!

The first day we took on the Kitzbuhele-horn which featured in the Elite European race of 2013. It involved 8km of climbing 4000ft, which was INCREDIBLE! I am a bit of a sadist on the bike, however the TT was not the tool for the job, but I don't have a garage full of carbon fibre machines to choose from. The way back down was a bit more terrifying, and we had to keep stopping for wheel cooling down breaks (maybe a bit over cautious, but I didn't want anything exploding before the race!)



The rest of the week featured all the usual pre race stuff like course recce, registration and racking. I have never been anywhere where I have had the luxury of being able to do a swim recce, and maybe this was an error to start doing things I had not done before. Following my swim recce, that afternoon I felt a little dodgy, then Friday (2 days before the race) I spent the entire day in bed, sweating, and shivering with a less than enjoyable stomach! (make of that what you will). I was now pretty worried about my race on Sunday. Saturday I felt better, but still not 100% and I managed to make it to the team brief and bike racking in the evening.

RACE DAY! Wake up at some offensive hour, try to cram some breakfast down my face, then off to the race. My race start was the second of the day at 0730. The start went OK, but after about 500m I was sick while swimming. If you have never experience this, it is very un-nerving. Unhappily this happened twice, and although I am an abdominal swimmer, my swim was much worse than expected, meaning lots to do on the bike and run. I was sick another couple of times on the bike which player havoc with my nutrition. I did however manage to enjoy the beautiful course, and I was catching up with people all the time which is always nice! Onto the run, and yep...sick again! However more people to catch and the end was well and truly in sight. I managed to claw my way up to 7th in my AG and posted the fastest run of the day which was a small victory.

I learned so much from this race, and although it didn't really go my way, it was fabulous experience, made all the better to have someone to share it with. Not only that, there were a handful of RAF Triathletes competing at the European Championships at both Sprint and Standard Distance which made celebrating all our achievements even better.
 
I even made it onto the race review! (My feet at 2:10 and me at 2:15 for a smidge of a second!) Age Group Standard Distance Highlights

Reflecting on the race now, and after realising that this race was on the anniversary (to the exact day) of my first Standard Distance Triathlon, and my first EVER open water swim, it just shows what you can do with hard work, determination and a bit of luck!
 

View from the top of the Hahnenkamm at the closing ceremony

So I guess I am a World Champion

What has just happened? 

No really.... What has just happened?

I am sat on the plane now as the World Sprint Duathlon Champion! Pretty cool eh?  I won my AG (20-24) but I was also the first female in the entire field of 175 Age Group athletes from 37 different nations.

Travelling and racing on my own has been a massive learning experience. Not that I am new to either, in fact my first solo flight was when I was 5. Travelling with a bike is not exactly free from drama, especially when it is your pride and joy. I have also realised how travelling to competitions with someone you can offload your stress onto them, even if you or they don't realise it is invaluable. My other half normally acts as mule (carrying all my crap I insist on taking , but often never really need), my conscience (do you need to eat that giant tub of peanut butter - probably not) and general helper. 

Due to work commitments I only had a very brief time in Pontevedra. In fact I would say it is the minimum time you could successfully execute a race in. Fly, a day to build and test bike, compete, and then return.

The atmosphere was amazing, athletes everywhere. The elites raced on the Saturday which certainly got you in the right frame of mind. We had a briefing on the Saturday too and then a team photo (which was huge) I think we had one of the largest teams there.

One thing which wasn't so great was finding the food I wanted/needed. No where sold sandwiches, instead these stodgy pastry meat and cheese things - not ideal. Also all restaurants seemed to sell a lot of meat, and not so much in the way of carbs. I normally take my own race breakfast, but not other foods - lesson learned there! 

Another thing I will do in future is to take my own pillow, the hotel had these strange sausage pillows which were not too comfy.

360 degrees of transition

The Sprint distance athletes were the first to race at 0800 on Sunday, starting with 2 waves of men and then all the women together. 37 Nations were represented in the Womens race, comprising 175 people. I got to transition at 0600 in order to rack my bike and generally get ready. It was still pretty dark at this time, and it was also disconcertingly cold. I realised that I would have to time leaving my bag at the bag drop, followed by warm up and then the start quite carefully. Que the need for my mule :) 

The first run (5km) was two 2.5km laps of the streets of Pontevedra, very twisty with one hill.  

The bike course followed an out-and-back route, over an undulating course. The turn around point at half way provided a valuable opportunity to gauge how far I was in-front of the next competitor. Once I was around the cone at the top of the hill, I counted how many seconds the second woman was behind me. I am not the greatest cyclist, but I can hold my own, so I knew I needed to do some fearless descending in order to stay in the lead. Catching up with the blokes gave little incentives to keep pushing and some shouted words of encouragement to the 'first chica', some also shouted at being 'chicked', but all in good spirit'. 

The crowds were fantastic, lots of GB friends and family, but also other nations were cheering the fact I was the first lady, I almost couldn't believe it and kept pushing the pace all the way to the finish for fear of someone catching me!. Coming into the stadium the announcer missed me and announced the second lady as the winner. I thought that maybe I had incurred a penalty for drafting or something (even though I hadn't) so I didn't want to celebrate too soon, and then have to un-celebrate! After a couple of hours and a few panicked text messages, it was confirmed - I had won, I was now the World Champion!! And not just my Age Group, I had won the whole race!" 

I flew back home the next day and then was back in work bright and early on Tuesday morning - what a weekend! 

Shropshire Triathlon

The first standard distance of the year!

The night before the big T, all I could here was rain, rain RAIN.

The day of the race I looked out of my window, and yes, it was still raining. The 1 hr drive, it rained all the way.

Registration and transition set up were all as normal and yes it was still raining.

Watching the first few waves set off, it was slightly disconcerting the green/blue splashes which could be seen. The lake was pretty full of blue/green algae, and I really didn't want to be ill leading up to the World Duathlon Champs next weekend.

Once we were in the water it was freezing, and visibility underwater was 0. the first 200m or so of the swim I had to swim my best face up front crawl as I could see absolutely nothing underwater and the mele of arms and legs was as bad as always.

The cold water temperature and the standing around in the rain meant that I was, yes, cold! I panicked slightly and my chest was really tight, also I had a really bizarre sensation in my quads. It was like my leg muscles had been replaced with concrete. I thought that the only option was 1. swim fast, or 2. sink like a stone.

Since it seems to be a rule I have to forget something on race day, this time I forgot to empty my Garmin, therefore before the swim start, it helpfully told me….Memory Full, and with not enough time to go through the thousand multifunction button presses needed to delete a meesely run, my watch had now become a useless wrist accessory.

So, out of the water I had no idea how the swim had gone, but I knew as always there were a lot of people in front of me. I found my bike with ease thanks to it being next to a giant tree.

The concrete leg sensation didn't subside for a while on the bike (I have no idea how long since my watch was rendered useless thanks to my lack of attention) it rained some more on the bike. Having read the race instructions it said there were some tricky climbs, which I was looking forward to since I am good at climbing. However these monstrous climbs as promised were nowhere to be found.

Eventually I came to a 10km sign, I had no idea what this was in relation to. It couldn't be 10km gone, surely?! Then 9km, how bizarre, they were counting down to transition. This gave me a welcome boost and before I knew it I was back in T2 and off onto the run.

Haha – not so fast Bagshaw, it would seem that my feet had been replaced with blocks of ice and I stumbled my way back to my position on the racking. My fingers were also useless and it took way too long to get my trainers on. After 5km on the run I finally got some feeling back into my feet. Running off the bike, and without the sensation of knowing what your feet are doing is very disconcerting. So the feeling came back, and, uh-oh, problem number 2, the tongue in my trainers was all twisted, in both shoes. This meant that I was now getting blisters on the TOP of my feet!

Woohoo – finish!

Sorry - no pics, so wet I didn't want to get phone soaked! 

Lessons Learned

Make sure watch is charged AND has memory.
A couple of seconds to make sure trainers are straight might be well spent.

Results at Stu Web http://www.stuweb.co.uk/event/1557 

Duathlon

On my road to Kitzbuhel I have encountered my first Duathlon. Still being quite new to all this, until recently I thought that duathlon was a bike ride, then a run. Infact it is a run, then bike, then another run! 

The Clumber park duathlon is a World and EU Qualification event as well as being the RAF Championships (Sprint distance) - no pressure then.

Prior to the event I am thinking I might be a little more at home with duathlon, as my feelings towards the swim element of triathlon are that it is a wet warm up before the 'proper bits', but I always felt like a bit of a cheat not doing the swim part.

The night before I had a terrible sleep, but was perked up by the prospect of race day breakfast :) My biggest problem then became one all ladies are familiar with...what do I wear?!

Taking my bike for a run, out of T1 - getting warmer

I had done a little research looking at last years photos, there seemed to be a lot of long sleeves under tri suits, and a good mix of long socks, short longs, and long longs on the bottom half! There was frost on the ground when I went to set my bike up in transition so I was even wondering about over shoes. However it warmed up a little, and I decided on tri suit, thermal and gloves. Very glad of the gloves on the bike as it was pretty windy, coupled with the forward bike speed made it cold!

The bike ride was actually quite enjoyable, back into transition and then out on run number 2. Normal jelly legs followed, and by the 2.5km turn around point I had just about got normal feeling back into my pins. Then before I knew it, it was all over and I was at the finish! 2nd Lady, 1st in AG, and RAF Duathlon Champ :) not a bad day if I say so myself.

After finishing I was then greeted with a pint of Erdinger non alcoholic beer and a technical T-Shirt. I should also add that among the freebies was also some High 5 nutritional goodies, which we collected at registration.

The RAF team did AMAZINGLY well, picking up 6 age group wins, and 1st overall male.

Well Done!

I think we might be back next year...

Full results can be found by clicking the link

British triathlon report here