The final Wadenhoe dualathlon has been run, and I came.....2nd.
Oh well. I gave it a good try. My gentle gym sessions had been a bit more leg orientated than I was envisioning at the start. Too many perople in the gym to run a pure upper body set so I ground away with the treadmill. I wanted to see if the damage was bad and on Wednesday I started off with the usual warm up and was greeted by abdominal muscle complaining about the abuse. I managed a shorted warmup and went into the run with my bruised leg now leading the pain charge. With the limp I was expending a lot of energy and then the stomach mucle started to tighten I thought it was time to be sensible and stop before I nurffed it up good a proper so after only 16mins in I switched to the bike. Which was no problem at all. The leg didn't hurt and the stomach went back to normal. Went through the whole bike set as normal and thought I should try another set of running. 5mins of that had me back in pain so I canned the rest of the session and wandered home as I'd started late and wanted to stop before I did more damage. The thursday rest day came and went with the fleeting sense that I should be doing more. Friday I decided to ignore the warm up bar the basic stretches and jump into a run bike run same as Wednesday. The leg had healed a lot and although there was still a bit of stiffness there I was back up to form and managed the same sort of routine I was on before the accidents. The second run wasn't as good with only a 15min set and no sprints but it was as good as I could have hoped for given Wednesdays more trying events. Off to the rugby and I couldn't resist a few beers while watching the England game. I was much better on Saturday watching the Scots getting a pasteing by the French as I rested up ready for the race on Sunday. The bikes were ready in the car and all the kit was loaded or laid out ready.
Sunday dawned and I headed over to Wadenhoe now confident of where to go. Setup was nice a quick and I soon found myself with loads of time to warm up. I tested the ground conditions and found them very good. The mud wasn't claggy but provided enough give to be very grippy in the corners. The ruts from the last race that had been scored into the ground with the wet mud had become more solid and provided an annoying obstical. With the basic run through complete all the numbers atached and me ready to go I found myself keyed up with nothing to do half an hour before the start. I ran a few loosening up runs to get the legs pounding and put my walkman on to listen to some inspiring tunes. As this was going on we all heard a large bang from the bike park as some poor unfortunates trye went off. "great its going to be mine" I thought and sloped over to check. Fortunately it wasn't and the poor soul was left quickly pulling his saggy rubber out. (your mind went there not mine). Then to add insult to his injury it popped again 10 minutes before the start!
We lined up for the start and bang off we went. As in the last two races I went for a sprint at the start to demoralise my oppenents and get to the style at the end of the field first. I opened up a good lead but my running didn't feel as good as it had done previously. I was almost grateful as I hit the quadmire mud down by the river and was able to take the power off. The hill back up to the start line felt killer and I was feeling the strain on the whole of the second lap although as I got going I seemed to fall into a good rythem and I was not worried about stopping.
Switching to the bike I was actually almost back on equlibrium. post run timing showed I was only 2 seconds off my last pace so it was all mental. The bike run felt good and I was flying along but I could feel the number two man pulling me back in with his faster riding. I did my best to push hard but over cooked it on the big downhill into the woods. There a patch as you come round the corner where the track has a step parellel to the track direction. You can take one of two lines but not switch between the two at speed. I came down the hill and was trying to carry as much speed as I could to pedal up the first drop of the return hill before I started to run. I'd carried too much however and got my line all wrong and hit the step. The front wheel went from under me and I spilled out to my injured side. Fortunately my toe clips came free (I had disengaged one of them at the top of the hill just in case anyway) and I rolled back up to my feet with only a few minor scratches. I was still in the lead but number Steve in 2nd place had caught up. By the end of the lap I could feel him on my heels. I tried to fend him off for as long as I could and on the open field hill sections we seemed fairly well matched but he gained the lead as we got onto the flat before the wooded hill he blew past showing some real speed. I tried to hold onto his coat tales but he was too fast on the straights and with back markers to negotiate I lost the place. I was surprised to hear the timers call last lap. I must have lost count with the crash as I thought I still had another lap to go. I tried to get the hammer down but Steve just flew away.
The run didn't feel very good and it took me a lap to really regain my feet. I gave it everything I had left in the last lap but couldn't reel Steve back in and finished in 01:03:22 with Steve 40secs in front.
Knowing first place in the series was now beyond me thanks to Steve have also having won the 2nd race of the series in a 01:04 time to my 2nd in the 3rd race at 01:08:48 I figured he had it in the bag. That left Glynn Preston who had a 01:07ish under his belt somewhere. I knew my average would be around 01:06 but didn't know where Glynn had finished or in what time. If he came in under 01:05 I'd only have 3rd in the series.
We hung out in the village hall eating bacon butties and supping tea until the results were in. Steve had indeed taken the number one spot and the Quad title as well. Very fast man especially as he took the over 40 medal too! I was relived to hear my name called out as 2nd in the series. Glynn had only posted a 01:06:41 bring his average down to 01:07:07 to my 01:06:05. I thank the weather conditions. If it had been another slow race Glynn would have had it as his first two races were around the same time. I was also lucky some of the single race runners didn't show up as I don't think I could have beaten Marcus from the 3rd race or some of those from the first and second.
I think what this showed me in terms of my Tri training is how important being good on the bike is. I beat the most of the other racers on the run by a long way but my second run was always slower (not surprising really) this means I can't rely upon making up the difference on the hoof. I need to get as much of the job done in the saddle as I can. Given that riding has the longest stretch in pretty much every event I've looked at good riders are going to always have the advantage. Being 30seconds faster per mile on a run sounds a lot. If for example you're doing an oylmpic distance event you do 6 miles on the run and with that advantage you get a 3 minute lead. If you have 30 seconds per mile on the bike with a 26 mile stretch thats 13 minutes! The rider has 10 minutes lead to laugh at you. Assuming of course you come out of the water at the same time.
Swimming is going to be my worst event so the pool hours are going to be needed but the bike speed needs to be improved. Hopefully with the bike now coming more into play getting to work I can work hard on getting those average speeds up, seating postion right and getting a competitive time. I also want to try more "brick" workouts at the weekend (going from bike to run) to improve that weird feeling as you get off the bike and back on the hoof.
Still a trophy is a trophy and I look forward to showing it off tomorrow at work even if 2nd is a fancy word for losing :)
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