The End of Build and BADTri Long Training Day

It's finally rest week after a pretty hectic final 3 week build phase which included the Pyrenees camp, a random sprint tri, lots of sore muscles but hopefully some quality training.

The period culminated with my tri club's Long Training Day on Saturday.  This wasn't a race but an opportunity to cover half-iron distance.  We based ourselves at Henleaze lake and a few kind club volunteers looked after our kit and provided water, tea and coffee if required.

It was so nice to get up at a reasonable hour (7am), eat breakfast in bed and do some pottering before heading to the lake for a 9.30 start.  It was a grey but warm day and I had made note that it was, yet again, windy.  I didn't really bother setting up transition as normal, I just kinda dumped my rucksack next to my bike (which later turned out to be a mistake).




All smiles before the off.

A group photo then it was time to get into the lake.  Henleaze lake is always pretty cold so there was lots of yelping and whining as we all lowered ouselves in.  It's also very murky and you can barely see your hand in front of you so doing 10 laps didn't fill me with much excitement (I like to have things to look at when I'm swimming). 


There I am faffing towards the back!

I was still chatting and faffing with my watch when all of a sudden we were off.  Considering it wasn't a race it was quite the bun fight and it was fun having mini scraps with my club mates.  Soon enough there was plenty of clear water and I attempted to get into rhythm.  I thought I was going quite well but was slightly annoyed that people who I'm usually faster than in the pool were faster than me in their wetsuits.....so I'm obviously a great kicker but have rubbish upper body strength *sulk*.

42-ish minutes later and after a big push for the final lap, I was out of the water, along with Andrea.  I'd already decided beforehand that I wasn't going to do any kind of rushing in transistion.  I leisurely took my wetsuit off, dried myself off a bit and chatted whilst looking for kit in my rucksack.  After mild panic about not being able to find my sunglasses in my rucksack,  I was about to leave with Andrea when I realised I'd forgotten my gloves.  This is where I decided I really should have set eveything out like PROPER transition!

Gloves found it was finally time to get out on the bike.  Andrea had long gone by now so it was up to me to negotiate my way to the A38.  I immediately took a wrong turn at a roundabout and took a very indirect route.  I eventually found myself on the A38, a long, busy stretch of road heading up towards Gloucester.  Whilst not the most inspiring of routes it was the easiest for the day's organisers to put on for all of us from the lake.

The first 28 miles were a breeze, literally.  I was cruising along at an average of around 20mph, enjoying being down on my tribars.  Deep down, I knew I was being swept along by a mighty south-westerley wind.  As I approached the turn around point I started seeing my fellow BADTri-ers coming back the other way and most of them wore pained expressions.  Uh-oh. 

I rounded the roundabout and almost got blown sideways.  Back onto the A38 and I was now heading straight into THAT wind.  I think I immediately swore out loud.  So I had 28 miles of grinding it out at no more than 15mph, the wind whistling in my ears, out of control snot and a lot of swearing.  It was miserable!

I overtook one or two strugglers and I spotted a pair up ahead so made it my mission to hunt them down.  Thanks to some red traffic lights I eventually caught them.  Much to my surprise it was our head coach Andy and Tim, who I know is a pretty strong cyclist.  Hmm, I thought, Andy must be pacing him.  So I tucked in behind them (both strapping 6ft plus guys) and we cycled back to the lake, more or less in silence (well you couldn't have had a conversation in the wind anyway!).

Finally, I was back at the lake.  I'd forgotten to check my bike splits but someone mentioned that it had taken them 1h15 out and 1h50 back!  I lay down my bike (no fancy transistion railings), put on my trainers, a brief toilet stop and trotted up towards the Downs.  I think I must've again deviated from the 'official' route but I eventually found myself on the Downs.  We were to run 3 laps then head back to the lake.  Alex and Lucy kindly stood at a corner with a big water vat and lots of encouragement.

The run was tough and I felt pretty tired from the bike leg but I managed to keep a steady pace.  I walked through the 'feed stations' (just as I would in a race) and popped a few Shot Bloks.  I felt a bit of a plonker in my tri top and shorts too - it was pretty extreme running attire for what was essentially a run on the Downs (but completely normal in a race, of course).  This was such good training though, physically and mentally.  The thought of "how the hell am I gonna do DOUBLE this?!" did enter my mind.

Again, I'm not sure I took the official route back to the lake, more like the most direct way.  Finally, I'd finished and arrived back to a small ripple of applause from those left at the lake.  I was quite pleased with my run time (around 2h13) but was still reeling from the bike leg.  It had been a surprisingly hard day!



There's me in the blue cap.

 This week is rest week so I'm taking the opportunity to be sensible, tone down the training, get a massage and prepare myself for Peak. 

N.B. Despite being sun-less for most of the day, I managed to acquire very attractive tri kit tan/burn lines.  THANKS AGAIN WIND!
N.N.B.  It turns out Tim had crashed so Andy was carefully leading him home, hence the nice pace!