Grafman English Middle Distance Champs
Due to niggles & general CBAness to run, my first tri of the season was to be the Grafman. It's a great race for me because it's so local and I know the roads and terrain well.
Last season I went pretty well finishing 5th in AG, this year I was really interested to see if concentration almost all my time on biking would make a big difference. Swimming has gone well considering I've only really been swimming twice a week and running was going to be the big mystery although I was hoping I could depend on my background a bit. Well, having done sod all running in the past 3 months I didn't really have much of a choice!
Picked up Ian on the way and met Griff unloading the car. Set up went surprisingly well considering it's my first tri this year. God, I'd forgotten how much crap you need for tri!
Get into wetsuit with plenty of time. Off to race briefing and the early morning rain shower brings up millions of tiny flies. Lovely! First wave are off and then one of the great things about this race is you get a quick warm up. Water is really warm, almost bath water warm but it's murky as. Few hard strokes and then it's back to shore for the start.
The Race
Keith blows the horn and were off. I'm staggering around in the stony shallows like a piss head on the way back from the pub. Race plan for the swim is this - find space, find good feet, follow. Simple. There's a mixture of piss heads, people swimming in 6 inches of water and people looking lost. Eventually I find what I'm looking for which is space and waste high water. This swim is on!
Start way too fast, but choke back the pace early enough not to blow. Get swam over a bit and plenty of biff but nothing 'Ironmanesque'. Find myself in no-mans land quite early and then realise race mistake number 1. I didn't sight the swim course before getting in! Where the fuck is the first buoy? It's about 10ft tall and bright red how hard can it be to see!! End up following the splash in front and hit the first buoy nice and tight - more luck than judgement!
From then on the rest of the first lap is me trying to find feet but not being able to see them and loosing them through either poor navigation from me, them or both. First lap actually goes by fairly quickly and we exit the 'Australian exit' which I'm assuming is named by someone who thinks Australians are a massive pain in the arse.
It's basically stop swimming just when you get comfortable. Stagger out mashing your feet on the rocks, run round a cone and belly flop back in 2 inches of water the other side and try to recover from that effort in the second half of the swim.
This year though was better than my first experience of an Ozzy exit at IM Zurich when around 250 crazed lunatics tried to drown me. The joys of the shite swimmer.
Second lap is clear water. Not good. I'm now only getting feet from the wave in front and the lead lady who came past me like a motor boat. The lap is only about 800m so before I know it I'm heading towards T1 and wondering what I'm doing here.
Enter T1. Now, since I did the Outlaw Half in 2013 I've been determined to stop loosing time in T1. Basically the announcer started taking the piss out of me rolling around on the floor trying to get out of my wetsuit. Are you stopping for a cup of tea here I think was the comment #ouch. So wetty flies off and bike unracked and out to the mount line fairly quickly.
2 things stand out for me. Wow, there's lots of bikes still here (quicker swim or more likely slower from everyone else) and I glance down and notice my elastic band has snapped. Shit. Pass the mount line and waste 30 seconds getting my right foot into shoe (no exaggeration). See Nic P as I'm passing the mount line supporting. Cheers fella!
And we're off. Eventually.
Now, as I have said I am all about the bike this year and all I can think is about how I'm going to smash this bike course. I actually feel recovered from the swim already.
Look at Garmin as I pass a couple of riders. 45mph. Jesus, you sure? Crack on and within a mile my Garmin beeps for 5 miles. Useless piece of shit!! At the bottom of Elington hill (2 miles maybe) I'm being told I'm nearly 10 miles in and averaging 127mph !!
Great so my Garmin data is screwed for average pace and total distance!
We crack on and I'm overtaking reams of people. Happy days.
Back up the hill and past the visitor center I start to feel that the pace & effort are not where they need to be. In a 50 mile TT I average 182 watts for 25.4 mph. I figure with the increased FTP from training minus all the extra shit I'm carrying I should be able to average around 175 watts for 23.5-24 mph pretty comfortably.
Today that's not going to happen. I know I'm well off that pace from effort. On top of that the wind blows in worst possible direction of crosswind for 90% of the ride. Crack on as I'm overtaking loads of people.
At around 10 miles (or 20 according to my Garmin) I catch who I think is Howard Waller (a really strong rider) and sit back 10-15m as he's pacing it just about where I feel is right. After a few miles I start to drift a bit close so I umm and arr and decide to overtake. Almost immediately it seems to wake him up and he's bangs off the front and I don't see him again on the bike.
It's rainy and miserable. My power and effort are about right but I know I'm loosing time on the top guys. I pass Kimbolton and see 10 riders within a wheel of each other coming the other way in a 'pace line'. It's piss poor. Pretty sure 2-3 guys are up the road but these guys need to realise the entire field can see them cheating even if the draft busters don't.
See Mr Turner shortly after this heading towards them, looks like he's riding well. Doing the maths looks like he's already 10 mins up on me #fucker
Rest of the ride goes by uneventfully but now I'm starting to worry that biking has been my focus all year at the expense of running so this could be a painful 2 hour shuffle coming up !!
Finish the bike and glance to see 2.25 on the Garmin. Fuck, same as last year after so much more training. I'm never doing tri again I'm hating this. In my mind I'm about 70th overall and I reckon lucky to be top 10 in AG. Slowest dismount and run through T2 ever. Head down. I'm a celebrity get me out of here.
Shoes are a struggle to get on as I can't feel my feet but at least it's stopped raining. It's a training day now so lets get this run done and hit KFC for a family bucket!
Head out on the run and Garmin doesn't pick up signal until I get to the dam. Brilliant, 2 Garmin sod ups in one day.
Hit the pier and see my pal Joss Williams who was in wave 1 (5 mins ahead) pass me for a high 5. Shit about 8-10 mins down on him. It's windy out and I let the Garmin beep without looking as it's well long. Turn and we have wind behind now until we pass transition at 5k. Check pace - 6.20. Wow, this might be better than I thought as it feels manageable. See Dunc pass opposite and calculate he's 3 mins down on me. Time to get to work. See Griff coming, off no training and a family holiday this might be painful but he's going really well.
The rest of the run is all about digging in. I'm working to keep 6.4x pace for as long as possible as I know that keeps me in front of Dunc and bridges gap to Joss. Each time check it's working and then the last one it's head down to get home as quickly as possible.
The last mile of the run is always the same. I want to see no-one in front and no-one catching behind! I pass a few people and then one last person on the approach to the mat.
Finish feeling not too bad. Happy days, Erdinger stall at the end as well tops it off nicely.
Head over to the race results to get a print out and see I'm 36th overall and 4th in AG. Stewards enquiry on the 68 min half from the guy whose listed as 3rd and I'm bumped up to bronze in AG!
Swim - 31:48
T1 - 1:20
Bike - 2.26:55
T2 - 1.10
Run - 1.28:01
Total - 4.29:08
OA - 35th
40-44 - 3rd
Bronze medal in 40-44 AG in the National Champs. Got to say it felt good standing on my first podium ever, but saying that I am the first to admit it was a poor 40-44 showing this year.
I never got comfortable on the swim so the time I'd say is OK. I was hoping for a 30.xx and on a good day I think I would have nailed that. First swim of the year is always a bit bleugh.
The bike I am properly distraught with. I've worked hard this year and it was a really bad day at the office. Sub 2.20 was the minimum standard and 2.18 was really what I would have wanted. Not sure what went so wrong as the biking has been great before and after?
The run was a stormer. 1.28 at the end of a middle when I only ran 69 miles (including 13.1 at Grafman) in June and 46 miles total in May!
So the race was bitter-sweet for me. Can't knock a medal but I'm ashamed of that bike split for the work I've been putting in.
The Aftermath
The week after Grafman my legs were battered. Lack of run conditioning just caused the worst DOMS I've ever had. What did I really want to do in Triathlon? Is it age grouping, win local races? Compete in big races? Sprints, Middles, Olympics?? I'm just going through the motions this year with no real focus.
So reading some race reports of IM Austria (Lee Radley at Nice Tri and @Supergal007) started to make me think that I really wanted to re-write my Iron PB of 11.48.
I HATE long distance. But do I hate it, or do I hate the fact that I am not competitive at it?
So, I checked Challenge Roth and the entry is not open and I checked IM Austria and was suprised to see it was. So a quick text to the Mrs and I'm booked up for 2016 in Austria. I'm actually relishing the chance to go again. IM Zurich nearly killed me. I survived it but I don't want to remember it like that!
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