Monster Mojo Middle Distance Triathlon – Sunday 11th May 2014

Short Report
Swim – 35:31
T1 – 2:51 (kit hidden in waterproof bag!)
Bike – 2:45
T2 – 1:49 (kit hidden in saturated open waterproof bag!)
Run – 1:45

Total: 5 hrs 10 mins 33 secs

6th lady & AG winner (35-44)

Long Report

I was looking for an early season event to kickstart my racing.  I usually head to Lydd for the Marshman but its a bit of a schlep and this new race appeared on my radar just a 75 min drive from home up the A1(M).  I managed to convince three other Tri Londoners to do it too – Naomi, Kevin & Romain. Race HQ, transition and the swim all take place at Peterborough Rowing Lake.  Naomi & I travelled up the night before and got a great deal for a twin room in the hotel backing onto transition.  

We put the bikes together and went for a five minute spin up the road with Romain. The 5 minute spin soon turned into a 12 mile spin and then quickly 14 when we got lost in a housing estate on the way back.  The signage was good but the wind was playing havoc with it. We managed to stay dry but the wind was strong and it was going to make for an interesting ride tomorrow

We managed to be in bed by 10:15 and apart from some doors banging late into the night we both managed a solid nights sleep and needed waking by our 5 am alarms.  Quick breakfast then, dressed, packed and headed to transition.  It was dry but overcast, chilly and windy!  Our swim was a simple out and back in the long skinny rowing lake.  Briefing was at 6:45 and race start at 7 am.  

The Swim

Unfortunately I managed to get into the water at the foot of the lake only to then see people heading about 20m up the lake for the race start.  I thought I had a couple of minutes to get there but unfortunately the gun went and I was way off the start line.  I wasn’t the only one but I missed the main pack of swimmers.  The water is only 4ft deep so fortunately it is warmer than many lakes I have swum in recently and I think it was about 16 degrees.  There was a strong headwind on the way up the lake but a nice tailwind on the way back that should have helped.

Without many people around me I struggled to maintain a decent pace or find anyone to draft off and all too often found myself swimming too easy.  The lake was very weedy and had lots of little buoys that would bop you on the head from time to time if you weren’t paying attention. My hands got cold towards the end but other than that I felt ok. The exit was steep but that meant you could swim direct to the edge and then get hauled out by two lovely strong men 🙂  

T1

As I entered T1 I saw Kevin so was quite happy as he is usually faster than me. Naomi appeared to have long since gone! By now it was pouring with rain. I took my wetsuit off and instantly felt frozen. I had arm warmers and calf guards on in an effort to find some warmth but as they and my clothes were sopping wet there was little warmth coming from anything! My plan had been to put on a lightweight short sleeved cycle jersey but given the temperature and the rain I opted for my fleece lined Giant bike jacket which is cosy.  Decided against gloves, I’d wasted enough time as it was by leaving my kit in a transition bag to stay dry and also trying to do up zips with numb hands! I grabbed my helmet, glasses and shoes and off I went.

The Bike

The sunglasses were a bit of a mistake.  It was so dark with the heavy skies but I was reluctant to take them off given the pouring rain so turned the backlight up on my Garmin and kept them on. The bike route had a circa 6 mile ride heading northwest along a busy road with roundabouts and then through a housing estate before reaching a 13 mile loop on country roads that was to be ridden three times.  It was an undulating course with a strong wind from the west with some stronger gusts from time to time.  I was cold and my heart rate was low.  I simply couldn’t get my body to work hard enough to pick my heart rate up.  My legs were just about managing on the flat but any incline at all felt dreadful.  My calves felt like they were on the verge of cramp and from the waist down I was painfully cold.  My fingers were also struggling and feeling quite numb.  This was my first race on my new Giant Radlett Trinity.  They spoilt me and thankfully having Di2 electronic gearing meant I didn’t really need my fingers to do much other than push the little buttons  – a lifesaver!  The bike was lonely – there were very few competitors around, I figured they were mostly ahead of me!  I told myself Naomi would be working hard to try not to let me catch her so I needed to keep the power going through the pedals.  I also thought that I should try and hold off Kevin who was somewhere just behind me and I was expecting him to come by at any time and I had no idea where Romain was. My average speed heading into the wind was only 18.3 mph.  As we turned south, the wind still felt like it was against me.  The return loop also changed direction quite a lot so although there were benefits from a tail wind at some points at others it wasn’t really working in our favour.  My average speed increased to 18.6 mph on each of the return legs though.  I only saw one girl go by me, I overtook a couple of men and had a couple of men overtake me. The registered field had looked strong so I assumed most of the girls were ahead. I prefer a busier course as I think it keeps my motivation up to work harder.

On the whole the bike course was quiet with traffic although there were a few numpties, overtaking me only to pull and stop directly in front of me then a car pulled out in front of me and proceeded to do 15 mph when I had a tail wind and could have been hitting 24 mph +.  I also had my fair share of cars stuck behind the slower Mojito (Olympic distance race) riders and a couple of horses (my worst nightmare!) Anyway, soon enough I found myself at the end of the three loops and heading back on the busy road to T2 with one other rider and a bus for company. The bus was stopping regularly and leapfrogging us, wanting to pull out again just as we were going by, for several stops!  .

T2

Usual story for me, my lovely transition bag had blown open in the wind and the rain had managed to saturate everything – not the first time this has happened!  No harm done, I was saturated anyway!  My socks were wringing wet and baggy but I had no spares and that was just going to use up  precious time anyway.  I took my bike jacket off, tried to swing some life back into my numb feet which were still blocks of ice but they failed to respond so off I went.

The Run

The run was 4 laps of a lovely 3 mile loop around the rowing lake on a combination of muddy trail, tarmac and gravel trails.  The weather was mixed but only light showers now.  The wind was still up but on the whole it was fairly sheltered.   It was pretty flat which is just as well as my legs felt truly awful.  I had awful pains in both calves and my feet were totally numb.  I really don’t know how I managed to hobble my way around the first two laps.  

There was no sign of Naomi who I thought must be a long way ahead by now.  I thought Kevin could come and run by me at any minute and hunting one and being chased by another kept me occupied enough to try and keep moving.  I had to have two toilet stops too but these were also a welcome break from the pain of my calves.  Fortunately by the start of lap 3 they started to feel better.  I had warmed up too which I’m sure helped a lot. Shortly into this third lap Romain came by me. I tried to increase my effort to stay with him but my body wasn’t playing ball so I watched him gradually pull away.  He remained within sight though so I was encouraged by this.  Almost two miles later I found him at the feed station and actually came in and left before him.  He soon caught up with me and when I offered to let him pass on the single track he told me he had been running too fast so he would stick with me.  I started to feel a bit more energised so I upped my cadence and soon found myself pulling away and he wasn’t responding.  With Kevin not having caught me and Romain never far behind, on the last lap I felt my pace increase and managed to cross the line shortly before both of them with a good negative split.

Summary

A great race that I would definitely do again. Not only is it a great event its the only time I have been placed in a thirty something age group in a while! With prize money up for grabs for the 1st, 2nd & 3rd women there was some decent competition. (These first three ladies are then excluded from the age group wins). The weather conditions made for a tough day but I was delighted to place 6th lady overall and winner of my age group (in effect 2nd as a 35 year old came 2nd overall).  A great start to my race season.  I hope I have started as I mean to go on!  Races are always better in good company and I had that with Naomi, Kevin and Romain. Naomi finished 4th overall and also winner (2nd) of her age group so we ended up sharing the podium 🙂

This also happens to be the coolest trophy I have won!

I love, love, love riding the Giant Trinity its fast, light and responsive and it seemed to slice through the headwinds! Huge thanks to Giant Radlett for this awesome bike and all the support that I have from the guys in the store. I feel very privileged to have such fantastic sponsors. I’d also like to thank Sofa.com and particularly Pat who still is an inspiration despite losing his battle with cancer earlier this year. The support from Sofa.com meant I could attend the Everyday Training Camp in Lanzarote in March. This is a superb camp with a focus on all three disciplines and without a shadow of doubt has strengthened my performance early in the season.