Monster mojito oly 10 May 2015

[Jimba]

Where: Peterborough Rowing Lake
When: 10 May
Organiser: Monster Racing
Distance(s): 1500m lake swim, stated as 38k bike, 10k run
Marshalling: Plenty, very friendly. Traffic control
Facilities: Bogs, bacon butties etc
Freebies: Technical tee, bars, muscle rub

Bad day at the office!

Ho hum. Where to start. Excuses I think.
Virtually no swimming for 2 years (part motivational part medical) my sprint in April (9.50ish - good by my standards) concealed how far off the mark my swim fitness is.
Taper – not much of one, I am currently (inspired by one of Jack’s epics) doing “10k a day in May” – not religiously each day, but an average. So in the seven days up to the event I did 60k running together with 150k biking.
Errm, no other excuses unfortunately.

So the swim. It was cold, not freezing, something around 15degrees is what we were told. I am not sure if that was true, had my neoprene swim hat on and still had difficulty catching my breath at first. Had seen the middle distance lot set off half an hour before us and they seemed to take an age going up and down the lake. But I’ve done this distance before, it cant be that difficult…right? Wrong. My saving grace was that as it was a rowing lake it was only 4’ deep – I took advantage of that numerous times. It was a bloody long way, a bloody awful swim on my part with no rhythm or feel. Crawled out of the water in a tad under 44 mins ahead of 2/3 people. Had hoped for 35mins! Dream on!

Slow transition, just couldn’t get fingers etc working. Onto the bike, first roundabout, cant see where I am supposed to be going, coast all the way round it until the guy behind catches and shows the way. First time that has happened to me in a race, not sure if it was signage issue, probably more me not having my head in the game. Anyway, on track and dig in for the 38k. Pretty flat, loads of roundabouts (20+), fairly poor road surface – not potholes but that gravelly unsmooth surface that you often get. Still, work hard on the bike and come back in 1.13. Bit disappointed, had hoped for around 1.08 (see that over-optimism again!).

Reasonable T2 and out for the two lap 10k run. On compacted trails mostly flat. Legs not feeling great but that’s usual for the first couple of k. Did 20.36 for 5k in a sprint tri in April so was hoping for something around 43mins for this. Legs just wouldn’t work, not sure if it was the bike effort, the poor taper or what but splits of 7.27, 7.44 and 7.40 per mile for first lap. Had a chat to myself and upped it a bit on the second lap 7.34, 7.26 and 7.20 for the second lap. 10k time 46.10.

Total time 2.46.54. 58/106 overall and 11/18 AG (strange age group 45-54). AG winner 2.17.14

Cant help but be disappointed with swim, bike and run. Hrrumph.

Good, well organised event.

[Sir Jibbenstein]

Sounds like a tough day at the office. I was just down the road in St Neots and the river was 13.5, bloody freezing! Great effort though. Well done #

[kfjatek]

Sh*t happens I guess, onwards and upwards Jimba! Still a good time too, only a little bit slower than your "benchmark" relative to the rest of the pack, no? (looking at results from your previous races this year, in the Championship spreadsheet)

20+ roundabouts on a 40k course!? Blimey, that must have been annoying...

[SickBoy]

Maybe not what you were aiming for but not a terrible result. A long cold swim doesn't exactly set you up for a PB! Well done.

[King Sad]

Oh no Jimba Sorry you had a disappointing race But did you get a bacon butty?

A cold swim is not the best start, 20 roundabouts on the bike ... interesting ... but your run sounds decent to me