So here we go! My first race report of the 2014 season. A race I have been really looking forward to but at the same time, a little surprised about how quickly it seemed to sneak up on me. It seems only weeks ago that I was winter training and races seemed to be months away but you know if it, your packing and heading of the the airport!
I was very lucky to have two close friends racing this with me. Claire and Anna are two of a group of close friends I have made from my local Triathlon club. We decided to make this race a bit of a girls holiday too as we were setting of on Thursday with return flights on the Monday. Unfortunately due to Claire’s son breaking his arm and needed an op, she didn’t make it out with us as originally planed and had to join us on the Friday instead. Luckily though her little boy is well on the mend and she was still able to join us, just a day alter than originally planned.
My aims for this race;
To practice my new nutrition strategy – following last years issues I have changed my pre race diet for the week leading up to the race to be wheat free and also changed my race nutrition to be wheat free and more natural. One key area of this has been using Advanced Tri Fuel for pre race drink, bike fluids and start of run leg fuel.
Secondary aim – I needed to feel like I paced my race correctly without blowing up and slowing down at any stage. My coach’s ideal for pacing is to see a very slightly increasing HR over the bike and run legs so that i’m pretty much cycling and running to achieve negative splits.
Third aim – to achieve a personal best after i was literally destroyed by first Half IM last year at Wimbleball.
Generally speaking – I loved this race!
The sea swim was fab. As my coach had advised, I decided to start very near the front, it’s a narrow start funnel only about 15 people wide so I was about 2nd row. I did get bashed about a bit and an elbow to one goggle eye but it didn’t displace them and I swam on through. I was very pleased with my sighting but couldn’t draft as much as I wanted to as some of the feet I tried to get on were drifting off course so I obviously didn’t want to be pulled in the wrong direction. I stayed very close to the buoys so maybe I needed to be a little further from them in order to catch onto some faster feet!!
Swim split – 32:15Over the moon with this!
T1 – 05:31.I missed my bike rack (school girl error) so lost time running on and down the crazily long transition area!
The bike leg was amazing, having spent a week cycling in Majorca this time last year I knew the kind of terrain to expect and was really looking forward to it. This race is the first time I’ve used my race bike properly and my god it felt fast! The bike course is amazing, a massive hill that lasts about 15km and some undulations but lots of long flat sections where I felt I was really tanking it along. There is an amazing long hair pin descent which I loved even though I’m rubbish at technical descents and lost a lot of time in that section. I also lost time trying to drink on the flats as i could reach my bottles whilst on climbs or fast descents so I think some form of speedfil bottle will be a valuable addition to my bike set up in time for my next IM. I finished the bike split feeling good and well fuelled after taking 3 full bottles of ATF, along with some non wheat based solid fuel.
Bike split – 03:03:00 Again, very happy with this split.
T2 – 02:35. I still haven’t learnt the trick of having shoes clipped into pedals and leaving them clipped in after dismount so this slowed me a little too but I’ll be working on this for my next race.
The run was also great. I started the race with a steady start which allowed me to get another bottle of ATF down me before I picked up the pace. The long out and back was a little boring at times but I had a plan and stuck to it which meant I knew I could ramp up the pace on the second and third and laps. At a point on the third lap when I was questioning if I could keep the pace up until the end, my friend Claire saw me and could see the pain I was in, she simply shouted ‘dig deep Allie’ and I knew I had to if I wanted to stay ahead of some people I had just passed on lap 2! I managed a good negative split with a very strong final 3miles so I was really pleased with how i pushed myself and keep the pace increasing up until i crossed the finish line.
Run split – 01:46
Overall, I’m over the moon, I didn’t have a time in mind for this race but simply wanted to feel like I had pushed hard and bettered my Wimbleball race of last year.
This race gave me a PB of nearly and hour and a half so I can’t complain about that. I know Wimbleball is a slower course but I’m set to return there next to settle some unfinished business after it destroyed me last year!!
Thanks to my friends mitten and Claire for being fab holiday / race buddies. It’s lovely to make more than just a race of a trip to somewhere as nice as Majorca.