Easter Sunday – 8th April – Sprint Triathlon Guer-Coetquidan

350m swim: 25kms cycle: 5m run

Now this is a real turn up for the book; my first competitive triathlon for over 15 years, and a real last minute thing it was too.

I was swimming in my local pool at Ploermel when I got chatting with the other chap in my lane, a Triathlete, as it happened. He told me about his Tri-club which was attached to the local military base in Coetquidan, a town I’d regularly cycled by on training rides. The camp was not too far away and boasted a 50m swimming pool.

When I returned home, I Googled the Coetquidan Tri-club on the ‘Interweb’ and discovered that they were hosting a couple of races the next day, Easter Sunday. In the morning there was to be a Duathlon, and in the afternoon, a Sprint Triathlon. On the spur of the moment, I entered the Sprint Tri. After all, I’d have the luxury of a lie-in; much more civilised than the early morning Sportive starts I’d been used to. It would also give me the opportunity to check out the weather. I could always abort if the forecast rain arrived – it didn’t.

The next day dawned grey but cool. I didn’t have the cold feet I’d expected and so found myself enrolled and sitting beside the beautiful 50 metre pool awaiting my turn to take the plunge. In order to start and finish early and I had estimated my 400m swim time to be around 7:30mins, so I was set to start in the fourth wave; around 14:40hrs.

I had set myself a challenging (for me) target time of one and a half hours, although I decided to treat the whole thing as a hard training session and not worry too much about the transitions (more fool me).

Swim: The swim went really well, it was the first time I’d been in a 50m pool for over 15 years too. I exited the water after the 7 lengths, first in my wave with a split time of 6:34. Not brilliant, but OK for an old fart with limited swim training under my belt.

I took my time in transition, towelling myself dry, donning cycle top, shoes (no socks), helmet and sunglasses, and ran with the bike through transition to the start of the bike course. For those not familiar with the rules of Triathlon, there’s no cycling allowed in the transition area, and no drafting allowed during the cycle (at least for non-championship events). Triathlon was designed as an individual time-trial sport, no help is allowed; you’re on your own.

Cycle: The two-lap cycle course was hilly, very hilly, and set on closed roads inside the Army camp. Some of the surfaces were a little bumpy, a bit like all the roads in the UK. On the first lap, I wasn’t passed, nor did I pass anybody, but as I started on the second lap, a slew of riders overtook me, one by one. I managed to catch a couple of people on that second lap and averaged 28kph overall – not bad for a time-trial on a hilly course in the wind. Now for the run!

Run: My lack of preparation for the transition took its toll in the end. I dismounted the bike, ran through to my rack position and proceeded to try and put my running shoes on. Try as hard as I night, I simply could not get my left shoe on; it wouldn’t fit! I ended up having to sit down and undo a bloody knot that had formed in the lace. Without my reading glasses on, I had to do this by touch alone and it seemed to take forever. I was about to give up and start running with a loose shoe and flapping laces, when the stubborn knot loosened and I finally managed to don the recalcitrant footwear.

The run course was two laps on dirt paths through woodland. Cross-country! Had I known this before entering, I might well not have bothered. Luckily we’ve had very little rain here for a few weeks and the conditions underfoot were bone dry so the going was easy than it might have been. After a mile or so, the track dipped down into a cutting and there was a really sharp uphill climb which really took it out of my legs. I overtook a couple of stragglers here, but was in turn, overtaken by some real hares.

The second lap passed by without incident and I even managed a sort of sprint finish to cross the line in a reasonable time of 1:29:57; a full three seconds inside my target! Wa-hay!

Overall: I actually felt quite comfortable during the run, my worst discipline, and this is part of my problem in competitive terms. I shouldn’t feel comfortable at any stage of a triathlon. I should really put the effort in and be close to the edge of breaking down, but I’m always in fear of not finishing and so back off a little. I’ll have to reconsider this strategy if I do any more Triathlons this year. But for a first effort back in the sport after such a long layoff, I felt reasonably satisfied.

Results: Overall time: 1:29:57 (Winner’s time 1:03:16); I finished 106^th of 143 entrants. Swim: 6:34 (transition time: 2:19); Cycle: 55:47 (transition time: 4:40); Run: 25:17.

Just look at that, a total transition time of 6:59 – disgraceful. Had I thought about it a little I could have easily shaved something like 5 minutes off that which would have gained me about sixteen places. Tee hee! You live and learn.

By the way, I finished 7^th in my age group. 

25th March 2012 - Guegon Sportive – 83kms

The ride started at 08:30hrs on a cold, grey morning the day the clocks went forward. Not only had we lost an hour’s sleep, but an hour’s morning daylight; I felt decidedly under prepared. That being said, I managed to stay with the lead group, which contained a number of the good riders from the Saturday training sessions, Andy Shaw amongst them, for the first 20 kms.

OK, I was dropped on the first serious climb but no surprises there, eh?

I found myself in the second group working hard to try and regain the leaders. I was heavily involved in the chase and took regular turns on the front, driving the group forwards, for the next 30 kms or so. I was dropped on another long hill, but, with the aid of a couple of other riders, managed to reattach to the second group just as we arrived at the picturesque town of Josselin.

Now, this turned out to be a real punch in the guts. I had worked like stink to reattach to the group and was hoping to take it easy and recover at the back for a few kms, but it was not to be. Josselin is at the bottom of a valley and there is no way out of the town but up, and as soon as I had regained the group, I was dropped again on another long climb. This time, I didn’t manage to recover and spent the remainder of the ride on my own in ‘No Man’s Land’.

I eventually finished with an average speed of around the 30kpm mark, (5kph slower than the leaders). Not bad, but no cigars. Andy, going well this year already, finished in the first three. My other English mate and veteran, Bob Jones, also finished with the leaders.

Winter Training – 2011/12

I know this is my first blog of the year, but I’ve been busy setting up my workshop and making furniture again. This year’s cycle blogs are likely to be few and far between. On the other hand, I’m about to set up Website dedicated to my cabinet-making activities, which will include writing project articles, so I’ll still be heavily involved in the ‘Websphere’; now, back to the cycling stuff.

Training went really well this winter. I maintained my fitness level and even added running and swimming to my training mix. I had thought about entering the odd triathlon here or there; despite that fact that I entered my last triathlon over fifteen years ago.

In the New Year, I felt so strong that I even joined the intra-club Saturday afternoon training rides. These are ad hoc affairs set up to give the Category riders some serious winter training with other high-calibre cyclists. There were riders from a couple of local clubs and we rendezvoused at 13:30hrs at various locations and joined up in Ploermel before heading out into the country to follow different routes every week. A club car from UC Josselin followed us in case of accident or breakdown, and to offer lifts to the weaker participants when they struggled to stay attached, (which, of course, included yours truly). I have to admit that the pace set by the good riders was extremely fast and I had to catch a tow or a draft from the club car on a number of occasions.

I’ll take a bit of time here to explain what ‘taking a tow from the club car’ means to those unfamiliar with the term. Basically, the car slows down a bit and pulls along side, and you grab hold of it, either a bike rack or one of the pillars when the passenger lowers his window. After you’ve nodded that you are firmly attached, the driver speeds up and pulls you back to the pack. Depending upon how far back you are when you latch on, the tow could last a kilometre or so, and the car is travelling at speed in excess of 50kph. Bear in mind that the towed cyclist is hanging on to the car with one hand, and his handlebars with the other, not the safest of positions. The first time I took a tow, I nearly came off my bike as I jostled for a better hold on my handlebars – scary.

However, as the weeks went by, I found that I had to take fewer and fewer tows as my strength improved and cycling speed increased. I was never going to challenge the Category riders, but I certainly felt that stronger in the saddle; at least until the February visit to England to meet my new granddaughter.

The UK visit lasted two weeks, (that’s two week sans velo!), and culminated in my catching the inevitable UK-visit head-cold; I think I must be allergic to England. On the other hand, we did meet little Isla Josephine (gorgeous), and renew our acquaintance with our wonderful grandsons, Lewis and Elliott – so it was worth it in the end.

On the down side, the three-week enforced break from cycling had taken its toll on my fitness. The first time back on the bike again felt like hell; so much for the long hard miles of winter training.  As a result, I have since had to seriously reconsider my 2012 racing calendar; i.e. I’m not sure when I’ll do my first PC road race, but keep reading.