Done in for Devon...

As it’s now the end of July, summer is well on its way to being over. In some ways, it has felt long, as I started my tri season early on, in May, and crammed in five events by July 3rd, so in that respect it feels like the end of the season already. On the other hand, the record heatwave summer that was mooted back at the start of the year has not really     materialised (save one hot week in mid-July), so in some ways it feels as though I’m still waiting for summer to start! One thing’s for sure, my body is pretty knackered and is ready for its end of season break. 

This has been my first proper season as a triathlete. Last year I dabbled in a couple of pool based sprint events and managed my first open water tri at the back end of the season. 2016 marked the first year of targeting some key events, training towards them over the winter, and managing to execute them without having to pull out through injury. This latter point feels like my biggest achievement of the year, as for the previous 3 years, since February 2013, I have been on an endless 6 month injury cycle. Maybe it’s true what they told me when I took up triathlon – it does make you stronger and less injury prone? Or maybe it’s simply because I am not constantly pounding my legs with the running, but strengthening them on the bike and getting the cardio crossover benefits from the cycling and the swimming? I am only running between 15 and 20 miles a week, but with the fitness from the other sports, this has been enough to produce some decent enough running performances this year. Running highlights have been:

Run Exe 5k, April: 3rd lady in 18:28 (my third fastest 5k ever, and my fastest since 2013).
Exmouth Land and Sand 5k: 1st lady and 1st overall and new course record (both male and female) in 20:21.
Ottery 10k, May: 1st lady in 38:25 on a hilly course.
Erme Valley Relays, 2.5 mile: 3rd fastest female leg in 15:02 (a course PB by 23 seconds).

Run Exe Summer 5k, April. 18:28.

Exmouth Land and Sand Run

Exmouth Land and Sand Run - pushing on to ditch the guy behind me to win the race outright!

On the back of these results I was approached by the Devon County Athletics Association team manager, Dave Phillips, and asked to represent Devon on a team for the South-West inter-counties 10k road championships, this year held at the Frome 10k. I was thrilled. The last time I ran for Devon on the roads was in February 2013 at the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile, and that was the race in which I tore my calf and my injury battle started. I definitely had some demons to bury!

My plan was to taper off the cycling in the week leading up to Frome (held on 17th July). Heavy cycling thighs are not conducive to fast running! I had been feeling very run down ever since Slateman (May 21st/22nd). In hindsight, I didn’t fully appreciate the demands that a double event in freezing, wet conditions would place on my body and so I didn’t give myself the necessary recovery time afterwards. The result was that I experienced a never-ending string of coughs and colds, starting a week after the event, that lasted a good 6 weeks. I would be just about shifting a cold, then I would have another event booked in, do it, and be back at square one again. After doing the Dambuster on a cold, I was in a worse state than ever. It’s only really been these last couple of weeks that I have finally started to feel like my old self again. My resting pulse rate had been up around 58-60bpm (usual for me is 48-50), so this was a sure sign I was run down, knackered and that my body was crying out for a rest. My split times in the pool plummeted (another sign) and running suddenly felt like a much greater effort to achieve slower results. I lost my mojo for training, particularly for anything that put me out of my comfort zone, such as long CSS efforts in the pool, sea swimming, long bike rides. All signs. I can see them now. I didn’t at the time. I thought I had lost some fitness, was becoming lazy and obviously needed to train harder. Classic mistake. 

By the time Frome 10k came around, I was not exactly at the peak of my fitness. We travelled up to Shepton Mallet on the Saturday as Matt’s Aunt and Uncle live there, so they kindly let us stay with them overnight. Not wanting to go into detail, but I spent most of Saturday back and forth to the loo. At first I thought it was maybe nerves for the race the next day, but I was actually feeling pretty chilled about it and calmer than usual: if there’s one thing triathlon has done for my pre-race nerves it’s taught me that running only events are nothing to flap about! You turn up, in your kit, ready to run. You need trainers, shorts, vest, which you should be wearing. No stress about remembering a list an arm long of other kit items, or of making sure the bike arrives safely and mechanically intact. Triathlon has made running seem so simple! The next morning, I was still making friends with the toilet and was a bit worried. It also happened to be the first really hot day of the year: hot and humid. Oh well, nothing to be done, just have to do my best. 

Pre-race team Devon photo.

The first 5k went by fine. This section was pretty flat and I am used to running this distance now. I went over the chip timing mat in 19:32. Then the hard bit started. The second half of Frome 10k was just non-stop hills! There was a one mile uphill stretch from miles 3-4 that seemed to go on and on and on. Then a small downhill section, before more undulations, and then a half mile slog up a very steep hill to the finish. I think I must have been low on electrolytes by the end, due to the aforementioned toilet visits and sweating more than usual in the heat, as I really ‘hit that wall’. I was lying in 3rd place in the ladies race at halfway and was the second counter for the Devon ladies’ team, but that soon changed. I let not one, not two, but three ladies come past me in the last couple of miles. I finished 6th lady and 5th for Devon: that was the one consolation, that all the ladies who came past were my teamies, so at least it meant that with 5 out of the top 6 being Devon runners, we had easily secured the team prize! So, individually not my greatest performance. My pre-race time prediction had been 38:00 – 38:45: rather optimistic, given that I actually trailed in in 40:23! However, it was hot, and hilly, and I had had the shits for two days running! ;-)

The final hill at Frome 10k. I am now down into 6th female, bringing up the rear of this trio of Devon teamies!

Looking back on my three appearances in the Devon vest, I am beginning to question that it’s not the luckiest attire for me. The first cap, I tore my calf and limped home at Plymouth Hoe 10; the second outing, at the Inter-counties cross country, I missed the start and had to play catch up from the otherside of the field, and the third occasion, well, see above! If bad luck comes in threes, my next appearance for Devon should be truly scintillating!!!

Since Dambuster, I have taken part in just one other triathlon, and that was the Honiton Sprint tri. What a joy to have a triathlon on my doorstep, with the bike course being on the roads I train on and know like the back of my hand, and with the swim being in the pool in which I train. And what a joy to come out of the water feeling warm for the first time this year! 

I was still feeling tired going into this, but it was a low-key local event and so I figured I'd just use it for training. Maybe that mindset helped me to relax, as I had a pretty decent swim (7:36 for 400m, holding some back for the bike and the run). The bike went ok, apart from getting held up behind a car on the windy, narrow lanes down through Buckerell village, and the run felt good, but it came in well short of 5k (2.75 miles). On a sprint tri, I need the run to be over rather than under distance ideally, to give me more ground to make up time on the speedy swimmers and bikers. I finished in the position I expected to: 2nd female and 1st in my age category, behind talented local triathlete Kerri-Ann, who is an amazing swimmer.

Out on the 21km bike leg on the old A30, near Fenny Bridges.

Return leg of the out-and-back bike course.

Approaching the finish line at Honiton tri: my 5th tri of the season, all of them in grey, wet, miserable weather!

But one thing Honiton tri highlighted is that I definitely need a break: I woke up the next day with yet another sodding cold! I had thought to try and push on to the end of the season and then take a couple of weeks off, but I am not sure I can wait that long! I have been on a heavy training schedule since January, with just a couple of lighter weeks in amongst, and so I think that I have gone past the point of reaping any benefits from just the odd rest day: I need a full rest week! Fortunately I am about to get that as we are going to Scotland and Islay for a week on 3rd August. This holiday was originally scheduled around running the Islay Half Marathon, but my latest plan is to be sensible and do no running or cycling and just have a couple of easy swims to keep the body loose. 

Targets wise, I just have one more triathlon booked in this year and that is the end of season Cotswold Olympic distance tri on 11th September. I will not be taking up my place on the GB squad for the world champs in Mexico. Some people who don't know my situation may think me mad to pass up such an opportunity - and yes, when I watch it on telly come September thinking 'I could have been there', I may think myself mad too - but believe me when I say it is the right decision for me, and I have made peace with it. Hopefully there will be other chances to make the team.... and I hear next year's world champs are in the less exotic, rather handier location of Rotterdam! So I can now afford to take a whole week off in Scotland, then come back and put in a couple of good training weeks before tapering off for the Cotswolds. And then, well, maybe then I’ll treat my poor battered, tired old bones to a decent length break…. I can hear my husband laughing as I type this…. but the good intentions are there!!