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!!

Damn Dambuster busted my damn backside!

Earlier this year, when I was planning my 2016 triathlon season, the Dambuster Olympic (standard) distance triathlon at Rutland Water on 18^th June was pencilled in as my ‘A’ race. It was a qualifying race for the age-group world triathlon championships which are to be held in Cozumel, Mexico, in September this year. All the other races, chiefly the Slateman double, were to be used as training races building towards this one. I have to remind myself that prior to this year, I had only competed in triathlons for one season and only one of my three races last year had an open water swim. They were all sprint distance too, so it wasn’t exactly ideal that my first bash at a standard distance race was at the worlds qualifier! When I sat down with Dennis and Liz (Elliot) at the end of last year and planned my line of attack for 2016, the one qualification race they said was best to avoid was the Dambuster as it notoriously attracts a strong field due to its location, setting and superb bike course. What race did I end up opting for? Yes, the Dambuster! Not because I ignored their advice, and not because I was arrogant enough to think that I could still qualify here, but mainly because it was the only race that fitted in with my schedule. The other two qualification races were earlier in the season and clashed with Slateman; also, I needed time to build up towards the hilly 42km bike course and so needed more cycling miles in my legs. So Dambuster it had to be!

This was 2015, then came 2016 and with it talk of zika virus running rife in Central and South America. Suddenly the Olympic Games in Rio had a cloud cast over them and suddenly I am thinking that destination Mexico isn’t the attractive prospect it once was either. The zika issue is complicated and many people will just say, ‘It’s not dangerous, it’s a lot of hype over nothing, don’t worry about it’. And yes, I agree, and I am not some massive hypochondriac that is scared to travel anywhere with tropical diseases – I am well-travelled and not usually fazed by such things. I don’t want to talk about my personal health issues here on a public blog, but just to say that, for me personally, the zika virus has reason to make me question whether the benefits of going to compete in Cozumel outweigh the risks involved in doing so.

So, here I am, two weeks out from the Dambuster and of the mind-set that even if I qualify, I likely won’t take up the place. The age-group qualification system is complicated, and one of the many processes you have to go through is to pre-declare your intention to qualify by registering your interest with the BTF and paying a processing fee of £10. Even if you finish first in your age group, –  indeed, even if you win the race outright at a qualifying event – if you have not registered and paid this £10, you cannot be selected for the GB team. It seems bizarre as it can mean that a weaker team is often selected as a result, but that’s just the way it’s done. I was so adamant that even if I qualified, I wouldn’t take up the place, that I almost didn’t bother to register and pay the fee, but Matt persuaded me that for just a tenner, I would be daft not to and I would buy myself some time to make a proper decision if I did qualify. It did mean, however, that I went into the race less motivated than I would have been, had I been desperate to qualify, like I was at the Clumber Park Duathlon.

And so to race day. The race was the day after my birthday – bad scheduling! – and so I spent the majority of my birthday traversing the UK on various over-crowded motorways. A stop at the Gloucester Farm Services for a proper cup of coffee was pretty much the highlight! I wasn’t feeling all that energized and up for this one. Aside from the qualifying/not taking up place issue, I had been struggling with a string of coughs and colds since Slateman in May. June also comes with the added bonus of being hayfever season. I had just about shifted one cold, then did the South Hams tri and it came back again with a vengeance. As a result, my training volume had had to drop off and my fitness levels had taken a nose-dive. I wasn’t hitting my usual times on my hill reps when running, and my swimming had suffered tremendously. A CSS timed swim one week before Dambuster saw me post a time of 7:24 for 400m: slower than the 7:15s I usually bash out with ease as part of a 4 x 400m intervals set. I was feeling constantly tired, had had to have a day off sick from work for the first time since I’ve been in this job, and basically I knew that what my body needed was a mid-season break, not to be heading into my targeted ‘A’ race feeling physically tired and mentally drained.

On the drive up in the car my nose was constantly running. I tried to tell myself it was hayfever, conveniently ignoring the fact that we were sealed in, windows shut, and air-con on. Saturday morning, race day, alarm goes at 5am and yes, it’s confirmed, I have another sodding cold. I’m totally bunged up, feeling groggy, extremely low on energy and have zero enthusiasm for getting out of bed and going to swim 1500m in a freezing cold lake, nevermind the 42k of cycling and 10k of running that was to follow. There’s only so much that excessive amounts of nasal decongestant spray and coffee can do for you when you’re in this sorry state!

The women’s wave was the last wave to go off, at 7:40am, but all competitors had to be racked before the first wave at 6am. This led to a lot of standing around, getting cold and wishing I could just get on with the thing and get it over with and finally celebrate my birthday! It was the largest mass swim start I have experienced yet, with 150 females all lined up together. The first buoy came very soon, about 100m into the swim, and so it was obvious from watching all the male waves go off that the swiftest and most direct line was by starting on the far right hand-side. The advice is that if you don’t like the washing machine effect, either start at the back, or start on the far edge of the line and take a longer route. No, I’m not the best swimmer, but I am ridiculously competitive and so there was no way I was going to swim any farther than I had to, so I started on the far right, about 3 rows back. We hit the first buoy en masse and it was total carnage. I lost count of the amount of elbows and feet I had pummel me in the face. Two or three people tried to swim over the top of me; it was just horrid! I was glad when we rounded that buoy and the field started to thin out and I could find some clear water, start to establish my own rhythm, and get my breathing back under control.

At 1500m this was the longest openwater swim I have done to date, and it seemed to go on and on and on. What I found though was the longer it went on, the stronger and smoother I felt, and in the latter part of the swim I started to pick people off. That said, I was very relieved to round the final buoy and turn for the exit! Swim time: 32:00. Earlier in the year I would have expected 29 – 30 minutes, but, like I said, I haven’t been well for a month or so and this was a pretty accurate reflection of where my swim had dropped off to!

Women's wave mass start at Rutland Water.

Charge! To the first buoy.

Here it comes: the creature from the black lagoon!

A smile of relief that the swim is done!

The usual faff with wetsuit / numb hands from freezing cold lake combo. 

Onto the bike and I knew I had a lot of places to make up (later found out I was the 102^nd woman out of the water – shockingly bad!). We had driven part of the bike course the day before and the race organiser’s description of ‘hilly but not technical; suits a strong biker’ proved to be spot on. There was barely any flat ground to be found, but the hills were long, straight and sweeping and I found I didn’t need to hit the brakes once. It really suited me as I am strong on hills, but a Jessie on technical descents, and these descents didn’t bother me as you could see what was coming. The route was mainly along A-roads, which would have been near empty when the first elite male wave went off at 6am, but were getting busier by the time we hit them at 8:15am, but they were wide enough and, apart from one congested village, I didn’t need to adjust my speed for traffic. It was, however, a very windy day, and although the course was effectively a large rectangle, it seemed that whichever direction we turned into, it felt like a headwind! I knew I was making up ground as I was picking off rider after rider and nobody came past me, but I was acutely aware that that was because there were only about 50 ladies left behind me after the swim and most of those would be the slightly less athletic ones, so that wasn’t really an indicator of me having a good bike, more an indicator of how atrocious my swim was!

Into T2 after a bike split of 1h19, averaging just under 20mph for a hilly course. I didn’t know how this compared to the other women out front, but as an indicator, I knew that when my friend Lucy Commander rode this exact same course as part of the Dambuster Duathlon, in which she qualified for the GB age-group duathlon team, she posted a bike split of….. 1h19! So that was at least a sign that I’d had a fairly decent spin.

Help! Which way to the run out?! (2 hours of hanging around before my wave start and I didn't think to check this, doh!)

Off on the run, which was a flat out-and-back 10k along the lakeside path and out over the dam, from whence the race derives its name. The route is a big curve and so, when you turn at the halfway point, you can see the finish across the lake and it looks so tantalisingly close, and yet you know it is actually 5km away! I felt comfortable on the first half and arrived at the halfway turn bang on 20 minutes. My plan was to lift the pace on the return stretch, but I turned and suddenly realised why I’d felt so comfortable: I’d had a tail wind on the outward leg, and now had a stiff headwind, with nowhere to shelter from it on the exposed dam. My pace dropped off slightly and I was starting to get very low on energy, having to dig really deep into my reserves in the last couple of K. My main motivator was to finish and then I could have my well over-due birthday celebrations and prosecco!! My 10k run split of 40:30 was the 5^th fastest female run of the day. Not enough though to make up for the 10 minutes I lost on the swim and when I went to get my print out of my finish time and position I was both shocked and disheartened to see I’d come 32^nd female overall and 10^th in my age-cat. This is the lowest I have ever placed at any form of race, and it was a bit of a leveller as to where I am at when faced with quality competition. As an indicator of the exceptionally high standard at this race, there wasn’t a hybrid bike in sight, nobody was cycling in their running shoes, and my poor Cannondale was pretty much the cheapest bike on the rack! It again made me question whether there is any point in me even doing tris whilst I am losing so much time on the swim. I certainly had written off Mexico qualification, as I needed top 4 (definitely not 10^th!) in my age group to secure auto-qualification.

Just caught this Jersey age-grouper in the last 200m of the run!

Happy to finish this one.

Mind you, this was before I'd seen the results and realised I'd come 32nd, so this smile soon faded!

The one bonus of finishing so far down the pecking order was that there was no hanging around post-race for prize giving! I’d had enough; I was cold, wet, full of lurgy, and I knew that there was an exceptionally large bath tub waiting for me back at our hotel room! Post-bath, it felt like I’d been up for so long it should be dinner time, but in reality it was still only midday! We spent the afternoon exploring Melton Mowbray. No pork pies were consumed, but a very large (and very early!) meal was enjoyed… and yes, it did include prosecco!

Hello megga tub! My husband has a habit of choosing good hotels!

Hellz to the yes! Let the belated birthday celebrations commence!

After 3 nights in Rutland we went on to Stratford-on-Avon for 3 nights and saw 2 productions at the RSC and made the use of my free staff entry by visiting multiple N.T. properties, indulging in the odd cappuccino and scone along the way! After that we had a further 3 nights in Birmingham and we had tickets for all three days of the British Athletics Championships. A great itinerary, but unfortunately I spent most of the holiday ill: turns out that doing a triathlon on a cold doesn’t actually speed up the healing process, who’d’a thought?!

Pre-show drinks by the river outside the RSC in Stratford.

Ready to watch Dr. Faustus - but feeling knackered and full of cold, as you can no doubt see!

At the British Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

Halfway through the holiday I checked my emails and was flabbergasted to receive an email from British Triathlon to say I’d been given one of 6 discretionary places for the GB team for the world triathlon championships in Mexico. I had totally written this possibility off, finishing so far down the pecking order, but it turns out that as the Dambuster was by far the toughest selection race on offer, due to the high quality field, they decided to allocate all of those 6 discretionary places to participants at this event, so I just snuck in through a rapidly closing backdoor!

Am I going to Mexico? Jury’s still out on that one. I am very near to making a decision though, so will save that announcement for my next blog!