2019: that's a wrap!

“Stay away from the painted red and white hash sections unless you want to kill yourself”. The parting words from the pre-race briefing at the Bedford Sprint Duathlon did not fill me with joy. This was a qualifying race for the European duathlon championships which will take place in Punta Umbria in southern Spain in early March 2020. Having qualified for the world champs at Darley Moor 3 weeks previously, I wasn’t as fired up for this race, particularly since my almost 8 month old had been ill on and off ever since. I had also been ill - my kind and thoughtful son likes to share everything with his Mummy! - so on the back of this and the resulting worse sleep than our already low benchmark, I went into the event feeling physically and emotionally drained. When I pitched up at the autodrome circuit on race morning and it was pouring with rain and blowing an absolute hooley, my main motivation for racing was not to place well but to get it done with as fast as possible so I could minimise the time Sylvester (and Matt!) had to spend out in the elements! Every race I have done with Sylvester in tow it has rained, which brings added challenges when the event is staged on an exposed motor racing circuit where the only shelter was the gloomy pit garages and the filthy portaloos!

Something has shifted in my focus since Sylvester turned 6 months. Up until then, it was as if I acknowledged that I was now a Mum, but the ramification of that life-changing status hadn’t yet really hit me, but around 6 months it did: with a sledgehammer! I suddenly felt nervous when riding out on the roads on my bike. Every car I heard approaching from behind I would find myself getting super twitchy and thinking, ‘Please give me room, please don’t come too close’. Whereas up until now, a lovely ride in the sun around the Devon countryside was my means of switching off and having some ‘me’ time, now it was putting me on edge and I found myself thinking, ‘What are you doing? You have a little baby at home who is completely dependent on you. What if you seriously injure yourself?’. It doesn’t help that since I last rode, before finding out I was pregnant, there has been a marked deterioration in the attitudes and behaviours of motorists towards cyclists. I get it, there are a lot of cyclists on the roads now, and yes, if they are in a large group and don’t pull over and hold you up for miles then it does get annoying, but when I ride solo I always tuck in at the soonest opportunity. Sadly this is never soon enough for some drivers who don’t want to adjust their speed for even a nano-second and would rather put you in a hedge or under their wheels than add 5 seconds onto their journey time. It’s a sad state of affairs and another blog post in itself, but I can’t control their behaviour and as long as I continue to ride on the roads, I am guaranteed to keep encountering these ‘near misses’, and, who knows, maybe one day an actual hit. It’s not worth the risk… so I have bought a Watt Bike! Had my eye on one of these beauties for a couple of years after using one at the local gym to improve my base power when coached by Chris of Tri Coach Cornwall before I got pregnant. So my plan for the time being is to do all of my bike training on this and at the velopark and only ride on the roads when absolutely necessary, chiefly for races.

Luckily the two qualifying races I’ve done have both been closed roads at autodrome circuits. This latest one being my first experience of draft legal racing (both the worlds and Euro champs will also be draft legal). I was quite excited by that possibility but wasn’t sure how it would pan out: would I have a decent group to work with? Would someone take the lead in controlling the group or would that person have to be me? I decided pre-race that, if necessary, I would take control and if the other riders weren’t taking their turn at the front, I would be prepared to either ride away from them (if able) or drop my pace and force them to come through. I didn’t want to do all the graft and tow people round for them to then drop me on the second run, as my run still isn’t back to full pace yet so I can’t rely on it to the extent I could pre-baby.

The gun went and we all set off as one huge group: men and women of all age groups. It was hard to see where I was in relation to the other females, but I knew I was quite far back generally as so many people were in front of me after the first mile. I set off with the mindset of ‘you can get top four in your age group and qualify comfortably without burying yourself, so just try to enjoy it’. How you could enjoy running into a monster headwind, wading through ankle deep puddles and being pelted full on in the face with rain, I wasn’t too sure, but either way, I wasn’t in the mood to push hard from the gun so I settled into a comfortable rhythm. I was surprised after the first mile to see my watch bleep at 6:20: it felt slower. Hmm, if 6:20 feels comfy, that augurs well. Next mile: 6:20… I am a metronome when it comes to pacing! I was slowly starting to reel in ladies who had started too fast. Still no idea as I entered T1 as to where I was placed, but just get on the bike and see what happens. The thing with duathlon is you can never predict how the race will pan out. Sometimes the faster runners do not make great cyclists: a lanky running physique often lacks the strength and power needed to go hard on the bike. Similarly, chunky cycling thighs don’t always make for a fast run. I like to think I sit somewhere in the middle: not the fastest at either, but pretty solid across both disciplines. I soon began to catch some of these faster runners on the bike and realised that there was absolutely no point trying to work with them as their bike was far too weak and I would be better going the 20kms alone than reducing my efforts and pace just for the sake of sitting in a pack. With the sprint distance, there isn’t much point trying to save your legs for the final run as the final run only amounts to around 10 – 11 minutes of effort anyway.

After a while I caught a girl who was the fastest on the first run (19:17 to my 19:48) and a fairly decent cyclist. I didn’t know at the time but I had now overtaken all the other ladies and so the two of us where sitting as first and second overall in the race. I would pull away on the straight sections, but she handled the corners better than me (I was being super cautious in the wet and windy conditions) and get back on my wheel again. So I suggested that we work together… in hindsight this proved to be a tactical error as I was essentially helping the fastest runner in the field to enter T2 alongside me, at which point I would duly get ditched… but I hadn’t calculated this at the time. My first experience of draft legal racing was very much a steep learning curve as far as racing tactics are concerned! At this point I had no idea where I was positioned; hell, I had no idea where the bike laps started and finished and how many laps I had completed: I just charged out of transition on a mission and didn’t stop to take notice of these minor details!!

Towards the end of the fourth and final bike lap, I started to pull away from the girl I’d been working with, but was soon caught by another female who then pulled away from me: a slower runner, but faster cyclist. I was therefore still (unknowingly) sitting in second spot overall. The wind was really picking up by this point and some of the tight corners were getting pretty hairy: one had the sobering sight of an ambulance on it and a battered bike lying on the ground next to it. I took the last corner fairly steadily but got caught coming off it by a strong crosswind and before I could correct my line I found myself heading onto the infamous white and red hash paint that we had been warned to avoid. Shit. Don’t brake, don’t turn the wheel. Keep straight, sort it out after. Unfortunately the ‘after’ was a concrete drainage ditch: a better surface in terms of grip, but with sloping sides that made it hard to correct your position and get back on track. Just about managing to avoid ‘phase three’ of the track departure process (chiefly: hashed paint – draining ditch – long grass) I managed to safely turn the bike and get back onto the track. Still upright. Disaster averted. Phew. Note to self: need to work on my bike handling skills in crosswinds at the velopark…

T2 was a sloppy affair, with my run shoes now being sodden it took a lot of faffing to get them on. Finally underway on the run, the first half of which being into a strong headwind, I could see I was slowly gaining on the girl who had overtaken me on the bike. She was about 400m ahead at the start of the run… over 2.5k I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough time to reel her in. I was also mindful that the girl I had worked with for much of the bike, but from whom I had pulled away on the final lap, was also closing on me. Race on! I held my own into the headwind as I could use my strength, but as soon as we turned, the athlete behind me was able to use her superior cadence and pace and reel me in. In the end, after 5k – 20k – 2.5k of competing, it came down to a sprint finish, with the three of us all finishing within 7 seconds of each other. I couldn’t quite catch first, I ran out of room, but I did get caught just 10 meters from the finish line, and so ended up as the third finisher. Disappointing that I couldn’t have found a bit more pace in that final run, but I can’t expect miracles when my run training currently consists of three 3-4 mile buggy jogs at 9m/m and one parkrun a week! Had you said before the race that I would win my category, make the overall ladies’ podium, and be only 7 seconds shy of the outright win, I would have laughed you out of town. So, in conclusion, I think I did ok.

This photo shows how close it was for the top three: all three of us in the finish funnel at the same time, just 7 seconds separating us.

Out-sprinted for second place: my fast twitch muscles twitch even slower than they did pre-baby!

Third lady overall, 1st in age cat = auto qualification for the 2020 Euro champs

So, now for some much needed rest, for all of us. As I type this, we are just back home after yet another hospital admission for Sylvester. This has meant yet more disrupted sleep, considerable angst and more illness for the both of us. I have yet to decide whether or not I will take up my place at the European champs. They are at the beginning of March and Sylvester will have only just turned one, and right now, with all his sleep and health issues, I just cannot imagine the stress of going abroad with him and all his kit and caboodle, plus all the kit needed for racing. As my husband said last time, maybe bikes and babies don’t mix…. So far we have been away with him five times and three out of those five have resulted in him getting ill and ending up in hospital. I could not cope with this stress in another country. I just couldn’t, and it wouldn’t be fair on him. Plus the main point of doing these events is that they are fun and also enjoyable for my family. If they become a chore, then what's the point? But 5 months is a long time in the life of a baby, and maybe he will turn a corner with his reflux and his allergies by then. We can decide later. In the meantime, we all need to get well again, stay at home lots, maybe just stick to some local parkruns and enjoy ourselves as a family without the stress of racing. It's felt like a long season but in reality it's just been a lot of events compacted into a short space of time: Darley Moor worlds qualifier, Honiton Sprint Triathlon (in which I placed 4th lady) and Bedford Sprint Euros qualifier, all within three weeks of each other. It's just been unfortunate that for most of those three weeks, Sylvester has been ill... and when he gets ill, so do I shortly after! Also, travelling to events with a baby is infinitely harder work than it was as just a couple. Gone are the pre-race long hot baths and chill out sessions; the focus now is 99% on him with my race preparations shoe-horned into the remaining 1% of the time. Much is the same for the post-race recovery process. So I now need some exercise-free weeks to recharge the body and the mojo. There is still plenty of pram pushing to keep my legs ticking over in the meantime and my new toy (Watt Bike Atom) is sat there waiting for me when I feel ready to resume training!

Ready to roll at Honiton Triathlon!

In the prizes at Honiton: I've done it this local race three times and placed 2nd, 2nd and 4th... if I could shake off the coughs and colds and learn to swim, I might one day win it!