Tri-rats of Penzance
Apr. 9th, 2007 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesPenzance try-a-tri was my opener for the season: 400m pool swim, 15.5 mile hilly technical bike, 4 mile rolling run. 1:50:24; my target of 1:30 was way off - people were getting age-group podiums at 1:30. In summary: great organisation and a nice opener for the year in lovely weather. Camping at Land's End and crashing over at the surfbumhof rounded off a lovely weekend.
The swim was a 400m pool jobbie, each athlete got half a lane to go up and down in so no overtaking. Bish bosh, day in the office - 9:22 says my watch, 9:40 say the official results, either way round it's exactly what I wanted. The bikini wahine sharing my lane did my mood no harm at all. (I am a simple creature) So I'm now officially someone who can swim.
Up the carpet trail to T1 which was a farce. I'd left my lace-locks done up so I mashed my feet brainlessly into closed shoes, then pulling my run singlet on, I wondered why it was so hard and why the guy setting up next to me kept saying, "Your head is in the arm hole." After the third time, I realised that he meant that my, er, head was in the arm hole. I'm buying a tri suit. Despite the cartoony behaviour, T1 and T2 were both in the top third speed-wise.
Bike was fierce. The route goes out from Penzance, up to St Just on the North Atlantic coast, round the Land's End aerodrome, and back along the A30. Sunday morning, no traffic, cool and bright. Wildly changing terrain, up, down, smooth, rough, steep, gentle, straight, curvy: not much time on the aero bars; quite a lot on the drops getting low for some of the hard descents. 58:00 says my timer, 1:02 say the officials. Only reeled in five others, two from my wave, three novices from earlier waves. Max speed 41.7, dammit, I will break 42 one day...
T2 was more farce: mashed my watch so had no pace alarm for the run. Grabbed a gel and hit the road.
...and he run was a solo silent death-march with Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend looping in my head. The horror, the horror. Feet tired fast - I've hardly run since February what with illness and all. It felt like 50:00, officially it was 38 and my watchbodge 40 evens up the timing variations elsewhere. The pain in my foot muscles was what reduced me to a walk: my CV system was just peachy.
Organisation-wise the race was a peach: hordes of marshals, adequate parking, good pool, sensible transition areas, simply beautiful bike route. It's identified a load of spots to improve (Bike hill power. Run run run with speed drills and just lots of sessions. Transition slickness) and that's ideal before the biggie in May. I leave you with an action shot of Munky in transition...
Up the carpet trail to T1 which was a farce. I'd left my lace-locks done up so I mashed my feet brainlessly into closed shoes, then pulling my run singlet on, I wondered why it was so hard and why the guy setting up next to me kept saying, "Your head is in the arm hole." After the third time, I realised that he meant that my, er, head was in the arm hole. I'm buying a tri suit. Despite the cartoony behaviour, T1 and T2 were both in the top third speed-wise.
Bike was fierce. The route goes out from Penzance, up to St Just on the North Atlantic coast, round the Land's End aerodrome, and back along the A30. Sunday morning, no traffic, cool and bright. Wildly changing terrain, up, down, smooth, rough, steep, gentle, straight, curvy: not much time on the aero bars; quite a lot on the drops getting low for some of the hard descents. 58:00 says my timer, 1:02 say the officials. Only reeled in five others, two from my wave, three novices from earlier waves. Max speed 41.7, dammit, I will break 42 one day...
T2 was more farce: mashed my watch so had no pace alarm for the run. Grabbed a gel and hit the road.
...and he run was a solo silent death-march with Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend looping in my head. The horror, the horror. Feet tired fast - I've hardly run since February what with illness and all. It felt like 50:00, officially it was 38 and my watchbodge 40 evens up the timing variations elsewhere. The pain in my foot muscles was what reduced me to a walk: my CV system was just peachy.
Organisation-wise the race was a peach: hordes of marshals, adequate parking, good pool, sensible transition areas, simply beautiful bike route. It's identified a load of spots to improve (Bike hill power. Run run run with speed drills and just lots of sessions. Transition slickness) and that's ideal before the biggie in May. I leave you with an action shot of Munky in transition...
