For what seems to have been a long, cold and white winter, spring has finally arrived and with it the start of the 2010 racing season. And what a way to start, my opening race was the Scottish Duathlon Championships which was also a qualifying race for the World Duathlon Champs in September at Edinburgh's Arthur Seat.
Going into the race I was not sure what to expect as I had only been back to full running for about 4weeks after suffering from shin splints over the holidays. The good think about being a multidisciplinary athlete meant that as I was not able to run I could spend more time working on my strength and biking which is possibly the weak link in my racing.
It was a very windy morning on race day with the flat Stirling bike course offering no shelter. The wind wasn't an issue on the run as we wound our way through the business park 4 times on the first 1ok run. With not having the running miles in my legs, I purposely started the run at a slightly reserved pace with the plan of increasing the pace as I went through.
For once I actually did as I planned, as I would normally plan to pace the run and end up going off with the leaders and then fading. This time once we all settled into position I progressively worked my through the Field picking people off every lap finishing the run in 10th place.
On to the bike and time to find out if all that strength work and bike miles had payed off. My main goal is always to limit the places I lose, so being well placed on the run I was expecting the Field to come charging passed me at some point. However it never happened, Craig Dale passed at the start of the 40k and from then onwards it was myself and Frank Boyne out on the course battling with each other to keep our run advantage. It wasn't until winding though the University that Catriona Morrison came by and the three of us entering T2 together.
Franks marginal lead going into T2 saw him out on to the run before me and that was how it stayed with the final 5k run highlighting my lack of speed work as I was struggling to make any ground on those in fornt. I finished the race in 10th place, 3rd in my age group (25-29) so totally delighted to have qualified. With the worlds not til September, I can spend the summer getting my run speed up and getting stronger on the bike. Home course for the Worlds so plan to get plenty of training on the course.
This weekend I have my first triathlon at Cupar, Fife. This time I'll get to see how my swimming coming along, here's hoping it goes as well as my biking.
No comments:
Post a Comment