There's nothing I love more than racing, it's why I train so hard so that I can hard. However there does come a point in the season where you look forward to having a few weeks of not racing, and that time has come. I think I've now raced 8 times in the last 7weeks, with running races and sprint and standard distance triathlons. There has been lots of podium places and top 5 finishes which always helps keep you motivated to race when you are racing so often.
Everything culminated for the time being with the Scottish standard triathlon championships at Knockburn, Aberdeenshire on Sunday past. I have to it's a great venue for a race there, I've only raced their once before and that was the first time the champs have been at Knockburn, and I hope not the last. Knockburn is by far my favourite standard distance race in Scotland and Fleetfeet (race organisers) did a great job putting the race on, well done guy's.
All baring the 1st half of the 1st of 3 bike laps and getting out of my wetsuit, I felt like my race went to plan. I was up in a good group in the swim which worked well together and I felt like I was moving fast through the glorious man made Loch. I exited the water in 6th place next to Andy Turnbull, but couldn't get my right foot out my wetsuit and ended up loosing about 20secs to Andy in T1, bugger, if I cut my wetsuit any shorter I'll be swimming in shorts :-) Hopefully it was just a one off.
Like I said above the 1st half of the first lap on the bike was just terrible, I was struggling to put any power down and really thought I had forgotten to pack my cycling legs. Thankfully though as I turned out of the headwind I was able to get my legs turning over a little quicker and it seemed the power was there and I soon caught sight of the next placed athlete. After pacing him I continued to ride well, but out on my own and only passing back markers.
In to T2 and out on the run which is always a positive point for me, however as I left T2 I could see the 1st km of the course and their was no one in sight, thats no good, I'm a good runner but thats really make life hard for myself. I pushed on and finally caught site of 2 runners (Andy and Ian Logan) i was confident I could catch Andy, and I did but catching Ian was going to be tougher. The twisted windy course was not working in my favour and from speaking to Ian after the race he told me he was using the corners on the course to try and sty out of sight as he knew I would be running him down, which I was, however not quick enough and Ian stayed ahead of me. I finished 5th. Happy with the out come.
Now I have 4 weeks till my next race and 3 weeks off work so I'll be putting in plenty of bike miles to help get my biking up there with my running. Lets see if it works.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Dunfermline 10k
Wednesday night I headed across the water to Fife for the Auld Toun 10k race at Pittencrieff park. I had never done it before so wasn't sure about the course, but from speaking to teams mates it sounded like I wouldn't be getting a quick time as it was supposed to be pretty hilly. From what I saw of the course beforehand I was starting to think the same as there didn't seem to be any flat sections around the park.
It was a glorious June evening for racing, maybe summer is finally here, it was a large Field of almost 400 runners and as usual I didn't really know who to watch out for except from a few familiar faces, one of whom beat me at Penicuik a few weeks ago.
With slightly tired legs warming up I made sure I didn't get too excited at the start and go tearing off. One runner took the lead straight off and I and a few others formed the chase group of 4. Halfway round the 1st small lap 1 of my group started pulling away so I tried to go with him, but I was at the back of the group when he went and just didn't react quick enough so was never able to get onto his heel and ran the start of the first large lap on my own before the next two reeled me in where we ran the majority of the race together working well together in our group of three.
Coming up the last drag with about 1.5k to one of our group came to the front and tried to push the pace and drop the other 2 of us, but was unsuccessful. When I saw him ease up a fraction I thought it was my turn to go, so in true Tour De France style I pulled out from the back of the group and shot across to the other side of the road using 2 back markers as blockers as I went by. I could sense the 2 behind hadn't managed to come with me so kept pushing on over the top of the drag and down what I thought was the last decent before a short climb to the finish line. You should really find out where the finish line is before you start a race, as it wasn't where I thought it was as the start and finish were in separate places, DOH! Thankfully I was running strong so the extra 2 draggy climbs to the downhill finish didn't seem to bother me. Coming down the finishing straight I was pretty sure I had 3rd place wrapped up but I was still keeping the pace high purely to get as quick a time as possible. I'm glad I did as about 5meters before the line I noticed the race clock and it read 33:54, my PB is 33:58, I quickly picked up the pace for the last few strides in the hope I beat my PB.
I got 33:57, with a chip time of 33:55, Sweet! :-), I can't believe I got a PB on that course which had over 700ft of climbing and very little flat. I defiantly felt like it was my kind of course, I really like those draggy climbs and constantly changing gradient it keeps it more interesting. I wonder if I could go much quicker on a flat course, it will be nice to find out as I would love to got sub 33mins this year, Musselburgh 10k 24th July, it's supposed to be flat so we will see then.
It was a glorious June evening for racing, maybe summer is finally here, it was a large Field of almost 400 runners and as usual I didn't really know who to watch out for except from a few familiar faces, one of whom beat me at Penicuik a few weeks ago.
With slightly tired legs warming up I made sure I didn't get too excited at the start and go tearing off. One runner took the lead straight off and I and a few others formed the chase group of 4. Halfway round the 1st small lap 1 of my group started pulling away so I tried to go with him, but I was at the back of the group when he went and just didn't react quick enough so was never able to get onto his heel and ran the start of the first large lap on my own before the next two reeled me in where we ran the majority of the race together working well together in our group of three.
Coming up the last drag with about 1.5k to one of our group came to the front and tried to push the pace and drop the other 2 of us, but was unsuccessful. When I saw him ease up a fraction I thought it was my turn to go, so in true Tour De France style I pulled out from the back of the group and shot across to the other side of the road using 2 back markers as blockers as I went by. I could sense the 2 behind hadn't managed to come with me so kept pushing on over the top of the drag and down what I thought was the last decent before a short climb to the finish line. You should really find out where the finish line is before you start a race, as it wasn't where I thought it was as the start and finish were in separate places, DOH! Thankfully I was running strong so the extra 2 draggy climbs to the downhill finish didn't seem to bother me. Coming down the finishing straight I was pretty sure I had 3rd place wrapped up but I was still keeping the pace high purely to get as quick a time as possible. I'm glad I did as about 5meters before the line I noticed the race clock and it read 33:54, my PB is 33:58, I quickly picked up the pace for the last few strides in the hope I beat my PB.
I got 33:57, with a chip time of 33:55, Sweet! :-), I can't believe I got a PB on that course which had over 700ft of climbing and very little flat. I defiantly felt like it was my kind of course, I really like those draggy climbs and constantly changing gradient it keeps it more interesting. I wonder if I could go much quicker on a flat course, it will be nice to find out as I would love to got sub 33mins this year, Musselburgh 10k 24th July, it's supposed to be flat so we will see then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)