First triathlon report

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So I completed the triathlon. During the event I was surprised that I had time and presence if mind to think about what I would do differently next time. Train more, not get a cold or d+v in the 2 weeks running up to the day; oh and get calf compression guards! 

The swim went ok but slower than I had hoped due to distraction of 99 swimmers front crawling  in a lake full of weeds... Can't say I enjoyed it but completed nonetheless and lesson learned is to get your heart rate up before maximal effort ( perhaps a quick sprint up and down pre-race and a swim up and down at the start) and to make sure your wetsuit is well fitted - mine had ridden up so that I found it hard to breathe and had to unzip during the swim. 

The transition was simpler than expected and good planning here minimised lost time; lay out your bike shoes and put helmet and glasses on your handlebars facing you; I had my compression gear underneath wetsuit so it was a quick slip out of bottom half of wetsuit ( baby oil helps at ankles and cuffs) then on with bike shoes and helmet.


The bike was good and with
my heart rate up I overtook many slow swimmers and made up time. I found I wanted water on the bike not energy drink. 

I did the bike transition quickly with elastic laces and ran off down the hill swinging my legs to get the thighs going. Unfortunately my left calf cramped before 1 km and I realised that this was due to poor drainage from the cancer surgery my right leg cramped soon after so I was not as fit as I had hoped; I slowed and stopped to stretch more than once in the run and lost about 5 minutes- I think calf calfguards would have helped here- after taking the Lymph nodes out of my groin this left leg swells in hot weather and during / after strenuous exercise. 


So all in all I was happy to complete my first triathlon coming 117 out of 300 but had hoped to do better; I was happy to complete the aim and prove I had survived cancer - now I aim to continue to train and get better times; balancing this drive with the realities of a young family and a busy job is a challenge and I don't want to become obsessed with my times- but I believe I can do better! 

Comments

  1. Andy FalconerTuesday, 30 July 2013 at 21:49:00 BST

    Great effort Ben. Looking forward to hearing what your next one will be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RichWednesday, 31 July 2013 at 16:16:00 BST

    Ben
    Inspirational, that's it. Just Inspirational.
    Amazing too actually. Amazing.
    Rich

    ReplyDelete

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