European Sprint Tri Championship Turkey 2013

Qualification Race - Rother Valley Sprint Tri - Sep 17th 2012

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1. The build-up

Seven weeks out from the race I bought myself a large sheet of card from the stationery shop and made a six week grid training  plan, numbering all the days and dates right to the day of the race. For anybody planning any event I would say this is a good tip - you get a real sense of build-up and can see at a glance your progress and any ajustments that you think need making.

I trained six days on, one day off, and this consisted of nearly all interval and speed work. A typical weekend would be Saturday morning 2 x laps of Abbotsley through and off with Chris Ritchie at 26 minute pace, back home for pasta and a cold bath, then in the afternoon 5 x half mile bike efforts, then 5 x 400mtr run efforts off the bike.

Sunday would be a 5km morning run and then a two hour swim in the afternoon with St Neots Swans.

I continued like this until the last week where I tapered off and rested a lot (read "feet up!") with some short sharp intervals to keep the body used to race effort. I can honestly say hand on heart that it's the hardest I have ever trained for an event to date and two weeks before my target race I competed in the St Neots Nicetri event (see Steve P's excellent report) where I took four minutes plus off my previous race there coming fourth; so I knew that everything was working well.

2. Race Day

The event was a total sell-out four weeks in advance with a field of 600 entries all trying to qualify in their various age groups (mine was 45-49) and I had a swim group of about 100 which included the 50-55 age group. After setting everything out and having a brief chat with the guy Colin who was next to me and who incidentally had won the 2010 event, it was time to get the wetsuit, hat and goggles on and head down to the water's edge

3. The Swim

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Judith, Ben and Amy were all there at the start and one last good luck, a big crowd countdown and 'bang', away we go. The pace was very hard and fast right from the off and quite a few people went out way too hard and were blowing up within the first 200 meters. I found it difficult to find a good rhythm with arms and legs flying everywhere, and a friend of mine who was swimming actually got into a bit of a fist fight and a heated verbal exchange with another swimmer!

Anyway once I got going I just tried to relax around mid-pack knowing there was a very hard bike leg to come.  I exited the water in a slightly disappointing time of 14.41, but it was to prove the right tactic.

4. Transition 1

I absolutley flew through T1 - running in getting my hat, wetsuit and goggles off, helmet on and out on the bike in 49 seconds which, on later inspection, was one of the fastest of the day.

5. The Bike (25.5km)

I  had pre-ridden the course two weeks previously and compared to last year's times set a very fast time though, to be fair, without the swim beforehand. It was a tough hilly course with  some hair raising descents (think Abbotsley on steroids) and I hit 49 mph on the TT bike to give you some idea - not a place to lose it.

I set a very hard pace as I knew the bike was make or break for me, and set about passing people as fast as possible. Right towards the end I caught and passed the previous winner, Colin, whom I mentioned earlier. So that was encouraging, though he clearly didn't like it and re-passed me straight away - so I re passed him back!

Anyway I posted a 41.10 which was the second fastest time of the whole event just missing the top time by 5 seconds  (come on St Neots !! ha ha). This also moved me from mid pack to 2nd place in my category coming into T2, though I didn't know it at the time .

6. Transition 2

Again another very fast and pleasing transition finding the bike spot (not easy with 600 bike spots), helmet off, bike racked and trainers on and out in 40 seconds taking 13 seconds out of colin (whom I'd just passed) for no extra effort.

7. The Run (5km)

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Out onto the one lap 5km run and I could see no one in front and set the hardest sustainable pace I could. A quick glance round saw Colin a way back but looking good. After about a third of a lap he caught me and came past.
This was it - what to do? Only the top 4 qualify and had I just given 4th place up? was I now 5th? I stayed with him, upping my already near-max effort and this put me into the red. I had to gamble and let him go otherwise I would have blown completely and got caught from behind.

From there it was just run as hard as I could and block the pain out and hope. Rounding the last bend I saw Judith shouting me on telling me I was almost there with the last of anything I had left I upped it to the line and finished totally spent in 19.01, 18 seconds behind Colin.

8. The Wait

When I came through the line there were four guys standing there and instantly I thought "I'm 5th", the worse possible place to finish - but a quick chat revealed that two were from a previous wave so third surely?

Not wanting to jinx it we lined up at the computer print out finish and 3rd it was - I'd done it - GBR qualification. We all hugged and it was a great family moment. Seeing Colin afterwards he said "right, now were team mates for Turkey next year", which felt great.

9. What does it mean?

Well, on the 13th to the 15th June 2013, I go to Alanya Turkey for the European Sprint Championships. Also going in their age groups will be Tom Stead and Chris Ritchie who TT regulars may know. I cannot wait, and studying this year's Euro results in Israel I saw Colin came eighth overall so with a good full winter's training I feel I can at least do myself justice and enjoy the event which is a prestigious event with the pros racing on Saturday and us on Friday.

Lastly thank you to St Neots CC members who have helped over the year - invaluable early season hard chain gangs with Justin, Adie and Tim, and the Thursday TTs which would not be possible without the help of Brian and John. I know I'm not a regular on the Sunday runs but I do represent St Neots CC with pride as I always have and hope to keep doing so in the coming year. Thank you.

Richard H

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