A Day in the Lakes

Another cracking event organised by TriHard. Arguably the hardest half-iron distance race in the UK, starting with a 1.9k swim in Ulswater, a 90k bike ride taking in Kirkstone Pass and Shap followed by a 21k fell run which involves two big hills. My goal was to do it in under 6 hours and I came in in 5:56 so pretty happy.

The pic shows the view from the top of Kirkstone looking back down the hill. I put a 12-27 cassette on my TT bike specially for this race.

Swim 00:37:33 139th out of 227 male finishers

T1 00:01:22 37

Bike 03:11:44 84

T2 00:00:54 22

Run 02:04:46 66

Total 05:56:10 77

I'm an Overglider!

I have been a fan of Swimsmooth for a while and this week I went to one of their swim clinics up in Bolton. It was a fantastic day; together Paul and Adam put on a great set of classroom and pool-based sessions. What I really like about their approach is that they don't treat everyone the same, culminating in their new website, www.swimtypes.com. So, it turns out that I'm an Overglider, so a key thing for me to work on is increasing my stroke rate a tad and improving the early phase of my catch. Off to the pool tomorrow to put what I learned into practice.

Swashbuckler

This weekend was the Swashbuckler, a middle distance race in in the New Forest. A beautiful day started at 6:15 am with a 1.9k swim in the Beaulieu estuary at Bucklers Hard. Two loops of an out-and-back, with the out against the incoming tide giving a slow swim for all, ~50 mins for me. Then, 80k on the bike through great scenery and quiet roads. This was my first tri on the new TT bike and I was very hapy with a split of 2:28. Finally, a 22k run; although I finished feeling strong, 1:55 is slower than I was hoping for. In the end, I finished in 5 hrs 13 mins, placing 127th out of 307 finishing men. Couldn't have asked for a better day for my first race of the season.

Bike Set Up

Spent some time today looking at my bike set up. It's not particularly aggressive but it is comfortable and to my eye looks ok. As I get more used to it and develop the flexibility I'll try lowering the front end. This might necessitate moving the seat back a bit as well?

Training Duathlon

The last in this year's series of winter training duathlons. A beautiful morning, and - as always - a very well organized event.

First time racing on the new Orbea Ora TT bike. It felt very comfortable so I think the set up is about right, just need to spend more time on it. Plan to do a few more time trials this summer as part of my training.

Completed the 15.5 k bike leg in 26:31, got through transition in 31 seconds then finished off the 5.4 k run in 21:28, giving a total of 48:30. Pretty happy with the performance, 2 mins 50 secs faster compared to this time last year.