ETU Long Distance Tri Champs Prague

Sun August 9 2009
Listed by JulesR
Entrants (1) Club Pred Swim Pred Bike Pred Run Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total
JulesR First the basic data: Age Group M45-49 Overall 13/18 8.25.10 Fastest 6.02.58 4k Swim 13/18 1.25.04 Fastest 59.02 70k Bike 17/18 4.17.48 Fastest 3.17.55 (mine inc T1/T2 7 mins) 29k Run 8/18 2.42.18 Fastest 2.16.32 Non-Pro Males Overall 109/158 8.25.10 Fastest 6.02.58 4k Swim 126/158 1.25.04 Fastest 49.23 70k Bike 143/158 4.17.48 Fastest 3.00.00 29k Run 72/158 2.42.18 Fastest 2.05.02 It was a very hot day with temperatures up to 30C on the bike and run. Swim Chaotic start split at last moment into 2 male waves with people starting in the wrong waves and not worrying about missing buoys in the current of the river (Brits seemed to obey the rules). My goggles flooded as they started us with no notice so that cost about a minute clearing them each time. Besides that I had one of my best swims ever and couldn't have hoped for much faster. When I practiced on the swim course the day before, the current was really strong but they succesfully turned a sluice gate off upstream so it wasn't so strong on race day. Bike This was a 6 lap course with a 4k hill on the 'out leg up' each lap - total ascent 1300m. I tried to go to the HR plan but even being a few beats over I was very slow. The laps were 38/40/41/42/42/43 and HR's although going up to 169 on the top of the hill recovered quickly coming down. My average speed at those HRs was only 16.8mph which is really disappointing an I was overtaken by so many people and was almost last of the male age groupers. Nutrition was a problem as the Czech energy drinks contained no carbs and their water station ran out of water. I took one bottle of strong PSP/GO and one of weak and swapped the empty weak one for water to drink both, but it wasn't ideal. Tried solida I'd used in training but had sore stomach issues which didn't help morale. It could have been my head making me suffer, but plenty of folk (including Fraser) found it tough. Run Almost a 3 lap flat course including surfaces of concrete, trail, stones and a sand horse racing track! Headed off on the run from a slow transition and felt (and apparently looked) awful (leftover of tummy problems). Took a whole lap to feel better and knocked out a good second lap. Coming into 3rd lap hamstrings and quads started threatening nasty things and the last 3 miles were survival. First lap being overtaken, 2nd and 3rd overtaking lots of people. Although I had trained really hard for Prague, I was shocked by how tough it was and the high standard of other people there. I'm not quite sure why my bike performance was so slow and it can't be down to all the flash bikes out on the course. Maybe I did too much slow endurance stuff and no speed. I also may have been lacking in run miles causing the 3rd lap leg problems. On the positive side, the swim was good and a lot of my focus this year has been getting to the stage of being able to swim 4k open water and there was no way on the run that I wasn't going to finish and a dreadful run for me was quite competitive in the age group field. I said as an estimate for Prague 8.00-8.30 and on a hot day it was still just inside (even if the bike and run were a bit short). The Czech organisation was dreadful - although we were chipped, there was no timing mat on the 6 lap bike course or 3 lap run so people could (and apparently did) do less laps and get away with it - no the Brits of course. There wasn't a single medic on the whole course and the usual blatant drafting was going on. As for swimmers ignoring buoys...... Summary - I couldn't have tried any harder, but at the moment it feels a bit disappointing. Stirling Triathlon Club 1:30:00 4:15:00 2:30:00 1:25:04 4:17:48 2:42:18 8:25:10

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