Sun smart city of joondalup - western Australian sprint triathlon championships
Sun smart city of joondalup western Australian sprint triathlon championships: If you haven't noticed by now I decided to take my not so winter training down under to sunny Perth this year with the focus of getting on top of my swimming and getting a bit of speed in the legs for the 2018 triathlon season. After finishing my first block of training after some much needed mental and physical rest I decided to have a bash at the sunsmart sprint triathlon. With little training in the legs and this being the first "a race" of the Australian triathlon calender I came into this race with no real expectations other than the aim of getting out of the water in the lead group. However on race day the swim was cancelled as 50kph winds made it unsafe particularly for first timers and youth competitors. This wasn't ideal as I needed to set myself up with a strong swim and tough conditions would have suited me. The race was changed to a duathlon format of a 2.5k run 20k bike and 5k run.. I knew I didn't have the run speed in my legs to keep with the rapid juniors and itu athletes. All I could do was focus on my own race and see how it would pan out.
The siren sounded and the pace was grim from the start as the other rapid juniors set off at sub 5minute mile pace I knew this was going to be a sufferfest. I backed off knowing that I was on a suicide mission running that pace at this time of year. The run consisted of an out and back windy run against the sand dunes of joondalup beach and this gave me a chance to calculate how much time i was losing to the lead group.. I came into transition just under a minute behind the lead man and set upon getting into a good chase group. The bike consisted of a 3lap undulating course along the closed roads of Hillary's and suited me well. I haven't brought my tri bike out here and have been riding a standerd set up 2005 giant tcr and although it is a trusty steed it's not quite the disk wheel tri bike combo I'm used to riding and I found it hard watching a few competitors fly passed in full set up.
I had a reasonable bike and the power was as expected for this time of year. I made up a fair few places on the bike and came into transition 3minutes behind the lead man in approximately 22nd.
I set out on the run at a pace I felt I could run which would bring me back in 17minutes.
The run was hot and I'm definitely not used to the Australian heat which resulted in my heart rate sitting at around 193bpm which screamed LACTIC ACID! at me for the whole run but I managed to hang on pace and make up a couple of positions along the way finishing in 1:05, 7th elite junior and 3rd in the 20-24Age group for next year's gold coast world championships giving me a qualification slot to represent Great Britain.
In all I was happy with the result as I am far from what id consider peak fitness and gained valuable experience getting to race amongst Australia's finest age groupers and elite up and coming juniors. Now its back to the grind and chasing until I become the chased!