World Champs race report

 So only a month after the race I thought I best update the blog with a race report from the World Championships in Vittoria Gastiez, Spain.

So having raced on the course before (except the run course had changed) and from previous experience the kit I opted for was the 80mm front and rear wheels on the bike and a road helmet in order to hopefully not over heat in my aero helmet.

I flew from Stanstead with Pete Norris (Pete was not racing due to a foot injury but brought his bike to do some training as he'd already paid for the trip) and we arrived in Bilbao at around lunch time, after a transfer to Vittoria Gastiez we were at the first hotel drop off point (a nice 5 star hotel) and built our bikes as soon as we got to the room. That afternoon we went for a quick ride up to the lake, roughly a 25 mile round trip just to get out in the sun and check the bikes were OK. It was a great day at around 36 degrees and the lake looked stunning.

Thursday I did a loop of around 30 miles on the bike and a 20 min run in 33 degrees to try and start acclimatising and had a swim at the pool.

Friday was a 25 mile ride and 10 min run, I registered and picked up all my kit from the race HQ and started to sort everything out ready for Saturday to check in.

Saturday was check in day, we had to hand in our T2 bags due to split transitions, always a worry as the bag looks so empty, all it contained was a pair of trainers and 4 gels! as I had opted for no socks even though it was an 18.6 mile run but the Kinvara's are such a good shoe you don't need socks.

Then it was the long drag to rack the bike in T1, you have to get a bus up and your bikes go in a van. The queue was long to check in while they check your kit has all the correct country codes and measure any sponsor logos to be sure they conform to the regulations. Once all was done and the bike was racked it was a case of hanging round for the bus back, all in this took about 3 hours!

Sunday arrived and I'd slept well which is always a bonus, I opted for the later bus to the start as I can't be bothered being in transition before the race for too long and we arrived at around 7:45. The first wave were off at 0830 so it was just 15 minutes until my race would start. As I lined up on the edge of the lake I started to try and get in the zone but a 4km swim just seems too long to blast into at full tilt so as I ran into the water I just focused on finding space and getting into a smooth stroke and pace. The lake got a little choppy around half way and I exited the water on 1:07 which I was surprised by as I thought I would be nearer the hour, as it turns out my garmin would inform me later when checking that the swim was 400 meters to long which means I would have swam around 1:01 which would be more like what I was expecting.

On to the bike and as I set off I tried to think about pace and fuel as I didn't want to start off at Olympic speeds given that I had 75 miles to ride! I got into what felt a good pace and got down to business, things were going OK but I actually started to feel stronger after 60km than I did at the start of the bike, I got stuck as a bunch passed me which was frustrating as every time I passed them they would come back past as a pack and were blatantly drafting but then a referee came along side on the motorbike and over the next 5 km managed to break them up. I pushed on and arrived at T2 after 3:11:58 mins on the bike at an average of just under 24mph. I passed my bike to the staff who were racking the bikes and picked up my bag in T2.

As I left T2 it was time to test if the training had paid off, I'd done a lot of running at my "target race pace" and I was determined not to go off too fast and stick to the pace using my garmin 910. The target was a 2 hour run (18.6 miles/30 km) which would have to be done at 6:24's to hit the 2 hours. An ambitious pace but not out of reach as I'd done it in training but only for 15 miles! The run course was 4 laps in the town centre and I have never ever experienced anything like it, the crowds were huge and about 10 deep and the noise was unbelievable. The first 4 miles were on target then a mile which was slow appeared on the gps but it had been slightly up hill and a bit technical with lots of tight corners so not much to worry about, lap 2 was still going on target and at 10 miles things were looking good. At the half marathon point I was starting to lose the pace as fatigue kicked in, the last lap was a drag and I was still running OK but the pace was gone, by the end of the run I had lost 6 mins

The day after I felt quite good, hamstrings were a little tight but generally I was in good order. I had until mid afternoon before needing to get out the room so I went out and did a 50 mile spin on the bike, felt good too and averaged 20mph! After that it was time to start packing and head back to the reality of being a normal person with a full time job :-(

That's all my racing for now, I will do a sprint in October in Hull as a fun race but it's now into a 2 month programme of proper training again in preparation for the Lanzarote 70.3 on the 10th November. The objective is to get a qualification slot for the 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas in September 2013.