It turned out that the first 3 weeks of training were geared up to the duathlon I had entered on 22nd Jan at Dorney Lake.
My coach told me i needed to get some race practice in, so I booked two duathlons - both 5k run, 20k bike, 5k run.
Didn't think much of it really, and considered both to be practice races and additions to my usual training plan.
Until the morning of 22/1/17 when the alarm went at 0615 and the frost was thick on the ground (as expected - I'd been checking the weather all week and hoping the race would be cancelled due to icy conditions!)
But no such luck. I arrived, well prepared and slept at 0730 to rack my bike, do a warm up run, listen to the race briefing, and go.
There are a few things that -6'C does to a race that you just don't expect (possibly naively). One, is that the portaloos freeze and cannot flush - at all. Not good when there are 230 nervous tummies waiting to race! Second my water/energy fluid in my bike bottle froze, meaning I had maybe 5 sips of liquid for the entire 1:28 of racing. Thirldy, your hands are so cold after the bike you can't undo your helmet and can't get your hands back into the gloves you have just taken off to take your helmet off!
Wow, it was soooo cold.... Beautiful, but cold!!!
I set off at the back of the pack, with hat/gloves, lightweight running shoes, leggings, long sleeved top with a short sleeved over the top, and an arceteryx gilet over the top. I had no idea if i would be warm enough.
As I ran, I realised i was midway in the field and although I had mentally prepared myself for running like Mo Farah and possibly taking a trophy, all such thoughts were dashed when I came into transition after the run to find not many bikes left....always a demotivator.
I was surprisingly warm at that point and ditched the plan of putting on a warm cycle jacket, heading off with just my running kit on. I could survive for 40 minutes and was at that point too hot to add more layers.
The bike was 4 laps of what is normally a very dull course. But this morning, with the hall frost on the grass & trees it was really quite lovely. I knuckled down for 20k, only feeling the cold in the last 5k lap. For the most of it I was leapfrogging a chap, and we managed to get a couple of words in along the way. He took me on the last stretch but I nailed him on the second run!!!
Onto the second run and my hands were cold (no gloves) and my legs were like lead. They didn't feel powerful at all. The run was two laps, so once the first lap was endured, it was home stretch, mind over matter, just crack on with it.
Turns out my second run was faster than my first and my last Km faster than them all. well done me!
Back at transition I downed my glass of full fat milk and packed up my stuff to go. I heard the tannoy mention they were about to award the prizes and under no doubt I wasn't in the league for one, I headed off, stopping on the far side of the lake to take some lovely pictures...
At which point my coach calls me to tell me I came second in my age group of Veteran Women 40+.
I was well chuffed- went back to the tent to collect my trophy, to find they hadn't ordered enough so would have to post it to me:(
All in all though it was a really eye opener, I had no idea how I'd done, but had just gone as hard as I could. and I had faith that I could do that -whatever the outcome. I had secretly hoped for a prize, and had mentally pictured and planned my race. For once I felt very prepared, even though I really didnt want to do it in the freezing cold.
My coach told me i needed to get some race practice in, so I booked two duathlons - both 5k run, 20k bike, 5k run.
Didn't think much of it really, and considered both to be practice races and additions to my usual training plan.
Until the morning of 22/1/17 when the alarm went at 0615 and the frost was thick on the ground (as expected - I'd been checking the weather all week and hoping the race would be cancelled due to icy conditions!)
There are a few things that -6'C does to a race that you just don't expect (possibly naively). One, is that the portaloos freeze and cannot flush - at all. Not good when there are 230 nervous tummies waiting to race! Second my water/energy fluid in my bike bottle froze, meaning I had maybe 5 sips of liquid for the entire 1:28 of racing. Thirldy, your hands are so cold after the bike you can't undo your helmet and can't get your hands back into the gloves you have just taken off to take your helmet off!
I set off at the back of the pack, with hat/gloves, lightweight running shoes, leggings, long sleeved top with a short sleeved over the top, and an arceteryx gilet over the top. I had no idea if i would be warm enough.
As I ran, I realised i was midway in the field and although I had mentally prepared myself for running like Mo Farah and possibly taking a trophy, all such thoughts were dashed when I came into transition after the run to find not many bikes left....always a demotivator.
I was surprisingly warm at that point and ditched the plan of putting on a warm cycle jacket, heading off with just my running kit on. I could survive for 40 minutes and was at that point too hot to add more layers.
The bike was 4 laps of what is normally a very dull course. But this morning, with the hall frost on the grass & trees it was really quite lovely. I knuckled down for 20k, only feeling the cold in the last 5k lap. For the most of it I was leapfrogging a chap, and we managed to get a couple of words in along the way. He took me on the last stretch but I nailed him on the second run!!!
Onto the second run and my hands were cold (no gloves) and my legs were like lead. They didn't feel powerful at all. The run was two laps, so once the first lap was endured, it was home stretch, mind over matter, just crack on with it.
Turns out my second run was faster than my first and my last Km faster than them all. well done me!
Back at transition I downed my glass of full fat milk and packed up my stuff to go. I heard the tannoy mention they were about to award the prizes and under no doubt I wasn't in the league for one, I headed off, stopping on the far side of the lake to take some lovely pictures...
At which point my coach calls me to tell me I came second in my age group of Veteran Women 40+.
I was well chuffed- went back to the tent to collect my trophy, to find they hadn't ordered enough so would have to post it to me:(
All in all though it was a really eye opener, I had no idea how I'd done, but had just gone as hard as I could. and I had faith that I could do that -whatever the outcome. I had secretly hoped for a prize, and had mentally pictured and planned my race. For once I felt very prepared, even though I really didnt want to do it in the freezing cold.
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