Confessions of a newbie!
thebouy
Posts: 61
in General Chat
Hi all,
Just thought I would pen a quick note on my first Tri yesterday, Harwich Sprint (300m, 24k,5k).
I drunkenly agreed (bowed under peer pressure more likely!) to do my my first sprint at Christmas and found myself, 6 months, and some fairly hard training (for me) later, standing next to the pool with a couple of people in front of me and in front of a good turnout of friends and relatives watching, waiting for the go ahead to get in the pool. This I couldn't wait for as having "Carbo Loaded" the night before and eaten the best part of a kilogram of steamed potatoes (!) I just wanted to get going and feel the wind under my wings (if you know what I mean!!).
The swim was hard as, having trained on a 14 metre pool, and competing on a 25 metre I was ready for the turn way before it came.
Got out of the pool and sprinted into T1, friends and family all screaming encouragement, found my bike straight away and bolted to the mount point. I shouldn't mention the golden rule of putting on your helmet before unracking your bike as it's such an obvious point that only the most swim-fuzzed of newbies could make that error!
Setting off on the bike I could only berate myself for being so stupid, and told myself that I must keep going as a DQ wouldn't actually make any difference as I was only racing the clock, and also the fact that I hadn't actually moved the bike other than lifting the saddle out may count for something.
Settled into the bike and got down low on the aero bars of my trusty commute-every-day-hybrid.
Other than being passed twice by the blur of naked carbon, the bike went really well. The marshals were awesome, so encouraging it was great.
T2 went well, and started the run with fairly heavy legs.
After about 1k I remembered some pearls of wisom from Conehead, along the lines of "what is the point of crossing the finishing line with anything left in the tank?" and managed to step up the run a bit.
As I ran towards the finishing line I could see my supporters ahead, which helped give me a bit of a final push, and crossed the line in 1:16 (splits were 7:02, 48:32, 21:13).
I absolutely loved the day, everyone was so friendly and encouraging. If anyone takes anything from this post then my advice would be to do lots more brick sessions, and maybe not to eat quite as many potatoes the night before!
Lastly, just want to say thanks for this forum and all the motivation it has provided.... can't wait for my next one!!!
Cheers
Just thought I would pen a quick note on my first Tri yesterday, Harwich Sprint (300m, 24k,5k).
I drunkenly agreed (bowed under peer pressure more likely!) to do my my first sprint at Christmas and found myself, 6 months, and some fairly hard training (for me) later, standing next to the pool with a couple of people in front of me and in front of a good turnout of friends and relatives watching, waiting for the go ahead to get in the pool. This I couldn't wait for as having "Carbo Loaded" the night before and eaten the best part of a kilogram of steamed potatoes (!) I just wanted to get going and feel the wind under my wings (if you know what I mean!!).
The swim was hard as, having trained on a 14 metre pool, and competing on a 25 metre I was ready for the turn way before it came.
Got out of the pool and sprinted into T1, friends and family all screaming encouragement, found my bike straight away and bolted to the mount point. I shouldn't mention the golden rule of putting on your helmet before unracking your bike as it's such an obvious point that only the most swim-fuzzed of newbies could make that error!
Setting off on the bike I could only berate myself for being so stupid, and told myself that I must keep going as a DQ wouldn't actually make any difference as I was only racing the clock, and also the fact that I hadn't actually moved the bike other than lifting the saddle out may count for something.
Settled into the bike and got down low on the aero bars of my trusty commute-every-day-hybrid.
Other than being passed twice by the blur of naked carbon, the bike went really well. The marshals were awesome, so encouraging it was great.
T2 went well, and started the run with fairly heavy legs.
After about 1k I remembered some pearls of wisom from Conehead, along the lines of "what is the point of crossing the finishing line with anything left in the tank?" and managed to step up the run a bit.
As I ran towards the finishing line I could see my supporters ahead, which helped give me a bit of a final push, and crossed the line in 1:16 (splits were 7:02, 48:32, 21:13).
I absolutely loved the day, everyone was so friendly and encouraging. If anyone takes anything from this post then my advice would be to do lots more brick sessions, and maybe not to eat quite as many potatoes the night before!
Lastly, just want to say thanks for this forum and all the motivation it has provided.... can't wait for my next one!!!
Cheers
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Comments
Also, happy days, I've got the wife to let me get a road bike...up to £700. So I will probably hold on until later in the year when the 08 models are cheap, as due to my knee it's not like i'm going to need it for a while.
I honestly think this forum is great for advice and maintaining motivation!
Cheers
Great times by the way, you must have been passing loads of people on the run you ripped it up man!!
Was just happy to finish with a respectable time!
Great report and well done on the result
I got my 5k run time down from 28 to 26mins .. but i too am jealous of your 21min run .. that is next on my list.