Run: 3h 37m (22.0 miles) | Cross Train: 5h 38m | Gym: 0h 00m
Race week: dominated by the Northumbrian 70.3 at Kielder.
Quite a bit went wrong today, despite going into it with some confidence. If my Garmin feed is anything to go by I swam close to twice the required distance, hitting 3,400 metres. Given the shakiness of the lines, I’m assuming we had some signal interference. So what took approximately 40 mins 2 years ago, took me over 52 minutes. Whilst my swimming technique is improving due to the lessons, I’d done nowhere near the distances in that training that I’d been clocking up prior to the 2024 edition. My first of a number of mistakes. Added to this, was repeated bouts of cramp on lap 2, which struck every 10 strokes or so. I’d been aware of cramping in training in the pool after about 20-25 minutes and cursed myself for not taking one of the salt tablets I’d so deliberately packed, before the swim. Instead they were sitting at T1 with the rest of my gear. Another mistake.
The bike: as long as the roads are dry, I’m happy to push hard up and down the hills. Cue the rain. I still did want I could, battling the head wind down the ‘back straight’ of the bike loop. Mistake number 3 (or was it 4 now?) was fuelling, and the lack of practice. Hunched over the bars, I was acutely aware of the awful stabbing sensation of GI issues. It put me off fuelling further, and I tried to restrict intake to whole foods like bananas and, well, more bananas. Trying to then adopt an upright position coming off the bike to run was not easy.
I got moving and ran the first 2 to 3 miles in someone else’s legs. I eventually found mine again, and as I drank more water, the stomach started to settle. Just in time for the sun to come out, and blaze down on the competitors battling below. The climbing temperature and continually undulating track drained my already under-fuelled legs, and I staggered up the longest of the hills on both laps, using my hands to push my legs along. Although this was my strongest discipline, I spent most of the run in fear of bonking – that moment when your legs simply lock and stop. The first lap passed and the sight of my wife and daughter (complete with “your unstoppable” sign ) flooded me with emotion. I better get this done, I thought to myself. What an underwhelming sight I must have been. Soon the 6 miles turned into 7 then 8, and eventually the 10 mile point rolled past. When I got well into the 12th mile, I opened up my legs and enjoyed running at a decent cadence for the first time. Even if I ran out of fuel now, I knew that the adrenaline could take me over the line from here. I was laughing when I crossed the line – so many lessons to take from here.
The rest of this week has been deliberately modest: a short indoor ride, a couple of short runs and pool work, keeping things moving without piling on more fatigue before Sunday.
