Last weekend I traveled up to the Lake District in the UK with @Charliesydney to take part in the Helvellyn triathlon. This consisted of a 1 mile swim, a 38 mile bike ride and a 10 mile trail run up and then back down Helvellyn (the third highest peak in the UK).
I initially felt well prepared for the race despite being at a physical disadvantage being one of the youngest competitors, and it only being my second official triathlon, but had I had faith in the hundreds of hours of training I had put into my swimming, cycling and running leading up to this event.
The day before the event I took some time to recon the course by walking where I'd go from the swim start, to the transition area then out onto the bike course, and then back into the transition area off the bike and the into part of the run to familiarise myself with the course to help prevent any uncertainty on race day. Once I was confident in knowing where I'd have to go during the transitions of the race we went back to where we were staying a few miles from the start to binge out on pasta to top up my glycogen levels and conduct a few last minute checks to make sure all my race day equipment was in order. The following morning I got up around 430 AM to cook up and eat my usual pre race meal of pudding rice boiled up in water, and organic soya milk mixed with sugar to then check and then double check I had all I needed on race day.
The swim start was divided into three waves based on your predicted swim time when signing up to the race. Back at that time I was very pessimistic about my swimming abilities to picked the slower swim time than I am actually capable of around 40 minutes. Although the weeks leading up to the race I was comfortably clocking in 28 minutes for 1 mile in the pool. But despite the start times being divided your time would only start at the beginning of YOUR swim wave, so you aren't losing time while you wait for your wave to begin.
The water was a not so comfortable 13 degrees C, with a strong wind making it very cold to be standing around waiting to start. I'm the one in the centre at the bottom with the very sharply bent elbow pointing to the sky.
I had mixed feelings about my swim results, I got out of the water in 38 minutes and 7 seconds. A long way off my predicted swim time. I believe this being down to making bad calls on where to position myself in the water at the start, plus stupidly putting my faith in people I was drafting behind to take a direct route round the course. Lesson learnt for next time.
It took me 3 minutes and 21 seconds to get into transition, out of my wetsuit and onto my bike at the mount line to head out on the 38 mile bike course. Cycling is my strongest sport of the three disciplines was looking forward to putting some power down.
My strategy for the bike ride was to hold 200W as an average for the bike whilst keeping a high cadence of 90 to 110 RPM to keep the legs fresh for the run. This was not a closed road event so there was still cars on the road. As a result I lost a fair amount of time having to safely pass other slower riders who were faster than me in the swim which eat into my time.
In terms of my fuelling strategy on the bike I had an aero bottle on the frame filled with 10 high5 energy gels mixed with water that I would sip from every 15 minutes to keep my muscle glycogen topped up. I also had 2 800ml water bottle behind my saddle out of the wind which I'd regularly sip from. My bike ride when fairly smoothly, only 4 people passed me on the bike. However on one of the climbs known infamously as "The Struggle" which kicks up in places to a 20% gradient I experienced some cramping issues in my quads from not having enough salt. I rarely take electrolyte drinks with me during training so did not think to bring any for this race on the basis it was not a very long race and not forecast to be hot. My total riding time was 2 hours and 22 minutes.
After getting back into the transition zone to put my running kit on, I was informed the run route was going to be shortened due to safety reasons as the conditions at the summit of Helvellyn consisted of winds of over 50mph and virtually no visibility due to low lying cloud cover.
I was in and out of transition in 2 minutes and 56 seconds ready to start the climb. Just as the gradient started to kick up my quads seized up and cramped on every step I took. I desperately needed some electrolytes fast. The gradient kicked up so steep that I was forced to slow to a walk up the mountain along with everyone else on the trail, with my lungs and heart working so hard on the steep climb I neglected to notice my glycogen levels dropping and my morale with it. As I slowed I noticed a few people pass me and a few more coming back down the mountain after giving up failing to make it to the plateau at the top which leads to the decent. I got out a chocolate and almond fudge cliff bar and started to force it down. It managed to put some life back into me while the sodium in the cliff bar helped to ease the cramping in my legs. I broke back into a run as the gradient leveled off at the plateau.
Starting the decent back down to the finish. As the gradient began to steepen on the way down, I stumbled and fell on the decent cutting my knee, but by this point I was starting to enjoy the run and the fast nature of the decent. Being too pumped up to feel the pain of the fall I got back up and continued to decent, fast.
I finished the run in 1 hour and 44 minutes. After crossing the finish line with a total time of 4 hours, 52 minutes and 53 seconds, I fell down in tears, I had never pushed my body so hard before. I left with mixed feelings about my result, but the whole race was a huge learning experience which I will be sure to apply to future events.