Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

First/last triathlon of the year went well on Balance.

Ran into difficulties in the sea again. Was holding a good pace With the front pack when I suddenly realised my every-third-stroke breathing wasnt enough. Tried change Things and not panick. But my pace literally halved for the last few hundred meters.

Got out of the water right near the back. But dispite feeling mad Dizzy on the bike I just kept throwing my legs around. On the final lap I was passing People pretty quickly. On the run I'd recovered totally and was continuing to pass People. Managed to move up to 14th (only 50 started as it was the town first tri). If I'd held my usual 1km swim pace I would have been well into the top 10. But meh.

As it was the towns frst tri the local media was full of action pics. Well all action, except one of some idiot trying to work out where to put his bike.......

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Have had a mild chest infection/sore throat/cough/endless stream of stuff coming from my nose for the last 2 weeks. Had hoped it would pass quickly but it is still here. Like (man)flu but without any fever or aches.

Quite an enforced taper, have only done 1h40 of footy a week since a hard 80km cycle ride on August 29th.

Doc appointment today and I'll see what they say. I suspect they'll recommend against doing an Ironman in 6 days time.

Head says I'm not prepared for it and should junk it and concentrate on getting properly fit (Brighton or London marathon next year) and losing the weight.

Heart says sod it, I'll get round (however slowly) and will have then done it.

Need someone (i.e. the doc) to make my mind up for me (although there's a good chance they won't). If there had been the full refund insurance available when I signed up I'd probably be playing up the symptoms to get the doc to sign me off and so I could have my money back. Can't transfer to another IM this year as there aren't any others in the UK and I'm not making it even more expensive by going overseas (to the cold).

Sinus infection. A week of Clarithomycin for me. No IM Wales.

Feeling both "hurrah" and "arsebiscuits".

Thank fuck I didn't use this as a fundraiser for my daughter's school.

That sucks.

Sorry to hear. Better to know now and DNS than to Finish/DNF trying and make it much worse though.

Swim Serpentine (1 mile) on the 24th. Should be ok by then. Will get to use my wetsuit in anger (rather than just training swims in Shepperton Lake).

Have a Brighton Marathon place for 2017.

Have a guaranteed place on London-Edinburgh-London 1400km Audax for 2017 too. Only comes around every 4 years and couldn't ride it in 2013.

Still need to lose 15kg (that should be my main focus...)

Plenty to look forward to.

Decided to sign up for the Richmond Park duathlon next year.

Mainly so that I can drop gel wrappers, but also because it's ages since I've slevlessed.

Not sure whether I want to do the 10k - 44k - 5k or the 20k - 77k - 10k

Anyone tuned into Kona? Hoping Joe Skipper has another good race. Watching it alongside Revolution didn't really work just confusing.

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just tuned in... what's going on?

Is your commentary in German?

Where is it showing?

This is the stream I found, but german...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcBjgO0CPK0

Yeah, in German here too.

Went out for run so missed last 90mins, any drafting penalties amongst the pros?

Might be back from sinus/chest lurgy (not doing IM Wales was probably a very good idea). Cycle commute today was the first in a long while.

Last long cycle: 29th August
Last long swim: 28th August
Last long run: 25th August

On holiday most of next week so looks like I'll be starting everything again in November.

Ballbuster again this weekend, probably about equal fitness to last year but 2kg heavier and they have made the first run and bike about 500m longer each with a new transition, so chances of improving on last years time are reliant on dryer roads (not forecast) and or digging deeper. did 3:10:38 last year, would love to go sub 3:10 but given that the course is about 3 minutes slower it will be an impressive effort if I do!

great time and nice write up. well done mate! i'm toying with the idea for 2018 but will see how weymouth goes next september and then decide!

How did you get on?

My mate who's a bit of a beast (won the Ballbuster for the last 4 years and came 53rd overall at Kona this year) pulled out of it with hypothermia on the bike! I almost entered it but didn't due to logistics. Kinda glad I didn't now after hearing how bad conditions were.

great time and nice write up. well done mate! i'm toying with the idea for 2018 but will see how weymouth goes next september and then decide!

Thanks!

Probably a good idea to see how you get on with a 70.3 first. There's no point entering a full if you say, realised you hate swimming! Haha.

Yeah saw that Andy had pulled out, did ok given the conditions, missed a PB by 13 seconds, was frozen on the bike and never got going on the second run despite feeling fine, couldn't feel my feet for the first 15 minutes off the bike, then wished I couldn't as socks had got bunched up putting shoes on.

A better performance than last year, hidden time wise by the longer run and bike where they have added about 500m to each as the car park has changed at the top of box hill. Up from 32nd last year to 17th this year so not bad.

Was beating my clubmate by a decent margin by the time he pulled out after the bike, which made for a more enjoyable awards donthat evening as I could be humble on victory rather than magnanimous is defeat!

Chapeau!

I'd like to do the race at some point but I don't handle the cold well at all so I'm worried I'd die. :D

What is the best way to store a wetsuit in the medium-long term?

Normally I hang mine but I'm worried that it's quite heavy and that it might distort the shoulders. I'm not sure whether gentle folding would be better but I don't want to damage the suit around the creases.

I've not swum in about 12 months now and I'm certainly not going anywhere near open water until summer...

^ Hang on a decent hanger (not a thin flimsy one). Mine only gets used occasionally is hung between times no issues.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/03/garmin-forerunner-935-depth-review.html

No reason to upgrade my 920xt yet, but interesting to see where they are going with it (towards the running and Fenix lines...)

I would be interested in the all day HR monitoring stuff though.

*cough* £469.99 with no HR straps! *cough*

Hi tri people.

Looking for recommendations for BTA setups. One that can take a lot of water if possible. Integrated computer mount a bonus.

Only real other stipulation is that the bottle must be able to be mounted in a regular bottle cage too - I want to be able to swap out the BTA bottle with another bottle on my frame.

zipp vuka bta, if you can find one, if not then the xlab one is supposed to be good then add the bottle cage of your choice. lots of water and standard bottle is a bit confusing though, how much is a lot, 500ml, 750ml...?

Sorry - I meant a normal shape bottle, rather than an aero one specifically. A litre would be best but 750ml would be okay, too.

Will look into the zipp vuka.

Evening chaps. I've got my first tri coming up at the end of June. I've opted for the sprint distance in Cardiff.
I've been working up gradually on the training over the last couple of months, feeling pretty good. I've recently had my first experience of aero bars, and tomorrow i'll be swimming with the Barry sea swimming club for the first time, should be interesting.
It's all a bit overwhelming at the moment, trying to cover all bases and think of the larger picture in terms of endurace and multi discipline fitness if i'm honest. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated :)