Cardiff Triathlon

 At the end of June, I competed in the National Triathlon Championship held at Cardiff. Going into the race, I knew I was in better form after some good run testing results from the lab. So far this year I have struggled to produce a good race that reflects the training I’ve done, but I’m still positive it will come together.

The race started with a 750m sea swim in Cardiff Bay. I started on the left and I could soon see a large group form on the right. I stayed on my line until the first buoy and concentrated on my swim. After the first two buoys, I could see the leader. The last 300m was a straight line and the field was spread out coming into land. Out of the swim always has to be a sprint into transition 1 (swim to bike) to make the first bike pack. However, I fell over and ripped my wetsuit which meant I lost a few seconds in transition. Now I needed to be quick in transition. I had successfully made the first pack of 14 athletes with one competitor out in front.

When I am in large bike packs, I like to stay at the front, meaning I inevitably help with the share of the work. At the beginning of the second lap, I caught the athlete in front. We worked well as a group, not giving any time away to chasing groups behind us. Coming into transition 2 (bike into the run) I was in 5th position. My transition could have been better - something I need to work on.

The run was 5km, two laps of a run out and back course, so there were opportunities to see all the athletes. I managed to start in a small group of 5, but by the 2nd lap, we had all separated. I finished in 9th position.

This was a small step in the right direction as this year has not gone as planned. I don’t have any excuses as I train at a performance centre; I need more consistency and some small changes so I hopefully will be closer to the front fighting for a podium position.

Thanks to Huub Design for sorting me out with a new wetsuit after ripping my race suit.