A great day's racing...

Having ditched the majority of my planned sessions this week in favour of R & R, Ben then riding me off his wheel in our Thursday training session and my heart rate and perceived effort being a touch high for yesterday's 12 mile Ironman target paced run I really wasn't sure what to expect this morning.

We entered Cleveland Short Course (Olympic distance) triathlon quite late and it was always planned as a training session. Racing is a skill just like any other and the only way to get better is to practice... racing. An Olympic distance event three weeks after Lanzarote and four weeks before Switzerland seemed a great way to get stuck into a solid training session without risking too much unwanted fatigue. With a start list of nearly 200 and my Olympic distance nemesis (and fellow LBT) Tim Ashelford also competing I had two goals to keep me motivated... top five overall and beat Tim onto the run (something I've not done before - Tim's great run speed was always going to be an issue). Chatting to H beforehand there was clearly only one 'sensible' race strategy...

Hit the swim and bike as hard as possible and hang on for dear life in the run! Perhaps sensible isn't the word but I fancied a good hit out and with nothing to lose headed off to the start...

The 'surprise' start was probably a good thing as it didn't allow for any nerves to build up and people were still pretty spread out across the line, increasing the chances of finding some space. I managed to find clear water quickly, knowing Tim was likely to post something around 21 minutes and me having swum 22.04 in the pool this week I fancied my chances of hanging onto his speedy feet. Despite the odd detour as I drifted off to the right I felt like I was swimming well and rounding the first lap in 10.10 with a HR of 151 (I know I know - concentrate on swimming... I just love the stats too much!) it looked like I was in the lead swim pack. Just over ten minutes later I popped out of the water in 21.34 and 5th place overall. Eventual winner Alan Copland swam 18.56 but with the second placed swimmer only 20 seconds ahead of me out of the water and Tim 20 seconds back (sorry mate, had to get that in there!) I'm hopeful that the course was accurate enough to call that a new swim pb :)

An uncharacteristically pedestrian T1 followed and saw me loose a few places getting onto the bike but once I settled into my cycling rhythm I felt pretty good. As with the swim I wasn't sure how I would ride but with such great bike volume in my 2009 legs I know that on the right day I'm capable of a solid performance. Within a few miles I'd ridden into second place overall and with no idea how far up the road the leader was I set about it like a 25 mile TT (remember that my run tactic was to 'hold on'). I had expected that due to my decent swim a few stronger riders would come by but it wasn't until about mile seven or eight that I saw anyone again (unfortunately not the guy in front). Dropping down to third place I was still feeling good and holding a distance of around 10-15 metres on the guy in second, my heart rate was dropping and I began to recover from the early exertions of my 'out of sight out of mind bike strategy'. Starting to feel strong I pushed on, re-took second place and thinking that my first ever overall victory might be within reach went looking for the leader... frustratingly my chain came off and jammed in the frame with a couple of miles to go (probably only cost me 20-30 seconds) and then thinking I'd reached transition I took my feet out of my shoes and flew down what I thought was the road back to the lake... only for the crowd gathered on the corner to dive for cover as I suddenly deviated off course, fortunately a childhood spent on a BMX meant I pulled off a world-class and 'match-saving' skid (probably cost me my new Vittoria tub but at £50 a pop I'm too scared to look) to get back on track and pedal the last 500 or so yards in my socks...

Coming into T1 in second place my Garmin said 60 minutes exactly for 24.53 miles and the official split (which includes running out of and back in to transition) was 1:00:39 so with two disciplines and two pbs down things were looking great...

Another, albeit slightly less, pedestrian transition saw me drop down into third, and I had to laugh when starting the run the guy on the tannoy announced 'only five minutes down on first - go get him'! Now, regular readers of this blog will know that the terms 'only five minutes' and 'Tom's 10k run speed' don't go together that well and with second place pulling away steadily it was all about surviving the next 40 minutes and holding onto the podium. Despite having come into triathlon through running and having dipped under three hours for the marathon (five times) my swim and bike have, certainly in terms of triathlon, become my best two disciplines. The shorter (faster) the race the more this applies and over Olympic distance I tend to assume the role of 'rabbit' these days and spend most of the run looking over my shoulder. Still, I knew I'd had a flyer in the swim and on the bike and with the run as a double out & back I'd be able to check out my pursuers within the first ten or so minutes. Figuring that Tim would put two minutes on me in the run I was hoping to be at least a minute back towards transition before our paths crossed, unfortunately it was closer to 20 seconds. He'd also had a strong bike and it would simply be a matter of time... I don't want to sound negative and I was giving it everything but when it comes to 10k my little legs just struggle to keep up. Once Tim moved into third and pushed me be to fourth I was even more determined to hang on, Chrissie Wellington said at our January training camp that a large part of training was learning to suffer and imagining myself in the final Hawaii slot on July the 12th with athletes queuing up to take it from me I set about living up to my pre-race plan and holding on... I think (fortunately for me) the run was a little short, perhaps only just over 9k and my run split of 35:58 would certainly reflect that.

One second short of two hours I crossed the finish line in 4th overall for a new Olympic distance pb (I think the swim and bike were pretty accurate, and even allowing for the run being short it would still be a 2.03-4) and the first time under 120 minutes. I'd be really pleased with that even without having done Lanza three weeks ago and with four weeks till Switzerland things are certainly on the up ;)

Well done to everyone who raced, competed, wrote, gave birth or did anything else amazing today (see H's blog). Today's picture is of my great friend since the age of 11 Ben with the extra-large trophy he won motor racing at Brands Hatch today... awesome driving mate! Also well done to H for taking second and getting so close to our first ever overall victory, and I mustn't forget Tim, great racing mate.... one day ;)

Right, it really is bed time and I really must dash,

See you soon,

T