Spring Update

Through March and April Uni has had to come first for both Angus and I and our training has been a bit hit and miss. One week we’d have a good week of training and then the next couple of weeks would be only an hour here and there. However, we were both still excited for our first triathlon of the season last Sunday (23^rd).

On Sunday morning my alarm went off at 7am and I think I’ve started to adapt to the student lifestyle recently because it took me 20 minutes to get out of bed and I was still half asleep when I came downstairs for breakfast at 7.30. This is a late start for a race morning so I’ve got to get used to earlier mornings again!

At 8.30 everything was packed in the car and we were ready to go. It took us about 35 minutes to get to Southwell, so not long at all. When we arrived we got our kit together before walking down to register and set up transition. My wave was at 11.26 and Angus’ at 11.48 but we got there nice and early to watch other athletes and enjoy the nice weather (while it lasted).

About 10 minutes before my wave was off, I made my way to poolside to get ready. The swim was a 400m pool swim which isn’t really my favourite as there’s always people in the way, but coming from a competitive swimming background I’m faster in the pool than open water so it has its pros and cons. When the swim started there was only 3 of us in the lane so wasn’t too busy but when I started swimming I soon caught the girl in front. She made it very difficult to get past by swimming in the middle of the lane and the water was very cloudy so it was hard to see the wall for turning, let alone any swimmers coming the other way. Being stuck behind the girl in front for the first 250m was frustrating but I picked it up in the last 150m before the long jog to transition.

My transitions are still a weak point as I still haven’t picked up any of the shoe tricks etc and my lack of riding outside this year means my clipping in is still a bit rusty. When I finally got going on the bike I think I had left my legs in bed, the whole bike I kept getting out of the saddle and trying to get going but I just didn’t have the legs. Just my lack of fitness and cycling let me down on the bike but I’ve got plenty of time to get back up to speed before my main race of the year in September.

 I continued to suffer on the run with both my fitness and breathing. Since moving to Nottingham I have suffered a great deal with my Asthma and I have had to increase my dosage by double on both inhalers.

Was happy to finish and cheer Angus into the finish a few minutes after. Angus did brilliantly and it was nice to be able to see him on the course when we were racing. 

It was a great start to the season for us both and there’s lots more still to come from us this season! We both came 2^nd 20-24, Angus came 4^th overall and I came 14^th female.

Moving on from the race we are both going to try and manage our time better again to get some more hours training in each week. To do this we’ve made an hourly timetable for the next 4 weeks building up to our next race which is Nottingham sprint triathlon on 20^th May, which is now stuck to our fridge to ensure we stick to it!

Thanks for reading!

Emily