This year Outlaw have introduced the elite wave. Made up of about 50 or so male and female starting 2min ahead of the main field. I think its a good move as twice in previous years i have 'won' a race crossing the line first only for somebody who started in a later wave to better my time.
This year the elite field was stacked for a domestic triathlon. In fact it looked stronger than most Ironman branded events. A testament to the success of OSB & the outlaw events. It was my first race of the year so I did not have lofty expectations. My goals for the event were to beat training partner Andrew Diplock and try to not get chicked by the world class Lucy Charles. Really i was there to check out my fitness and use the event as a springboard to kick into the season if a top 10 came about that would be nice.
SWIM
Having done very little swimming in recent months (I've been waiting until tits open water season) I was conservative in my swim approach. I placed myself on the 3rd row and instead of going all guns blazing for 200m I took a relaxed start, easing myself into it and jumped straight onto a pair of feet. It felt comfortable the whole way round and I exited the water in 30:06, which on first glance this seemed slow, but many reported the swim to be a little long. Importantly I was only 15sec's down on Dippers (who knows what he was doing in the swim? he would normal put 15 sec into me on a 200m pool swim) and I was 5min down on the dolphin that is Lucy Charles, which was to be expected.
BIKE
I flew past Dippers in T1 spanking him on the bum as I went. In classic Dippers style he was busy combing his hair and oiling his muscles for the cameras. I exited T1 at the same time as Gossage the Sausage who was doing the outlaw as a relay and using the bike ride as a final tune up for Ironman Lanzarote.
The lack of swim training was starting to show itself not in the swim but on the bike. It took a good 20-30min for my legs to feel 'normal' again, by which time Dippers had finished pruning himself and caught me up. I was hoping that Dippers was going to work with me and start making some ground on the faster swimmers. He had other ideas instantly making outrageous surging attacks like he was in a crit race. I tried to go with a couple of the attacks but then the elastic broke and he sailed away. Are little group (Gossage and Oli) caught him at the top of the hill, but as soon as we did he surged to get away (I don't think he wanted to ride with me). Again we caught him in a small village when he got caught up behind a van and again he attacked to escape this time it was an attack to catch James Gill who had been up the road after his swim. All this surging was really starting to sting the legs they were feeling tender and beaten up (bloody Dippers). Once he caught Gill he disappeared and my small little group settled into a steadier pace. 2hrs 25min was faster than last year, but it felt harder.
RUN
After I had beaten my legs up trying to go with the repeated attacks of Dippers I wasn't feeling so fresh for the run. I didn't feel like I was going to get near the run time I did last year, but I still had targets to chase up the road. Dippers had about 4min on me and Lucy Charles had 5min. I feel more confident in half racing than Ironman. In ironman I'm constantly worried that I'm going to go pop. In half racing i feel i can put the foot down and rev the engine. Having said that i was careful not to do it all too early. I caught Dippers near the half way point and caught Lucy Charles with about 5km to go. After which i could feel the wheels wobbling in the last 2km, but managed to get home without a complete crash.
Happy with my first Tri of the year 9th Overall against some big hitters.
This year the elite field was stacked for a domestic triathlon. In fact it looked stronger than most Ironman branded events. A testament to the success of OSB & the outlaw events. It was my first race of the year so I did not have lofty expectations. My goals for the event were to beat training partner Andrew Diplock and try to not get chicked by the world class Lucy Charles. Really i was there to check out my fitness and use the event as a springboard to kick into the season if a top 10 came about that would be nice.
SWIM
Having done very little swimming in recent months (I've been waiting until tits open water season) I was conservative in my swim approach. I placed myself on the 3rd row and instead of going all guns blazing for 200m I took a relaxed start, easing myself into it and jumped straight onto a pair of feet. It felt comfortable the whole way round and I exited the water in 30:06, which on first glance this seemed slow, but many reported the swim to be a little long. Importantly I was only 15sec's down on Dippers (who knows what he was doing in the swim? he would normal put 15 sec into me on a 200m pool swim) and I was 5min down on the dolphin that is Lucy Charles, which was to be expected.
BIKE
I flew past Dippers in T1 spanking him on the bum as I went. In classic Dippers style he was busy combing his hair and oiling his muscles for the cameras. I exited T1 at the same time as Gossage the Sausage who was doing the outlaw as a relay and using the bike ride as a final tune up for Ironman Lanzarote.
The lack of swim training was starting to show itself not in the swim but on the bike. It took a good 20-30min for my legs to feel 'normal' again, by which time Dippers had finished pruning himself and caught me up. I was hoping that Dippers was going to work with me and start making some ground on the faster swimmers. He had other ideas instantly making outrageous surging attacks like he was in a crit race. I tried to go with a couple of the attacks but then the elastic broke and he sailed away. Are little group (Gossage and Oli) caught him at the top of the hill, but as soon as we did he surged to get away (I don't think he wanted to ride with me). Again we caught him in a small village when he got caught up behind a van and again he attacked to escape this time it was an attack to catch James Gill who had been up the road after his swim. All this surging was really starting to sting the legs they were feeling tender and beaten up (bloody Dippers). Once he caught Gill he disappeared and my small little group settled into a steadier pace. 2hrs 25min was faster than last year, but it felt harder.
RUN
After I had beaten my legs up trying to go with the repeated attacks of Dippers I wasn't feeling so fresh for the run. I didn't feel like I was going to get near the run time I did last year, but I still had targets to chase up the road. Dippers had about 4min on me and Lucy Charles had 5min. I feel more confident in half racing than Ironman. In ironman I'm constantly worried that I'm going to go pop. In half racing i feel i can put the foot down and rev the engine. Having said that i was careful not to do it all too early. I caught Dippers near the half way point and caught Lucy Charles with about 5km to go. After which i could feel the wheels wobbling in the last 2km, but managed to get home without a complete crash.
Happy with my first Tri of the year 9th Overall against some big hitters.