March Update

March is nearly over so it’s about time I wrote a quick update on everything I’ve been doing this month since my last blog and about the start of my 2016 race season!

On the last weekend in February I had my first ‘race’ of the year, the Louth Tri Club Aquathlon on Sunday 28th. It was a 400m pool swim and a 5km run, so would be a good training day. I’d done a 15km intervals run and 60km on the turbo the day before, so my legs were pretty fatigued as it was, but I thought it’d be a good idea to race and see how the legs would cope with a hard 5km, especially leading up to Silverstone Half Marathon a couple of weeks later.

I completed the 400m swim in 5.20 getting the fastest swim split of the day and after a rapid 6s transition later (also fastest of the day!) I was out onto the run, but being chased down very quickly! After about 500m I was caught and passed by another competitor who I’d beaten out of the swim but had much better legs than me on the day. I pulled myself round the rest of the run with a rather disappointing time of 19.50 for the 5km to finish in 2nd place overall. Although I was a bit annoyed with my running, especially given that I ran a faster 5km in the middle of my training run the day before, it was just a training race so nothing that mattered too much. To make up for the disappointment I jumped in the pool for an hour or so after the race for a  gentle swim with Emily and then headed out for an hour run in the afternoon to end a good weekend of training with 1.5hrs swimming, 60km on the turbo and over 34km run.

Unfortunately over the next few days I picked up a slight niggle with my IT bands, a niggle that turned into a very annoying pain in both knees that made them feel like they were going to explode, even when walking! Cue a lot of S&C, stretching and rolling over the next week or so, as I needed to be fit again for Silverstone Half. I completely stopped running for a week and in the 2 weeks between the aquathlon and Silverstone I only ran 4km, but spent over 10hrs doing S&C, stretching etc.

Sunday 13th March came around very quickly and we were off down to Silverstone ready for the race start at 12pm. I was lucky enough to have Emily coming along to support me racing and also my sister (Catriona) and brother in law (Ben) coming down as Ben was racing too. My right IT Band and knee were still a bit sore but I thought I’d still race and see how it feels. After a quick warm up doing some dynamic stretching, strides and a short run I lined up a few rows back from the start and the gun soon fired. We were off running down a slight hill and I soon settled into a rhythm at around 3.50 min/km. Earlier in the year I was going to try to target a 77.XX time here (~3.40 min/km) but after the lack of running the last few months and also with my ITB playing up I decided that I’d be happy with anything under 84.24 (4min/km).

I found after about 3km the pain in my right knee went away slightly and I was able to focus on the rest of the race. I plodded round holding a constant pace and it wasn’t until about 17km that the pain in my knee returned, probably due to a slight drop in my running form as I was fatiguing. After all, this was only my second run over 20km this year! I put in a strong effort up the final hill to the finish line, ‘sprinting’ at 3.15min/km pace for the last 200m and finished in an official time of 83.36, averaging 3.57min/km and placing 76th overall out of 6000+ runners. I was pleased with this and went away from the race happy having proved I can still run fairly fast without much training. Hopefully over the next month I can get some good running in leading up to 70.3 Aix En Provence at the start of May.

The weekend after Silverstone I went to Clumber Park Duathlon, this time to spectate as Emily was competing in her first race of the year and first ever duathlon. It was a chilly day and I was glad I was wrapped up warm as I watched many very frozen people run/bike past me! Emily did very well for her first race of the season after also not having a very good winter of training, coming 10th U20 and placing well overall. We stayed around after the race for a bit to see some others competing before heading back to Loughborough, stopping for a well deserved McDonald’s on the way back 😛 Have a look at Emily’s blog about Clumber Duathlon here, it’s a great read 😀 http://emilypatchtri.blogspot.co.uk/

It was then on to Easter weekend where we were both racing our first triathlon of the year at East Leake Sprint. It’s a race I have done 4 times in the last 2 years, coming 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, so I was hoping to go one better, but looking at the start list a few days before a strong field was racing and that would be tough, especially as I still hadn’t been able to run with ITB problems, although it is on the mend now! Oh well, I’d just have to do the best I could and see what happens.

I had a good swim, around 5.20 for the 400m, quick T1 and was out onto the bike in the windy weather. Luckily the heavy rain that was forecast stayed away and towards the end of the bike the sun even came out and it was getting a bit warm! I was surprised with my bike split, having not been able to get out much on the roads this year I’ve been on the turbo 2/3 times a week, but I wasn’t sure how this would transfer over onto the road. I was 30s slower on the bike than I was last March but the conditions weren’t great with strong head/cross winds on sections of the course which made it tricky, and my power was higher than expected. All too soon I was back into T2 and out onto the run, the bit I was a bit apprehensive about as I wasn’t sure how my right ITB was going to feel. It hurt, but not too much so I carried on and finished the race in 57.28, 37s slower than last March but still a strong time. That put me 3rd overall and 2nd 20-29, so not the top step of the podium I was hoping for but a great result to start off the season.

Emily also had a great race, finishing 13th female and 1st U20, a nice result to start the season off and definitely something to build on leading into bigger races over the next few months 🙂 After the race and presentation went back to Loughborough to make the most of Easter Sunday and eat plenty of chocolate – I think we deserved it!!

Next up for both of us is the British Duathlon Champs at Windsor Duathlon this coming Sunday, a race that I’m not really expecting anything from as I don’t particularly like duathlons, but thought I may as well have a go and see what happens! Hopefully I’ll see some of you down in Windsor racing/spectating too 🙂

Finally I’d like to thank all those who are supporting me this year, I have received some very exciting parcels over the last month or so from Compressport, High5, Zone3 and Bounce Foods, as well as continued support from Pedal Potential, Nature’s Kiss and Profile Protein. I really am grateful for all the support I receive and it all allows me to race and train harder than ever, hopefully enabling me to achieve and exceed my goals for this season, so thank you very much 🙂

Until next time, thank you for reading and happy training 😀