Steelman Race Report

It's Sunday July 3rd and the alarm went off at 5AM as it does for all my triathlon weekends, but I turned it off and went back to bed this time! Thats right, I didn't skip my start wave, it just so happens that for this race all waves started after 11AM, which meant a nice long sleep....unusually long sleep for a Sunday, really. Well, I didn't get up at 5AM but I got up at 7AM to get the car ready as my car dealership was finally able to pull the finger out of their ass and get me the bike rack I ordered back in November 2010. Ridiculous!! Anyway, I get the rack up on the car and give it a good wash before the drive off.

We had talked to some Spanish friends about coming out to spend the day with us so when we finally got the girls ready and loaded into the car we drove off to pick them up before heading out to Dorney Lake.  It was a good 45 minute drive from my house but the ride was fun with the GL packed, and we finally get to Dorney. What a beautiful venue!

We arrive at about 12:30 and as the girls go off to the bouncy castles I headed out to the registration to get my number, pink swimming cap, and timing chip.  Whats up with the pink caps? Its the third I get in three consecutive races! I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something. Anyway, I go off to set up my bike and bag in transition and then I head up to the stands were Sonia, the girls and our friends were sitting. I waited  until 1:30 to go down to transition to have my gel and warm up a bit before the swim.

SWIM

"DAMN.. its a long swim!" Thats all I was thinking. This was to be the longest triathlon I'd ever done since all my previous races have been sprints, and I was feeling butterflies all over again. "PINK CAPS.... PINK CAPS" they called out, as to make us feel really manly about our wave.  Off we went to the water and we had to wait in the water for about 2 minutes before the start and then.....BANG! Massive start fun! Well, not that massive but still, about 40 people on my wave started swimming for the 2 laps we had to do.  I was able to keep up with the group until halfway to the turn, but then I had to relax a bit.  This is where I got passed by a large group of guys and all went to shit on this leg. I basically just wanted to survive the 1Km swim but it seemed to go on forever.  I have not been spending enough time at the pool, and the 25m:10s swim makes it quite obvious.

T1/Bike

I make it  out of the water safe and sound make it out of T1 in a whopping 3m:08s.  I really need to work on this but, if I may, this is mainly due to my lack of swimming fitness which makes me slow down in order to pick up my breathing once Im out of the water. That and the absence of triathlon specific shoes clipped on to my bike (summer wish list with the Exocet). Anyway, I hit the road for the 30Km around the lake and as soon as I leave I am able to pass a couple of guys who I am pretty sure were on my wave.  However, soon after that, I was passed by a group of what seemed to be 5 SWAT team triathletes as these guys were all wearing the same black tri suit, same bikes, same disk wheels, and they were ALL DRAFTING! WTF? Anyway, its supposed to be an event to improve your times so who cares, definitely not me.  

I got up to a group of guys who kept changing position between them and I joined in for a couple of laps.  While all this was going on a few more pro racers went by to add to my frustration, but hey, I was there to do my best, so forget the rest (how cheesy)! Back to the guys I was with, one of which had a TT bike: Right, so I stay with these guys for a few laps and I then get off my saddle and hit it hard for about 300m to get away, which I did.  I managed to be on my own and I did not get passed for the last 2 laps, which I used to chase two guys I could see in a distance.  I managed to get to them both before T2, but my legs were really hurting at this point. I finished the bike leg in 56m:41s. Room for improvement there as well. 

T2/Run

I managed T2 a bit quicker than T1, in 1m:40s, but I still feel I can do it quicker.  On this transition its the bike shoes again (summer wish list...again), and the socks. Check out my fashionably correct socks on the bike! Hell yeah.... :) Anyway, back to the report: T2 out of the way and I'm out of transition onto the three laps for the 7.5Km run.  Surprisingly enough my legs were actually ok after the long swim and ride.  Could the calf compression socks have anything to do with it? Hmm.. I hope so. On the run I managed to keep an OK pace of 5:22 for the distance while only being passed by 3 people.  I managed to pass about 8 people, many of whom were in my wave, and were on my age group, and that felt great! :) Total run time for the 7.5Km 37m:10s.

It was a great feeling to finish the race, specially after my initial thoughts of calling it a day during the swim. Looking back I can definitely say that my training needs to be a bit more focused on swimming or better yet OWS for these types of races.  I ned to shave about 10mins off my swimming if I want to compete with these guys.  The bike leg was not bad to be honest, specially if I consider the fact that I came out in 49/79 overall and the chap in the 17th position had a slower bike leg than me...but kicked my ass on the swimming! The run was abut average with the rest of the guys, but a couple more brik sessions would not hurt either.

On a personal note I must say I was bit pissed off with my wife as they spent most of the time (not to say all the time) watching the Wimbledon final and not my race! But oh well, thats one a year and I race every month.

Very cool venue, great atmosphere, and a perfect track to come back to and beat previous times as it is completely flat.

TIME: 2h:03m:49s

Next race is Barcelona on the 17th of July.

My next bike - Planet X Exocet

UPDATE: I ended up not getting this bike! I got this one instead.

Now that I have my dates set for my first half and full ironman next year, I think its time I consider spending some cash on a proper TT/Tri bike for the second half of this season.  Since I currently ride a Trek I have obviously  been looking at Trek TT bikes but, as I am sure you are all aware, they are quite prohibitive in price, and this has led me to look elsewhere for options.

On a recent trip I did to Lisbon I entered a Specialized Concept Store at a mall and I saw the Transition Tri bike which is a beauty to look at, and Im sure feels even better when you ride it, but again, prohibitive in price for someone of my level who, to be honest, just started with Tri a little more than a year ago.

On this months edition of the 220Triathlon magazine there was a very detailed review of the Exocet compared agains the Quintana Roo CD01 Ultegra and guess who came out on top? Thats right, the Exocet did.

After very in depth research I have made my decision on a very important point most triathletes base their decision on: IT LOOKS GOOD!...ok, and its the best £2,000 bike out there on the market according to 220Triathlon.  In my case, If I spend anything more than £2,000 will result in a divorce from my wife and I am not keen on that since I love her very much! :)

Now, looking at my schedule I am thinking I could potentially hold on buying this until after summer but the question is... will I be able to hold on the temptation?  Apparently you can only buy Planet X Bikes directly from the manufacturer on from a handful of direct distributors and I found a store in St. Albans who can properly fit me for the bike at the same time.  I am guessing what I will end up doing is I will probably go up there in the summer time and speak to them about the bike in order to get some more details before I buy it.