Mark 2.1 fakes his way through the Welland Sprint Tri

[Mark.AU]

Have FUN racing!

I did have FUN!

750m/30k/7.5k at Welland today.

The Swim; fast! I have really surprised myself with how quickly my swim has come in this year. Welland is a TT start so no washing machine to deal with, I just got on with it and swam. I had a late starting number so even though I was in clear water the whole time, I was passing people constantly and so having to redirect a fair bit. I don't think it cost me any time though.

750m in 12:11 @ 1:38/100m which was good for 3/27 in my AG and 29/279 overall

The Bike; well, I have ridden my TT bike twice this year, including today. I have ridden less than 10 times total all year. It is fair to say that I am undertrained on the bike. I also had to bear in mind to save myself for the run, and also to consider that I'm riding 90k tomorrow as part of a half iron relay team. With these considerations in mind, I rode today as fast as I could Well, not really 100% actually, but I did put in a standard race effort. The course is an out and back flat, fast ride and I was reasonably happy with it, all things considered. I ended up with a time about 5 minutes off what I would do if trained.

30k in 52:43 at 34k/hr which was good for 11/27 in my AG and 63/279 overall

The Run; I have been running, but not enough and not at all off the bike. I didn't find my legs for at least 4k and by then I was pretty tired! It was also hot. And I was also very undertrained - did I mention that? I managed an ironman-like shuffle for the whole run, and actually did better as I went along. Each successive km was faster than the previous one, it was just unfortunate that they started out so extremely slow!

7.5k in 41:00 at 5:34/k which was good enough for 20/27 in my AG and 156/279 overall.

I did have the second fastest T2 though!

My final stats are 1:50:06 for 12/27 in my AG and 83/279 overall. This is about 10 minutes off where my trained self would have finished, so considering my condition and state of readiness, I'm pretty happy with my day!

I wonder how I'll feel in the morning?

[orleansrunner1962]

Great stuff -- glad you had fun! Tomorrow will be "interesting" and the day after should be even "more interesting"!

[Jo-Jo]

Glad you had a fun time.
Considering your lack of training you did pretty darn good!!

[jamix]

Your swimming fitness regain makes little sense. I know fitness tends to come back quickly, maybe more so than running and cycling however even superstars like Ian Thorpe had to put in several months before regaining their peak. Perhaps its easier for you to get back, because you've never put in much of a training cycle/program to begin with and thus aren't really anywhere close to your peak potential anyway

[Mark.AU]

Your swimming fitness regain makes little sense. I know fitness tends to come back quickly, maybe more so than running and cycling however even superstars like Ian Thorpe had to put in several months before regaining their peak. Perhaps its easier for you to get back, because you've never put in much of a training cycle/program to begin with and thus aren't really anywhere close to your peak potential anyway

I'm not even at my [trained] peak yet either, I still need to drop another 10 seconds per 100m to be at that point. And the comparison to Thorpe isn't valid anyway - with those guys they're dealing with 100ths of seconds improvements; I'm not, nor ever will be, in that league.

Swimming is about form much more than fitness, it's not really surprising that swim performance comes back quickly.

Your final point is probably valid.

[Ken B]

Congratulations!

[Robinandamelia]

Congratulations, nicely done.

[Robbie-T]

Glad you had fun Mark, just think what you could do if you actually liked running.

[barebuns1]

Congrats, well done. nice race report.

[Habs4ever]

I'm glad you had fun! That's what it's about.