Human Race Triathlon

Updated: Added Training Peaks Analysis. 19/09/2012

My race experience of my second ever Triathlon and my first Sprint distance race.

Results and plots from the HSBC Human Race Triathlon at Eton Dorney Lake, Sunday 16th September 2012

TL;DR: Official timing 1:32:33

Pre-race

My race prep was a bowl of porridge for breakfast. As I was racing at 13:45 I wasn’t planning on lunch, but had a 500ml Isotonic sports drink.

Arrived at the course about 2hr 30min before my wave. Registered and racked bike etc., about 1hr 45min before wave.

Once Darren arrived, discovered I could switch to their (40+ age group) wave. This pushed by start time back to 15:00, somewhat buggering my nutrition plan.

30mins before my wave start I had a High5 Raspberry Caffeine Gel.

Due to previous issues with calf cramps during the swim and swim-cycle transition, I took a SaltStick tablet (and another one just before the start)

Race

Swim: Felt like an excellent swim. One minor stop (5 sec or so) just before the half-way mark, to catch my breath. Managed to complete rest of the swim without stopping, apart from a bit of fogging, and trouble spotting the swim exit.

Bike: Reasonable transition. Quite a bit of wind blowing across the lake after passing the shelter of the grandstands. After the first full lap, discovered the second side of the lake was sheltered by trees, on the second lap dropped onto the tri-bars and took on another High5 Gel some water and a SaltStick tab in the sheltered section. End of the second lap, overtook Darren whilst on the tri-bars just after the transition area, didn’t get a chance to shout at him. Far end of the lake was directly into the wind, also a curvy section and lots of overtaking so stayed off them tri-bars for that.

Run: Legs felt a bit rubbery off the bike, but after the first km, felt a lot better. Spotted Alan just before the first turn around ahead of me, and Darren a minute or so later behind me. Though I might catch up Alan, but he picked the pace up slightly just before the end and I finished 7 seconds behind him.

Race Plots

Swim

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch the swim on my watch, I felt the buzz when I hit start, but when I exited the water, no time. 🙁

Anyway the official timings differ ever so slightly from my own.

Cycle

Click for TrainingPeaks In-Depth Cycle Analysis

Run

Click for TrainingPeaks In-Depth Run Analysis

Race Results