Although it was a sprint distance event, the whole weekend may require two posts to go over it. Wednesday was a great day of training and a perfect recovery from the Pure Blonde.. Race. The body was holding on OK on the swim sprints and the legs were fresh for a 70min run in the evening. Thursday was TT day, with the difference that instead of being the usual 25km, it was a 16km version. I went very well for my expectations and the average pace was a massive 2km faster than the normal. The only down part was that some muscle or tendon in the groin area had enough for the day and my run was nil.
That made Friday and swim only day, which I loved. Then we packed and drove almost 4 hours from Auckland to Kinloch. (it took us 1.5 hours to get out of Auckland). Kinloch is a tiny town on the shores of lake Taupo. The town has none of the attractions of Taupo, it just has the raw feeling of a lazy coastal town where time has stopped. The race doubles as the national champs for Sprint distance.
After a good sleep we went to do a swim-run reconnaissance of the course and a later bike ride. The day was gorgeus and HOT. The afternoon nap was a sweat fest.
THE COURSE
The swim is a beach start in the fresh water of the lake. Even on a windy day the swim is quite flat and scenic. One lap on a clockwise direction, with the chance of hydrating along the way.
The bike is hilly, with most of the work to be done on the way out. There’s patches of 20km/hr and patches of 75km/hr it makes for good fun but if you get into a dark patch the race is over. The motivation is to keep going on the uphills thinking how cool we’ll be on the way down.
The run is 2 laps of an undulating course that winds its way through the town centre, the shore and the little marina. There’s a steep bridge of about 15m long that is the delight of off road runners.
I did this race in 2009 and the times were 12min 38.20min and 20.52min. Not bad back then, but I was forecasting a 10.30 – 36.00 – 17.30. the forecast does not take into account weather conditions and changes to the course length and so on. We’ll come back to this topic in part II
THE RACE
SWIM 750m: 11.43min – HR Av 82% - HR Max 92%
I placed myself (and my mate Reado) close to a group of fast swimmers (a bit faster than us), in the front row of the beach start. I started at full speed and was not going to give up until I had a panic attack. There was a lot of giving and taking but I went mostly unscratched on the head and upper body, the legs got grabbed and twisted but nothing major. We formed a big group of about 30 that kept pushing to the first buoy. I had a s@#t turn but got back into the business pretty soon. The second turn was flawless and I passed about 10 people on it. I then made my way to another group that was going well up front and the 5 of us pushed the last 200 together.
I drank some water on the last 100m and was already working my way through transition. Everything was in place and I got out real fast.
To be continued….
That made Friday and swim only day, which I loved. Then we packed and drove almost 4 hours from Auckland to Kinloch. (it took us 1.5 hours to get out of Auckland). Kinloch is a tiny town on the shores of lake Taupo. The town has none of the attractions of Taupo, it just has the raw feeling of a lazy coastal town where time has stopped. The race doubles as the national champs for Sprint distance.
After a good sleep we went to do a swim-run reconnaissance of the course and a later bike ride. The day was gorgeus and HOT. The afternoon nap was a sweat fest.
THE COURSE
The swim is a beach start in the fresh water of the lake. Even on a windy day the swim is quite flat and scenic. One lap on a clockwise direction, with the chance of hydrating along the way.
The bike is hilly, with most of the work to be done on the way out. There’s patches of 20km/hr and patches of 75km/hr it makes for good fun but if you get into a dark patch the race is over. The motivation is to keep going on the uphills thinking how cool we’ll be on the way down.
The run is 2 laps of an undulating course that winds its way through the town centre, the shore and the little marina. There’s a steep bridge of about 15m long that is the delight of off road runners.
I did this race in 2009 and the times were 12min 38.20min and 20.52min. Not bad back then, but I was forecasting a 10.30 – 36.00 – 17.30. the forecast does not take into account weather conditions and changes to the course length and so on. We’ll come back to this topic in part II
THE RACE
SWIM 750m: 11.43min – HR Av 82% - HR Max 92%
I placed myself (and my mate Reado) close to a group of fast swimmers (a bit faster than us), in the front row of the beach start. I started at full speed and was not going to give up until I had a panic attack. There was a lot of giving and taking but I went mostly unscratched on the head and upper body, the legs got grabbed and twisted but nothing major. We formed a big group of about 30 that kept pushing to the first buoy. I had a s@#t turn but got back into the business pretty soon. The second turn was flawless and I passed about 10 people on it. I then made my way to another group that was going well up front and the 5 of us pushed the last 200 together.
I drank some water on the last 100m and was already working my way through transition. Everything was in place and I got out real fast.
To be continued….
Gorgeous and Hot weather lookin soooooo good.
ReplyDeleteSwim sounds like a good one...
send me your email and I'll invite you to my private blog.
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brybrarobry@me.com
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