Windsor triathlon 2009 pre-race thoughts
Here are some random thoughts:
- The river is running quite slowly so I probably don’t have to worry about the current too much. I will check it out first thing in the morning though. If it is quite slow, I will be able to take a more direct route rather than swimming close to the edge (I’ll stick to the far right hand side though).
- The plan is to start at the front, swim across quickly to the far side, keep a hard pace going for 400m (literally, so that’s six minutes of hard swimming). Then ease off a bit, tag on to any passing swimmers and go hard when I get near the turn around buoy. Stay in the middle for a bit and make sure I turn right at the right time. Today there was a long blue narrow boat just near the turn – check in the morning.
- T1 will be quick - wetsuit off, bike shoes on (not using new tri shoes as not confident with them yet), helmet, glasses on and go – no socks.
- Bike aim for hard, especially on lead up up to Great Park and through town. Gel at 20 mins and 50 mins.
- T2 will be quick, blue inov8′s, white hat if it is hot, and glasses
- run aim for hard all the way around. Last year I ran hard but remember feeling like I wanted to slow down. It’s only 10k. The harder I run, the quicker it will be over!
Time? No idea. Last year I was so chuffed getting 2:25. This year I just don’t know. I’ve not done a huge amount of training. Also, I got a tight chest and painful cough yesterday after the year’s worse hayfever day. Today it has been painful to cough and the glands in my neck have come up. If the cough is the same tomorrow, who knows.
So, time does not matter. Running fast matters.