I have been on holiday for the last week in Greece, so I would like to say I have a nice tan, but no... I don't really. I had a week off from running and cycling last week, while I was away but I did a lot of swimming to compensate. During the week, I definitely missed my bike and running, so of course yesterday the first thing I did was got on my bike and went for a 35km cycle (although I did get a bit lost and ended up in the middle of a farm yard...:/). Yes, this is another holiday blog post, but don't worry it is the last one, because this post marks the end of my summer holidays and also marks me going off to boarding school and starting 6th form, which I am really excited about! This does mean I will not be able to post as much and as you may have noticed, I have already started reducing my posts down to once a week and this is how it will be from now on until I am on school holidays again and I have all the time to blog. I will be doing lots of my training at school from now on, except every Thursday I will go down to my club for a session. I have also made a review page, so I will be posting on there at least once a week and please comment on products you would like me to review. Running on holiday is a tough one for me as I don't mix with the heat well. In my last 10km race it was a seriously hot day and it definitely affected my performance. At least when I was on my last holiday I could get some good sessions done to help me get used to running in the heat. I did have to go for my run bright and early as in the day time, it is really just too hot to run and I think I probably would have got dehydrated, so I kept my runs for in the morning. My hair goes a bit crazy when I get hot and sweaty as you can tell from this photo. My outfit choice for running in the heat is always this top. I have this top in lots of different colours because I love it because it is so light and it allows the breeze to flow through it. So after my long summer holidays of getting some great training in and some triathlons, I am happy to be going back to school because I have had 2.5 months off and I just feel ready to go back. This blog post is a bit more of an over view of my whole summer but hopefully you will like a quick catch up. When the Olympics were on, I spent those two weeks of my life either watching the tv or running, swimming and cycling, which was pretty fab to be honest. The Olympics are just so inspiring and I have realised how much I want to make my dream a reality. Tokyo 2020 womens triathlon I am coming for you! I hope you have all had a good summer, and I am sure lots of you reading this will be going back to school soon too, so I wish you luck back at school. Remember to keep checking my blog for blog posts and reviews, also let me know what products you want me to review, I have a few lined up for the next few weeks. Love G x
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6:00am my alarm rang and with tired eyes I made it downstairs to make my porridge. Last night I had a large bowl of carbonara followed by a large glass of strawberry milk, my typical pre race dinner. I had packed my bags the night before so all I had to do was get my bike in the car and we were off. It wasn't long before we reached the leisure centre and after setting up my transition area, as shown below, the whole crowd gathered together for a pre race briefing. The swim was split into waves and there were two in a lane and you just kept to your side, which was a bit of a squeeze, which meant you couldn't tumble turn. At 8:10am my wave started and I was off for my 16 lengths which I finished in 6:55, which is pretty slow but my swim had its problems, because my goggle kept letting water in so I think they must have a hole in. Once I jumped out the pool I made a speedy walk out the side door and then broke into a run once I was out the pool and made it to the transition area. With a quick transition I was off on my bike quickly and off out on to the course after a quick sip of lucozade. I haven't started to keep a water bottle on my bike yet, as I am a bit wobbly on my new bike with one hand, so I just try and rehydrate in the transitions. The bike ride was 25km but I started my watch a bit late so I wasn't sure how much further I had left for most of. The cycle ride was along lovely roads which were pretty hilly in parts but my new bike made it all so much easier. The route it is fair to say, was poorly marked with signs and marshalls and at one round about I circled it several times, then decided it must be the far point in which you head back from so I made my journey back to the leisure centre from there which was about 12km. The first km of my run was pretty slow because my legs felt like jelly and I thought they were going to collapse but the more I ran the more they realised that they were running and weren't on a bike anymore. The run was 5.3km and I did it in 25:20, which I was pleased with as my legs felt exhausted after the cycle. When I finally reached the end I was exhausted and happy to have finished. I was just so pleased that I made it around the whole course. After a short race they made a presentation for the top 3 men and woman and I was thrilled to have come second, I was so so happy. After a bit of stretching we then jumped back in the car and made our way home. My mood was so happy and I couldn't have been more pleased until I received an email from the organiser to say that I had left my helmet there and more importantly that he thinks I cut my course short... I was like what! After a conversation with him he said I should have carried on for half a mile more after the round about, which I circled many times. I was pretty angry at this because the course was badly marked and I had no idea which way to go. I had also previously looked at the course on google maps, but they had screens hotted such a blurry image of it, that it was hard to understand. I also felt pretty embarrassed as I had received my second prize trophy in front of everyone and actually I didn't deserve it. At this point you could think why do I keep trying triathlons as all it is doing is making me upset when things go wrong, but there is something which makes me want to keep doing them because I love them! Looking back at what has happened today at the triathlon, it makes me think that a lot of people went wrong on this turning because they only realised that I had gone wrong because someone told the organiser, I'm not sure how but he knew I had gone wrong. The official times have come out and I had a look and the person who officially came second now and she was 2.5mins slower than me and third was over 4 mins slower, which does give me some consolation that if I had just realised to do that extra bit of the cycle, I could have still got 2nd or 3rd, because it wouldn't have taken me long to do an extra mile.
Going on from this I am just going to get some more training in and book another triathlon for in September as I am still on a mission to complete one. I am sitting here writing this feeling pretty upset about todays triathlon because I couldn't be happier with the way I performed but I just wish they had had a few more marshals out on the bike course. It was the first time this triathlon has been run so hopefully next year that they will have picked up that the need more marshals as I would like to return to this course again next year. Onwards and Upwards, G x The day I booked into this Bewl Triathlon I was super excited for it so when it was the evening before it, I was sure to be filling up with lots of fuel. My dinner was a rather large portion of carbonara pasta, followed by a glass of strawberry milk and an energy bar. I packed my bag the night before as it was a 5:15am wake up in the morning. That night it took me a while to get to sleep as I found myself going through my transitions in my head. Soon enough I found myself on my way to Bewl water for the triathlon, I had had a light breakfast of some porridge and a bit of an energy bar at 5:20 but I did't want to eat much more as I didn't have that long to digest before the race. When I got there, I quickly picked up my race pack including my new Bewl top and it also came with a bright pink swimming cap, which I was rather pleased with. I then went down to the water for a warm up and the officials also announced wetsuits were optional but I decided to wear mine in the end and so did most people, because the water was pretty cold. Once I had got over the fact that the water was pretty murky, I worked out a good technic on swimming fast but also seeing were I am going, as open water in slightly different to lane swimming. After a quick last announcement, I walked up to the waters edge with the rest of the sprint tri women. We were soon told to get into the water and get to the start and before I knew it we were off. After swimming for what did feel like a long time in the water, I made it back to the shore and I was pretty happy with how the swim went. I aimed to get off fast to try and avoid the barging at the beginning. This was the first time I've swam open water and it was definitely a great experience, and I loved it! The run up from the reservoir to the transition was definitely longer than expected and one part was across a car park, which was just a little bit painful on my feet and not to mention that it was uphill... my favourite! I was really pleased with my first transition and I was quickly off on my bike. It wasn't far into my bike ride that I knew something wasn't right. Apart from the fact that everyone on their pro road race bikes were flying past me but something wasn't right, it felt like I was cycling really hard but moving no where. I couldn't work it out... then thats when my chain fell off. So, I quickly jumped off and sorted it out but I hadn't cycled far until it fell off again, so this time I walked it up to the marshals and they said they had sorted it out, so off I went again. At this point I had lost a considerable amount of places, but that didn't really bother me at this point, I wanted to get around this course. but when my chain fell off for the forth time, I knew something was wrong with my bike. I got off my bike and knew it was the end of my race and I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear. In the end me and my bike were put in a van and taken back to Bewl at this point I thought that I wouldn't be aloud to do the run and I was gutted and yes very emotional again. Suddenly I realised that I could go and do my run but at this point I was mentally in a bad place and the first 1km of my run was pretty bad because I was pretty upset but soon I told myself to get on with it. At half way I was in a much better place and even though I still look a little shaken in these photos, I felt good and I was in my rhythm and over taking people, even though it didn't matter at this point whether I over took people, but I still wanted to run my hardest and give it my best shot. The views across the reservoir when running along the dam were amazing and definitely helped me! The finish was definitely was a happy sight because it felt like I had been on an emotional rollercoaster but at the end I was sad but happy! Sad because I wanted to have completed each section of it but happy because I loved it and found it so much fun (excluding the fact I had to run with my bike for 5km to the man who took me back in the van, but I now think of it as I ran nearly 10km, so just some extra training). I have so much to take away from my first triathlon, things which went well and things which didn't go so well. I am so excited for my next triathlon as I think I have really found what I love and what I really want to be good at and train for! I really inspire to be like Gwen Jorgensen, not to mention because she is the favourite at winning the women's triathlon in Rio but because her strongest part is the run and she just chases down the field in her run and often goes on to win and this really truly inspires me because obviously running is my favourite part of the triathlon. I hope you have all had a great weekend, Love G x On the build up to this race, I hadn't stopped my training or anything, so I did my usual 5km run on Monday, and my legs were feeling light and ready. My race wasn't until 20:20 so I had all day to be excited for it and of course a little nervous too. I hadn't raced on a track for over a year and the last time I was on the track was my school sports day and I did the 1500m in 5:33, I wasn't exactly classed as a runner at that point so I was keen to beat this time! On the Tuesday we went down to Eastbourne and I bought a funky new wetsuit for my triathlon on Sunday. I had a tasty chicken and sweetcorn pasta for lunch, to put some carbs into my body before my race. Then my pre race snack/ dinner was banana on toast with peanut butter, my favourite! In the warm up my legs were feeling extremely heavy, so I started to feel a bit worried. When I had been for my warm up jog around the field I came back to the track and put my spikes on. After a few quick strides around the bend of the track which wasn't being used for the 200m heats, which were going on before the 1500m. I was in the second heat so I didn't have to wait at the start for long and soon enough I found myself at the start line. The race quickly split into two packs and I found myself in the back pack from the beginning but soon I found our group spreading out a bit. At one point I was worried I was at the back but, I refused to look behind me because I knew that is the worst thing to do in a race. My last 100m was a sprint finish against this boy and annoyingly I just lost to him in the last few metres, I was a bit gutted as normally my sprint finishes are strong. I came in to the finish near the back of the pack but I was still pleased with my first track race in over a year and I couldn't stop smiling afterwards too. My finalised time was 5:19:97 which I was happy with, although I still know that there is definitely room for improvement as my target time was 5:15, which I didn't quite make. I guess the fact that my legs felt as good as new in my cool down, is a good sign and that I can definitely start my first few laps quicker. Before the race my aim was to finish strong and not go off too quickly, but I have now learnt I could have gone off a bit quicker. This race was a great experience and I have lots to take away from it! I have a week of some more training this week before my triathlon on Sunday. I hope you have all enjoyed my blog post, and it is also my first blog post for this month. Lets hope August can be a sunny and successful one! Love G x |
HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
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