As I don't have a race this weekend, I thought I'd look back at my double weekend of racing last week. I posted about my Kent XC League last Sunday, so here is a post on my duathlon. On last Sunday morning, I am lying in bed, the day after my kent XC League and it is fair to say my legs were feeling rather heavy. I still managed to pull myself out of bed and get downstairs for my porridge, which was topped off with some raw coconut chocolate. Once I was up I was a lot more ready to go, and once my bike was in the car and all my kit was ready, we were off. On arrival, I was very excited because my duathlon was at the Olympic park, which is just pretty awesome! After following a tunnel to the velo park, I quickly checked in with the organisers and was given my race number. I then realised I had forgotten my race belt so, I had to saftey pin my number to my tri suit... not ideal (purely because I was most worried about it getting holes in). this also meant I could grab a top to put on over my number for when I was cycling but this was fine because I didn't actually get cold in the end. After I had set my bike transition up, helped by my number one marshall, aka my dad! For the start I managed to get to the front of the line and when the whistle went I found myself in the front few. After getting into my rhythm, I quickly got up to the front and I found myself leading the run out... this was a very new experience for me. But as I came into the last straight of my second and final run lap, I had a 15 second lead, this isn't a huge lead but I was pleased to have covered my 2 miles in 13:32. I still haven't quite masted already clipping my shoes into my cleats and then doing them up while cycling, but I am still practicing lots, to try and master it. Anyway I was soon off on my bike course and I was in the lead. The bike course was 10 miles, made up of 10 laps... *yawn* that is pretty hard to keep track of and also a little bit boring doing the same loop, but surprisingly it wasn't. I think it was probably to do with being in the Olympic Park,which made it so much more cool! 3 laps went by and I was still in the lead, although this lap I was overtaken twice, and I my legs were starting to feel the burn. Nonetheless I continued to push through each lap and by the end of the 10th lap, I jumped off to find myself in 5th place. I was determined to try and catch the person infront of me in this next run, but we were all too spaced apart by this point and I came in, in 5th overall, and 1st in my age group. The last run lap was so painful and the lactic acid in my legs, was a little overwhelming, however I tried to run through it, and my legs finally got back to normal with about 100m to go. This is usually fine in a triathlon because the run finishes with a 5km run so I can run normally for the last 4km, but in this case the run was just too short, to work in my favour. I was rather pleased to have won my age group, however I was a bit gutted to have missed out in the top 3 for the overall rankings. I still need to continue to improve my bike part and this was really the main reason I did this duathlon, to continue to improve my bike racing. Afterwards we had a wonder around and we got to go and see the indoor cycling track, which was pretty awesome. I was shocked at how steep the sides are because when you see it on the tv, they effortlessly glide up and down the sides. After a busy morning we headed back to the car and set off home. I was pleased with my mornings work and my final time was 55:28 with my splits of R1- 13:32 B1- 34:46 R2- 7:09. I couldn't manage to get out on my bike this morning because of the bad weather, but I am going to jump on my turbo later. Have a good Sunday everyone.
G x
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I woke up to the rain chucking it down on my roof, which usually I am a fan of because I like listening to it, but on Saturday I wasn't too amused because I knew that I was going out to run in it. After my usual pre race breakfast of porridge with a banana (and not to mention my carbonara the night before), I was ready to go. I had wrapped up warm, although I was half debating whether it was skins weather or not, but in the end I realised I actually didn't have any skins at home, and that they were both at school, so that was that decided. After arriving the rain started to hold up, however there was still a very damp feel in the air. There was also the fact that there was a very sad tone to this race, because we all had Lucy and Stacey at the forefront of our minds. If you haven't heard these two girls were killed on Tuesday in a road traffic accident at just 16 and 17 years old. This is all too real for everyone in the running world, because they were hit when out on a club run, which we all do at our various clubs on a Tuesday and Thursday. Whilst warming up I got to have a quick catch up with Carlotta, which relaxed the tone. We held a minutes silence for Lucy and Stacey on the start line, which gave us all time to think of them before our race. Once we had all got ourselves together, before we knew it the gun went, (although this time it was a whistle because the officials gun broke). I felt like I had a good start for once and that I was ready to go. The first section of the course was around a field which was relatively flat, to my relief. However when we made the turn into the woods, we all knew we had one long climb to the top in front of us. I had previously had to think quite hard about what length spikes to put in because the ground was a lot wetter than previous races, however there was a lot of stoney sections, so in the end I went for my 9mm. The decent down was tricky, because it was very uneven, tree roots were everywhere, and there were lots of corners. When I made it down into the last field I was next to two other girls and I soon realised we will be battling it out until the end. With 200m to go I didn't have anything left in my legs and I came in 11th, behind these two girls. I have pretty mixed feelings about this because two weeks ago I came 9th, and I was really aiming to improve on this, but it just wasn't to be on Saturday. I will continue to train hard through the winter, as I am keen to keep progressing and build up my fitness. Each race just makes me more and more motivated to keep at it! It was nice being combined with the U20s too in the race, as it made the field bigger and it also meant I could race with Lucy and Emilia :D I have had a very busy weekend with a duathlon today following yesterday's XC race. I will be writing a blog post on that some time this week, but I have a lot of work at the moment, so I need to get that done before writing my next blog post. I hope you have all had a nice weekend and if you were racing you wore a black ribbon to remember Stacey and Lucy. I am now waiting on whether I have been selected to race for Kent, however my chances are quite slim but I guess you never know.
G x All of Friday at school all I could think of was the relays, as I was pretty excited. The club was travelling up on Friday evening to a hotel an hour from Mansfield. So, as I like to start any race blog post, I talk about my carbonara pasta, but this time it was slightly different to normal. This was because I was eating it on the coach from a tuba wear box, so it isn’t exactly different just a bit cold… Anyway the journey to the hotel went pretty quickly (which was helped by sitting next to Clara). When we got to hotel we were quickly in our rooms and ready for bed… okay not quite, we had a little tea party and a chat before bed, as we had arrived at 8pm. I know I go to bed early, but not that early! At 6:30am my alarm goes off and being slightly disorientated, it takes me a while to realise what was happening. The beds at the hotel were possibly the best I have ever had (and we are talking about a Holiday Inn right now), this made getting out of bed that bit harder. We headed to breakfast to find no porridge, but panic over, because I had brought a sachet of porridge with me. I swiftly asked the lady at breakfast if she could just add some hot milk to it for me and luckily that was fine. We step off the coach and the quick realisation of how cold it was, quickly hit us! I went from 2 layers to 4 within 10 minutes of being outside. We walked the course after almost immediately getting there, it didn’t take us long considering it was only 2.5km, which I wasn’t completely a fan of, but I just thought at least I won’t be running for long. Soon enough I was on my warm up and for once my legs felt good and like they had lots of energy. I did some drills then some strides, so then I headed to the holding pen, where all the athletes who were running the third leg went. I was pretty nervous about running the third leg, but before I knew it Clara was charging up the last hill and I was off. First I headed off through the open field and then I headed into the woods. It was a lovely course but in the woods all the tap going in different directions was slightly confusing as it all sort of merged into one. I would like to say that I came flying out the woods into the final field but I didn't, my legs felt slow and I didn't have much left in me. People started to over take me and this definitely pushed me down, but I knew I had to do it for my team. The cold air made breathing hard, but at the end of the day everyone was in the same boat so I tried to get on with it. The last 500m was painful and I was just trying my absolute best and in the end we came home in 8th. This was a great result but I had started my leg in 4th so clearly I wasn't that happy. At the end of the day my relay team did really well and Phoebe even got the fastest overall leg, which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately Saturday wasn't my day and I didn't have the magic moment of energy, when I put my spikes on. Whether it was nerves because of the big event or travelling up and having a slightly different routine the night before, I will take it all as experience and learn from it. Sometimes I just have to remember how new I am to the sport and that there is a lot of learning involved, but of course you always want to do well. After my race it was fuelling time, which was helped by bounce and chia charge. I am obsessed with the coconut and macadamia bounce ball at the moment, so that was of course some of my lunch. I also enjoyed a nice bagel with peanut butter on... my fav! Once I had topped up the tank, I headed off to the stalls, where I picked up my new burgundy hoodie and a long sleeve top, which I was very excited about as I hadn't got an event hoodie before (and I am still wearing it now, and have no intention of taking it off anytime soon!). They were also seriously reasonable, and good quality for how much I payed for them (£12 for the hoodie and £7 for the top). My new More mile kit kept me nice and toasty on the cold day and also looking pretty snazzy too, especially with these new leggings they have just realised! I am currently writing a More Mile review, which will be up sometime this week! Although I can't resist telling you how soft this long sleeve top is, and I was wearing it all day but when I got home I didn't want to take it off, (although the shower was definitely calling me by this point!) At the end of the day I had a great weekend, and loved my first major event! I am keen now to continue to get some solid training in this winter and hopefully improve for my upcoming Kent League's in a few weeks and I have a few school fixtures too. I hope you have all had a nice weekend! 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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