What can I say, the weekend finally came where I was off to Slovakia to race in the European Aquathlon Championships. After leaving school in the afternoon of Thursday, we arrived in Bratislava late into the evening, so we pretty much found ourselves going straight into bed and left the exploring to the Friday. On Friday we had a chance to explore the city and to our delight, the weather was very sunny with a slight breeze. About 10,000 steps later we had seen lots of the city, the old and the new parts and were pleasantly surprised by it all. Although at midday, we jumped into a taxi and travelled 15 mins out of the centre, to a lake where the aquathlon was taking place. My swim familiarisation was at 4 and when I arrived with all of my kit at the lake for the first time, I was amazed by the water. It was nothing like any other triathlon I had done, where you couldn't see more than 10cm infront of you, but the water looked as clear as anything. The swim familiarisation went well and I just did one lap of the 500m, which was good to get to know the course, and I also learnt that I needed to make sure I didn't go too wide on the return from the second inflatable buoy. My Zone3 wetsuit and Zealous 2 piece swimsuit were great to test out too. Once the swim familiarisation was complete and the pre race briefing, we headed back to the hotel to get an early supper. After struggling to find somewhere to buy pasta, I finally found some, although I would have definitely have preferred my home made pasta by this point. After an early night, I found myself waking up at 7am, in order to get to the lake on time. The lake was pretty much next to the hotel, but I had to go with the strict timings of transition set up. It wasn't long before the time quickly went by and my race was starting shortly. I had a good running warm up and then jumped into the lake for a suitable swimming warm up too. The water was cold, but you quickly warmed up and luckily my wetsuit fits me really well, which helps to reduce any unnecessary cold water getting in. Once we were all brought into the holding pen, we were released and made our way to the start line. This was the first time I had done a run into the water start and I wasn't too amused because it was so so stony on the ground just at the edge of the water, so it was painful to run on. When the gun went, you didn't have much of a choice, either waddle into the water, don't hurt your feet and be slow, or just suck the pain up and run quickly in, and with the adrenaline going, that is what I found myself doing. I'll be honest, after coming out of the swim having been dunked, dragged and kicked, I staggered into transition over a minute behind the second last U20 athlete and I struggled to stay on two feet, as my head started to spin. I gave myself ten seconds in transition just to feel normal than I just ran off, with all the determination to do some catching up. Luckily the run did go much more in my favour, and I managed to finish in 5th catching several other U20s. The 5km run was done in 5x 1km laps, which made it easy to see how I was closing the gaps on people. When I crossed the line, I was relieved and very tired. The sun had been very strong and the temperature was over 25 degrees, which I am definitely not complaining about, but it did make it that little bit more tricky.
We then headed back to central Bratislava and spent the rest of the day sight seeing again and also picking up a bit of a tan (... maybe burn in some places), as it was super hot and sunny. I have really enjoyed my trip to Slovakia, and it has been an amazing experience. I am heading off home soon, and will return back to training, to prepare for a track race next weekend. Now I think I will be sticking with predominantly running in the future, as I hope to advance in that and come into the next cross country and track season strong. Love G x
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It all started back on the 13th July, when I decided to take part in a fun aquathlon down in Lewes. This was one big learning curve, but the bug of the idea of triathlon really started then. 3 triathlons later, I am here where I am now, it is fair to say I have had a roller coaster ride with triathlons, from my bike breaking to cutting the course short but something has kept pulling me back to them, and maybe it is just because I love it. Sometimes (okay very rarely) I have doubts about why I'm doing this, normally when I am in the middle of a tough session or when I am 35km into a cycle ride and my toes are numb and I have 35km left. Even though these moments are hard I am always happy at the end and really I do love the feeling of numb toes and being exhausted. I thought it would be an appropriate time to look back at these 4 races and briefly look at how each one went and if I have improved over the season. After buying my new trisuit for this event, I had already sort of told myself that I was going to stick at this. The aquathlon went well but I knew there was lots to improve on and from there my triathlon training started. Swim:3/10 - Got caught up in the start, and basically didn't know how to swim in a girl in a lengths pool... it is a difficult concept I promise. Run:6/10 - my legs felt like jelly after swimming, this was a new feeling. The excitement of the day before Bewl Tri is still with me but the emotion of afterwards is too. I wouldn't say I am a particularly emotional person but `I will admit I had a fair few sobs over (and during...) this event. Firstly taking my hybrid bike to an adults tri was probably not my brightest moment, but that was my bike I had at the time, so I had to deal with it. Then it breaking after 5km and having to run 5km back to the start was also not in the plan. The run, I then had to hold myself back from crying for the whole thing, because all I was doing was feeling sorry for myself. Not ideal, and not very mature either! I learnt the most from this event and that I needed to grow up and get on with it. If triathlons were easy, everyone would be doing them! Swim: 7/10 - I surprised myself coming out the water 4th Bike: 1/10 - I think I've probably already summed this bit up Run: 4/10 - bad run as I was too caught up in all my emotions Edenbridge was the week after Bewl and I was certain to set things straight after my mishaps. I had got a new road bike at the beginning of the week and I had been practicing with my cleats every day. The swim was in the pool so not my personal favourite, then the cycle was out on the roads on a sort of flatish course, then the run was around the park. After having second place taken away from me this day, because I accidentally cut the cycle route short as there were no marshals or signs to guide me on a round about, it was getting to the point were I should have been thinking of giving up. But no... for some reason this didn't even cross my mind, to be perfectly honest it made me more determined than ever. Swim: 6/10 - pretty average, nothing special Bike: 7/10 - the bike actually went well apart from the fact I cut the course Run: 7/10 - it was my best run so far, and I felt like my brick had helped this. After over a month of no tri because of missing Bodium castle Tri because of illness, I was ready a raring to go. At this point I will admit all I wanted to do was complete a tri, but when I was standing (or should I say bobbing) on the start line in the water, I knew I wasn't just going to take it easy, I wanted to give it my best shot. 1:17:22 later I cross the line in 8th place out of 350 women and I was pretty happy! This was just the way I wanted to finish the season and it has given me even more motivation and confidence for winter training now.
Swim: 8/10 - surprised myself with the 2nd quickest swim time overall Bike: 7/10 - best bike so far, but still room for lots of improvement, especially on the downhills. Run: 7/10 - apart from the slow start because of a steep hill, I was pleased with a strong run. Don't get me wrong these scores out of 10 got to the 8s by Hever Tri but by next season I will be expecting more from myself and I won't be wanting to settle with 8th place, however pleased I was with it this time. I have now got my winter training ahead and cross-country season to look forward too. I also had my first club ride this morning and even though my toes and fingers got pretty numb and I could barely get up to walk to the fridge afterwards it was all worth it, as I had so much fun... yes every 75km of it was fun (minus one very long hill, where my gears on the back wheel stopped working so I was down to about 8 gears for the rest of the ride). I have been writing down some goals for the 2017 tri season which I will share with you later on, but for now its all about getting some good solid winter training in. G x Finally the day of my aquathlon came, after lots of excitement leading up to it. My dad had come home early to come and watch me and by 5:30 we were in the car on our way to Lewes. After a not too long drive and then some navigating we found Pells Pool, which wasn't what I was expecting but I loved it! It was a huge outdoor pool, and I am definitely keen to go back there to do some more swimming. After registering and having a wonder around looking at where the transition area is and where I'll be running, and at the same time passing a beautiful lake, as shown in the photo above. I soon found myself on a light jog around the park warming up. When I was warming up there was a light bit of rain, but fortunately my leggings are waterproof, even though they don't feel it... fortunately the rain stopped just before my race. As my wave came closer I did a few last minute warm up exercises, including swinging my arms around... and looking like a nutter. After a few warm up lengths in the very cold water, I wasn't sure whether to wear a wetsuit but in the end I decided against it, although some people still wore them. I soon found myself on the start line... 3, 2, 1, *whistle*. Luckily all the waves were pretty small, which avoid everyone swimming on top of each other. However annoyingly I was in the last wave, which was definitely the strongest... not sure how I ended up in that wave but hey, it was fine. The fact that this was my first aquathlon, I didn't have much experience in swimming in a big group and in circles, instead of having my own lane and just going up and down. When I was swimming I just didn't expect it to be so argy bargy and several times I found myself push out onto the edge of the pool, having to swim the long way around the buoy. Hopefully with experience I can improve this aspect of my swim. After my 3 laps of the pool, which was 300m, the transition came and this bit I was most worried about, but when you are in the zone of your race, I just seemed to do everything automatically, although I forgot to tighten my elastic laces and had to do them just as I left the swimming pool. My new tri suit helped my transition too because I didn't have to worry about putting on shorts or a top, all I had to put on was my trainers. I charged out the pool, like I was on a mission and I quickly got to the big park and here I was to do 3 laps again, each time collecting a purple band... just to make sure everyone has done their 3 laps. Running is definitely my stronger part of the aquathlon and I was hoping to make up some places in this section and I am very pleased to say I over took 4 people in the 3.5km run. I was worried before the aquathlon whether my legs were going to feel that responsive, as on my runs the few days before they were feeling a bit heavy. Luckily they felt almost normal by the time it came to the run and although I gave the run my best shot, I think I left myself a bit too much to do after the swim. By the time I reached the finish, we were all quite far away from each other, but I am pleased to say I finished strong and I couldn't stop smiling afterwards and can't wait to do more aquathlons and triathlons in the future! The results still haven't been published and I couldn't even roughly tell you were I came because there were so many waves, so I can publish my results on twitter and Instagram when I get them. My plan for training now is to get some solid swimming sessions and introduce more cycle rides into my training plan along with my runs. I have a triathlon in August which I am working towards, so hopefully everything will come together then. Hope you all have a great weekend, and good luck to anyone racing. 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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