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Aviemore Triathlon (1k swim, c18k MTB, c8k run)

By CoachKev | Published 29 October 2021 | No Comments

Ok, so I’m not a huge fan of doing race reports. Think its because I tend to avoid reflecting too much on the event post race, so the memory fades quite quickly and I use that as an excuse not to document them! Why don’t I reflect..? Probably because I focus on the negatives and dwell on them, which isn’t much fun, and clearly isn’t the whole story. In writing this report I’m attempting to address that.

Right, this is an event I’ve been keen to do for years but not had the bike confidence given its a (partly) technical off road course. Over the last couple of years though, with some specific training and encouragement from Donnie, I felt prepared. Tri scotland also using the event as their Scottish Champs, so a good level of racing expected.

(‘local’ pre event training)

So, with plenty OW swim practice done (thanks ‘Wardie’ Dave), techy bike training sorted (incl a course recce earlier in summer – can’t overstate how beneficial this was) and running in decent shape, I was sooo ready for my first tri of 2021.  Until about 3 days before race day when I picked up one of these so-called ‘supercolds’. I can honestly say its probably one of the worst I’ve ever had and I’ve never felt so physically and mentally low going into an event. Even the drive up the A9 on saturday was an ordeal (well more so than usual!).

After a terrible night’s van sleep and pumped full of paracetemol I made my way to Loch Morlich and the Badaguish Centre to get set up (thanks to Donnie for pre-registering me). Even the weather wasn’t playing nice. Alasdair also taking part, Donnie and Eilidh paired up to do event as a relay team. This is the first ever time I actually had thoughts of not finishing enter my head, which I now still can’t believe I considered was an option…
A split transition sees you set up T2 first then head down to the loch on your bike to set up T1. First mistake of the day – timing dibber left behind in van – ride back up to car park against flow of all other competitors is not great for calming pre-race nerves!

SwimOk, so now back down at lochside and set up with mins to spare – feeling no better of course but committed now to getting on with it. Loch Morlich is a lovely place to swim and despite weather, water was flat and about 16c. Mistake number 2 coming up – I’m sure everyone knows that the swim is my weakest leg – always has been  – the swimming itself is fine and I’ve done loads of OW practice. Starts are where things have gone wrong in past. So I have a strategy to deal with this of course, place myself further back and towards the ‘outside’ so I can swim into clear water should it get busy in front – particularly on approach to buoy 1. Except that for some reason I didn’t do that on this occasion(?) so found myself right in the ‘washing machine’ and as a result lost control of my breathing and ended up doing a mix of breast stroke and front crawl for lap 1 and then eventually got back on to it for lap 2. Cost to me – probs at least 3 mins lost. Dejected on exit from loch and stubbed toe on the rocks they said to watch out for. Pleased to be out the water though….

Bike having opted for socks (!) and a gilet given rain, a longer than usual T1 saw me out onto bike course well down the field, penalty of which is being stuck behind slower moving bikes on single track for a km or so. In hindsight probs not a bad outcome as my HR was way higher than usual and (from course recce) I knew a crazy steep climb was coming up – so felt I had a choice to make – 1. ease off, finish event and accept that given I was ‘below par’ that would be ok, or 2. fully commit on bike leg and if that meant I blew up on run then so be it, at least I had tried to ‘perform’..?So, my head says “pick no 1.”, but heart says otherwise so I attacked first climb and continued to do so through remainder of a very mixed, often technical course which, given the recce and my training, was quite enjoyable! Into T2 for a shoe change and gilet drop as rain had eased…

RunOk, so i made it onto run, which I usually look forward to and again knew the course given prior recce, however by now I’m really ‘on fumes’ and that’s not a familiar feeling to me at run start. To get through this I was going to have to take something off the pace I would typically run at. But how much – 10%, 20%? How can you know what’s right when your not fully fit going into an event? So it’s going to be largely on ‘feel’. Course is an out and back with a steady hill climb from about 2-5k. I know the term ‘hanging’ on is used a fair bit to describe a performance, but it felt about right this time. Seeing Eilidh and Alasdair on the return run whilst I was on the out leg only served to reinforce how much further I still had to go. Great to see them performing so well though and well done to you both if you read this far!
So i hung on of course to the finish and ended up 6th male supervet, which I may have been disappointed with on a ‘good’ day but clearly this wasn’t one of those and I was delighted to have got round the bike and run legs in a decent fashion. Learning point – even if you feel bad on the day, when you have done the training your body will ‘extract’ it somehow! Great performance by Alasdair to get 2nd Male Vet in a very competitive category and to Eilidh and Donnie for winning the Team Relay – as a duo!

Great event in a beautiful setting, glad I overcame many negative thoughts and a couple of ‘takeaway’ points to sort for next time – which would be 2 weeks later at Craggy Island Tri….