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Post by Lucy on Mar 17, 2016 8:03:20 GMT
Nice one Theresa! It's horrible weather for training at the moment. Bring on easter!
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Post by quellcrist81 on Mar 17, 2016 9:51:17 GMT
Hi all,
Just wanted to say it was good to meet everyone that was at the meet on Monday, hopefully catch the rest of you at one of the other events.
Kev
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Post by tritree on Mar 17, 2016 21:00:11 GMT
Woohoo! Just passed £1000 on my fundraising. Makes it all worth while.
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Post by quellcrist81 on Mar 18, 2016 9:08:44 GMT
Woohoo! Just passed £1000 on my fundraising. Makes it all worth while. Congrats!
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Post by Lucy on Mar 18, 2016 13:01:33 GMT
GREAT news!
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Post by Giles M1 on Mar 29, 2016 10:50:32 GMT
Hi everyone,
I completed my first triathlon on Friday and thought it might be helpful to share some of the lessons I picked up from my experience. This was the Radley Sprint Triathlon which is organised by TryTri - more than half of those taking part had never competed in a triathlon before so it was a really nice event to take part in as a novice.
For those of you that are in the same position, there is another event like this in May in Winchester which you can probably still sign up for.
1) Transition - most people were VERY well orgnised for the transitions (and I am definitely excluding myself, with my IKEA bag, here). Most people had relatively small plastic boxes with all of their kit in which they then laid out before the race on a towel with the kit they needed for the cycling and running sections in separate lines. The girl next to me had her socks pre-set in her cycling shoes, with talcum powder already in them ready to dry her feet!
My transition section was an absolute mess by the end, and I noticed that most other people managed to keep their areas pretty neat and tidy. I heard that this is because you can get disqualified in more serious events for having your stuff outside of your box - Lucy, not sure if this is true?
Swim - this was a lane swim, so it was hard to take too much away from this for the half iron man. However, I saw so many people absoutely beast it over the first few laps and then struggle for the rest. Main lesson I took from this was to stick to your own pace and don't get carried away with the excitement of the race.
Cycle - I struggled a bit getting to my gels and remembering to drink enough from my water bottle which was half full by the time i started my run.
Coming off the bike and running - i'd practised this a few times, but having pushed hard on the cycle I found this really tough! My legs were so dead for the first ten minutes or so of runnning! I will be practising this a lot over the coming months as I suspect this will be much worse after a 56 mile bike ride.
Hope some of this helps a bit to some of you. I'd highly recommend trying a small event if you can as it really helped me to understand the transition phases in particular. Lucy - would you mind explaining more about the transition on the half ironman please? I know you mentioned separate bags, so I'm keen to understand how it will differ from the experience I have just had.
Giles
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Post by Lucy on Mar 29, 2016 14:35:15 GMT
Hi Giles. Firstly - well done for completing it! Brilliant idea to try a sprint one before doing a bigger one. I would definitely recommend it. You must have done one of the very first races of the year! Good job it was friday not saturday. The weather may have made things harder!!
Transitions - i'll talk you through these at the first training day (am just drawing up a plan for this now actually). But it's very different at Ironman to other races. Particularly for Staffordshire as the first transition is in one place (where you swim) and the second several miles away (where you finish the bike, start the run and finish the race).
Key points.... 1) You have to rack your bike the day before the race. 2) You get a blue bag (bike bag) that you put everything you need to bike in and a red bag (run bag) that you put everything you need to run in. Again you hand these in the day before the race. In order: Swim. Run up from lake to first transition tent. Collect blue bag. Take off wetsuit and put into blue bag. Put on helmet, bike shoes, glasses etc. Drop blue bag in designated area as you leave the tent. Run to bike and start bike ride. Finish bike ride. Run to second transition tent. Collect red bag. Swap bike kit for run kit (in red bag). Run like the wind. Celebrate like a champ when you finish. Drink champagne.
Hopefully this makes a bit of sense but we'll run through it properly on 24th April. I'll post more details about the first training day tomorrow. It's going to be great!
Giles - they are strict about transitions in most races (it makes sense that they are otherwise it would be carnage). But once you know what you're doing they're fairly straight forward. My most common mistake is to forget where i put my bike.... Always try to find a landmark to help you remember it in a sea of bikes! Lucy
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Post by tritree on Mar 30, 2016 5:42:43 GMT
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Post by emmaeliholland on Mar 30, 2016 14:28:39 GMT
Congratulations Giles! Thanks for sharing I really found this of use. Hope training is going well for everyone.. I'm struggling to leave running alone and spread my time equally with swimming and cycling included! I love how you mentioned Drink Champagne as a step Lucy! I start my swimming lessons this weekend and I'm looking forward to working on my technique. Will have a look at sprint triathlons to see if I can fit one in for practice
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Post by Lucy on Mar 30, 2016 16:03:02 GMT
Champagne and chips/ice cream is essential recovery after a big race!
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