Cotswolds 113

This is a race that I’ve always fancied doing, but have always favoured Outlaw 70.3 Notts as my 140.6 prep race, because its generally a couple of weeks further out from the main event. However, this year, I decided to give it a go!

We (me and triathlon widow Ann ) travelled to a local campsite on the Thursday as we were meeting Helen Pickett and her husband Simon to do some course recceing. Helen has done the sister event Cotswolds Classic (that shares the same course) several times and knows the routes very well. Ann has also entered the Lakeswim 1.9km in June after learning to swim this year….so was keen () to get some time in open water too!!

Consequently we spent most of Thursday afternoon, Friday and Saturday, swimming, biking and running around the venue.

Weather watch began as usual 10 days before the event and the Thursday to Sunday was initially bathed in sunshine, low winds and 20 degree temperatures, that began to change as we got closer and the Saturday and Sunday started to turn decidedly grim!! Funny how a good forecast is usually wrong and a bad forecast is usually accurate!!

We went to bed in the caravan on Saturday night to the sound of torrential rain….then the thunderstorms came, and then the rain continued. The 3:30 alarm woke us to a very wet and very cold morning with very dark skies everywhere. I’m not going to lie, I was tempted to jib it, but Ann had registered to volunteer, and there is no way I could have told all of my athletes that I don’t bother due to the weather!!

Registration and racking take place on the morning at 113 events, but it was a very slick process, and after covering all of my kit with bin bags in an attempt to have something dry to put on at some point, I retired to the car until we got a bit closer to the swim start.

There was a mass start at 5:55 (which I regretted not being in as there were only about 20 people in it), but I was in the first wave off at 06:00 drip fed from the lakeside – I guess I entered about 10th, wanting some feet, but not a lot of traffic. By the time we reached the first buoy, I had swum through the start of my wave and was on my own, but feeling excellent! I pushed on the 2nd buoy and caught the tail end of the mass start which made me think I must be swimming well, as we were only about 600m into the course. By about half way I found some feet that seemed perfect and they were, and the latter half of the swim was comfortably uncomfortable but fast - exiting in 30 mins and few pesty seconds.

Now, back in September 2018, I did IM 70.3 Weymouth, in very similar weather – freezing and wet – the swim being the warmest part! That time, I opted for fast transitions and aero riding…..and DNFd after 40km of the bike with the onset of hyperthermia – I was pulled from the course by the paramedics after coming to a very wobbly halt next to them with uncontrollable shakes and tunnel vision – I spent the next 2 hours in some very kind local’s house, in front of an open fire with 5 other people in the same state until the sweep bus came round! My one and only DNF and it wasn’t happening again!!

So into T1, and on went the big biker jacket and the gloves. I had also taken the decision not to clip my shoes onto my bike, as chances were they were going to get wet, and running in socks across wet grass and muddy car parks, just to put your feet into wet shoes, was not going to be pleasant. As the transition was short, I figured the time lost would be minimal for the comfort gained!! Onto the bike course, and as usual, the first 5 kms were ridden a touch too hard, but soon settled down into appropriate power range, and whilst the rain had stopped, the roads were like rivers, and avoiding potholes and tyre-puncturing debris became a priority.

I knew the bike course, having ridden it earlier in the week, so knew that it was basically, head down, on the bars with a few roundabouts and out & backs, but no difficult turns or climbs. I knew I was pushing the right power – 240ish watts and once my HR had settled from transition it was about right at 135-140, but the speed wasn’t what I was looking for (1-1.5kph off) – the impact of the extra clothes and the wet road. Nothing I could do about either of those, and after a brief debate about increasing the power, I settled for what was happening, content that my choices would allow me firstly to finish and secondly to see where my running genuinely was at! I was happy with my decision as I picked off a couple of other riders (knowing there could be no more than 10-15 in front of me anyway) and only got passed by a few young kids. The first lap came and went without drama, as did the 2nd, I concentrated on finishing off 2 litres of tailwind even though the temperature didn’t encourage me drink, and managed the obligatory pee on the bike after about 70km - happy days!

Approaching T2, I briefly considered a flying dismount, but sadly my fingers were so cold, I couldn’t grab the Velcro on my shoes to undo them…..se left them attached to my feet and unclipped at the dismount line. T2 was relatively OK – I had to get a guy next to me to unclip my helmet as I couldn’t, but aside from that, shoes on, jacket off and away we go.

The nutrition plan for the run was to take a High 5 Aqua gel from the first aid station after 2kms and then collect them from other aid stations so that I could take one every 20 mins, whether that coincided with aid stations or not. I had salt tablets with me, but wasn’t sure they would be needed. Approaching the first aid station…and there was only water….not ideal (I’d seen enough of that already today!), but not a disaster. The second station was at about 4.5km, so should be OK, but approaching that, no gels either…..grim, so I made the call to stop and grab 2 cups of High 5 Energy to see me to the final aid station of each lap, which was back near transition. It was hard to work out what my pace was, as the route goes in and out of trees, and round lakes, and I knew from my recce that the GPS was hopeless….so I went to HR and RPE, and knew that I could get this done (if I could find fuel) at a HR of 150-155….

Approaching the final aid station, and the glorious site of a lady holding up aqua gels….haha, she must have thought me a touch greedy, as I grabbed 4 and ran off!! I got one down me quickly and pocketed the other 3, knowing that I now had enough fuel for the rest of the run. My wife Ann, was volunteering on the run course at about the halfway point of each lap, which was good, because seeing her, mentally broke each lap into 2. A little calmer now with the nutrition sorted, I just focused on trying to keep an even pace for each lap – lap 1 33 mins (it’s a touch shorter due to where you come out of transition), lap 2 36 mins….that left me 36 mins for the final lap for my target time of 1:45. Job done in 1:45.

Total time 5:11, good enough on the day for 8/70 in the over 50s, and 85th out of nearly a 1000 that entered.

Positives:

My swim is good – I had been a bit concerned that pool speed wasn’t transferring into open water…but with my Garmin measuring 1670m and everyone else that I checked measuring 1900-2000m, I’m happy that I’m doing OK, and my Garmin is crap!!

My bike is good – 240W for 2:49 with a 1:24 something on both laps shows me I can hold decent power over time, and 0% decoupling was nice to see

My run was very consistent with 2.6% decoupling and no sign of a recent quad niggle was fabulous

The event was safe, easy to work with and has a decent level of competition without being up itself!

Negatives:

It was wet and cold, but that’s about it!!

This was effectively the last big training session ahead of Lakesman 140.6 in 2 weeks, so please with the positives and pleased to come through unscathed. Onwards to the main event!