North West Triathlon 2013 vs Cheshire Triathlon 2017. Course is the same, just run at a different time of year (August for 2013, May for 2017). I’ll be doing the same course again in August, which will make a great third benchmark.

North West 2013 Cheshire 2017 Diff % Change
Swim 00:20:29 00:13:56 -06:33 -23.84
T1 (None recorded) 00:02:54
Ride 00:52:02 00:44:19 -07:43 -14.83
T2 (None recorded) 00:02:10
Run 00:37:55 00:27:14 -10:41 -28.18
Total 01:50:26 01:30:33 -19:53 -18.00

About four months ago, I sat down and took a hard look at my 2013 results and asked where I thought I could go compared to them. I came up with a 15 minute swim, 45 minute ride and a 27 minute run, and then planned around that. I was almost spot on, my swim came out ahead of my expectations.

The race was planned, with some thought given to pacing. I knew what my Z3 pace was going to be like across all three disciplines, and I wanted to stay where possible in that region so I could finish strong, rather than bonking on the run. Being slightly rushed at the start of the swim, I failed to start my watch so missed capturing that data, but my ride and run both captured fine, and were spot on for heart rate and pacing for the majority. Run pace was 5:45, which is on a par with what I’ve been capable of doing recently. I finished feeling that I could do longer, but not faster.

Huge shout out to my “support team”. Cat was there taking photos, feeding me when I had finished and literally picking up after me (grabbing my stuff from T1 to avoid bag collection), and Jo has been keeping me held together with regular massage and therapy for the past month. This may be an individual sport, but you get there with help from those around you.

So the next question is, where do I go from here? I’ve got Birminham pencilled in for July. That involves an open water-swim, which is a whole new set of skills to learn (hopefully starting this week). Regards bike - I’m currently stuck on the hoods, I need to learn to get over my fear of getting down in the drops. I’m happy to do it on the trainer, but really struggle when out on the road. It may be fit, it may be confidence, but I need to overcome this. I think it’s time to start pushing the run skills as well, I need to find some time (not much, but somewhere) to do some track sessions.

I’m happy with this performance, but I feel as if I can do better.

Back to work.