With thanks to my late aunt, Jean Abdee, whose legacy has helped make this possible.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Grendon Tri

Just got back from completing the Grendon Triathlon (open water sprint distance) and feel it went quite well. It was a bitterly cold morning and the water temperature (at 13.6 degrees) was said to be warmer than the air temperature. It didn't feel it. Even with a wetsuit, I was freezing and very soon lost feeling in my feet. However, 20 mins or so later I was out, the worst bit over and soon on the bike. It was a nice bike ride and the sun came out which made it so much more pleasant.

I have to admit to feeling hopelessly outclassed by all the other bikes in transition though - a real wish-list of gorgeous road and tri bikes; Cannondale, Specialised, C Boardman, Trek, Planet X, Cervelo and so on. And there was mine; a very used and still rather oily (from the bracket change and chain clean) old-fashioned racer with no name to recommend it, but the point is that it goes, and I, being the standard I'm at, would not find my time greatly enhanced by carbon-fibre, or even titanium (though it would be nice to try :-)). And given that some of these bikes cost as much as a small car, I'm not sure I'd ever want to venture out on one!

When I came in to start the run, the sun was getting nice and warm and I was pleasantly surprised to find I had enough energy left to put in a really good time - by my watch at least - of about 28 mins. So I was pleased with that.

So that is the preparation for the Olympic tri in June. Two thoughts; one that I need to do a lot more training (and really should have made more effort to get an open-water session in before now) and the second is that I absolutely have to replace my wetsuit, which is so tight it's difficult to swim properly. It was snug before and although I've lost weight, I must have put on some muscle which doesn't help. It's all a big learning banana, as my sister would say.

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