Helvellyn Triathlon

Less than 2 week to go to my final Tri for the 2008 season.

Helvellyn feels like a chance to redeem myself after the disaster on the Little Woody run. Its shorter and less undulating, but a bit steeper .

The course is a 1 mile swim in Ullswater, 38 miles on the bike (including the Struggle route up Kirkstone Pass) and a 9 mile run from Glenridding to Helvellyn summit and back.

I am happy with my swimming and cycling – the swim should be 30 or so mins if I push a little harder than I have before. The bike leg is by far my strongest and I do want to get close to the top 50% of the field here – with 700 going it means I have to beat 350 :-0. The final run is just survival up (power walking, sceambling and a bit of running) and survival down (sketch fell running). Final target: beat 200 people and get in inside of 5:30. This is going to Hurt!

The other area which needs working on is transitions. I have a few tactics here –

• Garmin HRM amd race number belt on inside of wetsuit.
• Assuming good weather, tri suit only
• Gloves, shades and Garmin attached to bike, put on while moving.

The run needs a bag with waterproofs / drink / food in it so I intend to use my camelbak and that will speed up T2 – trainers on, camelbak and go. I can tape gels to the straps.

Finally I have my nutrition plan down better this time and will be doing all I can to stay hydrated and will use nuun or just extra salt in drinks to stop cramping. I want to go up this weekend and recce the route, but not run downhill as my knees and quads will take days to recover. I know I will be on the couch for a few days after this one….