Just got emailed the results: 1:19:06 - 36th out of 56 Finishers
Swim
18:11 - 43rd (previous best 22:04)
I was out of the pool by about 16:30 - transition went well with modified bike shoes and no faffing with gloves etc.
Bike
37:47 - 33rd (previous best 51:22)
The 20-30mph winds were reduced by tree cover on the 1500m closed circuit. I got less than a lap with any benefit from drafting, so pretty happy with this performance. Includes a slightly slow run transition - someone racked a bike in my slot and my trainers didn’t want to go on. Ran without socks - have a blister in my arch on left foot to show for it.
Run
23:08 - 35th (previous best 27:29)
What? Never expected this - I have got close to 25 in training without the swimming and cycling ;-).
I’m happy with these results - especially the run. The event was well run with a great facility. Closed track for cycling was good, no traffic so you can just get your head down and go. The run route was flat with views over the estuary.
The changes I made to transition tactics helped lots. My race number belt failed to turn up from wiggle so I had to wear one of my running vests during the bike / run, so there’s 20 or 30 seconds for free there, and my running shoes didnt want to go on in t2, losing me about 30 seconds again.
Ordered a memory card from play.com for my XDA last week - it took them a day to dispatch, which is OK, but then they said 3-5 days to deliver, which is not.
Its now 5 days later and no item - but play.com will not consider a replacement or refund until 21 days have elapsed! Crazy. If they want to send without any tracking its not up to me to wait..
Typically my goods arrived a couple of hours after my post, but I will still be thinking twice about ordering again after seeing the 21 day policy.
On another note, kudos to both Chain Reaction Cycles and Wiggle for providing free delivery, almost always next day.
Went mountain biking in Llandegla yesterday - great on a sunny weekday, easy parking, fast food quiet trails. Here’s a little vid from the black run, me going over the wooden bridge with the drop off:
Swim
Swam last night, recording 19mins for 750m. This included some messy lengths due to muppets in the pool and stopping long enough to check splits every 250m.
I need to learn to breathe bilaterally and work on my swim speed. My strokes still good though ;-).
Bike
Been commuting to work sometimes and have now done a 35 mile ride. I need to work on speed and hills here - I can go a long way at 15-17mph, but I need to do 20+mph for 20km (how english is that? mixed units!).
Run
Another 10km run on Monday - involving some hills. I actually enjoy running now. I need to work on speed here as well, but I also want to boost distance before my longer Tri’s later in the year. A plan must be made…
So there you go, in 2 words - Speed Work.
I have been thinking about my transitions as well - part of my slow swim must have been the transition - heres what I did:
Dry Feet
Put on Socks
Put on Bike Shoes
Lace up Bike Shoes
Velcro Strap On Bike Shoes
Cycle Jersey
Cycle Gloves
Shades
Helmet
Quick Drink
Off
What I intend to do:
Stand on Towel
Put on Bike Shoes
Velcro Strap On Bike Shoes
Race number belt
Shades
Helmet
Off
I think elastic and the main strap on mys shoes should be plenty, socks aint needed and neither will a jersey be. Gloves were not ideal either.
In transition 2 I swapped my jersey for a T-Shirt, which I can skip. So thats just a shoe swap and off - hopefully without the need for socks. The race number belt I have to buy - wiggle do them for a fiver. This plus the lack of hills should get me 1:30 - maybe I should aim 1:20 and just run harder….
Today I completed my first triathlon - the sprint distance Kendal Tri. It was a fun experience, regardless of the wind, rain and a large hill (406m of ascent ) on the bike course!
I placed 64th out of 83 racers, and my results were as follows:
Swim 750m - 22:04 - 78th
Bike 20km - 51:22 - 61st
Run 5km - 27:29 - 63rd
Total: 1:40:55
I’m pretty happy with that result, but now very tempted to go do the next event in Lancaster in 3 weeks time - I want sub 1:30! My swimming obviously needs work, and I didn’t put full effort in on any of the 3 sports - I had no idea what it would be like and didn’t want to blow up. Lancaster is flatter and I know more now. My transitions also need work.
Overall a well organised event, though the muddy transition and lack of any kind of keepsake were a bit of a let-down based on the entry fee.
Were last night it seems. I didnt even notice, which is galling as I missed an oppotunity to indicate my lack of confidence in Labour. Why dont they advertise these things? Elections are supposed to be important, but no publicity reached me…… The fact I don’t watch any TV beyond the snooker right now and listen to radio1 might have something to do with it, but advertising on websites could have helped.
Theres a free UK Income tax calculator which I find useful - it deals with working out your monthly / weekly take home pay based on salary etc etc. It has the new and much publicised tax bands in it, and it deals with student load deductions. Very handy!
Ok, so its not as feature rich as visio, but for drawing tho odd network diagram or flow chart, gliffy rocks!
Here’s an example of a network diagram (my home net)
I need to check this service out a bit more, but its looking good so far. I will probably need to buy a business account if it does what I want it to do - got a few flow charts and net diagrams to do at work…..
Yesterday afternoon, I made a new mail server live for testing. It took until 9 pm last night before the first spammer tried to use it as an open relay. Which is scary. The server does not allow open relay of course, but this just underlines the fact that there are 1000’s of machines searching the internet for sapmming and or hacking oppotunities.
I hate spammers. On another note, I added a little math quiz to my contact form as spam from that was on the up - again spammer looking for an easy way to send mail through badly written php. Luckily as its all robots doing this, they dont know how to deal with the math question :-). Capatcha would be a good idea, but more effort.
) on the bike course!