Saturday 13th August DB max hosted the Portishead sprint Triathlon and so Dad and I decided to marshal the event by counting the swimming lengths and then managing the finish line. From a marshal’s perspective, the event was ran really well considering the bad weather and treacherous conditions. The reason I didn’t compete in the race was because I had the Cotswold Half-ironman distance race a week later and I didn’t think it would be wise to follow up a sprint triathlon with a middle distance once. Wednesday 17th August Once a month at Lake 31 in the Cotswolds, Kim Boon (www.kimoswim.co.uk) organises an ‘open water swimming familiarisation event’ meaning you can come and swim set distances from 400m-3.8km and either get used to open water or so you can test out your times. Being a lifeguard at the lake meant I had free entry and so I chose to swim the 1500m option to get a rough estimate on my time and see how everything felt coming up to Sunday. I started strong and spent the first 100m in the lead pack, obviously some would be doing either further or shorter distances, I then got dropped and started to lead the chase group of about 4 swimmers. This was annoying because I normally aim to draft and then attack towards the end. Roughly half way through the second and ultimately final lap, I was overtaken by a woman who had dreadful sighting. Although this meant I could draft, I was probably travelling further trying to stay on her heels. This changed in the final 200m straight where we both chose different lines towards the finish, mine was much more direct and I knew I had plenty left in the tank so I upped the speed a lot and finished more than 30seconds in front of her. It was a good event which was ran well, I finished in a time of 22:14 which I am more than happy with however I know I could get sub 20 minutes if I really went for it. Sunday 21st August The big day has arrived, up at 4:30am, Dad and I were both ready to head off and get the Cotswold Classic Middle distance triathlon out of the way. The event involved a 1.9km lake swim, 90km cycle and a half marathon. Being unable to complete his last one, Dad set himself the goal of completing and then achieving under 6 hours for the race where as I was aiming for a sub 30 minute swim, sub 3 hr cycle and a sub 1:30 run. So including transition, I should have finished in under 5 hours. Dad and I were both in wave 3, which included around 100 other people of all different abilities. The swim started well, I went off quickly and joined onto the side of the main pack with the intention of drafting for the whole race. This lasted for around 100m where I found myself overtaking a fellow competitors and placing myself second in the wave. I could tell I had someone drafting from me so I attempted to up the speed and catch the lead swimmer, this happened after around 400m where there was a lead pack of around 4 with me drafting the leader and being parallel to another swimmer. This continued blissfully until around the 1.2km mark where we started to catch swimmers in the previous wave who were complete distractions and just got in the way. Although I was going at a comfortable speed, I didn’t want to start swimming into the back of other athletes. With roughly 200m left I really upped the pace and started to kick my legs much faster. Straight out of the water I ran the 100m over the timer mat and straight into transition. The swim time was recorded as 29:09 and so without the run to the mat I would’ve been well under 29 minutes. I had a quick transition while making sure everything was set and ready for the cycle, ensuring the compression socks were on right and that I was fairly dry. Out onto the bike and knowing everything was going to plan up to this point I just had to average over 30kmph for 90km and I would be well on the way for my target time. My first of the two laps was strong and I reached the turnaround point in 1:27.01. Feeling strong and confident that I knew where to attack the course and how to approach it. It was pancake flat but very windy meaning my heart rate was rarely raised but I was putting on a high power output. Around 55km in and I came across another competitor lying on the floor shaking and clearly having some sort of seizure, luckily there were already 2 competitors (coincidently doctors) at hand who know a lot more than I do about dealing with casualties so I let them carry on as I set off to finish the loop (the competitor was rushed to hospital and suffered a broken shoulder and severe concussion). I really pushed it on the bike and occasionally found my legs cramping however they quickly stretched out and I continued the fast pace. The second lap of the cycle was completed in 1:29:20 which meant the whole cycle leg was done in 2:56:21. I was very happy with this and knowing I only had to run a 1:30:00 half marathon only brightened my mood. This lasted for around 30 seconds after I set out to start the run and felt my legs in an already serious pain even though id barely gone anywhere. The pace slowed and I knew there was literally no chance of completing the race in my target time, now I just had to complete the run somehow…the whole of this discipline was spent at a pace with a fine line between cramping and being able to continue moving. Lap 1 completed, now only 15km to go so why not up the pace a little? Stupid idea. A burning pain shot up both hamstrings and they cramped in a somewhat painful position forcing me to stop and stretch them out, more time wasted, brilliant…I continued to trundle around the remaining laps at a very slow pace and I was quite simply bored out of my mind but it had to be done! Finally one lap left, maybe I could attempt upping the pace again? Legs definitely didn’t agree. This time I was running side by side with a triathlete from London called Cassandra who did a very good job of setting a pace that I had to attempt to keep. We ran together until the final 1km where I really tried to up the pace without killing myself in the process. Ultimately Cassandra couldn’t handle my new pace which didn’t stand for anything as she started 2 waves before me anyway. I pathetically jogged down the finish carpet and completed the race in 5:35.04 which realistically isn’t that bad but because I set myself such high standards, I was personally disappointed in my performance although there is nothing I could do about it. The part of the race that I am gladdest about was having NO pain in my ankle which I’m very happy about and it shows the adequate rest worked out in my favour. A post-race massage and my new Kurio Compression recovery leggings meant I was well on the way to recovery and my legs started to feel better in just hours. Kurio Compression is a business that sells compression garments for performance, recovery or travel. They are very high quality clothing that is handmade to perfection, mine undoubtedly help with recovery and I would 100% recommend them to any athlete. http://www.kuriocompression.com/ Saturday 27th September After a week of very low intensity activities, I decided to try out my legs at Chippenham parkrun, a flat, mixed terrain course with the chance to push the speed. After a high intensity warmup, I ran the first 2km with a school friend at a comfortable pace in around 9:30 minutes before dropping him at the halfway mark and really upping the pace by over 1 minute per km. I started to reel in fellow competitors and finished with an intense sprint to come 5th in 19:45. I felt very good throughout the race and now I’m confident that ill smash the Cotswold sprint Triathlon held on the 4th September. Obviously it wouldn’t be right not to set myself challenging high expectations so I’m aiming for a 10 minute swim, 1:30 transition, 29 minute cycle, 1 minute transition and then a 18:00 minute 5km which would finish me off in 59:30 and leaving some time for errors. If everything goes to plan, this time is achievable and it will be a massive improvement on my time of 1:06 from last year.
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I have qualified for the European age group championships in Dusseldorf 2017 for sprint triathlon! I am absolutely over the moon with the fact that I qualified for the race, it shows the training I have been putting in finally paid off. However I’m going to have to up it another level in preparation for the actual race. There will be some brilliant athletes there and I will be hoping to push through and achieve top 10. Parkrun On Saturday 23rd July, me and over 300 others ran Parkrun to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, this involved wearing tutus and cake donations post event. I felt very comfortable throughout the whole race and won it in 17:57 which I am happy with considering the very humid conditions. This was a good run to get me back into the cycle of 3 running sessions a week (Parkrun being one of them). Throughout the week leading up to the 30th I had a lot of time to train in-between work and other commitments meaning I swam over 6km, cycled over 60km and ran over 34km. This is the sort of training I will hope to complete regularly especially throughout the holidays. On the 30th July, Stonehouse Parkrun hosted their second event and so my Dad, Brother and I decided it would be good to experience the course and meet some new runners. The only issue for me was a niggling Achilles injury that I’ve had for the past week. As a result I chose to take it easy and I finished in almost exactly 24 minutes behind both my Brother and Dad. It was a very good event and mostly on grass – this might make it interesting in the winter! A friendly team and good location puts this new Parkrun on a firm footing for a good future. Now that I’ve had a week off, I am hoping my Achilles will have healed and I’ll be back up and running in no time! http://www.parkrun.org.uk/stonehouse/ Post-holiday Upon returning from my week away, I rode for the first time with the Veloton team from Tetbury. It was their regular Sunday ride, although only four of us due to holidays and a race meeting locally. One regular rider, a school friend called Euan, is a good sprinter and so I was constantly trying to stick with him when he shot off. Once Dad and I cycled home, we had covered around 70km and it wasn’t even lunch time! http://veloton.co.uk/ On Monday, Euan, George (a very good cyclist) and I set out to complete a 20 mile time trial around Tetbury and surrounding areas. The two of them are both competitive cyclists and this is my weakest discipline so I was constantly trying to catch up and stick with them. The wind was horrible and made it much harder, alongside the short breaks, we would’ve finished well under an hour but instead came in at around 1:00.30. It was possibly the hardest cycle I have ever done and it shows how much harder you work when cycling with other people. All three of us are looking to make it a weekly ride and hoping the times will plummet. On Tuesday morning I ventured out and around Malmesbury for a slow 8km jog. Bad news, my Achilles and ankle were on fire and causing pain. However being the idiot I am, I pushed through and ended up covering it in ice for the rest of the evening. This was the reason I took a day off from exercise on Wednesday and at work ensured there was little stress on my lower left leg. I had lifeguarding work at the lake all day on Thursday so I decided to make a steady commute on the bike to check out the ankle. On the way out, everything was absolutely perfect, no issues in anyway. Similar on the way back, no pain just uncomfortable for short parts (mainly uphill). I hope this will lead to a speedy recovery and get me in perfect condition for the half-ironman next week. http://113events.com/cotswold-113/ |
Luke CampbellHere will be a monthly review as well as occasional race updates Archives
April 2019
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