Saturday 9 June 2012

Third swimming race of the season

This time a 3.8k swim at Lechlade, a pretty 3/4 hour drive away (so practically on my doorstep for once).  3.8k is the distance that I have really been working on in the last year; the holy grail for this distance is to achieve it in under an hour.  I am confident that I am pretty close to doing this....depending on the conditions.

A personal best *was* achieved, last year I completed a race at the same distance in 1:09:13, this year in 1:07ish - official results have yet to be posted.  Not quite what I was hoping for.  But it was the conditions.  You might have noticed it's been a bit windy in the last 24 hours, my first impression of the lake when we arrived was that it was a bit like the sea.  A strong current in one direction created by the wind meant a difficult fight down half of each lap, with waves seeming to appear whenever you wanted to breathe, as well as making it very difficult to swim in a straight line without "sighting" every 6 strokes (or less).  Mr W comforted me afterwards by pointing out that only one person got in under an hour (yes, there were tears at having missed my target by quite so much).

If I'm honest, I also went into this race a bit tired and perhaps a bit under carbohydrated.  It took me longer to bounce back from my 10k than I would have liked and I have had a few stressful things going on in the last fortnight.  I am going to prioritise rest in the next week or so as well as trying to eat sensibly, my next 3.8k attempt will be in 3 weeks time.

Anyway, rest won't begin until tomorrow night.  Tomorrow, less than 24 hours after starting today's race, I'll be doing my first Sprint Distance Triathlon - 750m swim, 19.8k bike, 5.4k run - at Blenheim Palace - a nice setting, which admiring shall provide an excuse for going slowly.

2 comments:

  1. Well done and good luck for the next event. I saw some pictures from my local gym of Blenheim on Saturday I a, sure you will be fine.

    It was difficult conditions for swimming outside so I do admire you. But won't be joining you for the tri! Cannot ride a bike!

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  2. Good going in the awful weather, don't be down hearted. Hope the Blenheim Tri goes well as weather doesn't appear so dire today.

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