I spent an hour or so prepping my bike for the race – stripping off the extra water bottle holders I’ve had on for longer training rides, and putting on my race wheels, making sure that nothing was loose – and then gathered my things. I felt ready.
In the morning, I woke up and showered (a great Chrissy Wellington tip: even if you are going to jump into a lake soon, have a shower and wake your body up in the way it wakes up every day). I then had my cup of bulletproof coffee: for me, essentially that’s a double espresso with a lump of butter and a tea spoon of both coconut oil and MCT oil. OK, ready to go.
The race was on the other side of Amsterdam which was perfect – I’ve discovered that, when possible (it isn’t always), a short ride of 30 minutes or so beforehand is great for me to warm up for these shorter races. I threw in a few jumps of 20 seconds or so then registered and headed to transition.
I like getting to transition pretty early – sure, it meant I had some time to kill, but I also felt like I had everything under control and could enjoy the atmosphere of transition, even helping out a few newer triathletes, then doing a 5-10 minute run warm-up with some brief dynamic stretches thrown in. Other than a spot of wind, it was a glorious day for triathlon with the sun shining bright.
25 minutes before the start, I pulled on my wetsuit, listened to the race briefing and got into the water as early as I could. The water was still a little cold, so I wanted to be fully used to it before the race start. I did a good 10 minutes of warming up: a combination of steady swims, drills, short 5-10 second sprints, and just floating and getting my bearings… where the buoys are, what the last stretch would look like etc.