As regular readers will know, since I made the move to Clogand Windmill Land, I have become increasingly passionate about passing on my love for triathlon and endurance sports to others.
Back in Dubai, I used my burgeoning interest in health and fitness to qualify as a gym instructor and went on to run a weekly beach bootcamp session. Since starting the European adventure, I've helped Wifey and several of her friends train from 5km races up to 16kms and half marathons. I've served as Tri Director for Amsterdam Triathlon & Cycling Club. And now, I'm really happy to be studying to become a Level 2 British Triathlon coach.
In the meantime, I've started coaching a couple of local triathletes and have been enjoying that experience enormously. Here's the first race report from one of those athletes - Neil - who tackled his first ever triathlon recently, here in Amsterdam...
‘Twas the night before race day…. I felt calm. I only did a short run – just to feel I’d done something. It was my first triathlon, and I had never done a swimming event before. In fact, prior to the 6 months I’d been training, I’d never really swam before, well not more than a splash around a swimming pool. I felt ready.
I had a coach for the 6 months prior to the race - lots of MAF running and swimming drills. We (me and chief coach aka Matt) had identified that swimming would most likely be my weakest discipline – after all, it was new to me. I was most nervous about the swim. The most any of my swim training had me do in one drill was 400m – the rest of the drills whilst tiring, had rests – with hindsight this was more of a psychological barrier than anything else.
I woke up nice and early, 3-egg omelet, 3 strawberries, glass water, kit bag was packed – I was ready to go. I cycled to the event (Mirandabad in Amsterdam) – this was a nice 10k cycle to warm the legs up – the weather was terrible, raining with a whole day forecast of rain– lucky it was an outdoor pool swim and the pool was heated.
I arrived with about 1 hour to go until the start – got my numbers, checked the bike in – stood around sizing up the competition J then with about 15mins to go, I did a warm up. Some stretching, some runs with some short sprints – then off to the changing room to put the wetsuit on. Some people had tri-suits – I was thankful for the extra buoyancy I would get!
Swim
I jumped in the pool and did 100m warm-up, increasing the effort towards the end – I was nervous and keen to get started. The horn went and we were off! I realised after the first 100 I was going too fast - hitting peoples toes and tiring. I pulled back a little and after the first 150 or so I was settled into a rhythm. For my first competitive swim I was happy – I could see lots of people doing breast stroke, stopping, slowing. Whilst I wasn’t breaking any records, I was swimming consistently with no breaks or change in stroke - I was tired at the end – but had plenty for the cycle and run.
Cycle
The course was 5 x 4km laps and, being in the city, it was a technical course (lots of turns) - this was quite annoying - constantly up and down in the saddle and breaking on/off all the time to turn tight corners.. I also dressed a bit too relaxed for the rain. It took me about a lap and a half to get into it and my plan was to do 3 steady laps before increasing the pace a little – I did just this and finished the last 2 laps stronger than the first 3 – but still felt good with enough left in the tank for the run.
The run was 2 laps of 2,5k each. The plan was to do the 1st lap feeling comfortable to settle in, and then 2nd lap up the pace a little. For the first lap I had the beginnings of a stitch, I could feel it just "being there" - but I just kept running, the 2nd lap it became a proper stitch - but it didn't seem to slow me down, just a bit uncomfortable. Although, I was conscious of the 2nd lap and trying to up the pace - but I kept feeling myself going back to the same pace as the 1st lap. I finished the run steady and strong, last km I think I did up the pace slightly until the finish – I don’t think I could have ran the last km any faster.
Transitions
This was my first ever triathlon. I had decided that I was going to take my time and do the transitions right – rather than rush and forget something. Whilst they weren’t very fast this helped me to focus on getting it right – and I’m glad I did it this way.
Conclusion
At the beginning of the year, when discussing my goals with Matt, my only goal was to finish my events in good shape. Did I feel in good shape? Yes – I was a bit tired later in the day, but I felt good. You have lots of time to think and analyse as you go round the course and, on the swim, I settled into a good pace and there was only one guy actually got past me after we started - I think I passed 2 people. The cycle, I was passing lots of people - maybe 1 or 2 passed me. But the run, I noticed people passing me - I kind of expected this, and I think as I continue to train my running will improve.
I was most happy with the swim. I’d never done a swim event before and was just happy I was able to do the 750m consistently and then keep enough to finish the triathlon.
I felt a huge sense of achievement. I've done cycling events in the past but never with a coach or a strict training regime (strict in the sense that it was structured towards the end goal) and this really made a huge impact on me, and my training – not only to make sure I was ready, but gave me a lot of confidence I might not have otherwise had.
Swim: 17:35
T1: 03:09
Cycle: 41:00
T2: 01:43
Run: 31:02
Total: 1hr 34mins
Coach's notes
This was a hugely impressive race from Neil. When we started a few months ago, Neil had little to no experience in the water and said that he struggled to do 25m without getting tired. We first worked on plenty of drills to get his stroke up-to-scratch and make him feel more comfortable breathing, and then we started adding a little variety and distance. The consistency he's shown in dedicating himself to 1-2 session per week has really paid off.
Cycling has always been his strongest discipline and given that we had around 4 sessions a week to play with, we just kept this ticking over with one ride per week.
Neil has a little running experience, but we worked over winter on building his endurance, so he could run for longer while feeling more comfortable. In the past few weeks, we've added distance and a little intensity to that.
I saw at the recent ATAC weekend training camp that a winter of training had really paid off. He was looking strong, holding his own on his weaker disciplines, while his bike remained strong. The swim was always going to be the big test here - a pool swim tri is a good way to start for this reason - but he passed with flying colours. The next test will be an open water triathlon.
On a personal note, seeing Neil's result made me really proud. While I love training and racing myself, I took every bit as much joy in his performance and look forward to coaching Neil and more athletes to their goals in future. Let me know if you're interested in being added to that roster ([email protected])!