Swim
Comments: Smooth swim, much faster than the practice swim last week (by about 4 minutes). Warning up is a good idea. Went well from start to finish. Tried to concentrate on my technique rather than try to move faster. What would you do differently?: I need to get better at swimming. Find a training group… Transition 1
Comments: Got the suit stuck on heels again, every time this year but other than that, a good T1 What would you do differently?: Not sure, maybe I need a suit with shorter legs for racing. Did someone say shopping? Bike
Comments: Looked at my watch at the beginning and saw that I was 4 minutes ahead of schedule. Made me think about golf. The swim +T1 was a great drive. Now, let’s try not to ruin a great drive by shanking the second shot (the bike) and four-putting (run). Tried to stay over 30k/h on flat parts. Every time `I got too comfortable, I told myself to “push a little more”. Had the same song playing in my head which gave me energy. By now the rain was really hammering down but it did not bother me. No wind at all was great. My feet were cold and numb though and I started to worry about the run and which shoes to wear for the run (more on that later) 30 secs faster than my practice ride, so still ahead Good second shot, on the green. Transition 2
Comments: Took a while to put my socks on which were wet and decided to go with the white running shoes. The story: been running in (black) Hoka ”wide” for years but a few weeks ago I bought a pair of Saucony (white) which are lighter but also a little tighter. I have been wearing them for shorter races (3 and 4k) but decided after much deliberation this week that I would wear the more comfortable ones today, as my toes got numb with the white ones on during the practice run. However, I wore the white ones for warmup (as I wanted to keep the race pair dry) and decided that they were much lighter and fockit, who needs toes, I’ll run with them and set them up. When my toes got numb on the bike, I had second thoughts. Run
Comments: Who needs toes? They were numb the whole time but it didn’t bother me. A very smooth run, tried not to go over 6 min/k on the flat (was mostly around 5:45) and speed up to on the downhills. Tried to “push a little more” every now and then and summoned that same song to give me energy. About 30 seconds faster than the practice run. Great putting. Post race
Warm down: Spoke to my friend Ann (my biggest fan), who also knew the winner of the men’s race (she’s good at that, took her to hockey play offs lthis yer and they haven’t lost a game with her in the crowd) Toes came round to life about 5 minutes after stopping “did we miss anything ?” Event comments: My home race. Small village race which attracts less people every year. I am worried they’ll give up. Only about 60 people altogether over the 2 distances and para class this year. May contact them before they make the decision to shut down to offer my help for next year. Last updated: 2023-08-26 12:00 AM
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Sweden
15C / 59F
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 14/20
Age Group = Women
Age Group Rank = 1/2
2nd time doing an Oly, like last time (2021), I chose my home race for this distance.
Goal was as usual several goals.
1) minimum: to do better than last time (3:06:16)
2) go sub 3 hours
3) real goal (based on practice times last week): 2h56
4) bonus: finish first of only 2 women on that distance. I checked the other one’s time at another oly this year and she did it in 2h55. With my goal of 2h56 in mind, I was prepared for a sprint at the end and a photo finish.
Woke up at 6:45. Walked to the site with the dog to pick up my starter pack. Had some breakfast. Got back around 9 to set up my stuff. Talked to people I knew, from my training group and the para triathletes I’d met on Friday.
Here, future Nat, here’s what to eat before/during a record breaking oly
Oatmeal with berries as usual + one ham/cheese toastie, one slice of banana bread
2 hours later, one hour before race = ham and cheese and 1 slice of banana bread.
1/2 tube of chestnut puree on the bike and a whole one on the run.
For once I did warm up properly. Ran 5 minutes, did some stretch and stuff, like we do before interval training with my running group and ran back.
Put wetsuit on and swam a bit, swam fast to get my arms going and my blood circulating.
Ready to go!