Hi Drew
Just a wee update…I had my main priority event for this year at the weekend, the race across the Highlands, which was the trigger for me wanting a bike fit in the first place. I’d unfortunately injured myself running two months ago, so had done no running training for a while, but made up the volume on the bike. Got the all clear to race from an MRI a few weeks ago, but was unsure how my hip would be on the day.
I stayed right at the back on the first run so I wasn’t putting too much strain on my hip, and arrived at T1 almost 30 mins behind the front of the race. Conditions were absolutely appalling as I jumped on the bike, 20+ mph persistent headwind, gusting at 50, a few riders ended up getting blown off the road. I had a real problem…I was 30 mins behind the front half of the race, so all the quicker riders I could work with were long gone, and in the wind I was going to have a struggle making it to T2 by the cut off.
I started the bike sections in approx 300th position, and got myself down on the bike and rode the hardest i’ve ever gone in my life, in the wind on my own for 6 hours chasing down the front half of the race. I just couldn’t seem to catch the quicker guys, and I asked a marshall about 5 hours in how far ahead the front half of the race was and he just look at me surprised and said “mate, you’re in 12th position”. I could barely believe it, I’d basically just overtaken the entire field and was now apparently within touching distance of the race leaders.
I managed to hold it together for the final run and finished in 20th position out of 320 in the expert category, with my moving time at 11.5 hours. There were 140 DNFs!
Checking the data, there wasn’t a single rider over the two days (1,200 racers in total) who put in a quicker time on the bike legs. It’s amazing what a chasing down an imaginary group will do for motivation!
Just wanted to say thanks again, I was able to hold an aero position for close to 6 hours, getting as much power down as possible, with very little discomfort…and I’m putting most of that on my fit!
I’ll be seeing you next year…full distance triathlon this time next year, so a TT bike fit will be needed!
Steven