Hampton Triathlon – 4 May

I was really looking forward to this tri, first one of the season, been putting loads of swim practice in so I was feeling much more comfortable with the swim element this time than in the past year.

Well, it all went horribly wrong. Not sure if I just got too cold waiting on the side. It’s an open air pool and although the water is heated it was around 5 degrees on the poolside and got really, really cold so when I eventually got into the pool it felt like bathwater. Started off thinking I was going at my normal pace and only managed half a length and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t feel my arms and legs and felt terrible. Reverted to breast stroke for a while and had to wait at one end to let about 5 people past before I could carry on. In the end my swim time was really horrible especially when I can do 400m in the pool in 8.5 mins.

Was worried at one point that I wouldn’t be up to doing the rest of the race but once I got out and on the bike it was fine. Knocked 5 mins off my bike time and my run time was acceptable seeing as I’ve still got a grade 1 tear in my ankle and haven’t been doing much running recently because of it.

Overall knocked 2 mins off my time, but wanted to knock off 6 mins! Some people are never happy!!!!!

I felt so bad about my swim that I was really nervous getting back in the pool 2 days later. But last night finally got it together and I’m back feeling much happier, fortunately, as I’ve got open water swim training this weekend to prep for the big Blenheim Triathlon in 4 weeks.

Just waiting for my wetsuit to be delivered and threatening the children with being an embarassing parent and swimming in the mill pond to try it out.

Thames Turbo who run the tris at Hampton Pool were brilliant, they always are, but I emailed Heather the race director about the swim problems and she was wonderfully supportive so i’ll be back in August and hopefully bringing a load of mates with me too.