Avast, Me Hearties!

This Sunday is Swashbuckler Middle Distance Triathlon , a 1.9k river swim, 90k bike and then 22.1k run. This is my first race of 2016 (Not counting The Inaugural Tinpot Sprint) and my 1st Middle Distance race. Pre-race feelings and predictions coming up.


I've been putting my time in in the Reservoir (Shout out to the gang at Yorkshire Outdoor Swimmers over at Harthill Reservoir), done some time on the bike (Not enough and I keep getting confused by the gears, a holler to Sophie and Tom for putting up with the slowcoach behind them) and I've done some running around Damflask resevoir and on the treadmill.  I've got my trisuit sorted, I've got my wetsuit sorted, I've even got some new goggles. I've kitted up my bike and I'm buying a new sun hat this evening. I am well within the definition of "All the Gear, No Idea" . I'm trying to taper this week and also beginning to brick it (Not in the training sense). As the cut offs for this race are tighter than I'd like and I keep doing the sums again and again. If all goes to plan I'll should get in under the cut offs, if not then it's going to be a very expensive wake up call. Here's the cut offs

Must have finished 1.9km within an hour

Must finish 90km bike before 5 hours from Start 

Must finish 22.1km before 7.5 hours have elapsed.

To be honest, I'd love for there to be about an extra 20m minutes on each of the cutoffs, as I'd originally just halfed the Ironman time of 17 hours to give me 8.5 to do the whole thing but such is life.  

So my aims for the weekend are in order.

1. Don't Die 
2. Don't DNF
3. Don't come last - (Slowest time last year 07:12:29.95)
4. Don't come last in my age group - (Slowest Male 30-35 time last year - 06:05:14.75)
5. Finish in top half of table - (Top Half started at 05:18:05.50 last year)
6. Get on the Podium - (3rd place - 04:10:23.60 last year)
7. Win - (Winning Time last year - 04:01:56.25)

In all seriousness I'm fully aware that Aims 5 to 7 are ludicrously out of my range. I'm even wary about Aim 4. However PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) states I can definitely achieve Aims 1-3.

Breaking it down further, here's what I'd like for the indvidual disciplines

Swim: 50 minutes

T1:5 Minutes

Bike: 3 hrs 36 minutes

T2: 2 Minutes

Run: 2hr 30 minutes  

Total: 7 hours 3 minutes

That's doable, right? Fingers crossed, especially on the swim, as I'll be using a weird mash of front crawl and breast stroke, as my breathing is still not completely up to par. I'm also still a bit terrified of the brakes on my bike. Other than that, it'll all be fine as least I'm confident on my legs, unless I get night cramps again. So stay tuned for the race report this weekend either for an epic burnout or a phoenix from the flames.