April Blog
My first race in April,was the BTF performance assessments which was the first race of the British Triathlon Super Series. I had little expectation going into the race as I had no idea about other peoples’ form and whether other athletes may have significantly improved over the winter. The race was split up into two races, in which the first being a 400 meter swim TT in a pool (no lake swim as the lakes being too cold this time of year), followed by a bike to run on the second day.
Going into the swim I was unsure of my form as I hadn't race 400m in over a couple of months. I was ranked in a slower heat than I probably should have been, as my entered 200m time was outdated , which in a way I saw as a positive as mentally it helped knowing I was going faster than other people in my heat. The swim started from a push, and also there were two people in each lane, each sticking to one side of the pool .I felt really strong from the start and managed to get a time of 4:27 which was a good PB for me , and a relief as in the previous year’s event I had a terrible swim which caused loads on pressure going onto the second day.This therefore put me ranked 9th into day two with 15 seconds separating me and the first ranked person.
The second day commenced from a staggered start which is based on your swim time from the day before. I had a reasonably quick transition and managed to catch up the front group of cyclist within a couple of km.The pack of 8 that I was in didn't really work together, and instead there were lots of mini break aways in which people would suddenly sprint to drop the pack however no one succeed. Due to these sudden pickups in pace we managed to stay away from the pack behind and get a gap of roughly 10-20 seconds. Going into T2 I managed to position myself 2nd , and after a fast transition came out first causing me to lead the run. I tactically went out fast wanting to break the pack ,which I successfully did however 2 people caught me up. I then managed to latch on to them for the first lap and stay at a comfortable pace.We however eventaully dropped someone just after the first lap leading to it being a two man race to the line. I managed to play the run tactically in which I sprinted around 300 meters to go and dropped the person running with me, leading me to take the win. Overall I was really happy with the performance and excited to see what I can do at Llanelli, my next race.
I've also done a couple of smaller races such as an 800m track run. I sadly didn't play it tactically very well ,leading to a gap forming between myself and the front pack which was too large to close at the finish.This lead me to run a time of 2:01 which I think I should be able to go slightly faster. I also did a 5 km Parkrun which was mainly on gravel and managed to get a time of 15:37 which isn’t too bad and fingers crossed on road and with other people to race I might be able to drop under 15 minutes.
Overall I am really happy with how April has panned out and excited to see what I can do for the rest of the season.
