Today, I cycled North of Bristol to Tockington Manor School to take part in a dry-run of the inaugural BAD Tri Bristol Triathlon. A pool-based super-sprint triathlon (400m swim, 20Km bike and 5 Km off-road run).I would have gone out for a long run this morning, but the club were looking for volunteers to try out the course, and I thought that if I cycled to Tockington and back (circa 16 miles) and did the triathlon, that would be a reasonable workout.
The weather was appalling on the way to Tockington - Windy and rainy. However, on exiting the pool after my swim, I was pleased to see the day clearing to sunny intervals.
I was quite pleased with my swim time of 7 mins, which considering I haven't swum since last September, was OK against my best 400m swim time in a race of 6mins20secs.
I didn't particularly enjoy the bike. My legs just aren't trained for 20 Km of all-out time trial, so I found it rather frustrating.
I had totally misjudged the run, not realising it was off-road. All the rain in the morning had made the hilly tracks pretty slippery and my trainers just weren't up to the job. However, on the positive side, my base endurance meant that, whilst my run wasn't particularly fast, I felt comfortable throughout.
The rest of the day was fairly quiet, playing with the children, and then we all went out to Zizzi's for a family dinner, which was a good end to the day.
Update:
Got the results through from the triathlon dry-run. I ended up 4th out of 19. The three in front of me were very fit young things, so I'm pleased with my performance.
