The second race of my weekend saw me up in Milton Keynes for the Big-Cow Sprint at Emberton Park. I still felt pretty good after the race yesterday thanks no doubt to my High5 recovery nutrition. I arrived with my brother Geoff (who was also racing today) at just after 6:30 and got everything sorted for the race start at 8am.
I had the same plan for the race as the previous day and so started t the front of the swim and when the gun went set about going hard but keeping a relaxed technique. I knew Mike Auger was racing and so it was no surprise to see one swimmer go way off the front from the start but I stayed with the chase pack and after a really comfortable swim came out the water with the front group of 9 or so other guys. Looking at my watch I saw 8min55 and though this suggested the swim to be slightly short, the fact that I was with the leaders regardless meant that I’d swum quicker than ever before. The 9 sessions a week in the pool and the rapidly “Chlorine bleached blond hair” sacrifice was paying off at last!
I got a time check to Mike who had come out over 70sec in front of the rest of us chasers, grabbed my bike and set off onto the bike with the same strategy as yesterday. Go HARD and see what happens. Sadly whilst putting on my right shoe early on the bike, it up-clipped and so I lost some time stopping to get my foot in and re-clip, before setting off again. I shouldn’t have worried too much though as my P3C, oval equipped bike is so light and fast that it almost “gives” you extra speed. Within 8km’s I had caught and passed everyone in front. Not looking back I just road hard, took the small climb at the midway section of the fast bike course as fast as possible and began thinking about the run. This was to be an unknown quantity after my efforts yesterday and I could tell from my wattage that I had ridden harder here than at Eaton so it was going to be interesting to see how my legs responded.
Entering transition without any other bikes in it is a nice feeling and with my super light Saucony’s on again I was in and out and off onto the flat 5.3km run around the lakes in Emberton park. The first of 2 laps went by pretty well and it wasn’t until about 3km that my legs began to tire slightly. With it being such a short run it wasn’t too long to dig deep for though and at a fraction over 57 minutes I crossed the line in first to make it a winning double for the weekend.
My younger brother Geoff had a great race too finishing in just over 1:13, making it a very successful day in the Hotchkiss house hold. The hope now is that the weekends HARD training will bed in and makes the efforts of next weekend in Austria feel that much easier, leading to an equally successful weekend.
Thanks again to my sponsors Sigma Sport, Orca, High 5, R&B Capital, Upgrade Bikes (Oval) and Lanson Running.