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Switzerland 70.3 Having started the season reasonably well, I had high hopes for my 2nd 70.3 race. It was th first ever running of the Switzerland 70.3 so there was always going to be an element of the unknown about the race and the course. Rapperswil (the town where the race was centred) was a beautiful little town on the edge of lake Zurich with plenty of history and wonderful scenery to make it a perfect setting for the race. I wasn't feeling in "Peak" shape going into the race but my training had all been going OK and my swimming was still on the up so I was still optimistic of a good performance. Lookning back there are plenty of things to take from this race and hopefully lessons to be learnt from mistakes made. When the gun went to signal the start of the swim I decided to try and test out my new confidence in my swimming and went hard to try and stay with the leaders (something i've NEVER been able to do before) I managed to hang on for the first 400m but realised I was working too hard to do so and backed off to try and find someone elde to swim behind at a more controled effort. I would regret both these choices as I realised i'd gone too hard too early in the swim and then picked the wrong group to jump on to with the last 500m feeling like a warm down swim they were that slow. I came out of the water for the shortened swim in 22mins WAY off my expected time of about 20mins. The leaders were already 3mins ahead! I made a fairly quick transition and was out onto the bike course without any problems. This would involve 2laps with very hiily sections in the middle of very flat strecches at the start and end of each lap. Having not ridden the course beforehand I didn't know what to expect, but settle into my rythem and waited for the first hill. After 10km we hit it and WHAT A HILL! Steep and fairly long with some sharp even steep corners, I was in my smallest gear very quickly!.... As well as realising i'd made the wrong choice with riding a disc. Still I pushed on through still enjoying the course and just focussed on trying to stay on pace. This however was proving to be hard. The climbs were really steep and I was letting the "race" dictate to me how I was riding. Looking back at my power data from the race I was riding about 10% too hard. Whilst it might not sound like much, over 56miles its easily enough to cause problems.... As i'd later discover. The first lap was also part course discovery which necer helps when it comes to pacing and decending but at the turn around point I was bang on for the time I wanted to hit...1h07. The 2nd lap felt much better and though I still didn't feel my normal self still, I felt like I was going OK. I re-entered transition and my coach yelled out that I was 16th.... Not great, but I felt I could run 1h14 on this course and knew that would pull A LOT of postions back. I tried to keep my pace down but subconciously I was letting my focus on getting into the top 5 dictate my pace a little too much. I completed the first lap including ascending the infamous "Stairs to Heaven" in under 25mins bang on schedule. As I began the 2nd lap I could see i'd gained about 20s on 1st place... Not enough to really make any difference as he was about 10mins ahead but more importantly i'd put over a minute into 2nd and much more into the rest of the top 10. If I kept this up then things looked good. Going up the stairs the second time I still felt OK and running down the hill the other side my pace still felt fine, I was closing in on the top 10 just a few meters up the road too... Then BANG! My right leg went rigid with cramp and I was forced to stop. Stretching it was excruciating and seamed to lead to the rest of my legs cramping. 2mins later and finally I felt my legs loosen up enough to get going again, by this time however I was back to about 16th position! Though the cramp didn't feel like it was going to come back my legs just wouldn't work at the same level again. I managed to work my way back to 12th only to be overtaken with a couple of miles to go and drop back into a very painful, draining and disapointing 14th. Whislt I was and am still very disapointed with my final position theres still some positives to take from it. Not least the lessons i've learned as far as pacing and nutrition before and during the race. The great thing is that i've got UK 70.3 coming up on the 17th June and a great opportunity to put things right. 2 weeks of focussed preperation and rest and this time a better execution of my race plan will hopefully lead to a different result there. |