Afternoon Aquathon

While on a week's triathlon training camp at club la santa in Lanzarote after a few days of early start swims followed by multiple other sessions I took part in the weekly aquathon the resort organised which had an unusual start time of 2pm.

It was listed as a 200m swim and a 3km run although I think it was a bit further but my GPS had lost the GPS plot.

The swim was in the outdoor 50m pool, so was only 4 lengths :-)



However it was into a headwind so there was some small waves on the outward part. The left lanes were meant to be the fast and the right the slowest  so I went near the right as not so many people and easier to get out. Luckily we had organised the people in our lane to stay on the right hand side and I followed somebody slightly quicker than me. Other faster lanes people were swimming slower breaststroke and people were getting knocked.

I got out of the pool in 4:23 which was a bit slower than planned but trying out different swim technique and the few days exercise already had fatigued me a bit.

The transition was from out the pool which I had some running shoes ready passing my swim hat and goggles to somebody I knew. I then carefully ran along the top poolside which was already quite wet and up the steps to the left of this photo where the timing mat was. This took me 1:02 which quick for me which I was pleasantly surprised with. I had also tried some different kit options as was a short race.

The 3km (2 miles) run then ran post were this photo was taken, then carefully down some steps and out of a resort gate. The route was then a loop around the lagoon and back in to the resort finishing with about 300m on the athletics track. However the first km was in to a strong headwind, at least it dried off my tri suit a bit.

The next km was alongside the lagoon with a side wind which you had to be careful the wind did blow you off the path and give you an additional swim!!



The next half km you had a back wind but then a short incline towards the resort complex (in the photo background) which was sheltered from the wind. You then ran through the main gates and on to the track for about 300m to the finish. Nobody overtook me on the run but I overtook a few and was running strong all the way to the end.

The 3km run took me 14:14 (7:38/mile) which I was pleased with due to the weather conditions and the training I had already done that week.

It was a good race which I learnt some different kit options in T1 and felt strong on the run.

I was planning to do the sprint triathlon in 36 hours after this but with a half marathon between this my legs did not feel up to it so I decided recovery was a better option.

Another Open Water Swim at an Aquathon

Tonight I did another open water swim at an Aquathon. That makes two lake swims in less than a week and they were both at different venues.

The swim was 600m and was a triangle shape with an extra lap of the far diagonal line. This was at the far side of this lake where I have swam a few times. The lake was cold again about 12c at most.

For the first leg I was pretty much on course to the buoy and was on target for being on course for the whole route. However about half way through I started to veer off to the right but I think this may have been caused by the waves made by the water ski boat on the other side of the lake. The swim was comfortable pace and I think my sighting has improved a bit. My swim time on my watch was 13:58 from the start until I was on the lakeside.

For the transition I was trying to improve my performance as I normally a while in this. The wet suit took a but more effort to get off then at the weekend but better the most times. As it was cold I took a bit extra time putting on my charity t-shirt for the Meningitis Trust, a cap and gloves. Overall this took me 2:46 from reaching the lakeside to running away.

The run had a bit extra uneven grass, gravel and stone section from the far side of the lake to where I have normally done this race from. This made the distance about 5.4km (based on mapping web site) and was an out and back course along mostly a gravel footpath. I went off at fairly fast pace but concentrating on the uneven surface for the first few hundred meters. After this I gradually picked up the pace a bit and was able to maintain it throughout the rest of the race. I saw the leader about 500m from the turn around point, so this gave me extra incentive to carry on at the hard pace. I was on the way back before the next person was along about 200m from me. On the way back I was aware of the uneven surface for the last 200m but maintained the high pace. I was glad of the extra layers I put on as I was still wet from the swim (only dried my feet a bit) and it was a cool evening. I did the run in 23:55 according to my watch.

There was surprisingly a lot flies about for the temperature and little light but still managed to get bitten on my ankle at some point.

Overall my time from my watch was 40:38, which I was pleased with. Even better was I finished 2nd , although there was only 3 people doing the aquathon I still had to put in the hard effort.