It’s over a month now since I completed my Homemade Double Triathlon, and way too late to write a proper race report, but I learned so much from the event, and I am going to write some short blogs to summarise what I learned, and how I hope to use that knowledge in my next big challenge in 2022. This first blog is just to give a bit of context as to where I am on the journey.
In 2021, my big challenge was to be the Triple Brutal, but unfortunately that was cancelled. A word here for the excellent communications from Claire Smith at Brutal Events. She was really open and honest about their decision making process, and I totally understood that they couldn’t risk going ahead with event preparations while the local council were withholding permission. It was disappointing, but understandable.
I decided I would have to just put on my own private event, and so I completed a continuous Double Distance Triathlon based from home. All told, I swam 8km at Blue Lagoon on Saturday morning before driving home and getting on my bike. I rode into the early hours and finished the 360km at 0430 on Sunday morning. I slept for a couple of hours then ran all day on Sunday, never straying too far from home, looping around Normanton until I finished the 84.4km in the evening for a total time of 37 hours and 11 minutes.
Right, there’s your race report.
The event was difficult, of course, but dare I say not as difficult as I had feared. We got the nutrition about right, managed fatigue as well as possible, and my lockdown endurance training meant that physically my body coped well across the weekend. These are some of the things I will be talking about in future blogs. Mentally, I felt incredibly strengthened by the experience, and started looking to 2022 for the next challenge.
I have settled on the Continuous Quin that is being staged by Brutal Events at Allerthorpe next July as part of the Deca UK event. The course is completely flat, in contrast to the Snowdonia Brutal race, and so I have convinced myself that I am up to taking on the challenge.
The format means that we start on Saturday 16th July with a 19km pool swim – seven-plus hours of chlorine presenting something of an unknown factor. I will have a total of seven days to complete the event, with a 900km ride and a 211km run. The loops for bike and run are short, which also presents a psychological challenge.
I believe that most of the challenges in an event like this are psychological and logistical. Of course there is a great deal of physical endurance required, and I don’t seek to diminish that, but once you attain a certain level of endurance, then it comes down to mindset, fuel and kip.
More thoughts to follow on these subjects in future blogs.