With only 1 sleep to go until tri day, the event that kick started my love / hate relationships with triathlons, I’m not really sure what I should be thinking right now.
I mean, I’m running through all the kit I need a thousand times over. Have I got the snacks I’ve been training with. Don’t forget the waterbottles. What time is reg open? We have to leave the bikes there overnight…wahhh? Pretty standard stuff to be thinking about and stressing/ not stressing about.
But the thing I’ve been doing the most in the final ten days getting closer to TriDay, is the thing that has taken over my phone search history. The thing that will make a mahoosive (yes it’s a word) difference to the day?
The weather.
Ah yes, our most hotly debated topic across the British shores. What is the weather up to today?
The Brighton & Hove triathlon is a completely flat course, which is awesome. However, it’s also a sea swim, which if you’ve ever seen how quickly a bit of wind can change the state of the sea here (like it did on Thursday!) from mirror flat in the morning to a four foot shore dump in the afternoon. Half an hour can make a world of difference to the sea along our coast line, so let’s hope the forecast comes true.
Why am i thinking about that? If it’s flat, I imagine the swim to take somewhere around half an hour or so, depending on the number of people there and other little things on the day that always have an affect on how you get on. If it gets rough, that’s going to jump up to an hour potentially. So for me, it’s all in the swim. Unless, unless it’s too choppy and it becomes a duathlon. My worst nightmare as I find the run my hardest discipline!
Depending how that works out, this first part of our tri sets the agenda for the rest of the day! Hence why I’m being a tiny bit anal about checking the weather and keeping digits crossed for low winds and small swells!
And the current forecast?
Today is set for 18-28mph and rain. Tomorrow morning when we kick off? 2mph.
Swell today forecast 2-4ft. Tomorrow? 1-2.
So with a little bit of luck, the forecast will come through, the sea state will quieten down. The sun won’t be crazy hot.
Tomorrow is going to be an epic day.
Can’t bloody wait.
Laura Montgomery September 15, 2016
So, how’d it go? It was a scorcher up here during the day, with lightening during the evening. Hoping it was too hot for you.
Tripals September 17, 2016 — Post Author
Man it was hot!! Loved it though! And my race numbers burned onto my arm was so sunny 😉
Tripals September 24, 2016 — Post Author
Was sooooo hot Laura! But great day! How you guys getting on?
Laura Montgomery October 11, 2016
Had my first tri on Sunday. We were really lucky with the weather and the atmosphere was amazing.
I completed the tri but I will admit to being a bit disappointed in my performance. Trying not to be too harsh on myself as I did get struck by lightning 2 weeks ago! No, really! Hence suddenly going quiet on Strava.
Glad I did the tri but feel that my results don’t reflect my training because of injury. Ah well, means I’ll just have to do another 😉
Tripals October 16, 2016 — Post Author
Oh wow!! Hit by lightning?! Dare I ask how? Will definitely have to do another next year 😉 well done pal!!
Laura Montgomery October 19, 2016
Sure, no problem. Katie and I had been in Mallorca for a week enjoying some amazing road biking (so smooth!) and on the last day, we had to change our plans because of the weather – we’d been planning on going into the mountains to Lluc but there was lots of storms that direction. So we changed our plans for to Arta instead. According to the forecast, we should have been fine if we went in the morning as the weather wasn’t forecast to come in until well into the afternoon. Unfortunately not the case!
About 6km from Arta we stopped to check the map because the rain was so heavy, to see if there was any villages nearby so we could take cover. Unfortunately not, and just as we decided to continue on the 6km to Arta to get out of the rain, lighting hit right because us! Katie thankfully was OK but I must have taken a lot of the discharge. I’ve never known pain like it – like every nerve ending in my body was switched on and screaming! And all my muscles contracted so tightly. I still have no idea how I didn’t pass out, I certainly thought I was about to.
Thank goodness Katie was there and was, relatively speaking, OK. She was able to tell me what happened (I was clueless and not at all with it), and stopped me from falling out into the road too. At this point I said, rather child like, “I want to go home,” and so we cycled back to Puerto Alcudia – me focusing on nothing but her thin black tyre all the way back. We did however get a PB for over 40km distance 🙂
Laura Montgomery September 15, 2016
*wasn’t
definitely wasn’t