When I plan my race season I always like to throw in one UK ‘C race’, usually of a shorter distance, to mix up the season a bit and keep things fresh. I think there is also a great advantage in using a shorter race as a hard training day.

I raced the F3 Events Fugitive Olympic Distance Triathlon in Marlow two years ago so I knew the course pretty well, and when I saw a gap in my season I thought it would be a good one to go back to. Having won it in 2017 (overall female winner), I also had my eye on winning it again.

Shorter, local races are weird though, I was literally stood in my house the evening before wondering what I needed – I race all the time, COME ON YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS NOW! Then there was the “what nutrition do I even need!?” conundrum. I think it’s just generally the relaxed feeling about it as there’s no racking or briefing faff the day before, and the race is so short you don’t even need to halve your usual 70.3 nutrition plan. Couple of gels and you’re good to go!

I’d had a fair amount of emotional stress in the lead up to the race which wasn’t ideal prep, but it was a race we weren’t tapering for anyway so I was also loaded up with a 17 hour training week beforehand.

I felt pretty blasé about it in perfect honesty, but was absolutely stoked to have my friend Eloise there to support me, it made such a difference to the enjoyment level! As we messed around before the start I almost felt like I “couldn’t be bothered” to do the race, I wasn’t in the slightest bit nervous, felt super relaxed and almost a little bit unmotivated by it all!

Motivation levels dipped a bit lower when a spot of rain came along (THIS is why I don’t race in the UK!) but that soon cleared up and we had pretty calm and ideal conditions for the race itself. The water was colder than I anticipated and as I eased myself into the beautiful brown water of the Thames, I lined up by the inside buoy right at the front (always my ambitious swim start position!).

We set off and I went out typically a bit too hard but soon settled into my pace. By the first turnaround buoy, on lap one of two, I realised I was in the front pack, all of which consisted of men. There were a few anomalies up front but I knew I was swimming well (comparative to the field at least!). I managed to maintain this position and worked my way even further up the front of the front pack, so by the last turnaround buoy on the second lap, there was no-one actually in front of me anymore.

I exited the water and was swiftly informed that I was first lady out of the water. Good. That part went to plan then!

Out on the bike after what felt like the world’s longest T1 exit run on grass, gravel and unmade road, and we hit a short climb. Again I had a few men around me as we ‘cat and moused’ up and down the climb and once on the valley floor I got down on the bars and pushed on.

I wasn’t really that bothered what my power was, this was more of a ‘do it for fun’ race and as I wanted to race mostly by feel, but I kept an eye on it out of interest. It was about 10-15 watts higher than my 70.3 power plan – probably about right.

The bike route hits a climb towards the turnaround point – it’s more of a long drag really, which wasn’t particularly fast going until you turn around, and then it’s mega-speeds of 60kph back into Henley. I overtook quite a few guys on the descent and still no sign of any women, woohoo!

I biked into T2 after the last big hill with my quads feeling a bit on fire (that’ll be racing on a big training week, damn you lactic acid!), wondering if I had overcooked it on the bike a bit and that my run would be a struggle. I finished the bike in 1:08 so I’m definitely not breaking any records, but I think was a PB bike split for me.

After rapidly deciding to sack off socks, I ran out feeling pretty strong and knew immediately that it was going to be a good one. I felt excellent and was running at a pace I usually do my longer efforts on the track at. Might not be sustainable Kilpin, but let’s see what we’ve got! As I approached the end of the first (of two) laps I was still feeling awesome and went through 5k in just over 20 minutes. Jeez.

Thinking how everything goes so goddamn quickly when you race shorter distances, I started to see more people on the second lap and was burning past them trying to hold my pace. I knew I had a good lead but this was no longer about pushing myself to win the race, I knew (at the risk of sounding arrogant and smug!) that I had that in the bag. I wanted to see what I was capable of as I never race Olympic distance tris! May as well chuck a PB in alongside a win.

The last few kilometres were admittedly starting to hurt quite a bit but I was still managing to hold the pace, and as I ran down the finish chute I posted a run time of 41 minutes and a total finish time of 2:21, and went to give Eloise ALL the sweaty hugs for her hard cheering.

The best part was that I enjoyed every second. Shorter distance races are such a different beast mentally – you almost have no time to experience those lows and highs during the race, it’s just process and ticking off the disciplines, and all of a sudden, you’re done! BOOM!

I was so happy to win the race after leading it from start to finish, and ended up 10^th overall including the men. Ok, so it’s not a huge international field but given the high volume of training and stress leading into the race, if nothing else it was a pretty good training day banked.

Now it’s time to see if I can keep this podium streak up for the rest of the season….!

PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Knight Photography

 

Amy Kilpin July 24, 2019

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Towards the end of 2018, when I had started to slowly build up the running again post-injury, I felt (rather ambitiously at the time) that I needed to enter a race for 2019, even though I was nowhere near in the clear injury-wise.

This race was Ironman 70.3 Luxembourg. My first planned race back from injury, and I figured I had a whole eight months or so to get running injury-free once again.

Well, since resuming structured training again from January this year, I have to say things couldn’t have gone better. I’ve posted some of the biggest and hardest training blocks of my life.

Being mindful of the injury, though, we had to build the running back in really conservatively as I continued work with my biomechanics coach on getting realigned and pain-free. Comparing this to last year, when I was in full marathon-training mode, I thought there was no chance that my running would be where it was in 2018, because of the huge training setback I’d had for the majority of the year.

When I raced Florida 70.3 in early April (an add-in race after I had signed up for Luxembourg) it was apparent that my run training had been limited – not just a tough hot, hilly run course; but I’d only done about two runs of 21k in distance in a whole year. It showed.

The past few months of training had gone exceptionally well though, and after a short stint at altitude in St Moritz, I was back and feeling sharp, primed, and ready to race.

I knew I was in a good place. I said to people before the race that there’s no reason why it shouldn’t go really well; the training had been going so well, I was comfortable on an incredible new bike (the Ceepo Shadow*), and I’d lost a few extra kilos so I’d be racing at my lightest ever since I took up triathlon. If I’m honest, I was in the shape of my life.

My coach (SISU Racing), even took my bike out to Luxembourg in his van to save me the hassle of flying with it. Everything in the lead up was going smoothly and I felt so excited to see what I could do on the day.

I was lucky enough to have my mindset coach (Coach Raisie) fly out to support me for the weekend too – it was amazing having my team there and it gave me such a huge confidence boost going into the race. We sat in my hotel room the night before the race doing a visualisation session, it was the perfect prep to get me ready mentally.

And if nothing else, we had an awesome time hanging out with lots of laughs and fooling around even on race morning, with Duncan threatening to draw a crude doodle on the back of my hand instead of the inspirational words I asked him to write!

I positioned myself extremely ambitiously in the self-seeded swim start area with my friend Sam and felt really excited to begin; almost no nerves which I knew to be a good sign.

Soon we were off on the rolling start and I settled into my pace. The swim was pretty uneventful apart from a bit of the usual – athletes unable to sight crossing over in front of you and a bit of congestion at the last turn buoy. Not particularly noteworthy! The last time I did this race was in 2017 and I posted a 27-minute swim time because the course was short, so I wouldn’t be lying if I said I was hoping for a sub-30 swim time…

This time, no such luck. I came out the water and glanced down at my watch – 32 minutes. I had been hoping for faster if I’m honest so wasn’t hugely impressed. But no time to lament – I had to go and ride this bike like I stole it!

Out on the bike and I was feeling pretty fast. The first 30k or so of the bike course is dead flat and you really do feel like you’re flying. My power was looking really strong and above target but sustainable. I got to 30k in 50 minutes – pretty rapid course!

All good things come to an end though! Because, predictably, it starts to go uphill. The short climb which marked the end of the superfastflatamazing section was the start of “the rolling bit” in the middle. It didn’t feel particularly fast as it was constantly rolling with a lot of sharp 180 degree turns in towns and villages where you had to slow to almost standstill! I knew I was doing ok because I hadn’t had a female pass me – yet.

Finally, we entered France where the road surface became significantly poorer and after a fairly short stretch it was back on the home straight (and flat!) into town, with the last 15k back to the fast flat section alongside the river Mosel.

I pulled into T2 with a 2:36 bike split thinking that yet again, I was expecting a slightly faster bike split (never satisfied!) but knowing that I had stuck to the plan so we can’t be in a bad place.

I have said this before, but as I run out of T2 I know immediately how my run is going to go. Literally within the first few steps off the bike I can judge the state of play for the run – I guess you get to know your body pretty well after 30+ Ironman 70.3s!

Anyway, this time, I knew immediately. I ran out of T2 feeling awesome. I glanced down at my watch after five minutes settling into it and couldn’t believe my pace. “That simply isn’t sustainable, surely. Jesus! Well, at the moment, it’s feeling comfortable so I’m going to go with it!”

I ran the first lap thinking this could get very painful pretty quickly but after 7k and the first lap complete, I was still feeling great and flying along. I couldn’t have felt happier, I was really enjoying it and felt almost too comfortable. This cannot be right…!

It was amazing seeing Duncan and Raisie on course and I knew I was going well because of Duncan’s language (I’ll leave that to your imagination..!). Half way in, and I was still feeling good. YES.

The hilarious part is that halfway through the second lap I overtook a pro female who looked like she was struggling a bit (granted she was a whole lap ahead of me…!) but maybe five minutes or so after this I heard someone breathing down my neck and she appeared just behind me, on my shoulder, and stuck to me like glue. I had to hide a smile as I knew I was now pacing a pro. Get in!

As I started the last lap I knew I’d have to push it a bit as my body was definitely starting to feel it a bit at this point. My new paced friend had skirted off to the finish line so I was now alone and willing myself on mentally.

The last lap did involve a bit of internal encouragement from within myself to hold this pace, as I was aware that I could well be on for a PB half marathon time here. I had no idea what my overall time was looking like though. “Stick to the plan, stick to the plan, stick to the plan.”

I ran into the finish chute pushing hard and finished the run in 1:33, not only a 70.3 run PB but an overall half marathon PB! Wow, I couldn’t have been happier with that run split, I would never have expected that! I finished in 4:47 which was also a 70.3 PB.

As I went through the finish I immediately lay down, absolutely spent. After I had recovered my breath slightly I saw Raisie at the side and immediately burst into tears of happiness and relief that I’d had such an amazing race.

Shortly after that I saw Duncan and it happened all over again – the look on his face just said it all.

I ended up coming 2^nd in my age group and 16^th female overall (10 of who were pros), so was extremely happy with a second podium of the season, especially in a strong European field.

I am now focusing on chipping away at my time across each discipline as I absolutely know that there are more improvements to be made, and in a weird way, I feel that this is just the beginning…

Working with Duncan and Raisie has opened my eyes to a very different approach to training and racing, and it’s clearly paying dividends already. We have a very exciting plan in place for the rest of the season, and I can’t wait to see (hopefully!) more progress. What I do know is that I feel more motivated than ever to take this up a notch.

Most importantly though, aside from results and podiums, I absolutely loved the race. I loved the training (most of it, anyway!) and the race was just the culmination of all that hard work. The perfect day, piecing it all together. And that’s what it’s all about really.

 

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*A huge thank you to i-Ride who sorted me the brand new Ceepo Shadow in time for this race!

Amy Kilpin July 3, 2019

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