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First podium of the year, and a completely unexpected one! I left my entry too late to get a slot into the Reading Half Marathon (well done to everyone who did get their entry in and took part!) so I hunted around and found the Waltham Forest Borough Run. The aim was to ‘just run’, use the race as a hard training session and test out a feeding strategy all in preparation for Mallorca 70.3 in May so to bag a 2nd place was a real boost to my confidence.
The race started at Chingford Golf Course and was organised by the KNI Foundation which is a foundation set up in memory of Kenneth Nicholas Ibrahim (KNI), who was 27 years old when he died tragically in a road accident in Thailand. Kenny was a local involved in community sports from a young age and interested in helping others who were in need. Following his death Kenny’s family to set up the KNI Foundation to help local kids get involved in sport and the performing arts as well as help those in the community who also need assistance. Kenny’s dad is a local physio who told me about the foundation and the organisation of the race whilst he was digging his thumbs into my post-race knotted calf muscles. Not only can he put on a top notch race, my calves felt great the next day!
A lot of the races I do are huge events with thousands of competitors so it was really lovely to take part in a race with only 300 or so people. There were so many volunteers along the course who were doing a superb job of stopping traffic to allow the runners to cross the roads safely, working with the numerous police on bikes who were keeping us safe. The course wasn’t well marked in terms of signs but instead there were volunteers on every corner clapping, shouting encouragement and keeping us all on track. They had all been given a bag full of water bottles so there was plenty of water outside of the water stations to keep us hydrated as it started warming up.
I was testing out my Mallorca 70.3 nutrition strategy which basically involves energy gels, the tricky part is working out when I get the most benefit out of the High5 caffeinated gels. I saved my orange caffeine burst til mile 9 when the hills were getting tougher to get over and it really lifted me. On expert advice given by Raphael from High5 I am also being a lot more committed to having a protein recovery drink post-race or tough workout. I find that High5 protein recovery drink has the added benefit of taking the edge of my appetite which stops me from overeating. It must be good if I left lovely baked potatoes on my plate post race roast lunch!
I’m off to Nice for the Easter break taking my new Felt F3 bike with me. On Saturday I’m meeting up with a bunch of other people doing the Cannes Tri Star event to reccie the bike course. I have ridden it once but would like a another go on the descents so no surprises on the way down and to see how it feels on the Felt as that will be the bike I will be using.
Drop me a line if you are going to be in the Nice / Cannes area over the break and want to go ride!
Enjoy the Easter break, happy training.
Cx
PS: Follow me on twitter: @IronCaro
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