Next challenge: Tri Vauban on 12th June

On Sunday 12^th June, I will be taking part to the Tri Vauban in Besançon (France). Besançon is my hometown. So I am really excited to go back home for a long weekend and compete in front of my family. My mom even offered to help with the organisation and she’ll be distributing drinks to participants.

This triathlon will be my first Sprint distance (750m, 20KM, 5KM) ever, therefore it is definitely a personal challenge. I will be able to see if all the training I have been doing lately has been fruitful. Most particularly my swimming. In my last triathlon (back in September 2010), I was not able to swim front crawl and lost a lot of time in the water. So since last winter, I have been focusing on learning front crawl and hopefully have made some progress.

I really don’t know what to expect from this competition because it is the first time I am doing it and I have no idea of the level of the participants. I have checked the entrants list and was a bit stressed because there are only 4 girls racing including me. And I am under the impression that they all belong to the local triathlon club. So probabilities are that I will probably finish first from the bottom of the list (this is the optimistic me speaking here!). But what the hell! I am excited anyway! I will get to swim in the river Doubs in my new wetsuit and discover my hometown from a new angle.

The other tricky bit is travelling with my bike to France. When I booked my train tickets back in March, I checked the conditions for travelling with a bike and I have to say, it is not cheap! If you want to avoid additional charges (£30 per leg for the Eurostar and I think it was €10 per leg for the TGV), you need to disassemble the bike and put it in a bag or suitcase, then it is considered as a hand luggage. So that is definitely what I am going to do. I have bought a second-hand bag on eBay and my friend Gavin showed me how to remove my wheels, saddle, pedals and handle bars (let’s hope I will remember how to put them back or I am in trouble).

Last Saturday, I also went to the local health shop to purchase energy bars, shots and gels that I will need for the tri. I think I bought supplies for the whole season! But this way I am sure that I have enough of everything! I have been told to try them before race day to avoid bad surprises.

This morning, I was preparing my training for the next 4 days before leaving London for Besancon. I think that training planning is definitely something that I need to improve in the future as I am really not structured at all at the moment. I do things as I feel and apply no science to them at all which is probably detrimental to performance improvement. I do not keep track of anything (heart rate, pace, etc…) so I do not know how I perform and if I am doing better or worse than the previous training session. I can only measure progress thanks to the results I get when I race. So I am not really serious on that topic. I will have to change that!