Kaya Therapy recap March 2013
1st- 3rd March The Triathlon Show
The event was held in Sandown Park in Esher. It lasted for 3 days and it was such a great experience. There were over 140 exhibitors displaying and retailing the latest swim, bike and run kit.
There were attending stars like Olympic Triathlete Helen Jenkins who won the 2008 and 2011 ITU World Championship, Chrissie Wellington who is four-time World Ironman Champion (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011). She wrote her autobiography which could be interesting reading as it might be my next challenge for next year. Also Chris Boardman attended who is a cycling legend who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and broke the world record three times.
The Triathlon Show also had a theatre which has a sessions on injury avoidance, nutrition, training and swimming. I was so fascinated with a display in the Endless Pool. There were top coaches and athletes who provided demostrations of swim technique and stroke efficiency. There was a technical swim analysis session for visitors. I was so tempted to try it but the water was too cold. I would not go without my wetsuit.
At the end of the day we were pretty tired but filled with useful information and good stuff.
Helen Jenkins and Karin Polcerova
17th March Reading Half Marathon
The Mizuno Reading Half Marathon is a mostly flat, fast course with an awesome finish in the Madejski Stadium. Over 15 000 runners took part supporting a few charities too. That morning was relatively dry but the forecast was rainy and cold around 5 degrees. As I am training for a half ironman distance triathlon my aim was beat my PB from 2011, which was 1hour and 44 minutes. I trained hard and the last 2 weeks before the race I focused mainly on my running. I have improved my speed each week by about 13-22 seconds per mile. I thought that this winter and such cold weather would push me to go faster so I wouldn't feel the cold. So the day arrived and I had my usual breakfast and I took some nutrition (3 gels) with me too. I usually train without them just to see my performance and progress. About 30 minutes before the start the weather changed to showers and I was carrying all the race with 20minutes break. Quiet a few runners wore bin bags to keep them warm and dry. Then we went to the start line. There were pace makers and I stayed with the 1h:40min one but he started running a bit slow. The atmosphere through the whole race was amazing. Even though the weather wasn't great people were cheering and children were giving high fives and jelly beans. Also I can't forget that there were bands playing and singers singing to push runners to run faster. I had my watch which was telling me how fast I run. The first few miles I tried to take easy. If I went fast, I slowed down. Later I ran a bit faster. The 1:40 pace maker overtook me after 3 miles. He probably had difficulty getting through that many runners. I followed him but he was a good 2 minutes ahead of me. I wasn't stressing about that as I wanted to have enough energy to finish the race in a decent time. As I was coming closer to 12 miles I over took the pace maker and from that point I felt that I'd got my new PB. A couple of tears were coming out but I carried on and stayed focused. I had the last 400 meters left so I started to speed up a bit but not sprint. I was already in the stadium and when I was sprinting and the crowds of people were cheering it was wonderful. As I crossed the finish line I knew that I'd got my PB but I wasn't sure about my time. I looked on my watch and it was 1:39:56. More tears were coming out but nobody noticed it as we all were wet and soaked. The only wish I had after my PB was to be in a hot bath. Later in the evening I checked my chip time and it was 1:40:05. I was so pleased with my time and result. It's a such a great feeling that your hard work is paying off. Now it's time for me to recover from my cold and cough as my main challenge starts in 8 weeks time. ;0)
Tomas, Christian and Karin
