Hiplok athlete Meg McDonald fills us in on her Challenge Wales Middle Distance Triathlon event in Fishguard, Wales.
1 week before the event I wasn’t even sure I would be even racing.
Post Outlaw Nottingham, after pulling my calf, I took two weeks off running and carried on training with the swim, bike and gym. After two weeks I tried to run and my hip still wasn’t right. My left hip had locked up, we think it was due to a nerve or tendon impingement. I then decided to completely stop all training for a week and had lots of treatment to try and get my hip moving. The weekend before Challenge Wales I started to train again and was able to run 4 miles pain free before the race.
With the race being paid for, and my injury not being muscle and bone related. I took the chance to race with the worse case being I would pull out on the run. Thankfully this didn’t happen.
I had a great swim coming out the water 1min down on the lead lady. It was a choppy sea swim, 2 laps of 1900m. Onto the bike I was able to hold my position, overtaking the lead girl but later into the ride getting overtaken by Pro Lucy who came into transition 1min in front.
I got onto the run, I had no pain in my hip and was going at a good pace for the first 7 miles. The course was 4 hilly laps and on the last two I started to suffer due to 5 weeks off running, my legs just weren’t there. I was able to podium and hold onto 3rd place overall.
Unfortunately, to get my professional licence I needed to come within 4% of the winner and with my run not being there I missed out. However, I did come within 7% which means my next race that has a pro field in, I need another 7% to get my Professional licence.
Next up is a good training block, maybe looking to change my bike position a little with options of changing cleats and crank length. I will do a few local races before looking to race in Poznan Poland 70.3 Ironman on the 4th September before Nationals Outlaw X on the 25th September.