I did Ripon triathlon today, bit of a mixed bag and the heat wasn’t much fun, albeit cool compared to other parts of Europe right now, but about 15c warmer than Tuesday! Entered late as a bit of fun and because I’ve only raced twice this year, wanted another tester before Hamburg and knew I was going into it on the back of a long tiring week and hard race last weekend.
Swim was a bit of a disaster, as soon as I got in the goggles misted up, they were my tinted ones and I don’t use them very often, I couldn’t see a thing for the entire race, I should have got out and asked if I could get my others and start in the next wave. As a result I was basically sighting off anyone in a similar coloured cap I could see. It was 1500M but there was a lot of weeds that snagged you, I got out in 29:22, even with my current swimming form I thought I’d be around 28:00. Phil Graves and another girl did 19:xx 
think third was 21:xx
T1 was quick for me, 90s, I put my socks and shoes on and got going.
I was suffering a bit on the bike, RPE felt a bit higher than the power I was putting out, it was a bit breezy and the roads weren’t great although it was pretty flat. AP was 240W, NP ~252W.
That got me round in 69:20 (36.x KPH), although there was a longish run to the mount line and it was 42k rather than 40k so that was worth about 3 minutes, I also had a few more aero tweeks to use. Phil Graves put in the fastest bike split with 60:11 and was nearly 2 minutes faster than anyone else. I had 19th fastest overall.
The run was also a bit longer, nearly 200m, and about 3k was on grass or track. Only 5 people broke 42 minutes and even the likes of Graves & Brian Fogarty only did something like 42/43 minutes, it was getting really warm at this point, luckily some people had hoses as we ran past.
I could feel myself slowing down but got round in 45:10 which was 23rd overall (400+ finishers).
I’d started in wave 3 so was constantly going past people on the bike & run.
Finished 30th overall and only 12 people broke 2:20. I was a bit disappointed at first but seeing the actual results has put things into a bit of perspective on a tough day, it’s a long time since I’ve raced in heat like that.
Really need to improve the swim again though, have been around 25 for that distance in the past, which is why standard distance isn’t much good for me.
Jeff