Lincoln Wheelers Boxing Day TT - 8 miles

Well, this was a first ! All year I had wanted to do a time trial - but didn't either plan it in properly, take the time to find one or even find the bottle to just turn up at one and have a go !

Today was the day to put that right !

I had heard about the annual Boxing Day TTs on the club runs where a variety of kind people had encouraged me to give one a go - and that is how I found myself in the car park of a pub in Saxilby at 10am on Boxing Day morning. This is how it went :

We registered and were given our race numbers for the day - then as a bit of a warm up we rode a mile out to the start which was a pull in just past the traffic lights on the A156. Each of us were then set off a one minute intervals and after the first eight riders were off it was my turn. I approached the start line and was held in place by the starter whilst I nervously tried to get my feet clipped in. He counted down from five and I was off !

For the first minute I can't remember much, the adrenaline took over and I just went for it. There was a strong cross wind which literally kept blowing me towards the middle of the road - quite scary, but I knew the road turned soon and just concentrated on trying to keep as straight as possible. I kept pedalling and the road veered to the right - brilliant , thats better I thought to myself. I kept going OK until I passed what I thought was the turn off and having thought I had gone wrong lost concentration and let my speed drop. I was contemplating turning around when I saw an arrow in the distance and realised that I was in fact going the right way !

At the arrow, I turned left onto the A1133 to Laughterton into what I thought was going to be a bad head wind, but to be honest it was not too bad. I had also settled down into a decent rhythm and planned to grind this part of the race out in readiness of the backwind I suspected that we would have when we got through Laughterton and onto the A57 straight for the finish.

The A57 junction soon appeared and as expected there was a strong backwind - all the earlier battling with the wind was all made worthwhile as I got into the largest gear on the big ring and just went for it - it was the fastest I had ever ridden I was sure of it ! I crossed the line in a time of 21.41 of which I was really pleased with.

Well, that was my first ever TT and I took away lots to ponder, things to tinker with next time , and a benchmark as a starting point for 2012 where I plan to do lots more of these and look to go faster and faster.

Details of Lincoln Wheelers can be found here http://www.lincolnwheelers.co.uk/ . I cannot recommend joining a cycling club enough - the Wheelers have been fantastic !

Colwick Parkrun #2

On Christmas Eve I decided to get up early and have another go at Colwick Parkrun seeing as it is only an hour away from me and I could think of no reason not to.

On 26th November I ran 22.55, but bouyed by some decent training runs during the week, felt that I could go faster than that. Thing is, being Xmas week, the office has been full of food all week and lets just say that I've not been shy ! Consequently, I felt a little bloated when I rocked up at the start on Saturday morning.

The weather was overcast and dry, although it had been raining during the preceding couple of days and it was clear that there were going to be puddles to negotiate , as well as some mud in some places.

At 9am we huddled together for the start, the marshalls (who were great again today) got us all to shake each others hands and wish each other happy holidays - it was a really nice touch.

We were counted down from five and then we were off ! Race plan was to go off strong and see how far I could hold that pace - this went to plan for the first 400m or so and I held a good place in the field, but obviously I couldn't hold that workrate for ever and started to drop off into my own regular race pace. I was being very careful on the course to as it was slippy in places and on a couple of occasions I felt my foot slip. I was navigated the puddles reasonably well as well, when normally I would get a good bootful !!

All the way round I was in no danger of catching the person in front of me, but on the other hand the people behind weren't making any ground on me either. I kept this status quo all the way to the line, and finished the run with a time of 22.54 - a whole 1 second improvement over the last race four weeks ago and 22nd place on the day.

Many thanks to the volunteers on the day which made the run so special. I cannot recommend park run enough - details can be found here : http://www.parkrun.com/home

Stockport 10

Today, I made the very early morning trip over to Stockport for my first ever 10 mile race ! I was particularly looking forward to this one having seen the 'Goody Bag' viral that the folks at Stockport Harriers had posted up on Youtube for the 2009 version of the race :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQCqU6OyGEA

The race starts at the Woodbank Stadium on the outskirts of Stockport, and I had ample time to find a nice little side street to park on, and then amble down to the Stadium in the Park to collect my number and have a little bit of a warm up by doing a couple of laps of the track - well, you have to take any opportunity you can to use a track ! I had time to say a couple of quick hellos to Jon & Pete from UKNetrunner before we were being called back around the track for the race to start. I have to say at this point that despite a lot of moaning from people around me - I thought the ' motty-esque' PA announcer was doing a great job, and made me laugh out loud on a couple of occasions !

Anyhows, we were set on our way at around 10.00am, with two laps of the athletics track to negotiate. 750 people ! Two laps of a track ! Rookie error coming up !!!
I managed to get myself pinned in to the inside at a mega slow pace with nowhere to go , and crawled the slowest 400m I think I have ever completed - it was not until lap 2 that I managed to edge outwards and start to speed up a little - that will teach me to concentrate on my positioning !!

We left the park in wet and cold conditions, and twisted through urban stockport. The first three miles felt really good (no doubt bouyed by the energy saving start ) and I was about 30 seconds up on my target pace for the day (1.22). The road kicked upwards for the first of the three hills of the race, but this one was not too difficult and headed off to the left well before the brow of the hill. I was making the odd place here and there and not losing too many so I knew I was going well - I think also that we were very lucky with the wind which never seemed to be directly in our faces.

During miles 3-6, I found the perfect pacer and spent most of my time a couple of yards behind him, and as a result my pace remained strong (for me at my level !) and it wasn't until we got to the worst of the hills that he dropped me, and I helplessly saw him disappear up the hill as I struggle to keep pace with a chap who was walking up !!!! At the top, it took a few minutes for life to return to my legs, but return it did, and the speed picked up again.

Miles 7 - 9 were soggy, people nearby me were stomping in puddles and I was getting a proper bootfull ! I was mindful that I was still ahead of schedule by a minute or so, but knew that there was one hill left which had been described as 'never ending'. In fact, it came just before the end of mile nine, and was the easiest of the lot - bacause it was long and gradual just how I likes 'em - not sharp and brutal. The last mile was windy and wet as we made our way back into the park, and then it was 300m back round the athletics track and a desperate last 100m to dip over the line in 1.19.58 - just two seconds under 1.20 !

A PB by default in my first ten miler - I think I might of found a new favourite distance !

Percy Pud 10km 2011

I was up bright and early this morning, so that I could leave the house at 7.40am to make the trip to Loxley near Sheffield for the 2011 Percy Pud 10km road race.
It was whilst I was eating my porridge that I checked the BBC weather forecast and was told that it would be overcast and dry.

Imagine our surprise then, when we rocked up in Sheffield at just before 9 to find it was wet, windy and very very cold ! To be honest though, because I've had some foot problems this week, I was happy just to be racing, so it was a case of bring it on, although for the spectators, it was highly unpleasant !

Steel City Striders put on the event, and their details can be found here : http://www.steelcitystriders.co.uk/ - and I knew from last year it is a well organised event, with decent facilities and a very fast course. Last year the entrant numbers had suffered, as the event had to be put back a week due to the heavy snow - this year though there was a full turn out and 1500 people turned up. Whilst Heidi made her way strategically to the coffee shop at the Garden Centre, I tried to seed myself amongst the starters so that I could get away without too many problems ( yeah right !), and waited for the klaxon to sound, which it duly did at 9.30 and we were off !

The first couple of kilometres are rolling and once I had managed to get round the slow starters, and then get off the footpath, I managed to settle at around 7.15m/m which was some going due to the wind and the rain which was blowing straight into us. After a couple of kilometres the route hangs a lefty and takes you over the Damflask reservoir. There was a cross wind here and this affected the pace to around 7.30m/m for the third kilometre. The 4th and 5th kilometres were no joke because of the headwind and it was a real grind to the turnaround point at Lower Bradfield, and then guess what ?

Backwind....whoo hoo !!!
The lack of training this week showed, but because of the backwind between kilometres 6 and 7, all failings were masked and the steady 7.35m/m pace kept up. On this section I managed to get overtaken by a man in a bright pink tutu, which was an improvement over last year, when a man pushing a buggy did me on the same stretch ! I also had 'heavy breathing woman' on my shoulder (HBW) which was starting to get annoying until she finally remembered that she was faster than me and loped a further 10 metres up the road.

Finally, some peace and quiet I thought, until I caught 'really heavily wheezing bloke' (RHWB!) for the last two kilometres and he managed to stay around 10 metres behind me. He was making a proper racket and at one point another runner asked him if he was OK, but thankfully no need for the crash cart because the guy replied that he felt fine ! As we passed into the final kilometre he faded away, and I managed to get on someones shoulder, which is my preferred tactic, and this chap paced it perfectly for the run in. I crossed the line in 47.44 which was a new PB by a great 30 seconds !

We were given a large Xmas pudding each as a memento, which is now two Xmas puds I'll have to eat this year - my life is full of such dilemnas !! Next up is the Stockport 10 mile race next Sunday morning...

Colwick Parkrun

I attempted my first 'parkrun' today as I headed over to Nottingham to compete in a 5k race held at Colwick Country Park. This free event is part of a free series of races held around the country at over 30 locations and funded entirely from donations and staffed by volunteers on the day.

Parkrun details can be found here : http://www.parkrun.com/home

I arrived at Colwick about twenty minutes before the start time of 9am. There was no start area that I could see and there was a sign directing the runners along a path. Well, we just kept on walking and eventually found ourselves halfway around a lake before being told that the start area was where we originally came from.

Once back around lake, some kind volunteers unfurled a makeshift start area, and within 2 minutes we were counted down from five and we were away. I started again like a rocket, and attempted to run the race the same way that a ran ' No Walk' a few weeks ago. I managed to keep the good pace up for the first section of the run which is a lap of the smaller lake before the course lengthens to lap a second larger lake. My pace dropped here but I was still pushing along and felt really good. I had a chap breathing heavily on my shoulder and I thought that he was going to pass me, which he did, but then the course kicked upward a little and I regained my place at the top.

There was another loop to navigate of the smaller lake which saw my pace die a little before crossing the line with a finishing sprint. The time = 22.55 which is outside of my PB by some 14 seconds.

Frustratingly, I felt I had run faster than that, and Heidi did say that she did hear marshalls say they sent us the wrong way - maybe the course was a little long but I will never be sure.

What I do know is that I will definately keep my eye out for further park runs in the future because I really enjoyed my first one !

Colomba Chemo Classic Sportive

....or what should more accurately be described as ridiculously stupidly hard sportive !

The reason behind doing a sportive this late in the year was that, yes, it was full of hills and it would give me a starting point to gauge next years progress as both of my 'A' races would both be hilly and tricky.

This sportive is based in Richmond , North Yorkshire and is laid on by the folks at the Colomba Cycle company, it costs £15 to enter, and the ride takes place in the Yorkshire Dales. Because of the location I had to be up at stupid o clock, and leave the house at 6.20am just to be in Richmond by 8.15am. The HQ was a cricket club just off the main street in Richmond and had a handy carpark complete with public toilets - life saver !!

Once registered, I had to unpack the bike from the car and then simply pop back in to tell them that I had left, one I had done this I was on my way.

Well, the first few miles were a joy, because the sun had just risen, the roads although bumpy were relatively flat, and I managed to tag on the back of a 20 strong peleton. That strategy soon faded though as 3 miles down the road, the undulations started and I fell away from the back of it. The scenery remained stunning with beautiful landscapes, rock formations and waterfalls, but the ride was becoming increasingly difficult with multiple climbs coming in quick succession. This is the ride profile to give an idea :

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/10783176

I merrily sat back spinning up the climbs and deliberately not getting out of the saddle for the first 20 miles of the ride, but enevitably as the legs started to wobble, and some of the inclines got stupidly steep, I had to resort to standing up and really grind my way up - I sweated so much on some of the climbs it was dripping off me. There was though a massive sense of satisfaction when I reached the crest of these monster climbs ! One the way up Coverdale there was a photographer taking pictures and it was on a particularly steep slope - I managed to get on with it and keep riding, but then was overtaken by the days celebrities - Alex Dowsett & Ben Swift from Team Sky - that will be the only time that I lead some professional riders up a climb !!!

Some respite came at the feed station at c. 37 miles as we stopped at a village hall - I made the most of it - refilling my drinks bottle, and then enjoying a warm cup of vegetable soup along with some bite size sausage rolls, and then some of the nicest flapjack that I have ever tasted.

It was a good job that we stopped because once back on the road silly season opened up and we were presented with more endless climbing. Honestly I would reach one brow only to see riders snaking onwards and upwards in the distance. Some of the descents were breathtaking though - if massively dangerous and at times it took all of my braking just to get round some of the more acutely angled ones !

The best climb was saved for near the end as we made our way up the toughest of the days ascents - a climb from 528ft to 1475ft which lasted for 2.96 miles at the 46 mile point of the ride. By the time that I got to the top of this one I was truly beat but felt like a cycling god !

I massively enjoyed the descent from this one, and looked back in awe at the behemoth that I had just scaled.

I managed to complete the 61 mile couse in an official time of 5hrs 11mins , but after taking into account the stop for the feed station, the actual ride time was around 4.50 for what was a slow and brutal course. Back at HQ, we were treated to more free food and a nice warm coffee.

In all, a very sadistic way to spend a saturday morning then, but the more I reflect upon it, the more rewarding the experience was - I will have to make sure that I look to book some more sportives for next year !

Its official....

After a tense set of negotiations lasting several minutes, I am now entering Ironman UK for 2012 !!

Fantastic !

No Walk In The Park 5k

Following last weeks exploits at the Worksop Half Marathon, It was time to go back to Chesterfield and and have a third crack at North Derbyshire Running Clubs monthly 5k park run - ' No Walk In The Park '.

My last two attempts, in February 2010 (27.08), and then February this year (25.30) had both been very enjoyable outings, and as such, I was looking forward to this all week !

We arrived at Chesterfield Cricket Ground then at 8.45 having taken an hour for the trip, and was quickly registered in the Pavillion, I was given my race number of 40 which had been kept for me since February.

After a warm up, we all gathered for the start, and I found a fellow Netrunner in Dom Stevens to talk to. Within seconds we were given the off, 40 odd runners full of adrenaline hurtling around an opening lap of the cricket pitch. I was aware that I was definately further up the field than I had previously been and a check of the watch showed that my initial pace was through the roof. I held this as far as I could and although it dropped, it didn't drop too much as I worked very hard for the first couple of laps of the Park to maintain my position.

By the third lap though I was hanging on just a little, and by the last lap the early pace had taken its toll and I was truly marmalised. I did, however, have enough left to up the pace again for the last 300m even though I was eventually reeled in by Dom, who came past me like a whippet in the last 100m, that last burst bought me home in under 23 minutes.

I crossed the line in 22.41 which is a new PB for me, and not far behind a man, who when I first took part in this race last year, I thought I would never be as good as - there is now just less than a minute between us ! It will be one of my goals for next year for sure.

Next up for me then is a trip to the North Yorkshires Dales for a cycle sportive event next Saturday morning - http://www.colombachemoclassic.org.uk/

Worksop Half Marathon

Today was another stop off on the journey of attempting to run a Half Marathon in under 1 hr and 50 minutes. Having run the Robin Hood Half last month and getting 1.53 have been determined to beat that and take my PB down into the 1.40's.

I arrived in Worksop then with a plan to better my Robin Hood time and then take that to the flat Norwich Half Marathon in three weeks time and get the time that I wanted.

There was no way that I was going to get it today as the Worksop Half is notoriously hilly with a whopping 186m of climbing within the 13.1 miles of the route - I would have to have a good day to trouble even the Nottingham time....but this is how it went.....

J'arrive !

Nice and early having taken just 40 minutes to drive from Lincoln. We found street parking just 30 metres or so from a car park and in the process saved ourself a gargantuan £1.20 !! A ten minute walk, if that, into the centre of Worksop then followed and then we found the registation area - things ran like clockwork and I very quickly had my race number and timing chip. I had a jog around to warm up trying to look like I knew what I was doing and then joined the queue for the toilets - big mistake, as there were clearly not enough toilets for the amount of competitors and the queues moved very slowly - to fix this the orgainsers could have organised stand ups for the chaps but hey ho ! When I eventually managed to 'get in and out' as it were, and had about a minute to get myself down to the start. Seeding myself towards the front of the sub 2 I managed to filter myself in from the footpath as the Klaxon went to signal the start of the race.

The race

I had been told that the first mile of the race was uphill and that is true, but forgivingly its not steep and it comes right at the start so with adrenaline still pumping my pace was better than expected. My runners world pace band said 8.42 and I was little over 9 so no panic - I knew the first mile would be slower as the pack had still not settled down. Mile 2 was undulating, but the faster downhills meant that I picked up good time here and manged to get myself into credit against my target pace !

Miles 3 to 5 continued to undulate and to be honest I enjoyed the downhill sections but was getting a little fed up looking ahead to see a sea of bobbing heads going upwards !

I got through 6 miles in 49 minutes or so which is only a minute outside my PB 10k time - no wonder then that it felt like hard work. At this point we were in Clumber Park for the middle section of the race - and parts looked very familiar from the Duathlon earlier in the year. This was better too, with not many if any hills, just 'deceptive' flats as I recall.

At mile 9 , I began to feel tired and my pace dropped a touch - which I think was down to the earlier battering my legs took on the hills and the fast start. At mile 10, my ankle started to feel painful and I think it cramped up - this meant that I had to stop a couple of times to stretch it out and give it a wiggle ! This helped and I was soon on my way again and even managed to chase down Elvis during this section - uh uh !!!!

During the eleventh mile , I finished the last of my gel, and thought another runner asked me what I was doing - in fact it was David Greenwell and we ran together past the mile 12 marker, but Davids pace was a little too fast for me and I dropped back from him. The last mile as previously mentioned is all downhill and I tried to blast it as much as I could. There was nothing left in the tank by the time I turned the corner for home , but was elated to be under 1.50 for the first time, crossing the line in 1.48.18. That is a further 5 minutes off my PB, and 26 mins for the year.

I found the t shirt to be great and must applaud the work of the marshalls and the organisers for a great race.

Whats next ? Well theres the No Walk 5k next Saturday and the a cycle sportive in the Yorkshire Dales the week after. I am tempted to give Norwich a miss now but will make a decision on that later in the week.

BUPA Great Yorkshire Run

I've had a little bit of a hazardous weekend if truth be told:

Firstly I played Golf yesterday morning which can have a bad effect on my back, and secondly and more dangerously, I had a night out at the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' last night, where I dressed up as main protagonist Frank n Furter complete with high heels - that was a sprained ankle waiting to happen I can tell you.

It was with some relief then, that I managed to rock up this morning in Sheffield to compete in my second Great Yorkshire Run, the first having been completed in September of last year. On that occasion I was a white wave runner, very much centre of the pack, but this year having had a great season of improving times, I found myself in the first wave of starters for the first time - the orange wave. The plan today was simple - run as hard as I could over the first 9 kilometres to lessen the effect of the PB killing hills in the last stretch that dampened last years performance. To assist with this, I made my own pace band http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/runners-world-pace-band-generator/3918.html which if I followed it correctly would give me a PB.

We walked to the start area, and after using the world most indiscreet open air stand ups, I joined my fellow wave runners for our 10.00am start. The professional athletes were introduced to the masses along with todays celebrity - Life On Mars very own Ray Carling, actor Dean Andrews - a much better celebrity scalp than last years effort.

We were soon moving forward, and then jogging, and then back walking, and then finally over the start line and away ! The pace was immediately fast, and knowing that this was downhill, tried to make the most of it in the first kilometre. My pace band told me that I needed a 4.58 first km, but was delighted with a 4.37 effort. Things calmed down a little bit and I was able to settle at a hard pace but a manageable one as we passed the 2nd kilometre marker and entered the effectively 6k out and back section of the race along a dual carriageway to the Hillsborough stadium. This section went very smoothly, I was disappointed though that there was not a big screen this year at the turnaround as there had been last year - to make up for this though I did notice the Hillsborough stadium, which last year I was completely oblivious to even though it is massive !

The first half of the race passed in around 23-24 mins which was good pacing, the second half of the race though was tougher and I found that even slight inclines were hard work. I managed to keep the pace constant though and as we made our way back to Sheffield City Centre there was no real slippage in the time that I had in the bank ahead of plan and I ran hard to make sure that this did not happen. Just before 9km, the first climb came and went and there was time to recover with a downhill, before the PB killer came up. I tackled this head on and although the pace dropped considerably I continued to attack it and although a lost half a minute by my reckoning, I was still able to cross the finish line in 48.26 - a new PB by over a minute and I can't be anything over than delighted with that.

Overall then, 834th on the day and in the top 17th percentile of finishers - the kind of performance that I just want to keep improving on. Next up for me is the Worksop Half Marathon on the 30th - and until then I will be giving some though to some goals for the rest of the year and some for 2012.

Robin Hood Half Marathon

Everybody panic !

Hurricane 'Malcolm' or something is about to hit UK shores and we had been told for most of the week that this was going to land sometime Sunday/Monday. Image my surprise when I opened the curtains this morning to lovely blue skies with hardly a cloud in the sky ! Not too warm and I'd say ideal conditions for a nice 13 mile race.

I left sunny Lincoln at 7.45, and arrived dead early again in Nottingham 45 minutes later. This meant we had plenty of time to park the car away from the race centre and enjoyed a nice walk along the embankment to the race village. One there, I resisted buying yet another race day technical T-shirt (I clearly have too many !), and then failed miserably to bump into any fellow NetNutters ! - there was no tardis that I could see so I mingled around the Lucozade tent for a bit where I managed to get a pacing wristband which I think is brilliant. I opted for the sub 1.55 band, which having all the expected mile splits wriiten on it gave me something to focus on.

After a bit of a warm up I headed down to the start area, and into my allotted pen which looked to be getting a little congested the nearer to race time we got - some big hairy bloke came and stood practically on my toes for the final couple of minutes. At a little over 10.00 am though there was movement at the front and we started moving forwards - always a good sign that a race has started !

The race...

The start of larger races of this type are always congested for the first couple of miles and I am used to this.... but today it seemed stupidly so for the first kilometre along the embankment or so as the race had to sort itself out and those people that again started in the wrong pens had to be navigated. As a result I didn't get to settle down until we were near the one mile marker and a quick look at my watch and at the pace band told me I was about about ten seconds behind schedule already.

Having settled down though I found that even though it was busy, if I managed my lines correctly I could always find space and not get myself too boxed in. As a result I made up time in that second mile and edged in front of target. There was a lovely long climb in the city centre which strung the runners out a little before we headed out towards the Trent University campus for some scenic running around the park and around a lake. I felt the wind here for the first time as it had got up a little but was enjoying the surroundings a little too much to care !
Quite a bit of this section was familiar as it was partially the same course as the Jagermeister 10k from August so I knew that we were going to going up some climbs very shortly.

At mile 5 I was ahead of schedule by about 40 seconds or so, but then we had the climb into the Trent building which was again a long incline and I had to make further time up on the way down - I also overtook the bloke that I had been using for pacing at this point and had to search around for a while for another target - and finally found one in the shape of a young woman - a perv me...noooooo.... racing reasons only I swear guv'nor !

We made our way out to Wollaton Park, which seemed peppered with inclines and the worst of the days climbs but as long as I didn't overcook things going up, I found I could quickly get back on track when things levelled out on top and of couse enjoyed the declines where I was able to get a bit of respite. My pace had not dropped and I still had those 40 seconds in the bag as we passed mile 10 and made our way through the city towards the finish. With all the ups and downs mostly finished, things flattened out and the wind began to pick up again - I started to stiffen a little and my gel bottle now looked like warm milk as I finished that heading through the final water station. At mile 12, I tried to quicken but could not manage too much and found myself running next to a fellow triathlete ( yes there were at least two of us dressed like transvestites!) , and we spent the last mile grunting events we had completed to each other, before he completely did me in a kick for home. I managed to get over the line in 1.53 something which was a 21 minute personal best for me and then got a super medal ( I'm a bit of a medal tart TBH and although a tshirt is OK you can have too many! )

In all, a super day at the office, at a gem of a race, and I might even be back next year.

Lincoln Wellington 5k

Lincoln Wellington Athletic Club host a four race series of 5,000 metres over the summer months at Yarborough Leisure Centre. Having competed earlier in the year at a similar event in Chesterfield, I was pleasantly surprised by both the size of the event and the organisation behind it - and the best bit was that it was super cheap to enter - just a £5, bargain !

The race

I turned up very early again, but this time it was because I had been suffering from DOMS in my hamstring for the preceeding couple of days and wanted to make sure that I spent enough time warming up before the race - besides warm up was on the running track and it was a great running surface. I also met up with John from UK Netrunner, himself looking to break the 25 minute mark for the first time - you can follow Johns blog here :http://runner795.blogspot.com/

We lined up at half past seven and after a short race briefing we were set on our way. The course is made up of a short loop, followed by three larger loops, all run on the cycle track which follows the perimetre of the leisure centre grounds. The pace for the first lap was a bit quicker than I am used to as I found myself running with John ( the netrunner peleton! ) and I was struggling to keep with his faster pace. As we hit the first of the larger laps though I managed to settle down into it and found myself targeting one of the runners about twenty metres ahead of me.

She was still in my sights for most of the second lap, but towards the end , I managed to squeeze past on a corner just before I got lapped by the race leader. For the rest of the lap, I concentrated on not dropping my pace and getting re-taken.

On the final lap, I found the pace hard work, but decided to try and keep going as long as I could. For the final 400m I could hear someone beginning to catch me and it took all I could muster to finish just ahead in a near sprint finish.

23.37 then for the night, and a PB by nearly two minutes at this distance - a good evenings work.

National Club Relays

My triathlon season for 2011 officially ended with a trip over to Holme Pierrepont for the National Club Relay Championships where I was part of a four man Lincoln Tri team competing in the mens Sunday morning event.



I did this event last year and it was complete chaos, it also rained heavily for the entire event ! I hoped for better waether this year and the triathlon gods duly obliged by providing a sunny day, with some cloud cover albeit with strong wind.


I arrived at the National Water Sports Centre very early and met my team-mates ( Mark, AJ & John) under the Lincoln tri gazebo - AJ was the team captain and he had already registered the team and paid my £5 non BTF registration fee. We had plenty of time for some chatter, before taking the bikes down to transition and walking the course, checking out and agreeing our changeover points and generally getting our bearings as there is a lot to remember !


Once we had changed into our wetsuits, we were ready to start and at a little over 10.15am, our first swimmer enetered the water - this is how things unfolded....

Swim - 500 metres

Last year the swim course was 400m, but by moving the swim start to the end of the lake, the organisers had to lengthen the course so that those people in the grandstand could see some swim action. Whilst AJ was in the water, I managed to get in for a little swim, before getting out and standing at our tag point for the baton handover. One I had been given the baton I then preceeded to run past the water entry point and then had to turn back and do it again - I think I lost 2o seconds or so here....I managed to flop into the water gracefully and then set out to find the first bouy. Now, my swim felt fine (apart from swimming through the weeds and it grabbing hold of my face like something out of 'Alien'!), and considering I have had very little swim time since Ironman I though I had done very well, however I later found out that my swim leg was 12.45, which was over a minute slower than the rest of the team. I think the time has come to invest again in some swim coaching because it really is my achilles heal !

Bike - 15km

The bike course is three laps of the lake and is as flat as you can get. There was a strong wind that blew right along the lake which made this a bit of a heaven/hell bike ride. The heaven part was the first part of the lap where you could get into a big gear and stay aero for a very quick opening two kilometres. The problem came when you turned around and headed back up the other side of the lake, it was murder ! By the end of the first lap my legs ached and the second lap was very hard. The third lap I started taking some places back and then put in a big effort along the back section to tey and beat last years 25 minutes bike lag - but this wasn't to be and by the time I tagged John in to do his laps the clock had ticked over to 26.21 which I initially though was a step back. The results showed that we were all in the 26 minutes band and as there were some decent cyclists in the team, in the end that was a very very good effort !

Run - 5km

Last year I ran a time of 27.14, but knew this year my times had been tumbling, so set myself a target of beating 25 minutes. I set off on my leg like a hare (for me) but soon settled down into the same pace that I ran Birchwood last weekend. This pace although tough was manageable as I first navigated the off road undulating section. and then as I got to the lake and had the wind behind me , down towards the bottom to complete the first three kilometres. However, as soon as I made the turn home into the wind it became doubly tough and I could feel the pace noticeably dropping. At this point I was racing a chap from Wakefield Tri and as a result got a little bit of shelter. 24.43 was my time for my leg and I was chuffed with it to say the least.

That was my race over, my times adding up to 1.03.49 exactly 1 second quicker than last year, but with an extra 100m of swimming thrown in which at my current swim pace means an extra 2.5 minutes - not a bad days work.

I had time for a shower and to yam a bowl of Bolognese Pasta before making my way down to the finish to see Mark - our anchor man - complete our event with a strong run. 4.09 for the team overall, and I think we all came away with something to smile about.

Next up is a crack at an official 5km sub 25 time on Wednesday evening at the Lincoln Wellington race at Yarborough Leisure Centre.

Spectrum Striders Birchwood 10k

No, not the Birchwood in my home city of Lincoln, but the Birchwood shopping centre over the other side of the country in Warrington !

Suffice to say then, it was a very early alarm call on Sunday morning and I think I did well to manage to only hit the snooze button three times. Once I had caught up on Match Of The Day, had a coffee and eaten some raceday porridge, it was time to get in the car and make my way over to Lancashire in a journey that would surprisingly only take two hours and ten minutes.

I arrived, again, very early and spent at least half an hour just sitting in the car playing with my phone, before it was time to get out, find a toilet (it was stand ups - bliss !) and have a bit of a stretch and go through my warm up routine. There was an organised warm up, but as soon as the guy started doing lunges that was enough for me and I just did my own thing.

I lined up for the race about halfway down the pack of about 650 runners, and met Peter & Tristan, two other Netrunners. We didn't get too much time to chat before we were set off.

My plan pre race was to have a crack at going under 50 minutes for a 10k race for the first time. I knew that on my not very accurate Garmin this would mean keeping my pace at an even 13 or above which would lead to 5 minute kilometres ( it was only two years ago that I was in Manchester aiming for 6 minute kilometres to go under the hour !).

For the first kilometre, I averaged about 13.2 or so and this took me through the first kilometre marker at just under five minutes and from there the challenge was set - get to each kilometre marker within 5 minutes and it would be mine !

By the time we left the retail/office park, and had passed the second kilometre, I was still on time, but felt like I was working incredibly hard - still, it wasn't an uncomfortable pace, and I felt during that third kilometre that I was settling down. At this point I was still overtaking people, and making a conscious effort not to fall into the pace of any runners in front of me and just concentrated on my own pace.

I managed to get to 5km in around 24.45 (looking forward to my 5k race next week!), stopped briefly at the water station to pour some water over my head, and then continued on my way.

I tried to run an intelligent race and looked ahead for the most efficient line as the country roads were winding at this point, which I think I managed. The second half of the race was mostly quiet lanes, there were some fly overs, and we even had to negotiate a horsebox road block !

All the time, the kilometre markers were coming and going until the point that I reached the last kilometre marker at around 44.50 - which meant that some effort over the last 1000 metres would see me reach my sub 50 goal - in all honestly, that was the point where I knew I'd done it, but took the last kilometre seriously and entered a sprint finish to cross the line in 49.36, a new personal best by nearly three minutes, and second place in the club handicap.

I collected my very smart race towel, and went and met up with other netrunners, and together we applauded our club mates as they crossed the line. A top, top day !

This was part one of Sundays mission, and after a quick hop over to Bolton in the car, I unpacked the bike and rode the Sheep House Lane climb of Ironman UK which was an aim of mine to complete in 2011.

Mmmm makes a special trip to test the Ironman UK course....what's he up to ???

Jagermeister 10K

Goody, goody, goody ! A return to the 10k distance for the first race at this distance since Lincoln in what seems a lifetime ago back at the start of April.
The Jagermeister 10k takes place entirely within the grounds of Nottingham Trent University , and is a two lap affair with a fair amount of climbing thrown in. It is mainly run on service roads, but there are some tarmac paths and gravel paths thrown in for good measure. I had been entered for this race last year, but suffered my only ever DNS when my knee flared up following Antwerp, so as a result I had been fired up all week and really looked forward to this Friday evening event.

Realistically, given my Ironman five weeks ago, and my running only just getting back into the 5-6 mile distances since, I wasn’t looking to get near to the 52.28 that I set at Lincoln. Instead, all that was wanted was a good solid run, and a foundation to build on at the Club Handicap in two weeks time.

I arrived early so had plenty of time to warm up, meet other NetRunners, and make my way down the road to the start. At around 7pm, whilst I was still chatting, the klaxon went off and the race started. Well, the first kilometre went by far too quickly and I think I may have been just a little exciteable ! Kilometre 2 was a much soberer experience and also had a real big climb to negotiate which calmed things down considerably. At this point of the race, I just decided to keep going at this quicker pace and see how long I could keep going for, electing to slow if I felt I needed to.

The kilometre markers came and went, and I rounded the lake for the first time and went through five kilometres in around 25.30 or so, so if I could keep going at the same pace then I could be on for a PB by about a good minute !
OK, get to six kilometres and see how you feel, got there, then tried for seven. At about the 8km mark though, I just could not keep it up and felt myself slowing – although I knew that I could aim for my PB all the same.

I was grateful to see the orange colouring of the Jagermeister advertising which decorated the last 50m or so of the run, and I could see the electronic clock counting away for most of the finishing straight. I managed to finish in 52.08 which was a PB by 20 seconds and a result that was completely unexpected at the start of the day.
Next up is a trip to Warrington for a club handicap event.

Ironman Austria - the race report !

I’ll start with a little bit of history......


2005


I run the ASICS London 10k in a fashion – my only ever sporting event up to that point – I immediately retire back to the pub to bask in my glory and spend the next three years telling anybody that will listen that ‘ yeah, I done a 10K and could do another, but don’t want to !’


Early 2009
My attitude has changed, all of a sudden I’m getting towards my late thirties and thinking I can’t go on like this – I’ve also met proper runners and all of a sudden my half assed 10k seems very cheap ! I enter the Lincoln 10k and train for it properly, I enjoy the experience and enter Derby for the following month , whilst searching for Derby race reports I stumble across a triathletes blog – Hugh Barnett from Mansfield Tri – and decide to go to Woodhall Spa to go and watch an event.


May 2009
I’m inspired and decide to have a go – I enter a sprint in Leeds in August and join Lincoln Tri – they don’t care that I used to live in the pub, or lack athletic talent...or rock up to swim sessions in baggy beach shorts !

August 2009
The Xpress Leeds triathlon – I finish in the bottom five of a 300 strong field – my performance is not helped by getting off the bike and pushing it up two very slights hills – I do, on the positive side, post PBs in all three disciplines and vow never to take over two hours to finish a sprint again.

For the rest of the year I do three more sprints progressively getting better. I measure my performance by how far off the bottom I am. Firstly 11, then 30, then at the last tri of the year a nosebleed like 65 – which is a whole results page from the bottom !
I read about Ironman events on the TriTalk web forum and enter Antwerp 70.3 for 2010 – I have family there and it is as flat as you can get – so a nice starter race into the world of Ironman.



2010

I enjoy the training so much that I enter IM Austria before completing Antwerp. I eventually complete Antwerp in a few seconds over 6 hours and love every second of it. Whilst recovering I marshall at the Outlaw and watch my fellow Lincoln Tri-ers and TT-ers finish the Iron distance. I’m in awe of their performances and regret not doing the event instead of Antwerp. It’s nearly a whole year of keeping busy before my turn comes around.


2011
I’ve lost 12kg, and my running times have started to tumble over a busy winter period. I buy Don Fink’s ‘Be Ironfit’ book and follow the just get round programme with a bit of intermediate biking thrown in some weeks. I don’t do swim drills – I just swim up and down the pool at the gym for how ever long the book says my session is supposed to last – it is very boring ! However, OW swimming soon starts to breaks up the monotiny. After 30 weeks I am as ready as I am ever going to be. I have rented a bike box from the club, and on 28th June I nervously wave goodbye to it at Stansted Airport and hope that the baggage handlers are all in a good mood.

Once we have landed in Austria, I am one of the lucky ones to see my bike arrive at the same time and all appears well. There is a panic moment when I don’t attach the rear mech properly and have to take my seized bike to the Iron Village for repais just 2 days prior to the event, but a very very nice man sorts me out and the bike is repaired – hoorah !
The night before I struggle to sleep and I am thankful to get an hour before my alarm call at stupid o clock gets me up. We make our way down to Klagenfurt for my very first Ironman : a 2.4m swim, 112 mile bike ride and then topped off with a Marathon.

This is how the day went :



Swim

6.55am, and I am stood on the small beach at Klagenfurt. The Austrian national anthem is playing and I am having a last minute pee in my wetsuit. I look around and can tell that I am not the only one doing this. There are 2500 of us on the beach, each of us trying to work out where exactly we are swimming to as it is not entirely clear which one of the brightly coloured buoys we are to aim for. Eventually, the song ‘ final countdown’ starts blaring out and that is our prompt to make our way into the water ready for the start, I have positioned myself towards the rear of the field, but trying to seed myself in front of the breaststrokers because my fear is that I’ll receive a kick to the face and die or something ! I only get ankle deep before we are told to go and the fireworks pop, I amble forward and ungracefully flop into the water – I am off on my Ironman adventure!

The water is very warm and a really nice shade of blue – this is heaven – also, I am not getting the duffing up that I was expecting from reading other peoples Ironman reports, it is busy granted, but people are being sensible and pacing themselves in my section of the water. My pace has steadied down and I am really enjoying the first 1400m – and in a bonus, I can see clearly the buoys that I am supposed to swim to. At 1400m, we all have to turn left, and then a little further along, turn left again and head back towards the beach and ultimately an 800m stretch of canal. As soon as we make that second turn towards the beach though, I cannot see a thing because the low sun has is in my face and it is blinding me. All I can do is try and follow the general direction of my fellow swimmers, and keep an eye on the canoeists that are herding us towards the canal section. It would be interesting to see a GPS of this part of the swim as I guess there was a lot of zigging and sagging going on. The swim up the canal for the last part of the swim is phenomenal as the crowds lining both sides are making loads of noise and it is all of a sudden really busy with so many swimmers crammed into such a narrow lane. I can see the hotel now and start to kick hard to get some life back in my legs ready for the run to transition. A helper grabs me I exit the water in 1 hour 28 mins – within my prediction window and not bad for a brick with no technique – so far then so good.



T1 – there is a 100m trot across a main road into the transition area. I find my bag easily (well there weren’t that many left !) and go into the change tent. My bag is emptied and then I make sure that I line up the contents to make sure I don’t forget anything – there are worried looks from others in the tent. I was just over 10 minutes in T1, but it was worth it to be comfortable going onto the bike and it was time well invested.



Bike

The Austrian countryside is absolutely beautiful and cycling through it for six odd hours was a real treat. The bike leg starts with 20km section which follows the lakes edge around to Velden – this section is mostly flat or downhill and is really fast, this was excellent to ride and I spent a lot of time down on my tri bars. I passed a few people myself, but was surprised by the amount of fitter looking Austrians that were coming past me on this stretch – whisper it quietly but I don’t think many Austrians can actually swim that well and this is coming from the human brick ! Once into Velden and the route becomes more undulating. Any rise was usually preceeded by lots of graffiti on the road so you sort of knew where you were going to have to put the work in. I tried to keep a steady pace of around 18mph when on the flat bits and hoped that I didn’t lose too much time on the hills. There are two climbs of note on the circuit, the first one is at Egg, which is a steady climb over a kilometre and although I tried to sit and just spin my way up the first time around I just couldn’t and had to get out of the saddle on a couple of occasions. I hadn’t driven the bike course so didn’t know what to expect from the main climb or where exactly it was – all I knew from various reports was that you could hear a DJ from miles away. Problem is that all the bars on the route seemed to have loud music playing and lots of crowds – this meant that there were a lot of false dawns. Eventually though, after negotiating another rise, I saw a bright yellow inflatable arch at the bottom of a hill and then I knew, here it was the famous Rupertilberg ! I got about ten metres past this arch before yep, I was out of the saddle again. The climb in fairness is only tough because of the length of it, because at its maximum I think it was only 11% or so. I could hear the DJ in the distance cheering on the Ironmen and Iron-laydeeeeeez, to the backdrop of some real cheesy europop numbers. From the top of the Rupertilberg, it is mostly downhill back to Klagenfurt and this was the fastest section on my race.



3.07 then for the first lap of the course and just the little matter of doing it all again. On the second time around, the legs started to stiffen up, and consequently the speed dropped, and the climbs seemed much, much longer and were far more painful ! I was grateful to get off the bike by the end of the second lap because I felt shattered. I still had the little matter of the Marathon to go though. 6.37 for the bike leg and in line with expectations.



Run

The second transition took about 4 minutes, and there were more bags on the pegs than when I was last in transition so I had clearly made some places on the bike. I didn’t feel like running at this point so decided to have a go at the first couple of kilometres before having a walk. However, as my legs started to free up, and my running settled down I started to feel really good and managed to keep up a pace that was slightly quicker than I had done in my long slow training runs. There were aid stations every 2km’s and I stuck to the plan of walking them to make sure that I took enough water on board and had a couple of mouthfuls of gels when I felt I needed them. The gels were the Powerbar Apple ones and I can tell you that there are rank ! The run is basically made up of two laps with two out and backs making up each circuit. The first 10km takes you out to Krumpendorf on the northern shore of the Worthersee and is basically a straight path alongside a trainline, and this section could be really dull, however because it was quite a narrow path it was also very busy which I think helped break up any monotiny. With the first out and back completed in around 55 minutes it was time to pass back through Iron City and then follow the canal into the centre of Klagenfurt. I still felt really good and made sure that I used the sponges to keep as cool as possible as the sun was out and it was very warm in it. I managed to complete the first half of the marathon in around 2.01 which for me is very quick ( last year in Antwerp I ran 2.13 which still is my PB over the distance).



I started to entertain thoughts of a sub 4 hour marathon ( funny how Ironman starts to play with your mind like that) and at 22km the clock read 2.06 something...mmm...2 x 55 minute 10k’s – could I do it ????



Then, within a kilometre the wheels started to wobble quite badly, I began noticeably swaying and didn’t feel great anymore !



I stopped and walked to the next aid station where I made myself take a whole sickly gel ( there is a point in one of the most recent Harry Potter films where Dumbledore has to keep drinking against his will – this is what taking an entire Powerbar Apple gel is really like !) I also drank two whole cups of water and hoped that I had managed to sort any problem out. During this inactivity, every leg muscle seemed to have tightened up and when I began running again it was more of a painful hobble ! Any thoughts of a sub 4 Mara disappeared and my attention turned to an attempt to finish in under 13 hours which had been my super secret hope before the event.



Although still surrounded by fellow Iron peeps on that boring stretch to and from Krumpendorf, I don’t think I have ever felt as lonely as I did on that stretch and was so relieved to see Heidi and the in law support crew as I passed through Iron City again at 31km. I think that at this point with only 10km to go, that it really sank in that I was going to finish – I had 6 miles to go and about 1hr 15mins to go sub 13. I began to enjoy it again and made myself little targets of getting from each aid station without stopping in between. Any down slopes on the canal path were negotiated very slowly and comically the up slopes were very slowly walked up by queues of athletes. I took some flat coke for the first time ever at around 6km to go, which had the reverse effect on me as I walked for a good five minutes around the centre of Klagenfurt ! After ringing the bell, I drank some coke and finally got the legs turning over again for the home stretch back along the canal to the finish area. The hobble – aid station strategy got me safely through the final few miles ok and I took time out to hug Heidi before turning into the finish chute to finish my sub 4.5hr Marathon. I was over the moon to finish in 12.51.37 in the end, and loved all the flashing lights, music, cheering and cheerleaders on that last magical 20 metres.



I am an Ironman ! It feels weird, I wanted it for so long and all I could think about was doing it again, again, again !

So whats next ? Well, for the rest of the year I’ll mostly be chasing down my half marathon times and maybe taking in some sportives along the way as well. Next year, therewill be no full Ironman, but I will be signing up for the 70.3 at Wimbleball. The books open for 2013 though as I’d love to go long again – with Roth looking like the likely destination.

The Dambuster Triathlon

It was a return to Rutland Water today, to compete in only my second only Olympic distance Triathlon - the first being the same race this time last year - so, a good opportunity to test my fitness with Austria just around the corner.

Swim 33.47

This was very choppy this year and because of this I had trouble breathing in the first part of the swim out into the lake. Indeed, I was not enjoying myself and was a bit miserable in truth - it also felt like I took a lot longer than last year - however it was just 6 seconds slower , so not too bad I suppose.

T1 - 4.24

Last year I cocked up T2 by losing the bike and this year I cocked up T1 by losing my bike so at least I'm consistent ! After finding the bike, I struggled to get both the wetsuit off and the bike jacket on - by the time I left I was in a stinking mood !

Bike - 1.27.02

Onto the bike and out into the wind - very glad that I took the extra time to put the jacket on. The tri-bars that I'd recently installed were working a treat and I was going at a good pace. Before I knew it I was at the ripple, but this seemed a lot easier to tackle this year which shows the benefit of all those miles on the road. At this point I remember smiling for the first time and thinking that actually things were not going so badly after all. The remainder of the bike was sensibly paced and I ended up finishing this section 6 minutes faster than last year.

T2 - 1.12

Having got the whole bike losing episode out of the way earlier on, I was able to relax and pull off a really good transition.

Run - 46.45

Last years run time was 55.11 which I thought was fast, but today - possibly because I'd had two rest days - my run was super quick and I had no problems keeping a faster pace. The Dam section was fun, keeping an eye on my Lincoln Tri clubmates who were catching me up, and having the weather alternate between heavy shower and hot sun !

In total 2.53.10 and 14 minutes quicker than last year - now to tackle Austria - Game On !!

3 weeks to go..

3 weeks today , I shall be in Austria, taking part in my first Ironman. I have been training for this in earnest since New Years Day, however I suppose I really started training for it the moment I went out for my very first run of 2009, when I managed to get about halfway around the block !

Going back to this years training, I have been following a 30 week plan by Don Fink - and week 27 has just been completed. The peak distances in each of the disciplines have now been reached : 3km done in open water, 18.6 miles run and today by riding out to Melton Mowbray from Lincoln that was 82 miles done and dusted, which I rode on my own to recreate the conditions that I will face in Austria where I can be no less than 10 metres between the next rider.

Its the start of the taper period now and after this week the schedule starts to lighten considerably with the idea being that by the time I get to the start line in 3 weeks time I'll be fresh and ready to tackle the challenge before me.

Next weekend is my final race before Ironman - the Dambuster at Rutland Water - an event that I did last year and hopefully a useful last training race.

Blenheim Triathlon 2011

Lets get this out of the way early doors – this is the best Triathlon I have ever done – both in terms of the experience and the setting. Yes, it cost £68 to enter, but in my opinion, it was worth every penny !

Friday
Being from Lincoln, we decided to make our way down to Oxfordshire on the Friday evening and I found a very cheap Travelodge at Cherwell Valley services that only set me back £19. The room was a little ‘skeffy’ and the people above had a dog trotting about for most of the evening, but for the price what could I expect ? Besides if anyone asks, we stayed in Cherwell Valley which sounds like the Welsh countryside to anyone not local !!

The day
We only had a half hour drive from our idyllic country hideaway to get to Blenheim Palace so we arrived in plenty of time. There was ample parking and we had the added benefit of being parked right next to the ugliest old tree in the car park, which was useful when I forgot to take Heidi’s spectator pass to the entry point and had to run back to the car (this theme would continue later in the day !). We had a good walk around the expo, and even managed not to buy anything which is a first – however, I decided to save it for the Ironman expo so it will get spent either way ! I took the bike into the massive transition area and then made my way 400m or so down to the swim start for my 12.20 off time.

The race
The swim – A floating start and time to get used to the water – that’s a first ! I positioned myself in the middle and towards the back of the pack and before I knew it we were off. The swim didn’t seem to go on for very long and I felt I swam well the whole way round thinking I was on for a 15 min swim – in the end the clock read 17.03 which is still my quickest 750m open water swim to date, but felt it could have been quicker.

T1 – Transitigeddon !!!!! Where to start – firstly, there is a mostly uphill 400m swim exit before you even get to transition, then when I got there I thought I’d pulled off a textbook transition only to find at the mount line that I’d forgotten to put on my race number, so it was dump the bike and dodge my way back up my bike aisle to retrieve it – this must have cost me nearly a minute all told – D’OH !! 5.09 in total and my slowest ever !
Bike – This was more like it – closed internal roads stretching around the stunning Blenheim estate, some ups, some downs and lots of bends making it ideal bike racing. There were that many racing at the same time that it was impossible not to draft at some point ! the first lap took 13.15, the second 13.20, but by the third lap my legs were beginning to cook and I was happy to pull into to T2 having posted a 40.26 split which was 277th out of 1831 finishers on the day. Two things that I am pleased I did – chose my TT bike over the normal roadie, because although technical in places, it was manageable and a lot faster, and then having the water bottle on it – it was absolutely baking on the bike and I could have been a real state by the time of the run if I hadn’t !

T2 – No worries this time – pretty much smoothly done , again size of the Transition area meant 1.41, but this was fast in comparison to the majority of the field.

Run – Straight out of transition, and straight up a bloody steep ramp which bridged over the bike course ! The route took you out around the lake for a two circuit run which had both uphills and downhills. Once out on the course, it was apparent just how warm it was and I had to settle for a pace slightly slower than I ran at Woodhall last weekend. Because of the roasting temperature, I took on a little water at each aid station, and just enjoyed running in such great surroundings. At 29.04 not a bad time for a 5.4km run in such conditions and an overall time of 1.33.21 was good enough to be 436th out of 1831 on the day and good enough to be in the top quarter of the field.

Do I recommend Blenheim ? Am I going back there next year ? A resounding ‘Yes’ on both counts.

Race Report - Woodhall Spa Triathlon 1.21.37

I returned to what I like to call ‘the home of triathlon’ today and competed in the Woodhall Spa Sprint triathlon.

2 years ago, I popped along as a spectator to this event having read a blog online and eager to learn more about Triathlon – I can honestly recommend this strategy as it put to bed any fears about taking the plunge as the sport is full of normal people of differing shapes and sizes and not the muscle heads that I had previously thought dominated the scene.

Last year I entered as a competitor and was really pleased with a solid showing of 1.31.28, this year, however, following some improvement seen from the start of the season, I wanted to beat 1 hour and 24 minutes in line with the goals that I set at the start of the year.

This is how events unfolded :

Swim 9.38
It was overcast and windy as the Met Office had quite rightly predicted, but in the 33 metre outdoor pool at Woodhall it was absolutely bloody lovely – honestly, I could have lounged in that pool all day it was that nice, but there was some racing to do instead so I had to get down to the nitty gritty. I was in wave 29 scheduled for 8.56 am, but with a slight 6 min delay we were off shortly after nine. I know not to hammer the first couple of lengths, so I duly ignored that thought and absolutely attempted to hammer the first few lengths. By halfway I was beginning to blow and my bi-lateral breathing had been replaced with the two stroke gasping that I tend to use in open water swimming. Still though, I had not been overtaken and in fact completed a stealth overtaking move of my very own – I’m betting the chap could not even see the flailing man in black inching past him. I did calm down a bit later in the swim to be fair and found myself smiling as I left the pool with a sub ten pool swim for the first time ever !

T1 – 1.40
Took my time, easy does it and all that, made sure I rode with socks on, so took a little longer than I normally would.

Bike – 46.16
I have a lovely new set of Planet X deep rimmed carbon wheels which I bought back in April, but again because of strong winds I bottled out of using them and spent some of yesterday afternoon changing back to the standard spoked version – this is a real shame because apart from a few turns, the Woodhall course is ideal for them. After I had dallied around a bit at the mount line, I eventually got myself clipped in to the pedals and away I went. Strong winds were apparent from the off and I just hoped that it would turn out to be a mostly cross wind as I struggle in headwinds. For the first part of the course it certainly was and I found that I could keep a decent speed in spite of the battering I was getting. The course profile shows a steady elevation for the first half of the course, but in my opinion although this is true, it is made up mostly of deceptive flats and there are no climbs at all on this course. I rode well during the middle part of the course overtaking some earlier starters without being overtaken myself. I was also pleased because by this part of a ride I’m usually starting to feel heavy legged, but in this race they were holding up really well. As we turned towards Horsington though, the wind became a strong gusty headwind, so I buried my head and just kept spinning the best I could. Eventually I could see the welcome sight of the marshalls on the Stixwould Lane junction which meant I was almost back in transition. 46 min ride then compared to 52 last year – can’t be too unhappy with that now can I ?

T2 1.10 – Took my time again and dallied with changing the swim watch for my Garmin, acutely aware that if I was more business like I could save a lot of time in transitions.

Run 22.53
No water on the bike meant that I had to stop at the water table at the start of the run and have a cup ! Once I had necked that I was away, running at a slow pace I thought, but my garmin was telling me it was very fast. Out on the main road, the adrenaline wore off and I decided to pace myself a little above my Lincoln 10k pace which I figured I could hold. I was then overtaken by the only person to overtake me all day and promptly chased after him – so much for sensible pacing ! Again, the adrenaline wore off very quickly and I returned to my previous pace. Apart from the occasional feeling of stitch, the run felt good and more importantly so did my knee !!
Over the line then in 22 mins and a 1.21 overall, a 10 minute improvement on last year and Top 35% of the field – a great improvement on my bottom five finish in my first tri in August 2009 !

Next week is the Blenheim Sprint triathlon and I’ll log in again shortly after...

So , about them goals from the start of the year....

Back at the start of the year, I set myself some goals that I wanted to achieve in 2011 :-

- Lose 6kg

- Train more socially

- Achieve 1.25 at East Leake, 1.16 at Southwell, 1.24 at Woodhall and finally 2.59 at Dambuster in June.

- Listen to my body and stop when it tells me to !

- Finish my first Ironman inside 14 hours.

This is how I have done so far......

- I have lost 11 kg's !

- I did 1.19 at East Leake and 1.09 at Southwell - both well ahead of target ! However, Woodhall is in 2 weeks and 1.24 could be a big ask, but Dambuster is do- able !

- I did join 2 local cycling club rides , but didn't get on too well with them to be honest - the first one I punctured twice in the first 8 miles and had to exit, and in the second one managed to fall off after some wild riding from the fella in front - since that time I have mostly ridden on my own, all kind of 'One Man Wolfpack' !!!

- I have listened to my body and have been very careful, for example I will not kill myself on the bike to impress fellow riders if my legs still hurt from that weeks long run !

For my Ironman adventure, it is now only a little over six weeks away, and so far my longest run has been 16 miles, longest ride 63 miles, and longest swims 2400m.

Over the coming weeks, the run will peak at between 19-20 miles, the rides will peak at 6 hours, and I will do five laps of the lake meaning 4km. In all then, training going well, and time rapidly disappearing !

Lincoln Grand Prix Sportive 56m - 3.21.50

Following the enjoyable day out that I had in Milton Keynes back at the start of last month, I tried my hand at a second cycle sportive , this time the Lincoln Grand Prix sportive held the day before the famous Lincoln GP cycle race.

There were two distances on offer – a 56 mile route or a 93 mile route – I picked the 55 mile route as this tied in nicely with my training plan, and was a little gentler on my legs as well in a week where I have completed both a triathlon and a half marathon length training run.

The weather was set to be appalling for the event day, with thunder storms expected and a solid spell of rain lasting for most of the day – it certainly was shaping up to be a gloomy day. Taking the anticipated bad weather into account, I decided to use my yellow Carrera training bike again rather than get my newer and much lighter carbon racing bike wet ! ( The weather although threatening rain most of the day remained dry in the end up until the very last 20 minutes !).
I arrived at the start area at Bishop Grossteste College very, very early and was surprised to see that it was already busy – indeed in my time of registering and then queuing again for the timing chip, the whole room became rammed with people and it became very apparent that the organisers had maybe underestimated the sheer numbers of people. When I left to get my bike out of the car, there was a massive queue just to get registered which snaked out of the building.
So, from there it took a little over fifteen minutes to get the bike ready, attach my number to the handlebars and arrange my pockets etc. At a little over 8.15, I passed by a marshall who scanned my timing chip and I was out on the course heading through the top half of Lincoln, to exit the city on the east side heading towards Cherry Willingham. I think I was again a little over excited at the start and found that I was cycling very quickly through the city, however once out of the centre and onto the country roads the adrenaline had subsided and I began to ride sensibly.

The 56 mile route broke down into three distinct parts from the information on the organisers web page – the first section was a flatish 16 miles, the second section had all of the elevations and too lasted 16 miles, and the third section was the home leg which looked faster with an overall downhill profile before rising sharply as you re-entered Lincoln, finishing with steep clims back into the Castle area to finish.

The plan was to ride on my own to re-create the conditions I will face in Austria, and to not benefit from the slipstream of other riders with an aim to average 16.5mph. Phase one of this was completed, as I rode at a good pace for the first hour as we made our way though Short Ferry on our way towards Gautby before turning North for the second hillier leg.

Now, the second leg looked very hilly on the profile graph on the website – the truth is that I didn’t really notice any hills as such, just some slow ascents and overall found it undulating at worst. At about halfway through this section, and 26 miles overall, there was a refreshments stop serving coffee and the like, and I popped in momentarily to top up my water bottle. Once back on the road, there was just another 6 miles or so to negotiate before we reached the highest point on the course which was at Sixhills. Again, this landmark was reached ahead of schedule and from there it was pretty much all downhill. I rode with a couple of blokes for a short while, and then traded places back and forth with another chap until we reached Faldingworth and then finally Welton.

By this point my legs felt tired, but I knew that there was only about 7 or so miles left until the finish. I also started to have some pain in the front of my foot which seemed to ease when I took the foot out of the pedals and stretched my toes a little. Finally, I made my way back into the city, down Yarborough Hill and up the very steep Carline Road. The very last stretch saw a climb of the very wet and slippery 1 in 6 gradient Michealgate climb before getting a marshall to swipe my timing chip again to signify the end of the event. The organisers then directed us back to race HQ for some free soup and sandwiches ............................ .....mmmm....lovely ! Taking into account the water stop, and the time spent at roundabouts and traffic lights, the actual time taken was pleasing and the average was nearer to 17mph ! Out of 152 starters at this distance, my time was 59th quickest, so a pleasing turn out all round !

Race report - Southwell Triathlon 1.09.38

This was the second time that I had attempted the Southwell course as in September 2009 I did the Essendex Last Minute Triathlon which is essentially the same course and same triathlon organised by the same people.

Having lost now somewhere in the region of 13 kilos since I returned from Honeymoon in October, I was quietly hoping to do much better than the 1.22.41 that I managed in the previous Southwell race. To do this I would need to better a 11.54 swim time, a 40.55 ride and a 27.32 run - this then is how it went :

Swim 10.24

I like to wear those calf supports that you occasionally see runners and triathletes wearing but could not for the life of me find out whether you put these on before the pool or in one of the transitions. In the end I had to post on the Lincoln Tri forum to ask the question and the consensus was that it would do no harm to swim in them – so I did in the end, and it was the right thing to do because they were not detrimental to the swim and dried out very quickly. I was very lucky today as my lane was reasonably clear and the poor chap in the lane next to me had a line of four breaststrokers to deal with !! My 16 lengths came and went without any fanfare and I even managed to overtake someone (with another swimmer coming in the opposite direction ! – it was like a very slow version of chicken !!!) I glanced at my watch as I gracelessly flopped out of the pool and saw 9: something, so was really pleased with that. Once I had run out of the pool area and over the timing mat the swim time had increased to 10.24.

T1 – Takes a bit longer nowadays due to the putting on of socks and the bike shoes, but worth it overall because T2 suddenly becomes a lot quicker (or so I thought !!). T1 + T2 time in 2009 = 2.17, today it was 2.22 - so actually a little bit slower - but I'll persevere with is for the time being as I believe that having socks on for the bike gives me a faster bike split.

Bike 34.14

My bike times have been tumbling nicely this year and this is in part due to being able to use my time trial bike for events where as last year I was saving that bike for Antwerp. I have also bought some carbon wheels for the bike from Planet X, but did not use these today as it was ever so slightly windy and to be honest, having nor ridden with them yet, I am not confident enough to use them yet. So I rode my TT bike with the standard wheels that it came with.
The first part of the Southwell bike course is up and down, which I struggled with until I had got some bike speed into my legs. By the time I got to Thurgarton though, they were nicely warmed up and I set off the roadside speed trap at 30 mph ! – indeed, all the way down to the Lowdham roundabout turnaround point I rode really well, but as soon as I turned back for Southwell I understood why – there was a bloody great headwind which made the return trip extremely difficult. I persevered against the wind and eventually found my way back into transition – a good 6.5 minutes quicker than my last attempt. It is interesting to note that I did had not been overtaken by anyone at this stage of the triathlon – which is unheard off !!

T2 - Not a lot to do here as it was mostly done in T1 !

Run 22.38

There are some things in life so horrible that you completely block them out of your memory ! This would be the ‘Southwell Slope’ which is a 400m incline at the start of the run leg – OK, I admit it, I suppose its not that bad once you are running up it, but when you see it initially and you are still crackered from the bike, it does look a bit of a tall order.
The run leg at Southwell then is two laps of out and back, which is up the slope, round some quiet lanes, turn around a cone, and then back down the slope, then to the finishing arch. My run started far too fast, because of adrenaline no doubt, and by the time I tackled the slope for the first time I was already beginning to blow a bit so sensibly decided to reign my excitement in a bit. Once I had managed to get up to the top of the slope for the first time I felt a lot better and my breathing regulated. From here on in, I ran a steady pace and then gained some time by going back down the slope very quickly. Before I knew it the run was nearly over, and I managed another one of my rare sprint finishes. The aim at the start of the year was to do this event in less than 1.16, so to achieve a 1.09 finish means that I am over the moon. This also meant that I finished in the top half of the field for the first time in Triathlon.