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.