East Leake Triathlon

Today was only my second sprint distance triathlon of the year and was to be the last one. I've been in Ibiza for a week and whilst I'd managed to behave myself with the wine and fatty food I was hardly in the shape of my life as I tackled todays challenge :

Swim 8.53
Got behind a slow swimmer on the first length and didn't really recover. swam OK, but exited the water at c.7.50 which was probably half a minute down on my true race pace. Took me a minute to run round to T1 and over the timing mat.

T1 - 0.55
Super smooth except I hadnt noticed that my race number had fallen off the bike.

Bike 35.25
Managed to squirt a gel into my face for the second race running. Bike course undulating with a strong wind seeming to circle and never really behind. Averaged 22mph after pushing it towards 23.5mph at the turn. Did not get overtaken which was a good sign that it was a decent split. 27th fastest I think overall and more to come next season. Dismounted slowly and need to master the dark art of the flying one ! T2 took 45 seconds.

Run 22.24
I would estimate that the run course is 4.7k rather than a full 5k, however it is three runs up an incline so I was grateful for the short course by the end of it. Raced a bloke who I thought was in my wave, but it turns out he was in one 3mins earlier. Ran a strong pace throughout, but there is massive scope for improvement for next year.

Overall - 47th out of 326. That's it for 2013 really - I have a 10k booked each month in Q4 and will regularly Parkrun, but its mostly now months of winter bike training ready for spring.

Newark Parkruns

So there's a new Parkrun in Newark that's been running for a couple of months and with it being only 20 minutes away it was rude not to decide to use it as Autumn speed training :

The idea is to pop over when I can (ideally fortnightly) for a Saturday morning bash - this is how they have gone...

02.11.13 23.41
How on earth I managed to post a Newark Parkrun PW today I will never know. I managed a 7.04 first lap buoyed by a bit of racing against a club mate early doors, knocked out a 2nd lap at 7.30 and kept up an average pace of 7.25m/m by the time I crossed the finish line. I have to admit that the really hard initial effort blew me up a little bit - but c'mon - a 7.25 average pace should have seen me in done in around 23mins dead !

26.10.13 41.55
As I was running the Poppy Run the next day, I offered to run this one with Heidi to see if we could get around in a new PB for her. Enjoyed the company at a more relaxed pace and Heidi managed to run at least 2.7 of the 3.1miles which is amazing although the result in the end didn't reflect the achievement.

14.09.13 - 23.26
Rain all night had soggied conditions somewhat and the temperature had definitely dropped a notch as I lined up for this weeks Parkrun. I was alert this time and positioned myself towards the front of the pack and was away at a good consistent speed. First mile clocked in 7.07 and felt very hard. I focused on a pack of runners in front of me and tried to keep it steady. Forgot to look at my watch for the second mile split but I did for the third mile which again saw me dying
 and it showed 7.30. I crossed the finish this week in 23.26 for a 5 second improvement on the week before in what I perceived to be a harder effort.

07.09.13 - 23.31 
Turned up nice and early as usual, parked too far away found out how undulating the course was on the walk through to the start. Got chatting and missed the start, spent the first 200m sprinting on the grass down the side to make sure I didn't lose too much ground. First lap of 3 felt reall good, the course was technical but enjoyable with a mix of terrains and some ups and downs along the way. Completely spent by the third laps finish, and happy to finish to post a sub 24 on a harder course than Colwick.

LRRA 30m TT

Got up this morning and really didn't fancy todays TT !

I didn't think I'd be able to keep going over the full distance given the actual lack of riding outside of club time trials for one thing, and the other was that I knew it was a windy open fen course !

By the time I'd digested a bit more caffeine though I came round to the idea a bit more and after quite a long warm up ready for my 9.38 start time.

Well the first 5 miles which I suspect were assisted came and went in 12 and a half minutes and I was averaging a good 24.5 mph. The next 5 also felt good, however culminated in a hill which slowed things down a little. Now it was a headwind tester as we turned left and I really had to battle to keep the speed at 22 mph. This road seemed to go on forever and I was thankful to get to the end of it !

I didn't get a lot of time to celebrate as a bloomin' great big Combine Harvester pulled out onto the road and I spent forever sat up following the thing at 16 mph. That was my tilt at the handicap finished at that point.

The rest of the TT was spent trying to catch people in front and cursing harvesting ! I did keep a good speed in the last 10 miles or so and dragged the average to c.23.5 mph to finish in 1.17.11, albeit a better day could have been had.

Next up is my last TT of the year - next Tuesdays Wheelers 5

Lincoln Wheelers Autumn 5 Series

26/08/13  11.40

Turned up to find out that I was supposed to be the organiser - d'oh !

Got over that little hiccup and agreed to take the reigns for the next two events. Made my way to the start to go off at no.6 and absolutely mullered the first couple of miles which felt like they were wind assisted.  Turned left to go to Laughterton and the road seemed to last forever ! Caught my minuteman and tried not to show how much it was beginning to hurt. Crossed the line with a minute PB at 11.40 and an average of over 25mph for the first time....

03/09/13 11.59

Slightly windier to the point of being 20 seconds slower than last week. Didn't feel I paced it very well and was hanging out my arse by the end of the third mile. By the time I'd hit the last mile I was really striggling and relieved to finish just under the 12 minute mark.

My TT season finished for 2013 !