VTTA Notts 25m TT

My first crack at the club trike record although officially it was just a warm up event for next weeks Lincoln Wheelers Trike event on the C25/22. I was really looking forward to riding this course as I had always wondered what the A46 courses would roll like.

Signing on was at Farndon Village Hall, and the event was being run by Melton Olympic CC. The weather had been forecast 16mph winds and it certainly felt like it as I was getting the trike out of the back of the car. Clouds were also gathering, but the forecast had said in the morning that we would miss any of the wet stuff.

No real warm up for me, as I was chatting to a club mate and realised that I needed to get to the start pronto. As I was riding to the start it started to rain though and as I was waiting in the queue to set off it became torrential - just my pissing luck !

Soaked through, I started the ride, and I don't want to moan too much, but started at the bottom of a short climb into a wet headwind - it's safe to say that at that point I was not enjoying myself. All too soon I had swung a left over the flyover and gingerly made my way down and round and onto the dual carriageway - back into that headwind.  Initially I thought about canning the ride as the spray was ridiculous, but things calmed down within a minute or so, and I settled down and passing traffic offered short bouts of respite into the wind.

The road cambered a little in parts, but also dried out quickly. The Bingham climb was a nasty piece of work and I could see my Garmin showing 11mph at one point - I was just praying to the cycling gods to get me to the turn as quickly as possible.

The turn did come at c.11 miles with my average speed in tatters at 19.5mph ! as soon as I turned North though I got the benefit of that 16mph wind and woooooosh - I was back in the room !

Glorious 12 miles of racing, the speed never dipped below 26mph and I was having the time of my life ! The average was going up and up and up and by the time I reached the roundabout at Newark, I had recovered the average to 23.3mph - bang on Wheelers record pace. Then.....

I turned left onto Farndon Road, into that headwind, and that killed it stone dead. Pleasing ride at 1.05.28 with happy memories, but my first record attempt fell short by exactly one minute.

Sleaford Wheelers Club 10m TT

New disc wheel, new 11-23 cassette, a nice warm up routine - now it was time to test everything away from the glare and microscope of our normal club time trials.

This had been the course that I had ridden the Trike on a few weeks ago and had managed a 27.07. My two wheel previous PB on the C10/10 course was last years 24.23 so I knew it was a reasonably fast course. 

This is one of the Sleaford wheelers Summer League and I turned up nice and early to try and get signed on and take a number. The guys at SWCC do things a little differently as they seed the field after everyone has signed on and then you get your number. This gave me chance to set up the turbo in the car park and get my 20 minute warm up done. Then it was a case of collecting my number and making my way to the start line. 

I was off at no.22 of the evening and loved powering down the start slope, but then on the up thought my cassette might be a touch too big. That being said I definitely need my gears looking at in any case. I tried to keep a 100 rpm cadence and not push too hard at the start. I was aware it was mostly side headwind on the way out so looked forward to the return leg. The disc was making a lovely noise and I was having a good time, and by the turn the average was c.24.9mph so sub 24 was on. 

The return leg was lovely to ride as well apart from cramp in both calves at 9 miles which I had to sit up and shake off. I could feel the cramping for the last mile so had to ride below threshold. My finishing time was a pleasing 23.56 which could have been faster - I know there is more in the tank. 

I'm hoping to get back over at least once a month if I can - its a great course and run by a really nice friendly club.

European Long Distance Duathlon Championships - Horst, Netherlands

This was it, the big one of the year - my debut at GBR age group level. Representing my country had been a dream I'd chased over the past couple of years and my time at Outlaw Half last year enabled me to put myself up for selection in the Autumn and I got my place in December. It has been a hard training slog since then,especially with the calf injury over winter, but somehow I managed to get myself to the start line in the best condition that I have ever been in - this is how my weekend went then...

Pre race
Had a couple of days with the folks in Antwerp and then we all travelled up to Center Parcs at Limburgse Peel which was a handy 20 minute drive away from the venue at Parkhotel Horst - a lovely four start hotel which backed onto a massive lake surrounded by park paths - a perfect venue for a 10km run. I met up with the GBR team on the Saturday morning where we did a course recce on both the bike and the run.
Had a good sleep the night before, with beds akin to those really nice ones you get at a 'Lenny' so felt in really tip top condition when I racked my bike and joined the thong for the 9.30 start.

Run 1 - 10km
As a newbie, I positioned myself at the back with the intention of feeling my way into the race. the advice had been to run the first 10km at a pace of 2 mins slower than my PB. I tried to do this , but saw a sea of national colours before me going down the first straight and wanted to keep in the mix. The course was a figure of eight shape of c.2.5k and had me in mind of parkrun - especially with the twists and turns and quality of the paths. I ran the first mile in 6.53, so not my best, but at a very good pace and seemed to settle well into it. I was enjoying the run and the course and of course the competition as first myself and another Brit wound in and passed a Dane, and then caught and passed a Dutch guy. We sort of formed a foursome and took it in turns to pace the group around. The mile splits only topped 7 minutes once, and kept pretty constant. The course seemed a little shorter than 10km and an average pace of 6.59 meant that the first run was completed in a PB 40.46.

Bike - 60km
A smoothish transition with no real issues and we were out on nice flat country roads of the Netherlands. Not very wide roads and like the run course there were lots of turns and you were bever really on a long straight for very long. There was one dead turn on the course and a couple of no overtaking coned sections - quite a technical course then but nothing to worry about. Having come off the first run down the order, I was anxious to make up some ground and some places on the bike and rattled out of transition looking for the first athlete to hunt down and it didn't take long to find and reel in the first carrot. I was flying along and in hindsight maybe it wasn't the best decision to treat it like a 10, but I felt good and wanted to make the most of my strengths. The course was flat, but exposed and though the wind wasn't too strong at 12mph, it did seem like every turn was into either head or cross head - although I know that that is just not possible !!

I fuelled with chopped up flappy with some jelly babies thrown in for being so good, and washed it down with a bottle of zero. I didn't want the bike leg to end, but all too soon I was being diverted off the loop and back into transition with a time of 1.35.36 which stacked up well against the field on the day. Now the bit I wasn't overly looking forward too.....

2nd Run 10km
OK, just four laps to go - out of transition (another decent one) and onto the run course. No legs whatsoever !
I was struggling for speed and didn't have either the legs or the engine to go any faster. Most of the guys I took on the bike came steaming past again on the second run and I knew where I would need to improve right then and there. the distance wasn't a problem, but I was edging to a minute a mile slower than the first run and at this level of competition it is always going to find you out. I was enjoying it in a twisted way and didn't mind that it hurt so much. All I kept thinking about was keeping going and registering as quick a time as possible so that I could be considered for selection next year.

Releived to finish with a second run time of 46.50, however those six extra minutes had lost me some ten places. 3.06.28 and my GBR debut completed.

What a great experience, and one I want to repeat in the future.

Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10

Third time of racing this popular Charity event which this year featured a record entry of 130 riders. My two previous efforts on this course had been a disasterous 2013 effort of 27.22 & last years smile inducing 24.23 - so I knew it was a course that can throw up good and bad rides in equal measure.

Throw my trike into the mix and you have a recipe for an interesting outing !

Target for the day was to beat 27.43 which was my last ride and interestingly my VTTA standard for a 42 year old. I would need to beat an average of 21.6mph to achieve this, but, I felt in great shape, and confident that if I worked hard, I could achieve it.

My start time was 14.54 and as I rode to the start I could feel that it was quite a still day with little wind around to cause much of a problem. I only had five minutes of waiting and then before I knew it I had been sent away and I was powering down the first shallow ramp and into a good cadence. I had thought that it was a road without much cadence to speak of but the beauty of a trike is that if there is anything at all - the trike will find it and this was the case as I had to battle constantly in some parts to keep the thing on a good line.

At 5 miles or so, there is a roundabout and I exited this at c.21.9mph, so I knew that I was in good shape to PB and thought that I would have a backwind to assist although that never came. The lack of wind meant that it was honest graft all the way around the course. I did pick up some pace on the return leg and did get the average above 22.2mph to finish with a new PB of 27.07.

A very satisfying days work and an age record for my VTTA group.