Outlaw 2015 - Relay

Following on from the half at the end of May, I managed to get me-sen a nice spot in the Sleaford Tri3 mens relay team for the full Outlaw event.
Our swimmer would do 3.8k, I would ride 180k and then hand over to our runner for a full marathon. Doing it solo is a very long days as I found out in 2013, however, to me, it was a 112 mile time trial in training for the ESCA 100 in tow weeks time, and the 12 hour a week later.

It kind of went like this :
After our swimmer had knocked out a 1.07 (153rd) and we had had a really swift transition, I was let loose on the bike course with a sub 5 target in mind. We were in 89th place overall and in 18th place for the Relays. There was little in the way of wind and I knew I had to maintain an average speed of 22.5mph if I was to go under the 5.

I set off on a real charge taking 55 places in the first 16 miles of the bike. It felt good and I was easily averaging 23mph and loving the southern loop of the course. Jumping on the pedals like Contador when climbing a rise, and racing through the feed stations the Southern loop was dispatched swiftly. i made my way up past Lowdham on the Northern loop and all was well, even climbing Oxton Bank in good order. First 57 miles done in an average of  22.8 mph so on target.

Right, re-set the Garmin, go through Southwell, turn a steep left, and then headwind. he wind had gotten up ahead of the weather front of rain, and turned it cold. My legs began to stiffen up, and the enjoyable ride turned into hard work. the second half average was bobbing along at a disappointing 21.2 mph and it was slow progress and draggy. then it began to rain down on the Southern loop. people were catching me  and although I was in 25th place, I found myself having to take pace in a paceline.

I was wet through when I finished the bike - strongly I might add as I picked up a bit, and had moved the team up to 25th overall, and 11th team - bike split 5.08.59.

Our runner had a stormer, and we finished in 9.16.37 - 8th overall, and 6th team on the day.

VTTA North Mids 25

Saturday tea-times used to be Basil Brush and then that fella that fixed shit for ya that no-one talks about now, but everyone had the theme tune on their mobiles a few years back !

No, tea time yesterday involved lycra, three wheels, nut cream and lashings of start oil !

It was the VTTA North Mids event on the A1 and I was riding the big pink trike at no64. A similar event was cancelled at the start of June due to crosswinds, but this event despite 14mph cross winds did go ahead. the wind had been a worry, but it had dropped through the day and the night looked to be OK.

The HQ was at Sutton On Trent, and not too far from the start. The course was a simple up and down the A1 job. Going on at Sutton On trent and coming off and through Long Bennington, before looping round and re-joining the carriageway North. I was chasing the clubs record of 1.04.28 and had a good weeks training behind me going in to it. I would also be trying out my new Aeroshell helmet and wondered how I would get on with it. Overall though, I was looking forward to the event.

Start time came around quite quickly, and I was soon haring along and ready to join the Southbound carriageway. It felt quick, there wasn't too much traffic, but there was cross head which, when there was little in the way of shelter, knocked the speed off a little. There were rises in the road, but nowt like the T502 or Bingham courses and I was able to tap it out going up them. In fact, I got to the Long Benno turn in approx 22.7mph and knew that a good ride was on the books.

I didn't know if there would be a cross bcak push on the way back, but soon smiled when the approach loop to the Northbound carriageway yielded that unmistakeable push. It was now a 12 mile go for the line whilst nervously waiting for the speedo to creep above the record 23.3mph.

It was a great second leg and I managed to leave the A1 with an avg of 23.6, and a short sprint later had taken the record by nearly a minute.

1.03.35 on a not quick day - might be back next year for an improvement.

TA Fliss Beard National 100

I've just had a very long drive back from South Wales where I competed at the Trike Associations National 100 Champs using the R100/8a course - Raglan-Abergavenney-Mitchell Troy on the A40.

I stayed at Newent Golf & Lodges last night, and managed to arrive in good time so that I had time to drive the course and hide a couple of bottles in the hedgerows. the course looked fast when I drove it and really looked forward to riding it as I was confident of a good crack at the clubs 100 mile trike record.

With a low Southerly wind, I was optimistic when I lined up at no.6 at just past 7. I would have 5 Trikies in front of me, and this would help me chase down the 21.1 mph average I would need to maintain over the 100.6 mile course.

7.06 and I'm off. Maybe I went too hard, but the first 6 miles was rolling SC and I was happily keeping above evens knowing that when I got on the DC, I would be even faster. One turn later onto the Dual Carriageway and uurghh ! Slow as you like (for a DC), a real grovel with some faster bits granted - a bit of a let down to be fair. (They had a float day on the Stockton 100 as well, how does that work ?). Half a lap on the DC, and then up a ramp from Raglan onto another SC section, this was the hardest but fun part of the course - I was fast through here despite the climbing and it broke up the dual carriageway monotony.

First of four laps done in 21.1 miles so bang on what I needed, lap 2 got even better 21.2 mph so I was ahead of record pace at that point. Same at 57 miles, but then it started to hurt and I dropped to a 20.4 mph average for the third lap - this increased to 20.5 for the last effort, which threatened to be a wet one, but was just a quick shower thankfully.

I think 4.51.04 and the win on the day. It really really hurt though - a 100 on a Trike is worth a 12 hr on a regular bike - or at least thats how it feels !