I am well into my 30 week training block for Ironman Lanzarote in May. As I write this I am just about to finish week 15 of the plan and it is good so far. I switched to a plant based diet at the end of November and my weight seems to have been easier to manager and I have more focus and energy to boot. I'm at about 10/11 miles long runs, up to a mile in the pool now, and the bike, is well, still the bike - Ruth has me at it four times a week in readiness for the start of the time trialling season next month....... eek !!Over the past few months we've mixed in some events to keep things interesting, and these are some mini reports about how they went.....
27th October - Harby Clockback 10k - 52.36
Three weeks after the marathon at Barcelona and I'd been running steady miles again. I saw this race and it looked more like the Ripper so I thought why not. The event takes place at a small village called Harby and is an around fields affair like the Ripper. However !!! we had experienced weeks of rain and the ground was entirely saturated which made this such a boggy affair. Harder than the Ripper, I was happy to get round the 10k course in less than an hour - good to be back, and a race I'll do again.
8th December - Keyworth Turkey Trot 1.42.28
This race is one that fills every year, so I'd entered it back in the summer. Whilst I had taken the distance seriously in training, I had also been ill with food poisoning over a ten day period and had been clear of that for only 5 days or so, so I wasn't at my peaky best. As it was, I did enjoy this one, lots of rolling stuff, all on country roads, my pacing not too bad, managing to keep a steady level of effort that resulted in 7.49 minute average miles which is about right for me. Never really felt in trouble, pushed a little hard on the climbs, and some of the windy sections were a grovel. No medal or t-shirt for the lad at the end, I'll maybe look at something else for next December.... mmm.... haven't competed for a Xmas pudding for a few years !!
1st January - Wheelers NYD TT - 18.29
New Year.... New..... Scratch that, same old me ! It was the annual New Years Day near 8 mile TT, for which no one is prepared or really looks forward to ! I was very early in my training cycle, behind schedule due to running and illness according to Ruth, so I had only just started to knuckle down and pout in some consistent weeks. Nothing above threshold and new power pedals meant that this was an unknown. We had decided to use this as a CP20 and I guessed that it would produce c.280 watts. How wrong I was - I managed to get around OK, paced it best I could, and happy with a time of 18.29 for 2nd place on the day. I did an average of 264 watts so I suppose that's my benchmark set !
8th February - The Rauceby Ripper - 1.09.04
Again 30th !! That's 30th, 30th, 24th & 30th in the last four runnings of this ace event. In total it's been going 10 years, and I've completed 6 of them, and supported by running in between last year. I felt good this year going into the event off running twice a week - one long heart rate managed run on Tuesdays and a shorter sharper free run on Fridays. I started about 30th and it soon became apparent that it was about right as I only took a few places and only lost a few, I would guess I stayed in the same position all race. The ground whilst really boogy in the woods this year, was elsewhere better than usual as it had been dry. My guess is that if you wore road shoes this year you would have gotten away with it !
Nice consistent controlled effort just under my limit bought me home just over an hour and nine, with a bit of an over exerted last half mile to keep a place from a Boston runner, which resulted in a non attractive coughing fit afterward. Nice medal and also nice to be back doing an event with Bob & Scrappy AKA the Lanzarote crew.
