Just my luck !I was up to about week 19 or 20 of the Don Fink plan in the lead up to Ironman Lanzarote when Covid-19 lockdown measures hit most of Europe and one by one events started to be either postponed or cancelled.
At least we were still able to go out and exercise within reason and that meant that I was able to keep things ticking over whilst I wait for the season to unlock itself !
08.03.20 Retford Half Marathon - 1.58.06
This was an opportunity to put away a 15 miler as part of my training plan and to get Scrappy his very own sub 2 hours Half Marathon. It was a nice day and a good event to be fair and I know that I enjoyed it immensely, pacing Scrappy round the course like a drill sergeant, getting him home with a couple of minutes to spare. I will do this event again.
10.05.20 Ironman VR6 - 2.08.09
Well, this was something different - a virtual challenge - a duathlon made up of 3k run, 40km bike and then 10km to complete the Trilogy. You could do them all together, or you could space them between 7pm Friday to midnight Sunday, It suits me me to spread them out and that's what I did - a quick run on Friday evening, a time trial done at tempo effort for a 1.07 on the Saturday and then a 10km run in a surprisingly quick for how I felt 46 minutes. Overall happy with how it went and although I was only racing myself, it was good to be doing an event again. Result 13:51 / 1.07.43 / 46.35
13.06.20 Ironman VR11 - 59.54
This one was shorter than the previous one and consisted of 1.5k run, 20km bike, and then 5km run to finish. I decided to do it all in one day so set about doing the first run on the new treadmill which was enjoyable running around Watopia in just 7.37, and then I rode out to do a 20km time trial which was an out and back which went well - I averaged 25mph which I felt was good going, and then really happy about the 5km run which I knocked off in 22.28. Coming in under the hour was pleasing. I'm already planning to see how much I might improve this.
20.06.20 Lakesman In Lockdown - 4.02.16 (3rd of 90 in age group)
This was the big one or biggest one to date. A 56 mile bike and a half marathon. To do them ultimate justice I split them up over a weekend - the wind was nicest on the Saturday so I went out at 7am to ride two laps of a course I had devised that took in the A46 and A17, and then a lovely backwind from Brant Broughton. The end of each lap being messy to make up the distance. Both laps nice and evenly paced for 24mph and a 2.19 which is a good effort for a half iron bike. The Sunday morning was windier and had threatened rain. I again went out in the morning and chose a course to Witham St Hughs and back. I thought I could give it a good go, given my 8.5 mile training run on the Tuesday had averaged 7.55m/m. I set off at a pace ahead of that and tried to hang on best I could. I managed to keep ahead all the way round, but had to dig in for the last 5 miles even with a good backwind for that time. Really happy with a 1.42.38 which is in line with my recent road halfs.
