Colwick Parkrun

Yesterday, I decided that with a drinking trip planned to my Dads this weekend, that I'd best get some exercise in early so that I wasn't totally inactive for 3 days.

My session of choice was a return to Colwick for a third attempt at their Parkrun event, which also gave me the chance to pop around the corner and check out some hotels for a stag night I'm organising.

The run itself went without incident and was a 23 minute effort as I had predicted beforehand. I tried to run a strong controlled pace and for the most part this worked. Had a hard last mile trying to stick with it and came in less than a minute outside my PB from 2011 for this course.

There will be more Parkrun attempts throughout Autumn and Winter as I attampt to get faster for next years shorter events.

Bassingham Bash 5 miles

Its been a busy year, and yesterdays Bassingham Bash 5 mile road race was all about getting a little bit faster over a little longer distance as I build myself up to some hopefully faster 10k races over the Autumn period.

Bassingham is a village just five miles or so outside of Lincoln and this race was being held as part of a village Gala that was taking place in the afternoon - in fact the start of the race was to be at 2.30pm !

When I arrived, there was a brass band playing, a car boot sale in full swing and even some Morris dancing taking place. For such a low key race, there was representation from most of my clubs including UK Netrunner, Lincoln Wellington AC, and Lincoln Tri Club.

My plan for the race was to hold a 7.45 m/m pace - no mean feat having ridden 40 miles out to Upton chippy on the previous evenings club run ! I felt a bit tired, but buoyed by recent performances (and a caffeine gel) I felt I had a good chance of maintaining the target average as I lined up with 50 or 60 other runners for the start.

It went a little like this....

Mile one - 7.24 - A loop around the village and a bit giddy as I didn't really know how I was going until the first mile split flashed up.
Mile two - 7.27 - I was blowing a bit as we headed out into the fens and I concentrated on trying to keep my breathing under control and heading along the shortest line as possible.
Mile three - 7.41 - Struggling a bit now and fully focused on not dropping away from the lady from Wellies that I was now using for pacing.
Mile four - 8.01 - Yep, average pace dropping rapidly, and really hurting to keep this up. Steyed with my pacer but hanging out of my arse - gald to see the mile 4 marker in the verge and my overall pace showing as 7.42 m/m which was a safety gap of just 3 seconds.
Mile five - 8.05 - Back into Bassingham, and trying to keep things going until the finish. Mile 5 definitely a little easier than mile 4, although I was about done by the time I got back onto the sports field and passed the finish line.

First five miler and therefore a new personal best, cheers !

Lincoln Wheelers 10m TT series

10TT 06/08/13 24.01

This will be a very quick one .....

....a bit like the Ingham 10 course that I rode on Tuesday evening ... boom boom !!

This is the fastest of the Lincoln Wheelers courses due to the last half a mile being downhill, but still the first 9.5 miles are surprisingly undulating in places and I felt I did well to hold an average of just over 24mph for the first part of the course, before steaming down the hill for a 24.01 finish and a nice new shiny 10m PB.

As is par for the course for me now at Tuesday night club meets, I went for a little jog afterward, and got back in time to see that I was 7th fastest on the night.

There's a couple more opportunities to ride this course over the next few weeks and I'll pop back and update this page with my progress !

10TT 13/8/13  24.14

Boom ! 2nd week in and another crack at the Ingham course. The wind seemed stronger and thre didn't seem to be any backwind at all. I started the ride well and was strong all the way to the roundabout, but really struggled on the way back with every rise feeling like a mountain. I did attack the downhill this week and finished just 13 seconds down on the previous week but progress had been made overall when I look at the tables. Onwards and upwards...

10TT  20/8/13  24.00

Will I ever get under 24 minutes ? In what I felt was a stronger wind than the previous two rides I posted my fastest time of all 3. I felt more measured in my pace getting to the roundabout and as a result maybe had more in the tank for the return leg. Absolutely hammered the downhill this time and was pulling some very angry faces as I ramped up the speed at the exit of the final turn. 24 minutes dead now being my PB for a club 10 !

Bassetlaw Triathlon

Today was a return to Sprint Distance Triathlon racing, following all that long distance clap trap I've been doing this year, and also following last years injury which meant that todays effort would be my first Sprint Tri for over a year !

The Bassetlaw Triathlon is a new event laid on by Bassetlaw Tri Club and consists of a 400m swim, 20k bike, 5k run - standard fare in sprint world, however as a new event, the cost to enter was just £27 and that was an absolute bargain.

I arrived early and registered straight away. Got a lovely T-Shirt too so already in a good mood. I was also very relaxed about the whole thing so didn't feel any pressure about time etc, and I was just focused on not getting injured and finishing OK. This is how my return went :

Swim 8.32

Fastest....swim.....ever ! Started at 9.26am and settled very quickly into a sensible stroke and breathing pattern which meant that I didn't blow up early on as is usually par for the course with me. I drafted where I could and overtook where I had to, but an otherwise uneventful swim ended with a longish run into T1 which I would estimate took c.45seconds so more than happy with todays effort.

T1 -

In all took about a minute and that was with a run across a tennis court with no socks on - ouch !

Bike

Got on the bike, managed to use the laggy band trick without problem, got my feet in the shoes and then smashed it as hard as I could for the first couple of miles ! It felt like a headwind, but for the first 5 miles or so I was averaging 25 mph so thought I was going extremely well. However, one I turned left, there was some climbing for a mile or so, which while shallower than the bike profile had suggested, saw my average speed ebb away, and then another left turned showed me what a real headwind was and I eventually ended up back in transition with an average speed of 22. something mph !

T2

Quick, I think, less than a minute maybe ?

Run

The run course at Bassetlaw is a two lap affair entirely residential with a sneakily long ascent after a couple of hundred metres. This was also going to be the first run sans calf guards too so it was always in the back of my mind that I could injure again. It was a big unknown as I ran out of T1 then, and although I was carrying some speed, this soon waned and said climb put paid to any giddiness that I was feeling. My Garmin gave me 7.21 for the first mile which is a good 30s slower than my pre injury pace, but plenty of time available to put that right.
The second mile was consistent and the 2nd lap thankfully left out the climb which meant that my 3rd mile came in at 7.27, which left a sprint finish and over the line in 1.11.44.

Second event in a row where I felt I went well - surely this cannot last ?

Retford InterClub 9.3m TT

Following on from Sundays voided 12 hour attempt where I managed to stay the course for 1.45 before deciding to head back to Lincoln for Sunday dinner - I found myself representing Lincoln Wheelers in a strong club turnout for the Inter Club Time Trial held out of Barnby Moor near Retford.

When I turned up I didn't have a clue how I would ride, and wondered about my motivational issues following Sundays quitting !

How did it go ?

Well, I think the Red Bull I had before the start gave me a wonderful kick, and I soon settled into a very fast rhythm. Whenever I felt lactose building, I swapped down three or four gears and span my legs back to life.
The course was lumpy with a couple of short shallow inclines, but I attacked these relentlessly in an attempt to get Sunday out of the system.

I was delighted to see that I was holding over 24mph using this tactic. I started to tire towards the end, and hoped to see the finish flag after every bend and finally managed to get over the line in 22.37 - 2nd Wheeler on the night, and 10th out of 40 odd.

This one goes down as a good days work !

Lincolnshire TLI Ashby Road Race

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Just a day after the world wettest time trial, I drove the short distance to Ashby de la Launde near Sleaford to have a go at my very first road race.

I signed on early as there is usually a cap in number of riders, and was given a number and slotted into group 2 for the evening. there are four groups in total 1-4, with each group set off at intervals with the idea that they will come together on the last lap.
In group two there was about 15-20 of us and we were set off 6 minutes after Group 1.

Immediately the pace was strong and it took me half a lap to get used to it, however once I did, I couldn't stop myself going to the front and doing some work. In fact for the first 3 laps there was 5 or 6 of us driving the group and trying to force the pace with the rest of the group happy to let us do this. Halfway round lap 3
though we were caught, and I was just too spent to hop on the back of Group 3 and found myself right at the back of the peleton.

I hung on for half a lap, but when we rounded a 90 degree turn, I found myself detached and just could not get back on !

I ambled round the last lap with Karen from the Wheelers and crossed the line almost last.

A learning experience is where this one is going to be noted down !

Lincoln Wheelers GP des Gents

The premise is simple, find yourself a much older and hopefully capable rider, and then time trial a 10 mile course in the hope that your older riders handicap is enough time to alter your time for a win overall !

Teams are often sorted well in advance, often a year in some cases, and up until last week I didn't have a partner, until 48 year old Gaz stepped in, and now we had two forty year olds riding against teams with much older riders in them - basically it was to be a bit of fun and some rider of the season points.

The course was one of the usual club 10 courses and the same course used for last month for the clubs 2-up event. The difference tonight was that storm clouds were brewing and there was the sound of thunder in the air. yep..it was going to be a wet one !

The heavens opened as we were just a quarter of a mile down the road and it was torrential ! I couldnt see much at the front and when it was my turn at the back, well it was a shit spray from start to finish.

Despite this and the waterlogged course, we managed to work as a tight unit and threaded our way through the puddles to mark a good time of 24.46 for the 10 miles - a PB for both of us and 4th fastest on the night - however when the handicaps were duly calculated, we slipped down the order somewhat !

Points is points though, and the experience of riding in such conditions was epic !