Rounding off the year

It's been a while sine I last checked in but seeing as though it's Xmas Day and strictly has invaded the telly, I'll take the opportunity to cover off the last couple of outings.

Winterton Cyclocross

First off was the Wheelers Cross Championships held at Winterton on the last weekend in November. It would be my third cross outing of the year and also my last. With cross races being on Sundays it has been a case of missing long ride training and trying to cram it in on a Saturday. This means that I'm not really fresh to race a proper cross (not that it makes much difference), and miss the winter base miles - so decision made to knuckle down early and start the base training like a good lad !

Back to the cross at Winterton and actually it was a really nice day. Unusual for Winterton which is either wet, blowy or both. The ground was reasonably dry and speaking to a rider beforehand he suggested more air in the tyres. I duly went overboard, and raced on hard inflated tyres.

Thing is, I didn't feel fast and although after my usual poor start I made up places, I got the feeling that I wasn't going as quickly as I would have done if I'd run my usual lower pressures. This showed through on the strava laps as I was at least three quarters of a minute a lap slower than last year. Cross bike back in car, not much cleaning needed before the bike was retired to the garage for the year.

Percy Pud 10km

A trip up to Sheffield and a stab at my 10km all time PB which I set at Lincoln in 2015. I had been running well this winter after last years 8 month hiatus but I wasn't sure what type of form I was in as I lined up on a cold but nice Yorkshire morning.

The Percy Pud is an annual race put on by the steel city striders and is a popular out and back 10km race where a Xmas pudding is given out to the finishers. I have a couple of finishes in previous years races, but had not raced the event since 2012.

The race itself, once the congestion had settled went extremely well. I couldn't see my pace until the miles flashed up and each one of them looked fast at 6 something. I has some good pacers to stick with and found myself chasing down a Xmas tree on the way back. The last few miles were quick, flashing up 6.37's, and my finish time was 42.04. I think I have a 41 in me somewhere and I'll have that next year I think somewhere down the line.

Great T shirt, time and of course Xmas pudding - a top day out!

Bardney Cyclocross

This was the second cyclocross race of the season and this would be a case of two down , two to go. In fairness, I'm not the greatest cyclocrosser of all time, preferring to pick and choose testers courses rather than technical ones. The first two have been technical, but the two coming up, lend themselves to the testers, so Bardney would just be a fun outing and further work towards being cross fit.

I knew the course, I rode it a couple of years ago or so - it's bleak, it's cold, it's exposed and windy, and it's lumpy - a traditional Lincolnshire Cyclocross course then.

I turned up early and got loads of practice in - there wasn't anything too ridiculous, you kust had to learn the line and know how hard to tackle each obstacle. I wrapped up warm for the warm up, only shedding a layer or two 10 minutes before the Vets race started.

Shivvering, I sat at the back ungridded, waiting for the off. Usual slow start, and hung around at the back for much of the first lap. Some guys got tangled and fell over and down a bank in front of me which moved me up a few places, but other than that, taking places was hard going with a lot of the course being single track. Once settled, I started to ride the more technical bits competently, and felt fast on the long stretches of Testers Country.

Did well Wheelers wise, not lapped for a change, and closer to some of the guys than I have been. Considering I could have quite easily gone home after the warm up, the result and performance today came as a pleasant surprise.

Scunthorpe Cyclocross

The end of the TT season, a couple of weeks away on the Costa Brava, and one cold later and it's time for winter training fun - of which a few cyclocross races form part of it.

First up, a trip to Scunthorpe, a course I didn't like two years ago when I rode it, and to be honest my feelings haven't changed !

I warmed up on what was a cold and very windy day and could still feel the arse end effects of my cold. I rode most of the course, even the sandy bit that I ran last time around, but managed a spectacular fall at the bottom of the bomb hole - mind set, I would be running that obstacle during racing affairs !

My start was ungridded, and I went backwards really fast, yielding my line continuously as I was very rusty. I had good power on the straights, and made places, but to be honest, I was blowing hard by the end of the first lap and things didn't get much better, I made more places up on the 2nd and 3rd laps, but by the 4th and forty minutes I was really hanging out of my arse and the last two laps were an exercise in just surviving and not losing any places.

I did manage to take a couple of places in the last throes of the last lap, but I was truly relieved to see the finish after an hour in the saddle. Welcome back to Cross Andy - countdown of 5 months to the start of the testing season started today !

Closing out the season

It's been a truly brilliant season. Whilst I've been distracted by some triathlon nonsense which has been incredible fun, but definitely accelerated the wind down of my season. there have been three final events over the past three weeks and this is how my season sort of ended...

TA Jack Riley 25 - held on the V235 course which is the old A1 up at Boroughbridge. It was very low key with four entrants and only three starters. the road was eerily quiet, and I enjoyed a stress free trike 25. I would imagine that this course could be very fast in the days where traffic poulated the course, it's got some good cover and it's lanes are pretty wide. For the actual race, I paced it well, took a PB and improved my club record with a time of 1.03.15. Nothing more to say.

LRRA / Leadenham Hill Climb - held on Leadenham Hill, south of Sleaford, I knew this hill pretty well, having ridden it on a few occasions during reliability rides and club runs. I didn't expect much, but on the day came a respectable 14th and beating the dark lord at the same time. I started in the big ruing and switched down only when the gradient ramped up in the middle. Swithching back to the big ring for the very top and sprint for the line. If testers did hillclimbs this is how they would design it.

Leo 30 - Not great conditions with a cross wind, so I debuted the kask bambino. I'm unsure if it's any better than the Javelin but I gave it a go any way. I rode too hard at the start and felt like I struggled on the return especially in the last five miles. I definitely had last weeks half marathon in my legs still which didn't help at all. very close to the club record (8 seconds out !!), everything lines up well for next year. For now, I just need a little bit of a rest and then on 1st November it's time to knuckle down for the 2018 season.

Course E2/30C

Temp 63

Wind 10 W 

Cadence 80

NP 274W

HR 175

Course CHC/1

Temp 61

Wind 11 SW

Cadence 81

NP 409W

Pos 14

HR 165

Course V235

Temp 61

Wind 12 S

Cadence 86

NP 297W

Pos 1

Lincoln Half Marathon

Team Newham was supposed to getting the band back together for a Lincoln Half season swansong, but one half of the dynamic duo is still recovering from Weymouth, so it was time for the older, better looking brother to head over to the showground and attempt the 2nd edition of OSB's Lincoln Half Marathon.

The race itself..

A different course this year as instead of heading into Lincoln via Burton Road, this year the change had been made to turn right and go through Burton Village and head into Lincoln via the towpath. The HQ and bot the start and the finish would again be the showground at Lincoln. The parking seemed slick and the queues of last year averted, and the runners themselves seemed to be seeded better and the start was a much more enjoyable experience.

So, onto the race itself - I wanted a sub 1.50 time considering my lack of miles and this was only run no.6 since February. I started strong but controlled, I tracked the 1.45 marker runners and then purposely inched ahead of them heading to Burton village. I soon had clubmates for company, so forgot the pacers and focused on keeping with them. By halfway I was on for around 1.40, but at mile 8, you start a climb upto Lincoln Cathedral via Carline Road, and hence, my slowest mile of the day came to be !

From there on in, boy what a struggle. I could tell that my longest run had only been six miles, and everything started to stiffen. My calf started to throb and I adjusted my footfall to compensate, my thighs burnt but my breathing was fine. Back up at the showground and I knew I had a sub 1.43 if I pushed it a little, which I did, amazed to find that mile thirteen was slower than I had actually started at - it felt like a sprint !

So, great time, not a great demonstration of race smarts though, and certainly not a clever thing to do off so little running.

I write this a day later and my legs really really hurt !

Next weekend is the last race of a very busy season, I'll check back in after that !

Warwickshire Sprint Triathlon 2017

Another year and just the one triathlon to enter right at the very end of the season. My swimming was going to be OK as I'd trained up to the half iron, and we know my biking would be fine - the unknown quantity would be the running part as I'd done not a lot other than 3 runs with running club once a week since the start of September... how did I do ?

Pre race

Stayed in a retro caravan for a bit of glamping. Heidi would be doing her very first super sprint so it was important to get a nice rest ahead of the race and this was ideal. The tri itself runs out of Stratford Upon Avon Leisure Centre and I remembered doing this as one of my very first triathlons in 2009. The pool was a 33.3m biggie, the bike had shrunk to 19km, and the run was a bog standard 5k - this is the tale of the day..

Swim 8.57

An improvement on Weymouth and a bit quicker than I timed myself in training. With the pool being 33m it seemed easier and the swim at this tri as per last time saw you changing lanes after four lengths and moving down a lane with the aim being to finish near the exit. At 8.30.15 I was off, and just treated it as a training swim - I enjoyed it very much and couldn't get excited if I got overtaken or not. No stress, just concentrated on my stroke and cared not about much else. 8.57 was a lot better than anticipated and included getting out and possibly going down the stairs it was impossible to figure out where transition was.

T1 - 1.07

About right, didn't have a lot to do, it was just competent as a transition

Bike 27.28

4th fastest on the day - loved it - a nimute off being fastest bike split and I got traffic hold up in places especially coming back into Stratford - TT mode engaged and no prisoners taken. Power meter didn't work for the first half so no doubt my pacing was off. Happy with it though..

T2 - 57

In hindsight with nothing more than popping the bike back in and sliding on some shoes, I maybe could have been a bit quicker !

Run 21.40

Time for the great unknown ! I felt great coming out of transition and was running really very well. I kept with it expecting to either blow up or catch a stitch and although nothing as bad as that happened - I did however settle down a bit after my first mile registered 6.46. I just kept going surprising myself at how I was pacing things - the run was easily navigated and as such I was able to mentally break it down into segments easily.  21.40 and 15th overall (3rd in age group) just proving that I can dip in and out when required and put in a reasonable effort - clearly a far cry from 2009s feldgling effort that's for sure !

Heidi finished her super sprint with an amazing effort - it's too early yet to know if this is the beginning of another team newham or not - time will tell :)

Ironman Weymouth 70.3 - Team Newham relay

So it was was agreed and the deal was signed back in May time to bring back Team Newham and have a go at the 70.3 Ironman in Weymouth, Dorset. fast forward a few months and we were ready and in good spirits to make the five hour trip down to the south coast for a weekend of Ironman fun !

Pre race

We camped at Portesham Farm campsite which had all we needed. Dave chose the van, and I slept in the pop up palace. Portsesham was only 20 minutes from the car park at Weymouth so as good as it gets. from the car park its about twenty minutes walk to either of transition or registration at the Pavillion. We hadn't figured they would be seperated by around two miles so learning no.1 is to always read the race pack!

Registration at the Pavillion was easy and the usual, and then it was through the merch tent, before back to the van to sort the kit and sticker up, and then the walk to transition to rack the bike. 2 more miles and we were back at the Pavillion theatre for the race briefing to put us in the mood.

Race day 

I was awake before two and provided butler service to Dave , providing coffee and porridge for his 4.20 wake up. It was surprisingly easy to park at Weymouth and we had plenty of time to walk to T1 to do the final touches to the bike. I was beach front ready to watch the pro's go off early then it was a nervous shuffle for a rolling start from 7am. I think I entered the water at around 7.28 finally.

Swim 55.39

I have bad memories of sea swims having not enjoyed my last one at tenby very much indeed. This was a shale beach start so I had an unimpressive start tip toeing into the water !  The first ten minutes were purgatory as I couldn't get my stroke going and had to adjust for the swells. Each marker bouy seemed to take an eternity and I knew it was slow. Also, it was very cold and my borrowed wetsuit seemed to be a very thin racing one so did not retain much in the way of body heat. I stuck with it though, and toughed my way through a personal worst swim performance and a 13 minute T1 where I was a shaking cold mess !

Bike 2.40.17 

It took around a further ten minutes to warm up and the bike was a case of a knife through butter as I went on an overtaking mission. I tried to keep a power of between 240-250W and for most part I did okay. I must have overtaken hundreds without reply and really enjoyed myself. The bike really is my section and I loved every minute of the rolling countryside.  My average of 21.2 was fantastic considering how I felt after

the swim, the course which had 3700 ft of climb overall, and the traffic from being so far back out of the water. My T2 handover to Dave was 3 minutes because I made the mistake of not running in my shoes and there were stones everywhere !

Run 3.13.55

The run at Weymouth is a well supported seafront run which is basically 3.5 loops of the aforementioned two miles between the registration Pavillion and just past the transition area. Dave did a great job of knocking out some consistent miling and he was pleased with his half marathon return of 3.13. I met him just before the finish, and we ran down the red carpet together happy to complete the event in 7.06.35.  A great weekends work where both of us overcame different challenges to put away a fantastic event finish.

Team Newham rocks on !