RJL

Kingston 16 Mile

2011-10-14T13:43:00.002+01:00

My plan here was to see if I could run 4min/km all the way round the course. This was prompted by the fact that I had managed this back at the start of this year on the same run. My thinking process was that I had been doing a lot of running, so why not. In hindsight, what I should have done was look on a running calculator for the marathon time I want and then seen what it said for this distance.

I set off at just under 4min/km pace thinking that I would get some time in the bank for the second lap. This method seemed to be going well and I managed to get round lap 1 pretty much on pace. It was round about the 10 mile mark that things started to fall apart. I would like to blame this on the fact that there simply was not anyone else on the course at that time...there was literally no one ahead of me and I could not see anyone chasing me...it was effectively a very expensive training run. I think the last time I raced, I stuck to someone's feet for all of painful 10 - 16 miles. The headwind at this stage did not help either. Anyway, excuses really, I was just not as fast as I had hoped. Still, the comforting thought is that my time in the end of 1:47 is still in line with a sub-3 marathon run. Who knows, it may have been quicker if I had started out closer to that pace.

Rivington Pike - Half Marathon

2011-10-14T12:29:00.003+01:00

Whilst in Manchester recently, we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could find a race to allow us to keep up with the training schedule for Dublin Marathon. The Rivington Pike half seemed a good idea, a hard hlaf marathon with a few hills sounded ideal.

The race itself was in fact a nightmare...right from the start, we had 2k of climbing to contend with, and not just a gentle slope either. This ensured that my HR was through the roof by the time that I got to the top and what followed did nothing to alleviate the situation - think Roman cobbled road not maintained for hundreds of years. The fear of braking an ankle ensured that there was not going to be much making up time on the downhill.

The following 10 miles pretty just continued in the same theme, don't get me wrong, some great scenery but all of it perhaps more enjoyable when the HR is not running at 180 - and that's before you see a bank of 50 steps heading to the clouds in front of you.

Anyway, very hard race with my worst ever half time of 1:48...dreadful really but it was a hard day.

Thames Turbo Triathlon - Race 4

2011-09-15T10:19:00.002+01:00

With this race falling so close to Copenhagen, I was worried that there would simply be no speed in the legs. The thought of sprinting for an hour filled me with fear really as I had spent the last 6 months simply going slower and slower it had seemed....no turbos since February and no hard runs at all. The swimming should have been okay though as my masters class meant that I had no IM specific swim training, just normal sessions.

I knew before the race that this was probably the best shot I have ever had of winning the overall series for the Thames Turbo triathlons, something I had not managed from the last four seasons, albeit, I have come close on a couple of occasions. Tim, my main competitor had told me that I could not let him beat me by more than two places...any less and I would be the series winner.

The swim was a bit of a shock, I had not swam since Copenhagen, so suddenly being expected to knock out a 5:30 paced 400 was a bit of a shock. 100m and my arms reminded me why you needed to keep swimming. The good thing though was that I knew it would be over so quickly, anything after the IM was going to seem short. I think I exited the water in the same time that I always do, around the 6 minute mark for the 430m swim.

To ensure that I managed to keep the gap down to under two places, I knew that I had to have a good run on the bike and I also needed to hope that I would be able to get through the set of lights. A stop there could have added on another minute or so to my time and I knew full well that would probably be too much to give away. As it happened, I got though and then had one of the best runs for a long time thanks to an earlier start time. No traffic and no lights, all good. Now all I had to do was to remember how to ride the bike quick. It felt quite lethargic on the bike, I could certainly feel how much power had gone from the legs since I had started the IM work. Still, I got round in a decent enough time, hoping I had not given too much time away.

For the first time, I was actually quite looking forward to the run. If there is one thing I had done since the IM, it was running - and quite a bit of it. On the week of the race, I had run 4 times (probably a new record for me). Out on the run and with no watch to let me know the splits, I had to just get on with it. I felt I was doing okay and probably running sub 4min/km but it did not feel as hard as it normally does. Anyway, eventually round in ~19:25 so pretty for me, especially considering the lack of speed work.

At the end of the day, I had done just enough to win the series overall as well. Tim had beat me, but thankfully this was only by one place. Both Tim and I appear to have raced almost identical races too...in all three disciplines there was less than 10s between us. Chuffed to have finally won the series too....and thanks to Paula as well for doing my marshaling duty, even though it was in the worst place possible on the course.

Challenge Copenhagen - IM Distance

2011-08-22T14:42:00.008+01:00

In the months leading up to CPH, I was really starting to regret having ever entered the race. I was not enjoying the long, lonesome training, the constant 5am alarm calls and the feeling of constant tiredness from training or guilt from not training. Work had done a great job of ensuring that my training became a bit of a secret hobby whereby I would sneak in the odd session, rather than doing consistent weeks. An analysis of my Garmin training record from January up until two weeks before the race had me down for a weekly average of 8hr45. The plan all along was to try and go under 10 hours with less than 10 hours/week. However, this plan was not based on 3 hours one week, 12 the next, it was supposed to at least be consistent. In the last few weeks before the race, I started to relax a lot more as I stopped seeing it as a race and concentrated more on just trying to finish the race without having too many issues. I worked out a plan which basically just involved trying to swim round the hour mark, cycling 5 hours and then hoping for the best on the run...my main aim being to run to the half marathon point, any running after that was bonus time. There was a chance that this plan would work for a sub 10 hour, at the end of the day though, I was mainly aiming on finishing with a run that lasted as long as possible.

When race weekend finally came round, I felt pretty well tapered and was actually keen to get going (or get it over with). Travelling to CPH and then staying in a hotel which appeared, to any passer by, to be a Turbo hotel was quite cool. The only downside being that the hotel was in the midst of the most poorly organised renovations - the sort where they do all parts of the building at the same time. Anyway, they didn't make too much noise, that was my main concern. Pre race we had a few official things to get done, race briefing, registration etc...all done pretty much en masse without any issues, mainly as there was always one Turbo who had already done that and was subsequently assigned marshalling duties to get the rest in line. We had a little swim on the Friday and the water was cold, but my arms felt good, we also built the bikes up and then headed out for little spin to make sure all was in working order. I figured there was no need to try any running out...I was going to have a long enough warm up on the day and then a long time to get in to the run.

Race day itself rolled round and before I knew it, we were all headed back to the start to set off, on what seemed, like a ridiculous day of exercise...I was going to be exercising for about 10 hours?? Just seemed a bit impossible really. Mentally, I just broke the day down in to little blocks, nice hour swim, a few TT's and then 4 x 10k runs. That seemed, in my mind, to be a bit more manageable anyway.

The swim itself all went to plan, time wise anyway, I never chased anyone who went off in front, just concentrated on trying to stay nice and relaxed and just getting on with it. The buoys out there were a joke though, so much so, we all swam back in to the next wave on people after doing one of the turns. Luckily, no damage done so just kept on plodding away behind these two girls who had overtaken me at about the halfway mark. I got out in 56 something so everything was going to plan. I ran up the jetty in to the change tent - it was nice to have a little helper there to get you out of the suit and get the other bits of your kit ready. The offers to sort the vaseline out for the ride were less forthcoming. I cramped in a place on my legs where I was most concerned I would at this point....cramping after the swim was not a good start.

Out on the bike, and once you got out of town, the roads, scenery and tailwind were all exactly what the doctor ordered. I struggled to get the HR down in to the range that I wanted, but I decided to just keep on going, it felt super easy anyway, on and see what happened. Not having a Garmin which would last the distance meant that all I had was the HR and I had pasted the splits at which I should reach the aid stations to my bars. I went trough pretty much all the aid stations dead on time. I was up anyway, but knowing that the last 30k was in to a headwind meant that I knew I would lose some time on that leg. Still, the legs felt good and I managed to work my way through the malt loaf (this got very hard on the last few pieces). I had taken water at every aid station and used that to mix with my bottle of about 10 caffeinated gels. Coming back towards town, I was pretty confident that I felt okay and that I had almost managed to do the first 6 hours of the day to plan....this was good, I now had about 4 hours to try and cover 42k. My fear of cramping in the T2 tent never materialised and I headed out on the run feeling quite good about myself. All I had to do now was knock out some 10k runs.

The start of the run was good, I felt good and there seemed to be a lot of Turbo supporters out and about - this was exactly what I needed. I was going way too fast though so tried to keep slowing the pace down as best I could. I wanted to get as close to 5min/km as possible - preferably a bit quicker to give me some time in the bank for the inevitable collapse in times at the end. After about 5k though, I turned a corner and the cramp came back in the leg, same place as after the swim. This did not bode well, I had a long way to go and I had heard horror stories of people cramping and then having to walk for long periods. I decided to see if a policy of running it off would work - not sure what made me think this was a good idea - it worked though, amazing - the only problem being, I had to run a bit slower than I wanted to. Right from the start, I decided to walk the aid stations, taking gels for the first half and then moving on to coke, or whatever I felt like in the end. I had to stop for one (very long) wee after about 15k and lost about 2-3 minutes, but generally - believe it or not - by at the half way point, I was still running and even on track for 5min/km's. I just kpet on going, stopping about every 10k with cramp but then running it off every time - this was painful, but it worked. I eventually got to 30k and I realised that I had a whole bunch of time in the goody bag to get me under 10 hours....I couldn't quite believe it. This was improved upon when I went past the point at which I figured walking from a point in time would get me home in under 10 hours.

In the end, the last lap was not pretty, I was tired, the original high waves to fellow Turbos had now subsided, the cheers to other people were also now just faint whimpers in the wind. But....I was STILL running. I saw Paula on the course for the first time at about 32k and I was just so happy to tell her that I was still running at that point. Over the course of the last 10k, I kept on thinking about something a friend of mine had said about speeding up a bit at the end to make sure that you gave it your all. I did actually did feel capable of doing this and on a couple of occasions I tried to up the speed. The only problem was, this would be only materialise to be a short prelude to a cramp which induced a short stop and stretch. I had to just keep on at the same speed.

Happy = 10k

Not so happy = 30k.

Crossing the line was pretty good feeling, I had beaten the target time by 15 minutes with a 9hr45 and I had also managed to run a hell of a lot of the marathon. I couldn't quite believe it. All in all, I was pretty happy.

On a more retrospective note, even now, a week and a bit after the race, I have decided it is not for me this IM racing. The whole design of the race goes against my strengths and weaknesses. I have to sit around just getting through the swim and bike legs, the two legs I would normally go as hard as I could on to give me some time in the bank for the run. With IM, it was all just about saving myself for the weakest discipline, this is compounded by the fact that it is a marathon, you can't just fluke it, or get away with not being that quick for 40 mins. For me, I really had to save the legs just to ensure that I could run.

Next season, I'll be back on the shorter races I think. I like going as fast as I can for between 1-2 hours. I do have a marathon in Dublin in a couple of months however...main aim being to get a time that will allow me to run London in 2013.

Hampton Court Open Water Swim - 3.65km

2011-07-25T12:48:00.003+01:00

I had decided to enter this race to just get a feel for what that sort of distance felt like in one go, it was pretty close to IM distance, so a fair representation. Starting with a bunch of other people would also give it more of race feel. Prior to starting, I was not really sure what to do, whether to race it as a swim and just see how quick I could go, or, alternatively, swim as if it were the IM swim. In the end, I did a bit of both. I started quite quickly but then decided to just settle in to a pace and see how that felt after a while. I was swimming in a small pack and this helped me keep the same effort, I am less sure how well it helped in terms of direction - I don't think any of us were sighting that well.

Once I went round the final bend and i could see Kingston Bridge, I decided to put a bit more effort in, I started to kick a bit more just to wake the legs up really.

Was out in 54:02 which was okay I think. I had privately wanted to go a bit quicker than that, but it at least should mean that a sub 60 minutes swim is on the cards in Copenhagen.

Cowman - Middle Distance National Champs

2011-07-13T09:44:00.007+01:00

Cowman was supposed to be the one middle distance race that I was going to do before the IM in a couple of months. For some reason, the whole race just crept up on me and, as such, I didn't really have much of a chance to worry about it or have any preconceptions about how I would do. I thought I had the endurance and things had been going okay training wise, my one concern was that going quite hard for that long might be a bit of a shock to the system. My main aim of the day was to get it all done in less than 4hr30 - to me the bike course looked very hilly so I didn't think I would have a chance of riding that fast.

The race started quite well with a nice swim, I had chosen, perhaps not the fastest place to start, but it meant that the whole first 400m were pretty much pain free with little in the way of mingling with the others. Round the first buoy and I just followed some feet for a while, got bored of that so tried to go round the outside and then stayed there for a bit. Tired to spend the last 500m or so just trying to get a bit further up the field. All in all, good to be out in under 28 and I had hardly kicked at all, so good news for the legs.

When I exited the swim, I could see one club mate just ahead of me and I heard the commentator call out about another club swimmer. This just reassured me that I had not lost a bunch of time to people in the swim.

I had looked at the profile of the bike course in the week leading up to the race and had seen that there seemed to be a lot of hills. This did not make too much sense as previous times were relatively quick. In the end, I actually thought it was on eof th best courses I have ridden on. There were some good sections to just get your head down and then there were a few hills along the way. The sad thing about the bike course was the amount of drafting that was taking place, especially when this is right at the front of the field and thus where the medals will be distributed. Personally, I ended up in a situation whereby there were about 5 or 6 people who I would pass on every piece of flat road and then stay ahead the whole time. Every time I looked back though, they were all clumped together and doing a very good job of looking like a team time trial outfit. They would then catch me on the hill and I would have to put in a big effort to pass all seven of them as soon as we were over the top.

When I came in from the bike, I got a bit of a shock as the commentator announced that I was in about 4th place. I couldn't quite work out how I had managed to do that. I did not think that I had cycled that hard but I thought that after the swim there would have been a lot more people up the road from me. In my over-excitement of coming in from the bike in such a high place though, I made one of my worst ever triathlon decisions. I always used to run without socks, but recently, I had started to wear them pretty much for all my runs. So, why I ditched them before setting out on a hot half marathon is anyone's guess.

The run felt hard from the start, the legs were more tired than they felt on the bike. The hill out of the park was a bit of a killer as well. I figured I only had to get to the top and there would be some downhill etc. When the course did level out, I tried to get into a good rhythm but the one thing I had started to notice was that there was something going wrong with the feet. I could feel some blisters developing and with some 15k left on the clock, I knew this would not be pretty. After about 7k I stopped to try and put a blister plaster on....I had remembered to take them. Anyway, the act of sitting down brought cramp to the leg so I got back up and carried on for another couple of k's. Eventually, I stopped again and put some on....pretty sure they came straight off as the pain just came back straight away. Anyway. in summing up, the run was rubbish. I got passed by a fair few other Turbos as well so I went from leading the club champs to about 6th in about 10k.

The annoying thing is that the blister incident just meant that I did not have a good prep race for the IM. That race is now almost exactly a month away...

At this moment in time, I don't think I will be doing another IM once Copenhagen is done. The whole training and preparation side of it is just a bit annoying and time consuming I find and I kind of feel that it will be hard to do it justice with the amount of time that I have available to me. We'll see...maybe if I finish in a decent time, my views will change. It is just that at this stage, I think I much prefer trying my best to go quicker over shorter distances.

220 Triathlon - Eton Super Sprints

2011-06-24T11:23:00.002+01:00

The old days...

2011-06-22T09:53:00.001+01:00

My dad has just found this from way back in the 80's...

RTTC National 50 - 31st - 1:54:20

2011-06-21T10:09:00.003+01:00

As this was a 50, it was obviously time for me to head down to Bentley - for some reason, the three I have now done have all been on the same course. It is not even a course I particularly like, especially as it always seems to be coupled with a fierce wind. Sunday was no exception with the wind blowing in the same way as it had for the last 50 I had done on that course - I think it may have actually be harder this time though. This made for a miserable out leg and a pretty quick return.

On lap one, things seemed to be going okay. I had started well and seemed to keeping a good speed going in to the wind. I tried to keep things under control as much as possible as I knew that the last 15 miles would be grim. At the first turn, I could see that I had lost time to certain people in front and behind me. I tried to ignore what was going on and just continued to keep my HR where it was (165-170) and just see what happens.

As expected, the second lap was pretty horrible, what with battling with the wind and the gradual departure of power from the legs. Funnily enough, I had ridden behind a couple of chaps on my way to the start, they must have been on their last lap. At the time, I thought these guys are going slow. Low and behold, when it was my turn on those last two laps, I think I must have been doing the same speed, if not slower. Over the course of the last lap, I went through some phases where I thought I would just pack it all in as the legs felt empty. My only light at the end of the windy tunnel was that once I hit the slingshot of the last roundabout, I would be homeward bound with the wind behind me. I think that the imminent finish, coupled with the sight of a mate of mine coming on to the roundabout as I was leaving, were enough to give me the strength to push on a bit and get it over and done with.

Crossed the line with 1:54:20 and 31st which was okay I think. It has become clear to me, both here and on the 25, that if you want to ride your bike at over 40kph, you really need to be on the turbo doing intervals which have you riding at power levels which would take you above the 40kph mark. I'm certainly missing that little bit of speed and power at the top end. I have tried to console myself with the assumption that this is just a byproduct of the IM training. I would like to think that I am getting better at doing long rides at a good average speed, just not so good at going fast for shorter periods of time.

RTTC National 25 - 42nd - 59:46

2011-06-07T14:11:00.004+01:00

I think it is fair to say, I don't think I will ever do a harder 25 miles in the rest of my cycling career. I always knew that the course this year was not exactly going to be my dream course, i.e. flat dual carriageway, but there was always a hope that it would not be that bad. After arriving on Saturday, we all took a quick recce of the course to see what we had in store - it was not nice. The start involved a short ramp a la Tour de France style but there was certainly no need for this as the next few hundred meters were down a 15% descent in to a corner. I am not one for risking my life either, so I knew the start would not be that quick. Round the corner and it was straight in to a steep hill which kicked up and then dragged on for a few more miles at a gentle incline. This was the theme for the rest of the recce really, you were either going up or down - at least the road surface was good I thought.

Come race day, we managed to get a glimpse of how tough it was out there with seeing the ladies' times - only one of them had gone under the hour. I started to worry that I would not be able to sneak under the hour myself, especially as the only one who had gone under had beaten me the year before. In light of this, I set the Garmin's virtual partner to effectively ride a 59:59 as this seemed, at the time, to be the best case scenario.

The start ramp and the town centre start were quite nice in the end, almost felt professional for the 5 seconds before the fear set in on the descent...I was a bit of a wimp really, braked too hard and then gave myself more work than was needed on the ascent. All the bravado beforehand of climbing this in the big ring soon vapourised as I found myself working hard....I was in bottom gear though. My new plan was just to try and spin the hills and work the flatter sections. I figured any big ring work on the hills would only come back to haunt my quads later on in the day.

On the way out, this plan seemed to work and I was able to keep a pretty decent speed up. I hit the halfway point in about the right time and the tailwind home was now a gentle hand to help you up some of the hills. With about 5 miles to go I realised that the sub 60 was in fact on the cards and the thought of just missing it did not bear thinking about. Thankfully, my pacing seemed to pay off and I actually did not feel too bad for the last few miles, I was able to up the speed a bit and finally...across the line...59:46...phew.

I was actually really pleased with my slowest ever time in a 25. The course was far from ideal for a big guy like me and I had managed to pace it quite well. 42nd was nothing to write home about, but top 40 was my aim going down there and with the lack of turbos this year and the fact that I am happy with my running and swimming in the lead up to Copenhagen were good comfort.

The Garmin Output for the ride can be seen HERE

TTTC Race 3 - 1st - 59:11

2011-06-01T17:09:00.004+01:00

Well, after 5 years of turning up for the Thames Turbo Sprint races, I have finally managed to break the habit, taking a win for the first time! The more bizarre aspect is the nature of the win itself.

In all honesty, my preparation had not been ideal, come Saturday and not wanting to waste the whole bank holiday training wise, I decided to set off on a long run. It initially felt quite easy so I decided to just settle in to the pace and see what happened. In the end, the idea of a negative split run came over and I managed for the first time to actually have a good long run, as in, I never felt like I was about to fall to bits at the end - for a rubbish runner like me, this came as quite a shock. So, 30k's later at 3:05 marathon pace meant that the next day was not going to be much fun. I had a wedding in the afternoon on Saturday as well, so that wasn't going to help with the recovery much either. As it transpires, the wedding ended up involving more drink that is commonly recommended, so much in fact, Sunday was a total sofa day.

So, come race day, although the legs didn't feel that good, my head didn't seem to be in the right place. At the back of mind, and having scanned the start sheet, I thought that I was about to blow my best chance of ever winning one. A lot of the normal fast people were mysteriously missing the chance was there....and as they say, you only need to beat the people who turn up.

The swim was the same as always, to the second, 6:02. Out on the bike though and I could feel the run in the legs now, I was just missing a bit of power. I decided to just try and get a bigger than normal gear turning, but all in all, it was not a star performance - coming to the finish, I knew that I was close to the 32's. At this point I knew I would be close to losing out, especially with the run to go.

The run was where I really struggled to get in to a good rhythm. I was not running much slower than normal, but again, it was by no means a speedy run. I eventually made it round in 20:14 which may well be one of my slowest times.

There did seem to be a general assumption that I had won on the day, but I was not sure. I knew that my time was only just under the hour and there are typically a couple of others who managed to break the 60 minute mark. In the end, I managed to take the win by 1 second. Was really pleased though, after first racing here in 2005 and finishing 13th on that day, finally in 2011, I was able to win....thanks mainly to the best executed preparation.

Turbo News: http://www.thamesturbo.com/archives/1233

Eton Super Sprints - 1st - 55:03

2011-05-18T13:06:00.006+01:00

If I am honest, Eton is always a race that I wanted to win outright one day. I had made a number of attempts in previous years, but always been beaten on the day by better athletes. Thankfully, this Saturday, everything came together quite nicely and I was able to win...strangely, by more than a minute as well.

As a side note, I know full well that Eton does not really fit in that nicely with what is supposed to be a year of training for the Copenhagen IM, but I love racing at Eton. The Sprints are normally the first shot you get at racing around the closed roads that I now know so well. It has also become a bit of an annual pilgrimage to test how fit I am and to see whether the winds can be stronger this year than they were the last.

For me, the swim went quite well. From the off, I just swam to the left until I could see the rope under the water which leads you all the way to buoy 1. Made the turn in second place and then got a bit lost between the two massive buoys. Finally, they have installed a large banner thing for the finish so it is much easier to sight for the last 150m now. Got out the water in 5:18 which I was pretty pleased with, may even be my best time for the 400m there.

Out on the bike things did not go quite to plan at the start, it seemed to take a long time to get the shoes on, all the time wasted doing this meant my average speed had dropped off a bit. The wind on the way out was horrendous but I consoled myself with the thought that the return leg would make up for it. It certainly did as well, I think as the laps progressed, I was able to get the speed up higher and higher on that section. The last lap on the tailwind section had me just edging over 60kph. The wind can be a good friend when blowing in the right direction.

T2 went to plan, but with the first part of the run in to the headwind, it made for some hard work in the first lap. Thankfully, the turn on the run had the effect of a gentle hand behind the back. The second lap was a bit more controlled as I just tried to concentrate on the way up, knowing that the return would be a bit easier, especially when accompanied by the knowledge of being homeward bound.

All in all, it was good day of racing, apart from the shoes on the bike, most things went to plan. Was a bit annoying to see in the splits that my bike time was only 1 second in to the 29's....a 28 something would have been nice.

An overall win for the day still only gives you 66% of your entry fee back in prize money..not considering jacking the job in just yet.

REPORT ON TRI247
http://www.tri247.com/article_8547_Eton+Super+Sprints+%28Saturday%29+report.html?region_id=&category=

The Eton Super Sprints kicks off the Summer triathlon season for many in and around the South East, and once again took place over two days at Dorney Lake this past weekend, organised by Human Race (www.humanrace.co.uk). Here is a report on events from Saturday.

Full results HERE.

With weather predictions for the weekend varying from the optimistic ‘sunny spells and showers' through to full blown thunderstorms, triathletes heading to the first Eton Super Sprint on Saturday 14th May did so with a hint of trepidation. They needn't have worried though as those arriving early were greeted to bright sunshine and blue skies and the rain held off all day to provide great conditions for the 2011 season's big kick off.

A strong wind meant for a challenging bike course and a bit of chop on the water for the swim but that didn't stop some fast times and competitive racing across all ages groups. First off at 9.30am were the two newly introduced ‘mate's waves' which gave anyone looking to race friends and relatives from different age groups the chance to go head-to-head. This gave Rory Sutton the perfect opportunity to get one over his older brother Kevin, as Rory explains; “My brother has done loads of triathlons and I said the only way I'd do one was if I could race him. I did beat him but he's ten years older than me so it isn't really fair!”

The age group waves followed the mate's wave and carried on right through the day and showcased a broad mix of abilities from first timers to experienced triathletes. For the men, Richard Legge (Thames Turbo) took advantage of a fast and furious M30-34 wave to record the fastest time of the day and take the overall win in 55:03. Second place went to M35-39 wave winner Matt Clarkson in 56:07 who was closely followed home by Oliver Pinchard (Ful-On-Tri) also from the M30-34 wave. In a day dominated by the over-thirties, the top 13 places were filled by those no longer in their twenties!

In the women's race, Ful-On-Tri made it two podium finishes on the day as Detta Guerrini went one better than her male clubmate to take the win in 1:05:23. Beverly Childs (RAF Triathlon) stormed through the F50-54 wave in a time of 01:06:41 which was more than good enough for second place. In third, Hannah Kitchen (Oxford Tri) ensured the twenty-somethings were represented on the podium with her 01:08:50 from the F20-24 wave edging out F35-39 athlete Bev Holmes by just one second.

You can read the report from Sunday's Eton Super Sprints HERE.

North Hampshire RC - 50 Mile TT

2011-05-16T13:31:00.002+01:00

The last 50 I had raced in was a horrible affair, with the cold and some very tired legs as a result of going out a bit too fast. I had hoped that last weekend's trip to H50/8 would be a more controlled affair and hopefully a better time.

Things started well on the day, I got to the first round about after about 8 miles into the wind and I was down about 40s. I quickly made these up with the tailwind though and just assured myself that I only needed to do that section once more and I should therefore be able to sneak home in about 1:50.

It was only on the return leg of the second lap that I realised that I was just about the pay the price of not reading the course information. Coming up to what I thought was the finish, it dawned me I had to go around again. On the way back, approaching the hardest section, I was close to breaking point - the thought of a windy, bumpy section once more almost became too much. My speed had been dropping off up to that point, so had resigned myself at that point to a bad time.

It was only when the marshal highlighted the error in my ways and told me to turn round just before the start of drudgery lane that my spirits picked up. All I had to do now was to hammer the last 6 miles so see if I could break my previous PB. Thankfully, someone past me here and from that point on, I just did my best to keep him in sight. I was knocking out 50-60kph on the flat (that's how bad the wind was) and he was pulling away from me...there are some fast people out there.

Made it home, sore bum, arms, neck 1:53:06 after setting off full of optimism. The winners were about 8 minutes quicker than me. However, I console myself in that the time still represents 2 x 56:30 25's so not exactly a bad day. It just so happens that people are a lot better than me at this TT'ing game.

TTTC Race 1 - 4th - 57:54

2011-05-04T09:43:00.004+01:00

My triathlon season for another year has now kicked off with with the now perennial trip to Hampton for the first of the Thames Turbo races. This is now the 5th year that I have done this race. I really did not know how this one would go as this is probably the first year where I have actually not been training specifically for anything that short. My main focus this year is to survive the Copenhagen IM race, and for me, that means just trying to be consistent and ensuring that I get the long bikes and runs in.

My biggest fear before this race was that my biking ability would simply not be up to scratch. In comparison to the last few years, the biggest difference this year has been that I have simply not done enough turbos for this stage of the season - not to prepare you for 30 minutes of hard riding anyway. I would imagine that a whole bunch of weeks have passed recently where I have not gone on the turbo, last year I was doing two a week. The main issue has been that work has been conspiring against my motivation when I get home...starting a turbo past 9pm when you are hungry is not really something which feels me with much enthusiasm for the turbo. All excuses I know..

For the first time in a long time I was in the first wave for this race with the best thing about this being that the traffic would be less of a problem on the bike. The swim for me was exactly the same as it has been for the last few years, it doesn't seem to matter how much swim training I do, I get out the pool in 6 minutes without fail. This year, I have mainly been doing long swims though, typically all in one block with a longer than normal breathing pattern - breathing on 3's rather than the normal 2's. Didn't make any difference though, 6 minutes and I was out.

The bike on this occasion was a mixed bag. For once, I had what could be described as a good run in terms of the lights, especially as there was an additional set on this race. I only had to slow down once, much better than the typical process of having to stop and wait for 30 seconds. The bad part was that I had a good cyclist in close company and with pretty much equal pacing, there was a lot of passing. Personally, I hate riding a TT like this - would much rather just work on applying a constant effort for the time. With the drafting regulations, you are forced to ease off and drop back to 7m on every occasion you're past. The upshot of this rest is that you feel that you are now capable of making the decisive pass to finally pull away. Going from 43kph to 46kph or so to get past means that you are really pushing and hence when you pass, the legs soon don't feel too great. All in all, very annoying.

The run on this occasion was the normal affair, start off feeling a bit rubbish, wondering why you bother with this triathlon business, telling myself I should stick to cycling, reminding myself that I should have lost some more weight blah blah blah - same for every race. Anyway, my main aim was damage limitation. I just wanted to see if I could pick the pace up a bit and then stick round about the 3:45/3:50km pace. I think I managed to achieve that aim and I got round in 19:28 which, although not a stellar performance for me, was not that bad for the first race.

The surprise of the day was that I had managed to record my second fastest time on the course. Largely down to having a good bike in terms of the lights on this occasion. There have certainly been times when I have felt more capable of riding a bit faster only to be scuppered by numerous lights etc. Still, 57:54 is a good time for...I was happy with that and 4th in what was a competitive field.

Redmon CC - 25 - 6th - 55:26

2011-04-13T10:30:00.002+01:00

This race was never going to be that much fun, what with the heavy legs from the racing on the Saturday. It must be an age thing when you are not able to recover as quickly as you used to. I have been to the Redmon season opener for the last 4 years I think so it would have been a shame to break with tradition.

I had set the Garmin's virtual partner to do my best ever time on the course and the plan was to just see what would happen. I thought I would blow up at some point around the course, until that time, I planned on just seeing how hard I could go.

We started straight in to a bit of head wind which just made the legs feel even more tired. It was only when we turned after about 5k to head back down the nice country lanes that it was possible to really get some speed up. At about the half way mark, I was on target with the virtual partner but at the back of my mind, I knew I had a long drag back up to the dual carriageway to contend with and the another few drags on the DC. By the time I hit the DC I was down by about 30 seconds and then I proceeded to lose another 20 or so on the DC. I think that in the last few k's, my legs had pretty much packed their bags and left. I think I even tried a sprint to the line, but this probably just ended up looking like a slow motion replay.

So, home in 55:26 for me, but thanks to fellow Dynamos James and Martin, we were able to pick up the team prize and the biggest trophy of the day. The £5 prize money meant I was still awash with about £4 after tea and cakes.

Ful-On Duathlon 2011

2011-04-13T10:17:00.006+01:00

I am never sure why I end up doing duathlons, they almost always have way too much of my least favourite discipline - running. The Ful-On duathlon formed part of the annual round of London League races so thought it may be a good time to do my first brick session and also ride the TT bike for the first time since Jekyl & Hyde last year.

The structure of the race always meant that it would be tricky for me, there was a 6k run at the start, followed by a short and relatively technical 18k bike course and then another 6k run. The only way I was going to have any hope of a good position come the end of the race was if I had a decent go on the bike section. I was not quire sure how well I would ride though, my riding of recent has been minimal to say the least, very few turbo sessions and only the occasional long ride - not great pre-season preparation anyway.

When we got going, I was instantly shocked at how fast people go out on these duathlons, I was quite a way back at the end of the first km. For me, I was running quite quick though, round about 16kph. I knew that was within my range so decided to run steady rather than blowing up. I would wait for the bike - it is all about the bike after all. Finished the run in about 15th or so I think and then headed out on the bike. It was good to be back on the racing wheels, not so good to be going round paved corners, dodging structures in the racing line and jumping on mats to cross the all weather track - all in all, not a great course. Still, I think I managed to work my way back up through the field and by the time we came in to T2, I think I was in about 3rd place.

The second run was always going to be a case of damage limitation for me. Having ridden quite hard, my calf instantly cramped but it wasn't bad enough to stop. I got round the second run in sub 4min/km's which was not bad for me really. I could have perhaps gone a bit faster, but at the back of mind, I was all too aware that on Sunday I would be back on the TT bike for a 25 and I wanted to at least have a fairly decent ride.

In the end, I finished 9th, which I was quite pleased with - especially considering all that running. Annoyed to have missed out on the fastest bike split in the results. Personally, I think it is a lap miscalculation by the holder of that title, that's what I am consoling myself with anyway.

Kingston 16 Mile Breakfast Run

2011-03-29T09:33:00.003+01:00

Never quite sure why this is called the 'Breakfast Run', the only similarity is that it takes place in the morning, other than that, it is always a long, often painful, drawn out process of simply waiting to blow up with a number of miles still on the clock. Although this is only the second time I have done this run, I don't have many fond memories of anything beyond about the 10 mile mark on the last attempt.

So, for this year's race, I decided to see if I could lower the point at which I would blow up by going out on the TT bike the day before and doing a long ride. The plan was to just ride at a steady 30kph and try and get 130-150k's on the clock. The over-excitement of being back on the TT bike however saw me going closer to 35kph for the 140k - perhaps not the best preparation, but it did not feel like I was pushing that hard. My legs did feel a little tired at the end though.

So, at the start of the Breakfast Run, I just thought that I would see how things went, maybe start off with what felt comfortable and see how things went. I had set the Garmin to run about a 1:46, but in all honesty, I had no idea how I would run. At about 3 miles I took a look at the Garmin and I could see that I was up on the virtual partner by a bit, the problem was, the legs had not felt amazing really. I decided to keep drudging along, more out of interest to see how long I could keep the pace up.

I went through half way in a respectable time, but I only had one objective in my mind now. I figured I would just see if I could run a decent half marathon and then maybe take it easy for the last 3 miles. I was obviously just trying to work out how early I could stop the pain. In the end I went through the half in about 1:22 which was good for me as this was quicker than my time at Wokingham a few weeks back. I walked the drinks station after this, had some lucozade and another slimy ride shot that had been festering in my shorts pocket. I got running again and didn't feel too bad. Someone past me at this stage who I had run with for a couple of miles on lap 1. I sat in behind him for the next mile and then figured with only 2 to go, I may as well see if I can keep the pace up. Don't get me wrong, the last mile did hurt...the last photo below is bit of a giveaway.

Still, 1:43:01 is 2:35 quicker than my last attempt and not a bad run for me. Just under 4min/km for the whole race.

Wokingham Half Marathon

2011-02-14T17:27:00.004Z

Back at the start of 2011 I realised that I had somehow descended to a new low in terms of my fitness. This was brought home by an attempt at the Turbo marathon in December which was interspersed with a holiday and the general gluttony of December. Anyway, I decided to do something about it and try and get some level of fitness back before the season started to get going. So, the whole of January has seen me training quite consistently, only really averaging about 10 hours a week, but that seems a lot these days, what with work etc.

I had done a fair bit of running during January, typically doing 3-4 sessions a week and combining some long runs, tempo runs and I had even been back on the treadmill in the gym. I could feel that things were starting to come back after a couple of weeks. My heart rate had lowered a bit and the scales were moving the right direction as well.

For Wokingham, my main aim was to see if I could hold 4min/km's for the race. This would give me a 1:24, which although off the PB by a bit, would be a respectable time given the circumstances. Come race day, there was a bit of a wind which someone reliably informed me would mean a headwind for miles 10-12 - not good.

I set off okay and I was going through the mile markers consistently, initially gaining some time on the virtual partner, but slowly losing some once I had gone through 6 miles. Still, I was 1:20 up on the partner at about mile 9 and that was when the headwind kicked in. I really struggled in those two miles, especially as they also contain the only two significant hills on the course.

Crossed the line in what I thought was 1:24:13 but found out later that the actual results have me down for 1:24:01. So, all in all, not a bad day. I stuck to the game plan and I actually did not feel as bad as I normally do in the last few miles.

I have Tunbridge Wells half marathon in two weeks now. Bit more of a hilly affair there.

Hounslow & District 25 - 1st - 53:58

2010-09-27T13:03:00.004+01:00

Well, finally I have managed to win my first ever open TT. I have been racing for nigh on 4 years now and have consistently been able to finish in the top 3, but last weekend I finally managed to get the top spot, and by close to a minute as well.

I had entered the Hounslow & District TT on the request of a mate of mine who wanted to see if we could get the team prize, a lot of us liked the course (h25/8) and we managed to assemble 3 pretty good riders which should have put the team prize well within our reach on the day. However, come the day of the race, James was not feeling too well and Martin only managed to ride to the start line, only to clear his tire of flint and open the wound which led to a DNS. So, I ended up just riding with the intention of seeing how well I could do.

The conditions on the day were far from ideal, I remain wistful of a day when I turn up a TT and the conditions are ideal. There always seems to be some factor, be it rain or wind which means that a fast time is simply not on the card. For this race, it was wind which was going to prove to be the undoing any fast times. The headwind on the way out seemed to be picking up all the time and this was going to mean a nasty stint at the start and middle of the race as we went round the two laps.

Going out was tough, the headwind meant that it was quite simply a case of just hanging on and trying t push the biggest gear I could. The carrot on each headwind section was the roundabout at the end. On both laps, it was akin to a slingshot as you could feel the speed creeping up even before you had taken the exit. I was going from pushing hard at 35kph to cruising at 50-60kph. It's probably fair to say that the riding along in 56x11 on a flat piece of road, doing nigh on 60kph and still trying to go faster, is one of the best feelings you can get on a bike.

I crossed the line, covered in the obligatory snot and salt to discover that I had ridden just under 54. I thought it was good at the time as the conditions were so bad, but just had no idea how the other riders would have fared. I feared some of the smaller more agile framed individuals may have been able to sustain much higher speeds in the headwind. I saw Martin on the bridge back to the HQ and he showed me the favourite for the day going off into the distance, Martin's puncture had meant that he had time to check the splits. So, with the favourite still having 8 miles to do, he was down more than 40 seconds. I kind of knew at this point that I should be okay, mainly because I knew how fast I finished.

All in all, great day out and good to get a TT in before the season is over. Now it is time to (once again) see if I can spend a winter focusing on my running. Have decided to have another go at XC at least, so that should help.

News article on the Hounslow and District Wheelers page and in the local paper:

Hounslow & District Wheelers 25 mile Time Trial
Sunday 19th September

Richard Legge (London Dynamo) stormed to victory in the Hounslow 25 last Sunday (19th September), almost a minute faster than Ian Greenstreet (Newbury R.C.) and Brian Molloy (34th Nomads) who tied for second place. Legge recorded 53 minutes 59 seconds while Greenstreet and Molloy both did 54.56.

The event was held on the Farnham - Alton (A31) course which the previous afternoon in the North Hants RC 25 had been the scene of a shattering ride by Alex Dowsett, the young Trek Livestrong professional, who recorded 46 minutes 58 seconds. However Sunday morning proved to be a different proposition from the Saturday with a blustery south west wind blowing along the course, the general opinion being that the conditions made the Hounslow event about three minutes slower.

Primarily a triathlete, Richard Legge had not ridden any time trials since the National 25 Championship in early June, yet he seemed to find a way to beat the wind which left most of the field struggling. Richard commented: “I like to use big gears, I know there some who disapprove, but 60-70 rpm seems to suit me. I used 56 x 11 almost all the way on the tailwind sections.” And on the subject of time trials in general he said “I'm still surprised to find these CTT events are not flooded with triathletes: they are well organised, there is no problem with 'drafting' which is sometimes almost inevitable in triathlons because of the sheer number of competitors on the road, and the entry fees are much lower than triathlons.” He went home a happy man since this was his first ever outright victory in an open time trial.

Rob Gilmour was the Hounslow's best rider with a creditable 57.08 for 11th place. Club president Jeff Marshall recorded 1.02.06 which gave him the second best veterans' plus - the victor in this category was that frequent winner of vets' prizes, 73 year old John Woodburn (V.C. Meudon) whose actual time was 1.00.53. John complained about the wind and said he was a little tired having raced in the Rudy Project event the day before on Tees side! He won the age related event there too.

The best lady was Nicki Hunt (London & Home Counties VTTA) whose 1.6.28 was just over a minute too good for second placed Jo Wells of the Hounslow.

Chris Lovibond

http://www.hounslowanddistrictwheelers.co.uk/news/10/open_25.html

National Triathlon Relay Championships

2010-09-22T16:27:00.004+01:00

Ok, these happened quite a while ago, but in the interests of making sure I get every race on here, they need to be mentioned.

Our Thames Turbo mixed team had set out to see if we could (again) claim a medal in this often less fiercely fought category. We had got second a couple of years ago, so we wanted to see if we could better that this year.

Alas it was not to be this time round, if there is one truism of the relays, it is that they seem to get increasingly competitive as the years go by. As it is, you need to have 4 members in the team who are pretty decent at each of the disciplines, in the end, we finished up in 5th place.

The good news for me though was that I did manage to get the fastest bike split in the morning's races, I was the only person to sneak under 20 minutes for the ~15k course.

I raced again in the afternoon in a men's team where we had a good bit of intra-club rivalry going on. Thankfully, the team I was in managed to win that private race. Annoyingly though, someone from the army managed to push my second bike split in to second place for the afternoon races. Still, not a bad day to have the fastest bike split in the morning and the second fastest in the afternoon. Not sure how I fared I was in the other disciplines, certainly not as well anyway!

London Triathlon - Team GB v. Hambro Institute of Sport

2010-08-17T12:36:00.005+01:00

On the Wednesday before the big weekend of racing at London, I received a call from my mate Dion, they wanted me to do the bike section in a team relay where we would be taking on none other than three GB athletes. Ok, they were ladies, but beating them would by no means be pushover, especially as they had a few Beijing medals between them. They had received a bit of publicity prior to the event as they were going to make a stab at beating the girl's record for the team sprint at London Triathlon. We preferred to stay under the radar for fear of being totally shown up :)

The format for the triathlon was a 400m swim, 20k bike and 5k run with Dion on the swim, me on the bike and Tristan on the run. Dion managed to stick with Patten for a fair amount of the swim, but in trying to move on to her feet, she pulled away with about 200 to go. Patten exited the water with about a 60s lead, but this had reduced by the time that we handed over the band, mainly thanks to some deft transition skills in terms of bike placement and knowing how to run out of the water.

At the start of the bike, I think Romero had about 60 seconds on me. As I set out, I had a sinking feeling that she would just continue to hammer home the advantage from the swim. At the first roundabout, I could see Romero coming back and I realised at that point, they were certainly not putting any time in to us, in fact, I thought I must be catching her. Don't get me wrong, this was only a couple of k's in and my HR was already through the roof, I was feeling good though so continued to make my way past all of other athletes, just hunting down the black outfit of Romero. Within a few minutes, she was in sight and not long after I had managed to pass her as well (possible cycling career highlight).

Now, it was all about trying to see how much time I could gain to ensure that Tristan was not going to be too troubled on the run. By the third turn of the two laps, I could see that I put a fair amount of time in to Romero and was confident it should be enough. Tristan had told me he would not be happy unless I returned with snot over face etc, so had to make sure I pushed all the way back to the Excel.

Eventually came in with about a 90 second advantage which was well enough for Tristan not to get caught. He managed to knock out a 17:40 for the very long "5k" and we eventually all crossed the line in 1:01, setting a new record for the men and also beating Team GB by about 90 seconds.

Having beat the ladies, we were pleased to see that the story was picked up by a few of the tri related news sites, but most importantly the Sunday Times where we even had a mention!

Tri247

Tri247

TriFinder

Antwerp 70.3 - 2010

2010-08-10T14:18:00.003+01:00

For me, this was to be the highlight of my season with pretty much all of my preparation to date being focused on just doing well over this distance at this event. For the four weeks leading up to this race, I had been spending every Saturday just doing lap after lap of Regent's Park on the TT bike followed by a run. These were going well too, I had pretty much worked out (probably for the first time) how easy I need to take it on the bike to give myself a fighting chance on the run.

So, after all of this, to suddenly find that you have a bit of a sore throat on the Tuesday and by the time you arrive in Antwerp, this has developed in to a full blown cold, one can feel slightly disappointed and annoyed for putting all your eggs in one basket.

Still, I was not so unwell that not starting was on the agenda so I headed down to T1 on race day to get things ready. At the start of the swim though, and in doing the first bit of high intensity stuff since getting ill, I realised straight away that I was not good. I was coughing in the water, so decided to just find some feet and try and sit on them, the thinking was, I was only going to lose about 1-2 minutes in the swim so better to just get through it with the maximum amount of help.

Out on the bike though and things felt relatively good. I was sticking to my plan quite well in terms of drinking frequently and making sure that I was never pushing that hard etc. By the time I had got to about 50k, I had worked my way quite far up the field whilst still feeling quite good. It was when I looked at the HR though that I got worried. At breakfast it had been higher than normal by about 10-15 beats and on the bike, for the perceived effort, it was just as high. Not good I thought, but at the time I figured the only way I had a chance of qualifying was to keep going to the plan and see how long I could get away with it.

Towards the end of the bike, I had my disheartening 70.3 moment. I was caught by one chap and then looked behind to see that he was simply spearheading a group of about 15-20 riders who were pretty much riding in a peleton. Kind of makes you wonder why you bother. Anyway, not wanting to simply brake all the way to, and then off, the back, I road with these guys to the finish...albeit, I tried to stay away from them as much as possible by riding in the middle of the road etc.

T2 went okay and then out on the run things felt a bit worse than I was hoping. I felt hot but I was managing to stick with the 4min/km that I was hoping to stick to for the run. This all seemed to be okay for about the first 5k, but then all of a sudden, I felt really hot and thought I was going to feint in the middle of the road. I stopped for a quick walk, but at that point, I knew it was all over. I felt rubbish and the illness had finally got the better of me. So, I started to adopt a run walk strategy to wait for Paula to catch me who was one lap behind. We eventually ran one lap together with P almost dropping me on a number of occasions, I was perhaps more of a hindrance than anything else - still, I blocked the wind when I could etc.

I eventually finished in 4:33 which including a 1:50 half marathon...I had been working towards a 1:24.

So, no Florida for me this year.....

BananaMan 2010

2010-07-14T15:23:00.007+01:00

For the first time in the last few years, I had entered to race the BananaMan on my own to see how I could get on and to get some useful triathlon practice in before Antwerp in a couple of weeks time. Secretly, I had set myself the target of seeing how close I could get to the previous Team Time Trial times I had set over the past three years. The wind on Sunday made me think it was going to be tough, but as always with Eton, if it is hard one way, it will be great the other.

The swim went about as well as could be expected really - I would like to think the course is a bit long as I would hope i was not swimming 1:30/100m pace, but I managed to stay with and pretty much lead out a pack of two other guys for the whole 800m eventually getting out just under 12 minutes. Still, the swim felt comfortable and it hadn't take much out of me for the rest of the race.

On to the bike now and I had been playing around with my position of recent, mainly to make it a bit more comfortable for the half Ironman, but in doing this, I had realised that it was not set up very well in the first place. For a start, the saddle was way too high I think and I had not moved it as far forward as it will go either. Things felt good now and as I pulled out of T1 in the lead, I decided to get my HR where I wanted it (~160BPM) and then just keep it steady for the rest of the ride. Going away from the transition area was tough on the day with the wind, but coming back was awesome...knocking out 30mph on a TT bike is a nice feeling really, especially on perfectly smooth roads. Finished the bike and felt quite sure I was quite a way ahead of the next placed guy in my wave. I would only find out though as I headed back on the first run lap as to where he actually was.

Out on the run and the plan started off being to just see how I felt and see if I was going to be able to up the pace at all after hopefully not starting off that quick. The first leg was in to the wind but a quick look at the pace meant that I was running quite well, and more importantly, I did not feel that bad. So I kept it steady for the second lap and then opened it up a bit on the last lap. All in all, was not a bad run for me with an average speed of just under 16kph. It was also nice to see on lap 1 that there was no chance that the second place chap was going to catch me.

In the end, I recorded my second fastest time on the course meaning that I beat the previous couple of year's TTT times. Om the day, I managed to win overall (all age groups)I also managed to beat the relay and the TTT teams time. So, all in all, a nice little warm up race before Antwerp at the end of the month.

GARMIN OUTPUT

Regent's Park 10k

2010-07-14T15:20:00.003+01:00

A couple of weekends back, I raced the Regent's Park 10k as a brick session, had done a very hard 90 mins on the bike and then ran the 10k after to get some brick experience. Not too bad, finishing with 38:43 so only 40 seconds slower than the month before when I ran it fresh. Still, not back to my best, but getting there, Regent's Park is by no means a fast 10k anyway.

Windsor 2010

2010-07-14T15:08:00.004+01:00

My plan for Windsor this year was quite simple, I wanted to win it. I had looked at the start sheet and seemed quietly confident that things might go okay for me. I had to obviously put in some good splits but I felt sort of fit, so hoped it would go to plan.

On the day of the race, I looked at the river and it appeared to me that there was little to no current whatsoever. To me, this meant the best option was going to be swimming the shortest course rather than trying to hug the banks etc and stay out the current which can often plague a good swim time. However, after sticking to that plan quite well, a quick glance of the watch on the way to T! proved it had not been the best plan - 23:30 - that was part 1 of the plan in tatters as i kind of knew I needed a good swim to give me a chance.

Out on the bike, thing felt okay and with all the passing that I was doing, I felt confident that I was putting in a good split. Towards the end, I certainly noticed that I was starting to tire though, this was certainly not a good sign when I knew I still had the 10k run to go. In the end, I came back in to T2 as the only person on the day to break the hour for the 42k course....good cycling, yes, but what followed was not good running.

Pretty much as soon as I got out on the course, I realised that I had gone a bit too hard on the bike to be able to run at the speed I wanted to. I think in hindsight this is just something I fail to learn every season. You can not ride the bike like it is a TT and then hope to run well off the back of it. Thankfully, I have started to spend some more time since this focusing on my effort and how easy it should feel to be able to run well. Anyway, I digress, the run just got worse and worse really and I eventually came across the line with a 41:30 split which was way off what I needed.

After looking at the results at the end of the day, there would have been little hope of me winning with some young South African chap there who stormed the course faster than my best case scenario. Still, I got 3rd in my age group and it was the catalyst I needed to better manage the last bit of my training before Antwerp.

National 25 Championship - 44th - 56:02

2010-06-11T14:52:00.005+01:00

As much as I wanted to get excited about this race, I just never really got in to the right frame of mind. Having been away for a week beforehand and doing no training, I kind of felt that I had still not back in the groove before I set off on what would be a massive 2 day journey. Driving up after work meant we only arrived at the hotel at about 10 in the evening. Luckily, the race was not until later in the afternoon the next day.

On the Saturday, we got up and decided that we would ride the course. In hindsight, I am not so sure that this is a good idea. For one, 25 miles when you are not going super fast is still a ride and it took quite a while. In the end, it probably took more out of me than I wanted, even though it was good to have some knowledge of the course.

Start time eventually rolled round on another hot day...two hot races back to back, have not seen that for a while. After setting off, I had a quick look at the Garmin after about 5 minutes. My HR was reading about 178 which is simply way too high. I did not feel that I was riding at that kind of pace, so I decided to just carry on and see what happened - I was in unchartered waters now. I suppose at the back of my mind I had some idea that the end result was not going to be good, but on the day you just put your head down and hope for the best.

I got to the turn in good time and on way back things were going well. I was catching my minute man quite qucikly but then, all of a sudden, it was like someone just removed the power from the legs. I don't think I bonked, I think I had just blown up from the effort I had put in from the previous 22 miles. The HR had stayed around the 178-180 mark for the entire ride so I suppose there is only so much a heart can take before it decides it does not want to play ball any more.

The last 3 miles were torture, just trying to get some speed back but there was nothing there. I eventually hobbled across the line thinking, what a waste. Travelling all this way for that....to add insult to injury, I still had to drive all the way back.

GARMIN OUTPUT

National 10 Mile Champs - 42nd - 20:55

2010-06-11T14:34:00.003+01:00

After last year's failure to get in to the National 10, it was nice to finally get my slot for the 2010 event. I always knew it was going to be a really fast affair and that I would be nowhere near the sharp end, but still, it is good to see how you fare against the best in the land.

The day itself was roasting, a very rare treat in the UK racing calendar. For me, I actually prefer to ride in the heat and having looked at the course, I felt confident in terms of being able to do myself justice - there were no big hills and the main drag was assisted with a tailwind as well - all good news.

However, the tailwind to help you back up the wheel obviously reared its head as a bit of a headwind on the way out. On a section where I thought I was going to be knocking out over 30mph, I was struggling to do 26/27mph. Still, I was feeling pretty strong and the shortness of the ten means you can just give it a real bash. The second roundabout was a bit of a pain with a lorry not really giving me the racing line - the cheek of it - but at least I made it round and I heading back for the finish now.

The slight hill was nowhere near as bad as it looked, but the last section just off the main road was quite painful in terms of just trying to squeeze that last little bit out. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a lower gear for the whole ride and tried to spin out a bit more, especially on the last stretch. Still, I crossed the line in 20:55 and my final position was about where I thought I would be on the day.

GARMIN OUTPUT

Eton Super Sprints

2010-05-21T16:17:00.004+01:00

Before P and I even made it to Eton on the Sunday, there was one thing that we both wanted to do to lessen the shock of what was to come, namely to have a go in open water. The main reason being that the comfort of the pool of Swiss Cottage was going to be replaced by water which was reported to be near to the 10 degrees mark - not a nice prospect. So, on Saturday we headed to the lido and almost had the most expensive swim ever, after one length, I was on the verge of defeat and contemplating getting out...£4 seemed too much though so we soldiered on with ice cream heads for another 20 minutes. In the end, it did not seem too bad. Needless to say, there were people there in speedos...nutters.

After making the often traveled journey to Eton Rowing Lake, we were all set for the first of our triathlons for the 2010 season. I seemed to remember how to do everything, getting my bike set up, sorting the wetsuit and various other things that need taking care of, like remembering where your bike is when you get out of the water! The swim went quite well for the first 100 metres or so, I had made it in to the lead and I event think I was pulling away a bit. This was not really what I had hoped for however, I wanted to be towed around the lake by some good swimmer so that I could just sit on their feet and nab myself a good swim time. My legs pretty much gave up on the last 200m, not really sure why, perhaps I need to kick some more. Anyway, out the water in 1st and on to the best cycling course in triathlon.

The wind was not as bad as the flags were showing and there did not seem to be the normal headwind on the outward stretch which was a good indicator that it may be possible to get a decent ride in. Sadly, the Garmin had decided that it did not want to cooperate today and for the remainder of the race, the only information I had was how much battery life the watch had left...not that useful when you want to know how fast you're going. Still, things seemed to be going okay though and the 56x11 stints on the back straight were good fun.

A quick T2 and I was out on the run. I tried to start off quite hard and I think I paid for this after about 1k when I started to slow down a bit. I think it may be better to build into these short runs a bit more, rather than trying to bolt out of T2 as if I was planning on running a 15 minute 5k. Still, settled down after about 3k and started to up the pace towards the end. By this time, I knew I had won my wave by about 4 minutes but my main aim of the day was to win the day outright by beating all the other waves that took place.

In the end, I came in with a time of 55:41 which was about as good as I could have hoped for - I think I would have been quicker had I known what was going on via the Garmin, but I did have a go and I think I raced okay. Looking back, I should have run a bit quicker as I certainly was not hitting the kind of pace I needed to on a few sections. As for winning the day, that didn't happen either - beaten by a measly 4 seconds in the end. Still, not a bad first race.

Charlotteville 50

2010-05-18T13:51:00.003+01:00

Competed in my first 50 mile TT a couple of weeks ago with the main being just to get a time to allow me to enter the National 50 and to also see what they were like in comparison to 25's.

They are long....very long it seemed at times towards the end. Sitting on a saddle for nigh on two hours is a real test, as is trying to keep the speed up on what wasn't a nice day with the cold and a little wind.

I suffered in the second half to such an extent that I lost about 3 minutes on the last 15 miles.....not sure what was going wrong, but I do feel a lot more confident about the next one.

Final time: 1:53:46

Regents Park 10k - 14th - 38:00

2010-05-04T17:12:00.002+01:00

Saturday saw me run in my first 10k in what has been a very long time.....I don't think I ran any straight 10's last season so this was due to be a bit of a shock to the system.Based on my running of recent, I was confident that it should be not be too bad a performance as I had got to the stage where I was running sub 4min/km quite comfortably.

Set the Garmin off at 37:00 pace thinking that was the best that I could possibly hope for, especially considering as my PB on that course is only 36:54.

After the second lap, I was still on target to hit the 37 dead, but I knew I would lose some time on the last lap as I could feel that I was starting to slow a bit. Eventually finished with 38:00 which I was quite happy with really...would have liked to have been in the 37's but it is as near as really.

Newbury RC 25 - H25/1 - 54:05 - 4th

2010-04-27T11:39:00.002+01:00

This was never going to be a stellar performance as I had not lifted finger in terms of training all week long. On Sunday I thought I was coming down with some form throat infection, and after 45 minutes of swim training on Monday, I got out as I knew I was not doing myself any favours. The rest of the week was then just filled with Colvonia and Strepsils in an attempt to budge it. By the time Saturday rolled round, I thought I was feeling a lot better so decided it would be worth it to travel to the race and see how I did - the annoying thing was, conditions were not far from ideal.

Within a few minutes of setting off, I was aware that the throat had not totally cured as heavy breathing was slightly restricted. Still, was able to get up to speed and did not feel too bad for the first 20 odd k. I had caught my two minute man who a decent rider, so thought I must be doing okay. As we turned at the far end though and started to work harder in to the headwind, I felt a bit worse and instantly knew it was going to be a case of just hanging on really.

Once we turned at the other end, I had a look behind to see that the chap I had caught for two minutes had not really dropped back much in the subsequent 10k's - I must have ridden like a right wally for that segment. Still, back with the wind behind us and the 56x11 in full use, I was able to open the gap up again.

I eventually crossed the line in 54:05 which is a bit slower than the 53:09 I did last year on that course, but all things considered, not too bad really...still nigh on 45kph for the ride and I still haven't really done any high end work on the turbo yet. So, although I don't think I am as fast as I was at this time last year, I do think I have much more solid base which we can now work on adding the speed to. Hopefully things will all come together initially at the end of May/Early June for the National 10, 25 and 50 and then hopefully that will carry through nicely to Antwerp.

The throat appears to have cleared now anyway, so back to full training now.

Redmon CC - 25 - 2nd - 55:39

2010-04-14T13:23:00.002+01:00

Raced in the Redmon 25 on Sunday. Quite a windy day and had ridden 70k the day before so not too displeased to come home in 55:39. I was second on the day, but second by quite a margin. Was good to be back doing 25's though - feels like the perfect distance for a really hard effort.

Have my next one in a couple of weeks, so let's hope we can have some sun and no wind - is it too much to ask for?

Thames Turbo Sprint - Race 1

2010-04-14T13:05:00.004+01:00

I think I am now in to my fifth year of doing this race, it was the first triathlon I did some years ago. For the past couple of years, I have placed near the top so I was keen to get 2010's triathlon career off to a good start.The promise of the some warm weather did not prove to be too correct, but at least it was not as freezing cold as last year - never a good idea when you get out of heated pool and then head out in to the elements in a wet trisuit.

The swim for me went okay on this one, I quickly managed to get quite close to the person in front of me and then decided to not try and get past. She was going at a fairly decent pace, so I assume it would be better to save some energy and sit on her feet for the last 100m or so. My swim time for the 436m was 6:02, so about the same as normal. My transition on the other hand was an embarrassment to the triathlon community. It just seemed to take so long, mainly as I fumbled my way around trying to pull some cycling shoes on. I think that from now on I will have to revert to the shoes in the pedals and having these attached to the bike.

The bike section at these races has been a bit of a nemesis for me in recent years. I can't recall the last time I had what I would call a good run. On this occasion, I was stopped at the lights for the full time that it took to change and then had to contend with some incredibly slow moving traffic behind a competitor who was just strolling along on his mountain bike. There was also the brief stop at the roundabout, so all in all, not a good run really and it was almost impossible to get in to a decent rhythm.

My running of recent has been a little lackluster as I have struggled to find the top end speed that is needed for races like this. The problems with the blisters from MK and Fleet had also meant that I was pretty much sidelined from running for a while. Still, I don't think that I ran that bad, well, in terms of way it felt anyway. The time was far from ideal but I know why this is and I am certain I can improve on this. On this occasion I did 20:31 and I have previously run an 18:37 I think. So, a lot to get me back to those results, but I have at least started to do some brick sessions now and will be working on some speed in the coming months.

In the end, I was 6th, so not too bad, but far from my best....even for this time of the year.

Maidenhead Hilly 30 (H29/18) - DNF

2010-04-06T16:03:00.004+01:00

Last year, my mate Paul and I raced this event as a two up and won quite comfortably. This year, I decided I would have a crack on my own over this testing course round the back lanes of Marlow. I had set my virtual partner up to give me the course record and this meant that I would need to average just over 41kh for the course - this didn't seem too bad, but the hills can really kill the average speed on these rides.

Just doing a little warm up on the turbo...

Things started ok and I felt quite strong but the biggest problem that was giving me concerns was the sheer state of the roads round there. I felt like I was bumping around all over the place and missing potholes became a bit of an art form, what with the frequency and depth of them.

After the first up hill section of the course, I glanced at the watch to see that I was currently riding at the required speed...this was good news as I now had a long section of general downhill where I could try and increase the average speed as much as possible to limit the damage that would be done in the last 2 mile climb to the finish. Things started to not feel quite right on the bike though...I slowly realised that the front wheel had some form of slow puncture. I started to try and work out how fast it was going down and whether or not I would be able to make it to the finish, but after another couple of miles I decided to bite the bullet and get off. At this point I was averaging 43.3kph and still had some downhill section to go...it was not to be though.

The problem now was that I was stranded out on the course with no easy means of making my way back to the car. I worked out there must have been another 8 or so miles of riding to do, that was going to take a long time. Thankfully, some cycling fan in a Transit van came to my rescue. The bike had to go in the back along with some rubbish, but at least I was en route to the village hall again. My glamorous arrival back at the village hall even made it on the web... "while London Dynamo’s Richard Legge arrived at the finish in the back of a rubbish collectors van after suffering a similar problem"

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/uk-time-trial-round-up-tejvan-pettinger-wins-30-mile-hilly-25628

Sotonia 10 (P613/10) 20:44 - 10th

2010-04-06T15:49:00.003+01:00

For me to be able to even get on the start sheet for the National 10 mile Championships this year, I was going to need to get a better time than the only other one I, unfortunately recorded on a cold windy day back in December last year. So, in terms of getting a PB, the Sotonia 10 should have been a bit of a walk in the park really...the course was much nicer than the last one and, on the day, the weather was not bad either. The wind had picked up, but at least the predicted rain had not arrived.

I have done very little in the way of preparation for short bursts like this, so I was quite aware before the start that this was not going to be a very well managed race in terms of pacing etc. It was the first time on the TT bike this year and I just don't really have any kind of markers in terms of how well I am riding at the moment. All I know is that the watts I am putting out on the turbo are a bit lower than they were this time last year.

Anyway, once the race got going I just decided that i would see how hard I could go for the whole ride. The good thing was, the course started with a bit of a downhill and then we were directed on to a nice piece of dual carriageway with the wind behind us. Those first 5 miles were a real pleasure as I cruised along in 56x11 or 12 but eventually hit some bad luck as I got to the roundabout for the turn. As much as I tried to convince myself there was a way to do it, it became apparent I was going to have to stop....so annoying. Anyway, it was only for a few seconds and I was back on my way again. Still, the whole slowing, stopping and getting going again costs dearly, especially in such a short race. Back out on the other side of the dual carriageway and I was met with the ugly side of that nice tailwind I had enjoyed all the way out. I just tried to get as aero as possible and just grind the gears out for the next 4 miles. It was not pleasant at all, but catching a couple of the riders in front of me made for a nice distraction.

I eventually made it over the line in 20:44. In terms of the National Champs, this is job done as a time of 20:44 should ensure that I get my slot in the National 10 this year. Having looked at last year's result, I felt quite confident that a time like that would put me quite far up the leaderboard. Alas, not today....everyone seems to have cottoned on to the fact that this is the fastest course in the South and on a good day, this is where a lot of people come to get their times for the National 10. In the end, I finished 10th but there were a good bunch of quality riders above me and I beat some of my peers who I would normally place close to etc. All in all....job done.

Fleet Half Marathon

2010-03-26T10:17:00.004Z

After the blister issues at Milton Keynes and the subsequent time it appeared to be taking for these problems to clear up, I was not looking too good to run Fleet last weekend. The feet had not totally healed but the Compeed plasters did seem to be make running at least bearable to some extent, albeit, I had not tried anything longer than 10k during the two weeks.

So, on Sunday I decided to give it a go and just see if I could make it round in one piece. I set the Garmin off on a pace of 1:23 but I decided that I would see how long I could go without actually looking at the watch. I thought I was going okay, but it was quite obviously far from a stellar performance. I am not really sure what is happening with the running at the moment. Perhaps, it is too long on the treadmill and not enough sessions outside, but I just feel that good running at the moment. Anyway, at about mile 8, the feet started to hurt, what with one Compeed coming off and one on the other foot somewhere else within my shoe. I eventually stopped at about 9 miles and decided to take the socks off and see if I could carry on. For a while the feet were still sore, but things did improve....I ran quite hard through miles 10-11 and then the legs felt pretty sore for the last mile

I eventually came home in 1:27 so not as bad as MK but it does mean that the whole plan of doing some good halves in the early part of the season are kind of out of the window as there are no more on the horizon. TT season kicks off this weekend with a trip to the Sotonia 10.

Milton Keynes Half Marathon

2010-03-09T17:03:00.003Z

The good news is, my season has now started, it seems like a such a long time ago that I was racing. The bad news on the other hand, is that the season has started with a race that just went from bad to worse.

I had set myself the target of running a 1:21 at the MK half this year, and although ambitious, I felt relatively confident that I might just sneak under 1:22. The starter holding us for a lot longer than I thought meant that I started off needing to go to the toilet and hence the first 6 miles I spent a lot of time trying to decide if the cost of nipping behind a tree for a wee would be worth the time lost. I decided to give it a miss and carried on for a bit longer...I went through half way dead on target at 40:30 but I knew that I was slowing down a bit. For some reason, I never really felt that great, kind of tired. I think most of that may have been due to the fact that I did some hard work during the week and never really recovered properly and then promptly went out and did a 60 mile bike ride on the Saturday. The ride seemed okay for the first 30 miles but after turning round and realising it was headwind, I quickly lost interest and generally just felt lethargic. Still, I didn't think it would cause too much damage.

At mile 9 in the race, the real problems started, my feet really started to hurt - a lot. I had bought some new socks in the week and these were obviously not for me....I could feel the blisters starting to appear and by mile 11 it felt like someone was scraping the skin off the bottom of my feet. Cue, a final 2 mile run/walk strategy to finally cross the line in 1:30.....not great.

So, I have Fleet half in a couple of weeks time now. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a better day there.

At least the season has finally started...

End of Season Roundup

2009-09-24T12:18:00.004+01:00

Well, first things first, I am now a married man...so I suppose that is the end of my best racing days :)

Leading up to the wedding, I had a couple of races which I was going to do more for fun than anything else. As the wedding approached, so the training decreased and weight came on a bit. At the National Relay champs I was fully aware that our best chance of doing anything was just to concentrate on the bike section and see where we can get our team at the end of that...with none of us being 15-16 minute 5k runners, we were never going to be in contention after the bike. Still, we did have fun and I was pleased to see that I started the run (I was first out of the team of 4) at the same time as the pro outfit of Planet X that including an ex world champ. They quickly ran away from us, but it was good while it lasted.

A couple of weekends after that. we had the last in the Thames Turbo sprint series for the season. I was not in contention for an overall prize this season so I was not overly bothered with how well I was going to do. I was keen to have a good ride, but other than that, I knew I had not put the time in so shouldn't expect too much. My swim was a bit slower than normal but out on the bike, I actually felt quite good. I was riding well but then got caught by the lights for the maximum amount of time and on the way back into Hampton I had a bit of a nightmare with cars, buses and other competitors causing a bit of a tailback that I ended up getting stuck behind for a bit....all rather annoying, but I suppose it is to be expected on that course. One day I will get a perfect run on that course!

Out on the run, things didn't feel too bad, but I knew that I was just not really going as fast as I should be if I wanted a good time. Still, my time was not bad considering the recent training etc. I was pleased to see that I eventually finished 3rd in a pretty decent field, so not a bad day out really.

Whilst I was away on the honeymoon, I also decided that it would be for the best if I pulled out of the 70.3 World Champs as well. The cost of getting to Florida and the fact that I had not even booked anything yet, meant I would be spending a lot of money to put in a sub-par performance. The honeymoon was great, but I put on some weight and my gradual reduction in fitness over the past couple of months and the 6 weeks between then and the Worlds would have not been enough to get to a place of fitness which I felt would justify all the expense. Next year...

Antwerp 70.3

2009-08-05T15:12:00.005+01:00

Ever since I finished my uneventful trip into the TT wilderness this season, what with the two punctures in my two main races, I have focusing all my attention on my last main race of the season. The Antwerp 70.3 is a half-ironman race with a 1.9k swim, 90k bike and then a nice little half marathon to finish things off.

The problem for me coming in to this race was two fold, I did not really have the endurance in the legs to ride that hard for that long as all of my efforts this season had been focused on delivering a very high level of power for about an hour. To now go for more than twice as long, was going to be hard. I had also only really been averaging about 10-15k a week, and that was probably split between 2 or 3 runs. So, no long runs since I did the MK half marathon way earlier in the year. So, I decided to just try and keep on top of the swimming, pretty much junk the cycling for a month and drastically increase my run mileage. I enlisted the help of Bill Black to help with some form of running plan and he basically just set me four runs to do every week, with one of those being an increasingly longer run. So, a week before the race, all the running was going great, I was back to being able to easily knock out sub 40 10k's, even as part of the long run, albeit, I was slowing towards the ends of these with the lack of endurance. Still, a lot of the speed was back. So, everything looked about as good as it could really.

For some reason, I always foolishly assume that racing on the continent is going to take place under blue skies and sunshine. Antwerp last weekend was doing all it could to oppose that viewpoint. Due to the fact I only arrived late on the Saturday, I had to register and make my way to the swim start on the Sunday. Me, being the ever organised did this super early.....problem with this was that it meant that I had to stand around in the pouring rain for about 2 hours. Not really the best start to a race.

Finally though, we were off. I was in a wave for my AG and I quickly realised that there wasn't going to be the normal bunch of people quickly escaping off the front. In fact, on this occasion, I was very near the front and it all seemed to be going well, perhaps me deciding to kick in this race had made a big difference. Anyway, I followed round some other chap from my AG and we got out the water in 25:45....I had to take two glances at the watch, I was expecting to be out in about 28. The course must be short I thought. Wetsuit off, helmet on though and on the way out I passed one of my mates who is a really good swimmer. It then dawned on me that perhaps I had just done a pretty good swim.

So, off on the bike and straight away, I could feel some pain up the inside of my thigh, like a bit of a cramp. I have had this before though and can normally just ride through it and it goes away. Eventually, it did subside and by now I was heading out of Antwerp on the wet, but super flat roads. This was exactly what I had been hoping for. There were quite a few railway tracks to navigate (by going across the mates they lay down) but generally, things were going well. The only problem was the annoying headwind for about the first 30k. I basically ended up getting a bit excited about all the people I was catching and I think that (as you'll see later on) I pushed too hard in this section. It was only when I got to about 50k that I realised that things were not great with the legs, especially as I still had a half marathon to run. Coming back into town, I dropped off the pace a bit to try and conserve the legs and I tried to make sure that I finished off all the nutrition I had on the bike. I eventually got back to T2 with the fastest bike time for all the non-pros...result. The only problem now was that my legs were not in the mood to run.

I started off well though and saw that after about 3k, I was averaging over 15kph (my target was 15kph) so all good. At the first aid station, I tried to take some water on and this is when it all started to go wrong. The inside of my thighs cramped again and I had to stop to stretch it out for a bit. I carried on again, but the pain was still there a bit. This is basically how the next 80 minutes of running panned out for me. I would run for about 5k, stop with the horrible cramp and then get going again. Every time I started again though, it was slower than I had been running....my pace was really dropping off and I could see that at least a few of the people in my AG had come back past me. I knew I had to finish in about the top 6 or 7 to get a spot for the World Champs in Florida so I just tried to grin and bear it. The last couple of k's were very horrible. My legs were shattered and I just couldn't wait to finish.

Finally, I crossed the line in 4:10. I didn't know for ages where I had finished but when I went to the slot allocation ceremony in the evening I saw that I had in fact managed 5th. I was pretty sure that this should be okay and low and behold, they had 5 slots for my AG. So, I paid my money and that's it...Paula and I will be off to Florida in November for a short holiday and the 70.3 World Champs.

Bedford Olympic Triathlon

2009-07-23T10:12:00.004+01:00

I was going to see if I could make it all the way through this season without doing one Olympic triathlon but when Paula found out that Bedford was not full, and knowing that it is a fast course, I found myself drawn to getting my application in. The rationale was that it would probably be good to get back into the triathlon mindset after a couple of months of just trying to ride my bike...albeit, those episodes were not that successful due to a mysterious puncture phenomenon.

Anyway, Bedford, for the first time this year, was going to also be a World Championship qualifier so the field was pretty strong and full of names that I have seen on my travels before. It was nice to not have that added pressure of trying to secure a spot as well, I was just there to have a good race and have some fun.

The swim all took place on a very narrow stretch of water and whenever you set some 100 odd blokes off in one direction, there is gonna be a few bangs and bashes. For the first 100m, I was convinced that the person next to me was just trying to swim into me...who knows, he may have thought the same. I eventually found some clear water and settled into a rhythm that I thought would get me out in a decent time. I slowly made my way through some of the tiring swimmers but was annoyed that I was not able to get back in touch with a group of about 10 swimmers in front of me. Still, all in all, not bad....I was out and now it was time for 40k of pretty much flat roads.

The bike course turned out to be my dream course. I was flying past loads of F people (guys in my age group) and I was constantly looking at the Garmin to see that the average speed was creeping up nicely. It was not long before I had it over 40 and then it finally seemed to settle down a bit around the 42.5kph mark....I felt comfortable at that speed and that things were all going well.

However, at just over 30k, I heard that horrible noise which I have come to associate with me racing. The sound of a tire blowing. It was me.... I thought that I might be able to get out of this one though as I had brought some sealant that I was hopeful of just being able to spray in the tub and then ride off again. Alas, the hole was too big and the sealant just ended up all over the place and the tub remained in it's deflated state....another race down the pan I thought. However, not long after I had started walking, a mate of mine came past....he had been having a bit of a nightmare on the race with no energy in his legs. He proceeded to do the most magnanimous thing I have ever seen in a triathlon....he gave me his bike - it was almost like being a pro cyclist. Low and behold, it fitted well and he even had the right pedals on for my shoes. I was back in the race. I eventually got back to transition having lost about 6 minutes with the puncture, in 1:04. The next part was where I was most interested to see how I would perform as my 'proper' run training had only really been going on for two weeks.

Over the course of those two weeks, I had gone from about 8-10k a week of running to about 40k and a lot of that a good pace. Within the training, I had started to feel a lot lighter on the feet and I was vaguely confident that some of my running ability was coming back. It was not all there, but we were on the way. Out on the run in Bedford, I felt pretty good. A quick look at the average speed for the first lap and it was all looking good, what with the Garmin saying 15.5kph. Over the course of the next two laps, I only dropped another 0.1kph, so pretty steady running all the way round. I actually recorded my fastest ever triathlon run I think of 37:15. The problem with the Garmin though is that it lets you know why that is the case...the run was short by about 300m. Still, even if you add on that time, this is still one of my best ever runs.

So, although I punctured and came a lot further down than I had hoped, it was nice to see that I would have been right up there had I not had to stop etc. I now on my last week of hard running before I start to taper off a bit in preparation for my main triathlon for this year - Antwerp 70.3. I am hopeful of a slot for the 70.3 World Champs....but I reckon I need to knock out a 1:23 half to be in line for that.

I think I also found the cause for all the punctures thanks to Bedford. Some damage on the carbon disc wheel (I think) had been causing some small flints of the fibre to be piercing the side wall of the tire. I have done a little repair job on the wheel now, so here's hoping.

Bananaman Team Time Trial Triathlon

2009-07-15T12:19:00.005+01:00

Last Sunday, I competed in my third Bananaman triathlon for the Turbos and yet again I arrived with a sense of fear that this year's team would be the first to lose the Turbo winning streak in this event, I think we have won the event ever since it started about 6 or so years ago. You can't just do well, you have to win.

This year's run up to the event was frought with problems, what with one of the team dropping out with an injury with a couple of weeks to go and another getting very ill with only a few days to go. However, a lot of emails and organising later and we had a good team, especially for the bike section where we normally manage to kill the race off.

My main worry this year was that Andy was not the fastest of swimmers and hence we would have to try and minimise our losses in the water as much as possible. We made countless plans all aimed at pulling Andy round etc but as soon as the horn went off, it was clear that these were the best laid plan of mice and men. I could not see where Andy was, let alone Tim. Still, we were off and I was quite relaxed as I knew that there was no point in hammering out the swim. However, I soon managed to work myself into the lead of the main pack, about 3 or 4 had snuck away, but then it was me with about 100 people behind me. I thought I would just see how slow I could swim without anyone coming past me. It was quite surprising just how easy I could make it people would still just prefer to sit on the leader's feet in the draft. Anyway, I did the 800 in about 11:45, so not bad, but certainly not as quick as I can go.

It was on to the bikes now and I knew that I would be okay here. I had hardly kicked in the swim so my legs felt nice and fresh. Tim's chain slipped as we exited T2 but we were soon all back together and then it was time to get the speed up. The ride was pretty good, averaging about 40kph into the wind and 50kph on the way back. As always, it's a bit hectic on the narrow roads with lots of shouting at the other competitors as we try and avoid having a massive pile up.

The run was the section that I feared the most...basically, I was only 1 week into my proper run training in preperation for Antwerp at the start of August (I have all but packed in cycling as I concentrate on getting my run fitness up to where it needs to be). I left T2 ahead of the others as I assumed that they would catch me up quickly and then we could try and settle into a nice easy pace. We went past some Turbo supporters who told me that we were 2 minutes up on the competition. That was quite a gap, but we still needed to work hard on the run if we were going to maintain that gap. For some reason, my running just felt quite easy and relaxed. I was able to maintain the pace of our team and evn push a bit harder when Andy, the strongest runner, tried to up the speed. I had a little look at the Garmin at one point and it said we were averaging about 16kph...I thought that there must be some mistake, but when I looked at Tim's at the end, it was true, we had been knocking out 3:45-3:50km's for the 7.5km - not bad going at all, especially considering how relaxed I felt.

Anyway, we eventually stormed home with another Turbo victory (thankfully) and the final results show that we managed to beat the second team by a good 5 minutes. All in all, it was a good day in the office and most importantly, i was pleased to have not punctured for once.....although, this season would dictate that they only occur during my A races.

RTTC National TTT Championships

2009-07-07T13:46:00.001+01:00

Raced well for 50km, averaging 30mph and with 10k to go, I punctured. Another wasted journey/training/time..

Newbury RC - 25 Miles - New PB

2009-07-01T11:22:00.003+01:00

According to the race calendar for this year, last weekend was supposed see me try my first ever 50 mile TT. However, thanks to the puncture at the Nationals and the fact that I felt I didn't have a good time for this season for 25 miles, I decided to ditch the 50 and do another 25.

The start sheet released before the race looked good to me as Prebble and Golla were on there and they had both pushed me into second place at a couple of earlier TT's when I had felt that I was not riding great. I was therefore looking forward to seeing how I would go against them now that I was a bit fitter. With the problems that have plagued me in recent races, what the puncture at Crystal Palace and then the Nationals and then then I went the wrong way in a mid-week two-up this week, I was however going to be most pleased just to make it round without any mishap.

Well, things did not go totally to plan. As I stood on the start line in perfect conditions, I turned on the Garmin and the battery was flat. Now that was annoying...I use that to see how I am going against a predetermined time. I had set it up to ride just shy of 52 minutes, which I felt was achievable on the day. Now, without the Garmin and no other means of knowing how fast I was going, I would need to just ride on feel....something I had not done for a while.

The race went okay in the end, I made it round and managed to do a new PB of 53:09....unfortunately, only shaving 7 seconds off the previous PB. I think that I did miss having the feedback from the watch as my legs were not too sore when I finished and I think that, in hindsight, I perhaps could have pushed a bit harder. I eventually came 2nd (Prebble punctured) and I was 46 seconds down on Golla. The good thing to take away is that he did me for over a minute in our previous encounter, albeit, he had raced a hard 10 the day before the 25.

So, that is it for my season of 25 mile TT's. I think I have done okay this season, generally finishing on the podium in every one that I entered. The annoying thing is conditions and a puncture have conspired against me to get a time that I feel I am capable of. I have been getting coached for the past couple of months by Rich Simmonds and I know full well that my ability to generate power has increased over time, hence my times should improve. When I got to the start of the National 25, I knew at that point that I was as fit as I had been for a long time. Alas, that was not to be.

We have the National TTT on Sunday so that should be an interesting ride. We are certainly not considered to be medal contenders so it would be great to see if we can surprise some people there. Last year, when the field was not as strong, we were 4th by a few seconds. We're all stronger this season though, so here's hoping.

RTTC National 25 Mile Championships

2009-06-09T10:49:00.001+01:00

Went well for 2 miles....punctured. Walked back. What a waste....

Crystal Palace Triathlon

2009-06-01T16:16:00.006+01:00

Yesterday saw the 4th in the London League races taking place at Crystal Palace and I was hoping to put in a good show for Thames Turbo to hopefully give us a chance of getting some London League (a league of London based triathlon clubs, competing in about 8 local races) points.

I was almost the last off in the swim so I was hopeful that the field was at least not going to be littered with top class swimmers, either that, or I had put down a wrong time on my entry form. The swim was 750m (15 lengths) of the newly refurbished Crystal Palace pool and I was hoping to do about 10:30. I was sent on my way at 2:40 and I quickly managed to settle into a good pace and I found that I was catching the girl who had gone off 20s in front of me. It was not long before I caught her and throughout the rest of the swim, I managed to pass another 4 or 5 swimmers as well. I knew I was going well and was pleased to see that I had swam 10:41 (that includes getting out and running round the corner to the timing mat). Things were going well...

Out on the bike and I was quickly able to settle into a good rhythm on the technical course, which was in effect, a course of two halves. Out of transition was a short sharp hill followed by a drag and then it was pretty much all downhill for the rest of the lap.

On my 4th lap, just as I was ascending the steep hill, I heard a loud bang....initially I thought I was in the clear, but the noise of carbon on the road quickly alerted me that was in fact I who had just punctured. Thankfully, we had the foresight on this occasion to bring some spare wheels for the event. The problem with these were that they were all the way back in transition and I was about 1 mile away from transition. I quickly got off, took the cycling shoes off and embarked on my first bare foot run since being a small kid. Heaven's knows how much time I lost, it must have been a fair bit. Still, I made it back, changed the wheel and headed out for the remainder of the laps. I managed to make quite a bit of ground, but I was only really struggling to get back to where I was when I had started the bike....alas, I was determined to finish so I just battled on.

The run pretty much started directly on the steep hill....I felt like I was walking as I went up the first time, in fact, walking may have actually been quicker. Still, I made it round the first lap of the two lap run and realised that I was managing a fairly decent pace. I also realised that the run was short - my kind of race. The second lap was not as bad and I finally crossed the line in 1:05.

If you ask me, 6th and a 1:05 for half an Olympic is not too bad really, considering it was a technical course, a steep hill and the obvious amount of time it took me to change the wheel. I only actually lost the race by about 2 minutes, so who knows what would have happened.

Results are HERE

Garmin output is HERE

Eton Half Olympic

2009-05-26T14:24:00.007+01:00

Bank Holiday Saturday witnessed the first running of the Eton Half Olympic and this year it was to be the event that would decide who would hold the Sprint Race crown for 2009. I was last year's winner so I had to try my best to keep hold of the trophy, even though my run training has been pretty close to non-existent this season.

There was some tough competition for me, Tim and Andy, have both beaten me in some races of recent and I had also perhaps not prepared in the best fashion. On Friday night I was in Regent's park doing very hard 1min intervals for about an hour - hence, my legs weren't feeling too great come the morning of the race. Still, my main concern at the moment is the National 25 in a couple of weeks and I can't miss any bike sessions for anything as I lead up to it, this unfortunately means just training through this race and Crystal Palace Triathlon next week.

I had decided that the only way I was going to stand a chance in this race would be to swim quite hard so that I could at least try and make it out on to the bike in the lead. From there, I planned to race a bit harder than normal, not flat out, but a decent effort to see if I could build any form of a gap. Thankfully, my plan all came together. I led for most of the swim and managed to exit in 10:46 which is not too bad, not great though based on my training.

Still, I was in the lead though and I was out on the bike, this time riding my new Ceepo Venom which I am using as part of the Team's sponsorship. This was the first time that I had ridden the bike though so I didn't know what to expect. Although I am not as low as I would like, the frame is really sturdy. I quickly realised on the bike that I was managing to put some time in to my nearest opponent Tim - I could not see him on the few occasions I turned my head anyway.

Eventually, I heard a mate shout out that I had about 35 seconds as I headed out on to the run. I thought to myself that, going on my current fitness, that was never going to be enough. Tim is a good runner, and worse still, Andy is an amazing runner. They would all be hunting me down now. At the turn on the first lap it looked like Tim was really close. I thought I had done enough to hold of Andy, but it looked like Tim was catching fast. At the turn with 2.5k to go, I was told I had 25s. I thought to myself, I've only lost 10s in 2.5k and I am starting to feel better, I may actually do this. So, I put my head down and worked a bit harder, all the time feeling the lack of running in the legs.

Still, the last 400m were quite nice, a quick turn around and I knew I had done enough. Tim was too far back and Andy had not bridged the gap. So, that was it, I get to hold on to the Sprint trophy for another year. Paula also managed to win the ladies event, so we'll have a nice set of his and hers trophies.

L'Etape de la Defonce - Road Race

2009-05-19T13:23:00.003+01:00

At the start of this season, and in conjunction with my aim to do some more cycling this season, I got myself signed up for a 3 stage road race in Wales along with 3 other Dynamos who were going to make up our little team. The main reason for this was undoubtedly the fact, nestled in amongst the road racing, there was going to be a team time trial - how could I resist.

When we arrived, we already knew that we were going to be in for a weekend of rather unpleasant weather, there certainly wasn't much n the way of sunshine in any of the weather reports anyway. The first stage was a 45 mile, 2 lap, race around some of the local Welsh countryside. Things started off at an okay pace, but it was clear from the outset that things were not going to be as easy as we counted on. Our afternoon of scanning the riders names and typing these into the Time Trials results pages had elicited only a handful of contenders, albeit, we thought that we could beat most of them. If there was one thing that I learnt this weekend, it is this, one's ability to TT is in no way a reflection on their ability to road race. By the time we were starting the second lap, I had been run ragged, I had seen a couple of chaps fall off right next to me and I had heard about 3 people puncture...the wet, windy conditions were taking there toll on the pack.

Still, I managed to hang on to the pack all the way until the finishing straight which rose sharply and, as a result, I was spat out the back of the back with about 500m to go. I lost about 15 seconds on the pack and hence I was going into the TTT quite far down the field. Still, my time to shine was only a couple of hours away. Also, as an added bonus, we had a team member in the breakaway for the day and he was now in second place. A good TTT and we could have the yellow jersey overnight.

GARMIN OUTPUT: STAGE 1

We had reccied the TTT course the night before so I knew that it was going to be a tough 9.5 miles of racing.. The course was either up or down - not great for me, but still, was looking forward to it. As soon as we started, I knew that I was going to have a good ride. My legs actually did not feel that bad from the morning's efforts so it was just gonna be a case of hammering it out as hard as you can for 20 odd minutes. I think that I may have been feeling a bit better than the rest of the team during this one as well, on a couple of occasions, I had to slow down to let them get back in the slipstream and I also tried my best to make use of my bigger gearing to get us down the hills quicker. I was feeling good though so just tired to maintain as high a pace as possible without causing the group to split. The last hill up to the finish was quite brutal, but it seemed a lot better compared to the morning's efforts. We crossed the line in 21:54 and managed to beat the next best team by over 40 seconds. We had managed to secure the yellow jersey and we also now had a 1,2 and 3 in the general classification going into the last stage.....we quite literally had it all to lose.

GARMIN OUTPUT STAGE 1A

Over the course of the last stage, we did in fact do just that...we all lost positions on our 1,2,3, we lost the yellow jersey and we lost a place on the team GC. The second road stage was hilly, for me anyway. I had decided to be near the front at the bottom of the first climb but even this was not enough to get me to the top and still be in the main bunch. I had dropped off the back and then the second little rise after that ensured that I was not going to get back on without some really hard work. Thankfully, a few others who had been dropped joined up and we set about trying to get back on. I did most of the work and we did get close, but another push by the pack on one of the hills and they were out of sight, never to be seen again. The next 20 miles were hard work, generally riding on my own and feeling pretty miserable about having lost the pack. All of my efforts to get back on really came to the fore in the last 3 or so miles as I quite literally had nothing left to give, quite appropriately, it had started to chuck it down as well....the stage was set for a miserable finish. I had dropped 8 minutes on the pack and I had gone from 3rd to 39th in one day.

GARMIN OUTPUT: STAGE 2

Still, looking back now, it was a great weekend. I think I have realised that I am better off sticking to the dual carriageways for now though. Maybe I'll spend some time in the winter trying to learn how to ride up hills. As a team we did win quite a lot of money anyway, Martin finished second overall, we had 4th with James. We won the TTT so had winnings for that and our second place in the team prize just increased the prize purse even more.

Primo Squadra - 25miles - 48:43

2009-05-12T15:09:00.003+01:00

When I woke up on Sunday, I could not believe my luck...it actually looked like I was going to get to do a time trial in good conditions after all. The sun was out and the there was no wind, about as good as it gets really. Today was going to be a team time trial though and the other two members of the team had shown that they were on form - we all guessed it was going to be a fast ride, we just didn't quite guess how fast it would be.

Before we got there, we had all made a mental note of the course record. This stood at 49:33 and although this was recorded as a solo effort, it was always a worthy challenge. Basically, in the world of time trialling, there are very few opportunities to break 50 minutes so this only served to increase our anticipation, especially after we drove round the course and we realised that this was my dream course, pretty flat with loads of dual carriageway.

Before we started it was decided to not go out too hard, we wanted to save ourselves a bit for the last 10 miles where we thought that a lot of teams would lose some time. The plan worked well and I started out feeling comfortable. We were on the dual carriageway in no time and then started to get more organised and working hard to keep the train moving as fast as possible. Both Paul and I had set our Garmins up with a virtual partner doing a 50 minute ride and we knew from early on that we were up on that. At about half way, we were on level terms with the course record but we still had a drag up to the turn but then a good 6 miles of 35-40mph to take us to the finish. When we started the downhill section, we were up and then the time just kept on growing and growing....we knew by this point that we were going under 49 and that the course record was gonna be smashed.

We eventually crossed the line with a 48:43. I think that works out as just shy of 31mph!!.

When we rolled back into the HQ, the time had already been posted on the board and it was cool to have people coming to you to congratulate you on the ride. We had beaten some very stiff competition, and beaten them by a fair margin as well. The second place team came in over a minute down on us...that doesn't sound like much, but that's more than half a mile at these speeds.

Garmin Output is HERE

Thames Turbo Sprint - Race 2

2009-05-06T10:19:00.004+01:00

The Thames Turbo sprint race was going to make up my double header weekend with the TT on the Sunday and then this race on the Bank Holiday Monday. I wanted to do well here, but I knew that there was going to be some damage to the legs from yesterday's efforts. Still, this is only ever an hour of hard work, so I was hopeful of being able to sneak through it and get a good time.

My swimming is certainly improving with the number of sessions that I am doing with Camden Swiss Cottage Masters as I feel a lot more comfortable in the water now and a lot more powerful when I want to be. Still, in saying that, I was still dropped by about 10s from the person that went off in front of me and was being caught from behind. Still, I was not that bothered though, as long as I don't get caught really....that's the main aim.

I did actually record one of my fastest ever swim splits even though, I suppose I was helped with where my bike was racked on this occasion. Still, it was all going to plan when I got out on the bike. The conditions were perfect for riding and I quickly settled down in to what I thought was a good pace....I chose not to wear a watch at this race though, so had no idea of my speed etc.....perhaps a bit of a mistake actually as I probably should have been going a bit quicker. Still, the bike went okay and I managed to catch the guys who had all started the swim before me and one of my main competitors had not caught me from behind - things seemed to be going okay.

The run was not great, in fact, I think that it is one of my slowest ever times. Without the watch and with the lack of recent run training, I suppose I had lost the feel for how fast I should be running. In the end, I did a 20:16 run when my best is a sub 19 last season.

In the end, my time of 59:05 was enough to secure me second place (again for the weekend), so pretty good really. The race is always good fun anyway. They even shot a short video on the day which will be used at a later stage for the club.

West London CA '25' - H25/2

2009-05-06T10:04:00.002+01:00

The West London CA 25 had been built up in my mind as 'the race' where I was going to smash my PB for 25 miles. I had mapped the course out on the web and discovered that the first 2 miles were downhill and that the rest was pretty flat - what more could a time trial rider wish for - it was a, in effect a 'ski-slope' course.

When I eventually got to the race, it was quickly very evident that the weather wasn't getting better, in fact, it seemed to be getting colder and windier as I hung around the start area setting the bike up etc. I was not overly bothered by the cold, but the wind was certainly something I did not want today. The weather report had said that it would be picking up and it certainly was doing that.

My start time eventually rolled round and I was off...quickly up to about 45mph as I flew down the 'ski-slope' start. It was only when I got to the bottom that I realised that today was not in fact going to be a great day. My legs had this weird fatigue which I didn't really understand. I can only now put it down to the fact that perhaps I did not recover properly after Lisbon. I had also done two hard rides during the week and then a long run and I think that the combined effect was that my legs were not going to be as helpful as I had hoped in terms of breaking through the 53 minute barrier.

In the end, I never really felt great for most of the course. I was going okay, don't get me wrong, it was just not one of those days where I was going to be able to really hammer out a good time. The wind was just never really anywhere, just felt like a crosswind the whole way.

Still, all excuses really....at the end of the day, it was not that bad a ride. I finished second behind a very respectable rider and even beat a local legend...albeit, I am not sure how much training he is doing etc.

Results are HERE

Garmin Output is HERE

Lisboa International Triathlon

2009-04-28T10:34:00.007+01:00

After last year's failed attempt at middle distance with my double blowout on the backroads of Rutland, Lisbon was to be my first attempt at making it round the distance and seeing if this suited me better than Olympic distance racing. On paper, it should as the cycling component takes up a greater percentage of the total time and it also has the added benefit of not needing to be able to run at lightning speed to get anywhere near the front - albeit, that does help of couse. I had actually raced a lot of the course last year whilst competing in the Europeans, so I knew that the course was pretty fast, plus, the closed freeway on the bike is a rare treat in the triathlon arena.

Before I started, I had all these big ideas about how I should be in with a shout for the bike prime of €250 but in reality, I had no idea how I would feel in the race - a lot of me just wanted to get round in a respectable fashion. When the claxon sounded and we all headed off, it was definitely a much more relaxed environment, either that, or my swim start position was too far out. I basically cruised to the first buoy with hardly any contact and then just decided to keep pushing at about the same pace for the rest of the race. I felt strong all the way round in the swim, I should probably kick some more in the wetsuit, but I suppose there is always the trade-off with tiring the legs. In the end, I exited the water feeling really fresh and I was pleased to see that I had swam about 26:30, so that was roughly where I wanted to be, I certainly did not feel tired anyway and I was ready for the bike.

The bike course had been extended by about 5km this year so that we were now going to ride pretty much the correct distance. Out on the bike though, I very quickly decided that I was not going to go hell for leather and try and catch as many of the pros as possible. By just cruising along, I had caught a fair few of them and made up a good few places but it was not long before I was pretty much maintaining my position within the field. I could see at the turn points that the pros were not exactly putting much time into me, so I just decided to stay steady for the rest of the ride.

Thankfully, I found that averaging just under 40kph (it was a pretty windy day) was not hard really and my Garmin shows that I maintained about 15bpm lower than I would if that had just been a bike ride. I did however take a tumble on one of the roundabouts going out of Oriente. For some reason, it was the only wet place on the course and I am not sure how it happened, but before I knew it, I was on the deck, sliding across the floor. A scar on the shin, ankle and bum - but, at least the bike seemed okay and I was able to get back on and continue with the race.

The main reason behind the energy conservation strategy was that I did not want to make a fool of myself on the run. My running has been no where near as structured and regular as I would have liked recently, largely because I have been focusing on the bike. My last run of more than 12k was when I did Milton Keynes Half - so a long time ago and hence running a half off the bike was not going to be too much fun. I had decided to try and get to 15kph as quickly as possible and then try and maintain that for as long as possible.

In the end, I managed to hold it for about 10k and then I definitely started to slow down quite a bit as my lack of running took hold of the legs. Still, the 4 lap layout of the run helped a lot as it was easy to break the race up into manageable chunks. In the end, I managed to go under 1:25 for the run, albeit, it was about 800m short - so, about a 1:30 half I think.

Finally, some 4:13:47 after starting off, the race was over. I had managed to complete my first middle distance race and, all in all, I was pretty pleased with how it had gone. I finished 16th overall and of those that were in front of me, 12 of them did triathlon as their full time jobs - well, they were entered as pros anyway. So, I was 4th of the Age Groupers so not a bad out at all. The next middle distance race is Antwerp in August. I am planning to concentrate pretty much entirely on my running for about a month before then though as I really need to make some big improvements if I plan to race well there. Thankfully, the National 25 and Team Time Trial will be out of the way by then.

Garmin Output is HERE

Dragonslayer Duathlon 2009

2009-04-22T12:47:00.002+01:00

Even on the way to this race, I knew that today was not going to be a good day in terms of racing. My legs were not feeling that good after yesterday's TT effort and the thought of doing a very hard duathlon course just didn't really fill me with anticipation.

I arrived and quickly had a little spin around the Redbrige bike track which was going to be the scene for the 20 laps for the 40km bike section. Quickly realised that a road bike would not be the best choice (what I had) even though the course was both technical and hilly in places. There was still enough places to get aero and really get an advantage that would come from the TT bike. The run was more akin to a BMX track as well with sharp switch backs and some very steep hills in places....so, in summary, not really a race for me.

The first run was a nightmare from the moment I realised that the legs were not playing ball (about 1km in). The bike was a bit boring really, just round and round. The second run was very slow indeed. In the end I finished up 12th and can only really rate my performance as good domestique for the rest of the Turbos who did well to get second place for us in the London League for this one. I would have been more than willing to hand over a wheel to get me out of there to be honest. In the end, I got home in 2:06:47, more than 10 minutes off the pace.

Results are HERE

Farnborough & Camberley '25' - New PB

2009-04-22T12:45:00.000+01:00

I had been looking forward to this TT ever since I had my first outing a couple of weeks ago. I knew that the course was good and I was pleased with some of the training I had done recently and how I was feeling on the bike. My previous best time on this course was a 55:10, but I managed to get that with a back tire which was slowly going down as I went round the course - it was flat by the time I got back to HQ on that day. Alas, I was hoping to make it round without as much excitement this time.

On the day, we had a slight wind which meant that things were not going to be complete plain sailing as the wind was a headwind on the way back to the finish. So, in light of this, I decided to take it a tiny bit easier in the first 30k so that I would have enough in the tank to be able to get me home and not lose too much time. I had set my Garmin's Virtual Partner up so that if I could beat it, I would break my PB of 53:17 for 25 miles. By the time I got to the roundabout before the last drag up to the finish, I was just under a minute up on that time...at this time, I was just hopeful of a sub 53 ride but as I crept up the dual carriageway, the lead was narrowing all the time as I struggled to remain above 45kph.

In the end, I crossed the line with a time of 53:16, so a new PB, but only by one second! Still, a PB is a PB and given the conditions, I am more than happy with it. I also managed to beat some very respectable names in the world of Time Trialling and was only 1 minute off the winner (I was 2nd) and he is a bit of a legend in TT circles.

Thames Turbo Sprint - Race 1

2009-04-14T11:56:00.005+01:00

This weekend also saw the start of the tri season for me with the Thames Turbo sprint race...the exact race where I started my triathlon career some 3 years ago.

I was initially quite worried about where I had been seeded in the start order as I knew that the person behind me was firing on all cylinders and would be hard to keep at bay for the 15s gap that I would have as we started the pool swim. Alas, this ended up being the first time that I have ever caught someone in the pool and I even managed to keep Mark at bay, albeit, he definitely put some time into me over swim.

Transition went okay, although it is fair to say that this could have been a bit faster. I suppose a lot of this is just practice though and with this being the first of the season, it's better to take a bit longer and get it right. I decided to put my cycling shoes on in T1 for this one as I am sure that the loss in time is easily recovered as you head out on the bike. Instead of spending the first few hundred metres sorting the shoes out, I can get straight on with the racing.

It wasn't to be my day though....I jumped on the bike and instantly felt that something was not quite right with the bike. It just seemed to be going pretty slow and I knew that something more serious was wrong. I eventually looked down to see that the front tub was flat.....this was not to be my day.

A quick dash back to the pool and before I knew it, I was heading out on a friend's commuting bike, complete with mudguards and pedals which did not have the same fittings as my shoes. On top of that, the bike was about 2 sizes too small....so was more akin to riding a BMX or something. Still, I tried to make the most of it and even tried to keep pace with a couple of people on proper TT bikes, albeit, that was hard work without having my shoes clipped in etc.

I eventually made it round the course though and headed back to T2 and out on to the run. I figured I may as well complete the course anyway. The run went okay, but not really being in the thick of the competition probably lowered my willingness to hurt myself properly.

Ended up 35th with a 1:04:26 which is slower than my first ever attempt I think. Still, not too bad considering that this includes the time taken to swap the bikes and then doing the ride on a commuter.

Salford Harriers 10k

2009-04-14T11:46:00.003+01:00

Well, I don't think that I have ever stood at a start line of such accomplished runners in my sporting career as I did at this one. From what I can now tell, this race is a big race in the North West. The record for the course is an astounding 29:33 and there were a few people at the start who were all talking about the low 30's. Still, there seemed to be a good number of runners there so I was hopeful of not making a fool of myself.

The pace at the start of the race seemed high, but I decided not to look at the watch for a while to see how things went. I quickly went through 1, 2 and then 3k and then I decided to have a look at the watch....woops, I had averaged 3:30/km for the last 3k. I knew full well that this would not bode well for the remainder of the race. From that point on, I really struggled to maintain any kind of real pace and every look at the watch confirmed that things were slowing down.

Still, I managed to eventually find a decent couple of runners to sit in with and kind of stayed with them for the last 5k. The course had been described as 'flat', but I now know that this means 'northern flat' i.e., what people like me call undulating. Not exaclty big hills, but gradual rises and drops all the way round.

Eventually crossed the line in 36:57, so not that bad really as that is my second fastest 10k ever. Plus, based on my current amount of running, I am pretty pleased.

Strangely enough, as soon as I finished and the day after, I had no pain at all in the legs - very strange.

Redmon CC - First 25 of 2009

2009-04-08T10:22:00.004+01:00

On Sunday, the Time Trialling season finally got underway for me with a 25 mile event that I have competed in for the past couple of years - the Redmon CC 25.

I was quite hopeful that I was fitter this year than I had been on previously, I suppose the problem was just knowing how much fitter I was. I have been doing more turbo work this winter and I certainly think that has helped but this would be the first real test of my fitness. My main aim was to beat my times from the previous two years which had been around the 55:30 mark. Secretly, I wanted to do a 53 something on this course as that would be just about the best I could hope for on this course - it is not the fastest course that I am going to race on this season, in fact, it is probably the slowest.

Anyway, after a mad panic at the start because I could not pump the front wheel up (valve extenders and stuck valves etc) I finally managed to get to the start line in time for my off. I started hard as I wanted to quickly get up to speed but in doing this, I think I pushed a bit too hard as I felt slightly lethargic straight away. Not sure if it was because I had not warmed up enough, or what really. Anyway, I decided to just try and settle down and start concentrating on keeping the speed as high as possible.

After about 5 miles, I was feeling a lot better and was now in to a good rhythm. The undulating section on the back part of the course was quite fast, albeit interspersed with a few short hills etc. Still, I was going well when I hit the dual carriageway for the last 10 or so miles. It was on here though that I really started to lose some of the speed that I had banked. There are a couple of drags and I wasn't as strong as I had hoped on these, although, I was going well as soon as I hit the flats or downhills again.

In the end, I rolled over the line in 54:31 which is 1:17 quicker than last year in what are probably quite comparable conditions. So, this bodes well for the rest of the season I think.

Results are HERE

Garmin output is HERE

I now have a 10k running race on Friday and then it's back to Hampton Pool on Bank Holiday Monday for the first triathlon of the season for Thames Turbo. I should be on my new bike for that one - as part of the Thames Turbo Race Team I am going to be riding a Ceepo Venom for a lot of my races this season. Just hoping that it is fast....

Surrey League Road Race

2009-03-29T17:57:00.005+01:00

I think that the last time I took part in a road race, I was probably in the Under 13 category when I used to race in South Africa. Back then, it was about 20 of us on easy to race on roads in the sunshine. Yesterday saw my return to road racing, but this time it was with 70 other pretty hard cyclists on narrow Surrey roads with any number of possible crash causing dangers. The weather report had mentioned that we may be in for some sleet and hail so I got my layers on and headed out for the 60 mile course comprising 9 laps of an undulating course.

The pace at the start was not too bad and after about 2 laps, I thought that things were a bit too sedentary so I slowly (that being the operating word, as it does take a long time) to move to the front of the pack. Once there, I pushed hard out of a corner and then up over a few hills with the hope of breaking up the group a bit. Alas, this did not work and only served to be the opening salvo in the race. From this point on, the pace was erratic, going from flat out to quite slow in a constant yo-yo fashion. This up and down really was not my game though and I was suffering. Some of the other London Dynamos asked if I wanted to be taken to the front at one point to try and help bring a break back in, or perhaps make a move off the front. My legs did not feel too clever though so I rested in the group for a bit longer.

With about two laps to go, the London Dynamo boys started to work a bit harder to bring the break back in - they had managed to get about 90s up the road so it was time for some hard work. I did a couple of stints at the front to narrow the gap and I we started to catch them up. In the end though, it was not enough as they managed to cross the line some 20s before the rest of the pack came across the line with me at the back - I was pretty whacked.

The 60 miles took us less than 2:30 though, averaging close to 25mph for the ride. Still, it was good fun though and I would love to do some more in the future. I have 2 day race in May, so that will be my next chance for some more road racing.

Functional Threshold Power Test 1

2009-03-19T20:38:00.003Z

This is more for me, but it may be of interest to others. I did my first FTP test this evening which basically means using the turbo trainer to knock out a 20min effort and see how many watts you can put out over that period. This value can then be used to produce more sophisticated training schedules to improve my TT'ing ability. I would imagine that I may try do one of these a month now leading up to all my major TT's in the summer.

So, here goes:

Bike: Cervelo Soloist
Turbo: Tacx Flow
Calibration: +3
Slope: +2
Tyre Pressure: 100PSI

POWER: 436W
HR Ave: 170bpm
HR Max: 178bpm

In hindsight, I think I started off a bit too hard as I was defnitely getting weaker past the 10 minute mark. Plus, I had cycled pretty hard on the way back to Walton last night - doing some hard efforts on the good sections of the road - did not really feel that in the legs too much though.

Maidenhead CC Hilly 30 - Races 1, Wins 1

2009-03-17T19:21:00.004Z

Last Sunday I finally got my cycling season underway with a hilly 30 mile TT in Marlow. I had entered the 2up category with my mate from London Dynamo and although we only had one other team to beat, they were a team with form so it was not going to be a walk in the park - plus, I personally wanted to beat all the riders who were doing the course on their own.

As soon as I got there, I realised just how much I had missed being on the TT bike, it is just so much faster than the normal road bike and it felt good to be back. After our little warm up, we were off for the 30 miles of tearing it up round the lanes of Henley and Marlow. I realised from the start that my training over the winter had paid off in that I felt really strong and things were definitely going as I had wanted. I found that I was able to work the hills a lot better, perhaps due to some of the weight loss.

Anyway, we both knew that the worst part of the course was all going to come in the last 5 miles. Basically, the course was undulating for about 25 miles and then from the turn in Marlow it was one long old drag back to the finish, not to mention the really steep section that took you to the actual finish line. We managed to get to the bottom of the hill with an average speed of 45kph. In the back of my mind I had wanted to break the course record of 1.07 which had been set by a really good time triallist. I thought we were going to make it, but the last climb just seemed to go on and on. Still, I was still feeling good though and managed to drag myself up there staying on the big chainring, in fact, I even managed to keep it in the big gear on the last section.

We eventually crossed the line about 1 minute off the course record. I like to think that we could have been a lot closer or even beaten it if we had not been held up by horse trailer and some other erratic driving which is pretty annoying when you are only trying to go fast. Having had a look at the Garmin we covered several miles at over 30mph and on the way into Henley we averaged almost 50mph for 1 mile - pretty scary on the extensions and a bumpy road.

So, at end of the day, we managed 1:08:45 for the 30 miles and that did give us the win over the other team, by about 4 minutes and we also had the fastest time of the day. So, job done really! For me, the best thing is that I know that I am on my way to being in good form for this season. I still have a fair amount of work to do on the turbo but things are certainly looking good.

My next race is a 10 mile TT where I am hoping to get a time which will allow me to qualify for the National 10 Mile Champs.

Results are here: RESULTS

Milton Keynes Half Marathon

2009-03-09T09:22:00.003Z

Way back in 2006, it was at the MIlton Keynes Half that I first managed to break 90 minutes for the half marathon distance. Yesterday was three years down the line though and things have moved on a bit. I had set myself an ambitious target of 1:20:30 which was perhaps slightly out of reach, but you never know, the right weather etc and it could have been possible. When I woke up yesterday I had a sneaky suspicion that the 80 minute run was not on though as I could hear the wind from inside the house. I just hoped it would die down a bit before we started.

We finally made it to the start line with about one minute to spare thanks to a massive tailback and a little detour to get to the start line - perhaps not the best prep, but the run from the car to the line was at least something. We set off and I instantly thought to myself that I was actually feeling quite good, I still have a bit of a cough, but I was able to manage that okay. I missed the first couple of mile boards and then saw the first 5k board and realised that I must be a bit up on schedule as I went through that in 17:30 - woops. I kind of knew now that I had started a bit hard and that I would just need to try and slow down a bit, get into a good rhythm and see how things went. My pace was good though, going through the 4, 5 and 6 mile markers ahead of schedule and then going through 10k in 36:45 and I was through half way in 39:00....there was no way I was going to be doing a 1:18 though!

It was about at 8 miles though that things started to go wrong. I think that either my running shoes are worn out or the socks I had on were not the best, but at this point, my feet were getting so painful as I could feel a blister starting to form. The pain got too much though and I definitely started to slow down, I even thought about just jogging round the rest as I just could not really land on the ball of my foot. At mile 9 I stopped and decided to just take the socks off and see if this made any difference. It still hurt, but it was certainly better. The only problem now was that we were now on a very exposed piece of road and it would be hard to describe just how hard it was running into the gusting wind. It was like running in water it was so hard to move forward. My mile splits for the 3 miles or so that were in to the wind were about 30 seconds slower than they had been and they finally meant, along with the sock removal, that I was now behind schedule.

I ploughed on though and eventually regained some speed in the last mile or so and managed to put in some 6:20'ish miles to eventually bring me home in 1:22:32. Not that bad I suppose but i am slightly annoyed with the shoe incident...it would have been a much better indicator of my fitness if I had been able to run properly all the way. Still, I shouldn't complain, doing a 1:21:45 (my Garmin time which removed the sock change) when I am not doing anywhere near as much running as last year is not that bad I suppose. I had also been out on the bike on Saturday and done a 1:08 for 25 miles which included a fair bit of stopping and starting round Regent's Park with what seemed like a constant headwind.

Next weekend the real racing starts when I have a two up team time trial where me and my mate are going to be tearing round Henley on our TT bikes - I just can't wait.

My New Cervelo

2009-03-05T09:28:00.001Z

Recently, I had been spending a large amount of time trying to decide whether or not I wanted or in fact 'needed' a new racing bike and what sort of bike I should get bearing in mind the limitations on finance and space. For ages I had been thinking that the Boardman Team bike would be a good bet as it was such a good deal for £1000. However, as part of my extensive and time consuming trawling of the internet looking at the various options, I stumbled upon the Royles page and I suddenly found exactly the right thing. They had a Cervelo Team Soloist with full Ultegra groupset for not much more than the Boardman. My TT bike is a Cervelo and I am massively impressed with that and I could not find one bad review for the Soloist. So, it arrived yesterday and I have already done my first ride...it is quite amazing how different it feels to the heavy battered and bruised Ribble which has now been sold. That was part of the plan...I am actually decreasing the number of bikes that I own as the Ribble has already sold and I'll be selling the Langster once I have got it all sorted out.

So...here she is..

This is last year's model of the Soloist (hence the £700 reduction on the price tag) and perhaps the last one they will make as it has now been replaced with the S1.

Radcliffe 12 XC Race

2009-02-17T11:09:00.003Z

Last weekend Paula and I were back in Manchester and again took the opportunity to have a go at a local running race held right near Paula's house. We both ran in this race last year and were slightly taken aback at just how tough the course was. I previously I went off way too hard and actually led the race for about the first 2 miles but then ended up finishing down in 22nd position, mainly thanks to the horrors that awaited us in the final few miles.

This year was obviously going to be a slightly more precarious affair as it had been raining and that, along with the fact that I had forgotten my XC shoes, meant that I was in for a slippy ride on my racing flats. This time I set the Garmin up so that my virtual partner would just beat my time from last year - albeit, I did not think that I would be able to as, this time last year, I had just run a 1:19 half. Anyway, we all set off and I had my first look at my watch after about 3 miles, only to find that I was averaging 6 minute miles, I was going way too fast for this stage of the race. Still, I figured I would ease off a tiny bit and try and save myself for later. This worked to some extent and I was also joined by another 3 runners after sliding through one of the more muddy patches - my shoes were offering zero grip on some stages. Still, once we crossed the river and headed back for the last 8 miles, I knew that this was where the fun started. Basically, the course just weaves through forest, along single track paths scattered with rocks and puddles and up and down some of the most nasty hills....as in, there are steps as that is the only way to get up. The wet ground also made some of the downhill stages of the run a bit more interesting, with some of the more experienced fell runners going down at very quick speeds leaving me to play catch up on the flatter sections. My racing flats occasionally came in to their own though as we had brief interruptions from the roller coaster with some nice tarmac.

Here is the profile for the course....I almost feel it does not do it justice though, I think it is worse than this.

This year I actually did feel pretty strong for most of the run and I would only really say that it was in the last mile or so that I started to really fatigue, perhaps from not having any gels etc. According to the Garmin, I was only a couple of seconds behind last year's time when I eventually crossed the line. The harder finish this year made me think that I had actually had a better run. My watch recorded the run as 1:20:38 and the result in the clubhuose when I got there seemed to confirm this but the results which were later put up online seem to have added a few minutes to everyone's time - even the winner was down as a 1:11 in the clubhouse. So, not sure what happened there. Either way, I am happy. If it was really 1:23 then I was slower by the same amount as some of the other top runners. If it was 1:20 - well, that's even better.

I like to think that this is confirmation that the running is back on track. I am perhaps not doing as much as I should at the moment, but my swimming improvements and cycling workouts are getting better - to be giving all 3 disciplines as much attention as I would like is always going to be hard to achieve.

RESULTS

London Dynamo/CycleFit Racing Squad

2009-02-12T10:02:00.001Z

Last night the London Dynamo/CycleFit squad had some photos taken to launch the team for the 2009 season. There is a write up and photos on the London Cycle Sport website:

Write up and pictures

The 2009 Season

2009-01-27T09:42:00.003Z

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted anything on here, so perhaps it is best to give a bit of an update as to what I am hoping to do in the 2009 season. First of all, I suppose it is best to start from where I left off with the Kingston run. That run, although successful in terms of keeping a steady pace was not really where I had hoped to be at that stage but the pressures of work had seen collapse in the amount of training I was doing and I was pretty much just running on retained fitness from before I started the job. For some time after that things continued in pretty much the same vain, little training and lots of work, and then the holidays came round and I decided to take it a bit easier, mainly in the hope of avoiding any real illness and then, low and behold, just before new year, I was taken down with the flu for over a week.

I finally restarted my training again at the start of January, coming back with a 42:45 for a 10k in one of the Regent's Park series...albeit, this was the first day I had felt better since the flu. It was during this race though that I realised just how overweight I had become and also, how unfit I had become since the end of last season. This was the exact kick up the backside that I needed however and since then I have been training hard and losing weight. In a way, it is quite interesting to start again after having a proper break - something I have never really done.

I am actually enjoying pretty much all my sports again as I am seeing a real gain in fitness almost day by day. I am slowly but surely regaining my love for the treadmill, albeit, I think I am a couple of months away from my 10 mile sub 60 minute runs on them. The swimming at Camden Masters is starting to improve with each session and I am actually starting to feel good in the pool again. The watts on the bike are almost back to where I was just before the holidays and I know where I was what sort of watts I need to hold on my main sesssion to be as fit as I was when I did the 53:17 last year and I am confident that I will be able to get above that this season, based on my current progress anyway.

The cycling is actually a lot more important this season as well as I am going to focus on TT's primarily but also doing some triathlons. Although I am doing less triathlons compared to last season, my focus this season is going to be a 70.3 Half Ironman race towards the end of the season in Antwerp - this will be my second middle distance race of the season (doing Lisboa early on) and who knows, I may even do well enough to get a slot for Clearwater. My other 'A' races are all TT's as I'm gonna try and put in a decent show at the National 10, 25 and the Team Time Trial races. You should be able to see from the table below, this will mean staying at the top of my game for about 2 months which I think should be okay, well, I think it is better than doing what I normally do whereby I try and stay as fit as possible for the entire season. I am starting to think that there may be something to this whole 'peaking' business.

Kingston 16 Mile

2008-11-02T11:08:00.002Z

The Kingston 16 mile running was meant to form part of my three weeks of increasingly long runs, with a half mara (run to the beat), Kingston and then I was going to do a marathon the weekend after......not the wisest of moves in terms of running, but I was keen to see if it could be done.

At the Kingston run I set a more realistic pace on the Garmin and this time, I decided to stick to it, especially at the start of the race when the pace felt really easy....I knew that this would do me well come the latter stages of the race. In the end, I managed to run 15 of the 16 miles at exactly the pace I wanted to. I did slow down on the last mile, but I was pleased that I had kept it together for so long, thanks largely to some other runner who ran with me for about 10 miles.

Came home in 1:45, which although not exactly one of my faster runs, I was happy with, especially based on the amount of run training I am doing. The marathon the week after did not go to plan....achilles was sore from the start for some reason I pulled out at mile 6. I was not going to make another 20 without doing some serious damage.

Run to the Beat

2008-10-12T19:13:00.004+01:00

...or perhaps a more appropriate title may have been "run in silence" or even just "run in the rain", both would have been more in keeping with the first running of this event this year. We had been promised a host of bands playing at every mile around this, otherwise uninteresting, course around Greenwich area of London. On the day, there were hardly any bands playing, the rain just came down hard and the pan flat course ended up being a hilly one. With my training run total standing at a hefty 0km since the Bristol Half, I was quite aware that this was not going to be the best of races.

Still, ever the optimist, I set the Garmin up to run the same speed as the Bristol, hence getting me in in about 82 minutes. I think that on this occasion, I managed to stay with my virtual buddy for about 5 miles, but some harsh hills and sore legs soon meant that he was running off into the distance. I had started way too fast on this one and I was paying the price. From about mile 6 to the end, it was just a miserable time. The rain and wind showed no signs of letting up and my legs just felt increasingly painful.

In the end, I managed to get home in 1:26 which is a whole 7 minutes slower than my best time. Running certainly always has the ability to make you realise that you can't just come along and pull good results out of the bag. You need to do the training and, for these longer races, you need those miles in your legs. The job should be settling down soon and then I hope to be back on the training regime again...to be fair, I was in work until 2:30 on the morning of this race. I have the Kingston 16 mile race next week...that will be my longest run and I don't think I am even going to get one training run in between now and then.

Bristol Half Marathon

2008-09-27T19:19:00.005+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I made my return to Bristol for the half marathon, a race that has now become the 2nd biggest half in the UK with some 16,000 entrants. The last time that I ran this race, I was fit but got injured on the course and ended up coming home a bit later than I had hoped, so I suppose you could say, I had some unfinished business on this course. The course is designed for a good time, especially with the new finish layout that involved going round the centre of Bristol with good crowd support - exactly the time that you need to have some support.

I had decided to make use of the Garmin GPS watch on this occasion and to set up the training partner feature and then try and run with the watch for the whole race. The watch had me set on a 1:20:30 pace, which, if I am totally honest, was extremely optimistic giving my current run fitness. Anyway, the watch and I started out well and we were ahead of schedule for a long time, at 10k we were about 40s up on the scheduled time, but there was no denying that I was starting to fade. Over the next 11k that 40s second advantage slowly eroded, to be honest, it very quickly eroded when my legs were giving up. Before I knew it, I was behind my pacemaker and he was 'virtually' running off into the distance.

At the end of the day, I came across the line (in agony) in 1:22:40 which sounds like a disaster compared to my target time. However, in all honesty, I was actually pretty pleased. I had not exactly done a whole lot of half training and my recent training for the Vitruvian was all just based on being able to run at a steady speed, rather than actually at speed. It is however almost 3 minutes slower than my PB which I set earlier this year....albeit, that race and that course could not have been more perfect on that day.

So, the winter campaign of learning to run again will start soon. The new job is proving to be a complete hindrance at the moment though and I am just not getting into any kind of decent training programme. Things should settle down soon though and I think I should be okay in the end.

Vitruvian - First Middle Distance

2008-09-27T19:17:00.001+01:00

Swam well, cycled 35k well, punctured....twice. Gave up.

Thames Turbo Race 4

2008-09-02T16:37:00.003+01:00

As with all Bank Holidays, I was yet again involved in another of the Thames Turbo sprint races. This was the last of the 2008 season and I felt confident that all I needed to do was to get round to secure myself a good placing in the overall series.

Things did not start off too well however, I was losing pace on the chap in front of me in the pool and was even eventually caught by the guy behind me. I am pretty sure that I was not swimming that slow on this occasion, it appears that I just happened to get sandwiched between a couple of faster people.

Out on the bike I was fully aware that there was going to be little to no chance of finally going under 30 minutes for the 21k ride. This time we had some roadworks on the course which meant that, on this occasion, we would need to get off our bikes and run around the works - running on a bike leg is not the most conducive to producing fast times. Anyway, today was not to be my day anyway, after about 5k of the ride I was sure that the back tire had totally deflated as I suddenly felt like I was a lot closer to the ground. I thought that the race was over so I slowed down, got off the bike and checked the tire. It was only then that I realised that it was in fact my saddle which had slipped a few inches. I quickly realised that I would still be able to ride, so jumped on and headed back off....I initially assumed I would need to stand for the rest of the ride, but gently returned to the seat and managed to ride the rest of the race in the BMX position with my knees almost touching my elbows on every revolution...not really the best position for riding anyway.

Out on the run I was most keen on just laying the demons of the London Triathlon to rest by actually having a decent run. I knew that I was not going to be super fast as I had done hardly any speed work, what with my first half Ironman this weekend, but I hoped to at least run consistently and faster than I had at London. I ended up feeling good all the way round and I even think that I started to speed up towards the end. In the end, the run time was the second fastest that I have done on that course but my overall time was only enough to secure me 4th place in the race. That was my lowest finishing position this year, but I would like to think that it was not that bad considering the time that I lost on the bike leg. It was enough to secure 2nd place in the Series so that was good.

London Triathlon 2008

2008-08-18T15:09:00.004+01:00

I am not going to deny that the London Triathlon was one of the big races on calendar for this year, I had done the best training that I could manage in the time after my crash and I was kind of fit. I was not kidding myself though, I knew that I was not as fit as I could have been. The four weeks off from running had really taken their toll and getting back into the running had been slow and painful. The swimming and cycling were still going well at least, I just hoped that I would be able to blag the run I think.

Anyway, come race day and things got off to a good start. I had decided to move further across the dock at the start to avoid the melee as some 240 people headed off in the sub-230 race and this seemed to pay dividends. There was nowhere near as big commotion as the race kicked off and I quickly settled into my race plan of not starting off too hard, preferring rather to concentrate on quickly getting into a good efficient stroke. This all worked well and on the home straight of the swim I was taking positions back all the way in as the others tired. It actually felt quite good to come up behind swimmers and then just move past as they were not swimming as fast as me. I got out in just under 23 (I think it was a bit long) and was informed by my mum that I was currently in 11th - not bad going for me.

Anyway, a slightly slower transition that I wanted saw me lose a place or two before getting out on the bike, but I was now confident that I would be able to quickly make my way back through the field. This is where the problems started though. As I tried to do up the strap on my shoe, whilst pedalling away, I pulled the strap through it's hole and I was now in a position where I could not do it up. whatever I tried. At this point, I even thought about stopping but in the end decided to make do. Cycling with only one shoe done up is not to be recommended though, it really saps your ability to use the up stroke on the rotation. So, I battled on like this for the rest of the course and ended up in a tussle with someone I I would not normally expect to be with. In the end, we cycled a lot of the course in close contact, but, after last time, I ensured that I could never be construed to be in a drafting position....this does involve using the brakes and freewheeling at times.

You can see the offending strap here....just flapping in the wind!

Still, in from the bike and I was in a decent place to start out on the run. However, for some reason, after the problems on the bike and then, and I still don't know why, as soon as I started the run, I just lost interest in the race altogether. I was not bothered who came past me and decided to pretty much just jog round the rest of the course. I tried occasionally to lift the pace, but the reality was that that I just couldn't be bothered. I am not sure if this was simply a case of not having the run fitness, or what it was really. Anyway, in the end I coasted around the run in a pretty dismal time, some two and a half minutes slower than last year, eventually coming home in just under 2:05 and finishing up 11th.

So, bad day in the office for the London Triathlon. I only have two races left for this season now. One of those is the Thames Turbo Sprint race on the Bank Holiday and then I have the Vitruvian on the first weekend of September. The Vitruvian will be my first visit to the world of middle distance with a 1900m swim, 85k bike and 1/2 mara to round things off. I am planning on just trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

The National Club Relay Championships

2008-08-05T12:03:00.016+01:00

Some of you may recall that last year I travelled north to Nottingham for the Club Relay National Champs where the Thames Turbo team that I was in managed to get 4th place. Last weekend, the Thames Turbo masses headed back up north for another go at the relays, which, for those of you who aren't aware, involves a triathlon, but not in the normal sense. Teams are comprised of 4 athletes, which each one having to do all three disciplines. The difference here is that you get to have quite a long rest at various points of the race as all four do the swim in turn, followed by the bike in turn and then the run at the end. In the end, the 500m swim, 15k bike and 5k run takes over 3 hours for everyone to complete.

After last year's performance it was decided that our best chance of getting a medal at these National Champs would be to enter our strongest team in the mixed competition. So, I was in with two very fast ladies and James...who I only just beat in the club's sprint race champs. So, on paper, we had a good team.

It was decided that I would set off on the first swim, the notoriously rough swim (see photo below), and try to get us in a good spot for the next 3 people to carry on. The swim start was pretty frantic with arms and feet all over the place, but after a 200m or so, I was in a good area and could concentrate on trying to get out of the water as quick as possible. Personally, I did not enjoy the swim at all though, I just could not get into a good rhythm and kept on feeling that I was going a lot slower than normal - still, it was only 500m, so I was not gonna be losing that much time for the team.
Once I had swum, I tagged the next person and off they went for their 500m dash..

Once we had all been round, it was time for the last swimmer to tag the first cyclist, in this case me....(You can see me in this shot)

I had figured that we were in about 10th place so we had a lot of work to do on the bike to get us in to contention for this one. By the end of the first lap, I had clawed back a few places and then I kept on going to get some more back. By the time that we had all managed to finish the bike, we had managed to sneak our way all the way up to second place!

Out on the run, things were pretty tough. With a tailwind down one side of the rowing lake and then a stiff headwind coming back for the last 2.5km. My time was not great and I had let the leader get a bit further ahead but I was hopeful that my team mates would be able to pull them back.In the end, it got close, but not close enough - we came second by about 40s to a team from Manchester. We had managed to put a significant amount of time in to the 3rd place team however.

So, at the end of the 3 hours and 19mins of racing, this was my first National Championship medal!

Just for fun, well not fun really, I did the whole thing again for the men's team. The second time round, I am pretty sure that I swam and biked faster, but the run was not that nice the second time round. The men's team did manage to finish 12th, which, considering the standard of the competition, is not that bad. We had been up to 7th spot at one point during the race as well.

All of this was followed by a night out in Nottingham with all the other Turbos. Going to a cheesy club after all that racing is very interesting....my legs were sore and was very grateful for the VIP pass which allowed us access to a quieter area (with seats)....think I am getting old. Don't get me wrong though, I did spend about 20mins in the techno room!

Bananaman Team Triathlon 2008

2008-07-21T08:32:00.009+01:00

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were at the Bananaman in 2007 when our Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport team kept the long standing record alive winning the Team Time Trial (TTT). This weekend we went back to defend the record with myself being the only constant in the team that romped home to a 5 minute win last year. If I am honest, I was pretty nervous going into the event this year, I knew that I was riding pretty well, but having only swam about 4k and ran less than 10k in the last month, I knew that this was going to be tough. I had visions of me not being able to maintain a good pace on the run and subsequently watching another team fly by to take the crown.

In the nick of time, we all managed to get our kit all sorted out, well, as organised as we could...this looks a mess...but it seemded to be okay in the end.

I think that I was rushing around all the way to the start, especially after having got to the water without my goggles and having to go back and get them. Anyway, the wind was howling on the day and this made for some interesting swim conditions out on the rowing lake. On the way out, it was more akin to a sea swim with waves coming at you, at least this meant the way back in for the two lap race was a lot nicer. My swim was totally pants though...never got in to it at all and just hoped that I was not making that much of idiot of myself. At the end of lap 1, I was pleased to see one of my team mates, I now knew that I was at least not that far off.

Round the second time and it was time for my favourite section.

The wind on the bike was certainly going to make things interesting. On the way out, we were struggling to hold a good speed and being on the front of the train certainly made life pretty hard. Coming back the other way was loads of fun however, 65kph on a narrow smooth road with the wind behind you.

We were not the first team out on the bikes, but we soon made it clear that we were the fastest team out there. We passed the winning team in style and then went on put a pretty sizeable margin between us and the chasers. This was exactly what I wanted, basically to not get caught up in some running race with another team...I knew my running legs were not what they were and that the run was not going to be much fun.

On the first of the 3 lap run we all knew that this would be the first glimpse we would have of how far ahead we were. I was so pleased when we turned at the far end and ran for quite a while before we saw anyone else - I was quite sure now that we had done enough to be able win.

The run was not much fun, but I made it round. Thanks especially to Guy and Roger for blocking the wind on the way out and then the helpful hand on the back on a few occasions. Also, thanks for not pushing me past the crowds :)

In the end, we won by 5 over 5 minutes again....another good day in the office and back to the podium days at least.

National Team Time Trial Championships

2008-07-08T13:57:00.005+01:00

From the moment I realised how bad my injuries were from falling off my bike, I had been worrying about being able to take part in the National Team Time Trial Champs (TTT). I had signed up with two other chaps from London Dynamo, and I desperately did not want to let them down....plus, I was desperate myself to have a crack at this. I had a strong team and we all knew that we're going to go fast....just how fast we ended up going was not quite in my comprehension.

We arrived at our dingy hotel on the dual carriageway and headed straight out on the bikes to give the course the once over. It took about one second to realise that, if the wind stayed like this, we were gonna be going pretty fast on the first stretch. Coming back the other way was not much fun, but overall, the course looked good and not bad for a time trialist, compared the scrapped route which would have been better suited to people who race in road races.

On the day of the race, the rain was beating down and the wind was still just as strong as the day before. So, come 10 we set out on one of the fastest and scariest pieces of cycling that I have ever been involved with. On the downhill sections to the first turn we were topping out at over 70kph and all within a whisker of the wheel in front of you as you desperately need to stay in the drafting zone to maximise your rest while you are not on the front of the steam train. Once we hit the turn point though, everything changed, the uphills seemed to be longer than I remembered and the wind was just making everything pretty grim. If I am honest, there were a couple of points on the uphills where I almost asked the other two to ease off a bit. I just had to keep on reminding myself that this was the Nationals and pain is just part and parcel of what I had signed up for. Thankfully, it was not that long before we turned again and headed back down with the wind behind us. As always, this 'easier' bit seemed to be over in no time and the last slog was always going to be the hardest, what with 10 miles of hard labour into the wind. The legs were now on fire and the number of times I was having to totally bury myself to get back on the wheel was getting too much. Still, the road flattened out a bit with about 5 miles to go, but we were all now totally killing ourselves to get over that line as quick as possible.

Having the finish line in sight was a totally amazing feeling, one last moment of agony and I knew that the pain would stop. We crossed the line, covered in snot and soaked through in a remarkable 52:41 for the 42.5km course. I was just totally amazed, we had managed to average over 48kph for race....we knew we had done a good time but with the calibre of rider racing on the day, we had no clue as to where this would put us amongst the field. When we got to the hall we could see that we were in 3rd place at the time with another 3 teams to go up on the board. I could already see that we had beaten some top competition but some of the best teams were still to come in. In the end, one of them punctured, we beat another and one more came in as the winners. We had been knocked into 4th place...worst of all, this was by a mere 2 seconds and we were only 37 seconds behind the overall winners.

A good day in the office though...the HR graph below shows just how hard the ride was...

Write up is here

Results are here

This does however end my run of podium finishes for the season. But, to be honest, this is the hardest that I have raced all season, so I am not that disappointed really.

Mid Season Break

2008-06-26T14:10:00.003+01:00

I am sure that I read somewhere that it is a good idea to have a bit of a break mid-season, especially if you are doing a whole bunch of hard races over the course of the triathlon season - I hope so anyway.

Last Thursday, on my occasional commute to work from Walton-on-Thames to the City something happened and the net result was that the next thing that I remember, I was in the back of an ambulance. I still don't know how I fell off, or what happened because I hit my head so hard that I broke my helmet and was subsequently concussed for a few minutes. Apparently, the lady behind me said that I just went over the handlebars, led on the ground for a bit and then got up and started to walk around - albeit, in a rather confused manner.

So...after a quick check up in the ambulance, during which I was sure they were going to send me on my way, I was told that I would be going here..

...and, there I stayed for the rest of the day. They kept me because I had hit my head and could not remember what happened at all - apparently, those are not good things.

Over the course of the day, it became quite obvious to me that my head was not the problem. I could feel my chest getting worse and worse, even through the co-codemol. I was pretty certain then that this was not going to be much fun.

So, one week on and I have yet to do any real exercise so you could say that the mid-season break is going very well indeed and I am being very diligent. The honest truth on the other hand is that I am going mad not being able to train when I want to. I have a very important race next weekend (this one) and I really want to nail it with my other two team mates. So, to be stuck in limbo not doing much before this is pretty miserable....I want to be out on the road or on the turbo having fun with pain.

Oh dear.....Windsor 2008

2008-06-16T08:39:00.005+01:00

This weekend we had the first of the big domestic Olympic distances races which took us back to the lovely town of Windsor. I can say this now because the race is over, but I had all intentions of taking the overall prize for this race. It would have been my first major triathlon win in my career and I was pretty sure that I had a good chance of doing it, especially when I heard that the winner for the last two years was having to pull out due to an injury - the race was now wide open and I was pretty sure that I was fit enough to win it.

The swim took me a while to get into, but after about 400m, I was quickly making my way back up through all the white caps that had set off a bit too fast. At the 1000m mark, I had caught what I thought was the last two. I pulled away from one of these and swam back most of the way with the other one. In the end, I was pulled out of the water in what turned out to be 3rd position in my age group. My time was quite bad (24:12) but I assumed that was because of the current in the Thames, which was pretty strong on the day. What followed can only be a lesson to all who take part in this sport....

As I ran into T1 I believed whole heatedly that I was running down the correct aisle to locate my bike. I ran, and I ran, but still I could not see my bike. At this point, the panic set in and I started to scramble around bikes trying desperately to locate mine. In the end, I had to take a deep breath, look at my number and then try to find my bike. By now, some two extra minutes had passed by compared to what I was supposed to use in T1 and I was only too aware that the race had slipped through my fingers, and all because of such a stupid mistake. They always say that transition is the 4th discipline in triathlon - now I know why. Even after all the training, if you can't find your bike, you might as well have not bothered doing half the training.

Still, I tried to calm myself down and get on with the race but out on the bike I was just not really getting into it, mainly because I didn't feel that I was racing for anything anymore. I had wanted to do a 57-58 min bike split and I knew that I was more than capable of doing that, especially on the back of my recent TT performances. Still, the miles went by and I failed to really get into the ride. In the end, I got back to T2 in about 59 mins and got through T2 in good time to head out on the run.

I must confess, I do actually quite enjoy the run at Windsor, there are crowds pretty much the whole way round and my club, Thames Turbo, provides some very vocal support on the infamous Turbo Corner. My run speed was not exactly what I had hoped, but I had not really regained my interest in the race by this point. Alas, the 3 laps passed by and I came home in 2:07:20.

This is still more than 2 mins quicker than 2006 when I first did the race and my run time was 4 mins quicker yesterday than on that day, so things are getting better. I finally found to, to my surprise, that my time was enough to get me a 2nd place in my AG and also 3rd place overall - I didn't think that would be possible!

I know it sounds like I am grumbling about what most would see as a good result, but to me, it just doesn't make me that happy. I could have won the race, but I made a schoolboy error that cost me dearly. So far this season, I have beaten the winner and the chap in second place in other races, so to all intents, it seems that it could have been possible - there is always next year.

Surrey League 4up Team Time Trial Championships

2008-06-09T15:03:00.007+01:00

This weekend it was time for something totally new in my world of racing. I had managed to get myself in a team of London Dynamo boys for the annual 4up team time trial champs for the Surrey League. The team was made of two time trialists and a couple of chaps who normally ride road races in the UK.

For those of you who are not that familiar with things...it is basically this (picture is not actually us, although we did look pretty good all on TT bikes with disc wheels)

The idea is that you have a go at the front and block the wind for everyone else and let them rest, then you fall to the back of the group and slowly find yourself on the front again.

Anyway, we had a strong team and we'd be lying if we said we weren't going for the win. The Dynamos had won it the year before so there even more pride at stake.

We eventually set off, having done some practice runs along the road (and almost coming off a couple of times on corners) and quickly got into a good rythym. The roads were winding and undulating and it was pretty hard to remain as organised as we would have liked, i.e. right on the wheel in front - especially with your hands no where near your brakes!

We lost one of the team and decided that we would be best off going along with 3 of us (you only 3 of the 4 to get your time). The whole ride can only be described as brutal....I was not used to the ups and downs of racing like this and occasionally it became very hard when I missed the wheel to draft from.

Still, we eventually finished in 1:18:37 for the 57.3km course. We had managed to average just under 44kph around a course which is by no means flat. For me, it was one of the hardest rides I had ever done.

For our effort, we managed to pick up a pretty old trophy that has some very good names on it from previous years. I only managed to get a quick shot of it though befor e it went off for engraving - hopefully I'll get to have it in the house for part of the year.

25 Miles = 53:17

2008-06-04T10:19:00.006+01:00

Last Sunday I had another go at a 25 mile TT...I had done one the week before and, even though I managed to finish second, the wind on the day meant that the times were never going to be that good. I also had the added problem on that day of a very slow puncture which meanth my carbon disc wheel was getting closer to the tarmac all the way to the finish. Anyway, I finished that one in 55:10 and, thanks to some other London Dynamo boys I was able to get 2nd prize and the Team prize for the day.

Last Sunday was on a course which is not really the fastest round this way, albeit, it is not bad. There are a few hills, but there are large sections where you can still get into a good rhythm. It started to rain on the way down as well, not really a good sign, especially as there are about 5 roundabouts to navigate.

8:05 rolled round though and it was time for me to set-off. I felt a lot better this time though and the bike felt good as well. I had lowered the seat a fraction and I reckon this made things a lot more comfortable, especially for someone who pretty much rides right on the front of the thing.

25 miles went past before I knew it though and, if what my watch was telling me was correct, I knew I had done a good time. At 45.5kph, I was hopefuly of just slipping under 53, but alas it was 53:17 on the line - enough for another 2nd place and this also maintains my run of podium finishes this season....as in, every race triathlon or biking race I have finished in the top 3.

Results

Write Up

Eton SuperSprints - 2008

2008-05-21T14:23:00.007+01:00

Seems that all the races are coming thick and fast at the moment....I still have two 25 mile TT's for the next two weekends and then it is Windsor Triathlon again. This weekend though, it was time for the Eton SuperSprints which are held at Dorney Lake just outside London. The venue provides an almost perfect setting for racing, with calm water, flat good surfaces and no traffic. However, the popularity of these events (over 2500 people competing over two days at this one) mean that the bike leg can get especially busy.

Anyway, after the result in Lisbon I had pretty much done no training, apart form the odd easy ride whilst in Portugal so felt no where near as prepared as I would normally be for this one. I had probably also piled on a couple of pounds in my post European success, but I figured it was only a short race so hopefully things would be okay. This race was however also set to be the Club Champs race for Thames Turbo...as in the person with the fastest time over the two days would be crowned as the Thames Turbo Sprint Race Champ for the year. Having seen some of the times from Saturday, I knew that I would need to put in a good performance to be able to get close to it this year.

The swim is 400m and before the horn went off, I was pretty sure that I would be able to do a good time, even though I had not been in the water for a week, normally a bad sign. Anyway, the end result was rubbish...getting out in 5:43 was not that great, but at least I was near the leaders going on to the bike. I struggled to find my cord on my suit and this added some valuable seconds on to my T1.

The bike felt good though and I knew that I was lapping at a pretty decent pace, I was just not sure if it was actually going to be fast enough in the end - there had been a load of good times posted on the Saturday so I was mostly just trying to ride and beat those times. In the end, I came in with the second fastest split of the day, which I was pleased with.

When I started the run, my legs were not feeling that great, but as I had done at the Turbo race, I decided to just slowly try and increase my speed. Again, this seemed to work a lot better and by the end, I was putting in some of my fastest km's. The only problem is, they were just not fast enough really. My run time was much further down the leaderboard so I think I need to do some more work on it, especially so that I don't lose so much time at the start of the run leg.

Anyway, my time of 54:42 for the race was enough to give me the 3rd fastest time of the day and the 4th fastest out of the 2500 racers over the weekend. The best bit was that I just managed to get the Club Champ honours as well...by a mere 9 seconds from last year's winner. I won my AG as well and this got me £50 in vouchers...which Paula used.

Thames Turbo - Race 2 - 2008

2008-05-19T13:29:00.010+01:00

This is a bit of an old post as this actually happened before the Euros...

On the second Bank Holiday of this year we had the second of the Thames Turbo series of races. Having come second for the last three of these races, I was again disappointed to see that one of the previous winners was on the start sheet....unfortunately a chap who is a fair bit faster than me. So, I was fighting it out for second place and beyond for this one.

The swim was a pretty standard affair and I was pleased (to some extent) to be out the water in about 6 minutes as this means that the 426m is taking me the same time now as it did last year when I was doing about 3 times as much swim training.

Out on the bike we had some perfect conditions for some fast times but I was quickly scuppered when I got caught at the traffic lights for the full 20 seconds. Anyway, the rest of the ride went okay, apart from the fact that the saddle moved a bit and it just was not the same after that as it felt like I was sliding off all the time.

I decided to start the run off slower than normal this time and see if I could then build my pace over the 5k. This definitely seemed to help anyway and as I was soon knocking out some good km's and knew that I was on for a PB on the run, and probably the whole race as well. In the end, I did my first ever sub 19min run (it is 5.2km), not only just either, it was 18:39.

In the end, I managed to just sneak under 56 minutes for the first time in this event, some 40 seconds quicker than my previous best at this race. Only problem is, I now want to get a 54...

European Age Group Triathlon Champs - Lisbon

2008-05-19T10:29:00.015+01:00

Last year's 4th place at the Europeans in Copenhagen and the subsequent realisation that I had only lost out on a medal by 20 or so seconds, my main aim was to go back to the Europeans and get myself a medal. This year they took place in Lisbon and the course seemed to be quite well suited to my style of racing. I arrived in Lisbon on the back of a few good results this season, so I knew that I was fit, I just hoped that the distance of the race would not come as too much of a shock - I had only really done some shorter distance stuff this season.

Anyway, my 30-34 age group was much bigger than last year, with over 120 athletes racing, so I knew from the start that I was going to need to push hard, especially against the large contingent of local Portugese athletes who probably had more experience of the course.

When we eventually got underway, I was instantly reminded of how tough the swim starts can be. With 120 athletes all swimming at pretty much the same pace, you can't help but get the odd mouthful of salty water and the odd kick etc. The turns at each of the buoys were also pretty frantic with arms and legs going everywhere. For the last 500m, I managed to find a pack who I could have swam faster than, but I decided to hang in behind them to get the draft and then hopefully save some energy for the bike and run. I was out the water in 20:44 and was pretty pleased with that as I think that I was pretty much in the second pack, albeit, I had lost over 2 minutes to the leaders.

Before I had left the UK, I had done some research on the bike course for this race and I was pleased to have seen that the course was pretty much flat the whole way round. However, having now done the course, I can confirm that is not the case. Yes, a lot of the course is pretty flat, but I never realised that there would be an energy sapping long climb at the turn point for each of the two laps. Going up, I was struggling in a small gear...the upside though was that I was able to come back down the other side doing over 75kph...quite scary on the wet roads. Overall, the course was good and I did enjoy the bike section. I worked damn hard to reel in all of my wave and eventually caught last year's gold medal winner after about 20k. He held on for about 10k and then on the last stretch, I managed to pull away. This now meant that I came back into T2 in the gold medal position, with the fastest bike split for everyone who raced that day, including all the other age groups. (1:06:42 for the 45k course).

The problem, and the lesson that I will never learn, with going all out on the bike is that your legs tend to feel a bit worse for wear when you start the run. This is pretty much the tale of my triathlon career, but, in my defense, it has worked quite well at times. But, in Lisbon, it was pretty bad, probably made worse by the small number of brick sessions that I had done this season. I started off slow, got a bit faster and then slowed back down again to come home in a bit under 39 minutes for the 10k. The eventual winner had come past me at 3k and from then on, it was just a case of trying to hold on and hoping that no one else in my age group came past me. Alas, at the end of the day it all went well and I managed to hold on to second by the skin of my teeth...a mere 4 seconds I think.

At the time, you are never sure if you have actually done it as there is no one at the finish to confirm where you have come. So, what followed the finish was a long ol wait to see if I had finished where I thought I had. Finally, just before the awards ceremony, I managed to get my hands on a set of results and it was true, I had the silver!

New PB - 25 Mile TT

2008-04-28T11:58:00.002+01:00

Am pleased to report that the new bike performed rather well on its first outing. I did a 25M TT yesterday morning and came 3rd with a 54:10, that's averaging about 44.7kph.

Results are here

...and, thanks to my new watch, you can check out how I did around the course by clicking here

New Bike!

2008-04-26T18:01:00.007+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, on the way home from a 10 mile time trial in the evening, I had a bit of an accident on the old TT bike. Funny enough, the crash, spectacular as it seemed, resulted in nothing more than a small scar on my ankle. However, my bike did not come off as well as me...the handlebars must have whipped round as I now had a new hole in one of the tubes. I dusted myself off though and then (slowly) made my way home on the bike, just watching as the crack in the tube slowly crept around the whole tube. Thankfully, we made it home without any further problems. It was obvious right from the start though that this would be a tearful fairwell to the bike that had done me so proud in a number of races, and been the subect of a lot of pain in others - what with the punctures of last season and the crash at the same time last year. Still, this was the end...so it is bye bye Planet X.

As the saying goes though, every cloud and all that. I had to make a decision now and I had to make one rather quick as the European Champs are due to take place in the second week of May, so I needed a new bike, and I needed one fast. Thankfully, all of the bits on the Planet X had survived the crash, so I had the option of just being able to purchase a frame and then transfer it all across....and that is what I did.

Here she is...

Thames Turbo - Race 1 - 2008

2008-03-25T14:23:00.012Z

Well, the 2008 season is now underway as we had the first in the Thames Turbo race series over the bank holiday weekend. Due to the lunacy of the timing of Easter, this year the race was due to take place at the earliest time ever and this could only mean one thing...a very cold day. However, I would imagine that, had anyone known just how cold it would be, they would not have signed up for this one. Over the course of the week there was a lot of weather checking on a number of websites to see if there was any chance of improvement. At the end of the day though, we were on our way to the race in sub zero temperatures for what was no doubt the coldest triathlon that I will ever do. The most hotly talked about subject on the poolside as we waited for the start was soley focused on exactly what to wear for the race, I don't think that there were many people in the end who opted for just their trisuits anyway.

As for the actual racing, I was not really sure what would happen. I had no idea how my cycling was coming along and although I was running well, this was only really when I was running alone, i.e. with no cycling beforehand to hurt the legs. I was hoping to go under the hour, but as I started last season with a 58:39, I was secretly hoping to get close to that time.

Eventually the race got underway and we all got undressed (freezing) and got over to the swim start, eager to get into the heated pool, if only to warm up a bit. You can see from the steam on the pool, just how great the temperature differential was!

My swim was not too bad though, being out the water in just under 6 minutes means that I am pretty close to my best last season, and that is on half as much swim training as last year, so that was good.

T1 took a bit longer than normal though as had to contend with the long sleeve top I was going to wear...trust me, putting on clothes when you are wet is never a good idea. Still, eventually I got it on though and I headed out for the bike.

The bike felt good though and knowing that I had a whole bunch of the fastest guys up the road provided all the incentive I needed to put the hammer down and try to catch them. It took me a while, but eventually I caught one chap who had a chance of winning and then I just missed catching my mate at the end, albeit, I had taken a chunk out of the time that he started in front of me (complex timing system at these races) so it was only going to be a case of not letting him run away from me to allow me to beat him.

The run was never going to be that much fun as, by the time I had spent that time on the bike, my feet were pretty much just frozen little blocks, totally devoid of any feeling. At the start of the run, my calves were hurting and my feet were not feeling that much. The race winner came past me pretty early on and then proceeded to run off into the distance. I kept pace with my club mate and we managed to run round in a steady time, albeit not as fast as I had hoped. At the end of the day, I think that my time of 1:00:21 was not that bad considering the conditions. The next race takes place in May so we'll have to wait until then to see how things have really progressed over the winter months.

Write up can be found here and the full results can be found here