The definition of madness.....

is making the same mistake twice.

I spent all day, and I mean literally all day, rebuilding my Argon TT bike. I had got it back from my local bike shop who had finally managed to get the spacers off that had been welded firmly to the steerer tube with my turbo sweat. So I set aside all of yesterday in order to get it ready for today's Charlotteville 50 mile TT.

I had barely serviced the bike over the last couple of years and if had finally failed on a few fronts and needed some tlc.

• New rear brake installed.
• New front chainring installed.
• Headset bearings stripped and re-greased.
• Selcof handlebars installed and the steerer tube trimmed to neaten up.
• All new gear and brake cables installed.
• New chain
• New bar tape (obviously!)

Thankfully, Mrs Wheezy and the cat decided that I was best left to it, that conversation would be useless while I wrestled with the intricacies of the Argon's engineering. This also involved a lot of swearing and a lot of cups of tea. By 6 o' clock in the evening I'd got it sorted and after two months, I had a working bike.

All good, but there was no time to road test the bike save for checking all the indexing. I would have to test the fit of the bike in the following day's time trial at the Charlotteville CC event.

Today's event was one that's been a bit of an early season opener for me for the last couple of years. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I struggled from the off. It was really cold this morning and I never got warm. Probably on it's own, this would have been fine but I had raised my saddle a few millimetres during the rebuild and this came back and literally bit me on the bum. I ended up riding 2:06:14, which is the slowest I've ridden over 50 miles in a few seasons. The bars were comfortable but they did slip which didn't help. I was some 2 minutes down on Simon, so not a disaster but I need to get my position properly sorted before thinking about the 12 hour in a few weeks time.

Amesbury Amble 300km Audax 2018

Getting up at 4:30am is a tall order, but as I had been wide awake since 3am anyway, getting up and ready was a bit of a blessing.  I ate my usual breakfast of tea, porridge and banana before cycling the 10km to the event HQ in Raynes Park. Like time trialling, the HQ venues tend to be rather low key affairs and this was no exception. The difference was in the riders as it was a real mix of people. Mainly club riders from the Wheelers (who were putting on the event), Dunwich Dynamo, SWRC, but there was a spattering of Rapha hooligans, audaxers and privateers.  There was a simple but hearty breakfast provided but as I was yawning my head off and I had already eaten I elected to have just a coffee.


 I got chatting to a few other people, most notably a guy who had done LEL last year. The navigation and relying on my Garmin so much was obviously playing on my mind, as I quizzed him about using the route sheet. He simply said he'd never understood them and that the Garmin would be fine. I could just see myself stuck out in the wilds of Wiltshire, lost, with a broken bike, but like most times, the difference between reality and my fears was very wide.

There's no point in me describing the route in detail, except for the fact that as audax events go, it was not particularly hilly. The weather was kind, being very cool, almost cold at the start of the day before it warmed up later on, which meant that I went from being fully dressed to stripping off; a typical early spring day. Yes, I went out too fast and a large group quickly formed, with me in the middle of it. After the first control at Lasham if thinned out quite quickly and it was here that I learnt my first audax lesson. I was busting for a pee so went to the toilet and when I came back there was a long queue for food, which meant I now had to wait and would be quite late leaving the control. I noticed that LEL man had bought his food first, dumped it on the table and then went to the bogs. As a result, he ended up leaving a good 10 minutes before I did.

Just after the first control I ended up riding with Keith, who obviously seemed an experienced audax rider. We ended up pretty much riding the next 10 hours together. I was a little faster than him, particularly up hills but this was great for me as it meant I slowed a bit and stayed within myself. That said, Keith was great company and kept a steady pace going and I learnt a lot from chatting to him about different approaches to all this new type of cycling.

The long drags across the Wiltshire downs, which would have been very hard going if the wind had been up were a real pleasure and at times there was not a single sound except for the click of a Shimano freewheel and very empty roads. We went past the top secret Porton Down Government buildings and as we skirted Netheravon Airbase we saw the Red Devils freefall parachute display team practicing.

The Garmin worked brilliantly and breaking the route down into sections between controls helped to mentally break up the ride too. I topped up the Garmin at each control and this kept the battery life very high. I am sure that this would work really well for a 400km event too as I still had 60% battery life at the end. I can't see me using a route sheet again!

Over the last couple of hours, Keith was getting tired and I ended up rolling into Bracknell about 15 minutes ahead of him, soI was able to have a longer stop while waiting. He went to a local chippy instead so he had a quick stop to top up bottles before the last short leg back to Raynes Park. Much of this was roads that I know well from the KPRC rides to Windsor and Virginia Water so I could switch off a bit and just spin out gently.

When we got back the Wheelers had laid on a lovely stew, which I absolutely demolished, while the couple of other riders I finished with pushed their food around their bowls. I was ravenous. I then had to spin home ans thankfully this last little bit meant that I just crept over 200 miles for the day.

Amazingly, as I write this, I have no major aches or pains at all. I got a little sore in my right shoulder on the bike but this soon wore off. The bike was fine although I need a new front chainring, but no mechanicals or punctures which considering some of the rural roads I was on, is a bit of a miracle.

A great ride and a great day.

A bit of Ballbuster

I had entered the Human Race Ballbuster a few months ago and almost immediately got injured. I was only going to ride out and spectate but I ended up being drafted into one of the Epsom Tri Club teams as their bike rider. We had Phil running the first leg, who had competed in Kona just the month before and Gary running the glory leg; a pretty decent runner. I had the Van Nic with full mudguards and winter gear on, so not exactly in race mode.

It was actually quite a lot of fun as most competitors were doing the full event so were saving themselves on the bike and was able to go past quite a few. I didn't really hammer it but kept a pretty good tempo throughout and was only overtaken by 2 other relay teams. We ended up as 7th overall with a combined time of 3:07. Most importantly, I got one of the infamous Ballbuster hoodies.

Gary, Kona Phil, yours truly.

I've finished my first TrainerRoad block and just about to start to repeat it as I am planning to get a bigger base for next year. My weeks have been bulked out with a couple of rides of 20 miles on the way home, which are just steady recovery rides. I haven't started the really hurty stuff yet. That's next month.

Outlaw Triathlon

Nice socks

Another go at an iron distance triathlon after my first and last attempt at the Forestman back in 2011. The fact it had taken me six years to summon the energy to give it another go speaks volumes about how hard that day had been. Until recently I had harbored thoughts of going under 11 hours, but as the months had progressed towards the Outlaw I had spent more and more time in the saddle and less time running and swimming. My focus for this race, quite simply was to enjoy it and come away having had a good experience, as I felt that this would be my last go.

I had forgotten how much kit and preparation doing a triathlon takes, but Simon and I enjoyed the buzz of the day before, mooching around the expo and eating lots of carbs before the rain came.

Swim

The Outlaw swim is as easy at it gets, at least in terms of sighting. Quite simply, one mile up the rowing lake in a straight line, a 200 metre leg across the top and then swim in a straight line back. I love a mass swim start; you can literally feel the energy in the water as everyone sets out, finding their own space. Simon and I seeded ourselves at the back of the second pen and that seemed ok as we had clear water for the first 300 meters, but then the swimmers for the other two pens to our right came across and there was a couple of minutes of breaststroke and  biff before it settled down again. I swam the entire leg on my own as I couldn't find any feet swimming straight, so gave up. I exited the water in 1:15:xx which was pretty much what I expected.

T1

 Saw Simon in transition, he had exited just 6 seconds before me. Lots of vaseline on my feet. I wore my one piece tri suit but put my favourite cycle shorts over them for extra cushioning and I wore compression socks for the first time. The weather forecast was for rain later in the bike so I wore my Kask helmet but without the visor. 7.5 minutes.

Bike

So this was going to be my strongest discipline but the plan was to bike really steadily to at least give my legs a chance to run afterwards, so the plan was to sit on 20mph which should give me a 5:35 ish bike split. Basically, that's exactly what happened and I ended up rolling back into Holme Pierrpoint in 5:38:xx. I really, really enjoyed it, but the first 40 miles were hard for a very different reason as basically everyone went past me and it took a lot for me to keep my effort reined in. Simon had mounted his bike at exactly the same time as me and he was off like a scalded rabbit and I was not to see him again for another 7 hours. From about 40 miles I started to steadily overtake other riders and as the miles went on I overtook a lot of people, many of them who I had seen go past me a couple of hours earlier. (I checked the results splits and in the end I moved up over 170 places).

As well as keeping to my planned easy pace, I was also conscious of ensuring that I was eating and I had a bit of an epiphany with this. I like simple, so I formed a simple plan. I filled up my top tube bag with 800 calories' worth of food, mainly crisps, jelly babies, crackers and snickers bars, so all I had to do was keep chomping on the items in there for the first 4 hours which would be my 200 calories per hour and then for the last hour and a half I would switch to High5 energy drink, so that I would not be consuming solid food immediately before starting the run. It worked a treat, although I would have liked more savory food. The crisps and crackers soon turned to dust and I was trying to scoop the remnants out although they coated the jelly babies well enough, so I had a ready made sweet and savory mix.

The big thing that time trialling has taught me has been to keep aero and I stayed on the bars pretty much the whole way. When the wind got up later in the morning there were a lot of riders on very expensive tt bikes sitting bolt upright in the wind, gaining no benefit from their machines at all, which just seemed completely daft. The course is very flat although there are a few very gentle rises over bridges and the like, but every time the road went up I put my chain onto the small chainring and increased my cadence. I really did try to defend my quads at every opportunity and I had no qualms about it. The last few miles I took it easy over the rough road back into Holme Pierrepont and started to mentally gather myself for the next 26 miles.

T2
Jelly legs getting off the bike, socks off, vaseline on my feet, socks and trainers back on. 7.5 mins

Run
I am used to that feeling of feeling great for the first few hindred metres of a triathlon run when ones legs haven't quite worked out what they are now doing and feel all light before the run muscles start to protest. Again, this happened, but weirdly, they didn't protest for another 13 miles. I set off feeling pretty fantastic actually, and by the time my Garmin found a satellite about 90 seconds later I was running 7:30 miles which was way too fast yet felt completely effortless. I had the common sense to immediately throw out the anchor but 8:15 miles felt about right, although still considerably faster than my 9 minute miles that I was expecting. So the plan was walk the aid stations and keep feeding little and often and just wait for the wheels to fall off and then do as little walking as I could manage. The first half felt really good and I kept to 8:15-30 miles depending on the spacing of the feed stations. When I gor to halfway and collected my second band the gantry clock was on 9:01, so amazingly a sub 11 finish was still quite comfortably on, but I could feel my legs and in particular my quads tightening. I was really chuffed that I had done everything right on the bike and I had started the run feeling very fresh, but ultimately I did not have the run conditioning in my legs to keep the pace going as cramp and muscular fatigue set in.

About half way around the second loop at 16 miles by Trent Bridge I caught Simon and this coincided with my first really bad spell. I took some coke on board and my stomach didn't like it, so I had a bit of a power walk while it settled, then started running again. As my quads tightened it just got harder and harder to get going as my legs were really painful before I settled into my shuffle, but I felt better as I was heading back to the lake and the final two laps of it. At 20 miles I had my worst part and I was in my biggest hole mentally. Everything hurt now and it was all I could do to keep my shuffle going between aid stations and I had to stop for a pee break and I tried to gather myself for the last 10km. I think by this stage it was getting a bit hotter and maybe I overheated, but I was feeling quite shaky, but a few handfuls of crisps, coke and electrolyte drink seemed to sort me out. Back to the shuffling.

As is the way with these things, I managed to pick up the pace a bit towards the end and even managed to finish with a 9:30 min mile. The finishing chute was very welcome and I stopped the clock at 11:28:09, a whole hour  less than the Forestman. Much more importantly than that, I had a real blast.

Kingston to Worthing TT

I've ridden this event four times and just ducked under 2 hours on a couple of occasions. Being a point to point TT the wind makes a bigger difference than usual and thankfully, yesterday, there was very little of it about. There was however plenty of sun, but being an early start most of the course was in shade as we headed South. I had Pat Wright of Paceline three minutes behind me, so my aim was to try to keep him from overtaking me for a long as possible.  There's not a lot of Pat but he is extremely fast and has won a few open events this year.  This however was to just be a training ride for him so while I was in full TT gimp outfit, Pat was on his road bike and road clothing so at least he was giving me a bit of a handicap.  Dale had dropped out so it would be left to Simon and I to duke it out to be the first Phoenix rider in this event so there was quite a lot to go for.  Simon and I are very evenly matched with us both beating each other only by a handful of seconds over various distances with our last 50 only separated by 1 second so it would be tight.

It's quite lumpy until you get to the Great Daux roundabout at about 20 miles before the A24 opens up to proper dual carriageway.  I think I probably overcooked it again in the early part but was glad I still hadn't seen Paceline Pat. It was not until the penultimate roundabout at Washington that he went past me, with a much higher cadence than anything I could manage, and I really struggled up this last climb.  I gave it everything over the last two miles and saw 1:52:xx on my Garmin which was a 5 minute pb.  My final time was 1:52:45.  Simon's was 1:52:46! So in 46 miles of racing we were split by 1 second.  I get the feeling that had the event been 47 miles I would have lost.

SCCU 50 and Newbury 12 hour TTs - meh

All the gear; no idea.

I can't say much about the SCCU 50 other than I was delighted when it was over.  I just felt really slow, which was damn frustrating bearing in mind how much work I have put in on the bike over the last 6 months.  The course for this event is horrible with lots of slow single carriageway and sapping hills, but I felt that I should be around a 2:05.  I wasn't even close. 2:11:48. The only slight consolation was that I pipped Simon by 1 second, however he lost a lot of time temporarily going off course to avoid colliding with a lorry at a roundabout.  So even that was pretty hollow.  It just felt stupidly slow for no real reason as I have ridden a 2:06 on that course before. What the hell was going on?

So on Saturday I was tinkering with the Argon as I had bought a new rear bottle carrier for the Newbury 12 hour and was just checking things over. I've had a problem with the rear brake for quite a while, not being able to set it up right to bite on the rims properly and I just put it down to the design of cantilever brake that's on there. So I had opened the brake right up so it wouldn't rub the rim, which obviously from a safety point of view isn't the most sensible thing to do, so I thought I would look at it one last time before the 12 hour. It was only then I noticed that my rear wheel was completely out of line;  I'm talking three or four degrees here. So instead of rolling perfectly if would be continually scrubbing sideways, effectively acting as a brake. I might as well have tied a brick to a piece of string and thrown it off the back of my bike.  That was also why I couldn't get the rear brake to clamp true on the rim as well.  Suddenly it all became clear and within a couple of minutes I had adjusted a couple of screws and the wheel was back in line.  A quick road test and it was like riding a new machine.  I've only been riding like that for the last year!

So it was off to the Newbury 12 hour with renewed energy. The only downer being the strong westerly that was likely to gust to 18 mph in the afternoon, but it promised a very fast easterly leg too. I gave a lift down to another rider, Chris, who was ironically my minute man. He was riding his audax bike and has ridden a sub 20 minute 10 and a 1:48:xx for a 50,  so he's what you would describe as a 'pretty useful rider'. I was slightly taken aback when he lit up a cigarette while donning his skinsuit and tied the most enormous frame pannier bag to his bike though. It seemed like he was doing everything to slow himself down. He was looking at riding around 270 miles so with my best being 234 I was unlikely to see him much after the start.

So off I went on the first leg and I have to say I felt very comfortable with the Argon just feeling totally different. The first leg was with the wind and I was spinning out at 30 mph on some sections.  Blimey it was quick.  Not surprisingly at the top turn the anchor was thrown out but I was still able to maintain 22-23 mph.  After an hour I could see Chris and I caught him and went past. That should have been when the first alarm went off in my head, but no, I ploughed on feeling amazing.  The second alarm should have gone off when I caught a guy who was my two minute man, again, a rider of considerably more talent than me. But no, I carried on.  The third alarm should have been when I went through three hours having ridden 70 miles.  A 280 mile finishing distance which would have broken Dale's Phoenix Club record by 15 miles. But no I carried on.

And then, as sure as eggs are eggs and as dependable as gravity, the wheels came off. At four hours I had covered 90 miles so I was still looking at a 270 mile distance finish, which would still be a club record, but the fact I had slowed that much in such a short space of time showed that I had gone out way too fast. This was confirmed when I went through 100 miles in 4:20; that's 16 minutes quicker than my stand alone 100 mile time. The three or so fast guys who I had gone past, overtook  me again like I was cycling in treacle as the stiff headwind began to bite.

While I had slowed a lot I probably could still have seen out 250 ish mile distance but now I had a new enemy; saddle sores. I was wearing my new no pinz skin suit which is a lovely bit of kit, but the chamois pad is a lot thinner than I would use for a ride like this and I started to get very uncomfortable.  The saddle I have on the Argon is the one I bought it with and it's a very cheap, hard and unforgiving one, which is ok for shorter distances of more relaxed riding positions, but now I have a more aggresive position it's just not comfortable enough.

It got to a point at 5 hours when there was no way that I could do another 7 hours in such discomfort so I decided to pack. It's the first time I have not finished a time trial but I learnt a lot.
1: I need a specific TT saddle. Not the testicle destroying monstrosity that I currently own.
2: I didn't have enough savoury food to eat. I should get a bento box for sandwiches etc.
3: Apply sun cram. I have some interesting tan lines this morning.
4: pace it right.

Anyhoo, it was still a good training ride even if I didn't accomplish a finish. Onwards.

Charlotteville 50m TT

I rode this event for the first time this morning, hoping for a pb, which I got, but it was one of those unsatisfying PBs that left me feeling a bit flat. Training's been going well and I've been pretty consistent, ftp's been creeping up and I've done more weekly miles than ever before. It's a pretty fast course so after last year's 55 minute 25 I thought a sub 2 hour should be on. I know that on a bike I have been finding it hard to keep my power up once I am over an hour, so this would be a test to see how my longer earobic endurance work has been going.

Well. it was fairly meh. it was quite parky when I set off but my heart rate was soon up, but on a few flat sections my speed was well down as I battled a head/ cross wind. After the first turn I was able to get my speed back up again and thought I was back on track as I headed to the top turn. Again, a long battle into wind as I headed south and I just hunkered down, trying to keep the cranks spinning quickly.  I ended up with a long 2:02, so a four minute pb, but there were people who I had beaten last year riding 1:58. I find a 50 a hard distance to pace and I think that I was too conservative and probably needed to push harder from earlier on. Next time.

Alpe d' Huez Triathlon

So I had got the Thunder Run out of the way and despite my foot being quite sore, I had been pleased with how the running had gone. I had covered the 42km marathon distance in a tad over 3:25 on fairly patchy and low quality running and done another 8kms and felt pretty good at the end. The next day was about getting the car packed ready to catch a late night ferry to Calais. Ten hours later after driving through torrential rain the whole way we were on the edge of the Alps, with a daughter puking into a carrier bag that had holes in the bottom of it and a lost toll ticket which had been whipped out of Sue's hand by a rogue French mistral. That was a bit of a low point. Thankfully as we pulled into the campsite in the pretty little village of Venosc, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It looked like the camping and triathlon Gods might be on our side.

Wednesday was my first view and ascent, in a car, of Alpe d' Huez as I had to get to the top to register and collect my number. Oh blimey. I looked at the first couple of ramps and my heart sank. I might just have bitten off more than I could chew here. This was a most definite obstacle in my path. A very big obstacle. I should explain that my last long training ride had been a couple of weeks before with Simon where we did a solid 90 miles with an ascent of Ditchling Beacon that had been awful. The flat bits were fine but the hills were very slow and far below what I  would normally be like on hills so I was not feeling particularly positive about going up the Alpe. Anyway, I collected my number and had a load of pasta and decided to use my usual tactic of having a beer and burying my head in the sand.

The race start was a very sociable 2pm so we had plenty of time to get ready. Sue and the kids would spend the day at the top of the mountain where there was a great sports centre and they were going to do a bit of indoor climbing and swimming. All I had to do was set up T2 (put my run shoes on the floor) and then cycle down to the start. I was a bit stressed about this beforehand but I need not have been. All I had to do was take my swim gear in a rucksack with me to set up T1 and get to Lac Du Verney. to get there I had to descend Alpe d' Huez to hairpin 5 which is 5kms from the top (all the hairpins are numbered) and then turn off for the village of Villard-Reculas. It was stunning ride in its own right, mainly freewheeling in a small group with people called Jean-Luc, Yvette, Phillipe, etc. It just put the most enormous smile on my face and really got me prepared for the day. At the lake they had put nationalities together so I was able to while away the 45 minutes before the start chatting to a few other Brits. The main topic of conversation was of course the climb and people were talking about 60 minutes being a really good time for the climb so in my mind I prepared myself for 80-90 minutes.

Ready to roll to the start

Swim
The other thing I had not prepared myself for was a 1200 person mass swim start. I was breaststroking around and the water was quite chilly (13.3 apparently) and loads of other swimmers swam across to the far side and then immediately got out to sit on the side, which I found rather odd. I was having a look around and christening the wettie with a super long wee when the hooter went. Queue 1000 athletes jumping into the lake and all heading for the first turn buoy. It was a complete bunfight. I was punched, kicked, held, dragged back and generally royally interfered with. I didn't find any feet to draft off at all; no one was swimming straight so I just had to sight as best as I could and hope for the best. On the odd occasions when I did get some clear water I knew that I was pretty slow anyway so I just tried to take it easy and save something for later on. I have to say that despite all the biff, I enjoyed it and it was a beautiful lake to swim in. T1 was slow and by the time I jogged out of  T1 I was well down the field.


Bike
The first 15 kms is a flat warm-up to the bottom of Alpe d' Huez and it was a blast. Out of T1 is a drop down to the dam on the lake before heading out on the long straight valley road to the town of Bourg d' Oirsans which is the town at the bottom of the climb. It was an absolute blast. We were all drafting on this section, there was no way that you could avoid it with so many bikes on the road at the same time. I was floating along at the back of a peleton of about 40 riders when a referee on  a motorbike gave me a long hard stare, so I dropped back a few metres until he roared off up the road, completely ignoring the other riders all in a bunch. Idiot. That said, the organisation was great. The police stopped the traffic and the drivers had all got out of their cars and were clapping and cheering us on, something I doubt that the nimby brigade in this country would do. Love. It.

Cycling doesn't get much more fun than this

So we made our way through Bourg before taking the left turn onto the D211, the iconic 21 hairpin bends to the top of Alpe d' Huez. As soon as I hit the first bottom slope I snuck the gears into the small chainring, found the largest sprocket and started to spin my way up. Within seconds I just knew it was going to be ok. The good thing about having such a rubbish swim was that I was able to overtake a steady stream of riders which gave me people to chase and the first 10 hairpins flew by. The big hairpin bends gave a brief respite from the climbing before it ramped up again but in the main it was just a steady grind/spin. Like Boxhill but just about eight times longer and a lot more spectacular. By this time the temperature had really got up and I used the 2 feed stations on the Alpe to pour water over my head which helped a lot to cool me down. Between 10 and 5 was tougher, I think I was running on empty so got some energy drink in which perked me up and from 5 with the top getting nearer I was able to pick up my cadence a little again. The hard thing was getting to 0 only to find that there was still a little bit of climbing to get you into the ski town and T2 on the football astro pitch.  The climb took me just over 70 minutes which, on reflection, I have to be happy with.

Another super slow T2; no quick laces and a bit of cramp. Doh.

Run
I bounded out of T2 feeling absolutely brilliant. Only 7kms to go. The first kilometre was really good as I went out onto the trail path at the top of the mountain, but within 7 or 8 minutes I found myself very out of breath, like I couldn't fill my lungs with enough air and I could feel myself getting very hot again. I can only think it was the altitude kicking in, making my heart rate go through the roof and I just had to stop and walk for a bit until I had got it under control. It was a bit of a shame as my legs felt great but I couldn't hold a pace that only a few days before had been really easy. It was quite  a tough run being very exposed and on some lumpy trail paths, but eventually we turned back downhill, into the centre of the ski resort, across the football pitch before turning right down the blue carpet. Lots of high fiving, a shout out from the announcer and the best after race buffet I've ever had.



Topping up my tan. Ouch.

This was a great event. I was worried about all the effort of getting me, my stuff and my family all the way to the Alps for an Olympic-ish distance event, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. To have ridden arguably the most iconic climb in cycling in a race is something that I will always remember and I really hope that I get to do it again in the future.


Adidas Thunder Run 2014

Ok, I have not blogged in a long while. Life, work, family, stuff. Some of it important, some of it not. And within all that I was trying to string some decent training together and failing dismally. I had put together a team for the Thunder Run last year when I had put the entry in for a team of 8. Unfortunately, that team rapidly dwindled from 8 down to 7, then 6, then 5 and finally, with two weeks to go down to , when another injury blighted another runner. I managed to get Jon, a friend from work to join us so we headed off to Catton Park as a 5 team.

The night before. Drinking tea; talking rubbish

So what is the Thunder Run? It's a 24 hour non-stop relay of teams from 2 to 8 runners and some solo runners as well (loons!). It's on a hilly 10km loop and you run through the day and night handing over a slap band. There's dodgy catering facilities but it has best been described as a music festival, but with running; and no music. :-/   Simon, Jon and I drove up on the Friday to set up our tents for the whole team, with Martin and Sarah arriving early Saturday ready for the 12pm start in the afternoon. Many clubs, mainly from the Midlands had arrived very early and cordoned off large areas so we ended up quite a way from the hand over point, but nicely positioned at the 9km point.






















Martin still smiling

As team leader I took the honour of running the first lap and it was great with all the supporters cheering us on at the start and as we made our way around the course with much of the first 3 kms weaving in and around the tents manned by all the teams. It was a testing course with a short, sharp hill in the first 800 metres, which then just had a series of open grass track with gentle rises that would become full on hills as the event wore on. The really nutty bit was at 7kms where the runners spent 200 metres zig-zagging through trees and over tree stumps and roots. Difficult in the day when you're fresh and a trip-fest at night when you're tired. After that it was a steady drop back to the main field on the hand over, so after 45 minutes I was done and Simon was on his way. Obviously, despite carrying no injuries for the last few months my left Achilles started to really ache and my right foot got very sore, presumably from working hard over some of the rutted sections. Bugger.

Sarah at the 9km point next to our tent.

As it turned out, 5 runners was a really good number to have. It would mean that we would potentially be running 50km which would be quite a challenge but not hanging around for a long time. We got into a routine of seeing our team runner coming in at 9kms to hand over and that would give the signal that the next runner after that had approximately an hour to get ready. While it didn't involve spreadsheets and predicted timings it worked pretty well. The hard thing was getting the feeding right. I found by my third lap that I had eaten too much and it was a very slow one while I had the burps. Thankfully, the weather was kind, although possibly too warm, with a bit of rain through the night, although not enough to make running too difficult.

We ended up being the 21st team out of 69 with 25 laps completed. Had I gone out a shuffled round another 10kms, which I had the opportunity to do we would have been 15th! Unfortunately my foot was really sore by this stage and discretion was required with me racing the Alpe d' Huez Triathlon a few days later, so we were happy with that.

All in all, a great event. If you run, you need to do it.

Grafman Triathlon 2014

Just a quick one about the weekend's race.

Pre race.

Had a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thursday. Not ideal but felt ok by Friday. Simon and I, along with a club mate of his, John, camped over on Saturday night. The wind was pretty strong during the afternoon but died away so it looked like running the deep section wheels would be fine. Lots of carbs the night before. Felt ready to go and do my first triathlon in three years.

Swim. 37:xx

It's a very pretty swim. The water looked a bit murky but tasted ok, I know this as I swallowed quite a lot of it. The course was one large lap followed by one small one. I lurked at the back trying and failing to find feet. My main issue was leaking goggles so I had to roll on my back a few times to empty them. Sub optimal but it gave me a rest. I tried to keep my stroke nice and long which worked for the most part but by the end of lap two I was starting to feel a bit tight in the shoulders and was looking forward to getting out. The time was quite a bit down on what I know I am capable of but I can't complain, considering how little swimming I have actually done in the last six months.

Bike 2:31

Once I left T1 there were not many bikes left in transition and I spent the first 10 minutes not really feeling the love. My legs felt very heavy after the swim and I just wasn't used to transitioning from one discipline to the next. After a while I got my head down properly and started to overtake a lot of people; relatively easy when you are quite a way down after the swim, but I made sure I was not
pushing hard.  The road was quite bumpy at times but it was a flat, fast course with a few technical
bits at each turn around point. There was some drafting but not much, conspiring how busy it got at times and when the road opened up most people seemed to behave themselves.

My nutrition was shotblocks and I had a pack an hour washed down with some nuun and at the last feed station I took a bottle of water. This left me a little light on calories but it went down ok and didn't come back up. I think I'll think about some savoury snacks next time, just to make the rolling buffet a little more interesting. When I came off the main circuit it was another few miles back to T2 and I slowed down too much here, losing time because I was looking for the entrance back to Grafham Water rather than concentrating on the race. So I got back into T2 in a tad over 2.5 hours feeling quite fresh. It was all looking rather good.

Run 1:50

Dam and blast! Another rubbish run. The writing was on the wall almost straight away as I ran out of T2 feeling great, I mean really great, but then after 800 metres my legs started to cramp up and brought me to a halt very quickly. I literally could not walk a step and spent a few minutes massaging my left quad and right hamstring to get them to free up a little. I then managed to get walking before resuming a slow shuffle, on my way to the first aid station at the turnaround point on the dam. I think this was a combination of two factors. My longest ride on the argon in a fairly aggressive tt position and not taking on board enough electrolytes. Aerobically I felt great and my legs did not feel very fatigued but they were very knotted with cramp, so I made the decision to ensure that I was taking on water and high5 at every station. The second half of the run course takes you back to transition, then out again through woods and paths to the second turnaround. By this stage I was going through a black mood, frankly very bored with the whole thing, but I think the energy drink must have kicked in as I perked up and was able to run more freely.

I had one lap to go with exactly 1 hour to get a sub 5. So just over 6.5 miles in an hour. It gave me something to work for so I resolved to run all the way to the feed station on the dam and I managed it! Game on. Ok, now. Time to run all the way back to the water station at transition. I did that too! So it was still on. I necked more water and got running again but I could feel what little energy I had in my legs finally seeping out. The harder I tried, the slower I was getting and it got to a point where I was virtually quicker walking. With about a mile to go I was still just within sight of a 4:59:xx time but without warning both hamstrings cramped and wouldn't let go. It really hurt and I spent another couple of minutes massaging them to get them moving again. It was very, very frustrating.

I jogged across the line in 5:03. I am really delighted and really disappointed at the same time. That's
a 12 minute pb on the time I did at my last middle distance race in the Cowman in 2010, which is obviously great, and I went into this race not expecting to go sub 5. But to get so close and not make it is frustrating, especially when I think that the cramps are something that maybe I could have controlled.

Never mind. Onwards.

A gentlemen's TT

This week has been a bit of a washout. After returning from my long ride last Sunday I started to feel quite ropey and by the evening I felt so tired that I literally couldn't keep my eyes open at the dinner table so I ended up being in bed by 6 o' clock, thinking that would sort me out. It didn't. I ended up taking two days off work lying on the sofa watching rubbish daytime tv and sleeping. No head cold or sore throat but lots and lots or tiredness and my body fighting something off.

Needless to say nothing happened until yesterday when Simon and I were entered into the Redmond Cycling club's 2 up 'Gentlemen's time trial'. Another quirky event where one of the riders (me) has to be a veteran over 40 and they are towed around by the other rider. It meant that for 15 miles all I had to do was keep in Simon's slipstream and enjoy the ride, as much as I could with all the water being thrown up at me from his back wheel. Still, I had by far the better ride while Simon turned himself inside out while all I had to do was dab the brakes now and again to ensure I didn't clatter into him. I had elected not to use my tri bars on the Van Nic as I didn't think I would need them for drafting behind Simon and it was only after the event that I realised that this was probably my last tt on it. An Argon with my name on it is currently being built. :-)

I still don't feel right. I have just been to do an hour's swim and managed 40 ponderous minutes before calling it quits. The very gentle 20 minute run went much better with my Achilles not self destructing. I'm still doing my exercises and stretching on it and it feels quite strong, but then 20 minutes is hardly a marathon. I really want to get back running soon.