Pearson 150km Sportive

I've had a nice couple of weeks. Work stress has tailed off drastically as well as stuff at home so all of a sudden I have got more time on my hands than I have had in a long time. Early last week Jamie and I met up for another condor paddle which went really well. A paddle up and around the island at Elmbridge a couple of times and back through the Desborough Cut. A solid hour of  K2 paddling which we both walked away from without doing any damage to ourselves. It felt pretty darn good. :-)

Sunday was a bit more challenging. Simon had been given a couple of entries to the Pearson Sportive and asked me along. 150 kilometres of bike miles on some patchy commuting and a couple of 10 mile time trials? Oh go on then. Last time we did a sportive together Simon had basically dragged me round 90 miles while I was slumped over my handlebars trying to keep at least near his back wheel and while I knew that it would be difficult I also knew I was a lot fitter than I was that day.

It didn't start too well. We cycled the 6 miles from Simon's house to the start at the Royal Marsden Hospital, for whom the ride was raising funds for. Unfortunately we didn't make it out of the car park before Simon had a puncture. At least we were able to repair it before our timing chips were dibbed. I then realised I had left my drinks bottle in my car so I ended up stopping at a local co-op to get water and food to last me until the first aid station at halfway. Then 10 minutes later we had our heads down following a group through Banstead and descended a long hill to reach a junction at the bottom which then didn't an arrow to follow. Doh. We had taken a wrong turn so now we had to turn around and climb the hill to retrace our route. Oh well, lesson learnt. Keep a better look out for the arrows at junctions and don't rely on others. About one hour later as we made our way towards East Sussex Simon suffered another puncture, so he replaced it only to find his new tube had a faulty valve. By this time I think he was ready to throw his bike into the nearest hedge as he had now used all his spares and was starting on mine, which were patched up as well. So another 20 minutes while we sorted it. At least it was getting a bit warmer and the roads were good, so we ended up passing people that we had already past 3 or 4 times before.

I felt really very good. I was keeping a pretty good cadence and was able to take turns on the front as we basically 2-upped our way over Ditchling Beacon and into Brighton as it started to try to rain and the temperature dropped. Brighton was the only real downside to this whole event as the route takes the riders into the centre of town and along the beachfront before heading out again towards Devils Dyke. It just meant that we encountered a lot of stop-starting at traffic lights which I think would have been better avoided by missing out the town centre entirely. Nay bother, a quick break at the first aid station where I gorged myself on flapjacks, cakes and bananas before heading north and home.

More 2-upping back home, feeling comfortable but as we approached the second aid station at 75 miles I could feel my legs tightening and my energy levels dipping. I felt briefly better after the quick stop at Rusper but I soon emptied again 5 miles later and from that moment on it was pretty tough. Thank the lord for compact gearing as I just spent the next couple of hours spinning up the rises and freewheeling down the hills. Simon was really strong all day and while I was able to keep up on the flats and do my share on the front as soon as the road kicked up he was gone and would be waiting for me at the top and by the end of the ride he was still looking very fresh.

 As we rolled into the finish we had over 100 miles on the clock and with the extra cycling to and from Simon's house we completed 110 miles. A solid day's riding in anyone's book. I was really pleased with how it went and up to 80 miles was feeling pretty strong so I have to be pleased with that. With a few more miles in the bank maybe I can challenge my 10 and 25 mile tt times after all. I would recommend this event to do. It was well signposted and was a very pretty route and was not too busy, although we crossed paths with at least another 2 sportive events on the day. All in all, a grand day out.

The Ups and Downs of training

It's been a funny 10 days or so since my last post. Quite a bit happening in the background, decisions being made and them almost as quickly being unmade. Somebody on tritalk commented on my wisdom focussing on marathon training when I have a foot injury. I had thought that I would be able to get it sorted fairly quickly, i.e. 8 week's rest and then I'd be back on the marathon trail but this foot problem is going to take longer than that, methinks. I had to cancel the podiatrist appointment as I still could not run on it for them to examine me on their treadmill by the middle of last week, so I have arranged another GP's appointment to try to get a scan and a further referral to a podiatrist. Not surprisingly, nothing showed up on the x-ray. Anyway, enough about my foot. I'm bored of talking about it, so onto other things....

Simon's six weeks out from the Outlaw and 2 club mates of his had spare entries to the Wiggle Up and Down ride starting in Dorking. Simon was going to do the 96 mile Epic route and asked me to tag along. With very few miles under my belt I was a bit nervous about it but thought 'Why not?' and it would be a good way to kick start some work on the bike and burn a few calories. (despite not doing an Ironman this year I am still eating like I am). We cycled the couple of miles to the start from Simon's house and by doing the same at the end that would bring us up to a nice century ride. My lack of fitness showed quite drastically. despite the title of the ride I didn't think that it was too hilly, but the climb out of Dorking onto Ranmoor got my heart rate up nicely. I made a conscious decision to spin as much as possible and for the first 30 miles or so I felt pretty comfortable. The ride was quite quiet; I don't know if this was because it had been rescheduled from when it was cancelled the month earlier and people had not been able to start but the feed stops were really well stocked with a good range of carbs to munch on and lots of water and maxifuel to top up on.

My ride started to unravel after the stop at approximately halfway. As we peddled out, the slightest rise began to feel like a major hill and Simon would skip away effortlessly as I hunched down on the bars trying to get out of the increasing wind. The ride flattened out between about 60-85 miles and I clung to the back of Simon's wheel along the flats taking full advantage of the draft. My bingo wings really started to ache. The Van Nic was set up in tt mode and all I had done was take the tt bars off, forgetting to put the seat and Stem back to how I normally have it set up for road use. As a result my arms were aching quite a lot and I enjoyed resting my forearms on the bars as Simon towed me along to flats. Simon would wait for me at the top of the hills but I felt bad about him having to be so slow because of me and told him to go on but he said he was happy to wait which was really good of him. The icing on the cake was Whitedown. The only thing that kept me going was seeing 2 other riders had already stopped and I really didn't want to stop as well. It was horrible but I felt pretty chuffed with myself for having got myself over the top and then able to freewheel back into Dorking. That's the thing when you do stupid stuff like Ironman and the DW; you think you can do anything.

In other news.....

I've sold my trek. :-(  The bike that got me fit again and got me back into tri. It had to go due to upcoming major renovation work at Casa Wheezy. It was like selling one of my children.

I've bought a boat! A Kirton Ranger. At wobble factor 4 it might be a bit on the tippy side, but we'll just have to see. The slight problem is that it's in Scotland so a family jaunt seems likely.