HOT NEWS 2008
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31st
December 2008
Dave's December Diary |
| This trio
is becoming my traditional Xmas. 25th Christmas Day swim in Swanage Bay. An easterly wind made this a little more challenging than usual. Swanage Bay was stirred up, choppy and very cold. Pete Meteau and myself were joined by two channel swimmers Jenny and Bob for a quick sprint between the pier and stone quay. I think I performed my quickest transition of the year in clambering from the sea to a flaming brazier situated outside the kiosk on the quay. 26th Round the Lakes 10k Poole Park. Another very cold day, a steady four laps around the lakes saw me finish in 80th place out of 343 finishers in 41:51. 28th Somerley 10k. A strained back almost caused me to pull out of this race. I had some difficulty climbing out of the car in the morning! However I soon warmed up on the run and recorded a negative split of 22:05/22:02 to finish 64th out of 473 in this two lap multi-terrain course. |
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31/12/2008
Out with the old..... |
| That's not
a reference to say that I am going anywhere!! With team members racing at the Round the Lakes 10k on 26th December, as well as those out at Somerley on 28th December 2008 it can be seen that the athletes are training and racing right up to year end. And there is little rest as the team is back together again on Sunday 4th January 2009 for a full testing day. Here's to a great New Year and a healthy and happy 2009. Scott & Di. |
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Sunday 28th December 2008
Somerley House 5k & 10k run |
| Well at the
beginning of the month I managed to get Scott to not listen properly and say
“Yes.” And before he knew it we both had entered the race….yes race. Well at
the time it was a way of kick starting our training and seeing exactly where
we were i.e. start from scratch! So when we eventually got back to Bournemouth the postie had delivered numbers 6 and 7 to our door so no excuses now. Preparation was Christmas festivities with no running or infact any exercise. So the frosty, chilly morning arrived and surprisingly we both still dressed for the race and remembered to attach the numbers to number belts to proudly hide the weight gained over Christmas. We arrived at Somerley House 40 minutes early with time to keep the heater on in the car and people watch! Some very strange sights appeared infront of us which made us laugh! Fluorescent was the theme of the day with black socks! Someone should have told them the chance of being knocked down by traffic was low unless you decided to run an alternative course! The last 10 minutes to the start involved gentle jogging and trying to find the start! The finish was clear and bold but the start was low key in comparison. The gaggle of 10k runners gathered watched by rather envious 5 k runners who really wanted to get on with it and not wait the newly found out, 15 minutes later start. The 10k got going off towards the woods leaving some rather chilled 5k runners on the side lines. One of the starters took pity and told us all to start ignoring the other starter’s orders to wait 15 minutes. We both followed the first orders and off we went. Running with my new Christmas present was initially surreal as Ave Maria and Maria from West Side Story were my opening songs….chilled demeanour to match the chilly weather. The race ran round the grounds of the house on good tracks with a few muddy bits around the cattle grids. The course was relatively flat. The race was about getting round and no more……until I started and then it was just keep taking one runner at a time. I managed this for the first 3 and a half km and then settled into a “Oh my God that was too fast a start “pace. But I smiled all the way round as I was so chuffed to be out there. I eventually found the finish line after a rather misleading sign saying” Sprint finish from here.” If you had been in the 10k fair play but not the 5k which meant another 400m past the buttie wagon to a car and a lady with a clipboard. Grinning (photographic evidence) I crossed the finish line and was handed a tube of Maltesers! Fantastic! Scott's note - Dave was also out at Somerley,doing the 10k, as was Lou Gould so no doubt there will be more race reports about this. |
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Sunday 14th December 2008
Xmas Pud 10K |
| Hi All The main reason for this race was to get a Xmas pudding which was the prize for finishing the race so I could feed the family on Xmas Day with it. The race morning was very cold, still 3deg at 11am when the race started. My plan was to just go & enjoy the race with no set time for the 10K but as soon as I stood on the line my race head took over & I had to race it. The splits are as follows in miles as this is the only race that doesn't use K markers: 1 - 5:53, 2 - 6:10, 3 - 6:17, 4 - 6:10, 5 - 6:14 (30:45), 6 - 5:59, the last bit - 1:46 (37:59) I came in 28th out of 521 competitors. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my team mates past & present for their help & advice through the last season. Also to Scott & Di for sticking by me through thick & thin but most of all the biggest thanks goes to my wife, Nikki, for putting up with me through the good & bad days. Without her support & encouragement I wouldn't be able to succeed with what I've done this & past seasons. Wishing everyone & their families Merry Xmas & hope you all have a great New Year. Remember - always race hard but train harder & follow your dreams Gra |
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Sunday 16th November 2008 Wimborne 10 mile road race. |
| This was
the first of my longish winter training races. I had made the mistake of
telling Scott that I had an entered this 10 mile road race. His response was
'great you can cycle to Wimborne from Swanage and treat it as a brick
session'. Being a conscientious and compliant triathlete that it what I duly
did. Well the bike bit was fine. I biked on dry roads in watery winter sunshine and arrived in Wimborne early so did a few extra circuits of the town to stay warm. The run was not so comfortable. It took me the first few miles to gain my run legs and I reached the half way point in a shade over 35minutes. A bit of encouragement from Graham and Nikki at the Shapwick drinks station sent me speeding back towards Pamphill and the finish. The second half of the race was much better and I finished in 69min 30secs. I was pleased with this. Coach’s comment – the projected time for Dave’s 10 miles, based upon his Cooper Test was 72 minutes - so a good winter training session from Dave. |
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Sunday 9th November 2008 Training Day |
| Whilst Matt
was recovering from his efforts at the 70.3 World Championships in 90º heat
in Florida and Lou was trying to get her legs to work after the Ballbuster,
a few hardy souls turned up for the second training day. We had banned Mark & Anna from attending on health grounds, Julian was recovering post-op and Jimmy was socialising in Ireland so it was down to Dave, Graham & Nigel to enjoy the technique based swim session, reviewing and introducing some skills & drills. Graham & Dave came out the water and climbed onto their bikes and did a turbo based ramp test, establishing their current fitness levels and indoor heart rate training zones. Following a discussion about potential 2009 goals it was off to Kings Park athletic stadium to undergo a 12 minute Cooper Test to obtain running heart rates and cross-reference the outdoor maximal effort predictive VO2 values with those obtained in last months indoor sub-maximal test values. Nigel and Julian added their support and various biscuit based treats up at the track. The fun will continue next month with a swim time trail based on individual athlete’s main race – Dave gets the joy of a 4K swim!! Then it will be a re-visit of the turbo ramp test before a 9k pyramid run session based around athlete’s aspirational run speed. |
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Saturday 8th November 2008
Ballbuster Duathlon |
| Lou has
sent us through her day at the Ballbuster. Sorry to gatecrash in on the Team email but just wanted to say that I survived, and ENJOYED (nutter), the Ballbuster today, despite it p*****g down with rain for most of the course. Hence I took it steady on the bike after an incident with leaves the other week. I can blame this lunacy on Julian and Bryce since they started the trend for mad races with Alpe d'Huez. Was thinking about you all during the second run which kept me going so thank you. Didn't set any blazing times but did manage to run all the way up Box Hill both times without having to walk and did 2nd run only 2 mins 25 secs slower than first (I still only have one run speed at the moment) so happy bunny. Enjoy your training day tomorrow. I allegedly have a 2 hr easy spin but think it might take me that long to crawl out of bed and down the stairs, although currently managing ok.. famous last words. |
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12th
October 2008
Training Day |
| With team
athletes getting back into the UK from the Duathlon World Championship race
only two weeks prior to the training day and some getting ready to go out to
the World 70.3 Championships in Florida this training day was always going
to be tough. Team members undertook a technical swim session subject of critical analysis to see where & how technique was compromised; this was followed by a 40k outdoor bike time trail where pre & post event blood lactate was taken to assist in setting relevant heart rate training zones. Finally the athletes went into the studio to undergo a series of performance tests to establish current strengths and developmental areas including VO2, anaerobic capacity, upper body strength, core strength and flexibility. The day was a good start to training required for a successful 2009 season. |
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Tuesday 7th October 2008
Season's summary |
| With the
Northern Hemisphere main events almost over here is a quick review of the
team’s achievements over the year. Julian Allen – Julian did some of the most recognisable and iconic races on the world calendar; racing at the Escape from Alcatraz and Alpe D’huez triathlons before finishing his season with his GB vest at the ETU European Cross Triathlon Championships. Melissa Arkinstall – Melissa won her local race series but also raced on the international stage, experiencing horrendous weather at the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver before rounding her season off with a second Team GB appearance at the World Duathlon Championships in Rimini. Melissa is leaving the team for the 2009 season and we all wish her well as she intends having a crack at Ironman Lanzarote. Mark Chivers – Mark had a quiet race year, focusing on his family and business matters – the great news for Mark & family is that it looks that come the new year they all may have a new start in pastures new. Bryce Dyer – Bryce had a more focused season, picking his races with care. Bryce was out at Alpe D’huez with Julian before grabbing another GB vest at the ETU European Cross Triathlon. Bryce finished his season by defending his TLI TT National Championship jersey. This must auger well for Bryce’s focus in 2009 when he will be leaving the team to focus on Master’s Cycling, specifically an attack on some of the Master’s Track titles. Nigel Eldred – Nigel had a quiet racing year as his attention was on achieving his sports massage qualification, the good news is that Nigel is now fully qualified as a sport masseuse. So 2009 may see a return to racing, although with his healing hands we still don’t know who will change the tyre if he gets a puncture. Claire Fraser – Claire has a great opportunity, representing Guyana at major triathlon events in the forthcoming years and as such Claire’s season is just about to start with races in North & South America. At this stage, given Claire’s commitments to travelling and racing it does not look as though the team will be in her plans. We wish Claire every success with this fantastic opportunity. Louise Gould – Louise worked at the European Triathlon Championships as part of the support crew before pulling on her GB vest at the World Long Course Triathlon Championship race in Almere. Lou also suffered at Alpe D’Huez – not to sure if that was due to the race or Bryce & Julian!! Lou is stepping away from the team in 2009 to work with a coach on a one to one basis, another athlete focusing on Ironman Lanzarote. Matt Langdon – Matt claimed his first Team GB vest at the European Triathlon Championships in Lisbon, having gotten a taste for racing at major championships Matt then qualified for the 70.3 World Championships on November 8th this year. When Matt does start thinking about 2009 there is a rumour that there will be a Team Synergie reunion in Lanzarote at the Ironman event. Dave Pratten – Dave started his season by winning a Bronze medal at the European Triathlon Championship in Lisbon, he followed that up by winning his Age Group at the London Triathlon, a race that always features in Dave’s season and he finished his season by winning the Brighton Urban Race. Graham Starmer – Graham did a fair bit of racing this season, covering most events you can think off. For a bit of a challenge Graham decided to have a crack at duathlon and having raced and qualified at the National Championships then went out to race at Rimini in the World Duathlon Championships. So one European Triathlon Championship medallist, nine international vests, one National Champion and too many PB performances to mention, as Bryce would say “Not a bad season” At this point the coaches want to thank all the athletes and for those pursuing other options in 2009, can we wish those performers well. Equally for all those long suffering partners, can Di & I thank you for all the assistance and support that you have given us, the team members and your own athletes. |
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Sunday 5th October 2008 Bryce Dyer - National Champion |
| A bit of
deja vu about the title but well worth shouting about. Here is Bryce's take on the weekend's racing; The last race of my season before a month off and the resultant change for the ’09 season This was the 3 stage cycle race over at Downton based over a 2.4km hillclimb prologue, 50km road race and a 40km TT on the second day. The final TT was also to double as the TLI national TT champs for those members. Due to a long season and an ever decreasing usability of any base phase I felt I may struggle at the overall of this one and instead had decided to go all out for the prologue, use this as a warm up for the following days TT and then see what happens. I took 2nd in the prologue to another rider who had recently won stages in the Tour of Wales and the pair of us had already taken 20-30 seconds minimum out of the field (in just a 4 minute stage) so that boded well. I knew I was going to pay for this though and an unexpected handicapping set up saw (in a race lasting just over an hour) myself in an elite scratch group of 5 riders trying to chase down 40 other riders with a 9 minute penalty. I was hanging on for dear life for the first 30 minutes. In the end we pulled the gap down to just 15 seconds but then two of the riders kept stupidly attacking on descents trying to bridge across on their own and I knew then I’d have to cover them. As a result the gap went back out to nearly two minutes. Meanwhile, further up the road an accident in the wet had brought a rider down hard and he was in a bad way so with ambulances and police around the race was neutralised for about 10 minutes which gave me a much needed respite. On the last hill ascent our group was fractured but I knew the climb quite well so although at the start I got dropped, with a bit of patience I’d reeled everyone in bar two riders and limited my losses to the others to just 3 seconds. I was now down in 12th overall though. Several ringers had been in the main group that we never caught. That, I felt was too tall an order with just the TT remaining. As you know from Jules, the weather was awful with high winds and heavy rain (virtually every other race in the region was cancelled) and I wanted to get the TT moved or removed as I felt the course was unsafe. The organiser disagreed so on Sunday morning I objected a little more strenuously and roped in some more riders (who I felt were being coerced) and a marshal or two. In the end the TT was shortened and some of its more dangerous aspects removed. We started the TT stage with a few less riders and in many cases 2 minute start gaps which would make for an honest but lonely ride. The rider 2 minutes in front of me was currently in the lead overall and I knew if I caught him I’d be back in business. I started the opening flat 10 miles conservatively (not seeing anything due to the constant showering of rain) and the hilly section past the Red Shoot pub I probably should have pushed but I kept within myself again. Once I got to halfway I shut the power meter off and went for it with whatever the season had left. The high winds got favourable and I knew I was accelerating through the stage whereas I counted on 2 days of racing and adverse weather draining everyone else. I did not see the key rider in front until the last 5 minutes of the TT and I’d have to get past him to be assured of a top 3 finish. In the end, as the road tilted downwards (and cramp started to set in) I was doing a hard pursuit virtually sprinting and pulled past him with just 200m of the stage remaining (basically 10-15 seconds !). That was as tight as I wanted ! In the end, I had not realised that the riders that had gone out earlier had haemorrhaged massive chunks of time and I’d gone from 12th back into 2nd overall. I’d also won the TLI national TT title for a 2nd year. I walked away with trophies, cash, jersey, medals and an entire seasons worth of silverware from one event. Marvellous. Not a bad way to end the season. |
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Sunday 5th October 2008 Dave's Updates |
| My excuses
for not filing race reports for September are as follows: 1. Starting a new job 2. Having an OFSTED inspection 3. After a successful season in my 2 'A' races. I wasn't taking the end of season too seriously Saturday September 6th Questars Adventure Race This race is like multi sport orienteering. Held in the Purbecks it consists of three disciplines mountain biking, kayaking and trail running. The idea is to reach as many checkpoints as possible on each discipline with a 6 hour cut off. You get an hour before the start to plan your route but don't get the value of each checkpoint until you cross the line when you also get informed of the dummy ones. I entered the event with Pete Meteau as my team mate. For those of you who don't know of previous exploits with Pete.. we have a track record of interesting race incidents and experiences. Well this time....we didn't get lost, we didn't suffer mechanical breakdowns, we didn't end up in hospital, we didn't get lost(well only briefly), we didn't go out of bounds, we didn't suffer time penalties finishing with 3 minutes to spare and secured 44th place out of 69 teams. Studland Stampede 14th September For the first time this season I raced with the sun on my back. This is a 12k off road race taking in heath trails, sand dunes and beach running. I finished in 56minutes 23seconds in 47th place out of 232 finishers. I really enjoyed being able to plunge into the sea for a post race swim and cool down at Knoll Beach. Urban race Brighton Triathlon September 21st One of my favourite race venues. Made even better this year by a lunchtime start and bright sunshine. A combination of wind against tide made the swim a bit lumpy which played to my strengths. Two laps in the sea followed by a long steep beach run up to transition. The bike was 8 laps of a closed road course with 4 'dead turns' and one short sharp hill on each lap. The run was 4 laps of dead flat tarmac. I finished 37th out of 223 in an unspectacular 2:25:21 made up of a 21:37 swim, 74:37 bike and plodding 45:39 run. Still it was good enough to win my age group and a nice way to finish the season. Cheers Dave |
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Friday 26 September 2008
Matt's racing |
| Bristol
half marathon 14th Sept '08: Over winter I did some run training for Bath half and got a pb 1:19:45 and was happy with this. This Bristol race was the first time I had run this for years and had it in as practice for Florida in November. However subject to Scott’s mocking no doubt I have run no further than 10km since Wimbleball in June so was not expecting great things from this, in fact I was just hoping to get round in what I thought would be 1:25ish. I was late arriving and struggled to find a toilet before the race commenced. The race had been complicated a little this year by having 7 different colours of numbers, 2 start points at 9:30 for 4 colours and 2 start points for 3 colours at 10:00 to ease congestion - it worked well though. On my return from running to find a distant toilet I found people ready and poised on the start line but this wasn’t mine, my start point was the 1st wave about 500m away but this was well organised and I jogged round and straight to the front - which was a brilliant surprise-no need for my usual barrier jumping. I was ready. Anyhow the race started and I got into a rhythm in the scorching heat following a couple of athletes I remember being close to in Bath in March '08 but eventually they pulled away from me and I ran a large % of the race alone or battling against another lady who seemed to get loads of applause on the way round, which became a little irritating after a while esp. as she was constantly being told 4th lady, 4th lady well done etc. It was a pretty hot day and I think this took its toll on many but I felt pretty good although I grabbed drinks at every station (1.5miles apart) which I don't normally do. I went through 10km in 37:?? and 10 miles in 1:00:04 so thought I may be able to sneak a pb. I flagged a bit at the end getting passed by 3 (virtually sprinting) women in the last mile (wish I could finish like that?) and finished in 1:19:24 for a pb in 87th place overall out of 9600, so a pleasing mornings work overall... Newent Sprint Tri 21st sept '08: I was hoping to get my 1st ever top 3 at this event and a swim pb (a bit sneaky as its 26 lengths of a 15m pool (390m only)) Start time was 11:45 and I felt really hungry before race start as breakfast had been consumed hours ago and I had nothing with me that I wanted to eat before racing. Anyhow once the race started I felt very good actually, better than if I had my usual banana which I craved at this point?? I wasn't pleased with my swim lane allocation as it was one person per lane and mine was furthest from the exit door with lots of people standing on the narrow poolside blocking the route - anyhow I would cross this bridge when I came to it. Was told 20 secs to go so got in put goggles on, then to my shock 3-2-1 go!! I had no time to start my watch or loosen up it was straight into it. Did my 26 lengths got blocked a bit heading out then on the run to my bike I started my watch. The bike was quite good, fast and flat although the Marshalls left a bit to be desired not signalling directions until you are virtually passed them and in one instance this was the case and I had to U-turn 5 metres or so up the road before turning up a hill whilst 2 of them were chatting. I had shouted a few times too but I guess it had been a long morning for them.... Out through transition where a guy was arguing with a transition Marshall about putting his bike back in a different spot to whence it came - he was not happy, past the one drinks station which I only spotted when finished, I think this was the case for most people and onto the run. Again it was really hot at this time - the Indian summer perhaps? The run route twisted into and through a housing estate, again Marshalls were sat reading books not paying much attention, to be honest if this is the case it would be better solely to sign the route I believe - gosh I didn't realise I was this grumpy when I raced!! Anyhow I finished in 5th place overall in 54:57 missing one of my season objectives - sorry Di, 1:20 off 2nd place so not too far away (the race was won in a course record 51:45) although I won a nice plate for 2nd in my age group. My splits were 6:24 swim (33rd), 32:10 bike (6th), 16:23 run (1st). Again it’s the swim that needs work and I am trying to improve this....albeit slowly. I hope everyone has a good night of skittles (and of course Bryce wins) and I will see most of you in a few weeks time... |
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Monday 22nd September 2008
Bryce's Championships Tour |
| Second and
final main peak of the year. 3 weeks, 3 countries, 3 very different
requirements. British Masters TT Champs: UK. First stop was up towards the Welsh border for the lumpy TT age group champs. Severe flooding had meant the 2 lap circuits were shrunk slightly meaning the event was only over about 15 miles which was ideal for me although the lumpy terrain wasn’t. Fortunately I learnt a lot if only in that the bike team’s ladies coach came round with us the day before with a Garmin logging the course typography. A round table discussion with the laptop later over dinner was a pro as things get and gave me a little insight into not only pacing but how to handle variable effort courses a little better. I rode the event ok although a couple of the climbs on the second lap I was getting tired and didn’t push through the crest as much as I would have liked and I misjudged the last couple of miles so finished with more energy than I would normally like as well. Despite this, I went better than I expected for a hilly course against specialists and managed to even split both laps (I was closing up fast on the people that placed in front of me but ran out of real estate. Still, I ended up in 7th (with my Duo Normand partner in 6th 4 secs faster than I which boded well). My laptop had broken meaning I had not been able to download the data but I knew I was on the verge of good form as planned two weeks out from the peak. ETU European Cross Triathlon Age Group Championships: Holland. Let me start with that a bad workman always blames his tools and for those that received a jubilant text from Jules referring to my bike ‘performance’ at this one, it’s fair to say I’m blaming my tools. This race was pretty much Olympic distance on paper with a small informal field. My opinion with only 10 in my age group was that I was downwind and sniffing a chance of a medal. Mind you, this hypothesis went right out of the window when on a training ride the day before (I wasn’t tapering for this) Jules and I realised we’d been slightly misinformed about the bike course. 11km of extremely soft sand and my narrow treaded tyres sank ably assisted with a full suspension bike sawing into the surface with 90kg bearing down on top of it. We discovered all the locals were using hardtails with 4 inch wide slick beach tyres. It was going to be a long day……. At this point my intentions switched from one of competition to one of completion and energy conversation for my French race 8 days later. Due to high winds the swim was severely choppy although with my background I thought it ideal. Mind you I thought twice when after the women started one was helped out with her entire left hand side of her face swelling up and Jules later said he’d heard some swimmers had suffered cracked ribs after being smashed against moored up boats. Still, my lucked improved when it was found that halfway out a mud flat had built up and when I started my swim I had the chance to porpoise out which put me in with the elites round the first buoy in about 9th. A 1500m swim based over two laps took me a whopping 40 minutes but I still came out of the water alongside 21 minute guys and was well placed which gives you an idea of how rough it was. I think Jules summisation was that if this had been run in the UK the swim would have been cancelled. I personally felt if you’re doing a proper sea swim this is what you should expect although the older age groupers probably would not have agreed. The last swimmer was out of the water in 75 minutes! I ordered pizza in T1 intentionally spending a lot of time getting changed so gave up a few places there. I gave up a few more at the start of the bike leg and I’d re-tuned the suspension of my MTB to stiffen up to try and cope with the long sand section so instead that made the bike heavy and useless over the opening 20km heath terrain. I gave up a few more places here for good measure and by the time we got to the last beach section it was into a straight force 5 headwind for 11km. I stopped 4 times to let more and more air out of the tyres to get as much traction as I could but I was pretty much on my own for the whole thing. In between my laughter it was a humbling experience. The only other riders I saw were 4 guys who had created a paceline and I wasn’t sure of the rules so chose not to get involved. It was an honest solo race for me! The bike leg took me 2 hours to do 35km (an hour of it was spent on the beach doing 11km !!!). We worked out later that at this stage Jules had probably closed to within a couple of minutes of me. The 2 lap run went surprisingly well. I went out relaxed at training pace (expecting an hours split) and caught a few guys and I’ve switched nutrition brands recently which seems to have helped a little. After lap one we were misdirected into the finish line. After a bit of hurried confusion with the race director I went back across the line to do my 2nd lap but the others guys I was with opted not to. Take from that what you like but again I was out on my own. In the end I was out for 3 hours 33 minutes finishing last in my age group having been up there in the swim, unusually decent in the run but outsplit by the next guy in front of me by 20 minutes let alone the rest of the field. Mind you, every member of the GB team pretty much finished last in their age group due to the similar tyre related issues. One of the older ones didn’t make the time cut and was pulled completely. You’d think from this account that I’d be a bit unhappy but in light of the fact I didn’t murder myself and took some time to enjoy the course (when I wasn’t getting sandblasted) I really enjoyed the experience of offroad racing. I think the experience of running through woods, swimming in rough sea and mountain biking through open ground reminded me a lot of misspent time in my teens. Something I may come back to at some stage in the future………. UCI Duo Normand TTT: France. This was the one I’d bet the house on. This event was going to be the final barometer for the back half of my season; - fully tapered, fully committed with a well matched partner and I’d spent 6 months working towards this in both training and racing. For those that haven't heard of this race it's a 2 up team time trial open to all comers (this means you) across 12 categories with 375 (!) pairings in total. Closed roads, following cars with name boards, plenty of atmosphere and as close to being in the tour as you're likely to get, means a large British contingent go out for this every year. Within our category the course record was 1:22:10 with a whopping 300 euro bonus for breaking it (and I'd done the sums on us doing 1:19). The 50km course is, well, varied. The front half is mainly downhill with a mid section running through marshland with the last bit lumpy as hell. Something for everyone I'm sure you'll agree. I'd been a little jittery going into this one but come race day I was in the mood and up in the start ramp house ready to go. This had not been helped by the fact the start list was chocked full of talent especially with a pairing from Guernsey in ours which is a well known hive of talent but riders that rarely race on the mainland. I'd fully tapered but there was a question mark over what Holland may (or may not) have done to the legs last week and I'd adjusted my taper to be on the cautious side to maximise the recovery. We started out on the course smoothly but on the first downhill section my partner started getting gearing problems so I forced the call whether we should opt for a wheel change early and minimise the losses. We opted to keep going (which proved a wise one in the end) and settled in for the morning. We soon entered the marshland middle section still having not caught anyone and it seemed like we were more restrained than a lot of the others or just that we were maybe on the bad day. It was a strict plan of 20-30 second pulls on the front until the last 10km whereby it would be a case of whatever anyone had left to then put it on the front. (The funniest quote I heard from another rider post race- "we've got them in the coffin, let’s nail down the lid !!!"). The wind was a little gusty and I put a couple of longer turns on the front on the flat section before things went vertical and I would be relying on my teammate more to pull me up some of the longer climbs. It was on the first hill that first sight of riders we were catching became evident. First one pairing, than another, 2 pairs on the second climb, at least another 2 on the descent, 4 at the same time on the longer drag (which was carnage to weave through) all then ably helped by our team car with spare wheels on the roof, flashing lights, and a pro klaxon system to announce our approach. I kept thinking it sounded like Ibiza on wheels......... Up the last 2 climbs I was starting to struggle so weight shifted to my partner to pull for longer or to pace me up but soon we saw the church spire to signal Marigny. You swing in past an erected grandstand and the crowds with our car now (upon prior request from me) going ballistic with noise. The ladies and Juniors event finish there but the rest of us do an out and back dog leg for 10km which is just awful as you can see your opponents for the first time and the return drag is hard when you're already on the rack. We hit the dead turn of the dogleg and I corrected my mistake of the British champs by burying myself on the last drag (nearly wiping out my own partner in the process). The best bit was the last 4km (the markers count down from 54 in this event) when I got on the front and was averaging on the descent back into town at 40mph+ and was beginning to weave all over the road..... We hit the finish line in 1:18 destroying the course record in the process (I nearly destroyed a marshal as well trying to stop as the run in is very short). The Guernsey team who had been leading through the first two splits blew up on the dogleg (losing 1:45 in just 10k) and finished behind us, but sadly another team from Oxford who had started later on had later beaten our time by 50 seconds relegating us to 2nd. Still a fine result though. Objectively speaking I got it absolutely right. I was well tapered and whilst I have not seen the power file yet, on the meter I held a normalised power of 397w (including my cool down) for nearly 80 minutes which was as massive a PB I could ask for (it was as good as I could manage for 20 minutes 6 months ago). Subjectively speaking, 2nd place is always tough though......... This really is a great event and only an hour off the Cherbourg ferry. Highly highly recommended and a category for everyone to have a good race in. Just don't watch the pro's - it's frightening how fast some of them go round...... I have one event left in 2 weeks then I’m calling it a day for the year. |
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Saturday 13th September 2008
European Cross Triathlon |
| Julian &
Bryce were the latest team members to represent Team GB - Despite being the longest serving member of the team, I am probably the only one that hasn't represented GB in triathlon yet. So, when Scott told me of the European Cross Champs it was an easy decision to step up and where the vest. An equally easy trip by land, air and sea saw Bryce and I arrive Thursday afternoon on the Island on Ameland on the edge of the North Sea. Despite the weather at home we enjoyed some lovely sunshine as we took in the island (following a supermarket dash so that Bryce could get some "quality" nutrition); this is the most surreal place I have ever been to. With no sign of litter, graffiti or teenagers a couple of the team all concluded it must have been the set for the Truman Show! Whilst we were on the ferry from the mainland we spotted a fellow competitor's bike with some enormous 4" wide semi slick tyres. These were the recommended tyres from the race organisers but were not to be found around home and frankly looked ridiculous. It was only on Friday morning's training ride over the course that we discovered why they were recommended, as I watched Bryce's back tyre disappear into the soft sand! Every time he tried to get going he would sink deeper and deeper as his narrow, hard tyres sunk down into the sand under his 90kg weight. I was somewhat better off with my narrower, tubeless tyres at only 25psi and a little under 25kg lighter (bike included)! Discussion back at the hotel basically revolved around how screwed we were and this was only reinforced when we went to registration and discovered that the members of the GB team were the only people without the essential Schable super moto tyres! The pasta party/briefing was a very short affair but was a good opportunity to meet and eat with the entire GB squad (all 6 of us!). Race morning dawned, cold and bright and after a leisurely breakfast we rode to T2 where we found that predictably the only athletes there were team GB! So we racked our bikes and rode to the start/T1 at the harbour before the Germans came to put out their beach towels. As we got to the sea front we realised that the forecast force 4-5 wind had arrived which had brought an equally predictable turbulent sea with large swells and a cross chop that would play havoc with the buoys and cut across the anti clockwise course. Being a southern softie that chooses to race his A races in hot climates I rode back to the hotel to gather my gilet, armwarmers and full gloves for the race as the others huddled in the cafe! 0920 came as I watched the elites run down the concrete to enter the water and get whipped around in the sea, one minute lying on top of the crest of a wave and the next disappeared under a trough. I think it's fair to say that it was a very nervous group of athletes that were corralled behind the big guy in the silver wetsuit as we waited for the gun. Not being the fastest swimmer but looking forward to a rough sea I positioned myself at the back, this turned out to be the wrong tactic as we entered the water and discovered that a lot of people were feeling very uncomfortable in the conditions. Unfortunately, the combination of trying to get through the crowds and the weird sensation of one minute straining to see a buoy whilst balancing on the top of a wave before spotting people wading along as I breathed to the side. Once around the turn for the first 1000m we were fighting our way back in trying to avoid being crushed against the side of a couple of ships lining the course one minute and then standing up in calf deep slime the next. As I got out to round around the jetty to dive back into the water for the last 500m loop I glanced at my watch to see that the first k had taken me the same time as I would normally swim the whole 1500m in! I later found out that Bryce and I must have come out of the water within the same minute or so. Having donned my gilet in T1 I looked up to the clear blue sky and forwent my gloves and arm warmers. Once out of transition we were straight into the headwind that was going to be a major feature of the bike. Naturally, being in the Low Countries there was no respite from the wind with just low hedges for cover until we went into the wooded section of single track. A short 2k on the beach with a tailwind gave us some hope for later before we plunged back into the woods and a long section of single tracks amongst the dunes. Then came the section the GB team had been dreading, 11k on the beach into a force 5 headwind! Unsurprisingly this seemed like an eternity as groups of drafting athletes rode past on their Super moto tyred bikes as I trying to get on the back and stay there. Unsurprisingly I failed. When I finally, turned off the beach it seemed that I was flying through the single track in my way back into transition. A quick change saw me out on the run with the thought of how my right calf would hold out on the first run since tearing it, certainly at 12k it would be a test. Once I had settled into my pace and gotten a gel down my neck things were going well. I learnt from the GB supporters that Bryce and Duncan (former elite licence holder) were the only GB athletes were in front of me. No niggles on the first loop and I was feeling confident that I could start to work my way up the field in the last 6 k and started to do just that as I entered the woods. Unfortunately, as I past another Dutch competitor on the climb up to the beach I felt my calf open up and had to walk down onto the beach. The rest of the race was spent jogging along with a short stride pattern and walking up any inclines, although I have to say that the prospect of the jump across the dyke back to the finish was a concern. Given that this was the last race of my season I decided to work as hard as I could back to the finish and complete the race. Once I got to the finish I was delighted to discover that I was still 3rd Brit home as I hobbled over to the medical area and the first of many ice packs that evening. Despite all the dramas and the relatively poor placing due to the lack of suitable tyres I think I speak for Bryce when I say that if the bike course had been in a clockwise direction and thereby giving us a tailwind I would strongly recommend this race next year. Although, next year's champs are pencilled in for Sardinia! So book early! Oh yeah and it's true; I outsplit Bryce on the bike, happy days ;-) |
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Thursday 11th September 2008
Matt's race updates |
| Well done
to everyone by the way on their latest results, going by the race reports -
the team training has stood us all in good stead. However Melissa do you
ever sleep - 74 hours throughout a rainy august-awesome effort!! I feel guilty that I havnt done any long races/training sessions lately as everybody seems to be going long now although i will miss November's training day due to racing Florida 1/2 ironman so I have my excuse in plus have entered IM Austria '09 so I can hopefully learn from you other campaigners and commence some distance work soon. I have done a couple of sprints recently: Malmesbury bank holiday sunday and Cotswold this sunday so here goes my brief attempt at race reporting. Malmesbury 24th Aug' 08 6:47 - 400m swim (60th), 39.16 - 22km bike (6th), 18:33 - 5km run (4th), = 1:04:36 - 6th out of 253. Rained a bit during the race but quite pleased with the result. The bike includes 2 long transitions so it was a couple of minutes quicker than the time shown. Cotswold 8th September '08 I got here late due to closed roads and a long diversion although I knew my age group wave started last so was reassured. The transition and registration areas were like a bog, incredibly slippery and wet and this gave me much amusement during the race watching participants slipping over and rolling around trying to get out of their wetsuits - although i knew I shouldn't laugh to myself really - they were ok though I did ask!! I started in the middle of my smallish wave and got held up a bit at the start and once past the few who went off quick and slowed i was left on my own until catching the wave in front on the inward part of the 750m swim. The bike and run were great, I felt pretty good just constantly overtaking people with no-one coming by me which is always good, and quite common for me nowadays if only I could swim damn it - Scott/Di helppppp me pleaseee!! Anyhow the splits were: 14:22 - 750m swim (87th), 33:11 - 20km bike (21st), 16:31 - 5km run (3rd) = 1:04:05 13th overall and winner of my age group. There were a few elites in here (as the prize money was pretty good (£750 winner, £500 2nd etc.) so I was ok with 13th although my watch showed about 30 secs quicker which is a bit annoying as this would have been a few positions although everyone may have suffered the same fate. My positions were better than last year although the times not much but the conditions were quite treacherous so I cannot really complain.... I have one sprint left in 2 weeks time and then Florida 8th Nov. and maybe a rest for a few days, calm down Melissa it won't be for long!! Take care all I will see you soon. Kind Regards Matt |
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Saturday 6th September 2008
National Long Course Championships |
| Graham &
Melissa were racing at the Long Course National Championships, here is their
respective takes on the day – Graham first. Hi All This story starts in December 2007 when I decided that my main race for 2008 season would be The National Long Course Championships at Rutland Water (The Vitruvian) with my goal being 4:30 overall race time & top ten in my age group. We booked our accommodation in early January, which was a bit hard to find as the triathlon clashed with the Burghley Horse Trials. My training started on 1st January with every race & every training ride, swim & run being geared to this one event. Nothing else mattered to me this year. If you are interested, a breakdown of hours trained is below: January - 37hrs (Swim 7hrs, Bike 22hrs, Run 9hrs), February - 33hrs (S 7hrs, B 14.5hrs, R 11.5hrs), March - 33hrs (S 7hrs, B 17hrs, R 9hrs), April - 30hrs (S 5hrs, B 16hrs, R 9hrs), May - 34hrs (S 7hrs, Sea Swim 1hr 50min, B 18.5hrs, R 6.5hrs), June - 44hrs (S 5hrs, SS 3.5hrs, B 24hrs, R 11.5hrs), July - 42hrs (S 5hrs, SS 3.5hrs, B 24hrs, R 9.5hrs), August 32.5hrs (S 6hrs, SS 2.5hrs, B 17.5hrs, R 6.5hrs). So standing on the start line on Saturday morning, I was confident that I had done more than enough training & that I was ready for this race. The weather, funnily enough, was kinder to me for the race than it had been over the last few days when it had rained continuously. Nikki said that the only bit of rain we had during my race was whilst I was swimming, but I didn't notice that. The swim was a two lap course with a short run over stony ground, albeit covered over with a thin rubber mat, in between each lap. The only trouble I had on the swim was approaching the end of lap two when I managed to catch a big bunch of people from the two waves in front of me, but I did a bit of bumping & barging & got through them OK. Into T1 which was in a rather soggy field where the older triathletes & women were put as the quick boys had a nice solid car park for their transition. T1 was fairly quick but I did put a gilet on just to keep the early morning coldness at bay. The bike was a two lap course with the renowned Rutland Ripple in it plus a 1000mtrs of climbing and, after all the rain we had had, the roads were a mess with mud & leaves and, in places, large puddles. Lap 1 was completed in 1hr 13min & Lap 2 was completed in 1hr 16min. Into T2 for another swift transition cos now I had to go to work as my overall time was just on 3hrs so I had to do the run of my life over a two lap course around Rutland Water. I felt like I was running well throughout & very pleased with how it went. Overall time 4hrs 36min 57th overall out of 800 competitors 11th in my age group (Swim 30:26, Bike 2:29:41, Run 1:35:50) Conclusion: I didn't quite reach my goal but I wasn't far off it. I couldn't have done any more to get that time so now I'm having three weeks easy training, leading up to the World Duathlon Championships in Rimini later this month. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer there than it is here!!!!! Gra Hi guys, Thanks to Gra for doing half the work for me in describing the course and weather from Saturday! Like Gra, I had put an 'A' against this race and I was looking forward to having another go at a longer distance event after CowMan. I had a bit of a nightmare on the friday evening. I know u all said to ease off the inflation of my tubs but when I got my bike out of the car and found my new rear tubular containing about 20psi that was just a step too far in the opposite direction!! Fortunately the TFN guys saved my day and the need to take a tranquiliser! Then I got in my car to go to my B and B to be faced with an ominous battery light on my dashboard, I prayed, ignored it and luckily it switched off! The race itself was just brilliant, excellent organisation, good pumping music, great crowd and fantastic course. I enjoyed the swim more than any other this season. The first lap was quite calm until the last stretch back to the shore when the waves suddenly picked up and stayed with us on the second lap. However compared to Vancouver this was still a mill pond! The run at the end of the lap served me well as I was having slight goggle leakage issues! Like Gra, I'd seen the weather forecast and took the time to don arm warmers and gilet for the bike. As it turned out I'd have been fine without as I'd finished before the worst weather set in. However no regrets about that decision as if the torrential rain that did arrive had caught me, I'd have been frozen without the extra clothes. The much talked about 'Rutland Ripple' didn't feel that hard on lap 1, but by lap 2 it was a bit more noticable and I was soon snapping down to a spinning gear. The run was a lot of fun (in a tired and painful sort of way) as I had quite a few friends racing and we were all encouraging one another each time that we passed. The first 6-7km were more of a jog than a run, but then things settled down and I found a steady pace. At about 10k my hip flexor felt as if it was getting very tight so I took 5 second to stretch it and luckily it eased out. Finally at about 13'k I found my race legs (well in truth I saw a friend from a tri camp who is a great runner not far behind me and as no women had yet passed me on the run, I didn't want to get caught now so thought I'd better get a move on!). Somehow and I know not how, I managed to hammer the last 6.5km and even out sprint a girl in the last 200m (she was very lovely about it!) Great feeling to finish strong as at Cowman. Overall time 5.16.54, 6th in cat, 26th woman overall. Last night (Mon) I did a sprint duathlon at Minet Park cycle circuit to um, blow the cobwebs out! Came in 3rd, splits: 1mile run- 5.33 T1 - 39sec 10m bike-26.29 T2-20 seconds 1m run- 6.12 Now I'm not getting involved in the Bryce vs Gra training hours....well ok I added up August....74hr 35 mins.....laters!!! ;p |
|
31st
August 2008
ITU Long Course Triathlon Championships, Almere, Holland |
| Lou was
representing Team GB at this one. Well, my first day of feeling “normal” again since being back last Monday thanks to a fluey type bug and a nasty ear infection, hence the delayed report. For the last couple of months, I had been worrying a bit about the 4k swim. My rational head told me if I can get round an Ironman swim, I can do 4k. I knew once I got going I would be fine. They cocked up the swim starts a bit, setting all the AG males off just as the elite females were finishing their first lap – so the elite females got caught up with lots of AG males, which they weren’t too pleased about by all accounts. They were going to delay our swim start by 5 mins, but ended up not actually doing so and suddenly we were off for a running start, or more leisurely amble in if you so felt. The swim allegedly consisted of 1 triangular lap of 1200m and 1 lap of 2800m. HAHAHA. Going out to the first buoy was ok – got myself a good spot out of trouble, then you turned against a nice current, into the wind and sun, with orange marker buoys the same colour as the blokes swim hats – perfect. I was glad of my recent choppy swims at Bournemouth as it didn’t phase me at all. Going back to shore wasn’t so bad, out, run round then back in again. During the 2nd lap I developed a pain in my left wrist – odd as I hadn’t punched anyone. Felt at times that I wasn’t actually moving forward due to the current and choppyness but I suddenly found myself amongst and overtaking lots of blokes. The water was generally minging – patches of smelly diesel fumes, some blue green algae, and some other bits floating around that I decided it was probably best not thinking about. Swallowed a gobful of water when paused to take a good sight – yuck. Started thinking that the end should be near, only to see yet more buoys, so then got bit bored as it seemed like a long swim (apparently lots of people got bored!!) Just kept going thinking that we must nearly be there, only to find yet more swimming. Turns out the swim was indeed long by approx 800m – great. Nothing wrong with my sighting Jules. So I now have no worries about completing 4k. Looked at my watch when I climbed up the ladder out of the water and thought “damn, there goes my time plan”. However, although my time wasn’t that fast, I had a good swim. There were guys who do sub 1hr IM swims coming out in 1.20+ so I was pleased with my effort and I actually enjoyed it in a strange way. A long run to T1, had a good T1, then a long run to bike mount. The bike course: boring & windy, 2 laps of 60km. There were a couple of nice parts, including a section along cobbles (thankfully it was dry) but otherwise it was pretty uninspiring. The wind picked up on the 2nd lap and I found that I didn’t seem to benefit hugely even when the wind was behind me so not sure what was going on there. Got overtaken by lots of blokes I’d beaten in the swim – seems to be a common theme this year. The bike seemed never-ending – give me 70 miles in the Alps anyday. Apparently, when the European Champs were on this course 2 years ago, a girl fell asleep on her tri bars and fell off she was so bored with the course. Understandable but still quite an achievement. The run was 2 laps in very hot sunshine - managed to get my arms and legs a bit tanned but some people were suffering with the heat and keeling over with lots of GB athletes in the medical tent at the end. Think I’d eaten a bit too much on the bike in my efforts to be adequately fuelled so I had some mild stitch but I kept running or rather shuffling. I had had a few irritating niggles in the weeks leading up to the race but thankfully they kept quiet today. Bit frustrated cos felt I could have run faster but didn’t seem to be happening today. Slowed down at about 24km to run with a friend I caught up with who was struggling - could have posted a slightly faster run time but I wasn’t exactly in medal contention and I wanted to help her keep going. After a couple of kms she said she would be ok and told me to carry on so I ran the last couple of kms strongly with a nice Canadian chap called Scott. Finished in 8.29 so beat my 8.30 – 9.00 prediction. A few mixed feelings about the race and really quite down last Monday, especially with my biking this year, which I thought I had improved a bit but obviously not. However, a week later and my head is in a much better place and I am raring to go again, with some ideas on how to improve my weaknessess. It was good to do and I learnt lots talking to others - compared to most others who were multiple IM finishers etc, I was a long distance novice. Legs felt surprisingly ok the next day, other than alternately shivering then sweating and having fluey aches. Another couple of weeks of eating pies before getting stuck into some hard training again which I am looking forward to it. |
|
Sunday 7th September 2008 Synergie's September Special |
| September
is one of the busiest and highest profile months for the team. Lou is just back from international duty this month, having raced at the World Long Course Championships. Melissa & Graham were up at the National Long Course National Champs yesterday, update from Melissa is that the weather held off, looks like Mels has gone top 10 in her AG finishing 6th in a PB of 5.16.54. Graham finished in 4.36, 11th in his AG and 61 out of 566 male competitors; alltold there were 699 finishers. Over the next couple of weekends we have Julian & Bryce flying the flag at the ETU European Cross Champs before Melissa & Graham pull on the red, white & blue at the World Duathlon Champs. Of course we have to move into October to get the season's highlight.....who will be victorious at the skittles night?? |
|
Tuesday 2nd September 2008
Melissa's trials |
| Lou is just
flying, she keeps telling me how rubbish she thinks training is going, well
I don't believe it for a second, if that's rubbish, what's she like on a
good day!!! ;) I’ve had my head down training hard in the last few weeks before all the racing kicks off again in September. I’ve been happy with how everything has been going and I’ve put a few time trials in to keep an eye on how I’m doing. The first was a 4-up at Bicester on an airfield on August 12th. I was in an all girls team and this was a feat that we had not attempted before, even in training. This race was actually a "take-2" however, as last year we all turned up; only to be told that there was parachute practice on the course so it was cancelled!! In the end, our race became a 3-up due to one member not turning up, so there was no dropping anyone as you needed 3 to finish. The course was 4 laps with a few acute turns and naturally very windy! Our first lap was quite steady as we got used to the pace everyone could hold and which bits we wanted to take the front for. I did all the technical side of each lap as I’m very picky about what line I want to take on corners and I was also in charge of getting the team past anyone we are overtaking (glory grabber!! ;) ), our tallest team member, who is also very strong, took the straight into the strongest headwind. We came in 2nd, just 43 seconds behind the winning ladies team (who incidentally are local and get to train regularly on this course), so we have vowed to get some practice in before next year's event and try to nail it! Two days later was the last of my local 10 mile tts. With the championship title in the bag, this was more of a training "get the effort in the legs" ride. I didn't break the 25 minute mark, but did get my second fastest time of the season (25.24) and was fastest female on the night. 3rd time trial was a 25 miler on Sunday 31st of August. The course is the HC113, an undulating ride with 8 roundabouts following the A413 from Tatlow along the Amersham bypass. The series has been cursed by weather all year with races being cancelled due to flooding, snow and on this occasion, almost, due to thick fog! Fortunately the organisers decided to delay the start by half an hour then let us go. I got warmed up and then with 5 mins to my start, the heavens opened, the forked lightening lit up the sky and I was glad of an aerohelmet to dampen the deafening thunder claps, damn British summer!! The first half of the course went well and I settled into a good rhythm, however on the way back it got a bit more hairy as the roads were getting busy due to the later start. Consequently, staying on the aerobars until the last minute at roundabouts was no longer an option...especially when I discovered that my brakes were not engaging at all until the 3rd squeeze (or slam to be more accurate!). At the 2nd of 8 roundabouts on the way back, I discovered the dodgy brakes as I nearly wiped out on the corner! In retrospect I had also made a mistake, as it was dry when I warmed up and I had my tubs at 130psi (normal for me racing)...but of course now it was wet...and I hadn't let any air out, mistake!! So the last 1/3 of the course my head switched onto "just survive" mode as I really didn't want to crash a week before an A-race and was easing off annoyingly early before each roundabout. So when I got to the end and discovered that Id taken 1 min 16 off my PB for that course I couldn't quite believe it! It’s such a shame that was the last one in the series as I’d so love to try and hammer it on a safe day, but that'll have to wait til next year! I’ve also taken the plunge and entered IM Lanzarote 2009 so Lou and I will be taking on the Island next May! I will be picking Lou's brains for endurance tips I’m sure! Melissa |
|
Monday 1st September Bryce's build up. |
| 16th
August: WCA 2 up mixed TT. I did this with one of my team mates and work colleague which means 'screw this up and I don't get any help in our admin department for a while'. It was over part of the old 20km Synergie TT route and was held in atrocious rain. I sat on the front and showered my partner in road slime which I'm sure was nice for her. Still, it was me putting the main effort in. In the end we came 6th overall. Always fun these things..... 30th August: Weymouth Club 10m TT Just a quick tune up and a chance to see where I'm at before I begin my major championship campaign over my last but most significant month of racing (2 internationals and 2 national champs). It was a little breezy and I was coming off my last block of hard run volume meaning I was a little jaded and slightly unmotivated. That said, I was fastest out of the 20 riders there (catching 4 before halfway and another 2 on the way back) and broke my PB for this course by a few seconds which considering the stiff headwind was decent. My power output is well on track for my planned peak especially as I was tired. Next week it's off to the British TT Masters champs which for me is a dress rehearsal for my last events. The following week I dust down the GB vest at the Europeans in Holland, a week later it's the Duo in France and then finally a 2 week gap before i do a stage race including the TLI national TT champs on the last day. Now THATS campaigning. After that it's a lie down for a month before I unveil my master plan for next year. Bryce. |
|
Saturday 16th August 2008
The Little Woody Middle Distance Triathlon |
| Lou was
seeing how well she had recovered from Alpe D'Huez. Distances 1.9k swim (was actually short, unless I have suddenly become Michael Phelps), 56.3 mile bike (although felt like 156), 14+ mile run (although this depends on whether you actually ran the course properly)….but more of all that later. I decided to do this race as “a bit of fun” and to use it as a training race. It is based in the Forest of Dean, a place of fond childhood memories so I thought it would be a nice day out. Pre-race information was vague (no comments please from the Alpe duo) but I thought all would become clear at registration on Friday. The race HQ and swim had moved to a new venue at the National Diving and Activities Centre at Chepstow, a curious place. At registration, the competitive streak started sneaking out and the “fun race” idea got a bit lost – I counted at least 10 females who I reckoned would beat me as there were some top names there. I felt rather envious of others who exuded confidence and thought that one of next years goals could be to master the art of strutting round pre-race looking uber confident and cool. Not exactly a SMART goal but I’m sure I can wangle it somehow! Decided to leave race HQ and go take a chill pill before returning later to race brief, where hopefully some info would be provided. Hmm, this didn’t turn out to be the case. The swim took place in the depths of a disused quarry, with very clear and clean water. It reaches 80m in depth at the deepest part and apparently submerged are an assortment of objects for the divers to practise their skills, including a small airplane, 2 helicopters, several buses, an old army vehicle and even a zimmer frame! The quarry sides are very imposing and I thought it might feel rather claustrophobic but it didn’t. I positioned myself a bit further back than I probably could / should have but after my two recent races where I panicked a bit after having dodgy starts I needed a good swim to restore my confidence. Plan worked well and the whole swim was generally civilised. It was the calmest water I have swam in so for once the buoys could easily be seen. I was encouraged to discover that I can actually swim in a straight line! Getting out of the water without shredding feet was a challenge due to large, sharp boulders and stones. Some matting would have been a nice touch. There was a 400m uphill run to T1 over very rough stoney ground so putting trainers on after the swim was essential. I managed to overtake quite a few people on the run up which wasn’t quite as lung busting as it looked. When I left Southampton on Friday, I did so leaving our front door wide open, oops – a very senior AND blonde moment. I also seemed to leave my bike legs behind. The course was very undulating / hilly so getting into any kind of rhythm was impossible (I wasn’t alone in feeling this). It was also wet and windy, with gusts of up to 40mph. I soon felt very empty of energy which I attributed to having dodgy guts in the few days preceeding the race (a touch of Beijing belly) and despite efforts to eat lots, something which I am very naturally talented at, not much was staying in. So I was making myself eat and drink as much as I could on the bike to get calories in, even though I didn’t really want to eat, whilst trying to practise my race nutrition strategy. It soon became obvious that the bike was just not happening today and no amount of positive visualisation etc was making any difference. To make matters worse I got overtaken by 5 females. I haven’t been overtaken by this many since the draft fest at Lorient last year when there was a significantly larger field so you expect to be overtaken by more people. To say I was going backwards is an understatement. I thought my biking had improved a bit this year but I realise I have been deluding myself and I am still way off the top girls Towards the end I found myself having a little internal debate that went along the lines of: “I’m stopping after this as I am completely empty / I can’t stop – it’s the first time mum has come to watch me / she’ll understand / think of the shame in admitting I failed / I’ll be so cross, angry and annoyed with myself if I pull out / how can I do IM Lanza if I can’t even do this / I’ll do one lap of the run and see how I feel / how can I run if I’m struggling to pedal / I’ll be ok once I get off my bike / I CAN ALWAYS WALK!” I thought perhaps I was last as so many people had gone past me although once again I was wondering what all the blokes had been doing in the swim as I beat so many. All in all it was a very disappointing bike leg and I was glad to get back to transition. A nifty T2 and I immediately found I had run legs. Yippee! I thought I would just enjoy it while it lasted, expecting to have to walk at some point. By then I was determined to finish, even if it was a slow slog. I necked a gel as I was still acutely aware that my energy reserves were too low. The first lap was hard with some nasty short sharp hills but it seemed to get easier once you’d survived the first round. I now like 3 lap courses and have developed a good mental strategy which seems to work. I had some coke at the end of the 1st lap and this gave me a new lease of life so I continued to take it (until they ran out). I was overtaking loads of men that went past me on the bike and felt strong and my earlier grimaces were replaced by lots of smiles. I was so chuffed that I’d managed to turn my race around. I finished strongly and despite being starving, my legs could have carried on running which was encouraging. Normally I can’t eat after a long race but as soon as I finished I headed straight for the food wagon! General opinion was that the bike and run courses were brutal and I felt it was as hard, if not harder than Wimbleball so it was a good race to do. My nutrition strategy worked in that I didn’t have any digestive issues on the run and I managed to keep going despite my lack of pre-race reserves. I was able to test out some kit I was planning to wear for Lanza next year (possibly needs a bit of tweaking) and it served to highlight weaknesses (lots) that need improving. As always, despite some grumbles, I was glad I did it. |
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Sunday 10th August 2008
London Triathlon |
| Dave was
back on his old stomping ground. This was my second A race of the season. This event has a very different feel than any other triathlon with over 13,000 competitors taking part over two day and of particular significance to me as the swim and run are held on my 'home' turf. I was in a mixed age group wave of 417 racing on Sunday afternoon. The swim was a one lap of the Royal Victoria Dock, the bike two laps of out to Tower Bridge and back and the run two laps around the dock and finish in the Excel centre. With such a large swim wave I was determined to keep out of trouble so my plan was to sprint hard for the first 100 metres or so. This worked well and I soon found myself in a lead group of half a dozen. We were being propelled down the dock by a combination of a howling westerly wind, the tidal flow and our own efforts. I guessed it wasn't going be so easy once we rounded the turning point so I tried to get in front and tuck myself in as close as possible in the lee of the lead canoe. This worked a treat and I managed to get clear of the rest to emerge first out of the water. It's a long way to your bike from dockside but at least I had a clear run, along the dockside, up the stairs and around the perimeter of the Excel centre to my racking point. The bike was a bit like the swim, tough heading into the wind, great with it behind you. I felt I was going well reaching the Tower before anyone overtook me from my wave. It was only when I began the second lap that I almost came to grief. As I passed the Excel Centre I had to avoid cyclists starting their first lap. In doing so I hit a drain cover, heard a crack and almost fell off. The pin holding the right pads of my tri bars had sheared. The rest of the bike leg was spent on the drops. By the time I got to T2 it was starting to drizzle. I had a smooth transition and swift start to the run. Encouraged by the crowd in general and Sally's vocal support in particular I was feeling pretty good and by the start of the second lap thought I was on course for a good overall performance and so it turned out as I won my age group. My times were 22:38 swim, 3:22 T1, 69:04 bike, 1:18 T2, 41:40 run; total 2:17:59 I was particularly pleased to record a negative split on the run with a 20:30 second 5k. |
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Sunday 10th August 2008
Farnham 4 up TT |
| Bryce and
some team-mates were at this time trial. 25 miles of undulating work in an open event 4 up (very unusual). I still felt a little jaded from France although my training has been showing good data all week. I've been hitting a 10w bike power improvement since the Alp in my threshold and holding 1:23 repeats in the pool for 100m's. We were a man down due to a bad back meaning we couldn't lose another one (you are allowed to drop one rider only)and I pushed to refine the system we used at nationals the other week (basically using me more on the descents as I can achieve a higher speed than the other riders and then use teammates to slingshot me up the base of any climbs). Our first lap was a little rough (we were riding with different people and it takes time to learn how to smooth this out). Bearing in mind I was paired with two decent hill flyweights I coped fine on the climbs (which was encouraging) and we kept a good tight formation throughout. I was especially happy with my last decent turn on the front of nearly a minute on the last descent keeping us at 42mph for a while. Nice even work across the team and nobody missed a turn. We placed 2nd overall (losing by a minute to Julian Jenkinsons Race across America winning squad which was no disgrace) and finished well clear over the other teams. Looking at my training plan I have 8 weeks overall left to run before I close my season down. The next 4 are going to be tough as I undertake a high load across the disciplines. Luckily my couch is comfy, the Olympics are on and I'm still on holiday ! I've got a fun 2 up this weekend and one individual TT next week to get some final data for the season and then it's off to the Brit TT age group champs purely for the experience. 2 weeks after its off to Holland for the offroad Tri champs which will be more about enjoyment and a (now)reduction in importance - my best bet now for a result now I feel is the Duo Normand in France the week after and this is where I'll judge the back half of my season and throw everything at it I have. |
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Friday 8th August 2008
Poole Runners 5k Summer Series |
| Graham
competed the Poole Runners Summer Series and has rounded up his results. Poole Runners Summer Series is based at Upton House & the course is two laps around the grounds of Upton House & 3 1/2 miles long. Race 1 - Friday 2nd May 2008 20:48 (9:52 & 10:55) - Overall 13th - 1st in my age group Race 2 - Friday 16th May 2008 21:18 (10:05 & 11:12) - Overall 17th - 2nd in my age group Race 3 - Friday 6th June 2008 21:22 (10:05 & 11:16) - Overall 17th - 1st in my age group Race 4 - Friday 27th June 1008 21:20 (9:59 & 11:20) - Overall 17th - 2nd in my age group Race 5 - Friday 18th July 2008 21:21 (10:09 & 11:12) - Overall 11th - 2nd in my age group Race 6 - Friday 8th August 2008 21:13 (9:58 & 11:15) - Overall 15th - unknown at time of writing (unofficial times & position as these are not published yet) Overall - 1st in my age group over the series with a nice big voucher to spend at Up & Running. |
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Tuesday 5th August 2008
BJW 50 mile TT |
| Graham is
continuing his build up for the 2008 World Duathlon Championships in Rimini,
this time by racing the 50 mile TT. 5th August 2007 (the same race & same course) - 2:13:34 3rd August 2008 (as above) - 2:08:22 (PB) - AV mph 23.2; AV HR 158 (max 170) This works out as a 5:12sec improvement. Yippee, Horray, Claps & Cheers Then as a warm down, a 12 mile hilly 1:30min run. Conclusion - I seem to be going well at the moment. Hopefully I haven't peaked too soon!!!!!! |
|
3rd
August 2008
Matt's memories |
| 1. GWR
Towpath 10km - 18th July '08 This was my first effort of note since Wimbleball. I hadn't done much training for the previous 3 weeks due to a niggling injury and it showed. I was a bit disappointed with this run. It was an out and back around a turn and the marshall gave you your time to the turn, which initially seemed good until i died on the way back and knew I was way slower. 18:06 to the turn but finished in 37:44. I think I was 6th on the way out but finished 15th overall with what seemed like a stream of athletes passing me in an overall time of 37:44. 2. Bath Olympic Triathlon 27th July 2008 (1500m/40km/10km) I had read the start list the day before and noted a certain Jenson Button starting 10 mins before me and thought hmm wonder if I can catch him? To cut a long story short I did pass him on the run, thought yes get in there, until I noticed him turn shortly afterwards towards the finish area when I had to head out for my second lap. I was a bit demoralised by this as I thought he must have kicked my butt on the bike but later when looking at the results it became clear that he had only competed in the half distance sprint - running scared I suspect!! The weather was scorching and I was hoping to improve on my previous years performance although I had to go to the physio the day before due to a pain in the back of my knee which had been preventing me from biking for the past few weeks - grhh, so I was just hoping to get around the bike course. In fact it turned out that the bike was probably by best bit of the race and no pain - hurrah. My swim was pretty poor even by my lowly standards, goggles filled up after about 25m typical. I finished the swim in 29:25 a 91 second improvement on the previous year but I was hoping for better (107th overall). Mind you I had been practicing in a 25m pool and I suspect making turns every 25m instead of every 50m is significantly beneficial. T1 was ok 41 secs then out onto the hilly bike. I discussed my injury with the physio the day before and he insisted that I take it slow to begin with on the bike. I started that way and overtook a friend who I train with but when he overtook me again 1km later, the red mist descended and race mode ensued. The bike felt good passing people regularly including my friend shortly afterwards) and i finished this in 1:14:20 (23rd overall). A pretty good I thought T2 (30 secs) although nowhere near Scott’s holy grail of 7 secs which he timed from the pro's in Lisbon.... The first lap of the run felt good but I began to suffer on the 2nd lap and felt I slowed considerably. The course was off road and undulating with lots of twists, turns the odd stile etc. which all contributed to disrupt any rhythm. I finished this in 40:23 (11th) for a total of 2:25:22 for a position of 22nd overall. This was 4 mins quicker than last year with the biggest improvement coming on the bike so all in all reasonably pleasing although a lack of stamina at the end seems to be happening in my last few races which must be looked at..... 3. GWR Towpath 10km - 1st August '08 The weather was awful for this race, the off-road path which forms most of the race distance was flooded with puddles, although on the plus side it did stop raining just before the race start. On the outward 5km I decided to go more slowly this time and try to be quicker on the way back. I followed one guy for most of the outward 5km and followed him as he avoided the pools of water. I reached the turn in 19:15 and was disappointed with this so overtook that guy and tried to go quicker on the way back. The other guys seemed to be running straight through the ankle deep pools so i decided to do this for the last 3-4km as I was racing with 2 other guys who were doing this. Finished 12th overall in 38:04 and although initially disappointed with the slower time than a couple of weeks before, I did beat a couple of guys who had beaten me by quite a margin in the previous race so hopefully improvement is around the corner and this strategy can be adopted again but possibly going slightly quicker on the first few km's. |
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3rd
August 2008
Melissa's movements |
| Just a
quick update cause I've been whirl-winding around again and I’m aware that
my race reports have been falling into arrears. So brief resume of what I’ve
been up to: 1. Winning the ladies Hillingdon triathlon series title, nice shiny silver plate!! 2. Winning the Hillingdon ladies time trial series (new 10 mile PB of 25.04) 3. Racing at "The Fix" tri challenge (a supersprint relay in the same format as the Nationals but with 3 in a team not 4). Our ladies team came 3rd and I was happy to get my 5Km run time down to 19.31, which is more like it! National relays yesterday - I ended up racing twice (again) - once in the morning with the ladies (8th place, 2 places better than last year) and again with the guys in the afternoon as SOMEONE didn’t turn up and I’m nice like that...zzzz. Ironically I raced better second time round as in the morning I wasn’t quite logged in (sleepy) cause somehow I got talked into camping the night before!! It wasn’t actually that terrible, but for a girl who like to spread everything out, stand up, stretch etc, a little space pod tent was challenging!! C'est ca for now and well done to Gra and all you Alpe d’Huez hardcore bunnies - sound as if you had an even greater challenge than anticipated!! |
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Thursday 31st July 2008
Alpe D'Huez standard distance(ish) triathlon |
| Having
watch Lou suffer on the Alpe it was now Julian & Bryce's turn. Julian's memory first - Well, a unique event requires a unique race report from me: 1300 Warm up; What in 32 degrees with no shade? 1400 Swim; beaten to a pulp. 1427 Bike; stuck behind a pack,stuck behind a coach,stuck behind a tractor and thresher! 1458 Begin climbing 1530 Still climbing whilst melting 1600 Still climbing whilst praying 1615 Prayers answered, T2 1617 Out on the run 1622 Out on the walk 1645 In freefall down the mountain 1655 Run for the photographers 1706 Finished (well a truly). What not even a medal? 1715 Agree with Bryce that it is the hardest race we have ever done and both seriously underestimated it. 2000 Pizza and beer! A short report for the "short A d'H tri. The slowest bike leg ever in a race, but then where else does an 1:15:14 at 201w average net you an average speed of 6.36mph!!! In all an amazing race that everyone should try once and should never be taken lightly! Now here's what Bryce thought of it 4 days later and I'm still trashed. Julians has already said it but this is far in excess the toughest event i've ever stupidly ever pulled neoprene on for. Considering that it was only olympic distance, full respect has to go to Lou's race the day before. Both Julian and I agreed we'd not have the fitness to cope with the longer event. It was hot (35 degrees plus I suspect) and calm, and uphill. The altitiude of the event would provide about 15% less oxygen than we are accustomed to. The swim can be summarised as a start line 50m across with 600 people wedged in. You can only imagine the carnage that unfolded with a field that kept creeping over the line, yellow penalty cards being issued (in a swim ?!!!) and the ensuing boxing match the likes of which I have never seen in any event. People were being literally swum over in the refreshing 14 degree water - extrermely violent (of course I was in the most favourable place i.e. the most violent area and at the front). The first bit of the swim didn't go well (but then it didn't for anyone) but i settled into a good rythym after the turn and got our of the water at the front proportion of things (excluding the pro elites in the same race who were long gone). The bike started as my taster in unofficial drafting racing as a whopping group formed of about 60 of us. The motorcycle ref tried to split us up but it was flat and the swim had been too short. In the end, I postioned myself on the inside so if mass DQing occured at least I was obscured. Everytime a ref appeared 20 or 30 riders were riding behind him. I got into the aerobars and got on with the work. Lets be honest, the climb up Alpe D'Huez would soon break it up......... which it did. 21 hairpins of hell (which Jules and I pre-rode on the Tuesday) with a particulary nasty section over the first 4km- Alpe D'Huez. Riders soon ended up alone over the hour or so it would take to get up it and there was no break in it's severity. Even with gearing (you could get up stairs with) it was a slow grind up. On the practise ride I'd used one 750ml bottle going up - on race day I used 3. It was water over the head frequently, energy drink and desperate gel consumption all the way. Each hairpin is numbered in reverse so that no.1 is the last one you did. I blew up on hairpin 4 which left me in a sorry state for the last section. By the time the 'run' started I was a complete mess. The run course was a gentle climb up again and then a return descent but my usual stitch and breathing issues were magniified at this altitude and it was the 'death shuffle' all the way round. It was only 7k in length and it took the elite winners half an hour (and me a near collapsing 40 minutes). I was on the coke as soon as i got out of T2. Absolutely horrible. My goal before this race was to complete it. My swim I was happy with, my bike less so but that was more to do with this course being a direct application of power to weight which i don't score well on (a 75kg typical rider would outsplit me on a climb of this length), the run was just awful. In summary, at the time I was less than happy but upon reflection with the extreme heat, altitude, and the climbing it was a great character building experience which I completely underestimated beforehand (not like i know how you could prepare for this race anyway !). For what it's worth though, (and mainly for reasons of my own frustration) I rode the mountain again on my own the morning after the race and went 5 minutes faster up it. Experience for this kind of terrain obviously counts for a lot.......... A highly recommended event you need to tick off your list but far tougher than I ever found Ironman. It may only be a race 2-3 hours in length but you're really up against it all the way. Not to be underestimated. |
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Tuesday 29th July 2009
Alpe D'Huez Long Distance Triathlon |
| Lou, Julian
& Bryce were on the Alpe doing a couple of races - first up was Louise on
the long course event. It was long, hot & hard...... I have had many sleepless nights over the last 6 months worrying not just about the race (had I bitten off more than I could chew?) but also the logistics of travelling to the resort on French buses with a huge bike box. My travel worries turned out to be un-necessary, although there were a few stressful moments along the way so I was glad to finally step foot into our cosy chalet, rather later than expected as the bus from Lyon to Grenoble got a flat tyre which meant I missed my connection so had to hang around for 2 hours. I had ridden up the Alpe on 2 consecutive days back in 2001 when one of the stages of the Tour finished in AdH, so I knew what to expect. I wasn’t as” fit” or as mad back then, so deluded myself into thinking I might find it a bit “easier” this time. Ha! That idea soon got blown away when I did a test ride on the Sunday afternoon. It was hot, very hot and I wondered how on earth I would be able to run 13 miles after a 70 mile bike with 3 significant climbs. People often ask me why I do the things I do and I found myself agreeing with them that I’m mad and vowed to take up knitting after IM Lanza next year. However, the sense of satisfaction on reaching the top gave me my answer why I do these daft things. My goal for the race was to finish, in one piece, without requiring hospitalisation and to enjoy it. I had no idea of finishing time and it was only when I was watching a re-run of last years race that it dawned on me how long I could be out there for. So, my vague time prediction was 35 mins for 1.9km swim (turned out to be nearer 2.2km), 6.30 – 7.00 hrs bike, 2.30 run, a couple of 5 min transitions (overgenerous) giving a total time of 10 hrs 15. Julian’s sweepstake bet was 8hrs 20 and Bryce admitted postrace to a 7 hr 30 prediction – GET REAL!! ( I think he was brooding at the time) I developed a niggle in my right knee in the week leading up to the race, which was causing me real concern the day before the race. After applying far more Neurofen gel than the recommended dose, followed by Biofreeze and a couple of Ibuprofen tablets, with some spare tablets on my bike, I went to bed with a still not happy knee and prayed it would hold out. Any pre-race nerves were replaced by sheer fear as we drove along the precarious back road we were sent on to the start. I had to shut my eyes in the end but J did a great job driving. Got into the lake – boy it was chilly but I’ve swam in worse. I tried positioning myself wide and not quite so near the front as I didn’t want to make the same mistake as at Wimbleball. Still found myself getting beaten up and once again had a few moments of panic - 2nd time this year I’ve panicked for some stupid reason so I was cross with myself as I can usually deal with a bunfight. Things then settled down and I refocused and got into a steady rhythm and started enjoying the water, although it tasted a bit funny. On the return leg a guy kept zigzagging in front of me and I had to resist yelling a few choice words at him – best not in case he was English! T1 was not the slickest as I was going for comfort but I still learnt a few things I could do better. I had decided to approach the race as if it was an Ironman. People hurtled out of T1 but I aimed to keep it steady as it was going to be a long day out. The first big 13km climb came after 25km – it was almost as hard as the climb up AdH and I did wonder if I was even going to manage a 7hr split! Thankfully there was some shade and the scenery, when I remembered to look, was fabulous. The second climb up Col d’Ornon was not so steep but still 10km – the course notes describe it mainly as a “false flat” but I beg to differ. The heat here was relentless and I could feel the sun scorching my arms. The technical, fast descent was fantastic though. I was passed by one female but lots of blokes, even late in the ride, which led me to think (a) what on earth had they all been doing in the swim (b) was there actually anyone left behind me? Going along the road to Bourg d’Oisan and I was looking forward to climbing the Alpe. Yep, mad, but I had survived so far and the legs still felt reasonably good. I knew from my recce that the first few kms are evil so didn’t try to hammer it. I overtook about 20 guys on the ascent, an added bonus, and it felt easier than on Sunday although I wasn’t actually going any faster. They could have done with a couple of extra aid stations really as it was so hot and I was pouring as much water over myself as I could. Halfway up the climb and I realised I was feeling a bit hungry. I had a nutrition strategy that I followed, the aim being to eat plenty early on the bike to allow digestion time before the final big climb. On my bike I had 3 bottles of energy drink plus I ate 3 ½ bars plus some water. It wasn’t always easy to eat when my watch beeped especially during the first steep climb. In hindsight, I now realise that I had underestimated the amount of energy the climbs would demand and whilst I thought I had taken on enough fuel, I hadn’t. Also, I didn’t take on as much water as I thought & needed. One problem was that I didn’t like their provided energy drink so had to be self-sufficient but even carrying 3 bottles over the first climb made it harder going so there was always going to be some compromise (there were no “special needs” at aid stations). Suggestions appreciated (I can’t just use gels, I need to have solid food in my belly). All in all, I enjoyed the bike and although not a fast time, had a good ride. T2 was niftier and I quickly necked a gel down. From the start of the run, it was clear I hadn’t packed my run legs. My right knee felt like it was going to explode and the left knee didn’t feel much better. Some days you’re the pigeon, other days the statue. At Wimbleball I was the pigeon, having a great run whilst others around me were struggling, today I was the statue, struggling whilst others were whizzing along. My contingency plan for this race was that if it all went pear-shaped and I had to walk the run, I would feast my way round on the plentiful aid stations and just enjoy the scenery. However, the aid stations turned out to be not as regularly spaced out as the race brief suggested and I couldn’t really face all the tempting goodies on offer. I shuffled round the first lap, picked up on the second, then just hung in on the third. I had a few digestive issues on the way round which contributed to the slow time and with hindsight, I should have taken on more fuel – difficult when you’re not quite sure what your stomach is doing. Despite the slog, I kept positive and never thought “I’m not enjoying this”. I was determined to finish, no matter what and I finally did, in 9.09.53. Regretfully, I couldn’t do justice to the post-race grub that was on offer – shame as it was pretty good. I couldn’t even manage to fulfil my craving for steak, chips and a nice glass of red! I’m still not sure what my overall placing was as not all the results are showing on the website as some people were still coming in at 11 ½ hours. Before doing this race I thought I was vaguely fit - however, I have since re-categorised myself downwards! I have been inspired by this race and want to throw myself into training and work even harder to improve. Would I do it again? Yes. Lots of people over the 2 races said it was the hardest thing they had ever done, even more so than Ironman races and Etape stages so even to have finished was a huge achievement. The only slight disappointment was that we didn’t get a finishers medal or T shirt – I felt I had earnt one - and I was a bit arsed off that my nutrition plan didn’t quite work out and my run was so dismal. Still, you live and learn. I was surprised how good I felt on the Thursday, which was just as well as my idea of putting my feet up whilst the guys worked was blown out of the window and I became official team soigneur – putting on suncream (and getting told off for going into massage mode!), bag lady, driver (yes, the boys made me confront my fear of driving up the Alpe, which I did), photographer (failed) and cheerleader (trying to get the backs of my legs brown in the process whilst standing at hairpin 1). My legs don’t feel too bad but I’m sure if I try to push it they will grumble. I had a great time out there, and it was nice to have some team-mates to share the love with, I mean experience – although I blame them entirely for this lunacy as if they hadn’t been doing this race then I wouldn’t have even considered it. However, in doing so, I overcame various obstacles and did things I didn’t think I could so thanks guys. Stone. |
|
Saturday 26th July 2008
Swanage Half Marathon |
| Hot on the
heels of last weeks triathlon, Graham went single discipline. This has now been upgraded to a half marathon as it was previously the Swanage 12. It was a 10am start & as per usual with this race it was piping hot (26/27deg C so the man said during his commentary). A quick description of the course - it leaves the Swanage seafront & climbs for two miles to the View Point then makes its way down to Corfe Castle, turns left to head back into Swanage with a little detour around the houses to make the distance up. The race set off with a Police escort to keep us all in check for the race. I settled into a group of four which included the first two ladies & by the time we had reached the top of the climb one of the women & the other runner had moved away but I managed to keep up with the other girl. By the time we had reached Corfe Castle I was having to turn myself inside out to keep up with her & then she comes out with a comment "oh that's a nice view" & I thought ******** to the view, what about my legs you're crucifying!! At miles seven to nine I was starting to get very uncomfortable & just after mile nine the elastic broke so I settled down to my own pace & started to run a much more even pace. I seemed to finish the race fairly strongly with a finishing time of 1:26:10 (unofficial), approx 17th out of 500 odd competitors (race results are not yet up on their website). Splits are as follows (these are a bit all over the place due to the nature of the course): (1) 6:26; (2) 7:04; (3) 6:54; (4) 6:16; (5) 6:30 [33:11]; (6) 6:06; (7) 6:18; (8) 6:43; (9) 6:52; (10) 6:17 [1:05:29]; (11) 6:59; (12) 6:18; (13) 6:42; (last little bit) 0.41. |
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Sunday 20th July 2008
Weekend Round Up |
| Julian
get's the bragging rights this week with his report being the only one in so
far - Claire was out at Milton Keynes - so there will be more race reports
to come but here is Julian's day. Purbeck Velociraptor Triathlon. On Friday I decided to do the above race to make my final kit selection for Alpe d'Huez in 11 days time and for transition practice. So after surprising Graham by turning up to race we went over to set up transition. The unpleasant sight of a transition area with full racks and no space was not a great start so we started to set up with the bike leant up against the chainlink fence. Linda, who was the race referee called out that all boxes and bags were to be removed from the racks to make space and another pole was added to the rack at the end nearest to the exit. By helping put the extra section on I managed to secure the end position for my bike! After chatting to Graham we decided to try wearing our new race tri tops in the pool for the swim, so I placed my gels on the ground in transition next to my run shoes so that I could take one on the bike and the other on the run if need be. I returned to the rack to place these and discovered that the guy to my right on the rack had the largest storage box between our bikes and pushed so tight that I wouldn't be able to remove my bike from the rack without dislodging my shoe from the pedal. I asked theref if this was ok and she said NO whilst removing the box and placing it by the fence. Natural balance restored. As we were both in the last wave (well it is more of a beginners race) Graham and I went poolside and headed off for 24 (self counted)lengths of the 25m pool. I was the last of 4 in my lane to go with a 5 second gap and by the end of the first length there were three of us swimming on the first guys feet strung across the width of the lane! By various ways of going around each other and pushing off the wall on top of or under the others I found myself in the very unusual position of leading the lane by 100m! This was a little freaky for me as I declared a 11 min estimate and started conservatively! Well, I stayed in front and had a 25m lead by the 500m mark which was maintained as I got out at 10:55, which I am happy with. Naturally, there was no sign of Graham poolside as he had declared a 8:10 for the swim and did it. Into transition I went only to arrive and find that my helmet, race belt and glasses that I had set up on the tribars were nowhere to be seen! Not that unusual I grant you on a windy day but this was a very still day and a sheltered transition area. I called out to the transition marshall that they had gone after scanning the area around my bike and the big gap where matey boy's bike had been. The marshall asked if that was mine two bikes down upside down with everything as I left it between the back wheels of two other bikes! Hmm. Can you spell petulant? I grabbed it all and legged it out of transition, jumped on the bike and my shoes and headed off to Stoborough when, once up to speed, I niftily got my feet into my shoes and headed toward Creech hill(!). As I settled down I realised that the fiasco in T1 had meant I forgot to grab the gels and so I was going out for 24 lumpy Purbeck miles with water and no cals! Deal with it! SO up Creech I went passing some people that had failed to gear accordingly and chased down a coule of guys on the flat at the top before turning right and rocketing down Steeple hill at full tilt. A nice slight bank took me through the first right hander and approaching the second 120 degree bend with too much speed, some quick braking was called for, but my brakes didn't oblige and took their time slowing me down with the result that I headed for the grass area and the brambles that ended with me doing an endo as the front wheel dropped into a dip hidden by the brambles! Naturally, race mode means you jump back up, get back on and then think about it was you hammer past people to make up for it. As I did so I remembered that although it was now two weeks since I had new brake blocks on the bike I hadn't ridden outside and there for they hadn't bedded in! Once back to Corfe it was out to Swanage on the Harmans Cross road with some cat and mouse games with the other riders. The last descent into town prior to the Kingston turnoff saw me caught behind four cars tailing a female cyclist and I was stuck there until the far side of the railway bridge despite some (polite) hand signals through the back window of the last car. I passed two guys by the golf club only to watch the traffic lights turn red on my arrival. 26 secs on track stand later I started to go only to have all three of them fly past me and the girl summed it up by saying "you're not having much luck today are you" as she went! The last section of the bike was hard but uneventful as we rode up the hill out of Swanage before turning left and going back to Corfe via the golf course and the main road to Wareham. By the end of the cycle leg the lack of gels were making themselves known with some considerable emptiness in the legs. I necked one in transition before heading out on the run. Although it was not a hard run course, by the end of the first mile I was a toss up whether my lower back pain or the cramping at the base of my right hammy would be the reason I would be reduced to a walk. Finally, I had to stop by the river to pull on the bars of the fence to stretch my back before setting off. About 500m from the end Graham trotted round on his cooldown and I confessed that it was very much like my Ironman run legs, same pace, same pain, just no walking and thanks to him it stayed that way. At time of writing there aren't any published times for the 600m, 24 mi, 4 1/2 mi race but I have unofficial times of: Swim 10:55 T1 1:55 Bike 1:19:31 Run 33:54 For an overall time of 2:07:51 I have no idea where I placed but suffice to say that Graham took team honours and overall podium place. I will leave him to give his placing in his report. Summary: Don't get distracted and forget your gels. Brake pads need bedding in. 90 minutes is about as long as you can race without calories or cramp will come! Here is Graham's take on the race- This race was at the end of my two week rest/speed phase after the half ironman up at Milton Keynes. The swim was a 600mtrs pool swim which went quite smoothly, but it was a little bit congested in my lane but nothing I couldn't handle. Out into a tiny transition area for T!, which was located at the back of the swimming pool, then about 300mtr run to the mount line & off onto a hilly 24 mile bike course which included the climb at Creech & a long drag out at Swanage & an undulating stretch back to Corfe Castle. I enjoyed the views at the top of Creech, as Dave often says that the Purbecks are such a lovely area. The descent here was steep but my brakes worked OK (sorry Jules). I seemed to be going well as no-one caught me & I got back to Corfe Castle for the second time & headed back towards Wareham Sports Centre into a head wind & it was here that someone did catch me but I managed to hold onto him, obviously obeying the 7mtr rule, until we got back to T2 where his dismount was crap but mine was better. That was the last I saw of him. Out now onto the 4 1/2 mile run which was a circular route based around Wareham. I picked off a few runners from the wave in front of me & apart from that I had a solid run. One hour later I found out that I came in second place overall. Total time 1:51:31 (sorry, no splits) |
|
Sunday 13th July 2008
Weekend Round Up |
| There are a
few race\reports to come from this weekend- We know that Claire won her age group at the Andover Sprint; Melissa won the Hillingdon Tri Series, Bryce completely destroyed his 10 mile TT PB with a new time of 20.:21 – Bryce also shattered his previous power outputs with a high of 421w and a 30mph average speed and that Graham finished 6th in his age group at the Steelman race in Eton and grabbed his Team GB qualification slot for the 2009 European Triathlon Championships. However we do have Dave’s concise race report for the “ Race to the Bill Triathlon” This was the inaugral Portland standard distance triathlon very well organised by the Bustinskins crew. The race was centred around the National Sailing Academy (great facilities). The swim was a bit long but well sheltered in the harbour. The bike was more challenging consisting of three laps of the island (NB. good prep for Alpe D'Huez..Bryce,Lou and Julian). The run was a flat on/off road out and back course. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience; a local, small, friendly well organised event. I finished 9th out of 48 finishers in 2:33:39. |
|
5th
July 2008 Charmouth to Golden Cap Challenge. |
| 11am on
race day and the spectacular Jurassic Coast is looking magnificent in the
bright summer sunshine. Unfortunately by 3pm and race start the same coast is being lashed by gale force winds and driven rain. This event is classified as a fell race and runs off road from Charmouth to Golden Cap and back. Not even Scott could describe this one as flat. Still despite(or because of)the terrain and weather this was great fun. I reckon I was running at about 15mph on the downhill bits with the wind behind me but struggling to stand upright and walk against the wind on other bits. I finished 68th out of 242 finishers in 68:37. Dave. |
|
Monday 7th July 2008
Bryce's bits |
| That's not
a comment on his saddle sores..... Anyway, back to the racing. Sat 28th June: District 25m TT Champs A bit of a disaster as I realised that a power meter needs to be recalibrated in exactly the same weather conditions as it is going to be used. I have not always done this and found out my meter read high as a result on this day. In this race I did 56 minutes and finished fresh because my reliance on the technology for my pacing was too great. Live and learn....... Thursday 3rd July: Moreton Kermesse By now I was into my antibiotics and in a small scratch group with the elite made me get a good working over. I left a gap at a critical stage thinking someone else would fill it. They didn't and the good riders behind me jumped right after I'd taken a turn on the front. I spent the last lap chasing to get back on and never got to contest the finish. Live and learn part 2............... Sunday 6th July: National Team Time Trial Champs, Leicester. On team duty for the bike squad this weekend even though I knew I would not be at my best. The horrendous weather led to a major course change from the 30 mile sporting course to a 26 mile dual carriageway up and back - bliss but mega high winds. I was in our 2nd 3 man team and had a good day out. In the end we finished only a minute off our 'A' team and we were 8th and 12th overall. We would have been 11th but I crashed out on one of the turns when my brakes failed and I couldn't get round the bend. Instead I aimed for the marshal, hoped for the best and steamed into the kerb at high speed. Live and learn part 3.............. Bryce. |
|
Sunday 6th July 2008
Big Cow Middle Distance Triathlon |
| Melissa &
Graham were out racing this one - Here is Melissa's take on the day - BIG UP whoever invented half-ironman races!! I love them, genius! Yesterday was only my second ever attempt at the distance (my first being a last minute entry into New Forest last September just to see what the event "felt like"....masochisitic I guess!) As per my last race report, the weather forecast was grim, but at least I was prepared for it with half my tri-wardrobe in transition. (As it turned out we had the better end of the day's rubbish weather with moderate rainfall and moderate strength winds, not the scene from "Apocalypse Now" that set in after we finished)! The swim was a 2-lap lake swim, very well laid out with huge yellow buoys, very easy to sight. I knew that I had a long day ahead so I kept my effort pretty relaxed, concentrated on long strokes...and found a good pair of feet to follow all the way round!! The bike leg was undulating and consisted of 2 longer laps and one short loop. Having recce'd the course 2 weeks before, I was able to switch onto auto-pilot and plonk myself on the aerobars for virtually the whole of the leg, bar the climb at the end of each route and to stretch out my back. I took the first lap very steadily and then picked up the pace a little for laps 2 and 3. Generally though the pace was quite even and I kept my cadence high rather than grinding a big gear. By the end of the bike, I’d pulled up from 22nd to 8th place in my cat. My right quad has a tendency to tighten up on long rides at pace and it was annoying me a bit on lap 2, however I managed to get it to ease up by working my hamstrings on the climbs and giving it a break. Into T2 was where the drama started. Basically to get into transition, you have to cycle up a kerb covered by matting, through a hole in the hedge and do a sharp right onto a footpath. This is the most technical part of the course! I made it up the kerb and through the hedge but as I went to make my right turn, a marshall was stood right infront of me and I thought "Im not gonna make this"! So I went to unclip and yep you've guessed it, my foot didn't come out and I hit deck!! I gashed my knee open pretty badly but luckily the bike was ok! The other bit of luck was that I had some industrial-strength ibuprofen that I’ve only found in Lanzarote in T2, one of those and the crash was forgotten! Well apart from the stream of blood pouring down my leg which got me a shout- out from the PA which went "and here comes one of our leading ladies and “Ooooh that's a nasty gash on her leg, was that a bike incident?!" I nodded, smiled and picked up my pace as until that point I’d no idea if i was doing well or dismally, just that I felt good, very good. (It's such a shame that Scott wasn't there with his lactate machine as we could have got a reading every lap!) When I did the New Forest, I had an amazing middle section of the run, then dropped my final gel and ran head first into the "wall" in the last mile and a half, which reduced me to a stagger! So yesterday I went into the run with a bit more respect for what it could do to me after already having raced for over 3.5 hours. Ironically as I ran out of Emberton Park on lap 1, one of my gels fell out of my back pocket...this time I retrieved it. I decided that my tri-suit pocket wasn't secure enough for the sachets so there was only one place to stash them..... So at the start of lap 2 I ran through with my amazing new double D's ;) This time the pacing worked - lap 1 very easy, lap 2 steady, lap 3 and 4, well I just kept running faster and faster, even managing to sprint the last 600m with some fantastic crowd support telling me that I was going to break 5hr 30, (6th fastest in cat). I was so pleased to find that I’d come 7th over all in 5 hours 24, granted a different course but still about 30 mins faster than New Forest. I’ve got loads of confidence from this build up race on route to my A-priority Vitruvian...bring it on! :) Here's what Graham thought of it all - Well, what can I say. British Summer time. Isn't it great. No seriously, this was more like racing in November to February sort of weather - i.e. windy, wet & cold. So cold in fact that Nikki stole my hat & gloves to keep her warm while I was out enjoying the Buckinghamshire countryside. As this was my 'B' race of the season & looking to improve on my run after the Beaulieu Middle Distance race five weeks ago, with a week's rest after Beaulieu and a solid three weeks worth of training consisting of 12hrs each week which was followed by a weeks taper into this race, I wanted to see where I was at with my schedule. Race day morning arrived dry but very windy with very threatening clouds on the horizon. With the forecast of rain mid morning I knew that it was going to be an unpleasant day at the office. The swim was a two lap course round an island in the middle of Emberton Park lake which was quite clear, probably due to all the rain, & relatively warm. The swim started well with a countdown from five to one, but with me going on two!!! Ooops. I got to the first buoy in third place but then in the next 300mtrs we started to catch the first wave who started 5mins beforehand, so lost track of my position. After that the swim went OK with no untoward problems. Into T1, which Nikki described as having a picnic lunch followed by pudding (where I could just imagine Scott in the background shouting "pizza for Starmer"!!!!). However, my version of the event was I had to put arm warmers on wet arms, number belt on, heart rate monitor on & then get out of transition. Oh, & remembering to also put my hat on. Off onto the roads for two laps of 22 miles of undulating roads which seemed to be more up hill than down dale almost after every corner followed by a shorter lap of 12 miles which, again, was undulating. After eight miles into the ride the heavens opened & down came the rain. At the same time we turned into a headwind but I just had to get on with it & do the job in hand & not worry about getting overtaken, because the main aim of this race was to improve the run off the back of the bike so I just settled into my own rhythm with an overall average HR of 157, an average speed of 21mph over 56.72 miles. Into T2 with a good dismount & no time for pizza on this occasion cos I was now on a mission to get out onto the run which was four laps around the back roads of Emberton Park, through a farmer's corn field, through a caravan park & then back in the Park for the next lap etc. The first lap seemed to be OK. The second lap didn't seem as good as the first but now there were lots more runners on the course & on the third lap I just seemed to be overtaking people all the time which gave me a good incentive for the final lap which went well. Times are as follows: Overall Swim Bike Run 4:45:31 00:29:45 02:42:24 01:30:09 PS: Conclusion of the race: I'm very pleased with how the run went because that was the main reason for the event so now I've got eight weeks to go before my 'A' race of the season which is the National Middle Distance Championships in September. Gra |
|
.
Melissa's musings |
| Hi all, Bit of a mixed couple of weeks since Vancouver. I was really surprised by how much the jetlag affected me, this was my first long-haul trip and I naively thought Id be over it within a couple of days...hmm not! Probably didn’t help that I was straight back into work and then up at between 4-5am Sat and Sun for training and racing the weekend I got back, so the story goes: Sunday 15th June 2008 - Windsor Triathlon, standard distance. I’d entered this race before qualifying for Vancouver and as its local I thought id go anyway and enjoy the day. My wave was off just after 6.30am. The swim is in the Thames and is basically 900m against the current and 600m back with the current. I’d read all the literature about swimming close to the right hand bank on the way out...but so had everyone else by the looks and it was a complete bun fight, some bits were so shallow that people were standing up and walking!!! After about 300m I decided to move out a bit and get some clear water, this worked to my advantage for about the next 400m and I made good ground. However when I got past the bend in the river and about 150m from the turn buoy I began to regret this move, lets just say "endless pool effect"!! I kept putting my head down, ten strong strokes, sight, still in the same spot damn it!! Eventually I managed to get on the feet of a stronger swimmer who pulled me forward and I managed to get around the defiant yellow inflatable, unlike a large number of people who I saw turning without going round it, tut!! Apparently there was a chunk of metal near the swim and bike exit timing mats so we lost T1 and T2 splits but I bet I was in that damn river for 35-36 mins!! The bike was a much better affair and I was passing people (swimmers!) all the way round. Not too technical apart from one dead turn in the road, a good time trial course. Bike of 42km plus T2 was 1.15. I kept a steady work rate but not flat out, thinking Id save something for the run.... ....but I may as well have just hammered it, as on the run, Vancouver, travelling and jetlag finally got me, I had nothing left in the tank anyway and staggered round 10.2km in 45mins!! The hill up to the castle was a killer, we had to do it 3 times, the first 2x I plodded up, but by the 3rd time some poor guy overtook me and for some reason that hit my annoyed nerve so I somehow sprinted back past him and had a reasonable run to the end. Apologies to all who I was grumpy to en route including a certain F1 driver who said hello as he ran past me and got a somewhat vacant reply!! Ok so Monday night, I decided to be sensible and go for a 1-hour spin at the cycle circuit then watch the club duathlon. ...Yeah well that was the plan, but somehow it didn't turn out like that and the next thing I knew there was a number on my back! This ironically went much better than the day before, first lady for 2mile / 10miles / 1 mile in 12.02 / 26.47 / 5.54.... ....then I paid for it as I felt rather ill after I crossed the line and I spent most of Tuesday in bed with a tummy bug feeling utterly wiped out (I later discovered that 2 other girls from Hillingdon also picked something up post Windsor so I will be on flat Cola after my next race!!) Wednesday I felt much better and I found myself at Eton Aquathon. WHY??!! I swore Id never do an Aquathon as long as I live, I can't swim for toffee! Ok I admit I quite enjoyed it at the end of the day. The swim is in an odd shaped pool at the college, you start in the middle, swim 50m, climb out, run round a post, dive back in, swim 100m, climb out, run round a post, dive in and repeat 7 times to give 750m. Then ditch the wetsuit and run 5.5k on trails (3 laps). My swim was hilarious, someone grabbed my shoulder at the start and pulled me back so I spontaneously threw a fist and later found out it was my mate Stuart who had panicked as it was his first Aquathon too, he apologised, I felt guilty..but more importantly passed him on the run grrr! ;). My first lap of the run was good but on the last 2 the remnants of the stomach bug started and it was a bit of a struggle to concentrate! Still managed to catch 14 people and finished 4th lady in 14.26 (swim and running round poles), 23min T1 plus run. That’s all for now, sprint tri this weekend and then the big un (Cowman) the week after. Melissa (Coach note – not a text book, long-haul recovery week!!) |
|
Thursday 19th June 2008
Moreton Kermesse |
| It needs to
be expressed that after the 10k on Tuesday I haven't been able to walk too
well. For those that have done a bit of Ironman will be all too familiar
with the 'walking down the stairs backwards' routine as well. This has been
how it has been for the last 48 hrs. I went to race on the bike again though
to get some blood circulating to the damaged areas and see how I was faring.
I couldn't even walk across the car park properly............. The race was extremely windy and we got straight down to business. Unusually, there were a lot of attacks and I got stuck in a few times. In fact the breaks were repeated virtually every lap until the last one whereby one, than the odd rider would jump across. I saw the danger and went after them 3 or 4 times but in moments of indecision didn't make it the whole way across or went to late and was worried about losing the ability to sprint at the end. This was a costly mistake as the last break wasn't pulled back and every time I got dragged back another strong rider would counter attack and then get across. That’s inexperience on my part. Either way I got a perfect lead-out to win the peleton bunch sprint (giving me 8th). |
|
Tuesday 17th June 2008
Forde Abbey 10k run |
| Bryce never
seems to pich straight forward events - You know when you’ve gone to the right event where it says in the information pack “more river crossings than ever before” or “watch out for the animals”. This race was something I did with my Dad a couple of years ago but I decided to return to rediscover my ‘love’ of run racing. A good event that started as a low key jaunt between expedition instructors now pulled in 230 runners to be pitted over insane terrain for roughly 10k in the middle of nowhere. The race begins at Forde Abbey in its grounds and begins….. with a 3km (yes, that’s 3km) uphill ascent. At which point everyone starts like an 800m flat race because of being caught up in the excitement (and because of the mad rush to get over a stile section). Masses of mud (I lost a shoe 4 times), multiple stiles, massive boulder strewn downhills. I took the first climb steady knowing that I’d catch a lot of people once they blew at the top (which I did) and on the descent (for those that have been in the team for a while it’s worth mentioning that it was during the race I bumped into ex team member Will who was visiting some relatives in the area). I only realised this as I later got lost running across a barley field and it was him who called me back to the route ! At about the halfway mark I heard a voice behind me utter “oh sh*********t !!!!!” as we then got charged by a load of cows from behind who didn’t seem that pleased about meeting us. A mad dash for the fence ensured. All races should have this level of panic as standard. I can’t say I was enjoying the distance, it had been a while since I’d run that hard and it showed. Be that as it may, I continued to progress up the field although with the numerous shoe losses I dropped a bit of time I shouldn’t have. As we hit a river crossing at 8km there was a rope line supplied and involved a knee deep wade (for me !) where I made few gains but when I climbed out my legs were completely empty only to find another shallow crossing at 9km but a bit of the old lifeguard surf running came in handy. The final 500m was a run at a wedding cake style tiered grass bank which was just a wall and I hit the line in 44 minutes dead which considering the terrain, the fact I was about 20thoverall, and the fact it’s been a while for me was surprisingly pleasing. Will just nipped in the next place ahead of me but it was a great event and was said by many of the fell runners that it is hardest (non novelty) run race they have done. Recommended……………… no more run racing for me for a while (getting out of bed this morning was, how you say, ‘interesting’ – recovery tights can only do so much)… |
|
Sunday 15th June 2008
Wimbleball 70.3 |
| Wimbleball
is the World Triathlon Corporation's only UK qualifier for the World 70.3
Championships in Clerawater, Florida. Matt & Lou were both racing this one - Here is Matt's account first This was a main race for me and it seemed to come and go in a flash. I arrived shortly before the 14:30 registration cut off on Saturday, then came the race briefing at 15:00, bike racking 16:00-17:00 then off to find b & b then pack bag for race morning, dinner then bed (although didn't sleep much). Up at 03:40 for breakfast, then me and the other 7 people who I was with headed for the lake and 05:40 walk to race start for 06:00. To quote Scott this was one heck of a bun fight - 1000 or so people going for it like things possessed, I have never been hit/kicked so many times and it was relentless. The water was muddy, there was a light fog on the waters surface so visibility was poor. I just tucked in and followed those around me - big mistake. Once I got to the first buoy (the swim was in an anti-clockwise triangular shape) I realised that we had gone too far left and had to swim right to get around the first buoy, it was literally a case of the blind leading the blind. Anyhow once the swim was over it was time for the 400m uphill dash to transition. Once at the mount line where my swim was sooo slow I was waiting for people who had blocked the road trying to mount their steeds and were doing 'a Lisbon' as me and Lou called it, falling into the hedge, lying on the road etc etc. total amateur carnage! Once past this the bike was good although pretty hilly and I felt fine until a hailstone storm on one half of the course (incidentally the other half stayed dry) made me so cold that my left hand couldn't change gear, I was struggling in the big ring for a while until I managed to change both shifters with my right hand - not ideal. Next came the run and I felt good at the start coming out with Julie Dibens just behind me (its not that great she was on her 2nd lap) so I gave her some words of encouragement as I overtook her considering the result she probably wasn’t that impressed.... The run was 3 laps of off road undulating terrain I felt good on the first 2 and was overtaking lots but on the final lap the wheels came off. I was scrambling for Gatorade and bananas at the aid stations instead of water and I even had to partially walk up the steep hill on the 3rd lap, I have never had to walk on a run before but an elderly ladies encouragement thankfully got me going again. In the end I was happy with the time although am a teeny bit gutted it wasn’t a bit quicker - 5 hours 20 mins 63rd overall, 9th in my age group and thankfully good enough to get a rolled down slot for Florida Half Ironman world champs so USA here I come!! Hopefully it doesn’t clash with November’s training day? My splits were: 1.9km swim 37:39, T1 4:16, 90km bike 3:04:53, T2 1:20, Run 1:32:50. Now this is Lou's take on the day If I had been writing my race report at the end of the 1st lap / start of 2nd lap of the bike, it would have quite simply read “miserable”. By the start of the final run lap, it had progressed to something more like “wicked”. So.. After a delightful 3.15am alarm (my earliest race ever), I drove from Honiton to Wimbleball Lake, arriving at 5am. We had to be ready to parade down to the lake at 5.40am, so there wasn’t much time for faffing around. I felt surprisingly awake but nervous. Got in the lake for a quick warm up and took a moment to take in the scene. No big countdown to kick off (quite literally), then off we went, just as the mist descended. Trying to sight anything was impossible and it was a case of follow everyone else. I thought I had picked a good starting spot, keeping wide, but I was soon surrounded and being battered – this was worse than 2500 people at Ironman Austria! Started panicking, unusual for me as I generally try to give as good as I get, so I eased myself out of the mayhem (whilst still being dunked) and paused briefly to get myself back together, telling myself that I can swim, I can deal with this and that my race is not going to finish this soon. Got going again and managed to settle down. Sighting on the 2nd side of the triangular lap was equally impossible due to swimming into the sun and the sheer number of bodies churning up the lake but I felt I was starting to make some progress through the field. On the final 3rd, my right calf started to cramp, probably due to the cold and I was glad to see the finish. I was annoyed with myself as I know I can do better – I think this was the worst open water swim I have done. Got onto dry land but couldn’t see properly – my contact lenses had moved around on my eyeballs so I was trying to wiggle them back in position. That pre-race paranoia of loosing contact lenses and putting spare pairs in bike & run transition bags may not have been such a bad move after all, but thankfully I managed to sort them out. Next issue was not being able to run properly due to calf cramp & numbness and I was scared it was going to pull but it eased slightly by the end of the 400m run up to T1. After a not very swift transition I was out onto the bike, feeling useless, annoyed and nearly burst into tears. Pathetic. My mood didn’t improve for the 1st lap of the bike, especially as I was freezing despite putting on a top, and my feet were numb the whole time. A sudden storm was the icing on the cake, and had I punctured at that point I think I might have said “stuff it”, or words to that effect. I did have one good moment on the 1st lap - when getting to the top of Pylon hill I thought “lovely jubbly”, a rather strange thing to think of after a lung busting climb. (the 2nd lap thought was “thank **** for that”) Hmm. Got to the start of lap 2, Looked at my watch which was just about the 1hr 45 mark and realised that if I could maintain my effort, I could get a 3.5 hour bike split. Suddenly things looked up especially when my legs recovered from the slog of the last 1/3rd of the lap (lots of climbing) and I told myself I could do it. If I was suffering, then others would be too. Got a banging dance anthem into my head which pushed me on during lap 2 and I caught quite a few people by the end of the 2nd lap who had gone off during the 1st which cheered me up even more. However, my right calf was tightening and the cold was making my stomach feel crampy – there could be trouble ahead on the run, I thought. I was so glad to get off the bike. T2 was quite good, although not reflected in my time cos about 2 mins of it was spent weeing for England. (sorry, too much detail?) Out onto the run and I couldn’t feel my feet for most of lap 1, which was rather slow. Ivan told me I was 21st female after the bike – I said I was going to finish this damn race even if I had to walk the run. I wanted a finishers T shirt (turned out to be orange, not really my colour but I’m prepared to make exceptions). Lap 2 was uneventful, other than having very painful feet as they thawed out…and then came lap 3. At the 9 mile marker, I looked at my watch which said 11.29am (not sure if it agreed with race clock). Just 30 mins to run 4 miles for a 6 hr effort. Not likely on this course, I thought, but hey, it will be fun to try a negative split on my last lap (a really sensible idea at the end of a hard course). With that last lap mentality, I went for it. Being a bit bored of energy stuff but realising I was feeling suddenly rather hungry, I decided to try some coke. Only done this once before in a race (Austria) although it didn’t seem to have any adverse effect then, so I thought I would take a chance and suffer the consequences – I could walk 4 miles and still finish if necessary. Ivan had rounded up some rather loud girls and as I started out on my final lap, I got a huge cheer from my new fan club which spurred me on. I hammered round, overtaking loads of people, absolutely flying and feeling stronger and stronger. It was nice to pass lots of people struggling as that is usually how I am. I got to the finish branch off point and somehow picked up the pace, thinking that I would probably manage a 6:05 – 6:10 effort. As a turned the corner, I saw the finish – the clock said 5:57. I jumped up in the air like a spring lamb, punched the air and crossed the line with the most stupid grin on my face. Saw Richard Iles & Ivan by the finish, went over and was even more delighted when Richard told me my “Special edition” baseball cap was cos I’d finished in the top 250. I later learnt I had finished 3rd in my age group. With 4.5 hours of hanging around until the prize presentation, there wasn’t much to do. I discovered Matt in the food tent so joined him for a while, went off to sort out my stuff, returned to find Matt still in the food tent, wandered off again, came back to find Mr Popcorn Man (matt) still in the food tent. We continued to pass away the time nattering during which I learnt Matt’s secret training weapon. Another athlete who I met in Lisbon then joined as and so, come presentation time, it was nice to be able to share our moments of glory with some familiar faces. There were 3 qualifying slots for the Worlds in my age group, so I qualified. Unfortunately I had to decline my slot as I just can’t afford to go, and it wasn’t really in the plan, although for a brief moment I was very tempted to say yes. However I knew that, given the response I got when mentioning a race I want to do in Scotland, it was a definite no go-er. The short, sharp pre-race taper seemed to work, as did the pre-race croissants (there’s only so much muesli you can eat in one go) and coke on the run. My times were as follows: AG rank Swim 35.28 8 T1 5.50 4 Bike 3.24.26 3 T2 3.18 12 Run 1.48.24 3 Total 24th female (including 7 pros) out of 132 female finishers 3rd out of 26 in AG ( + 2 DNF’s) 222nd out of 799 finishers (male & female) + 97 DNF’s I was well chuffed with my time. My prediction (here comes a telling off) was 35 – 40 mins swim, 3.45 bike, 2.00 – 2.10 run. So, 3 prizes in 3 weeks must mark the end of my winning streak. Got lots of work to do to knock huge amounts of time off my bike and run. I need to sort my head out on the bike but I already know one thing I can easily do to improve that. I have to say a huge thank you to Ivan (Whitehead, Zoom Tri) for all his support around the course, and also to his girlfriend, Wendy, who bailed me out at the last minute and kindly put me up for the night in Honiton when the person I was supposed to be staying with let me down at short notice. I even managed to smile at Ivan when I was going round, although I was disappointed he didn’t hurl abuse at me as promised! And also to Richard, for his ever calming influence pre-race! So, there we go. Short and sweet as usual. Just wait til an Ironman race report. Coach Note - a great effort by Lou & Matt on a tough race course. Fantastic opportunity to race at the World 70.3 Championships as well, could be a long season for some of the athletes!! |
|
Sunday 15th June
Matt's meanderings |
| Gloucester
Sprint 25th May 08(SW Series) It absolutely hammered down with rain from start to finish and the organisers knew this from last year in that we received an umbrella with our race numbers and we got a free mug of soup and a roll with a voucher after the race that was as good as it got. Again the race went ok and I finished 8th overall in 59:32. (was 31st last year 3:21 slower). Splits are as follows: 400m - 7:00 (50th), 18km bike - 29:10 (7th), 6km run - 23:22 (3rd) Tewkesbury Sprint 18th May 08(SW Series) This was strange in that it was an afternoon race and my start time was 17:02, I was seriously dozing off on the drive up there which wasn't a great indicator of a good performance to come. However the race went ok and I finished 9th overall. Splits were: 400m - 7:16 (42nd), 20km bike - 40:04 (9th), 5km run - 14:22 (2nd) and not far off a european record for a 5km off road i think, bit dubious of the run distance/time. Burnham on Sea sprint 1st June 08 A mix of sunshine and showers for this race. It was 500m in the pool which puts me at an instant disadvantage with my slow swimming followed by a 20km bike and a 5km run along the beach and back. There is an infamous bit of the beach in front of the finish where competitors try to cut off a corner for a more direct route but then can suffer the humiliation of sinking to their waists and losing shoes, it is definitely worth hanging around the finish to watch those who ignore the many marshall’s instructions! My splits were as follows: 500m - 8:34 (49th), 20km bike - 33:36 (7th), 5km run - 20:10 (2nd). I was 5th overall from 255 starters in 1:02:20 and won my age group. I looked at the time improvements from last weekend and compared last years results and just like Scott the predictions were really accurate. I improved by 3:29 from last year. Including Lisbon I raced every weekend for 4 weeks so decided to take a week off before Wimbleball, (don't wish to steal Gra's racing every week crown!) thought I had better get a long bike/brick in somewhere, its ok Scott i had been biking Saturdays instead! |
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Saturday 14th June 2006
BJW 10 mile TT |
| This was
the last race of my first half of the season before I rebuild for the second
peak in September. Otherwise known as my ‘last chance saloon’. With the
previous disappointments, this was my only race left whereby I could redeem
myself. Up to Andover where many of my annual PB’s have come from in the past and we were welcomed with dry conditions but with an unwanted light to moderate headwind on the way back. Early postings showed that the times were typical but not exactly quick (I felt due to a slightly cooler air temp, an unusual lack of traffic, and the headwind on the return). My warm up wasn’t great but I got upto the start with an open mind and a firm plan (underpace the first 4 minutes, hold at 390w from miles 3-5 and then ignore the meter and go full tilt on the return)…… and that’s pretty much how it went. I knew the return leg would be hard when I ran out of gears at mile 3 cruising at 40mph. I got round the turn ok and made my return. Aside from a rare stitch it went ok but upto that point I just didn’t feel like it would be my day again. I just couldn’t get on top of a gear and was back to spinning a high cadence (a sure sign of when I feel like I’m lacking power) to keep moving. There is a bridge at 2 miles to go and I realised that despite the wind, I was now in with a chance of something. Things got blurry at this stage but I hit the line in 20:33 carving another 13 secs off my PB. I put out the same power as the TT earlier in the week (which only proves how non beneficial a pre race race actually is). The graph trace looks like a ramp test – 360w for the first 4 mins, 380w average to the turn, 420w average on the return leg, 470w over the last 2 mins !!! Too wide a swing in terms of first half/last half pacing but the wind was probably a factor. Either way, I felt I’d salvaged something from my first peak (and when it mattered). I did the sums beforehand and predicted that 20:30 was achievable in my current set up and output so I’m getting as good as Scott in the forecasting stakes. I’m doing some testing at the velodrome this week on arm position set up to try and find a bit more free speed as I think I’m diverting too much into my chest cavity. I’m now rebuilding for my 2nd and final peak in September. I’ll be possibly doing the British TT circuit champs, The European offroad tri champs, the Duo Normand, and then a 2 day stage race - one week after the other. My priority is the Triathlon and Duo races abroad. Lots more to play for. Bryce. |
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Sunday 8th June 2008
World Sprint Championships Vancouver |
| Sarah
Wheeler who raced with the team up until this season has shared her
experiences of the World Sprint Triathlon Championships at Vancouver. Hi All Thought I'd send you all my report from the World Sprint Champs in Vancouver. After all, if it wasn't for Team Synergie, I'd never have aimed so high! I had trained hard and well for this event and was as ready as I thought I could/would be. As a family we took the opportunity to stay the week before the event in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. There is no way I can do justice to the amazing scenery and wildlife we saw. The old cliché of picture post card was oh so true. I ran and cycled up snow covered mountains and alongside lakes that looked like mirrors with their reflections and swam at the foot of mountains - stunning! Vancouver was a complete change. Breathtaking in its own way with sky scrapers and very noisy. Weather was poor, lots of rain, low cloud and chilly. It suffered its coldest June day since 1954 on race day as air temperatures peaked at 11.1°C alongside relentless rain. My wave started at 6:50am and suffered water temperatures of just 10.9°C and frigid wet weather. A standing start on the beach for a sprint into the sea had us all nervously waiting for the off. We were suddenly distracted by a seal that had decided to have a play just in front of us! However, we were soon off with a great surge to get the swim over with as soon as possible. The usual shoving and pushing took place before settling down into some sort of breathing pattern. This was a point to point swim across English Bay which turned out to be nearer a kilometre swim. Despite being so cold in the water it was a good swim. T1 was far too slow, couldn’t feel my hands and feet, struggled with removing the wetsuit, then getting onto the bike, I was starting to suffer with the cold. However, I was there to do my best and pushed on. The bike section was quite technical. One long slow climb followed by a very fast hair raising decent! Various sharp corners with hay bales just in case you came off the route, terrible rough roads, and a wooden bumpy bridge added to the fun. For the first time ever, I was actually starting to shiver on the bike. My extremities were really beginning to suffer! The location of Stanley Park was very pretty, even in the rain! T2 was quicker, but still not up to my usual speed. Legs were freezing, and judging by photos and comments, they looked even worse than they felt!! However, I had a great run, and pushed on to make up a few more places. I crossed the line in almost relief to think I’d done it! Another World Championship under my belt, yippee. I was soooo cold. Triathletes were being taken straight to ambulances due to the cold and dozens were treated for hyperthermia. What a relief I have a good covering of fat!! Finished 8th in my age group which I was pleased with, especially as I had improved on last year and 5th Brit home. |
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Saturday 14th June 2008 Lou's latest |
| Finally got
time to get sit down and put pen to paper, so to speak. Here is a round up
of my activities over the last month. Get a drink first. For the first three weeks in May, training was sporadic due to various interruptions and then a pesky virus which lingered for weeks. I felt all my efforts in Lanzarote had gone to waste and was panicking about the imminent season. Looking back I probably shouldn’t have raced the New Forest Tri on the 4th as after 2 sleepless nights I was wiped out before I started, and developed a sore throat the next day. For the next 3 weeks, my training basically consisted of 1 x 30min easy jog each week, a grand total of 2 easy technique swims with 2 weeks completely out of the water, and a handful of easy bike spins. Not great. But then things got better…. May 24th: Day 1, Tour of Wessex – 95 hilly miles Even up to 6pm the day before, I wasn’t sure I was going to do this due to still recovering from fore mentioned virus. However, I was so desperate to do something that I thought I would go and take it easy. I had naively and foolishly entered thinking I would know lots of people riding who I could tag along with. How wrong I was. I arrived in the car park to find lots of very pro looking people and thought “what am I doing here?” Anyway, I eventually attached myself to a group of four who seemed to be going my pace and felt ok. I had decided to ride my Trek workhorse with a triple chainring as I knew there would be some stonking climbs. Some may call this cheating, I call it tactics! It soon became apparent that this was a wise decision as the first big climb of the day to Alfred’s Tower saw many chaps getting off their bling to walk up. I slogged up it, resorting to my granny ring, stubbornly determined not to get off – I made it, hitting my max HR in the process, and wondering if this was sensible after 3 weeks off. Oh well, it would be kill or cure. Two of the group I was with must have done the shorter rides as they vanished so for a while it was me and a guy called Ernest. After 1.5 hrs, he went into TT mode with another bloke so I let them go as we had been riding harder than I knew I really should be doing. Spent most of the middle section riding by myself, enjoying the scenery and thinking what a lovely day it was. Two sections of hard climbing over the Mendips saw me overtaking lots of people which was rather satisfying and triggered an obsession with finding good hills to cycle up! After a rather yummy second feed point, the best bit was soon to come – whizzing down Cheddar Gorge was exhilarating especially as I didn’t have any cyclists or cars in my way to make me brake so could swoop round the bends. I had a big cheesy grin from ear to ear and let out a few “yee ha’s!” I looked up briefly at one point to take in the stunning gorge but thought it best to keep my eyes on the road. The only really horrible bit of the course was on the main road round Glastonbury into a headwind. I found another bloke to latch onto and kept with him for the last 20miles – he gave me a bit of a tow along some sections into the wind which was appreciated. I absolutely loved the day and am now looking for more to do. I was really pleased with how strong I felt despite not having enough miles in the legs. June 1st, St Ives Bay Tri – Olympic distance Elliot’s Christmas present in 2006 was a day’s cooking course at Rick Stein’s seafood school in Padstow – might not be everyone’s cup of tea but Elliot likes his cooking (rather fortunately!) We were going to go down there back in March but then a Votwo brochure arrived in the post and whilst scanning through it, I saw this race, used a bit of female cunning and suggested it would be a much better idea to go down in June when the weather would be better…..oh and by the way I could also do a race that weekend! So this was a race purely for fun. Whilst Elliot was cooking on the Friday, I spent the morning in the sea learning how to surf - I am now completely addicted and have found a new reason for doing press-ups! I had planned to take my bike out and further satisfy my desire for climbing steep hills but got back too late from surfing, so did a brisk 5.5 miles walk around the headland to Padstow instead. Woke up on the Saturday with a few upper body aches but I wasn’t too bothered – this was how serious my race prep was. A very leisurely 10am race start meant that a civilised breakfast could be consumed and I ended up eating more than I usually do, but this turned out not to be a bad thing and I was glad of extra fuelling on this gruelling course. Thankfully the sun came out as it had been really misty and grey on the Saturday, making the sea look cold. A 70m sprint down the beach started the swim, a two lap course. The sea was flat but there was quite a swell. Nothing too eventful – I worked my way through the group and thought I was reasonably well up. Out for a further 70m sprint back up the beach, up some steps and into transition. Immediately the bike course went up a steep hill, a very steep hill, with some people zigzagging across it (and someone wobbled off). Out of St Ives, the road went up again and so it continued. I was now rather glad I hadn’t gone out and hammered my legs on the Friday. I didn’t get overtaken by any girlies but caught one right at the end and I kept overtaking lots of males on the climbs, only to be overtaken again on the descents. It was a tough but beautiful course, with some nice climbs, some fast and technical descents and sharp blind bends. Managed to hit 38mph at one point and pedalled frantically to try to reach 40mph but couldn’t quite make it! Had it been wet the course would have been quite lethal – apparently it was wet last year and 2 people ended up in A&E. I did see one guy climbing out of a hedge as he had overcooked it on a bend and someone else cycled into the back of a car as he was going too fast round a narrow bendy bit and wasn’t paying attention, but he was ok. Back down the steep hill into transition, with an imposed 10 mph speed limit which spoilt the fun, then out onto the killer run. I just beat Helen Parkinson out of T2 but then she went flying off into the distance, being an awesome runner - she was inspirational to watch. The run course was EVIL: two laps taking in the scenic coast path from Carbis Bay to St Ives, then back along the not so scenic road, with a nice lap of soft sand on the beach to finish. Only about ½ mile of the course was flat. I was suffering a bit at the end of the first lap but then managed to pick it up for the 2nd lap. At the start of lap 2 I was told I was 3rd female so I was trying my hardest to keep pushing on. I thought if anyone went by me then fair play to them, cos I couldn’t have done any more. I managed to hold my place to finish 3rd female with the fastest girlie bike split – well chuffed. Unfortunately Elliot missed the “presentation” on the beach as he took my bike back to the car at the B&B, and ended up having to show the owner how to start his lawnmower. He didn’t miss much though! So, all in all a rather jolly weekend and I have already booked in another weekend surfing in Cornwall in September. Last Sunday: 50 mile TT on G50/10 An obscenely early morning (but not as bad as this Sunday will be) and more bling. I used to find TT’s quite intimidating but now I find them rather amusing especially when one bloke said to me “I can see you’re a triathlete”. Yeah, whatever. Ended up having to ride my Cannondale as the Planet X has spent more time travelling to and from Doncaster over the last 6 months than with me, so I haven’t had chance to ride it properly and didn’t think my neck & back would appreciate 50 miles in extreme aero without practise. My instructions were to ride it all out. Think I took this a bit too extreme and overcooked the first 10 miles so then settled into a more sensible pace. Actually enjoyed myself initially but that soon ended and I started wondering why on earth I have entered a 100 miler in a few weeks time (oops, just remembered I haven’t actually sent off my entry yet). Well, if I will do these daft long distance events, I have to make myself suffer. Think I’ll do shorter stuff from now on as at least the suffering is short lived. For some bizarre reason they had me starting off 5th from last which was not good as I like people around me to chase. So I eventually trundled in, only to find that the blokes had eaten all the nice cakes. Not happy as the only thing keeping me going was the thought of a nice cup of tea and piece of cake. My time wasn’t quite what I had hoped but apparently it’s not a fast course. Still, it was a good training effort and I managed to finish 1st female. Tuesday: 10 mile TT on P164c Deciding I hadn’t worked hard enough on Sunday, I did my 1st 10 of the year (and if previous years averages are anything to go by, probably my only one!) Shock surprise, I really enjoyed it – first TT I have ever enjoyed. After doing a 50, it was just sheer joy for it to be over so quickly. Did a PB but not sure if this was due to improvement or just good wind on the night (weather not personal). Wednesday: 6.40am open water swim – I have gone completely MAD. And so, after experimenting with a short sharp taper this week (don’t think I do well on big tapers), I now face HIMUK this weekend. Should be interesting and a good learning experience if nothing else. Having a few panics about the bike and run so that only leaves the swim as being vaguely calm about….TBC Oh, confession time….there were only 2 females in the 50 mile TT last Sunday so finishing 1st female wasn’t quite so impressive! Coach Note – not a bad selection of stories – with two podium slots thrown in for good measure - press ups for surfing, now why didn’t I think of selling them like that!! |
|
Friday 13th June 2008
Vancouver Thunderbirds 10k |
| A race
where your BBQ & ice-cream are included in the entry fee....must be
Julian.... Well, I thought I needed a run workout and there was this 10k going on at the Uni, so.... We got there early on this lovely sunny evening and what a contrast to a local 10k. The race finish and parking was at the Thunderbirds stadium where the area outside the front was set up with registration and chip (!) tents and the smell of real food being cooked on the BBQ was in the area. All around were tables groaning under the weight of freshly chopped fruit, bagels, home made potato salads and BIG cuts of good meat marinating! This would all be provided in the race fee too! I went for a 3k warm up with Linda and after a visit to the clean toilets we ambled over to the start line to take out places and some light stretching. Strangely enough it wasn't seeded and there were a handful of girls in their gym outfits complete with ipods on the front row! The gun failed to fire to get us away so 'GO' was bellowed as we set off on the two lap course. The first k was all downhill with a right-hand 90 degree turn, so I sidestepped the ipod crew and pegged it downhill to find some space. Another 90 right sent us uphill and a left and a quick right into the third k. This was a seriously technical course Bryce and Melissa would have gotten lost were it not for the calibre of the marshals! There the fourth k sent us uphill and around three sides of the uni quadrant before plunging downhill on the same straight toward the finish. As the first k was downhill and the second up it was difficult to gauge whether I was truly up or down on my 4 min/k repeater but it seemed to be 20 seconds to the good so I tried to keep the same pace to achieve my sub 40 aim. About 7 k when it went uphill again I was reminded of my race on Sunday and mountain hill climb on Wednesday by my legs having trouble unsticking themselves from the sidewalk! I just thought if I could keep the cadence for 2 more k I would survive and possibly go sub 40. At this point Khai appeared on his bike and told me to step it up and stop cruising; thankfully he didn't hear my response and rode off! At the 9k marker I finally realised that I had 4:20 to make the last k and I would be ok, a quick shoulder check confirmed that the next guy was 400m behind (the same distance as the guy in front) so I pushed on to try and finish in good form. As I crossed the line I looked up at the clock and saw I had done 39:33, happy camper. I was eclipsed by Linda who had cut 4:30 off her PB to go 44:33! A quick bag of ice to attend to my left calf and a small slice of cherry pie were required after the cool down run and it was straight in the car to adjourn to a local restaurant for a well deserved meal ending with a modest (honestly) ice cream. Another good Friday 13th for me and a night wearing skins should make the morning group ride bearable before I leave for the airport! |
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Sunday 8th June 2008
World Triathlon Championships, Vancouver |
| Ok, now
Jules has thrown down the competitive gauntlet for report writing, here is
my race report from Canada!!! ;) The weeks leading up to the race had included some solid training and time trials that gave me confidence-bike 10m in 26.06 and 25m in 1.08.23 then running- 5k tt in 19.48. I flew out to Canada on the Tuesday before the race and had my first long haul experience, which was a bit challenging for someone who gets bored stupid just getting through a 4hour flight to Lanza! Suffice to say that the trainers were on within 20mins of checking into the hotel! First thing to say is that we arrived in the cold and pouring rain and it has barely stopped all week! The race venue was based around Stanley Park and English Bay. The swim was a point to point course in the Pacific Ocean, temp hovering between 10.9 and 11.5 degrees C, this was a bit of a concern as i have had previous races where I have got too cold to be able to perform on the bike. So to try and avoid this I did a run warm up and just got in the water very briefly. A fellow team mate offered a tip of keeping a pair of socks on my hands until the off-looked silly but these tactics did the job and the only extra kit I needed for the bike was my track mitts! However the swim was not all plain sailing. The course was on the short side-probably a good thing with the cold, especially for those from sunnier climates than our own (although none of the age groupers tried the Portuguese elite tactic of wrapping themselves in tin foil!!!!). However, we were definitely not let off lightly as within 20 mins of the start the waves were huge and I felt like a rag doll being flung around. The water got so rough that the last 7 women’s waves and all of the men had to do a duathlon, much to the annoyance of many. (Coach note – due to the water temperature they cut the swim to 1100m) Despite the fact that it was tough, I was glad to get a chance to swim, took about 26mins. The organisers had put hot tubs by transition but I didn't go anywhere near them, fear not!! The bike was 4 laps of the beautiful Stanley Park, pretty technical with some rough road surfaces, but over all a pretty fast course (1.09ish-still awaiting official results). The pre-race info had described this 2-3km 6 percent hill....but I didn't see it, the hill took about mins to climb on each of the 4 laps!! Big ring all the way round and pulled up quite a few places after the swim. Run was fairly flat with 2 short inclines (again no sign of the 400m hill???), lots of out and back loops so good to keep an eye on the competition. Managed to pick off another 11 girls in my age group and came home in 2.23, 48th out of 85, still not magnificent but an improvement on my 66th place last year! Team support was amazing with 'Go GB' resonating from every side of the bike and run course virtually all the way. When cheering in the um duathletes later in the day I was amused to hear a poor little Aussie referring to our team GB shouts with 'why don't we get that?' (Bless....he, he) and then a group of Americans stood next to me joined in with the 'Go GB' shouts and when I gave them a bemused look they just said 'well that's all we've heard all day'!! The elite races were awesome to watch and I will email over some photos when I finish the film this weekend. Melissa Coach Note - Great result from Meilsa given the weather conditions, the only other athletes that they allowed into the cold, breaking sea was the AWAD athletes!! On a personal point I got a note of appreciation through from Graham Kiff, the AWAD athlete on the development squad that I worked with at Loughborough, saying that some of the training structures we put in place over that weekend helped him win Gold at the Worlds. |
|
Sunday 8th June 2008
Bryce's road (racing) back. |
| My first TT
in a month. This was purely done to make some mistakes in and remind the
legs what a hard ride is ahead of this Saturdays annual PB hunt at Andover. To cut a long story short I did a 22:53 on the P303 course (short version of we use for our 20km Synergie TT) shaving a full minute off my previous course best (set in March this year. I finished 15 seconds behind James Gifillian who said he was going flat out and was tapering down for half iron UK this weekend (and I see him as the fastest Tri biker around) so not too bad. I was hoping for more though - I only put out 402w and I was hoping for 430 but I've been unlucky twice this year with poorly timed illnesses. My previous plan for the first half of the season was that I was going for 3 attempts to break 20:30 for a 10 and 420w should be enough (weather permitting) for me to do that. Due to my bouts of man flu I'll have one chance only to do this and it's now just a question of taking whatever form I have before I re-focus for the Alpe tri. For what it's worth, expect a running race race report next week (and that won't be pretty!). Bryce. |
|
Sunday 8th June 2008
Escape from Alcatraz triathlon |
| Julian
picked an iconic race to make his comeback: As you can imagine this is a serious race that lets you do some sightseeing as you race, so the race report will reflect this and you can skip the non-race bits if you wish as you read my first tri report since 2006! Raceday began at 0430 with a ride down to the transition at Marina Green in the dark without lights! That was a pretty hairy experience as although the streets were deserted the hills were still as steep as ever and required heavy and concentrated braking as the rucksack hit the back of my helmet each time. At least I wouldn't be wearing that in the race! Racking went smoothly and quickly as Katy, Ben, Andy and I laid out the transition before taking the bags with shoes in for the run from the swim to T1 (more on that later). Next we had to get straight onto buses to be driven along the wharf to pier 9 where we were to be bodymarked before boarding the Hornblower to be ferried to the start out by the island. Fortunately, the ocean was like a millpond at the wharf and I hoped it would stay the same for the race. After 25 minutes to load the other 1800 athletes we got underway and all stood nervously looking out the windows trying to sight the buildings that were to be used for the crossing. Despite two briefings from Joe Oakes and Gary Emick, who have over 600 crossings between them, there was still some confusion on sighting markers based on your swim estimates. They said the Sutro tower 950 metres about the city should be at 1 or 2 o'clock depending on your speed, the locals were saying to use Fort Mason, the Twin Towers, MOMA Dome and then the yacht club roofs, so there was plenty of confusion. Just before the boat started to manoeuvre into position we were treated to the sight of a seal showing off and porpoising along the side of the boat, amazing! The captain announced that we were ready in position and like lemmings we walked to the outside of the boat and got ready to throw ourselves off two by two (paratrooper style!). I was pleased to discover that the 25' drop spoken about at the briefing was kidology and that it was barely 5'! That said it was a shook to the system as we jumped in and had to swim away from the boat immediately to avoid the next swimmer dropping on our heads! The conditions were excellent with a very calm (for the Bay) sea except for the centre third where the ebbing flow made for some very high sighting. Despite my originally protesting that it was a race and I would be focused, I did what was suggested and flipped on my back for a quick glance at the island and the prison standing over us before continuing on whilst breathing to my right so that I could watch the Golden Gate bridge as I swam on. Despite the confusion with sighting points I navigated ok and even managed to come up to the beach avoiding the riptides on the rocks to the left and being swept away from the strong currents on the right. Not everyone was so lucky; Katy (who swam unsuited) was caught and swam for 15 minutes extra as she was in the current despite being local and this being her third crossing. Once on shore we had to find the bags with our shoes to run the 3/4 mile on the sidewalk to transition and the bike. Since my 33:52 swim got me out of the water in rush hour the start of the bike course was VERY congested as the ride started with two flat miles along the front before the first climb up through the Presidio and onto the coast road via some very sharp climbs and similar descents. As I had been told pre-race, it's not the course for a tri bike or race wheels. The road surface is very rough and potholed for the majority of the course and required a couple of bunny hops on my part. Despite this knowledge there were a lot of people riding on their full TT rigs and swerving all over the place, at one point I had to push a guy away, when he tried to cut back in, otherwise his cassette would have gone through my rim! The climb back by the Cliff House was great as a tailwind in each direction along the coast road, the seal bach, meant we got a free ride up the first half; sadly this did not extend up to the two blocks cliff face at Camino del mar. It did afford myself and an Irish athlete to smile wryly as we stayed seated spinning up on compacts as the others were taking uphill out of the saddle on their TT rigs! A really fun fast descent full of shouting 'left' as I flew past riders took me into the flat 2 miles at Crissy Field back to transition. Loud cheers from new friends BT and Trailbait sent me out onto the 8 mile trail run and to the infamous sand ladder! I decided that since this was my first tri since 2006 I would run as hard as possible keeping a fast turnover and forgetting the pain by counting off those that I passed. So 2 miles on the flat had me counting runners as I enjoyed the view of the GG Bridge from the land this time. We climbed up the trails to pass under the bridge and through the Presidio headlands as Andy Potts and the first 5 men came flying past on the down trail with about 12' between us! Next was a great downhill section which saw me pass 40 people in the mile from the top to the bottom and straight onto the beach, seems American runners can't do downhill any better than the Brits! Baker beach was an out and back of less than a mile but was sapping sand< even at the water's edge, and just an excuse to get us to the base of the sand ladder! So, the sand ladder. Hmm, 400 step of sand rising up to the road at the top of the headlands. Basically, think of 7' sections of telegraph poles laid 3 foot apart and just strung together with wire cables and there you have it. They move around under you and if someone heavier is on the other end you go up in the air too! Despite running it twice in training come race day I did the same as Macca and strode up pulling on the hand rail! Now it was another hill with a narrow trail so I used it to pass people where there was no space since they wouldn't! The same tactics were employed to get me back under the GG Bridge and onto the last two miles of flat but with 158 people less in front than when the run began! Ok, so 2 miles, I figured 15 minutes of pain, so I dug even deeper and kept it redlined aiming for 200 places by the finish. As we cut onto the last 1/2 mile of pavement I was up to 186 and feeling good. Most people weren't even trying to come back so I thought I would Bryce it in until a female runner decided to try and come back. A good 30 seconds of anaerobic effort saw me fail as she got pass my shoulder only for me to see that it was someone completely different! Once into the finishing chute a lot of runners did the usual surge with the energy they had saved during the race and I looked back to see if I could get a good finish photo devoid of families of strollers and eased over the line in 2:47:30. The best part of the time was that it's the same time as my local hero, Denzil Hunt, posted when he raced the Escape. This was a fantastic race which I STRONGLY recommend to everyone. So get registered for the (free) lottery when it comes up in November and enjoy an amazing experience. For Bryce the times and AG positions were: Swim:33:52 67th T1 and run: 8:02 Bike: 1:01:20 57th T2:1:49 Run:1:01:00 22nd and 37th in AG and 191 overall. Bring on the Alpe! |
|
10/06/2008
Cuba update |
| For a
number of years now Synergie Coaching and it's athletes have tried to assist
triathletes in Cuba - this usually consists of someone going on holiday
there and carrying out a bag full of training & racing kit. Javier Clavelo Robinson is our main point of contact there and is a great guy, we have sponsored him to come and race in the UK and the guy is just a positive life force,full of energy, salsa and a little rum. Javier was in contact recently to thank the team members for taking kit out this year and told me that over 20 members of the Cuban National Senior & Junior teams benefitted from the stuff sent out this year. So well done Team Synergie |
|
Sunday 8th June 2008
Arundel Triathlon |
| Clive
Agate, one of the stalwarts of Team Synergie up until last season has been
back in touch and sent us through this race report on teh Arudel Triathlon -
800m swim, 38k bike & 10k run. What a lovely setting, worth getting up at 4am! My rather conservative swim estimate saw me in a lane of multi-stroke swimmers, with no lane discipline or etiquette. So i was pleased to exit in a time of 17min 23sec (no need to worry just yet Dave). A swift T1 and out on to the 2 lap bike course. Bryce you would have loved it. The first 15/20mins of each lap was all uphill(I kid you not) followed quite naturally by an equal amount of downhill with a nice dual carriage section to complete the circuit. I felt great with no sign of the cramp that plagued me at Milton Keynes and clocked 69mins. I was looking forward to the run, especially after my exploits in a local 10k road race on Wednesday. The run course is a delight passing the old corner shop and then onwards to the Trig Point with stunning views across the countryside. It's at this point i ought to say that apart from the first 2k, the rest of the course was HILLY very HILLY. I can see why Hannibal used it in preparation for crossing the Alps! - But, i have to say i felt strong throughout and managed to claw out a time 42mins 58sec. So i'm guessing like you, the course was short! A total time of 2hrs 10mins was enough to secure me 1st place in the 50+ AG and 14th overall in a field of 77. I'm off to Cornwall for a holiday and return to do battle at the Marlborough Tri on 22nd June - hopefully i may see some of you there. Clive |
|
Sunday 8th June 2008
Graham's last couple of races |
| As
mentioned there were some race reports to come so here is Graham's offering
for the last two weekends. Beaulieu Middle Distance - 1st June 2008 This race was a C race as far as I was concerned, which I was using as a base to see how my training was going in the lead up to The Vitruvian in September. The race itself was set in the beautiful location of Bucklers Hard near Beaulieu. Swim - 19:21 (it was a short distance due to tidal surge moving the buoys) - 3rd in my age group & 9th overall Bike - 2:25:45 for 53.50 miles - 4th in my age group & 16th overall Run - 1:47:37 for 14 miles - 10th in my age group & 72nd overall Overall time 4:32:46 - 31st overall & 10th in my age group Conclusion of this race - the swim is very good, the bike is OK & the run was crap off of the bike, so more bricks & distance work need to be done before September. Blenheim Sprint Triathlon - 8th June 2008 This was never in my race plan for the season but my Dad shoehorned me into doing it as he wanted to see Blenheim Palace. Also he did pay my entry fee so I thought that I'd go & do my first sprint event to see how fast/slow I could go. The weekend consisted of 5000 competitors in 14 Waves on Saturday & 16 Waves on Sunday & just to make life even more difficult, I was off at 1pm on Sunday afternoon when the temperature had reached 25 deg C (boy it was hot out there!!!). As well as the competitors, there was also approx 12000 visitors over the two days so picking a landmark to find the car on both days was vital. As for the swim, it was a one lap, 750mtr lake swim & we were put in the water 10mins before the start time so had a warm up & then hung onto the start buoy until the claxon went. However, I nearly had to swim over one of the canoes when the claxon went as he was right in front of me but after that I quickly found myself in the unusual position of being able to see the lead canoe, which was a bit scary. I got to the turn around buoy & found myself in second place with the leader about 10mtrs in front, so I gave a big push & we got out of the lake side by side but I managed to drop him on the very long climb up to the top of the steep hill heading towards T1. When I passed the Gatorade drink station (other energy drinks are available) & handed a cup, I to spit it back out because it had obviously been sitting on the wall heating up in the sun & tasted horrible. Yuck. Into T1 & had a quick transition & the commentator shouted that I was the first out of T1 for Wave I. Now onto the 19.5K, 3 lap bike ride around the grounds of Blenheim. The first lap was a bit cautious because we weren't allowed to ride it before the race as races were going on throughout the day from 8am to 5pm. In the second lap I was able to relax & go a bit faster but in the third lap, someone overtook me who I think was in my Wave. Now into T2 & yet again another quick transition & out onto the run up a steep man-made bridge which went over the bike & run course. The run was 5.4K, 2 lap run in undulating parkland. I seemed to run quite well but was getting a little bit hot by now & yet again only one person overtook me at the beginning of lap 2 (again, I'm not sure if he was in my Wave). He sounded like a goose being strangled but you would've had to have been there to realise what a lot of noise he was making while he was running (to save you the trouble, I know I make a lot of noise in the swim!!!!) Now into the finish to collect a big bit of bling & hopefully I'll get the results soon to see where I came, but the splits are as follows as the organisers sent me a text as soon as I had crossed the line: Swim - 12:26 Bike - 34:33 Run - 22:16 Total 1:13:19 (Stuart Hayes won the elite race in just over the hour) Overall, it was a great weekend with good racing by all & excellent weather as well. I would highly recommend it to everyone as it was a good weekend away & an opportunity to not to take your racing too seriously. |
|
08/06/2008
Weekend Updates |
| Busy
weekend this weekend so no doubt we will get a couple of race reports
through in due course. Graham did the Beaulieu Middle Distance race last weekend finishing 10th in his age group with a time of 4.32.41. Overall Graham was 31st out of 381 competitors. Graham will have two race reports pending as he went to the other extreme this weekend and did the Blenheim Sprint race, coming home in 1.13.19 - 750m swim 12.26, 20k bike 34.33 & 5k run in 22.16. Update the reults are now up on the Blenheim site, looks like Gra was third in his AG and 14th overall out of the 2639 male athletes that started, let's hope it wasn't a mass start!! Julian is out at the iconic Escape from Alcatraz event and if anyone wants to track him live his race number is 1276. Update - Julian finished the race in 2.47 - 35 min swim for 1.5 miles, 61 min for the 18 mile bike and 61 min for the 8 mile run including the infamous sand ladder. Melissa is out at Vancouver at the World Triathlon Championships where the air temp is about 10 degrees and the lake is not much warmer. Due to the weather conditions only half the female AG field did a triathlon, after that it became a duathlon with a 3k run replacing the swim for the rest of the athletes. Looks like it was a pretty brutal day at the office. Update - Looks like Melissa did 2.23.09 for the 1100m swim, 40k bike & 10k run -no split times are up on the ITU website yet. |
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Thursday 29th May 2008
Moreton Kermesse |
| Here is
Bryce's latest instalment - With my resting HR back within 5 beats (just) but still with a nose running for England (more so than for I am !) I did my first hard effort back last night at the Kermesse in what was the strongest field yet. The sporting year so far really has been an annus horribilis so I wasn't expecting too much here. Nonetheless, despite struggling on the first few laps, some tweaking of the bike during the week improved my handling massively on my cornering. This gave me a bit of confidence and I decided I would chance the bunch sprint finish. Unfortunately, going into the last corner I was till 30 odd riders back and boxed in but with a 100m to go the peleton all fed to the left hand side as it strung out into a line and the option presented itself. I went down the right hand hedgeline gutter on my own (with no lead out) to then get involved in a 3 way drag race style sprint. I made a few errors with my gearing but Man flu or not, it came down to max horsepower so I pulled through vet elite mountain biker Roland Tilley and ex GB team rider Stu Bowers to win by 5 metres. Bearing in mind I'm still in no mans land with respect to my key races in the first half of the season it's not much of a consolation, but a wins a win ! Bryce. |
|
20th
May 2008 Bryce's build up |
| The
penultimate week before my first peak of the year. I did the a3crg club 10m TT event which was being held on the course I'll race on at the national champs this Sunday. I wanted to nail the turns and the roundabouts rather than completely exhaust myself. Either way it was the most competitive event I'd been at all year with 60 riders, 3 pro teams and a TTing who's who all showing up to practise the course. In the end I came 13th and the numbers looked good (circa 440w for the majority)although unfortunately I accidentally deleted them from my meter so we'll never know. All things considered, a bit of ignorance about what shape I'm in may not be a bad thing as by now it's too late to worry about it. The day after I headed down to Moreton for my weekly tempo ride at the criterium. This weeks pace was a little more competitive and early on I struggled a bit but due to fading light the event was shortened meaning we could not catch the slow group in time. Either way, the bunch finish happened as per normal but this week was more of a drag race than an organised sprint with lots of us hammering side by side. Much more of a question of horsepower rather than tactical nous. I put in a hard last kilo to win our groups sprint overhauling a rogue rider with a throw of the bike. Pleasing but gutted we did not catch the slow group otherwise that would have been my first win of the year. It's now taper time and having set a few good interval PB's in training in the last one or two weeks I'm about as good as I can get. How good we'll know on Sunday but it's worth noting that despite my 20:45 entry time, that still only saw me ranked 72nd fastest out of the 150 that have qualified for nationals. The slowest rider got in on a 21:55. Bryce. Coach Note - Bryce has struggled all this week with a heavy cold and was talking about taking the sensible option and not racing, we'll keep you posted. |
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Sunday 11th May 2008
2008 European Triathlon Championships |
| Here is
Dave Pratten, European Bronze Medallist's take on the race. Sorry for delay in writing this but I have had a hectic week including moving house on Thursday. Matt has described the course so I will just describe my race. The swim was a bit crowded with all age groupers 50 or over together. With 96 line up in a narrow start zone my first target was a sprint start for some clear water. I achieved this and had an incident free swim. This was my first competition since my eye operation and it does help being able to see marker buoys! I exited the water in sixth place to be greeted with the support of the Synergie crew Scott, Di, Matt, Lou, Kev and Sally(latter two are associate team members). The bike was a bit of a drag..windy,drizzly and a bit long(45km)..the good news was that not many went past me and I didn't fall off on the wet cobbles. The run was two out and back laps. Great support from various Brits including the Synergie crew and fellow team members. Throughout the run I tried to gauge my placing by spotting race numbers and where these were not visible guessing athletes ages. I knew that nobody from my age group had gone past me on the run and figured I was in the top six but they didn't give you times and results at the finish. Being among the first home meant I could have a post race massage within minutes of finishing and followed by a double espresso and custard tart. I ate this in a waterside cafe watching Matt zoom past on the run, he is quick, imagine what he will do when he starts to train seriously. I didn't find out my result until several hours later when Di phoned me. At first I couldn't believe it. So here are the details: 3rd in my age group First Brit in my age group and the one below. Overall time 2:29:32,swim 21:25,T1 1:50,bike 1:21:21,T2 1:23, run 43:04. It was great to stand on the podium with the Union flag around my shoulders, receive the medal and to get a kiss from Rosa Mota the 1998 Olympic marathon champion. I was chuffed to bits and still am. Here's the Oscar acceptance style speech bit. (Pause for applause! Clutch medal to chest. Kiss it, Wipe away tear.) Big thanks to Scott and Di from whom I have learned so much about the sport and who have supported encouraged me through good and bad times. Most recently when my eye condition threatened my future in triathlon (I literally couldn't see me continuing to race). Special big thanks to Sally for literally picking me up after two bike spills, cleaning the kit,and putting up with the early wake up calls for training and races, the bike in the bedroom, the wetsuit in the bathroom(I like to keep dry under the shower) and all the rest of it. Ta also to Synergie and GB team mates for messages of support and congratulations. ...and to my late dad,my role model in life and sporting inspiration.(I would wipe away genuine tears but he would think I was a woos for crying.) Dave |
|
Sunday 11th May 2008
2008 European Triathlon Championships |
| Here is
Matt's take on the event; Hi all, I am sure Dave's race report is the one we all want to hear about (medallist - phenomenal) but as I have been asked for my report of Lisbon by a couple of you - here goes! Sunday morning got the metro over to the race start where I bumped into the team manager and his team (Di, Lou and Kev). Scott was in yet another unusual location for the benefit of getting 'that perfect shot' but I shan't go on about his commitment to photography. His best photo was probably a simple close up of Vanessa Fernandes - she even smiled for him after being instructed but he can tell you all about that. My start time was pretty late at 10:05 so I watched Dave doing the swim and exiting transition out onto the bike. If only I could swim like that...I then watched with Lou and Kev plus Dan the bike mechanic about 20 minutes of the most hilarious attempts at T1 that I have ever seen, it was carnage!! Cyclists blocking the road, taking shoes off, slipping on the cobbles, falling off bikes into the fencing it was pure comedy but it then hit me, was this going to happen to me? My wave involved 89 guys who started but it was quite a bun fight as Scott calls it, even for a slow swimmer like me who started quite near the back. I don’t know what 1500 people at Wimbleball is going to be like next month!! I was kicked a few times, elbowed, swum into etc. but I quite enjoyed it until I exited the swim to discover that my watch was lost in the melee - nooooo!!. I was now running scared with no idea of time. The swim was an M shape, the water was quite warm and clear so not too bad at all. Then into T1 up the slipway covered by the glorious blue carpet grab my bike and head for the cobbles. No problems for me thankfully and it was time to play catch up. The bike course was supposed to be 2 x pan flat 20km out and back loops however this was not strictly the case. Each lap was in fact 22km and there was a strong headwind coupled with one long hill at the end of the out section so this didn't particularly help me in my quest for a quick Olympic distance time. On the first lap I caught a group of 3 guys who were working together (2 x Portuguese and a Spaniard) so I rode with them for a while but as we came in to go under the stadium and back out onto the second lap the leader headed for transition and the rest of us followed. I didn’t go too far, probably cost me a few seconds but when some of the crowd shouted 3 of us realised but a Portuguese guy just carried on. I noticed several others making the same mistake as I exited the stadium area and on lap 2 a sign was erected pointing to transition - hmm 1 lap too late. Anyhow only 1 bike went by me during the bike leg and I was overtaking riders from my wave as well as other age groupers so that felt good - For Bryce’s benefit the bike that went by was a rather nice looking Cheetah with a guy in an aero helmet - I thought of you Bryce. Into T2 I was pretty quick here, didn't quite manage Scott's 7 seconds from bike racking to out but my T2 time wasn't too bad. The run was 2 x 5 km out and back loops along a flat concrete path interspersed with small rows of cobbles. I found that I could jump these perfectly by using a stride pattern of 5 strides then jump the cobbles. The path ran along the waters edge with the Vasco de Gama bridge as a backdrop. I took one quick look at this but that was about it as I was constantly overtaking runners. Only 1 guy overtook me during this leg and I came back and overtook him just before the finish chute so that was pleasing. Scott gave me some vocal encouragement on the way out - some comment about doing no run training but it kinda worked. My splits were: swim 28:04 (76th) T1 1:51 (54th) bike 1:16:47 (36th) T2 00:58 (10th) run 37:15 (19th) TOTAL 2:24:55 (44th) I was reasonably pleased with my race overall but I know my swim needs some serious work, I lost a lot of places because of this in fact more than 10 mins on the leaders. However I totally loved the experience milling around in GB kit and I would recommend it to anyone who is yet to do it. Thanks to Scott, Di, Lou, Kev, Dave and anyone I have missed for enhancing the experience in Lisbon. I look forward to catching up with you all soon. Kind Regards Matt p.s Come on Dave tell us all how it should be done!! |
|
Sunday 11th May 2008
2008 European Triathlon Championships, Lisbon |
| 2008
European Triathlon Championships, Lisbon, Portugal. Over 1000 athletes from 20 different Countries raced this year’s European Championships. Team GB took out a team of 153 athletes, 40% larger than the team that went to Copenhagen last year, given the size of the field the competition was always going to be tough – particularly in some of the men’s age groups where Spain & Portugal appeared to have blatantly ignored the 20 athletes per age group rule. Transition area was in a large covered space, easily accessible from the swim and with a bike out & bike in exit that you could cycle up to – so very little running to be done. The swim was in a dock area, very clean water and some huge, jumping fish!! It was a M shaped swim with 4 x 180º degree turns, there were 13 waves with approximately 100 athletes per wave so it was always going to be a bun fight through the first two or three bouys. The bike course was a little bit technical to start with, nine 90º degree turns – on cobblestones – in the first 400m before a blast straight up and down a dual carriageway. This was to be done twice. Race info supplied by the organisers showed the course as fast & flat, however that related to the Elite’s course whereas the AG course had a long drag up to the turnaround point. Dave took great delight in telling the other athletes that all my courses were described as fast & flat – a phrase I use to describe the Winchester 10k course – so I am now receiving hate mail about the bike course!! The run was also a two lap affair, now whoever said that you can’t get lost on a two lap, out & back course should have come to Lisbon. To be fair the marshalling and signage was poor but athletes still took the wrong turn on the bike & run courses. It was a great venue to race in and Lisbon has a real good feel about it as a place and the feedback to date is that the team athletes enjoyed the experience – and didn’t they do well. 25-29 Gold Emma- Kate Lidbury, Silver Jacquie Slack & four Top 10 finishers. Emma was the overall race winner in a time of 2.14.55. 35-39 Silver Shona Forrest, Bronze Lisa Greenfield and four Top 10 finishers. 40-44 five Top 10 finishers. 45-49 Gold Juliet Vickery, Bronze Jo Crotch and eight Top 10 finishers. 50-54 Silver Liz Clegg, Bronze Julie Williams and four Top 10 finishers. 55-59 Bronze Rani Sinniah 65-69 Gold Carol Killick. 18-19 Bronze James Sedgewick, two Top 10 finishers. 20-24 Bronze Phillip Fishwick 25-29 Gold Alex Lewis 30-34 Gold Chris Stuart, Silver Richard Legge, five Top 10 finishers. 35-39 Gold Richard Wilder, Silver Euan Lees, three Top 10 finishers. 40-44 One Top 10 finisher. 45-49 One Top 10 finisher. 50-54 One Top 10 finisher. 55-59 Bronze Dave Pratten, four Top 10 finishers. 60-64 Bronze Michael Smallwood, six Top 10 finishers. 65-69 Two Top 10 finishers. 70-74 Bronze Arnott Kidd. 75-79 Gold Peter Howard. AWAD Dave Corrigan finished Top 10. Sprint Race Gold Paula Caplan. (Not ETU) ETU Championships Medal Tally 7 golds, 5 silver, 7 bronzes and 54 Top 10 finishes in total – not a bad day at the office!! For those that have too much time on their hands then go and have a look at the photos http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/synergiecoaching.com/AGRace2008EuropeanChamps http://picasaweb.google.com/synergiecoaching.com/2008EurosElite http://picasaweb.google.com/synergiecoaching.com/LisbonHoliday02 |
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Thursday 8th May 2008 Moreton Kermesse 1 |
| I decided
to bring some road racing back in to sort out my bike handling (and my
current inability to get round corners). It was the usual 10 laps of the triangular course over about 75 minutes. The group I was in was hopelessly disorganised and not helped when we got held up by a cow in the road (on two separate laps !) but I felt I had good legs and have had a decent last 2-3 weeks of training. I later hatched an agreement with a couple of local TT aces that we would go off on our own with about a mile to go but the pace got ratcheted up too high I felt, so it was going to come down to a bunch sprint. I had decided to lead out a friend of mine (who needed a result more than I did) but despite my cornering being questionable, my position in the final bunch sprint at wheel 6 or 7 was perfect. The peleton was quite tidy for a change but apparently there was some elbowing going on behind to get on my wheel. One rider decided to chance going earlier and this started to fragment the front. I went with 300m to go to try and get the lone rider back but just fell short (but still slungshot my friend to 2nd). I took 3rd overall. My only disappointment was that I still can't control the bike well enough to sprint out the saddle full tilt at 40mph. It's a practise thing but the fact remains I have the power to go far harder but I'm not sure I have the ability to control myself safely enough..... Bryce |
|
Sunday 4th May 2008
New Forest Triathlon |
| New Forest
Tri: 04/05/08 1.1kS, 20.6M bike, 6.4M run Not the best day out I’ve had but it didn’t really start out too well – I was sick Friday night and felt pants most of Saturday, then spent Saturday night lying awake wondering if Elliot had crashed out at the party he went to or if he was lying in a ditch somewhere on the way home. As it turned out he had fallen into a cider induced sleep in an armchair, apparently getting more sleep than I did. So when my alarm went off at 4.30am on Sunday morning, I was not feeling too great! Due to the warm spring we’ve had (not), it was a bit touch and go whether the swim was going ahead as the lake was still very cold. Fortunately it had warmed up enough in the week for the full distance to be done, which pleased me as I prefer a longer swim. Got in for a warm up – oh my, how cold?! My face went numb instantly and suddenly I wasn’t so sure that wanting the full distance was such a good idea! I was so glad I put on a neoprene hat. Richard decided to have a mass start so people didn’t get cold hanging around after warming up. I rather bravely / foolishly decided to seed myself at the back of the fast wave and to the right which wasn’t a bad spot as I didn’t really get bashed – it was a bit tight at the first buoy but ok. After the first main turnaround buoy, I found my rhythm, my breathing settled and I went into” turbo mode”. There was clear water, with one person to my right who I made myself keep up with. My hands were numb by the end and I was struggling to feel the water but I found myself close to quite a lot of the fast wave coloured hats so was pleased with. T1 would have been ok but in my wimpish old age, I stopped to put on a top only I couldn’t get it on as I was too wet. I wish I hadn’t bothered as it turned out quite warm on the bike. The bike started off ok and it was rather novel riding across the top of the forest to Fordingbridge with the wind behind us. I had to ease off a few times so as not to get caught up in a drafting situation, although some others didn’t seem to be playing by the rules. Got to Godshill when the legs suddenly stopped working, with nothing to give. Still not entirely sure why, which is rather annoying, although I now have a few possible theories. T2 was not my best either. I put my right shoe on but my foot was so cold that felt like the orthotic was scrunched up so I took the shoe off again to check but it was fine. I then dropped my gel and had to pick it up, by which point I was cursing myself! The start of the run was quite bamby-like due to numb feet and it took a while to find my run legs which is unusual for me. I eventually managed to pick up some sort of pace but it was a pretty atrocious run all in all, although a nice off-road route. Initial reaction was slightly disappointed, but on reflection I have drawn some useful information from it, and it was a good early season test against a quality field. Finished 11th female out of 62, 4th in age group out of 14. Swim = 20.35 (16th female / 3rd AG) Bike = 1.04.06 (8th female / 4th AG) – actual time was 1:01:17 but there was a long run from transitions to mount / dismount Run = 48.23 (18th female / 6th AG) Total time = 2.13.06 Off to Portugal tomorrow to see how it should be done.. think I'll stick with my long course lolloping Lou. |
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3rd
May 2008 Melissa's Update |
| Here is a
quick update from Melissa; I’ve just sat down to put a race update on an email after 2 weeks away in Lanzarote and a ridiculously busy couple of weeks penance in the office!! That said, things have been going really well in preparation for the 1st A-priority race (Vancouver) which is going to be here before I know it. Lanzarote gave me 2 solid weeks training, over 500km each week on the bike (riding in Lanza is constantly "up" and at least 50% of each ride is guaranteed to be "into the wind"), 2 x 110km mountainous time trials (actually the second one turned out to be 130km cause someone did really well navigating the first 96km then took one tiny wee wrong turn, oops la, la, la!!) 2 half marathons (week 2 I ran the course 4 mins faster with my average heart rate 1 beat lower!), 2 triathlons plus various track sessions, off road runs, brick sessions, daily swim sets, the works! On the mid-camp change over day (some did 1 week only), the choice on the schedule was "Rest or ride the Ironman course"...so what could I do?! I was a bit nervous as I was the only person taking the latter option who wasn't training to actually do one in the next month or 2. However, I ended up having a fantastic, if challenging day out and have subsequently put my name down to race the whole damn thing next May...bring it on! ;) Since I have been home I have received a barrage of abuse for being too brown...oh and I’ve done a few races too!! 2 days after coming home I rode a local Sportive, I have raced 2 evening sprint duathlons (won both) and on Sunday did the Bank Holiday Du (won that too). I was pleased with my run times especially - averaging 5.41 min miles on run one and 5.50 on run 2. After my disastrous time over the winter, I think I’m finally getting some form back. Whilst on a roll, I jumped into the "Pednor 5" road race last night and came home as 3rd lady in 32.58. My legs were a bit achy from Sunday but once I got going I felt pretty comfortable. Great route in beautiful countryside, the 1st 2 miles are flat, then mile 3 is all "up", mile 4 is rolling then the last mile is a steep descent so a good mix of everything there. Hope you are all well and best of luck to those who are off to Lisbon Melissa x |
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Sunday 27th April 2008
Sandie Randford Memorial Road Race |
| If it's to
do with bikes then it must be Bryce - I’m into the final month pre first peak now and I’d backed off TT racing completely as I wasn’t happy with the return but I have drafted in a few road races to sort my bike handling out and give me a slightly more interesting tempo session to get on with. This was a 60km 3 loop affair over rolling roads but with a sting in the tail of a final small loop which involved a monster climb which was tackled twice and nearly a mile or two in length. The impression I took was that it would be a peleton roll around seasoned with a few doomed breakaways and then a mad dash for survival up the climb twice. That said, 4 riders went clear from the gun (2 we brought back but the other two were elites that were long gone). I’ll be honest; I’d been training on the turbo at midnight the night before and didn’t have the legs for anything other than a tempo session so over the first 90 minutes I probably wasn’t seen very much. Come the last climb though and I started moving up towards the front with the view that I was pretty heavy compared to the specialists and better to be at the front and slip back then to be at the back and get dropped completely. As the climb steepened (and we all started running out of gears) the peleton soon got shredded from about 70 down to half that as we tackled the final small loop before we had to do it one last time. On the last climb the 30 or so of us that remained started the last desperate push and it was at this point that I again moved up into the top group and was in select company. On my left was current 12 hour TT national champ Eamonn Deane and I was being led out by (and resplendent in rainbow jersey) current Paralympics World Champ Darren Kenny. As we hit the last gradient my tyres started slipping (yes, it was that steep !) but I held on for 11th overall. I started my ‘sprint’ too far back and too late but that’s the difference between a bunch sprint and an uphill finish. Considering my size it wasn’t a bad showing. An unspectacular but satisfying endeavour over 2 hours |
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20th
April 2008
Matt's Updates |
| Swindon
duathlon - 6/4/08 Not much to add to Gra's report really, was very cold with snow on the ground but tropical by comparison to Steyning i hear! My bike handling skills could definitely do with improving as there were 5 laps each with 4 U turns i think and I don't think I was particularly quick around any of these. That will teach me for training in the recent bad weather on an old mountain bike. The timing chip method used here left a lot to be desired also with 3 x squares of velcro being stuck to a wristband and each of these had to be affixed to a towel on a table at each transition. When wearing gloves, having v. cold fingers and a long sleeve top this became one of the most difficult aspects of the race!! I did learn that the 2nd run is an absolute killer and it felt like the longer run of the race (10km not 5km). Well done Gra and Melissa for taking these events on, think I need some extra training before any more duathlons are attempted. Did 2:08 and had I registered for the worlds (thankfully i didn't) I missed out on the 6th qualification place by 1 age group place (3 positions overall) and 23 seconds. Frenchay 10km - 20/4/08 600 hundred odd in the field and I turned up thinking this was gonna be a flat race and the opportunity for a good pb. BIG MISTAKE, there were several hills and one stonker to finish, the course record is only apparently 33 mins so gives an idea that its hilly, should have done some research I suppose although sometimes ignorance is bliss... I started what I thought was slowly in about 20th-25th place and gradually picked off several of the leading runners during the race. I had been away in Spain for 10 days running at altitude in the mountains and around a running track up there and I think this helped. Felt good for most of the race and eventually ran the last 5-6km with one other guy each of us taking turns to lead when the other started flagging although nothing was discussed it just worked out like that to keep chasers at bay. I eventually left him with about 1/2 km to go for a new pb, although it was only my 2nd 10km ever and my first was run when i was injured so hopefully this can be further improved upon. Position 6th overall in 37:24, 2 mins off the winning time. Mile splits 5:49, 5:50, 6:12, 6:07, 6:04, 5:57, 1:35 last 400m. Max HR 192 |
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Sunday 20th April 2008
Winchester Triathlon |
| Dave was
racing at this one - This was my first triathlon of 2008 and intended as a 'warm up' and transition practice prior to ETU championships in Lisbon. I was a little apprehensive before the start as I had only recently recovered from a calf injury picked up at the last training day (I blame 30cm side jumps). The swim was uneventful as was the long gravelly run from pool to bike. The next bit between rack and mount line was more problematic as I managed to get stuck behind a motorised buggy the driver apparently oblivious of the fact that there was a triathlon taking place. The bike was an undulating affair up and back along the A33 dual carriageway. By the time I arrived at the turnround an ambulance was picking up a damaged (not life threatening)cyclist who had had a brush with a car. T2 went smoothly enough and the run felt comfortable. I finished in good shape physically and have had no reaction from calf. Overall time 1:46:29, 68th out of 284 finishers (event was full) and 2nd in my age group. |
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20/04/2008
Who's at the majors? |
| Well the
team has been training and in some cases racing hard already and we are just
about to start the triathlon season. As well as racing individual sports and local triathlons there are always a number of major races that tend to get the athletes attentions, so if all goes to plan you will find team members as some of the “biggies” Age Group Championships. National Duathlon Championships, Milton Keynes 13th April. Graham Starmer. National Triathlon Championships, Wakefield 6th July. Claire Fraser Middle Distance Championships, Vitruvian 6th September. Louise Gould Melissa Arkinstall Graham Starmer International Age Group Championships. European Triathlon Championships, Lisbon. 11th May Matt Langdon Dave Pratten. World Triathlon Championships, Vancouver 6th June. Melissa Arkinstall. World Long Course Triathlon, Almere 30th August. Louise Gould. European Cross Triathlon Championships, Island of Ameland, 13th Sept Julian Allen Bryce Dyer World Duathlon Championships, Rimini. 13th Sept. Melissa Arkinstall Graham, Starmer. Elite Races ITU European Cup, Athlone 13th July Claire Fraser BG Chiapas Triathlon World Cup, Mexico. 12th October Claire Fraser BG San Francisco ITU Premier Pan American Cup, 8th November Claire Fraser. BG Huatulco Triathlon World Cup, Mexico, 16th November. Claire Fraser. All major UK National Championship events. 9 international representatives at all European triathlon Championships and World standard distance & long course triathlon and duathlon championships plus ITU elite European, Pan American and World Cup events. |
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Saturday 12th April 2008
Claire decided to take on the roadies |
| Race
Report: Surrey Cycle Racing League, MOD Chertsey, 12 April 08 I thought I'd go and try my hand at a road race again. I was expecting some females to be there, and was therefore hoping I wouldn't be dropped. There's not much to say about this race, actually. There were ten females, and we went very slowly (avg 19.4mph). It felt like a nice Saturday training ride, which I don't think people appreciated me saying! The male 4th Cats, who started a couple of minutes in front of us, lapped us twice. The course, which was around an old mitlitary vehical test track, was a little technical, bumpy and the wind was a little strong but all do-able. I felt strong and even went on the front for a bit, as I was getting a little bored! Had I been a little more tactically experienced I would have gone off the front, as there were only about 5 riders, who could have come with me. There were a few team mates in the bunch, who I had my eye on but they didn't do anything. Unfortunately, I punctured just before the start of the final lap but would like to think I'd have been in the mix, as I hadn't got out of my small chain ring. The sprint finish was started very late, with only two or three contenders, the rest were shelled out the back as soon as it was wound up. I am not gutted about the race. I am just pleased with my handling skills, and strength on the bike at the moment. |
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Sunday 13th April 2008
National Duathlon Championships, Milton Keynes |
| Today was
the last chance saloon to try & get a place on the GB Duathlon Squad to go
to Rimini at the end of September. Race day dawned chilly with a ground frost but dry, although April showers had been forecast later in the day. The race was based at & around Emberton Park, Olney near Milton Keynes. This is the first time that I've ever done a National Championships Triathlon/Duathlon event & supposedly all the best duathletes in the Country were on the same start line as me, which doesn't bode well for me to get my slot for Rimini!! Today's course comprised of a 10K, 4 lap, run around the parkland at Emberton Park; a two lap bike course around the country lanes/fast A road which was described by the commentator/organiser as fast & undulating. However, I may dispute that!!! This was finally followed by a 5.25K, 2 lap, run, which was once again around the Park. My start time was 7:47am which, by that time, was a little bit warmer although the frost was still very much present. However, I can't complain as it was totally different to last week's event at Swindon. The first two laps seemed to be quite swift but during the last two laps I settled down to my tempo of running. I was quite pleased to get to T1 to find with a quick look at my watch that it said sub 38min on a supposedly accurately measured 10K course. I was very pleased with that as it put me in good stead for the bike ride. As per usual on my bike all the quick boys came flying past me & I was unable to respond. Also, as with the run, during the first lap of the bike course there were quite a few groups on the road but by the start of the second lap I was isolated on my own with two cyclists in the distance which I was unable to catch so I settled down again to my own rhythm & headed towards T2. With a mile to go a group of about ten riders came flying past me so I managed to get on the back of the pack into T2 for a swift transition & out onto the final two lap run. The first lap felt really good. I was pushing hard because this is the final chance I had of qualifying so it was eyeballs out but I paid slightly for this on the second lap where a couple of people overtook me but I managed to get to the finish with a sprint & a grimace with a finishing time of 2:07:36 (official). Splits are as follows: 1st 10K run - 37:43 T1 - 31secs 40K bike - 1:07:56 T2 - 28secs 2nd 5.25K run - 20:57 18th in my age group, 79th overall (out of a total of [inc men & women] 280 competitors) Gra PS: I'm now going to have a whole week off of swim, bike, run because in the last six weeks I have raced my socks off. Out of those six weeks, I've raced five of them starting with Clumber Park, then the Ballbuster, then Boscombe 1/4 Marathon, a weekend off, followed by Swindon & finally Milton Keynes so I'm now going to enjoy myself stuffing my face with pizza, peanuts, cakes, crisps etc & anything else that I might fancy that is bad for you & at the beginning of the following week the real training/racing starts, readying myself for the beginning of September where I will take part in the National Middle Distance Championships up at Rutland Water (the Vitruvian). Coach Note - Graham will be joining Melissa at the World Duathlon Championships as he has qualified. |
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Melissa has just thawed out.... |
| that must
be the reason why we have this race report from the Steyning Duathlon held
on the 24th March..... The snow theme is getting kind of familiar and I really do sympathise with the guys who did Swindon this weekend as Steyning wasn't much better! I did this race last year in glorious sunshine, but this year it was some 17 degrees cooler and with 5 layers on before the start, I was still struggling to keep warm. Despite the lunchtime start, it was freeeezing! Wave one got going a good 30 mins before us (in wave 2) and missed most of the worst biking weather that was to set in for the afternoon. Run one was 7x 1k loops, which I strangely enjoy, because each is so short, you could blink and miss it! (I will come back to blinking and missing later!) I felt good on the run, sticking to my pace plan and building in the second half, I managed to reel in at least 7 people who had blasted off and slowed up. The sleet and snow set in on the bike and it could easily have been a miserable experience, but fortunately I was in a 'hammer the bike anyway' sort of mood and amazingly managed to ride the same time as I did last year on a gorgeous day, with a 2week training camp in my legs. Apologies to those concerned, but I couldn't help feeling a little bit gleeful when I passed 2 guys with disc wheels and aerohelmets struggling in the wind In the last 8k of the bike i admit that ithe weather had started to chill me to the core and like Gra, by the time I got to T2 I couldn't release my helmet because my fingertips weren't mine anymore. I've never been so relieved to get running as I knew that it was the only way to generate some heat. Managed to settle into a rhythm pretty quickly, I had slowed a bit compared to run one because I was so cold, but that aside, my legs felt good. A worrying moment at the 3k mark, as the world suddenly went a bit wonky and I thought that hypothermia had got me....then I realised it was just my contact lens doing a backflip! After half a Km, this was just too annoying and the offending item had to be flung on the road. For the last 2km, I had to remember to shut my 'blind' eye everytime that I needed to judge the distance to jump on or off a kirb, I hope that none of the supporters thought I was flirting ;@ Speaking of supporters, at this race, they are absolutely amazing. As you get to run past them 12 times in total and the organisor amazingly seems to announce everyone's name on every lap, by the end, you have a personal fan club, which makes this a fantastic event, whatever the weather. I came in 6th senior lady, which I was happy with in a strong field (ranking and qualifier event) times: 29.54-1.03.46-22.52; total 1.58.57 Coach note - Melissa was getting into the whole duathlon thing having qualified to go the World Duathlon Championships in Rimini some two weeks earlier. |
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Sunday 30th March 2008
Bournemouth Bay Half Marathon |
| Lou was out
running - Unlike the Eastleigh 10k two weeks ago where I was rested and raring to go, today I was feeling the effects of giving my body a pretty good thrashing over the last two weeks. I did my pre-race easy turbo spin yesterday and, once I had got into it, felt a bit more lively although still rather doubtful as to how I would run. I had a minor panic in getting my kit ready as I realised that all my favourite running socks were in the wash basket, so one load of washing later, I was glad I hadn’t left getting my kit ready til this morning. The clocks changing meant that my intended mega early night didn’t quite happen and I finally crawled into bed with the wind howling outside. The cat pouncing on Elliot’s feet this morning was my cue to get up, otherwise I would probably have gone back to sleep. At least the weather was better than yesterday. Knowing that I was feeling less than fresh, I slightly lowered my finish time expectations as I doubted I would be able to achieve my predicted time. Given my recent new 10k PB, I wanted to see what I could do for a half, hoping to better my previous ½ marathon PB of 1:42:38 which I did at the Hardley Half in October 2005. I did Bournemouth 2 years ago in 1:46:44 but didn’t have a brilliant run that day. I always thought that Bournemouth would be a flat, fast course but several people said it’s not that fast – hmm, interesting. (Coach note – based on Lou’s new 10k PB her projected 21k time would be 1.35-1.36) Started out quite fast with the nice little slope up Durley Chine to push the HR up. Got to mile 3 where I managed to settle into my groove. HR was just above the limits I had set but I felt ok. It turned out quite warm and I could have done with taking my top off, but it’s a bit early in the year to be revealing bare white flesh on a Sunday morning. Felt good at mile 6, then wanted to stop at mile 7 – not good. The last 6 miles were a hard slog and my legs just did not want to play. Guess I’m not quite used to maintaining that sort of pace yet over the longer distance, but hopefully my new block of training will help address this problem. Only got overtaken by 2 females throughout and managed to catch a load of blokes near the end who had broken away earlier on. Staggered across the finish line and heard a voice say “well done Lou”. Saw Bryce and wobbled over, being completely unable to coherently answer a question he asked – sorry Bryce. Finished in a time of 1:38:16 – a new PB which I fought hard for. Pleased but also slightly disappointed (completely irrational I know). I had secretly hoped I could go a bit faster yet I knew that given how I felt pre-race, it was a realistic time but I know I can do better. It was such a lovely day that I could have quite easily stayed there, drinking coffee on the seafront in the sun, watching the world go by but my conscience got the better of me as I knew that I should make the most of a decent afternoon and get home to attack the garden, which I duly did. No rest for the wicked…. Feeling rather windburnt now 167 avg HR Splits: 1 = 7:24, 2 = 7.28, 3 = 7.01, 4 = 7.16, 5 = 7.29, 6 = 7.29, (44:09 – 2nd fastest 10k time ever done) 7 = 7.36, 8 = 7.20, 9 = 7.35 (miles 7 – 9 were wiggly round the houses & included 2 short sharp slopes), 10 + 11 = 15.49, 12 = 7.14, 13 = 8.28. Water stops at 3, 6, 11 miles |
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25/03/2008
So where has Graham been.... |
| I know that
Graham has had a couple of I.T. issues (computer not connective tissue!!)but
here is what he has been up to. Hi All Below are the race reports for Clumber Park Duathlon, the Ballbuster & the Rotary Quarter Marathon: Clumber Park Duathlon - Saturday 8th March 2008 I thought I'd have a play at duathlons this year & my first ever proper duathlon was the World Qualifier at Clumber Park to see if I could get on the GB team for a trip to Rimini, Italy at the end of September. Race day dawned cloudy, windy but dry with rain forecast later in the day. I started the race near the front because I'd reccied the first couple of Ks & realised that after the first K it turned off the road onto a single forest track with tree roots, lumps & bumps all over the place which made running very difficult but I managed to get around lap one OK & was looking forward to a second lap & being able to see where I was putting my feet. To my annoyance I was just turning at the end of lap one when the last wave had just started so it was yet again a bit of a bun fight on the second lap. Into T1 where I had a quick transition, well I thought so. The bike course had been changed at the very last minute due to major roadworks so it was now a three lap triangle, mostly in Clumber Park but it was very windy. I only managed to top out at an average of 20mph. Into T2 where I had an even quicker transition & this is where I was thinking would the legs hold out or buckle!!!! However, in the end, they didn't do too badly (but I could've gone quicker). My splits are as follows (both runs & bike were short due to the course changes): Total time - 1:56:50 1st run - 32:01 (86th); T1 - 50secs; bike - 1:06:17 (71st); T2 - 42secs; 2nd run - 16:58 (56th) 68th overall & 14th in my age group So bring on Swindon because only the first six in my age group qualify for the Worlds. The Ballbuster - Saturday 15th March 2008 Have done this race now a couple of times, but never in March but I can honestly say that it makes no difference what time of year it takes place as it is still up the same hill five times & the weather can be unpredictable. Race day morning dawned with the overnight rain disappearing in the distance but it left behind very wet roads & after doing a lap of the course in the car, it was also very dirty due to roadworks scattered around the course, the first of which was only 50 metres from the start!!!!! However, it all started at the top of Box Hill which was enshrouded with a thick fog but the Race Organiser said that it would be OK to start the race as it was clear at the bottom. For the first lap of the run I always try to take it easy because I know that if you go too hard this race will come & bite you hard on the arse during the last run. I'm not saying that eight miles is easy but when you are contained in a group it doesn't feel too bad. Into T1, with the fog still covering the top of the hill, for three laps on the bike. I was quite pleased with the way that the three laps went but was a little bit cautious on the descents because of the road conditions & I've got bigger fish to fry at the end of the season. As for the three times up the hill on the bike, lap one & lap two I managed to hold mid to high 11mph but the last time up it just dropped a little bit to low 11s. What with the wet roads & the roadworks, Nikki said that I looked like I'd just completed a wet Paris-Roubaix!!! Into T2 which is always a bit difficult having to run across a stony car park in cleats then out onto the last run. This last lap went OKish until the bottom of the hill when both quads decided that they'd had enough of running & started to tighten up a little bit but I dug deep & pushed on to finish in a time of 3:11:20 & my splits are as follows: 1st run - 55:53 Bike (which includes T1) - 1:18:14 2nd run (which includes T2) - 57:13 37th overall & 6th in my age group Balls now well & truly busted!!!!!!! The Rotary Quarter Marathon, Boscombe - Saturday 22nd March 2008 The story begins like this. Nikki's dad is down with us for Easter week so I'd said to them would they like a walk down on Boscombe Beach? They said yes, that'd be nice. But when we got down to Boscombe I said Oh look there's a running race today & as luck would have it, I've got my running kit in the boot, so I left them in the pub while I did the race. The afternoon was blowing a gale & cold. The race started & the lead group disappeared & I was left leading the second group so eased off just a little bit & let two guys come in front of me where I tucked in behind them. By mile 2 we'd turned off of the sea front & headed towards Hengistbury now with the gale force winds head on. By this time we were now catching a few of the lead bunch which had disintegrated. Back onto the Overcliff & just to make things even more difficult we had a headwind all the way back towards the finish but was racing well with another guy & still picking off people. Total time (unofficial) 39:51 (1) 5:57; (2) 6:04; (3) 6:13; (4) 6:05; (5) 6:18 [30:40]; (6) 6:12; the last bit 2:58 At the time of writing the results were still not on the website. |
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Sunday 23rd March 2008
WCA 10 mile TT |
| Bryce was
out playing with the roadies.... Again, the open 10 I had entered was cancelled on Sunday due to the weather and having only crossed a start line 3 times since October beginning to feel that I was getting a little under raced so on Monday I found a local event instead and hammered round for 20 odd minutes. The course was the 10 mile version of the Synergie 20km TT we used to use. It was not exactly the success I was hoping for…………. Every year normally in March and July I have a little fiddle with things………. bike like in nature. Basically I evaluate the riding position, equipment and practise and see if there is anything else I can do to find a bit more free speed. With only 9 weeks until my first peak I wanted to address two problems (first mistake – only do one at a time !). I wanted to tweak my aerobars so that my arms were more level and not scooping as much air into my chest cavity plus closing the gap between my back and helmet. I also wanted to quantify my caffeine ingestion practise better. Lets get the easy stuff out of the way first – the new bike position felt good with no adverse effects, I won the race by 6 seconds from one rider and took 2 -3 minutes out of the other 20 odd that showed up and shaved 50 seconds off my previous course best from 2 years ago. Sounds good doesn’t it ? |
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Sunday 16th March 2008
Sherborne Castle 10k |
| This is a
10k multi-terrain job organised by Yeovil Town RRC at Sherborne Castle
familiar to triathletes as the home of Ironman UK. On a very miserable Sunday morning I lined up with 200+ others in the wind and rain wishing I had stayed at home drinking coffee, reading the Sunday paper and listening to music. The race started with a gallop across a sodden field before joining a tarmac path through the estate. This half mile of tarmac was the only bit of road on the course and I soon wished I had worn my off road Helly shoes instead of my usual shoes. What followed was mud, gravel, grass more mud more grass etc. This was interspersed with a number of kissing gates which slowed the field as they only allowed one runner at a time through. Once I got going I really enjoyed myself slithering down slopes and splashing through large areas of standing water. I finished in 38th position out of 231 finishers in a time of 43:05 and was placed third in the over 50 category. Certainly more fun than an hour on the turbo..but then what isn't? Cheers Dave |
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Sunday 16th March 2008
Bath Half Marathon |
| I also
raced yesterday searching for a pb in the Bath half marathon. I cancelled my Saturday night out and stayed in thinking about my race strategy; do I attack from the gun or pace it carefully and chase a negative split whichever I choose I was chasing a time of sub 80 minutes. The weather was not conducive to a quick time it was windy and was hammering down with rain all morning and I was soaked by the time I arrived - just in time for the 11am start as I didn't want to wait around outside getting cold, it was then I discovered that the start had been delayed by 1 hour due to the first aid tent being too small apparently and the organisors having to erect a larger one - great! I had taken my pre-race nutrition ready for 11am and now had nothing no food, money, water etc. as my parents who were watching had taken this with them. I found shelter along with several others of the 10,000 odd participants in the indoor shopping centre adjacent to the start and crashed out there for an hours wait. Competitors were strewn across the floor stretching / chatting / listening to i-pods or doing the Bryce 'getting in the zone' thing but the tension was building, this was obvious due to the enormous queues for the toilets. The only saving grace was that during this hour delay the rain relented although I still had wet feet for the race which wasn't too pleasant. The time passed and it was off to the start line. I started with the 1:20:00 group, I chatted to a couple of guys I have been running with recently (yes Scott I have been run training) and thats it we were off. I thought I would do a slow first mile and build from there, I was hoping to do the first mile in about 6:30 and then go low 6's for the subsequent 12. I felt good and that I was going slowly but on checking my watch it showed 5:46 crikey, bit of a miscalculation. I checked my watch at each mile marker and after 5 miles I was in good shape just over 30 mins. I went through the 10km gantry in 37:02 and all was good. There seemed to be a headwind whichever direction you were running into which was frustrating but the support on course was really good loads of people and brass bands etc. very encouraging. Onto lap 2 of 2 and you knew you had to run the same route again a bit disheartening but there were lots of people to lap and I kept battling with another guy so that kept me going. Went through 10 miles in 1:00:44 so I was still on for a pb but I knew the windiest bit of the course was to come and obviously I would be more tired so I tried to push on. Through 11 miles in 1:07:09 suddenly I thought I wasn't gonna go sub 80 felt demoralised but had to push on. I was really hungry and thirsty now as couldn't get to the last drinks station due to the vast number of runners on their first lap and the fact those on 2nd laps were forced to run across the road from the drinks station. At this point one guy came running by me pretty quickly and I managed to stay with him for the next mile - through 12 in 1:13:13 hope all these 13's isn't gonna be unlucky for me. At this point I overtook him and went for it as best I could. Finished in 1:19:45 so was delighted with that. Finishing position 139th out of 10,009. See you all soon Matt |
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Sunday 16th March 2008
Eastleigh 10k race |
| A lot of
thought went into this race. After diligently studying my test data, my predicted time was around the 51 minute mark, which also corresponds with a predicted time based on my recent half marathon and 20 mile results. (Coach Note – Lou’s recent 20 mile time would actually predict a 47 – 48 min 10k.) However, deep down I believed I could do better than this (yep, a rarity that I believed I could actually do something better!) especially as I had done a 47.35ish at Somerley in December after lots of Christmas mince pie eating and on an off-road course. I spent last night pondering the possibility and reality of hitting my previous PB of 46:00 but didn’t want to get too carried away with delusional thinking. I really should find better ways to spend a Saturday night. Never before has a 10k meant so much to me. My running has felt pretty good over the last 3 weeks and after an easy week off training, I wanted to give it my best. Came to the conclusion before dragging myself from my duvet this morning that I could only run as fast as my legs and lungs will currently allow me, and that so long as I raced well, I would have to accept whatever time I hit. After finally summoning some enthusiasm to face the elements, I plonked myself at the 45 mins + marker as I usually start too far back at races. I’ve not actually run that many 10k’s. Ok, being totally honest, I’ve averaged 1-2 per year over that last couple of years (sure that will get me a huge telling off!) and I know that I need to do more if I’m ever going to get faster. Contemplated going eyeballs out, seeing how far I could get before being reduced to a vomiting, crawling mess, but decided that it probably wasn’t the best approach so went for the target HR instead. The first few k’s passed quickly, despite running into a strong wind, and I found a guy who was going at the same pace so made it my goal to stick with him. HR hit the upper limit in the first k but then settled down. Felt strong running up a short sharp hill between 3-4k - knew that doing “Dave’s hill” last Sunday would pay off! Although I was working hard throughout, I didn’t feel as desperate as I have done in some previous 10ks and my HR was within the set limits. 7-9k was hard going as my stomach felt a bit crampy then it was like running into a brick wall again for the last k. The timing clock was hidden at the end so I couldn’t see the time - my watch was on laps and I’d not altered the clock/stopwatch mode. Idiot. Finished just behind a club member who had done 43.40ish on his watch, so realised that a sub 45 was a possibility. Fortunately they posted some results very quickly to put me out of my torment of not knowing my time…last year, I ran this in 47:48 (or thereabouts), my previous PB was 46:00 at the Christmas 10k at Christchurch in December 2005.…today’s effort was a staggering 43.34. I still can’t quite believe it and checked the results at least 5x to make sure I hadn’t misread them, then wondered if I had been wearing someone else’s chip! And, I won a prize for being 3rd in my age group - the results were rather confusing as they had the race placings, Hampshire placings and SEAA placings. Think I was 3rd in the race and Hampshire as I missed ticking the box on the entry form for SEAA. I have never won an individual prize for running before - a £30 B&Q voucher which is rather useful given that we’re redecorating the bathroom - Elliot was obviously delighted with it!! So I’m a very happy bunny. Lou Coach Note - great PB by Lou, so the swimming and the running are going well and a little bird tells us that she has been doing a little bit of biking as well - should make for an interesting testing day. |
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Saturday 8th March 2008
Clumber Park Duathlon |
| Melissa was
at the first qualifier for the World Duathlon Championships, the qualifier
was at Clumber Park. So here starts what I call my 'season proper'. Clumber Park Classic, a beautiful race but one that was a nightmare for me last year due to injury that left me with a PW on the run! Feeling better this year, I needed to put the demons away! The organisers did an amazing job of re-routing the entire race in the last 24hrs due to road works. The run was mainly off-road on lumpy turf, undulating with lots of out and back loops, but no serious hills. The bike became a 3-lap affair, mainly within the park, except for one lovely fast bit of main road. The only downside to this was going down the infamous Limetree Avenue 3 times-with the strong headwind and bad road surface this downhill didn't give us any free speed whatsoever! All went a lot lot better than last year, 6th in age cat, 35.27-1.15.22-18.53 splits. One more great thing about this race was the serious sound system at the start belting out 'Born Slippy' etc....not sure that 'lager, lager, lager' was on the cards at 9am yesterday morning, but I sure could have sank a pint after ;) Coach Note – Melissa’s 6th place means that she has grabbed a qualification slot for the World Duathlon Champs in Rimini; Melissa had already qualified for the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver and the European Triathlon Championships in Lisbon. |
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Sunday 2nd March 2008
Pink Peril 20 miler |
| Race Report
from the Pink Peril: Mad March 20 - 2/03/08 I entered this race thinking it would be a good training run, if nothing else. After a few recent long runs which were demoralisingly slow and some not quite as long as planned, I was feeling a bit apprehensive about 20 miles on road, especially as the last half marathon I did on road trashed my calves (an issue with my new shoes, although they are supposed to be exactly the same as my old pair). A couple of good run sessions this week led me to hope that perhaps my run legs were finally making an appearance and after resting yesterday, my legs were feeling quite fresh. Bit of a dilemma deciding what kit to wear as there was the potential for a nice warm spring day, but first thing the wind was quite chilly and if it rained, it could have been a cold 20 miles. The race start got delayed by 15 minutes as the portaloos only arrived at the scheduled start time! Pre-race plan was to run 9 – 10 minute miles, with brief walk stops allowed in the final 5 miles if necessary, giving a projected finish time of 3:00 – 3:20. After probably about half a mile, I was thinking that it was going to be a long day out, but having someone to run with made it more interesting and prevented me from bimbling along. I got to mile 1 in around 8:30, although it felt that I was running slower than this. I decided to maintain this pace for as long as I could as I felt comfortable, rather than slowing down to my planned 9 mins+. I found it quite hard during the initial 5 miles or so to hold back as I was feeling pretty good. Did 10 miles in 1:24 and some seconds, 13 miles in 1:49 and some more seconds – felt really strong between 11 and 13. After this point, I didn’t want to know time checks. I got to 15 miles and had a momentary panic as I didn’t think I would be able to maintain the pace and was anticipating a spectacular blow up. I worked really hard the last 5 miles to maintain the pace and although I felt that I was getting slower, apparently a post race analysis of a Garmin showed that I actually got fractionally quicker. I knew that I should have taken on more gels instead of carrying them for a scenic outing. The usual right hamstring & left quad combo started tightening and my toes were getting sore but I focused on trying to keep relaxed, maintain form and think positive mental thoughts. Overtook loads of people in the last 5 miles – a nice feeling for me but probably not so nice for them! It’s usually me that’s struggling along in the final stages of a race so it was nice to feel so good, and I didn’t need to stop and walk at all. Very grateful to see the 19 mile mark, then turned into the finish field. Put in a burst over the last 20 metres as I saw the clock and wanted to get in under 2:48 – did 2:47 and about 40 seconds ish (I think) so just about did a negative split by 30-60 seconds and absolutely chuffed to get under 3 hours. A PB –only cos never done a 20 mile race before! Another positive is that my legs don’t feel completely trashed (yet) although I do think that this week, I will mostly be wearing flip flops. And I dare say that tomorrow I will experience Delayed Onset of Munchies … Splits: 1 = 8.14, 2 = 8.52, 3 = 8.36, 4 = 8.25, 5 = 8.14, 6 & 7= 16.50, 8 = 8.23, 9 = 8.22, 10 = 8.28, 11 = 8.20, 12 = 8.13, 13 = 8.04, 14 = 8.38, 15 = 7.52 (??), 16 = 8.40, 17 = 8.12, 18 = 8.25, 19 = 8.22, 20 = 8.08 HR was good throughout – well within my limits. Think this has to be my best race result ever in terms of exceeding my expectations so all in all, a good day out. Coach Note - First of all Lou talks about having a projected finish time of 3-3.20 mins then goes on to want a sub 2.48.....or roughly 90 secs per mile quicker than her original estimate!! Looks like we wil have to work on Lou's goal setting given that her Billat results and her time from the Somerly 10k predicted a 20 mile time of between 2.47 & 2.56. Great effort this far out from Lou's key races - so that's PBs in the swim and on the run. Should be a good season. |
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Wednesday 27th Feb 2008
Bridge Inn 5k |
| Same course
as previously, windy and cold again but this time I caught up with a guy who
was running a similar pace to myself, so rather than running alone I tucked in for the duration - the last 4km to be precise. I think he was fed up with me being on his tail (I know I would have been) but he said nothing so I tucked in and kept up as he kept trying to break me on any downhill's but I would catch back up on the inclines. My time came down again 17:16 this time so I was pleased with that - 14th out of 119 starters. Matt |
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Sunday 24th Feb 2008
A3crg Hilly 10 mile TT |
| Not a race
I really wanted to do but the season has to start sooner or later. 10 miles of extremely lumpy stuff including a 1 mile power climb on the outbound leg and a 3 mile climb on the way back. I placed 17th in 25:07 and an average power output of 399w (that’s the same as a fortnight ago). It was ok but my mass goes against me on a course as vertical as this one. Consolation was that I clocked a full minute faster then when I last did this event 2 years ago but this course is the back up course for nationals so attracted a national class field and I struggled as I was unwilling to push the descents in these conditions and the hills were hard going. Bryce. |
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Sunday 24th Feb 2008
Taunton Deane Aquathlon |
| This was a
first for me a pool based aquathlon consisting of 1k swim and 10k run. The swim was a bit on the warm side and the presence of handrails at poolend made tumble turning more hazardous than I am accustomed to. Despite this I had a steady enough swim follwed by a reasonable poolside transition. The run was a tarmac and track affair which was about as flat as the Winchester 10k. I finished in 62.58(15.29/47.29 split) 14th overall and yes Bryce first in my age group (the aptly named Supervets). If I can survive another 5 years I can join the Vintage category. Cheers Dave |
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Sunday 24th Feb 2008
Winchester 10k |
| Hi All Weather conditions for the race were good with a slight breeze, but warmish with it. Scott has said of this race in the past that it is flat, but in reality it is lumpy & undulating. The first two Ks were OK with no problems then it was up a hill to the 3K marker where a group of six was formed. Up to the 5K point we were all still together, then checked the watch at this point to see that I was on schedule but still had to push on to keep to my target time, because I knew the next 2K were all up hill. By the time we had reached 8K there was only myself & another guy left from the original group of six & it was now starting to hurt but pushed onto the finish where the young whipper snapper out-sprinted me, but overall I was very pleased with the outcome. The splits are as follows but some could be a bit suspect due to Ks being out of place and the undulating course, but the important ones to note are the 5K and the finish: (1) 3:05; (2) 4:31; (3) 3:37; (4) 3:54; (5) 3:45 [18:55]; (6) 3:46; (7) 4:47; (8) 3:39; (9) 3:17; (10) 3:21 = 37:47 My history of this race is as follows: 2002 - 38:51; 2004 - 38:54; 2005 - 38:58; 2007 - 38:04 & today's time of 37:47 And by the way, Bryce, I got silverware. I was 28th overall out of a field of over 900 & 3rd in my age group. Gra |