Alton Water 10k

As Clare discovered joys of running she developed an interest in taking part in an event.  To offer support, I agreed to sign up to the Alton Water 10k run with her.  I don't usually run much further than 5k (the distance required for the tris I do) so upping the distance seemed a fair challenge for me too.

Before the event I ran the full distance a couple of times, but had mostly focussed on increasing my 5k speed.

On the day of the event it was a cold drizzly morning.  We had friends taking part in the other distances; Alison R in the 5k, Claire A in the 2k.
As I was mostly there for moral support, and as it was Clare's 1st taste of an event we hung back and started from near the rear of the pack.
We'd decided that we weren't going to run together as our paces are reasonably different so I started off picking my way through the pack.
I often ride at Alton Water so know the course well, although have only run there once before.
I'd decided not to run with any water and only took some at 1 of the water stations along the course, although as usual I wore more of it than I drank.

At the final kilometer I was still feeling strong so started to push a bit harder than I would normally, managing to catch and pass several people who'd caught me earlier.  For the final 100 meters or so I had a flat out sprint with a bloke who I just managed to pip over the line!  I've never had that kind of finish before which was very elating; once over the line we shook hands and he bin me "well done".

For my first 10k and having started at the back of the pack I was stunned when I found out I'd placed 30th of 473 overall and 30th of 296 males, with a time of 42m40s.

Clare came 230th overall and was 34th of 177 females, with a time of 53m53s.

We really enjoyed the event and I even got a t-shirt for being one of the top finishers!  My first/only prize from an event :)

Thetford Winter Series 2013/2014

Round 1: 3rd Nov
31st of 113

Round 2 : 1st 
Didn't race as went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland the day before

Round 3 : 26th Jan
22nd of 100

Round 4 : 23rd Feb
34th of 94

Stowmarket Triathlon - 2013

Having done Wattisham Tri a couple of times I thought I'd attempt a different local event.  The distances at Stow are similar to those at Wattisham but rather than being on a closed circuit it's on public roads.

The 300m swim is in Stowmarket Leisure Center, then you head out on the bike along 18km of back lanes to Hauleigh and back, finally there's a 5km run along some fields to the finish.

In training I'd put a lot of effort into improving my swimming technique, and by race day I'd knocked nearly 30s off my estimated 6m swim time.  The running was going well and I was close to PB times at ParkRun and I continued to bike at every waking opportunity :) 

My friend Clare had also signed up for the Tri and we often swapped training tales, it was interesting to see the similar,  and differing challenges that someone else experiences. 

On race day myself and Clare headed over bright and early and sussed the layout of the site; pool to transition, transition layout, transition to cycle, cycle to transition and transition to run.  With transition areas set up, adjusted, tweaked, faffed with and set up some more we went to see the induction meeting and watch the first few people set off. 

My start time wasn't till 10:21 (number 143), so there followed an hour of hanging around and resisting the urge to faff.  Bailie arrived with the girls to support Clare, chatting with them helped to distract me.

Once in the pool the swim went very well and I'd almost caught the person who set off ahead of me.  Having blown up on the swim at my first Tri I'm conscious of not overdoing it these days, but even though I was trying not to knock my self out I felt I'd put in a good time.

The transition went well, for the first time in an event I'd decided not to bother with socks which seemed to save a little time.  The run from transition to the bike mount area was noticeably further than at Wattisham and is on a public road.  Fortunately no cars were coming and I got underway without incident. 

Shortly after setting off there are 2 right turn junctions, for each of these you have to come to a full stop and put a foot down before setting off again.  It was a windy day, but mostly the wind was in my favour,  blowing my up hills and a headwind on descents.  I passed quite a few riders on the ride and thought this leg had also gone pretty well.

In the 2nd transition I struggled to get my trainers on, I either needed more talc or to get some elastic laces, but it didn't cost me too much time.  Once under way I had a problem that's hit me on each tri, the top of my stomach/chest area cramped badly.  This time was probably the worst it's been and it wasn't until the 2nd lap that it eased off.  Early on the 2nd lap I was passed by someone who flew past and left me for dead, it was only afterwards I discovered it was Ryan Ostler, an international Duathlete champion! 

At the the finish I met up with Bailie, Clare and the girls where Bailie presented me with a bacon butty -  HERO!

The results show I came 26th of 178 over all, and 8th in the 35-39 Males category, the times were as follows;
- Swim: 4:28 (suspiciously quick,  probably a timing error by 1m)
- T1+Bike: 34:38
- T2+Run 25:38

Ride London 100 - 2013

Having registered for the RL100 ballot many months in advance, various administration issues had left me guessing as to whether I had actually been successful in gaining a place.  I'd been sent an email saying I was in but I'd not received the welcome packs or other items I knew other people had been sent.  The online registration site was suitably vague, so it was with much relief that I received final confirmation with a week or so to go! 

Given the lack of pre-event organisation I was sceptical about how well the event would go on the day... 

As a bit of background the event involves a 100 mile closed road circuit beginning in London, venturing out into the Surrey hills before returning you to the sights of London.  With 20,000 participants it involves an early start (first waves leaving at 6am and the final ones around 8am), my start time had been designated as 7:17am, so the prospect of the roads being jammed with 10,000+ slower riders ahead of me also didn't appeal greatly.

As there was no way I could get to London for a 6:15am start (you had to arrive 1hr before your start time) I'd arranged to stay with my mate Eric the night before.  He lives in West London which would have still been hard to get to the start (Olympic Park in Stratford,  East London) but better than starting from Suffolk.  Fortunately he'd managed to wangle the loan of his company's central London flat for us to use the night before!  This put us by Tower Bridge with only a couple of miles to get to the start -  HERO!

Approaching Olympic Park

So, at 5:45am on the Saturday morning I left the flat and headed east, looking for other cyclists.  I found a group and tagged along with them to the Olympic Park.  Once there the setup was very impressive.  Riders had been grouped into Black Groups and Blue Groups and within those groups were around 20 alphabetised waves of 500 cyclists, I was in Black wave 'M'.  An hour before the start were ushered into our designated gateway and as time passed we were gradually funnelled nearer to the start line.
By chance I found myself at the front of my wave, as they counted down to our start I was very ware of the fact that there were 500 people lined up behind me!

At the start line - looking ahead.

At the start line - looking back...

We'd been advised to set of steadily as the timing didn't actually start will 1mile down the road, I decided to do as I was told and expected people to be flying past me but as I rode gently along no one passed.  A look over my shoulder showed me that I was heading up possibly the longest peloton of my life! 
The start took us along a short minor road then the wrong way around a roundabout and up onto the A12 dual carriageway.  It was exceedingly surreal to be riding the wrong way down a completely closed A12 at 7am, especially when leading out a 500 person-strong "wave".  Soon I was passed by various riders and several of us formed a pack as we swooped through various inner-city tunnels at silly speeds, with lots of us whooping and howling to create echoes.

Despite the early start lots of people were out on the streets cheering us on. My start time was about halfway through the phased start and my fears that the roads would already be rammed were unfounded as there was mostly plenty of space. In fact most people naturally gravitated to the left hand lane(s) leaving the oncoming lanes clear much of the time.

Once past the sights of London, the Surrey lanes were nice change of scenery.  I made my first stop at the 50mile mark, the 'hubs' were very well organised with plenty of free cereal bars, snacks and electrolytes - it was here that I first bumped into a fellow TROG, Mark, we had a quick chat and then went our separate ways.

After a few more miles Leith Hill was in the way - this was undoubtedly the toughest challenge of the day.  The road is steep, narrow,  with tight bends and has several false peaks,  you'd come over a crest only to find it went up again!  There were lots of strugglers on the hill, all spread across both lanes, so trying to keep momentum and pass other riders was hard work!  Coming down the other side was exceedingly fast and dodging other riders was again proving challenging, it doesn't bare thinking about what would happen if either of us misjudged things. 

A little further on, Box Hill was less of a challenge than I'd feared, and It was on the climb along here that I met Mark for the 2nd time. Although  Box Hill climbs for quite a distance, it's recently been resurfaced and compared to Leith it was pretty straightforward to find a comfortable gear and wind your way up - the view from the top was breathtaking.

My next stop was at 80 miles where I refilled my bottles and got quickly back under-way.

The final run into London was very nice, after flying along the Embankment you pass Westminster, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square then through Admiralty Arch, along the Mall towards Buck house.  I particularly enjoyed "Dangerzone" from Top Gun blaring out as I crossed the line.

My official time inc both stops was 5hrs 19mins and my GPS shows I averaged 19.8mph, which I'm exceedingly chuffed with. 

Can heartily recommend the event, get your names down for next year's ballot!

Thetford Summer Enduro 2013

On the run up to the Summer Enduro the weather had been very dry, but the night before it had rained pretty hard.  I had some tyre choice concerns but stuck with my Racing Ralfs which ended up being a good decision as, if anything, the course could have done with more rain and was tyre deep with dusty earth in loads of places!

This time I had entered in the 10hr pairs race with my mate Stu, after a quick chat we decided I'd go off first and we'd alternate laps from there on.  Stu claimed he'd not had chance to get as much training in as he'd have liked,  but he certainly seemed quick enough to me :-) 

- Lap 1 - I got a good start from the 2nd row and managed not to be overtaken too much.
- Lap 3 - I'm not sure why but this lap contained many silly mistakes, including overshooting corners and in one case missing an arrow and going about 50yards off the course!  Despite this I still managed a decent enough time.
- Lap 5 - There were fewer silly mistakes this time, however halfway around the course I clipped a root while overtaking someone and I hit the ground pretty hard.  I jumped back on the bike and pretended I wasn't hurting as much as I was.  Shortly afterwards I was caught by my mate Winger who was soloing and he "beasted" me back to the changeover with cries of "Come on ya faggot,  get a move on" which helped get another good time in :-D
- Lap 7 - This went OK but a bit slower, the pain in my side was starting to surface.
- Lap 9 - Can only be summed up by the word agony.  It was clear I'd hurt a rib in my fall (as well as scraping the skin off my hip) and the adrenaline (or whatever had kept me going that long) had worn off...  At the change-over I told Stu that this would probably be my last lap.

After talking with the other GRT guys I visited the first-aiders and got doped up with pain-killers and ice-packs and was advised to retire, which I fully planned to do, until...  Just before Stu was due back in, the pain-killers kicked in so I thought I'd see how another lap went...

Lap 11 - Unsurprisingly I was off the pace of the previous laps but only by a few mins and the pain was bearable.
Lap 13 - Pretty much a copy of lap 11...

Stu got in another lap, but it was clear another one wouldn't quite be within the cut-off time limit (I'd already decided I'd done myself enough damage and had got changed) so we called it a day at 14 laps.

Until Lap 6 we were battling for 6th/7th place but the lost time left us in 10th which, all things considered, I'm very happy with 

Mike and Paddy got a cracking 3rd place in the same cat, and the various GRT teams were pretty much all over the rest of the podium with very convincing wins for Lewis, Wingnut and Ady and Carl in their cats.

Many thanks to the GRT boys and girls for their help, banter, support and pain killers...

All in all a "cracking" day...

TimeLaps results linked here;
http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/Thetford%20Summer%20Enduro%202013.pdf

Wattisham Triathlon 2013

Having enjoyed last year's attempt at Wattisham Tri I thought I'd give it another go this year and see if I could improve on last year's performance.

As a brief summary, the event is held on Wattisham Airbase and involves a 300m indoor pool swim, a 20km bike ride (including twice up and down the runway) and a 5km run.

Last year I'd only been running a few months so was quite happy to be able to complete 5km never mind tackle it quickly, also my swimming ability was only notable by the fact that I've reached my mid-thirties without drowning...  While I'd been biking competitively for a few years it's all been on mountain bikes and I'd only bought a road bike specifically for this event so was still fairly new to that discipline too.

Since last year's tri I'd kept up the running, getting involved semi-regularly with the local ParkRun, but hadn't really gained any pace.  I'd also spent a lot of time on the road bike, almost favouring it over the MTB (Oh god, what have I become!?!) but I'd hardly swum at all.

Training

Training-wise I started swimming occasionally over winter as an alternative to riding and running in the cold, in mid-March I took out a swimming pass for Crown Pools and started to go much more regularly.  Most lunchtimes I'd nip over from work and do 3 lots of 12*25m lengths.  I also started to try different techniques from the Swimsmooth website - position in the water, breathing on alternate strokes, etc.
Swimming was undoubtedly my weakest of the disciplines but is also the shortest part of the tri so even if I improved a lot I wouldn't be saving much time overall on the whole event.  I found learning the breathing techniques very hard, while I'd manage it fine for a few lengths, I'd be struggling for breath after a while.
Last year the swim leg had killed me and led to me being unable to focus at the start the ride which spoiled my supposedly best part of the event.  I resolved to just being able to do the swim in a similar time as last year but not be as ruined by the time I got out of the pool.

March was also when I started to take the running a bit more seriously too, getting out for 3-4 runs a week and trying to get to ParkRun whenever possible (although ParkRun isn't strictly a competitive event it's very useful for gauging yourself against other runners).  And by April I was doing quite a few rides followed by runs.

As for the bike, I ride pretty regularly as it is, so I just focussed on the road bike rather than the MTB and rode whenever possible.  I've a local 12mile loop so rode that and as motivation I tried my best to pick off some Strava segments on there.  In addition I did a couple of large back to back rides from my in-laws' to my parents and back again (see earlier post) covering around 150miles in 2 days.

The Big Day

After all the hanging around from last year I had resolved to arrive later this time but itchy-feet syndrome on the day meant I got there about 11ish, a whole 15-20mins later...

This year I knew a few people doing the race, Simon who is a regular, and 2 friends who are first timers (get me sounding like I'm dead experienced at this) Karen and Mags.  Also a few other friends were spectating, Ian, Clare, Andy and Laura, and Bim, it's great to have people cheering you on and I find it makes a surprising difference to your motivation when you're flagging.  It also means there are photos to remember the day by, thanks very much for those :)

Once signed in (number 161), my free banana eaten, my race numbers stuck to the bike and race belt and my free t-shirt stowed in car (never to be worn).  I then went to set up my transition area; Karen had kindly bagsied me a spot near the swimming pool exit and I set up everything as best as I could, given the strong wind and forecast downpours.

Following the induction meeting (very similar to last year, although the line about Lance Armstong had inexplicably been changed to Bradley Wiggins, can't imagine why...), there was much hanging around and faffing, although having a few friends there to pass the time with really helped.
The race began at 13:00 with competitors setting off at 30s intervals.  Your start time is based on your estimated swim time with slower people going first - I'd estimated 6m 30s (by the end of my training I was getting just under 6mins) so didn't start until 14:21...

The Race

Around 14:15 I took my place in the queue by the poolside.  Once in the pool I was braced for a 10s countdown which never seemed to come.  The person ahead of me had completed 2 lengths (much longer than 30s) and the guy who starts you off was having a chat with someone else.  My brain starts to play tricks on me at times like this and I became convinced he'd told me to set off and I'd not heard him; this is ridiculous as he'd have told me again...  He eventually gave me the countdown after what seemed like centuries and off I went.
Last year I'd started the swim as hard and fast as possible and burnt myself out by the 5th length, this year I was determined to pace myself.  The swim was, fortunately, uneventful and I wasn't overtaken.  The only items of note are that the water tastes more saline-y than in most pools (I'm sure there's a joke about squaddies in there, but I prefer not to think about it) and I'd forgotten how deep the Wattisham pool gets (prob 30ft).

My goal of not knackering myself on the swim worked and although a little groggy I managed a swift transition and got away on the bike in what felt like a good time.

The winds were really strong making the cycling tough at times.  After skirting around the perimeter of the air-base you head onto the runway and hit a solid wall of wind.  A mile and a quarter later you do a U-turn and the wind noise instantly disappears and you absolutely fly back down the other way!  Looking at my GPS stats, I was averaging around 15mph into the wind and 30mph coming back the other way!

The race involves 2 laps of the course and on lap two I was struck by an unfortunate event...

Wattisham is a working air-base and you're advised in the induction that where necessary you have to give way to site traffic, as I flew along the top of the base with a tail-wind assist I saw another cyclist stopped in front of me and a marshall waving frantically at me to stop.  Having slammed on the brakes and come to a complete stop I learned that there'd been an emergency call out and that the police helicopter needed to take off...
The other rider complained to the marshall that this was affecting her time and could he contact the timing people to have it taken into account.  Unfortunately the official timing equipment isn't able to measure delays such as this and you just have to accept it.
To be fair, police emergencies obviously take priority over people messing about on bikes, but it's frustrating none-the-less.
At this point it looked like my goal of beating last year's time was over..  

My Garmin showed that I was stopped for 1m34s but adding on the time it takes to stop and get back up to speed, and for auto-pause to realise you've stopped and started I think it's fair to say it was the best part of 2mins.

While stopped I slumped on my bars, not even looking around so I don't know how many people were affected by this stop, I'd guess 4, maybe 5.  My new target became just to do as well as I possibly could...

Once underway again I chuntered under my breath into the runway headwind and giggled like a girl up the runway tail-wind and made it back to the transition point without any other incidents.
A quick swap of footwear, removal of helmet and flip of race-belt later and I was out for the run.

Much like last year my chest/stomach hurt like mad for the 1st 2km.  I ran through it as best I could but there must be something to do with being crouched on the bike that compresses my diaphragm so that it's uncomfortable when I start to run.  Once the pain eased I found my pace and even managed to sprint a little along the finish straight (note for next time, ignore the water station, you end up wearing 90% of it, if not more!).

Having finished, I wandered resignedly over to the results screen to find I'd actually managed to beat last year's time (1h 8m 48s), by a whole 11s at 1h 8m 37s!

This put me in 61st (of 258) overall and 17th (of 27) in the Male 35-39 category.

If I assume the stop cost me 1m 50s, this would have put me 49th and 11th, respectively, instead.

Last year my split times were as follows;

• Swim + Transition: 00:08:20
• Bike + Transition: 00:38:07
• Run: 00:22:20
• Total: 01:08:48

This year's split times are as follows;

• Swim + Transition: 00:07:27
• Bike + Transition: 00:40:35
• Run: 00:20:34
• Total: 01:08:37

My swim has improved by a minute and my run by 2 minutes, and if I'd not had to stop, my ride time would have been pretty similar to last year despite the headwinds.

All in all I'm very pleased :)

Ian Aldis's photos


Clare Bailie's photos

There and back again - An idiot's tale...

My latest bout of cycling nonsense was to ride from my in-laws house in deepest, darkest Lincolnshire to my parents in North Yorkshire and then back again the next day.

To find my way I'd plotted the route into my GPS (Garmin Edge 500) which only offers very basic navigation (a "join the dots" type system that beeps if it senses you've missed a GPS way-mark).  The route was estimated to be about 76miles each way and at an avg speed of 16mph should take between 4.5 and 5 hours.

Given the Arctic spring we've had this year I was avidly watching the weekend's forecast, which ultimately ended up being dry, bright, cold and head-windy.  On the Friday night, Lily had missed the point of the trip a little (if there actually was one) and asked whether I would drive there instead if it was raining :)

Around 7:20am on Saturday morning I set off on my road bike with a rucksack of essentials and wearing nowhere near enough layers of clothing - although it was about 2 degrees at the time it was supposed to be nearer 10 later in the morning.

I've always been of the opinion that Lincolnshire is so flat that it makes Suffolk look like the Alps, unfortunately that's only true outside of the Lincolnshire Wolds!  Admittedly there's nothing there to rival Alpe-d'Huez but my legs were soon woken up!

I'd planned to have only one rest and refuel stop which would be at the Humber Bridge (just over half way) and to regularly snack while riding to keep me going.  The Garmin got me close to the Humber Bridge with minimal difficulty, but once in the urban metropolis of Barton-on-Humber I started to discover the flaws of its basic navigation.  While it's fine through the open countryside it's hard to decipher when there are multiple turnings.  For instance it will show that you need to turn left, however when there are 3 left turns up ahead it doesn't make it obvious which one to take.  Also, the Garmin seemed to think I'd be able to use the service shafts inside the bridge supports (or scale them like Spiderman) and access the bridge that way.  Having ignored it's frantic beeping and "OFF COURSE" messages I managed to find my way to the cycle path that crosses over it.

There...

Once over the bridge I had numerous more wrong turns and became more and more frustrated with various daft Garmin design decisions.  In fact here's some suggestions for Mr Garmin's design team;

• If you detect that I'm off course, don't blank the screen and replace the route with an "Off Course!" message!  At the very least leave the route there, and if possible place an indicator showing where I am in relation to it.
• Also, you could draw the additional GPS points you've logged since I veered off course so I can easily retrace them.
• Trying to animate things on an LCD screen doesn't work well at all, the refresh rate isn't up to it.  All I end up seeing is the route flashing on and off as I'm trying to work out which exit to take from a roundabout.
• When I've plotted a course you could identify where junctions are then look at other nearby junctions and add them as markers on the screen as features to help me navigate by.

The Garmin also has a ghost rider feature, this rides the course at your estimated average speed so you can see how far ahead or behind you are.  Over the course of the ride we became enemies.
I'd accidentally plotted a bridleway, right at the start of the course.  I couldn't pass that on my road bike, so right from the off he had a 2mile advantage.  I'd managed to regain that distance by Barton-on-Humber, but while I'd maintained a higher average than him he never went off course so would overtake me every time I did.  I regularly accused the cheating little sod of deliberately making the course changes vague so he could gain an advantage.  Needless to say the little swine beat me to the finish - by just under 2 miles...
I like to think that, as the miles wound endlessly on, this little game helped to keep me sane but the evidence of the previous paragraph suggests otherwise.

The last 20miles to Selby were very hard psychologically.  I've always thought of Gilberdyke and Howden as being quite close to Selby, but that stretch of road just went on and on and on for ever.  Each time I looked at the trip computer, the distance didn't seem to have changed - something else I accused the ghost rider of tampering with.
I regularly ride 3/4s of this distance and have ridden much further so I was surprised at how hard I'd found it, I suspect it's because I'm usually on familiar roads and riding with other people.

I reached my parents' at 12:30 and a gigantic Mr C's fish and chips followed by a Doubtfires ice-cream made everything better again.  The prospect of having to ride back the next day wasn't very appealing though; my legs were feeling drained and my back-side was very aware of the lack of padding in my cycling shorts.

For the return journey I'd decided to take more rest breaks and fluids, as well as to take it at a more steady pace rather than trying to get there as quick as possible - this time I'd be starting with the flat terrain and ending with the Wolds...

I set out around 7:45am on Sunday and despite taking it steady I was constantly aware that my leg muscles weren't wanting to do anything.  Despite that, the distances didn't seem as ridiculously long as yesterday - I think that now I was more familiar with what was coming my expectations were more realistic.
As is the way with these things, the wind had turned overnight so I had a headwind again!  Fortunately it was little more than a breeze this time.

And back again...

Rather than trying to ride right through, I took 3 or 4 short breaks and one longer one where I refilled my bottles - I'd stayed pretty much neck and neck with the Ghost Rider but I had to take a mile or so detour into Caistor for the bottle refill where I lost him and never caught him back up - damn him!

By the time I'd crossed the Humber my leg muscles had warmed up and although I wasn't exactly powering up the hills none of them stopped me in my tracks and I made it back to Aby around 1:15pm.

The routes and stats are here;
Aby to Selby: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/173679935/234886

• Moving Time: 4hrs 54mins 21secs
• Total Time: 5hrs 09mins 49secs

Selby to Aby: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/174100023/234886

• Moving Time: 4hrs 49mins 45secs
• Total Time: 5hrs 22mins 00secs

In the end there wasn't a lot in it time and speed-wise and the return leg only took 10-15 mins longer (including rests) so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Despite all my grumblings about the Garmin, it's a stunning bit of kit and I didn't need to resort to a real map once, I just feel they've made several stupid design decisions that could be very easily improved on.