Thetford Dusk Til Dawn 2014

Once again me and Cavey paired up.

It had rained, hard, from mid-day till about an hour before the start.
I volunteered for the 1st lap.
I got a good start however a course taping cock-up meant us leaders were sent the wrong way so I spent much time fighting through the pack to make back some places.
Half way around the course I cheekily overtook some other riders where there wasn't really enough room, I cut back in and had to keep the speed up so as not to hold them up.  This led me to take a tight left/right too quickly and I glanced a tree.  My shorts snagged on a little branch and ripped down the side, all the way from the top to the bottom!  A cry from behind of "Oh, fucking hell!" confirmed I would have to do the rest of the lap with my arse and tackle flapping about in the autumn air!  Fortunately I'd managed to stay on the bike and even more fortunately I had spare shorts in the car!

The taping cockup hadn't cost us too badly and we were in 5th place at the end of lap 1!

The rest of the night was incident free.  The temperature dropped to around freezing and as usual the sunrise in the forest was stunning.  I passed through one forest opening which was strewn with frozen cobwebs with shafts of sunlight glistening through.

As the night went on we moved up into 4th place and managed to hold onto that all the way to the end.  With 2 laps to go there was some timing confusion that meant we might be able to nudge up into 3rd and onto the podium, but in reality that wasn't ever going to happen.  We ended up 4th, with Cavey managing to get back over the line with only a couple of minutes to spare!

We've paired up for D2D 3 times now and this is the best result we've had and I'm exceedingly chuffed with it.

T'Tour de Yorkshire

When it was announced that this year's Grand Depart would be taking place in Yorkshire I knew I'd have to make a trip back there to see it.  While I'm not one for watching sporting events on TV, I love a live spectacle and couldn't miss seeing the worlds biggest cycling event taking place in the county I grew up in.

My original rough plan had been to head up on Friday after work with a mate and stay at my folks over the weekend, riding out to the Dales on the Saturday and over to York on the Sunday to see bits both stages.  But as time went on it became apparent that a full weekend wouldn't be possible for various reasons.  One of the main reasons being that I was attending the Black Sabbath, Soundgarden and Faith No More gig in Hyde Park on the Friday.

The new plan became to head out early on Saturday, leave the car in Selby, ride over to see the early part of the race near Leeds, then head on to Harrogate in time for the finish and then drive home the same day.

The gig was excellent, much beer was drunk (despite the prices) and I was tucked up in bed around 12:45.  My alarm went off at 5:30 and my mate Steve picked me up at 5:45.  The roads were clear at that time of day and we got to Selby just before 9.  It was raining pretty hard for much of the journey but cleared up about 15miles out.
We said our hellos, got changed, unpacked the bikes and were on the road for 9:30.

I didn't fully discover the joys of cycling till later in life so haven't properly explored the roads from back home and was looking forward to trying some of them out.  But, as we were against the clock I ditched the plan to take the scenic route through the countryside and we headed out on the busier main roads instead.

Initially I'd suggested riding approx 25 miles to Harewood House, however once we realised how busy it would be there we revised the plan to head to Pool in Warfedale instead.  It's not that much further away and I imagined it would be less busy than Harewood.  I'd plotted a route and uploaded it to my Garmin, although I knew most of the initial part of the journey very well.  My grandparents lived on the outskirts of Leeds, not too far from where we were headed; as a kid this seemed impossibly far away so the idea of biking it was appealing.

As we set off the roads were still wet but the weather stayed dry, however we were riding into a headwind all the way out.  Neither of us felt on form, the early start taking it's toll and we seemed to be riding up a gradual incline the whole way.

Around Moortown the road was blocked; the A61 was being used for the ride out from Leeds to Harewood House and crowds had already massed at the roundabout.  We got off and weaved our way through the narrow path.  Once through, the road was closed to motor vehicles and we found we were able to ride the wrong way along the dual-laned A6120.  From here we deviated from roads I knew and headed along the country lanes between Adel and Eccup Reservoir towards Bramhope.  From here we had brilliant views across Warfedale and finally had a speedy descent into the dale towards Pool.

We'd had no real idea what we'd do when we got there but assumed we'd be struggling to see over the crowds already massed at the railings.  As we arrived we were greeted by a "Race Maker" marshall who asked if we fancied riding on the course and then finding a spot to watch from a little further through the town.  A combination tiredness and surprise meant we didn't really register what he'd said at first but once it dawned on us we jumped at the chance.  He parted the barriers for us and we set off.

The streets were lined with spectators and as we sped along they were cheering us on; they clearly knew we weren't competitors but were getting into the spirit of things and it was a brilliant experience, especially as it was all completely unexpected.

We passed through Pool and found an area where the crowds had thinned out where we set up and waited for the pack.  We spent about 40 mins here soaking up the atmosphere, watching the Red Arrows flying over and refuelling.

A small lead bunch passed first, followed a minute later by the remaining 200ish riders.

Once they'd passed we rode up and down the stretch looking at all the chalk messages spectators had written for the riders.

We headed back into Pool then followed the GPS route out towards Harrogate.  We weren't the only ones with this plan and even though I'd taken us along a little country lane the road was heaving with bikes and cars. It was only 8-10 miles to Harrogate, but those 8-10 miles were were mostly straight up and we were worryingly low on spare gears at some points.  We refuelled again on the outskirts of Harrogate, before heading in and exploring the event.


The main event village was out of bounds as you couldn't take bikes in and we weren't prepared to leave them while we went in, but there was still lots to see.  All the team coaches were parked up and crowds were milling about everywhere, the one thing we couldn't find was the finish!  As we were discussing it a really helpful bloke overheard us and helped us work out where it was an how to get there.

Once again there was much fighting our way through crowds but we eventually found a way onto the course.

We rode the final mile or so several times, until the marshals shouted that we needed to clear the course ready for the race to come through.

We found a spot, by a dry stone wall, on a bend with a slight incline leading into Harrogate which seemed like a good spot to spectate and then we waited...

We'd got here with plenty of time to spare, and spent a couple of hours relaxing in the sun waiting for the competitors.

First came the carnival floats (aka advertisers) and at one point I was nearly run over by some speeding McCain Oven chips and a Fruit Shoot car!

 

Eventually the pack came into view... 

I snapped away like mad with my camera-phone and was lucky enough to capture a shot of Cavendish being led out by his team mates (he's the 5th one back with the black over shoes)!

After the riders had passed we headed after them into Harrogate, along with hundreds of other spectators.

Even though it was only a couple of miles, it took around 45 mins to get through Harrogate and out the other side, we decided there was little point staying for the ceremony as we'd not get close and time was ticking on.  We finally had some reward from the morning's headwind and absolutely flew the 15 miles from Harrogate, through Knaresborough and on to York.












After a quick sightseeing tour of the city and a recce of where the following day's ride would be starting we left York and wound our tired legs on to Selby.

We called in at Mr C's chippy and then on to my folks', after a quick refuel we headed back home, arriving around 11:30pm.


The full route can be seen here; http://app.strava.com/activities/162160639

Wattisham Triathlon 2014

Written long after the event so only highlights.

Beforehand
Training had gone well.  Extra core work (mainly planking) to attempt to combat diaphragm cramps I'd previously had on the run.

Swim
Was overtaken on the 7th length of the swim - I'd put an accurate swim time so was very surprised when this happened!  This gave me some focus for the rest of the event and helped me to push on when I was flagging.

Bike
On the ride I caught the bloke who passed me and we swapped places several times.  I eventually kept in front and got back and out of transition about 30-60s ahead of him.  This was the first time I'd used tri-bars in an event, they definitely worked well and I'll use them again.
Last year I'd been held up on the ride by the Police helicopter taking off so was happy not to have a repeat of that this year!

Run
The run went the best it ever has in a Tri.  No repeat of the diaphragm cramps I usually get and I was able to run well.  The bloke who overtook me in the swim passed me about a 1/4 of the way around the run, but as he was in Hadleigh Hare's running club gear it was to be expected that this would be his strongest discipline.

In the end I came 15th overall, 5th in age cat!.  Best result I've ever had by quite some margin!

Swim + T1: 00:06:39
Bike + T2: 00:35:12
Run: 00:19:51

Total: 01:01:42

Family came to spectate this year (Mum, Dad, Wife and daughter) this is the only event of mine that any of them have ever been to!

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!