Vitruvian Triathlon

Plan "A" Friday 4Th depart Bridlington 0730hrs to arrive at Liverpool 1000hrs to collect Beth off the ferry from the Isle of Man as she had been on holiday staying with my mum and dad. Return to Bridlington at approx 1330hrs, lunch, load up the car and set off for the Vitruvian to register at 1700hrs, meet up with Mat and then go to his house for dinner and sleep over. Race Saturday and drive home. Sounds good so far? Plan A goes tits up at 0950hrs when my dad rang to say the ferry had broke down half way across and was returning to the Isle of Man. The ferry company had decided to put everyone on a new boat when they got back and set off again. They finally got under way at approx 1130hrs but due to extreme weather didn't arrive in Liverpool until 1550hrs!! I then had the pleasure of driving Beth back to Bridlington during Friday rush hour traffic and didn't arrive back until 1930hrs. OK plan "B" no chance of getting to Mats until at least 2200hrs so plan "B" is have some dinner and go to bed at 2120hrs and try to sleep, get up at 0200hrs on Saturday and drive down for the race. Got a phone call from Mat asking how far down I was at 0430hrs and told him I was in a lay by about 20 miles from Rutland Water having breakfast. Arriving at Rutland at about 0500 I joined the long Que for the car park knowing I still had to go and register, set up transition and be out of transition for 0600 for the race brief. This was achieved with relative ease and I could finally relax and start thinking about the race.

The swim started and I tried to stay on the outside of the group and managed not to get knocked about too much, I exited lap 1 and ran round to start lap 2. I think I was on about 16 mins when I looked and lap 2 went well exiting the swim with a time of 31:39. Not too disappointed with that but would have liked to have been nearer the 30 min mark. I had a slow T1 as I put my socks on so I didn't have to mess about in T2. Out on the bike and I set off at a sensible pace and found we were straight into a head wind. Once over the "Rutland Ripple" with the change in direction it was a nice tail wind and 53 x 11 time. I passed a lot of people on this section of the course. I went through the first lap avoiding the drinks station as I had plenty of fuel on board and made up a couple more places in that area. On lap 2 the ripple had become a hill and I managed to make up more places on the climbs as people started to fade. I finished the bike in 2hrs 22 mins and 2 secs. The legs felt quite tired and I was not looking forward to the run, I set off from T2 and as soon as I dropped down the hill to the lake side I stopped to empty the bladder, this took over 30 seconds which I was pleased about as it meant I was well hydrated and could push on the run. I ran hard and was catching loads of people. I finished lap 1 and started lap 2 feeling really good. I pushed on across the dam and out to the turn point. On the way back I tried to pick up the pace and was going well to the 19.5 k mark. At this point the speed took a turn for the worse and I felt the small rise in terrain, I ran down the hill to the dam with good speed using gravity to the max and managed to recover a bit so the last little climb from the waters edge didn't present a problem and then its down hill to the finish picking up the pace as I approached the line. I ran a 1hr 27min 02 sec half marathon. My finishing time was 4hrs 23 mins and 32 seconds which was good enough for 25Th overall.

So my first ever Vitruvian done, I will now have another go at it with a target of sub 4hr 20 min next year. The drive home was a killer, I was sooooooo tired. I had to do a espresso coffee stop to wake up a bit. I got home at 1530hrs, sorted out the kit, had some dinner and was asleep on the sofa by 1930hrs. A tough day at the office but I really enjoyed the race.

Beverley Triathlon

A great race from start to finish, that's the first time this season. I had a good swim, exiting the pool at the same time as Ed Charlton Weedy from the Army tri team. For those that don't know he is the Interservice Champion this year. We left T1 together and I got my feet into my bike shoes quicker and led out the first mile through the town. Once we hit the road Ed showed his true strength on the bike and passed me. I don't get passed very often on the bike in a triathlon so was surprised at how easy he seemed to pull away. I tried to go with him and held the gap at 1 min 10 secs. I knew if I stuck with him I would be leaving the rest of the field behind. I got back to T2 and was as slick as ever, I set off on the run knowing that I had worked hard on the bike and was destined for the podium unless something went badly wrong. I ran hard and could see Ed in front of me at the turn. I was closing in on him but couldn't get close enough. I finished just 50 seconds behind him. I had the 4th fastest swim of the day, the second fastest bike of the day and the fastest run of the day. My reward for the effort was £20 cash, a free entry into any of the freebird events next year, a trophy and a bottle of wine. I reckon I raced faster due to wearing my new Oakley Jawbones LOL!

Ultimate bling, oh yeah a race report too

Blingy Bling Tastic, yes after a 4 1/2 week wait I finally received the ultimate bling item of the year - my Oakley Jawbones in Livestrong colours!!!! You know you want some!

Anyway on to the race, the Allerthorpe Classic standard distance tri. It was to be the first swim in my new Blueseventy Helix, maybe not the best plan to do my first swim in it on a race but it seemed to work out ok. I swam a 23:22 and 29th out of the water. I had a bit of a struggle in T1 as the new suit has different cuffs and I struggled to get out of them (a bit of lube on that area next time). I got on the bike and it was a flat course but very windy. I was going well but didn't feel anywhere near as fast as other races this year, not sure why but it just wasn't quite there. I made good progress and got back to T2 with a bike time of 1:01:19. Had a flyer in T2 with a sub 20 second transition, and off on the run. This is where I feel cheated. I know everyone had to do the same distance but I feel robbed due to the run being very long. I was running well and catching people as I went, I thought I had done a good run but found that I had only run a 40:23. Obviously the run was long as Phil Graves and Andy Fisher only ran 37 and a 1/2 for it. I finished with a 2:05:04 but had the run been accurate I reckon I would have beaten my p.b of 2:01:10. I finished 8th overall so a good result on a tough day due to the wind. I now move on as its back to doing a sprint on Sunday then a couple of weeks before the Vitruvian.

New Wetsuit

I've parted with some cash and got a new wetsuit, the old one was only just hanging together after lots of repairs over the last 4 years. I now have a blueseventy helix from Simon at www.thetristore.com for a bargain price of just £299.99 delivered. I will give it a test on Sunday in the Allerthorpe Classic tri, no time to test it prior to the event so will have to race test it! Review will be on here after the race along with race report, stand by!

Interservice Race

The interservice race took place on Wednesday 29th July in the stunning grounds of Sherborne Castle in Dorset. The forecast was for rain and lots of it, but on arrival the roads were dry. The swim start was really wide which meant it wasn't too much of a fight during the first 300 meters. I had lots of room and settled into a nice rhythm straight away. I exited the water in 23:17 which is a good swim for me. I had a good transition and then set off in pursuit of the fast swimmers knowing I would pass most of them on the fantastic long hilly bike course. I knew the course would be hard and the weather made it harder which played into my hands. I finished the 50k bike in 1:20:05 the 4th quickest bike of the day and the fastest RAF bike time by nearly 2 minutes. A faultless 2nd transition and I was away running and feeling good on the 10k run. I managed to put in a 35:17 run and a total time of 2:20:01. I had a good all round race with no real weakness on the day. I finished in 10th place and was the 3rd RAF finisher. A satisfying race for a change :-)
Next week I have another olympic in yorkshire, the week after is a sprint event and then just 2 weeks later its the Vitruvian.

I've swam across the river Humber

Organised by the Barracuda tri club www.barracudatriclub.com

I had a great day today. Today was the day I got to swim across the river Humber. We met at 3pm for a safety brief and after being told how dangerous the swim could be we then went to the rivers edge to get on board the lifeboat that was taking us across the river. On arrival at the other side we got into the water in 2 groups based on pace. The first group (my group) set off with the other group setting off 30 seconds later. We had to try and stay together for safety reasons and so the safety boat could keep an eye on us. The first 2/3 of the swim the current was pushing us up stream. As we got to the middle of the river it got a little choppy, the current was still pushing us up stream. With about 800m to go the tide turned and before we knew it we were having to review our approach as we were being moved towards the sea by the strong current. We arrived on the shore after covering the 1.5 mile swim in 38 mins. A fantastic afternoon swim with amazing views of the Humber bridge.

Ironman

Just looking at the rest 0f the RAF guys and was thinking of joining them in the Ironman Switzerland fun but have decided enough is enough, I am not paying 420 Euro's and that's that. No way on this earth will I pay that ransom to the Ironman franchise!