230 miles

Well I managed to commute all week this week by bike from the new house so i've managed to clock 230 miles of cycling in 5 days! I went swimming Monday and Wednesday, and managed to run 6 miles Sunday, 5 miles Tuesday and Thursday. All in a good week, I think I will have a couple of rest days this weekend and then I plan to bike the 230 miles next week too. I won't do it every week but will try to do it often.

Henlow 10 and commuting

Well I survived the Henlow 10 yesterday, I had trouble increasing the pace as it set me off on coughing fits so had to control my heart rate and breathing. Still despite the remenance of the man flu in my system I managed to run a 58:54 to give me my slowest ever Henlow 10 but still not too shabby. Its strange really as although a fast run, being just off the top end of my pace has made a big difference in the fact that the legs were tip top this morning. So today is my first commute to and from work giving me a round trip of 46 miles to bike, it was cold this morning on the fingers and toes despite overboots and gloves, Anthea called me at 8 O'clock to check i'd got in ok and said it was -1.5 degrees at 7:20 when she got home from nights so I would guess about -2.5 at 6:00 when I set off. I think the winter cycle boots will be out next week if its that cold again. On the plus point my very nice Castelli winter jacket I bought in Belgium in July was just the job, all I had on was a base layer t-shirt and the Castelli jacket and I was toasty warm! Loving the jacket :-)

I've moved house :-)

Well it's been a long time but after 18 months my house sold and i'm now happy to say i'm in my new house. Ohh the space!!! after being stuck in the worlds smallest married quater at Scampton I've finally got some space. I'm now living in a nice 4 bed detached house in Market Rasen, the move went as well as it could do given that I got a really nice dose of "Man Flu" a couple of days before we moved. I was not well for about 10 days in total so i'm just starting to feel better now. I had my first chance to look around on Sunday afternoon at the trails in the woods. Its less than a mile to the forest and I think i'm going to like it hear :-) Off to Henlow tomorrow for the Henlow 10 but not expecting much given the illness last week. If I hadn't paid the entry up front I wouldn't  have bothered going to be honest.

Manx End 2 End Enduro

I would have liked to blog this race report earlier but its been a busy couple of weeks. The great news is my house has finally sold (completed today so I don't own it anymore) so Anthea and I have been busy. We've nearly bought our new one and hope to complete on that one on the 10th October. We are moving to Market Rasen which is north east of where we are at the moment. The house is a really nice 4 bed detached with garage and conservatory so at last I will have room to swing a cat (if I had one). This will be a big difference in my commute too. I will be around 23-24 miles from work. The plan is to drive Monday's with my kit for the week and commute the rest of the week on the bike. How this will work I'm not sure yet, I am looking forward to the challenge but don't want to get trapped in the mind set that its a chore which would make me get fed up with cycling. I will drive occasionally if it gets too much but plan to cycle as often as possible. Also the area i'm moving too has lots of woodlands within 5 minutes of the house and i'm on the Lincolnshire wolds so some nice cycling ground too.

Anyway onto the race. I went across to the Isle of Man for what has become my traditional end of season blow out. This year I didn't have to borrow a bike as I got a carbon Cannondale hard tail in August. The bike is superb and a real out and out race bred machine. I took my hope vision light across with me and my sister and I went out for an off road night ride while I was over. That is some serious fun and I think I will be doing much more of that when I move next month. 1700 people had entered the race this year but I didn't know they had seeded the top 100 based on the previous race last year to form an elite start group at the front of the field. This was nice to be at the front and not have to battle too much to get in the break away, and within a couple of miles I was in the lead break of around 50 riders. We hit the first climb and I felt good, moved through the field to around 20th. Once up the 1200 foot first climb I settled into a good pace as I was aware that i'd blown in the last 10 miles of the race in the previous 2 years and didn't want to do that again. I had 1x750ml bottle of High 5 Extreme on the bike as I don't like camel backs and my sisters boyfriend was doing the fuel stops for us. At the first pick up I grabbed the next bottle containing 4:1 and a caffeine plus gel taped to it and felt strong. It was the third pick up point that I had my first problem, Ian wasn't there with my bottle and I had nothing left in the one I had. I knew it was only about 30 or so minutes to the last place I was getting a bottle so during this time I took 2 High 5 Iso Gels to keep me going. It was during this stretch I had my second problem, I dropped off a ledge that had been a lot lower in previous years and stupidly looked back at the height of it, my front wheel caught the edge of a rut and I was off and rolling down the hill side but it was a nice soft landing on the heather. At the last fuel stop I grabbed the bottle of 4:1 off Ian I had missed at the other stop and was surprised to see my sister there. She had had a mechanical and pulled out of the race, Ian had gone to get her and that's why he hadn't been at the other fuel stop. I also grabbed the bottle of flat coke I was getting at that point and downed it in a oner. I then hit the last climb of the day and did 3/4 of the climb on the big ring, I knew I was in good form as i'd really struggled on this climb in the past events. On to the last big decent of the day and crash number 2 happened. Too much speed on a single track decent and I once again caught the edge of a rut only this time I landed in a gauze bush, not so pleasant. I still have splinters from my ankle to my arse!!! I got up quickly and ran back to the bike, jumped on and set off again. The hard work was nearly done, the last 2 miles is on the road with a big climb to the finish but on the road its much easier. I finished in 30th overall from 1700. To get an idea of how tough this event is only the first 85 finishers got a gold standard finish (sub 4 hours) and my time was 3 hours 35. I can't wait for next year :-)

Vitruvian Triathlon - Rapid Running

Two weeks after my European Long Course race it was time for the Vitruvian Triathlon. What do you do with 13 days between a long distance triathlon and a middle distance. Well apart from spend a few days sulking after being so close to the podium on the Wednesday (3 days after the race) I went for a 4 mile steady run. Thursday I did a 3.5 hour mountain bike ride then rested again Friday and Saturday. On the Sunday I did an 11 mile run followed by a 1 hour mountain bike ride then on the Monday I cycled to work the longer way in (18 miles), swam 1500m during lunch then cycled 12 mile home. Tuesday I did the same again then Wednesday I cycled 12 mile to work, decided at 13:15 that I was going to do the Scampton road race so got changed and cycled at race pace to Scampton leaving enough time to change my shorts and shoes before the race started. The course was 5 miles (measured by gps) and I ran 27:59 which is a nice 5:35 average per mile and good enough for 2nd place. Thursday was a cycle to and from work with a swim at lunch then Friday was a cycle to and from work. So Saturday morning at 03:50 and the alarm goes off, I get up but feel tired and really can't be bothered with the race but seen as i'd paid £110 to enter I thought I better do it. I was surprised at the temperature when I arrived as its usually cold down there at this time of year but it was a pleasant 15 degrees at 05:30 which put me in a better mood for the race. After registering and collecting my race pack up which had a nice gillet in it I set up transition then moved across to the RAF Tri gazeebo to change and exchange some banter with the others. At 06:50 I was in the water and the race started, I set off swimming at a good pace and at the end of the first lap thought I was swimming well. At the end of the second lap I thought i'd done a good swim but looked at the watch to see 31 mins so not as quick as I thought, I ran into transition and struggled to get the suit off over the top of the timing chip but once done had a good transition and set off on the bike.

I left transition and got going on the bike, took a gel then got down to business moving through the field. During the bike I was going well and due to the fact I was on the road bike (the TT bike still not fixed) I was able to big ring the whole course only having a 50 tooth compact chainset. Towards the end of the second lap I needed to release some of the fluids i'd taken on during the bike and was planning to go for a p.b on the run part of the course so I stopped briefly. Once i'd emptied the bladder I got back on the bike and quickly passed the 4 people who'd passed me whilst at standstill. I pushed on towards transition and completed the bike in a reasonable but not outstanding 2:22.

Transition 2 was swift as I'd opted to not use socks for the first time in an half ironman after a recommendation from European Champion Pete Norris, so using no socks and the superb Saucony Kinvara I set off to try and run faster than last years 1:22 at this race (a very rapid time anyway) and tried to focus on pace control and work out when I was going to fuel with the 3 gels I'd planned to use. After about 500 meters and a quick think to when my last gel on the bike was I decided that a gel immediatly would be a good move. The other 2 were taken at 8k and 16k. I was moving well and felt strong so kept focussed and concentrated on my cadence, I was aware I was moving through the field at a much quicker rate than most people and came home with a 4:16:30 overall and it wasn't till later when the results went up that I found out i'd ran a 1:19!!!! I'm very happy with that, and I feel that was a nice way to end the season. It was the 6th quickest run on the day too.

4 days after the Vitruvian I had the opportunity to run in the Cranwell road race so I cycled into work 12 miles, at lunch time cycled 12 miles over to cranwell for the run, did the race (5.8 miles) finishing in 2nd place then cycled 23 miles home.

On Thursday I'm sailing to the Isle of Man for my usual end of season mountain bike enduro event/see the family. This is always a fun day out but incredibly hard work, if you've never done a mountain bike race you need to try one to appreciate how much harder a day on the bike can be compared to riding in the time trial position pushing a big gear at a nice constant pace. It really messes you up with the crazy cadence involved for very little gain on the climbs balanced out with keeping your weight in the right place.

I don't know if I will do an end of season sprint or not but I might have a go at the Peterborough half marathon in October as I think if the weather is good a sub 1:15 could be on the cards. 10 days after that is the Henlow 10 and then I will look at some down time before planning out next years racing.

Race pictures from Finland

A few pics that i've had sent from the photographers in Finland.

Antwerp 70.3/Inter-Services/Finland Long

I've been very lazy on the blog front lately so settle in, probably best to get a brew and I'll bring you up to date.

First up - Antwerp 70.3

The short version, slower but faster!
I took Anthea and Beth with me to Belgium for the race this year and we camped at a site about 40km from Antwerp. This was nice as it kept the race and race atmosphere away from the family and as a result we could enjoy the trip as a family holiday as well as a race weekend. Saturday we just popped into Antwerp to register and then headed back to the campsite. We got a nice backpack as part of our race pack up and even better a bottle of sparkling Jacobs Creek wine.

Antwerp 70.3 starts at a more sociable 11am so I had a good sleep Saturday night and enjoyed a slow time breakfast Sunday. We drove into town for the race and I cycled off to T1 while Anthea and Beth had a steady walk through. I caught up with friends Daz Cole and Haldane Van Horan and had time for a quick chat before the race. The time came for us to enter the water and I went to the front right of the pack to try and get some clear water, as the whistle sounded I set off fast and managed to keep the clear water all the way round. I exited after what felt like a good swim on 29 minutes and ran the 150 - 200 meters to my bike and did a good job of stripping off the wetsuit. I had a good transition and set off on the bike but it was very clear that it would not be a p.b day as it was incredibly windy from the off. The course was different from last year with the ride out to the industrial area as normal but 3 shorter laps instead of the 2 long laps. I was pushing hard on the bike and felt good as I entered T2 but was slower than last years bike split but knew it was harder for everyone. Another smooth transition including putting on socks for the run and I was off. I felt good all the way round the run and was overtaking a lot of people and managed to pull a 1:23 half marathon out of the bag to cross the line in 4 hrs 25.

Initially I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to beat last years 4 hr 19 but given the wind I guess it was a good time, the proof was in the results as I was 50th overall but remove the elites and I was the 36th age grouper to finish and the 4th British athlete. I finished 6th in my age group and had the opportunity to take a slot at Vegas 70.3 World Championships but this wasn't on my calendar or in my budget for this year so once again for the second year running I turned down the slot.

3 days Later and its the Inter-Service race at Belvoir Castle.

Race day at Belvior I didn't know what to expect having no time to recover from Antwerp but it was better than working so I raced anyway. The swim was a bit of a fight with the shallow water, lack of space and before I knew it my goggles were knocked off, I stood up in the knee deep water, got the goggles back on, but within a 150 meters they were full of water again so I had to stop and re-seat them again. These delays had set me up with a 27 minute swim (my worst of the year by a long way). I got up to transition and set off on the bike, being further down the field meant I ended up having to battle with some small groups of cyclists who either didn't know the rules or had decided to draft for the sake of it but it was frustrating as every time I would pass them they sat on my wheel, worked together then all came back past. Very annoying to say the least, but my day was to get worse as approximately half way round the second lap I could feel the front tyre going down and I had no spares with me. With about 5 or 6 miles to go my tyre was flat and I knew my race was now a training day. I nursed the flat tyre back to transition with the intention of trying to run strong off the bike but had lost about 6 minutes on the competitive end of the field. I flew through transition and chased hard on the run. I managed to pull a 34 minute dead run out of the bag on a hilly course which I knew was an accurate 10k as it was gps measured the day before. Not a bad run just 3 days after a 70.3!!!

Next stop Finland.

This was billed as my "A" race for the year with a very realistic chance of a medal. Unfortunately I didn't!!!! Things got off to a bad start with a bike failure while packing the day before I flew to the race. I had been having problems with the front mech and it became apparent what the problem was and that it was not going to be getting fixed for the race. The mech had been dropping at the back end and catching on the chain ring in the big ring and whilst trying to resolve it I found that the mech braze on was not tight and the bolt holding it to the frame wouldn't tighten. With no time to get it fixed and no way of using the big ring I knew that the TT bike wasn't going to Finland. This was a problem for me, I've used this bike all last year and all season this year and now I was going to have to take the road bike. I'd gone from a TT bike with a 53 tooth rotor ring to my road bike with a 50 tooth compact chainset. I also had no tri bars but was lucky to borrow a set from Pete Norris. I arrived in Finland feeling stressed and concerned about the bike situation, not a great start. I set up the bike with the clip on tri bars and got the best position I could but although a fairly good position was achieved it was far from perfect. We went out for a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon and the bike was comfy but I felt slower than Pete, Frank and Mark all looking incredibly aero.

On Race day I entered the water the same way I'd done all week with a forward somersault before we lined up ready to start. The race started and the first 300 meters was a bit of punching and kicking but I soon found space and at the halfway point I felt strong so increased the speed and exited the water in 1 hour and 38 seconds, a new 4k p.b in the bag.

I ran into transition had a gel, glasses and helmet on and I was ready to do the 120k on the wrong bike, I tried not to think too much about it but I could tell I was not going as fast as I would be on the race bike. Towards the end of the bike leg I got passed by someone and looked behind to see a small peleton of about 15 coming past. A little frustrated I shouted the obligatory abuse then thought it would be a good time to stop for a pee, this would save stopping on the run and let the group go so I didn't risk being innocently picked up for drafting.

I got into T2 and socks and trainers done I set off on the run, as I left the stadium the GB team manager told me I was in 8th in my AG. (Last year I was third by the end of the bike) I think this is where the race started to go down the pan for me, looking back now I probably ran to hard on the first 2 laps due to the frustration of being down in 8th and by the 4th and final lap I'd blown up. I was still running but not anywhere near the pace I normally would be and got overtaken with about 3k to go by a lad I'd passed on the first lap. I didn't know at the time because on a 4 lap run you can't work out who's on what lap but I had been in 3rd place until this lad passed me. He went on to put 1 min 49 seconds into me and I was disappointed to find out I was 4th in my age group and effectively let the medal go past me.

It's taken a week to blog this race as I've had lots of ups and downs this week, even had a little cry to myself. I'd spent the last 8 months training and racing for this event, I'd planned my whole season around it and seen my dreams disappear with less than 3k to go. The questions I've asked myself time and time again this week are did the broken bike the day before I flew cost me the race, the wrong bike I feel has cost me at least 5 minutes in which case I'd have been battling for the silver not the bronze, was it frustration that cost me the medal causing me to run to hard early on and blowing up towards the end or was it a combination of lots of things.

I'm slowly picking out the positives from the race, these are as follows,
1. P.B on the swim
2. P.B for the whole race distance
3. My highest finish at a European or World Championship as part of Team GB.

Cest la vie, time to move on and start thinking of next year.