Double header last weekend, with Forres triathlon on the Saturday and a the Whisky Trail Sportive on the Sunday.
Forres went a lot better than I expected, despite being a grey and showery day. I coped fine with setting up and I even managed a trip to the supermarket on my own in the morning. First time in over a year.
My swim wasn't great. I had hoped to get under 7mins, but finished at 7:24. That is the second race in a row that I have clocked a swim slower than I would have done at the same time last year, but can't really explain why as I am definitely swimming better and faster in training.
This was the first time I have raced on the mountain bike and it went better than expected. It wasn't very mountainous on the whole, so was by far the fastest I have averaged on that bike. Caught up a few places, which was a strange occurrence for me as I normally just count people flooding past on the bike legs. My second transition was terrible. The insoles in my running shoes moved and I had to take both of them off again, and still ended up with a big wrinkle in one of them the second time. Transitions are normally a good section for me so it was annoying to throw away so much time on something so minor.
For the run I should have gone about 4 minutes quicker, but I did at least jog/run all of it this time. At one point I did get up onto the shoulder of third place, but with half a mile to go he pushed on and I couldn't go with him.
Happy to finish 4th Senior though. Much higher than I thought I would be and nearly makes up for finishing as last Senior at Knockburn.
On Sunday morning the weather was even less pleasant, and the idea of biking my first time bike-only race, a 40-mile sportive wasn't really appealling. It was stupid o'clock in the morning though so I managed to get up and moving before my brain got involved and convinced me that it was a poor idea.
Fortunately my two friends turned up and the rain never got worse than showery. We started off with a minor detour but quickly settled onto the right route and into a good pace. Alternating turns at the front and occassional slower, chattier sections. We were still averaging over 16mph for 40miles and 1000ft of climbing in under 2 and a half hours.
40miles seems like a lot, especially having never been past 27 before, but we were moving along nicely so the time and miles went fairly quickly.
So apparently since I didn't react to the posting of my mobile number all over the internet and the resulting string of rude messages, we are back to attempts to hack into my online accounts. So another round of password changes and another page into a folder that is now over an inch thick. I do hope you are enjoying yourselves. And thanks for refreshing my drive to ensure that I get some justice for the last year.
Saturday 30 June 2012
Saturday 16 June 2012
Knockburn triathlon
Once again I am a week late on a race review. And once again that is because there isn't much worth talking about.
Pre-race was good. I managed to get there and get set up. I coped with the crowds and the race briefing much better.
The swim was a bit rougher than last year. One gent in a red hat and a 2XU suit needs to work on his sighting though as he was weaving around in front and alongside me several times including dishing me out a couple of punches and a kick in the face. Was quite pleasing that he eventually wandered of towards the middle of the loch on the home straight, and last I saw of him was the kayak marshall poking him with a paddle. I was out of the water a minute down on last year. Even now that the full results are out I can't figure out if that was a decent swim or not. A lot of people were 2-3minutes slower than previous years and some much stronger swimmers were still in transition as I arrived, but similarly some swimmers were 2 minutes faster than they went last year, and I was still about half way down the field, but the field was much smaller, and it looks to have been a higher average quality, but then I should have improved enough to be faster, ....
And that was pretty much the last point at which I have any doubt about whether it was a good day or not. The bike was a struggle right from the off and it was pretty much just a case of counting people as they went past and trying to decide how long I could put up with the painfully numb toes before I would have to give it up. Annoyingly with about 2 miles to go I started gaining on someone I knew, who had passed me on the second lap but never really opened a big enough gap. That gave me enough incentive to keep pedalling and even to go out on the run. I had decided not to run somewhere on lap 2 but changed my mind as I caught him coming up the final climb. In hindsight that was not a good change.
The first half mile of the run I can comfortably claim was a jog. It took all of that and more to thaw out my toes, and I thought this would then allow me to make some inroads into a large group that were just ahead of me while staying ahead of the few dispersed individuals behind me. Those thoughts lasted about another 200 yards. I was just settling in to a comfortable jog and gaining on the group and then I was walking. Not by an conscious decision, not because of any pain or injury, not for any reason I have yet been able to fathom. Some part of me decided it had had enough, and no amount of arguing with myself, of reminding myself that I was easily fit enough, of looking over my shoulder to remind myself there were still people to beat, or any of the other things I tried for the remaining 5 miles made any sort of difference. In a very similar jog a few steps / walk the next 50 style that I had for sections of my marathon I still managed to keep moving forward and get round the course. Setting in the process my slowest ever 10k(not even allowing for the shortness of the course). 58 minutes, 12 minutes slower than last year, 8 slower than I jogged round the same route as a warm-up last July.
From there it was a challenge to pack my things and go home without giving in to the panic attack that was nibbling at the edges of me. I know some people spoke to me after the race but I can't for the life of me remember who they were, or what was said. I am fairly confident that it wouldn't have been pleasant.
It was too early in the season, and too early for me especially, to do a standard distance race so close to home. I am physically fit enough, but not mentally ready, and not race fit. So my solution is to go to the opposite extreme and do a super-sprint, 80 miles away next weekend. I went through today to check out the course with a few others. It is not very mountainous for a mountain bike route and the run is about as flat as I could hope for after last week.
Pre-race was good. I managed to get there and get set up. I coped with the crowds and the race briefing much better.
The swim was a bit rougher than last year. One gent in a red hat and a 2XU suit needs to work on his sighting though as he was weaving around in front and alongside me several times including dishing me out a couple of punches and a kick in the face. Was quite pleasing that he eventually wandered of towards the middle of the loch on the home straight, and last I saw of him was the kayak marshall poking him with a paddle. I was out of the water a minute down on last year. Even now that the full results are out I can't figure out if that was a decent swim or not. A lot of people were 2-3minutes slower than previous years and some much stronger swimmers were still in transition as I arrived, but similarly some swimmers were 2 minutes faster than they went last year, and I was still about half way down the field, but the field was much smaller, and it looks to have been a higher average quality, but then I should have improved enough to be faster, ....
And that was pretty much the last point at which I have any doubt about whether it was a good day or not. The bike was a struggle right from the off and it was pretty much just a case of counting people as they went past and trying to decide how long I could put up with the painfully numb toes before I would have to give it up. Annoyingly with about 2 miles to go I started gaining on someone I knew, who had passed me on the second lap but never really opened a big enough gap. That gave me enough incentive to keep pedalling and even to go out on the run. I had decided not to run somewhere on lap 2 but changed my mind as I caught him coming up the final climb. In hindsight that was not a good change.
The first half mile of the run I can comfortably claim was a jog. It took all of that and more to thaw out my toes, and I thought this would then allow me to make some inroads into a large group that were just ahead of me while staying ahead of the few dispersed individuals behind me. Those thoughts lasted about another 200 yards. I was just settling in to a comfortable jog and gaining on the group and then I was walking. Not by an conscious decision, not because of any pain or injury, not for any reason I have yet been able to fathom. Some part of me decided it had had enough, and no amount of arguing with myself, of reminding myself that I was easily fit enough, of looking over my shoulder to remind myself there were still people to beat, or any of the other things I tried for the remaining 5 miles made any sort of difference. In a very similar jog a few steps / walk the next 50 style that I had for sections of my marathon I still managed to keep moving forward and get round the course. Setting in the process my slowest ever 10k(not even allowing for the shortness of the course). 58 minutes, 12 minutes slower than last year, 8 slower than I jogged round the same route as a warm-up last July.
From there it was a challenge to pack my things and go home without giving in to the panic attack that was nibbling at the edges of me. I know some people spoke to me after the race but I can't for the life of me remember who they were, or what was said. I am fairly confident that it wouldn't have been pleasant.
It was too early in the season, and too early for me especially, to do a standard distance race so close to home. I am physically fit enough, but not mentally ready, and not race fit. So my solution is to go to the opposite extreme and do a super-sprint, 80 miles away next weekend. I went through today to check out the course with a few others. It is not very mountainous for a mountain bike route and the run is about as flat as I could hope for after last week.
Saturday 2 June 2012
Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, FLASH, AAAAAAHHH
I was going to use a Ming the Merciless quote for the title but my legs felt that re-interpreting the theme tune was more appropriate. I was warned in advance that the long 13-mile run was a cruel and evil course and I decided that after a 7-mile run going on the long 30-mile bike would be too ambitious, so I restricted myself to doing the short-short race. Short run was 7 miles, short bike was 17.
Even the short run is cruel. It starts off ok on a nice quiet, winding country road with a bit of a gentle climb. But then it gets rapidly harder when you are turned into a field and have to run through fresh cut grass along the side of a hill tilted at 30 degrees right to left. That goes to a rutted farm track, then another section of road, then a nasty little wooden bridge. All this was already making it hard to get into a proper running rhythm but this was before the climbs and the forest tracks. Then it turns down hill and you have the same combination in reverse. With the added option of a 50-yard shortcut if you want to cut through the burn instead of the bridge (pass!).
I eventually came off the run in 7th, but I think I came out of transition in 4th and snuck up to 3rd by virtue of clipping in faster than the kid I came out of transition with. That actually worked out better for him than me as he got comfortably onto my wheel and sat there getting a completely free ride for the first 8 miles until I had my first major attack of cramp and he pulled up alongside. I managed to ease my calfs off a little and as soon as I was back on the power he just slipped in for more of the slipsteraming.
I was struggling enough every time I had to stretch that my shadow decided to go on the attack. That is maybe a bit harsh. The first couple of times he just rolled around and didn't have much more to go so he ended up pulling for a slower quarter-mile stretch till I recovered enough to put the pace back up. The third time when he got level I was seriously considering getting off the bike to stretch and I told him just to drop me and push on. He didn't need to be told twice and he quickly opened a decent gap. Unstrapping and loosening off my shoes helped a little but not enough. A nice downhill section gave me a chance to try and stretch but being on the tri-bars was tightening my hips so I still wasn't getting much respite.
Then a couple of back-markers on long-short combinations started coming into view in front. The incentive of picking people off and catching back to the kid put my race head back into gear and was enough to help me work over the cramp. I managed to catch my shadow and he got another couple of miles free on my wheel before two of the long-long riders caught us. They were pushing at a different pace and I was able to get a few hundred yards of my own wheel-sucking into each of them and despite the pace increase I was getting enough of a rest to ease of the cramp so when I lost each of them I was able to keep the pace high enough that I finally dropped the kid with about a mile and a half to go.
The 7-mile run is the furthest I have run since September last year and averaging under 8min-miles for such a testing course was much better than expected. Despite the regular pedalling breaks to try and stretch off I still managed to clock my fastest ever bike ride, averaging 17mph for the hour. This probably had a lot to do with the relative flatness of the course but it was also the hardest and cleanest I have worked on the bike yet even including the stretching breaks.
Only real mistake of the day was the decision not to wear calf guards or compression socks. Have had them on since I got home to try and cut down any overnight effect so that I can go out to Knockburn tomorrow.
Even the short run is cruel. It starts off ok on a nice quiet, winding country road with a bit of a gentle climb. But then it gets rapidly harder when you are turned into a field and have to run through fresh cut grass along the side of a hill tilted at 30 degrees right to left. That goes to a rutted farm track, then another section of road, then a nasty little wooden bridge. All this was already making it hard to get into a proper running rhythm but this was before the climbs and the forest tracks. Then it turns down hill and you have the same combination in reverse. With the added option of a 50-yard shortcut if you want to cut through the burn instead of the bridge (pass!).
I eventually came off the run in 7th, but I think I came out of transition in 4th and snuck up to 3rd by virtue of clipping in faster than the kid I came out of transition with. That actually worked out better for him than me as he got comfortably onto my wheel and sat there getting a completely free ride for the first 8 miles until I had my first major attack of cramp and he pulled up alongside. I managed to ease my calfs off a little and as soon as I was back on the power he just slipped in for more of the slipsteraming.
I was struggling enough every time I had to stretch that my shadow decided to go on the attack. That is maybe a bit harsh. The first couple of times he just rolled around and didn't have much more to go so he ended up pulling for a slower quarter-mile stretch till I recovered enough to put the pace back up. The third time when he got level I was seriously considering getting off the bike to stretch and I told him just to drop me and push on. He didn't need to be told twice and he quickly opened a decent gap. Unstrapping and loosening off my shoes helped a little but not enough. A nice downhill section gave me a chance to try and stretch but being on the tri-bars was tightening my hips so I still wasn't getting much respite.
Then a couple of back-markers on long-short combinations started coming into view in front. The incentive of picking people off and catching back to the kid put my race head back into gear and was enough to help me work over the cramp. I managed to catch my shadow and he got another couple of miles free on my wheel before two of the long-long riders caught us. They were pushing at a different pace and I was able to get a few hundred yards of my own wheel-sucking into each of them and despite the pace increase I was getting enough of a rest to ease of the cramp so when I lost each of them I was able to keep the pace high enough that I finally dropped the kid with about a mile and a half to go.
The 7-mile run is the furthest I have run since September last year and averaging under 8min-miles for such a testing course was much better than expected. Despite the regular pedalling breaks to try and stretch off I still managed to clock my fastest ever bike ride, averaging 17mph for the hour. This probably had a lot to do with the relative flatness of the course but it was also the hardest and cleanest I have worked on the bike yet even including the stretching breaks.
Only real mistake of the day was the decision not to wear calf guards or compression socks. Have had them on since I got home to try and cut down any overnight effect so that I can go out to Knockburn tomorrow.
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