2010 The Blog
13th June
Bump and bash ! - Ammareurs Tri
You'd think with 40 people on the start line the start of the swim would be quite easy - no way - got left a bit and then a wall of bodies - took a few bashes before getting through. A fair bike leg and a decent run sealed the win.
A lot of fast action behind - nice one Mr President, where did that speed come from !
30th May
Austria IronMan 70.3 St Polten
My first time at an M-dot event and what an experience and a great result - won my age group in 4-16-27 and 42nd overall out of about 3,000.
Swim was good fun in lead group feeling very comfortable
until we went off course after last buoy! Still at least it affected
the whole lead pack. Transition seemed to take for ages - a lot of
ground to cover - and all the stuff with bags - inadvertantly dropped my
Garmin 705 in the swim bag deposit bin and had to jump in and fish it out !
Must have looked wierd especially as had the aero hat on!
Getting out on the bike was amazing 56miles of closed roads
and speed was amazing - unofficial pb's through 5m and 10m according to Mr
Garmin - just shows how slow Guernsey roads are. Photo below shows me
at top of shorter climb above the Danube - despite that climb and a stop to
pick up my spares bottle and contents after it bounced out and spilled
across the road, I still went through 40k in 59mins.
The big climb at 60k was tough though, really could have
done with a 23 or 25 sprocket - had to get out of the saddle a lot just to
keep going! Coming off the bike was great - passing bikes for 2hrs 20
and no-one came past me! Run was quite controlled though feeling it.
An annoying stone in my shoes bothered me the whole way and a nasty blister
to show at the end! Lovely post race masage was very welcome - heaven,
really worked on my periformis which was good!
Think I'd like to do another M dot 70.3 next year.
9th May
Rennes Olympic Distance - Drafting
Pleased with my race, new wet suit felt really quick on the swim and came out in about 10th and managed to run up to 5th by end of T1. Formed a group of 4 on the bike but two were too strong and they attacked and got away - I was
on the rivet and could barely come through. Rode second half of bike with another guy sharing the work. Legs were fairly dead on the run following such an intense bike
section, but still picked up a couple of places to finish 5th overall. So a pleasing result.
Pleasing result and a good confidence builder for Austria
IM 70.3 at the end of the month. 3rd May
Takes you breath away !
With Rennes triathlon coming up next week I thought I'd better try some open water swimming down at the Bathing Pools to test the new
wetsuit out and get a feel for the open water again.
Though the sun was shinning and the water looked inviting the experience was bracing!
Ice cream forehead - if only that as the limit of it!
11th April
Big Cow Emberton Duathlon
With sights set on a possibility of targetting a 3rd World Duathlon Age Group title, step 1 is to
qualify for the team. I hadn't fancied Clumber Park as it was so early in the year and
with the cold weather the
thought of racing was not very inticing. Weather usually gets better around Easter and Emberton has a good reputation so I thought I'd give it a go.
Race morning was not quite blue skies, freshening easterly breezes and a
definite chill in the air. It will warm up soon I
thought and I was about the only one wearing only a Tri Suit, everyone else seemed to have base layers, arm warmers... Still a brisk 10k warms you up,
I thought I'd be setting the pace as third wave was Males 45+, but no I get
dropped after about 1k and watch this little guy dissapear into the distance.
Still my first run is not too shabby in the low 34's and a lot more comfortable
than Easter 10k and the heat generated kept me just about warm enough for most of the bike.
It's a great feeling to be continuously passing people on the bike, only two or
three people came past and none of them had an I on their leg. I caught
the little guy about 1/3rd into the first bike lap so from then on
it was a case of building lead. T2 came round in a flash and
setting out on the run was not too bad. Back and hips largely recoveed
from last week's problem and as the run went on so I got better.
Second run was slightly long which was no bad thing for me and I end up with
a pleasing 9th overall and a clear M45 win. Two M40's are quicker, but I'm
satisfied with the result. Step 1 accomplished.
 
13th February The (old) boys are back in town! : Hyde Park Relays
Great weekend meeting up with my old chums from Southampton University Cross Country Club at the
Imperial College Hyde Park Relays. Had a satisfactory run round the 5 and a bit Km loop, but that was largely secondary to having a good time.
I've now created a mini web page for the old boys to share a few photos that I took after running 24th January Portlet Duathlon - a win, but boy was it hard!
Wow, it was a hard race! I have not known such a competitive local duathlon in Guernsey. Luke Walton was a bit of a surprise as he has not been seen on the running circuit so I was unsure how fit he was. He dropped back just before halfway on the first run and I thought he might have been going a bit too fast and then he powers right back up and drove the group of me & Tim Coates along.
I eeked out a little lead coming out of transition and led the bike all the way to the turn after which Luke came past. We could see that Rich Stapley and Ian Scholes were closing up fast too. Lessons learned, & lesson to learn.
Apparently Rich checked that his aero helmet was on the right way round, and Ian
'fessed up to forgetting to take his running shoes off in T1 - oops! Mental
rehersal of what you are going to do in transition is a key to not making
mistakes. Coming back down the coast was helped with a bit of tailwind and Rich & Ian caught us at L’Eree and then it was a bit cat and mouse to the finish but with no let off on the pace.
T2 was pretty swift and we all came out together and Luke was setting the pace – again ! At that point I knew I was going to have to run really hard. I sensed a bit of a lull in the pace after about 1km and then started to press on and opened a gap. Conscious of how Luke came back at on the first run I really started pushing for home after the turn to stretch it out. I was running well and could hold it all the way home.
Ian came home in 3rd, Rich in 4th and new kid on the bloke Dave Crossland was
5th. Unofficially my run splits were about the same which is a quite something – especially as we ran pretty hard on the first run!
Time only about 20 secs slower than my course record.
17th January Coming back
Travelled to Cardiff with Steve Dawes and my daughter to
compete in the McCain X Challenge Series. A day of heavy rain had cleared
the last of the snow away and conditions underfoot were surprisingly good. Katie had a cracking run in the
u13 Girls coming 2nd in a desperately close sprint finish. The
senior men's field was quite small and I had decided my strategy was steady
start and see what happens. The immediate rushafter the gun had me at
the back of the main group which very rapidly became strung out. Steve
Vernon went on for a massive win and I just gradually picked runners off all
the way through, eventually finishing 28th just over a minute behind Steve
Dawes (24th). Satisfactory. Think the course really suited me.
Looking towards the finish in Cardiff.
9th January County XC Champs cancelled
Hampshire AA cancelled the cross country championships which caused a few problems, though it enabled me to get
some much needed additional training in and a decent run session showed a few signs of returning fitness.
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