Papped on PezCyclingNews.com during our Tour de France Trip 2011

The guys from pezcyclingnews.com bumped into us at Jurgon Les Lacs where we had stopped for coffee and they included us in the article about Stage 5. Read it here.

Tour de France Trip 2011

Had a fantastic trip to see the tour at Cap Fréhel stage finish and Dinan stage start. Thanks Team Sky for being great with the boys and Thor Hushovd for signing autographs. Cap Fréhel Stage finish album is here and Dinan stage start photo album here.

Giro D'Italia Mountain Time Trial Feature

Read my take on a less than straight-forward time trial 2/3rds of the way into a grand tour here.

New ! - Features Page

I have moved the Marathon Nutrition article off into a separte page and it can be accessed via the Feaures page now listed on the menus. Over time I will add more features so come back and take a look.

2011 The Blog

12th June 2011

First run race - solid job done

The athletic club's Intertrust meeting (Sat 11th June) provided an opportunity for a 5,000mtr race to test fitness with a decent field of our best 'domestic' athletes barring Lee Merrien and Steve Dawes, plus a sprinkling of invited UK athletes. I started very cautiously - running to a 16:20 schedule on the first couple of laps and that still put me near the back - plenty of athletes had started at paces way too fast for their abaility.

I had Lee Garland for company and soon there was a group ahead of us.  I stayed with Lee for the first 2,000mtrs and then sensing that I had the ability to press on plus the athletes in front were begining to pay for their earlier pace I moved up and started picking them off.  By 5 laps to go I had caught Island Games athlete Ronan Shally and was up to 6th place.  I tucked in and let him tow me along. 

Staying cautious I did not want to risk trying to go past and then cracking. ( On Tuesday's 5 x 5mins I just about cracked after rep 4 so knew I was on the edge).  The last couple of laps ticked past and Ronan surged on the back straight which I covered but he went again 150mtrs out and broke the elastic.  He got past one of the RAF guys, but I could quite manage the same.  So 6th place & 16:09.2  = satisfaction.  Strangely the knee was sore in warm up but I barely noticed it in the race.

Sunday morning broke to the predicted heavy rain.  Whilst the most committed Velo Club riders raced the reservoir circuit I was content with a solid training session with friends.  2 and half hours averaging a bit over 85% FTP power was a solid endurance session.

Slow Progress

We had a great trip to London - sadly Katie had a shocker of a run in the u13 Girls Virgin Mini Marathon finishing 32nd, but still it was a good experience. We were then able to see the elite women and elite men finish. We had special interest in seeing of Lee Merrien could attain the GB Olympic A standard - sadly he did not achieve the time, but he did set a new personal best (and Island Record), and finished first brit - 14th - in 2:14:27. See Lee's own thoughts on his own blogspot.

After the race we visited the London Eye and then spent 2 more days in London doing the tourist / shopping thing. Had a great run round Hyde Park. For the first time I ran like a runner and felt I had the mechanics to run at pace. However all the time on my feet has lead the knee to flare up a little.

Katie called up for Virgin London Mini Marathon

Following on from her recent success in winning the u13 Girls Inter Counties Cross Country at Sefton Park, Birmingham on the 5th of March, my daugther Katie Rowe has been selected to run for the London South East team in the Virgin London Mini Marathon. She's absolutely thrilled about this and we shall make a family trip to London for the weekend to support her and of course Guernsey's own marathon super star Lee Merrien.

The mini Marathon competes over the last 3 miles of the 26.2 mile marathon course and as they set off in advance of the marathoners it sets up the probability that Katie will be the first Guernsey runner across the finishing line on the 17th of April.   Now there's a trivial pursuits question / answer combo!

Lee will be trying to get inside the 2012 London Olympics qualifying time of 2hr 12mins 00secs.  Go Lee!!

13th March 2011

First Guernsey Velo Road Race of Season

Damp roads greeted the start of the 2011 road race series and 58 riders turned up spread across for divisions. For Division 1, I was one of 12 facing 4 laps of the Vazon circuit (11 miles), but with many of the top riders missing, my objective of finishing with the lead group looked feasible.

Descending towards Vaubelets on lap 2, Paul Wallbridge tapped his bike brake behind me and skidded off gently into te wall but quickly remounted. Tobyn 'motorbike' Horton paced him back to the group who showed indifference when I asked if we were waiting. Crossing Shingle Bank for the last time, Dudley - the other vet along with me - says looks like we've made it to the end with the main group, then pedals off and wins the sprint! Class never ages. My legs are spent so I just roll up the climb, tired but satisfied in 7th place.

22nd February 2011

Riding on the moon

Sunday was Guernsey Velo Club's 4th Sportive of the season - 100miles being the long distance on offer, so with such extreme distance to cover I made the executive decision to ride the new Cervelo S2 - after all it was forecast dry and not very windy. What I did not anticipate was massive high tide and thumping swell!

The west coast generally looked like a lunar landscape - rocks and sand everywhere brought over by the crashing waves. We detoured inland at one point as the road was just about impassable. Still that did not stop some idiot car/window van driver down near the cup and saucer driving through it at breakneck speed. If one of those stones had pinged off his tyres and hit a rider you could have been talking about serious injury at the least. Disbelief.

Anyway aside from getting my new stride seriously dirty I came through the ride really well.  Communication breakdown at about 65 miles saw me peel off to get new bottles and food from the van, only to find it locked and owner was in the group pedalling down the coast.  So dived into the café purchased 2x Lucozade, 2 x Bounty bar and went looking for the group again.  Duly found them at Shingle Bank and rejoined the fray.  Last hour or so was nice riding - the boys were riding very sensible tempo all day so it worked out really well and good money raised for the Island Games team.

Anyway - this is what the new bike looked like on Saturday before the ride.

18th February 2011

Injury status update

Good news this week in that I finally feel we are making progress. Had a further session with the physio and now we are keeping the knee strapped all of the time.  This seems to be helping as I am getting no low level pain walking around and single leg dips are also reasonably pain free.

Seem to be able to bike without causing the knee too much grief - but the 100mile sportive this weekend will be a tough test on both knee and my fitness.  I've only done one other 'Century ride'.  Weather is looking promising - not windy or wet.  Maybe I will think about using the new bike as a way of making the task a little easier.  The new bike is looking so nice in the sun room at the moment it will be a shame to get it dirty.  More on the new bike soon.

The athletes are all moving in the right direction. Louise had a cracking run at the Inter Insular Cross Country and won by a country mile.  Jon Greenfield's duathlon win was good and his training stats show more progress. Sam's got a lot to juggle with at the moment but also her training stats are coming on too.

January 2011

Not much to report so far for me, knee injury dragging on but getting better and prospect of racing again comes closer.   However my athletes certainly are making plenty of impact in my absence.  take a look at the athlete performance page to see who's been doing what.