Saturday, July 29, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
From Bad to Worse...
This has been a week from bike hell....
On Monday I was travelling home from work, enjoying the sunshine when all of a sudden I heard the dreaded pst,pst,pst,pst coming from the back wheel of the Langster. Got the puncture all fixed up and continued on my merry way...at the back of mind I was quite glad as that had meant that I had now had three punctures in three weeks. Surely, I would now be on for another of the long spells without any bicycle woe....these things come in three after all don't they?
Well, low and behold, the next morning I was out training on the Planet X and after managing a mere one lap of Regent's Park I heard the familiar sound of a spoke breaking. Quick inspection revealed that one of the front spoke had indeed broke.
On Monday I was travelling home from work, enjoying the sunshine when all of a sudden I heard the dreaded pst,pst,pst,pst coming from the back wheel of the Langster. Got the puncture all fixed up and continued on my merry way...at the back of mind I was quite glad as that had meant that I had now had three punctures in three weeks. Surely, I would now be on for another of the long spells without any bicycle woe....these things come in three after all don't they?
Well, low and behold, the next morning I was out training on the Planet X and after managing a mere one lap of Regent's Park I heard the familiar sound of a spoke breaking. Quick inspection revealed that one of the front spoke had indeed broke.
I soldiered on home quite content that this was probably the incentive I needed to learn how to change the tubs on the carbon wheels - for those of you that don't know - this can be a dreaded procecc involving gluey stuff and having a inexplicable ability to line a tire up pefectly on a rim. For someone of my technical expertise - a massive challenge. But what the heck, I need to learn how to do it and now is a good a time as any, specially with the Worlds coming up so soon. So, am now waiting for a new spoke from Planet X and another spare tub to take to the worlds. They suggested I get a pro to do the spoke fitting though cause it can be complicated. Trip to the LBS for that one I think - just to be sure.
In a bike sense, the average person would probably think that nothing else could go wrong over the course of one week after these event I would imagine. However, come Wednesday morning, the fixed was starting to make a strange noise and could simply not quite work out where it was coming from, could have been the pedal, could have been the transmission, could be the BB - who knows, but it was making a racket, a real bad noise - was actually pretty embarrassing riding around town. After work I headed to the LBS and got some lube - I had not done the chain since having it and thought I would also put some in the pedal. Did all these little jobs outside the bike shop and set off on my way...no joy. Those noises were still there and just as bad.
Got home and decided it was time for some major surgery so set about removing the chainring and chain and cleaning this all up. Got everything off and started to clean the bike when I think that I found the problem...
Yup, that's it...the frame has completely sheared and broken on the chain stay. I think that I must have done this on the way home last night when I was doing my sprint starts from the traffic lights.
Well, quick call to the lovely chaps at Brixton Cycles and they said that I should just bring it in and they will give me a new frame and tranfer all my kit from the old steed to the new one. Good bunch of chaps at Brixton Cycles! All I need to do now is to work out how to get the bike down to them and work out whether or not to risk riding the Planet X to work, albeit I could leave it upstairs and not in the garage.
What an annoying week..it will sure take some beating anyway!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
TEAM GREAT BRITAIN
After a few weeks of waiting around wondering if any of the 25-29 group would drop out, I finally got the call yesterday from Barry at the BTA. The winner at Wakefield has pulled out for unknown reasons and therefore, as the first reserve, I am being called into action.
So, have been frantically trying to sort things out since then...I think I have now done all I need to do at this stage. I have paid for my entry fee and have booked a hotel and a flight to get me out to Switzerland for the end of August.
Have also ordered myself the GBR kit that I need to race in and I splashed out a bit and got a couple of extra shirts...its not every day you get to wear GB kit!
Now all I need to do is work out how best to set the bike up for the course - apparently it is a pretty hilly route (not my cup of tea) and there are a lot of fast descents and corners - nice!
Some links:
British Triathlon
Lausanne 2006
So, have been frantically trying to sort things out since then...I think I have now done all I need to do at this stage. I have paid for my entry fee and have booked a hotel and a flight to get me out to Switzerland for the end of August.
Have also ordered myself the GBR kit that I need to race in and I splashed out a bit and got a couple of extra shirts...its not every day you get to wear GB kit!
Now all I need to do is work out how best to set the bike up for the course - apparently it is a pretty hilly route (not my cup of tea) and there are a lot of fast descents and corners - nice!
Some links:
British Triathlon
Lausanne 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
The Injury
Went to see a physio this week just to make sure that the damage to the knee was not too serious and more importantly, to find out exactly what the problem is.
The problem is apparently with my medial ligament and this has been slightly torn or damaged. The physio tried to get me to sign up to a whole block of sessions for him to get it sorted, but at £52 a time, I was not too keen on this - especially as it had appeared to be healing okay on its own.
The physio did suggest laying off the running for a while and perhaps only using the treadmill initially when I start again. I did however take part in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge on Thursday and the knee kind of felt okay during this, but was slightly sore again in the morning. Still, I am off to Portugal tomorrow so will have a week of mainly cycling and swimming so it will hopefully be all better when I get back.
The problem is apparently with my medial ligament and this has been slightly torn or damaged. The physio tried to get me to sign up to a whole block of sessions for him to get it sorted, but at £52 a time, I was not too keen on this - especially as it had appeared to be healing okay on its own.
The physio did suggest laying off the running for a while and perhaps only using the treadmill initially when I start again. I did however take part in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge on Thursday and the knee kind of felt okay during this, but was slightly sore again in the morning. Still, I am off to Portugal tomorrow so will have a week of mainly cycling and swimming so it will hopefully be all better when I get back.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Some of my pics
These are from the first group of athletes heading out for the day. Gregg is in there somewhere.
Bye Eck..it is grim up Norf!
This weekend was always going to be a strange one, what with not knowing whether my knee would hold out for the run between the swim and T1, let alone the 10k at the end and also how the whole things would be like - this being my first National Champ event.
Things did not start off in the best form though with a four and a half hour drive up north with my mate Gregg. The temperature in the car seemed to be just about bearable as temperatures outside soared to something like 31 degrees. Still, we made up with just enough time to get our bikes racked and the head off to watch our footballing hereos perform yet another quarter final exit and, low and behold, on penalties again.
Still, all seemed to be going well though until we got to the hotel - que massive wedding reception and the prospect of a disco that was going to be going on until 1 in the morning. Things got worse when we realised that we should have had the foresight to realise that we should have made our own breakfast as theirs was not going to open until gone half eight - unfortunately, the hotel was not on the bike route..so no quick fueling stops. The night did not go too badly in the end - was only woken up a few times, mainly because the road outside seemed to be the preferred route for the emergency services. Plus, the room was boiling...no air con in £45 a night room should have been expected I suppose!
Come race day I loaded up on energy drinks as my make shift breakfast and Gregg and I headed over to the event. Gregg was off at 6:30 so this gave me some time to mill around and set things up...although not as one should - as we will see later.
My event set off at 7:15 and the field all looked pretty lean and a lot more serious than any of the other events I had been to. I recognised a few faces in the water and started to think about trying to stay with them in the swim - I knew that they would normally just beat me. Anyway, the horn went off and off we went out to the first buoy...normal tussle in the water accompanied by the feeling of panic and breathlessness and the whole "why on earth do I do this rubbish?". Finally got into what felt like a good pace after about 400m and continued at about this pace until the swim exit. Swam on my own for most of the time so have decided to push myself harder next time to stay with a group to get the benefits of them sighting and the slipstreaming - I found it hard at times to sight the buoys and was not taking the racing line all the time. Got out in about 24 minutes which was a whole 2 minutes slower than Windsor so something had gone wrong....with only the swim done, I was already in a bad mood.
The run to the bike seemed okay and the knee did not give me any trouble so I thought that this must be a good sign. Found my bike straight away and headed out of transition where I jumped on and quickly realised that I had put my shoes in the wrong pedals - what an absolute idiot. I had to stop and change everything round and must have lost a good 30s doing this. If I was annoyed with the swim, I was seething now. The bike started with a long slog up a 2 mile hill. I was quickly on the small ring and kept on thinking that this is not what I wanted one bit. Was not long before 2 E category (my age group) riders came storming past me. At this point I had to have a little talk with myself - I was not going to be passed on the bike, no way. I have not been in one race yet and this one was not going to be the first. I eventually caught them again and then had a passing and overtaking battle with one chap all the way round. He was pretty small so flew up the hills...my weight advantage would help massively on the downhills after that where I would fly past again..topped out at 72.5kph today. After getting over some of the nasty hills, it was time to head for the finish line...just I appeared to have lost any knowledge of where that was. I missed a signpost on one roundabout and headed left when I should have gone straight on...noticed there was no one in front of me so turned round and then took the next left. Again, did not see anyone up ahead...turned round to see a disc wheel in the distance taking the third exit. After a bit of off-road over a central reservation and finally getting the right turn I was back on track...must have lost a good 2 minutes faffing around. As you can imagine, the annoyance levels were sky high - this was just destined not to be my day, and I still had a run to get through and I was not even sure if I could manage 5mins of that.
Finally got back to T2 in 1:10 which seems like it would have been a good time for the day. Would have been a lot better if 3 minutes were not on there though for silly mistakes that proved to cost me dearly. Still, I got the runners on and headed out. As usual the movement between bike and run was hard work, couple this with the fact I had not run on the road for about 3 weeks - which ever way I looked at this, this was not going to be an enjoyable run. After about 1k the knee started to hurt a bit and I slowed down massively to contemplate continuing in the race. During this slow period, it started to feel a bit better though so I thought that I would carry on. The heat was really blazing down now and after the 2nd lap of 4 I could feel the lack of running in the legs. Still, 2 to go and I would not be a DNF. The last lap seemed to go on for ages and I finally came under the Finish Banner in 2:19:03 a time that I instantly thought would place we no where in terms of qualifying for Lausanne - I thought my swim was 2 min too slow and the run the same.
Well, the results are now out and it would seem that after removing those people that have already qualified and those that do not wish to go, my 18th place in my age category meant that I missed a place by about 90s. This pretty much means that my mistakes today cost me a place at Lausanne. I have not taken it too badly though, this is only my first year and I knew I had not had a good race. I have learnt my lessons and am now more determined to qualify in style when the events come round next year.
Things did not start off in the best form though with a four and a half hour drive up north with my mate Gregg. The temperature in the car seemed to be just about bearable as temperatures outside soared to something like 31 degrees. Still, we made up with just enough time to get our bikes racked and the head off to watch our footballing hereos perform yet another quarter final exit and, low and behold, on penalties again.
Still, all seemed to be going well though until we got to the hotel - que massive wedding reception and the prospect of a disco that was going to be going on until 1 in the morning. Things got worse when we realised that we should have had the foresight to realise that we should have made our own breakfast as theirs was not going to open until gone half eight - unfortunately, the hotel was not on the bike route..so no quick fueling stops. The night did not go too badly in the end - was only woken up a few times, mainly because the road outside seemed to be the preferred route for the emergency services. Plus, the room was boiling...no air con in £45 a night room should have been expected I suppose!
Come race day I loaded up on energy drinks as my make shift breakfast and Gregg and I headed over to the event. Gregg was off at 6:30 so this gave me some time to mill around and set things up...although not as one should - as we will see later.
My event set off at 7:15 and the field all looked pretty lean and a lot more serious than any of the other events I had been to. I recognised a few faces in the water and started to think about trying to stay with them in the swim - I knew that they would normally just beat me. Anyway, the horn went off and off we went out to the first buoy...normal tussle in the water accompanied by the feeling of panic and breathlessness and the whole "why on earth do I do this rubbish?". Finally got into what felt like a good pace after about 400m and continued at about this pace until the swim exit. Swam on my own for most of the time so have decided to push myself harder next time to stay with a group to get the benefits of them sighting and the slipstreaming - I found it hard at times to sight the buoys and was not taking the racing line all the time. Got out in about 24 minutes which was a whole 2 minutes slower than Windsor so something had gone wrong....with only the swim done, I was already in a bad mood.
The run to the bike seemed okay and the knee did not give me any trouble so I thought that this must be a good sign. Found my bike straight away and headed out of transition where I jumped on and quickly realised that I had put my shoes in the wrong pedals - what an absolute idiot. I had to stop and change everything round and must have lost a good 30s doing this. If I was annoyed with the swim, I was seething now. The bike started with a long slog up a 2 mile hill. I was quickly on the small ring and kept on thinking that this is not what I wanted one bit. Was not long before 2 E category (my age group) riders came storming past me. At this point I had to have a little talk with myself - I was not going to be passed on the bike, no way. I have not been in one race yet and this one was not going to be the first. I eventually caught them again and then had a passing and overtaking battle with one chap all the way round. He was pretty small so flew up the hills...my weight advantage would help massively on the downhills after that where I would fly past again..topped out at 72.5kph today. After getting over some of the nasty hills, it was time to head for the finish line...just I appeared to have lost any knowledge of where that was. I missed a signpost on one roundabout and headed left when I should have gone straight on...noticed there was no one in front of me so turned round and then took the next left. Again, did not see anyone up ahead...turned round to see a disc wheel in the distance taking the third exit. After a bit of off-road over a central reservation and finally getting the right turn I was back on track...must have lost a good 2 minutes faffing around. As you can imagine, the annoyance levels were sky high - this was just destined not to be my day, and I still had a run to get through and I was not even sure if I could manage 5mins of that.
Finally got back to T2 in 1:10 which seems like it would have been a good time for the day. Would have been a lot better if 3 minutes were not on there though for silly mistakes that proved to cost me dearly. Still, I got the runners on and headed out. As usual the movement between bike and run was hard work, couple this with the fact I had not run on the road for about 3 weeks - which ever way I looked at this, this was not going to be an enjoyable run. After about 1k the knee started to hurt a bit and I slowed down massively to contemplate continuing in the race. During this slow period, it started to feel a bit better though so I thought that I would carry on. The heat was really blazing down now and after the 2nd lap of 4 I could feel the lack of running in the legs. Still, 2 to go and I would not be a DNF. The last lap seemed to go on for ages and I finally came under the Finish Banner in 2:19:03 a time that I instantly thought would place we no where in terms of qualifying for Lausanne - I thought my swim was 2 min too slow and the run the same.
Well, the results are now out and it would seem that after removing those people that have already qualified and those that do not wish to go, my 18th place in my age category meant that I missed a place by about 90s. This pretty much means that my mistakes today cost me a place at Lausanne. I have not taken it too badly though, this is only my first year and I knew I had not had a good race. I have learnt my lessons and am now more determined to qualify in style when the events come round next year.
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