Racing Galore

Managed to get in two races this weekend...my ideal weekend really.

On Saturday I took part in my first ever Bushy Park Time Trial which is basically a free race that takes place in a park near me. There were a lot more runners that I thought there would be as well, must have been close to 200 runners in the end.

This was the first straight running race I have raced in a long time so was not sure how fast I would be able to go. As it was only a 5k, I worked on the assumption that I would go out quite hard and just see how long I could hold the pace. The main aim was to get close to 18 minutes. My best last year was a 17:20 on a course which was about 60m short, so something close to that would keep me happy.

Half way round I passed the chap who normally comes in as the fasted Thames Turbo chap so I figured I could at least have the glory of being the fastest turbo if I could stay in front of him for the last couple of k's. I thought I must have put some distance into him by the time that I got to the finishing straight but it was not long before I saw him come up on my left shoulder...cue that horrible feeling of knowing that you are going to have do some manic sprint to the finish. In the end, we sprinted from quite a way out and Tom eventually beat me by one second....I was gutted. Still these races are on every week so I am gonna be back on Saturday for round 2...can't wait.





Anyway, we all went to the pool afterwards for a bit of swimming and was chatting afterwards and discovered that there was a duathlon on the Sunday that a couple of people were going to do. The distances sounded perfect to me, 2.5k run, 20k bike and then another 2.5k run. The short runs meant that I would have a good chance as I would be able to claw back any lost time on the bike and then hopefully hold out for long enough on the second run. The race was a pretty low key affair though run by Tri-Quays which eventually had about 30 entrants.

Within the first km of the initial run, I realised that I was in the lead and that I was actually managed to put some distance into those behind me. I just didn't get it..running is by no means my strongest discipline so I had never had that luxury. I eventually finished the run with about 20s on the next chap and was now confident that I should be able to win the race, so long as there were no really strong bikers. The bike course was pretty tough, 14 laps of a 1.5k circuit...counting the laps was pretty hard so was thankful that the marshalls were doing the counting as well. I eventually managed to lap the guy who was in second place so at this point I knew that I had the race in the bag.

Coming off the bike for the second run was never going to be that nice, but the legs were not too bad and I managed to get round the second run in not too bad a shape. I finished the race in 51:57 which I later discovered was a course record for the series of events that they had put on. More importantly for me, this meant that my time was quicker than one of my main rivals this season. Always hard to compare races on different days etc, but am glad that I was at least doing similar run times as him.





















3 weeks and 3 prizes now...think that this is the end of the run of results though...next big one is the second of the Thames Turbo races where I am going to be going for my first win of my triathlon career. Well, that's as long as the winner of the first race doesn't suddenly appear on the start sheet.

Results are here

My First 25

Ever since I started doing Olympic distance triathlons, I have been interested to know just how fast I was capable of going on the bike if I did not have to do the swim and run in the same event as well. Thankfully, the standard distance for the triathlon is 40km and within the cycling community, a number of races are put on throughout the year which are exactly the same length (almost anyway, 25miles or 40.3km).

So, yesterday I headed out to the Redmon CC Open 25 which was going to give me a good chance to have a go at getting round the 25 as quick as possible. The whole time trialling world seems very serious, when we got there there were people warming up on their turbo machines all over the place, some people even seemed to have two bikes there, one to warm up on and then one to race. The whole place was like some festival of carbon fibre as well, to be honest, I was pretty thankful that I had a disc wheel as it at least meant that I fitted in to some extent. Putting on my triathlon club colours probably did not go down too well though...there is a long running rivalry between "real" cyclists and triathletes as the cycling community just sees us as all having pretty shoddy bike handling skills...to some extent they are right as we never really ride in groups etc.

There is a distinct difference though between these events and any triathlon as well...a club house serves as race HQ, there are no adverts anywhere and it is like stepping back into the 60's with the way that everything is organised, think tea urns and cake etc.

Anyway, after getting the tubs all pumped up I headed off to the start (two blokes on the side of the road) and did a few hard sprints etc to warm the legs up. For those that don't know, a time trial works as such, every 1 minute a rider is set and the riders are organised (from previous times) in a way that means that there won't be too much overtaking. Obviously, I was just chucked in randomly as they had no idea as to what sort of time that I would be able to do as this was my first event.

Around came 9:12 and I was off, sprinting hard to get the speed up as quickly as possible and found that I quickly managed to get into a nice steady rhythm, even if it did feel that that the heart was racing way too much. I had been here before though, so just carried on and eventually it calmed down a bit. The whole idea of having people further up the road is massive attraction for someone like me. It was not long before I could see the chap who started a minute ahead of me and I was past him in about 8 minutes...at this point, I did worry a bit - had I gone off too fast. That was the one piece of advice I had remembered for the race. Anyway, it ws not long before I passed the 2 min man and then a lady who was 4 mins ahead of me. My biggest concern though was that I knew that the chap who started 2 mins behind me had been in the UK top 10 for this sort of race...therefore I had to hold him off as long as possible. Eventually he came past me at about half way which I worked out meant that I was having a pretty good race, I was aiming to do a 57 minute ride so it seemed about right to get passed there. He was the kick up the ass that I needed though, I hadn't been pushing as hard as I should have been for a few minutes so when he came past I tried to hold him at a set distance ahead of me for as long as possible. Obviously, he soon moved further and further away though...I think it must have been his 6k bike that was helping him and not his legs :-)

Time rolled on though and I had already decided that when it got to about 48 minutes, I was going to start hurting myself as much as possible to get to the finish line. I was feeling pretty good so when I started to push harder, the legs were responding quite well. The problem was I did not realise was that the slip road with 4 blokes sat there was actually the finish. Stupid me went straight past it and only then realised that must be the finish. Cue some pretty dangerous turning on the middle of a dual carrigeway to get back to the slip road. I crossed the line and looked at the watch and it said 55:56....I couldn't quite work it out...I didn't think that I would be able to go that fast, that is averaging about 43kph for the event. In the end, this messing around cost me about 30s I reckon.

Got back to the race HQ and had a look at the times and realised that my 55 was pretty high amongst, what I had been told, a very high quality field. I had seen on the start sheet that they have a novice prize which can be won by anyone that has not raced before. I spoke to the organiser and said that I would like to be considered for the prize. He did seem a bit shocked by my time actually but I did not think too much of it.

Prize giving eventually started and at the end of the day, I did actually manage to win the novice prize for the day. The best thing about this is that I managed to pick up a pretty big trophy that dates back to 1939. I also have the fastest ever time on the trophy as well, by about 3 minutes as well, the second fastest I can see is a 59:22.



So, all in all a good 7 days...2 races and 2 trophies.

Results are here

Finally, the season begins...

Monday finally saw the start of my race season and we could not have asked for better race conditions, even if it was a bit cold at the start. For myself, I was pretty much hoping to treat the race as a test to see how good or bad the winter training had been, although this theory had pretty much been scuppered when I was struck down by a cold at the start of the Bank Holiday. As a result, I was not expecting to be able to race to my full potential as my normal preparation had been replaced by sipping Lemsips, resting and eating too much food.

Anyway, Monday came round and I was feeling a lot better. It was just nice to be back at Hampton Pool where I started my triathlon career last year. Last April I had gone just under 64 minutes so it was going to be interesting to see how much I could improve this by. Secretly, I was hoping to break the hour, but you can never tell. The swim was horrible as always, I also had someone chasing me down after I over estimated my swim ability (as in, totally lied) on the start form. I could see him getting closer every length but I think I just managed to avoid the foot tap in the end. I never seem to be able to get into a good rhythm in that pool, but hey ho, it was now on to my favourite section. I only lied on the start sheet though so that I could be at the front end of the action by the time that it came round to the bike leg...tthe lie was not massive either, just enough to move me up a few slots. For those that don't know, the Thames Turbo event has people starting in 10s intervals in the pool with your start time being determined by your best time for 400m. As soon as I set out on the bike, I found the gear that gave me a good cadence and I just kept on hoping that Martin was not going to come flying past me. With the swim and run I had a fair idea as to what times I should be doing, but on the bike, I just didn't have a clue. My training had been going okay, but personally I felt that I had been at my most strongest back in about February some time, after Lanzarote I just didn't feel that I had any speed.

In hindsight however, I think that I am pleased that I have ditched any timing/HR devices etc this season as it allowed me to just get on with the riding and trying to stay as comfortable as possible and focusing on catching and overtaking the next person up the road, whoever it was. When I caught Dion Harrison at the turnaround, I had a sneaky suspicion that I was on for a good time but at that point I still had no idea that I would be even close to last year's record. By the time we came in from the bike leg, Dion, Gavin and I were all together. Dion had mentioned that I had a good chance of second during the non-compete zone but I still didn't think that it was on the cards, especially knowing that Dion had gone under 35 in a 10k recently and Gavin, well Gavin's running speaks for itself. We left transition in a group of 3 but I quickly fell off the pace, there was no way I would have been able to hold on to those two, even if my running had improved from last year. The run was okay in the end, I got round in 40s quicker than last year's best time but I still need to make some big improvements in that discipline. The main problem with not using any timing device though is that you have no idea how well or badly you have done until the results come out. In the end I could not believe that I had sneaked a 2nd with a sub 59. Obviously, this was mainly down to the bike, but is good to know that I have room for improvement as my swim was not the best and I have not really started the speed stuff for running yet. A new course record on the bike leg is also a nice thing for this time of the year...knocking 40s off the time though means that it is gonna be pretty tough to beat again. Rather annoyingly though, if the distance really is 21km then I have still not managed to average 40kph on the course which I am sure should be possible - time for an aero helmet I think :-)

I even get a mention on the London Triathlon website!

Results etc are all here

RACE REPORT FROM THE RICHMOND AND TWICKENHAM TIMES

Thames Turbo Race 1

Clear skies and a spring chill greeted the competitors as they arrived at Hampton Open Air Pool, early on Easter bank holiday monday, for the first race in the 2007 Thames Turbo Triathlon Club Race series.

At just after 7.15am the first competitor kicked off the wall at the shallow end for 12 lengths (432m) of the pool, with the rest of the field starting at 10 second intervals in seeded waves.

After the swim and a quick dash to the transition area to grab their bikes, it's a pan flat 'out and back' 21km bike course before a picturesque 5km run around Bushy Park.

The main players in the men's field started the swim within sight of each other, with eventual winner Gavin Smith (Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport) making his intentions clear with the second fastest swim and T1 of the day (6.12). Out on the bike course Smith wasn't going to have it all his own way; after loosing a minute to him in the pool, Richard Legge (Thames Turbo/Complete Health) stormed around the course in 31.44 - two minutes faster than anyone else catching and passing eventual 4th place, Dion Harrison (Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport) at the Chertsey turnaround. The 7 minute 'non-compete zone' - between the end of the bike course and the return to the transition area - allowed Smith, Legge and Harrison to ride back and start the run together. Legge was first out of transition, quickly followed and passed by Harrison, but as the group reached the gate into Bushy Park, Smith had taken the lead and 'breezed' away, for the fastest 5km split of the day (16.54) and the win. A steady run netted second place for Legge, but Gregory Billington (Cambridge Tri) more than made up for time lost on the bike with the second fastest run of the day (17.16) to take third spot and prevent a Thames Turbo clean sweep.

In the women's race, less than a minute separated the top three after the bike. Bethan Hopewell (Ful-on tri) cancelled out the minute lost in the pool to Sophie Whitworth (Team Planet X) with the fastest bike split of the day, before increasing her lead with the second fasted run split (20.28) to take the victory. After a similar start to Hopewell, Helen Smith (Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport) made up time on both the bike and the run to tie with Whitworth. One performance the other women should note for the next three races was eventual fourth place, Esther Evans (Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport) as she thundered around the run 2 minutes faster than any of them.

A few changes..

Over the past few months I have been making a few changes to the time trial machine to get it ready for the 2007 season. Since the end of last season, I have been dreaming and constantly contemplating whether it would be worthwhile to invest in a disc wheel...basically, it is a lot of money for a wheel..about £800 when it is all built up.

In the end I decided to bite the bullet and go for the bling, along with some new extensions for the front of the bike. As you can see, the bike now looks pretty damn fast..

The tubs are also new and at £60 a pop, they better be fast (recommended by one of the fastest time trial chaps in the UK)...does make you pretty nervous when you take the bike out though...a pucture could be an expensive operation.

The first test for the bike will come on Monday when race season finally gets underway with the first in the Thames Turbo Series of races. The race will mark my anniversary in the world of triathlon as this was my first event last year...seems weird to think back as to how much has happened in that year.

There is a bit of pressure for the race on Monday as well as in the final race of the series last year, I managed to set the record for the bike section of the triathlon. I now feel that I have to beat that time as there will probably be a lot of people out there who want to beat my split so I am gonna have to up the game a bit and hopefully record an even faster time. I have taken the bike out with the new wheel and tubs today and I confirm that it feels fast...I say "feels" because this season I am ditching any kind of technology to tell me how fast my heart is beating, what my time is, or how fast my bike is going. I am going to race depending on how I feel. I think that with all the training I do I have a pretty good understanding of my body and how to control the build up of lactic acid during the race and how far I can push myself.

Anyway, we'll see how things go on Monday. At the moment I am suffering from a bit of a cold which came on Thursday and although it feels like it is on its way out now, it is kind of not helping with getting me in the best shape for the race.