Hounslow & District 25 - 1st - 53:58

Well, finally I have managed to win my first ever open TT. I have been racing for nigh on 4 years now and have consistently been able to finish in the top 3, but last weekend I finally managed to get the top spot, and by close to a minute as well.

I had entered the Hounslow & District TT on the request of a mate of mine who wanted to see if we could get the team prize, a lot of us liked the course (h25/8) and we managed to assemble 3 pretty good riders which should have put the team prize well within our reach on the day. However, come the day of the race, James was not feeling too well and Martin only managed to ride to the start line, only to clear his tire of flint and open the wound which led to a DNS. So, I ended up just riding with the intention of seeing how well I could do.

The conditions on the day were far from ideal, I remain wistful of a day when I turn up a TT and the conditions are ideal. There always seems to be some factor, be it rain or wind which means that a fast time is simply not on the card. For this race, it was wind which was going to prove to be the undoing any fast times. The headwind on the way out seemed to be picking up all the time and this was going to mean a nasty stint at the start and middle of the race as we went round the two laps.

Going out was tough, the headwind meant that it was quite simply a case of just hanging on and trying t push the biggest gear I could. The carrot on each headwind section was the roundabout at the end. On both laps, it was akin to a slingshot as you could feel the speed creeping up even before you had taken the exit. I was going from pushing hard at 35kph to cruising at 50-60kph. It's probably fair to say that the riding along in 56x11 on a flat piece of road, doing nigh on 60kph and still trying to go faster, is one of the best feelings you can get on a bike.

I crossed the line, covered in the obligatory snot and salt to discover that I had ridden just under 54. I thought it was good at the time as the conditions were so bad, but just had no idea how the other riders would have fared. I feared some of the smaller more agile framed individuals may have been able to sustain much higher speeds in the headwind. I saw Martin on the bridge back to the HQ and he showed me the favourite for the day going off into the distance, Martin's puncture had meant that he had time to check the splits. So, with the favourite still having 8 miles to do, he was down more than 40 seconds. I kind of knew at this point that I should be okay, mainly because I knew how fast I finished.

All in all, great day out and good to get a TT in before the season is over. Now it is time to (once again) see if I can spend a winter focusing on my running. Have decided to have another go at XC at least, so that should help.




News article on the Hounslow and District Wheelers page and in the local paper:

Hounslow & District Wheelers 25 mile Time Trial
Sunday 19th September

Richard Legge (London Dynamo) stormed to victory in the Hounslow 25 last Sunday (19th September), almost a minute faster than Ian Greenstreet (Newbury R.C.) and Brian Molloy (34th Nomads) who tied for second place. Legge recorded 53 minutes 59 seconds while Greenstreet and Molloy both did 54.56.

The event was held on the Farnham - Alton (A31) course which the previous afternoon in the North Hants RC 25 had been the scene of a shattering ride by Alex Dowsett, the young Trek Livestrong professional, who recorded 46 minutes 58 seconds. However Sunday morning proved to be a different proposition from the Saturday with a blustery south west wind blowing along the course, the general opinion being that the conditions made the Hounslow event about three minutes slower.

Primarily a triathlete, Richard Legge had not ridden any time trials since the National 25 Championship in early June, yet he seemed to find a way to beat the wind which left most of the field struggling. Richard commented: “I like to use big gears, I know there some who disapprove, but 60-70 rpm seems to suit me. I used 56 x 11 almost all the way on the tailwind sections.” And on the subject of time trials in general he said “I'm still surprised to find these CTT events are not flooded with triathletes: they are well organised, there is no problem with 'drafting' which is sometimes almost inevitable in triathlons because of the sheer number of competitors on the road, and the entry fees are much lower than triathlons.” He went home a happy man since this was his first ever outright victory in an open time trial.

Rob Gilmour was the Hounslow's best rider with a creditable 57.08 for 11th place. Club president Jeff Marshall recorded 1.02.06 which gave him the second best veterans' plus - the victor in this category was that frequent winner of vets' prizes, 73 year old John Woodburn (V.C. Meudon) whose actual time was 1.00.53. John complained about the wind and said he was a little tired having raced in the Rudy Project event the day before on Tees side! He won the age related event there too.

The best lady was Nicki Hunt (London & Home Counties VTTA) whose 1.6.28 was just over a minute too good for second placed Jo Wells of the Hounslow.

Chris Lovibond

http://www.hounslowanddistrictwheelers.co.uk/news/10/open_25.html

National Triathlon Relay Championships

Ok, these happened quite a while ago, but in the interests of making sure I get every race on here, they need to be mentioned.

Our Thames Turbo mixed team had set out to see if we could (again) claim a medal in this often less fiercely fought category. We had got second a couple of years ago, so we wanted to see if we could better that this year.

Alas it was not to be this time round, if there is one truism of the relays, it is that they seem to get increasingly competitive as the years go by. As it is, you need to have 4 members in the team who are pretty decent at each of the disciplines, in the end, we finished up in 5th place.

The good news for me though was that I did manage to get the fastest bike split in the morning's races, I was the only person to sneak under 20 minutes for the ~15k course.

I raced again in the afternoon in a men's team where we had a good bit of intra-club rivalry going on. Thankfully, the team I was in managed to win that private race. Annoyingly though, someone from the army managed to push my second bike split in to second place for the afternoon races. Still, not a bad day to have the fastest bike split in the morning and the second fastest in the afternoon. Not sure how I fared I was in the other disciplines, certainly not as well anyway!

London Triathlon - Team GB v. Hambro Institute of Sport

On the Wednesday before the big weekend of racing at London, I received a call from my mate Dion, they wanted me to do the bike section in a team relay where we would be taking on none other than three GB athletes. Ok, they were ladies, but beating them would by no means be pushover, especially as they had a few Beijing medals between them. They had received a bit of publicity prior to the event as they were going to make a stab at beating the girl's record for the team sprint at London Triathlon. We preferred to stay under the radar for fear of being totally shown up :)

The format for the triathlon was a 400m swim, 20k bike and 5k run with Dion on the swim, me on the bike and Tristan on the run. Dion managed to stick with Patten for a fair amount of the swim, but in trying to move on to her feet, she pulled away with about 200 to go. Patten exited the water with about a 60s lead, but this had reduced by the time that we handed over the band, mainly thanks to some deft transition skills in terms of bike placement and knowing how to run out of the water.

At the start of the bike, I think Romero had about 60 seconds on me. As I set out, I had a sinking feeling that she would just continue to hammer home the advantage from the swim. At the first roundabout, I could see Romero coming back and I realised at that point, they were certainly not putting any time in to us, in fact, I thought I must be catching her. Don't get me wrong, this was only a couple of k's in and my HR was already through the roof, I was feeling good though so continued to make my way past all of other athletes, just hunting down the black outfit of Romero. Within a few minutes, she was in sight and not long after I had managed to pass her as well (possible cycling career highlight).




Now, it was all about trying to see how much time I could gain to ensure that Tristan was not going to be too troubled on the run. By the third turn of the two laps, I could see that I put a fair amount of time in to Romero and was confident it should be enough. Tristan had told me he would not be happy unless I returned with snot over face etc, so had to make sure I pushed all the way back to the Excel.

Eventually came in with about a 90 second advantage which was well enough for Tristan not to get caught. He managed to knock out a 17:40 for the very long "5k" and we eventually all crossed the line in 1:01, setting a new record for the men and also beating Team GB by about 90 seconds.




Having beat the ladies, we were pleased to see that the story was picked up by a few of the tri related news sites, but most importantly the Sunday Times where we even had a mention!


Tri247

Tri247

TriFinder

Antwerp 70.3 - 2010

For me, this was to be the highlight of my season with pretty much all of my preparation to date being focused on just doing well over this distance at this event. For the four weeks leading up to this race, I had been spending every Saturday just doing lap after lap of Regent's Park on the TT bike followed by a run. These were going well too, I had pretty much worked out (probably for the first time) how easy I need to take it on the bike to give myself a fighting chance on the run.

So, after all of this, to suddenly find that you have a bit of a sore throat on the Tuesday and by the time you arrive in Antwerp, this has developed in to a full blown cold, one can feel slightly disappointed and annoyed for putting all your eggs in one basket.

Still, I was not so unwell that not starting was on the agenda so I headed down to T1 on race day to get things ready. At the start of the swim though, and in doing the first bit of high intensity stuff since getting ill, I realised straight away that I was not good. I was coughing in the water, so decided to just find some feet and try and sit on them, the thinking was, I was only going to lose about 1-2 minutes in the swim so better to just get through it with the maximum amount of help.

Out on the bike though and things felt relatively good. I was sticking to my plan quite well in terms of drinking frequently and making sure that I was never pushing that hard etc. By the time I had got to about 50k, I had worked my way quite far up the field whilst still feeling quite good. It was when I looked at the HR though that I got worried. At breakfast it had been higher than normal by about 10-15 beats and on the bike, for the perceived effort, it was just as high. Not good I thought, but at the time I figured the only way I had a chance of qualifying was to keep going to the plan and see how long I could get away with it.

Towards the end of the bike, I had my disheartening 70.3 moment. I was caught by one chap and then looked behind to see that he was simply spearheading a group of about 15-20 riders who were pretty much riding in a peleton. Kind of makes you wonder why you bother. Anyway, not wanting to simply brake all the way to, and then off, the back, I road with these guys to the finish...albeit, I tried to stay away from them as much as possible by riding in the middle of the road etc.

T2 went okay and then out on the run things felt a bit worse than I was hoping. I felt hot but I was managing to stick with the 4min/km that I was hoping to stick to for the run. This all seemed to be okay for about the first 5k, but then all of a sudden, I felt really hot and thought I was going to feint in the middle of the road. I stopped for a quick walk, but at that point, I knew it was all over. I felt rubbish and the illness had finally got the better of me. So, I started to adopt a run walk strategy to wait for Paula to catch me who was one lap behind. We eventually ran one lap together with P almost dropping me on a number of occasions, I was perhaps more of a hindrance than anything else - still, I blocked the wind when I could etc.



I eventually finished in 4:33 which including a 1:50 half marathon...I had been working towards a 1:24.

So, no Florida for me this year.....

BananaMan 2010

For the first time in the last few years, I had entered to race the BananaMan on my own to see how I could get on and to get some useful triathlon practice in before Antwerp in a couple of weeks time. Secretly, I had set myself the target of seeing how close I could get to the previous Team Time Trial times I had set over the past three years. The wind on Sunday made me think it was going to be tough, but as always with Eton, if it is hard one way, it will be great the other.

The swim went about as well as could be expected really - I would like to think the course is a bit long as I would hope i was not swimming 1:30/100m pace, but I managed to stay with and pretty much lead out a pack of two other guys for the whole 800m eventually getting out just under 12 minutes. Still, the swim felt comfortable and it hadn't take much out of me for the rest of the race.





On to the bike now and I had been playing around with my position of recent, mainly to make it a bit more comfortable for the half Ironman, but in doing this, I had realised that it was not set up very well in the first place. For a start, the saddle was way too high I think and I had not moved it as far forward as it will go either. Things felt good now and as I pulled out of T1 in the lead, I decided to get my HR where I wanted it (~160BPM) and then just keep it steady for the rest of the ride. Going away from the transition area was tough on the day with the wind, but coming back was awesome...knocking out 30mph on a TT bike is a nice feeling really, especially on perfectly smooth roads. Finished the bike and felt quite sure I was quite a way ahead of the next placed guy in my wave. I would only find out though as I headed back on the first run lap as to where he actually was.











Out on the run and the plan started off being to just see how I felt and see if I was going to be able to up the pace at all after hopefully not starting off that quick. The first leg was in to the wind but a quick look at the pace meant that I was running quite well, and more importantly, I did not feel that bad. So I kept it steady for the second lap and then opened it up a bit on the last lap. All in all, was not a bad run for me with an average speed of just under 16kph. It was also nice to see on lap 1 that there was no chance that the second place chap was going to catch me.

In the end, I recorded my second fastest time on the course meaning that I beat the previous couple of year's TTT times. Om the day, I managed to win overall (all age groups)I also managed to beat the relay and the TTT teams time. So, all in all, a nice little warm up race before Antwerp at the end of the month.

GARMIN OUTPUT

Regent's Park 10k

A couple of weekends back, I raced the Regent's Park 10k as a brick session, had done a very hard 90 mins on the bike and then ran the 10k after to get some brick experience. Not too bad, finishing with 38:43 so only 40 seconds slower than the month before when I ran it fresh. Still, not back to my best, but getting there, Regent's Park is by no means a fast 10k anyway.

Windsor 2010

My plan for Windsor this year was quite simple, I wanted to win it. I had looked at the start sheet and seemed quietly confident that things might go okay for me. I had to obviously put in some good splits but I felt sort of fit, so hoped it would go to plan.

On the day of the race, I looked at the river and it appeared to me that there was little to no current whatsoever. To me, this meant the best option was going to be swimming the shortest course rather than trying to hug the banks etc and stay out the current which can often plague a good swim time. However, after sticking to that plan quite well, a quick glance of the watch on the way to T! proved it had not been the best plan - 23:30 - that was part 1 of the plan in tatters as i kind of knew I needed a good swim to give me a chance.

Out on the bike, thing felt okay and with all the passing that I was doing, I felt confident that I was putting in a good split. Towards the end, I certainly noticed that I was starting to tire though, this was certainly not a good sign when I knew I still had the 10k run to go. In the end, I came back in to T2 as the only person on the day to break the hour for the 42k course....good cycling, yes, but what followed was not good running.



Pretty much as soon as I got out on the course, I realised that I had gone a bit too hard on the bike to be able to run at the speed I wanted to. I think in hindsight this is just something I fail to learn every season. You can not ride the bike like it is a TT and then hope to run well off the back of it. Thankfully, I have started to spend some more time since this focusing on my effort and how easy it should feel to be able to run well. Anyway, I digress, the run just got worse and worse really and I eventually came across the line with a 41:30 split which was way off what I needed.



After looking at the results at the end of the day, there would have been little hope of me winning with some young South African chap there who stormed the course faster than my best case scenario. Still, I got 3rd in my age group and it was the catalyst I needed to better manage the last bit of my training before Antwerp.

National 25 Championship - 44th - 56:02

As much as I wanted to get excited about this race, I just never really got in to the right frame of mind. Having been away for a week beforehand and doing no training, I kind of felt that I had still not back in the groove before I set off on what would be a massive 2 day journey. Driving up after work meant we only arrived at the hotel at about 10 in the evening. Luckily, the race was not until later in the afternoon the next day.

On the Saturday, we got up and decided that we would ride the course. In hindsight, I am not so sure that this is a good idea. For one, 25 miles when you are not going super fast is still a ride and it took quite a while. In the end, it probably took more out of me than I wanted, even though it was good to have some knowledge of the course.

Start time eventually rolled round on another hot day...two hot races back to back, have not seen that for a while. After setting off, I had a quick look at the Garmin after about 5 minutes. My HR was reading about 178 which is simply way too high. I did not feel that I was riding at that kind of pace, so I decided to just carry on and see what happened - I was in unchartered waters now. I suppose at the back of my mind I had some idea that the end result was not going to be good, but on the day you just put your head down and hope for the best.

I got to the turn in good time and on way back things were going well. I was catching my minute man quite qucikly but then, all of a sudden, it was like someone just removed the power from the legs. I don't think I bonked, I think I had just blown up from the effort I had put in from the previous 22 miles. The HR had stayed around the 178-180 mark for the entire ride so I suppose there is only so much a heart can take before it decides it does not want to play ball any more.

The last 3 miles were torture, just trying to get some speed back but there was nothing there. I eventually hobbled across the line thinking, what a waste. Travelling all this way for that....to add insult to injury, I still had to drive all the way back.

GARMIN OUTPUT

National 10 Mile Champs - 42nd - 20:55

After last year's failure to get in to the National 10, it was nice to finally get my slot for the 2010 event. I always knew it was going to be a really fast affair and that I would be nowhere near the sharp end, but still, it is good to see how you fare against the best in the land.

The day itself was roasting, a very rare treat in the UK racing calendar. For me, I actually prefer to ride in the heat and having looked at the course, I felt confident in terms of being able to do myself justice - there were no big hills and the main drag was assisted with a tailwind as well - all good news.

However, the tailwind to help you back up the wheel obviously reared its head as a bit of a headwind on the way out. On a section where I thought I was going to be knocking out over 30mph, I was struggling to do 26/27mph. Still, I was feeling pretty strong and the shortness of the ten means you can just give it a real bash. The second roundabout was a bit of a pain with a lorry not really giving me the racing line - the cheek of it - but at least I made it round and I heading back for the finish now.

The slight hill was nowhere near as bad as it looked, but the last section just off the main road was quite painful in terms of just trying to squeeze that last little bit out. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a lower gear for the whole ride and tried to spin out a bit more, especially on the last stretch. Still, I crossed the line in 20:55 and my final position was about where I thought I would be on the day.

GARMIN OUTPUT

Eton Super Sprints

Before P and I even made it to Eton on the Sunday, there was one thing that we both wanted to do to lessen the shock of what was to come, namely to have a go in open water. The main reason being that the comfort of the pool of Swiss Cottage was going to be replaced by water which was reported to be near to the 10 degrees mark - not a nice prospect. So, on Saturday we headed to the lido and almost had the most expensive swim ever, after one length, I was on the verge of defeat and contemplating getting out...£4 seemed too much though so we soldiered on with ice cream heads for another 20 minutes. In the end, it did not seem too bad. Needless to say, there were people there in speedos...nutters.

After making the often traveled journey to Eton Rowing Lake, we were all set for the first of our triathlons for the 2010 season. I seemed to remember how to do everything, getting my bike set up, sorting the wetsuit and various other things that need taking care of, like remembering where your bike is when you get out of the water! The swim went quite well for the first 100 metres or so, I had made it in to the lead and I event think I was pulling away a bit. This was not really what I had hoped for however, I wanted to be towed around the lake by some good swimmer so that I could just sit on their feet and nab myself a good swim time. My legs pretty much gave up on the last 200m, not really sure why, perhaps I need to kick some more. Anyway, out the water in 1st and on to the best cycling course in triathlon.

The wind was not as bad as the flags were showing and there did not seem to be the normal headwind on the outward stretch which was a good indicator that it may be possible to get a decent ride in. Sadly, the Garmin had decided that it did not want to cooperate today and for the remainder of the race, the only information I had was how much battery life the watch had left...not that useful when you want to know how fast you're going. Still, things seemed to be going okay though and the 56x11 stints on the back straight were good fun.





A quick T2 and I was out on the run. I tried to start off quite hard and I think I paid for this after about 1k when I started to slow down a bit. I think it may be better to build into these short runs a bit more, rather than trying to bolt out of T2 as if I was planning on running a 15 minute 5k. Still, settled down after about 3k and started to up the pace towards the end. By this time, I knew I had won my wave by about 4 minutes but my main aim of the day was to win the day outright by beating all the other waves that took place.





In the end, I came in with a time of 55:41 which was about as good as I could have hoped for - I think I would have been quicker had I known what was going on via the Garmin, but I did have a go and I think I raced okay. Looking back, I should have run a bit quicker as I certainly was not hitting the kind of pace I needed to on a few sections. As for winning the day, that didn't happen either - beaten by a measly 4 seconds in the end. Still, not a bad first race.

Charlotteville 50

Competed in my first 50 mile TT a couple of weeks ago with the main being just to get a time to allow me to enter the National 50 and to also see what they were like in comparison to 25's.

They are long....very long it seemed at times towards the end. Sitting on a saddle for nigh on two hours is a real test, as is trying to keep the speed up on what wasn't a nice day with the cold and a little wind.

I suffered in the second half to such an extent that I lost about 3 minutes on the last 15 miles.....not sure what was going wrong, but I do feel a lot more confident about the next one.

Final time: 1:53:46

Regents Park 10k - 14th - 38:00

Saturday saw me run in my first 10k in what has been a very long time.....I don't think I ran any straight 10's last season so this was due to be a bit of a shock to the system.Based on my running of recent, I was confident that it should be not be too bad a performance as I had got to the stage where I was running sub 4min/km quite comfortably.

Set the Garmin off at 37:00 pace thinking that was the best that I could possibly hope for, especially considering as my PB on that course is only 36:54.

After the second lap, I was still on target to hit the 37 dead, but I knew I would lose some time on the last lap as I could feel that I was starting to slow a bit. Eventually finished with 38:00 which I was quite happy with really...would have liked to have been in the 37's but it is as near as really.

Newbury RC 25 - H25/1 - 54:05 - 4th

This was never going to be a stellar performance as I had not lifted finger in terms of training all week long. On Sunday I thought I was coming down with some form throat infection, and after 45 minutes of swim training on Monday, I got out as I knew I was not doing myself any favours. The rest of the week was then just filled with Colvonia and Strepsils in an attempt to budge it. By the time Saturday rolled round, I thought I was feeling a lot better so decided it would be worth it to travel to the race and see how I did - the annoying thing was, conditions were not far from ideal.

Within a few minutes of setting off, I was aware that the throat had not totally cured as heavy breathing was slightly restricted. Still, was able to get up to speed and did not feel too bad for the first 20 odd k. I had caught my two minute man who a decent rider, so thought I must be doing okay. As we turned at the far end though and started to work harder in to the headwind, I felt a bit worse and instantly knew it was going to be a case of just hanging on really.

Once we turned at the other end, I had a look behind to see that the chap I had caught for two minutes had not really dropped back much in the subsequent 10k's - I must have ridden like a right wally for that segment. Still, back with the wind behind us and the 56x11 in full use, I was able to open the gap up again.

I eventually crossed the line in 54:05 which is a bit slower than the 53:09 I did last year on that course, but all things considered, not too bad really...still nigh on 45kph for the ride and I still haven't really done any high end work on the turbo yet. So, although I don't think I am as fast as I was at this time last year, I do think I have much more solid base which we can now work on adding the speed to. Hopefully things will all come together initially at the end of May/Early June for the National 10, 25 and 50 and then hopefully that will carry through nicely to Antwerp.

The throat appears to have cleared now anyway, so back to full training now.

Redmon CC - 25 - 2nd - 55:39

Raced in the Redmon 25 on Sunday. Quite a windy day and had ridden 70k the day before so not too displeased to come home in 55:39. I was second on the day, but second by quite a margin. Was good to be back doing 25's though - feels like the perfect distance for a really hard effort.

Have my next one in a couple of weeks, so let's hope we can have some sun and no wind - is it too much to ask for?

Thames Turbo Sprint - Race 1

I think I am now in to my fifth year of doing this race, it was the first triathlon I did some years ago. For the past couple of years, I have placed near the top so I was keen to get 2010's triathlon career off to a good start.The promise of the some warm weather did not prove to be too correct, but at least it was not as freezing cold as last year - never a good idea when you get out of heated pool and then head out in to the elements in a wet trisuit.

The swim for me went okay on this one, I quickly managed to get quite close to the person in front of me and then decided to not try and get past. She was going at a fairly decent pace, so I assume it would be better to save some energy and sit on her feet for the last 100m or so. My swim time for the 436m was 6:02, so about the same as normal. My transition on the other hand was an embarrassment to the triathlon community. It just seemed to take so long, mainly as I fumbled my way around trying to pull some cycling shoes on. I think that from now on I will have to revert to the shoes in the pedals and having these attached to the bike.

The bike section at these races has been a bit of a nemesis for me in recent years. I can't recall the last time I had what I would call a good run. On this occasion, I was stopped at the lights for the full time that it took to change and then had to contend with some incredibly slow moving traffic behind a competitor who was just strolling along on his mountain bike. There was also the brief stop at the roundabout, so all in all, not a good run really and it was almost impossible to get in to a decent rhythm.

Copyright: David Spencer - us2design

My running of recent has been a little lackluster as I have struggled to find the top end speed that is needed for races like this. The problems with the blisters from MK and Fleet had also meant that I was pretty much sidelined from running for a while. Still, I don't think that I ran that bad, well, in terms of way it felt anyway. The time was far from ideal but I know why this is and I am certain I can improve on this. On this occasion I did 20:31 and I have previously run an 18:37 I think. So, a lot to get me back to those results, but I have at least started to do some brick sessions now and will be working on some speed in the coming months.

In the end, I was 6th, so not too bad, but far from my best....even for this time of the year.

Maidenhead Hilly 30 (H29/18) - DNF

Last year, my mate Paul and I raced this event as a two up and won quite comfortably. This year, I decided I would have a crack on my own over this testing course round the back lanes of Marlow. I had set my virtual partner up to give me the course record and this meant that I would need to average just over 41kh for the course - this didn't seem too bad, but the hills can really kill the average speed on these rides.

Just doing a little warm up on the turbo...




Things started ok and I felt quite strong but the biggest problem that was giving me concerns was the sheer state of the roads round there. I felt like I was bumping around all over the place and missing potholes became a bit of an art form, what with the frequency and depth of them.

After the first up hill section of the course, I glanced at the watch to see that I was currently riding at the required speed...this was good news as I now had a long section of general downhill where I could try and increase the average speed as much as possible to limit the damage that would be done in the last 2 mile climb to the finish. Things started to not feel quite right on the bike though...I slowly realised that the front wheel had some form of slow puncture. I started to try and work out how fast it was going down and whether or not I would be able to make it to the finish, but after another couple of miles I decided to bite the bullet and get off. At this point I was averaging 43.3kph and still had some downhill section to go...it was not to be though.

The problem now was that I was stranded out on the course with no easy means of making my way back to the car. I worked out there must have been another 8 or so miles of riding to do, that was going to take a long time. Thankfully, some cycling fan in a Transit van came to my rescue. The bike had to go in the back along with some rubbish, but at least I was en route to the village hall again. My glamorous arrival back at the village hall even made it on the web... "while London Dynamo’s Richard Legge arrived at the finish in the back of a rubbish collectors van after suffering a similar problem"

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/uk-time-trial-round-up-tejvan-pettinger-wins-30-mile-hilly-25628

Sotonia 10 (P613/10) 20:44 - 10th

For me to be able to even get on the start sheet for the National 10 mile Championships this year, I was going to need to get a better time than the only other one I, unfortunately recorded on a cold windy day back in December last year. So, in terms of getting a PB, the Sotonia 10 should have been a bit of a walk in the park really...the course was much nicer than the last one and, on the day, the weather was not bad either. The wind had picked up, but at least the predicted rain had not arrived.

I have done very little in the way of preparation for short bursts like this, so I was quite aware before the start that this was not going to be a very well managed race in terms of pacing etc. It was the first time on the TT bike this year and I just don't really have any kind of markers in terms of how well I am riding at the moment. All I know is that the watts I am putting out on the turbo are a bit lower than they were this time last year.

Anyway, once the race got going I just decided that i would see how hard I could go for the whole ride. The good thing was, the course started with a bit of a downhill and then we were directed on to a nice piece of dual carriageway with the wind behind us. Those first 5 miles were a real pleasure as I cruised along in 56x11 or 12 but eventually hit some bad luck as I got to the roundabout for the turn. As much as I tried to convince myself there was a way to do it, it became apparent I was going to have to stop....so annoying. Anyway, it was only for a few seconds and I was back on my way again. Still, the whole slowing, stopping and getting going again costs dearly, especially in such a short race. Back out on the other side of the dual carriageway and I was met with the ugly side of that nice tailwind I had enjoyed all the way out. I just tried to get as aero as possible and just grind the gears out for the next 4 miles. It was not pleasant at all, but catching a couple of the riders in front of me made for a nice distraction.

I eventually made it over the line in 20:44. In terms of the National Champs, this is job done as a time of 20:44 should ensure that I get my slot in the National 10 this year. Having looked at last year's result, I felt quite confident that a time like that would put me quite far up the leaderboard. Alas, not today....everyone seems to have cottoned on to the fact that this is the fastest course in the South and on a good day, this is where a lot of people come to get their times for the National 10. In the end, I finished 10th but there were a good bunch of quality riders above me and I beat some of my peers who I would normally place close to etc. All in all....job done.

Fleet Half Marathon

After the blister issues at Milton Keynes and the subsequent time it appeared to be taking for these problems to clear up, I was not looking too good to run Fleet last weekend. The feet had not totally healed but the Compeed plasters did seem to be make running at least bearable to some extent, albeit, I had not tried anything longer than 10k during the two weeks.

So, on Sunday I decided to give it a go and just see if I could make it round in one piece. I set the Garmin off on a pace of 1:23 but I decided that I would see how long I could go without actually looking at the watch. I thought I was going okay, but it was quite obviously far from a stellar performance. I am not really sure what is happening with the running at the moment. Perhaps, it is too long on the treadmill and not enough sessions outside, but I just feel that good running at the moment. Anyway, at about mile 8, the feet started to hurt, what with one Compeed coming off and one on the other foot somewhere else within my shoe. I eventually stopped at about 9 miles and decided to take the socks off and see if I could carry on. For a while the feet were still sore, but things did improve....I ran quite hard through miles 10-11 and then the legs felt pretty sore for the last mile

I eventually came home in 1:27 so not as bad as MK but it does mean that the whole plan of doing some good halves in the early part of the season are kind of out of the window as there are no more on the horizon. TT season kicks off this weekend with a trip to the Sotonia 10.

Milton Keynes Half Marathon

The good news is, my season has now started, it seems like a such a long time ago that I was racing. The bad news on the other hand, is that the season has started with a race that just went from bad to worse.

I had set myself the target of running a 1:21 at the MK half this year, and although ambitious, I felt relatively confident that I might just sneak under 1:22. The starter holding us for a lot longer than I thought meant that I started off needing to go to the toilet and hence the first 6 miles I spent a lot of time trying to decide if the cost of nipping behind a tree for a wee would be worth the time lost. I decided to give it a miss and carried on for a bit longer...I went through half way dead on target at 40:30 but I knew that I was slowing down a bit. For some reason, I never really felt that great, kind of tired. I think most of that may have been due to the fact that I did some hard work during the week and never really recovered properly and then promptly went out and did a 60 mile bike ride on the Saturday. The ride seemed okay for the first 30 miles but after turning round and realising it was headwind, I quickly lost interest and generally just felt lethargic. Still, I didn't think it would cause too much damage.

At mile 9 in the race, the real problems started, my feet really started to hurt - a lot. I had bought some new socks in the week and these were obviously not for me....I could feel the blisters starting to appear and by mile 11 it felt like someone was scraping the skin off the bottom of my feet. Cue, a final 2 mile run/walk strategy to finally cross the line in 1:30.....not great.





So, I have Fleet half in a couple of weeks time now. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a better day there.

At least the season has finally started...