Last Sunday I finally got my cycling season underway with a hilly 30 mile TT in Marlow. I had entered the 2up category with my mate from London Dynamo and although we only had one other team to beat, they were a team with form so it was not going to be a walk in the park - plus, I personally wanted to beat all the riders who were doing the course on their own.
As soon as I got there, I realised just how much I had missed being on the TT bike, it is just so much faster than the normal road bike and it felt good to be back. After our little warm up, we were off for the 30 miles of tearing it up round the lanes of Henley and Marlow. I realised from the start that my training over the winter had paid off in that I felt really strong and things were definitely going as I had wanted. I found that I was able to work the hills a lot better, perhaps due to some of the weight loss.
Anyway, we both knew that the worst part of the course was all going to come in the last 5 miles. Basically, the course was undulating for about 25 miles and then from the turn in Marlow it was one long old drag back to the finish, not to mention the really steep section that took you to the actual finish line. We managed to get to the bottom of the hill with an average speed of 45kph. In the back of my mind I had wanted to break the course record of 1.07 which had been set by a really good time triallist. I thought we were going to make it, but the last climb just seemed to go on and on. Still, I was still feeling good though and managed to drag myself up there staying on the big chainring, in fact, I even managed to keep it in the big gear on the last section.
We eventually crossed the line about 1 minute off the course record. I like to think that we could have been a lot closer or even beaten it if we had not been held up by horse trailer and some other erratic driving which is pretty annoying when you are only trying to go fast. Having had a look at the Garmin we covered several miles at over 30mph and on the way into Henley we averaged almost 50mph for 1 mile - pretty scary on the extensions and a bumpy road.
So, at end of the day, we managed 1:08:45 for the 30 miles and that did give us the win over the other team, by about 4 minutes and we also had the fastest time of the day. So, job done really! For me, the best thing is that I know that I am on my way to being in good form for this season. I still have a fair amount of work to do on the turbo but things are certainly looking good.
My next race is a 10 mile TT where I am hoping to get a time which will allow me to qualify for the National 10 Mile Champs.
Results are here: RESULTS
Way back in 2006, it was at the MIlton Keynes Half that I first managed to break 90 minutes for the half marathon distance. Yesterday was three years down the line though and things have moved on a bit. I had set myself an ambitious target of 1:20:30 which was perhaps slightly out of reach, but you never know, the right weather etc and it could have been possible. When I woke up yesterday I had a sneaky suspicion that the 80 minute run was not on though as I could hear the wind from inside the house. I just hoped it would die down a bit before we started.
We finally made it to the start line with about one minute to spare thanks to a massive tailback and a little detour to get to the start line - perhaps not the best prep, but the run from the car to the line was at least something. We set off and I instantly thought to myself that I was actually feeling quite good, I still have a bit of a cough, but I was able to manage that okay. I missed the first couple of mile boards and then saw the first 5k board and realised that I must be a bit up on schedule as I went through that in 17:30 - woops. I kind of knew now that I had started a bit hard and that I would just need to try and slow down a bit, get into a good rhythm and see how things went. My pace was good though, going through the 4, 5 and 6 mile markers ahead of schedule and then going through 10k in 36:45 and I was through half way in 39:00....there was no way I was going to be doing a 1:18 though!
It was about at 8 miles though that things started to go wrong. I think that either my running shoes are worn out or the socks I had on were not the best, but at this point, my feet were getting so painful as I could feel a blister starting to form. The pain got too much though and I definitely started to slow down, I even thought about just jogging round the rest as I just could not really land on the ball of my foot. At mile 9 I stopped and decided to just take the socks off and see if this made any difference. It still hurt, but it was certainly better. The only problem now was that we were now on a very exposed piece of road and it would be hard to describe just how hard it was running into the gusting wind. It was like running in water it was so hard to move forward. My mile splits for the 3 miles or so that were in to the wind were about 30 seconds slower than they had been and they finally meant, along with the sock removal, that I was now behind schedule.
I ploughed on though and eventually regained some speed in the last mile or so and managed to put in some 6:20'ish miles to eventually bring me home in 1:22:32. Not that bad I suppose but i am slightly annoyed with the shoe incident...it would have been a much better indicator of my fitness if I had been able to run properly all the way. Still, I shouldn't complain, doing a 1:21:45 (my Garmin time which removed the sock change) when I am not doing anywhere near as much running as last year is not that bad I suppose. I had also been out on the bike on Saturday and done a 1:08 for 25 miles which included a fair bit of stopping and starting round Regent's Park with what seemed like a constant headwind.
Next weekend the real racing starts when I have a two up team time trial where me and my mate are going to be tearing round Henley on our TT bikes - I just can't wait.
Recently, I had been spending a large amount of time trying to decide whether or not I wanted or in fact 'needed' a new racing bike and what sort of bike I should get bearing in mind the limitations on finance and space. For ages I had been thinking that the Boardman Team bike would be a good bet as it was such a good deal for £1000. However, as part of my extensive and time consuming trawling of the internet looking at the various options, I stumbled upon the Royles page and I suddenly found exactly the right thing. They had a Cervelo Team Soloist with full Ultegra groupset for not much more than the Boardman. My TT bike is a Cervelo and I am massively impressed with that and I could not find one bad review for the Soloist. So, it arrived yesterday and I have already done my first ride...it is quite amazing how different it feels to the heavy battered and bruised Ribble which has now been sold. That was part of the plan...I am actually decreasing the number of bikes that I own as the Ribble has already sold and I'll be selling the Langster once I have got it all sorted out.
So...here she is..
This is last year's model of the Soloist (hence the £700 reduction on the price tag) and perhaps the last one they will make as it has now been replaced with the S1.
Last weekend Paula and I were back in Manchester and again took the opportunity to have a go at a local running race held right near Paula's house. We both ran in this race last year and were slightly taken aback at just how tough the course was. I previously I went off way too hard and actually led the race for about the first 2 miles but then ended up finishing down in 22nd position, mainly thanks to the horrors that awaited us in the final few miles.
This year was obviously going to be a slightly more precarious affair as it had been raining and that, along with the fact that I had forgotten my XC shoes, meant that I was in for a slippy ride on my racing flats. This time I set the Garmin up so that my virtual partner would just beat my time from last year - albeit, I did not think that I would be able to as, this time last year, I had just run a 1:19 half. Anyway, we all set off and I had my first look at my watch after about 3 miles, only to find that I was averaging 6 minute miles, I was going way too fast for this stage of the race. Still, I figured I would ease off a tiny bit and try and save myself for later. This worked to some extent and I was also joined by another 3 runners after sliding through one of the more muddy patches - my shoes were offering zero grip on some stages. Still, once we crossed the river and headed back for the last 8 miles, I knew that this was where the fun started. Basically, the course just weaves through forest, along single track paths scattered with rocks and puddles and up and down some of the most nasty hills....as in, there are steps as that is the only way to get up. The wet ground also made some of the downhill stages of the run a bit more interesting, with some of the more experienced fell runners going down at very quick speeds leaving me to play catch up on the flatter sections. My racing flats occasionally came in to their own though as we had brief interruptions from the roller coaster with some nice tarmac.
Here is the profile for the course....I almost feel it does not do it justice though, I think it is worse than this.
This year I actually did feel pretty strong for most of the run and I would only really say that it was in the last mile or so that I started to really fatigue, perhaps from not having any gels etc. According to the Garmin, I was only a couple of seconds behind last year's time when I eventually crossed the line. The harder finish this year made me think that I had actually had a better run. My watch recorded the run as 1:20:38 and the result in the clubhuose when I got there seemed to confirm this but the results which were later put up online seem to have added a few minutes to everyone's time - even the winner was down as a 1:11 in the clubhouse. So, not sure what happened there. Either way, I am happy. If it was really 1:23 then I was slower by the same amount as some of the other top runners. If it was 1:20 - well, that's even better.
I like to think that this is confirmation that the running is back on track. I am perhaps not doing as much as I should at the moment, but my swimming improvements and cycling workouts are getting better - to be giving all 3 disciplines as much attention as I would like is always going to be hard to achieve.
RESULTS
Last night the London Dynamo/CycleFit squad had some photos taken to launch the team for the 2009 season. There is a write up and photos on the London Cycle Sport website:
Write up and pictures
Well, it has been quite a while since I posted anything on here, so perhaps it is best to give a bit of an update as to what I am hoping to do in the 2009 season. First of all, I suppose it is best to start from where I left off with the Kingston run. That run, although successful in terms of keeping a steady pace was not really where I had hoped to be at that stage but the pressures of work had seen collapse in the amount of training I was doing and I was pretty much just running on retained fitness from before I started the job. For some time after that things continued in pretty much the same vain, little training and lots of work, and then the holidays came round and I decided to take it a bit easier, mainly in the hope of avoiding any real illness and then, low and behold, just before new year, I was taken down with the flu for over a week.
I finally restarted my training again at the start of January, coming back with a 42:45 for a 10k in one of the Regent's Park series...albeit, this was the first day I had felt better since the flu. It was during this race though that I realised just how overweight I had become and also, how unfit I had become since the end of last season. This was the exact kick up the backside that I needed however and since then I have been training hard and losing weight. In a way, it is quite interesting to start again after having a proper break - something I have never really done.
I am actually enjoying pretty much all my sports again as I am seeing a real gain in fitness almost day by day. I am slowly but surely regaining my love for the treadmill, albeit, I think I am a couple of months away from my 10 mile sub 60 minute runs on them. The swimming at Camden Masters is starting to improve with each session and I am actually starting to feel good in the pool again. The watts on the bike are almost back to where I was just before the holidays and I know where I was what sort of watts I need to hold on my main sesssion to be as fit as I was when I did the 53:17 last year and I am confident that I will be able to get above that this season, based on my current progress anyway.
The cycling is actually a lot more important this season as well as I am going to focus on TT's primarily but also doing some triathlons. Although I am doing less triathlons compared to last season, my focus this season is going to be a 70.3 Half Ironman race towards the end of the season in Antwerp - this will be my second middle distance race of the season (doing Lisboa early on) and who knows, I may even do well enough to get a slot for Clearwater. My other 'A' races are all TT's as I'm gonna try and put in a decent show at the National 10, 25 and the Team Time Trial races. You should be able to see from the table below, this will mean staying at the top of my game for about 2 months which I think should be okay, well, I think it is better than doing what I normally do whereby I try and stay as fit as possible for the entire season. I am starting to think that there may be something to this whole 'peaking' business.
The Kingston 16 mile running was meant to form part of my three weeks of increasingly long runs, with a half mara (run to the beat), Kingston and then I was going to do a marathon the weekend after......not the wisest of moves in terms of running, but I was keen to see if it could be done.
At the Kingston run I set a more realistic pace on the Garmin and this time, I decided to stick to it, especially at the start of the race when the pace felt really easy....I knew that this would do me well come the latter stages of the race. In the end, I managed to run 15 of the 16 miles at exactly the pace I wanted to. I did slow down on the last mile, but I was pleased that I had kept it together for so long, thanks largely to some other runner who ran with me for about 10 miles.
Came home in 1:45, which although not exactly one of my faster runs, I was happy with, especially based on the amount of run training I am doing. The marathon the week after did not go to plan....achilles was sore from the start for some reason I pulled out at mile 6. I was not going to make another 20 without doing some serious damage.
