Step up to elite racing at The London Triathlon

This was my first taste of elite level triathlon racing and my first impression is that it is a huge step up from the open triathlon races I've always done in the past. When I've raced road or cross country race in the past, I know the other athletes to look out for, how long before you need to be at the start line and where to push on in the race; essentially a good familiarity with the situation. However the elite triathlon is a new world, I didn't recognise anyone, I didn't really know the race protocol, I didn't even know before I got there whether the wheels I was using were legal for the race! The wheels turned out to be fine, I got my bike racked and walked through transition so I knew what to expect when switching between the disciplines.
The most significant difference between open and elite racing is that you are able to draft on the bike, and this means that its a significant advantage to come out if the swim in a reasonable position in order to get into a cycle group where you can work with others. I thought I'd had a reasonable swim, I certainly gave it everything, but landed up coming out of the water dead last which was my first real indication of the increase in standard compared to what I was used to. Fortunately there were a couple of other guys just ahead of me and I started the bike in a group of 3, hardly comparable to the packs of 10 that had formed ahead.

The group soon became 2 and I worked together with another competitor (Anthony Meager) to share the pace. Whilst our 56 minute bike split wasn't a disaster and only a couple of minutes off the pace, I was left thinking it would have been a far easier ride had I been in one of the packs up the road. I saw starting the run almost at the back of the field as an opportunity to significantly move up in the standings. As I began my first lap, the eventual winner (Mark Buckingham), was starting his second lap of the 3 lap run course. I decided that I'd try my best to stay ahead of him (possibly to the frustration of the motorbike rider trying to film just the leader), and this helped me to maintain a fair pace. I worked my way through the field to finish 19/40 in 1:52:05.
As a debut elite triathlon, it certainly wasn't a disaster and has made me think about how I should structure my training over the winter in order to work on my swimming. Currently I'm only swimming 1-2 times a week on my own and clearly that is not enough!
Next up is the UK age group triathlon in Liverpool on Sunday followed by a few easier weeks before the XC season kicks off. I may even throw in a Middle Distance triathlon before the end if the year.

Swim: 22:22

T1: 2:09

Bike: 56:24

T2: 1:31

Run: 29:42

Training in the Alps

506 miles cycling, 27 miles running, a track session and 68,000 ft of climb was what it took to break me (not quite literally, as I'm not actually injured), but just physically exhausted. 

View from the Sarenne

Having spent a reasonable amount of time over the years in the Alps during the winter, a trip to the Alps in the summer is something that I've always wanted to do in order to see the mountains in a different light. Fortunately I have 4 other friends who also have an affinity for cycling up hills, and hence a trip to the town of Bourg d'Oisans at the foot of Alpe d'Huez was an obvious place for a holiday. Yes, Bourg is a mecca for cyclists, but you don't get the feeling that the place is overrun with a huge number of cyclists, and there are so many cycle routes radiating from the town,
that quite often you'll find yourself climbing
the routes alone.

Cycling off the Galibier

In the first 2 weekends of August, I have my first elite triathlon, a fell race, and then the British Age Group Triathlon Champs to follow, so a trip dedicated to cycling and running 2 weeks out  was ideal. I won't go into the detail of every climb we did, (most of the rides are here) but the aim was to try to complete most of the major climbs starting out of Bourg d'Oisans.

Top of Galibier (Chris, Bellew, Me, Freddie, Steve)

One notable ride we did was The Marmotte - a 174km, 17,000ft cycle taking in Col du Glandon, Col du Telegraph, Col du Galibier and finishing with an ascent of Alpe d'Huez. This was possibly one of the toughest things I've ever done, and I tried to attack every ascent which wasn't the wisest thing, but having Chris to 'race' up Galibier against certainly made that 17km climb a little more interesting! The photos here show just how stunning the scenery was, and that has largely been our view for the past 7 days. 

View on the way up to Col du Croix de Fer

Those Tour riders who get a view like that every day for 3 weeks are certainly a lucky bunch! To put some context in this ride, I managed it in 7:50 (which excludes lunch/ice cream/beer stops), compared to Laurens ten Dam (currently sitting 8th in the Tour) who managed it in 6:08!






Hopefully I won't have lost too much running speed this week and, once the legs recover, I'll be able to benefit from all the climbing and my biggest training week. If anyone thinks going cycling in the Alps is something they'd like, then drop me a note and I'd be happy to suggest somewhere to stay in Bourg d'Oisans and a few other useful bits of information.

Drovers 1,000ft effort at Welsh Castles Relay

My 11th consecutive running at the Welsh Castles Relay and 11th different stage to take on. So which stage was I running this year? Stage 14, Drovers, and all 1000ish ft of climb. A mountain classic by WCR standards. I met James McMullan (previous winner) on the start line, so knew that it would be a decent race to the top.

Conditions had been variable over the previous 24 hours but, with a bit of luck, we'd avoid any rain storms and run in sunshine. The first 6 miles roll along the A483 and, after a first mile of 5:05, I started to pull clear of James. I was a little concerned that he'd be strong on the climb, so my plan was to try to put as much distance between him and I as possible before ascending. The WCR is a very well supported event in terms of minibuses and car loads of teams from all competing clubs all pulling up at lay-bys on the route to cheer on all the runners. In amongst the cheers, I did find out that I'd managed to put about 200-300m between myself and James by mile 6, at which point we turned on to the quiet road that winds it's way up to the Drovers Arms.

It was now quite humid, sunny and there was absolutely no chance of rain. I decided to try and keep a metronomic pace to the top, so started up the hill at a steady pace. I was probably climbing at about 7:30 mile pace and focused on simply putting one foot in front of the other. There was a stunning view down towards Bullith Wells that I couldn't really appreciate and decent support that I couldn't really acknowledge but was very welcome.

The finish is visible from about 1.5 miles out, with a sizeable descent to wind it up on followed by a final climb to the end. By this point, I had half an eye on breaking the hour and so pushed on despite 2nd place being a couple of minutes behind. I clocked 59:17, a new stage record on the 'new' course. (However take note that one of the finest runs I've ever seen was Phil Sly running 58:00 in 2005 on the older and longer course, so still a way off that).

Definitely no 5ks today.

London Hyde Park Triathlon

Today was the open race for the London ITU triathlon. Whilst the elites had gone yesterday, where Mario Mola (Spain) had won the men’s race and Gwen Jorgensen (USA) had won the women’s race, the prize on offer today was just as monumentus as the race incorporated the 2014 Serpentine Club Triathlon Championships (Olympic distance). A fair number of Serpies had landed up in the same wave, so the 11:10 start line resounded with various chants of encouragement for the club.

The start was far less aggressive than normal, in that I didn’t get hit or kicked on the head, and I soon found myself in the slightly unfamiliar position of leading my wave on the swim. Yes, I did have to continually look up to check that I was heading the correct direction and, for much of the swim, there was an element of ‘have I gone around the correct buoy the correct way?’ But the swim element went fine, and I came out the water in about 20 minutes.

Having carefully walked through a practice run of the transition area prior to the race, I knew exactly what to expect and, despite stopping to put shoes and socks on (I still haven’t mastered the elastic bands and bike shoes yet) and the typical issue of getting my wetsuit off, felt as though it was fairly efficient.

On to the bike of 5 laps and 36km around Hyde Park. Now I was in wave 29, and so I had gone into the race thinking that there’d be a fair number of other riders to dodge on the course. However, the field was fairly spread out and, along with a few shouts of “keep left!”, I found I hardly needed to brake at all when it came to overtaking. The course is fairly technical with a couple of dead turns, sharp 90 degree bends and a number of speed bumps, so you have to keep alert the whole time. I think I kept the pace fairly consistent; I tried my best to keep the speed as close to 25mph as possible and didn’t really think twice about holding anything back for the run. I took a gel after 3 laps, felt a bit funny immediately afterwards (although that’s generally the case and by the time I was on the run, it was fine), and my only error was filling my water bottle half full given I was so thirsty by the end. I landed up coming into transition in about 55 minutes.

On to the run. Surprisingly, it was this part where the course was most congested, but I think that is because the paths around Hyde Park are slightly narrow. I felt fine and have been accustomed to running 10k recently, so I went out at a fair pace and soon settled into the run. The best part of each lap on the 4-lap race was about 3/4 through where a bunch of my friends had come to watch and where shouting a lot of encouragement. Yes, I did speed up for that bit, and then slowed down…but that’s what you do right?! I finished the run in 31:18, so imagine the course to be a little on the short side.

I landed up finishing in 1:52:14 which appears to have been the quickest time of the day according to the website, so pleased with that. And infers that I probably won the Serpentine Club Championships as I made sure I wore my running kit today!

Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs

For anyone enthusiastic about athletics and wanting to watch some of the best domestic talent race around 25 laps of the track, Hampstead Heath track was THE place to be last night. After the success of last year’s ‘Night of the 10,000m PB’s’, Ben Pochee and his team at Highgate went one step further to deliver, what I thought, one of the best track events I’d ever been to. A giant TV screen, inspirational tunes picked by the athletes playing out, BBQ, beers, and 300-400 people cheering from lane 4, all helped to create a fantastic atmosphere for the 125 athletes competing across each of the 5 10,000m races.

A strong wind didn’t make ideal conditions for PB's, but the very fact that each race had been carefully seeded, meant that individuals were competing against others of a similar standard and hence likely to encourage faster times.

I was in the men’s B race and looking to break 31 minutes. I thought I may as well go for it at the start, use the group to help drag me around and, in particular, shield me from the gale in the finishing straight of each lap. This was fine up until 5k, which I reached in about 15:15, however the quick early pace hit me from 5-8k, where I lost the wind shield and started to go backwards. Despite the sub 31 target drifting away, the music playing out and crowds of people supporting on every lap helped push me along and I was able to pick up the pace for the last 2km, eventually finishing in 31:27. Slightly disappointed, but still a 2 minute PB on the track.

Then it came to the 2 main races of the evening, the women’s and men’s A races. Assembled on the start lines were athletes that have been to the Olympics, Commonwealths, World Championships, and several of which were aiming for a European Championship 10,000m to be held in Zurich this August.

Jo Pavey and Sophie Duarte took it out on the first half of the women's race, closely followed by Fionuala Britton. However it was the pace that Jo Pavey continued to knock out the laps at that eventually broke her away from the field to take victory in 32:11. This not only achieved the sub-33 minute Euro qualifying time but also recorded a W40 British record by over 2 minutes.

In the men's A race, the AFD duo of Andy Vernon and Chris Thompson pulled clear of the rest of the field early on and appeared to have a sufficient break. But Johnny Mellor worked hard to reel them in, at which point Andy Vernon launched an effort, broke away and started his run of 67ish second laps. The battles at both the front and mid pack were keeping the crowd entertained as the atmosphere on and around the track continued to build. However, on the night, Andy Vernon was a class above the rest, and obviously in great shape following his recent 13:11 5k, he clocked a 28:26, ahead of Chris Thompson (28:49) and Johnny Mellor (28:52) who battled it out for 2nd and 3rd respectively.

All in all it was great to see domestic athletics so well supported, and huge respect to Ben Pochee for organising the whole event. Hopefully there’ll be more to come again in 2015!

6 races in 3 weekends

After a slightly disappointing February and March, a decent 6 races in the past 3 weekends has given me the enthusiasm to update the blog.

Earlier in the year I’d steadily increased my mileage up to 80 miles per week, things were going well, I had plans to have a crack at the London Marathon and I had a string of good race results in January. However, I knew I was pushing the mileage too high and unsurprisingly soon found myself injured. Marathon plans abandoned.

So come the middle of March, I decided to re-assess my training and took on a ‘sessions only’ approach, whereby I’d run hard 3-4 times per week and replace any steady running with time on the bike or swimming. An unconventional approach, but if it means staying injury free, then I’ll take it. I’ve relaxed this slightly in the past couple of weeks and worked in some steady runs, but my training now seems to favour the bike, doing about 40 and 160 miles per week running and cycling respectively. This seems a bit convoluted given that I’m training for running races, but I find cycling out in Richmond Park in the morning before work is too bigger draw.

Anyway, here is a summary of my 6 races:

Winchester Parkrun (12/04/2014): Race/run/Saturday morning outing

London Marathon (13/04/2014):  I felt like a little bit of a fraud lining up a Blackheath knowing that I was going to pull out somewhere between 13 and 15 miles felt, but conditions were great and I thought it was a good opportunity to put in a decent tempo run. I ran with my training mate Jonathan Poole and Highgate Harrier Richard Scott for most of it. These two guys know how to pace a marathon and and sticking to a metronomic 5:25 mile meant we hit half way in 70:48 and they went on to run 2:22 and 2:24 respectively. There was a small inclination to carry on and complete the full 26.2 miles, but I took the sensible approach and forced myself on to the side of the road just before the 15 mile point. Pleased with the effort and should provide some endurance without feeling the effects of a huge mileage.

Isle of Man

Did it really take 3 years to recover from my last trip to the Isle of Man? It’s a class place to spend the Easter break if you like running and drinking. A look at the entry list suggested competition for the Festival would be strong and so it turned out to be.

Port Erin 10k (18/04/2014): The Friday night 10k in Port Erin is the one opportunity where most people are completely fresh and have no ill effects from the day before. Conditions were near on perfect for the undulating course and, after an early breakaway by Adam Grice over the first 400m, the pace settled down. Despite a fair climb out of Port Erin, the leaders still went through the first mile in sub-5 minutes and a sizeable lead pack (8-10) stayed together and went through half way in about 15:30-15:40. At this point, Alex Short, Glenn Phair, Matt Leach and Will Mackay started to pull away from me and I became a little isolated for 7-10k, but knew that Andy and Dave Norman were only just behind and this helped force me to maintain the pace. The course continued to undulate in the second half of the race and there was speculation whether the slightly different route made it tougher than usual, however a steep descent back into Port Erin meant a quick run in to the finish where I came 5^th in 31:41.

Peel 3.5 mile Fell Race (19/04/2014): Saturday afternoon in Peel is the venue for the 3.5 mile fell race. I’d not run a fell race since the last time I was here in 2011 and conditions were pretty similar: dry and breezy. The first climb is bloody hard work for someone used to running up and down the Thames Path, and I found myself in 4^th at the top. The 10k winner, Alex Short, and my club mate and NZ mountain runner, Glenn Hughes, battled it out for much of the race ahead of me. I went into third spot ahead of Matt Leach at the top of the second climb, but the Cambridge guys took it out on the final descent and pushed Glenn and myself back into 3rd and 4th respectively.

4*5k Relay (20/04/2014): Assembled on Douglas Promenade on the Sunday morning were a fair few blurry eyed runners ready to take on the 4*5km relay up and down the sea-front. The 10 mile pub crawl back from Peel coupled with the fell race was hardly the greatest preparation for a 5k, but mostly everyone was in the same state. A very strong headwind from Douglas out to the far end of the course meant that no one was that willing to take it on and hence we opened with a relatively slow 5:15 mile. At the turn around and as expected, the pace increased rapidly. Alex Short immediately put a decent gap between myself and Glenn Phair and went on to had Cambridge over in 1^st place. The tail wind helped me clock a 4:39 mile on the way back, although I struggled in the final kilometre, getting overtaken by a couple of guys, losing a bit of ground on Glenn and eventually finishing in 15:31. By the third and forth legs, Cambridge and Doss were well up the road and took first and second respectively, whilst Serpentine held on to 3rd, only 10 seconds ahead of Manx Harriers.

Ful-on-Duathlon (27/04/2014): Given the fair amount of cycling I’ve been doing recently, it seemed sensible to have a go at a duathlon. The 6k/23k/6k race took place at Dunsfold Aerodrome, AKA the Top Gear track. My strategy for the race was fairly simple: go out hard on the run, ease off a little on the bike and then do the second run in as close a time as possible as the first. It more or less worked out that way; I think that the bike could have been a little quicker had I actually got the TT-bike set up right, but that’s what you get when its not ridden for the winter. I landed up finishing first about 3 minutes ahead of second, although my lap time was way off the pace to make it onto Clarkson’s list.

So a fairly busy last few weeks and, despite this, I’ve got no niggles or pains so this bodes which I’m happy about. The next race is the Highgate 10,000m where I’m aiming to go sub-31. The elite race (which I won’t qualify for) should be great to watch.

2013 Review - A year to concentrate on multisport

For a year 'off running', 2013 has gone well as I've looked for other events to aim for. At the start of 2013,  I wrote down my targets for the coming year and these were mostly focused on triathlon. At the time, I had just been diagnosed with a stress fracture in my back and so I concentrated on cross training, (and in particular rowing), in order to keep a decent base level of fitness. I'd done a bit of rowing on a Concept 2 in the past, and quite how transferable it is to running/cycling I don't know, but I decided that it was the most efficient way to have a decent workout in the shortest possible time. By mid February, and having become quite bored of looking at a Concept 2 'row-ometer', I'd recovered from the back problem and started to get out running again. I was pleasantly surprised with my run at Eastleigh 10k in March, and it made me realise that, as long as you stay in a reasonable shape cross training, the ability to regain running fitness seems relatively easy.

The come back was short lived though as the next injury in my bucket list was a problem with my knee, which kept my running mileage very low from April through to November. However this was when my aim to compete in the World Age Group triathlon champs really started to take off and the first qualifying race was approaching. The Deva Triathlon was a real eye-opener as I failed to qualify and it made me realise that my cycling was not up to scratch if I wanted to race in Hyde Park. So it was time to put some serious time in on the bike!

Throughout June, July and August I made a concerted effort to get out on the bike most mornings into Richmond Park and clocked up around 3,000 miles over these months. This was at the detriment of my running however the time saved on the bike was far greater to that lost on the run and, during this period, I managed to secure a place for the Hyde Park triathlon.

September came, I was in my best ever cycling shape, and the World Age Group Triathlon could not have gone any better. It certainly was the climax of the year.

Perhaps it was not a coincidence that, as I reduced my training time, the problems with my knee improved and I was able to start running again during November. The turning point was running a decent race at the December Hampshire League XC having already raced that same morning (certainly not text book, but I felt no pressure to perform at either). Now coming off a number of 60+ mile weeks, I feel as though 2014 is a year to revert back to running, but it's bound to have the odd duathlon and triathlon thrown in.