After my flight cancellation and subsequent cancellation of last months Scorching tri I was keen to race this Sunday to test legs and race gear prior to Ironman NZ (just 3 weeks away)
Unfortunately, this month the race route was changed due to a road closure so they took us over a stupid great hill, twice. Meant for slow times on the bike and a bit of a sense of humour failure from me.
The swim was long - I hope - but I came out where I'd expect in the field. After some really good swim sessions recently I thought I might be a few seconds up, especially as the conditions were great, but I'm pretty happy that with three weeks more swimming I should be able to reproduce, or better, my 57 minute swim last year. Transition was great, no fuss, nothing to think about and I was onto the bike in under a minute from hitting the beach. The transition at Taupo is long, but hopefully I can still cut a bit off last years 4minutes. If I can be on the bike in under an hours I'll be happy.
The altered bike wasn't really hilly, rather in the middle of the ride it had a 2k wall to ride up, twice, that said I wasn't firing on all cylinders on the flat. I was overtaken straight out of transition and it was all I could do to maintain pace with this guy rather than warm up and go through him. After a lot of riding since last October I would have though I'd be a little better, but Dave and I have been working hard on locking in the Ironman race pace, so to expect to kill 40k at the moment is probably mis-guided. Still 4th fastest bike (and one dropped out after the bike) is ok.
I do however need to make sure I have some tactics for dealing with negativity, I let the fact someone came past me really get to me this weekend.
Out onto the run I was in 5th, or so I thought, with the next guy was about 1:20 up the road. I set about trying to run him down; after a couple of 4min k's settling in I easily got into a 3:50k pace which I held to the finish. Didn't catch the guy but I was pleased with my run, a rel. low heart rate and not too much damage to the legs, best of all 38mins felt easy.
4th fastest run and in the end one guy dropped out at T2 and another did a short swim, so I got a 3rd place.
All in all, it would have been nice to smash the bike - it's in there - but I'm very happy to save that for Taupo.
Just a couple more big session over this week and then it's quality sessions, lots of sleep and good food and RACE TIME.
Not quite the confidence builders I was after, but still great to get out and test gear, etc.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
Rain Stops Play
I've had a fantastic training period through Christmas and was looking forward to the Wellington Day Scorching Tri yesterday to test the legs.
For once I was actually resting down a bit and I had planned to really smack the bike, especially after some promising signs after a bike fit from Paul at Capital Cycles. My folks arrive in NZ on Friday so I took the day off and met them in Auckland, planning a few days touring around Coromandel before I left them in Rotorua on Sunday night to fly back for the race Monday am.
Unfortunately, the weather gods weren't with me and after 3hrs waiting at Rotorua airport the flight was cancelled - the weather in the north hasn't exactly been welcoming to my folks! So I spent another day hanging with the Olds yesterday and resigned to missing the race.
In the end the terrible conditions hit Welly too and the tri was cut to a 15k run, so I was pleased to get extra day with my parents and to play the tourist, admiring Kiwi's and swimming in lush, clear, warm Rotorua lakes.
There is a splash n dash tmrw so I'll give that a bash to test the legs. 750m swim and 5k run is not quite the race I was after but it will have to do...
More soon.
For once I was actually resting down a bit and I had planned to really smack the bike, especially after some promising signs after a bike fit from Paul at Capital Cycles. My folks arrive in NZ on Friday so I took the day off and met them in Auckland, planning a few days touring around Coromandel before I left them in Rotorua on Sunday night to fly back for the race Monday am.
Unfortunately, the weather gods weren't with me and after 3hrs waiting at Rotorua airport the flight was cancelled - the weather in the north hasn't exactly been welcoming to my folks! So I spent another day hanging with the Olds yesterday and resigned to missing the race.
In the end the terrible conditions hit Welly too and the tri was cut to a 15k run, so I was pleased to get extra day with my parents and to play the tourist, admiring Kiwi's and swimming in lush, clear, warm Rotorua lakes.
There is a splash n dash tmrw so I'll give that a bash to test the legs. 750m swim and 5k run is not quite the race I was after but it will have to do...
More soon.
Monday, 6 December 2010
Scorching Tri Xmas Special (Olympic Tri)
It was my first triathlon of the season yesterday at Scorching Bay (Wellington) and it reminded me I still have plenty to do before March.This was my 2nd Scorching full distance (although I also did a cut down 1000m, 35k, 10k) on the same course so I am able to compare to 25th Jan this year.
After an absolute cracker day yesterday this morning was overcast with quite a strong northerly. Good news is that meant Scorching Bay was in a wind shade and the water conditions pretty smooth.
I've taken this last week very light after Taupo double last weekend so managed to get 4 swims in. Including 3 open water, so I was feeling a bit more conditioned for the sea swim. Having taken my wetsuit in to Snugg, when I was home in October, to get a new panel (I'd ripped it under the arm on my HR strap) and some new fluffy so the closure I was confident I wouldn't have the same trouble I had here earlier in the year with the neck coming undone.
As usual I positioned myself on the outside of the group, just next to Tony Buckingham who is just back from Kona and a great qualification at Ironman Canada. With only 60 or so men in the wave it was pretty quick into open water, I got onto some feet and had a great swim. I've developed a warm up now with some scull drills and some 50m pick ups and it seems to really help me get comfortable in teh water before I start - all those Splash n Dash paying off.
Note to self ALWAYS check the transition layout. They change and going the wrong way is a such a waste of time.
Onto the road and we had a massive northerly wind, the out and back curves around the coast, but it's more tail wind on the way out and a 3k climb up Happy Valley to the turnaround. I came out of T1 just behind Tony in maybe 6th or 7th and we cat and moused all the way through to about 35k. At which point through mindless lack of concentration I let Tony go and never managed to get back onto him. We took a few people on the bike and came in 4th and 5th.
Second Note to Self, maintain CONCENTRATION and don't let people get away unnecessarily.
I've been runnign pretty well in training lately and I was running at pretty much my tempo pace in a race. CErtainly I need to do a few more bricks to get the pins used to running off the bike, but I'm going to stick with the Enduro 7 days before as my excuse for a little lack of top end....
Onwards and upwards. In summary I was less than 80 seconds slower yesterday than I was in January this year on the same course in similar conditions. So I'm still encouraged.
This week it's back to some solid training and then a bit of an ease up towards Rotorua Half IM on Saturday the 18th. Then a really decent training block in the sunshine over the Christmas break.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
First Day of Summer, First Splash n Dash and a year in Wellington
Summer officially started in New Zealand today and it's actually feeling like summer. Which is more than it was a year ago when I arrived in pouring horizontal rain and an antarctic southerly wind!
It's also pretty much a year to the day since my first Oriental Bay Splash n Dash. A 700m open water swim followed by a 3k dash!
After the epic ride at the weekend I've been feeling pretty shattered this week. Thankfully Dave (Dave Parry, HPU) was gentle on me and has given me a pretty light week to recover. But even so I've been struggling to get going.
With 320k in the legs and not all that much swimming recently I wasn't too confident going into the dash tonight. Compared to last year I was perhaps a minute faster and the run about the same. Considering the weekend that's pretty much as good as I can expect.
Fingers crossed by the weekend I'll be a bit more recovered ready for the first tri of the season. I took the BMC (TT bike) out this morning for it's first trip of the season and it sure feels fast having been on the standard road bike for the last few months, I'm hoping my bike will at least will be strong and with fresher legs the run will be a bit better.
Still lots to do but perhaps I'm in a little better shape than this time last year.
Love to everyone at home in the UK. Sorry to hear about all your snow. There's always a spare room in Welly and it's summer now!
Thank you Mels for hanging out on the beach and taking the pics xx
It's also pretty much a year to the day since my first Oriental Bay Splash n Dash. A 700m open water swim followed by a 3k dash!
 |
| Splash n Dash 1st Dec 2010 |
With 320k in the legs and not all that much swimming recently I wasn't too confident going into the dash tonight. Compared to last year I was perhaps a minute faster and the run about the same. Considering the weekend that's pretty much as good as I can expect.
 |
| First transition of the yr :( |
Still lots to do but perhaps I'm in a little better shape than this time last year.
Love to everyone at home in the UK. Sorry to hear about all your snow. There's always a spare room in Welly and it's summer now!
Thank you Mels for hanging out on the beach and taking the pics xx
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| Mexican visitor come to view the racing! |
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| Gun show |
Monday, 29 November 2010
3rd place for the Enduro
Thankfully I still don't know what 10hrs in the saddle feels like...
The Taupo Cycle Challenge (320k) Enduro on Saturday went great. It was certainly a good confidence booster 3.5 months before Ironman New Zealand. I manged to get around the course in a few mins under 10 hrs. With an average speed of 31.5mph. So now I've 14 weeks to get the speed up a bit for 180k.
It was a really interesting event. Starting at 1:30am meant we had less than 4hrs sleep on Friday night before getting up and heading into Taupo to meet the other 65 mental riders who didn't feel one lap was enough.
The first lap in the dark was a bit different, plenty of lights and very little chat. In fact the group was pretty much silent until 4:30am when the first glimmers of dawn were heading up over the hills behind lake Taupo.
The race tactic was to ride within ourselves for the first lap, hopefully close to 5hrs, in a decent group, then get as far through the hills at the start of the course, on the second lap before the quick one lapper boys caught us up. Roughly it worked.
Three or Four guys stretched the group out for the first 20k before they broke away and ten of us settled down and let them go. We pushed on in silence working nicely together, everyone taking their turn, all the way through to Taupo.
Into Taupo we had to take our timing chips into a gas station to scan them before we could had out on lap two. Several of us had parked cars at this station, while others had support crew meet them there. So at this point the group broke up. Sincere apologies to Mike Osborne, my work colleague and recent training partner on an epic training ride. We had a relatively good transition, loading up our back pockets with another 5hrs of food, stripping off the nightwear and dumping lights. We set off to find what was left of the group on the way out of town. Unfortunately, 100yards away from the car and I realised I'd not put my new bottles on the bike - I'd just dumped the empties...
Of all the things I didn't want to do without, as the temperature was on it's way to the mid twenties, was water bottles. I dashed back to the car, holding up Mike, and grabbed the full bottles.
As we road back out of Taupo for the second lap I saw 5:02 on my watch. Pretty good. I'd hit the gas station in 4:56, so another lap the same as the first and I could nip under my stretch target of ten hours.
We had a pretty pedestrian 30k out of town for the second lap. Picking up another chap from our original ten 'Dave' and the three of us rolled on. Chatting to a few other randons, including the two lads in 3rd and 4th of the 8 lap Maxi Enduro Bonkersride Extra. They'd kicked off Wednesday lunchtime and were well over 60hrs into their ride, on just 5hrs sleep. Having just woken up from a long 2hr rest they were riding really well and tagged onto us for a good 15k before stopping for a refuel.
Around 30k the lead one lappers started to catch us up. We struggled to hold the first group, just getting sucked along for a couple of k before getting spat out the back. The next group I held a little longer and the third group were going at an ok pace and I tagged into their group and stuck in a bunch through to about 85k when we hit Kuratau Hill. I took the decision to save my legs a little. With 70k to go and 7+ hrs in the saddle I think it was the right choice. Unfortunately Mike and Dave didn't catch the same group. And I found out later that Mike hadnt' picked up his spare food at the car. So the poor guy was running without fuel for 5hrs. Sorry Mike - especially after you'd waited for me to go back for my drink!
Once over the Hill and through to the 100k mark of lap two (260k down) I got into a group with 6 or so stragglers and we worked together until the 4th group picked us up on the flat home. 50k out from Taupo we got into a 40 man train, I took on some food and caffeine and got working with about 16 others at the front of the group. I was watching the clock, with about 75mins for the last 40k I knew there was a chance I could slip under 10hrs. I waited for the bonk that I felt was inevitable but the legs held out and the caffeine did it's job. With 10k to go I 18 mins, the adrenaline kicked in and I was able to keep pushing through several yellow capped Enduros and push all the way through to the finish. I guess the leg destruction of JoGLE must have really helped.
As we all got mixed up in Taupo after lap one I had no idea how i'd got on in the competition but a mate told me I was the 3rd Enduro to finish and sure enough I was 30 odd secs behind a local chap in second and 16 mins behind the lead guide who apparently had held onto the first or second songle lap group.
All in all a really pleasing day. Pro Ironman Keiran Doe holds the course record (from last year) of 9:28:36, so I can't be too disappointed with being within 30mins of him over 10hrs. To average 31.5kph (including stops) for 10hrs is pretty good at this stage.
An easy splash in lake Taupo after the ride served as an ice bath and seems to have helped with recovery. A short run today and the legs feel alright.
Race season is now here. Weds night is the first Splash n Dash (open water swim / run) of the season and then Sunday is my triathlon of the season as I test my speed in the Scorching Tri Olympic.
14 weeks of hard work to come!
The Taupo Cycle Challenge (320k) Enduro on Saturday went great. It was certainly a good confidence booster 3.5 months before Ironman New Zealand. I manged to get around the course in a few mins under 10 hrs. With an average speed of 31.5mph. So now I've 14 weeks to get the speed up a bit for 180k.
It was a really interesting event. Starting at 1:30am meant we had less than 4hrs sleep on Friday night before getting up and heading into Taupo to meet the other 65 mental riders who didn't feel one lap was enough.
The first lap in the dark was a bit different, plenty of lights and very little chat. In fact the group was pretty much silent until 4:30am when the first glimmers of dawn were heading up over the hills behind lake Taupo.
The race tactic was to ride within ourselves for the first lap, hopefully close to 5hrs, in a decent group, then get as far through the hills at the start of the course, on the second lap before the quick one lapper boys caught us up. Roughly it worked.
Three or Four guys stretched the group out for the first 20k before they broke away and ten of us settled down and let them go. We pushed on in silence working nicely together, everyone taking their turn, all the way through to Taupo.
Into Taupo we had to take our timing chips into a gas station to scan them before we could had out on lap two. Several of us had parked cars at this station, while others had support crew meet them there. So at this point the group broke up. Sincere apologies to Mike Osborne, my work colleague and recent training partner on an epic training ride. We had a relatively good transition, loading up our back pockets with another 5hrs of food, stripping off the nightwear and dumping lights. We set off to find what was left of the group on the way out of town. Unfortunately, 100yards away from the car and I realised I'd not put my new bottles on the bike - I'd just dumped the empties...
Of all the things I didn't want to do without, as the temperature was on it's way to the mid twenties, was water bottles. I dashed back to the car, holding up Mike, and grabbed the full bottles.
As we road back out of Taupo for the second lap I saw 5:02 on my watch. Pretty good. I'd hit the gas station in 4:56, so another lap the same as the first and I could nip under my stretch target of ten hours.
We had a pretty pedestrian 30k out of town for the second lap. Picking up another chap from our original ten 'Dave' and the three of us rolled on. Chatting to a few other randons, including the two lads in 3rd and 4th of the 8 lap Maxi Enduro Bonkersride Extra. They'd kicked off Wednesday lunchtime and were well over 60hrs into their ride, on just 5hrs sleep. Having just woken up from a long 2hr rest they were riding really well and tagged onto us for a good 15k before stopping for a refuel.
Around 30k the lead one lappers started to catch us up. We struggled to hold the first group, just getting sucked along for a couple of k before getting spat out the back. The next group I held a little longer and the third group were going at an ok pace and I tagged into their group and stuck in a bunch through to about 85k when we hit Kuratau Hill. I took the decision to save my legs a little. With 70k to go and 7+ hrs in the saddle I think it was the right choice. Unfortunately Mike and Dave didn't catch the same group. And I found out later that Mike hadnt' picked up his spare food at the car. So the poor guy was running without fuel for 5hrs. Sorry Mike - especially after you'd waited for me to go back for my drink!
Once over the Hill and through to the 100k mark of lap two (260k down) I got into a group with 6 or so stragglers and we worked together until the 4th group picked us up on the flat home. 50k out from Taupo we got into a 40 man train, I took on some food and caffeine and got working with about 16 others at the front of the group. I was watching the clock, with about 75mins for the last 40k I knew there was a chance I could slip under 10hrs. I waited for the bonk that I felt was inevitable but the legs held out and the caffeine did it's job. With 10k to go I 18 mins, the adrenaline kicked in and I was able to keep pushing through several yellow capped Enduros and push all the way through to the finish. I guess the leg destruction of JoGLE must have really helped.
As we all got mixed up in Taupo after lap one I had no idea how i'd got on in the competition but a mate told me I was the 3rd Enduro to finish and sure enough I was 30 odd secs behind a local chap in second and 16 mins behind the lead guide who apparently had held onto the first or second songle lap group.
All in all a really pleasing day. Pro Ironman Keiran Doe holds the course record (from last year) of 9:28:36, so I can't be too disappointed with being within 30mins of him over 10hrs. To average 31.5kph (including stops) for 10hrs is pretty good at this stage.
An easy splash in lake Taupo after the ride served as an ice bath and seems to have helped with recovery. A short run today and the legs feel alright.
Race season is now here. Weds night is the first Splash n Dash (open water swim / run) of the season and then Sunday is my triathlon of the season as I test my speed in the Scorching Tri Olympic.
14 weeks of hard work to come!
Friday, 26 November 2010
Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge (Enduro)
So it's 6:30pm in Taupo. I've had a few naps today, an easy run and a swim on the IM course. But now it's time to get to bed again.
At 1:30am I start the Lake Taupo Cycle Challange, along with 66 others we are riding it twice, so 320k. Not as mad as those guys that are out there doing 4 laps. Or the real nut-bars who started on Wednesday and are doing 8, 1280k!, but still seems plenty stupid now I'm here...
After the JoGLE ride last month I've backed up with some decent rides, including a 265k a few week back. The bike strength is coming back, but I'm not sure what 10hrs+ in the saddle is going to be like, especially with the first 5hrs in the dark. Guess I"ll know tmrw.
More details when it's all done!
LPx
At 1:30am I start the Lake Taupo Cycle Challange, along with 66 others we are riding it twice, so 320k. Not as mad as those guys that are out there doing 4 laps. Or the real nut-bars who started on Wednesday and are doing 8, 1280k!, but still seems plenty stupid now I'm here...
After the JoGLE ride last month I've backed up with some decent rides, including a 265k a few week back. The bike strength is coming back, but I'm not sure what 10hrs+ in the saddle is going to be like, especially with the first 5hrs in the dark. Guess I"ll know tmrw.
More details when it's all done!
LPx
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Lands End to John O'Groats
Well that was fun!
I needed to get some bike miles in. So that should do the trick to kick things off...
Back to Blighty for a few weeks and I managed to squeeze in John O'Groats to Lands End. 908 miles in seven days with 57 hours in the saddle. Over 10km of ascent and 21k calories and I've still come back weighing 80kg!
I needed to get some bike miles in. So that should do the trick to kick things off...
Back to Blighty for a few weeks and I managed to squeeze in John O'Groats to Lands End. 908 miles in seven days with 57 hours in the saddle. Over 10km of ascent and 21k calories and I've still come back weighing 80kg!
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