It’s not very often that you get a major race on your door step, but this morning the English National Sprint Championships were held at Thorpe Park only a few miles away.

I knew this was going to be the hardest race to date with people hunting medals & titles.

The start list was packed and I knew to get on the podium I’d have to be on point. Each progressive age group wave were set off 5mins apart meaning there would be traffic over the final 250m. I had a good start and at the first buoy latched onto the leader but I soon felt that I wasn’t working. After some deliberation I decided to swim on and soon took the lead. Wasted time but you live and learn. With a quick exit (top 10 swim time overall) I wanted to head out on the bike fast to build a gap.

The road was busy with the previous waves but I looked to push on. After 5km I was over taken.  Unknown if he was in my wave, the wave in front I paced off him and we took legal turns setting a strong pace. Coming back into T2 I was unsure where I stood over all as there were athletes everywhere.

It took me a while to find my run legs and I ran within myself for the first lap. I thought I might be in 2nd but unsure who was chasing me down as there’s no way of knowing. With about 500m to I was over taken which I could do nothing about.

Checking the results I saw I was second in AG so getting silver and only Twenty seconds off gold. Third was over three minutes back. Mixed emotions but happy to get on the podium. I’ve beaten the winner before but a sub par swim and run left the door open. Next time I will get Jim …

Thanks for the support and a great indication of my early season fitness

Mark

Following a bit of an empty competitive year last year thanks to a few injuries (plus turning 40!), I decided to dip my toe back in the water and enter some sprints, the first of which was the Southport Tri . As a broken old rugby player, I’m not a natural when it comes to any sort of endurance sport and not a mountain goat by any stretch, so the short distance and flat coastal course seemed like the ideal mix for my skill(?!) set.

As a new Viceroy this year I was looking forward to the chance of racing in my new pink tri suit, tinged with a bit of apprehension that the northerners wouldn’t  take kindly to the colour scheme and would rough me up for it, but never show weakness and all that.

So the race…I rocked up at the standard 6am and it was freezing with a strong coastal gale blowing about and the marine lake was looking grey and cold, a far cry away from lovely Shepperton open water. Got in the water and it was as bad as it looked and managed to take on a couple of lung-fulls of the brine and goose poo soup that was the lake in the opening few metres through getting kicked around, but quickly got into a routine and swam pretty much on training pace which I was happy with having only done one open water swim in my ageing wetsuit this year.

Onto the bike which is always my best part and the nice calm conditions from my prior day spin up were replaced with a head wind that hit from every direction, but still managed to spit out a steady stream of people who had swum faster than me and was still feeling fresh going into the run.I was still carrying a calf injury going into the race that despite having Steve Hobson jab me with needles and make my cry by smashing it to pieces with his horrible thumbs still wasn’t up to going full gas for 5k, so I was just going to plod round. But with a line of people in front of me I find it impossible not to chase them down so was hitting pb pace for the first km and feeling great but sensibility took over, I sucked up my ego and did a run walk for the rest of it and finished feeling fresh but with my calf intact.

All in all a decent return to competing, not as fast as I wanted but I live to fight another day and am looking forward to having a crack at Redcar next month.

Rog

Race report – 21st May 2017 – Barcelona 70.3

 

This was my fourth time racing in Mallorca, having already completed the 70.3 twice and the full distance once. So,  I was planning for a great race full of confidence.

Everything was going according to plan pre-race, apart from damaging my power meter in the commute, so no power for the race. That’s ok, I am confident I can just use my experience, how wrong was I! Swim went well, no jellyfish this year, the bike was sunny, fast and dry (apart from an annoying Dutch cheat drafting behind me for 30km, arrgh, so annoying), transition was faster too and then the run, my favourite discipline… legs were tired but that’s pretty normal, until I hit km 2 when both the interior quad muscles seized and I had to stop running. After few stretches, I managed to find a strange way of running (not pretty) that took me all the way to the finishing line, not to say that I was head down, in pain, I did not looked at my watch once and I tried to ignore everyone else overtaking me.

I was on course for a PB after T2 and ended up finishing with my worse half and 70.3 time ever!! Strava estimated my power to be 18 watts above what my target power should have been. There is no secret in racing, just don’t overdo it on the bike. I still got the medal, the T-Shirt and made it to the IM official video in my bright shiny VTC kit! Not all bad after all!!

Eton Super Sprint 750/21/5. 2nd overall

What a couple of weeks makes with the weather. One day you are racing in freezing conditions and two weeks later it’s virtually tropical. I opted out of doing the drafting race in the morning at Dorney lake for the reason that I’m not looking to head off to the Worlds in September. So instead I chose the classic sprint. But the issue is that the race was at 12.50pm and I have always found eating and mid day races hard to figure out, so who knows how the body would respond.

There were three main waves, women, men 42+ and then men under 42. Off in the middle wave I knew that the sharper athletes would be starting off in the final wave so it was going to be a matter of racing to feel rather than chasing people or looking to get a gap.

After 100m in the swim I was clear and followed the guide ropes on the bottom of the lake. I exited clear in first and looked to get out sharp to open up a gap ahead of the run. Solid and comfortable time in just a shade over 10mins swimming. 2nd fastest all weekend for the non draft racing.

Dorney Lake is always windy and today was no exception. On the turn at the far end a wall of resistance hit & I did all the best I could to keep the bike stable. Over taking the women kept me focused and I felt good besides my power metre not pairing with my garmin so I had to rely on feeling –  so I’m unsure if I was under or over powering.

Coming into T2 I was hoping to have some legs but I suspected the final bike lap where I pushed hard might play it’s part.

I’ve been working hard on my running so I wanted to get to half way point feeling comfortable only to forget about the head wind. I could see the next guy and he was about 2mins back so I was comfortable for the wave win but unsure if it would be good enough to take the day. A solid 20mins which felt controlled, knowing that the high 18s are a matter of focus and not running comfortable

I crossed the line and waited. As it is turns out I was 2nd overall for Sunday and 3rd overall for the weekend which is good. Two weeks until the English Champs so more run focus

Mark

The Saturday start was nauseously early with a registration at 6:00 in Ponders End somewhere north of Tottenham.  Andy T and I Rolled out at 7:00 in the first wave, where the drizzle started damping our initial caffeine based enthusiasm.  David resplendent in borderline world championship striped Dulux Colours was on corporate propaganda duty escorting an ice cream truck across Tower Bridge.  A dreary drag through North London gradually gave way to Shoreditch, then Tower Bridge, and then the first climb, College Hill in Dulwich to the Crystal Palace. This warmed up the legs nicely for what was to come.  A steady grind up to the North Downs in a seemingly endless barrage of false flats. Then the ride opened up into rolling countryside as we passed Oxted and fought through the headwind, past Gatwick to a well earned lunch in Ewhurst.  Sandwiches and coffee dispatched the climbs started in earnest with Pitch rolling into Combe Lane, with a nervy rain soaked descent of Staples.  Then rolling into the overnight stop in Windsor Race Course.

Continue reading →

This year’s 19th May Flyer Sportive sold out quickly, and as usual was a lovely lumpy course, well signed & very well-marshalled by SWRC. Two distances are available, 90k and 153k with many initially opting for the longer tougher route. Luckily that included all the young talented ones, even if several cut short at the moment of choice (and then in classic Sportive style didn’t tell the organisers that their unbelievable time was, er well, unbelievable). I had to be back home before I started, or I would be in trouble, again. I therefore sensibly entered the 90k ‘short’ route, but it is still no easy ‘Windsor’ ride. Continue reading →

So, last year I decided to do a 70.3 , without any Triathlon experience.
I did it but it was nearly a disaster as I finished with literally (not joking) 1 second to cut off time. Good value for money tho, I’ve used all of my time!  And then I knew it exactly what excites me and motivates me: fear! To do the impossible after being on a bike  was really a wake up call : I can do this properly.
So I entered again and did a bit more training.
The run is always my biggest fear after a bad accident and being told I was never going to run. That was all I concentrated on, the bloody painful run. I started my training in January. Not that serious but with more respect-  I was loving it and getting stronger and couldn’t believe I was waking up everyday at 5:30am to train. Continue reading →

‘Final race of the season for me with no big expectations following 2 weeks on relaxing holidays and a preparation focussing on quality rather than quantity! I arrived in Weymouth on Saturday and the weather conditions were as predicted very wet and windy. The sea was very bad and if it had stayed like that for the race, it would have been a definite DNS for me. Sunday was a very different story and conditions were just ideal. Sea was very flat, and after a friendly rolling start and a good first 750m swim in 13mn I lost my rhythm and never found it again resulting in a much slower swim than I had hoped for. Being well behind my schedule, I decided that 1 or 2 more minutes wouldn’t change the overall result, and I used the facilities in T1 for a quick comfort break. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to cut my left thumb quite badly opening the toilet door and had to spend 10 minutes with the medics.

Me, my bike and my plaster were finally enjoying a fast few kilometres on beautiful roads when suddenly… my thumb decided to bleed again and never stopped until the last few kilometres of the bike course. No need to say that my bike, trisuit and I, looked pretty disgusting. Anyway, Weymouth is a tough bike course, with steep climbs, technical downhills and a nasty headwind. Second loop was mentally challenging but I managed to catch up few people and I was now much closer to the front of the race! Continue reading →