Monthly Archives: June 2017

Silver for Yeoman at English National Sprint Championships

Posted on by

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

Roger Lowe – New Viceroy Takes on Southport Tri

Posted on by

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

Neil Thomson – Ironman 70.3 Barcelona

Posted on by

Race report – 21st May 2017 – Barcelona 70.3

So, background – I’ve done a few Marathons, a few IMs and a few HIMs so I can’t be classed as a newbie to Tri’s.
Barcelona is a hilly course, if you imagine the profile as a little triangle either side of a larger triangle you get the idea with that in mind I was aiming for 35mins for the swim, whatever the bike gave me and 1:37 for the run.  Again given the course profile I decided on my lighter Road bike (Giant TCR) than my heavier ‘better bike’ (road bike with aero bars – Felt AR1).  I thought with that profile there’d be little time on the aero bars and besides I feel more comfortable descending on my Giant.
 
I arrived Friday for Sunday’s race and it was WINDY, fortunately by the time Sunday morning came around it has subsided somewhat.  Actually before I get into the race a quick mention of the race briefing, where I bumped into and got a selfie with non other than Jan Frodeno, I was very pleased with that and also with Paul Kaye the announcer 🙂 – doubly pleased
Back to race morning:-  .. bumped into Paul Kaye again 🙂 in transition.  All was well, bike where I left it, checked it was in the right gear, water bottles on etc etc.
Swim
I placed myself in the 30 min wave (I can’t seem to help myself – I see all these people going off and I think.. OOoo must get going) .. anyway, rolling start and off we go – I actually felt quite good, I  tried to find some feet but for the whole race I couldn’t latch onto anyone, the course was swim out a couple of hundred then turn west parallel to the shore for about 750, then round a couple of buoys before heading east back to the start.  Going out was fine but coming back, with the sun in your eyes – I couldn’t sight for toffee so just kept following the masses, ended up out of the water in 35min bang on 🙂
T1

Into transition ,quick ish change then out to get my bike.. bumped into Paul Kaye again !! my strategy for the bike was to take it as easy as possible – there were 3 climbs, the little, the larger and the little again.  I tried desperately to ignore everyone streaming past me on the first climb and I just tried to take it easy.  This worked reasonably well and the best thing for me about going up hills is you get to come down the other side – I LOVE descending, with smooth roads and my confidence in tact I was able to make up some good time and good positions – However I completely over cooked it (exertion wise) on the descent but I had FUN  :).  There seemed to be quite a few fallers on both the decent  and one stretch of straight flat road – I figured the guy just lost concentration. The bike course passed without incident, although once again I was slightly annoyed at a particular group that I kept yo-yo’ing between that

rode as a peleton – just blatant drafting, I know IM do their best to enforce the rules but I wish those athletes had more moral fibre, the bike was 2:59 – given the terrain – I’ll take that.
T2
Into transition, no dramas, shoes on and out for the run.  Now when I run off the bike my first split, even when I try to go slow is  ALWAYS fast (relatively) sorry for the next techy bit.. my garmin beeps every half mile so I work in half mile split.  I knew If I wanted a 1:37

I had to be hitting 7:30s so 3:45 on my watch, first split was down in the 20’s so I thought ‘good’ – back offI took water at EVERY water stop – it was getting hot out there – so there I am plodding along , just out of T2 and I hear Paul Kaye announcing Frodo coming into the finish arena, he’s a whole half marathon ahead of me.. guess that’s why he’s double IM world champion and IM world record holder !!

Anyway I continue to plod on up and down the beach.. getting slower and slower, the 3:20s turn in to  3:30s which I hold for a while then the 3:40’s come looming, I carded a 4′:something but justify that with ‘walking the water stop’ but battling on – it was hard I’ll admit it but I dragged my sorry behind along the magic carpet where – you guessed it – I bumped into Paul Kaye, for a run time of 1:40 something for a total time
of 5:23 something and you know what I was chuffed with that. with such a hilly bike and a, for me, tough run 5:23 is nothing to be ashamed of.
I did the usual recovery tent tried to eat their rice but it was NASTY, home, showered, pizza, beer and then something that I have enjoyed doing at HIM’s of late is to go back for the last half hour or so and applaud those guys n girls who’ve been out there for 8 hours !! I kinda felt good about that and yes you guessed it.. bumped into Paul Kaye AGAIN.
My schedule was to fly home on Sunday evening so by the time things were all wrapped up it was time to hit the highway and go catch a plane home for work on Monday
On reflection I really enjoyed Barcelona HIM, I got to meet Frodo, bumped into PK 4 times and put in a solid performance 51 in my AG and 351 overall.  It also felt good to be in pink representing the club.  I’m somewhat of a silent member and find it so difficult to get to the training events despite there being more options than you can chuck a stick at – I am trying to get to 1 !!
I have IM Austria in 6 weeks time and really need to knuckle down with the training.. today was tough and it was only a half !!
Good luck everyone
Neil Thomson