Hilly time trial and new mountain bike trails
April’s turning out to be a busy month for me. Somehow I seem to have lined up a race every weekend 5 weeks in a row :-). Of course, not all of these are target races, some of them are training in aid of the bigger goals. The last two are in this category.
Because the Tranent triathlon was cancelled I hadn’t even been out on my road bike since the New Year’s Day triathlon. I was also worrying that with a greater focus on running I might be losing speed on my bike. So I entered a hilly 40km road time trial organised by my club. I’ve done this one a few times before. But this year it was also the Scottish Championships.
It was only a week after the last Open 5, which was a tough one. I was lucky to have just about recovered in time :D.
The forecast wasn’t great (to put it mildly), so Andy arranged a lift to the start. Meanwhile, I rode over in a raging headwind and intermittent downpours … someone actually stopped and offered me a lift when I was partway there. I declined thinking I felt OK, but just after that I was at an exposed moor section and it all got a lot harder.
The Meldons are very scenic in good weather when you’re not racing!
© Copyright Jim Barton.
On the plus side, I only got to the sign-on about 30 minutes before my start time. I decided I had done plenty of ‘warming up’, got changed and didn’t go back outside in the cold until it was time to go. I ignored the weather and just got on with the job in hand. After the first hill, we turned into a headwind that I knew would last for at least 12km. It was actually longer, as we turned another bend and the wind still bore down on us. The final turn up and over the Meldons was the exhilarating payback. I have never ridden up the hill so fast!
I was set off first and somehow wasn’t caught up, so had the enjoyment of crossing the line first. That was as good as it got … I was almost dead last and only beat someone recovering from being ill and someone coming down with a bug! Mind you, that was out of the people who; signed up, turned up, started and finished. I think there were dropouts at every stage ;-). One of them was Andy – his tale is here, but don’t worry, some good home cooking cheered him up!
I cruised home 50 minutes faster than it took me to get there, and it felt good to have had a fast, hard ride. My average speed was fractionally faster than last year over a longer course in significantly tougher conditions.
Jess marshalling in the wind and rain (thanks to all the marshals!)
The next week I decided at the last minute to enter a local SMBO (Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering) score event in Mugdock Park, which is just on the outskirts of Glasgow. I got a lift over very early in the morning. Too early, considering I was out late watching an Italian film the night before.
This event was very low key, with only three female solo competitors. I was pretty relaxed about the race which is unusual for me. And the result was just a second place – I wasn’t concentrating or working hard enough and one of the other girls was strong! The map was challenging, with intricate detail I’m not used to for mountain bike navigation. There were also many controls seemingly placed ‘on a tree, in a wood’. They weren’t joking at the start when they said the descriptions would give you a ‘clue’ as to the location …!
Never mind, I had a good time riding my bike in new places out in the sunshine and won a few things from Alpine Bikes. I then took the opportunity to meet up with a friend in Glasgow and spend a lazy day eating noodles, chatting, sleeping and eating brunch.
Next up … a sprint triathlon in Kendal. No slacking on this one. Despite it not being a target race, it’s important for me as my only actual triathlon before the Slateman in a month’s time. I want to get everything right and have my own goals in mind!
Haglöfs Open 5 Lake District
This was the 6th race in the series and my favourite so far (not counting the first one, which I planned, so of course it was great! 😉 ).
I had treated myself to a stay in a ‘camping pod’ because it’s something I’ve wanted to do for ages. I’ve seen a few around the country, but every time I’ve had the opportunity, they’ve been fully booked! I almost wished it would rain so I could feel smug and dry in my wooden hut, but it stayed sunny all weekend. 🙂
The view from Whinlatter pass to the camping pods
On race day things seemed a little more rushed than usual. Lucy was having last minute gear issues (thanks to Jon for helping with that!), whilst I was squinting at a map trying to work out a bike route through the forests.
We set off confidently on the run; Lucy was navigating as usual, though I think she was making up our route as she went along! It turns out that it was very effective, as our contour profile was quite efficient. The promise of summiting Grisedale Pike was tempting. Well, to Lucy … but I was pulling faces because it ‘looked a long way up’! We decided against that control and a cairn on the same ridge and turned for home.
Smiling in the sunshine!
We knew this would get us back a bit short on the run (we normally aim for 2 hours, and got in after 1h40). But we also knew that the bike leg was committing. Although we planned to go round it anti-clockwise and give ourselves escape options at the end, those escapes would mean dropping high value controls in the forests. It turned out it was the right decision to leave the two 10 and 15 pointers which had tried to lure us and save the time for later.
Out on the bike and it was my turn to map-read. Control number 2 had been discounted before we even set off on the run – it was so far out of the way we hadn’t even noticed it when planning and took ages to find it when we were marking the control values! We quickly decided the other control to miss was number 10. It was only worth 10 points and involved losing height early on. Both were good decisions.
So, we were sailing along nicely, making good progress. The first 5 controls were quite close together, but soon we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. 10km uphill in total! The next 3 controls took 1h10m to collect. We knew there was some fun to come though. We dropped into the top of Whinlatter forest, after some slightly tricky navigation where the compass even made an appearance.
First the run went up, then the bike went up
At this point we joined the singletrack of the Altura trail north loop. Lucy shot off like an antelope, whilst I messed up a hairpin bend, got off, fell over on ice, wished my tyres were softer and generally lost it a bit. As we zoomed past the visitor centre, along a stretch of very fast blue route and onto another fire road, Lucy was still pulling away on the hill. Now, it wasn’t technical any more and I wondered what was going on. The first suspects for me on occasions like this when my mojo seems to have vanished are: 1) food and 2) water. I ate, drank and miraculously recovered!
There was still snow up on the higher north-facing slopes
The singletrack on the south loop consequently went much better. I remember racing up here in my first ever Open Adventure race 4 years ago! The red trail makes long switchbacks up a steep hill. Alex Pilkington (who finished 2nd) had overtaken us and seemed not far away on the fire road we were aiming for – but we still had some distance to ride! Soon enough we got there and were rapidly descending. We did a very fun section of the blue ‘Quercus’ route and then back onto fire roads and a bridleway to the finish.
I came round the final bend a little too fast, saw a rut, panicked, braked too hard and crashed into an unyielding fence. Owww! My first reaction was to check I hadn’t made a hole in my new favourite jersey to match the mysterious one which has appeared on the other side – but all was still intact so I was relieved ;-). We were less than 2 minutes from the finish and blasted in 6.5 minutes early.
I was on a bit of a high, as it was one of those days where we got to the end and I didn’t think we’d do anything very different if we went round again.
It felt like we had done a lot of climbing. Reviewing our route, it turned out we had! 45% more climb on the run and 36% more on the bike, compared to our average over the rest of this series. In a way though, I enjoyed this as it was a proper tough challenge and it felt like we’d really earned our result. Tactically we also made the right choices, and it was worth the couple of minutes we spent debating out on the run.
Now we can relax … on the way back to download
The results were read out and we had a really good win. We were chuffed! Especially as this was also the first time we have made it into the overall top 10 as a pair (we were 9th, beaten by a mixed pair, a male pair and six male solos). As a pair, we just keep getting better together at the moment.
Since I made my plan for the year, I’ve stuck to it, done eight races and been in the top 3 every time. For next weekend I have snuck in an extra race – the Tour of the Meldons time trial. This will be on a road bike and sadly I expect my podium streak to end. I’ve never managed better than 4th in this local race. This year it is also a Scottish Championship, so the competition will be even greater! It’s all part of my training though, getting my mind and body ready for the Slateman triathlon in May.
Being published, cancelled race, Parkrun and snow riding
It seems a long time ago now, but back in January I did an off-road duathlon at Bowhill estate. I didn’t blog about it because I was writing an article for 220 triathlon magazine. This is now in print! I was pretty excited about it, and rushed out to buy a copy as soon as I could. It hasn’t generated quite as many comments as my Celtman TV appearance last year, but one or two people have said they saw me in the magazine :-). Even better, my submitted copy was reprinted with only minor edits – I can write to a brief and am good enough for a national publication! Awesome.
You can read this article in the March edition of 220 Triathlon!
This weekend I was due to be racing in a sprint triathlon in Tranent. This was my first preparation race (of two) for the Slateman in May. On Friday we had an email at 14:30 saying the roads were clear of snow and ice and were well-gritted. The race was on. By 17:00 the organiser had had second thoughts and sent out a message cancelling the event due to cold conditions and high winds. I was gutted. I even cried a bit … but realised how ridiculous that sounded when I told my friends! It was just a disappointment after being psyched up and ready to go. But the organisers have to make their own assessments and I’m sure it was a hard decision for them. It was a shame.
Instead, I made my way down to the local Parkrun on Saturday morning. I have only just discovered these events, but they run every Saturday at venues up and down the UK. They’re a totally free, timed 5km run (not a race). Our course is down on the seafront and is as flat as you’ll ever get off a running track. The only downside is that it can be exposed to strong winds, and this week they were gusting at 40mph!
This is how I look making a final effort for the line 😀
I think I was still a bit fed up about the race cancellation and channelled my energy into running fast and tactically, sticking with a group for wind protection on the outward leg and gliding back at the end. I was unsurprised to have a negative split, but surprised to get a new PB … it’s dropping fast! Everyone is really friendly at these events. After chatting a bit to some people I recognised from my group at Edinburgh Athletics club, I rode back with a random cyclist, attempting conversation in a howling gale as we rapidly dropped down though the gears.
Obligatory ‘bikes in snow’ photo
To top off the weekend I thought if snow / bad weather would call off my race I was jolly well going to go out and play in it. A last minute hopeful text to my friend and clubmate Glen resulted in an arrangement to ride on the Pentlands on Sunday morning. What fun we had! The snow wasn’t as packed and easy to ride as last time, and there was a lot of ice. But we battled the wind, smiled at the walkers and runners, and kept moving before we froze to death! It was amazing how suddenly you could be out of the snow with the loss of height. We fitted in a loop round the barracks before heading back into the white stuff for a last whoop, cutting fresh tracks through the trees by the reservoirs.
A good weekend in the end. I’m already looking forward to the Easter break and the next Open 5 in the Lake District!
Haglöfs Open 5 Yorkshire Dales
I’ve just come back from a fabulous weekend away in Yorkshire!
This Open 5 had the advantage of being located quite close to my brother and his wife. My dad also fancied a visit, so I managed to combine racing with visiting family, eating out and being thoroughly looked after by my dad’s friends Jim and Penny. Thanks all!
On to the race. My dad chucked me out of the car at 8:45 and set off back home. I wandered in to the hall to find Lucy so that we could register and start planning. Up until Wednesday I had been psyching myself up to race solo as she had been ill with the dreaded lurgy for 7 weeks! However, she made a last minute recovery and felt up to racing. Unfortunately, at 6pm on Thursday I was struck down too! Luckily by Sunday I felt a bit brighter.
So it was that the two of us raced with Lucy sounding like she was on 20 a day, and my throat and lungs burning with every breath. Still, it didn’t seem to affect our performance. In fact, we seemed to be more relaxed, chatty and in control than usual! Maybe we should race like this all the time …
Where we went
After my decent run at Bowhill I was excited to see how my legs would be. We set off and I was pleased to see that the normal springy running Lucy had returned after last month’s strange episode. I followed her round like a faithful dog and didn’t interfere ;-).
Everything went pretty smoothly. With about 2km to go I hitched onto the tow. I was just keeping up but didn’t want to kill myself only to suffer on the bike. The effect was mostly motivational, plus the little reminder tug to keep up when my concentration lapsed :-).
In just over 2 hours we came into transition and were soon biking. What a great course! Loads of riding, fast and dry and almost no pushing. We knew we had two big hills near the start, but loved the downhill in between. On the long drag to the trig point my lungs were on fire, but we were soon there (well, after 30 minutes!) and admiring the panoramic views.
That big hill in the middle took half an hour!
Nothing would make us ride to Malham, hidden a long way down in a steep valley! Instead we whizzed around on top. After a few moments debate we did a long out and back to a control stuck in the middle of the map worth 20 points. For a while I thought it might be close for time, but we were soon hammering down a fast grassy, rocky track. We faced just 8km of almost our only road of the day back to the finish.
It soon transpired we were going faster than I expected. There’s always a first for everything! This was even better than we had hoped. For a complicated reason relating to series scoring, any minutes early we could get in were a bonus. We finished in 4h45mins with 575 points.
Series leaders for the first time this year!
Enough to comfortably win our class. I am now the owner of a nice Haglöfs bag that I think Andy would steal, if only it wasn’t so PINK!
After that, my only task was to cycle the 14km back to Skipton with all my kit to catch a train. I have to say, I was slowly falling apart and needed no persuading when, halfway there, a fellow racer pulled up in a car and offered me a lift. Many, many thanks Pete!
This race was planned by Tom and Dawn. Dawn is going back home to America and we’ll miss her. I was touched by the gift of a wooden bowl she had hand turned herself. Bye bye Dawn!
Dawn made this bowl for me.
Bowhill Long Duathlon
Beer as prizes!
A month ago I did the medium length race in this series and came 3rd. I wrote all about it for 220 triathlon magazine, due out in the shops next week. I can’t wait to see it! This month everything was back to normal. I got a lift down with a friend from my club. We left Edinburgh in an unexpected snow storm and were wondering whether we would ever make it before the race started!
Favourite quote of the journey: “Well, I like wearing my tights because, er, because they’re tight”
Favourite tune of the journey: something funky from Austin Powers!
At the venue there was no snow in sight, it was even sunny on occasions :-).
Apart from standing on my already rather ripe and squishy banana, my pre-race prep was uneventful. Soon I was on the start line, the hooter was going and we were off! This time I didn’t wobble. The bike leg was good fun, but in contrast to the last race, I lost sight of the two leading women fairly early on. I’m not sure why – but I didn’t quite have my normal race mojo. However, I’ve been concentrating on run training recently and was also a bit tentative (even more than usual!) on the downhills. My hip is still a sore from my heavy fall a month ago and I didn’t want a repeat incident. Having said that, I still had fun and loved the single track through the trees. Then the marshals gave me such a cheer I even manged to get up the final steep bank. Success!
My transition was terrible! I fumbled with my shoe laces and changed my mind about what to wear on the run. Eventually I set off again. A key aim for me in this race was to test my running. Last time I felt like I plodded round but this time I intended to race. The first part of the course undulated but we were soon heading up and up. We picked our way along a narrow mossy bank and wove through tightly packed spindly trees. Great fallen tree trunks across the route added some spice and made my legs ache even more! We turned round at a memorial stone with a lollipop as evidence we’d been there!
This course was an out and back, so I could see where all my competitors were. Shona and Jo were already well ahead and the next two girls were about 3.5 minutes behind. I wasn’t sure if this would be enough and it spurred me on! I did my best on the tricky technical bits, felt like I swooped through the trees and made a conscious effort to pick the pace back up on the ‘easier’ sections. I struggled for about 10 mins at one point, but then got my second wind and really surged for the last 10 minutes. Sprint finish as a matter of principle!
I was 3rd lady again, with 1st about 5 minutes ahead, but I also held my lead over 4th. Overall, I was very pleased with my efforts and cheerfully collected my finisher’s creme egg and another podium beer for Andy 🙂
Success for our club – Jo was 2nd female and overall series winner, Chris tied for 3rd in the senior male series and Glen (my lift!) finished well inside 10 minutes of me 😀
Haglöfs Open 5 Cheddar
The February Open 5 was in Cheddar. It was so far away from home (one big train, one little train and a 17km cycle) that I decided to make a long weekend of it. As a result, my pre-race prep consisted of squeezing through tight holes underground, admiring the cliff top views, buying cave aged cheese and eating pasties, Somerset cider and apple cake and local ice cream. I was even lucky enough to be treated to a dose of actual sunshine. Nice!
Squeezing through a small, muddy, underground hole!
Me absorbed in the map. Lucy feigning interest in the map!
On to race day and the more serious business of the weekend. Lucy had requested a bike start this time. On our own, she normally bikes first and I normally run first. Since we’ve done it my way the first two times, it only seemed fair to switch!
In fact, for this race it was probably the right thing to do anyway as the bike course was very committing. Many people who biked second got caught out, and there were some big names rolling in very late with large penalties.
It all started well and we were picking up lots of points. I was happy that we had made the right choice of direction (anti-clockwise), because we got up the first very steep hill on a road and weren’t spending a lot of time pushing. Although there were sections of tarmac, they were frequently punctuated by fun off-road excursions. We were bouncing down one such rocky track. Lucy was having a great time; I was at the limit of my technical ability. Then another guy squeezed past me very close, I lost my nerve and suddenly I was crashing to the ground. I lay there winded for a few seconds assessing the damage. Sore arm, bruised hip, knocked knee, squint bar end. Nothing broken, so slightly shakily I set off again.
Biking, smiling
I was under instructions to navigate a course lasting 3h. Not long after the crash we had to make some choices about controls. I lost the ability to decide and Lucy had to step in and do it for me! We were off on a short detour with a few extra hills. It looked like we would get back to transition 10-15 minutes later than planned, but we were moving well and it didn’t make sense to ride past them. In retrospect, the control we should have missed to save time was the very first one we got!
After that the course got slower, but I perked up again and felt confident. We had a long, rough fire road climb through some woods followed by another rocky, slippy descent. I even managed to stay upright. But Lucy was beginning to tire of biking, and it wasn’t a good place to try and push or tow. Despite a speedy finish through town (straight past my B&B) we had been out much longer than planned.
Jacob’s Ladder – down we go!
We were in and out of transition quickly, but only had 1.5h left for running. I don’t think Lucy was best pleased with my timing! We started well with a leg burning trip to the top of the lookout tower and back down the steps of Jacob’s Ladder. It was then a walk straight back up a very steep hill to a dark cave with the control hidden in a corner.
I was still feeling cheerful but Lucy was not her usual sprightly self. Though we were running again through sticky mud off the top of the hill, I was keeping up just fine and not dying like I usually do! I started trying to help with the navigation but this was a big mistake. I wasn’t taking an overall view of our route and distance / time travelled so my interjections weren’t properly reasoned. Meanwhile, Lucy had hit a wall (not literally!) and didn’t have the energy to tell me to shut up and let her get on with it.
All this meant we ended up lured to Totty Pot – after the mistake of Titty Hill in the South Downs, this should never have happened! And then we were cutting it short, dashing for home, but too late. We jogged in 12.5 minutes late = 35 penalty points.
Synchronised running!
This was a bit disappointing. If we’d kept clear heads on the run we could have made a sensible loop and got back on time. When I first started racing solo I made mistake after mistake. I learnt from all of them, though you can’t always eliminate or predict everything. Racing as a pair is different from being solo. It’s like going through it all again. This one is definitely going down in the book – don’t interfere with the other person’s nav unless they ask you too! Racing with someone else is also about getting to know each other, so that you can still be an effective team even when the going gets tough.
Despite it being a hard race for us, it was still enough for a win in the female pairs. And for now at least, we are leading the series :-). Full results here.
The only challenge left for me was how to carry my prize purple Haglöfs holdall back home!
Haglöfs Open 5 North York Moors
Only 5 days after my first race of the year, it was time to go again! This time I was in Yorkshire, doing an Open 5 on the North York Moors, starting near Scarborough. The chest infection had pretty much cleared up, so apart from doing almost no exercise for a couple of weeks (extended ‘taper’?!), I was ready to go.
I was racing with Lucy for the second time in this series. We stuck with the same format as last time for kit, navigation and running first. We cut it very fine getting to the remote transition in time to start before the 10am cut off! It was warm and mostly dry all day, but some of the paths and tracks were very muddy.
Controls – these are what we’re after!
Setting off on the run I felt better than last time. It seems some extra running before Christmas might have made a difference. 😉 Lucy did a great job on the navigation. In the woods we had some interesting route choices involving steep scrambling up and down banks. I didn’t know I would literally have to ‘eat dirt’ as I trailed behind up one section! 😀 We were aiming to be out for 2 hours on the run, and after about 1h30 I was beginning to feel it in my legs. Lucy had brought a bungee tow rope this time. She said “yes!” when I asked if she was still feeling frisky, so I cheerfully hitched on for the last section!
Going so fast it’s all just a blur!
Into transition after exactly 2 hours and then we were off on the bikes. It felt wonderful! My joy was short-lived though, as we were soon pushing up a long, rocky and steep track. I hadn’t found my bike mojo yet and felt sluggish with the navigation. Descending through the forest I also took a tumble which knocked the air out of me. It was probably a good thing that Lucy was still heading downwards, as I didn’t have time to sit around feeling sorry for myself! We got to a road, I pulled myself together and felt good for the rest of the race.
As we headed up the final big hill on our planned route I realised we were covering ground a lot quicker than usual. We added in an easy control and carried on. The funniest moment of the race was approaching a ford but not being able to work out where the road went afterwards – because it looked like a river! Two pairs of very wet and soggy feet later we emerged and carried on our way.
The road / ford / river!
At a final junction we had a choice – get back 20 minutes early or take a risk to do an out and back for 15 more points. Despite saying we wouldn’t take silly risks after last time, we went for it. It was all on fast road and I couldn’t face getting back that early! 🙂 This was a really inefficient way to get this one. If we had realised sooner how fast the course was, we should have collected it and another nearby control much earlier on.
This time the risk paid off and after a lung-busting dash for the line we were back less than a minute late – only 2 penalty points. We were pretty chuffed and felt like it had been a good race. I thought we had worked together well and we got 553 points.
At prize giving we found we had come 2nd. The winning pair from the Pentlands race (Jessica and Rowena) had scooped 575, which was a fantastic score. We were beaten by a better team on the day! But it did leave me thinking … could we have done more and if we meet again do we have a chance of winning?
Podium – I think that’s our tired look …
Well, we knew we had made a small nav error on the run (costing 1-2 minutes). I made a tactical mistake on the bike, probably collecting two controls in the ‘wrong’ order – the distance was the same but we did extra climbing (I know, I just can’t resist a good hill!). After looking at other people’s routes I can also see a more efficient route to one run control (800m shorter – that’s 3 minutes!). We should have committed to two of the bike controls earlier on – saving ourselves 2km and collecting an extra 10 points. And I think our transition could be a couple of minutes quicker!
Perhaps if you add all of this together we could squeeze out that 20 extra points. But hindsight is wonderful and it’s almost impossible to have a 100% perfect race. The others still got back 14 minutes early as well! I think we will just have to get faster! 😀
Full results.
New Year’s Day Triathlon
The first race of 2013 was on the first day of the year and was the first in my new “shorter, faster” plan!
The initial challenge was getting to the start line in one piece. I had my training for the weeks leading up to the race all planned out. I even went and did the Christmas day ParkRun to keep my legs turning over nice and fast. And then I got a chest infection and was knocked out for a week!
By New Year’s Day I was feeling human again, though nerves were getting the better of me at breakfast and I felt a little queasy. This is usually a good sign, though it felt worse than usual. A short pedal up to the Commonwealth Pool (the Commie) to register and get set up. How nice to race without a long train journey first!
I was worried my kit would blow away in transition, I fretted I might get a puncture, I couldn’t decide how much water to carry. One thing I wasn’t worried about which everyone else seemed to be – the cold! Lots of winter racing means this weather looked balmy to me … dry, sunny and only a little bit windy :D.
Faffing about setting up transition
It was great to be able to get a proper warm up in the diving pool. Then before I knew it, I was off. The heat was 50 people following each other at 5 second intervals up and down each of eight 50m lanes, ducking under the lane rope at each end. The first 3 or 4 lengths were fairly orderly, with slower people on one side and overtakers the other. Then it turned into a melee as we all bunched up and it was a free for all! Lucky I am more used to open water swims, so I claimed my patch of water, swam hard and tried to maintain position.
The swim before it got a bit crazy!
It was a bit chilly on the feet running outside to transition and I struggled into my fleecy top. Once I was off on the bike I felt great though. Because the faster swimmers went last, and it was a three lap course of Arthur’s Seat on the bike, we were soon passing slower riders. I followed my plan and worked hard off the top of the hill and into the wind before screaming down the hill the other side :-).
Feeling good, enjoying the sunshine!
After the bike I wasn’t looking forward to running but it had to be done! I surprised myself as I set off feeling quite sprightly. Maybe it was the effect of my brand new, unworn, lightweight shoes with sparkly bits, though they were rubbing my dodgy ankle by the time I got back! Up the hill for the final time I told myself it wasn’t really that long and I would have to run up far more hills on Sunday (at the Open 5). I can play a lot of mind games when I’m racing. I even tried to follow a couple of runners who came past me but they were going just a little bit too fast.
Over the top and I relaxed into the downhill before attacking the final little climb back to the pool for a sprint finish.
My determined face …
That’s when the coughing fit that lasted about an hour started. I had been fine in the race though. I was worried I hadn’t worked hard enough, but I soon felt wibbly wobbly and needed a little sit down. 😀 I had a target time of 1:15:30 and got 1:15:15. My transitions were very slow compared to other people, the swim was OK, my bike was ace (fastest female!) and my run was ‘not bad considering’ and 3 minutes faster than I planned.
Tired now!
Final result – 2nd female. A good start to the year, in my first short fast one!
The race was followed by some great grub in the congenial company of clubmates before dragging ourselves back onto the bikes for a slightly wobbly ride home! Only joking – my mulled wine intake was moderated :D.
Next year is nearly here!
It’s time I had some race plans for 2013!
About this time last year I had some vague ideas for 2012. It was then that I decided to enter the Celtman and get myself a coach to make sure I did myself justice.
2012 was a massive year, with the Celtman and the Terrex Sting in Stirling 5-day event. I found it really hard to recover from the Sting. After feeling better, racing and then feeling worse again a couple of times, I had to take a good 6-8 weeks “off”. This meant no hard training.
Celtman Finisher
End of The Sting – little did I know how long it would take to get over this!
I started thinking … so what did I learn? And what next?
I put my down-time to good use planning for next year. I decided the Celtman was a bit too logistically complex, expensive and time consuming to do two years in a row. One of the biggest adventure races in the UK next year is the Coast to Coast. However, it involves a lot of kayaking and I’m not sure I could dedicate enough training time to do it competitively.
First question: What did I enjoy about this year? I really thrived on having a target which I had to work towards. When I entered the Celtman I couldn’t have done the race within the time limits. I also found that I was good at ‘normal’ triathlons. Coming 2nd at the Slateman was a revelation – I really enjoyed the head-to-head racing and the satisfaction of doing well in a competitive field. And having Scott as my coach worked really well, so he’s still on board for 2013 :D.
Turns out I’m quite good at this
I believe that it’s important to make the most of your strengths. I love mountain biking and always will – but my technical skills will never be the best. From this year’s events I realised that I have the strength and endurance needed to be good on a road bike. I also swim well, especially outdoors. Back in 1999 I stopped running because I got so frustrated with injuries. Running is still hard due to recurrent niggles. But it seems I can produce a half-decent run on not a lot of training!
I can cope with a bit of this … even if I’m often chasing!
Lastly, I like variety and need to do keep ‘doing different things’ or ‘doing things differently’!
Love this and even do it for recreational purposes!
Thinking about all this helped me to narrow down my choices.
I decided on my target: a middle distance triathlon. This is 1900m swim, 90km road bike and 21km run. It should take about 5 hours. Why did I choose this?
- I excel at this race duration.
- I will use my swimming and road biking strengths.
- I can still do fun mountain biking and adventure racing as training. This is especially true over the winter.
- I can recover much more easily from this distance. Weeks rather than months!
But .. I could finish a middle distance triathlon next week if I wanted to. So where’s the challenge?
I’m going to enter the Scottish Middle Distance championships in Aberfeldy. I’ll set myself stretching target times that I couldn’t achieve now.
The next question was – how do I structure my year to achieve that? This was an iterative process. I started with a full list of all the races I fancied doing. There were 47 of them in 12 months!! I talked to Andy about how things fitted together. He is an experienced triathlete and fully qualified cycling coach, so knows a thing or two, even if we don’t always agree ;-).
Of course, I also asked my coach, Scott. My list went back and forth a couple of times. I listened to their advice and reluctantly removed a few races and switched others from off-road to on-road. I also deleted events which looked a bit dull – I still want interesting courses and scenery!
I will need to be quicker. My endurance and pacing are already very good. So my lead up races are mostly shorter on-road triathlons with open water swims. They have similar physiological demands to a middle distance tri, but will help me get faster. I should also recover from them quickly. I need to watch how much travelling I have to do, and think about how I can combine races with family visits!
Before then I will keep doing the Open 5s. The plan is to do them with Lucy in the female pairs category. This will keep things interesting (I did them solo last year). A target once a month through the winter also helps keep me training hard when it’s cold, dark and wet outside.
After Aberfeldy I will just do what I feel like – which may include the Craggy off-road tri and a 24h MTB race – I haven’t done one for so many years!
So here’s the plan … no doubt I will have to change and adjust it as the year unfolds, but at least I have something to start with :-).
Celtman on TV!
For those of you who read my report on the Celtman earlier this year, you might like to see it for real on TV!
The Celtman on the Adventure Show.
You’ve only got until the 16th December, so don’t hang around :-).
I was well chuffed to make the final cut – you can see interviews with me on the beach at some early hour I never normally see, plus partway up the mountain about 10.5 hours into the race. There are also glimpses of my mum and Andy – but sadly not Kate, my awesome support runner!
My friend Elizabeth also gets some air time, and it’s fun spotting other club members here and there!
Planet Byde 