Worthing Triathlon 2010

Where to start?

Should I start at 5pm on Saturday, having driven down to Worthing to register, looking at the sea, being very scared and driving back home again.

Or should I start at 3.15am on Sunday morning, waking up before the alarm and stumbling out of the house to the car in the dark.

Maybe it would be best to start at the beginning - 6:19am (only 3 hours after waking up) - standing on the shingle beach in my neoprene suit waiting for the klaxon, looking out at the murky and choppy English Channel.

The womens race had already started, so I could see how the waves and currents were throwing everyone off. Rather than the controlled flow of swimmers approaching the first turnaround buoy, there were bodies everywhere. When I got into the water I realised why - it was very difficult to see where I was going, and even when I tried a few strokes, I very quickly veered off course.

The first five minutes were the worst. The second five minutes I didn't like at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline. I randomly couldn't breathe because a wave was blocking my air, got lost in the swell, and frequently switched to breaststroke just to try and survive. We had to swim straight out into the channel, turn right at a huge orange buoy then swim down to another similar marker and finally just make our way back to the start.

I did make progress though, and from past experience knew I'd settle into things, and was bilaterally swimming fairly happily when I turned around for home. The water wasn't cold, but even so, it would have been nice to get out of it before the following wave of swimmers started overtaking me.

I was quite pleased to check into T1 in 35:26 - an OK 1500M time for me. I knew I was quite far back the field though, so headed out on the bike course with purpose. Unfortunately, I never got into my stride here either. My chain came off changing gears at the bottom of a steep incline. I just didn't seem to have the strength to push my average speed over 33km/h - which is pretty much what I finished with. The course was fairly standard - out some residential streets, through some country lanes, then out onto a big dual carriageway. Traffic at that ungodly time of a Sunday morning was light, and the turns were well signposted and marshalled. I made some good gains on the hills, but there were not nearly enough of them, or steep enough, for me to make a real dent in the placings. 1:14 was the finish time - it should have been faster.

After a pretty speedy 49 second T2, I ran out onto Worthing promenade for the dead flat 10K run. Started with 3K wind assisted to the first turnaround, then 2K back into the wind which was pleasant as I was getting quite hot and the breeze was very welcome. I'd finally found my pace for the day and targeted people in front - picking them off one by one. Turned around again to get the tailwind and picked up the pace. I knew from my timings that I would need to do a sub-40 to get a 2:30 result. I didn't aim for that at all, but I could see people plodding in front of me, and wanted to beat them, so chased as many down as I could. One guy in an air force trisuit blatantly tried to draft me as we ran into the wind - I was able to give an extra kick to get rid of him :)

My running has been steadily improving all season - but I wasn't prepared for today's good result - 40:34. I did do a sub 20 5km time trial with my triathlon club on Wednesday, but that wasn't preceded by almost 2 hours of swimming and biking. I'm quite surprised at getting what is in fact my best ever 10K time by quite a large margin! Not complaining though :-)

I even broke my Olympic triathlon record set in Windsor this year by about a minute with 2:32:15. So overall I had a great day out - I conquered the sea swim and ran faster than I ever have. My placing isn't great (21st in age group of 33 competitors) but that's partly due to a significantly high turnout of good people as this race is part of the Taut Triathlon National Ranking Series. I was 154th of 302 people who started the race.

It was great to meet up with fellow Evolution triathletes Zoe Spain and Oliver Perez. Zoe did brilliantly in her first ever Olympic triathlon, and Oliver missed a 3rd place in his age group by a very narrow margin. We even had team support from Charlotte Maurissen who took cheered us on took photos and brought refreshments to tired survivors. Thanks so much to her; it was all most welcome.

Executive summary - I survived it, and got an Olympic personal best time, and also a 10K PB. Not a bad day at the office.

Results are currently here.
Moved to here

10 Mile Time Trial 8/7/10

Result 26:23 is recorded here

My first ever official 10 mile (or any distance for that matter) cycling time trial.

Prompted by Andy Crawshaw from Evolution Tri Club, and because I've been wanting to try this for years, I put my trusty TT bike in my car, and after misreading the directions several times made it to the A4 near Maidenhead for the start.

I hadn't booked, and I wasn't expecting to get an early start time, but was fairly surprised to be setting off last as number 32. Quite pleased though - at least there wouldn't be hordes of riders speeding past me :)

The start is a wide side road that is almost traffic free. I rode up and down it a bit, not sure how much to do to keep warm but not get tired. It was a lovely evening, with loads of midges swarming above our heads but not settling.

I've been getting faster at our Tri club TTs which are 15.5 miles, so I expected I could manage an average speed of 35-36km/h. It's shorter so I was hoping I could increase that - but the course was unknown and that makes a difference.

The course along the A4 was very straight and had no significant inclines. This meant my speed rarely fluctuated from the average. It was very hard work and I found it very different to a triathlon where there are many people around to judge your effort by. Just me against the clock. Couldn't seem to get above 40km/h even on the downhill sections. Quite a tough last 2 or 3 minutes to the end.

I was very pleased with my 26:23time, but when I saw everyone else's results I realised I have a lot of work to do if I want to move up the leader board.

Had a great evening; the club are a very friendly and very focussed lot. I'll be back!

[improvements: need to find long flat stretch of road, and see if I can cycle at 38.6km/h along it. This is my goal average speed for a TT to give me a 25 minute time - but it's quite ambitious I know.]

Nokia Windsor Triathlon 2010

This was my 4th Windsor triathlon in 5 years. It was also the one I felt most prepared for. I've been cycling like a demon for two years and running steadily all winter. I've also recently joined a local triathlon club Evolution and the regular sessions with them have really helped me to understand myself better, and assess my capabilities. More of that in another post.

My plan was simple. A standard swim would get me out of the water in about the same as last year - 37 minutes. Bike at 34-35 km/h for a 1:10. Then hopefully my run fitness would get me through in a tough 42. With reasonable transition I was hopeful that I might just beat my enduring Windsor target of 2:30 - but anything better than last years 2:42 would make me happy.

White swim cap this year in the 45-46 year old 6.55am wave. The morning was dull but not cold. I got up at around 4:45 (woke before the alarm) and had a banana and half a cup of coffee. Had an easy drive down to the cricket ground car park and got to transition with plenty of time to spare. Had a chat to another Robert racked next to me who I'd chatted to before at the Eton Supersprint. 6:35 had a gel according to plan.


Swim - 36:55 (174th of 189 finishers)

Have some nice new Zogg predator goggles, only worn twice, and double-hatted them. Got to the start and on cue slipped into the Thames. Quite warm. Felt rubbish as usual for 10 minutes, knew it would pass. Watched my wave disappear into the distance and may even have been in last place at one point.Got into a bit of a rhythm, only breathing to the right as to the left makes me dizzy these days. Think the gel kicked in around 20 minutes in as I was fighting through the weeds on the right bank.

Got to the turnaround buoy without much incident and kicked the pace up a little on the way back - passed a few white hats which was nice. Annoyed that people in waves behind me managed to swim across me as they passed. Reached the end feeling fine and checked my watch which said just over 35 minutes - pleased with that.

T1 - 1:47

Decided to take my wetsuit off right away while it was full of water. Think this worked well. Carried it through to T1 and stupidly ran down the wrong aisle. Only lost a couple of seconds though as I was able to duck under the bar to get across to my bike. Decided that I would take a spare inner tube after all and stuck it in the back pocket of my trisuit. Another wasted second.


Bike - 1:09:38 (27th of 189 finishers)

I've been doing this bike route in Evolution TT training so was pretty confident about my pacing. Hit the A308 hard - need to try and keep up at around 38km/h on this stretch. Straight away passed a few people trying to put their feet into their shoes and others just not trying hard enough :-) Once I got up to speed I had a gel and a sip of water to wash it down. Kept to the pacing plan, passed loads of people. some people passed me, but I overtook them again. Later on some serious cyclists with deep carbon rims and aero helmets overtook me and I could see the sweat dripping off their noses. I'm not quite that hardcore yet.

At the Drift road turnaround I had another gel. I had occasional sips of water and drank maybe 300ml during the whole race. This was part of my plan to improve on minor stomach problems I've had previously. No solids. No energy drinks. Nothing on the run.

Halfway back along Drift road was overtaken by a pair of cyclists who seems stuck together. To avoid drafting them I slowed a little, but they didn't pull away. So I speeded up again and told them they were drafting as I overtook. The lead cyclist complained, but I didn't wait around and never saw them again.

As usual there was a stupid driver getting his car in the way. He was sitting behind some cyclists refusing to overtake, hogging the middle of the lane, and just generally being annoying. Made me very pissed off as he was doing ~30km/h in a zone I know I needed to do at 36km/h. So I overtook him. After that it was plain sailing, though I was a little disappointed I couldn't push as fast as I wanted to up Mount Hill. Got back into town along the new route, spinning my legs a little and slowing down getting ready for the run.

T2 1:36

Had a job getting past slow people getting off their bikes. Note to self, do not let anyone sneak past just before the entrance to Alexandra Gardens. Not a bad transition, but could have saved a few seconds by having my laces looser. I dismissed socks totally this year and my feet didn't slide that easily into the trainers. Stupidly picked up a Nutrigrain bar, and as I put it in my back pocket running, felt the inner tube in there, so had to backtrack to throw it down. didn't even eat the bar.

Run 43:31 (17th of 189 finishers)

I've had a good year of injury free running. I've never done Windsor before without some kind of leg worry. My left knee has felt a bit weak, but mostly when sitting and walking, and I knew running wouldn't be a problem for it. No distractions with hats or sunglasses either today.

Got going immediately with a nice fast cadence - no wobbly legs. It was hard, but I felt in control. Kept an inner mantra going "This is what you came here for - you're ready" I did the whole course (all 3 loops) on Wednesday night. I'd managed 14 minute loops which give me 42 minutes for the course, and I hadn't been racing full speed. However, on Wednesday we'd neglected the extra section out past Browns. This is definitely what threw my estimate out.

I felt tired after the swim and bike, but I also felt strong and confident that I could do it. The hours and hours of running in the past year, especially all the lunchtime runs at Stockley Park (thanks guys) mean I know exactly what I'm capable of in a way I never have before. So I kept to a steady pace and enjoyed the many Evolution cheers of encouragement - sorry if I was too tired to acknowledge them all - I tried to give a smile and a wave. I lost track of time and only realised I wouldn't quite make 2:30 coming into the end of the second lap. I did know I'd get a PB, so pushed on to make it the best time I could and my HR shows increased effort on the final lap.

Total 2:33:27 (61st of 189 finishers in Age Group 45-49. 421st overall.)

Very pleased with everything. Once more I'm faster at every discipline than last year, and my run is 5 minutes faster which is really great. I am disappointed to be 61st though - I didn't look beforehand at past results, and thought a time like this would give me a better showing. It's phenomenal how fast those old people are :-) Obviously my swim lets me down badly and I will never catch the leaders unless I can take at least 5-7 minutes off that. I have been getting faster on the bike every week for 4 weeks in a row, and think with more TT practice I can improve there too. I could have gone a little faster - especially on the flat later sections - but will need to consider how that would affect the run. A run after doing the swim/bike feels weird. Mentally you are ready, and the run muscles are ready, but the tiredness keeps you from getting to your proper run speed. I'm much better than I was, but I don't think I'll ever get to 40 minutes on the Windsor course. But I only need to go 2 minutes faster to make Top 10 in my age group.

So if I managed to train properly, next year I want:

Swim 30, Bike, 1:06, Run 41:30 - 2:21 maybe with transitions - just outside the AG Top 10. I can dream !

Shiplake Triathlon Henley 2010

Results link here. New link here

My triathlon Club send an email during the week that I could get a reduced price entry to this local triathlon if I turned up on the day. Couldn't resist a bargain, and wanted to try out F3 events, and my new Evolution tri-suit, so got up stupidly early on Sunday morning and drove over to Henley to register.

Compared to Human Race or Ironman events this was very low key and informal. Nice if a little disconcerting. For example, bike racks were set up, but it was just a case of first come first served on where you put yours, unlike the strict numbering I'm used to. Not a problem though.

The swim was in an open air 25M heated pool. My first triathlon in a swimming pool. I can't say I like it :-@ People were setting off at seemingly random intervals and I was waiting around when a gap appeared - Martin the organiser asked me if I was ready - I was - so I took the place.

16 laps in a lane with four other people was a bit weird - I got overtaken a couple of times, and swam into the lane dividing rope which was pretty difficult to see, and emerged in average time. I think the 11:23 time includes the up hill run to transition to get my bike.

I really liked the bike course. An undulating road with very few cars. We headed left out of the college and down to a roundabout about 4km away. Then we rode back past the start and another 3km further on to a different roundabout where we did another u-turn and returned to the start. Two laps of that. Being able to see other riders so often is great and lets you judge your progress. I wasn't overtaken once and enjoyed sprinting up a few small hills past other people. My hill work recently has been my best riding. I've lost quite a lot of weight which helps with that.

I did make a schoolboy error though - I imagined that it was a 20km bike section. I got a bit confused when I realised the first lap was about 14k and had to shout to an official. Completely my fault and luckily I wasn't too tired to push on for slightly more than I had expected. Cycling is Ok for that find of mistake - running would be a disaster. Time of 50:35 is good I think.

The run was very pleasant - through some fields, and country lanes - almost flat. The weather was also fine, sunny but not yet hot. I calculate my time at 19:30 by subtracting the splits from the total. It must have been a bit less than 5km, and others commented that the route was slightly shorter than the one advertised. Very happy with that time and felt strong. Caught a few people in this stage too.

Overall time was 1:21:28 - can't compare this with any other races as the bike distance is unusual, but I came 11th out of 61 which is great. Some extra analysis shows I came 2nd in my age group - only 4 seconds behind the leader. This is by far my best result in any race since I was about 15 and came 1st in a local Boy's Brigade cross country championship (a feat never to be repeated!)

It was a really fun event - well done to Zoe Spain and Mark Hyde as well from Evolution Triathlon club - Mark came 2nd overall even though he ran a bit farther than he should have. And thanks to Martin the organiser - it would be great if I could always get a discount - I just can't bring myself to pay £45 for a sprint triathlon that often.



[bib no 179. 11th place out of 61 competitors]

Eton Supersprint 2010

16th May 2010 - link to results here

My A race this year is Windsor, but I like to do this sprint about a month before to see if everything is working OK.

I've had my best winter ever training, and have avoided injury. I've done more running than ever in my life - at one stage I ran on 8 consecutive days. My biking to work all winter has also given me strong legs. I'm still a slow swimmer unfortunately.

The lake water has been very cold, but I've braved it and survived in training at Liquid Leisure, so when I got in today the shock wasn't too great. Felt very calm and set off at my moderate pace. Came out of the water in a reasonable 9:41 (2008 9:49)

No idea what went wrong in T1 - struggled to get my wetsuit off. 2:28 is a poor transition time but maybe not too bad considering 2008's 2:52.

Out on the bike for 4 laps of the rowing lake. Pushed the pace and passed a lot of other riders. Lots of other waves of competitors on the course so it was difficult to judge position. A few people went past me, but not many. Happy with 36:48 (2008 37:44).

When I took my bike shoes off in T2 I discovered my socks were still sodding wet - so I dumped them and ran in sockless trainers. Decided there and then to not wear socks at all in Windsor. Time a passable 1:18 (2008 1:14).

Felt great going out to run - no wobbly legs. This is a soul destroying course however. 1.25km flat straight out, then back again - two laps for the full 5k. Obviously I was tired, but I knew from training that I could go hard for the distance. I trained a lot over the winter with no socks, and my feet can handle it, so I didn't even think about that. Again - I was seldom passed, and overtook a lot of people. Time 20:30 is I think my PB for the 5K - even non triathlon ones. (2008 22:14)

Total time 1:10:47 (2008 1:13:56)

In my age group I came 18th out of 108 people who started. This is a great result for me so I'm very pleased with my race - a good tryout for Windsor.

[bib No 879. 192nd overall out of ~1100 competitors]

RunKingston 2009

After my half marathon, and quite a lot of lunchtime runs and cycles to work, I thought I was ready for this 16 mile race. I wasn't. But anyway, RunKingston had been paid for, so there I was. (Kingston Running Festival)

The weather was fairly perfect, and I got a good position near the front of the starting line for the 8.30am start. I knew I needed to beat 8 minute miles, and felt this would be doable. The first 8 mile loop (of two) began with a nice run along the Thames on the gravel path. I felt fine, and took it fairly easy - there was a long way to go after all. I was under 7 1/2 minutes for the first mile, and easily under 15 for the second.

At around mile three, the route goes over the Bridge at Hampton Court. Then it's a 5 mile return trip to Kingston along uneven footpaths and crossing side roads. This part I didn't enjoy. However I managed to keep up a good pace and hit the half way point at just over 1 hour.

Back along the nice Thames path, and even though I was feeling a bit of a stitch in my shoulder, some steady, focused breathing helped. However, by the time I reached the bridge at mile 13, I was really struggling. My ankle hurt, my left knee hurt, and worst of all my thighs really started to get painful. I still thought I was on for 2 hours, but I had to stop for a short walk at the final water station, and even though I pushed on I realised with 1 mile to go that I'd missed it.



I still finished with an official time of 2:00:27 - which I'm really pleased with. What I'm not pleased with is how sore I felt at the end. I've never experienced this kind of aching during a race - after a race, always, but never during. Maybe it was the distance, and I'm just not trained for 16 miles. This hasn't given me a huge amount of confidence to do a marathon (btw, I lost the ballot for a London Marathon place, so am on the hunt for something else).

But taking something positive from it - I have gotten much stronger aerobically and mentally. It really hurt, and I pushed myself on to do a negative split on the laps (2nd lap faster than 1st). And I wasn't actually that tired - the only thing slowing me down in the final 3-5 miles was my legs, the rest of me was OK.

[Update from 2019. Results online here say 2:01:12 - this is most probably the gun time. 144th place out of 627 finishers).

It's interesting that I forgot about this pain, and that in my London Marathon a few years later it was the same thing that prevented me from going under 3 hours]

Helly Hansen Adventure Challenge - Cannock Chase Calling 2009

I have decided to mix it up a lot more with different kinds of races - different distances, and a lot more competitions. So after my very first Half Marathon last weekend, this weekend something completely different. Adventure challenges are something I knew little about, but I got a leaflet in my triathlon magazine for the Helly Hansen Adventure Challenge series. (it would be nice if that link works in a years time, but I suspect not).

It is a team event, and I persuaded a couple of people from work to do it with me, Roy, again, and David. The first in the series was in Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. This is near my brother Alan, so as I do not have a mountain bike, I decided to ask him if I could borrow his. This worked out well.

The exact race details weren't available beforehand, except that there would be up to 10km off road running, 25km mountain biking, and some kayaking and other challenges. This didn't sound too onerous to me - it's not that long since I did an Ironman race remember.

The day dawned, bright and sunny and warm. We headed off at 10am for the first stage - what I think was a 5km run. This was a lot of fun, with some challenging climbs, and quite tricky terrain to get over. This took us 30 minutes.

Next came mountain biking. Again, lots of tricky hills, covered in gravel, and still a very congested course. We had to wait at some parts for several minutes. I am not an experienced mountain biker, so went very carefully. I'm not sure how dangerous this would be in the wet. We biked for 1.5 hours and then there was a very welcome drinks stop. I wasn't carrying any drinks - this was a mistake.

We knew kayaking was next, but didn't anticipate the long run to the river. This is where things started to go wrong. David is very fit, but it's more upper body fitness for karate rather than aerobic endurance fitness. His legs started to cramp up and that was the end of our running. We had to stay together so we had a long walk.

Kayaking wasn't as difficult or as long as it might have been - except Roy decided to take the plunge and had a bit of a swim in the river trying to get out of the boat.

Then we walked back to the bikes. Another section of mountain biking, maybe 45 minutes, took us back to camp where we did some short activities to finish.



These were a lot simpler than they could have been.

We finished in almost exactly 5 hours. It was a great day. Because of all the walking, I didn't find it too difficult, though the mountain biking did use some muscles I wasn't used to.



I would definitely love to do this again, but need some new teammates as these ones don't want a repeat performance !

Stockholm Half Marathon 2009

Went over to Stockholm on the Friday night for the 2009 Half Marathon

Met my fellow competitors Amar, Roy and Barbara for dinner in Gamla Stan on Friday night, then got talked into a pub crawl. Oh well, the race wasn't till 4:50pm Saturday afternoon - I had plenty of time for a lie in and a rest and some rehydration the next day.

Spent Saturday as planned, and went over to register at 2pm. It was a lovely sunny day - bright and crisp, but not too hot.

Met my friends, and by 4:30 we were lined up in our separate waves. I was starting last, 20 minutes behind Roy, and my aim was to try and catch him :-)

My calculations gave me a target - less than 5 minute kilometres - for maximum 1:45 finish. I hoped I could shave a few seconds off this to take it down to 1:40. I was aiming for a controlled start, and a negative split.

Being in the final wave of runners made it very difficult to make headway through the pack to try and make up time. I spent a lot of effort moving sideways to try and get past people with their elbows pumping. Nevertheless I don't think that affected my time. I struggled to go faster than my target, I was just about doing it and felt OK, but felt any faster wasn't an option if I wanted to actually finish fast. The course was nice but I didn't get much chance to take it all in. There were a few inclines, but nothing much to affect my speed. I was amazed at how fast everyone was running, it was a struggle to overtake anyone.

It's a 20km race and I passed Barbara at about 15km. Still feeling OK at 1.5km out I was raising my pace when I got to Amar and just after that caught Roy. I still had quite a bit of energy so was sprinting quite fast by this stage and crossed the line strongly.

My result -
Race Number 10766 Position 2229 Time 1.43.39

It was a really fast race - everyone looked very fit; I think about 8000 people finished. I would have expected to be a bit further up the placings, but the competition here is just too good :-) 37000 people finished the Great North Run last weekend, and my time there would have placed me 3294 - so in the top 10%. The Scandinavians take their running a bit more seriously.

I'm really pleased with the time though, and I think I can do 1:40. More rest in the days beforehand, and more courage to push the pace after I've warmed, say at the 5km mark. And as usual - better nutrition in the days beforehand.