Hellrunner - Hell Down South 2010

trying not to fall in

Results currently here

I'd heard of this race as being a bit extreme. Not quite a Tough Guy, but well on the way there. So when some people in the Evolution triathlon club said they would do it, I was happy to sign up. It sounded a bit like Grim challenge which I did last year, but with extra water.

I've done some fairly long runs including a half marathon in Windsor recently so wasn't too worried about the 10-12 mile distance. It was a fairly tough race. But it had some flat running, and some narrow paths uphill that it was impossible to run up due to the people in front blocking the way, so there were opportunities to get your breath back.

I enjoyed the race and didn't mind the lake crossings, though of course that then meant very cold squelchy trainers.

that's me in the middle!

The "Bog of Doom" was something else though. The water had been ice covered as I walked past on the way to the start line, and I heard later than the leaders had had to break it as they went through. To say it was cold would be a savage understatement. I was quite prepared mentally, but when I'd waded in up to my shoulders it even became a bit tricky to breathe. Not to mention the slippery mud on the bottom and the uneven footing that threatened to drop me under completely at any second. It smelled completely rank as well. But I tried to keep smiling (for the cameras - you can see me right in the middle of this photo here) and made it out in once piece.

concentrating hard

After that I knew the worst was past, so even though there was a bit more water, and my feet were a bit sore from being so soggy (got some cuts on my ankle from the trainers) I was going fine until one of the officials said "only 2km to go". I was expecting about another 5km so started to push hard to the finish. The last hurdles were some sand dunes, but the sand was completely frozen so rather than being difficult to push through, they were more like hard rocks that jarred my legs.

So my result was a time of 1:31:12 giving me 25th place in my age group and 240th place overall. Not bad in a field of nearly 2000 runners. I think I could have placed a little higher if I had known the distance properly beforehand, and if I'd not had to push my way past so many people in the first 10-15 minutes. Really ought to make more of an effort to get to the front at the start. Think I've said that before :)

Robert Shiels 6219 Male Finished Vet40+ 1:28:19 240 219 25 0:02:53 1:31:12

Grim Duathlon 2010

Oddly enough, this was my first duathlon of any kind. Rather than pick some nice easy flat tarmac event, I've ended up running and biking round a very challenging course. But I think this is much more fun than a standard race.

The race takes place on an all terrain army training ground near Aldershot. I've been there before as I did the Grim Challenge last year - so I knew what to expect. I expected to get quite a bit more tired, but in the end it was about the same really.

I was very pleased to have fellow Evolution Triathlon club members Zoe, Hank and Elliot for company - I had a great time last year on my own, but it's even better with friends. We all met up in plenty of time on a sunny morning and racked our bikes in the muddy transition area. Some heavy rain during the week and overnight ensured that we would have a very messy day.

We warmed up with a bit of a run - and got to near the front of the start funnel. This was a very good move - I've been caught out too many times behind slower runners.

As usual, I was fine for the first fice minutes of the race, then struggled a little wondering why I was there. Settled into it quickly though, especially once my feet got completely soaked in the knee high water.

I finished strongly in a time of 21:32 - good for a tough 5K.

Out on the bike I was feeling good, when only 2-3K into the first 10K lap (a two lap bike course) someone overtook me and said my tire looked flat. Sure enough, I'd punctured and had to stop. I was not properly prepared for this - never really expecting it to happen on a brand new bike. I had a spare tube, but no pump. Sod's Law states that it must be the rear wheel, which it was. Decided I had to do whatever I could - my 'race' was over - but the day wasn't finished yet. I changed the tube and started running with the bike.

Hadn't gone too far when I turned a corner and found a couple of fellow competitors by the side of the track. They were very helpful, and pumped my tire up for me. Sadly there wasn't anything I could do to help them, and so I was on my way.

A few minutes later I overtook Hank, and Zoe, both with punctures - what a day. With no spare tube or pump, unfortunately I couldn't help them either. Hank did manage to get his bike fixed though and completed the race.

Loved the course, so much variety. Some scree covered hills, lots of watery gravel tracks, covered in mud and grass and even clay in places so that you just had to get off and push. Even a bit of cycling through the trees. I was way back due to the puncture but never got overtaken again and steadily made my way through the field. This was very difficult, as the person in front was always taking the easiest route, and to overtake them I had to pull out into more marshy track and really push. The second lap was better as there were a few less bikes to contend with and I knew what was coming up so could plan my overtaking spots a bit ahead.

Got back to transition for the interesting bit - how would I cope with another 5K run. My running has been good this season, so I expected to be OK, and I was. It was tiring, but I maintained my overtaking and passed quite a few more people - never being passed myself - very much like my triathlons where I come out of the swim near the back of the pack.

Was a little surprised by the crawl under the camouflage net for the second lap. This time it was covered in wet mud and I got plastered! How can you finish a Grim race NOT covered in mud :-)

Very pleased with my 22:58 time for the second 5K, and also with my final time of 02:05:51 - which placed me 106th out of nearly 350 competitors. If I hadn't punctured and lost 10-15 minutes I think I could have done very well - I definitely want to go back with stronger tires to have another go next year.

So even though this was a 5K/20K/5K duathlon, it felt similar to last years 8 mile pure running race - different muscle groups for the bike, and pacing myself, meant I was less tired this year in fact, even though it took an extra hour. Could be that I'm also fitter. Maybe my next race, the Puma Hellrunner, will show which of these options is true :)

Note: things to remember. Nutrition is much more difficult to handle - I didn't get much chance to eat of drink (my drink was a bottle in transition which I only went through twice). It was much too difficult to open gels on the bike. I need a proper plan for this for next time.

[Currently you can see the full results here]

Windsor Half Marathon 2010

This was my second half marathon race. I had quite a nice run in Stockholm a year ago, finishing in about 1 hour 43 minutes. I was pretty sure I was faster this year, but a little worried by the hills and by my lack of much distance run training.

I have managed a few one hour runs in the last two weeks, and though my calves are tight, they have survived.

I actually had a sort of race plan. I had tried to hydrate and carb load for two or three days before the race - mainly orange squash and pasta. I had porridge and wholemeal toast and some flapjack in the morning (1pm start). I had a large glass of water about an hour before leaving home. I had decided not to try and take on board any water out on the course - it never works very well for me and I only do it because everyone else is. Instead I had three gels, not the small thick pasty ones, the gels like SIS Go that are fairly watery. I aimed to take one of these every 20-25 minutes and had three in my pockets. Note to self - should have taken four gels and had one 15 minutes before the start.

I met everyone from Evolution Triathlon Club at the football ground car park and we headed to the start in plenty of time. I even managed to find my friend Andi in the crowd and we started together.

The crowds were terrible - and even though I was positioned in the 1:30 - 1:45 pace section I had to fight my way through the slow runners, and didn't actually get to run my own race until mile 3. Note 2 to self - push your way nearer the front next time.

But I was feeling pretty good and seemed to be doing around a 7:15 minute pace per mile - maybe a little faster. Poor preparation meant that I mentally thought I would be on for a 1hr 30 min finish at that pace - assuming a decent negative split.

Took my first gel on queue at 25 minutes and really think I felt the benefit about 10 minutes later. Took the second gel at 50 minutes. At about mile nine my leg started to ache - not the calf - a new problem with upper right thigh. This, combined with a fairly nasty hill at around mile ten, and my left knee starting to feel weak, scuppered my chances of speeding up. But I think I kept the pace steady - my endurance is quite good, I just had to try and ignore the soreness in my leg.

Thought I may as well take the last gel at 1:15 - maybe I'd get some benefit for the finish. There was a bit of a headwind at times, but this was cooling and not a real problem. The weather was almost perfect really.

Hit the Long walk for the final mile - and though I know this course so well from training - the length still surprised me. Started my final sprint a bit too soon, and had to reign myself back in again. But I finished strongly and got under 1:35 for a great time for me of 1:34:30 - around nine minutes faster than Stockholm for a harder course. I was also 231st in a field of over 4000 runners.

I have now entered Reading Half Marathon next March - if I can train properly, and race fast I want to get under 1:30. It should be possible.

Results Here

MDCC 25TT 12/09/10

It's lucky that I'm writing this post a few days after the event. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and it was my very first 25 mile time trial, I was disappointed in my time and placing.

I started the day at 7am with a 1500M swim in the lake at Liquid Leisure. It was a glorious morning for the time of year. I didn't kick much knowing I needed my legs for the bike race in the afternoon.

Decided that I never properly warm up - so cycled to the start at the far end of Drift Road - approximately 7km. I hadn't prebooked a place and was pretty pleased to get number 12 (out of an eventual field of 19). Still, had a bit of waiting around which I didn't use properly. Need to really investigate the science of warming up - I'm always afraid to make myself too tired, but I think I suffer in the early stages of the race.

Anna and Andy were there from Evolution, it was sunny and warm, and there was a great friendly atmosphere. There was a bit of wind however, and in the 'wrong' direction.

My plan was to try and do the first lap (of the 2 3/4 lap course) in an average speed of about 35km/h. I was hoping that once properly warmed up, I could then push a little harder and hopefully get that up to 36-37km/h. I had no illusions of being able to do 40km/h - but I really did hope for a time of around 1:06.

The plan worked initially - I even got my average up to 35.7 at one point - but I suffered pushing into the wind on the downhill portions of the course that should have been fast, and so the losses in speed that are inevitable when climbing took far too long to recover from. I felt tired too and took my only gel at about 19 minutes. I think this helped a little - but I think I needed even more energy intake during the race. I also had some PSP22 drink which was mostly just to stop my mouth from getting too dry.

My average dropped to 34.9km/h on lap two, which I managed to get back to 35.1km/h by the end, but this was difficult to achieve.

Despite my best efforts, I just couldn't manage to cycle fast enough to get my speed average up past the 35km/h mark after it's dip to 34.9km/h again at the Bird's Hill golf course ascent.

I passed Anna and some horses (slowed down a little - not much) about 5 minutes from the finish. Even in the final straight where I wanted to sprint, I couldn't get above 40km/h.

I completed the course in 1:08:30 - a couple of minutes outside my target - and I was a bit disappointed. I guess I did learn a lot - and it isn't the easiest 25TT course around, and it was my first try, so I shouldn't beat myself up too much about it.

Result here.

Then I found out that there was a handicapping system that was applied afterwards to allocate the prizes. And by some magic I've been awarded 3rd prize in the race. My time is given as 00:55:12 which i really don't understand - I'll need to talk to the other club members about this at the awards dinner!

I'm really pleased about this, though a little baffled - I'm guessing that as it was my first go I get bumped up the standings a bit. I'm not going to complain though, and I will be getting a medal, which is the first one I think I've won for anything since I was at school :-)

Thanks to MDCC organisers, and to Andy again (who I pipped into 4th place in the handicaps!) for promoting the club and getting me involved in something I've been wanting to do for about five years but never got around to.

Handicap Result here.

Peter Bell took a photo of me last Thursday before the 10TT with my bike - reproduced here.

MDCC 10TT 9/10/10

Another Thursday evening, another time trial. This is the final one of the season as sunset is getting too early. It was a marvelous warm and sunny evening.

My excuse for my rather less than marvelous performance is a recent ramp up in my run training. My calf injury is in remission, so I did one hour Tuesday, one hour with Evolution club including three Legoland hill repeats on Wednesday, and a 6k lunchtime run today.

A good turnout from Evolution tonight - Anna, Andy and Sarah all competing, and Amanda supporting.

I went off a reasonable No 17 at 6:32pm, and within 3 minutes realised my legs were just not going to perform. Number 18 passed me half way round powering up an incline still in the saddle when I was getting up to push.

I gave it my best shot but even on the downhills I didn't have the strength to push my average speed up over 36km/h.

Finished with an approximate average speed of 35.5km/h - 27:04 - my slowest TT so far.

Results here.

Finished off the season with a pleasant pint and a bowl of chips (food of champions!) at the local pub The Beehive in White Waltham.

MDCC Track Day

This was a new experience for me - riding around a cycle velodrome. It's in Palmers Park in Reading, and isn't terribly glamorous like the steep sided ones with the shiny wooden floors you see on TV, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun. The event was organised by MDCC and we had a very pleasant Saturday afternoon - warm, a little sunny, with only a slight breeze.

There were about twelve riders in total, five of us from Evolution Tri club having our first experience on the track. We started off with some group riding in pairs. Every lap the front two riders would move aside and rejoin the pack at the rear. We try to do this on the Sunday rides but it's much harder on the pothole ridden roads with tailgating cars intimidating you. It was good to get some practice riding close with constant speed.

We split into groups of four for a team pursuit. The groups rode around the track until they were equidistant from each other a third of a track apart and then the whistle went. The idea is to ride as a team and try and catch the group in front. Harder than it sounds as all riders need to stay together - my group managed to drop a member.

Next were individual 200M sprints. You cycle round the track until you get the nod and then that is your time to race. There are markers 200M from the finish line, and the aim is to use the slope of the track to help you get to your full speed my the time you hit those markers. The timekeepers starts his watch at that point, and you have to pedal like crazy until you get to the line. I can't remember my time exactly, but it was approximately 15.6s. However, as I was on my TT bike, and used my tri-bars, I got disqualified and had to go round for another go. I didn't mind too much - I knew I'd not quite got it right the first time. I managed to get my speed up a bit higher at the start line for my second go, and beat the first time without tri-bars with an approximate 15.16 I think.

We got paired off next with our closest timed riders for a Kierin Race. This is a full lap race, but if you have ever seen it on TV, you'll know how odd it is. Riders start off really slowly, trying to use tricks to intimidate their opponent. Then suddenly one rider decides to go, and the race is on properly. I spent the first 150m messing with my gears, going slowly. Having chosen the second lowest gear, I was ready and decided to go - patience exhausted already :) I didn't look back, and my opponent didn't catch me. It's actually quite difficult to go that fast (approximately 47km/h for me) around a bend without veering out of the lane. He later told me that I'd caught him in the wrong gear - in a race like this that kind of advantage is almost impossible to recover from.

I hadn't realised that they were timing the final 200M for each race - and this time mine was even faster at 15.06 I think. Very pleased with that.

We finished off with a bit more group riding - quite a nice 30-33km/h pace depending on who was in the lead. By now I was pretty tired, having done 10 mile TT races on Thursday and Friday as well.

But the day wasn't quite finished - Anna, Amanda and I demonstrated our triathlon credentials with a few laps of the running track to test our legs. No running shoes, so went barefoot. This was also a lot of fun to try as I'm working on my forefoot striking technique.



A big thanks to MDCC and Andrew Crawshaw for organising (and taking the photos).

MDCC 10TT 02/09/10

Result here

After having had almost two weeks away from cycling due to holiday, and very little running too, I wasn't sure how my legs would hold out tonight.

It was a new time and course - 6.30pm (though as number 40 I went off at 7:10pm). HCC234 course has two laps with three shallow hills each - including two bridges over the M4.

Tonight was the Medium Gear 10 Mile Championship. I didn't have my Langster bike, but was able to measure out the correct gear on my Planet X and decided to give it a try. I didn't fancy chasing a PB tonight.

Beautiful evening with the sun setting and I felt quite good initially, getting a reasonable speed up - then realised I'd been going downhill and it got harder :) Nevertheless I maintained a fairly consistent cadence throughout the two laps and came in in a fairly creditable 27:53. This is only 90 seconds under my PB.

I even overtook number 39 on the first lap - though it was his first ever TT!

Checking the official results now I see I was quite far down the field, there were a number of MTB riders who I'm not counting. Still - 5th out of eight MG (medium gear) riders so all is not lost.

Physiotherapy

At the best of times, I have at least one, and usually two or three aches or pains that affect my triathlon training.

For the record - here are the current main ones and what I'm doing about it.

Calf(s)

Recurring calf problems, which I'd gotten rid of for over a year, have come back. On the Wednesday evening run following Windsor triathlon, my left one went, and left me limping home. I rested it and fairly quickly was ready for Worthing Triathlon. Then, the Wednesday after that 20 minutes running made it happen again. After a week's rest, I still had pain even walking, so went to John Cooke for some analysis.

I have scar tissue between the 'bellies' of my calves. He also mentioned the soleus but I'm not very good at remembering these details. This has probably been there for years he said, which doesn't surprise me, I've had the problem for years.

He took out some medieval torture implements and pummeled the area on both legs for a while. A week later, this was still very painful to touch. I also have to do some heel drop exercises on stairs.

The good news is that it should be fixable. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this injury, as it stops me from doing the endurance running training that I need for Ironman races.


Shoulder

I did something to my right shoulder upwards of 10 years ago, I can't even remember now what or when, but it has never recovered. I asked the doctor, and got referred to the local hospital physio department where I went and had it looked at by a young lady called Lorna.

I described the issues; problems lifting my arm up to take off t-shirts, a weakness when swimming that makes it difficult to breath on the left when doing front crawl and a complete inability to do backstroke at all, pull-up and press-up issues. It's the swimming that's a real problem now - I just can't pull hard with my right arm, and it is affecting both my stroke form, and my pull speed. I have to get faster at swimming, and I've made good progress in the last few weeks, but this could be a limiting factor.

She tested it and said I have a muscle imbalance and need to work on exercises to rebalance this. I will try and do these, but I'm not confident, the exercise was quite difficult to understand and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.


Knee

I twisted my left knee on the stairs about 9 years ago - it never recovered and I'm aware of it almost all the time. The pain isn't severe and is actually more evident if I'm sitting or walking around than when exercising. It's much better now than it was before I started triathlon training - I attribute that to stronger muscles around it helping it out, but I've noticed it a bit when doing hard cycling recently.

I asked the doctor and she said not to worry about it. She didn't suggest any treatment, just painkillers. She said I was perfectly free to exercise hard on it, so I'll keep on doing that and see what happens. I may try for a second opinion on that sometime though if it restricts my training.

That's about it - I'll moan about my ankle and hip some other time :-)