Rowe Running

It’s been over three weeks since the 2010 Bala Middle Distance triathlon so perhaps this is a reflection piece.  Well, it’s not – I’ve just been too busy recently to write anything down!

Sharon and I left for North Wales mid-morning on Friday and after a leisurely drive we arrived at the camp site late afternoon.  The weather was lovely and there were a few other ‘pirates’ already set up and relaxing so they were able to watch Sharon and I put up our tent in this highly pressured situation!

On Saturday I went for an easy spin of part of the bike course, partly to test out the fancy deep rim HED race wheels that Andy had let me borrow for the event.  About 18 miles done and all seems well with the bike.

LLyn Celyn

Sharon and I then did a little sight-seeing and had a watch of some of the action at the National White Water Centre.  One day I think we’ll have to get a bunch of us out on one of the rafts.

After a quick spot of lunch it was time to register for the race.  I jogged the 2.75 miles from the campsite to the sports centre whilst Sharon cycled alongside.  After registration we met up with many of the other pirates for the traditional Saturday afternoon swim in the lake.  The water was cold, and certainly refreshing.  The weather was stunning so we spent probably a couple of hours or so relaxing by the lake.  After running back to the campsite Sharon and I then headed out to get our pre-race meal….. In the past I’ve tried pasta, rice, etc. but thought we’d go for an altogether different option – fish’n'chips.  Actually I had a large sausage and chips but you know what I mean.  There were certainly plenty of carbs to be had from the chips.  I’d soon find out if it was a good decision or not!

Bike, race wheels and tent.

Sunday morning and an easy ride to the start.  Sharon followed in the car with my transition gear.  Got myself body marked with my race number and then setup in transition – including walking the route from the swim exit to my bike to make sure I knew where to go.

Swim – 2km

I do this everytime – that is, get myself into a bit of ruff’n'tumble in the swim.  I normally do this on purpose so it will make me more confident when it happens again.  I think I’m getting better at dealing with the kicks and punches but it’s really not my idea of fun!

Swim start.

The water at the start was as always very shallow – not much more than waist deep.  So much so that a few seconds after the start Sharon saw people walking rather than swimming through the melee!  The water was fairly smooth (nothing like in 2009) although there was a bit of a breeze coming in.

I decided to start near the middle of the start line and right on the front row – expecting a bit of action from the go.  The plan was to swim hard for the first 50 meters or so and then find a fast swimmer to draft off of for the next 1,950 meters.  A great theory!  I swam hard, and then a couple of seconds after easing off I started feeling arms and legs and people starting to swim all over the top of me.  At one point I went to breath and got pushed underwater so ended up taking on board about a pint of lake water!  A few seconds later I decided that this wasn’t for me so I swam to the outside edge of the pack and swam on my own.  In fact I had clear water until the first turning buoy.  The rest of the swim was uneventful.  I didn’t enjoy the first few minutes of the swim and it took me a while to get settled.

My swim time was 36:04, my quickest ever swim at Bala, although two years ago I hadn’t done much open water swimming before and last year the conditions were rough, but I’ll take this time quite happily.  I was 234th out of 626 (including relay teams) in the swim.

Swim: 36:04 (2009 time: 38:22, 2008 time: 37:37)

My swim position was 234th out of 626.

Transition 1 was pretty quick – 1 minute 58 compared with 2:25 last year.  No complaints.

Bike – 78.5k

The bike is always a tough one and there was a bit of a breeze this year to make matters worse.  The weather wasn’t hot sunshine like in previous years but it wasn’t too cold for just my tri shorts and top.  Nutrition wise something wasn’t right.  I had a bit of a stomach ache during a good part of the bike.  I don’t know why (surely not last nights dinner) but this made it harder for me to take my gels onboard and I gave up on my PowerBar bars after a single bite.  I drunk plenty of sports drink so at least that was good, but my stomach wasn’t right and I hoped it wasn’t going to give me trouble during the run.

On the bike...together with tan-lines from the day before!

Other than that I think I had a good solid ride to the turnaround point at 25.6 miles.  I got there in 1 hour 18.  Last year I got to the same point in 1:17:32.  Pretty similar.

Shortly before the turnaround the lead female (Louise Collins) flew past me on the way to a 2:24:45 bike split.  The women started a few minutes after the men and she was absolutely flying.  I’m not surprised after only a few weeks before she finished 2nd female overall at Ironman Lanzarote.

During the second half I battled on.  I had trouble getting my heart rate up and being able to push hard but I did what I could.  Once I’d past about 39 miles (and the biggest climb of the day) it’s all downhill back to Bala so I pushed harder and had an enjoyable end to the bike.  Maximum speed on the bike was 40.8 mp/h.

Bike: 2:37:39 Average/Max HR: 142/167 (2009 time: 2:36:50 HR:147/170, 2008 time: 3:05:13).

My bike position was 173rd out of 627.

Transition 2 took me 1 minute 14.  In 2009 it was 1:33.

Run – 20k

I’m not sure if I really enjoy the run or not at Bala.  I love running but this is a tough old course.  It’s relentless and never ending up/down/up/down.  About 1k into the run I was getting plenty of pirate ‘aaarrrgghhh’ support from people on the early part of the course.  As I’m strong on the run and have more of a background in this sport I enjoyed it when I went past a chap who moved over slightly to let me pass and said to me “I read your blog and there’s no way I’ll be able to keep up with you.”  I thanked him (whoever you are) and continued on.

The first half of the run was mostly into a headwind and also has most of the climbing in it.  It was tough.  I overtook quite a few people in the first half and very few people went past me.  This is how I like it :)

After the turnaround I knew I was on the ‘home straight’ so was able to push on with it.  A veteran competitor from Oxford Tri club came past me and I decided to stick with him as much as possible.  I kept close for as long as possible but during the final mile or two he drifted away.  I think only one other person overtook me during the second half of the run.

The final 100m of the run.

The pirate support was great during the run and I was able to cheer ‘Go Pirates’ every few minutes to people running the other way.  Now that I’ve done it (three years in a row) I really wouldn’t want to do this event not dressed in the ‘classic’ yellow/black pirate combo!  It rocks.

Run: 1:31:18 Average/Max HR: 159/173 (2009 time 1:32:45 HR:162/181, 2008 time: 1:40:58).

My run position was 94th out of 624 runners – clearly my best discipline.

It was a relief to be headed to the finish after a very tough race and when I crossed the line I was very pleased to find that my overall time was once again sub 5 hours.  I was happy with how the run turned out – with it being my fastest time here at Bala.  Next year I’d like to dip under 90 minutes for the run.

Overall: 4:48:15 (2009 time: 4:51:58, 2008 time: 5:23:28).  120th out of 629 finishers.

Race wise I would have liked to have been quicker on the bike.  My cycling has gone pretty well so far this year and I thought the race wheels I’d borrowed would have made a big difference.  Well, maybe they did (it was windy out there so made things tough).  I guess I’d need to ride the same course in similar conditions again for a time comparison to be more measureable.

After the prizegiving Sharon and I bought some food in a local shop and headed back to the campsite to relax and have a beer with many of the others who were staying over on Sunday night.  It was a lovely relaxing end to a good weekend – well, when it wasn’t raining and we all had to squeeze into our tent whilst we waited for the weather to clear!

On Monday we took a very leisurely drive home.  We drove down through Wales and then across to Ross-on-Wye for lunch followed by a walk at the top of Symonds Yat – where we saw some peregrine falcons nesting on the cliff site.  We arrived back home at about 6pm ready to unpack and prepare for the week ahead at work :(

After cycling this event in 2009 as part of my Ironman preparations I was back again for more fun in the hills this year.  A tough 20 mile run on Friday followed by a swim and two 5k runs on Saturday ensured I was sufficiently knackered coming into this event.  This is good for me (apparently) and will make me stronger (apparently)!

A small group of us set off at about 8:25am for this 105 or so mile hilly ride.  The weather was great – cloudy, a light breeze and not too hot.

Within about five miles my legs were telling me that there were tired and aching.  Hmn, not a great start.  After a while they started to feel better – I guess they just weren’t warmed up for cycling.

There were a few groups of people chain-ganging their way round the route but as I’ve said before this isn’t really for me as it won’t reflect how I ride on race day.

I found this a pretty tough ride.  Sharon was armed with her camera at the top of Whiteleaf Hill (at around 60 miles) and when I got to her she asked “Are you alright D?” – I said I was but Sharon thought I looked terrible and really cold.  I wasn’t cold but could have quite happily jacked in the ride about 10 miles ago.  However, if I did take the easy option and drop out I’d feel bad and like I’d wasted an opportunity for some good training.  Deep down I knew that this is one of the most important rides of my training year and it will make me stronger.  Hill wise, race day will be much easier than today – that’s for sure.

After the second feed station at 75 miles I started feeling much better.  All was going well until 90 miles.  Half way up a short sharp hill the bike just didn’t feel right.  I knew I had a rear puncture and hoped I could get to the top of the hill before having to change it.  Within about 30 seconds I could feel the wheel rim on the road so it was time to get straight off and fix it.

According to my GPS it took my 9 minutes to replace my inner tube.  I need to make this quicker.  One thing that slowed me down was unscrewing the CO2 cannister from the holder on the bike.  Next time in a sportive/race I’ll have them in my saddle bag instead.

It’s always demoralising watching people cycle past you as you’re at the edge of the road making repairs but once back on the bike you want to reclaim as much lost time as possible.  In an Ironman when there’s a marathon to run at the end it would stupid to do that but here I knew I could push a little harder – and I’d just had about 10 minutes rest!

The final 15 miles were great.  There were very few hills and I felt strong.

Before long I was back in Great Missenden and through to the finish.  105.9 miles in 6:33:58 chip time and according to my GPS it was 6:19:12 of riding time.  My average speed (when moving!) was 16.7mph.  This earned me a ’silver’ standard for the ride.  HR wise I was 138 average with 165 max.  Average cadence was 89.

Looking at my 2009 time my average speed then was 16.2mph with a ride time of 6:35:38.  Because of missing a turning this includes 6 minutes extra time, so an accurate ride time for 2009 would be around 6:29:38.  HR wise I was 132 average with 162 max.

So, all in all coming off the back of a big few days of training I was 10 minutes faster in ride time than in 2009.  I even managed run of just under a mile back to the car after I’d finished.

Will I be back next year…. If I’m Ironman training then almost certainly.

As part of my Ironman training I had no plans to enter a ’short’ triathlon such as this but then a couple of weeks ago I managed to get a entry to the race 3 of the 2010 series via the lovely good people at For Goodness Shakes on Twitter.

The Thames Turbo races are held on bank holiday Mondays so it wouldn’t interfere with my normal training.  I chose not to taper for this race and just treat it like a good hard workout to help back-up a solid weekend of training.  The weekends training consisted of an 18.5 mile run on Saturday, culminating with a 21 minute 5k just to finish me off.  Sunday I was up early for a 2.5 mile lake swim and then a hilly 60 miles on the bike to my parents for a BBQ and family birthday party.

Monday morning dawned and at 5:20am I was busy having my breakfast of porridge and coffee.  After an easy cycle to Hampton Pool I got ready for the start – I was in the first wave of swimmers in the pool and was the 13th person to set off.  I’d not swum in a pool for about a month (having only been swimming once a week in a lake) so didn’t really know what to expect, but thankfully I had a solid clean swim with nobody overtaking me (or me overtaking people).

I came out of the water feeling good (and more hydrated than when I entered the water!) and ran to transition.  Socks, bike shoes, helmet, glasses, race number belt and away I went.  My time for the 426m and transition to the bike was 9 minutes 17, which was 64th overall (22nd in my age group – male 30-39).  Although I was 13th in and out of the water in my wave, there must have been lots of faster swimmers in the second wave, and also people with faster swim-bike transition times than I (my T1 time is always going to be slower as I’m putting on socks and bike shoes here – whereas many others don’t wear socks and have shoes already clipped into their bikes).

The bike was fairly uneventful.  I overtook about four people over the course of the 21km bike leg and straight from the start pushed as hard as I could.  It was giving it my all and no doubt my legs were feeling it from the weekends training but I did as best as I could.  My bike time was 36:20 (26th fastest and 9th in my age group).  Of the people in the first wave of competitors I was 4th to finish the bike.

Looking at the bike leg data on my GPS I averaged 22.2 mph for the 36 minutes or so.  Interestingly (well, for me!) my cadence averaged 102 – all of my other rides this year have averaged about 91 rpm cadence.  Is this indication of me ’spinning’ faster related to miles already in my legs, or is it just how things are when you bust a gut and race hard for short distances.

After the bike you have a seven minute ‘non-compete zone’ to get back to the transition area and head off to the run.  This transition was pretty quick – throw the bike on the rack, helmet off, slip my running shoes on (elastic laces make this super-easy) and away I go.

After about 1k I met up with Danny and Kirsty who were on the course supporting.  Danny was on his bike and gave me some good words of encouragement for a couple of hundred metres of so (and again at about 3.5k).

Being in the first wave of runners meant that there were very few people on the run course so it was a lonely run with nobody in sight to chase down.  I got some great support from the marshals throughout – especially the children at the drinks station at about 2k and 4k during the run.

By the time I got to the finish I was absolutely spent but very happy with how things went.  After a lovely late breakfast in Hampton Hill I headed home and awaited the final results.

My 5k run time (including transition) was 19:18 (8th fastest and 3rd in my age group) which after the pounding my legs took on the bike I was chuffed to bits with.  Run wise the first km was run at 3:57 pace (although I went past the 1k sign in about 4:30 according to my watch!) and then my GPS splits were 3:39, 3:45, 3:45 and 3:42.  This gives a time of 18:48 (GPS logged 3.1 miles) – one of my fastest 5k’s in months!  The extra time that makes up to my ‘official’ time includes bike-to-run transition and running through the car park onto the pavement (which is when I started my watch).

Overall my finishing time was 1 hour 4 minutes and 55 seconds and I finished 15th overall (out of 330 finishers) and 5th in my age group.  Looking back at the same race in August 2008 I finished 20th overall in a time of 1:06:33.  Update: final results were posted a week later and my position dropped to 17th.

Overall for a race I’d not planned to enter I really enjoyed doing a short incredibly tough workout (similar effort to a 10 mile running race) on what would normally be an easy training day.