London Marathon 2010
Well, after a couple of years trying to get into the London Marathon I’ve finally managed to get place – via my Triathlon club (PACTRAC).
Getting the news that I’d made it through the clubs selection process wad a great combination of joy, then panic as I realised that I would actually have to run 26 miles.
Training starts in earnest this week, and ramps up to the full schedule from next Monday. Plenty of time to go, but plenty to do.
I shall use the oppurtunity to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, an excellent charity suggested by Kathy, and probably very apprproiate for someone interested in the built environment.
I’ll post details about how you can sponsor me in the next few days. I’ve also applied for matched funding from Barclays so fingers crossec I’ll get that and raise lots of money for them.
Long run tomorrow, not sure I’m looking forward to it.
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Antwerp – The Swim
Unlike Monaco last year, I managed to get a pretty decent nights sleep – though I did wake just before the many alarms I’d set to make sure I didn’t oversleep. My first thought was that I could hear rain, and not just a light shower, proper, full on drenching rain. I opened the curtains to find a grey and rainy morning – an unwelcome change after a few days of pleasant (and perfect racing weather).
The later start time, meant I was able to enjoy breakfast in bed, then gather my stuff together to ride over to the start via Mum and Dad’s hotel. The ride turned out to be a good chance to blow any remaining cobwebs out, even if I was getting a thorough soaking at the time. It also saw the first glitch of the day as I rode through the streets and slipped off an almost imperceptible change in pavement height and skidded across the greasy streets.
The foot tunnel across the river not only provided a brief respite from the rain, it also provided the entertaining sight of many athletes racing through the tunnel, I would not have wanted to be walking in the opposite direction.
The left bank was now getting even more of a battering from the rain, as I cycled down to the start, I was staring to worry about keeping warm before the start – after a few minutes of this I realised this wasn’t really an issue. Putting my wetsuit on is kept until the last possible moment, as it’s like being locked in a Sauna, however for once I wanted to get it on as soon as possible.
Having got my transition ready (lots of space which was good), and chatted with a few people around me (as ever the Driven to Tri kit prompted conversation with people), it also turned out that a guy in the next row was from Brackley. Of course Antwerp is probably the closest Ironman 70.3 outside of the UK, so hardly surprising that it’s a popular race.
Met up with Mum and Dad and handed them my incredibly soggy bag and clothes, then headed onto the start box for my wave.
The start was interesting, having descended the steps that had been built and got into the lake and kept to the back, I was expecting to wait a short while before we got off, but no, we started almost instantly, and off we went.
I had a much better position in the water, so was able to swim in my own space pretty much, however I was really struggling to see where I was going – I’d opted for my non tinted goggles, which are getting a bit old, and they had really fogged up. Not only that all the reference marks were on my left, and I breathe on the right. This means that it’s pretty alarming when you can see buoys on your right! OK so I’d obviously drifted a bit, an adjustment and back off we go again. Excpet next time I look, I have a red buoy on my right again, and I can see the large buoy for the turn ahead – that’s not right, it’s too close – it was in fact the second turn of the triangular course. At this point, it’s fair to say I was lost! Bearings reestablished off I go again in the right direction – but a bit wary – at this point I can’t work out how I’ve gone so badly off course (by 90 degrees to the right).
I’ve settled back into the swim, and I’m going in a straight line, and I realise that the spit of land by the start must have an inflow into the lake, and this was pushing me (and others) off course. Mystery solved, and back to the swim – which was pretty straight forward from here, felt good once settled, and even got a bit better towards the end.
Finally I got back to the steps, and climbed up out of the lake, and headed off for Transition 1, as ever being a slow swimmer makes finding my bike not too bad, and apart from the fun of rumaging in all sorts of plastic bags it’s off we go on the bike.
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Antwerp 70.3 Race
Email to my coach Pete, bit of a technical write-up, proper race report coming soon.
Well on the whole think Sunday went pretty well (though not sure I thought so at the time).
Times were
Swim 0:47:09
T1 0:04:36
Bike 3:00:21
T2 0:02:44
Run 2:41:00
Total 6:33:06Swim
Bit of a weird start (broken into waves 3 minutes apart), but started pretty well (no worries about temperature, water temperature might have actually been warmer than air temperature).
Had problems with my sighting, but think I worked out why, the course was anti-clockwise, and as I breathe on the right hand side there was not much on that side (all the buoys on the inside). This was made worse by getting off track quite seriously twice in succession, the second time I was pointing in the wrong direction (2nd turn point rather than the first) couldn’t work out why either, however I think they may have been an inflow into the lake and a strong current pushing me to the left – suspect not much that can be done for that situation.
Time seems slow, but looking back at Monaco that’s a 7m improvement over a year – huge difference in how I felt coming out of the water as well. I think a lot ot take from this, and hopefully will see continued progress (sub 40m would be a stretching but possible goal for next year I think)
T1 bit slow as kit in bags to try and keep dry.
Bike
Pretty much went to plan, at 30km looked like I was on for 3:09, by 60km 3:04 and quite surprised to be at 3:00:21 by 90km (if only I’d got to the mat a few seconds earlier!). Was very windy in parts, but managed it well. Got stuck in a couple of races with people, but tried to refrain and go by the numbers, I knew I was generally around 30kmh on average, and didn’t see much point in pushing harder as would probabaly be too much.
I think one key factor on the bike was I changed back to my 11-26 cassette (from a 11-23 I had been using most of the season), this seemed to give me a much better ability to accelerate into the wind, or out of turns etc. So even in the windier sections, never felt as bad as Dorney the other week.
T2 went OK, bit of fun finding stuff as first time I’d seen that transition area!
Run
This started really well, first lap (about 7km) took about 45m, it wasn’t as fast as I should be able to run, but seemed like it would set me up for a decent time of 02:15 if I could keep it up (think walked a couple of times). However I just couldn’t keep that pace up, and by end of second lap and most of third was in complete survival mode with very rubbery legs. Was a bit disappointed, but on reflection I realised that it took a few races before I put in a decent run at Olympic distance, so hardly surprising if 70.3 is similar.
Overall, very please, Swim and Bike better than Monaco and MK this year. Run not so good, but given that has been my weakest area of training this year, not overly concerned.
Ankle help up well (which is good, as it felt a bit battered on the Saturday after a longer than necessary walk from registration).
Be good to focus on the run in the next few weeks before the vit (maybe some long runs or something – maybe a half marathon or something?)
Also a few things I forgot to mention in here which I’ll be discussing with Pete. Nutrition was good, run was down to legs giving up, rather than bonking like I did at the Cowman.
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Antwerp Ironman 70.3 Times
Times from the race website.
Swim: 47:09
T1: 4:36
Bike: 3:00:21
T2: 2:44
Run: 2:41:00
Total: 6:33:06
Full race report coming soon
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Antwerp 70.3 Race Preview
Last year saw me move up to the half Ironman distance (or Ironman 70.3) by taking on the mountains of Monaco, and finishing in the slow, but acceptable time of 7:49. When Pete and I sat down to review the year and talk about the races I might think about races for 2009 almost the first thing we decided on was to go for a course better suited (less hills, more flat).
After a fairly comprehensive review of all the 70.3 races, Antwerp seemed to come out on top, a good time in the year to have my main focus (peaking, rather than starting to tire as I did last year in September). Lots of great things going for it, but mainly, it’s FLAT!
Compared to Monaco, this race feels like something of an unknown, as the information available is not as comprehensive – but here’s what I do know, and what the race strategy is.
Swim (1.9km)
The swim is on a lake in the leftbank, and is a lap around it – it all looks fairly straightforward (though the video I found on You Tube did seem to show people sailing in the middle of the course – could be interesting). In terms of tactics, I’ll be looking to get into the right position at the start, at Monaco I was too far forward, and spent the first 400m trying to survive people passing me. The wave start at Antwerp should help this as well (though no doubt I’ll get overtaken at some point by the fast people in the following waves).
T1
Then it’s onto T1, Antwerp is a split transition, meaning that T1 is not in the same place as T2 – my first race like this, and again could be interesting. As usual, aiming to be quick through transition, but to also make sure I get some fluid and food down me and make sure I’m keeping these levels topped up.
Bike (90km)
The bike appears to be a tour though the city, out into a couple of loops round an industrial estate. One of the D2T triathletes did the race last year warned me to watch out for a lot of railway and tram line crossings (always the cyclists favourite!). Otherwise, the route sounds quite like London, flat with small ‘hills’.
Strategy wise, I’m splitting into 3 30km chunks (each should be just over an hour), the first will establish what pace I feel comfortable at, hen hopefully able to left and push on with the second one – this should be the fastest of the three. Then the third is either an oppurtunity to push, but keeping a focus on not killing my legs for the run. It’s very easy to push to hard on the bike (especially as it’s my strongest discipline) and lose much more time in the run than was gained on the bike.
T2
As for T1, not too fast, but not a dawdle either. Make sure I get some nutrition, and if it’s sunny, some protection, i don’t want to get burnt like I did at the Cowman.
Run (21.1km)
Looks like a very good run course, flat, and around Antwerp city centre – no long stretches into infinity, and lots of people watching and supporting.
On the other hand, my run seems to have been the weakest this year (not surprising as it exacts a toll on the respiratory system, which still feels at 80% after my bug at the beginning of the season). I also managed to do something to my ankle a few weeks back, it should be OK – but need to manage carefully.
It’s three laps, so again this helps split into a 3 part strategy. Part 1 – survive, it will be horrid of the bike, I need to keep it calm, not worry about time, and work though it. Part 2, getting better – normally would be my fastest, but will run conservatively so I can build into lap 3 – which is all about hanging on!
Race route can be found here Click here to download the route (jpg) >>
Overall, a time of 6 hours to 6 and half hours would be fantastic, but would require a very good day from me, however I expect to be under 7 hours – we shall see though, a lot of bridges to be crossed before the finish line.
So I’m pretty excited about this race, Mum and Dad are coming up to Antwerp from the end of a few weeks in France, so will be good to have some support.
The race kicks off at 1100CET on Sunday, updates here, at http://twitter.com/lxinspc and Facebook during the weekend.
Run (21.1km)
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Rituals
So what race rituals do people have? I like nice new white bar tape on my bike.
Pictures to come once I’ve put it on the bike
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Antwerp 70.3 this weekend
This weekend Is the Antwerp Ironman 70.3 I’m not sure I can say my preperation has been ideal. A virus earlier in the year took four weeks out of my training at a crucial time and I don’t really feel like I have been able to properly bounce back.
None the less I feel fairly good about the race, though not sure what the conditions might through at me. It’s a flat course which will be good unless it’s windy which I struggled with at Dorney lake the other weekend.
It’s the usual panic over packing and getting jobs done – am really needing a package from wiggle to arive tomorrow with nutrition, new bar tape and various bits and pieces.
Updates on the blog, and via Twitter at http://twitter.com/lxinspc
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A slowly growing pile of kit
- Posted using MobyPicture.com
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Bananaman Triathlon, Race Report
So two weeks ago the wheels fell off my race in the Cowman at Emberton park, not enough calories and water taken in on the bike which meant the run just didn’t happen. At Pete’s suggestion we looked for another race to go and draw a line under that performance and to work on my nutrition in the race.
The Bananaman triathlon run by Human Race events at Dorney Lake seemed to fit the bill, a 3/4 distance race – 800m swim, 30km bike and 7.5km run, the afternoon start helped as meant it was doable in a day without needing an overnight stay.
The only fly in the ointment was a pretty rubbish week with little training as yet again another flu like bug battered my system and left me feeling flat and devoid of energy. By Friday though I was starting to feel pretty human again, so the race was still on.
Race day came and the weather had cleared up from the previous day, a few showers on the journey down but nothing major.
Dorney Lake is Eton’s rowing lake (and will be a 2012 venue), and therefore looks like a very (very) large open air swimming pool. It’s just over two kilometers long and offers a good site for racing. Good views for the spectators, and a closed road bike route.
The course was two 400m laps in a rectangle at the bottom of the lake, followed by six laps around the lake, and 3 laps of an up and down course by the side of the lake. Sadly whilst the rain had held off, it was pretty windy, and it was a cross wind across the lake…
The start time came, and the swim went pretty well, Pete and I had discussed a number of things to improve the swim (especially the opening leg) which all seemed to go to plan, and it went well finishing in 19:33.
The bike however was something else, I can normally rely on the bike leg to get me out of difficulties, but the first two laps were just torrid – that cross wind was messing up both long legs of the course. Somehow it got better by lap 3, not really sure why and things were back on plan (just 10m later than I’d have preferred). I was starting to get worried that I might have pushed too hard in the last laps trying to make time back up, and that yet again I’d struggle to perform in the run. Bike was done in 01:09:56
The run went pretty well, consistent pace on a boring course where the wind was still having an effect. Did have a slow kilometer after trying to push my pace towards the end, and went too hard too soon, however managed to reign it back in and get back to a decent rhythem and finish in 41:31
So overall had a time of 02:15:12, I’d hoped for closer to 2:00:00 but I’ll settle for a race finish, and a lot of things fixed (for the time being) which should set up me up well for Antwerp in August. With a bit of a dodgy extrapolation I think the times suggest that I would have made a 3:00:00 Olympic which has been a goal for a while, so can see some progress made.
Not sure if any other races in the calendar before Antwerp, updates will be posted here if I do!
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