Saturday I planned a big ride, some 85 miles from home to my brother-in-laws in Walton On Thames, Surrey. I planned it on a website called www.ridewithgps.com an excellent resource if you have a GPS bike computer like the Gramin Edge 800.
So all was going well until mile 55 around Addlestone, Surrey when the rear mech hanger came off. Now these things are meant to break if you crash on the drive side, this hadnt broken, it just stripped its threads and the bolts holding it to the rear dropouts came away.
After some swearing, cursing and even a visit to a bike shop that was a mile from my breakdown I got it fixed at Sigma Sport in Kingston in the end so all's well that ends well.
Sunday I was out and riding around Surrey, up and over Box Hill.
In a way this was a blessing in disguise, what if this happend in the race itself? Game over.
What if it happened on holiday in Portugal? Likelehood of tracking down a spare? None to zero.
This week to make up for missing a few hours I'm taking Thursday afternoon off to put in some hilly miles that I missed Saturday.
The heatwave continues, training continues regardless, cycling in this heat I can deal with, running for 2 plus hours in 25-34 degree heat is becoming rather tiresome & boy is it tiring.
On the plus side, my stats since the start of the Fink programme are looking impressive, especially swimming, now well over 100 miles swum so far & still about 7 weeks to go so at least another 60km to swim before the day!
Tuesday 23 July 2013
Tuesday 16 July 2013
Half Ironman Sunday 14th July - Marlow
So the first big test arrives, a Half Ironman 70.3 race.
The week prior to the race I spent in the United States on business, luckily timings worked well as I was tapering to this race so no big volumes this week, I found a pool to swim in that wasnt full of fat Americans, the YMCA at Hackensack & it even opened at 0530 as well. $18 to swim in cool clean water in a 23 metre pool was great as the heat & humidity outside was debilitating. I arrived in NY around midnight Saturday, at 0600 Sunday morning I was out running 2 hours in 34 degrees & 130% humidity.
The heat was incredibly debilitating, thankfully Wednesdays Brick session was done in an air conditioned gym and Thursdays run was again done in 30+ degrees & 120+% humidity, hardcore!
Race day Sunday 14th July
A beautiful English summers day beckons, it's 7am I'm treading water in the Thames waiting for the off. The horn sounds and 1.9 km awaits. The washing machine is on full speed, arms crashing into other body parts, kicks in the face & head, thrashing the water to a foam, a few minutes go by & I settle into a rythm and try and draft another swimmer. The turn point comes around quickly, still a few swimmers around me at the turn, I spot swimmers ahead of me & I can see swimmers still swimming upstream 3-400 metres behind me so I'm not last. I can see the finish, I pick up the cadence & exit the water in 33 minutes. My best ever 1.9km by a long way, into transition.
On the bike and its a climb out of Marlow onto the Henley road for a 2.5 lap 56 mile bike course, only 2 hills, well 1 hill you ascend twice, its not steep just a long draggy climb for 3 miles. The roads are in shit state, potholed and rough as anything, I see lots of people punctured & a few walking bikes back to the start as they have destroyed their tubeless tyres.
Bike course uneventful for me and I complete in 2:51, into transition for the change to run.
The run course is 4 x 5 km laps, by now the temperature is into the 30s, 2 laps in and I see a lot of people suffering on the run course, also still a lot of people finishing the bike leg, even some people on TT bikes and pointy helmets, always nice to beat moneyed triathletes! Lap 4 done & into the finish chute, total time 5 hrs 10 minutes, my half marathon time was 1 hr 40 mins. Mentally I'd set a target of 6 hours, I smashed it.
The week prior to the race I spent in the United States on business, luckily timings worked well as I was tapering to this race so no big volumes this week, I found a pool to swim in that wasnt full of fat Americans, the YMCA at Hackensack & it even opened at 0530 as well. $18 to swim in cool clean water in a 23 metre pool was great as the heat & humidity outside was debilitating. I arrived in NY around midnight Saturday, at 0600 Sunday morning I was out running 2 hours in 34 degrees & 130% humidity.
The heat was incredibly debilitating, thankfully Wednesdays Brick session was done in an air conditioned gym and Thursdays run was again done in 30+ degrees & 120+% humidity, hardcore!
Race day Sunday 14th July
A beautiful English summers day beckons, it's 7am I'm treading water in the Thames waiting for the off. The horn sounds and 1.9 km awaits. The washing machine is on full speed, arms crashing into other body parts, kicks in the face & head, thrashing the water to a foam, a few minutes go by & I settle into a rythm and try and draft another swimmer. The turn point comes around quickly, still a few swimmers around me at the turn, I spot swimmers ahead of me & I can see swimmers still swimming upstream 3-400 metres behind me so I'm not last. I can see the finish, I pick up the cadence & exit the water in 33 minutes. My best ever 1.9km by a long way, into transition.
On the bike and its a climb out of Marlow onto the Henley road for a 2.5 lap 56 mile bike course, only 2 hills, well 1 hill you ascend twice, its not steep just a long draggy climb for 3 miles. The roads are in shit state, potholed and rough as anything, I see lots of people punctured & a few walking bikes back to the start as they have destroyed their tubeless tyres.
Bike course uneventful for me and I complete in 2:51, into transition for the change to run.
The run course is 4 x 5 km laps, by now the temperature is into the 30s, 2 laps in and I see a lot of people suffering on the run course, also still a lot of people finishing the bike leg, even some people on TT bikes and pointy helmets, always nice to beat moneyed triathletes! Lap 4 done & into the finish chute, total time 5 hrs 10 minutes, my half marathon time was 1 hr 40 mins. Mentally I'd set a target of 6 hours, I smashed it.
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