Motivation creation

Recently I realised that not having a race to target means that although I go running for fun (which was the point of not having a formal plan), I also eat like a pig and drink like a fish. Oops. Consumed way too many carbs, and way too many units of loopy-juice lately. The remedy? Enter a race or two and get a goal to target.

Mrs, rocking the North Downs Way 50 last weekend

So - fast or far? Competent athletes have to cope with a trade off - they have these challenging decisions to make like “should I be a sub-10s 100m sprinter, a sub-13 minute 5km middle distance athlete, or a 2-hour marathoner?”. If you go super fast, you can’t do it for long; and if you go long, you lose top speed (although Mo Farah appears not to have got the memo on that one). Thankfully, 13 stone 40-year old desk-bound office workers rarely face such a conundrum.

I said a while go I didn’t see the need to enter a road marathon again, right? Didn’t say anything about trail ultras though did I. Therefore - today I entered a couple of trail ultra-marathons.

First up, on July 16th  I’ll take on the X-NRG Chiltern Challenge 2016 - a pretty 31-mile trail race through the Chilterns.

Chiltern Challenge route, 31 miles

But maybe I need bit more motivation?...

How about 50 miles worth of motivation?...

In 122 days, on September 17th, I'll have a bash at the Centurion Running Chiltern Wonderland 50. I’ve let Mrs take on the long races until now (apart form my one painful ultra experience) but watching her ace the North Downs Way 50 last weekend was (and I’m not sorry for using this word) inspirational. I saw her at 31 miles, and at the end. She looked amazing, she was running wonderfully, and was so full of happy at the end. I want that!

Chiltern Wonderland, 50 miles

I really enjoyed a run out on the North Downs Way recently, a 10 mile out and back, and would love to race on that terrain. I say “race”, really I mean “get from A to B without exploding” but that’s really the goal of ultras - to get to the end, ideally in one piece and smiling a bit.

In the mean time I seem to have swelled a little and currently tip the scales at very nearly 90kg. I feel heavy and my clothes are unflatteringly snug. There's plenty of time to fix that, so... game on!

*nervous gulp*

Event report: RideLondon 100

Executive summary: I rode London!

You want a little more detail? OK let's start with "What is RideLondon?" In their own words:

"Prudential RideLondon: an annual two-day festival of cycling – a true legacy of the 2012 Games"

"Developed by the Mayor of London and his agencies, Prudential RideLondon will be a world-class festival of cycling taking place over the weekend of Saturday 3 August and Sunday 4 August 2013."

"There will be no other closed-road event like it that combines the fun and accessible element of a free family ride in central London with the excitement of watching the world’s best professional cyclists race in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic and Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix."

"Taking a cue from the London Marathon, amateur cyclists will also participate in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 – a 100-mile challenge on the same closed roads as the professionals, with the added incentive of raising money for good causes. To capture it all, the best action will be broadcast live on TV in the UK and internationally, to be seen by an audience of millions."

I can't help thinking this is a slightly threatening warning!

I took part in the RideLondon Surrey 100, though the path to getting there was fairly tortured. I initially entered the ballot and didn't get a place - the only person I know who entered unsuccessfully. I then got a formal email from their lawyers. This is because a few years ago I had an idea to cycle between all the London Underground stations in one go for charity (kind of an overland tube challenge) - to my knowledge it's still never been done, but gets talked about from time to time. I decided to call that project "Ride London" (can you see where this is going yet?). I registered @RideLondon on twitter, ridelondon.wordpress.com for a blog, youtube.com/ridelondon and ridelondon on flickr. If you're going to start a project, it's wise to snap up the social real-estate first.

Clearly RideLondon hadn't done that, and ended up with @Ride_London on twitter. They wanted the names and had looked at my Ride London social presence and decided I wasn't using it. In their words:

"This has caused much confusion for our audience and we believe the brand is not receiving the level of engagement it ought to be"

I'd received maybe a half dozen mentions form the "confused" audience, so I didn't think it was that bad - but they had a point, I wasn't progressing my project and I didn't want to be a pain in the arse for an initiative I fully supported. I said I'd give them the names if they gave me a place. They agreed.

I got a link to sign up - but although it was guaranteed entry, I still had to pay - again! (I donated my original entry fee to charity). I made a note to have a word, work got hella-busy, and the deadline passed. I forgot about it.

Then my wonderful amazing wife won her Freespeed competition and the delightful people at Virgin Active said "hey, do you guys fancy doing Ride London?" - she had won a place in the ballot (as I said, literally everyone I know who entered got in) but swapped that for this prize-spot, and got me a place too - so I was in! I went from no place, to a guaranteed place, to a free place - it really doesn't get much better than that. Thank you Virgin Active and Team Freespeed for being awesome on a weekly basis :)

We got a cheap and nasty Travelodge for the night before, neither of us wanted to cycle to the Olympic park from Wimbledon in the middle of the night. We chose somewhere near the finish so we didn't have far to stagger afterwards which meant a 30 min gentle ride in the morning. When we set off it was 4:30am and there was just the two of us, bike lights twinkling in the first suggestions of a clear summer dawn.

Arriving at the Olympic Park, along with every other cyclist in the South East

Quickly we were joined by a few more, and then more. Cyclists joining us on the A40 from every direction, through the city, and the same on the A11 until by the time we hit Stratford there was a continual stream of us. I had a Pied Piper experience for some of it as I found myself at the front (through timing, not because I was hoofing it) and leading the way. A few surreptitious checks of google maps on my phone were required to make sure I didn't fork us off the route to somewhere random.

Freespeeders!

Departure times were staggered from about 6am to 8am, with the fastest going off first to avoid congestion on the road. Some of the other Freespeed crew were riding too, they'd all got into "C" wave so were the third group to leave. We'd been assigned group "T" and were due to set off at 7:55! I had visions of being surrounded by people on Boris bikes and shoppers with baskets on the front - I know I'm not quite at race fitness right now but I'm not that bad! We decided to show up to the Olympic Park two hours early and sneak in with the other Freespeed guys (we all had Freespeed kit on, so I figure they won't check too closely). We got away with it (we weren't the only ones, we saw a few other interlopers, but they really were the exception).

Me & Mrs, ready to go

We were directed down to the starting area and eventually, after some waffle from Mayor Boris, we were off! Well, the "A" group were off, we shuffled forward a bit, then the "B" group went, and we shuffled more... And then we were off! The organisation was absolutely excellent - the starting system worked perfectly as far as I could see, and everyone set off at a fair pace. They acknowledged that people wouldn't want their overall time to be impacted by congestion at the start, so the start timing mat was a couple of miles down the road, plenty of time for us to get organised on the road - a really nice touch that I'm sure prevented a lot of silly riding in the first miles. Each letter had a "Black" and "Blue" variant too, with the two streams being kept separate for the first few miles and being released in turn. Flawless execution, massive respect to the organisers and volunteers.

Looking back you can see start wave "D" waiting behind us - the pens worked very well

Freespeed, locked and loaded

Off under the start banner, the timing start isn't for a couple more miles

So we were off! 100 miles ahead of us. We were both a little concerned that we hadn't cycled this far for a very long time. I still had a lot of fatigue in my legs from the fun of the Virgin Active London Triathlon the weekend before, and a battering from my new friends at Athletic Edge on Thursday (those guys are excellent, can't praise them enough - I'm really enjoying my strength and conditioning workouts now - and how many triathletes can say that with a straight face?). Mrs was worried about making the cut-off times.

A few nutbars did it on single-speed bikes - this Bianchi Pista is one of my favourite bikes

The first few miles were fantastic - we flew down the A12 - three lanes of perfect tarmac and not a car in sight. After chatting with the Freespeeders in the starting funnel we soon let them drift out of sight in the first mile or two - this was a conscious decision, to try and stay with them would have been foolish to say the least. We chatted and enjoyed the perfect roads and fast pace. Through to the Blackwall Tunnel, across the top of East India (past Anchorage House, where I used to work), turning round Telehouse - one of the earliest and most famous data centres, and then onto the Limehouse Link. How strange to have ridden these closed roads two weeks in a row. Down Embankment, out through the West End and on towards Richmond, a detour through Richmond Park, and to Kingston.

Action shot - you won't often see the A12 like this!

We stopped at Hampton Court Palace for a breather and a cup of tea. We'd made great progress! Such fun! The rest stops were just as well organised as the start. There were three hubs spread equally across the 100 miles with additional drink-only stops in between them. If you were finding it hard, you were never that far from a break. The hubs had food (bananas, some new McVitee's Medley bars, and - wonderfully - little packets of pretzels and Sunbites, salty savoury snacks, perfect). They also had hot drink facilities, toilets, bike parking (transition racks), and mechanics available to fix any niggling problems that had come to light.

Tea at Hampton Court Palace, how civilised

This is the last time I'm saying it: The organisation was excellent!

We set off again, out into deepest Surrey and towards Guildford. We continued to make good time. The faster waves were still drifting past us, but not so fast now. The route was good and road surfaces generally excellent. At one of the drink stops we bumped into Boris! He was in high spirits and seemed to be doing really very well indeed. Operation Chiselled Whippet was clearly paying off, though as he admitted in his starting words, he had a long way to go to get to the level of the "mahogany whippets" on the start line!

London Mayor, Boris "Chiselled Whippet" Johnson

We took a long stop at about mile 50. I'd found miles 40-50 quite hard for some reason and was grateful for a longer pause. We stayed for about 45 minutes in the end. I enjoyed some food, and then we saw the tea hut - two teas and two bacon rolls later and we were much revived.

Mrs, looking effortlessly cool

The general profile of the course was 50 miles "flat", 25 miles "bumpy", and then the final 25 miles "flat". We'd heard plenty of talk about Leith Hill - the longest and steepest climb in the bumpy bit. When it came it was indeed a tough one, but as these things often are it was much bigger in our heads than in reality. Mrs got a good start and pulled away, I dug in and after having to take some evasive action to get round a crash that happened right in front of me, we both got up there in one piece. It's a good hill, "honest", and I'll certainly be incorporating it into my training rides. The view from the top was outstanding!

The bumpy part of the course passed quickly. We continued to stay together occasionally one or other of us getting a lead, but usually in sight. Before we knew it we were back in the Leatherhead area and going up Box Hill.  We've both conquered this one many times - I always think it has a reputation it can't live up to (good for hill reps though) - there's no taking away from the vista at the top though, a great view across Surrey. We decided to stop at the famous Box Hill cafe which, ironically, was quieter than normal for a weekend with no queue at all for refreshments - the third and final hub was just a mile past the summit and it seemed most people were waiting for the free stuff. We had our final cup of tea of the ride, and shared a treacle sponge. Perfect.

A good view on the low slopes of Box Hill (and in fact most of the other hills of the day)

Box Hill cafe area - eerily quit, normally you can't find space to sit down here

The Box Hill Cafe cakes are legendary, and this treacle tart was no exception

The route back was on roads known to us. Down from Box Hill, through Esher and past Sandown Park race course where we stopped to get some brief medical attention for Mrs who had an achy elbow - a quick ice pack sorted that out.

A quick icing

I don't think they were going to run out of water at this drinks station...

Always time for a quick stretch, especially those tight hammies!

Then it was up through Kingston again, through Wimbledon and up Wimbledon Hill (within a mile of our house!), past the famous Wimbledon Common and the windmill, over the A3, down through Putney, and up towards Millbank and the Houses of Parliament.

Outside the Houses of Parliament - nearly there!

We turned up Whitehall from Parliament Square, left at Trafalgar Square, then onto the Mall where the crowds were thick and the noise tremendous. Amazing support, thank you people of London, you were great.

Finished! On The Mall with Buckingham Palace behind us

Our finish times were identical, 7:50:03 - but this included all our stops. According to my Garmin our moving time to cover the 100 miles was 5:55:26 - I'm totally happy with that.

The final 10 miles had been at a ferocious pace - I don't know where she got her energy from, but Mrs was absolutely slamming it, I was on my drops and virtually time-trialling just to keep her in sight. Her riding had been fantastic all day - strong, confident, fast, and I'd got genuinely dropped on a couple of occasions (OK so we weren't racing all-out, but it took considerable effort to regain her wheel). Her riding has gone from strength to strength, and she's a visibly more accomplished cyclist this year - watch out world, the little hint of cycling potential we got at 70.3 Galway last year (when we were both fitter than we've ever been, and I was having the bike leg of my life and yet was still only 7 minutes ahead after 80km on the bike when she crashed) might just be coming into play...

It's all about the bling

A weighty piece with a route map on the back

We chilled out for a while afterwards in the sun - we'd done it! A fantastic psychological boundary for us both, and we were really very very happy. What an excellent day. Back to our hotel (so glad we'd got somewhere close!) and then to Byron Burger for a bloody great nosh up and beer (yes, beer!).

Perfect day.

Time to man-up and hit the reset button

This blog was about my quest to become an ironman. Well the votes are in and the results are out: I made it. Wimbleball, Bolton, Galway, Tenby - all finished, and I've got the incredibly rare Ironman Ultimate Finisher glassware to show for it.

My second full distance Ironman finishing chute, Ironman Wales 2012

At some point after Tenby I got a bit too wrapped up in entering more events, and wanting to go faster and further. I went balls-out on the Royal Parks Half Marathon and got myself a bout of ITBS to show for it. That wasn't fun, and it still isn't. I haven't run since November. I thought cycling was fine, so I got excited about cycling and put my efforts into completing a turbo-trainer mega-set over Christmas. Turns out cycling brought on ITBS too, so no more cycling either.

Rolling into 2013 the races I wanted to do and in some cases had already entered are ticking past without me in them. The first Hell of The Ashdown (last year's report) I've missed in 4 years, The London Ultra (Mrs ran it, she had an amazing day, and so did parkrun extraodinaire abradypus - I cheered them on), Thames Turbo Race 1 (Mrs raced it she had a good day - I marshalled and cheered, good fun). Next up is Thames Turbo Race 2, I won't be in that either.

I was signed up for Coach Joe Beer's tri-camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote. I went there at the end of January with a month of pain-free knee. Lanzarote was great - incredible place, if a bit windy. I had already paid to take my bike out, so I took it. I cycled a bit too much, and on the morning of the last day the pain came back.

The leisure pool at CLub La Santa (the only Sports/Holiday camp with its own theme song)

I did absolutely nothing for 2 weeks afterwards, then got back onto my exercises (as scheduled by Mountain Man Rob Turner). I've been sticking vaguely to my rehab exercises since then - probably not as well as I should though.

I went Low Carb High Fat from mid-November, I saw great results up until Christmas with everything positive - the weight fell off and I got lower than I've ever been before. As I got more unhappy and rolled into 2013 I totally broke it. I made a string of very poor nutrition decisions, including stopping logging my intake entirely since the start of February. I thought I had everything in check and could freewheel. I couldn't. Recently I've put on weight at an astonishing weight due to continuing poor meal decisions. I've broken my adaptation to being a fat-burning athlete, I've eaten cake, pizza, toast - all of which now leave me with a horrible bloated stomach and a real toxic stomach ache as I'm just not used to processing carbs in such volumes lately. I've totally over-consumed alcohol, and I commented when I started this journey over a year ago that I have a problem with that.

I have stopped working with my coach (thanks Joe, you were great), and I'm not going to South Africa for Unogwaja or Comrades (I got accepted, I got excited, then ultimately declined - though not because of this injury).

Terrible clip-art, shamelessly stolen. I'm not proud.

The only person that can turn this around is me. So I am. It's time to man-up, take control, and hit the reset button. There it is, above. You can hit it too if you feel you could use a symbolic action.

The positives are that I am getting stronger. I can now cycle-commute twice per week as long as it's not on consecutive days, and I don't get any pain. If I carry on improving I could start running slowly and minimal duration as early as the end of April. I have an aim to run Wimbledon Common parkrun on my birthday - that would be a significant moment. I really miss parkrun.

I'm going to remove those races from the countdown on the front page (apart form the couple I'm still signed up for). I'm going to freshen up the colour scheme a bit. I did consider just not blogging any more (I achieved the point of the blog after all), but I think there are more races and adventures to come. I'm going to celebrate the success of last year - without feeling the need to go bigger and bolder this year.

I'm logging my nutrition in the wonderful Weight Loss Resources again to get a grip. I know the weight falls off when I'm well balanced - recently I haven't been, but I can be again. It'll all be good again, and I'll return stronger than I ever was before, ready for my next challenge, whatever that turns out to be...

Podcasts, Ultras, and The Road to Unogwaja

20 months ago, if it had existed then, I'd have been listening to the wonderful parkrun show podcast by Danny Norman and Nicola Forwood without having ever completed a parkrun. I'd still have enjoyed it, but I'd feel a little like an impostor - parkrunning vicariously through the adventures of others. I fixed that in April 2011 when I ran my first 5km parkrun at Wimbledon Common. I was hooked, and the regular reader will have noticed my subtle pro-parkrun stance. There were, however, a few more of my favourite podcasts I needed to "legitimise".

The parkrun show on facebook

This summer, I was overjoyed to complete my first (and second) full distance Ironman events, which meant I could legitimately enjoy IMTalk (iTunes) - the absolutely fantastic Ironman-centric podcast by Coach John Newsom and Bevan James Ayles.

IMTalk podcast

My Mrs met them in Kona this year and had a great time (and got mentioned quite a few times on the show as a result). I was proud to give the guys some exposure and finished both IM 70.3 Ireland in Galway and IM Wales in Tenby in my IMTalk tri-suit.

L-R: John Newsom (IMTalk), Nick Rose (@ironrosey), and Bevan James Ayles (IMTalk)

220 Triathlon magazine had approached Ironman for an Age Group athlete to run an article on in their November edition, and my name was suggested. So I managed to get IMTalk even more love and exposure by getting my article in the number one triathlon magazines in the UK.

My 15-minutes of fame in 220 Triathlon magazine (click for larger image)

As I outlined in a previous post, I was hoping to run a stand-alone marathon at the end of November - and as a result be officially able to consume the wonderful Marathon Talk podcast (iTunes) from Tom Williams and Martin Yelling. Unfortunately, and frustratingly, it doesn't look like that's going to be the case.

Marathon Talk podcast, by Martin Yelling and Tom Williams

I suffered some pain in my left knee after the Royal Parks Half Marathon recently, and it's never really settled. A couple of times I've needed to cut some runs short as it's started to hurt, and even when that hasn't been the case I've suffered quite badly in the hours following a run. Last week I decided to have a full week away from running, and then gently plodded around Wimbledon Common parkrun yesterday in the positively pedestrian time of 28 minutes and 27 seconds. A little wobble from the knee at 4km, but everything felt OK by the end.

Within an hour or two I found I couldn't get up off the sofa without yelping in pain. This lasted a few hours, and then by late afternoon all was well again. It's fine this morning, but clearly something is wrong. On Monday, I'll go to the Doctor, and get a referral to a physio to get it checked out properly.

I'm very frustrated about this right now, partly as Mrs has just gone out for a 90 minute run, and I'd like nothing more than to have gone with her, but mainly for the following three Very Big Reasons.

Reason #1 that I need to get my knee fixed...

Despite still not being able to listen to Marathon Talk yet, I am still hoping to legitimise my enjoyment of the incredible Talk Ultra podcast hosted by Ian Coreless (with early editions co-hosted by ultra-running superstar Ian Sharman). This is a fortnightly release focusing on the ultra-running scene. It's a long production, regularly well over 2 hours, and with in-depth interviews and discussions and thought-provoking interviews on training and nutrition. It's opened my eyes to a world of opportunities I didn't even realise existed. It turns out people can run a long way, a really long way.

The more you listen to these productions, the more it becomes apparent that the athletes completing these races are regular down-to-earth guys and girls like you and I. They train hard and have incredible mental strength, but what they're doing isn't outside the realms of possibility (OK, so the times they're putting in are far outside the ability of most, but the distances less so). As ultra-running legend Karl Meltzer says in the intro to his regular "Meltzer Moment" section on Talk Ultra, "100 miles is not that far".

Ultra-running legend "Speedgoat" Karl Meltzer: 100 miles is not that far (image form here)

As a result, I have entered the London Ultra 50km, to be held on 17th February 2013. Of course, I haven't just been brainwashed by podcasts, there is another reason I've entered this race. That brings me on to...

Reason #2 that I need to get my knee fixed...

I've entered possibly one of the most iconic and well-known ultra marathons in the world - the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. This race has an incredible history, having been held every year since 1921 (with exception for the war years of 1941 to 1945). The course runs from Pietermaritzburg to Durban one year (the "Down" run), and back the next (the "Up" run). 2013 is an Up run. Read How It All Began on the Comrades Marathon website. The wikipedia entry has a detailed history of the race throughout the decades.

Comrades Marathon

I automatically meet the entrance requirements by being a full distance Ironman finisher during the qualification period, but I am confident I can get a better placing by completing the London Ultra in a good (for me) time.

Ever since I heard the inspiring Comrades Special edition of Talk Ultra it's been on my wish list. I was never intending to enter it in 2013 (my original plan was to try and go fast at IM 70.3 in 2013, and think about learning to run a long way later) - but one big amazing jaw-dropping opportunity popped up in front of me. And that is reason 3...

Reason #3 that I need to get my knee fixed...

The @TalkUltra twitter account retweeted some content from @ComradesMarathon that made reference to @theunogwaja. Thinking "What's that?" I checked it out. The second I read the description, I wanted to do it. Immediately, right there and then, my plans for 2013 were rewritten.

This is from the Unogwaja Challenge website:

The Unogwaja challenge was initiated to follow the footsteps of Comrades legend Phil Masterton-Smith, who was affectionately known as “Unogwaja” which means the Hare in Zulu.

Phil Masterton-Smith was involvedin two of the closest finishes in Comrades Marathon history, when in 1930 he narrowly lost to the great Wally Hayward. The following year in 1931, he battled against Noel Burree, and crossed the finish line meters ahead to claim Comrades Victory and become the youngest ever Comrades winner at the age of 19.

In 1933 Masterton-Smith couldn’t afford the train fare from Cape Town to run the Comrades Marathon, so he cycled over 1700kms from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg in 10 days, and on the 11th day he ran the gruelling Comrades Marathon and came in 10th position. Noel Burree and Phil Masterton Smith – 1931

Tragically Phil Masterton-Smith was killed in action on 5th June 1942 by a mortar bomb, defending the Gazala line during the siege of Tobruk in World War II.

This ultimate story of passion, willpower, courage and determination was mirrored by four young men, who followed in the footsteps of Phil Masterton-Smith 78 years later. Team Unogwaja succeeded in cycling 1677km’s in 10 days from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg, and then running the Ultimate Human Race on day 11.This journey came alive & the Unogwaja team came together through Red Sock Friday (RSF), an initiative that shares its origin, like Comrades, in the aftermath of a World War, and is a global community of people who share a common passion for life and positive energy. The moment that founder of RSF, John McInroy, heard the story of Unogwaja from Dr WP van Zyl, a stranger at the time, the two knew this was a path they were going to follow.

2013 is the third year of the Unogwaja Challenge, and the first year it's being opened to the public and only 12 places are available. I went through the application process, I exchanged tweets and emails with John McInroy, and then had a Skype interview with him the day after Mrs' 40th Birthday celebrations.

The Unogwaja Challenge is open to the public for the first time in 2013

I found out on Friday that I've been accepted onto the challenge!

So that's my focus now: The London Ultra 50km in February, and the Unogwaja Challenge and Comrades Marathon in May and June. And this is why I need to get my knee fixed Pretty Damn Quickly.

Despite what it says in the header to this blog, it turns out 140.6 miles isn't really very far at all - I need to reset my belief of what's possible (and probably update my blog design as a result).

Life changes so quickly, it can be hard to keep up. Stay open to adventure, grasp the chances that cross your path, and never be afraid to dive into the unknown.

PS: I don't really believe that you aren't entitled to listen to listen to the parkrun show, Marathon Talk, Talk Ultra, or IMTalk if you haven't completed the events they discuss - in fact quite the opposite. These podcasts have educated and excited me so much, and I don't think I'd have such bold objectives if it wasn't for them showing me what's possible. Download and listen now!

Gold session

Sometimes a training session is just not fun. Crap weather, niggling injury, head not in the right place - but you go out anyway, and you get the job done. It might not be the best day ever but the session was done and the time is "in the bank" - you'll benefit from the training and it'll contribute in some small way to your improvement.

Today was not one of those days, in fact I felt damn-near invincible. The day called for a long ride, and a short run at 90% max effort (how convenient for that most parkrun blessed of days, Saturday). I decided to head up to St Albans parkrun. It's near enough that I can ride there without a crazy early start (I've been sleep deprived enough this week as it is), and it's not a course I've done before. I also needed to do some hard effort periods, 3x 10 minutes well into HR Zone 2. I decided on taking a long route back, and riding the last 10 minutes of every hour at high intensity.

The ride to St Albans was uneventful, apart from some GPS woes. My watch lost about 10km of the route - oddly retaining HR data for the period, but no position. Following that my Garmin Edge 705 which I've recently rediscovered and now plot all my routes into in advance, took 2 reboots to find any satellites. Maybe it was a bit foggy up there in low-orbit land today.

The short (largely flat) route from Wimbledon to St Albans, 46km, 1h 47m

I found the park and got changed. For once I'd arrived in good time, and had a chance for a snack and drink and warm-up jog (I was already fairly warm after an hour and 45 minutes of cycling, but you still need to remind the legs what running is).

We set off on the 9th toll of the bells from the local church (and proved once again that, just like at any New Year's Eve gathering, although large groups of people can count, they certainly can't hold good time). The course runs down a slight incline for 750m or so, round a large pond 3 times, then back up the hill.

Lots of ducks and assorted pond-dwellers to avoid

My first km ticked over in 04:18, well, I thought, it is downhill after all. I had to keep the effort high, so I just thought I'd try holding this pace. 2nd km ticked over in 04:21, nice. I didn't feel too bad either - cadence high, steps light. I'd already reeled in quite a few people who had gone off harder than they could sustain. 3rd km in 04:25 - OK this was starting to look good. I was still holding the pace and cadence well, and felt strong with it. I'd overtaken a few more fast starters too. The 4th km went in 04:22 - great pacing, I was excited now, if I could pull something out of the bag for the final km I might be on for a really good (for me) time. I rounded the corner, gave a push up the short steep part at the start of the finishing incline, and made a big effort. There was a tall man I'd been gradually gaining on the last laps round the pond, I made it a mission to beat him. Digging in I reeled him back, and overtook him with 20m to go - a sprint for the line and it was over.

My official time was 21:30 - a massive PB, taking 45s off my previous best! It was also a new PB on (deep breath) age graded performance (61.71%), gender position (15th of 69 males giving 21.74%, absolute position (17th of 122 finishers giving 13.93%), and age category placing (SM35-39, 2nd of 11 giving 18.18%). And now the world knows how needy I am about my parkrun stats. I've got graphs and spreadsheets too - would you like to see?

Check out that even pacing!

Changed, back on the bike, and off for the ride home - the long way. Legs were understandably fried for the first half hour, but some easy spinning settled them down. I'd decided that the last 10 minutes of every hour were going to be at a hard pace. I was scheduled to be in HR Zone 2, but I can't see my watch when I'm putting a big effort in to see where my heart rate is, so I just decided to "go for it" and see what happened. 0:50:00 came up just as I was turning a 90 degree left hander, I summoned myself to start with the effort and looked up to find a bloody great wall of a hill in front of me! Oh well, better see what I can get done. I put the pedal to the metal for 10 minutes, powering up hills and pushing hard out of the saddle on the flat. I was battered by the end and thankful to sit back down and just spin the wheels.

The long (hilly) route from St Albans to Wimbledon, 96km, 3h 53m

1:50:00 came round quickly, and I went hard again. No idea if I was putting hard enough (or too hard) an effort in. The route was quite varied. I went through narrow country lanes, up and down steep little hills, and past so many enormous and beautiful houses that I lost count. I thought I would find the last 10 minute effort very hard, but as 02:50:00 came round I gave it everything I had left. I flew past a couple of surprised London Dynamo riders who had overtaken me earlier, and really kept the pressure on. I was really surprised at how hard I could go even with everything that had come before today. At the end of the third hard push I found myself at the far end of the Thames Turbo Triathlon bike course, so the way home form here was on autopilot.

The 3x 10 minutes of hard effort are clear, and were at exactly the effort I was aiming for

Today was coloured Gold in my training diary - that means it was a breakthrough session. I feel like today I pushed my boundaries and achieved more than I have before. Over 150km of cycling with 30 minutes of real hard effort - and a massive 5km PB in the middle. Training days don't get much more motivating than this. I try to ask myself regularly before/during/after training, and in other relevant decisions in my life, "Will this make me a better Ironman?". Today the answer is yes, today's training will make me a better Ironman.

Tomorrow is a double-run day, 45 minutes in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon. Let's see if my legs have forgiven me by then! (I've fed them righteous pizza, so they can't be too stroppy about it).

Race Report: Stowe olympic distance triathlon

The On Your Marks Events Stowe Olympic Triathlon is another of the important "preparing for Ironman" races that Mrs and I have had on the calendar since last year. We wanted to do at least one sprint and one olympic before the first half IM.

Hartwell House Hotel

We've been hard at it, working and training, so I decided to get us a nice place to stay near the race for Saturday night. Hartwell House Hotel was a beautiful building with a quirky interior. We had tea and scones in the afternoon (more lard-loading than carb-loading), and then dined on over-priced steak. The TV in the room had a stand-by light so bright we cast a shadow on the headboard. I stuck a piece of card over it. The night-porter misread my breakfast instructions, so we got forgotten about in the morning; and on checkout the receptionist was quite short with Mrs. I hope our visit was atypical, but I wouldn't recommend it.

A hard afternoon spent "lard-loading"

We got to Stowe in good time to get ready. This weekend was all about the country houses. Registration was in "The Marble Room", and transition was set up out front. We racked up, and headed on the long walk down to the lake.

Transition outside the main entrance

Transition - and my bike (HED tri-spokes) racked up in some seriously expensive company

Registration in "The Marble Room"

For once, we were allowed in the water a good period of time before the swim, so I warmed up for about 10 minutes. When we set off I had my usual 5 minutes of panic - however I learned what triggers it. It seems to be as soon as I get the cold water in my nose. I immediately fight for breath, lift my head out of the water, and lose all form or pace for about 5 minutes. I'll need to work on that.

Open water swim GPS plot from my new Garmin 910XT - awesome stuff!

I started at the front but everyone swam away from me. After 5 minutes or so I started getting control back, and began to swim more strongly. My form improved over the next 15 minutes and I reeled in the second group and swam right through them, to exit in between the front and second groups. I think my swim could be good, but I need to fix the start. It's happened in every single open water event do far.

A "feature" of this course is the 800m run from Swim Exit to T1. My HR went through the roof to start with, and running up was hard. I thought the run was supposed to be at the end?

The run comes early at Stowe - 800m from Swim Exit to T1

T1 was uneventful, and I set out on the bike course. It was a rolling course, one or two hills that needed the small ring - glad I fitted my front derailleur on Friday night (it worked perfectly). I reeled in a couple of fast-swim slow-bike competitors quickly, and picked off 3 or 4 more round the course. It was fairly quick - I could have gone faster if I'd have been more familiar with the corners. This shows the value of good reconnaissance. A few bits of blustery wind as we went through Silverstone, but other than that it was a solitary and uneventful ride in the sun. I made a last minute decision to tape a couple of gels to my top tube. The tape held the tab firmly so I could pull the gel off and open it at the same time. Despite the worthwhile principle of "never trying anything new in a race" (or "TEST IT", Try Everything Several Times In Training), it worked perfectly. Not going to make a habit of this behaviour though.

T2 was quick, well under a minute, and out on the run. My aim for the day was to feel strong in the run. In the two olympic distance triathlons I've completed before I've suffered from some discomfort due to trapped wind (I suspect from taking in air into my gut on the swim), and general knackeredness. I set off relatively well clocking in at about 5 minutes per kilometre - that was around my target pace. However the course was very twisty with lots of 90-degree turns and some even more acute. The terrain was uneven and there were many ups and downs. For a great 5-10 minutes I had a few guys running along with me who had caught my on the run but couldn't find the pace to break past - it felt like a real race! They soon overtook me though and disappeared. I felt like I was putting in a better run than I have before though - I didn't have the usual stream of guys running past me like I was stood still. I found it hard going at the end, but overall I'm pleased. I held in or around 5min/km all the way through, didn't have any internal distresses, and managed a fast-jog finish if not quite a sprint.

My provisional timings - positions are in my start wave, not over all competitors

Me'n'Mrs with our generic SwimBikeRun medals

Generic SwimBikeRun medal - event name or date would have been nice

All things considered, this was a good day out. My time was about 10 minutes faster than I thought it was going to be, and it was good pre-Wimbleball experience to race on a course that actually had some hills in it - particularly the run. I winged it a bit on equipment and preparedness, but won't be taking those risks again, particularly for the long-course events.

Drove home via some M40 services for Cheese and Marmite sandwich, Cheesecake, and "Grande Skinny Caramel Macchiato" (Mrs recommended it, I'm not sure I know what any of those words mean) and it was a lovely refuelling experience. Got home and ate Pizza. Yum.