Entries tagged with “events” from TRI-ing harder

Roger managed a very impressive 1:34:51 for his first triathlon. I was especially impressed by the fact that he beat his 5k PB by a couple of minutes. This demonstrates the work that he's put in recently.  Now he has something to aim for in the next one! 

I managed to beat last year's time by 2 minutes (1:0:56), despite the organisers extending the run by a few hundred metres!  More exciting for me, though,

I'm competing at Newbury triathlon tomorrow for the 3rd time. As well as being a good benchmark for people like me (hoping to beat 1h 12m of last year), it's an especially good race for triathlon beginners: well organised, friendly, short pool swim (300m) and a mostly flat bike and run.  My friend and colleague Roger is undertaking Newbury as his first triathlon.   Good luck Roger!... and everyone else competing in this, the 20th running of this great event.

"Mostly Harmless" was how the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy describes Earth, and the same can largely be said of the Headington 10k.  Flat and featureless, the race starts and ends at Wormihghall airfield in Buckinghamshire (see map below).  Around 4k is run on the airfield and the rest is on the roads surrounding it.  It's not the most scenic, exciting or challenging, but it was still a good run for a Sunday morning.

There was a good turnout this morning of around 15 Roadrunners, and probably a couple of hundred others. It was not too hot, but  with thunderstorms forecast for later in the day it got gradually more humid, until rain started at about 11 o'clock.

My previous 10k runs at Eynsham, and at Windsor Triathlon were right on the button at 52 minutes, but I have been doing a lot of running over the past few months - mainly slower running with my various newcomers, but also a little speed work at the gym.  At the Oxford Motavation last week I managed 30:40, so on that basis - about 7:40 per mile / 4:50 per km - I was aiming for sub-48 minutes. This would be a significant increase over my previous times, but I guessed I could manage it.

I hit the first, second and third kilometre markers bang on the money at around 5 minutes per mile.  My aim was to stay at this pace, and stay with Jane for the first half of the race, then put in a faster second 5k.  My 5k time was 24:33, but I felt OK. 

At the water station just after 5k, I took on some water and almost by accident sped up a little to pass Jane.  Once past her I thought "might as well keep going", so I tried to keep a stronger pace.   I managed to kick past quite a few people over the next few kms. I had a bit of a 'funny' at around 7k, where I'd convinced myself that I'd already done 8k, and at that point I started to lose track of my time and what I needed to do to hit 48 minutes.

I hit the nine kilometre mark at 43:35 - only 4:25 to go.  I'd been starting to flag a little, but now had to put the hammer down for the last few hundred metres.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I started to hear the finish-line crowd and managed to kick for a final time. 

I almost threw up on the finish line - again (am I doing something wrong here?!) - but was delighted to finish in 47:51.  It shows that the training is paying off - even the slow running must be helping, and hopefully I'll start to catch some of the real ERR runners who can do sub-40 minutes. Perhaps a little way to go before that, though.

Sorry I've been quiet for a while (Emma)! I've so much to tell you all: Blenheim triathlon hell, triathlon heaven at my first Olympic distance in Windsor, and how my running recruits got on (hint: they did well), and much, much more.

But I have no time! I'm busy packing - or at least thinking about packing - to head off to Paris by bicycle.  That's right, myself and 14 other fools will be cycling the roughly 350 miles from Eynsham to Paris starting on Friday. We're aiming to arrive in Gay Paris on Monday, and with Le Tour in full swing by then we're hoping for a good welcome as we roll into town in our Eynsham Road Runners cycling jerseys! 

But I witter.. I must go now, but wanted to say à bientôt before I went.  I will be trying to do some blogging or photo logging whilst I'm away, so you might hear more from me.  At the very least I will do something with my Facebook profile.  And I'm possibly going to be using Bliin to track my progress (on my brand new Nokia phone - that I won at the Windsor triathlon! But that's another story, which I don't have time for!), so you may or may not be able to see my current location on the trip by checking out my bliin.com homepage, and/or on the image below.

This is a big weekend for my three runners, and also for me.  Rosie, Katie and Roger are running the Race for Life and Run for Moore in Oxford South Parks (Katie at Silverstone racetrack), and I've got the Blenheim Triathlon.  

It's their first running event, and I'm sure they're all a bit nervous - I'm nervous for them!  But I know they'll all do really well - I'm expecting Roger to do a sub-30 minute 5k (maybe even 25 minutes?), and Rosie and Katie won't be too far behind.

Blenheim is one of my races from last year so I have something to compare against. I'm definitely much stronger this year and should be able improve on my rather pitiful 34 minute "run".  Overall I think I can shave 20 minutes off last year's time.  With Sophie and parents in attendance, and a new Oxford Tri club tri-suit to show off, I am hoping to perform well.

Good luck to all us!

14th - 22nd June 2008 is National Bike Week.  During the week, people will be encouraged to ditch the car or that pesky walking and get on a bike - possibly for the first time since childhood.  This year organisers are promoting family-oriented cycling and there are literally thousands of great events to get families cycling together and enjoying the Great British Countryside (let's hope for good weather in the Great British "Summer"), and so there are rides for all ages and abilities.

If you want to know more, or want to take part, check out the website and find an event near you.  Go on, get on your bike.

I'm very happy with my PB at the Charndon 5k last night.  22:39 is pretty good for me - especially since I was expecting to do a 24 minuter.  The race was mostly flat - a few bumps - and was very busy (maybe 200 people in total?). The weather was perfect for running and I really enjoyed it on the whole.  A few cooling pints of IPA afterwards topped it off nicely!

Anyway, nuff said.  Map of the route here (it was 5k honestly, despite my poor measuring...)

Today I ran my first cross-country since I was an 11 year old,  and boy was it an eye opener! No shortcuts, no fag-smoking bullies, no running in your underwear, and no hot tea and buns at the end (I didn't get these at school either but I was hoping for them today. In the end Lesley and Marie had to go off to get some teas for everyone).

Organised by Woodstock Harrier's running club, the event was held at Clanfield in Oxfordshire around a few farmer's fields.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perverse point of view), the weather had been 'rather inclement' over the past few days, and all night last night, so the ground was very wet and muddy.  I bought myself some new Mizuno Wave Ascend 3 since they're designed for trail running and are more grippy than my normal running shoes.

It was a relay-style race, and I was in a mixed team of 4 from Eynsham Road Runners (I'm finally an official member), with Jane, Linda and Anthony.  I was out first and so didn't really know what to expect.   The ground at the start was pretty muddy and claggy, so I was expecting it to be hard going, but I wasn't expecting 6-inch deep water around most of the course!  The rain held off for most of the way, but the wind really kicked in at the end and that was a real killer. 

It was good fun though, overall. As ever, it's always fun once you've finished.  I was happy with my 27:30 for the 3 mile course (it was meant to be 5k but they apparently cut it short because of the weather - no idea what they cut out though as they obviously didn't avoid any 'wet bits').  I'll definitely do more cross country (as Graham pointed out, I have 6 or so months to come up with an excuse before the season really takes off again!), but maybe next time I'll wear warmer clothes.

Results just in (thanks Lesley).  I came 17th out of 31 and only 3 places behind Dan, which I'm pleased with.  I also managed to keep about the same pace in Run 2 as I did in Run 1, which is remarkable considering how hard it felt, so I'm very pleased with that.

This was a 3 mile/12 mile/1.5 mile duathlon, and my first duathlon ever:
Total time: 67.29
Run 1: 21:31
Bike  : 34.17
Run 2: 10.46

I completed my first duathlon today (run-bike-run) with the Eynsham Road Runners.  The email described the run as 'about 1 mile', so when I discovered it was 3 miles the first time round then 1.5 miles the second time I was a bit worried.  But actually it went reasonably well, and I wasn't last (not even the last male!)   My run training over the past few weeks has obviously paid off a bit, and the work I've been doing to improve my TT performance might also be helping.

The run route was 2 laps of Eynsham, then a flat 12 mile route out to Stanton Harcourt on the bike, then another lap of Eynsham.  It was a perfect day for it with the sun out and little or no breeze. 

The new bike felt good and I managed to pass many of the people that had gone dashing off on the run, and thankfully stayed ahead of most of them on the second run.  Robin (the chap I'm doing the research study with) suggested when I did the initial 10 mile test with him that I change gear too often and that I should stick it on the big front chainring at the start, pick a reasonable gear at the back and then just aim to keep the cadence at about 85rpm.  I tried that today and it felt right, giving me a good speed and a reasonable heart rate.  I need to work on it a bit more though, as I ended the bike wondering whether I could have hammered it a bit harder.

Even though my bike legs felt good after 12 miles, my run legs suggested I had done quite enough already thankyou very much.  It was really tough to get them moving and I felt as though  I was barely plodding around the last mile of the course.  It only lasted 10 minutes but it was bloody painful, and I can now see why Duathletes claim that their sport is harder than Triathlon.

The whole thing took 1:07:30 (ish - times to be confirmed...), which was 3 minutes slower than Dan, but he's a stronger runner than me so I'm quite happy with that.  All in all a great new experience and a very fun day.  A lovely cooked breakfast and some 'rehydration water' afterwards quickly flushed away any pain, too.

Oh, and I finally signed up as a member of the running club, so now I really have no excuses in future.

Our friend Joe, over at Joseph Bloggs has been challenged by his brother-in-law to run the Grim Challenge, an 8 mile "Cross-country" jaunty in December (where "Cross-country" means cold mud, cold water and cold muddy water).  This is where off-the-cuff bravado gets you, Joe - beware!

And muggins here has agreed to do it with him... I figure I'll be done with the triathlon season by October and will have time to train up for some off-roading. And anyway, the ERR crew keep telling me how wonderful cross-country is.  Let's see where off-the-cuff bravado gets me.

Joe plays a lot of football (quite well too - or so he tells me), so is fit enough, but he doesn't do much "running" (as opposed to sprinting back and forth and falling over, which I think is the key skill in football).  So he wants to know how fast and how far he can run. This is presumably so that when he puts a nice little wager down on himself he can do it with some accuracy. 

We went out for a first run together this morning.  I very rarely run "with" someone else (as opposed to "against" them), but as I've said before it can be very motivating and gives two great benefits:

• it allows me to run at a different pace from my normal plod (we started off more slowly because Joe only has little legs, but then sprinted like a bugger when we started discussing Fartlek sessions)
• the time seems to go more quickly when you have someone to chat with

Joe measured out a route for us of abovut 2 miles on the GMap Pedometer. If you haven't seen this site, it's a fantastic tool for runner or cyclists, and allows you to easily plan or review a route you want to use.  It can even estimate the number of calories you'll burn (on a run) if you're that way inclined.

I also made more use of my Nike+ and ipod, just to track our pace and distance.  It really is a fantastic tool, and despite what I say about about real-life-people being motivating, I get a bigger buzz from Lance Armstrong saying "Well done" to me at the end of a long workout!  I'll do a review at some point, but for now, and at last, here is the point of this article: the Nike+ website lets you graph your runs, so here, Joe, is our run.  The 1st and 6th km are my runs from my house to the 'so called mid-point' between our houses. But the rest is pure Joe.

Today's 10k was much more fun than I expected and I managed to get round in just over 52 minutes. Fifty two minutes - Woof! Woof!  I was expecting to take 56+ minutes, so I'm really delighted with 52.  I even managed to speed up a little bit for the second 5k which was nice.

Firstly, I have to say that the race was really well organised and marshalled, so thanks should go to to everyone at ERR for their hard work.  The weather was just right too (I don't think they organised that): mild, wind-free and a little bit sunny at times.  The two-lap course of Eynsham is very flat and easy underfoot, with only the odd leaf-covered or grassy bit.  As far as I could tell nobody fell on their arse or injured anything through slips.

This was my first mass start on a run - previously I've only done runs in triathlons which are never 'mass' run starts because everyone hops off their bike at different times - so it was interesting.  I met up with Ollie and Liz on the start line and we discussed tactics and weather. Then in not time I was in the middle of the 'start line shuffle' that I've seen in the London Marathon so many times.   Within a few seconds though I was jogging along at an easy pace and trying to work out what 56/10 was (maths is not my strong point!).

I'd agreed with Ollie that I didn't want any company on the way round - I didn't want to either slow him down on his 45-50 minute pace or go too fast in trying to keep up with him that I blew up at 6k. So we had a quick 1 minute chat and then he dashed off through a gap of slow-moving runners. 

I'm in Eynsham this morning for my first 10k run - at least my first one outside and with other people.  Eynsham Road Runners describe it as a '10k Road Race', and the fact that there's a £100 prize for the first person to finish in under 30 minutes suggests that other people see it as a race too. I see it more as another milestone (10k-stone?) in my ongoing efforts to work up to an Olympic distance Triathlon.

It's a cold but calm looking day, and the sun is just poking through some wintery clouds. Looks like it should be a good morning for it.

I've had my porridge, got my kit ready, studied the route and I think I'm ready to go.  I'm very nervous. Normally when I'm competing I know I have a good chance to outperform other people on the swim and bike but today I know I'm competing against serious runners.  I understand that I have no chance to really compete, and honestly I'll be happy with just finishing (although 55 minutes would be a dream!).  But at the same time I want to feel I'm doing my best, so not having a swim or bike to fall back on is a bit worrying.  I don't want to come last!

Sophie tells me I always feel a bit wonky on race days and she's probably right, but I still feel like this is time it's worse than normal. 

Ah well, at least it'll be over in an hour. 

Last Saturday, 15th September, I competed in the Oxford tri club championships for the first time. I joined 22 other people at the lake with a good crowd of supporters and marshals at around 9.30am.

I'd been nervous in the run up to this event because it's longer than any I've done before.  At 1100m the swim was 50% longer than Blenheim, the bike was 18miles rather than 18k of Eynsham, and the run was 7km or so, not the typical 5km (or 4.5km of Newbury).  I'd only run over 5km for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and definitely wasn't confident that I could do it after a long swim and bike.

I'd been preparing for the event since Newbury - concentrating mainly on my running.  I'd also been down the lake with the tri club a few times to check that I could cope with the longer swim, and I was confident I could cope with the two lap course.

The weather on the day was fantastic: still and dry, with the sun coming through more and more as the morning progressed.  I usually get very hot when I run, so I was a bit worried that I would overheat but in the end the temperature was just right.

The race briefing at 9.50 was very brief.  I like to know a course in detail, and there wasn't really enough of that for my liking at the briefing, but there was a promise of lots of marshalls and signs on the way.  No time for butterflies though anyway, as we were in the water 2 minutes later and ready to go...

The results are up now for Newbury Triathlon, and I'm reasonably happy.  The winner came in a full 5 minutes faster than me on the bike and the run!

Final results
103 out of roughly 400
Swim: About 6:12
T1: 1:12
Bike: 40:54
T2: 01:05
Run: 22:50

You can also see everyone's results here

Went to bed at 9.45 last night but didn't manage to drop
off until around 11 when Sophie came to bed, then I had a bit of restless night with my mind refusing to give up on the idea that I'd forgotten to pack something.  If only I had some sort of list...

An early start
Woke up just before 6 then managed to get a few more minutes kip before the alarm screamed at me at 6.15.  I'm lucky that I can force myself out of bed even when very tired - years of getting up at 6 in the morning to trek half-way across Manchester to school, I imagine.

The weather report had said clouds, some sun and light winds.  I hate wind (parp), but 13mph or so was manageable and at least the cloud would stop me overheating on the run.  As it turned out the event was sunnier than expected, but still cool enough for me.

Newbury tomorrow, organised by Team Kennet.  It was my second triathlon ever, around 1 year ago, so it'll be interesting to see if I've progressed.

I've had a reasonably hard week, despite the bank holiday on Monday,and have run and swum a lot (still neglecting the bike I fear...), so today I've taken it easy. I did a relatively easy 1500m swim at Cassington with Oxford Tri and have then basically just sat on my bum spodding, eating and drinking.  I had a nap for an hour this afternoon and have just had a lovely plate of pink pasta prepared by t'wife.  I'm raring to go!

I've mostly packed my box but now I've run out of brain power to work out what else I need to get ready.  I race tomorrow at 9:30am, so I'll be up around 7 to finish off packing, load the bike rack and get on my way to Newbury, which is about 45 minutes to an hour away.

Now it's about 9:15pm and I'm ready for bed.

I did the Eynsham triathlon today.   This is organised by Eynsham Road Runners but is held in Woodstock.  It's a 200m swim in Woodstock pool, 18km bike and 5km run cross-country, and is a fantastic first triathlon if you're that way inclined. In fact it was my first triathlon 1 year ago (ahhh, how much I've done sine those heady days of youth).