Only 3 days to go now

Went out for my final long run on Monday; have been neglecting these a bit the last few weeks whilst trying to get my bike mileage up and it showed.   I was fine until about mile 10 and then it started to get hard work, with me ending up walking the last mile home from 11.5 miles.  I managed to do that with some time to spare though, and if I have to walk/run on the day I shan’t mind so long as I finish! 🙂

The rest of the week has been quiet training wise, just recovering really as I’m a bit achy after Mondays run.  Tonight and tomorrow night will be spent sorting through all the stuff we need to take and making sure I have everything.  Andy laughs that I check everything about a dozen times, but I don’t want to get there and find something important is missing 😮

I guess this will be my last post now until after the Vitruvian itself.  Can’t believe it’s here after all this time; it’s been a long hard road and for much of it it’s all seemed so far away, but now it’s here and suddenly all getting very real. 

So, this is Sarah ‘TST’ aka ‘Gym Bunny’ Robinson signing off and stepping out into the great unknown.  This time on Saturday it’ll all be over. 

Hopefully.

 

Final long ride

Got up Wednesday morning, all ready to go after changing the inner tube (have to keep resisting the urge to call it changing the tyre!).  Thought the rear tyre seemed a bit flat, so thought I’d put some air in.  All well and good, until I tried to take the pump off and then there was a long ‘ppsssssshhhhhhhht’ noise and the inner tube went down.  Tried putting some air back in it, but to no avial, so called Andy who said that was exactly what had happed with the front one. 😦   And so it was that Wednesday night was spent changing the back inner tube!  This is a little more technical as you’ve got the chain to contend with, but I managed to do it by myself.  Andy watched and gave me a couple of tips, but I was proud to work out how to get the wheel in and the chain back on by myself 😀 

Luckily Andrew, my boss, was fine about me swapping the Wednesday morning off to Thursday afternoon so after a miserable and rainy morning I headed off after lunch for my final long ride.  The weather still looked changeable so I wore my short sleeved cycle top, arm warmers and my running showerproof jacket over the top.  After about 8 miles I’d warmed up a bit so pulled over and took off my arm warmers and stuck them in my cycle top pocket out of the way.  There was a lot of surface water on the roads and I had a couple of hairy moments with puddles, including coming down the hill just out side of Wymondham, charging under the bridge and round the corner to find a very big and deep puddle covering most of my side of the road! 😮  I had a car right behind me that was impatiently trying to overtake, so I couldn’t swerve right out to avoid it, but swung out as far as I could and hit it where it was about 2-3 inches deep, praying I didn’t loose control of the bike and reminding myself not to hit the brakes or I would go over.  Managed to get through it ok and by the time I came round for my second loop it was a lot smaller, although I was prepared for it this time!

The ride felt good and I felt confident despite, or maybe because of, not having been out for a week.  My pace felt good and a bit faster than it had been on the previous rides.  I started to slow a bit half way through the second lap of hilly bits and the last 7-8 miles where a struggle, but that’s to be expected and I only lost about 1mph so more than happy with that.   I managed to push through the last few miles with a combination of pushing myself to work at it, getting tired and slowing down a bit, recovering a bit and then pushing harder again.  My thighs were starting to ache by the time I approached Attleborough and my shoulders where complaining, but I know that’s because I added the extra mileage on and my shoulders weren’t as bad as they have been on some previous runs.  As I pulled down the road to home I’d done 52.5 miles in 3:56 😀  I’m really pleased with this as it’s given me confidence that I could get round on the day.  I know my route doesn’t have the killer hills in that the Vitruvian course has, but I’m made it as uphill as possible with as little downhill or flat as I could manage and I’ve rarely used the easier cog, so I have a good few downwards gears to spare, so to speak. 

Did fall off though when I got back to the house!  Realised that I was in totally the wrong gears for putting the bike away (chain needs to be straight when I’m not riding her) so in a mad panic tried to changed to the easy cog – accomplished – and then to the middle gears, which was accomplished but I then realised I needed to stop or I was going to  hit the neighbours car! 😮  Unfortunately this gave me no time to unclip and over I toppled!   Bashed my elbow and hip a bit and, even though I knew it was coming, was a bit shocked but as I was still clipped in when I hit the ground I acted as a buffer and stopped there being any damage to the bike.  Well apart from a scrape on the pedal, which now means there are scrapes on both sides!  Overall a very good ride though 😀

 

Back on the road again

After an abysmal week last week with my worst ever run and cycle, I took the advice of the Pirates on Triathlete’s World forum and took a few days off to rest and try and stop stressing myself out.  This ended up sort of being four days off instead of three as we took the bike out of the van on Sunday morning after my last long swim to find I had a flat front tyre.  Andy was out of the pool before me, so had taken the front wheel of to see what the cause of the flat was and there were two splits in the tube where the valve goes in 😦  Unfortunately, being Little Miss Not Really Prepared For Such Situations, we didn’t have any spare inner tubes so couldn’t fix the problem and I missed out on my last long ride.

Back home I got on the internet and ordered some new ones, which I was hoping would arrive pretty quickly.  Thankfully my boss is pretty good and when I went in on Monday morning and asked for a half day at short notice when the inner tubes arrive so I could do the long ride he was fine. 

It was the last of my sessions before the Vitruvian at Wymondham Athletic Club last night as there isn’t a session next Monday because of the bank holiday.   I was quite looking forward to it as it was the last set of 2 x 1 mile timed efforts which we have been doing over the summer and I was hoping to improve on my time from July.   Me and Danielle trotted off on the 1.5 mile run to the start line a little before everyone else so we could do it at our own pace and not be tired out before we started the mile efforts; we’re a little slower than most of the other members and it was nice to run to the start without having to worry about keeping up with everyone else! 🙂   Some of the runners where doing the mile efforts but as recovery runs, which meant they wouldn’t be pushing the pace so much and me and Danielle started off first with them while the others finished their warm up stretches.  It was a really nice evening and we pushed along watching the hot air ballon taking off a way up the road, finding our pace and trying not to charge off too fast and be wiped out by the end.  There was a little confusion about exactly where the 1 mile mark was and we ended up over running it a bit, but I was still happy with my time and for once lots of runners finished after us as we’d started off early! 😀

After a few minutes rest and re-setting of watches we headed back for the return mile, once again setting off with the runners doing it as a recovery session.  On the return leg we tried to keep the pace more consistent and I could feel we were pushing a little harder than we had on the first leg.  By about half way the rest of the runners where catching us up but they didn’t seem to be getting quite so far ahead of us as usual!  Finally we rounded the last corner and could see the end in sight.  Danielle spurred on and gave it a big final push, while I didn’t really have it in me to do that so just kept pushing on has hard as I could.  A quick glance at my watch showed the time was only just past the 9 minute mark, so if I kept pushing it was possible I could get my fastest time yet!  Steve, my coach, started shouting encouragement to both of us and we both ran for home with Danielle pipping my by just under 10 seconds.  Another look at the watch showed I’d finished the mile in 9:23, and gained a new PB! 😀 

I had a look through the previous times and my best time in June was 10:48 and in July was 9:45, so I’ve improved massively over the last two months.   I was really stoked to get a new PB and it was a great way to spend my last session at the club for a few weeks.  On the way back I ran with Steve and we talked about my aim of doing a marathon next year – well, I’m the fittest I’ve ever been so now seems the perfect time to up the run training and do the marathon.  I’ve entered the ballot for the London marathon, although the chances of getting in are very small.  But there is a local event in Suffolk around the same time so I can do that one if I don’t get a place in London.  Plenty of time to sort all that out later though!!

The new inner tubes arrived today though, so tonight I shall be learning how to put them on the bike.  Could be interesting as I don’t think I’ve ever done it before!  Think it may be wise to do a couple of practice runs with the old inner tube first! 😉

Fame at last?!

I spoke to a reporter today from the local paper, The Wymondham & Attleborough Mercury, for a piece they are going to do about me doing the triathlon!   Doing the interview was rather nerve racking, even though it was over the phone, as I wasn’t really sure what to say.  It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t know you just exactly how much effort you’ve had to put in to just get to the point where you can complete the distance on something like this, nevermind have to worry about finishing it within the timescales they have set for each bit, but all I can do is tell him how I see it and hope he writes something good and posititve to remind people to sponsor me!  😀

The photographer also came today so I cycled in so she could take pictures of me on the bike.   It was quite odd getting all dressed up to be on the bike and then cycling about half a mile to get here!   She was lovely and took a load of photos in the garden at work and then some of me cycling on the road.  Be interesting to see what they come out like and which one they use.  She said I will be able to find them on line at the papers website and have a look at them, and I can then buy some if I want to. 

Speaking to the paper about the story has made me realise how suddenly very, very close it all is and that in just over 2 weeks I’ll be at Rutland Water ready to take on this huge challenge.  To be honest I don’t know whether to be scared, excited or something else. 😮

I’ve got my ‘short’ ride tonight, only 26 miles 🙂 but am thinking it’s going to be pretty hard work.  My legs still seem a bit achy from the 47 mile ride on Sunday and running club on Monday was really hard which hasn’t done much to help recovery.  Actually, the session wasn’t any harder than usual, but I just had a terrible run and couldn’t keep up so ended up falling further and further behind the rest of the group to the point where eventually they were right out of sight.  I seem to have had a problem with my sock rubbing or maybe something inside my shoe too as I got up yesterday to find a big blister on my left foot.  This seems to have gone down now, but I’m not sure how it’s going to like it when I run on it.  Still, ever onwards and I shall just see how it goes 🙂

 

Hard work and tiredness

Now that the bike is properly adjusted it’s been a case of getting out there and working towards the mileage I need to do for the Vitruvian.  So last Monday I headed out for a long cycle with the intention of doing just over 40 miles on the bike.  It was pretty windy when I headed out, but I figured that wind on the hilly bits would be a bit like riding up harder hills! 🙂

I’d planned a route that went out to Wymondham and up the hilly bits, turned off at Hingham and headed back to Wymondham to repeat the hills again then out through Hingham and back through the Rocklands to home.  It was certainly a struggle to get up the hillier bits with the wind blasting into me, but I was pleased to get to the top with only once having to change into the easier cog.  Unfortunately the wind got stronger and stronger as I went round the route – checking the weather when I got home I found it got up to over 20mph with gusts of 32mph 😮   The wind seemed neverending, and my hopes that if I was cycling into the wind one way must mean that I would get it pushing me along when I was headed in a different direction never seemed to come to fruition; it was either a headwind or crosswind from the right all the way round. 

By the time I had done the hills for the second time I was starting to get very tired; my average speed having dropped by several miles an hour from doing the same bit earlier, and I was starting to ache.  By the time I reached Hingham I was starting to get a lot of pain in my right shoulder, which was causing me to periodically take it off the handlebars to get some relive from the pain.  I started to have a discussion with myself – in my head rather than out loud! – about carrying on or whether it was safer to call it a day.  It’s a hard call as there is a chance that it could be that windy on the day and I’d have to put up with it then, but on the other hand I was in pain with no pain killers to take and I was becoming concerned that my right shoulder was getting worse and cycling along with one hand on the handlebar and nowhere near the brakes isn’t really the best safety policy in good weather nevermind when it’s very windy.

A couple of miles out from Hingham for the second time, I pulled over and had a bit of a stretch to see if that would sort my shoulder out in case it was just that I was doing more mileage than I had been rather than the wind.  Unfortunately this seemed to have no effect at all and I pushed on for another mile almost in tears from the pain, before taking the decision to call Andy and get him to come and pick me up.  It wasn’t the easiest decision to make, but I really was starting to feel that I was putting myself in danger with being on the road.  I pulled over and called Andy, telling him where I was and he said he would come and get me.  I told him I’d plod on slowly a bit until I could find somewhere better for him to be able to pull in and then wait there for him.   It was really disappointing to have to call him, but it’s the first time I’ve had to do that, and it was much better than me having an accident or damaging my shoulder so much it put me out of training.   Even more disappointing was the fact that I was probably only about 6 miles from home, but 6 miles or 60 I don’t think I would have made it back safely.

Once I was back at home I took some ibuprophen and then had to consider whether it would be best to skip running club that night.  I do use my arms a bit when running, although the pressure on my shoulder would be minimal.  I was keen to go as it was the last in the Ed Burton 5 mile time trials, held in memory of a long standing club member, and I was hoping I could knock a few minutes off my last time.  I had a few hours to decide though, so thought it was best to see how things went in the afternoon and then make a decision from there.  

By 6pm the ibuprophen had kicked in, the wind seemed to have died down considerably and I decided to take a chance on going. 🙂  I knew the route having done it before, and figured if I got problems I could start walking and get Andy to come and pick me up.  In the end I ran round with a lovely chap from the club called Rodney who is in is 70s and who used to triathlons about 25 years ago! 😀  We had great fun trotting round together enjoying a chat and the evening sunshine wearing the commemorative t-shirts we’d been given to celebrate the last race in the series.  I didn’t achieve the faster time I’d originally hoped for, being about 1:30 minutes slower in the end, but considering I was doing it on tired legs from my cycle I was more than happy with that.  And I really enjoyed the run round with Rodney, who really is a most interesting gentleman! 😀

The next day was a different story though, and I felt achy and tired.  I think this was more from the effects of the wind that having done a cycle and run in one day, as I’ve done that before.  My shoulder still hurt, so I decided to give swimming a miss and gymnastics was definitely out.  In the end I ended up taking a few days off, although how much of that was due to the hard session on the bike on Monday and how much was that I was just shattered and needed some rest is debatable.  

Back to normal now though and managed 47 miles on the bike yesterday 😀  Had been planning on doing just over 50, but it turned out hotter than I expected and I ran out of drink and was starting to get thirsty so cut a few miles off.  Will take a large bottle as my second bottle next time instead of two small ones, but another thing learnt that will help on the day when I do the Vitruvian.  It was the longest ride I’ve done and I tried to eat on the bike as I will on the day and that seemed to be ok so am pleased about that too.  The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I seem to have lost speed since I got the new gears put on the back and currently it’s going to be touch and go if I make the bike cut off 😦  Still a little time to work on it though and it may be a case of still getting used to the gears.  Time will tell and I guess what will be on the day will be so no point in wasting energy worrying about it 😉

Murky waters and sandy beaches

Andy’s mum, Brenda, came to stay with us on Thursday for a long weekend and was keen to watch me do some of my training while she was here.

Feeding the cheeky goose!

Friday was rest day so we went to Thetford and had a walk around the ruined priory and then along the river.  Afterwards we stopped for a picnic lunch at a picturesque spot on the river, and feed the ducks, swans and geese that were there too.   They obviously get fed often there as one of the geese got quite friendly and was happily letting me feed it the bread! 😀

Saturday I had planned an open water at Fritton Lake and then we thought we would head over to the coast a few miles away afterwards.  The weather wasn’t too great; a bit grey and overcast and occasionally attempting to rain, but they have some indoor seating and sell hot drinks so Andy and Brenda didn’t have to spend the whole time I was in the water standing around outside.

Brenda at Fritton Lake 'beach'

The water didn’t look too inviting this time, with lots of tiny weed plants growing on top of the water, which hadn’t been there previously.  Or at least not nearly so many if they were.  After getting acclimatised I headed off for my swim and almost immediately wished I hadn’t as the water was much murkier than usual 😦  The visibility at Fritton Lake is not usually that good, but on Saturday it was even worse and I couldn’t really see more than about 1 foot in front of my face through the gloom.  It made me feel very claustrophobic and I struggled a lot not to just take a short cut and get out.  Mainly I stuck it out as it was my last opportunity to do an open water swim before the Vitruvian, so I really needed to do the full swim.  I love swimming and have been very excited about doing the open water swimming – learning to swim in a wet suit and the new techniques needed for sighting have been fun and I’ve looked forward to going, even though it was murky at Fritton Lake – but I can honestly say I’ve never hated a swim so much in my life 😦

Finally getting out. Was murky and not nice, not the best swim I've ever had.

I had to fight with myself the whole way round to keep going and by half way round the first lap I had resorted to counting in my head just to keep me going.  Normally I can switch off and just let the swimming take care of itself while my mind wanders off into whatever realms it fancies, but on Saturday the dark and murky water felt oppressive and scary, and I felt in a state of high alert all the time as if some monster could come up from the depths at any second and snatch me away from the surface. 😮  In the end I made it round two laps and then got out, I just couldn’t face the though of another half lap just to make up the distance. It’s the first time I’ve given up on a training session and it wasn’t something I did lightly, but I had to weigh up the balance of completing the session and the potential damage forcing myself to finish when I was really not in a good place in my head would do.  No point in pushing myself to do an extra 400m if it made me nervous and afraid of swimming in the open water.   If I have to swim in those sort of conditions on the day then I could finish the swim, but lots of people have said that Rutland Water is very clear so hopefully it’s not something I will have to worry about 🙂

Gorleston beach

After getting showered and changed we headed off to Gorleston beach for a walk along the beach, and the fresh air and open space was much needed after spending 50 minutes face down in the murky water!!

 

Getting soggy!

It’s not known for being wet here in Norfolk; in fact I’m told we’re classed as ‘arid’.  So when it rained while I was out doing my long cycle on Thursday this week I decided I should take advantage of it 😀  The forecast said showers, but it was warm so I didn’t think I would have a problem with feeling cold if I got wet.

The first 10 miles where dry, although having got to the top of a hill outside Wymondham I could hear a siren coming behind me.  The hill narrows on its way down and bears round to the right at the same time so I was a bit concerned that if it was a fire engine coming up behind me I might get a bit squashed!  I managed to pull into the side where there is a junction off to the left and it turned out it was only a police car so I needn’t have worried.  First time I’ve had to worry about getting over for an emergency vehicle going downhill though, and there was a lot of silt and debris on the sides of the road from the storms the night before.

When I got a couple of miles down the road another police car passed me and then pulled in front and stopped a little in front of me, and the policeman got out to tell me there was an accident ahead but that he thought I might be able to get through.  I cycled with him as he walked up the road, and it turned out he was a cyclist so was happy to try and get me on my way as soon as possible so it didn’t interrupt my training!  As we got round the corner we could see a car had gone into the hedge and apart from the ambulance in attendance the road was clear, so he waved me through and I went merrily on my way.

A little after that it started raining, although not too heavily and the peak on my bike helmet kept it out of my eyes.  I did notice that the lack of a mud guard caused the water to spray up and give me a soggy bum! 😮   The rain picked up a bit more as I went along, and then stopped as I went through the woods although the trees dropped great big blobs on me!  As I got back to Wymondham it really started to come down quite heavily and I pulled in under the bridge that goes under the A11 to let Andy know I was ok and that I’d decided to extend my ride to take advantage of training in the rain! 😀  And the best bit was he didn’t think I was bonkers for wanting to do more training in the wet weather!

Typically it eased off fairly shortly after that but it was still good training to be out on wet roads.  Riding in the wet teaches you better control of the bike and you need to think much further ahead as things like iron workings and road markings are slippery and need to be avoided.  It also takes you longer to brake, so better planning is needed approaching junctions.  As I’ve not really been cycling with the clip in shoes for that long I was glad of the practice of being out in the rainy conditions.  Weather forecast for tomorrow isn’t that good though so looks like I may get some more practice then too!

My first Olympic distance triathlon, St Neots, 31 July 2011

After the cancellation of my planned Olympic distance triathlon on 7 August, I signed up for the Olympic distance one at St Neots with Sandie.  I looked at it as a good opportunity to see how things would go when I had to put all three disciplines together and to see how I would get on in the transitions.  If I am going to make an disasterous novice mistakes it seems better to make them at a shorter event than on the day at the Vitruvian!

Andy fixes the new bike rack on

On Saturday we loaded the bike up onto the new bike carrier and, after checking my kit about half a dozen times, set off to Sandies house where I would be staying Saturday night as she lives closer to St Neots than we do.  About 45 minutes later we arrived at Sandies with the bike having stayed nicely and securely strapped on so we are pleased with our brilliant deal from Aldi 😀  Andy was on call so couldn’t stay for tea – sausages which are his favourite, so he was very disappointed – so he headed off and we spent 10 minutes rounding up the dogs who had all escaped whilst we were loading all my stuff into the house!  We had a nice relaxed evening filling up on carbs and checking out bits of the bike course on the internet and then by 10pm it was time for bed as we had a 4.30am wake up the next morning 😮

I managed to sleep pretty well, only waking up once, and before I knew it the alarm had gone off and Sandie had brought me up a cup of tea.  I slapped on a load of sunscreen under my kit as the weather was forecast to be sunny and I didn’t want to burn, then we loaded up the car and headed off to St Neots, about a 45 minute drive from Sandies house.   It was rather chilly when we arrived at the venue and there was mist over the river, but it looked calm and clear.  We spent some time sorting out our bikes and kit, chatting and having a laugh with some lovely lads in a van next to us which helped ease the pre-race nerves.  Oh and I think we both managed about five trips to the loos due to nerves!  After setting up our kit in transition it was back to the car to kit up in the wetsuits and head off for the pre-race briefing.  This didn’t take too long and before we knew it the time had come to climb into the water and get ready for the off. 

The river at 7am, an hour before the swim

The Swim (1500m/0.94 mile river swim)
The water was pretty cold and it didn’t feel like we were in the water for five minutes before the horn sounding the start went off 😮  I’d started at the back as I knew my swim wouldn’t be fast and I didn’t want to get caught up with the melee at the front that is also known as ‘the washing machine’ from the churning up of water from all the arms and legs as people start the swim.  I ended up having to do a bit of breaststroke alternated with front crawl until my face was properly aclimatised to the cold water, but after a few minutes I managed to settle in to my front crawl. 

The water was lovely and clear; you could see all the plants growing on the bottom and I even saw a small fish! 🙂  The swim was down the river, round the end buoy, back up the river again to another end buoy, round that and then back to the start.  I’d been a bit worried that there would be a current and this would tire me out coming back upstream, but if there was a current it was minimal and I didn’t notice it.  I was still a bit wiggly, even though we were supposed to be swimming in a straight line, but my sighting got better over the swim and I was slightly less sqiffy by the end.  I quite enjoyed the swim and it was certainly much nicer than swimming in Fritton lake where it’s all murky and you can’t see anything more than about a foot in front of you underwater.

Finally I got to the end and headed towards the bank, fighting my way through the squishy mud on the river bottom, and was helped out by the marshalls to hear my time being called out of 40:08.  I was pretty pleased with that and off I headed to transition to get ready for the bike leg.  I’d not been able to practice getting my wetsuit off and getting my bike kit on as we’ve not had the bikes with us when I’ve been open water swimming before, but I tried to go as quickly as I could whilst remembering to put my helmet on before touching my bike.

The Bike (Two laps of 22.5km/14 miles)
I headed out of transition with my bike, trotting along to the point where the marshall directed that I could get on the bike, and then headed out of the venue turning left onto the main road.  As I got onto the road Sandie came past me in the opposite direction, having headed just down the road to the roundabout where you turned round and headed out onto the course, and I instantly realised I had left my sunglasses in transition 😮  A short period of panic insued and I realised that I wouldn’t be able to go back and get them, so would just have to do without.  Fortunately my helmet has a peaked front so that would keep the sun out of my eyes, but I would just have to hope that no bugs or flies hit me in the eye which is one of the other reasons to wear glasses on the bike.  Once I’d turned round at the roundabout I headed up a hill and out of St Neots into the surrounding countryside for the first of my two bike laps.  

The sun was shining and although I was on my own I settled down and started to enjoy the ride.  The countryside is lovely and the sunshine only added to the enjoyment on the ride.  The first half of the course was undulating and headed through some little villages on a mixture of roads, but the route was well sign posted and there were marshalls at junctions where you needed to turn and at the roundabouts in St Neots itself.  About half way round a chap in his 20s caught me up and said that he was glad to see me as he hadn’t seen any other competitors and was starting to wonder if he’d taken a wrong turn!  The route got a little hillier from this point and it was lovely to have some company whilst cyling along, and we chatted about why we were doing this triathlon and what sort of sports we’d done before.  About 3/4 of the way round the first lap the serious triathletes started to overtake us – they were on their second lap and would have finished the whole race by the time I’d only just finished the bike!   They would should ‘on the right’ as they came up behind us and we would pull in to let them shoot past at what looked like about 35mph! 🙂 

As we pulled into St Neots again my companion said his goodbyes and we parted ways, as he was faster than me, and I was on my own again save for the speedy chaps lapping me.  The ride back through St Neots itself to the beginning of the second lap wasn’t the best I’ve had; it was up hill with speed bumps on the road and great bit holes in the road surfacing.  At least it was only a fairly short section though before I was back out into the open countryside again.  As this was the second lap I was a little more familiar with the route and could use the downhills more to my advantage this time; knowing there is nothing scary round a left hand bend going downhill means you don’t have to be cautious and sit on the brakes going down it and so can gain a bit of speed to help you up the hill the other side if there is one 😀 

About half way round a cyclist caught me up again, but this time it was the ‘sweeper marshall’ who cycles the course after all the triathletes have gone out on the last lap and makes sure everyone gets back safely.  He was a lovely chap and caught me up and had a chat to check if I was ok and cycled alongside me for a little while before dropping behind me and letting me get on with the ride (not that he was holding me up, but I don’t think they are supposed to cycle back with the last cyclist and chat all the way! 😉 ).  He periodically caught me up to check on me and it was nice to have a bit of company again, even if the chat was only sporadic.

We got back into St Neot and headed along the dreaded speed humped, rough surfaced road and soon I was at the roundabout where I would turn right then go down the hill back to the venue to commence the run.  My ‘personal outrider’ left me here at the roundabout and a couple of minutes later I’d pulled back into the venue ready to head back into transition and out on the run.  I pulled up along side a marshall who told me I should dismount next to him, and then off I ran back into transition – well, trotted as fast as my feet would allow me to as my toes had gone a bit numb 😮

The run (four laps of 2.5km/1.5 miles)
Back in transition I racked my bike again, took off my helmet and changed my shoes and top over for my run and grabbed my little dog walkers bum bag thing that I use when running to put my water, food, tissues and phone in, and headed out of transition to begin the first of the four run laps.  The run was through the park next to the river we’d swum in and originally I’d been rather worried about running four laps of what looked like a rather looped route through the park, but I needn’t have worried. 🙂  The park was beautiful with lots of trees and pretty plants, as well as lots of open space.  There were nice little bridges going over streams, and they would have been ideal for playing Pooh Sticks had I had the time to do so!  There was a small pond under the bridge that took the main road over the park and there were several swans bobbing about on it 😀  The route was made up of a mixture of some of the parks pathways and sections that headed across the grass, and as the park was open to the public there were people sitting on benches, walking their dogs or just having fun with their children on what had turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. 

Swans under the bridge

About 1/4 of the way round the first lap I pulled my banana, date and pecan cake out of my running bag so I would have something to give me energy during the run – I’d had a cereal bar on each lap of the bike, but it was a long time since I’d had breakfast and I was getting hungry now despite the cereal bars.  I then encountered a problem.  I discovered that banana cake doesn’t like to be left in the sun for a few hours as it sort of ferments becomes foul if it is 😮  I spat out what I’d put in my mouth (back into the bag not onto the floor) and then chucked it all in the next bin I passed.   This left me with the problem that I had nothing to eat on the run, but there was nothing I could do about that at that point, it was just a case of carrying on and feeling a bit hungry. 

The first two laps I felt pretty good and it was even looking like I would come in a few minutes under my predicted 4 hour time for the race, but by lap three I was starting to flag a bit.  I had to stop for a quick wee stop before heading out on lap four and by that point I knew I wasn’t going to make it in under four hours.   I have to say that again the marshalls were lovely, giving me encouragement on the way round, and most enthusiastic of all was a young lad stationed under the road bridge who greeted me like a long lost friend every time I went past him (which was twice on each lap! 🙂 ).  About 1km from the end the wife of the organiser came out to meet me and asked if I’d like some company on the last bit of the run, which was lovely of her.  We trotted along (I’m not totally sure I could be described as ‘running’ by this point) and chatted and then Sandie joined us about 500m from the finish and ran with me to the end too.  I crossed the finish line in 4:04:05, just 4 minutes over my predicted time and with a big smile on my face 😀  I was last, but so what, I finished and that was all that counted to me.

Proudly wearing my t-shirt

Crossing the finish line was brilliant and I’d made it round my longest and second ever triathlon without really any incidents.  I learnt a few things that will be useful for the Vitruvian, like take an extra few seconds to make sure you have everything you need before you leave transition and don’t take banana cake to eat on the run.   And I found that I can put all three things together and still finish, even if I am a plodder round the course.  The swim was only 400m shorter than the Vitruvian course, the bike a little over half the distance and the run a little under half the distance.  If I can carry these times through to the Vitruvian I can finish before the cut offs.  Just.  But then just making it doesn’t matter, the only thing that is important is that I do make the cut offs.

All in all I had a fantastic day and Nice Tri (http://www.nicetri.co.uk ) did a fantastic job organising the event, with friendly staff and lovely surroundings.  Think I’ll be back next year and aiming to knock some time off!

Where is all the time going?!

Keep meaning to sit down and update this, but there never seems to be any time at the moment.  Training seems to be taking up lots of time, and what’s left seems to be spent working, eating and sleeping.   I suppose I should expect that with only 5 weeks to go tomorrow until I’m out there actually doing the Vitruvian 😮

So, what have I been doing?  Well, I did my second open water swim last Saturday and did 2km, which is more than I need to do on the day.  That kinda was by accident though as the big lap is 750m and the small lap is 400m, but I got a little confused on the way round the 400m lap and added a bit to it!  Still, I managed the 2km in 59 minutes, so that’s under the time limit by 10 minutes for more distance 🙂 

I’ve also been and done one lap of the actual bike course that I’ll be doing, although it’ll be two laps on the day.  It’s much hillier than I had expected and I had to stop twice when trying to get up the middle hill of the Rutland Ripple, which was really steep.   😦  There is also a second hill of the same length and steepness about 2/3 of the way round although I managed to get up that one ok, although I think that was probably as it had been preceeded by about 10 miles of undulating roads rather than a short, sharp killer hill!  It is a beautiful route though and although it’s tough at least there is nice scenery to take your mind off things a bit.  I also went up one of the long drag hills near the end in completely the wrong gear – thought I was in the lowest gear on the easy cog but I was actually in the lowest gear on the hard cog – which totally knackered my legs out and made the last few miles back to the start very had work and slow going.  I managed to get round the route in 1:56 actual cycling time (we had to stop a few times to check where we needed to go on the route map), which was a bit slower than I had hoped to do it in.   There are a few weeks to go though, so hopefully I can build my fitness up more during that time and be a bit faster on the first lap on the day.  I also find that the first time I do a route I’m a bit slower, so maybe a bit of familiarity on the day will help.

Due to having to stop twice on the way up the Ripple, it’s evident that some more changes need to be made to the gearing on the bike so that I can get up the hills more easily and don’t have to stop and recover on the Ripple itself!  I’m taking the bike to a shop in Diss tomorrow so they can have a look at what I’ve got on there already and we can discuss what needs changing.  🙂   With some lower gears I should be able to get up the hills more easily and be less tired, which will help on the cycle overall. 

Have now managed to plan my training schedule for the remaining weeks and it looks rather scary 😮  There is at least a couple of hours training every day during the week and a lot more at the weekends, but I will probably be going for 8 hours on the day so time to get used to it.   Have started introducing ‘brick’ sessions into the schedule, which is basically a cycle and then straight on to a run the same as I’ll be doing on the day.  This gets your body, and mind, prepared for the transition between the two sports and the different feeling your legs have as they get used to going from cycling to running.   I did a 26 mile cycle on Wednesday and followed it with a 4 mile run and was pleased that my running pace stayed at my normal 11 minute mile time. 

I have my one and only ‘dry run’ triathlon on Sunday, and it’s also my first Olympic distance race – 1500m swim, 28 mile cycle and 6 mile run.  It will be a good opportunity to practice the trainsitions between the three sports in a ‘race’ situation and give me an idea of just how tired I will be on the run after not only a cycle but also a swim.  I’m expecting to finish in around 4 hours.  Am getting a bit scared and nervous but hopefully it will all be alright on the day 🙂

Changes to the bike set up

Have kind of had the last week off really and not done any training – Andy was pretty ill last week and it kind of threw all the training plans out of the window.  It was however, a very good time to find out why I’ve been having serious problems with the bike and bad pain from the saddle.   I had a good look over my bike shorts and realised that most of the padding had now gone (they have foam padding and I think it kind of compacted!) and wondered whether that was part of the cause – not enough padding to protect my delicate areas.

Prior to bike changes, note how high my knee is even though my foot is near the bottom of the pedal cycle.

So I posted a thread on Triathletes World asking what could be causing the problem.   From the replies it was starting to look like my bike wasn’t set up properly and so I wasn’t sitting on the saddle in the way it was designed to be used, and this in turn meant I was experiencing pressure in the wrong places thereby causing the problems with pain after about 20 miles.   With the help of quite a few of the forumites (special mentions go to Nicko. and Holly_Golightly :-D) we worked through how high my saddle should be, how far back it should be and the angle it should be at to minimise the discomfort.  Andy helped sort the distances out on Wednesday night and then we took the bike round to the local football field so I could try it out; I was rather nervous of not being able to get my foot on the ground when I stopped and falling over so at least that would provide me with a soft landing! 

After a few turns round the field with Andy checking the position of my legs in relation to the crack and stuff, he then upped the saddle a little more.  This put it up a total of just over 2.5″ (6-7cm), which is a hell of a lot! 

 

After the saddle changes – you can see my leg is much straighter which makes pedaling easier!

Even riding it around the rough grass on the field I could feel the difference straight away, and Andy took some photos for me to put up on the forum so we could see if what we had done had made my position on the bike more like it should be.  The general consensus was yes, so all that remained then was for me to test it out on the road.  I was hoping to do that on Saturday, but the weather was awful with torrential rain and very windy, so I decided it would be better to wait until Sunday as I really wasn’t confident about riding it if the weather was good nevermind in really bad weather!   Sunday the weather was much better, with no rain although it was still pretty breezy.  I decided the saddle really was a bit too high so we dropped it about 1/4″ (1cm) which felt much more comfortable, although still scarily high!  I went up and down the road a couple of times so Andy could check that it wasn’t too high and everything looked and it all seemed fine, so off I headed  🙂

I decided to stick to an old familiar route that didn’t take me too far from home, just in case I had any problems.   It felt a bit odd at first as my legs were reaching further (or they felt like it!) and I was a bit more bent over, but I got used to that reasonably quickly.  I also tried hard to use the gears more, changing up and down to try and keep my pedal turnover pretty much the same rather than trying to push harder when the road went uphill a bit.   And it certainly made a difference! 😀  The cycling seemed easier and I was faster than before, around 2mph faster, which may not seem a lot, but when you go at my speed it’s a massive difference!  I also found I wasn’t experiencing the pain problems I’d had before – at least not over the 15 miles I did on Sunday.  Well, ok, there was still some pain, but not the awful pain there was before and I’m hoping the pain that is there will lesson as I put more miles in on the bike.

On Wednesday I need to do a longer ride and see how it goes, but I am hopefully that we are a good way to getting the problem sorted now.  🙂