Yet again I have been seen stepping over the line towards the dark side, taking part in an event which did not solely involve pedaling. The Lancaster Duathlon was my first event of this kind, and it was certainly interesting. The distance was short, with a 3km Run, 15km Cycling (around the Salt Ayre circuit racing track) and then another 3km Run.
I started off without a proper warm up, as I had been late arriving, I thought the run was probably going to be a disadvantage for me, mainly because I don't do any running! I was right, after about the first 20metres I was passed by about three other women, and my legs just didn't want to go any faster. I only seem to have one gear for running. I was well back by the end of the run, getting to the transition area mine was one of only three bikes left hanging on the rack! I started the bike leg feeling psyched to catch as many people as I could, the circuit was really fun, with no corners that needed braking, and a long section with a head wind where you could really get your head down and push. I managed to pass quite a few people, and ended up being first woman into the transition area after the bike leg, not bad when I hadn't even seen the women starting the bike leg - they were that far ahead of me after the run. After a slight mishap where I was unsure if I had done the required 10 laps of the circuit, and the person marking this down wasn't sure either, I still managed to be first out of the transition area.
However, this lead was fairly shortlived, after about a third of the way through the run I was passed and once again my legs just wouldn't go any faster. I finished the race in 2nd place and happy with the effort I had put in.
Things I have learnt from this are; a) Do some running before you try and do a running race b) cover your carbon seatpost and your saddle rails with tape before hanging them on a metal pole (mine are scratched, sob) c) White cycling shoes were not meant for running through mud.
Monday, 31 March 2008
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
A Rude awakening
Sunday the 23rd of March saw 3 KeswickBikes.co.uk riders on the start sheet for the 1st round of the Rudy Project national time trial series. Early morning fears about the event being cancelled due to snow where unfounded as the course ( circuit of Bassenthwaite lake) was clear and in good condition.
With nothing to gauge my form on i was not sure how well i was going, i was expecting anything from winning through to blowing spectacularly, in the end I was somewhere is the middle. I finished 7th just over 4 minutes adrift of winner Mark Holton of Probikekit.com over the 2 laps of the lake. While i was happy this was as fast as i could have gone on the day and that it is still early days in the season it was a bitter pill to swallow on effectively my home course.
Richard Houghton place 4th in the Junior event to get his account underway in this prestgious series, one which he will be aiming to do well in the overall.
Vicky Ware took 12th in the womens event, suffering from unfamiliarity with her bike due to enforced last minute bike changes. The womens event was won by Olypian and track world record holder Sarah Storey.
With nothing to gauge my form on i was not sure how well i was going, i was expecting anything from winning through to blowing spectacularly, in the end I was somewhere is the middle. I finished 7th just over 4 minutes adrift of winner Mark Holton of Probikekit.com over the 2 laps of the lake. While i was happy this was as fast as i could have gone on the day and that it is still early days in the season it was a bitter pill to swallow on effectively my home course.
Richard Houghton place 4th in the Junior event to get his account underway in this prestgious series, one which he will be aiming to do well in the overall.
Vicky Ware took 12th in the womens event, suffering from unfamiliarity with her bike due to enforced last minute bike changes. The womens event was won by Olypian and track world record holder Sarah Storey.
Training in Spain
The roads, the weather, the terrain, the drivers, did i mention the weather? Just come back from a couple of weeks training in Spain, it was absolutly incredible! Brilliant routes in the mountains, superb road surfaces, hours without seeing a car, not a drop of rain in 2 weeks and good company.
Based in Denia, just north of Benidorm the camp was the perfect kick start to the season, although by no means a holiday (i came back to work to rest) i had a fantastic time and have already started looking for a flat there for next winter (no more British winters for me!).
With route plans for each day, guides for the two groups and a support vechicle all i needed to concentrate on was the riding. In the first week everybody was out to test each other which resulted in blistering pace up many of the long climbs and not much time to enjoy the scenery, with a change of personel for the second week things where a bit more relaxed. Two weeks of hard riding left me exhausted (and one week later i'm still not back up to speed) but should give me a much more solid base for my season than i have ever had before. The weeks where not without incident, two crashes for myself and numerous others, the organiser of the camp Dave Lloyd came of worst with a broken wrist with two days of the camp left.
I also met up with ex KeswickBikes rider and staff member Jimmy Taylor who was also out enjoying the sunshine, best of luck to him for the coming season.
Many thanks to Dave Lloyd and hope your back on the bike soon, also thanks to John and Terry of Ciclocosta Blanc (http://www.ciclocostablanca.com/) and also to the guides Ian, Peter and Ron.
Based in Denia, just north of Benidorm the camp was the perfect kick start to the season, although by no means a holiday (i came back to work to rest) i had a fantastic time and have already started looking for a flat there for next winter (no more British winters for me!).
With route plans for each day, guides for the two groups and a support vechicle all i needed to concentrate on was the riding. In the first week everybody was out to test each other which resulted in blistering pace up many of the long climbs and not much time to enjoy the scenery, with a change of personel for the second week things where a bit more relaxed. Two weeks of hard riding left me exhausted (and one week later i'm still not back up to speed) but should give me a much more solid base for my season than i have ever had before. The weeks where not without incident, two crashes for myself and numerous others, the organiser of the camp Dave Lloyd came of worst with a broken wrist with two days of the camp left.
I also met up with ex KeswickBikes rider and staff member Jimmy Taylor who was also out enjoying the sunshine, best of luck to him for the coming season.
Many thanks to Dave Lloyd and hope your back on the bike soon, also thanks to John and Terry of Ciclocosta Blanc (http://www.ciclocostablanca.com/) and also to the guides Ian, Peter and Ron.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Getting up to date
As is always the case the more stuff you have to write about the less time there is to write about it and with the season underway i haven't been keeping up to date with the blog.
As Dave mentioned the first events of the road season where on the 23/24th of February. On the Saturday it was round 1 of the Lake and Lancs sporting courses time trial series (L&L SPOCO. The wet and windy conditions fared up a bit by the time first riders got underway at the 2 p.m. start time and we where left with relatively dry roads but extremely strong crosswinds. With myself, Richard and Vicky all of the lighter persuasion i dispensed with my disc and put a shallower front wheel, Vicky and Richard had to lose there deep sections completely or risk ending up in a ditch, so there are some disadvantages to being a fly weight!
I went off an early seed, 10th out of the 80 riders on the start sheet. My ride didn't feel great, stale from a long winter and a lot of the time i was prevented from getting the power down by the ferocious crosswind. The most frustrating part of the ride was having to come to a dead stop behind a couple of cars on a narrow bridge and loosing all my speed before the steep climb after the bridge. As expected Vicky and Richard suffered in the strong winds with Vicky being blown on to verge on one occasion.
My time stood until Tim Lawson (team SIS) bettered it by only six seconds compounding my frustration over having to stop behind the cars. So 2nd overall was a decent result but it would have been nice to kick things off with a win.
Sunday the 24th brought more rain and another trip to Lancishire for the Clayton Velo Spring handicap, the traditional season opener in the north. With 11 Rapha Condor/Recycling riders on the start sheet the overall was a forgone conclusion so i decided to concentrate on the prime sprints on the early laps of the short circuits, i duely attacked off the line and managed a 36 mile break in the process of which i secured the 3 primes and caught the 2 handicap groups that went off ahead of me. Adrenaline and enthusiasm got the better of me and having caught Dave i had delusions of organising a 2 up effort to stay away for the rest of the race distance. This was not to be as the pursuing elite riders upped the tempo and quickly reeled us in. With two laps to go my earlier efforts started to demand payment and the sharp changes of pace saw both myself and Dave dropped from the lead bunch, we both eased round the remaining laps to complete race distance and qualify for our Prime sprint prizes. A nice touch to the day was Vicky, acting as race support on this occasion, was at the finish line so we could bail straight into the van without the cold wet ride back to the race HQ. As it turned out Rapha Condor/Recycling had taken the first 6 places, the race being won by former track world champion and premier calender winner Chris Newton.
All in all not a bad start to the year but still plenty of work to do!
As Dave mentioned the first events of the road season where on the 23/24th of February. On the Saturday it was round 1 of the Lake and Lancs sporting courses time trial series (L&L SPOCO. The wet and windy conditions fared up a bit by the time first riders got underway at the 2 p.m. start time and we where left with relatively dry roads but extremely strong crosswinds. With myself, Richard and Vicky all of the lighter persuasion i dispensed with my disc and put a shallower front wheel, Vicky and Richard had to lose there deep sections completely or risk ending up in a ditch, so there are some disadvantages to being a fly weight!
I went off an early seed, 10th out of the 80 riders on the start sheet. My ride didn't feel great, stale from a long winter and a lot of the time i was prevented from getting the power down by the ferocious crosswind. The most frustrating part of the ride was having to come to a dead stop behind a couple of cars on a narrow bridge and loosing all my speed before the steep climb after the bridge. As expected Vicky and Richard suffered in the strong winds with Vicky being blown on to verge on one occasion.
My time stood until Tim Lawson (team SIS) bettered it by only six seconds compounding my frustration over having to stop behind the cars. So 2nd overall was a decent result but it would have been nice to kick things off with a win.
Sunday the 24th brought more rain and another trip to Lancishire for the Clayton Velo Spring handicap, the traditional season opener in the north. With 11 Rapha Condor/Recycling riders on the start sheet the overall was a forgone conclusion so i decided to concentrate on the prime sprints on the early laps of the short circuits, i duely attacked off the line and managed a 36 mile break in the process of which i secured the 3 primes and caught the 2 handicap groups that went off ahead of me. Adrenaline and enthusiasm got the better of me and having caught Dave i had delusions of organising a 2 up effort to stay away for the rest of the race distance. This was not to be as the pursuing elite riders upped the tempo and quickly reeled us in. With two laps to go my earlier efforts started to demand payment and the sharp changes of pace saw both myself and Dave dropped from the lead bunch, we both eased round the remaining laps to complete race distance and qualify for our Prime sprint prizes. A nice touch to the day was Vicky, acting as race support on this occasion, was at the finish line so we could bail straight into the van without the cold wet ride back to the race HQ. As it turned out Rapha Condor/Recycling had taken the first 6 places, the race being won by former track world champion and premier calender winner Chris Newton.
All in all not a bad start to the year but still plenty of work to do!
Monday, 17 March 2008
Quest On!
The 2008 National Trailquest series kicked off on the 9th of March with an excellent 3hr event in Grizedale Forest. A lot of work has been invested over the winter to create a permanent mountain bike orienteering course consisting of a detailed 1:20,000 orienteering map and 32 checkpoints distributed throughout the forest. As the location of the checkpoints had not yet been divulged, the event organizer, Henry Syska, made good use of the facilities by placing a Sportident timing device at all 32 checkpoints.
For some reason I always find events in Grizedale difficult – mainly because there is so much route choice and navigation can be particularly difficult considering the huge number of tracks throughout the forest. It’s certainly an area where local knowledge can be a huge advantage, which is why Brian Singleton and Neil Atkinson are very hard to beat in Grizedale. Not surprisingly both of those guys turned up for the event, no doubt eager to get some points under their belt early in the season.
A blank copy of the event area was posted at the start, which showed a really good quality and easy to read map. The area was noticeably small considering that it was a 3hr event, which meant that checkpoints would be tightly spaced but also meant that the ‘clean up’ was probably on. For some reason I had a clockwise route in mind, so when I got the map it didn’t take much time to decide where I would head first. The first few checkpoints came quickly and fairly easily. I was feeling quite strong and forcing myself to spin up the hills as much as I could. I rode past the fourth checkpoint and had to retrace my route, frantically looking for it. Eventually I found it and tried to claw back lost time. One more checkpoint bagged and then for some unknown reason on a completely flat section of forest track the sidewall on my tire blew out. I though it was game over but managed to mend it by slotting an energy gel wrapper between my inner tube and tyre. It worked a treat and I was off again. After approximately an hour and a half, I reassessed the map and my route plan. I suddenly had doubts that I would be able to get all checkpoints so made a rash decision to drop a checkpoint worth 10 points. The event progressed well despite a spectacular dismount over the handlebars, which I landed on my feet! I crossed through the event center to the east of the map with an hour to go, still thinking that I would be late back, but I still felt strong and the checkpoints came quickly. With half an hour to go I was kicking myself for dropping a checkpoint as it became obvious that I would get the remaining checkpoints and be back in time. Sure enough I finished 36seconds early with one checkpoint dropped. Would it be enough?
I downloaded my score and waited to hear talk about several people cleaning up with minutes to spare – thankfully this was not the case. In fact the best score was unsurprisingly Brian Singleton who had also dropped a 10 pointer but was a couple of minutes faster than me. That meant that we both had the same score and were both awarded 100%. A very pleasing result for the first national!!
For some reason I always find events in Grizedale difficult – mainly because there is so much route choice and navigation can be particularly difficult considering the huge number of tracks throughout the forest. It’s certainly an area where local knowledge can be a huge advantage, which is why Brian Singleton and Neil Atkinson are very hard to beat in Grizedale. Not surprisingly both of those guys turned up for the event, no doubt eager to get some points under their belt early in the season.
A blank copy of the event area was posted at the start, which showed a really good quality and easy to read map. The area was noticeably small considering that it was a 3hr event, which meant that checkpoints would be tightly spaced but also meant that the ‘clean up’ was probably on. For some reason I had a clockwise route in mind, so when I got the map it didn’t take much time to decide where I would head first. The first few checkpoints came quickly and fairly easily. I was feeling quite strong and forcing myself to spin up the hills as much as I could. I rode past the fourth checkpoint and had to retrace my route, frantically looking for it. Eventually I found it and tried to claw back lost time. One more checkpoint bagged and then for some unknown reason on a completely flat section of forest track the sidewall on my tire blew out. I though it was game over but managed to mend it by slotting an energy gel wrapper between my inner tube and tyre. It worked a treat and I was off again. After approximately an hour and a half, I reassessed the map and my route plan. I suddenly had doubts that I would be able to get all checkpoints so made a rash decision to drop a checkpoint worth 10 points. The event progressed well despite a spectacular dismount over the handlebars, which I landed on my feet! I crossed through the event center to the east of the map with an hour to go, still thinking that I would be late back, but I still felt strong and the checkpoints came quickly. With half an hour to go I was kicking myself for dropping a checkpoint as it became obvious that I would get the remaining checkpoints and be back in time. Sure enough I finished 36seconds early with one checkpoint dropped. Would it be enough?
I downloaded my score and waited to hear talk about several people cleaning up with minutes to spare – thankfully this was not the case. In fact the best score was unsurprisingly Brian Singleton who had also dropped a 10 pointer but was a couple of minutes faster than me. That meant that we both had the same score and were both awarded 100%. A very pleasing result for the first national!!
Friday, 7 March 2008
recent activities....
its been a while since my last post but heres a quick rundown of the latest, on feb 24th me and ally headed down to the bashall eaves circuit for the clayton velo spring classic and despite the bad weather it was a good race, i took all the primes for the 3rd cat category after riding away from them after just one lap and ally did the same for the 2nd cat group. unfortunately after spending much of the race off the front the large chasing group eventually got the better of us and we were caught, it all went down hill from there really and we both finished the race off the back of the main group, it did however show great promise for my time trialling... thanks to vicky for the useful split times throughout the race. last weekend i travelled to fylde near blackpool, on the way there i was told it was flat, how flat? well very flat, and windy, the elite riders in the group drove the pace on from the start and with the windy conditions the group soon split and many of the riders packed in, after 3 laps killing myself to try and get back to the main group i threw in the towel and was forced to call it a day, apparently having an incredibly aerodynamic bike doesnt make ALL the difference. it was a useful experience as its been earmarked as an area to avoid. well its two weeks till the easter four day which ill no doubt have some comment on. until then ill be erm.... preparing. (i love my cervelo, i think everyone should have one, incredible machines.)
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Venturing Over to the Dark Side
Today I decided to try something a little different. I did the Eden Runners Haweswater Half Marathon - 13miles and 400metres with not a wheel in sight! No pedals! No let-up whatsoever! I'm honestly not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow, I think I'll be on the turbo trainer first thing to check my legs still work.
One thing I would advise if anyone else is thinking of taking part in such escapades - at least make sure your running shoes are not still these-have-just-been-taken-out-of-the-box bright sparkling white. At least run in them more than once before the big event.
At least I got a mug at the end of it all, to show for my achievment. I'd rather have had a big shiny cup to be fair. Maybe next time.
One thing I would advise if anyone else is thinking of taking part in such escapades - at least make sure your running shoes are not still these-have-just-been-taken-out-of-the-box bright sparkling white. At least run in them more than once before the big event.
At least I got a mug at the end of it all, to show for my achievment. I'd rather have had a big shiny cup to be fair. Maybe next time.
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