The Half Way Point

So, today marked the halfway point of this challenge and there was a slight change of plan to go with it!  Due to a problem with the water for the swim, the race today was changed from a triathlon to a duathlon.  For those of you not familiar with it, a duathlon is in three stages but only consists of 2 disciplines so there is a run stage, a bike stage and finally a second run stage.  This meant that today’s distances were a 3.1 mile run, 35 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run to finish off.  This was a new experience for me and isn’t something I have trained for.  It also meant a double helping of my weakest and least favourite of the three disciplines.  That coupled with the hot but windy conditions (I know that sounds like a bit of a contradiction but it was like that I promise!) meant it was a very difficult day.  I’ll be totally honest and say that whilst I’m glad I’ve now done a duathlon, I don’t have any intention to do a second.  Coming off the bike I felt completely drained so the final run was very difficult and also very slow.  I’m sure the weather conditions played a part in that but none the less; I can’t imagine doing one again.  On a positive side though this was a race that the club used to get a many people as possible to attend and despite a slightly reduced number due to the swim cancellation it was nice for me to be racing with so many familiar faces and that aspect I really enjoyed.

It’s on to the next one now which is just the small matter of a 101 mile bike ride on Saturday which should be interesting.  I’m hoping for a dry but cool day but as long as the wind stays down, I’ll be happy!  I haven’t got a photo from the finish line today because by the time I’d finished and recovered enough to want a photo taken, the line had been taken down (yes, I was that slow!).  Instead though, here is a photo of my little memento from today, my sunburnt arm with the only white parts being where my race number was written on in permanent marker.  Now surely me having to walk around for the next few days at least is worth a pound at least!  www.justgiving.com/huw2013

 

Caerphilly 10km

It was back to the running today. Now normally the thought of a 10km run for me is horrible. I know that might sound a bit stupid given what I'm planning to do this year but I'm not the best running in the world and it certainly doesn't come naturally so frim start to finish is hard work. However today I was glad to be going for a run, if nothing else it mean I could get over the disappointment of last weekend and get back into the thick of it in terms of my challenge list. There's not too much I can say about the run really. It was very well organised, was a nice route and I enjoyed myself doing it. I was hoping to do the run in under 1 hour but crossed the line in 1 hour, 1 minute and 20 seconds. Despite being just over my target it was difficult to be unhappy given that it was still a good 2 minutes quicker than my personal best on a 10km so all in all I was pleased. It was also nice to see so many people from the tri club and some other familiar faces there and the local residents were fantastic for coming out onto their doorsteps to cheer us all on. All in all it was a really good boost. Last weekend will take some time to get out of my system, but it's getting there slowly.

I mentioned in my last post that I was hoping to extend my challenge to 20 events. Well, that's more or less confirmed now so I thought I'd give you the revised list. The two things that I want to point out are that even though I didn't do the actual half marathon last weekend, I did go out and do it this Tuesday, so I've left that mileage in there. Also, I know I was 12 miles short on the Wye Valley Warrior but I've reduced that to the 85 miles that I did do, increased the Isle of Wight ride to 101 to reflect that change and also I've switched from a single to a double distance triathlon at Top Barn. This will make up the mileage difference and mean I'm actually doing more than I originally planned, despite not adding any new cycling events. I know it wouldn’t be the end of the world being a few miles short but I just want you all to know how determined I am to meet these mileage totals! Anyway, here is the new and definitely final list:

Pontypool 10km Run - 24th February (6.2 miles)

Newport Half Marathon - 3rd March (13.1 miles)

Gwent Levels Bike Ride - 17th March (46 miles)

New Forest Cycle Sportive - 13th April (87 miles)

Wye Valley Warrior Cycle Sportive - 19th May (85 miles)

Brecon Triathlon - 1st June (0.2/12.4/3.1 miles)

Blenheim Triathlon - 9th June (0.4/12.2/3.3 miles)

UK 70.3 Triathlon - 16th June (1.2/56/13.1 miles)

Caerphilly 10km Run - 23rd June (6.2 miles)

Top Barn Triathlon - 30th June (0.9/34.8/6.2 miles)

Isle of Wight Cycle Sportive - 6th July (101 miles)

The Wales Cycle Sportive - 13th July (70 miles)

Mic Morris 10km Run - 21st July (6.2 miles)

The London Triathlon - 28th July (0.9/24.8/6.2 miles)

Brecon 10 Mile Run - 4th August (10 miles)

Cotswold Classic Triathlon - 11th August (1.2/56/13.1 miles)

Parc Bryn Bach Aquathlon - 29th August (0.4/3.1 miles)

Tough Mudder - 22nd September (10 mile obstacle course)

The Wye Not Tri - 29th September (0.4/12.4/3.1 miles)

Cardiff Half Marathon - 6th October (13.1 miles)

In total I will be covering 5.6 miles swimming, 597.6 miles cycling and 116 miles running throughout the year.

Finally, here is the photo from today and also the link to the sponsor page www.justgiving.com/huw2013

 

A Disappointing Day

I’m sure most of you saw on Facebook and if not have guessed from the fact it’s taken me until today to put a post on here but I wasn’t able to complete the Ironman UK 70.3 on Sunday.  I knew that the cut off time for the swim and bike was going to be tight for me given the bike course.  The swim went really well, I was aiming for 45 minutes but did it in 39 so was really pleased that I had that extra time to take into the bike stage with me.  The bike itself was going well; the first lap took me 2 hours 11, giving me 2 hours 30 for the last lap before the cut off time.  I was confident that I would get that done and drag myself around run.  Then, a bit of bad luck hit.  I somehow managed to puncture both my tyres at the same time.  The time I lost repairing them both meant that I didn’t get back to transition in time for the cut off and therefore wasn’t able to do the run.  As I’m sure you can imagine, I was very disappointed and upset when it happened and still feel the same to be honest, even after a couple of days and some very supportive and kind messages on Facebook.  The punctures are not at excuse.  Yes I would have been made the cut off time without them but to be honest, the time shouldn’t have been that tight and I should have been able to repair the punctures quicker.  It has shown me that I need to work on my cycling because I used to think it was my strongest of the three disciplines but obviously that isn’t the case anymore.

The only thing I want to add is that the worst part about not meeting the cut off time for me was not doing the mileage I pledged to do for the sponsorship side of things.  I just want you all to know that although I didn’t do it on the day and it wasn’t the same course, I have done  a half marathon tonight after work so that my mileage is back on track for what I have said I will do.  It wasn’t a quick run by any stretch of the imagination and after the weekend efforts, it hurt like hell.  It also didn’t take the disappointment of Sunday away but I do feel better knowing I haven’t let down those of you kind enough to sponsor me.

Now it’s on to the next event which is one of the extra ones I’m doing to make the total up to 20, the Caerphilly 10k on Sunday.  Hopefully, last week will be the only disappointment of the year and I’ll have a good run this weekend!

Blenheim Triathlon

Firstly, apologies for no clever or interesting title but I'm beginning to run out of ideas! 

Anyway, Blenheim Triathlon.  Ever since I heard about this one sometime last year I wanted to do it.  It seemed like a great course in a fantastic location and it certainly lived up to my expectations.  The whole day was great fun, even the sometimes boring pre race brief was made entertaining thanks to the very lively guy delivering it.  The triathlon itself went really well.  It was the first open water race of the year and I was glad to get that under my belt.  To be honest, the swim went better than I expected and I was a little disappointed when I reached the end!  The bike and run sections were uneventful really which is good, especially given the drama I've had with my bike this week (long story!)  My finish time was 1 hour 34 minutes 57 seconds which I'm really pleased with and is another race ticked off in the build up to next weekend.

Just a little side note before I finish up, I've had a little look at some more events and am hoping to be able to up my challenge to 20 events, partly because the extra events are ones I really fancy doing and secondly because 20 is a more round number than 16.  I'll let you know as soon as they are all booked up though.

Don't forget the sponsor page is still live at www.justgiving.com/huw2013 and I'll be hopefully getting the total raised updated this week from the sponsorship forms I've got dotted around to give a better picture of how I'm doing.

The Triathlons Begin

The fun of triathlons stated today with the Brecon Triathlon.  I honestly mean that as well, I really do enjoy them.  OK, I enjoy them once I’ve started.  Getting my kit together the night before and the hanging around to start isn’t the best and I always get nervous before hand but I honestly do enjoy them!

Despite this being labelled by the organisers as a “novice” triathlon it is a fantastic one to do and the field is always a mixture of complete newcomers and first timers to highly experienced and competitive triathletes using it to build their form for the bigger races coming up over the summer.  For me there were a few reasons for taking part this year.  Firstly, it’s quite close to home so it means that all the family (and we’re quite a crowd!) can come along and see what it’s all about, have a laugh at me in my tri suit but also cheer me along.  It was great coming up to the finish line hearing them all shouting and cheering and I’m really really grateful to them all for coming to support me.  The other couple of reasons are that it was a good way for me to get a triathlon in before the UK 70.3 in a couple of weeks time but also, because I did it last year, gave me a chance to see how I’ve improved over the last year.

The race itself went well.  The swim stage was in the leisure centre swimming pool, so no open water to worry about, that will come next week!  I wasn’t overly pleased with how it went but despite that, I still improved on last year’s time so can’t complain too much.  The bike and run routes went well, both being long enough for me to get into some sort of rhythm but not long enough to cause any problems or major tests.

My total time was 1hour 33 minutes and 43 seconds which was around 22 minutes faster than my time last year.  I’m chuffed to bit about that because it shows that I’m made a big improvement in the last year and that the training I’m doing with the tri club is working.  I’m also pleased that I the time was knocked off in all 3 stages (2 minutes on the swim, 10 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes on the run) which shows the all-round improvement that I’ve made.  Obviously there were parts today that I wasn’t completely satisfied with and would chance if I could go back and do the race over but that’s part of it and why we all keep training week in, week out.

The events are coming thick and fast now with the Blenheim Triathlon waiting for me next weekend which will be another good tester before the UK 70.3 especially with the already mentioned open water swim!

Don’t forget you can sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/huw2013 and surely the embarrassing photo of me below in my tri suit is worth £1 at least!

 

 

A Tough Day in the Saddle

The Wye Valley Warrior – without a doubt the toughest thing I’ve taken on. It put me face to face with my biggest weakness, climbing hills on the bike and I definitely lost. Ever since I started doing this type of thing I’ve always had a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind that I won’t be able to complete them. Until now, I’ve been lucky but today the luck ran out. Now, don’t get me wrong, I made the finish line, however I didn’t do all 97 miles that I set out to do, instead I had to settle for 85. For those of you not familiar with sportives, when there is more than one distance, the route will split at various points and meet back up again somewhere down the line allowing everyone to start and finish in the same place but meaning the different distances on offer are covered. The reason for the missing 12 miles today was that I missed the cut off time for the final split, meaning I had to follow the shorter route to the finish. This left me with mixed emotions. Partly relief that I didn’t have to do those 12 miles but also disappointment and a little bit of embarrassment that I wasn’t able to finish the job fully. That said, 85 miles isn’t a bad and also I’ve discovered that the Isle of Wight sportive that I’m doing in July is 101 miles, not 95 so that means I’m only 6 miles down on my total and I promise, I’ll make those up before the end of the year, probably at the Wales Cycle Sportive.

Despite the mixed emotions, today has made me realise that I can no longer get away with just saying I’m no good at climbing and do nothing about it. I’m determined to at least give it a shot and see what happens. I can’t get any worse, that’s for sure! The events are coming thick and fast now and I’m looking forward to getting back into the triathlons, especially my first one in Brecon. I did the same one last year for my first ever triathlon so it will be interesting to see how I’ve improved in the last year, especially as I’m sad enough to still have my results page from last year!

Before I go, I just wanted to say thanks to Ben who did the ride with me today. I really appreciate you hanging around at the water stations for me to catch up and only you will understand this, but for not answering your phone after I’d done that hill at 70 miles!

Don’t forget, you can sponsor me if you’d like at www.justgiving.com/huw2013

 

My First Sportive

My first experience of a cycling sportive was a mixed one to say the least.  The day started nice and early with the event kicking off at 7:30.  Having checked the weather forecast last night, I knew that there was rain expected around 10 o’clock so the plan was to get away with the first group to give me as much time as possible in the dry.  The plan almost worked, I didn’t get away until just after 7:45 which didn’t really matter because I was going to get wet either way.  The ride in general was a really nice one.  There were no really massive climbs (there was one 25% gradient but it was so wet and greasy when we got there that the majority of us had to walk it!).  There were however lots of undulating roads with some fantastic sweeping descents and also some long, exposed straights.  There really was a mix of more or less everything you could want.  The one big problem though was the weather.  As predicted, the rain started to come down around 10 o’clock and was quite heavy (or at least it seemed like it!) for a lot of the time.  It was also very windy for the majority of the day, which was great when it was pushing me along but unfortunately for me, most of the time it was pushing me back!

Despite this, the first half of the ride went swimmingly (no pun intended!) but as soon as I hit the half way mark, I noticed that the back end of my bike seemed a bit bouncy.  I pulled over and sure enough, I had a puncture.  The is the first time I’d had a puncture during something other than a training ride and was also the first one I’d had on my road bike.  Now whilst I’ve been very lucky to go a year without one, I was gutted that it happened during the sportive and it did cost me because it took me a little longer than normal to change so I cooled down and found it hard work getting going again.  This had a knock on effect for the next 10 or 15 miles but I’m pleased that I got through it and finished the event.  That wasn’t the only thing to happen between the 40 and 55 mile mark; sadly, I saw the bad side of cycling.

I LOVE riding my bike.  It’s what got to into triathlons in the first place and I guess is therefore the reason for me doing all these events this year.  The thing is though, despite my enthusiasm, I’m not the best or indeed the quickest cyclist in the world.  Unusually as well for a cyclist, I’m not very confident cycling in a group, especially when I’m surrounded with people I don’t know and have never ridden with before and the one thing that makes me the most nervous is having someone on my wheel.  For those of you not into cycling, this is when some rides right behind you so take advantage of your slip stream.  The bad side that I referred to was when someone was on my wheel up a hill and then when I approached a slower cyclist in front; I slowed down behind them as I was unable to overtake with this other person overlapping my rear wheel.  Said person then decided to give me a mouthful of foul and abusive language because I didn’t pull out and over take.  The truth is, I wasn’t comfortable having him on my wheel and I certainly wasn’t willing to tire myself out providing a slip stream for a complete stranger.  The bit about this that upset me was his aggression.  Cycling’s profile and popularity has improved greatly in the last few years and there are now far more cyclists (of varying ability) out and about now.  Shouting and swearing doesn’t do anyone any good at all.  I don’t think I did anything wrong but if I did and he had pointed it out to me like a grown up, I would have taken the advice and even thanked him for taking the time to give me some advice.  I hope that in the same situation again, this is what the person behind me would do.  Maybe this way, cycling can get rid of its stigma of being a bit elitist and cliquey but instead seen as a sport open and accessible to all.
Anyway, I’ll get off me soap box now!  Despite the weather and the events of just after half way, I managed to make it around and even though I was soaked through (despite my new rain jacket and overshoes) I’m glad I did it and I guess I did enjoy it!

So part 4 of the challenge is done.  The next part is the Wye Valley Warrior sportive which will be a different animal all together with it being longer and hillier.  Let’s just hope for some nice weather for it!

Finally, before I forget, I’ve had to change one of my events.  I’m unable to do the Little Woody triathlon in August so I have replaced it with the Cotswold Classic triathlon earlier on in August.  The mileage is the same so in effect nothing has really changed but just wanted you all to be kept up to date!

Now that I’ve got sponsorship forms, the names and the money is starting to build up so a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me already.  If you haven’t already but would like to you can either see me for the sponsorship form or go to www.justgiving.com/huw2013.