After completing the Vitruvian I was interested in my swim splits as I was concerned with the time being much slower than the dambuster. I found the website with tools to compare pace per 100m. I used another athelete splits in both races to compare with mine and was shocked to find that I was 15secs slower compared to the other athelete being 9secs slower. Think I may not have raced to my full ability. I will return with the experience gaged.

http://www.bx3.com/phil/tri/tricalc.asp

Athelete 1 ( Dambuster Time (/100m) – Vitruvian Time (/100m) )
22:10 (1:28) – 30:51 (1:37)

My Splits ( Dambuster Time (/100m) – Vitruvian Time (/100m) )
22:39 (1:30) – 33:32 (1:45)

I arrived at the race looking to achieve a sub 60. The record had to go and I knew after my last attempt that I could manage the time. However, the weather wasn’t looking good. It was very overcast at best. Anyway, the race got going and starts with a descent, the first time trial I’ve done with a descent. The outward section feels like it’s going up hill and then under a tunnel. The wind was following me and was probably the cause of me being undergeared. On the return I looked and notice an average of 25.9mph, I thought right dig deep and make sure you get to the line and notice at least 25mph. I noticed the line and the chequered flag and gave a final sprint as I passed the marshalls shouting 68 (come to think about it could easily be turned around to look like 86). I looked at the garmin to see the magic average spped of 25.6mph and a massive “YES”.

Final Time = 00:58:47

Below are my Garmin reading for the route.

I arrived at the race with a fellow Team Trisports member. For once I was early and I set up the transition area. Luckily the weather was good and clear. I started in the 1st wave for the olympic race and found the river challanging at best. Worse of all was my wetsuit had started to burn my neck again and I could feel it every time I sighted. I decided to follow some feet but lost touch on the way back and had a nice gulp of the sewarage.

The bike course is really good and fast although I got annoyed with some drafting. It reminded me of club runs around the coople loop. For once, my back didn’t hurt and no hamstring problems. I got on the run and started to catch some people in front. The end result is below but was more enjoyable for the lack of pain/issues. Next mission is a quicker swim and bike.

Overall : 9
Time : 02:11:38
Swim : 00:25:10
T1 : 00:00:55
Bike : 01:07:09
T2 : 00:00:43
Run 00:37:40

Well hello readers.

I hope to engage you in what will be a running blog of my race of the year, The Dambuster. My knowledge of the dambuster isn’t the best but I love the film and my motivation when in pain will be memorising the dambuster music.

Well how did I get to enter this race ?

It was a mixture of things, discussions with Steve and Jinxy last year on how they have enjoyed the race, the fact that it’s the BTF NATIONAL TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011 and the qualification event for the ITU Standard Triathlon World Championships 2011 – Beijing, September 2011, sadly I can’t afford a trip. So coach Simon picked it as my main focus for the year in my race calendar and I entered (I was not lucky enough to get a free entry as an early fathers day gift or birthday pressie or 10th wedding anniversary gift).

Race Plan

So what do I want to achieve, I’m not racing to win but I will be racing to achieve the highest possible place in my age group. I would prefer this to be in the top 3 as my goal for next year is to qualify for an ITU event and actually be competitive against my peers.

Pre-Race Prep

Thanks to coach Simon advise I’ll be camping at the site. I’ve checked the weather and can confirm it will be raining whilst I pitch my tent. I’ve actually only ever camped once before and it rained every day so I do have a bit of experience, but am interested on how this differs to a night in a hotel / early morning 4am wake up call and drive. The actual course cycle is longer than a normal olympic and has a few hills but looks like good drag, the run also looks pancake flat and all times checked last year would confirm this when comparing against others I’ve raced before.

The Sleep + Trip

I left St Evenege at 6pm and realised that the A1 was closed after J17 due to a fire. Great, so took an off road tour of roads and areas I didn’t realise exist including a War Memorial. Finally got to camp at 8pm and set about setting up the tent and blowing up my deluxe blow up bed. I also had a chance to register and walk around the course which was refreshing. Also had a chat with fellow triathelete campers. Now I’ll admit the sleep could have been better as it didn’t stop raining all night and then at 5am the organisers decided to start the music

Race Setup

I bumped into fellow team mate Richard Melvin at the course and had a quick chat but I felt really relaxed as I was prepared. Put bike into transition and followed Dil’s top tip for counting the right steps (This is brilliant and works !!!).

The Swim

Now what a great place to swim, the lake is beautiull and they split out waves from 35+. The race started and I got into a bunch of 6 and simply followed feet. This was a real change from my usual 100m burst. I was relaxed and controlled and felt easy. I got out in 22:39 so equally happy with the time.

T1

A simple transition and away I went. Okay not as fast as dil but safe !!!

The Bike

What a course. It has 2 hills and then is flat and undulating but ends with a few climbs. I was probably a bit layed back in the bike as the organiser warned us at the start of issues with Police and any law infringements and they would cancel the race. However, I still raced and as I was in the 2nd wave it was great to pick-of athletes from the first wave. I suffered on the bike with a bit of back pain and my chain jumped off the rear cassette (now I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Planet-x again and luckily Trisports are fixing the deficiency with the frame), this had a slight negative on me that I didn’t risk going up too many gears but used the Turbo sessions 120rpm to full use. It was a windy day and this was made clear by the number of aero bikes on the side of the route caught by the strong winds. I ended with a time of 1:11:21 and this really is the difference if you want to be in the top 10 let alone the top 3 of my Age Group.

T2

DOH DOH DOH. I ended up with one shoe on and one off. Yes for the first time ever in Triathlon I messed up by not taking my feet out of shoes far enough in advance of the line.

The Run

By far the best run course I have done to date. Great scenary and flat, although windy. It’s a nice out and back. I ran steady leg and finished with 36:05 which was the difference between me and a fellow HSBC employee .

The Result

Overall = 62
Age Group 35-39=11th
Overall Time : 2:12:12
Swim : 0:22:39
T1 : 0:01:10
Bike : 1:11:21
Run : 00:00:55
Run : 0:36:05

Review

I’ll admit I did start with a vision of 3rd in my age group but I now realise that is a tougher challenge, although one I will take up. I quite fancy targeting the Age Group qualification to New Zealand in Olympic Distance next year. I’ll return to the course this year to do the middle distance and have different ideas on how to tackle the bike. Now on to the next Olympic and hopefully get down to 2:05 (Think I’ll target MK as it is short ). As events go this has top marks from me except with the exception of a timing issue but this was resolved by the time I got home, great facility (showers etc).

A good day out in Hatfield Broad Oak not to be mixed with Hatfield in Hertfordshire (I wondered why the Sat Nav displayed 60min to destination). The race which is part of the annual village festival and is a closed road course was full of runners and supporters. The course was tough and although overcast the weather was very humid. I managed a time of 35:40 (Chip Time) and came home in 17th place.

Running Number: 538
Gun Position: 17
Gun Time: 00:35:43
Chip Position: 17
Chip Time: 00:35:40

The race started well with the first K being a quick 3:20. Then the following being 3:27, 3:28, 3:30, 3:31,3:34 then the wheels came off and the early pace killed me 3:49,3:54. The last 2k was an improvement in 3:40 and 3:25. Here are the Garmin Stats of the day !

The course was a little too lumpy, and a little windy and I could have done without my chain coming on my rear cassett (cost me 90 seconds). The wind picked up later in the race, so the early starters definitely had it easier (oh that would be me). The race venue was spot on and I enjoyed the delights of my black coffee and Carrott cake at the end. It was also a good outing from team trisports so it was good to come home first for the club. Now to target a course to beat that sub 60! The end result was 1.02.42.

I’d entered the Manchester BUPA 10k as I’d read that the course was very quick. Luckily HSBC had some reserve places and I was lucky to be given a entry to the race. The week prior to the race my HSBC T-Shirt arrived but still no chip from BUPA. This was a slight concern but on arriving home on Tuesday the envelope had arrived with my number and I was good to go. I arrived in Bury on Saturday afternoon whilst travelling with the family to stay at a friends house listening to the FA Cup final (with the bizarre rendition of the national anthem). I relaxed and was given some northern food (Cottage Pie) to prepare me for the race with a nice glass of red wine. In the morning I was very relaxed which is unusual for myself prior to the race. I travelled to Manchester for the race on the tram and the city was backed with runners (an estimate of 40,000).

I was in the orange wave which had an assembly time of 9am and start time of 10:34. I decided to arrive around 10am as the weather was cold and damp and I just didn’t fancy standing for an hour prior to the race. This meant that I would be about 100m from the start as the gun started the main race with race winner, Haile Gebrselassie. The first km was hard as many people would be going at a pace comfortable for themselves and some even walking after a 100m. I must have passed around 2,000 people in the first 1km and this was the quickest part of the race and in hindsight not great to a well paced race. I carried on running trying to match a set pace of 3:30/km. The race was harder than expected as no packs formed at a pace I wanted to run at and until 7km I ran on my own. I finally found a runner from Brazil that ran at the same pace as me and we both pushed towards the end. He was stronger than me and I pushed to the line and felt the world collapse around me, but I had finished in a PB of 35:28 and 107 out of 40,000 runners. My family and friends had also been watching on BBC and whilst Haile Gebrselassie was being interviewed I finished the race in the background, I guess that’s the closest I’ll ever get to Haile shoulder!!!

My 25m Time Trial pursuit of the sub 60 time continued at Wisbech Wheelers 25-mile Time Trial out in the Fens. The course consisted of 2 laps of a 6-miles stretch of road between 2 roundabouts completely in the open. A tough breeze made it hard as it seemed a very hard outward leg and yet very hard crosswind on the way back.

There was a 30-min delay to the start because of torrential rain. I finally got started and battled against the wind outwards and continued with cross winds on way back to start point. I noticed how close I was to Sub 60 but just couldn’t duck under the time required. Back to the drawing board for me !

The guys at work seem to have a preference of drinking from the coffee machine but not going to get any rounds. So to highlight the lazy team member of the week I’ll be updating the poll on my blog.

We’ll it was the first cross country of the year in Round 4 of this year’s cross-country championship in Watford on Sunday.

The course was a challenging 5 mile course, held in Cassiobury Park, Warford. I recorded a time of 35:20 and 17th place overall out of the 265 athletes that took part. I started off slower than normal to try and pace myself through the hard course. However, I found the course too challenging and blew a gasket in the middle of the race, this came at the end of a hard training week (No excuses). However, It was pertfect for the build up towards St Albans 10 that I have been looking forward too. To view the course and my personal stats Steffan Ford (Watford xc) at Garmin Connect – Details.