AnnaB's Race Reports

Scotland Coast to Coast adventure Race

2011-09-28T03:51:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was my first dalliance with adventure racing, it should have been a group of 4 of us - Me, Quiz, Steve and Andy all drunkenly entered this race last Christmas as a challenge to train for. We entered ourselves as "Team Cock" (we were drunk, it seemed logical)

The event we found was called Scotland Coast to Coast - the idea was to cross from one side of Scotland to the other on foot, bike and boat in either a day or two days - we of course went for the one day option - it wouldn't be a challenge otherwise right? The event was starting at Nairn with a 7km trail run, followed by a 48 mile road ride, then a 2mile Kayak/Run, a 33 mile bike (with 16 miles off road), then a 14 mile Trek/run and finally a 1 mile kayak.

Trouble was, none of us trained for it. Well not specifically. Mark has been injured, moving house and other stuff. Andy has been training for half ironman distance triathlon (so has no excuse) Steve has been off the radar and I have just been pissing about on my mountain bike all summer. But it wasn't going to be a serious event and it was bound to be a great piss up.

One of my bestest friends, Penny had organised us to stay in a friends cottage for a couple of nights before the race and booked a hotel for the night after the race to have a big ol' piss up so it was all sorted and we just needed to get up there. Mark wasn't going to race now as his old man knees weren't going to be up to it but was still up for the piss up. The others half heartily said they'd still be doing it.

I'd decided some time ago that I would borrow a cross bike from Swindon Road club as there was a long section of off road which would be too much for my lovely carbon road bike, but there was also a LOT of road work,which I didn't think would be much fun on a mountain bike. So a cx bike seemed like a good compromise. I picked this up from Andy just over a week before and we went out for a long ride on the Ridgeway, which I thoroughly enjoyed - except I felt like I was cheating on my mountain bike riding along the route I take that on. A bit like cheating on your boyfriend and going to your favourite restaurant....

The guys and I kept talking about trying out kayaking as this was part of the race, but the months kept passing by. I had a friend of a friend who offered to take me out on Bristol docks but still time passed by, other things came and went and before we knew it the race was a week away.

I contacted the guys and found out none of them were up for doing the event anymore, I still wanted to do it but wasn't sure about doing it on my own. I still hadn't tried kayaking, I had barely done any running, I'd been drinking and smoking heavily but Penny was still up for it if I was and some other friends said I should still do it, and plus I wanted to prove something now to them stitching fuckers! ;-)

The Sunday before I did a 10 mile run with a friend plus a mile to his house, a mile home, then 4 miles to my folks, so I felt a bit better then that I had a few miles in my legs, albeit none of them off road and all of them flat (the route profile is pretty mental and 95% off road) Monday I finally got in a kayak - in the Bristol docks in the tail end of a hurricane! I basically spent an hour either spinning around or fighting the current back to the docks followed by days of sore arms. Tuesday I went to Ashton Court on my MTB for a hammer around and then finally decided that I'd definitely go to Scotland. I had nothing better to do and Pen had gone to all the trouble of sorting out accommodation.

So Wednesday, I went to stay with Penny and Davut and my future husband (Robbie - or George, whichever will have me) had dinner, drank lots of wine, then Thursday Penny and I drove up to Scotland. It was a loooong way. We stopped off in Stirling to meet Sam for lunch, then he took us to his local bike shop as I realised I had no spare inner tube for this borrowed bike, he had heard of the race and thought me mad, he suggested riding the cross bike on full tyre pressure and whacked 65 psi in for me. We then carried on the long but stunning drive up to the cottage on Loch Dromer. It was so pretty, the view from the cottage was gorgeous and the views all the way up were amazing, I was like a kid in a zoo "Oohh look! A waterfall!"

I'd been on twatter that day and tweeted about my lack of trail shoes and thought I'd be fine. The response was "beg, borrow steal some trail shoes, it's steep and slippery!" Hmmm.... I did some more (too late) research and it seemed to be the general consensus - what a dickhead.

At the cottage I cooked some dinner for me n Pen - this is a first except for breakfasts because Penny is the best cook I've ever known, she said it tasted OK, so she's either a very good friend or was very hungry. We drank a couple of bottles of wine, and went to bed. Friday we got up, had breakfast and Penny informed me my tyre had deflated. So I investigated said tyre and found a colossal thorn stuck in the tyre, which had obviously when pumped to a firmer pressure pushed into the inner tube, which was much better to happen the day before than on the race! I changed the tube, but had trouble getting the tyre back on the rim, it seemed to be the wrong inner tube.

We headed off to Inverness to get me some trail shoes (always do a race on new shoes) and pop to a bike shop for another spare tube and to get them to put the tyre on my rim - which even the mechanic had trouble with! then on to Nairn to register and stick my bike in transition.

I had no idea of what I was meant to do really and there wasn't a great deal of guidance from the people at registration. I guess having read the briefing many times now I sort of understood.

Pick up race pack, drive the 8 or so miles to cawdor castle to rack bike. I also changed over my pedals and was going to swap my saddle to my own as the one on there was hideous, decided I couldn't be bothered, bunged my bike in my transition area.
Everyone else had left their transition bags on their bikes already, but I'd planned on dumping mine off in the morning. Did they know something I didn't?

After racking we went to get some dinner from the pub (and a couple of glasses of red) then drove home timing how long we needed in the morning (about an hour). On the way back we stopped off at this beautiful gorge, I used this opportunity of walking a mile or so to break in my new shoes. They felt pretty good, and more importantly looked ace!

We went back to the cottage, had some more wine whilst getting things sorted for the next day (laying out kit, nutrition, spares) The weather looked like it was going to be a bit shit so I left exactly which clothes I was going to take til the last minute in the morning - you had to carry all your stuff with you, including fuel as it was totally self sufficient in that respect so space was limited to just my camelbak rucksack thing. We were going to have to leave at 5 in order to get to cawdor castle to drop off my transition kit then to the start for 6.30 so a good nights sleep would have been useful.

I could barely sleep, all day I'd been feeling so nervous and sick. Perhaps I needed more wine. I hadn't felt like this for a long time, I rarely get nervous before races but this was something totally outside my comfort zone. A friend sent me a text saying "it's just riding, running and playing, you like all that stuff" which was dead right and cheered me up.

In the end I got about 3 hours sleep and was up at 3.45 making my porridge, peering out the window into the pouring rain! Fantastic. It didn't show signs of stopping when I woke Penny up.

For the run I was wearing skins, with some flappy shorts to try in vain to disguise my colossal arse, a tshirt, baselayer and my funky new trail shoes.
Into my transition bag went the following: cycling shoes, bib shorts, 2 x waterproof jackets, gloves, change of leggings and top for the 2nd run and my camelbak.

We loaded up the car and set out in the pissing rain, feeling sick once more, but also a bit excited, we were cutting it a bit fine as we got to cawdor transition at 6.10. I ran my stuff in, used the portaloo back in the car and onto Nairn. It was nearly 6:25 - eek! We parked up right next to the start line as people were activating their timing bands, I ran over and did mine, and queued up with the masses. I suddenly realised I didn't have on my race belt, and shouted Pen to grab it for me, she ran off to get it, ran back and came skidding on her bum back with it! Well there's one way of getting some attention from the boys!

The Race

Run 1

Before I knew it, the race had started.The rain had slowed to a drizzle. I had planned on keeping it steady, but my new shoes and the adrenaline made me go bounding off across the field. I was passing by people, I checked the garmin, and I was doing 7:30s, this would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that it was going to be a long day or not if I kept that up. I pulled it back a little and settled into a more sensible pace. After about half a mile of pavement we took off onto a gorgeous piece of single track trail through woods and along rivers. I was thoroughly enjoying myself - why hadn't I tried trail running before now? The pace was being dictated by the person in front as there wasn't really any place to overtake, so we were pottering along comfortably. As soon as we hit the single track I was glad of my trail shoes. I'd have for sure been on my ass in my road shoes. Ducking under low branches, hopping over tree stumps, I was in my element. I man in front of me hit the deck, I jumped over him before I landed on him. Stopped to help him up, made sure he was OK then we set off again.

I was already looking forward to the run later on in the day. I couldn't stop grinning. It felt so good, I've not enjoyed running for ages and finally I was again quite unexpectedly. The rain was still drizzling down but refreshingly, as the daylight started to get brighter. There was a small section of road up into transition which I hated, I wanted to be on the sticky trails.
I tagged my wristband on the timing device and set about the ridiculously slow transition which was to come!

Transition 1

Trying not to get my feet wet or dry kit wet was a task.

Trail shoes off,
bib shorts on over skins
tshirt off

(woah! who's that gorgeous bloke!?)

waterproof jacket on
gloves, helmet and bike shoes on
then to ram everything else into my bag and tie my running shoes to it.

Despite being in the mid to front runners back, people who came in long after me, got out on their bikes before me. (including a solo girl I'd noticed - I should probably keep an eye on her)

Bah! who cares. I've got all day. (Or until 4pm to reach the final cut off in order to complete the race)

I finally got out on the bike, the rain was a bit harder again as I set off. At first I felt quite good, and smug on the cx bike with loads of people on their mountain bikes.

Penny was waiting just round the corner and gave me a big yell and wave and told me to get a fucking move on!

The next 48 miles all I wanted to do was get off that fucking bike and onto the last run.

The route was fantastic, the most beautiful scenery I'd ever seen (so far), lovely roads, some big climb, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining brightly. All that was missing was my lovely road bike.

The cross bike was like riding through treacle. The knobbly tyres rolling about as fast as a brick. The saddle causing much soreness to my undercarriage, and the miles ticking by so slowly I wanted to cry. I'm certain everyone passed me on that first bike stage. There were sections when I'd feel good, but mostly I wanted to cry. I resented the bike, I wished I'd brought my hardtail, at least I'd have been comfortable and probably gone faster.

I saw the girl from the transition area, and made it my duty to overtake her - luckily she was shite at climbing so I left her behind on the monster climb near the end of the bike leg and I pleasantly said hello and asked if she was enjoying herself and she just made this strange grunt. Only to be overtaken by her on the even bigger descent. Once more I hated the bike, I'd really been working on my descending on my road bike over the summer but now I had no confidence, the brakes weren't reliable enough on the drops, so I had to use the ones on the tops of the bars, which were narrow. So I just braked all the way down trying not to slip on the wet road. The descent went all the way from about 1200m down to the valley floor to the kayak area at Loch Ness, a bit of meandering through and we were directed into the next transition area.

Transition 2

Bike hung up, untie shoes from bag, swap waterproof for dry, windstopper, trail shoes back on, dump stuff in a pile and off for a kilometer mile run to the kayak lake along a really pretty cobbled street, along a canal and past some pirates (I missed them but Pen showed me some pics later). I was dying for a slash when I got there but the toilets were locked. A guy said I could go behind his van so I did, when I pulled my shorts down I discovered that I hadn't taken off my flappy-hide-the-colossus shorts! No wonder I was in so much pain!

Kayak 1

Life jacket on, and down to the shore. I was offered someone to pair up with, but I said "No, I wanna do it under my own steam"

"you sure?"

"Yes, I'm nails" ha what a cock

the kayaks were different to the one I'd tried out earlier that week, they were sit on instead of in, they were much easier, the lack of wind and current helped too and before I knew it I had paddled half way across the lake route.

This wasn't so bad. Round the corner I could see the shore again, and paddled myself over, clambered out with some help from the marshals, ditched the life jacket and ran back round the lake and for another kilometer or so back to transition

Transition 3

Filled up my camel bak, changed shoes again, had a flapjack bite or two which were being offered and pocketed a few jelly babies for later (my friend Sally Pinegar (nutritionist) of Fit Naturally fame had given me a nutrition plan for the event and I'd been fuelling on gels until now, I'd packed a sarnie which I should have had by now but couldn't be bothered earlier to get it out of my bag.)

Bike 2

I was looking forward to this much more than the previous bike, off road is where I'm happiest on a bike these days but again I resented the cross bike. It had ruined the nice bits of road riding and now it would ruin the fun bits of off road. I'm being a bit hard on it, as when it was on track or fire road it went like shit off a shovel, and I found myself really enjoying the single track and descents. I was passing people who were pushing the full sus mountain bikes down things. What was that about!?

A group of about 6 of us kept yo-yoing past each other and we begun bantering a bit. Some of them really weren't enjoying themselves, despite what I said about the bike, I was actually having a brilliant time. But still I was looking forward to that run!

I joked to one of the guys who was complaining "ah but we have a half marathon to look forward to in a bit!"

After about 20 miles off road climbing and descending, praying the big rocks wouldn't perish the tyre, the bike route went back on road and with some more climbing and some incredible views, just 10 miles to go to Fort William.

Once more I saw the girl from transition, once more I took her on the hill, once more she made that weird grunting noise as I whistled by cheerily asking how she was doing.

It couldn't be far now, as we rode through the town centre and lo there was a sign saying "time off" which meant the timer stopped and we could go and get a cuppa, change our clothes and stuff before the final run. Also there was Penny! It was so good to see a friendly face, she must be bored shitless. I got off and walked with her through to transition and chatted for a bit.

Transition 4

Once in the transition area, there was a snack bar, and all I wanted was a snickers. Really craving it. So I got one, nommed that then went to get changed. I took my time once more, washed my face of salt, full dry kit went for a wee, and whilst in there I heard someone come in, and they evidently looked at my stuff, saw it was me and there it was - the weird grunting noise. Now I was pretty sure it was a grunt of annoyance that I was ahead of her.

But she was in and out of transition mega quick! I packed up my wet kit, put what I'd need for the run back in my camelbak (a few gels and some water) took my kit bag and bike to the transport lorry and had a little chat with a couple of guys there.

"Run" 2

I felt great now, the run was here! I'd come in well before the run cut off, My legs felt good, my mood was still high so I set off at a jog. People were walking, I thought it was a run? I overtook a couple of guys who were umming and ah'ing whether to run yet or not, I joked with them to get on with it, and bounded across the field and they commented back about being "chicked" then started jogging too.

Through a gate at the end was Penny again, taking snapshots of me at my worst. I said I'd see her in a few hours, thinking I was being generous with my time.

Round the corner I realised why the run was actually penned as a Run/Trek. The route went straight up Ben Nevis!! I had a stitch from the snickers bar.

I didn't actually mind though, I climbed on up, varying between trotting, jogging, walking, scrambling. I bounced past one guy who said "you're going to run it!?" - "I'm going to try"

I overtook lots of walkers, recreational and racers. It was pretty mental but I still loved it. Up big rock steps, then we took a right and came back down it, this was harder than the up. I had to really concentrate on the technical descent. Being careful not to misjudge the big boulders.

A short bit of road then back onto the trail, below me I saw the "grunter" again, and made an effort to catch her. She was walking. The track turned into a fire road climb, I jogged on past, then past a couple of the lads I'd been riding with earlier. I jogged on up, then gave up for a bit as it got steep and marched on up. I didn't want the grunter to catch me, I was feeling competitive now.

For the rest of the route, there was very little place to actually run, the route was technical and tough and more suited to hiking, but still I was absolutely in love with it. I just wished I had someone there to enjoy it with, I felt a bit sad about that. If the guys had been there, we'd have been having such a laugh.

clambering up steep rocky steps, trying not to fall back down the other side, tottering along rocky river beds, splashing through streams.

I was running quite low on water in my camelbak so I started to drink from the streams running off the mountains, I felt like Bear Grylls! I kept stopping to take in the awesome views, kicking myself for not taking a camera.

I was still overtaking people who were struggling. One man was in a particularly bad way as I came bouncing along saying "It's only another 10k!" I stopped to make sure he was OK, I asked if he was drinking plenty and to have some thing to eat, offered him a gel, but he said he couldn't keep anything down. I offered to walk him to the finish, but he said no to carry on. To be honest I'm not sure he would have finished at the pace he was walking.

A little way down the track was a marshal with some water, I told him there was a guy struggling back there who might want some help.

I carried on trekking, I could see two people in front, who I seemed to be catching, but then I'd round a corner and they'd be a bit further away again. So I made it my mission to catch them and did a bit more jogging where I could. My legs still felt brilliant, but the terrain just wouldn't allow it.

I finally caught them and slowed to a walk and chatted to them for a while, discussed how fucking awesome the day was. We all stopped to admire the valley we were traversing. We looked across the other side and we could see what looked like lemmings, traipsing up the most enormous climb I've ever seen. The guys informed me that we had to go a mile down there to them their rubble, then a 2 and a half mile climb to the summit (gaining 1500m) before only a mile descent to the road then onto the kayak.

The dots on the other side of the valley looked to be barely moving.

We all trotted on a little, crossed the river and started making away up the long long ascent. It was pretty boggy in place,my foot disappearing into wet peat, climbing up natural springs. Again stopping to take in the views.

We were making slow progress, but chatting along all the while, one of the guys went pretty quiet like the way I get when I'm on the brink of bonking. I offered him a gel, but then they stopped to have some solid food. I waited with them, and took some pics for them. There was no rush to get back now, we'd make the final cut off easily.

The climbing went on and on, just when you thought you were going to reach the summit, it went up some more. Was it me, or was the air getting thinner? No, it's me, take on some more fuel. it's still a few miles plus a mile kayak. We climbed up further until we were in the clouds, "scotch mist" Penny calls this. Finally we reached the top and with a "wooohooo!" i jumped about a bit, and then looking down to see the most spectacular view of the day. The sun shining down on the valley, rain drizzling down on our heads, the coast in the background and the huge dramatic mountains surrounding.

The next mile was probably the hardest bit yet, a steep descent down wet, slippery marshland. My legs were trying to run away with me, so I had to trot and walk in places. About half way down I heard some scampering behind me, I already knew what it was. I tried to quicken my pace but I stumbled and scared myself and with "ooh, take it steady" grunter pissed past me! Shit.

There was no way I was going to catch her on this scary descent, every time I tried to pick up speed I stumbled so I decided to get down safely and let her take it.

I was so annoyed though!

Eventually the marshland turned back into a rocky track, then it skipped out onto the road (which again I immediately hated)

About a kilometer on road round the lake and onto the final section of the race! I overtook a guy struggling and tried to gee him up to no avail.

When I got to the kayak transition there were no other runners there, but I was tired and didn't think I would cope paddling alone so I waited for the guy I'd overtaken and asked if he wanted to share a kayak.

He did, so I chose a pink kayak and asked if he wanted the front or back - he took it from behind.

Sitting down was hard on my quads.

Paddle paddle paddle.....The guy at the back started whinging.

"Oh, ow ow ow! My back! oh my back hurts!! I have to stop!"

so we stopped, he shimmied about, paddle paddle paddle then "ow ow ow! my baaaaack!"

oh for fucks sake. This happened a few more times before I said "look, I'm tired too and the sooner we get back the sooner we're finished. you rest if you want, but I'm going to keep paddling"

So I did.

We got a little way across the lake and the current was really pulling us the wrong way, which made it even harder and made him even whinier! I was pulling hard on the right side of the kayak to keep straight.

He was moaning. Eventually he got comfortable (which was in a reclining position) and started helping me. But I was getting tired and crabby too, the current was being a bastard. The coast guard yelled at us to go round the buoy - man it was miles to go still and yet the current was still tugging us the wrong way. No one else seemed to be having this problem as a couple of kayaks sped past.

He stopped again, I kept paddling, it was fucking hard work, and the dickhead had the cheek to start making small talk

"where are you from?"

"Swindon."

"Swansea?"

"NO! SwinDON!" I snapped. "Look, lets just paddle and get back."

We had about 100 yards to go and the current finally let us go, and we pulled into the shore. I felt so relieved as I made some "nnnneeeeeeeeeaaaarrrruuuuummmm!" noises to the cute Marshall pulling us into the rocks.

Whingy man apologised for "not performing" I assured him that it wasn't the first time I've have that problem with a bloke. Grateful to have my sense of humour back I bounded up the bank and ran across the finish line into the arms of Penny.

Photo, medal, tshirt. Was tempted to leave the bike behind for them to eBay but since it's not mine I thought better of it. Hobble to the car and back to the hotel, shower, and wine time!

Fantastic event and by far the most enjoyable race I've ever done, and I think I'm going to try a proper adventure race next year if I can find anyone mad enough to do it with me.

I owe Penny a huge thank you too as I'd not have done it without her amazing support xxx

The Spring Ballbuster Duathlon - 5th March 2011

2011-03-06T12:39:00.001Z

I've not entered any races for ages, particularly running ones as I'd felt my running was too shit as I'm really heavy at the moment (have been for the last 18 months to be honest) and I'd be disappointed with how shit I'd do. I wanted to do the Winter Ballbuster in November but I didn't feel I'd do myself justice and my running was terrible.

This has been my favourite race since I first did it in 2009, I've no idea why, cos it's fucking hard, and it fucking hurts. Here's the report from the last time I did it http://annabsracereports.blogspot.com/2009/11/ballbuster-duathlon-sat-7th-november.html

I revisited it to remind myself of how I trained for it back then and reminisce and make comparisons.

My preparation for this hadn't been ideal, but I was looking forward to it. I only decided I was definitely going to do it 2 weeks ago so when I got paid I entered it. I had planned on losing weight before doing the event which hasn't happened - I think I've actually put ON weight! So I had no high expectations of bettering the last time I did this. I've been out on the piss a lot, and my training hasn't really been specific, I've only done one long run in the last 8 weeks as I'd been focussing on short fast stuff and I'd been having some knee pains on long runs, so wanted to get rid of that. I should have been marathon training now but that's gone out the window too, so I've been doing lots of fun stuff playing on my mountain bike, and barely touched my road bike all winter due to the icy conditions and because I've been having so much fun on my mountain bike.

So with only one hill session on each the bike and run, nights out on the rum, not distance riding and no brick sessions I wasn't heading into the race in the best shape oh and being a stone overweight (at least) the week before was no place to do anything long or try and lose pounds so I tapered. I don't really do this well but I remember that last time I busted my balls I tapered and it helped and it's a long race, you need to be fresh for it. I managed to organise lifts to work for 3 days, allowing my legs to rest but still do some short easy sessions on Monday and Thursday on my commute to work. The temperature had dropped a lot on last week but the forecast was clear, sunny and not much wind, just cold!

I had intended staying with Suzie Friday night as she lives really close to the event but my Dad's car which I normally borrow had to be scrapped so had no means of transport - luckily my Dad is brilliant and said he'd drive me on race day. This however meant a 4am alarm call to get there for 7 - the race was an early 8am start! I had meant to pack the night before but as always I didn't get round to it, so the usual last minute throwing of stuff into bags as Dad turned up. We loaded up the car and set off, I ate my porridge on the way and tried to snooze but the sat nav kept disturbing me.

I love this time of year, the season is starting to change and the sun is finally coming up at a sensible hour. All those months of riding and running 20 miles a day for work in the cold and dark is finally getting paid back. The sun was beginning to rise, the temperature on the car said 0 degrees... brrr! It was going to be cold out there!

As we arrived at Box Hill I was reminded of how hilly the course is... we drove up "Zig Zag Hill" and I remembered how it hurt. What I didn't remember was how long it went on for! Two miles of switch backs, long hard slog up hill. But then I was reminded how close to the finish the hill is as we turned in to the car park.

I was looking out for Mike as I knew he was doing the race too and saw him crossing the car park to register so tooted and said hello, went to park, then join him in the queue to register. I've not seen him for a year since the "Twat Ride" we did this time last year, I told him he looked like he'd shrunk.
We registered and got given chips, numbers and a nice sweatshirt - got the top, might as well go home now...!
Back to the car to get my bike ready, kit in transition etc. All set up, I needed to change and another wee - it was 7:50 - plenty of time. I got changed, had a wee. Decided I needed to go again so did - better to do it now than have to stop on the run in a bush right? There was noone else in the toilets, and I checked my watch - shit! 7:58! I ran, back to the car where my Dad said he'd be waiting, he wasn't there, I chucked my bag on the floor by the car and could hear Klaxons going off! Shit! The race had started!
I ran to transition and put my gloves with my bike, inhaled half a jiz gel and ran to the start where I could see 200m away all the other runners! Shit shit shit! The organisers said "don't worry, you can still catch them!" as I ran across the field on my own yelling back "I thought I'd give them a head start!" I started my watch - the start wasn't chip timed, it was started off the gun so had no idea how much time I'd lost. But I pegged it across to catch up. Some guy shouting "go on 335" and laughing at my tardiness.
Within a few minutes I'd caught up with the back runners and started making my way through the rear of the pack. I was a bit annoyed at myself for being such a silly arse but I couldn't help but laugh to myself.

I'd decided against using my HRM as I've not worn it in months and I've been working on running by feel so let myself get into a nice comfy rhythm and remind myself it's a long event, don't rush it or I'll be battered for the last run (which I would anyway, but you know what I mean). My feet were frozen and felt like blocks of ice with every step, I tried to wiggle my toes but it wasn't helping.

By the water station I'd probably overtaken a third of the field and it felt good to be overtaking people so maybe it was a blessing in disguise that i'd started from the back. I checked my watch and it said 23 minutes, and heard someone's garmin bleep so assumed it to be about 3 miles. Satisfied with my pace I still couldn't help wonder if I'd be running better up ahead knowing I'd had a better placing. I focussed on setting my own pace and not getting sucked into the pace of people around me. I got chatting to a guy in a green top I'd drawn up next to and we were both hoping for a sub 4 time, he said this was his 3rd time but didn't think he'd make sub 4. We laughed about my missing the start and ran together chatting for a while. I found myself wanting to go quicker so picked up a little, we wished each other luck and parted company for a while. Miles 5 - 8 are pretty much all climbing, the hardest of them being from mile 6 - 8. I was aiming for 1:04 for my first run and 1:10 for my second (I'd have liked to plan an even split, but I know better)

The guy who'd shouted my number at the start was at the first hair pin of Zig Zah hill and recognised me and congratulated my running and catching up. I was feeling strong and powered up the hill. I wasn't sure how far it was to the end of the loop but checked my watch and thought I'd make my target time. There was a marshall on the final hairpin and she said "200m til the top" wow, I got up there quicker than I expected, I rounded the last bend and ran over the timing mat, I checked my watch 60:45 - awesome! I was over the moon, as I'd been assuming I'd really struggle with my running particularly given the hills and how little hill training I'd doe - and how heavy I am. I guess gravity is my friend going down hill!

The organiser also commented how well I'd done to catch up as I ran into transition and the guy in the green top was just coming through too and said "yeah, caught us up and over took" I felt good. I didnt fuck around in transition like I normally do. Helmet on, change of shoes, swap gloves, inhaled the other half of jiz gel and ran out.
Running across the field was awkward, I wear mtb cleats instead of road ones which makes it easier to run as the cleat is embedded in the shoe rather than outside of it, but they're still uncomfy to walk in and the were filling with mud. I reached the cobbles at the end and decided to carry my bike to save risk of puncture - it was also easier than pushing it over rocks.

I got to the road and went to mount, my cleats were full of mud so bashed them on the floor. My feet still hadn't thawed out and was a bit worried they'd get even colder on the bike.

I set off into a slight head wind and could hear my computed magnet tapping on the sensor everytime the front wheel went round. I assumed it'd dislodge itself eventually.

I couldn't seem to get any speed up on the bike so I tried to settle down, took on some drink and started chatting to the guy next to me, he asked what time i'd hoped on the bike - I said I'd like to do 90 mins.....I had thought this would be achieveable - i'd figured all that mountain bike hill climbing would have given me an edge..... how wrong was I! ha! The bike leg was horrid, on the descents I was really chicken, going round corners really tentative, climbing hills was ok, but I was too afraid to attack too hard know that there was still a long way to go.

I didn't let it get to me and I was still in good spirits. I overtook not a single person throughout the bike! I got to the last hairpin of the first lap and the lady marshall said "only 200m to go" and I laughed and said "and the rest" the guy next to me also laughed... knowing we had 2 more laps on the bike and another on foot.

I looked at my watch and the first lap had taken me 35 mins! yikes. That wasn't good. I wasn't going to make 90 mins but still I didn't want to push on too hard and mess up the run. I really wasn't enjoying the bike at all. I was half wishing I'd brought my mtb, I just wanted to be off the bike and back out running. I had loved that first run, give me more of that! I'd had some really bad saddle sore earlier in the week but thankfully it wasn't causing me any issues. My Dad was waiting at the top for every lap I came round which was lush, He's so great :-)
I decided to stop fretting about my time, just sit back, get round, switch off and look forward to the last run. My feet and fingers were now freezing beyond belief. I wiggled my toes to bring them back to life. The descents were particularly cold so I pulled my buff over my nose to keep some extra warmth in. I needed a wee on the last lap and decided if I could fnd a spot better to go during the bike than the run. So eventually I found somewere behind a wall and got off, my shoulders felt so tight as I straightened up.

Got back on and carried on to the end of the bike course. Thank fuck for that, I just wanted to be off that bike. How the hell did I do nearly 5 times that distance in the summer?? granted the bike course here was a lot harder, and the pot holes were terrible - nothing like the beautiful smooth roads of Switzerland. One thing I'd noticed this time was the absence of the crowd on top of the hill cheering. They made the race for me last time. The route was still well supported and I made a special effort to thank every marshal on my way round.

I tottered through transition - totter is the best I could muster, knowing my bike time was terrible I checked my watch and it confirmed just how terrible! wowza. I walked my bike back to the rack and hung it up, changed shoes once more took off helmet, took another jiz gel and grabbed a few haribo and stuffed them in my glove for later, dropping half of them on the floor.

I ran back across the field and onto my final leg. My feet were still cold but they were now numb. My legs heavy and rigid from the bike, I could see a few people ahead, so made my plan of just catching people ahead of me, getting a good rhythm going and getting through it.

My legs felt like they weren't mine. I couldn't find any speed in them, so I just focussed on keep an even rhythm and picking people off one by one. About 100m ahead of me was a lady with a great figure, we were running a similar pace and she too was overtaking people one by one, I wanted to catch her though. So picking people off...1.....2.....3,4,5......6.... etc I finally caught up with the lady about 3 miles in, I chatted to her a little, she was spanish, she'd done the event on a mtb! crazy lady. we ran together for a while overtaking people.....10, 11, 12, I went on past her....13.... she went back past me....12. I left her in front a while whilst we went up the first sharp incline. I was feeling quite empty, I only had two sweets left, and there was no aid station on the course, so was concious of bonking. I contiued past more people, counting 20 now. It was helping me keep my brain busy, so it wouldn't think about how my feet were swelling in my shoes, how my shoes were squishing my toes. If i just stopped and took off a pair of socks that would fix it, but I didnt want to stop. I couldnt stop. I wouldn't allow myself to walk. I passed the lady with great body once more, this time leaving her as we came to the last 2 miles of hill. I found man in green top again, he was walking, I encouraged him to run on with me for a bit, told him we'd still make sub four hours at this pace, he tried to keep going but said "go on, you're doing great, " and he fell back into a walk again.

A group of cyclists out for a saturday ride came past, one of them said to a girl in the group "don't worry it's not that steep" i laughed and said to her "who's he kidding!" to which she agreed as she rode past not much faster than the pace I was running - well by now I was mincing! The hill was sapping my energy, draining every ounce from my legs. i didnt' once cramp up though, just feeling the tank ebbing away. I caught up with a few more people walking and went on past, giving words of encouragement "not long now", "the pub will be open when we get to the top" there was a young guy in front walking, I said "come on, you don't want to get beaten by a girl" which perked him up and got him running again, til i caught up with him once more as he was again walking. He said he ws going to havea walk then catvh me up. The last stretch of hill, I wasnt' going to overtake anyone else, I had little fight left in me, and the people I could see ahead were too far to catch now.

A hot guy watching with his kids said "less than 800m" - "Woo!" looked at my watch - I was going to make under 4 hours. hurrah!.Just. Keep. Those. Legs. Moving. Forward.

Lady on the last corner said "200m to go" I said "yay! you're telling the truth this time!" and thanked her and trotted on for the last 200m.

I rounded the last corner and saw my dad - waved and went on through the finish over the timing mat, looked at my watch 3:57:35 - yay! Grabbed some water and found my Dad.

Found Mike, he did great despite some bike mechanical problems.

Here's my splits

Run 1 - 1:00:45 (which from the start gun is offiicially 1:01:45 - so I only missed the start by 1 minute!)
T1 - 2:14
Bike - 1:45:10 !!!!! This is shocking!! :D
T2 - 2:01
Run 2 - 1:07:15
Total 3:58:35

category place............ 1st !!!! Ok so there weren't that many in my age group but still - I won.... not sure where i was in the total ladies

How this compares to last time is really interesting....

Nov 2009

Run 1 - 1:00:41 (-4 seconds)
T1 - 3:18 (+1:02)
Bike - 1:36:08 (- 9 mins!!)
T2 - 3:19 (+1:18)
Run 2 - 1:07:08 (- 7 seconds)
Total - 3:50:36
category position - 5th

Weight difference + 1 stone!

My run times were almost identical which I find amazing. The bike time - atrocious! :D

I just looked up the guy in green top and he did 4hr 1 min so i'm happy for him too.

Still my favourite race, looking forward to the next one... after my legs stop hurting!

Peeeee Beeeeeeee! :D

2011-01-31T20:48:00.002Z

Yay! :-)

20:45. Didn't quite reach puke speed but near, feels great considering i'm way over my racing weight.

had a couple of beers after and really fancied a fag! :P then pedalled hard home buzzing :) In theory if i keep at it, lose kilos i could get under 20....?

Record turn out tonight too and Pb's all round :)

Patheon 5k Race Series

2011-01-31T15:05:00.000Z

Quite soon after joining my company 3 and a half years ago, I started up a running group - I was training for reading half marathon at the time as was another guy from work. It was just a weekly run out from work during the cold dark winter to get some miles in without running such a high risk of getting arse raped, it ceased after Reading and since then I've just done my own thang.

After the Ironman I was pretty fucked to be honest, it took me a couple of months to realise just how fucked I was - it wasn't until I got my energy back, my life back, my sense of humour, my sex drive, my periods and all the other things that vanished due to overtraining. I underestimated how much recovery I'd really need, I'd been training 15 - 25 hours a week for 6 months and I couldn't get into my head that it was OK to do nothing. So I continued training way too soon after the event - like a few days later, only to find 4 weeks later, I was proper fucked. Jaded, moody, uninterested. So I threw myself into going out, having fun, drinking a lot - you know - like acting my age! I was still keeping active but not stressing about training schedules or mileage I was just doing it to enjoy it - cycling and running to work (I'd got rid of my car) , mountain biking, rock climbing - not because I had to, but because I wanted to. You'll notice Swimming isn't mentioned..! It was liberating.

As a plan to get back keep ticking over I decided to set up a monthly Park run at work, so asked a few friends at work if they'd be interested, put up a poster and got a pretty reasonable response. Thus - The Patheon Park Run was born. It was a little bit of a selfish set up initially - to get at least one 5k effort run in to get some speed back into my weary long slow run legs. It has ended up being a sociable group of walkers/runners progressing into a running club after this last event.

The first race was at the end of October, I'd measured out a 5k route starting at work, running round the estate in a sort of figure of 8.

The results are as follows, with a little background of what I did between races.....

Race 1 - September - 20:55 (there was less than half a second between me and the guy who came 2nd)
Took up smoking. Went out a lot, gained a bit of weight. Did quite a few long slow runs, nothing fast, I knew I had london marathon in April so wanted to keep on top of my endurance.

Race 2 - October - 21:29 (got my ass whipped by a new runner to the group)
Took up smoking a bit more.... went out a bit more. Still cycling everyday and running when i fancied it (sometimes to and from work in a day - 9 miles in the morning, 9 miles in the evening)
Again smoking on th e increase, christmas parties, year end at work - swapped food for alcohol during the week. Partied hard. Had gone back to my old rule of "no smoking before I'd trained that day"

Race 3 - November - 22:01 - a knee niggle injury had cropped but didnt affect running too much til i did long stuff. but this day it was hurting so i said "i'll take it steady" I didn't
More xmas parties, working 2 jobs over xmas period so my day was like this for 2 weeks:
7am - cycle to work, 8-5 work, 5.30 - cycle home. Change, cycle to job 2, 7 - 1.30am - work. cycle home (in snow/ice), 2am - 6am sleep. For 2 weeks! I was fucked. I didn't run much during this time, partly cos my knee wouldn't allow it. mostly cos I was only getting a few hours sleep a night.

Race 4 - December : 22:30 - was really snowy, was the " Fancy dress Christmas Pub run" originally it was going to be a fun run of Drink a pint, run 5k, drink another pint. It was just a straight 5k in the end
I had most of xmas off training, did normal folk stuff, saw friends, hung with family, made snowmen...I'd done a few short runs, a boxing day race and not touched my bike for 2 weeks. I went to running club and kicked ass!

Race 5 - January - I'd given myself january to get back into it gradually, with a half plan in place but again nothing strict or regimented, my main aim now is to lose weight. I'd also a few weekends planned for birthdays, or with friends, a big work night out midweek, so I knew it wasn't going to be a clean month. My only strict rule was NO SMOKING. There's a clear correllation between ratio of smoking/drinking and my times. Not to mention being fatigued and injured (which my physio suggested was possibly a symptom of fatigue also)

Through january i've been having physio on my knee, it was intermittent - fine as long as I didn't do more than 10 miles. I went to have my gait analysed at my normal running shop, and turns out I'd begun to pronate which was possibly what was causing my knee pains. He also suggested that it was fatigue making me run sloppy.

So i bought new shoes and made a new plan. For the next 2 weeks I wasn't going to run more than 6 miles. But was aiming to run 5 - 6 times a week doing 3 - 6 miles, but work on getting some speed back in my legs to fire up my fast twitch muscle again and also to lose weight - I know my body well enough that it does not lose it if I'm training long - i didn't lose an ounce during Ironman or previous marathon training so I've decided that unless I can lose 10 - 14 pounds I'm not doing london, I've got a couple of other big events later in the year which i need to have the optimum power to weight ratio or I'm going to struggle.

So I'm back in the gym, speed work, not smoking and am going to see what happens next. I asked the lovely Amanda what she thought of my plan of just doing short stuff through feb while I get my racing legs back with 10 milers being my longest in prep for the marathon should I do it and she thinks that since I've got a good endurance base it should be ok. So that's my plan for feb.

Final 5k race is tonight, so will update later to see how my non smoking, strength training, speed work plan is going! :)

Moral of the story - don't smoke. It looks cool but makes you run shit :-S

Boxing Day Relay

2011-01-04T22:08:00.002Z

It's been a long while since I've written on here or indeed done any races. This was more of a fun thing organised by a friend at running club - the following details were emailed round

"All
I won't be there tonight but can I ask if you want to run in the Boxing Day Great Canal Relay.
Those who have been doing the race since it started will be interested to know that this year is the 80th running of the event!
For those who haven't done it before this is a 6-leg relay race which starts at Bradford-on-Avon at 9.30 on the 26th December.

The lengths of the legs are about 2.5, 5.5, 2.5, 2.5 5.5 and 5.5 miles (although most of those lengths are wrong)
It finishes at the French Horn at Pewsey Wharf at about 12.30 where we have a drink, some
food and the presentation of probably the greatest prize in running.

It's not a race that's taken seriously - in fact everyone is discouraged from winning as this is seen as un-sporting.

"Competitors" are encouraged to run in fancy dress although this is not in any way compulsory.

Please let me know if you want to run and if so how far.

You can run any number of legs, although to be fair, no one has ever run

more than six"

Nearer the date we received further info and the following rules (not "this years rules")

"This Year's Rules:

1 Start 9:30 on 26.12.2010
2 6 legs
3 1 to 6 Runners
4 At least one lady (or equivalent) per team
5 No prizes - Again! - but a "magnificent" trophy
6 Optional entry fee of £1 per runner (ALL of which goes to Charity)
7 Other Rules may be added at any time
8 All rules may be ignored at any time (except possibly the new rule 9)
9 Fancy Dress is encouraged
10 For health and safety reasons, anyone over the age of 105 must be accompanied by at least one parent"

I was down to do the last leg (5.5 ish miles) my runnings been hit n miss lately, with a bit of a knee niggle hampering things but marathon training is underway and I've managed one 18 miler and getting some commutes to work done which is 9 mile each way - since i have no car i have no choice but to run or cycle so it's a blessing in disguise perhaps.

Anyhow, i received a call on Christmas day from the organiser to say both our clubs runners for leg 3 had pulled out for various reasons so would i do that one as well. So I agreed, he told me it was about 3.5 miles... if you look above it says 2.5....?! whatever it was all for fun.

Boxing day morning and I wasn't very well organised as I was staying at my folks I had my kit with me but nothing really very fancy dressish. At home i had an elf and Santa hat I'd been wearing on my bike but that wasn't very original, so I stole pops car and nipped home and had a quick rummage. I pulled the fairy lights off my bike (I'd been getting festive on the bike) grabbed a green dress and green tshirt, the angel off the Xmas tree, a string of tinsel and ran back out the door.

The sat nav took me where I needed to be for my first leg, it was minus 6 and there was snow everywhere, but it was beautiful. I'd become quite used to the cold weather cycling 20 miles a day for work and running sometimes 18 but it still felt cold. I sat in the car park and transformed myself into a Xmas tree. I looked shabby apples but it got the desired affect, shame the lights weren't really visible in the daylight or it mightve been better. Then angel pinned to my head and i went to meet the others at the change over.

There were about 10 teams - lots of others were dressed up too, one lady was in a skimpy elf costume, she looked freezing!! Others were dressed suitably for the baltic conditions. The canal was one thick sheet of ice, the barges all frozen into place. It wasn't long before the first runner came through and changed over. In the distance I could see a caped man running our way, it was our number 2 runner. We were in 2nd place, he slapped my hand and i bombed off.

It was so pretty out, lots f walkers with their dogs and kids, i said merry Xmas to everyone i passed, looking like a right dafty! I soon became really hot and took off my gloves. I felt like a little bunny skipping through the snow. It was really nice, i was expecting lots of ice but the ice patches were few and far between. My toes were getting pretty cold though! The last half of my leg was up hill... i questioned this when i got back - how can a canal path go up hill!? Someone said "that's why i didn't want to do that leg" cheers. ;-)

I powered up the last hill to the next change over not far behind the front runner, I'd gained a bit of time on him during the run. A lady looked at my feet and said "i thought you had spikes on the way you came up there so strong" which was a nice compliment :) the angel's head had fallen off and i was really hot now!

Someone had driven dad's car to the changeover and we drove in convoy to the next one 3 or so miles away. I had time to drink some coffee and take a slash behind a bush. watched the leg 4 to 5 changeover then on once more to the final leg. I decided to run this one in just my running gear as it was really hot before

I was told it was a bit confusing, you had to cross some of the bridges, but "not this one", "make sure you don't go into the woods"
"so i go to the woods and then over a bridge?"
"no"
"is it not obvious?"
"no"
"can't i just follow the person in front?"

um.. no, our runner was coming in, we were in first place. shit.

Ok, i was off at a pretty quick pace, then i realised i had nearly 6 miles to go so pulled it back a little. The snow down here was much deeper and untouched. it was brilliant, i bounded through like a kid. So tempted to do snow angels but i could see someone in the distance behind me, i kept checking to see how quickly he was gaining on me, not fast but he was going to catch me at some point. I pushed on, not knowing which crossing i had to take, where the woods were. Bouncing through ankle deep snow smiling.

The guy was about 20 m behind me now and i wasn't sure where to go, i shouted back "is it this bridge" - "no" he yelled i ran past it and there's no way over it anyway!

I did the same at the next bridge, again no. After this one he was right on my shoulder, i was tempted to hog the path so he couldn't get through but i let him past. I asked if he was the guy doing it solo but he was doing it in a pair. He had a nice bum and legs that went on forever!

I couldn't keep with him, so i dropped back further. I could see about 500m in the distance the finish area where the crowd were waiting. I could also see a little way behind me, another runner. I started to dig in, but it wasn't quite enough. I was blowing, I could hear him gaining on me, i pushed harder, my legs burning and my chest tight, he was right there on my shoulder. 100 yards to go... i pushed. Again I thought i could just hog the narrow path... but i moved across so he could pass, i tried to stick with him, i contemplated pushing him into the frozen canal!

He pulled away from me and with 5 seconds between us at the finish, we were both near to vomitting!

It was declared the closest race in the history.

The guy in the pair was dq'd cos he had no lady in the team, so we got 2nd and 3rd (our other team came in a few minutes behind)

We went to the pub to get a pint to find the pipes were all frozen so no beer :( so i had a rum n coke and waited for the rest of the teams to come in.

The man with amazing long legs was even nicer from the front. (his face not his member!)

The magnificent trophy was presented (the idea of it is that the winning team have to add something to it each year)

Next year they're thinking of drawing names out of the hat to decide the winners. :)

Here's what we could've won....

Kona Bike Fest -Saturday 16th October

2010-10-17T22:55:00.003+01:00

Well as the previous posts suggests, I'm a total novice on a MTB but I entered this with the intention of going as long as poss and having fun.

I'd ridden round the course twice previously - both times having several offs. The first time was embarrassing, Phil took me round and i was getting off to go over rocks - "surely you can't ride over that??" sweet Jesus!

The roots were lethal, (and there were so many of them!!) what was I doing?

The next time (last week) was much better, it was after Afan where id gained a lot more confidence and although i was still slow over the obstacles compared to the guys I was going over most things, so was happy to do the event (so long as it didn't rain and make it all slippery scary)

This is by no means an excuse but I went out "For one..." on Friday night, i was looking at the clock at 10 thinking... 2 glasses of wine, that;ll do, go home now and you can have a good night sleep....

i did this again at 11.. then 12..... then finally after about 2 bottles of wine, several rum and cokes, then shots I rolled in about 2.30 steaming drunk! i fell into bed only to be woken by my alarm clock half an hour after it had first started going off.

With some "Shit, fuck, bugger, ouch my heads" i got up still pissed, threw everything i though i might need into a hold all and got on my way to Bristol. When i turned up the others had all got up ( they'd camped) and i made my way in a haze to the registration tent. got back sorted myself out.

I'd bought some tassels, a big pink horn and some spokey dokes for affect unfortunately the spokey dokes didn't fit :( but the tassels looked cool!

I had everything I'd need for the day as I'd not wanted to stop - the idea was to do as many laps as possible in 8 hours. I knew i was slow so had to rely on my fitness to keep me going.

The start was at the bottom of this steep hill (on foot) you had to run to your bike then go. I jogged up the hill to where Chris was holding my bike for me and tootled off. There were a few hundred people to get through a small space at the start of the trail so i hung back as i didn't want to slow people up with my slow snail speed down over the first section.

Once on the trail the course is really bumpy, big old rocks then into a nice sweeping gravel single track section, over more rocks/roots, off up the side of a road, up a steep hill down back into a trail over more rocks, down a big steep ditch drop off and back out the other side (the first 2 times i chickened out and walked)!) out across a field, back into the trail, more rocks, roots, up a maaaasssive steep rocky climb, down a steep descent, through a really twisty technical section, through more woods, into a field briefly, up another even rockier steeper climb then straight down a wall which i hated the first time but by the end was loving. Then out across a field, up a gravel track back to the start again.

I was having a great time, pottering about, tooting my horn at everyone who went passed. At least 75% of people who went passed commented on my tassels, and by the end of the day i was know has "Tassels" or "solo tassels" i was tooting away and people seemed to enjoy it. I took about 40 mins per lap and I had hoped to do 12, but I had a little stop for 2 or 3 mins after the 3rd lap, to eat something then did this after every lap, half a jam or ham sarnie after each lap, then 10 mins after 4 hours, to go for a wee, refill my camel bak, have a little chat with the other MB Swindon team. I kept this up for the next few hours. I got to 9 laps and realised I wasn't going to manage 12 - you had to be back from your lap before the 8 hours was up. I got 11 in with 15 minutes spare.

My shoulders were killing and I had wankers wrist my legs felt fine and i had more in the tank. Phil handed me an MB Swindon sweatshirt and told me I'd need it to wear on the podium for the photos and prize giving... i dint' understand... I'd come 3rd!! :)

i had no idea, I'd not gone with the intention of getting placed cos I'm new to this and really shit, if I'd know I'd have pushed a bit harder... especially now that i found out i was only 6 mins behind the 2nd lady! I knew I shouldn't have stopped for a slash!

All in all it was a successful day, as a club we did well, no injuries or mechanicals. and a great laugh!

The boozing I realise has no bearing of my performance, if anything the wine was a good carbo loading tip.. spesh as I didn't have any dinner the night before!

Afan Monster Enduro - 25th September

2010-10-17T22:27:00.000+01:00

I've been having a great time the last couple of month, playing on my mountain bike, riding for fun, running for fun, not stepped foot in the swimming pool though! Ironically I feel fitter now than I did when I did switzerland.

I feel so free not staring at my HRM, worrying about eating enough/eating right, sleeping enough, doing too much, training enough. Now I', just doing what I fancy, when i want to and bloody loving it.

So this mountain biking milarky then....

I'd booked into this mountain bike beginners training day the week after the IM as I thought it would be something to do to keep moving, but nothing tough. So I rocked up with a few other mates on my old "black pony" and did this course, learnt a few minor skills (wheel lift and sort of bunny hop) and after went with some of the guys who were running the course round "the croft trail" which i never knew existed but was great! A man made single track trail right near where i live.

After this i got the bug a bit, bought a gorgeous new bike which i'm so in love with it's obscene, joined the MB club who'd run the course and before I knew it had signed up for 2 events - bike fest and this event.

I'd never done much off roading, i thought off road meant like those old disused railway track type things, man was I wrong!

The purpose of this event was to get myself a bit used to long time on a mtb as the bike fest thing was an 8 hour race.

So the Afan Monster was a choice of 75km and 100km route, when i told people I was doing it, I got laughed at, and told I was going to die. Great. Of course some of you know what I'm like - tell me I cant do something and I'm going to damn well prove you wrong! The website described it as the toughest ride there is and although I knew physically and mentally I was up to the challenge my skills weren't!

Some of the guys from club also signed up for it and agreed to babysit me round, I'd never done any proper trail rides before and had no idea what to expect, what i did know is that I hate rocks, roots and going downhilll.... good call Anna!

I was picked up by chris and Simon at stupid oclock and we had a good laugh all the way down. Phil had taken our bikes down in the van so we all got there and put our bikes together, went and got our numbers and set off.

The first mile went straight up a fire road, I don't mind hills too much, but not everyone was keen! But I knew that going up, meant coming down at some point. For mtb'ers this is the whole point, not so much for me - Miss Brakey Joe! The first descent was mostly back down fire road which was a bit skiddy - esp when you're strangling the brakes like i was!

It took 3 miles for the first mechanical - chris showing off to someone taking a pic, doing a big old bunny hop, landed funny and "bang" there went his back wheel, buckled as you like, the boys faffed for a while trying to straighten it, before deciding to get down the hill which passed by the start and get chris a new wheel. He had to get a lift off to find a shop and decided to meet us further down the ride.

It took a further mile before my first crash of the day, it wasnt very spectacular, I just sort of splatted into a bush going down a rocky bit of single track. The boys are always saying "go faster and you won't fall off" which i want to believe but it's bloody scary when ou're flying over rocks and hit a wet root and face plant a tree! the first section of the ride went along the trail known as "The Wall" which was really rocky and rooty and you'd have sheer drops down to the side of you, one mistake and game over!

The day was hard, the weather was beautiful the views and scenery were amazing!. The hills were tough and long, some bits unpassable on bike and had to be pushed, the descents for me were much tougher. As the day went on, i was becoming mroe confident rolling over anyhting and even getting a bit of speed at times!

After 2.5 hours of riding, we'd just got to the top of an mammoth climb - around 6km! I looked at my computer and we'd only done 16 miles! I could have run that far in this time. It was crazy, on the road i'd have covered that in less than an hour, but this was a totally different kettle of fish and I liked it!

We regrouped at the top and met up with another group, the guy at the back was really struggling, I hung out with him for a bit and literlly pushed him up the rest of the hill - and nearly fell in a ditch!

I had several more crashes throughout the day, and there were more mechanicals for the group - punctures and the like, we then lost Simon for half an hour somehow!

My favourite bit of the ride was the trail known as "Skyline" it was a really nice single track, which ended up weaving down through the woods to the road, the guys had gone off ahead and I was merrily picking my way down and i got hooked on a rock (i was going too slowly) and I sort of got suspended in mid air and to my left vertically was the bushed/rocks (soft landing) to my right, a sheer drop, I needed o fall left, but unfortunatly i fell right, I felt my heart stop as I tumbled, I shit my pants like never before. My bike miraculously didnt come with me, but I grabbed at handfuls of grass and managed to pull mysefl back up, properly shaking.

I tentatively got back on and started picking back down the hill, Simon had waited for me just ahead and i told him i'd just shit myself.

When I got to the bottom onto the road the guys were waiting and said they had bad news...

We'd not made the cut off due to all the mechanicals we'd had, and the last 20km could take us 2 hours without mechanical probs so we had to wait and get a lift back :(

I'd never DNF'd before and was disgusted... we joked about this for the rest of the day/eve (still are in fact)

This report no way nears sums up how great a time I had and how much it boosted my confidence and I can't wait to go back.

Bala Standard Distance Triathlon - 12th September 2010

2010-09-13T20:59:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was the last triathlon of the season for me, I'd entered it knowing that post Ironman I'd need something to keep me focussed and prevent me 1) going off the boil on a wild drinking frenzy and 2) stop me sinking into a state of depression having nothing to aim for.

It didn't really stop either of these things fully because the 2 weeks post Ironman, I pissed up the wall like an 18 year old fresher having left home for the first time. Chain smoked, binge drank and ate shit. Then drew a line in the sand and got back to business. Well I tried. My body didn't want to know, it was still fried from the Ironman, compounded then with 2 weeks of not being very kind to it.

A further two weeks, saw me feeling much more like AnnaB, back to my bouncy self which looking back I've not seen since the beginning of the year. Gone was tired, unmotivated, snappy troll girl that appeared about 4 weeks before the big dog. Which tells me I was quite possibly overtrained, overtired and in need of a break.

I had made a plan to try to achieve at Bala, this plan was get to as close to 2:30 as possible - it was always going to be a tall order, and withmy running having taken a big knock I decided there would be a good place to start making improvements, so I called in the brains of a couple of friends and set about working on speed work, nothing but speed work. 6 weeks of speed work. Trouble was 3 of these weeks were when my body was telling me to fuck off. So I only managed about one session a week and the rest of my "training time" fucking about on (and falling off) my new fricking beautiful and oh so fun mountain bike. The speed work I didwasnt too shabby, I was managing 6:30 miles the odd sub 3 min 800 (most of them 3 - 3:15s though) and was begining to show some consistency.

Then last week my speed session was a 5k run leg of a relay which I pulled a really shit time out of my ass and there and then said "hmmf, next weeks not gonna happen" I then had a terrible run at running club on wednesday (worse than i've ever remembered and even the guys at club commented)

Against my better judgement and advice from others, I took total rest friday and saturday and just commuted to work on thursday as i felt totally battered.

Anyhow, my target times i'd given myself some weeks ago to achieve this time of 2:30 were

Swim - 32 (my PB time on an olympic - though it wa smeasured short I'm sure)
T1 - 3 mins
Bike - 1hr 10
T2 - 2 mins
Run - 43

But this wasn;t going to happen - I'd swam twice in 2 months, not been in the lake since that awful time in switzerland, wasnt running well.

So back to Bala.

I'd left it too late to book anywhere to camp as planned as it was out inthe sticks of beautiful north wales so my dad insisted on driving me, or at least sharing the drive.
This meant leaving at 3:45 am. ouch.

So me and dad bickering about me driving too fast, revving too much, wasting his fuel, we stopped about 60 miles away and got coffee and i ate a couple of bagels and he finished the drive whilst i have dozed/dreamt.

We arrived just before 8am, after me having to get dad to stop so I could take a call of nature in some farmers field. The temperature had dropped considerably from recent days and the grass was heavy with dew when we got to the car park.
I went to register in a long queue to pick up my freebies, get my number marked on, chip etc and looked out at the lake, it was vast! and there were waves!! big waves! i've never swam in water with current before unless you count rapids at the swimming pool or the wave machine at the oasis!?

I headed back to the car and started getting my stuff ready.

I took my bike out and put the front wheel back in, I had borrowed Big Jan's (aka Gary from Paris trip) wheels as mine aren't very good and I'm saving up for some go fast wheels of my very own, but when I'd used them before the screw from the skewer was missing so for this I'd brought one of mine to use instead. I had trouble getting the wheel to go in, I eventually got it in and it seemed a bit tight. I tried to spin the wheel but it would just grind to a halt. I figured it was the brake, so loosed it off and it seemed better.

I got the rest of my things ready to take to transition and me and dad went on down and joined another queue to get into transition where they were checking everyones helmets and numbers, the queue took ages because people hadnt got their helmets tight enough.

I found where I was to rack my bike and chatted with the girls there for a while whilst getting ready, the girl next to me, in my age group was from Salisbury and hadnt booked anywhere either so ended up sleeping in her car in a layby over night, she'd recently done Roth ironman distance so wasnt sure what to expect either.

I set out my things, and squeezed my lardy ass into my wetsuit - not a nice look on someone carrying way too much fat right now! Happy that everything was in order I went to the lakeside where the first wave was getting started (the young men and old men). Off they went and in the ladies got to warm up.

The lake was stony and very cold. The cold didn't last as the wetsuit warmed up the water, it was certainly more comfortable than the warm water in lake Zurich. There had been health warnings about Blue Algae in the lake but we'd been reassured that the recent wind and rain had dispersed it.

We swam to the first buoy and waited to be started. I got close to the buoy so as to avoid swimming too much further than required as i've a nasty habit of going way off course.

I started my watch as the klaxon went and we were off, I started off hard, harder than I ever had in the lake, I'd already decided to make an effort similar to that I make in the pool on sprints. There were feet and hands everywhere, I polo swam the first 20meters or so to avoid getting foot in mouth or a broken nose and was feeling really strong and like I might be doing ok. I started to swim "properly" as in with my head under the water and was making progress, until I started to get big waves washing over me, it suddenly became really choppy, and I didnt know what to do, so breaststroked a little, got mself some space and tried to get back into a rhythm and stop panicking.

I eventually got into a rhythm and looking down I could see bits in the water, whooshing past underneath me, and I felt as if i was going so fast, it was a weird site, and i felt a bit surreal but I liked it, it was a bit trippy and difficult to describe. I looked up thinking I must be half way along now, but i was still miles fromthe first buoy! I didnt understand. There were still ots of people around me, and i kept overtaking one girl and then she'd overtake me, and thewater bitswere still whooshing past beneath me. I was sticking nice and close to the buoys as they passed. The waves were still knocking me about but i was enjoying the world underneath flying past. I rounded the firs buoy at the top end nice and close, not having to break my stroke, the second of the turn around I had to take breast stroke for a bit, I took the opportunity to check my watch - only to find I'd not started it!

The time said 10:16 and I know i'd started it at 9:59 meaning i'd taken 17 mins to do over halfway! Brilliant!

I begun making my way back trying to keep the rhythm I had, I'd lost the attack I'd started off with in the panic stricken section of choppy water.

Once more, the water was flying past under neath me, like sparkly cosmic rays. I got carried away in this psychadelic place and when I came up to spot, i found myself in the middle of the swim course - fuck! I started going back out to the right side of the buoys and could see a few yellow hats still (not many mind)

I was getting bored now, I wasnt' making any progress, I just kept losing my course, the sparkly water was distracting me and I kept forgetting to spot and kept zig zagging. Before long I was overtaken by fast men from the wave behind.

I then hit the choppy section of water once more, again knocking me about, slowing my progress. I really needed a wee, i'd already been for one during the swim but I knew if I ddint go now i'd need to go on the bike or run and that would be a total pain in the arse. But I couldnt go, no matter how i tried.

My right hand hit stones and I realise i was near the jetty. i got up and tried to walk, but couldn;t, the stones were sharp and making me unstable so i got back down and sort of tried to crawl the last 15 meters to the jetty, i once more tried to stand again fell, i felt like a cock, but the girl next to me had the same problems. I finally got to the jettty and was helped out by a marshall, trotted upt he jetty undoing my wetsuit, puling off my hat and goggles and shaking down my plaits like repunzle! (yet ever so slighlty less glamorous.)

I had no idea of time now, and didn't care, I was just glad that was over with.

I ran into transition and looked for where my bike was, the numbering wasnt very clear, and i ran around aimlessly for a bit, i'd lost my bearings and i'd lost my bike. I finally found it. I still needed a wee, i had two choices, go now, before i take my wetsuit off fully or risk having to go later somehow (and its' fucking hard wearing a one piece tri suit) so I did what any other scumbag would do, and just did it in my wetsuit whilst I got my hat and gloves on, can't say I can't multitask!

So wetsuit now off and full of piss, socks and shoes on, downed a Jiz gel, glasses on, and bike off the rack and restarted my computer.

Pushed it out of transition and it felt weird. I assumed it was the surface I was pushing it on. I got past hte mounting line and threw my leg over I clipped my right foot in and went to push off, but nothing. the front wheel turned round half a revolution and stopped. I jumped back off and could see my dad filming me ahead, i spunthe back wheel - fine. spun the front wheel. "pfft" it wouldnt turn.

I gave the brakes a poke, the left hand side was rubbing and stopping the wheel from turning. I tried to loosen it by hand, got back on, got round the corner, still rubbing. I got off again, and tried to pry the brake ioff the wheel, nope. I pushed the wheel to the side. I was cursing now and on the brink of tears, and pulling out of the race. I manged to get the bike moving by keeping my weight to the right and the brake off the wheel some of the time. I went for 8 miles pushing my lovely bike through treacle. Swearing at it every revolution, a man came passed me, asking if i was ok, i was clearly struggling. I hated my bike. But i felt guilty because I love it dearly.

I passed a man who'd sprayed across the floor being picked up by a pedestrian (later on i saw him covered from head to toe in road rash)

A man came passed me with a number the mark of the devil 666 - "Cunt" I wanted to shout. At him, at me, at my fucking brake!

About 8 miles in, and I was starting to descend, but still having to pedal, my legs were burning, and my rage was burning equally. I spotted a group of people watching, one of them a guy on a bike, i spotted he had a bike bag no doubt with tools in (yes, its something i normaylly carry but for some unknown reason i didnt bother today) I stoped and asked if I could borrow an allen key and he quickly got his tool out for me ;) oo er!

I took the brake right off, gave him back his tool, said thank you about 10 times, and got back on, immediately i accelerated! yay! however, i'd taken 30 minutes to cover 8 fucking miles!

I raced on, taking some risks going down the hill, particularly only with a rear brake. I could see people lots of people coming back the other way (the course was out and back)

I was now overtaking people, not hard as there were so many people in front of me! I reached he turn around at 40 mins by my computer, took it dead steady round cos it was wet and it was tight and i only had one brake.

I set back off up the hill, fighting off girls coming from bheind me, making a big effort to get past the oes in front.

I totaly flew the way back, not really thinking or feeling anything, just that I had a lot of ground to make up and having to take lots of risks on corners and any descents.

I reached the final 3 miles which was the run route and could see loads of [eople out there, how gutting. the leaders will have finished before i even get on the run!

I checked my computer as i got back into transtion and it siad 1hr 13, (it stops when i stop so wont have recored my exact time, but my last 12 miles was 33 minutes! that's the fastest i've done that distance. I'm sure it was sheer rage and adrenaline.

I ran back into transition and once more had no idea where my bike was racked. I was in the wrong row and had to run round, i still couldnt find it, and just dumped it where i could see a space and ran to find my stuff.

i whipped off my hat, and shoes, guzzled anohter jizz gel, trainers on, gloves off, grabbed a chewing gum, and my mates garmin i'd borrowed, also the bottle of coke i'd decanted into a little bottle downed that on my way out of transition and ran on.

I actually felt pretty good, i was thankful i'd taken total rest the days before, a lady yelled that i looked strong which gave me added motivation.

6.5 miles seemed a long way to go, i contemplated sacking it off, i'd not ran longer than 4 miles at a decent pace lately, in fact i'dnot run that fast for that long in months. But i felt surprisinly good. I checked the garmin but it didnt have a signal yet. I got on with overtaking everyone I came up to.

After about half a mile the garmin kicked in and i was doing between 7:15 and 7:45 min miles, it was quite a hilly route, but obvioulsy the payback for going up hill means you get to go down, so where i slowed to 8:30'si got it back doing 6 - 6:30s i liked this garmin thing! My gyppy S was shit and rarely worked for more more than a mile at a time, and i'd never raced with one.

A girl overtook me, running really well, so I told her "great running" she stuck a thumb up and ran on.

I hit the turn around still feeling strng but slowing slightly, i dug in, and had to climb the long drag i'd previously flown down. bottoming out at a 9min mile pace i started striding out. I could see women ahead and tried to catch them, half a mile to go, I wasn't going to do a 43 or eeven a 45 minrun, but I pushed on and dug deep, I rounded the corner and pushed past the lady in front, then got into where i thoughg the finish was and found it took you a furher 150 m round transition through a big muddy puddle, but i could see two more girls in front so i made it my ission to catch them too. My eyes went all funny like i might pasts out, and i thought i was going to piss my pants in my effort. I got passed and through the finihs line. A marshall asked if i was ok "yes fine" "are you sure"? i must hve looked like i felt.

Well despite the shit first half, i ended up feeling really good in the end, and with better preparation and some swimming lessons (or100) i might do better if i return next year.

My official times in the end were

1500m swim - 36
24 mile Bike - 1hr 17
6.5 mile run - 47

after the race taking my wheel back off i realised the problem, the fork was jammed round the spring of the skewer restricting movement. In addition, when i got home and did my washing, i found that my tool was in my back pocket all along - id put it there in case i needed it! :D
Time now for a diet, shift a stone before next season and enjoy a winter of running and mountain biking :)

21st August - Aquathlon Summer Series Race 5/5

2010-08-30T13:46:00.000+01:00

I missed race 4/5 because it was the week before the Ironman and didnt really want to take too much out of the bank so close.

Prior to this, I'd been really trying to get some speed sessions in but i've been totally shagged (not in a good way) from the ironman, so have been taking more rest days and skipping some of the sessions I'd planned.

I'm doing an Olympic distance tri in a few weeks and have a time in mind that I'd realy love to do the run in, which means my training has been largely run focussed to work on negative and even splits and bike intervals, I also finally got back in the water after 3 weeks but surprisingly hadn't lost much form. But with all good intentions have come temptations of nights out, summer evenings in the pub, lazy lie ins, bad food... you know how it is.

Well the aquathlon was much the same as every other one i've done. It had been raining, was really muggy and was pretty windy particularly on the way back on the run, the swim was uneventful, I was sharing my lane with a guy who is always out the water just a few seconds ahead of me, and I can never quite catch on the run, he's pretty hot (for a 50 year old)if you can imagine a slightly smaller linford christie in a tri suit...?! Another guy also joked that it was his missinon to beat him one month. So it's now also my mission :)

(Needless to say he came in 90 seconds ahead of me overall)

My swim was quite pleasant really, after the terrible time in Switzerland I'd been a bit put off by getting back in the water but i pushed hard, tried to focus on technique and got out in 8:06 which is about right for me, rather undignified haul out of the water onto the side like a beached whale, then ran ou of transition and onto the run.

I overtook all the women who had got out ahead (including some bag who had been boasting and banging on about London Tri) went past the faster but slower swimmers, and tried to get a good time. But my legs felt like lead still, i was stomping the ground like a heffalump, but as much as i wanted to stop, I've not DNF'd yet in a race i'm not about to start getting into bad habits now.

I could see a bit ahead near the turn around a guy who's normally way ahead of me, (the one who wanted to beat linfordalike) and worked on catvhing him up. i turned round to run back and ran straight into a wall of wind, chevked my watch and was 10:30, if I could get back in an even time i'd go 21 which would be pretty good going after the slow pace i've been training at for the last 6 months. I caught u pwith the other guy eventually, using him as a marker to get past, the wind was pushing me back all the time and making me cross.

I pushed on towards my least favourite bit of the route and thankfully it wasnt so open so got some respite from the wind and trudged on through the finish, pouring with sweat, it was proper humid and grim. I was first lady back and run time was 22.02 which isn't actually too shabby all things considered. Am hoping once I've lost some weight and I'm more run fit i'll be able to bang out 20's.

As the race was a series, it was best of 5 and I wont 4 of them, so I got a prize - yay! :)

Will most likely do the winter series too, as even though last year was fucking freezing and icy it's a nice distance to keep my brain and legs in check (and stop me gonig out on the piss on a friday night!)

".... you are an IronMan!" Switzerland IronMan 2010 - July 25th

2010-07-28T20:41:00.000+01:00

It was a long day, so this is bound to be a long report... you have been warned.

This really needs a blog of it's own given the time it's taken to prepare and train for it.

The decision manifested itself back in September after I'd attempted a few triathlons, entered a half and had a little look at possibilities on the Internet. Until about November time the idea settled down to a gentle muttering in the back of my brain, then I joined my local Tri Club, and talking to people the idea came a bit further forward, I mentioned I was thinking about maybe doing one in October 2011 when someone said "what about Switzerland, there's a big group of us going from the club".

So the idea was now bouncing around the front of my brain like a crazy monkey in a cage trying to escape, I looked on line at the course, the website the details, and a week later, I'd signed up! Just like that.... then it began to dawn on me what I was about to embark on.....

3.8km swim (Not quite as far as a race for life distance but not far off)
180km bike (hilly by the look of the course profiles 4500ft of climbing!)
42.2 km run (that's a marathon to you and me)

Prior to this I'd run a couple of marathons and from reading previous running misadventures, you'll know I'm a keen runner, i hadn't however ridden more than maybe 40 miles in one go - if that! So why then was I about to embark on a 6 month training plan to get myself across the finish line in an ironman race (hopefully)!

The months passed, winter was a long cold one, so bike training on the turbo trainer was plentiful, a bit of mountain biking in the snow, an accident involving getting knocked off my bike by a car set me back 2 weeks, (and the rest) a sprained ankle had me off running for 6 weeks, reading books on ironman training, cycling training, lactate threshold and Physiological testing, new bike to replace the written off one in aforementioned accident, practice triathlons, half ironman event, failed attempts at losing weight (do you know how hungry this makes you?!) a 360 mile bike ride to Paris, weekend after weekend of 80 - 100 mile bike rides followed by short runs, long runs, swimming in a lake in April 2 weeks after an inch of ice had thawed, and for why??

To do something that the average person doesn't do of course.

The biggest challenge for me through out my entire training was to let go of my "runner" mentality. I wasn't going out to do a marathon PB, from this moment on i was a triathlete, not a runner. The run was just something that was to be an extension of a long day of aerobic exercise. This was the other struggle. I had to be very disciplined with training in the correct HR zones. Train too hard and you can risk over training, don't train hard enough and don't make gains on your fitness.... this is where I called in the professionals... in the form of vo2 max testing, which has been invaluable in my learning curve in this wonderful sport. But there's too much science to go into right now...

Basically that is the back story... now on with the fun stuff!! :-)

Taper week was a weeeeird place for me, I had been training between 14 and 20 hours a week, training 6 days a week, twice a day in most cases, the first week of the taper knocked me for 6, my training load halved, and suddenly my body went a bit mad, all it wanted to do was sleep, everything ached, pains that weren't there before (taper madness some people call it) so I went into the weekend, instead of doing the training I'd had in the plan, going out and getting smashed - self destruct button alert. The final week before the race i was only due to do 4 hours of training plus the race, still i felt shattered, so only managed a 30 min interval session to sharpen me up, a commute to work and a 45 min steady run. I felt really under prepared - stupid I know given how much training I'd done. Three nights on the trot I had weird dreams that my teeth fell out (not on the race, just in general) which i was told either meant i was coming into money or i was worried about something, so I bought a lotto ticket and won a tenner ;)

I'd been conscious for months that my running isn't where I'd like it to be due to the time off with injury I'd had but the last 6 weeks had been solid, I'd done plenty of decent runs, a few decent pace runs and my legs were strong, and running is about strength, and the last 6 months training was about endurance, the two combined should see me through the finish line.

Thursday came round all too quickly, my bike was packed (shoved in a bike bag wrapped in bubble wrap surrounded my the rest of my luggage to protect it!)

We arrived in Zurich, turbulently, in what appeared to be monsoon season. For the last two weeks, we'd been watching the weather closely, there was an upper limit on the lake temperature telling whether you could wear a wet suit or not, 24.5 degrees C or above and they re banned. the week before they'd broadcast 25.1. IT didn't really bother me too much as I'm slow either way and I'd done dorney and Florida without, so some of the others were panicking, until the rain came, and brought a welcome drop in temperature.

The rain however went on for days! We didn't want to race in the rain ! :( how had a massive 3 week heatwave broken into monsoon? how unfair was that!

9 of us were staying in a hostel about a kilometer from the race the other 10+ and their supporters were at various hotels and apartments around Zurich, including my parents. We checked in and found our "room" basically 4 beds, (bunks) with a communal showers and toilets - to be fair the place was pristine so there was nothing to complain about really plus breakfast was included, if you are happy with bread, bread, bread, bread , cheese and muesli.

Zurich itself is a beautiful city, with views up the mountains and across the lake, so tidy and clean it makes you feel ashamed to look at the state of our country. The only thing that spoiled it was the damn rain!!! It was relentless - oh and the extortionate price tags on everything, we went out to dinner that night and after seeing the "house red" was 38 francs (about 25 quid!) we decided we'd stick with tap water. The nights sleep was hot, as KT kept saying "it's hotter than the sun on this top bunk" she was right, i had a top bunk too and was muggy as you like.

On the Friday we woke early, and sweaty with the rain coming down even harder, we went down to breakfast and fed on bread bread, bread, bread and muesli, went back up and unpacked our bikes and reassembled them, my handlebars had been a bit squished on the flight but luckily it was just the hood and needed a bit of shifting. Captain Turdseye (of the Swindon to Paris adventure) had lent me some tri bars as mine I decided at the last minute were too heavy. We joked between us about not trying anything new on race day... pah, I've run a marathon with brand new trainers before! My rear tyre was also misbehaving and after about half an hour of fiddling about, Mark Q and Andy P lubed up my rim for me, and it all seemed to be working much better!

After the bikes were all sorted, we all headed down to registration in the pissing rain, expo looked more like a festival than an ironman summer event, there were people sloshing around with water proofs and umbrellas. At registration we were given a super sexy rucksack, which is the type I've wanted to buy for ages as they're perfect for running to work with as they are small but hold lots and are really stable, a drinks bottle, some pasta, some weird sachets of stuff, some detergent, suncream (perfect as this was the one thing I'd forgotten not that it looked like we'd need it)

The race briefing in English was going to be at 3pm, so we all headed into the tent to keep dry get some grub and coffee, and sit through the German briefing first. Most of the guys had a massivo sausage for lunch, i have a big plate of pork stir fry which was mostly a lot of meat.

Graham M had set up his phone so that if any of us texted him, he could distribute it to the whole group, which was cool, as it meant we could all send out messages to each other but this was slightly abused over the weekend and some of mine got vetted :( race briefing was full of the usual characters wearing the usual ironman finishers tops or loads of IM branded shite, proper peacock behaviour. I was also impressed by the quantity of hot guys on display. I'd like to have brought a few home with me......

After briefing we headed back to hostel, showered and got ready for the "Welcome party" we ordered some cabs and when the driver arrived he asked me where we were going.

"I'm not sure.."
"Die Shitsen Housen?"
"ha, the what?!"
"Die Shitsen Housen"
I looked blank, and Ian said yes that was where we were going.

Still laughing i got in the first cab, and en route I rang Ali to tell her where she needed to get the cab to drop the rest of them, she thought I was taking the piss, probably not helped by the fact that I was pissing myself laughing by telling her we were going to the Shit house for dinner... Ian was sat behind me, telling me how it was spelt....

"Die Schutzen Hausen"

;)

Dinner was a monster meal of the following:

Salad (avec a lot of jizzy dressing)
"Pasta course" - Spag Bol and Penne Pasta! (you could go up for 2nds too, but I had given Andy half my pasta already)
"Meat Course" - Grilled chicken, loads of rice (which Andy got most of)
Dessert - was marble cake, but we left so we missed the rush getting a cab.

During dinner, we were entertained by a yodeller, accordion playing, didgeree doo joker, some Euro electro pop, and the video from last years event, which stopped my heart beating briefly! I felt bit emotional watching it - and fucking scared!

Saturday I had arranged t go to my parents hotel for breakfast, so my dad bless his heart took an hour getting to me on trains and buses, took me back to their hotel on more trains, I had a little jog and they let me feast on their amazing breakfast buffet. I was so sick of bread so all the fruit, nuts, meat, smoked salmon and eggs that were on offer was so tempting so i got stuck right in - as you do.

I sent a group text (which was vetted) "I've just put a lot of meat in my hole"

After crashing out for a bit in their room, we went to the supermarket to get some stuff for my breakfast the next morning as there were no cooking facilities I'd be doing my first ever event after not having porridge. Dad then took me back on the trains once more (he actually is the best) I could have got a train myself except that he had a pass for my mum so let me use that.

Back in our room I started getting my transition bags ready for race morning, and doing some final bike checks. I had intended doing a short bike and a swim on the days before but as the weather was so shit I couldn't be bothered. The rain had stopped now, so I took my bike out for a spin... as soon as I got on, it felt weird, the position felt all wrong, the tri bars weren't the right size, i moved my seat around to try and find the right spot, but still it felt weird. I put it down to not riding for a few days, so took bike, and helmet down to rack, the queue was frickin huge, despite being given time slots to go and rack, my time was between 3.30 and 4.30 but I didn't get down there til gone 4 and there were people from later time slots queueing.

Normally you are given a number wrist band which matches the sticker on your bike, race number and helmet, but here they took a photo of you, your number, and your bike. Great idea but time consuming.

So now bikes racked, and covered over, back to hostel for a light snack not that i was hungry at all, made some Jam sarnies to put in my bike bag for the ride and went to bed.

Race Morning I'd set my alarm for 3:45, I got woken up by Ali at 4:10 as I'd fallen back to sleep, had a couple of choc spread and banana sandwich and lazed around for a bit before going to get some coffee. Looking outside the weather looked clear! I really didn't fancy riding in the rain, that would be shit. I have no idea why bu I still wasn't feeling nervous... it was odd. We chucked on our wetsuits up to our waists (the rain had cooled the water sufficiently to be able to wear them) last minute checks of my transition gear and loaded myself up and walked back down to the transition area.

I found my bike, uncovered it and laid out my kit in piles as I'd need it and covered it over in case the rain started again, checked my watch - it was 6,30, so time for a wee, the queue wasn't massive but clearly everyone was taking a shit as it was slow moving, i finally got out of the loo at 6:50! so ran back to my bike, dumped off my jumper, grabbed my goggles, swim cap and streetwear bag (for after the race) and ran back out of transition to where i saw everyone else disappearing to. No 6:55 and the gun had gone off for the pro start, and i was still a long way from the start point. I spotted Andy P, Justin and Steve and got them to do up my wetsuit, dumped off my bag at the designated area and carried on through, realised I still had on my flip flops so ran back, put them in my bag after unburying it from the mound of bags, ran back to the guys to hear the gun go off for the mass start!

Shit! I was still at the top of the beach and the swim was meant to be a deep water floating start. After a minute I reached the water, waded in, and looked out to see where I needed to be heading. I was expecting huge buoys like they had in Florida but I could only see one large one waaaay in the distance with hundreds and thousands of yellow caps floating around and spread across about 100m of the water, still not sure which way to go, i got in and down to business, and decided to just follow the people already out there in the vague direction of the big buoy 100 miles away! (or thereabouts) I recalled what was said in the race briefing "the buoys are to your right and the boats to your left. I finally reached the start line , and tried to get a bit of rhythm, there were a few people around - not many since i was one of the last in the water! Though looking behind I could see there were some slower people still behind me, and I managed to start overtaking some of the reaaaaly shit swimmers, dodging feet and fists that were pounding the water around me, I took a gulp of air containing a gulp of water, and choked, and pulled up and skulled and treaded water for a bit whilst i cleared my windpipe and coughed out the water.

Sometimes i find it easier to get my breath back by breathing out under water so I did breast stroke for a bit and exhaled hard and tried to calm myself down, once I felt OK, i got back on with it, starting to get back into a rhythm and onto my pace. Although it wasn't really my pace, being so far back I was surrounded by lots of even shitter swimmers than me, which is saying a lot, so even though there was a decent amount of room, i was getting on top of people and having to weave around. I looked up to locate the buoys and finally found the first one - no bigger than a large kids balloon! They were numbered though so found something to occupy myself while swimming along, however I also saw that they were about 20m to the right of me, I tried to change my direction to get closer to them, but just crashed with other crap swimmers going the wrong way. I tried to battle my way nearer to the buoys as they cropped up but they still seemed to be miles away. Buoy 5 was a massive inflatable one signalling a change in direction - a right hand turn - I headed for it to round tightly to gain back some distance, when I got there there were people hanging on to it and I got round with only a few punches in the head but had to drop back to breaststroke for a bit. I got round the rest of the route with loads of clear water which was great so i started to practice my stroke technique and focus on extending and increasing my strokes per breath. I begun to enjoy the swim now, and appreciate how clean and beautiful the lake was. I looked up to my left and saw boats, looked to my right and saw hundreds of yellow hats, the reason i had so much clear water was because no other fucker was going round the buoys!!

Coming to the last buoy of the loop i could head and feel something coming - I looked left and saw a big group of swimmers going hell for leather, I pulled over and let them pass/swim over me, and i realised it was the pro's coming in to finish their first lap! how humiliating!! I had been lapped!

I swam under the bridge into the shallow water and to the ramp got helped out up the ramp, over the timing mat, down the other side and back into the lake for lap 2! I had checked my watch and it said 46 mins - fuck! and the second lap is about 300m longer than the first!

All the cheaters from the first lap were now swimming way to the left so i stuck to the buoys as best i could and got back into enjoying the scenery and underwater singing, I wasn't going to get anywhere burning myself out in the swim for the sake of saving maybe 5 mins tops. I finally swam under the bridge for the second time swam to the ramp got hauled out the other side, up the ramp with wibbly legs, whipped off hat and goggles and trotted into transition.

In T1 there were still a *few* bikes remaining! Not many mind!! I took off my wetsuit and towelled down, I'd planned on taking my time, making sure i was comfy - better to use a couple of extra mins now than get sore later and lose half an hour. So, cycling shorts on over tri shorts, top on, socks, shoes, gloves, sunnies, helmet on. Gels in back pockets, bike off rack, and walked out of transition - again no point in running and getting my HR all excited before i even get on the bike - or indeed trip over the matting! It was a bit of a trek from where i was racked to the bike exit.

I got out of transition and mounted, took a few minutes to get settled, took a drink, checked my HR; I was conscious that I'd not got inside the swim target time I'd wanted and had some catch up to do but knew I couldn't do anything about it - whats done is done, move on and focus on the next stage. So focused on keeping my HR in the right zone, not blowing up and my main plan of action was to have plenty left in the tank and my legs for the run which I didn't want a repeat of Florida. I still didn't feel like I was in the right position, i couldn't use the tri bars as they seemed too short and narrow, so I tried to ride on the drops as much as I could, but still didn't feel right, so I got off and shifted my saddle slightly.

The first 20miles were reasonably flat, still conscious of not riding at my threshold pace - yes it was a Time trial, but it was a 112 mile TT not a 10 mile TT. I picked people off as I came to them, got overtaken by others who were clearly even worse swimmers than me. For a couple of miles i had this weird locking knee pain I'd had randomly last week and started panicking a bit that i had an injury so steadied up a bit and waited for it to stop.

A cute British guy came up beside me and we rode together and chatted, he said "this hill's a bit cheeky" - he wasn't wrong. I couldn't see his name as his number was tucked up into his top. He told me he'd driven round the course the day before and "the beast" was big and about 20 km further along, but we were still climbing now.. how big was the "Beast" going to be!!? I'd seen an elevation map of the route and it did look big, but i didn't recall anything like what we were already climbing so the beast must be massive!!

We overtook each other for the next 10 miles or so, we were passed by a man wearing the tiniest pants (almost a thong!) I've ever seen on a bike, they left little to the imagination and we both pissed ourselves laughing!

Before long the "Beast" was upon us, it wasn't hugely steep, it just went on and on and my friend compared it to Alps D'hez but shorter and with only a few switch backs, it was only about 5km of climbing but knowing I had to do it all over again on the 2nd lap was difficult. Rounding a big sweeping bend was the most amazing view over the city and lake, it made the climb worth every pedal stroke, it was breath taking. I caught up with the guy on one of the switch backs and said "this'll be the beast then?" and dropped him and carried on up feeling pretty good now.

As I reached the top of the beast someone tried to overtake me, but I made chase and he good spiritedly tried to let me take the win but i didn't quite manage it, so he said i could win down the hill, ;) Down the other side was quality, topping 35 mph, into a Sharp right turn, carrying on down, there were signs up saying you weren't allowed to use your tri bars, onto a gravelly slope which could have been carnage if it was wet or you hit the brakes. A few slalommy turns, through a own, over some roundabouts, then another climb! I didn't realise there was another! This one actually felt tougher than the beast, again it wasn't steep just long and draggy and a constant pressure on the legs. But once more the reward was a big sweeping descent, through a tunnel and heading back to the start.

I saw some of our guys from club heading back out on their second lap, a good 45 ins ahead of me, waved and yelled when i spotted anyone. I looked at my bike computer and saw I'd done 50 miles and still not come across "Heartbreak hill" the infamous hill on the course, I've seen YouTube footage of it but it was hard to tell what it was going to be like.

A further couple of miles and i finally started to climb once more, i was feeling great and overtook people as they started going backwards down the hill. I'd been drinking and fuelling well and felt good, being cautious all the while of my heart rate not going too high. When it did I'd steady up and let it settle.

Anyway, back to "heartbreak" - the climb was steep steep steep but the road conditions were amazing, it had several switch backs and i overtook most the people in front of me, dancing on my pedals. Rounding the last corner was a steel band playing, and a loud speaker shouting your name out as you came up to the top, The last stretch was the steepest yet and looking up there were probably a thousand people lining the hill, cheering, shaking cowbells and yelling and waving stuff - it was awesome! they only left a gap of a bike to get up and it was like the tour De France! I had gained on "Massimo" in front and he was slwing up my pace, so i looked for a gap and overtook him to more cheers. Everyone was shouting "Hopp, Hopp" and "allez Allez!" .

I was up and over the summit, and grabbed a drink from he aid station that was just at the top of the descent. Flew down the other side letting my HR come back down.

I rolled through to the second lap and saw my parents waving, it was such a great feeling seeing them, my mum looked so happy.... out on the course it seemed a little windier and harder - probably more the fact that i was getting a bit tired. I was desperate for a piss so stopped at the WC sign (they'd said there were plenty of loo's on route and not to piss along the course this was crap - i saw 3 toilets!) so there was a queue, balls. Speaking to some of the others after - they just went in their pants, but I can't bring myself to do that at this early stage in my triathlon "career"

After emptying my bladder I got back on, a few miles down the road, I felt my saddle had slipped - I hadn't tightened it up enough from the earlier adjustment, so got off again and tightened it, got back on and i felt all wrong again! grrrr! So for the next 15 mins I rode for a couple of mins, got off, adjusted my seat, got back on, rode on, got off.. what a dickhead, I should have just gone out in the rain the days before and tested it all out properly!

The hills the 2nd time round were much tougher, although the I've done some high mileage rides , none of them have been constant as there have been breaks of at least 10 mins or lunch stops so to churn out 112 miles non stop (if you exclude wee stops and the mechanical problems) was a first.

I caught up with another girl in my age group, the flag on her number said she was Czech but she was from Manchester, we rode together and chatted for a while before I departed once more at the bottom of the "Beast" for the 2nd time. I passed "Angry Dave" walking carrying his shoe, I yelled to him to get back on and started the 10/15 miles of "rolling hills" they were much tougher this time and although my HR was much lower (prob because I was tiring) and my knee started locking out again so i took a painkiller.

The flat section towards heartbreak hill was windier still (or was I just getting more tired?) I spotted Pete then Mark N on the run and yelled andwaved, I spotted Ali coming back from her last go up Heartbreak and she yelled to me to go for it. Heartbreak the 2nd time was still great - only a dozen or so people were there now as it was getting late in the day now! Back over the summit I grabbed water and a bottle of coke and cycled under the sprinklers, down the hill drinking the coke knowing I needed to be fully fuelled for the run.....

I'd been riding with another English guy called Hamilton who was quite hot, and joked "you warmed up now to go and run a marathon?" seriously what was I doing? But in reality I was actually looking forward to the run, and had been since halfway through the second lap.

I pushed through the last few miles and into transition, hopped off and walked my bike back down to the rack, i was desperate for a piss again, my parents had walked down to my transition space and dad shouted "only 3 more hours to go!" - "and the rest!!" :)

I was going to just get changed at my bike space but as I needed a piss I ran with my kit towards the loo's which were next to the changing tent and got changed in there without worrying about getting naked in front of people.

I ran back to my bike, dumped off my cycling stuff, cap on, fuel belt of gels and sweets on, drink in hand and ran out to the run exit. I spotted Steve and bounced up to him, my legs felt great, and he was bent over swiping a wasp off his leg so i slapped his arse, he stood up and i asked how he was feeling "fucking awful!" I felt fucking great so i bounded off and left him.

Once more sticking to my pace that Filipe had told me to use back when I had my physiological testing 9and ignore in Florida!) keeping an on eye first on my HR then on my pace.

The course started off going over a bridge, then under an underpass, back up it the other side and a funny sort of figure of 8 loop for 4 circuits. \I knew that underpass would hurt later.

The run felt great, it was steady but i felt strong and in control. I religiously sipped my drink, planed on a gel every 30 mins, refilled my bottle when it emptied by carrying on jogging and grabbing a cup of water at aids stations and swigged coke. I saw all of the guys out on the course at some point or other as there were lots of out and back sections which passed each other, it was a great course for that and you got to see spectators along pretty much the entire course.

About 7k into each lap you were given a different colour wrist band to say which lap you were on, I was looking at what other people had and getting blue band envy! I was gradually working my way through the masses, people struggling, walking, talking to themselves. This is what I love doing, it's my first love and i was really enjoying it, still I was keeping an eye on my HR as I didn't want to blow up. The kilometers were ticking passed quickly - i preferred km markers to miles as they're much quicker mentally.

I got to halfway still feeling strong, if i could keep this pace i would maybe just maybe sneak inside 4 hours, but my paces started to drop a little, i was struggling to eat anything solid, so just drank coke and water.

I passed my mates, the ones who take the piss out of my shit swimming and cycling; hare and the tortoise style! :D I had seen my parents on every loop and it was great, it kept me going seeing them beaming from the crowds.

The last lap was starting to hurt a bit, I'd been counting down the kilometers from about 25 in and now only had 10 to go, i couldn't face running up the ramp of the underpass again so i allowed myself to walk for 1 min or however long it took to get there, then stuck my face in the water fountain that was just round the corner. I gave myself a 3-2-1 and go and started back at a "run" (jog/mince) again.

After this I just focused on keeping on running, "just to that lamp post" "to that sponge on the floor" "to that man walking" and so on for the next 10k, just little goals to keep reaching 5 meters in front. I wasn't going to make 4 hours but i wasn't going to walk or bonk. I reached where I knew was either a marker saying 39.5km or 40.5km i really hoped it was the latter, and i told myself if it was the first I'd have a little walk, but gladly it was 40.5 so i kept going, 1500 m to go, less than a mile! Thank fuck - my legs were now started to hurt, I went back to my 5 meter rule, and worked my way along the course, I saw the final turn around point 400m to go! and walked so i could sort out my cap for the finish line ;) Ran on once more and finally turned into the finish ramp, which zigzagged through the stadium on a bouncy blue carpet that felt like a gymnasium mat, i bounced up and i still felt reasonably good! I think I felt worse after running my first marathon.

I crossed the line in 13hr20, 200th woman, and 24th in my age group.. my splits were Swim - 1:38! (oops- Bike 7:08! (yikes) Run: 4:20 ( yay) and after 7 months of preparation I was finally an IRONMAN!!

Can't wait to smash that time next year doing another :)

Dorney Sprint Evening Triathlon - Wednesday 30th June

2010-07-01T20:20:00.001+01:00

Part of the Triathlon 220 evening series, I hadn't done the first one, but entered for this one. There were 3 start times to choose from, so I went for the latest at 7pm as I had to drive an hour from work to get there and didn't want to rush too much.

My mum came down with me as she's not seen me compete Triathlon yet and it's a great venue to see lots as you can see the lake, each bike lap and the run turnaround and finish.

Dorney is the home of Eton Rowing Lake and is a brilliant venue, the lake is clean, the roads are free from traffic and deadpan flat, what more could you ask for.

The event itself was really well organised too, i was really impressed.

The evening was really warm, as we're in the midst of a heatwave, i could see the other waves coming through transition and noone seemed to have wetsuits on, so i decided I wouldnt either as i'd look like a plonker. I'd swam Florida half without one so wasnt too worried although I was dubious that the water would be as warm as Orlando!

When i went to register, I found out that wetsuits were actually banned as the water temperature was above 23.5 degrees, so that was taht really. A few people were fretting but mine's a bit tight cos i'm a fatty anyway so i'm happier without - at least I don't get strangled!

After racking my bike we were called for the pre race briefing where we were told the course - once lap of the lake round the 4 bouys, of 750m, out through transition onto the bike, 6 laps of the marked course, totally 20km, back through transitoin and out on to the run, 2 laps of 2.5k each, back through the finish.

Each section and transtion was chip times so you could get a split for each leg accurately.

The swim was a deep water start so we got in (it wasnt cold at all, it was really refreshing) and made our way to the start posts and skulled until the gun went off.

I tried to stay nearer the back so i didnt get swum over too much, and I felt I was in an OK position in the water and set off, I swam Polo style for the first few meters whilst I found a path to take, as there were arms and legs and feet everywhere (there were about 150 people in the water - in zurich there will be 2400!!!!)

The first 200m was a struggle, I kept getting dunked, and punched, and splashed, and inhaling water I started to panic a little and considered putting my arm up to get the lifeguardd to fish me out but thought that was totally pussy so carried on and found some space. Ther rest of the swim was pleasant, it got a bit choppy about 150m from the end but as I came to the bank with wobbly legs, i could see I wasnt last!! That was enough of a result for me. I looked at my watch and saw a 16 on the numbers! (My official time was 16:42) This time is great for me, I'm shit and my first open water swim in the UK with no wetsuit.

Transition wasnt too much of a pickle as normal, i faffed a little putting socks and gloves on but better to be confy right? T1 took about 90 seconds.

The bike was brilliant, the road was so smooth, and althoguh there were a lot of people out of the water in front of me and i had to do some work, i began trying to chase people down, it was a bit difficult to know where thery were in teh race though - they could be on the 3rd lap for all i knew! I pushed hard for the entire thing, the home straight of each lap was pretty blowy but i still kept in control, i had to keep fannying about with my HR monitor as it had slipped down during the swim, I know its not really the place to fuck around but I was trying to keep tabs on it as my training for the IM has been based on HR.

I overtook lots of peoplee, was overtaken by a few (including someone on the same bikeas me - "nice bike" i said as he passed)

I came back into transition and looked at my computer which said i'd done the bike in about 37 (37.06 was the officila;) so again i was realy pleased, i'd given myself a target of sub 40 and this was it. And an average speed of 20 mph isnt bad either, shame there weree those turns at the ends as i reckon I lost a bit on them being wimpy round them!

I got through T2 in 1min 1second, this is great for me, as i'm renowned for being shit in transition!

The run immediately felt hard work, my legs werne't burning they were just a bit heavy, i was paying for the bike leg. I just focussed on picking people in front off one by one. I was only overtaken by one person on the whole run, i checked my watch at the half way point and was heading for a 23 ish time, pretty shit but not much i could do. Mike had text me early telling me to leave myself empty at the line, I knew there was more in there, but I realy struggle red lining, knowing my luck i'll empty just before the line.

I was watch watching the whole way back, earlier that day my boss had asked what time i wanted to do, I said i'd love to do 1hr20, so as I came to the last 500m with 1hr18 on the clock i was going to be cutting it fine, I dug in and pushed on for the finish line, and stopped the clock - 1hr20:04!! I'll have that, 4 seconds..... I was happy as a pig in shit, even though my run time was a sack of dogshite (23.46!!!) thats the slowest i've run 5k for year i think.

I hung about a bit with my ma, and watched the winners get announced - first girl was a 16 year old called "Sky Draper" I'm not sure if this is a piss take or what but she was fucking fast 1hr01!

I was 10th lady overall and 4th for my age group so a pretty decnet result for a novice like me :)

Southern Sportive and Ridgeway Relay

2010-06-20T22:10:00.000+01:00

Today was going to be a tall order from the onset. I'd planned on doing a long brick session for training and it turned out that there was a Sportive event going on just up the road (literally) so a whole bunch of us entered this and I was going to do a 10 mile run after.

Running club were a man down on the annual Ridgeway relay so i offered to do the last leg of the run which was funnily enough 10 miles. I did it last year and fricking loved it. But warned the guys i was doing a cycle event during the day and would be using it as a brick session so taking it steady.

The plan was 8 am kick off for the sportive, get up to barbury castle for the last leg for 5pm. I'd hoped to do the bike ride in 6hr30 to acheive the gold standard, this in itself knowing some of the hills which were involved was going to be a push, but i'd been feeling fairly strong until Thursdays Time trial ((when the wheels fell off)

A bunch of the Ironman crew and the swindon to paris guys were all doing it, and going for gold too, so we planned to stick together as best we could - knowing that i'd get dropped pretty much at the first climb Gareth and Nathan said theyd stick with me. I had thought i'd keep up with them ok.

After 3 miles the first massive climb was upon us, i was out the back door of the pelaton faster than you could say Lance armstrong. I caught up with Gareth and Nathan (who i think were holding back) and Ali (another Ironman lady) caught us up to. For the first 25 miles or so we stuck together. Ali and I got dropped on another long drag and when we got to the top Gaterh and Nathan had waited. I told them they neednt wait - after all it was their ride too, and they could still stand a chance at getting a gold standard. But they stuck with us a bit longer.

After another mamoth climb up hackpen hill was an aid station where they were once more stopped, we discussed what to do and i told them to kick on, me and Ali were goin much the same pace so would stick together.

I'm pretty scarred from todays ride, i hated most of it, the hills were so tough, it was nothing like the cheshire twat ride in that there was hills but big flat patches, on this, there were hills, drags and when we got flat bits there was a horrid head wind.

I nearlty cried several times, had it not been for Ali i would have rung my dad to get me. we ploughed through the big hills like the air was made of syrup - up snap whcih snuck from nowhere,

We went through 50 miles in 3 hours so were still in with a chance of getting the 6.30 gold time. But i was battered already, from 50 - 80 miles we seemed to make no progress. I wanted to scream at the wind, the hills the potholes. About 10 miles from the end Ali pushed on a bit, and i was alone trying not to cry - just ten more miles i told myself. piece of piss. yeah right. I had heard rumours of "Foxhill" but this was a bitch. so near to the end, it made me nearly grind to a halt. i just had to keep that front wheel turning and on the ground. I finally reached the top and had a brief decnet down. Then shortly after another virtical climb! I had been worrying for the last 30 miles about a) getting to the relay in time (given that it was getting on a bit now!) and b) that mmy legs would be any kind of state to even run!

I finally got back to the race HQ in about 7.5 dismal hours. But what made me smile was Gary, Ali, Gareth and Nathan all at the finish line cheering for me, they'd waited around for ages for me. It was really sweet of them and i was so grateful to them.

Stats of Ride
107 Miles
6778ft Ascent
100% hell

I didnt have time to hang around as i had to now get my bike inthe car and head up to barbury castle to run my leg of the relay.

I boshed some painkillers downed some energy drink and wnet ot eat some haribo but theyd all melted into one big lump :(

I spoke to Tony en route and the team were doing well, they'd not had to use any mass starts so far and Martin was due at the last leg in about an hour so i had a little bit of time to warm up (not that i wasnt warm) quick wetwipe wash, change and prepare myself.

The run was the same 10 mile leg i did last year and i loved it. I knew i wouldnt do it in the same time or near (of 1hr09) but decided to do what i could without blowing myself up.

I got off 5 mins before the mass start so had the first couple of miles running alone. I had forgotten how much up there was on this leg, the trail was fairly firm under foot, with some moguls and pot holes from mountain bikes, so you had to keep watch of where you were going constantly.

After 20 mins or so the first person from the mass start overtook me, i was feeling ok, but i couldntg have done much more withoutt risking the wheels falling off, so i just maintained the pace i was doing, and got myself into a rhythm as a few more people overtook. I had to remember this was ironman prep, iim not going to do an all out race, and how many of these guys have just got off a 107 mile hilly bike course?!

After about 7 miles the course starts to descent into Marlborough, so my legs got a rest and i got a chance to get my breath back. I hit the road which i remember from before but i knew i had to get back onto the ridgeway at some [point to go up a grassy hill then back out into the town and through the finish

I never found that bit back on to the ridgeway i found myself with another lady in the town, runing the wrong way off course. I knew the finish was somewhere near the leisure centre so headed in that direction.

I ran towards the finish (from the wrong side) and my team mates were all looking the other way so i ran past, did an about turn and ran through the finish again! I'd added a mile to my leg to make it 11 miles but felt ok, and completed it in 1hr 22 which i was pretty happy with to say the least!

Not sure where we came yet - TBC but it was a nice end to a shit day!

19th June - Calne Aquathlon Series Race 3

2010-06-19T15:44:00.000+01:00

400m swim/5k Run.

First race of a busy weekend today, I had told the organiser I may not turn up as I'm pooped; from riding to Paris last weekend, coming back and training hard and doing a 10 mile Time trial on thursday and i gave blood yesterday avo and they were trying to scare me into not racing, but last time I gave blood i raced the next day and got a PB.

I woke up before my alarm so decided to man up and go along, even if it were just for a bit of speed work. Also i'd seen the race list and there were more girls than normal competing so wanted to have a better competition than normal. Oh and to hold onto my winning streak if possible! So i had some weetabix (was bit late for my usual porridge)

I swam with club on thursday for the first time in weeks and really noticed it, I really struggled so have made a concious decision to make at least 2 of the 3 weekly sessions and not worry so much about the lake swims, as my laziness at going has really made a negative difference to my ability.

I got there quite late and they said they werent expecting me, but were cool with me taking part still i was half asleep and put my things in transition and went to the poolside. There were two waves this week with all the women in wave one which was good as it meant i could keep an eye on them all and see where i was in relation to them once out on the run.

We got off on the swim, i was 2nd whistle off the clock and went about my business. I found it really hard work today, i couldnt get my breathing right, my legs kept wanting to sink, and i kept swallowing too much water. So I just focussed on getting to the end, keeping as good a form as I could and working o nmy technique. The girl who was started off ten seconds ahead a good 2 lengths ahead of me when i finally got out. I hauled my fat arse onto the pool side and ran out the door towards transition. Swim time was actually a pretty respectable (for me) 8.01.

My HR was waaaaay up from the effort i had put in, so took a bit of time in Transition to calm down my breathing a little, i still got confused though, i put one sock and trainer on, then looked down and saw i'd put on a trainer without a sock so had to redo it, i coudl have saved a bit of time and not bothered but i get really bad bleedy blisters if i run without socks. I eventually got out on the run after 1;15 of farting about.

Several people had already got out on the run ahead of me, so I knew i had some work to do. The lady who was ahead of me in my lane got taken out about 400m in to the run, my HR was at threshold for the enitre run and it hurt, I couldnt have gone any faster, my legs didn't have mch in them so i just focussed on catching people ahead of me. I caught a few blokes who'd also got me in the swim, and about 800m ahead i could see another woman.... i had to catch her, i wanted to keep my first place for the series, so i dug in, and slowly watched the gap decrease. At the turn around I was on 11 mins, I had really wanted to get a time under 30 mins but it wasnt to be today, as there was no way i was going to do a negative split, an even split was going to be hard enough.

I finally caught her, and passed the other women coming in the other direction, unless something went really wrong they weren't going to catch me, my lungs hurt, my legs wouldnt go any faster so i let them maintain the rhythm they had and just kept pushing on. The end was just a kilometer away, 5 mins max, I didnt catch any of the other guys ahead of me before the finish and managed to get myself across the line without puking in bang on 22 mins - this is prob my first even split for this distance, it's not something i'm ever able to do. I carried on jogging after the finish line for 5 mins to flush out my legs.

Showered, chatted with the other ladies in the buff and went for the results - hurrah! first lady still. So long as noone pulls out some ridiculous times the series title is mine :) But i still want that sub 30!

Concious of a big day tomorrow I've stayed off my bike today and skipped swim training this evening.

Saturday May 29th - Aquathlon Series Race 2

2010-05-29T19:56:00.000+01:00

Another one of these... they're pretty good actually, it's nice to throw in a short sprint in to the mix to keep things moving and remind my legs what they used to be fairly good at. I've not managed to do any interval training really until yesterday.

Ever since the time off I've been forced to take i've been feeling more and more unfit, running fitness is such a different thing to anything else, i feel heavy and sluggish so last night I had scheduled some intervals - partly to check if I should even bother with todays Sprint!

So went to the track (which was locked up) so did laps round the outside of the running track, through the carpark which i've had to refer back to previous times doing this (many months ago!) which is measured at 840ish meters. I was going to do 800s so this was perfect. Did 5 reps off 5 mins (3:15 for each 800 and rest up to 5 mins)

Last time I did this I was doing 3:05 - 3:15 and yesterday i was realy struggling to do 3:15s - I didnt reach puke speed I just didnt feel great. The only good thing about it was my recovery was better than ever, my HR dropping to the 80s by the end of the rest period even though when i was running I was well in my LT zone.

I send my mate "Mike the running/traflon guru" a whining text, asking what the hells happened to me, why have i got so shit and will i be able to get it baack in 6 weeks before i have to taper for the big event!?
As always he gave me some sound advice and put my head in a better place so slaped myself round the face a bit and accepted that the above times were perfectly acceptable to do a semi decent 5k time today.

Todays race then:

I talked my mate Mark into doing this too (it didnt take much as he's easily lead) we've been doing a lot of training together as he only lives round the corner and he suggested we cycled there, its only about 15 miles and since we're donig an ironman todays distances were nothing compared to the miles we've been putting in on the bike and in the lake lately.

We left and it was drizzling a bit, by the time we arrived it was drizzling a lot. We signed in, got numbered up and milled about til race off time. Being a funny fucker, i had sent Marks entry in with his age as 64 so he was down as M60s age group :D He's a much quicker swimmer than me so was in the second wave, i would have preferred him to be the same wave so I could overtake him on the run :)

The swim was as always 400m - 16 lenghts of the pool, i was feeling strong and covering the water well I felt. After half way, i steady up my stroke and tried to cover the same distance in the same time with less effort and this seeemed to work fine. I got to what i thought was length 12 and i touched the wall to turn and my hand met a float (they stick a float in the water when you've got 2 lenghts to go)

I got all confused, and paused a bit, and then carred back on. I got back to the other end, and said i hadnt done enouhg? but got out and checked my watch which said 7 something... i was still confused but got out and ran on out into the car park, and then realised I'd miscounted my lengths and had donea pretty decent time. Officially 7:56 - if i'd been concentrating i could have got this down a bit. But still under 8 mins which is fucking awesome for me beings such a shit swimmer.

Transition was a bit of a pickle, it was pissing down, i'd put my trainers in a carrie bag to keep them dry which was stupid, and my socks wer all wet and hard to put on, i finally wriggled into them and ran out of the car park putting on my race belt as i ran. Transition was about 1:15! really Anna you need to sort this out - its fair enough in long distnace but sprints arent for fannying about!

The run was 5k as always, I started off with a high cadence covereing the ground fairly well, i passed a couple of people who had got out of the swim before me, follwed the course onwards and got into a rhythm. Iwasnt going flat out but i was pushing on, I got round the next corner and overtook some more folks, and got onto the straight to see that there was noone else in front of me.

I kept on til the turnaround point and checked my watch 10:30 for the first half, I pulled back the pace a little (not deliberately really) but slowed my cadence and increased my stride length. the people behind were now heading towards me going for the turnaround and about half way back the second wave of ridiculoulsly fast swimmers and runners were heading my way too. rounding the last kilometer or so, i spotted mak coming my way and we high 5'd I came back into the car park with a total time of 30:40 making my run time about 21:30 - not too shabby, but I dont know if i'll ever nail a negative split!

I was first lady again - best 3 times of the 5 series wins prizes, so i'm still in the lead. Next race is 19th June and I'm hopefully going to have put in some proper run training by then so am really going to try and push under 30 mins. :)

Somink else that's going daan

2010-05-23T19:30:00.001+01:00

http://www.swindon2paris2010.blogspot.com/

Florida 70.3 Half Ironman

2010-05-21T22:23:00.001+01:00

I'm not sure where to start on this without it becoming a massive epic, part of me wants to keep it short but I have so much to write about it almost needs a whole blog but I think i'm going to try and keep it brief.

Me and Suzie entered this last year and it was oringally it was going to be my main event - but then I signed up for Switzerland Full Iron Man for the end of July, so this became my B race - or a warm up (!!)

My running has been suffering due to various injuries and haven't really been able to put in the time on my feet I'd have liked and i'm also very lardy at the moment which isnt helping a) my speed and b) my head.

We arrived n Orlando (Disneyworld no less) on Friday afternoon, after a giggly fun filled (but long) flight over, the worry of the bikes getting damaged in the hold was my main issue up to now.

When we got to our log cabin (very little house on the prairie) we upacked and reassembled our bikes - phew all was ok with them! I went for a little run whilst suzie rode her bike alongside, and we had a little mooch about and found the shops etc. even at 8pm it was really hot and humid.

Saturday we had to register and rack our bikes. Suzie wanted to go for a run, so I rode and checked my gears and brakes were all working ok whilst she ran, then we went to register and eat a "large" breakfast! going by the endurance fuelling method i use of large breakfast, moderate lunch and small dinner. Well we werent even hungry until dinner time!

Whislt racking our bikes, i felt very much like i didnt belong here, i felt very unfit and overweight here around all these lean triathletes :( flip side is there were some ridiculously hot guys mincing about! There was some serious bike porn too, some proper bling, not that i minded as my bike is lush.

after setting everything up in transition for the following morning, we set off back to the cabin got our kit ready for the morning and waited for my one of best friend'a Ellen and Suzie's friend to arrive (and soak up some sun )

We needed to be at the start for 5am to get marked up so set my alarm for 4am and i did something i never do.... slept through it! 4.30 and Suzie luckily had woken up so flung open my door and i crawled out of bed and we got ourselves fed, dressed and down to the start.

The Swim: 1.2 miles open water
The swim was set off in 22 waves 3 minutes apart by age group categoryy, mine was due to be set off at 7am, Suzies at 7.06 so we got to watch the Pro's get off and show us how its meant to be done! I was in awe. A pro woman (Emma Kate Lidbury) who some people from my club know was racing and i saw her warming up before the swim. That's how a triathlete should look - not a big whale! :(
Suzie and I hugged goodluck, somehow getting black ink on our faces off each others arms from the numbers.... 6.58 came and I was lined up next to 150 or so other girls in pink hats (each wave had different colours on)

The water was 84 degrees so wetsuits werent allowed which i'd been shitting myself about. But when the Klaxon went off and i ran in trying not to get too close to the quicker girls, it was so warm and relaxing i didn't mind it at all and got straight down to business (business being flapping my way through the water aroud the buoys (or as the yanks pronounce them - boo-eees)

The swim itself wasn't too eventful, i really enjoyed it mostly, i found myself overtaking the waves ahead (well the slow people) and getting overtaken by the faster swimmers coming from waves behind, so i rarely had any clear water had to stop a couple of times to regroup and get out of peoples way but nothing major. There was the odd patch of water that tasted of diesel - which was nice. and on the return jounrey i was using the person on my right to stay straight and totally took for granted that they were going the right way, and went so far off course i nearly went past the canoes!

I finally exited the water to cheers (something that didnt stop all day - its amazing what a big crowd 2500 competitors will draw in) and ran up towards transition, my exit time on the swim was 43 mins and i was 31st in my age group, which i was made up with, this is the furthest i've "raced" in the water ( I late found out an Aligator had been spotted out there!!)

Transition 1
There was a long run up to the bike transition area through bark chips which stuck to my feet. i dried off a little when i got to my bike cleaned up my feet and got into my shoes, slathered on a thick layer of factor 50 and set out on the bike.

The Bike: 56 Miles
I love my bike and i love riding her, and this course was great, i felt good from the start, it was a bit windy and slow getting out of the campsite but once out on the open road, there was miles and miles of smooth fast road, i overtook plenty of people which i loved keeping an eye on my HR trying not to go to lactate threshold, there were a few slight climbs and the last 10 miles was into a head wind, I reached 41 mile in bang on 2 hours so i thought i may get 2:45 which is well above my expectations. I had a few issues getting drinks on the course, knocling them out of peoples hands, having to slow almost to a stop but had a great ride, went totally to plan and i came in in 2:52 which i never in a million thought i'd do. There was an instant i thought i was gonna come off - a bus went past in the other direction and the draft sent me flying! I got to see Suzie out there a couple of times pasing each other in the opposite way and yelled and waved.

Transition 2
I ran back in with my bike and saw Ellen cheering at the side and gave a wave, fannied about swapping shoes, putting on a hat, and tying back my hair, i needed a piss too so ran into the portaloo where i promptly found myself tied into my shorts so took ages untying them!

The Run: 13.1 miles

Well fuck me, this was the worst 13 miles of my life. I got out to a good start of 8 min miles but remembered what i'd been told about trying to hold back and maintain a slow consistnet pace in preparation for the full monty. On the bike i'd not realised how hot it was, it was coming up to the hottest part of the day and the mercury had been in the 90s for the last few days.

The run was 3 loops, largely on grass with potholes, a pictresque swamp! alongside. Noone out there could understand why the run route didnt go along the nice trails of the campsite through the shade, but no, it was all open in beaming sunshine.

There were aid stations every mile, 2 sprinklers and lots of crowds.

I got to 3 miles and realised i was going to have to push out this last 10 miles.... i was in hell. every aid station took a bit longer to reach than the last, i couldnt get enough fluids in, i was constantly thirsty, i'd stop at each station to shove ice down my top, drink some coke and some water. i couldnt eat by this stage, my stomach had shut down. i tried to break the run down but all i could think was "i've got 3 loops to do!!!" and "how the fuck am i going to do double all this??"

just coming out of the first loop inot hte second i saw Suzie, i gave her a woop, i was surpriesd to see her so sooon off the bike. but really please for her, she must have done a stonking bike!

The last 8 miles were just hell, a guy (my new best friend at this point in the day) came alongside me and asked if we could run together for a while, and i agreed, we chatted a little, i was a lap ahead of him, he was struggling too and on for a Personal worst for the run too. We kept each other going, to each aid station where we'd pour water over ourselves, drink what we could then get back out there. I felt bad when i got to turn off to the finish and he had another lap to go, i wished him well and got his number (race number not phone number!) so i could look out for him at the finish.

I finally went through the finish to more cheering in a total time of 5hr 55 and 16th in my category. My target was sub 6 so just scraped in.

I went to cool down in the lake where i then found out noone was allowed back in cos an aligator had been spotted!!

I went back to the run course and waited to see Suzie, she passed me on her last lap and i told her i'd wait for her at the finish post, so went and found Ellen and Luke and went to the finish line to jjump about and yell.

The rest of the time there was spent eating drinking and a bit of training now home, even fatter and shitting myself about a small matter of Switzerland IM in 9 weeks!! Eek!

Half Iron Swindonman - 1st May 2010

2010-05-01T17:53:00.002+01:00

Today was an "half ironman training day" organised by one of the guys from club targetted at those of us who are doing switzerland IM but was open to any of the club or friends of club who fancied taking part. We weren't allowed to call it an "event" for H & S reasons but it was being timed and marshalled etc so it was really. There were only about 40 of us, some doing just Swim and run, some only doing part of the bike, some only doing part of the run.

I had intended originally only doing the swim and bike as they're my weaker disciplines and I've got Florida 70.3 in two weeks and thought it might be a bit much. I then decided I'd do half the run so I could get a good feel for the bike - run transition.

Last week was a 20 hour training week so this week i've been pretty pooped and hadnt taken a rest day for 10 days, so had Monday & Friday as total rest days, and thursdays sessions were chopped to a 30 min run, a body balance class and swim. I rode Tuesday and Wednesday though because I got my new bike finally after B was written off in the accident earlier this year. The bike is A-Mazing!! I'm in love with it, the difference between full carbon and aluminium is insane. Thankfully Mike had given me his old Scott bike, so i have been able to carry on training, and I think training on the heavier bike has actually been a blessing in disguise.

I wasnt really that fussed about today, some of the others were getting stressed about it, but as far as I was concerned it was a training day or dress rehearsal for Florida, so was mucking about fitting tri bars and downloading music til midnight last night instead of getting a decent nights sleep.

My alarm went off at 4.30am and I made some porridge, loaded up the car, minced about til 5.30 and set off to the lake. Everyone else was already there by the time I arrived as there was going to be a briefing at 5:45. I racked my bike on the scaffolding we'd been lent and went and got my wetsuit on. Came back and got Mark to lube me up so i didnt chafe in the lake. Noone likes chafing!

The swim route was 1.9k - two laps round the buoys with a short beach run between the laps, we got in to get wet and used to the cold water then went back to the shore to start. We set off, and at first i thought perhaps i'd be able to keep up with the pack. But with a few punches to the head from passers by, i soon found myself pretty much alone. I just concentrated on getting round, and not going miles out into the lake like i have been in training and making sure I spotted regularly.

I came to the shore for the beach run which was just a few meters, round a bollard and back in, i glanced behind to see only about 4 other people in the water and everyone else miles into the second lap and said "Wow i'm shit!" to the marshalls. and jumped back in for the second lap.

About half way round the other shit swimmers were gaining on me and starting to overtake, i tried to stay with them, i really didnt want to be last out! Coming from the last buoy i picked up some speed and pushed on to get out before them! Phew!! I wasnt' last!! Very nearly but not quite!

I checked my watch in transition and saw I'd got round in about 38 mins, which despite being so near the back I am really happy with.

I took my time in T1 to make sure i was comfy, I um'd and ah'd about whether to wear a jacket over my tri suit it wasnt even 7.30 yet but it looked sunny i decided to wear a jersey and if needs be i could drop it off.

I got out on the bike, my beautiful new shiny bike and set off on the course, it was a 56 mile flat course of out and back and out and back with the two of the turnarounds a big steep hill.

I was flying, i did the first 10 miles in a smidge under 30 mins, and overtook a couple of people. I was loving this new turn of speed. I dropped my jacket at the first turnaround and whizzed back down the steep hill, it was all quite uneventful but very enjoyable, I got to the second turnaround and got confused and carried on thinking i'd not reached it yet, going a mile in the wrong direction before realising the turnaround was back behind me. "bugger!"

I got back on the course to find i'd been overtaken by a few people! double bugger! I caught up with a couple of them, stopped for a wee in a bush, came back to transition. Swapped shoes, downed some jiz gel and straight out onto the run. Did the bike in 3hrs! Wow, i'd never thought i'd do that, and i did feel like i could push harder but I hadnt wanted to jeopardise the run too much (or burn out for florida)

The run was 13 miles, or 6 laps of the lake. I was going to see how i went, and maybe do three. I got on the run and felt great, no jelly legs and got straight into a nice rhythm, the first lap took about 16 mins, as did the 2nd. I was really enjoying it. It was getting pretty hot though. I decided i may as well just complete it and get a proper feel for how a half ironman feels. I over took some people who were on their last lap, some who were on the same lap as me, some who were only doing half etc....the last lap was painful... well more heavy legged than anything, i didnt get my nutrition quite right and could have done with more fluids but i was nearly home now so plugged on and managed a respectable 1:45 half marathon time.

My total time including transitions was 5:35 which i'm amazed at. I had previously given myself Plan A, B and C for florida sub 6 hours was Plan A and i thought highly unlikely! So i'm going to go for it in 2 weeks. Taper, nourish myself properly and kick some ass! Only trouble is its going to be a non wetsuit race so i'm pretty worried.

Calne Aquathlon Summer Race Series - Race 1

2010-04-17T17:12:00.003+01:00

Today was the first of the summer Aquathlon series.

Identical to the winter one, but without the frostbite!!

Have had numerous injuries the last few months, getting knocked off my bike, sprained ankle, cycling induced leg injury from having my seat position wrong....which has meant my running has been at best - shit. Only managing to do slow steady stuff when i've not been in pain, sandwiched between weeks off. But thankfully the injuries haven't affected my cycling and swimming so have been focussing on them.

The jizzio gave me the ok to run this week after a weekend and a half off my feet so did a tempo run weds and a 10 miler on thursday. With no signs of my injuries i decided to go for todays race and aim for a sub 8:15 swim and get through the run without my leg seizing up, and given my latest form i felt like i'd be lucky to manage 9 min miles!

As usual 400m Swim in the pool, run out to transition, trainers on, 5k run.

Did a couple of lengths warm up and decided with the guy i was sharing my lane with we'd go up and down rather than round and round - meaning he wouldnt have to worry about overtaking me!!

Under starters orders - 5 secs to go, started my watch - and off..... i'd done a 3.8k time trial on thursday in the pool so wasn't sure how my shoulders were going to feel but felt ok, and got into a steady rhythm. I had a shoulder injury from getting knocked off my bike which meant i couldnt swim with club for the fast sessions so had just been banging out long slow steady stuff focussing on technique, which seems to have done wonders in the pool.

I got to about 8th length and checked the lap timer clock thing and checked how long the next 2 lenghts toook - just under a minute, kept checking each 50 and each time was just under a minute... by my calculations if the first half was the same sort of speed i was going at i could do easily under 8:15!

Tapped on the head - 2 to go, final push and checked my watch - 7:45!!!! holy shit!!! i scrambled out the pool and ran through the door - they apparently cut off as you reach the door so my official time was 7:53 - but wooooooooooooo! i was so flipping happy!! If you've read the preivious swim related posts you'll know that i used to be chuffed to get 9:45! I never expected to get under 8 - probably ever so i'm totally chuffed! :)

So ran out in to the sunshine!! (not a bit of frost in sight!) bunged on my ssocks and shoes and race number and ran back out, bout a minute in transition, out onto the run, i just focusses on keeping my cadence high, not going too quick and just picking off the people in front of me. (i.e. the fast swimmers!)

The run was fairly uneventful, until the turnaround i didnt see any ladies come back towards me, so assumed i must be first woman :) I overtook another fella, before another one came past me (must have been a shitter swimmer than me!) I really don't like the last 400m, it goes on for ages and i always want to take the wrong turn. back through the car park into transition and cross the line. 21:35 on the run :) Still slower than i used to be but i'm pretty chuffed with this time as i've not been focussing on sprint distances or any speed work - or running really!

It's a great confidence booost as i was really beginning to think my running days were slowing down but i reckon if i can stay injury free, i'll have some reasonabale triathlon runs in me this year.

i was 6th over all and 1st lady today!! yay!! The lady who normally wins didnt race today, she spectated so i only really won by default, but my swim times are getting closer to hers now, so she best watch out! ;)

Finished up with a 50 mile easy ride and ice cream :)

Cheshire Twat Sportive

2010-03-29T12:46:00.002+01:00

It's been a month since my confession - according to Rob.... !

So... on that note - yesterday was the day of the aptly renamed "Twat Ride" - otherwise known as the "Cheshire Cat" sportive. I suggested this to a group of friends a few months back, my ulterior motive being that it was to form a milestone in my IronMan training plan - my first century ride (as it happens, this ended up being last week for my birthday) but it was my first sportive so still ad day for firsts.

Originally Penny and Kerry were going to do the 67 mile route, Mike, David and I the 100 mile route. Penny fell down a cliff and smashed her shoulder (apparently - i think the xray/mri look a bit photoshopped to me and I'm almost certain the bruises were painted on with make-up) and David decided to do the 67 mile instead - because Penny had tired him out making her do all her errands - she has "a broken shoulder" you see! Kerry got herself a brand new shiny cycling type boyfriend so he also joined up - to the 100 miler.

The drive down was loooong! Made longer still by Mike having an anecdote for everything..... ever. Even buildings..... "did I tell you about the Fort Dunlop building?" I'm sure the feeling was mutual with my constant pointing out of signs such a "oh..look... jisborough", "shagborough" still travelling that fast in a Ford is quite a novelty for me, so i shan't complain any more.

After some issues trying to check in at the travel lodge - "no i'm not kerry, i'm having her room but she's now sharing with someone else" to the Neanderthal at the front desk (which looked more like a cupboard) Unpacked car, found room.... Penny and David were on the road still, trying to find the other Travelodge in Knutsford. Finally they arrive, shortly followed by Kerry and James - this was the first time i'd met the two fo them. I ahd gifts for everyone - Kerry - some Haribo as wiggle keep forgetting to send her some, Creme eggs for James - he likes the Jizzy centre, Wine gums for David as i noticed this to be his riding nutrition, some "Wank Party" tights for Penny, and a bumper pot of Sudacream for Mike's arse - they didnt have any giant Compede.

As always happens in the Company of Penny and David, i got lead firmly astray with the lure of lager and wine. Obviously being stuck in a car with Mike for most of the day meant I really *needed* a pint...... the bigger problem is my inability to know my limit - usually this is about a glass of wine before i stop drinking. Combine this with losing an hour's sleep to the age old thing of daylight saving time or whatever, this meant not the best night's sleep.

After requesting "lots of food" at breakfast, a couple of coffees, the hangover starting to subside, we finally got off to the start. We parked a 5 min ride from the start and when we got there, were about to join the queue, but soon realised the queue did a total lap of the carpark - so turned out being quite a wait, luckily the facilities on site were pretty decent so took it in turns to go for last minute wee stops. Anyone who's read previous posts will know of my penchant for boys in lycra - the day did not disappoint.... cycling is quite a handy sport to fulfill this simple requirement.

So we finally set off, the roads were a bit pot holey to begin, Kerry was having issues with her new pedals - bit tight apparently, James was having troubles with his bum - bit tight apparently. Nothing much momentous happened for the first 10 miles or so, until Mike decided to push me off my bike... ok so maybe he didn't really push me (so he says) neither of us seemed to know we were going to turn left, and somehow we got tangled up, (he pushed me) and i ended up in a pile on the floor. Luckily i wear a helmet - it's now cracked through - as i told my mate the other day when he turned up for a ride with a beanie on "that's not going to hold your brains in when you fall off"

No major injuries, a grazed elbow and bruised thigh we got off again, the first of the big hills came up much sooner than we expected, we had all thought there was a feed station prior so whilst bimbling along in the wrong gear for a big hill, i ended up stalling and having to half walk up a bit of it til i could find somewhere not quite as verticle to restart, during this time passed by Kerry and David - James and Mike were already gone. It then occured to me that this was the infamous "Mow Cop" hill, the pics on the website didn't do it justice and at 26% it was going to be a biggun! i rounded the corner and in front was just this wall of tarmac - iv'e previously written about "Snap" hill and "my hill" round my way, but they are gentle slopes by comparison!

I caught up with James, and could see Mike half way up the steepest bit, then i realised he was on the floor (it later transpired Karma came about and someone pushed him off)

So i slowly slowly catchy monkey slogged up the tarmac mountain, making slow steady progress. Passing people defeated and walking, trying to keep the front wheel on the floor, pretty much hacking up my uterus by this point, i was caught up to where Mike had been picked off the floor and about 2 wheel turns from the point where stewards were giving prizes for people getting up the steepest bit (rumoured to be 32%!!) and i ground to a halt, my wheel stopped and i just fell over sideways. (i'm certain Mike pushed me again as he was right there)

I laid on the side of the road giggling, still attached to both pedals and wasted Mike pulled off my shoe so i could get up and we walked the rest of the way to the top, whilst a few people nipped up like rats up drain pipes!

We got to the top and saw that James had made it the whole way! King of the hill. Fair play fella. We waited for everyone else to get to the top and refuelled with jiz gels n the like. After that we set off again.... round the corner the hill continued!! For approximately 40 miles. I love hills, but seriously these were ridiculous!!

There were feed stations about every 25 miles, which we could stock up on bananas, (i think i ate about 10 that day), drinks and biscuits/cakes - wee stops and reapply lube!

After the hills were out of the way David and I decided it was actually "quite pleasant" riding, despite the now wasted legs, there were some great decents but i'm a big wimp and hang off my brakes a lot of the time on the bigguns, when David said "i've not touched my brakes yet" I wasn't surprised as i've ridden with him before and him slalomming down massive hills make my stomach churn. We managed to get into a fairly decent pace for a while, taking it in turns to ride the front.

After the 2nd feed station we split off into our two groups, safe in the knowledge that we were *almost* half way! fuck me. Luckily we'd read the profile map so knew there were no more hills.... (well almost no more). I think Mike and I said something to upset James cos he belted off on his own. There were phases in the last 30 miles where nothing was said for miles, endurance is a funny thing, one minute you can be full of it, the next in a trance like state just trying to maintain your existence. I didnt have any real bad moments, but it was a real eye opener to the nutrition plan i need to adopt for the iron man as for a while, i could hardly keep up with my body's demands for energy and maintaining the same level was tricky for a while, so almost force feeding myself to keep level, but i think it worked.

The last feed station was an eerie place... there was tumbleweed rolling by, someone walking round with a sandwich board saying "the end is nigh" ok i made that up but it felt a bit like that... the end was nigh in fact... just 25 miles to go! So quick refuel, and back on... "ouch" not the worst case of saddle sore, but a definite bit of chaffing!

We picked up the pace a bit for the last stretch and a few more words were exchanged... "I fucking hate you Mike" and various mean comments about my fat arse. Standard really.

The last few miles, we chased down a few people in front of us, the last 2 not letting us win, they knew our game! Finally cross the finish line (2 seconds ahead of Mike) hoppped off feeling pretty decnet actually - definitley could ahve done a run after (which is just as well as in a few months i need to ride on a further 12 miles and run 26.2... !)

Went inside and found kerry and james - Penny and David had left, but Penny had left us a banana cake - I fucking love Penny! xx (not just for her cakes you realise)

Kerry and james left, Mike spent about an hour doing his make up for the journey home, and we set about on the longest car journey in history..... where the following things were learnt 1) scav nav is a bit wank, 2) you can't follow the north star if there's clouds 3) Mike's a shit navigator 4) i'm a shit driver 5) Clash rocked the Casbah 6) "did I tell you about the Fort Dunlop building?"

All in all a pretty great weekend really, fucking nackered now, and i've got whiplash, bruised elbows, and a sore knee. But i feel pretty prepared for my next adventure... 7 weeks until Florida Half Ironman!! Eek.

Hopefully next year Penny can ride too! x

Feb 20th Calne Aquathlon Race 5/5

2010-02-23T22:04:00.002Z

Well I unfortunately didn't make the last of the race series as the injury from last month has been lingering since, went to the physio and turned out i'd sprained the medial ligament in me cankle.

So rest, bit of electro therapy or something and no racing/running. Am getting back into it again slowly but only ran twice a week for the last few weeks whilst rehabilitating it. Not ideal for training but better than making it worse.

Anyhow, didn't go but i had a call about lunchtime to tell me i'd won a prize :-) and what's the best kind of prize?

A sur-prize!

I got 2nd lady!! yay. i thought i was 3rd in the series so this was a better result. There was quite a big gap between 1st and me cos she's a dead quick swimmer and min or two quicker on the run. A ten quid voucher for total bath fitness came through today so will buy some socks or something :P

That's it.... i've not got many more races planned now before switzerland, i may do the summer series and some time trials but nothing set in stone. Really wanted to do the ballbuster again at beginning of march but it doesnt really fit in.

Calne Aquathlon Race 4/5

2010-02-02T20:08:00.003Z

So it goes on..... Aside from this i'm 13 weeks into my 38 week Ironman training schedule, all my running is based on aerobic efforts (so under 75% of max HR) with the odd (like 3/4 weekly) 2 - 3 minute burst of 85%!! (those really do excite me! ) So my point in that is that to keep my HR down therei hve to run painfully slowly!! I was starting to worry that's that the speed my legs think they are to run at. Alas the training seems to be working slowly (geddit!) and i'm starting to run quicker for the same effort level.

Thursday i did my 75 min run home from work (painfully slooooow, with 3 lots of 2 min 85%!! Woo!) and i had to keep ducking onto the verge to escape oncoming lorries in the dark on the main road, thought nowt of this til later... had a really tought swimming session (vo2 max - 14 reps of 100m puke speed - i very nearly did!) I'm getting to the point.... got out the pool and my right foot felt a bit weirdy like it was bruised slightly.

Next day it stilll felt a bit weird, was a rest day so did nowt, but told myself if it was still iffy on saturday i'd not race, wokeup on sat and it felt ok.. i took a couple of painkillers in case (as you do) an off i plopped to the race.

Getting quite friendly now with the regulars of the series so had a little chat got changed and marked up, put my trainers and stuff in transition - icy frost everywhere and about freezing point - "5 degrees warmer than last time" i was told!)

I was in the first of 3 waves, only two in m lane cos someone was a no show, so me and the guy siad we'd go up and down beside each other instead of behind - cos its annoying ifyou either get caught up and have to pull over or have to overtake.

Pool was nice and warm, set off on the 2nd whistle at puke speed minus 5 (i'm making that up) i've no guage of speed in the pool - i seem to cover the distance the same speed whether i'm maxing out of bimbling along! i got about 3 lenghts in and felt really CBA'd about it, and m breathing wasnt' very comfortable so i decided to just go for technique, rather than thrash y way up the pool. I checked my watch at 200m and was 4:15 - that aint bad for me, so kept going this pace/effort. Hit the 400m at the same time as the other guy in my lane who'd started off 10 secs ahead, checked my watch 8:45! ooopsy! :D

Climbed out, trotted outside..

"brrrrr!" bungd on me trainers and race number, and ran off, left matey fiddling with transition, was a minute from leaving the pool to gettig out onthe run, so this is getting better :-)

I decided to aim for short fast strides as i've been doing on my tuesday run sessions to save a bit of energy and see if y training was benefitting me in any way. Felt goooood, matey was about 100 yrdsbehind me now he'd got his daps on... i didnt notice the cold now. About 500m in you have to turn off - there's a big bright yellow sign and arrow! Having done this course 3 times in as many months and driven past the sign on my way here i was familiar with the route...

you'd think so right??

apparently not, i took the turning before the one i was meant to (there was no sign) after about 20 m i didnt recognise it anymore, but instead of turn back there, i carried on for a bit further (just to be sure it was the wrong way y'know?) So about turn after about 50m and got back on course, over took matey (who'd by nowcaught up, overtaken!) and plooded on cursing myself!

Matey came past me at some point, it was al rather uneventful after that, the paths weer a bit icy in places, didn see many people on the route until nearly at the end where the 2nd and 3rd waves were getting out on the run, got back through the finish, checked my watch, 22:40 for the run - not too bad considering the wrong turn and lack of speed work i've been doing.

When i got back i realised i'd lost my nipples somewhere on the course!! that'll teach me for running in just a tri suit.

Some lady then started asking me how i liked my tri suit and did i not find that particular one holds on to water? (i dont think she was a rep!?) but i said, i don't know the difference as its all i've ever warn, but it does hold onto the ice!!

Anyhooo... came third, and still holding onto 3rd for the series with one race to gooo!

oh the point of the foot thing is that now, i have a club foot - i did my long run on sunday and it was a bit niggly, but ok, then last night i swam and it's angered it so now i canny run for a few days.... hmppf

Calne Aquathlon Series Race 3 - December 19th 2009

2009-12-19T11:52:00.003Z

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Today was race 3, temperature has been below freezing for last few days, and hadn't been *too* excited about getting out of a wet pool into the sub zero air for a run!

I'd packed jumper, leg warmers, 2 pairs of gloves, buff (not muff) for transition so i could layer up... as if transition doesnt take long enough for me!!

Was a bit late getting there so was pretty rushed due to car refusing to defrost..... so got in, registered, numbered up, quick change and headed to the poolside. a few people had failed to turn up (pussied out cos of the cold i bet :-P ) so had 2 in the lane so we said we'd go up and down rather than round and round.

Pool was super warm today :-) Same distance - 400m, i've been working pretty hard on my swimming with club the last couple of weeks so was hoping to see some improvement on last time. Got off to a good start, having to breath unilaterally though for most of it though, concentrated on pushing off the wall better, kicking harder and keeping my shoulders up. I tired a little between 250 and 350 but managed to pick it back up for last 50, got to the end checked my watch.......... 8:30!!! :-) :-) hurrah!! super happy with this. :-) my HR was through the roof though, at 179bpm, considering my running max HR is 186.

Hauled myself out of the pool and trotted outside...

"brrrrrrrr!"

Dilly dallied a bit in trasnsition as always, but didnt bother with the jumper, just wore my tri suit, just bunged on my race belt, socks, shoes and picked up my glove and ran out.... i put my gloves on, on themove, the air hit my lungs like splinters. took 90 secs between pool and getting out on run. God knows how slowit would have been with jumper and leg warmers!!

I've not really been concentrating very much oin my running lately due to the focus on the bike and swimming, so have mainly been doing steady aerobic stuff with the exception of a tempo run on thursday which wasn't anything quicker than half marathon pace.

The run was fairly uneventful, 5k out and back as usual... two people were ahead of me out of the pool from my wave, there was luckily no ice on the pavements, a bit of frost on the grass, but aside from the cold air it was actually a really nice day, sunny and bright. Last 500m was running with a fella who was trying to see where the gap in the hedge we had to run through was cos the sun was blinding... and the icicles in our eyes werent helping! :-)

The last 500m always seems further than it does on the way out. Ran back into the car park, through the finish 22min for the run, pretty average but i'm not too displeased with it given my lack of focus.

Went inside to warm up and stretch, touched my head and had a ponytail thickwith ice, bright red legs, frosty ass, and the coldest nips i've ever experienced!!!! :-P Warm shower, mulled wine while waiting for results.

3rd lady again :-) Need to keep it up to get a placing at end of series!!! But there's a new lady entered who came 2nd who's a bit quick!!

29th Nov/5th Dec/6th Dec - DNS

2009-12-06T18:24:00.003Z

29th should have been Eynsham 10k - my favourite 10k race - usually get a nice tshirt ;-)

5th Dec - Battersea Santa Run

6th Dec - Bromham 10k Pudding run

after a really bad couple of races i have decided that i've overcooked myself piking race upon race in the last few months. It's not conducive to my current IM plans where i need to be building my base fitness for endurance and concentrating on strengthening my weaker leg - cycling, so have turned my focus to longer slower runs, and bike specific training.

My legs and brain seem happierr with this decision. i'll get back to my 10k goals next winter.

22nd November - Swindon 10k

2009-11-25T22:07:00.003Z

What a crock.

Was umming and ah'ing about this one, i'd done the aquathlon the day before and didnt really feel it, but had entered and wanted to beat lady from club after her beating me in my drunk state at swindon barf marathon. Ronny was there too, he reckoned he wouldnt do that well but i'd hoped he'd get the sub 42 he was after. A bunch of lovely wlr lot were down for hte event too, some of them from swindon it made sense!

Got there to yet anohter wet and windy swindon 10k at the karting ground. It's really open up there so took a battering from the gales.

Really jaded by this run which is why i've taken so long to write the report and why i'm lacking enthusiasm about it, and having had the nicest run this evening than i've had in a while i feel more able to write about it.

I've still had a sub 42 in my hopes, but can't see it happening this year. i need to be in a more focused state of mind and lose a stone, so i'm putting this goal on ice until next year after the IM. The training i'm starting to do for IM is low intensity aerobic, so it's in conflict with this aim.

So the run... huddled at the start, got off to a pretty decent start, first 2k were 4:05, so thought maybe i'd come close to the 42 if i kept it up....it was a 2 loop course... the rain had stopped but the wind was terrible, between 3 and 4, 7 and 8 and the final 500 odd metres you hit a brick wall of wind. At 4k i was going to pull up and give it up as a bad job but i kept going... each km getting slower, harder, the wind zapping my energy, my chubby thighs not wanting to work for me.

Could still see ronny ahead for the first 6 or 7 km, but wasnt going to keep up with his pace so kissed goodbye to a 42/43min.... for thelast km i kept checking behind for running club lady, i could see her in the distance, not quite caught up, i wasnt going to give her the pleasure, or id never hear the end of it. the last 500m was so tough.... it was like running through thick treacle.

Finalyl dragged my sorry fat ass through the finish in 46 mins. shocking run. running club lady came in a bit behind me rambling "anohter half mile and i would have aught you"

"but you didnt" and as kathy said "she had 6 miles!!"

my mate from club told me tonight she said "anna was lucky" really? i dont believe in luck actually, i believe in hard work and preparation... i didnt prepare for this, hence it was shite.

Anyhow, went back and waited with Mr AmySara and watched the wlr lot fly through... they made the finish look a lot easier than i found it!

Then on to a roast, pint of cider and great company in the pub. :-) made up for a bad run.

sound bitter don't i!! :-P

oh, i was 8th lady, and our team won the ladies prize.... dunno what the prize is yet.

21st November Calne Aquathlon - Race 2

2009-11-21T20:21:00.004Z

Today was race 2 of the series....

Again, the focus was on my swim. Have had a couple of really good training sessions since the last one and really been working on what i'm being taught. I think in some ways i'm in a fortunate position to make quicker improvements as being a beginner i've not got ingrained bad habits to try and correct.

I got my dad to film my swim today so i can analyse it and see any flaws that have been pointed out and see if i can improve them in future ones.

So.. same deal as last time.. 400m swim, 5k run... same route, smae time, and weather almost identical.

So the swim.... i was 2nd to be set off in my lane and got off to a good start, overtook the lady in front before the end 2nd length and now had no=one to draft off which i had suspected was helping my swim times in training. Despite having done a few tumble turns last week, i'm not at all comforatble doing them so did my usual touch turns, which from watching the video are awful.... i pause, bring my head right up, turn round, sort of surface dive so my arse comes out the water and then finally streamline off the wall (not for as far as i should) thus losing a good second or two on each turn.

My arms started to tire about towards the end. and with 50m to go i pushed on to the finish. I got out, checked my watch - balls - i hadnt started it!! well i had but it said 15 seconds! so clearly id stopped it shortly after! doh.

Trotted outside, up the steps, into car park. Started the watch when i got to my trainers. I'd brought socks this week as last time i ran with none on and got really sore blisters, so was worth the extra time added to transition. which was a bit over a minute not including running round from the poool, so prob at good 90 seconds

I didnt run out too hard to begin, but gradually picked up the pace to what felt unpleasant. I overtook as many as i could who had got out the pool ahead of me. The run was uneventful but didnt feel very good, i'm not really sure what/why/how, just not 100% i think i've still got the ball buster in my legs, and didnt feel very sparky.

Went through finish and checked my watch, 22:15, meaning my run time was about 21, which is ok... about 10 secs slower than the last one. it felt a lot slower though.bit of a treacely one!

HUng about for results i came 3rd out of he ladies, with a swim time oooooof........... 8:50!!!!! :-) :-)

hurrrraaayyyyyyyyyy! knocked off another 22 seconds from the previous one... so over a minute since the end of august when i started :-)

The girl who's won both of the races so far is a min quicker on the run, about 90secs quicker on the swim and really quick at putting her shoes on, so i need to up my game if i want in on the prizes at the end of the series!! :-P

Woop Woop!

oooh. also, feel the need to share... whilst waiting for results, in came to the gym was a stunning 6ft creature.... wasnt quick enough to bite his pretty bum though... he may have seen the look in my eye and made a dash! :-P

Sunday 15th November - "Wickstead Wander"

2009-11-15T17:10:00.001Z

I fancied a change and bit of recovery after a few months working hard pounding the tarmac, so i'd planned either doing avebury 8 or wickstead wander and not going balls out. Avebury filled up so i went for wickstead instead.

It's a new race this year in Highworth, 5.5 "country miles" (which i'm assuming means inaccurate and probably measured using cows?! :-) across fields and a cross country course (horse one) i've ridden round the jumps before and it's lush. Raising money for RDA.

I arrived just in the nick of time to enter and get to the start, probably about 150 runners, 3 of which were men cross dressing for the occasion - one of these is a guy who wins pretty much all the local races. I'd borrowed some running spikes from a lady at running club but i'd stoopidly forgotten them! Big mistake.

The race briefing... "there are cross country jumps as obstacles.. they're not compulsory, but st johns ambulance are on the course!" :-P

Despite all the rain the last few days the fields weren't too muddy, a bit skiddy in places and some parts were boggy but mostly it was sruface water, still spikes would have been handy!

So the course..... set out across a field, onto a track, down a steep hill, through some slimy farm with sh1t everywhere. across ploughed fields, round some more, over (in my case through) a deep ditch ankle deep with water.... splash splashh through more fields.... i could see i was leading lady and someone said "well done, first ladies through" plural? glanced behind and there was a lady just behind me, she overotok me up another hill.

Then came the cross country fences.. some of them werent optional cos you couldnt get by without it. but it was all good fun so clambered over them... then through a water jump... knee deep and when you ran,, got soaked form head to toe! Up a big step out of it, over anohter jump, across more fields, over more jumps.. lady who overtook was never more than 20m ahead of me so i though i could possibly catch her if i dug in. But i still had a way to go so didnt feel ready to speed up, overtake, then maintain that pace.

Through another water jump, up some more hills, over more jumps, back over the ditch from before, back up the track - the hill was waaaay steeper than on the way down and i was really blowing and struggling. It seemed longer than before too. Lady was increasing the gap and i knew i wouldnt catch her now.

Finally got to the top of the hill, back across the final field and through the finish. 2nd place :-) and wona coool trophy!! :-)

Spoke to the lady who won after and she was lovely and i don't mind being second to her cos she was really un-smug about it and is a triathlete too. She finished a minute ahead of me in the end, there's no way i could have caught her, she did good. she said though that if it was another mile i'd have overtaken but i dont think i would have as i'd had enough by then.

There was a bloke at the finish i was chatting to too who said

"did you used to be blonde?"
"yeah, are my roots coming through!!? sorry, who are you?"
"i recognised the tattoo on the back of your neck, i wasnt suer if it was a bassett hound thing or you were the same person"
" ahhh.. you've been behind me before then"? :-P
"haha, yes. Are you doing the xc series"
"no, i dont do xc..... this was a bit random, plus i think it was more of a steeplechase!"

he was saying i should go for this xc championships in a couple of weeks that i was pondering... but i'm realy not sure.... that or eynsham 10k?? mmmmm...

Anyhooo, chuffed with today, legs are still a bit heavy from last week so gonna have anohter gentle week before a couple of races next weekend.

The BallBuster Duathlon Sat 7th November 2009

2009-11-07T22:44:00.001Z

This one needs a bit of background....

Some months ago, my friend Suzie absently suggested this for me in jest... I looked it up, thought why the heck not and entered. I then asked around, did some research, read some reviews and found out more about what the hell I was getting myself into.

So what was that now?

Quote from the humanrace website:

"The Ballbuster duathlon takes you over Box Hill, near Dorking in Surrey, a total of five times with each loop being 8 miles long; twice on foot and three times in the saddle. It is a severe test of stamina and should not be taken lightly. It is the equivalent of running a marathon and should be treated with the utmost respect. Many fail each year"

So the last couple of months have been prepping myself for this... how? By throwing myself up as many big hills as possible of course. I'd raced half marathons purely for the fact that they've been hilly, taken my rides to work up the biggest hills i can find, got people to drag me out up hills at running club and requested "more hills" when out on evening rides, brick training at 5 in the morning before work.

The last two weeks I've been totally bricking myself, week before last I gave myself one last hill sessoin on bike and foot, then last week tapered - for the first time "properly" in months and months. There was nothing more I could do, except, rest, and carb it up a bit.

A couple of days before the race I had been given some great advice from someone who 's become something of a mentor (and i hope he doesn't mind my assuming that label on him!) one of these being, to set my hrm to 80% of my max hr and to maintain that through out the race, and have it so it beeps if I drop below. So with pep talks from him and from Suzie I felt a bit less scared and a bit more excited about it.

So today finally came round after months of preparation, I set off in good time, got lost, went round in circles, and finally found my way to race HQ with half an hour to get my number, rack my bike and sort myself out.

I looked around at the sort of people participating and wondered once more why the hell was i there. Headed towards the start for race briefing, once more reminded of the tough long race ahead. I felt pretty good on the whole - well rested, well fuelled and raring to go.

Set off towards the back of the pack (around 400/500 i think) and got into a rhythm that felt really comfy, after a few mins I checked my hrm and its said 90%, I gathered it was adrenaline, slight incline, start of the race etc so carried on at the same pace. I looked again a few mins later and it was still around 90...I decided to let my legs dictate the pace for a short while as i was feeling comfortable and wasn't blowing and puffing.

In my mind I had broken up the race into 7 sections -

Run x 2 lots of 4 miles
3 x 8 mile bike sections
run x 2 lots of 4 miles

Hopefully the psychology of this helping me get through it without thinking too far ahead.

It had been said that the water station would be at 4 miles, so imagine my surprise when it appeared after just 22 mins - no I hadnt' run 4 miles in that time! so this split my run up a bit differently to planned.

The route was for the first 5/6 miles largely draggy hills, some steep short inclines, some steep down hills. The finaly 2/3 was where it got nasty. Some long hard hills, sharp bends, and more long hills that just didnt seem to give in.

I actually got through the first run feeling pretty good, a comfy speed, overtaking a few poeple, not feeling like I was pushing too hard, trying to remember that i needed to try to maintain the same pace for the first and second run. However, my HR was between 85 and 90% for the whole of the first leg.

Towards the top of the longest hill on the zig zag road were a big group of supporters who were there throughout the entire race, whistling, and dancing and cheering and I believe if they weren't there a lot of people would have faded.

So off the run, through to transition, checked my watch, 60 mins and 30 secs- top notch. Was really pleased with that as I was thinking I was prob 8 min miling and hoping for about 1hr4 I'm pretty good at making up speed on the downhills though when some people get scared of going to quick I throw myself down.

I didn't rush transition (I'm notoriously bad at this!) , changed out of my running stuff and put on a warmer top, (had to turn it the right way round first!), shoes off - untied the laces as I thought it would be easier to have them ready for the next leg, shoves some snacks in my back pocket, helmet on, shoes on, finally got the bike down and started the 100m dash across the field and track to the road to mount. Took me over 3 mins in transition! :-P

So on to the bike, the first stretch was hillier than i thought it was, so had some water, some grub and settled onto the bike for a few mins. Then got going. The route was the same as the run loop, the sharp corners making it tricky in places, the damp ground making it slippy. After the run I decided to split each bike lap into two as well, of 5 miles and 3 miles, he first 5 were really fast, I'm not what you'd call a "cyclist" and I've never gotten to overtake people on the bike legs before but I was going past quite a lot, flying up the long drags faster than I used to be able to ride the flat. The second section of each lap were where the steep slow hills were. I had a swig of my energy drink, and fumbling to put it back in the cage, dropped the bugger!! So now i had to do the remaining 20 miles of the bike with only water and half a trek bar.

There was a guy and me the whole of the first 2 and a half laps, overtaking each other, taking it in turns to go past, him getting me on the short sharp, me getting him on the long drags. Every time we went past each other, we'd take the piss out of each other. The second half of the last bike lap I kept hearing my watch beeping to urge me to work harder, so i'd kick in and push on, if not for this I think I might have flaked out... that and the amazing people of the big hill yelling and cheering as i overtook some blokes.

Round the final bend and into transition again.....1hr36 got off B, gave her a kiss and ran through. my toes were frozen!! knees werent happiest after the hills, another slow transition and luckily I had another bottle of energy drink in my box so took that out on the last run., though my bladder was already full and threatening to explode....

My feet took 20 mins to come back to life!

For the final run I decided to split it into 3 - first was upto the drinks station, second to the bottom of the hills, final was the last couple of mile stretch of hills.

I've never looked forward to hills so much as that last leg, as I knew it would mean I was almost home. The final run was tough, my hrm kept beeping at me, so the only thing I could do to shut the fucker up was to run harder - each time taking a swig of drink. I was still overtaking people and trying to pick them off one by one. I knew iIwasnt covering the ground very quickly but just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping moving.

Up the final hill, I hi 5'ed a fe of the supporters, shouted to a marshal "I've still got my balls!!!" over took a couple of people now walking, came up to the fnal bend and sprinted (sort of) as best I could through the finish. Time was 1:07

Totally over the moon with todays race, I'm really happy with how I prepared and trained for it and how I performed. My total time was 3hr50 which I'm dead chuffed with as I was aiming for under 4. Plus i was 5th in my category :-)

I was paranoid about getting a puncture (and there were a lot out there today) so i need to get some practice in regulraly to be prepared for that too.

It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be, partly maybe because iId been imagining the worst!! But I absolutely loved it and I think possibly my highlight race of the year - I'm going go to go back next year and aim for a sub 3:30! :-)

Halloween 5k Night Race 31st October 2009

2009-11-01T01:28:00.000Z

Halloween Night 5k Race – Dark, Spoooooky, Cross country and dressed up as a skeleton.

Arrived at the race all boned up and fullup from eating too much dinner, and headed the 10/15 minute walk to the pun to meet martin who’d been there since 6 apparently.

The walk was fricking scary, not a soul along the river, just loads of swans (they can break a man’s arm y’know!) so i half jog/ran/watched out for bogey men, looking like a weirdo dressed in bones.

Walking past the race HQ there was music from Psycho blaring out to add to the atmosphereGot to pub and found martin, they only had shabby cider so settled for a lager (just a half) martin went for a full pint. Bit later penny and her husband FINALLY arrived – tsk. Got another round in halves all round. I had hoped to get martin drunk so i’d have a chance at keeping up with him!

Walked back to Race HQ, and were disappointed to se we weren’t the only ones with bones outfits, looooads of people did! So we went to picked up our headtorches, chips (timing not deep fried variety), free tops with bones on! – explained all the bonios. Dropped off bags and went outside.

Martin and I had been checking out the competition and were getting ansty to get to the start, so we all set out to the start, Halloween style music blaring out, bones and headlaps everywhere – it was quite a spectacle.

So under the grim Reapers orders (really!) martin and i were lined up right on the start line, and were off – there were fireworks (really!) Martin leapt off like a thoroughbred from the stalls – his legs were like the road runners!!

Off across a field we all went. Torchbeams lighting the way, about 500m in i was overtakn by a girl who’s feet were barely touching the floor – seriously impressive running style. Settled into a pace (no idea of this pace – just a pace that didn’t leave me wanting to hurl but didn’t leave me feeling like i was being lazy).

Course went round fields, through tracks, flat but uneven - through a cooool bit that had actual real life ghosts!! (well they weren’t as penny was very annoyed about – they were sheets stuck to the trees with ghostly music playing) was dead good!! (geddit)

Every few hundred metres i’d “hoooowwwwoooooooooooo!” like a werewolf, and someone would do it back in the distance. Got to 3k marker and was bummed (not actually bummed!) cos i thought id gone further than that – it felt it. Kept going.... 4k... overtook a coupla blokes.... 400m to go – i’m sure these signs always lie, it seemed more than 400!

Final 50m, about 6 blokes came up on either side of me for a sprint finish, let most of them have it but then to my right some lady in a devils outfit appeared, and at this point i’d not seen any other ladies go past so was pretty certain i was in 2nd place, as she overtook i dug in and threw myself past her and beat her through the finish. Checked time 23:12 (PB for dark/XC/skeleton) Looking across the field at finishers coming in looked really cool, all you could see were loads of headlamps in the distance.

Met the others, went back to pub, chatted about bikes and camel toes etc. Brilliant event, amazing atmosphere excellent value for money (£15 for a chip times, really well marshalled, fun, event with free head torch, bones top, mug, and soup)

As always great to see Martin and Penny.

Calne Aquathlon Series - 1/5

2009-10-24T12:44:00.000+01:00

Woooo hooooo!!!

Happy AnnaB!

Today was my first of 5 aquathlons in a series, a 400m swim followed by 5k run.

My aim is to see how i improve (if i do) over the winter on my swimming as this is particularly shit for me. I've so far had 7 swimming coaching sessions, 5 of these with tri club. My first tri time over 400m was 9:53 back at the end of August, then two weeks later 9:51.

It's not something that comes easily and i make constant jokes about being in the shit lane, and wanting to swim as fast as a shark, in honesty this aint ever gona happen cos i just dont have the talent for it but i have really gotten to enjoy it, in spite of being so crud!

The series is one a month over the winter and there were only 25 entries for today!! I was in the first wave and had estimated my time in the pool as 9:45, got off to a good start, inhaled water through my nose on an occasion cos i screwed up my breathing, also punched the poor old man who i was sharing a lane with - entirely my fault cos i went all wigggle snaky up the lane!! (I later apologised to him - in the run and after!) Felt really good, didnt feel like i was thrashing *too* much and tried to concentrate on the technique i've been working on.

Official time in the pool - 9:12!!!! i know to any swimers out there that probably sounds tragic but i'm so over the moon i cant tell you!! Ok so i was 14th after the swim but whoooo cares! Ran out the pool, through the car park, round some obstacles, into transition threw on my number and trainers and ran off...

transition time was about 1:20 (still need to work on these but hopefully the series will help that too)

Onto the run, i couldnt see anyone in front of me, a really emaciated girl was just behind me, i left her to it. For ages i couldnt see anyone and i thought for a crazy minute i might have been fisrt out the water!!! (yeah whatever!) I finally saw 4 people ahead of me and started trying to close the gap, i didnt actually overtake any of them but caught up within about 100 yrds of one. On the last km i saw my daddy, he'd come to watch he's not seen any of my tri's so was lush to have him there, but then he started to run next to me, to which i told him off cos it was putting me off!

Ran back into the carpark, went the wrong way, came back and went through the finish. Run time was 20:51. and 3rd fastest (including the boys!)

Time overall was 31.03 Reeeeally happy!!

my aim is to get under 9 mins for the next one, and see if i can break 30 mins overall. There's a prize for the series 1st - 3rd so if i can hold on i could be in with a shot. I was officially 5th lady and 8th overall but there was a girl ahead who'd only done 14 lenghts in the pool so dunno what theyre gonna do with that.

Yay!! I love that i'm seeing improvement in the swimming, its so rewarding cos my running hasnt really been getting better xx

p.s. its gonna be fricking cold doing this in jan and feb!

Salisbury Half Marathon- Sunday 18th October 2009

2009-10-23T22:19:00.001+01:00

Today was my last half marathon from the foreseeable future, due to this IM i’ve entered I’ll not be doing the usual stint of early 2010 halves (Suzie told me i’m not allowed as i’ll be mostly cycling round the country at weekends or somink!) so i’ll probably cycle to them and watch you folks instead.

After a pretty decent start to the year and getting my times down to a respectable level, i’d really wanted to get near to 90 mins for my half, but due to taking up triathlons my focus had moved from running specific training to x training. So my times have dropped significantly, it hasn’t helped that i’ve got a bit lardy, went on a couple of holidays, and took too long off before cricklade and got pissed before last weeks race!! (listen to all my shit excuses for being substandard!)

I had decided to run either today or next week at stroud, but i decided to go for today in Salisbury as the course profile was described on runners world as “Undulating” and i thought as I’ve not done much hill training recently (unless you count Swindon half which is notorious round these parts for its gradient!) and i’ve got a duathlon in a few weeks called the “Ball Buster” which is effectively an 8 mile hilly loop round box hill that you have to run up twice, and cycle up 3 times so thought a race with a couple of little hills would be good practice.

The last few months i’ve sort of lost my drive to get my elbows out and have just seemed to be content with completing without pushing myself to (and past) the brink of pukage, i think this is maybe cos when i started triathlonning i wasn’t expecting to do anything other than finish at best so have gotten used to that frame of thinking.

Just now i looked up the dictionary meaning of “Undulating” and here’s what I got...

"describing or having small hills and slopes that look like waves
•moving gently up and down
*undulating waves*"

Anyhoooo.... i had decided if I felt ok after yesterdays mud wrestling with Suzie and Penny i’d go and run today, if not i’d do stroud, which is flat so not really what i was after. I woke up feeling like i had been hit by a bus, but after a bath, some cheapibix and coffee i was all good again.

So drove to Salisbury.... i got lost, and as i hadn’t entered i was thinking i’d miss out, i got there at 10:55 abandoned my car and ran to register, quick wee, and got to the start all of a fluster. The race was organised by the fire brigade so there were lots of hunky fire fighters around, as well as lanky runners I’d read some reviews of the race to see what i was up against and it sounded ok, a long hill at 5 miles was pretty much all i’d heard about....

Got off to a reasonable start, not particularly flat for the first couple of miles, about 2-3 miles was a long hilly climb and i thought “hang on this aint 5 miles” flattened out briefly then continued to climb, mile 4 ish was what id describe as Undulating as described above. A little before mile 5 it started to climb significantly. It went on for about 1200m i thought at some points i’d need crampons!! A guy next to me said that he’d read this bit on a review but he’d thought the first few miles were hilly enough. Lots of people were walking, but i see this as being defeated – and i wasn’t havin that! After dragging myself to the top of this hill (mountain i think i’m gonna call it!) was a totally brilliant 400m downhill bit. Most people were being really tentative going down so they didn’t tumble and roll down like a wheel of cheese at that glos cheese race thing but i threw myself down it as fast as i could to make back a bit of time, overtook a good chunk of people and managed to keep a bit of momentum at the bottom where shock horror – more hill.

From about 10k to 7 miles it was back to undulating and pretty comfortable and i thought that would be it for hills.... nope. Another short really sharp hill at about 7.5miles, and at 9 miles, it was rarely flat in any place for the rest of the course, long drags... i was convinced there’d be another massive down hill at some point – what goes up must come down right?

Well apparently not. The last mile seemed to go on forever, you had to go past the finish post that was just wanting you to cross it there and then, but you had to go round a massive loop that went on forever, then round a field then you thought you were going to go through the finish but it took you round another field and through the finish from the other side!

In my haste at the beginning i’d forgotten to start my watch but think i was in around 1hr 40 and maybe scraped top 10 birds. I’d love to have ended the halves of 2009 with a PB but it wasn’t meant to be.

Maybe next autumn i’ll have shed the chub and got back to my fighting fit weight and be able to throw out some super quick times but til then i’ll happily settle with todays time on the hilliest course i’ve ever run round.

p.s dictionary definition of “hilly” - hilly adjective /ˈhɪl.i/ adj having a lot of hills - I think i was mis-sold this event, but that said, it was great practice for the Ball buster and i might take my bike round it for a couple of loops next week

Grim Duathlon - Saturday 17th October

2009-10-23T22:17:00.000+01:00

I'm not really sure what to say about this....

Ummmi'll start by sharing the link http://www.grimchallenge.co.uk/grim-duathlon/some time ago, Penny suggested we do this in a half hearted jokey way - much like i jokingly suggested the TR24 this summer - and look what happened there!!?

So suddenly we had a team - Penny, Suzie and I, Penny's a pretty competent off road cyclist, i'd been off road maybe 3 times - one of these this week, and one on an interesting MTB skills course with Suzie, which due to my shit navigational skills we managed to miss, and ended up just going to the pub.

The course was a 5k off road run round the army testing thingamy in Aldershot, 20k bike course, followed by 5k run course. We rocked up this morning, in matching camo gear, war paint, cockshaped pasta dog tag necklaces and a massive cock cake in an even more massive box! I can't begin to tell you how many nice bums were on display, mtbing is quite frankly a bum biting girls dream! (no bums were bitten however)

Due to me being a numpty and screwing up our race entries (i nearly ended up doing it solo!) our bikes were racked at differnt ends of transition. so we racked our bikes,taste tested some cliff bars (tasty) had a team photo and went to the start.

Of we popped. first 5k through lots of big puddles (lakes) spoloshing and skipping about half way was a cargo net you had to crawl under, though noone was crawling just crocuhing thru it. water was freeeeezing, some of the puddles were sneaky - lookinglike they were just ankel deep and you'd drop to your thighs )or in Pennys case her waist!)

Back to transiton and onto teh mtb's, the first few k were pretty straight forward, gravel track, we thought it was fine... through the puddles, splosh. sploooosh, weeeee, about half way round it started getting pretty technical - puddles getting deeper, tracks getting narrower, bouncier, sticker, disc brakes getting stuck with grit, people flying past getting snotty that we were fannying about giggling in their way, part of it you have to get off and carry your bike through this stream, another part was amassive puddle everyone was going to the right, i didnt know why til i decided to go thru the middle... and sunk! pretty much submerged to my hips, dragged myself out of it. caught up with the other two more puddles, mud, back to transition.

Backout onto the second run and lots of people seemed pretty tired, we were still really bouncy(for some reason!) the last lap was so much fun we spent the entrire time, either up to our necks submerged, pushing eah other, splashing other completitors, face down under the cargo net heckling the boys who didnt wanna get mucky.

We decided that we'd finish in style (sort of) and so did the 4 legged race through t last few hundred mtrs to the fininsh, so we used a race belt, and my batman bandana and tied ourselves together, somehow managing to make it to the end, in fits of giggles, unfortunately, the massive crowds didnt seem to get our sense of fun and there was a lot of tumbleweed rolling about.

Amysara and Rachel1n came to meet us at the finish and we alll went for lunch (and maybe a cheeky half)There was blood, sweat, tears, a sh1t load of mud and water, and a massive amount of laughter (and the mandatory **** cake for affters)took my bike to the carwash and gave it a power wash i shoulda got in there too! had a totalyl fun day and thoroughly recommentd it to anyone mad enough. thanks ladies for a brilliant weekend - i cant wait to see the pics xx

Swindon Half Marathon - 11th October 2009

2009-10-23T22:15:00.000+01:00

Aka Swindon Barf marathon!

Initially all I was going to write in my report was"What were we thinking?"

However....

So today was my annual pilgrimage to "Cockhill" for swindon half marathon, last year i came 15th and I wanted to come top 10 this year and had been instructed to beat a lady from running club who apparently complains that i'm quicker than her and genearlly doesnt seem to like me.

This weeks training had felt way better than last week and my legs didnt feel like they had been replaced with lead so was reasonably confident of a sub 1:40. Its not a pb course (for me) as its a pretty hilly course - starting on "cockhill" for those who recall cockhill, the c0ck has now been removed - much to my upset.here's the course profile...

http://www.swindonhalfmarathon.co.uk/half_marathon_profile_1.pdf

- nice innit - lucky i like hills.

So last night KathyAJ came down to swindon to stay and do the race in the morning. Had planned a subdued meal of carbage, early night and run a course PB.

Of course this didnt happen, kathy's a really bad influence and i'm easily led, sure fire recipe for disaster no?

I shouldn've known when i parked my car somewhere in town that would be safe to leave overnight without getting a ticket it was going to get silly. We got to bed around 4.30 this morning after consuming 3 and a half bottles of wine, cocktails, quarter bottle of polish vodka and some nasty shot my friends put in front of us (kathy necked hers, i tasted and gave it to a friend) woke up at 8 still wibbly wobbly pished, tried to wake up an unconcious kathy, gave up, made us some AnnaB podge, finaly managed to wake sleeping beauty, ate podge, necked a few painkillers, water anything that might help the morning appear nicer.

After having to make a detour to the race to borrow my sisters trainers for kathythedipshitwhoforgothertrainers we got to the race. vaguely aware of what i was about to do, i thought it was a bit of a silly thing to even be out of bed. Saw a couple of friends at the race HQ, then realised they were about to start the race so wibbled off up cockhill towards the start but they then started the race and we were right at the back of the pack.

I tend to start quite near the front to avoid getting stuck. and stuck i got for some time behind a couple of people dressed as clowns - i told em to stop clowning around - they didnt have a sense of humour and looked at me like i'd just drowned their dog. (they didnt have a dog)

I wish I could remember the race itself but i think i was still drunk through the entire thing. All I can really recall is that the first half i was constantly holding back what was either snot or puke. I didnt actually barf this week thankfully as i didnt go fast enough, i just wanted to finish and go back to bed. The second half all i recall is trying desparately not to do a radcliffe (i'm classy innit )

Finished in 1:44, a good deal slower than last year but i'm pretty happy with this considering i probably wasn't at my best!! my legs felt pretty good today, but that may have been the anaesthetising (sp) benefits of ethanol.

Weather was perfect for it with light drizzle which turned into pretty rainy rain after, so went to ma and pas to shower, then went to sample the delights of Sally's Pussey, inhaled a carvery and now back in bed i've decided now i'm going to stop arsing about and start playing properly now and focus.

Had a great weekend though! but kathy is now on my banned friends list. xxx

lady from club beat me by 2 mins dammit!! she was too smug for my liking!

Sunday 4th September 2009 - Cricklade Half Marathon

2009-10-10T01:10:00.000+01:00

Cricklade half marathon today; to sum it up in - 3 words Sack - Of - Shit.

I had been umming and ahing since thurs whether to do it today or not, cos my quads have felt hideous and i had nasty blisters from a hot stroll in the desert and a week off training and on boozing.

I also started a proper cycling training plan this week which i think is why my quaddies hurt. Not in an injured way, in a way that says "ouch i'm not used to working like this" As i wasnt sure if i was running i was still in hollyday mode friday (and last night) so went out dancing wearing silly high shoes that made me feets a bit squished!

Might haev also drank a *bit* to much of captain morgans finest yesterday quads still ft super tight so kept giving them the odd rub througout the day, then met some friends for dinner, which led to several pints of stowford and a bit of a sore head this morning. Woke up and decided that my legs were still a bit tight but i'd run the half anyway just to get out.

So all summer this has been my PB planned race - flat as a pancake, local, not too busy... perfect... then this week i'd felt so unprepared i was having doubts, plus i've not raced more than 10k since may despite keeping my fitness for endurance - just not at speed. Met peeps from Running club before and they were all doing the 10k, and were surprised i was doing the half cos its swindon half next week .. "and?" one asked how i was, i told him of my achy leggies, he said "have you been training too much?" "no, i had a whole week off" "thats why then, they're used to doing stuff"Anyhow!!

So the race: Started at the front of the pack, red mist had descended, pain killers had just about taken the stiffnss away...was leading lady for the first km, went through the first mile slower than normal for this length of race, i like to do the first couple in 6.30ish min mies, but this was 6:40, then 13.40, 21... kept getting pains in my shoulders, maybe from swimming? thought if i could hold onto about 7 mm pace i could get the pb i was aiming for (yes, i wasnt s'posed to be racing!!) from here on my legs started yelling alsorts of meanness at me, i took a dextrose tablet every mile til 6, and each mile getting progressively slower and my psycological (psycho more like) side started to waiver, as i coud see my pb slipping further and further away.

In theory if i ket going at the pace i had averaged at that point i might have scraped it but the speed i was slowing down was making my face go :-( - about half way i looked to my right and saw a little blonde whippet in green appear on my side who was it? Only Chrisse! Said hello etc and she said "i'm not enjoying this at all" "nor me, its a real fucking struggle" attempted to stay with her for a bit but had no fight in me, about a mile later, i had a Rob Naylor moment, i wasnt even running at puke speed but after a minute or two of chundering, getting my composure back i carried on.

I missed the 8 mile marker which messd with my mind even more and was getting cross and arguing with myself constantly, half wanting to pull up half just wanting to get back - the quickest way was to run. So carried on relentless, but it felt like i was running on the spot, and barely covering the ground . Got to 11 miles in the time i usually get to 12, most upsetting.... ploughed on.

I felt like puking again but managed to stop myself and shuffled my sorry carcass through the finish line with a huff. looked at my watch - 1hr41 (though official results say 1:39) so far off a pb its unreal. was 7th lady but i wanted top 5.

Lessons learned:

1) don't take a week off training.
2) don't go on a two night drinkathon and expect to run well!
3) you can't get a PB every time.
4) being triathlon fit don't make you half marathon fit
5) perhaps do a long bike ride before my next one going by my last tri performance this is a potentially good plan!!

Not all doom and gloom really, i learnt a few things, and i have also come across compeed!! (thanks for the recommendations, i did start warming up a knife to cortorise it, but didnt require it!!) xx

Sunday 20th Sept Milton Keynes OD Triathlon

2009-10-10T01:01:00.000+01:00

(no not overdosing on triathlons - Olympic Distance Tri )

So today saw me getting up at the time I love best and leaving home at 4.45 to get to registration for 6.30. Got there, got my bag of stuff, racked my bike, went to the toilet three times, each time seeing the reflection of a girl waiting on death row!

I've been super excited about this for the last few weeks but at the same time shitting myself for the swim leg. People all realy lovely and friendly and some seriously gorgeous men!! (i didnt get into this sport just for the love of it!! )

So, the Swim: 1500m in a lake, had donned my wetsuit and got me hat and goggles on. Was really aprehensive as i've only swam OW 3 times and 2 of them were quite horrific... lake was nice and clean (ish), v slippery getting in and a few people slipped on their bums so everyone who saw went in on their bums to save this happening. Wasnt as cold as i was expecting. Course was a lap of 3 buoys spaced 250m apart to go round twice.

I shimmied near the back of the pack cos I'm not very good at swimming and I've heard alsorts of horror stories about bleeding noses, people swimming over each other and for my first lake race I just wanted to get out without the use of a life raft!!

So set off, and let anyone go past that seemed to be quicker and tried to keep away from anyone. Got into my slow rhythm and trundled off round the buoys... fairly uneventful, i was trying to concentrate on things various people have been giving me tips on... keep your head down, feet up, stay calm, long strokes...... a few times I looked up for the buoys and some of the swim caps were the same bright yellow colour so couldnt tell if it was head or buoy, veered off course slightly between 2nd and 3rd buoy but not too badly. lap two also uneventful, the last 250m I felt that I could push it a bit more so picked up the pace.

Being pretty new to swimming I don't really know my limits yet or how hard to push and when. kicked my legs hard for the last 50 or so metres as someone had previously suggested doing to get the blood flowing again.

Trotted up the bank and into transition stripping off in a really seductive way! (not) Time for swim wass 32:56 which I'm totally over the moon with as I had given myself 45 mins minimum to do it. Whats more, i looked behind and there were a few heads still bobbing in the water - I wasnt totally last out!! yay!!!

T1 - Took a bit of effort to get my feet out the wetsuit but not too bad considering, and was faster than last weeks shambolic performance even with rubber to get out of!! Thanks to Jacqui for the race belt, this save the embarrassment of ripping my number and pinning myself together again!!

The Bike: 40k course.
Out of transition and across some field and track type thing then wigged down towards a dam, there was no chance of speed here at all, plus I hate taking my pride and joy on gravel as I'm paranoid about punctres - spesh since i think i overfilled my tyres due to gyppy gauge on my track pump.

The first few miles was weaving in and out of an estate and over speed bumps and really annoying. It finally got on to the main road which was really rough with quite a few pot holes and making me yet more paranoid of punctures. It wasnt the flattest of courses either to say the least!! about 4 or 5 miles in, came an enormous steep hill which i have named "ball buster hill" as i'm pretty sure its the sort of thing i'll be coming up against on the ball buster duathlon.

I passed a couple of grown men walking up it i refused to be beaten, as i finally came near the top at an excruciatingly slow speed i heard a voice;

"anna, what have we ever done to you to deserve this?" it ws my legs... they weren't happy i gave my quads a little rub and let them spin on the flat for a minute. Got going again and there wer a few more drags, a few down hill bits, but these were annoying cos as soon as you got to a fun speed the course then took a sharp right turn or left turn and it made my face do this :-S cos i wanted to go whizz!

I dropped my chain going down one hill so had to stop to put it back on, passed a ccouple of people with punctures - prayed i wouldnt get one! Went past an amazing smelling market - smelt of gravy!!

Then back round the middle loop again - which started with BALL BUSTER HILL! My legs knew it was coming and they knew i wasnt going to let them stop and i'd drank half a bottle of energy drink to give them a helping hand, off i went,... this time even more men and women walking up it... being stubborn i wasnt going to. Some old man doing some gardening at the top clapped me and said "steep aint it" - yuh think? (smiled politely through gasps!)

Loop as before, painful on the hills, whizzy on the downys. last few miles was back through the estates, i took a wrong turn and the guy behind me followed so we were lost together for a bit, found the way back, off bike and ran back into transition.

Time for bike was 1hr28. Not too bad at all i was expecting 1hr 40 when i was at the half way point and i've been realy struggling lately with my riding.

T2 - thought it easier to sit on the floor for this, so shoes off, socks and trainers on, helmet etc off, off i zip.

The Run: 10k.

(whats worse than out and back? Out and back and out and back!) there was a sprint event on too so the 5k was out and back the 10k was that twice turned out to be really good for me. I dont seem anymore to get the wibbly knees that i used to when i first started brick training for my duathlons and bounded out like a bunny.... as previous ones ive done, i always look forward to the run as its my strongest...

Whilst on the bike i'd been contemplating if i could get the sub 42 min goal I've been hoping for this year and thought id give it a go....because it was an out and back and out and back it was hard to know if people coming back were on the 1st or 2nd lap, so my main plan was to push as hard as poss for as long as poss, and using people as markers gradually pass them, and try and make up for my slower swim and bike legs.

The course went round part of the lake, pretty flat on a gravel firm surface. My legs loved it, they did protest briefly up a small hilly bit saying "scuse me, but when was the last time we raced more than 8.5k? that will be May's half marathon won't it?" shhhh legs... enjoy it!

Got to the first turn around, and checked my watch and nearly choked... 9 mins it had taken me for 2.5k! This spurred me on, and i set back the way i had come, overtaking as many people as i could, back down the other end, round turn around, 9min30!! wtf? I'd not only got my sub 42 in sight, but potentially sub 40. So i kept at it, using the markers (people) to keep my pace as i often find mysef in races sitting behind someone instead of overtaking. but no... they beat me on the swim and bike i'm having them for the run!

Back down the last 2.5k, still overtaking what i could catch, most of them tiring by now but i was still maintaining the same pace. past the turn aroudn and up small hill through the finish, checked my watch and chip time confirmed 36:37!!!!! Wweeeee!! i'm over the moon, not only with my swim but i also got my sub 42 10k.. does it count that it wasnt just a 10k run!? hmm..

Got through the finish and finally breathed and nearly vomitted.

Total time was 2hr43 and 13th lady in my category 19th lady overall. So chuffed, got creaky knees and achy quads now thnk my sports massage maybe did something magical to me!

No cake... poor show. saw someone after i'd got changed who id overtaken up the hils on bike and he'd overtaken me on the flat, i'd apparently overtaken him on the run and he said "are you the girl with bike ccain oil all over her bum? i'd not expected you to come past me on the run, i take it runnings your thing?" you think he was trying to say the the other two aint?

Sunday 13th Sept 2009 - Halesowen Sprint Triathlon

2009-10-10T00:57:00.000+01:00

Was a shorter one than last week so deserves a short report - i fear i'm boring you with my epics!

So... Swim - 400m - 12 lenghts of 33m pool. Hated the pool. it was realy deep and the lanes didnt have very good dividy things - just rope that i couldnt see well, and cos the deep end was so deep there were massive slopes into the shallower sections and vicce versa which made me feel like i was swimming into an abyss.

Got out at the end and took ages hauling my vastness out the pool which had about a foot between the edge and the water. Time: 9.51 (watch said 9:37 when i finished swim so took me neary 20 secs to heave myself out) - consistently sh1t time on previous.

T1 - I rarely do this but OMG!!! Total disaster. The transition took you down 2 flights of stairs (safe being that you're dripping water) out to the racks, went wrong way, due to no signage, got sent back, ran to bike, shoes on, vest on... nope... vset caught up round neck, number al tangled up, rippping... get the vst untangled and see my quandry!! D1ckhead i am, i'd pinned my number to the vest but pinned the front and back of vest together so spent aaages trying to unpin myself repin number, finally got my hat, gloves etc on and out of transition - took me a massive 4 mins!!!! flipping heck.

Bike: 25km - all i can say is it was all hill. my legs were burning from start to finish. It wasnt the safest route either, much of it was on dual ccarriageway (a long draggy one!) and a bit foggy in places. I did notice though that someone had kindly put tape on the end of my handlebar cos i'd lost the tape grip stopper thing 54 mins

T2 - shoes, hat, specs off, socks and trainers oon (blisters from last week hadnt yet recovered so had to wear sockies) 1min15

Run - 5k offish road, always look forward to the run as it's my strongest leg and set off at a fairly good pace, was mostly a gravelly track, undulating but not steep in any place. Was an out and back which i normally hate but i quite like in short races as i get tro try and race myself back. Like last week no markers exccept for runners. So once more used runners as markers to overtake, though there werent many ti the turnaround. Finish was 100m stretcch up hill ( nice) time 23ish so not too badtotal time 92 mins, not sure of my placing (not top 3) but my run was one of the fastest of the women, my swim at best 2nd slowest!

Need to work on my cycling as the swim is consistently sh1t but im' having coachin for that, my running is consistently average and the bike is generaly quite crappy slow. Last one next week - but its open water so a different kettle of fish entirely!

p.s. no p1ssing in shoes this week! (no carrot cake either!)

Edit - that was meant to be short!! oops/pp.s i met THE MOST BORING MAN IN THE WORLD today. he made me want to tie a garrote round my neck.edit2: I did enjoy it, reading it bacck it does sound a bit doom and gloom!!

Sunday 6th Sept 2009 - Faringdon Triathlon

2009-10-10T00:45:00.000+01:00

Faringdon Triathlon

Part 1 The Swim: 800m in the pool.

I'm fairly new to swimming but am really enjoying it, 25m pool – 32 lengths. Saw a girl in the coolest pirate skull and x bones tri suit – jealous and want one! Swimmer from the previous wave confused things by swimming an extra 2 lenghts so i missed the starter say “go” by a couple of seconds – then i was off.

I got to the end of the first length and caught man in front – who was doing an bizarre stroke of doggy paddle legs with breast stroke arms. So overtook him. Swam on... blahblah... next swimmer was fed in just behind me and was a bit quicker so overtook me. I realised after about 200m i really needed a wee and i remember Slartibartfast saying to get the wee out the way in the swim... i tried but i couldn’t – have you tried swimming and peeing at the same time? (i know thats really gross you’re thinking)

I was gaining on flappy feet again so went to over take again, he booted me in the t1t kindly! Then on the return length we crashed hands mid air.2 lengths to go, tapped on head by lane marshal with aqua zimmer frame.... still needing a pee – tried – but nope. Would have to hold on now for the bike and run - fun. Got to the end of last lap and dragged myself out the pool – the deep end (only 1.6m) but was an effort. Checked watch and ran out the door – 19:27 (very happy with that)

Part 2 The Cycle: 50km on road.

Pretty neat transition, i was lucky in that my rack was right next to the pool exit pretty much, so bunged on vest, etc – ripped number in process but fixed it quick enough (need to get a race belt). Ran with bike out of transition and mounted. Pedalled off into distance. Really good start and perfect riding conditions – very little wind and a reasonably flat course, the up hills were offset with downhills. Couple of traffic lights and road works to negotiate they said they’d deduct time but i’m certain they didn’t cos my time on watch matched my time overall.

Still dying for a wee, so kept an eye out for a suitable place to dive in to a hedge. I spotted a bus shelter and slowed down and dismounted but then saw that there was no where to hide behind it, 2 people overtook, i got back on and carried on, miffed and bursting!! About 11 miles in through one of the villages one of the people who’d overtaken – a young guy prob in the junior section was on the side of the road with marshals running towards him and some others around him. I slowed up, saw he was being tended to and carried on, then saw glass all over floor and a ccar with the back window smashed in – i can only assume the poor kid crashed into the back of him. Nasty stuff.

Pretty sure I saw Anismate fly past on her return trip but wasn’t sure cos she’d had a tri suit on when i saw her before the swim and this person had something over top.I got to the turn around section and headed back the way i came. Still looking for somewhere to pee. About 3 miles from home i found a layby - again dismounted and jumped into the hedge, i don’t know if anyones tried peeing out of a trisuit – but its impossible. I ccouldnt take it down cos i’d be flashing me waps, and i had a vest over the top too so would have taken ages, i tried to pull the leg to the side but that didn’t work, so gave up. Someone flew past asking if i was ok. “yup.just trying not to pee my pants” overtook him, carried on...

the last mile and a half seemed to take forrrrreevvvver! Girl in pirate bones outfit overtook me – nooooooooo! Didn’t want that... Came into transition and she was fannying about but got off on the run before me. I thought 50k was about 30 miles... but having now calculated it it’s 31.25 miles but my computer said nearer to 33.... not sure if its right or not. Total time including transition from swim (and two unsuccessful toilet stops): 1hr55 – really pleased with this as its the furthest i’ve ridden at this effort before and was quicker than last weeks performance

Part 3The Run: 8.5k mostly road

Transition from bike to run was real quick, thanks to lock laces – “Ideal for the physically challenged” so the packet said!! The final leg and my strongest phase and hoped i could make up the time of being a slow swimmer and cyclist a bit. Still soooo desparate for a wee i wasn’t sure how it was gonna go, saw pirate girl, ran past her and ran on... about a km in it was now or never (or just pee myself), so i jumped in hedge and did my best to pull the leg to the side – like ive seen paula do... but in super tight lycra???

After an Austin Powers length pee of at least a minute!! which pretty much all collected in my left trainer, i was relieved and ready to run properly. (yeap, i’m lush ain’t i!) Ran on feeling way better except for “stamp, squelch, stamp, squelch” – nice.

There were no distance markers which always throws me, so i started using people as markers. Everytime i saw a runner, i’d use them to catch them up, overtake and look for my next one. Had overtaken about 8 people now and was really enjoying the run, had a nice stride and was a nice route, a few hills but nothing major... until!

Prob about 6k in, and i looked ahead and all you could see was the road disappear up into the trees... it looked just like “my hill” but shorter. There were 3 markers (runners) half way up it. So i set about catching them. Was gaining on the first 2 who then chickened out and walked, so caught them easier than id planned. Last man was just reaching the brow so didn’t catch him ti the weeeeeeeeeee down hil bit. Got him. Caught a couple more in the final km then “stamp, squelch” though the finish. Time including transition and mammoth wee: 41.37 i think.My trainers are currently in the washing machine!

Part 4 - The Meet

Anismate and I had been in contact prior to the event as I knew she was doing it when i entered and she’s a fellow Wiltshire lady. When i got there i saw a teeny lady walking towards me in the car park and thought “is that her?” and she was thinking the same and it was and i was. Said quick hello, and i went to register. Saw her again at the pre race dewberry wotsitcalled.

After the race Jacqui mentioned the “C” word... two in fact “Cake” and “Camera”I don’t know how she knew i’m quite partial to cake but for some reason she’d brought some! We headed to her car where she brought out 3 types of cake... whats a girl to do??

Such choice... we decided upon ccarrot cake for photo opportunities – because it looked partibulary mucky.... and i have to say.... it was a damn good carrot cake!! After what must have looked like an odd display of cake eating and photograph taking in the car park we chatted for a while. Then went to get our times.

Jacqui very kindly sent me home with a tub of homemade brownies, I’d like to say they made it home before getting sampled but i got as far as mum and dads and cracked them open and bloody hell.... the most amazing, gooey nutty (were the macadamias?) brownies i’ve ever eaten... reluctanty gave one to my dad and sister... saving another for my tea Penny - you have some competition in the cake baking dept!

Was a great race, lovely to meet another member, even lovelier to be fed cake!! I hope you’ll be posting a report too Jacqui... Total time was 2:56 (not including eating of cake) think i was about 5th lady overall - tbc? I think this was my most enjoyable race yet, as much as i love running i think i’ve found a new passion for triathlon, and am dead pleased with my times. xx

The End.

edit: news just in... 7th lady - 5th in my category.

Wed 2nd Sept 2009 - Swindon 5k Back in a Flash

2009-10-09T00:39:00.000+01:00

Had forgotten today was the "back in a flash 5k" til someone reminded me yesterday so hadnt really planned it, but thought if my leggies felt ok i would. they did, so i did.

convinced my ex to do it too, he doesnt run more than 3-5 miles so thought he might be up for it. So picked him up, registered with 5 mins to spare jogged to the start in the p1ssing rain. Ran it last year so new the course. But the organiser went through it..

"down there, up over the spinny motorway bridge, through the barriers, round the bollard, back the way you came, over the spinny motorway bridge and to the finish"

fairly flattish dirt track course, the spinny bridge isnt flat or dirty but its fun and make you feel like you're going up and down a heltaskelta

klaxon went, elbows out, ran off, legs felt really tight for first km, ronny was just behind me, moaning about a stitch. then ronny overtook, then the shortest sweatiest lady i ever did see overtook! Up spinny bridge travelator at top, down spinny bridge - weeeeeeeee!

Saw the long legged speedys from my club coming back towards me, got to the turn around point in 11:15 - bumholes :-( wanted to get then in idealy 10ish. legs didnt want to go faster, old man roger overtook me, right thats it, noone else is allowed to go past!! so i overtook a few people. back up over spinny helta skelta, steady climb back to last km, 400m to go sign appeared, tried to kick in to a new gear, but coudnt, lady appeared next to me but i didnt have any fight in me to keep her at bay :-(

finished in about 6th place, 22:24 - which i'm p1ssed off with. :-( 2 seconds sower than ast year -

realy wanted nearer to 20. hmpf. Ex beat me by 80 seconds.

I'd ike to say i let him. But i didnt. just didnt perform well.

Then went straight to my first swimming lesson - that was fun :-)

Sunday 30th August - Malmesbury Sprint Triathlon

2009-10-09T00:38:00.000+01:00

Today was my debut to triathlon..... 400m pool swim, 22k bike, 5k run.

Arrived at malmesbury leisure centre, racked my bike, laid out all the stuff i'd need for trainsitions - lots of nice bottom'd men about ( several wibbly bumm'd ones too and women too!)
My start time was pretty early cos i'm a sh1t swimmer so they like to get the people who swim like a one finned trout out the way first. I'd guessed 10 mins for my swim so was with like speeded people.

4 people to a lane in the pool, i was in there with 3 blokes (not of the nice bumm'd variety unfortunately). I was 4th to go, they let you go in 5 second gaps.

By the time i got half way down the lenght i'd caught the guy in front, the etiquette was to tap them on the foot and they were to sto pat the end of the lane and let you overtake... i tapped him a couple of times, and had to slow, he didnt stop at the end, so turned round and i tapped him again and overtook. Got into quite a comfy stroke, about half way through i colided with someone overtaking on my side of the lane, and had to stop briefly to cough up a lung full of water. Carried on, and got caught behind someone else, and had to do breaststroke for a few strokes as there was someone coming in the other direction so coculdnt overtake. When he'd gone, i sped up and passed the dude in front after grabbing at his trotters afew times!!Got out the pool checked my watch and ran out the door over the chip jobby.

Ran to transition, fonud my bike, shoved on a head band, my vest (the wrong way round) put it back on the right way round, shoved on gloves, helmet and grabbed the screaming bianchi and ran out of transition. which was a totaly slowcoach sh1t time.

Got into a fairly good pace for the first few miles, and wasnt overtaken by anyone which is always good! The ccourse was quite draggy in places and blowy, and couldnt maintain my speed. was an out and back the return trip was a bit better as the wind was behind. But i could hear squeaking i didnt know if it was me or my bike... but it turned out to be my brake pads too tight - i'd had a bike maintenance lesson from a friend yday and had put them bacck too tight. I also dropped my chain twice on the ride, which lost a bit of time. Had in my head KOL song sex is on fire, but replacing it with

"thighs are on fiiiiiire!" cos they were. :-)

Came back into transition, and got confused about where to go as the numpty marshall wasnt very clear, jumped off bike, and ran to the racks.

CChucked of spds, helmet, gloves, and speccs, and pulled on sccks and running shoes (wouldnt normally bother with socks but got a gyppy blister and dint want to make it worse) - again another sh1t transition.

Ran out of transition like a boundy bunny! Course was mostly flat, with a drag for first km. again out and back. overtook everyone who came up, wasting breath saying "well done" etc, cos they didnt seem to be grateful at all! :-P Back down to wards the leisure centre and they kindly threw in a b1tchy hill to finish on!! Was like running up the travelator on gladiators! through the finish and THE END. oh and i was dying for a pee the whole way of the run... :-)

Totaly loved it and really happy! :-) Pretty pleased with my swim and run times.

Official times wereSwim: 9:53T1 - 2.08 i thinkbike - 50:48T2 - 1.50 ishRun - 23:00

So i didnt ccome first so i must be last! :-) total time was about 1hr27 which i know from look at last yrs results is a sack of dog turd but i'm dead chuffed, need to work on the biking though .

No cider as i'm being a good girl for a couple months to shift some lard :-P :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Sunday 16th August 2009 - Castle Combe Duathlon

2009-10-09T00:35:00.000+01:00

Castle combe duathlon today. 5k run/21k cycle/3k run

All yesterday my hamstrings had felt tight and knees stiff so wasnt surprised when they still felt that way this morning. Took some painkllers but that didnt seem to make much difference.
Met Chrisse (previously floppypig1) in the carpark who'd been on the beers last night and had chit chat.

Racked bike, had originally intended leaving feetie wear left clipped into pedals but decided id just leave them wide open on the floor to jump into.

5k run: a lap and a bit of the race track - nice n flat n fast. Not that my legs would let me go fast. I set off and my hamstrings said "cough, computer says no" my breathing felt irratic and my chest was tight. I thought then about giving up as a bad job. About 1k in still trying to find my stride and a little speedy blonde lady (chrisse) overtakes me, didnt even try to keep up with her!! :-p after about the half way point i started to get a better stride but my legs wer still really painful so just plugged away and decided to run my own race and not think abuot elbowing and "ggggrrrrr" type things like normal.

Into transition and the 5k stage was about 23 mins - far from quick but it'll do. Found my beautiful bike, unlaced my trainers (would have ust lobbed them off but i knew i had to then get them back on for the last leg. Right foot bleeding from a blister from gyppy socks that had slipped down. Into spds, helmet on and ran out of transtion and onto bike.

Bike stage was 7 laps of the race track.....I whizzed off at first and thought that i might make up some time. but i hit the top corner and nearly got blown off sideways, then for pretty much the rest of the circuit was riding in to a head wind that practically had me stationery. It didnt stop the massive men whooshing past though! Every time a rider overtook i was expecting to to be speedy blondey :-) Saw my dad at the first lap and cheeky b*gger said "ccome on faster" which really p1ssed me off. clearly he didnt see my sweaty red face!

From about the 4th lap my right knee was hideously painful and the winds were making it increasingly difficult to maintain any kind of speed. Except on the one small section where the wind was behind you i had to take as much advantage to gain a little bit back as i could. Also from about lap 4 there were people on the last leg already which totally made me feel cr*p.
Finally got to the end of the bike leg and thankfully wasnt the last one out there!! Bak into transition which i completely dawdled with as i was hmmppfy by now. So racked m bike back up and took a while tying me trainers ack up. the ride took forever and am ashamed of how slow it was :-(

3k run: Normally my legs are hideous after the cycle when i go straight into the run but today it actualy felt ok. I didnt have the stiff knee running through treaccle thing but it felt pretty good. it was on grass to begin so this might have helped that it wasnt straight bakc onto the tarmac track. I overtook everyone who i encountered including a funny american lady who said "this isnt what i'm used to, i'm used to 100 mile rides, this is just sh1t" which made me laugh. :-)

Finally made it through the finihs line with a "bloody hell" into my mum and dad and some man who came to take my chip off me - i thouhgt he was coming to give me a hug and a rub down but alas he wasnt :-( ast leg was an even sh1ttier time of 15ish mins

Got a goodie bag and a little trophy which was nice :-)

Was gonna stick around and do a 10 mile time trial but after the adrenelin had worn off my knee kills and am now sulking a little. BUt i'ts myown fault cos i've overtrained this week, shouldnt have TT'd on thursday and have been fuelling myself with garbage.

Next race is my first triathlon in two weeks so i'm going to have 2 weeks of training and eating like i used to and see what difference that makes. Also need to start running properly again as i've a few half marathons coming up

Oh and i failed my pledge cos TT on thurs stopped fridays run.... but didnt give into martins peer pressure so :-P
p.s. i think i met my comfort zone today :-)

2nd August 2009 - Thunder Run 24

2009-10-09T00:26:00.000+01:00

Well as some of you might have been aware, this weekend was the "thunder Run" aka 24 hour relay race which a bunch of us took part in.

arrived at Catton park on saturday late morning, to find Penny, Martin, Katie, Kathy (and smalll boy) and a flurry of tent erecting (marquee in the case of penny) i vaguely said hello as i fell out the car holding up my trousers (which the button had popped off earlier in the day due to larger than normal gut!) and ran to the loo's.

After relieving myself i returned to the group to say hello properly. I pretended to assist for a while til katie took me to register. Picked up race number, chip and a pretty blinking good goodie bag and our "baton" (which was a rubber bracelet)Went back to tent errection area, and Lauren turned up, took her to register (somehow shirking more tent errecting duties) back and "errected" my tent - essentially letting it pop up and throwing the rain sheet loosely over the top.

Once tents were up, we lunched on Pennys yumtastic pasta, veggie combo, and she flaunted in front of us "THE MOST AMAZING LOOKING CHOC CAKE", I changed into my running kit as i was first to run (we had a slight plan of acction thanks to martin) we then went to the race briefing (all i could think of was "THE MOST AMAZING LOOKING CHOC CAKE"After briefing we popped back to tents, downed an energy drink, then headed to the start.

The gun went and the clock started counting the loooong 24 hours to the end of the race. I'd been under the impression that the route would be at worst a trail type bridal way material - ideally road , alas, off the route went, across some grassland - it'd been raining prior so was a bit damp under foot... ahem!

after maybe 400m the course went up a steep incline of muddy stone where it zigzagged steeply and continued to climb. From here it turned to mud. mud more mud. I had on my road shoes, so was slip sliding all over the shop! uppy downy, mudslide, all i was thinking was i was going to the adidas tent as soon as i got back to get me some xc shoes. the first 4k of the course was realy unpleasant, at about 3.5k i went careering down hill sideways gravity pulling me into the bushes where i grabbed a trees and branches. (this happened at the same placcce for nearly every lap!) after 4k the route was a bit nicer, thuogh still a mud pit, and my trainers were now soggy and slippping everywhere. it was all i could do to stay upright.

The route was round a horse XC course and was realyl quite interesting ut it was just very very muddy and technical it varied, from graass tracks (turned mud) to woods, hills, more mud, ditches, streams.It started throwing it down with rain half way round and when i finally made it round i was pretty wet and muddy, passed the baton to martin who set off at break necks speed (thanks julia for correcting me on that previously) i went straight tothe adidas tent where the most beautiful man i've seen said that they were loaning out xc shoes and there was an option of buying them at the end of the weekend (or not and just giving them back) so i snapped up a pair and went ack to camp.

The rain was hammering down whilst we sat in Pennys party tent (whih was bigger than my flat) i had some nesquik, and a slice of a banana and choc cake that penny had also made, oh and some of kathys cherry choc flapjack (both of which we blooming amazing!) .... where was "THE MOST AMAZING LOOKING CHOC CAKE"???

My next 2 legs were back to back, immediately the xc shoes (albeit damn ugly) helped a lot, well they kept me upright, the technicalitly of the course didnt help the speed however, got round the first lap fine, came through the timing section to see the others all cheering.

I ran back on, and as soon as i got to the first zig zaggy section ouch. The 3rd leg was pretty tough, following straight on from one previously. after passing on the baton, back to camp once more, it was getting dark now and runners wer to wear hedatorches.

I was told i coluld have an extra hour in bed before my next run as kathy was going to do a double.... sincce id just come back from one, i was going to warn against it... Had some cgrub and finally i got to taste "THE MOST AMAZING LOOKING CHOC CAKE".... and oh my god!!!!! it realyly was "THE MOST AMAZING CHOC CAKE". After telling penny how i had fallen in love with her, and gobbling down "THE MOST AMAZING CHOC CAKE" and other grub i started to settle down for a nap.... after an incident involving losing some car keys i eventually got into my sleeping bag at aronud 11pm... i was awoken at 12.30 by martin just come back from his last legs.

I said "i'm thinking of doing a triple next rather than 2 doubles""no! dont! its horrid!" hmmm..... Tried to get back to sleep but couldnt, so got up made some porridge, had a coffee and started getting sorted for my next legs, i told martin i'd ring him on my 2nd leg to see if i was up for 3 in a row.

I set off with a headtorcch on my chestnut after taking the baton from a sad looking kathy who told me she was then off to get drunk at 3.30am.

(my body likes this time of day), immediately i fell in love with the dark run, it was so exciting, i didnt see another runner for the whole lap, it was a bit ddgy in places in the slippiness but i was really enjoying myself. I set off on the 2nd lap, still feeling bouncy, the usual first few k of the course was unpleasant, and by then i'd already decided to do a 3rd lap, dwan was starting to break and the gras was layered with mist, it looked eerie but lovely. I rang martin as i got to the water station, took a couple more painkillers and arranged to see him in a ccouple of hours at the change over.

Abuot 6k in the most beautiful man from teh adiads tent was on the course running with a nother guy and we all ran together for a while, sometimes together somtimes overtaking each other, they stopped after the 2nd but i carried on like a trooper The laps were getting progressively slower as the relay went on for me, as i was acchy and tired and the mud relentless.

The 3rd leg saw sunrise and it was such a lovely sight, i took a few pics on my phone and carried on. The ground had drained considerably from the day before but it was still really sticky and slippy, i had blisters and my left achilles was beginning to hurt from the constant cambre of the hill causing my ankle to strain more.

I got back and passed on the baton, went back to camp (via the bacon butty shop) and was tired, achcy but really happy and upbeat as id really enjoyed it. a triple for me was as hard as a doble, as onccce you're out and in pain it makes little difference!

After bacon butty, i was still hungry so had a slice of banana cake, then some of "THE MOST AMAZING CHOC CAKE"..... mmmm... i just wanted to bury my face in it!! i finally had a hot shower (i stank) My 7th and final lap was the penultimate of the race, i took over from penny who sprinted through the finish, the weather was beautiful, i took the baton and tried to run, but my legs wouldnt work.... i trotted like a hackney horse for 2 km, at the speed of a sloth! every step was agony, i got to half way and my acchilles was so sore i could no longer trudge through the mud, and had to walk pretty much the whole way, when i wasnt walking i was limping like a lame dog, the lap took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages!!

i was running kilometers slower than i run miles! Got back and apologised to martin who took the baton and gave me a big hug. I got ack to ccamp and burst out ccrying, i dont know if it was relief, emotion, pain or what but it was done. the last leg was being run. Penny got me a cider, and i was ordered to eat a large slicce of "THE MOST AMAZING CHOC CAKE". i didnt want to appear rude and say no. i was hobbling around

Most of camp had been tidied up earlier in the day so we headed across to see the finish. Martin sprinted through the finish at 24hr00.03 (if he'd come in before he;d have had to do another lap there were rules that i'm too tired to go into)

We got our medals and went back to camp to get martin a beer and penny came out with some "buckinghams cider" - home brew, which was bloomin lovely!

might well have eaten some more cake i cant recalll.... I'm missing big chunks out but i had the best weekend with an amzing bunch of people, who have been part of what i consider my biggest running achievement to date.

The course was tough, and like nothing i've eveer run before. I thouroughly enjoyed it, and even though i ccan no longer walk, i'm really happy with how we did. everyone was well outside their comfort zone and pulled their weight to complete the whole 24 hours.

Sorry if i've missed heaps, but i'm so very tired, and i feel ive sold it short but it was really an amazing weekend. Sponsored by adidas, Party tent and "THE MOST AMAZING CHOC CAKE" xxThanks everyone for a brilliant weekend xxxx

Wed 8th July 2009 - Chippenham 5k River Run

2009-10-09T00:25:00.000+01:00

i'm too tired to go into much detail so here's a skimmed down version:

5k river run tonight, mosty club runners, off road, heavy legs, hi 5 to mate marshaling on way round, no km markers upset me, too narrow to ovetake even if my legs would let me, reeaaaaaally long last km (if it was that - i wouldnt know as there were no markers - did i already say that?) was maybe top 15 - i dunnno but will find out tomorrow, i just know i felt veeery sloth like so not happy with it, managed 21.31 - wanted around 20 so raspberries to that.

pint of milk after instead of cider.now ultimate porridge the end xedit: i was 9th lady

Sat 4th July - Everywoman's Duathlon

2009-10-09T00:19:00.000+01:00

Well hellllooooo there!!

today i had my first duathlon - hence the subject.

It was daaan in the new forest, drove through pretty places with little ponies and foals, made me smiley I racked my bike in what i thought was an opportune location and made my way to the start area.

It was a little late starting and the local ladies gym were doing a warm up which i sat out of - i'm not co-ordinated for one and secondly i don't like wasting energy warming up before races.

It was a women's only race of 160 people, at the start i was eyeing up the competition.... lady in running club vest - got your number skinny whippet lady with super light road bike - check. Lady with incredibly long legs - yupl. ady next to me says to her bloke "she looks like she means business" pointing to me.. to which i pull my best bull dog war face expression. "Grrrr!"

The start was in two waves numbers 1 - 75 in the first one, 76 - 160 in the second one 2 minutes later... i was in the 2nd one, which irked me slightly but it's always a good idea.

The first lot set off and the 2nd lot lined up, i shimmied to the front and me and the lady next to me looked at each other and said "did he just say "go"?" but no, he'd said "1min to go" the first leg was 2.5k run So set off at break necks speed down towards what i think was the harbour or something, down this steep pebbly track nearly going flying asss over t1t but saving it by running on to the grass.

Small boy spectator was racing me so i pegged it to beat him! got round the corner and continued on the gravelly track - i had thought it was going to be road, but the whole way was gravelling - but not offensive. The route, was an out and back, through pretty woods, annoying dirty dog got in my way and i had to literally jump over it - his owner didn't seem to o bothered.... Coming back - annoying dog was there again, i said to the owner "he's determined to break my legs int he?" carried on,

Overtook as many of the 1st wave as i could catch (later found it was all but 4) came back round to the hill i'd flewn down, and had a really pleasant (not) 150m steep climb back up the b*gger to the transition area.

I did the first stage in 10:30 - i'd been aiming to go under 10 but ho hum. The transition stage was a bit of a pigs ear, it somehow took me 2 mins to get onto my freakin bike!! I had to tie a shoe lace, get my helmet and sunnies on, then run 100m to the road where i then had issues with my toe clips - i'm used to spds and the pedals were wet and kept spinning the wrong way, eventually i got off on the 10k 3 loop cycle section.

I was expecting to be able to ride it like a time trial that i've been doing recently but there were a few sharp bends and 2 hills on each lap. The first lap was pretty quiet but on lap 2 and 3 the whole field were out there so had to do a bit of "ooon your riiiiiight" type hollers. I took my specs off and shoved them in the back of my jersey cos it was raining. lady on road bike with incredibly long legs and I kept chasing each other down and she said "you're not trying to win are you?" - "damn right!"

I came to the last lap and one lady was ahead of me, she rode straight through the transition area and i got told to get off, so i did, i eyed up th racks and there were several bikes racked so thought they must be all running the last stage. I ran the bike back down to the racks and lobbed off my helmet and tried to get my glasses back out of my pocket but they were stuck and took what seemed like ages to free! i eventually did and ran back through the start and down slippery pebbly hill.

I got back to the run in 33;30 so the bike must have been around 20 ish... i wasnt sure how many ladies were in front, so asked a marshall on the way "eeermm.... one" - "woooo!" I was really surprised at how good my legs felt, as when i trained on monday they wre totally jellified after the ride, but i guess it was adreneline.

On tht about turn i saw the lady in front and caught her number - it was running club vest lady - but she was in the first wave so i still had hope of running quicker than her overall. I shouted well done and trundled on - no evil dogs this time!

Coming back i also spotted skinny lady and incrdibly long legs lady and coming back to the bottom of the hill exchanged woops and "well dones" with the lady i showed my warface to. Climbing up the last hill was a killer! The last 10m was "grrrrrr!" then "holy sh1t" as i crossed the line.

My overall time was 44.39 - which i'm fairly pleased with due to the fannying about that took place on my change overs. But what pleased me more was - I WOOOOON!!!!!WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! yay!

I hung about and chatted with people, got a massage (which i htink has made my thighs worse)

Also i'd like to comment that my diet has been attrocious this last few weeks... mostly consumed that of cider, pimms, rum, cheesecake, toast & muesli binges, b & J ice cream - so those of you concerned about diet affecting your training it doenst seem to have done me too much harm

Though that said, i wonder if i could have gone quicker if i'd not eaten such junk (i am a bit podgy too though) SexySuzie told me i had to come first, so i didnt want to let her down... really had a fun time, and looking forward to the next one now

21st June 2009 - Ridgeway Relay

2009-10-09T00:16:00.000+01:00

Today was the annual Ridgeway Relay, which is an 89 mile club race along the length of the ridgeway. split into 10 legs.

I drunkenly agreed last weekend to take on the last leg, which was 9.4 miles. I've not run X-C since school and i rarely even run on grass so was really just expecting to go for a little potter. Which is why i spent the last 2 nights on the p1ss!

I had no idea the route but had scribbled down the instructions from the leaflet relating to my leg, which stated things like "Turn left off the ridgeway and follow the Herepath, across a grassy track heading towards some woods" - bit ambiguous!!

There's no official mile markers on the route and is signposted on the "ridgeway" bridalway type signs. Our team had done pretty well, only one of the runners had gotten lost - having to add 2.5 miles onto his leg! and the 9th runner came in half an hour before the mass start was to be sent off so i got a good start but this meant running totally alone.

I set off and realised i wasn't "pottering" i was in full competetive annab on a mission mode! The trail was fairly easy to follow, and was pretty hilly and uneven so had to concentrate on every footfall.

It was hard not having mile markers or knowing how fast i was going as it was hard to judge how ii was getting on. halfway through the leg it leaves the ridgeway and heads to malrborough and thereare the odd marshalls - just as well as i careered past them and they yelled me back to go through a gate and across some sheep (and sheep poo) filled fields.

There was a guy behind me, who i kept checking was still there to make sure i was going the right way. I managed to follow my instructions quite well and eventually the guy behind caught me, i said welll done as he drew level and we stuck togetehr for a while and ran together, i then fonud out he'd been following me as he'd not known the route. He overtook and i had to yell directions at him. He went the wrong way at one point so i stopped and waited for him to come back as i shouted "thhhiiiiis waaay!"

We then went flying down this amazing muddy hill, but up the other side was an equally amazing UPhill! Back down another hill and there was some more marshalls i asked how far and he said "about 200 yards" to which i "whhoooo"'d i tried to catch the guy who'd overtaken but he beat me through the finished by abot 20 meters (shoulda let him go the wrong way!) I finished in 1:11 and was really pleased with this as i'd said to my team mates 1:15 if i was lucky and having never done xc over this distance or hillyness i was super pleased!

I have to admit this was the hardest racce i recall but also the most enjoyable from start to finish. I was thinking in places "hats off to katiecom with her fell running"!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! xx

Weds 10th June - Lethbridge 10k

2009-10-09T00:13:00.000+01:00

powered by date and walnut :-)

Firstly i owe a big thanks to Jglencross for getting Lethbridge 10k people to change her entry to my name xx

I had been slack at entering as wasnt sure i'd be fit after time off/lady ops etc so thought i could enter on the day - wrong.

Was dithering about at folks trying to decide whether to go or not ate some f mums world famous date and walnut cake and decided to go and see if it was ok to run.

Anyhow, i got there and they were super lovely and changed the details Met a few others from club and littered peoples windscreens with fliers for our club race (i hate that - what a hypocrite!)

Had a bit of a hangover this morning and because i'd not reckoned on racing today i'd prob done too many miles mon/tues. Then i had a bad tummy just before, which thankfully shut up as soon as i started running.

Course was about 75% off road on a narrow, wet muddyish trail which was pretty hard work. first km was in 3:40 - bit quick..... but steadied up into a comfy pace. Was overtaken by a lady from the gym who i don't like - she's about 4 ft all, amazing tan, toned to perfection and wears a lerotard in body balance class! (jealous - moi??) that annoyed me, but i wasnt gonig to push it too soon as i knew the 2nd half of the course was a lot harder.

Splashing through mud and puddles, on a path i know well as its round by my folks house where i have run for years, the course is differnt to normal and went across some horrid rocky farm track then through some new housing development which was a bit dull.

The support on the course was really good and not expected for such a small eevent (about 350 runners) and in this rain too. The rain wasnt a hinder really, it was quite refreshing. The last 3k was seriously hard work, up hill, muddy and the only thing keeping me going was mamas cake. I came 7th lady as was pipped in the last 300 metres by a girl in pink.. did 45:45 which i'm dead happy with for that course. once mor thanks to julia (and my mama's cake) xx our club got 3rd prize for ladies

Sunday 10th May 2009 - Tewkesbury Half Marathon

2009-10-09T00:08:00.001+01:00

Last race report for a while, as i'm taking 2 or 3 weeks off from thursday (docs orders and perfect timing really) I entered Tewkesbury Half marathon last week so i could try and finish my marathon training on a high.... i'd had a pretty craappy week training wise with 3 really not to plan runs, of slow heavy legs, so even though i was wanting to do a bat out of hell, vomitting through the finish a la RobNaylor race i wasn't holding much hope.

Soooo..flat course, nice town, fairly well organised. Was a 5 mile fun run going on too... good amount of bushes round the start to pee in as the portaloo queues were huuuuuge!

I hadn't received my race pack so had to get a new number when i arrived, but oddly they hadn't sent out the race chips in the packs either so everyone had to collect them too, i thought this might hold up the start but it got off fairly prompt.I lined up near the front of the pack, as i usually start a bit further back so i dont' get in people's way.

I was stood there with a load of skinny whippets and felt like a right ol' heiffer!! and quite out of place, and i dunno if i was being paranoid but felt ike they were looking at me like i was a hobo cos i wasn't really looking like a "runner" today, spesh next to these lean little women with legs the size of my arms!!

Anyhow..... got off to a good start, went through the first mile in 6:30 - in the first 3 ladies (me and group of skinny whippets), felt happy with how i was feeling, i have a psychological thing that i like to do the first mile under 6;45 - dunno why... mile 2, was abot 13;30 i think, so had settled into my comfy pace, and was aiming for just over a 7min mile average for the whole thing and since i ccan't seem to crack negative splits yet, i know i need to get the first few in quite quick.

Got to 4 in 27.30 so still inside my target pace and still in sight of the lead lady - not that i was going to catch her! mile 5 uneventful - 34.30.... mile 6 42.30.... got to mile 8 just outside where i wanted to be in 57.30 i think?? maybe 58 can't recall now... but i like to keep it under an hour so all good.

Popped a wine gum - normally i have raisins or jelly babies but i fancied something different today and they burnt my throat, but i like em so it didnt bother me too much. Mile 9 was 1hr04, and starting to notice the temperature getting to me, but couldnt facce drinking anything.

I was pacing with this huge guy who nearly made me choke... he was playing the air drums whilst running!! I ofetn play the drums on my steering wheel or handle bars, but i've never had the urge in a race, but i wanted to listen to what music he had on!!

I had caught up with one of the whippets now, but the 10 mile marker seemed to have been moved, where the hell was it!? Oh, there you are... 1hr 12... i looked at my watch a bit later and saw it said "1.18" again for some reason this amused me and i had visions of moustached men running along - i seem to get a weird sense of humour in the later stages of a race!

i got to 11 in 1hr20 after a slight uphill drag, and again someone moving the mile markers... and I realised then that i wasnt going to get very close to 90 mins, as i really wanted to get under 1:35 but ho hum, tough t1ts, still i was aiming for a PB.

I managed to keep the pace with ms whippet and drummer boy, but drummer boy picked up (drum)sticks and rocketed away.... mile 12 saw me through in 1hr27, leaving me just under 9 mins to do the last 1.1 mile in order to p.b it. I managed to hold pace, and for the last half mile i was pulling MartinHall type grimaces!!

final sprint i was 2 or 3 seconds behind ms whippet and finished in 1:35.24 - and shaved 20 seconds off my PB!

I think i was between 10th and 12th lady finisher - i wonder if i was a whippet how much quicker i could run? Or is it my big thighs that are holding me up?? Anyway a big "Yay" Was a super hot day today and i'm only glad it was a 9.30 start intead of a 11 oclock one! I'm really happy to finish my training on a PB, as my goal this year was to get a sub 1:40 half marathon and i've got 3 all within in 45 seconds of each other, so i'm glad i'm being consistent - so next step is to get consistently closer to 90 mins!! I think i need to work on pushing myself in the mid section of races as i just let myself settle into a comforatable pace and need to step outside my comfort zone.

( i was first lady in my category for this :-) )

Sunday 26th April 2009 - Stratford Marathon

2009-10-09T00:03:00.000+01:00

Weeeeelll!!!

7am and my parents arrived to take me to the beautiful stratford (it truly is!!! and i'm fully intending a return visit under different circumstances) i'd scoffed my porridge, and finaly located my chip and number - which i'd put "somewhere safe" - you know how it is! Plus i was in a flap cos i couldnt find my lucky stopwatch then i heard it chime the hour and found it tangled in crumbs in the armpit of my handbag.

I'll fast forward the mundane rigmoral of sat nav arguments and the like...In the starting pens, like cattle, i realised i needed a wee again, but no time with 10 mins to go squished in between two burley 6ft+ gentlemen! So hoped i'd just sweat it out (so to speak!)

Started promptly, wasn't as congested as i expected and got off to a good start, felt amazing, bopping along like a little bunny, comfy and not feeling as if i'd gone too quick... the first mile looped back through the start so your loved ones could see you again and wave proudly!! I came through a mile at under 7 mins but comfy.... carried on this pace for next four miles and found myself pacing along with a lady built like a whippet, so i stuck with her, then realised she was doing the half so let her whippet away.... came through 4 miles still 7 min mile pacing to the sound of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in my lugholes - apt.

About 7 miles in i was overtaken by another Pink bib lady (marathon) told her "well done" (secretly "grrrrr!" Got to 8 miles in 58 mins, so within the hour as planned - all good and still feel bouncy and strong Not sure what happened between 8 and 11 - think i was just in the zone and skipping along happily in the sun munching raisins every now and then.... 11 through 12.5 was a nice trail track thing - stank a bit of sh1t but looked pretty. then at the end of that the half went off to their finish and the full beared off.

A lady shouted that i was 3rd lady, so this gave me a big boost, and went through 13 in about 1:37 to the sound of Maximo Park "velocity" and then i recall Nirvana "smells like teen spirit" all egging me along........ had really wanted to get to 16 in 2 hours and was only 11 seconds outside of that still hold 3rd lady...but then someone over took me... again "well done" (grrrr!)

then....ARGHGHH!!! *&*&$%$@@$@R$FJN!!!!

Dunno what the hell happened, from here it went from great guns to horror nightmare...... everything sccrewed up... quads tightened, knee flared up, just had nothing.... guzzling nasty sugary lucozade, sweets, unfortunatly didnt ccarry more painkillers.....which had wore off (note to self - get "PROPER" codeine not shabby sulpadeine)16 - 19 was a draggy hilly stretch - not hugely steep (i'd not even noticed it the first lap) and took an age!! (9 min miles) bleugh!

I turned into a potty mouth tourettes monster! So glad my mother couldn't hear me, she'd have the bleach out!! The more i swore at myself and got dissapoointed with myself, the more my knee swore back - i ignored it the best i could, concentrating on tunes in my ears....I had to pulll right back and let more ladies overtake me... again being outwardly sporting.

I got to 22 still needing a wee, but wasnt going to stop as i didnt think i'd get out of my squat positino and the bushes were quite open, so ploughed on. I got to 23 miles at about 3:05 feeling really annoyed at myself as i'd really secretly been hoping for a sub 3:30 and had looked so hopeful in the first 16 and felt like someone had given me a bad personality transplant, so i decided one last "c" word t omyself, give myself a slap, and a good talking to, stop being so damn hard on myself, and enjoy the last 3 miles as much as the first half....

I think perhaps i was delerious form heat, sugary nasty drink, annoyance but i turned back into annoying bouncy AnnaB, and everyone who I passed that was cheering, ran past Hi 5ing and making "Woooooooo!" noises, some young girls were stood outside their house with a hose pipe asking if people wanted spraying - damn right i did, did a little jig about in the hose pipe and carried on... "whooping" as i went... trying to boost people along who were dragging their heels, one old guy said "i need some crowds to cheer me along""WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Wwill that do?""ummm.. no thanks though"the last half mile kind of snaked into a fielded area where theere were lots of people sat in the sun cheering and the like, i spotted my dad with his vid camera, and "woo!" waved and ran past towards the finish, where they were cchecking numbers and calling that and names out of PA system as we crossed the line, to which i gave a mexican wave style wave and yep - you guessed it a little "woo" Finally crossed the line in 3hr 38 i was 16th lady in the end... i so wanted that 3rd!! to sum up - had an amazing first 2 hours a really shabby hour and an absoutely brilliant last half hour!!!

I'm so glad i went from beating myself up to a silly sausage as it really transformed my day as i know i would be sulking now at a dissappointing result. Note to self: it's a marathon not a sprint!! (need to learn to pace myself) xxx

Sunday 29th March 2009 - Reading Half Marthon

2009-10-08T23:59:00.000+01:00

Weeeeeelllll, what to say......Had a hairy start to the day.... hadn't been feeling tip top so was half expecting to wake up feeling like pap.... but was ok... so got to station hopped on train and ate my porridge... 5 mins later, the train pulled up and we were told that there was a cracked track and engineering works had over-run and we'd be staying put for 10 mins....

35imins later (8:55) we were still there..... not moving... announcement came over speaker saying that the manager didnt know how long we'd be stuck there, to which i swore some obsceneties....

another guy in running gear came and started to chat to me, he was running too and had booked a cab from station to start and asked if i'd like to get in with him and some others who he'd asked... so i agreed....about 8 of us were congrigated on the train (still stationary - at 9.15 - the wr meeting time) and not knwing if we'd be abe to run.... one woman who was on a bike (and running) was contemplating her fate also!

Anyhow, finally at 9.45 we got to reading, jumped in cab, traffic meant we had to jump out sort of near the staidum.... being 10am and 5 mins from start, had to then run with r$ucksack (kathy and martin will tell you how heavy that was!)for half a mile to dump off bag, then run back half a mile to the start - for someone who doesnt warm up for races this was disconccerting!!!!!

So by the time i got to the start the gun had just gone off, so climbed over the fence and managed to get in in the 1:40 section (having already done a mile!) and didnt get to meet the crew before hand.

The first mile was very clogged up and did it in 7 mins ( was fighting against bath's first mie of 6:40) so was annoyed from the beginning.... not sure what i was thinking/feeling throughout, but was trying to keep pace and match bath's time... got to 10k in 44 mins (slower than i'd planned) and 8 miles in 58 mins (under an hour was good for me) mile 8 was quite slow though, i'd forgotten the sneaky slight hill!

Got to 11 miles feeling good and 12 miles (which despite reading being prob my fave half course, is the worst bit of the course....) came round the last 400m feeling better stronge and having forgotten that the bit in the stadium wasnt as long as i remember (i always think it's longer and think i should save some so i don't collapse and look like an idiot!) managed a half decent finish, and completed in 1hr 36;06 which is well inside my 1hr40 targets i'd set for the year, i was a bit disappointed as i'd hoped for another PB on reading, but 20 secs slower on a poor start followed from a week (or two) of boozing and bday celebs aint bad in my book.

I went then in search of caz, charlie and their pom poms, but couldn't find them, so loitered about a bit and watched some peope come in, saw KATHAJ come in, and so headed to the finish and spotted a man in a dress who'd finished just ahead of her, then ROB (not spewing up his guts) and then Kathy and flashed her my boobs(wr vest).... finally we all met up on the bleachers and met al the lovely supporters and runners, went for some beer and grub, some more beer with martin, rob, kathy and sallykate, then some more beer with kathy and her friend, then some more beer.... and have finally managed to get myself home feeling a bit battered and tired Fab day, fab meet, fab run - weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! xx

Sunday 15th March 2009 - Bath half Marathon

2009-10-08T23:56:00.000+01:00

Just back from bath... had a lovely day, this whole week my quads have felt horribly tight and i'd half thought about not running today but decided to go for it anyway. i ran under an alias today and am very grateful for the number as it was such a gorgeous day to be out running.

It was like a festival when we got there, sunny, bustling and music playing. The start was set off in "waves" to stagger it which worked really well. It was delayed by half an hour which was a ittle annoying as i'd timed my food/pre race stuff to fit the scheduled start and was getting hungry at the start line!

Despite the busyness of the course i covered the first mile in 6:40 and pretty much kept around 7 min/miles for most of it... got to the 10k marker at 43:30 and was a few mins inside an hour at the 8 mile point - in whicch i'd hoped to be an hour so all was going to plan.

The last 3 miles my quads felt incrediby tight but i clung on and finished in 1:35:43 and am very happy as this is nearly 5 mins faster than my previous half and PB.

My two friends who did it with minimal training also did well 2:03 and 2:15 - for two boys who drink too much and did very little training (one not running for 6 weeks prior to today and the other having run 6 times!!) Was a really lovely day all in all and the crowds were amazing i particularlly loved that people who lived through the ccity played music out their windows.xx

p.s. the only bad thing about the day is we had no time for a shandy after, so i might have one on the train to manchester later

Sun 15th Feb 2009 - Salisbury 10k

2009-10-08T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hellllooooo!I had sort of sacked off the pledge around thursday as i'd decided 2 days off, and suspected a rest day today as i'd done my long run yesterday. but during the afternoon my legs still felt fresh, so said that id see how i felt this morning whether or not to do Salisbury 10k.

Got up this morning feeling really good, so decided to go along and register. The course is one of my favourites so was glad i got along, its not a particularly fast course due to the mixed terrain and fairly heavy going mid section which is rolling hills over a narrow mud track. But has lovely views across the wiltshire countryside.

I set off possibly a bit quick doing 7:15 over first 2k, but i think part of this was in preparation for what was to come as knew it would slow me down. Got to the half way point at about 21 mins where it was just starting to get a bit dirty and hilly, i was told by a steward i was 4th lady so far, so i kept the ladies who were 2nd and 3rd in my sight - though the 2nd lady had overtaken me at 3k and there was no way i was catching her!

After about 6.5k it was back on road and fairly straightfoward, no big hills, but a little up and down, still chasing lady number 3!! I think the last 1.5 km was a slight drag up hill but not uncomfortable, but i could start to feel yesterdays long run taking it's toll on my speed.

Ended up finishing in 45:42 which i was happy with due to it not being a fast course and having ddone my long run yesterday in 4th place (ladies) number 3 came in abuot 200m ahead of me, but i did all i could to chase her down! Medal, mars bar and bottle of water to go home with too!

The people on the course and supporter/stewards were really lovely too, lots of good spirit and comradery (sp) which is really nice as some of the club focused races i've done recently have been a tad cliquey. There was a family fun run going on too so that may have a lot to do with it.

Sunday 7th Dec 2008 - Bromham Pudding 10k Run

2009-10-08T23:50:00.000+01:00

frizzling start, mostly club runners, nice flat course but icy in places....think i was in top 10 ladies, with new pb of 43.17

Sun 30th nov 2008 - Eynsham 10k

2009-10-08T23:48:00.000+01:00

Eynsham 10k...Car broke down. Dad came to save me.got there at 10:45 with 15 mins to spareFound out race started at 10.30.Doh.Off for a gym or running session.

Sun 23rd Sept 2008- Swindon 10k

2009-10-08T23:47:00.000+01:00

Wet and horrid and windy when we got there, seriously questioned why the heck i was there! But luckily it stopped for the start, little downpour en route... nice flat two loop course, windy on the final straight. Got a new pb of 43:57 so very happy!Jaffa cakes at the finish line, what more can you ask for! P.s should also mention my meeting/lunch with donnyfan and jglencross, lovely to put faces to posts"

Sun 12th Oct 2008 - Swindon Half Marathon

2009-10-08T23:44:00.000+01:00

YAY!!! so happy with todays race, my knee was seriously sore yesterday and overnight so had to take some painkillers, they were wearing off towards the end.1hr 40 and 6 seconds, am dead chuffed as this is 2 and a half mins off my last one, which was reading and flat, and this is renowned for being hilly.edit:Just looked at results, was 15th woman! xx

Wed 24th Sept 2008 - Club 5 miler

2009-10-08T23:43:00.000+01:00

waaaaay better than i had thought... after messy weekend and a sniffly cold, i managed a 35:12 5 mile hilly club handicap race! Only thing is now i have to try and beat that time next month!!

3rd Sept 2008 - Swindon 5k "back in a flash"

2009-10-08T23:42:00.000+01:00

22min 10.... was hoping for under 22 but pretty happy as i've still not managed to quit smoking edit: provisional results say 22.22 and 8th woman....my watch was started as i cross the line so that shows a slight difference, was only 10 seconds between me and 5th place - should have kept in that position instead of let the other 3 pass me in the last 400m!!

2009-10-08T23:39:00.000+01:00

Until now i've been posting my race reports on a website forum, which i've now left. I really enjoy writing the reports as it helps me analyse the event and make sure i see the fun in it as well as the competetive side.

I also like to share my experiences so hopefully you'll enjoy reading as much as enjoy running and writing.

I've gone right back to the beginning of the reports, some of which are a bit guff. I'll continue to post my reports here for my own benefit mostly :-P

Enjoy :-)