Training Log Archive: Leon

'Break the Cycle' bike ride - Bristol - Bath - Gloucester - Bath
With the Ironman posse.
Due to my lax approach to bicycle maintenance this became quite a disjointed ride.
3 mile stoll to the start, then the 5 of us set of in the first wave, soon found ourselves on the front without going particularly fast, as we hit the Bristol-Bath cycle path. 4 miles down here and I hit a pothole and the back wheel said no thanks. I was half expecting this to go as I had patched it up a few weeks back when I was out of inner tubes, amazed it lasted through Etape really.
We aren't the most mechanically minded group at the best of times so we lost at least 10 minutes here, prob 15, not helped as the three pumps we had with us were asthmatic in nature. Back on the road and the pace steadily notched up until the outskirts of Bath where the path narrowed considerably and then we toured the town with traffic lights etc.
Toilet stop of around 10 mins at the rec, but set off and after a few miles encountered the only real big climb of the day, which was a breeze after recent climbs elsewhere. This split us up slightly but we regrouped at the first food stop.
The next 10 miles we chatted about forthcoming weddings etc, very relaxed pace. A slight incline broke us up, and myself Martin and Paddy started to work a bit harder together for the next 10-15 miles up to the halfway point and another snack stop where we regrouped once more. The gradient had been gradually uphill but nothing of real note.
Steve was dropped out of the rest area, but Rich managed to rejoin and the four of us worked nicely for 4 or 5 miles, until a short steep one left me and Paddy alone at the front as we then dropped down the other side at 40+mph. Disaster then struck as I hit another pot hole and at such speed, again the back tyre went.
I made a decent job of fixing this myself, in about 10 mins (laugh away) whilst Paddy waited to flag Rich and Martin down. Except they never came. I had fixed the tyre by the time Steve arrived and I took his pump to replace Paddys very poor one. Given we had last seen Martin and Rich literally a mile go, this was quite bizarre but we figured they must have took a wrong turn, tried calling them to no avail, so cracked on.
Reached lunch after 63 miles and sat down for pasta, still with no sign of the lost guys, they turned up 15 mins later having done an extra 8 miles!
So then had to wait for them to eat, before we set off doing a frustrating tour of Gloucester town centre which was tedious going. Just leaving the centre we started to crank the pace up and we going well until bang on 70miles bang went the rear tyre again. Pissed off doesn't come close.
Out of inner tubes, so Martin (who also rides a Boardman team carbon) gave me one of his. Myself and Rich worked together in super quick time to get it moving, only it wouldn't pump up. Wrong size inner tube! Martin hadn't had a puncture yet on his bike so hadn't discovered this fact, lucky for him I discovered it for him. Therefore that came off and on went of Rich's, which we pumped up and refitted to the bike, only to find it had gone down by the time we did so. This was after checking the rim and tyre for glass etc., so we took another look and discovered a small hole in the tyre. Prognosis I needed another tyre. How was another question being a few miles out of Gloucester. We set Steve off for Bristol as his pace made this a sensible decision. We phoned the support van which had just left Bristol, and turned up about 20 mins later. Rich, Martin and Paddy set off when this arrived, leaving me with the mechanic, who despite my doubts, had a tyre to fit. Another 20 mins and having lost over an hour I was off again.
Suitably refreshed and frustrated, I set off at TT pace, first hour since stopping, 21 mph. I realised my hopes of catching any of the gang were slim but was determined not to keep them waiting at the finish. However first hour went so well I was thinking what if... and thinking if the three of them worked together what pace would they be going compared to mine etc., however then in the 90's it started to hurt so I set myself the target of hitting three figures, 95,96,97, keeping pace up at about 18-19mph...however it was becoming obvious the ride was longer than the advertised ton when at 98 Bristol was 10m away. This was a blow, so set myself the target of crossing the M4...which also took longer than expected. Garmin died so I didn't know how fast I was going, and was getting light headed. Pace certainly slowed into the three figures, but kept moving whilst definitely entering bonksville. Final couple of miles, not painful but just felt weak, summoned something for final hill up to the Memorial Ground and freewheeled into the finish 107m done. Unknown to me Paddy had dropped Martin, who then dropped Rich and took a wrong turn so just took the A38 into Bristol (nice!) and Rich ploughed on and was only 2 mins ahead of me at the finish. Steve had his feet up long before then.
I never thought 100+ would feel this easy, but there were long breaks unlike etape, but to my credit I had a sustained 90min hard effort at the end, could have averaged 18mph I think if all had come together.
Next cycle stop recce of Le Tour 2014 at the end of the month, hopefully a few of us doing that.

C • When are you thinking of do... 2

Ran round the walls for 2 miles on the east side, which kept the pace nice and slow due to the all the steps. The sign 'no dogs on the walls' was too good to resist. Came back on the roads though to avoid doing too many steps.

Made myself head down to South Leeds as it's plainly obvious I'm missing some interval work. Was quite up for it during the day, scheduled 5k session was 10 mins tempo, 6-8 x 400. Ran there from station to find only 4 others there, one who wasn't doing a session and the other 3 doing the MD session (600, 5 mins rec, 2 x 300, 5 mins rec 3 x 150, no thanks). Quite dispiriting. Didn't fancy doing 10 mins tempo alone, which I know isn't an issue anyway, so decided to do some 400's off 200 jog to try and get the legs turning over.
On the group warm up I figured that 10 at 70-71 would be a good target.
Set off and working at what felt like the right, hard pace, did a 73. Then another one. And another one. Last 100m of each rep was certainly hard work so wasn't like I wasn't pushing, just no bounce or leg turnover. Basically stuck in the one hard gear without another gear to really step up into.
After 5 73's I did manage 3 72's but called it a day at 8 as the quality wasn't there and no point slogging another two mediocre reps out.
Mitigating factors were it was fairly windy, I was alone and running in plain old road shoes, but if you offered me a large sum of money I don't think I could run 1x <65s for 400 right now, maybe I'm getting hold but I need to perservere, one session doesn't mean the end of the world, we go again next time...

Pottering around York at lunchtime, making up the route as I went along. River north, through the teardrop, over Holgate footbridge and back through Micklegate.
Felt fairly neutral, not like I wanted to go faster but comfortable pace.

Train to Shipley, 2 miles NE down LL Canal and then into Baildon for more research. Rained on every visit so far, hope that isn't an omen. Courses 90% done now, looking good, even if I do say so myself. Felt a little leggy on the climb up to the village centre. After buying a loaf had to run the final half mile at 5:30 pace to make the train home.

Round Highroyds, up Tranmere hill, over Bradford GC, and up into Baildon to check out some control sites. Legs felt fairly good so ran steady until I got onto the map. Clearly in decent shape, recovered well from 4 hard runs in 4 days. Will probably do the other half tomorrow from Shipley side.

C • Is the race on a new map? T... 2

I seem to recall the flyer said the race would cover a newly mapped area to the north, but it didn't and the start was pretty much outside my workplace, which made it easy to get my bearings.
Probably a better run than yesterday, with more defined mistakes
8 - went down the dead end to the west of control
13 - came in and out from the west and not from the north, failed to see gap in uncrossable wall
I guess my local knowledge helped, but if you've done this race several times it is pretty familiar anyway.
Other than that pretty spot on, route choice 19 to 20 went east which on paper was better route (back to by office!) but level of human traffic might have meant better route was west. Coped well with ginnels etc.
Was really struggling to run full pelt last few, but that's to be expected on a sunny bank holiday.
However, after yesterday (and we shall see in Halifax) think evening racing is the way forward for busy towns, especially with growth in urban.
If York is to stay daytime I think the finish needs moving to somewhere more akin to where starts have been recently.

Warmed up a mile for expected start time, found out starts were delayed, jogged once they set people into start boxes, came back to find no one had set off as a clear box was broke, decided it was warm up not to jog anymore and just stood there for 8-9 mins

Ludlow Urban - 1st - 31:39

Quite surprised to win, and even more surprised to win by a minute. Granted most there will have raced earlier in the day and Sat, but I ran hard Friday and Saturday too. Analysis of St.Albans and Dorking splits led me to feel I wasn't going off hard enough (which is my normal running tactic without a map) so I went off like the clappers here, and it must have worked. Certainly hurt though! Controls 1-9 were straightforward, (shoudl start have faced 180 the wrong way?) though slightly overshot path through church to 6. Took route round to the north to 10, which didn't seem optimal, and I dawdled over the fence, but fastest split so can't have been too bad. Marquee in the way of steps in pub courtyard threw me slightly to 11, but punters called me the right way (not the best idea to have shortest route through a pub beer garden I'd say) 13 took wrong route down narrow path, should have gone down residential road. Legs were really burning now. Spent long leg to 14 deciding whether to go round to west or uphill and to east to 15, when spotted route through finish as best route. Nearly threw up past starts was gasping. The dived head first onto concrete as pavement ramped up to 15, but bounced back up. Apologies if the SI unit was loose on 17 as I did a two footed tackle on the pole, much to the amusement of the girls having a BBQ next to it, I tried to put it back on.18 was a bizarre control placement, got stuck behind someone else. Went on footpath up to castle, cut between lower and middle paths but was too steep so stuck to middle one into castle, went over footbridge before realising control was underneath. penultimate control also a bit of a mess up, before i realised that was up the steps too.
Luckily finished just in time to make train back north!

Urban Course 1 - Splits