My Tour De France

Well, after my last post debating on whether to go on holiday to France, you may have gathered that we all got off ok in the end – yippee! I know that it can be boring reading about other people’s holiday so I will proceed with a brief note form report:

Set off 0230 Thurs morning – yawn – arrived 1900 Thurs evening in Annecy (French Alps!). Note to self: make sure I disable the ‘No Toll Road’ setting on the SatNav!

Tired!

View from my mobile home!

Friday – Tired but wasn’t going to waste the chance to ride big mountains. Rode Col De Forclaz. Man! This was a hard climb. Found out later that it is the hardest around. Tried to save a gear for when I felt on the limit. 1 min 30 sec into the ride was on the limit and in the 39/25 for the rest of the ride. Big sense of achievement at top. Loved it!

Great views from the top - not the bike I used!

Saturday - Got up early and rode Col De L’Epine. Not as hard as yesterday but equally enjoyable!

Sunday – Rode Col De Arpette. Quite hard and a longer ride. Jumped on the back of the local bike club ride! Rode up to the Col with a 60 year old super skinny climber finishing with him at the summit. Had to wait a while for the other riders. Got dropped immediately on the descent and felt like I was going to kill myself. Melting tarmac and gravel all over the place. I am a bad bad bad descender!

Monday – Wanted an easier day so rode round Lake Annecy and then up Combe D’ Ire at just 796m. Easy!



Tuesday – Rode Col De Tamie and visited the Fort at the top. Awesome place but an easy ride!

Wednesday – rode Col De Leschaux. Wanted to go higher to Mt Semnoz but the weather had broken and it was clouded over. As I stopped near the bottom of the Col De Leschaux to strip off a few layers a very tanned lean cyclist flashed by with a Bonjour shout as he disappeared upwards. The chase was on! However, I lost a good 2 mins struggling with leg and arm warmers. The climb was not difficult but I was going full gas to try and catch the French dude. I pushed and pushed but no sign of him. The climb is about 14k and I resigned myself to not catching him. Then, through the trees ahead I caught a glimpse of him! I caught him soon after and I thought about riding straight through to see if he would take up the chase. This seemed rude so i rode with him and chatted with my very bad French. The guy was either from St Tropez or riding to St Tropez! We said fare well at the summit and I proceeded to descend the lovely sweeping road down into Annecy. A great ride, made more enjoyable by having a chase!

Holiday over and back to the drudgery of life! I am going back as it was just the best for riding and family time too. Julie picked up and I hope that she remains on the up! The kids loved it too, so happy people all round!

Oh, and it wasn't all play you know!!

My Achilles is still no better so I must get some treatment this week.

Catch up with you all soon.

Swimming Against the Tide!

Ever felt like you are struggling against the unstoppable tide of life bearing down on you? This seems to be my world recently (I am the guy in the red circle!). At the risk of posting a complete moan and whinge, I will expand. After all, what’s the point of hiding the truth?

My Achilles injury is no better and it is nearly a month since I was able to run. That in itself is no real drama when the big picture is viewed; some people will never even be able to walk or cycle, no matter how much they desire to do so. However, it is the accumulation of circumstances that are grinding me down. As has been the case for a long time – I am talking years here – Julie is not well. In fact she has got steadily worse over the last few weeks. She has a pituitary gland problem that basically wipes the body out. She has been sleeping for 18 hours a day again. As well as seeing her get pretty down about the situation, the general hassle of juggling house, kids, dogs and the odd bit of training is proving unmanageable.

Things are made worse because around Christmas time her medication seemed to be working and she was like an over charged Duracell battery! We had a fridge episode that saw a break in her consuming her meds. Since then, she has not picked up. When I look back over the last few months, I wonder how on earth I have managed to keep riding reasonable bike times! The latest ‘hit’ is the fact that we are meant to be going on holiday next week to the French Alps. With 6 days to go before departure, she is simply not able to travel. Here is the dilemma: should the girls and me go and leave Julie at home? Should we cancel the holiday? Julie’s parents are due to come with us also, so cancelling is not an easy option (not that it ever would be when the girls are looking forward to a holiday). That said, leaving Julie behind is not an attractive option either! She is pretty down as it is. Although she will be able to kick back on chill if we were away, she would feel very reclusive and probably lonely – not something that I want to inflict on her.

On the training front, I have missed a lot of swim sessions and I am starting to think that swimming is just another activity that drains me of energy. I stumbled out of the pool this morning mid-session feeling like a drowning man. I had to get back home anyway but the session was not good from the off and I now have a painful niggle in my shoulder! How can I have a swimming injury? I don’t spend enough time in the water to attract an injury!

The impact of all this, when looking purely at training, is that I am considering turning to time trialing for the rest of the year. I reckon I can just about get by with a single discipline. The plus side being that I can beast myself on the turbo whenever I wish and fit the training around family duties. If I prep the house and kids early enough I could even get to the odd time trial event at a weekend and continue to ride the Wed evening club TT at Sawtry. Let’s face it, my biking is going ok lately! I can always make a return to triathlon in the future.

So there we have it. I know, a bit of an emotional dump I reckon! But I know that the followers of this blog will be able to relate to the difficulties involved with juggling family and triathlon!

Train well. Blog lots. And pray!

Another Bike PB!

Always look before overtaking!


Well, last night I pitched up at the club 10 mile TT relishing yet another flat out blast. It was cold but the wind had dropped slightly by the time I had ridden out to Sawtry. By riding out to the race I get a total ride of about 34 miles (ride to race, warm up, 10 mile TT, ride home) and complete a decent mid week session. I normally try and hold 20mph on the ride home too, so there is a good amount of quality in the session too.

I set off trying out a slightly slower cadence than I normally push - not that I count; I just go by feel. I narrowly avoided the hedge as I swung around the first roundabout. I now stay on the tri bars for this first roundabout and try and keep the speed up. My minute man was no where to be seen so it was head down and work the slight incline that feels more like a mountain when going flat out! After the turn I had my minute man in my sights and I caught him with a bout 2 miles to go. I got within reach of my 2 minute man also but he remained about 2 bike lengths ahead as I crossed the finish line. Not seen the official time yet but I made it 23:36. That is another PB on that course. Maybe with some sun and the right air pressure I could get close to breaking 23 mins.

Oh yes, I have done some swimming this week but TTs are sooooooooo much more fun!

Time Trials Hurt. . . .

. . . and make you pull funny faces.



I am currently working with my personal bike position consultant (Turbo Man) to tweak my TT position further. I have changed my position quite a lot since last year but there is worth in trying to tilt my forearms up. This will involve some construction work on the pads and bar extensions - all good fun if there are some spare hours in the day (not many of those lately).

Strange, though, the more time trialling I do, the more the pain feels 'normal'. I have another club 10 TT this evening but the weather forecast is not good. I just hope that it is not cancelled as I need my fix of pain!

Still no running for me, due to the achilles injury, and my swimming is ticking over at best. Seeing the results come in now that the race season has started is proving quite difficult for me! I will miss the Brize Srint next week. having done all of the sprints for the last 3 years, it will feel strange not racing. I probably enjoy the RAF sprints the most out of any races that I have competed at. It is just good fun and enjoyable to catch up with buddies not seen for a while. Oh well, I leave for a family holiday next Thursday to Annecy in the French Alps. It will be a lot of travelling but hopefully worth the trip. In the hope of entertaining my family during the 10 hour drive through France I have rigged up an in car movie theatre - it's amazing what you can do with heavy duty velcro! I will get some pics up, just in case anyone is interested! My bike is coming and I hope to get some mountain rides in and some swimming in the outdoor pool.

I am a Slower Rider!

Well, all I have done is cycle training lately. Julie has not been well and I have missed some swim sessions. triathlon really does feel a world away right now. This is sad but at least I am still riding my bike.

I rode the club 10 mile TT last Wed evening, and what a blustery ride that was! I was fighting to control the bike much of the ride and was convinced it was a slow ride. i was very surprised to see that I had equalled my PB at 23:47. Most guys were slower than normal so I was quite close to the real cyclists. The next 2 days were just tick over with easy rides. Then yesterday I travelled to Cambridge to do an Open 10 mile TT on the supposedly fast E2/10 course. The weather was not kind again and me and Jase resigned ourselves to a slow ride - not that we would give up trying of course!

The outward leg was a real struggle. The wind was in your face and there was no rhythm to be found. At the turn I waited for the tail wind to kick in but I feared that I was cooked from the struggle of the head wind. But then, just as I felt pooped, I tried to find another sprocket on the back and it was already in the 11 tooth! Yep, the entire return 5 miles was done in the 11 tooth! It must have been 30 mph + all the way back. In fact I could have done with a bigger chain ring as I was spinning too fast in the 11 tooth sometimes. It turns out that Jase did the same. That just shows how strong the wind was. As normal, though, the tail wind never really evens out the headwind and the time for me was 23:00 (though I made it 22:59!). Jase was very close at 23:11! But surely the youngster should be beating me by a huge margin by now? C'mon Jase blitz me! To be fare, he has only just started his peaking training so more speed to come, I am sure.

The event was split into 2 races because of the huge entry - faster riders and slower riders. Me and Jase could only get into the slower riders race. With 80 riders just in our race, the event was quite big. Good news! I finished 4th and Jase finished 6th! That earned me £30! Blimey! That was the first time that I have ever won cash! This cycling stuff is ok!

We actually rode quite a bit faster than many of the faster riders. That shows just how windy it was. How long can we hide in the slower riders cat I wonder!

Anyway. Hope all you bloggers are training well and healthy!

Squires & Spires Cycle Sportive

I have been holding out on writing a report from the Squires and Shires Sportive that I rode last Sunday, as I wanted to include a pic.

The day started rather cold, windy and wet; a stark difference from last year when it was mega hot. Most people were dressed in longs and layers but the sun started to break through as we set off. The wind, however, did not let up all day and it made parts of the ride tough going. The group I started with headed out at rather a sedate pace. As I wanted to break 4 hours, I decided to try and latch onto a group up ahead. I managed to do this and we clipped along quite nicely until the first feed zone at around 37 miles. After the feed zone it seemed like everyman for himself. I tried to form a group but it just wasn’t working. So, in the end, I decided to just go for it and see who would jump on board. I ramped up the pace and caught numerous groups. At one point a Daventry CC rider jumped on my wheel and we rode quite nicely for a few miles. Then, disaster! My chain jumped off on a decent and somehow got knotted up round my deraillier. It took a good few minutes to sort this and my new buddy was long gone by the time I was back riding.

I continued to push hard as the miles ticked by but the hills in the last 20 miles were torture! Some people were walking on one incline! As the finish approached I knew that I was just outside 4 hours. My Garmin read 3:57 ride time but my mechanical had cost me precious time. My official time was 4:03:26 and that bagged me 12th fastest of the day out of 320 riders.......it’s not a race you know!!

It was a good event but a little lonely! Anyone else for next year?

As for my running, it’s still zilch. My Achilles is not good. I continue to ride but the triathlon season is looking like a wash out from where I am sitting. I have the club 10 mile TT this evening and then I have the supposedly fast E2 10 mile TT ride on Saturday. Jase Walkley is doing this TT also so it will be good to see how much faster he goes than me!!

Catch you later Bloggers

I Can't Run But.........

.........I seem to be biking rather well! More on that later.

Another busy week has flown by and I am finding it hard to squeeze everything I want to complete into the day – I need a 26 hour day! I especially want to get the next edition of Triangles finished. To do that I will have to make this edition slightly shorter than the previous iterations – sorry! Mind you, some people may prefer a shorter read?

So then, a quick blast of what’s been going on.

Inter-Services Duathlon took place on 29 April. The weather was kind and we had 20 RAF Triathletes participating. The start of the race was awesome – a Hercules aircraft super low fly-over organised by event head honco Chris Stuart of the Army (well he works in 2 Group!).

Overall, the army won and we came second. In fact, there were only a hand full of Navy dudes present so second was guarenteed! The RAF girls did really well and fielded 5 triathletes, including some novices who did just great. Mention must go to Angelina Littlefield who had completed the London Marathon in a very respectable 3:57 and yet still was able to do well at the duathlon.

Out of the blokes, I was mightily impressed by Mike Westwell’s bike split (4th fastest of the day and quickest of the RAF boys). Andy Fisher was the top finisher in 5th place – a tantilisingly 6 seconds away from a podium finish. We had some good performances lower down too, with Dale Grassby grabbing 10th place and Jase Walkley proving that my prediction of greatness is not that far off the mark by finishing very strongly to take 14th place just 24 seconds behind Dale. Well done to all.

As for my training, still no running due to my Achilles problem. My swimming goes well some days and terrible other days! I am where I am and I am focussing on enjoyig the H2O – if that is possible!

My bike legs continue to work just fine! After a decent turbo session on Tuesday I had an easy day whilst helping with the RAF element of the Inter-Services Duathlon. That said, I was feeling more tired from watching etc than when I race! I had missed the St Ives CC 10 mile TT due to the duathlon so I had arranged to guest at Cambridge CC evening 10 miler on Thursday. It was good to ride a different course and the route is obviously faster than our club course as I recorded a pb 22:43. How chuffed am I!! My first ride under 23 mins and an average speed of 26.41mph grabbed me 5th place overall and missed second place by only 13 sec.

I am riding a sportif on Sunday; only 80 miles......Eekkk! from 10 miles flat out to 80 miles....er...flat out?! This event was the one I crashed in last year so the main focus is to just finish.

Train well bloggers.