Great time even if the last K was torture!
2 Likes
Great stuff, and a MASSIVE pb. 
Chapeau
1 Like
What were those tablets called again?
Can you buy in bulk?!!
( that was all you and very very impressive running !)
3 Likes
Amazing - great job 
3:34 on the 4th k up an incline. Really resonanted when you said about the course blur and regret about pushing on - but it sounds like you made the right call with effort and the drugs 
Sounds like a great pacing throughout. What does Strava have for your GAP?
7 Likes
You want to be careful buying them in bulk, people will think you’re making crystal meth! 
3 Likes
I’ve tried most stuff back in the day ( that’s actually true ) but I’d give that one a miss I think
I failed chemistry badly so it’s a non starter I’m afraid .
2 Likes
Strava has GAP 3:30 compared to 3:31. I did use quote marks on the uphill 
, I have to admit I couldn’t really notice any gradients. My Strava had 11m elevation for the whole course and I’ve seen others had it record only 4m!
Typically people at my athletics club go to Bath on the Odd Down cycle circuit for local(ish) fast race. It’s 3 laps plus a bit (which is all downhill), but definitely not flat. Also a tendency to be rather exposed to wind.
4 Likes
Having serious doubts about the race today, it’s raining heavy and forecast to be worse around race time in Ripon with temps around 10c, that’s a complete struggle for me.
Going to head in the direction but can see me turning round. Depends on the lake temp really.
I’ve got full winter kit ready for the bike, WINTER FFS!
15 Likes
70.3 or oly?
Sunny here… that probably doesn’t help!
Good luck no matter what
1 Like
Oly\Standard but some country lanes on the bike. It’s the swim to bike I’m bothered about and being so cold.
2 Likes
It’ll be easy this year - not much surf I don’t think.
2 Likes
Did he
Didn’t he
Nobody knows.
3 Likes
Of course he did !
( no idea ?!)
British Para Champs today @ Eton Dorney.
Winner!
Shit swim again…
solid bike & a race run PB.
Will make a proper report later.
30 Likes
You’d be better off doing a recce from Wool to Ilfracombe.
1 Like
Champion !
Fantastic
2 Likes
I managed to HTFU and did the race it turned out just about decent, hardly summer but was mostly dry although the roads were damp in places, barely 15C though 
Swim was half decent after 3 weeks with very little swimming and although I’m not going to worry the fish it confirmed to me that I should have been around 5 minutes faster in Holland a few weeks ago if wasn’t for the sighting and goggle problems. I settled into a pace and generally just cruise round really. Water was supposed to be 17.5 but I wasn’t sure, but I could still feel my hands and feet when I got out most people seem to have clocked it about 60M short and I got out in ~27:15
T1 - haha, I’ve just put poet’s BP through the roof, nearly 4 minutes! and some were about 1! But I’d put my stuff in a rolltop bag at the side of transition to keep dry and had to faff around getting it out, I decided to wear my merino brevet and even had gloves on!
Bike - mixed bag, there’s a few rollers and although the road was decent a lot was fairly slow coarse tarmac, and the stretch alongside Dishforth heading north was hard work into the wind, I knew this was going to be the case and I’ve done plenty of races on that section before. The kit would have cost a good few minutes but I got round in 1:13, AP was 246W which I was fairly pleased with, I didn’t feel like I’d been pushing that hard.
T2 - a bit better but was faffing around again taking the thick top off for a T-shirt, I’m usually quite good in T2 as I can do the postie’s dismount but decided to jog the 200m in my bike shoes as it was across quite a bit of dirt.
Run was strange, felt like I was hardly moving but was putting a bit of effort in, wasn’t much chance of picking it up but I was passing a few and hardly anyone went past. It’s a mixed terrain and ~1/3rd is on either grass, track etc., 45:25 given my recent issues and lack of running was acceptable, and although another 11K would have slowed it was around 1:35/70.3 pace.
Total time was 2:31 but nobody went sub-2 and a couple of splits higher up look very suspicious like a 12:40 swim, that’s about 55s/100 which makes me wonder if he missed some of the course.
Anyway, glad I went and probably as good as I could have expected with current levels of fitness and being a wimp, a decent training session if nothing else.
26 Likes
I headed on down to the edge of Dartmoor with a mate yesterday morning for a recce of the bike and run course for a 70.3 we’ve got in Sept. Originally was planned for May but we both deferred as we were unfit.
I’d pretty much written this race off as just a play date/training day, instead choosing to focus on my ultra in Oct. I’ve been running a fair bit lately, barely been on the bike and zero swimming.
But… was really surprised by the bike course. Despite being pretty lumpy - over 600m elevation per 46km lap - the roads are surprisingly alright. 2 x really steep sections that’ll be tough on a TT bike, but the rest of the course is made for it. Lots of rolling hills that you can carry speed into. Nice breaks of long, steady, untechnical downhill sections to recover before the next hills. Actually not bad surface on the whole - heavy and slow for most, but smooth. Only about 5% of really terrible potholed crap.
We pootled around, not pushing it at all and I had to wait at the top of every hill for my friend and still averaged 27kph.
So all of a sudden I’ve got a bit excited about it again!
Run course is mostly off road. Mixed surfaces with some really crap sections winding through trees on a pointless little switchback section even though it’s not steep at all. It’s pretty lumpy, but glad I’ve recce’d it as I now where I can push and where to just settle in. Will get pretty congested by lap 3, so that’ll likely be frustrating - but it’s not a massive event by any stretch.
Confident that if I don’t overbike on the hills that the run course will play to my strengths. Can just about get away with my Next%s as well as there’s enough tarmac where I’ll make up good ground to offset the short muddy bits.
Quite excited about it now. Obvs not enough to keep swimming every week. But I may take a few dips if time allows!
20 Likes
When and where?