After the Worlds we had a few days in France, stopping off at a couple of places on the way back. The best was Reims where we went on a tour of a champagne house (Mumm) - the sheer size of the cellars was amazing and it was interesting to learn about champagne. We even managed to not give in to the temptation to buy some, although we did buy some cheap wine from the store by the Tunnel!
The first day back I entered IM France, so that will be my main target for 2013. A couple of the group I cycle with (Matt and Andy) have also entered, so that should make the training a bit easier. Looking back at previous years' results, a 9:40 should be good enough to get a Kona spot, although I did a similar analysis before Austria which didn't work! So I think I'll be aiming for 9:30, which will be tough on that course. I'm considering getting a new bike as I don't think either of my bikes (a not very good road bike and a TT bike) are suitable - I'm thinking of something like a Felt AR or equivalent, with some clip-on aerobars. Any advice gratefully received!
Training-wise, the last few weeks have been a bit tricky as I want to cut back a bit, but also need to get some running miles in before the ultra in January. So I've basically been doing my standard "tick-over", and trying to get the weekend long run up to a decent length. So the weeks have looked something like:
Monday - Tri Force swim (hour) with a few miles jog on the way there
Tuesday - Striders track session (usually about 9M in total inc. jog there and back)
Wednesday - Tri Force spinning session (70 mins inc. warm-up), with a couple of miles jog beforehand
Thursday - run with Striders plus a few miles beforehand (so maybe 12M in total)
Friday - easy bike or turbo (hour) or rest
Saturday - long run with Striders (I'm doing extra miles before/after to try to increase this to 25M+ in the next few weeks)
Sunday - ride with the cycling group (3 hours), generally steady except for the hills and the 10 mins leading to the sprint finish!
Doing this standard week I can get in around 12 hours' training without really doing any on my own (just the few miles before and after a couple of the sessions), so it's mentally very easy.
First cross country race of the year on Saturday - we're targeting the Chiltern League this year rather than the Met League, so it will be fun to do some different courses against different opposition.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Duathlon World Champs
I wrote a fairly sustantial race report so thought it might be better to put it in a blog. I may try to use this to post anything that might be of interest to anyone (or it might not), plans for next year etc. Clearly it needs a lot of work....
We (Alex and I) drove down to Nancy early on Friday morning, about 4h30 from Calais so we were there by around 3pm. Given the "interesting" bike loop (5 laps of this), I was keen to ride around the course to check out the corners. So once we'd got our hotel room I got the bike out and went for a quick ride. The problem was that a lot of it was on one-way streets, with the traffic going the wrong way, so I couldn't really test it.
There were loads of paraduathlon and elite races on the Saturday, so spent most of the day sitting outside watching that (para people were amazing, I'm sure one guy was riding faster with one leg than I can with two) and went to the race briefing given by Jez. Also went for a short run with Alex around the run course while watching some of the racing. Run route was also very twisty, particularly as they'd added another very short out and back section with a dead turn as someone had complained it wasn't 10k!
No need to get up early on Sunday as I was racing last at 2:55pm. All the other age group races were starting every 35 minutes over the whole day. Clearly I didn't want to be on my feet the whole day watching, but I did want to watch my clubmate/training partner/friend Tom in the 25-29 AG, particularly as we are a similar standard. He came into T1 level with a French guy in the lead, but the French guy drafted him for a couple of laps on the bike and was subsequently penalised. So Tom came into T2 just behind a GB guy who had won in the past. It looked like he was going to have to settle for silver until the leader stood on a screw which went through his shoe and into his foot! So Tom overtook and became World Champion - I was obviously thrilled for him but I did feel that there was now more pressure on me, even though I was only really aiming for top 10. I tried to relax for the next couple of hours before racking the bike and warming up.
The only competitors I knew anything about in my race were a French guy who is awesome and won by several minutes the year before, and a GB guy called Hugh Mackenzie who easily beat me at the Ballbuster and the National Champs (I beat him in the runs in both races but he beat me on the bike by 4-5 mins). There were about 60 men in my race.
As usual everyone went off pretty fast and I was probably mid-pack after 400m. Over the next km or so I worked my way up until a group of 4 of us were in 2nd-5th place (the French guy was already well ahead, looking around and looking like he wasn't trying). A Brazilian was at the front of the group and kept waving us through as he obviously wanted to not be at the front. So I went through and pushed the pace on a bit for a km or so. Then an Aussie did some time at the front and after halfway there was just me and the Aussie left in 2nd/3rd place. I started to feel more comfortable in the 2nd half after the fast start, but we were still pulling away from the others and the French guy was miles ahead, so I just maintained pace with the Aussie (first mistake!).
So we came into T1 together and I managed to get slightly ahead. Halfway around the first lap he came past me on a small uphill, and I had to work hard to stay with him (not drafting of course!) for the rest of the lap. At this point we were still well clear of the others (and the French guy was way gone) so I figured I would just try to stay with the Aussie (you do get a benefit following someone even if you're not drafting) - second mistake! On the second lap it started to feel much easier, so I guess the Aussie was slowing and my suspicions were confirmed when a German came flying past with a Belgian (well the results say Belgian although he was in French kit!) pretty close behind him. I tried to go with them and in doing so dropped the Aussie (never saw him again), but could not stay with the German/Belgian. I later found out that the German guy was a pro cyclist for BMC, so hardly surprising that he took a few minutes out of me on the bike!
Laps 3 and 4 I was on my own but could see some others closing on me, including Hugh, although I was pretty pleased that I had managed to hold him off for so long. Halfway around the last lap Hugh came past with a French guy, but I comfortably managed to keep them in my sights for the rest of the lap and I felt OK coming into T2 alongside Hugh and the French guy (4th-6th place).
In T2 I overtook Hugh and started the run just behind the French guy. I went past him within 200m and then pulled away pretty quickly. Due to the twisty course I could see the three ahead but after one lap (of 2), 3rd place was still well over a minute ahead, so I knew then that it would be 4th place. I really didn't feel like I was running fast, but turns out I did the fastest second run by 15 secs!
Grabbed a GB flag from Alex with 100m to go and got some big cheers from all the other GB athletes who had raced earlier and were now spectating having already had a few beers!
The rest of the day was spent having a few beers, dinner with Tom and his family (his dad was also racing!) and then some more beers in an Irish pub the GB team had taken over!
Overall a great weekend, really enjoyed the team atmosphere, the venue was great and although the courses were very twisty it meant that spectators could virtually watch the whole race. Plus the twisty bike helped me I think as the uber-bikers could not make up as much time on me as on a dragstrip.
Here are some results if you want to see the splits. Obviously I did check my time against Tom's - he was just under a minute faster, although I'm claiming that was due to the warmer temperature in the afternoon!
Massive thanks to Alex for her support (and the Crouches), and also to Jez for doing a great job as team manager (I previously thought it would be a nice jolly for him but it actually looked like pretty hard work!).
We (Alex and I) drove down to Nancy early on Friday morning, about 4h30 from Calais so we were there by around 3pm. Given the "interesting" bike loop (5 laps of this), I was keen to ride around the course to check out the corners. So once we'd got our hotel room I got the bike out and went for a quick ride. The problem was that a lot of it was on one-way streets, with the traffic going the wrong way, so I couldn't really test it.
 |
| The finish line in Place Stanislas - great location |
There were loads of paraduathlon and elite races on the Saturday, so spent most of the day sitting outside watching that (para people were amazing, I'm sure one guy was riding faster with one leg than I can with two) and went to the race briefing given by Jez. Also went for a short run with Alex around the run course while watching some of the racing. Run route was also very twisty, particularly as they'd added another very short out and back section with a dead turn as someone had complained it wasn't 10k!
No need to get up early on Sunday as I was racing last at 2:55pm. All the other age group races were starting every 35 minutes over the whole day. Clearly I didn't want to be on my feet the whole day watching, but I did want to watch my clubmate/training partner/friend Tom in the 25-29 AG, particularly as we are a similar standard. He came into T1 level with a French guy in the lead, but the French guy drafted him for a couple of laps on the bike and was subsequently penalised. So Tom came into T2 just behind a GB guy who had won in the past. It looked like he was going to have to settle for silver until the leader stood on a screw which went through his shoe and into his foot! So Tom overtook and became World Champion - I was obviously thrilled for him but I did feel that there was now more pressure on me, even though I was only really aiming for top 10. I tried to relax for the next couple of hours before racking the bike and warming up.
 |
| Tom taking the lead on the second run (note Julian Lings' foot!) |
The only competitors I knew anything about in my race were a French guy who is awesome and won by several minutes the year before, and a GB guy called Hugh Mackenzie who easily beat me at the Ballbuster and the National Champs (I beat him in the runs in both races but he beat me on the bike by 4-5 mins). There were about 60 men in my race.
As usual everyone went off pretty fast and I was probably mid-pack after 400m. Over the next km or so I worked my way up until a group of 4 of us were in 2nd-5th place (the French guy was already well ahead, looking around and looking like he wasn't trying). A Brazilian was at the front of the group and kept waving us through as he obviously wanted to not be at the front. So I went through and pushed the pace on a bit for a km or so. Then an Aussie did some time at the front and after halfway there was just me and the Aussie left in 2nd/3rd place. I started to feel more comfortable in the 2nd half after the fast start, but we were still pulling away from the others and the French guy was miles ahead, so I just maintained pace with the Aussie (first mistake!).
 |
| Getting left behind at the start as usual! |
 |
| In the chase pack halfway through the first run |
So we came into T1 together and I managed to get slightly ahead. Halfway around the first lap he came past me on a small uphill, and I had to work hard to stay with him (not drafting of course!) for the rest of the lap. At this point we were still well clear of the others (and the French guy was way gone) so I figured I would just try to stay with the Aussie (you do get a benefit following someone even if you're not drafting) - second mistake! On the second lap it started to feel much easier, so I guess the Aussie was slowing and my suspicions were confirmed when a German came flying past with a Belgian (well the results say Belgian although he was in French kit!) pretty close behind him. I tried to go with them and in doing so dropped the Aussie (never saw him again), but could not stay with the German/Belgian. I later found out that the German guy was a pro cyclist for BMC, so hardly surprising that he took a few minutes out of me on the bike!
 |
| Just been overtaken by the German BMC guy |
 |
| And then the Belgian (?), you can probably see what I'm thinking... |
Laps 3 and 4 I was on my own but could see some others closing on me, including Hugh, although I was pretty pleased that I had managed to hold him off for so long. Halfway around the last lap Hugh came past with a French guy, but I comfortably managed to keep them in my sights for the rest of the lap and I felt OK coming into T2 alongside Hugh and the French guy (4th-6th place).
In T2 I overtook Hugh and started the run just behind the French guy. I went past him within 200m and then pulled away pretty quickly. Due to the twisty course I could see the three ahead but after one lap (of 2), 3rd place was still well over a minute ahead, so I knew then that it would be 4th place. I really didn't feel like I was running fast, but turns out I did the fastest second run by 15 secs!
 |
| Only about 200m to go! |
Grabbed a GB flag from Alex with 100m to go and got some big cheers from all the other GB athletes who had raced earlier and were now spectating having already had a few beers!
 |
| Hot and in some pain! |
Overall a great weekend, really enjoyed the team atmosphere, the venue was great and although the courses were very twisty it meant that spectators could virtually watch the whole race. Plus the twisty bike helped me I think as the uber-bikers could not make up as much time on me as on a dragstrip.
Here are some results if you want to see the splits. Obviously I did check my time against Tom's - he was just under a minute faster, although I'm claiming that was due to the warmer temperature in the afternoon!
Massive thanks to Alex for her support (and the Crouches), and also to Jez for doing a great job as team manager (I previously thought it would be a nice jolly for him but it actually looked like pretty hard work!).
 |
| A hug from a World Champion! |
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