After a great 2013 I had big plans for 2014.
However, I trained too hard too early, got sick and had to bail on the Wilmslow
Half marathon, the Outlaw Half and a bunch of time trials.
I transferred my Ironman entry from Bolton in
July to Mallorca in September. By then I was reasonably fit but not in the
right place to race. I got beat up in the swim & didn’t enjoy the
draft-fest on the bike. After 70km, the lights just went out and I recorded my
first ever DNF.
So after 4 years racing 70.3s and 140.6s, I
decided to take a step back. 2015 was also rather stressful work-wise, so
consistent training fell by the wayside. I got back on the horse in July and
decided that for 2016 I’d re-visit Roth via the Outlaw Half.
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| "We can rebuild him; we have the technology," |
Training: Back end of summer, I re-built some
fitness then started testing and structured training in the Autumn. 3 weeks
easy over XMas and NY, then a solid block leading to a bike camp in March.
Training was going well and my test events
were encouraging. April 3rd, half marathon PB at Wilmslow. May 7th big PB at
the Dukinfield 50m TT. May 21st, 3 km Media City Swim was slow but I put that
down to cold - swim times in the pool were good.
Final prep: So in the build up to the Outlaw
Half I was feeling pretty good. Lighter training the week before. Friday: short
turbo with some hard intervals, pre-race massage, drove down & set up
camp. Saturday: drove around the bike course, big pasta lunch, race briefing,
short run with a few accelerations, got my kit ready then dinner - energy bar
and 4 slices of toast with peanut butter and lots of salt, early to bed.
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| Who is more anxious, me or Gary? |
Awake at 4:15 am, two Clif bars, cup of
coffee & 250ml electrolyte. Trip to the shower block then the final
preparation; sun cream, pump up tires, race kit on. Race venue just over the road
from the camp site so early in transition, nice and relaxed.
The Swim: Air temperature was only 7oC
so once suited up I got cold. But as ever Jacky was on hand with a solution.
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| Swim route |
A few other Man Tri Club mates toed the
starting line; Rich Hyder in wave 1, Simon Granger in wave 2, and Gary
Wolstencroft in the same wave as me;
good to chat to dissipate some
pre-race nerves.
Waves 1 and 2 went off at 6:30 and 6:40. I
watched carefully to see how the starts played out. In the shallow water, it
was pleasantly warm, 17 degrees.
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| Wave 3 |
For the 6:50 wave, I lined up right at the
front but to the extreme far left, near the bank. Great choice, not on the race
line but I had clean water the whole way around. Well, clean apart from the
blue green algae which made it pretty murky.
The 1.9km swim was one anti-clockwise lap of
the rowing lake at Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre. Very well
organised, lots of marker buoys, plenty of safety support and big inflatables
at the turn points. Official swim split 32:53.
It was still cold so T1 and bike mount were
slow, but uneventful. One lap clockwise around the lake then on to the road.
All plain sailing. Now I put the hammer down.
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| Swim done! |
The Bike: the 90km bike takes you out
north-east through Radcliffe-on-Trent then on a northern loop to Oxton and
Southwell. Re-trace your steps then on an eastern loop through Orston before
returning to Holme Pierrepont.
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| Bike route |
Like the swim, organisation was fantastic:
route very clearly marked, key junctions well marshalled and overall traffic
management excellent.
The road surface was pretty good by UK
standards but the organisers had marked out every single pot hole and crack,
apparently using over 12 litres of paint. Quality organisation!
Route largely countryside & the early
Sunday morning roads were quiet, no issues with cars. A few supporters along
the way. Very nice.
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| In the business end of my cassette |
For the geeks part 1 - power rocks: WKO4 currently has my FTP modelled at 232 watts. My normalized
power for the Dukinfield 50m TT was 219W, so my plan for the 90km bike was to
aim for an NP of 210W.
I set my Garmin 510 to show just 4 values: 3
second power, lap NP, heart rate and cadence, as these are the only things I
can control. Take care of these and everything else (time, distance, speed
etc.) takes care itself.
3s power varies considerably but I
set the 510 to auto lap every 10 km and aim to keep the NP value close to my
target without letting 3s power and HR get too high.
I hit 206, 213, 214, 208, 212, 210, 205, and
208 with an overall NP of 209W. Pretty amazing pacing if I say so myself!
I mount my Garmin as far forward as possible
so I only have to drop my eyes to see it, allowing constant surveillance of
both data and the road. And Di2 electronic shifting makes it so easy to keep my
cadence where I want it to be, somewhere in the 80s.
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| Data - yum yum! |
For the geeks part 2 - Aero rules: As described elsewhere, I’ve put a lot of effort into getting my
new bike as clean as possible in aero terms. While I haven’t done any wind
tunnel testing - yet :-) - I love reading about other people’s aero testing,
and a few principles emerge.
No. 1. Textured fabric is faster than skin,
hence the emergence of sleeved trisuits. So I treated myself to a Castelli Free
Sanremo - very nice.
No. 2. Visors rarely test faster than
sunglasses so I ditched the visor on my Giro Air Attack for TT specific Endura specs.
No. 3. Helmets are very position and person
dependent, so while the Air Attack isn’t the most aero option, it doesn’t
create the “shark’s fin” effect when you drop your head.
No. 4. Between The Arms (BTA) is the most
aero position for a water bottle.
No. 5. A bottle right behind the seat and a
bentobox right up against the stem incur minimal drag penalties, so good
locations for spare tire, CO2, multi tool and other emergency bits and pieces.
And finally, I put toe covers on my shoes
which was a godsend as it never got above 8 degrees. But they also offer an
aero advantage - score!
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| Uber clean cockpit |
Bike nutrition: A 500ml BTA
bottle with eight decanted High 5 isogels. 750ml electrolyte on the down tube. Slugged gel every 20 minutes but never touched the electrolyte &
didn’t use either aid station.
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| T2 pretty empty considering I started in wave 3 |
Net effect, carved my way through the field,
constantly overtaking so that when I arrived back in transition it was pretty
empty. Nice! Official split 2:29:55.
The Run: T2, uneventful, feet like
bricks but settled into a good pace, aiming for 4:15 per km.
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| Run route |
Clockwise around the end of the lake, out to
the river, 6km out-and-back, re-join lake, clockwise back to transition,
repeat. Again, organisation fantastic, plenty of aid stations and now a lot
more support. The toe path on the out-and-back was a bit tight, especially on
lap 2 but all good.
Cups of electrolyte at the first few aid
stations and a gel after 8km but that was enough. Saw Simon flash by a couple of times on the
out-and-back, but no time to chat :-)
Nobody overtook me on the bike so when
somebody passed me on the run it got my attention. Turned out to be the then
leader Simon George who was two waves and a lap ahead of me. A bit later
another runner came by looking incredibly strong. That turned out to be Karl
Alexander who mowed down George, and went on to win by just 8 seconds. You can read about their battle here.
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| Feeling good on lap 1 |
Meanwhile, I didn’t know my position but was
confident I must be near the pointy end of my age group. I was holding target
pace pretty well, averaged 4:16 per k for the first half. Then I faded a bit;
average pace for the second half, 4:21 per k.
Somewhere around the 15k mark, a 3rd person
overtook me and drifted off. From his number it was clear he was in my age
group. Turns out that was when I went from 2nd to 3rd in my age group. If I had
known, could I have given chase? Official run split 1:30:53.
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| High-fiving Jacky in the finish shoot |
Post-race: Staggered up to finisher
tent, loads of great food but I had no appetite so watched Rich wolf down his
chilli and rice. Post-race shock started to kick in and I got very cold; felt
terrible, never want to race again. Once again, Jacky to the rescue with my
recovery bag full of warm clothes and protein/carb shake.
Slept like a log that night. Day off on
Monday, easy swim and a spin on Tuesday, massage Wednesday morning then felt
good to resume training by Wednesday evening. Mega-motivated for Roth now!
Bottom line: 36th overall; 3rd in M45-49; 4hrs 38mins total and my fastest ever half.
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| My gong |
