Since the last major outing in Magog, Canada i’ve kept busy with a mixture of cycling, running and triathlon events: –
2nd August – Norwich Parkrun: I went to this hoping for a good time. I ended up with 20:11 for the 5k which wasn’t quite the plan, although still a course PB for me. I was reasonably happy with my effort though as it was uncomfortably humid and i’d had to negotiate my way through the field, with 400 runners present meaning the last lap involved a lot of bobbing and weaving as I lapped people. I finished 18th but got beaten by a guy pushing a kid in a buggy!
6th August – CC Breckland Club 10m TT: I think this was my first time trial of the year – must have been busy doing triathlons or something! It was good to get one in and I think it was even a course PB, although it was a fairly modest time of 25:36 for the single carriage-way out and back course. Great training by the time I rode out and back totalling about 45 miles.
10th of August – National Paratriathlon Championships: As with all the other Paratriathlons this year, the national champs in and around Liverpool’s Albert Docks was run using a factoring system with the B1 (Blind) athletes starting 3:43 ahead. Jack Peasgood was again on guiding duty. After our dodgy bike leg in July’s Magog event we perhaps had a point to prove. We had a decent if not spectacular swim but lost a little time to some of the other guys. Maybe the shear volume of jellyfish we encountered slowed us – they were impressive in number which didn’t make me happy! A fast T1 in the Echo arena put us ahead of Sean Grundy from Wales onto the bike. We had a good ride up to 3/4 distance when I got cramp in my right calf but still took the fastest bike split – normal service resumed? Into T2 and I got cramp in the other calf putting my running shoes on. After sitting on the floor and moaning for a few seconds, I dragged myself up and got going. Coming out of T2 we were about 15 seconds behind Haseeb Ahmad (B1) who was in 3rd having pulled back 3:30 minutes him and his guide. We closed the gap to about 10 seconds, but just before half way around the 5k they must have realised we were stalking them and upped the pace. We tried to match it and gradually pulled them in again to perhaps 7 or 8 seconds. In the end I just couldn’t pull it back though and had to settle for 4th with Dave Ellis overcoming Chris Goodwin for the win.
27th August – CC Breckland Club 10: I hit almost the same time as a few weeks earlier (25:40) albeit on a different course. I quite enjoyed getting in another TT even with the near 30mile warm up (it would have been about 22 but I got a little lost on route through the lanes!). Great preparation for the National TT champs that was coming up however.
30th August – Mulbarton Parkrun: I felt pretty tired but since my parents were visiting I thought i’d take my dad out for a run. I finished 11th after jogging in the last of 3 laps letting other pass without even bothering to contest. Dad on the other hand was first in his age group!
14th September – National time trial championships: With Jack Peasgood piloting the tandem we hit the fastest time by over 5 minutes at the CTT circuit champs (Paracycling) on what was a undulating and technical 20mile course. We ended up with the bronze once factoring was applied to compare times across the impairment categories…not bad I guess and we had a really good work out. I hit an average heart rate of 186 with a max of 195 (which is good as it gets for me) and we topped out at 44.5mph which was fun!
Next up would be the ITU Paratriathlon event in Madrid on 21st September.
Iain