BIKE
‘A’ TARGET – 06:00:00
Skipped through transition on my cleats, as you do. Out to the mount line where it seemed to take forever to clip in to my pedals, pressure on with the masses watching! Clipped in without falling off, gave Jo a wave for the camera and I off I went for a long ride out in the sunshine.
I was looking forward to the bike, its an area I have done a lot of work this year and I just wanted a significant improvement on last years 06:24:xx time. I have done roughly twice as many miles this year and seen my average speed increase a fair bit.
First out round the lake and I went a good half mile before realising I had not lapped my garmin out of transition. Although this did annoy me at first it did get my average speed straight to my travelling speed which sort of helped. Clocking around 21 mph average for the first 5 miles and more than happy. My target pace was around 18-18.5 mph so glad to bank some quicker miles early on. Got going onto the southern loop and towards the first feed station which is run by the pirates. I made sure I finished most of 1 of my high5 bottles so I could ditch the bottle and get a nice clean fresh one.
For my nutrition I was having HIGH5,Jackoat bars x 6 and a bottle filled with 7 gels and topped with water. I had too many gels last year which I think caused my stomach issues on the run. Plan was to have a third of a jackoat bar every 20 mins plus a swig of the gels and high5.The pirate feed station was immense as usual, loads of them everywhere! got my fresh bottle and continued on the way around the southern loop. I was clocking 20.8 mph average still so at this point my focus was to try and keep this pace up for as long as possible. I was hoping that my amateur bike mechanics were going to see me through the route as well. Having had a slight issue with fitting a new chain earlier in the week…
Compared to last year it seemed more spaced out right from the start, I guess thats what happens when you put in a half decent swim time. Seemed to be in and around the same guys with a few quickies coming through – Kevin Dawson being one of them, Wow, immense speed there, went passed like a bullet. I had mentally split the race into 3. Each being the 3 loops. The southern loop seemed to go by pretty quick, saw a few guys with punctures and a dead
rabbit with half its brains spilt across the road, other than this pretty uneventful. The wind picked up on the second half of the loop which did seem to slow me down a little. I was targetting 30 miles to continue hitting 20mph plus, this seemed to happen no problems. Next target was the northern loop and hitting the half way mark in the same speed. I felt if I could do this my 6 hour target would be easily doable. At some point toward the end of the first southern loop I was followed by one of the BTF guys on motorbike. I wasnt drafting but the guy in front was. It annoyed me a lot during the whole ride as I noticed this guy doing it constantly. Off me at one point, really annoying.
Up to the northern loop and a point I was looking forward to – Oxton bank. As some of you know I like riding hills and as this was the ONLY one on the entire course I wanted to storm it. All this time I am thinking try and keep the average up to above 20mph as I wanted it to last as long as I could. Last year I eased off with about 30 miles to go to ‘save my legs’ for the marathon. This as I later found out was a wasted strategy as the marathon is a nightmare however fresh your legs are 😉 On the stretch towards Oxton bank I was overtaken by a number of larger guys, by this I mean they flew past me on a downhill section with their extra weight advantage pushing them along. Then we hit the hill, I stayed in the big ring and flew up it. Overtook at least 15 guys here. Even commenting to one about 2/3rds of the way up to ‘Dig in’ as he was blowing big time 🙂 Obviously they all came flying past again on the long downhill section after the peak but I’d had my moment of fun! Checked speed and average even after the hill hadnt dropped so I was
still ticking along nicely at 20.6 mph average.
I was definitely starting to feel it in my legs at around 60 miles but just thought that I have done the mileage in training and I know what to expect, although at this point I did start to fell some lower back pain. I am thinking this was to do with being down on the bars for so long as the route is predominently flat. I had to keep stretching by getting out of the saddle. This seemed to work ok and gave me about another 10 miles or so before I would feel it again. It was manageable at this stage and I felt with a bit of stretching I would get through without further(serious) issues. The wind started to pick up here toward the end of the northern loop and I knew from how it was on the second half of the southern loop that second time around that would be tough.
Food was going down ok although I was starting to dislike eating, I think eating by time is horrible. You dont want to eat it but if you dont your energy will drop and you feel less inclined to eat and you get worse and then bonk, not good. I forced my food down. The high5 was going down no probs and by the time I hit the southern loop and the pirate feed station again I had finished my gel bottle early. Another banana half helped here to mix it up with the oatbars.
I knew the first half of the souther loop would be quick again and it was, my average was still up at 20.2 mph so I knew with less than 30 miles to go that sub 6 hours was well and truly on for the bike. I started to do mental calculations to pass the time on I could even do 16mph for the last bit and still make it, how slow could I actually go and still get under 6 hours! This loop went pretty quick again, the wind picking up after going through Car Colston for the 4th time. The crowds were good here, definitely a pick up after long long stretches with no support. The final 10 miles were nothing more than a slog. The head wind was a bit of a nightmare, although I have had some practice here as it always seems windy in cheshire when I am out riding. I caught up with the rider in front and no-one seemed to be getting away so felt ok that it was just the wind slowing me down. Final bit past HPP Hall was slow but this has speed bumps etc, pulled into transition and off the bike at the dismount line.
BIKE TIME – 05:43:38
Unbelievably pleased with my bike time. I would have been over the moon with a 05:59:xx but to get considerably under that is amazing. Absolutely made my day. My target was 6 hours but this was my ‘A’ target, I felt I could only achieve this in perfect conditions, which they weren’t but I did anyway…BOOM 🙂
T2
TARGET – 0:05:00
Passed bike over to OSB volunteer and headed back into the change tent. Emptied T2 back onto the floor, helmet/gloves/shoes/sunnies off to be replaced by
pirate visor/different sunnies and trainers. I didnt hang around here and I was off out on the run in 3 mins 47 seconds.
Blue Peter Ironman 