2014 Round up.

2014, Clearly my best year to date......

Proud and excited

I started the year knowing I had qualified for the European Sprint Duathlon championships in Horst, Holland, in April.  This was to be my 'A' race. Training became serious knowing I needed to be on top form.  I also booked a couple of sprint duathlons before this 'A' race as race prep.

Racing face at Oulton Park

 The first was Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon, where I finished 7th female, 3rd in age, qualifying me for the World Sprint Duathlon championships in Pontevedra, Spain, in June. What a great start to the year!










 A week later I did the Mumbles sprint duathlon where I was thrilled to finish 1st female. Both of these events were brilliantly organised and I would definitely do either of these races again.

Winning at the Mumbles

Celebrating post race, Horst, Holland

 I went to Horst feeling excited and up for the race. We had a brilliant weekend, I was so proud to be representing my country and thrilled to finish 3rd British woman in my age group, automatically qualifying me for next years Europeans! Wow, what just happened in my life? I suddenly realised that I wasn't too bad at this running and biking lark.







However, as well as being a du'er I also wanted to be a tri'er as apparently 3 is the magic number. I entered a few triathlons, both open water and pool based, but swimming is by far my weakest discipline. For some reason my coordination and confidence disappear when I'm face down in water. It also makes me feel very isolated within the race situation which I struggle to engage with. I tried swimming lessons, technique sessions etc, but continued to feel more and more frustrated as I didn't get any faster. It was also several more times per week that I had to wash my hair. I did have some success with age group tri, but I couldn't help thinking how much better and happier I was with the extra run instead of a swim.

I had the race of my life at Pontevedra in the World Sprint Duathlon age group championships. I was absolutely elated to win a Bronze medal! Wow, what just happened in my life? I suddenly realised that I wasn't too bad at this running and biking lark.

ABSOLUTELY ELATED at Pontevedra!

Confirming myEuropean placement finishing strong in the Althorp duathlon

 I continued the season competing in both duathlon and triathlon. However, after a few tri's I decided to have a go at standard distance duathlon after having made the decision to focus on being a duathlete. My first standard distance duathlon was Oulton park, where I raced well, and finished strong as 5th female overall, 2nd in age, qualifying me for the European standard distance duathlon championships in Alcobendas, Spain, April 2015. Hooray!! Just to prove to myself that this wasn't a fluke, I did a second qualifier 2 weeks later at Althorp estate where once again I raced well, achieving 2nd in age, 6th female overall...confirming to myself that I had earned my place for the GBR team in Spain. Wow, what just happened in my life? I started to believe that I wasn't too bad at this running and biking lark.

All of this racing and training requires a lot of fuelling for my needy body! I rely a lot on Soreen malt loaf for pre training energy snacks and those 'Hangry' moments! USN for  energy and hydration on the bike, and Cherry active for post workout/race muscle recovery.
So I now have to make a decision...the 2015 sprint and standard distance European championships are both to be held at the same venue on the same day.......sprint, or standard? Decisions decisions..

Representing Great Britain has been incredible. What a feeling. After having experienced it twice this year all I know is that I want to do it again, and again. I intend to be at the Europeans next year, the Worlds unfortunately are out of my reach literally. Even though I have pre qualified for the sprint distance, alas, they are being held in Adelaide, Australia. The budget doesn't go near!!

Smiling post fall, not realising how long recovery was going to take

Unfortunately, 2014 did not all go completely smooth. In July I took the mother of all running falls on the Malvern hills. Six stitches in my elbow and a nasty infection which took me the best part of 6 weeks to recover from. Training was put on hold and I was climbing the walls ... Virtually..... obviously.



 I have to say that there is no way I would have succeeded in my 2014 races if it wasn't for the massive amount of love, help and support I get from my partner Ron, who also happens to be my bike mechanic, bike cleaner,  route planner and cycling buddie. I also receive a huge amount of help from Neill, who structures my training and keeps my body in good working order by way of sports massage. One of the companies I work for, Malvern Spa, kindly paid for me to fly my bike out to Spain for the world championships, and  a huge THANK YOU goes out to Viv Nelson and John Mortimer of Nelson training who very kindly gave me a generous amount of sponsorship money enabling me to go to the World championships. I had the time of my life and was so proud to win that Bronze medal.

The year has come to a close and last week was the Malvern triathlon club Christmas meal and awards evening. I was so honoured and happy to receive an award for 'Performance of the year' for my Bronze medal at the World championships. It was lovely to know that club members recognised my acheivment and had voted for me.  I received a certificate and a voucher to Echelon cycles of Pershore. Thank you so much Malvern Tri Club :-) rounding off my year nicely.
2014 is going to be tough to match, but trust me, I am going to give it my best and have a go! Let training commence :-)



2014 stats:
Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon                                                    7th Female, 3rd in age
The Mumbles Sprint Duathlon                                                 1st female
European Sprint Duathlon Championships, Horst, Holland:   5th in age, 3rd British female.
Lydney First Triathlon (pool,sprint):                                        1st female
Grendon Sprint Triathlon (open water):                                   20th female, 2nd in age.
World Sprint Duathlon championships, Pontevedra, Spain:    Bronze medalist.
Southport Marine Lake sprint triathlon (open water):              26th female, 3rd in age
Bourton sprint triathlon (pool):                                                1st female
Upton upon Severn sprint triathlon (open water):                   2nd female, first in age.
Oulton Park standard distance duathlon:                                 5th female, 2nd in age
Althorp House standard distance duathlon:                             6th female, 2nd in age.

Althorp standard distance duathlon 2014

Last race of the season for me, it was a qualifier for the European standard distance duathlon 2014 and I had it booked as a second shot at qualifying just in case it didn't happen at Oulton a fortnight ago. I qualified at Oulton but decided to do Althorp for the fun of it anyway!.

NB Althorp is the only venue I have ever done an event where they have lavatories instead of toilets.

'On your marks events' were the race organisers and they had several races on at today's event... a 5k run, a 10k run, a sprint duathlon and a standard distance duathlon....I can't help feeling that maybe on this occasion it was a couple of events too many for the allotted marshals and facilities available on the day.

Positives
Althorp estate is beautiful, that goes without saying. The setting was lovely. The routes were great.

The first run started in front of Althorp House, the lovely route was mixed terrain, through an off road tree lined avenue, a churchyard, a couple of tiny villages/hamlets, and off road again on the old carriage way to Althorp house. Two laps for the standard.

The bike was very gently undulating on mostly quiet roads with some great fast riding in places, however one extremely muddy slippery road slowed us (me) down a bit. (Twice, as it was 2 laps for the standard) but we were warned about this at the race briefing so it came as no surprise and other than rider and bike getting absolutely filthy (#dirtyfast) it was no bother if you were careful....however I have no idea what I might have swallowed when drinking from my water bottle....

This was not an off road cycle event!!#dirtybike

The final run was one lap of the first run route. It was a bit tougher third time around! The carriage way was tricky, slippery up the middle and grass a bit too long on the verge. Hadn't really noticed that on the first run! #tiredlegs

Conditions were not great, it was unseasonably warm, overcast for most of the event, windy, with a bit of rain. The roads were filthy. I had a bit of bad luck at a staggered junction where I had to wait for a few cars and  a really annoying bit where a landrover decided to overtake me on a fast decent, then decided to stop in front of me to let 2 pedestrians cross the road!!!

 Having said all that I really enjoyed both runs and the bike. I had a great race. I finished 6th female and 2nd in age so would've qualified for the 2015 Europeans in Alcobendas, Spain, again....it always feels good to confirm it :-)

Again.....This was not an off road event! #dirtylegs

I did the sprint distance last year and again really enjoyed it, the event was very well organised. However race HQ, transition, plus the start and finish were in a different area of the estate....a big field. There was a butty waggon for food and hot drinks. A marquee for registration, big enough for participants/supporters to shelter in. There was a good feeling of people milling around before and after the race.

Negatives
This year it was lovely to start in front of the house, but the whole area was really cramped. The start waves were switched around at the very last minute...my race was due to start at 9.51, the last wave of the day, at the very last minute it was switched to the first wave of the day..9.45. This resulted in some participants starting in the wrong wave.
When coming in from the bike course, the signage seemed unnoticeable...I didn't notice it as I rode past it for my second lap, and clarified with another rider that we had just past the turn in to the finish and were we on our second lap?. Several sprint distances riders had missed the turn and were coming back in the opposite direction, so I was confused by this at the time before I realised what was going on.
When going out on the second run it was really congested with the sprint distance participants and their families strolling back up the course towards the parking area having finished their race.  A couple of times I had to shout out 'runners in both directions coming' as  many of the people exiting the venue were taking up the whole path. There were no marshalls pointing people in the right direction or keeping the congestion at bay.
When crossing the finish line it was almost an immediate stop as there were athletes standing around in what was a really small area. There was no marshal or anybody filtering you through to water etc. Nobody taking our chips off.  Everybody seemed penned in with no clear way out. Finish times and positions were immediately available from the timing tent though which was a positive but of course this meant a big queue in the finish area. There were bananas and oranges and water, greatly received thank you, and then there was a table full of travel mugs...it wasn't clear if they were for us or not! I didn't take one!
There seemed nowhere to go after the event. No butty waggon or coffee. It was a little bit of an anti climax to what was generally a great event but which was let down by a few key points.  I really think On yours marks events need to brush up on a few key points if they intend to host a BTF qualifying event in the future.
After a couple of photos with my friends from our Tri club (Lisa and Rob Hurley) we collected everything from transition and came home.

All say 'Alcobendas'

Oulton park standard distance duathlon

This was my 'A' race for the end of season.
I wanted to qualify for the European standard distance duathlon championships in 2015.
The race was a late start ... 1pm.
Late start Plus points: 1)spend the night before at home and go to bed at normal time. 2)Get up on race morning at a reasonable time.
Late start Negative points: 1)How much do I eat and when do I eat it? 2)Waiting.

We left home at 8am and I had consumed 2 pieces of toasty malt loaf and a very strong cup of coffee. The only food I had packed in my bag was 3 vooma gels and a cliff bar. I can't believe I had overlooked real food. We stopped at the motorway services and picked up a sandwich!
We arrived in good time, bike set up, number tattoos in place, bike and run warm up, transition set up...smooth.
After briefing we were on the track for a few minutes warm up before the start.
This distance was 2 laps of the track first run, 9 laps of the track for the bike, 1 final lap run.
My biggest and only fear for the day was counting the laps.
Nine.
9.
One more than 8
One less than 10.
I hate numbers. In my other life as a group exercise/exercise to music instructor I only need to count in multiples of 8!
Numbers....munbers. Not for me! #panic

After racing sprint du's and tri's, this distance gave me new issues. When I race a sprint I basically go out all guns blazing and just do everything as dirty fast as I can. This distance required some planning.
I held back on the first run, just a bit. Not wanting to burn out too soon. I used my garmin and kept to my own planned pace.
The bike was great....no braking and pretty much tri bars all the way. A dream come true. Oulton park is not a flat track....banked hairpins, a  couple of rises, some flat outs...great fun. Ride your bike like you're ten years old type of riding!
So how did I cope with counting? I didn't. I went with one of the suggestions on the race notes....use letters of the alphabet instead of numbers ! Bingo! I can do that. Think of words beginning with A, B,C etc all the way to I. It worked a treat. I tried to thing of positive words...'Amazing, Boom, Catch, Drive, Energy, Fly, Gain, Hooray!, Inspiration. I coupled this with the idea of thinking of swear/rude words to match the letters too ! I will spare you the details, but It worked.
Whilst cycling round the track a chap came surging past me and called out to me 'Nice bike'....I suppose he thought this was a compliment, however I couldn't help thinking that clearly gone are the days of me hearing 'nice bum' whilst racing!
I came into T2 feeling strong.  I ran the final run comfortably, and crossed the finish line in good form.

Smiling at the finish :-)

I finished 5th female. Happy with that. Then realised a little bonus when I picked up my splits from the timing tent. I was first in age category (45-49) however, really I was second, as Louella O'Herlihy is in my age group but she finished first female overall. StuWeb timing take the first 3 finishers (male and female) out of the age group rankings! Cool, a podium picture and an 'Extra mile events' mug to take home. But best result for me today, qualification for the Europeans.

They put the male 45/49 first prize winner on the lower step of the podium so we looked more attractive on camera  :-) #cheers

Great event, great organisation, best of all great track to ride your bike around....However, don't go for the scenery, go for the feel! 

Worcester city 10K and Run Bike Run

Events of the North  conquer the midlands!
Yes, Josie Cram and her team hosted the fantastic inaugral Worcester City 10k and Run Bike Run on Sunday 21st September.
I heard a lot of locals expressing their thoughts on this event early on saying that they wouldn't enter as the entry fee was too expensive to run/ride streets that they can use anytime they like for free. Well, as time went on I think some of these people soon realised that if they didn't enter they would be missing out on something special. The hype grew once Paula Radcliffe announced that she would be racing the 10k, her first race for 2 years. Now this was something special, us locals had the chance to line up next to the worlds fastest female marathon runner and run around our local streets traffic free. The entries came flooding in.

I had entered the run bike run. It was timed perfectly for a practice session for a later planned race I was targeting with my training. However, my fall earlier in the season delayed training and we decided that I was to only run the 10k at the Worcester City event. This gave my colleagues, Kirk and Andy, from Runaround Sports (one of the event partners) the opportunity to enter the event with me as a relay. Great. Kirk hadn't raced for 2 years due to injury from being knocked off his bike. Andy had been running 100 mile events for 2 years ! I hadn't raced a stand alone 10k for 2 years. So, we were excited. And competitive. To say the least!

Race day, perfect weather. Plenty of parking and room at the Racecourse. Bodies everywhere, novices to GBR athletes. Not to mention Paula and a couple of runners who had travelled from Kenya.
I started the 10k strong and stayed strong. I paced it well, ran my own race, heard my name called from the thousands of people spectating. Worcester Bridge was incredible. We ran over it 3 times, the noise and cheers from the crowds were fantastic. So motivating. What a great route. Fab to run past the shop and see Oli supporting and blasting out the run faster tunes for us! Love the helium balloons :-) Running along the river was beautiful, rowers had stopped to watch. It seemed the whole city was behind this. The local running group, Black Pear Joggers, were out in force running and marshaling. They did a great job.

Sprinting for muffin.

I sprinted to transition to hand over to Kirk who was well prepared for racing the 35k bike route...Whilst he was out there I took a little time out to have a coffee in the VIP hospitality! Perks of working for one of the event partners :-) Whilst up there I had a great view of prize giving for the 10k. Wonderful to see local girl Jenny Nesbitt win the race, she must've been over the moon. (Nineteen years old, first 10k race, beats Paula Radcliffe! Good luck to Jenny for her future running career.)I then gave a little interview to Hospital radio! and had a muffin. Whilst Kirk was out bombing around the countryside, and I had been swanning around, Andy was taking a 1 hour warm up...and psyching out the opposition ;-) Kirk came in, he had given it the beans and came home with no beans left to give. Fantastic.

No beans left to give.

He handed over to Andy, who shot off like a hare. Boy that man can run!

The Hare is on the track...

We finished in 3rd place (relay). We were chuffed to bits. Our splits...41.53, 1.09.02, 17.49. Think we were all happy with those. We didn't let each other down! Technical T shirts and medals all round, Podium pics with Paula and £150 prize money to share ! What a fantastic day. What a fantastic result.

Team runaround with Paula and Isla Radcliffe podium pic.

I had a little word with Isla, and told her we share a birthday! Along with Mohamad Ali! Yes, I'm easily pleased :-)

Events of the North have put Worcester on the map, and we salute them for it.
Thank you Josie, Rebecca and Marcus. And all your team. Thanks to Worcester City for getting behind the event.
Do not miss this one next year.

Back in the pain cave with a little help from USN.

Hooray! Training seems to be back on track.
I am back in the familiar zone of the pain cave, the hard effort of a duathlon training schedule and can honestly say running and cycling never felt so good, especially in this late summer sun we've had here in the midlands. I am also back to participating in most of the ten classes per week (no aquafit for me ;-)) that I teach and back to eating us out of house and home.

I try to eat a healthy diet of fresh vegetables, chicken, fish, brown rice and fruit most days, however because some of my classes and sessions fall back to back I do feel the need to use protein shakes between some heavy sessions as real food is not always an option.

This week in between a 3 and a half hour hilly bike ride and teaching BodyPump I tried out USNs 100% Whey Protein premium., Banana flavour.  It has 24g of protein per 34g serving and can be used before or after exercise to help grow, maintain and repair lean muscle mass. It is just one product available from  USNs Core muscle range.
I used a USN shaker to blend the powder with 200ml of cold water.  The powder mixed quickly and easily and left no lumps. I did find the texture a little waxy, but maybe that was more to do with the banana flavour. (I love bananas, but not overly keen on banana flavoured things!) The product was thin and easy to swallow. It did not leave me bloated at all, some shakes imediately make me burpy!! but not this one. The product did not sit heavy in the stomach at all, I was able to get straight on with more exercise without flagging, feeling hungry, or having an uncomfortable bloating feeling.

Thats it for now, must get back on board the Pain Train, destination Pain Cave.

Here is a picture I took on one of my training sessions this week whilst running on the beautiful Malvern Hills. So nice to be back up there running.

Peak District cycling weekend

Our summer break this year was a weekend cycling in the Peak District... Perfect! Who needs sun, sea, sand and anything else beginning with S when you've got Winnat's Pass and Mam Nick calling?

I've never been to the Peak District, I have no idea why! It's magnificent , a cyclists Mecca. 

We arrived at our B & B, Merman Barn, Tideswell, at about 1:15pm. By 1:30pm we were on our bikes, we'll unpack the car later! No time to waste, I wanted to try and get up Winnats straight away!

We took a tootle for a few miles for a warm up. Met a cyclist doing similar. We pretty much arrived at the foot of Winnats together. 'Whats it like?' We asked, stupidly.

'Have you not done it before?'

'No.'

'it's easy'

He had a 30t sprocket on his rear cassette,  My easiest gearing was 34 x 25. Luckily I didn't know this at the time.

I started climbing, What can I say? 'OMG.' 'Oh my god.' 'Godddddddd.'

It just gets steeper. You can't see the top for ages. I could see 2 cyclists up ahead. Their image kept me going ('I think one is a woman, if she's doing it, I can do it') totally illogical, but it helped.  The traffic was busier than I expected. It was so hard I really had to give myself a good talking to. I nearly bailed out twice, it was a life changing moment, do or die. If i did a controlled fall to the left I would have landed on my still healing elbow, if I fell to the right I would've been under a car. I had no choice. A couple of times I nearly fell backwards, I could feel the front wheel lifting. The back wheel was spinning. I couldn't hold a straight line. I'm sure it was so steep that  My feet were way back in my shoes! They felt too big all of a Sudden. I tried to think what was hurting the most, my quads were burning, my heart was banging, I felt sick, I could taste metal, I have never ever pushed this hard ( oh hang on, maybe I have, one of my babies was 10lb) . I pushed on and somehow made it to the top, a severe case of mind over matter and had pulled it off.  I made sure I went around the corner a bit as I didn't want to miss out on where the strava segment finished! The guy with the 30t was a few minutes behind me... Lightweight ;-) I took a moment up top to take in what just happened, what a sense of achievement, I had inspired myself here, I felt great. I returned down the same way as the weather was closing in and this would be our quicker  route back to .Merman Barn B & B.

Me, Near Blue John Cavern after conquering Winnats Pass.

The next day we took it steady early on and enjoyed an easy ride in the beautiful Derwent  valley, 

and around the reservoirs, although the last bit from Slippery stones was only going to assesable with mountain bikes so we doubled back. We continued through Edale  valley, refuelled with sandwiches and coffee at The Rambler pub and then hit Mam Nic. After yesterday's efforts of Winnats this was great. A really enjoyable climb, tough, but far more achievable. The views are spectacular. We finished with a windy ride back to the B and B taking in a few more accents/descents! We earned our dinner that night.  Fab meal at The Red Lion, Litton, washed down with a couple of lagers.

Over 6000ft of climbing in only 69 miles over 2 days! Fantastic.
I loved this weekend. #legs #hills #food
I thoroughly recommend The Merman Barn B & B, Linda is the perfect host. I thoruoughly recommend The Red Lion at Litton for great pub grub. I recommend USN products for energy on the go, these rides I used Vooma Gels, CytoPowerHP and Epic Pro. I thouroughly recommend the Peack District for Cycling. Although next time I may opt for slightly easier gearing!

Back in the saddle

Hooray! 2 weeks post fall and the nurse gives me the all clear to try a little cycle.. Now, I hope she wasn't picturing me on a Raleigh shopper complete with basket and poodle trundling off to the shops! Road bike out, 50k ride done. Picked up a Strava QOM, fab. Job done. In all seriousness though I didn't push it. It was just great to be back in the saddle and out in the countryside again.

Back in the saddle Selfie, complete with my photobombing bike mechanic !

I'm still not quite over it, have 2 more visits to the nurse booked this week. The infection seems to have gone but the wound isn't healing. Probably because of the location of it, ie right across the elbow. This is why I'm not running or BodyPumping yet, the constant bending of the elbow. But, if I'm careful things can only get better.Worcester City run bike run in September is looking unlikely, but hopefully I should get enough training in for Oulton Park duathlon. Watch this space.