Mid Week Racing

A long weekend is one of the rare times I feel like I can have my cake and eat it too. In this case get in some great training and have enough time to enjoy the weekend. Terry has started a Saturday morning coached session in Hampstead Lido which is a very reasonable 9:30 start for a hard hour of swimming. The lido is even starting to warm up from the 10 degrees it was a few weeks back and I would even go as far to say it is ‘pleasant’. If only my Aussie based friends could hear me say that. There was a time I wouldn’t get in the water unless it was at least 25 degrees.
On Sunday The Dutchman and I met a friend in Stevenage and went and did our 100km loop around the country lanes. It is very deceiving how tough the ride is as it is short sharp hills and never flat. As our friend is from Cambridge we rode back with him and did some sight seeing in the beautiful sunshine. One of the punters on the river even obliged and fell in whilst we were watching. He was a good sport and very entertaining.

The purpose of the ride on Sunday was to bed in a new cassette in preparation for this weeks 100 mile Challenge in the Chilterns. It isn’t going to be easy and there was no way I was going to be able to cope with the larger gears I normally have on the Kiron Scandium. I have managed to recruit a few guys to protect me for the ride so my plan is to stay tucked in behind them and hold on for dear life! I am really looking forward to it, but made the mistake of looking at the ride profile. I generally avoid looking at things like that because then I just think about it and how hard it is going to be. The thing is, I am going to ride it regardless and in my case ignorance is bliss when it comes to nasty climbs. I will be in my Wiggle jersey so please do say hello if you are also out there doing the ride. Also feel free to give me a little push along, or even better hook a bungee cord onto the front of my bike and drag me along behind you.
I decided Monday was going to be an easier day as I am racing on Wednesday night out at Dorney Lake in a sprint tri (750m, 20km, 5km) and my legs are not really recovering very quickly at the moment. I had 2 sessions of plyometrics (lots of jumping, step ups, star jumps and explosive exercises) last week and I can still feel it so decided to just do an hour on the Focus Izalco Chrono around Regents Park more to test getting in and out of my tri shoes whilst riding. I can just see me having to ride the entire bike leg with my feet on my shoes because I’m not co-ordinated enough to get my feet in before the end of the race. I think it is safe to say I won’t be attempting that at Wednesday’s race. Respect to anyone who has mastered that skill, I need to sign up for transition 101 training I think.
I am feeling very positive about my training at the moment and really loving that I can race so much more frequently doing short distance races having stepped back from Ironman distance. Next Monday I have signed up for a 5km race in Battersea Park and will be leading a guy called Chris who is blind. I think it is incredibly inspirational that Chris took up running 11 months ago and he is racing doing really great times. Hopefully it really will be me leading Chris around and me not being dragged around by him which could cause a few problems :)
So, for those of you out there wanting a bit of short course mid week action there is plenty of it going on at the moment.5km Monday night races in Battersea Park. There is also a mix of shorter and longer distance races all at a very reasonable entry fee. www.srichinmoyraces.org/uk/races/london/ 220 Evening Triathlon Series on the last Wednesday of the month. This week’s on the 27th May is still open and they are taking entries on the day. www.humanrace.co.uk If you are based near Hammersmith and want to run with a bunch of other people at lunch time I have kicked off a Wednesday 12:30 5km time trial along the river from Hammersmith bridge to Putney bridge and back. This starts on the 3rd June and please do get in touch if you are interested. Twitter: IronCaro.
Happy training.Cx