Category: News Archive 2012

Groundhog Day. The Stratford Tri.

Sunday morning I awoke to find myself setting up in transition- again! This is just like Saturday morning! Whoa! What’s going on? My mind raced. It took me a while to calm down and look logically at the possibilities:

1. I had fallen through a wormhole in space and it was in fact yesterday. (unlikely)
2. Drugs (unlikely unless beer counts)
3. The really far out possibility that I had done something really stupid and entered races on consecutive days (impossible)

I decided that it was most likely that I had copped a dodgy mushroom omelette and was in fact hallucinating wildly. Best to go along with it I decided. My theory was a little undermined when I encountered a couple of other MVHers: Nick and Crocko, who seemed to be sharing my trip. They too looked a little confused and were convinced that they had been in transition the day before. I was reassured to meet some other MVHers namely James, Angus, Gemma, Phil and Alex who seemed to be having no trouble whatsoever with the day’s proceedings.

In contrast to the previous day, it was sunny and only a little breezy. To start off we had a pool swim. Haven’t done one of those for a while I thought and slid in ready for my start. The start was at the deep end, something I had failed to notice, so instead of the water being below nipple- height as I had expected, I plunged to the bottom and would have had to put my nipples on the end of a long stick to keep them dry.

“Go!” I was off. A bit of a weird swim (the mushrooms again I think), only twelve lengths and I’m sure I finished in a different lane to the one I started in. Onto the bike-big crowds cheering everybody, I was spurred on to a fast start only to stop at a pedestrian crossing to let an old lady cross with her shopping trolley. “Good luck boys!” she croaked throwing her dentures into the air in support. Nice one! Even Wiggo doesn’t get that. For a change it was a reasonably flat course and the breeze didn’t seem to cause many problems. It may even have been a tailwind. That is until a stretch of dual carriageway where it was definitely uphill and definitely a headwind.

A fast descent into Stratford centre, T2 then out for the run. The mushrooms seemed to have worn off and everything is normal: ie I’m running like I’m trying to keep a high five gel warm between my bum cheeks. Then, “Whoa!” the ‘shrooms struck back. The running trail was suddenly lined with rows of miniaturised soldiers showing me the way. Either that, or I’ve grown huge on the bike. I ignore this hallucination, thank the tiny soldiers and on to the finish where mercifully the crowd are normal sized.

The MVH collective decided that this tri is well-worth entering and is well suited to the beginner. It’s well supported, well organised, the bike isn’t too taxing and the run is really rather pleasant. The swim is a little odd with the lane changes, but this can be a positive as you don’t find yourself continually swimming with psycho-swimmer or even worse, the breaststroker. The novices competing all put in very creditable performances: the rest of us should be aware that there will be some strong challengers coming up through the ranks in the next year or so.

Top tips for this race:

1. Stay off the mushrooms
2. Don’t enter races on consecutive days
3. Nick, always talc your shoes or some old guy might beat you by 18 seconds.

Jonny Fitton
MVH’s serial journo – the singularly long haired triathlete

Clumber Duathlon May 11th

Definitely no snow now, though a brisk blustery wind was blowing strong enough to ruffle the “bouffants” of the select band of MVHers who had dragged themselves out of the pit on Saturday morning. (Have I mentioned before that as a club we have great hair?)

Before we proceed the editor of the website-aka “The Highlander” has hinted that a bit more factual content might be relevant in these reports. So be it then. To celebrate the great news that the new “STAR WARS” movie is to be shot in the UK, this report was to have had a “STAR WARS” theme. I’m writing this so I was going to be Han Solo, naturally, but no more. John; no Chewbacca costume for you, sorry. Mick, Lynn; dead ringers for Luke and Princess Leia, I know, but we have our orders. Crocko, Nick; as far as I was concerned you were Darth Vader and Darth Maul. Great method acting guys. Alex and Sylvia; Put away your light sabres you Jedi.

Back to the race. There were two races: The sprint- 5k run, 20k bike, 2.5k run, and the classic- 10k run, 40k bike, 5k run. A little bit of confusion was present at the start of the more senior gentlemen, Am I in the right place? How old am I? Do I need to go again? Then, honk! We were off.

There were some fast runners across all age groups and the pack got thinned out quite quickly. The track was undulating and passed through over a bridge and up through the woods. Very pleasant and nicely sheltered from the wind and lots of Ewoks to cheer us on.
Into transition and into our X-wing fighters or “Bikes” as they are called in a galaxy far, far away. (OK Colin, I’ll stop it now.) The bike course consisted of rolling hills with few flat bits for sustained head-down speed. It was particularly galling to find a great downhill section where the course turned back into the park, only to discover the strong headwind meant you had to pedal hard downhill to maintain speed

Out of T2 and into the second run. There was tumultuous applause from the gathered spectators in appreciation of our mass impersonation of C3PO running for the last Portalloo with paper. Cramping seems to be a problem for many during duathlons myself included, however all thoughts of pain vanished as we saw the line and used the force in our sprint for the finish.
We all got a fleecy hat! Brilliant! But no cup of tea! Boo! However, I can thoroughly recommend this race, and duathlons in general as good toughen-up races at the start of the season, and you don’t have to get wet.

Go MVH!

Jonny Fitton

 

 

MVH-er Alex Wong has not long returned from competing in the half ironman extravaganza that is Mallorca IM 70.3.

Alex provides an insight into what this triathlon meant for a humble triathlete.

It should have been done. Finished. I had reached my destination. Couch and severe obesity to Ironman in three years. I’d splashed, stomped and plodded my way around 140.6 miles in Tenby, got my medal and got the ink. It was time to retire from this mad pursuit and revert to some more sensible priorities. Then the doubts crept in. What if Ironman Wales was a fluke? What if I never achieved anything harder? Before I knew it, I’d signed up for IM Mallorca 70.3, Isle of Man TT Tri and IM Wales again for 2013. When reflecting on these entries, i reached the only logical conclusion which is that I am an idiot.

So, Ironman Mallorca 70.3. Well I’d done some swimming, quite a lot of biking, and very little running in the 7 months leading up to this. Well almost none at all if I’m honest. 27km in 7 months! If I was the sort of person interested in beating my PB then I was about as ill prepared as was possible, but I only really do this for the satisfaction of finishing and maintaining some fitness. I was also a bit curious as to how far ill placed self belief can get you. I didn’t think I could do well, but I believed I could finish.

I was relieved that the swim felt ok. As usual I veered off to the left a bit as I swam but it settled into a steady rhythm soon enough. As I wasn’t feeling confident, I kept looking at all the swimmers in front of me and after a while, nobody was coming past. I started to think I was last and that the cut off might be a problem. I was mighty relieved to get out tof the water at a respectable 43 mins.

The bike was fun. My cousin who was doing his first 70.3 swims faster than me but I thought I might catch him on the bike. He left the water 8 mins in front of me. The first section was along a gorgeous coastal road. At Polenca, the route turns inland and along some dual carriageway which later becomes a country road. It’s at that point you start to notice this huge enormous towering mountain in looming in front of you. OK I might be exaggerating a bit, but it looked pretty formidable. Quite suddenly you hit the climb. I got into the small chainring and second biggest rear cog and started dragging myself up. On the way I was cursing my inability to lose some weight since my initial 3 stone weight loss 3 years ago. (I could do with losing 2 more to get my BMI where it should be). Having one gear in hand was a psychological luxury that I soon lost by about a third of the way up. Half way up, the climb eased and there was even the odd flattish bit to recover. The second half of the climb seemed easier. The view was also spectacular and nearly enough to take your mind off the suffering. When I got to the left turn a the top, I was definitely glad the climbing was over. The descent was hugely fun and technical and I passed a few skinny fast climbers who passed me on the ascent. Weight does have some advantages, particularly when gravity is part of the power bringing you down. The rest of the ride was reasonably flat and fast but by the end I was getting cramp in my thighs. That was annoying and I started shouting at them daring the b*****ds to seize up. Triathlon does have this ability to bring the looney out in most sane people. Fortunately they didn’t seize and I got into transitition now only 3 mins behind my cousin.

Running with legs on the edge of cramp isn’t really fun or in any way enjoyable, but I kind of felt I deserved it for not doing any running training. So I started running with what can only really be described as the shuffle of shame.  It was seriously hot by this time and that feeling of impending cramp just didn’t fade. I also made the mistake of taking a powerbar gel. I didn’t get on with these at all at Wimbleball and their rather unfortunate nausea inducing qualities were soon brought sharply to mind when I had one. All things considered I was amazed to cross the line at all, even if it did take 2hrs 39mins to cover the 13 miles.

So what did I learn. Well Mallorca is a fabulous place to swim, bike or run and I’d certainly recommend the event to anybody considering a 70.3 or a training “holiday”. I also found that self belief can indeed carry you through a degree of lack of fitness, but not putting in the hours makes the day a lot more slow and painful! Oh and also that I really want to go back to Wales to remind myself what real suffering is. As I had already concluded, I am indeed an idiot.

Alex Wong