Richmond 10k race report

What a great weekend of doing exiting sport and watching boring sport.

Saturday we went off to do some open water swimming in Shepperton about 30km west of Colliers Wood. It's a new swim spot and is open from 09:00 -11:00 which is a lot more palatable than 07:00 - 09:00 of most other spots. Getting up at 06:00 on a Saturday when you don't have a race just seems wrong. It was Natale's first foray into OWS and she did exceptionally well even though there was some complaining about goggle compatibility to start ;-)

The afternoon was spent watching the shitest rugby game in history where the boks almost bored the English to death or visa versa, I can't remember as I was slipping in and out of a coma. 

Sunday we did the club race - Richmond 10k - which was a rather tough considering it was pretty flat. We both ran PBs though so one can't complain and Natale had an exceptionally good run and SMASHED her  PB by about 5 minutes. Well done BossLady!

Natale: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/VCTFZUQSBSX7AUJ5JBVPGKCIMQ 

Ryan: Tri - Week 16 RACE run by ryanosaurus at Garmin Connect - Details

Sunday afternoon was spent chilling in the pub with the Chasers talking about Ironman and then watching another boring sporting event, England v Italy soccer..zzzzzzz.

No racing this weekend but if the weather is good I reckon another trip to the lake. 

Dambuster Triathlon

What a brilliant weekend. 

Friday we drove up to Rutland Waters near Leicester with a car packed full of Tri gear, 2 bikes and four sports fanatics. We gave one of the Chasers & her boyfriend (Naomi & Nico) a lift up with us so Hansie was packed solid. 

We arrived at 18:00 on Friday evening to find it blowing a gale. The wind was so hectic that the race organisers were threatening to cancel the swim and turn it into a duathlon. Boo!!! That would haver sucked as we all came to do a triathlon. But what can you do besides wait and see. So off we went for a brilliant Italian dinner with 8 of the Clapham Chasers in a tiny little town & I even had a beer or two. 

Saturday morning we got up at 05:00 and the wind had abated a bit. So we had coffee, some breakfast and made our way to the race. Swim was back on but shortened to 1km as the water temp was only 11 degrees. That's cold believe me. It is a BTF rule to reduce the swim if the water is too cold and this was a good thing as you were numb when you exited the water. I had a really good race except for T1 as I couldn't get my wetsuit off for the second race in a row. My swim was good again but I really worked on the bike and run and improved those hugely. As it was a qualifier the level was really pro so I am happy with 32nd in my age group. 

00:16:05 00:02:29 01:19:39 00:01:09 00:40:54 Total: 2:20:18 

Race was followed by a nice mellow pub lunch and then my lovely wife drove us all the way back home to London. 

Sunday was a well deserved lie in and then a decent recovery ride in Richmond park which marks the beginning on Natale's Triathlon training for August. Woohoo! France here we come. 

Once again a special thank you to Natale for being the best second in the world. Period.

Here are the photies:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538412@N03/sets/72157630164254130/

Tri time.

Tomorrow at 07:10 I will embark on my first olympic distance triathlon. I'm a bit nervous but super excited.

It's hammer time!

Jens Voigt, what a dude.

http://youtu.be/UncELpyKQLU

Working at the United Nations

This is what I love about London, the cultural diversity in our office.

Last training run before 'The Race'.

I ran to work this morning as my last training session before Saturday's race and I feel good and strong. Hopefully this bodes well for Saturday. 


I'm as ready as I will ever be for my first Olympic so there isn't much more I can do except go out there and get it done. Nervous as hell but I am really looking forward to it now and I've trained really hard so hopefully this will pay off. 


As a footnote: Red wine and running don't go well together, especially if you consume the wine 12 hours before running. 

Jubillee Weekend

We had a lovely weekend away in Wales with Jason & Nina thanks to the Queen's birthday.

Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538412@N03/sets/72157630081089646/

Have a good weekend.

SA holiday pics

Photies from April holiday finally online.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538412@N03/sets/72157630080063928/

Race Report

The first triathlon of the season has been completed and it's taken me over a week to update the blog with the race report. Oops!


Big Cow (great name I know) was my first full sprint and actually only my third triathlon ever. Full sprint means 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. It was especially fast and furious being the British Nationals and a World Champs qualifier for New Zealand in October. The standard was insane and I only came 57th in my age group (the top 3 auto qulify) so I have a way to go before I get to wear the blue Team GB lycra suit :-)  As an indicator the top 35-39 age grouper ran a 17.37 run, that is just over 3 mins a km.

There were some absolutely beautiful bikes there so the bike geek could perv to his heart's content.


I had a mixed bag of a race; great swim, poor bike and average run. This was kind of expected as I had only really been swimming due to the knee injury so I can't complain as it was a solid if unspectacular result. 


Total- 01:15:08   Swim- 00:13:34 T1- 00:01:16    Bike- 00:36:48  T2- 00:00:45     
Run- 00:22:43


Off to do my first Olympic distance next Saturday & I'm quite nervous as it's double the distance, I've never swam 1.5km in a race and it is another World Champs qualifier so the athletes will be serious. 


I should have probably chosen a smaller event to do my maiden Olympic event but as the saying goes...Go Huge or Go Home! 


I plan to go huge.

Here are the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538412@N03/sets/72157630079126554/