Another PB at Reading Half Marathon, not quite sure how though!

1st Simon Kasimili, Kenya, 1:03:35
33rd Darren Treadaway, Barnet and District 1:12:54

9877 Finishers ujjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

To be honest I was 50/50 on the Friday before the race about actually putting myself on the start line. This was to be the end of a very hard 4 week training block totalling about 25 hours a week and I would have expected to crack a lot sooner so myself and Steve had planned for an easy recovery week after Reading. kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Saturday morning I got a call from Laurence asking me if I could give someone a lift so I said of course and realised it looked like I was now racing, I did say that if he beats me then he can walk home! gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

On arrival which I thought would be more chaotic considering there were some 12,000 runners competing in the two events, we were ushered into the disabled car park so had very easy access to the race area and facilities, obviously this was an oversight but it was too late to do anything about it so thought we would ride our luck. Watching the masses que up to put there baggage in and go through various warm up routines, rituals was somewhat amusing! I went for my usual 20minute jog and knew that it wasn't going to be an easy day, legs were still very heavy.

We realised that the start was going to be very busy so we made sure that we got there with plenty of time to spare, well in fact about half an hour. While jumping up and down to keep warm waiting for the start a TV camera man and interviewer approached me and asked if they could talk to me I said sure but felt kind of embarrassed and thought they should of been talking to one of the Commonwealth Games guys like Dan Robinson or Huw Lobb or one of the Kenyans so said a few words and probably made a tit of myself! Not sure when or where it is going to be shown.

The gun went and adrenaline kicked in and my legs felt re-charged and ready to race. Went off too quickly as per usual but eventually settled down. Went through 2 miles in 10:30, 5 miles in 27:00, 6 miles in 32:35 looking at the splits I realised that I was already up on the pace I ran at Watford and at this stage was enjoying the race and great crowd support. I hit 10 miles in a new PB of 54:55 wow! and worked out in my head that I was on 1:11 pace which was a lot easier said than done.

I got to the 11 mile mark and could see the stadium looming in the distance but my legs went to pieces, the hard work was now really taking its toll on my legs especially my quads. I felt awful and had just resigned myself now just to finishing, I got caught by a big group with a mile to go containing the guy who I gave a lift too, cheeky git! As I got closer to the stadium I could hear the crowd which was a big lift and checked the watch and was amazed to see I was still on for a 1:12!

It goes to show I am in great shape now and once I rest and taper for Portugal I am going to be ready to really turn some heads in the tri world as i am biking and swimming very well too! got my first easy week for a while this week then its 2 more weeks hard work before the build up for Portugal.

Will be doing the 12 stage road relays on Sunday, these are great fun and will be well rested.

Puncture at the Oxonian

Didn't do a race report for this one as a puncture prevented me from finishing with about 4 miles to go. I got what I wanted though in the form of a good work out and think looking at the splits that I would have been somewhere around 5th as I was riding well. Nothing more to say on this one really. My team mate rode well to finish 3rd.

Changes to the Schedule

Due to not getting my entry in on time for Sevenoaks Triathlon I have decided to enter Duston Triathlon instead which in hindsight was probably the better option as it is a week later and looking at last years results it looks like quite a competitive field

I am also considering dropping Shropshire in favour of going back to Bala as I love racing at Bala as its tough and the bike and run suit me down to the ground. I would like to win this one and smash my time from last year!

A week in the life of me!

A lot of friends in and outside of the sport have asked me recently "hows the training going" well that's the comment I usually get from people who don't understand the sport, fellow athletes tend to talk numbers more.

Although I was hoping to be working less this year the very buoyant property market has meant I am working more than I had hoped, although I still have more flexibility and am doing more training this year than ever before, well in fact nearly double!

Below is what i've done over the last 7 days and a fairly typical type of weeks training. A bit disappointed this week to miss one of my swim sessions, hoping to build up to 4 swim sessions once the season gets closer, on the whole a solid week.

Saturday
am 2hour bike, 10am-5pm work, pm 1 hour run intervals

Sunday
am 5hour bike on tri bars the whole way, pm 2 hour run off road

Monday
9am-6pm work, pm 90min long turbo intervals

Tuesday
am 1hour swim 4hour bike (out in Oxford, rode the course that I will be racing next week), pm 50min run intervals

Wednesday
9am-1pm work, pm 3hour bike then 1 hour 40min run (hard final hour)

Thursday
9am-6pm work Rest Day (couldn't get up for swimming!)

Friday
9am-6pm work, pm 1 hour swim then 1 hour short turbo intervals

Total hours training 24:00

North Road Hard Riders - A good performance but so much more to come!

1 Richard PREBBLE Pinarello RT 0:59:45
2 Peter TADROS In-Gear Quickvit RT 0:59:56
3 Andy PROFFITT Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:00:28
4 Matthew BOTTRILL De Rosa CC 1:00:47
5 Peter BISSELL Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:02:04
6 Christian YATES In-Gear Quickvit RT 1:02:39
7 Sean YATES In-Gear Quickvit RT 1:02:50 1st team
8 Brett HARWOOD Wheel Spin Cycles 1:03:30
9 Daniel CORNER Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:04:50
10 David STAFF Anglia Velo 1:07:22
11 Darren TREADAWAY Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:07:36

63 Riders Finished

This was to be my debut for my new team Arctic Shorter Rochford and my first outing in a big time trial event outside of the world of triathlon. The Arctic as the team seems to be fondly known, well that's what people shout when we go past is a very strong team in UK cycling with reigning U/23 road race champion and national hill climb champion plus other former national standard riders. So for a triathlete who specialises in three sports to be accepted onto the team is an honour, we also have another multi sport athlete in the form of former World Amateur Duathlon champion Dan Corner who is a very strong rider and has had me red lining it on training rides!

Onto the race. Unfortunately my team bike was not going to be ready for another few weeks but that didn't deter me as I was eager to see how my legs performed from the extra training put in over the winter. I noticed that all the riders in front of me were riding time trial bikes which I am guessing must have been the faster option so hopefully some more time to be saved here once it arrives.

The day started off wet so there was going to be no heroics on the descents just get round in one piece and hammer the climbs, it was warm though so that was a bonus. I hammered the first 2 climbs and probably paid a little bit here but felt strong and ready for the undulations ahead as I approached halfway. As I was about to turn left into Brickendon Green I was caught for 3 minutes which must have been one of the top finishers but somewhat scary to see how fast he was riding and taking the corners and a bit demoralizing to think I had been caught for so much time, on the other hand I had ridden past 4 riders so I must have been moving too.

The next quarter of the race was pretty uneventful, just keep the legs going and try and save some for Essendon Hill. As I approached the foot of Essendon I had problems getting into the small chain ring! after playing around with it and a bit of fiddling I got it back in the small ring and breathed a sigh of relief! I had to ride the last mile and a half in the small ring or stop which was ok as most of it was uphill so not worth stopping here. From what I can see in the results it probably cost me 10th but no big deal better now than later in the year. It turned out to be a costly day as I also broke my rear tri spoke wheel, it didn't slow me down at all just annoying!

Looking at the results I never thought I would ever see a results sheet with Sean Yates (ex Tour De France and team mates with Lance Armstrong!) in 7th and me in 11th!! So I am really pleased and know there is so much more to come.

Next stop Oxionian time trial, hopefully top 10 here!

2007 Schedule is now nearly complete!

25/02/2007 North Road Hardriders 25 miles time trial
17/03/2007 Oxonion 31mile time trial
25/03/2007 Reading Half Marathon (South of England Champs)

01/04/2007 South of England 12 stage road relays
06/04/2007 Welwyn Wheelers 25 mile time trial
15/04/2007 Sevenoaks Triathlon Sprint
05/05/2007 Lisbon International Half Ironman A Race
20/05/2007 Norland 50 mile time trial
10/06/2007 Shropshire Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
17/06/2007 National Champs 50 mile time trial subject to qualifying
07/07/2007 Austria Ironman Triathlon A Race
22/07/2007 Worthing Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
12/08/2007 Swanage Classic Olympic Distance Triathlon
26/08/2007 Bedford Olympic Distance Triathlon
08/09/2007 National Champs Half Ironman A Race
15/09/2007 Bala Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
03/11/2007 Florida Ironman Triathlon A Race (subject to how the season goes, may consider something in Europe in October instead)

Pleased to report the first outing this year at the Watford Half Marathon was a successful one!

Liked this picture as the guy behind looks like he is really suffering! and for the record he didn't catch me!

1 01:04:50 M Tomas Abyu
2 01:06:04 M Mark Miles
3 01:06:08 M Huw Lobb
4 01:08:55 M Benali Naoui
5 01:09:12 M Hassan Raidi
6 01:09:28 M Nalerddine Hallil
7 01:09:40 M Steve O'callaghan
8 01:09:53 M Ivo Zigadlo
9 01:10:06 M Tarus Elly
10 01:10:55 M John Mcfarlane
11 01:13:11 M Steve Hallas
12 01:13:21 M James Buis
13 01:13:27 M Martin Yelling
14 01:13:31 M Darren Treadaway

1947 Finishers

I never really knew what to expect from this race other than to go quicker than the 1:15:15 I did in 2005. The plan though was not to back off from training and just go out there and run hard and see how the legs felt after the hard training built up over the week. I had planned to make Saturday my rest day which was the day before the race, however, I got home from work and my legs felt very heavy! So I made the decision at 8pm to try and spin them out on the turbo trainer for an hour and did 6x6min at a very hi cadence in a low gear and it seemed to do the trick.

I got a good nights sleep and woke to a very sunny day but cold with frost on the car but no wind so it looked like it was going to be a quick day. The race this year really stepped up in class probably due to the prize money on offer for the top 3 and breaking the course records and as you can see from the results a few foreign names and our Commonwealth Games/World Championship marathoners were also up for the challenge.

The gun went and my competitive instinct ruled my head and I decided to go with the leaders and see how the race panned out. I looked down at my watch after the first mile and we clocked 4:50! I knew then that if I didn't back off then I wasn't going to see the finish line. The problem was I was too slow for the leading group and the chasing group hadn't yet formed so for a few miles I was in no mans land with nobody to run with. I did know though by the splits at 2,3,4 miles that I was running well. I hit mile 6 in 33:30 and 4 guys running in a group had caught me and was pleased to see it had taken former international runner and multisport international Martin Yelling this long to catch me which was a big boost. I managed to keep on the back of this group for the rest of the race but couldn't quite catch Martin (next time!). I clocked a PB at 10 miles of 55:50 and my final time was a big PB of 1:13:31 so delighted!

It feels really good to compete at this level with guys who are solely runners and don't have to swim or bike! A cracking field, good race and any other year at Watford I would have been top 5/6! I celebrated the day by going out on the bike for a couple of hours in the afternoon to spin the legs out and still felt good.

Next outing the North Road Hard Riders!