Rubicon Triathlon (middle distance)

Race Report

After Ironman UK I took 2 weeks off completely, I was dying to get out towards the end but Laura put me in my place and made me stick to it! It was quite nice at first but my god it was boring towards the end, it felt as though there were at least 26 hours in every day!

Anyway after two weeks I got back into training with the goal to be in banging shape for the Ironman World Championships in Kona on the 11th October! To help me get into top shape I was going to be doing everything to the best of my ability, also not just about Kona but also because I was still really pissed off with getting 3rd at Ironman UK. I thought this year would be mine, I was in good shape on race day but obviously not good enough shape and I was absolutely gutted with the outcome. It still leaves me bitter now when I think back to it and I promised myself after that I’m going to train harder, smarter, get regular massages and better nutrition, pretty much anything I can do I will do!

Normally I do 3 weeks of training and then I’m pretty wrecked so have a week easier however as my nutrition and regular massages have been making a massive difference I’m now on my 5th week of training and feeling absolutely fine! The Rubicon fell at the end of week 4 and I was pleased going into the race at how much I have improved over the last few weeks.

Mark Livesey put me and Laura up in a cottage with Amy Forshaw and her partner Rob. Me and Laura arrived on Friday and liked what we saw, the cottage was in a village called glasshouse just outside of Pateley Bridge, It had great views and was really nice inside.

As we got there late Friday there was no parking so we parked the car on the edg of this grass Verge which we found out the next day by tis neighbour that it was apparently the village green, now I wouldn’t call it a village green, overgrown grass on the side of a hill. Anyway he told me I wasn't allowed to park there despite there being no where else to park and no parking restrictions there. It didn't matter anyway as we were then going out.

So we went to register and got some pictures taken by Melissa, a photography student Mark had managed to rope in to taking some pictures of me. I don’t think she expected to take 700+ photos, i’ve posted some of these photos sporadically throughout this blog, let me know what you think?

Me and Laura got a meal at a local pub which was pretty good, I had a good old steak with chips that went down a right treat. Unfortunitly when we got back to te cottage 30 minutes later, the do gooder neighbour came round shouting the odds about where my car was parked and he wanted me to move it, after a heated discussion where I told him that I would happily move my car to where his was parked and he could move his onto the road which is where he wanted me to park, he declined this offer. He went away and I went to bed.

I then woke up in the morning to find that this chopper had parked both of his cars either side of mine in an attempt to block me in and make me miss the race. I told him I was leaving at 5am as well so I would have been gone by the time he woke up. Anyway he did a rubbish job and I got out without to muc trouble, I couldn’t help but give a cheeky hoot of the horn outside his bedroom window at 5am! :)

The race was great, the swim is a point to point downstream, lthough it didnt feel as though we were getting much of a push by the current. I excited the water in 5th at the same time as 4th with Stewart Moore ahead out of the individuals and two relay swimmers. I felt quite good in the water and despite a slow start I was swimming well once I got into it.

My plan on the bike was to try and hold 330-340w and see how it felt. Unfotunitly I forgot to check my bike as my mate who I let borrow it a few weeks ago had actually changed the seat height so it was like riding a childs bike. My Dad had been changing the bearings to Ceramic ones and recabling the brakes etc! I was a bit to laid back the day before and was more worried about getting my long run in and doing other things then checking my equipment, very silly and something I always do!

So after this there was a change of plan, I just wanted to get through the bike now and push the run, I was going to push the bike and kind of cruise the run so now my plan was to cruise the bike and push the run. When I got off the Bike I did have a shock as I saw Richard Hortons bike racked in there already when I was with him on the bike for a while before pulling away from him so I thought how’s he got back already.

Unfortunately for him he took a wrong turn and cut a bit of the course as he’s a quick runner and had he been close off the bike it would have been a tough run.

So onto the run and I thought I’ll cruise the first lap, push the second lap a bit harder, maintain for lap 3 and then pick it up again on lap 4 and try and see what I can do. If you haven’t raced the Rubicon its a great course with a fast bike curse and an undulating scenic run which has plenty of offroad sections to add to the challenge so I was very happy to run the last lap in sub 5m 30 miles and take the win in 3 hours 51, I felt really good which was the most important thing for me as I wanted to see what sensations I had going at a decent pace.

t was also a great weekend away with Laura and Maisie as well, oh and on a side not it has to be the best race goody bag with proper coffee from Bettys and some quality old fashioned british sweets which I’m addicted to!

I’ve got a time trial this Saturday in Derby which is a 100 miler so I’ll be using that to test my bike legs and am hoping to be able to do a 8 mile run off it at a decent pace. This will put me in good stead for kona and it will be good to see how I’m really going on the bike!