Pre IM70.3 Pays d'Aix

Okay, so sitting in my fairly average French hotel room, with my dad, less than 12 hours to my first IM70.3 Pays d’Aix. Bike is racked, and my transition bags handed in, so far the biggest challenge has been putting the plastic cover over my bike ha. 

There are quite a few words to describe feel about the course all of which are very contrasting. I would have to say I was definitely surprised, worried and excited all at the same time. In selecting the appropriate IM70.3 to do I turned to my Dad, having done quite a few himself, I suggested a flat bike course where I could just get on the TT bars and do what I do best, turn a big gear and don’t look back... He agreed and said,

“This race is the weekend after Ventoux Triathlon I’m doing, it will be okay”

The bike route is not appropriate for a TT bike... need anymore be said haha! Probably not but here it is anyway, wouldn’t want to leave you hanging. There are parts where I was thinking I would and should be riding a TT bike here, my opinion swiftly changed as the switch backs, technical descents and rather steep gradients loomed, with sections at 15%. My vision of going to do a 70.3 in Europe was of perfect roads no cracks or potholes and least of all speed bumps, but this has them all! This being said, I’m not really worried about the bike because this is exactly what I train on at home and its pretty much my best friend so thing could be much worse, just glad I’m not one of those guys with an ultra low profile TT set up and a disc wheel today, which I was very close to being.

Swimming is probably always in any race what I worry about more because it is what can cost you the race but never win it. It feels like nothing has changed I’m still just as worried about it and it’s not the actual swim it’s just the 1^st 200m that worry me. Even though its a 70.3 it still feels like I'm going to have to swim real hard to keep up but in reality I hope this will not be the case. There is still a long hard way to go after it. 

The run is not quite what I had imagined either from watching previous Iron Man races online, being out in the open and on wide road. This one has cobbles a mix of road and off road with a few gentle climbs and descents through some quite narrow typical french streets. This doesn’t bother me too much either because I run a lot on varying terrain and the recent hill work I’ve done with Alister has made me more efficient and stronger. 

Here’s the obligatory shot from the top on Ventoux from a couple days ago, not really as hard a climb as it’s cracked up to be.

So all that’s left to do now is leave it all on the course!

Running Road Races is Tough!

Following my recent trend of trying new things, my never ending need to push myself to my limits and the encouragement of my coach Alister, I entered the Stirling 10km. This being my 1^st Road running race, but undoubtedly will not be my last, because I absolutely loved it!

I really enjoyed the race, despite my rather disappointing result. I ran a 34.42, I had really hoped I would run sub 34 ideally around 33.30 mark. I would say my time was not bad for a 1^st attempt, however if I had got my pacing better, Alister and myself think I could have potentially run over a minute quicker. My pacing was down to my inexperience and getting carried away at the start, dispite at the top of my priorities list for the race was not to go out too fast, typically I went out too fast. I ran the 1^st 5km in a rather quick 15.50 for me, the fastest I’ve ever run 5km. This seems like a good sign that I have the basic speed I need but just wasn’t really the appropriate time to run that fast. Atleast I usually tend to learn from my mistakes so next time will be faster!

Feeling very tired at the end;

Next weekend is basically my biggest challenge to end the season, Ironman 70.3 Pays d’Aix France and I can say I’m excited but very nervous. Not too worried about the distance because I know I can do it but although pressure free I still want to finish in as quick a time as possible. 

MTB Fork Re-Build

Apparently my lack of mountain biking skill might not be down to my lack of bravery. I finally decided to ask my friend Chris what he thought of my forks and it wasn’t good... My forks were meant to come with 130mm of travel but I was lucky if they were giving me 20-30mm. It would appear when I got the bike the forks were serviced badly to say the least. We thought it was about time they got sorted, so by watching YouTube videos, reading manuals and forums we learned how to service the forks, swap the oil, replace the seals and make sure everything is working. Seemed like a good idea to learn how instead of paying £100 to get someone else to do it.  

What a fork looks like disassembled; 

Now begins the rant of my hatred of Manitou Forks... They make outdoor parts from soft malleable plastic, they decide to make every different part you have to disassemble a different socket size and not the usual socket sizes meaning you have to buy separate sockets and the general design is made so ridiculously just to make things a little more difficult. I recently learned about “fork rebound” so started to use the rebound adjuster and it is a plastic Allan Key attached to a rotating knob, guess what happens when u use a plastic Allan key on an outdoor piece of equipment? I’ll tell you... it breaks. Next Best of all they over tighten a plastic top cap on the fork which just bends when trying to loosen... very frustrating.

Anyway after much rage and frustration, the forks have been fixed and for the 1^st time since I’ve owned the bike it should be riding better than ever before, hopefully improving my descending skills greatly as I now get the full 130mm travel. Again a BIG THANKS to my house mate Chris for pretty much rebuilding my forks twice!