I came into the race off a poor period of prep and not feeling 100%. In many ways, that might have saved my skin – it was a day when racing to your limits meant that many of the pro field dropped out or blew spectacularly. 

I knew it was going to be a long day from the get-go. I swam like a bear in custard, but things picked up for a while on the bike when my legs seemed to be with me, but about halfway round he first loop I was flagging. The run was little better – traditionally where I pull out all the stops, my legs just hadn’t made it through customs and I slogged through the heat feeling the fatigue with everyone else. 

I thought about pulling the pin for a lot of the day. Having a sub par race  can be disheartening, but you never know what’s up the road. I figured it was good training at the least. I convinced myself in the swim that I might come good on the bike, then just wanted to get the ride done. The crowds carried me through T2 without letting me think about stopping and then I made myself get to mike 3 where there route detours through the University stadium which i wanted to see! After that I figured I might as well go to the turn around, then back… Until I actually got to the finish line. I’d manage to get into 9th place but it was more through attrition than any speed on my part. Tough day! I finished feeling very pleased that I’d stuck at it regardless – being able to race at all is such a gift. And getting a top 10 finish is a great bonus. 

The week was all in all FANTASTIC! So pleased to see Timex team mate Mac Brown score 3rd, and Cindi an JB were awesome for looking after me (and hosting the best post IM after party ever!) 

Thanks as ever to Timex, Orbea, On, Neovite, Sugoi, Native, Shimano Pro, Orca, SBR, and the other usual suspects! 

VERY happy to be finishing! Thanks to Ali Engin for the photo

Top line – for those of you who only read the highlights ;) Ironman UK – 8^th Pro, with a PB marathon split of 2:48:53. That’s definitely moving in the right direction! Despite going 20 minutes quicker overall than last year, I still didn’t manage to crack the top five! Looks like the competition’s getting tougher…

Bolton once again was a great venue for the UK race – thanks to my homestay family (again!). Loving Ironman UK-style!

 Here’s an article from Triathlete Magazine online for the race report details:

http://www.220triathlon.com/news/radcliffe-reflects

And because pictures say a thousand words…

The top of Sheep House Lane... a lung busting climb

Running to a PB marathon split

The upside, I got to see Kelly’s (amoung many others!) amazing finish from the VIP section where I nursed my wounds and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. From the comfort of a restaurant street table later I also saw the fourth member of Timex racing that day , Luis, run past in high spirits. So good job to all of you guys!

One thing I do remember thinking as I flew over the handlebars that morning was “NOT THE FACE!” … this isn’t just because of my vanity, but also because I was getting married the following weekend and didn’t want to mess up the photos with a black eye and bruising or worse : )

It took a while for my left glute to go back to normal size and functioning but all that’s left now is a few scabs. SOOOO lucky to have come out of that day relatively unscathed. Phew!

Highlight: getting to go onstage to represent GBR at the parade of nations at the event opening & pasta party

Definitely a ‘just for fun’ race for me, the North Face 100km China run near Beijing was a very late addition to the calendar. I received entry about 7 weeks ago, and even though I knew that I wouldn’t really get a chance to do any specific distance training or change my ironman training schedule to focus on the race, I still jumped at the chance. I’ve never been to Beijing and really wanted to see the Great Wall. Here was a race giving the opportunity to run on the Great Wall, through the Ming Tombs and surrounding mountains. Awesome.

With some trepidation I toed the start line at 4:30am, headlamp on, 100m climb up some stairs of the Great Wall just  few yards away as the ‘warm up’ ahead of the 500m climb up a ruined section of the wall just around the next corner. I stuck with the lead group for this first 8kms, right up until about 300m up that first mountain, by which point I knew I was going far too hard. These 50kg ultra runners were FLYING up that mountain, and I knew it was time to let some of them go – otherwise I was in serious danger of ruining my chances of finishing. From then on, it became a much more solitary race. The 200 strong starting field had been spread out on the first section of the Great Wall, and that first mountain trail blew the field apart completely.

I hadn’t been anticipating quite how much of trail race this was going to be. With a 20km section of the Great Wall to run and being near northern suburbs of Beijing I had expected much more road and hard surfaces to contend with. I’d imagined stone and stairs. I’d not been wrong about that – there certainly were stairs and Wall, but about 60-70% of the course was on single track, (the ruined section being boulder track), and much of that was goat tracks up or down mountains and heavily foliaged brush trails which,  had they not been marked,  I’m not sure I would have found. It was a run, a scramble, a climb, and – more and more towards the latter half – a hike though the beautiful landscape north of Beijing, though small rural villages, remote orchards and fields, and through Chinese history: The Ming Tombs at 70kms (see photo) were a hidden gem, found somewhere between a gradual 5km climb on road and a 400m stair climb up the next mountain.

By the time I had reached the Ming Tombs I was in quite a bad state. The section from 40kms to 70kms was tough, both mentally and physically. I could no longer hold the ‘natural’ pace that I’d been enjoying in the earlier sections (barring the uphills!), and the constant steep climbing and – more importantly – descending on twisting, uneven and often loose surface trails had made my calves (up), quads and knees (down) really start to hurt. The walk-run strategy had really started to kick in. I was glad of the Nathan hydration pack by this point too – temperatures had soared and I was sucking down between 1.5-2 litres of fluids an hour.

View back over a flat section

Ming Tombs on the race route

By the 70km mark, I knew I would make it. There may be some walking, but I would get there somehow. There were also more runners on the course now as the 50km race course converged with ours there, so I fed off their motivation and numbers, enjoying having company again.

At the finish I knew I was properly broken as I could not even run the entire last kilometre without having a walking section. I’d gone much further than my training should have allowed and my body was telling me to stop. So with 10:45 on the clock and 10^th place in the bag, I did just that.

But of course the next day we went sightseeing: 4 hours walking around the Forbidden City is a true test of how easy walking is (or isn’t). O yes, there are stairs in the Forbidden City too.

An AMAZING race. Highly recommended.

Here’s link to the course profile and maps http://www.thenorthface100.com.cn/en/bsxl.php

For me, the first 20km’s is on the Great Wall of China, and the rest is in and around the nearby tombs, mountains and forests. The whole route should be stunning. Not only is it a 100km route, there’s some aggressive climbs in there - like a 500m climb on the Great Wall in under 3kms (between km 9 and km 12). Sounds to me like that’s just a set of stairs! In fact the whole profile looks more like an ECG than a route profile. There are 200 entrants running the 100km, 400 running the 50km (which Will is racing) and several thousand I think participate in the 10km which is around the reservoir where all three races finish.
 
Race day is Saturday 7th May. I have a 4:30am start, although the early start will be probably be a little irrelevant as I am not going to have any idea what time of day it is as we arrive on thursday morning for the saturday race. I am hoping that my brain will not get to Beijing before Sunday. Planning on wearing the GT for the race as it should capture some great data.

The only problem with this is that around where I live is by no means flat. So, I strap on the trusty Global Trainer and head out for the run. With all the data that the GT collects, I did a little web surfing and found this article which suggests how to take into account ascents and descents: http://runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=10507

The article’s author suggests that athlete treadmill tests show that a 1% elevation means that per mile for a 5min/miler y should allow 10secs more per mile and that a 7:30 min/miler should allow 15 secs per mile more; and this is for every single % per mile. (52.8 feet per mile is 1%)

So this is what I’ve done:

The Global Trainer tells me that I’ve gained and lost (circular route) 1550 feet in total. So that’s 155 feet per mile, and at an estimated flat pace of 6min/mile, this amounts to a 3% grade or 36secs/mile extra due to the climbing. However, we need to add back in the descending – apparently you get back about 55% of the time of the climbs – so as you would expect, you do go slower over a hilly course compared to a flat course. This means that I’m left with a 16secs/mile handicap because of the hills.

My 6:28mins/mile pace through the rollers therefore works out at a ‘normalised’/flat 6:12mins/mile pace. Given that I was supposed to be running 6min/miles for the session, I clearly slacked off a bit, but not as much as the actual pace suggested ;)

Its not a bad guestimate at how hills translate into flat pace – the GT data again proves itself invaluable.

But now I’m going to get back to the Royal Wedding highlights!

Reason 1. An 800 solar panel array at the Timex HQ in Middlebury

This photovoltaic (PV) system is designed to generate 285,439 kilowatt-hours (kWh) a year, enough electricity annually to power nearly 32 average Connecticut homes. The system’s output will avoid over 6.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over the expected 25-years of operation.

For live data from the array, visit: http://www.timexgroup.com/profile/watch-hill-solar.html

Solar array at Timex HQ

Reason 2. The WS4 Expedition watch comes in fully recycled and recyclable packaging

TImex Expedition WS4

Reason 3. Watch recycling scheme started at the Virgin London Marathon Expo stand this year 

Not only did Timex offer to dispose of  your dead watches according to regulation (and avoid landfill) or recycle the parts, but they also offered a 25% discount to people exchanging their old watches for new at the VLM expo!

Happy Earth Day everyone :)

Port Elizabeth has to be among the most friendly Ironman races I’ve done – another cracking race put on by Triangle (who also run another of my favourites, Ironman Austria). Only there for a weekend, the warmth and generosity of the people there was as reliable as the weather was changeable.

But it wasn’t just the locals that made this weekend a fun start to the season. As ever, the individuals participating in the race and some of the characters I met this weekend will make this a memorable event. Great times had – thanks to Dave, Kyle, Dominique, Clifford, Andi and to some older faces – Rachel, Ed and Sarah et al. Great to spend some time with you all in PE.

Race day the weather was a relative blessing compared to what it could have been. Despite a relatively calm swim, I struggled to hold form and pace in the water and exited the water minutes back on where I’d been hoping. That feeling of ticking over continued onto the bike, and then onto the run, where the heat and lack of top end was taking its toll physically and mentally. I’d counted near 40 bikes ahead at the first turnaround, and knew there was a lot of work to do, but had very little to give. I did start picking people off, but by lap two it was more and more difficult to keep tabs on position.

The run was flat and well supported. It annoyed me that I seemed to be wasting such good conditions ona mediocre day. I settled in though, pleased at least to be running, even if it was survival pacing, and focussed on finishing and picking up some Kona Points at the least, and not getting lapped by the Raynard and Andi who were cracking out course records there in PE.

Crossing the finish line I found out that I’d been too hard on myself, finally finding out that I’d placed 13^th MPRO (but I did get chicked by the awesome Chrissie Wellington!). In hindsight, I’m OK with the result. Yes, I wanted to go (considerably) faster, but some days are just like that, ticking over the miles from one point to the next. As a benchmark, its the fastest early season race I’ve ever done (in fact the only early season race that has had a successful finish!), and it shows that the fitness is there, but perhaps the speed needs some work.

A lot of new kit got and early season test out there in front of the roaring crowds of the Eastern Cape, and it all came through for me: the On’s were light and fast, and their forgiving construction meant that even when midfoot landing wasn’t working out (for most of the run thanks to some really tight legs), survival pace and some heel-toeing still got me to the line unscathed; the new Orbea Ordu performed to expectations, and she’s a beauty; the new Sugoi race kit and the Orca 3.8 wettie are super-comfortable and sharp as; combined with the SBR Sports TriSlide the only chaffing I have is on my wrist from the Ironman wrist tag! Also notable was zero gut issues, even with the relative heat – I’m going to thank Neovite colostrum for that!

All in all, a solid early season race. A great starting point for great things later in the year. Now time for some recovery and a bike/swim block before a 100km run in China in 3 weeks. Bring it on!

Pre race packing!

Warm weather clothes needed by the English Channel

Travelling lightThat's more like it - overlooking the Med :)

We’ve got another couple of days here before headed back home – London for me, France (temporarily) for Will. That’s good for Portugal as I think we’ve cleared them out of eggs, fruit, bread and rice cakes!

Makes: 24 mini muffins

What you’ll need:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 4 small bananas, peel and fork smash
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins; Total Time: 25 mins

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2. Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix until just moistened.
3. Spoon into lined or nonstick, sprayed mini muffin pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
5. Remove muffins from the tray and cool on a wire rack

Simple as that – enjoy! Baking is good for the soul.

Train hard,

Toby