April has been a busy month of training and racing starting off with a last minute entry into the Lincoln 10k on 7th April. After some long training runs in preparation for the Virgin London Marathon and lack of any speed work (last speed session was an hour Fartlek run on 19th February) I was getting anxious about turning into a 'plodder' so when the opportunity arose to have a quick 10k blast I jumped at the chance. After the normal fast first mile I settled into a nice even pace and managed to clock a time of 35:14 & finish 34th out of a field of over 4500. Not my fastest 10k but off the Ironman training and nonexistent speed work I was happy with the result. But the result of the day had to go to my son Josh (@josh_lunn) who ran a massive PB of 32:21 to finish 5th, well done son :-))
The following weekend, 14th April, saw my first triathlon of the year at the Desford Sprint Triathlon organised by my new race team, Racetime Events (no pressure there then). It was a 400m pool swim, 18k bike, and 5k run. With the swim being my weakest element and being a "one speed swimmer" I exited the water last in my wave of 4 (35th o/a) and headed out on the bike for a mighty windy 18k, I never really got into a good rhythm on the bike but pushed on and ended up with the second fastest bike split, a speedy T2 and I was out on the run where I again managed the second fastest split of the day to finish 3rd overall. I would love to say Ironman training makes you slow but the fastest bike split, fastest run split and overall winner was by fellow Ironman and RacetimeUSN team member Duncan Shea-Simonds, well done Duncan.
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| Desford Sprint Triathlon |
Three days later it was the first Fenland Clarion mid week 10 mile TT which is always a good indicator of current fitness. It was another very windy evening and on the warmup I was getting blown all over the road. Off I set and the first mile popped up in 1:49, that's an average speed of 32.9mph from a standing start, now either I was on fire or that was the back wind section, it soon came apparent when I turned at 3.5 miles that it was the latter and I nearly stopped, head down & trying to stay as aero as possible I pushed on and clocked a time of 22:00, which for me on that course was pretty good and only 4 second off a PB & the first time I had broken 5.0 w/kg so I was pretty happy but maybe not the best tapper for VLM.
The first proper test of my running legs came by the way of the Virgin London Marathon on 21st April. After a steady couple of hours on the bike Saturday morning I headed off to London to stay overnight at my brothers. An early start Sunday morning and only 2 degrees outside I headed off for the 'Good for Age' start area in Greenwich Park. After my last somewhat disastrous run at the NYC Marathon in 2011 I was somewhat nervous about what was about to unfold. For the last 6 months I'd had a time of 2:42 in my head as a target, so the plan was to run at 6:11mi/m pace and see what happens. With the first 3 miles being net downhill its hard not to go out too quick, I was fairly well controlled but still a little quick. Halfway soon came round and the clock was showing 1:20:?? I was still feeling good but in the back of my mind was mile 15 in NYC when it all went "Pete Tong". I pushed though 15 still feeling good and my Garmin showing an average pace of 6:07mi/m, then at mile 19 just as I starting to think 2:39:59 was on the cards the legs started to feel heavy and the pace dropped off, but unlike other runs instead of the pace downing right off I only dropped 10-15sec per mile and then managed to maintain that same pace to the end instead off completely exploding. So as I turned the corner onto The Mall and saw the clock on 2:43:?? I was over the moon, 15 minutes off my PB, no explosion, and a sub 2:45 which gets me a Championship entry for the next two years, Happy Days..... 47th A/G and 279th O/A
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| Rocking the Sketcher GOrun2's at VLM |
I seemed to recover fairly quickly and after a week of light recovery runs, some steady bikes, and my normal swim sessions I was feeling back to normal by the following weekend. Which was good considering I had entered the N&DCA Open 10TT which was organised by my cycle club the Fenland Clarion, this event also doubles up as the Club 10 mile championship race and as last years winner was hoping to defend. But more importantly I needed to get some good miles in on the bike prior to the race due to not riding much the week prior. So I head out on my normal 3 hour route (NP 250w) then home for a quick wheel and costume change and it was off to the TT. It was on the N1/10 course which is out and back along a quite section of the old A1, with 7 roundabouts and some slight undulations its not a super fast course and this year it was particularly testing as the first half was into a howling head wind. As the pusher held my bike with 30 seconds to the off I sightly back pedaled to align my pedals and off came my chain.... not quite what you want, 15, 10, and I'm still on my knees getting greasy, 5, 4, 3, on its on, 2, leg back over bike, 1, GO, I wobble off one foot clipped in,,, not the most professional start to a TT. Nonetheless I headed off into the wind just trying to ride to power, once at the turn point I was hoping it was going to be super fast on the way back but it was one of them day when the wind didn't want to push you. After about 7 miles the legs started to moan and it was a case of just doing my best to the end as my average power slowly faded. 22:58 on the clock, good enough for 6th out of a field of 104 and just enough to be first Fenland Clarion.
With less than 2 weeks to go until my next race, Mallorca Ironman 70.3 I have a relatively big training week this week then a short 4 day tapper leading into the race.. Can't wait to get some sun and smash it up again.
Till next time, train hard, train smart ......
