A Welcome Back to Winter Riding?

Return to organised tri club riding happens every Autumn. TVT club rides were something I used to be consistent with, and which I have been very much less so since I have been on my tribatical... So much so I've become known as the "Lessor Spotted", like a rare animal seldom seen in the wild with a group of other similar beasts.

Anyway.... the first winter club ride was organised and set for Saturday the 10th October... a new booking system was put in place and obviously I missed the email and the deadline so was disappointed to see the rider groups were full last Wednesday .. sad times.. Nevertheless I added myself to the waiting list and low and behold more slots opened up.... No excuse then - a return to winter ride for TVT and me ... 🤨

I got my kit out Friday night and checked through the bike (reducing the risk of either things going wrong with the equipment or other kit malfunction delaying my departure... thus reducing the risk of a no show excuse and increasing the chance of me getting off my arse and making the meet time)

I woke up in plenty of time for a harty breakfast and a bit of procrastination before leaving on time and even arriving early (well, early for me - I got in a good 5mins before the 9am bell chimed on the village green)... 

As we gathered the biggest talking point was had we chosen the right layering system for the days weather!... It was 9 with a real feel of 7, possible rain... it was a quandary I can tell you!

What a fine gathering - Image curtesy of Liz - I'm lessor spotted at the back

My final decision was an underarmour summer long sleeved top with my TVT winter jacket... bib shorts and leg warmers... mostly I was ok but definitely in danger of overheating (the zip was hald down for the climbs and almost up for the most part)

Split into three groups we all headed out in different directions - the group I was in headed out West before looping back, slightly south of our start and then stopping off at a local coffee shop in Arborfield where we were looking to meet up with the other rides. Particular nice for me as that meant I could finish the club ride there as it wasn't too far from home.. so need need to get back to the start only to ride back.

The ride itself was fab, we had a mixed group where I was most definitely the weakest rider and was put through my paces - just about holding the wheel on the first uphill I definitely was pushing it. Managed to remember to drink my water and eat a bar during the ride, then was so excited/ relieved to be near the end I pretty much missed the break as the team really pushed on up the last mile towards the coffee shop! I definitely got dropped then but somehow (i think they slowed either for me or a roundabout), I managed to get back on for the last little bit... phewy

The club ride (including my home to start leg) came in 58.5km at an average speed of 26kph.... not bad and probably my fastest group ride since I did my ironman in 2016... I got over the 60k mark with my short poodle back home... and it only just started raining as I got to my doorstep...  so all in all I was super pleased with the efforts and being out with the clubt.. happy days!. .. but boy was I totally knackered after!! Whilst I didn't get a coffee and cake at the stop I went home and decided a cake was in order so went to my even more local cafe and rescued a couple of slices!

Sunday was then declared a rest day with just a bit of much needed yoga and a loving Sunday Roast put on by my parents!

September Stats

 Ok ok .. nearly a week late so let's keep it brief...

I'll get my excuses in early and say we did go on a lovely walking holiday for a week in Scotland during the month. It was EVERYTHING I dreamed of... amazing weather, great food, lovely beer. We had amazing walks!

The only vague plan I followed was the final bits of my Windsor 10k program

.. both of these facts are somewhat poor excuses for some of the low's and no's.... 50p justification fine Dory

Sport	Count	KM	Minutes
Swim	2	4.0	115.88
Bike	0	0	0
Run	7	52.68	359.81
Strength	0	-	0
Yoga	8	-	264.13
Walk	23	132.89	2774.83

Obviously this month I won't be doing so much walking, my aim is to get a more balanced portfolio of swim, bike and run.. I want to make sure I keep up with the yoga - as that helps the knee and injury prevention, mostly I use yoga for stretching). I also want to get back into my strength training as this for sure has helped me get back in to shape and able to do the more aerobic/ anaerobic stuff I love to do.

I've already done 2 swims and more metres in the first week of October, and also got on my bike twice this week as well as 1 yoga sessions.... so not a bad start. 

One race is in the diary for a standard distance triathlon in May, I'm eyeballing a potential half marathon in March but I want to see how my body responds to more distance first. I'm not sure going beyond the 10k will work or not.

Onwards and upwards - welcome Autumn my old frienemy.

Windsor 10k Race Report!

 "Race Report:" Well I never thought I'd be typing that again - dare I dream - yes I do.

Anyway... Windsor 10k was last weekend!

I'd done a bit of semi-structured training for that - in that I kind of followed a Garmin 10k program. I don't think I actually completed a full week of all the 4 run days prescribed because, well (a) I like to do other things and (b) my body doesn't seem to like running more then 3 days a week (I am still hugely paranoid for my left knee that got injured 18months ago)

Race Day!

Despite a month load of rain in the preceding few days we woke to a pink then very blue sky. Exactly what you wish for in a late season, dare I say early autumn run.

I prepared like days of old having some porridge for breakfast and a coffee ... not sure the porridge was so wise as I've not eaten the stuff for a long time and something gave me stomach pain later on in the day ... could have been the oats, the race or just a bug... who knows... but I digress

Three of us were car pooling to the venue so I left just before 8 to head to the RV. Short trip down the M4 and we got to the race venue in plenty of time... not quite too much but enough to not have to stress for anything. The event was held in Windsor Great Park and if you know the area it's towards the bottom of the long mile. The venue was a bit wet under foot but nothing too dramatic and a well organised kit drop area and very clean porta-loos.... It's actually the same place for the Windsor half marathon held the next day.

Anyway. After a bit of phaffing about we piled in all our excess layers into my bag and I dropped off - got suddenly jumped on by my friend Vida who was down there with another group - we hugged said hi and then bye and as it was 0945 and we had to go to the pens.. ... the three of us had signed up for the sub 70min group but Leanne and I had chatted in the week and agreed I'd head to the front of the pen whilst she and Beth stayed towards the back - they are used to running with each other and I wanted to run at my own pace... all good! Took a couple of pics and a selfie with the sub70min pacer (I don't know they manage to run with those big flag things strapped to the back)... a few more tunes and suddenly the count down began and we were off! 

Now I did this race before (with Vida actually!), in 2019 and I did remember the first hill... so my plan was to pace myself through the first 3k, to not go out too fast (which would be anything under 6:30/ km pace) and be ok with the second km being 7min... the sun was hot the sky was blue and I did manage to kerb my excitement but bloody hell that hill around the 2k mark .. oomppffff...

Anyway... I recovered and was happily around the 19:30min for 3k so about on track... we had a water stop - it was actually surprisingly hot by now so I needed some water but the water was freezing!! So, as I didn't want to create a problem for my tummy, I sipped and had to keep the water in my mouth to warm up before swallowing - this created a little of a breathing problem however .. ha... still through the 3k and we got a nice whizzy down hill... wooo hooooo... didn't remember this but I ran like a dog enjoying it until I looked up... swearing quite considerably I saw a somewhat steepish climb (relatively speaking - it felt like a mountain) an unexpected hill up towards the 5k mark... it was actually about 1k up... gah... There were some people up there stopping to take a picture (or maybe just stopping to recover)... but honestly the views were amazing - to the left is a statue of Queen Elizabeth II on horse back and to the right was a view all the way down to the Windsor Castle. It really was amazing ... I thought about stopping for a pic but I really wanted to get in under 1:05 so frankly I took in the sights and got my breath back before beating on.... because I knew that we must be now nearing the top top and it should (hopefully be down hill all the way!) .. yippee... Time for my new unicorn shorts to give me wings and fly down back to the start line!

Around the 6k marker we had another water stop and you could see that everyone ahead was down on a downslope... I had got to 5k in a surprising 31:34mins ... so I knew, failing injury or totally blowing up I would be able to get in my aspirational 1:05... woohoo... I began (momentarily) to wonder if I could actually get in under the magical hour... but figured there was little to no chance of running a sub 28:30 5k even with the down hill... so I decided that I'd start to take a few pictures instead! 

Running down I was just really chipper - I couldn't stop grinning - I really never thought after the last 4 years of stop start, of trying to get used to what I call my "new body" (menopause sucks), I rarely thought I'd be up for "racing" again... but here I was like a dog in the fox poo loving it... then we got to 8k where some magical little hill snuck up and walloped me in the face .... yes some swearing happened... but it was short and then the down started again.. turning left to go down the long mile was brilliant - what a view... so great I took a picture with a marshal and then woo-hoo'd my way down the hill... the end was in site!

..... god it went on and on and on... 

..... like the longest home straight...longer then that 400m at the end of the London Marathon.. I was still gleeful when I got the 9k marker... where I definitely thought bloody hell... but carried on in my own very happy way - my watch clicked through 10k as we got towards the finish line.... people sprinted past but there was nothing left in my tank, I rarely had a turn of speed in the good old days so I just grinned, and raised my arms in victory -  I crossed the line in 1:01:29 !!! Like OMG

Stats:

5k:          31:34

10k:        60:52 < Yes a negative split, well done me - thank you hills!

10.14k    61:29... I was clocking every km from the start about 100m before the km sign. I think the race runs slightly long.. honest guv

Photo's on Insta: 

I'm recovering well - could walk absolutely fine Sunday but my knee growled at me Monday due to lack of any kind of stretching activity... I've swam and biked a bit this week and looking forward to seeing how my running legs feel tomorrow!