Irontwit

At the third time of trying, I ducked under the 7 hour barrier at Wimbleball. In fact I was well under, at 6 hours 44 minutes – an improvement of 24 minutes over the previous year. What made the difference? I knew my cycling was stronger than ever – the recent completion of the Etape du Dales was testament to that, so I expected to shave a decent chunk of time off my bike leg. In actual fact, I only knocked about 7 minutes off my previous time, but, paradoxically this was the key. The day was much colder than previous editions, and there was even a fairly substantial rain shower at the end of the first bike lap. Towards the end of the lap there is a long 3 mile gentle uphill drag before the course plunges down to the reservoir, and by the end of the second lap this section is real purgatory – you know you are close to the finish of the bike, you know what’s gone before was much steeper and harder, yet you’ve still got to get up this slog before you can relax. In the previous races I carried on slogging up this section putting in a big effort, however, this time I dropped onto the small ring and spun my way up the hill. It probably cost me at least 5 minutes on my bike time, but the result was that I actually started the run significantly fresher than before. So much so, that I beat my previous best half marathon time (in a triathlon) by 3 minutes. That time of 2:19 was set on the pan-flat Vitruvian run course, so my 2:16 on the Wimbleball course with 6 significant hills and numerous undulations was very satisfying – particularly as the bike leg on the Vitruvian is also much easier and quicker than Wimbleball.

Recovery from the event has also been good and my training has resumed and is starting to pick up again. I’ve been adding some high intensity reps into my bike work and as a result have already knocked a further 3 minutes of my pb for my 40km hilly circuit. Providing I stay healthy, this bodes very well for the Vitruvian in September. Last time I managed 6:03, so on current form I should  get below  6 hours. But, by how much?  Last time I finished the event, I managed the bike leg in a pretty rapid 2:54 which equates to 18.7mph. Last year I dropped out due to illness, but still did the first half of the bike leg in a time which would have been around the 2:50 mark. So, if form continues I would hope to duck under 2:50 for the bike and shave a chunk of time on my new pb for the run. 5:45 is my target time which would put me about halfway down the results sheet for the 1000 entrants. Let’s see.