The first thing to say about the Roses Round is that it’s a great route. Apart from a couple of short link stretches on main roads it takes in miles of quiet back lanes around the western side of the Yorkshire Dales. There are two main hills on the ride. The first is the ascent of Cross of Greet after only about 20km on the gorgeous stretch of road between Slaidburn and Bentham. It’s a long steady climb with a steeper section towards the top, but it’s certainly no legbreaker. The second climb is the ascent out of Stainforth towards Halton Gill.  Again, it’s not too steep, although it does go on for quite a way after the initial steep section. I remember this climb with some bitterness as it appears after about 90 miles on the Etape du Dales and I recall really suffering on this section prior to the descent into Wharfdale and the blast back to the finish. This shouldn’t give you the impression that the Roses Round is a doddle, however, as it has over 1000m of ascent and lots and lots of short hills throughout it’s course. In particular, the last 5 miles from Bolton by Bowland back to base are a steady uphill drag all the way and require a fair bit of grit to maintain a decent pace.

Apparently, only about 150 riders rode the route today (which was excellently signposted) and I think it deserves a bigger audience. It would be an ideal step up for riders who have been doing the shorter routes on sportives who are looking to work towards their first century rides. For me, it was the last sportive before the Ironman and I felt that at 75 miles it would be a good day out after a tough week’s training without requiring the extra rest that a century plus would have needed.

I felt great for the first 50km or so and skipped the first feed. On the descent to Wharfdale and the second feed I really hammered it. After a brief stop for water I pressed on and realised that my legs were pretty tired. I knew that I’d run really hard on Friday night and still hadn’t fully recovered and so I found the last 15 miles pretty tough going and slowed significantly. I finished in 4 hours 40 mins which equated to exactly 16 mph – I was hoping for sub 4:30 and I’m sure a more even paced effort would have delivered that. Still, it was a brilliant ride in fantastic countryside and proves that to create a memorable sportive route you don’t necessarily need lots of hardcore climbs.

Fortunately I recovered quickly and I’ve had a good week’s training (including the obligatory soaking on my long run on Thursday night). On Sunday I’ve got another sportive. This time it is the Roses Round on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s a 75 miler and the route looks very nice. I just hope my personal rain cloud doesn’t find me tomorrow.

Image from Greenplasticdave under a CC licence from Flickr

More pleasing than this was the recovery. I had to dig pretty deep to finish the event and on the day I actually found it considerably tougher than the Fred Whitton. I had a rest day on Monday, but had a bike/run brick lined up for Tuesday. My intention was to go moderately on the bike and run hard. I set off fairly briskly just to see how the legs felt and they wer giving me positive vibes. Before I knew it I was powering up the hills on the first and much hillier half of my standard 40k route and reached the halfway point in a sub 45 minute time. My split on the route is usually about 50mins for the first half, and 35 for the second, which gives you some idea of the difference in character. I knew if I kept up this pace I’d be fairly close to 1:20, a time which I’d never done on the route.

I’ve been reading some stuff about pacing recently and at an average speed of nearly 30kmh I was going way faster than Ironman pace. It’s a consistent weakness that when feeling good I push myself instead of working to a preplanned pace, and I’m really going to have to stop trying to set PBs all the time as I enter the final few weeks of training before tapering for Ironman UK, now only 8 weeks away!

I backed off the pace, but still finished in 1:22 which blitzed my season’s best for the course by several minutes. I expected to struggle on the run, but to my pleasant surprise I still felt strong and pushed the pace as per the original plan finishing in a decent time for me for the route.

It was great to get a couple of messages of support after my illness and it looks like I needn’t have worried, the break has left me stronger and faster than before – a lesson for all 40 somethings out there!

This weekend I’ve got the Roses Round, which is a 75 mile sportive around the Trough of Bowland which, if the weather is good, I’ll follow with a run, then next weekend is the Dambuster triathlon. It’s an Olympic distance event around Rutland Water, and will be the only triathlon I do this year apart from the Ironman. I’m familiar with the course having done the Vitruvian a couple of times and I’m really looking forward to doing a multisport event again, especially one for which I have no pressure to do anything except enjoy myself.