Two years ago I ran the Wilmslow half-marathon and really suffered for my over confidence. I thought I’d learned the lesson. Four weeks ago I was chuffed to bits by my performance at the Fred Whitton Challenge, renowned as one of the toughest sportives in Britain. Even though the training hadn’t gone brilliantly in the interim I was confident enough to plan a short run after finishing the ride. How foolish!

The start of the Spud is at Woodford Hall, only a couple of miles from my front door, so I rode to the start leaving about 7:30am. After signing on I joined the queue to start the ride and rolled out at 8:06. I was still hoping that this would give me nearly 4 hours of good weather before the rain started. I set off briskly and felt strong on the classic local climb known as the Brickworks. Also felt good on the long climb up to Windgather. By the time I was on the long drag up to Flash I was beginning to think that perhaps I had set out a bit hard. Still, the steep climb up Crowdecote bank was despatched relatively easily and I paused at the first feed merely to get my card stamped. It hadn’t started to rain…yet.

There followed a slight navigational error by the small group I was riding with, but we soon rejoined the route, perhaps adding an extra mile or so. As I was climbing Butterton Moor I felt the first spot of rain, an hour ahead of my optimistic hope, and by the time we were riding through Onecote it was hammering down. On the main road through Waterhouses there were rivers running down the road. Worse, it was really cold. Climbing out of Waterhouses I was going through a really bad patch and I lost touch with the group. The next few miles were purgatory, no companions, lashing rain and freezing cold. Then the weather got really bad. An enormous thunderclap close to Ilam announced a truly horrendous hailstorm that hurt so much I had to take shelter under a tree. By now I was really suffering and I’d lost communication with my feet and my hands were following suit. It was so cold that fast descending was no longer an option – the wind was just freezing. By Youlgreave it took serious amounts of willpower not to pack and head for the pub. The roads were sodden with rivers flowing down the hills and the rain showed no sign of abaiting. By the time I reached the second feed I was starting to shiver.

I was starting to worry about the guy I had picked up on the last stretch. At the feed he was doubled over and shivering uncontrollably. I was thinking he was a likely candidate for hypothermia, yet the volunteers manning the feed didn’t seem to realise that they might be receiving riders under real stress and were quite happy brewing up for themselves while dishing out their excellent selection of cakes and other goodies. I had to be quite forceful in suggesting that they gave the guy a hot drink and pointed out that they should be looking for possible cases of hypothermia. All the while I was shivering myself, but managed to eat plenty of cake to keep me going.

The next few miles were really hard. I wanted to stop, but a little voice kept telling me, “You’re doing an Ironman in two months, you need to finish.” Fortunately, as I hit rock-bottom the energy from the cake started to kick in and the rain eased off. The long climb up to Axe Edge went ok and once past the Cat and Fiddle I knew there was only one climb of note left. The freezing rain returned with a vengeance to make the ascent from Lamaload and the descent towards Pott Shrigley another real low point. But, I hooked up again with my hypothermic mate and we latched on to a fast group that drove the pace through Adlington and back to Woodford. 7 hours 20 minutes after starting I was drinking the most wonderful cup of tea I have ever drunk (it took 2 more before I stopped shivering). As for riding home and doing a run; I phoned the cavalry.

Since my depressed post of last week I’ve done two fifty mile bike rides followed by a short run after each and found the second one in particular fairly straightforward. This is a major relief and it seems that not too much damage has been done (thanks for the supportive comments). It gives me the confidence to ride fairly hard on Sunday, but the killer is I’ve got to do a run straight afterwards, even if it’s only for half an hour.

Report on Sunday evening.

Route map here

I’m writing this entry 3 weeks after the highpoint of my year so far, completing the Fred Whitton Challenge at the first attempt in what I consider to be a fairly respectable time. 3 weeks on and I’m in the deepest of training depressions. 

The week after the Fred was scheduled to be a light week to allow recovery from a heavy block of training including very tough century rides on consecutive weekends. I recovered from the Fred superbly, and even considered training on the Monday straight after, but I stuck to my plan and kept it light. The following week I started to pick it up again with a couple of very tough runs at the start of the week, with a view to having my first “Big Day” session (all three disciplines spread out through the day) at the start of the half-term holiday weekend. On the Friday I went down with an upset stomach – I’m pretty sure it was a ham and cheese panini and resulted in the usual dire consequences for when one eats a dodgy piece of meat. I decided to try a ride on the Sunday and planned an easy 40k loop. Every time the heart rate approached 150 I felt awful so kept the pace right down. The same thing happened during the next day’s ride so decided to have a day off to try and let the bug clear. By the Wednesday I was starting to feel much better so set out to try a bit harder. I planned on doing 40km with the option of an additional loop if things went well. As it turned out, although I finally seemed to have shaken the nausea, I had absolutely nothing in my legs and I finished my 40k loop with a slooow time and much furrowing of the brow. By Friday I felt well enough to go for a run and I managed a reasonable 17km in very hot conditions with no ill effects, although the whole thing was a real mental struggle. Saturday and Sunday were taken up with travelling and so I get to 3 weeks later with a training total of a pathetic 12 hours done and 9 weeks to go.

I am trying not to panic about this, but the next few weeks are going to be crucial. Next Sunday is the Spud Riley Gran Fondo – a nice tough century ride around the Peak District. That should tell me whether I’ve lost a lot of fitness. Let’s hope not.

Image Credit: Creative Commons image from Flickr by Muckster

I set off nice and early (about 8am) and settled in with a fast group – mistake. Pretty soon my heartrate was hammering and I was quickly shelled on the first big climb (the Brickworks). Once I’d got my HR under control and was doing things at my own pace, things improved, and I even caught up with a few early fast starters on the way up the Goyt Valley to the Cat and Fiddle. There followed a superb long descent along the A537 to Allgreave, followed by a long and grinding two mile drag up to the village of Flash. One of the features of this event is that there is a sign at the bottom of each climb telling you how far it is to the top – two miles doesn’t make pleasant reading.

After the village of Crowdecote and the first time control I had to make a decision – my legs were suffering from my fast start so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed up the five mile climb to Axe Edge and the short route. This was the grimmest part of the ride – exposed, headwind  and unrelenting. I was fast running out of energy so slowed down, ate a cereal bar and glugged some carbs. It was pretty lonely on the moor as most people were doing the long ride – only one guy caught me in the five mile stretch – blithely complaining that he had “no energy today” as he whizzed gaily past. Don’t you just hate that!

The return stretch past Lamaload reservoir and down into Pott Shrigley was fantastic, and, back on the level of the Cheshire Plain I felt I had enough juice left to get into my aero tuck and TT it back to Woodford Community Hall. My watch said 3:58 but my official time was given as 4:02 making me 12th equal out of the 60 odd that did the short course. I was pretty pleased with my effort and would recommend this ride to anyone wanting a friendly and challenging ride around some of the best and quietest roads that the Peak District has to offer.

Spud Riley results

So, it’s the Vitruvian next, an event I am really looking forward to. My target is to go under six hours (last year was 6:03). It will be tough, as I had a fantastic bike leg last time: 2:53 (some 18.5 mph for the course), but as long as I’m sensible, I think I’ll be OK.