EDALE SKYLINE; IT DIDN'T SNOW!

Well sunday dawned clear and sunny, and stayed that way for most of the day, couldn't be more different than last years!The race set off about 15-20 mins late; unusually for fell events, the race organisers were doggedly enforcing the mandatory kit inspections, causing some of the more hardened (i.e stubbornly awkward) fell runners to chase back to the car park at the last minute!

Increasingly stringent insurance requirements are likely to mean more of the same at these longer fell events; the organisers came in for a fair amount of stick on the forums, they rightly stuck to their guns.

I've never done the Skyline before and it's a cracker. An initial trudge up to the Ringing Roger summit soon gave way to a scenic 6 mile rollercoaster run across to Win Hill. This was followed by a rapid descent into Hope and then the most serious climb of the day; over 1000 ft up to Lose Hill. The rollercoaster resumed for the next 10 miles or so, before another up and down at Grindslow Knoll, then back to Ringing Roger and home.The weather allowed for some glorious scenery and the sunday walkers were out in force; all were very supportive of (if a bit horrified by!) the mud and lycra clad competitors.

Of 287 starters, 258 finished the event (of the retirees, most would have been timed out by the 2:30 cut-off at Mam Nick and sent directly back down to Edale)I finished in 4:13, which put me roughly half way down the field. My estimate of 4 hours failed to allow for minor navigational errors (fell races are traditionally completely unmarked courses, except for the checkpoints) and a two falls in the final descent to the finish. The second fall was within sight of the finish chute; the spectators contributed that special sound that watchers of skateboard videos will be familiar with! Suffice to say, i wore long sleeves to work today and i am definitely at home to Mr Elastoplast!

This is definitely not a novice event (i got 'lightly' lost in clear weather) but would make a good challenge for anyone looking to go long in fell racing. It's superbly well organised and marshalled; a surprise appearance by Bertie Bassett handing out Jelly Babies on the way up Lose Hill was a definite highlight!

Running takes a back seat now as i endeavour to build up bike miles, my longest trip up to now has been 70k. It sound like the 'surrey sunday cycle' went well, but i'd love to know just how long it does take to pump a tyre up with one of those things!

ANDY A

The first group cycle

Last Sunday morning's 8am meeting turned out to be drier and much more pleasant than feared after the deluge of Saturday.
Despite the British weather and British Summer Time both conspiring against us Emma, her man Steve, Lyndon and I all arrived ready for a hard cycling and some wet weather.
While the cycling was hilly and hard the weather smiled on us, lots of cloud but no rain. The previous day's rain had however soaked every inch of the countryside washing most of it into the road and making it a pretty mucky ride nonetheless.
My attempts at keeping my 'best' bike clean were dashed and the poor old Brookes leather saddle also got a bit of a soaking and a thick coating of mud.

From the Bell and Colville Garage on the A246 we headed along the flat lanes through Bookham, past Polsden Lacey into our first climb before descending into Westhumble. We then crossed the A24 past the bikers begining to gether at Ryker's cafe before heading up the Zig Zag to the top of Box Hill.

While Lyndon restocked his larder Emma and Steve completed the climb and assessed the fit of Emma's bike. A higher seat and a few more gears could be the order of the day.

The tour then continued on to the, rather busy A25 and through Dorking to start the climb up to Coldharbour and the summit of Leith Hill.

It was hoped this long and harsh climb would be just the sort of training the team need to get ready for the gradients of Exmoor.It didn't disappoint. It also reminded me that last summer's training was a long time ago.

After enjoying the view from the top we started the descent stopping only to allow me to mend a puncture. This gave me the opportunity to find out how well my mini pump works and to see if I had remembered a tyre lever. All useful stuff for race day. From there we headed back down Leith Hill through Abinger Common across the A25 and back up Whitedown towards Ranmore.
This is another nasty climb which even got the, lithe and muscular, Lyndon out of his saddle to push his standard road gears up the climb. Meanwhile I span my legs to produce a seated, if slightly slower, climb on my compact chain rings and 14-28 cassette combo.

Steve and Emma joined us at the top and we completed the 40 mile jaunt with promises of more meetings and talk of outdoor swim training.

Our friends in the North

Not to be outdone by us Southerners ( we are currently fretting about a spot of rain on Sunday) Andy let us know what he will be up to.
He will be approx. 300 mile North taking part in the Edale Skyline run. have a look.
http://www.dpfr.org.uk/index.php?p=skyline

Easter in the Lakes

The usual sitting on the sofa, eating Easter eggs and watching TV did not come into play this year. Initially I was regretting having booked an endurance-training trip to the Lake District due to the weather reports of snow, wind and rain for the Easter weekend…………..however it turned into Spectacular weather, Spectacular scenery and Spectacular training.

Having arrived Easter Friday we managed a ‘quick’ mountainous 1.5hr run. The wind that evening became gale force, with trees and debris falling all over the roads. This debris did not prevent the Saturday morning scheduled cycle in the most glorious sunshine (although cold!) from Ambleside to Cartmel. There were some cheeky hills and I was particularly regretful that I didn’t have my compact chain set! Upon reaching Cartmel it was tea and cake all round (for approx 20 cyclists) supplied by a modest café owner where we managed to wipe out his whole supply of cakes!

Sunday was a shock to us all when the view from the window looked like this .......

There was at least 4 inches of snow and you would think this would hold us back??……. we did a ‘not so quick’ run up the Coniston old man!(mountain)….

If that wasn’t enough, we went for a swim in the local pool (after eating a whole Cadburys Easter Egg!)

Residual slush didn’t stop a 2hr recovery ride on Monday!

Thanks to Marc Laithwaite and his crew of inspiring athletes from base camp 13; a spectacular and memorable Easter don’t you think ?…......

FIONA

Nice relaxing Easter?

It's just what a dog needs. It's Easter, it's cold so what do you do? A nice relaxing morning safe inside, watching the snow fall.

But wait a minute.

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

NO, it's that idiot and his Ironman training again.

A couple of stints out in the countryside this weekend despite the cold. A particularly muddy 14kms on Friday and then out again on Sunday in the biting cold and snow.

It was the first time in years that the fronts of my legs got so cold they began to sting.

The great thing about running off road and in the cold weather ( can there be one?) is that it will probably mimic the conditions on Exmoor for the UK Ironman 70.3 in June.

The bad thing is my next event is in Florida on the flat and in the heat.

NB. No dogs were harmed in the making of this post. Henry is half Bavarian Sweathound and loves the cold.

Rain, mud but no blisters

I got my wish this weekend. I'm sure it wasn't as muddy as Andrew's fell course but it was pretty squishy.

I also had a result with my new anti-blister technique --taping my feet with zinc oxide tape.

Armed with my new Blackberry Imanaged to take some pictures of Henry (dog) ahead of me plodding through the mud but they were not that good. So I thought I would resurrect this picture from exactly the same weekend last year.

Same mud, same rain only on bikes.

MUCKY RUNNERS!

'The Boss' (that's Chris to you!) asked for contributions to the blog so here goes;

Had one of this season's first competitions last saturday, the 'Half Tour of Pendle'

This is a 9mile/2200ft fell race which gets its name from the fact that it is only half the length of the main event, run in december. It was a perfect fell running day (i.e it was raining!). Pendle is a touch gunky underfoot at the best of times; rain and 300+ runners (mostly ahead of me!) following the same course, more or less, made for some interesting descents. Fortunately the finish (Barley village) has a river, so i joined several other runners enjoying a free bath!

I did the full Tour of Pendle last year (1700m/4500ft) for the first time and was hooked on fell running from then on. I'm fortunate that, living in burnley, i can do all my training off road (and i mean off road!). One of the greatest things about fell running is the cost; the Full Tour was £5, including a T-Shirt!

Went out for a 3h training run yesterday, having forgotten about saturday; my legs soon reminded me!

Next event is the Edale Skyline (http://www.dpfr.org.uk/index.php?p=skyline); a bit more expensive at £11! After that it's time to concentrate on getting my bike mileage up a bit more so that i get to the end of 56miles and dont have to be prised off the bike!

Posted by;

Andy Armstrong

And the final member of the team is.....

James Eastwood

Our final introduction is for Bristol-based dispensing optician James Eastwood. The 35 year old who works for Dyer and Scott in Bristol started triathlon in 1989 . Eastwood has raced upto Ironman distance and is currently a coach with BADTRI triathlon club in Bristol so will be able to help the team out with any questions.
He hasn’t trained for a while so says taking part in the event will still pose a considerable challenge. More worrying is Eastwoods' reason for wanting to join the team and take part in the UK Ironman 70.3. ‘It’s widely regarded as the hardest 70.3 in the world,’ he reveals. Oh dear.

Optician's Editor joins the fray

Chris Bennett


I have always ridden a bike to work, college or school but was never attracted to competitive sport. Over the years I have dabbled in various sports, played on school teams, but never really got seriously involved. More recently I have windsurfed, canoed, gone walking, played in a dad's football team and gone for the odd Sunday run.
It wasn't until last year when Optician magazine got involved in the Transitions Oakley Ironman project that I took an interest. I eventually shadowed the Oakley Transitions Ironman Team and took part in the Monaco Ironman 70.3.
To do this I followed a tough training regime which culminated in around 15 hours of training a week. In the run up to Monaco I ran the Surrey Slog off road half marathon and after completing Monaco I did a short triathlon in Crawley and ran a half marathon this February.
At 45 years old I still feel like a novice (I have probably ran the half marathon distance a total of six times in my life) but there's an annoying idea out there that just because you have completed something like a Ironman 70.3 you can do as many as you like easily. Not so.
This year I will be competing in the Florida Ironman 70.3 in May and the UK Ironman 70.3 in June with the Optician team. This is a big a challenge this year as Monaco was last year. The prospect is something which both excites and scares me.

Lyndon Ferguson

Lyndon Ferguson

Our third team member is Lyndon Ferguson a self-employed optometrist who works at Horrocks & Boyd in Kingston-upon-Thames and Ultralase in Guildford.
Ferguson says he has been imvoled in sport for much of his life but an Ironman triathlon will be a new experience for him.

The 31 year old says that as a child his life revoled around sport and he competed as a cyclist until he was 21. Since then he has completed some sprint triathlons, fun runs and half marathons.

PS. Ferguson is the guy in the red swim cap.

Fiona --the figurehead

Fiona Bosher
I took a call from a woman wishing to join the Optician Ironman team this afternoon. She has missed the cut off for our team but said she was driven to try and join an Optician team after following the progress of Fiona Bosher last year.

Fiona Bosher is the figurehead for the Optician team and her participation follows on from her success last year in the Oakley Transitions Ironman Team. Her performance in the Transitions-inspired team was so good she won a place at the world championships in Florida last November.
Bosher, an optometrist working for the Matheson Group in Hampshire, has a background in a variety of sports but came to triathlon through the Transitions project.
But, she says, despite her achievements, the UK Ironman 70.3 will still be a big challenge.
‘ Although I ended up competing in two events last year it’s still an amazing challenge with huge motivational requirements.'
Competing in triathlon competitions has opened up a new vista of competitive sport for Fiona which I am sure she will share with the rest of the team in their preparation for the UK Ironman 70.3.

Box of choccies anyone?

Andrew Armstrong

Please let me introduce our latest team member Andrew Armstrong. Our fourth member is a 38 year old optometrist who works for an independent Practice in East Lancashire and in North Yorkshire.
His background is in mountain biking and fell running and expects a good time in the swim to be his biggest challenge. He says moving up to an Ironman 70.3 will be a great step to eventually attacking a full Ironman event sometime in the future . All he has to do now is mention his involvement in the team to his family and hope they are not too shocked.

Let's get serious

After my painful blister experiences I decided it was time to get serious about footwear.
As my trainers are a year or so old ( they look as good as new) I made the decision to get my gait analysed so sought out Up & Running in Camberley. I happened to be there last week.

It wasn't quite what I expected, it was a small shop with two very nice ladies. They also couldn't download my gait video, hence the link to someone else's.
After trying on about a dozen pairs the fit was finally decided and I left the shop with the trainers and a pair of high-tech socks.

I had less good news on the blister front. The only advice was surgical spirit ( something others have advised me against) to toughen up the skin.
It could be pronation, incorrect lacing or my style they told me.
The real rabbit-punch comment came after the plastic had been swiped: 'You could just have soft feet' the younger lady said and these shoes may make no difference.
So I'll be hitting the road this weekend to see how I get on.