The loneliness of the medium distance triathlete

Triathlon is a strange game. You train for hours and hours, often on your own, and then when an event comes along you leap into the water with 1500 other people --usually.
last weekend I introduced son No 2 to the world of triathlon with an outing to the Crawley Late Summer Tri. The way that the start worked was to put the novices in the pool first, then the slowest to the fastest. The juniors went off last. I decided to leave my slot of 149 and wait until my junior ( no 205) went in. He was the last number off and was in straight after the fastest athletes.
Needless to say we were pretty much on our own. It was the first time I have ever been last out of the water and to hear th marshal say your number and 'the pool is empty' really puts the pressure on. So out of the pool and into transition. Junior decides to go off on his own and I will catch him up. I leave and put the hammer down to catch him up ( something I failed to do on the swim!!), but where is he? 20 minutes later and still no sign, he's either improved a lot or he's taken a wrong turn. This is confirmed at the turnaround. About two miles into the return leg I spot him so I wait. We are now well and truly on our own, not another athlete in sight. We finished the run in isolation and head off into Ashdown forest alone. A few stragglers pass us by on their return leg but the rest of the run is on our own.
As we enter the stadium to finish our support is made up entirely of marshals ( it has started to rain). A nice young lady offers us a mars bar abd a bottle of Highland Spring, our day is done.

My son loved the race and we both had a blast. It just wasn't what I had in mind for his first experience of triathlon.

Picking up steam

There seems to have been a late rush of interest on the triathlon front.

As well as the Crawley Late Summer triathlon team headquarters has also recieved calls from Shamir Optical with offers of help and opticians wanting to join the team. There are quite a few events on the go with runners, cyclists and adventure racers all in on the act. I also find myself being asked what Optician will be up to next year.

I have also been moonlighting with the Transitions team which as well as taking part in some Evans Ride it events has also been eyeing up next year Vatternrundan. This year's Halvattern was so successful they just had to go for the full 300km.

More good news comes in the form of Fiona being on the mend and the long awaited meet up of the Optician Triathlon Team to discuss next year's challenge.

I have some ideas and it will be interesting to learn what others think we should aim for.

The weakest link

Readers of my last post will be aware of the Great Missenden ride I completed yesterday. I did this on my old bike. I'll spare you the detail but I have lent my best bike to my son for an up and coming event and so took on the one he was using (my old bike). Now, I love this yellow bad boy and as it was all set up and ready from the Sunday I decided to ride it to work on the Monday.
Apart from unscheduled rain all went well until the ride home.
The first point of worry was a funny cluncking from the drive train which I resolved to take a look at 'sometime'. Just as I was leaving Epsom at a set of light I went to pull away and, snap. A broken chain, one of the few things cyclists, without a chaintool, can do anything about.
Looking on the bright side if it had happened the day before 30 miles out from the start. Now that would have been a problem.

Great Missenden Great ride

The Transitions Swedish Bicycle Club staged a mini reunion at the weekend with a selection of veterans from the Halvvattern plus Optician editor junior joining up to take part in the Evan's Ride It event around Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire.
The group opted for the 60 mile route and with the weather smiling a great day was had by all. As the miles rolled by it was clear that the riders had improved immensely since Sewden and a crack at a longer ride next year would certainly be a popular option.
The route itself had some cheeky little climbs but most were completed in the saddle.The area proved to be the biggest surprise with all of the riders commenting on finding such attractive countryside so close to London. The ride went by very quickly as there was plenty to think about as the terrain and views changed, some of the road surfaces certainly kept the concentration levels up.
Our 15 year old companion certainly felt strong. Having been worried about keeping up he spent most of the day 'up the road' forcing Dad (me) to chase him down to ask him which part of 'ride as a group' he didn't understand. The first food stop didn't arrive until 37 miles so that also helped slow him down. Having eaten all of the power bars, energy gels, energy drinks, Mars bars and flapjack Evan's own fruitcake certainly hit the spot.
Sorry about the picture, I'm a little too contrasting, kit-wise, with the rest of the group. After my lower back sunburn in Sweden I didn't want to take any chances and opted for the Garmin Transitions. Junior took on the Bespoke Transitions black ensemble to help complete the team look.
There was plenty in the ride for everyone and all of the riders had a good day. A special mention has to go to the day's leader from Transitions, Luca, who managed the ride on a borrowed bike. Nothing wrong in that but it was about five sizes too small for him but those mountain biking legs just kept on turning.

Good job guys, bring on Sweden.

Bring me the head of John Kettley

I'm finding myself taking an unnatural interest in the weather lately after agreeing to take part in the Great Missenden Evans sportive.
My riding mates for this event will be the Transitions Bicycle Club and I don't think they will appreciate, or enjoy a wet ride either.
The weather hasn't been good of late and I am really not looking forward to another soaking.
It could be the Giro d'Italia all over again.

Force of nature

My promises of a closed season and a bit of a rest look doomed. After the Evans Liphook sportive, I have now signed up with another Optical group, the old Transitions Swedish Bicycle Club, to do the Great Missenden Evans Sportive on A September 12. After that it's the Crawley Late Summer Tri on September 26.
I've been riding to work this week and the knee is feeling pretty good.
But my feelings of over-training have been dispelled by a veteran of the 2008 Optician Ironman Team, Emma Saville. She took a break to go off and have a baby (and very nice he is too). So far this week I have seen her out running in the morning twice.
If you can have a young baby in the house and still get out on the road twice in three days you are on a Mission. All makes my moaning look a little pathetic, go Emma.

A sad day for cyling

Laurent Fignon died yesterday after a long fight with cancer. He was a great loss to cycling and to optics