Aberfeldy Half Ironman for MND Scotland

Well into 2012 and I've not written a blog post for ages, due to being too busy with other stuff and having nothing particularly new or interesting to write about.  My 2012 race season so far as been pretty mediocre  with a couple of decent rides but lack of time for doing much racing has meant my form hasn't been great and I have kind of lacked a bit of enthusiasm for the Scottish Road Race scene  - same riders, same races, same results.....  At the start of June on the spur of the moment I entered the Dunblane 7.5 mile Road Race (running), and got a really good result considering I haven't run at all in a very long time.  Encouraged by this I had a look at the triathlons coming up in the calendar and after a bit of swithering decided to jump in at the deep end and give the Aberfeldy Half Ironman a go.  The event is on the 18th August and starts with a 1900m swim in Loch Tay, followed by 90km on the bike and finishing with a 21km run.

I'm pretty confident that I'll be quick on the bike and reasonably happy with my running, but swimming isnt something I do an awful lot of.  Open water swimming is something I've never done at all, so I debated for quite a while before entering the event, but eventually decided I could definitely get through the swim even if not especially fast.  As its open water you need a full wet suit to take part, and although I have an old steamer from years ago when I did a lot of windsurfing all the advice I got was that it wouldnt have the range of movement round my shoulders and would be really uncomfortable for a long swim, so I bought a cheap speedo suit from wiggle.

Since the event is something new for me and quite a challenge I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to raise a bit of cash for charity.  Earlier this year a colleague from work died from Motor Neurone Disease (MND) so it was the immediate first choice.  Having set up a just giving web page where folk can donate and sent out a few emails the response to that has been really good.  I set a goal of £500, and so far have had over £250 donated which is amazing.  All donations are very welcome!  The charity does great work helping people suffering from MND and their families.

So at the moment I'm on my 2 weeks summer holidays. We're staying in a caravan up at the beaches at Arisaig, and I've been using the proximity to the sea, and time off work to get in some training, mainly getting used to open water swimming, and doing more running. I've set myself a target of one swim every day we're here and have so far managed 2 so its 100% so far!  The first swim I was pretty keen to get out of the way and get a better idea of what I'd let myself in for.  The conditions weren't exactly ideal - northerly, fairly chilli wind, not too wavy but enough to give a novice like me a hard time.  The cold salty water was a bit of a shock but I managed OK I think.  Going up wind into the waves was pretty unpleasant and my progress was very slow.  Coming back down wind was much better, and I started to work out a bit of a rythm with arm strokes, breathing, and looking where I was going.  I'm very glad to have this opportunity to practice though as there is definitely a lot of room for improvement.

This mornings swim was much better.  I got out at 7am, not wind, tide well out so much better conditions.  The cold water on my face was still pretty nasty having just got up, but I found my rythm much faster and swam a lot further today.  Coming out of the water and out of my wetsuit I was shivering big time very quickly, so I'm going to have to think about what to wear on the bike and make sure I am warm enough initially, but knowing that I'll warm up further into the ride.  I found the swim was actually pretty exhausting as well and even had difficulty getting out of my wet suit.  So still not especially happy at the prospect of the swim in Loch Tay, but at least I have time to get better.  Weather forecast for tomorrow isn't so good, so I'll need to find some motivation before tomorrows dunking!

Ben Lomond Loop

I decided to do something a bit different for last Saturday mornings run.  Since many of us ride CycloCross (CX) bikes during the winter I quite fancied making the most of their off road capabilities by doing a loop taking in some of the great forest trails nearby.  The route I had in mind took in the Trossachs Forest Drive by Loch Venachar and the Dukes, followed by a run up through the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park from Aberfoyle over to Loch Lomond.  At Loch Lomond side the route was south to Rowardennan, Balmaha and Drymen then home.

Richard and Eddie joined me for this winter epic.  Not the best day for it - howling westerly with horrible sleet showers.  I've ridden some of the tracks before but after all the mega rain in the last week we were a bit unsure how ridable it would be.  With a lot of the off road sections being well used for forestry work they can get quite broken up by logging trucks and in pretty bad shape.  We were all on CX bikes with 35mm CX tyres fitted.  These have a shallow tread, like an MTB tyre but are not as knobbly or as wide.  I find these are pretty good on the road as long as you dont try to go too fast, and off road they give great grip.

Eddie and Richard with snow capped Ben Lomond in background

Callander to Aberfoyle
The first section on tarmac up the Deanston Road we do all the time, but after Callander its onto the gravel and almost single track along the side of Loch Venachar.  We all had big grins on our faces after this: blasting round gravel bends and over wee jumps.  The climb up to the Dukes Pass from Loch Venachar was much slower on the soft gravel track than the usual route up, but it was good to do something different and the descent down into Aberfoyle was an absolute blast - it felt like driving a rally car, beasting round corners, ripping over the rough gravel surface.

Milton to Cailness
After Aberfoyle road and the short tarmac section up to Milton we crossed over to the Queen Elizabeth forest park, and back onto more gravel trails.  This gradually climbs up toward Ben Lomond.  The Ben appeared up in front of us from out among the trees and initially it was quite some distance away, with the top capped in snow.  Fortunately I'd plotted the trail into my Garmin, as there are a lot of criss crossing junctions in the forest and way finding can be tricky.  Having ridden round the forest before I'd often found myself having to stop and check the map to try and work out which way to go, but with the course plotted in the Garmin it was dead easy - just a case of following the line on the screen on my bars!

From Milton up into the Comer estate the trail surface through the forest is actually really good, much firmer than the climb up the Dukes, so we made pretty good progress.  It did gradually become more full of potholes and rough in places.  Almost at the top of the main estate road you pass a small cottage and there is a turn off the main estate path, through a gate and up a very steep, much smaller side track.  The gradient was getting on for about the limit of what we could ride up on the CX bikes due to the slippery wet surface, and gearing available.  After a while it slacked off a bit and it was just another few miles grind up a lumpy but ridable landrover track to the top of Gleann Gaoithe.  By the time we got here it was absolutely pissing down and blowing a gale and seriously cold, so we were pretty glad to see Loch Lomond appear almost directly beneath us.

The descent to Cailness was not really my idea of fun.  When you come over the top of the hill you start at about 350m and Loch Lomond is at about 10m and feels like its directly beneath you.  The track is about 25% gradient, rocky, broken, and was like a river in places.  Theres several switch backs, but the gradient is unrelenting.  Even going down it was tiring, especially on arms and shoulders.  I lost it in a rut at one point and took a header into the mud which wasn't very pleasant.  There was a 4x4 parked at the house at the bottom, but I found it hard to believe you could even drive down the track!  Riding up would maybe be doable on an MTB, but certainly not on a CX bike.

Mechanicals
Half way down the descent I discovered one of the crank arms on my chainset was coming loose.  I fitted a new chainset a few months back after the west coast tour and presumably didnt get it quite right.  The crank arm on the non drive side clamps onto  a post which comes out of the drive side crank, and the bolts clamping the arm on must have worked loose over time.  The arm with pedal attached was now wobbling about.  Richard had a multi tool, so I attempted to tighten the crank arm back on, but a mile or so further on it had worked its way loose again.  After Cailness we joined the West Highland Way and headed south toward Rowerdennan.  The surface is pretty rough along here too, and it was Eddies turn to have a mechanical next.  His chain jammed in the rear mech, and this caused the mech and hanger to be ripped off the back of the bike.  He managed to do a not bad fix up job, shortening the chain to run the bike as a single speed.  Fortunately from Rowedennan back to Stirling there arent any really significant hills, so this was ok to get him home

Unfortunately my crank arm kept on working loose and after a while it started falling off altogether.  After a several attempts at reattaching it I decided it the problem was terminal and it was going to prevent me managing to complete the full circuit.  Fortunately Laura was home and after a phone call she was able to come and get me about and hour later from near Drymen.  Eddie and Richard carried on back to Stirling along the A811, while I pedalled slowly, one legged back to Blamaha and as far toward Drymen as I could.

Broken TCX

The original plan had been to ride the route in the opposite direction, however on the morning we decided to reverse it due to the gale force westerly and the idea that riding westward through the woods would be better than plugging along the A811.  I think going round clockwise would be preferable if the weather was different as the trails are more rideable going the other way, and I'd rather push my bike up the climb from Cailness than ride down it again!  This route would be brilliant in the summer when the trails are drier and harder, and I think you could probably do the loop in about 5 hours if you went at it hard.  Having looked about theres quite a lot of other similar loops that can be made by joining up sections of gravel road.  The only potential problem with wanting to do more of this type of route is the potential maintenance cost fixing all the broken kit!

Break building

The break climb the Whistlefield on lap2. pic courtesy of PaulH via flickr

I've gone a bit blog tastic recently, but there seems to have been plenty to blog about!  As well as the excitement of mothers day yesterday there was also round 2 of the Super6 at Helensburgh.  2 weeks since my last race and a month on from the black day at Giford, the race at Rosneth was a sucessfuly day out.  I didn't quite win, but pre race the target was a top-ten, so getting on the podium was great.

The race started and finished in Helensburgh with the race involving a run up to Gareloch, the three laps of a circuit taking in Coulport, Cove, Rosneth and the Whistlefield climb back at Gareloch.  So a pretty demanding course to go with the impressive entry list, featuring 4 of the Scottish Commonwealth Delhi Games Road team plus all the other usual big names.

The first lap was pretty full on.  I find the start of races one of the hardest parts.  Everyone is fresh, and determined to get themselves in the break.  The general format for Scottish road race is a break will get away up the road, work together to open a huge gap and its game over for the bunch.  So the presure to get in the break is high.  The first few breaks are often chased down, but that doesn't mean you can just sit in and wait because then you might miss it.  The hope is others will chase and tire faster than you do, which is when you need to strike, making a big gap as fast as possible, therefore discouraging others from trying to bridge.  At the same time you want others to come with you as you cant ride the race alone, you need others to help.  You also need riders from each of the strong teams there, otherwise you can be sure there will be others in the bunch chasing you down.

So the effort getting into the break and making it stick is huge and repeated. Since the first few breaks won't always stick you need to be able to get in there, then recover, and potentially go again several times more, which is why its often called a selection.  Whose the strongest? Are each of the teams represented?  Are the riders willing and able to work together?  Although the course for yesterdays race involved a lot of hills, the breaks weren't made on the uphills.  When the break that finally stuck went the group I'd been in had just been pulled back as we crested a hill on lap 2.  Counter attacking is often a good idea, so myself and a few others who had recovered quickly after the climb nailed it down the decent as fast as we could.  So the break was made on the descent rather than the climb.  The ability to get in the break I think was due to being able to recover quickly.  I think this is partly why doing hill reps helps.  You bury yourself on the way up then get a limited time to recover riding back down, before doing it again.

Training, training, training

Having had a few problems recently fitting much training in, this week I've been busy trying to find a bit extra.  I've bit the bullet and started doing some intervals since I've not been doing anything like that up till now.  Basically i've been doing hill reps - riding repeatedly up the same local climb.

This week i've mainly been going up the Back o'Hill by Stirling Castle.  So starting at the bottom by the fire station roundabout i time the climb from the lamp post at the bottom to the lamp post by the entrance to the grave yard where it flattens out.  The climb is a steady 10%+ with the upper section 15%+ (Garmin gives gradient stats!).  Its about 0.4 of a mile and the elevation gain is about 170ft.  I did it a few times last year when I was going pretty well so had an idea what time I should be getting up in.  First session this year I was well off the pace, although to be fair the climb was covered in sleet and barely ridable.  Todays session was a huge improvement though.  Times are almost up there with last year, and I managed 8 reps without collapsing!  8 reps all under 2mins, and best times last year were around 1.50ish

Other climb I use quite a bit is the Logie Kirk climb up to Sherrifmuir.  Although I ride the climb several times a week going to and from work, I've only managed one interval session up it this year.  The climb is a lot longer, taking almost 5 minutes, and its significantly steeper for longer.  This one I start by the telegraph pole at the graveyard entrance, and finish at the road junction.  6 reps of it and you're done!  Best times on the Logie Kirk last year were around 4.30, so maybe need to do a proper session up there next week.

The training is giving my old Trek 1000 a bit of a battering, but its still going well.  The new wheels from Dave Hinde seem really good.  They're pretty standard training wheels - Mavic Open Sport on Tiagra hubs.  I gave them a wee true up myself after their first few hundred miles, and they seem really solid.  32 spokes mean truing is possible for a novice like me and costing £100 delivered I think they're great value.  The bike is going well, although without mud guards its pretty manky!  Pic at the top taken at the top of Sherrifmuir this afternoon.

This weekend theres the Dick Londragon RR on Sunday, and hopefully I'll be going a bit better than the Super6 at Gifford!  Its a great wee circuit and hopefully the weather will be good again.  Not going with any great expectations as I'm still kind of unsure of my form, but hopefully i'll get round without suffering to much.