Saturday 5 June 2010

whats occurring?

Well folks the RAAM starts next Saturday.....big GULP! Sleep deprivation and tired legs for a week but the past few weeks have been mainly recovery with sporadic training due to work. I did get involved in a multisport race though.
I did the North Lincs Adventure Challenge. Basically a quadrathlon organisation race but without the swim. As it was it started with a 36km TT(my fav) followed by a 10KM kayak(my not so fav) and ending in a 10km run(sometimes my fav but a poorly achilles tenden hinders the running somewhat). Anyway I decided to nail the bike and averaged over 25mph getting the 2nd fastest biuke of the day. It was very blustery and the disc and very deep front where a little tricky in the gaps in the hedgerow. A little cramp had me worried getting off the bike but not as worried as the kayak. OMG it's tough in a flat bottom barge. I did manage to overtake some folks by brute force and ignorance, or, maybe I'm a little fitter and stronger. Anyway and hour and 8mins later I'm being ridiculed by Daz Sharpe who came from his triathlon to say hi and lend me some ultra lightweight wheels for the Rockies and Appalachians. Nice set of Ksyrium SLs with a SRAM Red 28-12. Woohoo, let me at the hills. Back to the race.... the run was worrying me. My achilles is still swollen but I have been beasting the stretches. Within 200m though there is a sharp climb and a style to clamber but this was no probs....so far so good. Through the town of Brigg and onto the canal path I seemed to settle ok and gradually felt like I was getting faster and faster. I kept thinking about IM Switzerland in July- will I be ok for then? Can I run a marathon with this affliction? We'll see. I started to catch a lot of runners on the return route and finished in the town centre. I couldn't believe my luck. My achilles was no problem at all and I managed to come 3rd overall. The second placed finisher was 19mins faster on the kayak. What does that tell you? I GOTTA LEARN TO KAYAK!!!!!!!
Next race is the Brigg Bomber which is is an olympic distance tri with the 10km kayak. my 1st quad. Bring it on. Just got a continent to cross first. Keep an eye on www.raf-ultra.co.uk over the next few weeks. Speak soon.

1 comment:

Cavegirl said...

Good luck with your big ride, I set off the same day on mine :-)

Feel for you with the run injury - I'm off running again too and wondering if I'll be good for October. Sounds like you did OK though, hope you get no after effects.

Kayaking is great fun - did the Loch Ness Triathlon (kayak instead of swim) for about 11 miles, hillarious but doing research (and some training) meant I managed pretty well with my sea kayak - the guys in river kayaks paddled twice as far and were dunked on more than one occasion!

K