Riding in the Vendee

One of the great things I really like about holiday's when I can take my bike with me is the freedom to explore roads that I've not ridden before, enjoy some great weather and seeing new landscapes.

This ride was a 94k loop around the Vendee - west France, starting near Olonne sur Mer heading inland through the Marais - the salt marshes / salt harvesting flats and into the interior before heading north and west to come back to the coast.

It was an early morning ride just after sun rise so the temperatures were pleasant before the heat of the day set in. Here's a few pictures I took as I went along.  Next I'll post up details of a ride I did near the Atlantic coast west of Bordeaux.

The marais

A ruined windmill

It wouldn't be France in July without sunflowers

Hill top chateau

St Giles de Croix

The route at Map My Ride

Swim Smooth CSS based swim training

As part of the build up for the 2015 Island Games the Tri team took part in a technique analysis and coaching session with Steve Bailey, a Swim Smooth Coach.  This was made possible thanks to a bursary from Generali Worldwide, the Guernsey Island Games Association sponsor.

A write up of the weekend appears on Guernsey Tri website

For me the feedback on technique was invaluable and has given me a number of things to work on which I am trying to put into practice in each session.   Added to it is a 10 week swim programme which is based around Critical Swim Speed paced sessions and use if the Finis Tempo Trainer.  Each week our target pace per 25mtrs increases fractionally and the challenge is to stay ahead of the beeps.  Two weeks in and on the challenge session I'm winning 2-0, but I can see that the little yellow tempo trainer is going to be doing it's best to torment me each week. 

Having a clearly defined programme and a bunch of team mates who are highly motivated to improve is certainly working wonders, but it is only the second week of the programme.  The mark of the athlete will be those who can stick with it as the going get tough. 

This little yellow device is set to torment me over the 10 week programme.

End of season open water swimming

It's been a real joy to get out of the pool and into the open water regularly in the last month.  The weather has been pretty good and the swims really social with team mates from Guernsey Triathlon.  This week I took my GoPro out and took a few shots.  See them on my Flickr page here.

10mile Time Trial

The race was most memorable for Nick Despres' fantastic shot of me riding and looking like a pro.  He's an award winning professional photographer so it is no surprise he creates a great image.  You should check out his work via his blog linked above.  Despite being the last weekend in August it was a dull morning with misty rain and a gusty force 6 cross / head wind which made handling the bike a bit sketchy due to the deep section Zip 808 front wheel.  This was made worse by also having a loose tri bar - the gear cable running through it was the only thing stopping it falling out.

I completed the course about 30 seconds slower than my season's best - most of which I put down to bike handling - or an in ability to!  Average power was good showing that I still have some good form.

Nick Despres Blog site - Nick Despres Wedding Photographer website

Riding on the back of Bertha

For me Island Games qualification came down to having to get a result ideally in the top 4 in the last selection race of the season - the Pembroke Olympic Distance triathlon on 10th August.  I was as ready as I could be but just one thing hung like a shadow over the race and her name was Bertha.  

Tropical storm Bertha was a Category 1 Hurricane that still had plenty of energy by the time it reached our side of the Atlantic - fortunately Pembroke is a sheltered bay for westerly winds and swells but the strength of the wind still whipped up a decent chop and swell.  I came out of the swim well placed in 5th and then set about minimising losses on the bike.

Bertha tracks over the UK gusting to 108 mph

Riding the west coast was hazardous with storm debris littering the road and a gusty wind making bike handling sketchy - I'd put a spoked front wheel on the Boardman to give better control and provide a better braking surface for the wet conditions.  Battling the headwinds was one thing, but the strong tailwind and wet roads made the down wind return leg up the coast road scary - going into corners with way too much speed!  

Photo by Nick Despres Photogrpahy.

The bike went well and although I had dropped one place I was still in top 6.  Getting off the bike the legs felt pretty good and despite the lashing rain and squally wind I ran myself up to finish and 3rd place and secure my Island Games place.

Race results here.

Feins Triathlon - un jour sans

Not quite sure what happened, had an amazing swim - loved it - if bit of bish bash bosh in the first 200 then a great swim out in 9th - 7th in official results. Water was a lovely 22.7 degrees - a lot warmer than the 17 degrees at home!

Usually I move through the field on bike and run.  This time lost loads on the bike and ran very slooow. Finished 18th out of 200.

The French have a nice phrase for it : Un jour sans - a day without.

Still holiday followed and all is good.

My family shot some video and took some stills so a video. This is what it turned out like:

Race Stats 

18th (4th VM)2:14:04
Swim : 21:53 (7th)
T1: 1:29
Bike: 70:16 (39th)
T2: 1:34
Run: 38:53 (18th)

Race website: Feins Triathlon

Guernsey Easter Running Festival

I targeted the local Easter 10km road race as a test of form ahead of my first tri of the year at Rennes in May.  With little specific 10k work under my belt but a couple of 5k run outs completed it was difficult to know just how well I would go.  With a noticeable breeze into our faces over the first half of the course, I had planned to run a negative split and so it worked out.  Seemingly fellow triathlete Matt Dorrian had similar ideas and was also on a similar schedule - around 35:00.

So we got to to the 5k marker just before the course turned for home and the pace increased noticeably. From that point onwards Matt just continued to apply the pressure and the elastic would stretch as we overtook some other runners.  Inside the final 1k the elastic finally broke and Matt sneaked ahead by 4 seconds at the finish.  I crossed the line in 34:14 for 9th place and first vet.

I also turned out in the cross country relay but my legs were still empty after the efforts of the 10k.