Training/leisure ride to Bolton Abbey

I won't be blogging about training rides in general but as this was my first Century (all be it metric) ride of the year I've succumbed to the temptation.

Panaromic view of Ogden Moor

The plan was for cake in Skipton going vis Ogden Moor, Oxenhope and Keighley. As you can see the weather was beautifully clear but very frosty. The frost on the roads on the tops was a bit scary but it turned out that it wasn't slippery at all.

Stanbury with Top Withens to the left of the village

Warley Moor Resevoir

When I got to Skipton for the compulsory cake stop at the 3 Sheep Cafe I realised that I had done 42km and with a bit of route stretching I could manage 100km so instead of turning straight around I carried on to Bolton Abbey and came back via Addingham. I thought that would be enough but when I got to Crossroads I found that I would need to do Cock Hill and come back up the Calder Valley.

I was tired by this point but I carried on and ihe ride was worth it, my first 100kmer of the year!

Garmin Trace

Parkrun Tourism - Horton Park

Horton Park in Bradford is a 19th Century municipal park to the Southwest of Bradford city centre and last Saturday became first Parkrun Tourism destination since I started my blog. The parkrun is relatively new and was started to take some of the pressure of the main Bradford event at Lister park whose numbers are getting quite strong.

Setting up on the Park's central avenue.

By contrast to the Bradford and Huddersfield editions the run at Horton is very small usually around 50. This leads to a very different atmosphere when running. At Huddersfield there is always someone within a metre or so but here at Horton it can get very stretched out fortunately, though, there was quite a bunch of us that finished within about 15 seconds of each other which meant we didn't back off at the end when we were tired.

The day itself was cold with a brisk and as the race started we got a few flakes of snow which held off for the 3 and half laps of the park. In the small field I found myself very near the front as I went down the hill for the first of four times (Four downs and three ups we were told at the briefing although they forgot to mention how steep it was). A quick count up revealed I was in seventh position and I set my sights on taking the next couple of guys in front of me.

New years day and 50th Parkrun.

A Bit About Parkrun

At the moment I am making Parkrun my weekly tempo session. It works well for keeping your speed up for linger runs, but more than that, Parkrun is a fantastic community project. For those that don't know Parkrun it's a free timed run in a park near you run at 9:00am every Saturday. Everyone is welcome and you get everyone from Olympic medalists (occasionally), elite club runners, people pushing prams and really unfit people who are trying to make a difference and everyone in between. 

What makes it special is the camaraderie. Because the run is weekly you get to know the people finishing around you. The events are entirely staffed by volunteers and you are sort of expected to volunteer every now and again, although like most organisations some people give a lot back and others not so much, pesonally though I get a big kick out of volunteering. 

50 runs done, with Harry, Robert (and Mark)

All you have to do is find an event here http://parkrun.com, register only once for all the runs worldwide, print off your personal bar code and then turn up at the venue on Saturday morning.

Huddersfield Parkrun, New Years Day 2016

Any way, enough rambling, today was my 50th parkrun at Greenhead Park in Huddersfield. It's a really nice, well kept park with a lot of features typical of Victorian Parks. My brother Robert and his son Harry turned up to run and Sam (my son) came along to watch. Sam normally runs and at 5k and 10k is much faster than me but has been injured for a while now.

The route was changed this morning due to the normal route being icy so after the briefing and the shout outs for 50 and 00 runs, we were off.

The run went slowly due to an excess of Saltaire Blonde, Champagne, and Port along with Chili, Meat and Potato pie and Cheesecake. The usual suspects were around cheering me along, so thanks to Dave, John, Martin and all the rest too numerous to mention.

Anyway I plugged my way round in 24 minutes, the Garmin trace is attached as usual as well as a trace from a previous run showing the normal route. As I went round the top corner I passed Harry before finishing and getting my barcode scanned for my time.

It took a while before Harry appeared with his mouth full of cake, he was running without Robert and was losing interest so I ran an extra lap with him so that he finished his first complete Parkrun as I did my 50th, but there are stories like that every week and that's why Parkrunners turn up week in week out in all weathers.

Garmin trace from Christmas Day 

Garmin trace from today

Parkrun UK page

New York Marathon (TACXtours virtual cycle race)

As part of my winter training I have joined TACX tours. It is an indoor online  race series for the TACX brand of turbo-trainers. The photo shows my training cave as it is at the moment although I am planning to get a new shed for my bike stuff.

Tuesday nights are Marathon Course nights and this week it was the New York marathon course. There were over 60 people from around a dozen countries racing on two servers. I had a fantastically close finish with a guy called Aldo. He chased me down with about 2k to go but I go him back in the last 500m.

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Training cave

I managed to average 300w for over an hour. My FTP (functional threshold power) was 290w but this run puts it up to 301w according to the Training Peaks software.

Results
Strava trace

The Rubicon Middle Distance (Ripon)

This could be a long post. I have done this three times and I love it. Every race has its own personal stories and this edition had a few. Check out the video below to get a brief flavour the race.

I was racing against my brother Robert and my son Sam. Neither had done a middle distance tri before and whilst Robert was only aiming to finish, Sam is competitive. He's a much faster runner than me but I am marginally quicker on the bike and I was expecting a close race.

The event is staged in the grounds of Newby Hall with its magnificent gardens and offers on-site camping which we took up. This took a lot of stress off the morning routine and although there were no showers the field was adequate for the event. The weekend also features a kids race on Saturday evening and a Standard distance, the Trident, this made the camping field busy with a nice family atmosphere. Mark tries to make the event family friendly and I think he gets it right.

Dam 'Ard Triathlon 2015

27th Sept 2015 

This is my local event, a sort of mid-sprint/olympic distance tri. The distances are 502m swim, 38k ride and 7.5k run. The finish and HQ are at Rishworth School near Ripponden, and the pool and transition are a few hundred meters away at Heathfield School.

The bike route goes over the Pennines and back on the rugged but beautiful South Pennine Moors and the run is largely Off road in the hills around Ripponden.

On the day of the race I turned up nice and early for an 8:00am start only to find my front tyre completely flat.

Las Vegas Marathon 2015

15 Nov 2015

Heading into registration at Las Vegas conference center you are greeted with a huge banner saying "You are kind of special, they're shutting The Strip down for you". And that sums up the race - it's totally Vegas, from the fact that it is a night race, to the Kid Rock gig at the start and the stretch limo courtesy of the Bellagio to the start.

There are three events on the Sunday, the marathon, the Half and the Half of the half, a 10k. In our group I was doing the marathon, Beckie was doing the half and Greg and Rachel were doing the 10k.