The Aftermath: Velo a Paris / the Big 3-0

Coming off the back of a successful first attempt at an Ironman was a huge relief. At the same time I felt at a bit of a loss. Training had been my 'religion' for over 6 months. Saying that, it's amazing how quickly you fill the training time and enjoy the lie ins. Paddy was considerably less grumpy too!

So what next? There's been some chat about the improvement in times required to qualify for Kona. Ho ho ho, I say. Instead, I was very lucky to be invited by Morrow Lorraine http://www.morrowlorraine.com/ on their "Velo a Paris" trip from London to Paris. The trip included some Cycle to Cannes http://www.cycle2cannes.org/ veterans, some superb cyclists and some less experienced but nevertheless keen participants. It really was an epic trip with slick organisation, a stunning route and, most importantly, a quality line up in the peleton with some excellent banter. We even had some photographers with us which meant less danger for me not having to take photos as I was cycling along. See ML's photos link below to Flickr and watch this space as to whether I'm persuaded to participate in Cycle to Cannes. The second day of six is a cool 320km in early March. Eeeek.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/morrowlorraine/sets/72157631589589369/

And after all this excitement what more happens than I hit the big 3-0. I won't lie, I have had the heeby geeby's a bit over the last couple of months but the successes of the last 5 weeks have been pretty uplifting as I find myself staring down the barrel of my 4th decade (thanks Mum, and yes, I am still applying the anti-wrinkle cream!). I am assured that life begins at 30 but that is a further concern given that my liver is already pickled from my twenties. I look forward to finding out...

Big Woody - The Results & Newsflash

From MW: In the standard Cowman format, BW results breakdown below – my analysis has led me to the conclusion that Pughey is a bit of a T2 specialist. 

I also looked at what I did to prepare for it since 1 Jan 2012:

I did a total of 149 sessions split at follows:

Swimming	37 sessions (25%)
Running	66 sessions (44%)
Cycling	46 sessions (31%)

On a time basis I did 208 hours split as follows:

Swimming		32 hours (15%)
Running		61 hours (30%)
Cycling		115 hours (55%)

Separate to this I did:

-          166 cycle commutes (94 hours)

-          Gym 43 sessions (40 hours)

-          Other (rugby, touch etc) 10 sessions (11 hours)

[As you can see, MW has a lot of time on his hands. My total training - not divvied up - was 320 hours and just under 5,000km's since mid-March] 

Big Woody 2012 Times
Swim
Name	Time	Gap
Kirwan	01:16:54	03:53
Durden H	01:20:47	00:33
Williams	01:21:20	01:05
Durden W	01:22:25	04:18
Pugh	01:26:43
T1
Name	Time	Gap
Durden H	00:05:05	00:28
Kirwan	00:05:33	00:00
Williams	00:05:33	01:09
Pugh	00:06:42	01:11
Durden W	00:07:53
Bike
Name	Time	Gap
Williams	05:54:42	03:19
Durden W	05:58:01	00:51
Kirwan	05:58:52	07:11
Pugh	06:06:03	25:19
Durden H	06:31:22
T2
Name	Time	Gap
Pugh	00:02:11	01:30
Williams	00:03:41	00:37
Durden W	00:04:18	00:46

  Durden H                                   00:05:04                                   00:06

  Kirwan                                       00:05:10

Run
Name	Time	Gap
Williams	03:23:42	05:54
Durden W	03:29:36	16:23

  Kirwan                                      03:45:59                                   13:57

  Pugh                                        03:59:56                                   12:35

  Durden H                                  04:12:31

Total
Name	Time	Gap
Williams	10:48:59	13:15
Durden W	11:02:14	10:16

  Kirwan                                      11:12:30                                   29:06

  Pugh                                        11:41:36                                   33:14

  Durden H                                  12:14:50

***NEWSFLASH***

MW received the results of his MRI scan today which confirmed that he has two ruptured discs at the base of his spine. Prognosis TBC but my recommendation off the back of this is not to do an Ironman when you have agonizing back pain. Sounds like he was blo*dy lucky not to do more damage. 

The Big Woody - Part II

There are various debates about what went on on the bike. All we know is that by the time Will arrived back after the cycle he was fuming because Mark and Jonny had ridden a lot of the bike course ‘together’. In his mind this meant drafting. Photographic evidence suggests that Will and Pugh may also have been cycling ‘together’ at some point. I would point out that drafting in amateur competitions is not allowed.

After the first half an hour or so on the bike we were lucky enough to see some blue sky emerge. We actually dodged all but one or two relatively minor rain showers in the end although heard rumbles of thunder in the distance coming from ominous grey clouds. So on we pedalled. By now Mark had extended his lead. JK had had a puncture and WJD had made some ground up to give him a chance on the run. Pughy and WJD spent some time pedalling together but Mark ultimately maintained his lead and then extended this once he hit the run.

Me on the bike - showing my appreciation to the supporters!

Pughy doing his best to impersonate superman. May the wind always be at your heels.

Will looking solid on the bike.

JK also looking relatively happy.

Mark, just relieved to be on the bike and pedalling hard. I would also point out that this guy has completed the Tour De Force which is the entire route of the Tour de France 2 weeks later so he is by far and away the most experienced cyclist of the bunch and this showed.



As I approached the end of the final lap on the bike I was cycling up the penultimate hill on my way from Bream and I noticed a cyclist in his full matching lycra parked up by a gate on the opposite side of the road. At this point I'd been overtaken by an older bloke complaining about the hilly bike course but I'd cheered him on congratulating him on having nearly finished it. As the stationary cyclist cheered the older guy on I recognised a very familiar voice. It was Uncle David! In a mad rush he hopped on his bike and quickly chased me up one of the shortest but steepest hills on the course shouting encouragement. We then hit one of the bigger descents, although wetter this time, and I had one of the hariest moments on the cycle. I was going too fast, the road was rutted and as I thought about hitting my brakes I thought better of it but by now was heading for the hedge. Luckily the road straightened out in time but I had experience quite a big drift around the corner. To say it was a heart in mouth moment is an understatement.

As we pulled into transition anything between five and six and a half hours later our supporters (Rach & Chris) were waiting under shelter for us to commence the run. The term marathon was applicable to all!

T2 was a relatively relaxed affair with a park bench to sit on and further outside assistance allowed. Here you can see the WAG's helping with kit and pulling on socks (!).

Once we were all out on the run we were hit by probably some of the worst weather of the day and I think this picture captures it perfectly! Here you can see JK trudging through some pretty foul conditions towards the start of the run. My trainers filled up with water so I was running with what felt like weights tied to my feet for most of the following lap.

The course they'd put together was an out and back loop of just over 4 miles. We had to completed 6 laps of this. My first took me about 35 minutes, my last over 45! What we'd failed to realised was just how hilly said course was. After the first big hill (up which I resorted to walking each time), it turned into a track, rutted and covered in stones and rock. Then the main feed station offering everything from Pretzels to Jelly Babies. After this a steep descent followed by a long steady uphill section to the turnaround point. It was tempting but I didn't see anyone cut this short. Once you were heading home there was a mental lift but as you ticked off the laps the downhill sections were nearly as painful, if not more so, than the uphill sections. On the penultimate and final lap I ended up walking down the hills as well as up them.

3rd or 4th lap - looking happier than I was probably feeling. You have to look good for the cameras after all. Our supporters walked the course to get out to the furthest point which added some interest to proceedings. In addition there was some good banter with the other athletes finding out names, how far they had to go and high fiving if we were unable to speak. It was in one of these exchanges that I found out I was in second place out of the women. I had to keep going! 

Early celebrations by the finish line. 

The first man over the line and ironically the one who looked least likely to start! Mark and Neeshe celebrating. The smile was soon wiped off Mark's face as the inevitable stiffness hit his hamstring and back injuries. 

Will looking pretty broken at the finish...

He perked up soon after to give the TGS salute.

JK delighted to have finished. My money was on him to take the men's intra-TGS competition but going out too hard on the bike course had taken its toll.

Pugh looking considerably happier than he had done on the final couple of laps of the run. Despite losing a lot of muscle bulk for this he still won the TGS 'Show us ya Guns' competition.

Pure, unadulterated relieft as I hit the finish line.

Pretty blo*dy happy to be finished.

The Durden family - Nanny D would have been proud and to have the Dursley contingent there was an added bonus.

Our chauffeur, who'd also done the 4.30am wake-up call, in need of a rest after dinner. JK and Mark had gone straight to bed!

Results and analysis to follow.....

The Big Woody - Part I

This was it. We’d made it. Well, sort of. We’d lost a few of the original ‘entrants’ (debatable as to how many had stumped up the cash…) along the way:

Dan Marshall – sent an email pretty early on in proceedings saying he couldn’t commit to the amount of training.

Barnes – sent a lot of emails saying he was going to commit but never showed up. The Richmond Park marathon was the end for him.

Cardiac Chris – feigned heart problems to get out of it… we’re still awaiting the official medical report.

Flynn – did at least admit that he hadn’t done enough training and bowed our gracefully (if you ignore the incident on the Falzarego).

Mark was another worry. He had spent the prior 2 weeks in agony. Firstly with lower back pain which made walking, sitting and putting on his socks absolutely impossible. After seeing every chiropractor, doctor, sports masseur and ‘quack’ over the last 2 weeks he finally went for an MRI scan on Thursday, 48 hours before he lined up to start the BW to check there were no structural (ie disk) issues [at the time of writing we still don’t actually know what the result of this scan is]. The specialist that he had seen the day before had read in his notes that he was entered to run an ironman on the Saturday, his response to which was: “I’m not even going to discuss that”. A ‘bolt of lighting’ moment in the middle of the night around Wednesday transferred the agony to his hamstring and suddenly [comparatively] he was a lot more mobile. His chances of lining up on the start had gone from about 5% to 80%.

Those more cynical members of the group thought this was all a put on in light of the results that emerged later in the day.

We had taken the day off work on Friday to drive down to Rockfield just outside of Monmouth, settle into accommodation and then head down to Lydney to register. We were staying in the Coach House at Rockfield Studios where both Queen and Oasis have recorded in the past. They probably had a slightly different type of weekend to the one we had!

First job on arrival was to sort out our stuff and head to registration. Split transition required some preparation ensuring that everything you wanted for each transition was in a plastic bag (blue for bike, red for run) which was then transported to the relevant area. In hindsight this was a good thing as it meant much less faffing at 4.30am on race day morning. We tucked into the pasta at Taurus Crafts Café ‘pasta party’ and then headed back to Rockfield for pasta round 2 [lasagne]. The weather was looking ominous to say the least: this was the view from the van on the way back to Rockfield that evening and I can confirm it was even worse when we were driving to Dayhouse Quarry at 5.30am the next morning...

A nervous looking bunch at registration / T1 / Taurus Crafts:

Standing on the finish line - where we would all hopefully be in just under 24 hours time:

 

We had gone to bed and woken to a rather ominous looking sky. Like the Cowman the weather forecast was not showing the big man upstairs to be on our side. We prepared for the swim in the shelter of the café at the National Diving and Activity Centre. It wasn’t just raining. It was p1ssing it down. There was a mixture of banter and complete silence amongst the group. The last layers of Body Glide were applied and 'good lucks' offered to all around. Em also spotted my Goretex jacket come off and quickly opted in to look after it. Waterproofs were pretty key in this environment if you weren't getting in the water. 

The drugs in full effect, or just the early start? Pughy's peck's looking smaller (!) to the right and WJD looking deliriously happy at the prospect of the swim in the background:

Nervous smile. Just wanting to get on with it by now. 

As you can see from the photos it was pretty dark to kick off and the rain was torrential. They’d told us we might need head torches for the run but not the swim. We soon realised the perils of entering a competition that relied on the Welsh weather in August. Maybe Nice or Zurich would have been more pleasant after all?!

The BW was a relatively relaxed affair, so much so that as we were receiving our swim briefing the safety guys in kayaks were still putting the buoys in place. I counted 4 other ladies. Once down by the water the enormity of the task in hand was now only too close to commencing. But there was also an element of calm now amongst the TGS members. Relief: all the hard work was actually behind us and all we had to do now was put all that into action. Myself (showing the lack of 'guns'), Will, Jonny, Pughy, Mark - all looking remarkably relaxed just before the swim briefing:

A quiet moment of reflection before the swim brief...

We were soon dipping our toes in the water – somewhat warmer than the recce weekend when it was 13C – which was hitting 17C on the mercury. With just 40 competitors in the water it was a somewhat less manic affair than Cowman but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as I did there by starting at the front and neither, it would seem, were William and Mark. So we held our ground towards the back of the line up knowing that there wasn’t a huge field to work our way through.

Rounding the second buoy on the swim.

We set off on 4 laps of the quarry and I got into a good early rhythm although surprisingly I noticed my brother swimming off one shoulder. To make it worse I couldn’t shake him off. This was a little distressing as I know from all our training that he shouldn’t have been holding on like this. I tried to keep my focus and remember all the things I’d learnt in training: high elbows; pull through; regular breathing. He was still there. And for those of you that may have seen him swimming you will also realise that he has no ability to swim in a straight line. Even giving him a decent draft in the water, this didn’t change. The photo below shows me leading the way with Will to my right.

As he swam into me for about the 10th time I did try telling him to f*ck off under water but he probably only saw bubbles. I pushed again on the first leg of the third lap and on the way round the next buoy he finally dropped off. Now Mark was just off to one side along with another guy taking a draft off me. No sexism in this sport! But we were making good headway and continued to move through the field although as we (Mark and I) approached the final lap I noticed a large number of green caps in front of us. The Little Woody (half ironman distance) had started just in front of us. I thought it could be like Cowman all over again. This meant we spent the last lap picking our way through the slower LW swimmers although in the clear waters of the quarry this wasn’t too bad as vision was good and seemingly we managed to overtake a few more BW competitors while we were at it. We came out of the water in the top half of the competitors.

Our view from transition back out over the quarry: 

Once we’d jogged up the pretty steep ascent from the quarry (I nearly fell over trying to pull my trainers on by the water) we were into transition and attempting to get our wetsuits off. JK was already there and off pretty soon after we arrived. As I ran in I was faced with a 50+ year old man completely butt naked with everything on display. Mark was just relieved that there were people around him to help pull his socks on. Will and Pughy arrived shortly after.

Will leaving the water looking strong and relieved that he hadn't drowned. He admitted later to having completely cooked himself on the swim trying to keep up with me. Serves him right!

Now to the bike. Out of our blue bags came our bike kit which we tried to pull on over wet skin. Another pair of shorts (I needed the padding), a bike top, clear glasses (this wasn’t the weather for sunglasses) and then into the clip ins and away out of the car park. As I hit the A48 and started pedalling the rain started soaking through my top and the water from the road started filling my shoes and splashing up the back of my cycling shorts. My legs felt like lead. Whether it was the run out of the water or the ‘taper’ over the previous week I’m not sure but it took a long time to get into any kind of rhythm. All sorts of demons started creeping in at this point. Would I finish the bike course with anything left in my legs? How would the hills play out? Would I get a puncture, mechanical failure….? Shut up brain. I needed to function. I needed to eat. And then I just needed to ease into this and enjoy it because I was going to be on the bike for 6+ hours. I needed to be patient.

Mark came past pretty quickly. Normally on training rides Mark and I cycle at a similar pace, but whether it was the painkillers or any multitude of drug concoctions that he’d taken to get to the start line, this man was on a mission. He went steaming past and I had no hope of keeping up. Saying all this he does have a history of putting in some pretty punchy times on the bike in triathlons so he had previous.

From our group session in the transition Will should have been the next one to come past but he didn’t appear for ages so I continued along the A48 worrying that he’d had issues with the bike. He appeared some time later. All fine apparently. He’d been busy eating sandwiches and hence wasn’t pedalling so fast. And that was it. TGS were on their way. I didn’t see any more of them until I hit my first lap of the run. Luckily there were two things that kept me entertained. Firstly the amazing countryside: the area we were cycling around was absolutely stunning. Secondly: the support.

The supporters that came down to Monmouth for the weekend actually deserve a blog all to themselves. They had given up their bank holiday weekends for a guaranteed three days of rain in Wales. And to spend 12+ hours watching us idiots do laps of a very long triathlon course. The line-up consisted of:

Neeshe & the bump – Mark’s wife and baby due in October

Mummy & Daddy Durden – Will and I’s parents

Paddy – my boyfriend

Em – JK’s girlfriend (of Cowman fame)

Kim – Will’s girlfriend

Mr & Mrs Pugh

Paddy Flynn - general logistics / gruff support

Rach – sous-chef and general banter

Hels & Pilch – the rimming bride and her faithful lover

Gibson – aka Cardiac Chris
Uncle David (Daddy's D's brother) & cousin Rebecca

As I came onto the A48 for the second time I cycled up towards the race HQ and as it came into sight I also saw a healthy group of supporters standing by the side of the road. At this point we could stop and receive assistance and I did just that, mainly to load up water bottles and say hi. I can’t explain the lift that I received every time I was cheered like a pro athlete. OK, so it wasn’t quite the reception Wiggo got going up Box Hill but I’m sure it had the same effect on my pedalling.

See Part II for the rest of the bike and the final stage: the small matter of a marathon to finish off.

The Big Woody Recce Weekend

As part of our training a long weekend was planned to visit the Big Woody stomping ground. Gibson, Durdens x 2 and Williams ended up being the outriders for the team and set off down to Chepstow early on Saturday morning. The Beaufort Hotel where we were staying was centrally located with food, drink and beds. All we needed then. Something akin to faulty towers. 

The Big Woody course consists of a 3.8km swim in Dayhouse Quarry, a 180km cycle around the hills between Monmouth, Chepstow and the Forest of Dean and a 42km run round the Forest of Dean. It has what is known as a split transition so we switch to the bikes in one location, then our kit is transported up to a second transition area where we will finish the bike course and set off on the run.

Dayhouse Quarry - the setting for the swim. Imposing but stunning.

On arriving in Chepstow we put the bikes together, got changed and then set off on our cycle. 145km’s up hill and down dale. It really is stunning scenery round there. Mid-ride, having now decided to go off route and find some more hills on our way back to Chepstow, the boys thought it would be a good idea to race up a hill into a town called Cinderford. Off we went – even with a staggered start I was soon overtaken. When I found them all about 7 minutes later all 3 were in pieces. Mark confirmed he’d never ridden that hard in his life, WJD was just sweating and Gibson looked pale.

On the cycle home Gibson started complaining of chest pains. Quickly nick-named cardio Chris we pre-loaded ‘999’ into his phone and sent him back to the hotel in Chepstow. We proceeded in the direction of Monmouth and then found a stunning climb to take us out of the Wye Valley towards Trellick and back down into Chepstow with some photo opportunities on the way back. Saturday night was spent in a Chinese eating as much as we possibly could.

Looking across to the Black Mountains with WJD putting the TGS jersey into disrepute (again): 

Team Gun Show

Survivors photo: MJW, HCD, WJD

Sunday consisted of a long swim and then 2 hours of whatever exercise we fancied. Dayhouse Quarry is pretty imposing. An old quarry it is up to 80m deep in parts with numerous ‘wrecks’ dropped in over the years to entertain the many divers that were there (and we thought you needed a lot of kit for triathlon!). We seemed to be the only OW swimmers in attendance and with no sign of any life guards or H&S briefing (a healthy disregard for H&S we thought) we pulled on our wetsuits and off we went. I have never swum in such beautifully clear or crystal blue water and it was probably one of the most enjoyable OW sessions I have done as a result. 

 Warming up [peeing in wetsuit]

The Quarry from the other end. Looking back towards the cafe.

Relief at having swum in the swim venue. It would have been a scary start to the Big Woody swim otherwise.

 I think one of the first times we've ever looked enthusiastic about open water swimming:

The boys then went cycling and I went on a run / walk and got stung a lot by nettles. This took me up to the edge of the Wye Valley again and then back round in a loop with the imposing back drop of the Severn Estuary to the east.

Some of the photos below are of my run/walk along Offa’s Dyke – he (Offa) built a massive wall (ruins of which remain) along the edge of the cliff running along the eastern side of the Wye Valley in order to keep the Welsh out (!). All this done and dusted we headed back to London a little more familiar with the lay of the land and probably a little more apprehensive in the knowledge of how hilly the bike course was going to be!

Looking down into the Wye Valley

Companions on the run - a herd of Exmoor ponies. I soon moved on as I realised they were surrounded by a mass of horse flies.