Wey Kayak Marathon

This weekend I had a race. A real race, as opposed to those races that I take part knowing full well that I won’t even come close to winning but it doesn’t matter because I get a medal anyway, sort of race. This was an actual race where the only way you get a medal (or mug, or T-shirt, and other prizes) is by being quite good.

The race in question was the Wey Kayak marathon; it was on the river Wey, it was in a kayak, and it only fell short of the actual marathon distance by about 22 miles. I was quite ambivalent about it to start with and when it was first mentioned to me I was planning on only going to spectate, but then in a moment of weakness I agreed to take part and I am pleased I did because I had a lot of fun.

I think it was part of the Hasler series of kayak races (but I will need to check that out) which is organised in divisions. As I hadn’t taken part in any of the races before I had been placed in the lowest division with about 20 other newbie racers. Everyone starts in division 9 and based on race times, and some arcane maths you move up and down divisions. While I was only there to take part, I planned to not be relegated out of the bottom division.

I didn’t really know what to expect so my only plan was to not fall out and/or embarrass myself. To that end I borrowed the relatively stable Hobby and formed up at the back of the pack not wanting to get into any argy bargy at the front.



Wey Marathon Start

The instant the marshal said go, there was a lot of splashing, someone to the left of me fell in, two high kneeling canoes crashed into each other, and a K1 was knocked sideways by another kayak performing a PIT manoeuvre that any American cop would have been proud of. This was the sort of carnage I had suspected from div 9… After the fun and games at the start the race did settle down and I got my head down to grind out as good a showing as I could manage… 


I have this thing where I have to overtake the person in front of me. I can’t help it, on some distance races it has caused me to run too fast too soon and I have subsequently blown up later in the race. Well I did that thing. If there was a kayak in front of me I would have to catch and overtake it. And there was always another kayak in front of me. Boat by boat I moved my way up the field and by the half way mark I realised I was up amongst the front runners (paddlers). The second half was downstream and I knew I had enough left in the tank to increase my cadence further, for the remaining couple of miles I hunted down as many boats as I could.

For my efforts I was rewarded with fourth overall, first in my age group (Veteran Male) and promotion to division 8. I entered as an independent rather than a club paddler (because I’m not one) so I didn’t get the 17 points that would go towards the Hasler (I think) series total score. But that’s okay, I might do a few more of these kayak races this year but I have already too many events in my diary and I can’t race in all of them, so I’m not going to be able to contest overall winner. At least not this year.

Bricking it!

The effect of switching from cycling to running can be profound; first-time triathletes are often astonished at their muscle weakness, and the bizarre, sometimes painful sensation in their thighs a few hundred yards into the run, and discover that they run at a much slower pace than they are accustomed to in training. Triathletes train for this phenomenon through transition workouts known as "bricks": back-to-back workouts involving two disciplines, most commonly cycling and running

I didn’t write that… That’s from Wikipedia. I just pinched it to give some gravitas to this week’s post. If you haven’t guessed, I did a brick.

I have been quietly freaking out about this triathlon that is about a month away and on a training ride last week with one of my triathlon chums it was suggested that I should try brick workouts. Having an afternoon free at the weekend and with the weather lovely I decided to give it a go.

I sort of live on a big loopy road that is a nice one and a bit kilometre circuit. I decided to do laps of it, partly because there is a Strava segment around it and partly because I could be consistent with the effort I was putting in. The first half of the loop is flat before dropping into a shallow downhill. On the bike I powered around at maximum effort until the inevitable uphill on the backside of the loop slowed my pace, I would then catch my breath until the hill dropped down again where I would hundred percent it again. Around and around I went.

Ten kilometres later at an average 26kmh (which is fast for me) I smashed it home to quickly transition into my running kit. This probably wasn’t a textbook triathlon transition as I had to find the front door key, get the bike in the house to abandon it in the kitchen, and let the dog out before I could put my trainers on but I tried to be as fast as I could. It took about 3 minutes for me to get running and considering my dog faffed about outside I think that’s not bad for my first transition.

I was warned about the jelly legs, and my run didn’t disappoint. My quads didn’t really want to get going at all for the first couple of kilometres. I was pleased that I sped up though with negative splits for the total 5k run. I was quicker than I thought I would be though being only three minutes shy of my personal best. Today my quads are still aching in a way that I haven’t had from running or cycling in isolation.

So, in summary, I enjoyed the brick and I genuinely think that it has added something to both my running and cycling… and I’m still freaking out about doing a triathlon in 4 weeks’ time.

Surrey Hills Gravel Cross CX Sportive

This weekend had a medal in it. The Wiggle Surrey Hills Gravel Cross CX Sportive. I’ve enjoyed a few Sportives in the past and a cross sportive was a chance for me to try out my AWOL on some mixed terrain, which the bike handled prodigiously. I think the main weakness in the rider/bike relationship this weekend was actually the rider who kept chickening out on some of the really technical terrain. And when I say chickening out, and this is probably a bit pathetic, there were some really muddy sections that I walked around because I didn’t want to fall into the mud.

The event was okay as these things go, it was well organized, and the Wiggle staff were really great but it wasn’t the most subscribed event I’ve been to so there wasn’t much of a buzz out on the course, they also had to abandon the cyclo-cross section as it was waterlogged which was a bit disappointing having made a big thing of this being a timed special stage. But most importantly and I am sorry to say, the medal is a bit rubbish. I think I am being more than fair when I say that this is a generic medal with a sticker on it. In short, nice event that took me and my bike out onto terrain I would never have found by myself, shame about the medal.

Other news. My bad knee is starting to play up again and I think I have worked out what the problem might be. It went from being introduced as Right-knee, to Bad-knee two years ago on the second or third day of a charity ride from London to Paris. I gave up cycling big distances for a long time after that, my knee recovered and I didn’t think about the problem again. Then last year after a fairly intensive year or running and riding, with bad-knee always grumbling about being asked to do complex stuff, like bending which I am sure is in it's job desription, it finally blew up spectacularly in an off-road race. It was something to do with my lateral Collateral Ligament and it put me out of action for a few miserable months.

This week is the first time I have put some real miles on my bike(s) since the injury and like an old but unwelcome friend, Bad-knee turned up again. It dawned on me that I haven’t adjusted my cleats in my cycling shoes since… well ever, and on a bit of a whim I gave the right cleat a bit of a tweak before setting off on the Sportive. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to adjust it ad-hoc before an event but my knee hurt the moment I got on the bike so the way I saw it, it couldn’t get any worse. And in the end it didn’t. I think I need to have a serious look at my bike set up to see if I can improve my body position even more but I might have increased my chances (if only slightly) of an injury free year. Touch wood.

3* in Jumping

OMG it’s Wednesday already. Where is this week going? I have clearly been busy. Anyway, bike rides and trampolines are things I want to talk about in this exciting instalment.

I didn’t think I would ever be talking about trampolining in this blog, I haven’t tramped for about 20 years (I got my 3 star in jumping when I was a kid) and I had no intention of returning to the spring loaded sport any time soon, but last week we went to Airhop for my DW partner’s birthday. Airhop is essentially a massive room where the floors and walls are trampolines, and while I was clearly the oldest person there by some margin I enjoyed an hour of unfettered leaping about, I even remembered a few of the bouncing moves from my youth. The next couple of days though, wow, total body DOMS. Everything ached and it made other things much more of an effort. Quite possibly the most holistic workout. Ever!

Bikes are the other things that featured heavily since last week. The clocks went forward over Easter which means we have an extra hour of daylight in the evening. My old boss has been organising Tuesday evening rides after work ever since we were training for London to Paris a couple of years ago, last week was our first chance to get the old team back together. For the inaugural 2016 club ride the weather turned on us while we were out, and in the pouring rain while slogging up the infamous (but actually not that bad) Boxhill of 2012 Olympics fame, I got the first of two punctures. The second was a slightly more exciting blowout not long after sorting out the first.

The second Tuesday ride (yesterday) was in complete contrast, the weather was great and the chosen route was pretty flat, and fast and more importantly… No punctures. It seems I am quick on the flats, doing more than my fair share of work at the front but I am always getting dropped on the hills. I think that’s something I will focus my work on this year.

And finally, I finally took my Specialized AWOL out after it had sat unused since before Christmas. It’s an awesome bike, built for off-road adventuring. With a weekend trip to a pub twenty kilometres away, along a pretty rough and muddy bridleway I had to wonder why it had taken me so long to get out there on this machine as it handled the terrain with aplomb. I already have another, more challenging trip planned for my AWOL.

My AWOL posing in the woods

If you really care, the above events didn’t happen in that order because… well just because it was the order I wrote them down in. The real order was 2016 club ride, Jumping, AWOL ride, and finally yesterday’s ride. There were also some runs in the mix but I didn’t write about them because talking about going for a jog is a bit dull. You will know that I am having a slow news week if the weekly runs are mentioned.