Running Up That Road, Running Up That Hill... by tinabee

• Monikie Winter Series Duathlon 2012

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  Feb2320129:25 p.m.

  Remember me?  It must be a hundred years since I last posted a blog - well ok 5 months but a long time right?

  Well not a lot had been happening worth blogging about to be honest.  Training, Christmas, New Year, more training, pants weather, bit more training - you get the picture.

  However, a couple of things have happened since I was last here.  I am now a Level 1 Triathlon Coach for my sins and regularly take the turbo cycling sessions plus yesterday I took the junior squad for their training session.   We had our club AGM and I am still Madam President - which suits me fine!  We had our annual awards night dinner (didn't win nothing sigh!) but I did introduce a new award, The President's Award no less (narcissistic or what?) and awarded it to Colin, our IronMan who got four punctures, strained his groin and got a blister the size of a squash ball on his foot while taking part in the Outlaw IM race but soldiered on to the end and finished in just short of 15 hours.  Giving up would have been easy but he didn't and that justified the award as far as I was concerned.

  My only other outstanding achievement of late is to get my 16 year old son to start running.  He is already an outstanding swimmer although he has some shoulder injury problems and is developing as a cyclist.  If I can only get him to run he will be the complete triathlon package.  He has resisted me for months and only the lure of money (£1 per km) has encouraged him to have a go.  So for the past 6 weeks he has come along to Thursday night running sessions and has run 10k three times now.  So with this new found skill and a new bike I persuaded him to do the final race in the Monikie Winter Duathlon series.

  Actually, I signed him up for the whole series (without telling him!) but he wasn't ready for the first race in December, he had bike issues in January but didn't really have a good excuse for the race last Sunday and the lure of cycling a challenging 40K route won him over in the end! 

  But I digress slightly - I missed doing the first race as I was stood in a blizzard putting a bunch of other Triathlete coach wannabees through a running session.  However I was up for race 2 which took place in early January.

  Race 2 – 4K Run/20K Cycle/4K Run – 8 Jan 2012

  Conditions were almost perfect for this second race.  Rob, Andy and I arrived within a couple of minutes of each other and had a leisurely set up and warm up before the race started.  Just over 80 entrants turned up for this race slightly down on the previous one.  My first run leg felt good at 20.30.  Andy was off on his bike by the time Rob and I came into transition together.  I had forgotten just how tough the cycle leg is with the very long slog up TV Mast Hill and I for one was seriously lacking in road cycling practice however I arrived back at the park in a little over 54 mins.  I met Andy in transition (he just having finished the 2^nd run!).  I swear the second run leg is twice as long as the first!  Andy posted a 1:16 time in 25^th position, Rob 1:34 and I came in 8 places behind Rob in 1:38.

  Race 3 – 4K Run/40K Cycle/4K Run – 19 Feb 2012

  This one had already been put back two weeks due to snow on the original planned date!  Weather conditions were pretty good really; a tad on the bitingly cold side but sunny with the only downside being a pretty stiff breeze.  We showed Scott how to set up the bike transition and did a quick warm up run before wishing each other luck at the start line.  I had promised to pace Scott around the first 4K run and despite only have run for 6 weeks in total and my failure to keep the pace to a sensible level (a RTYP 22.18) we entered transition just as Robert was leaving.  I watched Scott disappear into the distance on his bike and set off myself with the sole intention of getting around the first 20K lap before getting lapped!  First few kilometres were good but the first left turn took riders into the 'breeze' which had changed into quite a headwind!  So strong was it that it was actually a relief to turn onto the TV Mast hill and out of the wind.  I achieved my aim on the first bike leg and was soon off on the 2^nd lap – the wind hadn’t dropped any.  I had been chasing down a lone cyclist since half way round lap one and finally managed to catch and overtake him towards the top of the big hill!  This gave me a boost and I turned onto the village road (which is super flat and fast) and joy of joys back into the park in 1:49.  My feet were so cold that running on them was painful and the last 4K was a case of mind over matter and just getting round.

  Scott, Andy, Rob and Alan were all waiting for me to cross the line as usual.  Naturally Andy was first to finish coming in at 2:01 with Alan not far behind in 2:06.  Scott had managed to sneak ahead of Robert on the bike but his lack of running practice showed in the run and Robert was able to claim his position back finishing in 2:29.01 and Scott not far behind in 2:29.29 – an excellent effort for his first and a particularly tough race at that.  I was only a couple of places behind finishing in 2:36.44. 

  We decided to treat ourselves to a meal out early evening and had a large plate of steak and ale pie and a wedge of chocolate cake to follow!  Delicious!

  Scott has got over the pain of the run and is now talking about doing the Stirling Sprint Duathlon in late March!  I have already signed up for this one - except rashly I signed up for the championship race which is a 10K run/40K cycle/5K run!  Lots of other races to look forward to this year and I have my eye on one challenge in particular but as I haven't committed to it yet I am keeping that one to myself for now!

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  Comments (6)

  • malcolms 'Welcome back Madame President!! Well done on becoming a coach. I did the Great South run last year with my son - and having trudged round every training run we did together he left me for dead in the real thing!! ' added 23rd Feb 2012

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  • ClareVR 'Wow! You have been a busy Bee! Great to hear what you have been up too, and very impressed that you are now an L1 coach. I am Club Secretary 'for my sins' but it's feels great giving something back doesn't it. Look forward to hearing more!' added 24th Feb 2012

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  • Mick_6 'Royalty at last always new you had Blue blood. Well done to you and Scott you've really come on in leaps and bounds, fantastic. *curtsies, bows and shuffles away backwards nervously* xx' added 24th Feb 2012

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  • Firefly123 'I keep an eye on what you're up to via FB, Tina and as far as I'm concerned, it's completely awsome. Well done on the coaching - I'm only a leader in running fitness, but I find it very rewarding. Well done to Scott too.' added 24th Feb 2012

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  • judith 'Nice to have you back. Scott running must be costing you a fortune. A big weel done to both of you.' added 26th Feb 2012

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  • Johanne 'Wow you have been busy and I agree with the above - awesome. So nice to have Scott running too wish I could persuade my 15 year old. Like the sound of steak and ale pie and chocolate cake; just what you need after lots of exercise. I think I agreed to do a mini triathlon on Saturday night dur how did that happen.' added 27th Feb 2012

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