Tour de Suisse Stage 2

Breakaway of 6, 3 made it to the finish ahead
of main group with Cameron Meyer(OGE) taking the win

Sagan clipping a wheel, but skills keep him upright

Spartacus

Cavendish going too fast for me to photo

Nice to head down warm sunny Valais

Pfingsten - The heat is on

Pfingsten (Pentecost) weekend brought the first of the summers heat - and today it was 25 degrees at 8am in Freiburg. The first challenge of the day would be getting the bike to Freiburg. A quick check on the timetable showed many trains, but all InterCity Express trains, which do not allow bikes. For the next two weeks, some construction work is taking place so there are no local trains between Basel and Freiburg. This means more ICE trains, so in a way in Germany when theres construction on the line, the service improves! (only if you want to go from Basel to Freiburg of course)
Normally its easy to avoid the ICE trains in Switzerland, as there are so many regional trains which travel the same speed.  Today I took out the rinko bag I used to use on the trains in Japan, it covers the bike completely apart from the saddle, and no questions were asked so I arrived in Freiburg a mere 31 minutes later, ready to roll.

Maibaum -May tree - Bernau

The roads were nice out to Kirchzarten, then right up to Schauinsland, fast down to Todtnau then a long climb up and over the Feldberg. I've done this once before, and I remember its not nice, far too much traffic. Quick loop of Titisee, Schluchsee then the heat really was building. 37, 38 - my only thought now was to get back home and out of the heat, so no extra climbing of Gersbach but straight down the Wehrtal. It was here that a fast group from VMC Liestal overtook me, so I sprinted and jumped on the trail as we raced down the gorge. Too much work in this heat? Could be, but I just wanted to get home at this point.
Luckily they were taking the same route, down to Wehr, turn right along to Rheinfelden and fill water bottles/refresh/swim in the water fountains before the final segment. A fast group, and they invited me to Wednesday evening rides, I could look into this.
Highest temperature ever seen on the Garmin, 40.5 degrees!

Pragel, Satelleg

IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland

I've done several triathlons in the past, sprint, olympic, middle and long distance but this was my first with the brand "Ironman".
Its been 4 years since my last in Kamaishi, Japan and in recent weeks it has been valuable just trying to put my wetsuit on. Of course the obvious jokes would appear here, but really, the wetsuit has dried out and shrunk in the past 4 years to the point that its impossible to put on. The solution, as the name implies, is to wet the suit. Several days soaking in the bath, and its back to what it was - slightly too short on the legs and very tight, but enough to keep me floating and warm in most waters.
The water temperature of lake Zurich was 17 degrees, and I feared I would have a similar reaction to my experience with the 13 degree waters of Loch Tay, but this extra 4 degrees proved to be enough to be comfortable. A small harbour beside the real starting point of the swim could be used to "warm up" in , or more correctly could be "acclimatize to".
For me, out and back is a great swim formula as it means I can swim out wide, away from the masses and just concentrate on not drowning. Alas, the waters were far from the "crystal clear" description on the official website, looking into the murky depths there were no fish or turtles swimming above a sandy floor as I became used to in Japan.
Anyway, survived the swim, onto the bike and this was a nice course two laps with lake sections, hills and cowbells.
I was borrowing some Zipp 404 wheels from ChezVelo for the race, they felt light and responsive, and must have helped but its not possible to say how much without a controlled loop to time against.
The course is great, some steep climbs up then the descents are long and gentle, not technical at all. I did about as well as I could on this leg.
Into the run, and just 1km in I found I was developing abdominal pains which would not go away until I finished the distance and stopped running. I tried resting, water, iso, food etc but the act of running was clearly the aggravation here. Still a decent time, but on the whole I could have taken off many minutes on the run if it were not for this pain. But then, what do you expect after a long swim and long bike ride? Maybe thats just my limit.
A slower overall time than my Aberfeldy Middle distance result, but then theres twice as much climbing involved in this course, but also somehow my swim was much faster back then.

Swim: 00:44:14
Bike: 02:39:32
Run:  01:46:03
Finish: 05:19:18

Div Rank: 138
Gender Rank: 767
Overall Rank: 916

Dreiländerlauf

Its now 3 years of living in Basel, and 3 years since I last ran the Dreiländerlauf - the three country run. The course remains largely the same, with four crossings of the Rhine, quiet parks and the run along Lange Erlen back to Basel.
I was faster this time, 1hr 29 11s on my watch though the official time is slower as they didn't time us on the start line, everyone was given the same start time.
So that was a good result, but in the days since I found I sustained muscle damage to my left calf. There are several short descents, and especially the finish drops down from the Munsterplatz to Marktplatz at a time when you want to sprint to the finish line and also when the muscles are most tired.
Not ideal as now its sit and recover until Sunday and the Suisse 70.3 in Rapperswill...

Valiants Half Marathon

For the record, 1hr 29min 17s - this was my best effort at a half marathon in a long time. So good not to have to do twice the distance, 21km is the distance for me! It was the inaugural Valiants half marathon, a super flat course on the Fylde plain in Lancashire.

2014 Results

KM	Pace	GAP	Elev (m)
1	3:53	3:54	-2
2	3:56	3:57	-2
3	4:01	4:00	0
4	4:06	4:03	2
5	4:04	4:04	0
6	4:10	4:10	0
7	4:10	4:07	2
8	4:14	4:15	-2
9	4:18	4:14	4
10	4:27	4:26	0
11	4:25	4:20	3
12	4:17	4:19	-3
13	4:16	4:14	2
14	4:19	4:15	4
15	4:20	4:22	-2
16	4:33	4:29	4
17	4:23	4:24	-2
18	4:21	4:29	-9
19	4:22	4:22	0
20	4:17	4:14	-6
21	4:13	3:41	7

Paris Marathon

After Tokyo marathon at the end of February, I certainly arrived at the start line for Paris Marathon with fear of the damage I could be  about to unleash on my body. Mainly with that thought, I decided to stay with the 3hr 30m pace setter for the majority of the race - I stuck close by up till 25km, when I made a brief attempt to escape ahead up the road, but inevitably tired and he came back to me about 35km. At the 40km point I had to stop for refreshments, and after that I just couldnt get back on the pace. Not rapidly disappearing in the distance, but clearly I was tired and could not longer keep the 5min pace which at the start had felt so easy and a gentle jog. But thats what the marathon is about, a cruel grind beyond what I ever do in training, so the finish was tough but not in pain and suffering like Tokyo.
A slower time, but as 3.5hours is my target its good enough for me. More importantly it felt much more satisfying to be able to walk up and down stairs in the metro on Sunday and even Monday, so with that it was a great success. Nice weather, classic scenery and apart from narrow and crowded in several sections this is one of my favourite marathons.

5km 24:22
10km 50:04
15km 1:15:11
20km 1:39:43
21,1km 1:45:2
25km 2:04:27
30km 2:29:04
35km 2:54:17
40km 3:19:09
42km 3:30:45