Winter has now truly come upon us and we are now having to battle with the temperatures to get those winter training miles in. I'm sure the worst is still to come, but now is the time for cold, icy and muddy cross country.
17.11.13
Croome Park Capability Canter was my first ever cross country victory. It was an amazing, beautiful and charming course. A few pokes, some water and a lovely scenic technical wooded section rounded off with a huge hill finish made it a very enjoyable day.
From the start as normal it was frantic and fast. A great up hill start, a fast a quick downhill round the corner and a jump over a gate and we were well underway. I found the race very quick to start but had to keep pushing. It was my third consecutive cross country race weekends and I started to feel this about 8k in. I pushed and pushed making sure I could build as much of a lead as possible knowing my legs were getting heavy. It worked and I was able to run home to my first cross country victory (although the up hill finish almost killed me).
A Thank you to all at Black Pear Joggers in Worcester, it was a great race and excellently ran.
http://www.blackpearjoggers.org.uk/croome-capability-canter-over-for-another-year/
The fourth Croome Capability Canter saw a record 261 finishers with runners from 16 different clubs, including a great turn out from Malvern Joggers and Tewkesbury AC.
The race winner was Daniel Geisler from Worcester AC in a time of 40:24, with Jennifer Coxon from Birmingham Running Athletic and Triathlon Club the first female home in a time of 46:35 (full results).
Some great Black Pear successes: Paul Childs finished in 4th place, Neil Herron, Julie Gerrard and Marion Winwood finished 2nd in their age categories and Richard Ralphs and Helen Burton finished 3rd in their age categories. Well done!
Voted into the top 10 off-road races by readers of Runners World, the Croome Capability Canter is a 6.5 mile (10kish) race around the scenic Croome Park; designed by renowned 18th century landscape architect Lancelot “Capability” Brown.
24.11.13
Castle Coombe Chill Duathlon was the last Major race of the season, but in many ways the start of the serious Duathlon season. It was a great race to put some markers down to where I was in my Winter training. After a heavy six weeks training block and leading into a recovery week I felt good going into the race. The race a usual at Castle Coombe started off very fast, and with a very high quality field was always going to be this way from the start (Ed Clancy was even there racing for a relay team sponsored by 9bar).
The first run went well and I cant in around 10th, the bike was very tough and felt I didnt have my bike legs at all. The major head wind made things very difficult on the back straight of the race track. I came in off the bike 14th, and then was able to make up some places to finish 10th in my age group, 11th overall. I was a little disappointing with the result, but in hind-sight with where I am with my training it was actually quite a good result. I am very much looking forward to racing the same format in February and beating this result. It was also a fantastic day to catch up with old friends and make some new friends and rivals.
The first run went well and I cant in around 10th, the bike was very tough and felt I didnt have my bike legs at all. The major head wind made things very difficult on the back straight of the race track. I came in off the bike 14th, and then was able to make up some places to finish 10th in my age group, 11th overall. I was a little disappointing with the result, but in hind-sight with where I am with my training it was actually quite a good result. I am very much looking forward to racing the same format in February and beating this result. It was also a fantastic day to catch up with old friends and make some new friends and rivals.
No comments:
Post a Comment