SportsShoes Blog

In preparation for next weekend’s 3 Peaks Cyclo Cross, last Sunday I did the Bronte Big K Mountain Bike Challenge on my cross bike.

This is a 31 mile loop from Oxenhope around Widdop and Worsthorne and back to Oxenhope via Scar Top and Stanbury.

The weather for the race was lousy with wind, rain and low cloud set in all day. This put a lot of folk off and where last year 450 people toed the line, this year only around 250 started.

As it’s a ‘challenge’ event rather than a true race, it attracts a very wide range of abilities from racers through to Sunday canal trundlers and everyone in between.

Those of us that were going out hard pulled away on the road climb from the start and before long four of us were bunched together at the head of the pack. As we hit the first of the really knarly offroad climbs, two chaps on mountain bikes pulled away ahead of me and there was nothing I could do to keep with them. Firstly they were fitter than me and secondly, they had grippy wide tyres, low gears and suspension where I had skinny tyres with 80 psi in them, drop bars, a 36×32 lowest gear and a rigid frame and fork.

Anyway there I was in 3rd place and I managed to defend that position right to the end despite a tumble over the bars during a long battle with another mountain biker on the return leg.

The final checkpoint is at a point where the course meets the road back to the finish and although I wanted a drink, I made a strategic decison to forego liquid in favour of keeping a gap between me and the guy behind. My thinking being that if we hit the road togther he’d just stick on my wheel and let me do all the work all the way back to the finish then hammer me in the last half mile.

My plan worked and I stuck in a real effort on the tarmac to widen the gap and try and convince my challenger that I was still strong.

As I neared the top of the last climb I had a peek behind to see him a fair way off and knew my position was safe. A quick dash to the finish and it was all over - 3rd man home in 2 hours 2o min - as I’ve never done this race before and the weather was dreadful I was quite pleased with my time and very pleased with my position.

The 31 mile race gave me my 100 bike miles for last week - that’s 400 training miles in the last month - Let’s hope they pay off next Sunday.

I’m really determined to break the 4 hour barrier in the peaks - a feat I’ve never managed despite this being my 8th race. I’ve done 4 hours and some seconds twice and last year did 4.11 despite having to mend two punctures on the way round so this year, if I can stay on the bike and mechanical free I hope to finally make a first class award.

I’m now back in training after breaking my left femur and right wrist 4 months ago, and it feels great! As was reported on the site, on the morning of Friday 7th May myself and my teammates set out on a normal training ride of three hours when our group was involved in an accident with a car. Basically, to cut the long story short, the car hit me directly and the outcome was the two broken bones. Obviously I was absolutely gutted, but 4 months on it’s time to get over it and I’ve now been back on the bike for 6 weeks!
I started off slowly, literally doing 30 minutes of riding at a time but now I’ve built up to just over 15 hours a week on the bike, aswell as 2 sessions in the gym.
Obviously I know there’s a long way to go until I’m even properly fit again but its so encouraging that everything is going in the right direction and I know its just a matter of time, hard work and being patient!

Hello everyone. Thanks for coming back.

I’m almost done with week 3 of couch to 5k. The week 3 routine is a 5 minute warm up, then run 90, walk 90, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Times 2. The first run was hard, much harder than previous weeks, but run 2 seemed much better. I’m going tonight for run 3 and then its on to what looks awful, week 4! 5 minute warm up then run 3, walk 1.3, run 5, walk 2.3, run 4, walk 1.3 and finish with a run 5!!! I am not looking forward to that!

As promised last time, I’ve been trying out some more tech. I’ve got an Adidas Run Arm Pocket to hold my iPhone. I was worried it would fall out of my pocket and this is the perfect solution. You can’t see the screen but that doesn’t matter as the instructions are audible.

I’ve also been playing with MiCoach. I really like it! I haven’t even tried any of the tuition yet but just for tracking the runs its fantastic!

MiCoach from Adidas

The graph you can see is just a static version of what you get on their website. You can track all aspects of your run / cycle etc… You can clearly see the run walk components of week 3. I’ve really enjoyed playing with it and I’m sure to real athletes it would be an invaluable tool. I want to try the assessment and coach side of things but that will be in a few weeks time once I’ve completed couch to 5k.

On the injury front, I think I’m suffering from mild shin splints in my left leg. Its not bad but I can feel something. I guess its because my body hasn’t done anything in years so I’ll just keep and eye on it and see how it goes.

So long for now.

Jamie.