Training Log Archive: fluceluce

So this was it, the plan was to attack on the trek and get back into a podium position. We managed to leave before sweco which was a bonus!

We pushed on up the hill, aiming to take as much time as possible out of them, however this was turned on it's head when we saw lights heading after us at an insane pace.

Over Fan y Big and onto Cribyn and it was obvious they were going to catch us. So we sat down.
We weren't going to guide them through the Brecons so we waited for them. When they arrived they asked 'is there a control here'....hmmm the sign of things to come for sweco. They found it and headed off with us just behind. At the col we got the bivy out and had 10mins kip whilst sweco got their maps out (yes that's right, they had planned to blindly follow us) and set out again. As it happened, they thought we'd been on Pen Y Fan not Cribyn so missed a control without realising....there's a lesson....

At this point we were all tired and resigned to 4th place. We couldn't see a way out of it and it was truly disheartening after all the effort we'd put in. We wandered through the brecons, stopped for a couple more brief sleeps and eventually, in the early morning sun, decided we should probably start moving with a bit more purpose or we'd not even make 4th!

Down to the caving and it was a shock to see sweco leaving as we arrived. We were then informed Wallhalla were just ahead of them. It was like a switch was flicked! Back on it, boy was this going to hurt!!

We whipped round the cave and made it to the next transition ahead of both teams. In and out before sweco arrived and just after Walhalla had arrived and we were riding hard for 2nd place.

I loved the skyline ride, great views and new sense of motivation. We put everything we had into this, working extra hard as Chris had really damaged his knee somehow on the Wye river section!?

As we got closer and close to Cardiff it looked more and more likely but we didn't stop pushing until we reached the line, ecstatic with 2nd after 12hrs earlier settling for 4th in our heads!

My first completion of a full course world series race and my first world series podium position.Thanks to all the guys for getting me round that one, mega efforts all round and an excellent bit of adventuring across Wales :-)

C • well done. 6

In transition it didn't matter that we'd missed the free sleep, we had to sleep anyway. 2hrs in the bothy (as it turned out in the rain although it was beautiful when we went to sleep).

When we got up, I almost made it to transition out before I realised I really could not breathe. Lying down had made matters worse and so we were a bit delayed in leaving as Charlotte wanted to be happier I was going to make it down the river before she'd let us go. So much ventolin I was uncontrollably shaking and a French team took pity on me donating some crisps to the cause of making me look a bit more human.

Eventually into the boats and we were all still wrecked. I was feeling a bit better for the gentle assault we were taking on the river, although Chris fell asleep at one point and we almost had a grade 1 sit on top capsize...

At the orienteering we took the opportunity to grab some food. Falafel - finally getting something decent into me.
Down the river then out and onto the bikes for a ride over to the Brecon Beacons.

We put the foot down a bit on the first part of the ride to make the most of the light, getting a large portion out of the way. The last part was thick in clay mud, thankfully we found a hose just before transition to give the bikes a quick clean. When we arrived in transition I noticed 4 bike boxes with sweco on them still in place.....score!

Ride over to the Elan Valley. This section is a bit of a blur. Wasn't riding well, wasn't eating well all of which I think I can put down to also not breathing well (I guess it's kind of like trying to eat whilst working at effort 3-4 instead of 1-2). HR definitely high but we made it over to devils bridge at around the same time as Sweco.
Got through that more smoothly than them, then they passed us again, arriving at Elan valley for the trail run around 15mins ahead of us. We set a reasonable pace around the trails with the incentive of sleep and food at the end of it as there was a mandatory stop to get us back into a racing order and correct timing on the ground.

We managed to catch sweco and overtake them even after my stomach took a turn for the worse. Down to transition, a bit of a fail at cramming food into me then off to sleep for 30mins before it was back on the bikes. At this stage it looked like we'd reach the next transition with at least 5-6hrs before we were allowed on the river - loads of free sleep!!!

How wrong we were.....the terrain in the second half of this bike was much worse than the first half. River crossing after river crossing followed by hike a bike through bracken in the dark all of which wasn't helped by my inability to hold any food down for about 5-6hrs meant we dropped time badly! Tim gave me a motivational talk about mental states at some point. We had a sleep in a chapel for half an hour after I managed to ride off the road asleep..... then after an absolute age we popped out in Builth Wells and had breakfast from a local bakery that was amazingly open at 7am!

Here Sweco caught us again, having had an enforced extra hours sleep in elan valley. So now we knew for the first time were we stood with them and that was exactly the same placing. By the time we reached transition, Sweco were just ahead and just before transition, Walhalla came flying past. Where had they come from??

Paddle down to Portmeirion for a bit of orienteering followed by 20min power nap during time out dark zone. From Pen Y Pas onwards my chest had been a bit rough and now it chose to get really irritated - 20mins of coughing to the point Tom took pity on me and accidentally left his sleeping bag draped over the chair I was sat in...

Back in the boats with Terrex (Sweco were arriving at Portmeirion as we left) for what turned out to be a battle around the coast against the tide and into the wind - out the boats, one pulling one directing the boat with a paddle. Just about to leave the shallow waters at the edge and news reached us that the stage was pulled. Paddle with the tide back across the estuary to transition onto bikes and ride to Barmouth.

Left Barmouth just after Sweco and quickly lost them en route up Cadair Idris. I struggled with the steep climbs at this point and when Sweco came back into sight nearing the top, we put the boot in to get up and over and out of sight. Again, managed this without too much trouble and didn't see them for the rest of the trek.

Bit of rougher terrain helped us out I think, then it was off and across to Tarrenhendre and another summit. Heading up here I was having real trouble with breathing, on top in the cold wind I just couldn't catch a breath without coughing and the stagger up the final climb felt almost impossible. But we made it, up and over and down to transition where Charlotte checked me over and advised me to whack up the doses of ventolin regardless of the salbutamol shakes (which were getting quite violent at times).

I'd taken enough ventolin at this stage that my RHR was 105+bpm.....Charlotte said this was to be expected but to remember this and the fact that it would mean that my HR was higher in general for a given effort.

Eventually off on the bikes for the looooooong 220km of biking, still ahead of Sweco after all the faff.

Itera Day 1. Racing with Tim, Chris and Bruce as Team Haglofs Silva UK.

Good start down the Menai Straights, shortened get out at Bangor suited us as we're better off biking than paddling. Bike Bangor to Conwy, quick run around the castle then bike over to Zip World en route to Ogwen.

Up to Zip world we were 3rd closely following Sweco and Terrex. Here we had quite a wait for the zip wire so it was a bit harder to tell where we stood in terms of race time after this.

Got to Ogwen with plenty of daylight to go at so headed out quickly up Tryfan and the Glyders before taking a good line down to Pen Y Pass to arrive there with Sweco. Quick refuel then a blast up Snowdon in the last of the light with the aim of overtaking and dropping Sweco before they could see our route off. Success!

Off over Yr Aran then into the night across Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr.

C • crazy! 6