Reminders

 

·         For the first 4 items, see last week’s email www.valleystriders.org.uk/up150702.htm for details

·         Pie & Peas – next Tuesday (7 July), order by 10pm Sunday 5 July

·         Barbecue – next Saturday (11 July), order by 12 noon Wednesday 7 July

·         Junior 1 mile and Club Handicap 5 miles – Tuesday week (14 July), replaces training sessions

·         Leeds Country Way – Sunday 6 September – we’ve set a deadline of Sunday 26 July – if you’re not sure of your availability but think you’ll be OK, you can still put your name down as a “probable”

·         London Marathon – April 2016 – Joel Giddings has reminded us that 'good for age' entries close on 9th July. See https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/how-to-enter/good-age-entry/

 

New Treasurer Required (message from Paul White)

 

At the AGM I said that after 9 years this would be my last year as Treasurer, and that I intended to hand over to somebody else when the new financial year begins in September 2015.

 

I would like to hear from anyone who is willing to take on the role.  With a couple of months to go I am making this request now so that the transition and hand-over can be as smooth as possible.  I can show the new person what is involved and give any assistance needed.

 

Although the membership and turnover of the Club has increased significantly since 2006 several steps have been taken to ease the workload as follows:

 

·         Spreadsheet of Income & Expenditure with links to produce the Annual Accounts.

·         Separate role of Membership Secretary since December 2013.

·         Vast majority of payments for subscriptions, race entry fees etc are now made via the internet.  

·         New bank accounts have been opened for the payment of Subscriptions and Payments.  These are administered by Tom Button and John Shanks who chase any amounts outstanding.

·         Bank statements are now online with weekly paper copies instead of monthly to aid reconciliation.

·         The main bank account is now only used for payments to suppliers and monthly transfer in from the Subscriptions and Payment accounts.

·         Infrequent visits to the bank as the number of people paying by cheque has reduced.

 

Would anybody interested in taking on this important role please contact me paulwhite12@hotmail.com or Bob Jackson.  I can then discuss the role in more detail, demonstrate what is involved and answer any questions

 

RUNNING RESULTS AND REPORTS

 

Yorkshire Vets at Leos

 

Women

   24 Chloe Hudson    F35  39:44

   94 finished

Men

   37 John Batchelor  M45  33:57

   64 Andy Pagdin     M55  36:49

   76 Alan Hutchinson M55  38:35

   99 John Wallace    M45  41:20

  101 Patrick Barratt M55  41:34

  137 finished

Under-35

      John Shanks          30:18 actually 6^th in the race

      Dave Merritt         34:02

     Nicola Hartley       44:37

 

NB The Buns said Yorkshire Vets Leeds 2015!

 

Urban Trail Leeds Run 2 (Roundhay Park)

 

    5 Jeremy Ladyman  38:54

    6 Gary Mann       39:23

    8 Ross Bibby      40:20

   33 Sarah Grant     45:33

   36 Sean Fitzgerald 45:51

   38 Rachel Mackie   45:57

  131 ran

 

Castle Howard 10k

 

   13 Robert Ward     42:43 second claim Strider

   20 Hannah Corne    43:23  2^nd W

   23 Andy Bell       44:36

  87 Ruth Warren     50:17  1^st W55+

 

Staveley Stampede (approx. 10k)

 

    7 Hannah Corne    40:13   1^st W

  33 Ruth Warren     46:52   1^st W60 and also beat all the M60s

  120 finsihed

 

Wharfedale 2-peak challenge (from Mark Woodhead)

 

I appeared to come 2nd in the Wharfedale 2 peak challenge last Sat. Maybe it wasn't a proper race, but we were timed and had numbers, so that's good enough for me! Small race (10-20 runners, lots of walkers), and really recommended for next year. I did the 2-peak 13 mile version. There's also a longer 22 mile 3-peak route. 

 

Hyde Park Mile

 

There were 250 entrants who had been seeded into 13 races (“waves”) according to their expected finishing time.

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Overall                        Wave Wave  GP 

  Pos                   Time   No.  Pos  Pts

    4 Paul Fotherby     04:56   13    4  100

    5 Simon Midwood     04:58   12    1   99

    8 Gwil Thomas       05:01   13    7   97

   18 James Tarran      05:14   12    9   96

   32 Dave Penman       05:28   10    1   94

   33 Kevin McMullan    05:30   11    8   93

   39 Hannah Corne      05:34   11   13   91

   45 Sean Fitzgerald   05:40   11   14   90

   71 David Merritt     06:00    9   12   89

   78 Andy Pagdin       06:03    9   16   87

  118 Gemma Merritt     06:40    6    7   86

  130 Chris Sawyer      06:46    5   10   84

  133 Bob Jackson       06:49    4    6   83

  142 Sue Sunderland    06:58    6   11   81

  197 Meryll Cripps     09:06    2   16   80

 

I highly recommend this event.  At £5 for 1 mile it’s one of the most expensive races (per mile) to enter, but you do get 12 other races to watch, and Striders represented in most of them.

 

Bradford Millennium Way Relay – from Bob Jackson

 

Our “open” team (not enough ladies for a mixed team) finished 19^th of the 50 teams entered.

 

Leg Names            Time     Position

1   Sean Fitzgerald  1:51:39  35     for leg

    Tosh Akhtar      1:51:39    35   at end of leg

2   Bob Jackson      1:35:32  36     for leg

    John Hussey      3:27:11    34   at end of leg

3   Louise Cazan     1:09:30  17     for leg

    Sam Harris       4:36:41    30   at end of leg

4   Steve Webb       1:13:14   6     for leg

    Tony Mills       5:49:55    21   at end of leg

5   Rachel Mackie    1:33:37  15     for leg

    Sarah Grant      7:23:32    19   at end of leg

   

Unfortunately Sean turned his ankle halfway through leg 1 and slowed considerably.  Consequently / subsequently John and I missed the cut-off.  So although Louise & Sam handed over to Steve & Tony, who then also handed over to Rachel & Sarah, there was 12 minutes to be added to their arrival time.

 

The final 3 pairs not only all managed to beat Bob’s estimates but also managed to beat the times used for Bob’s earliest start time, so very well done.  Perhaps a good thing (?!) that Sean and Tosh were slow otherwise there would have been some surprise arrivals! 

 

Louise & Sam were actually the fastest pair of ladies on leg 3 but they didn’t qualify for the fastest leg award, as this only applies to a ladies pair in a ladies team.  Also, looking at the history, they were actually the second fastest ladies pair ever on this leg, but again, don’t feature on the all-time leaderboard.  NB if this had happened in Leeds Country Way this would have counted.

 

TRIATHLON – report from Mike Furby

 

A new entry for Mark Metcalfe​ coming in at #17 with one race complete and based on the report a very tough race indeed in the Day in the Lakes middle distance triathlon. Also, great results for Alison Price​ and Daniel Price​ at the Ironman UK 70.3 in Exmoor, a race that is considered the toughest half Ironman in the world (though Mark may disagree with that). Alison cements her overall lead now that she has completed 5 races and can start discarding her lower scoring races. Dan moves into 5th but has some work to do to overhaul John Shanks​ who scored well in the duathlon season. No change in the Vets league apart from the addition of Mark, as myself and Vernon Long​ look forward to our next races. Leeds Xpress on the 26th July will see quite a few representing VSTC so I'm looking forward to that.

          
Overall Class                          
 Rank    Rank    Name               Class   Total
 1       1      Alison Campbell    FSen    433.6
 2       2      Sophie Johnstone   FSen    422.0
 3       1      John Shanks        MSen    407.7
 4       3      Sarah Shanks       FSen    388.7
 5       2      Dan Price          MSen    289.1
 6       4      Anna Hobbs         FSen    237.2
 7       1      Vernon Long        MVet    222.8
 8       2      Mike Furby         MVet    218.9
 9       3      Ross Bibby         MSen    185.3
10       5      Kim Spence         FSen    125.0
11       4      Steve Wilkins      MSen    112.9
12       5      Dan Murray         MSen    111.9
13       6      Matt Kasher        MSen    108.4
14       6      Katherine Hogg     FSen    105.9
15       7      Greg Skerret       MSen    105.4
16              Neil Holloway      MVet2ndClaim    105.0
17       3      Mark Metcalfe      MVet    100.5
18       4      John Batchelor     MVet    100.4
19       7      Becky Murray       FSen    94.2
20       5      Paul Felton        MVet    86.7
21       6      Richard Clough     MVet    85.8
22       8      Tanya Wilkins      FSen    83.9

 

Regular updates will appear on the V S Triathlon Facebook page and less regular updates at http://www.valleystriders.org.uk/triathlon/vstc2015.xls

 

'A Day in the Lakes' half-iron triathlon – from Mark Metcalfe

 

First up, I am definitely signing up for this again next year. Didn't push myself on the bike and had a dodgy tummy (I'll get to that later) on the run so I reckon I could shave another hour off my finish time of 7.10. Beautiful scenery made all the effort worthwhile.

 

Not sure if camping was the right call. We did get pitch our tent 25m from transition but the mini-hurricane in the middle of the night wasn't helpful.

 

8am start time was nice as we had a leisurely start to the morning. Unfortunately at this stage I listened to my friend who advised me to add some of his high5 powder into my water bottles for the bike and also to have one pre-swim. Would come back to haunt me later.

 

Swim was great for me, water wasn't too cold, managed to get near front of start line and also relaxed enough to have a wee. Really choppy due to wind but on the long stretch the waves were bashing into my non-breathing side and didn't bother me. The 2 laps went really quickly and thought I should have pushed myself a lot more as the fastest swimmer was 5 mins ahead of me. Probably could have done 2 minutes faster.

 

This was never going to be a fast race for me, so I knew transitions were going to be relaxed. The issue with maybe having to take a bag on the run threw me, as I wasn't sure whether to load my transition bag or the run bag with my supplies, and with hindsight I would have done things a lot better.

 

As I mentioned on another post I found the bike challenging. I commute to work but don't have time to get out much more so the bike leg is my weakest. The first part around Ullswater was good, even with the torrential rain. The further we got the harder the headwind was though and around here I must have got something in my eye, or it was irritated by the wind. At times up Kirkstone Pass and down the other side I was blinded in one eye, but saying that no one passed me up Kirkstone and I squeezed past a few slower guys. Shap Fell wasn't too bad and once over the top it was time to enjoy the tailwind all the way back to Pooley Bridge.

 

So back into transition and out onto the fells for the run. By now the sun had come out and it was a lovely day. Started to feel cramps in the stomach at this stage but going up the fells it was a run/walk policy. Nice aid station after 5 miles where I pigged out on brownies and flapjack. Next up was the long drag up the hill, then admire the view and down the other side. At the bottom of the hill is when I started to really struggle with stomach cramps. Still felt I had the energy to jog but desperately needed to go to the toilet and had 5k left to go. I now know I should have added toilet paper into my kit bag. Limped all the way back to the finish line looking at all the hedges/walls/woods but couldn't risk it. The finish line was in the campsite and I knew I had to go into the campsite, run through a field, cross the finish line then in the corner of that field were some toilets but I was sure I couldn't hold out for that long. Not wanting to appear on a Facebook viral I knew were some toilets at the entrance to the campsite so I had to pay an urgent visit before I could finish the race, which meant my friend overtook me much to his enjoyment.

 

Stomach issues aside, I thought it was a crazy triathlon with everything thrown in and will put it on my list for next year.

I learnt a few lessons too and will treat my next tri, half iron at Castle Howard at end of July, with a little more respect. Going to evaluate nutrition and will maybe try and do without energy drinks or gels.

 

Allerthorpe Sprint Tri. 21/06/15 - from Sophie Johnstone

750m lake swim, 20km flat but windy bike, 5km flat run
Result: 19th woman, 10th in my cat

Yesterday was my first OW triathlon. After a horrendously busy 6-day work week I was shattered before I began. Too tired to worry about the fact that I'd not had chance to even try on my new wetsuit yet, or that my last sporting bike ride ended with me crashing, I was just there to enjoy the day!

The lake swim was fine. It's a shallow lake like others had mentioned below. Took me nearly a lap to get into my rhythm but once I did I enjoyed it. Only got booted a few times, I'd put myself near the back of my wave deliberately. Tied myself up in knots trying to get my wetsuit off quickly after, a bit of a farce

The bike course was flat as a pancake, but soooo windy. Headwind, side winds, gusts, the odd bit of rain. Luckily I was so knackered after my swim I forgot to be nervous and enjoyed that too. Hopefully this means my post-crash nerves are fading :)

The run was a flat 5km. I was suffering by this point. I find flat really boring, I like a hill to charge up and a downhill to recover. I didn't enjoy the run and found it tough.

Overall I was very pleased and delighted to finish. I'd like to enter this again, and look forward to finding another nice OW tri to enter. I was down for Ripon but have postponed to next year as I'm off to stalk the TDF in Holland and Belgium now instead :)

 

CYCLING

 

Otley 50 Mile Time Trial - from John Hallas

 

Having done just three 10 mile TTs ever and all in June I was justifiably a bit nervous when arriving for a 50 this morning. Got there early and had plenty of time to admire the bike p**n – I was particularly taken with a Cervelo P2 with Zipp wheels and an Easton tri bar set up.

 

I had no idea how to pace and I wondered about the effect of my 100 miler on Thursday.

 

At the start line was aware that I was the only one not using any aero kit whatsoever. The guy holding my bike up at the start said “I see you are riding with a full tool bag – there won’t be many today with those on” – which made me feel slightly over-dressed.

 

My 10M PB is 27:14 (22.0 MPH) so I had thought about going out at 18 and then trying to speeding with an idea of getting inside 2:30 (20mph). I was also conscious to try and stay at around 85% HR which I know I can keep for a long time (lots of distance and ultra-running) . I went out well and really got on it and went through 10 in 25:53 ( a bit wind-assisted) with the my minute man passing me at 3.5 miles. The turn at 14.5 into the wind made a difference so 5.5 of the next 10 was hard going but that was done in 27:42. Then I had a 28:00 and I made a big effort to push between 30 and 40 and got back on it with a 26.46. I was above 22 mph average at that point and I then decided my dual targets were to stay close to 22 and break 2:20. The last 13 were dead into the wind, which had increased in strength and I struggled a little from about 43 to 47 but then picked up and finished OK.

 

I was absolutely stuffed at the end and I did not have anything left at all which is just as it should be. I missed the 22mph target - 21.6 but broke 2:20 with a 2:19:35. AHR 84.5

 

Lessons learned

·         Slightly more even pacing might have helped but I am a firm believer in going out hard and hanging on, especially when you are still improving.

·         Don’t take 750ml of drink as I only used about 100ml

·         Drop the tool bag

·         Start thinking about aero kit – probably TT bars first

 

Nice chatting to Mike Furby and Matt Hallam afterwards. Matt did a great 1:56 ( he wanted to go sub 2 and he smashed that target). Mike did a 2:10 which was bang on his target. My first outing in VSCC kit and I think I might be the VSCC 10 and 50M TT record holder (50-60) which probably won’t last long but is nice to have.

 

Great Yorkshire Bike Ride 06/06/15 – from Joel Stead

 

There were loads of us out on last Saturday riding this event so it felt (to me anyway) like a really good club, social-type ride, even though we had some A, B and C type groups. I don’t have an exact number but it must be getting close to 20 riders in total. As far as I saw we were the only club out en masse and our group had plenty of people coming up to us asking where we were from and when we rode out etc. It looked good with a neat and compact group of riders, all in club kit, following the highway code and practising good ride etiquette – as well as more than holding our own against the others out there. We had husband and wife teams, people of all ages, some doing their longest ride ever, and even two sets of father & son teams with Nigel and Zach Cook, plus Ged and Finn Coll completing an astounding 85 miles in total! Not too shabby for boys aged 14 and 12. The future is bright! With some lovely sunshine and a cracking tailwind, it was thoroughly enjoyable day. Top kudos to those who rode all the way back – into the headwind, namely Bill McCaffery and Sean Cust as well as Henry Dixon and Ed Banfield. Great work from everyone involved.