3 Peaks

Spent the last week in Estartit, Catalunya. A lovely place and a nice beach holiday with the wife and my little lad.  NIce food, great weather and great company. I found a nice little mountain to run up, which started as the steps from hell and then a load of stepping stones.  It was pretty steep, so I did a few sets of this everyday to ease my legs into running. It started of with these: Followed by these:   Followed by these:

Having lived abroad for a while, I love the heat. I love being in it, training in it, racing in it, eating ice cream in it. So today, I went up to Borough for a quick session.  15 reps, jog one, romp one... and repeat.  Being a cyclist it takes a while for my ankles to get used to the walking and running, especially with a bike on my back. A few things that I have noticed will need attention are: My Hope floating rotors have some play in the pivots. Its annoying so these will be replaced with a lighter, Alligator rotor. I usually cut a section of inner tube, and wrap this around my front mech to reduce the rattling. I need to add this again. Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres suck. My freehub bearings will need replacing shortly. I run traditional bend bars, with a padded gel insert under the tape.  I have now had to duct tape this in place.  Riding on the road wouldn't have been an issue, but for the 3 peaks, I cannot afford to have this move and loosen the bar tape

Slippin' in cow shite. Training in Rutland's deep grass has its misfortunes. It's not hitting a rock thats the worst thing...  but your old friend Pat, cow Pat. Gross.

Its that time of year that I seem to be ringing the wife to collect me mid-ride. Pinch flats, written off wheels, broken bits etc.  First issue I had was stripped threads on a skewer, which is bizarre... Didn't think it was worth the risk of riding home with a loose front wheel.  I've been revisiting tubeless again.  Seems to be great for general riding, but I struggle to get a high enough pressure to stop pinch flats for the 3 peaks.  I'm not using a Stans ZTR 29er wheelset as this creates a wider tyre profile for added comfort, but it makes the tyres a sod to get on or off.  Getting them on I can cope with, and them being difficult to remove in a bonus if I need to ride on a flat rim for a while to get to a pit station during the race.  The downside of a tyre being wider, it than is also makes the profile lower which encourages pinch flats.  Food for thought. I've also been up to Borough Hill again, which is my local training ground.  Its 6 miles from my house, so

My form, in general is building nicely.  I've done a few races so far this year, but can't commit to every weekend as I have a young family.  (My little boy is young, not my wife... I'm not some sort of grooming weirdo) I have a rest period coming up soon, where I will do some running to condition my legs a little.  I will be in Spain, so can cathc some rays' whilst beach runnin and swimming.

What goes up, must come down. The 3 Peaks is such a tough race, and the climbs are brutally hard.  Having lugged my fat ass up those hills, I'm going to make sure I enjoy th edown's!

01 06 2017: 3 Peaks entered. Last year I finished 30 something after starting well.  I had no real race conditioning, and really struggled up Whernside.  I decided to wait for my Brother-In-Law, Geoff Beetham, and enjoy the rest of the ride together. So, with my entry submitted, its time to start thinking about form, conditioning, technology, pain, punctures, horizontal rain, sunburn and THE event. After 5 top 10 results and a 5th place finish, I want to finally reach the podium: This blog will be my story of progress: