Sarah cycles the Time Trial

Guest post from Sarah Broscombe – Welcome to Team Half as Good!

“Women, you have 37 minutes and 35 seconds to cycle 14.5km. An average of 23.2km/hr.”

I have never been on a road bike. I really wanted to give this half as good challenge a go. On my mountain bike I generally average around 15kmh, though to be fair that usually includes a significant hill or two and with bits of knobbly off-road. So I had NO idea whether I could a) stay on a road bike, which to me looks like doing the Luge on a razor blade, and b) average anything over a laughable 17kmh or so. The women’s half-as-good Olympic challenge is 23.2kmh- 14.5km in 37m35.

Lake Annecy, then, the Greenway, about 29C and getting windy. A hired comp bike (skinny tyres but straight handlebars with recognisable gears). I’ve got no speedo so B comes with me, which is fantastic for road crossings as well as information. First thing I notice is that it’s a firm ride, on skinny tyres with a saddle that looks like a prehistoric pelvis fossil and feels penitential.

Second thing I notice is, it should be called the GreenGATES, not the Greenway. Entry and exit pairs of gates across each road, farm track, entryway or path. The gates are slanted so you lose a lot of speed approaching as well as going through unless you can whizz through diagonally at speed. Which I can’t on my wheelie razor blade. As you can see from this chart, I had to slow down considerably 7 times, plus a further 4 complete stops for traffic passing. Clobbers your average, that.

Third thing I notice is that after 3km I’m knackered and really, really dehydrated. No bottle cage, but on this wafer I’m riding I daren’t let go of the handlebars anyway. Problem solved when B starts spraying bits of water in my mouth from his water bottle. Now THAT’s chivalry!

From 5km to 10km the path rises gradually but steadily. After 8km I reckon I can’t finish. I’m just not used to maintaining speed like this. After 10km when it stops ascending I reckon I can do it- but the last 2km is just gate after gate, and all the sudden deceleration and fierce acceleration after re-starting is taking it out of me. My head is bobbing like a ducked apple by the time I get to the last km.

We pull up in the shade. B reads from his speedo- I’ve done the 14.5km in 32 minutes 7 seconds, an average of 27.1kmh, taking 5 minutes 28 seconds off the goal time. I’m so happy I get all sniffly. Can’t quite believe it. We ride the 18km back into the wind rather slower (19kmh, though, still not bad), but I’m getting steadily more excited. I think I might be the first woman to join Team Half as Good, and it’s very nice to feel as though I did indeed earn it. The buzz lasted for about 3 days!

Time Trial Guest Post – From Winston

My attempt at the 22km test was a little different to most. I am used to cycling but short on time at the moment so I thought I would build my timed 22km section into a longer ride. Setting off at 8am from Hebden on yet another blisteringly hot day I reached an inconspicuous hump backed canal bridge where the Selby Canal goes under the road near West Bank (south of Selby). The wind was against me but light and the sun melting the tarmac. I thought the little bridge might make an ideal starting house and ramp, so pausing to start the mobile phone stop watch on the bridge I was interrupted by a beep! A car waiting for me, now stationary on the narrow bridge. I didn’t even try and explain why I was stopped in such a ridiculous place but instead made a faltering start at a time in the day when I was having a bit of an energy gap. Still, it should be easy enough… The course was flat. I had to stop once at a busy crossroads and again to open a gate. but apart from this made good progress. Encountered two other cyclists and overtook without drafting. Energy was lacking and half way through I was really feeling the presence of the invisible enemy, the clock on my back and thought I wasn’t going to make it. Speeded up in the second half of the race of truth and come the last 10 mins was in full time trial mode. Although I am now too fat to comfortably maintain a position on the drops I was taking no prisoners at Airmyn rounderbout and arrived at Warlde Services petrol station to stop the clock at 49:25. What was supposed to be a measured effort within a longer ride turned into an intermediate sprint but there was a deal of satisfaction and later sunburn (see pic) in knowing that I am more than half as good ad Eddy Mercx. I completed the 200km in 11 hrs.

That’s 2 of 2 events successfully completed (I can’t swim so claim exemption from month 1) Whats next I wonder?

Winston runs the 100m

Guest post by Winston Plowes on his Half as Good running challenge

My attempt had been delayed and pushed into July, today in fact! I am 47 and somehow had a misremembering of been able to do 12 seconds at school. This I am assured is rubbish. Such things happen when you are 47. Anyway whether it is allowed or not my preparations came to a climax on the 4th of July.

Like Ben I had the meal of champions before my attempt, in my case battered sausage, chips and peas but the most remarkable coincidence was about to happen. In the morning I decided to measure out the distance on my trundle wheel along a straight section of footpath near home (courtesy of Calder High maths department). My reason was that it was a drizzly day and I thought a tarmac surface might be a good alternative. Off I went clicking and counting. Four people going the opposite direction drawing closer. We came together and were all speechless. We BOTH had measuring wheels!!! They were measuring a 10k fun run route. Unbelievable.

Anyway… 5.15pm was the nominated time to meet my friend and her kids at Hebden Royd C of E Primary school playing field. Surface, undulating grass with the odd mole hill. running lanes marked out but too short. Diagonal distance across field exactly 100m. Excellent.

A bit of a jog and a couple of practice starts and my hour of reckoning had arrived. Some joker in the pub suggested a pacemaker might be a good idea. Another suggested I might need one fitting afterwards! Hand signal spotted and off…

Its a long way.

17.9 seconds.

Run 2 18.1 seconds but with last 10 m up an embankment as I strayed off course.

So, I am at least half as good as Insane Bolt 🙂

Now for the cycling…

Ben runs the 100m

Guest post by Ben Hodson on his Half as Good running challenge – June 2013

Right so according to my calendar today is the last day of June and I had made no attempt to even practise for this record. Therefore I found myself at my parents this morning eating a hearty breakfast of sausage, bacon, baked beans, pineapple, bread, grapes, cookies, and a cheese board realising that if I was going to do it I’d better do it now! So after finishing the breakfast of champions we wandered to the local school where they have a grass track to promptly find a triathlon just finishing. Thus we wandered to the recreation ground next door only to find they were having a fun day and in the small area of spare space remaining I was rather dubious of my dad’s pacing of 100m. After a lot of dithering we went back to the school field. A very quick decision on how dad was going to start the race and we were ready. Being a serious sportsman I did away with the warm up deciding that the walk there was more than adequate. Dad signalled go.. I ran 100m = 11.8sec can’t complain. It’s pretty much what I was doing back at school. Walked to 200m point, Dad signalled.. I ran 29.4sec, again pretty happy. Started a little fast but still good enough. Was much more tired now but ah well. Just about caught my breath and was signalled to start running the 400m.. 1 min 17.1sec. I would have been happier with a 1min 10sec. Was practically jogging by the end. But as this was directly off the back of a 100 and 200 sprint this probably is not too bad. Decided there was no point of second attempts as I’d put everything into the first attempts and the chance of beating them was pretty slim! All that was left to do was walk back to my parents and grab a drink and some ice cream. Not sure I’m going to have such a strong hand in this set of challenges again but you never know. – Ben