Chris Goodfellow's Triathlon Tales

Running on Empty

Posted: September 2, 2010 in Running, Training

This is really turning out to be an unlucky year for me race wise.

The Trans Rockies Run turned out to be a very different experience to that which I had imagined. The trip started out well with a smooth flight and travel up into the mountains. I was feelling well rested and ready to push it hard over the coming week. That is certainly what I did, but not in the manor I had planned. The day before the race I came down with a serious stomach bug and was pretty much unable to get out of bed. Just walking the 500m to the race registration was more that I could handle.

The next morning I was feeling a bit better and positive I would be able to race. This was not the case. It became quickly apparent that I had very little to give and after about 6 miles I felt like I was at the end of an Ironman which had gone badly wrong. I put my head down and struggled on through most of the run, but at mile 17 I pulled out of the stage. I was well and truly broken and thought that if I wanted to stand a chance of completing the race I needed to call it a day. The rest of the afternoon was a blurr and I think I passed out in my tent pretty soon after reaching camp. I had not been able to eat a thing! Never a good plan for a multi-day race.

Morning two of the race and I was feeling considerably better. I tried to eat some breakfast but found this almost impossible. Still, in my warped sense of reality, I was feeling positive I would be able to race. Day two was only 14 miles and despite the 900m of climbing I was hopeful I would not be holding my team mate back too much. I actually managed OK on the climb, and while I was only at around 40%, we made good progress relative to the other teams. The descent was hard work for me as my legs were just dead weights. The last 3 miles were relatively flat but it took pretty much everything I had to give to keep on running. We crossed the finish line probably 15 minutes slower than my team mate would have hoped, but I was amazed to be crossing it at all. Again I felt like I was at the end of a Ironman gone very horribly wrong! Back at camp I tried to eat, but the little I was able to take on was just going straight through my system. Still in my mind, I convinced myself I would be OK to race the 24 miles ahead of us in the morning.

Day three ended up being the toughest day of the week. My body was truly broken and as we jogged down the first hill I knew it was going to be a very long day. Nonetheless, I managed to make it through the first 10 miles in reasonably good time. Then the wheels well and truly came off. My stomach was so bloated I could barely jog and I could not really take on any food or drink. The next 14 miles was a case of survival and simply making it to the finish line. After quitting on day one I really did not want to repeat that again. In the last mile I think I must have needed at least 4 loo stops. Not a pretty sight and by the time I crossed the finish line I thought that my week was well and truly over. I could just not imagine myself making it to the start line for stage 4 of the race. Later on in the day I was able to eat my first proper meal for 4 days and the temporary cap on my front tooth fell off in the process. Eating a dorito of all things!!! Anyway, during the evening I was given the chance to swap team mates and race with a girl called Leslie. The idea being that I could take it easy with her at the ‘back of the pack’, while Leslie’s team mate (a stronger runner) could race with Scott and save him from another day waiting for me.

Chilling at the back of the race ended up being a life saver. For the first time since I started the race I could actually appreciate where I was and the people racing around me. Both of which were awesome. I think I talked non stop all day and was just loving every second out there in the mountains. I was feeling more like myself with every step and to be honest did not really want the day to stop when we reached the finish. When it did, things just kept on getting better with a pub by the finish serving cold drink and food, which I was able to eat. Happy days!!!!! Having eaten a proper meal in the evening I was really much more like my normal self and probably could have raced stage 5 with Scott at a decent pace. However, I did not want to make the same mistake I had done over the first few days so opted to take it easy at the back, as I had done on stage 4.

Stage 5 was another awesome day out in the mountains and made even better by the people I was chatting to along the way. Just as the previous day, I did not want the stage to end and I could feel a bounce come back into my step by the end of the day. I was back 🙂

Stage 6 and the final day of racing. I knew I was back to full health now and was confident I could race all out. The plan had been always to race the last day with Scott and I was just glad to be doing so, feeling 100% better. As we all lined up at the start of stage 6 it really did feel like the first day of racing to me. We went hard from the gun and it felt great to be bouncing, not crawling, up the mountain again. The day flew by, as did the 20 miles and 2000m we climbed. We came home in 3hrs 39mins and I think were the first non professional team home. It was a great way to finish the race and at least showed ourselves what we could have done had I not been ill. Maybe next year 😉

Massive thanks for all the help and support from everybody during the week. It was an amazing event to be part of but was made legendary by the people doing it.

BACK IN THE GAME!

Posted: August 16, 2010 in Triathlon

This has been one hell of a weekend and I am finally back in the game.

It all started off with one of my very best friends wedding, which truely was a legendary day.

The next morning I had planned to race in the Bedord Autoglass Olympic distance triathlon since we were kind of near by (45 minutes away). I must have left the wedding reception around 11pm and spent the next hour and a half getting lost in Luton trying to find my way back to the hotel. Not ideal!

Back at the hotel I finally made the last few race prepartions, set the alarm (or so I thought) and passed out. When I woke up a was feeling surprisingly well rested, and with good reason, my alarm never went off at 4.15am and it was now 6.15am!!!! For a few minutes I just thought there was no point even trying to make the race start, but a somewhat drunk Carli (my lovely girfriend) told me to stop fussing and get going, so I did.

I must have broken a lot of speed retrictions but made it to the race venue, sprinted about 1-2km to the registration tent, then 1-2km back to the car. Got all my kit and made it into transition 5 minutes before it closed. Talk about cutting it fine!! I was seriously amazed to be in the race.

It has been 12 weeks since I crashed in IM Lanzarote, and they have not been easy ones, but I have to say I felt truely happy lined up at the start of the race today. The gun went off and from then on I was officially loving every second out there. 🙂

Swim was solid but nothing to write home about. Bike was very solid, although I did corner like a granny! I had the 4th fastest bike split of the day (45 seconds off the fastest split) and if my corning skills were less granny like I think I probably would have had the fastest time, give or take a few seconds. Happy with that. On the run I was really just cruising. With the trans rockies run just around the corner I did not want to push too hard. I still clocked a 35min 30 sec 10km which was not too pedestrian. I came in 10th overall and 3rd in my age group. Considering it was the national championships, not a bad first race back after the crash.

Bring on the IM distance races!!!!

The Magic of Rest

Posted: August 4, 2010 in Giant, Time Trial Bikes, Training, Triathlon

OK, I have been back training properly for a few weeks now and did a max ramp test on the 23^rd July (increasing your power by 20 watts every minute). Amazingly, my power was up, toping out at 500 watts. Just goes to show that the forced bed rest over my accident does have some benefits.

Since then I have picked up the intensity a bit and even done a few time trials on the training bike. Last night I managed to hold 366 watts average in the local 25mile TT. Not a bad effort all things considered.

I am still waiting to get my TT bike back into action as it has been off getting X-Rayed. While waiting, I have been checking out what frames are out there just incase I need to replace the current one. Pick of the bunch would have to be the Giant Trinity Advanced SL O. That is one fast piece of kit and it would be interesting to see what kind of difference it would make to your bike split in an Ironman, riding a bike like that??

Summer camps for adults

Posted: July 23, 2010 in Uncategorized

Most people would do the sensible thing and have the rest of the season off after the crash I just had. I guess I am not most people…

I am not planning on racing just yet though. I think I need to put in some hard hours training. The plan is to race Challenge Barcelona in early October and finish off the year racing Ironman Mexico at the end of November. I realise this is laying down the gauntlet but the aim is sub 9 hours in both races!

Plans for August are to do the Trans Rockies Run. It is a 6 day race across the Rockies with a team mate. I am heading out there with Scott Coey. I am not really viewing it as a race but as a great way to put in the training hours and have an amazing time in the process. The result for this is not on the agenda, just having fun and pushing hard.

Back in the saddle

Posted: July 20, 2010 in Bike Accident, Iron Man

Right after the crash:

Imagine you have just got out of bed and not quite woken up properly yet. That is pretty much how I am feeling 247 at the moment. I feel in a daze, half there and half not. The severity of the crash and what has happened to me has not really sunk in. I am still thinking that it is race day and my mind can not wind down. This all seems like one big bad dream at the moment. I hope I wake up soon.

1 week after the crash:

I am awake, finally! I have just been to the docs and been given the all clear!! The doctor said I could slowly ease back into training over the next 2 months. This means that I am going to miss pretty much all the races this season though. I’m determined to get back to normal as quickly as possible, and this determination is consuming my every thought.

8 weeks after the crash:

I am back! Just got home after a long weekend in Zermatt. I spent 4 days running up mountains clocking over 11hrs running and climbing over 10,000m. Before this trip I was still feeling stupidly tired for no reason in particular. Out in Zermatt I seemed to feel better with every step and after the 4 days felt well and truly back. OK I still have a way to go before I am back to full fitness but I feel like me again finally after 8 weeks and it is the best feeling in the world. Happy days.

IM Lanza crash

Posted: July 13, 2010 in Bike Accident, Iron Man

I can’t write much about this myself, as I have no memory of the accident, race day or the following week I spent in Hospital Dr Negrin on Gran Caneria.

I have however been able to piece together the cause and my subsequent re-location to Gran Caneria through family who were out with me, and the team at Club La Santa whose help and support has been phenomenal.

I was fortunate (I think!) to have crashed at the spot where Terry Jones, the Welsh Triathlon Coordinator was spectating, and he has since been able to provide me with the following explanation of the turn of events:

We were sitting right at the bottom of the hill in Haria and watched the bikes come down the hill, Chris must have been in the first 30/40 bikes and was on his own as he descended down the hill, we think that he either was taking out or replacing his drink bottle when he probably hit a pothole or something and his front wheel turned and he came down heavily on the road. This happened at 11.20hrs (this was the time on the camera) It is hard to estimate how long it took for the Ambulance to arrive but I would guess approx 10/15 minutes. The last picture I took of the bikes which also showed Chris in the background, was 11.41hrs this was just before he departed in the ambulance.

As soon as he crashed the police marshalls immediately left their positions and went to help him. They couldn’t do a lot other than call an Ambulance and make the area around him safe, put barriers up etc., to divert the oncoming bikes. Chris had actually landed in a recovery position but appeared to have knocked himself out. There were quickly quite a few people around him trying to help.

When all the police and marshal’s left their positions to go and help him there was complete chaos down in Haria, as traffic was now turning out in front of bikes coming down the hill and some of the bikes were trying to take the road to Arrietta instead of turning to go up through the village to Mirador, there was a young lad left to marshall there but he could not cope, as all the crowd were shouting at him what to do?

When the Ambulance arrived it came down a side street at the bottom of the hill and tried to turn up the hill into the oncoming bikes, he couldn’t turn for some, but a Paramedic jumped out of the Ambulance and ran up the hill to attend to Chris, I think by now Chris was sitting up?

To make matters even worse it appeared that a member of the public who had witnessed the crash also collapsed on the opposite side of the road to Chris and one of the Paramedics also had to attend to him.

It was amazing to sit and watch the amount of traffic which was trying to get through the village of Haria, at one point when Bert Jammer was coming through he had to slow up and actually wait for a bus full of tourist’s to slowly go around the tight bend in the village. From an observers point of view the whole part of the bike route through the village of Haria, from a point of safety should be shut off to traffic and that should also include the hill coming down from the top of Haria, but I guess this would be hard to achieve?

I think I was taken to Arrecefe hospital in Lanzarote where I was examined, stitched up and medicated. It transpires that I had a mild subarachnoid haemorrhage and a fracture in my C7, along with a broken nose, 8 stitches in my head, lip and I was also a few teeth down! I was air lifted to Gran Caneria on a medi-plane where I spent the next week. The hospital had specialist neurosurgeons, so I was in the best hands. I was given a safe to fly certificate toward the end of the week, and headed back to the UK, for the next round of specialist doctor appointments!

When can I get back on my bike?