Fitness testing - the full story

Believe it or not (and I realise that most people won’t), there’s actually a fair amount of work involved with this here blog. I know that it seems like I just scrawl out whatever random musings materialise in my noggin, but I do actually but some thought and time into it... and that’s the excuse I’m using for the couple of weeks that have come between my first two Aerofit scan postings and this here one.

On a serious note, it’s an interesting and worthwhile subject, and I didn’t want to do a rush job. The past couple of weeks I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking competition and just couldn’t find the time, but the best things in life are worth waiting for, right?

So, here we go with analysis of my cycling and running. As it’s been such a long time between these posts, I decided to paste posts 1 and 2 to the beginning to create one long but, hopefully, continuous and intelligible post. If you have an elephantine memory, just skip down to the bottom to the part where you see a load of scientific looking graphs and read from around there.

For the rest....

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Anyone who takes a look at that little bar above (the one that says ‘Follow My Training’) will have noticed quite a difference in the way I train of late. Of course, it still boils down to swim/bike/run/core/stretch, but the way sessions are approached has changed.

Previously, for example, you’d have seen things like ‘24k long run’ or ‘60k bike into 40minute harder run’. But these have now become ‘25k in upper Tz1 [Training Zone 1]’ and ‘60k Tz1-Tz2 into 40 minute run in Tz2’.

So, where did all this extra information on training zones come from? My Aerofit scan.

Triathletes, as I’ve said before, love a bit of geekery – in the form of carbon goodies, shiny new gadgets and analysing data. And there’s lots of data that can be analysed: VO2 max, lactate threshold, average watts etc...

One recent innovation to find its way to the Middle East is Aerofit (it was originally pioneered in Germany but is now available in loads of countries around the world). But, as Sreeya from Aerofit explains, they see their scan as more of a training tool than purely a fitness test used to produce data.

“We see it as the leading fitness coaching service in the Middle East, which guarantees you effective weight loss and improvement in your sports performance. We can provide individualised ‘fact-based’ training plans based on a scientific analysis [called the Aeroscan] of your individual metabolism.”

Fair enough. So, how does it do that?

“AeroFit determines your VO2, anaerobe threshold, fat and carbohydrate metabolism and optimum training zones,” answers Sreeya.

Unless you’re already pretty health savvy and into the science of fitness, much of this will be as intelligible as a sea lion singing karaoke – what we actually want to know about any of these tests or scans, if we’re being honest, is one thing: will it make me faster?

“You will significantly improve your stamina, speed and endurance by training your body to produce energy efficiently. You will get much faster on the run and bike, be able to estimate your racing times, strategise the right pace for your next race and plan your nutrition intake to fuel your body sufficiently,” says Sreeya.

That’ll be a ‘yes’ then.

“You will see your race times improving and visibly see progress in just a few weeks of training.”

From my basic understanding of the science behind the Aerofit scan, all athletes can choose to train at a wide range of intensities – you can walk, you can sprint, or you can do anything in between. Whether you’re a Kona qualifier, a mid-pack triathlete, or just someone who wants to lose a bit of weight and get a little fitter, the major limiter is almost always time. The data provided by the Aeroscan tells you what intensities you should work at to maximise gains in the time that you have available.

So, what does doing the Aerofit scan involve?

Well, it’s pretty simple really – and no more taxing than the average gym session. A couple of days before, I fill in an information sheet which lists things like my age, weight, how much I exercise and my fitness goals. This sheet also includes a set of fairly straightforward instructions, telling me to keep vigorous workouts to a minimum in the 48 hours preceding my Aerofit scan, and not to eat for a few hours before.

I arrive at the gym at The Address Dubai Mall – one of Aerofit’shomes, along with the Up & Running clinic on Al Wasl Road – and go into the plush changing rooms to don my shorts, t-shirt and trainers.

The only other apparatus involved are a standard stationary bike, a treadmill and the Aerofit mouthpiece – essentially a tube that you place into your mouth and leading to a chord, with a nose pinch that not only keeps the mouthpiece steady but also guarantees that all inhalation and exhalation goes through the mouth. The mouthpiece feeds information into a laptop that records the results.

Before doing anything, I sit down – at rest – and breathe through the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. Then we begin on the bike. I cycle at a steady cadence on an easy resistance for a few minutes and then Sreeya hands me the mouthpiece – I continue cycling just the same put while breathing into the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. 

Sreeya then whips off the mouthpiece and increases the resistance; again, I cycle steadily for a few minutes before I continue but breathing through the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. 

This pattern continues – incremental increase in resistance, a few minutes of normal riding, 30 seconds into the mouthpiece... and then Sreeya tells me to stop, taking down the resistance for me to cool down gradually. It’s pretty painless, took less than 15 minutes and, in terms of perceived effort, I’d say that even at the top resistance I’m still only on 5 out of 10.

There’s a few minutes’ break as Sreeya and fellow expert Markus take a look at the results, walking me through a few of the most obvious points and patterns.

I then jump up on to the treadmill and repeat the process, starting at an easy 8kph (the pace you start at depends on your ability), running for a couple of minutes normally, running for 30 seconds with the mouthpiece on, then upping the pace by 2kph and repeating the process. 

The only difference is that, due to the results I was registering, I stayed on the treadmill longer than I did on the bike and was at a fair old pace (for me, at least) by the end of the scan – just over 17 minutes later. The whole process took around an hour for both bike and run.

Again, I cooled down and watched as Sreeya and Markus looked at, translated and explained my results.

So, here’s the bike results:

And here’s the run:

But what do they mean? Well, let’s go back to the bike.

You can extrapolate all manner of conclusions from this; everything from my base metabolism to how many calories I’ll burn/require during an Ironman bike leg, given my effort of level (as reflected by my heart rate). If you know what you’re looking for, there’s as many answers here as there are questions. But, in a nutshell, these are the vital stats:

Again, you can interpret all this is any number of ways but my primary aim was to discover my training zones and which ones I need to work on most. Information like this:

Sreeya and Markus explain the results:

“Every human body has approximately 1,700-2,000 Kcals of carbohydrate storage whereas a substantially higher amount of fat storage of approximately 80,000 Kcals. Hence, in order to improve your fitness and sports performance or lose fat, it is important to train your body to burn more fat calories, which can happen by training in your correct heart rate zones.

“For endurance athletes, as long as you keep burning fat, you are using an almost unlimited storage of energy and you will be able to perform at these levels for very long periods of time. It is only when a very high amount of your calorie consumption comes from carbohydrates, in your case at HR 128 or 210 watts, your endurance for long distance events will go down significantly.

“Overall, you have a low fat metabolism. Your highest fat burn rate of 63% is achieved at HR 88 and 60 watts followed by a very sharp decline thereafter. Your anaerobe zone is reached at HR 137. Majority of your biking should occur in the aerobe zones, TZ1 and TZ2. Your training should primarily focus on building fat metabolism. Do long bike rides in TZ1 up to HR 110. This will increase your overall endurance for long distance races as you are training your body to burn more fat calories of which you have an almost unlimited amount of storage. In addition, do some bike rides in TZ2 especially during racing season. This will improve your stamina and speed performance and push out your anaerobe threshold further to the right. However, it is important to first focus on building fat metabolism in the low-medium HR to improve overall biking profile.”

Some people show vastly different results in bike and run. They may, for example, be an extremely efficient runner who burns predominantly fat until a very high speed however, when they jump on the bike, they have to work far harder and therefore burn predominantly carbohydrates unless they keep their heart rates very low.

That isn’t the case for me, however; my bike and run show very, very similar results and Sreeya and Markus were able to make almost the same conclusion.

To conclude, it’s clear that I’m a pretty fit person who is well-trained. It’s also clear that I’m predominantly a shorter distance, power athlete, rather than a natural endurance athlete. This is backed up by the fact that, even when a lot younger and when I was a competitive swimmer, I always specialised in the sprint events like 50m-100m fly and backstroke. I made regional school track finals in sprints and hurdle events, but you’d have found me at the back of a cross-country, in spite of my aerobic capacity garnered from swimming. And although I’ve been doing triathlon for a couple of years now, I’ve still not had enough time to build that big aerobic (fat burning) base.

In which case – as I’m saying that the Aerofit scan backed up what I already knew – does that make it pointless?

Not at all. As I’ve explained, there are all manner of results and data you can pull from this and some of the more interesting information for me revolves around the number of calories I burn per hour at a given rate of exertion. This has helped me to really nail a nutrition plan for my upcoming Ironman.

But the zones themselves have proven useful. It’s all very well to say, as someone still relatively new to endurance sports and is built for power rather than distance, I need to train long and easy to build an endurance base. But what is ‘long and easy’. Having those exact figures – those magic numbers if you will – has informed all my longer training since to the point that, when doing my longer  solo sessions, I no longer even have the speed/pace on display on my Garmin, judging everything on heart rate.

A few days ago, I went out and did one of my longest runs I’ll do for Ironman – a 32km effort – and based it purely on not exceeding the 70% (130bpm) heart rate that the aeroscan outlined. This kept it steady but, most surprisingly of all was that, by the end I felt pretty good. My legs were getting a little bit sore (I’d been running on hard paving rather than kinder trails or tarmac so this was to be expected) and I was thirsty (I’d kept hydration and nutrition down to pretty minimal levels) but still felt better than I’d expect to after this sort of training run. Turns out I’d only been running  a little over 6min/km, but the pace is of little importance in this sort of run – by keeping steady and at/under the magic number, I’d felt none of the usual peaks/troughs I’d have expected to feel during that sort of run and, to boot, I recovered really quickly too, ready to train the next day.

The acid test, of course, will come on Ironman race day. Can this training be turned into a goal time over 140.6 miles?

Tri Yas - race report

Gah, don’t you hate it when work, training and, well, life get in the way of some questionable quality blogging action!

Anyway, bit of a round-up. Last weekend, as I said, was Tri Yas – an event I really enjoyed last year and so was excited to do again this year. Last time out, I did the Olympic distance race but this time, as I wasn’t really supposed to be racing at all due to being in full Ironman training mode (11 weeks!), I decided to do the sprint distance race as this would probably have least bearing on any training.

Friday morning’s session was meant to be a 15km run into a 120km bike but I shifted a load of stuff around and got up at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning to do the session before work rather than Friday morning before the race. In the end, I only got 105km of the bike in, due to being chased back to the car by a Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol style sandstorm, but it did the trick.

"Bugger!"

As Yas was an afternoon/evening race, it meant I managed to get (almost all my training in), be a little tiny bit rested for the race and, most excitingly, I got to enjoy my first Friday morning lie-in for probably 18 months.

The race itself was really well put on, with the exception of it dragging somewhat – I had to be there to register, rack up and be out of transition by 3, but my wave didn’t start till 5.15. By the time I left after presentations (there’s a clue as to how I did) it had gone 9pm... which is a long day for a sprint!

There were a few small murmurs about the course being long (turns out the swim was probably 850m and the bike was 22.5km) but it was what it was and, from my point of view, it was about time the swim was long, as every other race this season has been on a notably short swim course.

Anyway, the race was a lot of fun due to the surroundings. The swim took us out into the marina and past the iconic Yas Viceroy hotel before heading back to the dock. I’ve not been swimming fantastically of late but felt good – started aggressively and just kind of kept on going hard. By all accounts, by the time I was heading back along the marina, I’d opened up a lead of 100-200m and came out the water on a time of 10:52 – not bad at all for a swim of 850-900m.

The run from the marina into T1 (the pit lane!) was quite a long one and I managed to pass through pretty quickly without overexerting.

Onto the bike – four laps of the Yas Marina F1 Circuit – and this is probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike. Being such a strong swimmer (and not bad on the bike and run), I’m used to only being overtaken as I fall behind the eventual winners and podium finishers, but the wave start here meant that there were plenty of triathletes out on the course already and I loved zipping past them and into the tight corners. I also felt great and was pushing hard and fast through the pedals all the way around; my aim was to get into T2 before my team mate Ed, who was also in my wave and is a brilliant triathlete and especially strong on the bike and run. Heading into the pit lane after just over 22kms, I was chuffed that I’d managed to hold on to the wave lead, and even happier when my Garmin showed an average speed of close to 41kph.

Again, it was a long T2, but I felt pretty good heading out on to the run and used the Garmin to control my pace. The intention was to hold a 4.10 pace for the first 1km or so and then bring that down. I hoped to break the 4min/km average for the first time but, in the end, that just didn’t happen. I felt smooth, and continued overtaking runners in front, but just couldn’t quite find the pace I’d hoped for. Still, I held on to the wave lead for almost 4km of the run, until Ed ran past me like a steam train. It was just a case of gritting the teeth and getting to the finish line then.

I crossed the line in 1.08.28 which was enough for 3^rd position overall (Ed took 2^nd 50 secounds in front of me, while our other team mate Ian, who was in the previous wave, got the W another 40 seconds ahead of Ed – a Tri2Aspire clean sweep, with another T2Aer, Flanners, also taking 4^th and Didge pretty much walking to victory in the women’s sprint).

Scary helmet people

Being called up on to the F1 podium was very cool, but I was generally very happy with my race. With little to no taper or specific preparation, I swam and biked as well as I ever have while my run was where I’d expect it to be, even if I’d secretly hoped to see a small improvement... a huge relief after a difficult few months of illness and injury and a really great first indicator to me that I’m back on form, which is great with the UK sprint champs coming up in May and Ironman in July.

The aim at the UK champs is to qualify to represent GB at the age group sprint world champs later in the year. If I do mange to fluke that, this is a good base to work from. With the focus on Ironman, I’ve done little to no speed work of late and am confident that, after IM, I can really improve across all three disciplines, but the bike and run in particular. 

Under starter's orders...

Sorry, will have to conclude the posts on the Aerofit scan next week. Been super busy today, time has run away with me and the results of the Aerofit are, I think, really interesting, so I want to take my time over that post.

Fun weekend coming up with what will definitely be my last race of the UAE triathlon season - Tri Yas. Given that I'm into my Ironman training block, I probably shouldn't be taking part, but it's a cool event - the swim is in the marina in front of the hotel, transition takes place in the pit lane, and the bike is on the actual F1 track... so I couldn't resist.

By way of a compromise, I've managed to fit in tomorrow's training during the rest of the week and am just doing the sprint distance (there's an Olympic distance race too) so recovery will be quick and painless.

It's done in waves and I'm in the last wave of the day which is awesome as it means there'll be other people out on the course, so I'll actually get to overtake some athletes (passing people is a rarity for me; due to my strong swim, I'm usually the hare who gets caught)... so I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise in advance to anyone racing tomorrow who has to put up with me making a high-pitched F1 car transition noise all the way around. Especially if I happen to overtake you and make a 'changing down' noise in the process!

Will report back next week.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

The race – Ironman Austria

Although newer races like the yet-to-be-run Ironman New York and Ironman Melbourne are maybe now taking a bit more of the spotlight, Europe (and more specifically, Austria and Germany) are really one of the heartlands of Ironman racing. Along with Challenge Roth, IM Austria is right up there as one of the most iconic, well-established and best-supported races on the scene.

I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a lot of Austria in the past few years and have rarely stumbled upon anywhere that is less than spectacular but even by those high standards, the region of Carinthia looks stunning. Austria’s southernmost state, it borders Italy and Slovenia.

Carinthia (all images courtesy of kaernten.at)

The race takes place in the Carinthian capital of Klagenfurt which is a relatively small city (population of 90,000) which is all the better for Ironman racing as, apparently, the town comes alive during IM week, and the locals lap up the experience, the excitement and, of course, the huge boost to the local economy.

Klagenfurt - a bit of a change from Dubai

Although it can rain at this time of year, the past few editions of the race have all been dry affairs, with average highs in Klagenfurt of around 27C (80F) in July – so, if it stays dry, it’s perfect Ironman weather.

Klagenfurt sits on the banks of the stunning Worthersee, a 20km long Alpine lake that plays a central role in the race.

Picture postcard Lake Worthersee - bit like Wadi Adventure, but bigger...

Swim

Swim start

It’s 3.8k, of course, in the crystal clear Worthersee; being an Alpine lake, even in summer it’s a wetsuit swim, and the water is usually flat as a fish pond. 

Not a bad place to swim.

The swim course heads directly out from the start on the east side of the lake, then comes back into the most iconic section of the swim – the last 700m or so is up a narrow canal, so spectators line both banks to cheer on the competitors.

Swimming up the canal.

Swim exit in front of a giant Connect 4 board.

Bike

The 180km bike course is two identical 90km loops which I like the sound of – not so many laps that you get bored, but manageable rides and you can learn from the first loop as you tackle the second. 

Biking along the lake.

The loops head off to the south of Worthersee following its banks, then comes back a little further south. 

Drafting? Us?

Apparently, the first and last 30km of each loop is rolling and can be tackled on the aero bars, with the middle 30km where most the challenging climbs can be found. 

I can almost hear the cow bells!

It’s not an easy course – with a couple of tough climbs in there and more than 2,000m of climbing on the bike – but a lot of the elevation differences are said to be through rolling terrain rather than pure climbs.

Everyone that does the race also talks of the amazing atmosphere, with locals flooding on to the roads Tour de France style and even writing their support across the tarmac.

Run

The marathon course heads out in the other direction, following the lake’s northern shore. It’s a sort of double figure of 8 course, with transition/start/finish located in the very centre – you head north along the shore into the town of Krumpendorf before coming back, passing transition/race village and heading east into Klagenfurt city centre. 

Race village.

You then head back to transition/race village and that’s the first lap completed – you just have to do it all one more time. Again, I like the sound of this course – it has the interest level of a two-looper but the motivation factor of a four-looper – i.e. you only have to see each section of the course twice, other than the transition/race village area which is where most spectators can be found, which you pass through every half loop.

Crowds gathering at the finish line.

It’s pretty much entirely flat on lakeside paths and main roads which, after the non-stop climbs and descents of IM Wales, I’m almost looking forward to!

Can't wait to get to this point!

Almost as much as that big stein of local beer at the end of the race!

A baker’s dozen – 13 weeks till Ironman Austria

This Sunday just gone marked three full months – 13 whole weeks – until I tackle my second Ironman, in Klagenfurt, Austria, on 1 July. This – to borrow the theme of 75% of all Cosmo and Marie Claire articles ever written – is how you know when things are getting serious.

Until now, training has just been training – not exactly aimless, but less targeted. For the next three months, however, I’ll be more targeted than a high school cheerleader in a slasher horror movie. I’ve had my structure through from coach and let’s just say I’ll be making sure I have plenty of chamois cream in the kit bag, Gatorade in the fridge and ice in the bath...

So, first things first, Ironman Austria. Why? The answer to this is several-fold.

Firstly, while I was proud of myself for having finished Ironman Wales last year (which was, after all, my only real goal), I also felt like I didn’t do myself justice. I was immediately ready for another Ironman and, when deciding which race to do, I knew that I wanted something with the amazing atmosphere and feel of Wales, but without the uncertain weather.

IM Wales’ September date meant training right through the Dubai summer which, in retrospect, meant I couldn't do the training mileage required on the bike or run, so I wanted something that’d give me time to rest then pick up the training again (i.e. summer) but a few months earlier meaning that I’d enjoy the truly hellish training months of July and August when temperatures hover around the mid-40s all day and night.

Most importantly, I needed something altogether flatter on the bike and run.

Austria seemed to fit the bill. The organisation and support are legendary. The weather is almost always perfect (he says, touching more wood than a gay pornstar) and the course, surprisingly perhaps, is much more suited to my strengths (that should perhaps be “strengths”).

One more reason: the venue is stunning!

Just one problem – it’s such a popular race, it’d sold out within hours of opening for entries on the day after the previous event.

Mostly, being a journalist means no money, long hours and continuous deadline stress but there are certain times I’m very happy with my chosen career; such as those times that I read emails and Facebook posts from people who earn way more money than me but get to feel smug about their shocking grasp of grammar and toddler-like spelling ability... this was one of those times!

A quick email to the awesome Klaus who represents Tourism Austria here in the Middle East; he forwarded me to the wonderful Nicole and Gernot at Worthersee Tourism (Worthersee is the stunning lake that is central to the event) and, before I could say “Der hund ist auf dem auto” (“the dog is on the car” is the only phrase I remember from school German other than “Ich bin im bett mit seiner freundin” which means “I’m in bed with your girlfriend”... every time I’m in Germany or Austria, I’m dying to see a dog sat on a car, just so I can impress all the locals with my language skills and powers of observation!) I was signed up to Ironman Austria! Result.

So, there’s part one of my little tale. Tomorrow – what can I expect from the race itself?

Brokebike Mountain

For someone with an acute fear of heights and skull-crushing vertigo so bad that looking up at a tall building can make them topple over, there are very few things scarier than being on a road 1300m up that has a 1k sheer fall on both sides. Except maybe being on that road on a bike. In a hurricane. For that reason, getting through my inaugural Jebel Hafeet training camp (an annual event for my tri team) was as much a question of bravery as it was physical effort.

So, what does a weekend mountain top training camp look like? Thursday evening, I checked into the hotel and took my bags to the room, where I proceeded to empty the cans of Sprite and Heineken from the mini bar and replace them with Gatorade, protein shakes and Red Bull. Energy requirements are always a priority!

Some of the guys who’d arrived earlier headed out for a small jog; with the stress of the laughably inefficient check-in process fresh in my mind, I decided to miss the run, get my stuff sorted and meet the rest of the team at the pool. This camp has a reputation for being brutal and I was fairly sure I wouldn’t get to the end of it thinking “If only I’d had the time to get an extra light jog in...”.

So, Thursday PM: easy warm up and smooth, light chain gang swim (2 lengths, last one in first one out) of around 1,000m.

It takes a real man to wear pink goggles! (thanks to Alex Jacobs for the pics)

Shortly, it was time for dinner and we learnt the drill for the following day before heading back to our rooms to prep our gear and try to get an early night. My roomie for the camp was Illinois Pete, who proved to be great company for the beasting ahead. We had a chat and a laugh, spoke about our fears for the next morning (neither of us had done the camp before) then both tried to sleep. Pretty unsuccessfully. Whether it was nerves, the prospect of a 4am get-up, the unfamiliar surroundings or a bit of everything, I think I managed an hour all night. Talking to everyone the next morning, it seemed like most the others were in the same sleepy boat.

Friday AM: the hellish duathlon – ascend Jebel Hafeet to the hotel (10km, almost 1,000m altitude) straight into a 5km run from the hotel to the summit (300m of climbing in that too)...then do it all over again (with the top guys ascending Hafeet for a third time!!!).

One section of the climb up Hafeet

This was an extremely tough morning and I could almost immediately feel my lack of any consistent training on the bike for the past two months. I also discovered (well, already knew) that I’m a woefully bad climber (both bike and run) and that the heat does me few favours! That said, I found my pace (‘very very slow’ – one notch above stop moving and fall over) and plugged away and I could definitely feel the benefit. It was a little frustrating at times – I was very conscious of just how much weaker I was than I had been back in January, but hanging tough and pushing myself while remaining sensible was the name of the game.

Getting up out of the saddle to climb Hafeet

Friday AM part 2: straight to the pool for an easy 700m or so.

Finally, it was time for breakfast. I spent a few hours at breakfast, eating, drinking coffee and chatting to team mates, including the awesome Captain Carl who, at 59, had just posted an awesome 10:40 at Ironman Melbourne. He was just there to chat and soak up the atmosphere (taking a few weeks off training after his IM) which tells you a lot about what a team brings. It’s like a family. It’s also great to hear the experiences of everyone else – without sounding too hippyish about the whole thing, it’s like we all learn from each other’s mistakes and benefit from each other’s successes. Everyone is always keen to pass on a wise word or tactic.

Some slept that afternoon – I lay in bed and had a nap while listening to a bit of the Guardian football podcast but couldn’t really sleep. I headed down to the lobby to enjoy another coffee and a bit more chat with team mates then, at 4pm, we headed down to the bottom of the mountain to a long, flat dirt track.

Friday PM: 100 minutes of dirt track run repeats.

The whole team ran 4 minute repeats; the idea being that we ran the first one at around 80%maxHR, made a note of where we reached, and tried to hit that point every time (in one direction and, of course, back to the start in the other direction). There was a minute’s rest after each repeat. Based on my heart rate etc, it seemed like 4:50 pace would be reasonable for me – extremely tough, especially as we did more and more – but not unrealistically so.

On the dirt run

There was a great support team of parents, spouses and injury hit athletes at the start line who were ready with water, ice and Coke after every other repeat and they were godsends – it was very hot, dry and dusty out there. I found the going tough but managed through to 12. By then, there were people dropping after each rep, or having to take a couple of reps’ rest, but I was determined to keep going and was chuffed to make it the full 20 reps with just a handful of others.

Friday PM part 2: After being returned to the hotel by one of the hotel’s drivers (the uphill Schumacher), it was back into the pool for around 1,000m as a chain gang, with the pace getting a little faster. As I’m sure you can imagine, this swim was cramp-tastic with almost everyone letting out at least one little yell of pain as their calf spasmed after pushing off the wall too hard!

Dinner that night was accompanied by three pints, which did the desired job and left me plenty tired enough to sleep.

Saturday AM: “the world’s toughest triathlon”

The idea was that group 1 (elites) would do: 2,000m swim, 12 x laps (ascents and descents between the hotel and the summit i.e. 60km with around 3,500m of climbing total) and finally run 2 x laps (10k with 600m climbing). Group 2 would do a 1,500m swim with 8 x bike laps and 2 x run laps.

In the morning, however, it was blowing a gale outside and coach made the decision to cut down the race. That meant 10 x bike laps for group 1 and 6 x laps for group 2.

 I decided to go out with group 1 (for the long swim) but aim for 8 laps instead of 10 and, in the end, I think that was the right decision, although I don’t think I was happy at any point during the bike or run. Frankly, the wind made it utterly terrifying.

Holding on for dear life!!!

If anyone ever needed proof of the benefit of being part of a team then it came for me at the end of this session. Group 3 had done an aquathlon rather than a tri, due to the conditions, while plenty of other racers had also finished or been told to stop. There were about 6 of us left out on course and, with a kilometre or so to go and Suzy Q running on my shoulder, coach drove up beside us shouting “gloves off guys – 1k to go and you’re racing it home”. My legs were in bits after the weekend but I managed to wind up the pace once, then again and, as we hit a nice long descent, I picked it up again. I could see everyone who’d finished waiting by the hotel drive, cheering us all on and, although I was confident that Suz hadn’t been able to keep up, I dared not look back until I reached the hollering crowd to be welcomed home with high fives and Coke... simply awesome!

Last night, back in Dubai, a group of us celebrated a good training camp with dinner and beers down at Barasti and that was also great – don’t think I’ve laughed so much in ages.

I feel I gave all I had to give this weekend, although I don’t think that I showed what I can do more generally – it’d have been great if this camp had come a couple of months earlier when I feel I was in better shape. However, I learned a lot and know what I need to work on. My team mates are inspirational and, although I may never be a mountain goat like the awesome Suisse Marc, I know that learning to suffer in the mountains and over hills will make me a far better athlete overall.