Introducing… the pain corner!

With the year now well underway I decided that, in spite of the fact that I’m currently almost solely focused on running and weight training, it was time to set the bike up ready for a few spins here and there. And, as the Amsterdam winter weather is not always a cyclist’s best friend, that meant getting the indoor trainer ready.

While I would have obviously loved a proper full-on pain cave in the style of Andy Potts or the Lovatos, unfortunately Amsterdam real estate rental prices (and the fact that the missus and I quite fancied an apartment that looked like a home rather than a bike shop) meant that such exercise awesomeness wasn’t possible.

However, I’m pretty pleased with my pain corner.

The home trainer is set up (this time with a proper home trainer wheel and tyre – I learned my lesson after destroying a normal tyre on the trainer in Dubai!). 

I have a nice (currently snow-filled) view which almost helps me to forget that I’m sweating away like an idiot in an upstairs bedroom, as well as space for the iPad, Kindle and MP3 player (attached to my super-cool, not-yet-released-officially Philips sports headphones) to help while away some of the longer, steadier rides. 

As the body temperature heats up, I can simply open the window or, if that’s not enough, there’s a good fan to help circulate that cold air.

The trainer is going to feature much more predominantly in my programme this year. This is really for two reasons: firstly, it is far less time-consuming than taking the bike out which, in turn, means that triathlon training can be fit more easily around other aspects of my life; secondly, as I’m concentrating on 70.3s and less, then many of my bike workouts will be a maximum hour in length, working on increasing speed and power, rather than the long endurance rides needed for Ironman.

Pro triathlete Andy Potts' pain cave!

While knocking out three hours or more on the home trainer sounds about as much fun as having my head kicked-in (longer rides will still be done on the roads), I really enjoy using the trainer for shorter sessions with different effort levels and incorporating plenty of short, sharp intervals to keep it painful but interesting.

This is the 'pain garage' of married pros Amanda and Michael Lovato.

I’m somewhat flying by the seat of my pants (love that expression!) this year, creating my own programme, schedule and periodising based on what has worked in the past and what I think will work for me. As with the rest, this short, hard turbo trainer focus may end up not working out and, next year, I’ll go back to a more traditional programme, but I really feel that you have to keep changing things up as a triathlete – for motivation and sanity’s sake, as much as for seeing improvements.

Of course, there are some who like to follow the same schedule year-in year-out because they know it works for them, but I tend to have a touch of ADHD about me in all that I do, so – like a swimming, biking, running Madonna but without the flappy skin on the elbows, or the conical boobs, or the embarrassing granny dancing – it’s all about reinvention, evolution and moving forward for me. It’ll work or it won’t, but I enjoy the experimenting.     

If you fancy building your own full-on pain cave (or you're just looking for a bit of inspiration for a little pain corner like mine), check out these videos:

Home is where the hills are

Last weekend, I escaped the steadily rising heat of Dubai and made for the UK for a 10 day holiday that, until now, has been really most pleasant indeed, old chap. The plan was to spend a few days at home in North Wales catching up with family before heading down to London for five days of eating, drinking, sightseeing and catching up with friends. Bookending the trip were my cousin's wedding and the UK sprint tri national championships.

I arrived in Blighty on Wednesday avo, dear boy, and on Thursday I headed out for a 14k run with a chum who is also a keen runner. The plan was to follow my scheduled run – a 75 minute effort with effort increasing by 5% of max heart rate every 15 minutes. What I discovered was amazing – at some point between leaving Dubai and heading out on this run, someone must have issued me with an extra lung. In Dubai, 70% max HR generally means around 6 min/km pace; in the UK, that pace required an effort closer to 60% max. Equally, at the top end, the final hard 15 minute interval (85% max HR) meant 4 min/km, rather than around 5 min/km the same effort produces in Dubai. I SAY!

On Friday, inspired by my T2A team mates who had produced a rather spiffing 220km ride back in Dubai that morning, I decided to follow (almost) suit. I chose a long, winding and hilly ride that would give me plenty of tests in terms of terrain and, thanks to the direction I chose, would mean a bit of a head wind all the way. As agreed with coach, this was about miles in the legs and getting used to the hills, but not going all-in, so steady with some decent rests was the name of the game. 

I was excited to head out but, at the end of the drive, quickly turned around to add an extra three layers of clothing, gloves and a woolly hat under my helmet. I was tempted to pour a piping hot cuppa tea into my drinks bottle but resisted. But it was grim out – drizzling and icy cold – May in the UK!

In spite of the weather, the ride was generally good. I headed out west along the North Wales coast, through Flint, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and as far as Corwen – flat and fairly fast, although into a wind rolling off the Irish Sea. 

Could be worse: could be swimming in it!

60Km in, I stopped for a coffee and sandwich then headed inland past Betws y Coed and through the foothills of the Snowdonia range before following the A5 through Conwy and Llangollen. 

Boredom had, perhaps, kicked in by the time I decided to start photographing my food!

There, I knew it was a hard slog home, with two big climbs (one of which was the dreaded Horseshoe Pass) between me and nice warm shower. The final climb up from Ruthin almost killed me, but I felt great to have done it and ended up with a ride that measured 185km in distance, with almost 2,000m of climbing – half of which came in the last 40kms. I took my time (6.5hrs total ride time; 7.15 total time) but it was quite the stiff test, old chap.

In the valleys, boyo.

During the ride though, I made some observations:

• Riding is way more fun when it's not done on a pancake flat loop after loop after loop after...
  
  

Coffee stop!

• Rides with coffee stops are awesome.
• I've done a bit of cycling in many countries around the world and would put the quality of the UK's roads marginally behind those of Laos but a tad better than Tanzania. They are, in short, a disgrace. Some sections were so bad that I could have done with a MTB.
• The UK's bugs have a fairly kamikaze attitude towards flying into cyclists' mouths and up their noses. You can actually see them coming but can't do anything to avoid them.
• During the day, on any main UK A road, 60% of traffic is articulated lorries and tractors.
• British drivers are not particularly tolerant of cyclists: around 2 in every 5 cars gives you a decently wide berth; around 1 in every 10 articulated lorries and tractors even notice you.
• You can chip a tooth on a Gerard's oatie cake unless you get it straight out the oven.

I managed another few hilly runs and trails runs (even got a swim session in) during the rest of the long weekend at home and on Monday headed out again on a long ride. This time, I decided, I'd substitute the big climbs for the sort of rolling terrain I expect to find at Ironman Austria and so headed through the Welsh towns of Conwy and Llangollen and out into Oswestry, Ellesmere, Whitchurch and Chester, before heading home. A 157km ride that took a dab over 5 hours of riding.

Meadows of Cheshire.

Were the roads of Shropshire and Cheshire any better than those of North Wales? Incredibly, if anything, they were worse. But the sun was shining and that changed everything. The terrain – hills, valleys, meadows, canals, lakes, railways... - was utterly breathtaking. The UK, at its best, I was reminded, is as beautiful as anywhere else I've ever been. But with shit roads.

Gorgeous lake in Ellesmere.

My final ride of the week was just a cheeky little two hour outing through country lanes and popping over a local set of foothills a few times for a 50km ride with around 1,200m of elevation. As I reached the peak of one mini summit, just about Hollywell, the view across the Dee Estuary to The Wirral pretty much took my breath away. If only the sun always shone in these parts! 

Climbing is something I really struggle with but these three rides have made me feel much stronger and demonstrated to me that, while I'm a long way short of where I need to be, there is hope... I just need to keep putting the hard work in.

So, for now, the riding is over as I'm heading down to London for a few days where, as well as the rest of the shenanigans mentioned above, I'm looking forward to taking advantage of this weather to get in a couple of long runs through the big parks and along the Thames, before taking my foot off the gas a little on Friday and Saturday before the race on Sunday.

I've no idea how I'll do in that race – the competition looks stiff and I'm not in 'sprint' shape really, being just 5 or 6 weeks short of Ironman Austria, but I'm looking forward to getting out there, giving it some and seeing where that puts me. It'll be nice to see how I compare to other athletes outside my normal Dubai circle.

One for the newbies...

The magical stat wizard who lives inside my computer (who some folk in the know refer to as Google Analytics) tells me that a surprising number of you – another demonstration, if any were needed, that people would rather look at anything online than do their actual jobs – read this blog. Mr Analytics can also tell me where you are when you read this blog (seriously, 17 of you in Chile!). What Goog-me-old-mucker doesn’t tell me, however, is why.

For a lot of you, the reasons are obvious:

• You’re related to me
• You went to school/uni with me and like to read this blog to remind yourself how much better your life has turned out than mine
• You did a search for ‘shaved legs, lycra, rubber and helmet’ and are now very, very disappointed

But a decent proportion of you, it would seem, are either athletes or triathletes, with a fair whack based here in ye olde Middle East too! But where do you lie on the TRiOMETRE? Are you seasoned pros laughing at my pansy-ass hill climbing skills or are you tri virgins (uh oh, going to disappoint a few more searchers with that one!) looking for tips and advice you can use to nail your own first race?

Given that, during my first sprint tri in the UK, my stem came lose leading to my base bar slipping all over the shop and rendering my bike almost unrideable and resulting in me doing the second lap of the bike course simultaneously pedalling, holding an Allen key tight to keep the bars upright, and steering with the stem itself...you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m hardly a font of all triathlon knowledge.

But, you’d be wrong. Coz I’m a triathlete. So I think I know it all! Easy week you say, coach? Yeah sure! In risk of an overuse injury am I doctor? Increase the mileage! Not in Ironman shape? Pah, sub 10!

Bizarrely though, I know some folk who actually think they know better than me:

This here hirsute young chap is Faris Al-Sultan. He’s the current European Ironman Champ and won the World Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii, in 2005. Yeah, he’s pretty good. He’s also the captain of Team Abu Dhabi so I caught up with him to have a chat about the upcoming Abu Dhabi International Triathlon which will take place on 3 March. What should newbies or those erring on the inexperienced side do to prepare, I asked Faris?

“Practise a variety of swim drills regularly to highlight weaknesses and have a swim stroke technician analyse your technique. Also it’s important to train in choppy seas to practise drafting behind a partner– all the while getting used to wearing the wetsuit and race goggles needed for the race.”

Got it? Good. I’ve actually ridden in a large group ride with Faris before and in the final sprint, I put my head down, shrunk into a tight wind-defying aero tuck and started powering out the sort of wattage usually only seen from steam locomotives. Faris passed me, sat bolt upright, juggling and whistling the German national anthem. To be fair, he later admitted he was in the top gear of his unicycle. So, he’s not bad on a bike.

“When it comes to cycling, train in groups to work on race techniques such as going round a corner fast and climbing inclines efficiently. Make sure you practise these both seated and out of the saddle.”

Some people, I point out, don’t have the hours and hours that pros have to dedicate to endless biking sessions. This is my best shot at a ‘get a real job, punk!’ type slur, but Faris takes in on his bearded chin and carries on...

“If you only have a short period of time, attempt very hard and fast intervals on a home trainer which is a great way to build power. Remember to have your bike setup analysed to make sure you are maximising comfort and aerodynamics.”

Damn it, he’s good!

So, I move on to the UAE-based adventurer Adrian Hayes, who’ll also be taking part in Abu Dhabi International Triathlon. Adrian is a world record-breaking polar explorer who has summited Mount Everest, walked all the way to both Poles and recently followed in the footsteps of Wilfred Thesiger by crossing the Empty Quarter desert. Yeah well, wotevs, I climbed Kilimanjaro for Gulf4Good, I point out. I know, I was with you, counters Adrian. I’ve done an Ironman, I fight back. I’ve done one faster, he retorts.   

Alright champ, tell the newbies what they want to know:

“Climbing hills is a good speed, strength and technique workout. Even if you are training for long distance, leg speed is very important and will help you run much more efficiently. Also do faster interval workouts in your race day shoes to promote good technique and to ensure you’re comfortable in them.”

It’s last chance saloon for my tri ego. Next up, certified physiotherapist Katherina Ringer, a key adviser for Abu Dhabi International Triathlon. See... physiotherapist...not even a triathlete! I am going to put her in her place, I am going to astound her with my triathlon knowledge, shock and awe, I think, shock and awe...

Me: Hi pretty lady.

KR: Er, hi. I’m the Abu Dhabi Tri Team physiotherapist.

Me: He he he, you’ve got lovely skin.

KR: Right, so, training and body conditioning should be personalised to the athlete’s fitness and experience levels.

Me: Mmmmm.

KR: Consistency over several months is much more important than doing a lot in one week.

Me: (uhoh, she knows what she’s talking about!)

KR: So, make sure you combine three training intensities – long easy workouts, tempo race pace sessions, and high intensity speed technique workouts.

Joking aside, this is all top advice from people who actually know what they’re talking about. Take it on board, apply it in training, and you’ll fly through your first races feeling great and finishing strong. Then, before you know it, you’ll no longer be a newbie, and you’ll get to think you know better than everyone else too!

There's still time to enter ADIT and see how you get on against Faris, Adrian or, well, me: http://www.abudhabitriathlon.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/AbuDhabiTri  

                       

Why triathletes are better than cyclists – part II

An awful lot of cyclists are jealous of triathletes. We established this tenet a couple of months ago, right? My experiences since have given me no cause to review my assertions. In fact, I recently came across a cycle club that won’t even let a triathlete get near. “But I’ll do the whole ride on my base bars...” SHHH! “But, I’m an experienced group rider who often” ZZZZZZPPP! “But my tri bike is the only bike I ha...” GETOUTTTTTT!

At this point, I must emphasise that this isn’t the case here in Dubai. Both Dubai Roadsters and Cycle Safe are extremely welcome to all kinds of cyclists – turn up on a Penny-farthing as long as you can keep up.

Long solo rides (something I’m trying to add a bit more of for future Ironman glory!) give you a lot of thinking time and while doing a couple of laps around the Arabian Ranches development last weekend in order to watch my Garmin tick over the 100k mark for the day, I realised something else....sure, triathletes are nicer than cyclists, but we’re also way more intelligent.

Why? What could possibly have led me to such a sweeping generalisation? Well, I have never, ever, not once, not a single time, seen a triathlete riding along in an aero tuck and not wearing a helmet. And yet I lose count of the number of times I see cyclists taking to the roads with their bonces unadorned. I guess they’re relying on the old ‘no sense where there’s no feeling’ adage to protect them. Probably some truth to it - there's definitely no sense in those noggins!

Back in the UK, I saw them hurtling down mountain passes without a lid on. In the UAE, they jet around busy developments helmet free. Spend tens of thousands of dirhams on state-of-the-art, carbon fibre Pinarellos and BMCs..? No problem! Wear a relatively cheap, nicely-vented, weighs-almost-nothing helmet that can save your life..? Are you a moron – it’ll mess up my expensive haircut!

The argument you always hear is that, in the unfortunate event of an accident, a helmet ‘won’t do much good’ anyway. Hmmm, James Cracknell would disagree:

Still not convinced that a helmet can protect you from even the most unexpected of accidents..? Ask this guy:

A final note: not only are Dubai Roadsters and Cycle SafeDubai welcoming to triathletes and populated by the kinds of riders that wave to other riders when out on the road no matter what type of handlebars they have, they also both operate a strict ‘no helmet no ride’ policy. Top stuff. 

Dubai Discovers Endurance Sports

In some ways, I guess it’s a victim of its own success, but it seems that Dubai appears in the media so often that it’s easy to forget that it’s just not that big. The entire emirate of Dubai has a population of about two million (75% of which lives in the city of Dubai). So, that makes it about 20% of the size of London, less than half the size of Madrid, smaller than Hamburg, Budapest or Warsaw...in fact, about the same size as Milan, the West Midlands, or Greater Liverpool areas.

It’s pretty new too, as far as cities go. Things that are older than Dubai (and by this I mean Dubai the city, not Dubai the fishing settlement): the internet, the song Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, the band Blur, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe...

So, since the early 90s, the city has expanded and expanded, swept along on a tide of oil and real estate money; until, suddenly, it stopped in October 2008. Now, when I speak to folks back in the UK, they’re almost surprised I’m still here – I think the image portrayed by the European media is of a giant futuristic landscape slowly crumbling back into the Arabian Gulf, crippled by poverty.

But that’s not it. What’s actually happening is what I like to call a spot of colouring in. During those boom years, all those huge developments and housing estates and economic cities and holiday resorts were thrown up...and they give the city an outline, a template, but not a soul. A soul takes time, but so strong is the human spirit and its love for art, culture, music, sport, society, fun and learning that it seeps into every little space it finds, if you give it time. And the time seems right in Dubai.

Multisports, triathlon in particular, and endurance racing on the whole have boomed in recent years and it seems like that boom has finally boomed its boom here in the booming (but not in the way in once boomed) UAE. Like I said, it’s finding its soul and its identity which, in a city, reflects the souls and identities of its inhabitant.

In spite of having grown up in the outdoor activity hotspot of North Wales and having lived in cycling mad Spain for almost 10 years, I actually didn’t take up triathlon – or endurance racing – until I got to Dubai. I’m not used to countries where, each weekend, there are ten local groups heading out on rides, 15 different triathlons across all different distances and, for good measure, a new sportive of half marathon is announced every week. Like I said, Dubai is actually quite a small city, and there have only been relatively few events until recently.

Then, suddenly, BOOM! Where once there was just the Golden Tulip sprint triathlons with the occasional one-off other race, now we have three or four small series of races, with a couple of big international ones thrown in for good measure. Between now and the end of the year, for example, I’ll be racing two sprint series (GT and Wadi Adventure) an Olympic distance tri, an Olympic distance aquathlon, a time trial, a half marathon and a 92km road cycling race. In the New Year, add the Yas tris to that mix, the Dubai Marathon, RAK Half, Wadi Bih adventure tri... and that’s not to mention the events I can’t do because they’re on the same days as the others!

And that, I guess, is one of the downsides; with much more variety comes choice. In the past couple of years, I entered everything going because there weren’t so many races anyway; and you’d see the same faces, which led to a nice sense of community. I guess as even more races are added, that’ll be diluted. But that’s still a good thing. Different races, different course, different faces, different place to come fourth...boom boom!  

Are cyclists wannabe triathletes or just rude?

Been a good couple of days of training – managed to get up early and swim each morning (3000m yesterday morning and 2500m this morning) although I am starting to find the solo swims a little tedious. Just shows the benefits that training with a squad brings and, with that in mind, I'm definitely going to join up with a running club when I get back to Dubai.

Other than swimming, I hit the trails and road for a 9k run yesterday and went fairly hard, averaging around 5min/km, which isn't bad at all given that the run included steps, gates and very rocky ground that had to be taken slowly. This morning it was a 60k ride, again concentrating on some big long climbs.

I'm fairly happy with my hill work; tomorrow morning, I'll do another hilly ride of 100k or so. I realise that almost all the hard work is now done and that I'm not going to become King of the Mountains overnight, but I've ridden and run climbs that are reflective of, or greater than, those I'll see in Ironman so that I'm prepared mentally – no matter how daunting a climb seems, I can fall back on the knowledge that I've already done bigger. That really is a big crutch.

The drawback is speed – I'd hoped to average around 30kph for Ironman and I now need to accept that this simply may not be possible. Even with the big long descents, the long climbs simply slow the average speed too much.

Anyway, all this riding around the hills of North Wales has opened my eyes to a phenomenon I'd heard much about but not really witnessed before. In Dubai, perhaps because it's quite a small brotherhood of bike riders or because we can only really ride safely in groups, I've always found fellow cyclists to be a pleasant and sociable lot. Here in the UK, however, if you're riding a triathlon bike, they look at you like something that just fell out of their enemy's arse.

Waving at a fellow cyclist as you pass is the done thing, polite and conspiratorial at once; the old boys here don't hesitate to give me a salute or a nod but the younger 'serious' cyclists return my cheery wave with...well...nothing. A blank stare. Actually, that's unfair; some do growl.

If I were on a road bike, we'd be buddies. They'd wave back and wish me a good ride. But I'm not, I'm on a tri bike. A tri bike is a fine looking piece of equipment, much like a good road bike, so it can't be that I offend their delicate sense of aesthetics. So what is the reason for the frosty reception?

I can only assume it's jealousy. When I see them ride past on their lovely road bikes I think 'blimey, that's a fine looking bicycle!' When they see me ride past on my tri bike, they don't see a bike at all. They see a big fat exclamation that says: 'yes, I'm tackling the same roads, the same climbs and same distance as you...and this is just one of three sports I'm equally adept at and dedicated to.'

Is this the case roadies? Is our bike, with its sleek tri bars, a reminder of what you can't do? Were you the hardcore elite until us triathletes came along? Did you enjoy getting into work and telling your colleagues about the century ride you did over the weekend and seeing their amazed faces and the hero worship in their eyes? Now they just say 'that's nothing – Matt did a century ride and then ran a half marathon.'

I've decided that there's only one course of action open to me; I'm going to give a bigger wave in future.

17 days and counting!!!

Easy like Sunday morning

It's all been pretty whistlestop since I got back to Blighty. Between my overnight flight, heading down to Cornwall at 4am and a morning swim session, I've still not had a chance to have the lie-in I'd been so looking forward to. In fact, I've been just as busy as when I'm in work!

Although in Ironman 'you're really only racing yourself' etc etc, I see rest and recovery as one thing I should have over most of my fellow competitors. Sure, I've weddings and friends to see and some work to do from home, but compared to the majority of folk who'll likely have their 9 to 5 to maintain right up until a few days before, for a lot of my time I'm free to train, taper and chill out.

Yesterday evening, we headed to Liverpool to visit my grandfather, aunts and uncle and it was fairly late getting back. I was due an hour in the pool and an hour on the bike today but, as tomorrow is just a 50 minute steady run, I opted to postpone the early swim sesh in favour of not setting an alarm clock for the first time in ages.

It was lovely tho the extra hour or so in bed (I was still up by 8.30) just made me even more tired and I even feel a bit ill today – my glands have swollen for sure. This always seems to happen – perhaps you carry all those little ailments and fatigue in your body and, while you're going 100mph it doesn't have a chance to catch up, but when you do finally slow down...

Better it catches up now, is my theory. So, this evening I did an hour at a spinning class with my mum (although it's not a permanent substitute for cycling in any way, I like spinning to mix things up from time to time and add some higher intensity work than you do on the road) and now I'm planning a bit of a read and an early night.

Tomorrow, it's an early start for that swimming session I missed today and then a 50 minute steady run. Other than that, I think maybe a bath and a nap may be in order. And much the same for Thursday, if you please!

Taking it easy is something I normally find pretty hard work but, now I've started thinking of it as my secret weapon, it's something I'm much more willing to embrace.

Some testing resting

Last week, as I explained in a previous blog, was my ‘easy’ recovery week. It still involved around 10 hours of training (compared to around 20 during hard weeks), but the intensity and distances were all dialled down a little. I usually find easy weeks frustrating but I really enjoyed last week – I got stuff done, and was feeling really fit and strong.

I also focused on the stretches and exercises that Dr Charles the chiropractor gave me – my back pain has definitely lessened, my posture is much better and I feel much more ‘balanced’ if that makes sense. Both a cause and result of my back issues has been massively reduced strength in the glutes (the muscles in my butt!) and a couple of my exercises are aimed at the glutes in particular. As these muscles play a key role in both riding and running, it also makes sense that working on them will lead to improvements in those disciplines, as well as helping to sure up my back problems. Therefore, last week I added some extra glute exercises to my programme and was feeling good and strong come the end of the week.

Bearing in mind that I was feeling good, I was rested and that the weekend’s rides were a mere 105k and 60k (compared to back-to-back 150k, 90k, 60k the week before) I expected to find the weekend’s rides a breeze. How wrong could I be? On Friday’s long ride with Dubai Roadsters, I struggled from start to finish. With 20k to go, I got dropped from the group and had to struggle in solo – and the road back is a long, hot, unforgiving one to ride alone.

I think there are a few reasons why I found it so tough. Firstly, those damn glute exercises! I’ve never noticed the battering that the glutes take on a ride before – it’s usually my quads and hamstrings that are screaming by the end of a long ride – but having overdone some of the exercises, I was really conscious of every pedal stroke.

Secondly, it was very, very, very hot and extremely windy from the get-go, which was both energy-sapping and exhausting. I think, with it being a shorter ride than I’ve done as my ‘long ride’ in a while, I prepared less well in terms of nutrition and hydration, expecting it to be easy.

To add distance to a ride (and therefore get up to the distances required by my Ironman programme), I usually ride to the meet-up point and take that first part nice and easy as a warm-up – not doing that this time, it was 36kph from the off and that put me on the back foot straight away.  Finally, it seems to be par for the course to feel a bit sluggish during a recovery week – the body is recovering and building, and it takes a bit of kickstarting to get it back into endurance mode.

I didn’t particularly enjoy Friday’s ride at all, but, in spite of that, I was really happy with it. The main reason for that was one word: attitude. I refused to let it get me down and tried to draw positives from it. Yes, I overdid the glute exercises but they obviously work and hit the right muscles – I just need to build up more slowly and do them before a rest day or easier session. Yes, the conditions were utterly unpleasant (40+C and 80%+ humidity) but this surely means that riding in the UK will be far easier. When I got dropped by the group, I found my own pace, put my head down and carried on. One by one, I started picking off others who’d been dropped further up – several of those had to load their bikes and aching bodies into the support cars that came out with us but I gritted my teeth and carried on…I’m certain that mental strength will serve me well at times during the long Ironman day.

I know I ride better after a warm up which, in IM terms, tells me my race plan (as advised by top coaches) to go out and take the first hour of the bike at a pretty leisurely pace (‘just ride – don’t think about pace, speed or time’) is in all likelihood the right one for me. And, finally, you only feel sluggish during a recovery week if your body and fitness levels are making gains. I’m on the right track, I feel, and ready to ramp up the mileage again this week.

After Friday’s tough ride, Saturday’s coffee run was meant to be a breeze – especially as I went out with the slightly easier recovery group. But the easy spin didn’t materialise as it was straight into a fierce headwind for half the way out, and a side wind that threatened to swipe us all from our bikes for the second half. No worries, I thought, it’ll be in our favour on the way back. And it was.

For the bike section of IM especially, six hours at the mercy of the elements and the geography of the hilly course, being strong mentally will be just as important as being physically capable. Hopefully last weekend will stand me in good stead.

Epic failures

Well, another week is over and last week was, in mileage terms alone, my biggest ever, as I topped 300kms for the first time. The rundown was 6.5km swim (down a little on previous week as there’s no morning training for two weeks); 260km on the bike; 35.8km running. Of course, overall mileage is a bit misleading as the increase is due to me really stepping up the cycling.

In fact, it’s been an odd week – in some ways it’s been killer and, in others, I don’t feel like it’s been that heavy at all. However, there have been a couple of valuable experiences and lessons that helped to shape not only this week but all future IM training. Firstly, I read this blog by fantastic age group triathlete Sarah Lovelock – it’s a great preview of the IM Wales course and there’s one very clear message – it’s going to be hilly. That is backed up by the organisers in this interview:

Midweek, I popped into Dubai’s uber bike shop, Wolfi’s, to pick up a small component I needed. The guy who served me, Gustavo, is an amazing triathlete who has qualified for both Maui (World Xterra Champs) and Kona (IM World Champs) in the past. The key to performing well at an IM, he said, was the bike.

Bright and early Friday morning, riding to meet up with the Roadsters group, I met an Aussie called Scott on the road. He was also riding to meet up with the Roadsters and was also a keen triathlete, with a string of great IM finishes under his belt. The key to finishing in decent shape, he said, was the bike. Lance Armstrong’s autobiography is called It’s Not About The Bike. Clearly Lance doesn’t race Ironman (yet…there are lots of rumours!)

Armstrong: wrong!

The swim holds few worries for me – I know I can come out near the front of the field with a sub 1 hour swim, even taking it easier. All I have to do is keep training two or three times a week and, when back in the UK, get some practice swimming in my wetsuit (water is way too hot here). I ran just over 3:30 for the Dubai Marathon in January which is way faster than I’ll run the IM marathon in. So, I know that, as long as I get through my training and arrive at the start of the run in good shape, running a 4-5 hour marathon is well within my capability. Therefore, once again, it’s all about the bike. I need to get through the 180k bike course in decent time but with as much as possible left in my legs for the marathon. And it’s a hell of a hilly bike course.

My response has been to tweak my training programme. Where there was once room to spend a little extra time here and there on my swim and run, that’s now bike time. I’ve factored in a couple of interval sessions on the exercise bike at the gym (using high resistance to mimic hill climbs). And then, on Saturday, I did something a little stupid.

Straight ahead: Jebel Hafeet

A very early rise saw me cycle from Al Ain (an oasis city, the third biggest in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, located 90 mins inland from Dubai). I rode the 15kms out to Jebel Hafeet, the UAE’s second tallest mountain with a snaking, winding, steep road to the top that has been named ‘the world’s greatest driving road’ on several occasions. It’s where supercar brands come to test the handling of their latest vehicles and, importantly, the average incline for the 12k to the top is a bruising 8%.

Great for driving - horrible for cycling!

I started well, I felt strong, I was Armstrong, Contador, Indurain…at first I spun and then, as the climb continued up and up, I stood up out of my seat and mashed away, sweat pouring down me. I took a little rest and the carried on all the way, right the way, high up to…well, about the two-third point. 8k through the 12k to the top, my legs just stopped. I could have maybe pushed a little harder, but it may have done more damage than good and with a full week of training to follow, you have to know when to stop.

View from (near) the top

It was a failure but a useful one. Had I not done 140k on the bike the day earlier, it may have been different. If temperatures hadn’t been up in the mid 30s even at that time in the morning, I may have got further. But most of all I learnt that I needed to dedicate more time to hill training, and that my bike needed an extra large gear on the cassette to make sure I can spin through all those hills in Ironman Wales without destroying my legs for the run. The cassette is a cheap and easy change that'll make the world of difference, the hill climbing will be paid for in hours of sweat, tears and aching legs before Ironman Wales…but these are lessons I’m glad I’ve learned now rather than two weeks out!

And I’ll be back to tackle Jebel Hafeet before I leave for the UK and IM at the end of August!