Bye, bye, I’ll Miss Emirati Tri

(see what I did with that title, eh?)

OK, OK, OK… so it’s been a while. And for that I offer up my deepest, sincerest condolences, yadda yadda yadda… Actually, what do you want from me? I’ve been damn busy. ‘How busy?’ you may ask. Lots of work on? Too much training? Few personal commitments?

Actually, I’ve been rounding up my life in the UAE (easier said than done), saying my goodbyes and have been a tad preoccupied with moving to the Netherlands, I’ll have you know. But now I’m there, and have been living in Amsterdam for one week exactly, I’m writing the blog I should have written a couple of weeks ago.

First up, let me say that the time was right and, even before I got here, I’ve been super-psyched about my move. Now I’m here, despite having to increase the overall size of my wardrobe by several thousand percent (coats, scarves and gloves are essentials for life in this here Netherlands, people!), I’m even more excited. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not some sadness attached to leaving Dubai.

There’s sadness attached to the place – I was lucky enough to leave while I still feel a lot of fondness towards Dubai and the UAE, rather than so many who are ‘just reeeeally over the whole thing, you know, man?’  when they make the move away. There’s sadness attached to the job – I think I had one of the best jobs in the world at Explorer – and the people. But what I’m going to miss, more than anything else, can be summed up in one word: triathlon.

Let’s take a pictorial journey through my time in Dubai…

2008: 93kgs and already many, many kilos lighter than at the same point the year before, I tackle my first triathlon in gym clothes, wearing a borrowed kids’ helmet and riding a borrowed bike. Sprint triathlon time: 1hr46.

2010: 85kgs and with a marathon and several triathlons under my belt, with a proper bike helmet and on my very own tri bike, I register a time of 1.17 for a sprint tri.

2012: 79kgs (going into the race…70kgs finishing it!) I complete my second Ironman. I now have many, many swim, bike, run and tri races under my belt and can cover the sprint distance in around 1.03.

What many will see there is either a dude who got himself into some sort of decent shape or a blogger who’s feeling a mite proud of himself. I’d disagree. When I look at those photos now I think of experiences (climbing Kilimanjaro, racing Ironmans, cycling tours across Thailand and Laos or Europe), I think of achievements, I think of a guy who’s happier in life and better at his job, and  I think of someone who wouldn’t have had the balls or ability to make the move I’ve just made before my tri adventure began. But, most of all, I think of all the friends I’ve made along the way.

The Middle East and endurance sport may not seem to be a match made in heaven but for me it most definitely was. So, when I look back on my time in Dubai, what I’ll always remember and be grateful for is that it gave me one of the things I love most and makes me happiest in the world.

And it taught me one thing. Wherever you are in the world, never let location be your limiter or your barrier. Get out there and make it count! While everyone else in Amsterdam is bemoaning the cold snap and the rain, I’m wrapped up and ready for action – after jogging around and around and around at Safa or Dubai Marina in 45 degree C, hitting the canal-side trails, parks and woods of Holland in the cold is a breeze.

As rubbish and silly a dedication as it may be, this blog serves as a huge thanks to everyone at Tri2Aspire, Dubai Masters, Cycle Safe, Tri Dubai, ABRaS etc etc… thanks for pushing me harder, faster and further, and for teaching me that pushing harder, faster and further is the greatest feeling in the whole, wide, lovely, great world.

 

Ironman Austria - Race report: Part 4 - thanks

Read Part 1 - premable

Read Part 2 - the race

Read Part 3 - post-race thoughts

Ironman may be an individual sport, but it is always a team effort – the day itself is just one of hundreds that get you to that finish line. Which means there are a lot of people to thank.

First and foremost, I have the most supportive family (especially my folks) in the world who are always my biggest fans – for that, and many, many other things, I love them all dearly. 

My friends – both the ones who have to listen to me make weekly excuses as to why I can't come out for drinks again and yet keep inviting me anyway (please do keep inviting!), and the ones who offer tonnes of encouragement and praise by phone, email, Facebook etc – aren't far behind my family in general awesomeness levels.

My finishing time in Austria would have been unimaginable eight months ago, before joining Tri2Aspire and our coach, Jason, deserves a healthy dose of praise and thanks for that. I set him a tough couple of goals - to improve me at both sprint distance and Ironman distance simultaneously - and we achieved both and then some.

Perhaps the biggest portion should be distributed evenly among all my fellow Tri2Aspire team mates – at some point, I'm certain I've swum, ridden or run with everyone in T2A, or chatted to them about triathlon, strategies and Ironman. It seems cruel to pick out anyone in particular, but I feel I have to: Both coach and Ed have accompanied me for countless metres in the pool (and a word here for Seth and Dubai Masters – we're really lucky to have such a good and committed masters swim program in Dubai, such things are rare). 

There were a couple of killer long rides that Messrs Attenhofer, Hawkins and Marshall carried my slow-ass through. Those shadowy short-course characters known only as Flanners and The Silver Fox played just as much of a role in keeping me honest over the quick stuff too, and for that I owe a debt of gratitude that I hope to repay in the next couple of months. A doff of the cap to all you gents. 

King of the Mountains I may not be, but any improvement I've made in the hills over the past few months are due mainly to the organisational skills of Senor National and the total selflessness of support drivers par excellence Sarah and Claire. Chapeau, mes amis, chapeau.

I tend to do much of my running solo but there are times I venture out with company. It feels like Miss Q and I have put the world to rights on far too many sweat-laden long runs and occasional Safa Park beastings over the past few months since I joined the team – appreciate the company and the shared pain. Also, amongst all the horror that is the Coach Dirt runs, one in particular sticks in mind, when Piers was kind enough to pace me to a new 5k PB. That felt like a real turning point for me in considering myself to at least be 'someone who runs' even if I'm still some way short of being 'a runner'. Thanks mate. Hope to keep pushing all of you guys in the way that you've all pushed me.

Finally, the guys at Sport In Life in Dubai, provided me with the Gus, the Roctane drink and the electrolyte powder that got me through a hot and tough race - if you can stomach it, I highly recommend Gu's Roctane drink as it was a pretty easy way of getting 2-300 calories into the body fast on a day when calories were hard to keep down due to the heat. They also let me test run the brand new Polar RCX5 which I'll provide a more complete review of soon, but let's just say for now that it performed splendidly on a difficult day.

Then there are the guys at Aerofit who gave someone who had no previous knowledge or understanding of training zones or fat/carb metabolism some valuable information and tools that were employed in both training and racing.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Today was a semi-rest day before the weekend's higher volume sessions. That meant no early bird session this morning so my usual 5am wake-up became 7.30am and all I did before heading off to work was a few stretches and chiropractor exercises and downed a lovely cuppa tea.


Semi-rest days, like rest days, guarantee a handful of weird side effects:
a) I feel knackered and sleepy all morning (how does that happen after the longest sleep of the week?)
b) My hunger levels go absolutely freakin bananas - I guess it's tough to get enough calories in on the hard workout days, so the days when you take your foot off the gas a little, the body tries to catch up
c) Any training I do feels rubbish


Tonight was a one hour steady swim at Dubai Masters and when I dived in to warm up, true to form, I felt like my arms were made of concrete. As I swam more, I felt slightly better.


Fortunately, it was a very steady session and none of the other quick guys were in tonight, so I didn't get carried away racing. Our usual sessions are very freestyle heavy but tonight we did a lot of IM (i.e. rotating strokes to do equal amounts of fly, back, breast and crawl). Not really all that useful in the long run for triathlon, but a good break - plus, just one month out from Ironman, I'm not really going to improve my swim anymore so it's all about maintaining levels and keeping the 'feel' for the water.


I've spoken in the past about how much I've changed as an athlete, but especially as a swimmer, compared to when I competed as a wee whippersnapper. I was a sprint fly or back swimmer. A poor trainer with too relaxed (cough, lazy!) an attitude and little stomach for the fight. Now, triathlon demands a long distance freestyle swimmer, every session is a race and my favourite sets are the long but quick, attritious sets with little rest, where weaker swimmers are left behind and drop off the pace one by one...but for everything that changes, something else stays the same.


One thing that's stood still - almost literally - is my breaststroke! Being a good fly and back swimmer and decent enough freestyle swimmer as a teenager, I should've been a great IM swimmer. But there was my breaststroke. 


In a race, I'd dive in and go hard on the fly, touching the wall a yard ahead of the rest of the swimmers..."wow," people would think, "he's taken this out way too fast." But I'd then spin, ballerina-like, around and push off on to the backstroke leg, reaching and kicking...the yard becomes two or three yards by the time I get to the other end. "This is amazing," the crowds would shout. "This boy is special." And then I'd turn and start the breaststroke leg..."is he OK..?"..."I think he's drowning!"..."Er, excuse me, should someone rescue the boy in lane 6 who's having a seizure?" "It's OK," my parents would reassure them, "that's just his breaststroke." 


I look at people who can do breaststroke and they appear to be the same species as me. I think I have all the same body parts as them, and yet no matter what I do, I can't make myself move convincingly forwards using that stroke. They glide and surge..I bring my legs up and go two yards backwards, then glide two and a bit yards forward...it's tiring. I seriously think that, were I tasked with it, I could learn to fly quicker than I could learn to do a decent time for 50m breaststroke.


But I'm determined to put this to good use. Triathletes tend to be swim-bikers or bike-runners and I'm definitely the former. For the average Joe on the street, I'm not a bad runner, but my running is definitely a couple of notches below my swimming and cycling, which I find truly frustrating. But after Ironman, when I'm working on adding a bit of speed to the endurance I've built up in my running but starting to get worked up by the lack of results, I can look on the bright side....at least I'm not doing breaststroke!


One month to the day until Ironman Wales, people. Nervous, terrified, utterly psyched. But before that, this weekend marks my last truly big weekend of training here in the Middle East oven. Happy days!


31 days and counting...

39 days and counting

So, we're just under 40 days from Ironman now and I've decided to change up the way I do these blogs. Instead of the random musings which have been common until now, I'll attempt to blog on a daily basis from now on in and tell you exactly what I've done in terms of training (and general preparation) that day and why...and mix that in with a healthy dollop of random musings! The hope is that, if you're about to bite the bullet and take on your first Ironman, or any triathlon, then this may help, and for those of you (the majority) who'll never tackle anything like this, then you'll get a privileged and detailed portrait of how you prepare for something like this.

I'm currently on a rest/recovery week; as I've said before, it's essential that athletes have an easier week once a month as it helps to avoid injury/illness/blowout, while giving the body a chance to recover and catch up with those fitness gains and, just as importantly, keeping you eager to train. I'm at that point now...can't wait to get back to the hard stuff! The weekend promises to be a tough one, which is fine by me.

Today was just a swim day (normally I do two sessions a day but during an easy week that's down to one a day most days). My programme required 75 minutes of swimming; as the masters sessions I attend are an hour long, I got there early and did a few hundred metres on my own. It was a quiet session and far shorter than usual, concentrating more on technique. Tho we did a main set of 6 x 200m (that's 6 x 8 lengths in your local pool), getting less rest and faster with each one.

It's funny how we change. As a kid, I was a very good swimmer but, I'll now confess, a dreadful trainer. I hated training, tended to just go through the motions, avoided sessions where possible and was lucky enough to pull off decent race times in spite of that. I specialised in shorter sprints, mainly butterfly and backstroke.

Now, I'm a triathlete, so it's all about long distance freestyle...like a 100m runner becoming a marathoner, the theory is similar but they're almost different sports. I also love training hard now. Train hard fight easy, as the army like to say. For that reason, I love long swim sets that get progressively tougher – making those who want to keep up with you hurt from the beginning and then turning the screw to get tougher and tougher. Worlds away from how I used to be!

So, 39 days and counting...and, without wishing to tempt fate, I feel physically great (fingers crossed and touching wood). I've not really suffered from any of the most common injuries, aches and pains that most first-time Ironman racers get in training. This means I'm either killing it or am not doing enough and in for one hell of a shock... it's always tempting to think the former and pile mile on top of mile but I need to trust in the programme. That's my motto for recovery week, trust in the programme!

Hasta manana.