To blog or not to blog…that is the question!

So…friends, family, colleagues, readers and random folk who’ve wrongly stumbled upon this page in search of information on Robert Downey Jnr, we have reached the end, I guess.

Iron Man, not Ironman...see?

I set up this blog to chart the run up to Ironman Wales and now that race has been and gone. I hope I’ve diverted, entertained, educated or amused to some degree; and I also really hope that I’ve given you some sort of insight into what it takes (physically, mentally, in terms of time, commitment and even material gear) to do an Ironman. I fear that my constant self-doubt, list-making, anger management issues (my Twitter followers are perhaps more exposed to them) and second-guessing teamed with bloody-mindedness, competitiveness and (let’s face it, triathletes) occasional disregard for my own well-being has probably also revealed quite a lot about the personality type it takes to get into triathlons and definitely Ironman.

By way of a nice summary, in the three month Ironman specific training block I did in preparation for Ironman Wales (not including the race itself):

• I swam/biked/ran 10% of the way around the world.
• I trained a total of 250 hours, or 83.3 hours per month, or 19 hours a week, or 2:40 per day.
• I produced enough watts to power one TV for just over four months.
• And I burnt the equivalent calorific value that you’ll find in 1,000 Krispy Kreme donuts (which, coincidentally, was my post-race snack!).

Keep em coming...

So, what’s next for me? Well, 10 days after Ironman I’m just about getting back into training. I’ve spun easy on the bike once and am heading back to the wonderful Dubai Masters Swimming Club tonight (if I could find a cycling and running club that got me to the same level as DMSC, I could turn pro!) for the first time.

A lot of people get a bit of Ironman Blues after their big race, as it’s usually the focus (and often last race) of their season; one upshot of my silly decision to train through a Dubai summer is that our triathlon season is just about to get going. One thing I’ve realised through all this is just how much I love racing – this season, there’s a busy calendar of runs, bike time trials, open water swims, aquathlons (swim, run) and triathlons and, sod training schedules etc, I intend to race them all.

Feeling blue...ba-dum-tccccchhhh!

Actually, I have devised a new schedule with a focus on shorter, high intensity training, some plyometric workouts (leg strengthening jumps etc) and, generally, less total time spent on the bike and on the road. It’s based on some pretty new thinking in physiology and training and I’m going to try it out until Christmas and see how I fare.

I also discovered that I’m a goal-driven person. So, now that the giant goal of finishing an Ironman has been achieved, what’s next? Well, in the long term, another Ironman. Speaking in general terms, to get more miles into my legs and become a far stronger cyclist. But I’ve a few specific goals between now and next summer too:

• To do 2:10 (or less) for an Olympic distance race
• To run a sub-3:30 marathon in January
• To knock at least 10 minutes off my time at the Abu Dhabi International Tri in March (this race is organised by evil Satanists who would murder bags full of puppy dogs and  babies in order to make a quick buck and I hate myself for entering but, as it’s the only genuinely big race within 1000 miles of Dubai, enter it I’m sure I will)
• To do a decent (i.e. race rather than survive) Half Ironman

So, there you have it.

THE END

Actually, I’ve decided that I couldn’t possibly disappoint the unfeasibly and inexplicably large number of you who read this (seriously, there are that many people out there who are that bored in work..?) and the blog will be getting a ‘rebranding’ but will carry on. My intention is, as well as reporting back on my own training etc, that I’ll post more general content too, about triathlon, training, gear, physiology and life in the Middle East. I hope you’ll continue to read and enjoy. Now seriously, get back to work, bloody slackers…

Race report part 1 – preamble and swim

An Ironman is such an exciting event to be around and, as the day got closer, and race briefings, practice swims and pasta parties went by, the excitement – and nerves – really went up a notch.

On Saturday afternoon, we had to take our bikes into the transition to rack them up and hand over our T1 and T2 bags. This helped calm the nerves a little as I knew that I now had everything I needed and hadn't forgotten anything vital. Now it was just a case of resting up, eating and drinking.

The weather was playing on everybody's mind. It had dried up a little after the torrential rain of the past few days but the message was that we were going to receive a visit from Hurricane Katia as she passed by. The officials announced that the swim would change from the open South Beach which faces the Atlantic to the more secluded North Beach. 'If you do it on South Beach, you'll be fishing them out in body bags,' was an opinion I heard voiced by more than one local.

Fortunately, I'd slept well all week as on the Saturday night I slept very little at all – maybe two hours in total. But I was relatively calm and collected on the morning of the race, with the exception of leaving a drink bottle in the fridge which we had to go back for!

Bottles on bike, tyres pumped, final adjustments, wetsuit half on and I joined the hundreds of swimmers making their way across town to North Beach. The next few minutes flew by but I remember looking back up to the cliff top behind us and being blown away by the thousands of spectators who'd come out at the crack of dawn to cheer on us 1600 madmen (and ladies). The Welsh national anthem played and then 'BANG' – the cannon sounded and it was time to sttart becoming an Ironman.

The first buoy was away to the left and half of the swimmers ran down the beach in that direction in an attempt to shorten the swim out to the first buoy. I decided to follow local pro Oliver Simon straight in. The water was cold – 13C – but the adrenalin kicked in. However, it was also pretty rough and I was already being thrown about from side to side. I was glad to be a strong swimmer here because I wouldn't have liked to have tackled the waves and current while in the middle of the masses – at least I was able to get out toward the front.

I turned the first buoy and started out along the long 'back straight' of the swim and it was here that the current – against us all the way at this point – was at its strongest. I tried to settle into the swim, knowing it was going to be a long one, and found a couple of pairs of feet to follow, but doing so wasn't easy given the swell. Every few breaths, you'd turn your head to find it still underwater...a few strokes were missed entirely as all of a sudden there was either no water underneath me to pull in or too much above me to get my arm around...but I still made good progress passing other triathletes steadily.

Halfway along that back straight, I said to myself 'here it is mate, you're doing an Ironman!' I'd shortened my stroke to allow for the choppier waters and was starting to have fun but, just as I reached the last buoy before heading back to the beach, an epic cramp kicked in my left quad. I realised it'd have been caused by the cold so tried to stay calm, stretched the leg a little and kept it perfectly still for the next few minutes, which worked a treat.

Heading back towards the beach, the current was finally with us, making this section really quick and fun. I finally pulled myself up on to the sand after the first lap and started running along the beach to the point where we had to dive in and start the second lap. The crowds were going wild and I heard the announcer on the PA system say that we were coming out on around 23 minutes, which is super quick, so I knew I needed to slow it down a little on the second lap or I'd be suffering for the speed later in the day.

The second lap went really well. It was still a real battle against the elements but by then I'd hit as much of a rhythm as I was going to find in those conditions and had a few swimmers to draft off or follow. However, the quad cramp kicked in again halfway around. Again, I eased off, kept it still and it went but it felt tight, which wasn't good.

Getting out of the swim felt amazing, and it turns out I was through within the first 30 or so swimmers in a time of 50:00, which is amazing given the conditions, though I knew I had been swimming well. As we came off the beach, we had to climb a switchback walkway which ascended 150m to the town above. Due to the relocated swim, there was a mini transition here where we grabbed our trainers and then made the one mile run across Tenby to the proper transition area. There had been quite a bit of controversy and disillusionment about this long run to transition the day before but it soon became very obvious that, due to the difficulty of the course, IM Wales wasn't a course you did to record a good time but rather a tough one that you did to say you'd finished, and so the long transition became part of that challenge.

Since the race, almost everyone I've spoken to has insisted that in future years the organisers keep the swim on North Beach with the trainer transition and the 'Tenby Mile' run to T1. It was fun to do but also reward for the amazing throngs of spectators who came out to support us – I high fived my way almost the whole way through town.

Eventually, I got to T1 where I was made to feel very slow and clumsy. Being out of the water so quickly, I was right up there among (and even ahead of) pros and top age groupers, who steamed through their transition. I knew it was going to be a longer day ahead for me, so took my time putting on compression socks, arm warmers and making sure I had nutrition. Then it was time for the bike...

Nice weather...for triathletes

I must apologise for the lack of posts of late. You'd have thought that being off work, back in the UK, I'd have plenty of time to dedicate to this blog, chiseling and sculpting it into something even more beautiful, witty and emotional. Right? Wrong. So far, it's been a non-stop exhaustathon.

Fortunately, that has involved some training too. With the 'hardest Ironman on the planet' tag starting to stick to IM Wales, I realised it was time for hills. Obviously, this close to the race, there isn't too much I can do to improve on fitness levels etc, but I decided that until two weeks out it was still worth doing some good training in the hills as much for mental preparation as physical.

With that in mind, on Friday I headed out into the hills and valleys of North Wales and the North West on as tricky and hilly a route as I could find. The route took me 135km through Ruthin, Corwen and Llangollen, over the Horseshoe Pass, down to Wrexham, to Chester, along into Flint and then back through Mold. I then ran an easy 6km off the bike.

UK: lovely scenery, god-awful roads.

Observations:

1. That was my longest ever solo ride - being on the bike for 6-7 hours for IM was a concern. But it's fine and time passes fairly quickly.
2. It was a little windy, pretty chilly and started spitting with rain a few times - loved it!
3. Riding here is far more interesting than riding in Dubai.
4. The roads in the UK are slightly worse than in Laos - a third world country.
5. I'm OK at climbing. As long as I take it slow and steady, I can make it up just about any climb.
6. IM course is going to be slow - the bad roads, technical descents and wind mean you just can't make up that much time on the downhills.
7. As long as I don't flog myself on those climbs, running off the bike isn't as bad as I thought it'd be after a hilly ride.
8. This was the hilliest ride I could find with almost 1500m of climbing in total. Ironman will be almost double that.

Top of the Horseshoe Pass. It's demoralising being overtaken by a sheep.

With an equal mix of reassurance and panic in my heart, I headed down to Falmouth, Cornwall, for Jamie and Catherine's wedding - friends from back in Dubai. It was a beautiful day, great do, the bride looked stunning and everyone got drunk and danced like idiots - proper wedding!

Yesterday, I left early (wow, Falmouth is a long way away) and stopped in Bristol on the way home for lunch with my good friend Ceri who I'd not seen since last September. Had a roast dinner, couple of coffees then drove back. And after months of hardcore triathlon training, thousands of kilometres on the road, I think I pulled a muscle in my thigh while driving! Typical - although it was nice to have a full weekend off training and thinking about nothing but whether I'd have a Cornish lager, Cornish ale or Cornish pasty next. And carb loading on amazing scones!

So, another wedding next weekend which means plenty of work to do during the week. Hit the local leisure centre for a swim this morning - the flapping/slapping/dreadful technique/aimless weaving of the swimmers of Mold should make for valuable open water practice in the next couple of weeks.

I did meet another guy at swimming who's doing Ironman Wales too and had taken part in the Long Course Weekend (a sort of training weekend/dry run of IM down in Tenby) a month or two back. I chanced a question, expecting a sort of "sure it's tough but it's been blown out of all proportion" answer. When will I learn...

His opinion? "I didn't make the swim - it took me an hour to do 600m due to the current. And the water is teaming with jelly fish. The bike is just hill after hill, and the marathon is like an uphill hike. I was hoping for 13 hours - but now I'll just be happy to finish."

In future, I'll not ask. 20 days and counting!

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...

Beat The Heat - advice for training in a very hot climate

Ha! In your face heat!


So, after suffering something of a setback during my morning run thanks to Dubai's thermostat being nudged from 'volcanic lava' to 'actual hell', last night I headed for Dubai Masters for a swim session. The nicely chilled water reminded me just why I was enjoying swimming so much at the moment!


In fact, the pool was so chilled that I managed to wear my wetsuit for the whole session - swimming in a triathlon wetsuit is quite different as the suit makes you very buoyant and changes your position in the water; it's important to get used to this, as well as where the wetsuit is a bit tight and limits your movement and discover anywhere it may rub a bit. As the sea here in Dubai is of the sort of temperatures at which chefs send lobsters to their untimely deaths, the pool in my only option. It's a lot of fun swimming the session in the wetsuit - I was the strongest swimmer at last night's session anyway but add the suit and I looked like pre-spliff Michael Phelps in there!


Anyway, did 3,500m total and am getting more and more used to swimming in the wetsuit which is good. I'm generally swimming really strongly overall which bodes well for Ironman but also thee season ahead.


This morning, my programme informed me, I was scheduled to do some shorter, quicker runs. Obviously, after yesterday, I was not looking forward to running again. Sure, the distance was much less but the intensity was supposed to be much higher, which means a faster heart beat and higher core temperatures. Fortunately, yesterday before swimming I did something very wise indeed! I did a spot of shopping...


To paraphrase those Mastercard adverts:


2xu lightweight running cap: 60 dirhams (10 quid)
Bag of ice: 3 dirhams (50p)
Having a freezer box full of ice flakes to shove in your hat and down your top every loop of the track: PRICELESS!


So, it wasn't pretty, but I got through the run session - 1.5k slow warm up and then 10 x 400m fast runs with a 200m easy jog between each. The temperature when I finished a 6.15am? A mere 44C!


Obviously, I only have another week till I'm back in the UK - keeping up training in this kind of heat would be plain stupid - but I think this does serve as some sort of example of what it takes to do triathlons, namely a good dollop of dedication and a soupcon of resourcefulness.


It's not always about training for an Ironman in melting hot conditions; it may be fitting in a lunchtime sprint session because you've had to work late all week, or adding some cross-training because of a running injury, or getting a flat on a training ride and using your skewer to wrestle your tyre off because you've broken your tyre lever... triathlon is a pretty good metaphor for life in that it will throw enough things at you to beat you. If you let it. 


Or, you can see a problem as a challenge and then it's time to start looking for a solution. Even if that means a hat full of ice cubes.


Anyway, hit the gym for an hour of intervals on the stationary bike (cranking up resistance but holding cadence at 90 rpm) which was pretty tough but tomorrow is a nice, easy day with a touch of stretching in the morning (i.e. bit of a lie-in!!!) and just a steady one hour masters swim in the evening. Before the last off the truly GIANT training days on Friday (165k ride, 12k run).

Finger-tapping time off

Confession: remember that morning coffee ride I was planning on Saturday? Well, I jacked it in. Officially, according to my programme, yesterday was a day of complete rest – my first in more than a month – to round off my recovery week ready for two weeks of the tough stuff. Feeling energetic and committed and all, I decided that I’d ignore that and add an extra 60-80k of riding but, fortunately, common sense prevailed.

I’m conscious of how tough the bike leg of Ironman is going to be – not only because, at 180km, it’s the longest part of the day but also because bike fitness determines how well you run off the bike – so that was the justification for the extra off-programme ride.

The reason for not doing it? That mantra, that I said I’d keep repeating but seem to keep forgetting…TRUST THE PROGRAMME! In the end, I turned the alarm off and had my first proper lie-in (not my usual 6.30 counts as a lie-in as it’s not 5.30, but an actual get up when you wake up lie-in) and it was great. I was up and about with plenty of energy at around 9.30, had a nice big breakfast and then went about my day, getting lots of chores done. Given that I’m still pretty busy in work, it’s less than two weeks till I head back to the UK – and need to pack for hols, training, IM (so a bike and lots of bike gear) and two weddings! – and I’ve lots of training to fit in between now and then, I think it’s a good job that common sense won out. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that more mileage doesn’t always mean fitter or better prepared.

So, with a little of a handle on the chaos that is my life, I had a great night’s sleep last night; also, thanks to having no workouts yesterday, it gave me the chance to eat some good food and get plenty of fluids in. I’m pretty careful about hydrating but, when you’re doing 15-20 hours in 40C, no matter how careful you are, hydrating is likely to be an uphill battle. I’m feeling in fine fettle all old – good news.

It’s tough getting used to these rest days or weeks; triathletes, by our very nature, are usually workaholics – whether we’re in the office or on the bike, we like to dig deep. Therefore, stepping back a little feels like wasted time – I just end up thinking about all the swim/bike/run that I’m not doing. I’m getting better at dealing with this tho – and know it’s essential for making sure I can keep training hard and don’t arrive at the start of Ironman Wales injured or burnt out.

Anyway, it was just a one hour easy swim on the programme today and I decided to head to Dubai Masters’ early session at 6.30am to get that done before work. A very steady 2,400m in total, with lots of work on stroke and technique – the perfect session to warm up into the week. Showered, dressed, swallowed down a chocolate milk and straight to work, safe in the knowledge that my training is done for the day so I’ve another night to myself to relax. Is 11 days too early to start packing? I decided it was this weekend, so instead started an exhaustive list of everything I’ll need to pack to take back with me, which has helped to put my mind at rest a little.

Hmmm, maybe I could fit in some extra run sprints tonight then…just kidding!