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.

 

Big fat blow-out and a spot of catch up

Another month has passed and another disappointing lack of blogging from a young Mr Warnock. But new year, new leaf. And I feel the creative juices, not to mention motivation, welling up inside me once again. But before I go about entertaining you like a monkey in a waistcoat playing the cymbals, making you laugh more than a fat woman falling of a swing, and educating you more enjoyably than a school with Stephen Fry as the headmaster (how cool would that be?), I figure we’ve some catching up to do, you and me.

Firstly the Creek Striders Half Marathon that I spoke about last time. In short, what an event. The course looped up and around the creekside roads of Dubai, up and over some of Dubai’s iconic bridges, and sections of the course actually went through the souks in Bur Dubai – best road race I’ve ever done (admittedly, that’s not many). It was also a great atmosphere with a huge fry-up breakfast afterwards. In terms of performance, I did 1:33 – a 3 minute PB ona  far harder course than the PB was set on. Given that I’d not done much long running at all, I was pretty happy with that. In February, I’ll be racing the RAK HalfMarathon – the flat and fast race in which I set my previous PB and, as my current programme does feature a weekly long run (26kms), I’m gunning to go sub 1:30 for the first time there.

Xmas and New Year were both perfectly pleasant but, to be honest, having returned to the UK for my nan’s funeral just a week before, I wasn’t feeling too festive. I missed my family a lot and couldn’t stop thinking how tough it must have been for my mum and dad. This translated into a lack of motivation on the training front too – I missed more sessions at the end of December than I think I’ve missed all year, but I wasn’t too fussed. Did manage an Xmas morning sea swim with some of the T2A gang, which was a highlight.

Just after Christmas, my friend Janey (actually an ex but we’ve stayed quite close) came to visit on her way back from Thailand, and we had a really nice time – with a few other friends joining for a couple of days too. I took a few days off work, took all four days off training, ate too much, drank every night and it was lovely. I was sad to see them go as it’d been such a welcome break and diversion, but I dropped them at the airport at 5am on Friday morning and went straight to join in with the Dubai Roadsters 120k-er – and absolutely loved every kilometre of it. The motivation came flooding back – it’s a ride I’ve not done for quite a while and I was amazed at how much easier I found the pace, how I could join in all the sprints, and how easily I could motor up the few little climbs that used to leave me trailing far behind. Progress is the greatest form of motivation, when you can see it that clearly. The highlight of that ride was joining the ‘fast group’ for the last 45kms and averaging in excess of 40kph (assisted by a large peloton and tailwind, but still...) and being led out by former Ironman World Champion Faris Al Sultan who is sponsored by Abu Dhabi and does quite a bit of his winter training here in the UAE. Mercifully, he actually wore full shorts and a long-sleeved bike jersey...

He'd have been cold wearing this...

Since then, I’ve not really looked back. Coach sent me my Jan schedule through and it’s by far the biggest I’ve ever done – way more kms than I was doing in peak Ironman training even (tho more favourable conditions than Dubai in August help with that) and it’s just what I needed. It’s basically a base training month with very little intensity, but I’m loving getting all these kilometres in my legs, especially on the bike which I have a bit of a like-hatehatehate relationship with at times. 

I think the other reason for the motivation racing back faster than a drunk to last orders is that a few big races are now in sight – before, they were very much on the horizon but I’m almost able to start counting the weeks down now. That helps a lot.

Other than all the training, life is generally consisting of a monumental SHITLOAD (sorry ma, but it really is a shitload!) of work as we race to get products out for the end of the financial year. In the office for 56 hours last week; in the pool, on the bike and on the road for another 20...doesn’t leave much time for much else, tho I don’t mind that so much right now.

So, there we go, you’re all up-to-date, au courant, al dia, with what’s going on here. Hasta pronto, amigos.

The Dream Team

This weekend marked the next chapter in my ‘tri career’ as it was my first set of group training sessions since joining Team Tri2Aspire. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it.

Being the type of person who likes to dive in head first (swimming reference...see what I did there, eh?) I guess this was the perfect weekend to start – it was Eid Al Adha here in the UAE which meant a four-day weekend for most folks. For us, that meant extra training sessions.

So, I popped my T2A cherry with a 120km group ride on Friday morning, which was a good session and a nice way to meet a few more people. We all have slightly different programmes to follow but mine had me jumping off the bike and doing an 8k run – my legs had me doing 6k instead of 8 tho, as they were in bits from a 23k run earlier in the week.  

The following morning, we were all on the beach at JBR at 7am for a sea swim session which I really enjoyed. A bit of warm-up and a few sprints were followed by an all-in race of about 900m. I sat on the feet of coach and Ian LP for the first 450m and then smashed the second half as hard as I could. I just beat coach to the beach but we were all at our absolute limits the whole way in, which was really knackering but cool. On the bad side, I got my first ever jellyfish stings – another, less desirable, cherry popped!

After a few hours at home, that night I tackled what the guys in the team have affectionately named the Coach Dirt run. And a fine name that is – it is dirty. Not in an unclean way; more of a filthy, disgusting, hideous painfest from hell...y’know, that kind of way. It involves an 8.5k cross-country run on tracks and dunes, followed immediately by a 5k all-in race back, with us all being set off at handicapped intervals based on our run times. I went out way too fast and then died a long, painful death...not a good performance but I know I’ll improve.

On Sunday morning, Longtoot called again – laps on the bike. I managed 95k (programme said 75k, but some others were carrying on for 120k, so 95k seemed like a good compromise with me having to get to work...as I said, it was a holiday for MOST folks!). I swam my ass off with Dubai Masters in the evening and then managed a few pints for a mate’s birthday before dragging that ass out of bed at 6am ready for another tough sea swim session, which also included runs up and down the beach between ‘laps’ of the buoys. Can’t wait till Wednesday for a day off, I can tell you.

I’ve found it tough but not undoable at all – I think a lot of the difficulty is because I’ve just been doing fun/light sessions since IM, so this is the first period of extended training in a few months.

And, as a newbie to team triathlon, what do I think of the set-up? As I explained before, I’d been reluctant to join a team as I enjoyed training solo and setting my own sessions – I wasn’t sure what a team would add to that. Now, however, I’m a convert.

Firstly, as there are always others around, I’ve found myself pushing harder in most the sessions – in fact, coach makes small races a part of the sessions, so I pushed much harder than I would have if I’d trained alone. Secondly, triathlon isn’t always the most social of pastimes due to the early morning bike rides and I can go weeks without seeing mates, having a drink or going out. Last night, I had a friend’s birthday drinks and was determined to get along and not cry off, as I have in the past due to training. It was a fun night and I didn’t get home till 1am and had to get up at 6am to make it to the sea swim – if I’d been doing it alone, I’d have definitely sacked off the session and probably stayed for a few more pints too. I guess you could call this accountability, but it’s also motivation. Finally, most sessions end with the whole team diving into a cafe for coffee or breakfast and I can’t explain how nice it is to sit and chat with people who are just as infatuated by and geeky about triathlon as I am! That social element is the real kicker, in my view. So, for the foreseeable future at least, I’d say there is an ‘I’ in ‘team’. Or a ‘me’ at least, to push this awkwardly contrived sentence to its disappointing conclusion.

I’m looking forward to getting a few more weeks under my belt and seeing the effect that this training has on my times. Although, after four early starts in a row balanced with work and a couple of extra sessions, right now I’m more looking forward to getting home, bashing out a quick Swiss ball/weights sesh and then getting my head down early. For most people it’s a boring early night, but as triathletes we get to call it ‘recovery’!