New year, new start

Well, what a year 2012 was. Personally, the changes were immense: from Dubai to Amsterdam; from living alone to shacked-up bliss; from Managing Editor to, erm, well, freelancer/job seeker... But it was a breakthrough year for me in terms of triathlon too, and that's something I'm hoping to continue into 2013.

This year, I spent Christmas and New Year at my folks' house for the first time in around five years and it was terrific. I caught up with friends and family, ate, drank and was merry. The girlfriend was there for most of it too and it was fun to show her the way us Brits celebrate Chrimbo and New Year (the traditional pantomime was a bit of an eye-opener) ... as well as introducing her to the football Mecca that is Goodison Park.

After a bit of northern uproar, we headed down to London Town for some more thrills and spills... maybe a few too many as, by the time we got back home to Amsterdam, I was sick as a sod and spent the next couple of days shaking like a nodding dog in the back of a bulldozer, with a head that felt as if it had been used as the ball for a Stoke vs West Ham match.

This long-winded, overblown and probably, now I think about it, a bit unnecessary exposition is basically my version of the school boy's "the dog ate my homework, sir" excuse. I'm supposed to be two weeks into my marathon training programme now and, instead, I've done two sessions.

I didn't mind missing a few sessions while back in the UK. I've put in some solid base miles (following the MAF principles) in the previous months, so an extra few days of enjoying myself wouldn't hurt, I decided. But I was eager to dive right back in as soon as we got back Dutch side, so the flu virus that wiped me out for a few days was a kick in the teeth.

One thing I did learn last year was that ignoring illness, injury or fatigue doesn't work. So I accepted defeat, rested up and waited... I was champing at the bit by the time I headed out this evening and, although it was only a little 7km run at 5.25/km pace, I was happy and excited to be out. That's one of the real benefits of taking breaks - something that doing triathlon in Dubai didn't really encourage - you need to get a little fat and lazy sometimes; you need to wake up and think about what chocolate bar to eat first rather than how far to swim that morning; you need to measure a day in pints rather than kilometers... That's where motivation and true long-term results come from, I think. It certainly seems to be the case for me, at least, because I'm now more excited about getting race fit again than I have been since Ironman Austria back in July.

And so it starts... I'm happy to be back in proper training and that means that normal service is resumed in terms of the blogging too. So, good news for those of you who get easily bored in work... You'll be hearing plenty more from me soon enough.

So far so good...

Well then, it’s been just over a month since I made the big move, said Du-bye to Dubai and Hola to Holland, and so far so good. I have to admit that I miss my friends and training groups back in Dubai, of course, but I’m absolutely convinced that it was the right move at the right time. I like that I left Dubai on a high (no Dutch jokes here) and while things were still good – my memories of the UAE now will always be positive, and I’ll definitely be trying to get back for occasional visits.

And what of Amsterdam? Well, the obvious thing first – it’s bloody cold, but, other than on a couple of occasions (more of those later), that’s not bothered me so much. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent most of the past decade living in Spain and the UAE, but I’m kind of enjoying the novelty of an actual, real winter. Coats, gloves, cappuccinos, hot chocolates and oliebollen… winter has its advantages. And for every mind-blowingly crappy day, there are days – like today – when the sky is blue, the cold is crisp and the leaves are on the ground… it really is beautiful.

Amsterdam

I really feel like I’m finding my way in the city/country now. I have my bank account and citizen’s number, so I’m official. I really like our apartment and the area it’s in too. The first few weeks maybe felt like a bit of a extended holiday but now it’s real life doing real things (with the exception of the working from home everyday part).

And, while Dubai had its advantages, I’m really lapping up all of the proper ‘European’ things on offer in the Netherlands. The parks and canals, stopping in cafes for beers and bitterballen (the Dutch, it seems, have a strange but tasty obsession with food in ball shapes!), heading to small art house cinemas (Pretentious? Moi?) and just wandering or cycling around the streets to discover new places and see new things.

We’ve visited Glow in Eindhoven – a cool, week-long art experiment when the buildings become light shows. We have tickets to a couple of festivals and music events next summer. There are weekend breaks planned. Gigs to be watched. And I haven’t even gotten around to seeing the museums, markets, the Heineken Experience or the pancake boat yet! But all in good time…

Images from GLOW in Eindhoven

But this isn’t some fancy-Dan (or fancy-Dam…groan!) travel blog or expat relocation guide, is it? It is, or at least it tries to be, about triathlon. So, how’s that going?

Well, we live in a great place as far as training goes. Firstly, we’re between a few parks, all of which have run tracks around or through them. I can do a lap or two for short runs while they can be combined (usually by following a canal or two) to create longer runs. There’s even an official 22km trail through three of the parks, while the nearby Amsterdam Woods (I’ve not been there yet) has 12, 15 and 21km trails through it. I’ve also tried a city run and a run down the Amstel river – after the same one or two loops of Dubai, this feels like an embarrassment of riches. Especially when the backdrop is misty parks, canals with ducks, geese and herons perched nearby, and woodlands with a thick carpet of autumn leaves underfoot.

The Vondelpark has a nice 3.5km run loop

Came across these dudes while running along the nearby Nieuwe Meer (the lake is pictured below) 

The local 22km loop - we basically live right in the centre of this

Running has been the main focus just to keep a little fit for the time being. I’ve ridden twice – once a couple of weekends back while visiting my fried Joe in Spain, we headed out and did a nice 90km jaunt through the hills of Andalucia, stopping only to experience the ‘traditional delicacies’ of the world’s worst tapas restaurant. And then, last week, I tried a ride here with Hamish, who also recently moved to Amsterdam.

At this point, I should explain that I only began the whole riding/triathlon thing in Dubai so cold conditions have never really featured too heavily. Expecting it to be cold out, I dressed in my warmest cycling gear – the sort of thing I’d wear for a cold winter morning in Dubai. Turns out that there’s quite a difference between a cold Dubai winter morning and a cold Amsterdam winter afternoon… we only made 45km in the end as the heavens opened and sent a downpour; I, of course, had absolutely no waterproof clothing on.  To cut a long story short, I had to get a neighbour to let me into the apartment as I couldn’t use the keys, so cold were my hands, and it took me 25 minutes of being inside before they thawed enough to take my gloves or shoes off.

Anyway, never one to need telling twice, I remedied that situation by immediately going online and buying proper winter cycling gear. Of course, I haven’t ridden since!

My favourite place for training is called Sloterpark. It has a +6km mainly woodland run track around a giant lake. Being around 1.5km from the apartment, this makes a perfect 10km run. Better still, on the far side of the lake – around 10 mins bike away – is a giant sports centre with a 50m swim pool. This is home to the De Dolfijn Masters and Tri Clubs. It’s also where my awesome gym is located. Just over the road is the running track where the tri club holds weekly track workouts. During the summer, you can do open water swims in the lake. Oh, and there’s a pretty good annual triathlon in this area too. I love having all of this so close to hand.

Running in the Sloterpark

Canalside path leading from home to Sloterpark 

The lake at Sloterpark

Triathlon is a pretty expensive sport, but it’s much more accessible here in Europe. De Dolfijn Tri, for example, costs €365 a year, which can be paid in monthly instalments (and includes an annual race licence).  This basically means that €7 per week gives me 5 coached swim sessions, a coached track run per week, a couple of bike rides per week between April and September, plus all the other social and support benefits of being in a club.

There’s another bike and tri group called Cylodam – which is maybe a bit less formal but bit more social – and their fees are just €25 per year, so I’m joining both; I love the social element of training and triathlon, while also needing as much variety as possible in my training, so the more options for rides or runs I have the better, is how I see it.  

So, basically, I’m back in training now. Not tri training per se (or at least, not in the way I've done it in Dubai), but training to maximise the potential for 2013 being my best season yet. What does that mean exactly? Well, I’ll get into that next time.

Things I won't miss about Dubai triathlon!

Having waxed lyrical about what I'm going to miss about Dubai in a blog post that critics have described as "emotional"*, "heartwrenching"* and "Hemigwayesque is its absolute desire to discover the truth of the human condition"*, it's now time to tell you all what I'm not going to miss. I am, after all, a British journalist and, therefore, only build something up so I can revel in knocking it back down... a career on The Daily Mail surely awaits!

*None of these things were actually said out loud by anyone but could have been Tweeted by someone somewhere once, after all, who's to say..?

So... adopting my best transatlantic 'ray-dee-oh deee-jay' voice, here we go with the top five... (da da daah, da da daah, daaa, daa, daaah...)

5. The races. Not a dig at race organisers at all, they are marvellous and lovely people without whom we’d just be a bunch of idiots who train a lot, but my god are the triathlons in Dubai boring! There are two problems, as I see it. One: due to the whole traffic thing etc, they're always in the middle of nowhere on some godforsaken stretch of road that makes an hour on the turbo trainer seem like a riveting 60 minutes of scenic exploration. Two: as locations are limited, the race calendar is made up of these races being repeated many times over. 

4. The drivers. A few times, I ventured out on to real actual roads on my bike – usually hitting Al Wasl and the Beach Road early morning, but even bravely (OK, stupidly) attempting to commute to work by bike for some time… I still have not quite managed to fully unclench my sphincter. Sweet eight pound six ounce newborn baby Jesus, that is some scary stuff. I was only hit (very lightly) once on the bike, when an Indian driver attempted some sort of clever dummy, by indicating and looking one way, then turning the other – really tearing up the rule book with that sort of driving – but there were some close calls, in Nad Al Sheba especially, where the driving resembles a bunch of monkeys let loose on high speed bumper cars. Amazingly I was 'bumped' twice while out running in Dubai - don't want to make any general sweeping generalisations but both times it was by Arab women wearing full abayas, in heavily blacked-out windowed vehicles, at night... giving them the sort of range of vision that Stevie Wonder has of his keyboard.

3. The laps and laps and laps and laps. Granted, over the past few years the number of options for cycling in Dubai have increased but it still boils down to going around and around and around the same few places – whether that’s lots of laps of the NAS cycle path, the autodrome or Ghantoot, or a few less laps of Nad Al Sheba, Longtoot or Al Qudra. On the plus side, it certainly builds some mental fortitude!

2. The heat. An obvious one but there it is… put simply, my body does not operate well in the heat – so running when my body is so soaked with sweat that my trainer makes a squelching noise every time it hits the ground, and my tingling skin feels like it might explode into a human fireball at any moment is not really my idea of fun. Just as cycling into a fan oven for several hours is, in my mind, more akin to torture than anything edifying or enjoyable.

1. The early mornings. Number one, with a bullet! I’m not adverse to an early morning and I’m certainly not the kind of person who loves to sleep in all day but, still, 2.30am-6am is a time window during which - even by the extraordinary set of rules that triathletes live their lives by - everyone should be asleep. It is most definitely not a time at which humans should be up and riding. It is not the ideal hour for hitting the sea for a choppy dawn swim session.  And it is not a time slot that should be reserved for driving to Hatta. 

OK, rant over. Annnnnd breathe...

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.

 

Break and entry

So, for 10 more days at least, this remains a desert-based blog. The big move to Amsterdam means that this year’s race season is really over before it even begun as I’ll be leaving Dubai before any of the local races kick in, and arriving in Holland a couple of months after the summer season has ended there. All of which is likely to result in around nine months between my last race and my next!

So, I’ve been relaxing, putting my feet up and getting fat, right? 

Well, not too much as it happens. Even though I know it’s not really with any particular goal in mind, I’ve kept up the training just coz I enjoy it and know that, come 1 November, my training will take on a whole new form entirely as I juggle a lack of races with cold weather and hitting the gym a bit more.

It is, I admit, quite hard to keep motivation levels up at times and there’ve been one or two sessions that I just couldn’t drag my ass out of bed for; I’m a firm believer in goals and, for me, racing is the goal that keeps me going.

With that – and a long, cold winter (having not had to put up with a northern European winter for more than a decade, I’m probably exaggerating it somewhat but, in my mind, it looks something like Beyond The Wall in Game of Thrones) – in mind, last week, I went race mad. After the break, time for the entry… so to speak.

Winter run training?

Having failed to get into the London Marathon through the ballot, I entered the Rotterdam Marathon which takes place in, well, Rotterdam (think that’s how the race got its name, but I can’t be sure about that…) on 14 April. As the last two marathons I’ve done have come at the end of 3.8km of swimming and 180km of cycling, I can’t wait to see what I’m capable of doing in a straight running race.

Liverpool or Rome..?

A few weeks after that, I’ll be heading to the UK for something completely different altogether. The Rat Race Dirty Weekend is being pitched as the world biggest and toughest ever obstacle course – 200 obstacles in 20 themed zones, with 20 miles of running (five-sixths of a marathon) in between. Basically, I’ve always wanted to tackle one of those crazy army/game show assault courses and, when I saw that and the words ‘toughest ever’ I knew I had to have a crack!

Well, if GI Jane could do it...

Couple more race ideas up in the noggin at the moment but just going to allow them to soak and brew until I make a firm decision. Even just those two events have given me some real motivation and helped me to plan my winter training. It’s a simple but good tip that I find always works: if you’re having trouble focusing on your training, get yourself entered into a race. Everything becomes far clearer.

What’s in a name?

My blogging has been pretty woeful of late, but I think I have good reason for that. Y’see, this is predominantly a triathlon blog, documenting the high and lows of my racing and training, with occasional sideways glances at the sport and meandering journeys into the world of tri-surrealism.

And, of late, triathlon hasn’t really been on my mind. I’ve done a few rides and sessions here and there but consistency has been non-existent and I’ve also taken quite a few chunks of time off. Training hard has been replaced by working way too hard, then 10 days of eating and drinking way too much, while life has generally got in the way.

And then there’s the big news. As of the beginning of November, this blog, Desert Tri Tales, will be seeing something of a reboot, a rebranding, a rebirth if you will…  as it transforms into Triathlon and Tulips, or Remrandtriathlon, or Swim, Bike/Boat, Run or…well, I’ve not decided yet, but you get the point. This isn’t due to a newfound love of floristry, 17^th Century art or cruising, but, at the end of October, I’ll be swapping sand dunes and skyscrapers for canals and clogs as I move to the Netherlands.

If I’m being honest, I’ve been hankering after a move back to Europe for a while and the time was starting to feel right. Europe rather than the UK was always my preference – for whatever reason, lifestyle I guess, mainland Europe has always felt like a better long-term fit for me and I’d quietly decided to make a move back by the end of this year anyway. When a pretty young Dutch lass that I’ve been into for a decade or so suggested Amsterdam as a suitable destination, it seemed like the perfect fit.

Swapping THIS...

...for THIS.

So, there we have it folks. The times they are a-changing.

However, I do have five weeks left in Dubai and, although I’m not going to be around for any racing (and will then be moving to Amsterdam at the beginning of winter, so no more triathlon racing for a good six months or so...), I’m enjoying putting a nice big final consistent block of training in before I go. Sure, it’s not for a race or anything, but I’m just enjoying finding a bit of form, spending time swim/bike/running with friends and team mates, and getting to train outside while I still have the chance. And the Dubai weather seems to be obliging too, as summer is finally coming to a close it seems.

Swapping THESE LOCALS...

...for THESE LOCALS.

At the moment, it’s all giddy excitement about the move. But I’m sure there’s loads that I’m going to miss about Dubai too. But that’s a subject for another blog, I guess. 

Everyone is tri-ing it

Guess what… triathlon is cool!!!

Why’s that, you ask? Because it encourages a healthy lifestyle? Because it increases self-confidence? Because it improves productivity and overall happiness among those that participate? Because there are lots of cool gadgets you can buy?

Hell no! Coz the dude from Saved By The Bell does it, dumbass!

That’s right, AC Slater – he of the Soul-glo hairdo that was so Afro-licious that even T2A's Simon Kelly would envy him – now does triathlon.

And he’s not the only ‘schelebridee’ to get in on the triathlon act, either. Super-jock and regional wrestling champ AC Slater – sorry, I mean actor Mario Lopez – took part in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon back in 2009 and this is the epicentre of celeb tri. In fact, there’s a whole category just for famous folk.

Any young man in his early 30s out there will have fond memories of Teri Hatcher when she used to go out with superman. Although Superman dumped her long ago coz she has a face like a scary witch, Hatcher keeps her bod looking pretty darn good with a bit of tri – raising money for charity while she does it.

When JLo isn’t busy making up weird new names, she loves a bit of swim, bike, run too. She completed the sprint distance at Malibu in 2.23, which is longer but considerably less painful than most her films.

Jenny From da Frock - seriously, what the hell is she wearing?

Professional leaner and wooden actor, Matthew Mahogany, is big mates with Lance Armstrong and shares his love of endurance sports. Mahogany did the sprint in 1.30 which, let’s face it, is a bit rubbish for someone who has loads of money and no real job.

Nobody has ever seen Matthew Mahogany standing upright: true fact.

Mahogany leans on his handle bars.

The best Malibu triathletes, however, (best as in people I like most, not fastest) surely must be David Duchovny (climbs well over Twin Peaks), Jeremy Piven and Will Ferrell – who hopefully took part as research for a Blades of Glory/Talladega Nights/Semi-Pro style movie set in the world of Ironman!

Duchovny: has a star stuck on his privates.

There’s even an awesome celebrity triathlon couple in the form of Felicity Hauffman and William H Macy.

The UK equivalent of the Nautica Malibu Triathlon would be the London Triathlon, which the ‘always thought he seems like a decent bloke’ DJ and TV presenter Vernon Kay completed in 2010. Aside from him, the London Triathlon tends to attract some lamo Z-listers or rubbish relayers, like Dickie Branson, who did the swim in a tri relay a few years ago. P-Middy also took part in a tri relay, looking considerably better than Branson when she did the run at Blenheim a couple of years ago.

Vernon Kay: Even ex male models look silly in cap and goggles - good to know. 

The best celebrity triathletes (as in the fastest, not necessarily people I like the most) tend to come from the world of sport. The fact that they leave their own sport behind in order to challenge themselves in triathlon tells us one thing: triathletes are hard as nails.

F1 drivers, it seems, are fast around all courses. Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg can not only go close to 2hrs for Olympic distance triathlon (having access to a wind tunnel must help nail that aero bike position!) but both run around 35 minute 10kms, which is really impressive. Button won his AG at the Hawaiian Lavaman race recently and has even set up his own annual charity triathlon. Plus his supermodel missus now does triathlons. JB is a tri geek!

Cool personalised helmet on JB.\

Olympic rower and famous adventurer James Cracknell is a handy triathlete too, and has even represented the GB age groups team at the European Championships.

Rowers seem to do well. Rebecca Romero, who has Olympic medals for both rowing and track cycling, competed in Ironman UK earlier this year, qualifying for Kona with 11.10 on a notoriously challenging course.

Other athletes to take to triathlon include former 400m running supremo Iwan Thomas, ex England rugby international Nick Beal, plus a load of Americans I’ve, frankly, never heard of.

But you don’t have to be a former athlete, or even all that young, to be bitten by the triathlon bug.

 Former journalist and political aide, Alastair Campbell, now 55, has been a keen triathlete for a number of years, as has the 67 year old Sir Rocco Forte, who has several GB age group appearances to his name, as well as an impressive sub-12 hour time at Ironman Austria back when he was a mere 60-year-old whippersnapper.

Sir Rocco Forte

Have I missed anyone out? Any other A, B, C or D listers out there who like to try their hand at tri every now and then?