The Monday list: ten twits to follow

Each Monday from now on (well, whenever possible, at least) I’ll be doing a top five or top ten list to start the week. This week, I’m starting nice and easy with my ten fave people, companies or websites to follow on Twitter, with a brief explanation as to why. This list is aimed at those with an interest in triathlon and related subjects, but does not include pro triathletes (ten triathletes who tweet well will be a future list). If you have any comments, recommendations or additions, I’d love to hear them:

1. @ThirdBrownlee – An irreverent look at the world of triathlon from Alistair and Jonathan’s “little brother”
2. @TrainingPeaks – lots of great information and technical training articles, even if you don’t use the TP programme for training
3. @BeginnerTriathlete – loads of advice and features for intermediate as well as beginner multisporters
4. @dcrainmakerblog – plenty of triathlon information but also the best and most complete reviews of all tri-related technology
5. @TriathleteEurope – good source of news and interviews
6. @purplepatch – Purple Patch head coach, Matt Dixon, is a top tri mind with lots of ideas that could be of benefit to age groupers
7. @trifuel – links to interesting studies, sessions, slideshows, news and reviews
8. @Doctor_Hutch – as well as being a brilliant writer (if you’ve not already, read his book The Hour), Michael Hutchinson is a great source of cycling-related news and opinions
9. @BenGreenfield – top triathlete who is also a huge nutrition mind, with loads of links, opinions, videos and podcasts relating to health, wellbeing and sports performance
10. @slowtwitch – a place where all tri junkies can really geek out  

This list is, of course, in no way exhaustive and tries to include a little of everything but, if you’re a triathlete just getting into Twitter or a member of the Twitterati just getting into triathlon, you won’t go far wrong if you follow these ten handles to start.

Going long for the fatties…

As regular readers will know, this blog is where I harp on and on about me, myself and I – my own impressions, experiences and general barely-thought-out waffle – but today I want to draw attention to somebody else entirely.

This morning, over in Dubai, my friend Ed Hawkins started a self-supported ultraman which will see him cover 10kms of swimming, 448kms of cycling, and 84kms of running over the next three days.

His schedule looks like this:

Day 1 - 10km swim and a 174km bike ride
Day 2 - 274km bike ride
Day 3 - A double marathon, an 84km run

This isn’t an official race (tho Ed will time the run to coincide with the Dubai Marathon on Friday) – Ed is alone in doing this. So why is he doing it? To raise awareness for weight-related health problems and diabetes – major issues everywhere but particularly in the fast-food, no-exercise, drive-everywhere culture of the Middle East.

I guess this particularly strikes a chord with me as Ed’s story is similar to my own: both sporty kids who, for one reason or another, got pretty big and unhealthy in our 20s and, mainly through discovering endurance sports, managed to turn that around. In Ed’s case, he turned it around in spectacular fashion, becoming a fantastic triathlete (and Kona qualifier!) in the process.

So, today, rather than waxing lyrical about ’10 things that annoy me about wetsuits’ or ‘why I hate treadmills’, I’m just going to be following Facebook updates to see how Ed (and his superb team of supporters and cheerleaders led by his wife Sarah) is getting on and doing some online pompoming.

Follow Ed on twitter: @ehawkins
Check out his blog: edhawkins.blogspot.com
Follow his ultraman progress: facebook.com/ChallengeUltramanDubaiDiabetesAwareness

Finally, if you’ve accidentally stumbled upon this and are thinking that your life is maybe heading in an unhealthy direction, I’ll give you the advice that finally brought it home to me: it’s only going to get harder to put right tomorrow. If you want to be fit, active and healthy at 60, you need to do the right things at 30, otherwise you’re going to be sat wheezing in your chair, wishing you’d made changes while you had the chance.

And, of course, you don’t have to become a triathlete or an Ironman – it may sound overly simple, but turning my life and health around was as simple as committing to doing 45 minutes of sport or exercise three times a week (no excuses) and deciding what my single biggest bad eating habit was (pasta, double helpings, three times a week) and changing it. Those changes created a snowball that is still rolling and (I hope) getting faster.

What's your biggest challenge?

One of the things I like best about triathlon and endurance sport is that there is always some sort of challenge that needs to be faced and solved... or endured, at least. The physical challenges are, of course, the most obvious examples; however, often more difficult are the mental challenges that swimming, biking and running can throw up. Then, maybe toughest of all, are the logistical challenges.

You have an early meeting but need to fit in an hour on the bike…

You need to pack swim kit, work clothes, running gear and a change of clothes to meet some friends for a drink and need to get it all into one bag…

You have a brick session – an early long ride (likely to be cold) followed by a medium distance run (likely to be hot by then); how many changes of kit, water bottles, sports drinks, energy gels and bananas do you need to get you through and where will you keep them..?

To me, triathlon often seems like less of an endurance sport and more of a complex puzzle.

While living in Dubai, the toughest equation to solve often involved the year’s biggest races being in or around summer when temperatures in the UAE were tipping over from ‘Megan Fox’ to ‘Jessica Alba’ on the hotness scale (which is way more fun than a thermometer). Therefore, the solution to the training quandary often involved very early mornings, pre-frozen water bottles and cooler boxes left in the car.

Ahhhh... let's just take a minute here... OK, carry on reading.

Recently, I’ve been faced with a completely different problem:

The cold is an issue, of course – especially where cycling is concerned – but the bigger problem is that it has snowed two or three times in the past week or so, without once getting out of minus temperatures, so you can imagine how precarious the roads, bike paths and pavements are at the moment.

This doesn’t matter too much for cycling – it’s still very early in the season and a few half hours here and there on the home trainer will do the trick for now – however, having begun my training for the Rotterdam Marathon, it most definitely does affect my running.

And, so, I’ve had to hit the gym – an obvious solution, maybe, but I have always had a hate-hate-hate relationship with the treadmill. After 10 minutes, I’m bored senseless. But the training schedule says what it says and won’t wait for the roads to dry and temperatures to rise and so, yesterday, I headed for the gym ably supported by my MP3 player and an iPad with a couple of shows on it and, for the first time, I blasted out a steady half marathon (21.1kms) on the treadmill.

And this is where the logistical, the physical and the mental all collide – OK, it was just a mid-paced training run but I managed to knock out almost two hours on the treadmill – my sworn enemy! – and the motivation and positive energy I got from achieving that were enormous. Life threw me a curve ball, and I adapted and just got her done – winning the logistical, physical and mental battles all at once. And that, as much as anything, is what triathlon training is all about. While everyone else says "I think I'll skip my run/gym visit today", we just have to man (or woman) up and get 'er done. 

And, to my mind at least, this is a pretty good lesson to apply to life on the whole.

Top ten triathlon resolutions

Ok, ok, so you’re supposed to make your New Year’s resolution on January 1^st – I get that I’m a little late with all this but, as the old saying goes, better tardy than not at all… or something like that?

Anyway, here are my slightly delayed resolutions for 2013:

1.       Laugh, smile and always have fun –even in light of all the tough and painful moments, that’s what we do this for.

2.       Do something new. It’s important to keep things fresh so, this year, I’ll be doing more run races than before, my first ever 70.3s (yeah, I’m one of those guys who went straight from sprints and Olys to full Ironmans… sorry!), as well as an epic obstacle course race. Excited!

3.       Work on my weaknesses. As I’m now living in Holland and, therefore, can’t really do much to improve my laughably terrible hill climbing, 2013 has become all about strength training (something I’ve neglected these past couple of years) and doing more running than Forrest Gump.

4.       Remember – it’s just a sport. I’m going to try to make sure I never take triathlon, or myself, too seriously.

5.       Say ‘thank you’ more. That means to swim and run coaches, the trainer at the gym, all volunteers at races, as well as my supportive friends and family.

6.       Volunteer. The beginning and middle of the season are pretty busy but there are quite a few big run races here in Holland towards the end of the year, so I’m going to make sure I give something back and volunteer to marshal or whatever’s required at one of those.

7.       Take a non-triathlon/sport related holiday. This means leaving the bike at home and not even hiring one there. It probably even means not taking run trainers. Apparently, the earth will continue to spin…

8.       Goals = gear. It’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking that we’re not a little faster, or making the top 10/podium because we haven’t got the right bike, or wheels, or trainers, or bottle holder, or saddle, or (deep breath…) helmet, or bike jersey, or Garmin, or bike computer, or goggles, or wetsuit, or tri suit, or… well, you get how this goes. In reality, there are very few gadgets that can make as much difference as a block of good, consistent training or, in fact, losing a few unnecessary kilos. So, this year, the theory is that I’ll buy some minor tri-related additions – when and only when, I’ve achieved certain pre-set goals.

9.       Be less selfish. Triathlon is, by definition, a selfish sport. But I’m determined to find a balance this year. For every weekend of big training or racing, there’s a day at the beach, in the park or at a music festival. For every early morning race start, there’s a night out. Every time I have to tell the other half I can’t do something because or triathlon, I’ll make it up with something else or better.

1.   For those of us who’ll never top podiums, it’s important to remember that PBs and kicking your friends’ arses are also magnificent victories in their own right. I’m hoping to bask in plenty of PBs and dole out several ass-kickings this year! 

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.

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.

 

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?

Some cool stuff from Ironman Austria

I just wanted to share some great stuff from Ironman Austria. Seriously, I can't recommend this race highly enough and, right from the sign up through to all this stuff now, the whole experience has been utterly fantastic.

First up is the official video which they showed at the presentation party the next day and, I think, does a good job of capturing the awesome atmosphere, festival spirit, insane support and even a little of the heat!

Secondly is this super cool and nifty thing called My Page by Marathon Photos. Basically, click on PLAY and you can follow my race and see the pace I was doing compared to (in this case) the winners, Faris Al Sultan and Lindsey Corbin, and the last finishing athlete. However, if your friends raced, you can actually tag a handful of them and see how you did at each point. 

Better still, at the relevant places on the course, it stops to show you any photographs or videos you appeared in. Nice!

Let's face it, an Ironman is an expensive event to take part in but these little added-value extras help to justify the cost and are also great reminders of fantastic days.

Ironman Austria - race report: Part 3 - post-race thoughts

Read part 1 - preamble here

Read part 2 - the race itself here

A few words about the race. I can't speak highly enough of the organisation – everything from a bike check-in that involves electronic tagging of bike and wristband, as well as photo of you and bike etc... to great briefings and parties, and the carnival atmosphere throughout. The course was immaculately prepared too. And the size and range of athletes it attracts is awesome. For those of us who'll never get to go to Kona as athletes, I imagine this kind of race is as close as it'll get.

If you don't want to race Ironman Austria, do yourself a favour and go on holiday to Klagenfurt or do a training week in Carinthia. It'll blow your socks off. The city is almost perfect – slightly isolated, it's historic and still cool, with loads happening. Nobody really seems to work too much, instead choosing to swim in the lake, ride their bike and have a beer at any opportunity. It's my kinda town. Plus, the women there are all beautiful and athletic, heavenly creatures – if that's what that young Adolf fella had in mind, maybe we were a tad hasty in judging the chap..? (still too soon..?)

But the people make the race. They love Ironman and what it brings, and they come out en masse. The swim is incredible and the Tour de France style climbs on the bike are sensational but, on this occasion, the people of Klagenfurt are the only thing that got us through. I'll be forever grateful for them turning their garden hoses into sprinkler systems, for lining up with hose pipes ready to dowse us with icy water as we passed by... this happened all the way along the course. Apparently, at around the 15 hour mark, a couple of guys pitched up and started handing out icy cold beers to those still out on the long walk home! Most of all, I'm grateful for the people of Klagenfurt for realising that hosing athletes down is a job best performed by the town's bikini-clad women...

By way of a conclusion, how do I feel now, a week after the race, other than still being in a whole world of sunburn itchy discomfort (oh, and lost four toe nails too!)? 

post-race sunburn

since this pic, i've lost all but four toe nails!

I guess proud covers it. The thought was always that, if things went well on a good day, sub-11 was a possibility. To do that on a day that was far from ideal, makes me proud. If you look at the scores on the doors, last year 1093 people went sub-11 – this year, that number was 413. It's hard to read the results on the official site correctly, but the DNF (did not finish) rate looks to have been as high as 20%. We chatted to a guy at the presentations who'd gone 9.20 in Austria last year – this year he was back in better shape than ever ready to smash the 9 hour mark (bit of a beast, it'd seem!)... he went 9.40. All goes to show how tough a day it was out there.

During IM Wales, I said never again; it took me a few weeks and months to change my mind. During the run on Sunday, I said never again. By the final kilometre, I already knew that wasn't true and I'm already considering my next Ironman race.

But it may be a little while away. Next time out, I want to be able to improve notably again. I'm still a poor cyclist when it comes to hills – that needs to change; just a little more run strength, I'm sure, and I could run sub-4 hours for the IM marathon too. For now, it's back to the short stuff for a little while, as I try to improve my strength and basic speed ready for the sprints and Olys of the season ahead; then we'll try to bring all that to an Ironman in another 12 months' time, maybe.

Read Part 4 - thanks here

Making a mix taper

And so, after all these months of early mornings, solid training volume and simple hard work in the build up to Ironman Austria 2012 – my second Ironman – my taper has finally begun.

To the uninitiated wondering what the hell I’m talking about, the ‘taper’ is the period of recovery that comes just before a big race, when you allow yourself to scale back the training, letting the body to recover, so you arrive on the start line feeling healthy, rested and ready to rock.

To those who have done an Ironman before, however, the taper means something different. It’s a time of sluggishness, of last-minute panic that fitness is slowly but steadily seeping out of your body. It’s a period during which every single meal sticks straight to your tummy and your weight increases daily. It’s a time of insecurity, sleeplessness and general hatred for humanity but, more specifically, triathlon.

Triathlon and Ironman in particular create obsessives. We do so much training that we’re addicted to it. Our sense of self-worth and our self-image becomes wrapped up in what time we were doing for those 100m reps in the pool this morning, or how many kilometres we ticked off on the bike at the weekend. When that starts to get scaled down, it’s inevitable the lack of endorphins rushing about the body is going to make us feel a bit, well, erm… what’s the technical word for it again… erm, oh yeah… SHIT!

Then there’s the simple fact that with less time spent exercising, there’s more time to think about what you’re not doing, should have done, everyone else has done etc. It’s not merely proximity to the race that makes me much more nervous during the taper than I’ve been throughout the rest of the process, but having more time to think about it.

Having been through all this once before, I’m finding it easier this time. I know feeling a bit unfit and slow is normal. I know I’ll be fine come the big show. But I also have some idea of what does and doesn’t work.

You see, although you’ll get set training programmes with standard tapers, no two people are the same. For some, the ideal taper is as long as four weeks. For others, it’s two days; although I think the average is around two weeks.

I never enjoyed tapering back in my swimming days as a kid and it’s something that – following a one-size-fits-all plan – I got very wrong last time around before my first Ironman. While a little sluggishness and a bit of weight gain are inevitable, I basically felt like one of those fat American Jerry Springer people who have to be airlifted from the house… sluggish doesn’t get close. The weight gain was probably comparable to those Yankydoodlefatasses as well. To make up for this, I went out for a couple of sessions that were too long and too hard. It was a train crash of a taper.

This is one of the real benefits of having a coach this time around. Having discussed it with coach, I’ve not laid off the training to the same extent – there’s an extra day off this week and the sessions are a little shorter but, at the moment, they are still fairly intense. I think this is something that suits me but, also, as I’ve said before, my training for this Ironman has been more of a slow nine-month build rather than a traditional 12 week peak. Also, the time I spent in the UK last month means I don’t have too much accumulated fatigue in the legs.

After tomorrow morning’s session (the team is down for a 60km, 40km and 20km time trial, although I may only do the 60k and 20k) my foot will come right off the gas but I’ll continue swimming hard and every day right up til Wednesday night, when I travel. This, I think, is the answer for me. Coming to triathlon with a swimming background, I derive a lot of my confidence from how I’m swimming. So, while swimming daily may not actually really improve my Ironman swim time, it will help me go into the race feeling good. Just as importantly, mentally, being able to keep training almost right up to the day stops me from feeling unfit, fat and sluggish while swimming doesn’t take the toll that running or even cycling have on the body and is quick to recover from.

In the meantime, it’s a case of relaxing a bit, working extra hours so I can enjoy the time in Austria doing Ironman, and trying to stop myself from eating every sweet, treat and chocolate bar I see! Otherwise, next season, you’ll be more likely to see me on Jerry Springer than on any podiums.

Three more weeks…

Just three weeks to go until Ironman Austria, dear peeps, and everything – toucheth ye olde woode – appears to be going OH KAAAYH. I was initially worried that I’d end up paying for the time in the UK but it actually seems to have done me the world of good – a few big, hilly bike rides followed by a bit of an enforced rest (just two runs in five days).

Now, if you’re doing a more standard 12 week build for an Ironman, I wouldn’t recommend that sort of lull just a month or so out but there are a few reasons why I think it’s worked for me.

Firstly, I don’t feel like this has been a standard build but more the result of a long, hard, gradual increase in fitness and stamina over the past eight months since I joined Tri2Aspire. I’m far calmer, more relaxed and less sore than I was at this point before Wales – some of that, of course, is down to experience and knowing exactly what putting my body through a 3.8k swim, 180k bike and full marathon feels like. But, also, Wales was a traditional build – from decent shape to IM shape in 12 weeks. This time, I feel like my fitness has increased steadily since Wales and, therefore, there’s been no need to force it or peak. For that reason, a bit of a break made little difference.

Also, I’ve always had a fairly unique approach to pressure: run, run like the wind! The Easter before my final exams in university, for example, while all my uni mates were sweating over their studies and revising for 10 hours a day, I went to Portugal to work in a kids’ club for the whole holidays. Undue stress, I feel, is more likely to undermine my abilities than lack of work… that’s the theory at least.

And it’s a theory I may need to fall back on as what I call ‘Final Month Fever’ kicks in. Usually, I’m a fairly social sort but can happily go weeks without going out or having a drink… I just sort of, well, forget. Now, however, with all that hard work under my belt and just a few weeks to go, I’m consumed by the sort of desire and appetite to go and get smashed that is usually reserved only for sailors on shore leave. I guess it’s a kind of cabin fever – I know I’m so close to ‘getting er done’ and being able to enjoy a bit of a blowout (hey, all those weekends of being well-behaved, having early nights or dragging my ass out of bed at 3am have to be balanced up somewhere) that it’s tempting to start early. That week off, with a few beers and less focus on training, has potentially saved me from a week-long epic bender of IM-destroying proportions!

Then there’s the weather. A couple of days ago, Allah hit the thermostat and changed it from ‘Stupidly fooking hot’ to ‘Holy crap, my face is actually on fire, no seriously, my skin is melting’. It is unpleasant. It would be unpleasant if Ironman were at the end of summer and I was having to get the miles in now but it’s somehow worse that this particular journey is nearing its end.

You see, in reality, nothing I do now is really going to make any difference – I’m as ready as I’m going to be. I don’t mean I’m in perfect condition and am going to go out and win it – simply that, if I haven’t put the work in now, nothing I do between now and three weeks’ time is really going to make me significantly fitter. If anything, there’s the risk of injury, illness or overexerting. So, every single ‘hot as a dragon fart’ kilometre that is swum, biked or run in these here conditions is being done ‘just to stay the same’. That’s frustrating. I want it to be here NOW (please imagine footstamping while reading this last sentence)!

But it is what it is – and it’s only that for 17 more days as I fly out to Austria on the night on 27 June.

And, as it approaches, there’s a voice that sits there like one of those devils on the shoulder that appear in bad sitcoms and worse movies… It’s a voice that says just one thing and, I imagine, that voice doesn’t change whether you’re coming up to your first, second (like me) or 50^th Ironman: “Have I done enough?”

It’s hard to tell. As I said, I feel far more in control than I did three weeks out from Wales. The build-up to Wales hurt; I was permanently sore, always tired… but that, in the perverse way that the mind of the triathlete works, was preferable to this calm. I knew I was pushing myself. I knew I was hammering it. I had to be – I was hurting!

It’s at times like these that you need to look outside for your gauges as the internal ones are useless. Since the run-up to IM Wales, I’ve been logging my training on DailyMile – a very simple but easy to use site for recording your sessions, distances, times and intensities. It’s not technologically complex, but neither am I. The past few months I’ve also been keeping a more detailed diary on a spreadsheet. These are both godsends (should that be allahsends here in Middle Earth?). In times of doubt, I can take a look and see that I have been putting the work in and hitting sessions. I realise that volume isn’t everything, but I can also compare the final few months with those that preceded Wales and see that, although I may not be so continually sore or wiped out, I’m actually covering way more kilometres. So, I can conclude, I am just in better shape.

And that was backed up this weekend when the team went to Hatta to hit the hills. It was my third time there and I did the full long ride all the way down to Kalba and back – a 115km long ride that has some 3,000m of elevation in it… and all that in frying pan heat and hell’s ass humidity – and, although I may never be king of the mountains, I definitely crushed it compared to any of my previous Hatta excursions. I even came off the bike feeling fresher than I have before.

So, by these exterior gauges, things are looking OK. Now it’s all about the final few weeks and the taper – two things that can be quite difficult to get right, being a mix between keeping the foot on and also getting the right amount of recovery. I feel I far from nailed this period last time around. Get them right, and I’m confident I’ll put in a performance I can be proud of.