So we are well into May, and the Triathlon season is upon us. Last year I had a lot to aim for, with all of my events building up into the September Ironman. This year it is a bit different.
With no major event looming at the end of the season, my desire to train has been low. That, combined with an ongoing ankle injury, has meant that I have been doing way less training than I should be (by way less, I of course mean none).
Determined to get back into my training, I went for a brief bike ride last week. Just over an hour on the bike and I was hooked again. It is strange how you don’t really realise how much you have missed something until you have the chance to do that thing again. Being reunited with my bike and riding through the Hampshire countryside, I couldn’t help but think back and remember how I rode this same bike 112 miles, and then ran a marathon. That seems like eons ago. I still can’t quite believe it.
Spurred on by this re-kindling of my love of cycling, Bushy and I went out on Sunday for a sociable few hours. We got lost, but managed to eventually find our way to a pub which sold a very nice drop of local ale. Not having the pressure of training for a specific event and just riding the bike for the fun of it was great. We just enjoyed a nice sunny day cycling. What better way to spend a Sunday morning.
Now all of this talk of not having an event to train for is not exactly true, as on the 26th June I am competing at the Arundel Castle Triathlon. This is an Olympic Distance event, which means a 1500m swim, 40k bike and then 10k run. Either I am incredibly arrogant or overly self confident, but I don’t see completing this event being an issue. In fact, I reckon I could go outside right now and complete this. That being said, there is a distinct difference between completing and event and competing at it. So with about 5 weeks to go, I have embarked on a proper training plan.
This plan is simple. Train 6 days a week. 2 swims, 3 bike rides and a couple of runs. Easy right? Should be around 10 hours training a week which I can fit in fairly easily without it impacting my home life too much. As usual, most of my training will either be very early in the morning or late at night, but I am used to this and it isn’t a problem. My wife is on a exercise campaign too, meaning that we can train at the same time in the evenings and I am not abandoning her to go training all the time. Plus, there is no need for the mega long distance work I was doing for the Ironman, so time is not so much of a factor.
With the plan in place, I set about training this week. Monday was a beautiful evening, so I jumped on the bike when I got home and whizzed up and down the hills which are right outside my house. Only 35 minutes of riding, but 3 decent sustained hill efforts behind me I chucked the bike into the garage and then was straight out for a run. These sessions are known as “brick” sessions, where you cycle and then run afterwards. Designed to mimic the transition between Cycle-Run in a triathlon, they are a vital part of any triathletes training plan.
I am back into my barefoot running, so without further delay it was off with my shoes and onto the pavement. I love barefoot running, but it can be tough on your feet for a while whilst you adapt. As I had done no barefoot running for some time, I took it easy and only did 10 minutes, managing just over a mile. There was some gravel and broken tarmac but I handled this well and have no signs of blisters etc so my form must have been good. Great success!
With Monday training behind me I woke up on Tuesday feeling good. I was planning on going for a 6am sea swim with some friends from the Pompey Triathletes, but I woke up later than planned so this was out. Instead, I swam in the evening at the local pool. This is where the trouble began.
Starting off my swim session I felt (if you pardon the pun) like a fish out of water. I seemingly had forgotten how to swim. Combined with this was the fact that swimming really seemed to aggravate my injured ankle. This left me having to swim without kicking. This is fine in a wetsuit where your legs float, but without the buoyancy a wetsuit provides my legs sink like a stone, acting like a giant brake behind me. As I hauled and battled my way through consecutive lengths I was absolutely exhausted. The chap swimming in the same lane as me must have had a bath in Lynx deodorant, as I could taste this as I was swimming along. Hardly ideal.
After about 1000m of swimming I was done. My calf felt like it might cramp and I was fed up. Swimming used to be my strong point. Now it was apparent this was no longer the case.
Arriving home to cook dinner I discovered that my wife had hurt her knee running, so all in all not a great day of exercising for the Snooks. My ankle was swollen up. I was not happy. Waking this morning my ankle is hurting again. The ongoing saga of an aging triathlete.
Still lessons learnt and on with the plan. I will not be swimming in a pool again unless I absolutely have to. I don’t enjoy the chlorine in the water, don’t like having to turn around at the end of the length, don’t like having to avoid the other people and would much rather swim in open water. So it looks like 6am sea swims are the way forward.
Perhaps see you at the beach?
TTFN
Snooky
Category: cycling
16 days to go – now to get rid of my cold!
I have a cold. I have had a cold for over a week now . It just doesn’t seem to be going away. I caught this cold off of my kids and we have a whole household of coughing, spluttering, snotty people. Nobody has escaped.
All logic says that when you have a cold you shouldn’t train. You should give your body time to recover from it’s illness and then resume training once you feel better. Quality, after all, is better than quantity.
Ignoring my own advice, on Sunday 24th August Bushy and I went down to Weymouth to ride the Ironman bike course, all 112 miles of it. I felt less than brilliant when he picked me up just before 6am on the Sunday. My cold was in full effect, energy levels were very low and I had slept appallingly. Usually Bushy and I will banter away with each other constantly when we meet up, but on this morning he commented that I seemed to have nothing to say for myself. Clearly I wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
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| Arriving at Weymouth |
The weather forecast for Sunday morning in Weymouth was bad. Not light rain, but heavy rain and wind. Regular blog readers will know how much I love riding in the wind. Unperturbed, Bushy and I trundled along down the south coast towards Weymouth. As we got closer and closer the weather closed in and by the time we arrived it was like a monsoon. We parked in the car park that will be the transition area on the day of the race. As you can see from the picture, the weather was not the best.
Following a brief discussion, mostly consisting of “are we really going to do this” we got out of the car and started to get ready. The plan was to create an aid station in the boot of Bushy’s car. We would carry enough food and water to get us round one lap of the 56 mile course, stopping halfway to resupply and then go around again. Neither of us are particularly quick on the bike, so we were aiming for 4 hours for each lap. This is an average speed of 14mph, which is by no means fast but about right for our Ironman bike pace. Remember that we have to run a marathon after cycling 112 miles so we need to leave something in the tank!
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| You can just make out our new friend and his bike |
Getting ready to ride at the same time was a very nice chap who told us he was there to ride the bike course in preparation for his first ever Ironman. He was older than us, but whippet thin and one of those people who just looked fit. Tall and lean with a very nice beard, he clearly knew he was a better triathlete than us and we clearly knew it too. I remarked to Bushy that I often wonder what other triathletes think of us when we meet them. We looked like two blokes who woke up one day and said “lets do an Ironman”. He looked like a seasoned and well prepared campaigner. It is funny how accurate looks can be at times.
Chatting further with our new friend, it turned out he was going for one lap round the course as he was in his “taper”. A taper is when you reduce your training load to allow your body to maximise its strength and endurance ahead of your race. Made popular by top flight endurance athletes who train really hard and then back down to allow their body to reach peak fitness, it has slipped into the amateur ranks and many triathletes spend as much time talking about tapering as they do talking about how light their bikes are. Anyway, he was tapering 3 weeks out from the event, which is a fairly long taper. Each to their own I suppose, plus only an Ironman triathlete would consider a 56 mile bike ride to be “reducing their training”. Soon we finished chatting and he was off into the gloom and rain on his very nice looking bike.
Not long after this, after a considerable bit of messing about (I am the master of messing about), we headed off into the gloom ourselves. It was raining…….hard. The first part of the bike course is a climb up onto the “Ridgeway” and then you have about 35 miles of rolling Dorset countryside before another long gentle climb and then a drop back down into Weymouth.
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| One lap of the bike course |
We made sure to stick to our nutrition plan (something to eat every 30 minutes) and cycled along, sticking fairly closely to our target average speed. It was very very wet and we rode through numerous puddles and areas of standing water. Within about 20 minutes we were both soaked…….and we stayed that way.
In nice weather I imagine the bike course would be absolutely beautiful, but in the rain and gloom it was hard to see where you were going, let alone any sort of view.
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| Cool map showing the topography of the course |
Towards the end of the ride I started to feel bad. Just lacking in energy. Slow and lethargic. It was obvious that my cold had caught up to me. I was pleased to have gotten as far as I had before feeling poor. Bushy whizzed off into the distance and I was playing catch up. I had very little in the tank, was freezing cold and my wet clothing had rubbed my skin in a few places that you don’t want rubbed. Approaching the end of the first lap there was no way I was going out for a second. Competing in weather like this is fair enough. Riding for “fun” in awful conditions is something quite different.
When we got back to the car for the end of lap one I told Bushy that I was done. When it came to calling it a day, he didn’t take much convincing and soon we were into our dry clothes and on the way home to Pompey.
Despite not making the full 112 miles, 56 miles had been ridden in awful conditions. The best part about it is that we had completed one lap of the course in just over 3hrs 35mins, which was 25 minutes faster than planned. We had also averaged 15mph, 1mph faster than planned and allowing for the awful weather this was a great result.
On the day, in decent weather and when I do not have a cold (hopefully) then I think the bike course will be great. 112 miles is a very different beast than 56; however as soon as I start lap 2 of my bike ride on the 13th September I will know that all I have left is 56 miles of cycling and a marathon.
Whilst to most this sounds like a lot, to me I am half way done and only have half way to go. I will be half way to being an Ironman!
Before I go, a very quick update on my fundraising. I am absolutely delighted to say that I am 60% of my way towards my fundraising target of paying for a day’s care at Chestnut Tree House. The generosity that people have shown towards my endeavour is astounding, with well over £4000 raised so far. A brilliant total, so to those of you reading this who have donated thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have been with me every step of the way during my training. Every time I go for a swim, ride or run I think about those kids at Chestnut and all of the kind people who have donated to my cause.
It sounds like a cliche, but at some of my lowest points during training the kind words and donations that my supporters have given me have picked me back up again. I cannot lie about it, training for this Ironman has been tough, but it has also been the greatest journey of my life so far. In 16 days time that journey comes to its end. I will have covered 10’s of 1000’s of miles in training. I will have only 140.6 miles to go. Nothing to it……………….right?
TTFN
Snooky
Sometimes you have to look backwards to go forwards
As a triathlete, or any sort of endurance sport enthusiast you are almost constantly looking forwards. You strive to beat previous times, run quicker, swim faster, cycle better. This is fueled by websites such as Strava or Garmin Connect, which allow you to record your workouts and then compare them to previous efforts or to other athletes.
It is very easy to become obsessed with this. “Last time I rode up Portsdown hill in 5min 11 seconds and today it has taken me 6 minutes……..I must be getting slower” or “I am the 112th fastest person who has run along that section of road, but only 116 have ever run it. I am shockingly bad at running”.
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| Click on the link to the right of this post to follow me on Strava |
Thoughts like these will often pass through my mind as I am reviewing my workouts. Of course I tell myself that this sort of analysis is essentially pointless. The only way you can really compare two workouts is if the conditions during those workouts are exactly identical. Same weather, same time of day, same amount of sleep the night before, same nutrition, same gear worn, same everything. Naturally some days you feel faster and some slower, depending on training load, nutrition and sleep. I know all of this, but never the less I still pour over the data and run myself down for not being quicker.
Every once in a while somebody reminds me of where I have come from and why I should feel hugely proud of myself. Usually this is one of my mates who I regularly exercise with. I will moan and groan about how I am still slow or unfit, and the guys retort by reminding me of just how far I have come.
In the constant pursuit of becoming fitter, leaner, more muscly or whatever else you might be training for it is only too easy to lose sight of where you came from. In August 2013 I couldn’t run to the end of my road. I would get out of breath walking up the stairs. In August 2015 I can cycle over 100 miles with relative ease, have completed a marathon and can swim for pretty much as long as I like. To be honest I am barely recognisable from the man I was two years ago. Broadly speaking I look the same on the outside (other than being bit thinner) but inside beats the heart of a proper endurance athlete. OK I’m not the fastest. Agreed, I may consistently finish in the bottom 3rd of my races, but who cares.
It is an interesting feeling being only 29 days away from the Ironman, what will be without a doubt the biggest challenge of my life so far. I am hugely excited to be racing and massively proud to be representing and raising money for Chestnut Tree House. Coupled with that is the fear of what I have signed myself up for (as mentioned in the previous blog post). Fear of the unknown.
One thing that I know for certain is the man I was in 2013 would have had absolutely no chance at all of finishing an Ironman. As for the man I am today, well I guess in 29 days we will find out.
TTFN
Snooky
Fundraising and abject terror (not necessarily in that order)
As my wife posted on Facebook this morning, today marks one month until my Ironman race.
30 days to be precise. I have reacted to this information with abject terror. A chill ran down my spine when I read her post. It really actually is 30 days. There is no way around it. 30 days from now at 6.30am I will be dressed in a wetsuit, swim hat and goggles. Along with my friends Mike and Bushy I will run into the sea at Weymouth to start 16 hours of non stop exercising. I am genuinely shaking at the thought.
Yesterday I felt fine. My training has been going OK, I managed the Half Ironman reasonably well and my confidence was fairly high. Today I am panicking. I think that self doubt is inevitable when it comes to undertaking such a huge challenge; however I have never felt as nervous as this before. God only knows what I am going to be like in 30 days time.
Anyway enough of me being a Nervous Nigel. I have a some people to thank.
4 weeks ago now a group of people got together for a party. The party was a garden games party, hosted by Jean and Vince who are soon to become my sister’s in-laws. They have held summer games parties for a while; however this year they decided to raise some money for Chestnut Tree House.
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| Fantastic Gardens |
They were inspired by the same thing I was, the story of Louise, Steve, their daughter Amber and the amazing support that Chestnut Tree House provided to them. If it hadn’t been for my sister telling Jean and Vince about the Ironman and Chestnut this fundraising event would not have happened, but boy am I glad it did.
It was an amazing sunny day in the simply beautiful gardens of Jean and Vince’s Sussex home. Their friends had come to play games and raffle off some amazingly generous prizes that had been donated. All proceeds to go to Chestnut Tree House.
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| Ball flinging game. |
Jean and Vince were amazing hosts. Vince had done an amazing job building all the games and Jean was on simply superb form entertaining everybody. My parents were also on hand to help with the games, make a few sandwiches etc. Louise and Steve came along with their son Owen and Steve gave a simply beautiful speech about Amber, Chestnut Tree House and the wonderful work that they do. It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. If I can harness 1% of the strength that Steve and Louise have shown since the loss of their little daughter I will have no trouble at the Ironman at all.
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| Raffle – Jean and Vince standing up |
The whole day was brilliant. Once the raffle was completed and the dust had settled, between everybody who attended we had raised £630 (or £787.50 if you include Gift Aid) which is simply phenomenal.
A massive and heart felt thank you to all those who attended and raised such a brilliant total for Chestnut Tree House. Especially big thank you to Jean and Vince and everybody who helped them out to make the day go so perfectly.
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| Basketball game. |
Chestnut Tree House is the ONLY children’s hospice in Sussex and South East Hampshire. Without the support of charity fundraisers and private donations they would not run. Without Chestnut, there would be NO help for life limited children and their families throughout the entire of Sussex and South East Hampshire. NONE!
My aim through these Ironman endeavours is to pay for a days care at Chestnut. It costs them £6850 to stay open for just one day. As I write this I have raised £3,381.80, which is 49% of my target. If you would like to donate please visit my Just Giving page and give what you can. It simply means the world to me and the families that Chestnut Tree House supports.
Thanks All.
James
Halfway there in the rain – The Owler Middle Distance Triathlon
It’s 06:15 on Sunday 26th July and unusually my alarm has not gone off. Must be time for the Owler Middle Distance Traithlon.
The reason is that my alarm was not needed was because I was in bed with my oldest little girl Niamh and we had both been up since 5am. We are staying in Hythe, Kent, to house-sit for Cat’s Dad and Girlfriend and make sure that Cat’s 15 year old brother Miles doesn’t burn the house down. Niamh is sleeping in a different bedroom than usual. Crucially it has a double bed in it and no blackout curtains. As such she gets up when the sun gets up (about 5am) which also means that either Cat or I get up at that time too. Luckily for me I had to be up early so no real harm was done.
The Owler Triathlon was held in Ashford, at the Julie Rose Stadium. Breaking from tradition I had organised all my gear the night before and even put the bike in the car, so it was a relaxing morning getting ready and then driving on the backroads from Hythe to Ashford to ensure that I avoided Operation Stack.
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| Half way through setting up pre-race. |
Arriving in plenty of time for the 08:30 start I registered and made my way down to the transition area. This was situated on the outer edge of an athletics track and made for a fairly spectacular location. There was plenty of space in transition with individually marked out bays for your bike and plenty of marshals on hand. I was number 73 and struck up conversation with number 72. He had done the Owler Middle Distance Triathlon a couple of years before and said it was a great event, well organised and well supported. It certainly seemed that way so far to me too.
At this point I would like to clarify something. There is nothing “middle” about a “middle distance triathlon”. It is named in rather a confusing manner. The order of difficulty (increasing distance) in triathlon goes Super Sprint, Sprint, Standard (also known as Olympic), Middle (also known as Half Ironman or 70.3) and then Full (also known as Ironman, Iron Distance).
The “middle” distance is also known as 70.3 because this is the number of miles that you cover during the race. Just to make things simple I work in kilometres so will describe it in that for you.
1.9km swim
90 km bike ride
21 km run (half Marathon)
It is exactly one half distance of the race that I have been building up for, Challenge Weymouth in September. One half of an Ironman. Not to be under estimated. Some people train for years just to attempt a half Ironman. I had less than 2 years training behind me and only 5 previous triathlons of any length. Gulp! Anyway back to the plot……….
Chatting away to number 72 we were soon warned that it was time to make our way down to the lake for the swim. The lake was only a short walk away and would be my first lake swim of the year. Following on from the briefing I made my way into the water and was surprised how cold the lake was. I was glad to be in my wetsuit. Positioning myself at the back of the swim bunch to try and avoid getting bashed about too much the countdown of 3-2-1 was heard and we were off.
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| Swim Course |
Advice from absolutely everybody regarding the longer distance traithlon’s (Half and Full Ironman) is to take it easy at the start. There is no point in going all out in the swim and using up too much energy, especially as a few minutes gained in the swim can be made up much more easily on the bike or the run. “Nice and slow” I was thinking to myself as I swam straight into the feet of the swimmer in front. It was murky in the lake and visibility was not good at all. I picked my way through a few swimmers as best I could, got kicked a few times in the ribs and an elbow to the side of my face. I couldn’t help but smile. This is what triathlon is all about. The idea of getting kicked in the face whilst swimming would probably terrify most people. To us triathletes it simply means the race has begun!
Settling down into my swim I concentrated on getting into a rhythm and sighting (lifting my head up to see where I was going) every 6 strokes. I felt good in the water and despite swimming through some very thick weed and a swan almost landing on my head I was steadily overtaking a few people. Simply concentrating on swimming smooth, I rounded each buoy in turn. Bizarrely I ran aground when passing past the middle island on the final part of the swim. There was big pile of gravel under the water which my arm hit. It was just deep enough to slide over using my hands to push me along and then I was off again. Round the final buoy I turned left, swam a short distance to the shore where I was helped out of the lake by the marshals and then it was a short run back to the athletics track and into T1.
Before the race I had decided to replicate my Ironman tactics in total, so in T1 I needed to change out of my wetsuit into my bib shorts and cycling top ready for the bike leg. Arriving at my bike I already had the top half of my wetsuit off. Quickly getting it off my legs I threw on my dry robe (think large hoodie made of towel material with the arms cut off) over my head and pulled my bib shorts on. Taking the dry robe off, I realised my shorts were inside out. Back on with the dry robe (to hide my modesty) I then turned the shorts round the right way and put them back on. Dry robe off again, I realised my shorts were back to front. Muttering an obscenity under my breath it was back on with the dry robe once more, then finally my shorts were on correctly. I clipped on my heart rate monitor, my cycling jersey was zipped up, helmet and shoes on and I was on my way out of T1. Good thing to, as I had been there for about 25 minutes and I think the marshals were wondering if I was going to make camp.
Before the race I had set an alert to go off on my Garmin if my heart rate went over 155 beats per minute. The idea behind this is to make sure that you keep your heart rate low, allowing you to maintain an endurance pace for longer as you are not over exerting yourself. As I was reckoning on it taking me at least 3.5hours on the bike endurance was definitely the name of the game.
Off onto the bike course my Garmin was going beserk. It was constantly alerting me that my heart rate was over 155 and I was barely pedaling. I was convinced it was malfunctioning (something it does only too well) and was getting frustrated with the constant bleeping alarm. Luckily, I was soon to have something more important to worry about, as after about 9 minutes of cycling my rear wheel went flat. This was not good news; however these things happen. I carry a spare inner tube and this was good practice for if it happens at Weymouth.
Pulling over I set about changing the wheel, accompanied by the constant bleeping of my heart rate alarm. All was going well until I went to pump up the replaced inner tube with my CO2 cartridge and rather than the CO2 coming out when I want it to (using the switch on the CO2 dispenser) it just started whizzing out. I quickly got the end of the nozzle onto the valve but the CO2 was running out already and I barely got 40PSI into the tyre. I run my tyres at around 100PSI and the difference would be clearly noticeable. Anyway there wasn’t much I could do. I didn’t have a normal pump or any more CO2 so it was time to get back on the bike and get on with the race. I had wasted over 12 minutes changing this inner tube and with 22 minutes of the race gone I had barely covered 3km. Not quite the start to the bike leg I was looking for.
Almost exactly as I got back on the bike it started to rain. Rain had been forecast, but as I own absolutely no wet weather cycling gear I decided to just race in my normal stuff. This would turn out to be a mistake, but more of that later. The rain falling and my under inflated rear tyre made the bike handle like a rodeo bull, but thankfully I managed to stay upright until I reached the village of Wye where there were some marshals stationed. “Have you got a pump” I shouted as I rode towards them. “Certainly do, Joe Blows” they cheerfully shouted back and then got out their Joe Blows (this is a genuine brand of bike pump) and topped me up to 100PSI. One of them kindly gave me a spare CO2 cartridge and then I was off, with a properly pumped up rear tyre.
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| Bike Course |
At this point it was raining hard and I was already getting cold. There was nothing for it though than to just keep pedaling. I was very conscious not to go too fast to try and make up for lost time. I just kept up a steady rhythm, concentrating on riding smoothly and keeping an eye out for potholes, manhole covers and any other hazards that become infinitely more hazardous in the rain. Exchanging some words with a few of the riders I was overtaking I was really feeling good mentally, but extremely cold physically. The good part about this was I felt like I was putting in hardly any effort. I had turned off my heart rate monitor shortly after my puncture and was riding purely on feel. This is where my training really started to pay off. I was used to the feel of steady exertion. All the hours in the saddle meant that I knew how hard I could push for what length of time. Somewhere inside my brain I knew that I was at a sustainable pace. I knew that I would make the bike course and get to the run. There were a few very scary moments, including a big rear wheel slide on a fast downhill but other than that things were going well. I also lost a water bottle as it slipped from my hand towards the end of the bike leg, so rode the final 25km with no liquid refreshment.
The major issue was the cold. My feet had gone numb after only about 45 minutes of riding and had stayed numb. I had lost feeling in my fingers and my quads were absolutely freezing. Out of all of these, the quads were worrying me the most. My quads like to cramp on the run stages of triathlons. Starting a run with them freezing cold was not going to help.
Despite the cold I was amazed to finish the bike leg in around 3hrs 30 minutes, which was bang on my target time despite the puncture. Climbing off the bike and into T2 I felt pretty good. Sadly I had to change clothes again.
Remember the dry robe from before? Well this was no longer dry. It was absolutely soaking having sat out in the rain for hours, as was pretty much everything else. The only things I had managed to keep dry was a pair of socks and my trainers. Struggling under the soaking wet dry robe, it was off with the cycling gear and on with the running gear. The dry socks and trainers felt like heaven on my freezing feet. I paused to have a quick chat with a marshal as I had ridden past quite a few stranded riders who had either given up or suffered mechanical breakdowns and wanted to make sure somebody was going out to get them. I was reassured that a van was going round picking these unfortunate people up, so I shuffled my way out of T2 and onto the run course.
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| The Owler run course. 2 x 10.5km laps |
Either I hadn’t read the blurb properly or had forgotten it, but the first and last 2.5km of each lap of the run course was cross country round the lake. The run was two 10.5 km laps, so I would have to run 5km of each lap cross country. This is usually not an issue; however it was very very very very muddy and finding a dry path was proving difficult. Fortunately the rain had let off just after the start of the run and I was making progress. My plan was to follow my Ironman run tactics. Run for 1.8km, walk 100 metres then run another 1.8km. The only reason I had chosen 1.8km was that this is the distance between aide stations at Challenge Weymouth. I will be walking through all the aide stations in Weymouth, so it seemed logical to practice exactly this.
Running is my weakest triathlon discipline. Compounded by a foot injury that I have had now for about 4 weeks causing me to stop all run training, I knew the run would be tough. I was making very steady progress using my run/walk tactics and managed to stagger round the first lap in 1hr 6 mins. This was not bad for 10.5km and better than I was expecting. The second lap really took its toll as the heavens opened up even worse than during the cycling and the wind whipped around me. I could no longer manage to run for 1.8km before walking. My foot had thawed out and was starting to hurt, my quads were screaming and every step it felt like my calves were going to cramp. I just concentrated on form and swapped to a strategy of running for 4 minutes and walking for 1. This slowed my pace to 7min 30sec kilometres, but gave me a second wind and I was still making progress (all be it very slow progress).
Rounding the half way point of the second lap I knew I only had just over 5km to go. I have run 5km hundreds of times and just imagined that it was a sunny morning on Southsea seafront and I was enjoying a relaxing jog with friends. This was quite some leap of imagination, as in reality it was monsoon-esque, but I was feeling good. I was going to complete The Owler. Best of all, I was looking like finishing in less than 7 hours. A smile crept across my face. I felt like a proper Triathlete. Even better than that I was going to become a finisher of a Half Ironman race. It’s not everybody you meet who can say that.
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| Love this medal |
Jogging along in my fantasy world, thinking about sunny weather, cold beer and what Challenge Weymouth had to hold the final 5km went past without incident and I was through the finish chute and over the line. The weather was so bad that the announcer couldn’t even see my race number so I had to tell him who I was, which he then triumphantly announced over the loud speaker. The irony of this was not lost on me, as there were only about 10 other people around. Most of the other competitors had finished and were either safely inside out of the rain, or had gone home. Never the less I heard the announcement and I felt very very proud of myself. Completing the 70.3 was the biggest achievement of my athletic career to date. Definitely something to smile about.
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| YES YES YES, Ive done it |
As you can see from the picture on the left I completed the race in 6hrs 50 minutes. Most encouraging was a good swim time and a very decent bike leg considering that it was awful weather and I had a puncture.
The run was slow, but this was to be expected. I am not a good runner and probably never will be.
Who cares though right. Race done and onto Challenge Weymouth for the big one.
The final thing for me to say is sorry it has taken me so long to write this update. I have been a very busy boy of late, with some major changes for me and the family on the horizon. Not to mention rather a lot of Triathlon training. More of this to come in further updates.
TTFN
Snooky
The run was slow, but this was to be expected. I am not a good runner and probably never will be.
Who cares though right. Race done and onto Challenge Weymouth for the big one.
The final thing for me to say is sorry it has taken me so long to write this update. I have been a very busy boy of late, with some major changes for me and the family on the horizon. Not to mention rather a lot of Triathlon training. More of this to come in further updates.
TTFN
Snooky
One bad and one extremely good.
Last week has been a bit tough on Iron Snook!
What started with a simple filling in my tooth ended up as me having 3 days off work and experiencing the most intense pain I have ever felt. I don’t want to go into massive detail, but lets just say I had an infected tooth which took 4 days of very strong antibiotics to get under control and the pain was so bad I was begging my wife to pull the tooth out with pliers at home. Luckily she said no, the infection seems to be better (though is still a bit painful today) and soon I can go back to the dentist and get it sorted once and for all.
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| Not a good picture, but left is Mike and right is Bruce |
This infection has meant no training. I was in agony and in no condition to do anything. Because I felt better by Friday night, I agreed to meet the boys for a bike ride on Saturday morning. Following a week off of exercise and fighting an infection this bike ride was very tough going indeed. I felt extremely weak. I also tried a quick 5k run on Saturday evening which was equally tough. Waking up this morning I felt like I had been run over by a bus. Clearly I am not quite over this infection yet!
On the positive front the scenery we saw as we wound our way around the Meon Valley was simply stunning. I feel genuinely privileged to live in such a beautiful part of the world and to be able to go and enjoy stunning summer mornings on my bike with my friends.
This is a part of the Ironman training that was totally unexpected for me and is rapidly becoming the bit I am enjoying the most. If it hadn’t been for this little Ironman adventure I would never have learnt the peace and serenity you can get from running for hours on end, riding you bike for 100’s of miles or simply swimming along in the sea. Some people say to me “isn’t the training boring” or “I just couldn’t be bothered with cycling for hours on end”. Before I started my training I felt exactly the same. I also found the training such hard going to start with that it was never enjoyable, it was simply hard work.
After exercising consistently for a few months you stop feeling awful every time you go out and you start to see and feel the beauty in exercise. I genuinely believe that our bodies are built for endurance activities. You start to unlock something primitive inside yourself. You feel the need to run. You feel more alive when your heart is pumping hard than you do when you are sitting still. It is a bizarre and wonderful feeling.
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| The beautiful Meon Valley |
Recently I have had this feeling almost every time I have gone out to do some training. Don’t get me wrong, training is always hard, but there are periods within the effort when you feel a real sense of inner peace, a kind of tranquility that is hard to describe.
It is during these times that my thoughts almost always move back to my motivation for doing this Ironman race in the first place. Of course, this is the wonderful Chestnut Tree House, who (despite NO Government funding) manage to care for 300 life limited children and their families year after year. They rely on over £3,000,000 of charitable donations every year just to stay open. They are the ONLY children’s hospice in East Sussex, West Sussex and South East Hampshire. Without Chestnut, there would be no children’s hospice care in any of these areas.
I am hugely grateful to all those who have sponsored me so far and genuinely feel like you are all with me every moment of my training. Chestnut Tree House means a huge amount to me personally and any support that people choose to give them is simply amazing. This is where my one “extremely good” from my blog title comes in.
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| One of Chestnut’s Charity Shops |
My sister is marrying a splendid fella called Damian. Damian’s Mum and Step-Dad (henceforth known as Jean and Vince – because those are their names) have a games party every year at their house. Their friends and family come along, play garden games (largely devised and created by Vince), make merry and generally have a jolly good time. This year the party is extra special. I am hugely humbled and massively proud to say they have decided to make the party a fundraising event and are donating the money they raise to Chestnut Tree House.
The huge effort that Jean and Vince are going through to host this party and raise money has been inspired by my efforts and also by the story of Louise and Steve (which you can read by selecting the “Motivation” tab above. This massive show of generosity from Jean and Vince and their friends who will attend the party almost brings me to tears. When I started on this road to the Ironman I never expected that I would receive so much great feedback about my blog and never expected that I would inspire others to raise money alongside me. It is truly humbling and makes me believe that perhaps one man can actually make a difference and help this truly amazing cause. Not on his own, but with the help and support of others WE really can make a difference. Every single penny that goes to Chestnut helps families who are in the most desperate of times, the most challenging of circumstances. Nobody ever expects to outlive their child, but knowing that Chestnut Tree House are there to care for children who’s lives are cut short and help them and their families make the most of the time they have together, is a comforting thought.
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| Sensory room at Chestnut Tree House |
Chestnut Tree House is a wonderful place, filled with fun and laughter and if you ever get a chance to visit I would strongly recommend that you do so. I am immensely proud to be competing at Challenge Weymouth to raise money for Chestnut, massively humbled at the efforts of Jean and Vince to help support my cause and hugely looking forward to only 9 more weeks of training before the big event.
Thank you all for reading my blog. The updates will be coming more regularly as we get closer to the big day. Only 2 weeks until my half Ironman race in Kent and then the big push towards Weymouth begins.
As always, any and all support you would like to give to Chestnut Tree House and to me via my JustGiving page would be hugely appreciated.
https://www.justgiving.com/Iron-Snook
TTFN
Snooky
Injuries, Jellyfish and bloody bumpy roads
As I sit and write this it is 75 days until Challenge Weymouth. 75 days until I don my wetsuit with 2000 other masochists and stride into the surf of Weymouth bay. This brings me onto one of the things I would like to talk about…….jellyfish.
All along the south coast of England we have record numbers of Barrel jellyfish appearing just off of our shoreline. Juvenile Barrel jellyfish are normally predated on by fish, keeping the numbers of adults in check. Over-fishing has caused less juveniles to be predated, meaning that there are literally 1000’s of these jellyfish growing into adulthood.
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| A barrel jellyfish photographed off the Dorset coast |
Adult Barrel jellyfish can get big. I mean really big. Up to 6ft wide and weighing in at up to 35kg (77lbs, or 5 stone 7 lbs). Articles from marine experts are saying that there may be 10’s of 1000’s of these aquatic fellas off of the Dorset coast.
Now not all of them are going to be as big as the one on the left, but there are jellyfish the size of bin bags washing up on the coast all over the place. Portsmouth has had a few and over the weekend there were large numbers washed up in Swanage.
I don’t want to come across as a big girls blouse, but I am less than happy at the thought of sharing my swim at Weymouth with these underwater whoppers. Their sting is only as strong as a stinging nettle and poses no threat to humans; however I imagine that swimming into a 35kg jellyfish will be more of a shock than anything. My toddler only weighs 15kg and I wouldn’t want to swim into her. Plus she doesn’t sting.
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| Spotted off coast of Boscombe at weekend. |
Made slightly worse is the fact that the swim at Weymouth is in September, when the sea is at its warmest. If we have any sort of onshore breeze or current there is going to be a fair few jellies sharing the water with me.
Just the thought of this makes me very nervous. I am not exactly sure why. They pose no threat to me; however there is something primordial and spooky about jellyfish. There are beautiful sea creatures and I would never harm one, but also I am happy never to get that close to one. I feel the same way about tarantulas (and I wouldn’t want to swim with any of those either).
My wife is convinced that if there are loads of jellyfish about at race weekend then the organisers of the race will do something about it. I am not so sure, but we will have to wait and see.
I also seem to have picked up a little niggling injury. Well I say little, we will have to see how much worse it gets, but I am definitely officially injured. Self-diagnosis has led me to believe that I am suffering with a form of Plantar Fasciitis
As you can see from the picture on the left, this is a strain in the fascia just after the heel bone. A very common running injury, which manifests itself in pain in the arch of your foot. I only have it in my right foot and bizarrely it goes away whilst exercising and comes on at periods of rest. Recommendations on how to fix this vary hugely. Some say to rest, ice etc; however there is a large movement away from icing injuries like this, as it may slow healing.
Others say to keep exercising but at a lesser level. It is a bit of a mine field and hard to work out what I should do. Luckily I have a bio-mechanical coach who I trust 100% who is going to take a look at me and hopefully give me some exercises to help this go away. He is a former professional Ironman and will understand that I cannot just stop training with only 75 days to go. Fingers crossed Trevor can get me sorted out and I will be on the way to recovery soon. In the meantime I am going to back down on my running, but keep the bike work up and increase my swimming. I have hardly been swimming at all if I am honest, so this little injury is probably a blessing in disguise.
Lastly I want to have a moan up. A good old fashioned complaining session. What us in Pompey would refer to as a “squinny”. The more I spend time on my bike, the more I love it. You start to feel at one with your machine, instinctively knowing when to change gear, when to stand on the pedals to finish that final hill, when to push on the flat etc. The only thing that affects my enjoyment of my cycling time is the road quality (or should I say total lack of quality).
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| Broken tarmac – easy in a car. Horrible on a bike |
When you cycle you keep to the left of the road so cars and other faster road users can overtake. This is just good etiquette. The problem with doing this is that the shoddy road surface is even more shoddy the closer you get to the verge. There are potholes that are actually small caves and endless miles of broken tarmac (an example of the sort of thing I mean is on the right).
When you are in a car this broken tarmac is nothing. You just smooth straight over it. On a super stiff road bike with very narrow tyres this is not a comfortable surface to ride on. You can hack it for a while, but after a few hours of constantly bumping over this sort of stuff it starts to wear very thin.
Occasionally you can find some stretches of road that are blissfully smooth. Mostly it is this bumpy crap. So my moan up is this. Hampshire is one of the most affluent counties in the UK. We all pay a tonne of council tax to live in such a beautiful county. Take some of that council tax and fix the roads up a bit. I am fed up of jolting along on tarmac that should be in much much better condition. That is not to mention the cycle paths, which seem to have a special sort of tarmac that breaks up even more than the roads do. Just bloody well sort it out.
The roads in Surrey are much nicer. That’s probably why everybody who lives in Surrey thinks they are better than everybody else. 🙂
Anyway that’s it from me. Big week of training this week, injuries, jellyfish and crap road surfaces not withstanding.
TTFN
Snooky
Here we go, the ramp up is starting
So, as I sit and write this it is 123 days until Challenge Weymouth. Not an especially significant number you might think. It is not so much the number of days left that is significant, but rather the phase of the training I am about to enter.
The plan I am following is split out into distinct phases. These are the “Base” phase, followed by “Build 1”, “Build 2”, “Peak” and then finally the taper down to race day.
Base phase is exactly what it says on the tin, designed to increase your base level of fitness. In all honesty I have not put quite as many hours in as I would have liked due to wanting to be at home and help my wife through a challenging time with our kiddies. That being said, I am fairly confident that my “base” level of fitness is not too bad and so missing some training sessions during this phase has not phased me (see what I did there).
Next week starts the “Build 1” phase. This sees me increasing my training load, putting in extra time and distance in all three triathlon disciplines.
I am aiming towards the following:
Weekly training targets:
- Cycling – 250 miles
- Running – 50 miles
- Swimming – 8 miles
If you prefer to think of this in time rather than distance, we are looking roughly like this
- Cycling – 15 hours
- Running – 8.5 hours
- Swimming – 4 hours
You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that this is around 27 hours training per week, which is a lot. It’s more than an entire day every week devoted to training.
This leads us nicely to the $64,000 question, “How the hell are you going to fit all this training in?”
Luckily there are a few things in my favour. It is only my intention to hit the mileage/distance targets about for the 3 or 4 weeks before tapering off ready for the event. This allows me to ramp up the training gradually.
Also my wife is being amazingly supportive. Despite the fact that our lovely 2 year old daughter seems to have morphed into a terrorist and our 12 week old baby is permanently attached to her, she is happy for me to train almost as much as I like.
Lastly I live a very convenient 20 miles away from work, meaning that I can cycle into and back from work fairly regularly. This is decent mileage and has relatively little impact on the family.
So all in all things are looking good. I am feeling strong, the training is going well, I am blessedly injury free and am starting to really look forward to the big event in September.
Below are a few pictures of Bushy and I on a recent bike ride just to prove that training is actually fun.
TTFN
Snooky
Luckily there are a few things in my favour. It is only my intention to hit the mileage/distance targets about for the 3 or 4 weeks before tapering off ready for the event. This allows me to ramp up the training gradually.
Also my wife is being amazingly supportive. Despite the fact that our lovely 2 year old daughter seems to have morphed into a terrorist and our 12 week old baby is permanently attached to her, she is happy for me to train almost as much as I like.
Lastly I live a very convenient 20 miles away from work, meaning that I can cycle into and back from work fairly regularly. This is decent mileage and has relatively little impact on the family.
So all in all things are looking good. I am feeling strong, the training is going well, I am blessedly injury free and am starting to really look forward to the big event in September.
Below are a few pictures of Bushy and I on a recent bike ride just to prove that training is actually fun.
TTFN
Snooky
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| Just setting out. |
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| Quick pitstop |
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| An excellent demonstration on how not to change an inner tube |
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| Still going, 45 minutes later |
Portsmouth Duathlon – 1 year on, am I any fitter?
It’s 6am on Sunday 15th March (Mother’s Day in the UK) and I have just woken up in a very uncomfortable position on my sofa. It must be time for the Portsmouth Duathlon.
Before anybody jumps to any conclusions, I was on the sofa simply because I fell asleep watching TV and never moved. Having a newborn means that wherever I fall asleep I tend to sleep much more soundly than usual. I am assuming this is because I am generally knackered pretty much constantly. It’s not bad sleeping on the sofa, except for the fact that it is cold not especially comfortable. Still I had racked up at least 6 hours sleep and that’s pretty good in my book!
Breaking from tradition, I had done a little bit of preparation the night before this race, so my bike was ready to go. I quickly checked the tire pressures and then set about eating breakfast and double checking my bag.
Half way through breakfast my oldest daughter Niamh woke up so I fished her out of bed, stuck her in with my wife and gave her the rest of my porridge to keep her entertained. Having decided on wearing my tri suit with shorts and my Grazing Saddles cycling top I put my clothes on, gave the family a goodbye kiss and was on my way.
From my house it is a very short bike ride to the start, where I grabbed my race numbers and went about the now familiar process of attaching them to my bike, my helmet and myself. I saw Anthony (who comes to my triathlon training sessions) and had a quick chat with him and Darby from the Pompey Triathletes before racking my bike, assembling my gear and then heading out for a quick warm up.
I bumped into a few more people from triathlon club (Simon, Andrew, Emma) and had a brief chat with each of them. The overall consensus was that it seemed to be too early for the first race of the year and that people felt a little under prepared. As far as I can tell, this is entirely standard for any sort of race. Nobody gets to the morning of the race and thinks they have done enough training. Everybody seems to doubt themselves. Perhaps it is human nature. Or just that everybody actually hasn’t done enough training. 🙂
Quick warm up completed, I joined the queue for a pre race wee with about 10 minutes left until the start, scheduled for 8.30am.
One of the cardinal sins of competing is to do things differently on race day to what you would do in training. Only stupid people will do this. Things like wearing different clothes or shoes, eating or drinking differently etc. Usually doing this will have negative effects on your performance as your body undergoes new experiences whilst at race pace.
Naturally, I had decided to ignore the above and made the decision to try a different energy gel product before this race. I had brought a ZipVit Nitrite Gel with me for pre race consumption. The theory is that ingesting nitrites allows your blood vessels to open up more, getting the blood pumping round your body more easily. The science behind this is fairly sound so I was keen to try a product that supposedly helps. Ripping the gel open I slurped down the bright purple liquid inside. It was the consistency of wallpaper paste and tasted like how I imaging licking a compost heap must taste.
Having eaten my delicious nitrite gel I headed towards the start line, where I saw my friend Greg (another person I met through tri club). Greg is almost always enthusiastic and smiling, so I wandered over to start next to him and absorb his positive vibes. We had a brief chat and just as Greg was starting a very promising little story with the words “I got completely hammered on Friday night” we were off. Somehow we had missed the start. The lady in front of me was tying her shoe and had also missed the start, so I deftly avoided clattering into her and set about the business of running the first leg of the race, totalling 5 kilometres.
Normally you will run more quickly than you should at the start of a race as the euphoria of running in a group sees everybody set out quickly. Glancing at my watch I noticed we were at about 5min/km pace as the big pack proceeded down towards Southsea Castle. 5min/km would give me a 25 minute 5k time. My personal best 5k is 24min 56sec, so I was thinking that this pace was probably a bit ambitious for me. Never the less I carried on and surprisingly I felt good. Sticking at around 5min/km pace I even started to overtake a few other runners. I have never, ever overtaken somebody running before and I must admit it did feel quite good.
Soon the kilometres clicked by and I was almost back to the start with 4km run and 1km to go. I still felt OK. I was amazed. A minor hamstring niggle was in the back of my mind, but I always have some sort of leg pain when running and have gotten used to ignoring it. At this point in the race I couldn’t help but smile. I was competing in my first event of the year. In less than 6 months I would be in an entirely different race at Challenge Weymouth and it felt fantastic to get my event season off to a start.
Rounding the final corner back into transition I glanced at my watch which said 25 minutes. I had a run a close to PB 5k on the first leg of the Duathlon and was feeling good. Well in all honesty I was more shocked than anything. Perhaps my watch was wrong? Quickly putting on my cycling shoes, helmet and grabbing my bike I was out of transition and onto the road, where I set about the business of cycling 15 kilometres.
I really like cycling and I had a game plan. Whoever was in front of me, the plan was to catch them, overtake and then chase down the next person. Setting about this and quickly getting up to race speed I was battling into a strong headwind but consistently catching those in front of me. After about 5 minutes I ended up riding with two other guys and we kept overtaking each other. The great thing about this is that it inspires you all to go faster and in the back of my mind I knew that when we would soon turn around and head back the way we came. This would mean the wind would be on our backs and it would be time to put the hammer down.
Sure enough turning around and no longer riding into a strong headwind was amazing. I dropped a few gears, got myself as low as possible and pushed hard. Quickly passing 40kph (25mph) I was flying past my fellow competitors and loving it. As we rounded the end of Southsea common it was back into the headwind for a bit, then a lap of the common again and once more into the headwind towards transition to complete the 15k.
Just as I had got close to transition I had heard my wife call out my name and was ecstatic to see that she had gotten Niamh and Mia into the double buggy to come down and support me. Not a bad effort for a woman who had a C-Section less than 4 weeks before. I was in and out of transition quickly, saw my girls standing by the exit and ran over to give them a kiss. Niamh (my 2 year old) gave me a big smile then shouted at me “RUN”. This was all the motivation I required and I headed off into the last leg of the race with a huge smile on my face. Only a 5k run to go.
By this time the pack had thinned out a lot and I was running pretty much on my own. Using the same method I had on the bike, I lined up the person in front of me and ran. Usually as a race progresses you slow down a bit (or sometimes a lot), which is a real indicator of a lack of fitness. Glancing at my watch I saw I was cruising at 5:15/km pace, only 15 seconds slower than my first 5k and pretty quick for me. Soon I was overtaken by a much quicker runner; however I stayed about my task and slowly reeled in a few people in front of me. I was amazed that I managed to maintain a reasonable pace and was still feeling good.
Soon enough the 4km marker appeared and I knew I had only 1km to go. There was a young lady who had been in front of me for a while but remained stubbornly difficult to catch. I resolved to catch her and kicked hard. She had also sped up for the final push and try as I might I just couldn’t catch her. Following her over the line I checked my watch and it said 26 minutes. I had just run around 26 minutes for a 5k, having already run one 5k and cycled 15km. 6 months ago I couldn’t even run 100metres. I was feeling quite pleased with myself.
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| L-R Greg, Emma, Me, Stella, Simon |
Reunited with the family I had a quick chat with some of the triathlete guys, my friend Rachel took an excellent photo of us and then it was time to go home, very happy with my performance and glad to be injury free.
Once the results came out it was time to have a look at how I had done and compare this to last year.
In the 2014 Duathlon I ran my first 5k in 28:16, took 32:39 on the bike and then the second 5k was 31:38. Total time (including transition) – 1:32:35
In 2015 I ran the first 5k in 25:19, took 31:32 on the bike and then ran the second 5k in 26:01, for a total time of 01:24:54.
Although my bike was only slightly quicker than the previous year, 2014 was much better conditions and the wind was not close to as strong. The thing I am so pleased about is the improvement in my running. Also I was competing at around 85% of capacity as I have the marathon in April and picking up an injury would not have been a good plan.
So all in all 1 year on from my first ever multi-sport race there is no doubt I am fitter. I also ran a sensible race, got my preparation right and am slowly inching towards some sort of competence in this sport.
Next event, Brighton Marathon on 12th April. GULP!
TTFN
Snooky
Ironman Training and young families…….can the two coexist harmoniously?
My newborn is 3 weeks old. To say I am a bit tired is fair comment. Newborn babies are nocturnal, or at least our one appears to be.
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| The Kraken / a 2 year old |
We also have a two year old. Two year old kids can be difficult customers at the best of times. Throw having to compete for Mummies attention with a newborn baby into the mix and you unleash the Kraken slumbering inside any two year old.
I am also trying to fit my Ironman training around helping my wife with the kids as much as I can. How she is coping with the demands of feeding the nocturnal newborn all night long and looking after both her and the two year old terrorist all day is beyond me. I am constantly in awe of how she manages to hold it all together.
So far I have managed to stick fairly closely to my training plan. I missed out on a bike ride over the weekend cause of family commitments but otherwise I have made all my other training sessions. I can only put this down to the fact that my wife understands my motivation for wanting to go out training and is willing to stand by me whilst I do so.
Either it’s that, or she is so knackered that she doesn’t have the energy to object. The more I think about it the more I think it is probably this; however I will make hay whilst the sun is shining and continue to train as often as possible.
So I guess the answer to the question “can Ironman training and raising a young family coexist harmoniously?” is yes, provided you have a supportive partner, or one that is so tired she will go along with anything.
Sunday 15th March is my first Multi-Sport event of the year, the Portsmouth Duathlon. Curry and I competed in this last year and I am keen to see if I am faster one year on. Fingers crossed for a good finishing time; however I do want to hold something in reserve as I am desperate not to do anything that may harm my Ironman training.
Competing at close to 100% capacity can result in injury as you push yourself. A safer option would be to coast round at 85-90%. I am hopeful that my 85% effort will be faster than my 100% effort from last year.
Looking back on my write up of last years event (click here to read it) I was suffering with shin splints at the time. These devils are thankfully well in my past, so my running should be quicker purely because it is pain free. I also have a nice shiny new bike to debut in it’s first ever race, which should be substantially quicker than the previous one. I weigh less, should be more fit and am generally in better condition than I was a year ago.
“Surely he can’t go wrong” I hear you all thinking to yourselves. Perhaps you are right. Competing is a funny thing and as long as I prepare properly and keep my head there is no reason I won’t be able to improve on last years finishing time.
All I have to do before Sunday is a brick session tonight (bike then run), a swim and bike ride on Thursday, a long run on Friday (which will be at least 2.5 hours) and a long bike ride on Saturday. Total amount of training ahead of me before Sunday’s race day is around 7.5 hours.
Nothing to it, or as Aleksandr would say…………………….Simples. 
TTFN
Snooky
Snooky's Adventures 