Not quite up to the exploits of fellow ATHelites over the last few weeks but I had a little run on Sunday in München. wink emoticon
Back in April when I was assessing my shoulder injury, I thought I'd better sign up for a race which avoided swimming. A trip to Germany in the October school week seemed to fit the bill. I reckoned that if the worst case happened (I hadn't accounted for a 2hr 7min swim at that point!!!) and I didn't make the swim in Zurich at least I'd have another event to train for.
To be honest, I was utterly exhausted after Zurich and it took me a while to find my running legs again. The regular Thursday night sessions at the Palace grounds helped me to blow away the cobwebs and rediscover the feeling of the simplest of our 3 sports. Many thanks to everyone who helped tow me round Strathy Park!
Work has been *crazy busy* and excuses aside, I'd only managed to squeeze in 3 'long' (i.e. 2 hour treadmill) runs in the lead up to this event... Maybe not the best preparation... I can feel my coach glaring at me over my computer wink emoticon
We flew into Munich on Friday evening from Edinburgh after I'd checked the tickets about 20 times to ensure we were leaving from the correct airport wink emoticonAn easy registration on Saturday at the Olympic Stadium was followed by a lazy afternoon with Lorna and the kids watching The Martian at a local cinema. I decided to carb load that evening with a couple of Radlers - damned tasty.
Didn't think I was nervous, after all it was 'only' a marathon... something we'd normally do after a wee swim and a pedal. However, I saw 1 am, 2 am, 3am etc. until getting out of bed at the luxurious hour of 7:30 a.m.
Hopped onto the über efficient tram system and was kicking about at the start of pen B by 9:30 waiting for the gun to go off at 10 a.m. Atmosphere was good, obligatory Euro-pop being blasted out of the speakers and loads of runners dressed up in layer after layer... it was 12C for goodness sake - a Scottish summer!
Our group was meant to go at 10:10 but within a couple of minutes of the gun going off at 10 a.m. we were off and I was trying desperately to catch a glimpse of the 3:30 pacemakers. As per usual, it was a little stop start for the first 1500m or so then the field thinned out and it was easy running from then.
I stuck to my plan of approx 5min/km for the first 30km or so, focusing on staying tall and keeping the cadence at 180 spm. I was downing a banoffee torq gel every 30 mins and counting down the kilometres which started arriving more slowly...
I spotted Lorna, Luke and Zoë with about 10km to go... just as the wheels were starting to come off. That gave me a massive boost (she's clever like that) and I dug deep for the final few miles.
I knew my huge stretch goal of 3:30 was away from me but I was determined to get in under 3:45 so I bust a lung to keep the legs turning over and finally entered the tunnel onto the track in the Olympic stadium. Has to be said - definitely the coolest place ever to finish a race (even better than Carluke's John Cummings stadium). Managed to find the turbo boosters and crossed the line in 3:43:52, knocking over 25 mins off my previous best from London in 2006. Knackered but very happy grin emoticon
All in all, delighted with the race and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an excuse to carb load on some amazing beer.
Thanks again to everyone in our fantastic wee club for your banter, time, advice and general splendidness. I was proud to be wearing the black and orange repressing team ATHelite.
This will be my last race of 2015 as I'm scheduled to have surgery on my troublesome shoulder on the 2nd of November. It turns out I'd torn the subscapularis tendon and it's 2/3 detached from the bone. No wonder swimming was sore!!!
Start of the race at the Olympic Park, Munich
feeling good around 25km in...
Good heel lift - Nick would be proud ;-)
Up to around 30km into the city centre
Running into the Olympic stadium...
...starting to hurt now
...pushing hard down the final straight
and across the line for a new personal best - happy days!
Munich Marathon highlights... it must be in slow-motion, I'm sure I was running faster than that ;-)
It's been a while since I updated the blog; work, life and training got in the way... but since I've been asked for the race report I thought I'd fire up the old blogger once more. Get yourself a cup of your favourite brew and a pack of biscuits, it may take some time to read ;-) Training for IM Switzerland has been a bit of a mixed bag. My bike and run training had gone well but I suffered a shoulder injury at the end of March which meant I'd done NO (nada, zilch, S.F.A.!!) swim training in the 15 weeks leading up the race. Not ideal. My most excellent physio, John Trevena, reckoned I'd torn my rotator cuff (set of muscles that essentially hold your shoulder in place) and apparently they're quite useful for swimming. Now, given swimming is my weakest discipline that wasn't great news but I decided to push ahead with the race rather than ask for a partial race refund and see if it would hold out for the 3.8km on the day. Recovery was going well enough, pain was subsiding and mobility returning until we went out for what we thought would be our normal dog walk 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately it was far from normal, and without wanting to go into details online (not a happy story), I ended up placing the shoulder under a lot of stress undoing a lot of the previous 13 weeks healing. Doh. Not only that but this caused quite a few sleeplesss nights and messed with the mental preparations for the race. Double doh. Lorna had organised Switzerland in conjunction with Kate at Race Force and about 10 days prior to the race a chap came and collected our bikes and transported them to Zurich. Normally they would only have needed a couple of days but given the French were revolting (again) and closing off the Calais ports they decided to take the bikes early to ensure they were there for race day. For anyone that has ever travelled with their bike in a bike box you will know what a nightmare it is. I would thoroughly recommend doing this - takes away so much stress from the journey! Have to say, Kate and the Race Force Team were utterly awesome - like having your own back up team at the race; organising reccy swims and rides on the Saturday (not that we got to them!) cheering us on over the bike and run route and collecting bikes and whisking them away at the end of the race. Totally brill - thanks Kate! Lorna's Mum, Meg was coming with us to look after Luke and Zoë whilst we spent a day messing about in Zurich. We travelled through to Edinburgh airpot on Friday morning after I'd checked the tickets and booking references about twenty times to make sure we were at the correct airport. If you've read my earlier posts you'll know why I'm paranoid travelling there ;-) The landing into Zurich airport was aborted at the last minute as there was another plane still on the runway but after doing his best impression of Top Gun (afterburners on full!) the pilot circled back round and performed probably the smoothest landing I've ever been on. Now, I'd heard Switzerland was expensive but I didn't reckon on the taxi drivers pootling about in S-class Mercedes. Pretty smooth way to arrive at the hotel - I could get used to that... although I'd end up bankrupt after about 10 days. The bikes arrived at the hotel an hour or so later and we met up with Kate who gave us information from the mandatory race briefing (that we'd missed) - oops! We were in the West end of Zurich - once the dodgy end of town, and now built up with new industrial complexes, hotels, restaurants and cafes. Maybe not the most scenic view from the bedroom window but the snow-capped mountains in the distance looked awesome. And BIG!
Did I say it was hot? It was flippin' roasting! The weather in Zurich had been 30+C pretty much all week and the chance of a wetsuit swim was evaporating faster than an ice cream dropped on a pavement. We headed down to the Landiwiese (after figuring out how the ticket system for the trams worked) and got our bearings for the whole IM Switzerland site...
Finish chute under construction
Expo and part of athlete village
Snow capped mountains in the distance refusing to cool the lake down!
Panorama of the bridge leading to the island - the Australian swim exit
Even in the early evening people were swimming sans wetsuit in the lake... Either they were incredibly hardy or I was out of luck...
On the Island for the Australian exit
Swim exit
looking confident (but 100% bricking it!)
Finish chute under construction
Swim exit under construction
Not only had my metaphorical '99' evaporated but my confidence had gone too. I was absolutely bricking it. I climbed aboard an emotional rollercoaster and sat silently on the tram back to the hotel. On Saturday morning we headed back down to the Expo to register - picking up a new rucksack...
Now, given Ironman is usually shortened to IM maybe their marketing and design guys need to rethink the position of the logo... "Anything is IM Possible" was NOT what I wanted to be carrying about on my back - there was already a millstone there and it was tweaking my rotator cuff nicely! We headed back to the hotel to pick up our bikes and bumped into a couple of guys, Lee from Portsmouth (number 906) and James from London, who would be joining us on the startline on Sunday. We had an easy pedal to transition, trying to avoid the tram tracks and racked the bikes together with our bike and run gear. It was all getting very real. I suddenly was overcome with a wave of confidence and reckoned I may just 'bally well' do this thing! Bring it on!! After yet another pasta meal on Saturday night I headed to bed at around 8:30 p.m., knowing that best case a few hours actual sleep would be all I'd manage. I was right. I saw every hour until the 4 a.m. wake up call. Maybe the text confirming that tomorrow was definitely going to be non-wetsuit was not the best message to send me off to sleep. Without wanting to sound melodramatic, I was convinced the only way I was going to make it out of the lake was in a boat or a wooden box - I was now properly sh*****g myself! I was properly scared and was questioning my sanity. Sunday Morning - race day: On with the P20 factor 50 and I struggled to eat a couple of croissants and a yogurt. Fired in a couple of coffees and grabbing our white street wear bags we headed down to meet the first tram of the day at 5:18 a.m. We'd been nervous whether or not this was the best way to get to the start line but needless to say, with perfect efficiency the tram arrived and we boarded with many other competitors and a host of clubbers who were looking a little worse for wear. Lorna and I headed for transition to load up our bikes with 'nutrition' = high energy gloop for the day and I pumped up my tyres to the correct pressure. The sun rose across the lake and it already felt like it was going to be a warm day. Next stop. The portaloos. Never a great experience but I managed to avoid the wobbly one at the end. Two bits of great advice that have served me well over the last couple of years; never trust a fart in an Ironman and never use a wobbly portaloo. It has to be said, even at 6 a.m they were rank and I struggled not to puke sitting on the loo. (I told Lorna tonight that I nearly chucked into the hand wash receptacle - she informed me it was a urinal... lucky escape!).
Sun breaking over Lake Zurich and the transition area
With the bikes checked and the bowels emptied it was time to head across to the swim start. We'd missed the swim practice but I headed down to the lake to check the water temp and see if I could remember how to swim. The water was like a warm bath, but unlike the VA pool I could actually see where I was going. After 4 or 5 front crawl strokes I decided I could swim and maybe, just maybe, I could do this after all...
The swim start has thankfully changed to a rolling start - competitors get to pick their starting pen according to their estimated swim finish time and are released 5 at a time every 10 seconds. This avoids the 'pub fight in a washing machine' scenario that often happens - mentioning no names, Tony ;-)
I bumped into Lee at the start of the 1 hour 30 min + pen and we wished each other luck and headed out into the water...
That's me in the green cap.
I'd been petrified in the run up to this, especially given the non-wetsuit status of the swim. I decided to take a full bottle of MTFU tablets but it turns out they're pretty heavy and must have adversely affected my buoyancy... They must have worked somehow because I found myself swimming in the lake - not fast, but swimming none the less. My confidence grew and I keep Dory's mantra in my head..."just keep swimming, just keep swimming". At times I think I was actually enjoying it - the sun was out, the lake was warm, the water was clear, I was edging forwards AND there were still people behind me. I was thinking 'I might be rubbish but I'm not drowning, yet!".
After what seemed like a long time I was on the finishing straight (of the first loop) and heading for the Island. Then the pros came through and I felt like I was going backwards. Someone managed to catch me in the left calf and my leg seized up just before the Australian exit across the island. I started flapping my legs about like a bluebottle on its back to try and release the muscles and they came back to life just before I got dragged out onto the platform. I checked my watch: 50 mins - 'ooooh I thought, I might be on for a 1:30 swim here...' Perhaps if I'd been able to get to the race briefing I'd have figured out the second lap was longer :-(
I wandered back into the water, conscious that my 'dives' generally result in my abs taking a slap and causing too much amusement to those around. I noticed fewer and fewer fellow competitors on the lake and it was obvious that I was now giving the rest of the field a rather overly generous advantage on the bike and run sections of the course. When I eventually turned round the final buoy and headed for the swim exit it was like the scene in The Shining when the corridor lengthens... Each time I sighted, the exit looked further and further away. Was I actually swimming backwards? Maybe checking my Garmin would yield some clues.
The water was so clear it was easy to check my elapsed time; 1:30, 1:35, 1:40, 1:45, 1:50 (where the hell is the exit?), 1:55, 2:00... eventually I could see the bottom of the lake and was hauled out of the water in 2:06:57 - the longest swim I've ever done, both time wise and distance 4,210m. The best/worst swim of my life. (As a reminder I did Austria in 1:13 !!!!). Never again. Managed to avoid the cut off by 13 minutes and 3 seconds... close ;-)
Do I look happy to be out of the water?
T1 was (relatively) uneventful for me. Dried off, slapped on the chamois cream, Knight of Sufferlandria kit on and checked number belt was in place ;-) One of the bonuses about being crap in the swim was it was *really* easy to find my bags and the bike. Always a silver lining.
Headed off onto the bike course and tried to keep power around 180W but my heart rate was very elevated - around 165-170 bpm, would normally be <140 bpm... must have been somewhat fatigued by the swim... I wonder why?
First 33km is pretty flat, following the banks of Lake Zurich through some stunning scenery and amazing houses overlooking the lake. The next 42km are, let's say, a little lumpy, taking in The Beast and The Egg climbs. The Egg runs alongside a railway line and the gradient isn't too bad but it seems to go on forever... I've never liked eggs. The descent from Egg was good - a 7km descent falling about 300m. Managed to hit a new top speed of 82.1 km/hr... felt like I was descending like Mr Galbraith ;-)
Saw Lorna on the bike loop and she looked pretty relieved to see me - she was about 30km ahead and looking good.
Next 11km are pretty flat, then a nice right hander and you head up Heartbreak Hill which rises up 80m over 1.2km... Just what you need after 80km or so. I loved it - the atmosphere was phenomenal - people cheering and shouting right beside you then clearing out of your path just before you ran them over - utterly ace.
Once over Heartbreak Hill there was a short descent and then a flat loop back to transition area to complete the loop once again. I'd completed the first lap in around 3:47 so I knew I wasn't qualifying for Kona but decided to try and pick the pace up for the next 90km. By now it was getting pretty toasty out there, with some reports suggesting it hit 37C on the bike course.
I was sweating so much salt into my eyes at times it was actually difficult to see where I was going. Thankfully the locals were out in force with water hoses and one kind guy actually dumped an entire bucket of water over my head - utter bliss. Thankfully we were in Switzerland and the water was clear and not yellow like those Frenchies poured on Froome...
The bike went OK and I was only passed by the pros on their second lap, managed to reel in any mountain goats on the flats or the descents so picked up around 100 places overall. Eventually rolled into T2 in 7:14:19 - slower than I'd hoped but then again I hadn't really trained for 37C!!!
Full change into the mighty ATHelite gear in T2 and bumped into Lee once again, wishing him luck before he set off. Managed to run the first 7km or so at roughly 6min/km pace and stopped and walked at each of the aid stations for water / iso. Caught up with Lee and decided to run together until the finish.
The volunteers and marshals were brilliant - always a smile and a positive word and I made a conscious effort to thank them all, without them I knew the race would not be possible. The biggest thanks were always for the coloured band dispensers - the colour of which indicated which lap (of 4) you were on. There was a lot of band envy going on that afternoon until I eventually got my hands on a green band and knew at that stage with around 5km to go that I could turn left down the finish chute rather than passing on for another lap.
I'd managed to reel in Lorna at this point and was hoping I'd catch her before she got to the finish so we could cross the line together. As I approached the finish line I heard "...and from Glasgow, Lorna... you are an ironman". I turned to my left to see her just crossing the line and I 'sprinted' the last 50m or so and turned left into the finish chute.
The sun had pretty much set and the finish was lit up with cheerleaders strutting their stuff and Europop blasting out of the speakers. I looked out for Luke, Zoë and Meg but couldn't see them in the crowd - lots of faces, flashing lights and noise. I high-fived the crowds on the way down on the red carpet and tried to get a finishing line photo like Tony's from the Outlaw. The photographer missed it but hopefully Wendy will testify that I had enough energy to jump up like an eejit crossing the line!
Across the line, eventually.
I found Lorna on the other side of the finishing line looking down the course to see where I was - she must have crossed the line 30 seconds ahead of me.
We both look utterly knackered - and we were.
My Garmin had run out of battery 2+ hours previously so I only figured out my times once we got back to the hotel. Worse than that, they'd run out of beer :-(
We went and got some food, medals engraved and met up with our support team. Luke had seen us both finish but Meg and Zoë were at the loo when we crossed - stupid IronTrac app had let us down again and they weren't sure where we were on the course.
So after 14 hours, 54 minutes and 9 seconds it was done. Almost 2.5 hours slower than Austria / Outlaw but probably more satisfying since I didn't really know if I'd cross the start line let alone finish line on this one... (441 athletes out of 2077 didn't get across that line on Sunday). However, I got the Medal and the T-shirt for a 3rd long course event...phew! Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER again. Although I seem to recall saying that last year. And the year before.
Thanks to all the brilliant people who make ATHelite the best tri club I could imagine - it's an honour and a pleasure to train with you all. Thanks to Meg for looking after Luke and Zoë on race day and to our brilliant, talented, patient kids for putting up with all of the training we need to do to sustain this lifestyle. Thanks to my gorgeous wife for your support and unwavering belief.
And if you're still reading, thanks for staying awake this long - you could probably have completed your own Ironman in less time :-)
We scrubbed up a bit better the next day after a sleep and several coffees...
Not only have I been somewhat busy with the tour and knighthood but I've been honing my mad scientist skills for my pupils at Carluke High School. Over the last few months I've been building a Tesla Coil from kit from a company called OneTesla in the US. I haven't soldered for years and this may have been why the original board failed to spark into life as it should have done... So after a wait for the board to clear customs and yet more ridiculous customs charges the new kit finally arrived. It certainly kept me occupied whilst I was in recovery mode from the knighthood attempt the day before...
Main control board
The finished article...
So, what an earth does this contraption do then? Check this out... :-)
Beat it - Michael Jackson
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Mortal Kombat theme tune
The Tesla coil changes the voltage to around 250,000V which creates a plasma at the discharge tip - this super heated gas rapidly expands away creating a pressure wave which we hear as sound. By modulating the input current we can tune the output - essentially creating lightning that plays a tune. How awesome is that?!!
Update: got new software tonight which has made a big difference - the coil is no longer missing notes and is really living up to its potential (pardoning the physics pun)...
Check out ACDC's Thunderstruck - can't think of a more apt tune to demo!
Sorry, it's been a while since I've had time to update the blog. Far too busy cycling round the best mythical country in the world and being accepted as one of its knights... :-) The Tour consisted of 9 days of Sufferfest videos, making sure each one was completed within the correct timezone to allow me to 'qualify' for the next stage. The sense of community online (both on Facebook and Trainerroad.com) was remarkable. Over $100k was raised by fellow Sufferlandrians for the Davis-Phinney foundation which is battling against Parkinson's disease - so a really worthwhile cause.
On Sunday 8th February (despite still being somewhat full of a snotty headlock I'd picked up on the last 2 days of the tour) I settled down in the saddle for a L O N G day!
Got all my kit ready in advance...
Lorna made me some tasty sticky rice cakes to help fuel the journey...
Number 1: ISLAGIATT
Number 2: Fight Club - I can't talk about it...
Number 3: Angels (2015)
Number 4: A Very Dark Place
Number 5: There Is No Try
Number 6: The Hunted (just after power cut midway through video - not happy!)
7 and a half hours into the quest...
Number 7: The Downward Spiral
Number 8: The Wretched
Number 9: Nine Hammers - hanging on in there... just
Number 10: The Rookie... almost there!!!
Done and dusted!
Garmin trace of workout: 11 hours and 50 minutes of suffering! 6,652 kCalories burned, average heart rate of 143 b.p.m., max heart rate of 170 b.p.m. and 56,500 pedal revolutions!!!
Arise Sir Gavin...
the 69th Sir in the UK....
Have to say that this was one of the hardest physical challenges I have ever undertaken - especially when we had two power cuts in the house during the 6th video - I was NOT starting that over again.
Many thanks to all those who provided encouragement on the day; to Wendy and John Fenemore who popped round during video 5 and to all those online who gave words of encouragement - it really made a big difference.
Together, we raised £1000 for Cancer Research UK! So the truly epic suffering should help to kick cancer's butt in the future!
