Party Time & Bfitday Tri.

Saturday night was the NDTC Christmas Party and presentation night. In my role as club geek I've written a blog post for them here.

Monday 15th was my 39th birthday, hard to believe I know ;-) so on Sunday I made it my aim to complete a bfitbday triathlon. The tale of torture is below, sorry there are no pretty pics.

The day started at 6:30am with a restless dog throwing her toys around the house to wake me up after just 3.5hrs sleep. After a cuppa and some breakfast I made my way down to the pool for 9am when those club members who hadn’t consumed too much alcohol at the previous nights party (not many) were there for a squad swim session. My original plan was to park myself in a lane by the side of them and bang out 5k but I wasn’t really feeling ‘with it’ so thought I’d swim their session with them and tack whatever was needed onto the end. I’d already missed some of the warm up so I just slipped into the water and joined in. 1500m later the group started their warm down so I swopped lanes and continued the swim alone. I only managed another 1000m and I’d had enough, this was a real bad sign because I love my swimming and if I’m getting fed up in the water then the bike and run stand little hope. I decided that enough was enough, got out of the pool and headed to the changing rooms then just as I was about to hit the shower the club coach appeared in his swim gear. He said he was going to join me for a quick 40 lengths. My arm had been twisted and I decided to give it another go. I hit the pool again and literally swam drafting the coach while he swam 1000m in 16mins. With that out of the way the majority of the swim was covered and I decided to push on completing the next 1500m in 22:30. The 5k swim was finally over 1h45m after first getting in the water.

I drove home and thought about the rest of the day. Feeling a little better I dragged my bike out of the shed for the 2nd time in 2 days and the 2nd time since IM Florida on 1st November. I’d got a route lined up which I’ve done hundreds of times before without any problem. I knew I didn’t need fuel as I never do, but I mixed a bottle of Nuun because I was probably de-hydrated after partying and swimming. Out on the bike there was no rush, 5miles, 10miles, 20miles went by without any problem but then disaster struck. At 30miles my body felt as though it was draining of all energy, this couldn’t be right. I could stop off at a shop for supplies but being only 10miles from home it wasn’t really worth it. That 10miles was a long long way, damn I was struggling. Finally I made it home after 2h10m at 18mph. I walked through the door grabbed an energy bar made myself a jacket spud and crashed out on the bed for an hour totally spent.

The afternoon ticked on, darkness came and I started having real doubts about my ability to run 9miles on this day. Finally I got my act together and changed into my running gear. I’d got to pop something to a friends house in the village so I decided that I could run there and then zigzag around the local streets building my way towards my 9mile target, so off I went. It wasn’t pretty and there were plenty of times when I just wanted to stop and walk, but finally....... after 1h07m...... I staggered back into the house Florida it seemed impossible to think I’d struggle so much and mentally it was every bit as tough to complete as the Ironman.

Now I’m happy though. At least it means I haven’t got to go out and do it this coming weekend because I’d failed................ phew.

Relaxing

So you've spent the best part of a week (or maybe more) running around organizing and helping out at Ironman Florida. All that's left to do is the presentation night and party. What could you possibly find to do that would kill 20mins.

Click here to see Triathlon legends and race crew pushing each other to the limit on the white beaches of PCB.

If only Moonpie and the Bigun new this was happening, they'd have been kicking some butt :-)

Kristmas Kaper

Well I'm not training, but that doesn't stop me racing now does it.

Did I say racing? Well, you know what I mean.
This weekend was our Tri Clubs Christmas Swim/Run event organised by t'other half Shelly. After spending most of Saturday listening to her swearing as she cooked hundreds of mince pies for the competitors and wondered around making sure everything was ship shape it was a relief to actually reach Sunday.
The race had a rolling start (Time Trial syleee) and my roll was to stand poolside and make sure everybody set off when they were supposed to, then all I had to do was jump in the water, swim 600m, put on my race kit and go for a run around the local park. As it's a super serious race and there's a lot of pride at stake I had to remember to leave some for the sprint finish (below).
There's not a lot to say about the race really, the pic says it all....... Oh yeah, I came 4th and didn't even get the best fancy dress prize, but with Shell in charge that was never going to happen even if my costume had been the originally planned mankini which really would have seen me arrested.

Results are here.

Race day pictures are here.

and the days race report is here.

Browse and enjoy :-)

It's the end of 'Mo'vember

There hasn't been a lot going on in the life of Iain this month. Training has been almost none existant and it's now hard to believe that tomorrow will be a full month since IM Florida.
This weekend we travelled up country to see the folks and meet up for our pre-christmas meal with aunts, uncles, cousins etc etc.
I took advantage of the time up there to take the pup out for an off road run at one of my favourite haunts. Jeez it hurt.
I used to rule this place, hitting all the hills real hard and smacking anybody who dared to come training there with me. Training in Devon has made me soft though. Although the general area is much hillier the local runs are pancake flat, especially the ones I can do and let the dog run free. Sure I can still run, but show me a hill and I'm in trouble. I used to run over there for 90mins and finish by sprinting up 'Jacobs Ladder', it was the sting in the tail that any training partners used to hate and I used to love. Yesterday I hit 'Jacobs Ladder' twice and on the first attempt I had to stop and walk halfway through - disgraceful!
Anyway, back to the meal. It's a fairly big old gathering and as it's been going on for a fair few years the relatives have witnessed many a Florida haircut, so me turning up with a multi coloured barnet isn't a strange sight, but how's about me turning up with a good old Mo?
I'm a lazy toerag and quite often find myself walking around with far too much facial hair which I then get the shears on and dispose of all in one hit, the thaught of leaving some has never appeared, but it is Movember after all, so here it is. For one time only. Iain with a Mo (and a stupid face of course).

Hmmmmm, turns out that for some odd reason Shell quite likes it and now wants me to keep it for next weeks big Aquathlon, where my out of shape backside is no doubt going to get well and truly kicked by some kids. We'll see ;)

Mega Iron Lunatics ;-)

When you're 70 years old and you've just completed a Quintuple Ironman then you're allowed to wear socks with your sandals OK!!!!!

Congratulations to Arthur and the other Finishers.

Good Luck to all those Deca Ironman racers who are a mere 200hrs into their race.

You're all freaking MAD!!!!

Click here to see the official pics.

Go get em Suraya - I rarely finish 20miles looking this happy, never mind the extra 100.

The Pic Game

Ok, so I popped over to see what was happening in the blog of Flatman and spotted the Photo Game. I appear to be a day behind but thought what the hell I'll have a look see. The idea is that you pick the 4th photo out of the 4th folder on your computer and then explain.

Interesting idea, so here's mine:



So to an explanation then.

It's from when we raced IM Florida in 2005. It's one of the twin sprogs belonging to my sprog sister - no I don't know which one. We thought he looked cute (or was it daft) in his new hat so we took a pic.

No prizes for guessing where in Panama City we were at the time ;-)

On another note, today was my first planned training session since IMFl. I've had 3 weeks off other than a couple of small runs. I kicked off by taking the pup out for a nice steady 10 miler, at least my legs felt it was steady, my heart rate was telling me I was running at 5k pace. I also picked up a niggle during IMFl and after 5miles of todays run I decided that it was still there. Now, 5hrs after the run has finished I KNOW it's still there - grrrrrrr!!!! I'll soon kick it into touch.

I've set up a training team for Ironman Florida 2009. If you're reading this and you're racing next November then pop over, have a look and join in. It's all free and will hopefully become a good place to compare your training with others.

Nutcases of Tri

Ever thought that Ironman just wasn't quite long enough? Nope, me neither.

But just in case you have............



The DecaMan is currenly ongoing in Mexico - website linky

There's even a BLOG

1st swimmer out of the water in 13:17.

Lunatics :o:o:o