I guess they know how to keep busy on lunchbreak?

Shimano, through Felt, are my sponsor for wheels, shoes and groupsets and have been a huge help this year. So it was cool to be able to head up the road and meet with Dustin at the warehouse in Irvine and pick up some new bits and pieces to keep the bike running smooth in the run through to Clearwater.

I asked if was able to pick up a new front wheel for Clearwater, given I had seen some of the new c75 sections in use at Hawaii. Well,  I say some … I saw them on Craig Alexsanders’ bike. Turns out they, alongside one other set, are it! So there is Crowie, Ritchie Cunningham, and err…. me, riding these wheels. How. Cool. Thanks! I’ll be careful with it.

climbing back up to the uni buildings

The last week has flown by, hence the lack of posts since I departed the South of Spain. – I got home last Wednesday and spent a nice few days back home. Those days included some good swims sets with the squad, a couple bikes rides wearing shorts(!) and a couple trips to Physiofocus to have healing hands work on my grumbly calf. Then the w/e was all about Hawaii-watching. I loved it. I stayed up till past 3 in the morning to see the top 10 finish live online. Then I got up for the Scottish Duathlon Championships – it was a long trip there; about 900m to get to the University buildings! – Here is a great little selection of shots courtesy of Iain MacIntosh from Imacimages Thanks buddy!

p.s to round off the week, I am typing this blog from a hotel room at Los Angeles airport, at 3am (in a word; jetlag) – I had my longest Monday ever yesterday as I flew 11hrs ‘backwards’. I need a sherpa, but all my luggage made it safe.

serious face

not such a serious face

It was good to get a race done again, and boy had I forgotten how hard duathlon is! I was pushed hard all the way, which was exactly the sort of hit out I was needing after the hard training the last few weeks. Results are here.

I reckon Toby must've auditioned for the Zoolander film. Surely?

I was pretty tired and rushed during my last couple of days in California last week: I was recovering from the Wildflower race experience, organising all my gear (some was shipped home via the post) and packing up to arrive in Florida, all whilst trying to maintain a modicum of training volume. So when I arrived here in St Pete I was just looking forward to getting on with some training for a few days …. hence being so keen to get up early doors and join in with my hometays Tim+Carolyn for a swim/bike combo. I kinda wish I had stayed in bed last Saturday morning! – It really was a strange day, I just couldn’t figure out how on earth I could lose a bike in such a way. I mean I guess I must just be naive, but I know I would hand a bike in if I found it lying on the road in the middle of the night. Obviously not everyone thinks in a similar fashion.

Monday was a big relief though, as I was able to speak to Felt, and Pete (my contact) was superb; he straight away asked if I was ok, wondering if I has been involved in an accident. Then he assured me that it was simply a bike, and they could get me a replacement later in the summer, when I return to the States.

A really, really cool sponsor!

Nikola created this nice little graphic linking my site, Felt and twitter

For the remainder of the week I have been training nicely here in St Pete along with Toby. We are both racing in the Florida Ironman 70.3 on Sunday, which takes place on the Disney World property. I say property, as it sounds like you don’t see a single Mickey, Goofy or Donald Duck character during the race… pity.

It’s going to be a tough race without question. The heat and humidity combined will make it a completely different racing experience for me. I may not fare too well, I just have to give and go and see. It was a ‘let’s give it a go and see’ mentality that Gordon and I ended up following. Since I was still in the US it made some sense to try another event, (especially after the lack of results so far due to my injury problems) providing there were some sort of positives to derive from it. – Given that most of my sponsors are US based, and TYR are an event sponsor, it is nice to be able to race here in Florida. Once again I have to give a huge thankyou to Carolyn and Tim for being so accomodating – both Toby and I have been staying here and are made to feel as if we are at home and more!

The good news is that I have a whole month still to the UK 70.3 in Wimbleball, and I have now been running for a month, which is starting to mean I feel like I know what I am doing again! With another month under my belt, plus a couple tune up races back at home, I am finally confident that I can be on the start line to defend my title in the best shape possible.

Fingers crossed!

I’ve been racking up the miles; the Felt(s) and I have become much better friends over the past 10 days, which is no bad thing. The running still isn’t happening – but I am aiming for shuffling along once more by this w/e, providing the physio gives me the go ahead.

After the California 70.3 a week past Saturday I was able to get back into good training as soon as the Monday. Usually after a race like that I would have to wait till the Wednesday or so till the legs feel ready to start again, so it certainly shows the impact the run has on the body. Which I guess I never really appreciated, rather I just figured it was an entire accumulation of the swim, bike and run. Nope, it’s the run that does the damage!!

So, I got stuck into a solid week to build on the swim/bike effort I had in Oceanside. In total last week I got just under 20 hours of riding done and nearly 10 hours of swimming. Thats was including a great ride up the mountain on Saturday backed up by another 100ks the following day, giving a 9hr bike w/e.

Since then I have kept it going through this week. Myself and Joe Gambles have had 2 cracking rides together so far this week. Monday we had a steady ride up and down the coast mostly on the famous Highway 101. Again today we mixed it with a bunch of roadies within a solid group ride that starts in Carlsbad and heads out onto the 70.3 bike course that we tackled last w/e. – This is on a Marine Base, so you have to show valid ID to pass through the camp gates – it’s kinda weird having a group of 50 riders grind to a halt to present their passports to a watching Marine!! 

It was a great ride, with a whole cross section of riders, some triathletes, most roadies and a smattering of US based Pro riders – the most active being a dude on the same team as Floyd Landis – team Ouch. This won’t seem as funny in print, but for some reason it looked like team Ooch the way it was printed on his jersey and Joe and I were laughing like kids most of the way round whenever we followed his wheel… it’s the little things I am afriad.

I am pretty wrecked right now on the sofa, but I am quite excited about the way I am riding the bike just now. It is deffinately faster than I have ever been, and that is certainly a good thing. - With uber-riders Chris Lieto, Bjorn Andersson and Torbjorn Sindballe on the start list for Wildflower in a couple weeks, just to name a few, I will have to get my skates on.

As I said….it’s all about the bike right now.

In the words of Ness from Gavin+Stacey: Tidy

And after all these years racing, I finally worked out what those two little buttons on a race belt are actually for! One of those ‘light bulb’ moments in my life.

Race start is early o clock tomorrow – 6.4am local time which is 2.40pm at home. Apparently the IronmanLive.com feed has been given a face lift and should be worth following for a change. I shall do my best to try and be in the mix! Since I have to be in the water in just over 9 hours time, I had best get off to bed!

There are some great views around the Southern California hills

It really is quite lumpy around these parts if you go explore. Which I am trying to do more now, at least more so than on previous visits here. There are some busy roads, major freeways/motorways in fact, all about, and yet thankfully I am able to sneak off onto a maze of back roads without much trouble. A great training environment without doubt.

And when I got a little tired of looking out at the views, I looked down at the pretty colours on my top tube

Oh yeah, I almost totally forgot!

After a good many months training in Australia and South Africa over the years, I finally had a real live snake slither and wriggle across the road right in front of me. Jeeso they are fast, and before I knew it the wriggly beastie was offski. – Not without scaring the bejesus out of me first though!!

My new AR1 (Pringle/Argyle print paint job) and DA Felt bikes.

Awesome.

Rocky (yup, I wrote Rocky) finished building up my bikes this afternoon at the Nytro bike store down in Enchinitas. These things always take longer than you think, so I hung around for an hour and a half or so waiting… very patiently! By the time I got home it was getting late (and cold would you believe) but I was deffinately hitting the road for a test drive – The road bike was hands down winner for first dibs. I haven’t ridden the road bike for so long, and my first ride on the AR1 was superb. It fits like a glove, even though it is only a 54cm frame (I am possibly shrinking in old age?) compared to the 58cm road frame I was last riding a couple years ago.

The time trial bike looks fantastic and I am contemplating keeping it soley for racing useage! – I have my ‘old’ TT bike here with me also, since I needed something to race on in Miami last w/e, so I may do the majority of the donkey work aboard it. But then again … who am I kidding?

I know, I know ... the saddle is WAY too high, and there are no tubs on the rims. Yet.

One final close up. And then I will stop showing off. I promise. Well…. I might do just the one post about them next week. Just a little, not-bothering-anyone-post.

I really love the colour scheme on the road frame – in the Garmin Pro cycle team colours. Apparently some of the other guys on the triathlon squad at Felt were none too happy about getting the ‘Argyle’ graphics, one even wanting to send it back to the factory for a regular?! Maybe because I am Scottish, who knows, but I really like it. Plus, it is a rather exclusive bike frame to have; these only getting given to the Pro team riders, and the triathletes. So I guess I might have the only one in Scotland?!

The Argyle colour scheme. Like it? I do