Fraser Cartmell Ironman triathlete » friends

Boulder biking

Fraser — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:50:44 +0000

I have been in Boulder for nearly two weeks already; time to to get over the jet lag; time to get used to the slightly, lets say, elevated temperatures but mostly … time to get used to that little issue of altitude.

I’ll write more about settling in soon, but for now I will stick to the thin air stuff – since with thin air comes high moutains and I’ve been able to explore them a little more over the past few days as breathing has become easier.

Boulder sits just on the edge of the Rockie mountains at around 5500ft, with rolling plains stretching away as far as the eye can see away from them. So when I arrived here I stayed ‘low’ and didn’t ride up the moutain roads and canyons to give the lungs and heart a chance. So on Thursday I did my first longer ride – topping out at nearly 10000ft at the stunning Lake Brainard. It was a fun ride with ‘local’ fellow Commonwealth training buddies Joe Gambles, Richie Cunningham, Dan Hugo and Josh Rix. – They have all spent at least a couple of summers here and know all the good hang out spots

The ride was one of the hilliest I think I have ever ridden – with nearly 8000ft of climbing throughout the day – taking in 140ks in just over 5hrs saddle time.

Joe Gambles and I as we hit the Lake at the top of the ride – 2990m (that means O.U.C.H)

We weren’t sure if he was more surprised than us?! – Have a look at some more pictues that Dan snapped during our ride over on his website … he’s a little bit better at it than I am.

Today I did my second longer mountain ride of the week (and think my longest ride outside of racing Ironman or Abu Dhabi) with a rather talented group of individuals including not one but three world champs. I did my best to keep up and not stop for photos too often!

The ride was 187ks door to door and took me just under 6 hours … as well as six 750ml bottles of fluid, 2 large chocolate milks and maybe a cheeky chocolate bar to keep me happy.

I used my iPhone to take these and have edited them with a clever little App called Camera+ – it’s fun to use and I will play around with it a little more with time i think – as long as I am allowed to stop for photo shoots and not get left behind that is. If you snooze you loose.

All in all though its been a really fun couple of weeks so far, and I feel really settled here. It is entirely obvious why Boulder is such a popular choice for so many traithletes, cyclists, runners and sports enthusiasts in general - it’s a mecca for all things fitness and outdoors. I love it!

Nautica Malibu Triathlon

Fraser — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:20:13 +0000

After what is without question the longest gap in my blogging ‘career’ I am now back ‘in the game’ I think; both with motivation to write and interesting material to actually write about! Last Thursday I arrived in Los Angeles and on SaturdayI raced at the Nautica Malibu Triathlon and placed 3rd. It was an olympic distance non drafting event; the first time I had raced this distance in some time!

3rd placers - me with fellow Scot Lesley Paterson

I only decided to race at the last minute … I was going to be watching Julie Dibens race anyway, since we were both travelling out to Kona together on the Monday. In the end I opted to start, and I am glad that I did …

It is always good to catch up with Lesley and hear a Scottish accent when away from home – I didn’t know she was going to be racing so it was a nice surprise to see her in the morning transition darkness!

It was a fun morning at the beach (although a cold and misty one – temps hovering around 14C all morning!!) and my swim/bike/run although nothing to write home about was a reasonable effort given the long haul flight only 36hours before.

I came out of the water in 2nd just behind Matty Reed and couldnt quite hold his pace out of transition; he slowly pulled away during the 40ks and I was passed midway through the run to end up on the final podium spot. I certainly didnt have any real speed, which is to be expected given the current prep for Kona and so I can’t complain ….

W caught up with fellow K Swiss/Trek team mate Chris Lieto for dinner before he raced the ‘Classic’ event on the Sunday – the 3 of us are all racing in Kona in just under a months time. In fact we got up early on Sunday to ride over and catch the end of his race before carrying on for a long ride to fill up our morning.

More UK 70.3 ….

Fraser — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:33:48 +0000

We were supposed to have flights home from Bristol airport at 8pm on the evening of the race … however we soon realised that it was never going to happen with a prize giving and Clearwater slot allocation that didn’t wrap up till past 7.30pm! - Step up the legendary Graham ‘GC’ Coull who had unfortunatly had to stop at the 70k mark on the bike due to his rear wheel going flat at the bottom. He drove us home through the night – road trip – arriving home around 6.30am! But it was a cracking few days – thanks GC

Myself, GC and Ali prior to the prize giving

Running in off the bike

onwards en route to the finish

Womens winner, Bella and I

LA to Stirling to Kent

Fraser — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:07:56 +0000

I won’t try to make any excuses for the lack of blog posts … what with spending the weekend in Los Angeles for the Trek Speed Concept lauch and trying my best to go some rounds with Mr Jetlag back home here in Stirling it’s been an interesting but fun few days. I’m all set now for a w/e in Kent, racing at the trigrandprix event. It’s solid looking field, so I’m ready to get going. The highlights from the long w/e in LA are something like this:

Hanging out with the boys - L to R - Matt Lieto, Joe Gambles, myself and Michi Raelert

Friday – arrive in LA …. get a bear hug from Michael Raelert outside baggage in LAX! Mark, the Trek mechanic repsonsible for our awesome new bikes drove us back to our hotel and we checked out Starbucks. (Extra hot venti latte). Evening meal with the whole gang where I did my best to keep the eyelids open past 9pm (only just succeeded).

Saturday – Watch Chris Lieto, Chrissie Wellington, Macca go round the Tour of California Time Trial course (I think we were happy to watch and not participate given how technical it looked!). Spent the afternoon at the launch of the new Trek Speed Concept at the Walt Disney Concert Hall alongside the other guys on the the team… it was incredible to see Trek really go full gas behind a bike solely designed for triathlon … it’s exciting times ahead! We watched the Pro riders hit it out hard around the TT course all avo – the difference in speed between those ‘just going thro motions’ and the General Classifcation riders was much more obvious than I thought it would be. Finish off in the evening at the roof top bar!! of our hotel to chat with the assembled international media and magazine editors.

Tour watching with Julie and Joe

Sunday – watched the final stage of the Tour outside of the K Swiss offices in Westlake. – We got to catch up with all the staff there which was good fun … I might have sneaked a pair of new shoes or two out on that visit!

Monday – Hang out in LA on my own waiting for my evening flight home (extra legroom and a headrest like none I have had before - made for a much comfier 10hrs aboard let me tell you) – started walking about but opted for a easy jog around the streets to take in most of the sights. -Skyscrapers galore!

walking about downtown LA - me and myself!

Trek Speed (weapon) Concept!

Fraser — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:52:52 +0000

So I made it to Florida in one piece (longest and worst immigration Q’s aside) and am now safely at Carolyn’s house and in familiar homestay territory for April time. AND I had this amazing piece of kit sitting in it’s cardboard box awaiting me – of course I had barely got my ruckack on the ground before getting the allen keys out to build it up…there is an ear to ear grin here I can assure you.

I will write about it properly soon, but for now it is bedtime for this sleepy camper …. I heard the alarm in Stirling nearly 24 hours ago and I feel like it right now. There will be sweet dreams for sure though!

Wattie Ink, Trek and K Swiss news

Fraser — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:27:04 +0000

First up, and something that is exciting to announce, is that I have started working with Wattie for all things sponsor and marketing – I met Sean at our Trek/K-Swiss team camp back in Feb and it’s been great to to be officially accpeted into the gang. – My good pals Joe and Lesley have already been working with him for some time and it seems like a fun setup. Hopefully we’ll have some news to report in the near future, but for now I’m chuffed to be on board.

A little belated and behind time (ie April Fools time!) but I want to post a couple video clips that give some (lighthearted!) insight into Trek and K Swiss. Chris Lieto could well give up his day job as a world class triathlete … but I doubt I will be sitting ‘clipper’ in the chair again anytime soon. Laugh out loud – I did!

And finally for now I want to add in this montage of Trek/K Swiss athletes (aswell as other K Swiss guys n gals) who competed at the Cali 70.3 a couple w/e’s back – mostly as it also shows a nice insight into the K Swiss brand and has our ‘head boy’ Eric talking passionately about the partnerships behind our new team.

So, it’s Friday night and I will be getting into the swing of training here in the Shire again over the w/e. Rumour has it Gav will be back from Stellenbosch soon once it gets warm enough - given the mercury will touch 18C I reckon he’ll be back soon…

A week in the Aguilas sunshine

Fraser — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:34:28 +0000

I’m back! – Home AND writing something on my wesbite …. apologies for such a time lag in the updates. No excuses, but I just got home this morning to the, ahem shall we say, not so sunny Shire. However, it is not bothering me, as we just had 8 cracking days of sunshine back in my old haunt of Aguilas. – Ali and I both wanted to grab some good training whilst the forcast was for ‘les miserables’ en Ecosse, plus it was Easter and the clocks were springing forward; lets go we said! There is also nothing better than getting away for sunshine and learning that the weather at home was terrible

Evening meal Argentinian-style in Spain …. deffinately one of my favourites

We sampled some great food and wine most evenings, and on this occasion it was at ’The Argentinian’ (could you tell from the menu’s? – possibly the best memorbilia-clad restuarant i have ever been to … can you spot the armidillo guitar?!) along with some chick called Chrissie who does Ironman (we picked her brains about Kona she gave us a signed picture) and Tom who were also training in town, and Pedro who is the resident - and only - Ironman athlete in Auguilas with Mabel his partner. We had a lovely evening with some great steaks to round it off!!

All in it was a great week away. The weather was more than kind, the training was just what I needed to get me back into the routine that I had slipped out of after recovering from Abu Dhabi. – The pool was as quiet as it has always been for the last 8 years (same German couple breastroking up and down too I swear!), the roads were as smooth as I remember and the promenade still full of bustling little cafes for post training coffee drinking. We enjoyed ourselves!

I have a lot of things to catch up with on the site – I will update through the week with more posts on up coming races and an exciting new partnership with a sports management company – www.wattieink.com

Meanwhile I had better get outside and go for a run before the rain comes in with avengence – it’s good to be home.

Final day at camp

Fraser — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:47:08 +0000

Riding out along the Pacific Coast Highway with the guys yesterday. Today everything got wrapped up – quite literally, as my new Madonne road bike has been boxed up and will be winging its way to Stirling without me having ridden it yet. It has been a cracking few days; leaving me super amped and excited about the season ahead as part of this fantastic new team!

Team mug shots outside K Swiss headquarters where we have been hanging out for the past 5 days. I am very excited about getting aboard the new Speed Concept bike once they are ready for us later in the Spring. F.A.S.T!!

The press conference at the new K Swiss store in Santa Monica on Friday night.

Another pic from our ride along the coast on Sunday.

Lesley Paterson

Fraser — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:43:16 +0000

Lesley has had a fantastic resurgence into the sport … she’s been around for donkeys years however, and it’s fantastic to see her – a Scot no less! – tearing it up on the world scence once again!

www.lesleydoestri.org – check it out!

I’ve known ‘lesbo’ for years and years it seems: I watched in awe as she ripped past me on the run in my first ever triathlon (“HOW amazing was she?” I remember asking dad on the drive home!) in 1997, I watched and raced alongside as she narrowly missed out on Commonwealth Games selection for the Scottish 2002 team in Manchester, Blair and I rented an amazing flat from her dad for years when I first arrived in Stirling and most recently I have trained with her in North County San Diego when I have been living out there. I happened to have breaky with her dad the other morning here in the cafe by the pool as I recovered from my first post crash swim session, and caught up on all her news from him. – I thought I should post on her and her wicked new site.

She just posted a great post/interview on her website with our even newer member – Lisa Norden which you can read all about here.

The last week here

Fraser — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:15:48 +0000

Well I didn’t do as I said I would – and get a post up on Sunday about the week that was … and here we are on Wednesday already. Time seems to fly by, but that is no excuse. Here are some of the things I have been up to;

A run with the boys – Tim, myself, Gavin and Toby – on Sunday morning

I am down to the last 2 sleeps in Stellenbosch before flying home, which makes for mixed feelings – obviously I am really looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone, I can’t wait, BUT watching the tv describe the cold weather that is returning to Scotland doesn’t excite me!

To counter the cold weather I have been focussing on my bike riding, since I doubt I will be riding the bike outside when I am home next week. So last week I basically rode everyday other than Sunday, where I ran longer with the boys (see above pic)

Monday – 100ks, Tuesday – 135ks, Wednesday – 150ks, Thursday – 45ks easy, Friday – 100ks, Saturday – 135ks

This week has been the same format – 100ks and 135ks already, but today might only be 100 (slacking!). On Monday we had a ‘team’ dinner – myself, Gavin, Dan, Conrad and Nikola, who builds and maintains our sites. Thankyou! Toby also came along too – he has been my superb training buddy these past few weeks out here, which has really helped the training along.

I like this photo – we had a nice night.

I decided to be good to myself – mojito AND marshmallows (there was even a fire to melt them on!) A strange mix, but one I enjoyed

See you all soon, Frase