The view looking towards Nederland; a quaint little town (with a cracking coffee shop!) nestled at just over 8000ft

I already alluded to this on a quick facebook post over the weekend, but I have trained in plenty of places around the world, and I thought that I had (and i have, don’t get me wrong) seen my fair share of good scenic views. Joe had told me I would like it up there, and he couldnt have been closer to the truth. Despite the altitude creeping up towards the 3000m mark I was quite oblivious to the pain in the legs and simply enjoying all that there was to see.

It’s nearly September and the snow is all but gone on the high peaks, but what remains still makes for a fantastic viewpoint I thought. – I could almost be fooled into thinking that this was up the north of Scotland, by Aviemore and the Cairngorms but then the blue sky gives its all away

I am no photographer, but even my relatively novice eye could see that this was a good place to pull out the camera from the back pocket. – We were riding an out and back section at this point in our ride, so on the return I stopped to grab a photo after nearly riding off the road looking at it on the way out. Amazing. You can just make out the herd of cattle in the distance wandering down towards the water for a big old slurp!

I’m not sure what came over me by this point in the ride, but I was stopping every 5 minutes to snap something or another (just call me Dan Hugo) … Joe had long since dropped me in search of a coffee and a seat (we were nearly 5 hours in by now) but I thought this was a cool little shop, capturing what little sense of history there is out here in the States. – I have jazzed it up a little with my clever iphone app called Camera+

And last, but by no means least, here we are stopped (yet again – tourists so we were) by the Magnolia Drive signpost. – Just for Gordo, wee Matty and Gav. They know what I mean!

 (Note: Running with the Buffaloes is a superb read charting the success of the Univeristy of Colorado Mens Cross Country Team. – They did much of their quality running up on Magnolia). I have yet to run high -around 8000ft, versus 5400ft in Boulder - and I think it will have to wait for another visit to Boulder before I do.

Little did I know. After my racing at the Racine, Boulder and Steelhead 70.3s, I managed to sneak into the 50 slots offered for racing in Las Vegas. Happy days. Team Trek/K-Swiss team mate – and landlady – Julie Dibens was heading down for a recce with her coach, agent and also former Ironman World Champion, Craig ‘Crowie’ Alexander. - I jumped at the offer to tag along with this crew.

Now, the saying goes something along the lines of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” … and so I will hold true to that for the most part – if you want to know about the course, go and look for yourself

Lake Mead is a much larger body of water than Lake Las Vegas where we swim. Mead is visible from the bike route

I had never been to Las Vegas before, and boy is it a strange strange place … and I didn’t even get to see The Strip or the many famous hotels and casinos! The race starts in Lake Las Vegas, about 15miles or so out of the city, in a suberb called Henderson.  We then ride out into what can only be described as something akin to the moon. Its hot, hilly, dusty, hilly and hot. Did I mention it heats up out there … 45C was what my bike computer told me on the Sunday. I can’t describe what that feels like, and thats exactly why I am so pleased to have gone and checked it prior to the race … now I know.

We couldn’t have trained like we did without a support car – and a car LOADED with liquid and cooling vests. on Sunday I sunk a total of 11 bottles over our 4 hour ride … quite insane to be honest. You just couldnt drink enough it seemed and the cooling effect of a fresh bottle out of the cool box was golden! Crowie and Julie are pouring iced water on their arm coolers in this shot above … it didn’t last all that long, but they said it felt superb for about 3 seconds.

We also checked out the run route, although it was most important to get familiar with the 90k of (quite incredible smooth i may add) tarmac that will shape the large part of the race in a couple of weeks. We rode over the course a total of 3 times during the weekend and I can safely say that it was a completely worthwhile (although hotter than the sun) trip.

I don’t think that a bottle of Coke has ever tasted this good!!  - Slightly emotional after 4 hours in the Nevada Desert heat. – I was amazed to realise that my gear shifters were starting to get too hot to grip onto … hold onto that thought.

 Who said a thousand calories was a lot?

Saturday(30th) – Looooong bike ride – hilly loop up into the high(er) peaks with a group. 190k, 6hrs

Sunday – Longer run with sme faster pace work. 25k, 1hr 50. Swim solid 5k (4*400,4*300,4*200,4*100 main set)

Monday – Swim – masters session; 5k.  Bike 2.5hrs steady – 75k.

Tuesday – Morning ride; 4.5hrs with 1hr of TT work, 140k. (1 puncture+1.5 litres choc milk). 40min steady run, 9.5k

Wednesday – Run 6k easy. Swim 4k including 40*50 interval set.

Thursday – Run 6k easy with strides. Swim 4.5k solid. Ride 75mins, looking at race course; 40k.

Friday – Run 7k steady. Swim masters, 4k. Feet up, watch tv!

The razor-sharp amongst those reading will notice i’ve had two long rides early in the week leading into the race; but I wanted to have some volume up to 5 days out, and with no ride on Wednesday I think I recovered pretty well from the longer TT efforts of Tues. Hope so anyway. Gulp.

Running has been low volume, low intensity and ‘thro the roof’ breathing!! Needless to say I am finding the altitude is taking some time to adapt to.

Swimming i have kept pretty consistent; I am gaining quite a lot of aerobic fitness from the swim sets and i do feel it is making a difference to my general fitness. Hopefully it will help lift my swimming back to where I would like it quick time. Time will tell.

It’s been a good week though; a nice mix, and the race this Sunday will be another guage as to where I am at on the road back to competing rather than taking part.

And finally, on an all together different note, the week has also been an intro into hot-air ballooning – they seem to launch most mornings from down the street… i’ve watched them on my jog/runs – wondering if I might think about a trip up there? Probably not!

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!

me in front of the our appartment for the next month

Today I got through a good initiation to the heat and humidity (it was a hot 90F according to the car thermometer) - a 12k run this morning, a 65k ride out and back along the Queen K highway and a 5K swim in the Kona Aquatic Centre to cap it all off. If anything, it was during the swim that Julie and I felt the most thirsty!

It is good to be here and starting the process of simply ‘getting used’ to the island. I really believe that if I am going to race to my potential here on Ocotber 9th then I must get myself fully dialled in to the unique conditions over here.

Roll on Day 2 …. (i’ll be back with better pictures from tomorrow!)

Plenty of time has been spent alone it seems this past month

So here it is – race week; I’m both simultaneously excited and apprehensive … it just depends what I’m thinking of at a particular time as to which of those it happens to be.

The trend appears to be to get excited about it if I think about the race during training sessions and nervously apprehensive when I’m sitting around the house or doing something other than exercise.

I am trying to keep to a simple process type strategy; i.e deal with the swim (just keep swimming, just keep swimming in a Nemo-esque fashion), deal with the bike (eat, drink, pedal, eat, pedal some more and so on and on … and on) before getting to that little old issue of, what was it … wait a minute, yup, that’s it: a marathon!!!

Sarcasm aside, I am really starting to look forward to the race. Sure, I am nervous about the undertaking. Not because it is such an incredibly overwhelming concept that I can’t wrap my head around  (although I have hit a mental road bump or two now and then) - people are doing Ironman right, left and centre at the minute (waytogo Wattie by the way – he made it aound Lake Placid yesterday in a cracking 11.5hrs!) but more becuase for me it is a new stage in my racing career (the ‘Sherbourne ‘08  IMUK attempt’ doesn’t really count in my mind) and I find it a little harder to be as confident in my ability to attain my goals, simply becuase it is all that much newer to me than racing at the shorter distance. All that being said I still believe I can achieve those targets, it’s just more of a reflection of my respect for the distance and my more experineced competitors than anything else.

That being said, I take a lot of confidence from my result earlier in the year at the Abu Dhabi Tri and also from the block of training I have been doing since late June – all of which is after 2 race results that I am very proud of – Kent TriGrandPrix and UK Ironman 70.3. So I know that physically I am fit and ready, I just have to be  mentally on the ball too!

As much as it is at every other Triathlon distance ... it's all about the run in an Ironman!

Myself with Wattie in LA back in May

For someone who would ride, ride and ride some more, you have to take your hat off to him for his decision to jump headlong into entering an Ironman … not having done much (if any i think?!) tri before! - Why not give it a go huh?

He tells me that what with all this swimming and running he’s had to do in the Californian summer, “the weight is melting off me” – not really been the case for me here in the Shire Wattie!

A big good luck from me for this weekend. Enjoy

being worn on my feet sometime soon. Pretty cool I say

I have to say that I have been slack (yet again) on the frequency of blog posts, no excuses. No, hang on, who am I kidding … there are plenty of them! Swim, bike and run excuses to put a finger on it. It’s all this training for an Ironman – I’m a few weeks into my main block of work and with a final hard few days remaining, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be approaching. Phew.

Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying the training – I love the satisfaction I get when one good session follows another and fingers crossed a week of that routine becomes a multiple. It certainly is all about consistency, that doesn’t change whatever the distance you choose in this sport, and if anything these weeks have proven it is that much more important when preparing for an Ironman. However every now and then ‘the grump’ sets in – and for those who know me better, you’ll not be surprised to learn that the weather here over the past week or so has been ensuring that said grumpiness has been that bit more apparent than normal – another aspect of the consistency if nothng else

I guess it’s just the nature of being in Scotland over the summer. We know it’s coming (the rain, the wind … not to forget the cold) and yet for some reason I still find it depressing to wake in the morning and hear the rain fall. – I rode longer on Tuesday (140ks) and was delighted to make it over Comrie Moor and around the Lochearnhead loop without a sinlge drop of rain. It was the first time in over a week I was able to get in the door without having to think about jumping headlong into the shower.

As I mentioned beforehand though, it’s the last few days that I have planned on this routine, and then the bulk of the sessions needed will all be tucked away, leaving me more time to start resting up, be less grumpy and get excited about the prospect of racing Ironman!

Lets hope the rain gives us a little break soon, allowing some riding under a blue sky in Stirling once more …. it happens you know! (as Gavin & Blair show here)

we even made it to the beach...

So Friday we ’sailed’ across, drove scenically through the middle of the Island and finished off the evening with Shepherds Pie – one of my all time favourites that reminds me of home cooking from mum as a kid. Delighted.
Saturday was spent circum-navigating the whole of Arran – keep the sea to your right and keep going! Now, in a highly useful fashion, the loop of the Isle happens to be exactly 90k … but a helluva hilly loop may I add! The sun was out and the wind not quite at Gale Force 9 – with a midway stop for the obligatory Coke&Mars (is it just me or do they not seem so much smaller than they did ‘back in the day’?). All good.

Sunday provided more of a ‘Scottish’ feel as we pedalled away from the house – mist/drizzle/chilly, but it quickly subsided, and my new phrase for the w/e seemed to ring true – ‘wet before seven, dry by eleven’. A run off the bike along the beach rounded off a nice wee break. (Note lack of swim – but there were purple jellyfish, and as a rule I don’t do stingy/squidgy/wriggly things!)

who needs 'abroad' when Scotland looks like this??

So training for me is being wound down. The w/e was the end of another nice little block of work that kicked off again after I raced in Kent – now it’s a few days till UK Ironman 70.3 and I’m getting excited about all systems being go for that.

I’ll report back before we fly down on Friday morning … but for now it’s bedtime – I turn 28 in half an hour

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!