It’s nearly race day … and boy has it been a few days of hanging around an waiting for it to arrive. I’m not much of a fan of emersing yourself amongst you’re rivals and competitors for days on end before an event, but there wasn’t much choice for this race. It was a  long [...]

Well, it may not be the most appropriate of pictures to attach to this post, but I like what Nikola is doing here (my nutrition has never exactly been an ideal model to follow!) and you never know, if things go well after the race i may be allowed a mojito of two, who know’s?!
In [...]

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 [...]

Today we rode LONG - ‘5hrs, 150k and hilly’ long - here is me with Ironman 70.3 World Champion Mikie Raelert before we started outside K-Swiss HQ. - Note the loss of hair?!?

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 [...]

I am I think. I’m back at the ‘grindstone’ (it’s a hard life in the Southern Hemisphere sun!) and it’s going fine. 4 days of the week gone, 500ks to the good with a smattering of solid swim and run work thrown in. A couple of massages for good measure and the odd cafe stop [...]

It’s been a week already since the 70.3 last weekend; how the time has flown by. I’ve been keeping myself to myself here in Stellenbosch since my wingman - Toby - has been missing in action whilst spending some time with his lovely fiancee. I’ll let him off!
So I have been having some nice food, getting [...]

Woohoo! I won! It was 2 years and 3 attempts coming, but I secured a victory in East London on Sunday finally - and it felt good for sure. It’s not easy to win a race these days, so I am more than happy with how I coped on race day to do just that.

Breaking [...]

Tonight was spent getting ready for the red eye to East London from Cape Town in the morning. It’s nearly race time already … the last 3 weeks for me here in Stellenbosch have flown by that’s for sure. Last night I had my last hard run since the daytime temp peaked at 44C. Trust [...]

….. you might aswell, because who else will?
on this Tuesday morning in Stellenbosch I got up, ran 10 cracking Ks along the trails behind the University and town, came home, ate a breaky that was far too colourful for my own good before wandering down to the pool for a leisurely 3ks in the wet stuff.

Gottalovetaperweek

Having taken inspiration from our very own Lesley I thought i could do a similar blog post (but with less crammed into the day/morning!) charting my morning ride with Toby Jameson, who is my new ‘roomy’ out here in Stellenbosch whilst we get ready for racing in East London at the Ironman 70.3 South Africa next w/e.

07.30: [...]

Last night I had a very African experience - both culinary and cultural - whilst taking in the New Year. We had a large group meal at Moya, organised by Tim as an extension of their wedding celebrations. It was a lot of fun, and a very memorable and relaxed way to wind up 2009. [...]

Yesterday Tim and Kelly were married at a beautiful wine estate called the Grande Provence just outside of Franschoek, which is a stones throw from Stellenbosch here in South Africa. It was a fantastic day, set in a stunning venue and thankfully the weather was just ‘one of those days’ you couldn’t wish to change. [...]

Maybe because I’m away soon - real soon in fact - our bike ride yesterday in the snow of Glentress seemed so much more enjoyable than it could’ve done. I mean it was pretty darn chilly up on the hillside out of the trees, the snow/ice on the trails was way past hard pact and [...]

Last night I caught up with Mike & Jenni through in Dunfirmline. Other than it being great to have a 6 month catch up with one of my best friends that I have know since the year dot, I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was really lovely to see their little 10 month old [...]

Last Wednesday the annual Stirling Sports Council Awards evening was held in the very impressive venue that is Stirling castle. I was lucky enough to have been nominated by my club - Stirling Tri for the Senior Sports Person category. Having been won by a very distinguished group of athletes over the years - including winter and summer [...]

Thanks go out to Eric Wynn for these cracking shots taken at Clearwater. Having long admired his snaps of top athletes from many a major race around the US, it is nice for me to be caught by his lens also.
Somewhere around about the half way point - one of the few sections not amongst [...]

Finally, it’s nearly time to race. We arrived here in Clearwater yesterday morning and got settled in. The weather is certainly very un-Floridian (so the ‘locals’ say) at the minute - yesterday was remarkably chilly and the wind continues to blow with some strength today. I’d be happy for it to create a bit of [...]

Southern California. That’s what the cool kids seem to call it anyways …..

A few days in already. Time flies. After a late arrival in Los Angeles I stayed in the airport (well, a hotel room, not a terminal bench) on Monday evening and then drove myself the couple of hours south to the San Diego [...]

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 [...]