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)

Last week was my first longer aerobic week – it was good to get through it, as I always find the first week of ‘proper’ training tires and drains you much more than you might expect. This week is rolling by just as fast, and the Ironman in Bolton looms ever closer, which means getting the long run tucked away

Running for a long time ... like last night (must get out more often!)

Last nights ’session for the day’ was my long run – 35K. I have a loop here in town that I tend to use each week (just call me a groundhog) which is 15K all in … simple – do it twice, and er, add on a bit.

I want to be able to run these long runs (I had one last week plus managed a few through May) at a good pace, which is 4min/K. Now, I won’t lie, I find an hour at that clip can feel like an age, (especially when the wind blows like it is currently) so it’s a test of my resolve to double it plus add an extra 20mins on top … however, suck it up I did, and the box got ticked; 2hrs 20mins later.

The legs feel a little jaded this morning, but nothing too terrible, which is pleasing. Onwards to the w/e … I’ll be back with more news soon I assure you …

training kit got abandoned, just for a while ...

 Training has kicked back in well though … it’s always hard to get back into the long(er) training sessions, but at the same time it’s a satisfying feeling being tired each night, a feeling I am going to get used to over the course of the next month with all this Ironman jazz!

So far this week i’ve been dong:

Monday – swim 5k aerobic, bike 70k steady, run 10k easy shuffle

Tuesday – swim 4k including hard 400m reps, ride 100k hilly, run 15k incl grass intervals

Wednesday – swim 4k easy, ride 60k easy, run 30k steady ….

…. and so the week shall go on. And the next one … following the template.

Training since the Longhorn 70.3 here in Austin has been bang on. I was due to leave here for St Pete on Friday of last week in fact, but I quickly realised that staying here in Texas was going to be a much better training base for my pre Clearwater needs. The big tick in the box was the chance to train with Ritchie Cunningham and his training buddy Pat Evoe.  I knew Ritchie lived here in Austin now, having moved down to the warmer climes from Boston during the summer, but you never know whether folk are keen to welcome a newbie into the fold. Plus I didn’t want to get in the way of what is clearly a good routine (he won in easy-street fashion last w/e) at this late stage before the biggest race on our calendar.

It’s been a blast so far. – Austin is (much like much of urban America i guess) fairly spread out … and this is what I still struggle to get my head around when in the US. Nothing is generally that close and travel time can seem like a drag. But, I know we are just spoilt at home in Stirling, and hey, its not 25C with the clearest blue sky imaginable EVER in  November in ‘The Shire’ ! So i’m sucking the travel up. – Especially with the loan of Ritchies’ funy little (but pretty powerful i might add) scooter. – More on that tomorrow I think.

Ritchie is not only preparing for Clearwater, and defending his podium spot from last year, but he has bitten off an even bigger bite in the shape of Ironman Arizona the week later. Or 8 days later as Ritchie keeps reminding me! Rather him than me is all I’ll say. The upshot of that scenario is that he is in wicked shape and totally motivated to get great training sessions in each of these last few crucial days, plus Pat is gearing up for the new Ironman event in Cozumel, Mexico a week later. – Between the two of them it is ON in training! (Especially on the bike … I now realise I don’t ride hard enough when I train!) Many might subscribe to the train of thought that “if it’s not in the bag by now it never will” … but I don’t agree … I am coming good day by day by hanging onto their coat tails and it’s a great feeling to still have next week to freshen up and get over the last bit of travel into Florida.

I’ve learned a lot from being here these past 2 weeks, and I am sure I will come back to train again. The whole place is so friendly and triathlon orientated. I have also been utterly lucky (yet again) in having found such an incredible homestay family to stay with and that has made everything that bit easier to handle in the new environment. – Thanks Terra and Zane. (and the cats. and the dog).

The view at the pool after my swim this avo …. its a 33yd pool – this is a new distance for me!

and a slightly wonky view of ‘downtown’ on my ride home from the pool. (I didn’t take this on the scooter I promise!)

So there has been 3 very interesting races so far in the newly formed ITU World Championships Series. The most recent just having been in Washington D.C. I pretty much eat, sleep and breathe triathlon and therefore would happily describe myself as a tri-geek. Or perhaps as a ’student’ of the sport? Either way I follow all aspects of triathlon and am reasonably opinionated on the subject.

The ‘hot topic’ at present seems to be the fact that at the previous two mens WCS events in Madrid and D.C there has been a break away which has – and shudder the thought! – stayed away, resulting in those in the chase pack effectively racing for the scraps. The podium for sure and the top five virtually, being gone and out of reach.

There seems to be an air of discontent in the ranks!

This type of racing is superb. It is how triathlon – a sport of three diciplines lets remember – should be raced and provides a winner of serious credit. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not going to start harking on about draft legal racing being all about athletes who ‘can just run’ – I think this is a ridiculous argument, and one that is only voiced by those who don’t have a clue how tough ITU racing is at that top level. No no, i’ve got no problems seeing someone running from a pack of 50 in a time hovering around the 30minutes mark – if that’s the way the races goes, so be it, the swim and bike are still damn fast regardless. But boy, when a break occurs after the swim and it’s capitalised upon, that’s cracking racing!

So I was ammused to read these comments by Bevan Docherty where he comments that “I was very motivated to work and catch the leaders, however, it seemed like a select few only wanted to pull their weight on the bike, the others were content in sitting in and doing nothing!”  And even more interested in his later remark that “I’m certainly very vocal on the bike towards the lazy athletes, to try to get them motivated, but that’s the nature of the sport now they don’t have to work.” – It’s certainly been a while since I raced at ITU level, but I have been in my fair share of bike packs with Bevan – both small and large – and where he says ‘vocal’ I read ‘bully’.  Fellow online tri-member Will lamented earlier in the week that ”the main problem is these 5 guys are very strong and very motivated… They never miss a turn” whilst discussing the Washington break away. Very true.

These guys are effectively spending so much time looking around at each other in the early stages of the bike – the crucial first 10-15k – that they miss turns, don’t iniate a bullet proof chase and before they know it the gap has exponentially increased. -  What seems bizarre is that nobody seems willing to lay it all out and put ‘the smack down’ – it’s daft to take the stance that ‘if everyone isn’t taking their turn, then why should I bother?’, since that will never happen. It’s logical to realise that if you want to catch “these 5 guys who are very strong and very motivated” then surely you too must show similar motivation and determination!! – That means burying yourself for the cause – taking extra turns, plugging the gaps that appear due to the ‘lazy’ athletes who are not riding for ‘the cause’ – and after all, why should they, I mean I agree totally with Gav on this one – in reply to Bevan and his ‘encouragement’ of the ‘weaker’ athletes; he simply shouted back ““It’s your money motherf%&ker, you do the turns” … clearly if Gav is not in a position to battle for the money positions come the run (yet), then why should he bust a gut helping others to do so on the bike. –  His (and others) time will come, and until then, it’s a conservation of energy game!

At the end of the day I’m just a fan of the sport and I am as interested as the guys actually racing these amazing races in the whole dynamic of the situation, and yet, I’m not racing, so my thoughts are simply that – thoughts and musings! For what it is worth however, I reckon it will not be the last time such a situation arises this year. There are substatially more Benjamins on offer and there is clear commitment now amongst the boys who manage to sneak a few extra seconds out of the water – whereas before I think there was maybe a half hearted attempt to ride hard for a lap but no more. At T2 in D.C the chase was 2.10 in arrears – and the Russians, who caused swim havoc in Madrid the month previous, were not even racing! – it could have been closer to 3 minutes with them added into the mix. I look forward to Des Moines this afternoon – no doubt I will be proven utterly wrong mind you.

The bottom line appears to be that the swim has become a fundamental once again.

I know, you're supposed to get wet in a wetsuit, I know

Anyway, the title has a meaning (or a story at least) – this morning we had a nasty surprise on pooldeck; VO2/anaerobic max sprints …. call it what you will, it’s another way of saying ‘pain’ regardless of the numerous methods of rebranding available. – And I would suggest it is something that triathletes like us tend to suck at. Well, I do anyway.

The goal

Race w/u and start simulation

The Set

Minimal w/u into  2 * (12.5m MAX on 3 mins, 50m MAX on 4 mins, 100m MAX on 8 mins!!)

The boys

Gavin ’seriously-who does a 1000m w/u before a race? Who?’ Noble, David ‘Maccers’ McNamee, Mike ‘I’m in training for the Blenheim/Winsdor lead out double’ Adams, and myself – Fraser ‘clutching at straws’ Cartmell.

The gear

One very nice and perfectly normal race suit, as worn by Maccers, one all singing and dancing brand new TYR Sayonara swimskin (that’s me clutching at those straws for ANY available seconds) and two sets of back to basics old school budgie smugglers as fashioned by Noble and Adams.

The results

Serious amounts of lactate (it’s a deep burn as Gav pointed out), heavy breathing and less than spectacular times – with only Mike dipping under the minute on the ‘from a push 100s’.

The conclusions

We would probably have swum almost as fast on the 1.20 turnaround cycle, and budgie smugglers are still the way forward. – Oh, and it’s a deep burn.

I told you I was lashing two topics together....

It happens a lot less often than I would like, but every now and then I find myself saying “who needs warm weather training in far flung places all over the place when it can be like this in Stirling?”. Today (and the past few days) has been awesome…. I even got sun tan marks from my bike ride with brother Blair and Gav.

(Nearly) not a cloud in the sky. Brilliant.

we struggled a bit here too....

I would have talked a bit about everyone on our online team who raced over the weekend (Conrad, Dan, Will, Igor, Dejan, Aleksandar and even Nikola), but all I will do is re direct you over to Gavin here since he has captured it masterfully.

As only he can! (It is worth a read).

I’ve been pretty busy in Stirling, (as Gav might say) seeing many men about many differnet things (it seems) and yet here I am trying to remember where and when exactly!

I do know I have been out training regularly, what with the build up to Wimbleball, UK Ironman 70.3 ramping up daily. I’ll put together a wee post on the specifics of that race soon enough, as there will be plenty of folk heading down to the Exmoor moors in addition to myself I am sure.

So for now I’ll call it a day on this post, for it really didn’t go very far after all.

Alas, I tried!