The only photo I have seen: I'm exiting 2nd behind Dann Brook

I’m just back to the hotel after the long walk back from transition – my rear tub must flatted at the end of the bike, which i guess is the best time for a flat!! However i had it put on brand new in St Moritz just before i left so i’ a little fed up at losing it after one blooming use (they’re expensive).

Anyway – my race was so so. I think if I am honest I was a little worried that I came here from St Moritz having trained slightly too hard too long. I reckon the run here today showed that I was indeed a fair bit over cooked, which is a learning thing. Yes I am annoyed with myself, but equally I had great training which I have to hope I can keep building on as the year heads towards Clearwater.

My swim was a standard affair for me – out in 2nd behind Dann Brook and it felt very easy I must admit, which gave me confidence. However within 10K on the bike we had all been shown how to ride as the eventual winner Marino Vanhoenaker flew past. He had something like 6 minutes on us starting the run …..

The weather for the race start was pretty much as awful as it could have been – driving rain and cool. The rain held through most of the bike and made for difficult riding, especially since there were numerous tram and train tracks to negotiate. – Probably where I got the flat coming back into town to T2.

The start of the run for me was very encouraging – I felt very fluid and was running comfortably with my friend Paul Matthews for a few Ks, and then once he pulled away for another few Ks with Bert Jammer. However I had a pretty big blow mid way through the middle lap and fell to 6th place, which I thought I was going to keep safely to the finish. However I was passed by a sneaky home athlete in the final few hundred meters and I just coudn’t muster a surge to counter him. Typical given the prize money only goes to 6th place ……

I’ll be home tomorrow evening and I look forward to a few days of recovery as next Saturday I am racing in GBR colours at the European Long Course Championships in Prauge. Better not come 7th there ……

Results:

looking for decent scenery still.....

The week gone was as this:

Monday – swim 5k aerobic, bike 95k with TT efforts, run 10k steady

Tuesday – run 10k easy, bike 30k easy, swim 3k easy, run 5k easy

Wednesday – swim 5k solid threshold, bike 85k HILLY(i struggle on the climbs!), run 10k off the bike tempo

Thursday – bike 95k with 2*20min TT efforts (disc and all) – 51kph av on both occasions to give sub 19mins 10mile reps (I reckon that might get me on the all time Scottish list!!), run 10k tempo

Friday – hard 5k swim and a steady 70k hilly ride

Saturday – fast 3k swim, threshold bike and a run off

Sunday – long morning run, meeting up with Gav and Keano from the Irish camp who are pitched up down the valley in Pontresina.

However, there has also been some time to learn about ‘the Bob’ here in St Moritz – Blair and I have sampled them before in La Plagne for real …. bu that is another story for another day.

We really must got somewhere with decent views to train....

The week has flown by – more than 2 weeks up, less than 2 weeks to go. Training is ticking along.  However the mountains are a bizarre place to be – it snowed all morning yesterday (hence the beautiful backdrop) and yet today it was shorts and t shirt weather?!

Without question St Moritz is the best place i have ever been for running. The trails and paths are endless. The views are stunning, and if you were in any doubt about whether or not it was worth coming here to run – wander down to the track mid morning with some pop corn (or any savoury snack of you preference) and ‘olympic medal spot’. I have been, and let me tell you – the breathing rates are impressive! This morning Tim and I had a stunning run through the woods, hills and trails. I managed nearly 20ks, which given the problems I have been having with my foot since I arrived is a step in the forwards direction.

My swimming however is continuing to surprise me – every session seems to be getting better. The biking too is feeling strong, although when the gradient goes up my place in ‘the peleton’ is limited to less than 20 minutes. Thats ok though, Clearwater is flat!

In other news Gavin took home 5th place result in the Athlone ETU Cup event in his native Ireland. It was a close run thing and his chase for 2nd place involved some sneaky Spaniards … 3 of them seemed to get in his way. He’ll tell me about his 5th place when he arrives up here in the thin air Monday. – Looking forward to that.

Another very good friend of mine had a fantastic race this w/e. – Joe Gambles just won the Vineman 70.3 in Northern California in sublime style – off the front and alone into T2. I’m delighted to read he has pulled off his first 70.3 win in such superb fashion; he;s been having a helluva year since we trained together in April and deserves his spoils. I’m looking forward to racing him again later in the year!!

Finally, brother-Blair will be arriving in St. Mortiz this Thursday coming for the last week or the camp. I’m looking forward to showing him around – he’ll love it, if only becasue of the exotic cars that are everywhere!!

All the more time to swim, bike and run. And sight see:

The view from 2456m last night

I am up here with Tim Don, Alistair+Johnny Brownlee, Hollie Avil and Liz Blatchford, who between them have had some great results at either the Des Moines World Cup or the European Championships over the past couple weeks. It’s a great opportunity for me to train with some of the best athletes and I will do my best to watch and learn.

Altitude is a tough leveller in terms of training, and in the pool especially, training times kind of go out the window. For now at least, it feels akin to swimming through honey, syrup or indeed any other such sugary breakfast spread! If you miss a breath or take in water during a hard rep you more than know about it, since ( as Liz accurately pointed out yesterday morning) “every breath is precious”. I more than agree! Heart rate is elevated much more, and in the mornings, my resting HR is still to return to my regular sea-level value. Slowly but surely the body is adapting. I just wish it would do it quicker.

Yesterday Tim and I (along with his coach, Ben Bright) descended for the first time on the bike. What I mean is that we ‘dropped off the edge’ of the valley floor we are living in. – St Moritz lies in a long valley which means we can ride (and even more importantly – run, for as long as we need to on the flat) which spells happy days. More than often when at altitude you need to finish your ride or run climbing back up to your house. So we rode as far the valley would take us, having climbed steadily, but not too badly. Then we went down. And down. 25 minutes later we had dropped way down into a differernt world where the air was warm and arm warmers and jackets weren’t needed. We necked a coffee and started the long climb back up. – 70 minutes later we were back at the same place we had added extra layers some 2 hours previously.

The scenery was outstanding, the gradients testing, but the result? – Alpine climbs, Fraser and his Time Trial Bike do not mix very well. We shall be working on this over the next week! After a solid run off I was pleased with my first day of hard training. However today I woke up feeling a little worse for wear and realising I shall have to be that bit more careful up high than I have to be when down low whilst training hard.

The top of the climb

Edinburgh Castle - an imposing obstacle back in the day!

There was even time for some ice cream at the gates of the castle amid the seating recently built for an Oasis concert. It tasted good!

Tomorrow I will be back in Edinburgh, but only to get the plane to Zurich via Heathrow. I am off to St Moritz for train for a month or so. I have been before, but only for the afternoon and a wander about. It was misty and rainy that day, so we could only walk about the town trying to escape the wetness. – I don’t remember too much other than there being a load of designer shops and menus in Russian!!

Fingers crossed there won’t be similar weather this time around – I have visions of clear blue skies and snow capped moutains. Only time will tell, but I will keep the site updated as best I can with some training snippets.

We went mountain biking at the w/e at the excellent Glentress down past Peebles. We have had Mari staying this week – returning the favour in some small way for all the weeks I have stayed with her and her family in Stellenbosch, and we saw this cool VW camper. – There is a Life Is Good shop in Stelly, so it seemed worth a picture and making this link.

It’s been a finishing off with one block and starting up with another different one these few days. – Racing has been wrapped up for the time being, and consistent training is gradually beginning again.

Saturday was day of ‘everything catching up with me’ – everything being the 4 races in the past month and the 10+hrs of racing over the previous two weekend. Nonetheless, we did have an eventful morning, in an unconventional sort of way. – We chased ducks all round the garden. Somehow, a flock of ducklings had ended up in the back garden – and they must have trekked the (for a duck at least) mammoth journey down from the university loch (at least a Km) where they presumably came from.

Long stroy short – the duckling were easy enough to gather up – cardboard box and a little plastic tray with some water kept them happy enough. The mother duck?? Now that was a test in skills of capture. Sadly we lacked such skills. Nearly 2 hours later – after having clambered over most of the neighbours garden walls trying to catch the damn thing – I had to give up and admit defeat. I upturned the cardboard box and left the duckies to waddle around happily after their mum. They were adorably cute however!

they couldn't all fit in the 'bath' though

Yesterday I got back into some normal aerobic training after a week of bits and pieces. – 5k swim, 50k bike and 12k run around the North Third which was absolutely stunning. – It was in fact the first time I have ever stopped to cool off and dunk my head in the water during a run, and I have had countless runs up there over the years.

The weather really has been superb here in Stirling over the past wee while. Despite this, I will be leaving for the next month to go train in St Moritz, Switzerland. Altitude is something I haven’t really done in a long time – in fact the last time I was higher up was in early 2005 when I spent 3 months living in Glen Innes, Australia. (The given-the-name-not-too-surprisingly Scottish Capital of Oz; so I was very much at home!). We only lived at 1200m then though, and couldn’t ride much higher than 1400m … so it wasn’t really ‘true’ altitude. Despite this, when I ‘came down’ I had some of my best results to that point. St Moritz is a much more useful elevation – the village itself being at around 1600m with the oppertunity to ride very high indeed – the Stelvio pass in nearby Italy reaches to 2750m.

With 4 weeks training up in the mountains it will be interesting to see what effect it may have on my results when I resume racing again in August. I will be training with Tim Don but there will be a few other guys and girls making use of the lack of oxygen. I am looking forward to it.