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)

So I am virtually packed up ready to go tomorrow morning – it has been a wee while since I embarked upon a trip, so I am looking forward to arriving in Tampa tomorrow evening to get ready for St Croix next Sunday. - Fairly lengthy travel, but thats ok – better than no travel at all, which was how it looked last week!

I had a good w/e bedded in here in The Shire – yesterday Ali raced in the Lisboa Triathlon and came 2nd! I’m really chuffed for her, it was my first ever International Half Ironman, and so it seems nice that it was her’s also. It would have been great to go with her to support, but given I was supposed to be in Florida this w/e, it wasn’t really possible. Then this morning I had a last longer run for a while with Gordo before settling in to watch the London Marathon. Good times.

First thing in the morning Blair will be dropping me off for the red eye to London Gatwick to start my journey. I’ll keep you posted when I arrive Stateside ….

Blue skies, me and Stirling Castle

The remainder of the day was spent much like Christmas, due to my superb sponsors K Swiss, Trek and Bontrager sending me some rather exciting parcels via the good peope at UPS which even the ash from Iceland couldn’t stop. Happy days.

It took a little longer than I had hoped (I last saw this bike in California mid February) but it was worth the wait. I had forgotten how nice the Trek/K Swiss painted Madone looked … until I opened up the box. Delighted! There wasn’t a ride scheduled for training today but it would simply have been rude not to wouldn’t it?

built and ready to ride

And not to be out done, I also opened up a box of tricks full of new sneaks and kit from K Swiss, with a pair of funky high tops catching my eye in particular!

I am now getting ready to head away again after a final w/e of training … it has been a few weeks since I last raced in Abu Dhabi and I am excited to be able to start preparing for another start line.

I am going to race in St Anthony’s   over in St Petersburg, Florida next w/e in preparation for an assault on Ironman 70.3 St Croix the following w/e. I have raced in St Pete the last 2 years and I love going back to stay with Carolyn, who could write a book on being a homestay host! – She is a superstar. 2 years ago I flatted in T1 and last year I took a wrong turn on the bike, so I am hoping for 3rd time lucky this year, although as it stands it would appear the flight situation in and out of the UK is going to casue issues with my flight on Monday morning…fingers crossed however. St Croix is an exciting new race for me and I look forward to getting back on the start line of a 70.3. – The South African event seems some time ago for sure.

In the mean time I shall keep you posted on whether I actually fly anywhere soon ….

climbing back up to the uni buildings

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 have healing hands work on my grumbly calf. Then the w/e was all about Hawaii-watching. I loved it. I stayed up till past 3 in the morning to see the top 10 finish live online. Then I got up for the Scottish Duathlon Championships – it was a long trip there; about 900m to get to the University buildings! – Here is a great little selection of shots courtesy of Iain MacIntosh from Imacimages Thanks buddy!

p.s to round off the week, I am typing this blog from a hotel room at Los Angeles airport, at 3am (in a word; jetlag) – I had my longest Monday ever yesterday as I flew 11hrs ‘backwards’. I need a sherpa, but all my luggage made it safe.

serious face

not such a serious face

It was good to get a race done again, and boy had I forgotten how hard duathlon is! I was pushed hard all the way, which was exactly the sort of hit out I was needing after the hard training the last few weeks. Results are here.

The sun came out ......

In other news I changed my flight back to Tuesday (from Friday) next week, as I have developed a sore calf …. and I know from bitter experience that when things get left without proper treatment from folk who know me (physiofocus in Stirling), then I end up trying to negotiate that well know creek without a paddle. So, I decided it was worth coming home a few days early to iron things out before flying to the US the following Monday.

All the more reason to get even more familiar with my aero bars this next week then! Ticked off another 102ks today. The 100/day average continues …..

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!

The hills behind Stirling

This week for me at home, between one block of training and another prospective block of racing, is all about adaptation. Adapting to the weather is certainly the most obvious explaination, however I think it goes a fair bit deeper than that. The training I have tucked away over the past 12 weeks has been perfect – a fantastic base upon which to build the season ahead. But we get carried away with training training training I think sometimes. I certainly have been there plenty of times before (digging a hole that takes a while to climb out of) - not always after such a long and useful time away I accept, but the tendancy to get far too absorbed in ‘the numbers and hours’ is always lurking.

So, I am home for just a week, and am letting the training sink in and the body to adapt. A bit of training each day, mostly just swimming with the squad in the morning (solid swimming mind you) and a bit of stuff on the turbo or in the gym each afternoon. I had a bit of soreness develop on the top of my right tibialis anterior during the last week in Stellenbosch, so I have stopped running for a little while to let it settle - and had some great treatment, as ever, from Physiofocus here in Stirling. And just in case you don’t know where that muscle is?! -

The hills around Stellenbosch. Beautiful.

My downtime has all but reached its endpoint; I have been home in Stirling for nearly 2 weeks and in 2 more days I will boarding a BA flight to Cape Town, so that I can spend the next 3 months in Stellenbosch… I’m a lucky person.

Since I got back I have been tried to be productive with my time; a trip to Lake District for some mountain biking was great fun; a drive up north to see mum and Abbie; a trip to Heriot Watt to graduate; a couple visits to Glasgow to meet up with old school pals, to name a few. All were good fun and just the sort of stuff I would never normally get a chance to do in such a short space of time.

And in the past 4 days I have eased slowly back into some form of swim/bike/run routine, so that when I arrive out in SA I am ready to hit the gound running with the start of base winter stuff; miles, miles and miles.

I’ve been in the pool early doors with the squad 3 times, and consequently now remember what my ‘catch’ is – I fall out of fitness horribly quickly in the pool! Indeed this morning coach Volley had us doing an open water session – where he takes out the lane rope in our side (not the swimmers ’side’) of the 50m pool and hangs bouys from the turn flags – one at either end, and viola, we have an open water venue, roughly 100m in length. We do sets of 3 * 5 laps as a mass start, and it is bloomin hard work, especially when you have been out of the pool for a while. – And this morning we had a guest mixing it up with us – Andy Hunter was a part of the GB 4*200M freestyle quartet that smashed the British record at the recent Olympic Games, and when he saw us ‘having fun’ he asked to join in for a bit. – His comment of “anything is better than that Medley pi$$” whilst pointing a finger backwards to his swim squad made us laugh! He knew he wouldn’t have the chance again, for next week Ian Thorpes’ old coach will take over as the High Performace swim coach on deck in Stirling, and he’ll not be interested in Coach Volleys sets we doubt….

I’ve been getting out on the mtb a bit too, thoroughly enjoying the surrounding hills – have a look at my flickr.com account for recent pictures.

When I get out there I will have great company to train with – Tim Don has been out there for a week or two, plus Gavin Noble is leaving Stirling tomorrow and will be around till Xmas, plus the many good friends I made whilst I stayed there last time around. I have a major race to look forward to in the form of the SA 70.3 in January, plus I may also enter a few local events like I ended up doing previously.

As I’m told – Winter miles = Summer smiles!

Today us at TotalRacingInt.com had ourselves a few photies on the shore of loch Venachar, not so far away from Stirling. It was sunny, for the most part, but oh so brrrr. Autumn is here for sure.

So far this year it has been myself and Alun Woodward racing pro in the colours of T.R.I, but we’re increasing in size. The older half of the Jameson brothers (TeamJameson.co.uk) – Toby - plus Scottish Ironman record holder (8.35.09), Graeme Stewert will race from now on also.

It was good fun to get together, albiet not for so long, and in particularly chilly circumstances i might add. But it didn’t rain, and that was a good thing!

Iain (ImacImages.co.uk) putting us through or paces – and taking up the road as we did it!

Woody getting a sneaky computrainer session in between shots! – The wonders of a van with an electricity hook-up huh?!

The scenery up around loch Venachar is cracking for getting good pictures.