The London Triathlon 2014

Ok so my plan to write a training blog really didn't happen but hey, I've been busy - ok!

Right, well the London Triathlon was just over a week ago so I've had time to recover and reminisce.

As per usual, the training time flew by. What was once 10 weeks to go swiftly became 10 minutes to go and true to form I decided that it wasn't difficult enough completing an Olympic distance triathlon and so put my back out 7 days before the event. The knock on effect of this was a severe lack of training for 11 days prior to the event and a small (but noticable) loss of stamina and aerobic capacity on the day.

And that wasn't all. I put my back out on the day I was going to go for my first open water swim. As a result I never did do any open water swimming and only tried on my hired wet suit the day before I left for the race. It was a few sizes too small.

lastminute.com

Oh and the bike carrier/holder thing that goes on the car? That doesn't take one person 10 minutes. I takes 3 people 45 minutes. And manufacturers: please make sure that the "assembly instructions" included are not a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. It makes very hard reading and understanding.

So my race (or wave) was on Sunday 3rd August in the afternoon so I packed the car and headed up to London on the Saturday. My Ibis hotel sat right opposite the Excel in London and for all intents and purposes appeared to be perfectly placed. That was until I realised that the speaker for the DLR announcer was close to my window and all I could hear all night was "the train now arriving at platform 2 is for ...". Anyway upon arrival I popped over to the Excel, found TriUK, swapped my small wet suit for the correct size and generally got my bearings before getting some dinner and heading to bed.

It wasn't the best nights sleep, despite half a Sominex and I woke up a bit tired. It's to be expected on race day though. I followed my days planned nutritional routine until Gem, Reece and Lincoln arrived shortly followed by my in-laws and Gem's aunt and her boyfriend. It was a good crowd.

Before I knew it it was time to get into my wet suit (for the first ever time) so I headed over to where I had stationed my bike in the transition area. I oiled up and squeezed in. And when I say squeezed.... jees. After a rousing and motivational speech by one of the race organisers me and the guys headed down to the water and jumped in.

Now I've been used to swimming in the pool in just my trunks. Once I was in the docks I realised that the water was actually brown and the wet suit, despite keeping me warm, was restricting my breathing. There was nothing I could do - our wave of 300 guys was split into 2 and before I knew it we were off on our 1.5k lap.

It was fine though - I did a mixture of front crawl and breaststroke. It didn't go as well as I had planned and within 5 minutes I felt knackered but then again that's exactly how I had been feeling in training. Once I got my breathing right and into my rhythm then I was ok. It's just strange not to have a real point of reference as to how fast you may be swimming. I only way I knew that I was actually going somewhere was because the bloke in front of me was still the same distance away.

Finally the end of the swim arrived and I hobbled out of the water (hobbled with a small bit of cramp in my left foot) before waving to Gem and the kids as I ran past desperately trying to remove my wetsuit whilst looking as epic as possible.

My transition didn't exactly break any records. I actually sat down and towel-dried my feet before applying talc, then socks and trainers, t-shirt, glasses and cycle helmet. Little did I know that my transition was being watched by my supporters, all probably wondering what the hell I was doing sitting on the ground when everyone else was running in and straight back out on their bikes.

The bike ride was reasonably good. When you first come out of the Excel centre you go down this steep slope down to the road. I forgot about that on the way back so had a nasty surprise when after 26 miles I had to climb back up that same hill - bastards! But in general it went ok. Pretty much all my training had been on a static bike in the gym so it was nice to be out in the open air. I thought I was going pretty fast at times but then the elite guys go past at 10 times your speed - it's very impressive if not a tad depressing. Anyway I did my first lap, saw Gem and everyone twice (which was great) before heading back out. The second lap was better, probably just because I knew where I was going and how far I'd left to go.

Back at the Excel centre it was time to dismount and that's where it started to unravel I think. I had been told that when you get off your bike that you need to stretch your hip flexors or you may have trouble walking but throughout all my training I never had even the slightest problem. That was until now. I couldn't walk but somehow managed to drag my beaten corpse to transition where I somehow managed to pull myself together for a 10k run.

The 10k run is basically 3 laps of a route but as I started I really wondered how the hell I was going to do it. I was physically exhausted, my arse was on fire from the hot devils poker of a bike seat and I'm sorry Shakira but my hips were lying. As I ran down the hill from the Excel centre and into my first lap I saw Gem and the kids and it gave me a mental boost. After the first lap and climb up the hill back into the Excel centre I got a massive dose of cramp in my inner thighs. The pain was shocking and I really thought my race was over. I stopped, stretched, moaned, whined and swore and then it began to pass. Another lap but this time with the added bonus of Reece running with me part of the way there and back - what a lift. Back at the Excel centre I got another sharp stab of cramp, this time in my right quad but it didn't last long. And then my last lap.

Reece was an absolute diamond. He's only 7 yet ran a few hundred yards on the other side of the fence constantly shouting "come of daddy, you can do it, you're amazing, you're doing great, you're nearly there, I'm so proud of you" - I was so inspired. At the furthest point away my right hamstring twinged and I wondered if there was any part of my body that wasn't going to give up. But I dug deep and headed back to where I knew Reece would be. Again he ran with me but this time all the way back to the Excel centre including the hill. What a star.

Before I knew it I was crossing the finish line in a semi-respectful 3hrs 29min 4sec made up of;

Swim (1.5k)  00:41:22
Bike (40k)  01:28:06
Run (10k)  01:07:44

It was a great day and I reckon that IF I was to do it again I reckon that I could manage a sub 3 hour but hey, I did it!

Changing gears

After much procrastination I finally got round to hiring a bike and a wetsuit for my little triathlon. At the time there were only 7 weeks to go until the day so I thought it was probably time. My procrastination stemmed from the thought that I imagined the ordering process would be a pretty in depth and time consuming process trying to get the right sizes. In reality it only took me 5 minutes from beginning to end which left me wondering why the hell I hadn't done this back in March. If that wasn't efficiency then having the bike and wetsuit arrive in 2 days most certainly was.

In the meantime I'd challenged myself to a swim - a distance of 100 laps of the 25m pool. I smashed it in 68 minutes. Ok well when I say "smashed" I actually mean I "completed" the challenge. The last 20 laps required considerably more effort. What I don't understand is how other swimmers glide at twice my speed almost effortlessly whilst I'm thrashing around. I think someone's going to get knocked out in the race.

Fast forward to today. Gem was taking the boys to the zoo with a friend so I took the opportunity to test my new bike out on the open road. I'd left the bike at work so I took a brisk jog (1.8 miles) to collect it and then headed off.

Now you have to remember that I haven't ridden a road bike since I got knocked off my mountain bike by some old duffer in a car probably 8-10 years ago. The bike I have hired is a road race bike. The wheels are the width of a cats whisker, the seat has been cast directly from the devils own red hot poker and it comes complete with something like 16 gears. As I ventured wobbly out of the business park I suddenly realized just how vulnerable I was.

As a car driver I'm like most other people - I hate cyclists. I mean really hate them. But hold on a minute here - I'm now the cyclist. Can we all just suspend our hatred for a couple of hours... please?

As I ventured across my first "junction" a car pulled out and then screetched to a stop to avoid hitting me. Great, what a start. I can almost hear my wifes voice already. So I gingerly (if I'm allowed to say that) pedaled down the dual carriageway, changing up the gears whilst desperately trying to ignore the proximately of the anti-cyclist-cars who were doing their best to scare the shit out of me.

All was going ok until I felt a clang. I very quickly realised that the noise was my right pedal falling off. This, I thought, is a quality bike. No matter how I tried I couldn't get the pedal back on so resorted to walking the bike the 4 miles home. When I got home the repair took 2 minutes to fix and I tightened everything up just to be safe. Perfect I thought and hit the road. Just like an efficient satnav I recalculated a new route via the beach and left.

My next problem was only seconds away. The bike wouldn't change gears so I was stuck in a high(?) gear. Not to worry I thought, I'll work it out along the way. To compound issues I was struggling to get my foot into the foot belt holster thingamy (if that's what you call it). Obviously as long as I didn't have to stop then this wouldn't be a problem. The problem soon showed itself - the annual "Race for Life" was taking place on the seafront and I was stop-start in it. Every light was red, a million cars were coming in and out of everywhere and a billion people thought they had the right of way. Fan-bloody-tastic.

But then I got out of town and with the exception of a few dickhead drivers (are we really that selfish?), a couple of rogue dogs and one woman who i swear saw me coming and parked her mobility scooter in my path... apart from them I managed to keep on pedaling. I never did manage to change gear and towards the end of the route my back and bum were sore and it felt like the wind was constantly against me but I finished.  Here's my route and stats;

Route:       http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6346247
Weather:   Dry and sunny - probably the hottest day of the year
Time:         Around 2 hours I think but I have no idea

Distances

Ran 1.8 miles
Cycled: 2.2 miles
Walked: 4 miles
Cycled: 28.747 miles

The London Triathlon - 50 days to go

I'm always full of good intentions. My plan at the beginning of the year was to write a weekly blog - I have so many ideas all the time I thought that if I just started writing stuff in my blog then at least I'd have some record of them. Instead work happened. Instead kids erupted. Instead life happened and here we are 6 months later and hardly a word has been written.

But what has this got to do with the London Triathlon? Not a lot really but I just wanted you to understand why this blog has been so thin on the ground. My training, however, has been going ok. Well when I say ok I actually mean that I'm pretty much on target after realising about a month ago that I hadn't long left until the big day.

Back at the beginning of April my wife and I had started a healthy eating plan. This is something that I have been trying to implement for the last 14 or so years but without the proper support of my wife it was rendered almost impossible. I mean I'd do all the training an then come home to a cupboard full of crisps, chocolate, cake and other sugar and fat laden foods. Fortunately when I was younger I had a great metabolism and reasonable genes so the bad portion of my diet was easily cancelled out by everything else I was doing.  When I hit 36 Reece was born, my metabolism slowed, sleepless nights crept in, my 4 times a week workouts and exercise regime pretty much halted and fatigue took over. As a result the body which I was once proud of left me for a body I didn't recognise.

When I hit 40 I decided to do the London Marathon. Not only was it ticking something of my bucket list but I also thought I'd get shredded ready for a "total rebuild". Instead I didn't lose a single lb but after the marathon I piled the weight on. I was horrified. Then Lincoln was born and we spent the first year of his life nursing him in rotating shifts almost 24 hours a day. Life was stretched to say the least.

In almost an act of desperation to get fit again Gem signed up for the Brighton half marathon and I signed up for the London Triathlon. After she completed her half marathon she started on personal training sessions. She found these sessions so gruelling that the last thing she wanted to do was to come home and stuff her face with unhealthy food. Instead she wanted to support her training with the correct nutrition.

Hold on a minute - isn't this exactly what I have been harping on about for the last 14 YEARS?!!!

And that was April. Since then she's become fit and lean (she's down to 19% bodyfat with a metabolism of an 18 year old!) and I've dropped a stone of mainly manly fat and am back to training 4 times per week. For the first time in about 7 years I'm finally ready for the summer.

My triathlon training is currently up to;

60 lengths of the pool (half breast stroke, half front crawl)

25k bike

2k run

I train Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then again on the weekend. 2 week day workouts are weights (so I look good stripping out of my wet suit) and 1 week day shorter swim/cycle/run and then the weekend is the big push. Tomorrow I'm going for 70 lengths, 30k bike and 5k run. It's very time consuming but with only 5/6 weekend sessions left I've got to go for it.

Your time is now...

Life... it never seems to get easier does it but believe me, you just get better at it.

A friend recently told me though that we as humans, are problem solvers. With that in mind we shouldn't look at life as just seemingly lurching from one "disaster" to another but from one challenge to another. An obstacle arises in your path and you have to solve the problem to move on. That's what we do and we can be very good at it.

Just recently I have started to understand that the key to the rest of your life is what you do right now. That could be getting fitter; losing or gaining weight; being more healthy; working harder or smarter. It could be simply spending more time with your family or being a better mother, father, brother, sister or friend. It could be starting a project or hobby that you've been putting off but whatever it may be it's what you do now which determines and holds the key to the rest of your life.

I believe that every stage in your life is a chapter. We are constantly changing and evolving. None of us are the same person that we were 10 years ago and none of us are the same person what we will be in 10 years time. People change - we all change. Embrace it and change for the better.

You have 3 choices: give up on it, give in to it or give it your all. Your time is now - make those changes, take control and see the difference.

The London Triathlon 2014 - a glance at the challenge

Ok, so this whole training lark for my 2014 London Triathlon may be a tad harder than I first anticipated. You may be aware that I completed the London Marathon back in 2011 (you can read my blog here) and had a few training issues caused by new running shoes and my right knee. Ok so saying a “few” training issues might be a bit of an understatement but still… At the time my lovely wife was heavily pregnant with our second son, Lincoln (he was born just a month after the marathon). Our eldest son Reece was approaching 4 and despite being what they call a “spirited” child (doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep and is constantly on the go) had finally fallen into line and was finally sleeping through. The result being that we were finally getting some much needed rest and sleep (hence I guess the pregnancy) and so energy for training wasn’t so much of an issue.

Fast forward to 2014. Lincoln is a spirited 3.5 year old (they don’t let you forget the half) and Reece is 6.5. We’ve still up at least once per night with the kids and my work and staffing issues have caused my work to become heavily manual. In short; I’m knackered. What used to be a spring-out-of-bed 5am alarm call has become at best a lethargic flop-out-of-bed and drag-my-weary-body-down-the-stairs fog horn of a morning cardiac arrest. Ok so I may be exaggerating but you get the picture.

For those novices out there, the triathlon is made up into 3 sections (hence the “tri” part, or as I should say “try”) and the race is split into various levels. There’s a sprint, a super sprint, a relay version and then the Olympic version. I’m in for the full distance Olympic version which is…

1500m                      Swim

40km                        Bike

10km                        Run

So what does that mean?  Well my local swimming pool is 25m, so a simple calculation tells me that is 60 lengths. A 40km bike ride is about 25 miles (yikes!) and a 10km run is just over 6 miles. In my mind I’m thinking that I can do the swim and the run and, at a big push probably the bike ride all individually… but consecutively? Hmmm, that’s where I have a slight issue.

Last year I started swimming and got up to 100 lengths without stopping within about a month. Not bad huh? The problem was that I was seizing up when I got out of the pool and couldn’t imagine then getting onto a bike for a 25 mile ride, let alone then doing a 6 mile run.

But look… I’m 6 months away from race day, plenty of time to get my body into condition – time to knuckle down to business…

Bad apples...

I have a handful of businesses, two of which take up pretty much all of my time. One of them is my international freight forwarding company (Spicer International) and the other is a military motorbike and classic car restoration company (RiE-Store). At the end of last year RiE-Store had a bad experience with a client. The client had made enquiries into one of our motorbikes to which we provided documented and photographic responses to. He then came to visit us from Germany and after 3 hours of heated discussion and inspection decided to buy the vehicle. I exerted no sales pressure, the opposite in fact. All seemed fine until he got the bike home and then all hell broke loose. I received a scathing e-mail, personally attacking our mechanics and us as a business. The language used was unnecessarily foul and was full of contentious and libellous accusations. I was personally riled, infuriated that after everything I had done for the client that we were in this situation. The client demanded a large chunk of money for nonsensical compensation all of which we refused but the damage to our confidence had already been done. I spent the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas convincing my business partner and team that we shouldn’t let one person undermine all the fantastic work we’d done, not only in 2013 but all the previous years.

At the same time back at Spicer International we had a staffing issue. One member of staff who had used all their holiday entitlement and didn’t want to work over Christmas had decided to get themselves signed off sick for 2 weeks over Christmas. This, along with their moody, depressive and selfish nature really got to the rest of the team, especially when pictures of them partying over the Christmas period surfaced on Facebook. We were all totally hacked off. When I called a disciplinary meeting with the employee they ripped into me, blaming me for everything and accusing me of causing a low morale. Needless to say they are no longer in my employment.

Instead of remembering my own advice of not letting one person undermine all the great work and success we’d accomplished, I found myself in a depressed mood, angered by everything that had happened over the last few weeks and frustrated by the lack of support from some of those I had expected.

It just goes to prove how one person can undermine and affect so much and so many people. It seems ridiculous that it has left me feeling as if I have in some way failed – maybe it is because I am a conscientious person. But as I recover it makes me more determined to remove my emotion from what I do and to be more business like. It’s not what I want to do but I guess that sometimes life backs you into a corner and the only way to survive is to come out fighting.