Do you remember that time the guy who couldn't run 100 metres in 2014 made the entire back page of The Gazette in 2019? Yep, I was as surprised as you! But LOL, anything is possible! 😂
How time flies, it literally feels like yesterday, standing at the start line for Europe's most legendary race back in July 2019. So many sensory memories retained, of everything about that day. The experiences of becoming Scotland's first (and only!) Ironman hotelier, and subsequently then receiving congratulations from Scotland's Parliament only made me want to return again and have another go!
So, I signed in again for July 2020, then then got deferred due to the global pandemic to September 2020, then July 2021, and then yet again to September 19th 2021. All to plan, the start line now beckons once again.
Amongst the sheer and epic brutality of the race challenge itself, there's also the additional elements of finesse, collective kindness, the spirit of Ohana, strategic planning, nutritional planning, and equipment. It's all great fun but certainly potentially disastrous if anything isn't fully tested, and planned to succeed.
Back in 2019 the only things I had on my mind that day? Firstly the most profound happiness that my very lovely wife Gaynor and our daughters Isobel and Ruby were there to support me, seeing them every couple of hours or so literally made the entire world of difference. Secondly, to look after myself and not make any catastrophic errors, safety all the way. Thirdly, the only objective, and I mean THE ONLY END OBJECTIVE was to safely get the timing chip across the finish line, for our amazing, local, friendly and inclusive across the span of all ages and abilities, Glenrothes Triathlon Club.
To explain 2019 exactly, after I had finished the 2.4 mile swim, and then the 112 mile cycle, I went through T2 (transition 2, where you quickly change from cycle gear to running gear), then started running with thighs feeling like lead on the 26.2 mile marathon. I looked down at my watch after the first kilometre of the run, and saw I was at 6 minutes 20 seconds, superb, but at that point I made a very conscious decision, 'You have got this far, it's a very long way to the finish, you have time on side, so do the clever thing to give the absolute best chance of actually finishing, and to hopefully avoid potentially ruinous cramp or any other injury, back everything right off and head through the entire marathon blending running, with fast walking, albeit fast walking as fast as you can walk'. So that's what I did! I very purposefully slowed down, to give the very best chance of finishing. And in the process certainly finished an hour or so slower than I would have been if I'd kept running all the way. If there hadn't been any stop for the storm, and I had kept running for the entire marathon, I could theoretically have finished circa 13 and a half hours, therefore with a full 3 and a half hours spare before the 17 hour cutoff deadline.
So, it's all there to perhaps be achieved or otherwise for 2021. To be honest, I am so grateful beyond belief to even be able to be able to take the start line. Since beginning with conditioning and fitness from personal Ground Zero at the age of 46 back in 2014, my journey as recorded on Strava has now extended over 28,000 kilometres. There hasn't been 100 metres that I have not enjoyed and appreciated, not ever.
Joining GTC back in 2014 literally changed my life. I came last in the Balbirnie Duathlon in 2014 (5km run, 20km cycle, 2.5k run), but it was the encouragement and support that night out on the course from GTC members / race Marshalls and GTC Founder Steven McEwan afterwards, that all combined and got me started on the way to Ironman. At the beginning of 2014 I literally could not run 100 metres, so in the context of achieving Ironman in 2019, it has been a profound learning experience all the way.
I didn't know it on the day or immediately afterwards, but my eventual 2019 finish time, even despite having been halted for a good half hour by police earlier in the cycle during the most incredible thunder and lighting storm I have ever seen, was going to define as an M 50 -54 Age Group record for (GTC) Glenrothes Triathlon Club!
It is of course one of the loveliest aspects of Triathlon and Ironman, that the sport doesn't end when athletes usually hit their best ever performances in their 20s and early 30s, to the contrary these are the triathlon age groups:
And I can certainly say today, that I would now absolutely love to be able to keep on going for years to come. It's all there to be done. Maintain base level fitness, step it up for race day, and in effect use an annual Ironman as an annual fitness assessment!
Swimming can continue to improve with age and technique. Cycling can massively improve with indoor training technology, and by shifting from a normal bike to an aero hyper bike. As for the running, very simply put, you can make wee improvements the lighter you get!
My 2019 finish time of 15 hours 3 minutes 23 seconds was achieved (a) without a wetsuit (banned as the water was too hot at 25 degrees) - wetsuits can be near 10% faster as they add buoyancy and streamlining (b) all cycle training outside (c) on the day itself cycled on a normal hired road bike (d) half an hour delay due to thunder and lightning (d) the marathon got backed off and I blended running with fast walking.
Fast forward to 2021 and what could be possible, given the massive learning experience of having crossed the finish line before? Additionally (a) wetsuits will be used as the Lake's water temperature is currently 17 degrees (b) I've supplemented conventional outdoor cycling over the last 20 months with use of the world's most advanced indoor training bike, the incredible Wattbike Atom X (c) I now have my own aero Trek Speed concept bike which has been nicknamed 'The Black Knife', as it's designed literally to cut through the air, and perhaps even as importantly we're rolling with a set of aero wheels, these are Bontrager Aeolus XXX 6's, Aeolus being the Greek God of wind (d) let's hope for no delay with thunder and lightning this year! (e) it remains to be seen how far I can run!
Sincere thanks to Chris Maule of Wattbike, for providing an Atom X on loan for 2021 indoor training:
The Atom X is the commercial version of Wattbike's domestic bike, the Atom - which I trained on through 2020. The technology on both is absolutely superb. It's said that conditioning on one of these is maybe three times more beneficial than riding on the roads, simply put there's no downtime, no coasting down a hill, no catching a breather waiting on traffic to pass. When you are on, you are ON!
Safer as well, incredibly convenient, less wear and tear on road bike, can be used by an entire family.
And, if you wish to do so you can watch a movie at the same time as cycling!
Nothing on an indoor bike however, is going to fully prepare you for real life road conditions, and what it feels like out there in the wind, together with all the ensuing conditions and sensations from the road.
Say hello to The Black Knife:
So theoretically this year, it may well be the case that I can break the same GTC M50 - 54 Age Group record which I established back in 2019, but there's one massive caveat for 2021, and that's my left knee!
Earlier this year I switched from my usual Hoka One One running shoes to another brand, and immediately picked up the knee injury. Back to Hoka but I've not been able to do anything like the amount of running conditioning I would have liked to do, and over recent weeks the only conditioning I have been able to do has been 5km easy on near soft sand, or soft grass, all with a view to getting to start the race, and if I make it to the run section what will be will be! This is a long way from 2019's run preparations, when I was running three 10kms each in under an hour, per week.
My swimming has improved this year. I have taken a full 20 seconds off per 100 metres, and am still the only swimmer I have seen in any pool in Scotland using the Total Immersion technique.
Here's my swim coach Shinji Takeuchi with a quick clip, video ranked 1 worldwide for famous swimmers. The Most Graceful Freestyle Swimming.
During August 2021's 100 training sessions alone, I achieved 46 new Personal Records, most of these cycling on The Black Knife. It's one thing having a fast aero bike, it's another matter entirely in being able to ride it!
Back in July I started proper familiarisation with the bike by riding on the flat back and forth between Freuchie and Dunshalt. OMG, so dangerous, difficult to look over your shoulder for safety checks, zero suspension so you feel every tiny jolt, 'plan to stop' brakes (and out of quick reach), clunky gears, and steering so hugely sensitive to the tiniest of movements, dangerous, skittish ... That said, it's a combination which over the course of time can be studied, learnt, and gradually understood. And when you do understand it all, that's when it then starts making total sense, all of it!
Lots of yoga has helped condition for the bike as well. Child's pose, extending to elbow-supported plank!
There must be folk who train for an Ironman, then think to themselves 'to save cash and hassle transporting my road bike, I'll just hire an aero bike!' (there are numerous rental companies) - Only to arrive for race weekend, pick up the bike, have 20 minutes and 10 kilometres warmup around the block thinking 'this is brilliant', only to then realise an hour into it on race day, that they are in actual fact sitting without preparation on the most incredible instrument of personal torture, and there's still maybe 5 hours to go! They then need to come out of the aero tuck, and hold the lower base bars, but after 30 minutes of that, the wrists are screwed with pain because they are using muscles and tendons that aren't used to it.
As I say, it's something that needs to be learnt, and it's patiently, over hours, days, weeks, and hundreds of kilometres.
On 26th July I had a one hour session on Dundee's Velodrome, averaging 34.5km per hour. Sweet Jiminy Cricket the pain! But never mind being uncomfortable sitting on a bike, I could hardly sit on the front seat of a Tesla afterwards! I was so close to selling the bike and heading back to my trusty and safe, comfortable Trek Domane road bike with a pair of add-on aero bars, but no, I made the very clear decision, 'However it happens, The Black Knife and I are going to become friends!'
And so began a vast and rapid learning experience the next day, equipped with a more comfortable saddle and heading to the amazing Fife Cycle Park, with the mentality of '60% in the ultra fast tough-to-hold aero tuck position, 40% sitting up holding the easier base bars', since then we've gradually become friends!
On a normal road bike, the better your position into the wind and the more power you put through the pedals, the faster you will go incrementally. The Black Knife is different, if you take it to 30 kilometres per hour, and then start putting good power (eg 250 watts) through the pedals, it's as if turbochargers kick in, and whoosh ... off it goes, incredible! I've trained Fife Cycle Park alone, more than 300 kilometres over recent weeks, and can hold the continual pace steady at 33 kilometres per hour. On occasional 100% effort flying laps (always build the pace on kilometre 22 as that's the power-building number), I've been able to go over 40 kilometres per hour, and that's without pedalling on the corners, because at that speed the bike is leaning over and going so fast that the pedals were hitting the ground!
Lots of looking at bike fit detailing online, and so many tiny wee adjustments, a millimetre here, a millimetre there, until eventually ... we reached the main priority of sustained comfort. Sustained speed is only made possible as the result of the comfort.
Sincere thanks to my cycling mentor David Macmillan, for installing new wheels, brakes and full service preparation of the bike for Austria. David has recently opened the new Singletrack Bike Shop in Kirkcaldy.
Of the swim / cycle / run, the cycle is certainly my best of the three, and if I make it to the end of the swim I hope to be able once again to experience Austria's truly epic and beautiful route. The views are staggering, the road surfaces 99%+ as smooth as Fife Cycle Park.
A massive congratulations with everyone who has been involved with the re-instatement of Pittenweem's Tidal Swimming pool. What a wonderful addition for Fife. With water temperature forecasted for Austria now at 16 degrees, I've had confidence-building sessions re-familiarising with wetsuit gear and Fife's current sea temperature at 14.5 degrees.
Another truly great thing to have learnt this year, is how to actually prepare and warm up for a cool water swim. Basically, in and out the water, you need to gradually let sections of cold water into your wetsuit, then warm up out the water gradually so that the water inside the suit reaches the same temperature as you! 9 time Kona finisher Wendy Mader talks through exactly how to do that.
In the first of those Pittenweem sea sessions (photo above), I acknowledged that I have (and always have had) a big problem with extreme dizziness when standing up after swimming, but only caused by prolonged time in cold water. In fact, I cannot even stand up! After further 2021 research, I've discovered this is fixed by inserting tiny Speedo ear plugs so cold water cannot access the inner ear. In conjunction with a chinstrap thermal cap. Next session 100% sorted and I was smiling! Every day is a school day!
2021 - 2.4 mile swim then no dizziness, and able to stand up and then cycle 112 miles on The Black Knife. Then run a marathon on a bad knee? Sounds like a plan!
In 2020 it transpired that there wasn't any Ironman, thankfully I had opted in for the only other challenge of the year, a fairly extreme Swim/ Cycle/ Run Virtual Reality challenge delivered and administered weekly by GTC's Nicola Philp, Race Director for the Balbirnie Duathlon. That 2020 challenge took significant time, usually averaging 14 to 15 hours per week, every week. All of that got me thinking, 'What would be the optimum annual weekly training and conditioning that would be required, to maintain base fitness, and capability to complete an Ironman 140.6, in the mid fifties, and without spending time on junk miles, just for the sake of it. Every hour therefore focussed, every session put to as much good use as possible. I am repeating a similar Virtual Reality challenge in 2021, but the average is around 9 hours per week, albeit more in the weeks building towards the apex 3 weeks out from Ironman race day. If it's possible to keep the required levels with 9 hours per week average, count me in!
All aspects combined, could it be possible in 2021 to take a full hour off 2019's IronMan time? Well that I don't know ...
All I do know is that ⬇️
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