IS 5 IN A ROW POSSIBLE? IRONMAN AUSTRIA 2023 CONFIRMED!

And so once again, to the subjects of current and future fitness, wellness and wellbeing. For the more that I have progressed, and stepping now into my tenth year of this, I realise that everything is thereby inextricably linked, and applicable both to the body and the mind. 

As Kate Winslett apparently recently said, 'Life is short, and it is here to be lived!' I agree!!!

Now at age 55. If you had suggested to me way back in 2017 that having already spent 3 years working on personal fitness, that I would go on in the next 5 years, to become a quadruple Ironman finisher in my fifties, well that would have certainly made me laugh and tell you that circumstance would not be probable. 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles cycle, then run a marathon, all sections timed? Just goes to show that anything is indeed possible. 

Copenhagen 2022 finish: 

Sincere gratitude as always to all fellow members of our amazing, local, friendly and inclusive GTC Glenrothes Triathlon Club. My further future with Ironman remains to be seen, but I can confirm that I have now signed up for another go at Austria in 2023. This will be my fourth time participating in the most legendary race in Europe, date is June 18th, let's hope it isn't as hot as 2022, that 112 mile cycle that day in 43 to 48 degrees sunlight was rather hot for this Scotsman. 

I am taking the trip to Austria this year with fellow GTC member Gary Breckenridge, who is participating in an Ironman for the first time. No more beautiful a place in the world to do so. 

Here's a quite incredible and poignant photograph from a 19 hour 11 minute 21 second finish line of the 2022 London Marathon. The image certainly encapsulates and celebrates a remarkable achievement, Congratulations ladies. And a finish line moment you'll never ever forget. 

And the image above however can certainly also begin to provide a further understanding about Ironman, what makes it totally different, and how it has grown to become a global sport. Park runs, beach runs, circuit runs, half marathons, marathons you name it. These take place all over, and most do not have any cutoff time at all, for many participants it's simply a matter of somehow eventually getting to a finish line. If you finish, then great! Any finish at all, is better than not trying to start. Each and every person of course has their own story. Sometimes the slowest of walks can be the biggest challenge ever. 

And this is where Ironman totally differs in extremity, because every single section is timed on the clock. If you fall behind the cutoff times at any stage, you are out, classified with a DNF - Did Not Finish. DNS (Did Not Show) and DNF combined for Ironman Copenhagen 2022 was 39.5%! That's out of circa 3,421 entrants. 

GTC recently circulated an Excel throughout the 150+ local club members, and I can see that my fourth successful Ironman finish now has me in second place in the club's Ironman rankings. In first place is Doug Stewart from Ladybank, with six successful finishes. In order to achieve this result, Doug finished Ironman Lanzarote 2022 with only 10 minutes spare before the 17 hour deadline. A few months ago, competitor 1719 Doug was back on it once again, and finished Ironman Wales with *taps mic* only 3 minutes spare!!!! Crikey!!! I actually went to bed that night having very carefully considered the info on Doug's tracker on the Ironman App, after the first 10 kilometres of the entire 42.195 kilometres of the final marathon section, and at that point if Doug had maintained his existing speed, he would not have finished within the time limit. 

Getting up first thing the next morning and seeing the successful end result had me a whoopin' with joy for Doug personally, and yet another successful finish for GTC. 

I certainly now fully understand that in order to achieve the seemingly impossible in these contexts, sometimes you need to put everything on the line. It's difficult to grow anything in the comfort zone. There's a very fine line for anyone in being able to endeavour to create a sublime combination of conditioning and preparation, which then allows actual ability to relax and approach the scale of such a challenge on the day in a calm and very well measured way. But as I now know, difficult roads often lead to lovely destinations. The cost of winning (whatever your win is) can be high, but you don't want to know how expensive regret is, when that bill lands on your table. 

Years ago when I completed the Edinburgh 70.3 Ironman (which is half the distance of a full race), I didn't subsequently double my training / conditioning for my first full distance race the next year. I tripled it, and the rest. My own tuppence, but that's the level of respect that even taking the start line deserves. 

Having the cojones to take the start line? Courage doesn't mean that you don't get afraid of the scale of what lies ahead, courage simply means that you don't let the fear stop you. Whilst there are others around you out there on the first section on the swim, you are absolutely on your own. But I would not take a start line, if I didn't feel I was ready. 

There are those closest to me who have, very understandably, expressed concern about 'What happens if something untoward happens to you on the day?' I have truly given this so much thought recently, but ultimately we cannot live our lives in a state of fear about something that we cannot fathom. I underline, I am not trying to break myself on the day, I am hopefully conditioning so well in advance, that I can steadily and relentlessly progress on the day. 

Life? We all have 3 things in common: 

More and more frequently these days I am asked about Ironman by individuals in Balbirnie's brigade. 'How is it possible to swim 100 metres in 2mins 14 secs, and still be able to breathe easily as if you were just walking?' - 'How is it possible to ride a bike for hours at 30km per hour?' - 'What do your legs feel like the day after an Ironman?' - Yep it's certainly quite a cocktail. Great fun answering as well! :-) 

Easy answers. Do the work! With that in mind I am now well over 2,000 training sessions logged over on Strava, and nothing is stopping. More than 36,000 combined kilometres of progress. The future of course, always depends on what we do in the present. 

Me at age 55: Should I do it? 

My family: You decide

My friends: If you are able to do so LOL 

Everyone else: No

The Universe: No

Me: I'm doing it. 

There are many triathletes in the world, who are still competing in age group triathlon well into their sixties, and indeed beyond. If you think you can, well why not? There's surely no point in getting the fear about tickling The Reaper, if you have prepared for the event. 

[Please don't take that comment as a tickle 😂] Failing to prepare is another matter. 

Again in a personal fitness context, Ironman conditioning led me back in a truly unexpected way early in 2022, after a 35 year break (!!!!!), to the wonders of Alpine skiing. I purchased new ski boots and a pair of ex rental skis, jumped in Tesla Russell and headed over to the French Alps, twice! 

When I was a lad I had the opportunity to ski in the Scottish Schools Championship, and onwards 35 years I have found myself in 2022 in a state of total disbelief, albeit helped with unexpected fitness and modern era ski boot technology, being able to ski much better than when I was young. Two ski trips in 2022, zero falls!

The first 2022 trip was to Valfrejus, the second was to Val Thorens. The latter is the highest ski resort in Europe, and has over 600km of pistes across the span of the 3 valleys, with a state-of-the-art ski lift network which in itself was a revelation from how it was back in the 1980s! With modern era skiing, many of the the pistes are flattened down each night by piste-bashers, first thing in the morning it's like gliding across a smooth corduroy carpet, truly surreal in scale and landscape. 

Looking around the ski slopes, there aren't masses of people at all age 55 and over. Although those over 75 seemingly get to ski without needing to pay (the circa £300 per week) for the lift pass, I have noted this for the future!

I have been taking multiple ski trips through the 2022/ 23 winter, treating each of these as 'winter fitness camp', taking a break from the daily conditioning routines of swimming, fast walking, running and cycling, and focussing instead on hard core all day skiing (hence working on a very different type of leg conditioning), followed by Yoga each evening, then swimming, and thermal suite. The legs, after all, are the main weapons for Ironman. 

For the first time in my life I went on a solo trip, specifically as I wanted to rack the distance. 

Thereafter I had a truly amazing week in Les Arcs, with 25 fellow members of Edinburgh Ski Club. Numerous of those on the trip skiing in their sixties, and beyond! A massive thanks to fellow ESC member Chris Wieczorek who previously had 5 years, 6 months per year with British army ski division, competitive grand slalom, downhill racing at 80mph etc etc!!! Also is a formally qualified ski coach. So I found myself on the very grateful receiving end of a few days of friendly coaching and advice from Chris. Specifically (and enabled with new modern era carving skis), the objective was to transition into carving, whereby you ski at circa 40km per hour, with each turn aligned as an accelerating torpedo!

'Position the weight like a goalie ready for a penalty! Track the shoulders down the fall line (both shoulders towards the lower downhill), weight set forward on the shins in the ski boots, initiate each carved turn with the big toe, track the turn with imaginary rally car headlights on each knee, drive the carve via pressure on the inside of the downhill foot, slingshot and accelerate through the carve, weight forward over ski bindings through the carve, zero weight on the upper ski but angle it and track the edge with exact same alignment as downhill ski'. All in the blink of an eye!

Here's coach Chris following my progress at Les Arcs, filmed on HDR GoPro.

I then had an amazing week with my very lovely wife Gaynor and youngest daughter Ruby at Alpe d'Huez, 'the Island of the sun' in the French Alps. 6 days of fitness and ski sunshine. I think it's fair to say that I am turning into an Alpoholic! This was Gaynor's first ski trip, after a few days concluding that skiing down the mountains, 'it's all in the hips!' Memories of a lifetime 💕

Having returned to skiing last year, with an extremely shaky start on sparse icy snow at Glenshee, I've now quickly got back to the point where I am thereabouts able to handle expert level black runs (black being the hardest rating you can find in Europe, focussed only on expert level). At Alpe d'Huez 

in this case I successfully made it down the legend that is the 16 kilometre La Sarenne, the longest black run in Europe, twice! 

Back home in Scotland, as is the routine I am at Balbirnie House 7 days per week, mostly all mornings. In spare time the relentless Ironman conditioning continues. All work combining to then hopefully arrive at late spring 2023, and accelerate everything into the requisite final conditioning for Austria Ironman 2023. Have at it! 

The calendar year 2022 was Balbirnie's busiest year in history. The house provided the 2022 backdrop for a quite incredible 193 weddings. I am certainly finding that everything in relation to fitness and wellbeing are also helping me to maintain a vision as company MD, as to how we need to keep on as always, embracing innovation and change in all that we do. The evolution within hospitality is a never-ending task. 

Blessings counted as always. 

All best wishes, 

Nicholas 

MD/ Balbirnie House