IN-HOUSE WEDDING RECORD BROKEN! PLUS, A LETTER FROM A BRIDE AND GROOM

*Breaking News* 27!!!

The in-house monthly wedding booking record has been broken!!!
Our wedding planning department confirm that January 2022 is now the most successful month ever in the entire history of Balbirnie House, for new bookings for future weddings. Throughout January we have taken new deposits for 27 future weddings.

(January is of course usually our busiest month for new enquiries, following festive season engagements. The previous January record of 25 new bookings stood for many years, but that previous record was broken with an absolutely unprecedented summer acceleration following the first pandemic lockdown, with 26 bookings in August 2020.)

As is the in-house tradition whenever new history has been made and the monthly record has been broken previously, I take our wedding planning team out for a celebratory meal at The Gilded Truffle. I very much look forward to this once again.

And talking of celebrations, for our hotel brigade, when being invited to attend Scotland's annual Scottish Hotel Awards and join up to 500 assembled industry colleagues, this has always been the most special night of the year. Deciding who is best representing what we do each year limited to a table of ten from what has been a maximum of 115 in the brigade, is always the most difficult decisions we have to make! 

Knowing each time when we have made the shortlist for Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year, well that's always been a celebration in itself. And as the awards are actually defined one by one on awards night, over the last few years (prior to pandemic) there has certainly been a moment of 'silent, electrically-charged atmosphere', when the judges are on the verge of reading out the winner for this standalone wedding category! The collective vibe in that moment, .... surely, Surely ... Balbirnie's brigade cannot do it once again???

14 times in 16 years. Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year. It's a remarkable statistic!

And because the Haute Grandeur global awards scheme are unable to find any hotel in any other country in the world, which has had anything like the recognition that Balbirnie House has had here in Scotland, that has then helped to pave the way for Scotland hospitality being recognised as never ever before on the global hospitality stage. Circumstances which have rendered us truly lost-for-words, simply at even being invited to represent Scotland.

In Haute Grandeur summary, within our 25,000 words of new 2022 wedding literature: 
2018 BEST DESTINATION WEDDING RETREAT, on a Global level. 
2019 BEST DESTINATION WEDDING HOTEL, on a Global level. 
2020 BEST FUNCTION VENUE, on a Global level. 
2020, BEST COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL, on a Global level. 
2021, BEST WEDDING HOTEL, on a Global level. 
 

In working practice, we are accustomed within the brigade to never actually really discussing accumulated awards, the only time the subject comes up, is when we have meetings with prospective new wedding and corporate clients. That said, I can also say that the scale of accumulated recognition with awards, is without doubt something which we seek to live up to every working day. It is a very direct responsibility to live up to in hospitality.

As I frequently say during my most special part of the working week, when meeting prospective new wedding clients who enquire as to how Balbirnie's brigade has achieved these remarkable results, 'It is truly amazing to be working alongside those of my colleagues who have delivered the results, however the past is the past, we can only ever be judged on how we deliver today, tomorrow and into the future; and then I usually add, 'Whenever we have a wedding taking place, there is no second chance, every single wee piece of our capability will always gear up on that unique day, to deliver our absolute best in hospitality, we are truly, absolutely committed to every single new day'. 

And of course, one of the loveliest aspects of working at Balbirnie, is that we never ever have two days the same. It's a total contrast to say, working in a large city centre restaurant. Every day here the circumstances can completely change, sometimes dramatically so. Therefore what we need to do is always conceive planning, infrastructure and teamwork that can combine and provide the requisite end hospitality.

Reflecting upon 3 decades of doing what we do, operationally there have certainly been a few challenging days over the years, as things can happen, and anything is possible! For example, a supplier could be late with a delivery due to mechanical breakdown, someone providing wedding services could have put a wrong date in their diary, or as we saw recently with Storm Arwen, if we hadn't sourced an electrical generator powerful enough to power the entire place, we would have been without electrics for five days. 

Taking us then to the core essences of what hospitality is about. Pre-planning, design efficiency, organisational excellence, teamwork truly is dreamwork, and don't even start me with risk assessments and the evolution of legislative compliance! The stated aims of course however, are always to get every single piece right, to the point whereby we can exceed client expectations. 

Nothing happens by accident. As a highly relevant example for weddings, whoever is assigned as wedding MC 'Master of Ceremony' (or more aptly LOL Microphone Controller!), has 8 pages of A4 checklist points. Because that is how we roll. That's how we need to roll, to get that single part correct.

Ongoing innovation, and a continual appraisal of that we do, they are ever constants at Balbirnie House. One different day at a time. And when we have a wedding taking place on any given day, you can actually feel it on the morning, walking in through the front door. It's a resonating vibe of energy that's signalling that something of massive significance is about to happen!

And it is always so truly wonderful, to hear feedback from our many clients, one such correspondence received from a few days ago from the newly married Kayleigh and Steven Meach. Our sincere gratitude for taking the time to let us know how well the special day went, and for highlighting individuals from within the brigade. It's always so lovely to know when we have delivered to these levels. 

Thank you to Kayleigh and Steven for giving us their permission to share this communication on today's blog. Wishing you both every happiness for the future.

And thank you to Victoria Photography for the beautiful selection of wedding photographs. We never cease to be amazed at the work and evolution of Scotland's professional wedding photographers.

Subject: Facebook review

Good evening Christine,
I hope you are well, I have put up a review this evening and want to make sure it
reaches you and David directly.

Please see below..
Balbirnie House Hotel
Where do I even begin? When I worked my first wedding in Balbirnie in June 2017, I was mesmerised by the place. We weren’t engaged yet and I came home literally dreaming about this place and just felt like it was... well something.

Fast forward almost a year, and Steven finally popped the question, and I said to him, come with me to see where I want to get married! In May 2018, we sat with Christine, who is now the Senior Wedding Coordinator at Balbirnie.

Steven also fell in love, and we booked our original date for Feb 2021. Steven and I visited multiple times on the run up to our wedding day, and Christine always seemed to have the staff ready for us with little touches like room upgrades, cocktail tasking, canapé tasting and much more. I loved that I felt the staff knew who we were throughout our stays, all whilst dealing with so many other couples.

I also have to mention that whilst working weddings, I got to be a little fly on the wall to see how they handled things with other brides, and I was always super impressed.
When the pandemic hit, we were very worried about everything. Our date was unfortunately changed to 22.01.22, meaning we would have to wait a total of 3 years and 10 months since booking.

Christine and the wedding team, working with the information given at the same time as it was received by us, made us feel looked after, and every avenue was explored to ensure our wedding, as it was booked, was moved with no obligation.

Balbirnie handled the pandemic with sheer excellence, reacting positively to the changes and marketing things from different perspectives. They just thrived, and it made us feel so secure and so proud to have booked this venue to watch it all unfold. It was a real effort to keep on top and push through, and we supported it in every way we could.

As a wedding supplier myself, I knew the pressure the wedding team were under and I want to say a massive thank you for when the world was not being kind to you. You guys still found it within yourselves to be kind to us and work so efficiently and professionally to ensure we were reassured.

Fast forward to the final run-up to our day. Christine kept us right with everything we needed and helped communicate all my visions on the event sheet to staff. 

There’s no wedding without a few little mishaps in the planning, but all were caught in time and rectified with kindness. Christine is so efficient and professional, and we have been very grateful to have had her see us through from our booking to our arrival at
the venue.

Christine handed us over to David our Master of Ceremonies on our arrival for our wedding weekend. I was a little nervous, but needn’t be...
David was truly incredible. Nothing was too much! He was so on the ball and was the piece that held the weekend together and why it ran so efficiently. Once again, my event sheet was a little long, shall we say, so he was a bit nervous, but once I explained it to him, he had it sorted to a T!

I’m a very organised person and a lack of control makes me nervous. David made me
feel at ease with how everything was being handled. Not a thing was out of
place, and he directed his team beautifully to turn our wedding around where
needed. The army of staff needed to achieve what we wanted that day was
incredible and I thank every single one of you for ensuring that it went
without a hitch.

David is a sheer credit to Balbirnie and has such professionalism whilst having great banter. He was our saviour last weekend. We will never forget your efforts for us, David. You are incredible at what you do, and we are very grateful that you were part of our day. You helped make it what it was. Just magical! 

Last but not least, I want to thank ALL the staff we have encountered at Balbirnie from May 2018 until now. The standard to which Balbirnie has trained their staff and how the staff conduct themselves is one of the main reasons we love it. Balbirnie is what it is because of you.

The hotel and its staff will forever hold a place in our hearts. It’s more than just a venue for us. It’s a second home. We will be back soon for fun, and I’ll be back soon for work. We hope to see some familiar faces on our visits.

We can fully see why you are number 1 and will share our experiences far and wide. 
Keep up that good work in making it so magical.

All our love
Mr. and Mrs. Meach
22.01.22

Yep, as I have been saying for years ...

'Today is Never a Dress Rehearsal for Tomorrow!'

All best wishes,

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House

IN 2020 WE WERE CORRECT IN FORECASTING A £1M HIT! BUT GREAT NEWS, IN 2022 THE NEW FUTURE TOTALLY DEFINES!

A LOOK BACK TO THE BALBIRNIE FUTURE!

So here we are at the end of January 2022! It literally feels like it was yesterday, when with trepidation which I had never experienced before in hospitality, that I was knocking our Pearl Suite door on an evening back in March 2020, to inform our next day bride that so very sadly, we would be unable to proceed with the wedding the very next day. Heartbreaking circumstances. 

Of course, on that night back in March 2020 we were under the impression that everything was going into 'a circuit-breaker for weeks', and we had absolutely no idea what we would be faced with, as has transpired, over the incredible challenges of the next two years in hospitality. 

As at being closed in June 2020 we delivered a blog which set out how even at that point, we envisaged a £1M hit. As it has now transpired, through to the publication now in Companies House of annual accounts to the end of April 2021, we are very close indeed to that £1M figure. But that's it. No more than that! 

Following the implications of closing down March 2020, and losses racked by that through to the end of April 2020 in the previous year, we had an accounts loss of £179,407 - and next year accounts now show the implications of ongoing closure from the beginning of May 2020 to re-opening into very severely restricted trading 6th July 2020, and onwards to April 2021, with accounts loss of £816,841 - total losses therefore defined at £996,248 - a sair yin for sure! 

Figures are stated in accounting terms, as such all accumulated pandemic government and Scottish Enterprise grant assistance is not shown as revenue. Therefore the actual cash loss in real terms is less than the figures stated. 

However, and whilst our company auditor is of course obliged to state in these new accounts, that there is 'material uncertainty' (as is standardised accounting practice amongst the racked losses), in my annual accompanying director introductory Strategic Report, I am so very humbled in the context of what we've been through, and truly delighted to now be able to state, with the agreement of company auditor based upon today's financial circumstances and future-forecasting financials through to end April 2024, the following: 

'The directors are optimistic (writing as at January 2022) that financial results to the end of April 2022 may show a return to profit, and this is despite trading with very severe restrictions especially through the first quarter of the financial year beginning May 2021'. 

We have to bear in mind that accounts publishing today from April 2021 are also not a full reflection of where we have now thankfully arrived at 9 further months onwards.

In summary, I think it's now fair to say upon reflection, that having taken the £1M hit as at summer 2020, we have somehow subsequently managed thereafter, and admittedly to say the very least that it has been a truly epic challenge on the hospitality rollercoaster, but we have held our financial ground and are broadly speaking at break-even since then, despite all ongoing trading restrictions, and despite the further instructed total lockdown of hospitality in December 2020. 'Close or become a Takeaway!', we thankfully chose the latter! 

Underlined, this subsequent circumstance has been significantly assisted by all phased hospitality grant assistance, summer 2020 furlough during hospitality closure, temporary Business Rates Relief, and temporary reductions in the rates of tourism vat. It's truly staggering to think of what hospitality has actually been through. 

And this takes me to my next paragraph in Strategic Report: 

'Since re-opening July 6^th 2020 after 3 full months of closure in that financial year, we applied extreme levels of innovation to enable us to somehow continue to trade during enforced restrictions. Otherwise the new loss amounts would potentially have been very significantly worse. Our directors pay tribute to our entire hotel brigade for embracing all such ongoing innovation, and we thank our local community for truly incredible support during the unprecedented pandemic circumstances'.

Well where to even begin? In the interests of keeping this blog post brief (and anyone reading can of course head back into the blog timeline to drill into the details of each phase of the two year adventure), by way of very quick summary today: 

- Spring 2020 by circumstances alone, creating of Virtual Reality prospective new wedding client showrounds.

- On 6th July 2020 Balbirnie House became Scotland's first cashless hotel. 

- Summer 2020 starting only with 12 of us, and working only with 10 Gazebos for Bistro al Fresco on south lawns, we were quickly able to become busy enough to bring all of the brigade back to work. What a summer that was. (Excluding my birthday in August 2020 and a late summer week away in a motor home (for sanity purposes!) it would be a full year before I could justify taking another single day off work.) Support over the opening months and ongoing from our local community defied belief, our sincere gratitude as always. 

- From a standing start, through summer 2020 we would go on to rack 10,000 App Orders. Incredible.

- August 2020 became the busiest month we've ever seen, for incoming new wedding bookings. (January is normally always the busiest month, via festive season engagements.)

- Autumn 2020 we launched 'Food in the Woods', in our Millennium Ballroom. No booze allowed!

- So, Winter 2020 launched 'North Courtyard Bevvy Zone'. 

- January 2021 started Balbirnie Takeaway, with 1,000 orders in week one. Still cannot believe that happened! Once again, local community support was simply incredible. A thousand thank yous for that first week alone. I am still speechless! 

- Having budgeted for unrestricted trading onwards from end April 2021, May, June, July and the first 9 days of August however, saw severe restrictions on numbers of guests able to attend weddings. 

- Through spring 2021, £250,000 invested into upgrading kitchens. 

- June 2021 we then re-opened Balbirnie Takeaway in a brand new purpose-designed kitchen. 

- Since August 10th 2021, we have been working with restrictions ongoing. 

- September 2021 we opened the phenomenal value Seven at The Orangery originally as a 4 month pop-up to thank our local community, it has been so successful in concept and truly unprecedented guest feedback nudging 100% approval and delight, that we are continuing into the future. 

- Then of course, the next pandemic stinger when in December 2021 we saw government telling everyone to avoid festive parties etc. Ah well, onwards we go!

- January 2022 and 350 metres of new festoon lighting provides a new backdrop for external dining up on our top (southern) lawns. North Courtyard can similarly be used. 

Amongst all of this journey, our amazing wedding planning team continued with the same mentality as during the first lockdown, simply doing their absolute best for every single wedding client, amongst the evolution of 30 phases of policy, doing our utmost to adapt and keep helping clients in absolutely as far as we could so so. 

The end results? The busiest calendar years we have ever seen before for wedding numbers in a year, are 2014 and 2015 with 163 weddings and 165 weddings respectively. 

Today in the 2022 calendar year we currently have diarised confirmed bookings for a record-breaking 184 weddings!!!  

And if I may be so bold as to say so, that is a modern era Balbirnie hospitality miracle! 

During the first lockdown in 2020 I would have a walk in and around Balbirnie House every day over those 4 months with Balfour the hotel Cocker Spaniel (we live in Balbirnie Park). At that point my very lovely wife and fellow company director Gaynor was working from home every day, liaising ongoing remotely with our many future wedding clients. Senior Wedding Co-ordinator Christine Lowe was doing the same. In this ongoing process I could see that our clients were most thankfully not cancelling their intended weddings, they were staying with us, but postponing. 

Positivity amongst hopelessness, hope amongst pandemic fear, and a wished-for future of one day eventually hearing 'normal life' returning in and around the house. Laughter from kitchens, the house piper tuning up, drumsticks crisp on a snare drum, the resonating vibrations of a wedding gong from the day's MC. Weddings apart, the usual background of Euro downtempo groove on the sound systems. The eeriest thing of all in that first lockdown, was the sheer silence of everything. 

So, here we are today. Two years through a financial grinder, and now most thankfully getting firmly financially back on track back to where we were before the pandemic. Fingers and toes crossed that there are no further lockdowns! 

Many hospitality operators were 'clinging on' before the pandemic, never mind the implications of Brexit. Many have very sadly not survived, and others especially in remote locations and unable to recruit EU nationals, have closed as they cannot find staff locally. We are very thankful firstly that we have Rebecca Harper at Balbirnie in the human resource role of Talent and Culture Manager, and secondly that we are surrounded by a very significant local population, so we are fully staffed and ready for our busiest year in history. 

Whilst the buck at Balbirnie stops at MD Balbirnie, our decision-making through these last two years has been from across the span of our entire management team. It'll certainly be a couple of years that we won't ever be able to forget. As always, I pay tribute to our team. 

Our many blessings counted, bring on the future! 

All best wishes, yours in Hospitality,

Nicholas MD Balbirnie House

"The greatest wealth is Health." Anon

Welcome to 2022, this is the IronMan training Blog, which I'll update each month. 

I'm hoping that this Blog is helpful for anyone contemplating IronMan, but also anyone considering general fitness, health, wellness and wellbeing. 

If I can remain injury-free, I've got new things to try this year. Already this year we are in full flow with new speed yoga (helping avoid injury, increase strength, and flexibility for the IronMan 180km cycle), I've got a brand new swim metronomic tempo trainer which I am hoping to slowly and incrementally accelerate swim times, and diet is being enhanced with Bio-fermented Turmeric shots! 

Let's start with copy straight from personal Facebook post:

JANUARY 2022

3rd July 2022 ... 2.4 mile swim, then 112 miles on the bike. If you are fast enough on the clock, they let you continue and run the marathon. Over the last two years 25% of entrants did not make the finish line.

At stake in 2022. First member of Glenrothes Triathlon Club (GTC) to try for a three-years-in-a-row Ironman hat-trick in Austria. First member of GTC to try for three successful Ironman results whilst in the fifties. And first member of GTC to try and deliver a successful finish line in the category, Male age group 55 to 59.
Mindset of the warrior. Heart of the lion. Is what it will take.

Blog photo below, crossing the 2021 finish line. For months in the lead-up last year, due to damaged left knee, all I could train was 5k running on soft grass. Then had to 'man it up' for the 42k on the day. Fingers (and toes!) crossed I am injury free today, and hoping so very much that I can stay that way for the next 6 months.

Joining GTC back in 2014 completely changed my life.
It's a truly amazing, friendly, local and inclusive across the span of all abilities club. Membership is £20 per year. Open now for 2022: https://www.entrycentral.com/glenrothestriathlonclub

Additionally, with registration open until the end of January, and start level equating to walking 10 miles per week, annual Virtual Reality Challenge via Nicola Philp Race Director of the annual Balbirnie Duathlon. It's £30 for the year, and you'll need the (free) Strava App: https://www.entrycentral.com/event/118226
Very much looking forward to taking part for the third year in a row, and doing so in 2022, amongst many others with Gaynor Russell Angela Ferguson Gary Breckenridge Neil Clark Sue Clark 

All best wishes, Nicholas
IronMan class of 2022

And to conclude this month, a suggestion below from Aaron Krzyzanowski. As things stand today, I would firstly need to cross the Austria 2022 finish line, and then (at the very least) I would need two further full distance finishes to deliver the most Ironman finishes in history for our local club. Is that even possible at my age? There's no doubt that IronMan has entrants older than myself, but I'd reckon that most of these have been conditioned for fitness for all or most of their adult lives, unlike myself who only started by accidental and fortuitous circumstance at the age of 46! Time will tell, #AnythingIsPossible 

FEBRUARY 2022
Publishing 02.02.2022 

IRONMAN COPENHAGEN CONFIRMED! 

TRYING FOR SUMMER 2022 IRONMAN DOUBLE!

Through January 2022: 

7 swims 8km, all I had time for this month. 

17 cycles 670km

16 runs 95km

To this, and new for 2022 I add 4 or 5 (45 minute) sessions of yoga per week. 

Injury-free, monthly weight loss 8 pounds. 

Yoga by the way, before starting this fitness caper back in 2014, my very lovely wife Gaynor used to refer to me as 'the mechanical man!' 😂 We took yoga classes together a few years ago, so what I'm doing now is working through routines I design myself from online yoga tutorials, at home and with The Foo Fighters on the sound system. Time is too short for introductory meditation and breathing techniques, and I also dispense with the lying flat on the floor, eyes shut, relaxing Shavasana capers, all I'm trying to do is keep suppleness to keep muscles and ligaments stretched, and a lot of work conditioning lower back and neck etc, so we can eventually handle The Black Knife for six hours!

Swimming is going great, following more acceleration tutorial from Shinji Takeuchi, with better focus on hand and arm positioning, as well as the rearwards tracking movements of the arms and hands. 

Back in the winter of 2018/ 19 approaching summer 2019 IronMan Austria, the only thing that would keep me from riding my bike outside was the possibility of black ice. Two degrees and sideways rain, I was out there.

Back then I didn't have an indoor bike. This year I am thus far 100% indoor, it's just so safe, convenient, and easy! Especially so with the might of the incredible Wattbike Atom X, it really is an absolute beast of a piece of kit. The big difference with this, is that there's no downtime, there's no stops, it's just full-on all the way. I'm now able to hold 33 kilometres per hour for an hour, and crucially, this is also conditioning in the aero tuck position. 

After what happened with it nearly being the end of me half way through the IronMan cycle 180km last year, The Black Knife and I have had some chat! We're now making changes. It has been a very tricky thing to do, but with the assistance of Trek dealership Fife Cycles (Leuchars) we have sourced a new piece of kit, which will raise the handlebars by a completely crucial few centimetres. This will hopefully enable me to maintain the aero tuck for most of the entire cycle stage. Additionally, we're switching the tiny cassette rear gearing, for something larger, which will enable me to get a much easier gearing spin up and over the IronMan climbs. The combined difference in this could be as significant on the day, as a full 30 minutes. More importantly, ability to truly keep a smile on all the way. 

Had a laugh yesterday when dropping the bike off at the dealership. Gent behind the counter looking at The Black Knife, saying 'Never seen one of these before, how on earth could you even begin to ride it with the forearms so much lower that the seat?' The issue in 2021 was that I could fully hold that position for two hours in training at Fife Cycle Park, but I found out to my surprise in Austria that I couldn't hold it for three hours, let alone six! Yep, it was the most character-building three hours I've ever had on a bike! 

When I get the bike back next week, I'm going to hook it up to my turbo trainer (these need a specialised rear tyre that can cope with excessive friction), and then I'm going to work and work on the minute details of bike fitting. It is such a precise thing, a coupe of mm here and there makes a massive difference. 

With running we are off to a really great start this year, long term problems with left knee pretty much gone. Our focus is being maintained relentlessly. 

A really lovely run last night, it's so mild for this time of year. 

Stats as always racking up over on Strava.

Is it a miracle cure for my knee? Well I don't know but thus far this situation is what it is. A daily shot of bio-fermented Turmeric! If you have been following this blog for a long time, you may recall that I've previously integrated a daily infusion of hot water, honey, fresh ginger and turmeric. The new main logic is that due to its composition, it's seemingly much more ingested into the body. Time will tell. 

Short of eventual surgery perhaps, I'll do anything to keep the knee going in 2022. 

In passing Glenrothes Triathlon Club (GTC) annual membership is £20, I attended the club AGM via Zoom a few days ago, it's amazing to see that the club has now successfully grown to 146 members and 14 voluntary coaches.

One of the cool things about IronMan is how they apply age groups. I've been thinking a lot about this, because I reckon that most of the folk who are competing over the age of 50, have been in and around sport all of their adult lives. Unlike myself starting with running and cycling at the age of 46, then swimming at 48.

How much time, realistically, have I got left? That's anyone's guess, all I can do is count my many blessings and keep on going, but I fully acknowledge that I'm on the clock and now in my 9th year of fitness, years can certainly pass quickly.

The oldest competitor for IronMan Austria 2021 was 72. I still can't get my mind around that. Instead of considering age, maybe we should ditch that concept, and instead of referring to my age 54, we simply call it level 54 instead! 😂

So with that in mind, and knowing how quickly my legs recovered in 2021 (I was running again within a week instead of 2019's 6 week recovery!) - I think due without doubt to wearing compression socks for 3 days after the 2021 event, ... so I've now gone ahead and following Austria 3.7.2022 I have now entered also, for IronMan Copenhagen 21.8.2022 All to plan I'll be so very honoured indeed to be representing our amazing local club GTC, twice in summer 2020.

Have at it folks, because it's all there to be done!

More chat next month!

MARCH 2022 AND CARVING THE PISTES!

TRIATHLON CONDITIONING DELIVERS A MID-FIFTIES RETURN TO SKIING! 

From Facebook: 

That apart, the 2022 IronMan conditioning continues as always! 

April through June 2022, 3 months condensed. 

So, like nearly everyone I know, I got the Covid, this took place back in late spring 2022! I am not at all sure if this, when taken in conjunction with two vaccinations plus a booster, but my previous absolutely superb resting heart rate of 52 has now risen to 64. That's still very good, but onwards we go. 

More worrying, when I have gone for my routine heart check prior to departing for Austria 2022, I've had two visits to Markinch surgery, both confirming that I now have high blood pressure. Nurse described it as 'high, but not alarmingly so'. I am nevertheless advised to cut down on salt intake, booze, caffeine, and to forge more time for relaxation. Very interestingly into this mix, I have suggested myself that I may have an electrolyte imbalance which is also boosting blood pressure. This is due to the amount of ongoing training/ conditioning, and not taking the opportunity to use diet to replace electrolytes. More sardines required! 

Sweat is primarily made up of water, but it also contains electrolytes that have essential roles in the body. Sodium and Chloride are the most abundant electrolytes in sweat with potassium, magnesium, and calcium present in lower amounts. Therefore, we can seek to remedy this by taking a daily electrolyte pill, the same pill as I have taken during Ironman, on the hour after the first 6 hours. On the day, it's this fundamental that stops cramp. 

In addition to these challenges, I have also found over recent months, that despite the daily shot of Turmeric, that I am experiencing knee pain when indoor cycling, after the first hour of pedalling. That started left knee, then added right knee, telling me therefore that it's simply age. 

Strangely however, my previous left knee running injury is no more, at the moment anyway. This bodes well for this year's phase 3 of Ironman. 

These last 3 months I've needed to ratchet conditioning to what my 54 year old body is able to do. Very specifically, I've had both calf muscles consistently twitching away involuntarily on their own. That's repairs underway! When like this, there's not much point in doing more running or fast walking (or cycling) until it has subsided. That's just the way it is. 

When defined with the level of blood pressure I have, it's best advised 'keep on with exercise such as swimming, walking, running, cycling etc, but avoid anything that causes a sudden and massive spike in heart rate. Therefore, don't sprint, don't do sudden weight-lifting etc'. So again, onwards we go. 

I would have ZERO intention of ever attempting anything during Ironman 2022, which would give a sudden and massive spike in heart rate anyway. Same as (pre final sprint) Tour de France cyclists, a consistent maintained effort of 65%. 

Drilling into this even more, I have been carrying out my own heart rate assessments with running. When I run at 6mins 30secs per 1km, my heart rate at the end of 5kms is 140 beats per minute. If I slow the pace marginally to 7mins per 1km, it feels so much easier, and the rate reduces very significantly to 120 beats per minute. 

On Ironman day, during the final marathon section, I will categorically be intending as before, blending running and turbo walking. Stating the obvious, the more you can run at 7mins per 1km, the faster you'll be compared to turbo walking at 9mins per 1km. 

Over recent months I've made further significant advancements with Total Immersion swimming, and am now even more relaxed in the water. The body is the canoe, the arms are the paddles ... LOL 

Cycling, the Trek dealer at Leuchars successfully sourced and fitted a handlebar raiser for The Black Knife, it's up by about an inch and a half. What a difference to comfort on the bike. I've had multiple sessions at Fife Cycle Park, and can hold over 31kms per hour. But it remains to be seen how long I can maintain the requisite aero tuck this year. Additionally, we also switched to a larger gearing cassette on the rear wheel, what a difference now when going uphill. I can only hope that these new additions will mean I am not in for a repeat of the character- building 3 hour 45 minutes of the second half of the cycle last year. 

So many blessings counted in heading once again to Austria, and the most legendary race in Europe. Issues encountered above mean that my mindset is even more focussed than before, on being relaxed and comfortable, totally staying well within all limits and capabilities, and looking to grind it out on the day 10kms after 10kms at a time, with one key thing always in mind, tempo. 

Taking part in a full Ironman is a school day, and I can certainly say I learnt a lot on the previous two occasions. I very much hope to remedy previous errors, and have a truly lovely day out this year. That's what I'm trying to plan for, smile all the way around, and simply marvel at being there, in taking part, and taking in the stunning nature of all around. 

Tempo of course also ratchets to temperature. Long range for next Sunday in Austria is 33 degrees and sunny! Scorchio, so I've got the factor 50 packed! 

As I am also on the Ironman Copenhagen start list (21.8.2022) this summer is aligned as a two race strategy. Because of greatly-applied Tempo on race one, I hope to finish, then wear compression socks on calves for a few days to speed recovery, then take a few more days off, and then get straight back into it preparing for Denmark.  

It is such an honour to once again take the Austria start line representing our amazing local, friendly and inclusive Glenrothes Triathlon Club. Congratulations to all at the club on 2022, the club's 10th Anniversary, and congratulations to everyone this week on yet another absolutely superb annual Balbirnie Duathlon, the weather was thankfully as kind on the night as it always has been. 

Cheers for now, 

Nicholas 

(Ironman Class of 2022)

Published! BALBIRNIE'S NEW 2022 WEDDING LITERATURE

 Dear wedding clients,

We are absolutely delighted to send you our brand new 2022 wedding literature, please find the link below.

https://anyflip.com/yipog/ekpy/

Since the first Lockdown in March 2020 our Special Events wedding planning team have managed all ongoing circumstances via what is now a quite incredible 31 evolved phases of Policy, doing our absolute best for every single wedding client. As we are sure you can appreciate, couples with intended wedding dates have found themselves unexpectedly immersed in very significant and emotional challenges. In some circumstances we have seen clients change dates five times, but in nearly every single circumstance, dates have remained booked at Balbirnie House. Ongoing Policy updates are available via our website. 

In repeating what I said with this letter last year, I can certainly say that the ongoing work from those in our wedding planning department, has been the single most profound effort in Hospitality, that I have ever seen at Balbirnie House, since I started here back in 1992.

On behalf of our entire brigade, our heartfelt thanks to every single client who has postponed bookings, and continued to hold dates. Due to so many of our clients postponing and holding dates, the 2022 calendar year now looks like it will be our busiest year in history for weddings.

As part of the ongoing Brexit challenges for hospitality, many of our industry colleagues are truly struggling to find staff, some by remote location even to the point where they have needed to close. Thankfully, we were able to promote from within, and Rebecca Harper took on the role as Balbirnie’s Talent and Culture Manager. We are surrounded by a significant local population, and throughout 2021 we have completely re-built our hotel brigade, to the position whereby we are completely fully staffed.

We have also made considerable investments into improving, streamlining and digitalising our entire recruitment, on-boarding and training systems. As I am always keen to point out to all prospective new wedding clients who I can personally have the pleasure of welcoming to Balbirnie, the past is the past, accumulated awards are historic, and we can only ever be judged on how well we can deliver today. That’s why these new investments are made, it’s simply our desire to be able to collectively deliver our absolute best warmth of welcome of Scotland hospitality for you and your guests.

And talking of awards, history in the making, we’re incredibly honoured, and so very humbled to have been asked to represent Scotland once again within Haute Grandeur global awards, new accolade received in 2021, ‘Best Wedding Hotel’, and that’s in the category best-in-world at global level. This is now Balbirnie’s fifth global hospitality award.

This Scottish hotel has been named the best in the world | The Scotsman

Due to recent works completed with multiple bedroom and bathroom refurbishments, it’s fair to say that the house itself is currently presented to its best level in history. Additionally, earlier this year we invested circa £250,000 across the span of our four kitchens. Fire Suppression systems have been installed in all kitchens, very obviously increasing the safeguarding of Balbirnie House itself, as a Category A Listed 1777 national treasure.

As is always the case each year, and as per all previous literature and all client contracts, our company directors require to consider the generalities of pricing each year, across our span of national inflation, rises in national wage levels, and increases across our entire network of 45 suppliers. This year the entire hospitality sector is also contending with many unprecedented financial challenges arising specifically from the combination of Brexit and the global pandemic. For further reference, see links to articles below.

The entire hospitality sector is certainly experiencing supply chain issues, and pricing increases which are significantly beyond normality. Utility energy costs are also increasing. And fundamentally, national minimum / national living wage levels are set to increase in April 2022, in a band broadly speaking applicable to Balbirnie House mostly at between 6.6% and 9.8%, meaning therefore that hospitality supervisory roles pro rata will also increase as well.

With complete focus from our management team, and despite facing all these ongoing truly remarkable price increases, we are still nevertheless creatively able to deliver pricing beneath the inflation levels which are now being defined across the span of hospitality.

Some of the stepped pricing increases we have experienced over the last 18 months have been quite staggering. Whilst we do reserve the right to need to increase pricing for any menu item at any time, this is something which we have never ever needed to do. We very much hope that as we progress into the next new financial year on 1^st May 2022, that we will be able to similarly maintain all pricing for the following 12 months for which all new wedding literature is applicable.

Please also note, given the success of the 2020 summer May to September Evening Buffet BBQ season, we have maintained that pricing further, to endeavour to make this aspect even more popular in 2022. 

In 2021 Balbirnie became the first hotel to deliver a complete professionally-photographed online banqueting compendium. https://anyflip.com/dpgfn/rsvm/

Please bear with us, we are now scheduling to update this with all of our brand new menus. We will of course let you know when this goes live. 

Our wedding literature has now grown to circa 25,000 words, noted this is before we even embark on our client-specific journey. 

Well, bring on the celebrations, and we cannot wait to welcome you to Balbirnie House for your wedding day.

With our kindest regards, and all best wishes for the future,

Nicholas Russell 

MD / owner – Balbirnie House

UK hospitality sector struggling under 18% inflation rate | Scottish Financial News

Highland hotels forced to shut due to lack of staff post-Brexit | The National

https://www.thecaterer.com/news/hospitality-price-rises-inflation-kate-nicholls-ukhospitality