An itch that wont go away

Just as the title says I have had something churning over in my mind for quite some time now. Despite the setbacks that I have had for the past few weeks/months with injuries and general lack of mojo there has been a thought process or should I say an event drilling its merry way into my head.

I even went through the process of booking another event (sorry Equinox24 I will be back in 2016) that happened to be on the same weekend as this one just to try and clear it from my mind, as you can probably already guess, the mind won. I gingerly approached the subject to the wife and surprisingly she was keen for me to give it a go, I'm wondering if there might be some life insurance involved somewhere, and I might be slightly over exaggerating the keenness on her part  but it was a yes. I have now committed myself to taking on this challenge.

This event is a one time event never to be held again (maybe) which if I am being honest is part of the appeal, it is the Triple Brutal iron distance triathlon, this is a continuous 7.2mile swim, 336mile (30000ft) cycle and 78mile (6000ft) run with the addition of a stroll up and down Snowdon itself! Not only that but being held over in Snowdonia it is probably going to have some interesting weather thrown into the mix especially considering that the event is held in September.

I have already completed the single iron distance of this event back in 2012 which was my first year of triathlons and I still remember the pain it caused, especially the cold swim! This is without a doubt going to be my toughest challenge to date and I have no idea how I am going to get the training, food, sleep and family life (not necessarily in that order in case she is reading!) to all fit together but I/we will make it work.

It has only just occurred to me whilst writing this blog that this year I will be doing 5 ironman events in total, this will not only double my total iron distance races but it will also take the total to a nice round 10! I am counting doubles and triples as 2 and 3 iron races :-) This is going to be a tough year.

If anyone needs me I will be swimming, riding or running......

Time to reflect

Its been a while since my last blog, that's mainly because the second half of '14 didn't go according to plan.......at all. To go from winning my last two big events Equinox 24 run and Double Enduroman iron distance triathlon to broken wasn't playing well in my head. It wasn't that I wanted to win, I just wanted my body to behave itself.

After the RingOFire back in September '14 I decided to do as little as possible as my body was getting a bit fed up with the punishment that it had been taking. That and to be honest I simply wasn't looking after it, I knew this yet I did nothing about it, rest I thought would sort it out. I was becoming so tight in the legs that I was now struggling to touch my toes, could't even get my leg over onto the bike properly. Something had to happen.

Equinox24

It was time to have another go at the Equinox24 again. Everything was starting well considering that I hadn't ran over 15 miles since RingOFire, I wasn't quite up to speed as the year before but not far off and I had plenty of energy left. At about 80 mile in all of a sudden I literally couldn't move, I could barely walk and an excruciating pain in my right chin and also my groin was locking up. I knew it was time to call it a day before I did some serious damage. I managed to get to the finish line of the next lap and straight to the massage tent. The guy took one look at my leg now twice the size as normal and pulled one of them faces 'your buggered mate, get to hospital'. By then I actually couldn't walk and I needed carrying back to my tent.

It turned out that I had actually got a stress fracture whilst doing the RingOFire, they deduced this because it was already on its way to healing. Looking back I actually know the instance it happened, it was on the last day about half way in, all of a sudden I got an excruciating pain in the chin which brought me to a standstill but all I did was wrap my buff tightly around the chin and continued on with a drip feed of Ibuprofen and Cocodomal (I was invincible!)

Considering I had a stress fracture I guess getting to 80 miles isn't that bad but how much damage had I now done and how long will it now take to heal.

The Hill

Now it was time to consider what to do about the hill. The Hill is a 160 mile 'race' which simply goes up and down the same hill, usually in awful conditions and having just 48 hours in which to complete it.

Typical weather

My injuries were taking longer than I thought they would to get better I was barely managing 10 miles without some discomfort, to add to that an old calf injury on my left leg kicked in again (again down to the lack of movement in my body). It was time to face facts and consider dropping out but so close to the event I wasn't allowed to defer. A friend of mine who is an extremely good runner (UTMB, Western States etc) said he would take my place, great this made me feel much better but then a week before the event he also picked up an injury and couldn't enter.

There was only one thing for it, I would have to give it a go. I had been warming up a bit better than I normally do before my runs (i.e. doing something) and had a relatively pain free (less) run. This was probably my own way of convincing myself to take part.

Event day went as was expected I guess, I got about 30 miles in and the legs just weren't happy, the calf wasn't hurting but there was just that niggling feeling something was about to happen, also probably because I had been compensating I was now having trouble with my right knee. For once I made the right decision and stopped early before serious damage was done. There was no way I could continue for another 130 miles so damage limitation it was.

2015

Since The Hill I had plenty of rest and just ticking over rather than full on winter training. Lately I have also been doing a lot of stretching which has also vastly improved my mobility, not anything like it needs to be to prevent injuries but it is definitely heading in the right direction. Stretching and staying healthy are my main goals for 2015 and obviously more stupid events!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take part in CTS Angelsey Ultra, its only a 33 mile run with plenty of hills but I had done it last year so I could use it as a marker to see where my fitness was. I managed a PB by 10mins dipping just under the 6hrs and in 14th place. My fitness is not were I would like it to be but its in a better place than I thought it would be. I just need to get this calf sorted then its game on!

So far this years big events are WasdaleX extreme iron triathlon, Outlaw iron distance triathlon, Equinox24 and I have to give The Hill some justice towards the end of the year. I will also be down at Enduroman again this but so far undecided what event to try. If my calf heals correctly I am tempted to try the 200 mile ultra otherwise it might be the double iron distance again.

Fingers crossed for a good 2015.

Thanks for reading

Hoka One One Stinson ATR Review

Hoka One One Stinson ATR Review

Intro

The lovely people at www.ultramarathonrunningstore.com asked me to review the latest pair of Hoka Stinson ATR. you can grab a pair from here or have a look at the rest of the range here

First of all this is my own personal point of view, I dont deny that I am a Hoka convert so 'possibly' slightly biased. For that reason I tried to focus a chunk of the review on the differences between my previous pair of Hokas which are the Stinson Trail and these pair of Hoka Stinson ATR. I also run in Salomon Speedcross3 and Skechers Trail.

Normally I wear a size 8UK and this is the size I have been using on my old Stinson Trail shoes. On steep descents I would often find my toe bashing at the front of the shoe, so much so that I have now lost my big toe nail, I am not sure if this is a common issue with the shoe. With this in mind I decided to go a half size bigger, as I will reveal later I am not sure this was the best decision.

Initial thoughts

Introducing the Stinson ATR:

When I first opened the box and looked at the shoe the most noticeable difference for me was the reinforced rear plastic material and the overall tougher feel to the upper of the shoe. My initial reaction was "Where can I find some mud!".

Comparison pics:

Similar cushioning - or slightly more?

The same tread

The fit

I roamed around the house just getting a feel for the shoe, there was not that instant slipper like feel with these and I believe this is due to the upper material change (which is sad) but overall definitely for the better. Running in the previous version in overgrown areas there was always a fear in the back of my mind that I would rip the upper material when it caught on some thorns etc (it was that thin and light!) this never happened but possibly slowed me down subconsciously being more careful with foot placement. I found it strangely easy get thorns and bits of stick stabbing into the upper material.
Not with these bad boys, I could tell they had a solid trail running feel to them that would survive much hardier terrain.

Going up that half size gave me ample room especially in the toe area, I have wide feet and struggle to fit into shoes like Salomon.

It was difficult to tell how the ride would feel just jogging on the spot in the kitchen......time for a run!

Actually running

For the first run out I decided to give it a good blast in the hills, nothing too technical but plenty of varying terrain. I had my next challenge in 2 weeks time www.ringofire.co.uk which is a 135mile multi-day ultra marathon (report can be read here soon) so I needed to get some good miles in I know you shouldn't with a new pair of running shoes but these are Hokas! No rules

Shiny!

Typical terrain

Typical terrain 2

Not so shiny anymore

The shoe turned out to be a much more solid shoe giving me the feeling that they would withstand harsher technical terrain than its predecessor and will be a joy to use in the coming winter months.

Racing down steep hills gave me no toe bashing at all which felt amazing. Even if I had gone with my normal shoe size I don't think I would suffer this problem, they have fixed my only gripe with the Stinson Trail yay!

The overall ride felt a little higher but again this might be due to the fact that my older pair have seen around 700miles of use. I also suffer with weak ankles and often go over on them in all types of shoes and on most runs (really annoying!) I only had one roll in these over the full 20miles.

Going over rocky/lumpy surfaces in the previous shoe would lead to the shoe almost twisting around my foot, again because of the change to the upper they gave much more stability.

Conclusion

So far I have run the 20mile training run and I also completed day 1 (35miles) of the RingOFire using the Hoka Stinson ATR. I can honestly say that they are just as comfy on the very long runs, my feet felt just fine with no sign of blistering or heating with the added bonus of feeling more confident over the trickier terrain.

Pros:

• Better protection
• More stability
• Looks are improving
• No toe bashing!
• Seamless upper

Cons:

• Loss of that slipper like feeling
• Not ideal for extremely technical terrain

These will be getting a lot of use over the winter!

Double Ironman Enduroman Race Report 2014

Double Ironman Race Report

Prep/Training

Training was going great until 6 weeks prior to the event. The bike was mostly spent on the turbo with the long weekend rides combining a few 100milers, two 120miles and one 150 mile ride and when the weather allowed a once a week 40mile round commute to work and back. Halfway through my training I decided to switch plans because it was becoming just too time consuming and I was struggling to handle the commitment with a fulltime job, family and training (the usual double ironman training issues!). The switching of the plan helped my mindset tremendously as now I at least had a day off a week with much less swimming YES!

Then I manage to tear my left calf, it was probably my own fault for pushing too hard on my Tuesday brick sessions. At the beginning I wasn’t too disheartened I had two other disciplines I could keep working on and I usually heal quickly. This was all true except for the healing, 3 weeks later and still no running; it was not getting better (you know how it is, in your mind you think it will be OK but deep down you know it isnt but you decide to try out a run anyway only to find 1mile down the road it isnt). The bad luck started rolling in; the famliy car I was going to use to get us down, a nice big people carrier decided to die on me, “sh1t” I have three weeks to find a car, not only that I now have to cycle to work with a dodgy calf every day, training was hard enough I didn’t want to have to ride a bike aswell! :-) Then the last week and on taper I started to get the horrible feeling I always get prior to a big race, cold/flu like symptoms but this time it wasn’t taper induced my lovely daughter decided to give me a cold, I doused myself with as much cold medicine as I could and slept as much as possible, luckily it didn’t get to my chest until after the event.

My original goal was to get 36hrs with an ideal of around 30, now it was to just complete.

Swim 2:35:51

My ironman times have been between 1:09 and 1:20 so I thought 2:40 would be a reasonably time to aim for. Normally I go off too fast and for the remainder of the swim I am constantly trying to recover, fortunately from the off I seemed to find a nice relaxed rhythm which stayed for the entire swim. I hit a low point when a surge of cold water entered down the back of my wetsuit. I suffer terribly with the cold and often find that once I get cold I really struggle to get warm again. I remembered eddies advice from the briefing, if you get cold just push through which I did by having a pee to warm me up.

My crew were fantastic always there keeping an eye on me sat on the first pontoon from the swim start, I kept an eye on them to make sure they were still cheering me on and hadn't got bored already and I even managed a smile or a wave at them with each lap.

Cold set in again and my mind was desperate to ask how many laps I had left to go, I made it a couple more laps until I could wait no longer, I was convinced it was over halfway….it wasnt and I remember thinking to myself that that wasn’t a smart move.

The rest was just a dull blur until I what I thought was still three laps remaining they called out the last lap. What a wonderful feeling.

I took my time getting out having a chat with my crew as I walked up to the change tent, I was in no hurry because I knew I would not be able to eat anything despite being hungry because I was uncontrollably shaking by this point, once I was sat down and dried off I was able to eat the freshly cooked and still warm scrambled and bacon wrap yum. I was ready for the bike leg.

Bike 14:05:38

I took both my TT bike and my Road bike. My plan was to use the TT for as long as I could bare it and then switch over to the much comfier road bike for the remainder. I also use tubs on the TT bike and I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to mechanics, any issues and it would have been a swap rather than fiddling and making the situation worse.

I walked out of transition to the turning point to find all my crew with tshirts of me printed on them and a banner….an amazing boost!

At the start I decided to just go with the flow and go at what felt like a comfy pace but to take it easy up the hills. I had only been on the TT bike outside once just a week prior to the event to make sure the bike needed nothing fixing, it felt so good on the road it was a joy to just be riding!

The second or third lap I seen a guy that had had an accident, he didn’t look happy at all (unsurprisingly) and then he told me he couldn’t see! I stopped but he insisted I carried on after I made sure he had called Eddie to be picked up.

I purposely tried not to look at my watch, it was going to be a long enough day. The only time I looked was when I came in to see the crew to see how long each lap was taking this would allow me to consider how much food and water I should be taking on (my crew was new to this so I was giving the orders). After approximately 80 miles in I was still averaging 18mph, at this point I decided it was about time to start sticking to my original plan of 15/16mph before I blew my legs. I just couldnt go that slow I was finding the combination of the rolling roads and TT so enjoyable I only slowed down a little.

Not long afterwards I bumped into Grom so I introduced myself and we chatted for a while. Grom gave an invaluable tip which was to get as much of the bike done within daylight going slightly above what you should really be doing for this sort of distance to be able to cover as much as the bike leg in daylight. As soon as he mentioned it was like a light bulb switching on, it was so obvious! he may have even seen it in my face because soon afterwards he told me to get going which I did.

I didn’t really have a low point within this section apart from the obvious aches and pains of being in the aero position for as much of the 14 hours as I could handle, the rest again is a bit of a blur chatting to a few people asking how they are doing especially the triplers! I distinctly remember bumping into Claire a few times, each and every time she was smiling but I could tell she was having a hard time.

With only 4 or 5 laps remaining I was starting to get quite uncomfy but there was no point swapping bikes at this point, the light was fading I just wanted to get it done so I decided to start hammering the hills instead of spinning up them, after all I was not sure my calf injury would even let me complete a single lap which had always been on my mind. These last laps just felt better and better (maybe my memory is fading already!) especially coming into the turning circle, the applause and cheers were amazing.

Run 09:55:10

I took my time getting changed perhaps too long I was seizing up and I didn't want to get off that comfy chair, right it was time to get going, mind over body (it wouldn't be the last time I needed to say this).

As soon as I started running I knew my calf was going to be fine, whether or not it was the calf guards (which I don't normally wear nowadays) giving me a false impression I didn't care; the fact that both my legs were doing as they were told for the first time in 6 weeks was a great feeling. The laps were ticking off well and I still didn't really know what position I was in, I knew I was doing well and then I was told I was in 2nd place…”what!” I was thinking around 10th how can this be? I also knew T_C was somehow still behind me so I knew 2nd would soon be gone and there was still the matter of getting through a double marathon. I got back to my crew and asked them to find out how far back 4th place was, I remember thinking it would be fantastic to get a 3rd place and knowing how far back 4th was would allow me to pace correctly without hurting myself, I never did get the answer (or I dont remember getting told). Not long after I went over on my ankle twice on the same spot on two consecutive laps, I wasn't concentrating enough on the technical root section so I told myself off after the pain had subsided, took some ibuprofen and cocodomal to help with the pain and soon forgot all about it.

I think it was T_C’s second lap when he came thundering past me on the downhill section down towards the lake, I blinked and he was out of site. I just stuck to my plan to be as consistent as possible I started to get a real good rhythm running most of the lap including the hills the only walk section was the small section up towards the tennis courts and the section going up to the lodge.

It was just after a marathon distance that I hit the lowest point of the whole event I started getting really dizzy and couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, I decided to eat some ‘real’ food again and asked for a pot noodle. I walked as I ate it for a small section passed it back and collected it again when I returned. After two or three laps of this I felt so much better in fact the best I had felt for a while so I got cracking, that was all I needed.

With about 4 laps left I got chatting with T_C while we walked the hills it was great to finally speak to the legend, he kindly said that he was now just going for the finish and for me to take no risks in getting to the finish...a gent. The last lap of Enduroman you do it in reverse so that you get to high five everyone else still on the course, T_C asked to go over the penultimate start/finish line with me, as we did he put my hand in the air and told me I was a great athlete. What a compliment! That last lap in reverse was fantastic not only was I becoming a double ironman ……I won!

None if it would have been possible without my crew, they are 80% of the team effort that it takes to get someone across that finish line.

Thank you to everyone cheering me on throughout the day there are so many new faces it was difficult to take it all in, even without the win it would have gone down as one of the best events I have done, everyone is so welcoming its like an extended family

The goal for me on this event was to see just how far I could push my body and I was convinced that this would be my limit….unfortunately for my wife and family it isnt……..