So, my plan for this years Ironman races was to go down the ‘Wiggins’ route and lose weight as three out of my four M-dot races this year are proper hilly! It turns out that’s not really working for me as I’ve also lost some strength. Sunday turned into a difficult day for another reason too of course - it was very hot - and that was something we’re just not used to!



Race day and up at 3:15, force down a bit of breakfast, then it’s a cab to Pennington Flash to check on my bike,…

Continue

The first Ironman Wales!

 

Arrived Thursday afternoon, went straight to registration above the South Beach where the swim was to start from and noticed the wind immediately! The marquees they had up were flapping around quite a bit and were held down with huge tanks of water on each corner - a sign of things to come!



Went for a practice swim on Friday morning - 1k took me 34 minutes (ouch!) in a choppy sea with bit of a current, still at least the rain had stopped for…

Continue

... or 'How not to do an Ironman'!

 

Firstly, big congrats to Ted with a fantastic finish time of 11 hours 21 mins - and fame as he was interviewed during the run and is on the official DVD!

 

My day didn't end quite so well ...

 

Swim was OK at 1:13. The bike leg wasn't too bad at 7:25, especially as the wind was a lot stronger than last year. So far so good - I'm a bit faster everywhere despite the increased wind and heat. First run loop (half…

Continue

It's always good to try something new (isn't it?!) so when I got an email about the London Ultra Marathon 50K run a couple of weeks ago I just couldn't resist.

 

The route is point-to-point from Streatham Common (handy) to Wembley (not so handy!) and follows the Capital Ring through as many parks and river/canal banks as possible in between.

 

It kicked off with compulsory registration the day before in Wembley but it was combined with a small expo so you get to…

Continue

Hi Paul, Matt & anyone else doing IMUK next week.



Here's the schedule I went through in Lanzarote in May - it really helped set me up for the day so it may be of use to you. The one change is that I was in La Santa with nothing else to do other than train eat and sleep (and had professional coaching!), not so this time around. I'm going to struggle to repeat this but I'll have a good try - and it starts TOMORROW!



DAY 1 Saturday (8 days to race day):



Swim… Continue