This year was all about Ironman UK and then some, Bolton would almost have become a second home if it wasn't for nightmares of Sheep House Lane.
Swimming was going excellent I had employed a local Swim coach, Stephen Cryer Swimpodium, back in October 2012 and my progress was rapid (Once I learnt breathing) and pretty soon I was doing regular 1-1.5km swims and was fairly happy with progress although I had yet to hit open water. I wasn't finding the windmill style work for me it just exhausted me but the coach I worked with said just to work on 3/4 catch-up and this became a massive help in my swimming.
A horrible winter was causing issues and I was starting to get very nervous about lack of time on the Bike. A school friend Robin was doing London to Edinburgh a 4 day sportive event 444 miles this was in to be in May and was perfect timing as a marker event he asked if I was interested. I thought well if I could do this then my bike would be sorted ready for Ironman so I signed up in another moment of madness.
Yes you heard it right somehow I managed to turn 112 mile challenge into me being able to do 444 miles in 4 days!! At the time I thought this was a great idea and too be fair it did push me in the right direction.
At this point running wasn't going as well as I'd hoped partly because I didn't have the same worries on the running front but I just wasn't doing the distance and this caught up with me at the Bramley 20 mile event in Feb. I was well aware that it was going to be a tough experience I was massively out of my comfort zone. I also had an up and coming club trip to Paphos,Cyprus where I had previously signed up for the Cyprus Marathon (This experience would go on to put me off running for a period and lose my love for this sport for a while).
The club trip to Paphos was good but the Marathon was an awful experience it was a field of 102. Yes you heard this right not a 1000 people, not even 500. 102 with only 97 starting and 88 finishers. Considering 12,000+ ran Dublin 2012 this was a massive shock and it was to be a strange experience. It was around 24-25 degrees at peak heat and the course was on dusty roads and the lack of any spectators was an eye openers (most just were doing the daily shop and had no idea a marathon was actually going on). Sadly my fellow Ironman entrant and friend Steph would have to drop out after 9-10 miles and this experience made me doubt my running would be good enough come IM race day.
But hey I finished in the Top 100 of an International Marathon!!
Anyway surely running could wait, I had other worries and I set about doing a reece trip to Bolton to get a feel for the course and the infamous Sheep House Lane Climb which I would have to do 3 times on race day, I had seen a video on you tube and watch a few times but riding it was a different mater. I ventured to the tri talk forums for advice and Chris Aldred offered to kindly show myself and a few others the course in early March along with Gaz Riley another local who would come along. This Reece trip was a success and we did back to back 40 miles efforts to see the course twice that weekend and I left feeling that I could build up to the 3 laps.
Bike training was going rather well and I have to say it helped massively that John a friend had also signed up to do London to Edinburgh so we both had a real sense of urgency to get out each weekend and clock the miles up. Our cycling training culminated with a crazy 125 mile epic to the Forest of Dean via the Severn Bridge and back to swindon in some not so nice weather. This however rather than putting me off made me feel amazing this was 13 miles over Ironman bike distance and was above what we would need to do daily for London to Edinburgh so I felt good, very good indeed.
I had said to myself after Ironman I would treat myself to an expensive watch however at this point I was thinking of one think and one think only carbon BIKE BIKE BIKE. I got an opportunity to get a Giant TCR Advanced 0 with di2 for a bargain price that was too good to turn down but wait ....
Only 1 problem everyone had said to me for Sheep House Lane you don't use a standard you use a compact and you put on a different cassette to have more gears :-(, this was a big dilemma great bike, great price, Great risks!. Okay I'm sold I will get it and worry later about gears anyway how much difference could it be.
May came and the first 2 days of London to Edinburgh were fairly good going London out to Cambridge and then up to york. Day 3 and 4 would be the real test the hilly Tees and Tyne valleys and then up to the Highlands, I learnt quite quick on the hills that using my standard would mean I needed to massively up the hill training as I struggle on Day 3 with some back to back 15% gradients and Day 4 was very similar although I fair slightly better.
This event did me a great favour I learnt more about myself and what I should and shouldn't eat and I found some aspect mental tougher than I was expecting I was so use to being with someone riding it was a very different experience alone in the highlands, this was something I would need to get use to for Ironman.
After this I did some reece trips on my own in Bolton a combination of timings logistics I would go up time and time again because I wanted to know the Bike course like the back of my hand prior to race day, I talked with Gaz Riley a fellow 1st timer constantly about the bike course different turns, splits, tactics and it was building my confidence but I still hadn't built up enough confidence to do the 3rd Sheep House Lane climb.
I had set myself a half distance 113 in June this was fast approaching Swim was good, Bike was good but running ... oh I had forgot about that. I had a last minute opportunity to take a spare place in the Edinburgh marathon at end of May which seemed idea, let's ignore the fact I hadn't done the run training.
Edinburgh wasn't a good experience I just hadn't trained and to add to that I was quite ill from open water swimming in the run up and I hurt my ankle in run/walking the last 10 miles which was just plain stupid.
So with 2-3 weeks between Edinburgh and my first 113 it was a cases of how can I get back to feeling good. The 113 was a very nervous experience I couldn't run without my ankle hurting so I was just going to take it steady I struggle massively at start of the run and a spectator offered me some tablets this massively helped and I managed to get thru to the end. I finished in 5:53:34 Swim: 46:19 Bike: 2:48:42 Run: 2:19:53
After this the only event left was the Cotworld Big Swim this was a 2 mile swim in open water, I'd been training for the swim so was less nervous but had never done over 3k in the Lake. Race Day went well but 200m from the end I got the worst cramp I've ever ever had it stopped me dead and I was pretending to be a performing seal for about 5 minutes before I could continue. This made me realise I needed to up the swim distance to about 4k for my training prior to race day.
Time flew past I was in Bolton doing reece trips and got a few swims in at Pennington Flash and my view was my running isn't ready but if my swim and bike get me into T2 around 9:30 I can walk this Marathon to finish in 16:59!!
I went on to finish Ironman UK in 15:16:46 I might write up my race day experience later.
