The Park Run, NYC

Struggled a bit to get back on it after a month off to be honest.

October started out with good intentions, I was staying away with work for the first couple of days, got a decent run in Monday 30th September, Tuesday 1st & Wednesday 2nd October, 15 miles in 3 runs, good start, quite happy with that.

But then I didn't get out again until Sunday, chucked a cracking 70 mile bike ride in though, so all in all shouldn't be to displeased, first week back.

Sadly it went down hill after that only managed a 6 mile run & 50 mile ride, as well as a 30 minute twitchy session on the new rollers, which incidentally, now I've ridden them a few times, I much prefer them to spinning bikes or turbo's, it's taken 4 or 5 goes to get confident with them and I certainly wouldn't recommend being clipped in for the first few goes, but they certainly keep you on your guard !

So halfway through October and not exactly where I want to be hours per week, we were now off for a 5 day break in New York, so maybe I could find my running mojo in Central Park, NYC.

I ran every morning, absolutely loved running around THE PARK with all the other runners & cyclists (really wish I had a bike here to!).

First run was a quick 4 miler around the southern end of Central Park, felt great, decent 6:57 mile pace, then did the hole 10k+ main loop the next day 6.7 mile @ 7:19 pace, this run felt awesome, there were that many runners out this morning it felt like a race, pushed it up the hills and kept a good stride on the flat & downhill, had a few runners stay alongside me at times and chatted about running & triathlon.

Planned a big run the next day & needed to slow the pace down, I was getting carried away with the crowds, 11 miler this time at just over 8 minute miles, started to feel a bit tired now though, found a sneaky strava segment "The Great Lawn" a 0.5 mile oval path, sneaked a 5th on the segment but only because it wasn't a busy segment, this one only had 70 runners on it, some of the segments on the main loop had over 4,000 and I could only manage a top 30.

The next day, Thursday would be my last chance to run in the Park, and to be honest I'd done too much and was feeling jaded and sore. Still I thought last chance get a short run in and go for podium on the great lawn segment. 4 miler and I did manage a 3rd on the segment, dodging the dog walkers.

As after every run, back to the hotel to shower and meet the family for breakfast, then onto the day's activities. Had a really good time in NY & certainly enjoyed the running.

Between then and the end of the month just a solitary bike ride of 55 miles and the month was over.

I had only managed 17 hours of training all month, but something to build on, certainly must get to 7 or 8 hour training weeks in November, nice steady pace, just need to get the habit's back

Where did I leave that Gorilla ?

Well after having September off, it's time to get back on it, and find that Gorilla inside !

It was great to eat what I wanted and not think about training, although I did sneak a 125 mile charity bike ride in for a laugh ........... 115 miles of which I was soaking wet, but hey it's for charity !!

I have put on a few pounds in weight, well 8lbs actually, but soon get that shifted, I guess.

First week back training last week with 3 runs totalling 16 miles and a 70 mile bike ride, it was a decent start, I'm just going to slowly build the hours up this month to 8-10 hours a week and hold it there for while, just concentrating on steady pace at the minute, although I couldn't resist the urge of a few strava segments while I was out.

Race plan is pretty sorted for next year, a 24 hour run in March , Triple (Iron) Enduroman at the end of May and a Deca Iron attempt in August !!!

I had entered IM Copenhagen at the end of August but a few weeks later, I was invited to join a group of 13 ultra triathletes planning a DIY Deca Iron, the lure was just to much and so I'm going to withdraw from Copenhagen
.........a Deca Iron, at a fraction of the cost, on my doorstep, it's too good an opportunity to miss.

So only 3 events in 2014 but 100 plus miles running & a total of 13 IM, should be interesting !!

Back to October, it's steady back on it, to get back in the swing and then review weekly training hours at the end of the month, build from there, easy.

Club Relays

What a weekend of racing that was !

If you've never seen or competed in the Club Relays at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham then you don't know what your missing.

The organisers One Step Beyond Promotions tag the weekend as "Organised Chaos" which describes the whole weekend of racing to a tee !

I have raced in the Club Relays for the last 4 or 5 years but it's only in the last 2 years that our club has really taken this weekend to heart, last year we took an incredible 10 teams, this year we took 13 teams to race over the 2 days with over 500 other teams. The beauty of this event is that it welcomes all abilities, from top class triathletes, to age groupers, to club triathletes to newbies, everyone races together and gives it their all, fantastic.

Each team consists of 4 triathletes who take it in turn to complete a 500m lake swim (x4) then onto a 15km (x4) closed loop bike circuit then finally a 5km (x4) run, the baton hand overs are just a crazy mass of triathletes trying to find their tag, great fun.

Some friendly club rivalry between teams as always but the team I captained had another goal, all of us over 40, so a podium position in the over 40 Championship was our goal.

In the past we have finished around 35th overall but 5th place & 7th place in the Over 40 Championship, this was the fastest Over 40 team we had ever entered so surely this year was our year.

On the Saturday the open category, mixed & ladies teams raced around the rowing lake at Holme Pierrepont, it was great to cheer club mates on during the day, knowing that tomorrow we would be competing ourselves.

As I'd mentioned in my last post, I've tried to think less about technique during the swim and just go for it, was happy with my time for 500m at 7:30 especially as I put myself first in the relay legs so had some fun in the "washing machine" start, it was a pretty frantic battle to the first and even 2nd turn buoy, elbows and hands flying every where, gave as good as I got, I loved it although I can understand why many avoid it.

Anyway the swim tags continued & I eagerly awaited our 4th swimmer to return and tag for me to go out on the bike, The fastest teams were already out on the 1st lap of the bike (3 laps) and two of our other younger teams (with some very talented swimmers) already had a 5 minute lead as I ran out of transition with my bike,

The bike exit was narrow and with two triathletes mounting there bike in front of me on the mount line I made the decision to run through them and past the mount line before jumping on to the bike at speed, it worked perfectly, and I sped away, I think it was a good half mile before I even started fastening my shoes (I always have my bike shoes clipped in on a triathlon, and ride a little way with feet on top of shoes to get up to speed before fastening them).

3 lung bursting laps later and into a flying bike dismount., speeding in balancing on one pedal, just as I was about to jump off & run, the triathletes in front of me dismounting just stopped, the only thing I could do was serve right as I dismounted, unfortunately my bike flicked up and ended up flying like a kite behind me as I ran to the racking, tagged my team mate and was then approached by the Race Referee "for a chat" as my bike had hit the dismount marshall .... whoops! No harm done though, all my fault, I should have anticipated more, apologised to the referee and all was well. (I did go and find the marshall later and apologise also, he was fine, I knew him and had been marshalling with him the day before so all was good.)

All our time had had a good bike leg, my time was a little slower than I would have liked but I certainly made up for it on the run, felt good all the way, and finished with a 18:22 (although the 1st leg run is just a fraction short of 5k) still very happy with that.

We had no idea where we were overall or in the Over 40 Championships but we had gained time on one of our club teams that beat us out of the water and we were now only 2 minutes behind (we had also heard that they had received a 2 minute penalty for not racking a bike correctly) so it was all to play for, with the 2 fastest runners going head to head, albeit 2 minutes apart. It was quite exciting.

Our runner gave it everything and smashed the run but their runner was just on another level and had a great run, we finished just 1:15 behind our younger rivals, to bring the battle over the last 2 years to a draw (we finished just 13 seconds ahead last year).

A quick visit to timing showed that we had finished 37th overall and 6th in the Over 40 Champs, maybe next year!

Well maybe not for me, I'm hanging up my Club Relay Captain armband for now and as I mentioned in the last post, I'm going to concentrate this tired old body on just endurance racing next year, so its unlikely I will be racing at the relays, but I will certainly be back one day.

A great weekend of racing with friends, great camping and & great company.

So I'm going to chill for a few weeks now, still going to get some biking & running in to keep ticking over, I've got my eyes on a 6 hour run race over the Humber Bridge called "Hell on the Humber - reloaded" might have a go at that, then its into winter training, need a very good base this winter, it could see the return of a variation of #RunTheMonth from last October!

Back soon.

Euro Champs & IMUK

It's been a difficult year 2013 for me, my training & racing mojo has been up and down all year, I've gone from putting some seriously tough training blocks together to nothing and struggling to get back on it for days, even weeks. I guess there's a few reasons for this, none of which I really want to go into detail on this blog but extra commitments as Club Chairman in a difficult year where we tragically lost a club member & friend have certainly made me question many things.

I have however raced for Team GB again, this time was at the European Triathlon Championships, Alanya, Turkey at standard distance. Sarah (my wife) came out with me this year, so we had a few days holiday as well before the race which was excellent. I decided to stay away from the hustle & bustle of Team GB this year and book a small apartment up on the peninsula, lovely place to stay, just a bit of a hike up & down the hill every day, but the views were excellent.

I had hoped for a higher finishing position at this years Euro Champs, I never have been happy with last years 12th in the Sprint distance race, even though I have excuses galore with my broken collar bone 4 months earlier and being knocked off my bike in training just 3 weeks before the race. So this time I'd qualified at Standard (Olympic) distance, not my preferred distance at all, I can go eyes out for 60 minutes in a sprint & I have the strength in body and mind to take on Iron distance & beyond, but standard distance,  its not a distance I really enjoy if I'm honest, but it does mean I only need to race for Team GB at long distance now to get the set #TeamGB at Sprint, Standard & Long, a challenge I set myself some time ago.

The race went well, a 7:45am start meant that it was not hot initially but by the time we got to the run it was already well over 30 degrees. The swim went really well, I was even leading the arrow head out to the first buoy, loved that. A great T1 and 59 minute 40km bike put me in a great position for the run, heading out of T2 I was in 8th place. However a combination of the heat & dehydration (I lost my hydration bottle on the first corner of the bike, so it was getting on for 90 minutes before I could take on any fluid) I was over heating big style, but nothing I could do, no matter how much water I took on or poured over my head & body now, the damage was done, this was going to be a painful 10km run. I came in 14th in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes, a PB so can't be too disappointed. The run should have been at least 2 or 3 minutes quicker which would have placed me top 10, still a few minutes off the leaders so it didn't effect any podium potential.

My club mate in the 60-64 age group won bronze medal, was so pleased for him, he's had a year of on/off injury so it meant a great deal, I can still see his face, total disbelief that he'd got 3rd, I had to repeat it to him several times, very proud to see him climb the podium and we all had a fantastic celebratory meal afterwards.

The only other races I've done this year are;
- Brigg Bomber Quadrathlon, which is an event our club organise and as well as British Championships this year it was also the European Championships, which I am really pleased with as a number of years ago this race was cancelled, so I took hold of it, very proud to see what it had become this year, with over 100 athletes racing, it was a great day, so when 3 disciplines just aren't enough, try quadrathlon !! www.lincsquad.co.uk

- I won my age group at Southwell Sprint Triathlon, one of my first ever triathlons back in 2007, so it was great to go back and smash a PB out, a sub 55 minute pool sprint triathlon, very happy with that. The company that run this race, One Step Beyond Promotions, organise some great triathlon events in our area, Sarah (wife), Georgie (daughter) & myself have helped quite a lot this year marshalling and setting up their races, a great group of people and friends. If your looking for a quality event then look now further than One Step Beyond Promotions!

Just got back from Bolton the other day after racing Ironman UK, a really tough course, but very enjoyable (for most of the day!). A great swim, 66 minutes, still slower than I did The Outlaw swim in back in 2010 (by 5 minutes) but at least I'm starting to feel fast again, I think I've been trying to play far too much with my technique over the last year or so, it wasn't that bad in the first place, so recently decided to stop thinking & just swim, early days but so far so good.

The bike course is up & down & up & down, only small opportunities to get down in aero and get some serious speed up, but then the cross winds made me question whether that was wise, so had to sit low on the bars on some fast sections to keep control of the front wheel.

Came into T2 with a 6 hour 2 minute bike, which was 15 to minutes slower than I thought I would do on this testing course, apparently over 5,000 feet of climbing but I was doing this race "garmin free" so can't confirm that. My garmin had died as I racked my bike the day before, shame really as I'd worked out all the bike & run pacing variances in my head over the previous weeks, I knew exactly what I had to do, and what that meant if I was slightly in front or behind at any point. Anyway absolutely no point in letting it get to me so I didn't let it phase me, I'd get times off my supporters around the course, it actually became more appealing the more I thought about it, Ironman racing on feel, free of data, free running, quite refreshing really.

 

Felt strong running out of T2, I had eaten & hydrated well on the bike, however as I was soon to find out, in hindsight the last 30 miles I'd let nutrition & hydration plans slip, 1 mile into the run, I started to feel empty, I found myself with absolutely no energy so started walking up the hills, every time I tried to run, 200 metres later I came over dizzy and had to walk again, I was wandering across the road, I couldn't keep a straight line, this continued all the way to the 8 mile mark, but at least now I was on the town centre loop where my family & friends were.

I got to the feed station at 8 mile, I had been determined not to use gels, I don't train with them, don't particularly enjoy them and quite often when I've raced using them I've developed painful stomach cramps. Well I decided I had nothing to loose, I'd still got 18 miles to go and it just wasn't happening for me.

So water, caffeine drink, 2 bananas, ritz crackers & a berry powerbar gel were consumed as I walked to the top of the hill. I wasn't sure how it was going to go but the course now took a steady decent for over a mile into the flat town centre section, so I picked my legs up and ran, the more I ran the better I felt, the faster I went, I felt like a different person. Sarah couldn't quite believe it was me racing past her, I'd got that Double Enduroman feeling again, awesome.

And so it continued, alternating between gels & water and banana's & caffeine drink at each feed station, steady jog up the hills, raced the downhills & flats, I was making ground and getting faster & faster.

Support team kept showing me Double Enduroman photos as I passed them, this amazingly was my 12 year old daughters idea who was glued to Ironman Live at her grandparents and knew I needed some extreme motivation, I'm very proud of my little girl, it certainly worked.

Before long I'd collected my last band and had less than 3 miles to go, a quick drink at the turn then back on it. With less than 1 mile to go I could see another athlete in my age group 20 metres ahead (we had letter codes on of legs) We where both running strong, I sat a few metres behind him, and dug deep up the small incline to the last couple of turns, I was slowly very slowly closing the gap. With the last corner to go and extended my stride and accepted the pain, I slipped past him on his blind side and set for the line .... job done, 23rd in age group, 221st overall (1600+ competitors) and an 11 hour 30 minute finish, not what I wanted or set out to achieve but if I think back to mile 2 to 8 on the run, if I'm honest, I was ready to pack in, so really pleased I managed to ride the rough period, get through it and finish strong, a real character building race.

So what's next, well National Team Relays at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham at the end of this month, I've put another over 40 team together, we've finished 5th & 7th in the past, but this is definitely our fastest over 40 team yet, so will have to see what it brings, whatever though this is my last year, I've got other plans for next year, long & very long plans!, so sprints are out the window, I've really enjoyed mixing the distances up in the past & enjoyed the craziness of juggling Sprint to Long & beyond but its time to focus next year, its all about long.

I've entered a Triple Iron, yeh that's right TRIPLE !! so everything I do will be centred around that, I will do another Ironman next year but have learnt from last year and will give myself more than 3 weeks to recover from the crazy long one, the triple is end of May so looks like August for Ironman, I said I wouldn't but I can see myself being drawn back to Bolton for IMUK here ;)

As part of Triple Enduroman prep, the only other race on my radar at the minute will be a 24 hour run race in March, I don't think I've ever had next year's race plan sorted this early before !!

So I think I might make use of the blog again to write down my training, thoughts and feelings as I draw closer to the Triple, so until next time ..... enjoy
                    

Tour Of Britain

It's been quite a while since I posted on here, I've just been reading through some of my posts from the last year and it reminded me of the high's & low's I've been through but ..... what a year, broken collar bone, knocked off my bike by a motorist, GB age group triathlete, GB age group captain, not just a Double Iron finishers but 8th in the European Double Iron Championships, British Quadrathlon Trophy series over 40 winner and completed RunOctober  ....... oh and I was a guest rider at the Tour of Britain stage 2 in Nottingham (pretty awesome stood next to Wiggo & Cav at the start).



Tour of Britain 2012 - Stage 2 - Nottingham
(I'm behind Wiggo in the white cycle helmet)

What have I been up to since? Well as I planned this winter, running has played a huge part of my training for the last 3 months, I've just finished the Strava Base Miles Blast for January completing over 220 miles of running in the month, I finished 250th from over 10,000 participants in the world (43rd in the UK), had to run over 40 miles in the last 2 days to top the club league.

So 2013, I've got my race diary sorted, starts with a few 10k's next month, then a half marathon, then Brigg Bomber Quadrathlon (http://www.lincsquad.co.uk/events/brigg-bomber/) , a GB age group qualifier then, Challenge Roth, Ironman UK, hopefully the National Team Relays Triathlon in August then finish the year with The Beacons Ultra run.

General weekly training plan is all sorted, just needs a few tweaks for pre race & post race weeks, so I'm feeling quite happy where I'm at.

I'm planning to get out on the bike and swim this month, whilst maintaining my run form. Then into March where I have an idea for another challenge IRON MONTH should be fun, interested? read on!

How many Iron distance triathlons can you complete in March, the rules are simple;
- disciplines can be in any order
- disciplines can be over multiple sessions, so you can build up the distance in each discipline as you go.
- you can't move on to the next Iron until you've clocked a full IRON distance triathlon, that's, 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking & 26.2 miles of running ...... then repeat.
- surplus mileage doesn't count, as soon as you've clocked the distance in the last discipline the mileage counter is reset to zero.

Should be fun & anyone can give it a go .....

If you want to join me, post your updates on this blog post or follow/ tweet me on twitter @philbinch

Run the Date - Run October 2012

I saw a friend on facebook attempt something last month, he made it to day 23, I thought I'll have a go at that !

And so #RunOctober #RunTheDate was born, on the 1st October you run 1k, on the 2nd October you run 2k, on the 3rd you run 3k and so on, all the way to the 31st October when you run 31k.

The total distance is 496k (308 miles) over 31 consecutative days of running, as a coach definitely something I would advise against, recovery is an important part of any training programme & I would even at my most determined have atleast 1 rest day each week, but this is something I really want to have a go at, to really test my body & mind ...... let's see how it rolls out!

I normally run at anything from sub 6 min pace to 8:20 minutes per mile, depending on distance. I really didn't know what pace I was going to end up running in the later stages of the month, so decided to run on feel, and then as the longer runs approached start really slowing my pace down so that I could last the distance and not stiffen up for the next days's run.
I'd also changed my garmin to record distance in km's so that I can be as accuarte as possible but I've kept pace in minutes per mile as thats how I normally train.

Day 1
Quickest training session I've ever done, out & back in under 5 minutes. Had to laugh when I got back home.

Day 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7
My friend who tried this last month, started off the first 5 days doing 5k per day, I'm going to stick to running the actually date in km & no further, not sure if it will help or hinder but that's the plan.
It's actually quite hard to motivate to go out for these shorter runs to be honest, it takes longer to get ready & showered than it does to train. I squeezed a 60 mile sunday group bike ride in for good measure at the weekend though. I've also just started running with a work colleague, he wants to get fitter, so we've started running upto 8k two or three lunchtimes a week. Sneaky extra training for me, love it. Lunch time runs have been about 8:40 pace & evening runs sub 8 min pace.
Week 1 done - total 28km - 2 hours 40 mins (ish)

Day 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
All pretty uneventful to be fair, I'm enjoying getting the longer runs in, but now the challenge really starts in week 3 & 4, and trying to fit all this running in with a full time job & over 3 hours travelling every day. On day 14, I got out early for the run so I could join the Club ride, another 60 miler, but I shouldn't have done so much village sign sprinting, legs feeling a bit tired now.
Week 2 - 77km - 6 hours 50 mins.

Day 15
7.6k lunch time run left me with 7.4k to do that night, felt ok. Pace is steady at around 8:40 pace now for all runs..

Day 16
Finished work late, so 16k to do, I decided to just do 1.7 km loops around the village, didn't finish until gone 9pm, cold & tired, beginning to wish I hadn't done the club ride on sunday.

Day 17
Did a run to the outskirts of town tonight, and a friend joined me for a few km's, which was great.

Day 18
Up at 5am to get a few km's in before work, only finished 17k run a few hours ago, seem to be hitting a bit of a low patch, legs really stiff, very slow 5.4k, but less to do tonight. Had company on my run again tonight, which made it little easier. Time to get the compression gear out I think!

Day 19
Lunch time 7.6k felt a little better, then 2 friends joined me for the evening run which was great, only problem was I miscalulated the route and ended up running 12.6k, totalling 20.2k on day 19, didn't really want to do that, I might be half way on days but I'm not half way on distance until day 22.

Day 20
Saturday & I decided to have a day time run and head out south towards the other villages, I had 4 club members join me today, I set off a bit late & was feeling quite good so pushed the pace up for the first 3 miles to meet them on time, I averaged 7:50 mins per mile, way too fast for #RunTheDate.
Cracking company & a decent more appropriate pace, around 8:30 minute miles.

Day 21
Sunday run, no bike ride today, I've learnt my lesson, felt really good for first half but then started to feel very tired and legs aching. Pace dropped to just over 9 min miles, this is getting quite hard now!
Week 3 - 127.4km - 11 hours 36 mins

Day 22
A hard day at work & not home till nearly 7:30pm, really didn't feel like going out for a long run, but Sarah kicked me out with my new #runthedate playlist on my ipod & off I went. Ran into Bottesford to meet a friend running back from track session, ran back to Messingham with him but that was only 8k. So I started laps of the village. Pace felt pedestrian at 9 min miling, I was tired but I was also planning ahead still a long way to go, and I needed to make my legs last as long as I could. Ice bath, protein shake & compression tights on.

Day 23
Not enjoying running in dark. The village I live in is a few miles from town, if you want to stay safe & run in street lights you need to stay in the village. I've normally lapped the village on night runs, but thats only a 1.7km lap & can get quite repetative, that doesn't bother me really but tonight I added out & backs at each of the 4 corners to the end of the street lights, it works out at 6.65km laps, and seemed to work well for me until I tweaked my calf with 5k to go. Is this where Run The Date could end !

Day 24
I tweeted the previous nights run & calf niggle on the short walk into work, had some amusing replies, even some challenging me to #RunNovember !! Anyhow, I went for a steady 8k lunch time run with my calf guards on, I could feel the calf niggle but it wasn't as bad as the night before. So game on. Just as I'm about to go out in the evening for the final 16k of the day, a good friend turned up at my door to nurse me round, great company & good conversation, the run was over before I knew it & calf felt ok. Cheers Hinchy.

Day 25
Another 8k lunch time run in calf guards went well, so set out on my new longer lap of the village, just 17k needed tonight, 2 laps and a 2k+ out & back and it's done. All went to plan & actually finding the new village route quite enjoyable, it helps the mind only being 2 laps and the out & backs are not too long so you turn before you know it. Think I'm going to try & stick to this route, it helps.

Day 26
Friday & my normal 8k lunch time run with a work mate, I'm really enjoying these lunch time runs.
Sarah & Georgie were out at swimming club when I got home so, changed & straight out for 18k, same route as last night, feeling quite good actually. Pace is back in 8:40's, feeling strong, even though there was a bit of a strong headwind in places last night. I've now run over 350km this month & only just less than 150km to go, I might actually finish this thing !! ...... & I'm off work all next week so 5 days left & all day to fit my run in, feeling strong, positive and ready.

Day 27
Saturday, day time run and time to get back to single runs but I planned to take it at a very steady pace, I also mixed the terrain up and took in a good off-road section, average pace was 9:21 min mile. Calf guards were helping loads, no problems with the calf at all. Long lonely run though.

Day 28
A couple friends from my local running shop joined me today for more road/ off-road action. They are quality runners & I was feeling really good this morning. Great conversation all the way round and good pace, we set out at 8:17 min miles and 17.3 miles later the pace had averaged at 8:21, I felt really strong and postive. Nice to know after all those miles you always have a bit more pace in you.

Day 29
A monday afternoon run today as I was now on holiday. Felt great, a little slower than yesterday but still around 8:40 pace, not sure why but I stuck to the longer village loop rather than heading out across the fields but glad I did, just as I was completing the a loop, at 20km, my right hamstring went, sharp pain and I had to stop & limp/ walk the final 100 metres home. Ice, compression, elevation ...... Oh dear, it's over now!
I was coaching a run session at the track that night, so thought as I jogged very steadily around on the warm up with the runners I'd record the km's on my garmin just to see if I could get a few more Km in & see how it went.
Erm ..... not great, very steady jog at 12:30 pace, just nursing my hamstring around the track below the pain threshold. I was surpised to find I'd clocked over 3km jogging up & down. Right I only need just over 5km, so I took the dog out for a slow jog, atleast I could manage to get to the end of day 29, then rest & see how it was in the morning. Day 29 complete, albeit very slowly!

Day 30
Woke up and moved around stretching and flexing, I felt ok, hamstring felt sore if I stretched it to much, but I'm so close to completing this I reckon I'm going to give this a go!. (Again not something I would recommend) So I got all Kinesio taped up on my hamstring, compression on and let's have a go. A friend from down the road offered to accompany me on his bike on todays run, which helped loads, it was a very slow run, 20k took me 2 hours, but I got back, hamstring was a little sore but I hadn't had any sharp pains like the day before.
A bit of rest then a steady 10k tonight around the village and day 30 complete. Just one day to go now!

Day 31
I wanted to get this over in one hit & get it over early in the day but not to early as I wanted to "warm" my hamstring up. I planned a double loop route that brought me back home a couple of times, fancied adopting the bike ride favourite of a coffee stop half way through my run, time wasn't important, completing but enjoying the last day was. Mark from a few doors away joined me for a lap, I've found that company on these runs really help, it takes your mind off what your doing and helps pass the time.
The first 12k loop was complete but I kept moving so that I & my hamstring didnt stiffen up I wanted to make the last day a bit of fun ...... coffee stops are good!
I didn't expect Mark to come out on the 2nd 14k loop as he hadn't run more than 10k in a long time, but there he was, ready & willing so off we went. It was a tough run for us both, but every km completed was another km closer to the end. I could feel that my hamstring wasn't that happy with going out again, and the last few km's back home were a real battle, average pace was now 9:30, but just 1 loop of the village now & it would be done.
Those last few km's were hard & easy at the same time, my whole body just started aching, & all I wanted to hear were those few beeps on my garmin to indicate 31km.

Finally ..... beep beep .... 31 km, only I hadn't finished yet, I had worked out that morning I would be 0.5km short of 500km for the month, so I had already made the decision that today's run was going to be 31.5km, just as I approached my house, the magic number appeared.

Run October - Run The Date - was complete, after 31 consecutative days and exactly 500km (310 miles) I could rest, and not have to think about running tomorrow ..... AWESOME

Good luck to anyone who has a go at this, again its not something I would recommend, rest is vital in training, but every now & then you have to attempt something crazy .... don't you ??

I had some great company & support on many of my runs, so a big thank you to Kev, Simon, Scott, Julian, Chris, Sallie, Andy, Christian, Dave, Mark & Ewan, top support!

Ironman Austria

Well I went into this race full of confidence of coming home in under 10 hours 30 mins, but it proved to be a far tougher race than I had ever imagined.

In fact it took all my will power just to finish in the end, but lets go back a few days.

I travelled out with a training buddy and his wife, unfortunatley my family couldnt attend as my daughter had commitemnts with her school, but I was in good company with Steve & Emily.

We travelled down to Stanstead on Thursday, stopped for coffee on the way down (as we do!), checked the bikes in, we were getting well practised with taking the bikes abroad now.

Our flight was uneventful, we were to land in Graz (we had left accomodation & flights to the last minute and there were no more flights available to Klagenfurt) where we had hired a car for the 140 km drive to our lakeside accomodation near Klagenfurt.

Then the pilot announced that due to bad weather in Graz we were being diverted to
....... Klagenfurt, bonus, that's saved us a few hours travelling. Anyway after some negotiations at Europcar we were sorted and on our way.

Early into Klagenfurt on friday for registration & race briefing. There was a huge gasp and some tears when the race director announced that the swim was non-wetsuit, there were some very unhappy people! Me, I wasn't that fussed really, same for everyone, it would add a few minutes on to my time but that's life, can't do anything about it, just get on with it!

A wandered through Iron City before we went back to the chalet, Iron City was pretty amazing, Ironman certainly know how to put on a race, most impressed.

For the rest of the day we tried to stay out of the sun (it was hot!), built the bikes & tested them, hydrated, ate and early to bed.

I had a minor issue a few hours before I needed to rack my bike & transition gear, in that the cable on my front mech broke ..... erm I need to get this fixed, don't fancy the Rupertburg climb (twice) in the big ring!.

So surprisingly calm, I went to find a mechanic in Iron City. The Nirvana guys (we'd booked accomodation through them) were tremendous, the mechanic had been in the blazing sun for the last 8 hours, yet he kindly set about sorting my bike, half an hour later I was queueing to rack my bike and leave my transition bags. Just let the air out of my tyres (it was still very hot & I didnt want any punctures due to over inflation/ heat expansion) just as I let the air out of my front tyre, a huge pop, thankfully not my bike, but the one opposite, who's owner was going to be a bit stressed when he returned in the morning to fix that).

Anyway, just made it back in time for a final carb loading tea with Steve & Emily, a quiet electrolyte drink on the balcony then off to bed.

A very early breakfast (3 hours before race start) of oats, banana, peanut butter & jam on bread ..... and coffee !! then off on the 10km drive into town, parked the car in our "normal" spot and walked over to transition to inflate the bike tyres and set up my hydration and food on the bike.

All sorted, now to wander over to the start, stopping for the customary final toilet stop on the way!!!!

To cut along story short, we were still queueing 15 minutes before the start and had to rush to the streetwear bag drop then sprint to the start and push our way to the front on the beach.

No sooner had we found a spot and we were off.

It was pretty cool setting off on a 2.4 mile lake swim with 2,700 other triathletes without a wetsuit, the water was warm, started off well but towards half way I could tell I was tiring, as swimmers started to pass me, so I jumped on there feet and hung in.

The last 800m is up a canal, quite cool I thought, until I got there, the water was pretty muddy, the narrow canal meant everyone was boxed in, really difficult to keep a rythme. A long run to T1, took my time & out on the bike.

Within 1 mile my rear seat mounted bottle holder went horizontal & I lost my gatorade, just managed to grab the other bottle (water) before it fell out ...... erm could have done without that, ended up holding a bottle in my hand in aero for the next 60 mile, until I had a brain wave I tooked it down the front of my trisuit.

Must admit for the first 95+ miles I felt great, cruising along at good speed averageing 22 mph, over taking plenty of others and powering up the short sharp climbs, but the second time up Rupertburg got me, half way up I over heated badly and blew up, felt horrible, I managed to dig in and spin to the top, where I drank & ate what I could, the final 15 miles were hard and I knew already that achieving my target time was going to prove tough.

In T2 I continued to hydrate and eat, I covered myself in sun cream and put on my run cap (I hate running in caps, makes me even hotter), but as I found out later, they we're recording temperatures of 39 degrees out there, I couldn't risk it & had to cover my head.

I set off, legs felt heavy, my head was telling me to stop, but one thing the Double taught me was that you always have more in you than you think, I will not DNF (I've only done that once in an off-road duathlon where I crashed and damaged my ribs), that little voice in my head can, well I won't swear, but it can take a running jump, I ain't listening!

After about a mile the heat was just too much and the walk/ run marathon began. Not pleasant, but it was all I could do. I just couldn't get enough water to cool down, this was going to be a long, hard afternoon.

Well to cut a long story short, I got to the final turn, 3 miles to go and decided that I wanted to finish in style, so concentrated on my running form and surprisngly started to feel better (funny how the finish line does that!).

I got home in a respectable 11 hours 30 mins, still disappointed I didn't deliver what I knew I was capable of but hey, thats the way it goes, you can't race well every time, chalk it up to experience & move on.

Met up with Steve & Em, Steve had done well, very well, nearly qualifying for Kona, he'd beaten his sub 10 hour target but was still atleast half an hour slower than what he had hoped was possible .... next time!

Plenty of food in the athlete village, a stroll back over to transition to collect bikes & kit, then back towards the car. As we rounded the corner to where the car was parked, I say WAS, it was no more, vanished, ooopps !

I wandered over to an official who suggested it had been towed away, too close to the run course!! Anway one kind policeman, an even kinder taxi-driver and 200 euro's lighter we were on our way back to the chalet, a 2 hour delay was not exactly what we wanted after an Ironman, but you've got to laugh. Now for beer & food !!

In summary, it was a great few days, a great course that I will go back to one day!