Memories of being fat: 10 years on...

On May 8th 2006 I came out of a GP appointment for a chest infection with more than just anti-biotics. I came out shocked and with my bum well and truly kicked. The doctor also said "you're rather overweight aren't you?", plopped me on the scales and I was horrified to see it saying 94kg, then she took my blood pressure and said I needed to be monitored as it was quite high.

Packed off with a prescription for anti-biotics and an appointment for a follow-up blood pressure appointment in a month with the nurse, I left with a switch in my head flipped. I didn't know it at the time, but this was a huge turning point in my life and instrumental in completely changing my life.



Over the coming months, I took positive action by keeping a food diary and learning about the nutritional content of the food I was eating. I pretty much always had cooked everything from scratch, but portion sizes had crept upwards and with the proportion of carbs in the meals, I was "happily" eating more than I needed.  Though I ate little sugar, I ate a lot of pasta, rice, potatoes and tons of bread.



After 3 months of focused effort, which involved a dramatic cut in the amount of starchy foods (Restricting myself to 50g bread per week! One chunk of crusty baguette at the weekend.), I hit my first weight target of "healthy BMI" (for me that was 72kg). OK there were a few tantrums and tears along the way (mostly because I was missing bread), but compared with a lot of people I had a pretty easy ride with no real plateaus.  Much frustration came from "knowing" that fat was fattening yet not wanting to eat synthetic or highly processed foods instead and not having the knowledge to tackle that.  And just skimming a healthy BMI, especially being very inactive (OK I walked a lot, but that's it), didn't mean I felt (or in my opinion) looked great. So I set a new goal of 67kg which was right in the middle of the "healthy BMI" range and reached that a couple of months later.  Then down to about 64kg shortly after that, in late 2007.

Skip forward to 2009 and I was happy that I felt so slim and could buy clothes in pretty much any shop I fancied, but was "weak like kitten" and wasn't happy about that.  So took up weight training and did that for a while, loved it and, having taken up a bit of light cycling in 2007 and being a swimmer as a child, started to run a bit so I could do triathlons and did my first in 2010.  But still calorie counting to keep my weight in check.

        

This culminated in 2012 with a bunch of Ironman races and a great time of it.  But one of the important things I learned from Ironman was that I did not want to be stuffing bars and gels down me to get through a race and I put a few pounds back on too - up to 67kg.  Calorie counting seemed to be how it would have to be for the rest of my life and that didn't seem like a great prospect, nor like it should be right.

Cue an un-prompted intervention from Dr Tamsin Lewis, who recommended "Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It", by Gary Taubes and that changed my life even more.  I devoured many more books on the topic, grabbed some practical help on recipes from a couple of books (like Raising Superheroes, by Prof Tim Noakes) and changed my diet pretty much overnight.  No more calorie counting and messing about figuring out how much I needed for a ride or a run or how much I could have when I was starving, because I stopped getting the ridiculous hunger and the weight dropped off a bit again too.

I ended up being featured in a few "inspirational" articles...

Then I dropped triathlon at the end of 2013, despite having had a great year that year as part of a fantastic amateur triathlon team.  Everyone else on the team was an elite athlete, winners of all sorts of incredible races like Norseman and age group podium places at the Ironman World Championships.

Triathlon was making me put too much pressure on myself.  Seriously, I was better than average but no more than that and surrounded by so many high performing athletes a lot of the time. I was enjoying doing quite well (i.e. better than average), but the process was draining me mentally and needed more time than I was happy giving to get better.

So, I took up ultra marathons ('cause yeah, why not focus on the one discipline of triathlon you're worst at :o) ) and haven't looked back.  

Keeping mostly Low Carb, High Fat with excursions every now and then - some really good fresh bread with a special meal, a dessert a few times in the year etc. and whatever I feel like *during* ultras.  I had blood work done to validate that everything was in a good place on the insides - and it is.

Now it's 2016 and aside from a little more wine than I probably should have, I'm still Low Carb living, still running ultra marathons and still maintaining 30kg of weight loss since that day in 2006.

It *is* possible to be a healthy weight, have a healthy body in terms of fitness and wellness, and not be hungry or have cravings and it *is* possible to keep it like that. But it takes some education and a lifestyle change if you didn't start out that way.

Cancelling my last triathlon

I'm sort of happy that we weren't racing the London Triathlon on Sunday.  Yes, we'd get to see lots of friends.  Yes, we'd get to cycle on closed roads around some of the loveliest bits of London in the early morning mist.  Yes, we'd feel righteously knackered afterwards.

But.

We'd've spent a chunk of Saturday driving around London.  We'd've spent a longer chunk of Sunday driving around London.  I would have put in an awful swim time and an awful bike time and probably been scared witless going through the Limehouse tunnel on a TT bike I've never ridden before (and not ridden a TT bike since September).  Life just really got in the way of this one working and I'm glad I didn't drag myself around a course only to beat myself up about a crap time which I would have roundly deserved for lack of training.  This is why I stopped "doing triathlon" for now.

I feel a little sad that it was the last triathlon I'd entered.  I'm not a runner.  I'm simply rubbish at that, but it's what I have now and I do enjoy it.  But I'm not a runner.

I do want to run though.  I feel like a dog hauling at its lead sometimes... let me off it, I wanna run!

(This is not my last triathlon... there will be others.  Just not right now.)

Race report: Blenheim Sprint triathlon 2014

Blenheim is, for me, one of the top ranking races in terms of slickness of organisation.  Over 4500 athletes plus supporters and spectators arriving, racing, cheering, leaving, eating, weeing, drinking, getting injured, passing out etc. on top of the usual visitors to the grounds being around the grounds and race routes; and there’s almost no queueing for anything at any time and, generally, everyone has a good time.  It's an almost flat course, with a beautiful lake and private, traffic-free roads/paths for the bike leg.  Perfect for athletes new to the sport of triathlon.

Who's a chubby, eh? (Still, nice beer :o))

This year was not a year for me to be burning around and setting the route on fire.  Being 5kg heavier than I’m used to racing at, having done little training and falling mostly out of love with training for triathlon, there was also no realistic expectation could be set around that.  I did have a sneaky, in the back of my mind, desire to put in a good bike as I have a nice new bike and sort of the impression that my on-the-flat power is not too bad right now.  My running is clearly back a long way compared with how it has been over the last 18-24 months.

So I wanted to have a reasonable swim, bike as hard as was practical and get around the run.

What actually happened was... I swam pretty hard (only 30s slower than 2012 when I was arguably at peak fitness & speed), got battered all the way around the swim, fought with my wetsuit arms for 4 minutes up through the run to transition.  My legs felt like spaghetti at the start of the bike and it rapidly became fairly clear that unless I yelled a lot, I was going to be stuck behind groups of people drafting and chatting who had clearly either not read the rules or didn’t care.  I couldn’t be bothered with that, especially seeing as it took 1.5 of the 3 laps to warm my legs up anyway.  So the bike was disappointing, but it was never going to be any other way.  The run actually felt quite good; I overtook loads of people and motored on through to the finish line and my promised pint of Erdinger Alkoholfrei.  Yum!

7 minutes slower than 2012.  01:39 lost in the swim (12%), 01:28 in the bike (4%) and 02:34 in the run (9%).  My transitions were appalling, by comparison, but I’ve not done a sprint transition since August 2013 and that skill drops off like any other.  I’m actually quite happy with that all things considered.

I really enjoyed the day and it was nice to get around such a pretty course, despite it being a bit far to drive there and back on the day.  It's a great race for novices and for speedy people who feel like shouting on the bike.  I can highly recommend it.

My favourite race of all; it's Blenheim!

In the journey through the various races I've done while learning about and enjoying triathlon, there are some races I just love.  Blenheim Sprint Triathlon is one of them and probably at the top of the list.

The first time I raced at Blenheim, I'd only done a few sprints before (at Thames Turbo) and this was my first big, commercial race.  And it was amazing!  Even though I DNFed due to an ongoing knee injury I really really enjoyed it.  The grounds are beautiful,  the lake is clear and still, the course is gently undulating on the bike and run and the support is warm.

"For me, the swim was glorious. An utter breeze. It felt easy, smooth and I went a little off course a couple of times but was way ahead of the majority of our wave by the turn buoy. I wasn't entirely sure where the end of them swim was, but carried on feeling fantastic and quick until I finally worked out where the finish was.
Again, still well at the front of the wave, I was helped out onto the pontoon with little trouble and squeaked in surprise as one of the support volunteers unzipped my wetsuit for me when I really wasn't expecting that. Very helpful! Thanking them both and tearing off the arms and top part, I ran up the hideous slope towards transition - really steep! Glancing down at my watch, my heart rate was 184! I rounded the corner at the top of one of the slopes into transition, pulling off my swimming caps (mine plus the race one on top) and goggles, and a huge grin spread across my face as the crowd were clapping and cheering for everyone and as I was still near the front of the wave and the competitors were relatively spread out, it meant that they were cheering for me! Yes, me!"

Looong slope up to transition 

The next time, I raced under odd conditions due to work troubles, but I loved it again.

"I got overtaken by a little blonde girl about 750m from the end, which made me kick up two gears and then curse the fact that I'd had those two gears and not used them - and there was plenty left to hold that pace -and- put in a sprint finish. I got overtaken again by two more girls, who I hung on to, hoping they were only on their first lap of the run. When they peeled off left to do their second lap when I was finishing my second, I laughed out loud because I hadn't been racing them, had a huge grin and sprinted to the finish."

I did grin, honest! It was just a bit after this was taken.

I missed it last year due to the bridge problem they had (what a stroppy I was about it too!), but I'm back again for a 3rd time at Blenheim on Sunday this coming weekend and I know it'll be an awfully slow swim compared with the last two, the bike could be excitingly quick and I'll take whatever comes on the run.  I'm extremely rusty on racing sprints, so I'm sure I'll be hilariously slow in the transitions, but it's going to be lovely!

I have a confession...

I've not been enjoying triathlon at all this year.  Not that I've actually raced any yet, having bashed my knee the day before Mallorca 70.3.  But I'm just not enjoying the training.  It has felt like a dirty secret for a while, but now I've made a choice, it's out now and I feel so much better for it.

Getting to the pool has been getting mentally harder and harder over the last 12 months; partly to do with the current and previous job being nowhere near a pool at all, not even a 17m one (I trained successfully for the bonkers year of Ironman in 2012 in a 17m pool), so I couldn't swim at lunch time.  Part of it is that I've got way out of the habit of swimming (see point 1).  I've also been feeling more and more down about a training plan that I'm not only shuffling around during the week (which is mostly fine to do and I've been doing that for a few years), but I'm missing or short-changing most of the sessions and then feeling bad about that.  And then realising the lack of work put in means that it'd be either very miserable to grind through a hilly 70.3 or perhaps full distance Ironman, or just plain out of the question to complete it.

So I've decided to stop doing triathlons for now.  There's no point in dragging yourself through weekly cycles of rage and blues for something you're supposed to be doing for fun.  I'll see how I feel up until the morning of the UK 70.3 in 2 weeks time; I'll race at Blenheim (it's "only" a sprint and a flat one at that) this weekend, and just train how I feel after that for a while.  But Ironman Wales is off the cards (and I can only get, at most, 25% of the cost of that back now *sigh*)

Commuting by bike and on foot to work is much more accessible now we have lockers and showers at work, so I can get a lot of useful exercise in during the week and really clock up some run miles if I so choose.  And then there's parkrun, the common and the Surrey hills at the weekends where I can just go out and have some fun and even socialise!  I feel a lot better about things now I've made this (fairly temporary) choice and it really opens things up to getting a whole bunch of things more fluidly in the calendar - off-road running races rarely fill up months in advance :o)

Mallorca 70.3 2014 - not a race report

(There's an actual race report here at Mr TOTKat's blog, if you're looking for one.)

After the Rotterdam Marathon, I made my right knee quite cross. Under orders from my coach, I was not to race at Mallorca 70.3 2 weeks after that happened.

So, the plan was to fly out to Mallorca the Monday before the race, ride the course and swim a bit and then ride a bit more. but no race for me.  As the week progressed, somewhat predictably, I decided that I would at least do the swim and bike legs on race day, but not the run.  Then I thought I'd see how I felt at the beginning of the run and stop if anything felt funny/wrong.

Friday, the day before the race, we went to rack our bikes and hang up our transition bags at race transition.  I found my bike racking point and noted the land-marks so I could find it again when I came barrelling in from the swim course the following day.  Then I headed back through to hang up my red and blue bags and then meet up again with Mr TOTKat on the way out of transition and back to the hotel.  As I walked through the women's changing tent I realised I still had my bike computer in the blue bag, so decided to hang up my bag and then jog back to my bike to leave it on my bike ready in the morning.  My bike was a long way out from the transition tent, and on the jog back again to the tent I saw that Mr TOTKat was looking for me - probably wondering what was taking so long.

I jogged onwards towards the tent and in a sudden blur of confusion, tripped on the carpet and went flying (apparently in quite a balletic manner) forwards, with speed.  Landing on my right knee first, I somehow landed even more heavily on the left and I heard a popping sound.  I rolled onto my back, pain radiating out from my left kneecap, and started to bawl my eyes out.  I was convinced I'd broken my knee.

As the volunteers came to assist, I looked at my knee and, in the same way an ink drop spreads in a glass of water, I could see dark purple/black spreading out fast from a point on the front of my knee.  I watched in horror as it spread and my immediate thought was I needed ice right away.  The volunteers helped me up and into the tent, gave me water and some ice appeared.  A volunteer pressed it against my knee and I tried to sit up a bit rather than lie flat.  It felt OK for a few moments, but then I felt really sick.  The blue/black colouration started to recede almost as miraculously appeared and a medically trained volunteer made sure I could bend it.  I had waves of nausea still, so they were keen to make sure I hadn't banged my head (I hadn't).

But, this was it.  Race over.  Both knees were swollen quite a bit, grazed from the carpet, and the left was really difficult.  Mr TOTKat helped me to hobble back to the hotel.  I felt so stupid.  The over-riding feeling was that I'd been a complete idiot. I could have left the bike computer until the morning as we would have full access to bikes in the morning to put water on them and check tyres etc. but for some reason I decided that Garmin needed to go on there right then.

So.  Coach got his desire that I didn't race, but I also only got to ride once that week instead of 3-4 times.  I swam a few times, but only one proper swim set.  And I got to pay for a race where I didn't even cross the start line.  On the plus side, I didn't have to run in 32C.  Which was brutal even just supporting on the day.

On the other plus side; we got to meet a whole bunch of new people, Mr TOTKat had his best 70.3 swim time ever, and we had a week away from work.

Race Report: Racing the Valencia F1 Circuit

Thanks to Virgin Active, a bunch of Team Freespeed went down to Valencia to race the Valencia triathlon at the weekend.

A week after Ironman 70.3 Zell Am See, Mr TOTKat and I would have just about enough time to get over lead-legs and needing to sleep a lot, and get out and race an Olympic distance with a good degree of fitness and energy.  We swapped bikes in the bike boxes, TT bikes out, road bikes in - Valencia is a drafting race so TT bikes aren't allowed (or rather, long aero bars aren't allowed as they're pretty dangerous at close-quarters riding).  Plenty of clip-on, stubby aero bars in evidence at the race, but I'll get to that in a bit.

We flew out on Friday morning from Gatwick and into 28C an sunny skies in Valencia - gorgeous!  The forecast was for cloud and still warm across the whole weekend, so no need for a wetsuit (though we both packed one, just in case) and no need for socks apart from the fact I really want to be sure my feet are good for the next few weeks into the Rotherham 80km Ultra marathon.  Fun and games at the airport with 9 people and 5 bike boxes to get to the hotel and only normal-sized cars as taxis.  No mini-buses, no people carriers.  We managed somehow and got to the hotel, which was really lovely and welcomed us with cava and orange juice as well as little gift packs with maps and travel passes in them.

A little unpack, then off for a swim down at the beach and back to the hotel for an early night.

Next day we put bikes together and headed out down to the sea front to have a look at the race expo.  Not so many vendors there but a few stalls with general sports kit and the registration tents for when that opened later on in the afternoon.  Back to the hotel for a huge nap and then out with the other guys again to register and rack up bikes.

Sunday morning was an earlyish start at 6am to get to transition before it closed at 07:45 in time for the first race start at 8am.  I popped into transition to set up my shoes, helmet and take the plastic cover off my bike that'd been protecting it from the potential rain overnight.  I said I'd take the plastic cover off Matt's bike for him so he could have a nice lie in for his race start at 10:30 so I did that and checked his tyres were OK - they were.

Mr TOTKat was due to be off at 08:20, so those of us off later went to check out the swim course while he got ready to start and then watched the swim leg for the first few waves and then saw Matt burning off the front of his wave before Jenny and I headed to get ready for our start.  We were herded into the start pen for a pre-race talk; 5 minutes in Spanish, no English for the International athletes.  Oh well!  We then plopped into the water, which was gorgeous temperature for swimming in!  It was so very very salty too.

Bang went the start cannon and I tried really hard not to just mow over the row of women in front of me who were really slow, but got over the reticence and got on with it.  It really wasn't very fighty as deep water swim starts go, just a little jostling at the start then I had clear water.  Having recced the swim course earlier, we had a great idea of how to sight for almost all of it and I put some good effort in for the first few hundred meters before easing off a bit, slightly distracted by the salt water in my mouth.

With the beautiful water, the temperature and the freedom of just a tri-suit maybe, the swim felt really really easy.  I didn't put a whole lot of effort in, if I'm honest, but it turned out I led the second pack for quite a way until getting under the bridge for the final few meters and a couple of women overtook me, and I let them as I wasn't sure where the exit was so I'd rather follow them.  I scrambled out, up the ramp and jogged the long long carpet through to transition and around to where my bike was racked.  On with the helmet, race number, socks (paranoid about blisters at the moment), bike shoes, sunglasses, unracked bike and jogged with it to the bike exit.

Over the line, mount the bike and clip in.  I heard cheers from the spectators of "Go on Kat!" etc.  I guessed that was Nick and Mr TOTKat as he'd've finished by now.  Start to pedal as I just hit the left turn for the bridge and *THUB*THUB*THUB* er... not a good noise.  Stop, unclip, feel back tyre - fine, feel front tyre - flat as a pancake.

Bugger.

My repair kit was not with me, having lost a chunk of it last week at Ironman 70.3 Zell Am See I'd not replaced it yet and decided not to carry a reduced kit for an Olympic distance race.  I unclipped my other foot, dismounted and hugged the fence back to transition against the flow of other athletes.  I had to find a race official, to withdraw from the race so they wouldn't worry about a missing athlete.  I found one with a radio and made the international sign of the glum face and pointed at my dead wheel.  That worked.  Mr TOTKat had by that time made his way level with where I was and shouted that I should use his repair kit from his bike.  I politely declined at that point - it'd've taken me ages to find his bike, get the kit and wrestle the still fairly new tyre off and by that time I'd've lost over 10 minutes and I'd be the last person over the finish line.  I didn't much fancy that and I'd had a lovely swim, so why get cross and have a horrible run by myself in the blazing sun when I didn't really need to?

I racked up my bike and joined the boys to cheer the rest of the team home over the line.  Turns out I was 3rd in the Vet Females in the swim.  Which was nice.

Matt won the Veterans race, and Jenny was 4th woman overall and 3rd in the open women's race.  Pretty darned good for her seeing as she'd had the twins only 10 months ago and not been able to train for a long time!

All in all, I really enjoyed the race and the weekend.  The swim was really very nice and although it was a shame not to have been able to ride the bike course, there's always another year and we'd be more than happy to go back again.  The short of it, the Valencia Triathlon is a good 'un and at a good time towards the end of the season to keep spirits up in the sun.

[Thanks to Nick for the use of all of his photos in this article!]

Nick on the camera bike

Race Report - Virgin Active London Triathlon 2013, Saturday surprise sprint relay

What a weekend!

I'd always intended to race the Virgin Active London Triathlon this year and had entered previously, but since then I won the Virgin Active competition to become the 12th member of Team Freespeed Virgin Active and that meant it was more than just the Sunday Olympic race on the cards.

Saturday was now a day that I was now going to be taking part in team duties; helping out on the Virgin Active stand at the expo and perhaps filling in on a relay team for the VIPs if there were problems for any of the teams with people unable to race.

Saturday morning, Mr TOTKat headed off to parkrun at Wansted Flats while I went to the expo to register, find the stand, meet the team and some of the sponsors.  The guys at Skechers were brilliant; knowledgeable, enthusiastic about the new range of Performance shoes and really helpful with sizing.  I've been running in the GoRun Ride for a couple of weeks now and I think Mr TOTKat is going to kill me if I mention how incredibly light they are one more time!  Looking forward to trying more of the range soon.  I bumped into Stuart and Richard Hobson at the Skechers stand, closely followed by Dec, Cat, Dion, Ali, Matt, Charlie, Jamie, Jenny and Richard Melik.  Tim arrived later and Sam was racing in IM Switzerland (and a great result he had there too in hot conditions with a no-wetsuit swim too).

We all headed upstairs to split into groups to help with the VIPs and Virgin staff competing in the race - offering tips, advice and making people feel comfortable about their first race as there were quite a few. Jenny,  Jamie and Matt headed into the VIP area to help with a couple of the celebrity relay teams who had missing members for various reasons and I helped in the staff room.  Shortly after that, there was a problem with one of the Cosmopolitan magazine relay teams who had lost their swimmer and cyclist both.  Richard Hobson was going to step up and take on the job but had no idea where his bike was, so I volunteered and then had to trot back to the hotel (about 10 minutes jog) to get bike, helmet, wetsuit and bike shoes.  So exciting!

Poor Holly having been dumped by the rest of her team had me come to the rescue :o)  Not quite the same standard as the rest of the Freespeed team, but not too shabby in the end nonetheless.  I wasn't expecting to race, so putting in a bit of an effort and coming out 57th (overall - mixed age & gender) in the swim and 57th (overall - mixed age & gender) on the bike of all the sprint teams (253 teams in total) I felt pretty good about thatand it put Holly in a good place to have a nice run and finish well before a lot of the other teams.

The swim was a nice surprise and I got on someone's feet and drafted pretty much the whole way around for the first time ever - I was trying to take it easy but put in a decentish time for sprint relay team.  I had a bit of fun on the bike, though the sprint course was very short at the first turn end so there wasn't much chance to get any speed up but the other end was quite fun and the promised rain didn't come.  Richard Melik took a cracking shot of me on the bike in the sunshine in my borrowed race top (thanks Matt!).  I also ended up borrowing swimming goggles (thanks Jamie!) and snaffling a race number belt as I really wasn't prepared for racing that day.

Holly (from Cosmo) was ready and waiting in transition for me when I came in off the bike and she had a lovely run out in the sun and seemed to really enjoy the whole experience.  Shame I didn't get a photo taken with her really.

I can happily say that the sprint was great fun and I was very pleased to have been able to help out someone who might have missed out on the experience of being part of a relay team otherwise.

But Sunday... I had an Olympic distance race to do!  (To Be Continued...)

Chewing at the bars of my cage [@thelondontri @virginactiveuk]

The day before the weekend of The Virgin Active London Triathlon and I am right where I should be before a race - chewing through the bars of my cage to get out and race!

Last couple of months training; pink = intense/long training, blue = fitness, yellow = "race freshness"

Having tapered training down, keeping the number of sessions this week the same but dialling back the duration or intensity, I've been getting more and more itchy to just go out and run hard, or swim fast or *grrrrr* anything!  And that's where you're supposed to be at this point before an important race.  I can't wait to get out there on Sunday and mash around the swim, bike and run!  I'll be fit, well-adapted and rested with not having put as much fatigue as usual into my body this week and the little fun race the weekend before last really whetted my appetite.

My checklist is sorted and, even better, I have race kit to collect on Saturday morning and I'll be in full Freespeed colours for this flagship race.  I'm going to be so happy and proud to be wearing them (plus they are amazingly comfy - I have a pair of the tri-shorts already and they're lovely to wear) and the lift you get from supporters yelling for you and ringing cow-bells is something special.  I had a taste of that last weekend and a long time back at Blenheim (very fond memories of my first race there!) and it is an amazing feeling that even the hardest cynic can't fail to be moved by.

Tomorrow, I'll be on the Virgin Active stand at the triathlon expo in the afternoon, so if you're racing, supporting or just at the expo for a look/shop come and say hi!  Sunday... I'll be out on the course, having fun!

[Race report - Shock Absorber Women Only Triathlon] Pretty pleased with that!

My goodness me that was FUN!

 

Thank you so much Jenny for persuading me to enter the Shock Absorber Women Only Triathlon this weekend.  Having done almost no racing this year, I was getting more wound up about getting used to my TT bike again and how rusty I was with race experience and transitions.  So I decided to give it a shot, not worry about the heat that was forecast and go out with the intention of having some fun with no expectations at all.  It's a funny distance race so no times to beat or match and with it being a nice shallow lake, the water is clean and the bike course completely sans cars so very very low risk racing indeed.

We packed up the car with both bikes (Mr TOTKat planned a 4 hour ride for while I was entering, registering, racking up, racing and then debriefing) and my wetsuit, just in case, and I zipped up the man-suit about having to swim in a sports bra and race shorts as the team race kit hasn't arrived from Italy yet (thanks to Jenny for the shorts!).  It was going to be fun pulling on a wet cycling jersey in T1 as I remember very clearly the errors I made in my first sprint triathlon around putting on dry clothes over a wet body... try it, it's really not very easy and it takes longer than you'd want it to!  Anyway, those little oddities aside, it was going to be a fabulous little outing for my TT bike and practise with a few other bits in preparation for Virgin Active London Triathlon in a couple of weeks.  Arriving well before transition opening time and just about as registration was open, I entered and paid my fees for the race, picked up the race pack and failed to check the notice board about the lake temperature as I'd assumed it was 23C at least and a wetsuit ban would be in place.  Once Mr TOTKat was packed off and I was smeared in sun cream, I sat in the shade and chatted to a couple of other competitors, who then said wetsuits were allowed as the water temperature was being officially reported as 21.8C.  I ran back to the car to pick up my wetsuit... I really wanted to wear it quite a bit, if nothing other than to cover up my wobbly belly for the swim!

Then I headed over to transition to rack up as it was just about to open and I was in the first wave of competitors due to start.  Listening to a conversation it turned out that the water really was quite warm, so I decided not to boil in my wetsuit and just get over how I look around the middle (my arms and legs are great, but my belly and back are very much showing the signs of the 3.5kg I've put on since last year's racing).  Racked up, stuff laid out in transition I had a quick chat with Jenny (who was in the later wave due to being a spring chicken) and having checked where the swim out, bike out and in and run out were, I got my goggles and hat on and headed for the water.  No race briefing until we were actually in the water, ready to go and bobbing about by the safety kayaks.  2 laps of the buoys for the swim (800m), 6 laps of the bike route (31.8km) and then 3 laps of the run (reduced from 7.5km to 6.2km due to the heat).

2 minute countdown, then 20 seconds then 3-2-1 *frrrrp*  The Challenge distance wave 1 (under 30s and over 40s) was underway!  (Wave 2 was 30-39 and they started 30 minutes after us.)

And as usual, a good old thrash at the start and a small breakaway pack started to get away from me, but I led the second pack in the water.  My tendency to bear left surfaced again and a woman from the under 30s in the wave started to pull alongside on my right and I realised I kept going off left too far and adding metres to the distance.  I re-found the yellow rope that runs along the bottom of the lake, securing the buoys in place and tried to keep that in view on my right for the second lap but drifted off a bit again and ended up deciding to just coast a little and draft the other girl to save energy.

Jogging out of the water and into transition, my bike was easy to find thanks to my Union Flag design Adamo seat and the fact I was at the end of a group of racked bikes, half way down the racks in transition in the 3rd row.  Bike jersey needed to be dragged on over my wet shoulders, arms and back as there are rules about how much skin you can have exposed between top and bottom half of clothing for the bike and run and a sports bra and shorts wouldn't work at all for that (never mind what you think, Mel C, going across the finish line with your abs out for the world!) and that's never a quick process.  Then number belt, sunglasses, bike helmet and bike shoes and unhook the bike for the trot to the bike mount line.  One day I'll learn how to do the bike mount with shoes attached to the bike thing, but it's beyond me at the moment and I'd rather focus on the big ticket items like strength, endurance and technique at the main disciplines.

 

 Off out over the bike mount line and a lady in pink RGActive kit went ahead of me to mount and her support told her she was in 9th place - which meant I was 8th out of the water in my wave (under 30s and over 40s).  I intended to take lap 1 easyish, get used to the route, turn my legs over and then get down onto the tri-bars for the next 5 laps.  But... out of transition onto the long straight on the West side of the lake there was a monster head wind.  Staying up on the hoods just turned me into a sail, so once I was through the chicane, I was down on the bars and up the gears.  I started to overtake a few ladies who were in the front pack of swimmers and then I couldn't see anyone for a while in front of me.  After starting the 4th lap, the next wave started to become quite apparent on the bike course and on the 5th I was overtaken by someone from the later starting wave and I realised I'd eased off and was taking it quite gently!  Back on the gas to overtake her again, loving the sweeping bends on the course, I overtook her back again half a lap later and then steamed into transition after my 6th lap.

Bike racked, bike shoes off, helmet off, number belt turned around, sun-visor on and off onto the run to find out how many people in my wave were already out there.

It looked pretty empty and I couldn't see down to the turn point as I grabbed a water at the start of the run.  Stomping down the Western shore of the lake I counted one... two... three... three runners on the course!  Time to dig in and get on with it in pretty horrid heat.  I really don't do well in the heat, but even with a couple of extra kg weight compared with last year, I'm in a lot better place than I used to be.  I hung on and took water at each end of the run route and tried to see who was behind me.  Plenty of people were shouting "GO ON FREESPEED!" which was absolutely brilliant and gave me such a boost!

It got a bit confusing after the first lap as there were then people very much at different points of their race and I couldn't tell who I was racing any more.  On my last lap, Jenny went rocketing past in the opposite direction and then a few people went rocketing past me.  I had no idea what wave they were in or what lap they were on, so I just had to hang on and not lose the water I'd been glugging by up-chucking in the last lap.  Carolyn Hewett (Team Wiggle) came past like a train and scared the wits out of me for a second with a cheery "COME ON FREESPEED!", which then made me giggle as there was no way on earth I'd be able to catch up with her as she disappeared off into the distance.

I threw myself under the finish gantry and headed straight for a lady holding a garden hose with a sprinkler attachment and got myself drenched while I sucked down the Vita Coco that was being handed out.  Man it was good!  I had a good old natter with Eleanor Doody from Ful On Tri afterwards, which was really nice; this is one of the things I massively enjoyed about the day, despite having been skeptical about a women only event.  Waiting for MrTOTKat to get back in from his bike ride, I munched on a White Chocolate and Macadamia Clif bar and started to feel a bit more human again (really looking forward to picking up my nutrition pack so I can get on with the Clif Builders Bars after the next races!).

For a last minute decision race, on a really hot day, the day after a monster strength session in the gym and no taper at all... I'm pretty happy with the result.  And it was fantastic TT bike time, getting used to handling that bike again, after the fit at Freespeed a couple of months ago.  It feels really good!

Race result - 3rd F40-44:-

Swim - 15:49 - 4th in AG, 19th overall
Bike - 59:36 - 2nd in AG, 13th overall
Run - 35:44 - 15th in AG, 57th overall
T1 - 01:54, T2 - 01:19

Happy with the swim, happy with the bike (especially given I eased off in laps 3 and 4).  But yes I need to work on my run, but I pretty much gave up on the run once I was reasonably sure I probably wasn't losing places to anyone I was actually racing and I reminded myself that this was a bit of fun and there was no need to splatter myself all over the run course.

It's incredible racing in the team kit of such a well-known high-performance race team as Team Freespeed Virgin Active and it gave me no end of mental boost on the day as well as the support from the team and sponsors.  Looking forward to The Virgin Active London Triathlon in 2 weekends time when I really get to have more fun and enjoy a great race.

Sneaky extra race :o)

I'll be entering the Shock Absorber Women Only Triathlon at Eton Dorney on Sunday.  (Thanks to Jenny for suggesting it might be fun!)  It's going to be a real fun bash at 3/4 Olympic distance on a flat, sweeping bike course and a totally flat run course on tarmac with a bit of grass right at the end.

I had a miserable time at the HSBC Olympic distance race two years ago (back before I had any idea about what training was, how to do it etc.) at this venue, but a whole lot has changed since then and I expect a stonking good time on Sunday.

Not sure I'll get to race in my new Sailfish G-Range wetsuit (courtesy of my new membership of Team Freespeed Virgin Active - thank you for the incredible support so far guys!) as the water may be warmer than the threshold for a wetsuit ban under BTF rules (22C).  Bit of a shame really as the little try-out I had in it suggests that it's a really quick suit!  Also not sure I'll manage to sustain the three tweaks to my swim stroke that team-mate Matt Molloy suggested this morning; one of them really puts a lot more power in my stroke, but as always with more power it means it's gotta come from somewhere and it's quite tiring when it's not ingrained into technique with a good few hours practice.  That said, 800m swim isn't all that long to really dump out some energy :o)

I'm going to be brave and use the TT bike (though I'm being advised to take advantage of the fact that the team is headline sponsored and run by Freespeed (bike fit studio - Retul certified) and have my bars checked out for suitability for me, so I'll do that soonish but there's not enough time before Sunday) as there's pretty much no need to get up out of the aero-position for the whole bike leg apart from at the end.  Fingers crossed I can do that as it's great experience to rack up for me, given I'm not the most confident in my own ability cyclist.  I so want to get a good go on that bike with the new HED Jet wheels on it (6 on the front, 9 on the rear)!

And I'll be giving these here Skechers Go Run (Ride) a good try out on the run too - they feel spectacularly light but are a lot more cushioned than I'm used to.  Reckon they'll be perfect for the training and run I'll be doing in October - Rowbotham's Round Rotherham (80km Ultra Marathon).

AND there's a barbecue after the race too!  Perfect!

Another solid week, but feeling blue

This has been another solid week of training, but I am feeling quite blue.

My swim session was cut short due to running short on time and being quite hungry.  It was an after work one where I didn't manage to leave the office promptly, so I was tired and cranky even before I started the session.  So I felt a bit down about not getting the whole set in, especially as it was my only swim of the week.  Then I missed my mid-week run, which was disappointing as it was supposed to be a hilly one; not something I could do on the way home and I'd been at a work event in the afternoon so was laden with laptop and other heavy stuff.  So, instead of running, we went for cheese and wine instead.  Oops.  Again, felt a bit down about that as things had been going well and I know that alcohol really sabotages my weight management.

Thursday, I picked myself up, dusted myself off and went for a ride at lunchtime to pick up my lovely new team-issue Lezyne kit; a beautifully engineered track pump, which packs down flat for easy packing into the car and has some rather sweet design features, like a locking hose for when it's not in use.  Also in the team kit pack was a pair of bottle cages, a mini puncture repair kit, a compact pump and a neat bento box.

After work a nice little run up to the common, across the diagonal, down a long long hill and then... back up it again to get home.  There are some lovely varied routes on Wimbledon Common - it's so versatile: flat, hills, gravel, dirt, mud, sand... I absolutely love it and it's so much quieter than Richmond Park.  And I was back up there on Sunday for the local running club's 10K race with some friends.  With predicted baking heat, utterly sweltering by 11am, I set off from home on Sunday morning fully intending to get the bus up to the common, but checking the indicator board, it showed over 15 minutes for the bus I needed.  I could jog there in less time; so I did.  Up the hill, not the best of warm-ups and by the time I got to the common the heat was getting noticeable.  To cut a long story short, I ran the first lap reasonably hard, then eased up and had a social second lap.  It was hot and I'd had a second week in a row of quite a bit of training compared with the prior couple of months, so I was pretty fatigued and in no way in good shape to force out something in the low 50min range.  Had a nice chat with @abradypus afterwards and then toddled off for coffee and cake while I waited for an update from MrTOTKat who was out doing the ride I'd done the day before - his longest ride since Ironman Wales last year!

Little bimble in the heat

So, a bit up (a good solid week put in) and a bit down (missed out on a quality run and part of my only swim session, and was a bit liberal with the boozes).  Looking forward to a week of having great fun trying to fit things around my trip to the rural office!  I'm sure I'll make it work somehow.

Countdown to @thelondontri

The little countdown timer has gone under 24 days to The London Triathlon now and I'm feeling a mixture of emotions.  It's been quite a while since I've raced at Olympic distance (and, to be fair, I've only done 3 anyway) and I've really not managed to race much this year at all, so it's feeling unfamiliar.  That said, London was amazingly good fun when I did it in 2011 and despite lots of rookie errors I felt great and it was such a rush crossing the line that I cried with happiness!

I've come on a bit since then, so I really want to put in a good time this year.  And given that I will have a good base and some consistent training in place, along with good nutrition and relaxation choices there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't put in a good time this year.

The other good thing is that I'm enjoying the training; as one World Champion said to me once at a workshop "Enjoy the journey, don't focus solely on the race. It's a long journey!".  So I am.  And it's great! Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been doing this triathlon lark (well, any sport at all really) for 3 and a bit years, it's such a big and joyful part of my life I can't remember how it was before.

*tiny thermonuclear explosion of joy* @virginactiveuk @teamfreespeed

Somebody pinch me; I can't believe it's real!  I, er, won.

Thanks Heather, I don't look 40 in this one :oD

I am now the 12th member of  Team Freespeed Virgin Active.  11 high performance athletes and me.  I am so unbelievably happy, scared, excited, nervous, honoured, fired-up... it really is a dream come true.  11 of the best amateur athletes in triathlon at the moment and I'm going to be able to spend a bit of time with them, talk with them, race with them, be part of their team and it is all because of the generous gift from their sponsors Freespeed and Virgin Active.  There is lots of support and kit coming my way, with a membership to the gorgeous Chiswick Riverside site of Virgin Active health clubs and I'll be racing in team kit at the Virgin Active London Triathlon and Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, as well as Valencia Triathlon a bit later in the year.

I need a little bit of a lie-down and some time to make sense of it, but right now I'm on cloud 9 and want to start to channel some of this phenomenal, new enthusiasm into mojo for training well.

Um... 186BPM *swimming*!?

That was one hard swim set.

Seriously hard.  Hardest set I've done to date.  And I missed out 8 of the 100s 'cause it was proving a bit much.  I think I was doing 1:41 100s a few times, which is mental for me, but I wasn't really paying attention that well other than the time I had before I had to start up again.  Max heart rate 186!

Absolutely shattered after that and devoured a big lamb steak and puréed cauliflower for dinner.  Inhaled it in minutes.

Traintraintraintrain

It's been almost 2 weeks since IM 70.3 UK and I've been doing really well.  Training consistently and getting some strength sessions slotted in, which I'd really been missing.  As a result, I'm quite tired.  Work, chores, training, commuting, sleeping - balancing those is a fine art at the best of times and when some of those are unpredictable, you have to get clever around scheduling and making provision for opportunistic dealing with chores or training.

I missed one run and added in 2 strength sessions - pretty pleased with that

I've found a way to make the shorter, working day training sessions work.  I do spin/bike and strength sessions in the morning before work, unless I'm in the rural office when I do runs instead.  Swims happen on the way home from work and runs can happen as part of my commute home from work (when I'm in London).  Longer bikes and runs happen at the weekend with options on an added swim or strength session.  It's working pretty well!

The red sessions are today's ones I've not yet done - swim will go green later!

The Virgin Active London Triathlon is 4 weeks away and I'm feeling pretty darned good for it.  As long as nothing catastrophic happens, I'm very much on track for a great race on a really lovely course.  It's an Olympic distance race and almost completely flat with just a few roundabouts for fun in it, so I'm looking at using my TT bike with my spanky HED Jets for extra go-faster (well, they -look- cool, so it'll make me -feel- faster and that makes me actually put in more effort :o)) vroominess.  Last time I did London, I didn't do too badly given I had no training plan, just ran a bit, biked 15km every now and then to my old work and back (each way) and swam when I rememebred to:- 02:45 and I think my run at the end was just over an hour!  I think we can do better than that this year :oD

So, I'll be getting out on my TT bike when I can; I find it a bit tricky to get familiar with the handling of it where we live and last year I ended up doing most of my familiarisation on it in races (closed roads, no traffic to worry about).  And doing my best to keep on top of training sessions and fitting them in where I can when work goes off piste (keeping gym and swimming kit in my desk drawer really really helps!) and not get stressy if I end up having to miss a session that I can't fit in, or doesn't logically fit in, at another point in the week.



Now... I just need the results of the Team Freespeed Virgin Active competition to be announced (oh please, oh please!) so I can stop having un-resolved stuff hanging over me and job's a good 'un!

UK Ironman 70.3 2013

UK Ironman 70.3 2013 - or "you live and learn"

Last year, this race was great fun.  I was really very fit and had spent the winter scampering up the Surrey Hills in the snow on the bike and on foot. 

My bike was only 2 years old and in good condition.  That is not what happened this year.

So, I spent most of the winter 12/13 not doing a lot due to injury and then missing mojo and general apathy.  Things pick up a bit in March and April and I got a great week in at training camp in Spain.  But then I started a new job and I let that take over my life.

As the weeks ticked by with very little training going on (I looked at it the other day and I averaged 3.5 hours a week, compared with 8-9 a week last year).  While I was getting the short, quality sessions in, I was missing the basic endurance and fitness I'd previously done.  I got chubby, unfit and weak but was in denial.  I also ignored the niggling "get your bike serviced properly" thoughts and assumed I could get away with giving it a bit of a wash and lube.

Let me tell you this right now: you can't get away with any of that on the UK 70.3 course.  You just can't.  It demands more respect than that and if you don't give it that respect you will be humiliated by it.  And I was.

We decided to make the race weekends less impactful this year by going out to the venue on the Friday, straight to registration, then take Saturday easy before race day on Sunday.  So, we drove over to Exmoor on Friday last week to weather forecasts predicting doom and rain all of Sunday; heavy heavy rain and some reasonably stiff winds.

Heading straight to the Expo/race site to register, it was apparent that the weather in the days leading up to arriving had been less wet than last year as the site wasn't a mudbath when we arrived.  Registration was quick (the race kit bags are much nicer this year!) and I said hi to a few Ironman staff before trundling to the pub to check in.

A quick meal and a glass of wine and off to bed we went. Via obsessively checking the weather forecast every hour or so to see if it had improved.  And it did!  The rain had been due from pretty much 5am on Sunday and to last all day, but the forecast moved towards rain not hitting the area until midday.  That would be perfect as quite a lot of people would have finished the bike leg by then (me included most likely) and that would take away the biggest fear - a wet bike route and most specifically That Descent being wet.

Saturday was racking up and having a splash in the lake day and I was glad of that little swim as I'd not been in a wetsuit since Galway and certainly not with my modified swim stroke.  The water wasn't anywhere near as cold as feared and a good 2 degrees warmer than last year, so no cramp and no need for neoprene socks (despite them being allowed this year due to the cold).  Bike checked over, tyre pressures done and gears and brakes checked it was off back to the pub for a nap and a relax before very early dinner and bed.  Alarm set for 4am we were in bed at 9pm and asleep very shortly afterwards.
 

Sunday morning... a tiny bit of drizzle fell as we loaded ourselves into the car, but it stopped pretty quickly and the roads were dry.  With the great new traffic control system in place, we had no traffic troubles getting into the site car park, though as we'd not put the little badge in the windscreen early enough we got routed around a little loop to be asked about parking fees.  Parked up nearly and not too far from transition, I was in my final decision kit of tri top and shorts, calf guards, arm warmers all to go under the wetsuit for the swim, along with a neoprene hat under the race-issue silicone hat.  The plan for the bike was to add a bike jersey, gloves and warmish socks along with having two sets of toe warmers over my bike shoes to keep the chill off my toes which do suffer!

Mr TOTKat helped me into my wetsuit and being in the second wave I had a little more time to amble down to the lake shore for a bit of a dance to the thumping tunes while people stared at me like I was some kind of loon.  I felt great, the water wasn't cold, the rain was going to hold off, I wasn't worried about getting cold or falling off my bike or anything! The first wave of athletes were set off, and the second wave waited to be called down to get in to the water.  Bounce bounce bounce down to the shoreline where I bumped into a familiar race official who greeted me with "I know you!  Last time I saw you, you were crying in a tent in Galway!"  Cheeky so-and-so!  He was being funny and we chatted a bit.  He also remembered a lot more about the Galway thing than I did; "nice new watch, I guess the last did look pretty smashed up."  Anyway, off into the water we all toddled to wait to be released - race briefing had been very very clear on not waiting about at the start of the race in order to keep people from getting cold and we were in the water no more than a few minutes before the hooter went off to get splashing.

The swim... wasn't all that quick, to be fair.  I did get on toes quite near the start and drafted for quite a while before shifting to other toes and others then I ran out of toes and had a lot of clear water.  Then I was alongside someone for a long time, eye-level to eye-level breathing on opposite sides but facing each other so it felt a bit weird seeing their face every time I breathed.  To be honest, I didn't put a huge amount of effort into the swimming; for some reason that seems to happen most of the time despite the intention to go hard.  A little loss of direction on the final arm of the swim course as it was hard to see where the actual swim exit was, meant a little argy bargy with someone else as I careered more to the right than I should have, but I got with the programme in the end and aimed better for the final 100m or so.

Hauling out and up the long, grassy slope up to transition I actually managed to run this year!  I pulled down my wet-suit to waist level to make running easier, and sneaked a peek at  my watch.  00:39:xx  Oh dear!  That was pretty awful!  But still... the bike and run still to come and less faffing in transition could easily make up a couple of minutes on last year, so I just carried on and got on with making my way to transition... where I found my bag straight away - I did a proper recce and positioning run through when racking up, so I knew exactly which row and level to find it at.  Transition wasn't too shabby, though a little trouble with damp feet and socks despite towelling them a little.  Off out and onto the bike!

Here's where things weren't so pretty.  Being in the second, smaller wave and not being too speedy in the swim meant that it was a bit demoralising as well over 1300 people were already ahead of me on the bike course, and not very many people behind me.  With a bike course time hopefully a little under 4 hours, I'd be finishing the race pretty much in the last few people over the line even if I was doing well for me.  I put the thought away as quickly as I could and focussed on not falling off in the first few meters after mounting up, like a lot of people did last year.

As last year, the plan was to warm up a bit and spin for the first little bit.  There is a sapping rise not far out from transition and there's no point knackering yourself on that so early on.  So gently up that and it started to drizzle a bit.  Down the zoomy bits, picking up some speed and really starting to enjoy the bike.  First major hill and I got a bit of chain ring problem dropping to the small ring but after a couple of goes it went in.  More zoomy bit, then the evil descent that everyone is scared of.  Except it was a lot less scary.  And the no-overtaking zone (which was also a no tri-bar zone for safety reasons) was clearly staffed by a race referee who verbally alerted riders to the zone start.  At which point I'd already slowed down a bit and had some poor fella on a TT bike pop over a cats-eye alongside me and need to pull in to inspect his mighty steed for damage.  I really only sat on the brakes hard towards the bottom of the nasty descent and partly due to the fact that it was now raining appreciably and there were many many marshalls waving people to slow right down to the stop at the junction at the bottom.

The descent de-demonised and over with, I carried on to the last appreciable hill of the course and had a sticky chain ring shift again.  That started to niggle in my mind more until a very short little uphill which is sharp and really does need the small ring; I tried to shift down but it wasn't having any of it and I had to rapidly unclip and get off.  Not good.  I manually pushed the chain onto the small ring but now I was 1/2 way up a sharp hill and couldn't get on to carry on pedalling up.  So I had to walk.  Oh the shame.  Up to the top to a flat section and back on again.  But by that point I was really not happy with the state of not being able to even semi-reliably get onto the small ring.  There are a lot of hills on this course and I could either stop at the bottom of each one, get off, shift the chain onto the small ring, get back on and pedal up the hill; or I could hope it'd change down, have it fail and at some point fall off into a hedge or something.  It was also raining quite a bit by now.  And I looked down at my bike computer and the time was awfully close to 2 hours and I was not done with lap 1 yet.  And I'd been not doing so well with the uphills, finding it hard to get enough power into my stroke to get a reasonable cadence even in the lowest gear.  It was at this point that I mentally gave up.

I had a few km to decide whether to throw in the towel completely or not and as I finally approached the junction to either start the second lap or take the road back to transition, there was a lot of wet gravel and speedy pros shooting up the road back to transition 'cause they were done with lap 2 already.  I stopped, got off and talked to one of the many marshals.  With a complete mental wrench my decision came down on the side of retiring from the race and I welled up a bit as I told the marshal I was retiring; "Athlete 1048 retiring at check point 6." was the message into the radio and that was my race over.  I was so disappointed in myself for letting things get to a point where my bike wasn't reliable and I was so weak in the legs that the hills filled me with almost dread.  Climbing back on my bike, I hugged the left-hand hedge all the way back to transition to let the pros zip past; they wouldn't expect there to be a slow athlete on that part of the course, so I needed to give them as much room as I could.  The rain got heavier and heavier and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.  I got cold.  Really quite cold.  And I thought to myself that I was quite glad not to be out on a second lap with this level of cold and rain as well as the other problems.

 Several people cheered and applauded as I rode past and it just made me feel worse.  They thought I was super-fast, when really I was a quitter.  Into transition and I racked up my bike, not really knowing what else to do but I thought it best to just keep it out of the way of everyone else still racing, and I went into transition to find out how to get my white bag so early and I was sent to the medics as there had been 4 people already come in with mild hypothermia and they didn't want me to be a 5th.  So I got a foil blanket to get me from transition to the tent with the white bags where my warm clothes were.  I was very glad of the foil blanket as I started to really feel the cold now I'd stopped putting any effort in, what I really didn't think of was the fact that my clothes were soaked through and I had no towel.  So I had to put my warm, dry clothes on over wet ones and that meant I really never warmed up properly.  The next 2.5 hours before I could get my bike was going to be less than fun, but one of the race officials ushered me through to the post-race hog roast and gave me a hot sandwich to help with the cold and then I went to try to find Mr TOTKat - lord alone knew where he might be at this point, but as pros were getting towards finishing it was likely he'd be around the finish chute.

And there he was.  Tears, tea, cake and cuddles made me feel better and we talked through what happened.  People came and went in the little cafe, hiding from the rain and cold while the poor Ironman staff and volunteers were out in it all for hours doing their jobs.  We toughed it out with me shivering and cold despite all the layers, but due to the wet inner layer, until it was time I could get my bike out from transition.  Sad to leave before the awards ceremony as there were plenty of friends and others we know who would be getting awards, but I really needed to get out of those wet clothes and to warm up properly so we headed back to the pub.

And that was Ironman UK 70.3 2013.  Not pretty; lots of mistakes leading up to it and plenty to look at for the next 11 weeks into Ironman Zell Am See/Kaprun 70.3 with the Virgin London Triathlon in the middle of that.  One of the mistakes is getting fixed next week - my bike is going in for a full service to make sure it's happier (though I'm likely to race these two races on my TT bike which is in great condition :o)).  The others I've talked through with myself, Mr TOTKat and coachRich and we should be in a good place for some solid work over these weeks for those fast, flat courses.  Two real positives I can take from UK 70.3 this year are; my fastest recorded speed on the bike at a whisker under 60kph and still pedalling at 94rpm at the time, and the famously tricky descent that scared the poop out of me last year was a lot less scary and I barely noticed needing to brake until the lower part of it.  Very happy with that!

Blue line - speed, yellow line - cadence, green line - elevation

Thank you to Mr TOTKat for being Iron Sherpa for this race, for looking after me, driving me, helping calm me down before and after the race and being generally a sweetie.  Looking forward to getting to the next race together!