Where have I been?

So you may have noticed a huge gulf in time between this post and my last! This is because as far as sport has gone, I have been away! Away for a long time and this is because of injury, the kind that gnaws away at you unrelenting! 

Since June 2014 I have had a very opinionated ankle that has refused to sort itself out. Despite a history of ankle rolls in the past, there was not such event during this month. This may have been because I had been trying to get by and refuse that there was a problem, in truth I do not really know but from June onwards, I decided to take a rest from running. Later I dropped cycling as the pain was still persisting and not running was still not helping. 

Then my beautiful daughter arrived and I thought, in the new year I will seek out help and get this sorted. However disaster struck in January when my son fell awkwardly and broke is femur. How could I get myself fixed with chaos around me, so I soldiered on.  Thankfully by May my son was back on his feet and I got referred to see a specialist. Months of physiotherapy followed but still no improvements were being made and the pain pushed on relentless, not even with pain relief could I get any closure and my mood began to suffer. I'm sorry for that.

In the Summer of 2015, I had a MRI scan and Xray on my ankle and another specialist recognised the problem and advised that surgery would be required. I was shocked. For the first time in over a year I had an answer, and it was not in my head.  I tried a steroid injection to get me through to the next term, it worked amazingly but sadly it did not last. Taking time out for surgery and the subsequent recovery took some careful planning to fit in my day job as a school teacher.  But we got there, so on 16th November, I went under the knife with a skilled surgeon in Singapore. Which brings me to today. Half way through keeping it elevated not putting any weight through it. It is also the longest time possibly in my life that I have not been in the pool.

Which is why I took an usual step in having a tattoo. A tattoo with a name, the Bungai Terung. This was performed with the traditional hand tapped method. Living on the island of Borneo, I have always been interested and intrigued by the tribal culture of the people who live here. The tattoo I have had is from the Iban tribe of Sarawak, who traditionally have lived around water ways (their transport links) in buildings called Long Houses that home people closely together. They have also been called 'head hunters' due to an ancient tradition however this is no longer practised. The Bungai Terung is the first tattoo that young Iban men get and is there first step in becoming a warrior. After receiving the Bungai Terung, received in pairs across the front of the shoulders (where the straps of a back might go) they were ready to go out on their 'Berjalai' journeys.I was interested to learn the deep meaning behind it. On each shoulder  they make you stronger to carry your travelling pack, they give protection and the centre coil, the rope life to symbolise the transformation from tadpole to maturity.

Well after the year my family has had, I would welcome further protection. As for my 'Berjalai' I am working abroad to help improve the lives of my family. I am or was a fit athletic person, a swimmer, and a triathlete. Hence my journey is going to be getting back to fitness and beyond...

Thanks for reading, I might do another blog about the tattoo experience, which with the absence of any sporting adventures, might be what the doctor ordered? As for 2016, bring it on!

The four hour process was not dissimilar to many endurance events for both myself, Pemantang (tattooist) and Ten (the stretcher and assistance.)

70.3 Ironman to Caberman

It has been a very interesting year for me so far, particularly where sport is concerned.
I'm very lucky and privileged to be currently living on the island of Borneo. The conditions are perfect for an outdoor life and once you allow for insect bites and high humidity you can really have a blast!
Every day has pretty much the same number of hours of sunshine and the weather is only hot, hot and wet or hotter but you can pretty much with the few exceptions plan to do something and nothing stops you.
I spent most of May in the gym doing compound moves like squats and deadlifts because in June I am taking part in a Highland Games type event. I am doing tug of war and it now looks more lightly caber tossing!
Saturday 21st June soon arrived after an terrible week in which sadly my Grandfather passed away.  As you can imagine I was distracted and training was the last thing on my mind and it was not until just the day before that I resolved to compete and give it my best shot.  I attended one tug of war training session where we trained against a few other teams, all seemed positive.

We went into the tug of war weigh-ins with confidence despite only being able to field 7 men from 8 due to the weight limit of 720kg, unbelievably almost all had lost weight this week, myself included. We weighed in 30kg below the other teams and with a pair less boots on the ground we were going to have our work cut out.

We drew the local fire brigade in our first match. We easily won the first pull, we were so close to winning the second, just a few centimetres short but something went, and the team were hauled back. By the third pull something was missing.  One of our team was injured and taken to hospital with a twisted knee. We were out of the competition.  Then we found we were in a draw with the best losers.  We made our substitution and in a one pull tug of war we beat a Scottish team.  Less than 10 minutes later we had to pull against a fresh German team, we put up a good effort but their freshness, extra boots and weight ultimately had the better of us. We were out.

I used the next few hours to try and rest, hydrate, feed and loosen up before my solo Caber Tossing event.  A morning of maximum effort pulls is not the best preparation!  I tried to apply a bit of sports science and opted to wear some compression running tights to try and keep my legs together.  Now for those that do not know the rules of Caber, below is a brief outline of the rules;
1.) You have to toss a length of wood (caber) so that it rotates and lands facing away from you.
2.) You score if the end of the wood lands between 3 and 9 on a clock face with 12 being a perfect 100 points.
3.) You can have up to 3 goes at any weight of caber and move up if you have had a successful toss.


I began with the 8 caber, and scored 95. I moved up to the 9. I threw poorly the first two goes I do not think the caber was in the right position before I threw. I aced the third go.

Moving onto the 10, I took my time, I breathed and went for it, first go, maximum points. Someone else had also done this so I had to toss two more times. Sadly these two attempts
were not as good but they still earned me points. I was in 2nd. Someone later came and had a go
late on and this person managed two perfect tosses and moved into first place. I finished in 3rd position, yet knowing I aced the first toss.


Next year should be interesting. I now know nothing short of three perfect tosses will win the competition.  I doubt there are man 70.3 finishers who could compete in such a strength power based event? Nevertheless a determined mindset is required for both.  Currently, no further events are entered, with the arrival of baby number two fast approaching, my energies may be directed elsewhere, for now.

3rd place with my medal

Tossing the biggest Caber available

Tug of war, in anchor position

About to toss the Caber

Gym Bunny refocus

As you know, in April I undertook my first 70.3, Ironman Putrajaya (1.9km swim, 90km swim and 21.1km run.) This as you can imagine took a lot out of me and post race training is something all should not neglect!

It was several weeks before I even started thinking about doing further training. I had read in another blog about treating any training in these post race weeks not as training but as exercise. So I played some recreational tennis and very gradually dropped in some running and some shorter rides.  I was really pleased my immune system held up and I didn't get ill and that I have recovered well apart from some tightness in my Achilles. I've had to be kind to myself.

I decided that I needed to spend May doing some different training to the rest of the year to date that had been made up of cardio. So, I took myself inside the gym for some rebuild and consolidation.

I've reacquainted myself with the Olympic bar, dumbbell and kettle bells. I've dusted off full body moves like squats, deadlifts and bench press and hauled myself over the occasional pull up and dip, and finally even roll outs! I started off lifting quite light for my historical max loads so worked at around 60kg.

Throughout May I've gradually increased the weight during this period until bench press is up to 90kg, deadlifts and squats 160kg. This has obviously put a smile on my face- goal of any training programme!? This type of training may not fit with the traditional triathletes programme but I never was the build of a traditional triathlete...

Now with June almost two months since the 70.3 upon me, I find myself wanting to find another event to enter: this must be a good thing with some consolidated strength thrown in! Cue eyeroll from the wife ;)

Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya Review!

Historically, I am what I tend to refer to as a 'binge-trainer,' I would train like mad for a few weeks at such an unsustainable rate I would invariably fall ill or go off the boil, things had to be different for this challenge.  All the training plans I looked at began building a base of consistent training volume which then moved into a phase of building up the distances over several weeks before a lower training volume week.

Journey to 70.3 Ironman!

The training window.

I entered this event in that special week between Dec 25th and Jan 1st where dreams and goals take formation. April seemed so far away and like any guilty internet shop, it took just a few moments to fire off my online registration and payment.  Reality soon set in when counting back from the race date of April 13th to my start of training, it 4 month window was actually made up of only 14 weeks. Now you are going to be hard pushed to find a training schedule for a half ironman in just 14 weeks, but that was the time I had, so that was the time I was going to use!

I set about by dividing the weeks I had available into clear sections. I had a base building phase at the start where I tried to maintain 4 hours of training volume per week for the first 4 weeks. Then I had a phase where I increased the volume of several weeks before having a lighter training week. Now pacing is something that I have never been good at, I have always been either on or off with not much in between but while training for this event, I came to terms with the fact that every session can not be all out and that that most importantly, is ok.

After these weeks, I then wanted to have a building phase where I gradually increased the weekly volume in an effort to get into double  figures. This was the first time I had tried to do such a medium term plan for myself rather than just record what I had done along the way and yes there were weeks when I didn't hit the targets but I felt it was important to listen to my body during these faces, particularly as I had set some tough figures for myself. Yet I had some key goals in mind that I had to achieve;

Swim - well this is my best discipline and is where my bank of hours in the past has mostly been spent. I just wanted to keep this ticking over, maintaining good technique, I did most of my swim work in the early hours before work, reasoning that swim into a day at work would put that side in good stead.

Bike - I wanted to ride 90km plus on just two 750ml drinks bottles, and get used to the heat (I've been living in Brunei on the island of Borneo since Sept '13). When I started riding in the tropics, I was needing two drinks bottles by 30km, this had to change if I was to be sustainable, over the 14weeks I gently pushed the distance on my weekend ride from 30k - 60km - 75km - 80km - 90km and a couple of centuries.

Run - This was my chink in the armour. Being heavier than streamlined traditional triathlete, with a history of ankle strains and sprains, I ran very sparingly I based most of my running around 5km and 8km but had intended to run a half marathon distance to satisfy my mind that I could run that far in the heat - this did not happen and yes I rolled an ankle about 3 weeks prior to the race! A big changer and meant I couldn't run anywhere near as much but I worked on rehabbing the ankle through self treatment and in the final weeks I was walking 8km-10km on it with minimum discomfort.

The week leading up to the race was very nerve-wracking, as someone who has the habit of over thinking every turn unless kept in check, I checked and rechecked by gear before getting it packed up.  I finished work at noon on the Friday and after more fuzz I got myself to the airport and untook the 2hour or so flight to KL, Malaysia. I arrived at my hotel at around 8pm on the Friday night. This was the first time I had travelled overseas with a bike and I must say building a bike in a hotel room felt quite special - like a travelling athlete!  It also made me realise how lonely it must be for professional athletes as I sat looking at my assembled bike alone in my room. This did not last long as my stomach grumbled and reminded me I needed to eat and get bottled water for the next day. Walking around Cyberjaya (my hotel location), I found a pizza restaurant and this went down well. I then got my self to bed.

The day before the race.

I slept well and got myself ready and went for breakfast in the hotel breakfast room. People didn't stare too much at me in my gear! After that, I cycled across the district (about 10km) to the practise swim and race registration. After spending time around the stalls, watching the race briefing video and listening to the athlete interview with Crowe, I racked my bike in transition and headed back to the hotel on foot.  For a late lunch at around 3pm, I had two main courses, a chicken and rice dish and a fillet steak and chips back to back. I stopped in at the shop I bought water the day before and bought some more water and some baked beans and sliced bread for my race breakfast.  I had some cheese sandwiches for my evening meal that night before retiring to bed around 8pm after laying out all my race gear and packing up my suitcase.

Race day!

The alarm beeped once at 4:45 am and I jumped out of bed after sleeping in running compression tights to try and rest legs as much as possible. Race number transfers put on and some beans on raw toast eaten with a banana. My taxi arrived and I checked out of the hotel and headed across to the race start at 5.45am. The taxi could only get so close to the transition due to road closures so I had a short walk to the transition. Immediately it hit me how dark it was, I hadn't even considered it would be that dark and that it would not be well lit. My advice to any one is take a head torch or something to help you see setting stuff up for your transition. I was quite lucky with my racking location and I found my bike easily.  With my bike ready, I put my bag into storage and heading across to the swim start.  It was a wave start and my age group entered the water closely after the professionals.

The swim started and straight away it was a bustle of limbs and splash, I worked hard to find some clear water and soon had some space to breathe. Lots of people seemed to surge forward, I just let them get on with on, figuring I'd have someone to catch later. 4 white buoys marked the corners of the loop swim course with another, only having buoys on the corners means that you need to be careful to spot them, to do this, I try to fix my view on some part of the landscape just beyond the buoy as this is easier to focus on when you look up: that's what I did, and I think it paid off and I swam a straighter line than many of the other swimmers that day.  I finished the swim in 38 minutes, even catching a few red swim caps from the wave before. I was careful not to over kick during the swim as this was something I had done on an Olympic distance a few years ago and had had jelly legs on the exit. This did not happen and I ran out of the water strong. 

The bike leg

My transition was quite quick for me, around 3 minutes. I made an effort to dry my feet and wear socks but next time I will train and try it without socks.  As soon as I got on the bike my glutes were tight, like I had never experienced before and it was difficult to stay in the saddle. I just went steady, never did quiting cross my mind. The bike route is mostly on highways with some really good surfaces, but the sudden climbs on highway slip roads as you moved between roads took some getting used too.  Strava shows I climbed 200 plus metres during the ride, as each slip road was no more that a minute or two, you get the idea of some of these short gradients. The heat was already getting hotter but thankfully there was a breeze while pedalling. By the end of the second lap, I had got much more successful at catching bottles and gels from the enthusiastic rest top volunteers. I finished the two laps in 3hours14minutes and headed out on the run.

I managed to run well for the first 1km receiving much, 'Looking strong' comments from spectators. Running alongside the lake I had an idea, if I could splash water over myself I could cool myself down. But as a crouched down I cramped in both hams and these forced me to walk until the pain eased.  After that, I adopted a run/walk strategy.  I had kept my cycling gloves on when offered ice at the food points, I eagerly filled them up with ice and also inside my hat. This ice became so integral to my run segments that I became to look forward to the next opportunity for ice. The aid stations were very well stocked!

I completed the half marathon in 2 hours 43, with a total time of 6 hours 43 minutes. There was a queue for the massage tent but once they brought out some chairs, I'd have sat  there as long as it would take. Once I felt more human, my thoughts turned to getting back to my hotel and catching my flight home. I packed up and tried to walk out of the closed road section to see if a taxi would take me and my bike. They would not, so I ended up ride another 10km back to my hotel, via a certain drive through restaurant for a feast!  I got to the hotel, packed my bike, changed clothes and it was time to head back to the airport and back to Brunei with the 6am alarm call for work not far behind!

As I write this blog a week on, I can say it was an amazing experience, it took a lot of planning and was much more than just training. I am lucky to have such a supportive wife and although our son might not have been aware, I was very grateful for him sleeping through the night on those first few nights after the race…  All done on an average over the last 10 weeks training volume of 4.5 hours per week, with total time from entry to race just 14 weeks.

Resting heart rate is down to 52bpm and the aches are subsiding as are the blisters so hopefully, you will see me out on the road again soon…

Thank you for reading, if you are interesting in hearing more please get in touch. Can I add that I am not a coach, and that I in no way promote or recommend following my training program, I'm just a man, trying to fit it all in, to have a go, but what I do have is a determination and iron will that failure was not going to be an option.  My advice is train, listen to your body and coach, know that it will hurt and get the job done.  REMEMBER, THAT LAKE, LOOP OR TRACK WILL BE THERE ANOTHER DAY, MAKE SURE YOU ARE… ENJOY X

MATT.

If you've wondered why I've not entered any significant races this season...

Hold on to your hats...

The simple answer is that this summer I am heading off on an adventure that I am not entirely sure of the start date of.  It is July now and to be honest I had expected my gear to have all been shipped, but it hasn't so I guess I could have entered some races after all, if only my head (and my funds) had been in order...

Yet I am distracting from the point.  The point of which, maybe has not fully sunk in.  it may be a case of being careful what you wish for, as with a little hard work and some luck, your wishes can come true...

As you know, I am a teacher living, working, training and tweeting from the UK but I am proud to announce that from August this will not continue, I am going to be moving with my family to work on the other side of the world on the northern tip of Borneo in a small country called Brunei! 

My wife finishes her job tomorrow and our house is up for rent, this is really going to happen!  I hope that the move, while being a fantastic opportunity for my career will give me more time with my immediate family, an opportunity to travel, and some more time to get even fitter - I mean training in 30 degrees in 85% humidity has got to make you fitter right?!

So I want to thank everyone who has supported us, and if you are reading this from a link on twitter, you are also a great group of people who are inspirational in your own right - I hope I return such inspiration!  So my tweets might hit your time lines a little off on the time stakes, but don't forget me, I hope we can still compare training and if you're on strava look me up and join my team to stay in touch!

As I move forward on to the next chapter of our adventure, I will leave you with an Old Proverb,
'There is a choice you have to make, in everything that you do. You must always keep in mind that the choices you make... make you.'

Blue.

City of Birmingham Olympic Distance Triathlon 1st attempt at this distance

Took place on Sunday 15th July 2012 in Sutton Park, Birmingham, organised by UK Triathlon, fun2tri Finding the event was very easy and was well sign posted and we were quickly able to park. Registration the day before made for an easier set up, with a 7am mass start in the under 39 category, registration was one less thing to worry about. I was glad my friend, Fraser was with me who explained how to rack the bikes- Bikes rack in alternate directions to maximise racking space, however, I noted no guidance to this either from marshals or in signage.

1500m swim

A brief briefing informed us of the change of laps from 2 to 4 laps, everyone had orange swim caps, the bouys were orange and the canoeists wore orange, again I wondered if we'd get confused? In the water, I positioned myself on the outside edge so that I'd get a shot at clear water. My race provided swim hat was already beginning to creep up my head, I was glad I had decided to wear my google strap beneath the cap. With the race under way, I worked hard into the first turn, my blue tinted goggles did their best to reduce the glare from the morning low hung sun, but once we had turned the bouy, I doubt anyone could see the boat house I had ear marked as the land mark to head for: I moved onward in a fairly straight line and as the swimmers begun to spread out I was able to take a more inside line. The swim hat waved it's goodbye somewhere around the the 2nd lap but these was not time to stop or mess as I began catching and overtaking the swimmers ahead. Several times I became aware of swimmers drafting behind me, but a few long pulls and a quick kick soon shook them off. I exited the water inside the top 30. Official time which includes a long transition Recorded 35.35, by my watch I exited the water around the 30min mark.

40km bike - 8 laps of the park.

I was really grateful for a practise ride earlier in the week around the cycle course with Fraser as it gave me a heads up to the pot holes and where the turns and speed ramps were. I had 2 drinks bottles around the bike course of high 5 zero. Its amazing how a chafe can persuade you up out of the saddle, just remember to change up to give that power somewhere to go! The downward section of the course was the most fun and where I was going in excess of 32mph, overtaking route cautious others! The presence of white gate posts at the bottom of this by the lake really seemed to cause some people to back off through this section, when in fact the track was just as wide as before. It seems apt to point out that I was getting racked off with the slighter build competitors who I must have easily given away 40kilos to, they made it look easy as they rode passed eating into my reasonable swim time! However that's the name of the game and until they introduce a heavyweight category into the sport, something I'm stuck with. I crossed the line in 1 hour 22mins, The official time which must include my transition was 1hour 28 43seconds.

10km run - 4 laps trail and grass

Bike racked and cycle shoes off, I pulled on and laced my trainers tight, swigged a drink and with 2 gels in hand and a bottle of drink set off on the run. I wanted to do this section in around an hour, I crossed each lap just inside the quarter hour mark and my final lap was the quickest. My watch showed 59 mins, official time 1hour 1min 25seconds. My race photos look evil, with a last moment dash, I never seem to get a smile captured by the official photographers! Total official time; swim 00:35:35, bike 01:28:43, run 01:01:25 total: 03:05:43 position 124 out of 192. A great day, lovely medal, though I wish it had the Olympic distances on it!

A little disappointed returning to my bike to find someone had dragged my stuff out of the way so that they could rack their bike the wrong way. Reported to the marshals who didn't really understand the rule, that aside, I am really pleased with result and as a local event will look to enter again in the future.

What to do when the hotel pool is tiny?!

Picture the scene, you arrive at the hotel, drop off the bags and then head down to check out the leisure facilities only to find that the pool is far shorter than the website pictures or brochure suggested.  What do you do? Moan and then avoid, telling yourself that that was a waste of time and spent the time avoiding said disappointment? No! 

Get changed, get in and practise your push and glides, turns and then work on your sculling, all the stuff that you 'never have time for' back home.  It isn't always just about the distance.

Enjoy.

Illness, workload, training and feeling under the weather

For the last couple of weeks, I've not felt great.  This in part I think is to do with the weather, my body telling me to rest and a greater sense of workload at work.  As much as I like to consider myself an athlete, it is not my sport that pays the bills, so there are times when work needs to come first.  Don't get me wrong, I most definitely work to live not live to work but sometimes needs must.

I've carried around some sort of virus for the last couple of weeks resulting in headache that to be blunt has been a distraction.  I've been determined to not miss time from work, it is also when my work load appears to have gained pace.  So has my work load increased or have I become less efficient and productive because of not feeling on top form?  Well I think it is a little bit of both.

January was an awesome month for me in terms of training, kicking off a good 8lbs in weight and getting some consistent hours of training per week in, one week I even smashed in 10 hours.  With this lull in February, I'm wondering whether I did too much in January?  The ice and freezing weather are also factors that have detered me from outdoor training; with a lack of cold winter gear combined with feeling below par, my training has suffered.

I've now got a weeks holiday from work.  The plan was to smash as much training in as possible, the demon in me whispers, 'man up, get your ass moving,' whereas the guy in white is telling me to kick back and take stock, to get myself right.  If I'm going to be back to my more efficient self, I need to find a balance and build more slowly.  We live and learn, after all things are difficult before they are easy.
Interested to hear your views and how you approach workload and illness with regard to consistent training.
Any question I have is how many hours per week do you spend training and how did you build up to this figure?