Picture taken during a wee cycle

Since my last post I’ve managed to get in a few cycles which climbed a lot of hills!! I haven’t been exercising as much as I should have and have only really started training properly again last week, with a couple of swims, a couple of cycles and a couple of runs.

Last weekend I was at a Christian Conference in Castlewellan Castle, @TheCastle is a great bible teaching weekend and well worth going to. We were looking at 2 Timothy and I was really challenged about how I approach my leadership roles.

Dave at Spelga

This weekend coming I have my first cycling event of the year. The Coastal Challenge is a 100Km cycling round the Ards peninsula. It’s my first time doing this run but with 700 people I’m sure I’ll find a group going at my speed to sit with. I’m not even gonna try and keep up with Nev, Steve and co.

My Car was due it’s MOT  yesterday and I don’t have a date for it until tomorrow so I’m making the most of the good weather by cycling to work. It’s lovely but would be better without the wind, when did Northern Ireland get so windy, it was never like this when I was a lad and wanted to play with my stunt kite.

Chai Seed with Weetabix

So you’ve read the title and you’re wondering what Chia is? Well it’s a type of seed. It’s a wonder food with lots of great stuff in it. Read here for more info at Raw Living, Healthy Fuel and I bought it at Funky Raw. The great thing about them is the slow releasing energy, this is great for long events or even just to help me not snack.

I’ve found it’s best to take it on it’s own after the food but it’s great when added to a smoothy.

It all started a few months back when Tanya asked me to raise some money for a 5Km fun run on Easter Monday (today). I’m training towards this distance for the sprint triathlons anyway but my calves have hampered my running. Then last Sunday Tanya’s husband, David told me it wasn’t a fun run it was the Whitehead 5mile road race but I thought I’d give it a go anyway.

Today as I was signing up I noticed a distinct lack of other fat bloke, at least at Sprint Triathlon you get a few. I lined up with the other competitors, including David Marshall and Dave Ramsey and when the whistle blew we all headed off, Dave up with the front runners and Dave and I slotting into the slightly slower runners. I settled into a nice pace and was feeling really good, despite the very hilly course my first lap (1.6Mi) was just over 13mins averaging about 8min/mile but just as I passed through the start/finish line my calf went. I limped round the course in a less respectable time just over 15mins (average of 9:40min/mile) and called it a day. David Marshall who hadn’t done any training did the same a few minutes later but the Dave ran an excellent race to finish the 5miles in about 34m30sec.

The Whitehead Easter Monday Road Race

I’ve a lot of work to do if I’m to have a chance of beating him at either of the two triathlons we’ll be competing against each other in. My first is this Saturday, so hopefully the ice / warm bath /ice I’ve had this afternoon will help it heal quickly.

As for today’s event I’m disappointed because I was feeling very strong round the first lap and didn’t really tire the pain in the calf just got to uncomfortable.

Swim - Run - Cycle

With Easter almost upon us and hopefully some good weather on it’s way (they’ve promised a BBQ summer again) it’s time to ramp up the training. I’ve a couple of events next week, Monday a 5Mile running road race in Whitehead (I’m not sure if I’ll finish this let alone do well) and on Saturday 10th April just days before my 33rd birthday I’ll be taking part in the Portlaoise Sprint Try-athlon.

While I’m not overtly fund raising this year (since you were all so generous last year) I have asked for some sponsorship around work and will be doing next week’s event to raise money for a small charity called Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group if you would like to give money to this worthy cause you can do so on their donation’s page or see me before this Monday. Hopefully Dave R and Mark T will be joining me on Monday and also David Marshall , who’s wife got me into the run.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Run

For the triathlon I’m on my own so if anyone fancies a 4:30am start you’re welcome to come down with me. After that I’ve a about 6weeks before the Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon and then the next one I’m down for will be on 1st August in Lisburn. One week later I hope to do my first Olympic Triathlon in Castlewellan, (I’ve a feeling the cycle in this one might be a killer). Then I have the final and now annual trip to the Tri an Mhi Quarryman Triathlon hopefully Mart T, Dave R, Stephen A, Niall J and Ian C will be joining me for this one. I’ll be hoping to improve on last year’s 104th position.

All that only leaves July without an event so I’ll be joining Nev & co in the Coastal Challenge, 100Km round the Ards Peninsula.

Anyway as you can see my life and therefore Blog / Twitter / Facebook updates will continue to be pretty boring and nerdy sports updates but hey it’s better than your posts about coffee, traffic jams, Glee etc. (well to me anyway).

The event was fantastically organised by Tri Ah Mhi. They had so many marshal’s out there was no way anybody could have taken a wrong turn (although one girl from Newry did manage to to over a roundabout when she should have turned right). The weather was fantastic sunny with no wind and the other great factor was the level of support all around the event.

To give some background this was the original event Mark suggest I enter to give me motivation to train over the summer. As it had an open water swim I needed a wetsuit so about 6 weeks ago I decided to order a wetsuit. I wanted to get a wet suit that would fit me once I lose all the weight I have to lose and was delighted to find the 2XU do a suit that is a medium solid for people my height weighing between 12s 4lb and 13st 12lb and since I was losing 2lb a week I figured I might be close in time for for the race. Unfortunately my weight lose slowed and I only got down to 14st 9lb and while my suit fitted me (with some help from Dave) there wasn’t any room for breathing.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Swim

Swim: 19:15.68 (91/160)
For the swim I couldn’t get enough air doing front crawl so I switched to back stoke (I’m probably only a little slower doing back stroke but it was hard to navigate in the open water and I ended up zigzagging back and forwards. On the plus side I got a bit of sun on my face.

Transition 1: 03:07.60 (117/160)
When I was getting out of the wetsuit I was light headed from lack of oxygen and nearly fainted twice. It took some time and with the help of the transition bars to stay upright and get my kit on I finally got out and on my bike.

Cycle: 58:22.97 (95/160)
The cycle was very enjoyable and it was nice to actually have people around me (although drafting wasn’t allowed). There were plenty of hills to test the legs and I think I worked hard enough with an average heart rate of 170bmp and max 187bpm, I guess I maybe could have put in more work on the downhill sections but hey there’s always next year.

Transition 2: 00:42:76 (64/160)
This was smoother, I had recovered from my dizziness and was actually complemented on my dismount (I had been practising). It takes me a wee second or two more than average because I need to put my knee support on.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Run

Run: 32:09:24 (97/160)
Ohhh man this was tough. Running is my worst discipline and when you throw in three laps with a big hill it gets tougher knowing what’s ahead but the noise from the finish line and all the supporters spurred me on. Again I worked hard on this with average heart rate of 174bpm and max 184bpm.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Finish Line

Over all: 1:53:38:25 (96/160)
Tough as it was I really enjoyed the race and can’t wait until next year to try it again, hopefully 2 or 3 stone lighter.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Three Amigos at the finish line

The downside to the day was for Mark who hurt his back putting on the wetsuit but still managed to to make it through the race and beat me by about 30 or 40secs (I don’t know his times yet), he’s one tough wee man.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Mark in pain

Dave having only trained for only about 4 or 5 weeks proved his super fitness again by beating me, finishing about 8mins ahead.

Tri an Mhi 09 - All the gang

We had a great weekend apart from the Triathlon with Elia, Claire, Cara, Noah, Luke and Leah all joining us for two night staying near the event. Since finishing I’ve had a break from training and diet but it all start again in the morning and to help keep the cycling going over the winter I’m going to get a mountain bike.

More pictures on my facebook page.

Thanks to everyone who donated money, texted, facebooked etc. to encourage us. It’s not to late to add to the sponsorship money for Cancer Research UK at http://www.justgiving.com/dermois/