One Month To Go!!

Haven't posted for a while and it's really due to the huge number of social networking, blog sites, forums, etc..... but here I am. Anyway, I have 4 more weeks until Ironman Europe and I am kicking my own @55! I'll check in after a big training weekend. Laters everyone

Rav

Wow.. awesome!!!

My buds over here in the UK have really done it today!!! A double win for the TBB twins Bella Comerford and Stephen Bayliss at Ironman South Africa.















Stephen actually smashed the course record and Bella recovered from a huge deficit following a puncture! I am sooooo pleased for them. I just don't have the words as it's been a long time coming. Congratulations to Bella and Stephen!

WTF?

Snow? In England? In April? I don't get it. Really.... I woke up this morning for my long run and there was about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground from last night's storm. It's Belgium all over again. I wonder what next week is going to be like.

Suffice it to say, I didn't run this morning. I planned on a long swim instead, but suddenly got hungry. What did I do instead? Went shopping of course. We actually went looking for baby stuff for the first time seriously. My god there are all manner of accoutrements for bringing up babies these days. I have no idea where to start so what do I do next? Start building a database for our needs over the next few months. I think I shall call it babdb. Catchy isn't it?

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't bother with a flutter for the Tour of Flanders. I would never have chosen Belgian champion Stijn Devolder as today's winner. Well done Stijn. What a great career this guy is having.

There was a great result for Team TBB today with Chrissie Wellington winning yet another Ironman at Australia. She is a machine. Big up for Chrissie. Chrissie, get on my Podcast please! ;)

I finally got my lazy butt out after 6:00 for a nice 18km bimble in a finishing time of 1:20. This included my warmup. I'm pleased with this as I wasn't even winded. Portugal is going to be better than I planned methinks! I just have 2 more weeks to sort my swimming out. Is this a mission impossible? I don't think so.

iMultisport is online!

I finally got my website up. It needs a few bits and pieces like a feedback form and more details around coaching and such. Anyway, please have a look at www.industrialmultisport.co.uk

I'm pretty happy that things are really coming together at this point. iMultisport is a reality and I hope that it becomes what we wish.

Maybe More? I really hope so.

I had a good weekend of training for once. The weather was unforgivable on Saturday and was so blustery that I really couldn't wait to get off the bike. We ended up with about an 80 km ride followed by a 30 minute brick run. This hurt bad!

Sunday was really supposed to consist of a 1:30 run, but of course I got lost. I just couldn't get off this trail! Ended up with 27 km under my belt and knackered legs. It was really muddy out there. A true baptism for my overly white shoes.

I came across an article that talked about Sheila Taormina. Man she really is inspiring. She first had a Gold in swimming and raced in the women's triathlon event previously. She actually is shooting for a third time at the Olympics doing yet another event, Modern Pentathlon! What a hardcore lady. If anyone knows how to get in touch, please tell me as she would be a likely subject on my Podcast. Here's a like to her video : http://current.com/items/76390862_olympic_badass

Cycling in Belgium?

Hi gang. I've been in Belgium for a part of the Easter weekend. The first half of the weekend consisted of a horrible time at getting my studies done for my Level 2 British Triathlon course and the final exam. A few hours burned and we were on the road Saturday afternoon heading for Folkestone. It was horrible driving on the continental side. I was so glad to be at my relative's house in Overijse. Anyway, Suze and I decided to take an extra day off and come back on Tuesday. This gave me a few days to get out and ride. It was really necessary too. I've only had a few days of it, but I already feel the cobwebs blowing off. My routes have been out to Leuven... one of the capitals of beer! Anywho, I've done one of my favourite routes that takes me through Leuven and then onto the Dijle Canal. Which is a somewhat bumpy, but enjoyable of rides. Fortunately, I got a bit lost on the way back and almost ended up in Tienen! This gave me a nice 3 hours solid. Today I rode around Terlanen and over to St Joris Weert (SJW). I got in about 1 1/2 hours today and experienced the biggest variety of weather that I've ever seen! Wind, rain, snow, sleet, sun, and snow again! What an experience. Tomorrow we're going for a meal at SJW after about another 3 hour ride, then we're off back to Old Blighty!

On another note, I've been thinking about new bikes again. I'm really stuck between a nice (really nice) roadbike or that absolutely beautiful Specialized that was released this year. It's just my cup of tea. If I had a choice between this and the Cervelo P2C..... I'm not too sure. Any comments out there? I'm chomping at the bit at the moment. .... grrrr.

Keep it going!

Well, I've kept on moving. This is a good thing as I have been pretty much consistent with my training over the past few weeks. Anyway, I missed out on Sunday's race as I overslept and it was peeing down!!! I did finally get out late in the morning and got a good 24 km in. I took Monday off and felt good for that.

Is this guy still in front of his PC? Shut down!!!

I've got my Level 2 Triathlon coaching exam and haven't studied very much! Ouch..... I must start today. I'm sure that I'll pass, but I need to get the time to do it over the next few days....

Windy... and how!!!

What a windy day. I took my standard 12 km loop towards Frogmore yesterday. I ran it anti-clockwise and almost got blown over by those gusts!! This still took only a little under an hour. Considering the hills, I think that it's not a bad pace at all. I should be in good shape for Sunday's torture fest in Wendover!!!



Anyway, I've been thinking about who to have next on my Podcast. I've been taking several directions at once, but I still like the idea of having the series of technology innovators as an ongoing theme. I hope that we can get some more small endurance sport companies soon. If you have any contacts, drop me a message gang.

Reading again!!

Another Reading Half Marathon has passed. It was definitely a good day out. I helped a mate through this event and paced him. It was a good event for the both of us!! Here we are before the event.







These are two tough looking dudes!! When are they going to take off those silly hats?











Here we are close to the finish. We finally hit the finish line at about 1:51 which is just fantastic for a first timer at this distance.









Well.... where to next Neil?

Purple Patch Half Marathon

What a good morning out! Most of you probably don't know this, but I used to live very close to the Grand Union for about 10 years, so this was my old stomping grounds. I didn't see any other Tri-Forcers, but I was incognito myself. I had a good start and was about 8th person at mile one - uh, oops! I dialled down to a more comfortable pace, but blew up a bit at mile 9 near Ricky. I had this guy on my shoulder for about the last 4-5 miles which I didn't mind as it kept me going. The last mile went up the hill in Cassiobury Park which made a very uncomfortable finish. :P... Ended up with about 1:37 on the line, which is okay for this time of the year. However, lessons learned here is not to go out on the bike the day before a Half Marathon ---it hurts. :'(

Ricky 9

I can't believe that I haven't used this blog in ages. Anyway, a lot has happen this season. I went to the European and World Long Distance Triathlon Championships.

I've been kicked back for a while since, and have been doing road races the pas few months. Nothing really riveting, but that's things so far.

Anyway, today I had a good day out at the Rickmansworth 9 Mile race (www.rickyroadrun.co.uk ). This is my 3rd outing for this event as I like it very much. It's really a lumpy one that follows along the outside of Chorelywood. We used to live in the area for about 5 years. For the UK, it's actually pretty quiet and chilled out. Anyway, back to the race - here's an image of the race start. There were about 600 starters today. It's the highest number to date.I actually PB'ed for this course at 1:01:50! I haven't gotten down under the magic hour as the weather gods weren't with me. It was very windy out there and started to pour down at about 6 miles.



Here's me pouring it on towards the finish. Su actually is the photographer. Take a bow Su!

So that's me for the moment. Su and I are waiting on the results of our Level 1 Triathlon Coaching exams. We're probably going to progress to the next level in the Spring, so all you newbie triathletes watch out for coach Rav. ;)

Dubai Tri Club Triathlon

Three Tri-dudes Hi all. Had a great little race here in Dubai. The Dubai Triathlon Club held an aquathon today at 7am local time. The Short Course race kicked off as the first wave and then 5 minutes later came us men. Our course was an 800m swim followed by a 5km run was evidently quite competitive. I didn't struggle thru the swim as usual, so it was a suprise to me when I got out of the water in a little over 13 minutes. Then the transition was pretty smooth even with a pair of normal laced trainers. The run was a double loop on the hotel Marina, all nice and open. Ended up with a total of about 36 minutes (32nd out of a 104). This has got to be the shortest race I've ever done. ;) It was good fun.

Very Hot.... Hotter than a Hot Thing!

I finally wedged my colleague out of the apartment to get down to the beach. We had a really nice lunch at the Limetree Cafe. Really good food run by some expats over here. It was really heaving. We eventually got down to the public beach and it was way too hot!!! About 38 C today. I only managed one lap in the harbor, as there were jellyfish all over the place... Ughhh.

Took a nice rest and siesta this afternoon and just chilled in the apartment in order to wait for the temp to cool down, but it didn't...... So I went running anyway. I took a clockwise route around the Dubai creek. One thing is that I managed to leave my water at the apartment... and this was a big mistake. I really suffered at about 11km. It's very dry here --- being a middleastern country. ;) And ended up with a nice 14 km loop. Runners are still a bit of an oddity here, but you can still manage without any trouble here. A little short, but very useful.

Off to swim at a hotel tomorrow morning. Later peeps!!

It's Hot Man!!

I'm in Dubai at the moment. I rode with Wolfi's group today. Left the apartment at 5:00 this morning! :oops: Started out from his shop past the Bur Dubai at about 06:00. We joined the main group after 10 km of warming up. The main group we joined was over 80 people. It was a nice thing to see I must say. We headed out at a brisk 35 kph. What a ride. We then hit about 40 km and split into 3 groups (70,100,120 km). I went for the 100 km group as a majority of the fast boys went for the 120. All was good until we turned to head back at 70 km. There was crosswind, headwind, sand... erghhhh. Then the main group excellerated and I got dropped...... I tried to pick up the pieces with the rest of the stragglers, but no one wanted to work together. So I gritted out the last 30 km and pulled a few people thru. We did get some people to work at the front eventually, but the wind kept changing as we made various turns to get back to Jumera. We all kind of went into survival mode at this point. Got to the Lime Tree Cafe finishing with 110 km! Just in time for breakfast at 9:30!!! A nice ride with really nice people.

That's some fine weather!!

Man what a day. It was just so nice out there. I think we hit something like 20 C. I got out on the bike and put in a good 50Km during lunch, but man the traffic was heavy. I guess it was due to the early leavers for the Easter weekend. Anyway, I did a loop that covered Borehamwood, Barnet, Enfield, Hatfield, and then back home to Napsbury. Felt like treacle today.

Here's a piccie of a dog I saw on the road. Isn't he the coolest thing in a car?

Schtatischtics

Ironrav and his trusty steed

Well ya know I'm still a bit fatigued from Sunday's efforts at Reading. Nevertheless, I managed my swim on Tuesday and a good 10 x 1 mile set on the bike yesterday. It was a beautiful day out there for a ride.



Today is looking like total crap as it's threatening to rain. However I need to do a run speed session and a brickie as well. Grrrrr.

Anyway... I forgot to mention this, but last week I picked up my new Landrover Freelander 2. It's an HSE model so it has all the bells and whistles. I now have the space to carry the bikes and other stuff!! Take a look at the photo attached. There will be more to come.

Here's my new baby!

Photos from Reading

Ironrav and Friends Before the Race. It was obviously a cold one out there and was it ever windy!!!

Oh! And here's me finishing. Nothing like the satisfaction in getting the job done! I'm well on track for Florida. I just need to Swim and Bike better.

Job Done

Well, what can I say? Things went ok this morning. I ended up with a 1:33 time at the Reading Half Marathon.

It started out cold and breezy, but once we got started all was good. I immediately went into the zone, which felt good. My splits were kind of all over the place, but were mostly around low 7 minute miles. Another good day out at Reading. ;)

Shakin in my boots!

Had an active recovery ride this morning in preparation for tomorrow's Half Marathon. And then..... we picked up my new Land Rover Freelander 2. It's absolutely booootiful. Oh man! I'll stick some photos later.

Wish me luck for tomorrow peeps.

Rav

All Change Please

Hi Gang! I've added a link to my music broadcasting link. I'm doing this for my Second Life site and as an open radio station for all you triathletes out there. Also, I've created a new forum for all my SL Tri members. Anyone can join - all are welcome. http://sltri.21.forumer.com/index.php

I got a nice brick session in today. Not too hard... as I'm racing on Sunday at the Reading Half Marathon. Am I going for a PB? Maybe - I guess it depends on how hard I go on the bike tomorrow morning.

Be cool!