Recovery???

2 weeks on from the ironman and as the sun was shining the ironmen donned their trainers once more for the first run since the big event. It also happened to be Phil's 30th birthday!! All the chat was about the event and on completing a 4 mile bimble, everyone seemed to be feeling fairly pukka...... Next morning and things had changed!! My knees and ankles felt like they were going to fall off and PH's lower back was still screaming. Still plenty of room for recovery - although try telling that to Phil who had actually cracked the rowers revenge tri the day before!! More info to follow I'm sure.....

YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!

Sunday 18th September 2011 - Harrison, Hindley and Ballard are now officially IRONMEN!!!




The day before the race - sorting out the masses of gear and nutrition needed for the day - all to be sorted into colour coded bags and checked and double checked.

Last minutes tweaks also made on the bike.....as this stage she was looking good!!

The Pre Race Briefing - nearly 1000 prospective ironmen gather in a marquee to go through the rules and regs of the event.

The pre race expo, although a bit small in scale contained some excellent stands including one from our buddies at B2P triathlon and also Athlete Services in Henley who were to prove our saviour hours later.

Harrison and I at the pre race briefing. butterflies were starting to flap in the stomach at this stage.

H is showing his fighting spirit already!

Sprits were high as we tucked into some paella and a coke

Soon after - the drama kicked off - Hindley's tri bars fell off, my front tyre blew out and H's speedometer packed up! What should've been a quick job of racking the bikes was turning into a right mission!

The drama continues......

Crisis! A broken derailleur on the Fuji! Bikes were supposed to be on rack by 6pm and at 5:20 a major problem hits! Myself and H rush back to Phylis Court T2 to seek the help of the boys from Athlete Services bike repairs - luckily they source a new part and have the bike fixed by 6:30. Some serious flirting by Harrison with the (male) race organiser allows us to rack our bikes late..... we are in!!!

6:30 am - September 18th 2011

The moment is here and we line up to enter the water. It's still dawn and mist is wrapped around the Thames. Music far too similar to the theme tune of Jaws booms over the loud speakers. Shhiiiiiiiiittttttt!!!

A quick goodbye to loved ones and pats on the back all round. It's great to be joined by Neil who wishes us luck. Such a shame he's not in there with us.


Myself and Phil hit the water at 6:40 with H starting in wave 3 at 6:50. There's no looking back now. It's on. A quick high five with Phil before the hooter sounds and we're off!!!!

The first 500m is a washing machine before we settle into our rhythm. I have the best swim I've ever had and relax into my stroke. The surroundings are amazing and its a privilage to be there. I exit the juice after 1hr 06mins. Delighted. Into transition where I am quickly joined by H and then after a few more mins, Phil. We're all out. Stage one done!

Staring down the barrell of 112 miles is tough!! Still on a high from the swim, lap one of the bike goes well but my stomach is full of Thames water and I can't take on nutrition. I try to eat but struggle. I know this will hurt me later on.

Stewart pushes ahead on the bike, lap two for me is a killer and I dig deep, remembering my bro especially as I hit Pishill for the second time. Lap 3 is better and I start to eat and hydrate.

Phil catches me around 8 miles from the end and its a privilage to enter T2 with him, a real highlight of the day. Great support from family and friends.



Working hard out of T2 with 26.2 miles ahead. I'd dreaded this moment but actually feel really good. The legs that are usually like jelly after a cycle feel pretty good. This should've been a sign to take it easy but I try and push on.

I know H and Phil will pull away from me on the run so I settle into a me Vs the course mentality.

Great support from the crowd despite the torrential rain that hit us at this point.

After a really solid first lap of the run (6.5 miles) I started to seriously feel the effect of my poor nutritial apporach on the bike. As I began lap two I felt faint and weak. A good feed station perked me up, as did unbeleivable support from my family and friends. I pushed on, chatting to other runners and people in the crowd. Each run on the tow path back towards Henley was inspirational. By lap 4 I was exhausted but new I had another 6.5 miles in me and pledged to enjoy the last hour.

Crossing the finish line!!! Ironman.....done!!

Awesome feeling as I crossed the line in a time of 12hrs 17mins and 08seconds. The competitive part of me was dissapointed not to break 12hrs but given my 2 weeks prior to the event I couldn't help but be over the moon. I felt completely drained, but on top of the world. I never thought I could've completed a 2.4 mile swim, or a 112 mile bike and although I'd done a martathon before, I had no idea if I could do it on top of nearly 8 hours on exercise. To do them all was probably my top achievement in sport. It was made all the better by sharing it with two of my closest friends, Mr Harrison and Mr Hindley who quite frankly, bullied me all the way to the finish line!! I never want to hear Stewart say "come on AB, one more lap" ever again. But I know I will!!!!

Mission complete!

It's been a long, hard and very eventful few months but in the end......... We got there! Here's a run down of my lead up to Challenge Henley

End of July 2011 - I returned from America feeling in fantastic shape. Training with my buddy and pro triathlete Pete Mallett had inspired me and along with some improvments in my swimming tekkers from our pool work, and running speed from our track sessions and nightime runs through Boston College and NorthWestern Uni Campuses I felt great. I followed this up with a 3km lake swim at Marlow. for the first time ever I was close to Harrison come the end which gave me a lot of confidence.

August 1st-14th 2011 - The first half of August passed far too quickly and didn't contain nearly enough sessions. A few decent runs were smashed, the lowlight however came whilst riding a loop of the Challenge Henley bike course. I picked up my first ever puncture coming down Pishill. I then failed to prepared which left me unable to fix it roadside. With no signal on my phone it took an hour to walk to the Crown Pub where the friendly barman lent me his phone and sorted me a J20 and some nuts! Luckily my girlfriend was able to drive to my rescue!

August 14th - 30th 2011 - So this was the time to step up the milage and hit the road hard. This I did, but interspersed with a week on holiday in Spain! That said some decent warm weather training was completed in sunny Alicante including some beach runs and an early morning run in Calpe bay.

I returned from Spain feeling refreshed and trained well, including some good sessions in the lake at both Marlow and datchet and some solid runs. The bike was beginning to become a worry with few miles completed.

Sunday 4th September - MAIDENHEAD HALF MARATHON

In preparation for Challenge Henley - Myself and Jon Childs (The Iron Lady) cracked the Purple Patch Maidenhead Half Marathon. This was a 'late doors' decision but one that proved to be a good one as the course was fantastic and the event was very run as ever by Chris and Claire.

After a solid start JC pushed on after 3 miles which left me to keep up the pace of subbing 1hr 30mins which was my target. I managed to do this and stayed strong through some dodgy patches around 7-8 miles. At 9 miles I was joined by an athlete from Maidenhead Athletic club, we pushed each other on fro 2 miles before he ate my dust as I picked up the pace for the last few miles. Picking up the relay marathon course for the last 2.6 miles was a real inspiration and helped counteract the heavy rain that drenched us. I was elated to come in at 1hr 28mins.

2 weeks till ironman....

The plan was to train at around 50% intensity for a week and then drop down to 30% the week prior to training. Unfortunately I suffered a berevement in the form of the sad death of my brother the day after the Maidenhead Half. This knocked my preparations into touch as I struggled to come to terms with this news. Doing the ironman was never in doubt, although the day before the race I was physically, but especially mentally drained. My focused had changed to just completing the ironman in memory of my bro. But could I do it? And could I last the bike course having only done a longest training ride of 49 miles? As the event loomed there were lots of doubts and emotions in my head........

Challenge Complete!

An extremely exciting start to the iron man, we took our last group snap before becoming Iron Men!

Alex and I were in the same wave and Mr Harrison was scheduled in the wave behind.

The morning was one of the most surreal mornings and was captured very well in the first three minutes of the following You Tube

clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UvVRDdiJ2s.

Going into T1 I was elated, the swim was over

and I survived it! I rarely broke my stroke and maintained a relaxed swimming style throughout, knowing that I was never going to brake records I swam within my capabilities and

enjoyed the beautiful morning and the excitement of the event. It was a cold morning and I felt extremely cold entering T1, it took me approx 1 1/2 hours to warm up on

the bike and gain a sense of excitement back into my race. The supporters throughout were amazing and lifted the spirit of all the athletes taking part, I was particularly privileged

to have a very strong support team, which made up of my lovely wife, Mother in law, very close friends from Worksop, friends from Marlow and colleagues. Once again I approached this element of the competition with vigour but maintained my focus on my own race, knowing the bike wasn't made for 112miles and a climb totalling 5900ft per loop. The cycling was exciting topping out at 40mph from Neetlebed back towards Henley was exhilarating, however the high gears made each climb difficult.

The aggressive position the late 80's retro bike left my lower back in agony entering the final stages of the event. Entering T2 was a great

feeling however I was unsure of how I could run having the unwanted strain on my lower back.

My first lap was all about jogging off my aches

and pains. The crowd once again kept

me going as I managed to focus on my stride and pace, to ensure I stayed relaxed I thoroughly enjoy the event and at this stage I knew there where never going to be technical difficulties that could stop me from achieving my goal. I hit the first half marathon surprisingly well, clocking around 1 hour 47 minutes. Aiming to sub 4 hours

on the marathon was at this stage in my grasp. I was fortunate not to have any toilet troubles and clocked a 3 hour 47 minute marathon. Overall I clocked a 1hr15minute swim, 6 hrs 28min bike, which gave me an 11hr 42minute Iron Man time. To see Stewart and I finish click on the following You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBX_VcP9HzU to See all our

results and pictures click on the following links: Photo's: http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports%2FGKDE%2F2011%2FChallenge+Henley-on-Thames&new_search=1&match=426 Results: http://results.racetectiming.com/MyResults.aspx?CId=38&RId=214&EId=1&AId=72232

Harrison 3rd leaving Hindley eating his dust in 4th

Harrison smashes out his first road triathlon in a very respectable 3^rd position for his age category and 11^th in the overall position. Both competitors started fast in the water, however the fast start took its toll on Hindley as he had failed to stay relaxed and suffered for his mistakes. This poor swim left him 6 minutes behind Harrison. Both athletes smashed out a trouble free bike ride and concluded the event with a fast run. The race results can be found following the link below. The picture from left to right, Phil Hindley, Martyn Edwards (F3 Event Director), Sam Gardner (Pro Triathlete), Stewart Harrison. All the men will be competing in Challenge Henley, Sam will be competing in his first long distance triathlon and Martyn has recently signed up for the half iron man distance.

http://www.stuweb.co.uk/swp/default.asp?a=2&e=637

Ironman

Harrison and I have smashed out an iron man this week! Approaching each discipline separately rather than together we decided to start on the bike, cycling our furthest distance we rode the official loop of the Challenge Henley course. Tackling the long taxing hills three times put a massive strain on our body. We completed the course in 6 hours 36 minutes, happy with this we decided to have a day to recover and put our furthest run in, wanting to become familiar with the Challenge Henley run course we set out to run three out of the four laps aiming to complete 19 miles. However we added a little extra to each loop to complete the gruelling 26.2 miles in 3 hours 54 minutes. Being fulfilled with our achievements on the run and the cycle we could not justify cutting our swim short so the following day we swam the 3.8km. This week has been all about putting in the distances, this has had both physical and mental gains. On completion of this I have decided to further my research on preparing myself mentally and methods to increase mental strength.

Lake swimming in Italy

A holiday with Mrs Hindley to the Italy Lakes offered me with a great opportunity to gain confidence in my swim and get some millage in. Within a week I managed to get 6 good 3km swims in I also managed to get 4 good runs in, a hard 1hr run, 2x 12 mile runs and15 mile run. On my return I contact Harrison and we had a spin out on the bike covering 50 miles, I picking up a puncture 35 miles into the cycle but this offered me practice to use my foam canister. The repair job on the tub lasted a further 15miles. In general the cycle ride was a really good eye opener as we meet approx. 50 cyclists all cycling the challenge Henley loop. The training session inspired Harrison and I to get some millage in our legs!

Training on the bike

The bike element could be argued as the most important out of the three disciplines, it is certainly the furthest distance and takes the longest time to complete therefore it is one that cannot be neglected and ignored! With this in mind my recent focus in training has been towards the bike, getting strong on the bike and more importantly getting my legs prepared for the hills that Challenge Henley course demands. Cycling approximately 200 miles in 4 days the training was going well just before picking up a puncture in my back tub. A trip to the bike shop slowed my progress down. Whilst I was still at work I decided to ordered some spare 650c tubs for my front wheel and visit the bike shop at the weekend to get me back on the road for the week ahead. Not wanting to lose days training I cracked out a small 4 mile run and a 3km swim over the weekend. With training slowing down slightly over the weekend I decided to swim 3km followed by an 83 miles bike ride, which was my furthest cycle to date. Rest for a day I decided to get back out on the bike and get two hours in the saddle.

Training up date

Alex and I closed the training month of July with a long distance triathlon training session. Fresh from America Alex was keen to get some millage in after his success in a sprint Tri. Over in the States Alex has been working on his swimming technique and as a result the hard work has paid off. We set off to complete 2.25km swim in the lake, Alex looked extremely comfortable and strong. We followed the swim with 39miles on the bikes and 13 miles run.

Thames Trots

Down Tow Up Flow Half Marathon.

The race was the first long distance running event since i completed the Marathon in April, it followed the Thames tow path from Marlow into Windsor. The course was flat so i set out hard and aimed to run as close to my PB as possible. Although i knew this was going to be tough as i entered Cookham at the four mile marker, I suffered with bowel problems and was forced to take a pit stop, getting any where near my PB was going to be a challenge! Disappointed and frustrated with myself i attempted to make up the time lost by attacking tricky corners, road crossings and bridge crossings.

The beautiful scenery of the course took my focus from my bowels and allowed me to run and enjoy the course, well for three and a half miles until i had had to pull over for a second pit stop and this did not improve, a third stop off came close to the ten mile marker, this was not a good run! Runs being the appropriate word! The course itself was not closed off from the public, so i apologies to fellow athletes, cyclists, dogs and walkers. Going into the last three miles i still had my sights set on subing 1hr 30mins, so i picked up the pace and focused on catching up the athletes ahead. I cracked it, running a respectable 1hr 28 mins which included 3 pit stops and a dehydrated body. The run was a serious wake up call, to how difficult the Iron Man is going to be.

First Olympic Distance Triathlon

Marlow Triathlon was my first Olympic Triathlon, I anticipated on what I was going to expect after watching the start to the Marlow River Swim on a wet Saturday afternoon. Feeling a little nervous about the swim and not feeling confident about my bike I was eager just to get going. Like all starts the first 4 minutes in the river was manic, not relaxing and quite frustrating, the memories of entering the boxing ring came flooding back! Alex describes it well in his previous post. Once I settled into my stroke I felt comfortable and thought I was passing people, which always provide you with confidence. However there is lots of work to still do on the swimming front!! Happy to get out of the water I entered the transition zone and wrestled my wetsuit off. The T1 process will hopefully only get faster the biggest thing is to remember everything… cycle helmet clipped, nutrition etc. Cycling out was great as the course included elements of the Challenge Henley route. Cycling up to Nettlebed was taxing but coming back down the hill was exhilarating. I tried to stay strong on the bike and not thinking too much about the run, going into T2 was a relief as I have recently had a large number of issues with my bike, which results in low confidence about the technology and whether I have the right bike for this event. My aim for the run was to clock as close to 40 minutes as possible and to attack the fellow competitors, knowing that the run is my strongest discipline I really wanted to make an impact on the field. Shaking off tired legs I clocked 20.45 for my first 5 km, motivation and support from my wife instilled a fast 2nd lap, as the aim was to close the gap on all the triathletes in front. Relatively pleased with my run and overall time, with nothing to compare it to have included the results from fellow competitor and GB triathlete Mark Yeomen. Out of the 215 competitors that finished I came 26th overall. An analysis of my performance indicates time lost throughout my swim, as indicated before this is an area that requires more work! Area for improvement in T1, Mark’s time here is ridiculously fast! I think I’ll get the baby gel ready for the next event. I’m fairly surprised with my bike but I know I can improve here too! In general if I aim to take this serious I need to work on all element but my focus will lie both in the swim and the bike, with such a short time frame to Challenge Henley. The results from the race can be found following the link: http://www.f3events.co.uk/ additional action shots can be found on the following link, http://www.sussexsportphotography.com/ using the hyper link Marlow Tri, you can filter using my race number 351.

Mark Yeomen Philip Hindley


Swim Time 00:20:59(5) Swim Time 00:28:29(87)
T1 00:00:32 T1 00:01:10
Bike Time 01:04:21(4) Bike Time 01:10:30(53)
T2 00:00:32 T2 00:00:36
Run Time 00:40:00(15) Run Time 00:39:02(10)
Overall Time02:06:27 Overall Time 02:19:49

Previous training update: I have really enjoyed embracing the triathlon community in doing so I built a great relationship with an outstanding athlete who is on the top of his game for his age category, Jules. Jules has recently won the Windsor Triathlon and smashed under 5 hours for a half distance Iron Man in Milton Keynes, a true inspiration and a great motivator, it’s great to have Jules down at the lake.

Previous lake training distance have included 4.5km, Aquathlon with Harrison (3.8km swim & 7 mile run), my previous two swims have been 3km. After buying a new pair of goggles for the triathlon my last swim has felt like my strongest, visibility certainly aids swimming performance! Prior to the Triathlon I had a great ride out on my bike with another excellent triathlete who will be alongside us on the starting line on the 18th of September for Challenge Henley, Laurence Miles. Laurence is a GB long distance triathlete, who achieved 10th overall position on Marlow Triathlon at the weekend, 2nd in his age group, a frustrating 15 seconds behind the winner who has also represented GB for triathlons. Laurence and I cycled a loop of the challenge Henley Course, clocking 70 miles in total.