Drat! Double Drat!

Over the past couple of years I have hosted a fun (?) run from my house, up, into and around Ashridge, then back again. Total distance about 14 miles. Of course, to the pub for post run drinks. The run has become commonly known as the Wacky Races.

Wacky Races was of course a TV cartoon from the 80’s which starred Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley the Dog. It was basically a race between various characters whilst Dick D and Muttley tried to cheat everybody out of the race and, therefore, win as the last men (or, rather, man and dog) standing. Of course, his plans never worked, and whenever he was foiled he would mutter the words “drat, double drat!”. One thing that always confused me was that in order to set his traps, Dick D had to be out in front, so why did he need to stop and place the traps?

Anyway, these two characters also appeared in another cartoon called Catch the Pigeon, along with Klunk and Zilly who made up Vulture Squadron. They were fearless fliers whose main mission was to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon, the message bearer for the enemy, but they never quite managed it. Dick D always ended up falling out of his plane, and it sometimes got very ugly.

Another favourite was the Road Runner. A similar theme, in that Wile E. Coyote would tirelessly chase the Road Runner endlessly around the desert, but again would never seem to catch him. All very frustrating for Wile, no doubt.

This cat and mouse game was of course made famous by, er, a cat and a mouse going by the name of Tom and Jerry. As we all know, the mouse would always just escape the clutches of its enemy at the very last moment.

This week I found out that the BTA have changed their qualifying procedure for the Worlds and it’s made me feel a little like Dick Dastardly, Wile E. Coyote and Tom the Cat combined. I had always realised that my best chance of qualification was via the roll-out procedure, but now the BTA have decided to tighten the rules such that the roll-out procedure has been rolled-in a little. Their motive behind this is to strengthen the team, which obviously is commendable, but it does mean that qualification for me will be like trying the catch the proverbial Pigeon, Road Runner and Mouse in that no sooner do I feel I am getting a little closer then the goal-posts are moved. Just as I feel that qualification is a real possibility, the rules are changed - one step forward, two steps back, it seems.

Not only that, I took a sneaky look at the results in my Age Group from last year’s Worlds in Vancouver and, wouldn’t you know, 6 out of the top 7 finishers were from the GB team. So, not a particularly easy group in which to qualify. Doh...

But no matter. Those of you who know me will know that I am very focused in my training and racing plans this year and this little set-back will just push me to up the anti and get my butt moving quicker. Probably a blessing in disguise really.

Up the anti I did last week where I did as much training as I did in the previous four weeks combined.

Monday – swim - tri club - intervals, and 30 press-ups

Tuesday – run - sprints, and 31 press-ups

Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel) at constant 90 revs/min, run - treadmill at constant 180 strides/min, incorporating 3000 metres (broken) at 4 min/km, and 32 press-ups

Thursday – run - 90 minutes very easy with A-M, and 33 press-ups

Friday - bike - mountain bike, and 34 press-ups

Saturday – run - 400 metre intervals, and 35 press-ups

Sunday – bike - 4 hour mountain bike with tri club (see below), run - easy treadmill run at constant 180 strides/min with Alex, and 36 press-ups

You'll notice a pattern developing with the press-ups, but without doubt the highlight of the week was the mammoth 4 hour mountain bike session over Ashridge on Sunday morning with the tri club, hosted by Jo. For me, it actually turned into an inpromptu brick session because I got a puncture 2 miles from home and so ran back home whilst pushing my bike along. Must have looked very strange to passing motorists, but hey we all know that this sport is not about what you look like, but how fast you go.

In the meantime, I have just returned from a highly enjoyable cycling track session at Calshot Velodrome. My first experience of track cycling and highly enjoyable it was too. As we all know, following the successes of Hoy et. al. during the summer, track cycling includes the individual pursuit whereby racers start at opposite sides of the track and try to catch each other up. I was most definitely the pigeon, except this time I changed the ending by being caught every time!

Bye for now.

C

Little Gems

New Years Eve provided plenty of laughs (and B52's) as we entertained long-time friends, Bill and Anne-Marie, and their kids – Hannah and Chris, who are both good friends with Emily and Adam respectively. Joe was out for the evening seeing the New Year in with his friends.

We played the Wii all evening, specifically the Wii Sports game. The game starts with the user creating a profile based on age, etc. It also incorporates a BMI (Body Mass Index) test, and mine told me that I was overweight. No surprises there then, and a timely reminder that I need to watch what I eat and drink from now on. Nevertheless, a gem of an evening which we all enjoyed thoroughly, although I am not so sure that the neighbours particularly enjoyed our fireworks at 1am.

Another gem was this Saturday when, on a bright afternoon, I decided to get out on the MTB and cycle into Dunstable via Totternhoe Knolls. I have lived in the area for about 12 years now and I have never been up the knolls and what an amazing discovery it was for me. A true gem of a ride – fantastic bike tracks and stunning views from the old castle at the top of the knoll. Brilliant stuff.

Having dusted down my wallet after its hammering over Christmas, I entered, and paid for, my 2009 races this week. One thing which struck me was the ever-rising entry fees nowadays. I was going to enter a team into the London triathlon but that idea was quickly dismissed when I saw the entry fee a whopping £199.00!!!

A race which hasn't been affected by the recent spate of price increases is the Brighton Marina Triathlon. I stumbled across this race by accident about 6 or 7 years ago with my mate Simon. It is a small privately run race which hasn’t been affected by the rising popularity of triathlon – entry levels normally don’t exceed 50 or so athletes, and the cost is a very modest £29.00.

I am hoping that the word doesn’t get around about this race and the big organizers take hold of it because it is one of the last races which have retained their small-race atmosphere, as was the infamous Cleveland Long Course which alas is no more. It isn’t actually in my race plans this year, but it certainly will be in 2010. I urge you to try it. You won't be disappointed - a true gem of a race.

Nothing to report on the training front from last week, except a highly enjoyable end of year Gala at our usual Monday night swim session. Alas, my team lost, so the less said about that the better. And of course there was THAT bike ride over the knolls.

Onward and upward and I must bid you farewell as I sit here about to embark on new horizons. I have finalised my 2009 training and racing plans - the former having been formulated from tips provided by a gem of a triathlete at a seminar earlier this year - yes, you’ve guessed it, Queen Chrissie. As I have said in previous blogs, if I can emulate a fraction of what she has achieved over the past couple of years then I am sure to be on my way to Australia before you can pop open a can of Fosters.

C

Blogger all!

Done blogger all this week, except a Boxing Day and a Mince Pie run. Been very lazy. Too many mince pies. Too lazy to write my blog. Not enough training.

Will be back next week with a vengeance - blog and training.

C

Fail to plan, plan to fail

I've been harping on recently about the importance of organisation and never so more important is that concept than at Christmas time, what with being Santa's Head Buyer and also the usual juggling act of visiting family and friends.

Amongst all that is having to find time for work and training. Having already alluded to the work issue is previous blogs, things are really hotting up now. My recently-created business blog makes comment about the taxman's incompetence, and the knock on effect of this causes me great distress and additional work.

Doesn't leave much time for training, or rather it wouldn't if I didn't plan my time as well as I try to do. This week - Christmas week - I have planned a couple of runs and rides, and a swim here and there, although nothing too serious (in particular a 'mince-pie' run with the tri club).

The concept of 'fail to plan, plan to fail' is even more evident at this festive time of the year now that I have had to plan next year's races so that, come January, I am ready for the off. So, the following very carefully selected races form my schedule for 2009. I have highlighted the Worlds Qualifiers (my A races) in bold. I have deliberately left out the Worlds (my AA race) because I don't want to tempt fate.

Bedford Sprint - 3 May 2009

Grendon Sprint - 10 May 2009

Eton Super Sprint - 17 May 2009

Milton Keynes Sprint - 24 May 2009

Milton Keynes Sprint - 7 June 2009

Northampton Sprint - 28 June 2009

Bournemouth Sprint - 5 July 2009

Dorney midweek Sprint - 15 July 2009

Blithfield Sprint - 26 July 2009

Other non-triathlons will be the Milton Keynes Winter Duathlons, 10 mile time-trials (bike), 5 km run races (Bushey Park time-trials) - all 'as and when'. I also plan to cycle and run the courses at Grendon, Milton Keynes and Blithfield so, come the day, I will know the routes like the back of my hand.

The week just gone saw me spend plenty of time in the saddle, a run and no swimming whatsoever. Two mountain bike rides (one with Jev, the other a very early morning ride with Chris (aka Duff) from the tri club), and another my weekly tea-shop road bike with Jev. All very quaint stopping at the tea-shop in Stewkley for a coffee and soup (and the odd puncture repair thrown in for good measure).

Assuming Father Christmas is agreeable, this week I plan more of the same. Failing that, you'll probably find me in a pub somewhere resting my tired feet and nursing my tired wallet!

Compliments of the Season to all.

C

Blink and you'll miss it

This week I treated myself to a little pre-Christmas pressie.

My TV is about a hundred years old. It's not quite black and white, but it's not colour either - over time apparently the tube (whatever that is) has died and now the screen pushes out a picture which is a shade of green. Not good for the eyes. The mono sound system is not good for the ears either. I think the old 8-track which I had in my first car was of higher quality.

So, I have bought myself an all-singing, all-dancing, bells and whistles, lots-of-inches flat screen TV, together with surround sound home cinema system and hard disk recorder. Just in time for the usual Christmas repeats, although I suspect it will be dominated by the kids' Wii and XBox.

Over the weekend I tested it all out with the final of the X Factor. My daughter Emily and I sat down and treated ourselves to some Saturday night visual and audio entertainment from the eventual winner, Alexandra. Her opposition, Eoghan and JLS, were Ok but were simply no competition for Alex. Her rendition of If I Were A Boy, a duet with Beyonce, was absolutely outstanding and from then on it was a one-woman show (but enough of the crying, already). I know the X Factor has its critics, but I think it is great family entertainment for a Saturday evening. Beats Strictly Come Dancing anyday.

But the highlight of the weekend's viewing was the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. Favourites Rebecca Adlington, Lewis Hamilton and Chris Hoy came in 3rd, 2nd and 1st respectively, but I think I must have blinked because apparently there were split second moments of glory for Chrissie Wellington winning Hawaii and even Alistair Brownleee who was part of the audience.

Now, I know that triathlon is, and will most probably always be, a minority sport, but surely the world Ironman champion deserves more than a two second slot in what is a celebration of British sport. And, yes, I know that 2008 was a fantastic year for British sport (especially the Olympics), but if they keep on harping on about triathlon being 'the fastest growing sport in the UK' then why does is continually get overlooked?

But, then again, I think that is one of the reasons why I love the sport so much. It isn't the sport of the masses, and I like the lack of the football-hooligan mentality at races. It is a sport where you can participate with the best, and how many other sports can you say that for? So I suppose I shouldn't complain when it doesn't get much coverage, but it would be nice to give Queen Chrissie more than two seconds in front of the Great British audience at sports' equivalent of the Bafta's.

As the writers of BBC SPOTY suffered from a bit of triathlon laziness, so did my training suffer from my own lethargy. I did a couple of runs and a road bike ride with Jev (stopping half way for a soup and coffee, so it was hardly a hard ride). I have decided not to follow a strict plan yet until the New Year, so for the next couple of weeks I am not going to beat myself up if I take it easy. My ever increasing work schedule is also making it more difficult to fit in lots of training. So, it's 'do whatever I can' time again.

That said, I shall be starting a more structured running plan which I have found on the tri247 website (in conjunction with my plan from Mark K). I shall hopefully be getting out with Alex and Jev at some point this week too.

In the meantime, here's our greatest sportsman of 2008. Officially. Well deserved too, and very gracious in his acceptance. Like Chrissie, a true inspiration to us all.

Cheers.

C

Like Clockwork

Things seem to happen this time of the year, every year, like clockwork.

I am always skint over Christmas.

My training takes a back-seat whilst I get on with some work.

I get fed up with the constant darkness outside.

And, frustratingly, I always, ALWAYS catch the flu or some other similar incapacitating illness early December. That's what happened this week. I could feel it coming - an all-over aching body, general lethargy, etc., etc. after swimming Monday evening and then for the rest of the week I couldn't do any training. None at all. Which is a bit of a pain in the backside because this was the week of my FULL return. I had a run planned with Alex later in the week which I had to cancel. And of course a mountain bike session which had to go too. All very frustrating.

But none of that put me off the tri club's Christmas dinner at Wendover on Saturday night (pictures below). And a highly enjoyable evening it was too, although I have got to say that the members of the club are not big drinkers and so I had to ease off the drinking a bit in order not to appear like an out-and-out p&$shead. There were, however, a couple who did give me a good run for my money.

There was Anna (aka Mitten) who had run (or rather 'scrambled through' ) the Grim earlier that day and was downing her gin and tonics pretty damn quickly. Mitten also apparently reads this blog too, so "hi, Mitts".

Then there was Chris (aka Duff) who decided to order a round of drinks after most had gone and the restaurent was locking its doors. Now THAT'S the attitude, Duff - proud of ya, mate!

But the most memorable of all was Rob (aka Bananaman) who got the giggles after just a couple of pints (I get the impression he doesn't usually drink much). Rob organised the evening brilliantly so a big pat on the back for the mighty Bananaorganiserman.







Something else which seems to work like clockwork is the Great British Weather. Or should I say the 'Cr$p British Weather'? It did its usual trick of putting paid to some weekend plans. My football team's game was cancelled because of the icy pitch (just as well, really, as we were down to 8 players - a combination of Scout trips and illness), and also the Luton Marathon (of which I wasn't participating anyway) fell victim, indirectly, of the cold snap - a car had span on the ice and blocked part of the course and so the race had to be cancelled at the 11th hour. Very frustrating for the competitors (of which Musty and Russell (club colleagues) and Jev were a few), but I suspect also a big fat pain in the ar$e for the organisers too.

So there you have it. A rather uneventful week and, thus, a rather uneventful blog. I am feeling 100% better now though and so I will be back with a vengeance in the morning. Or maybe not - it's very cold and icy out there you know!

Cheers.

C

If at first you don't succeed...

My mate Jev hosts the occasional film night on his home cinema system. Not any ordinary home cinema system, oh no. Jev doesn’t do things by half. This is a fully-fledged, self-contained, velvet curtains, 1000 inch, 1,000,000-watt sound system home cinema.

The Old Thatch Cinema society (that’s what we’re called) meets up every so often Chez O’Neill and the first film we watched was American Gangster, a film by Ridley Scott starring Denzel Washington. A highly entertaining film which scored highly amongst us in the post-film vote.

Last Friday we were treated to Withnail & I, a 1987 film by Bruce Robinson starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann. Jev introduced the film as one which you either love or hate, but to be honest I was neither. It was entertaining, but I think as a non-film buff I missed some of the subtleties of the film. It was good, but I won’t be rushing out to see it again (sorry Jev).

We watched City of God a couple of months ago. This film, by Fernando Meirelles (the same guy responsilble for the recent movie ‘Blindness’) is at Number 18 in IMDB’s list of greatest films of all time, and is about two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro who take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer. I think I must have had too many pre-film beers that night because, again, I didn’t rate it that highly. It is a fast moving, subtitled film which you need to work hard at keeping track with and, frankly, I just think I wasn’t up to it the night we watched it.

However, I acquired the DVD of the film last Friday from one of the other guys, Dave Jones, and treated myself to a second viewing over the weekend. At well over 2 hours long, I had to watch it in 2 halves but, boy oh boy, what a masterpiece! I was completely ‘up for it’ and so was able to keep with the story and I am so glad I did. This is an absolutely incredible film and I can’t believe that I will ever see anything better. Prior to this, my current favourite was ‘Babel’ – a film by Alejandro González Iñárritu and in similar gritty style – but City of God has surpassed that. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do so. But don’t go expecting any religious hymns or prayers, because you’ll be disappointed.

It just goes to show, in the film world at least, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.

I need to try again at my training schedule at the moment because I still can’t seem to get back into things as much as I should have. I have skipped swimming and cycling for a couple of weeks and done just a few runs. I am happy with how my running is coming along, but I need to HTFU and get out on my bike in the wind and rain.

There is a phrase which Jev uses – ‘ironmen are born in winter’ – and I think I need to adapt this a little to ‘world-sprint wannabees don’t wimp out of training just because it’s a bit wet and cold’. I do have an excuse though and that’s that work has been very busy this week, so I am not going to beat myself up about it too much.

This week we have my tri club’s Monday night social night (meets every first Monday of the month after swim training), and on the agenda for discussion is the new kit design (see previous blog). I think the ‘get rid of sharky’ brigade will have a difficult job of succeeding, and so it looks like a new design is on the horizon. Let's hope less 'Shark's Tale' and more 'Jaws' please guys, the latter surely being worthy of The Old Thatch Cinema Society. More news about this next week, no doubt.

Cheers

C