Not a Huge Amount to Say Really……..

The whole weekend could be summed up with very few words – mostly, food, sleep, and training.  There was some drink, and a bit of laundry, but in the end not much more than that.

As you’ll know, I’ve shelled out good money to be a gym member of the local hotel, and to use their pool, so generally, whenever I can’t think of anything else to do I tend to just go to the gym and use some of their equipment.  Therefore on Thursday night, after a long day in the office, I couldn’t face anything else, and with the added excuse of a sandstorm/ high winds (which is still going on after 3 days, and is expected to go on for another couple of days), I made use of the x-trainer for an hour, just for a change.

Friday started well with the idea that I could ride my bike to the hotel, swim, and then ride back again.  That would mean about 40k bike and whatever swim I decided to do.  As it happens the holiday makers/ residents of the hotel must have wondered what was happening when some old geezer in a one piece lycra suit and a carbon fibre bike simply turns up, takes his helmet off and jumps in the pool.  I swam 500m (which is one set of my usual composition – 4 lengths front crawl, 4 breaststroke, 4 fc, 4 bs and then 4 fc) then climbed out, gathered up my bike and bits and wandered off again.  I had a lovely ride back, but it did remind me that it was getting warmer by the day.  I got home at about 12 and even though I’d only been out on the bike for about half an hour I could see the effects of the sun when I got undressed for a shower – mental note to self, suncream !

I was going to go for a run in the afternoon but I had some lunch and a nap and when I woke up I had a very sore hamstring – prudence being the better part of valour, and the fact that I’m racing next week, meant that Deep Heat and early to bed, were the only options.  You’ll be very happy to know that everything is fine now (probably !)

I got up yesterday morning and there wasn’t a hint of a problem so I struck whilst the iron was at least half warm, and went for a run.  I drove up to the camel track and was going to run a circuit (about 8.5k) but would you believe that there was racing going on.  All this time trying to watch camel racing with limited success and one day I just turn up and the whole place is awash with bloody camels and 4x4s churning up the dust.

The long and short of it, it turned out that the camel racing was on the inside (Sprint) track and that my usual running space on the outside of the big track, was generally fine. So I started running in the opposite direction to usual, for a change, and whilst I was running I was lamenting to myself what a shame camels didn’t run over 10k so that I could do 10k blah blah blah, when it occurred to me that I could just run for 5 and then turn around and run back !  Genius (derrrrrr).  As it turned out, it was probably a good idea anyway.  You see camels don’t run on a completely joined up track (like horses do).  Generally this is because they don’t have jockeys and if they were on a circular track they would be buggers to stop !  So there is an entry onto the track and an exit off, into a sort of big compound where they can’t automatically run off.  This means that for me to do a complete circuit I would have to go past this area, with all of the associated chaos, plus there were big wigs in big chairs in the grandstand , and where there are big wigs there are lots of hangers on, and security, and people with opinions.  Generally it’s better to steer well clear of Big Wigs. Turning around at 5k was actually a very good idea.

I was trying to run a steady pace (as I mentioned, I’m racing next weekend although it’s not a huge deal it is likely to be my first experience of something of this scale – I’m in the shortest race but the whole thing is on a massive scale with world class athletes competing and a worldwide coverage.  I originally entered it because it’s my “local” race but I subsequently keep seeing it advertised on triathlon websites and in specialist magazines, as one of the 5 you should do before you die !  So it might just be a little more involved that a “local”.  I don’t mind not winning but I do object to making a complete nob of myself by, say, coming off my bike in front of a crowd with cameras !) but trying to run negative splits (the second half faster than the first half).  As my race distances get longer (as they will after the next two races) then training becomes less about “how far” and more about “how long”.

If I can do 6 hours on a bike then I will be able to complete the 180km required in an Ironman, likewise, if I can run for 4 hours then I can do the marathon at the end of an Ironman as well………. Sounds like a piece of cake really !  The exception to that is the swimming, but I have yet to get my head fully around that so we just keep churning out the lengths in a 25m pool (it’s 154 I believe to complete an Ironman swim, except that that will be in open water and with hundreds of other people trying to swim over the top of me !).  I can comfortably do 2k now in sets of 500m (which is perfectly acceptable apparently) and have about a year to go before I need to 3.8k or whatever the Ironman distance is, likewise I shall be gently extending the time I spend on my feet and in the saddle, over the next 12 months, buy adding sessions during the week rather than generally getting longer each time (there will be a bit of both) but I’m sure there will be more to tell you as we settle into the end of this season and begin clocking up the Ks over the summer months (I must get a turbo trainer for the bike – one of those things that you put your back wheel into and gaily peddle away without going anywhere.  Unlike the UK where you can’t go out much on a bike because it’s cold, wet, dark and generally miserable - here it’s too bloody hot ! 

They’re predicting temperatures into the 30s here by the end of the week…….. I thought you’d be pleased !

 So that’s about it for my weekend.  I did a bit of laundry yesterday afternoon (by which I mean I collected some from the launderette and dropped the next load off – and before you start, it costs me about 6 quid a week to get someone to wash, dry and iron all of my laundry.  It’s not worth getting a washing machine for that, and I don’t have damp washing all over the place making it look untidy.) and whilst I was collecting my laundry I took the opportunity to treat myself to a takeaway.  Chicken kebab, salad, bread, pickles, humus, labnah, all for a fiver (aed30).  Can’t knock it really.  I sat and ate it whislt watching a film for the first time (I borrowed 3 or 4 from Julian last time I was in Dubai and had forgotten they were in my bag. 

I watched Michael Caine in Harry Brown……… that was a bundle of laughs I can tell you – still, the good guy won in the end, as usual !

Okey Doky, I’m off back to the apartment for some dinner – the Saints are making hard work of beating the Not Nots (London Irish, for the uninitiated – cause they’re not from London and they’re not Irish !) and it was all square with about 20 minutes to go according to my text updates (I was listening to it on the wireless over the internet thingy but I couldn’t concentrate on this and they were loosing, but as soon as I turned it off they started winning again so I thought I’d better leave it off until we’d won…..seemed like logic when I thought it through earlier !