Progress so far!

Progress so far!

We’ve known about this challenge a while now. To be honest it only feels like we’re just getting going.

To bring everything up to date. We’re doing one of the disciplines every day now. Yesterday was a bike session. This involves being put through my paces by an ex pro here in Eritrea, he’s called Yonas. He’s ridden the Tour of Eritrea numerous times and has all the connections with the pros here. We’ve been able to go out riding with a few pros who have been riding all over the place. This includes meeting 3 riders who currently ride for Dimension Data, based in South Africa. The main religion here is cycling – definitely.

Yesterday’s session was a first venture off the edge of the escarpment at 2300m and down the main mountain road towards the coastal city of Massawa. We cycled approximately 20km down and then spun around and came straight back up. Although it was a fairly long climb it wasn’t massively taxing, the gradient wasn’t too tough (between 5 & 7%) and I actually really enjoyed it. Next time more distance required. I think climbing is my favourite cycling discipline. It’s the only area where Yonas can’t drop me……as much! It has been good during the Yonas sessions to learn new drills when cycling and have the chance to learn the tricks of the trade when riding within a group.

Swimming is this session for this evening.  The pool is hot. Therefore, smashing out rapid times is near on impossible without overheating. However, it does the job. A teacher at our school, Shikara, is a qualified coach and very talented swimmer. She’s been doing some sessions based around improving distance swimming. It clearly works, my arms don’t always work properly the next day.

Running is on the back-burner at present. The occasional run will occur, but keeping injury free at the moment is a priority. I need to give my knee the chance to fully recover from the ITBS before I give it a hammering over the coming months.

I'm 30 now - but I think I can top my PB in terms of fitness levels regardless!!!

 Tom

#swimbikerun

Beirut, Bikes and Dubai

So for October half term Tom and I headed to Beirut for 4 days and then left ourselves 2 days in Dubai to do some resource downloading and shopping. In particular - bike shopping!

Lebanon was great, Beirut was a mix of old and new. We preferred the old, but it was a great city to walk around and we even managed a few runs along the sea front. Dubai was of less interest to us. We found it restrictive that you couldn't really walk anywhere and the malls were loud and expensive. Tom compared the Emirates mall to a large Bull Ring in Birmingham.

However we headed to Wolfi's bike shop in Dubai where I got measured and fitted using a German fitting technique called Radlabour. I ended up going for a Scott Speedster with Shimano 105 setup. Nothing top of the range or fancy but will hopefully be nice to ride and get me through the Ironman. Looking forward to getting it out on the roads of Asmara.

Swimming in Masaawa

So I thought I would jump in and write blog number 2. My entries will probably be less training focused and more descriptive of life here. Hopefully between Tom and I we can provide a balance for anyone who wants to read these, and also a bit of a record for ourselves of our time here.

After Tom took advantage of me being distracted for a good hour (I was on the phone to Alex and Sam, first time I had been able to speak to her since arriving) and signed us both up for Ironman Zurich 2018 we have been busy, active and had to be somewhat inventive while we try to work out how on earth we are going to train for such an event while living here in Asmara.

Tom already has his bike here and has been able to meet up with locals that ride here every Saturday morning. I am hoping to get a bike on our route back from Beirut next week. We have been e-mailing bike shops in Dubai (where we have a short lay over) in hope that I will be able to pick up what I need, and also that we will not get stopped by customs coming into Eritrea with it! Fingers crossed on that one.

For the run, as Tom mentioned there are some nice trails that we started to explore last week. We haven’t made it out there this week and need to make sure we do once back from our holiday next week. We have both completed a few shorter runs this week. Mine has been doing hill reps up what we call ‘ministry hill’. It has the ministry of health at the bottom and the ministry of communications at the top. It is fairly brutal, but does at least feel like you are putting some effort it and it is also one of the only streets that has working street lights into the night.

We have however made progress with the swimming in the last two weeks. This started off by us taking a trip down to Massawa. This was once the capital of Eritrea and a great working port on the red sea. Originally used as an Arab slave port, it was then captured and went under Ottoman rules in 1557. It was then handed to the Egyptians around 1846, but then was colonized by the Italian in 1890’s. Under Italian rule Massawa became the largest and safest port in East Africa.  Sadly the town suffered a huge amount of damage since then. First by the British, who took nearly all of the infrastructure with them when they left and handed Eritrea over the Ethiopia. But even more damage was done during the fight for interdependence by Ethiopian troops. Although still very beautiful and interesting, the town has simply never really recovered. I have tried to include some photos below.

We did however have a great weekend. We travelled down the 2800m decent on very windy roads with friends from school, stayed at a nice hotel, ate lots of fresh fish and spent time exploring the old town and ruins. Part of Saturday was spent swimming at the beach and then on Sunday we swam from Green Island back to the main land which was 2km. A good start to our swim training we thought! We swam over coral, fish and ship wrecks (left by the Italians who, after losing Eritrea to the Brits at the famous battle of Keren, refused to let them take their ships and so took them out to sea and sank them). The swim was great, the only damage being some sunburn and a sea urchin spiker in my toe. We hope to make it down to Massawa once a month or so to complete a big swim.

We have tried to follow up with the swim training at a hotel we have membership to here in Asmara. The pool is not great – only 15m, warm and somewhat murky to the point you have to count your strokes to work out where the end of the pool will be! But still, we did know that training here would not be as easy as elsewhere. It’s all part of the challenge!

We have now come to the end of our first term here at school. It has been great to be away again together, exploring somewhere knew and a country very different to places we have ever been to before.  We are both looking forward to a week in Beirut – hopefully getting some tasty Lebanese food, have some internet access for a bit and also have some nice showers without feeling guilty and panicking about running out of water!

 

 

Ironman Journey: Day 1 – 27^th September 2017

July 29^th 2018 – there you go Tom and Kate. Time to mark turning 30 with an Ironman in Zurich.

Intro

It goes without saying that that training for, competing in, and in doing so completing The Lakesman Triathlon, over iron-distance, back in June was a big challenge. It was also time consuming. You spend many, many hours wanting to go to sleep, you eat like a horse – but try your best to ensure that you focus on the good stuff – complex carbs, protein, fruit & veg etc. You become more and more anti-social the more you become addicted to your training plan and routines. You bore the shit out of anybody who mistakenly engages in conversation with you and mentions the word ‘Triathlon’. You curse yourself every time you miss a ‘session’. You become 100% addicted; to the extent that you treat running up the stairs at work, at 7am, as a training session…. “Next time…..I’ll do it a second quicker…..”

So, if you enjoy the simplicities of life and having a beer whenever you wish and having a take-away when you ‘feel like it’, then never do an Ironman. If you’re an idiot who is prepared to lose a bundle of your social interactions, be tired most of the time, lose countless toenails, get excited by the words ‘aero’ or ‘negative-split’  ….then maybe consider it?

So why do another one you ask?

Simple answer. It’s there. It’s a challenge. I can do the distance. Time to make it official. M-Dot hunting I suppose. Perhaps I’m brand hunting – but I want to be a real Ironman.

I can’t answer for Kate. Perhaps so she won’t have to spend hours on her own!? Perhaps, simply, because it’s there.

 

Day 1 – Although we won’t really get going for a few weeks (after a holiday)!

Day 1 involved a fun little session running around some local trails. 10k ish overall. Bit longer for Kate after getting lost. We managed to see the remains of a Ukrainian aircraft that had crashed as it transported arms to Asmara during the war – providing weaponry to Ethiopia.

So…how did I feel? After lying dormant for a few months, truth be told, it was tough. Moreover, after being high up on the edge of an escarpment at 2500m means the air is thin. You get knackerd – quickly! So at this point 10k is tough. Hopefully this will improve…….It’ll have to.

Another teacher, Lellaini, is doing a half iron in June, in California. An extra training partner will be helpful when the going gets tough.  I’ll try to add training photos and videos as we go. Reality is I’ll probably bore the hell out of whoever reads it with my monotonous obsessions over this sport/challenge. So….I’ll get Kate to write some blogs occasionally – I guess you’ll get a different perspective.

I hope you find it interesting to read…..The journey has started.

 

Tom