Celtman, Coffee, Cake and a Collie

If you haven’t read Jenny Graham ’s book Coffee First Then the World , you should. Jenny is something of a local legend in the highlands, but a few years ago she became a Global cycling legend when she set a new world record as the fastest woman to cycle round the world.  During her trip, one of the things that kept her going was her Invisible Peloton.  People who were important to her that she visualised riding with her for the tough bits of her 124 day expedition.  I've got to know Jenny a wee bit in recent times and consider myself lucky to call her a pal.  She completed Celtman last year, and having bailed out of my own attempt, I watched her finish in characteristic Jenny style... with the biggest grin on her face and the most joy you could imagine after powering herself around the 250km course.   And so that became my goal for Celtman: Finish With Joy.  Speaking with Jenny briefly a few days ago got me thinking.  We're a week away now: who will b...

"42 minutes?!  Holy crap!"  That was my thought when I looked at my watch as I hauled myself up the ramp (I'm not joking, it really is a steep ramp!) out of the water after the Outlaw Half Nottingham 1900m swim. I was delighted.  Until recently I've been averaging around 2:40/100m swimming outdoors, but just recently that has improved markedly, and I'm now consistently swimming at around 2:20-2:30-100m - and the faster end of that range was what I'd just accomplished. A great start to the day. Onwards into T1, and the HUGE distance to run - or walk- in my wetsuit socks to reach my bike before I could change out of my wetsuit.  I'd chosen specifically to wear socks for that reason.  I have plantar fasciitis in my right foot (and have had for some months), and arthritis in the toes of the same foot, so running barefoot would not have ended well.  I'll also be wearing socks for the swim on Celtman day - and as today was mainly intended as a rehearsal, I k...

  27 watts.   Doesn’t sound like much, does it?  That’s the difference in my power output between riding the Etape Loch Ness two years ago, in 2023, and riding it this year, 2025. But my Heart Rate- identical.  So for the same cardiovascular work, I produced 27 watts more power on average. But that’s 27 watts more than 122…  22% more. Two years ago I was pretty pleased with my ride: I’d done what I set out to do, and only paused a couple of times. I was riding my aluminium Liv Avail back then, training for the Celtman Solo Point Five. For where I was at then, it was a great ride.  This year… Different bike, different weather conditions. But I didn’t stop at all, didn’t even pause or stop for a wee; and I rode the course 50 minutes faster.  But the real teller is that absolute number: a 22% increase in average power output for an identical average heart rate.  I've worked so hard over the last ten months, and it can be hard day-to-day to see progre...

It's 2am, and I'm vaguely awake... struggling to get back to sleep.  I've woken to find that my hair and my pillow are soaked in sweat.  It's not hot, but I'm tossing & turning, trying to get comfy, trying to ignore the damp pillow... It feels like the middle of July... but it's February.  Yuk. I'm standing on the poolside, speaking to a young lifeguard about something or other, and I suddenly become aware that I'm bleeding... far more heavily than normal.  I make my excuses and make it to my locker and the ladies toilet in time to catch the blood before it makes it out of my swimsuit and down my leg.  My periods used to happen like clockwork, predictable and manageable. But not any more.  It's day 3 of a 7-day stint off work, and I should be training.  But I feel flat, low, a bit depressed if I'm honest. I feel tearful for no reason at all.  Is it the short days?  Or am I fatigued?  I make myself get out on my bike in the wind, and ...

I've just failed a bike session... I did everything I could to try and get it done despite waking up feeling tired after a full-on couple of weeks.  But nope... no, no, no.  Not happening. Not today.  Sometimes, the body just says No.  It happens less and less now, as I gain fitness and resilience, but sometimes you just have to take a rest day.  So, to try and avoid beating myself up for not completing it, it seemed like a good time to look back over progress in the last few weeks and months.  A warning: this is a looooong geeky post!  The last couple of months have seen me gradually regaining progress lost while I was ill in November, and going beyond where I was in terms of strength.  It's been hard-won, and setbacks like that can make regaining the lost ground feel really tough.  I've got there though, and have had some really nice wins recently.   I think this has mostly come through old-fashioned consistency.  Simply showing u...

I nearly didn’t do my bike session yesterday.  There are a million excuses available at this time of year, and a million distractions that suck away time.  Add to that the usual NHS 'winter pressures', busy shifts, long dark nights, cold weather and the fact I've been out with a repeat of my skin infection for a couple of weeks, and getting out and getting sessions done can feel like an impossible task.  It's times like these when I have to remind myself WHY I'm doing this.  And just how much time, effort, energy and money I've invested in this thing.  But actually, the most important thing to remind myself of when it gets hard is just how much support I have from some very important people.  Most of my training is done alone: all my indoor swimming is solo; most of my bike training both indoors and out; and most road running is also alone.  Mark and Riof tend to join me for trail runs, and for short runs before work; Mark occasionally joins me for a b...