Celtman, Coffee, Cake and a Collie

The forecast for today was, frankly, horrible.  6 degrees, light or heavy rain depending on which forecast you looked at, and a 10-15mph North Easterly wind blowing straight down Loch Ness creating a head wind for the second half of the ride.  Yuk. I would never choose to get up at 5am for a bike ride in those conditions... which means that it was ideal training territory.   Training for my legs on the 105km course; training for my brain in the weather conditions. I'd paid my entry fee... rather than roll over in bed, I should really get out there and make the most of it.   My plan was to use the Etape as a training ride for the Celtman Solo Point Five bike leg.  The Etape route is longer than the Solo route, with less climbing, but also with one big hill in it, and I expected it to take a similar-ish time to complete.  My aim was simply to treat it as a long ride training session, but to get to the end with enough left in my legs that I coul...

I’ve been off work and off training for a few days this week.  Nothing serious, just a cold, but enough to cause me lost sleep, lack of energy, an awful lot of coughing & snot and the inability to do very much. I needed a little pause…  So whilst idly scrolling, I came across this little video, posted by a previous Celtman participant on their Facebook page. I say participant rather than competitor because, as he says, 90% of us are just trying to get to the end. Fair play to Leszek, he had a really tough experience, and has learnt from it to come out the other side; eventually.  It got me thinking about how I will feel on Celtman Solo Point Five race day.  Could I find myself in the same position? Unlikely: I don’t have the speed or performance to have much of an ego in triathlon.  But I have been in that place in a different sport: feeling as a sea kayak coach that I should be able to perform in a particular way, and really beating myself up when that...