Marathons. This is kind of where it all started for me, and I'm probably not the only one. Way back in 2011 (see my irony here) I ran the London Marathon, my first ever feat of this kind. It was textbook stuff – I got a charity place, thought it was the biggest challenge ever, trained hard, and ran it in 4:06. I was over the moon, and the very next day, I signed up to run the Amsterdam Marathon that same year, in the Autumn. For some reason, I never stopped.

 
Of course it's addictive, training is now my drug. Since 2011, I have consistently run two marathons a year. It was my contract to myself; to explore the world by doing cool things all over the place. This year it was Paris in April, and my very last race of the season: the Berlin Marathon.

Ready for the last race of the season

This race, at the end of last year when I signed up for it, was a biggie for me. I'd done a few triathlons that year but wasn't taking it seriously at all, I was totally rubbish and had only done one middle distance at this point. However, the way this season has snowballed and somehow I have ended up slightly better than mediocre at this triathlon game, coupled with the fact I did an Ironman only 8 weeks ago, meant that the marathon was relatively inconequential for me, I was almost just going through the motions.

 Beautiful Berlin

I knew I'd get a PB. That, for the first time in my life of marathon-running, was an absolute given. I was 100% confident I would, for a number of reasons. I ran Paris earlier in the year with a borderline chest infection, ran the whole thing steady because I had Mallorca 70.3 only a few weeks afterwards and didn't want to compromise that race, and I'm 3/4 of a stone lighter, thanks to my nutritionist Fitnaturally. Added to that is the fact that I am the fittest I have ever been in my life, have been training endurance for a year, and had a full nutrition strategy provided to me by fitnaturally. (In previous marathons I had 3 gels, this one I had 7!) I just didn't know how much of a PB, at this point…

So the odds were good. Great, in fact. I flew over on my own after a delightful 3am wakeup call the day before the race, went from airport to Expo, registered, checked into my BEAUTIFUL apartment (it is worthy of capital letters, trust me), and focused on rest and nutrition. 

The apartment of dreams

I woke up feeling, again, for the first time ever since running marathons, confident and not at all nervous (former nervous-wreck on marathon mornings). I walked 2 miles to the race start, it was cold but a fantastically sunny day. Perfect conditions, bring it on.

Through the start line alongside 40,000 other runners, what an atmosphere. Nothing new to me though, and I have to say that for the entire marathon, I was relatively oblivious to the Berlin scenery, supporters, and other runners bar the few in my immediate vicinity! 

I started off at a good pace feeling comfortable and strong. 7:30 minute miles, not bad. When I reached 10k in 50 minutes I knew that if I could maintain 8 minute miles, I would be on for a 3:30. This would be unbelievable (for me). I focused on retaining good form and smashing back a gel every 30 minutes. I skipped every other water station to save a bit of time (water is over-rated, anyway!). Half way, I started to hurt a bit. Ignore it. Two thirds of the way, I started to hurt a lot. Ignore it. My achilles was a little sore, my legs were a lot sore. Ignore it.

For the first half, 8 minute miles were really comfortable, for the second half, I had to work a lot harder to maintain this, especially in the last 10k. I blocked out the pain, and ploughed on. I was gunning for sub 3:30 and aware of the fact I was so borderline, I was in some kind of self-inflicted concentration camp, as I pushed and pushed for that goal.

Here is the irritating bit. There seemed to be a false finish line. Maybe it was just that oasis in the desert moment, a momentary, halucinatory mirage! I'm sure that was the finish line I just sprinted to, why are people still running? Bloody hell, I have to do another sprint finish! It just seemed to carry on and on. My Garmin definitely read nearly 27 miles, but maybe that was all the wavering and people-dodging along the course. Anyway, I was again oblivious to what I'm sure was excellent crowd support, and did my second sprint to the actual finish. Heart rate 189, OUCH. Over the line in 3:31 (damn). 

 
I couldn't help feeling marginally disappointed that I didn't quite make sub 3:30, but I had just smashed my PB by 23 minutes! That was more than I thought I was capable of, and it was a great way to finish off the season.

As one of the 'Marathon Majors' Berlin is up there as one of the biggest in the world. I was very chuffed, therefore, to find out the following stats (boring figures alert):

545 out of 9,000 females
90 in category (under 30) out of 1100
34th British female 

Not bad for a token race, but the most important thing is that it marked the end of a fantastic, life-changing season for me. A year of PBing all over the place, some exciting trips around Europe, and a great network of people supporting me. If next year is anything like this year then I will be well and truly euphoric….

Robert Twells October 1, 2013

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It's been a while since I have been climbing. That is a mild way of putting it. A few years ago climbing WAS my life. Every single weekend, I would be gravitationally challenging myself by hanging half way up a rock face in some corner of the country (or maybe another country).

Because of my tendency to throw myself into things completely (all or nothing attitude, all the way), triathlon has become the 'new' climbing, and the past year of my life has been dominated by an unhealthy obsession with swimming, cycling and running. This means that climbing, the passion that once consumed me, has taken a back seat to the point where I haven't even been on rock for a year.

As I edge towards the end of the season, however, I decided to take a few days away in Cornwall for a much anticipated climbing weekend. The aspect in Cornwall for climbing is out of this world – steep cliffs, the sea crashing below you, the rock quality at top friction, and beautiful, rugged scenery. Perfect way to live your life.

As well all know, reality more often than not doesn't live up to expectation, and as I drove towards the cliffs in high spirits ready for my first day of real climbing in a year, the mists suggested otherwise, with a heavy, damp drizzle, 10 meter visibility and absolutely saturated undergrowth. For anyone that is unaware, climbing on wet rock is not exactly ideal (recipe for a death sentence).

We headed over to Land's End in any case and decided to attempt an 8 pitch route from the bottom of the sea cliff – around 150 feet of climbing. To summarise, it was wet, scary, slippy, and not a confidence filler. Not even close. After around 3 hours we topped out, much to the amazement of some wedding guests at the hotel on the top of the cliff, and headed back to the car for a well-earned sandwich (famished).

Day two was a similar story but after driving the entire length of Cornwall (no joke) in search of some dry rock, we settled on a crag on the edge of a village which had a random chapel built into the rock (although it had been a ruin for 200 years). Unique, but it was something. Which at this point, was better than nothing.

After faffing around for a bit as the weather was being a bit bi-polar, we started making an attack on some routes on the crag.  Five routes later and it turned out a rewarding day. Rock quality was awesome, even though the surrounding wasn't quite as epic as being on a sea cliff. More importantly, I had a smidge of my climbing confidence back, and that was what I came looking for this weekend.

Ultimately, it was refreshing to be indulging in something other than swimming, cycling and running for once, and to be challenging myself in less of a cardiovascular way and more of a mental way. Climbing is mostly mental (with a bit of agility and strength thrown in). To ascend a rock face involves logic, technique, and a lot of confidence. I think it's complimentary to triathlon, as it involves stamina, often endurance, mental discipline, and self confidence. 

I also think it compliments life itself (bold statement), because I truly believe that real life is lived when you push yourself outside your comfort zone, challenge yourself mentally and physically, and be so immersed in the natural world in the process. Confidence is key here, because if you believe you can do something, you really can.

 I have missed climbing, it is still a significant hole in my life while triathlon takes over, but I wouldn't change it for the world as I know that the rocks are not going anywhere. They are there, waiting for me, ready for my next challenge…
 

Robert Twells September 22, 2013

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Last tri of the season. This is it.

I signed up to the PruHealth World London Tri last year before I had even signed up for Ironman. At this stage I was so rubbish at triathlon that I just thought it would be cool to race the same course as the world's best triathletes at the London Olympics. It was *quite* a long time before the dawning realisation that it was a world championship final for age groupers as well hit me. I was what some fondly refer to as a "total punter". 

So in the run up to this event I had that awkward conversation where people asked me if I had qualified, and I had to explain that er, no, I paid for a ballot entry… Obviously if I had known I would have gone for the qualifiers, ahem! (Hardly. I was obviously focused on Ironman and not really gunning for Olympic distance fame!)

However, as the season evolved and I was getting faster, and still buzzing slightly from my win last weekend and my recent realisation that I can actually push myself past a zone 2 HR, I had a bit of a strategy for this race. I popped in to see my lovely sponsors Lovelo Cycle Works the other day and was asked about my race strategy for Saturday, to which my response was: "smash the s**t out of it". 

After a slightly shocked reaction to my abuse of the English language, I feel like there was enough of a mutual understanding to the effort I planned to put into the last race of the season. At the very least, I privately wanted a PB (which I was confident I would achieve) and top 10 in my age group (which I was also relatively confident I would achieve, but knew it would be tough).

Obviously I'm not competing with the world's best here so it may seem a little inconsequential, but it's small steps of progress for me. I wanted to go for it. My training had tapered back a bit this week in preparation for the race, and my nutritionist was giving me optimum fuelling to make me race-ready! You can read about my nutrition fuelling on the fitnaturally website 'What Amy eats' blog.

I felt sick on race day morning but with the rather unconventional race time of 12:10, I had all morning to feel nervous. This is actually worse, in some ways. But luckily my coach Steve Lloyd of Absolute Tri was down at the Worlds for the whole weekend, so after a coffee and a bit of banter I felt more relaxed.

Swim was relatively uneventful, the water was a bit colder than it has been this Summer but once acclimatised and after a quick start I settled into my pace. I think I probably could have pushed harder on the swim. It is the discipline which I tend to pace myself much more on rather than maxing out – this may be a good thing though! I was out of the water in 30:49, a PB of over a minute.

The transition was not good. After getting out of the water there was a run along the road for quite some way before running uphill on slippery, wet, muddy grass and with probably 2,000 bikes it was becoming quite treacherous under foot! It was also a long way from the swim exit which meant the clock was ticking. I faffed a bit and after almost 5 minutes (yes, it was a mission, all the competitors times were above average for T1), out on the bike (carefully, to avoid a Bambi style moment on the mud).

The bike was flat, fast but with tight corners and wet roads. Oh, and quite a few arrogant blokes with ludicrously expensive TT bikes but zero road awareness. I nearly crashed at one point as some guy with all the gear but no idea cut me right up on a sharp bend forcing me to brake sharply – I was very close to a crash there and after swearing at him I hope he was more careful for the rest of the course! I think I was only overtaken by two females on the bike but with different wave start times it wasn't easy to tell how far down the field I was. I averaged 20mph for the entire course (think it was just short of 40k, more like 37k) and kept my pace strong and my HR high! 1:08:04, another PB in the bag…

Another unacceptably long transition (think it was the muddy run uphill around the entire transition before they channelled you off to your bike slot), and with a new pair of Newton MV3s, I ran out feeling tired but staying strong.

Four laps of the Serpentine and a relatively good crowd of support, and at least it wasn't raining. I was doing the mental maths on the run, I needed to get a sub-45 minute 10k to get in under 2:30, and I was keeping a really consistent strong pace with 11-ish minute 2.5k laps. Again, I was only overtaken by two women but knew I couldn't go any faster with my HR pushing 178 the whole way. I knew it wouldn't be sustainable for too long. 

The final lap came and I sprint finished feeling strong but pretty knackered (slightly contradictory but I'm sure you can relate), with, guess what, a 10k PB of 45:50.

Overall my time was 2:33:14, a PB of just under 20 minutes (since June!). I'm happy with that level of progress in just three months.

Stats are:
7th in AG (out of 20)
27th female (out of 180)

Ok, so it's not the World Championships (yet), but I like to think it's about the journey, not the destination, that makes life most compelling. Because when I reach that destination, the sense of reward and achievement will be unbelievable….
  

Robert Twells September 14, 2013

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Winning. Well that's certainly a word which has never been in my vocabulary. As this triathlon thing is starting to get a bit more serious, though, I do realise that I may have to aim to win something at some point. So I did just that.

I had another relatively big-ish training weekend planned, as dictated by my coach. However, my bike sponsor, Lovelo, forwarded me an email about a local triathlon this weekend which was taking place in a village a few miles away (www.aldburytri.co.uk) I thought about it, wasn't hugely over keen on the idea, and came to the conclusion that because it is a local race, I probably should do it. So I emailed the organiser two days before and said I was in.

It's not even my kind of race. Firstly, I have been training for Ironman for a year. That means lots of zone 2 training, long and steady. While my endurance is now pretty decent, my speed is pretty non-existent! The last few weeks I have, however, been introducing speed work into my training to prep for London. Secondly, the swim was replaced by a row on a concept II rowing machine. Interesting. Low key isn't even the word to describe this event – it is very much a social thing rather than a competition!

Anyway, so I had a look at last year's times on the website and suddenly realised something. I think I may be able to beat the woman who came first the last two years running. A foreign concept to me. So, my new objective – to win it.

Race day dawned rather swiftly, I wasn't really taking it massively seriously but I thought if there was a chance I could win this little local race, it would be something. And it would most certainly be a first! Race strategy – absolutely smash it.

A friendly chat to some other participants and then we were off. I haven't rowed for about two years, but managed a 14 minute 3km row (first female off the machines in my wave), and off to get my bike. 

The bike course was very, very hilly, but it was all familiar terrain to me as forms the basis of my training routes. 25km in 54 minutes (like I said, hilly!), and I genuinely thought I might die as my heart rate didn't go below 170 for pretty much the whole course.

I knew I was borderline on the previous winner's times, so started out hard on the 6k run. That is, until the massive hill about 300m from the start. Ouch. Heart rate maxing out zone 5 I plodded up the ploughed field (yes, tough terrain yet again). We hit a road a bit later on and I was in my element. Hello 7 minute miles. Back through some more ankle-breaking ploughed fields and steep hills (yep, still tough) and I knew I was on to a winning run time of 31 minutes.

I finished feeling like I still might actually die, and breathlessly told the organisers that I felt the race was genuinely harder than Ironman. I'm not even kidding – I can go steady for 13 hours but 1 hour and 40 minutes of pain is hard to deal with. And it was serious pain, the entire way. I was in a hurt locker for that whole race. This speed malarkey can't be healthy…

I kind of knew I had won and the organisers later confirmed it to me. A few kids races and a BBQ later (very sedate, like I said!) and they announced the prize giving. I was shaking a bit, I have genuinely never won anything in my life! I was the proud bearer of a mug and a bottle of champagne, but most of all, a winning smile.

Ok, so it's not the Olympics, Kona, or even a mildly professional, serious triathlon (strictly speaking not even a triathlon!), but this is confirmation that my hard work appears to be paying off. Everyone has to start off somewhere, and I have a feeling this is just the beginning…..

 

Robert Twells September 7, 2013

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Having dedicated a year of my life to training for *apparently* one of the toughest endurance events in the world, speed hasn't exactly been top of my training agenda. However, with the renewed aim to get faster, this comes down to a simple formula.

Cut back training volume and increase training intensity. That, after competing in an Ironman only a few weeks before, is pretty tough. My coach is a slave driver! In all seriousness, this is the key to gaining speed. And everyone wants a bit of speed in their life.

So the past few weeks have looked like this. Maxing heart rate zones, pushing hard, beasting sessions – all foreign stuff to me after training long and slow in a comfortable zone 2 for the better part of a year. (Apart from when I'm racing, of course!)

It's new territory to me as I haven't actually included these kind of sessions in my training before. I always hated pushing too hard – I was very much a 'train at my own, comfortable, steady pace' kind of person, but in some strange masochistic way, I am enjoying this new world of pain. 

And it is painful, it requires a completely different approach to steady training sessions. It requires dedication, persistence, will, mental resolve, and not to mention energy (cue nutritionist, box ticked).

Bike intervals. (Shot taken during a rest interval, obviously!)

There is something very satisfying about finishing a training session which is based on quality not quantity, knowing you have pushed your very hardest and knowing that the gains will be tangible. 

I think being motivated by the people who are supporting me helps me on the road to achieving my goals, but also that untapped potential. The feeling of 'what if'? I have no idea how far I can go with triathlon, but I am 100% committed to finding out. Why? Because I can. I am in a good position in my life right now to explore my potential, it's a very exciting journey and I can't wait for the challenges coming my way. Bring it on.

 

Robert Twells August 24, 2013

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Something quite strange has happened. Quite suddenly, my life in triathlon has increased in momentum. Ok, so there was the whole year of Ironman training which only took over my entire life. My goal of 'not to die' in the mission to complete it was realised with relative ease (perhaps only a slight exaggeration!), and as the training progressed over the months, my goals shifted a little.

It seems that they have shifted even more, because when I tentatively approached a local bike shop for sponsorship and they said yes, I was literally gobsmacked. Really, I had very little in the way of triathlon prestige to offer them. One season of competing and not even close to a podium finish. It doesn't matter, they told me, they wanted a female amateur athlete to help promote women's cycling and I fitted the bill. Wow.

There I was with a bike and a team of people supporting me, I couldn't believe it. I have to say they are fantastic – Lovelo Cycle Works in Berkhamsted – such a friendly shop and workshop, the team are great and really keen to help me out. In turn, I obviously want to help spread the Lovelo love and make people realise what a great local bike shop has happened upon their town. I can't wait to carry on working with Lovelo as I think we make a fab team!

Then things just picked up pace. I was already working with a sports nutritionist – it is no exaggeration to say that it has changed my life. Fitnaturally offers bespoke nutrition plans – i.e, I get told what to eat, when to eat it, every single day of my life. That sounds a lot harder than it is. This is for the simple reason that the food is all natural, it's extremely tasty, and the recipes have introduced amazing new dishes to my life. I look forward to every single meal. And what's more, I get a tailored nutrition plan for races. Oh, and did I mention I have lost over half a stone of body fat in the bid to get leaner for optimum performance? This, of course, without compromising on hunger or cutting out any food groups. Like I said, life changing.

So the wonderful Sally from Fitnaturally agreed to sponsor my nutrition plans. That was certainly a credit to me, because she has worked with pro athletes and is a well-established sports nutritionist for countless age group triathletes and Ironmen. I am extremely excited to be on board in helping to promote Fitnaturally, and, of course, taking photos of my dishes and tweeting them!

 
I'm also extremely lucky to have partnered up with James Drabble from Trojan Training, who sponsors my strength and conditioning programmes. He explained to me that at my level of training, the generic S&C my performance coach was giving me was probably not tailored enough and that I would benefit far more from a structured, bespoke S&C plan which specifically targets my weak areas. It would also compliment training blocks, so if there is an endurance phase, I will work on endurance strength, and if there is a speed phase, we will introduce power work. So far I think the work I am doing with James is absolutely fantastic and Trojan are setting high standards for personal training and bootcamps for the slightly more normal people of the world!
 
I don't mean this to be a schmoozey post to thank all my sponsors – it's more of an astonishing achievement that I have managed to get sponsors after just one year of triathlon. I am extremely proud and extremely grateful to everyone who has helped me out. I cannot wait to embark on another very exciting season next year (even though this one hasn't ended!) and see where it takes me, especially with all this help behind me now!

Robert Twells August 20, 2013

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Ironman. We've all heard the hype, the majority of people have heard of Ironman but cannot quite comprehend the reality of such an event. Those who have completed one certainly have a few stories to tell. Yes, it is popular these days but realistically, the percentage of the population who have completed an Ironman is microscopic.

A whole year of training, a monumental amount of money, something that has taken over every aspect of my life – it all came to fruition on 4th August 2013. Something I never felt I would ever be able to do, and it may sound like the bog standard story of a normal person becoming an Ironman, but it really is quite special.

Aside from the fact that such a small number of people are actually crazy enough to do this kind of thing, being a female only exacerbates this. Only 12% of Ironman UK competitors were female. That's around 180 out of 1,600. That's a minority if ever I saw one.

Anyway, so race weekend. I had been feeling pretty confident as I know I have done everything in my power and beyond to ensure that I reach that starting line in absolutely top condition. A coach, a nutritionist, physio sessions, sports massages – it hasn't been cheap!

Showing off my race nails, professionally coloured to match my bike

On race morning, however, I felt very fragile indeed. The forecast was atrocious (note to self – never sign up for races in the UK…), it was grey, raining, and I had stomach ache and nervousness of the highest order. There was a strong inclination to run away and not do it, but the fact I had spent so much time, money, effort in training, and I had family and friends with me, I knew I had to get to that start line and get in a bit of positive mental attitude.

Race morning. Looking much happier than I felt.

Everything had been done the day before so after just 4 hours of sleep and a 3am start, I eased into my wetsuit and headed towards the swim start with a fellow competitor. 1,600 people in the water at the same time is quite daunting, and it proved its worth during the swim.

Strategy: just pace, go steady, and get to the second half of the marathon in a good place. Wise words from my coach. "The race doesn't even begin until you get to the second half of the marathon. Remember that."

The mosh swim

Swim: it was basically a mosh pit. I got battered, knocked, swallowed a bit of water and kicked a few people off my feet. One lap, a quick jog out of the water and back in for lap two. It was crowded but I managed to enjoy it, somehow, and it passed really quickly. Soon enough I was out of the water and running towards T1 in the respectable time of 1:18:49

A fairly swift T1 (if you can call 6 minutes swift), and out on the bike.

Bike: here was all about heart rate. I knew that in order to survive the marathon I needed to keep this fairly low so was aiming at under 150bpm. I needed to pace and get the nutrition in during this section. It's a fine balance between getting enough calories in for energy and not overdoing it so you end up with gastric issues later on. I was under strict guidelines from my nutritionist to have antibiotics online peanut butter sandwiches and natural energy bars incrementally. No gels featured yet! It was a long slog. It's a very hilly, tough course, and I was relatively slow. Suffering from back pain towards the second half, I decided to smash the last lap so I could get off the bike as quickly as possible. As I was feeling ok legs wise the heart rate pacing went slightly awry. I came off the bike, finally, after a long, slow 7:29:04

The long bit

Another 6ish minute transition (I just wanted to start the run now) and out I went.

Keeping form

Run: started strong, and decided that my strategy was to retain good form, no matter what happens. Oh, and don't walk. At all. This goes against a lot of the Ironman run/walk strategies but I knew that within the first few minutes of running I was going to get through this fairly comfortable. So I ran, drank coke and water at every feed station and a gel every 45 minutes. It rained, rained some more, and carried on raining, but I didn't even notice it. The run seemed to go slowly and I knew that I wouldn't quite break the 13 hour mark, but given the circumstances, I think I got a pretty decent marathon time of 4:18:41, and a sprint finish to boot.

 
Category position: 10
Gender position: 56
Overall: 750

I would have like to have broken the 13 hour mark but on the whole, I am very pleased with the  result for a first Ironman, and it has left me hungry for more…
 

Robert Twells August 5, 2013

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