France 2004

French for beginners - situation 783, the Ironman triathlon. Here are some useful phrases should you find yourself attempting to complete a 3.8km swim, 180.2km bike ride and marathon in France:

Alors, sortent de la zone d'ébauche
(Oi, get out of the draft zone)

Vous avez toutes les cartouches d'anhydride carbonique?
(Do you have any CO2 cartridges?)

Qui rit maintenant Werner
(Who's laughing now Werner)

OK so it is hardly a comprehensive list but as we will see they all came in useful during my experiences in Gerardmer, where I was to attempt the 2004 Ironman France.

Following the Legends foray into Long Course Triathlon last year with Neil Darby, Dessie McHenry and myself competing in the World Long Course Championships in Ibiza, I had started to think about the prospect of attempting an Ironman. On the face of it this did seem slightly ridiculous as 2004 would be only my 4th year in triathlon racing, having learnt to swim and purchased my first "real" bike all in 2000 (Previous bike: 1982 Raleigh Chopper)

However with Boutros Boutro-Ghali persuaded out of retirement to broker the negotiations, my support crew acceded to my request for Sunday absences and we were ready to move to the next stage of race selection.

Eighteen official Ironman races are held worldwide each year and while I did consider the merits of the other "Ironman-distance" races such as Roth and Almere, I really wanted to do an official M-dot race. So ruling out the races that were geographically unworkable I was left with a shortlist of Ironman Austria, Switzerland, France or Germany. So my thinking went something like this: "Austria, naah everybody does that...Switzerland, hear there is lots of drafting, not my scene...Germany, well organised lot the Germans and the roads will be like glass, but Frankfurt well that will be pretty boring for the family"

So Ironman France then - here is the reasoning worthy of a Lunchtime Legend: "OK, so it says here that it is among the hardest bike courses worldwide, set around the ski region of the Hautes Vosges. Great that means a small field, so no drafting then and sure if you're going to do one, better make it a bit tricky so there is no danger of Megarry ribbing you about taking the easy option! Anyway look at the scenery in those shots, it'll be great for Hill & Dale training"

So flights were booked, cars hired, accommodation sought and on 16th January I entered the 2004 Ironman France on activeeurope.com - time for some training! I was coached by Simon Ward @ thetriathloncoach.com and my little white pieces of paper became familiar sights to training partners through the next few months, as I printed out the sessions that were e-mailed to me every three weeks. My plan consisted of two weeks "on" followed by a recovery week and Simon was very aware on the limitations on my time and that I wanted to complete on 12hrs training a week, a ludicrously low amount when compared to the current vogue for long slow distance training with many (mostly American) coaches advocating a minimum of 20 hours per week. However with Simon recognising the need to balance my family, my practice and my sanity, we stuck to an average of twelve.

Now if we were filming this I would storyboard a training montage like the one in Rocky IV where Rocky is off in the Siberian Mountains doing sit-ups on an old horsecart while Ivan Drago is getting all the most scientific monitoring and training - That would certainly cut out a lot of exposition. However I must thank Johnny Davis for doing the Siberian Mountain bit on the bike up Slieve Croob and on other "character building" rides with me and it is a shame that he has been unable to reap the benefits of his work through the winter, due to a back injury. We all know that not only will he return stronger than ever but that he was, selflessly, doing it all almost as much for my benefit as his own.

I must also thank the chuckle brothers - Messers Kettyle and Megarry who enlivened every long run when they deigned to join us and although both are currently nursing ailments...hey, wait a minute a pattern is developing here - I must be a sort of curse, the athletic equivalent of saying "Macbeth" backstage at the Old Vic!

So the montage would have lots of hill cycling (Croob with the snow falling, Craigantlet in the driving rain, endless sweat soaked hours on the turbo holding 200W while stone-faced white-coated technicians looked on making intermittent notes on their clipboard, sorry that's a bit too Ivan Drago again!), long runs in Belvoir Forest (I'm thinking Foo Fighters "All my Life" or better yet The Cult "She Sells Sanctuary" as backing music) and early morning swimming at David Lloyd (Empty pool, solo swimmer effortless(?) swimming length after length, before emerging in a sheen of water, he catches the eye of the blonde lounging beside the pool; she slowly begins to peel off her...sorry that is a different montage and anyway it has a weird jazz-funk soundtrack!)

Benchmarking sessions were used, including the Irish Duathlon at Ballymena, the Tour of the Glens and Camlough Triathlon and while there were obviously blips as real life intervened, I managed to stay relatively injury and illness free and as Dave Scott says "90% of training is just turning up each day" - consistency is key and I was regularly keeping to my Sunday bike rides and Friday runs.

By the time it rolled around to June I started to make up a race strategy as requested by Simon Ward. My original plan had been to "finish the race with a smile on my face and stay out of the medical tent!" and while, at times, I had been in danger of inflating these expectations I knew that my detailed four page method statement would keep me right (He really wasn't expecting that, claiming that his requests usually generate a three line response but you know me - love the sound of my own keyboard; this being further proof!).

Despite being a relative swim novice I was relatively unconcerned here and just wanted to expend the minimum of energy (Key Phrase "The swim is only transport to the bike"). Biking had been tricky for a while but a 125km "Time Trial" with Darby and Enda had convinced me that I was in good shape there but I knew that the run was key for me - the long run consistency had been great and the last 90 minute run 12 days out had been 7.05mile pace with HR @ 130bpm.

So everything was based on the need to get to the marathon as in control as possible and let that form show through, I mean I would only have been going for seven and a half hours plus at that stage anyway!

OK another montage - Race Week (Backing music: Turin Brakes "Long Distance"). Swam at race start time (7am) on the race course on three mornings, scouted the run course at mid-afternoon to get a feel for the temperature (Although that was nugatory work, as had to run in tights, thermal top and waterproof gilett to guard against the driving rain and 60km/hr winds) and did a lap of the bike course one week out.

Ah the bike course, well they weren't messi22:42 2004-07-24ng about when they put this one together! Three loops of 60km with 2 listed "Cols" on each lap and one unlisted climb out at Xonrupt. The easy way to explain is that Xonrupt was like climbing to Carryduff (grand on its own), Plafond was Spelga (Hard climb, needs 39x25) and Arrentes was Craigantlet from Newtownards (long & steady and punishing by the end)

Actually being able to ride the course was a boon, as I was able to revise both my time schedule for support crew but, more importantly, dial in an effort level that would allow me to execute the race strategy. So the scouting was done, the strategy was in place, the CO2 cartridges purchased (see it did prove to be useful!) and the nutrition was organised (Secret weapon - honey-soaked potato bread, Norn Iron's best!). Time to Race.

Oh sorry got to talk about bikes for a bit (Dessie would never forgive me if I didn't and you all know what a bike geek I am). This years award for top bike in T1 is a tie again between the Carbon Fibre Cheetah (A la Natasha Badmann - internal hydration bladder, ultra aero "twist" brakes, but a 58 tooth front ring complete with SRM power measuring device - no chance of spinning out on the Defline with that setup) and John Fisher who was racking behind me (I was bib 220, same as the magazine - great number!) with a custom Serotta, HED low pro bars, full carbon Record and Darby's lust item, a Zipp 909 wheel set. Oh and special mention to the German guy on the Storck Scenario Evo with Record and Bora wheels, who unloaded it from the back of his Porsche Cayenne Turbo and then proceeded to loudly tell everybody around him how much it cost (€10,000) - he DNFed (I checked his race number - 'cos I thought that he was a bit of an dick!).

After a week of every climactic condition under the sun, race morning dawned with clear skies, light winds and a chill in the air. This meant a glassy swim in the lake but every prospect of the day heating up considerably.

Out for the 7am start as the sun was rising on the horizon and I was actually quite relaxed (Despite that nervous smile I am sporting in the wetsuit photo!) and once the swim started I did have to do some judicious repositioning ("Smack a few fools upside de' head" - said in my best Mr T impersonation) before I was able to get a decent draft at about 1200m. However on the return trip we were swimming due east and the group that I was drafting off had obviously all neglected to wear their mirror lenses as they started to veer markedly east-south-east. So the next 2k was spend swimming in glorious isolation until they all caught me again at the last pyramidal buoy with about 350m to go, but the whole swim I really went very easy and enjoyed the sensation of swimming in a mountain lake (Infinitely preferable to lengths in a chlorine filled pool!)

Up the ramp - glance at the HRM and seeing it reading an easy 124bpm and into transition. I quickly donned my cycle shoes, shorts, glasses and helmet, before lifting my arm warmers to guard against the chill on the first descents and away I went.

Long distance races are all about the bike - that is the biggest truism of all. Firstly it constitutes the largest portion of the race and it is fairly irrelevant how good your running is if your legs are fried after 112 miles of riding. So my stated objective was not to frazzle the quads too much. The second reason that is has such importance is nutrition - the fourth discipline in Long Course Racing. I had "road-tested" several combinations of products prior to putting together my detailed nutrition plan and the only thing that I knew for sure was that the race supplied Enervit products gave me pretty nasty gastro-intestinal problems!

I needed something that would give me the 350 kcal/hr and still "sit" OK, while also replacing the essential electrolytes lost due to sweating in the heat of the day. (Science note: the body can only absorb about 250-300kcal/hr due to the limit on the oxidation of blood-borne CHO but people like Mark Allen and Dave Scott "trained" their systems to absorb 650-700kcal/hr) Through trial and error 350 was as high as I could go with the additional calories required to make up the deficit from the swim and provide a buffer for the run, when appetite naturally wanes!

click here to read part 2