Just finished a session on the trainer and a quick half hour on the road and I’m now sitting at home and wondering what it would be like to be in cold, windy and wet PE for this years IronMan. This year was an “off” year for me as far as IronMan PE goes. After IronMan 70.3 the idea was to concentrate on getting back into work, either through the development of my consulting business or back into corporate. The 15 months of consulting has been wonderful from a freedom to train point of view, but it has been financially stressful. Having never been out of a regular job in my life before has certainly been taxing – just changed the corporate MD stresses for financial ones. Anyway, enough of that – my astrologer wife tells me things will change in the not too distant future – here’s holding thumbs!

Since my last post I ran the Two Oceans Half Marathon as I’d originally entered it as a training run for IronMan. The day was bleak from a weather perspective with howling winds and rain but I still enjoyed the run coming in just over 1:42 and feeling great (but very cold!). It was so lousy that I ran home from the finish, showered and then watched the rest of the race on TV instead of supporting from the side of the road as we normally do. Anyway it was nice to get out there and race in my SCORE/IronBrian kit. I guess any bit of mileage for the wonderful cause is worthwhile.

I hope all those competing today in PE have a great day despite the conditions. Best of luck to my ex-colleagues at adidas who are racing – Roddy, Bridget, Kate and Terry.

I’m not sure what’s going to be next on the race calendar as I’m not making any commitments until I’ve finalised on the work front. Till then, take care.

Sorry it has taken so long to follow up on my race but I’m only now back in Cape Town and have access to the Internet. After the race we took some time driving back, stopping in Struisbaai for a few days R&R. Louise found a beautiful spot on the beach which was dog-friendly (not too many of those around for renting nowdays). We were literally 200m from the beach – 14km of unspoilt beach – what a win! We are going back there in April and I will definately be packing my running gear. I had a slow but very enjoyable run on Friday for about 8km along the beach when it was low tide – brilliant for the soul – just me and my thoughts for mile after mile. The weather was fantastic so we spent most of the time swimming and lying on the beach – just what the doctor ordered to get the year off to a good start.

Race day in East London was perfect after quite a stormy week prior. Paul Wolff, the Race Director, even brought up the possibility of the swim having to be cancelled in the race briefing the night before due to the bad weather in the week preceding the race. Needless to say this didn’t happen as the weather was great. I had a slow but very comfortable swim going the long way round to avoid all the congestion as the “old guys” were in the third wave which meant having to swim through over 1000 guys ahead of you from the previous waves. I only realised how slow and easy I had taken it when I left transition and syncronised my watch with my bike computer – 40:26, a good 8 minutes slower than I had ever swum before. However, from chatting to quite a few guys afterwards, the swim was generally slower due to the currents. Having lost so much time against what I had targeted I decided to just enjoy the bike and see how things panned out on the run.

I had a relaxed bike and really didn’t push myself as there were so many riders out there on the freeway and so much drafting going on that I sat up a lot of the time and just enjoyed the experience, something which I haven’t done before. Normally I would have been head down and racing as hard as I could to catch up on the time lost in the swim. In the back of my head I also had my disasterous 2011 IM PE ride with all the punctures so I figured if I went easy there would be less chance of puncturing. After a slow 2:55 on the bike I transitioned and went out on the run feeling particularily strong.

I knocked off sub-5 minute km’s for the first few km’s but I knew this would be short lived and by the time I hit the hill at the end of the beachfront I was back to 5:30 – 6:00 per km. The difference between my run this year and past years was that I ran the whole way (even up John Bailey Drive – the 1.5km hill which seemed like it would never end and you had to climb it twice as the run was a 2 lap loop!) I finished the run in 1:54 which once again was hardly spectacular but I was still running strongly at the end which I’ve never done before. Overall my 5:42 was slower than I’ve done in past years but I definately enjoyed this year more – maybe I’m getting wiser in my old age? Whilst I didn’t break 5:30 which was disappointing, I’m overall happy with my performance and the way the day panned out.

What now? I’ve entered Two Oceans Half Marathon over Easter so I’ll get out onto the road a bit more and see if I can’t use this fitness I’ve build up and put in a good time. I do however realise that all the slow long distance which I’ve been doing over the past couple of years had made me slower and slower when it comes to the half marathon but I’m keen to see how I go over the new course. As for IronMan in PE – I think it will have to wait for another year as I now need to focus on getting sorted out on the work front.

Everything is now pretty much done in so far as training is concerned. I’ve had a really good couple of weeks including a number of brick sessions (mainly bike/run sessions) so I’m feeling confident. I’m looking to go under 5:30. 5:15 would be fantastic but that will mean I will have to “smoke” the run which is not an easy one. There’s a good 1.5km hill which has to be negotiated twice which in the past has left me walking.

I spent the weekend doing bike admin as I’m determined not to end up like IronMan last year. Just as well as on Saturday I punctured in the back wheel whilst testing out my race wheels (Zipp 606’s). I settled in to fix the puncture and believe it or not but the spare tube I had (with a valve extension on it) was too short – a replay of IronMan! Luckily I was not too far from CycleLab Westlake so I shouldered my bike and walked there to sort out the problem. It was clear that there was a problem with the wheels and not the road surface so I had them replace the rim tape and I collected my bike that afternoon (thanks to Dad and Mom for the lift home whilst my bike was being sorted!)

However, I was not happy with the valve extension which had been used so I went about replacing the tube only to find that with the new rim tape on taking off the tyre was extremely difficult. I ended up calling in the expert (Ian Seggie) and together we sorted out the problem. I hope that I have an incident free race on Sunday as it’s going to take some strength to get that tyre off the back wheel if I puncture – let’s all hold thumbs.

I popped through to Texas Peak to Marc and Rebecca this morning and collected some GU Roctane for race day – thanks guys – your product is tops and I couldn’t survive without it. My bike has just been dropped off with Focus.on.the.finishline (Paul and Kelley) who will be taking it to East London for me. Another great service for those of you who do not know about it – check out their website www.focusonthefinishline.co.za.

Now it’s time to start packing the car and we’ll be off first thing in the morning to spend a few days in PE before driving through to East London on Saturday morning.

Good luck to all those doing IronMan 70.3 and especially to those first timers – good luck Segg’s – the swim will be a breeze – no worries!

To end on a really good note. adidas Germany have very kindly come to the party and contributed the shortfall on what we raised at the IronMan in PE last year to ensure we hit the R80,000 target. This now mean that a whole bunch of young guys and girls from SCORE will be able to go on the lifeskills training course and ensure that we make a difference in the lives of those less privileged than us.

On a personal note – Mel I hope that things are going well with your new assignment in Switzerland – I’m sure it is a little colder than the 35 degree heatwave we are experiencing in Cape Town today.

It’s been quite some time since I last posted anything – a combination of not much happening and trying to sort myself out workwise. Now that I’m over the disappointment of Challenge Cape Town being cancelled I’m back into training for IronMan 70.3 and it’s been going pretty well. I’ve clocked up quite a couple of brick sessions over the last few weeks which have pleased me. With everyone on holiday and nothing much happening with my work commitments I’ve been able to average around 10 hours a week of training including some quality sessions. Earlier this week I ran Forest Road in Bishopscourt which is a really tough one plus kilometer hill which I haven’t done since I was training for Comrades many years ago.

With 3 weeks to go to IronMan 70.3 in East London I’m feeling confident of putting in a PB effort. I’ve never really raced IronMan 70.3 as it has always been part of my training for the full IronMan in PE, but this year with the training I put in for Challenge Cape Town I’m keen to go hard and see how it goes. It’s not an easy race by any means and I didn’t compete last year as I was ill, but in 2010 I did a 5:33 and I’d like to go under this. The run route has changed and I think it makes it a bit harder as you have to run two really tough hills. Hopefully some of my training on the mountain will help with the hills.

On the SCORE front things have been quite as Mel has moved on to an new challenge and will be re-locating from Cape Town – Mel we are all going to really miss you! I will continue to try and raise funds in whatever way I can for SCORE as I believe strongly in what they do and what they stand for as an organisation. Unfortunately since leaving adidas and the corporate world my “pulling power” has diminished somewhat and I have not been as successful in attracting sponsorships. It’s quite amazing the influence one could exert on various potential contributors when one held the position of adidas Managing Director – Brian Kerby Consultant doesn’t have the same effect! Anyhow, I will continue to try and make whatever difference I can in securing further funding for SCORE as they desperately need it to be able to continue the great work they do. I’m hoping that 2012 will bring more success for me on the work front which will enable me to better leverage the contacts that I make to increase the amount we raise for SCORE. There is still about R25,000 to go to achieve the target we set for last year’s IronMan (R80,000).

Wishing everyone all the very best for 2012 – may it be a wonderful year for you all.

It’s now official – Challenge Cape Town is off till 2012. I’m pretty disappointed as I’ve put in a lot of training through winter and although I’ve picked up a slight cold this week I’m was looking forward to competing over this distance in Cape Town in front of family and friends. Well, it’s not to be.

One pleasing thing that I can take out of it is that I now know that I can train through winter in Cape Town. The training certainly won’t go to waste – there’s no such thing in my mind. I’ve entered IronMan 70.3 in East London so I’ll take a few days off now to get properly over my cold and then continue training for East London.

There’s been quite a lot of unhappiness on the social media about the lateness of this announcement just 17 days before the race. I have to be honest I was apprehensive about whether it would take place after attending the launch and seeing how much still needed to be signed-off on (hence my entry into IM70.3). As I said on Facebook, the issues around the route should have been addressed months ago. I’m not sure how one gets road closures for an event of this nature when there is a field of only just over 400 athletes, as I was lead to believe. I really feel for those athletes who were planning to travel to the event as there are sunk costs which they are not going to be able to recover. For me in Cape Town it certainly isn’t too bad – as long as I get my refund which has been promised. I see that the Challenge Family are offering free entries to other races of theirs in other parts of the world as compensation – nice gesture but racing outside of SA is really expensive and comes with logistics I’m not sure I’m prepared for.

For those of you who have made contributions to SCORE based on my completing Challenge Cape Town I trust you will be OK with these being transferred over to my competing in the IronMan 70.3 next year. Who knows, but if the organisers managed to get Challenge Cape Town up and running for 2012 I might have a crack at it?