Credit Crunch notwithstanding, 2008 saw two major personal highlights for me. The first was getting under seven hours for the UK 70.3 Ironman at Wimbleball; and the second was coming in under six hours for the Vitruvian. More pleasing in many ways was the fact that I trained much better for the year and generally remained much healthier – probably a major factor in my success. I also completed the Etape du Dales at the second attempt and the Cheshire Cat at the first – despite an irate local farmer pointlessly removing signage.
The biggest excitement of the year for me, though was the success of the British track cycling team at the World Champs in Manchester, and then the Olympics. I was lucky enough to got to Manchester for one of the days and watched the awesome foursome break the world team pursuit record (which they would smash again at the Olympics). The big highlight of my day, though, was watching Chris Hoy's match v Dutch sprint legend Theo Bos in the quarter finals. Everybody knew this was the crunch match and if Hoy won there would be little stopping him taking the world title, and so it proved.
- March: The Cheshire Cat (cycle sportive)
- April: Lakeland Loop (cycle sportive)
- May: Fred Whitton Challenge (cycle sportive)
- May: Beaver Half Ironman (triathlon)
- June: Spud Riley Challenge (cycle sportive)
- June: Dambuster Triathlon (olympic distance)
- July: 3 Counties Challenge (cycle sportive)
- August: UK Ironman
There are five challenging cycle sportives in the schedule including the legendary Fred Whitton, and an early half-ironman. The reason for all the cycle rides is that the bike leg is the key to a successful Ironman attempt. Hopefully these rides will get me cycling at a much tougher level than I need to complete the 112 mile Ironman bike course – route details aren't published yet, but it's looking likely to be flat and fast. Hopefully this will mean I will arrive at the marathon end of the race with quite a bit left in the tank. There are two new triathlons in there too in the shape of the Beaver (usually a July date, but I guess they moved it back to act as a training event for Ironman UK) and the Dambuster. I'm going for the Beaver in preference to Wimbleball because it's a few weeks earlier in the season, and I haven't done it before (plus it's half the price to enter). The Dambuster is an Olympic distance race (haven't done one of these for a couple of years), but I'm familiar with the course (same as the Vitruvian, only half the distance) so I know where I can really push the pace. I will be reporting on all these events via my blog as I build up to the big one.
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