Rob Woollen Personal Training Manchester

Those of you who know me will be aware that I was hoping to knock an hour or so off last year's Ironman time. Last year I had an injury which prevented me from fulfilling my potential in the marathon so I was ready to get to work this time around.

Unfortunately it was not to be. I was on target to knock an hour off until the 13 mile point in the run. At that stage my legs just gave in and I was forced to drop my pace significantly to the point where I finally came in 10 mins slower than last year!

So what can we learn from this? Was I just not up to the job, or is there something I can take away for future use?

There was nothing extrinsic that affected my performance (ie there are no excuses!). On reflection I think I may have messed up on the following two areas: -

1. Nutrition. Last year I ate steadily throughout the bike ride. This time around I realsied about half way in that I had not been eating anywhere near as much. This may have left me short of much needed fuel later on

2. Salts. I realised too late at registration that I had lent my salt tablets to somebody and had to buy some more. However they did not have my brand, so I picked up the only ones I could get. I think I just failed to prepare properly and did not really know how or when to use them. In the last 4 miles of the race, after I had been steadily taking the tablets my performance improved and I picked up a little time.

So the moral of the story is - fuel efficiently and prepare properly by trying out your salt tablets in trianing and using the same system on race day. In the end the race became about survival for me - and I managed that!

Wow! This was truly the hardest race I have ever entered. Only half the distance of Ironman, but so much harder!

After a fairly standard 1.9km swim in Ullswater we set off for the 56mile Bike route. Those familiar with the Lake District may know the Kirkstone Pass (including the top bit called - The Struggle. With a top speed of 41.2mph, and a lowest speed of about 4mph, I made it round with an average of just over 16mph.Thanks to all my clients I pushed on to stay on the bike for the whole course. There were two occasions on which it nearly beat me, and I was seriously considering getting off and pushing. I just felt that there was nothing left in my legs. But I thought of all the times that I have asked you, "Do you really need to stop?" and realised that my words would ring hollow unless I applied the same rule to myself.

In fact it was on the big hills that I learned a great lesson which I would like to pass on. This was my first proper test of my new bike - and I had gone for a triple chainset (3 rings on the front) for the first time ever as this allows easier gears for the bigger hills. But I learned that sometimes you can overuse the low gears, and actually get more tired by riding in the lowest gear than by riding with slower leg speed in a higher gear with a bit more "bite".

I fully intended to run the entire run section, and passed a number of walking athletes on the first mountain. Then I saw the second mountain -Fusedale - and the reason why only one person ran the entire course (all but 25m). I did manage to run the whole 13 mile course with the exception of Fusedale and came home on the hottest day of the year in a time I am happy with.

Cartmel in the Lake District is a lovely venue for a trail run. This was 17km of fairly challenging terrain - and we got a Sticky Toffee Pudding for our trouble!

The question I decided to answer for you this time around is one that I am often asked. What do you think about when you are running for two hours. I decided to really give that question some thought during the run.

If you have asked me that question before, I have probably said that I use the run as a sort of meditation, sorting out my thoughts and getting my head straight. And that is certainly true for a nice relaxing trainign run around Styal Woods or along the Mersey. But what about on race day? Do I still let my thoughts drift off, or do I think about the run at all?

It turns out that I spend almost every minute of the race thinking about the race itself. How is my time? Am I going too fast or too slow? Can I put a little more effort in without blowing up? Who is around me? Am I gaining or losing places? Am I using my arms properly? Am I using my legs properly? Am I on target for my finish goal?

So the answer is that I spend the vast majority of the time thinking about the run, my technique and my time.

Temperatures of -7C on the morning of Toughuy and 3/4 inch of ice on all the lakes.

We went out to break the ice first thing in the morning to make a channel through for competitors, but Billy Wilson  -the creator of the race - would not hear of it."It's called Toughguy" he yelled!

There is a great Youtube of my friend Paul Jones breaking through the ice to claim first place.

After a couple of hours in registration making sure everyone knew how to use the new electronic timing chips, it was time to hold the starting line ready for the race. It was apparently colder than last year, but without the deadly windchill.

As a running marshall, I had to do a little bit of stopping when we got to the first water obstacles. It amazes me the number of people who run round the edges. Why come all this way and do the race but miss bits out. One guy shoulder barged me out of the way when I tried to steer them away from the edges.

It did not seem as cold as last year, but the ice on the barbed wire crawl was deadly. I also banged my legs a few times on half-sunken icebergs in the lakes!

The big theme for me this year was "CAN I DO A LITTLE BIT MORE?" I asked myself that question about 30 times during the 2 hour ordeal and usually the answer was "YES!"

I came home 351 out of the 5050 who entered (and 4200 who finished!) which is Ok seeing as I had additional duties along the way. All in all a great race - highly recommended!

My first top 100 place came last winter, but at the expense of hypothermia.

I was down on the farm marking out the slaloms last weekend (a killer hill run where we take a steep bank and make the competitors (including me!) run up and down about ten times. The ice was around 3 inches thick on the lake under walk the plank (if you don't know Toughguy take a look at www.toughguy.co.uk) and easily withstood a concrete block being thrown onto it.

Hopefully over the last week or so it will have melted a little, but I can envisage hypothermia again. If you are coming down to the race, make sure you have warm clothes for after and get something hot inside you as soon as you can after the race

After spending 2 weeks doing only indoor sessions, and really missing my running (I did have a go once on fresh powder, but certainly wouldn't take a client out) I ordered some Yak Trax. Thanks to MKW for telling me about them.

Yak Trax are essentially snow chains for trainers. They arrived the other day and I found them easy to fit and they look very good. Now all I need is some packed snow or ice to try them out!

Chances are it will not snow now for another 20 years, but I am glad to have them at the ready just in case!

What a day!

 After my friend and fellow Ironman Alan had tested the water on Saturday, I was really worried about getting round within the cut-off time of 2 hours 20 mins. Swimming is by far my weakest discipline, and although I have done the distance once in the pool, I am not very experienced in open water, or at that distance.

 It is very hard to judge time in the water, and 15 mins can feel like an hour.

 After the first of the two laps I looked at my watch. It had only taken me 36 minutes to get round that time - I went off with renewed vigour and came home in 1:19 - with over an hour to spare!

 The first lap of the bike was hard, starting right into a huge hill up to the top of Rivington Moors. then came a steep winding downhill where my speed hit a scary 38 mph. The rest of the route was fairly good, but hillier than it seemed on the drive round we did the Friday before.

 At the end of the first lap, however, I ran into trouble. My left knee was becoming quite sore and hurt with every pedal stroke. Now those who train with me will be familiar with the phrase, "Pain means stop, but burn is good". So should I have stopped then and had it looked at? But that would have meant 6 months of training and a £300 entry fee out of the window. Is it sometimes ok to ignore pain if you are careful and the ends are worth it?

My answer is "Yes". As long as you know what the pain is likely to be, and you are understand that to continue could mean to increase recovery time I think it is a decision we can all make from time to time. Had it been in training, I would have stopped immediately and got straight down to the physio.

I finished the bike way over target, and hit the marathon. The first half was painful, but I managed to run it all. However by the 13 mile point, I was unable to put weight on the leg when going downhill. So I ran the flats and walked the hills. The marathon took me 4:36 hours - a little disappointing as I felt (fitness-wise) that I was on fire and could have flown around it.

In the end, I took my medal at 14 and a half hours. Next year I'm going for around 13!

Thanks to all who sponsored me, raised nearly £3k for FSID.