As a challenge I’m going to run, bike or swim every day in January.

Day Four

I haven’t changed any settings but, when I start an activity on my Garmin watch, it suggests a training run. Today, it suggested 7 x 10 second sprints over 44 minutes. Given I’ve got 31 days I thought I might as introduce an element of surprise to the challenge and I do whatever my watch tells my to do. So, seven 10 second sprints it was. Three minutes of running then beep, beep, sprint. Normally, I only spring in Glasgow when I realise I’ve run down the wrong alley.

How was it? One of those nights where it’s cold enough that it’s impossible to sweat but not cold enough to have to worry about patches of ice on the pavement. I love running in these conditions so it felt easy to be out today.

As a challenge I’m going to run, bike or swim every day in January.

Day Three

If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen. So, when I forgot my watch I had to make very sure of the number of laps I was swimming so I could update Strava when I finished. The tricky bit is that the pool I was swimming in was 21 metres and not 25m, which makes it trickier to work out laps when every five laps is 104m and not 100m.

Top tip for the rest of the month – remember watch. Or get better at maths.

How was it? An almost empty pool with only one other person swimming. An otherwise easy and relaxing swim.

As a challenge I’m going to run, bike or swim every day in January.

Day Two

D’oh! I realised today that this isn’t day two, it’s actually day seven as I’d also ran, cycled or swam the last five days of December too. If you’re thinking of starting a challenge then don’t do what I’ve done and start it without thinking of having a break first. I bet Edmund Hillary wasn’t halfway up K2 when he decided to tackle Everest the next day.

How was it? The hardest part of cycling in January is the weather. Most days feels like part of a musical: miserable. But, when you get a good day, it’s great to get out even if it’s just in the city. No heavy legs today but I was more ambling and rambling than racing around.

As a challenge I’m going to run, bike or swim every day in January. I’ve tried Marcothon, the December challenge to run 5k each day, but quickly decided my legs were not up for running daily. So, instead, I’m going to multi-sport it and challenge myself to spend run, cycle or swim each day this month.

I tried to think of a cool name for the challenge. Tri-anuary? But that would just link it to a specific month rather than something which can be done anytime. So, instead I’ve called it the 31 day challenge, which means it can be completed anytime except obviously February, April, June, September and November. Maybe I should have just called it the one month challenge to be more inclusive?

Day One

How was it? Tired heavy legs after a large meal last night. Really didn’t want to run but went out because it was warm, sunny and remarkably un-January like.

When you’re inside do you really want to be reminded about it? For me, the best programme of the year was ‘Long Way Up’ on Apple TV. A nostalgic revival of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s previous trips around the work but this time a challenge to cycle from the tip of South America to Los Angeles. To watch it now was to be reminded not just of their previous trips but also what it was like to just travel for the sake of travelling, something we can’t do anymore without re-creating the opening of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’.

But if you had to be reminded about the pandemic then the three best programme were Bo Burnhan’s ‘Inside’, an epic musical, nervous breakdown, or possible piss-take, set inside a single room. The not at all pandemic related ‘The Terror’ about two boats trapped in the ice as something that may or may not be supernatural stalks the ice. But while ‘The Terror’ may not be directly about the pandemic it did show what happens if you’re stuck indoors for two years. And BBC3’s ‘Pls Like’, which saw series 3 struggle to film a mock documentary in the middle of lockdown while pretending to be serious while also being deeply silly.

Honourable mentions:

Continuing the nostalgia theme: the so far excellent return of serial killer Dexter Morgan in Dexter: New Blood and season 2 of ‘Justified’. For new stuff I watched Loki and Wandavision (but not Falcon & The Winter Soldier); and the obvious candidates of Succession, Mare of Eastown and Ted Lasso.

Every year I download an info-graphic of my Strava training stats from https://veloviewer.com/infographic

You can see last years here https://twinbikerun.com/2020/12/31/2020-report-iain/

This year I made it as far as Baku. I googled “interesting facts about Baku” and discovered Baku has more mud volcanoes than anywhere else in the world. Although, a mud volcano is not technically a proper volcano as it doesn’t produce Lava.

The aim for the year was to Celtrman. That didn’t happen due to my father passing away in the spring. He died on April 1st. He would have appreciated the irony of leaving us on Aprils fools day.

There was another big event in the family. My granny turned 100 and got her card from the Queen. This is the first time in western isles history the royal mail have successfully delivered a letter on time.

I’m not saying the Queen hates Scottish people but you can get a 100th birthday card from her in Welsh or English but when we asked for Gaelic she replied “Get to f**K Jocks! Know your place and bow down before me before I set Prince Andrew on you all”

I did complete a few races – dramathon, two triathlons and Toddman. Andrew is still claiming I cheated to win Toddman but I won fair and square https://twinbikerun.com/2021/09/08/toddman-2021-film-iain/

We wrote a book. We’ve not really mentioned it here 🙂 The aim was to sell 50 copies before xmas. I’m pleased to say we managed to sell nearly 60. Interstingly 99% of sales has been the paperback. I would have thought the ebook would be more popular as its cheaper and so many people have kindles. I was wrong. https://www.amazon.co.uk/DNF-Swimming-brothers-attempted-triathlon-ebook/dp/B09KTCL3G6

The main thing I learnt this year was that I’ve been eating Bananas incorrectly since for ever!

WTF – My mind is still blown by this….

Overall, I got through the year happy and injury free and I can’t ask more than that.

Happy New Year Everyone.

DNF – Did Not Finish is available to order now… https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09KTCL3G6

Is is our story of 20 years swimming, biking and running. Every one of our results tells a story, even the races we did not finish.

It is a story about finding the joy in racing whether you come first or last.

It contains stories such as ….

I discovered my local triathlon club, Glasgow Triathlon Club, had a Sunday night swimming session for beginners.

I thought it would be a welcoming environment full of like-minded beginners. It wasn’t. Triathletes lie about their ability and they are really competitive

I discovered this when the coach said: “I’d like you all to swim eight lengths of the pool at 70% race pace. I’ll time you. Who wants to go first?”

No one volunteered to go first.

“Come on! Who’s fastest?”

Everyone looked at each other in the same way a lift of strangers looks at each other after one person has farted. Who is it?

I looked at the man next to me. He was solid muscle. His back had the classic v-profile of an Olympic swimmer. He wore tiny Speedos that were so small and revealing they looked like they’d been tattooed to his crotch. His swim goggles cost more than my last car.

“Hurry up! Someone has to go first!”

The only time I’d been mistaken for a swimmer was when a hairdresser said to me “Are you a swimmer?” I beamed with pride and replied “yes” thinking it was because of my swimmer’s physique – but my pride was quickly punctured when the hairdresser said “I thought so – I examined your hair. It is in terrible condition. It is dry from chlorine.”

I did not even have the right equipment for a swim. My swim shorts were run shorts. There was no point buying one pair for running and one for swimming. It meant my run shorts got a wash. My goggles were whatever I could find in the lost and of found bucket of my local pool. I was not a swimmer.

He looked at me again. It wasn’t that he was in a different league to me. It was that we aren’t even playing the same sport.

He said: “You first, mate”

I replied, “No thanks. You should definitely go first.”

He thought about it and said, “no – I think you are quicker.”

So, I went first. I had a five second head start. On the sixth second, he caught up.

I went as fast as I could but he kept having to stop to wait for me.

After we’d finished eight laps the coach said, “are you all happy with your time?”

The man who couldn’t have been more like a fish even if he’d had gills said, “I could have gone faster but I got held up!” Maybe if he hadn’t lied about his ability he wouldn’t have got held up.

If you are good at something, it’s ok to say you are good at it.

I then looked round and saw everyone else. It was like the scene at the start of Saving Private Ryan. Bodies were strewn in the water. People screaming in agony. One man looked like he’d swum himself into a heart attack.

The coach asked, “Was that 70% effort?” No-one replied. They were all completely f&%ked! At last the man having the heart attack said through wheezy, definitely non-competitive, gasps of death “I think I went 65%!”

The best film of the year is an easy one: Dune. After 18 months of watching films at home, there was no better experience than going back to a cinema and watching a film that required the biggest screen and the loudest speakers. The only experience like it was when I went two months without eating any chocolate before running the Edinburgh marathon and then scoffed an entire chocolate muffin on the finish line. I’ve never had heroin but Im pretty sure it doesn’t destroy your mind, body and soul like your first taste of a muffin after two months of abstinence and 26 miles of running.

Dune was a bit like that. The fact it is also a great (though flawed) film was just a bonus. I just wanted to be back in the cinema again.

My highest recommendation for Dune though is that I really wanted to know more about how it was made and managed to find some cracking behind the scenes videos to find out more. Check out:

Honourable mentions

A film I wish I had seen at the cinema was my most surprising film of 2021: Amazon Prime exclusive ‘The Aeronaughts’. A film I dismissed when watching the trailer but couldn’t have been more wrong as it turned out to be vertigo inducing and thrilling as Gravity but in a balloon.

With more films being released to streaming rather than the cinema there was also some other gems in ‘Love & Monsters’ , ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’, ‘Stowaway’, ‘Fear Street’, ‘We Care A Lot’, ‘Prospect’, ‘The Green Knight’ and ‘The Dig’.

But nothing compares to actually going to the Cinema and I only hope that 2022 will see more opportunities to go back and that I won’t have to wait until Dune 2 is out in 2023 before returning.

The view from the top of the Scottish hill climbing route, the Devils Staircase, was beautiful. I was not the only person who thought that. A man behind me (who had a very loud voice) said loudly:

“THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!”

Yes, it is. Thanks for pointing it out. Then 10 seconds later…

 “WHAT A VIEW”

Thanks again. I definitely would not have noticed unless you had said something. Then ten seconds later.

“STUNNING!”

It still was. It hasn’t changed in the last 10 seconds!

Then 10 seconds later…

“AMAZING!”

Please be quiet! Then 10 seconds later.

“GLORIOUS!”

Did someone buy him a thesaurus for Christmas!

Then 10 seconds later….SILENCE. Thankfully, he must have run out of words. His thesaurus must be the abridged version. I took in the view and enjoyed the peace and quiet until he boomed  ”THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!” Then 10 seconds later….”WHAT A VIEW!” He must have been stuck on a loop. And not a nice loop, like a Honey Nut loop, the are delicious.

At this point I slowed down and let him run on ahead as I couldn’t bear listening to him holler for the whole race about how beautiful the course was.

I wonder how his wife puts up with it: she must serve him diner and then he’ll start going: “THIS IS DELICOUS… TASTY… SCRUMMY… THIS IS DELICIOUS…TASTY…”

A break from sporting videos this week to look back at some of my favourite videos/channels. This year I probably watched more YouTube than anything else. I have an infant daughter and she’s not yet old enough to work a microwave or to order a takeaway on JustEat. Instead, she expects us to feed her every few hours and, even more, she expects us to wipe her bum too. Babies really are lazy… 🙂

As part of feeding her though I’ve been watching YouTube channels on cinematography, photography and film editing. There’s some great channels explaining exactly what to do with a three light set up; or how a single light bulb is all you need to make a horror film. I admit it is niche but, hey, this is our fifth year of writing a weekly blog about triathlons so we’re quite capable of being niche on this site.

If you want to know more then these are some good videos to start:

And if playing around around with light and lenses is not your thing and you just want an easy watch then the funniest video each week is Corrections from the Late Night with Seth Myer channel. A web exclusive where each week he corrects all the mistakes his viewers point out that he’s made that week.