Words fail me. Which is apt as I’ve just listened to the official Challenge Roth songs. I can only hear music…
And, once you listen to these songs, word will fail you too: http://www.spothouse.de/challenge/
Roth T – 3 Days (Andrew)
Packed.
Roth T – 4 Days (Andrew)
Six days before Norseman 2016 I did something stupid: I picked up my bike bag while taking it down from the attic – and pulled a muscle in my back.
Five days before Noresman I was prodded by a physio and told “this will hurt, but in four days, everything will be okay.”
For the next four days my back hurt every time I twisted or turned. And then, on the fifth day, everything was fine. But I have to admit, it was a worry and didn’t help my nerves in the run up to the race.
This year, yesterday, I was careful. I took no chances. I asked my wife to get my bike bag from the attic…
Roth T – 5 Days (Andrew)
Well, at least the first transition will be a PB as I won’t need to change out of my wetsuit after the swim…
Roth T – 6 Days (Andrew)
St Marys Loch Triathlon (Iain)
It is two years since I last did a standard length triathlon. Which is my excuse for why I forgot to take my bike helmet to transition. Thankfully, someone spotted my mistake. I ran back to the car to get it.
It wasn’t my only mistake, I lost my swim cap during the time it took me to receive my swim cap and then walk the short distance to the loch to put it on. I still haven’t worked out how I manged to do that.
The swim temperature was announced as 15C so I was surprised when I got into the loch that the water felt much colder. I swam a little distance to warm up and water suddenly became warm. I assumed it was just a cold patch at the start but the fluctuating temperature was present throughout the swim. On one stroke my hand would enter warm water and on the next the next it would enter freezing cold water. Very strange.
I enjoyed the 2 lap swim. The loch never felt too busy and I was happy to swim round with no one near me. I think swim drafting is cheating so I try to avoid it. I’d rather do the swim using my own power than be dragged along by someone else.
I got into transition after the swim and discovered the socks I had left there were inside out. I had to correct that before starting the bike. A gentleman has got to have standards!
The organiser had warned us that the roads might be slightly busier than usual because there was a classic car rally taking place nearby. There was also a beer festival on. Beer and cars. What could possibly go wrong?
Thankfully the classic car drivers must have been sleeping off their beers as other than a Model T Ford I didn’t spot any classic cars.
The organiser said no-one had ever got lost on the route. It was easy to see why. There is only one road and no option to take any other route.
The route itself was on a decent road surface. The road was undulating rather than hilly but there was a draggy climb near the end.
The race manual describes the course as “It’s almost completely flat (really!) – a couple of small undulations – maybe 5m climb on each. “
Not according to my watch. It shows there was 70m of climbing. Which is not allot but it definitely is not flat course. The trail means there’s lot of small up and down sections.
I like running off-road so I really enjoyed the run but it definitely did not match the description of the course.
OVERALL
It was a great race. I got a PB for the distance and its definitely a course I’d do again. The race gets a bonus point for its t-shirt which is a snazzy baseball style affair.
Roth T – 7 Days (Andrew)
My last ride before Ironman 2015 was my usual circular route to Whitelee wind farm and back. I wanted to see if, after months of training, it felt any easier and did I notice a difference.
I did. I felt stronger, faster and that I could have easily carried on – which was good, as it’s a 25 mile loop and the Ironman had another 87 miles…
I decided to ride the same loop this time but in a more scientific way: I would check Strava to see if I could beat my records around the course.
And…
I DIDN’T!!!!
I came second… again and again and again. All my records, a silver medal.
I blame Iain.
He lent me his time-trial TT bike and for the last couple of weeks I’ve tried it on this loop and have, inadvertently skewered all my records with the TT bike times rather than my own bike.
Now I know how F1 driver feel when they race Lewis Hamilton. You can be your best, you can even train harder than anyone else, but the person with the best tech always wins.
Damn you, TT equipped Andrew!
Roth T – 8 Days (Andrew)
With a heatwave of 40 degree plus across central Europe I think I may need to revise the following list to include a portable fan, a bucket of ice cubes and lifetime of living in the Sahara desert.
As it may be too late for a pasty Scotsman to suddenly develop a tolerance for hot weather (which, as any Scotsman knows, is any time it’s not raining), I’ve prepared the following list of Roth essentials and will now spend the next week trying to work out the one item I need but have forgotten to include – because there’s always one thing I forget!
Swim
Trunks
Chafe Cream
Goggles
Swim Cap
Transition
Towel?
Energy Bar
Salt?
Bike
Bike – VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
Di2 Charger
Helmet
Shoes
Socks
Shoe cover (rain)
Waterproof shorts + jacket (rain)
Shorts
Arm warmers
Top
Sunglasses
Nutition
Garmin 910
Garmin 500
Run
Trainers
Socks
Shorts
Tshirt
Belt
Runcap
Garmin 935xt
Nutrition
Bluetooth headphones
End
Socks
Boxer
Tshirt
Jumper
Jeans
Trainers
Clothes
T-shirts
Socks
Boxers
Jumper
Other
Camera + charger
Laptop + charger
Kindle + charger
Being Beige (Andrew)
Out for dinner. Work thing. A few colleagues and a supplier. Usual dinner talk. Work. Weather. Who ordered what? When someone says they’d talking to their partner last night and they both decided that they were too “beige” and had both decided to get a tattoo.
That got us talking. Did anyone else consider themselves “beige” and, if so, did they want to be less beige? More… orange?
One man said he wanted to listen to more new music as he only listened to Ed Sheeran.
One woman said she wanted to skydive.
Another said they wanted to travel more.
And as we went round the table I could help thinking that all of the answers were, well, beige.
Travel. Skydive. Get a tattoo.
Were we talking about excitement or planning a gap year?
But afterwards, I felt ashamed for that thought. Who says that challenging yourself has to meet some kind of novelty threshold. That you can only be a rebel with a tattoo if that tattoo was of Ed Sheeran’s face on your face in a perma-ginger tattoo facemask.
Or that you’d Skydived strapped to a cow.
Or you travelling is not travelling unless you set out to discover the Lost City of Gold.
(Which is pretty much how holidays worked in the old days. You didn’t go on holiday. You went on an expedition! If Christopher Columbus was alive today then you just know he’d have sent out a charity email before he sailed off to find America)
Anything can be a challenge. In some parts of Glasgow, some people rarely leave their postcode. Getting on the bus is a challenge. While, for me, Skydiving would literally be a step too far.
It’s up to everyone to decide what their challenge might be. And even then, to decide if they want to challenge themselves or not. Because it’s okay to be beige because being beige is entirely subjective. One person’s beige is another typical weekend.
I have a colleague at work who dives every weekend and evert holiday. He swims around sunken wrecks, looks for fresh scallops in shallow waters and thinks nothing of having his oxygen tank fail – “just something that happens!” – and have to work out how to quickly get back to the surface before he drowns.
Yet he was the one who said he was beige!
Outdoor Swim Review: Balgray Reservoir (Iain)
“Is this where the group meets for swimming?”
I was standing half-naked in a car park next to Balgray Reservoir when a man approached and asked me this. I don’t normally frequent car parks in the buff but I was getting changed to go swimming and there was no facilities nearby.
I was not part of a group and did not know what he was asking about so I replied “Sorry I’m not part of a group”
He looked confused by my answer. I realised he was probably confused as to why I would be half naked, trying to get one leg in a wet suit, if I wasn’t part of swimming group.
So to put his confused mind at rest I added. “I‘m swimming too but just not with a group.”
He didn’t go away. He waited a minute and then said, “is it a 800m loop?”
“Is what a 800m loop?” I asked.
“The swim?” He replied.
“I don’t know. I’m not with the group!” I was starting to get annoyed.
He waited a minute and then said “Are you in charge of the group?”
“NO!!! I’m not in the group! I’m just trying to go for a swim!”
He looked like he finally realized I was not able to help him but it did not stop him from asking one final question.
“How much is it to join?”
REVIEW
Ease of Access: There’s a car park next to the reservoir. No toilet or changing facilities. I had to walk through mud to enter the water.
Water quality: A bit murky and grim but reasonably warm. it was 14.5C when I went (June)
Swim Quality: It was quite easy to do a reasonable loop by aiming for some of the local features e.g. a tall power tower, a big house on the hill etc. The water was calm.
Would I go back: Probably not. There’s nicer places to swim.
Twin brothers swimming, cycling and running in Scotland 