Blog 4: Living the Dream

After Ironman France there were 5 weeks until Zurich. Perspective was needed, and an appreciation of what the next few weeks were all about. Our itinerary was the stuff of dreams: Lake Como, South of France, the Alps, Switzerland, Paris and the UK. Special places and special people, be they close family, Italian Exchange families or old friends. The Zurich Ironman was an afterthought, tagged on at the end so that I could tick the box of completing 12 Ironman races, and therefore be eligible for the Kona Legacy draw. So having a schedule dictated by some kind of training plan was never part of the equation. Priorities dictated that runs and rides would be restricted, and swimming would probably just not happen. Opportunities might present themselves, or they might not, and this would have to suffice. Above all, we had a holiday to enjoy, leading up to the focal point of the whole trip, which was the Graduation Ceremony, of our daughter Rebecca, at Manchester University.

After leaving IM Nice the first job was picking up Julie and Dan from Malpensa Airport, Milan, then later in the day picking up Bec from Bergamo Airport. We were staying in Varenna for a week, on the eastern shore of Lake Como, with all four of us together for the first time in 6 months. Lots of food, drink, relaxing and family time in a magnificent location. No training!

Julie and Bec on way to TTT

Dan was the first to leave us as he embarked on a 4-week Italian Cultural Exchange at Bergamo University, to complete a unit of his UWA degree. Meanwhile, the rest of us returned to the south of France, for the largest annual sporting event on the planet - the Tour de France - to witness the Team Time Trial stage in Nice. A magnificent sporting spectacle - with the icing on the cake, a Greenedge win putting Simon Gerrans in yellow.

A highlight was sneaking onto the course on the morning of the TTT and doing the bike course. Giving it a big effort, riding along around 35 kph, it was enlightening to experience what you can never pick up from the TV, or even from the side of the road - the awesome power and speed, as some of the teams came flying past at around 60kph on their recon laps.

We were staying a few kms down the road from Nice, at Carnac-sur-Mur, which also happened to be the depart for the next day's stage. The following morning was pretty special as all the team buses started to park just outside our hotel room. It was a nice surprise, and real privilege to find ourselves in the heart of the pre-stage buzz. As an added bonus I managed to avoid, for the whole tour, having to listen Dumb and Dumber, aka Tomalaris and Tan, back in Australia.

Training wise, the lap around the TTT course was the only ride I did that week. Julie and I did get a few short runs in. Actually, a record number of 5 runs in a week, for a total of 25km.

After Le Tour in Nice it was a couple of nights in Ivrea, where our exchange "daughter" Francesca lives, and where we are treated to very generous Italian hospitality and great company with Francesca's parents, Franco and Paula. This is always an occasion to look forward to; then a couple more nights back in Varenna.

Here, I managed to squeeze in one short, but hard, ride of 20km along the eastern shore of Lake Como, before packing my bike away in its box for almost 3 weeks, until IM Zurich. Every ride here finishes with a hard last couple of kms up the narrow, mountain road with several hairpin bends up to the apartment. This meant a total of 57kms of cycling on my own bike in the 5 weeks between the Nice IM and Zurich.

Dan, Julie and Bec at the
apartment overlooking
Lake Como

Incidentally, the apartment in Varenna is in a truly magnificent location, overlooking Lake Como, and if anyone is interested you can click on this link:

http://www.lakecomohomes.com/view/Vista-dOro-Palma-Apt-6.aspx

Get in touch with us for more information.

The three to four hour drive, from Varenna to Zurich, over the little used Splugen Pass into Switzerland, is absolutely sensational.

In Zurich, I put my bike in storage at the hotel I would be staying for the Ironman, 3 weeks later. We also dumped the car too, after adding a couple of thousand kilometres to its odometer, then jumped on the TGV, for a 300kph+ train ride to Paris. By now we had also lost our other offspring, Rebecca taking up an invite to visit her other exchange family, in Palma, Italy.

Other than one pretty special early morning 8 km run (early by French standards, not Perth triathletes)  along the banks of the Seine, we did no training in Paris. But the 15-20km of walking we did each day, for 3 or 4 days had to be worth something towards maintaining some fitness. It turned out to be a fantastic stay in Paris. We had a quality spacious apartment, in the heart of the city, close to many attractions. If anyone has plans for Paris I strongly recommend you get the details from us.

Having been a few times before, it was nice not feeling compelled to queue for the "must do" attractions this time. We got to see a few places we had not experienced previously, and just really enjoy, and savour the ambiance.

The end of this week was the raison d'être of our travels: as proud parents we were there for daughter Rebecca's graduation ceremony in Manchester. This was very special, at a traditional British University. As we originate from Oldham, an outlying town in Greater Manchester, it was also important to share this with my parents, who contributed significantly to Rebecca enjoying her time in Manchester so much. She spent many Sundays  enjoying the sometimes feisty, extended family Sunday dinner, and was lucky to have her grandparents looking out for her welfare frequently over the four years. Very significant for Julie and I, was the assurance that she had someone relatively close when required.

I do not think there is any doubt she has had the time of her life. Few would argue against Australia being one of the very best countries on earth to bring up children. However, there is not the University culture here, that is typically found elsewhere. What I mean by that, is the academic tradition of people leaving home to go to study in another region, or city, is not the norm in Australia, as it is elsewhere in the world. So although Rebecca was an outsider in Manchester, so were the vast majority of students starting their academic pathway there, leaving their family homes for the first time. Consequently, there is a vastly different dynamic as regards student life, and university culture. In our house the contrast is very apparent with Daniel now in his second year at UWA.

Rebecca and Grandparents
at her Graduation

Over the past few months we have seen pictures from inside John Ryland's library, where Rebecca was studying examples of early, original, historic texts, such as those of Dante, and it was here they were stored. She said she felt like she was studying at Hogwart's. Until now, and despite living in the Manchester area for over 30 years, neither Julie, or I had ever been in this particular building. Julie had even done her dental degree in its shadow, and I got my Post Grad qualification down the road. So inspired by Rebecca's photos we had to put this to rights and make a visit. It was well worth it and very impressive, to say the least.

As for training, in terms of a typical programme, no resemblance. Hopefully, the quality of the rides I did do might make up for the lack of frequency. Special thanks must go to Des Thorpe, Oliver Robinson and Mark Ferguson, who put an excellent range of quality bikes at my disposal: a road bike, a cycle-cross bike and a mountain bike. My old mates from Oldham are particularly good riders, compete to a high level - National podium standard - yet not too serious. Each ride seems to be a piss-taking smash fest, with plenty of social time along the way.

How good is Mark? He was first across the finish line (the over 40s had a 15 minute start over the under 40s) in what is classed as the "World's Toughest Cyclo Cross Race" the gruelling Three Peaks a few years ago. Upon finishing, the announcer asked Fergie what he put his success down to. His response: "I've got the speed of a race horse, the strength of a cart horse and the brains of a rocking horse".

The traditional Thursday night Oldham Ruffyed ride, on the tracks around Saddleworth and West Yorkshire (in the Pennines above Manchester) have to be experienced to be believed. Long, hard, fast, technical with a huge range of terrain, and bloody good fun, with constant banter. These rides are on another level to anything I have done over recent years. A humbling experience. Got dropped constantly, up hill, down hill and on the flat. Mountain biking at its very best, but a bit extreme in places. I was well out of my depth. I can't believe I actually used to be relatively good at this. There were many places where by choice, I would have got off, or done a chicken run, if there was one. Here, I just followed as best I could, and suddenly, with no time to analyse the situation, the ridiculously dangerous rocky drop-offs, or whatever, were behind you. And all this a week before an Ironman.

Saddleworth MTBing

Another highlight was riding out and doing much of Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France, which will start in Yorkshire. If the weather is good the scenery in the Yorkshire Dales will astound and impress many. If weather is not so good, it could be grim. There will be a lot of riders on some very narrow roads with massive crowds.

The riders on next year's tour will not get the opportunity to stop at the Bow Bridge Cafe, in Paul (Swim Smooth) Newsome's neck of the woods, around Greetland and Elland. Traditional English food i.e. massive "proper" English muffin the size of a large plate, with a greasy, but plentiful serving of eggs, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, and tomatoes, followed by tea in a mug the size of a pint pot. Lovely! Then back on the bike to do the biggest climb of the day, Holme Moss - not quite so lovely now! A great ride on a fantastic day. I hope the weather does the place justice in next years Tour de France, for the riders, spectators and TV viewers around the world.

Mark Ferguson and Des Thorpe
on Holme Moss 

Around Perth I can usually just hang on to the group rides. Here, it was demoralising to be off the back constantly. So despite the jovial nature of the ride, the cafe stops and constant banter, these were hard rides. Too hard for me, but would hopefully, toughen me up, in preparation for the upcoming Swiss IM.

And with us was Ben, who I had not met before. He turned up in pink singlet and no helmet. He dropped us on every hill, up and down. Descending Holme Moss, he came past me when I was doing close to 80kph. Reckless? Perhaps. But consider this: riding with a helmet in Australia, you are actually more at risk (80% more), than a none helmeted European, of suffering a serious head injury (defined as being serious enough to be detained in hospital overnight).

To reinforce that point, there are many places in Europe, such as Parma, Italy, where the statistics are even more contrasting. Here practically everyone rides bikes: business people in suits, both genders, mature people commuting, old people shopping, etc; not a helmet in sight. Yet, compared to helmeted Australians, a small fraction suffer serious head injuries.

I am not saying for one minute that we should not wear helmets. However, what too many don't do is put their true protective value into perspective. Whichever way you want to manipulate and present statistics, particularly when comparing nations, they always come to the same conclusion: that to drastically reduce head injuries, the significant factor is not what we choose, or are forced to wear on our heads, but attitudes, and driving standards on the road.

Fortunately, our time in England coincided with the best summer for years. The weather was perfect for our entire two week stay. The benefit of this is not only the nice temperature, and everything looking more vibrant; but also the spirit of the population. After such a long time of dismal, cold wet weather, and a series of disappointing summers, everyone just seems so much more positive, and revitalised, when the sun shines for an extended period.

A fantastic 5 weeks over, with Julie back to Perth, Rebecca back to Lake Como for an end of uni get together before they go their separate ways; Daniel meeting up with mates in Croatia at the end of his Bergamo Uni course; and me to Switzerland.

How could we ever have dreamed all that could be possible? Truly amazing.

And now time for another Ironman.

Summary of the training diary for the 5 weeks leading to Zurich (note this is the TOTAL for five weeks, NOT a weekly average):

2 swims: 4 km; 8 rides: 430km; 11 Runs: 64 km.