The Routes

We had power cuts yesterday because of the blizzard conditions that hit on Tuesday night. We always get snow at this time of year, but it always seems to take people by surprise. This was an unusually fierce one, though, and was married to high winds. Fife wasn't hit too badly, but obviously some power lines came down. My plans to nip up North and cycle over the Bealach to familiarise myself with the route and gradients had to be shelved, though: not only is the pass itself snowbound, but the major routes to the Highlands were blocked because of drifting. Ah well.

Anyway, I should probably give you a sense of what I am doing for this traithlon. The first stage is the 43 mile Bealach na Ba cycle race on May 8th. 43 miles isn't that far, but it is over the longest climb in the U.K., which goes on for about six miles and includes 1km at 22% gradient. Photos don't do it justice, but there are a couple above anyway. They aren't my photos, and that's not me on the bike: I found that photo at the following url: http://glencoescotland.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html. That is the lower gradient section further down the route, a mile or two before it really kicks up. The photo of the hairpins is from here. I'll post more photos of the Bealach later, including one of the rather disconcerting roadsign at the bottom of the climb. Bear in mind, I will be trying to do this at a decent pace. I would quite like to finish reasonably high in the positions.

The second stage will be running Ben Nevis on May 10th. There will be a rest day between these two stages, so that I am not running on a Sunday. In some ways that will make things more difficult as a day off always leads to some stiffness in the muscles (I'm not just slacking!). Nevis, of course, is the highest hill in the U.K. There is an annual race up it, which I have never done, but I'll follow the race route, which you can find here. Those are some tight gradient lines! I'm grateful to Paul Martens, my ultra-running friend from Canada, by way of Texas, for joining me on this (it would be risky to do something like this alone). Hopefully most of the snow will have gone by the time we run it ... I'll post a photo looking over towards Nevis from Aonach Eagach later on.

The third day (May 11th) will be a 3 mile swim. Steve Clark, a friend and triathlon coach, convinced me that it would still be way too cold to do a swim of that length in open water at that time of year, so it will have to be the pool. I am grateful to the folks at the East Sands Leisure Centre, for agreeing to me using a lane in the pool that morning (cheers Ian). Actually, swimming in the pool brings its own challenges, which is why I have scheduled the swim as the last event. 3 miles in the pool is about 200 lengths. That's around 200 flip turns, which is hard on the back, the knees and the ankles as you spin over and push-off. Also, the heat of a pool is fine if you are just doing a few lengths at low pace, but if you are doing that distance at my usual speed, it is very warm, and makes hydration a real issue. I am aiming to do the distance in under 90 minutes, which will mean that I can only really stop now and again to take on liquid.

More posts later.