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Headcase Ironman

~ Raising funds to help find a cure for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain tumours.

Headcase Ironman

Tag Archives: triathlon

So BANG goes the plan …….

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Editor in Tony

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Tags

Cancer, GBM, ironman, triathlon

So just over 4 months ago I became younger…having a significant body part replaced certainly in my eyes reduced my overall age and got me back closer to my younger brother who has had a total crisis relating to his recent birthday.

hip picAnyhow with renewed vigour I set about preparing for my first race with my new hip…..little did it know when it was cast that it was in for a real test…so far it has travelled over 1800 k in training so it’s passed all its running in tests.

So plan …. Stay under the radar, train and then race and then perhaps depending on the outcome re visit the charity pages for another crack at helping the fight against the terrible disease that claimed our mates life. Then bang Dan goes viral with his tale from last year and it restarts the mission !!!!!

So having for nearly my entire life been an old school trainer ( just volume ) I also decided to get help and indeed settled on the guy that had help Dan smash his last race. So up pops a plan and I start to realise just how unfit you become in a relatively short period of time, in fact the first 1k run I did resulted in two days of almost no movement !!!! Anyhow not being a quitter I have stuck with it and it is getting a bit easier..but still away to go. I am currently a little over four weeks to run until my first race and that’s scary, but it hopefully will turn out to be a great day as that afternoon I am at Stamford Bridge and we may just see some silver wear !

But back to the reason apart from keeping fit and drinking beer, Headcase has become totally connected to each race we do….mostly because that’s where it all started but also because real progress is being made in finding, dare I say it a cure !!!!. It therefore seems easy to help and promote this fight, I have planned several races this year and we will see how it goes, but on December 12th all being well both Dan and I will be attempting the 70.3 in Bahrain, that will be almost a year to the day my new body part joined this fight….so again we ask for any help in terms of donation that you can make, please pass this onto others and get them involved we MUST get this sorted….it just cannot be allowed to take away friends and family on such a regular basis. I made a promise to Colin and I will continue to do what I can to keep it, but cannot do it without you.

After all it’s only money and as a friend of mine once said…..you get it all back and the end of each month !!!!!

Thanks in advance for any help

Dynamic Dan’s Dauntless Determination……

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Editor in Blog, Dan

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Tags

Abu Dhabi, GBM Cancer, race, russell, triathlon

Dan “Ever since I took part in my first triathlon back 2010 at Blenheim, it had never crossed  my mind that I wouldn’t complete the race even in the most darkest of times during the run. That was until November last year.

It was the first ever half Ironman distance in Dubai and Dad had flown over to race even though deep down we both new he would never complete it. This was solely due to the fact he had about 6 degrees of movement in his hip before the involuntary electric shock manuovere was activated. If you spent any time with him towards the end of last year you will know what I am talking about. It’s funny now but at the time it definitely wasn’t.

With that taking up most of the conversation prior to the race, never did I once think that I could also be in danger of not completing it. To be honest, I wasn’t confident in having a great day as I hadn’t put in enough hours, but having raced in Mallorca earlier this year and leaving a bit disappointed, I was determined to leave everything I had out there and try and nick a result.

IMG_5550My wave started and we began the swim but around the 1k mark I was beginning to feel very sick. I am not sure whether it was nerves, the sea water or the jel I had just taken before the race, but it wasn’t enjoyable and cost me a bit of time without a doubt. I exited the swim around the 36min mark and relatively happy all things considered.

I really enjoyed the bike course as it was on a road I use when driving all the time. Up and back down Hessa street 3 times with a tail wind going up and a headwind back, I had a lot of fun. The only issue was that I felt the need to consume 6 – 7 gels over the 2 hours and 47 mins I was on the bike. There are millions of different articles and pieces of advice you can find on the internet about best practice and rule of thumb when it comes to nutrition, but I can tell you right now, that is way too much.

Completely oblivious of what I had done, I entered T2 in a pretty strong position with my only worry being that I may of gone too hard on the bike and if my legs would hold up for the 21kms ahead of me. “you’ll be fine’ I said to myself. “Just go off steady and build in to a rhythm – you’re way ahead of schedule”

FullSizeRenderSo off I went running at around 5.10min k pace which is slow but I was very happy to stay at for the first 5k. Its worth pointing out at this point that it was around 10.30am and the weather was around 32 degrees C. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that is bloody hot and not ideal when you’re about to embark on a half marathon. Even less ideal when you’re unaware of what is just around the corner.

The first couple of k of any run off the bike is tough while you get your legs used to the change in motion and your heart rate a steady pace. But by 3k I was still not feeling good, and by 4k I was feeling worse. Then my stomach started playing games and by the 5.25 turnaround point it had enough.

I spent the next 15.25 kms following a clockwork routine of Run, Puke, Walk, Run, Puke, Walk. To say it was rough would be a rather large understatement.

IMG_5558Even in the best conditions that is not something you want to go through, but when its beaming sunshine and every bit of energy you had stored is now plastered across the crescent of the Palm, it’s actually quite dangerous. I was unable to consume anything aside from water and even when I did that, I saw it again moments later. I still don’t know how I managed to get to the end but I stumbled across in 5hrs 43 mins and 46 seconds. 23 seconds slower than Mallorca earlier in the year and a 2:15:55 half marathon split! Ouch!

IMG_5561

It took me a good while to recover from the race and that gave me time to reflect on what happened. This sport is bloody tough and if you want to do it well there are no shortcuts at ANY level. Although the nutrition issues played a key role in my day, I was 100% guilty of showing a lack of respect to the distance and I said to myself the next day that will never happen again.

Its a bit of a cliché but how often do you hear people say that you learn more from disappointment than success? It’s thrown around all the time particularly with sport but in my case it couldn’t of been more true. I looked at what I was doing and what I wanted to achieve in the sport and decided that I needed a complete overhaul. I realised I wasn’t happy just being a middle of the pack athlete and needed to do something about it particularly with training structure and planning. My answer was simple. I needed a coach.

I found my guy and met him 2 days later. 3 days later I had my first assessment session and by the end of the week I had started my personalised training plan all structured towards my next race which was 4 months away – Challenge Dubai. We looked at my weaknesses and technique and worked out how I could get the most ‘bang for my buck’. Like most age groupers I have a pretty unpredictable job which means I have to be flexibile and plan my sessions in order to get the most out of them. Before I would just rock up to the gym with no plan or just head out on a 10k run at one pace not knowing if it was really helping me improve. Having a weekly plan allowed me to plan around my work and social life and gave me the confidence that what I was doing was working. This proved to be pivotal in my improvement as it relieved the mental stress I was putting on myself regarding training – one of the biggest issues age groupers come up against in this sport.

Aside from the Christmas period I pretty much trained everyday in one shape or form but averaged around 6 hours a week in the 4 months – almost half the average when I was training for Ironman. Obviously its worth noting that I was only training for a half so that would make sense but I knew deep down that this was the fittest i’d been for a long time and was only really lacking the endurance needed for a longer event which you can only get from hours and hours in a low heart rate state, or what’s otherwise know as f***ing mind numbing training!

Training Peaks

February came and I got my usual chest cold 3 weeks out from the race. This was another bonus of having a coach as he helped me understand that it wasn’t going to effect my fitness level enough to make a difference and that all the bulk of the work was already done. The stress I put myself through before Ironman France when I thought i’d lost all my fitness in the 2 weeks leading into the race was actually probably more detrimental to my performance than the illness that I caught. Stress is literally the number one evil and the more you can limit it the better you will become.

We put my plan together which included my nutrition and HR zones and I was ready to go which was something I had never done before, particularly with nutrition. I removed gels altogether from my plan and stick with solid food and high calorie chews.My relationship with jels has now come to an eternal end.

Feeling excited, I woke up on the morning of the race and the weather was like nothing id seen before in dubai. The wind was blowing at speeds up to 50kmph and the sea was like something you’d expect to see on the coast of Australia, not in Dubai. As such the swim course was moved inside the bay and became 2 loops. I was actually really relaxed for some odd reason, perhaps it was that I knew I had done the work and stress levels were low I don’t know. The pro’s went off first and were thrown around like rag dolls in the 3ft waves. I was still very relaxed.

The swim was as rough as it looked. So much so that I came out in over 40mins and way off my target time. While I was annoyed I knew there wasn’t anything I could do apart from bike hard and run harder. So that’s what I did.

By the time I had reached 45km split averaged around 39kmph. Granted there was a pretty big tail wind for about 30km of that but the other 15km was made up of horrific side wind that actually blew people off the bike. I knew that was fast as it was way beyond what I planned but I was well within my HR zones that I set out with my coach before the race. Happy days!

The way back wasn’t so enjoyable into huge headwinds but I managed to hold on and get to t2 with a 2:37 bike split and an average of 34.2kmph, whilst also nailing my nutrition. Buzzing!

It was at this point where I told myself to just stick to the plan on the run. Stay in my zones planned and if I have anything left at the end use it. And that’s exactly what I did. Looking back at my data my HR pretty much stayed between 3 beats of each other the whole way (155 – 158 between zone 3 &4). That might not mean much to you but to me and my coach that was amazing as it allowed me to stay just below threshold and at the same pace for the whole 21k. I had executed my plan perfectly and as a result ran my fastest ever half marathon off the bike (1:42:32) and was over the line in 5:06:34 (9th in AG).

IMG_5557As always, when you look back at a race, you ask yourself could I have done more here and what if I did that there, its inevitable and this was no different. But for me, this was my first real breakthrough race i’d had and it really showed me what I could acheive. In all honesty, I hadn’t really changed much in terms of hours trained or types of exercises over the 4 months, in fact, I probably did less and kept it simpler than before. The real difference was that I highlighted what was the real factor in the way of me improving and resolved it. I worked out I needed a structure to suit my life and eliminated the mental stress I was putting on myself. The result speaks for itself.

I’m now planning the rest of my year and working out what races to do. Last weekend I did a sprint where I managed to get 8th place (out of 71) which was really fun – 1 hour 20mins of full on pedal to the metal. Sadly though that was the last triathlon here until October but in truth there is a lot I need to work on before I race again later in the year.

The race in Dubai managed to raise another 90 quid for Headcase which was brilliant but we need CAN and MUST do more. We’ve all put so much into this over the last few years achieved great things. Now is the time to evaluate where we are going and and what we need to do in order to take this to the next level, we can’t stop!

The triathlon bar has been raised and new targets have been set. Let’s all analyse what we can do to raise the fundraising bar and make 2016 the year of breakthroughs.

25.204849 55.270783

Ok so you thought it was all quiet?

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Editor in Uncategorized

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Tags

Brain, Cancer, GBM, GBM Cancer, hip, race, russell, triathlon, Tumour

We are still here and still working hard, and we hope the loyalty in following has not been lost. the new season is unfolding, operations, training changes and a new reset of race ambitions are in place, and the challenge to defy the obstacles of life and body.

So dear followers we would like to know you are out there and that the story is still to tell and the fight against GBM Brain Cancer is still going strong.

What’s it all about ???

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Editor in Tony

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Tags

Brain, Cancer, Cycling, fundraising, GBM, headcase, Mallorca, russell, Speirs, triathlon

Here is our 200th Blog Post.

So here we sit just under eight weeks to go before we take on Mallorca. The training appears to be going well, but someone has to tell Peter that the event commences with a swim…….so a bit of water time is required…

The good news is that with Gift Aid we are now over the 40k mark which is just sensational…thanks to everyone who has helped achieve this, but you know what’s coming….we need to keep going.

It perhaps is worthwhile just reiterating what the money has been used for, the key fact that every penny contributed goes directly to the charity, not one penny is spent on anything else in terms of expenses or other costs.

So where has your money gone…..well we are helping to fund a two year patient trial which is being run as a joint effort between the University of Portsmouth and the University of Bergen in Norway/ This is using a drug that has been found to help increase the survival rate of the patient from the 14 months average to in some cases 10 years…what would Colin have done for that extra time…..seen Chelsea reach the quarter final of the Champions League the other night for starters !

begging_cat-img-647

AND THAT IS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT……giving hope and finding the cure…..I have no doubt that we are on the way to that great day and having been a part in this is a great feeling, as I said before a promise to Colin was to keep finding ways of raising funds to help achieve this.

So having raided your banks and savings last year I want you to consider doing it again,

COULD YOU CONSIDER DONATING THE SAME AMOUNT YOU DONATED LAST YEAR AGAIN?

I appreciate we all get many request for this kind of thing but I am NOT going to stop and therefore would ask you to consider re-visiting our Just Giving site http://www.justgiving.com/tonyanddanironmanand donating whatever feels right, it would be hugely appreciated by all.

In addition any ideas of ways we can achieve extra donations will be gratefully received…THANKS for taking time to read this.

The power of London Pride

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by Editor in Tony

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Tags

Cancer, GBM, Tri, triathlon

Screen Shot 2013-03-03 at 11.30.06

 

 

 

So a really big reminder on the importance of two things yesterday…..we had both decided: To train all week prior to the Tri in Abu Dhabi and also have a few nights out one in particular resulting in seven pints of London Pride…yes Bootsie London Pride….oh and a burger.

The other point is nutrition on the day.

Conclusions: A big week of training doesn’t help your legs when your are on a 100k bike ride into wind, I have to say though riding around the Yas Island Grand Prix circuit was brilliant.

track-blue_1512882i

Also seeing the Brownlee brothers on their way back on the cycle travelling at over 40k an hour was pretty special….so note to self taper for Mallorca!

HydrationThe other key factor is hydration and this you cannot afford to get wrong…..I did though. It’s a vicious circle when you feel you can’t take on water or gels it’s probably too late, I certainly suffered in the last part of the bike and the run due to lack of hydration, plus it was 30 degrees….only good point was even the Brownlees ran around 6 mins slower than normal…..

Over all it was a great event and thoroughly enjoyed by both Dan and I, clearly his new wheels worked well, but it wasn’t all bad, the old man clocked a 24:11 swim…….

Be good to see some more funds go in as encouragement, thanks to those that are spurring us all on.

 

Training update – The Wall

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Editor in Peter's Posts

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Tags

GBM Cancer, headcase, ironman, Mallorca, triathlon

That thing they call the ‘wall’ … well I think I have hit it and bounced off my body is in bits bad back, bad knee, bad ankle legs ache ! HELP – I keep telling myself its all in my mind but then when I try to run or cycle my body tells me it is real. Still have to keep at it as the lycra kit is still too tight – thanks to everyone who has added to the grand total we must keep spreading the word – Keep going !

Editor: We want photographic evidence of this Lycra fitting issue!

The Senior Team…. Before & After

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Editor in David's Posts, Peter's Posts, Tony

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Tags

Brain, Cancer, GBM, ironman, triathlon

And holding on tightly but not entirely successfully to the hair.

From….
1616337_10152132004224268_796477103_n
To…..
SONY DSC

After 10th May we expect…..

men_s_zone3_victory

No Apologies….

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Editor in Blog, Colin's Blog, Editor's Posts

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Tags

Cancer, Colin Smith, GBM, Helen, ironman, triathlon

We are off! The first donations for chapter 2 has arrived, thank you, and perhaps it is time to remind ourselves why. I thought or rewriting the story and then I just thought of Helens post days after her husband died and there is not better way to remind each of the team why they are training and every follower who reads this blog why… over to you Helen….

Colin & HelenWell, my Colin has gained his wings. What a hard road that man travelled! It’s kinda funny because at the beginning I promised him that he would never ever die anywhere but home. I meant every word, but, as time passed, it soon became evident that despite all the skills I had acquired, I could not cope with his total needs and I will always carry an element of guilt.

From a strong independent man who had the full respect and trust of his family, he was stripped by this horrible disease of every element and aspect of his personality. A personality that was so strong that everybody in the family (even though they had all formed separate units) trusted him to make financial decisions and hold all their important documents. We had faith in his every word. From almost the beginning though, it became evident that the kids would have to control their own paperwork and finances as Colin was increasingly confused and forgetful. The kids had to handle the financial decisions themselves and it was a very sad day when it became obvious that this was the only course of action.

The months I have recently spent with Colin have been very hard at times but I have also had some very good times as, despite that bitch of a tumour “Camilla”, his sense of humour always seemed to shine through and this made everything much more bearable..

All treatment for Colin was stopped in February and Colin was fine for a while except for his immobility and increasing confusion. At the end of May Colin started to have horrendous hallucinations which went on for several days and I had to call upon both our boys to help calm him down and reassure him that what he was seeing was indeed was indeed not reality – just illusions. Colin was admitted then to the hospice for the second time so that they could help alleviate the visions and reduce his constant state of agitation.

I have never been so grateful for anything in my whole life as I was for the offer of help from Garden House Hospice in Letchworth. They controlled his medication (it took 8 or 9 days to get the combination right) and then his health began a sharp decline – Camilla the tumour was on the march. We all realised that now his time was short but I was able to be Colin’s wife again and not just a carer. We spent quality family time and often cried together but, we also laughed – boy did we all do that! We still continued to take the mick big time. Tommy played the answer phone message from Colin requesting Tom’s immediate presence and then apologising because he (Colin) couldn’t find his phone! He had not realised he was using it!!! We all know that if the situation was reversed, Colin’s banter would be relentless

Colin started to lose his ability to swallow as well as many other abilities. About 2 weeks ago the food that he was offered was refused and when he opened his mouth to eat he was unable to chew and swallow he became weaker and weaker until he eventually became unconscious on Sunday.

On Monday he was put on the Liverpool care pathway, the most heart wrenching time imaginable. He had no nourishment or fluids and eventually fell into an unresponsive state of unconsciousness.

We as a family stayed with him constantly, he was never once alone day or night, it really strengthened our family unit beyond all of our expectations. This mortal man, Colin Smith, could not have had a more genuine love and adulation from his children than if he had been a god. We all love the man that was, not the shell of a man that Colin had become and I think that is why this type of cancer is so very cruel. When the end came for us as a family it was a release from a life robbing illness that had taken every aspect of Colin’s personality and dignity. We love and miss him more than any words can convey. He was always larger than life and always reducing me to side splitting laughter in every situation.

We thought we’d lost him…

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Editor in Dan

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Tags

Cancer, GBM, ironman, Mallorca, russell, triathlon

Having had what was without a doubt the busiest January of my entire life, I can finally say the journey to Mallorca has begun. A combination of work and play (a balance that’s hard enough to grasp without throwing in training!) has meant that the majority of this years training has been high intensity, strength and core. While that’s not enough to reach my goals come May, I have felt that its kept me at a decent level of fitness to build from… maybe?

photo[3]

Today marked the first race of the year (last weekend was a write off) and the usual thought processes of ‘can I be bothered’ and ‘its bloody freezing and I don’t even have a wetsuit’ (don’t ask!) were flying around my head. If I had to pick one thing that I took away with me last June, id have to say a set of solid mental balls. Yes, the fundraising was huge and will always be the real achievement, but on a personal level, whenever I’m finding something tough, either personal or at work, I just remind myself of one thing…. “you’re a f***ing ironman”! So far that’s always managed to do the trick 🙂

Ok so back to the race. Once I pulled myself from my bed at 4.30am and overflowed my car with petrol half asleep whilst filling it up at the station (they don’t do it for you before 6am – how rude!), I made my way to the venue. All I could think of was how cold it was and not having a wetsuit was really playing on my mind. This feeling that was amplified when I was literally the only person apart from 2 kids in the junior race going skins! “if they can do it then I can surely?” was my immediate reaction followed closely by… F**K!photo

A quick 1km run to warm me up followed by 40 Burpees/40 Squats just before the race started meant I was nice and warm and prepared for the plunge.  Suddenly… Ooosh I was in, and all that drama for 2 and half hours prior to that moment suddenly became a waste of time. Yes it was cold but id somehow managed to forget I live in the middle east and cold here is close to a heatwave in the UK. Ironman my arse!

This was my first swim of 2014 and I was fairly happy with how I felt but know there is a lot of work to do. Technique and strength have gone since Nice so pool 

sessions are top priority now for sure. Out the water and on the bike I was excited to see how i’d do having done a lot of speed work since Xmas. This definitely showed as on a pretty windy day I still managed to average 34km which I was happy with. Off the bike and into the run I was as comfortable as I’ve ever been, hitting a decent pace and feeling really good from start to finish. I don’t know officially but I’m pretty sure it was a negative split 5k* which was another positive.

With an extra 4km added to the bike and an 800m swim I managed to clock a time of 1.20.04 which, considering the month I’ve just had, I was more than happy with. The race didn’t really tell me much I didn’t already know and now its about kicking on from here and building for the Olympic at Tri Yas on the 28th.

Its great to see the updates coming in from the rest of the squad (my favourite still by far is Tony: Sore ankle) and hopefully we can continue to build a picture of everyone’s journey to Mallorca. Its crazy to see how far we’ve come from a few loose emails and drunk conversations but that’s what its all about!

Have a good weekend and those of you that are training… train hard!

Cheers

Image

Strategy Planning

07 Friday Feb 2014

Tags

Cancer, GBM, headcase, ironman, russell, triathlon

SONY DSC

Posted by Editor | Filed under David's Posts, Editor's Posts, Peter's Posts, Tony

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