Special thanks goes to Lucy, who over the last 12 months has put up with my tantrums, mood swings, sleepless nights, nerves, severe bad wind and poor husband skills as my life has revolved around this challenge and my coaching.  The pressures of Lucy racing Pro this season has added to tension, but as always we have remained a strong team.

I have no doubt, that when Lucy races at the British Middle Distance Champs at the Vitruvian on September 8th, she will show the Elite team selectors for 2008 what she is made of.

People always approach me and ask me how I fit everything into one day. 'That's nothing', I say.  Lucy trains around 18 hours per week, works full time as a maths teacher, brings her work home with her marking books for hours on end and coaches juniors at a local triathlon club.  As we talk about increasing her training time to 22hrs next year, she also talks about applying for a head-of-year position as work.  People always say, 'Something's gotta give'.  Well, it's not going to be Lucy.  And as I start to swim across the channel, Lucy will be in the support boat, preparing my feeds having just driven for 24hrs from London to Dover and just about stay awake and drive for another 36 hours.  She takes this role on only 3 weeks before The British Championships.

Now that's what I call the world's most gruelling endurance challenge!!!

Speak to you all in Paris!!!

 

He rarely strays from the still, safe waters of Swan Pool.  Dan - you may not have the West Brom alligator to contend with, but it is the whale's mating season this time of year.

If you feel something tugging at your trunks, swim for your life!!!!

 

Nike have provided pairs of Nike Structure Triax trainers and Red Bull have supplied a generous supply of drink. Not just to keep me awake in the middle of the channel, but to stop the drivers on my support team from driving over the white cliffs of Dover.

Finally my virus has started to ease up and I am feeling stronger and fresher by the day.  I completed a 4K swim set in the pool yesterday and I felt like I had only just started to warm up.


 

After an awesome display of courage, Julian was just 7hrs outside the record when he touched the Arc in Paris.  Julian's splits were around 29hrs for the run, 14hrs for the swim and 22 hours for the bike.  My swim time is in the hands of the weather gods but my training indicates that I am capable of an 18hr run and a 13hr bike.  However, Julian showed that picking up injuries on the run can really bugger your bike leg up.  Over the next few days, I will sit down with my team and discuss my options for a real record attempt.

As I biked home yesterday in the heat, I spotted this lazy mule actually sitting down on a fence.  Is this effects of global warming??

I was planning what I called the '20-20' approach.  20hrs for the run, 20 hours rest, 20hrs for the swim and 20hrs to rest and bike to Paris.  Total - 80hrs.  The problem with this approach is that if things go Pete Tong (that one's for you Danny!) on the run, as it did with Julian and it takes me 30hrs to complete, this would only leave me 10hrs before the swim start making it impossible to complete the channel crossing.  So by increasing the chance of a record, I decrease the chance of completing the challenge.  What is a man to do.........


 

As Julian touched French soil for the first time, I calculated that he had around 19 hours to climb on his bike and ride to Paris.  Andy Mouncy rode the course in 14hrs and Eddie took just over 4 hours rest after the swim.  All of a sudden, the record was definitely on and seeing that Julian only took 5hrs rest after the swim, it was obvious that he was chasing the record.  It was at this point that my attitude to my challenge shifted direction.  I want to be the one to break Eddie's record and somebody else was just about to take that dream away from me.

My nephew Alex and I enjoying a pre-A2A adrenalin rush at Drayton Manor!!

A strong feeling of guilt set in straight away as Julian deserved to take that record just as much as I did.  But after all, I am a competitor and competitors need to win and achieve performances before their peers do.  If Landy had broke the four minute mile barrier before Bannister, then Bannister went on to beat Landy's new record would Roger have thought, 'I'm really chuffed that Landy broke the 4-min mile - he's a top bloke'?


 

Before the 4hr swim last week, I hadn't ran all the previous week as I needed to recover from the 40-miler. As soon as I woke up the morning after the swim man-flu arrived.  My back had seized by the end of the afternoon and on Tuesday when arrived I arrived at work, it took me over 15mins to actually get out of the car.  By Wednesday, I was feeling much better so I did the worst thing possible and jumped back into swan pool again for hard 1-hour swim.  I swam 4K (5 laps) in 58mins so I was quite pleased.  When I woke up Thursday morning the man-flu had reached its peak which led to me booking the day off work on Friday.  I now haven't ran in over 2 weeks.  This hasn't bothered me at all.  All of training is now in the bag.  In my mind, I have training for the A2A for 35 years so 2 weeks isn't going to make much of a difference.

4hr swim planned again at Swan Pool next Sunday.

 

My training plan was to warm up for an hour, go hard for 2hrs, then cool down for an hour.  After the confidence gained from the 8hr swim 2 weeks ago, I believe I got a little carried away at the start and in hindsight, I went off too hard.  Mentally, the whole swim seemed very strange.  A 4hr swim a couple of months ago was a really big deal.  I worked out that I would only be stopping for 4 feeds.  It hardly seemed worth it!!  This gave me a massive boost as I knew that my preparations for the channel crossing had gone well and the distance and time involved in a successful crossing was not beyond what I could mentally prepare for. My cadence was about 60 for the entire swim and I felt my arms begin to weaken after about 2 and half hours.  At 9am, triathletes get the opportunity to swim in the lake until 10.30am.  I started to feel great again when passing swimmers that had only just began their session. I was soon brought back down to earth when a 'rubberless' swimmer passed me as if I were going backwards.  I heard him say afterwards that he had swam 4 laps.  'Yeah - come back when you're hard enough' I thought. The chap was at least 4 times the size of me and thinking that comment was the nearest I came to death that day. I met up with Carl Davies from the Oak Group yesterday afternoon and he provided me with the race tops and polo shirts for the event (opposite).

Every time I swim at length at Swan Pool I catch a cold that lasts about 2 days.  My previous back injury only returns when I get run-down. Sometimes, they join together and the result isn't pretty. My back has totally seized and the presence of man-flu has added to the fun.  I am hoping that the pain is only due to the virus I have picked up.  I guess I will find out in a couple of days.  In the mean time, I will milk the attention all I can and enjoy a breakfast in bed tomorrow, my work shirt being ironed for me and my sandwiches made for lunch.  Let's hope man-flu lasts for a few more days :-)

 

After spending 5 and a half hours on the road, we had only managed to travel just over 50 miles. Having not seen the news the night before, we had no idea of the extent of the flooding in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.  We drove only 4 junctions on the M5 before we were directed onto the M42.  Usually, motorists would see diversion signs, but this time there were none to be seen.  This was because there was just no way through the flooding. Still unaware of the actual scale of the flood, we set Tom-Tom to plan a route south without using the motorway.  Big mistake!!!  Thousands of other  motorists had thought the same thing. After 5 and a half hours on the road we turned back and arrived home just 90mins later. I was bitterly disappointed to have let Alex down, but some things just can't be avoided.

View from the cockpit

If you have ever shared a car with me you will know that I am not at my best in traffic jams.  However, after stopping at a local services in Worcestershire, I heard several stories about people missing connections to flights and ferries resulting in the loss of thousands of pounds.  And the thought of hundreds of people being evacuated from their homes, kind of puts things into perspective.  A couple of texts and phone calls to Dan Earthquake later and I had organised a 4hr swim at Swan Pool tomorrow morning starting at 630am

  

There are 6 weeks remaining until my channel attempt.  My plans now are to get another couple of 4 hour swims in and fill the gaps with speed work in an attempt to improve my chances of beating the tides as we near France.

Next training target - 8hr run at A2A pace next Sunday 15th July.


 

Lucy rode the last 40 miles of the bike in this condition.  Her bike split was 5hrs 30mins.  Without a doubt, her bike split would have been around or just under 5hrs if this hadn’t have happened.  She also had to work a lot harder during the last 40 miles than she would have liked.  Unlike Norman, Lucy also has a full time job as a teacher.  Also unlike Norman, Lucy didn’t drop out of the race when things started to go against her.  Lucy is a truly remarkable athlete and I am very envious of her natural strength and endurance.  She then ran a 3hrs 31min marathon.  Although we had trained for this time exactly, even Lucy admitted that she could have been at least 10mins quicker on the run if she hadn’t have had to work so hard with the buckled wheel.  Lucy could have finished in around 9hrs 30mins, give or take 5mins.  For the men amongst you, take an hour off this time to compare it with a similar standard in the male category (8hrs 30mins).  Even her actual time would predict a male equivalent of 9hrs and 10mins. So if you are a man, and you think you finished 1 second behind Lucy – you are about 1hr out!!  (Private joke J)
 

This method is great if you are successful, but not so good if you fail. Since I started this training Blog 12 months ago, that is the first time I have mention the 'F' word. This pretty much replicated my state of mind. 8hrs hard graft and I would be back on track. In fact I would be "well ahead". Fail the swim and it would be at least 2 weeks before a could swim again, making me "well behind".  How can 12 months training hinge on one day?

On my left - Gisele, Tom and Julian

I was finding the waters of Weymouth quite warm now. It took me a good 40-50mins to get into my stroke and before long we made a right turn towards Portland after paralleling the coast heading towards Lulworth.  There was a bit of a chop in the Channel and for the next 2 hours, Julian and I got slapped around, swallowed and spat out as the swell tried to get the better of us.  4 turned into 5 hours and I was starting to get used of the pain developing in my shoulders and triceps.  At about the 5 and a half hour mark we reached the harbour wall, turned left to head out towards sea again.  We were now protected by he harbour wall and the chop died its death.

There one minute - gone the next!!

I was over the moon.  Julian scrambled in soon after for what would be his last big swim before his A2A attempt at the end of July.  It was Gisele's (Julian's girlfriend - sorry about the spelling mate), first outing on the boat this year, and was duly treated to a portion of British fish and chips after we arrived back in the marina (Gisele lives in Belgium and is Belgian, or is it Beljique, or is it Beljish?).  I have never known that one!!

I may not have been in pub on Saturday, but I bet my view was better than yours!!!

This wasn't the most challenging of swims for me, but it certainly took the most out of me.  I have taken on board both what my friend had said about the length of my long swims and what Eddie and Tom were advising.  For these reasons, I have decided not to race at Ironman Germany next weekend.  It serves no training purpose for the A2A and ultimately this statement alone is a good enough reason not to compete.  I can now concentrate all my efforts on Lucy's first race as an Ironman Pro.

As I was driving down to Weymouth I was listening to radio 1.  The DJ was asking for listeners to text in stating what strange things they were getting up to at the weekend.  I sent the text in.  Just before the show ended the DJ read out my challenge saying, "Steve mate - don't you know that people have invented planes, trains and automobiles to do what you are doing!!"

 

The 8hr swim planned with Eddie this weekend is crucial. If I recover in time and complete the swim I would be well and truly back on track and still 1 month ahead of where I wanted to be at this stage.  If I cant swim at the weekend, I will have to wait a further 2 weeks to get a long swim in as I go to Germany with Lucy next weekend for the Ironman. This would mean there would be a 5-week gap between long swims - which is bad news.

First out the water in Wales. Will the wrist let me swim like this on Saturday?

I had my first visit with Karan at Mammoth Lifestyle since the injury yesterday morning.  We think that the constant weight and pressure placed on the wrist during the 14hrs on the bike in Wales has caused tendonitis.  The most painful movement is turning the wrist inwards as you would do looking at your watch.  Before the therapy this movement was impossible.  Although I still have restricted movement, Karan releasing the tension in my forearm muscles has greatly eased the pain, allowing faster tendon repair.  I can now check the time out without hitting the roof!!

Although I am now starting to rattle to sound of Arnica and Ibuprofen, I am hoping that a further 3 days recovery and another visit to Karan on Friday will set me up nicely for the weekend.

 

	So while they’re swimming the support team consisting of Russ Adi (Julian’s support) Lucy & Nigel (Steve & Eddies support) cooked up Bacon sarnies with a cup of tea for all 3 entrants. Transition time approx 40 mins.
Eddie - The smile says it all...		Julian - Just about to have some porridge!

The climbing for this event in the first 60 miles was just relentless & cruel 200miles is hard enough on the flat, but with these climbs it’s in another league it got to feel more like 300. Julian was starting to suffer with his back at about 40 miles and by 50 after much thought decided to retire, after all he has bigger things in 8 weeks time. So we were down to 2 cyclists 2 crew 2 vans, we now stopped both vans at the same time giving them what they wanted at the various junctions. Steve had a craving for Jelly babies at one point on the bike but we couldn’t find the bags we had already bought, one quick stop at a shop & 6 bags were obtained. Steve was now a happy little baby cause by now it was like looking after 2 little babies.

One of the few times I got to draft Eddie!!

2 runners 2 crew 1 van. The feed strategy now was to stop every couple of miles to allow the scavengers devour whatever was left in the rear of the van while Lucy brewed the tea and made Steve & Eddie Hot cross buns with banana fillings. The problem with this was whenever we stopped they always seemed to catch up with us too quickly , we never seemed ready for them. We revised the plan to stop about every 4 miles. At about 30 miles we had to leave Steve & Eddie because they were to run over Snowdon along a track for 2 miles, we were to meet them on the other side.

6 miles to go....

It was a long wait for Lucy & me on the other side they seemed to be taking ages, Lucy’s concern deepened the longer they were. Lucy decided to try and meet up with them on Snowdon.

Eventually they made it to the van for more snacks only about 4 miles to go for the finish line , we waited for them on the main road into Llanberis where Eddie told us he thought it was 9 o’clock, it was 11. We then headed to the finish where 2 other entrants waited for Steve & Eddie to finish at approx 27 hours.
Now off to Pete’s Eats for a slap up meal.

Regards

Nigel Winsper

 

This is Julian's 3rd year training for the Arch 2 Arc. In 2005 he had to cancel his attempt due to a shoulder injury and in 2006 he was taken ill with a serious virus so it was awful to see Julian pull out after around 65 miles on the bike with an ongoing back problem. We has stopped for almost 1hr as the medic had given Julian an injection and would take 40mins for the pain killing effect to take place. When Julian asked somebody to fasten the straps on his bike shoes for him, the support crew  had to pull the plug to prevent him causing serious damage. Hopefully he will fully recover before his attempt at the A2A.

The Enduroman Team 2007

The views were nothing short of amazing and we enjoyed every minute. We took things very casual stopping for 40mins in T1 for a bacon sandwich, quick phone call with Nick and a brew, and we stopped for 35mins in T2 for a pasta meal. We rode the last 2hrs in darkness with the support vehicle behind us providing the light. As we entered T2 we were told that the leader had to be pulled out by the medic after being found delirious half way up Snowdon only 6 miles from the run start.

Julian taking on the mountains

	We were now running (sort of) the straights and downhills and walking the uphills. The run course followed most of the Snowdonia marathon course but it was the additions to the course to make up the extra 12 miles that caused the problems. The run was nothing short of a fell race and there we parts that Eddie and I went up almost on all-fours!!
Eddie just about to fall over the cliff!!

Julian's support team in action	Eddie - saving a bit of food 'til later!!	'The "highest" of the low points

On behalf of Eddie and I, we would like to say a massive thank you to Lucy and Nigel. Without them we would have not succeeded in our challenge. This proves yet again how much we need people in our sport to give up their own time to help others.

Next stop Paris!!!

 

1hr turned into 2hrs and at the half way point I calculated that I would be swimming 23 laps of the lake. I always find swimming in fresh water a little more difficult as I rely on the sea's salt water to lift my tree-trunk legs in the water, so I was a little more tired than expected at the 4hr mark.  Yesterday, I was out for a 7hr bike with Lucy and experienced a severe 'bonk' after about 5hrs.  I'm not sure if was due to fluid loss or if I had expended my glycogen stores but it was a real battle just to get home.

I need to put on some weight!!

I think this contributed towards the fatigue but mentally I knew I could swim the 6hrs and I climbed out of the lake after 11 and a half miles and 6hrs and 2mins of swimming.

Time to rest up this week before the Mid Wales Ultra Tri next Saturday.

 

	By the time I arrived back in the midlands on Monday morning at 4.30am I had drove over 1100 miles in 48hrs with around 4 hours sleep. The cycle route to Paris was beautiful. If everything goes to plan I will be starting the bike leg at around 7pm.  So unfortunately, I wont be in a position to take full advantage of the scenery.
The view from Shakespeare Beach

There again, the odds that everything will go to plan and we are able to stick to the target times are very remote so I may get to see the view after all.


 

This had to be the most bizarre sensation ever!! It was quite a choppy night so every time a breathed to the right it was a lottery whether of not I would see the boat's light or not due to the wave height.  I tried to look at my hands beneath me in the water but all I could see was a black nothingness that possibly stretched hundreds of metres towards the bottom of the ocean.  I had no landmark to swim towards, I simply had to just swim.

Photo Eddie took from the boat

Eddie had tied an emergency snap light the rear of my wetsuit.  At the time, I believed he could also see a little bit of me swimming as well as the light.  When I looked at the photographs afterwards and saw that the only thing that Eddie & Tom could see was the light I asked the question," If the light became detached, how would you know that you weren't just following the light?  I could be swimming in a completely different direction!!!"  Eddie just replied, "Oh don't worry yourself with the details"!!

I'm sure most of you that have swam open water have experienced the "global warming" effect caused by peeing in one's wetsuit.  I learnt a valuable lesson during this swim: Yes, when you've gotta go, you've gotta go.... but if you do have to give birth to a Port Vale fan whilst swimming, don't expect it to have filtered out of your wetsuit before you get out.  Take your wetsuit off in the water before you get into the boat!!!!

 

The event finishes with a 40 mile run up and over Snowdonia. There are only 6 people so far who have been stupid enough to enter the race.  This has been the intention of the organisers who want to make it a unique event.  This is the UK's first Ultra Distance Triathlon which is another good reason why I want to be part of it.  There are no aid stations etc, each athlete must have a support vehicle with them.    Athletes need to wear head torches on the run as the whole of the run is at dark and parts of it are off-road which means map reading skills are brought into the equation.

A shot of the run route - yikes!!

So why is this good training for the A2A?  For once, this isn't about the swim.  4 miles in the sea will be a doddle.  This is about a bike ride that will take everything out of you, no matter how slow you go and it is about running through the night with sleep deprivation.

Have a look at the event website


 

After the 2hr point, it was quite clear that there was no way on earth that my body was going to accept any more sports drinks or gels / bars etc.  Luckily, I had fixed a large bottle of water to the bike.  All that I needed now was some food.  Suddenly in the distance like a mirage in the Sahara, there it was.  Greasy Mick's Fast Food Van.  There was only one thing on my mind at that point other than peeing in the farmer's field behind the van and that was the largest Sausage Sandwich that Staffordshire had to offer.  It went down like treacle and I was feeling fresh for the last 2 hours of the ride.

Bacon Butty please sir!!

All in all - the last 3 days have been a success both for myself and the Mammoth Team.  I do have make a cunning plan to deal with the hip pain caused by the run before and whilst I swim and I will have to have a re-think into my nutrition strategy.  It's no wonder I couldn't consume sports products on day 3 after eating and drinking nothing but high-sugar food for the previous 2 days.

The next outing should be next Saturday night.  All going well, I hope to meet Julian again in Weymouth and attempt a 2hr night swim.

 

Julian joined me again, and after speaking to him afterwards, we were both surprised how cold the water was when we first jumped in.  So cold in fact that even Tom made comment that we had both swam for the first couple of hours with our fingers apart.  I can remember doing just that, but although the brain was telling the fingers to close - nothing was happening.  Although the air temperature was cooler than the last swim, the water was 2 degrees water at 56F.  It just goes to show that the air temp plays a major part on the day's swim.  We have been trying a few things out with the feeds.

Up at 4.30am then a 7am stop off at the services to make porridge in the back of the Trimobile

A few new things came to light:  Although I had no shoulder pain from the first swim, my hip pain from yesterday's run was really giving me some jip.  Every 20mins or so, I had to breast stroke kick for 10 seconds to stretch the quads out.  I was a lot happier with my cadence compared to my last swim when Eddie threatened to jump in and drag me out if I slowed down any more.  Lucy counted me swimming over 60spm at times and slowed to 56 towards the end of the swim.

Julian and I - ready to fight enemy!!

After the 3hr point, I started to warm up, and started to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Jurassic Coast.   It was great to swim with Julian.  The company makes the world of difference. Julian is a very strong swimmer and to his credit, doesn't mind swimming on and doubling back to re-join me so that we can swim together and work from the same safety boat.  Julian had started his sea swims a little later than I so it was fantastic that we both comfortably swam the 5hrs. Lucy told me afterward that Julian he had jumped into the boat first saying, "I'm getting in quick before Steve decides to swim for another hour!!"  Julian - as if I would!!!