Ironman UK 2008 - I Finished!

Although the training for Ironman was hard and sometimes lonely I was always confident that if I stayed healthy I would be able to finish - but walking through the crowd to the lake on that cold and dark Sunday morning was the loneliest I’ve felt in a long, long time and I was suddenly very aware that there was nowhere to hide and I had to face - whatever was thrown at me over the next 15 hours - alone.

Over the next 140 miles I thought of many things but it was often the thought of Tom and his family that kept me going when my body had long since said it was time to stop. After 15 hours and 9 minutes I crossed the finish line with the greatest sense of achievement I’ve ever felt – something I would highly recommend.

If you would like to sponsor me you can still do so at justgiving.com/markdewey

Thank you for all for visiting my blog I hope you have found it entertaining.


Mark

Sprains, Trains and two wheeled mobiles

Hello,



It's been a while, please accept my apologies for that. I sprained my ankle out running and had to miss almost 4 weeks of training. However I set myself the target of completing 2 events I'd already entered before assessing my fitness again and I'm pleased to say I finished both events strongly, firstly the Dunwich Dynamo - a120 mile overnight ride from Hackney to the East Coast and secondly the Trentham Big Half. The Dynamo was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed both the distance and the experience of riding on country lanes through the night - the friend I rode with and I finished in under 7 hours and I was very happy with the way things went and how I felt throughout the ride. It set me up very well for the Trentham half a week later and although I only returned to running anything like properly during the week leading up to the event I was very happy to go quicker in all 3 disciplines than last year and take almost half an hour off my 07 time. I also tried out the energy bars and gels that will be provided during Ironman at both events and had no problems with either and am now quite keen on Cookies and Cream Powerbars! I'm now looking forward to 4 weeks hard training before a week of tapering and carb loading for Ironman.

New Sponsor Comes on Board

I would like to thank PUKKA PIES who last week kindly agreed to sponsor me and welcome them to the team.

Latest News

Hello,

It has been an exciting few days, I took part in Windsor Triathlon on Sunday (and met James Cracknell) and although the currents in the river were a bit of a chore I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I beat more my time from last year by a couple of minutes. Training now takes on a whole new complexion with lots of distance work and lots of long lonely runs and cycles. I'm running for an 75 minutes in the woods around Marlow on Tuesday nights and for around 2-3 hours on various routes on Saturdays as well as a marked increase in my cycling mileage and 2 sessions of 2km swimming every week.

Ladies Night

With training and racing going well it was time to move the the fundraising up a gear and I held my first event last night. The event was a ladies night at the Cox Green Community Centre in Maidenhead where I had arranged for local salons and consultants to treat the girls while I had my legs waxed!

The evening went extremely well and raised over £450 so thank you to all of you who made it along on the night and the answer to the all important question is yes it did hurt - a lot more than I had anticipated!

Dorney Super Sprints

The first Triathlon of the year at Dorney Super Sprints didn't really go to plan, I was out of the water well and moving through the field well when I got a puncture at the start of the second lap so had to retire. I was going back to watch a friend on the Sunday so I had another go and it went really well, although I had commitments in the morning so I couldn't make it for my age group and had to race under 30 which was an experience. 120 of us set off in the swim - the biggets field I've raced in but it went to plan and I was onto the bike before I knew it and posted the fastest cycle and run splits I've ever done at Dorney.

Summer's Here

Unfortunately Bracknell Half Marathon didn't really go to plan and despite being on target at 8 miles (a few seconds over the hour) a hilly next 2 miles meant I was behind schedule and I didn't beat the 100 minute barrier (1.42.11) but the race went well and I felt strong towards the end.
I have been experiencing pain in my left knee towards the end of runs recently and the nice massage lady at Bracknell told me I have an "insanely tight ITB" and so now I am on a strict regime of stretching!

With the cycling season now well under way I was starting to feel slightly concerned that my times in the Thursday night 10's weren't really going to plan until last Thursday when I felt much stronger and was able to keep the pressure on the whole way round the 2 laps and clocked 25.56 the fastest on that course since 2005.

I've got my first Triathlon of the season this weekend with the Dorney super Sprints at Eton Rowing Lake on Saturday and I'm thoroughly looking forward to the chance to test myslf in all 3 disciplines.

A New Season

Dear Reader,

Sorry for the delay in this latest post and thank you to all of you who have spoken to me about my blog - your kind comments have been extremely encouraging.

Before I continue I'd like to congratulate Dan who finished the London Marathon on Sunday in a shade over 5 hours.

Unfortunately Hasting didn't really go as planned, it was wet, cold and hilly which made running fast difficult. I finished in 1.47 so it's not all bad - the 100 minute barrier remains intact and the next chance will be at Bracknell at the end of the month. I had a slight calf injury last week due to trying to do speed interval work without warming up properly (what a dick head) but it seems to have eased off this week and it feels ready to run on again.

With the arrival of the new season and the clocks changing it's opened up a world of additional training opportunities, I'm cycling most weekday evenings and keen to improve - my 10 mile TT time is down on where I'd like it to be but I'm sure it will get faster as the year progresses.

The new season also signifies the start of the open water swimming season with the lake opening next weekend - something I'm throughouly looking forward to as I've lowered my 1 km time by almost 3 minutes with a new breathing strategy and I'm keen to see how this translates to open water.

I had a lovely trip to Bournemouth with Paul Bandoni from the Trust few a weeks ago to pick up a new Corima 3 spoke front wheel and we stopped and had dinner with Tom's family in Portsmouth - it was lovely to see them again and to experience the buzz in Portsmouth around their FA cup run.

I hope you've enjoyed this update and please check back soon as I'm hoping to return to weekly updates now.

Mark

I'm a gulper with nice elbows!

Judy - a friend and swimming teacher came and watched me swim this week with the aim of making me more effecient in the water and it turns out that I'm a gulper (I take big gulps of air with each stroke and waste energy blowing it back out) I need to work on relaxing and letting the air trickle out - I can see that going out of the window when I'm fighting with 1499 other poeple for the same stretch of water! I do have nice elbows during the recovery phase though wahoo!!

I'm writing this weeks blog from a T'internt cafe in Hastings where I'm staying tonight before the Hastings half marathon tomorrow. The Hastings Half was the first half marathon I ever did so I'm hoping to imrove on that time from last year (1.45) and maybe have another go at sub 1.40 if it all goes well.

Thanks for reading and please come back soon.
If you'd like to leave me a message or comment on any of my blog posts you can do so by clicking on the comments link below.

Swimming and Kebab

I couldn't do any running or cycling yesterday as my legs were still sore from Sunday so I did my first timed swim - just over 18 minutes for 800m which is OK as I didn't really push it and just concentrated on my stroke. I decided to to treat nyself to a Kebab, well meat and chips and as it was before 10.30 I could eat in which was novel and it was served on plate with cutlery which was extremely bizzarre!

Reading Half Marathon 2

Things didn't really go to plan on Sunday - I had the strange sensation of feeling thirsty and needing a wee before the start and although there was plenty of water available the same couldn't be be said for toilets so that's how I started. I never really felt comfortable and so never hit the 7.30 mile pace I wanted and was 30 seconds off right from mile 1 I pretty much continued at that pace and resigend myself to not beating my target of 1.40 round about mile 5 and from then on just tried to enjoy the atmosphere. Little did I know that while I was running, my Mum bless her, was being interviewed on the radio - she couldn't make it to watch so texted a good luck message to BBC Radio Berkshire who promptly called her for an interview (her first thought upon answering the phone was "I'm not dressed yet!") I ended up finishing in 1.45.44 and was pretty happy with that for my first half marathon this year - next up Hastings in 2 weeks.

Reading Half Marathon

No not a mammoth day in the library - I'm joining 14,999 other people and running 13.1 miles around the lovely berkshire town of Reading on Sunday and I'm hoping to set a new pb and dip under the 1h 40 mark for the first time. Come back next week to see how I got on!

Mum's Help

Mum has very kindly just sat with me and proof read my blog so there shouldn't be any spelling mistakes, Thanks Mum.

So I got to the gym last night and spinning had been cancelled so I went swimming instead.
It was the first time I've swum this season and it went very well, I didn't measure or time it but it felt good and my stroke doesn't seem to have suffered from the winter break.

The test in weston went very well, I did 1.21.18 and was under 1.21 on my watch. I felt strong the whole way around and particularly the last mile where I manged to dip under 7 minutes.

I was supposed to start swimming lunchtime today but went to the pub instead! - still I am spinning tonight.

I've got my first real test this Sunday with the Tough Ten in Weston-Super-Mare, I did 1.24 last year so I'll be looking to beat that and hopefully dip under 1.20

I've been doing a toughish 75 minute cross country route through the woods and hills around Marlow over past few weeks me so it should be OK -as long as I don't catch the cold that's floating round the office.