A Chain Reaction

A fairly easy, nothing extraordinary weekend, with the exception of a couple of restaurant reviews for work.

I swam with my master's squad on Thursday night, and then got up bright and early on Friday morning for the Medecins Sans Frontiere swim around the Burj Al Arab. It was a terrific, fun, family event that was really well organised – plus, I got a great new transition towel out of the whole deal purely for entering!

Although swimming is definitely my strength in triathlon, I've still very little experience in open water swimming, which I find quite tough. This may sound like a bit of moaning - especially to any new triathletes who are struggling just to get up and down a few lengths without dying – but as it is my strongest discipline, it's an opportunity for me to get out ahead and get a lead on all the faster cyclists and runners and, therefore, I'd love to get my OW swims up to speed with my pool swimming.

The MSF Burj Swim is, at it says, out and around the big man-made island that the Burj Al Arab – Dubai's giant, sail-shaped hotel – stands on. I came 12^th overall – out of the 544 total number of swimmers – which is good, but I was disappointed to come out the water a little short of some of the swimmers I can just about beat in our squad sessions. My goggles leaked a little and I opted for the clear lenses, not realising that the way back was straight into the sun. On the whole, tho, it was a fun race and I learnt some lessons...always the most important thing. I always have to keep reminding myself that I'm a triathlete, not a swimmer. I'd love to be in the water more often but, realistically, I can only dedicate 2 hours a week to swimming as riding, running and gym take up 12+ hours too.

After the swim, my mate Joe (still over on business from Spain) and I headed for Ghantoot for a spot of cycling. It's where the local tris are held and, being exceptionally quiet, offers the perfect 13km loop for cycling on. However, as it was a bit later in the day, the wind was really up, making 6 of that 13k really hellishly tough. We did a couple of laps before heading off seperately on a single 13k time trial, with the other person remaining in the aircon of the car and keeping the time.

I headed off first and gave it some down the 'out' part of the loop – I wanted to impress my mate, of course, while also knowing that I had a big week of training leading up to another sprint tri next weekend...I aimed to give 80% but think that crept up closer to 85%!

The way back in was murderous and, on several occasions, I mentally quit cycling and, thus, triathlon. Even tucked low and aero, there were parts where I felt like I was hardly moving at all. I came through in 20:15, which is a good effort and gives me hope for a quick (for me, at least) bike split next week.

While Joe was doing his TT, I practised heading across/around roundabouts, which is a weakness of mine. Every tri I've done so far, I've lost loads on corners and turnarounds. I feel the practice helped and it was nice, waiting for Joe, just to cycle around near the car like a kid playing on their bike in the stree...something, I realised, we never do as we're always riding our bikes a certain distance to somewhere or out and back. I'm really going to try to spend 10 minutes a week just riding my bike nowhere, as I feel it helped me get to know her and manoeuvre her more easily...just those basic bike handling skills that can make a real difference.

Joe rode bravely on my very old and fifth-hand Olmo race bike to a 22:34 finish...to me, the spoils, but I was reallly impressed with Joe's riding and look forward to getting beaten next time! After that, we did a few sprints and a spin down...just 52kms in total, but it felt like a tough bike workout. To add a extra layer of pain, we then went and did an hour of upperbody and abs in the gym

I got in late last night after driving to Abu Dhabi to watch Kanye West perform and, in spite of my best intentions, was way too tired to make the Saturday Bab Al Shams ride, so I subsitituted that with 90 minutes on the turbo with a couple of 1-minute simulated climbs and sprints, while later in the day, I managed 10kms of fartleks on the road.

I also went to Wolfi's and got a nut to remove the cassette on my Planet X TT and one of those fancy chain cleaner machines, and I gave both my bikes a damn good clean...something I don't enjoy doing but am happy that I've done. That chain cleaner thingy is a little box of miracles...I'm a lazy chain cleaner but it makes the job much easier and quicker and, so, my chains will be better kept from now on it...I promise!