Arsen Gere's Ironman

[Ghost Donkey]

That's a seriously impressive time. Well done! Not an easy course. I'm toying with either Bolton, challenge Henly or the Outlaw next year. Gradually being swayed towards Bolton. Done a few middle distance but usually aim to complete in the cutoff rather than compete.

 

[xxmimixx]

Congratulations on your great achievement

 

[Arsen Gere]

GD, If you do Bolton make sure you have a lot more time than you would for any other tri for the setup and collection, T1 and T2 and the finish are 10-15 miles apart and the traffic can be a pain. Someone flipped a caravan on the M61 on Saturday that caused havoc. Outlaw is a lot less expensive.
FWIW I used the Virgin Cyclone as a training ride/tt it's 104 miles but with 8000 ft of climbs, I'd post the course but I wanderded off it by mistake this year. https://virginmoneycyclone.co.uk/CycloneChallenge.asp?ShowPage=549 .

This one was the toughest ride I did in training, http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189943090 . 132 miles/10000 ft
Not many places in the UK with roads at 2000 ft.
I did the Kielder marathon last year too. So with Kielder and the tough ride under my belt I felt confident I would finish so mentally I was ready, I had no idea what time I would do though. I gave Mrs Gere some estimates and I was bang on until the marathon which I'd hoped to do better in. But still happy with my time.
HTH.

 

[Arsen Gere]

Thanks for the support folks, appreciated.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

GD, If you do Bolton make sure you have a lot more time than you would for any other tri for the setup and collection, T1 and T2 and the finish are 10-15 miles apart and the traffic can be a pain. Someone flipped a caravan on the M61 on Saturday that caused havoc. Outlaw is a lot less expensive.
FWIW I used the Virgin Cyclone as a training ride/tt it's 104 miles but with 8000 ft of climbs, I'd post the course but I wanderded off it by mistake this year. https://virginmoneycyclone.co.uk/CycloneChallenge.asp?ShowPage=549 .

This one was the toughest ride I did in training, http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189943090 . 132 miles/10000 ft
Not many places in the UK with roads at 2000 ft.
I did the Kielder marathon last year too. So with Kielder and the tough ride under my belt I felt confident I would finish so mentally I was ready, I had no idea what time I would do though. I gave Mrs Gere some estimates and I was bang on until the marathon which I'd hoped to do better in. But still happy with my time.
HTH.

Thanks for this . If I do Bolton we'll be up there for a long weekend and get there first thing each day in case of delays, rack as soon as possible etc. According to the website there's less climbing than wimbleball so may be a day for the TT bike. I'd be a muppet if I though less overall climbing somehow translated to "easier" but I should be able to manage with the TT bike gearing. Used a road bike with tri bars for Wimbleball and was glad I did.

Newcastles a bit far for me for the cyclone. Looks like a great ride. There's a few sportives where I live just over 100 miles each which I'll do and I'll hopefully do a middle distance race at the beginning of May or take a day off work and do my own all day swim bike run. As long as I've carried enough annual leave over to next year Mrs Donkey has agreed for me to take a couple of Mondays off work for a couple of long training rides. I've almost convinced myself to do a hilly 50k ultra run at the beginning of next year to hopefully get that running confidence as well as a couple of off road hilly half marathons. It may just break me instead

 

[Arsen Gere]

In part of the training we did a slow halfish IM, sea swim 2.4 k , 65 mile bike and 13 mile run which was enough to help judge what to wear, what to carry for food and what to carry in the way of drink.
To get away from carrying, gels and having to open them and dispose of the wrappers I emptied 10 in to a water bottle and wedged it in the tri bars with a feed tube (£6 from start fitness), added a high 5 zero and filled it with water and then I took on water only at the feed stations, ( and the odd half banana ).

Good luck with the runs.

 

[Baggy]

Congratulations Arsen Gere, having done cheerleader duties on a half ironman recently am in awe of anyone who would even attempt a full iron, let alone finish with a good time

According to the website there's less climbing than wimbleball so may be a day for the TT bike. I'd be a muppet if I though less overall climbing somehow translated to "easier" but I should be able to manage with the TT bike gearing. Used a road bike with tri bars for Wimbleball and was glad I did.

Went along to Wimbleball to support three friends who were taking part (with varying degrees of success!) - it is a hilly course and think quite a few people were caught out with their gearing. You probably heard us ringing a cowbell at the top of the long climb...

Am coincidentally going up to the course tomorrow for a scoot round on the road bike.

 

[Baggy]

...ok, having done one loop of Wimbleball can confirm it's a bit of a pig! Grovelled around in about 2h30min and wouldn't have fancied doing another loop - and that's without swimming, so chapeau to you all!

 

[Ghost Donkey]

Went along to Wimbleball to support three friends who were taking part (with varying degrees of success!) - it is a hilly course and think quite a few people were caught out with their gearing. You probably heard us ringing a cowbell at the top of the long climb....

Thanks for the support, you may have seen me in my finest Aldi jersey. The crowd definitely made the difference between grovelling up the hills with a smile or not. I had a compact chainring so rode the course all the way around. There was an earlier hill with no footpath and crowd and a few more people jumped off and pushed there suffering with gearing. I was riding at about the same pace as the people pushing the bikes