I live in Aviemore in the heart of the Cairngorm national park with my wife Jess and two kids Struan (5) and Fionn (4). I work at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland’s National Outdoor training centre where I work as a Senior Instructor specialising in Climbing, Mountaineering, MTB and Skiing. It is a dream job where I get to work in an incredible mountain environment, training people to develop their skills as well as training and assessing mountain professionals. No two days are ever the same and I encounter my fair share of adverse weather!
I have got into adventure sport from my background as a pro cyclist and my love for the mountains and appetite for adventure. The XTRI Ironman events are an amazing way to test yourself across three disciplines in an outstanding environment such as the rugged landscape and mountains of the N.W Highlands or the High Plateau of the Hardangervidda of Norway.
WARM UP ROUND – QUICK FIRE CHOICE
- Tea or Coffee? Coffee
- POWR Bar or Pocket Rocket? Pocket Rocket
- Summer or Winter? Summer, narrowly!
- Morning or Evening? Morning
- Lie in or early night? With 2 young children, lie ins are but a dream!
- Swim, Bike or Run? Bike
- Cannonball or careful toe tip first? (into the pool or lake) Cannonball
- Training camp at home or abroad? Abroad, I love to explore new places.
- Climbing or descending? Descending
- Podium (but slower) or PB and outside top 3? Podium
- Physical strength or mental strength? Tricky… Physical
CELTMAN Xtreme Triathlon
During covid the BBC Adventure Show covered the Celtman XTRI event, it takes place in Torridon that is a very special place to me. It looked like the perfect event to provide the spark and motivation to train hard for. It would be my first ever triathlon and exceeding ironman distance across demanding terrain I knew it would be no easy undertaking.
What makes The Celtman one of the toughest triathlon’s in the world?
Photo credit: Steve Ashworth
The event is held in Torridon in the N.W Highlands where the weather can be wild, water temperatures cold and the terrain is tough to say the least! The 3.4km swim takes athletes across the exposed crossing in Loch Torridon to Sheildaig village.
The 202km bike is unrelenting taking in the undulating coastal roads and it’s infamous long sections of brutal head winds. The run is a full marathon distance taking in two Munro tops of Beinn Eighe which involves runners tackling a 900m vertical ascent from the valley.
Photo credit: Steve Ashworth
The two summits are linked by very technical running across ridges and boulders which are all the more testing at that stage of the race. the crux of the run route is the very steep and loose Thompsons Gully that leads to the Corie and easier running. Hopefully that sells the epic-ness of the event!
What are the challenges in training for Celtman Xtreme?
For me the biggest challenge of getting into top shape for the Celtman is managing to fit in the hours around a busy work and family life. My best time at the Celtman has been 10hrs 52mins and I am lucky to get that many hours in during a week. Thankfully, working in the mountains either on foot, bike or ski give me the long steady equivalent to zone 1-2.
Focusing on speed work and threshold when I get out running or on the bike seems to do the trick! Swimming is my Achillies heel, and I don’t have regular access to a pool to train so I have to wait until the Loch’s become warm enough to brave, then fit in some panic training ahead of the 3.4km swim on race day.
Photo credit: Steve Ashworth
What are your top three tips/pieces of advice for someone looking to take on The Celtman Extreme Triathlon?
Photo credit: Steve Ashworth
- Get the opportunity to head up to Torridon ahead of the race to pre run the high mountain route. Knowing what is ahead and to psychologically breakdown the run into sections makes a huge difference.
- Don’t underestimate the water temperature, layer up! The difference between being chilly and being freezing makes a huge difference. This year the water temperature was colder than previous years and despite wearing a 3mm undervest, a 5mm cold-water swimming wetsuit and neoprene gloves, hood and boots I was at my limit to function and control the bike on the first descent at speeds of ~80kph. I rode in a thermal jacket and gloves for the first 25km which really helped.
- The Celtman race starts at 5am. I tried to get in plenty of early morning training sessions in. This made a big difference to be able to get the body going on race day, especially after a bad nights sleep due to pre-race excitement.
Nutrition strategy for a recent record-breaking Celtman Win!
In the lead up to the event I ensured that I managed to carb load well to ensure the tank was full ahead of the 10+ hours of racing! During the race you have to be really disciplined to get the nutrition in. I aimed for 90-100g per of carbs per hour. I fuelled with 500ml of fluids per hour, taking electrolyte and carb bottles.
Using a combo of energy bars, flapjack and rice cake worked well for me. I get on well with mixing energy products and real foods for long races. In shorter event I am energy products all the way! The weeks before the event I weened caffeine (being a huge coffee fan, this was one of the biggest sacrifices!) which made the intake of caffeine during the event much more noticeable. Being a VOOM athlete I can’t wait for the Pocket Rocket Caffeine Kick.
If you could, would you change anything you did during the race?
I took the opening sections of the run quite conservatively to make sure that I had enough in the tank for the end. Looking back I could have pushed a little harder earlier into the run. I was pretty worried about going too deep too soon and paying for it later into run.
Top 5 kit bag essentials for Celtman?
- A couple of wheel options as the wind can be anything from gale force to midge still. I like to race the deepest wheelset I can handle in the wind. This year I rode a disc on the rear and a 80mm on the front.
- Midge net for the start line!
- More warm kit than you think – never underestimate the temperatures. Pack for October and you’ll have everything you need.
- 2 sets of shoes. I ran a trail shoe for the opening 18km and switched to a fell shoe for the mountain.
- Duck tape and a marker – labelling pre-race helps massively.
Any upcoming events and future plans into 2025?
During the autumn and winter I’ll race some cyclo-cross and local fell races.
My big goals for 2025 are the XTRI Half Ironman World Championships which are in Torridon and the XTRI World Ironman Championships in Norway.
