The G-Factor

After last weeks little “miss-hap” I thought it was about time I explain it all a little more. If you’re not a twitter follower (@JonHotchkiss) then just to explain, the miss-hap wasn’t anything to do with failing to make it to the toilet in time but rather a nutrition related problem.

For about 5 years now I’ve suffered with an intolerance to gluten. It first arose shortly after I went through a very intense 6 or so months, where I basically stretched my body beyond its limits and something “gave in”. As an endurance athlete, I was rightly subscribing to the school of thought that I needed to “fuel the engine” and this meant loads of carbs. In our western diet this tends to equal, bread, pasta, cereal etc etc. When my body began to give in to the demands I was placing on it, the excess of carbs and in particular wheat based carbs, resulted in my body beginning to reject things. Some people are born with this, which is known as Coeliac’s disease; others like me develop intolerance to it. We (the latter group) can grow out of it, but it takes a lot of time and isn’t always possible.

Fast forward to last week and I’m now what I would consider a fairly well educated (in coeliac terms at least) a gluten-free savvy chap. Gluten is a protein found in certain grains (most commonly known being, wheat, rye and barley(malt), though there are many others too. It is basically the thing which makes bread and cakes hold together in a nice squidgy, soft and elasticated way. To those of us [sufferers] who an eat it, the damage caused by gluten to our bodies is in the simplest terms focussed on the intestinal lining. Back to biology now… stick with me… The intestines (small and large) have a folded structure all along the inside to maximise the surface area and consequently the ability to absorb all the good stuff from what we chuck in our mouths (hopefully this food actually contains good stuff – Christmas pudding sadly doesn’t fall into this category!). When gluten does its damage, it basically erodes these folds in the intestines and increasingly damages the body and its ability to absorb anything from food. Over time, with continued exposure, this damage can be substantial and incredibly dangerous to people’s physical health (and as you’ll see, mental health too).

What this all means in real terms is that the body isn’t getting the fuel… or anything it needs to keep itself operating properly. Now where an added complication comes in, is the wider, more external and internal symptoms that sufferers experience. Coeliac’s disease is often referred to as the chameleon disease, because it can have many different and changing symptoms and different people suffer some different ones. Often confused with IBS, eczema, fatigue, depression, vitamin deficiencies and more, sufferers can spend a long time treating those issues without realising the real cause.

My landlady (who is also gluten intolerant) will get severe stomach cramps and start throwing up if she gets gluten in her and will feel ill for 2-3 days. For me personally, it's longer lasting and in what I do (the whole triathlon malarkey) very damaging. Some of the symptoms will be itchy rashes (oddly only on certain parts of my body like my face, feet and knees), poor hair and nail condition, bloating and extreme fatigue!

You see, it's not only the calories from food that I’m not absorbing, but the vitamins and minerals too. So all the things I need to actually do anything, like create energy (remember the Krebs cycle from biology???) create new skin cells, maintain hair colour or create chemicals in my body like hormones simply aren’t getting absorbed into my body enough. It's basically an extreme example of what bad or malnutrition does to you body. The problem I face is when I accidentally get gluten in my system, (provided it's only a short term exposure to it) the damage is done, and it takes quite some time for my body to recover. The erosional damage that’s been done, needs to be repaired and this takes time and of course energy, proteins, minerals etc… all of which, I’m already not absorbing enough of anyway.
So last week, when I accidentally bought some nut and dairy (but not gluten) free muesli, within 12 hours of eating my first bowl, I was already noticing the tell-tale signs appearing. Falling asleep during the day, itchy knees and a complete lack of metal motivation led me to retrace my eating steps and discover the killer muesli lurking like a “free-from” assassin!!!

The reason why this is so bad for me and triathlon though is that I simply cant and also don’t even want to train. More than an hour of hard exercise and I’m shattered for the next 2 days. Mentally, I loose almost all motivation, concentration and focus. On Friday morning, my turbo session warm-up felt like a threshold set, and less than 5 minutes into the first interval and all I wanted to do was fall asleep on my bike. I literally could rest my head on my handle bars and doze off! This is neither good for training, or for functioning generally as a human!
The good thing is it's not permanent, though I’m sure every time I suffer from it; the damage isn’t quite fully repaired to its previous state. It's normally about 4-5 days before I start to feel an improvement and can begin to train again; 2 weeks later and I feel back to 100% and can train and function in general, like I would expect to.

However, I’ve learnt that what's important when this happens is to make the most of it. Just because I can’t physically get fitter doesn’t mean I can’t be getting better! My coach (@T2Coaching) reminded me of Kipling’s epic “If” poem; and adapted my training so that we still used the time effectively. Things that didn’t require motivation to endure, such as flexibility and conditioning work; technique work and also mental skills are all still possible and easier to accomplish when it's only 15-20 minutes of focus that’s required. I read recently (vague paraphrase here) that the best athletes are the ones with the best “Plans B’s”. Hopefully the last weeks worth of plan B has been pretty good and effective in still improving and moving forward without wasting anything. In the mean time, I’m going to check labels more than the price when it comes to buying from the “Free-from” section.

Working 9-5.... err more like 5-9!

I recently decided to take the plunge during the off season and head back to a "normal" job. It often makes me laugh when people don't think what I normally do (the lycra wearing, training and self-inflicted suffering that is being a full time athlete) is "work". In truth, whilst I love it and it has many, many great benefits, its the hardest job I've ever done. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that there are jobs that are FAR harder and more demanding -teachers, nurses policemen or being a full time mum to name but a few that I admire immensely- but the demands we must make on ourselves as full-time athletes, both mentally, physically and emotionally are huge and at times VERY tough. But I digress....

After (as you'll know if you read my previous blog) deciding to make some much needed changes for next season in order to get my performances back on track, I needed to put in place a number of things... and some of these, as with most things in life, required money. Hands-up MY fault, I'd not got the results this season to enable me to actually have these finances in place; rather than sulk about this though I decided I had to fix it... my mistakes meant my responsibility. So by Gods grace, at a time when more and more people are unemployed and the financial world seems all doom'n gloom, I find myself back in an IT job and sat behind a desk for much of the day and commuting into an office at rush-hour (on my bike of course).

2 weeks in and I'll be honest, life is now relentlessly hectic! The days are passing without me even noticing. I'm up at 5am (sometimes earlier) and still training at gone 10pm some nights. In a way though, exhausting as it is, its actually quite refining for me. I've been forced to get VERY 'lean'n mean' with my time... no moment can be wasted! Even my love for Masterchef Australia and Grand Designs has been snuffed out in the name of effective time management. My time now can only be divided between Jesus, my girlfriend & family, training and work. Unfortunately there isn't time for anything else.

The interesting thing is, that the result of being SO time starved, is that I'm finding I'm actually getting things DONE! Or maybe that should be the important things done (however as I write, the Christmas shopping hasn't yet made this list yet... GULP!). With no time for dawdling and with all systems "GO" from the moment the alarm goes off, I'm actually not feeling stressed or exhausted but actually (though still tired) quite effective and productive. With the expert and very understanding advice or my new coach Tom Bennett (T2 Coaching) my training is now all about bang--for--buck time effective sessions, no waste or junk miles allowed :-)

The other thing I've realised is that a lot of bad habits that had crept in and I'm sure helped lead to sub-optimal performance, have now been broken too. There's no option to "wait for the rain to stop before i head out for my run"... and then fail to actually get out the door at all; there's no "oh I'll just watch the end of this program and then go for my recovery nap"; and there's no "hit the snooze and take 5 more minutes" when i wake up in the morning. Its quite nice to feel like I've got some disciplined control back. Its not so much a transformation though, as it is conformation.

Having said all this however, I simply have NO idea how people do this all whist also having kids too! I tip my hat to you all because you must have somehow invented the 25th hour in the day or the 8th day in the week.

As Tom recently quoted to me "In every situation there is potential value, believe this then begin looking for it" - Norman Vincent Peale

How did I get here…

Once again, the time between posts is too long!!! This time, I think I need to be honest with myself and recognise why this is though. The season from the midway point onwards didn’t go well for a number of reasons and I’ve simply not felt like I had anything that anyone would want to read… that no body would want to bother. It's funny how the brain works sometimes isn’t it, and how easy it can be to let (if and when we choose to) external factors determine our thinking, attitude, actions and reactions. I always say, “You always have a choice, even if you don’t have control” and yet for some time now, I’ve not remembered this for myself.

You see, I’ve been forced to do a lot of what I guess some would call “soul searching”… I’d rather call it honest [very] critical assessment and what I’ve realised isn’t something I’m happy with; not in the slightest am I happy with it! As I’ve looked back upon the last 6 months of racing, training and life, I’ve had to follow the trajectory well beyond that time frame and realise that in triathlon at least, I’ve let things slip in a BIG way. I can see when and why these things started and even appreciate many of the understandable causes behind it. But what I’ve got to accept is that I’ve let all of this germinate beyond simple “events” that I go through (as we all do in life), to become seriously negative impacts that grow to be excuses; that grow to be habitual (attitudes or actions) parts of me that that are quite frankly cancerous to me as an athlete.

It's only been in this time off at the end of the season, faced with the reality of a [poor] set of race results for 2011, that I’ve been able to get any objectivity; in part this is one of the problems. But I don’t want to dwell (anymore) on all of that. Mistakes are only wasted if not learned from and used to make changes for the better in the future. I realise I’ve been un-professional in many ways to training, racing, preparation, structure, support, finances… the list goes on. Watching some of the pre-Kona footage this year I was struck in particular with how methodical Craig Alexander was to every single aspect of his training and racing, but more so, that even he as a 2 x world champion, actually handed over the responsibility for almost everything to other people; to experts!

The hole that I realise I’ve been in, in terms of training and racing has been dug solely by me… largely because I’ve been the only one doing the digging! Not only is this sub-optimal to doing any one thing well and consistently, but I’m also (I guess somewhat arrogantly) thinking I can do as good a job in things like for example nutrition, as a expert elite sports nutritionist. If I want to perform in a world class, professional way, then it makes sense to get world class professional help!
Who knows why or how I let myself get into the rut of doing things in the way I have been (I’m sure some of my friends might cheekily put their hands up and say “err… we knew”). I can see now just how far removed from the attitude I used to have and athlete I used to be, I’ve ended up.

So it's time to change things… everything! No more trying to do everything and actually doing nothing particularly well in the end anyway. It's time to seek out the best and let them take that burden off of me so I can do what I need to do as well as I know I can and must do, which is train and race!

So there are changes afoot for next season. The next few weeks are all about putting the perfect people, support and situations, plans and preparations in place to enable success and achieve it too. I’ve got some incredible sponsors who faithfully look after me and I’m incredibly grateful to VO2 Performance Road Bikes, Powerbar, CompresSport, ProFeet, ProHab Performance and Greepers. There will be more “back ground” people joining the “team” for 2012 and I’m for the first time in a long time, extremely excited about things again. The old enthusiasm is back and with it so too a confidence in myself (and those around me) to deliver what we truly believe is possible.

Pride is [wrongly] lorded nowadays as a positive attribute to have. I think humility is a far greater attribute to have but it's also certainly far harder to truly become. I’m grateful that God, in his grace helps me realise I need help and then also supplies every need to strengthen.

The log in my own eye...

Started this yesterday, but only finished it this evening and decided it was still worth posting :-) ... Hope it is...

I’ve felt moved today to write something in response to one of the major news stories currently filling our papers and TV screens. Whilst the Middle East tears itself up in revolution, we find ourselves oddly miss-focussed on two young sportsmen –Mr Cole and Rooney- and contemplating their recent behaviour.

For simple contextualisation purposes, Ashley Cole, the Chelsea and England defender is currently having to explain how and why he ended up shooting a young work experience kid with an air riffle, at the Chelsea FC training ground. Wayne Rooney, also an England international has been somehow cleared of a clear-as-day act of violence in Saturdays game with Sunderland (?) where he is shown to deliberately elbow an opponent without any obvious justifiable (if there could ever be) motive.

But I don’t want to talk so much about the actual incidents themselves, but more the bigger picture that surrounds it all. Whilst out on my long run today, I was thinking about these things and also the reasons why I myself, do what I do as a professional sportsperson. What's the reason… and I wonder what would be the answer Mr Cole and Rooney would give to this question.

The irony of these two news-hitting incidents is that for all the criticism and “outcry” that we see and hear from the papers and the public, come tonight when Chelsea play Manchester Utd (and both players are allowed to play) there will be nearly 80,000 fans cheering… dare I say it… worshiping these same two men regardless of their personal misdemeanours. Should it strike us as surprising therefore when people in their position do such things when the long term response they get is adoration and love. The perception of the reality of all they have is clearly lost… and it's easy for “us common folk” to sit back and point at them, criticising; yet are we any better? To what end do we do things, what's the reason and how morally superior do we stand up to them? It's easy for us to say “they don’t know what they have” and accuse them of being ungrateful and abusing their privileged lives, but are we so different ourselves?

In the pursuit of “idols” we can all too often I think, find ourselves doing things we try to justify or even choose to ignore and accept as “wrong”; and yet in the grand scheme of things how important are those things that we pursue, crave, follow… live for…worship? I know the word “worship” might seam alien to many, but when we ask ourselves do we sacrifice time, money, friends or family in order to get these things, or for these people? This ‘thing’ might be money, status or clothes; or these people might be spouses, celebrities or sports-people. Either way if the answer to those questions is ‘Yes’, then worship is maybe not so misappropriate a word to use.

Providentially the book I’m currently reading struck me with some quite hard hitting things on this very subject today. It's called “Don’t waste your life” (By John Piper) and here follows a short exert from it that brings some sobriety to some of the things in life that we all end up placing value on, yet find it all too easy to criticise others when they fall:
“At these moments, when the trifling fog of life clears and I see what I am really on earth to do, I groan over the petty pursuits that waste so many lives – and so much of mine… it is like a multi-layered dream world of insignificance expanding into nothingness…

[Contemplating the immense courage and sacrifice of World War II]… I cannot make peace with the petty preoccupations of most [modern] life. Reading [one] story I wanted to speak to every youth group in America and say ‘Do you want to see what cool is? ...Well listen up about Jack Lucas.
He’d fast talked his way into the Marines at fourteen… assigned to drive a truck in Hawaii, he had grown frustrated… stowed away on a transport out of Honolulu.

He landed on D-Day [at Iwo Jima] without a riffle. He had grabbed one lying on the beach and fought his way inland.

Now on D-Day+1, Jack and 3 comrades were crawling through a trench when eight Japanese sprang in front of them. Jack shot one of them through the head. Then his rifle jammed. As he struggled with it a grenade landed at his feet. He yelled a warning to the others and rammed the grenade into the soft ash. Immediately, another rolled in, Jack Lucas, seventeen, fell on both grenades. “Luke, you’re gona die,” he remembered thinking…

Aboard the hospital ship Samaritan the doctors could scarcely believe it. “Maybe he was too damned young and too damned tough to die,” one said. He endured twenty-one re-constructive operations and became the nations youngest Medal of Honour winner – and the only high school freshman to receive it.”

Now whilst that might not straight away seam like it has anything to do with football, or celerity status and lives… or you and me; I feel it actually has all too much to say to us all. As John Piper put it, can we ourselves make peace with the “petty preoccupations of most [modern] life”? How much time do we ourselves waste on things that serve no purpose, or that often actually have underlying damaging implications? Just because my mistakes aren’t so publicly shown and commented on, does this mean I should be any less prudent with the choices I make and the things I do? I would suggest not. Trust me, it's something that’s becoming more and more weighty in the choices I make and hope it will help me to ensure as many as possible are good and purposeful ones.

How easily we can read a gossip magazine and tear apart someone else’s lifestyle and ironically see no fault on our part for doing this. Or how readily do we pay extortionate sums to attain a possession we deeply crave or “need” without a moment of guilt for the selfish use of the money that could have so easily transformed the life of an earthquake victim, or Aids orphan.

This might seam like a pretty big and deep subject for my blog here… but this is what's been going through my head today as I’ve trained. It's certainly spurring me on to try and ensure I don’t waste my life and the gifts I’ve been given. I want to try and use what I do in sport to serve a greater purpose. I hope and pray that every decision and action I take towards this end won’t be wasted and that I too, won’t get caught up in petty preoccupations… or just as bad, pointing the finger at others who might – there might just be a big plank of wood in my eye while I’m criticising the spec in theirs.

While we may feel frustrated with the behaviour of such people as Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney, paralysed to impact it all in any way, I am beginning to realise that actually we can change it all more than we realise. Though speaking directly to such as these two sportsmen is highly unlikely, we can make changes in our own lives that impact in positive ways beyond simply getting one or two famous people to live lives we would deem “good”. Even that notion of “good” is something to be more closely examined (another day maybe) but for now I think I will start by trying to ensure that each conscious decision I make has a purpose that is greater than my own. If we all try to do this, then I think the difference would be far more profound that one of two sportsmen toeing the line of quiet, peaceful living. Challenging for me… but it's a challenge that has purpose and surely therefore, is worthwhile.

Race Report - the "bigger picture"

I said after my win at Taiwan 70.3 that there "[was] SO much MORE to last Saturdays win than what simply went on in the 4h09min of racing..." I wanted to write about EVERYTHING that had gone into achieving that result, but decided to wait until after IM Western Australia as this helps give extra dimension and further "body" to all of it, maybe for some of you reading this, extra credibility too. You can read race reports for both those races below & on my website to hear about the race days themselves; what's here though, to me, is FAR more important and significant than the normal post-race waffle I might give about 'race strategy and the nutrition I took onboard etc'.

Both these race performances have been a LONG time coming and despite MANY setbacks, something I always believed I was capable of. Yes there has been a LOT of hard work and perseverance but SO many people have been involved in getting me through some very tough times and to those results... I'll try to mention as many as I can here and explain their significance. I owe a HUGE thanks to them ALL.

I should probably pre-empt all of this too by pointing out that the win in Taiwan on October 30th, was almost exactly 1 year to the day since I’d returned to training after an enforced 10 weeks of complete rest having been hit with chronic fatigue. 2007,08 & 09 had been incredibly draining years for me physically, mentally and emotionally; the stress of which had gone un-acknowledge by me. It all lead to a gradual deterioration in both training and race performance and eventually to me imploding in August of 09. I was an empty shell with nothing left inside but my faith that God was still in control and would use this for good somehow. He was, and did and I’m actually very grateful for this time as I learned some hard, yet important lessons and grew in lots of ways that I needed to. We can learn our greatest lessons from our biggest defeats, and I certainly did, leading eventually to 1 year on feeling like I had been restored and I hope, better for it all.

But back to the race report “bigger picture”…

Undoubtedly, without my parents none of this would have happened; not least because I was at the point where I couldn't actually afford to fully pay for the trip. Without their help I wouldn't even have boarded the plane to get to the race in Taiwan. But far more than this is the unceasing support they have given without hesitation in so many other ways. Always encouraging and believing in me... and trusting in MY self-belief EVEN through the really bad and low times, when MANY others didn't. Last year when I literally fell apart physically and emotionally with chronic fatigue, they never questioned or deterred me for continuing and they did ALL they could to help me try to fully rest and recover. I know I'm INCREDIBLY blessed to always have my mum, dad & brothers behind me. Coming to races to support, help and simply sharing the pressure, the early mornings, feeding me the HUGE quantities of food I consume :-) ...the list is endless, but personally NEVER goes un-noted.

My church 'family' too, have been wonderful over the last few years. Some VERY close friends have supported me, encouraged, prayed un-ceasingly and also believed in/with me when things didn't seam to be going too well. When, at 10.30pm, the night before the race in Taiwan I was STILL waiting for my bike to arrive they were back in the UK praying for me. This kind of support is hard to put a price on... you can't, but knowing I'm never "alone" when racing even when 1000's of miles away has been key to me being able to race closer to my potential. They understand my desire to use sport as a "missionary field" where I can hopefully show and speak about my faith. (You can briefly read more about this at www.ForHisGlory.co.uk ) I know they share in my delight as the results come and it opens doors - such as this blog - to speak about why my beliefs as a Christian are so important... THE MOST important thing. In particular Chris, Linda and Jen, have shared every hard and easy road as I walked (sometimes crawled) on it and I really can't thank them enough.

I'm also very fortunate to have a very big but close circle of friends most of which I've known since I was a very little kid. We've grown up (I hope ha ha) together and they've known me as the Wimbledon tennis ball-boy, footballer, the "lads holiday" boy etc... I know its quite unusual to have a large circle of friends whom have been together for over 2 decades but in recent times, when training and racing has meant sometimes 2-3 months between seeing them, I've realised how close and important they all are to me. They too have understood when it didn't make sense and never undermined what I was trying to do even if the evidence at the time didn't seam to back up what I believed. They've also come to races, helped when money got a little tight and very simply been good, solid, loving mates; even their parents have helped me at times! To quote one of them recently in jest (himself quoting Morrissey) "We hate it when our friends become successful and if they're Northern, well, that makes it even worse..."

Others like Wayne who has been a great mate, fellow tri-geek to waffle tri-world chat to, share dozens of website links about the latest bikes :-) GREAT massage therapist and also massive help during some tough times in the last few years. His treatment of my legs before Taiwan was critical I'm sure, to my legs feeling SO GOOD in that race despite the mammoth journey I made so close to race day. It's little things -well actually to me they're HUGE- like his giving me free treatment and helping so much when I was injured earlier this year, that kept me going when sometimes I didn't feel like it. When I've been feeling a little low, their belief in me has restored mine or simply given it added strength when maybe mine was waning. I know particularly with Wayne that he's struggled himself with his training and racing recently so I hope that my results will give him a little personal satisfaction too and encourage HIM to keep chasing his dreams.

I am also, very blessed to count one of the worlds current greatest athletes (in ANY SPORT in my opinion) as a close and dear friend. It's says something of what she has achieved in triathlon and increasingly beyond it too, in such a short space of time that as I write this she has just received an honorary doctorate from Birmingham University and today is preparing to meet the Queen to receive an OBE! [It's often said that the BIGGEST stars need only be know by their first name so...] Whilst Chrissie has been destroying world records, beating most of the men in the world and racking up World Titles she’s also been a CONSTANT supporter, encourager, adviser and friend. Earlier this year literally HOURS after she broken her own world record she emailed me to wish me good luck for the race I was soon to do! This kind of thing is what all the on-line wana-be's and "haters" don't know about her. They don't see her fighting my little corner whilst they write complete rubbish about her, as they hide behind on-line pseudonyms; but I can't tell you how much it helps to have her also showing complete belief in me, even when things were going REALLY badly at times. Others previously very close to me have ended up very negative and un-supportive, but when I’ve have the best in the world saying otherwise its helped pull me through and I can't thank her enough. She deserves her royal honour and continued success in the future more than anyone I can think of.

The more I think about it, the more people spring to mind. Friends overseas who paid for me to have a holiday with them when external issues left me exhausted and emotionally drained (thanks to my American "family" for that!). There are SO many and it stirs up within me a deep sense of gratitude, love and humility when I stop and take it all in.

Sponsors too, have been very supportive and this year PureTri, Powerbar, CompressSport, ProVO2, Greeper and DC Leisure have really made things much easier when it comes to equipment, kit & nutrition that I quite simply couldn't afford on my own. It's nice to be able I hope, to repay them if only a little so far with the results and increased exposure of recent times.

Finally though comes the single most important influence and helper and the one who deserves ALL the credit for anything "good" I'm ever able to achieve... as a Christian I KNOW (as I wrote in my IM WA race report) its ALL a gift of Gods grace; I simply get to enjoy it... When things have fallen apart, it’s been my faith in Jesus ALONE that has kept me going, given me hope and purpose both in and beyond triathlon. I explain this on the website I linked to earlier and I hope you'll take the time to read it... because its not just what suits ME and helps ME, my faith isn't a crutch I lean on when the #### hits the fan; its truth, its real and I hope I can continue to share this and show it through how I train, race, speak, think and live. The bible speaks very clearly about endurance (Hebrews 12:1-2), but importantly, enduring with a purpose and NOT wasting the suffering that we ALL go through (1 Peter 4:11-16). Knowing this truth makes suffering, failure, hardship and defeat (as well as victories and good times etc) things I'm actually able to rejoice in... I know that seams like a complete oxymoron, but it’s true. And just by way of an example, consider that not less than 7 years ago I did my first ever Olympic triathlon at London finishing not far off 3hrs. A lot has changed since then (I'm nearly twice as fast now and as I write this I'm currently ranked in the top 30 guys in the world for Ironman and 70.3 racing); weaknesses have been turned into strengths (Hebrews 11:34). I've seen so many answers to my prayers and His hand SO CLEARLY at work in my life during this time, but I've only become increasingly humbled by my awareness that its all a gift, and I need to look after each opportunity, this body I've been given, every word I get to speak and use them as God wants me to... to reveal HIS glory :-) Soli Deo gloria

So you see, it’s certainly not as simple as swim, bike, run but nor does it come to watts, heart rates and energy gels :-) I know that Taiwan and IM WA don't make me a big "star"... they are only 2 reasonably decent results, but I certainly hope the start of more. Whatever though, Gods in control and I'm just happy I get to see a little of "the ride". I hope next year I get to share more of this with you all.