A life lesson day.. This week in the UAE we have a five day weekend, so to kick things off my husband and I decided to take on a hike we had been planning to do for a while – to summit Jebel Qada’ah, one of the UAE’s highest peaks. This doesn’t mean much in terms of actual elevation; it only sits at around 1200m above sea level, but it’s a fair way when you are climbing up from actual sea level! The peak sits virtually on its own in the far North-West of the UAE, on the very edge of the Hajjar range. Jebel Qada’ah’s peaks.. The morning was cool, the gradient pleasant, the views incredible. We ..read more

A rock-solid return to racing… 2020. The year of the unmentionable. Definitely, not the year of racing I had planned. However, in the midst of the craziness, the UAE’s Urban Ultra has managed to pull off a fantastic event which, despite taking place in the rugged, intimidating Hajjar foothills, could not have been more welcoming. As the name suggests, Urban Ultra are responsible for some of the more mental races out here in the UAE. Those of you who have been reading my blogs for the last year will remember my stinker of a performance the the Coast-to-Coast last year – another UU event. They l ..read more

As the UAE and much of the rest of the rest of the world begin to ease their way out of lockdown, I’ve found that normal service seems to be resuming for my own mental wellbeing. Not that I initially knew anything was in any way not normal; as someone who is in the fortunate position of not suffering with their mental health, lockdown and the pandemic hit me harder than I perhaps realised in the moment. Here in the UAE, our lockdown came hard and fast, and had every non-essential worker literally confined their homes 24/7. The only exceptions were grocery and medicine shopping, and these only ..read more

Well, it’s been a weird few months. I think, wherever you are in the world, we can all agree on that. Dubai seems to have gone from lovely balmy March mornings to blazing June heat in the blink of an eye, and for us in the desert, the school year is very nearly done. For me, as for most of the world’s population, any plans for 2020 have gone out of the window, including Ironman Wales in September. After months of uncertainty, the Ironman brand have seen sense and postponed the event to September 2021, effectively cancelling this year. For most of us this has come as a huge relief, especially a ..read more

Kathmandu – Lukla – Phakding – Namche Bazaar. Whenever I look back on my Everest trek, I am filled with nostalgia for the sharp, clear Himalayan air, the ache in my shoulders and the slightly spaced out feeling indicating just how far above sea level you really are. My EBC adventure was part of an extended, belated ‘gap yah’ trip with my amazing travel buddy, Kiri. The 11 day hike came hot on the heels of spending 3 weeks travelling around Rajasthan, India, by car. We spent a couple of days gathering ourselves in the bustling capital of Kathmandu before heading to the domestic airport with our ..read more

It is almost a whole month since I wrote anything. Well, anything that isn’t an email, a text or a set of instructions for my students, who have been distance learning now for almost four weeks. The world has ground to a halt, but somehow I seem to be more exhausted now from my working day than ever before. Six weeks ago, I was recovering from a busy few weeks at IM 70.3 Dubai and Oman and a skiing trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan. We were getting ready to set off for a family trip to Canada. My training was on track and my fitness was rebounding after two weeks of rest following the racing. Then su ..read more

Last week, I received one of my most unsettling emails to date. Amid all the confusion and cancellations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Ironman had emailed me telling me that I had been allocated a slot at the 70.3 World Championships in Lake Taupo, New Zealand this November. What. The. Hell?! Of course, my initial reaction was absolute elation, quickly followed but utter desperation at the fact that with a recently corona-cancelled holiday to Canada and flying back to the UK for IM Wales in September, there was absolutely no chance I could afford to go. Nevertheless, my little brain st ..read more

Well, this is my first non-triathlon blog. I made this whole song and dance about not being a triathlete, yet my posts are exclusively about triathlon. So here is a little foray in to my non-triathlon yet still invariably active life. My husband, rather bizarrely, spends a couple of weeks every year in the cities of Almaty and Nur Sultan (Astana) in Kazakhstan for work. This half term, instead of relaxing and tapering for my next race, I decided it would be a great idea to fly to join him for two days of skiing in the Zailyisky Alatau range at the Shymbulak resort. Bearing in mind that I ca ..read more

So. It’s done. The first marker of the Ironman Wales 2020 season was the Dubai 70.3 Ironman event. A race which, in the past, I have professed to hate. Let me just say, right here, that first impressions are not always right. Transition                  I had felt surprisingly calm in the lead up to the Dubai race. I really think it was the lack of pressure. Since qualifying for the GB Age Group team in my first ever middle distance race I think I’ve always felt a pressure to perform to that level. Needless to say, since that day in the Cotswolds back in 2017, I’ve never come close. I panic ..read more

Well, after all the negativity I have felt over the past few months of training, the RAK Olympic distance race actually went much better than expected. I had only managed to swim two or three times in the lead up so I had absolutely no idea how the 1500m would go. My bike is, as we all know, pretty weak and my running is only just starting to take shape. However, despite all my negative mental-prep, somehow I had a good race.                   I drove from Dubai to RAK on the morning of the race with a friend, who was taking on his first triathlon. This meant that instead of spending the en ..read more