The Eco Ironman

I'm working on some other stuff now...

2010-12-18T06:44:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone - sorry for the lapse in communication!

The Eco Ironman project has gone quiet for a while, but will be back live at some point. For now, I'm working a bit too hard, so my eco-ness has gone a bit more theoretical. You can keep tabs on that at www.conservation-economy.org.

I am however continuing to pursue the green sport thing, and you can keep up with me and my new buddies at www.webjam.co.uk/racinggreen.

Go well.

2009-12-14T09:58:00.001-08:00

I have a habit when I read of folding over corners that I think at some stage I might want to go back to. Obviously I very rarely do, but just on occasion...

Last night was one such moment. I decided to have a little look back over Born to Run, and came across this beautiful quote:

How do you flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were? Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed all, and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbours’ backyards. Half the fun of doing anything was doing it at record pace, making it probably the last time in your life you’d ever be hassled for going too fast.

That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind’s first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle – behold, the Running Man…

But the American approach – ugh. Rotten at its core. It was too artificial and grabby, Vigil believed, too much about getting stuff and getting it now: medals, Nike deals, a cute butt. It wasn’t art; it was business, a hard-nosed quid pro quo. No wonder so many people hated running; if you thought it was only a means to an end – an investment in becoming faster, skinnier, richer – then why stick with it if you weren’t getting quo for your quid?

This to me has resonations throughout the world at the moment. Everything must be measured and analysed, usually so its worth can be quantified in monetary terms. But what runners know(and I don't mean just elite runners - in fact, they're most likely to have forgotten), and know perhaps better than anyone else in the world, is that some things are valuable just for themselves. This knowledge is what makes two such seemingly different people as Scott Jurek and Arnulfo Quimares (two of the heroes of Born to Run, pictured above) fundamentally similar, in a way that belies the cultural context of their lives, and is rooted in a deeply spiritual attitude to the world. You can see it in their faces. Beautiful, isn't it?

One step at a time

2009-12-07T08:36:00.001-08:00

In changing the world, as in endurance sport, it pays to take things one step at a time... and I think I was getting a bit ahead of the game with the British Council thinking.

Flow, as this fantastic book describes it, is something close to the essence of the true joy of sport, and a pre-condition is focusing completely on the task in hand. It is not all about winning - but equally, it is not about enjoying the view. It is about the perfect match of effort with challenge, the rubbing up of an individual against his or her individual limits. To reach this state, the action in question becomes the only thing there is... I recognise this deeply from my own experience, most recently from the swim in the Ironman, where the rhythm of my swimming became in some sense the whole of me. I was, for that period of time, a swimming creature, with no space or capacity to be otherwise. This is the purity of sport, this is its joy. The ability to be totally at one.

Of course, you don't have to be an eco athlete to achieve this. But I do wonder if it can make the sensation more authentic. It seems logical to me that there is an element of absorption in nature in this feeling - and it would therefore make sense that the fewer man-made barriers between you and nature, the purer that feeling, that joy can be.

Or maybe that's one project...

2009-11-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a weekend. I've just been on the British Council International Climate Champion weekend workshop, refining my project plan for the coming year. And it's shifted things quite a bit. It all culminated in a short pitch, which is below.

Sport Uncut – creating a world where sport is an act of appreciation of nature, not a fight for money and fame

My project is to unleash the latent power of endurance athletes – marathon, ultramarathon and long distance triathletes – as a force for change.

This is a project with significant potential impact, for three reasons.
1) This audience is full of the kind of people who, if they do something, do it properly. You don’t complete a marathon without some commitment.
2) We have a deep visceral connection with the natural world – we know in our bodies if not always in our minds how much we depend on nature
3) We know (again implicitly rather than explicitly) that sport has gone wrong somewhere; we know that it’s not just about winning and losing

My project is to make this understanding, this deeply held knowledge, explicit. I see a world where endurance athletes are at the forefront of the ecological revolution that is just starting to emerge.

I am going to do this via 3 angles of approach

The first will be to define new types of endurance event, events where the competition is explicitly not just about the quickest time. We have a desperately narrow-minded conception of competition today – but the word originally comes from the Latin ‘cum + petere’, to strive together. I believe we can recapture this meaning, and my first idea is to work with an existing event, the Jurassic Coast Challenge ultramarathon next March, to find new ways – including a photography competition integrated into the ultra itself. The athletes will be striving together, not only to complete the course, but to fully appreciate the greatest moments of the race.

The second will be to celebrate and catalyse the production of new types of kit, more coherent with our attachment to the natural world than the desire to win at all costs. In the long term, I can imagine new forums, magazines, and so on being established – but for now I will start by establishing a stand at existing sports shows, bringing together such innovations as limestone-based wetsuits, bamboo and flax bikes, and ‘barefoot’ running shoes, under the banner of ‘the athlete of the future’.

Finally, I want to start to engage with the psychology of endurance sport, and sport as a whole, looking to understand where our narrow definition of competition has come from, and seek a new language for those of us who see an altogether broader reality. I hope to have the opportunity to do a PhD, and this would be the heart of my inquiry.

In the long term, imagine an alternative Olympics – an Olympics where we are striving together in appreciation of the natural world, not fighting over whether it’s the swimsuit or the swimmer, the athlete or the steroids, that are ‘winning’ the race.

Three projects for 2010

2009-11-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a pause for thought, the plan is to continue with the blog... more for my sake than for anyone else's!

But just in case you do feel like keeping up to date, what you can expect over the next year is three main things.

First up, the attempts off the back of Barcelona to get the concept of eco triathlon into the mainstream. The first real victory has come this week, as Tzero-tri, a new website for triathletes by triathletes, commissioned a 'how to' guide from me on the subject. You can check it out here. I'm also hoping to work with Simon Griffiths, the founder of the site, on a couple of other ideas for working together with the goal of making all triathlon eco triathlon. I see no reason at all why tri shouldn't be the next surfing.

Second, I'm going to have a go at setting up a race. I won't take on a triathlon just yet (though you never know!), but what I want to try to do is get a 10k going to get more people involved in the idea that nature is a vital factor in the true joy of running. It'll basically be a cross country race somewhere near London to start with - but with a few twists. I've got myself on a British Council project with a bit of funding attached, and I've just registered the domain http://www.runwild.org.uk/. Watch this space (but not just yet, because there isn't anything there!).

Finally, I'm going to take on the Jurassic Coast Challenge in March, and use a barefoot running shoe to do it. I've been for quite a few barefoot runs now, and really enjoyed the feeling. So bring it on!

Peak oil and limestone wetsuits

2009-10-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

A few people have been asking me what the scoop is on limestone wetsuits - understandably, as it's a slight difficult concept to get your head around.

Essentially, the deal is this. Most wetsuits are made of neoprene, a petroleum-based substance. So like a lot of stuff, it's made of oil.

Neoprene brings several problems with disposal, as it's a pretty hazardous substance, and very difficult to recycle. But the most significant environmental issue is the sourcing of the oil. Dwindling supplies mean we're getting close to (and many commentators say we've gone past) the point where new production of oil is outweighed by growth in demand. This is the point we call peak oil (thanks Wikipedia).

As this happens, we start to seek new oil with greater and greater desperation - a notable example being the efforts to exploit the Alberta tar sands in Canada. All oil is bad. But this stuff is mad. Because of emissions incurred in production, tar sands oil is responsible for 3 times as many emissions as normal oil. Not only that, but the tar sands are often in areas of ancient boreal forest. This sort of thing is just BAD news - on all counts. Greenpeace haven't even had to use their usual tactics; they've published the report above on the financial risks BP and Shell are putting their shareholders through instead!

What all that means is that anything we can do to move away from petroleum-based products is seriously good news. So ask for geoprene when you buy your wetsuit!

Making (small!) waves in triathlon world...

2009-10-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Feeling quite pleased with myself today, as it seems the concept of eco triathlon is starting to make a bit more of an impact where it can really make a difference - among triathletes.

An article is running on tri247.com, and I'm talking to tzero-tri about the possibility of writing a 'how to' guide to eco triathlon for them. I'm really hoping this can be the beginning of something - I'd love to think that triathlon could be the next surfing, the next sport to really understand the relevance of the environment to the sport we love. It feels like it makes sense...

That said, I'm almost as excited about another little development. My deskmate at work has just entered her first 10k run, having never really been interested before. She started jogging in the park near her house after feeling 'shamed' by me!

From small acorns?

The next project?

2009-10-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

Thinking about taking this on... three marathons in three days along the Dorset coast path. Might be a good way to begin the barefoot running career...!

The numbers are in...

2009-10-12T01:22:00.000-07:00

So we've run the numbers - as best we can - on the impact of the Ironman. It's proven difficult to look in too much detail at the products themselves, as none have undertaken full carbon footprinting as yet, which should be another call to action to the industry.

But what we can look at is the impact of travel and diet, and the numbers from these are even bigger than I was expecting. Based on these two variables alone, my footprint for a 6 month training plan of 5000 calories a day, and travel to training camp and the race by train, comes to 0.56 tonnes. To put that in context, the carbon footprint per person per year in Malawi is 0.7 tonnes according to a Norwegian study reported here. So even doing an Eco Ironman, only counting food and transport, I'm creating almost as many emissions in 6 months as the average Malawian in a year.

But that's nothing compared to the average Ironman, which is almost SEVEN times higher at 3.48 tonnes!

To me, this proves the point that we as athletes really need to think about what we're doing. All humans depend on the natural environment to thrive - but we should have good reason to be more conscious of that fact. And to do something about it.

So... was it worth it?

2009-10-07T01:28:00.000-07:00

Ironically, this pic will probably be the most enduring of my memories of Challenge Barcelona. Jane took it in our hotel room, an hour or so after I finished - it was pretty much the moment when I started to be able to see the funny side of how I was feeling. My body temperature was rocketing all over the shop, and after a couple of random hot sweats I'd suddenly started feeling utterly freezing. So instead of going down to the course to pick up my kit, I wrapped myself in both the blankets from our bed and waited to feel normal again. This picture was taken when that beautiful moment finally came about.

Funny in retrospect, but presumably there was some fairly fundamental anger on the part of my body at what I'd put it through. So was it worth it? Was it worth not just this physical condition, but also all the time in training, the weekends sacrificed, and so on?

The answer has to be yes.

I can't pretend that I've made a massive difference to the psychology of all sportsmen, and in one hit lit the fire of a new generation of eco-athletes... but I have found better ways to align my values with my sport for myself; I have had conversations that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and found companies and individuals that are doing amazing things in pursuit of a similar goal; and I have developed ideas for what comes next that could continue this work. So something has been started.

I also can't claim to have inspired whole cohorts of city dwellers to find more space for nature in their day-to-day lives. But again, perhaps you don't always see the impact of what you're doing immediately. And what I have definitely done is raised almost a third of what the Wilderness Foundation need to formalise the TurnAround Project in 2010.

And of course I've done something I'll always be proud of. So that can't be bad.

Finally, we've still got the carbon footprint calculations to finalise, so hopefully one or two last interesting titbits to come from there before this blog signs off for good!

Mostly ow

2009-10-05T06:57:00.001-07:00

So I´m alive, just about. Time of 11h32, which I have to say I´m pretty chuffed with. Swim was a total dream, did it in 1.06 which is way quicker than anticipated, and really enjoyed it - particularly the tunes on the music system just before the start, ´Let´s Get It Started´ and ´Crazy´, fairly appropriate! Bike was pretty good too, though the heat really started to tell towards the end, and I was beginning to be a bit scared before the run even began... and I was right to. Absolutely screwed by about 5km in, but managed to run between aid stations (every 2.5km), and was pretty chuffed to keep the marathon time respectable at 4.14. I genuinely can´t imagine having been in much more pain than I was by the end though - knees went numb at about 20km, and I´m really not sure how I did it from there. You meet a fairly unpleasant version of yourself when you get in that kind of condition!
Think the most lasting memory will be of sitting in the finish area with my head between my knees, concentrating extremely hard on not vomiting, and trying to look grateful to the German woman beside me who kept offering me peanuts and beer (admittedly alcohol free, but still not exactly what I was wanting to put into my system at the time). I was, if you´ll forgive my Catalan, properly bu88ered.
Hopefully my brain will kick in sufficiently to reflect slightly more intelligently over the next day or so, but in the meantime, thanks to everyone who´s sponsored me so far, and I´ll write more soon!

Bring it on...

2009-10-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

Jesus. I´m about to do a 140 mile race in a day. That´s a stupidly long way.

It´s funny how these things only occur to you when it´s a little bit too late!

Calella is an odd sort of place, bit of a dive of the Costa Brava really, but out of season not bad at all, and the beach is beautiful. The clientele around the pool at our hotel are an amusing mix of fat Brits and Germans, draping their copious guts across their flag towels in the sun, and hardcore athletes of all nationalities, talking nervously in clusters of 2 and 3 in the shade. It´s a slightly uncomfortable mix, but quite entertaining to look down on from a balcony. Humans are an odd species, in many ways!

Biggest prospective concern is the heat. It´s looking like being about 25-27 degrees tomorrow, which is about 10 degrees hotter than my ginger complexion is particularly keen on. But I suppose an unseasonably cold day would have been mildly inappropriate given I´m doing this partly to raise awareness of climate change among athletes...

Well, I suppose this is it pre-race! I´ll update as soon as I physically can - I start at 8.40am local time, so with a following wind will aim to be done by 9pm (arrghh - 12 hours!!!!). Thanks to everyone who´s texted, emailed etc to wish me luck, and thanks hugely to everyone who´s sponsored me so far. Given I´m now as machine-like in physical fitness as I´ll ever be, I´ll leave the final words to the mighty Arnie.

Hasta la vista... baby.

Train travel - one last pleasure before the pain!

2009-10-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to this afternoon - Eurostar have very kindly upgraded me and my girlfriend for the trip to Paris, which means she at least can sip champagne as we speed under the sea...
Have to say, though, I find train travel a real pleasure regardless of class of travel. It's been one of the easiest changes to make in lifestyle as I've tried to go greener; only when you stop flying do you realise quite how miserable it was in the first place, and how much it detracts from your authentic experience of a place to arrive in the cultural sterility of an airport! So much more real to travel through a landscape, seeing it change around you, than to parachute into greyness.

I also have a bit of a beef both with those who say it's expensive and those who say it takes too long, which are the most obvious arguments against train travel.

Money-wise there are a couple of factors. First up, if you book in advance, train travel is dead reasonable. Eurostar from £59 return all in (so no credit card or carry on bag fees, or transfers to and from city centres - no bl**dy Stansted 'Express'!), and the overnight from Barcelona cost 50-odd euros first class!Then there's the fact that we are simply not paying the true cost of flying at the moment - in many countries, airline fuel is subsidised while train is not. What you have to remember is that flying is both fundamentally unnecessary (particularly domestic and short-haul European) AND carbon intensive. Not exactly a winning combination in the present day. Can't believe they are trying to get away with a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050. Ridiculous.

Especially when you consider the time thing properly. Now, I'm leaving work at 2pm to go to Barcelona. I'll go to St Pancras, do a bit more work on the way to Paris, have dinner, get on the train and wake up in Barca at 7am after a lovely long sleep. Nice.

Or I could travel an hour out of town to get to an airport, check in by 4pm, get on a flight for 5pm, arrive at Barca airport by 9pm (with time difference), and get into actual real-life Barcelona after getting bags and so on for about 10.30pm if I'm really lucky, absolutely knackered and having been unable to do anything useful since 2pm. I generally don't sleep well after flying, so I'll still feel shoddy the next day, and I'll have generated 10 times more carbon emissions.

But yes, green living is all about sacrifices...

FRANK water - if bottled water can be good...

2009-09-29T09:22:00.001-07:00

...then this is it.
For every litre of FRANK you buy, they develop 200 litres worth of clean water projects in India. Which makes a bit of a mockery of Volvic's 10 for 1 campaign earlier in the year. But more importantly, FRANK are trying to phase out bottled water altogether, encouraging people to use tap water where possible... and they're also campaigning for clean water wherever they can. This led one of their number to take part in the World Bog Snorkelling Championships recently, putting in a heroic performance which culminated in using a FRANK filter to render the bog water drinkable.

I'll be carrying my FRANK bottle on my bike on Sunday with pride.

Wilderness Foundation project in funding appeal

2009-09-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

Thought it might be a good idea to highlight a specific Wilderness Foundation project, just in case anyone popping along to the site needs a last nudge to put hand in pocket! This is one of the most inspiring programmes I've seen, and deserves every bit of effort I'll be putting in on Sunday. I'll let Richard Corby, one of the key movers and shakers at WF, speak for himself.

TurnAround is a twelve month long intervention programme for vulnerable youth in mid-Essex, created and managed by the Wilderness Foundation UK. Over four years in development, and having completed a successful pilot programme in 2007 (where we achieved an outstanding 80% success rate in returning participants to full time education and employment - rather than detention in a youth offending facility where many of the kids were headed without help from our programme), we officially launched the programme this year.

Over four years in development, and having completed a successful pilot programme in 2007 (where we achieved an outstanding 80% success rate in returning participants to full time education and employment - rather than detention in a youth offending facility where many of the kids were headed without help from our programme), we officially launched the programme this year.

Working with the Police, Connexions, YOT, schools and families, together with experienced Psychologists, Counsellors, Therapist and Educational Specialists, the Foundation's "TurnAround Project" is changing the lives of young people for the better.

Built around wilderness trails, environmental and community-based workshops, one-to-one sessions with volunteer adult mentors drawn from the local community, TurnAround culminates in a graduation ceremony, then work experience and if desired, re-entry in to full time education.

Monitored by the University of Essex at every stage, we have categorically proven the relationship between time spent in nature and improved self esteem - the successes of TurnAround are clear for all to see. However, we urgently need to raise additional funds to continue the programme into 2010.

A twelve month placement for one young person costs £7,500 - all of which we raise ourselves. We receive no Government funding for this work and are dependant on the support and understanding of people like you to keep changing young lives. Compare this price to the cost of a young person spending a year in detention - estimated to be £47,500 a year to the tax payer - and you can see that TurnAround is not only creating positive futures, but makes good financial sense too.

Pretty compelling in my book. Click here to fund them through my page, or here if you want to fund TurnAround directly.

Slovenia - not a bad place for a finishing camp

2009-09-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

This was taken yesterday morning, after I swam a couple of laps around the island of the Church of the Ascension in Lake Bled, Slovenia. Absolutely stunning place, which goes for the rest of the country as well... I've spent the last week hiking and biking in the Kamnik Alps while acting as groupie for my girlfriend on a young leaders' climate change conference. Quite the couple.

It was an interesting location for an environmental conference, not least because the Slovenian way of life appears to be a lot more dependent on local resilience than anywhere else in Europe that I've witnessed, particularly when it comes to food. Pretty much everywhere, even in the capital Ljubljana, everyone seems to have a little plot of land and be growing their own food. Transition Towns eat your heart out - these guys are really on it.

Mind you, hard not to have a bit of respect for nature when you live in a place like this.

Limestone wetsuits... what will they think of next?

2009-09-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

So I was despairing a little about wetsuits, because as far as I could work out, no one makes swimming wetsuits out of anything other than petroleum-based rubber. But then I got a very entertaining email from Glyn Turquand, the man in charge at Xterra:

About 80 million years ago, a rock originally situated in the present-day Hawaiian Islands - home to the Ironman World Championship – traveled to Mt. Kurohime, Japan. The rock is what is commonly known as limestone (99.7% calcium carbonate) and it is free from almost all impurities.

While petroleum-based rubber may be cheaper, we have chosen to manufacture our wetsuits out of limestone. This is our little way of having environmentally friendly wetsuits. We also think it’s kind of cool that all our wetsuits are from Hawaii, albeit born there quite awhile ago.

Now that's pretty cool. A geology lesson, a bit of humour, and a solution to the wetsuit conundrum all in one hit. My new suit, a Vector ProX2, arrived the other day, and I could tell I was going to like it when I read the warning on the box: "WARNING: Will increase speed, efficiency, buoyancy and overall finish results. Wear only if desired effect is to increase performance".

That's the kind of environmentalism I like. Very cool, very witty... and very fast.

Clif Bar

2009-09-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

Another very cool company I've just discovered...

These guys really come from the same school of thinking as me - athletes who love nature, and want to do something about it. They talk about the Eureka moment - out on a cycle ride, eating rubbish-y chemical energy bars, they decided to make them taste better and do good. That's the kind of thinking we like. Check them out here.

Ecologist article...

2009-09-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

...has just gone live here

The last big weekend is done...

2009-09-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

Less than three weeks to go, and we're basically into the taper from here. For those not in the know, the gist is that with an event as intense as an ironman, even the training can deplete your body pretty dramatically, so you start to ease off a reasonable time before the event so that you're in peak condition on the day.

Not that I'm pretending to be massively scientific about this... I have read one or two books on the subject though!

Either way, the last weekend was a big one. 112 miles on the bike on Friday, 3 miles in the pool and 10 running on Saturday, and then 20 mile run on Sunday. So in total, a little over the full distance, but split over 3 days. Enough to make me realise just how far this event is. Still, I've survived the meat of the training (touch wood) without illness or injury, so with luck I can at least focus on making it to the finish line rather than whether or not I'll make it to the start!

Just realised I've covered over 1000 miles in training

2009-09-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

Damn. That's a long way.

Richard Long at Tate Britain

2009-09-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

Managed to catch this exhibition on Friday evening - just in time, because I think yesterday was the last day. It was quite a powerful experience.

Long is very much an artist inspired by nature, and his art is essentially made by walking through wilderness. He seems to see the walking itself as the primary artwork - how he captures it, in photo, word or other form, is a sort of secondary (though no less valuable form). He strikes a chord with me for many reasons, not least the beautiful simplicity of the textworks as exemplified below; but I think the main thing is the relationship he has with the natural world, and with walking. I get a lot of the same things from my training - he talks of the simple pleasure he gets from walking, the ability not to need any more from a day than to have walked. I reckon we could all do with a bit more of that kind of simplicity.

Some more like-minded souls...

2009-09-03T03:15:00.001-07:00

It seems the cause is not quite as lonely as it seemed - perhaps we are on our way to a significant shift in the world of sport after all...

Toby Radcliffe, who's just a little bit better than me, is trying to take a similar theme up the pro triathlon ranks. He's got his own pages here, so keep an eye on him, and give him a cheer if you see him.

He's working with Athletes for a Fit Planet, an American gang who have as their tagline, 'greening the planet one race at a time'. That's my kind of ambition.

What are they working on? Well, for a start, the EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon, in October this year, which EDF are calling 'the race against climate change'. The aim is to make it the first certified (using US standards) 'green' race in the UK.

The world is turning.

Climate Hijack... is it?

2009-09-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Listened to a really interesting programme on Radio 4 the other night put together by Richard Black, the BBC's Environment correspondent, and titled Climate Hijack... the radio show is I think coming off iPlayer in the next day or so, but this article by Black contains pretty much everything and takes 2 minutes to read instead of 30 to listen to!

Black's overall point is that environmental degradation extends far beyond climate change, and in many cases is causing more immediate, and just as significant damage to the world. Taking air quality as an example, at one point he demands of Hilary Benn, 'Shouldn't this be just as important, if not more so, given that it's having an impact now, whereas the impacts of climate change are only projected?'

There is a worrying lack of responsibility in this journalism, I think. Although he's careful to say he's not denying or trying to undermine the importance of climate change, Black's programme will be heard by many as doing exactly that. He fails to recognise some key factors, notably the amplifying role that climate change will play, if unchecked, in all other environmental problems - air quality, habitat destruction, etc will all accelerate if climate change goes unchecked. And he does risk implying that climate change is sorted, constantly referring to the 'huge' political effort being put behind it.

However, there are a couple of really powerful points in there. This one - a point made by Mike Hulme from the Tyndall Centre - is particularly thought provoking, and makes today's launch of the 10:10 initiative all the more important.

"The characteristics of climate change are quite convenient for politicians to use and to deploy both at a popular level but also at a political level," he says.
He argues that climate change is seductive to politicians because it is a long-term issue - so decisive action is always posited for some time in the future, at a time that can always be made yet more distant - and someone else can always be blamed.
So Europeans used to blame the US, the US would blame China and India, and developing countries would blame the entire developed West.
"It's very easy to pass responsibility for failure somewhere else… and in the process of doing that, one is able to keep one's own credibility and record, with the appearance of being much more progressive and constructive."

Ugly... but quite fast

2009-08-26T01:48:00.000-07:00

Handsome, no? I like to play for the cameras, as might have been clear from the Standard article. Bit more Joker than James Bond this time though...

Competed in the Hard as Snails 10k last Saturday, an event to raise money for the Surrey Wildlife Trust. Very beautiful run on the North Downs, past St Martha's Chapel. A nice reminder that you don't have to go very far out of London to get a bit of semi-wilderness, and some great views. And best part was I pulled off a top 10 finish, completing the course in under 42 minutes, which given the size of the hills was a really good result. Given that I'd done over 100 miles on the bike, plus short run and swim the day before, it was a good boost to the confidence - speed and endurance both seem to be getting positive effect.

Good thing too, with only 6 weeks to go!

Not just a bloody-minded endurance goon...

2009-08-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

...turns out people think I've got a brain as well!

Have just found out I've won the Ashridge Sustainable Innovation Award - an essay contest open to MBA students from all around the world. Can't quite believe, but as a result I'm off to Sweden in November to receive my prize from Maud Oloffson, the Swedish Vice Prime-Minister... just run a quick check and it looks like it will be possible to make the trip overland, although it might take a few days. It's really interesting for me, looking back at this essay now, as I wrote it back in May. There's a few ideas in there that have formed a little more in the intervening period though - there's some version of the Phoenix Economy recognised in there, for example.

Nice moment when I heard the news though - I was halfway through a 100 mile ride, and standing on a bridge in Henley on Thames, when I picked up the voicemail. Nearly dropped my bike in the river!

Exec summary:

In two very different parts of the world today, two very different innovation programmes are under way in the same industry. In America, President Obama is struggling to convince Detroit that 0.5% of the cars on the road in 2015 should be plug-in hybrids; in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus has got Volkswagen biting his arm off to deliver a widely affordable, pollution-free vehicle whose engine can be removed to act as a domestic generator. So what’s going on?

There are three lessons we can learn by comparing and contrasting these two innovation programmes, and looking for further examples from across the world.

First of all, we must learn to start from scratch, which is coming easier to Bangladesh than the USA. Economic cycles happen for a reason; because our thinking needs to evolve to deal better with the context. Some technologies and institutions need to fail for the new to come through. The British (and Bangladeshi) energy industry is starting to show the truth of this as well.

Secondly, we must put financial value in its proper place, as a servant to the generation of real value. True innovation has never, and will never come from an obsession with financial value; indeed, the spreading trend for Gillette Innovation in the developed world shows this to be the case.

Finally, we must learn to distinguish needs from wants, and focus our energy on satisfying these. The work of Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef is extremely helpful in this, and help us understand that there remains a huge innovation gap in the ‘developed’ world.

If we follow these three rules, all innovation will naturally follow to deliver a low carbon economy; if we do not, a true low carbon economy is an impossibility. And it is the responsibility of business to lead us there.

Tarahumara Indians, barefoot running, and modern madness

2009-08-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Just back from holiday/training camp, and wanted to share a book recommendation. I've been reading Chris McDougall's 'Born to Run', and it's incredible.

Basically, it's the story of the founding of perhaps the greatest running race in the world, which for the last couple of years has pitted the best ultra-marathon runners in the modern world against the best of a tribe of indigenous Mexicans called the Tarahumara, who live in the Copper Canyons near the border with Texas. As the story develops, you learn everything from the Running Man theory of evolution, which suggests - with a convincing case - that humans uniquely evolved as endurance runners; through to the story of the founding of Vibram Five Fingers, the shoe of choice of the barefoot running community.

This is the point where I've got particularly stuck... I fairly readily dismissed barefoot running when it was first suggested to me, having been happy to accept the conventional wisdom that running shoes should be bought to compensate for and support the individual gait. However, on reading this book, I'm convinced otherwise. Quoting everyone from Bill Bowerman to US Olympic coaches to Harvard scientists, McDougall brings together an apparently bullet-proof case that running barefoot (or as close to as is safe on hot/dirty/broken-glass-ridden ground) is better for us, quicker, and more enjoyable. The fact that Nike released (somewhat paradoxically) a shoe designed specifically for this purpose in 2006 suggests that even they accept there might be something in it. Article here from Wired.

I think this is fascinating. It struck me while reading that the case of the running shoe has many parallels in other areas of modern life. Fundamentally, in the attempt to create 'better than nature', what we've done is created something totally unnecessary and in fact counter-productive. With that in mind, have a think about bottled water, or GM crops (which initially boost yields, but by killing soil, deplete those yields over the long term).

I don't have the answers to these bigger problems, and unfortunately I don't have the time before the Ironman to build up the muscles in my feet which have been undermined by years of shoe-wearing. But I know I'll be getting into barefoot from October 5th onwards. I might even get in touch with the Caballo Blanco, and go on one of his trips - his website's pretty impressive these days!

(PS - if I were to have a small complaint with the book, it would be the author's American jock-journo language - there's more tangential melodramatic comparisons in this book than there are bronzed bikini babes in an entire year of Sports Illustrated, if you get my meaning - but you can get past that once he's into his flow... and the man did run the first Copper Canyon Ultra as well, so fair play to him)

2 months to go

2009-08-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Off to France this afternoon for 10 days, and have after a bit of deliberation decided to leave the bike at home - going to focus on a) running, b) getting back into swimming and c) actually having a bit of a holiday. I'm working on the basis that it's possible to overdo these things... after all, you don't want to end up despising every training session you do, and frankly I'm beginning to get quite bored of my bike!

Overall, at just over a month into the campaign, things are going pretty well. Shoulder injury seems to be coming under control, and hasn't (yet) been replaced by any other injuries, so the body is intact which is the fundamental. The kit is coming together, though not without problems - the Calfee guys are no longer sure if they can hit the deadlines, which could mean I'm faced with not having much opportunity to train on a bike, or perhaps not even have a bike in time; pretty irritating, but there's a couple of other options to be explored. And I've got first press exposure, and am doing pretty well for baseline sponsorship.

The big problem is the bike, though. This is the real headline-maker, and the icon of what has become a key point I'm making - that products made with environmental concerns at their very heart can still be high-performance products. And the bike is the most tangible evidence of that...

Once I get hold of the bike, plan will be to hold some sort of event in central London, together with the rest of the kit. Although, thinking about it now, and bearing in mind an encouraging email from a wetsuit manufacturer, it might be about coming in to work in a wetsuit for a day... that would make quite an impact...

Bonking

2009-08-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

Basically, the fundamental of an Ironman training plan is to make sure I'm covering significant distance in running or cycling pretty much every work day, and then wedge in some swims where possible, before really hitting it hard at the weekend - although thanks to my shoulder injury (getting better, aiming to be back in the water next week), I haven't swum for nearly a month, and that's getting to the point of quite serious frustration.

'Significant distance' means, basically, running 20-22km per day (roughly 12-14 miles), or cycling 60-90km (roughly 35-60 miles). Fitting that in around work hours really isn't that easy, even on logistical terms - it's basically 2-3 hours of training every day. But it's when you then expect yourself to be on reasonably constructive form for the time when you are at work, that you end up in trouble!

As for 'hitting it hard', this weekend that involved a 150km, 7 hour ride in the Dorset hills. Which was really enjoyable, up to a point. That point came about 130km in, at the bottom of the hill in Little Bredy, just before churning my way up to the Hardy monument. Then it suddenly wasn't fun any more. Cyclists call the feeling I had at that moment 'bonking', and it's not nearly as much fun as what most other people mean by that word. Your legs suddenly stop following orders, and go into active denial of the purpose that you're trying to drive them towards. Your lungs are burning, in my case to the extent that I was genuinely struggling for breath. And to top it all off, because you're going up a steep hill, you're basically not even moving. At that moment, a fat man on a slightly hurried waddle to the bus stop could have outpaced me.

Oddly, though, there is something - at least for me - pleasurable in this feeling as well. It's a moment when you really come up against your limits as a physical being, finding the point where there genuinely isn't any more you can do. This is an amazing place to go, and I think a really powerful moment to take into the rest of life.

An old rowing coach of mine, Mark Hall, once told us in a pre-race briefing that we could do ourselves no damage by testing ourselves to what we thought was the limit. When our brains told us to stop, he said, we would be at 60% capacity. When our brains screamed to stop, we would be at 80%. And when we were at 90%, we would pass out anyway. Which would be fine in the long run.

I remember these words from 12 years ago every time I hit the wall on my bike, or on a run... and actually sometimes when I've got too much to do in another part of my life. And I push a bit harder.

Wetsuits and tri kit

2009-07-28T06:17:00.001-07:00

This is getting frustrating. After the initial burst of good fortune, and finding out some really interesting stuff on shoes and bikes, I seem to have come to a dead halt when it comes to wetsuits and tri gear.

I find this really surprising, as I would have thought that wetsuits in particular would be the easiest thing to find. Swim wetsuits and surf wetsuits aren't a million miles apart, and you'd have thought that surfers (what with surfers against sewage, and so on) would be some of the first athletes onto the green revolution. However, it's almost impossible to find anything out - none of the swim wetsuit companies openly declare what materials their suits are made from, and so even though there seem to be non-petroleum based materials like geoprene available, it's impossible to tell whether anyone's using them... which says to me that they're not.

If anyone knows anyone who can help me get started on this, I'd really appreciate it. Not quite sure where to turn from here.

Heart-warming moment...

2009-07-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I put a post on the Evening Standard message board under the article about me, mainly because a few folk were having a pop and I wanted to show that I could take it (much as I appreciate my best mate's mum wading in and having a good pop on my behalf - go Eileen!)... and today, it was nice to see one of the first of the critics receiving my words in the spirit they were intended. Just goes to show, if you're nice, people are nice to you. Pop along to the article and scroll to the bottom. Would be nice to meet Bob H, he sounds like a good fella.

On a less positive note, I'm really struggling to find decent kit to do the actual event in. Apparently there are massive problems inherent in the making of lycra, which is a bummer. Not quite sure what I'm going to do about that one. Plus my shoulder's pretty sore, though the physio I went to see yesterday knows his stuff, so hopefully will be sorted soon. And to cap it off, there's only one eco-hotel in the whole of Spain, and obviously it's not on the Costa Brava (rather surprisingly, it's on the Costa Blanca!). Hmm.

Fame at last!

2009-07-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the lovely Daisy Dumas and the Evening Standard!

Check out the article here

Bit concerned...

2009-07-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Evening Standard article is due to run tomorrow - it seems to have gone from being a pretty tiny thing to actually being quite a feature (they rang again to ask for more content). On the one hand this is great, as I'm sure it makes it more likely to be picked up by other people, more likely to raise more money, etc... but on the other hand, should I come across as a total [insert unpleasant word], there's an increased likelihood of people noticing.

This is a particular concern given this morning's photo shoot in Hyde Park, where one of the shots was of me coming out of the water at the Serpentine. I have a horrible feeling it's going to be chosen, and that the general out-take is going to be something along the lines of 'he looks like he thinks he's Daniel Craig, but actually he's seriously scrawny and ginge... and why is his face so red?'

That would be slightly uncool. Oh well.

A productive training session...

2009-07-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hit the road to Winchester with training buddy Tom and a group of his mates yesterday. Good ride, if a little urban at the beginning - and Tom and I got a little over-competitive at the end, so the legs a bit sore now! But made some new friends and got some useful tips - apparently Speedo are working on some recycled/ethically sourced lines, so I'm going to find out a bit more about that, and I was tipped off about Torq, a gang who started out as a fitness consultancy, but now make ethically sourced, organic and fairly traded energy products. Which to be honest is something I didn't think would exist!

Why am I doing this?

2009-07-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, this isn't me getting all existential and depressed when I'm still more than two and a half months away from the event. It's more that I've been chatting to Daisy Dumas at the Evening Standard, who think they want to do a piece on me, and I think it's worth taking the time to reflect a little on what my reasons - conscious and otherwise - really are for this slightly silly undertaking. I think there are 3 reasons.

A big part of it I think is about the relationship between exercise and the environment - my relationship, and other people's I see around me. I was reading Joanna Macy this morning, and she talks about how some of us exercise to exorcise, using sport to numb and distract ourselves from our concerns about what's going on in the world (others of us use TV etc in similar ways). I think this is definitely true of me; sport has been a distraction mechanism, and so I want to change my relationship with it, so that my sport represents an active expression of my values and beliefs rather than a respite from them. I believe the crises in the world are such that I have a moral responsibility to face them in everything I do. So it is about me to quite a significant extent.

But it's also, more importantly I think, about how it is possible to appreciate and savour nature even in the midst of a London lifestyle, and on a daily basis. As I run through Hyde Park and along the Thames in the morning and evening, and swim in the Serpentine, I am able to refresh myself with what really matters to me, and appreciate the beauty of these places. I'm perfectly willing to admit that I'm a pretty extreme example, but if I can fit in enough running, cycling and swimming in the London area's wilder places to do an Ironman, and do a fairly full-on job at the same time, I think I'm hoping to provide some inspiration that anyone can get out and find their version - even if it's just walking the most scenic part of your journey home every now and then... Of course, some people never get that opportunity, and that's why it's the Wilderness Foundation I'm raising money for, so that I can be a part of making it possible for people who really wouldn't get the chance to experience these things otherwise.

Finally, it's becoming increasingly about discovering and celebrating the inventiveness that some people and companies are showing in response to the global crises we find ourselves in. The idea to make bikes out of bamboo, and to use your company's profits to help other people learn to do the same; the bravery to jump ship from a major TNC powerhouse and make shoes the way you believe they should be made... it's really powerful stuff. It's this kind of 'Phoenix Economy' behaviour that gives me faith that we'll find a new way to run society, far more than geo-engineering solutions that would temporarily extend the window for our present unsustainable approach (although we might need them too!).

Sorry, bit of a long one today... but hopefully a bit of an insight into what I'm all about!

Shoes and the Phoenix Economy

2009-07-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've come across a really interesting company on the shoe front. END Footwear is a new company in Portland, Oregon, founded by a guy who left Nike because he just felt that there was no way they could overcome all the baggage they had - by which I mean the pointless complications and inefficiencies locked into their design and delivery framework. It seems he was underwhelmed by the idea that Nike's 'revolutionary' Considered Design programme would, at best, "reduce waste in the company by 17%, and increase the use of environmentally preferred materials by 20%" by 2020.

Far be it from me to criticise - from where Nike are, that's a considerable effort. And 17% of Nike's waste is a lot of savings. But in a world where we need seismic change (40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 is now a target some call too limited), this isn't enough.

Taking this into a wider context, I recently came across a fascinating paper on the Phoenix Economy, the essential hypothesis of which relates exactly to this phenomenon. In a world where incremental change is not enough, the argument seems to run that we must let some things fail - and trust that better solutions will rise from the ashes. The Obama administration is #1 in the Phoenix Fifty. Check it out.

What's great about END (who don't feature in the Phoenix 50, but perhaps will one day!) is that they're really good running shoes as well, which sets them apart from every other ethical shoemaker. Their newest line (pictured above) has just won 'Best Runner's Debut' from Runner's World magazine in the USA.

It's not easy being green...

2009-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

This is a phrase that's increasingly becoming a dull truism, but sometimes you get reminded of it in ways that really are hard to ignore.

I spent this weekend down in Cornwall, training hard - 150km on the bike through the Cornish hills on Friday, then long walks on Saturday and Sunday, as the aim at the moment is all about getting my body used to being in constant exercise for long periods of time.

While I was there, I spent some time at the Eden Project, Tim Smits' spectacular creation, conjured from a bleak disused quarry site. It was truly impressive, and inspiring... but...

Eden's greatest success is also its greatest failing. They are so keen to take an even-handed view of everything that I ended up feeling like I didn't know what I could do about it all. The arguments for and against biofuels (low carbon vs potential deforestation) were arguments I knew about already; what I hadn't for some reason realised was that soya crops were part of the same issue. Which means even veggie burgers are something you have to be really careful about sourcing - going veggie isn't the simple solution it seems!

This is a small thing really, but when I put it together with the issues I'm having trying to source equipment that I can believe in just to do a triathlon, it all adds up to feeling quite intimidating. And if I, a committed greenie, feel like that, what are others going to think? Hmm. Maybe I'm just tired from not having slept on the overnight train - will try to make my next entry a bit more upbeat!

Injuries...

2009-07-09T09:22:00.001-07:00

...are the biggest fear with a project like this. I've had some unfortunate injuries in the past, nearly missing the 2002 boat race with a back/rib injury that's never really properly gone away. It's a harsh reminder sometimes, you can do all the training you want, but if your body gives up on you, or something unfortunate happens and you just tweak something, that can be it.

Having these slightly doomful thoughts today because my shoulder is for some reason causing absolute agony - had an abortive attempt at swimming this morning, after a week focussed on the run, and it really wasn't a good idea. Not sure what I've done to it, as it felt pretty much fine a couple of days ago, but one to keep an eye on. Don't want to be making faces like the Danish lad who binned out of the Tour with a broken wrist yesterday!

Shoes

2009-07-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

Going to get started on the shoes while I wait for a reply from the bike folk (might try going straight to Calfee Design if I don't hear a response in the next day or so, have learned from the Evening Standard that the makers are the ones to talk to really).
Surprisingly, I think this is going to be the most difficult one, though I've got a few leads to start with. The problem is that to run marathon distance (and train for it), I really need to make sure I've got the right support - but the big guys are all big corporates, with fairly impenetrable CSR information. Had some encouraging words from Tim though:
One additional and to me obvious strand is in the eco credentials of whichever brand produces your kit (shoes, trackie etc). Nike as you know took a massive battering over labour standards, they are all competing to look good in that area. No idea what additional eco questions they are asking, nor whether supply chain issues come within your thinking on ‘eco’ but I think it would be interesting to explore.
Of course, when you are talking with the various companies about their supply chain and eco issues – you don’t need at that point to promise to wear their kit. Support is going to be key at the end of the day – but you can still get them thinking quite a lot in the meantime?
Will see what I can do...

Travel - done! Now for the bike...

2009-07-07T02:03:00.000-07:00

Good news - Eurostar are in and supportive!

Next challenge is the bike. I've been tipped off about Bamboo Bikes, which look really exciting. Because bamboo inverts the normal tree structure, and is hard on the outside, empty on the inside, it's perfect for making bikes - it's basically a naturally occurring bike frame. Pic above is from their site; they even look good. I'm going to ask them to lend a bike, for a bit of training time and for the race, and potentially look to auction it afterwards... I'm pretty standard size for a triathlete, so something should be possible I'd hope, especially if we can get some good PR going... We'll see!

Eurostar...

2009-07-06T04:32:00.001-07:00

Right, first stop travel.
I've done some work with Eurostar in my alternative guise as a comms strategist, and I know they need to start promoting travel beyond Paris, Brussels and Lille... so let's see if we can get them involved in some way, maybe a bit of PR support so I can get a few other sponsors on board.

It begins...

2009-07-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

It begins! I've paid my entry fee, I've got my training plan from Tom, and I'm committed. Now all I have to do is a) turn myself into a machine, and b) get things going with a bit of support, so the eco-ironman becomes a reality.
My starting points are: getting there by train, and then finding an eco-bike and some sort of eco-wetsuit (probably made of recycled fibres)... have to plot who to get those off.
I'm going to be raising money for the Wilderness Foundation again through this, so let's see how we go!