I started racing in the early- Nineties, and I’ve been a Cycling Weekly reader for about 30 years. After joining the military, I served in Germany and went on to break the military Hour record in 1997, riding 46.6km – featured in CW at the time.
I was relatively successful in time trialling in Yorkshire and the North-East until about five years ago, when it got harder, in my 40s, to beat the youngsters – that’s when I switched to triathlon.
In 2017 I’d set a 10-mile PB of 18.06, and in 2018 I was still riding 25-mile TTs in around 48 minutes – but Ironman had always been a perverse obsession since watching Transworld Sport as a kid.
In 2019, I did Ironman Wales and came seventh in my age group, just missing out on Kona qualification.
I managed to qualify in Argentina, then competed in the postponed Kona in October 2022. [Murray’s Ironman PB is 9hr 10min.]
During the Covid lockdown, knowing that the rescheduled Kona race lay ahead of me, I wanted to improve my heat tolerance, so I built a sauna in the garage – that’s what you see alongside the treadmill.
I’ll jump in the sauna after a run or bike session, and it definitely helps – heat is no longer a limiting factor for me. Having the garage fully set up for running, cycling and acclimatisation has been great.
These days my weekly training volume is 12-15 hours, with more indoors during winter or in the run-up to a big event. Next up for me, in November, is Ironman Arizona.
SAUNA
I bought the sauna as a kit off the internet during lockdown, and my mate helped me assemble it.
I use it regularly; the only problem is, when I go in there after a session on the bike, it’s very tempting to grab a cold beer from the mini-fridge!
BIG SCREEN
I’m the only cyclist I know who’s not on Zwift. As you can see, while I’m training I watch Swift, not Zwift – I have tried virtual riding, but to be honest, I thought it was a bit s**t. When the free trial expired, I went back to what I’d been doing for 20 years.
WALL ART
A couple of the pictures on the wall are me riding in cyclo-cross
