<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Craig Doyle - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Craig Doyle on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Man on the moon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6052.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. Of course that is not the best way to open an interview with the worlds second most celebrated astronaut. In fact, I found myself tip-toeing around the iconic American as I had heard so many nightmare stories about the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong. He allegedly will no longer answer questions about the moon. Yep, the moon guy won&rsquo;t talk moon. If you hire him for many ten of thousands of pounds to speak at your corporate event, it&rsquo;s alleged you can&#039;t asked how it felt, what it looked like...nothing! That is a serious elephant in the room.


Anyway I asked Buzz how sick he was of being asked what it was like to walk on the moon, and does he have a set answer and what was that answer, i.e. &ldquo; what was it like to walk on the moon?&rdquo; In fairness, he was a gentleman and a brilliant talker with very strong views on the American space program.  At the end of the interview I asked him what went through his mind as he looked up at the moon whilst sitting on his deck at home of an evening. He answered &ldquo; been there, done that&rdquo;.


How fantastic is that, what a brilliant frame of mind. Done that, no more to prove, my job is complete, I can sit back and enjoy life without the burden of far reaching goals and aspiration. Sadly this is not the mindset of the triathlete. We are never happy, there is always a faster time, a bigger hill a longer distance - God it&rsquo;s awful! 


Someone sent me a photo of myself as I crossed the line at the age-group World Championships a few years ago. My wife looked at it and said &ldquo; isn&rsquo;t it great you have done that, and you don&rsquo;t have to think about triathlon again&rdquo;. She is probably right, but it just doesn&rsquo;t work that way does it. Most of us are never going to win medals, set records or earn a living out of tri, but there is something about the sport that keeps you coming back for more.

For me there are three reasons for coming back to it:

a) The desire to break a certain time ( which I&rsquo;ll keep to myself until I have done it).
 
b) If I don&rsquo;t have something to train for I will stop training and turn into a large balloon. 

c) In the afore mentioned photograph of me crossing the finishing line at the Worlds, I have clearly wet myself! Yes, in the only image I have of me representing my country I have obviously wee weed in my pants - will my kids look at that photo in 20-years, and say wow Dad you are great? No they will say, wow Dad not only did you wear really unflattering lycra, but you were incontinent! 


For that reason alone I am back in the gym after a season away from the sport. This time it&rsquo;s for real. A winter of pain lies ahead in anticipation of a summer of smiles, fast times and dry race race suits!

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The show must go on]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5755.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[TV critics - every presenter and producer&#039;s nemesis. After a new or very big show goes out I personally avoid the papers for a few days, fearing seeing my name followed by a wordy diatribe from a vitriolic hack. Trust me, I&#039;ve had a few bad ones and, no matter how cool I try to play it, public criticism always hurts. There is of course a new sword for the cynic these days and it&#039;s a powerful one...the internet, the blog, the chat room. On one hand it&#039;s a brilliant forum for intelligent and witty debate and discussion - on the other it can be a handy tool for the anonymous bully. I say this after reading a lot of comment on the BBC&#039;s coverage of the Hyde Park Triathlon last weekend. It wasn&#039;t their best work, and the producers and presenters in there will admit to that. But that doesn&#039;t mean the level of personal abuse levelled at them does not hurt them.

ITV sport had a bit of an FA Cup boo boo last season, the papers loved slagging them off for it, but I was surprised to read an interview with a high profile BBC face recently who said he kind of enjoyed it! Well, I am the former BBC tri presenter, but I certainly have not enjoyed the vitriol thrown at my old mates, after all sports people are meant to have an innate sense of fair play.

Most people seemed upset at Stuart Storey&#039;s alleged lack of knowledge and Graeme Bell&#039;s presenting style. Stuart asked Michelle Dillon a few rather basic questions during the race, but triathlon is a fast growing sport and it is his job to open it up to EVERYBODY, that includes people who may never had seen triathlon before and had no idea what a gel or a transition is. It is also one of the few occasions in which they showed a full race live, like triathlon a good performance requires a lot of practice, and if it&#039;s not shown live regularly how can they train for it.

This applies to Graeme too. Trust me, he knows his triathlon. He has raced regularly (he narrowly beat me in London a few years ago), he is a great cyclist (he has finished the L&#039;Etape on a few occasions) and is an Olympian - he knows his sport. Graeme and I worked together on triathlon for a number of years. I hosted the shows and Graeme was out on the course reporting - since I left he has taken over the hot seat so he is relatively new to the anchoring role, and with a few more events under his belt he will have it cracked.

My point is, that these guys want it to be a brilliant program, so don&#039;t think they are not trying. So let&#039;s all just chill out and be nice! What you should be annoyed about, is the lack of live triathlon on television. It is a fantastic TV sport, although I think hillier, tougher bike courses make for better races for TV, a bike parade isn&#039;t always so exciting to watch.

On a personal note, I am back training after a year of injuries and work/general life disruption. It&#039;s really hard to get the basic level of fitness back, and there will be a few barf sessions into the bushes on my run lap over the next few weeks. Some mates from the tri club and I are looking into some different kinds of races for next season, perhaps some adventure stuff, so if you have any suggestions please let me know. And if you have any negative comments about this article keep it to yourself as I will read it and be upset and then I&#039;ll come and find you!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[No limits apply]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5470.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[You can&#039;t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

A fine thought from a fine athlete, Michael Phelps. I decided I was going to live by the Olympic star&#039;s words - so my dream has moved on from a decent time in an Olympic triathlon to an Ironman. Of course such goals are all well and good when you are a swimming machine with a body like a Greek god - not as easy when it&#039;s a &lsquo;geeks bod&rsquo; that you have to work with! Yes I admit, I am not naturally built to take on such great athletic feats, in fact I&rsquo;m falling apart. I went on maternity leave with coach Emmerson, but just when I got back up and running, I broke my toe playing football. 

There is this guy who plays with us every Thursday night and he is quite good, which annoys me. I spend each game just trying to ruin his night by crashing into him with rather clumsy tackles, the last of which left me with another broken toe. So I think it&#039;s time to announce my retirement from football. I realise it&rsquo;s a huge loss to the 35-45 year old unskilled football community in a small corner of County Wicklow, but I know it&#039;s my time!

I&rsquo;ve also got the worst flu ever, or perhaps it&rsquo;s a mild cold, I&rsquo;m not sure, but I am meant to be taking my six-year old swimming today and that&#039;s now not going to happen. So I am looking at another few weeks out of training, which is leaving my race plans in a mess - I think it&rsquo;s going to be another season without any competition - bad news for me but great news for my sperm!

Scientists studied a group of triathletes, and found the more they cycled, the more damaged their sperm became. They claim those who covered more than 300km a week had less than 4% normal sperm. Likely factors included the friction of the testicles on the saddle and the genitals getting too hot. As I nurse my broken bones I&rsquo;m spending no time in the saddle, so you may beat me in a tri race, but you won&#039;t beat me in a sperm race!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[I need your (musical) help!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3965.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&#039;s  raining &amp;hellip; again. It has rained up here in the Wicklow hills for the last four months  - I think I&#039;m going mad. There is something particularly painful about sweating my buns off on a turbo trainer inside my office during the summer months. It  doesn&#039;t help that I haven&#039;t actually raced this season for a variety of rather dull and self-absorbed reasons! So, as my club mates (who I have not seen for months), share tales of times and transitions, smugly wearing their new &quot;I&#039;ve  conquered blah blah blah&quot; T-shirts, I have been going through an early &amp;hellip; a very early &amp;hellip; an insanely early pre-season training plan.

The problem is telling myself that I will be flying next season, breaking all records known  to mankind, helped motivate me for a while, but it&#039;s beginning to wear off.

So I did what all the great triathletes do - bought myself a useless gadget!

It&#039;s a swimming MP3 player &amp;hellip; no it doesn&#039;t actually swim; it plays music by vibrating through the water and into my head or something. OK, so I&#039;ve no idea why it works, but it does, and has got me through some pretty boring and lonely sessions over the past few weeks.

But here is  the problem - what music should I put on it?

It stores about an hour of music, so to save time and avoid having to read instructions,  I just stuck an Arcade Fire album on it. Now, whilst they may well be one of the finest bands of our generation, their music doesn&#039;t lend itself to one arm pulls and 20x100s. 
So my  question to you all is - What is the perfect music combination for a one hour  swim session? I&#039;ll load it up and train to it and share my thoughts on whether  it works or not!

So please, go to the comments option and send me your thoughts - friends, I need your  help! 

PS - One of  the reasons I&#039;ve had to scrap racing this season is because ITV bought the  Guinness Premiership Rugby rights and I have been presenting them - so if you  like your Rugby watch ITV4 on Sundays at 6:30pm, or the repeat at 12:30 am on  ITV 1 on Wednesdays.

Thank you,  Craig]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beast of the East!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3731.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Every now and again a race comes along that shakes up the triathlon community and gets  people talking. I&#039;m delighted to say that my club, Wicklow Tri, has released such a beast - The Beast of the East in fact. It has become fashionable of late to sell events as &#039;The fastest course ever&#039; and &#039;A  place for PBs&#039; - whereas this race has proved to be about survival - the stopwatch is not important, it&#039;s just about finishing the damn thing!

It was the first year of the race set in the stunning Wicklow Mountains on the East coast of Ireland, and it has been an unbelievable success. To date in Ireland, the Hell of the West was seen as the toughest test for mutli-discipline athletes, well it now has  serious competition. Just ask the 190 competitors who battled with the standard distance course.

It started on a grey chilly morning on the magical Lough Dan, when athletes from across the country and the UK took to the water for the 1500 metre swim. There was a strong headwind for the first 700 as well as strong undercurrents - already &#039;The Beast&#039; was living up to its name. Fernando Fuentes of the Wheelworks in Dublin club tore the field apart exiting the water after 26 minutes. That&#039;s right, 26 minutes; survival not speed, remember?

The bike section was extremely tough, with a series of gruelling climbs that would have had the most hardened tour cyclists gritting their teeth. It took them from  Lough Dan into the pretty mountain village of Roundwood and out to another pretty village called Laragh - 40 kms of pain and pressure on the race leader Fuentes. Sean Collier made up huge ground on Fuentes, putting in an astonishing 1 hour 8 minute bike, considering the course and conditions, it was an exceptional performance.

In the women&#039;s race, it was all a little tighter after the swim section, but it was  Jacqueline O Hagan who dominated proceedings on the bike with Aoife Lynch in hot pursuit.

Whilst the leaders battled it out at the top of the field, the rest battled with their bodies and minds as &#039;The Beast&#039; did its best to break them. They huffed and puffed their way up the hills, whilst the spectators en-route held their breath as they raced downhill at breakneck speed. This sport knows how to thrill racers and viewers alike. The weather, as you might expect in Ireland, was as varied as the terrain; gloomy and wet followed by bright warm sunshine followed by stiff winds and more rain - welcome to Wicklow!
  
Thankfully the sun was shining when competitors donned their runners for the 10km run. Fuentes sensed the finishing line, and was unbeatable - but their was quite a battle going on behind him for second place, which Michael Lyons won with an impressive run, beating Sean Collier into third. In the women&#039;s race, O Hagan from the Pulse tri club took top place with her club mate Lynch in second and Pauline Griffin from the Belpark club in third.

A tough course in such a stunning setting is heaven for triathletes and the post-race buzz on the banks of Lough Dan was incredible. Already the Wicklow race is set to be one the most testing and popular fixtures on the triathlon calendar in Ireland and across the pond in the UK. &quot;Oh ,you are just biased because it&#039;s your club, Doyle&quot; I hear you say - well these are the thoughts of the Repo man, a member of Manchester Tri club after his experience  of the Beast of the East:


This was an absolutely superb race and well worth the trip over from Manchester. I have to say that Wicklow Tri did an absolutely superb job on the organisation.

This was the first Olympic that I have raced for a few years having mostly done full and half IMs and my casual indifference to the distance was wholly inappropriate ... the course is a monster - a beast in fact -  and deserves respect. In terms of &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; I would compare it to Bala half only with harder bike and run legs. There are two big climbs on the bike at the beginning and end, the first of which - about 2km+ you do again on the outward run leg. 

I struggled to finish under 3 hours yet that put me comfortably in the top half of the field so you get the picture. Fastest swim time was 26:30 so I&#039;m pretty sure the swim was a good 200m or more long.

Wicklow is just south of Dublin so you can fly or boat over easily: if you fancy a really tough race away next year, look no further.
 

So, you heard what the man said - if you fancy a good old-fashioned eye-ball-popping test of your tri ability, come on over to Wicklow for the race next year. As it&#039;s my stomping ground I promise entry for Tri247 readers, and a hell of a night out afterwards. Wicklow will look after you, so get it in the diaries.
  
Can you tame the beast?]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oops! - It was an accident...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3674.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Starting a story with &amp;quot;it wasn&#039;t actually my fault&amp;quot; usually means you are guilty, but in this case it wasn&#039;t really my fault. It seems I have started a Formula 1 driver&#039;s triathlon race off!

Let me explain. Last week I was in Amsterdam to host a major event for Reebok. They were announcing Lewis Hamilton as their latest sporting ambassador and I was the MC. It was an amazing affair, with all the glitz and gadgetry you would expect from one of the worlds most glamorous and cash rich sports. It was held in a former industrial building on the outskirts of the city. 

My job was to introduce Lewis onto the stage to the 100 or so journalists who had gathered from around the globe. Unbeknown to the gathered press, it wasn&#039;t the real Lewis Hamilton, but a hologram of the country&#039;s most prized sporting asset. It was amazing, it could have been him, the journos felt they could reach out and touch him. The fake Lewis then introduced the real racing ace and they had a wee chat. It was pretty cool, and even some of the most cynical sports writers were impressed.

Lewis and I then sat down for a head to head about his fitness programme. Formula 1 drivers are some of the fittest athletes in professional sport. Ok, here are some nerdy details that you athletes like:

* His heart rate is at a constant 170 for the entire 100 minutes of the average race, a marathon runner hits about 150-160, a tour cyclist 140-150. 
  * He has less than 13% body fat, nearly as skinny as a triathlete! 
  * Incredibly, his blood pressure rises by 50% during a race - on a roller coaster yours or mine will increase by 16%. 
  * The pressure on his neck equates to 20 saloon cars over the course of a race.
With these stats you won&#039;t be surprised to hear that he trains for hours every day...all for a mere &amp;pound;75 million contract!
Right, stat junkies should be happy, so back to the story.
At the end of the chat I mentioned that Jenson Button had gone 2:20 at the Windsor triathlon, and asked if he was fitter than his fellow British driver. He said he was, and would take him on any day. I couldn&#039;t let it go &amp;quot;so that&#039;s a challenge then Lewis?&amp;quot; I asked - &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; he replied. Obviously the world press, some of them who were still awake, were not going to let this go and there the challenge was laid - Hamilton versus Button over the three disciplines. Oops, sorry Lewis.
In fairness to Lewis, he is a great bloke and I&#039;m sure if time permits will follow up the challenge.
These days I can only dream of that 2:20 or 2:15. It has been a disastrous summer for me on the training front. After a half decent winter my back went, I know I have bored you with all this stuff before, but there is a new chapter. Just when I got the back sorted, I started training again, signed up for a few races and then I fractured and tore some important stuff in my wrist playing football - season officially over. 
I&#039;ve been swimming using only my left arm, running with my wife and finding some weird positions on my new Focus on the turbo trainer. It means I have to break records next season to make up for it (to be fair, my records are a Sunday stroll for most of you!)
There is great excitement in my club, Wicklow Tri, at the moment as the inaugural &#039;Beast of the East&#039; race is about to get underway. The course takes in some of the most amazing scenery in our county of Wicklow. It is set to be one of the most popular races on the calendar and we would love as many visitors from the UK to come over and experience it. I will post a full race report with lots of photos to whet your appetites.
Before I go, a quick well done to all those age groupers that raced in somewhat bizarre circumstances at the worlds in Vancouver. I hope it didn&#039;t take from what is a wonderful experience (I am still dining out on my tales of representing my country).
Speak soon
Craig
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beaten, but not by the beast]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3467.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So how did it come to this? It&rsquo;s the weekend of what was meant to be my first race of the season yet I am at home minding the kids whilst my wife runs a 10 k race in Dublin! It&rsquo;s fair to say that the weekend and season has not turned out as planned. 

I remember interviewing Canada&rsquo;s Simon Whitfield after the birth of his baby and he was saying how much respect he had for age groupers who balanced work, family and training in this most testing of sports. Now I can join with him to say well done to all of who have cracked that balance because it has cracked me!

I was lucky to get hooked up with Annie Emerson this year. She drew up some brilliant training programmes for me and was a great motivator an advisor. Sadly she couldn&rsquo;t add more hours in the day and with my new job and the kids needing more of Daddy&rsquo;s time, I found myself missing sessions repeatedly and then getting pretty grumpy about it. I&rsquo;d have big rows at home because I had missed a pool session or couldn&rsquo;t get out on my bike for 3 hours on a Saturday because of my little boys football. It wasn&rsquo;t helped by the fact that all my work dates clashed with the races I had planned to do, chuck in a bad back and I was at my grumpy best.

I know what you are thinking; get your priorities right man! Well you are right and I have. Triathlon is taking a back seat this season, I will train when I can, but will save the racing and that elusive 2:15 Olympic &lsquo;till next season.

It has allowed me get more involved in my club &lsquo;Wicklow Tri&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s a big year for us as we have launched The Beast of the East, an extremely tough standard triathlon around the country&#039;s most beautiful scenery. This is set to become the race of the season in Ireland and for visitors it&rsquo;s a great chance to race here and see some the country. Club members are not allowed race, so it won&rsquo;t beat me this year, but we would love to have some UK athletes over, trust me you will love it. Registration is open soon just go to www.beastoftheeasttri.com.

I tell you what, give me shout and I&rsquo;ll have you all over for a barbeque, sure I&rsquo;m only around the corner. In fact that is probably the only way I&rsquo;ll meet any of you this year as I won&rsquo;t be joining any of you age groupers in Vancouver for the Worlds. All I can say is the very best of luck and have a brilliant time. It is one of the finest cities in the world, and I cannot think of a better way of experiencing it &hellip; well I can actually but it would do nothing for your fitness!

Good luck,
Craig]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Crazy Gang do triathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3172.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[There is a look in professional sportsperson&amp;rsquo;s eyes when they discuss their latest challenge, be it an ironman, an FA Cup final or baking a lemon souffl&amp;eacute;. It&amp;rsquo;s a look that says &amp;ldquo;I might be playing this down, but I am going to nail it and leave nothing on the pitch&amp;rdquo; or kitchen floor, which ever suits!

I have just experienced that laid back confident glare on the 15th floor of the ITV Studios on London&amp;rsquo;s South Bank. It came from the smiling face of Robbie Earle, a man with serious sporting pedigree.

He scored 150 goals in over 600 appearances in senior club football; he scored Jamaica&amp;rsquo;s first ever World Cup goal in their debut in 1998; and most memorably, was a part of the infamous Wimbledon Crazy Gang. Think Denis Wise squaring up to players twice his height and Vinnie Jones grabbing Gaza&amp;rsquo;s testicles&amp;hellip; ringing a bell?

Well Robbie Earle, MBE, was the gentleman of the gang, and is now one the many gentlemen at ITV Sport; my new home from home. These days Robbie is hoping to add a new title to his collection - Robbie Earle Triathlete.

Triathlon was never a childhood dream of Robbie&amp;rsquo;s; he blames his involvement on beer. &amp;ldquo;One of my mates brought up the idea, with a few on board, and we decided it was a good idea. A couple of days later, when I discovered the distances involved, I did question the decision&amp;rdquo;. But there is no going back for Robbie and his mates and they will be making their debut in this year&amp;rsquo;s Windsor race.

Robbie is a fit-looking 43 year-old and his laid back demeanour barely hides the competitiveness of his playing days. Although a mere mention of the water and the grin turns to a grimace. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m not really a swimmer; it&amp;rsquo;s the one bit that really worries me&amp;rdquo;.

He shares most people&amp;rsquo;s fears when it comes to the swim, &amp;ldquo; It&amp;rsquo;s all those people scrambling around in the water, kicks and arms flying around.&amp;rdquo; Like all good sportsmen he has spotted his weakness and is doing something about it. &amp;ldquo;I have my first swimming lesson tomorrow as I really want to get my technique right&amp;rdquo;.

I had to talk Robbie out of going for a pre-swim run, as he will soon realise the swim coach can be cruellest of all. &amp;ldquo;If I can crack the swim and just get out of the water safe, I might start enjoying myself&amp;rdquo;. Having dealt with some of the toughest players in top-flight football, I think he&amp;rsquo;ll be able to handle himself.

As a professional footballer most of your training is taken care of within the club, but in this adventure he is on his own. &amp;ldquo;My brother sent me a training programme and gave me a book, but the detail terrified me, there is just too much information. I put it one my bedside table, it&amp;rsquo;s still there with a nice collection of coffee stains on it&amp;rdquo;.

The big man seems to managing just fine on his own as he helps his wife train for the London Marathon, but he is looking forward to really focusing on his tri training. &amp;ldquo;I plan on copying football&amp;rsquo;s pre-season programme&amp;rdquo; That&amp;rsquo;s six weeks of hard, lung busting pain, only this time the ball has been swapped for a bike and wetsuit.

A very nice new Specialised bike as it happens &amp;ldquo;I went into the bike shop and told them what I was doing, the guy said this was the bike he gave Alan Shearer for his biking challenge and I thought if it&amp;rsquo;s good enough for Shearer it&amp;rsquo;s good enough for me&amp;rdquo;.

He looked shocked when I told him about the benefits of chammy cream, but excited when we discussed wetsuits. My Apex 2 has been a huge benefit to me, so here&amp;rsquo;s a message to Orca; send Robbie one now! Once the bug hits he&amp;rsquo;ll be wearing it a lot and his fans will be watching.

So how is he fixed as the clock to Windsor ticks down?

Well he has already been doing brick sessions of 5k on the bike and 2k runs, and can bang out a 10k in under 50 minutes, but his first big challenge is just around the corner. &amp;ldquo;Myself and my mates are going down to the lake for a swim, and then it&amp;rsquo;s on the bikes for 30k to one of lads&amp;rsquo; houses and then a run. It&amp;rsquo;ll be my first time doing the disciplines in sequence so if I hate it I can do the relay&amp;rdquo;.

There is no way Robbie will do the relay, he is committed to the race and I think he might surprise himself.

Of course, the humble Mr Earle plays it down when I suggest he will put in a good time. &amp;ldquo;I would like us all to finish the race together, it&amp;rsquo;s a team thing and it&amp;rsquo;s for a very good cause&amp;rdquo;. Robbie and his pals from the pub that night are racing for the Emily Ash Trust, please visit their Just Giving page (www.justgiving.com/eatrust/donate)as it&amp;rsquo;s a very good cause; a charity that has motivated the kind of team bonding that he had during his days with the Crazy Gang. So, look out for him on race day, he&amp;rsquo;ll be the one smiling from ear to ear, guaranteed.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Boys and their toys]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3100.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[&ldquo;Triathletes are swimming coaches&rsquo; pensions&rdquo;, or so says a chlorine-clad coach I know. He says we are prepared to buy any old gadget to go faster, even if they are clearly ridiculous. To be fair, it was hard to argue with him. Us triathletes love toys, and why shouldn&rsquo;t we? We train hard enough!

I am quite into swimming gadgets at the moment, I love jumping into the slow lane of the pool and terrifying the pensioners with my range of toys. I line them up poolside so it looks like I am about to perform some kind of rectal examination, they leap out of the water and I get the lane to myself. I rarely actually use any of the stuff, it just looks cool.

Well I have recently found the most exciting way of acquiring new toys. Wiggle! No that&rsquo;s not a command but a brilliant internet bike store. I spent hours reading and researching, looking for a bike that would suit somebody as useless on two wheels as myself. The answer was a full-on carbon fibre Focus; well it works for Stuart Hayes!

The day it arrived was so exciting, I was like a child. A huge box was brought to my doorstep and inside was he coolest looking machine I have seen in ages, White saddle, white handle bar tape and it is CF heaven. All I had to do was take it out of the box, twist the bars into position and lie to my wife about how much it actually cost. In fairness to the gang at Wiggle, it was good value, hassle free and quick, so think again before entering your bike shop.

If only I had time to cycle the damn thing. I have just left BBC Sport to start with ITV Sport. It has been a fairly stress-free move, and my new job is brilliant but time consuming. Add to that my parents being ill recently, and the kids getting more demanding of Daddy&rsquo;s time, and the result is training has not really featured strongly of late. I have heard lots of stories about amateur triathletes losing a sense of priorities with training and their families suffering; as much as I love the sport, family come first. This just means Annie Emerson has her work cut out if I am to put in any decent times this year.

So I may be adding a few minutes on to my planned PBs for the season. Now, if it would stop raining and the wind would stop blowing, I might just put this bottle of Chablis down and do something.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Better late than never!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2812.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Greetings, happy New Year and all that! So, &quot;Where the hell have you been?&quot;, I hear you ask. No, I have not JUST finished the age group World Championship race in Hamburg, and I have not been scared off triathlon thanks to my rookie year experience!

To be honest, it has been a crazy time since my last race in September with the new baby, a new house and a new job. I am no longer the &#039;voice of triathlon&#039;, as I have decided to leave the BBC and join ITV sport. The decision didn&rsquo;t much please the old Beeb so I have been put on gardening leave until my new job starts in May. I was looking forward to sitting back and doing feck all for a months, but Annie Emmerson, who is helping me out with training has different ideas. I have a feeling working would be easier than what Annie has in store for me. 

I have celebrated my new job by getting two new Focus bikes from Wiggle; a training bike and a TT bike, and Annie reckons she can get me flying around on them. And I need the help, with my chicken legs I really suffered on the bike last season, and in the world championships it really killed me. So, that&rsquo;s where we&rsquo;ll start.

Hamburg, September 2007
Now, I only got into racing as a bet. The bet was that I couldn&rsquo;t get a place in the Irish age group team for the Worlds in my first year. So, by the time I got to Hamburg and donned the green of Ireland the bet was won. So why the hell was I so scared? Time for a list:

Hanging around with triathletes is a dangerous past time, they are a competitive bunch and it soon rubs off on you.
Over-competitive arseholes hiding behind the anonymity of the internet getting chippy about my times; &ldquo;I did a 2:15 and I didn&rsquo;t qualify for England, why should Doyle qualify for Ireland on a 2:30 (and a bit)&rdquo; our brave friend wrote. Oh shut up, you are missing the point! Firstly, I was one of the top in Ireland in my age group; secondly, we are just a bit slower over here and finally, why the hell do you care? You are not a pro athlete, it&rsquo;s meant to be fun, get a life pal!


OK, I am over point 2 now! In my Ireland kit my bum looked very big and my manhood very small (in reality it&rsquo;s the other way around, of course...) Most importantly, since the arrival of baby Milo two months before Hamburg, I had stopped training and I knew I would struggle.

Race day
I got no sleep due to fear. I was plagued by visions of being last out of the water, something the BBC cameras would love to document. I had to force feed myself like a goose in a fois gras farm. At transition I lost the plot when I realised I had forgotten elastics for my pedals; it&rsquo;s amazing how one worries about saving seconds when I need to save minutes!

At the start everybody looked fitter, stronger and faster than me. In most races I put this down to nerves, but at the Worlds it&rsquo;s because they actually are all fitter, faster and stronger than me. I got on someone&rsquo;s toes from the off and swam a very good 750 to the bridge, I was middle of the pack. out of trouble and feeling good. So good, it seems that I decided to swim to Berlin instead of the swim exit. Thankfully somebody was on my toes (Wow, was that a bad call on his behalf!) and he noticed we were well off course and let me know pretty quickly. Thankfully I finished my now 2000 metre swim with a good number still behind me.

The crowd were amazing in Hamburg, and I felt really good during the long trek to my bike. I didn&rsquo;t feel as good as I made my way out of transition. Something didn&rsquo;t feel right as I ran along holding my bike. What the hell was it? And then it clicked, my wedding ring had fallen off during the swim and was sitting at the bottom of the Alder. I was in one of the most sexually corrupt cities in Europe with no wedding ring, Mrs Doyle was going to love that. I made a mental note to tell her before I went out on the beer that night!

I loved the bike course, and felt very good as I picked off my fellow age groupers. But my enthusiasm had a price... ...my worst run time ever. I was dying on the road, my legs were like jelly and I felt like I was barely moving. I realised later that was because I was barely moving!

The crowds were amazing a mile out from the finish and I felt really proud as I crossed the finish line. That pride was soon replaced by nausea as the film crew grabbed me to do a post-race interview and then introduce a Tim Don preview piece. As I was speaking I could feel the vomit trying to make its TV debut. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I have spoken a lot of shit on TV over the years, but never vomit!

So, job done, I went out on the rip with my clubmates, a brilliant bunch of people who have guided and motivated me over the year, for this I am forever grateful.

That was September and it&rsquo;s only now, in January, that I am really back training again. My goal this year is to get as fast as possible as I now know I can finish these damn races. 2:15 beckons; Annie, it&#039;s over to you!]]></description></item></channel></rss>