<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Steve Trew - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Steve Trew on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Steve Trew: Windsor memories...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7097.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[With the Nokia Windsor Triathlon taking place this weekend, we feel it is worth celebrating 20 years of this magnificent monument of British triathlon history. As well as speaking to a number of past winners in our event preview, we also called upon our own piece of British triathlon history... Mr Steve Trew!
For many, Steve is &amp;quot;the voice&amp;quot; of Windsor, and will be the guy you here on the PA throughout the weekend, interviewing athletes, spectators, exhibitors and of course calling home thousands of athletes, slow and fast across the finish line.
We asked Steve for a few memories of Windsor.

Windsor is and  has always been awesome! Many triathletes look at Windsor as the official opening of the &#039;real.  triathlon season. I have just the best memories of the event as an athlete  (long ago dreams!), and particularly as a commentator/PA announcer.
Spencer is synonymous with Windsor, a six time winner over nine  years! How good is that? My particular favourite - no surprises here - is Sian  Brice, quite possibly the absolute nicest athlete I was ever privileged to  coach, winning four years out of five in her run-up to the 2000 Olympic Games.  Betho Thompson winning as a junior in &#039;98. Malta&#039;s Dermot Galea winning when  around 30 athletes had been DQ&amp;rsquo;d in 2003, a nice pay-packet to take home with  him!

Stuart Hayes winning for the first time last year - how  didn&#039;t that happen before? Jodie Stimpson taking her victory last year - the  first of many, I&#039;m sure. Colin Dixon won in 1993, but the magical thing here is  that Colin is still placing in the top ten well over a decade later, an  athlete&#039;s athlete certainly. Tim Don, Johnsy, Hobbo, Dibs and Helen and Andrea,  great athletes at a great event. Every year a great event.
And one of the great memories year after year after year. All you  guys, all the age-groupers, finishing your race and then crowding the barriers  for the elite run, giving it everything so that the Queen misses her lie in  (well, maybe...) amazing noise, shouting, screaming, cheering, the pounding on  the barriers, 
It&#039;s fantastic, it&#039;s Windsor,  it&#039;s triathlon. Long may it last and prosper.
Nice one, John Lunt. Very nice one.
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Chrissie and Dave...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6616.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[John&#039;s  been hassling me to get my column updated; where does life go to? How do we fit  all the normal stuff into every day and then still make time for blogs,  articles, coaching, real life stuff. I guess we all do, because we&#039;re triathletes  and we&#039;re used to juggling stuff all the time so we do fit it in, and we do get  it all done.
One  thing I did make time for was the TCR Show. Ok, I was there to talk about novice  triathlons but there just a few (yeah, like about 100) interesting speakers,  even more interesting than me in fact. A certain Miss Chrissie Wellington, a certain  Mr Dave Scott. 
Now I  wrote an article a few months back about the twenty top triathletes over the  last twenty years. In many ways, it was unfair on Chrissie and unfair on Dave... because Chrissie had just broken through (and how!) and the last twenty years  cuts out the biggest part of Dave Scott&#039;s triathlon career, although not his  comeback in 1994 when he narrowly lost to Greg Welch in Hawaii.
So let&#039;s just examine exactly how  great - not an exaggeration, certainly not - these two are. Dave Scott totally  dominated Hawaii  through the 80s; he didn&#039;t win every time out... only six! Think about that,  to qualify for Hawaii  is tough, to qualify as a pro is tougher, to make top ten, oh my God! To win Hawaii... can you  imagine... to win SIX times! Legend, true legend. But when Dave spoke, he said  &quot;I guess the one race I&#039;m really remembered for is 1989... when I lost to Mark  Allen&quot;. How tough is that? Win six times and be remembered for the one you  lost. Or maybe even the two, in 1994 to Greg... when Dave was in his forties! Not true of course. Dave Scott will always be  remembered for being one of the absolute greats, if not the greatest, Ironman  athletes of all time.
And  then you move onto Chrissie... not a bad little career there eh? Win at Lausanne as an age  grouper (fastest age grouper in the field, not just her own age group). Turn  pro... and win Hawaii  after an embarrassingly short while. First win in Hawaii. A huge surprise to almost everyone,  (although maybe not Chrissie and her coach). That amazing mental attitude that  she and Dave have, the attitude of &quot;I can do anything, absolutely anything&quot;.  The second win... not a surprise, everyone in the triathlon world was  calling it as a banker. But the way Chrissie did it was amazing. Have a  puncture, lose 15 minutes by the side of the road - and can you imaging the  mental torment that went along with that - get an air can from the totally, totally selfless Rebekah Keat, and then win comfortably. And the third  win, this one after breaking the iron-distance world record in Europe, break Paula&#039;s  record in Hawaii.  Some race, some athlete, some individual.
What  came across from both the Champs was the importance of a positive mental  attitude; what came across from both was the importance of quality in training.  Two things common to both, the mark of a champion.
I am reminded  of a story that I read some looooooong time ago...
It is  in the future, a long time in the future, and another fantastic Ironman  champion, Scott Tinley, is standing at the pearly gates waiting to enter. St  Peter approaches him, takes his name, does all the checking and confirms that,  yes, Scott Tinley may enter heaven. 
  &quot;But what&#039;s it like?&quot; says the suspicious  Tinley. 
  &quot;Heaven is fantastic&quot;, comes back St Peter,  &quot;you can do whatever you want here, you can make anything come true&quot;.
  Tinley: &quot;Do you have Ironman here?&quot;
  St Peter: &quot;Of course&quot;
  &quot;And you say that I can do anything? Can you  guarantee that Dave Scott won&#039;t beat me?&quot;
  St Peter: &quot;Consider it done, Dave Scott will  NOT beat you&quot;
  Ironman  race day duly arrives in heaven, Tinley is flying, the swim goes well, the bike  a dream, the run totally without sore legs, the finish line beckons... The  title is Tinley&#039;s!
And  then, as so many times in the past, that familiar figure, the characteristic  rolling gait of the run, the flowing hair and moustache... Dave Scott runs past  to beat him on the line.
Tinley  is distraught, and St Peter wanders over...
&quot;You promised me! You promised me that  Dave Scott wouldn&#039;t beat me!&quot;
&quot;St Peter, &quot;Oh that wasn&#039;t Dave Scott, that was God. He just thinks he&#039;s Dave Scott...&quot;

Steve  Trew]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Time flies when you're having fun...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5372.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&#039;s been six months down the line now since my car crash where I almost slipped off the slate. Six months! When you&rsquo;re a kid, six months is an absolute eternity; the whole of the summer holidays which go on forever. Six months as an adult and you&#039;re asking yourself, bloody hell where did they go?

I vowed after the crash that it would be a &ldquo;Carpe Diem&rdquo; situation from now on, and I&rsquo;ve pretty much tried to live by that. Seize each day, all that stuff. Putting as much in as getting back out. And it&rsquo;s worked.

Just back from a particularly fantastic training camp in Cesenatico, Italy. We&rsquo;ve used the venue since 2005 after taking the GB junior squad out there in 2000 (or was it 1999? Can&rsquo;t remember!). The hotel Beau-Soleil was constructed for triathletes; it boasts a six lane 25m pool (ozone, so no sore eyes), is next to the woods for great running, both interval stuff and distance. It&rsquo;s also 50 metres from the beach and has the best hills for cycling. All in all, pretty idyllic.

The big deal for going out there on the dates that we do, is that, apart from a perfect lead into the British triathlon season, there is a certain cycle event at the end of May; the Nove Colli. This takes place over the nine hills stage of the Giro d&rsquo;Italia and attracts a lot of ex, and would be pros. There&rsquo;s a choice of doing either the full 210km or a miserly 130km, hmm! The Brits are always well represented and it makes a great finale to the end of our camp. Big party in the evening, lots of singing and karaoke! Sometimes I even let other people get on the mic, but only sometimes. 

We&rsquo;d also heard about, and occasionally seen at the finish of the Nove Colli, some runners doing the event. This year we investigated more, and found out the truth! Running race, most definitely. Choice of distances from 85km right up to the full 210km. Start at mid-day on Saturday, the day before the cycle Nove Colli. But we wouldn&rsquo;t have anybody interested in doing that ridiculous event, would we? WRONG!

Two of the most intelligent athletes that I coach discovered that their brain cells were a little jumbled, and decided to enter. Vicky Worster and Toby Radcliffe by name, sheer madness by nature.

And you know what? They both won the 85km! First Brits, male or female ever to have done so. Toby was so pleased at actually entering the race that he decided to run an extra 4km, 2km off the course and then chasing back that 2km. It took Toby four hours to get back in the lead after generously handing it over so that he could do his detour.

Both Toby and Vicky were training the next day, honest! But for some reason they elected to do swim sessions rather than running...



]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lance and the scorpion...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4667.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[In recent weeks, Lance Armstrong has been headline news. Not only has he made his professional cycling comeback at the Tour Down Under in Australia, but he also spent a period training in Hawaii, much of that time spent on the course of the Ironman World Championship, again increasing speculation that he may well race Ironman. Those rumours appear to have some substance judging by a recent interview, and have gained further credibility from this interview with Lance&#039;s coach, Chris Carmichael.
So, how good would Lance be at Ironman?
Well, we thought we&#039;d ask our own triathlon legend, Mr Steve Trew, for his thoughts. Of course, with Steve you don&#039;t just get facts and figures, so sit back and enjoy the story...

Me and Lance and the scorpion... 
Once upon a time, there was a scorpion walking through the jungle. The scorpion came to a river, and because scorpions can&#039;t swim, he had to stop and think. Then he saw a frog.
&amp;ldquo;Excuse me, Mr Frog&amp;rdquo;, said the scorpion, &amp;ldquo;Could you put me on your back and take me across the river?&amp;rdquo;

The frog looked at the scorpion, &amp;ldquo;I can&#039;t do that&amp;rdquo;, he said, &amp;ldquo;You know that. You&#039;re a scorpion and you&#039;ll sting me to death&amp;rdquo;.

&amp;ldquo;Don&#039;t be silly&amp;rdquo;, said the scorpion, &amp;ldquo;I may be a scorpion but I&#039;m not stupid. If I sting you to death, you&#039;ll disappear under the water and I&#039;ll drown and die as well&amp;rdquo;.

The frog looked back at the scorpion,  &amp;ldquo;You&#039;re a scorpion&amp;rdquo;, he said. &amp;ldquo;How can I believe you?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;It&#039;s obvious&amp;rdquo;, said the scorpion, &amp;ldquo;If I kill you, I die as well&amp;rdquo;.
So the frog bent down and the scorpion jumped on his back. The frog started to swim across the river... well, you  know the rest, don&#039;t you?
They were halfway across the river when the scorpion doubled over and stung the frog hard in the back.
&amp;ldquo;You promised me!&amp;rdquo; cried out the poor frog, &amp;ldquo;You promised me, and after everything that you said, I&#039;ll die and  you&#039;ll drown as well! Why, why, why did you do it? I just don&#039;t understand, why did you do it knowing that you&#039;d die as well?&amp;rdquo;
The water was coming up to the scorpion  now, he looked at the dying frog, sighed, and said as he disappeared under the water, &amp;ldquo;I&#039;m a scorpion, it&#039;s what I do&amp;rdquo;.
Good story, huh? So... where does  Lance (and there is only ONE Lance in the world of sporting heroes) come into  it?

Lance comes into it because he IS Lance, and sport - at the very highest level - is what he does.

Can Lance do Ironman? &#039;Course he can!  Can Lance win Ironman? In this humble writer&#039;s opinion, &#039;course he can!

Why? Because it&#039;s what he does. Lance is  a winner, Lance is one those few true heroes who transcends different sports;  one of those names that spectators, groupies, fans in whatever sport know  about, actually know about.
Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Michael Johnson; from a different era, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Roger Bannister. There aren&#039;t too many of these in a dozen, honest!

When I started triathlon, yeah, yeah, I  know, more than a few years ago... Lance Armstrong was the fifteen year old  wunderkid in the States; challenging Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Molina, Mark Montgomery, Scott Tinley; those guys and demi-gods. And you know what, he was up there with them. It&#039;s what he does.

And then there was the cancer... and  he beat it. He beat a particularly nasty, virulent cancer, a cancer that kills. (An aside here, a serious aside and that&#039;s not like me; three of my best buddy triathletes have had cancer, taken it on and beaten it; you know who you are  and I wouldn&#039;t dream of embarrassing you by saying names, I truly wouldn&#039;t. But I admire you and what you do and how you live your lives beyond belief. I have no experience of anything like that; my nearest &amp;ldquo;brush with death&amp;rdquo; came just a couple of weeks ago in my car crash; and MY life is different now &#039;cause it&#039;s  all bonus. Makes a difference, doesn&#039;t it, guys?). 
So Lance beat the cancer and everything that went with it...
Climbing Mont Ventoux after that? Just a tiny piece of poo. What&#039;s a few hours of suffering compared with what he went through and came out the other side. Day after day after day... But actually, only twenty one days of the Tour, so do you think eight or nine hours of a bit of heat and humidity in Hawaii holds any scares or worries for him after the years in hospital when every single hour and minute and second for day after day after day was pain and sickness and vomiting and the worst headache that went on and on and on? Naah! 

Lance for Hawaii? Oh yes... if he  wants to, if he truly wants to. Because it&#039;s there and because it&#039;s what he does.

Steve Trew
(Steve Trew is still waking up with the sun shining just to light the smile on his face. All bonus, truly all bonus).
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[One week on]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4589.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So one week down the line from nearly being wiped off the slate, and what has happened?
Nothing, nothing really, and it&#039;s been brilliant. All that stuff about, &quot;you don&#039;t know what you&#039;ve got til it&#039;s gone&quot; (big clich&amp;eacute;,  that one). Well clich&amp;eacute;s tend to be clich&amp;eacute;s because they&#039;re pretty much true.
And bothered&amp;hellip;.. me, bothered!? Not a chance; negatives into positives.
  Kids messing about, no worries, I&#039;ll talk to them nicely. 
  Day running a bit late, so what, the world&#039;s gonna stop? 
  Caught in a traffic jam? Enjoy the radio.
  Hurting a bit in swimming on the tenth rep? Thank you nicely, that&#039;ll do for me. Enjoy the pain.
  Like we said guys, &quot;Carpe diem, carpe diem.&quot;
Enjoy your life.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A lucky escape...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4570.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Whilst heading to a training camp at Stoke Mandeville hospital last weekend I had a fairly major car crash, thankfully I&#039;ve lived to tell the tale so I wanted to write a few thank yous and just remind myself of how lucky I am to be here.

Firstly, my extreme thanks to Dan for stepping in and taking over. Similarly, my extreme thanks to the others; Esther, Ruth, Scott and I&#039;m sure many more who also helped. As you will all understand I was unavoidably detained and delayed...

Around one mile only, maybe less from the end of the A41 - so probably just five minutes away - I hit some (I think) black ice, and that was it. The car (my lovely jag, retail value around &pound;1500 - maybe less! (Value to me, around ten times that) started surfing, I lost control and thought I was going to die. Truly, I did.

So, I hit the central reservation barriers, started spinning round, not sure how many times, I think three. The car ended up still moving at some speed, but with the front end facing the correct way, and I managed to pull/steer/aim it to the side of the road. Air-bags exploded of course, funny old smell from them (at least, I think it was from them), and there I was, alive!

Did a body check, and you know what, God was smiling. No breaks, no cuts, not even any bruises - a couple of sore spots this morning, but truly barely anything.

Lots of things happened then - ambulance, police, RAC. Boy, was I lucky! The ambulance man checked me out, all OK. Police did a breath-test of course, total zero (and you would have thought with what I MUST have accumulated over the years...!).

The RAC man got there early, winched the car up on the truck and took me home. The insurance company was pretty good too and couldn&#039;t have been more helpful or understanding, I see the assessor later today or tomorrow, sigh...

RAC phoned me again, just to ask if I was OK! Can you believe that? What excellent PR. Anything they could do, legal advice, help, accident report etc.

For a situation, which was, how shall I put this, not entirely pleasant I suppose, I could not have been luckier or been better treated.

So there you are guys, lucky me. And the moral, dunno if there is a moral; maybe &quot;carpe diem&quot;, what is it? &quot;Live each day as if it could be your last, plan each tomorrow as if you&#039;ll live forever&quot;. Something like that, anyway...]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[“And the results of the Olympic triathlon, 2008 in first place...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3799.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The legendary Olympic coach, commentator and story teller Steve Trew, always has had a colourful, imaginative and positive outlook on life and sport. So, the people that know him well, may not be surprised by how he sees the Olympic triathlon unfolding. Perhaps his predicition may need a slightly imaginative and fantastical mind to believe it, but, who knows, sometimes dreams do come true!



Vanessa Fernandes led a big fast bike group from the water that included both Helen Tucker and Hollie Avil. Emma Snowsill was in the second pack chasing hard and although she couldn&rsquo;t connect with the lead group the distance was only 30 seconds at T2. Vanessa led out hard on the run and gradually dropped everyone including Hollie and Helen who were the last to go. At 5km, Emma caught Vanessa and despite both of them putting in surge after surge, neither would let go.

The pace dropped a little and as they ran between buildings, it was obvious that something had been arranged between them as with just 1km to go, they joined hands and lifted them high. They then ran stride for stride towards the finish line. Behind them, Hollie and Helen had outdistanced everyone and were gradually (and silently), catching the two leaders! At just 200m out, Emma sensed something was happening and looked behind. She immediately saw the two Brits and turned to tell Vanessa who also turned. The two of them clashed heads and as they stumbled their feet became intertwined and they fell to the ground. Helen along with Hollie sprinted desperately for the line and despite both Brits putting absolutely total effort in, neither could get away from the other and they crossed the line to a tied Gold Olympic medal. Behind them, Vanessa and Emma picked themselves up, laughed, and jogged in for a tied bronze.
 
Results for the women&rsquo;s Olympic Triathlon

Joint 1st for the gold medal - Hollie Avil, Helen Tucker (GBR)
Joint 3rd for the bronze medal - Emma Snowshill (AUS), Vanessa Fernandes (POR)

Almost the entire field in the mens event came out of the water together and despite spirited attempts at breakaways (notably Alistair Brownlee), no-one was able to get away on the bike. The run set off at sub three minute pace per kilometre, 3km was passed in 8.42 and 20 were together including all the Brits, Gomez (ESP), Docherty (NZ) and Whitfield (CAN). Tim Don then injected even more pace and took all the favourites past 5km in 14.21.

At this point Whitfield put his head down and went for it; only Docherty and Gomez along with the three Brits were able to cover and the 6th kilometre went past in 2.42. Docherty and Gomez dropped off the pace and it was the 2000 Olympic champion along with the Brits. Alistair Brownlee started laughing here and he accelerated again to a 2.35; everyone covered the break and it continued at this amazing speed with all four together entering the final straight of 400m, at this point a torrential downpour started and washed all the runners off of their feet and the race had to be stopped. The judges awarded a joint four Gold medals to our boys and Simon Whitfield.

Results for the men&rsquo;s Olympic Triathlon

Joint first for the gold medal - Tim Don, Alistair Brownlee, Will Clarke (GBR), Simon Whitfield (CAN))

This is a true story!


]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trew's Olympic Watch: Let's dream a little...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3566.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So now we actually know who&#039;s going to the Games for Great Britain in 45 days time. Helen Tucker&#039;s stunning victory at the World Championships may well have turned the wisdom of the cogniscenti on their heads and made for some rapid re-evaluations of individual athletes&#039; chances. But let&#039;s not start bigging up Helen and touting her as an Olympic medallist; that&#039;s purely unfair and puts unwanted pressure on her. Indeed, as Helen more than ably demonstrated at Worlds in Vancouver, on any given day in any given race ... anything can happen.

Let&#039;s also not put Helen down. The circumstances that led to her even being on the start line in Vancouver would put even my triathlon fictions to shame. She overcame amazing (not an exaggeration here) difficulties and setbacks to be even racing this season.

And now she&#039;s won Worlds; eat your heart out!

Helen and Hollie Avil make up our British women&#039;s team while Alistair Brownlee, Will Clarke and Tim Don (veteran status!?) take the three men&#039;s slots. Why two women yet three men? Well, Britain&#039;s world ranking wasn&#039;t quite good enough to be allocated three women&#039;s slots and much of the reason for Helen being at Worlds at all was to try to raise that ranking and help Liz Blatchford to get to Beijing. And it was so close, truly so close.

To put this into perspective, it should be said also that Australia. surely one of, if not the, powerhouse over the last 20 years, has only managed two slots for their men.


&quot;The old order changeth,
Yielding place to new, 
And God fulfils himself in many ways, 
Lest one custom should corrupt the World&quot;.


Something like that, anyway!

And if the World of triathlon is changing, surely that is more than ably demonstrated by the British contingent. Tim Don is going to his third Olympic Games! Who said triathlon was just a passing phase, that it wouldn&#039;t last. I certainly haven&#039;t done my research here, but the only other name that springs to mind to be on their third Games is 2000 winner Simon Whitfield. Who am I missing? Good man, Tim. No, better than that, fantastic, absolutely fantastic.


&quot;Age cannot wither (him),
Nor custom stale (his) infinite variety&quot;.
(Sorry for the change of sex, William Shakespeare)


And if Tim has achieved that mythical veteran status, (on your knees and genuflect you guys..) how do we place Alistair Brownlee at 20 years old and Hollie Avil at 18 years? I raved about Hollie in a previous article for this website, and nothing has happened to make me change my mind; youth, inexperience, lots to learn; all that. Oh yes, and her results on her World Cup starts? Oh yes, forgot about that...

As with Helen, let&#039;s not fall into the temptation of making Hollie an Olympic favourite; but also as with Helen, let&#039;s give her the respect she deserves because you know that the competing triathlon world certainly will.

Alistair Brownlee: he wins Worlds (second time actually) and then says, &quot;Oh, I did alright out there; it felt OK&quot;. I bet it did! Add an U23 Worlds to a previous junior title, stir in an Olympic slot, and I bet it felt OK.

Will Clarke, coming off of a Commonwealth Games already (as is Helen Tucker) and that multisport Games experience does give you an advantage. It&#039;s great being at a triathlon World or European Championships but when you see all the other sports around it creates a much bigger picture and puts a lot of things into perspective.

So... Tim Don, very much the &quot;old man&quot; of the team in his late twenties (I have tremendous memories of Tim as a junior athlete gradually working his way through the ranks before that memorable victory at Junior Worlds in Lausanne back in 1998 when Simon Lessing also won the senior version for Great Britain).

Helen and Will in the early twenties (and what a devastating impact Will has made in his three years racing as a senior, many athletes take those three years just to settle in at the new level), and Hollie and Alistair as youngsters! Britain must, surely must, be going in these Olympic Games with the youngest contingent of triathletes of any country? Prove me wrong someone!

Britain have had amazing success at World Championships over so many years in all categories, but we have not yet, at the two Olympic Games so far, had a major impact. Is Beijing going to be the one that breaks the mould?

Maybe, maybe, maybe... But we said we wouldn&#039;t apply the kiss of death to our athletes, so who is likely to feature?

If we look at how both senior races at Worlds developed both this and last year, it&#039;s obvious that the way the race (indeed, any race) pans out will have significant impact on who is likely to be in the frame. In the women&#039;s event both times there has been a break on the swim and the hammer going down at the start of the cycle section. This year Helen and Sarah Haskins were prepared to take the hurt and break and build on that; last year the strong American impact ensured that Emma Snowshill (AUS) was too far back off of the bike to be able to catch Vanessa Fernandes (POR) although she did take silver in front of Laura Bennett&#039;s bronze. (An apology here, I called the race saying that the American athletes worked as a team unit and kept the bike pace high so that Laura Bennett could sit at the back and save her legs for running... I was wrong! No teamwork there, just the way it panned out).

So, can we expect a swim and maybe a bike break at the Olympic Games? Hesitantly I say yes, and hesitantly I say it will create big advantages for our two athletes, Hollie and Helen with this scenario. Both can swim with the lead pack, both are prepared to work their butts off on a hard-working bike group, and both can run off a hard bike. The smart money will go on Snowshill and Fernandes of course, and maybe Bennett if it develops as our little fantasy wants it to; but we have seen how different the Olympics are. Indeed, we saw a most unusual finishing slot for Fernandes at this year&#039;s Worlds. And now Haskins has made the US team; potentially another good omen for Helen and Hollie.

Haskins is a front-end triathlete, willing and able to push the swim and the bike, but significantly her running this year has come on more than a couple of notches. With Haskins in the field, it is likely to be an &quot;honest&quot; race. Athletes working from the start on all three disciplines and not relying on a big run after a pack swim and bike.

Strange things happen in the big races. How many people out there put money on Dan Unger to win Worlds in 2007? Maybe just a few based in Hamburg, almost certainly no-one else. And Gomez was the man who paid the price for that unbelievable surge of adrenalin that took Unger to a most unexpected (think &quot;Helen Tucker&quot; 2008 here) World title.

Not too many would have put money on Kate Allen running down Loretta Harrop in the 2004 Athens Games, but she did and she is now the reigning Olympic champion; and has qualified to defend that title in Beijing. Kate is originally from Geelong (my favourite city), just west of Melbourne and qualifies to represent Austria by marriage and residency. Kate came off a long distance triathlon background to take that Olympic title and is back for Beijing.

Will there be a swim break in the men&#039;s event? Or a bike break? Attempting to pre-guess race scenarios, particularly in the Olympic Games can, and will, make fools of us all. But, but, but, is there a likelihood of any men getting away? There&#039;s always that likelihood but in contrast to the women, to this observer, it seems unlikely that there are enough men swimmers willing and able to make that early break. Getting away on the bike has become increasingly unlikely in the men&#039;s races at ITU World Cup level. How many came off the bike together at this year&#039;s Worlds? Thirty? Forty? So maybe the run isn&#039;t exactly a lottery, but the chances of winning may be cut drastically if you aren&#039;t a proven runner. The British men had three in the top ten at last year&#039;s Worlds, and all three for the Games can certainly run well off of any bike discipline, easy or hard. They&#039;ve proved it and they&#039;ve done it.

But so can Gomez, so can Docherty, so can Whitfield (that WOULD be a fairy tale, wouldn&#039;t it? Win your second Olympic title eight years after the first... Did Ed Moses do it at 400m hurdles? My mind says yes, but my mind plays tricks with memories. Maybe I just wanted him to...]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The laws of Trew]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2229.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[One: This may not be the truth
There are tried and tested principles of training which have been applied to triathlon. However, everyone is an individual and any single particular method of training may not apply to you as an individual. Some people thrive on long, slow distance training; some cannot live without their daily fix of intervals or high quality work; some triathletes rarely need rest while others may find that every other day is sufficient for massive improvement. You are an individual and will have an unique way of training which is best for you alone. What have been set out are general principles; for you, they may not be the truth.

Two: Suck it and see
The law of suck it and see means exactly that. Be prepared to try out new methods of training and see if they work for you. Perhaps the way that you have been training - for all the principles that say that they should be correct - don&#039;t work for you. Be adventurous, don&#039;t get stuck in that rut of every week, every month, every year being the same. Try something new, suck it and see, you never know... ...you might just like it.

Three: The KISS principle
KISS stands for, &quot;Keep It Simple, Stupid&quot;! Sometimes we can get so bound up in any new-fanged theories of training that we lose sight of the basics; the harder you train, the better you get, (and that, of course, is an oversimplification). We read about this new method or that, we hear that the latest superstar swears by a certain regime or that so and so only trains at low intensity or the new kid on the block won&#039;t walk down the street without a heart rate monitor. Well, that&#039;s fine; we all want to be the best that we can be, but don&#039;t get so bound up in new developments that we lose sight of where we&#039;re going.

Four: The CASE principle
There are few secrets of training any more. CASE stands for, &quot;Compare, Adapt, Specify, Examine&quot;, or, if you&#039;re just a little cynical, &quot;Copy and Steal Everything&quot;! Look at other athletes&#039; methods or training and try them for yourselves; play around with the times, distances, rest intervals and targets. Adapt others&#039; schedules for they&#039;re as sure as anything going to do the same to you!

Five: Know yourself
This one might sound obvious, but it&#039;s all too easy to fool ourselves into believing that we&#039;re something that we&#039;re not. Know what you&#039;re good at, what you&#039;re bad at, what you like and dislike doing. Know your strengths and weaknesses. You don&#039;t want to look back at the end of a season or a the end of a career and think, &quot;if only...&quot;

Six: Train to your weaknesses, race to you strengths
This one&#039;s obvious as well, isn&#039;t it? But we all like doing what we&#039;re good at and dislike trying a discipline where the likely outcome is shouts of hilarity from those watching. To make a significant improvement in triathlon, it is necessary to work on the weak aspects which may prove to be hard going at first, and cut back on that superstrong discipline which was your background sport before you even knew that triathlon existed.

But then, when it comes to a race situation, the reverse scenario applies; work on your strengths and minimise your losses. If you can swim like Michael Phelps and take a three minute lead into the bike section, then you&#039;d be a mug not to do so...

Seven: Make haste slowly
Everyone wants to be good, and the improvements that we make when we start a new sport are often quite dramatic, improvements are usually measured in minutes or tens of minutes in an endurance sport rather than seconds. But then the rate of improvement slows down and the natural reaction is to train harder and longer to maintain that improvement rate. That way lies injury, don&#039;t be tempted. An increase in training, whether it be in time or intensity must be gradual and measured in months and years rather than days, look for gradual increases in training and commitment and you will improve and remain injury free.

Eight: Choose your parents wisely
The genetic inheritance that we have will govern our limits of attainment and improvement. It&#039;s not fair, but it&#039;s unfortunately true. If your mother was a World ten thousand metre record holder on the track and your father represented Russia in the Olympic Games 1500 metres freestyle swimming event, then you are quite likely to be presented with a rather special set of genes. Nature will have given you a head start, so don&#039;t waste it. And if you haven&#039;t been presented with  that advantage? Then welcome to the club! You&#039;re like the rest of us and will have to make the very best out of what Nature has presented you with and train sensibly and systematically to maximise your potential.

Nine: Don&#039;t set limits
Don&#039;t underestimate your potential to improve. It&#039;s all too easy to look at the established star in the next swimming lane to yours and think, &quot;I&#039;ll never be as good as them&quot;. Why not? It&#039;s difficult to envisage massive improvements, but it&#039;s easy to visualise an improvement of one second on a hundred metre swim or ten seconds on a 10 kilometre run... and then you make another ten second improvement and then another, and another. Before too long, that one second swim improvement has become five seconds, and that ten second run has become a minute. Look to the next level of attainment and in time you will progress to your dreams.

Ten: Don&#039;t believe everything you read
I think that whenever the sports magazines print an interview with the current superstar and they usually include that little boxed section which is headed up, &quot;A typical day&#039;s/week&#039;s training&quot;, that they should print a health warning by the side of it. They should also print another boxed section which starts, &quot;And this is what I was doing five years ago&quot;. You don&#039;t have to train like your hero to emulate your hero, train for yourself, not for anybody else.

Perhaps you should also remember that human nature plays a large part in the training schedules that go into magazines. When somebody is interviewed about their training, I&#039;m sure that the mindset goes something like this, &quot;They&#039;ll never believe that I train as little as I do; I know, I&#039;ll put down my best ever week of swimming, and of cycling, and of running&quot;. Think about it.

Eleven: Treat every minor injury as if it could become a major one 
By its very nature triathlon attracts people who like to train long and hard, the natural inclination when a small niggle appears is to swim/cycle/run through it. Don&#039;t be tempted. Untreated niggles can so easily progress to major niggles and then onto major injuries. By treating those minor inconveniences as if they have the potential to become a significant inhibiting factor, they are unlikely to progress too far along that downward path. Be cautious, be aware, don&#039;t ruin a season&#039;s hard work because you refused to back off.

Twelve: Enjoy
If you don&#039;t enjoy triathlon, don&#039;t do it. There&#039;s no world rule that says you have to like it or to do it. Triathlon is demanding in terms of time and commitment, some people simply do not have the time to do it. If you stop enjoying triathlon, stop doing triathlon.

Thirteen: Don&#039;t play the &#039;if&#039; game
You know the way this one goes? If only I could swim faster.... if only I didn&#039;t have to work so many hours... ...if only I could afford better equipment..... if only I could get invites to classier races..... if only I didn&#039;t get injured so much... ...if only I was lighter... ...or taller, or heavier, or smaller, or... Playing the &lsquo;if&#039; game leads to frustration and bitterness, it&#039;s also a good excuse for losers. If you don&#039;t like something, then do something about it. And if it&#039;s not in your power to do something about it, then get on and do something else rather than moaning.

Fourteen: There is life outside
Triathlon is a part of life, not life itself (although there are times when it might appear so!) The number of people who are full time professionals or who make a substantial income from triathlon are so few as to be minuscule when compared to the huge numbers who take part as age-groupers and hold down full time jobs, have families and take part in the whole realm of life enhancing activities that exist in everyday life. Never let triathlon become so important that you lose sight of reality. There is life outside triathlon, there is life after triathlon.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Making a difference]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1978.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[More than a few things have happened since I last added to my blog; in no particular order, I&amp;rsquo;ve been to Melbourne and back, given a presentation in Paris in my real professional job, and did the PA and finish line commentary at the London Marathon.
Yes, I know, it&amp;rsquo;s a tough life&amp;hellip; I say this not to impress you &amp;ndash; how could I do that to all the toughened triathletes out there - but rather to say how I was impressed by some things that I saw, some people I spoke to, and some thoughts that I had (and even that sounds too flash, being impressed with my own thoughts&amp;hellip;).
I went to Oz with Veronica my wife, and my two kids who are aged 11 and 13 years old. Now, sitting in the old 747 for 24 hours can be a little claustrophobic so we pre-booked the seats at the back, you know where the outside row goes down from three abreast to just two? That&amp;rsquo;s the ones! A tiny bit more leg room and separate the kids to stop them niggling with each other. And it pretty much worked; peace and calm in the Trew household.
So what do you do on long-haul flights? Kids drink too much Cola, grown-ups (just squeeze into that category now) drink too much wine and we all watch movies. Which is a roundabout way of getting to the first point. I watched a film called Freedom Writers. It&amp;rsquo;s almost the old clich&amp;eacute; of a gifted, young, enthusiastic teacher making a difference to the kids he/she teaches. Been there, done that, seen it all before. I used to be a teacher, nineteen years altogether; inner City, tough kids.
So I was killing time, drinking my wine, ready to drift off to sleep.
Except, except, except, it got to me. The film really got to me. First, because it was true. Second, because she, the teacher, did make a difference. 
One of the central themes was not talking or looking down on kids who were perceived to be of low ability because of they way they looked, spoke, acted. The teacher treated them as responsible, intelligent human beings &amp;ndash;lots of confrontations along the way, of course!- and introduced them to literature in its original form rather than the &amp;ldquo;dumbed down&amp;rdquo; cartoon version. And, of course, the kids responded. The story of Ann Frank was the metaphor which symbolized change for the pupils and the inspiration of the writer to get many of them to College.
OK, a good -I&amp;rsquo;d say great- film, but then who am I?
It got me thinking about another film that I adore, Coach Carter. It tells the story of Ken Carter, an inspirational basketball coach who returns to his old high school and insists on standards of excellence in his athletes and players as well as supreme fitness to play the game of basketball. So, I&amp;rsquo;m a coach and I identified with Ken Carter.
So is that what it&amp;rsquo;s all about? Coaching and teaching? Making a difference? I guess in a lot of ways, yes it is. To make a difference to people&amp;rsquo;s lives, to inspire them, to lift them up, to make them believe in themselves. 
To make a difference; not a bad old epitaph, eh?
And so to the London marathon&amp;hellip; My brief is to be at the secondary finish line, after runners have collected their baggage that has been transported/trucked up from the start; and then to talk, interview, chat to them about their race. Was it good? Did you run for charity? How much did you raise? All that sort of stuff. It&amp;rsquo;s great fun, I meet a lot of old friends, old athletes, and hear some fantastic stories. I worked with a guy named Dave Thomas this year and we enjoyed the day. We look for the guys dressed in drag, the rhinos, the Elvis impersonators, you know the sort of stuff.
So this guy came up to us, &amp;ldquo;You should talk to the guy in the blue shorts and vest&amp;rdquo;.
&amp;ldquo;OK, why?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;He&amp;rsquo;s done so many marathons&amp;rdquo;.
&amp;ldquo;How many?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Loads, hundreds!&amp;rdquo;
Yeah, right&amp;hellip;
So&amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;Hi Jeff, someone told me that you&amp;rsquo;ve run a lot of marathons?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Well, yeah, a few&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;How many exactly?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Today was the seventy second&amp;rdquo;
Oh my God! How can you run 72 marathons!? We introduced Jeff to the crowds, he was a little embarrassed, but a good job done.
&amp;ldquo;Excuse me?&amp;rdquo; A big guy is standing there, wearing kit in the colour of the flag, &amp;ldquo;Heard you talking to that guy&amp;hellip; It was my one hundred and seventeenth marathon today&amp;rdquo;
Now this is getting silly, 117 marathons. So we talked, we laughed and he went off to rapturous applause. I started talking to the crowd about the Comrades marathon, you know the one, Durban to Pietermaritzburg , around 56 miles uphill and then every other year, you run down from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The runner I&amp;rsquo;d just interviewed turned around, &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve done Comrades twenty two times&amp;rdquo;, he said, &amp;ldquo;but I only count it as one marathon!&amp;rdquo;
Suitably chastened and humbled, Dave and I turned back to face the incoming finishers. An older guy was standing right by the bag check, pretty old&amp;hellip; Even older than I am, so that&amp;rsquo;s saying something.
&amp;ldquo;Excuse me, I just heard you talking to that guy from South Africa; hundred and seventeen marathons, that&amp;rsquo;s good&amp;rdquo;. We made the expected noises&amp;hellip;
&amp;ldquo;Well, I&amp;rsquo;ve just finished this one as well&amp;rdquo;, our hands went to out to shake, &amp;ldquo;Congratulations, that&amp;rsquo;s a real achievement&amp;rdquo;,
&amp;ldquo;Yeah, well, it was actually my three hundredth marathon.&amp;rdquo;
Now it was getting silly; three hundred!
&amp;ldquo;And what&amp;rsquo;s your best and worst times?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Just under three hours the best, six twenty two the slowest but it was a cross-country marathon&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Six twenty two, when was that?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Oh, last weekend&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo;
&amp;quot;And when&amp;rsquo;s your next one?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Um, next weekend, Stratford on Avon.&amp;rdquo;
And that was it, pretty much; from seventy two to a hundred and seventeen to three hundred. Athletes are funny old people aren&amp;rsquo;t they? But you know what, athletes and coaches alike, we can make a difference. 
I&amp;rsquo;ll say it again, not a bad epitaph to have.
&amp;ldquo;People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did. 
But people will never forget how you made them feel&amp;rdquo;]]></description></item></channel></rss>
