<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Bob Holloway - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Bob Holloway on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Bob Holloway: on the way back?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_8939.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[This time last year, Bob described his visit to the last  chance saloon. So what happened?

Well, not a lot to be honest. I was full of good intent, but  sadly, the policies of the new Coalition Government on the public sector and  their pension schemes played havoc with my social life and left precious little  time for important things like triathlon. And thanks to the Government&#039;s desire  to reduce the country&#039;s budget deficit and save taxpayers from the extravagancies  of the public sector, I found myself during the same period having to apply to  retain a job in the Department for Communities and Local Government.  Thankfully, I managed to hoodwink the assessors into believing that I was fit  for purpose but it will not be until September before I know what job in the  reformed DCLG I will be doing. Having spent the last 12 months working almost  24/7 on taking forward the public service pension scheme reforms recommended by  Lord Hutton, the last thing I need or want is a change of job so my fingers are  crossed that I will be allowed to stay put, leaving me to introduce a new look,  reformed Local Government Pension Scheme by 2015. 
Which is a long way of saying that at the moment, I am  overweight and a million miles away from the sort of fitness levels I enjoyed during  my best years in 2004 and 2005.   Yesterday, I weighed in at a magnificent 12st 9lbs. To put that in  perspective, for the London  marathon in 1987, I tipped the scales at under 9 stone. Although that was my  ideal marathon weight, it wasn&#039;t healthy and when I progressed to triathlon, I  tried to maintain a weight of just over 10 stone during the race season. I&#039;ve  even got a  pile of 30&amp;rdquo; waist trousers  upstairs in the loft but climbing back into them may just be a bridge too far.  I&#039;ll be happy to slip down from my 34&amp;rdquo; jeans from &amp;ldquo;Mr Large&amp;rdquo; into a more BMI  friendly 32&amp;rdquo; size!
And so it was that on 25 July that I stepped out once again  on the comeback trail. I&#039;ve trained every day since then &amp;ndash; bar one rest  day  -   and even treated myself to a new trisuit which is now hanging on my  bedroom wall as a constant reminder that I will, with luck, be active on the  race circuit once more. So when will that be?  At the moment, I am torn between training to  keep fit and delaying the inevitable onslaught of middle to late age spread and  training to get race fit in the hope of resurrecting my triathlon career that  has nose-dived since my eye problems in 2005/06 and pulmonary embolism in 2009.  The competitive streak inside me is still telling me that I have something to  offer and that with hard work and a little bit of luck, I could, once again,  compete with the best in my age group (54-59). I&#039;ve even started to look at  last year&#039;s results to review the competition! 
Which fork in the road I end up travelling down will depend  to a large extent on how much improvement I can make between now and the end of  the year. This week, I ran a 5km in training in a shade under 26 minutes,  compared to 17/18 minutes in my heyday. Consistent training should result in  better times and if I am able to run at sub 7-minute miling over a range of  distances by Christmas, I will feel confident enough to enter some early season  sprint events next year. But if there is no such improvement, I will accept  that there is no life left in the old dog and will be happy just plodding along  on the run, in the pool and on the bike to keep myself as fit and active in my  dotage as my body will allow. 
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bob Holloway: last chance saloon...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7339.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It has been a while since we heard from Bob Holloway, but he&#039;s back - possibly - or at the very least, in the last chance saloon...

The last chance saloon...
No trophies since 2005. One race  in 2009. None so far in 2010. Detached retina operation in 2005. Cataract  operation in 2007. Bi-lateral pulmonary embolism in 2009. 12kg overweight. Do  you think somebody is trying to tell me something?
Perhaps it is time I threw in the  proverbial towel and bowed to the inevitable. The ravages of time do catch up  with us all eventually and as I&#039;m not that very far away from getting my free  bus pass, it wouldn&#039;t be difficult to retire gracefully and look back fondly on  my achievements and the great times I have had with the sport and the people  within it. So why oh why was it that three weeks ago I decided to have one last  throw of the dice? 
There is no doubt that my health  scare last October had a seriously detrimental effect on my outlook to training  and racing. This was despite being told by my consultant that my level of  fitness and general health was one of the major contributing factors in me not  being one of the unlucky 30% who don&#039;t survive an embolism. On every count, I  should have been out there getting fit and not getting fat. But mentally, I had  no motivation and although there were several attempts to resuscitate my  triathlon career, this never got past two or three sessions before lethargy and  apathy set in. In the end, it was all too easy to get on with life without  triathlon. 
I came off my warfarin treatment  at the end of April and a few weeks later, I went through a series of blood  tests to see if there was any underlying condition to explain the blood  clotting. It was four weeks ago that I received a letter from the thrombillia  clinic at St Peters in Chertsey  to say that the blood tests were all normal. This was of course a major relief  for me, but by the same token, there was also another part of me that really  wanted to know what happened last year. Only then would I really have known if  there were any limitations in what I could do in the future or steps I would  need to take to avoid any repeat.
Time will tell whether the decision  I made was a wise one or not, but at the end of the day, my optimistic outlook  on life won over. And so it was that a few weeks ago, I headed out for a two  mile run. It was painful. It hurt. I found it difficult to come to terms with  how slow and awkward running had become. I was never a great swimmer or biker,  but even in my early 50s, I could still knock out sub 18 minute 5 kms and train  over all distances at sub-6 minute miling. Running then was effortless and  immensely enjoyable. But not now. Suddenly, but not surprisingly, training has  become a chore. But to be fair, I have never put enough training in over a long  enough period since 2005 to get to that stage when training, in general terms,  becomes a pleasure and not a pain. 
My plan therefore is to keep up  this regular training until at least the end of the year. By then, I should  know whether there is any life left in the old triathlon dog. I&#039;m saying this  because there is a chance that the embolism may have caused permanent damage to  the lungs. I was never blessed with a great VO2 max (measured at 52 at age 50),  but I somehow managed to make the best of what I was handed out by my maker.  Fingers crossed, there has been no damage, in which case, I should be able to  see a steady improvement in my fitness levels over the ensuing months.
Mind you, the biggest difficulty  I&#039;ve faced so far, is unlearning all the training memories and accepting that I  am literally starting from scratch. I was always a high intensity trainer based  on high quality and low quantity with hardly any training weeks exceeding seven  hours. And so it was that my first training session involved a two mile, lung  bursting, eyeballs out, 90% heart rate max run! After a week of hurt, I quickly  learnt my lesson and since then, all sessions have been based around  comfortable, fat-burning heart rate levels. In particular, I&#039;ve enjoyed getting  back into the open water at Datchet lake, even though I struggled to swim  further than 100m at my first attempt. But at least I was able to squeeze into  my size F2.5 wetsuit &amp;ndash; just!  
In terms of racing, I am keeping  my options open. I have no immediate plans to race in 2010, though if all goes  well, I&#039;m not ruling out the possibility of a late season duathlon or running  event. But if that doesn&#039;t come to fruition, my aim will be to kick start the  2011 season with the early Thames Turbo Sprints followed by a low key Olympic  distance in the early summer as a warm up for Windsor. By then, I&#039;ll have a  much clearer picture of my endurance levels and whether it will be worth having  another crack at the middle and long distance events. I still hanker after a  sub-5 hour half ironman having missed out by just seven seconds at one of the  HIMUK Sherborne races and I have still to pop my ironman cherry. Perhaps I  never will &amp;ndash; but it won&#039;t be for want of trying.
The story of Marc Jenkins who  suffered a similar fate to mine and who has returned successfully to triathlon,  will be a motivating force in my own come back, as will the recent success of  the Swiss guy who won the marathon at the recent European athletics  championships following an embolism and warfarin treatment. If they can do it,  there&#039;s no reason why I can&#039;t. I still think I have a story to tell and that  the final chapter on my triathlon career has yet to be written. And if I do  have to bow out to the inevitable, I want to do so on a positive note, knowing  that I gave it every chance. 
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A serious set-back]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6199.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I&rsquo;ve written some pretty downbeat blogs in recent times and I apologise now for bringing more gloom and doom into your World. Unfortunately, my World took a turn for the worst at the end of October and some three weeks on, I&rsquo;m still wondering whether or not my racing career is at an end.

It all started about a month ago when I caught a cold which went on to my chest and developed into a nasty cough. I started to feel breathless on exertion and put this down to the congestion on my chest. Being a man, I put off going to the doctor but in the end, even I had to give in to the inevitable so off I went to my GP. I was prescribed antibiotics and told that it would be a few days before I started to feel better. I went to work the next day but my usual 15 minute walk to the station took almost twice as long. I was stopping every 200 yards or so to catch my breath and after climbing the stairs at Woking station, I felt dizzy and light-headed. After a few minutes, I felt OK and slowly made my way to work. But things were not right so I made my way home at lunchtime having agreed to work from home for the rest of the week. At this point, I had convinced myself that the antibiotics had still to kick in.

The next day I worked all morning and at lunchtime made myself a cup of coffee. I then went upstairs for a call of nature and the next thing I know, I&rsquo;m waking up on the bathroom floor. I dragged myself to my bed and after a few minutes, managed to get downstairs. The coffee was luke warm so I guess I had been out cold for 10-15 minutes. I called 999 and the paramedic was around in just a few minutes. He ran a series of tests and in the end, suggested that my body had gone into overload - a bit like a computer shutting down because too many programs are running - and that fainting was the brain&rsquo;s way of dealing with that problem. But he was concerned about my breathlessness and high heart rate and suggested that I pay my GP another visit. It didn&rsquo;t take him long to refer me to the medical assessment unit at St Peters hospital in Chertsey.

Again, more tests! Blood pressure was ok, as was the chest x-ray but my ECG was a mess. My heart was working overtime and its rhythms were all over the place. Although there was no indication that I had had a stroke, I was immediately put on treatment to guard against that  possibility. I was moved to the coronary care unit and immediately put on a course of warfarin. The next day I had a fun day with first a CT scan followed by a heart ultrasound. At lunchtime, the consultant broke the news that the CT scan had revealed bi-lateral pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots in both lungs in plain speak. Under normal circumstances, this would be bad news in itself, but compared to the earlier prognosis of heart disease, it almost came as good news!

I was in hospital for three days and discharged when my INR scored reached two. The INR score is a measure of the blood&rsquo;s viscosity and indicates the effectiveness of the warfarin treatment. The fact that I had survived the embolism and recovered so quickly was put down to my general fitness and good health, so never believe anybody who tells you that exercise has no virtue. It could turn out to be a life saver.

Its now some weeks after the illness and the warfarin is doing its job. My INR range is two-three and at the last two blood tests, I registered a score of three on both occasions. I will be on warfarin for at least the next six months, after which, the hospital will run extensive tests to see if I have a genetic disposition to blood clotting. Hopefully, this was a one off and I can come off the warfarin next year, but there is the possibility that I may be on the stuff for life.

So what does the future hold? At the moment, plenty of rest and regular blood tests to make sure that my INR score remains within the 2-3 range. Over the last two weeks, I have been going out for daily walks, starting at five minutes and building up to 2.5 miles yesterday. I now feel well, fit and healthy. No aches or pains and no breathlessness whatsoever. My heart rate when walking is between 90-100bpm and at rest, its now back down to 50-55bpm. I will continue to walk on a regular basis and in a few days, will commence very light exercise on the turbo trainer. I think running will be out for the time being but the doctors are more than happy for me to resume swimming.
 
But I guess the big question is whether or not I will ever race triathlon again? To be honest, its still too close to the illness to be thinking of such things but I am reassured by the case of Marc Jenkins who suffered the same condition and is now back racing as well as ever. I think it will be a case of taking each step to recovery one at a time and hope that over time, it gets me to a position when I am able to compete again. Perhaps I will only be certain of that when the tests next year identify whether or not there is an underlying condition causing the blood to clot. 

The good news is that I still want to be active in the triathlon community and to carry on much as before, minus the racing! And can I take this opportunity to thank everybody that has been in touch to wish me well and a speedy recovery. Support groups are so vital at times like this and I have to say that without exception, my triathlon buddies have not let me down.

Oh, I forgot to mention that one advantage of taking warfarin is that I cannot binge on anything  containing vitamin K, which rules out cabbage, spinach and brussel sprouts! Hurrah!
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The last throw of the dice]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5831.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[All was going well. By the end of June, I was up to training five hours a week, which may not sound like much to some of you, but in days of old, it was enough to get me on the podium at most races. My strategy was to increase the volume and intensity of training in July in a last ditch effort to get race fit for the Dextro sprint triathlon in Hyde park, the last Thames Turbo sprint at the end of August and the Cotswold Sprint in September.

Mid-way through July, I took a few days away from my training schedule to travel down to Bristol for my daughter&rsquo;s graduation. We stayed in a hotel near Langford which boasted one of the very few dry run ski slopes in the country. On the first night, we took a walk down the steep staircase to watch the activities and on the way back, my training instincts took over and I decided to run the 200 steps back up to the hotel. But after just 20 or so steps, I collapsed in a state of almost total breathlessness. It took me several minutes to recover and I knew then that something wasn&rsquo;t quite right. This was of course the time when swine flu and its symptoms was on everybody&rsquo;s lips and over the next days and weeks, I managed to convince myself that I too had contacted the disease, no doubt from one of the many commuters I share my journey with to London every day. Apart from the breathlessness, the other symptoms were pretty minor and it could quite easily have been a simple chest infection. All I know was that one week I was happy swimming 2000m every Saturday morning, and the next, I couldn&rsquo;t manage 100m without having to stop and grasp for breath.

Of course, being a man, I decided not to do the sensible thing and visit the doctor and instead took the view that it would take care of itself. Kill or cure &ndash; though hopefully not literally! And true enough, as the weeks unfolded, the swimming and running became easier and things started to return to normal. But I had to face the truth that I was not in good shape and as has been too often the case in recent years, negativity won the day and I ducked out of the Dextro sprint. But there was still the Thames Turbo and Cotswold sprints. Or there should have been!

Having worked my socks off at work since the credit crunch and collapse of the investment markets this time last year, I managed to sneak in some holiday over the last two weeks in August. Having financed much of my daughter&rsquo;s five years university studies and facing the same for my son Tim, albeit only over three years starting later this month, holidays abroad are a rarity for the Holloway family so it was a case of catching up on all those domestic chores that have gone amiss in recent years and having a mini-break from all those early morning awakenings. In the end, I spent almost the entire two weeks giving the kitchen a much deserved make-over and spent no time at all training. To cut a long story short, I didn&rsquo;t make either of the last two races with the pitiful result that in 2009 I have raced just once. On the one hand, I am able to convince myself that this was all unavoidable and that lady luck has once again failed to smile on me, but on the other, is it time that I faced the ugly truth and conceded that my triathlon days are over? How often can you make excuses &ndash; and justify them?

Although I feel that I have left both myself and my sponsors down this year, I continue to believe that there is more life left in the old dog yet. Triathlon is in my blood and yes, there have been problems I&rsquo;ve had to contend with; some outside my control and others perfectly within my control because of my self imposed philosophy about the extent to which I am prepared to let triathlon dominate my life, work and family. When the going gets tough, I have to accept that its work, and not triathlon, that pays the bills and the mortgage.

So what to do? On the basis that in most cases, the past shapes the future, I have decided to go back to my roots and rediscover my running legs. Looking over my results, I was at my best when my running was strong and I could run sub 20 minute 5kms and sub 40min 10kms after a hard swim and bike. Getting my running back into some sort of shape will hopefully give me the confidence early next year to improve the level of my swimming and running to complement my new found running legs. In the good old days, I enjoyed racing because I got stronger as the race developed and could run down significant times lost on the swim and bike. But in recent years, the reverse has been the case where I have simply got slower from swim to bike and bike to run. Mentally, this was tough to accept and the thinking behind my 2009/10 winter plan of running training only, is that giving over all my training time to running 30 miles a week or more will get me physically and mentally in better shape for the 2010 season. 

And to give myself a target, I have today applied to enter the Bath half marathon in March. I have completed this run twice before, in 2003 and 2004, both times very close to 1hr 24mins. Still some way short of the 1hr 14min personal best I recorded in 1987 but not even I would consider that a return to those halcyon days would be possible now. But that 1hr 24min time was only five years ago and I would like to think that something in the region of 1hr 25mins could still be achievable, provided that the old legs can still hack those long Sunday runs!

My lack of form in recent years is down to one thing and one thing only - a lack of any form of endurance base over the close season. Spending the winter months running will rectify that and will have the added vantage of shifting that last 14lbs of weight that has been so difficult to shift in recent years.  If all goes according to plan, you should see my return next year as a lean mean, fighting machine. If not, it really might be time to hang up my wetsuit, trisuit and racing flats for good.




]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Onwards and upwards]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5298.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[At the end of my last blog, I said that I would report back on my first outing of the year at the Thames Turbo Sprint event on 25th May. But before I do that, I would like to tell you about a little milestone I&#039;ve achieved, not totally unconnected with this race report.

I think it was the Beatles who first penned the words &ldquo;It was twenty years ago today, that Sergeant Pepper taught his band to play.&rdquo; Well, in my case, &ldquo;It was twenty years ago this month, that I taught myself how to swim, bike and run&rdquo; Yes, it was in May 1989 that I entered and completed my first ever triathlon. For the record, it was the Wokingham Try-a-Tri event organised by Thames Valley Triathletes and I managed to complete the 500m swim in 11m 29s; the 12 mile bike in 39m 48s and the 3.1 mile run in 19m 34s, to finish 17th out of 96. I made plenty of mistakes and learnt a great deal, for example, towelling yourself dry, having a complete change of kit, is not exactly the best way to achieve a lightning fast transition! But it was a start and the rest, as they say, is history. 

I often wonder how many of my peers who raced back in 1989 are still racing today. Not many I guess, so why am I still around some twenty years on? Firstly, there was never any danger of burn-out! I have never been a prolific trainer or racer and apart from more recent years, I have been able to perform at a decent level on pretty small, but intensive training loads. And just for good measure, I also took about six years out of the sport between 1992 and 1998 to enjoy seeing my young family grow and prosper. And secondly, I have always put my love of triathlon behind my family and work. When push comes to shove, it is always triathlon that suffers but this is nearly always short term and so far, I have always managed to get back on track. The downside of course, is that the lack of consistency in training always leaves one with the &ldquo;what might have been&rdquo; feeling, but I have enjoyed some good times in terms of results and I am not totally convinced that slogging away at triathlon for 20-years without any break, would have got me where I am today, that is, fat, unfit, but still in the sport!

And talking about fat and unfit, how about a race report!

The alarm clock went off at 5.00am and a quick glance out of the window revealed almost ideal race conditions. Warm, hardly any wind, with the promise of a bit of sunshine later in the day. I like to get to the Thames Turbo races nice and early to bag a decent car parking space but with a late start number of 406, this did mean a long wait until I dipped my toes into the warmth of the Hampton open air pool. My strategy was to get around the 438m swim; 13.5 mile bike and 3.1 mile run in reasonable shape and without stopping. My personal worst time for this race was 1hr 18min and not even being close to my fitness then, I was looking at something in the region of 1hr 20min &ndash; or worse! To achieve this target, the last thing I needed was to go anaerobic so the plan was to take the first half of each discipline easy. 

Usually by the end of May, I would have quite a few swim sessions in the bag and at least eight or nine open water sessions. But this year, my swim training comprised two pool swims and two open water sessions. My &ldquo;taking it easy&rdquo; strategy was not one borne out of choice! I completed the 438m swim without any mishap and felt comfortable throughout, exiting the water in about 8min 30s. After a lacklustre transition I started the 13.5 mile bike with 10 min 45sec on the clock. 

I was riding my Kuota K-Factor SL team bike this year, courtesy of Tri-Uk, though I didn&#039;t feel that my level of fitness warranted the luxury of my rear disk wheel. I&rsquo;ll save that until the final race in August! On starting the bike, my heart rate was a healthy 158bpm, just within my target max of 160bpm. This was my first race with the Kuota and initial impressions were very favourable. Despite no bike training  - apart from four turbo sessions &ndash; since last September, I was holding 21-22 mph without any problem and there were a few moments when I was tempted to push on a bit harder. In the end, I stuck to my game plan of staying within my target heart range, though with hindsight, I think I lost a minute or so by not taking advantage of the tailwind on the downward leg to Chertsey. The return section back to Hampton was into a light breeze and after about 10 miles my legs began to tell me that staying in bed or relaxing in the garden would have been a better idea. I finished the 13.5 mile bike leg with 51 mins showing on the watch which meant that I had averaged about 20.5 mph. Not good, but it could have been a lot worse! I used the seven minute &ldquo;dead zone&rdquo; to recover some composure and took the opportunity to stretch my legs and lower back in anticipation of the 3.1 mile run.

The bike to run transition was ok-ish and with 157 bpm registering on my HRM, I was still within my target range. By now, it was clear that I should finish well within my pre-race forecast of 1hr 20min. Perhaps a sub 1hr 15min finish was possible? Now running has always been my strongest element but with no brick sessions under the belt and just five runs completed since last September, that last 3.1 mile run suddenly  became my Mt Everest. Having kept something back on the swim and the bike, my legs were not rebelling as they would normally do at this stage in a sprint triathlon and I was able to hold a steady pace at around 5min per km pace. There were plenty of folk ahead of me to catch but quite a few also overtook me and I was powerless to do anything and had to let them go. I had just the one pace, but at least it was slightly faster than a crawl! With just half a kilometre to go and with a sub 1hr 15min finish on the cards, the day&rsquo;s efforts finally caught up with me and I had to stop on two occasions to relieve myself of my stomach contents. In the end I crossed the line in 1hr 15min 52 secs. Well within my pre-race forecast but light years away from my 2004 PB of 1hr 3min 50 secs. 

So how would I sum up my race? A bit of a curate&rsquo;s egg really. I was pleased to be racing again and meeting up with many old friends and I accomplished my target of finishing without stopping (unless you count the two vomit stops!) and inside 1hr 20min. But on the downside, the mental challenge of competing and losing to your peers that once upon a time were there for the taking is a tough one and although you can convince yourself as to all the reasons why this is the case, it nevertheless still hurts. But the skill of any sportsman is to turn the negatives into positives and that is why I left Hampton Pool yesterday with only one thought in my mind. Race 4, 31 August, age group prize.

I&rsquo;d love to talk more, but I&rsquo;ve got some serious training to do and serious weight to lose!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[“Where’s Bob?” (with apologies to “Where’s Wally” fans)]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_5180.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Of all the questions I&rsquo;ve been pondering recently (apart from where have I been), perhaps the most perplexing is why has it all gone so wrong?

In 2004 I stood on the age-group podium in every race I entered; got a bronze in the national duathlon championships, qualified for and came fourth in the European duathlon championships and at the sprint distance, was finishing in the top 5% overall on most occasions. The world seemed to be my oyster and with a good winter, my ambition of sneaking a national title was a realistic proposition. But those slings and arrows that life has a funny habit of throwing at us when we least expect them dealt me a bad blow and two eye operations in 2005 and 2006 put my triathlon career on hold. But hey, that was three years ago, so what happened to all those dreams?

In short, they never materialised. Through a mixture of laziness, lack of motivation and more recently, a very busy time at work, I haven&rsquo;t been able to put in the miles and I now approach my first race of the season full of trepidation and worst of all, very little fighting spirit. Being &ldquo;up for a race&rdquo; and willing to give it 100% with no quarter spared is easy when you are fit and training has gone well, but if competing at the sharp end has been your main motivation and filled your trophy cabinet, how do you approach a race when you know you are a million miles away from those glory days?

Well, I guess the good news is that at least I will be racing. It would be so much easier just to retire gracefully and mull over the past and how things used to be. But I have been in this wonderful sport for 20 years and somewhere inside me is a flame that is proving difficult to extinguish. Triathlon is in my blood and having got so close to achieving my potential in 2004, it&rsquo;s as if I have an unfulfilled ambition to have one more crack at the big time. Since 2004, I have never been able, for a variety of reasons, to train as I used to and this past winter has been just one more example of a long run of what might have been. I ended 2008 in pretty good shape. My weight was in check and I was back to something like my old form. But along came the credit crunch, Icelandic banks and the collapse of financial markets, all of which culminated in Ministers assigning me a special project which was to take up virtually all my waking hours between November and the end of March. Apart from a few runs, I undertook no training between November and the middle of March. The weight piled back on and those first few runs towards the end of March were painfully slow and painful. Since then, the training has become more regular and on Sunday, I managed an eight mile run in just over the hour. Nothing to frighten my rivals in my new age group (55-59), but it&rsquo;s a start! Oh, and I haven&rsquo;t swum a length since September last year!

So the portents are not good for my first outing of the season at the Thames Turbo Sprint on 25th May. I faced a similar scenario last year when I went from a 1hr 18min time for the first race in March to a sub 1hr 10min time for the final race in August. But this time around, I think even 1hr 18 min will be a struggle and although I would be disappointed, I won&rsquo;t be totally shocked if I can&rsquo;t dip under 1hr 20 mins. That would be an all time worst for me over this course but as the song goes, things can only get better!

I&rsquo;ll let you know how I get on in my next blog. Oh, and I also owe you a few words and photos from this year&rsquo;s launch of team Tri-Uk last month. Once I&rsquo;ve learnt how to airbrush out my stomach in Photoshop that is! And for those of you at the Thames Turbo race, why not pop over and cast a jealous eye over my team bike this year. Gone is the Van Nicholas and in its place, a Kuota K-Factor SL. With a full SRAM Force groupset. I&rsquo;ll let you know how she rides in my next blog. 


Bob Holloway
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TRI UK in search of new team members]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4596.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Avid readers of my blog will know that in early 2007 I scribed some words extolling the virtues of joining TRI UK&rsquo;s race team (link to March 2007 blog can be read here). As a team member since 2004, I was able to speak from first-hand experience and with a few more years of team membership now under my belt, I think I am more qualified than ever to preach the gospel once again.

With some months to go before that start of the race season, the good folk down at TRI UK in Yeovil are busy putting the finishing touches to this year&rsquo;s race team and its ever growing list of sponsors which this years, sees newcomers from kuota and Oakley, as well as the long-standing brands like Foor and Gatorade. But more importantly, they will also be turning their attention to those lucky enough to be selected to race in Tri-Uk colours this year. With the passage of time, many old faces remain &ndash; mine included &ndash; but each year also sees a fresh injection of members, some of whom apply through word of mouth whilst others respond to articles such as this. So if you are reading this and thinking that racing for a well-established, first-class team like Team TRI UK rocks your boat, then contact the team managers at Triuk1@triuk.com with a copy of your CV, including triathlon achievements, etc. A few words describing why you want to join the team would also be helpful. 

But in the meantime, let me try and whet your appetite. Based on my experience and knowing most team members pretty well, the first point I would make is that being a sponsored triathlete is not the same as being either elite or professional. You may well be of that standard, and the current team currently boasts people of that stature, but at the same time, the majority of team members are ordinary age-groupers, ranging from newcomers with an interesting tale to tell (or in sponsorship terminology, to sell!) to more seasoned campaigners who can expect to get their TRI UK race kit  featured regularly on race podiums and the pages of triathlon magazines, web sites, house magazines and local newspapers because of their results. 

As a team member, not only will you benefit from the camaraderie of belonging to a group of like minded individuals and enjoying the support of the largest triathlon emporium on this planet, you will also get to race in great kit  and use leading edge equipment at a fraction of the normal cost. But a word of caution. Sponsorship deals are a two-way street. Yes, you get the goodies and the cudos of racing for a great team, but at the end of the day, those who sponsor you, do so on the basis that they expect to get a return on their investment with you. Believe me, sponsorship can and does work, but only if you put the hard work in and achieve the publicity that is expected of you. My earlier blog went into this in more detail so I won&rsquo;t repeat it here, but if I was to leave you with overriding thought, it would be that publicity is not something that you need fear, provided that you are prepared to put the hard graft in and argue your case when the editor of the local paper prefers to run an article on Mrs Jones&rsquo; dog that can skateboard and say &ldquo;sausages&rdquo; at the same time. Clever, but not as newsworthy as your triathlon achievements!  

If I have been successful in whetting your appetite and you have given the idea of joining team TRI UK a second thought, I can promise you that you won&rsquo;t be disappointed. I can&rsquo;t guarantee that you will be successful in seeking the requisite amount of publicity because ultimately that would be down to you, but what I can say is that you will receive all the support you need from both TRI UK, its sponsors and from other team members to give you every chance of success.

I have also made arrangements to be available on the Tri247.com stand at the forthcoming TCR show in early February for anybody who has any questions about the race team or the sponsorship package. As always, I will do my best to come up with the answers, but if I don&rsquo;t, I know a few very nice ladies in Yeovil who will! Alternatively, post a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Good luck with your racing in 2009, hopefully with team TRI UK!

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Happy New Year]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4512.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Who can ever forget those immortal words from The Life of Brian, &amp;quot;He&#039;s not the messiah, he&#039;s a very naughty boy&amp;quot;. As we approach 2009 and start thinking about those new year resolutions that we all aspire to but rarely achieve, it got me thinking that at the top of my list should be something along the lines of, stop being a very naughty boy and sort yourself out!

Now I would never make any pretensions about being a triathlon messiah, but trying to be objective, I was riding high in my age group in 2004/2005 with dreams of national and international titles looming in the years ahead. But we are all too familiar with the best laid plans of mice and men. My plans started to go awry with the eye problems at the end of 2005 and 2006 but in all honesty, these should have been just minor setbacks and should no longer be a factor in the way I train and race. But here we are, a few days before the start of another new year and things just go from bad to worse. Having got my weight down to a reasonable 10st 8lbs for last year&#039;s Vitruvian, I am now hitting the scales at 12st 2lbs. I trained once in October, nothing at all in November and similarly in December. OK, I have been fantastically busy at work in the wake of the credit crunch, collapse of Icelandic banks and, more recently, the media attack on public service pension schemes and the Madoff scandal, but that is no reason to abandon training or interest in triathlon altogether. So those are the symptoms, but what is the diagnosis and, perhaps most importantly, the prognosis?

The diagnosis is clear. Lack of motivation. But like most problems, it is often easier to identify them than it is to understand and remedy them. I have done much soul searching in recent years trying to understand why just a few years ago I could train at five minute 30seconds pace in my training runs and now, struggle to maintain eight minute miling. And if you&#039;re not putting in the quantity and quality of training, then this inevitably spills over into race performances and over time, it resembles the proverbial snowball effect. You don&#039;t train, you can&#039;t race, so what&#039;s the point? Well, the point is that I know how good I used to be and just how much more potential there was to be had by increasing the quality of my training and concentrating on ironing out the weaknesses. That was my plan for 2006 but history has proved otherwise. 

I approach my 55th birthday knowing that age does weary us and that it is perhaps counter-productive to dwell too much on the golden years. But we are only talking about some three or four years and I fervently believe that I have the talent and ability to get back to something like the form I was in 2004 when I clocked a one hour three minute time at the final Thames Turbo sprint triathlon. If I didn&rsquo;t believe that, I would hang up my wetsuit and retire gracefully knowing that I gave it my best shot. But perhaps the best is yet to come. If only I could re-discover the hunger and desire from yesteryear.

The forthcoming season could not be a greater motivator. It will be my first year in the 55-59 age group and in July, I&#039;ll be competing in the European Triathlon championships. And then there&#039;s the target of ducking under five hours for a half-ironman which I came so close to beating at the inaugural HIMUK when I clocked a frustrating five hours and seven seconds! But since then, I&#039;ve drifted out to over 5hours 15 minutes but knowing that on paper, a sub 5 hour race ought to be well within my capabilities. So there we have it. The boxes are there waiting to be ticked. All I need to do is to rediscover my mojo.

And that search for my mojo started on Boxing Day. It was then that I took my first training session for well over two months. Ok, it was only just over two miles and it took me over 17 minutes to complete at a heart rate of 160 but, hey, at least I was out there, ready to give it a go. I followed this up with a 2.8 mile run on Saturday and will gradually increase the distance and tempo of each run over the next month or so. Ideally, I would like to be in a position come the end of January when I am able to run for an hour or more because if there&#039;s one thing that has been missing from my artillery in recent years, its been that all important endurance base on which to build the speed phase. 

But there is another decision I have made to help me in my quest. I love the sport of triathlon and those who share the same community, but there have been occasions when the non-competitative side of the sport has got in the way of training and life in general. From now on, I will be adopting a lower-profile so don&#039;t expect me to be voicing my opinions as I have done in the past, quite often to my cost. Sometimes fairly, but mostly unfairly. This back to basics approach won&#039;t affect my relationship with Tri247.com and as long as they are happy to keep supporting me and affording me the space for my regular blog, then I&#039;m equally happy to keep you all up to date with my training and racing plans. 

An old Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. I took that first step on Boxing Day. 

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A guiding hand]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3883.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[On 9th August, I took part in one of the slowest 10km runs I have ever completed. In my running days, I could manage a 34 minute 10km but on this occasion, it took me well over the hour to record my personal worst for the distance. But surprising as it may seem, it was by far the most rewarding experience of my sporting endeavours. 

Let me explain. Those of you familiar with the tritalk.co.uk triathlon forum will know that each year, a project is undertaken to raise money for good causes. In 2006, various tritalk members &ndash; including yours truly &ndash; volunteered themselves for a photo shoot in London which culminated in the production of the 2007 tritalk calendar. Not as much nudity as another triathlon calendar that springs to mind, but great fun nevertheless. This year, however, the boat was pushed out even further with the aim of setting up a triathlon club for the visually impaired and sights on competing at the London triathlon on the week-end of 9th/10th August. The money soon started to roll in (and still can if you head to www.tritalk.co.uk) and the team started to take shape. The people involved in this project are far too many too mention, and although it would be unfair to single one person out, I feel duty bound to place on record the hard work and commitment that one in particular has devoted to the project. Step forward Mark Stride! 

I got involved in the project because of my desire to give something back to the visually impaired. But for the grace of god - and the good surgeons at Moorfields eye hospital &ndash; I might well have been racing with the VIPER team at this year&rsquo;s London Tri, so it was without any hesitation that I agreed to travel down to the Excel Centre to support the race team. But a few days before then, I was asked by Mark Stride if I would be prepared to help one of the VIPER race members whose guide was unable to complete the run leg of the Olympic distance event because of injury. How could I refuse.

My job was to guide Britain&rsquo;s only totally blind triathlete, Maggie Boyes, around the 10km run course. Yes, totally blind from birth. Now just think about that for a minute. Next time you are standing at the lake side ready for your open water swim, close your eyes and imagine what swimming blind entails? My mind casts back to one of Robin Brew&rsquo;s swim camps when, to show our lack of technique and balance, we swam a length with eyes closed. Most folk, having started from the middle of the pool, ended up hitting one side of the pool. OK, so Maggie and other VIPERs were tethered to their guides, but the sensory depravation from being blind is something that I still find difficult to understand or comprehend. To this day, I do not understand how they achieve what clearly they do achieve despite their handicap. I am of course loathe to use the word handicap, because that has certain negative connotations whereas, on the day, I witnessed more humour and positive thinking than most other races I frequent. But if the swim isn&rsquo;t difficult enough, you then have the bike leg to contend with. Barry, Maggie&rsquo;s normal guide, was able to ride tandem despite his injury but unfortunately, they punctured at the end of the first lap and without any means of repairing it, came into T2 knowing that they would record a DNF because of the incomplete bike leg. Now I might be wrong, but I guess some folk would decide to call it a day, but not Maggie. She was insistent that we head out for the run and so it was that on that wet and miserable day, weather wise, we ventured out of the Excel Centre with only our umbilical cord between our wrists to keep us heading in the same direction.

It would be fair to say that I was clearly the more nervous of the two. I had an inkling of what was involved but this was a new experience and the success of Maggie&rsquo;s race was, quite literally, in my hands. As anyone who has raced at London will know, the run course, particularly around the Excel complex, is not exactly straightforward and I very soon learnt the importance of effective communication. To an extent, pulling or releasing the tension on the tether rope is a good way of guiding a blind athlete, but more than anything, they prefer a detailed description of the surroundings, type of corner, elevation, etc. I also found it helpful to keep Maggie up to date with what was happening around her. I was able to point out the running backwards waiter and she was overjoyed every time I mentioned that we were overtaking anybody. 

The hour or so of the run passed far too quickly and to her credit Maggie ran every step of the way. No walking, even through the drinks stations. And my abiding memory will be of the reactions of both supporters and fellow runners who fully recognised Maggie&rsquo;s achievements in not only trying, but also succeeding in racing triathlon. Luckily for me, the incessant rain disguised the fact that I got pretty emotional at times and although it isn&rsquo;t always macho for us to men to admit that we cry, I hope you will not think any the less of me when I admit that I was either in tears, or close to tears for most of those glorious 10,000 metres. None more so than as we climbed that last hill and could hear the roar of the crowd at the finish line. As we came down the finish shoot, on impulse, I stopped running and invited the crowd to show their appreciation for what this wonderful lady had achieved. The response was both loud and genuine. As we crossed the line, we hugged each other and Maggie thanked me for guiding her. To be honest though, I think it was me who needed to thank her for allowing me to share that hour or so with somebody so inspirational.  Along with my marriage and birth of my two children, it will be something I will treasure for the rest of my days.

Hopefully, Barry is now over his injury and will be guiding Maggie to many more triathlon successes. But if she ever needs my help again, she knows where to find me. It would be my pleasure.

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bob’s going Dutch (provisionally!)]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3662.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Now forgive me for seeming ungrateful, but isn&rsquo;t triathlon all about getting up at the crack of dawn, stuffing your face with an early breakfast and doing the business in time to get home before the rest of the family have awoken from their late morning Sunday lie-in? The Steelman Olympic race at Dorney lake was my second race this year with an afternoon start and although the Sunday morning lie-in was sort of welcome, I still can&rsquo;t get my head &ndash; or body for that matter &ndash; around these late starts.

I usually manage to fit in a couple of the sprint events held at Dorney each year but this was my first foray into an Olympic distance around the rowing tank. My reason for racing was to try and grab one of the four slots on offer for next year&rsquo;s European Triathlon Championships to be held in Holten, Holland and as in Salford 2003, I was racing in one category but trying to qualify in another. Is it only in triathlon when there are clear advantages to getting old! 

 The over 45s wave left the start pontoon at 13.35 precisely and headed off for the two lap swim with a short run and dive affair between each lap. We knew beforehand that the swim was 100m short but I was still well chuffed with a time of just over 12 minutes for the first 700m lap. I felt good in the swim and headed for the bike with about 25min 30s on the clock. TI passed without any problem but the first upward leg of the bike was hard work. I struggled to average 19mph but everybody seemed to be suffering with the windy conditions. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing across the lake which, for reasons I haven&rsquo;t quite been able to fathom, wasn&rsquo;t behind us on the downward leg. I was able to cruise along at 23mph but that was some 3-4 mph slower than I would have expected. And can I please say that eight laps of the Dorney bike leg is sheer purgatory. It&rsquo;s dead-pan flat and hard work all the way. There is no relief, no downhill stretches to freewheel or uphill stretches to get out of the saddle to stretch aching muscles. There were times on lap 6 or 7 when I could quite easily have given up but I wasn&rsquo;t alone in suffering and I knew I was still well placed in a qualifying position so I soldiered on. After a pathetic 1hr 18min bike, I left T2 with 1hr 46min showing on the clock. 

The 10km run consisted of four out and back laps and was pretty tedious stuff. The one big consolation, however, was that the run was along a single path which meant that it was dead easy to check on your rivals and judge whether the gap was widening or shortening. It took me at least 1 lap to get my legs moving and after that, I soon started to pick runners off and make steady progress. I knew that I was ahead of at least two other would-be qualifiers and could have relaxed, but instead pushed on hard to finish in a time of 2hrs 34mins. 

This means that I&rsquo;m still some way off a return to the sort of form I was enjoying in 2004, but I am able to take some consolation in the fact that a sub 2hr 30min race should have been on the cards, but for a few schoolboy errors. Firstly, there was the case of the rubbing tyre. After a series of punctures in recent races, I began to lose confidence with my Schwalbe Ultremos. On Saturday, I replaced these with a pair of Bontrager race lites and inflated them to 80 psi to bed them in. I was racing with my Zipp disk and this is normally a very tight fit against the curved cut-out section at the back of the Van Nicholas&rsquo; seat tube. To cut a long story short, when I pumped the rear type up to 120 psi on race day, there was a significant rubbing of tyre against frame. I tried in vain to re-position the wheel but whatever I tried, it would not spin freely. It wasn&rsquo;t rubbing all the time, but there was a definite 5-6 inches of the tyre that was rubbing. In the end, I ran out time and just hoped that during the race, the uneven bit of the tyre would wear down or bed in. But after the race, the rubbing was still there. I have no idea whether this had made any difference to my bike time. I had a bad bike split anyway but a month earlier I had completed half the distance on the same course in 35 minutes and the conditions were probably worse!

The second mistake was just me being stupid. I was heading for the finish straight at the end of the run and coming the other way, was an old friend from Thames Turbo who I had thought throughout the run had been ahead of me. That made me question whether I too had one more lap to run. Logic told me that I was being stupid and that with each lap taking about 11min 30sec and with 46 mins showing on the clock for the run,  there was no way I would have taken 57 minutes. OK, my running is poor at the moment, but not that poor! But this was a qualifying race and I wasn&rsquo;t going to leave anything to chance. I therefore waited for David Pressley, another would-be qualifier, who was about a minute and a half behind me. He started to aim for the finish straight and he was gallant enough to let me finish ahead of him. Had it not been a qualifying race, I think I would have just finished and taken the consequences had I been a lap short. But I so much wanted to nail my place for Holland that I wasn&rsquo;t going to leave anything to chance! 

So, did I qualify. At the time of writing, the Steelman results were not out, but from soundings taken post-race, I think I grabbed either the second or third of the four slots available. So, mission accomplished and after a few years of under-performance and lack of motivation, I now have something to positive to reflect on. Hopefully, this will be the kick start I need to move up to the sort of training levels I was maintaining in preparation for the Madeira World Championships in 2004 when I was probably at my fittest ever.

Its now mid-season and at last, things are beginning to take shape. I&rsquo;ve lost a stone since March and I&rsquo;m starting to feel as I am racing rather than just trying to complete the distance. I&rsquo;m pleased with my swim progress and the running is becoming easier and faster. I&rsquo;m still not fit enough to run hard straight out of T2 but that will come with some reasonable training in August in preparation for my main race of the year, the Vitruvian in September. 

Bob&rsquo;s Tip

Don&rsquo;t be stupid and check your equipment!

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