<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Fiona - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Fiona on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Lisboa International triathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3272.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[An update on Lisboa International Triathlon which took place last Saturday:  Alun Woodward actually finished in eighth place, I finished seventh female (the race organisers listed me under the other half of my dual nationality but with a new name!), and Edwina in eighth ensured there was plenty of GB representation in the top ten, particularly with Paul Amey taking a classy overall win. Darren Treadaway had a stormer and finished 17th, just five minutes behind Marino V, not bad considering he&#039;s not giving up his day job just yet to turn pro.

This race is unique in that whoever finishes &#039;in the money&#039; (so to speak) earns it, whether pro or age-group/amateur. The podiums: well for GB there was the overall male winner of course, Paul Amey, who did eventually make it to the after party and presentations, about an hour late! Age group podiums were: George Hodgson M65-69 winner (and oldest in the race!), Paul Amey M35-39 winner, Fiona Moorhead-Lane F35-39 second and Edwina Carter F25-29 third.

It became obvious the Portuguese race organisation won&#039;t distinguish pro categories from age-groups, as despite earning prize money cheques for a top ten finish, we were also given the age group prizes! They do, however lay on a fantastic post-race party at the Lisbon Casino; fully catered with an open bar, to say it was popular would be an understatement. There were many more GB athletes out in Lisbon this year, with Optima racing team, Tri Force Herts and East London Tri well represented, to name a few clubs in and around London. Notably of course, out on the course were the numbers making up the Irish contingent! The race has doubled in competitor numbers over the past three years and is still growing. A very well organised event, great course and perfect pancake (well-almost!) conditions this year for PBs. Cheers, until next time, Fiona]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[2007 recap]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2907.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last year we heard about how Fiona Ford linked up with Spencer Smith with the result of an age group win and an overall top ten overall position in Ironman France getting her qualified for Hawaii. Here she recaps on 2007 and tells us what her plans are for 2008 under her new identity as Mrs Moorehead-Lane.



Having started the year a double age-group World champion and ending the year with two Ironman races under my belt, including probably the hardest race I&rsquo;ve done to date at the Ironman World Championships in Kona and gaining a new surname, it feels more like a year and a half!

The highlights along the way last season were:

Lisbon International long-course triathlon is a highly recommended half Ironman, and a friendly, smaller scale event on the European calendar. I used it as a build up and test event for nutrition and pacing (power meter based rather than Heart-rate) for Ironman France.

In between Lisbon and France, myself, Rob and a few triathlete friends managed to get away to the warm weather training that Nice has to offer early in the year. This was a valuable opportunity to become familiar with the bike and run courses. It also gave me the chance to experiment with a number of bike set up options, ie: time-trial vs road bike. 

Returning to Italy in May, we joined Steve Trew&rsquo;s training camp for the final push in preparation for my Ironman debut. Specifically my first over distance ride in the Gran Fondo Nova Colli, where I tackled the full 205km course over nine hills. It required more than double the effort I&rsquo;d put in previous years to get around the 130km shorter option. A tough day, and looking back excellent mental preparation for an Ironman.

I had a great race at Ironman France, enjoying the experience of my first Ironman and gaining a top ten result overall. The age-group win paved the way to Kona with a qualifying slot. Working with Spencer Smith has been a big part of preparing for a debut performance that put me among the pro women at the finish, as has been the support of racing for Team Planet-X. 

Ironman Hawaii is the big one, and lived up to all the hype. From my experience out there it really is the ultimate triathlon challenge, especially for anyone who has to fit in their training around a full-time job! Being a British-based athlete makes it an extreme test due to the long haul travel, time-difference and hellish conditions. Finishing Hawaii has changed the way I think about racing, and it&rsquo;s an over used phrase I know but you learn a lot about yourself out there. Even though it seems impossible at the time for whatever the odds may stack against you, it is possible to finish. Time, placing or ranking really isn&rsquo;t all that important! After the race I realised many of the top pros were also having terrible days and hung in there to finish among the age-groupers. This was due to how hot and windy the conditions were this year and reflected their mental strength as well as physical strength. 

And last, but not least, getting married to Rob in Hawaii has to be up there as a highlight and the perfect destination for a wedding whether you&rsquo;re both triathletes or not! So Hawaii was indeed my last race as a &lsquo;Ford&rsquo;, quite fitting really.

This season my main goal is to put in a solid performance at the half Ironamn distance, and take a year out of Ironman training and racing. So as I have thought before, after previous seasons, it looks like last year might be a tough one to beat!  

Bye for now
Fiona]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Kona Countdown begins.... 19 days to go!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2480.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[With less than three weeks to go until the Ironman World Championships, it&rsquo;s that usual mix of excitement, fatigue and being slightly daunted taking over the thoughts and driving the plans ahead. Training has gone well, starting with some down time after IM France to fully recover. I&#039;ve enjoyed a mid-season break with a focus on speed and racing a couple of sprint and Olympic distance races. The priority for me has been Kona since qualifying at the end of June in Nice. This has shaped the rest of the year in training and racing terms and highlights why the Olympic distance World Championships in Hamburg this year didn&rsquo;t end up on my racing radar.

The main focus this preparation has been the bike, and not just in terms of training hours. As with most who&rsquo;ve raced or are racing in Hawaii, I&rsquo;m riding my TT bike and spent a lot of time initially tweaking my position on the turbo and getting my aero position to feel natural out on the road. Regular time trials have been important for this purpose, not only to test out fitness and training progression but to incorporate small changes in position and see how they affect my power output, cadence and of course, times! Earlier in the year I&rsquo;d focused my time on the road bike getting ready for IM France, so it&rsquo;s been essential I semi-retire that machine for the time being and get back on my Planet-X Carbon Pro Stealth!

I&rsquo;ll be riding the same pair of &lsquo;lucky&rsquo; Xentis high modulus aero wheels that I rode in Nice. I christened them in Nice with an age-group win back in June and as they are a set we share around the Planet-X team, Scott Nyedli won IM UK on them too.... With the conditions on the big island possibly windy on a good day and gale force on a bad one, the aerodynamics of the fastest wheels I&rsquo;ve ever ridden will be perfect. Some of the TTs I&rsquo;ve ridden this year have provided an excellent simulation of how they&rsquo;ll handle in crosswinds and in adverse weather. The debate about which tubs has done the rounds of coach Spencer, my other half Rob and Andy at Planet-X. I&rsquo;ve settled on a pair of lightweight Tufo racing tubs. Another critical skill is being able to change these, you just never know when your luck will turn! Long-course racing teaches you to be self-sufficient both in training and racing, or risk a meltdown a la Stadler in Kona 2005. Luckily my fianc&eacute; Rob is an expert at this, and I&rsquo;ll be setting aside some time this week to practice tub juggling before heading out to Kona.

For the final hard stretch of training, I planned my peak phase of training around being at moderate altitude (~1000m/ 3000ft) where I&rsquo;ve based myself before my major races each year. I&rsquo;ve been getting through 24-26 hours training each week since my lead up race two weeks ago. My recovery here is always vastly better, allowing me to train for sustained periods of time and at greater intensity than I could do at home. I use my time here effectively as a training camp, and the overload effects achieved by putting together a consecutive hard block of training is usually well timed to make use of the body&rsquo;s response to it and influence some overcompensation for race day. The next most important part for me to get right is the taper where I&#039;ll be letting my body being the best judge of where I am on the recovery scale. I&rsquo;ve been putting in the hard work and starting from next week it should start to feel as though it&rsquo;s paying off!

My day-job work has come along with me for this trip, and as I&rsquo;m remotely based I&rsquo;ve been able to work flexibly around my training hours. This has been just about manageable around completing a development project, providing online conferences and keeping up with emails and meetings from my laptop. Usually with amazing mountain views from my base here in the Alps!

I&rsquo;ll next report in from the sunshine in Kona, so until then, Mahalo&hellip;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[IM France, Nice 24th June 2007]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2210.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[As my first Ironman race, Nice was sensational! My preparation leading up into the race had been consistent, and I had a great race, got through a few challenges and learned a lot about endurance racing. My good luck omen for the day was speaking with Mark Allen before the race, and having him wish us luck...

The beach swim start proved to be fairly chaotic, with delays communicating readiness back to the official starter. In the end we were just given a count down, rather than a starting signal and for the next five minutes complete carnage erupted as 1,300 of us took to the Mediterranean to start the day. I hadn&amp;rsquo;t expected a trouble-free swim and it didn&amp;rsquo;t disappoint! Advice for first timers - start somewhere towards the outer fringes unless you can engage a fast top end cruising speed. The first 400m for me was all about surviving, and after a few underwater episodes and lots of polo swimming it did get better. Eventually things settled down as an arrowhead formed towards the first buoy and I got into more of a rhythm as we headed nearly a kilometre out to sea. I quite liked the idea of a 2 lap swim with what the French call an &amp;lsquo;Australian&amp;rsquo; exit out onto the beach and plunging back in again, to divide the swim into Olympic distance size chunks. An hour after starting, I exited the swim around half a minute behind the lead female and arrived in T1 with a handful of pro women. 

I had been looking forward to tackling the hills on the bike course, and knew I had to regulate my effort throughout the day. The Ergomo power meter I train with was a real asset to monitor my wattage, as I was feeling quite fresh and with a race head on, it would have been easy for me to revert back to my standard distance comfort zone and over expend effort, which I&amp;rsquo;d inevitably pay for on the run.  What I hadn&amp;rsquo;t counted on was a near-miss crash and stomach cramps for 4 hours of the bike! On the flat road along past St Laurent du Var, where Yves Cordier&amp;rsquo;s bike shop is located (should you ever need one in Nice) I had been overtaken by a French competitor who adopted the &amp;lsquo;cut people up&amp;lsquo; approach, rather than keeping his own line until he was sufficiently clear. I&amp;rsquo;d had to brake in fact to avoid touching wheels with him. A few minutes later I rounded a bend to find he&amp;rsquo;d brought down two other riders, sprawled across the road in a spectacular tangled crash, which I only just managed to avoid. So that got the adrenaline racing in time for the short steep 15% up towards Gattieres, where I was able to get the HR back down again! Whew.

The road along through St Jennet and Vence is fast and fairly flat with some slight downhill sections, and although I ignored it at first, it became obvious my stomach wasn&amp;rsquo;t in a good place. I&amp;rsquo;d been struggling to stick with my nutrition plan and couldn&amp;rsquo;t eat anything solid without making my stomach cramps worse. So I stuck with liquids and waited for it to subside until I reached the second part of the bike leg - the 21km climb up to the Plateau de Caussols.  It didn&amp;rsquo;t really improve, but I had the climb to think about! Having ridden this part of the course back in April I knew I had the last 6.5km up to Pre du Lac to look forward to as a long sustained climb. Once over the top and along the 15km section to Andon, I felt slightly better and tried to eat again, with no success. So I stuck with fluids for the rest of the bike and just resolved to get through it as it wasn&amp;rsquo;t getting any worse. The last section of the course is a lot of fun with a mix of downhill sections and unusually tight turns and it was a great sight arrive back along the Promenade and see the first few athletes out on the run course. I thought I&amp;rsquo;d had a reasonable good bike split in 5 hours 54mins, with average HR and wattage within the ranges I&amp;rsquo;d planned. The question in the back of my head though, was would I be running on empty?

In T2 I exchanged a few words with Michelle Parsons, who&amp;rsquo;d caught me up on the Promenade on the way in. Smothered in sun block, it was time to get out on the run course, which although very hot was fanned by a good sea breeze. The first lap there appeared to be less than ten women already out there running, which re-focused me on having a strong race and gunning for a top age group result. I had a great run, a few stops and plenty of fuel at every aid station to keep me going. To my relief, it all seemed to consolidate on the run as I felt stronger running each of the 10k laps out to the airport and back, four times. Happily, my energy reserves seemed to be enough for the marathon.

Finishing was slightly surreal.  It&amp;rsquo;s such a long journey to get to that finish line, from December last year. I was really happy with my time of 10 hours 32, and Andy (Planet-X) at the finish line confirmed I&amp;rsquo;d finished in the top ten (women). Having won my age group, the big goal of trying to qualify for Hawaii was real, and that took a bit of time to sink in! 

By the next day, with incredibly sore legs, I had the excitement of accepting and paying for my slot to go to Kona. It was then I learned that I&amp;rsquo;d set a new age group course record by about 13 minutes, Mike O&amp;rsquo;Reilly &amp;lsquo;the voice of IM&amp;rsquo; commentator reliably informed me before making the same announcement at the awards presentation later that evening. I remember being up on stage a second time among the top ten pro women and having one of those &amp;lsquo;pinch me&amp;rsquo; moments,  slightly overwhelming, I think by then it had all caught up from the day before.  So, having just had a two week break, I&amp;rsquo;m now focussed on the next big goal on the horizon, Hawaii in October. 

Bye for now,
Fiona]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Warm weather and scary moments]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1872.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Here is the latest update from the Planet-X, team Spencer camp and it has its share of highs and lows&amp;hellip;.
The last few weeks have been going well on the training front, with a few road races and TTs to keep it challenging and getting the sessions done &amp;ndash; albeit a little late into the night sometimes after Rob and I get home from work &amp;ndash; but that is what Ironman racing is all about. Or so I am told by Rob, who has done a few and assures me that walking around like a zombie and not knowing where you are is normal. As is this constant grazing and food cravings for all manner of carbohydrates, just FEED ME !!!
So with the Ironman training well underway, the strangeness in preparing for this long distance sport is starting to become evident, with a very simple existence &amp;ndash; sleep, work, train and eat. Spencer said to me in one of our early conversations that this long distance malarkey demands a completely different approach to normal short course triathlons. You know what; that guy knows what he is talking about because I totally agree. 
We booked flights to Nice for a long weekend and course recce after being invited to join friends and a few Serpentine triathletes heading out for some cycling over Easter. Nice is a lovely place but our introduction to it was a little different &amp;ndash; Rob sitting in the car park of the airport at midnight surrounded by bike bags and luggage, waiting for me to leg the few kms to T2 and pick up the hire car. That was tame compared to the midnight drive up the winding roads in the hills surrounding Nice to arrive around 1am at our wonderful guest house in the village  of Gattieres. The next three days were all gloriously sunny and the riding was fantastic. We rode most of the Ironman course, getting around 300km in 3 days of riding, with our final day spent in Nice to do our LSD run along the Promenade des Anglais. After shelving the swim idea until next time, we soaked our tired legs in a very cold sea. (Who needs ice baths when you have the Med in April?)

So, after a fantastic break we flew home to Blighty on a strangely punctual flight and were greeted by unseasonably quiet roads on the way home. We did remark that everything had gone a little bit too well, with only one Rob &amp;quot;moment&amp;quot; (losing his rucksack when we arrived in Nice) &amp;ndash; but it all changed upon arriving back outside our flat. Having one of those horrible feelings when I opened the front door to our flat to be greeted by a Shimano chainset in the middle of the hallway, not that strange in a triathlete&amp;rsquo;s house you may think, but it wasn&amp;rsquo;t there when we left! I froze in the doorway and let Rob go in to check the rest of the flat to confirm the dread that we had in fact been burgled.
The scum had broken in and ransacked the place. The usual items had all gone &amp;ndash; laptops, phones, jewellery and watches etc. All our belongings were scattered everywhere, clothes out of drawers and all the papers from the office in a pile on the floor. The kitchen window wide open, back door lock and handle broken and basically a really horrible feeling that your secure home is now vulnerable. The police arrived around 1am and after fingerprinting the entire place and making a report and starting to investigate possible leads, we really hope the criminals are caught. The last few days have seen us in the middle of the endless rounds of insurance companies, banks, my IT department at work and authorities to get everything back to normal. 
So a great weekend spoiled by some thieving parasites who think the world owes them a living. But we are not going to let it affect us and with a fairly hefty bill from the security section in B&amp;amp;Q we are now minimising any down time and back into the swing of things in our new fortress that we call home. 
And as a final tip for all of you out there remember that not everyone in life is as nice as those in the triathlete community and to be careful when loading up cars to go away. You never know who is watching, unfortunately, and the bike bags are an obvious giveaway&amp;hellip;
Be safe and train hard
Cheers
 Fi &amp;amp; Rob 
PS Rob wants to hear from anyone offered a pair of silver cufflinks with the Ironman motif on them &amp;ndash; I think he wants to have a word with the seller &amp;ndash; if you know what I mean.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Latest from a long course debutante]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1704.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Well as most of you may know I am going long for this season  and being supported by Planet-X for my new bike and kit, and coaching from a certain  man in pink -- Spencer Smith. I am well underway now into month 3 of the training  plan. 
After a bit of an early set back during January with a nasty  chest infection which refused to go away, the training got back on track in  February. With some good weeks of training building up to the biggest week of  all being a 20 hour week from the 19th to the 26th. Now I  know this isn&amp;rsquo;t a huge week in Ironman training terms but, as this is my first  season at the longer distances, this is the biggest week of training I have done  in a long time. 
To top off the week, myself and my fianc&amp;eacute; Rob had chosen to  go and run the 10 mile road race at Bramley. This was supposed to be a gentle  run, not pushing too hard and keeping it nice and steady in the build phase of  training. However, on arrival I met a very good friend of mine Vikki (sub 3-hour  marathoner) and we decided to run together and catch up for a chat. Leaving Rob  to his walkman (and dodgy Iron Maiden music) Vikki and I set off and before  long got into a steady pace (well, for her anyway.) As the Saturday session the  previous day had been a 5 hour 30 min brick and a swim session I started to  feel it at around mile 5. But by mile 8 the long distance training seemed to  kick in and I was feeling good again. At the end of the race myself and Vikki  crossed the line together thinking we had run a respectable time and only as we  crossed the line was it announced that we were 3rd and 4th  lady. As it happens I was 4th (apparently it is fashionable for  Planet-X athletes &amp;ndash; see Gordo&amp;rsquo;s news) I never realised our respective positions  and as the finish chute was really narrow, I had already allowed Vikki to enter  the finish first. Rob came in 104th overall in 70 min, although he  assures me he was running it as a training run at a steady pace. (Well that&amp;rsquo;s  his excuse anyway!)
Last week was another big week with plenty more solid  sessions. The Saturday brick session was again 4:30 hour bike (this time  indoors on the iMagic = much more graft) and 1 hour run, followed by a swim  early evening to finish off the day. On Sunday, I&amp;rsquo;d entered Rob and I for an  early season TT on the HC10/2 Maidenhead thicket course. This was our first  test to take out the Stealth&amp;rsquo;s in anger and see what they could do. The day was  miserable with a nasty wind and rain storms thrown in for good measure, on a basic  out and back course along the A4, known to be rolling with undulations as  opposed to hills. This gave us a good chance to get down on the aero bars and  get my position &amp;lsquo;dialled in&amp;rsquo;. Not surprisingly the legs were not at their  sharpest and it was a tough 27 mins hard work.&amp;nbsp;  However the course is notoriously slow with the winners times being 23  minutes for the men instead of the usual sub 20. In the end I was second woman,  but more importantly I was overjoyed with the new bike which felt FANTASTIC! Really  reactive, fast and a superb ride is the best way to describe the Stealth and it  is no surprise it is getting all the plaudits. It is deserving of them all. 
Well that&amp;rsquo;s all for now &amp;ndash; speak to you all again soon 
Cheers,
Fi]]></description></item></channel></rss>