<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Team Challenger World UK - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Team Challenger World UK on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[David McNamee: 2012 awaits]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9500.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[World Under-23 silver medal winner David McNamee checks in for the first time in 2012.



So I hear there is a big race happening in August this year in  London... I would love to be part of it, but getting an entry is a difficult  task.  It is very much a VIP event of triathlon and when you are part of team  GB with the two Brownlee brothers ranked one and two in the world, that elusive invite just gets a lot harder.

Even without an invite to the big show, 2012 is shaping up to be my biggest year in the sport - it being my first year as a full time athlete  and my first year racing senior at World Championships. The season kicks off in Oz and then from there on out who knows what; each step will be dictated by how the previous one landed.

Now that it&#039;s January the season seems a much nearer  prospect. In October through to December you could tell yourself you have until next year for the races to begin, now it&#039;s January you know to the exact week how long it is till you next hear that starting pistol whilst standing on  that blue pontoon with a mixture of nerves, excitement and fear.

With that in mind I best go and slip on a pair of sneakers and hit the trails.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vicky Graves: doing the 'Dirty']]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9387.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Well, what a month, or more like what a weekend! I decided to do my long run on Saturday instead of riding and ride on Sunday, so all the lads went out as normal. 9.30am and the phone rings, I instantly knew that something had happened on the ride, and I was right, turned out my boyfriend&#039;s dad had clipped Phil&rsquo;s rear wheel while they were going at 30mph and come off, using his face as a brake along the road, knocking himself out and scaring everyone. Luckily Disco Dave, who&rsquo;s a doctor, was out with them and an ambulance was there in minutes. From what I hear it wasn&rsquo;t a pretty sight.

I jumped in the car and drove out to them to pick Ewan up along with his sister&#039;s and dad&rsquo;s bikes as they&rsquo;d gone in the ambulance, then spent the morning in A&amp;amp;E waiting for news. After a day in hospital and nearly two hours in surgery getting his face stitched up with too many stitches to count he was out, looking a bit sorry for himself! And to top it off, and what every cyclist worries about in a crash, is the fact that they cut his Assos jacket off him - never to be worn again! Hopefully he&rsquo;ll make a good recovery with some nice battle scars! So then Sunday came and with it the winds&hellip; All I&rsquo;ll say is that that was one hard ride!

So, on to happier things! Toward the beginning of November I did the &lsquo;Dirty Double&rsquo; up at Glenridding alongside Ullswater in the Lake District. The first day was a 15km trail race up and around Helvellyn and the second day was 14km back along the undulating lakeside path after a boat ride to the start. I enjoyed them both; the weather was great with sunshine both days and not a cloud to be seen on Sunday! My times were slower than those of 2008 but it was better than I&rsquo;ve felt in a while. Back in 2008 my time for both days were similar and I managed to do the same again this time: means I must still have some endurance, just not much speed left! It was a great weekend so a big thanks to Lakeland Trails for putting it on.

The rest of November seems to have flown by, just quietly training away, slowly getting fitter! Christmas will be here soon, and I hope we get some snow even though I know it will play havoc with training. It&rsquo;s good to do some different types of training; mountain biking and some good hard snow running! Not forgetting the hill reps and sledging!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[David McNamee: Liverpool XC]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9376.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[For the first time in nine months I laced up a pair of spikes ready for a cross country race. I dived in at the deep end and lined up at the Liverpool XC which was a selection race for European Championships. It was nice being able to just drive to a race for once but I felt that something was missing with no bike bag in tow.

Despite having never raced in Liverpool, or in a cross country this big, there are a few things each race has in common no matter where they take place:  overbearing parents barking orders to their kids as if they were army recruits and then telling them exactly what they think of them as they race past trying their best. I think the most alarming comment heard was, &ldquo;I told you that you weren&rsquo;t going to win&rdquo;. Other delights include the general participant:portaloo ratio being in the region of 150:1 leading to massive queues of nervous athletes and all sorts of bargaining going on with the few smug people who have brought their own toilet rolls; that and the calls of &ldquo;you&#039;re catching them&rdquo; even though you have clearly just been dropped by them.

My race was rather average, I spent the first 400 metres watching people whizz past and away from me as if they were going for the mile record, by the end of the first lap of three I had passed at least six boys who had gone out a hero, died a death and were now lying by the wayside in the foetal position asking themselves where it had all gone wrong. I soldiered on picking up some places and even had a nice sprint finish just to ensure I crossed the line completely spent.

So, that was my first cross country race in nine months...
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[David McNamee: November in England]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9337.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[A Scot spending his first November in England equals the first time in his triathlon career that he has taken to the bike at this time of the year with only bibshorts, a summer jersey and toe covers on. For me it&rsquo;s slightly surreal especially as the locals are there dressed as if it&#039;s winter and upset about the terrible wind which I refer to as a breeze - Scotland makes you tough.

Apart from becoming accustomed to the extra few degrees I have now discovered the skill of slowing down my speech so as to allow people to understand my Scottish accent and for me to stop using hand signals all the time.

Training wise there is nothing better than having new trails to run around/get lost on and for some bike routes to explore. The latest adventure involved running some of the famous &#039;3 Peaks&#039; route which ended up with all of us demonstrating our sheer lack of downhill running ability and waking up with various cuts and bruises the next morning.

There is one thing that Yorkshire has that reminds me of Scotland - the hills. Now if only I could find some snow somewhere.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vicky Graves: Dalby Forest Duathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9240.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Sunday 16th October was the date of the Dalby Forest duathlon, this was my second ever off-road duathlon, the first one been the Mudman duathlon at Haworth when I was about 15. I remember this race quite well: it was a cold day, I&rsquo;d never been mountain biking before but Phil wanted to do it so I did it too! The first run was fine then came the bike, I think it was quite a long one and I didn&rsquo;t enjoy it one bit! I was on my dad&rsquo;s bike which was far too big for me. The course was one big lap and after about half of it I was on my own, couldn&rsquo;t see anyone in front or behind me, I thought I was lost! Out in the dales never to be found again! Well, I spent most of the rest of the bike in tears wondering where I was going and just wanting to get back, I was of course going the right way; it was just a long way! It obviously didn&rsquo;t put me off!

So, Dalby. It was a two-lap, 5km run followed by a 28km, four-lap mountain bike around the Black and World Cup trails of Dalby Forest followed by another 5km run. Dalby is only about 40 minutes away from York so it wasn&rsquo;t too early a start to get there for 10am. It was a nice morning, chilly but a nice temperature so we wouldn&rsquo;t be getting too hot. There were around 50 of us setting of on the first run, around the field before hitting the undulating trails, after two laps it was onto the bike - as soon as I jumped on my seat went backwards &hellip; great! After unsuccessfully trying to bash it down myself a kind competitor came over and hit it back to level so I was off again, I&rsquo;ve been to Dalby a few times so I knew some of the routes that we went on so I wasn&rsquo;t going round totally blind! At least four laps gave me time to get it all right!

The part I was most worried about was riding up what I have called &ldquo;the slab&rdquo;. Basically a few slabs of steep rock about 2.5m high that you have to ride up, I&rsquo;d done it twice before so I knew I needed lots of power and speed in order to get up it so all was fine. Down Worry Gill on the first lap I lost my bottle [Ed: that&#039;s drinks...], it was then up a steep long climb before a stint on the fire road then back onto the single track technical stuff back round to the start. I came off on one of the corners, bashed my knee, hip and shoulder but got back up and carried on. Too much adrenaline to notice any pain! On the second lap my bottle was in the middle of the track so I picked it up as I wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to get round without a drink. After four laps I was starting to tire after been on the bike for two hours getting thrown around, it was back into transition and onto the final run. It followed the same route as before, my legs were tired but I got round not feeling too bad.

I wasn&rsquo;t expecting anything special and was pleased to get round without feeling too bad, it&rsquo;ll have given my fitness a real boost and to win was a bonus, I&rsquo;ve not won any races in a while so was a good boost. I&rsquo;ve got a bit of a swollen knee and a sore hip and shoulder but back to training and onto the next race in a few weeks time, a local cross country before the Lakeland trails Dirty Double in November.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vicky Graves: Derwentwater Lakeland Trail Race]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9235.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So, after a disappointing race at the Castle Howard triathlon and after a couple of weeks off running due to my blisters it was onto the next race and this was the Derwentwater trail race up at Keswick, part of the Lakeland trails series. This is the second time I&rsquo;ve done this race, I first did it back in 2007, in 2008 it unfortunately had to be cancelled, 2009 I was lucky enough to be in Australia and 2010 I was injured and now I&rsquo;m back in 2011! 

I went up to Keswick camping for the weekend with my parents, Saturday was race day and so the rain came! My race wasn&rsquo;t till 2pm so after a lazy morning we went to the start, the first 4km is flat out along the old railway line then the climbing starts, 5km later and you&rsquo;re at the highest point! Some parts on the way up were very boggy, it nearly came up to my knee at one place. Unfortunately due the weather the visibility was very poor so there wasn&rsquo;t any view to be seen, once you&rsquo;d reach the highest point it was undulating before the steep descent down Latrigg back to Fitz Park, 14.72km later.

So my race; it wasn&rsquo;t great but it was a starting point! Out along the railway line I didn&rsquo;t feel great, then I made my way up hill, once I&rsquo;d made it to the top after 50 minutes I started to feel good, I didn&rsquo;t want to push it too much on the downhill so not to hurt my shins but holding back was hard so in the end I just let myself go, I finished in 1 hour 19 minutes and was tenth lady. It was seven minutes slower than my time from 2007 but it&rsquo;ll make me slightly fitter and my shins were fine. Now onto the next one, Coniston on the 1st October: 15km and I&rsquo;m aiming to be less than seven minutes slower than my 2007 time on that course. It was a lovely sunny day then so let&#039;s hope we get the same this year.
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[David McNamee: Winter training- two weeks in!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9234.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I don&rsquo;t think you can ever get use to trying to wake your body back up after your post season break.  In a matter of weeks it has went from being at its peak of physical abilities to forcing you to sit with your head between your knees, wondering how the hell did I get into this state all after a 20 minute steady run - the same run that you probably wouldn&rsquo;t even bother tying up your shoe laces for a few weeks earlier it would be that easy to do.

After the initial few days things settle down, you know you aren&rsquo;t the same athlete you were the previous month and won&rsquo;t be again for a while but after you accept this things become a lot easier.  The plus side though is that doing all steady training is acceptable and even encouraged and as of yet there has been no run track in sight. 

So here I am now two weeks back in, thankfully a 20 minute jog is no longer an issue however anything above steady is still a very dangerous game to play, small steps.  I know very soon I will get to a session where the word &#039;fast&#039; or &#039;hard&#039; will appear- my only hope is that I&rsquo;m not the only person suffering, bent over, gasping for breath wondering where did  the athlete from just a month ago suddenly disappear to.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[David McNamee: Season complete]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9237.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[14 races, 12 different countries, 34 flights, 25 weeks long, two top 20 finishes at the highest level of racing, one World U23 silver medal. It has been a long but successful year. At the start of every season it&rsquo;s all fresh and exciting - you frantically try and remind your body how to race, hotel life is a great a change to the norm and even the plane travel and time spent in airport terminals doesn&rsquo;t seem to bad.

By week 25 my body knows nothing else apart from racing, it aches all over from what it has been forced through, you&#039;re fed up with BBC World and CNN the only two English TV channels that exist in the vast number of hotels I end up staying at where only a good breakfast buffet is able to save the day. Oh and air travel and airport terminals are the two most hated things in your life.

The key is to keep yourself sane, remind yourself that the alternative is to put on a suit to get to go to work in the morning and that at the end of the day you love to race above all else.

So in about another six months time the cycle will begin afresh and I will be spotted on a run track trying to remind myself what a fast transition is again.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Steve Worthington: National Relays and the Vitruvian ]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9238.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[After the tough race in the Czech Republic the previous weekend I was hoping to race in the French Grand Prix in Tours. Unfortunately due to my virus I wasn&rsquo;t selected, and went to race at the National Relay Champs in Nottingham instead. It&rsquo;s always a good fun weekend and we usually enter a mixed team for our local club, Wakefield, with my girlfriend Liz and her sister and brother-in-law. I think we finished ninth mixed team in the end!? Have to thank Iain and his team for always organising a great weekend, and looking after my &lsquo;abandoned&rsquo; bike for me!

The next weekend I had signed up to race the Vitruvian, which is pretty much a half-ironman distance event from Rutland Water. I had originally signed up as I fancied doing it as a challenge and my endurance base from my Olympic distance training would be enough to get me through. The virus put a bit of a spanner in the works, but I was still keen to do my best on the day. The two lap 1900 metre swim was fairly straightforward. I was in the same wave as eventual winner Mark Threlfall who I knew would be the fastest swimmer so my plan was to tag onto him for as long as I could. I think he&rsquo;d anticipated my plan and successfully managed to drop me pretty swiftly to leave me swimming on my own in second.

After one lap I was maybe 30 seconds down from Mark, but a combination of traffic from other waves and a stitch meant that after two laps the gap was over a minute and a half. I knew Mark is a strong cyclist, and so I decided to stick to my own pace on the bike presuming (correctly) I wouldn&rsquo;t be seeing him for a while. I decided to utilise my Timex Global Trainer on the bike to make sure I didn&rsquo;t overcook it which worked really well. The bike was fairly uneventful for me - I dropped a bottle at one point and decided to go back for it but everything else was pretty much to plan. I was on my usual road bike with clip-on bars and was fully expecting to be caught by some of the stronger cyclists pretty soon. Somehow I managed to not get caught for the first 45km, and I think that was a relay cyclist. I did eventually get caught by a few of the stronger riders, coming off the bike around sixth in my wave, but happy I&rsquo;d ridden sensibly enough to run strongly.

Things seemed to be going to plan for the first 5km of the run - I was running steadily, trying to hold back a bit, and was comfortably back up to second in my wave again. Mark was a long way ahead (maybe 13 minutes) so I decided to try to run my own pace, hoping to at least get his lead down to under ten minutes!!!!. Everything was fine until about 8km, and then I started to feel like I probably hadn&rsquo;t eaten enough. I took on another gel and eased back a bit to try to get some more fuel on at the aid station at the run turn around. From this point on the wheels slowly fell off; I stopped for longer at each aid station but knew I just had to concentrate on getting round. Sure enough I got caught by two of those from my own wave who I had passed on the first lap along with the leader from the second wave (Charles Pennington) who seemed to pace his run very well. I eventually finished recording 37:14 for my first run lap and then over 44 minutes for my second. There were lots of &lsquo;ifs&rsquo;, &lsquo;buts&rsquo; and &lsquo;maybes&rsquo; that could have made a difference to my race, but ultimately I finished eighth overall, 16 minutes behind the winner Mark with nothing left in the end. If there is a next time I think I&rsquo;ll probably use a different nutrition plan! Finally thanks to all the organisers and marshals on the day that made it an excellent event.
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Steve Worthington: Virgin Active London Triathlon and Karlovy Vary ITU Continental Cup]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9239.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So things didn&rsquo;t really go to plan after my race in Holten. I had hoped that I would be able to use the race as a step towards finishing the second half of my season on a high, but unfortunately this didn&rsquo;t go to plan. I started feeling unwell the day after the race and decided to be sensible and be patient until I felt better again, which took 10 days. When I started to ease back into my training I managed two days before falling ill again, this time with a virus which needed antibiotics to shift. These eventually had the desired affect and started to feel normal again, but this had taken up the whole of the three week training block that I had planned before the next race in the British Super Series, the Virgin Active London Triathlon.

I stopped feeling unwell on the Thursday before London, and so decided to commit to travelling down to London and decide later whether to race or not. The race is run by our title sponsor - Challenger World, and a number of our other sponsors had a presence at the expo too. I thought it was important to try to repay some of the support we have been lucky enough to receive this year even if I was not able to race. The fact that the team also has great support from St James&rsquo; Palace Crowne Plaza and 51 Buckingham Gate meant that Liz (who was also racing) and I would be able to enjoy our weekend either way.

In the end I woke up on Sunday morning feeling well enough in myself to toe the line and at least give it a go. The race itself actually didn&rsquo;t go too badly considering my (lack of) preparation. I missed the main swim pack (again) but made sure I had a good transition and ended up in a small group with some talented age group cyclists. For the course in London the non-drafting guys can really show their strengths as it&rsquo;s not very technical or hilly so the really powerful riders come into their own. I was far from the strongest in the group, I tried to do my bit but felt pretty rough throughout. We picked up a couple more riders hadn&rsquo;t made the front pack, but by the time we came into transition our group (of maybe 12) was probably two or three minutes behind the front pack. Onto the run I just tried to get out and see what I had. Mark Buckingham ran well from our pack but I wasn&rsquo;t able to go with him and set my own rhythm. In the end I finished 18th which was pretty solid considering and more importantly didn&rsquo;t do any further damage illness wise. This was also just enough to sneak me into the top ten positions overall in the British Super Series.

I had three weeks to try to get back on top of my fitness before my next race which was the ETU Continental Cup race in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. I&rsquo;d started to do a few more open water swimming sessions with the squad in Loughborough which have been really useful for me - I wish I&rsquo;d started doing them sooner!! So I travelled to the Czech Republic and stayed in a &lsquo;Fawlty Towers&rsquo; style apartment with the Tri Gold boys, Mark Buckingham and Matt Gunby, which was fun. I found out after I&rsquo;d arrived that the Karlovy Vary course is one of the hardest on the ITU circuit. The swim was a three-lap, non-wetsuit one with a run out and dive back in after each lap. The bike was then a hilly 5km leg into town followed by SEVEN circuits of town which included a 23% hill - the only flat section was a cobbled section near transition. The four-lap run was pretty straight forward although definitely wasn&rsquo;t flat.

So the race. My low ranking meant my start position wasn&rsquo;t great and so the first buoy at about 170 metres was a bit messy. I actually swam OK in amongst feet for the first two laps, I dropped off a bit on the third, which left a gap that I ended up chasing for the rest of the day. We had a small group of maybe four or five including Matt Gunby working pretty hard to catch the main chase pack ahead. I was struggling to do any turns but was strong enough to keep in contact on the hills which was better than quite a few. The gap was slowly dropping until a thunderstorm hit and the wet cobbled section caused half of our group to crash. By the time we had re-grouped the gap had gone back up again. Onto the run the torrential rain continued, and I ran reasonably well up to about 5km. My lack of quality run training (and the tough bike) started to show in the second half as Gunby managed to put a chunk more time into me but I was pleased to finish (around 50% of the field DNFd) reasonably well in 29th. Again not the result I was perhaps hoping for but I felt I had raced as hard as I could on the day with a few positives to take out and learn from.
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