<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>jetsetsupervet - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by jetsetsupervet on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[South of the Humber it's all foreign!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9326.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[This year&rsquo;s GB Cross Tri Championships were held near Camberley, at Gibraltar Barracks, Surrey. Once I get south of the Humber I&rsquo;m in foreign territory but I&rsquo;ve finally mastered using my TomTom and it got me there without any major hiccups. The event was incorporated into the XT Festival organised by All About Triathlons so there was plenty going on, including guns going off, which added to the excitement, as the course is situated on an army training base. Usually I bump into a few mates who are racing the circuit so it&rsquo;s great to say Hi and catch up on the gossip.

The swim was 1.5km split into two laps. The last time I&rsquo;d raced that far was actually a year ago at the 2010 Champs but I survived plus the rocky lake bottom gave me added impetus to get smartly out! It was a nice sunny day which always makes the bike and run splits more fun. I&rsquo;d noticed after my ETU race in Hungary that I&rsquo;d picked up some small tears in both my tyres which meant they needed replacing. Freetown Sports in Hull are MTB specialists plus owner Rod is an active competitor himself which is a bonus, so I went in to see him cap in hand to enquire about some possible sponsorship. I was more than delighted when he gave me a pair of Panaracer Fire XC Pro tyres plus threw in a pair of Serfas Pro gloves for good measure! My Bell helmet courtesy of Danisco Agiculture fits fine, helped by the adjustable internal head band.

So I was well set up for the race and had a pretty uneventful ride, apart from having a flashgun go off in my face as I was trying to negotiate a nasty steep hillock. Being a photographer myself it was a great place for shots (see pic) and fortunately I wasn&rsquo;t unseated. I was also treated to some quite classy (!) swim shots and I have to congratulate the snapper on his detective skills, although:

	coming out last, and
	having my trade mark &#039;soup strainer&#039; does make identification somewhat easier!


I enjoy hilly bike splits and would have liked a few more climbs &ndash; anyway I managed to gain a few places on the bike but as usual lost them again on the run. Still, I plodded on and for once wasn&rsquo;t the Lanterne Rouge &ndash; just by one place. I was a bit embarrassed as Pete Norman who can give me quite a few years beat me by 22 minutes plus deservedly won his AG. I&rsquo;d have done a bit better if I&rsquo;d not had my mech lock up twice and it transpires I need a new granny ring so that&rsquo;s something Freetown Sports will be fixing  shortly.

I got back into T2 just in time for the medal presentation and was delighted to win gold, with Sarah Springman and Zara Hyde-Peters both on hand to proffer their congratulations and act as stabilisers as the podium was a series of chunks of timber of varying heights and not that easy to balance on &ndash; in my case anyway.  Both ladies are great guys &ndash; loads of fun, plus of course Sarah is ITU Vice &ndash; President, no bad thing at all for British Triathlon. There were 179 finishers which was an excellent turn out for this GB Championship cross tri event, much more than the 2010 one, so a good sign for this demanding form of triathlon.

After that it was a case of swilling off myself and my Giant Anthem, loading up my car and heading back up north &ndash; to God&rsquo;s County.

Well, the clocks are back and the dull dark days are with us. Black gear may be cool at a disco but why bikers and runners insist on wearing it for winter training is beyond me.It&rsquo;s just crazy. I wear a Hi-Viz jacket most of the time.

It may not be cool - but I&rsquo;m not ready to die just yet.



Photos courtesy of SussexSportsPhotography.com]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[I've had better pasta in Hull...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9274.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[We triathletes are well catered for in terms of events to compete in as we age (hopefully gracefully) but I don&rsquo;t think this applies to all sports. The World Masters Games is an organisation which puts on a bewildering array of sports ranging from tiddlewinks to weightlifting. Anyone over 35 can take part and the venues are all over the globe, plus there&rsquo;s a very good website and once on the mailing list you get regular updates. This year the European Master&rsquo;s was held in Italy at Lignano Sabbiadoro, about 80 minutes drive north of Venice on the Italian Riviera. I saw that triathlon was a featured sport so decided to have a bash. Given the topography was pretty flat it wasn&rsquo;t going to be an ideal course for JSSV plus it was just supersprint distance, again not really my thing but there&rsquo;s worse places to race...

The organisation was good &ndash; a list of hotels was provided plus the organisers laid on a shuttle bus service from the airport to the hotel, something the ETU cross tri event in Hungary could have benefitted from!

I&rsquo;d been attending a conference at the Nottingham University School of Agriculture which is just a stone&rsquo;s throw from East Midlands Airport and very handily was my point of departure. The flight went well and I duly arrived in Venice, was collected and got to my hotel by around 11pm along with some of the Danish handball team so I had chance to practice my Danish. As it happened my hotel was ten minutes bike ride from the event HQ, which was where registration took place, although the actual race venue was 15 minutes north of my hotel and situated in a large seaside sports facility. This sports facility housed a lot of the athletes and was linked to the race HQ by a very frequent free shuttle bus service, a useful facility given the games ran from 10th-20th Sept and had over 4,000 competitors taking part in 20 different sports. In addition to sport, an extensive cultural programme was also laid on. Incidentally, a 90-year old Italian track and field athlete and 1948 Olympian was due to compete but sadly had to withdraw through illness.

I had allowed myself a couple of days to acclimatise as the daytime temperature was pushing 30&amp;deg;C. The Masters concept is very popular with Eastern Europeans judging by the different languages I could hear being spoken as I sat eating my dinner in various local restaurants. I have to say though that the pasta disappointed me &ndash; I have eaten far better in Hull!!

It transpired that only closed tribars were allowed &ndash; fortunately I have removable bars on my trusty Giant Composite 1 so off they came. Given that ruling, time trial/triathlon bikes with bar-end shifters would be illegal &ndash; this is something future competitors need to be mindful of. 



Race day dawned, sunny and warm  and I packed my backpack and headed off for the 10.00am start. There were only 74 entrants, 90% being men and most of them Italian. That number for an international event is very disappointing, maybe due to lack of promotion as presumably it&rsquo;s not an ETU event. Despite the temperature wetsuits were allowed which suited me down to the ground, although we were kept waiting for quite a while in the start pen and hence things started to get a bit sticky. My swim went OK and as I &#039;charged&#039; into T1 one of the marshalls willed me on with those immortal words, &ldquo;last but not least!&rdquo;.  Nothing new for JSSV &ndash; I&rsquo;ve broad shoulders!

The bike split was a number of laps up and down the &#039;prom&#039; &ndash; dead flat and franky far too boring for me. The run &ndash; also 95% dead flat - was within the sports complex. My heel was OK but I didn&rsquo;t go mad as I was mindful that the GB off-road championships were not far off and I wanted to do well in that event. The results were duly posted and I was fourth in my AG - the worst place to finish and the same as in Visegrad at the ETU Cross Tri. Still, I finished injury free so I was relieved about that, plus I got a nice commemorative logoed backpack, in a nice shade of royal blue.

For those interested, the next World Master&rsquo;s Games will be held in Turin, Italy in August 2013. Let&rsquo;s hope the pasta&rsquo;s better there...
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: Hungary for mud...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_8907.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[
Stuart Lumb, our resident Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) has been getting dirty again, this time at the ETU Cross Triathlon Championships in Visegrad, Hungary. 
He may have finished as Lanterne Rouge, but is still as positive as ever about off-road racing - though keen to encourage more entrants to this discipline of the sport. 

Off-road, or Cross Triathlon has a big following in the States due to  the XTERRA race series. The enthusiasm for this extreme type of triathlon has  yet to reach the same level in Europe though.  The race format is the same as for on-road events with National, European and  World Championships being held. The European Championships took place on July 2nd  in Visegrad, a pleasant large village situated on the banks of the Danube about  an hour&#039;s drive from Budapest, Hungary. 

The GB squad did at one time exceed 20, but due to various problems this got  whittled down to five. Well, quality not quantity of course! Because of the  nature of off road triathlon the race venues tend to be in quite rural  locations and so it&#039;s quite an achievement actually getting to the venue never  mind racing. Last year when the Europeans were near Myjava in Slovakia a hire  care was essential. This time the venue was accessible by public transport from  Budapest  airport, via subway, tram  train and  finally - ferry. Paul McGreal and James Dickinson deserved to get  medals for simply getting themselves and  their  luggage to our hotel which was  also race HQ. (Although James actually did win a silver).  
Because of weight  limitations I borrowed a bike bag and had forgotten how unwieldy those wretched  things are &amp;ndash; for me anyway. Fortunately Elica Winchester  who runs HBL Travel (www.hbltravel.hu) arranged for me to share a taxi  with none other than &amp;ldquo;Swiss Miss&amp;rdquo; Renata Bucher, one of the Elite lady racers -  fame at last for JSSV &amp;ndash; so I travelled in style from the airport to my hotel  and back again on the Monday after the race and got chance to learn about  racing  as an elite athlete sees it. She  won gold incidentally.
On Friday the 20km  bike split  was open and so the GB squad rode round it, or should I say up it, as it  involved 800m of climbing and a lot of mud plugging. In fact my gears  locked up twice with the mud. I hadn&#039;t planned  on doing the full 20km but of course these trails are in virgin forests and you  have no choice once committed but to do the full circuit. I only came off once  and fortunately I didn&#039;t damage  my brand  new Bell helmet courtesy of my sponsor DANISCO who also paid for my helmet  container. Thanks Andrew !
Saturday was race day, with around 120  age groupers starting at a civilised hour &amp;ndash;  mid morning. None of this crack of dawn stuff  you on-roadies endure&amp;hellip;  
The swim was a triangular course in a sheltered bend of the Danube, two laps x 400m and I was relieved not to come out  last. I&#039;d had a niggling cold since my business trip to Iowa in mid June so  hadn&#039;t swum much, plus had a shoulder problem as well (fiddle out here folks...). I had a job getting a decent rhythm going but managed to get the last  200m right. 
Then it was off on the bike split, and all that   climbing . Half way up the major ascent some wag had hung an empty beer  can on one of the course marker tapes. I was tailing a Hungarian guy who was  racing in trainers and flats. For him to climb through all that mud was amazing  &amp;ndash; I nearly left a shoe in a particularly muddy patch &amp;ndash; shades of Euro 2010 and Lucy  Cash losing her shoe- so  he really  earned  his bronze medal.  I got to within 10m of him and at that point I  realised that doing the bike split the day before had not been a good idea, although the one positive was that I could  remember most of the route and that on reaching a clearing and the 13km  signpost the rest was downhill. There were wonderful views of the Danube although I hadn&#039;t time to enjoy them.
I came out of T2 cheered on by my GB team mates. I was absolutely knackered  and the thought of climbing the  steep  ascent up to   the  castle overlooking Visegrad was  not a pleasant one. My right heel had been bothering me (more fiddling &amp;ndash; double base now), but I was so dead beat if it was  bothering me I didn&#039;t notice it. At the top of the climb was an aid station. On  the table were small blocks of brown stuff which turned out to be marzipan. It  tasted absolutely fabulous so I scoffed   quite a  few, feeling completely  guiltless as, yes,  you&#039;ve guessed it,  JSSV was Lanterne Rouge yet again! At the bottom of the  descent the policeman who I was supposed to &amp;ldquo;run&amp;rdquo; round had obviously had got  fed up of waiting for me and was no doubt knocking one back in the pub - lucky  lad .
Fortunately there were arrows on the road to follow. The final sting  in the tail involved running bent double   through  a culvert under the road,  with the mud trying to pull my trainers off. Then it was back into the  transition area and the finish. As I crawled across the line the time keeper  asked me if I&#039;d got lost (amazing sense of humour these Goulash eaters have),  to which I replied in similar vein: &amp;quot;no, I&#039;d taken the scenic route and was  admiring the scenery!&amp;rdquo; I was very relieved to have finished, despite being in  the worst place, 4th . I&#039;ve raced XTERRA Worlds twice in stifling  heat  but can honestly say that Hungarian  circuit was far more demanding than Maui.  In fact the ITU should have used the Visegrad  course for the World&#039;s as it was far more testing than the Spanish circuit. 
James Dickinson was our sole medalist and James proudly received his  hard won silver, only to be told seconds later that the organisers had run out  of medals and that this last silver gong had to keep being re circulated!! Maybe  some had got lost in the post &amp;hellip;&amp;hellip;..or ?? 

Seemingly the ITU / ETU are keen to   promote off-road triathlon and up the participation. There&#039;s obviously  a hard core of athletes, many of whom race XTERRA as well, who will compete  regardless, but something drastic needs to be done to pull in those extra  punters. Maybe the ITU/ ETU can be more pro-active and give more help to the  host nation, or help get more sponsorship.  When   this race was on the Dutch island   of Ameland  the Dutch hosts laid on a coach for  competitors from Schiphol airport and back. How come the Hungarian organisers  didn&#039;t do that from Budapest  airport? Cross tri events need more competitors, especially   ladies. Hauling a bike box/bag uphill and  down dale is bad enough for macho males (I&#039;m not in that category  now!), let alone slightly built women. If a  coach was laid on then it reduces some of the hassle and might just tip the  balance in terms of getting more competitors to take part.
XTERRA France took place recently - and it was just as muddy there.  There were  1000 competitors and it had  been  sold out for months. It&#039;s  sad that a European Championship  event couldn&#039;t  even  manage to get a fifth of that number. Suggestions, on a postcard please, to...]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: The rain in Spain...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_8597.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last month our resident Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV), Stuart Lumb, headed off to Spain for the inaugural ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships and reports back on his experience - and even at his &#039;tender age&#039;, is still making mistakes that he really should know better... 

To many athletes off-road  or Cross Triathlon is a bit of a strange beast. It&#039;s far more popular in the  USA where XTERRA run a number of events culminating in the World Championships  in Maui held each October and which incidentally is moving this year from the  traditional dry volcanic course in the south to   the lusher greener north side of the island. There are a number of  XTERRA races held in Europe but sadly there&#039;s not been a UK one since 2008 &amp;ndash;  that event is forever etched in my brain- seven hours of pouring very wet Welsh  rain! There have been a number of European (ETU) Cross Tri events &amp;ndash; Myjava  last year, Hungary this year,   on July 2nd (please note!), plus  this year the ITU put on the first  World Championship at El Anillo  in the Extremadura  region of Spain.  Extremadura is defo not the Costa Del  Concrete so I had to communicate by smiling and waving my arms. Seems most of  the cross tri events abroad are in very rural locations which is great  scenically but is very demanding if you can&#039;t speak the local lingo.
           The race venue was at &quot;The Ring&quot;. This is an amazing circular enclosed structure,  a bit like a square sectioned doughnut,   built on a circular piece of land which sticks  out into a large  lake. I thought it was  an enclosed bike / running track but in fact it was divided into sections and  can  be used as classrooms /  accommodation etc. Seemingly its official description is &quot;An International  Innovation Centre for Outdoor Sports.&quot; 
           My star supporter / Groupie in-chief Mrs JSSV came along to  kept me  straight. As near as possible anyway. We flew from Stansted to Madrid, although we were only about 100km from Portugal. We stayed in a very nice hotel, 40mins  drive from the race venue,  which was  also the base for the South African tri team,   near the ancient town of  Plasencia. It had a lot  of old ruins - with that total increasing by one after JSSV arrived... 
           The actual  race was a 1km swim, 20km bike and a 6km off road run. Thursday was spent  registering, bumping into Brits and finding our bearings. I partook of a brisk  dip to check out my wetsuit  and all  important goggles,  although one or two  hardy American gals  went in clad just in   their cossies. We met up with Peter  Lilley, a Lancastrian now domiciled in North    Carolina  and  his wife Brenda. I&#039;d raced Peter twice in Maui with him beating me both times,  but given we were in Spain I was hoping for an upset &amp;ndash; but not the intestinal kind. It was my first open water swim since  last October in Maui &amp;ndash; anyway my wetsuit was  fine and It still fit plus the water was ok. The bike split wasn&#039;t that hilly  but a lot of single track with a longish section by the lakeside which was a  bit rocky. I got round most of the course but as usual with nobody to follow  got lost! I was riding my trusty Giant Anthem soft tail although probably a  hard tail would have been a preferable mount. Many of the American guys (they  brought the biggest team) were on 29ers which were deemed legal. My Giant&#039;s a  26er. Bigger diameter wheels ride the bumps better plus the manufacturers are  getting the weights down so if you&#039;re planning on shelling out big bucks on an  expensive bike it would seem logical to seriously consider getting a 29er. Daren&#039;t suggest that to Mrs JSSV though&amp;hellip;she&#039;d demand another new kitchen as  compensation!
           Given our sub tropical UK  weather of late it came as a shock to find overcast skies in Extremadura and a  race day forecast of rain. Fortunately race day was dull and overcast, but  fine and no wind. Parking was somewhat haphazard due to the nature of the race  site and it meant biking 1km from my hire car to T1. We had a very posh  transition area, with astro turf and proper elite style  bike racks &amp;ndash; none of your typical cheap &amp;amp;  nasty scaffolding. Each athlete was given a small shallow  blue plastic box , into  which all the race gear had to fit. Around 450 athletes were taking part, divided as  usual in to age group waves, with mine going at 0950. We were told in no  uncertain manner  to line up by age group and by number &amp;ndash; none of the mad dash that  often is the case - and we started the swim hanging on to a long pontoon. My  goggles kept clear &amp;ndash; seem to have cracked that one now &amp;ndash; the technique that is,  not the lenses -  and about 2/3 round the  swim split the girls swept by &amp;ndash; or rather over &amp;ndash; me, but it saved sighting though!  I was probably last into T1- nothing  new &amp;ndash; my avatar should be &quot;Lantern Rouge&quot; I think. At least I never have  trouble locating my bike... 
           
           The bike split was two laps and because of all the  rain some of it was under water and in one place it was thigh  deep - shades of XTERRA UK in 2008. Then on to the run. I  made two bad decisions; one to run  in my  trail shoes and two to forego wearing socks in my frantic attempt to save  precious seconds in order to catch Peter.   About three quarters of the way round the first lap run my feet  were telling me I&#039;d made  two very bad  choices.  As my avid readers know I&#039;m  a &quot;carthorse&quot; anyway,  but the time I lost  through blistering my feet exceeded the time I saved by not  wearing socks. I should know better at my  tender age. Senility setting in ..yet again &amp;hellip;I was relieved to finally finish, but wasn&#039;t quite  sure in what position. You&#039;d have thought  that for a Worlds there would have been a screen showing real time results, but  this wasn&#039;t the case. The race day weather finally  turned out quite nice as it happened so we  didn&#039;t have to gather up our gear, wash bikes etc in the pouring rain as can  happen sometimes. The awards bash was not until 10pm, held  at a restaurant in a neighbouring town so we  headed off back to Plasencia  and a well  deserved soak in a hot tub. Paul McGreal  who incidentally puts on the infamous Durty  Tri in the Scottish Borders was our excellent team captain and I decided to  phone him to find out how our stalwart team of Brits had done. Much to my  delight and pride  he told me I&#039;d won  Bronze, so I actually had a really good day at the office. We then drove back  later that evening for the Medal Ceremony, when a huge number of athletes,  family and friends crammed into the venue (fortunately Health &amp;amp; Safety  doesn&#039;t seem to translate into Spanish), to see all the gongs being dished out. 
           
           Myself and Mrs JSSV had a couple of days R&amp;amp;R before heading back to Madrid airport. My GPS  decided it only understood English but we did have a map and more by good luck  than good management we found the car rental place. &quot;After the 3rd  circumnavigation of the airport I finally (correctly) opted for Terminal 1.  But honey, on the flight booking it just said Madrid airport&amp;hellip;doing a Worlds race  is far less stressful&amp;hellip;&amp;quot;
           Then came the painful bit - checking all the charges. I hire  cars abroad quite a bit for work and leisure and for the life of me I can&#039;t  see why all the extra insurance costs  can&#039;t be included in the quotes. Need for some EU legislation, methinks. My  SciCon bike box has logged up thousands of air miles and is now suffering a bit.  The small dolly wheel support plates   are riveted into the box base and with all  the hammer its had, cracks have appeared. Anyway, I literally papered over them,  with many layers of sticky brown parcel  tape and to my relief my box made it home ok. I&#039;ll have to crack  out some fibreglass and do a proper repair  job before my next overseas race,  unless  I can persuade some kind generous box maker  to sponsor me. 
           Well, our brave band of Brits - 23 in total - came away with 2 golds, 2  slivers and 2 bronze medals which wasn&#039;t a bad haul at all.  Our sole (Age Group) lady was Kerry McPhee (who gained  silver bonnie lassie). Some of our team picked up a few war wounds, with Rick  Berry DNF&#039;ing due to injury  he picked  up.  I   think around 40 Spanish women raced and ok  it was home territory for them but what have  the Spanish fairer sex got that&#039;s lacking in our home based ladies - maybe it&#039;s  the Sangria??
The European Cross Tri is on July 2nd near Budapest  and BTF are looking for GB entrants, so c&#039;mon guys,   let&#039;s  have a good presence out in Hungary!
&amp;nbsp;
&amp;nbsp;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: Another year, another season, another race!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_8454.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb, our resident Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) may be another year older (is possibly not another year wiser), but that isn&#039;t going to stop him getting his 2011 season off to an early start. 
Earlier this month Stuart raced at the Craft Humber Sprint in South Hunsley, Yorkshire as he prepares for the inaugural ITU World Cross Triathlon Championships later this month. 

I&#039;m lucky enough to live only  about half a mile from my gym so have no excuse to put the training hours in  over winter, plus I can watch soccer on tv whilst sweating away... I have ventured  out on my bike more often than during the 2009/10 winter plus our very mild  April meant no excuses on the weather front (ahem...). Plus, I have tried to run a  bit more as touch wood my body is not complaining too much. 
My good buddy Karl  Jackson puts on a great local race series and the Craft Humber Sprint Event held on April 3rd attracted a good turn out. Karl has changed the route slightly  from previous years although this race did follow the same route as last  October&#039;s event, which meant that times could be meaningfully compared. I train  in a 20m pool so racing in a 33m one means a slight adjustment plus only have  to count to 12 (for 400m), as we&#039;re trusted to count correctly.

My swim time was within  seconds of last October&#039;s so was pleased about that. The weather was delightful  &amp;ndash; no wind &amp;ndash; which made the biking  very  pleasant. One of my Barracuda buddies had told me she&#039;d only been out once on  her bike over winter. She&#039;s a good swimmer so started after me in the pool.  Surprise surprise &amp;ndash; half way round the bike split she came steaming past  me... maybe not much  outdoor biking but she  omitted to tell me she&#039;d probably done about 2000k on a gym bike! It was nip and tuck as we passed and re-passed each other three times so that made the bike  split exciting and I was   about 30secs faster than last October&#039;s time. Given  that we&#039;d raced in a monsoon last autumn and I aquaplaned (!) down the steep  hill into South Cave...quite scary...I expected a better  bike time, although I was slowed up by a car down that same descent so that&#039;s  my excuse re my split. 
Off on the run, which was out-and-back twice,  alongside the A63. Last October we all got drenched as the standing water got  sprayed on to us by passing trucks and cars, but this time it was  bone dry so can&#039;t blame the weather for my  slightly slower run time, although I am six months older (not necessarily wiser), and I guess run times do get progressively slower with age - at least  mine do! 
I was relieved to survive  without  pulling anything and that was another box ticked. A lady friend of mine was  racing for the first time and I was delighted to see that she (and her  training buddy) both finished, so well done Tina and mate and see you at  Driffield next month! I&#039;ve a work colleague who I advise on triathlon and  who has a very expensive bike but who has yet  to compete in a race. I think she&#039;s worried about being the Lanterne  Rouge but as I say to her, it&#039;s just as big   an achievement as winning. I&#039;m often tail-end Charlie - so what, it&#039;s  no disgrace being last...at least you finish!
I&#039;m in Northern Italy as I write,  attending a trade fair but will go for  a  run this evening. I managed a run on Tuesday  evening. It was delightful &amp;ndash; about 20&amp;deg;c, the sun was low in the sky and  lighting up the snow covered Alps. Don&#039;t get  carried away though, guys. I&#039;m up at 4am tomorrow to catch a train to  Milan  and all being well will get home  after 12 hours of travelling.
When I get home I have to  swap my road bike for my MTB and get some last minute training in as I&#039;m  competing in the first ever ITU World Off Road/ Cross Tri which takes place in  Extremadura, west of Madrid on April 30. The GB squad is just over 20 strong.  The American team is pretty large, based around their XTERRA athletes. The  Spanish entry is pretty big so it should be a great day. As far as I can  figure out the race is  super sprint  distance which doesn&#039;t suit JSSV as it takes a   while for him to build up a good head of steam! Anyway, you just go for  it and whatever will be will be... I&#039;m in the doghouse as my No 1. groupie and  team manager Mrs JSSV is mortified that she might miss the Royal  Wedding. Well,  I&#039;ve told SKY to beam in a  special satellite link to our hotel and in exchange they can have free advertising  on my GB tri suit!  

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: XTERRA Maui 2010]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7795.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[If you are going to finish your season off in style, what better place to do it than the beautiful island of Maui? Stuart Lumb, aka Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) took on the XTERRA World Championships for the second time, but could he better his performance from 2008?

I like to leave my readers in suspense and so don&#039;t flag up my race  programme, unlike many other contributors. I like an element of surprise... On a  more serious note though,  as the years  go by you never know what tomorrow may bring. Hence I still travel the world  working,  not that it pays much and  travel to race &amp;ndash; and that definitely doesn&#039;t pay. Maybe I might hook a kind sponsor, although I don&#039;t have  the  ability &amp;ndash; or good looks - of Julie  Dibens or Daz Parker !
I was lucky enough to win a place to race XTERRA Worlds back in May in Sardinia. On a whim I decided to accept my place  as I had saved up my Air Miles, although  travel  is just one of a host of costs,  plus Maui isn&#039;t the cheapest of places in the world to stay. You&#039;ve stacks of  time for contemplation when flying to Maui and  it was then that I remembered with a sinking feeling that a)  there was   a cut-off  4hours into the race,  at T2. plus b) I was two years older than when I&#039;d previously raced. Ah well,  not to worry I thought -  and had another  beer... 
  My modus operandi is to arrive  a week before the race to get over the 24 hours of  travel and to get used to the 28-30&amp;deg;C  temperatures. I love hot weather so soon adapt plus I  turn the air con. off, much to Mrs JSSV&#039;s  annoyance. It was dark when I picked up our hire car and I nearly put her light  out as I proceeded to drive away on the wrong (left) side of the road!  Anyway we escaped unscathed and I blamed it on   jet lag. In 2008 I hired a hard tail but this time I lugged my Giant  Anthem X1,  bought very reasonably  courtesy of Paul Drinkwater www.pdsportsmanagement.co.uk and Cycle Sense of Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, halfway across the planet. Suffice to say that my Giant is far better than  its rider!  I raced the GB Durty Off  Road Champs with flats, but made it my goal   to be confident enough to race with clip-ins in Maui.  I&#039;d bought some new Shimano clip-ins but even on maximum slackness they were  still too tight. Then I had a (very rare) brainwave &amp;ndash; I rang my good Barracuda  club mate and mentor Simon Pickering to see if he had any old/broken in  pedals. Lo and behold he had a pair gathering dust in his garage so we did a  deal and I got on much better with them. Suffice to say I felt confident enough  to race on  the older Shimanos.
  The race itself is a 1.5km non wetsuit (ugh) swim, 32km bike split and  an 11km trail/beach run, with the bike split involving 640m of climbing (2500 feet sounds much tougher though...). The bike split &amp;ndash; which involves  negotiating  a lot of vicious volcanic  rock chunks - is off limits until race day although there&#039;s a tame piece &amp;ndash; part  of the run split -  that competitors  can practice on. I went round it on three  separate days and felt ok with my clip-ins, much   to my relief. The run involves  a  lot of climbing and descending plus a beach section of sand and nasty small  rocks.  I had planned to do some  pre-race  beach runs, to get used to the  heat, but about 10 days before leaving Blighty I tweaked my ankle. I don&#039;t  tempt providence so my runs became very slow jogs and consequently  I swam much more than before the race than I  did in 2008, seeing as my running was curtailed. 
  
  There were not  that many Brits competing &amp;ndash; hardly surprising  &amp;ndash; several  elites and a handful of age  groupers. I met up with ex- pat  Sian  Turner who I&#039;d raced with at  the ETU and  GB  cross tri events. Sian&#039; s family had  made the long trip from the UK  to support her which was great stuff. I also renewed acquaintances with  Peter Lilly and his wife Brenda. They are now  residents of N.Carolina after emigrating from Lancashire  a while back. Peter&#039;s in my AG so it was the War of the Roses all over again !
  The race base is at the Makena Beach and Golf Resort  which is practically at the southern most tip  of Maui, with transition being located in the resort&#039;s  spacious grounds. Everything&#039;s well organised even down to the staff using  purpose made stamps for numbering &amp;ndash; none of this freehand stuff for XTERRA!  Whilst racking my bike I got chatting to Charlotte Mahan from N.Carolina. She  was in the 65-69 AG and had raced three times before, but had always missed the cut off. I told her she had a lot of guts to keep persevering and told her that  2010 would be her lucky year! The race  doesn&#039;t start until 9am so it&#039;s pretty warm by the time the swim starts.  There&#039;s a ceremonial blessing and prayers by the native Maui  islanders, which helps calm things down and then it was into the clear blue  Pacific for two laps of the swim  course.  
  This year the beach section between laps was shortened which I was delighted  about. Whilst being a non-wetsuit swim, speedsuits / speedskins are legal,  although I don&#039;t have one . Maybe should have one on my Xmas wish list!  My swim went OK but about 200m from the finish  something brushed my legs and I nearly freaked out, but it just turned out to  be a turtle!  Then it was into T1 and  off on my bike. 
  The first 13km is practically all climbing so it was hard work, given it was about 28&amp;deg;C by now.  Along  the way I passed a girl getting medical aid for what looked like a broken  elbow, a salutory lesson not to overcook it. Then came a lot of switchbacks on  cattle trails which were great fun. The tough bits are the downhills with the  lava lumps, tackled best by keeping upright and a minimum use of brakes. High on  the mountain riding was tricky as the wind came in vicious gusts but I managed  not  to come off, unlike in 2008.  The clock was counting down so I pressed on  and just hoped I&#039;d beat the cut off, which I did  this time with 14 minutes to spare. 
  I did  most of  the run with a local guy called  Jerry and it&#039;s amazing  how it helps not to  be  running  by yourself.  The beach section is hard and then is followed  by a nasty twisty section through a wood with plenty of branches for weary legs  to trip over. Just before the finish you have to negotiate  a rocky foreshore which after nearly six hours  racing was pretty taxing. Then it was back on the paths and across the line  where everyone gets the traditional lei garland and the &quot;survivor &quot; finisher  medal. 
  My swim time was two minutes slower than 2008 but my bike split improved  by eight minutes, which was fantastic. Much of that undoubtedly due to me riding a  class soft tail, with clip-ins fitted as opposed to flats. Overall I was chuffed  to beat my 2008 time by just under six minutes  plus there were still several other  finishers behind me this time, not that  there&#039;s any disgrace in coming last. I&#039;d seen Charlotte approach T2 as I started my run and  was delighted that she finally beat the cut off as she finished shortly after  me, claiming the World Champion&#039;s  slot  for the 65-69 women. Sian Turner came a solid 10th in her 25-29 AG  despite having  a bad  tumble off her bike,   picking up some nasty grazes which needed  some post race attention from the very efficient and well equipped medical team .
So, another box ticked and  another medal to hang off the mantle piece. 
  There were 501 starters with sadly 17 DNFs &amp;ndash; it&#039;s a long way to go to Maui and not to finish,  but c&#039;est la vie&amp;hellip;.

  So all in all JSSV has had a pretty good season. I&#039;m shortlisted for two  Barracuda Club awards which is very pleasing, given we have around 180 members  in the club.. The &quot;bash&quot; is on Nov 20th so all will be revealed then .  Well, it&#039;ll soon be Spring and we&#039;ll  have to see what 2011 will bring!!
  ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: it ain't called Durty for nowt!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7633.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[
Stuart Lumb, aka Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) has been busy again, in his favourite off-road discipline. In his latest blog Stuart reports from the Durty Triathlon, the inaugural UK Cross Triathlon Championships which took place at the end of July.

Earlier this year British Triathlon announced that the inaugural UK Cross Triathlon  Championships would be held in the Borders region, north east of Moffat, based  at the Tibbie Shiels&#039; pub,  in  association with the Durty Triathlon, which is organised by Paul McGreal with  the grateful assistance of the Borders Triathlon Club. In his blurb Paul joking  suggested competitors steel themselves for a chilly swim in St Mary&#039;s  Loch. Paul  competed in Myjava in this year&#039;s European  Cross Tri Championships and said then that St Mary&#039;s Loch  would be about the same temperature - just to cheer us all up, &amp;quot;all&amp;quot; being  myself, Sian Turner and Lucy Cash , who all planned to race the Durty.

Mrs JSSV and myself     were staying  locally and drove up from God&#039;s County  two  days before the race. We recce&#039;d the race venue (although you can&#039;t pre-ride  the course), and were told that the kids had been swimming in the loch &amp;quot;so it  can&#039;t be that cold.&amp;quot; Then again Scots kids are hardy beasts though&amp;hellip;summat to  do with all the haggis they are brought up on....
The Durty event must hold the record as being the latest starting  triathlon in the UK -  it started at 2.30 pm. This was the Long Durty / GB Cross Tri Championship,  with the Short Durty commencing an hour later. It was nice to get up at a normal  hour and eat a leisurely breakfast although I had to think about taking fuel on  board about midday. I even did my bit to support the beleaguered Scottish pig  industry by partaking of a bacon buttie (avid readers of my blogs will know I  work  in the livestock industry), which  was more enjoyable than chewing through boring energy bars.
JSSV was having qualms about his expected  finishing time, but of course being well north it was light till practically  10pm so that was one problem less to worry about!  We were allowed a &amp;quot;swim down&amp;quot; acclimatization  session so I was in,  in good time, with  Myjava well in  my mind. I was wearing my  neoprene helmet; decidedly non&amp;ndash;sexy, but worth it&#039;s weight in gold in cold  water swims.  The water  temperature was actually a balmy 15&amp;deg;C and  actually not too bad, although due to the peat that  the feeder streams run through,  the water in the loch was the colour of a pint  of bitter and so visibility was very limited. I enjoyed my swim despite coming  out as usual with the tail enders - then it was into  T1 and off on the bike split.
This involved two  laps, over a mainly moorland hilly course.  This is where the &quot;Durty&quot; lives up to its name as there were quite a few boggy  stretches. Seasoned bikers know the trick is to go like hell and not stop. Unseasoned bikers (JSSV) don&#039;t /  can&#039;t go like hell &amp;ndash; and do stop, plus sink as well &amp;ndash; in my case up to my  crotch. I was wearing my mtb shoes (although stuck with my flats &amp;ndash; a wise  choice in hindsight) and fortunately they stayed on, recalling Lucy Cash&#039;s  incident in Myjava. Nothing hurt apart from my pride and off I  went again. Towards the end of the bike split  is the Gulley &amp;ndash; a VERY steep stony descent which took me all my time to walk  down - discretion the better part of valour as ever. Others might say &amp;ldquo;chicken &amp;ldquo;  but I know my limitations! Then it was off round the second lap with me in  lonely splendour. I had been following a guy but he must have pulled out after  the first lap. Good job I like my own company. I was a bit chuffed as I got  through the boggy bits, but then pride comes before a fall. Just before the Gulley  I hit an isolated boggy bit and my front wheel went right in, over the hub. I went  airborne, performing  a graceful arc  through 180 degrees, landing on my side with  my face in the mud, closely followed by my bike,  with my right thigh getting bashed by  my crossbar. Ah well I thought &quot;at least got  a good excuse now for a poor run split !&quot; At that moment in time I recalled the  race preview comments... &amp;quot;competitors get a real taste of the Scottish  countryside&amp;quot;...in my case, several mouthfuls!
So it was into T2    and  off on the run, starting with &quot;a wee detour&quot; of about  5 metres into the loch, just to get our knees  wet - yet again! Roughly half the run split was  along the loch side and nice and level - no hint of things to come! Then it  was a steady climb up through the forest, on   a rocky track . At this point a Range Rover appeared with a friendly marshall on board who  kindly offered me sustenance. A bit later on I rounded a corner and espied a  guy shouldering a TV camera. Paul McG had tipped us off that the race was being  filmed for a BBC Adventure (!) programme*. Consequently I moved up from crawler  gear into second to give some semblance of action and I was interviewed  as I ran along. Guess the cameraman was as fit as I was! I noticed he panned  up and down my legs which had me a bit worried &amp;ndash; told myself it was all the mud  that had caught his eye&amp;hellip; The sting in the tail was a section which involved  negotiating a firebreak between two blocks of tall conifers. The surface was  composed of large clumps of grass growing close together, ideally suited to  giving  you a sprained ankle. Needless to  say my jog reduced to a slow jog at this point. Finally the run split left the  trees and continued across the moor, with the pub, car park, marquees and  transition area visible far far below. At this point the sun burst through from  behind the clouds and lit up the loch, reflecting the sun&#039;s rays like a mirror  - magic !! All the aches and pains disappear at a moment like that. Then at  least it was all downhill. About 400m out from the finish I espied a black clad  figure which turned out to be Lucy Cash. Sadly Lucy was suffering from a virus  and was all set to race, but decided to err on the safe side and posted a DNS.  Anyway, she was able to manage a 400m jog , doing her level best to get me to  &amp;ldquo;sprint&amp;rdquo; to the finish... &amp;quot;A friend in time of need is a friend indeed&amp;quot;, and  last but definitely not least JSSV, or rather &amp;quot;the oldish gentleman&amp;quot; as a  marshall quaintly referred to me as,   crossed the finish line. Better than being called &amp;ldquo;bugger &amp;ldquo; I suppose ! 
All the athletes and spectators gave me a resounding welcome which is  one consolation for being &amp;quot;lantern rouge.&amp;quot; I was delighted to collect another  (ahem!) Gold , plus the Durty Vintage trophy, along with  a bottle of the special Tillie Sheils  ale. Sian Turner took silver in her AG , so  some consolation for her epic journey from California. The highlight of the  &amp;ldquo;Durty Experience &amp;ldquo; is of course the ceilidh,  preceded by the hog roast supper. It was  clearly not a happy pig, as JSSV managed to bust a tooth on a piece of  crackling - no wisecracks  about &quot;the  crowning event&quot;, thank you! 
So all in all, on balance,  a good day out at a well organised and well marshalled  event and with just a few squally showers the weather was positively tropical,  by Scottish standards anyway !
* BBC 2  Adventure Show, screening  Oct 2010. 
&amp;nbsp;
&amp;nbsp;
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: ETU Cross Triathlon  Championships]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7427.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb, aka Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) reports on the ETU European Cross Triathlon Championships - preparation for which included an unscheduled overindulgence on the wine front... 

A VERY TRI-ING TIME&amp;hellip;.
 In 2009  the XTERRA European Champs and the ETU Cross Triathlon  Championships were combined, but this year the events were again run  independently, with the ETU event being held in Myjava, in Slovakia, in late June. I had spent  three weeks in Czechoslovakia on  a student exchange back in 1966, in the Dubcek era, when for a  few years travel was possible between Czechoslovakia  and the West. I had maintained my links with my Czech friends and so arranged to  meet up with them  again. I flew into Prague, collected my hire car and together with Frank and  Eva drove east for about 4 hours, to Moravia.  Frank likes his wine and Moravia  is famous for its white varieties. All the villages in the region have wine  &amp;ldquo;caves&amp;rdquo; - literally a small frontage behind which there is  a cave excavated into the hillside .
Whilst  having supper in a local inn, Frank got into conversation with a local cave  owner  who insisted on having us, along  with a few other tourists,  sample some  of his wines. I was hoping that this would not take too long as I&#039;d been up  since 3am and was ready to get some  sleep. Mine host had different ideas and plied  us with bottle after bottle. Sad to say I nodded off and felt very embarrassed, after being woken up by Eva and being told it was time to get back to our  hotel. Over breakfast next morning I tried to explain - as tactfully as possible - that  being up for 24 hours non -top was  not ideal training preparation for  an international  triathlon! I was told that being such a fit guy I could take it all in my  stride...
Frank and Eva returned to Prague and I  pressed on east into Slovakia  and headed for my hotel in the spa resort town of Piestany, which was 80km North East of Bratislava.  My journey was a bit longer than anticipated as I missed a turning and it was  only as  I whizzed through the Hungarian  border  that I realised I was somewhat off  course! I duly arrived in Piestany  and  felt quite at home as it has a large Tesco store on the outskirts. I was about  40 minutes drive from Myjava and thanks to my hotel receptionist, a young lady  called Alice,  got some detailed instructions as to the exact  race location. The race venue was at the end of a road, up in the mountains, so  no problem... it was just finding the road in the first place that gave me some  grief.
I registered on the Friday morning and met up with several of the GB team. We were a select group of 12 athletes, hopefully a case of quality not  quantity. Sian Turner who works in IT and as far as I can see has a San  Francisco - Heathrow season ticket did a great job, setting up an internet  link so we were at least able to get to know each other by email. 

It had been unseasonably cold and wet in Slovakia which became apparent as I  rode the bike course, most of which was pretty muddy.The scenery was inspiring,  although at some points I was above the cloud base!
Saturday was Elites Race Day. The men&#039;s winner was Franky Batelier with  Carina Wasle taking the women&#039;s. The highest placed Brit  being Graham Wadsworth (10th).  
Sunday dawned and it was the age  groupers&amp;rsquo; turn. I was resplendent in my 2010 GB trisuit. I&#039;d waited for the  2010 version to come out as it has red piping on it, although I had to get my  own Union Jack added at my expense, or rather, courtesy of  DANISCO,  world leaders in the animal feed business,  who generously paid for my suit. Howard and  Jane Vine of Blade Printing did a great rush   job with the lettering, with me  getting my suit back just two days before my flight out. Can&#039;t be doing with the  back zip though, although it would appear these are the norm now for GB kit. 

One thing about cross tri is that  the races at least start at a civilised time of day - usually 10am - so no  crack of dawn alarm call needed. We were to swim in a dam  which was fed by a stream and hence the water  was cool&amp;hellip;bloody cold actually. The ETU officials bless them had decided  because of the abnormal weather to halve the split distances  and so we raced a super sprint . That meant  the swim was just 600m, no sweat for hardened athletes. When it&#039;s cold (i.e.  non Hawaii  temp water...) I wear a (neoprene) helmet - not sexy but swimming in cold water can freeze  your forehead, which is no joke. I also  wear a mask rather than goggles and getting a good seal can be a bit tricky. The  water temp was reputedly 13&amp;deg;c. I recall  racing in the Scarborough  Triathlon (sadly now deceased) one September. The sea temp was 13&amp;deg;c then and  wasn&#039;t too bad, as I recall. Well, maybe sea water is warmer than fresh water -  summat to do with the salt maybe  -  but for the first 300m I felt like I was in a  straight jacket - I literally couldn&#039;t breath. As time went by my chest  resumed its normal circumference which coincided with the end of the swim. I  checked my time on my glitzy new Garmin watch (subsidised by Cliff Pratt Cycles  of Hull) and pressed on into T1. I was as usual practically  last to start the bike split although after  about 1km the girls shot past me - I then remembered that they had their own  start wave - of 7 athletes! 
The bike course wasn&#039;t too bad on the Friday but  after being pre-ridden plus having the Elite race the day before us  by the time  I got into my rhythm (?) behind all the  other athletes  the course was pretty treacherous, for me  anyway. I later learned that Lucy Cash, one of our GB gold medallers had lost  a shoe in the mud and subsequently  pushed her bike round most of the split (copying me). I later jokingly told Lucy that she was neither a Scot nor a  Tyke, as had she been either she&#039;d have  gone bog snorkelling &amp;amp; recovered said shoe! I was still riding on flats and  wearing trail shoes which still had the elastic laces in. Again, not  ideal when biking over an extremely boggy  course. The cloud was down again so it got a bit chilly plus the signing was  not too clever, such that one of the intrepid GB squad got lost and ended up as  a DNF. Towards the end of the split we had a lovely downhill run - on grass -  the sting in the tail being that we ended up at the bottom of a ski slope which  we then had to bike up, or in my case, walk up. The bike split had been cut to  one lap, thank goodness, as it was tough going. Likwise the run split, one lap,  which was semi off-road but nothing too arduous. Well, surprise surprise JSSV  was not lantern rouge - one of our  lads, Andy Keyte,  had sprained his ankle  back on the bike split but dug deep and ground out a result. 
I just  had time to clean off  10kg of best  Slovakian soil from my bike in time for the awards ceremony. I ambled up as I  assumed that the awards would be presented starting with the young bucks, which  is the usual way round,  when suddenly I  heard my name announced - to fool everyone the oldest came first - what a  civilised system! I just managed to clamber onto the podium unassisted&amp;hellip;as  stiffness was by then setting in, and was presented with my precious - and  first ever - gold  medal, along with a  delightful bouquet of woodland flowers, shortly followed by a stirring  rendition of &amp;quot;God Save The Queen&amp;quot;. It was a very poignant moment for me, one  I shall always remember. Lucy Cash despite her shoe problems deservedly won a  gold in the 35-39 age group, with Sian Turner taking gold in the 25-29  category. Certainly Sian would have felt her  transatlantic trip was worth it as she received her well earned medal.  
So, out of a very small team of 12, GB claimed three  golds, not a bad day at the office. Mind, I think all the GB team  deserved a gong just for getting to Myjava, never mind competing there. Given it  was a European Championship the turnout was disappointing, although no doubt  numbers will increase with time . There are obviously lots of excellent  mountain bikers around but finding those that can swim and run as well  seems  to be a bit more difficult. Slovakia is  noted for its beer and that night I was delighted to sample some of it!   ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: XTERRA Italy]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_7263.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb, aka Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) reports on XTERRA Italy, the XTERRA European Championships - plus the joys of transporting a bike box through the London Underground. 

XTERRA ITALY  - EUROPEANS 2010 &amp;ndash; THIS YEAR IT WAS A HOT ONE ...
 When  racing abroad the actual race sometimes seems a bit like the tip of the  iceberg. If I have a poor race (frequently happens these days), then one of the  excuses that I come up with is that I was jet-lagged having just returned from  a business trip to some far flung corner of the planet. I had been in Bejing in  mid May  (thereby missing the Dales Etap  which I was rather miffed about, although on hearing that the weather was  atrocious , I felt rather less miffed), and then had four days at home before  leaving for Sardinia to compete in the   2010 XTERRA Italy - Euro Championships. 

After long flights I usually go down with something and true to form  came home incubating  a stinking cold,  which fortunately responded to a three day course of medication (and whisky!).  So,  bright eyed and bushy tailed JSSV  headed off to Gatwick to catch his flight to Olbia. I de-trained at Kings  Cross and being a typical tight fisted Tyke spurned a taxi and headed for  Victoria via the Tube to catch the Gatwick Express . I have a SciCon bike box - built to withstand a nuclear explosion - which with bike and clobber tipped the  scales at 32kg. I also was lugging along   two backpacks as well. Going up the  escalators was a doddle &amp;ndash; going  down   a completely  different ball game! I&#039;m not good at maths but 32kg of bike box in free fall  at 45% would have been moving at a fair rate of knots and would have taken  out   several poor unsuspecting  commuters - but thank the Lord my box, my two backpacks and myself made it down  safely. Just! Getting my box on the Tube was much more  fun - narrowly missing a few toes - as far as I  could tell! My tools were carefully   packed away this time (vs. last year )   and arrived safely in Olbia. On stepping off the air bridge I was given  a friendly &quot;Bonjourno&quot; by a welcoming   airport official. Think BAA have a lot to learn about customer PR...
Davide Mancino,   the XTERRA press officer had very   kindly arranged transport to and from my hotel. This year I was within  biking distance of Cale Ginepro, which was the race venue for the fourth  year running.  I managed to get quite a  bit of pre-race biking done, climbing up into the mountains, enjoying the  stunning views.  My heel now being much  better allowed me to get out running as well, but as my cold was lingering on I  passed on any swim sessions.   On the  Friday I went round the actual bike split and was delighted not to get lost,  which happened in 2009.  Saturday was  registration and briefing day and I bumped into Dave Nicholas, who is XTERRA&#039;s  ebullient extrovert CEO. XTERRA races start at civilised times of the morning  and I duly packed my race gear into my backpack   and on the Sunday morning gently pedalled to transition which was  only a few metres away from the beach.
Normally it rains for the race but this year it was  wall-to-wall sunshine - fine if you were just lounging  on the beach...but not for extreme sport. The  swim was 1.5km in total, two laps with an   energy sapping &#039;sprint&#039; through the sand between each lap. This year we  swam anticlockwise which suited me down to the ground as I only breathe to my  left - tried learning to breathe bilaterally a couple of years ago  but in my case you can&#039;t teach an old dog new  tricks. I was delighted that my goggles didn&#039;t leak but more concerned at the  amount of salt water I was shipping. The simple act of rolling my shoulders  resolved that problem though.  On  recollection it was the first open water swim I&#039;d done this year and I really .should stop using races as training sessions!  About 400m   into the 32km  bike split you  drop down on to a 20m long  pontoon across a narrow  river and climb steeply  up on to the trail again. (Proper athletes  ride this bit-JSSV gets off and pushes, as he did on several occasions). The  pontoon is quite wide but seemingly one competitor  managed to fall off it - but without their  bike -  for a second swim, most  strange...
The bike split was two laps and pretty technical, involving a climb up a  gully half way round and lots of loose gravel. Towards the end of my first lap  the Elites started to whizz past me &amp;ndash; I try to give way graciously and it&#039;s  amazing the comments that are made &amp;quot;thanks, merci, danke&amp;quot; with some  ignorant ones merely  grunting. They&#039;ll  be old some day!

The whole course is in a nature reserve and has to be in one  of the most idyllic locations anywhere - too bad it&#039;s not possible to enjoy it.  The local forest rangers act as marshalls  and what amazed me was the number of them fagging it in the tinder dry woods. Amazing!
Halfway round my second lap I came round a bend and  came across fellow Tyke and Pro racer   Daz Parker, who&#039;d damaged herself and her bike and hence sadly posted a  DNF. So on again, back into transition and off on the 10km  two lap run. 
You cross the same narrow river  as you did on the bike split, but on a swaying suspension bridge which is  quite fun, then strike out on a trail for several  km. By this time I&#039;d been going about four hours  and with the thermometer reading 28&amp;deg;C  I was  flagging a bit . Then it was the turn point / aid station and back down along  the beach , hard going but at least  there was a good breeze. You run - I use that word advisedly in my case - along the beach and I had it in my mind  that the finish was reached by passing   the swim start and transition. I was mentally geared up to go in that  direction when a marshall  suddenly appeared out of nowhere, pointing me at an arrow and a  distant headland. Needless to say I had  another kilometre to run, so had to get my head round that,  snaking through the campsite before being  cheered on by lucky finishers, relaxing at the caf&amp;eacute; and  quaffing foaming tankards full of  beer. Then it was a final 100m &#039;sprint&#039;,  over the timing mat and another box ticked...I wasn&#039;t quite last, not that I&#039;m  bothered and it was interesting to see that there were 25 DNFs this year. By  this time it was about 4pm. I gathered up all my gear into my backpack and  headed off back to my hotel. Needless to say my pack felt twice as heavy as it  had done some eight hours earlier that day and I was relieved to  reach my hotel and dive into the shower.
The awards  ceremony and dinner were back at Cale Ginepro but outdoors on a large patio, as  opposed to being indoors last year. There was   a great bunch of Austrian guys staying at my hotel and they kindly gave  me a lift to the bash. As usual the awards were presented in ascending order of  age, so I was practically asleep when I had my moment of glory and ascended the  podium... then it was back to the hotel and a well earned sleep &amp;ndash; after a few  beers of course!  
I was quite a bit slower than last year and put that  down to the heat. Amazingly, for a self confessed &quot;carthorse&quot; my run split was  my best ranking, followed by my bike and swim splits. 
Then it was cheerio to sunny Sardinia and back to  &quot;Dear Old Blighty&quot; and another extreme event - battling  through the Underground...
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb: fun and games in the woods]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6932.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Stuart Lumb, aka Jet Set Super Vet (JSSV) takes on the Ampleforth Off-Road Triathlon.

Paul Drinkwater runs Paul Drinkwater Sports Management from his base in Leeds, mixing standard triathlons with cross tri events.  He  organises a six race off-road  triathlon series  with events taking place in  North   Northumberland and the Lake  District,   down to the tracks and forests  of Welsh Wales. The first race in the series is held at Ampleforth  College in North   Yorkshire and comprises a 500m swim, a 14k  bike and 5k run. I competed in last year&#039;s  event and thoroughly enjoyed it plus even had finishers behind me! As per my  last epistle, I have to admit to doing minimal biking over the Winter but I did  manage to put in a few more kms than I did for the Humber Sprint. 
This year&#039;s entries were down a  bit and Paul made a plea at the race briefing for more entries in future  events,  otherwise the series might fold,  which would be tragic. Paul is also spending a lot of time and effort planning  a major closed road event to be held in Roundhay  Park , Leeds.  Sadly this year there have been some problems with the Council and Paul has  enlisted the help of keen cyclist Leeds NE MP Fabian Hamilton and is very  hopeful that the event will feature on the 2011 calendar.
We usually have a few Barracudas  entered at Ampleforth and I was lucky enough to hitch a lift with Simon  Pickering, wife Lisa and rent-a-crowd Findlay, Hermione and young Ted. I  always have a problem with estimating my swim time as 500m is a bit of an unusual  distance, with most pool based tri&#039;s being 400m. We were set off in each lane in  groups of four, with me being  first in my  group, which was a bad mistake! After being lapped by  all of the three other  guys I made a mental note  that my  formula of dividing 400 by 4 and adding that number on to my 400m time is  decidedly flawed, as it assumes I can swim at a constant rate of knots - which  was  obviously not   the case! Also my new goggles which were  fine at the club midweek  swim insisted  on leaking and it took me ages to sort them out. The swim ends in the deep end  so the spectators and officials were   treated to the sight of JSSV doing his impression of a beached whale - second  mental note - more bench presses in the gym next winter!
Off to T1 for the  bike split. I&#039;m still not confident enough to use clip-ins so I bike round in a  pair of old trainers, which invariably have elastic laces..fine in transition... but more on that later. The bike split starts off with quite a hairy descent ( by my pathetic standards anyway!), down a bit of permanent pasture (for any  botanists who may be reading this by mistake...), cattle graze it so there are  lots of  hoof indentations to contend  with. Anyway my nice not-so-shiny now Giant did a great  job. I just hang on and hope for the best  and we both arrived together at the bottom of the hill. The bike split is  pretty undemanding, most of it through woodland.

It was a beautiful day, with sunlight streaming down through the trees . It&#039;s at moments like this that you realise why mountain biking is so popular.  You&#039;re communing with nature, its quiet and above all you&#039;re not having to  contend with crazy motorists seemingly intent on carving you up all the time .  Note (no.3)  for next Minister of  Transport - learner drivers, as part of the driving test, should be made  to  ride four or so miles along a busy &#039;A&#039; road. That way all drivers might learn to treat us cyclists with a bit more  respect.  Back to the race...
After some  flattish roads the course started to climb and then passed through the forest.  In places it was quite muddy and most times I was going fast enough to  negotiate the soft stuff. Then disaster struck - going through a substantial  narrow  muddy patch I didn&#039;t keep my  speed up enough and got bogged down. I lowered my right foot to keep upright  and my foot and ankle  promptly vanished  from sight! Mud is very clingy stuff and because I had my elastic laces in my  trainers, when I raised my right leg,  up  came my foot - but minus trainer! So, dismount, lay bike down, lean over and  extract said trainer with some difficulty,   from the morass...
So off I went again, with just my pride dented. The rest of the bike  split was uneventful and then it was back up that big hill to T2. I only made it  halfway but Simon actually got to the top, encouraged by screams from the  Pickering rent-a-crowd. Right at the top you have to climb over a stile -  sadly I&#039;d forgotten to put on my HRM, but just then reckon it would have  been  right off the scale. The run split  was mainly on roads and tracks and as it was quite dry most competitors opted  to run in regular trainers. My heel was fine so I just kept plodding along  enjoying the scenery. About half way around  the course  I passed a rusting piece of  farm machinery - a self propelled slurry (cow/pig effluent) injection outfit.  It hadn&#039;t moved an inch since 2009 and was obviously abandoned, although how  someone - especially a farmer - can leave &amp;pound;50k&#039;s worth of gear to rust away is  beyond  me. So, back past the sports fields and then that bloody hill reared it&#039;s head again,  although at the top the slope has been made  into steps, which made things a lot easier. 
Well, when the times arrived online I was delighted to see I&#039;d knocked  one whole minute off last year&#039;s time. Unfortunately we didn&#039;t have splits last  year for comparison, anyway this year we did and my bike split was much better,  relatively, than my swim and my run. As with my previous race, I wasn&#039;t the  &amp;ldquo;Lantern Rouge&amp;rdquo;...not that it bothers me, in fact I&#039;m very proud of my  collection of &amp;ldquo;red lamps&amp;rdquo;. Too many newcomers get hung up about coming last -  it&#039;s no disgrace at all - taking part  is  what it&#039;s all about. 
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