<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Training - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest training articles from Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Winning is for losers...?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9614.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Coach James Beckinsale has been doing a lot of thinking recently. The head coach of Optima Racing Team (www.optimaracingteam.com) coaches athletes of all abilities from novice juniors through athletes looking for London 2012 Olympic selection. However, he&#039;s questioning the attitude and focus on &#039;winning&#039; that he has been seeing from several sources and now asks, is &#039;winning for losers&#039;? Is an increasing obsession on &#039;winning&#039; healthy?
These are his thoughts - let us now if you agree (or not) by adding your comments below.  

You constantly hear coaches, parents and athletes talk about the &#039;winning mentality&#039; or &#039;winning at all costs&#039;. However you put it, it&#039;s setting the athlete up, if they are not always first, to become a loser. If you are not first or a winner then, by definition, you are a loser.
Don&#039;t get me wrong, I want the athletes I coach to be picking up first place and gold medals as that can be their reward for the hard yards and performing optimally. But it is precisely not having the &#039;winning&#039; mind-set that will enable them to achieve this. By setting out to win or to beat others, you&#039;re setting the benchmark by something uncontrollable.

Sure you can have outcome or dream goals - &#039;I want to become Olympic champion&#039;, etc. But in reality, in the cold light of day, you have no control over that outcome, so don&#039;t dwell on it, yes use it as motivation but put your time and energy into the process, the day-to-day consistency and hard yards.

I&#039;m a big believer in the benefits of competition and developing a competitive spirit in athletes. But there is a big difference between developing an attitude, wanting to perform optimally and believing that winning is everything. When &#039;winning&#039; becomes all encompassing, when the athlete, parent or coach believes that&#039;s what it is all about (keeping in mind there can only ever be one winner) anyone who doesn&#039;t come first must be seen as a loser.

Other sports
Let&#039;s look at this from the perspective of the noble art; in boxing if you are second you quite possibly got hurt. Still the boxer cannot worry/be focused on &#039;winning&#039; they must be 100% in the moment, focused on the next movement/ counter movement. If they think they have done it (&#039;it&#039;s in the bag&#039;), or even lost it (&#039;this guy&#039;s too good for me&#039;), part way through the fight, it will hinder progress and the fighter could get sloppy, possibly getting knocked out, or demoralised and therefore not seize his opportunities. 100% he needs to be driven, dig in and be mentally tough&amp;hellip; but focus too much on &#039;winning&#039; during the fight at his peril.

Now to the less noble art&amp;hellip; The English football team; we see these players for Chelsea, Liverpool et al, playing well week in week out. They even play quite good stuff in friendlies or pre-big competition (the group stages / quarter final etc). Then like a tonne weight has come from nowhere, they seem to forget it&#039;s just a game. They become tense and tight, make wrong calls, the tension inhibits what they &#039;normally&#039; do. Like a man being faced by a lion and told to run to a safe place! But it is simple; ball - look - pass &amp;ndash; score&amp;hellip; enjoy (I don&#039;t play football!).

They are focused on the outcome and possibly on what people will think or say. They may be worried about a re-signing or their win bonus (or being eaten!). This thinking takes them exactly where they don&#039;t need to or want to be. Instead, to perform at their best, they need to focus on the job at hand, on their individual performance and how they will help the team. And, importantly, they need to enjoy this highly competitive environment.

Winning at all costs
The &#039;winning&#039; mind-set may also encompass &#039;winning at all costs&#039; - we see this all the time on the football pitch, with dives to get penalties and players sent off. We also see this creeping more and more into rugby union, with more players looking for penalties and cards and the infamous &#039;blood-gate&#039; scandal. Generally this type of behaviour is not being discouraged by team mates, coaches or most fans&amp;hellip; until they are on the receiving end&amp;hellip; It may even be considered &#039;not playing for the team&#039; if you don&#039;t employ these tactics.

Is winning at all costs what we want our athletes, sports men and women aspiring to? Do we really want our national teams cheating in front of our eyes on the TV and in front of other nations? Are you happy that we win gold and later find out it was drug fuelled? Or a GB athlete impedes another foreign athlete so their GB team mate gains and advantage?

Do we not want to develop a national sporting standard that we as British subjects are not willing to go beyond, based on sound moral standards? Thus, not prepared to win at all costs?

Beware young prima donnas
It is unusual for young athletes who are heralded as &#039;winners&#039; or child prodigies to go on to compete for top honours in endurance sports (which are classically late development sports). It is more likely that when we see examples of senior athletes performing at high levels they were not seen as exceptionally talented children, but had to fight hard, got their arses kicked from time to time, but didn&#039;t give up, as they saw a light at the end of the tunnel (loved it) and were prepared to work for it.

These same young athletes are commonly the ones who go on to be successful in business or other aspects of life, not only in sport. As adults, they know that things won&#039;t be handed to them on a plate and if something is worth having it&#039;s worth working hard for.

The road to doping&amp;hellip;
The obsessive &#039;winning mentality&#039; can also start us down the doping road, where the athlete is so pressurised and brainwashed about &#039;winning&#039;, possibly from a young age, that they can develop what is called a fixed mind-set. This is where they begin to set themselves up &#039;not to fail&#039; by only competing at events they know they will win or pulling up/out of events they are being beaten in (feigning injury or some other excuse). This can also be seen in training and will be exacerbated if they are coached in an environment where it is not picked up.

They are not thinking about the here and now of their individual performance or how they could learn from the competition/situation for the future&amp;hellip; just &#039;winning&#039; (in this situation, not losing) and why would they, with coaches and/or parents focusing so much on the next race and winning that? In coaching terms we call this &#039;coaching for next Friday&#039; and it&#039;s part of the &#039;winning mentality&#039;.

There is another phase that can follow on with this mentality; if the athlete stops being so dominant and &#039;winning&#039; when he or she asks &quot;How can I guarantee I will become a &#039;winner&#039; again?&quot; the answer some reach is to cheat and possibly take performance enhancing drugs.

So this is the &#039;winning mentality&#039; - is this what we want our young and aspiring athletes to become&amp;hellip; winners?

Is there an alternative mentality?
Yes; a mentality where the athlete is taught about hard graft, skill acquisition &amp;amp; development, mastery of oneself and coached through negative experiences leading instead to the development of a &#039;growth mind-set&#039;.

Just four years ago we saw a young triathlete competing in the Beijing Olympics, the then relatively unknown Alistair Brownlee (unknown outside triathlon at least) had a good little swim, good bike for the young fella and then he went off and took on the world&#039;s best triathletes at their own game. Leading the 10k for most of the run, digging in and hurting, then when the world&#039;s best came past him with 3k to go, he battled on to a 12th place finish.

After the race he was already viewing the experience as an invaluable lesson that would stand him in good stead after another four year Olympic-cycle, saying &quot;hopefully another four years maturity will help me gain extra 12 places&quot;.

We know you get nothing worth having without working bloody hard for it. Learning, taking a few knocks, getting up, digging in and fighting on, developing the mental toughness that is essential in high level competitive sport.

The secret to success
What has driven highly successful senior athletes? Environment, fellow athletes, friends, family, a sound coach, and encouraging (not pushy) parents or possibly an intangible drive from childhood? Probably a mix of all of these and at some point they will have experienced a taste of what good performance feels like, enjoy it / got a buzz from it and want to feel this again. It may not have been a &#039;win&#039;; it may have been a feeling of mastery or just of progression (as in Alistair&#039;s case)&amp;hellip; getting better at something worthwhile or that they believed in.

If an Olympic podium or World Championship was easy to win and you didn&#039;t have to work damn hard to get it&amp;hellip; then everyone would be an Olympic or World Champion... it takes a heck of a lot of hard, focused, consistent yards to make it.

Summary
In this era of high speed internet, mobile phones, internet shopping, quick loans, we can have just about anything we want&amp;hellip; now. It is imperative as coaches, parents, teachers and athletes we understand that a masterpiece cannot be painted overnight; it takes many re-worked and screwed-up efforts before we even begin on the road to mastery.

So let&#039;s take our eye off &#039;winning&#039; and focus on the reality of sport and competition - start putting the pieces of the jigsaw together in building true performance athletes through hard work, enjoyment, technical mastery, discipline, positive / performance environments, sound coaching, developing mental toughness and fun.

Winning is for losers



James Beckinsale is the head coach of Optima Racing Team (www.optimaracingteam.com), which is a performance triathlon club for all abilities.

He is also the director of Optima Training Systems which is a sports coaching company, specialising in triathlon coaching for all distances and is currently the head coach for the BTF Triathlon London Academy.

You can follow James on Twitter: @eggsrinbasket]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: AudioFuel TriHarder]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9544.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Chrissie Wellington may be taking the year off doing Ironman but one thing&#039;s for sure, she&#039;s not standing around twiddling her thumbs! When John Levison interviewed her just before Christmas she was finishing up the production on her joint venture with AudioFuel and Universal which has now been released as the TriHarder package. Our resident ironwoman, already a big fan of the AudioFuel concept, has been testing the bike and run sessions for us.



If you like the AudioFuel concept you&#039;ll love the TriHarder sessions with Chrissie Wellington for both the bike and the run. I do these on the treadmill, and turbo sessions will really push you to your limits. As always, Chrissie&#039;s voice is really inspiring and she actually sounds as though she&#039;s enjoying talking to &#039;you&#039; - it&#039;s a much more personal experience that I had been expecting. As well as the session focussed content there are plenty of Chrissie tips about how to get through the pain when training and unlike some of the other AudioFuel sessions I use there&#039;s nowhere to hide with these. There&#039;s certainly no feeling that the rest periods are a bit on the generous side, something I commented on when I reviewed their Power Blast turbo session a while ago.

It&#039;s probably worth making a point before I start on the review: these are sessions controlled by you with encouragement from the music (in terms of helping you maintain a specific cadence) and Chrissie (in terms of motivation and direction). They are not linked to or dependent upon power meters, heart rate monitors, speed readouts or any form of feedback from instruments - as is often the case with programmes like CTS and Coach Troy. That said, there&#039;s nothing to stop you recording all your exercise data and looking at it afterwards - just don&#039;t worry about it while you are doing the TriHarder sets. It&#039;s all about you and your motivation (assisted, of course, by Ms Wellington and the music...) and not about raw numbers. You may well be surprised by the results!

The longest of the three Ride Harder sessions is 97 minutes pyramid interval set and if you do this correctly you&#039;ll definitely be in need of a recovery drink and the 20 minute Relax session afterwards. For time challenged athletes there are shorter 60 and 40 minutes sessions that also punch well above their weight.

Run Faster also comes in three lengths, 52, 40 and 25 minutes and again I tested the longest one on the gym&#039;s treadmill. Designed to help you increase your pace with the usual AudioFuel music mix driving you along it&#039;s another proper workout that&#039;ll have you reaching for the compression socks once it&#039;s done.

If you need motivation there&#039;s also a 12 minute Lace Up module with a music track designed to get you pumped up. AudioFuel&#039;s Music Director, Howie Saunders, worked on the Matrix soundtrack so between him and Chrissie you should be ready for anything. Half the revenue from Lace Up will be going to the Challenged Athletes Foundation, Chrissie&#039;s an ambassador, so you&#039;ll be helping others as well as yourself with this one.

Worth it? Definitely, if you like working to a session plan and are OK with audio/video coaching products like AudioFuel, Coach Troy, etc then these will fit right in with what you&#039;re used to. If you&#039;re unsure of the concept have a quick listen to the samplers on AudioFuel&#039;s website and I&#039;m sure you&#039;ll become a convert. But, please, don&#039;t ever think of going out on the open road for your bike sessions with headphones!

Prices for the TriHarder modules are as follows, the two bundled packs offer a cheaper way to get multiple modules:


	
		Lace Up &pound;3.75
	
	
		Ride Harder &pound;19.99
	
	
		Run Faster &pound;19.99
	
	
		Relax &pound;4.99
	
	
		Iron Pack &pound;29.99
	
	
		Podium Pack &pound;39.99
	

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Free sprint triathlon training programme from Thetrilife.com]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9566.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Thetrilife.com are offering a free training programme for first time and novice triathletes taking part in a sprint triathlon.

Whilst primarily aimed at competitors in the forthcoming 7Oaks Triathlon to be held on Sunday 29th April 2012, the programme is available to anyone and would be excellent preparation for most sprint races.

Liz Scott, director of thetrilife.com said &amp;quot;we have designed the training programme to prepare athletes for the specific challenges of the 7Oaks Triathlon. In addition to developing their fitness, this free programme will guide novice athletes through other aspects of preparation, eg practicing drinking on the bike, how to taper during race week. &amp;rdquo;

The programme is delivered online using Trainingpeaks &amp;ndash; the ultimate training programme delivery software. Sessions are also emailed daily &amp;ndash; no scraps of paper to carry around! Finally, athletes will have access to an online training diary so that they can track and analyse their training and monitor progress.

The free programme can be activated by following this link to the 7Oaks triathlon complimentary training programme.

thetrilife.com is the premier provider of triathlon coaching services in the UK, delivering swim, bike and run coaching via online training programmes, training day camps and one-to-one sessions. The highly qualified coaching team has exceptional, world class experience and includes Richard Jones, Dan Salcedo, Bill Black and Andrea Whitcombe. The team provides coaching for athletes of all levels of fitness and ability from triathletes taking part in their first ever sprint triathlon through to seasoned professionals and elite perfomers.

Liz Scott, added &amp;quot;we are delighted to again have the opportunity of supporting the athletes of such a friendly and brilliantly organised race.&amp;quot;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sports Specific Yoga]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9467.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Whichever sport you participate in yoga can improve performance. The inevitable gains in flexibility, balance and whole body strength improve form, efficiency and power. Yoga&#039;s approach to concentration and breath awareness benefits mental focus and mental endurance, the intangibles that become so important at the end of a long training session or race.

Physio4Life, an award winning physiotherapy and sports medicine clinic in Putney are introducing Fitness Yoga to the clinic with expert instructor Bridget Sanderson. These sport specific yoga classes will run every Wednesday evening, commencing 11th January. You can experience a trial classes for only &pound;5!  Book today by telephoning: 020 8704 5998 or emailing admin@physio4life.co.uk
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: Garmin Forerunner 910XT]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9453.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Okay, before I start this review it&#039;s only fair that I make a couple of things perfectly clear. First, I love gadgets! The offices are littered with the latest trinkets from a host of manufacturers and I&#039;m a sucker for something newer, better and shinier than the last version. Second, I hate gadgets that fail to live up to their billing and previous disappointment lasts a long time! Finally, I have yet to test a Garmin device that I didn&#039;t like...

So, why the up-front candour before launching into a review of the Forerunner 910XT, the &pound;359 latest training tool from Garmin? Simple really, I&#039;ve been a long-term user of the 310XT so something newer and with added extras ticks the first box while the last time I tested a device that was supposed to measure swim strokes and provide data on your in-water performance I was extremely disappointed - meaning that there&#039;s also a tick in the second box. Based on previous experience, therefore, there was a certain degree of cynicism about the claims that the 910XT could provide in-water performance metrics. After all, this is a serious GPS-based training aid and not only do we know that GPS doesn&#039;t work that well (if at all) indoors and Garmin themselves put the caveat in the manual that the heart rate monitor function won&#039;t work in swim mode.

So, with due apologies for the seasonal pun, were we staring at the possibility of the first turkey from Garmin?

Well, we&#039;ll get to the swimming bit in a while, but what about the rest of it...

The Forerunner 910XT is a not-inconsiderably sized lump which, at first glance seems bigger than the 310XT but that really is an illusion. It&#039;s actually smaller and, according to our scales, lighter which shows what you can do with clever design! While the 4gm weight loss we measured is minimal it&#039;s really the 4mm reduction in the unit&#039;s thickness that makes the difference to how it feels on your wrist.



Other design changes from the 310XT include a strap that now seems to be fitted with screws rather than those sprung pins which should make it easier to replace if you need to or to fit to the bike mount if that&#039;s your preferred use. There&#039;s also a better separation of the side-mounted buttons on the right making it easier to select menu items. Charging is still done through a sprung clip off a USB cable which means no socket to get damaged while the connectivity to peripherals like the heart rate strap, shoe pod, etc is with the proven and reliable ANT+ wireless system.



As with the other Garmin fitness products we have tested, the 910XT is pretty much a charge and go device - you&#039;ll get up to 20 hours from a fully juiced battery. Turn it on, select the mode, grab a satellite signal (always something of a challenge at out offices for some unknown reason) and then hit start. As with all the other Forerunner&#039;s I&#039;ve tested (and that&#039;s a few!) all the basic functions work exactly as you expect them to and there are no major surprises. It connected to all the accessories we had lying around the house without a hitch and even grabbed power data off the CycleOps PowerBeam that has become our turbo de jour.

Extra functionality built into the 910XT over the 310XT includes a measurement of the training effect that you are getting from your workouts. This is basically a monitoring function that comes from Firstbeat Technologies which learns your heart rate pattern and records changes to it over time as you exercise. It&#039;s a system that&#039;s used by other sports watch makers and one that I can&#039;t really comment on as I&#039;ve not been using the 910XT long enough to get any viable data from. However, it&#039;s another set of metrics that you can use to factor in to the mix when reviewing your training and that&#039;s always worth having.

The 910XT also adds in the &#039;Virtual Race&#039; function that we&#039;ve seen on other models in the past - it wasn&#039;t in the 310XT - which lets you compete against a previous recorded set of data. This could be a PB over a specific course or someone else&#039;s data entirely. It&#039;s a great motivator and can help transform a training session if you need a bit of extra incentive to push yourself along.

OK, enough of the preamble. What the 910XT really brings to the party is the ability to measure and record data while swimming. One thing it, in common with many HRM systems, cannot do is to measure heart rate in the pool. Part of the problem is that water eats radio signals and the ANT+ radio link between the chest strap and the watch simply doesn&#039;t work reliably when one or both bits are submerged. The other issue is that when you swim your body is horizontal and your heart is working very differently compared to when you are cycling or running. You know this already: you often feel a bit wobbly when you exit the water after a hard swim and that&#039;s because gravity can catch you out by pulling your blood away from your head before your heart has caught up.

So, just what can the 910XT measure? Out in open water it uses GPS to measure your distance and will calculate your pace and measure your stroke rate using the built-in accelerometer. What I can say is that I haven&#039;t tested this bit - the editorial budget won&#039;t stretch to a trip to warmer climes...

However, in the pool it&#039;s a different matter. Here there&#039;s no GPS signal worth mentioning and you need to set the length of the pool into the unit. You can also select the stroke you are doing - breaststroke and butterfly are one cycle per stroke where front crawl and backstroke will be two strokes - and there&#039;s even a mixed option if you&#039;re going to be doing medley work. That said, we just used it with freestyle/crawl in our tests.

And, yes, it actually does work! The system is smart enough to figure that when you hit the Lap button and stand around a bit (ie you don&#039;t move your arms in circles) and then hit Lap again you&#039;ve been taking a rest. With our stupid 20m pool it&#039;s also a great help to have the feedback from the watch every time you hit a specific distance - it also seems like a great option to set for open water swims as well.

Dumping data off the watch to the Garmin Connect service is as simple and convenient as it has always been and you now get a whole new set of metric for the swim sets which start with a summary of the distance, time, pace and an average of the strokes per length. Selecting the session lets you break everything down so you can see where your stroke started to fall apart and how consistent you managed to keep your stroke rate. The system assigns an efficiency value based on normalising everything against a 25m pool so if you tend to swim at different venues this is one number that can always be compared.



Garmin also generate a SWOLF value which is a composite of the number of seconds to swim a length plus the number of strokes it took. It&#039;s a bit of fun rather than a truly meaningful number as the shorter the pool the less strokes you will need to take anyway in percentage terms as you&#039;ll get more benefit from an efficient push-off in a short pool. Notwithstanding the fun element it&#039;s still a measure that you can use - less strokes = lower score which is always good.

Stepping back from the swimming bit, does the 910XT represent an overall improvement over the 310XT?

If you aren&#039;t interested in swimming at all then it&#039;s possibly marginal: a barometric altimeter, the training effect metrics and the Virtual Race function in a slightly slimmer package might (or might not...) swing the deal depending on your wants and desires. However, if you are an all-round multisport athlete and, like most of us, slightly obsessed by numbers relating to fitness measurement then it&#039;s definitely ticking all the right boxes.

As far as I&#039;m aware there&#039;s nothing else out there that in a single package delivers quite so much functionality as the 910XT and much of the competition works out more expensive as well as not delivering the swimming functions.

Were I in a wishing mood I would definitely like to see the main unit starting to shrink a bit more - it&#039;s still bulky on the wrist and the various women we tried it on definitely felt something a bit smaller would be awesome. That said, the reduction in thickness compared to the 310XT is marked and while some of the competition is smaller they only achieve that by moving the GPS unit out to a second unit that needs to be strapped to your arm.

If you are looking for an all-round, do everything in one unit training tool then it seems as though Garmin have done it again. Now, if only I could get my hands on a set of those Vector power measuring pedals...

The Forerunner 910XT will be available from January at selected outlets and online with a base unit (watch plus charging clip and ANT+ stick) costing &pound;359.99. Bundle in a Premium heart rate strap and this rises to &pound;389.99. It&#039;s certainly not cheap but you can be sure that the discounters will get in on the act as soon as supplies become more widely available and, as long as you want the newest and most comprehensive bit of kit currently on the market it&#039;s something that will give you and your coach a wealth of data to work with.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Surviving Christmas]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9445.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The festive period can be a challenge even for the most committed Ironman athletes but with good planning and preparation there&rsquo;s no reason why you can&rsquo;t enjoy Christmas to the full, keeping your training going whilst avoiding those family arguments! Dean Hughes from thetrilife.com, official training partner of Ironman UK, Ironman 70.3 UK and Ironman Wales, talks to us about the best way to maintain your health and fitness over the next couple of weeks, whilst keeping on top of your training targets.



Finding out when your local pool is open and the timings for lane swims over Christmas and New Year will help you plan your holiday training programme around your swimming. If the pool is closed for a while or you are travelling around and pool time is not realistic, resistance band workouts (try the ones with paddles attached) are great for bolting on the end of a run session. It&rsquo;s not going to replace the feel for water but will help strengthen those swimming muscles and help the next time you get in the water.

Your long rides are going to be the toughest to fit in but turbo or roller sessions are great for a quality hour or so and you don&rsquo;t have to worry about what to wear or clean your bike.

Running is the easiest to fit in so travel with your trainers and kit in the boot!

Here are my top tips for festive survival!

	Schedule in a long ride weekend before the holidays start, this allows you to focus on your running which is the easiest to fit into your family plans. 
	If you are travelling visiting friends and family over the holidays, then you should schedule in a daily stretching programme and a simple core routine to help with posture and help prevent injuries.
	Try your best to wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day to help keep your immune system on track &ndash; this is where you can fit that turbo session in or run session when everyone&rsquo;s still in bed!
	Wear the correct clothing and warm up properly to avoid pulling muscles. Don&rsquo;t miss that warm up routine because you&rsquo;re short on time!
	Train on the day of the Christmas party not the morning after! Plan a rest day and long walk in the afternoon and maybe check the bike over and training gear.
	Enter a fun charity race or a relay running event with some buddies &ndash; something different.
	Need wood for the fire/log burner? Get your trainers and rucksack on and go to woods &ndash; take the kids too they&rsquo;ll love the adventure! You may find some holly for the Christmas table too! Chopping/sawing some wood and kindling up will burn a few calories too and get you out of the house for a while!


Plan ahead and you will reap the benefits of a change of routine and a bit of a rest, ready to hit the ground running in January! Chin, Chin!



Thetrilife.com is the official training partner Ironman UK, Ironman Wales and Ironman 70.3 UK. They deliver swim, bike and run coaching via event specific online training programs, preparation day camps, overseas camps and one-to-one sessions. The highly qualified coaching team that includes Richard Jones, Dan Salcedo and Andrea Whitcombe provides expert coaching for athletes of all levels of fitness and ability from first time triathletes through to seasoned professionals and elite performers. To find out more about the Ironman race training programmes and preparation days on offer from thetrilife.com then visit www.thetrilife.com or www.ironmanuk.com/ and www.ironmanwales.com for more details.
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[St Albans triathletes get an early Christmas present]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9413.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Thirty members from St Albans triathlon club, Tri-Force, had the once in a life time opportunity to receive coaching from the GE Great Britain Triathlon Team at a unique GE funded masterclass on Saturday.

Keen triathletes of various ages and abilities from St Albans, Hatfield and Braughing, were given the chance to train side-by-side with arguably the fastest female swimmer in the triathlon world and 2011 ETU European Duathlon Championships Silver Medalist, Lucy Hall and 2011 British Duathlon Champion, Mark Buckingham.

Rick Velati, a World Class Talent coach for British Triathlon, led the training session exploring the intricate techniques involved in masterminding each of the three disciplines of the sport; swimming, cycling and running. Rick drew on the arsenal of knowledge that saw British Triathlon secure both the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s individual and team world championships this year.

&ldquo;We wanted to introduce the club to a few training drills that our GB elites are executing themselves. Many triathletes always overlook the basics. It&rsquo;s not always about putting in the miles on the bike for example. Today we looked at dead turns (where you turn on yourself and loop back),  drills to improve your running stride, and how to train for an open water swim in a swimming pool&rdquo; said Rick, who has previously worked with two times and current World Champion Helen Jenkins.

Tri-Force won the GE Masterclass after crossing the finishing line first as part of a team relay race at this year&rsquo;s Dextro Energy ITU World Championship event in Hyde Park. The club was exclusively invited to compete on the London 2012 Olympic Triathlon Course after getting involved in the Tri-Twinning Programme; an initiative launched by GE earlier on in the year that encourages GE business sites to join forces with their local Home Nation Affiliated Affiliated Triathlon Club, with the aim of encouraging more people to get involved with the sport in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

For more information and behind the scenes footage from the GE masterclass, go to the GE Facebook page.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Not bad for a boy from Chertsey...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9436.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Darren Brewer&#039;s name popped up on the internet the other day and it only took a couple of clicks to figure out that it was not only the same person but that he&#039;s still doing pretty well in sport even if he&#039;s now half the world away! Now based in a suburb of Sydney his name made the search engines because he&#039;s just won the Steam Cycle Club championships based on a season-long series of time trials. He&#039;s also running a coaching business out there and a number of his clients are UK-based - something else the internet&#039;s useful for!

As a Christmas promotion he&#039;s offering a special deal on a three month sign-up for his coaching plans at &pound;35 (or $AU100) per month rather than the normal &pound;59 ($AU140). The offer runs until the end of January or when his athlete limit is reached. He&#039;s just had a smart new website put together or you can email him at info@nadpositive.com]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Web nugget: core exercises]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9388.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[There&#039;s just so much good stuff out there on the internet that you could (and some people do...) spend several lifetimes digging it all out. Here&#039;s something that we&#039;ve found which you might have missed...



It&#039;s a nine minute video and it&#039;s part of the NSPCC&#039;s Virgin London Marathon preparations with Liz Yelling but if you want a masterclass in basic core exercises we doubt that you&#039;ll find anything else out there that&#039;s as clear, succinct and easy to follow. And, let&#039;s face it, with Christmas coming up fast and all those special dinners and evenings out to deal with, your core is going to be needing all the help it can get by January.

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TurboTorture vs everyone else!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9383.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[As a bit of pre-Christmas camaraderie, Richard Stannard&#039;s TurboTorture are putting on a feature night of fun and hard training, so re-arrange your schedule, organise the babysitter, dust off the turbo trainer and make this session the one you attend! Oh, and it&#039;s free which will make it even more enjoyable.

TurboTorture have invited Thames Turbo and all the other local clubs to battle it out on turbo trainers for a fun filled training session. The emphasis is on having fun and training hard and it will be supported by Powerbar, Vitamin Water and CycleOps. CycleOps will provide a variety of turbo trainers for those who don&#039;t have one or wish to try another model and will also have Power Tap wheels on trial. (Please contact Paula at info@turbotorture.com if you wish to put your name down to use any of the CycleOps equipment, it&#039;s a &#039;first come first served&#039; basis.)
 
For more information on what to bring to the session for full enjoyment, please have a quick read through of the &quot;What to Bring&quot; page on www.turbotorture.com Christmas drinks/food will be available at The Bells of Ouzeley (Harvester), Straight Road, Old Windsor SL4 2SH following the session, all are welcome.]]></description></item></channel></rss>
