<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Columns - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest columns on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Lisboa International triathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3272.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[An update on Lisboa International Triathlon which took place last Saturday:  Alun Woodward actually finished in eighth place, I finished seventh female (the race organisers listed me under the other half of my dual nationality but with a new name!), and Edwina in eighth ensured there was plenty of GB representation in the top ten, particularly with Paul Amey taking a classy overall win. Darren Treadaway had a stormer and finished 17th, just five minutes behind Marino V, not bad considering he&#039;s not giving up his day job just yet to turn pro.

This race is unique in that whoever finishes &#039;in the money&#039; (so to speak) earns it, whether pro or age-group/amateur. The podiums: well for GB there was the overall male winner of course, Paul Amey, who did eventually make it to the after party and presentations, about an hour late! Age group podiums were: George Hodgson M65-69 winner (and oldest in the race!), Paul Amey M35-39 winner, Fiona Moorhead-Lane F35-39 second and Edwina Carter F25-29 third.

It became obvious the Portuguese race organisation won&#039;t distinguish pro categories from age-groups, as despite earning prize money cheques for a top ten finish, we were also given the age group prizes! They do, however lay on a fantastic post-race party at the Lisbon Casino; fully catered with an open bar, to say it was popular would be an understatement. There were many more GB athletes out in Lisbon this year, with Optima racing team, Tri Force Herts and East London Tri well represented, to name a few clubs in and around London. Notably of course, out on the course were the numbers making up the Irish contingent! The race has doubled in competitor numbers over the past three years and is still growing. A very well organised event, great course and perfect pancake (well-almost!) conditions this year for PBs. Cheers, until next time, Fiona]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Crazy Gang do triathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3172.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[There is a look in professional sportsperson&amp;rsquo;s eyes when they discuss their latest challenge, be it an ironman, an FA Cup final or baking a lemon souffl&amp;eacute;. It&amp;rsquo;s a look that says &amp;ldquo;I might be playing this down, but I am going to nail it and leave nothing on the pitch&amp;rdquo; or kitchen floor, which ever suits!

I have just experienced that laid back confident glare on the 15th floor of the ITV Studios on London&amp;rsquo;s South Bank. It came from the smiling face of Robbie Earle, a man with serious sporting pedigree.

He scored 150 goals in over 600 appearances in senior club football; he scored Jamaica&amp;rsquo;s first ever World Cup goal in their debut in 1998; and most memorably, was a part of the infamous Wimbledon Crazy Gang. Think Denis Wise squaring up to players twice his height and Vinnie Jones grabbing Gaza&amp;rsquo;s testicles&amp;hellip; ringing a bell?

Well Robbie Earle, MBE, was the gentleman of the gang, and is now one the many gentlemen at ITV Sport; my new home from home. These days Robbie is hoping to add a new title to his collection - Robbie Earle Triathlete.

Triathlon was never a childhood dream of Robbie&amp;rsquo;s; he blames his involvement on beer. &amp;ldquo;One of my mates brought up the idea, with a few on board, and we decided it was a good idea. A couple of days later, when I discovered the distances involved, I did question the decision&amp;rdquo;. But there is no going back for Robbie and his mates and they will be making their debut in this year&amp;rsquo;s Windsor race.

Robbie is a fit-looking 43 year-old and his laid back demeanour barely hides the competitiveness of his playing days. Although a mere mention of the water and the grin turns to a grimace. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m not really a swimmer; it&amp;rsquo;s the one bit that really worries me&amp;rdquo;.

He shares most people&amp;rsquo;s fears when it comes to the swim, &amp;ldquo; It&amp;rsquo;s all those people scrambling around in the water, kicks and arms flying around.&amp;rdquo; Like all good sportsmen he has spotted his weakness and is doing something about it. &amp;ldquo;I have my first swimming lesson tomorrow as I really want to get my technique right&amp;rdquo;.

I had to talk Robbie out of going for a pre-swim run, as he will soon realise the swim coach can be cruellest of all. &amp;ldquo;If I can crack the swim and just get out of the water safe, I might start enjoying myself&amp;rdquo;. Having dealt with some of the toughest players in top-flight football, I think he&amp;rsquo;ll be able to handle himself.

As a professional footballer most of your training is taken care of within the club, but in this adventure he is on his own. &amp;ldquo;My brother sent me a training programme and gave me a book, but the detail terrified me, there is just too much information. I put it one my bedside table, it&amp;rsquo;s still there with a nice collection of coffee stains on it&amp;rdquo;.

The big man seems to managing just fine on his own as he helps his wife train for the London Marathon, but he is looking forward to really focusing on his tri training. &amp;ldquo;I plan on copying football&amp;rsquo;s pre-season programme&amp;rdquo; That&amp;rsquo;s six weeks of hard, lung busting pain, only this time the ball has been swapped for a bike and wetsuit.

A very nice new Specialised bike as it happens &amp;ldquo;I went into the bike shop and told them what I was doing, the guy said this was the bike he gave Alan Shearer for his biking challenge and I thought if it&amp;rsquo;s good enough for Shearer it&amp;rsquo;s good enough for me&amp;rdquo;.

He looked shocked when I told him about the benefits of chammy cream, but excited when we discussed wetsuits. My Apex 2 has been a huge benefit to me, so here&amp;rsquo;s a message to Orca; send Robbie one now! Once the bug hits he&amp;rsquo;ll be wearing it a lot and his fans will be watching.

So how is he fixed as the clock to Windsor ticks down?

Well he has already been doing brick sessions of 5k on the bike and 2k runs, and can bang out a 10k in under 50 minutes, but his first big challenge is just around the corner. &amp;ldquo;Myself and my mates are going down to the lake for a swim, and then it&amp;rsquo;s on the bikes for 30k to one of lads&amp;rsquo; houses and then a run. It&amp;rsquo;ll be my first time doing the disciplines in sequence so if I hate it I can do the relay&amp;rdquo;.

There is no way Robbie will do the relay, he is committed to the race and I think he might surprise himself.

Of course, the humble Mr Earle plays it down when I suggest he will put in a good time. &amp;ldquo;I would like us all to finish the race together, it&amp;rsquo;s a team thing and it&amp;rsquo;s for a very good cause&amp;rdquo;. Robbie and his pals from the pub that night are racing for the Emily Ash Trust, please visit their Just Giving page (www.justgiving.com/eatrust/donate)as it&amp;rsquo;s a very good cause; a charity that has motivated the kind of team bonding that he had during his days with the Crazy Gang. So, look out for him on race day, he&amp;rsquo;ll be the one smiling from ear to ear, guaranteed.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Confused? You will be...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1482.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Someone else will be writing the weekend preview piece this week so I thought that I would get in an early observation or two about the coming weekend&#039;s interesting mathematics. To be honest, I&#039;m still not really sure I have all the intricate details worked out, despite several lengthy conversations with people who do, but then (as long-term readers of the old Triathletes Homepage may remember) I do have a history of being bamboozled by numbers!

This weekend&#039;s BG World Cup race in Ishigaki, Japan is the last opportunity to score ranking points that will ensure an athlete a place on the starting pontoon at Madrid - the race which many countries, including GB, are using to decide their squads for Olympic selection. (Technically a British athlete can&#039;t be selected for the Olympics based on their result at Madrid, only put forward to the British Olympic Association for their selection.) So, with the entry list for Madrid closing one day before the World Cup race in Korea, there&#039;s everything to play for.

To get an automatic slot on the pontoon you&#039;ll need to be in the top 25 of the ITU&#039;s World Rankings - which currently puts Tim Don and Andrew Johns there for sure and, barring an excellent result by Will Clarke in Ishigaki, should also mean that Stuart Hayes and Olly Freeman are there as well. For the women there&#039;s Andrea Whitcombe, Liz Blatchford, Helen Tucker and Kerry Lang in there at the moment but there&#039;s a statistical possibility that both Lang and Tucker could get dislodged.

So, who is racing in Ishigaki to defend their positions? In the men&#039;s field there&#039;s just Tim Don and Will Clarke while the women&#039;s field includes Tucker and Lang plus Jodie Swallow and Hollie Avil. So there&#039;s still the chance of a bit of a change-around in the rankings to make life more interesting!

Those who know the World Cup system will have spotted that we have only talked about the fact that start slots based on the top 25 rankings and the fact that, as far as GB is concerned, we could get up to four men and four women onto the start at Madrid as a result. Each nation gets a maximum of six slots and, as far as GB is concerned, the other two slots are allocated on a discretionary basis. The first of those slots goes to a ranked athlete who isn&#039;t in the top 25, the next-in-line if you like while the other is a completely discretionary slot and can be used to get World Cup experience for an athlete. If there are less than four GB athletes in the top 25 after Ishigaki then the number of discretionary slots will expand accordingly.

And, after Ishigaki, there&#039;s Tongyeong in Korea - which gives us a perfect example of how the system works. Down on the men&#039;s start list are Don, Hayes, Johns, Clarke, Brownlee and Nicholls while the women&#039;s start list shows Whitcombe, Blatchford, Avil and Wellington. Yes, you read that right, Chrissie Wellington is down to start in Korea.

Now, there&#039;s no way that she can get enough points from even a win in Korea to get into the rankings that will count for Madrid - if you have been reading carefully you&#039;ll remember that the Madrid start lists close the day before Tongyeong. So, why is she down to race? Well, the obvious answer is to see how she goes in a World Cup field after she&#039;s recovered from Ironman Australia. But, surely, if she cannot qualify to get a start in Madrid, what&#039;s the point?

And, gentle reader, this is the bit that still confuses! Totally theoretically and setting aside all that&#039;s been previously said, it would be possible for an athlete to be selected to go to the Olympics based on their potential as opposed to the number of points that they have scored! They do have to be in the ranking system and they do have to be above a certain level but the choice of which athletes are put forward to the BOA is down to the selection policy set out by British Triathlon.

Given that, while we have three slots secured for the men&#039;s field in the Olympics, we currently only have one secure woman&#039;s slot and a second one which, statistically at least, ought to be secure it seems strange to be speculating on the chances of a complete outsider making it into the selection process. There is an outside chance of getting a third slot if we can get ahead of both Austria and France in the rankings - Kate Allen&#039;s crash last weekend may have helped us in that respect as she may be out of competiton for a while and the prospect of having ex-Brit Jess Harrison getting a slot for France ahead of her former team-mates is indeed ironic...

One thing is for sure, there&#039;s going to be massive determination on the part of the lower-ranked GB women to either make, or secure, their position in the top 25. Tucker and Lang need good results in Ishigaki to secure their hold but a blinding race from Avil or Swallow could still upset that. Dillon has set everything on being given one of the discretionary slots for Madrid - although there is the alternative path of getting a top result at the European Championships - which leaves at least three athletes vying for the one remaining Madrid slot.

While the results at Ishigaki this weekend represent the end of the beginning of the process, it&#039;s only the beginning of the end for the ultimate process which will culminate in an athlete getting a start in Beijing. There&#039;s still everything to play for!



The above comments are based on my current best understanding of the situation. Errors, omissions and completely erroneous conclusions are entirely possible so don&#039;t go booking a trip to the Olympics based on this!!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[You win some, you lose some!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3142.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[One of the great things about the English language is the multitude of sayings, maxims and metaphors that allow us to take comfort from whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. For example, on the one hand, it is said that many hands make light work, but on the other, that too many cooks spoil the broth! And the world of triathlon does not escape. I have probably read just about every training journal ever written on triathlon in the quest for the holy grail; ie, to become world-class on next-to-nothing training, and I think I can legitimately divide them equally between those which say you should turn the negatives into positives and those who argue that you must be honest with yourself and learn from your mistakes.

So, in that vein, there follows a report, well, I should say two reports, on my exploits at the first in this year&amp;rsquo;s series of Thames Turbo sprint races. As you will have gathered from last month&amp;rsquo;s column, I went into this event with confidence at a low ebb and not expecting a great deal. In fact, I was expecting a kick in the teeth; a wake up call, and that is exactly what happened. At the end of 2004, I posted a time of one hour three minutes and a few seconds for this race, which got me 13th place overall and first in my age group. Some three years on, I achieve 122nd place; sixth in my age group in a time of 1:18:13. So where did it all go wrong? To help you solve this conundrum, there follows two race reports from opposite extremes of the spectrum!

Turning the negatives into positives
Even finishing an event that comprises a 438m swim; 13.5 mile bike and 5km run is something that the overwhelming majority of the adult population could not even complete, let alone do so in one hour and 18 minutes. So that puts me at the pinnacle of fitness and something I can be proud of, particularly as the pleasure of free bus travel is not that very far away. I shall be 54 in a few weeks time, so I should take comfort in the fact that I am still able to drag my ageing body around the triathlon circuit. 

In 2008, prior to the race on 24th March, I had visited a pool on just eight occasions and never managed more than 800m in any one session. One could say that this was hardly ideal preparation for my first race of the season, but we are in positive mode, so let&amp;rsquo;s search for a few silver linings to the otherwise cloudy picture. The swim time at Thames Turbo includes the time taken in T1 and at my best, my time for the 438m swim and T1 is about 8:40. Hardly Ian Thorpe stuff, but I am to swimming what Eddie &amp;ldquo;the eagle&amp;rdquo; Edwards was to ski-jumping. Enthusiastic, keen, but hopelessly out of depth!

So how do I account for the leisurely 10:45 it took me to complete the swim leg the other week? Well, those of you who ventured out early on Easter Monday, can&amp;rsquo;t help but have noticed that it was a bit cold, with snow in the air. Hardly ideal triathlon weather! I had decided before the race to wear a long sleeved compression top underneath the tri-suit and to slip on a cycling jacket over the top after the swim. That probably added 30 seconds or so to my normal time, but at the last moment, I decided to leave a pair of gloves in T1 which proved to be my downfall. To be honest, I hadn&amp;rsquo;t really thought this through beforehand and, with hindsight, I should have taken a pair of the many cycling gloves I possess. These would have slipped on pretty easily, but the gloves I had with me were running gloves that are a comfortable fit with dry hands but an excruciatingly tight fit with wet and cold hands! I must have wasted over a minute trying to get them on and although I was tempted at one stage to throw them away in disgust, I persevered and was glad I did given the cold conditions on the bike.

And so on to the bike. My times for the 13.5 mile bike leg has varied between 35 and 39 minutes but the 41 minutes I recorded this year was an all time worst. Just about the only excuse I can offer is that five minutes into the bike, I went to change up to 53 x 16 (I&amp;rsquo;m a spinner, not a grinder) but the derailleur wouldn&amp;rsquo;t shift up from the 53 x 15 and I spent the rest of the bike leg on the small ring to maintain my usual&amp;nbsp; high cadence. Heading into T2 I was already well down on the clock and heading for a personal worst time. This wasn&amp;rsquo;t helped by the fact that in T2, my frozen, numbed feet stubbornly refused to co-operate and the picture of me hopping around trying to get my running shoes on must have been a picture. In the end I gave up, sat down, and saw the funny side of things. That lost time in transition and my lack of fitness on the run, resulted in an embarrassingly slow time of 26 minutes but, being in positive mode, I wasn&amp;rsquo;t forced to stop on the run and I overtook more folk than overtook me!

So all in all, had it not been for the atrocious weather and mechanical problems on the bike, I am certain in my own mind that I would have given the eventual winner, Dan Corner, a good run for his money. Oh, and I hadn&amp;rsquo;t shaved down either. Perhaps I could have nicked the course record as well!

The ugly truth
It was awful. Compared to the general population, my effort is to be congratulated, but compared to the triathlon community, my age group peers and my own previous performances, it was everything I thought it was going to be, and worse. My first race in the 2007 series was completed in one hour and 12 minutes, but I am a notoriously slow starter and this improved to one hour and  seven minutes by the fourth and final race in August. Although I went into the race knowing that my fitness level was poor, I still thought that I was capable of avoiding a new personal worst time. Looking back on the race, and trying to be objective, I think I lost about three minutes because of the extra clothing needed, getting stopped at the &amp;ldquo;waterworks&amp;rdquo; traffic lights and having to spend most of the bike leg on the small ring. But that only brings the time down to one hour and 15 minutes, which means that I have lost about three minutes worth of fitness compared to the same time last year.

And the answer is?
Luckily, I have always been the type of person whose cup is half full rather than half empty and I will, therefore, put this minor setback behind me and think positively about where things went wrong and how to put things right. In practical terms, this means losing more weight and spending the next two months doing the sort of training, in terms of volume, that most normal triathletes would have done over the winter months. On that basis, I have set myself a target of not thinking about being race fit until the Windsor standard-distance race in June and will use four sprint events before then to gauge my fitness levels and identify any weaknesses that need to be addressed. With luck, I should be flying by the end of the season!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A tough start!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3154.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It is always a tough way to start the season. Mooloolaba is one of the hardest courses on the World Cup circuit with its infamous hill on the bike and the run; 22 climbs in total. The swim is also a little different, with the lottery of a beach start and only a single lap instead of the normal two.

This year&rsquo;s installment of round one of the World Cup did not disappoint; it was as tough as ever. I had my usual good swim and ran up on to the sand with the lead group out on to the bike it was clear after a lap that the major part of the field was together in one large group. The course has a very narrow twisty section through transition and out onto the start of each lap. With the whole of the group trying to push to the front through this section a crash or two was inevitable. At the end of the first lap Shane Reed and Javier Gomez came together and behind them another athlete&rsquo;s gears failed and a pile up followed. I managed to weave around these accidents and chase back up to the leaders fairly quickly. From then on it was a case of staying as close to the front of the pack as possible to avoid any more incidents. 

The rest of the bike ride passed without any more accidents but there were a few frantic near misses. As the group of sixty athletes arrived at T2 together position was everything. I managed to get near the front but was not right up there where I needed to be. I had a fairly fast T2 and went out onto the run with hopes of solid performance and the aim of running considerably quicker than I had done the previous year. Everyone flew out of transition and as we all approached the hill for the first of eight ascents one spectator described it as looking like a cavalry charge into battle! With the standard of World Cup racing improving each year and the athlete&rsquo;s all running at very similar speeds this scene will be repeated in many races through out this Olympic year. 

I had run a 34:28 in 2007 for 17th place and knew I was in much better shape, I could feel I had good form running up and down the first hill and aimed to hold this for the remainder of the run. As I went out onto the second lap I stared to pick off a few athletes and found that my speed on the down hills was really helping my rhythm.

As the run progressed I found I could not catch the two small groups ahead and it was only over the last hill that I managed to pass a few more athletes and close in on the top twenty. In a surge for the line I ended up seconds off the back of these groups of athletes and in 23rd place. My run split was a 32.23 over two minutes faster than last year, a time with which I would have placed 3rd in 2007! However, with this being an Olympic year and selections at stake it seems that I may need to find another minute on the run to reach the podium in 2008. 

On another note; It is my pleasure to announce that Autoglass are continuing their support for the coming season. Autoglass has been my main sponsor for the last three seasons and they have agreed to continue the sponsorship throughout my Olympic campaign and beyond. 

Autoglass has very strong links with triathlon. In fact they have their own wave at the London Triathlon, &lsquo;The Autoglass Wave&rsquo;. Via this venture they raise hundreds of thousands of pounds each year for the MaAfrika Tikkun Charity see www.belrontri.com for more details.

It is my privilege to help as many of those involved as I can, with training advice and guidance and several hard swim, bike and run sessions. I look forward to seeing all those involved again this season for some more triathlon training. However, I cannot be sure that they will all be pleased to see me! Keep fit guys and see you in the summer.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Just to get the story straight!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3136.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The season has just started and unfortunately mine has been delayed. I wasn&rsquo;t able to race at Mooloolaba World Cup at the weekend due to a virus that hampered my preparation in the lead up to it. I hadn&rsquo;t been feeling very well and just wasn&rsquo;t ready to start racing just yet so unfortunately I was a late withdrawal. This means I won&rsquo;t be racing at New Plymouth this weekend either and will probably have to wait until the Olympic selection race in Madrid to get my season underway. This is when you will see me next toe the line for the start. Before that though I will be heading back to the UK and sunny (I&rsquo;m hoping) Loughborough.
 
I have been coaching Stu Hayes and again he performed strongly to finish 12th in his first world cup of the season. Mine and Stu&rsquo;s training partners, Emma Davies and Richard Stannard, did really well too and finished 15th and 23rd respectively.
 
They will all race this weekend in New Plymouth so look out for their results! I will be there too, cheering them from the sidelines.
 
Take careMichelle]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Boys and their toys]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3100.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[&ldquo;Triathletes are swimming coaches&rsquo; pensions&rdquo;, or so says a chlorine-clad coach I know. He says we are prepared to buy any old gadget to go faster, even if they are clearly ridiculous. To be fair, it was hard to argue with him. Us triathletes love toys, and why shouldn&rsquo;t we? We train hard enough!

I am quite into swimming gadgets at the moment, I love jumping into the slow lane of the pool and terrifying the pensioners with my range of toys. I line them up poolside so it looks like I am about to perform some kind of rectal examination, they leap out of the water and I get the lane to myself. I rarely actually use any of the stuff, it just looks cool.

Well I have recently found the most exciting way of acquiring new toys. Wiggle! No that&rsquo;s not a command but a brilliant internet bike store. I spent hours reading and researching, looking for a bike that would suit somebody as useless on two wheels as myself. The answer was a full-on carbon fibre Focus; well it works for Stuart Hayes!

The day it arrived was so exciting, I was like a child. A huge box was brought to my doorstep and inside was he coolest looking machine I have seen in ages, White saddle, white handle bar tape and it is CF heaven. All I had to do was take it out of the box, twist the bars into position and lie to my wife about how much it actually cost. In fairness to the gang at Wiggle, it was good value, hassle free and quick, so think again before entering your bike shop.

If only I had time to cycle the damn thing. I have just left BBC Sport to start with ITV Sport. It has been a fairly stress-free move, and my new job is brilliant but time consuming. Add to that my parents being ill recently, and the kids getting more demanding of Daddy&rsquo;s time, and the result is training has not really featured strongly of late. I have heard lots of stories about amateur triathletes losing a sense of priorities with training and their families suffering; as much as I love the sport, family come first. This just means Annie Emerson has her work cut out if I am to put in any decent times this year.

So I may be adding a few minutes on to my planned PBs for the season. Now, if it would stop raining and the wind would stop blowing, I might just put this bottle of Chablis down and do something.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Under a week to go!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3099.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[With under a week to go to the start of the ITU World Cup season the Gold Coast is filling up with triathletes. The rest of the British Team arrived a couple of days ago and are staying about 20 minutes drive down the coast. Emma, Stu, Michelle and I may or may not see the guys before we all head up to Mooloolaba next week. 

The last few weeks training has been extremely tough. We have all coped well and are looking forward to a taper into the first two races. Mooloolaba is one of the tougher courses on the World Cup circuit with a hard sea swim followed by a windy and hilly eight-lap bike, and finally a four lap hilly run. Each bike and run lap goes up and over the same hill so you end up doing sixteen reps on the bike and eight on the run! This will be a perfect race to see how the training has gone.

The following week we all head over to New Zealand and New Plymouth. I have fond memories of New Zealand as it was in Queenstown in 2003 that I won my first World Title in the Aquathlon. The temperature there will be significantly cooler than the Gold Coast and both Emma and I have packed arm warmers, leg warmers and jackets as we venture back to cooler weather. From New Zealand we travel back to Australia as the season gets well and truly under way.

I will aim to keep everyone posted on events in Mooloolaba and New Plymouth. Whilst in Australia I have taken the time away from training to learn and understand a bit more about my website: www.richardstannard.com. I have started updating it myself and adding a few cool new tricks. Check out my Gold Coast photos which I have animated into a short movie on my multimedia page. I hope to keep these montages running for each event and training camp throughout the season.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Is it really just a few weeks away?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3034.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[As I walked to Woking station this morning in the driving wind and rain, I thought to myself, &quot;will I really be swimming in an open air pool and cycling around Sunbury and Chertsey wearing nothing but skin tight lycra in just a few weeks time&quot;? On the one hand, the answer is &#039;yes&#039;, the first in the four-part Thames Turbo sprint series kicks off on March 24th and I will be there. But, on the other hand, unless Mother Nature is very kind to us on the day, the chances are that something a bit more weatherproof and warmer than a single layer of lycra may be required come race morning!

Don&#039;t get me wrong, Hampton Pool is heated and is a pleasure to swim in however cold the ambient temperature, but waiting in the queue for your start time wearing nothing but your swim cossie can be a daunting experience. For those new to the race series, I would recommend that you keep a warm top on for as long as possible and discard it at the last moment, either to a friend or on the ground somewhere safe and out of the way. You can also check out Tri247&#039;s handy guide to the race.

What to wear in these early season races can also be an issue. There will always be the bravehearts who have no hesitation in wearing nothing but the skimpiest of trisuits and who can be heard after the race saying that it wasn&#039;t really that cold. But for us lesser mortals, there are several ways of ensuring that our bodies aren&#039;t reduced to a shivering wreck in T1 and on the bike/run. The temptation, of course, is to put on another layer in T1 over your tri-suit or swim cossie. Fair enough, but take my word for it about the difficulty of slipping on a tight cycle top, for example, over a wet, tired and generally uncoordinated body. If you do go for the cycle top option, find one that has fairly loose arms with a front zip &ndash; and don&#039;t forget to pin one of your numbers on the back or to put the number over the top of the jersey if you prefer using a race belt.

If the weather is simply cold rather than freezing, then something like a cycle gilet may be worth thinking about. But my plan this year is to try something a little different. For a few weeks now, I have been wearing a certain brand of compression clothing, which, despite its thinness, has kept me pleasantly warm in every type of condition the English weather has thrown at me. To be honest, I have no idea whether these garments retain their fit when immersed but I am likely to find out when I slip one on under my trisuit come the  24th March! And if it&#039;s really cold, I might even fold up a pair of arm warmers on my arms which I can then unfold as the bike leg progresses. Neither am I sure how much all of this will slow my swim down, but to be honest, (a) I&#039;d rather be warm and a minute slower than fast but hypothermic, and (b) my swim times are so slow that the odd bit of drag isn&#039;t really going to affect the outcome!

Those of you who read my last but one blog will know that my winter training was far from ideal. A very busy time at work has meant that training has paid second fiddle to almost everything else and for about the third year in succession, I face my first race of the season unfit and uncertain about my fitness level. My record over the Thames Turbo course is 1 hour 3 minutes, but on each of the opening races in 2006 and 2007, I managed a paltry 1 hour 12 minutes. If I was being honest, I wouldn&#039;t hold out too much hope of beating that time this year, but that won&#039;t stop me from giving 100% and racing as hard as my body will allow. I just fear that at some stage, either on the bike or the run, I will run out of steam and suffer. I hate being unfit and I hate not being competitive, but events over the past three years have conspired against me and once again, I find myself having to get race fit during the season rather than before.

My next blog will be due a few days after the Thames Turbo race so expect a full account of my exploits &ndash; warts and all!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Training and racing on the Gold Coast]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3019.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Double World Aquathlon Champion, Richard Stannard, is back! We hadn&#039;t heard from him for a while, but as he finalises his preparation for May&#039;s Olympic qualification race down under, he took time out from his hectic training schedule to bring us this report!



With only a few months to go to Olympic trials, and only a few weeks till the World Cup season opener, it was with excitement and a sense of d&eacute;j&agrave; vu that I boarded the British Airways flight to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

This time round, I have been five or maybe six times before, it felt a little different, I had company in the form of Irish international triathlete and Olympic hopeful, Emma Davis, my training partner. She is one very dedicated athlete and a real inspiration. Despite her nerves about going to a triathlon-crazy country like Australia, where even the local barber can talk shop with any pro, I tried to calm her nerves with endless stories of Saturday morning crit rides that may as well be a World Cup with the number of ranked athletes showing for a burn up around the Luke Harrop memorial track. I continued with tails of lightning-fast transitions and Australia&rsquo;s East Coast being the proving ground of many of today&rsquo;s top athletes, at all distances. I think I made things worse!

I had a trick up my sleeve though, I told her to pack a spare set of underwear in her hand luggage and not to ask any questions. Thinking I was being a little kinky she obliged, but with an odd look on her face. My plan was simple, the flight to Brisbane stops over in Singapore for a couple of hours and I have learned on previous trips that for &pound;3 you can have a shower and cold drink in the Rain Forest Lounge. So courtesy of nameonkit.com (the company paid!) we both had a relaxing shower and a cold drink, which made the second flight into Brisbane that much easier to bear.

The jet lag to Oz can be a nightmare, but we both seemed to cope well! Despite falling asleep at 1630 on the first afternoon, we both made the 0530 swim set the next morning, and did a full days training! 

On day three we met up with Stu Hayes and Michelle Dillon, who have both been out here since November. They are both in great shape and should prove excellent training partners. Add into the mix Natalie Barnard, Loughborough student, out here for a month of intense training and Neil Brooks (aka Brooksie) Olympic Gold Medallist swimmer, who are both serious age group triathletes, and you have the makings of a focused squad.

By the end of the first week both Emma and I decided to throw ourselves in at the deep end and race the Saturday morning crit, followed directly by kilometre reps on the treadmill. Stu informed me that the day&#039;s race would be a tough one as we were only one week away from the ITU Oceania Cup race, which forms part of the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon weekend held each March, and a lot of Europeans had just arrived on the Gold Coast. He was right, from the gun the race exploded with guys missing packs, some getting punctures and others just not ready, being straight out of a European winter. Michelle and Emma were fantastic, they both were able to mix it up with the men and Michelle even pulled a turn in the A grade race! With the race just finished, Courtney Atkinson (who has already qualified for the Australian Beijing Olympic team) dropped his bike on the finish line and one super-quick transition later he was straight into a 5km run off the bike! We cycled straight off to the gym at the Sports Super Centre, in Runaway Bay (where both Emma and I are staying) which is right next door to the track and hit the treadmills. Stu cranked the gauge up to 20km/hour and jumped on for the first rep. Emma and Natalie were swapping turns and I had a treadmill of my own. Not only had the crit been the hardest of the year so far according to Stu, but it was also the hottest day of the Australian summer as well. In the end we had cleared all the treadmills of the regular users, who were giving us some very strange looks as our squad of World Cup triathletes hammered out a very hard brick session. 

To end the first week we hit the mountains inland from the coast for a long Sunday ride. With the first week over the focus turned to the following weekend and the first race of 2008 for the squad. 



Since Richard sent us this update, the squad has raced the ITU Oceania Cup points race and a full report can be read here.]]></description></item></channel></rss>