<?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[Chrissie and Dave...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6616.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[John&#039;s  been hassling me to get my column updated; where does life go to? How do we fit  all the normal stuff into every day and then still make time for blogs,  articles, coaching, real life stuff. I guess we all do, because we&#039;re triathletes  and we&#039;re used to juggling stuff all the time so we do fit it in, and we do get  it all done.
One  thing I did make time for was the TCR Show. Ok, I was there to talk about novice  triathlons but there just a few (yeah, like about 100) interesting speakers,  even more interesting than me in fact. A certain Miss Chrissie Wellington, a certain  Mr Dave Scott. 
Now I  wrote an article a few months back about the twenty top triathletes over the  last twenty years. In many ways, it was unfair on Chrissie and unfair on Dave... because Chrissie had just broken through (and how!) and the last twenty years  cuts out the biggest part of Dave Scott&#039;s triathlon career, although not his  comeback in 1994 when he narrowly lost to Greg Welch in Hawaii.
So let&#039;s just examine exactly how  great - not an exaggeration, certainly not - these two are. Dave Scott totally  dominated Hawaii  through the 80s; he didn&#039;t win every time out... only six! Think about that,  to qualify for Hawaii  is tough, to qualify as a pro is tougher, to make top ten, oh my God! To win Hawaii... can you  imagine... to win SIX times! Legend, true legend. But when Dave spoke, he said  &quot;I guess the one race I&#039;m really remembered for is 1989... when I lost to Mark  Allen&quot;. How tough is that? Win six times and be remembered for the one you  lost. Or maybe even the two, in 1994 to Greg... when Dave was in his forties! Not true of course. Dave Scott will always be  remembered for being one of the absolute greats, if not the greatest, Ironman  athletes of all time.
And  then you move onto Chrissie... not a bad little career there eh? Win at Lausanne as an age  grouper (fastest age grouper in the field, not just her own age group). Turn  pro... and win Hawaii  after an embarrassingly short while. First win in Hawaii. A huge surprise to almost everyone,  (although maybe not Chrissie and her coach). That amazing mental attitude that  she and Dave have, the attitude of &quot;I can do anything, absolutely anything&quot;.  The second win... not a surprise, everyone in the triathlon world was  calling it as a banker. But the way Chrissie did it was amazing. Have a  puncture, lose 15 minutes by the side of the road - and can you imaging the  mental torment that went along with that - get an air can from the totally, totally selfless Rebekah Keat, and then win comfortably. And the third  win, this one after breaking the iron-distance world record in Europe, break Paula&#039;s  record in Hawaii.  Some race, some athlete, some individual.
What  came across from both the Champs was the importance of a positive mental  attitude; what came across from both was the importance of quality in training.  Two things common to both, the mark of a champion.
I am reminded  of a story that I read some looooooong time ago...
It is  in the future, a long time in the future, and another fantastic Ironman  champion, Scott Tinley, is standing at the pearly gates waiting to enter. St  Peter approaches him, takes his name, does all the checking and confirms that,  yes, Scott Tinley may enter heaven. 
  &quot;But what&#039;s it like?&quot; says the suspicious  Tinley. 
  &quot;Heaven is fantastic&quot;, comes back St Peter,  &quot;you can do whatever you want here, you can make anything come true&quot;.
  Tinley: &quot;Do you have Ironman here?&quot;
  St Peter: &quot;Of course&quot;
  &quot;And you say that I can do anything? Can you  guarantee that Dave Scott won&#039;t beat me?&quot;
  St Peter: &quot;Consider it done, Dave Scott will  NOT beat you&quot;
  Ironman  race day duly arrives in heaven, Tinley is flying, the swim goes well, the bike  a dream, the run totally without sore legs, the finish line beckons... The  title is Tinley&#039;s!
And  then, as so many times in the past, that familiar figure, the characteristic  rolling gait of the run, the flowing hair and moustache... Dave Scott runs past  to beat him on the line.
Tinley  is distraught, and St Peter wanders over...
&quot;You promised me! You promised me that  Dave Scott wouldn&#039;t beat me!&quot;
&quot;St Peter, &quot;Oh that wasn&#039;t Dave Scott, that was God. He just thinks he&#039;s Dave Scott...&quot;

Steve  Trew]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Richard Hobson: how do we train for Ironman?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6560.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[One  month down and that was the best January&#039;s training I have had for many years. It started badly, as I know many other&#039;s did, due to the adverse weather but  then I did get in three good weeks. 
Swimming is a bit of an issue as  I have only managed a couple of sessions but as I keep telling myself  that is the least important at the moment. For me good training now consists of  one session a day with some longer sessions at the weekend. In the good old days  of being a full time athlete and having all day to train, this would have seemed  quite pathetic, but I need to forget those days. I need to consider  all the other things that now need to get done in the day. I need to  remember I am a bit older, I am not going to be as fast or fit. 
Actually I  have found that one of the main reasons I can still enjoy my triathlon,  particularly the racing is that I do not mind that I am not as good as I  used to be. I do not compare what I can do today with what I did 15 years ago  and I do not care what other people expect of me. It is a shame how often  people decide not to race just because of the reasons above. 
The  way my days are I know that for me to realistically train to do an Ironman in  just over three months I need to be organised, so my days now consist of getting up  fairly early around 7am then doing a few hours in the office - coaching work -  this  also needs to include waking the rest of the family and getting the  kids out the door to school for 8.15. I then need to get my training done as  straight after this it is into our working clothes and out to the building  site. We are renovating a very old 16th century farm house that we plan to  be living in, in  a years time, and if you see it now you would laugh.  I may attach a few photos just so you can see what I mean, but it  does mean I have my own digger to play on! Then in the evening it is back  to a bit of catching up with emails and coaching stuff. 

The  other thing I need to do is set my goals, but I need to wipe the slate on times  and performances of the past and be realistic to what I can do in 2010. My  goals and targets need to motivate and help prepare me for the year  ahead, and even though my main race focus is on doing Lanzarote Ironman and  maybe Hawaii, these are not really what I would say are my main goals for 2010.  I just want to be fitter and faster this year than I have been for the past 10  years I want to race well in all the races I do and this will include  triathlon, bike races, run races and anything else I like the sound of!
So  my 2010 goals:

  Back       in the top-10, Lanzarote Volcano Olympic distance tri (May 2010) 
  Sub 1hr       20 at La Rochelle       half marathon (March 2010) 
  Sub       35 min 10km (not sure when) 
  Average       over 400 watts for my 20km TT circuit (later in year) 
  Run       a sub 3 hr 30 marathon at Lanzarote IM (May 2010)
  Go       to Hawaii       - enjoy the race and the experience. 

Quite  a mixed bag really, some just little personal challenges and others a bit more  significant. The one I should explain is my Lanzarote Ironman goal, as I am sure  most people would be more specific, they would want to achieve a time or a  finishing position but I have just said a sub 3hr 30 marathon. That  may seem a bit of a cop-out, but actually it is quite simple. I know that for  me to have a good race in Lanzarote it will come down to how well I  run. This does not mean that I do not care how I swim or  bike, but it means I need to be able to get to the run and still be able to run.  Traditionally I was known as a biker but this always meant I started the run  shot. I need to learn from this and hold back so I can run.  Overall  times are irrelevant especially in a race like Lanzarote where the weather  and terrain play such a huge role, finishing positions are also irrelevant  as I have no idea about the competition. If I achieve this goal I  will have had a good race and if I have a good race I should be able to  qualify for Hawaii!!!  That&#039;s the theory anyway.
My  goal to go to Hawaii  is very subject to finances, so we will have to see later on how this goes.  Any sponsorship offers would be greatly appreciated! 

January  is now over and February is a bit easier for me as I have a light at the end of  the tunnel, namely I have two weeks in Club La Santa, Lanzarote. I cannot  wait for some warmth and sun. The first week is my long distance camp  with 20 people all training for Ironman and will be a bit of a hell  week but should be awesome (if you want to  see the programme click here). Then the second week is a camp I run for the London based club Club  Ful-on Tri (www.fulontri.com) and will be 40 people. These weeks are hard work but also great fun  and I do get good training.
Anyway  enough of the chit chat and down to some serious stuff. In the last blog I  said I wanted to get some words of wisdom from different athletes and this  month I have got double reigning world champion (XTERRA and Ironman 70.3) and double  Olympian, Julie Dibens answering a few questions and interestingly Julie has  made her intentions to race Hawaii 2010 public.
You can read my interview with Julie HERE
So the question I left us all asking  last month was how do we train for Ironman and in particular the over distance  element of it? I think it is clear from Julie&#039;s answers that this really is a  hard one to answer. But for me there are two key parts to Ironman that you need  to prepare for:

  The       physical time that you will be out racing for: so 8hr to 16hr 
  The       intensity you need to be able to sustain for this time. 

Both are key but the balance to which  is most important depends on which end of the physical time scale you are  on. So if you are an 8hr Ironman athlete (in other words one of the top in  the world), your focus will really be about holding as high a pace as possible  for that duration. It is about winning and really pushing the limits. If you  are closer to the 16 hr mark than the intensity become less important but the  conditioning to keep going for so long becomes paramount. Everyone  training for Ironman will fall somewhere between these two extremes and  then it is a case of just getting  the balance right.  
The reason this is so important is  that your training needs to completely prepare you for your racing. So many  times I have watched people do the most awesome training but as it is so non-specific to what they are preparing for, their races have been a disaster. There  is no point riding 8 hours a day at 15km an hour if you plan to race for 6 hours at  20km per hr. 
So your training needs:

  to involve       long hours conditioning yourself for the sheer physical demands of       competing for such a long time, so time in the saddle and pounding the       streets is important. 
  it needs       to prepare you for the intensities you plan to race at, do you actually       know what intensity you will race at? If you do not then you need to start       working it out as this is your key training zone! 
  you need       to train tired so that you get use to the feeling of running already       knackered 
  you also       need to get plenty of recovery at the right time else it will all go       horribly wrong 
  So it is a       case of really overloading the body to a point just before it breaks but       then allowing it to fully recover. This point is critical and very       difficult to judge. Stop too soon and you will not get the best return       from the training, stop too late and it just may take you over the edge, so       sickness / injury will follow. 
  You can       plan for over distance bike sessions as these you can recover from ok,       but I would never plan to do over distance run sessions as they are just       way too stressful on the body 
  preparing yourself       for the running needs to come out of the volume you build one day to the       next, one week to the next and one month to the next - so marathon runners       will never run 42km in training but they may be running over       100km in a week.  

Enough for now as it is time for me to  go do some training, next month I will:

  be giving       a bit of a report from my Long Distance Camp in Lanzarote 
  hopefully       have tracked down my next victim to interview 
  highlight       some of the key sessions I feel are vital to Ironman training 
  hopefully       have received my two new Ceepo bikes so will need to show you these (!) and       also mention some other bits ok kit that really excite me. Sad I know! 

Richard Hobson]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Triathlon: the new team sport?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6479.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[While the sport of triathlon may be an individual event - at least at the non-drafting level - there is no doubting that the professional ranks of triathlon are increasingly seeing benefits of a team approach to the sport, and the marketing of athletes and brands in particular. 
In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of high profile professional and/or development triathlon teams, as sponsors and athletes recognise that there can be greater brand awareness and exposure by being associated with a group of athletes, rather than individuals alone.
With British athletes proving successful in all disciplines within the sport, it is not surprising that these squads have had, or continue to have, a strong British interest. Several Brits have started 2010 with some very welcome news... 
Commerzbank Triathlon Team
2009 ended on a positive note in once sense for former Ironman UK winner Scott Neyedli, as he regained the Scottish Ironman record at Ironman Western Australia, finishing in second place. That performance was however offset by the knowledge that it was Scott&#039;s last race in the colours of the Commerzbank Triathlon Team (formerly Kleinwort Triathlon Team), led by twice Ironman World Champion Normann Stadler. 

Despite that loss for Scott, there are a number of Brits who have recently announced positive associations with new or existing teams.
Team TBB (www.TeamTBB.com)
One of the pioneers, in recent years at least, is TeamTBB which has gained widespread public awareness in the triathlon world through the Brett Sutton coached squad. Chrissie Wellington turned pro with the team in 2007, and won her first two Ironman World Championships as a TBB athlete. Stephen and Bella Bayliss have been longstanding and successful members of the squad, and last year Brit Abigail Bayley also joined, going on to finish second at Ironman UK, her best result to date.

2010 sees another British athlete, Tamsin Lewis, join the team. In 2009 Tamsin finished third overall, and won gold (30-34) at the World Age Group Triathlon Championships on the Gold Coast, as well as winning the Hyde Park age group race by nine minutes, recording the fastest splits in all disciplines in the process. With a former Tour de France rider as a father, cycling is in the Lewis genes. We interviewed Tamsin last year, where she said &amp;quot;I would love to be given the opportunity to take time out of work and train   full-time. At the moment I feel I&amp;rsquo;m constantly chasing my tail and have very   little down-time.&amp;quot; It looks as though she has now got that chance.  
I spoke to Tamsin about this great opportunity:
&amp;quot;Its been a bit hectic of  late as finishing off my last few days at work. Taking time out from Feb 4th to  see how I go training full time. Reluctant to say I&#039;m &amp;quot;going Pro&amp;quot; as  it sounds a bit trite, but I&#039;m going to see how training and recovering well  without work stress allows me to develop as an athlete. 

&amp;quot;I was put in contact with Brett Sutton through a mutual friend and we spent  quite a bit of time talking about my potential etc and he invited me out to the  camp in Thailand in Feb to see how I go. 

&amp;quot;I finally got some financial sponsorship together which has allowed me to take  some time out of work. I will officially be sponsored by The Priory Group (current employer) and  Baxendale Walker LLP financially. Thanks also to Simon Ward, who has kindly given me a Computrainer to see me through the long turbo sessions. 

&amp;quot;I&#039;m really excited about training full time as fitting in life as a doctor and  a triathlete has been very trying at times!
&amp;quot;I&#039;m lucky to have the support and encouragement of my boyfriend and family to  push ahead with my goals. I have no illusions that it&#039;ll be hard work... but I welcome the challenge, the  opportunity to broaden my horizons, meet new people, and push my perceived  limits. Let&#039;s see where it takes me!&quot;

I also caught up with Alex Bok, Managing Director of The Bike Boutique (TBB), and asked why they had selected Tamsin for the squad, and also his thoughts on this development of professional triathlon teams generally.
On Tamsin Lewis, and why she was selected for the squad... 
&amp;quot;Team TBB has had an excellent strike rate in developing strong age group  competitors into international triathlon stars.
&amp;quot;A lot of people look at Chrissie as the age group-to-champion pro story.  However Chrissie in many ways was following the path already trodden by Rebecca  Preston of Australia, who won the world age group title and then went on to win  four ironman races while with us. She indeed followed the same path as some of  Brett&amp;rsquo;s earlier athletes who before meeting him, never thought they could be  pro athletes.
&amp;quot;Tamsin Lewis is the latest identified for whom we hope such a meteoric rise.  Winning the age group world championship, Brett feels  that she has a  hidden ability not yet unlocked for the long course races. While she was  training for the short course races we feel her strength lies in the longer  endurance events.  I don&#039;t think too many could argue with Brett about  spotting the needs of an ironman athlete.
&amp;quot;Like Chrissie, we have offered Tamsin the chance to come to camp train with  great people who are fast athletes and will take her along slowly for the first  12months.
&amp;quot;Brett has very guarded but high hopes that she too will hit the ironman podium.&amp;quot;

On the development of professional teams in triathlon... 
&quot;It would be great to see more teams emerging in the sport for the  benefit of the athletes. A team should also be the win-win partnership between  athletes and sponsors. The sport of triathlon is rapidly gaining international  media attention, but often sponsors and athletes do not know how to find each other.  So called athlete managers is still an underdeveloped area in triathlon as the  yearly salaries of the athletes are still too small for athletes to be able to  afford individual managers. 
&amp;quot;Bringing athletes under &amp;lsquo;one roof&amp;rsquo; with a manager who can sell the team  as a package deal to a sponsor simplifies the work of a sponsor and enables  both the established athletes to get bigger deals with less effort and development  athletes to get access to sponsors they would otherwise simply not be able to  reach.
 
&amp;quot;However positive these team developments are I know Brett well and he  definitely wants and hopes that the races stay individual and not go down  the road of what he describes as farcical racing of the short course distance.&amp;quot;

Team Abu Dhabi (www.teamabudhabitriathlon.com) 
Headed by former Ironman World Champion Faris Al Sultan, Team Abu Dhabi will be entering its second season in 2010. Team Abu Dhabi is backed by the Abu Dhabi Tourist Authority (ADTA), as part of an initiative to promote the Emirate within Europe, and Al Ain in particular as a training destination. When the team was announced, part of that strategy was to &amp;quot;establish a firm foundation for Abu Dhabi to host an international triathlon   event in the not too distant future&amp;quot;, and as most readers will have seen, the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon set for Saturday 13th March 2010 is one of the most eagerly awaited triathlon debut races ever, with $250,000 in prize money up for grabs plus a course that takes in the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit. 

One British athlete who had a stunning 2009 season - two Ironman podium finishes plus sixth in Kona - is Rachel Joyce, and she has recently been announced as one of three new members of an increased squad. Not surprisingly, Rachel is very happy: &amp;quot;I am  so excited and feel really lucky to have landed a spot in the team. It&#039;ll be a great experience getting an opportunity to cycle with a &amp;uuml;ber biker like  Faris!&amp;quot; 
Trek/K&amp;bull;Swiss Triathlon Team
Only announced this week, the new Trek/K&amp;bull;Swiss Triathlon Team may possibly be the strongest &#039;team&#039; in depth around. Brits Julie Dibens and Fraser Cartmell are members of this newly formed squad, which with the addition of Michael Raelert and Chris Lieto amongst others, means that is has the current male and female Ironman 70.3 World Champion, ladies XTERRA World Champion and Kona silver medal winner. Not surprisingly for a bike company, the many of the athletes are exceptionally strong on the bike - while Andrew Yoder and Heather Jackson may not be that well known (yet) in the UK, watch out for both of them in the years to come, as they have shown glimpses of brilliance.

I caught up with Fraser Cartmell following the announcement, who said &amp;quot;Being named as part of the new Trek/K-Swiss  Triathlon Team is, for a self confessed tri-geek like myself, a huge deal! Both  companies are industry leaders and are striving to provide the absolute  benchmark in terms of equipment and athlete support and have the goal  of creating a co-branded world leading triathlon team. This is  seriously good news for me and obviously provides a fantastic platform for  me to continue down the road towards becoming a world class 70.3 and IM  athlete. Furthermore, the calibre of the other athletes on the team are  without question second to none, and I look forward to  learning as much as possible from them during the coming seasons, as I see  this as one of the major benefits of this team structure in our individual  sport&amp;quot;.  
Team Activinstinct (www.teamactivinstinct.co.uk) 
UK based pro/development team, Team Activinstinct made quite a mark in its first year during 2009. In Philip Graves, one of the next global superstars of triathlon could well have been born from the team, as Phil won both Ironman UK (the youngest Ironman winner ever), and Ironman 70.3 UK, amongst a host of other wins and top performances in cycle time trialling too. Sister Vicky Graves made a major impact too, with a &#039;full house&#039; of gold (Euro Duathlon), silver (World Duathlon) and bronze (Euro Triathlon) at junior level, while the team as a whole racked up a highly impressive list of wins and podium finishes. 
These results, and others from the likes of Dann Brook and Lois Rosindale, reflect the emphasis of the objectives of this squad - to develop and nurture talent, to bring athletes to &#039;the next level&#039;. In Philip&#039;s case, that has been achieved arguably quicker than anyone expected - perhaps even Phil himself - as his is a name now known on the world stage. 

A new team: nuun-blueseventy tri project 
Could you be the next emerging British star? How about trying out for the nuun-blueseventy tri project. The elite squad will receive $,4,500 worth of gear including a Kestrel framest, Bont shoes, blueseventy wetsuit, nuun, team kit and much more. Applications are open now...
The year ahead. 
So, who will make the biggest impact in 2010? Nobody forecast the Chrissie Wellington express in 2007, while last year, how many people predicted Philip Graves as an Ironman winner at the beginning of the year? 
It should be a fun year, and hopefully these associations and teams should provide, as Alex Bok described, a &amp;quot;win-win partnership between  athletes and sponsors&amp;quot;. I look forward to following the action as the season unfolds. ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[An epic ride!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6458.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[A week after my third Epic camp experience, I&#039;m back out on the bike. Admittedly, feeling like an old lady ....which is probably unfair to many old ladies out there. Still, at least I now have the energy to do more than drink coffee - which is about the state of things at the start of the week.

It&#039;s funny how even after 15 days of hard riding I felt that I could go on another week or more, hardly tired at all, yet as soon as I stop the fatigue hits like a ton of bricks. That&#039;s the power of motivation for you - this was clearly demonstrated by the fact that, despite this being the longest Epic camp in recent years, it is the only camp in which every single participant completed every single ride. The daily point to point nature meant that anyone seriously struggling would be compelled to get in the van - no shorter options were available! Possibly the sense of shared purpose, combined with respect of the challenge of what was an entirely unknown entity to most of us, meant that there was less &#039;destructive &#039; riding. Groups of compatible riders formed, the stronger riders in these groups being willing to pull the train for long periods each day, with those at the back sucking it up and hanging on to the unfamiliar pace and some firm bonds of respect formed throughout the camp as a result. 

Though there was less emphasis placed on running (with a mere 104km  of running through out the camp) and swimming (just 26km was the minimum) the camp was not &#039;soft&#039; with daily races or King of Mountains competitions and of course the points system contest for jerseys to prevent &#039;zombie&#039; training and keep the stronger athletes motivated and challenging themselves.
 
My experience of this camp was mixed. It was a blessing that the focus was on riding since in the week leading up to the camp something went &#039;ping&#039; in my foot and I was unable to run at all during those two weeks. Obviously I felt I was missing a heap out of the whole Epic experience, being unable to compete in the multi-sport competitions, missed out on some fantastic run routes and stuck at the bottom of the points ranking too - but it did enable me to focus on my weaknesses by swimming every day and push myself harder on the bike, rather than pummeling myself with a lot of running, as I have done on previous camps. The result being, that rather than being totally wasted five days through, I felt (mostly) good for the whole 15 days. And I rode the length of the country, which is something that few people can claim!

For an idea of what an Epic end-to-end experience is like, take a read of some of the blogs on the epic website: www.epiccamp.com 

Here&#039;s a summarization from my own experience: 
Day 0 - Assemble in Auckland
Bus journey to Kataia where we spent our first night with the formidable looking gathering of finely tuned athletes about to embark on the ride of New Zealand.
Day 1 - Cape Reinga (Kaitaia)
Two hour bus ride up to Cape Reinga, the most northerly tip of the North Island of New Zealand. We commence the journey with a 23km hilly run, with the last 10km a race, in hot sunshine. After 2km of trying, it is clear that there will be no running for me today, or for a while. My hopes are that the mysterious pain will go as soon as it appeared, and I&#039;ll be able to &#039;catch up&#039; the lost run mileage in the latter half of the camp. Running complete, the dehydrated gang get on bikes and ride 90km back to Kaitia. It was a pretty pacy ride, with everyone fesh-legged and vying for status within the group (certainly including myself) and a 28km time-trial over the last section of the route. Finally a 3k swim with 1500 time trial in the local open air pool.
Run 2.5km 
Bike 118km 
Swim 3.2km

Day 2 - Kaitia (Whangarei)
A long ride today - long and lumpy - more of the terrain that they&#039;d run over yesterday. Brisk pace and we&#039;re just getting to know one another&#039;s rear wheels. There are always better or less desirable wheels in a group, and it takes a little while to pick your favourite! Most of the ride is in rain - but it&#039;s warm and pleasant. Ride over by early afternoon, there was time for a long swim. 6km is a long swim - but worth 4 points. 
Swim 6km
Ride 190km

Day 3 - Whangarei (Auckland)
 Quick swim in the very warm leisure pool, and the terrain gets a lot more hilly. I&#039;m beginning to find myself dropped off the back of the group ...very frustrating. It&#039;s hard work to stay connected and the group splits. We are beginning to see who has the real strength on the bike ( not many surprises!). In the end Tara, Dave C and I work the last section together. I&#039;m feeling good because I feel relatively strong and Tara seems to be tiring. That&#039;s small of me, I know, especially as it turns out Tara is suffering a sore glute and holding back, as she has been so far this camp. I&#039;ll see the real Tara riding later in the camp. 
Swim 3km 
Ride 175km 

Day 4 - Auckland Corramandel Aquathon (Matamata)
Shorts are wearing out already! A leisurely start with aferry trip from Wellington across to Corramendel, where the others will be racing an aquathon. I swam a couple of laps of the harbour, feeling sorry for myself because of missing out on the aquathon, but the great climb (a KOM) that followed, and then cruising the beautiful coastal road after made up for it. 
Swim 2.4km 
Ride 160km

Day 5 - Matamata to Turangi (Lake Taupo)
This ride takes in part of the Taupo &#039;round the lake&#039; ride. Great route - more hills, and once again I loose the group in the end. Still, all the better to enjoy the scenery! Finish with a swim in Lake Taupo. 
Ride 180km
Swim 3km

Day 6 - Turangi to Wanganui
 After an early morning dip in the lake, today&#039;s ride included an optional climb up the highest metaled road in NZ - to whackapapa ski station. This is pronounced &#039;Fuck-a-papa&#039; which was sufficient motivation in itself to make the drizzly ascent. Only seven of us did so - the others being the &#039;elite&#039; crew who let me tag along with them for the rest of the day after my solo effort up the mountain rather then ride the remaining 150km alone into a headwind. Fantastic fun and even earned me a day in the green (camper of the day) jersey. 
 
Swim 3km
Ride 200km

Day 7 - Wanganui to Masterton
Another 200km ride. I&#039;m still starting out with the main group (rather than the early departing groupetta) and have resolved to do so for the whole camp. Feeling tired though and glad that the stronger riders break off today and that a second tier forms. It&#039;s still a hard pace and we miss the lunch stop. The final 50km of this ride are probably the most beautiful stretches of roads so far. 
Swim 3.4km (also - today I managed 200m fly in the pool!)
Ride 200km

Day 8 - Masterton to Wellington
Fatigue is now taking its toll. The previous couple of long, hard rides are telling and climbing over the Rimtakas into the teeth of a howling wind that had three of us off our bike didn&#039;t really help. The low moods are something that everyone on the camp is going to have to deal with at some point as we get tired. I reckon I&#039;m doing well to hold out this long!
Ride 130km
Swim 3.6km

Day 9 - Ferry to Picton and 30km spin to Blenham
Rest day and there&#039;s a certain feeling of completion. Fact is there&#039;s a helluva lot of riding to do! We are in unknown Epic territory - my previous camps have been eight days long, and so at this point, it would normally be over. Rest day comes just in time. 

Day 10 - Blenham to Kaikora
Feeling nice and fresh again- not exactly brand new, but I have been finding that without the significant load that running, even just 10k/day, adds I&#039;m able to get up and go for it again. Heart rate values seem a lot more normal ( they were getting more and more depressed over the last eight days) and I&#039;m looking forward to having a go on the KOM. With the climb soon after the start of the ride, it&#039;s best legs out from the get go, in order to ensure that I arrive at the base of the climb with the lead group. Tough riding followed with rolling terrain and strong coastal headwind (sea breezes). Reckoning that  from now I have to be smart about recovery, so arriving early ate a big lunch and slept the rest of the day. 
Swim 3.2km
Ride 130km

Day 11 - Kaikora (Christchurch) 
Started the day by knocking my head on the van door as I energetically dived in for a ride to the pool. Shoved plenty of Nurofen in my pocket. Another early KOM gets my blood pumpin&#039; - less headwind but more &#039;rollers&#039; splits the group after the climbing. Feeling pretty fresh ( that&#039;ll be them Nurofens) I&#039;m up for some hard time-trialing to catch others that are riding alone ahead. Kind of run out of steam with 50km to go ...so roll into town steady on my own. 
Swim 3.9km
Ride 190km

Day 12- Christchurch (Geraldine)
Rather than joining the others for a run in the hills I headed to the QEII centre for the 6am squad swim session, which I extended for a bonus 6km swim. That was followed by an appointment with the sports doc at the clinic there for some opinions on the foot  (which has made no improvements whatsoever but seems to be getting no worse). I&#039;m advised to end my Epic road trip here, but he realizes that&#039;s not going to happen. The chiropractor does some magic, which loosens off my foot significantly so I&#039;m hopeful that they can fix me on my return. Ride today was pretty miserable - wet, headwind and mostly along the shoulder of Highway 1. We did cross the longest bridge in the southern hemisphere though. 
Swim 6km
ride 150km

Day 13 - geraldine (Omarau)
Start of the day was a swim comp - the traditional 400IM that sorts the men form the boys. Or rather those who have a real swimming background, rather than the triathlete, freestyle pretenders. It&#039;s a great laugh though and everyone is encouraged to take part, and it&#039;s fun to see that the fastest freestylers are not always looking so slick when it comes to the other strokes! On the bikes and on our way to really south parts of the world now. After a pretty steady ride yesterday I&#039;m feeling pretty good and stick with the fast group for most of the day. We enjoy the scenery at the end of the ride though and cruise into our remote lodgings near Oamarau.
Swim 3.4km
Ride - 150km

Day 14 - Oamarau (Balclutha)
More great scenery for us - with plenty of undulations should we get bored. Wind is now on our backs and it makes for a very pleasant 195km. Last KOM toady - long climb which starts steep but more or less flattens before the top where I know I&#039;m just waiting to be eaten up by those that I dropped on the steep grade! Hard to believe there&#039;s just one more day to go, I&#039;m just getting into this. 
Swim 2.6km
Ride - 200km

Day 15 - Balclutha (Bluff)
A great mood through the camp today. It&#039;s the &#039;big&#039; day. We know the scenery will be great, and the weather gods deliver a nice tailwind for the final part of our mission on bikes. We&#039;ve had such a wonderful, unique experience; seen a beautiful part of the world, enjoyed some decent kiwi weather, met some really interesting people, ridden our shorts bare and been looked after wonderfully along the way by our support crew. Everyone is fully appreciating these things today and feeling privileged to be able to indulge in such an experience.
The riding is fun and hard over the &#039;rollers&#039;- this is my sort of terrain - with a mandatory re-group at lunch before assembling for a group ride into Bluff. A quick &#039;prestige&#039; climb of Bluff hill (30% in parts) for those who dare, before popping champagne and taking pics at Bluff point, the end of the road.
Ride 190km

Camp totals for 15 days = 99 hours 20minutes
Swim 46.4km (14hours 30minutes)
Bike 2362km (84hours 40minutes)
Run 2.5km (16minutes) 
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Blog: Richard Hobson]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6384.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Just before Christmas we interviewed Richard Hobson (aka Captain Quads), and spoke about the monthly blog he&#039;ll be writing for Tri247 in the run up to his first Ironman in 13-years. He&#039;s decided not to take the easy route and do a nice easy Ironman (is there one?!) but dive straight in at the deep end and do  Ironman Lanzarote, which is known to have one of the toughest bike courses in Ironman racing.

Richard&#039;s first blog (below) outlines what he&#039;ll be talking about over the next few months and he gives us his reasons why he decided that writing these updates will give him a better chance of achieving his 2010 goals, which will hopefully see him racing at the World Championships in Kona, in October.




Is is just me or is time really flying by, as it seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the Millennium!? I&#039;m sure we&#039;ve all set out our great plans for 2010, probably the first one is to stop eating and drinking as much, and then comes the, &#039;I had better plan some events, maybe a marathon, or a few triathlons or why not something really silly like an Ironman&#039;! Or is it just me that has these plans?
 
It does seem quite ironic though, that, as I sit down to write this (the first of my blogs for Tri247) with the aim of motivating, educating, inspiring and even reminiscing, the country is under two feet of snow, so training of any sort is almost impossible. Just this morning I found myself writing an email to all my athletes I coach to try and suggest alternative training for the sessions they had planned, but most importantly I said, and highlighted in red, you need to stay safe. I then went out for a run fell over and found myself sliding along on my back, luckily not hurt and no one saw so all ok. This time of year and for the next six to eight weeks, without doubt, is the hardest time to train, but it can also be a very important time to train, especially if you have early races; particularly Ironman to prepare for.
 
Before I go on I should just say that if anyone does want a bit more background about me than it maybe worth reading my interview that was published on Tri247 a few weeks ago, or have a quick look at my website. If you don&#039;t have the time, in summary I have been involved in the sport for around 25-years. The first ten as a full-time athlete; I was five-times British middle distance champion. I then became a full-time coach based at Bath University, where I coached a range of athletes from novice/student level through to Olympic athletes. I was there for about eight years, which was fantastic; it culminated with taking two athletes (Julie Dibens and Jodie swallow) to the Athens Olympics.
Soon after the Olympics we moved to France to set-up our new business and for me to try to re-address the balance between family, work and triathlon. Being full-time in any job does normally see a progression and often that progression takes you away from why you got into it in the first place. So for me the progression took me from athlete to a position where it was frowned upon to still want to compete, even train. Nevertheless, I was not going to become one of those coaches who can rest there coffee mug on their belly and shout from the sideline! I wanted to enjoy the sport, enjoy my coaching and not feel bad if I was out there with my athletes still trying to kick their arses! Actually in reality I think my athletes always liked this and respected me for it. So from being a full-time coach I now find myself as part-time coach, athlete, builder, Gite owner and host to out clients in France. Over the coming months I will be boring you more about all of the above. 
 
This being my first blog I would like to use it to explain a bit more about why I&#039;m writing it, and what I plan to write about over the coming months. I agreed, well actually suggested, to write this blog for a few reasons. One was to tell people a little bit about my coaching and training camps. Another reason was to help keep my name in the sport, as I am sure many of you reading this (assuming anyone is reading this!) will never have heard of me. But my main reason, and this is the honest truth, is to help me to achieve some goals that I&#039;ve made for 2010. So when I started out by saying I was hoping to motivate, educate etc, I was partly talking about myself.
 
This may sound a bit bizarre, but one thing I have learnt to realise over the years of coaching is that the biggest effect my coaching has on people is that it gives them just that extra incentive to get out the door. One of my key philosophies is that training and improvement is more about consistency than it is about content - so just getting out and doing something is better than doing one perfect workout and than a week of nothing. Of course the ultimate would be the consistency and the perfect workouts. For me I do not have that extra incentive, I do not have anyone telling me to get out, my coach (being me) is to easy to reason with and convince it is a bad idea to go out in the cold. Luckily I do have my wife that kicks me out sometimes, and the kids who remind my that I am getting fat or as they say a wobbly bottom! So the hope is that by writing this and sharing some of my plans and training ideas, and goals, it will make me stick to them. Not really sure if that makes sense, but it&#039;s worth a try, as if I&#039;m to do Lanzarote IM on May 22nd I am going to need all the help I can get!
 
So over the coming months I plan to talk about:

My short term and long-term goals 
How I plan to achieve these 
Things I have learnt as an athlete and as a coach that I feel would be beneficial 
Some of the key people who have really influenced me as a person but in particularly as athlete and a coach, and why they have influenced me  
Race prep 
Key sessions to nail 
Simple nutrition 
Equipment

 
Each month I would also like to include some words of wisdom from athletes and coaches that I have been lucky enough to have been involved with over the years.
 
This blog will have the underlying theme of Ironman. I hope it will make you ask questions and maybe help me find some answers. So to finish this first blog maybe the first question we need to answer is how should we prepare for an Ironman? Bearing in mind that key elements of training normally include: speed, endurance, over-distance, race specific training plus other things. Three of the four are quite easy to answer, but the over-distance element is a bit harder. It is accepted that training for Sprint, Olympic or middle distance races that over distance training is pretty important. Over-distance is about training for distances longer than we plan to race at, almost over preparing yourself for what is to come, building your endurance to take you to the finish line and beyond. This type of training can easily be included each week. But for Ironman is it realistic to be doing over distance training? More than 3.8km swims 180km bikes, 42km runs, on a fairly regular basis. I am hoping most of you are saying &quot;no&quot;, although I do know a few athletes that will be saying &quot;of course you can&quot;. So how do we prepare for something that we rarely cover in training? This for me is why Ironman is so special and so difficult to train for. As a coach I try to find the answer for each of the athletes I have training for Ironman, for myself as an athlete I also ask the question. I know there are different answers for different athletes and different situations, but one thing I am sure about is that for me to compete well in Lanzarote in May I need to find the strategy and then I need to implement it.
   
Next month I will have in my mind what I feel is going to be the right training plan for me, maybe if you are preparing for Ironman then you should also be thinking about this and see what you come up with. It would be a good place to start for your own planning. 
 
On a final note; I have already managed to upset one person with my previous interview in Tri247, so I need to apologies and put the cards straight. In the interview I said the only thing I miss from the UK was a Starbucks coffee, and off course that&#039;s not true as I forgot to mention the obvious (!) which was cream teas and bacon sandwiches - just joking, I meant to say my mum and Dad. Sorry Mum. 
 
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Back in the saddle]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6360.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Whilst out riding this morning I was trying to think of something interesting to write about. This blog is meant to be about my training and the trials and tribulations along the way in the build-up to Ironman Nice, in June, and hopefully Ironman Hawaii, in October. So I should be writing about my training and racing! That&rsquo;s were the problem lies. My last entry was written from my sick bed (&ldquo;Man Flu! You&rsquo;ll never fully experience and understand Man Flu&rdquo; &ndash; was the sympathy I received from one of my brothers). But seriously I was really unwell with a chest infection and it&rsquo;s taken me what seems like ages to recover and be able to train without being shattered. Boxing Day was my first ride out on the road and I can probably count the number of swim sessions I&rsquo;ve done over the last six weeks on one hand, and still have a digit to spare. And any tempo efforts are feeling like maximal effort. 

Being sick, led to the inevitable questioning from my work Colleagues, &ldquo;Are you doing too much?&rdquo; They already question the 6 &ndash; 8am swims and do not need any more ammunition. But all the questioning did lead me to reflect back on my training and recovery. It&rsquo;s difficult to say for sure. I&rsquo;d had some problems with my sinuses since September and always struggled with a runny nose after swimming. But training sessions had been going well, with my performances in key sessions getting faster. I felt like I was recovering well and well rested for the next session. I work in an understaffed NHS Physiotherapy department, currently acting as team lead for a stroke rehabilitation team. So maybe the stresses of work had a part to play. But probably more key is that I am surrounded by sick people and germs. That&rsquo;s not to say the hospital isn&rsquo;t clean, before infection control get a whiff of this and I lose my job! It&rsquo;s a hospital, people are unwell, there are germs about! It was just unlucky that my respiratory system was invaded.

Training is getting back on track. Ten days of consistent training done except swimming, as the pools we normally train in are closed and the local council pool, has had ridiculous opening hours, 8am &ndash; 4pm during the holidays, difficult if you work 8:30am &ndash; 5pm. So starting back with the Bodyworks swim sessions next week is a daunting prospect. I&rsquo;m praying the Glenn (Cook) doesn&rsquo;t start us back with the normal monster 100m sets that usual appear on a Tuesday.

I&rsquo;ve managed to come up with quite a bit. So I&rsquo;ll save my rant about women running on Eastbourne Seafront without wearing a sports bra until next month!

Happy training and racing in 2010

Sarah x
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A tough day at the office: Laguna Phuket]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6343.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[One again Stuart Lumb - aka Jet Set Super Vet - has been living up to his name, and ended his 2009 season by swapping the cold of Yorkshire for the heat and paradise of Thailand for the Laguna Phuket Triathlon.

Standing on the steps with the snow swirling round,  waiting  to board my much delayed flight from Paris to Leeds, the hot sun and blue skies  of Thailand seemed a very distant memory   &amp;ndash; in fact it was only three weeks ago that I&#039;d been slogging round as a  competitor in &amp;ldquo;The Race of Legends&amp;rdquo;. 
I&#039;d fancied having a bash for a while and  registered back in the summer hoping my fitness would be ok in December. It&#039;s  hard work keeping the training going through the autumn plus cold, short days  don&#039;t help. Open water training is not an option - for me anyway - but my gym has  a 20m  pool so I was ok there. Another hazard I have to contend with travelling so much  is plane &amp;lsquo;flu . I picked up a head cold in  November during a Malaysia  trip but fortunately it didn&#039;t last long. Curtailed my swim training though. I  thought my long &amp;ndash; suffering heel would be bothering me but I pulled a hamstring  as a result of an over zealous fartlek session so my &amp;ldquo;running&amp;rdquo; got restricted yet  again. 
Anyway, in late November  out came  the bike box and I set to and stripped down my bike. They say mishaps go in  threes&amp;hellip;.I always undo my hanger to stop it getting bent  even though I have a very solid glass fibre  box. BTW  &amp;ndash; DON&#039;T do this with your bike  on its saddle as tiny bolts can disappear down down tubes very easily!! Fortunately my long suffering race manager Mrs JSSV was in Hull that very afternoon and  stopped off at Cliff Pratt Cycles  who very kindly robbed a brand new Giant to  find me those all important bolts. Ian, who owns the business also gave me a  slug of TORQ gels and Nuun re-hydration tablets  bless his cotton socks. Mishap no. 2 - after  my wife got home I suddenly noticed I had only one spare inner tube. I always  carry two so I said to her let&#039;s hope there&#039;s a bike shop near our Thai hotel.  Another note: Have a pre-race check list and USE it! Mishap no. 3 was  actually a tragic accident. We took  the  train from East Yorkshire to King&#039;s Cross en-route to Heathrow and always allow a good few hours safety margin. Just  outside Peterborough the train ground to a halt and after about 10 minutes were  told that some poor soul had committed suicide, jumping into the path of an on-coming train... Naturally the whole main East Line was at a standstill. Time  was ebbing away and we finally got to King&#039;s Cross two hours late. 
We fought  our way out through the crowds to the taxi rank and clambered aboard a black  cab  with another Bangkok-bound traveller. The normal 45 minute  trip   actually took nearer 90 minutes  but the cab did at least take us right into the Terminal forecourt. I hate to  think what my heart rate got to - much higher than in  my toughest race! My box has wheels so we  &amp;ldquo;rocketed&amp;rdquo; into the check-in area &amp;ndash; with five minutes to spare. Ironically the  flight left half an hour late, but at least we were on it!
We were flying with Thai Airways, who  gave competitors an extra 10kg luggage allowance FOC.  Our hotel was one of several which comprise  the Laguna Phuket resort complex, some 30 minutes  drive from Phuket airport. Once settled in  the hotel staff kindly found me a local bike shop and I purchased a couple of  inner tubes, ironically made in Italy.  The organisers arrange two bike recces with police escorts and I went round  with a bunch of friendly Swiss athletes, who had left home in the snow. There  were a couple of stiff climbs and as I hit the first one I rued not bringing my  Kinesis Motobecane which has a granny ring. My Giant Composite 1 is lighter  though so a case of swings and roundabouts. 
At registration there was the usual  scrum   to see who everyone was racing  against. I saw that a certain John Clarke of Sheffield Tri was in my age group -  delighted to meet him again but saddened as he can give me 30minutes any day,  despite the fact that  he&#039;s four if not five  years older than me.  For some strange reason  the organisers lump all the 65 and older men together and all the 50 plus women. It seems penny pinching to  me if it&#039;s just done to save giving out a few extra trophies. There was a 75  year old Aussie finisher and he merited an award and a moment of fame on the  podium,  for sure. I appreciate there  were only a handful of  athletes in those   age groups, but my view is that if you  can still race at that age it merits recognition &amp;ndash; I wonder how many of the  organising committee actually race and how many of them will be racing in their  70s?    It was even worse for the women  as Edwina Brocklesby was racing against  women 10 years younger than herself. Anyway, in Dec 2010 there will be an  Ironman 70.3 event and they at least will keep to the 5 year grouping  regardless of age.
The race started at 7am, so it was relatively cool.  The swim was in two parts, a sea swim of 1.2km followed by a 100m dash and a 600m lagoon swim to T1. I had opted to wear my  tinted mask and thought I had it wrong &amp;ndash; yet again &amp;ndash; as it was overcast at the  start. However, the final sea leg faced due east and I was practically  blinded by the rising run so my decision was  vindicated. We had been warned to watch out for jellyfish and I saw  quite a big one below me as I swam along,  but fortunately I didn&#039;t get stung. The organisers, with their TV coverage in  mind, don&#039;t allow a buoyancy second skin as they like to see competitors race  in their colourful trisuits. I opted for my now illegal GB two piece outfit,  the one that has the  GB FLAG on it&amp;hellip; The  sea swim went ok buoyancy-wise, but the lagoon swim was tough as it was fresh  water and seemed to go on forever. 
Then it was out on the single lap 55km bike split  with   most of it  being  on closed roads. Many of the competitors were  racing in black outfits. What some guys do for fashion &amp;ndash; apart from soaking up  the heat black is terrible for visibility and the sooner the fashion  aficionados decide a brighter colour is more &amp;ldquo;de rigueur&amp;rdquo; the better, in my  book. The spectator support was fantastic with many of the local school  children lining the more rural stretches of highway and waving frantically &amp;ndash; a  big help in that heat.  I chickened out  and pushed my bike up the steepest climbs but given it was around 30&amp;deg;C I  reckoned discretion the better part of valour and looked to conserve a bit of  energy. Most of the bike split is on closed roads but at one stage we raced  down the wrong side of a dual carriageway &amp;ndash; in the fast lane &amp;ndash; with cars,  trucks and buses coming head on at us, which was pretty hairy as the vehicles  were in no hurry to pull over to the side. At least we could see each other  though&amp;hellip;
The run was 2 x 6km and flat. The circuit wound round the  resort and in fact I ran past my hotel on several occasions. Aid stations were  plentiful with loads of very welcome sponges and ice water which I gratefully  made use of. My run felt to be going quite well, that was  until I came into T2 to start my second lap  when I saw John Clarke finishing!! Anyway, I plodded on and duly finished, in  just over five hours, gleefully  clutching my  cherished medal, another  to add to my growing collection!

The race was very well organised and even  quite enjoyable, dare I say, apart from the &amp;ldquo;close encounter&amp;rdquo; on the dual  carriageway. The awards ceremony and banquet went well, my previous comments  not withstanding. Edwina Brocklesby and  John Clarke both merited an award not to  mention our Ozzie friend. Hopefully this will be rectified for next year. Many  of the podium finishers  were British  nationals, but I suspect quite a few are ex-pats based in Asia. Roughly a quarter of the entrants were from   Hong  Kong, where two clubs are fierce rivals.
I was quite surprised that my run ranking was better than my  swim, but put that down to not having my neoprene crutch to swim in. There were  706 finishers with 24 DNFs and I was pleased to see my bike split ranking was  660th.
Well, I&#039;m now  having a  little Christmas / New Year training break but will be back in the gym before long. Got quite a few races lined up for 2010, so I just hope my body holds  together . 
So, to all you  anoraks who have nothing better to do than  read  my Grimm&#039;s Fairy Tales - thanks a  lot -  and may I wish you one and all,  a healthy, injury &amp;ndash;free, enjoyable and  successful   season&#039;s racing in 2010!
Jet Set Super Vet ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vince Golding: shoulder surgery]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6328.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[When I got hit by a van my collar bone was broken and due to  other more urgent injuries it wasn&#039;t treated. As a result the fracture healed  with a large part of the bone in the wrong position, causing&amp;nbsp; my overall shoulder girth to shorten and  droop forward. 
Over the following months, my body adapted to its new shape  and I worked out in the gym to try to overcome what deficiencies I could. At  first I couldn&#039;t even raise my arm out of the water to swim front crawl. I  eventually reached the stage where I could manage crawl but with hardly any  power in the stroke. Although my cycling has been largely restricted to the  turbo, when I did venture out on a road bike, my right knee would hit my  shoulder when on the drop handlebars. I could run, but was always in discomfort.  So, although all three sports were possible, I haven&#039;t been able to perform any  of them very well. Even running, my strongest event, has been a long way short  of my previous standard.
I&#039;m not sure how much the imbalance has contributed to my  sub-standard performances but it certainly hasn&#039;t helped. With initial concerns  that I had possible nerve damage I wasn&#039;t offered any prospect of surgery.  Eventually, after many unsatisfactory NHS appointments, a route I was  channelled into by my previous case manager, never seeing the consultant named  on the letter, I took the private medicine route and saw an experienced surgeon  who I was supposed to see at the RNOH. Simon Lambert, examined me and his  opinion was that surgery was possible. After learning that news I must have  stopped sub-consciously blocking out the symptoms of the injury and I began to  suffer a lot more discomfort.
I was actually looking forward to surgery, hopeful that I&#039;d  be able to start doing the every day things I could no longer do. Then again  post brain-injury I don&#039;t actually find anything &amp;ldquo;bothers&amp;rdquo; me that much! On a  Saturday morning my dad drove me to the Spire Hospital Bushey where Mr Lambert  performs surgery on private patients.
After checking in I was visited by Mr Chandra, the anaesthetist,  and then Mr Lambert. [Mr Lambert drew an arrow on my right arm to make sure he  performed surgery on the correct arm!] I was eventually taken down to the  operating theatre where a cannula was inserted in to my left wrist. Mr Chandra  started injecting the anaesthetic, I remember a theatre nurse asking me why I  was having surgery and telling him that my family wouldn&#039;t like me to ride a  bike anymore.....the next thing I knew I was staring at a hospital ceiling and  asking &amp;ldquo;where am I?&amp;rdquo; For a while it was eerily reminiscent of when I &amp;ldquo;awoke&amp;rdquo;  after being in a coma. Thankfully it didn&#039;t take long for a nurse to say  &amp;ldquo;Bushey&amp;rdquo; and me to realise where I was and what must have happened. I was taken  back to my room and gradually became more lucid. With my iPhone at the ready it  didn&#039;t take me long to call my wife, send some text messages and get my dad to  take a photo or two.
Surgery actually involved making an incision, breaking the  clavicle with a drill, chiselling off some&amp;nbsp;  of the damaged growth to use as bone graft, rotating the bone and using  a stainless steel plate and screws to join together the two halves. It was all  closed up and a water-proof dressing used.
When I saw Mr Lambert the next day he was with happy with  the success of the procedure. He said there was good blood flow in the bone and  that he had managed to protect the nerve, all key to a good prognosis. His  guidance included telling me to make sure that I don&#039;t move my arm too far in  any direction, especially overhead or behind my back. I&#039;ve been given a set of  very simple exercises to do by the hospital physio; probably too easy for me  not to start over-doing it and compromising the repair! I had an x-ray taken  which showed the plate and screws as well as the gap between the two halves of the  clavicle. Hopefully the two halves will have started to join by the next x-ray,  six weeks after surgery, when I go back for consultant follow-up.
So now its six weeks in a sling but no exercise that puts  any impact stress on the body. As well as a standard poly-sling I also have a  Cryo/Cuff. This is a cold-compression sling, these have  been shown to lessen swelling and pain after surgery, thus improving the  recovery time. Both the poly-sling and the Cryo/Cuff use Velcro to enable the  sling to be used for different sized people. However Velcro seems to want to  attach itself the wrong way around or to anything that comes close when you&#039;re  attempting to put the sling on!

I&#039;m taking the prescribed painkillers, as I&#039;m told its  better to keep (orthopaedic) pain away rather than try to get rid of it  afterwards. I don&#039;t feel any pain where the incision is and rather like the  accident itself I think, did it really happen? Do I really have to wear a  sling? Why can&#039;t I pick heavy things up? But, if I do move in a certain  direction, or breath deeply, there is a definite surge. 
I had my first physiotherapy session with the physio who has  been keeping my back spasms at bay. It was evident that I had real difficulty  trying to move my arm in certain directions where the muscles hadn&#039;t been used  properly for the last couple of years or so.
I have to be realistic. Don&#039;t let physical pain be a guide,  follow medical advice, even if you don&#039;t think you believe in it.
Being one-handed is a source of frustration in that I&#039;m not  able to drive or do a lot of day-to-day tasks. Its somewhat like the early days  after my initial discharge from hospital, following the collision, but this  time I have more vitality and am not content just to lay around watching TV.
I&#039;m typing this account one handed. Usually, as a proficient  IT geek, I type with both hands. Its a bit tricky not being able to use the  normal, to me, combinations of keyboard shortcuts that rely on using both  hands. If I&#039;m not shackled to the Cryo/Cuff, then balancing my laptop on my  lap, rather than on a desk [must be why its called a laptop!], I can manage  some two-handed typing. 
Sleep, or the lack of, is the biggest obstacle following the  op. At the moment I&#039;m using loads of pillows to try and sleep propped up, with  another under my right arm. I&#039;ll try another configuration this evening in the  hope that I can get a good night&#039;s sleep. It can be hard enough trying to cope  with the tiredness of mental fatigue without starting the day tired before I&#039;ve  done a thing.
A comment I&#039;ve had via the wonderfully supportive, on-line  TriTalk forum is; &amp;ldquo;It astounds me you&#039;re still having to go through procedures  to correct your injuries. Get well soon.&amp;ldquo;
Welcome to the world of insurance companies and the  so-called independent case management companies that rely on their patronage to  remain in business. I&#039;d sum it up as &amp;ldquo;here&#039;s a chair and desk, get back to  work&amp;rdquo;; without any real regard for the quality of life issues which  rehabilitation should be all about. Thankfully my new case manager is more  sympathetic, then again he doesn&#039;t get his business from insurance companies.  I&#039;d be satisfied if nobody else has to put up with the poor service I&#039;ve had to  endure, although I have my doubts. Surviving the trauma of a catastrophic accident  is enough to contend with without people unnecessarily putting extra barriers  in the way.
&amp;ldquo;Still amazes me how determined you are and how far you&#039;ve  come.&amp;ldquo; No thanks to companies more interested in their bottom line. I&#039;m not  sure where I&#039;d be now without all the support I continue to get.
Friendship, love, empathy, call it what you will, something  that you can&#039;t put a price on, gives me additional drive to keep going. Thanks,  again, to everyone who has supported me.
Train safe.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ironman Year 09]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6322.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Another year gone and I&#039;m beginning to develop a theory: triathlon isn&#039;t a sport after all, it&#039;s a cruel experiment in space/time distortion!
According to the calendar, not that I&#039;m sure it&#039;s to be believed, twelve months have disappeared since Jen and I stood on the beach at Busselton or strolled across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and, somehow, there have been five Ironman races, a training camp, over 20 events timed and countless hours sat in airport lounges in between. And, as if that wasn&#039;t enough, there&#039;s Freddie...

New Year&#039;s Day 2009 started with a walk in the park and ended with a new companion - it&#039;s amazing what you can get at Starbucks! Whereas the waking hours used to be filled with training, writing and working there&#039;s now an added dimension: exercising 20-odd kilos of pure muscle and stubborn will.
Same 24 hours, just more to squeeze in - see what I mean about space/time distortion?

My timing year started with the two MudMan races and the infamous BallBuster, time spent honing new skills and learning just how many things can go wrong in a very short space of time when time and distance get involved. Just as with flying, and more of this later, the athlete/passenger takes so much for granted and is often blissfully unaware that all sorts of chaos are going on in the background. Of course, it wasn&#039;t that many years ago that we just used pencil and paper together with a stopwatch or two and you were lucky to see results in the post by the end of the week. Now you want them instantly, preferably even before you cross the finish line, and assume that because there are chips involved it will all be perfect. The reality is that chips just make any mistakes visible in real time!

The first Ironman of the year for me was South Africa and Port Elizabeth and the Triangle crew were as welcoming as ever. No unexpected computer virus this year so the IT went pretty smoothly but the event did throw up one or two little surprises. The first was having Bella turn up in the timing/IT box rather earlier than expected as she had been forced to drop out of the race and the second was having a then virtually unknown Rachel Joyce produce a blinder and get herself onto the podium in third place. Oh, and then there was the storm! Now that was a space/time distortion event of some magnitude as the winds took out the entire main marquee and turned space for 1,500 athletes into something that was still being cleaned up 24 hours later but could have been fitted into a couple of skips!

Five weekends of timing events and then it was off to Lanzarote for Jen&#039;s third assault on the lava fields. This year I wasn&#039;t doing the Ironman Live gig as the boss was over from Canada to do that but I did get to drive the spotter car round the island and scare his wife half to death! Mind you, we did get some great photos along the way... Oh yes, and after five unsuccesful attempts to get that coveted Hawaii slot there was finally the realisation that the bank account was set to plumb new depths. The cash machines in Puerto del Carmen took a serious beating that Sunday morning and we only just made it across the island in time to pick up the magic piece of paper. Of the pro contingent; Bella stormed the course to get her first win of the year, Rachel sorted herself a second place and guaranteed her slot for Hawaii while Stephen and Scott tussled for the 5th spot on the podium with Stephen getting the upper hand.

June and July are always completely mad and near perfect examples of how time and space are meaningless in a triathlon context. Nine events to time and back-to-back Ironman races to cover in Austria and Switzerland. I hadn&#039;t been back to Austria since Jen&#039;s first two &#039;proper&#039; Ironman races and it was wonderful to return to an event which I know pretty well and have the delight of working alongside the legend that is Don Ryder. The racing here in 2008 had been spectacular with a world&#039;s fastest time being set by Sandra Wallenhorst leaving Bella in second place but Wallenhorst was racing elsewhere this weekend (and discovering that there really was someone else faster than her...) so Bella was set on making her mark. And make her mark she surely did with a sub-9 win and a personal best marathon time. In fact when I caught up with her after the finish line all she wanted to know was whether she had done a 3 hour run! Stephen had a pretty decent result as well with a third place so it looked like the Bayliss machine was running pretty smothly.

A week later and I was back in Europe but on the other side of the Alps, this time in Zurich for Ironman Switzerland. When I covered the race in 2008 there was one memory that stuck - the rain! It absolutely chucked it down through the corporate races on Saturday and then for most of Sunday&#039;s pro race as well. Truly nasty! Well, we didn&#039;t get away without a little bit of the wet stuff but it was far more like a British Summer weekend than the monsoon so I guess that counts as something of a result. One of the benefits of the improved weather was getting much better images from the on-course photographers. Robbie Little&#039;s ASI crew never cease to amaze me with the results that they get for us (and the athetes, of course!) but having decent light to do it in surely helps and some of his gantry shots of the swim start are truly stunning. The trip home on the Monday morning was interesting - the weather caught up with us and the local hop to Vienna was seriously bumpy and even the ducks had umbrellas when we got there.

The supposed high months of Summer (hah!) saw a bit of a respite with only a clutch of races needing timing and there was a bit of breathing space to get things sorted for Hawaii. For Jen that meant more hours in the pool, the saddle and out pounding the local trails while for me it meant trying to sort out all the basic needs like where to stay (a thousand thanks to Mike and Rieko for their huge generosity), how to get around (car hire gets totally booked out that week) and how to transport the bike without suffering the outrageous charges that airlines seem to be intent on extracting from you these days. And then there was September... Back-to-back events at Eton for pretty much the entire month and after a while it became a bit surreal; organisers and athletes became interchangeable and only the venue stayed the same! Gone in a blur and yet another piece of evidence for my theory...

October, as all trifans know, is Ironman Month and with the bike safely consigned to the care of UPS at a fraction of the cost of carting it with us it was a very relaxed flight to San Francisco. Which is where things began to unravel... With less than two hours to clear Customs and get back to the domestic gate for the hop to Kona not having to wait for the oversized was a blessing and having checked-through luggage saved having to go all through security again but the sight of a 767 with its port engine opened up and a pool of hydraulic fluid on the floor told us that this was a serious delay in the making! After much teeth-sucking and head scratching the engineers called it quits and pulled another plane out of the hangar but the delay meant a midnight arrival in Kona and the first of a series of very tedious airport lounge experiences. Here the time and space issues work in reverse as time takes much longer to pass and there&#039;s no space at all!

We finally made it into Kona itself at about 1am and were immediately struck by the darkness and the quietness. Friday night it may have been but the lights were out and everyone had gone home! It was great to see all the landmarks but the scale of the place didn&#039;t really strike home until we came back the following morning for breakfast. I still can&#039;t really get over how much the television pictures lie about the basics: Dig Me Beach has less sand on it than there&#039;s grass on my front lawn! From the TV images you expect that the race has the physical scale to match the emotional one - the reality is that it&#039;s a tiny little place and you could toss a crash helmet from transition and hit all the major landmarks. Don&#039;t get me wrong, this is an exciting place to be, the event is huge with emotions to match and the build-up during the week is palpable. Even a regular Ironman attendee can&#039;t fail to be drawn in by the magic and there&#039;s the added bonus of getting to see and meet a whole bunch of the folk who in one way or another have shaped the legend over the years.

Ironman day itself was a very strange affair. The usual stupid-o-clock alarm and then the chase for a parking space of Palani which wouldn&#039;t be blocked in by the road closures. Interesting how many Kona business are either 100% prepared to close down for the day and free up their parking lots or open up especially early to serve the athletes and supporters - a major contrast to some other venues I&#039;ve been to over the years. Access to press facilities meant I got a fabulous start-line spot balancing on the back of NBC&#039;s filming platform with Mark Allen sitting, literally, at my feet. Next stop was Cassandra&#039;s, a disused restaurant serving as the VIP facility above the finish line for a spot of live radio with Don Ryder and then it was into that long wait for the race to unfold. Lots of entertaining pro action and some brilliant images on the finish line for both the men and women served only to punctuate the day as Jen goes a little bit slower in the heat and humidity. We had hoped to get some sunset shots on the Queen K but by the time she was half-way through the run it was properly dark so it was a case of yet more coffee at the ever-helpful Starbucks on Palani before finally getting to see her cross the line and put a big fat tick in the &#039;done that&#039; box.

Once again the Ironman time dilation effect kicks in and apart from the worst case of jet lag in years and the loss of virtually an entire day in airport lounges on the return trip it&#039;s only a matter of a few weeks before we are tracking friends through the remaining races on the calendar and planning the 2010 season. And then, just as December rolls round again, we are sat watching the images from Busselton and wishing we were back there.
Breakfast at the Goose, the walk down the beach to the villa and, above all, that amazing jetty. There, that&#039;s a whole year gone in a flash and all because of this sport: it just doesn&#039;t make sense! But, somehow, that doesn&#039;t matter a bit...


]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beating the winter blues - Sarah 0  Germs 1]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6299.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Like most active people I do not do being unwell. I try to push through hoping my immune system will get one over on the germs invading my body. I hate been unable to train, I&rsquo;ll even admit to hate being off work. 

How is it that these tiny germs have overcome my immune defences, made home in my respiratory system. I&rsquo;m fit and healthy. I Exercise, eat healthily (most of the time) and go to bed early. Somehow these germs have managed to start a mass war on my body. The linings of my airways reacting by producing copious amounts of snot and phlegm, drinking hot lemon and honey continuously to replenish fluids. I am actually in awe at the amount of the fluid that can be produced (Simon&rsquo;s explanation was that my brain&rsquo;s melting, but then retracted that since it&rsquo;s still coming out, how very supportive!). My head&rsquo;s throbbing and my abdominals hurt from coughing like they do two days after a massive core session in the gym. I&rsquo;m wrapped up at home, drugged up with flu remedy and sucking strepsils like they&rsquo;re going out of fashion, feeling completely miserable. To make things worse this invasion his been timed perfectly, today is the first dry and sunny day for what feels like months. But getting a grip, this will pass and I&rsquo;ll be back on track shortly.

On the bright side it&rsquo;s given me a bit of time to think about the coming year and refine my goals. Although my main goal for 2010 is to have a great race at Ironman Nice, qualify for Ironman Hawaii and in turn have another great race there, anything can happen on race day and you never know who else is going to be racing. So it&rsquo;s important to have performance orientated goals.

My training last year was hampered by my recovery from a stress fracture and my confidence in my running ability has been affected, especially my ability to run well off the bike. So one of my goals is to have the confidence to push harder on the bike, knowing I&rsquo;m going to still run well. I&rsquo;m definitely not a slinky slim triathlete, and am not going to be (with a medium build and years of hockey and gym training) but improving my power to weight ratio (ie losing some weight!) is going to help my climbing on the bike, and running, but also my ability to maintain my body temperature when racing in hotter climates.

Improving my swim has to be a key priority for me, getting out of the water a bit further up the field - being closer to the front of the race earlier on, will be key to having a great race.  Every day working as a Physiotherapist I set goals with my patients which are SMART &ndash; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound - and review these regularly, reassessing and changing treatment plans. Now it&rsquo;s about time I applied those principles to my own training!  

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