By admin on 16/07/2006

I like to see each race/event as a learning experience and this year my learning curve has been immense. Doing longer distance/endurance events are in my opinion more about strategy than ability and the satisfaction from completing them is amazing. The Granfondo Pinarello is a well established cycle race in the Italian Dolomites and this year was 209k long and thus my longest race to date and without a doubt the hardest mentally. Firstly I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone to do these races - not only are they exceptionally well organised but for 30 euros you get a cycling top, socks and the chance to cycle in the beautiful Italian Montello region surrounded by hundreds of Italian men - albeit their penchant for white lycra leaves a lot to be desired - there's just certain things a ladies eyes shouldn't have to witness and I've added this to my list.

The girls line up in the same pen with the elites and the atmosphere is electric - the inspirational music starts playing - we were treated to "Fanfare for...

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By admin on 15/07/2006

For those that don't know, Ironman is actually a brand, and a very successful one at that. And you can see why when you enter one of their events. No matter what standard of athlete you are, be it pro or have-a-go hero, you are treated like a star and your every need is attended to. Myself and the six other guys from Ful-On Tri went to register for the race at "Ironman City" on Friday. There was a great buzz of excitement in the air, and lots of REALLY fit looking people wandering around the expo. We were all slightly apprehensive about the heat building up during the day, and the general lack of any breeze - it was obviously going to be a hot one. Still we continued to tick over with easy swims in the lake in the mornings, bit of light pedalling down to the race area, and finally dropped off our bikes in the transition area on Saturday afternoon. I found myself most nervous while hanging around the Ironman City, so was glad we didn't stick around too long, and instead opted to go back to our hotel, relax and watch the tour de france guys doing their stuff. Having four experienced Ironmen in our group was really great - they gave me lots of advice on feeding strategies, organising my kit and managed to keep me amazingly calm and relaxed....

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By admin on 24/06/2006

The ambition of almost every triathlete is to complete the ULTIMATE: The IRONMAN. After 3 years in the Club, a lot of people have accomplished this very, very, very long distance and talked about it with passion... At the end of the 2005 season, I registered for the event in my country of origin, Ironman France in Nice (and it is nice in Nice... too easy). As usual for every event, I gathered a huge amount of information to discover this other world where people endure pain and glory... But, I just wonder: Why do I want to do the ultimate endurance event? What I am looking for? Am I crazy or does something else push me to do it? First thing: the training. In the book they were talking about 15 to 20 hours of training a week. Ooops, no way I could do it. However - I was motivated to do it for 7 months. Second thing to consider: My swim is pretty poor and I don't know if I can do the distance...2 or 3 times in the lake will do ???!!!! Very optimistic... Third thing: I have never run a marathon. But I am very, very,...

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By admin on 24/06/2006

Five Ful-Ons joined the GB team in Autun (the really hot bit in the middle of France) for the European Championships. In typically French fashion the event organisation and location were "magnifique," with the swim and run based at the lake on the edge of town, and the bike course heading into the forest behind. The bike course recce left everyone a little nervous over their choice of bike/wheels/brakes (not helped by "Danger" signs and bales of hay round some of the corners of a very tricky descent), although the promised 6k climb out of town was steady rather than overly steep. However once again though nobody seemed to have explained to the organisers that Olympic distance is 40 rather than 45k, and that we'd have been quite OK with a 10k run rather than 11. Another case of "more" not actually being "more"? Team formalities having been dealt with early on Sunday morning, together with photos (devilishly handsome group, don't you think?) we all set off in the same wave (Men: 20-40) at 3pm. The swim was designated...

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By admin on 17/06/2006

Ideal preparation for a race usually involves trying nothing new on race day, arriving in adequate time to ensure meticulous set-up, doing thorough research of the course layout and then eating well and getting a good nights sleep. Given Jo Knight's and my combined efforts at the weekend I've got the following advice: Don't arrive at the venue 3 hours after the compulsory race briefing and just before transition closes

Don't choose getting an ice-cream ahead of finding the stressed Head Coach to give him his race wheels to put onto his bike

Don't choose a hotel next to a historic bell tower which chimes every hour on the hour thus ensuring little to no sleep

Don't use a bike you've never used before and have just picked up brand new

Don't use tri-bars for the first time ever (and especially not on descents)

Don't use a wetsuit you've never used before that is a size too small

Don't run with a sore knee

Try not to cut your foot open at the start...

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By admin on 19/05/2006

"Your Ironman charisma is not complete without doing this race" - Paula Newby-Fraser after the 1997 race. With a billing such as this, you clearly would not be of sound mind to enter such an event, therefore it probably came as no surprise that Dan Mertens and myself (Tongy) entered this event without hesitation at the end of the 2005 season. After putting our name on the start list we received many and varied comments ranging from pro-triathletes questioning why would you want to do that race, to comments from amateurs such as Hanley, just having a big smirk on his face and probably laughing very deeply at us. Race week arrives and out we ventured to Lanzarote. Just being on the island and experiencing the wind, hills, heat (and did I mention wind?) was enough to convince us that this is clearly not a well thought out plan!

On Saturday our day started as we approached transition in the wee hours just after 5am. We crossed paths with the revellers as their day was ending and they staggered from the bars...

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By admin on 28/04/2006

Having participated last year as well, I decided I should find out what La Louis Caput actually means.The dictionary kindly explained to me that "Caput" means a head or a knoblike protuberance. Not, of course, to be confused with kaput: "rendered useless or unable to function". (Overlap of the two being somewhat suboptimal). However, it turns out that Mr Louis Caput was in fact a cyclist from the region who, prior to his death in the 1980s, was champion of France, won two stages of the Tour de France and was a pretty good classics rider. Fascinating...! Fortunately this year the weather was spectacular which meant we did not have to abort. And even better was the fact that we made it to the start line prior to the start of the race (despite attempts at faff sabotage) - hearing the gun fire last year while messrs Omar and Kelso were still pumping up their tyres was not an experience I wanted to repeat.

So at 7.30 on Saturday Sarah, Fran and I started the 101k version of the Louis Caput which has approx 2,000m of climbing. There is a 150k version as well but .... whatever. The course winds its way out of Roquestron, about 10k from Nice on the Cote d'Azur, up to Vence and then over the Col de Vence which you hit after 23k of climbing. I had the pleasure of some old chap pulling me over the top of the col (no comments, please) but unfortunately found myself about 700m off the lead group without any help to make it up.

...

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By admin on 14/04/2006

The easter weekend saw the conclusion of what has been labelled as the toughest edition of the Marathon des Sables so far. More people have dropped out than any other year as it turned out: 150 out of 723 thought better of it. It was an amazing experience, not so much because of the scenery, but because of the people you meet, friends you make and all the surrealistic situations you find yourself in; from never ending sand storms to running in the night in the middle of absolutely nowhere whilst making polite conversation with an elderly French couple you happen to overtake. The trip starts out with a boring 5 hour bus trip into the desert followed by a day of admin related issues, general faffing and re-organising your backpack until you can do it blind. This could all have been very relaxing and therapeutic, but the force-5 sand storms made this actually hard work. The start on day-1 was a great moment as you will rarely have seen a more psyched up crowd of 'nutters' than this. After the 1st checkpoint at 12k...

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By admin on 08/04/2006

After some very specific "pace" training I was headed out to the States to compete in Ironman Arizona. This wouldn't have been complete without taking a month off work and doing my last few weeks training up in Boulder (CO) - a place often referred to as the "Triathlete's Haven!" I was also lucky enough through sending out some random emails to be staying with a couple of pro triathletes, one of which was going to be doing the race in Arizona too. The first morning Tyler Johnson took me out trail running up one of the mountains. This was the first time I had trained at altitude and as soon as we set off I was gasping for air (much like when I swim). It felt weird, yet good and in my mind I just kept thinking of the benefits. The next few days (well weeks really) I found my relatively low HR rate to be through the roof... I was going threshold at a jog and my bike power, which I'd built up to quite a strong 300watts at functional threshold (60') had been sliced in half!! A few days later Jimmy Archer arrived back...

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By admin on 15/01/2006

On January 14-15th I was flying the Ful-On Tri flag at the Strathpuffer 24hr mountain bike race held at Strathpepper (see what they did there), about half an hour north of Inverness. I entered as a pair with Anthony - my usual 2 day team mate. We'd originally planned to enter a 4 man team but most folk seemed reluctant to commit to doing a 24 hour race in Scotland in January. How hard could it be... As it turned out, quite, although nowhere near what it could have been. It turned out to be a cracking weekend as we were so lucky with the weather - we went expecting rain or snow but instead it was clear skies throughout which just made the trails icy and your chain freeze! The course was a mix of forest tracks, technical singletrack, and ankle deep mud that zapped every last bit of energy. We took turns riding about 3 hours each and keeping a steady 'enduro' (read: slow) pace for the whole 24 hours, putting in a total of 19 laps and placing us the 4th Male Pair. I should have squeezed in at least another lap,...

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