Tom Stead... Triathlete

2015 Round Up!

2015-10-01T11:06:00.002-07:00

You might want to get yourself comfortable... This is a fairly long post!

Before I get into my season - I'd just like to say a special thank you to those who have supported and sponsored me throughout this season! Corley Cycles, Pedal Potential, GreenlightPT, NiceTri Events, Zone3, iPrintStuff and the of course the obvious shout out to friends and family!

The 2015 season has had ups and downs. I've had some good races, some bad races and some races that went really, really badly!

My work picked up this year and I couldn't find the balance between racing, training, uni work and working at iPrintStuff!

I've made the decision to knock Uni on the head so I can focus on racing and working! So yeah - technically I'm a drop out! So what!!

Enough of that rubbish! My 2015 season consisted of a good start, rubbish middle and an average end!

Went to the Elite Duathlon Champs and found myself finishing 9th Junior. The weather was absolutely awful - which played to my strengths when I cycled my way from 50th to 4th on the bike! Happy Tom.

Then in Madrid I managed to get myself the title of 'European Sprint Duathlon Champion' which was great! The race suited me down to the ground... Slightly short run and a ridiculously technical 2 lap cycle! To keep it short, I worked my way up to 1st overall after the bike with the fastest bike split by over 50 seconds then held on for 4th overall, 2nd Brit and 1st in Age-Group!

Then went to NiceTri, St Neots and got myself another title... This time it was the 'British Sprint Triathlon Champion' which was nice. Great event ran by the awesome NiceTri Events paired with Chris at NiceTri Event Solutions!

Oh yeah - Then a lorry driver pulled out on me (whilst driving), wrote off my car and put me out of training for a while!

Then comes the middle of the season. Now then. The Europeans were held at Geneva! Great location - fairly well run event, but I had a poor lead up to it and that resulted in a very bad result! My swim was off the pace, my legs had no power on the bike (still had a top 10 fastest bike split) and I was heavy on the run resulting in 14th in Age-group whereas last year I was the European Champ! That goes to show how much of a bad race I had! But not all is bad - got a sweet photo out of it:

Moving on...

Then I come to the end of the season. Chicago World champs was my main focus at the end of everything! I feel I had trained really well in the 8 weeks leading up and I was feeling ready!

I was in great form, running a 17 flat 5km, swimming really well in training and local races and although I hadn't had a stand out performance on the bike in a while, I felt strong the weekend before Chicago!

The buzzer sounded for the Sprint race and I was off... I was a bit worried about the heat as me and heat have always had a bad relationship, but non the less I was swimming, feeling really good! I was then punched in the eye by another brit (I'm sure it was just an accident) which out me off a little, bit its all good! Came out the swim a little down on the leaders. I then put in a great bike split - worked my way up form 70th to 6th place having the 2nd fastest split in my AG and 7th on the day! I would like to make it clear how pissed off I am with the Brits and Mexicans when it comes to drafting! Nearly all the Brits I passed where sitting on a wheel!! What are you doing!!

In one case - I'd caught this Brit for 40 seconds in 3k and somehow he made his was into T2 a few second behind me... I even heard the draft buster motorbike shouting his name, telling him to back off the wheel in front of him (which was me!). In my eyes - that's a penalty straight away. Oh well. I'm not going to mention his name, but he went on to do very well!!

I got onto the run, and felt amazing... for a few hundred metres. Then me and the 30 degree heat had a fight and I ended up slipping backwards and found myself way down the field and finished in a disappointing 24th place!

The Standard race went differently. The swim went bad. The Bike went alright (a lot less drafting this time) and then it came to the run and I was running amazing for 5k, then again, slipped down the ranks. Ended up coming 10th in my AG and 1st European so I was pleased with the result!

Final race of the Season was Brigg Sprint. I'd done a Park Run the day before and went easy and finished with a 17.38! Felt really good!

Brigg sprint was a 400m pool swim, 20km bike and a 5km run! I had the 2nd fastest swim on the day, fastest bike split and one of the fastest runs to finish 2nd overall, 8 seconds behind the leader. Very pleased with this result so I can finish the season feeling good about my last few races!

Now its winter training time... This winter I will be focusing on Swimming and Running, but will still be smashing the bike to get those fastest bike splits!

Looking forward to some draft legal/elite races next year!

Would just like to say another thank you to all my sponsors and supporters: Corley Cycles, Pedal Potential, GreenlightPT, Zone3, Fusion Sport UK and the rest of you guys!

double-whammy!

2015-04-27T01:59:00.001-07:00

It's been a quiet start to the season but wow what a weekend just gone. I was nominated for an award at the inaugural St Neots Community & Business Awards 2015. I assumed it was for something sporty, rather than my new fledgling business iPrintstuff, although I must say I reckon it's worthy of an award! ;). This is great, local recognition. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend the awards ceremony as with lots of my events this year, it clashed ... as I was already in 'sunny' Spain to take part in the European Duathlon championships.

Prior to race day, I got everything squared up and sorted and off to bed on time ready for the race in the morning and a notification popped in saying that I had won the Sports Individual of the Year 2015. Fortunately, my folks stood in for me and I suspect staggered nicely up and collected my trophy. A huge thanks to those who nominated me and the judges who recognised my achievements. Sounds like it was a great evening. Sorry I missed it.

So ... race day. Sunny Spain Nope ...the rain in Spain falls mainly the plain? Nope ... the rain in Spain falls mainly in Alcobendas ... or that's what it felt like anyway. Atrocious conditions!

Simple race report. Ran a bit, caught up on the bike, first into transition. Lost a couple of spots. Finished first in my age group. Job done. European Duathlon champion 2015.

Seems a good time, now, to mention my two main sponsors that have helped me get here. I am back again with Corley Cycles, their help is invaluable, as it is from my new sponsors, Pedal Potential, thanks guys!

So, now I must focus on a couple of things. I have the BUCS triathlon coming up next weekend, the British Triathon Sprint champs at my home event in St Neots Nice tri events, and then, in no time at all, Geneva, for the European triathlon championships in July.

Promotional advertisement ;-)
And to make all this possible, I have to crack on with earning the money through iPrintstuff to pay for all this! so if you need any of your kit printing, think of me and iPrintstuff and more importantly read what others say about the printing service I offer. iPrintstuff.

On an even lighter note ... we have a new pup. Frankie's little brother Kodi. They even have their own Facebook page.

#realfur.#4monthsold

See you at the races.

Tom
@i_PrintStuff

Cheeky page in Triathlon Plus! #OnARoll

2015-01-06T01:08:00.002-08:00

What better way to start the year than to see yourself in a magazine?

Read the Full interveiw below...

1. You've always been very sporty – can you attempt to summarise your early adventures in sport?

Yes, from a young age I was encouraged into sports, my parents thought it would be a great release for my ‘excess energy’. I've attempted pretty much every board sport including Skateboarding, Flowboarding, Wakeskating, Wakeboarding, Snowboarding and so on. Before all the 'extreme' sport came about I was a gymnast/trampolinist! While doing all of this - I was a runner from the age of 8!

2. How did you wind up doing triathlon, and what do you think it was about this particular sport that made it stick?

When I was 10/11 years old I turned from being the best in the county and one of the best U13 runners in the country - to 3rd in the county and slipping down the ranks and I couldn't handle it, much of my ‘competition’ developed before me and I found myself lining up against ‘bigger boys with beards’. Not literally but definitely stronger and bigger. I was becoming despondent with the sport already! It was, in fact, my Middle School PE teacher 'Mr E' who suggested I try a 'kiddie' Aquathlon, so I did. Couldn’t swim so learnt quickly, absolutely loved it! Then I went on, bought a cheap second hand bike, and did my first ‘Tristar’ triathlon and just enjoyed it so much I booked the next one in, the same day!

3. Tell us about your first triathlon race.

My first 'proper' adult race that springs to mind was my local race at St Neots (NiceTri Events). It was such a great event, friendly crowds and fellow competitors, a really great atmosphere, an ideal intro into triathlon. It keeps me going back for more, the course is great - fantastic river swim, awesome fast stretches of road and a pan flat run to finish. Because it’s my local I use it as a barometer to suss out where ‘I’m at’ race-wise. The races are a series of three, I’m a bit of a ‘stats man’ so I can work out what I have to do where and when in order to better my time. I’m chuffed to have won 3 or 4 of them over the last couple of years. I can’t help ‘big upping’ this event, in fact it's such a good event that it's been selected to be the Sprint National Champs and World and Euro qualifiers in … Can’t wait to have the best the UK has to offer on my home turf! It’s going to be awesome.

4. Was there a particular event or moment when you thought you could be pretty good at it?

I have to say it wasn't a particular event - but it was a particular period of time. The winter of 2012/13. I had joined NiceTri Club and St Neots CC and met some great people. Richard Hancock (a local beast on the bike) saw my potential more than I did and took me under his wing. With his help I went from being average/good on the bike in 2012, to one of the best cyclist in triathlon the next year (the fastest bike split, out of everyone, at the World AG Sprint Triathlon Championships in London 2013!).

5. You've had a brilliant year, so what's been the standout for you?

2014 has been a really good year, and a year I'm definitely going to remember. I had qualified but was also lucky enough to travel and compete in 4 major events... European and World Duathlon and Triathlon Championships. I loved when I crossed the line in first place and had the fastest bike split at the World Duathlon Champs in Spain, but have to say - the best moment of the year was the final 2k of the European Triathlon Champs in Kitzbuhel - where
I took a look over my shoulder and was 45 seconds clear of 2nd place in my AG! I could then relax for 2k and take it all in. Looking back, when I realised I had come 2nd overall by only 12 seconds, I wished I had pushed all the way, but hey - it was a great moment none the less!

6. On your blog you mentioned that Edmonton didn't quite go to plan for you – could you talk us through it?

Well, it all went a bit pear shaped when I got an entry to a Junior Elite race which was a week before the World Champs in Edmonton. As most will know, the idea of an elite race is to be good at swimming, then it's fairly easy to sit in the group on the bike as it is draft-legal, then to be awesome at running. So when I found out I got an entry I ramped up my swimming and running and neglected my bike legs!

Another major factor was that when I got to Edmonton... I loved riding out there and went on an 'easy' bike recce the day before - which turned into me putting far too much effort in - a stupid ‘school-boy’ error meaning that on the day I couldn't put any power down! I still had one of the fastest bike splits - but I know I should have had the fastest and should have at least podiumed! Lesson learned!

7. What have you learned from that experience?

Well, the main thing I've learnt is not to be stupid the day before and batter my legs in! But it's also opened my eyes to setting goals at the start of the season and not deviating from 'the plan'. Had I just focussed on Edmonton and not worried about any other race, my experience of it, and my actual race, would have been a lot better!

8. How did it feel winning British Triathlon Male Age-Grouper of the Year?

Well, it came as a complete shock to me! I first found out that I was nominated when my friend sent me the link to the nominees! I had made the top three along with my Corley Cycles team mate - Phil Holland. Then I got the invite to go to the Awards Evening, and when my name was called it was a bit of a shock - as it's only my 2nd year of racing international AG - but it was a wicked feeling and it's one of the events that will make 2014 so much more memorable.

9. Who or what inspires you in triathlon?

I've always been a fan of the Brownlee Brothers and all the British Elite Triathletes. But the main guy I look up to is Javier Gomez. His continued dominance, consistency and attitude towards the sport is amazing. Plus the fact that he is a really nice guy when I've spoken to him.

10. What are your big aims for 2015?

Well, as this season came to a close, I looked back and thought I'd never be able to do the four international races again. Two of the trips this year were funded by very generous backers on Talent backer (an online funding website) lots of people (mainly fellow club mates and other triathletes along with friends and family) giving what they could/wanted that enabled me to compete in Spain and Canada. I really have to take this opportunity to thank them all again, without their help I wouldn’t have achieved half of what I have.

I thought I wouldn't be able to get the same amount of backing again for 2015. But as it happens, 2015 looks like it’s going to be great - I already have in place some great sponsorship, some I can’t reveal yet although I would love to. A couple I can mention though is that I have been given the nod from my sponsors of 2014, Corley Cycles Body Limits Transition, who were a massive support this year and I am back on the team for 2015 - Of course, continueing to race and train with my mates from TriPackRT and ongoing support from coach (Adam Gibson) at GreenlightPT. I have also got on board the very generous backing of ‘Pedal Potential’ – and a generous neighbour in our village who has kindly offered me some of their ‘air miles’ to get me to Chicago and hopefully Brisbane!

So my big aims for 2015? … simple... Top my 2014 results ;)

........................................................................................................

So, since Kitzbuhel...

2014-11-17T05:56:00.003-08:00

British Triathlon Federation 'Male AG Triathlete of the Year'

So, since Kitzbuhel, I have been rather busy. Let me 'bullet point' it a bit for you.

On 6th July I took part in the English Triathlon Championships in July and again a great result, and took ‘gold’ winning the U20’s English title.

I celebrated my 18th birthday!

At the end of July saw me being nominated and winning ‘The Hunts Post Sports Awards ‘Best Achievement for U18’. A time to put some good clobber on.

August Bank Holiday saw me taking part, along with my team mates from Body Limits Corley Cycles, at the Nottingham National Relays. And we had a great race, finishing 3rd overall. Sadly, we were dq'd - due to a 'technical' issue (non-advantage or cheating I must add!) But a great day all the same.

Then it was off to Canada for the World Triathlon Championships in Edmonton, Canada. What an amazing experience.

Having competed at the World Aquathlon Championships in London in 2013 I had prequalified for these championships also, so I thought it would be good to have a bit of a warm up and took part in this race in Edmonton. A 10th place for me (but no disappointment here, as after all I am a ‘cyclist’!).

The main race came, and I was feeling excited and ready. Sadly, on the day, it was not to be I really messed up with my race prep - too many recces so close to race day left me with nothing in the tank on the day, I finished in 6th place. First European, but I am very disappointed with this result. Had my race prep been right I should have medalled.
It's a learning thing I guess!

I know I can’t complain, what I have accomplished this year has been beyond my expectations - I wish I could have brought back a medal from Canada, damn.

The good news is, I have pre-qualified already for the European and World Duathlon championships and the European and World Triathlon championships for 2015! With the backing of a generous neighbour in the village, who has offered me some of their 'air miles' I am hoping I will have the opportunity to retain my titles and of course try for the World Triathlon title in Chicago.

Another surprise, at the end of the year was my nomination for the prestigious Award of the British Triathlon Federation 'Male AG Triathlete of the Year' - this meant I had to get 'suited & booted' (I put into use some of that useful Uni money and bought a suit!). Followed by a trip to Loughborough for the Annual Awards dinner. Am pleased to say I won it ... which I am delighted with because there are some very, very, good age group triathletes out there also vying for this prize!

I have just started my first year at University at Bedford, studying Sports Science and Personal Training. A new experience for me - 'fresher's week' actually two which drifted into four! Things have settled down now and I've fallen in with the right crowd (which has pleased mum & dad) A great bunch of runners which is great for me, I'm enjoying running again and getting back to some pretty descent times.

As I suspected right from the offset my tri suit printing business - 'iPrintStuff', has quietened down as the season comes to a close (phew). I have to say this is perfect what with the new commitment to training and the new demands of uni. I still have a steady flow of customers but it's all manageable.

Lastly (but not 'leastly') I must thank everyone that has helped me this year (and there's been a lot of you!) from my swim coach, Adam from GreenlightPT, my race team and sponsors from Body Limits Corley Cycles. The guys that have kept me going, Tony at The Sports Injury Clinic and the help from Insight Nutrition.

I need to make a special mention to all those club mates from Nicetri, friends, family, neighbours and strangers that put their hands in their pockets and enabled me to race in Spain and Canada through a funding website called 'Talent Backers' - thank you, it means a huge amount.

Looking forward I'm please to say that in my 2015 season I will again get the support from Corley Cycles and very excitingly I'm currently talking with a new sponsor - Pedal Potential-in a nutshell Pedal Potential support people with pedal potential to realise ambitions and achieve success. Really looking forward to working with them.

So, a whole new period in my life is about to start. I'll keep you posted....

"keeeeep training!"

Tom

#Gold - If Geneva is half as good as Kitzbuhel it's going to be awesome!

2014-06-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

I qualified last year at Grendon... And Kitzbuhel was a race I was secretly targeting! I went into the race still suffering from a chest infection at the end of the course of antibiotics so in a way not the perfect lead up; that and the fact that run training had been out of the window for four weeks due to an 'over exuberant' celebrations at the world Duathlon champs - that will teach me to back flip off the stage! Still, my mind was set to smash it.

Austria, Kitzbuhel,

I have to say - this is by far the most stunning venue I have ever raced at... Well... most stunning place I have ever been. Full stop! The swim was in the stunningly beautiful Schwarzsee lake, a simple out round a bit and back.
I loved the bike course, twisty, technical, 3 steep climbs, lots of fast downs, I have to describe it simply as... brutal! There was bags of pre race discussions as to what bike to use, TT or 'roadie'. I planned TT right from the start. The Trek, for me, handles just as well as a road bike going up as well as going down, it's just faster so it was a no brainer. I was chuffed with the fastest bike split of the day too, so that sort of backed up my choice.

The run, although described by the organisers as 'flat' wasn't, (to locals who wander around mountains maybe) but to us it was a challenge at the end of the swim and that brutal bike and the long, long transitions. Stunning again - though round the lake.

Schedule:
Like most International events. They have a schedule over 3-4 days. Briefings were on the Thursday, my race was on the Friday, then various elites, para-triathletes and other distances were over the Saturday and Sunday.

Race Day:
Every day leading up to race day was beautiful sunshine... You know; 'holiday weather'! But the evening before the race it rained all night. So in the morning, it was damp on roads, not good for the steep, twisty descents but oh well, everyone is racing in the same conditions!
I grabbed a lift with Dan Busbridge, an U20 GB team mate of mine, in the morning... So arrived nice and early! I know! EARLY! The time before the race flew by and before I knew it, I was suiting up making sure it was fitted perfectly, then was called over to the starting pens with 10 mins till race start.

In London, I made the mistake of starting in the middle. I didn't here! I rushed out and immediately grabbed a spot near the outside, just like coach said! We got into the water and were quickly started. We're off and I got a clean get away, I looked to the left and saw everyone was a good few strokes behind other than 2 other swimmers that had also broke away a little. At the first turn bouy, I am pretty sure I was in 3rd place after nailing the first straight! After the 4 turns I was losing positions and came out the water in 10th place... More swimming needed!
9th place was around 10 seconds ahead of me coming out the water, but I made that up in T1! We were running out onto the bike as a 'pack' (still running at the point, so not drafting!!) I did my flying mount and overtook the 'pack' and set on a mission to hunt down first place and take top spot! My mission was complete after the first 5k of the bike! Sweeeet! Now just needed to put as much time as I could between me and second place! I did just that! I had 38 seconds lead coming into T2 and put another 7 seconds into him in T2...

So, I was on the run with a 45 second buffer! And I was running well... On for a comfortable 17 flat! With 2k to go I had a sneaky look round and they weren't in sight! So the last 2k, I eased off and just tried to take everything in... Scenery, crowd, atmosphere, everything... It was great! I had another look behind with around 200m to go and caught a glimpse of them! Still a good 30 seconds behind! I was actually running down the blue carpet, 100m to go, and I was clear... The feeling was unreal! After a little celebration, arms aloft and all that jazz, I crossed the line with a 27 second gap! Wow!
2nd and 3rd had a tight race and I surely congratulated them, being a good sportsman ;)
Well done to all the GB athletes that crossed the line especially the 16-19 AG... Was great to see so many of us out there representing the country! Great achievements all round!

Really tough luck for Dan Busbridge, coming off his bike and getting a hefty scar and 4 stitches in his knee the day before the race! It was hit and miss whether he'd actually start, so well done mate! Respect! See you in Edmonton for some hard core revenge buddy!

Junior Elite Race Analysis:
The next day I watched the Junior elites... I had been looking forward to this one! Main reason being to see how far off I am.
Swim - It's a bit cheeky because I actually saw a boat out in the middle of the lake removing a bouy and moving the rest of them closer! Maybe to make the swim more accurate? Because to be fair, the times were a bit slow on the day of our race, everyone was a good 40 seconds to 1 minute down on what they know they can do, so there must have been something wrong, and one can only assume the organisers picked up on this too! Even with the course being slightly shorter, the elites are rapid, like... crazy quick!
Bike - Their bike course was different to ours... Ours was 20k, with 720m of climbing, theirs' was 20k with just 267m of gentle climbing made up of 3 laps, such a shame considering the great challenging roads in this area. Their times were... hmm... Respectably average.
GB elite Alex West came off the bike in the lead group with Luke Penny in the chasing group, only under a minute behind! Good goin' that!
Run - Again, their run consisted of 5k, same distance as ours, but half the amount of ascending as us AGers. 4 of the juniors broke off the front, including winner Raphael Montoya (France) who smashed the run with an amazing time of 15.20! Wow! However, I was surprised to see that after 20th place, they all ran over 17 minutes! I half expected at least 50% of the field go sub 16.30 if I'm honest! But oh well... Just makes it a bit more promising for me when I get there! ;)
It is such a shame that we never get the chance to compare like with like, some folk simply look at the end times and dismiss the achievements of the age group athletes. For example

'Grouper' - (as we are referred to) Kitzbuhel sprint 1:05:12
Elite- Kitzbuhel sprint 57: 26
So looking at that the best grouper is still 8 minutes behind the Elite, but as I say it doesn't take into account:
•    Measured swim course
•    Completely different bike routes
•    Flatter run course for the elites
•    Drafting in the elite race
•    Groupers transition much further from the swim- there's 2 1/2 mins just there!

I had a text from an elite basically saying well done on my win but I was still 10 minutes off the pace, bugged me a bit that if someone 'inside' the elites doesn't see the difference in the race conditions and just looks at the end times, is it the same with their 'talent' spotters?

...

In conclusion... Awesome venue, great to have wider European participation, was a wicked vibe and I could sit here a list how good it was! Especially to go out the next night and catch Richard Vagar and Alistair Brownlee sneaking a few (a lot) of jeagar bombs, summer shots and a whole lot more, trust me, a whole lot more! And what I took from that is; if they can, why can't I? ;)

Also, coming 1st Brit, I have Pre-qualified for next years Euro Champs in Geneva, although I have other plans for this race! If Geneva is half as good as Kitzbuhel it's going to be awesome!
Great event and hosts.
Quick 'highlights' video of the AG sprint race, how many times can you sport me!?

#TwentyFourteenHasBegun

2014-06-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

2014 catch up...

A bit of a catch up this one, soooo busy, just coming to the end of college, just a little bit of work experience for a couple of months, landed on my feet here, managed to get a spot working with Adam, my swim coach, a personal trainer from GreenlightPt. He knows the amount of training I do, we fit the 'experience' in with the training - so works well.

I have also set up a bit of a monster with iPrintStuff, who would know there was such a demand for bespoke printing on kit that was reasonably priced ;) I set the business up to get money to fund my tri, in fact every penny I make is ploughed straight back in. It does mean that I have to juggle a lot of stuff around, especially now that my 'racing' season has started in earnest. Who said it would be easy? If it were easy, everyone would be doing it! To find out my about getting your kit printed up with names, sponsors etc follow this link.

Talent Backer

In 2013 I qualified and raced for GB at the European and World Triathlon Champs in Turkey and here in London. This year I have qualified six times to represent GB.

·         Duathlon - Horst, Netherlands
·         World Duathlon - Spain
·         Euro Triathlon (Sprint) - Kitzbuhel, Austria
·         Euro Triathlon (Standard) - Kitzbuhel, Austria
·         World Aquathlon - Edmonton, Canada
·         Worlds Triathlon - Edmonton, Canada

Even with iPrintStuff going well I would not be able to fund all of these so I turned to Talent Backer, a 'crowd' funding website. I had a campaign with them for 30 days trying to fund Canada and Spain, just these two would be over £2,500 just for flights and accommodation!

To say the campaign went well is an understatement, I've been truly humbled by the donations. Mainly from people I know and out of them loads of fellow triathletes and club members. With two weeks of the campaign to go I reached my target and by the end had exceeded it by £600! It seems people were ok with me eating at these events as well! In all seriousness, a massive thank you to everyone that is helping me compete this year - I really couldn't have done it without your generous support - a cliche but true!

Horst - European Duathlon Championships

First off... This was not a race I was targeting, bigger fish to fry and all that and I wasn't in great shape at all for this race. At my tri club, NiceTri, we had outstanding GB representation at this event, with some 14 club members going. Team-mate Kye Liddle thought it would be good if we pooled our resourses and hired a mini bus, word got out and before we knew it Kye had sorted a massive 38 seater coach with some 29 seats taken (more wanted to go but we needed the space for our luggage, the bike boxes filled the 'hold').

It was a great weekend and maybe a bit too much fun was had by all ;)

In the actual race I have to go back to this 'drafting' thing. The stuff you see on the telly with the likes of the Brownlees and Gomez all working together on the bike is OKfor them but in the races we do this is cheating in a non-drafting race. For clarification: It's OK to draft in the swim and the run, but NOT the bike. You would be surprised just how many competitors don't get this.... or are they deliberately cheating? Surly not... As a commentator said on telly while talking about not being on the front you can save about 30% of energy. Anyway I couldn't shake off my tail on the bike and came in 2nd in the end.

NiceTri Sprint Triathlon #1 (1 of 3 in the series)

My local and one of my favourites, not only is it a fantastically well organised event it also brings in a great group of competitors, it's a great atmosphere. A lot of this is due to the volunteer marshals that turn out time and time again for these, 2nd to none... Thanks guys.

I know this race well and wanted to do well, so I pushed hard throughout and had a storm of a race and finished on top spot on the podium (well I would have if they had one!) BOOM - WIN!

Posing with my new 2014 Trek Speed Concept!

UK - Quadrathlon World Championships

For the first time in their history this 'little known sport with a big heart' (Not sure who came up with that strap line? ... I prefer the 'when three disciplines aren't enough!) Came to the UK, In Brigg and hosted by Lincsquad who did a brilliant job. This quad by the way was a 1500m river out and back swim, a 7k out and back kayak, a 38k bike leg finished with a two lap 10k run. Race report from the BQA and WQF here, mentions something about a 'machine on a bike'.

I finished 2nd overall by 14 seconds... The winner Steve King, who I was gaining on, looked round and sprinted... So it was game over for me!

Well done to everyone that raced that day and a massive hats off to the Lincsquad boy and girls that allowed for some great racing.

I did become world U23 quadrathlon champion that day so... BOOM - WIN!

Spain - World Duathlon Championships

Spain, Spain, Spain... What an awesome experience!! Went out with mates and team mates Dean Watson and Kurt Sanders... I met some pretty awesome people out there, including other Brits and loads of foreigners!!

As far as the race goes... It went well! Probably the best Duathlon I've ever raced anyway! Started off with a 5k run around the streets of Pontevedra (awesome place - must go again some time!) which was a bit hilly and twisty, but nonetheless a sweet run course... Came off the run in around 20th place with a high 16... I got to the bike and the pain/fun began! I overtook 16 people in the first 4k of the 20k bike and was left chasing the remaining 3... I managed to catch and overtake the 3 leaders and came in off the bike in 1st place and (it's unofficial at the moment) took the fastest bike split of the day too... SAWEEET! Anyway, at this point, I was in 1st place overall, but was quickly overtaken by the fast 30-34 age-groupers... Anyway, along with my fastest bike split, I became U20 World Duathlon Champion... BOOM - WIN! Pleased with that... And just for the record, I would of also become 20-24 world champ and 25-29 champ if I were in those Age groups... Although there was only 3 seconds splitting us!! :D

It's been a hectic few months, what with working with Adam at GreenlightPT and working at my own iPrintStuff - printing suits and what not, but I managed to get 2 world champion titles in 8 days... Can't say I am too disappointed with that!
Iwould just like to big up my sponsors; GreenlightPT, Tony at the Sport Injury Clinic, NiceTri Events, the guys at Insight Nutrition and my team Corley Cycles/Body Limits Transition!

I promise the next blog will be smaller... I'll try and post little and often :)

Next races:

Brownlee Sprint Triathlon

Kitzbuhel European Sprint Triathlon Champs

Canada World Sprint Triathlon Champs

Chow for now...

Back in the saddle.

2014-02-27T00:36:00.003-08:00

Winter, the time to work on the things you need to work on! For me that's the swim and run, so I've been doing just that, working hard with Adam from GreenlightPt and getting my times down on the swim, it's not all about quick times though, it's about feeling good after a quick swim ready for the bike, feeling good, feeling strong - cheers Adam. The same goes for my run, some really decent tempo runs and speed work mean that I feel much more confident in my running - thanks guys for these sessions.

So that leaves the bike, 'maintain the bike' that was the plan, I'm good on the bike and I really didn't want to lose that edge. So with just a holding amount of training on the bike it was good to get back racing over the weekend, even better this first race back was the same as the last one last year. A sprint Duathlon 5K 20k 5K a direct comparison, just needed to take in to account the weather conditions. Ok last year it was cold, I can do cold, this year very windy - yuk.

I have banged on about these events loads, and how great they are (and it's not just me that says so!) my local ones, run by Keith/ Chelle and their great group of volunteers from Nicetri Events.

Photo thanks to Sally Jex ;)

This race was no exception and was put together really well. I was chuffed to come into transition after the run within meters of the first group of some really quick top notch runners, training paying off! Out onto the bike, took the lead and kept it well into 3 .5 k of the 5K second run. Took the second spot or as I saw it 1st loser!

So did I 'maintain the bike'? yes and no, I was quicker, taking into account a slight course change and that wind, so that's good, I did lose a little pace nearing the end of the bike though but that's ok. It puts me in good place, more Duathlons coming up leading up to the Euros in Horst in April.

2013 ... my round up.

2014-01-14T00:44:00.001-08:00

What a year! while sorting out the photos below I had to recheck that they were all 2013. There seems to be a bit of everything from the cold wet Duathlons and TTs from early on in the year to the sun baked photos from the Euros in Turkey with the Worlds at London somewhere in between (ok London was nearer the wet/cold spectrum, just looking through rose tinted glasses, can't blame me for that)

...

To quote the often used phrase, I couldn't do this all on my own, I have had some fantastic support over the year, I'm not just talking sponsors here, I am also talking, my mates who I train with and the clubs that I belong to that give so much support and encouragement, thank you. A special shout out to Richard Hancock, a fellow age grouper, who has brought my bike on no end.

•    Nicetri Club
•    St Neots Cycle Club
•    Hunts AC

Then there are the sponsors who put their time, effort and faith in me, I hope you know I really appreciate all your support . (In no particular order!)

•    GreenlightPT
•    TriCrazy
•    Nicetri Events
•    Insight Nutrition
•    Box End Park
•    Sports Injury Clinic

...

A biggie for me - in 2014 I will be joining a very very exciting new Race Team- Body Limits Corley Cycles Tri. Made up with outstanding athletes, many of which I have raced against and now will have the privilege of racing with. I'm stoked, this team will do really well, keep your eyes out for these guys at races!

...

2014 is so mapped out and planned already, along with my normal favourite events, races that I go back to time after time because they are just great, or because I can map my progression over the same course. I also have qualified for:-

•    Sprint and Standard distances for the European Triathlon Championships in Kitzbuhel, so wanted to do both but had to choose one - sprint it is.
•    Pre qualified for the World Champs in Canada, Sprint Triathlon and Aquathlon.
•    Horst in April, the European Duathlon Sprint distance.

...

Another new development, over the last couple of months I have set up my own printing business, mainly aimed at fellow athletes. It came out of necessity when I tried to get my GB kit printed up with sponsor logos.
Either the cost was too great or what was more often the case, others simply couldn't do what I needed. Everything I earn from this is pumped straight back into my tri. Check it out and if I can help, drop me a line. iPrintStuff

...

website iPrintStuff
like my page to keep updated facebook
follow twitter

Have a great 2014
Tom

Anglian Water standard distance triathlon - European qualifier

2013-10-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Nicetri Events have held a few events here at Grafham water. People understandably like it; it really is a solid venue and when put together with a competent event company like Keiths, well it all just gels together. I have read a shed load of feedback from the event:

For example:

‘Grafham was the glorious location for the Anglian Water standard distance triathlon which is the final European qualifier for next season.’

‘The bike course was perfect, fast and flat but had some spiteful little inclines’

Yesterday, the Saturday, saw me battling it out at the Brownlee Tri. This day, Sunday, less than 24 hours later and a 7 hour round trip I found myself not quite ready for my first ever Standard (Olimpic) distance Race, and it was a Qualifier, stepping up was what it was all about – I was finding it hard just stepping! Still up for grabs was a qualifying place for the European Championships in Kuitzbul Austria. I have already qualified for the sprint distance, bit greedy? Maybe, but I fancied a choice a little further down the line, In my age group I can see myself doing ok at this longer distance, my swim is getting better even at 1,500m the longer bike works very well for me. Then with some hard work on the run over winter everything should be ok.

My race was totally uneventful, it panned out just as I thought it would because of the way I was feeling, I set off in the swim not feeling too great the whole way round and was swimming easy heading to the first buoy. Turned the first buoy and found some feet to tag on to, to my surprise I exited the water in a good time and position. Again my cycle felt the same, sluggish and slow! Don’t even get me started on my run! I was going for a sub 2 hour time, but only

managed 2.02.17. Qualified in 1^st place though.

Looking back I was disappointed but not surprised with my performance, I did the job I needed to do.

I really look forward to doing this distance at this event next time. When I’ve trained for it properly and ready and raring to go for it, I now have a bench mark to work to. I’m also in that nice place, spoilt for choice of what distance I can do!

Stowe.

Middle Distance £1,000 for 1^st place, a bunch of Trophies.

Also tagged on to this event was a Sprint and Standard (well the timing mats are there as where some staff - easy money.)

So, it put it simply it was pants, actually it was pants with a hand shake. I came first (by 7 mins) odd really, you get called up by loud speaker, you stand on a podium, you shake hands, there’s a moment of slight embarrassment when you realise that the over enthusiastic hand clapping from the event organiser is all you are going to get, you get down, bewildered. No trophy, not even a simple voucher for a entry (now how hard would that have been). Seems the Sprint and the Standard really was just there to make up the £numbers£.

One of the other reasons for going was to support team mates Ian Turner and Daz Preston take on the Middle distance race and Dave Glossy attack the Standard.

David also got a handshake for coming first, again odd. It's obvious that they understand of idea competing for something hence the £1,000 first prize and all the bling below, but this was just for the middle.

Ian and Daz did a great job, this is a link to Daz’s blog and his account of the race. Ian took 3^rd spot, he too does a blog, but in TurnerTime, I will put his link on here when it’s up as well! I think its best they tell you about the event themselves, I have nothing more to say on it. (I do, but nothing good!)

N.B. look, organisers, I'm getting fed up with writing negative reviews of my races. I race at some really well organised events out there so I know it's possible.

Bedford pool Sprint on Sunday, I enjoy these.

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The Brownlee Tri ... what a day!

2013-09-26T04:00:00.003-07:00

The Brownlee Tri. This is going to be a difficult one to write. Until the last 15 minutes of the day it was great, then kabang!

Here's the story; I can't quite remember how I found out about the Brownlee Tri, but I did - and signed up straight away to the 'advanced notification' of entries now open, yep I was that keen. I think the idea of racing over the same course if not at the same time with the lad's was great, it would even give me a chance to see how a mere mortal compared with two of our greatest triathletes.

The idea the Brownlees had of introducing people to triathlon was great and really worked - to a point. I understand that out of the 1000 entries - for about a third of them, this was their first tri. Although the entry fee of £61.50 for a super sprint was a bit of a shocker! - I thought the organisers wanted to encourage folk into tri not turn them off for life! Makes you wonder how many more first timers they would have had if the cost of entry was closer to the norm for a super sprint of say £25, now that would have looked good on telly 1,330 first timers rather than the 330! anyway. Organisers being a tad greedy and cashing in the Brownlee name? Never.

The backdrop for all this was the outstanding National trust site at Fountains Abbey

It was great to see this site used in such a positive way, odd really because just the week before the Chair of the National Trust, Simon Jenkins made a number of ridiculous, ignorant and ill informed remarks about Triathlon and the ITU World Triathlon Championships held in London the week earlier.

These are his misunderstood uttering's

and this is one of the many open letter rebuttals by Chrissie Wellington to his ignorance- go Chrissie!

Leading up the weather had been a bit dodgy but on race day we were blessed with no wind and sun, the water was still cold though, I train in it so I was ok but to many that were doing this for the first time I bet it came as a bit of a shock. There were waves throughout the day broken up at lunch by an excellent Brownlee Challenge, the idea was for Ali and Jonny to go head-to- head and give us all a bit of a demo - they did, it was great - the only thing was Alistair was suffering from an injury form the week before so he had two lucky people chosen via twitter to be part of his team, he just did the bike - but that just made it a little more fun.

Only 3 people got under 17 minutes on the bike that day. Jonny 16:57 Alistair with a 16:27 and me sandwiched in between them with a 16:45, happy with that! (obviously!)

After lunch came the youth team relays, although it wasn't really a relay? they all did the normal course, it was just the fastest 3 out of a team of 4 added together. There were some super speedy youth elites amongst this group, with the Union Jack side panels in their GB suits making us mere GB age groupers hang our heads in shame.

I was in the last wave of the day, the 'under 35' - yep that's me. Now what I hadn't realised until a couple of days before was that for the winners a couple of hot prizes awaited. Namely a Boardman Bike Frame and A Huub Archimedes Wetsuit, and a pair of the new Adidas BOOST trainers - this was it, this was providence, I had been trying to sort out how I was going to get a decent roady frame for some draft legal races I plan to do next year, currently I share my old TCR with my mum, not ideal having to move stem, handles bars, saddle and take the basket off every time I use it. (ok, I was joking about the basket, but you get the idea) What’s more, according to the race info the prizes would go to the ‘top 3 (excluding elites)’ and the super speedy relays guys (who’s entry was £39) wouldn’t be in it, they had their own prizes of some posh running shoes.

Here are some more boring snips from the event paperwork

I was definitely in with a shout if I pushed myself, so to cut a short story even shorter, I did push myself. I came out of the water in fourth, into transition in 2^nd out of transition in 1^st did my bike thing, held up on the run and finished… don’t forget this was just my wave of 50 or so...

I looked at the leader board and I was in…. 3^rd.... behind… let me check.. Jonny, ok he doesn’t count, then Junior Elite James Teagle.. hey, he was in the relays and he’s an elite he doesn’t count either! Result.

The bike is mine, no more sharing with mum, now I would have something decent to compete on next year. With Mika Brown picking up the 2^nd spot and the wetsuit.

And to top it all I was going to be presented it by Jonny and Alistair themselves. Double result.

So presentation time, one of the biggest crowds I have been in front of, banks of cameras and expectant looking faces. I quickly borrowed a GB jacket to cover my Canada swopsy jacket form Mika’s dad, I was ready.

And then the announcement ... in 3^rd place, Mika Brown - the shoes, hang on, that’s wrong? Mika gets the suit and he was second, right? And in 2^nd place, Tom Stead - the suit*, gutted, head spinning, brave face, what’s going on?

1^st place James Teagle - the bike. Bit of a blur, well done from the Brownlees. Slick PR people kick in, line us all up for the photo shots. Someone from Huub (I think) takes the empty wetsuit box from me and tells me how to get one the right size from them. Not a clue what they said. Suppose I best email them.

Complaint and a need for an explanation goes in, I was asked to write to the PR people at The Professional Sports Group (@profsports) who I gather are the main rollers behind Brownlee Tri, for them to sort out, I did, I think they realised a mistake had been made, I got fobbed off**, apparently they didn’t mean ‘excluding elites’ and even though the race timing system was set up for the two events and the wording in all the paperwork and the website was for two, they only ‘meant’ it to be one. Oh ok, that’s alright then.

Organisers, you take our money (lots of it) - don't let us down!

**5 or snips taken form event and results info here.

BTW I don't want to take anything away from James, he's obviously a class athlete.

Latest from our follow-up to their follow-up is, they will try and get the boys to do a signed T-shirt for me! (What am I, 7?) Why the hell didn’t they say that in the first place?! I would take a £20 signed T-shirt over a £1,500 bike frame any day.

So to sum up

A great day, too pricey, great venue, great to meet the Brownlees, great to beat Jonny ‘s time on the bike;) great to think I had won a frame. Shit to find out I hadn’t. Absolute shambles in regards to follow up PR from The Professional Sports Group - shame, spoilt a good day.

Bitter? You bet.

* I have to say here that the Huub Archimedes Wetsuit is a fantastic prize and I really am grateful and chuffed to have it. Under any other circumstances I would be jumping for joy. (I am actually jumping for joy;)

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Oh London.. yes, that was great.

2013-09-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

That's London done and dusted and I feel a bit bad, I hadn't seen Tony for one of my much needed regular massages for a week or so and the first question he asked was 'so are you happy with your result?' I have to say it took me a while to figure out what he was talking about! I have had a busy time as well as being at London I had competed at the St Neots NiceTri Sprint just before and came away with what I suppose was my 1st 'adult' win. I also had my mind on the up and coming busy weekend. The Brownlee Super Sprint on Saturday and an Standard European Qualifier on the Sunday. Both distances I just don't do!

London. I had been entered, since I had qualified at Box End (without my knowledge) into the Aquathlon on the Wednesday. I figured that not being a swimmer or a runner why would I want to do the Aquathlon? As it happened thanks to me upping my running and some great lead up sessions from Adam of GreenlightPT, my swim coach, I was ready(ish). It was also good to get a heads up on the venue, and have a bit of a splash in the Serpentine and have a recce of the run route.

On Aquathlon race day I was in the first wave with mate David Glossy of Corley Cycles going off 20 minutes later. At one point, as I was in the stands posing with David for a few snaps, it was pointed out to me that 'they are all in the holding pen - ready to go!' sure enough looking over my shoulder my wave were 'all ready to go' - suits on, hats on, goggles; the lot!. Time for a pre-race sprint and the reverse of wetsuit off! still, made the start in time (just) perhaps I was a little too relaxed for that one! I finished 2nd Brit and 10th in my age group, not too shabby and not bad for a 'cyclist'!

I then had a couple of days until my main race on Friday, the forecast looked rubbish, but it was going to be rubbish for everyone I told myself. Besides 'rubbish' is often what I train in so no major worries, in fact all my Mum and Dad were concerned about was how it was going to be horrible for them and the family to support me. I must say it was great to see Uncle Rob, Grandma, Grandpa, Nan and Sam there supporting me, it meant a lot to me, thank you.

I took a bit of time on Thursday and hired a Boris bike or Barclay bike and 'rode' the route as best as I could, spotting my brake and turn points, all good 'homework' that paid off. I did get some strange looks and a few 'go GB' shouts while doing this! (I was in my GB jacket!)

On the Triathlon race day I was in the first wave again. This time I was very much more focussed, I knew where I had to be and at what times, to be early for everything! I met up with Adam Tapley who was looking very nervous whilst being held in the holding pen for such a long time! We hung back to try and get a spot as close as we could to the outer edge, but for some reason - the other guys weren't listening to the official asking everyone to move along the pontoon and decided to stop in our way, so I moved slightly more into the middle, but Adam pushed his way into a great spot for swimming! We were asked to slide into the water and were given 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 second... I had learnt from doing the Aquathlon that it was all about not getting left behind at the first buoy which was only 250m or so away, if you got there late you would drop a huge amount of time. Then the horn sounded. It was madness, in the first few strokes I was hit in the face and swum over but I was adamant to have a good start. I had a great swim and exited the water in a time of 10.51, good for me.

Running into transition my Dad said to me '2 minutes, all easily catch-able!' and I knew from that the next 30 minutes were going to be hard! I got onto the bike course and straight away started to overtake people! It was only when I got to the top end of the park and saw the leaders coming the back the other way - I could see they were drafting along with pretty much everyone else.

Now I know that many Age Groupers have a thing about drafting or cheating, I'm one of them, If it's a non drafting race, don't draft. If it's a draft legal race, draft. Simples. I don't draft. If you can't see what's wrong with drafting in a non drafting race in simple terms the bloke at the front is doing all the hard work and smashing his legs while the 'cheat' is drafting, is saving his legs for the run by having an easy ride (in the draft you save up to 33% energy or something like that!)

Here we have one of the many photos I have of one of the many 'well drilled' packs
on there way out and below on there way back. Drafting? you decide!

By the start of the 3rd (last) lap I was in 3rd place hunting down the last 2 guys. I managed to catch both of them with 4k to go. I overtook them convincingly, so when I looked behind me a few 'kms' later I was disappointed to see these two guys tagging onto my wheel. I mean - blatantly drafting me!

They then had the audacity to come by me in the final 500m. I wasn't having that so I went past them once again with 100m to go, frantically undid my shoes and was off running into transition in 1st place! No one in my wave was done for drafting, I suspect it was a too difficult a rule to enforce so the officials turn a blind eye.

Straight away those two guys came zooming past on the run - it was always going to happen as they had 'fresh legs' one of them went onto win it and in the end I finished in 12th place and 3rd brit! I am very pleased with my performance on the day. Automatic Qualification for Canada 2014 - now just need to sus out a way of funding it!

Looking at the results afterwards I spotted that not only did I have the fastest bike split in my age-group but had the fastest bike split of the whole day out of 1,845 international athletes with my mate Dan Bigham (age 20-24) just 11 seconds back on that!

Also hats off to fellow Nicetri club mates who also did their utmost. For a small club we sure had great representation.

Emma Ritchie
Ian Turner
Richard Hancock
Chris Ritchie
Mick Lawrence
Me

In Summary - A great venue with some awesome support all around the course! It was great to see the Elite Juniors, Men and Women race, but especially great to see the ParaTriathletes racing! Well done to my mate George Peasgood who got the bronze medal in the TRI-5 category! Another great international, amazing experience, It seemed like the whole of the World was represented, one to remember, if only I had when asked 'so are you happy with your result?

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Catch up....

2013-09-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit lazy when it comes to keeping this blog up to date but boy have I been busy! what with training hard for the looming World champs in London and racing all over the place.

Since I last blogged I have completed in the following

Fenland 25m TT - 1st Junior
The Silverstone Duathlon - 1st Junior

Box End off-road evening race series - 1st overall / Series winner

Chronos 2up 10m TT - 2nd Team

National Club Relays - 1st Open Cat Team / 7th Overall

Stowmarket 10m TT - 1st Junior / 3rd Overall
The Silverstone Duathlon - 1st Junior / Junior Series winner
Icknield 2up 10m TT - 1st Team

Here's a brief summery of some of them...

Fenland 25m TT was first in my long line up of races! We (myself and Richard) drove to St Ives where we would take on a tough 25 mile Time Trial!! We got there and found out the course was an out and back, out and back. I was going off around 10 mins ahead of Rich...

I felt strong and on top of it! I had seen Richard pass the other way a few times whilst shouting encouragement across the road to him, as soon as I hit 15 miles I really started to suffer... My legs started to go really heavy and I wasn't able to put any power through the pedals. Rich had an absolutely stonkin ride and won the event!!

So, The first Silverstone on the list. Leading into this race I have been fairly ill so set out to a good average race all around. I did get a bit carried away and started to flag at half way. I had gone out at my normal pace but couldn't sustain it. On to the cycle in 9th place and 1 min down on the leaders. After a good solid bike split I had moved up into 3rd place with Jason Moore and Phil Melling fighting it out for 1st place around 1:20 ahead of me. All of the top bike splits were all slower because of conditions; was very windy.

I sometimes struggle on the second run of a Duathlon but I set out not expecting much after my 'not so great' first leg, but knowing that 4th place (off the bike) was around 45 seconds behind me - he was very good runner and closing in. Despite feeling a bit 'off' I relaxed into the run and was disappointed but surprised that he come past me in the final stages of the run to take 3rd. Phil came 1st, Jason 2nd and I came 4th. Not massively pleased but can't be too disappointed with it!

The Tri Crazy Box End was the next evening. To compete in the series you have to do 3 out of the 4 races and seeing as I was away for 1 of them I had to do all the others and hope that I didn't have any slip ups and I hadn't, really, going into the final race. Because of the night before, knowing that my cycle and run splits probably won't be as good as they could be I decided to 'smash' the swim. I did just that - I went out hard and didn't stop going hard. Turns out I can go pretty much flat out for the most of a 750m swim. I came out the water in second place around 10 seconds behind Jordan Mackie and 5 seconds in front of a swimmer who is usually out 30 seconds ahead of me! Had a storming transition and went out onto the bike neck and neck with Jordan and instantly I knew my legs weren't going to work properly for the rest of the race! I clawed my way slowly away from Jordan on the first lap and got a little bit more of a gap on the second lap. Went onto the run with around a minutes advantage. Just as I imagined my legs didn't work - again. I knew that they were going to be catching me and that I just had to hold my own. With 1k to go, they (Mathew Wooten had now reeled Jordan in and they were running within a few seconds of each other) could see me, I was in there sights. I had a little glance around and new that if I didn't hurry up I was going to get caught. So I hurried up and crossed the line in 1st place to take Victory and 1st Overall male and under 23 series prize! Jordan followed shortly after with Matt hot on his heels! Matt also won the 2nd place series prize with Rob Hammond taking 3rd.

National Club Relay Championships August 2013
(reprint by Emma)

It's early Saturday morning when most 'normal' people are still sleeping or at least inside cosy and warm! Well not us, stood in the cold and rain waiting to go and beast ourselves in Nottingham! The rain didn't ease up all the way and in fact I would say it got worse. However someone was being good to us as soon as we saw the signs for Pierre Point the sun came out

It was rather an unusual start to a typical race day sitting, relaxing and eating so much (probably too much) food. After a lot of dilly-dallying (yes thats a real word) and numerous items being lost and then found, it was finally time to get ready. The barbecue tent was soon turned into a changing room and we started to look like we ready to go!

Eventually racing time finally arrived and bikes were beginning to be racked and people donned the wetsuits making it impossible to spot anyone from the club amidst the sea of people with various hat colours on.

As soon as the hooter went and the first swimmers were off, it was hard to keep track of where everyone was as until we got to the bike legs! The Nicetri camp was very loud which made everyone cycle faster (at least if only for 200m until they were out of sight). It was during the bike legs that Nicetri Dreamers started to lead the whole race and eventually took 7 minutes out of second place! Various highlights include Sarah Shepard trying to run the opposite way out of transition (gingers eh'). It's hard to summarise a triathlon in which so many people were competing, all I can say is that everyone swam, then everyone biked and then everyone ran! I'm sure everyone has their own trials and tribulations they went through throughout the day but all in all a good afternoon of racing.

Then we get to the most important part of the day...

Due to the late finish it wasn't until late evening when we reached the pub! This, I believe, is what fuelled the intoxicated state that many members found themselves incredibly quickly. You can always tell when people have been drinking as subject of conversation finally turns away from all things triathlon (thank God) and move on to more trivial items such as darts and cocktails that I have never heard of (Duncan and his cake mixture). The sambuccas came out and well the rest involves games that would never pass the health and safety checks!

To have 40 people racing from the club that is still considered 'small' is amazing! Well done to all involved whether you were racing, supporting, cooking or organising. It made a great club day with some awesome times and results being posted. Lets do it all again next year (maybe minus the blind darts).

My next blog will include Race Reports from NiceTri Sprint and the Aquathlon and Triathlon World Champs!

Watch this space!

I’ll start off with

2013-07-26T07:30:00.004-07:00

I haven’t blogged in a while so I have decided to do a little of summary of some of the races I have done recently! I’ve left out a few TT’s and an Aquathlon, oh and a win at Box End Park!

I’ll start off with

Stow sprint triathlon. Before the race I was unsure in which race to do... This one or the Bedford Sprint at Box End park. It was the second year that it had ran and I had competed and enjoyed it last year! But I decided to try out the Stow Sprint. Spice things up a little! I’ll cut to the chase .

It was Hot, but to most spectators that was not a problem. It gave them all the more reason to soak up the outstanding backdrop that this event is held at. Little groups spread out over the lawn (couldn't really call it a field) seemingly having picnics while waiting for their race to start, even with tones of a band played though the air. I digress back to the race.

It was my first ever ‘first out the water’ moment with my 750m PB time of 10.03! I was very pleased with this! It was then a long, long, long run to transition where I jumped on my bike and prepared myself for a long 26km, undulating, David Glossy designed route! (he later told ne he designed it for a string rider!) I started to ride and my legs just didn’t feel with it! And I was caught at around 15km by Jason Moore who just flew past me down a decent! He put around 20-30 meters between us but I managed to keep this distance back until the finial approach into the Stowe Estate . Here there was a final hill where I gained a little more back on Jason! We ran into transition within 2 seconds of each other. Him slightly ahead!! Another quick transition and we were onto the run! I started fast and quick. Heat and hills are a killing combination and what with the extra effort I had put to keep Jason in my sights on the bike it got the better of me on the day! I dropped back to 3^rd place as Jordan Pollard took 2^nd with Dan Bigham coming in, in 4^th place!

I did the Sprint which was hard enough! A standard distance was also on earlier that day,It would be torture to do this course twice like Phil Holland, Robert Quantrell, David Glossy and Matt Wootton coming 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 7^th respectively!! Well done everyone who was there!!

hereMedia Platformfile transfer

Silverstone Duathlon. This consists of a 2 mile Run, 10 mile cycle and another 2 mile run! Overall I was pleased with the race as I had a PB of over 2 mins and that, pretty much, came from a faster cycle split! Jason Moore had the fastest bike split... again! And Phil Holland won the race... again! And I came somewhere behind them both... again!

OW session

Five of us who all train with each other from time to time, Ian Turner, Richard Hancock, Darren Preston, Chris Ritchie and myself ventured down to Box End Lake for an Open Water Master Class with Adam. Between us we have all done a shed load of open water races, four of us GB age group reps (not you Darren! you could be if you wanted to! Just get your Ironman out the way first!) I think I went to the session a little bit of a ‘what am I going to get from this’ attitude.

Although I had been through all this with Adam already it was great to recap on the theory behind sighting, drafting, turning and positioning before we got in the water. After a warm up the main focus was on drafting, splitting into pairs to practice, because if you can master drafting you’ll effectively be able to swim, saving up to 30% of energy or 30% faster! Depending on how you look at it! We also learnt a lot about tactics, moving up from group of swimmers to another, or even dropping back if the group you had tagged onto was to quick (it might happen!)

We also practiced and appreciated just how important sighting was and how to tackle turn buoys.

At the end we had a little handicap race, good stuff.

So my ‘what am I going to get from this’ attitude was way wrong, I wish I had done a class like this as I was starting up – perhaps I will mention it down the club and try a get a club session sorted.

Still to Come

My 9up TTT

Ashman Trophy

TT vs Roady?...

2013-07-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 29th June I went along to the Llandudno Triathlon. It was another of the World Qualifier races, and although I had already (thankfully) qualified at Nottingham, having paid the exorbitant entry fee, we thought a weekend at the seaside might be quite nice! So we booked a last minute b & b and set off on Saturday morning for the race.

I had been debating long and hard whether to use my road bike or my TT bike! The talk on Facebook etc was very much that the route round The Orme was hard, difficult, steep, technical, bendy, road bikes only etc, I finally decided to use my TT bike, with team mate Ian Turner making a last minute decision (#turnertime) to use his road bike! Only time would tell who had made the right choice. I arrived in plenty of time for the race, so thought it would be a good idea to drive the route! It wasn’t the steepest I’ve ridden on, but it did go on for quite a while. Just driving the descent was fun so I was looking forward to tearing down it in a super aero tuck later! We then checked into our B & B (we had decided because of the long drive to stay the night). Time was getting on so we walked down to registration; there was a massive queue (1)... Almost out the door!

At this point I was slightly anxious as I only had 55 minutes to register, set up transition and put my tri-suit and wetsuit on! The queue slowly moved and I finally had my ‘race pack’! I then put the number on my belt and the tattoo transfers on my arms and left leg! Shot over to transition, where the security (2)for getting in, I must say was rubbish! Anyway, bike was racked and blowing in the wind and transition was set up!

Time check; 15 minutes till race start... I hadn’t even got my tri suit on. There was a massive queue for the portaloo’s so I made my way, quickly, back to registration where there were some more toilets; after queuing for a while I managed to suit up!

Time check; 5 minutes till race start... PANIC #turnertime! I rushed to the start hopping along as I tried to get my wetsuit on! Finally I was ready and the race was due to start any second! Luckily for me, the start was late... 10 mins late! Relax. The start was a water start, but you had to swim about 200m to it! This would have been OK, but for some of the 'poorer' swimmers, this did delay the start even more while they made their way to the start buoys leaving everyone else treading water.(3)

The horn kinda, sounded (a half hearted effort finishing with the starter shouting GO) and we were off, first 10 strokes then BANG hit in the face and goggles were now on my forehead... Not ideal, turned onto my back and adjusted the goggles! Right, let’s try again... I got into a rhythm and settled down. I still had a tiny bit of water in my goggles, salt water, not a problem with my normal breathing stroke, but I'm nosey, I like to look around a bit, yep you guessed it, salt in the eye - ouch. In the last 100m of the swim I managed to come across a jellyfish. It 'became' part of the 'catch' phase of my stroke, I pulled it backwards and took it for the adrenaline rush of its life, and all the thanks I got was a massive sting on the wrist, ouch again. I was out the water in roughly 25^th place!

I remember watching the elites in Turkey, it was so intense from start to finish, really 'full on', even in the transitions! So I got out and I was on a mission to get to my bike, overtaking quite a few racers on the way. The transition, was huge (4) and was set up wrongly! It wasn’t a diagonal like most transitions (in at the top right, out at the bottom left for example)which meant the transition was longer for people on the far row! Guess where I was... Yup!! Competitors in this far row, after looking at the splits took on average 40 seconds longer, that's like saying 'you guys swim 750m and you guys just swim 700m' not pleased.

Because the cycling stage is my favourite and best discipline I decided to go for it! And I did just that. I worked my way through the field and after the first lap I was up to 3^rd Place with only Sam Parker and Ali Rogers ahead of me!

Half way round the second lap I caught Sam. I had the fastest bike split of the day! I was especially pleased with this because my chain had come off twice during the ascents! Ali stayed in first place and headed out onto the run. Sam and I came into T2 in 2^nd and 3^rd around 30 seconds behind Ali, after going through the tightest, most dangerous in/out bike funnel I have ever seen, I was going to say it was a miracle there was no accidents, but thinking back, I bet there were - I don't know. At most events the 'mount/dismount line is outside or close to the exit of the funnel, here the mount/dismount line was at the entrance of the long funnel. You had riders tearing out on both sides of the funnel 'on a mission' on the way out hitting 20 odd mph and riders coming back on a charge downhill vying for the same space in the funnel also hitting 20 mph. They met at the entrance to the funnel on a 'blind' bend (it wasn't, but seemed that way with all the spectators lining this area.) After I had finished I noticed that the entrance had been hastily altered, better, and probably saved someone a hospital visit.(5)

Because the run route was an out and back my plan was always to go out easy/comfortable and let loose on the way back! Sam soon caught me and started to pull away slowly. We ran and ran and ran(6 & 7). The marshals just kept saying ‘carry on’ ‘carry on’! So we did! It got to the point where we couldn’t believe why we were still running; we still had to get back yet! We got to around the 10k turn and knew that the marshals were wrong! We then decided to run back together. On the way we picked up Thomas Kneller and Jonny Dudley who were also sent the wrong way! We jogged through the line with a 5k split of 36 minutes... I’ve done faster!

Then came the appeals and the ‘controlled’ arguments. I was 'OK' because I had qualified at Nottingham but Ali Rogers, Thomas Kneller and Sam Parker were still to qualify. I wish them all the best in getting this sorted and receiving a discretionary/roll down place! Something is very wrong if they don't.

The next day I was looking at the results and us three; Sam, Ali and I could well have come top 3. Which order? Nobody will ever know!! Which is rather annoying!!??????

So, after my obvious annoyance, some advice for the organisers and some clear ways to sort out their mistakes, (people 'in power' are not always right)

I know that at being only 17 (well very nearly anyway) you could question how or what gives me the right to do this, but most of this is, well, simples..

I have hardly ever questioned any organisers in the past, but this being a World qualifier I had expected close to perfection, especially due to the cost of entry (£65) and the very unbendable rules they had set in place, i.e. 'no photo id no race', no transfers, no refund (you could advise the organisers that you weren't going, you would not get a refund, they would however sell your spot to the reserve list - outrageous.

You be the judge of weather these guys went that xtra mile.

Massive queue (1) Hey guys, lots of people need to register, get more helping hands (the ones that were there where great btw)

Transition security (2) Having some disinterested guy glance at the lower half of my tat number does not fill me with confidence.

Treading water.(3) Very neat in the diagram, but did we really need to start so far from land? why not 20m off the beach and swim to the first buoy?

The transition (4) I have already explained why this was unfair but also the order of racking? it's normally in age/group order not alphabetically. Why alphabetically, when I was collecting my gear an hour after my race had finished I almost got in the way of a guy in the standard race racked next to me who was 'in the zone' racking his bike and donning his race shoes.

Bike exit/entrance (5) really, really dangerous, simple fix - one in, one out (quick reminder, it was a World qualifier)

We ran and ran and ran(6) A lead bike would have alerted pedestrians on the promenade and shown the way to the lead runners (even if the turn round marshal was incompetent and as it turns out a liar*) this would have sorted out all of the 'no turn round' issues.

We ran and ran and ran(7) Volunteers are always the backbone of these events and we thank them fully for it. However (quick reminder again, this was a World qualifier) someone competent or at least briefed well was needed here, that and the obvious 5k 'Turnaround here' sign would do, which was nonexistent btw.

This btw is one of the busiest spots on the bike course, the roundabout. This is were you enter the lap cousre, exit the course and go through for the next lap. If you look vary carefully you may spot a couple of things.....

...no?, ok. 1/ a 20m long 'land train' 2/ two cars 3/a few casual walkers.

As an afterthought, did 77 people really get bang on 2 minutes for T1? - questionable.

* After we had finished (much later) we were informed that the turn round marshal had told us to turn round and that we ignored him. Yer right, we are in podium position (or there abouts) and we say 'no way are we turning round, I feel the wind in my hair and I'm going on, you can't stop me'

I think what has made this all the worse is that we tried to 'file our complaint' to the race director for almost 2 hours. Loud speaker announcements where sent out many times. We even towards the end approached a BTF official in transition to see if we could find him. We came away empty handed without finding him, bit of a shame really for as this photo shows we were right next to him.

xtra mile, don't think so.

Next post, back to normal, promise!

My thanks as always to these guys:-
GreenLightPT
Insight Nutrition
Sports Injury Clinic
Tri-Crazy
And the others that help me... You know who you are!

Was it all worth it?...... Yep you bet it was...

2013-06-20T07:01:00.002-07:00

Well that's that then, an extra 12 strong weeks of training, huge help and support from friends and sponsors. Was it all worth it? Yep you bet it was. This was my first European championships in this age group, I was one of the youngest and up against some very talented older triathletes. To cut to the chase, I finished 5th in my AG with a new pb of 1 hour 1 second! In a non-wetsuit sea swim in incredibly hot conditions, I am chuffed.

We arrived in Alanya 5 days before the race, very excited. As we, Richard Hancock (fellow club member and training partner) and I settled in to our pre worked out training schedule - an easy week, just the basics, easy swim, bike and run recces, we both found ourselves;

1/ realising - this is it,

2/ what a great job our Turkish hosts were doing putting on the event

3/ it was gonna be a hot one!

All the talk of a wetsuit swim went out the window, and swimming not being my best thing, I knew I would be up against it when the time came.

Race day loomed it was a 7am wave start for me. We racked our bikes the night before, so I took the opportunity to check out transition, checked out the ins and outs and ran them through.

All too soon I found myself standing proud in a queue in my GB trisuit waiting to be called forward onto the pontoon to start. Slipped into the water, a hooter sounded and we were off. As expected the swimmers did their thing and the field spread out - not as much as I thought it would though, after all we had all earned the right to be there. I worked hard against the incoming waves, turned left at the turn buoy for a short while, then left again, then it was fun on the way back in with the tide.

A quick transition on to the bike and off for the first of the two lap course. The bike was on cobbled closed roads - quick, but with constant shuddering through the arms. I decided on slightly lower tyre pressures for two reasons - to get a bit more suspension and because of the heat, as I didn't fancy coming out of the swim only to find a tyre had burst!

I settled down into my 'stride' and soon found myself making up loads of positions. This course was always going to be tricky for some not to draft, due to the large number of competitors and it being a lap course (especially for those that do a lot of draft legal races, I don't). I pulled out a good couple of minutes before the ‘pack’ caught me up just before we entered transition for T2.

The run route was out in the open along the harbour, then it turned uphill back on itself, along a short killer of a hill. The route then worked its way through the barriered streets of the town through the bazaar, past bars and restaurants (quite a few of which we had 'visited' in the previous days leading up!). I managed to do OK, considering the heat and my ‘solo’ effort on the bike!

A pb! 1 hour 1 second - it’s looking good for a sub 60!

So, all in all, a great experience, with some great people and some great racing.

The age groups standard distance was on the day before and many other races including relays, (so much intensity!) the elites and the para-triathletes, lots of great watching, excellent inspiration and much to take on board.

Well done Turkey for putting together the event, and what a great closing ceremony.

A massive thanks to team mate Rich for helping with the build up and well done to Chris and Emma who were also racing.

My race highlight? Getting the 4th fastest bike split out of the 250 or so competitor's across all the age groups that did the sprint.

Quick mention and thanks to Adam who got me that much closer to the front in the swim... GreenlightPT

More Photos on my Multi-me Face book page

I am so looking forward to The World Champs in London in September!

Qualified x2

2013-06-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

Still busy, another 2 races in seven days! they were both important - they were both qualifiers - for the European and World Champs! This year the World's are being held on 'home ground' in London, so these qualifying races had massive interest and an outstanding quality of athletes from all age groups!

Club mates Chris Ritchie, Richard Hancock and me. Photo thanks to Chelle Ritchie (probably)

I've found a little program that strips out colour form photos, I've been playing, sorry!

Grendon last Sunday - the European Qualifier (26th May) I lined up in the water at 8:30 to get on my way with the European qualifiers - for next year!! I had an OK to good swim, I must say I need to sort out my 'race head' in the swim, I often catch myself just plodding along. As often happens I had a great bike and came into transition in second place, it's a great feeling to make up the time I lost in the swim on the bike! This run, to be frank, I hate. The course is 'long' and on a very uneven stony dirt track, not good. I put in a good time for me and crossed the finish line in 3rd! However there were two more waves to come and this being a qualifier, with a quality field and numbers around 500, I knew that places would slip. When the race was run and all times were in, I was chuffed to have finished 7th overall and 2nd in my 15 - 19 age group (still have 2 more years left in this age group).

I qualified - so Austria, here I come

A few more shots of the day here:

Yesterday was the World Qualifiers. I had a massive PB with a 1hr:50secs - but was still disappointed I didn't get under the hour; note to self - 'must try harder'! Job done though - Qualified.
Oh, and this one also doubled up as the British Sprint Championships.

I have asked Richard, my training partner, who also qualified, if he would mind doing a bit of a race report - thanks Richard. (best go get yourself a cup of tea!)

Richard Hancock "utter relief mixed with joy !!"

The 1st of june 2013 was a date that had been fixed in my mind for quite some time , it was of course the 1st of 3 World Championship qualifing races that would see age group triathletes from all over the uk fight for just 17 places per 5 year age band. All vying to win the right to represent GBR in the Grand Final in London in september.

From my club there were also team mates Tom Stead , Chris Ritchie , Emma Ritchie and Mick Lawrence who like myself all had qualification on their minds . I personally felt that we could all qualify at some point over the coming 3 races such is the current standard within the Nicetri club but personally felt that my own chances would be better at bristol .

Arriving at the National Water Sports venue with my son Benjamin we saw that the 1st wave with team mate and training partner Tom stead in was already under way and I had to smile as on the other side of the lake he was hammering the bike leg and obviously making very good progress , a discipline in which Tom has improved over the winter hugely.

A quick chat with Julia ( toms mum ) confirmed that he was in a qualification spot thereabouts against some very tough opposistion , by this time Tom was in and had started the run so we moved round to the finishing straight to shout him on for every last second , soon enough he came in to view and holding a very strong pace we all cheered him in and waited for the confirmation .... and Yes 6th place with a time of 1hr and 51 seconds , what a start for him and the club , he for sure was going to the worlds .

After a chat and congratulations we moved round to the start area to watch the 2nd wave Which had team mate Chris Ritchie in, with all of us wishing him luck he entered the water in what were for all of us 200+ swim waves . Chris is a great swimmer so it was a suprise to me that as people started to exit the water there was no sign of him . I mentioned this to Keith ( chris s dad ) and said to him that something must be wrong to which he showed me the stopwatch , it wasnt that chris was slower it was that the frontrunners were swimming 9 minute 750s !!!

Sure enough Chris exited the water with a fantastic 10.56 ( beyond my dreams !! ) and like Tom, Chris proceeded to smash the bike , the 3 of us have worked hard on the bike this winter and it has given me great pleasure to pass on some of my bike knowledge and see the big gains that they have made on the bike this year.

After a great bike time of 29.19 we again cheered Chris on the run as he came underneath us and with his usual light bouncy run style he had a fantastic run of 18.11 and smashed the hour with a finish time of 59.47 and as we waited for the all important qualification status it came back 7th place ( 25-29) Fantastic 2 out of 2 qualifiers 1st time out !!!! big handshakes all round and with Keiths words of " its your turn now " ringing in my ears I began to prepare.

After setting up all my kit in transistion and wishing team mate Mick Lawrence good luck I just tried to concentrate on not getting to spooked by the size of the swim pack , setting off with 230 fully charged up triathletes in what is my relativley weakest discipline takes some courage as I dont have the ability to stay out of trouble at the front and knew it was going to get physical !!!

After a short delay we were away and it was carnage !! ha ha I just tried to keep as even pace as possible and was very relieved to exit the water in about 40 th ish spot with a 13.28 not blistering but not bad given the pack size for me .

Wetsuit off and unracking the Giant Trinity felt sooo good as I knew i was going to move up the order rapidly as the bike is my strongest discipline and sure enough I started to pass people very quickly . I passed Mick on the bike and shouted to him and he looked to be going well . Each lap I heard the Nicetri crew cheering which spurred me on and I hammered the pedals to a bike split of 28.17 , to put that into perspective the outright winners time was a 28.10 so not to bad for an old guy !!

Onto the run and I just tried to focus on keeping things fast and even and began to pass some more people each one a potential qualification place . At half distance I glanced round to see Colin HInsley a gbr regular who caught and passed me on the run for 2nd place in my Euro qualifier at Rother Valley in 2012 on my shoulder . I had to smile at history repeating itself and just kept my head down and thought about all the hard run work id done with Tom since then and lifted the pace steadily for half a km , as I looked back again he had dropped back to another group and that gave me a real boost.

It was just a case then of holding the gap to the line and with one final push and with all the team there shouting me in i crossed the line in 1 hr 2min 27 sec utterly spent , but had i done it ?? not 3 in a row surely but yes Tom gave me the ticket , youve done it 7th place ( actually 6th later on ) it felt so good and what an achievement for the club , I was going to the Worlds .

Mick finished in 1 hr 05 .46 and 14th place in the 50 - 54 bracket a cracking race and time and im sure he will qualify in the remaining races with another 10 places up for grabs .

So last up was Emma Ritchey with all the pressure / support of us watching !! with a similar size wave group away she went and it certainly gave you a different perspective knowing what she was going through . After a great swim off 14.12 she soon settled into a good bike leg looking the part on a tt bike and produceing a very good bike split of 38.52.

Soon she was off on the run and with us all cheering her on she produced a great run of 22.11 and as we all moved round to the finishing shute she gave one last push to cross the line in 1 hr 17 .07 which gave her 10th place in the 20-24 group so close ... but a few days later it became apparent she had made it due to 3 people below her not having registered intent so fantastic she also had qualified !!! what a day .

So thats it 4 members going to London at the first time off asking to what must be the pinnacle of amateur racing triathlon , a fantastic race to look forward to and train for . Just to compete will be great but to medal !! impossible surely ?? but hang on didnt I think that about qualification ?? ha ha watch this space- Richard

A big shout out to Alex from Insight Nutrition, who looks after me nutrition wise, Alex took the extra time to advise me and change my pre-race nutrition.

Some more images on my FB page here

My next blog post will be after the European Championships - Turkey here we come!

kinda special

2013-05-24T07:44:00.002-07:00

I competed at the Silverstone Duathlon, it was cold and windy (but not wet!) but I still ‘enjoyed’ it! These are kinda special being traffic free and on the World famous race circuit.

Really chuffed with my 2^nd place Results

My thanks again to Tony at the Sports Injury Clinic for his work, boy did I need it this morning!

2-1-2 what a week

2013-05-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

Phew! 8 days - 3 races, fun times! Buckingham Sprint, Box End evening series and my home event - the NiceTri Sprint

Three weeks until we leave for the Euro Champs in Turkey, eeek. Mind you I have been putting the training in, and as part of that, pushing the races that are part of it.

Buckingham sprint on Sunday 12^th May was great; I was put in a wave that had a 'potential' race winner in it. It went well and I posted some good times. There was a bit of a mess up on the run 'turn around', the leading four competitors were directed the wrong way for a couple of minutes or so. No biggie in the grand scheme of things but at the time, well, every second counts! I actually crossed the line first, but as it was a ‘staggered’ swim start in the pool, finished 2nd overall behind, (now, I was told off for not mentioning this person in a previous post so: he needs no introduction, the incredible, the magnificent)… David Glossy! of the Corley Elite Triathlon Team, boy, are these guys great, it was an absolute honour (as David would, and does say) to race against them.

Great result for Matthew Wootton who had a storming race and picked up 4th!

Full race results here

A few more photos on my FB page here

On the following Thursday 16th May I raced at the first of this year's Tri Crazy Box End Off-Road evening races. A really good no frills friendly event that only costs a tenner to enter! My goal last year was to break the 1 hour barrier. I did it once, just!

We have always been blighted with, well, let's just say, not the best weather. This time it was much kinder to us and the sun shone.

I had a good swim, I have been working with Greenlight over the winter and this has paid off. I exited the water, after a 'long' 750m 20 seconds behind the fastest swimmer. My transition was quicker, I left transition in first and am pleased to say I held that place until the end and finished in 58:28. I was chased all the way on the swim and bike by Mark Booth, this kept me 'motivated'. Second mention in this post to Matthew Wootton who after suffering from 'head numbing' due to the cold in the swim had another great bike and run and took 2nd place, Mark coming in 3rd.

Full results here

And more photos on my FB Multi me page here

My home event, the NiceTri Events Sprint was on Sunday 19th May. The first one of the season, and I think is one of the best events around, and I'm not just being 'homest' these races get great feedback and are really well run - partly thanks to the knowledgeable, friendly marshals!

It was great to be able to compare performances from last year too! I did just that... Last year I came 6^th, in 1:13:55 (although the weather was pretty horrid!) but this year I moved up to 2^nd in 1:08:27! In near perfect conditions... only a breath of wind and a great temperature, river was a bit cold, but there's not much I could do about that!

I came out of the water after a gruelling second half upstream swim, in 8th place. Thanks to the fastest transition of the day I moved out onto the bike in 4th - I took 3rd almost straight away! From the first revolution of the chainset, my legs hurt!... I could see a cyclist in the distance ahead of me -so he became my target... No matter how much I pushed he wasn’t prepared to give up that position easy. It was around 15k into the bike before I caught him. Now, all thoughts turned to catching the leader, Toby Morrell. Toby was even more determined to keep his first place. After transition I ended up 30 seconds behind, he was very strong on the run and stretched his lead taking the win with me coming in a ‘convincing’ 2nd place. My best result at this event so far!

My club had great placings throughout, special mentions should go to Richard and Mick for having great races and grabbing their AG Wins.

Full results here

Again more photos on my FB page here

Coming up
Silverstone Dualthlon

Grendon Sprint – Euro Qualifier

Nottingham – World Qualifier

‘bad day at the office’

2013-05-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

It’s a busy time - what with training and racing - in fact many people believe it's not the right thing to do, as I will be doing a lot of races leading up to the Triathlon European Championships in Turkey in five weeks or so - but as training. I find that I tend to work harder when I’m up against others. I just have to remember that if I don’t do quite as well as I would like to do, it’s fine, Turkey (and the Triathlon World Qualifiers) are my main focus. It’s OK to have a ‘bad day at the office’ I just need to learn from them.

Sundays Aquathlon World Qualifier at Box End Park was one of these, I miss the bike leg and don’t run so well out of the swim. I took away the need to prepare, was rather too relaxed - and even forgot my spare trainers to warm up in!

I should be pleased though, still only 16 and I did qualify for my age group. I dropped 1 ½ minutes off my 750m swim time and finished in the top 20 of a very strong field. Hat’s off to some very good competitors in my age group (under 20)

So, I have now qualified to represent GB in Aquathlon, Duathlon and Triathlon.

As well as swim training at Box End, now that we have some nice weather, I have started back in the river with my club (NiceTri) - we had a great turn out on a nice Bank Holiday evening. It’s good to swim in the same waters as the NiceTri sprint, in a couple of weeks, my home event. Buckingham first though!

A quick reminder to my ‘sporty’ friends.
I have an ‘Athlete FB page’ that I post most of my race results and shenanigans on, photos and stuff.

Just ‘like’ it to keep updated.
Click the button below:

The Season has started

2013-04-30T23:42:00.002-07:00

Much of the support I get is all year round for example the right nutritional advice, the swim/ bike/ run/ coaches but some support I get is more seasonal, for the obvious reasons. I'm chuffed to get support again from Box End Park.

The time for open water swimming, for me, has just started (I know some diehards reading this, swim open water all winter in the snow and ice, but that's not for me!) Box End Park is a fantastic place to train, with many like minded people, in remarkably clean and clear water. Box End is also the venue for a number of events that I compete at, so that must help. In fact they are holding one of the three Aquathlon World Qualifiers this weekend ... I have entered ... I'll see how I get on.

Another sponsor that I am grateful to is Tri-Crazy, they were great last year and this year has started well too.

As well as having a online shop, Tri-Crazy also attend many events and now has a new (small) shop, lakeside at Box End. Here the owner of Tri-Crazy, David, has a huge range of 'try before you buy' wetsuits, a service I know many find great. It's ok trying out a suit in an endless pool but nothing like the real thing!

I had grown out of my Zone 3 Aspire wetsuit, which had served me well, but needed a replacement. I was after something 'top notch' so after talking it through and getting some great advice I choose the Zone 3 Vanquish, after a quick swim it just felt right. In fact the Vanquish has been described as an "underwater Lamborghini on Nitrous Oxide", that'll do for me!

Tri-Crazy Bedford Sprint Triathlon - Sunday 28th April

First Sprint Triathlon of the season done and dusted ... pretty pleased with it. In a quality (lots of age group World and Euro champs) I came 6^th overall (from over 300 entrants), I also won my age group, and with the event doubling up as the Bedfordshire County Championships - I was 2^nd male County Champ - my time of 1:04:27.

I used this event as a marker to see how my training is going, and thanks to some great training support - cheers Rich, it’s going well!
Full Results here

Osgood Schlatter's Disease

2013-04-10T03:31:00.001-07:00

I have been sorting out my GB suit this week, I have come up with what I think is a really swish looking design...

I have had confirmation from all of the sponsors that they like the look of their names and logos on my suit so that's a go... Just need to send if off to Blade printing - Blade printing

So we have on the front - Insight Nutrition, Tri-Crazy and Greenlight PT *

on the back - Booost Oxygen
and on both sides - The Sports Injury Clinic

* I have recently been joining Adam's Wednesday night swim sessions and it has made no end of improvements to my times and endurance. Really enjoying them too. Worth the drive over to Bletchley. His one-to-one sessions have also been invaluable. It's nice to hear many of my club mates who have had a session with Adam coming back with great feed back as well.

During the course of the year I find that I tend to get and need more help with training, nutrition etc from different people depending on my focus and needs at that time. Just lately I really seem to be needing a lot more help from Tony at the Sports Injury Clinic. I try to get regular sports massages and certainly notice the difference. He's been a bit of a miracle worker, what with my damaged knee and shoulder. It has been a bit of a relief really, it seems that my problem knee is down to me having a growth spurt. Tony called it Osgood Schlatter's Disease and it seems I have a mild form of this, under his guidance I am able to carry on training, although I am having to take running a bit easy at the moment. So thanks Tony!

I competed the Monster Duathlon for second time. I thought it would be a good marker to see how I compare to a year ago. Last time I messed up my pacing and blew up on the second run, this time with the help of Rich, my training partner, I was determined not to make the same mistake again.

Well done to Rich who finished 5th overall and came away with an age group win..!! I was also chuffed with my performance; also came away with and age group win and 8th overall and knocking 9 minutes off my time from last year!!

This is my wall chart... (11 week training schedule Leading up to Turkey)... I thought putting it on my living room wall was the best place for it, my parents beg to differ, but it's there now and it's staying there..!!

There aren't that many Flowboarding competitions, so when it was announced that there was going to be one in Castleford, I jumped at the chance...!
Really pleased I went, it was a great atmosphere, it was organised really well and I am pleased to say I came away with the Win..!!! Here's a few Snippits of me riding at the Comp..!!

Couple of Blogs that I have a connection with one way or another...!!
http://www.triblogs.com/blog/DazzaTri72/
http://www.tri-nathan.co.uk/

Up and coming races...

28th April ... Bedford

5th May ... Box End Aquathlon

12th May ... Buckingham

19th May ... Nice Tri

26th May ... Grendon

1st June ... Nottingham qualifier

14 weeks 5 days and counting

2013-03-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

I haven’t blogged in a while, that’s because I didn’t feel it necessary to bore you with the endless ‘training blogs’. Over the winter, As I mentioned before, I didn’t compete in Cyclo-cross but am focused more on training, specifically for the European Triathlon championships in Turkey (14 weeks and 5 days and counting). SCARY, I know!! I have settled into a jam packed, structured week of training which consists of a few time trials, triathlons, interval sessions and so on which will carry me all the way up to Race day!!

This is a good time to acknowledge my 'team' mates that I train with as well as the 'Pros' that give up their time to help me. Rich, Chris, Ian, Adam and everyone from the track - thanks guys, you make the things we do, fun!

I have already competed in a couple of time trials this year. A 25mile TT in Ely in the pouring rain and terrible conditions and a shorter 2up with Daz. They’ve been great experiences but as the weeks go by I will be planning on going faster, much faster! Pairing that with my new machine, going faster won’t be such a hard task.

Oh, so that's why I put so many hours in at work!

I can also say my swimming is improving all the time, setting new PB’s in the pool is such a great feeling. On Friday I went to the Triathlon show in Epsom (South London). There were lots of stalls and I was like a little kid in a ‘candy store’. One thing that’s getting to the top of my ‘wish list’ is a new wetsuit. Last year I wore the Aspire from Zone 3 and checking out their stall, the new Vanquish looked great, as did their new ‘Victory D’ which they were ‘unveiling’ at the show. Looked really good.

Virtually next to their stall was HUUB. These suits really caught my eye, not just because of the video of the Brownlee brothers wearing the suits! ... they were very eye catching because of the great design and the amount of technology that had gone into them was unbelievable! I immediately thought, I have to try this out. They let me try on their top of the range suit; the Huub Archimedes 3:5, It was amazingly light and simply felt like a second skin. I then briskly walked (wanted to run) to the Zoggs endless pool, where I tried out the suit. I jumped in and it was COLD, only 14 degrees! I’m used to a relaxing 30 degrees! I noticed straight away, the suit was pulling me to the surface. After a little chat with the swim coach - I got to the job in hand, swimming. I couldn’t believe it, my legs have never been so close to the surface. I didn’t need to think about technique, in the suit it just felt like it came naturally. Here’s a quick clip of me trying out the Huub3.5!

I have some serious decisions to make this year ... I am determined to get the best possible suit that I can (like with my new bike) this way it would be impossible to 'blame' something. It would all be down to me!!

Althorp Duathlon – European Sprint Duathlon Qualifier

Despite not being my best race – my knee’s ‘gone’ again – so I didn't have a good race, but looking at the results It seems I have qualified to represent GB in my age group for the European Duathlon Championships.

Not a good race, but still a good result.

New year - New focus

2013-01-23T00:55:00.003-08:00

I have had a change of plan for winter training this year, instead of doing Cyclo Cross, I've been doing some great stuff with a few fellow GB age groupers from my club. I decided to do training which fits into my plan, instead of Cyclo Cross races which I did last winter, I sort of miss them, but the benefit I'm getting from some good structured training, I hope, will help me in my 'bigger' races coming up this year. I have also managed to take a minute off of my 400m swim time in only 3 months, I am so happy. Thanks Adam for coaching me this far.

My focus at the moment is The GB Qualifiers and of course The European Triathlon Champs in Turkey.

I now do Endomondo - Find out what I have been up to here!

I am now building another, (yes, another) bike, a TT bike..!! Unlike all my others which were all put together by me using second hand( EBay) parts, this one is being built from as many new bits as needed. The theory being, if I have the best bike I can, then the rest is down to me - no excuses!

I am looking forward to my next visit to Insight Nutrition, I can't wait to see what they have planned for me. On the whole my diet is not too bad, but hey, let's 'feed the machine'. I have tried a couple of meals that they have posted on their Face Book page, and they've been really good.

Tony from 'The Sports Injury Clinic' has been a great help over the last 6 weeks or so (bit of a god send really), with regular sports massages and since a little fall on the snowboard trip, putting a damaged shoulder together. He has also picked up, thankfully before it's too late, an irregular muscle pattern around my upper back, seems that one side is using the wrong muscles for everyday movements. He has given me a lot of simple exercises and stretches to correct this, he did put a bit of a positive spin on this.. "If you can do what you are doing now, just think how much better you will be when your body is working correctly!" So fingers crossed.!!!

Talking about my damaged shoulder, I’ve just come back from a great snowboard trip with college, where I tried some crazy stuff (which maybe I shouldn’t have!) and apart from the slight injury, I am back with batteries fully charged and raring to go!

And finally, a massive, big thanks to all that have helped me the past year.
Green Light
Insight Nutrition

Booost
Tri crazy
Box End Park
NiceTri Events

H2Pro
Ultamate Kayaks
A private individual who wishes to remain Anonymous - thank you.

Wadenhoe frozen oh.... ver..!!

2012-12-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

I competed in the 2nd Wadenhoe, bit of a shame that I had to pull out during the bike leg.
Thanks to Mark and all the organisers for a great event once again, well done to everyone who took part... 2 down, 2 to go...

I have a bunch of photos that are now up on my face book page... 'Tom Stead Multi-Me' If you would like any better image quality ones just contact me and I will be happy to sort some out for you.

Click on the photo below or here to go to my FB page, whilst your there, why not 'like' my page?

Pleased to say, my cyclocross race I competed in the Sunday before last at Box End was a great race. As you can easily see by the pictures it wasn't a clean race. It was difficult, slip sliding everywhere, getting no traction round corners or up hills. The course was very much a runners course seeing as you were running for at least half the race..!! But, I have to admit it was great fun, at the end I had learned to enjoy the taste of mud I ate that much of it! Although starting near the back of the grid (because it was my first race in this particular series) I came out with the category win which I was chuffed about.

So winter has definitely started, that will be indicated by snow!

I have really cracked down on training and have finished fine tuning my schedule.

Everything seems to be coming on great...

Swim...

Swimming sessions are great, infact another 16 seconds off my 400m PB thanks to GreenLightPT

Bike...

Cycling at the moment is going really good (actualy its going REALLY, REALLY good). Going out for long rides on Saturday Mornings and Wednesday Evenings with Richard Hancock (a great Time Trialer / Triathlete with at least 12 years of experience). I now know why this is my best discipline because I feel so ccomfortable in the saddle.

Run...

I had seemed to have lost my mo-jo when it comes to running, and found inspiration from a few fellow NiceTri-ers who go to a fansatic track session. I have been aiming to get down there a couple times a week along with other runs. I am loving it, I am really starting to enjoy running again.

It isn't all about training, I've also come to realise that its much more than that... (thanks ProHelp). I have started to have weekly sports massages from Tony at The Sports Injury Clinic. It can hurt like mad at the time, but just afterwards my legs feel nice a light and refreshed for the week of training to come, and Tony says it does me good? And I believe him?

Oh, and apparently I need to fit in a strength and conditioning session every week.

The 'Quadmire' gets dirty!

2012-11-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

The 'Quadmire' certainly lived up to it's reputation ... the 'mire' is back with a vengeance! It was great, very, very, cold, very very muddy and very very wet ... but still great, in the sense of 'I did that' great.

There was some really good competition so especially pleased with the win.

Hats off to all who took part, again thanks to Mark and his team for putting on these events. Sort of can't wait until the next one!

Quadracracing results and report
Jez Cox report here

Loads of photos here
(often 'blurry' due to the rain on the lens!)