TriCoachWestwood.com

TriStar Germany 2011

2011-06-14T14:15:00.005+02:00

First big race of the season done...
TriStar Germany in the Town of Worms just 50k away from Mainz.

The TriStar format races over the distance of: 1k Swim, 100k Bike, 10k Run, so good for me with the short swim but not so much with the shorter run... and the bike? Well we'll see?
As the bike course isn't too far from my house I was able to check out the course a couple of times... OK the first time was in the week of the Mainz Half Marathon (I haven't had a chance to blog about this yet) which was bad prep for the half marathon... getting lost on a number of occasions and cycling almost 200k?? Nicht so gut!
However if you have the possibility to ride the course do so, it will help your performance significantly... and I've written a few reasons why at the end of this Blog.
The build up to this first big race has been good. Training hasn't been excessive... I'm too partial to sitting in cafes with good company for that ;-)... but consistent (90 hours logged for April); I have been reducing my carb intake (though I have never been a fan of pasta... I hate it when you go to someone's house and they say: "You're an athlete right? Cool, I've cooked you a bucket of pasta... get stuck in!"); a new bike set up and shoe insoles (thanks SMIT and CycleFit.de); new Blue 70 wetsuit; some super fast tires and a few other things I will try and go over in another blog... may be at the end of the season?
On the downside as I'm building up to Ironman Austria in the beginning of July I had no time for a real taper leading into Worms.
But onto the race... bike racked, no drama's apart from the nice little 'oldish' German lady who wanted to use my pump... "no probs of course you can"... but then of course like a real woman she couldn't use it ;-)... so of course I had to do it for her... lucky I'm such a Gentleman and not a Precious Pro I mean I've never seen Rasmus Henning pumping up old ladies tires?? Pumped them up to 8 bar... "no, 15 she said"... "What?"... "ja 15, Ich brauche 15!!"... I was just about to argue with her that 8-9 bar would be a much better idea... but I could see she was beyond reason...
There are 3 types of people in the World who think they know everything about Life and the Universe... these are: Doctors (or was it real estate agents??), Germans and Women... ;-) she was at least 2 of these. So up to 15 the tires went, she was also lucky that my Guns are so ripped at the moment?? As I left the transition later I heard at least 3 tires exploding... why do people ride around in training on 6 bar and then think 15 is the way to go in a race??? Of course I couldn't help secretly hoping one of them was hers... I think actually it was my use of the Dark Side which probably caused them to explode... but hey I'm actually evil to the core.

Your 'pumping up tire powers' are weak Old Lady now you will feel the real power of my Guns...!!!

There were about 20 pro's on the start line... didn't really know any of them me being the only Kiwi guy... mainly German uber bikers?? Swim start into the river... planning to swim as strong as I could to the first bouy then find some feet and stay there. Mann it is so hard yet so crucial to concentrate in this first 200m... if you lose the feet you will see a nice little pack just disappear into the distance... but RESULT! I kept my focus and found myself at the back of the chase pack... perfect! I grew up in a city where the only things you did at the local pool were play Space Invaders, Bombing and Petting... my swimming used to be complete shit... now it's only a bit shit.

There was a 400m run to the Transition... sweet... I virtually sprinted it and got the fastest T1 split... at least I won something :-)

So onto the bike... Fabach and a couple of others were off ahead and we formed the chase pack which grew to about 10 riders at one point. The first hill I thought I'd test the legs... man I felt good! Seemed to be cruising up the hill passing most of the others in the group even having a little chat to Andy my team mate as I passed him... he didn't look so happy.
Went on like this for most of the ride with me and Jens Kaiser trying to lose the group to no avail on a number of occasions. Until with about 30k to go Jens got a gap going up a hill... I saw the chance and attacked to join him and we managed to lose everyone... Schoen!!!

Attacking on the bike... losing those Germans at last!

We rode well together until the last 10k where I slowed to take a bottle from a station... he was gone and I couldn't catch him dam and blast! Taking that bottle was a mistake! I was even more pissed because I didn't need the bottle I just took it because I went back into old bad habits. I've been studying a lot on fluid intake in racing recently and as a result I have been drinking a lot less... in fact for the whole 100k bike (temp around 24 degrees) I just had about 700ml of concentrated electrolyte and two gels. For the 10k run I had 3 gels and no fluid.
I was very pleased with my run finishing the race strong I caught Jens with about 2k to go though I couldn't catch the Alun Brit in 3rd place... well at least this was all my central governor would allow me to do?? I crossed the line in 4th (Pro) and my thirst systems kicked in 'Where's the freekin Vasser??' I rather rudely announced.

So a great race... I swam, biked and ran well beating some strong competition... may be one of the best races I have done...?? But if your training well and always willing to learn and achieve more then you should always be improving.
Congrats to Team Captain Phil Mund... 1st in his AgeGroup! Gut Gemacht Bro!
Full results can be found here: TriStar Germany 2011 Results
Now I have a cafe date... sorry, I mean I need to go and swim 6k and drink an egg white and wheatgrass smoothie... so I've gotta dash :-)

Catch me at my next race:
12th June Maxdorf Middle Distance Tirathlon (Half Ironman), Germany.
3rd July IRONMAN Austria, ermm Austria.

Sweet as,

Westy xxx

Lowering my Cortisol levels mid long ride is very important AND teaching my body how to process fats while exercising at the same time... always thinking me!

Reasons to be cheerful... know the course:

The main reason to go around the course is to 'please' your Central Governor. If your brain is not familiar with something it will always hold more in reserve by making your 'perceived effort' a lot more than it should be for the speed you are going. It is not obvious that because you know the course you are going faster because perceived effort is the same... but you will be... thats the reason why Soccer Teams always play better at home.
Obviously knowing the turns and the best lines to take means you can take them faster.
On all the hills you will know which gear you can use... this especially means you won't unnecessarily have to change the front gear... which at best is inefficient or at worse can lead to a dropped or broken chain. Lance Armstrong in the TT stages of the tour used to get his team mates heading off before him to ride the hills in their big ring and tell him if it was possible... didn't matter if they struggled or dropped a chain.

10k Racing, Pacing Strategies and the First Race of the Season

2011-05-01T18:57:00.000+02:00

Triathlon Team Rhein Main, at the Mainzspitzlauf 10k. Benny, Pantani and Me... finishing 5th, 6th and 1st... Gut Gemacht Team!

So like Super Hans I ran a 10k not so long ago... it wasn't quite as 'Easy like a Sonntag Morgen' though I was a bit of a jelly afterwards, however it was good to get a race into the body and mind.
The race was a flat though technical course through the countryside near Mainz. A good test to see how the winter base training had gone. Races are the best way to practice... ermmmm... racing. It doesn't matter how many 'simulation races' and 'race pace sessions' you do in training they can't replace the real thing. Racing brings a whole different spectrum of experiences: pre-race nerves; getting up early in the morning; travel; friendly or not so friendly competition; new equipment; performance anxiety; spectators; eating Bratwurst; having a poo 4 times before 10 am... all these are things you can't experience and therefore get used to and learn from unless you race. A small 10k race like this enables you to experience the complexities of racing so that you can be more prepared come the important races in your season... Benny now knows not to drink Hefeweizen und Flammkuchen the night before a race ;-)

So I went into this wanting a full all out effort (nothing can push you more than racing) and may be get on the podium so I intended to race it a bit tactically... depending on how many skinny ass runners showed up.

Looking on the start line there didn't appear to be too many fast runners... I can tell just by looking at their legs... paying particular attention to anyone with a milk bottle for shoulders and a distinct lack of 'Guns' where the biceps should be... these are the enemy... the guys who only run. Quite a few triathletes there... in one piece tri-kit... you wouldn't get that in NZ???
So I thought I'd sprint the first 100m and see who follows... hopefully I'll be able to force any fast guys to set off too fast and hopefully they'll blow up later.... hahahahaha... what a cunning plan! Seemed to work... I heard one guy say 'Ach! Das ist zu schnell!'... two guys went with me and I let one of them take the lead... mwhahahaha... ;-)
The guy who took the lead was an obvious runner... he kept checking his watch every 1K to see that he was running at his target pace (or so I thought). Now although I hated to be beaten by this skinny guy with green compression socks on... yes bad fashion, I had to let him go. He was pushing me out of my comfort zone and he gained a 20m advantage :-(.
But then at about the 4k mark he slowed and all of a sudden I was on his shoulder :-). OK I thought, I'll sit here, make it look as though I'm cruising and break him... I don't want to have to fight for the next 6k. Trouble was I nearly tripped him up as I kept catching his legs... jeez I would of been well pissed if I was him... I think he was struggling though. Well at 5k I thought I'm going to trip him up if I carry on like this so I'd better go and I moved into my final gear and left him... I was a bit pissed with that as it meant I had a suffer fest for the rest of the run but once you look into 'The Heart of Darkness' there's no turning back.
I crossed the line in first place in 33:23 he was 50 seconds behind which meant I didn't have to hurt myself so bad but I wasn't looking back to see where he was. Funnily enough he asked me what my 10k PB time was... I said I don't know as I'm a triathlete from New Zealand and I can't remember when I last ran a 10k... so I told him this was it... couldn't make out whether this made him happier or not???

In the Heart of Darkness but thankfully with the finish line ahead :-)

Now a word on Pacing...

If you want to run a fast time then 'even or negatively split' your race... i.e. finish the first half of the race the same or faster than the second half... don't set off too freekin FAST! The guy who was second ran the same pace as me for the first 5k and then 50 seconds slower in the final 5k... this is BAD pacing... especially as he was checking his splits every K... what was he thinking??

For most races I don't race with a watch, HRM, GPS, Garmin or whatever... I think it's important to learn to race on feel, everything else is just a distraction. I tend to have 3 pacing Zones... the 'feelings' are generally the same whatever the distance you just spend longer in each zone:

"Right yes, this is fast, I'm working but I'm just under what I am capable of running". I was running this pace when I was sitting on the guys shoulder in the 10k... it kind of gives you a bit of recovery mid race if you need it.
"OK this is IT! This is freekin painful, but under control, this is my race pace, just need to focus on staying relaxed, control breathing, just keep flowing, forget about any pain or negative thoughts that pops into the brain". This was my pace over the first few k of the race when I didn't want to be sucked into going any faster which would've caused me to blow later.
"Now I'm looking into The Heart of Darkness... this is so so painful... all I can do is try and ignore that pain and stay as relaxed as possible... why won't it stop... make it go away ;-( ahhh Thank FFT... The finish". You can't keep this pace up for long during a race, 10 minutes, a few k before you have to drop the pace or finish... so try to avoid this feeling as best as you can when racing.

During a race you should aim to spend most of the time in Zone 2... using zone 1 as mid race recovery and Zone 3 as your turbo booster only to be used when really necessary... the last 5 - 10k of an IM I am in this zone.

So don't get too hung up on HR, speed, power when racing... there are too many factors at play when it comes to a race: inaccuracy in course measurements; hills; wind; cobble stones (???); 180 degree turns; temperature; weather; your fitness on the day; other competitors; drafting; emotions; nerves; equipment malfunction (my HRM never works in a race anyway!); coffee; bad pizza the night before.

I'll be doing the Mainz Half Marathon on the 9th May. As it's a flat and supposedly accurately measured course I will be using a watch to pace my 1K splits... even though I haven't run a half marathon for years so only have a vague idea of what time I can run. In the end I'll be focusing on my breathing and pain levels and just trying to go as fast as I can :-).

You can see the full results here: Mainzspitz 10k race results

And I hope you all like the new website... still a few things to do but nearly there.

Wherever you are in the World enjoy your racing or your resting... sweet as!

Westy xxx

Cycle Fit.de bike fit for Triathlon Team Rhein Main

2011-01-16T20:07:00.017+01:00

Pissing, Scheisse Hund! Man I forgot how hard it was to make a snow man... how did I manage to roll a ton of snow when I was a kid!? The dogs didn't really appreciate my hard work and effort.

Just got back from the Bat Cave with fellow Team Member Jenny Schulz. Well actually we went to visit Cycle Fit.de to have our bikes set up for the coming season.

Lloyd doing his Bike Fitting Jiggery Pokery Magic in the Bat Cave

Cycle Fit is run by Lloyd and Britta who work with some of the best names in the Cycling and Triathlon business, for example they are the Official Bike Fitting Partners of HTC - High Road... so if it's good enough for Mark Cavendish it's good enough for me I reckon ;-)

Cycle Fit headquarters is like the Bat Cave... with computers, TV monitors, machines and gadgets everywhere. Of course all this equipment has a purpose: I went to find out what the ideal bike size and body position would be, using a stationary bike that can be set up to duplicate all manner of frame sizes and bike positions... as well efficiency, power distribution and lots of other technical stuff which I'm sure Lloyd knows lots about because a lot of it was going over my head ;-).

It was weird watching yourself biking on the video analysis... while biking... man you should have seen how stable my core was, legs going like pistons! Especially stable when Lloyd put me into a higher position... but we won't let him take credit for that... it's all because of my 'upper body core work-outs'... right kids ;-)??

Anyway I learnt what frame would suit me most but also my position and that raising the seat just a cm gave me about 10 extra Watts... choice! But also raising my aero-position made similar gains without altering aerodynamics... now that is certainly a Boon and a Bonus!

See all the Bat Cave is, is a bunch of 'Wheely Trolley' things!

Jenny was retro fitted onto her bike. She already had her bike position... but wanted to 'check' it was optimum... well it wasn't. I don't have before and after pics here but a few changes were made which made significant changes to her power output, comfort and aerodynamics... hopefully she'll be able to run off the bike better too!!

So if you haven't had a bike fit done GO AND GET ONE! For a fraction of the cost of a pair of fancy aero-wheels you could save yourself a lot more speed on the bike AND the run. Cycle Fit isn't just for the pro's in fact age-groupers can get a lot more from utilizing the expertise of Lloyd and Britta

Go to Cycle Fit for more information. They are based in Bensheim near Frankfurt Germany... thanks guys love your work!

Jen Meister with a much better bike postion than the BMX stylee way she way riding before hand.

So I'm off to the Canary Islands soon to live out the rest of the Winter there which will be nice :-) see you there.

But finally great work to everyone down at Challenge Wanaka! I missed not being there... that race is getting bigger and bigger, looks like a very tough day... that race has to be one of the toughest over the Ironman Distance... Kudos to all those who finished it!

Westy xxx

My niece Honor taking me out for some hardcore pacing / chatting about 'what's hot and what's not?' when it comes to 5 year old girls fashion.

Triathlon Team Rhein Main... 'Happy Bike Riding Times' and the last time in the 'Old Kit'???

Non-Conventional Triathlon Training, and Christmas Time

2010-12-16T10:40:00.012+01:00

Happy Christmas all, I hope you all have something to play with come Christmas day... I remember getting a Scaletrix 'Minis' one Christmas and going into a total depression because I didn't have a spare plug for the adaptor... even though like a ZX81, Scaletrix is actually completely rubbish.

Had to get this post in before the craziness of Christmas starts.

I'd like to draw your attention to an excellent interview of Brett Sutton from the Boyz at www.imtalk.me Love your work guys.

You can get it here: Brett Sutton Interview it's at 00:40 and the second part is on the show after.

Answers a few questions that I often get when I coach athletes: "When do I start the speed work?"... "How will I get strength if I don't do weights"... "How do I ride at 120 rpm like Lance"... "I need to work on my core"

The methods used by Brett, which are similar to those used by Mark Allen, Gordo Byrn, Arthur Lydiard, but are very different from the conventional methods that are dictated to us by the Sport Science, Triathlete Magazines and Mens Fitness communities. It includes:

Very little (if any) speed work. I've known pro athletes have their best results when doing only aerobic training... then they start doing the fast stuff... they fall apart / get injured / overtrained and guess what they start having bad results.
A KEY phrase Brett uses: we are "Training to be EFFICIENT at LOW heart rates".
Train to be a Triathlete... the amount of times I hear people say you need to train like a swimmer, train like a cyclist and train like a runner... as Brett says "It's Bullshit". Have you ever seen a Kenyan Runner ride a bike?... but sure go and train like them... or imagine Ian Thorpe running... having hyper-mobile knees and ankles is perfect for running.
No weights / strength training.
No core training... unless you have a particular area of weakness and have specific and individual exercises for this. Core training was just developed so that all these 'sport studies' students coming out of Uni would have something to do... if you want to get good at balancing on balls then go for it... if you want to get good at triathlon do something else.
No swimming drills. It is actually a source of great amusement to me these days when I see age-groupers who claim they only have time to swim about 2-3k 2-3 times per week, get in the pool and do drills!?!? And breast stroke, butterfly etc. If you told them to swim 500m x 2 pull buoy, 500m x 2 paddles, 500m x 2 pull buoy and band they'd think you were crazy? "I get tired / bored / my arms ache if I swim for longer than 200m without a rest... where's the '50m sprint... 3 minutes chatting at the end of the pool x 5 set', as this is vital to improve my 1500m to 3800m swim time?"
In fact no drills for cycling or running for that matter.
UNLESS! That particular individual has something that may need working on such as a poor knee drive.
No mega long bike rides and runs.
No classic periodisation. The training program should be implemented according to the individual needs of the athlete especially age groupers who have a life outside Triathlon.

Pure Evil at the Weihnachtsmarkt

So why do people not want to train like this... many reasons really but this sort of training doesn't sell magazines and doesn't tell people what they want to hear... they want to get fast quick. People find it difficult to control their ego and slow down, they need to...

"Beat that Bitch who's started coming to squad, in ALL my 100m split times by at least a second each time because she thinks she's better than me... but she's not... I mean I am so much faster than her doing 'Chicken Wing' drills. But she seems to be improving more than I am... in fact I haven't improved since I can remember..? BUT if I just keep pushing as hard as I can I think I'll get an extra second and I'll do more drills and technique yes swimming is about technique because I read about these drills you can do in Triathlete Mag... written by a Pro Swimmer as well! My coach said I should do another 3k swim a week but I don't have time for that... I need to do my core work and someone told me that you have to have a strong core to be a good swimmer... As long as I don't enter any races that she does I'll be fine then she won't be able to beat me... but I mean she shouldn't beat me because I'm faster than her... well in the Squad sessions I am??"

Yes coaching athletes is a challenge at times... but that's often one reason why we need a coach.

"Errrmmm.... Help... Coach??"

We all make mistakes though I have made plenty in my athletic career I remember doing heaps of Drills and Total Immersion... my swimming was bad before and after it was totally rubbish! It's ironic but the person you see doing the most drills is often the person who is the worse at swimming... and of course I've done those Killer Track sessions and broken myself just to beat some young kid and his Dad... but it was worth it because they thought I was amazing because I beat them ;-)???

So some basic take home points:

Just train... good focused aerobic training: swimming (free style), riding (pushing the pedals round... not free wheeling on someone's wheel) and running... one foot in front of the other and repeat.
No Weights or Core Training unless you have SPECIFIC exercises to work on you own INDIVIDUAL weak areas.
If you have more time to spare do more Swim, Bike or Run or call your friends and go for a drink :-)
Build your training up to an amount of hours that you can sustain each week... and then just keep repeating.
Train like a triathlete... always think how the session you are doing at the present is going to effect your next session and train for the SPECIFICS of Triathlon... i.e. don't 'train' breast stroke.
Long Bike rides (for IM training) generally around 3-5 hours... long runs 2-2.30 hours.
Do what's good for you as an INDIVIDUAL do what 'feels right' rather than what you read in a magazine: don't try and force yourself to land on the balls of your foot if it feels bad... yes you should have a general idea of your body position and where to put your limbs but your body will find what works best for it... all you have to do is train... i.e. perform the movement and you're body will work things out.
Practice going as FAST as you can as EFFORTLESSLY as you can.

Now don't get me wrong some people love to have that 'Great Work-Out' feel, they like competition when they train or they love chucking weights around... this is fine, go for it because enjoyment is a good enough end result... but don't do them because you want to be a faster triathlete.

I'm going to go and enjoy myself in the Swiss Alps before Christmas for some Cross Country Skiing... won't really help my Triathlon speed especially as it will be more like 'Bambi on Ice'... but it'll be F-U-N.

Watch out for the all new website coming very soon!

Enjoying the Christmas Markets with The Germans... Tatyana and Markus

See you in the New Year...

WESTYxxx

Rubbish Scaletrix even with the 'Humpback Bridge'

One Day Machines Will Take Over The Earth

2010-12-01T22:08:00.003+01:00

At last my computer is working again! I don't really like Computers and tend to just abuse mine... as a result it decided to not work for a few weeks.

My German friend was dismayed about the amount of crap that was on my desktop / harddrive and that I should employ a better 'System'... I told him that a good proportion of my day is spent contemplating such things as whether girls pick there nose and eat it*... the rest is spent working, training and talking crap... I don't have time to organise systems... it's not in my Anglosaxon / Kiwi blood... but thanks Markus for your Uber IT powers :-)

So here's to some more Blogging... once this pile of work is done...

Bis Dann

Westy

*So far I have had only one sighting in my whole life and it happened recently... I think it was quite a life changing experience?

Kona 2010... Raelert gets Owned... How to Race Like Macca

2010-10-18T18:01:00.016+02:00

What a Race...! What a Race!... This is a cool Vid and Summary of the Mens Race. Check out the 'Packet Abuse' @ 02:15. "Hey Raelee wanna drink? You thirsty back there? Na... I'd rather throw it down my pants :-)"

Yep Kona was certainly an entertaining race. Macca was awesome and there weren't many people out there predicting that result... including me...

You'll see from the clip how fast Raelert is especially when he passes Lieto... on paper Raelert is a better runner (just?) than Macca but Macca beat him mentally and strategically.

Macca let him close the gap to less than a minute, I think forcing Raelert to go too fast in trying to catch him but then he kept Raelert dangling there before he LET him draw level. If Raelert had gone straight past him it could have been different but one of the worse things you can do with an athlete like Macca is to run alongside him and have a bit of a chat... Sideways glances... Shaking hands... Letting him get in your head... Going through the aid stations first (Raelert was obviously pissed at Macca taking a few drinks in front of him??... I couldn't translate his lips though?).
Macca made sure that Raelert's Central Govenor started to kick in and quite literally forced his legs to stop working... Raelert could barely stand up as he crossed the line.

We can all have a go at racing like Macca and beating our opponents with mental tricks and strategies. Whether you are at the front, mid pack or battling it out at the rear, there is always someone around that we are racing against... and that's why triathlon and racing is such a thrill... the excitement of competing against that guy up the road, the one on your shoulder or that one who's been drafting your ass the whole race! It can definitely make a difference and allow you to grab a few Age-group scalps... maybe even leading to a podium position or just beating 'That Guy' you've always wanted to beat... Sweet!

When catching some one up make sure you have a little rest before making the pass to get your breath and composure back. Then go past as fast as you can BUT make it look as easy as you can. Continue this pace until you are out of sight or you have opened up a good gap. Basically the person you are overtaking will think 'there's no way I can keep that pace up' and they'll let you go without a fight.

For added effect when making the pass have a chat with them (this is why it's good to get your breath back before). It depends on your acting skills but I always like to hit them with a good one-liner... "You're looking pretty good Bro!" is patronising and sarcastic... "What's up with that shit all over your face?" offensive and demoralising... and with urban races... "I'm more of a Postmodernist man myself" confusing and bemusing.

Another method is to pat them on the back or butt as you go past them... (Raelert does it to Lieto as he goes past him) just to put that final nail in their coffin. Marcy P did it to me as he passed me in Challenge Wanaka and I remember thinking... 'Man he's cruising??'... he later admitted he was on the limited but didn't want me to put up a fight. Darn it! :-)

When running out-and-back courses always make sure you are running fast and looking good when running towards your opponents (i.e. when they can see you). Once you pass them you can slow down but you want to make them believe that they won't catch you (if being chased) or that you'll catch them easily (if you're the chaser).

When going through aid stations take the lead so you get to choose what you take. If you want to be extra cheeky offer a drink or two to your opponent... you're just showing him how confident (and friendly) you are.
No matter how much your hurting do your best to not let it show... this is when the acting skills come in. Even though you're about to puke your lungs up work at keeping your composure and learn how to say a full sentence as you exhale... believe me it works! Sunglasses are also good in pulling off the disguise too.
If someone is running about the same pace as you and you really want to annoy / break them just sit on their shoulder. So not directly side-by-side but with your shoulder just behind theirs. Match all their movements... it tells them that you are just sitting there quite comfortably and you can go past them anytime. I broke Gordo like this at Epic Camp... he actually told me to run behind or in front of him... I went in front and it was easy after that ;-)

And as for throwing ice cubes down your pants... I guess it can give you that 'jolt' you need to get the gap. But come on your Packet goes through enough with all this IM racing... shrinking to the size of acorns they do their bit and try to keep well out the way and you go and torture them more with an ice bath!? The Ancient Greeks did all their sport in the noddy... could be the way forward?

Dam, have I given too much away? Hopefully I won't be racing you anytime soon?

In the Women's race Miranda was awesome but big respect has to go Dibens for doing the whole bike pretty much on her own and hung on for third. Shows how difficult it is to ride without 'drafting' AND have a top run.

Sweet AS! To everyone I know who did the race... looking at the list of Top Quality Pros who didn't make it into the Top 10 (Top 20 even?) shows how tough and competitive Kona is these days.

Viel Spass

Westy

Hawaii World Champs, Kona 2010 Who's Gonna Win?

2010-10-06T18:50:00.006+02:00

Taper time in Kona: Rasmus, Dirk, Terenzo et al... a HRM strap is all you need for fashion over there but I'm a bit disappointed no one was rocking Speedos??? :-(

Yes it Kona Time... Ironman World Champs... THE most important race on the Triathlon circuit...

I wish I was there of course... may be next year??? If you do ever get a chance to go whether to race or spectate just do it... it's wicked, awesome and everything. I raced it in 2006 and I'd love to go back to watch; all the fun but without the stress... everyones having a party in town but you piss off on your bike for 5 hours!?!?

Anyway I digress here's my picks for Sunday.

(Disclaimer... the good thing about Hawaii is that anything can happen and there are so many Uber athletes who can make the top 3)

Men:

Andreas Raelert
Rasmus
Crowie

Now of course I would love my buddy Dirk to get on the podium and he certainly has the ability but these tips are purely professional (I'd put you in 4th Dirk). Also watch out for Potts my outside tip. Hawaii is like an ITU race these days. There are so many ex ITU guys who are of course great swimmers. If you can't make the first pack in the swim you're forever playing catch up to guys who are as good as or better biker / runners than you are! That's why the likes of Brownie, Norman and even Macca struggle to do well. Lieto making the pack in the swim last year was vital to his performance... but we'll see what happens, that's what great about the sport you just don't know???

Womens:

Some British Chick??
Dibens... another British Chick
Berasategui... Spanish always got to watch out for them!

The Pro's will be setting off 30 minutes before the AGer's so the pro chicks will have to cycle on their own for longer without the AG men to help them. This will favour the better swimmer / bikers in the women... may be anyway??

I've never see Dirk looking so skinny but this is what it takes guys! It's unscientific but when you are looking this skinny you KNOW you've done all the training you could of done. Training is what makes you faster... no Silver Bullet.

Enjoy the coverage... it's our Speeeeecial Day.

Westy

What to do at the end of the Triathlon Season

2010-09-30T12:50:00.013+02:00

You can get a lot of Tea in that Mother... Vielen Dank Tati fuer meine 'Hand-Crafted' Tasse

Well it's pretty much the end of the season for the Northern Hemisphere, I've been having a holiday since Challenge Copenhagen however this Monday was Day 1 of Week 1 in Month 1 of Year 2 of the 3 year plan... What did I not tell you about the 3 year plan??? Yes I'm getting all a bit German :-)

If you want to improve in triathlon from year to year and have a long career in the sport it's important to have a period of down time at the end of the season.

It's been tough but for the last few weeks I've managed to stick to the programme of sitting on various couches, hanging out in cafes and going for strolls in the park and along the river... alot of talking, reading, listening, thinking and my itunes collection has doubled :-). But now my body has started to hurt from the inactivity and I've started to think that being a librarian would be a good job... which come to think of it???

Training for the next few weeks will consist of just running and conditioning work in the form of body weight exercises: chin ups, pull ups, climbing over walls, up hills, getting on and off the couch etc. Until I get my fitness and strength back. Jeez after day one though I could barely get out of bed the next day... a few chin ups and hills and I felt like Mr Puniverse... well a mere Mortal at least but this is a good thing... we forget how fit we are compared to the majority of the population when we are doing all this triathlon stuff??

Actually he's pretty ripped compared to some of those ITU boys :-)

Other follks are still out there training and racing hard. There's still a few races going on up here in the NH... Of course we'll all be watching Dirk, Rasmus, Martin et al going for it in Hawaii. Good luck also to Remy and Ce at Challenge Barcelona and Jose and John in the Florida Ironman.

Monaco Tristar111

The picture above show's Manoria Regis running onto the Podium (3rd) in his first race as a Pro in The Monaco TriStar111. I started coaching Manoria a year ago, I knew he was a talented athlete but like many agegroupers he was racing with an under developed aerobic system, we had to make quite a few changes in his training but it is great to see him go from a 'Good age-grouper' to mixing it with the Pro's... Go well at the Ironman 70.3 World Champs Regis!

Also great work to youngster Leighton W completing his first agegroup World Champs for NZ he should go good in the coming Kiwi Season...
I haven't forgotten about all you folks in New Zealand and Ozzy who are just about to start the race season over there, I know it's been hard with all the Rain and Earthquakes but it'll be worth it as the races creep up on you very quickly... Motu, K2, Karipiro HIM, Timaru HIM, Taupo HIM... Some Kepler 60km Challenge race thingy? All coming up soon so get excited Kiwi's!

Special Mention to Harley D who is turning into a bit of a machine after less than a year of dedicated training taking out the Coast Duathlon and improving by nearly 30 minutes on last years time... Pork Scratchings I think is the secret??

So why have a training Holiday?

Recovery... your muscles will repair themselves, your hormonal glands will stop frying themselves, your skin will stop looking like it's been sandblasted and the lack of chlorine and sun will stop your eyebrows looking like Boris Becker's... OK well it's not that bad for everyone but Triathlon can be hard on the body.
Mentally you can have a break, recharge your batteries and think about other things.You can spend more time with the family and friends or watch that Inspector Morse Box Set you were given 5 Christmases ago.
As Karl Pilkington puts it... after doing all that training all day you will really appreciate the down time and 'Holiday'.
Now you will loose fitness and it's necessary... I think it was Roch Frey who said to "To get fit you have to get unfit"! I have my secret theory about this... I think by having a period of being a sedentary person again we trick the body into believing that it's an athletic newbie /couch potato again. Fitness gains are always greatest when we first start training... the body thinks "Man this guy is so fat and useless I'd better do something quickly!" so we get a spike in our physiological adaptions to training something we wouldn't get if we just carried on training all the time. But we still have all that training in the bank from previous years... Sweet man!
You'll realise just how pants cornflakes taste if you eat them without having cycled for 6 hours before hand.
Socially people will actually start liking you again ;-). Hopefully during your Holiday time you will have found things other then 'swim set splits' and 'km running pace off the bike' with which to stimulate yourself and people around you.
With a break you will realise just how much you loved triathlon and be full of enthusiasm and energy when heading out the door again... Where would my life be without it!?!??!

So after your last race take 2-6 weeks complete rest / active recovery. So only doing the things a non-sporty person would do: walking, gentle cycling, surfing, watching DVD's, ironing... I'm serious I always used to ask my patients what they did at the weekend... watching DVD's (all weekend) and Ironing were standard answers. You will know when to start training again as you will be itching to get out the door and start running again... but give it at least 2 weeks.

The next 4-8 weeks are about returning to some form of fitness: Aim for only 30 - 60 minutes for most sessions, 4-5 times a week. Running, Wind trainer sessions and Conditioning work in the gym is best as apart from anything else the weather is likely to be not so good. It also means that you don't have to spend too much time training. Weekends you can do longer stuff if you want to... it's a great time to spend some time hiking, MTBing, bike touring, surfing trips etc. I wouldn't use your HRM for the first few weeks of this period as it'll be higher than normal, you will know your fitness is starting to return when you can consistently stabilise your HR at a steady / aerobic pace.

I'd like to finish with some wise words from Karl Pilkington and Ricky Gervais about why holidays are good... HIGHLY OFFENSIVE language depending on who you are of course but I can't believe how many times I have watched this clip and everytime I piss myself... :-) Laughter is good for recovery too.

Bis Spaeter, Sweet as

Westy

Feeling a bit Deflated at Challenge Copenhagen

2010-08-31T14:14:00.010+02:00

Ah yes Challenge Copenhagen... 2 weeks ago now but here's the official race report... I think this will be quite a Cathartic Experience for me... and I hope an amusing an insightful one for you ;-).

I drove up to Copenhagen from Mainz feeling pretty fit, pretty skinny and looking forward to a fast race... I wouldn't say I was in my best shape but a sub 9 was on the cards. Although the first thing that Coach said to me was that I looked fat compared to him!?? Cheers Coach! Ha Triathletes are messed up man :-)!

I settled into my hotel in Copenhagen my folks were there too which was awesome... thanks Mom and Dad! I got into doing all the usual registration faffing around... always harder at a city / race you haven't been to before... Went to the 'Radisson Blue Hotel' for the Race Briefing, however they told me it wasn't this Radisson Blue Hotel but another one 3K away... shit! So I had to do a nice 'Pick-Ups' running session to get to the other hotel in my Jeans and Chucks... legs felt pretty good though and thought that would do as my 'taper' run for the day.

The rest of the time was spent sitting in cafe's watching the folk of Copenhagen go about their buisness... everyone on bikes... funny seeing people in 'full clubbing gear' cycling to a night out on the town chicks riding in their high heels... Genius!

So onto the race. The start was at 'The Beach' 10K from town... I remember some of the Danish guys telling me it was really nice at The Beach... hmmm??? Well it was grey and wet and a 'Northern Euro Beach'... there was a bit of sand knocking around and salty water but that was about it... heee?!?! It wasn't Mt Maunganui or Noosa anyway :-(... No Surf and not a Flat White to be found anywhere!

And of course it was raining... the worse rain and storms that Denmark had ever seen apparently... TOP marks for the Challenge Guys who spent all night dealing with a multitude of problems such as the Transition area flooding out and all the swim buoys getting swept away.

So into the swim... Sweet it was good! Got onto some guys feet and sat there the whole swim... would of been better if there was a bunch of us but the guy lost some feet he was following so it was just me and him. He would of had a hard race swimming into clear water for nearly the whole swim, I felt kinda guilty but he should of 'sat up' if he wanted me to come through?? All I had to do was focus on the bubbles to stay on his feet... this really does help to keep your focus when racing, time flies by AND DRAFTING in the swim is soooooo important for an optimum race... agegroupers can swim so much faster by learning how to swim in a race... it's not about looking pretty in the pool... get ugly, get moving, get on those feet and stay there! Simple!

Finished in 54:45... a PB :-) Coach was pissed as I put 3 minutes into him... (I told you Coach that Gemmell said I was swimming well!) and you're just too skinny Bro!

Set off on the bike through the rain... The Spanish guy I was drafting in the swim over took me... he was going pretty hard judging by how his shoulders were moving... so I thought yeh! You can have it Bro... I sat in behind him... and 'Legally drafted' his ass :-)... We then caught Jimmy ('Little Danish F'er) Johnson who had just fixed a puncture... and then Coach caught us at about the 30K mark... Serrrrrweeet I thought this is perfect! We formed a nice little pace line and started reeling in people. Yes folks remember Triathlon is a 'Draft Legal' sport... because even the 10 metre rule still gives you a Heart Rate 5 - 10 beats lower... I was keeping my distance even further as I defo didn't want a drafting penalty like Roth last year.

Yep... so it was all sweet until about 90K when I got a flat... Scheeeeisssseeeeeeee!!!! OK Kein Ding I thought... no probs... got my 'Pit Stop' thing and started to mess around with valves and shit and all that messing around you do when trying to fix a flat... tyre seemed to go up :-)... and then seemed to go down :-(... OK try again... this time let the tyre spin to let the 'Pit Stop' gunk fix the puncture... wait... wait... be fricking PATIENT Pauli! Just ignore those guy's cycling past you very fast :-(... Wehey!!! I've got it up! A little limp but it'll do ;-)... Off I went feeling very proud of my on road repairs... now to go and catch those bugga's who wouldn't wait for me!

There were many punctures that day... Denmark has lots of 'Flint Stones' on the road which are as sharp as glass and when it rains they all come up to the surface. I had my best tyres on for puncture resistance... and I have never punctured on them before... first time for everything?? Seeing other people on the side of the road raised some mixed emotions in me from 'Poor Bleeder' to 'Ha! One more Loser less to worry about...' heeee ;-)

Then after 10K I got my second flat... front tyre completely shredded! I was going to throw in the towel there and then but... I had another spare (I came prepared as I knew what Danish Roads were like) and I knew people around the World would be watching and I didn't want to let the folks in NZ and OZ go to bed yet...

So I pulled into a big crowd of spectators... thought they can help me... but Danish people are very reserved. They sort of surrounded me as if I was an alien that had crash landed and just stood and stared... some of them gazing and poking at my spacecraft / bike which I had fallen to earth on.

Changing the tubbie was a bit of a struggle... I like to glue them on HARD! There was a 'Gasp' from the crowd as I finally summoned up all my inner strength and ripped that bad boy off... throwing the dead tyre to the floor like a triumphant Gladiator...

This one chick had a Track Pump... Sweet! Get pumping I told her... 'Am I allowed to help??'... she replied? 'YES...! because I said so... I'm like a triathlete and from New Zealand and shit...' I told her... now pump... PUMP like the wind! little Danish woman... she did but she was Rubbish :-(?? so I told her to go away and got a lad to take over... he was much better :-) By now everyone was helping and they sent me off on my bike with a cheer and round of applause... Oooo loverly Danish folk :-)...

But now I had lost another 10 minutes or so... and worse I had to do the rest on my own. Loosing the plot a little and with the added adrenalin I was just going for it... Passed Ain Ahar like he was going nowhere (though I think he was having a tough day too) thought hmm... I could pay for this... I'm not following any of my advice I would give to people about 'Optimum Ironman Performance' but I had to risk it I wanted to go under 9 hours.

Finally got off the bike in 04:55... pretty fast giving 15 - 20 minutes worth of puncture time... too fast may be???

But I set off on the run feeling not too bad and feeling fast... waiting for that first K marker to get a split... dam... where is it? I must be going too slow better speed up... no still not there??? There it is 1.5k... WTF?!? Then the next marker was 3.2k or something... hmm that was a bit confusing?? They said there would be 1k markers... Every ermmm 1k!?!? Oh well just keep moving.

Then I saw the Spanish guy and Bex Keat and others I had been cycling with 6+K ahead of me... this is the most difficult thing to deal with when your mind is playing all those mental games with you... Dam! This could have been soooo much better... but have to stay focused... stop thinking about them... 'Stay on Target... Stay on Target...!!!!'

The first 10K was good though... crowds were awesome and I was keeping up a steady 04:00 km pace... picking my way through the field I think I got up to about 12th place sweet! With a big Pro field this was cool :-). Then I thought 'Shit' I need to walk...?? It was too early to start feeling such things... Dam it! Keep going... walked a few aid stations... ran on a bit, breathing was getting far too laboured when I was running... like a car radiator overheating I kept having to walk to cool it down :-(. Then I started to need a poo... eeek not again!?!? Stopped at a cafe but there was a cue (being in the middle of the city meant I couldn't just squat down and lay a log on the side of the road... not like Paula Radcliffe... no even I wasn't able to summon up those mighty powers of 'no-shame' not with an audience of 1000 spectators... plus the race organisers said it wasn't allowed). The next aid station was too far off... so I had to go back to the last aid station (crossing the mat again... hence the strange run split times) and find the toilet there... and YES... I needed it.

Feeling 5kg lighter I thought I would carry on and headed off again... but I had no clue now what was going on having messed around trying to find a toilet and had walked backwards along the course. I started to have to walk again and then I decided to DNF. Bugga! I couldn't be bothered with another Challenge Roth as it was virtually the same as happened there, fek! The Finish line looked like such a great party too! :-(

So what went wrong?

Obviously two punctures loosing 15-20 minutes.

Loosing the bunch in the bike.

Going too hard trying to 'chase a time'. I always tell age-groupers not to worry about aiming for a time. If you are going at the appropriate intensity during an IM race... but your splits are coming in slower than your target times... you can not increase your intensity / speed to make a time... you just blow otherwise and end up walking as I did.

Although I was fit enough for the race to go under 9 hours my training hours had been limited to around 15 hours most weeks... not enough to have the reserves to fall back on when something goes wrong like two punctures.

The mental energy and adrenalin I had used fixing the flats meant I had little mental strength left to push myself when times got hard on the run... with 10K to go it could have been possible but not with over 20K to go.

After the swim the race organisers said that the sea was unfit to swim in... nice, but couldn't be helped with the weather. Many people had stomach issues. My first poo in an IM race couldn't of helped matters. I need to harden my stomach up to European pollution it's got soft in the clear waters of NZ... may be I need to go and hang out in My Dirty Old Home Town of Birmingham for a bit???

Racing 4 seasons in a row... Northern and Southern Hemispheres takes it's toll and I think I was getting tired.

I have to say it was a great race and bigs up to Kim, Felix and the whole of the Challenge Crew for putting it on, it's well worth doing if you're contemplating an Iron Distance race next year... just pack your bestest Tyres!

Great work to all my fellow athletes out there... especially Coach for coming 8th and Jimmy J 6th despite getting 3 punctures (he could of won????).

Sorry to everyone watching... there and on the net for not seeing me finish, it was a shitter... but at the end of the day I'm just grateful to have been there racing in such a great place thanks so much for your support. I'm already looking forward to a fun packed year... and some races too of course!

So it's time for a bit of RandR... what I do best ;-)... time to take it easy and get stronger again.

Westy xxx<>

A Few Days Before Challenge Copenhagen

2010-08-12T19:47:00.003+02:00

Here's me (far left) overshooting the exit as we approached from the right... that current was strong man!

Not long now before I'll be racing in Challenge Copenhagen... a hardcore race over the Ironman Distance... 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 42k run... nice :-)

Training has been 'OK'... 15 - 20 hour weeks being the norm... not the sort of thing you should be doing if you want to really perform your best (around the 25 being normal) but I've got a lot of other things I like to do... if you know what I mean ;-).
The good thing is that training has been pretty consistent since Feb this year despite 'moving countries' etc... I haven't had any real injuries or sickness... and consistency is key... right kids?

I always like to do some shorter triathlons before the big one, it's the best way to get some 'speedwork' in and it's fun as well! Racing is fun... I like :-)

So just over a week ago I competed in the Mainz City Tri... just a walk to the start line from my house so it'd be rude not too really and a great race right in the city... sweet.
Now German races are a bit complicated... they seem to have heaps of different catergories to race in... in little old NZ you just have to decide whether you are a chick or a fella, tick the appropriate box and you're away... Not so in Germany... too many boxes to choose from and I mostly ticked the wrong ones... with my German not being that flash yet?? For example 'Kurz Triathlon' = Short Triathlon which is not a 'Fun' Triathlon or a 'Sprint' Triathlon... it's an 'Olympic' Triathlon... yeh 'Whateverrrrrr'??? Then they had this whole Regional Championship thing going on which I should of been in... but wasn't because they said I was Kiwi... but I said I lived in Mainz... but...?? Hmmm things will be a lot easier next year I hope.
Anyway I ended up in wave 10 or something with the not so fast guys rather than the fast ones in wave 1... scheisse...
The swim was in the Rhine going down stream... a big dive off the back of a ferry took me into the 'jet stream' and I managed to float down the river and actually lead the swim (in my wave)... I would of been first out too if I hadn't missed the exit, finding myself getting swept down river to the Netherlands.
The rest of the race was just a time trial as I had no one to race with but that was OK as I needed a good hit out before Copenhagen. In the end I finished 5th over all which is not bad, as the guy's ahead of me were happily working together on the bike... a good 10K run time though: 35:15 over a hilly course was one of the fastest of the day.

Thanks to my Loverly Supporters who cheered me on... especially Mascha and Markus with some good camera and 'screaming at me' work... nice work team!

So my fitness is good for Copenhagen... you never know what will happen in an IM but we'll see? A big field here with 40 Pro's to go up against... gonna be a good one and I'm looking forward to feeling the flow around that Marathon Course... Bring it on Mom!
You can watch the action here: http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2010/triathlon/challengecopenhagen/estandings/front/frameset.php

Serweet as...

Westy
xxx

4 times over this F-ing rail bridge.... F-ers!

Having Fun in the Pyrenees

2010-07-28T17:03:00.020+02:00

What's cool about living in Europe is that you can wake up in the Morning in Loverly Germany... get in your car... drive (at 160+kph)... eat huge amounts of chocolate and coke... stop at service stations full of rude Frenchies, fat sunburnt Pommes and toilets covered in 1000's of pubic hairs... and in the Evening you're in the French Pyrenees... Sweet as Bro! :-)

Yep took a trip to Font Romeau to hang out with some Pro Triathlete guys... do a bit of Physio, Training, eating Big Breakfasts (No Petite Dejeuner here!) and drinking Red Wine at altitude... mmmm... yum!

Font Romeau is a nice little French Ski Town at about 2000m Altitude so it's full of athletes from all over the World who come up here to make their blood thick with Haemoglobin... for performance enhancement. (This is a complex topic but one worth a chat about in a future Blog so keep your eyes open).

Always a leisurely start to the day... Smell the coffee... Chew the fat... Chew croissants and watch the sun come up over the mountains :-)... could you pass me the Nutella bitte?

Before Joining up with some of the ITU Boyz (Kris Gemmell, Laurent Vidal and James Elvery).

To chew the fat a bit more while cycling up and down the Mountains.

And then a bit of a run in the afternoon.

It never ceases to amaze me how slow pro guys train compared to how fast they can go when racing. Especially when I see how fast many agegroup athletes train. OK when they want to the Pro's will go fast in training... but it's not common, especially at altitude. Once we were going up a climb that took about an hour to get up... I was going up at an easy to steady pace, HR 130... and yet I was still going up faster than Kris and Laurent... they were REALLY having an easy day... but it's all training you know.

Swimming was hard at 2000m... you go to take a breath and it seems as if you didn't inhale anything. In the end I just stopped taking a breath that often as it didn't seem worth it?!?! Lot's of Paddle and Band work!

Even had time to Watch The Tour... be rude not to seeing as they were going over the same Mountains we were training on.

Man these guys's go fast up hill???

But not so much these (Sprinter) guys... Go Cavendish... Go GB!

And as for these guys... well we just like to stand around posing.

From the Pyranees I took another little 1200 km road trip to end up in Antwerp to see Dirk and a few of my Coachees race the 70.3 race there. What an awesome city... beautiful old buildings, narrow streets all lined with bars and cafes... and the race was right in the middle of it.

The run was 4 laps around the city which meant I could nip between the streets to pop up on another part of the course... There was no place for my coachees to hide, as coachy would be just around the corner waiting for them again with some positive words of encouragement of course. Great work to John and Regis though for knocking over 20 minutes off their time from last year :-)

And of course to Dirk on the podium in 3rd place.

Staying Belgium, in the Ardennes Forest where there happens to be a few Sherman Tanks still knocking about.

Antwerp 70.3 Triathlon. Pee Pee Bucket.... a great idea though imagine how much pee is in that bucket?? I wouldn't like to be the one to have to get rid of it??

Some gentle encouragement to Dirk! Nice work in getting 3rd place man.

Beautiful finish line in Antwerp. Euro's are never worried about having races right in the middle of their biggest Cities... they can't get enough of it!

Post race Belge Beers... Belgium beer is defo the best in the World... so tasty and full of Vitamin B! Thanks to John and Maureen for the awesome feed!!

Oh yes... just before I go I HAVE done a race myself! The Mittle Mosul Tri, Olympic Distance. It was over a month ago now... 2 weeks after pooping out at Challenge Kraichgau so I was keen to test whether I had any fitness and to see if Kraichgau was just a bad day?

The race was like going back to Old Skool racing... pick a race somewhere random... drive there the morning of the race having never even been to the venue before... Just rock up and give it some shit! :-)

Unlike in NZ where they take their races pretty seriously and have to train on the course for at least a year before they feel ready enough to race it.

Training on the course does have it's advantages however (of course!), especially on German courses... that go through tiny cobbled streets... and as this one did up and over a lovelry big climb... twice.

I'd had a good swim and was riding with the lead group (Including Marky P)

It came as a bit of a shock to me when the guys I was riding with knew that the best line through this one section was on the pavement... sheeet how was I to know as I clattered over the cobbles doing my best to avoid the 'Street Furniture'!?!?!?

Oh yes it was pissing down as well... which made going down the hill very tricky... I didn't have the correct wheels for braking in the wet and basically at 60K an hour my bike doesn't like... or in fact can't stop. The first time down the hill I nearly came off... papped my pants I did! The 2nd time I went down real slow but in doing so I lost the leaders... Scheisse!
My run felt good and in the end I managed to run myself into 4th place, (Mark was 2nd) would of been a good race if we'd come off the bike together. But still I was definitely happy with my fitness... and hopefully the work I have done over the last few weeks is enough to do a decent job at Challenge Copenhagen... now just two weeks away :-)

Bring it on Mom!

WESTYxxx

Me with my race face on going up a hill in The Mittel Mosul Tri.

Oh Poo!

2010-06-19T19:35:00.010+02:00

Me and my Nemesis Marky Marc... on his home soil Deutschland... I think he's skinnier than me these days?? Needs to eat a bit more Nutella me thinks.
Pre Challenge Kraichgau.

Well it's been a busy time 'settling' into my new home in Mainz and getting into the 'swing' of all things German. I wanted to get a few pics together before doing a Blog on 'Life in Mainz' so that'll follow soon.
In the mean time I have done a race... Challenge Kraichgau a couple of weeks ago... with the guys from Team Rhein Main, the German Crew and of course the Ce Meister General. Another great Half Distance Challenge event over an awesome but tough course in 30+ degrees temps. Plenty of World Class Athletes too including The Man Norman Stadler.
It wasn't quite a great race for me :-(. Leading up to the race my fitness was coming on pretty good what with training with the Danes and all that, but it was pretty much all base work so I wasn't quite prepared for a pain fest in a very tough Half Ironman in my first race since Challenge Wanaka... I should really of done it as a training race... but you know me??

Fellow Team mate and Mainzer Nina. Had an awesome race finishing 8th in the Women's Race.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE BEST OF BRITISH TOILET HUMOUR DON'T READ ON :-)

Swim was OK, good for me... swam over Marc a couple of times hee hee ;-). Bike was tough... lots of hills and tricky decents through cute little villages. Post race there were quite a few guys walking around with a lot of road rash. I had my own crash incident... on one section the bike the course went over a narrow cobbled street... cyclists coming both ways... of course the cobbles caused everyones' bottles to jump out of their flash water bottle holders. One guy coming towards me tried to avoid a bottle and swung into the oppsite lane straight into me. Our handlebars locked and I decided to wrap my balls around my cross bar... Serweeeeeeeeet! Ooooo.... I thought it was game over but luckily we weren't going too fast, I managed to find my balls again and carry on... although lets just say I couldn't sit down for the next 5 minutes :-(.

Anyway... bike over... felt a bit rough but not too bad and was just happy to of got the 90K done. I set off on the run feeling almost sprightly?? After 7K I was hurting but nothing more than normal.
The lead chick (Bex Keat) was about 10 mins behind so that was a good sign... and I wouldn't get 'chicked'! I was about in the top 20 which was my pre-race goal.
Then at the 10K mark I started to feel a little quere... just a wee bit dizzy, legs felt weak... I carried on for about a K... thought I'll push through it... then it was like 'OMG! My bowels are gonna blow!' from that point I had 5 seconds... legged it into a bush... and in one swift movement like superman I managed to get my kit off and squat while just letting rip... man it was bad??? :-(
The worst thing was that I had inadvertently ran through a bush which although protected me from the runners on the course it did not protect me from the children that were playing in the play ground on the other side of the bush... Bugga! In fact one child (a girl about 3 years old) was standing virtually right next to me... and she just kept starring... Me with nothing but a number belt to protect my decency... For some reason I thought if I can't see them it won't be a problem so I hid my head between my legs as I continued my excursions... on reflection I think they would've been able to still see me and I would of presented quite a freakish site??? Poor children I hope I haven't scarred them for life... but Triathlon Races really should have a WARNING sign on them... an 18 certificate or something?
Finally I managed to crawl onto a park bench for a quick re-assessment and re-think of the situation... that was not before (being the Wilderness / Bush Wise Kiwi that I am) managing to pick some grass in a vain attempt to hide my vast amount of poo.
I can't remember how long I sat on the bench for... didn't know what to do really... I'd never had to poo in a race before (life's all about new experiences I guess)... I did check my balls at one stage, (discreetly of course) to see if they had survived the crash... they had... a bonus I guess?
Finally a ref found me and got some med guy who helped me to walk back to the transition area and I called it a day.
Don't really know what caused the problem?? I couldn't eat for two days after without pooing out green / yellow liquid though my stomach felt fine. Can only think it was some German duck poo I'd swallowed with me being used to nice clean lakes of New Zealand???

I think it must of been a day for DNF's... After having an awesome swim and bike, just about as she was to enter transition Helle crashed badly in her ITU World Championship Race in Madrid. She's making a speedy recovery though and looking forward to getting back into it again! Pro Triathlon is a very tough job!

Helle's Road Rash after skidding along the ground on her back with nothing but a swimsuit for protection. Only some of the wounds were dressed to see whether 'Dry' or 'Wet' was the best method for healing... You can see from this that the wounds that were kept coverered (Left side) were healing alot better.

The only other bad thing of the day was that I LOST MY JANDLES!! Stupidly wore them to the swim start (I forgot I was wearing them!!?!?) I gave them to some kind chick in the hope I would see her at the end... yeh right easy to find someone amongst 1000's of people?? Ah well an excuse to buy some more I guess.

Anyway I'm better now and loving training around here with my Chums in Mainzy Land. Gonna do some shorter races to start 'loving that race pain kinda feeling' again.
Thanks again to Felix, Timo the Challenge Crew and Celia for looking after us athletes so well again.

Sweet as...

Bis Dann

GO New Zealand! Go England! and I suppose... Go Deutschland!

Westy
xxx

Introducing Triathlon Team Rhein-Main

2010-05-11T20:09:00.009+02:00

Here I am back in Northern Europe. On my way to Mainz (Near Frankfurt) in Germany, where I'll be training, racing and having good times with Triathlon Team Rhein-Main:

http://www.triathlonteamrheinmain.de/TRiathlonTeamRM_athleten.htm

AS you can see Celia Koochy Kuch is on the team too. It's going to be cool. I'll chat more about it when I'm there. Suffice to say that Kat thinks I'm going to be one of Das Mainzelmaennchen who ever they are??? Can't Wait???

Apparently this is my new Triathlon Team... nice couch... I like couches :-)

On my way to Germany I thought I'd pop to Denmark to stay with Helle and Susanna and train with the Danish National Squad... Sweeeeet! The squad has a weekly training programme, access to excellent training facilites, and I can take a look at The Challenge Copenhagen Course... possibly some cafe action too!

Swim squad is every morning and it's lucky most of these guys are full time athletes... I have 3 showers before 10:00??? Get to the pool... shower (a proper Euro 'clean yourself shower'... not a Kiwi 'sprinkle some cold water over your shoulders' shower!), swim, shower again... sauna (of course!) shower again.

Very clean people The Danes, I think I've stripped every last bit of sun tan from my skin :-(.

Open Water swim start practice.

We get to use the whole pool with buoys in it and everything... no weed, jelly fish or shopping trollies though... which is nice.

And swim / bike brick sessions... very hard but very useful!

'Coach'... The Uber Coach... Not one, not two, but three stopwatches. Take note Rachey??

It's been very interesting seeing how a Tri Squad works on a daily / weekly / monthly basis... All the training is planned and supervised under the watchful eye of Coach (Mich)... who even told me in swimming today that I had a 'Good kick'... !??! Me??? An ex Thai Boxer with a good kick? Yes when kicking someone's rib cage... but not that good in the pool... he then added 'for someone of my LEVEL'... Hmmm not sure which level he meant?? It is difficult when you are swimming with ITU Olympic LEVEL swimmers not to feel inadequate in the old swimming department... but sometimes although hard you've just got to bite the bullet and be the worst... F*@!?! the Ego :-)

Which leads me on to another training paradox...

People like to think they get better by training with people who are better than themselves as they 'push' themselves more... this is a fallacy. I can push myself as hard as I want to try and swim with Rasmus, Helle, Jens etc... but it's never going to happen and I'd just end up blowing myself to smithereens and well... get even worse. I need to train within my own physical limits and I'll gradually improve. However by hanging out with the fast guys (I think it's called 'surrounding yourself with excellence') subconciously my brain will reset the goal posts of what 'it thinks' is possible... or what 'it thinks' is my physical limit and hopefully one will improve.

Helle... doing her 'Core'. I prefer to 'Recover' on the couch drinking coffee and eating... 'Sleep' is the 4th discipline I keep telling her. Nice work though Helle: 16th in the ITU World Champs Series in Seoul, nicely out sprinting Kiwi Chick Kate McIlroy... sorry NZ? Watch out Madrid :-)

Right...

See you in Germany

Bis Dann

Vesty xxx

Physiotherapy and Training with Triathlon Team Denmark in Fuetura Ventura

2010-04-13T21:24:00.007+02:00

I'm back in Europe, well sort of in Africa really as I have been in Fuetura Ventura part of the Canary Islands. I was here last September working with Team Denmark as they prepared for The Hawaii Ironman. This time I've been here to look after the guys as they do their pre-season training and to try and get some good warm weather training in myself.
In particular I had to fix the knee injury Helle has had for the last few weeks which has been hindering her build up to the ITU World Champs Series.

It's great being a Physiotherapist on these camps as I can work so closely with the athletes. I'm with them everyday so I can treat and monitor very effectively. It also helps being able to train with them... (I feel their pain too!) getting to know the athlete well and what they are going through helps my treatment no end!

And Hurray! Helle's knee responded so well to treatment and she was up and running again within a week, she just has to get fit again now... which shouldn't be a problem for her :-)

Danish team ready to run... Helle still looking very fit despite having not run properly for a few weeks. But check out the VMO (biking muscles) on Rasmus's legs (guy in Red shorts). To protect your knees always make sure this muscle is working well!

Where miracles occur ;-)

We stay at the Playitas Resort http://www.playitas.info/ a very nice place to spend a few weeks. For me it's been a challenging but a great time. There's some very fit guys on the Danish Team... and they go fast and train all the time... trying to train AND treat them is pretty exhausting... the young guys give me shit when I say I'm not turning up for a training session... I then have to remind them that while they were sleeping for most of the 'Recovery Day', I was massaging their broken bodies?!!? It's all good though and again a great chance to learn more 'Stuff!'

The pool here even has underwater observation windows where you can see just how better everyone swims compared to you?!?

Every Monday we would do 200m x 20 run intervals, which wasn't particularly the best session for IM racing... but I liked trying to push the young ITU guys. We would run each 200m in 30 - 35 seconds... 'almost' sprinting... recover for a minute and keep going until you had 20 or you had to stop because you were going to puke up the buffet breakfast you'd just stuffed yourself with... Mmmmm... Pumpernickel und Nutella... my favourite!

An interesting point was that despite hardly doing any speed work over the last few years (particularly not 30 secs for 200m???) I could still bang out some very fast running... (Coach could too even though he's an IM athlete) though it killed me... 191 max HR (last time I saw that was about 8 years ago when I did a max HR test glad to see it's staying the same even though I'm getting older... I must be getting fitter???) And my legs were smashed for a few days... another reason to be careful of the old 'speed work'

As Coach told me after most athletes have the speed but it's the endurance they lack and ability to 'Hold Technique'... but how many athletes disappointed with their race performance say... "Jeez I need to go faster... therefore I need to do more Speed work"??? The Paradox of training that most people never get.

I think this is the nicest pool I have swam in... yes definitely! Only a 3 minute walk to the big pool too... The Atlantic Ocean.

Great cycling here... smooth roads, no rain and breath taking landscapes.

The most you're allowed to wear when running at Playitas is a Sports Bra or Heart Rate Monitor strap.

Coach Michael Kruegar, with his coachee's (Dirk's) kit on. An awesome coach and great athlete... proof that if you train properly you can keep improving even when 40+... eh Coach???

Coach told me a great tip for tricking your Central Governor... it's tooooooo good to share on this Blog... you have to keep some secrets ;-)... but I'll mail it to my coachees... and no you don't have to send me your kit :-).

Keep Reading... I think I'm off to Dansky next :-)

Westy xxx

Ironman New Zealand 2010... Ooooo That Would Hurt A Little Bit And That!?!?

2010-03-08T23:27:00.010+01:00

Pictures of Sarah's Bike... nice eh???

3 days before her first ever Ironman Sarah PC was T-boned by a driver who cut across right in front of her. She smacked straight into it... ripping her bike in two and causing a fair amount of damage to her legs as she 'straddled' her handle bars and bounced off the car flat onto her back. Part of the bars snapped off and caused a puncture wound going into her thigh... sweet!

This was the text I got from her on the evening of her accident:

"Had an acident bike broke n 2 at hospital wasnt my fault fuckn car am ok but puncture n leg wt fat comin out of it"

Testing my coaching skills to the max somewhat???

Nevertheless she is one tough chick and was determined to complete the IM despite the crash... so the next day, Me, The Bro and Tim from Avanti The Mt got her sorted with a new bike... phewf! Which she could just about ride even though she couldn't really walk that well???

Despite being pretty sore during the run Sars completed her first IM! Yippee...! And whats more despite the obvious pain she looked in during the run she never complained once and was always smiling... jeez there's some athletes out there who never stop talking about their various ailments (or excuses as I prefer to call them :-). Sarah just got on with it and did what she could... hard as nails!

And is up for 'Age-Grouper' of the week on IM Talk... http://www.imtalk.me/Podcast.html

Sarah post IM at the finishing party, displaying the puncture wound that had fat squirting out of it... and the nice bruising that had come out during the run.

I was somewhat annoyed that I wasn't able to do the race myself, I always like to race if I can, but as is often the case I had a lot on... Plus I can't wait for Europe now :-)

I also got to cheer everyone else on and was very impressed with all the guys I coached doing the race. Mike, Todd, Liz and Harley all performed brilliantly and achieved or bettered their pre-race goals. I hope you didn't mind me running along side you though :-).

Congrats also this weekend to Belge John in qualifying for The 70.3 Worlds at China 70, he handled the heat well after surviving a Belgium winter.

Rach out performed herself at the Motatapu, and Nicky finished her first marathon... Phewf!

Finally...

I have to shout out to Dirk and Rasmus 2nd and 3rd respectively at the Abu Dhabi Triathlon, an amazing performance against the strongest field outside of Hawaii. Must of been a great race between Dirk and Rasmus... I look forward to hearing about this battle when we catch up in Euroland :-)??

Der Mainzelmaennchen?????

WESTY

Hanging Out in New Zealand

2010-02-28T05:00:00.007+01:00

Keith from The Progidy... Man what a gig!

My first post since Challenge Wanaka... I've had a lot on as you can see by my pics :-)... been sorting out a lot of business as well as cruising around New Zealand from the bottom to the top... having a bit of fun... as well as performing huge feats of endurance such as travelling for 14 hours with only two stops on a diet of pies, 'The Human League', coffee and choccy... I'm testing the limits of 'Human Performance'... the normal thing I like to do post Ironman race... So this blog is somewhat of a pictorial story.

Me and Case before getting sweaty at The Progidy... I tell you, dancing full on at a Techno Gig is a great way to acclimatise to the heat.

Shortly after Challenge Wanaka I made the executive decision not to do Ironman New Zealand, for a number of reasons: It would of taken a fair bit of dedication to get my fitness up again and I have had a lot of other stuff to do; I would've needed even more recovery time after IMNZ and I need to focus on my European season which pretty much starts in less than a month; it would've probably been the only WTC race I do... making it an expensive race due to the new Pro lisence rules and finally the Challenge crew really do offer a better deal to the athlete's than the WTC do especially the pro's.

The Mouth of The Beast... fully packed for the latest Road Trip... somewhere amongst all that kit I managed to get 4 bikes into her... :-)

Me an Em... Intrepid Explorers... at the foot of a Glacier near Wanaka

That was a freeeeeeekin freeeeeezin Glacial pool I'd just jumped into... as you can see the girls really care??? Nads are not designed to be that cold :-(... but good for the soul apparently.

So there's been quite a lot of planning going on over the last month and I'll release these details in my next Blog... but just for now I'll be in the Canary Islands in March :-)

But to the present as it's IMNZ this week... plus heaps of other races... I might not be doing much but everyone else is :-)

I'll have my eye on Sars, Harvey, Mike and Todd... hope you all have a good day... You will as long as I don't see you walking ;-)

In fact Me, Dunc, Andy, Ce, Bevan and any other broken Pro IM will all be watching from the sidelines this year... with a beer or two... it's gonna be F-U-N.

If you are racing... go easy on the bike and don't eat too much... but read more by having a look at this link:

http://triwestwoodcoaching.blogspot.com/2010/02/to-celebrate-start-of-ironman-season.html

Plenty of other racing going on with the athletes I coach...Leighton a young lad from NZ I've recently started coaching, after being very frustrated with his past performances has done nothing but improve over his last few races and has recently qualified for the World Junior Sprint Tri Champs in Hungary... Nice!

Regis M has been taking the Luxembourg Tri World by storm...

John and Jose are tackling Half IM China... they are mad after training through a Belgium winter!?!?
Go Rach... Mototapu Marathon... you'll love it! As will you in Taranaki Nic!

Thats more like it... hanging on the beach in Queenstown... they had a DJ and everything... + loads of pissed sun burnt Pommie back backers.

Other than dancing I have been doing some exercise... Me, Eric and Em at the top of the Crown Range near Wanaka

Back to Christchurch and more beautiful vistas

And even swimming... out to dive for shell fish (paua)... 1km out to sea in the background... and it's very difficult diving with a buoyant wet suit on.

Time to watch some triathlon on the Beach in Takapuna.

Celia keeping guard at transition.... with her handbag.

As Vicky Holland takes out the win for Grosse Britania! Go GB!

Thanks to all those readers out there, thanks for being patient and I'll update you with all the goss soon...

Westy xxx

"Jump... Jump... Jump... MY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS!"

Challenge Wanaka 2010... Pher...yewf!

2010-01-21T00:23:00.010+01:00

Flag Bearing to the finish :-)...

Bigging up the crowds with 21K to go... Coming atch ya!

Yes it's that moment you've all been waiting for... The Challenge Wanaka Race Report! :-)
What a Tough, Bad Ass but Beeeeeautiful Mother Bitch of a day it was... Listen up!

All started pretty cool and calm... Haferflocken and Kaffee for brekky and I was ready to roll... nice seeing all my buddies racking their bikes, you get the odd anal type who can not focus away from how many gels to stick to their top tube but generally there's lots of 'big loving' and 'all the besting' going around as we know we're all in it together and we're all going to feel the shit out there :-).

Thanks to Rach for being my Wetsuit Bitch as of course I was a bit late getting to the start and it was useful to have her there to throw things at. Water was cold but I had my Blue 70 booties on which although they do look a bit 'gay'... some may say 'well gay' they do keep you warmer :-). So off I set on my merry 3.8K way.
It was cool man... I couldn't quite believe it... for the first time in a Triathlon I managed to stay with the main / chase pack?!!?!? WTF??? Swimming along thinking ah... look there's Bex Keat... there's Jodie... Pete Vab... Lisbeth... Mark Pschebizin... where the freaks Ce???? We all formed a nice pack... Mark had a nice black eye to prove it with a well placed punch from one of the girls... not mentioning any names... them beeeeatches man??? :-)... I clung onto the back of it for dear life. I even lost it at one stage as I went too wide around a buoy but with my Uber swim powers managed to 'sprint' back onto someones feet... hmmm may be that was a bit much though as at about the 2.5K mark I lost them... I think I just lost focus but they started pulling away from me and before I realised a gap had opened up and I could see the group just getting further away... darn it!!?!? :-(
Still I got out in 58:42 which was good as most of my fellow pro's did about a 57 so I wasn't the normal 10 minutes behind :-)

Pro Girlies... as you can see Lisbeth is accessing the upper centres of her brain here.

Off I set onto the bike... feeling good as I was passing people eeeeeeeasily ha! OK most of them were chix... Caught Bex at the 10K mark (sweet in Roth I didn't catch her until the 80K mark) "Keep up I said... I'll pull you up to Gina!" ;-). I caught Gina at the 40K mark (sweeter still as in Taupo last year I didn't get her until about the 100K mark).
At 100K I caught Marcy P (the guy who I ran the whole of IMNZ09 marathon with and he beat me by 5 secs?!?!?!?) I was hoping we could work together as I could've done with some help... he was going pretty slowly though so I thought to heck with it... he's a good runner... but so am I... I'll build up a good buffer on the bike and he'll never catch me :-)... so off I went moving into 6th place.
This was the tough time though... I knew that Usher, Keegan, Pete etc were up the road... all great bikers... and likely to be working together... even when legally drafting you can ride at a HR 10 beats less so you can go faster on the bike and more importantly have a lot more left for the run... I had no real choice though than to keep heading up the lonely road just me and the music and voices in my head :-)
Apart from the usual Joy Division, Napalm Death and Kate Bush (ah my English Rose :-) ) I couldn't stop singing 'Feed The World' by Michael Jackson!?!?!?

"Feed the World... make it a better place... for you and for me and the ENTIRE Human Race... cus there's people dying..."

WTF?!?!? Over and over again.... God dam you Jackson haunting me from the grave :-)
I did have some company... Andy Black... (the guy from the Christchurch Tri I did at Xmas who was asking me about my Wanaka training). I passed him at the 50K mark and I pulled him along until about the 130K mark where he finally blew... hmm I was starting to get a little annoyed at one point even though he was keeping it mainly legal, I was hoping he might do at least one turn at the front, he redeemed himself though at an aid station... I dropped a bottle... and was 'bottle less... in a bottle filled World' :-(... Andy sprinted up to me like a domestique and gave me one of his... Cheers Bro :-).
He thanked me later saying that he was able to go a lot faster for the same effort riding behind me... see kids... Ironman IS a draft legal sport at the end of the day.

Pro Boyz.

Nothing much else to report on the bike... did one wee... this is the most entertaining part of the bike... when else do you get to wet yourself... in public... on your bike as well... I have to stop my self laughing though... "Agh... it's going down my leg??? It's splashing on my bike... it's in my shoes... err it's really warm and smells a bit :-)... it always gives me a sick sense of glee to think that the masseuse will be massaging that into my legs later on...

So off the bike... still in 6th place :-) 05:05:04 Bike Split.

Transition was a bit lonely... in my delirious state I wasn't sure where to go and did a bit of random wandering round the transition tents... until I persuaded some teenage girls (the only visible marshals??) to stop texting and tell me where I was supposed to go???

The Katzer... Meine Kleine Schnitzel on the podium... :-) and Mands from Avanti on the top... go girls!

Onto the run... legs felt good but breathing was too laboured meaning my HR was too high... :-( meaning I had pushed it just a little too hard on the bike probably on the hills.
Managed to get my fluids in though plus gels :-)... felt my stomach 'gurgle' at one stage... and the 'bomb bay' loading up with a few 'bombs' :-(... managed to keep the bomb bay doors closed though... phewf! Especially as I had a one piece on :-). A one piece with the legs pulled up in true Euro / Aussie footy rules style... those leg grippers man... my quads are just too huge and hips too small... and they feel restricted... ;-) May have to go Speedo next time :-)

Had a good first lap though the course doesn't suit me I'd much rather be running on the road... if you run with good technique you absorb the shock of any surface but running over sand and stones just does my head in... and whats with the freakin hills!!! Ooo the pain of trying to drink Coke when running down hill?!?!
I saw Brian in 5th place at the turn around... jeez lets see if he blows I may catch him :-) but saw Marcy P catching me up... dam it!?!? I began to blow on the second lap myself though and Marc passed me at 25K... I was just in survival mode then so I had nothing to respond with... he was running well... bugger! In the end I did a 03:09 run... good considering the course and my 'Lone Wolf' on the bike.
The finish came :-) and I fell into the arms of Event Director Vic... as always I was fairly delirious... just kept on telling her what a great race it was and what do I do now... she had to escort me to the recovery tent... Thanks Vic..! I'm sure she had better things to be doing :-)

WINNERS!!!! Well... one of us anyway.

So a good day 7th in the end, a slow time 09:17 but bloody tough course... probably the best performance I have had in an Iron Distance event... and I'll get Marc one day... see you back in Germany :-)!

Some great performances from my coachees... Katzer placed 3rd in her age group despite having back problems she did awesome battling through the pain... Sars P 3rd in the Half Distance and Graham Harris in only his 2nd ever Triathlon finished 4th in his age group... he's only been doing triathlon for about 9 months yet he did a 05:22 bike split... and he's a 'runner'!?!?

So some down time now... time to make a few more plans...

Ce... WTF...? Don't you know you can't drive...??? Get the freak out my car man!... Ce showing signs of 'Post IM delirium...'

OK... who's going to drink another shot??? Feelix??!!! It never ceases to amaze me... the ability of the human body... 3am in the morning post IM day... and still going... and still drinking... though I have to say... I'm still recovering and have virtually done nothing but sleep ALL this week...

Always time to hang in Cafes... Hanging is good :-)...

Thanks to all my fellow competitors, Vic, Felix and the Challenge Wanaka Crew... and all my lovely friends and family... those here in Wanaka and also those throughout the rest of the World... I really do appreciate your thoughts...

Ahhhh... and Cheeeeeeeelax :-)

Westy xxx

Now Ce reckons she looks like the Silver Surfer...

What do you think???
I think she looks more like Hobgoblin... am I wrong???... Never... ;-) Same glasses... funky boots... and smile ;-)....

Challenge Wanaka 2010... the day before the FUN!

2010-01-15T00:11:00.006+01:00

Well here I am in Wanaka the day before the big Race. I've been living here for the last two weeks with my lovely Hosts Rob, Wendy and Bronnie... it's been cool doing my last bits of training, checking out the course and freezing my ass and face off in the somewhat cold Lake.

So now it's race week and what great fun it's been as it seems like the rest of the World has come to Wanaka so it's been cool hanging out with all my fellow athletes and the whole Challenge Crew... it's been more exhausting than the training!?!?

But I am feeling pretty good and I just can't wait to get out there and have some fun...

Good luck to all those guys doing it!

And thanks to everyone who's wished me all the best... will be thinking of you all when I'm out there :-)

Big congrats to Nicky, Todd and Mike who all met their goals at Tauranga Half Ironman, with Mike getting on the Podium... Nice! Special Kudos to Lise from Oz who also did the race after only just giving birth a few months ago... what an Uber Chick!

I'm going to be an anal Type A triathlete now and not write anymore as I've got some DVD watching to do... and a bit of chilaxing...

Sweet.

Westy xxx

My other lovely host... Tallulah!

Pre Challenge Wanaka Training in Christchurch, New Zealand

2010-01-05T06:35:00.007+01:00

All good to go and get on the Ferry to the South Island.

For a wee run in the Port Hills of Christchurch...

And Cycling of Course!

For the end of the year I headed down to Christchurch on the South Island of NZ to stay with friends in their Uber Haus on the cliffs over looking the Pacific Ocean...
A cool spot to train for my final prep for Challenge Wanaka over Xmas. Days are spent training, playing around with the kids and as there's no TV here there's plenty of time to sit around, watching the ships and discussing life over a bottle of wine or two :-)

I did do a little race down here... The Xmas Cracker Tri... 400m Swim, 15K Bike, 4K Run... where I really wanted to beat John Newsom from Epic Camp... my plans were soon scuppered as for some reason everyone else knew about the rip that took them out to the first buoy... so I was still floundering around in the surf while the Locals got a 50m gap on me... ??? Still at least I made it to the first buoy eventually... eh Graham! I gained on Newsom on the rest of the race but couldn't run him down... Darn it! :-) Still we were all disappointed in the end as Clark Ellice rocked up and John didn't get his bottle of Winners Red Wine. I felt good in the race though and the new Specialised S-Works Transition was flying on the flats :-)... fingers crossed I should be good to go for Wanaka!

There was an interesting race moment... I ran out of T2 with one athlete who was virtually sprinting... 'man I thought this is fast! I'll just try and tuck in behind him'... he then started asking me if I was 'Paul Westwood' and how my 'Wanaka Training' was going... WTF??? So just as I started to get into a full conversation with him he says 'I can't keep this pace up' and slows to a virtual trot... WTF x 2.
A good lesson in not really worrying how fast other people are going. He was "Bist Dem Arsch!"... I think that's the German expression... :-)

Morning has berrr-rowken...!

Here's my training for the 11 days post Xmas Cracker Tri. Not that I normally post my training diary... the worst mistake people make in Tri's is copying someone elses programme... especially the programme of some Pro Athlete... out of some magazine interview... who was probably just making it up at the time of the interview... ha ha!

Some of you may find it interesting though.

Unless stated all the intensity was steady aerobic state. Unless I was pretty wasted in which case I would just ride recovery (HR 110 - 120). All swimming was steady apart from a few hard paddle and band intervals (e.g. 100m x 5). When in heavy IM / aerobic training it's just too hard on the heart to try and get it to work at high intensities.

Bikkee and Pengy hanging out at the pool :-)

Monday

Bike to pool 50 mins.

Swim 4K

Bike home 02:30

Tuesday

Bike to pool 50 mins.
Swim 3K

Bike home 50 mins

Run 01:15 in afternoon

Wednesday

Run 01:50 Hilly

Thursday

Bike 50 mins to pool

Swim 3K

Bike 50 mins home

Friday - Christmas Day!

Run 01:15

Swim Body Surf :-)

Bike 02:00

Saturday

Bike 50 mins to pool

Swim 3K

Bike 02:00 home

Run 01:00 - Brick, Fartleck

Sunday

Run 01:05

Monday

Bike 05:00 + 30 mins Aerobic Th Effort.

Run 30 mins - Brick, Aerobic TH.

Swim 4K

Tuesday

Bike 03:00

Wednesday

Bike 50 mins to pool

Swim 3K

Bike 50 mins home

Run 02:30 Hilly

Thursday

Bike 05:20

Run 20 mins Brick

Thanks so much to Neil, Kathryn, Callum, Hanah and the rest of the Sumner Crew for looking after me... see you on the way back through :-)

So what else has been going on? Well Kate and Phil did awesome at the Rotorua Half IM both PBing in very difficult conditions... Phil said it was the first time he had been totally spent at the end of a race... looks like he is learning to govern his Central Governor.

Kat is going big guns in her build up Tri's for Challenge Wanaka and sneaking into the tops 10's! Sars was 4th at the Surf Breaker Tri at the Mt and Mike is looking very skinny.

And I know Nicky basically wanted to win her first ever Tri but she did make the Mid pack.

Tauranga Half Ironman this weekend Good Luck to Todd, Mike and Nicky... Dunc, Scott, Guy and the rest of the Massif :-)... Pity I can't be there but I have some Southern / German ass to kick!

See You in Wanaka,

Westy xxx

A crucial part of training... shaving!

Time for the Body Surfing Comp... Christmas Day.

Neil... a bit tired after a day with the kids and coming out on a long ride with me and going very fast on the first two hills... and then very slow on all the others... nice pillow.

:-)

Tinman Olympic Distance Tri. NZ 09

2009-12-11T22:53:00.004+01:00

The Cervelo's final race :-(... I have a nice new bikeseee coming to a race near you soon... once the Bro's put it together... so lazy???

Right here we go with the Tinman Race report...

I have to say I was a little bit nervous before this race... yes even laid back, cruisey me a bit nervous...?? My last race was the Worlds in Perth when I had the heart thing go on, since then I'd been sticking to some good aerobic training with the HR kept under 155 apart from a few 'race prep' efforts the week before... it was time to race and rev that engine up to 170HR+++, puke my spleen up and hope she'd hold together :-).

So the swim... normal carnage but my new found 'Triathlete Swimming' as opposed to 'Swimmer Swimming' was working a treat as fought through the melee nipping from one pair of feet to the next... out I popped at the end with the 15th fastest swim... wicked... in a race with plenty of young Tri Swimmer Fishes... now my swim will never be up there with them because I am still a bit rubbish at swimming... but it's good to be still improving even though it's been 13 years since I first learnt to swim... you don't swim as a kid in Birmingham...

Off onto the bike... over taking the usual "yeh you can swim Bro but you bike like my fricken Grandma" guy's... :-) Tried to push the pace a bit but did feel the lack of anaerobic training take effect in my quads... they didn't like that lactate feeling in them so I had to back off a little. Continued the ride on my own for most of it but couldn't bridge the gap to any of the top guy's... John Hume (racing in a team) came past me with about 5K to go... sweet, I sat nicely behind him (legal distance of course) watched my effort drop by about 5 bpm as he took me to T2... dam I could of just cruised the bike... waited for him to catch me and had a much easier ride... still that's racing... It is a mistake to believe that triathlons are drafting free... even if you remain legal you can still (and should) get the benefits of the draft... I advise athletes to approach most races as if they are draft legal because in the end they are.

So off onto the run... cautiously... nervous that something bad would happen... a team runner over took me... I wasn't too happy with this as he was running like a bit of a spaz (sorry, I grew up in the 80's) he didn't look that efficient put it that way, but I let him go as I'd just done a bike and swim... however he started to come back to me as I settled into my rythm which HIS ego didn't like and he started attacking me with little bursts of pace... WTF? Anyway I felt good at the turn around so I put it into my last gear and cruised away from him... dam I felt good... cruising at a fast pace... hurting but holding the ship together... :-)

Running around the Mt for the last few K's is sooooooooooo painful... up and down... jeez pain, pain, pain... some of the athletes out there commented on the views, which are very nice but WTF?? All I could see was the inside of my eyelids?!?! AND what is it with all the people going for their Sunday Stroll... getting in my way... funny but when the crimson mist has fallen I could have trampled to death anyone who got in my way... I resorted to shouting and snarling very loudly as I spat and snorted out sea snot and bits of jelly fish at any poor unfortunate Sunday Stroller... most of them kept clear...

Ah... the finish... cool... 9th... happy with that, almost fastest run of the day by 5 seconds... it always amazes me how fast you can go on pure aerobic training... "training not straining" :-)

It was a great day in all... cool to catch up with all the tri folk from around the North Island and I have to say an amazing well done! To all the athletes I coach who did the race... All did very well... even Clay who spent his whole pre-race trying to cro-bar his car open???
What I was impressed with most was that all you guy's enjoyed it...! Many people loose site of the main reason they race... because we enjoy it! No point in doing it otherwise... chasing a position or a time is all good but pointless if we're not enjoying ourselves... our greatest successes will only come with enjoyment.

A final note from the race is that I did it without any hydration. I don't normally drink much anyway in Olympic distance races and indeed some of the research I've been doing into hydration states that hydration is overated. So I didn't take a bottle on the bike, the only nutriton I had was a gel on the bike... most of which ended up all over my bike anyway and no fluid at all... I felt fine and didn't fade in my run so I reckon I'll have to try this out more often.

It's good to be on track... always good to get that first race done... I always recommend racing to everyone... it's why we do the sport... nothing can prepare you more for a race then ermmm racing... hopefully I'll keep this fitness going for Challenge Wanaka :-)

Right I'm off to Christchurch... going to cleanse the Great Unwashed South Islanders and their multisport / unshaven evil ways :-)

Westy xxx

IM Western Australia and New Blog.

2009-12-06T21:52:00.003+01:00

Hi Guys,

I have a new Blog up and running check it out:

http://triwestwoodcoaching.blogspot.com/

This Blog will be dedicated to all the Training and Sports Performance Information where as this Blog TriWestwood.com will be for fun stuff on adventures and whats happening in the big wide World out there :-). This means not everyone has to be subjected to the Triathlon Geeky Stuff.

So it was IM WA at the weekend just gone and I have to give a very BIG mention to the lovely Celia Kuch who'd put so much effort into this race. Unfortuately she picked up a stomach bug (apparently there was a lot of it going around) and spent the few days before the race puking up... she STILL fronted up on the day and managed to do the Swim and the Bike, even though she'd been puking up on herself, her lovely bike and her lovely legs for most of the bike... she is one tough girl! But I'm glad she saw sense to make her way to the medical tent and not the run course... and she's still being very positive about the whole thing... cool!
It can seem devastating when you do all that training for a race where you have a bad day or DNF but good training stays with you... it takes on average about 20,000 hours of training before you reach your athletic potential... so all that training is hours in the bank... and for Ce she will reap the benefits of that in the races and years to come...

Jimmy Jay was 3rd in the mens race... my training buddy from the summer... he had an awesome race and an awesome result! So pleased for you Jimmy. I tell you the athletes I worked with in the Canaries from the Danish Tri Team are doing so well... 5th and 7th IM Hawaii, 3rd World ITU LD Champs, 3rd IMWA and Helle is podiuming on all the World / Euro cup races she does... they must be doing something right!

Tinman Race Report to follow... with results of an interesting hydration experiment I did.

Nice,

Westy xxx

Time for the New Zealand Season... Time for a Change.

2009-12-01T08:57:00.006+01:00

Me, Kat and Sars... No ride is complete without coffee and cake / chocky :-), good friends and good laughs... with the normal beautiful New Zealand view.

As you can see I've changed my Blog lay out, yes I'm having a bit of a change around and my new revamped website should be up and running soon with my lovely new banner as displayed on this Blog (Thanks Case!)
I'll be starting a new Blog soon for all the tri-geeky / training stuff. This Blog will remain as it is but will be dedicated to news, racing, athletes I coach and of course my own adventures and shenanigans... :-)

Training for me has been good, consistently getting 20+ hour training weeks in, with a good mix of swim, bike, run und Weisbier :-)
This weekend I'll be able to truly test how things have been going with the first Tri of my Southern Hemisphere season... The Tinman Triathlon an Olympic Distance race in the beautiful beachy place of Mt Maunganui... I think I'm going to hurt! Looking forward to some post race body surfing and "Beach Hanging" recovery... NICE!

Can't wait to catch up with the North Island lot... as well as the athletes I coach doing the race: Kat, Sars, Phil, Kate, Mike, Nicky and Clay... enjoy the race, enjoy the day and you'll go well!
Now my main aim will be to finish before you guys simply because it means I can therefore come and give you some gentle encouragement :-). I won't be able to acknowledge you too well during the race as my eyes will probably be rolling back into my skull as I try to stop myself from coughing up my spleen... :-) I'm sure you'll be doing something similar...

Big congrats to John and Jose for finishing the Ironman Cozumel in Mexico... sounds like a very Hot and windy race! John said his HR was 20 beats higher than normal in his pre-race training runs... Eeeek!
Not forgetting Rach and Graham who had a storming time at the South Island Half Ironman... Graham's first tri... why do kiwi's always choose hard races to do as their first Tri?? My first 'Tri' was a 400m pool swim and a 3 mile run... and I had to 'walk' some of the swim... well in the shallow end... yes I cheated but I was reeeeally rubbish at swimming then and ermm couldn't swim 400m without an ickle restie... Ha! Hope for us all??

So keep tuned... more new stuff to come!

RACE HARD!

Westy xxx!

Here's me on my way to a 'Hollywood Stars' Night... I went as Robert Deniro (Travis Bickel) in 'Taxi Driver'... didn't quite pull off the Mohawk but it was a last minute thing. Funny though hardly any Kiwi's recognised me (not the most cultured bunch... heee??) BUT my German friends (in Germany) did... obviously a cooler bunch ;-)

Wee a bit like Marmite.

2009-11-14T06:05:00.013+01:00

Looking Kiwi, an hour before the start...

Need food... pre-race.

Finally back in New Zealand and a chance to update my Blog since the ITU World Long Distance Champs in Perth... it's taken me this long to get over it... Ha! That and the extensive travel I'd been doing meant for the first week I was back I pretty did nothing more than sleep and watch 'day time TV' :-)

Well it was a tough day out there in Perth although I knew it would be... it was a World Champs after all... and I was somewhat ill prepared :-(... although that was my own decision. Since Challenge Roth I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do... I did a bit of training to get a little fit but it was far too inconsistent for any real gains... but you make you're own choices in life... so I was quite prepared for the consequences... GULP...?

The swim was my first undoing... 3K (bad for me!), 2K of it against the current (double bad!), into a constant chop which was like having an annoying fat person hit you with a big fish every 30 seconds, couldn't see the buoys, no one to draft, and I drank a whole heap of salty dirty water... not sure if it was isotonic... GULP!?!? Though I don't know what all the fuss is about that you're not supposed to drink seawater if you're lost at sea or something... I must of drank a bucket full... didn't do me any harm?? Although I didn't wee after the race until later in the evening and what came out looked a bit like slightly watered down Marmite... and was probably just as 'salty'.
Anyway my new found Uber swimming managed to get me through it and I wasn't even last...! I counted at least 4 bikes still in the racks when I got there... ha so much for these Olympic Athletes???

My shoulders are a bit too broad to get very aero on the bike... darn it!

So on to the bike... good fun... plenty of crowds to cheer you on, thanks to all those who shouted my name... I couldn't turn my head to smile and say hello as the gale force winds would've ripped my head off... I wasn't pushing it too hard but the wind was strong so hmmm a pretty tough day....
The rare occasion when I was running.

And then onto the run... I felt bad for the first 2K... I then started to come right for about 500m and then the heart thing happened... hmmm the heart felt 'tight' and I couldn't get any breath my legs felt good and I felt OK in myself but as soon as I went any more than a jog it felt my chest was collapsing and I couldn't breath... hmmm this isn't so good I thought???

I hadn't pushed things too hard on the bike and my nutrition had been OK so it wasn't your normal 'bonk'... deciding the better part of valour I thought I would go for a little stroll instead of the run :-).

I had a issue with my heart a few years ago when I had similar symptoms but much worse and ended up in hospital... I had multiple tests and scans done but they couldn't find anything wrong other than 'too much electrical activity'... and erm... I got better... since then I have just been careful with my training, so I decided not to risk anything bad happening.

However I still wanted to finish... too many elite athletes have a bad day and drop out because they don't want to have a bad placing on the results list... but I was quite happy doing the walk of shame... Ha! Well I still got to cheer on all my fellow Kiwi competitors... Dunc and Liam who had awesome races to get 14th and 15th respectively... "go boyz!" and I could do it all while sipping on a few bottles of water... and even managed to have a little washie and get ride of all the snot and salt off my face.

Good work to Mike and Clay too... I'll see you both back in NZ.

The Champ and the Smashed... Martin had an awesome race... I'm so pleased for him, 3rd in the World and only a few seconds off 2nd... he looks very fresh and clean unlike me... I look like I've had an accident in a salt factory.

Though I think Martin has been watching 'Bruno' too much "Isch don't sink so!"

So my heart thing was it's own little protest of being made to race a World Champs when it wasn't fit enough...
It's time to get aerobically fit again (managed to log 25 hours last week :-), I'm keeping my eye on my heart symptoms and in true Mark Allen style beeping my HR below the magic 155 mark... apart from the occasional race. I do intend to get it checked by a Sports Cardiologist in the future.

I'm off to the South Island soon and looking forward to catching up with friends in Christchurch and Wanaka... as well as the German crowd in January :-)

So that's all for now...

Congratulations to Regis M taking 3rd place in his age group for Luxembourg at the 70.3 World Champs in Florida... his first time at the Worlds... only 7 seconds off 1st place...

Also Nikki B 7th in her age group at Xterra World Champs, Hawaii... in her first time at the Worlds too!
So keep on having fun where ever you are... just look after your health :-)

Westy.
<

My lovely hosts for my trip to perth Uncle Walt, Auntie Gaye and Cuzzy Brandon and Melissa.

Walter is my inspiration... still looking great at the age of 67! Still very active, still likes a beer or two and still has that great Irish wit... just like his younger sister... my mom :-)

ITU Long Distance World Champs - Perth, Australia

2009-10-24T10:45:00.004+02:00

OK so here I am the day before the ITU 2009 World Long Distance Champs in Perth. Racing for little old New Zealand :-) and looking at the bikes in the hotel room...
I've been staying at my Uncle and Aunts with my 2 cuzzies Melissa and Brandon... been great they've looked after me and Dunc well.
So me and Dunc are holed up in a hotel ready for the race. It's going to be fast as... not many Ironman athletes but plenty of Olympic athletes who have plenty of speed! Especially in the water... going to be good though and I'm actually looking forward to a bit of pain, I've been missing it a bit since Roth... it's going to be a good kickstart to the NZ season :-)

I have to say a very big CONGRATUALTIONS to Rasmus and Dirk for their excellent performances in Hawaii World IM Champs... 5th and 7th respectively in their first time at Kona... awesome result against the best in the World... hmmm looks as though the training in the Canary Islands must have done some good!
Poor Charlotte (Cervelo Girl) had to drop out with blisters when she was in 6th place... still all looking good for the 'squad' in the future.

Rasmus and Dirk... pre Kona... Denmark v Luxy

I've been hanging with Martin Jensen (and coach of course ;-) from Denmark, he's my tip he's been going very well since the Canary Island training.

So that's it... Dunc wants to use the computer.
Have to say go dam bloody hard to Dunc (of course), Martin, Mike and Clay (who took out the aquathon race here the other day).
Also Nikki and Scott racing Xterra World Champs in NZ.
And all those athletes who have already been racing in NZ...

Don't do it Dunc!!!! Dunc can't take my 'pre-race banter' any more... Jeez... he should try dealing with all the gas that keeps coming out his ass... the ac is working over time!

So I'm off to NZ again after here so will blog from there with an update of how I was last out the swim... Heeeeeee, heeeee.

Bring on the pain!

Westy xxxx

The 'Sunday Session' me and my cuzzy Melissa (centre)... good for a few afternoon beers :-).

Triathlon Musings and how not to ride a bike like a girl... sorry chick... sorreeee Lady...

2009-10-06T14:50:00.013+02:00

"So I'd go home, drink a beer, eat some beans and run some more"
Gypsy Cowboy

Well nearly time to head off to the Antipodes, spent the last few weeks darting around Europe catching up with friends and family until I collapsed in an exhausted state back in the UK. Thought I'd take this chance to go over a few things learnt recently... My musings are a bit random today but there's sure to be something in there to learn and entertain you.

Had a great time in Fuetura Ventura playing and working with the Danish Tri Team... and also hanging out with other coaches such as Suzy B from Germany...

Work, work, work...

Here's some of the observations I made of how this group of Pro Triathletes train for IM... there is definitely a familiar trend developing in what is the best way to train for long distance triathlon (and indeed even short distance triathlon), and to a degree it goes against many of the more conventional ideas.

No long runs. Generally long runs are limited up to 2 hours. Most are around 90 minutes. A handful of long runs over two hours were done at the most.

Most runs were steady pace, rarely easy but quite often at a fast tempo. No really killer interval type sessions.

A similar situation for the biking with most being at a steady pace, no intervals but long 'tempo efforts' at IM race pace+.

No killer long bike rides... 5 hours being about the most. Quite a difference from the Kiwi's and there 240K sessions which I think are detrimental for any fitness gained. Better to spend the rest of the time in the day swimming, running and resting.

Swimming was mainly aerobic. Not a lot of intensity done and fins were used a lot. When your training 30 hours a week it's difficult to go hard all the time in the swim. The heart doesn't know whether it's swimming, biking or running.

I don't think I saw one swim drill done the whole time I was in FV.

Swim, bike, run is done most days.

Most running is done separate to the bike unless near to an A-race.

I like to read a lot of books... trouble is I always have a few on the go at the same time. My sis gave me the bust of Socrates... who I am a fan off... when asked where he was from he said he was "not from Athens but a Citizen of the World"... I'm going to struggle to take all this little lot on as hand luggage though??

One of the books I've been reading: "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougal. A very interesting read. It highlights many of the points I've made previously on 'minimalist running'. That humans have basically evolved to be endurance runners... we have big butts, we can sweat, our head remains stationary when we run and we can 'think'... I also never knew that chimps don't have Achilles Tendons (and no glutes) because they are designed to walk. It also explains why some days I can just eat oats (haferflocken ;-) ), cornflakes, berries, coffee and beer / wine and be perfectly happy and healthy. :-)

If you run or are thinking of running then this book will help you, one of the biggest messages I got from the book was that what ever you are doing you should be enjoying it especially if you want to do well, so run with a smile on your face... just like Chrissie Wellington :-)

As for my training... hmmm it's been a little bit suspect over the last few months. I have basically been too busy doing other stuff I enjoy... travel, work, socialising, reading, study, 'watching you-tube clips' and thinking... I also banged the back of my heel (moving furniture!?? Funny how injuries are often caused by doing other stupid stuff!) so my running has been limited, trying to do barefoot running to strengthen my foot is difficult without the beach! And to top it all off just when I was about to try and get a good solid week of training into me I crashed and burnt with the first cold I've had in a year... dam... still a good chance to do nothing except read and hang out with family.

My Brother Ben... being cool... he does like to do a bit of running but likes a fag after :-)

So I have all my excuses for the ITU Long Distance Worlds in Perth at the end of October... like a real Pro?? Ha! Still hopefully I should be fit enough soon to begin some good solid training in Nov and Dec ready for Challenge Wanaka in Jan. It's a difficult task trying to be fit for racing in the Northern Hemisphere season AND the Southern Hemisphere season. Most guys are just preparing for their end of season races (Hawaii, Clear Water, ITU Worlds etc) and then they get to have some good time off before getting back to easy training while I'll be busting my Balls in Wanaka... the World definitely revolves around the Northern Hemisphere... US and Europe.

A pic of Helle displaying some great 'handle bar / upper limb positioning' and gold handle bar tape... we did a bit of work on this in FV... must of helped a bit as she won the latest round of the ITU Euro Cup... Nice work!

Now I'm being sexist here but for most chicks (double sexist... but I am a bit kiwi and so allowed to use the kiwi term for the female of the species) riding a bike doesn't come natural... when I was a kid I used to ride around on my Raleigh Grifter (stuck in 3rd gear) every day... my sis on the other hand would only use her Raleigh 14 to carry her dolls in the saddle bag around the garden???

Anyway chick triathletes (and yes some guys) find it difficult to ride on the drops but road bikes are designed to be ridden on the drops... you have more control, better braking power and better aerodynamics... especially useful when going downhill. Sitting on the hoods is just a relaxed position for when your climbing, enjoying the view or 'catching up on the gossip'.

It can take a bit of confidence at first but keep a relaxed grip on the drop, keep the chest low and the elbows bent around 90 degrees... this bend amongst other things provides a nice suspension system for your front wheel.
Hawaii this week... good luck to all those I know doing it... you know who you are!

So Thats a Wrap...
Enjoy!
Westy xxx