You need friends

For years, when I first started triathlons, I trained alone or, at most, only very occasionally with others.

As the months and years went by, however, I was joined increasingly more often by friends. There would be the odd swim with my mate Martin, then Simon joined us, then so did Alex, Chris and Bob. Then we started running and cycling together until eventually I trained more with them than I did alone.

We all had our own particular strengths (Simon is a strong swimmer, Bob excels at running) and bounced these strengths off of each other. Along with all that came vast improvements in my speed and, ultimately, my race times plummeted. I found that having someone to judge yourself against was a vital part of a serious training plan.

Judging myself against others with more ability than myself is exactly what I have done in my sessions this week.

First off was the usual club swim on Monday evening. I am probably one of the slower swimmers in my lane and I always start off at the back, but I am happy playing catch-up because it does help me push that bit harder.

Then later in the week there was a semi-fast road bike session, followed by a timed 8K run, with Sarah from my tri club. Now, Sarah is a strong athlete, make no mistake. We were evenly matched on the bike, but where Sarah really excels is on the run. I had planned to do the 8K in 32 minutes but in all honesty I set off too quickly and within minutes Sarah was ahead of me having hardly broken into a sweat. 37 minutes after the start I finally slumped past the 8K mark, thoroughly exhausted and, to be honest, rather disappointed that I was a whole 5 minutes off the target time although I put this down to the 2 hour bike which had preceded the run.

The week ended on a high note at Afan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Again, I placed myself into the A group for the various bike sessions and whilst I was always playing catch up I did feel that I got a fabulous workout, and my bike strength has benefitted enormously. Ahead of me were usually Rob, Robin and Tony, and behind was often Jim (only because his bike was usually upside down having track-side repairs done to it, otherwise he was towards the front of the group). The nerd in the picture up top, looking like a character from Lord of the Rings, is yours truly after my final ride of the weekend. The bad hair day was from the air vents of my bike helmet - thanks Mitten for taking such a flattering photo!

As a result of all this, and 17 hours of training later, I feel that I have had one of the best training weeks so far this year. Thanks to all my training partners for pushing me along!

Here's precisely what I did:-

Monday – swim - club swim, to include intervals and drills, 50 press-ups and 42 sit-ups

Tuesday – run/bike/run - fast brick session at Brickhill Woods

Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 15 minutes at zero gradient

Thursday – bike - semi-fast road bike with Sarah, run - fast 8K in 37 minutes

Friday - bike - MTB at Afan

Saturday – bike - MTB at Afan

Sunday - bike - MTB at Afan

This week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Mike Trees' London Marathon blog. As regular readers will know, I am following Mike's sub-40 minute 10K training plan, and his blog provides a very interesting, sometimes amusing, insight into his training for this year's London Marathon. Take a read if you have a few minutes.

This coming week I am planning a hard interval bike session with Dan from the tri club. Dan is a relative newcomer to the sport, but is a natural athlete and a great training partner. Last season we competed in the final Thames Turbo race together but I was DQ’d and Dan didn’t finish due to illness. This year we have planned a few races together, starting with the pool-based Duston triathlon on 19 April. We have a small wager on who wins, which is always a big motivater!

Another friend from the tri club is Stuart. Stuart comes from a biking background and he and I travelled down to Afan together at the weekend. After hours of fantastic mountain biking, Stuart managed to get himself lost up one of the hills and ended up on the other side! 30 extra miles later, a big fall off the bike and a broken chain, and he turned up – still smiling! Top biking Stuart and roll on next time!

As far as this week's Monday evening swim is concerned then that is a big fat no, no. Instead, I am sitting here writing this blog whilst resting my aching limbs from Afan. 11 hours of hard hilly cycling over three days is no mean feat for someone who is training for sprint triathlons, so that’s a big fat pat on the back for me!

Cheers.

C

Spring Sprints

I love this time of the year.

The anticipation of a long hot Summer ahead, all those mouth watering races and of course a holiday or two (funds permitting!). Unfortunately, the last couple of years have not delivered as far as Summer sun is concerned, but we can always hope.

It all starts next weekend in Wales when I shall be making my second journey to the MTB Mecca of Afan with my tri club. With six months mountain biking under my belt since my maiden run last October I hope to enjoy the experience a whole lot more. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it the first time, because I did (enormously), but with more bike handling skills now I hope to be a bit more daring and faster down those (hopefully not too slippery) single tracks. I’ll certainly be giving club colleague Rob (aka Bananaman) a run for his money…

Spring brings with it an increase in the intensity of my training, and so last week I moved into my interval-based phase of training. This consists of short sprint sessions on the bike and the run - none of that long slow distance nonsense (I’ll leave that to Rob, Jev, Jim et. al.). This started with a mammoth 3 hour brick session (following the Stuart Dangferfield interval bike session, ending with a long run). Make no mistake, this fast stuff is not for the faint-hearted, but nobody said qualifying for the Worlds was going to be a stroll in the park.

The week culminated on Sunday morning with my longest and hardest bike ride this year with Dan, Jim, Rob, Tony and Sarah from my tri club – a hilly 36 miles taking in four notoriously big local hills – Bison Hill, Toms Hill, Aston Hill, Ivinghoe Hill. For a sprinter, 36 miles is probably unnecessarily long, and I was certainly out of my comfort zone at times, but the hill training was invaluable (hills are where I notoriously get passed by every man and his dog at races). Amazingly I managed to keep up with the big boys and girls (just) and surprised myself at how fresh my legs felt at the finish.

My running has also turned a corner and so it is time to move forward and push myself that little bit harder. I am now running at 180 strides per minute with ease without the need for music to inspire me (I count three strides per second – it’s that simple). Now I need to increase my stride length, which is what my 10K plan is encouraging with hill repeats and short sprint sessions. My biggest test so far will be this week when I attempt 8K in 32 minutes which is 4 min/km (which for the mathematicians amongst you is 40 minutes for the 10K).

Here's what I did during the week that was...

Monday – swim - club swim, in include intervals and drills
Tuesday – run - sprints, 50 press-ups and 40 sit-ups
Wednesday – rest
Thursday – rest, 50 press-ups and 41 sit-ups
Friday - bike - hard interval session, run - long, slow and easy
Saturday – run - 1200 metre intervals, 50 press-ups
Sunday - bike - hilly

I’m not the only one who has been enthused into a training frenzy by the Spring sunshine. The kids are as keen as ever to get on the running machine, spin bike and rowing machine in the gym. They are also trying to eat more healthily; something which is being ably assisted by their self-imposed chocolate ban for lent. And then there’s a couple of the guys (Peter and Dave) from the Old Thatch Cinema Society who are trying to get teams together for a couple of races during the coming season. The word is spreading!

This week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is not actually related to triathlon or the like. It is http://www.imdb.com/ which is where I look for write-ups about films I have watched/am about to watch. One film I watched this week - Hunger (a very depressing but brilliant film) - came out smelling of roses. Another - Marley and Me - did too. The third - The International - didn't quite rank as highly as the other two. I think I agree with all three reviews.

So it’s all looking good in the Bradley camp and I am happy to say that my End of Term Report is very pleasing with all targets met so far. I just hope that I don’t have a big off at Afan which will no doubt set me back at a time when I am just beginning to push myself harder. Full report next week.

Cheers.

C

I ain't no Silverback

Years ago, as an early 20-something, every Friday evening I used to go to the gym in Stopsley Sports Centre for some weight training, followed by a nice relaxing sauna, then all washed down with a curry at the local curry house in Luton. I never really enjoyed the weight training, however, and really only did it all for the sauna and curry.

Later, when I first started triathlon, I followed a computer-based training plan devised by Mike Pigg which linked in with my Polar watch. I specifically remember Pigg saying that weight training is not an essential part of a training plan. Just what I wanted to hear.

Recently, I read an interview with Queen Chrissie who said that she doesn’t bother with strength training either, apart from 50 press-ups daily. More justfication for me to stay away from the press-bench.

A silverback I ain’t, and I’m happy with that. I suspect, however, that many fellow triathletes disagree with the notion that weight training is of no use, but until I have proof that it does help then I am going to avoid the weights room.

I am, however, becoming increasingly more interested in the science behind exercise, which is why this week I volunteered to be a guinea pig for a friend of a friend who is undertaking a Masters in Sports Science. As part of this, he is writing a paper on ‘Nutrition in Endurance Events’ and my role will be to attend weekly sessions over a four week period which will involve cycling on a turbo trainer for 6 hours at a time, half at easy pace and half flat out. 6 hours on a turbo trainer! It all starts soon, and is actually timed at a perfect stage of my training schedule, so hopefully it will help me in the long term.

This week I also happened to come across a BBC programme entitled ‘The Secret Life of Your Body Clock’ and there were some very interesting points which I picked up on. The notion of 'Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper' was endorsed, but also significantly was the suggestion that the human body benefits most from physical exercise between the hours of 4pm and 6pm. This seems to bear out in my own experience of training whereby sessions always seem more effective when carried out early evening. Also, we shouldn't eat less than 3 hours before going to bed, and must try to get 8 hours sleep per night to enable the body to recover from training. Consumption of plenty of water is advisable too.

So, now that I am head-long into my spring training schedule I am taking on much of the advice given on the programme. I am trying to get to bed before 10pm, eating no later than 7pm, am drinking 2 litres of water per day and no coffee in the evenings. Together with a more balanced diet, I am hoping that all this will add great benefits to my overall training.

Dusted down the road bike this week and started up the interval sessions. I can’t wait to get the Planet X out of hibernation. Oh how I have missed her over the winter months.

More specifically, here's what I did in a very busy and great week of training.....

Monday – swim - club swim, in include intervals and drills
Tuesday – run - hard 5K time-trial - 21:44, second fastest ever (so the running plan must be doing some good!), 50 press-ups and 38 sit-ups
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 30 minutes at zero gradient, swim - 400m time-trial - 6:55 (happy to do sub 7 minutes given my lack of swim training)
Thursday – run - hard 7.65 Ashridge XC time-trial with Alex - 76 minutes (have done faster, but very windy and muddy, so very happy with time), 50 press-ups and 39 sit-ups
Friday - run/mountain bike/run brick session with Alex at Brickhill Woods, done as a race as hard as possible
Saturday – bike - hard interval session, run - 400 metre intervals
Sunday - rest

Next week sees the beginning of the end, and by that I mean the final 4 week segment of my 10K running plan. I also need to pick up again on the press-ups and sit-ups.

Congratulations last week to Mitten from my tri club who ran a very fast half-marathon PB of 1:44:44 at the Milton Keynes half. Her third PB of the year which must have something to do with the fact that she ALWAYS seems to be training! Well done Mitts.

It's about time that the Gold Coast World Championships appeared as the *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK*, so take a look at why I am doing all this silly triathlon stuff.

Am off to the gym now. That’s NOT David Lloyd, of course, but the gym next door in the garage. Going to do a turbo session – certainly not a 6 hour session though. Am not going to be pushing any weights, either, that’s for sure. Unless I can be convinced that it will benefit me – suggestions on a postcard please…..

Coach's Corner

Back in the hedonistic days of the early 90’s (or, as hedonistic as a trainee accountant can be!), I worked in the City for a firm called Neville Russell (now defunct).

Every lunchtime we would be taken by our Manager to a bar across the road called The Sir Paul Pindar in the newly built Broadgate Centre. We would spend at least 2 hours there and stagger out to sleep at our desks in the afternoon. I don’t know how we got away with it, but we did, and times were good.

Working in the City was an experience which I am glad I had but, eventually, I grew up and, more to the point, I was unable to keep up the pace. I passed my exams and decided to get a proper job and earn some money – actually, my proper job was to become a freelance tax consultant; a ‘job’ which I still do to this day.

Nowadays, I join up most Fridays with a few friends for early beers at the pub across the road from where I live – The Swan. No more evident is my current inability to keep up the pace than during my last couple of outings there. The first was on 1 February, following my month off the juice, and then again the Friday before last. On each occasion, I literally crawled home (just as well it is only 50 yards away) – a highly hazardous occupation given that it involves crossing a fairly busy road.

My drinking partners are also keen triathletes. Well when I say ‘keen’ I mean one is very keen, another is keen’ish and another used to be keen and is now trying to get back into it. They are Jev, Alex and Simon respectively. Then there’s a smattering of others who join in occasionally. No matter how committed they are, it’s always nice to train with them because we are all of different standards and can learn from each other.

In fact, it’s always nice to train with other people, no matter who they are. Which is why this week I booked myself onto a warm weather training camp in Italy in May – the Steve Trew training camp, to be precise.

Steve is a British coach with a great pedigree, having coached Olympic and Commonwealth teams. He is also first choice when it comes to TV commentators. I saw Steve at the TCR show a few weeks ago, and he came across as a really good coach and, just as importantly, a really nice guy. Then I came across an article on tri247 where Steve said that there were a few places left on his training camp in May. So, I had a look on my calendar and it so happens that the training camp is perfectly timed – a week after Grendon and a week before Milton Keynes – and £550.00 later and I’m in. I should be up to full speed (such that I won’t be left behind on the hills in Italy!) and it will give me a great week of fine-tuning ahead of MK.

This week I have trained almost entirely on a solitary basis. Pounding the streets of Edlesborough and surrounding villages at 6am, or midnight (yep, I’m still doing the midnight runs), or, as I did one evening this week, a short nighttime spin in complete darkness on my spin bike in the garage – with only the thumping of the 180bpm tunes on the ipod to keep me company. But, wowee, how refreshing it was. Pitch black, eyes wide closed, and off I went. Heart-out-of-the-chest stuff. Those sessions are precisely why I did the gym up in the garage. Enjoyed every single moment.

I wasn’t a complete Billy this week, though. I did do a thoroughly enjoyable MTB ride at Brickhill Woods (aka Apsley Woods, aka Woburn Trails) with Alex on Friday. Haven’t been out on the MTB for a while, and how I have missed it. We had a two lap race around the perimeter. Again, heart-out-the-chest stuff. I won (sorry Alex).

Here’s what else I did…..

Monday – rest
Tuesday – run - easy, to include 4000m at 4 min/km pace, 50 press-ups and 35 sit-ups
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 45 minutes at 2.0 gradient, run - hill repeats - hopping
Thursday – run - 800 metre intervals, 50 press-ups and 36 sit-ups
Friday - bike - mountain bike ride with Alex at Brickhill Woods
Saturday – run - easy, to include 4000m at 4 min/km pace, 50 press-ups and 37 sit-ups
Sunday - bike - spin in the garage

The coming week is the end of a four-week training block and is, thus, an easy week. Having said that, my running is coming on very well and so I am going to test out the Mike Trees’ (another top coach) sub-40 minute 10K plan which I have been following by running 5K at speed to see if I can beat my current PB.

Continuing this week's theme, this week’s *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Coach Mark Kleanthous’s website. Coincidentally, Mark is a coach about whom Steve Trew wrote on a tri247 article some while ago. Big congratulations to Mark whose website came third in 220's recent awards. Take a look for yourself and tell me you're not impressed.

Finally, a big fat pat on the back for my daughter Emily who was chosen to represent her music school on piano at this weekend's Milton Keynes Music Festival. The standard of musicians on show was outstanding and I was so, so proud to see her up there playing with them, on the Grand Piano, taking it all in her stride. Obviously nervous, Emily played her heart out and enjoyed every moment. I am so looking forward to seeing her at the Albert Hall in years to come!!! Well done, Em. x

Cheers.

Colin

Up yours, Mr Lloyd

I know she has her critics, but I think the whole Jade Goody cancer issue is very sad.

I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to be told you have an incurable disease from which you WILL die within months, maybe weeks. And I know there are people who feel she shouldn't publicise her plight, but I can’t see any harm in it; moreover, it is reported that the number of cervical smear tests being carried out since her contracting cancer has increased substantially, and if this is in part due to the publicity from Jade then surely that can only be good, cant it?

The big C word struck a couple of colleagues of mine with fatal consequences about 7 years ago now. David Graham and Colin Pilgrem, two very strong and successful businessmen who I worked with, were both struck with liver cancer around the same time as each other. Neither survived 6 weeks after diagnosis. Their deaths were very shocking and I often think about them.

Colin Pilgrem was an accountant for whom I carried out tax consultancy. The day he was diagnosed with cancer he called me into his office to ask that I take over his clients. Of course I agreed, but that was the last time I ever saw him. I kept in touch with his family, but eventually they moved away from the area and we haven’t spoken much for a year or so.

This weekend I have been clearing out my garage of all the papers and general household rubbish which has accumulated over the years. Amongst the papers were some out-of-date documents for Colin’s clients (when I say out of date I mean papers which are older than 6 years). I found myself sitting down with these and reading through them (nothing like a bit of light reading about the tax consequences of offshore trusts to brighten the day!). This took me back to the days when Colin and I were working together, and it all seemed like it all happened yesterday. The big C is a nasty, nasty thing.

On a lighter note, I also found papers which really, REALLY, took me back. There’s a letter I found from a girl from college named Sally (that’s the feature photo this week). I can’t remember who she is, but she obviously wasn't my girlfriend because she's going on about some boy she's met. There’s my Best Man’s speech notes from my brother’s wedding when I was a nervous 18 year old. I certainly DO remember that day. Then there's some pictures of a day I spent at Silverstone when I was an avid MG owner. Here’s me and my lovely MG Midget (circa 1987) ready for the off on the driveway at home...



It was a hard job throwing out papers which hold so many happy memories, so I ended up keeping most and hiding them away in a couple of filing cabinets. No doubt they will resurface in another 20 years or so to treat me once again to all those fantastic memories.

Garage cleared, and now it's full of gym equipment - treadmill (courtesy of Maurice from my tri club), weights bench (courtesy of Maurice from my tri club), spin bike (courtesy of Towell from tri talk), rowing machine, turbo trainer, TV, DVD, blah blah blah. All this in response to my resignation from the USELESS DAVID LLOYD GYM IN LUTON. Today I took the kids for a crash (not literally) course around it and they loved it. Maybe triathletes of the future? I should take a photo of them and file it away to uncover it in years to come to remind me of how they looked as young teenagers back in the year 2009! Now that would be worth waiting for, for sure.

Did a bit of training this week, but was still recovering from last week’s cold, so training was on a 'when I feel Ok' basis. Here you go.....

Monday – run - hill repeats - hopping, 50 press-ups and 30 sit-ups
Tuesday – rest, 50 press-ups and 31 sit-ups (can you see a pattern developing?!?!)
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 45 minutes at 1.5 gradient
Thursday – rest, 50 press-ups and 32 sit-ups
Friday - rest, 50 press-ups and 33 sit-ups
Saturday – run - hill repeats - hopping
Sunday – run - 800 metre intervals, 50 press-ups and 34 sit-ups

Next week I am determined to make use of the gym in the garage, and also get back on track with the running plan.

In the meantime, here’s this week’s *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* (see side bar for websites from previous weeks) - http://www.podrunner.com/. It’s a site full of House and Dance music which you can run to at specific stride rates. Downloadable to your computer or your ipod. I am trying to develop a run stride rate pattern of 180 strides per minute and so podrunner has become a valuable resource of music to me. I have a secret passion for House music, and also love running to music, so it's a bit of a double whammy for me. Try it out for yourself. Fantastic, inspirational stuff.

Until next week, happy training.

Cheers.

C

A Work in Progress

I have just returned from what must be one of the most enjoyable runs ever so I just had to start my blog early this week.

Following this, I had the idea, for this week only, to log my thoughts on a daily basis, rather like a Work in Progress, so here goes.....

Monday: club swim - a very hard 55 minute interval session. I turned up late and had to skip the warm-up, so it ended up being an all-out eye-balling session. As usual, I was hanging off the feet of the guy in front of me for most of the session.

Tuesday: run - 40 minute steady run, to include 4000 metres at 4 km/min pace. This is sub-40 minute 10K pace and well above my comfort zone. Still some way to go for sub-40 10K.

Wednesday: run/spin/run - 25 minute easy treadmill run at gradient level 1, followed by an all-out eye-balling spin session (wow...those spin sessions are great fun!), followed by another 25 minute easy treadmill run at gradient level 1.

Thursday: today, lost myself in THAT run back from the garage. Totally unstructered, which makes a very pleasant change from all the serious runs I keep find myself doing. Finding places 5 minutes from where I live which I never knew about is a very enlightening experience.



Friday: today, a thoroughly enjoyable 25 mile road bike with Jev. To the tea rooms in Stewkley than back again. The back again bit was a bit slower because of the king size lasagne I gobbled down, preceded by a queen size soup and prince size coffee. Single gear.



Saturday: no training today. Two reasons - have come down with a cold and also was out on the beer the previous night. A heavy session which has wiped me out for the day completely.

Sunday: no training today again. Still got the cold.

Another Work in Progress is a website I recently discovered from tritalk -http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/. Very much in its its early stages but I think it has a lot of potential for those lonely nights on the turbo trainer. So, there you go, this week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK*!!! Might make this a regular feature, so watch this space.

Finally, an amusing story following last weeks TCR show which I picked up from 220 online (reference the picture up top). I am amazed that such shananigans go on in this sport. A similar thing happened to my mate Simon a few years ago at The Big Half where he had the dubious pleasure of having his custom fit Snugg wetsuit nicked from transition. Simon will be the first to admit that he doesn't share the same physique as the stereotypical triathlete so it would have been interesting seeing the thief trying to offload the wetsuit down his local pub....

More next week. Have a good one.

C

Mr Angry from Northall...

Do you remember the BBC Radio 2 show 'Steve Wright in the Afternoon'?

I was an avid listener, and of constant amusement for me were his characters who regularly 'phoned in' to the show. There was Linda Lust, Sid the Manager, Mr Paranoid and, of course, Mr Angry who was, for me, the most memorable. This guy would phone in and just spout off angry moan after angry moan. He would always end with the line "it makes me so angry I could throw the phone down".

I felt like throwing the phone down this week during a telephone conversation I had with the hopelessly hopeless membership department with my gym - David Lloyd in Luton. I shall repeat that - the hopelessly hopeless David Lloyd gym in Luton.

I won't bore you with all the details, but I currently have a dual adult membership and wanted to change one of those adults to a child membership (for my daughter Emily who is really keen to start at the gym). The only way of doing this, "apparently", is for the adult to resign and the child to join.

And therein lies the issue. There is a 3 month notice period for the adult resignation, and also a joining on fee for the new child member. So, I asked if they wouldn't mind simply changing the adult to the child membership with immediate effect, without the need to resign and re-join as a child. OK, I know that would mean bending the rules, but in these times of recession and high competition between gyms, I figured that if they valued my business they would agree to my request. I have been a member for around 10 years and I thought this would be a nice way of repaying my loyalty.

But oh how wrong I was. Apparently, this wouldn't be "fair" for the other members who resign and who have to go through the 3 month notice period. They couldn't see that I wasn't resigning and so they weren't comparing like for like. Neither could they see that they stood the risk of losing me as a member entirely if they couldn't end the rules slightly - something which I did explain to them.

So, in one single telephone conversation they turned one very happy member into a resigning member, and now I am seeing out my 3 month notice period whilst currently looking at joining a new gym, of which there are plenty locally and also all are less expensive.

The cost to David Lloyd will be substantial - I spend at least £200.00 per month (in membership fees and in the cafe) and, as a very active person, was fully intending to be a permanent member. Add that to the fact that I now have a personal goal of warning everyone I talk to off of joining their gyms, then the cost to them could be tens of thousands of pounds over the years. Ah well, their loss and my gain - with the saving I shall be subscribing to Sky+ HD, so the kids are very happy with the result (except Emily, but I shall be joining her up to the new gym).

Another source of great frustration this week was the continuing arctic weather. Cycling and running is impossible, and so all I have managed to get done is a couple of gym sessions. As a result of this, I have decided to stretch last week's running schedule over to the coming week, instead of trying to catch up and cram two weeks training into one, thus running the risk of injury with over-training. Having said that, a quick peak out the window and I see it is snowing again. Doh!

On the plus side, I attended a very beneficial TCR show on Saturday. I didn't get any shopping done because I spent most of the day listening to some very worthwhile seminars. The first was a presentation by the great Joe Friel who spoke about perdiodisation. This came at a very appropriate time of my training and so I think I am going to brush down my copy of Joe's book 'The Triathlete's Training Bible' and have a read.

Then there was a talk by Steve Trew on the mind of a triathlete. Some very, very useful tips by one of the UK's most experienced and respected coaches, and I can see how many of those can be incorporated into my training and racing.

Next there was the highlight of my day - a Q and A session with Chrissie Wellington. There I sat, no more than 7 feet away from Queen Chrissie, starry eyed and totally absorbed by her amazing attitude towards the sport and to life in general. She is a born winner. So tremendously focussed, and it is easy to see why she is the world's greatest female athlete IMHO.

Back in the pool for some concentrated swim sessions this week. I have neglected the swimming a bit recently, in favour of running and cycling (in that order), so I think I need to get in the pool more often. This starts with a hard club session Monday evening. If I don't put on the trunks more often than I have done recently I will end up like Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros. If you don't know who he was, or what was his claim to fame, then Google him. You'll see what I mean.

Until next week, C