Yesterday I went to help out with Tavistock childrens Tri Club Zest, The clubs got a fantastic atmosphere and (I hope) everyone enjoyed my sessions. We did an hour in the pool without the lane ropes practising some open water skills and succesfully avoiding any major collisions then 45 minutes of running drills and relays where my lack of sprinting speed was well and truly shown up. Thanks for having me along guys…It was a really fun morning and I wish you all the best with your training and racing.    

Its been a little while since my last update. Winter has arrived in Tavistock, For the first time this morning I had to scrape the Ice off the car before heading to circuits. It’s really nice to be back into a winter routine, I’m plugging away with the miles and really enjoying the big run sets with Tavi AC on a Tuesdsy and Thursday along with the Burrator long run on a Saturday morning.  I’ve got some cross countries coming up and might even try a 3km on the track next week if i’m feeling adventurous. There isn’t alot of speed at the moment, but it’s all about consistency and i’m certainly getting strong as Jo Hinde always used to say back in by Bath days “winter miles summer smiles”

On the coaching front I’m off to Loughborough next weekend for the last installment of my Level 3 coaching course, then the following weekend Driven to Tri have a run training day at Bath University (a couple of spaces still available). I’m going to head home and see my Parents after the day in Bath so i’m plannng to pop into the tri expo at the BIC in Bournemouth on the 24th of November. I now only have one space for one to one coaching still available.

Last but not least I put on my talent ID hat last week and went to the South West Schools Biathlon Championships at Millfield. There are some great talents about and it was brilliant to see over 300 youngsters competing over the swim, run and really enjoying themselves. All they have to do now is add in some biking and take out the 3 hour break inbetween the discplines!!!    

Last Friday I headed up to the Bike show at Earls Court. All the manufacturers were showing off their new offerings for the 2008 season, and as a man without a bike sponsor I was very keen to have a look around. There are some very shiney machines coming out next year!!

I also had a go at the Jim Walker Duathlon challenge on the computrainer and treadmill. I had a go in the first wave of the day. I wasn’t around to see the full results but I believe Richard Stannard had a go at the end of the afternoon and just pipped me for fastest time of the day. As you can see from the pictures it was a good way to work up a sweat.

I also caught up with Barney from Sundog and Wraice who sorted me out with a couple of very cool pairs of shades…Thanks Barney!!

On the Saturday I headed on to Paul Newsome’s Windsor Swim Smooth training day, to offer a bit of advice. Picture of the coaching team below.

Sunday was back to work with the first round of the Westward League Cross Country in Redruth. A tough course and a very high quality field, but as always great fun and the perfect way to get strong over the winter. I’m really enjoying being back into winter training getting the miles and the circuit sessions in with the guys at Kelly College and keeping warm on the long runs in some really funky new Brooks kit.

Some more pics below    Read the rest of this entry »

The Relay champs are  a big deal in France. More than 300 teams race in a team time trial format over a sprint distance course. 5 athletes start together and the slowest swimmer gets pushed around the course, out onto the bike its a five up time trial then on the run the finish time is taken from the 3rd athlete across the line so athletes four and five get dropped whilst number three gets pushed, its fast and its painfull and its great to watch.

We were 9th overall beating 5 teams from the 1st division and all the other teams from divison 2, basically ESMGO did some giant slaying!!! 

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I’ve spent this morning playing about with some footage of me doing swim drills. This is eventually going to turn into a stroke technique video for some of my age group athletes. For the moment i’m quite excited about my dj skills so I thought I’d let you have a look.