Enjoy

Happy Christmas to everyone, I hope you have a great day and 2010 is a big success.

I am enjoying some more ‘pressure off time’.  I feel quite tired after the past 9/10 weeks so it’s nice to come back down from the volume and intensity that I was on.  Christmas came at a good time, although I’m sure that was part of the Master Plan.

The snow in England is crazy, It’s so beautiful to train in though, I feel like I am living in a ski resort! Not to mention, that I can’t go anywhere without doing a hand break turn!

Anyone who lives around Cambridge area, come and race the Boxing Day 4 mile run starting at Newnham Corner 10:30am.  It’s a cool race, flat as a pancake; out and back course, and it’s free to enter. I have won the trophy from the past 3 years, it’s a great marker for me.  Last year I went 19:30, this year I want to go under 19:00.  The trophy is over 55 years old, there are some quality old runs on it….Grenville Tuck, 18:38, back in 1974!  Before my career is out, I want to beat that, with technology these days how can’t we!?  Just goes to show, nothing beats hard work.

Don’t eat too much.

x

I’m rooming with Captain Slug Eyebrows, Aaron Harris again and so far its not been too bad.  Were not on the rocks yet and no real arguments! It is only day one however.

Spirits in the camp are really good, its the biggest camp British Triathlon have ever had with 27 athletes and probably up to 10 coaches and support staff coming and going.  Everyone seems to be enjoying it, training, eating and sleeping/practicing stupid dance moves (may try to get a few up)

The weather is good, its about 20′c When the sun is out however, when the sun is behind the mountains in the morning as I found out today…IT’S BLOODY FREEZING!

Training wise, Bike, Run and Swim.  I felt rubbish on the bike,I did it though which is what matters.  These day happen all the time!

I’m off to chase around some more young guns!

On Sunday night I received the terrible news that Pete Holmes, a very close friend of mine and a huge amount of other other people died by a fall while hiking in the mountains in Vancouver.

I first met Pete in one of my lectures (I say lectures, I mean running around hockey pitch). Typical to when you arrive at University, people try to get to know everyone and start friendship groups….Pistol was a more then approachable guy and mainly through our running connection we quickly became good friends.

He later started work for British Triathlon as the media officer. I and another lucky large group of people got to know Pete better and I think most of us will remember Pete for being extremely enthusiastic about his work but everyone will also agree that he did an incredible job for us hence he eventually ended up working for a larger organisation like the International Triathlon Union. Probably his dream job!  I tell you what though, Pete REALLY ENJOYED HIS WORK!

Pistol was a Loughborough legend, he had a huge amount of involvement in Loughborough Students Athletics Club and in whatever he could get stuck into really! He attended every social, had more interest in what everyone else was doing over himself and we shared many runs together around Loughborough and eventually all over the world.  I think the last real quality time we spent together was our ski trip in Les Deux Alpes 11 months ago. He was a bloody good skier but I think he spent more time helping everyone else learn rather then smashing up and down himself!

Thats the type of guy he was.  Loyal, very committed and hard working, Genuine and kind.  He will be missed by a hell of a lot of people thats for sure.

It’s so great to see everyone getting stuck into remembering the great man.  With a remembrance Facebook Group with more then 1000 people after not even 2 days and a University Run organised (Sunday Surgery Run, 11am Loughborough HiPAC)  Thats just goes to show the effect he had on us up here.

Rest in Peace matey.

Will

It’s quite different being coached by Ben Bright, things feel very under control, not one day is particularly huge, however each week is decent and has a perfect combination of quality and steady training.  It means I am training very consistently.  Not like the old days where I would do a HUGE week, a medium week and a week where I crack!

At this stage, it’s working. I am definitely in much better shape then I usually am which is exciting for me…and new! I did a lab test on the bike and it shows a better test then April last year which is great for me because I haven’t even been riding much. Running wise, I am really enjoying it right now, and running fast!  I have been banging out regular sessions with both my squad and also the Loughborough Athletics Squad on the track, the times are very good for this time of year.  It is a good thing because I have strict target times to achieve in the UK Intercounties Cross Country and also a 10k I will be targeting later this year before we start racing triathlons.  Swimming I’m afraid is swimming…it never really gets any better! Been swimming the same since I was 15!

Up next I have another week of ’smashing it’ although I am beginning to crack, todays swim was fairly pathetic! We had a few easy days before we fly off to Antequerra in Spain for a 8day National Squad Camp.  I think there will be 25+ of us! A lot of new faces as well which will very motivating.  The aim…to get the more hours in the legs then Alistair!

Then Xmas, the usual then, lose all swimming fitness because the pools close for a week! I also have a few races plotted.  The Boxing day 4mile where I want to try to run under 19 mins. (last year 19:30) and New Years Eve 10k a bit later.

In early Jan, were off to Club La Santa, Lanzarote.  Joined with Helen and Marc Jenkins, Richard Stannard, Nick Beer and Conor Murphy for 2 weeks, should be great, although not sure what 2 weeks in La Santa will feel like!

Cheers Gang!

p.s. Found some cool shots from 07, good memories…Olympic Games, what a F%$K up, the leanest I have ever been.  I like to think it will be the best thing that ever happened to me and I have learnt a lot since then…we will see in 2010!

I think they both had mixed build ups but they did a great job, and not a nice event to suffer through!

Im sure Frasers website will have a proper race report up soon.

Dann B, had a great swim and ride but lacked a bit of conditioning on the run, watch out for him next year;)

One think that really annoys me about Triathlon is the amount of World Championships there are about and in-fact, the amount of races there are in the World.  It’s crazy how many top level races there are kicking about.

I would love to see one World Championships and the guy who wins it, is THE World Triathlon Champion!  I think its got way too carried away to the point now where we have, Ironman World Championships, ITU World Championships, Aquathlon World Championships, Biathlon World Championships, 70.3 World Championships, Long Course World Championships, Team World Championships (Isn’t that basically 70.3? Why is it slap bang in between Hawaii and Clearwater?) Shall we include Duathlon World Championships and Winter Triathlon World Champs?

How many Triathlon World Champions do you want?

Triathlon has become so spread out and diluted, to the point of who really cares who is the World Champion!  In one year, how many people can claim to be the World Champion? Lots!

What motivates me is being the best Triathlete in the World, what happens when/if you get there? I don’t know ask Alistair, my guess is not as much respect/attention as he should probably deserve…he’s surely going to struggle at Sports Personality of the year, probably partly because his status has been diluted down by all the other Triathlon World Championships and Champions around him, if he was the only World Champion then he would be so much more in the eye of the public.

We constantly have Craig Alexander pissing on Alistair Brownlee’s bonfire, Crissie Wellington pissing on Helen Jenkins’ Bonfire, you can go on like this all day!…Who is the best Triathlete out there? There will be constant arguments! There seems to be an event to suit anyone everyone and no matter how great you are you certainly can’t do them all, and some of them are within two weeks!

I don’t think it helps the credibility of the sport, I personally to be honest wouldn’t care which distance stays and which goes, maybe Ironman is the best as its the original distance? Although if you want the best guys in the world going head to head it should be in the Olympics and the IOC won’t be wanting a 8-10hr event, there certainly won’t be many exciting sprint finishes!

Imagine what an incredible event Worlds would be if there was just one of them.

I have been cracking in the miles running doing a fair bit with Adam Bowden or Ryan Mcleod.  Guys who are quicker which is nice! Certainly pushes you on.  We had a fun run at the weekend, a clean 2hrs and 28k’s, Deano led the way and it was an interesting route to say the least!  I did the last 30mins with Lola and was able to push on, the poor dog got dropped so that was a nice confidence booster!

The swimming and biking have also been ramping up and the winter is shaping up nicely.

Here are some pics from the past week.

One of our new sessions in the lab, I am riding with Aaron Harris on a treadmill that goes up to 15% and 60KPH

Lola watching over the Boardman.  She likes to give high5’s

With JD for a Retul session in Milton Keynes, bike set up

The last bit especially was a good, we had lots of fireworks.  It got a big boring towards the end so we began sending various items up in the sky with it…like a slice of bread:)