Posts Tagged 'Richard'

June 2012 Race Roundup

Published 24 June, 2012 Events , News Closed
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As usual I am slow to update my blog with race updates, fortunately people’s race times are much faste. the following is some great results for June.

Switzerland 70.3 Parys finished a credible 4th in age and bagging a slot to Vegas 70.3 in the process. Not sure if the credible part was starting the race ill and then declaring the race as some of the darkest moments ever experienced in a race, a lesson learnt is to never race when unwell ever again!

Ironman Regensburg, Richard took on his maiden Ironman and literally hit every target we had set finishing with a sub 11hour (10:54), a superb effort and definite evidence of you reap what you sow (training) on race day. Richard had trained methodically and diligently over the last 8 months for this with a brilliant result

UK 70.3, rated as the toughest 70.3 on the circuit Em and Chris took this race on. Em’s goal was a slot to Vegas 70.3 and having spent a fair amount of time unwell, this was a case of being the first major hit out for the season (definitely not what was planned). Em was absolutely on fire and not only claimed a spot for Vegas 70.3 but took out 2nd place in age too, absolutely ecstatic and can’t wait to see her race with an uninterrupted block of training. Chris’s goal was quality race time in preparation for Ironman UK having only completed the London Marathon some 6 or 7 weeks prior. Chris ran a good steady race as planned and finished 8th in age showing that we are progressing well to Ironman UK

TriStar 111 a last minute race slot saw Stuart head over to France for TriStar 111 Deauville for a spot of race practice, looking at the race and current training decided it was a chance to really nail the run, achieving 14th in age group and one of the faster run splits in the age group.

Awesome training and racing everyone looking forward to the next batch of results

Races Update

Published 28 July, 2010 Events Closed
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The Race season in the Northern Hemisphere is in full swing and I have been a little lax in updating progress of the team (too busy prescribing the training). I have also re commenced training the South West pod in Sydney for Can Too for the Blackmores running festival, we will always welcome more people if you want to train, we meet on Wednesday nights in Liverpool and Saturday mornings in Georges Hall.

Due to my delay in updating results below is a summary of recent performances

Eleanor, had a good start to the season with Thames Turbo sprint 1 posting a pb by 3 minutes and has dabbled in a few cycling events, most notably a 50mile TT, where she was second female overall

Ellen, recently competed in the UK middle distance champs at Bala, however treating this as a training racing looking to her full distance tri. It was a good result also considering that for many of the competitors this was a major race on their calendar. What was most impressive was that Ellen posted the fastest run time of the day for females and the 22nd fastest run time overall.

Jackie, raced Liverpool standard distance, posting a 9th in her age and a swimming PB she is aiming for faster times over the coming months

John, after being plagued by injury for a few months, but with the help of some medical advancements in treating Achilles problems, was able to race Austria 70.3, achieving a PB and raced Royal Windsor standard distance achieving a pb of 13minutes. I think one of Johns goals for the remainder of this year is to stay injury free and be able to race fully fit.

Parys, raced her first middle distance tri in Switzerland 70.3, coming 9th in her age. A great result for the first attempt.

Richard, also raced Austria 70.3, carrying a slight strain to the hamstring was given the all clear to race conservatively and managed to achieve a PB, narrowly missing out on sub 5hrs.

Simon, raced the Dambuster standard distance tri. A pleasing performance almost attainging a PB, with a blistering run on what is not considered to be a fast course and is looking forward to the ETU champs in Athlone. Simon also competed in the Crystal Palace sprint Tri, improving on last years time by 1 minute and coming 2nd vet.

Tamsin, raced Switzerland 70.3, coming 11th in her age, but more importantly improved by a massive 30minutes on last year, well done.

It is always pleasing when people race to their potential, with most of the team improving at every race and showing signs of improvements for the remainder of the season.

UK Ironman on 11 weeks Training

Published 12 August, 2009 Ironman , News 1 Comment
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11 weeks training for an Ironman? This must sound crazy or impossible.

For most age groupers an Ironman race is generally the result of at least 9 – 12 months of meticulous training, preparation and planning. You can imagine my surprise when I was contacted by an athlete to see if I would coach them just over 11 weeks from race day. I discussed this request with Richard who had only entered this event 3 weeks earlier and had not completed much training over winter, oh and did I mention that in the middle of this he is getting married with a 3 week honeymoon. I placed general caveats on what can be achieved over such a short period of time and agreed to write a plan for Richard with the view of getting him around the course, i.e finishing, the time was irrelevant.

So I got about planning and Richard got about training and threw himself into the deep end. I can definitely say that I spent a lot of time worrying if this was attainable over such a short period of time and I was not the one racing. What I did remind myself was that Richard was taking an opportunity to partake in an Ironman and fulfill a sporting ambition and I am a firm believer that when an opportunity knocks you take it.  The Ironman plan for my first race was only 16 weeks, I took an opportunity that whilst seemed crazy at the time, I finished it and have gone on to compete in many Ironman events and getting great enjoyment of this wonderful sport and event of Ironman. I wonder if I had not taken the first opportunity if I would have ever plunged into an Ironman. I was therefore happy with knowing that this is what Richard was doing, so as he continued training I monitored his progress and provided a weekly plan for him.

One aspect of coaching is not just issuing a plan but communicating with each athlete and we have had numerous emails, phone calls and skype video sessions as part of the plan.

Whilst I would have liked to be in Bolton in person, I was at home watching the results unfold online. After my last discussion with Richard prior to the race, we agreed he was in good physical and mental shape to get around the course and a time in the 13 hours would be a good result.

I was overjoyed as the times came through, swim was bang on target, the bike was a good 20 minutes quicker than the goal and then the run and whilst running is his strongest discipline, given this was his first marathon we set a target of 4 hours. Richard kept a strong steady pace for the entire run and despite stomach cramps, completed this leg in just over 3:40.  A very respectable first marathon time and at the back end of an Ironman is even more impressive.

So as you can tell Richard has exceeded his initial goal with an overall time of 12:08 finishing in the top 25% of the field. Richard is extremely happy with his overall time as am I. I am still trying to work out when we crossed the line from just getting around and finishing to posting a competitive and very respectful time. The big question now is, having taken an opportunity to complete an Ironman, will he be content to stop at one?

Well done Richard.


“If you are comfortable with your training regime then you should be concerned. You can only make the big gains by being out of your comfort zone.”
- Me

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