End of season rest and relaxation (well sort of!)

2013 season done and dusted!

“Take a break, don’t train, eat what you want, do what you want” 

These were Lou's instructions for the 4 weeks post London World Triathlon Championships.

What joy! The snooze button on the alarm clock got a breather from the usual 6.01am thumping it receives.The omelette pan was left dormant as the oven received it’s first pizza to cook in a while, the hoover even got an outing in my bedroom. Four weeks away from the routine of train, eat, work, eat, train, sleep was a beautiful experience. When you have 4 weeks off the normal training routine, what do you do?

In no particular order of significance

Lend a hand to my parents and brother who have all moved houses in recent weeks. I had not realised the multitude of skills needed for house removal service; reassembling washing machine, cleaning previous owners dog hairs from behind every kitchen unit possible, rewiring electrical cables, squeezing sofa’s up stairs, and impossibly narrow gaps, packing and unpacking, it's like giant game of tetris!

“As well as grades, our task is to prepare pupils for life beyond Thornhill, to be decent civilised human beings, if we don’t achieve that, we have failed” Jonny Mitchell, Headteacher

As someone who rarely sits on the sofa, yet alone turns the TV on, it has been a pleasure to watch Educating Yorkshire. As an employee of Education Charity Teach First, the pupils at Thornhill are typical of the fantastic youngsters we work with  across the country.

Jonny Mitchell, the HeadTeacher impressed me deeply with his individual approach to each child and focus on wellbeing. Who saw the final episode with Musharaf? I definetely had a tear in my eye and lump in throat when Musharaf took his English GCSE speaking assessment. Watching how the power of listening to music helped him speak fluently, overcoming his stammer. If you didn't see it, you can see it here

So much of a child's success is due to the care and attention of their teachers, believing in them and never giving up on them. This was strongly exemplified by Mr Burton. 

Victoria Beckham’s Autobiography “Learning to fly” proved to be a surprisingly great read. “If success is about talent and hard work, you Victoria are going to have to work very very hard” Victoria recalls her childhood dance teacher telling her. And hard graft is exactly what this incredible lady displays in bucket loads. As someone who grew up with the Spice girls phenomena, I knew sporty, posh, scary, ginger and baby as "girl power". The book reveals a lot about their success and Victoria's life with David Beckham and the ferocious media attention. I have nothing but admiration for Victoria Beckham following reading this book.

In contrast "The social animal" by David Brooks is currently keeping me busy, a fantastic book and one that really makes you think. Highly recommend it. Thanks kathz for putting it on my radar. 

Weekend breaks, what do these words conjure? Long lie in's? romantic meals? cosy hotels? lazy days by a wood burning fire? long pub lunches? Sounds amazing, so me and Adam embarked on our first weekend break (that didn't include a race!) Friday night; me, Adam, the Micra, two mountain bikes and a bit of Lycra trundled up the A1 to Askrigg, a small village in the North Yorkshire Dales. So one could say our weekend break didn't really follow the norm and "lazy days by a wood burning fire" didn't really apply! But we had a lot of fun.

We got some stunning Mountain Biking in, the Howgill fells providing some great descents...

and some pretty steep ascents!

but we were rewarded with some absolutely cracking views

the guide book did say "slightly overgrown"

We left on Friday night in a car, we arrived back on Monday on the train, on bikes with no car key, house key, wallet or phone! Lesson 1) It's best to keep the car key in a zipped pocket! 2) When in a spot of bother, local people will always look after you, though eating dinner in the pub in lycra and arriving down for breakfast the next day in the same lycra and everyone knowing we were locked out of our car having lost the key on the fells was slightly embarrassing!

                            Train journey back to Leeds to retrieve the spare car key (somehow hoping to get into the house without the house key....thanks Sam for coming to the rescue!)

 The note Adam found on the car when he arrived with the spare key....!!

Some R&R has been had, some different sports have been enjoyed and I have been trying to fix my niggling right Achilles that restricted my running at the end of the season. Big shout out to Sarah Pitts, who has been doing a great job explaining mobility and working her magic on my aches and pains. If your in Leeds and you have a niggle go see Sarah, you won't regret it. http://sarahjpitts.co.uk/ 

I guess it's time to crack on with the new season training, unpack the thermals, bike lights and woolly gloves for some winter fun!

Bish Bash Bosh London hosts a cracking World Champs

In no particular order, things I learnt during the World Triathlon Championships.

1)    You cannot ride a Boris bike between midnight and 6am. Health and safety must have recognised drunks + bikes= not good combo!

2)   If said Boris Bike is unavailable and you were relying on it to get to a race, at a very early time of day, transport options are limited! Jumping on the back of another bike can be a stellar answer, not so stellar for the riders legs!

3)   Aero helmets are not standard cycle wear, especially cycling down Oxford street.

4)   Oxford Street is not ideal for cycling.

5)   Oxford Street is not ideal for anything, unless you like queues and traffic jams!

6)   You can get around extortionate London Hotel prices by staying in University accommodation, a breakfast fit for a king and a ping pong table, basically an all inclusive resort!

7)   1000s of supporters in Hyde park create an incredible about of noise and support- especially if you are wearing a GB tri suit and have your name plastered across your bum.

8)   If you decided to run Park Run the day before an event as a warm up , you should probably tell the organisers  that you plan to stop after 4km, potential to mess up the result of every runner behind you is very high!

9)   The best deli near Hyde Park can be found in Mayfair, next to the furry Ferrari! Seriously people in Mayfair have furry cars!

10) Only when your bike shoe falls off as your attempting to jump on your bike in T1 you realise you should have done a bit more transition practice! But, you do help add amusement to “carnage corner” as the mount/dismount area became known!

16^th/ 77 in 25-29 age group at World Triathlon Championships. Hoping for a top 10 but on reflection the standard this year was considerably higher than previous years, so places maybe don’t give a true reflection of performance.  This is how the break down looks and a comparison to the winners time.

	My time	Winners time	difference between winner time and my time
Swim (shortened to 750m due to water temperature)	12.00	11.20	40seconds
Bike 40km	1.08	1.05	3mins
Run 10km	39.51	35.54	4mins
Total	2.06.27	1.58.27	8mins

I gave it everything in the race, the athletes that beat me, were better than me on that day, fair enough. The fields were full of classy athletes, incredible to see so many age group athletes recording faster bike and run splits than those in the elite race!

Nice to be able to travel to a championship, on the train with your bike and backpack

Lifts were a little tricky to negotiate, especially when your room was on the 8th floor!

A huge thanks to everyone who came to support, I heard your voices loud and clear and when the legs started to tire in the last few kilometres your yells of encouragement helped me keep pushing onwards. Tanner, Drew, Team DB Sam a big thank you and great to catch up post race, Bex and Herne Hill massif, You truly have  fog horn voices! loud and clear I heard you on the bridge! Alison thanks for the yell and Seonaid your shout of “This is what you train for” on the last lap of the run really did help, cheers guys.

Bike Transition in the early hours, synonymous with race day, happy to not be doing this for a while

As they say, that’s a wrap, the 2013 season is all over. Time to rest my weary body and mind and think about the 2014 season.

Good luck to anyone still racing and for everyone who has finished their season have a well deserved break.

11 days until the World Championships!

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

-Steve Prefonataine

Auckland Oct 21st 2012, The World Triathlon Championships took place. In 11 days the annual World Triathlon Championships returns for 2013. This time in London on last year’s Olympic course in Hyde Park. 

Auckland was my 1^st experience of a World Triathlon Championships, an incredible experience. I finished in 18^th place in the 25-29 age group and 3^rd British athlete. A result that has motivated and propelled me for the last year, through snow; freezing temperatures, numb toes, early morning swims, abstaining from eating my favourite treats, distinct lack of booze and constant washing of smelly training kit.

Since Auckland this is what has happened….

• 292 days of training
• 274 hours on the bike
• 154 hours of early morning swim sessions
• 18 races from muddy cross country to road races, crit races, duathlons and triathlons, all over the country in all types of conditions from snow to heat waves.
• 7 ½ pairs of swim goggles (i can't help loosing/breaking them!)
• And a ridiculous number of omelettes eaten!

and in pictures….

A year ago in New Zealand...how time flies, the race, after party and a spot of bike touring to relax post race.

Training day after day, week after week in all weathers

All that training requires some fuel! Cafe stops are essential (only a few scones!)

All in an effort to be the best I can be for London in 11 days time, No pressure!

Am I ready? Yes I can honestly say I have consistently trained well since returning from a spot of bike touring in New Zealand, post last year’s World Champs. I honestly believe I have done everything possible to be as ready as possible. Last weekend I competed in the Club Relay Championships, in Nottingham, Leeds &Bradford Tri Club had a host of teams competing, our team finished a very creditable 5th in the mixed teams and my splits showed a year's training has paid off, in some areas more than others( i have done some bike training, honest!)

         

        2012 Club Relays                         2013 Club Relays

               9.29                   Swim:                 7.41 

               24.24                 Bike                   24.52

               20.19                  Run                    17.55

So the training is done,  I now just need to sort out when and how I will travel down to London, where I will stay and what the course is like, minor details…

A few pieces of final inspiration….

Diana Nyad becomesthe first swimmer to swim from Florida to Havana crossing the Florida Striats without a shark cage, her first attempt was in 1978, at the age of 64 she completes her dream!

The joy of running just shines through in this great video by Chris Connell highlighting the simple brilliance of Park Run.

Get ready for london! Great promo video to wet the appetite 

Good luck everyone competing for Team GB in London

Rock n Roll it's Race time!

Does your bathroom look like this?

If the answer's yes, I am guessing you too are in the depths of the triathlon season. How do triathletes amass so many swim hats? More importantly what do people do with all of them?

The last 6 weeks have been busy to say the least. Getting into the business end of the triathlon season and at Teach First the last 6 weeks have been the annual Summer Institute. A residential summer school for all the new teachers, the start of their teacher training. The final 2 weeks of which were in Warwick, over 1200 new teachers joined huge number of Staff in helping change the face of education in England and Wales. Keep an eye out for the TV documentary!

Sunday 14^th July was a scorcher of a day, British summer at it’s best and Liverpool Super Series, doubling up as the British Elite Sprint championships. What an atmosphere, well done Liverpool, you hosted a great event. Even with the jelly fish in the Albert Docks and making us swim non wetsuit, NON wetsuit, that’s like getting me to take my arm bands off!

 Good to see the Olympic transition stands getting recycled!

Second to last out the swim, well done Sam for making me feel a bit better by bringing up the rear! Myself and Sam worked together, head down, go go go, hard work paid off as we passed a fair few people. Onto the run and into the heat, good job I train in tropical Santa Cruz de Leeds, I was so prepared! 23^rd out of 36, a move up from my DNF in Windsor.  You can read Sam’s race report here, a lot more insightful than mine!

Next up, London Triathlon, Sun 28^th July. The final leg of the British Super Series and another opportunity at elite racing. Several Olympians, a large number of pro’s and another NON wetsuit swim, oh and another opportunity to prance around in lycra on TV.  Another superb event;  great atmosphere, great support and another big learning curve. Last out of the water, well someone has to be, toughed it out as a lone ranger on the bike, apparently it was a drafting race, who knew! Passed a few people on the bike and ran as hard as possible, finishing 20th out of 25.

Pre race stretching, I can touch my toes, honest! The excel centre makes a great venue and unique inside transition area.

So it’s been great to race elite in the Super Series after a rocky start at Windsor I have had a huge learning curve at Liverpool and London, which has wetted my appetite for more. Large crowds, TV camera’s, great atmosphere, it’s a real buzz. I now just need to learn to swim fast!

Jodie Stimpson winning the London Triathlon, classy athlete.

It’s back to some training, preparing for the World Championships, to be held on last summer’s Olympic Course in September. Training when the sun is shining is never a chore, just one big outdoor playground!

Enjoy watching the World Athletic Championships in Moscow, there is sure to be some FAST action! Enjoy the sunshine and good luck for all the races that are coming thick and fast!

The time I failed, in the River Thames!

"A defeat in competition is a positive thing if you really want to become a top athlete, you can’t become a good winner before you have learned to lose"

(Both quotes from Ingrid Christiansen, ex world record holder 30.13 for 10000m)

Some times things just don’t go as you had hoped!

In my working life as a coach to trainee teachers on Teach First Leadership programme we use a model of reflection to unpick an event or outcome that has occurred. I am going to use this model  of reflection to unpick a not such a great day at Windsor super series Triathlon.

The event

-          600m into the swim, I stopped, I quit. My lungs were bursting and I looked up to see the main pack disappearing.  I was treading water in the middle of the Thames, I swam to the bank,hauled myself out of the river, in front of a line of spectators and a TV camera filming for Channel 4. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, a low light in my short triathlon career.

The causes- why did this happen?

Why did I quit? I crumbled, I have never DNF (did not finish) a race before, so what went wrong?

-          I had been told before that the swim would have a cut off time of 22 minutes (including transition) so was obsessing about swimming fast. When I got dropped, I thought, "no draft, no chance of making the cut off" so stopped.

-          This was my first draft legal Olympic distance triathlon, I had over obsessed over the importance of getting  out of the swim with other people. Vital so I could be in a pack on the bike, so when I started getting dropped I forgot about being in the moment and instead fast forwarded to the bike and panicked.

     
- Physically my swim is weak, my lungs were bursting, I have only been swim training for 18 months, in comparison to many others who have been swimming for years, it makes sense I will be behind, I have less hours of practice.
        

-        I gave up, for someone who is often described “a tough lass, a real gritty athlete” I am not use to giving in. But I completely flaked, I had no energy to dig deep. Why? I was already mentally drained, only retrospectively have I realised this. In the lead up to the race my family had faced several challenges. I had travelled around the country supporting family through these hard times. Family comes first. So when things started getting tough, when I usually dig deep, I had nowhere to dig too, I was an empty well of reserves. Not good in a sport that involves endless determination and grit.

 It is a fine balancing act between 
success and failure. 

The main cause; My growth mindset deserted me.  I believed I was going to get pulled from the swim as I had been dropped from the pack and suddenly believed I wasn't going to be able to complete the swim in the required 22 minutes. I compared myself to others in the race, rather than focusing on myself and my own race. I stopped.

The solutions

-          This is my first ever DNF, since starting XC running as a 12 year old, so I know I am not completely mentally weak, I can push my body to the limit, I do often in training, but I have room for improvement but this isn't the main issue.

-    -     I need to improve my swimming, it is my achilles heel and by physically improving it will increase my confidence and make me less nervous about the swim section. I need to improve my technique through consistent purposeful practice. Continue with the "Survival Saturday" 2 hour early morning swims that are brutal but brilliant for improving swim fitness. 

-        -  Be kind to yourself; this is advice I have had on numerous occasions but tended to ignore,Training twice a day, working full time, supporting family, I was  drained, I forgot to take it easy.  I failed to adapt and take it easier when I had been busy. So I need to become more reflective about the bigger picture and when I need to chill out and take it easy I should do.

    -  I assumed I was ‘tough’. Never assume anything!   A growth mindset, is not a skill, it is a habit, a way of being, something I have talked about before here. It is a habit that need constantly building. So build i will. NB I have just read the book "The power of habit, why we do what we do and how to change" by Charles Duhigg fascinating reading and something I will write more about in future blogs.

The action plan- what this means in reality moving forwards;

     1)   I will  gather advice and set out a clear swim training program that will help me progress my swim. Consistent, purposeful swimming is the way to go, technique analysis and keeping at it. 

      2)  I will learn from the experience and the reality. Only one swimmer achieved the 22 minute swim time, but no one got pulled from the race. The bike pack didn't catch Hannah who was first out the water, so they weren't working that hard, so i would have had chance to catch them. It's a 3 discipline event, not a swim sprint! I will take this knowledge to my next race.

    3) I will chill out, it has been a busy few months,  when I feel tired I will adapt when necessary so I start races feeling fresh and ready to do battle!

So there you have it, what we at work  call a reflective cycle – the event (outcomes), the causes, the solutions and then the action plan.

BUT: Jump straight back in and have another go!

After moping around for a few days after Windsor, I decided to compete in the Dambuster triathlon. I have good memories as this is where I finished 2^nd in my age group last year and qualified for the World Champs in NZ. I also finished 2^nd in the Duathlon earlier this year. I wanted to erase the memory of Windsor asap so what better way than to jump straight into another race, the following week. The aim: have fun! It doubled as the English age group Championships and World Champs qualifier, but no pressure for me as my New Zealand performance had pre qualified me. And fun I had, chilled out, enjoyed, well as much as possible in the windy, choppy lake and I came away with 2^nd in my age group, 12 seconds off a national title and a 23 minute swim time. I am not a terrible swimmer after all! It was great to have my mum and brother cheering me on, not sure they appreciated the 5.30am start though! Just proves, tough races can make tougher racers. Well helps softies, get a little bit  tougher!

The pictures below show why you can not stay miserable for long in Yorkshire, it's just too beautiful not to jump on your bike and cycle in the playground that are the Yorkshire Dales!

Good luck for all your racing and training

Variety is the spice of life

Go on admit it, we all love a good motivational quote or two! When I go into visit the teachers I work with I enjoy looking at their classroom displays, many highlighting their own visions and those of their pupils.

I still receive the weekly email from my Loughborough athletics coach Bill each Sunday, standard format each week; starts with a well done/recent race results section, then the weekly training and finally a “something to think about” section. Which often includes some inspiring quotes from famous sporting/non sporting personalities. Here are a few of my favourites;

“It is impossible to be a winner without deep personal courage and hard effort.” Halie Gebrselassie

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot

“We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit” Aristotle

But personally even though I love the fighting words, war cries, chest pumped out, head held high about to do battle style inspirational words I also just love the simple “Let’s just chill out and just have fun!”.

This guy has the right idea, Chill out, enjoy.

The last few weeks can be summed up by phrases “Have fun” and “Variety is the Spice of Life”. Four races in the last two week are summarised in pictures.

Jack Bloor Fell race Tues 14^th May 

“Don’t worry suz, it’s only like a cross country race” Greg Hull, lying through his teeth…. But it was great fun! (Photos curtesy of Ian Furlong)

Yorkshire Cycle Road Championships,  Sun 19^th  May

Half way round lap 2 of penny pot circuit, my whole Left crank and pedal fell off…one legged circling it was until some kind supporters came to my rescue with an Allen key. Never had a DNF, didn’t want to start now, despite being 10 minutes down due to the mechanical. A group of guys lapped me, I hung on to their wheels and got dragged round the final lap, catching a few girls for 12^th and 4 points! Well worth not dropping out.

(Photos from British Cycling Photographers. Left the start, Right winning Lady Jessie Walker)

Alba Rosa Crit Races, Dishforth Sat 25^th May . 

Friday evening at 10pm I was round at Richards house getting my still dodgy left crank fixed! Never doubt the Gates mechanics, second time RG has fixed my bike at the 11^th hour! All I had left was several plates of sarnies to make for Alba Rosa food stall, race prep finished 1am sat morning. Great turn out of girls for the 1^st ever Alba Rosa Crit races, 3^rd for me and first prize money of the year and 10 points which means i move up a category, to Cat 3 status. Well done to Adam on completing his first race- two tired and happy cyclists and very successful day for ARCC.

Photo by Timmy Pinder

Wetherby Olympic distance Triathlon Mon 27^th May. 

Fuelled by Adam’s mum’s fantastic roast dinner and a spot of canoeing in Newark on the Sunday, I was ready for the 13 degree river! Great local race, lots of training partners in attendance and great support. 2^nd for me, behind the super speedy swimmer Jess Learnmonth (a name to watch). Photo by Simon Deakin

So quite a variety of races, keeps it interesting, fun and at £3 a race, fell races have got to be best value!

Enjoy whatever races and events you all have lined up in the coming weeks