The 24:7 triathlete

27/08/2024

Gemma has been on a long journey. In 2019 she did “her only” long-distance race, Austria finishing in 13hrs 4 min so decided she needed to get under the 13hrs so entered a 2020 race. As she couldn’t do that one she did her local long distance Ironbourne in 2021 getting a 12:41. I thought that was job done for her as she turned to her passion, duathlon, and has done very well at it. She stopped swimming and everything.
But the little mental ni**le of getting sub 13 in an Ironman branded event wouldn’t go away so she entered Tallin with the instruction she needed to swim for 6 months before the race otherwise she would scupper her chance of 12:59:59.
Fast forwards to race week and she found out she was going to have to swim in the sea, not a lake, and she was going to have to jump in off a pontoon. As a coach, I know that these little things can massively derail an athlete but her trying felt like it had led up to that point as Ironbourne had been weeks of mental wrestling due to having to jump in from the scary pier, which was much higher than Tallin and she had managed that so just a bit of centring needed to realise that whilst she had trained for worse, it was probably freaking everyone else out much more.
Turning a 1:42 swim, a 6:24 bike and a 4:42 run = total 13:04 into a 12:59:59 felt easy knowing what she had been doing in training but even knowing she was capable of 1:30, 6:00 & 4:00 (plus about 20 min of transitions) didn’t convince her she was going to get sub 13.
The race wasn’t easy.
1:31 in very choppy seas (on 6 month swim training)
40mph winds and still did a 6:07 on the bike (so strong)
And running a 4:05 marathon despite having small gut issues (still getting to grips with literally what she can stomach for that amount of time).
11hrs 53 min. 6th in the 40-44AG and she asked me if she should bother going to the Kona slot allocation! Yes, YES! Now that the races have been split in to Kona and Nice, you no longer have to win your AG to go as a woman. It’s parity with the men and you are likely to get a slot in 5th or 6th place.
Sorry Gemma, you are going to have to keep swimming for another year before you can hang up your swimsuit. So proud of how you have achieved everything.
Maybe now she will start believing, as I do, that she is AMAZING. 🥰

16/06/2024

Mike didn’t have the best run up to the European sprint duathlon championships on Saturday. He has been on restricted running whilst recovering from some issues earlier in the year but it made my day when the first line of his text was, “Hey coach! I had a brilliant race.”
And the follow up was “I ran just 5 seconds short of my 5k PB, I had a strong bike and got in a good group [** coach note **this is a draft legal race so getting in a good group is key to getting a decent bike time]. The second run was a killer but both T1 and T2 were slick”.
That sounds like a perfect race to me. If the second run doesn’t hurt, you didn’t do it right!
We have had to balance Mikes running to allow him to recover, averaging only 15km running per week over the last 6 months, so I’m excited to see what he can do as he eases back in towards full training.

Well done Mike, proud of how you have handled the altered training and grateful for your faith in me setting a programme that would work round constrained running whilst still allowing you to run pretty fast when it matters.

08/05/2024

Below is Gemma’s account of the European middle distance duathlon championships on 5th May 2024.

Im very proud of the fact that she outperformed her peers on the second run despite having nutrition traumas. This means she had backup plans and avoided making the dubious decisions that other competitors made on the bike, as she gained more time in the second run than her competitors lost by hammering the bike and struggling to run well.
I know she is an amazing athlete, I’m just waiting for her to admit that she is good as well. And as 3rd Brit, she will get a pre-qualification place for next year. That’s a big deal.🥰🥰

+++++++++++++++++++

Powerman Alsdorf European champs middle distance
My first ‘middle’ distance duathlon event (10km run/60km bike/10km run). In my head, not quite the fast and furious as standard distance, not quite the steady eddy of long distance.. somewhere in the middle. I knew that it was going to be a competitive event, heard and have indeed witnessed the duathlete mentality of hit the first run like you’ve been fired out of a cannon and boy was that the case. I tried to strike a balance of don’t get too behind but also don’t go out so hard you’ve got nothing left. First run in 42:58! Onto the bike, it was meant to be a nice fast flat ride but I hadn’t really considered the wind. I was told by another athlete in my hotel that it’s a windy course.. it was windy! First 10 minutes was spent trying not to panic as the side gusts were pretty gusty. Had a little word with myself and managed to settle into it. A few sketchy points, lost both my gels from the tiny postage stamp sized Team GB suit pockets which was a wee bit disappointing especially when you think I really should take a gel now and then feel on wiggle it’s way out your pocket and plop on the floor 😂 No matter worse things have happened at sea, drink your energy instead. Each lap of the bike course got a bit windier so was happy to get to the end of lap 3 in one piece. Ride part 1:49:25 averaging 20.4mph! Whoop!
Run 2 was just keep moving as fast as I could. It was starting to get warm by that point so was just a keep on trucking. Happy to have only added 2 minutes to run 1 with a 44:59.
Overall really happy with 7th in AG and 25th female. Another good day out, another race under my belt and lessons learnt.

22/04/2024

When Claire came to me asking if it was possible to get 3:53 at London marathon this year, my answer was “I don’t know. I’ll be tight. It’s possible but your level of prep will have to be second to none or you won’t make it.
At the time she was theoretically capable of a 3:50 but you don’t just run a marathon at London due to the amount of people you have to dodge round. You run a lot further (bear in mind that she would have to be running at 5 min 30 sec per km or 8:53 per mile) so even 400m extra would add on almost 2 and a half minutes, all contingency was gone before she was due to start.
On top of her normal marathon training we made sure she was going to be up for the mental challenge.
Normally the instructions are to stay within yourself at all points as it’s quicker than bonking but this time it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to miss by 30 seconds, she was either going to make it or she was going to miss by 15 min. Everything would have to be laid on the line (literally and figuratively) to be successful.
The 2 biggest things that would stop her was extra distance and not enough mental resilience to get over the things that were inevitably going to go wrong.
We could control distance to a certain extent. Run on the line for as much time as possible. She did this. Running only 200m more than the marathon (so just over 1 min of the 3 min contingency used on distance)
The things that we couldn’t control was that she was told only 2 days prior to the WR attempt, she would have to wear a mask instead of painting her face. I do not know how she breathed, saw anything, controlled the sweat and itching. The mask must have added a level of hell none of us want.
Then the gps on her watch went out at Canary Wharf so she had no idea if she was going to make it. But the mental training kicked in and she just lived in the present, ticking off the time on the current kilometer, focusing on the process to get her there and not make any stupid decisions that would have a catastrophic effect on the run.
I have no idea how stressed she must have been with 2-3km to go, all basically up hill and knowing that if she made it, it would be with seconds to spare but she did it.
As a coach, I’m proud of the result but so much prouder of her because she trusted the process and fell back on the instructions and parameters she had pre-set to avoid costing time.
Well done Claire, you have the World Record for running a marathon as a skeleton (female) and did it whilst raising funds for such a good cause.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160714025722663&id=781367662

20/04/2024

It wasn’t all plain sailing but Emily completed the Marathon des Sables.
It’s hard to imagine the heat, sand, effort and pain that goes with completing one of the hardest running races in the world.
Well done.

08/03/2024

On International Women’s Day, I have the privilege to support on of my athletes and good friends Emily.

Emily has done a number of multi day ultra running races but does it her way. She walks from the start. That’s a tough thing mentally to do as everyone runs off from her on the start line but it means that as the others slow down, she catches them up.

In 4 weeks she will be doing the ultimate ultra race. The hardest running race on the planet. Marathon des Sables. And this year they have made it tougher by it being longer overall with the longest day comes earlier in the event.

Her preparation has been meticulous. She is physically and mentally ready. This weekend she is doing her last long challenge, 4 miles every 4hrs for 48hrs. Getting back out there for 4 miles at 10am, 2pm,6pm,10pm, 2am and 6am for 2 days!

There is no more inspirational athlete to celebrate on international women’s day when you hear her story of cancer and domestic abuse.

https://www.givey.com/emilymooresmarathondessablesforndas

24/12/2023

Happy Christmas everyone. I hope your festive season is full of having the cobwebs blown away but remember
“It’s not what you do between Christmas and New Year that matters, it’s what you do between New Year and Christmas.”

12/07/2023

Time for a cup of tea and a feel good story?

Jane has qualified for her first GB trisuit this year. In fact, she has been wanting to qualify for a number of years and just like the proverbial busses, two come along at once. This amazing achievement hasn’t just been luck (although there is always a little bit of good luck in every great result) but it has been done through perseverance in the face of results which previously said she was not good enough, a body that was letting her down in training and racing, and a training regimen which was not giving improvements.

Her 10 mile cycling Time Trial PB was over 33 min and her 70.3 result was 6hrs 54min in 2021.

Fast forwards to 2023 and she can now do a 29 min 10 mile TT, taking over 4 min off or, put another way, adding more than 4kph in speed for exactly the same amount of effort (as shown by her Heart Rate data). A huge gain in efficiency.

What changed?

How did she go from a half iron distance race of just sub 7hrs (which was an excellent result for her at the time) to qualifying for a GB tri suit in 2 years?

Her belief in the process!!! And a little bit of flexibility in the plan.

Finding a way to do an extra 2500km this year on the bike has helped but she has found ways to get comfortable with being uncomfortable in her training.

*Working harder on hills to get a little bit further up them, rather than getting off and walking.
*Doing the Gym Work to build power
*Eating better.
*Trying different race pace strategies to find what worked for her (there was a lot of trying different things)

But also training in a supportive environment

*Taking away the fear of failure.
*Defining success in her training session.
*Learning that good enough is good enough. Perfect is not necessary.
*Chipping away at the tiny interim goals which over 2 years have built up to make massive gains.

Jane will be on the start line in Malaga in 2024 at the Age Group Standard Aquabike World Championships and I’m hoping we can both toe the line together in the Middle Distance Aquabike Europeans as well. Her hard work is starting now, and I have no doubt, given she has a year to prepare, she will have improved significantly again.

I am lucky to be able to coach so many dedicated athletes. I am proud of how Jane has applied herself and trusted that the process would work for her.

29/04/2023

It’s always lovely to get a message by email or text from an athlete immediately after a race to say they’ve done brilliantly, but when it also coincides with them setting a new threshold heart rate, it means they have worked incredibly hard, have learnt the correct decision making capability and followed their plan.

Message from Mike having competed in the draft legal sprint duathlon Age Group World Championships in Ibiza

Hey Tracey!

Quick race report….
Amazing. Best race ever!
No calf/plantar issues
Just off PB pace 5km
I got a group together on the bike and went quite hard getting everyone work together 🙂
Good second run
sprint finish to get 15th place in Age Cat and 8 in the GB men age group.
(Am claiming T2 'top trumps' podium
Place for 3rd fastest !!) 🤣
So pleased!
Couldn't have gone better!

03/04/2023

The Jurassic Coast Challenge.
3 days
3 ultra marathons (off road)
1 sucessful athlete
Natasha completed her first multi-stage event last weekend and I consider successful differently to Natasha. You can read her thoughts in the pictures.
She learned loads as sometime even the best prep can’t inform you of how you or your body will perform on race day(s). Sometimes the experience of racing is what you need. Reviewing after to see what else can be done to improve for next time.
More than a week later, Natasha’s legs still haven’t come back to her (as expected) but she is donning a great job of prioritising recovery as she has the world aquathlon champs in Ibiza in 4 weeks.
Very proud of how she has trained and conducted herself throughout the whole process.

06/10/2022

Sometimes racing is more about the process than the outcome.
It’s lovely to get the recognition for doing the hard racing.

Did you hear about the LEGENDS of Bilbao❓ The ones who competed in 5 events over 10 days in the 2022 European Multisport Championships💥 well if you still don't know who they are, here you go: Pedro de la Torre (20-24), Kevin Fernández (25-29), the British Tracey Sample (50-54), Kath Finn (55-59), the German Angela Boczek (60-64), the king Kini Carrasco (PTS3) and Ricardo Marín (PTS2)! A huge congrats to these incredible athletes who put in great performances to be crowned this multisport event LEGENDS😎

19/08/2022

Emily did her fastest IM this year.
She did not have an easy run up to the race but did the training in the best way she could.
She even avoided being distracted in the race and focussed on getting to that finish line in the time she had set herself.
Being happy with your finish is all we can ever ask as an athlete.
Well done Emily. Your Coach is proud of how you did but more importantly, how you got there.