Friday 10 October 2014

Final race of 2015

So on to my final race of 2015, it was going to be Challenge Weymouth but my mate Joel Jameson talked me in to doing the final Castle series race at Hever Castle, The Gauntlet!

It went down like this.......

The race started.......

I went the wrong way......

The end!

Cheers!

Tuesday 23 September 2014

First Endurance


I'm lucky enough to be supported by a great sports nutrition company First Endurance. They came on board as part of my team in July this year. 
So I've been using their product for about two months now and since I've been using their stuff I've had two of my best results in long distance triathlon racing! Coincidence? I think not......although results come down to training and recovery your nutrition has a massive role to play in how well we execute our training sessions and just as, if not more, importantly how we recover from them, and also how well we perform in races.
First Endurance come across to me to be a forward thinking, innovative sports nutrition company, basing there products on results based science and athlete feedback. One of the great things I found with First Endurance, when I started working with them, was that they gave me their complete range, which is designed to be used as a system. They gave me all of their products to try, to see if it worked for me and how I got on with it, then asked for my feedback before we moved forward into a more official partnership with me as a brand ambassador for them. Well the proof is in my results! First race using the products, The Outlaw - 1st Place! Challenge Weymouth - 5th Place (after having a chest infection 2 weeks before)
So from that I can say the products work for me and am proud and excited to be using them in the future and into 2015. So below is a list of the First Endurance products I use.



First Endurance MultiV. This is a product is a high potency multivitamin that is to be used daily and has been designed to meet the requirements of endurance athletes. You take three tablets a day with a meal. I have been having one tablet at each meal time rather than all at once. This has everything you need as an endurance athlete from a multivitamin.

First Endurance Optygen HP. I use this daily. Four Tablets a day in the morning with breakfast. This product has got all sorts of wonderful ingredients in to help you as an endurance athlete, all legal of course! The main goal of this product is to enhance your endurance capacity, increase glycogen re-synthesis, increase energy (ATP) levels and also reduce inflammation. All very important in being able to apply ourselves in a training session to our best and to aid recovery after. This is the type of product that you only start to feel the effects after a few weeks/months use. So don't expect  immediate results. A great product though as I'm starting to feel the benefits from taking it.



First Endurance EFS. This is my go to daily training drink. It is a high electrolyte fuel system. I've been using the Tart Lemon-Lime flavor, but other flavors are available. It tastes great and is designed to be mixed at varying strengths, depending on taste and calorie requirements. One scoop of EFS supplies 96 calories and 24g of carbs, so you can add as much or as little to make up your own calorie and carbohydrate requirements. It also contains 1160mg of electrolytes (calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium and potassium) as well as an Amino Acid blend (L-glutamine, leucine, iso-leucine and valine) So everything you need from a sports drink.   


First Endurance Ultragen. Again I use this daily after every intense or long session. I also have used before and after a race. It has predominantly been designed to be used as a recovery drink. I have been using the Cappuccino flavor. I'm pretty big on my recovery shakes tasting nice as after a hard or long session I wants something that is a bit like a reward, something that tastes nice! Cappuccino Ultragen is just that! It has got everything in it that you need from a recovery drink, 60g of carbs, 20g of protein, vitamins, minerals, BCAA's, glutamine etc. All in the correct dose for endurance athletes. I've certainly been recovering better since I've been using it regularly.  



EFS Liquid Shots. What a great product! I use this when I'm racing and is my main source of calories during a race. It contains 400 calories per shot! Enough for most people for an hour. Over 1500mg of electrolytes and 1000mg of amino acids! The great thing about this product, even though its a gel and is highly concentrated, it hasn't any gelling agents added, therefore has been designed to be absorbed in the gut without having to take on water with it. Although I personally have found it goes down easier with a swallow of water. You could basically fill a 750ml water bottle up with EFS liquid shots and have enough calories for an Iron distance bike leg. Then for the run they come in small bottles of 400 calories that is easily held in your hand. Just perfect for training and racing! 


First Endurance PreRace. Its designed exactly as it says on the tin, to help endurance athletes improve performance! It contains clinically effective doses of Taurine, Citrulline Malate, Quercetin and neuro stimulants that have been shown to stimulate the Nitric Oxide system, increase cardiac output and improve mental activity and focus! It comes in tablet and powder from. I use PreRace before and during a race depending on the length of the event. I've also been using it before certain hard sessions in training to help get me through those really tough sessions. This product is awesome, but be warned its a very potent product.....in a good way. Not the type of product you want to be taking right before bed time, unless........;-)


So as you can see, First Endurance do a comprehensive range of products all with a different goal in mind but all designed to work with and complement each other, so you can get the best out of yourselves in training and racing.
I certainly feel very lucky to be supported by such a great company. Massive thanks to Jane and Shayne from First Endurance UK for hooking me up! Here's to many more victories!
For more info or to purchase any of the products go to http://firstendurance.co.uk/index.php


Sunday 21 September 2014

Challenge Weymouth

Last week, 14th September, I competed in Challenge Weymouth, which was in well errrm Weymouth believe it or not!
My prep for the race didn't go to plan (I will outline my training in the lead up to Weymouth in my next post) and it was touch and go as to whether I would race due to having a chest infection 2 weeks before. But come race day I was healthy, even if a little under prepared and not in the shape I would have liked to have been.
It had been 8 weeks since my win at the outlaw so I had plenty of time to recover from that race.
The days before were great, I had a look at the supposedly fast bike course, which I didn't think would be fast at all, and I was proved right on race day! It isn't fast! Hilly and technical, but it at least would be an honest bike course. The run course is pan flat and very very quick. And the swim....more on that in a bit!
Then onto the press conference, where I was ridiculed by race director Alan Rose for my apparent history as a famous hand model! I'll leave that one with you!
The weather had been perfect in the days before the race and the evening before when I went to rack my bike it was the perfect late summer evening, no wind, sunny, and the temperature was bang on for Iron distance racing.

Race day came and the walk down to transition was different from the evening before just a few hours earlier. From somewhere a strong easterly wind had picked up. This would change the race considerably. I do like a strong wind on the bike as I'm a pretty strong rider, but I wasn't in the bike shape I would have liked, and for once could struggle!
About 30mins before the start, the whole race dynamic had been changed.....they were going to shorten the swim to 1900m due to the adverse weather and how that had brought on a big swell in the sea. This would play right into the hands of the guys like Joel Jameson and others, as they're not as strong in the water as me but faster runners. And with me not having my bike legs with me would take a big advantage away from me.
Me and Joe Skipper chatted before the race and arranged to get together on the bike to catch whomever would be ahead, as we always swim about the same. Stephen Bayliss was racing as well and was a given that he would be out the swim with a lead.
The sea was rough, but fun at the same time, its fair to say we got battered. But I was out on the bike in 6th. Joe was out with me but he had to stop and change his shoes over due to putting them in the wrong pedals! (what a chopper! lol)

but by the top of the first climb I had moved up to 2nd a couple of minutes down on Stephen. There was a group of 4 of us, but there was only me and Joe working, keeping the watts at around 300. We encouraged the other 2 to work with us as we weren't happy about how close they were riding to our wheels! And there was no motorbike with us ensuring a legal gap between bikes. At the dead turn we saw Joel and he was closing fast! It wasn't long before he caught us and he went straight to the front and was riding strong. We caught Stephen and then there was a group of 7 of us that rode the remainder of the first lap together. I wasn't riding that great but I still felt comfortable in the group. The traffic was pretty bad on some of the roads and as we started the second loop I got caught behind and ambulance and a car, at this point Joe hit the front and attacked. I sort of guessed someone would attack as we hit the climb for the second time but I was stuck, by the time I got going again Joe, Stephen, Joel and Kiwi Keegan Williams had gone 400 meters up the road and pulling away. There was 3 of us chasing. I did all I could to get back but just didn't have the power, for the first time in the race I was feeling very under prepared, as I was! I just had to ride at my own pace and hope for the best. I rode away from the 2 guys with me and caught and passed Keegan at the top of the climb. On the decent I decided to really try and chase so as to limit my losses. I dropped the guys with me but I wasn't making any indents into the 3 in front. Ordinarily I can rely on bike bike strength to catch people like Joel, but today wasn't that day. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, I focused on getting my calories in and riding steady. By T2 I had lost 6mins to Joe, and 3mins to Joel with Stephen in between. With my lack of fitness I had to just focus on trying to hold the best position I could. The run went pretty smooth, I only lost one place, to Aussie Darren Jenkins. I did fade pretty badly in the last 10km but managed to hold on for 5th place pretty comfortably. Disappointingly the run was a little short by about 3km. But today I wasn't that bothered as I was looking for that finish line!

Joe took the win in an all round fantastic performance, with Joel 2nd and Stephen 3rd. A fit and well prepared me would have hoped for a better result. We all want to win, me included and that's why we race pro, because we want to win. When I train I don't visualise myself coming 5th or 3rd or 2nd, I visualise myself winning! But on the day I had to concede defeat and accept that I wasn't in the shape I would have liked, so with that in mind 5th wasn't too bad a performance I guess!
My race season isn't over yet, I'm racing The Gauntlet at Hever Castle next weekend. Its part of the Castle Series and the race is over the half distance of 1900m swim, 90km bike and 21km run. This will feel like a sprint!
After that? Not sure yet. That might be the end of my season, or I might do a late season Ironman..........

New sponsor on board

I'm really pleased to announce a new shoe sponsor, Skechers, to my team!
I do wear their shoes anyway, and have done so since I was racing with the Racetime Events Race Team. Since leaving the team at the beginning of 2014 I have carried on using their shoes for training and racing as they are really good for me in terms of fit and comfort, and they look really cool too with some rad and fresh colour schemes.
So its great for me to be individually sponsored by them as my focus moves into 2015. I look forward to representing the Skechers Performance brand in the future!

Sunday 24 August 2014

The Outlaw Win!

Well It was a long time coming but I've finally got something to blog about! A WIN!
Over the past few seasons bad luck seemed to have followed me around with punctures, crashes, mechanicals, injuries, illness.....the list goes on. I was just fed up of having to write another shit blog about how this went wrong and how that went wrong etc etc. But how amazing I would have been if it hadn't gone wrong! Boring, no one want to read crap like that, so I didn't write anything.
But now I've got a win I can write in glory! So okay The Outlaw isn't the best quality race, in terms of depth of the field, but there were some very good athletes racing and I would have to push hard to win.
The week before I did Ironman UK in Bolton but crashed at about 60km on the bike taking current Ironman Wales champion, Scott Neyedli down with me. We recovered and got back up but I had landed on my back and seemed to have lost all power, and then lost all motivation to carry on, so I pulled out. Fair play to Scott, he soldered on and finished! So for the Outlaw I was very motivated to win so I could salvage something from the past few seasons.
The Outlaw is in Nottingham so living in Leicestershire it was just up the road for me and quite a novelty to be able to sleep in my own bed the night before the race! No bike box, no shit hotel food, just my own comforts. Everything was far more relaxed before the race, even though I had the pressure of being one of the pre race favourites, and everything that goes with that, TV interviews etc I felt really relaxed and confident. My race plan was no secret, swim well and get a lead on my main rivals, bike hard to get a bigger lead and then hang on during the marathon, and to top it off break my training partner, Joel Jamesons, course record of 8hrs 47min. Everything went exactly to plan apart from breaking the course record bit! In fact I only just hung on for the win from a much faster moving Phil Mosley.
So it went down like this, great swim, out in just over 50mins. One other guy was out with me but I took him in T1, the other swimmers were in relays, so were of no concern to me. My Xterra Vendetta wetsuit was faultless, by far my best swim for a good while.
On the bike I rode hard but comfortably. I wasn't getting any time splits so just assumed that my rivals would be working together and closing whatever gap I had. I had actually rode into 2nd on the road, only one relay team time trialling ahead of me and about three relay teams around 5 minutes back. With about 40km to go 2 guys in a soft top Porche, who were spectators, pulled up along side me and told me I had an 18 minute lead! This shocked me as I had assumed they would be closing, not me pulling away! This did help me relax over the last 40km and I eased back on my pace a bit.
So onto the run and I felt OK to start with. I hit a very bad spell very soon though at about 7km and had to take a toilet stop and get some sugar! It was very early in the marathon to be going for the coke but I needed it and it had to be done. I came around quite quick and got running again. I got another bad patch about 10km later and again had coke and it passed. But at around 30km the bad spell came again but this time it hung around for about 7km! I was moving very slowly and knew that if the guys behind had any kind of pace whatsoever then they would be closing very fast. Its amazing how in an Ironman an 18min lead can be whittled down very quickly. I kept asking for time splits of the lead bike but wasn't getting any. I was hanging! All I kept saying to myself was put on foot in front of the other and don't walk! I was very light headed and struggling to keep it together, but going into the last 5km I started to come out of it. I didn't run fast over the last 5km but at least I was able to pick the pace up from the previous 7km! If I'd have carried on at that pace I'd have been caught easily!
In the end I did win and it felt awesome coming down the finnish shoot high fiving everyone and really milking the victory to the max!
So in the end my winning margin was only around two and a half minutes, down from about eighteen off the bike! I would love to say I paced it to perfection and was able to jog the run, but I'd be lying.
I would just like to say a massive thank you to Tim at Speedhub for all his support this year, also Martyn at Xterra wetsuits UK for the endless supply of Xterra goodies and to Shayne and Jane from First Endurance UK. It was the first time I was trying their products in a race and I won! Enough said I think! I will be posting a review on their products next.