Back on it!!

I'd had a week a moping around feeling sorry for myself, getting over the disappointment of Austria, eating rubbish and not alot of training! But now its time to get back into the routine of train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep and mixed in there work and seeing Marija!
My goals for the season have had to be changed due to my mess up at Ironman and I'm really motivated again!
My big goal now is going to be Challenge Barcelona Ironman on October 4Th (Austria didn't put me off the distance, just made me want to do it more!) and before that I'll try and do a 70.3 Half Ironman, possibly Monaco on September 6Th.
So along with some UK based events hopefully I can turn my season around.
I've even started to look at next year already! Its funny what you do when your motivated and not training that much! My good friend "Oakley Tim" is getting married next year and I think he wants to go and do 70.3 New Orleans Half Ironman for his stag do!! Then after that I'm going to plan to do Ironman South Africa in April, another good friend of mine Nino Baglioni is going over to do it so that should be good fun. Then it will be back to Austria in July to lay a few demons to rest.
Before I go I'd just like to say congratulations to my friends Ady "Sweat" and Bekki on the birth of their second child together, Mason. I went to see the little fella and he was only 17hrs old! I think he smiled at me!
I'd also like to wish good luck to Mesh and Keis on their wedding on Saturday!
Best go get some training in.... see ya!

Well my first Ironman experience is over and it wasn't the happy ending that I was hoping for. To cut a long story short my total inexperience showed and I completely messed up my nutrition plan which ultimately caused me to collapse 5km into the run and put me in hospital!

The week leading up to the race was spot on in terms of training and resting and my pre race nutrition was fantastic. The whole build up to the race and atmosphere was buzzing and I don't think I'd ever been so excited to do a race before........ I was absolutely loving the whole Ironman experience!

In the race I had a decent swim exciting in 15Th place with a time of 51min. I found the swim comfortable and was looking forward to ripping the bike. I started the bike strong and then somewhat unexpectedly a pack formed. You sort of expect it in shorter races but I never expected it during an Ironman, I thought I'd be on my own during the ride. The pack was riding with the legal drafting rules but I found it so much easier at the back of the pack than at the front, so decided that's where I'd ride, saving my legs for the run!

This is where the problems sort of started, it wasn't until I was packing my bike up to come home that I realised that I'd only eaten half of what I'd planned to eat! Big mistake! I guess I got taken in to the race too much and wasn't concentrating on what I was doing. I really showed my inexperience here. It's good to race but I also need to pay attention to what I'm doing nutrition wise.

So anyway I got round the bike in 4.40:52 and started the run in 14Th place. I felt comfortable and did as I'd planned by starting slowly so that I could build my pace as my legs loosened off. Then it just all went wrong and I collapsed and was carted off to hospital!

5hrs and about 10 magnesium drips later I was released. Physically I was OK but mentally I was distraught, all that work that I had put in and all for nothing! It was time to pick myself up and re-focus.

So at this time I'm possibly thinking of doing Monaco 70.3 on the 6Th September and then on the 4Th October Challenge Barcelona Ironman.

This year has been a bit of a disaster to say the least, but I'm still focused and am as motivated as ever, so hopefully I can turn my season around and really show what I'm capable of.

Big thanks to my sponsors, Elagen sport, Energicer, Saltstick and Extreme Endurance. Your product are fantastic!

Until next time,

Twiggstar!

5 Days to go!

00.29am Tuesday morning and I'm finally packed! Bike is clean, passport ready, head shaved, nothing else to do now except go to bed.
I don't know what it is about packing for a race but I find it so stressful sometimes, I just never know what to take! You'd think after years of doing it (4 times already this year abroad!) I'd have it dialed, but it still takes me all day to do it. Perhaps its because I get distracted by rubbish daytime TV every 5Min's!
Apart from packing I did manage to do a little bit of training today. I'm feeling pretty good and getting excited for this coming weekend.
Before I go if any of you live in the Enderby area of Leicestershire, look out for the guy running around with a washing machine on his back! That's right I said a washing machine! It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen and when I get back from Austria I'm going to go on the hunt for this guy and film him doing it and try to find out why? I'm not the only person that's seen him, quite a few have and I've now seen it twice on 2 different days, so this isn't a one off occurrence. Very odd!
I'll be off now, getting up early because "Mac Taxi's" is taking me to the airport. I'll try to up date whilst I'm away, but if I don't then I shall do a full report on how my race went when I return.
Craig.

8 Days and counting!

It's 9.42pm on Saturday evening, and this time next week I will be absolutely crapping myself! Just thinking about it now is making me nervous.

The last few day's training have gone really well, with some very encouraging sessions being done. I did a 10m TT on the bike today during my ride and went 90sec quicker than I did last week! Now I don't know whether I was going well today or I was just really crap last week, but it still pleased me and showed me that my taper is really starting to take effect. My 1 mile running efforts yesterday went well also, hitting some good times (for me!).

So with my physical condition being so good, now its time to focus on my psychological condition. The extra 20% that can really make the difference between having a good race or a bad race or between winning and loosing. The art of getting your mind into gear is a tricky one with so many variables that can mess with your head. For me I just keep visualising winning during my training sessions and then its a case of keeping control of my nerves and using them in a positive way.


All that will happen between now and next Sunday will be geared toward getting everything in peak condition, mind, body, wetsuit, bike and trainers!


Until next time!

The Countdown has begun...........

...............10 Days to go!!!

Well this is it, the final countdown has begun, just 10 days till the big day. The race that I have been training for all year is fast approaching. I am well and truly into my taper and my body is finally starting to respond to all the training that I have been doing. When I started my taper I found it hard to adapt to the reduced training loads. There's something about doing big miles, weather it's in the pool or out on the bike or pounding the streets, that gives you confidence. After doing a big ride or run we all get this massive sense of satisfaction and confidence in our abilities as an athlete, and when I started to taper it really felt like I wasn't doing much. I felt like I was loosing fitness and actually started to question in my own head as to weather I had done enough training all along! In reality I had actually done enough for about 4 people!! Now I'm 2 weeks into the taper and the intensity of my sessions has gone right up and I am starting to fly in my sessions. I'm going the quickest that I have in the last 18 months of training and I'm strong too, so the confidence is coming back again and the excitement and nerves are building day by day.

BRING IT ON!!!!!

Energicer

Well today has started well, the sun is shining, it's getting very warm outside and my bike is clean and ready to ride! All the better to test out the product from my new sponsor Energicer. Check it all out at

http://www.energicer.co.uk/

What a fantastic product, especially if you're going to race in the heat. I have to admit that I was a little sceptical at first, as I thought how can a couple of sweat bands, soaked in with what looks like mouth wash, keep you cool? But it does! I've tested them in training in all conditions and they help whatever the weather. Even if its cloudy, when we train or race we still sweat and lose energy, and the Energicer Sweatbands help keep our core temperature down so we have more energy for the activity we're doing. Especially good for those of us who have trouble staying cool in warm conditions! So I'm now off into the sun on my bike...... life is good!

Dambuster Triathlon

Well done to the guy's that competed yesterday in the Dambuster Triathlon at Rutland Water. There were some fantastic results in pretty windy conditions.
Best place went to Nathaniel Walker who finished in an awesome 12Th place with a time of 2hrs 7min 24sec, putting in the 2ND fastest run split with a super rapid 31.40 for the 10km! Awesome mate.
Next was Rich Jeggo in 24Th place with a time of 2hrs 11min 33sec. Great performance from Rich who managed to knock 9Min's off last years time! Not only that but he did it whilst still getting over a cold. Looks like Nathaniel and Rich where holding hands right up to the run with almost identical swim and bike splits!
In 186Th place was Matt Calver in his first ever Olympic Distance Triathlon! Matt did an amazing time of 2hrs 32min 19sec off very little training over the last few weeks due to injury. Well done Matt!
Very close behind Matt was John "Gloves" Golding in 189Th position in a time of 2hrs 32min 45sec. I spoke to John after the race and he was very disappointed with his result. It seems he was struggling with back trouble and stomach problems............ Next time John.
Another first timer in 314Th place was Robbie Lyon in 2hrs 41min 28sec. A great result for Robbie in his first open water racing experience. Whats also amazing is that Robbie has also been injured and has done hardly any biking or running for ages yet he still produced an awesome 44.26 run off no training!
A massive thanks must go out to Becky from Aligned Sports Therapy for getting both Matt and Robbie on the start line and also for sorting my legs out in my preparation for Ironman Austria. Training has been going well again recently, My volume has now come right down but the intensity has gone right up with some nice lung busting sessions. Bring on Austria, only 2 weeks to go now!!!!!!

Starters Orders

Last season I made a successful comeback to Triathlon after seven years out of the sport. During that time I concentrated on cycling time-trials sports wise, whilst working on building a business as a personal trainer. I felt however that I had some unfinished business with the sport, and with the motivation to get stuck in again I started back up at the start of 2008, by June winning Tri247.com's Athlete Of The Month award.

http://www.tri247.com/article_3675.html

This season my big focus is Ironman Austria on July 5th, and so I worked towards that goal from the end of last season and right through the winter. This season I have raced in New Orleans, Barcelona and the UK as I build my form ready to hit Austria in peak condition. That more or less takes us up to now, and on Sunday (14th June) I took to the start of the Bala "National Middle Distance Champs". As the race forms part of my build up to Ironman Austria, it was a case of training up to and through the event, and having recently missed a weeks training due to a virus, it was very important that I kept the momentum going training wise. I therefore started knowing that I would feature at the sharp end of the race, but that I would not be firing on all cylinders. The hilly terrain was not particularly suited to me, though overall I was satisfied to finish in 3rd place - and so collect the bronze medal - in what at the end of the day was a National Championship.

The result was as follows.

1. Mark Stenning
2. Richard Hunt
3. Craig Twigg
4. Richard Jones
5. Mark Couldwell

As this is the first post on my blog, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of my sponsors. All assistance helps, and all the small differences when added together can make a big one, so thanks go to Saltstick, Elagen Sport, Extreme Endurance, and Baker Jane Insurance for their support.

You can also follow me on the twitter via http://twitter.com/twiggstar although I also have a twitter feed directly to this site. The feed can give an insight into me and my training (aswell as seeing me joke around with my mates). Life as an athlete is great though it can be tough too, as you will see from my updates!

That's about it for now but I'll be back on a regular basis to let you know how things are going, so keep checking in. Cheers,

Twigg.