Training update

With a far too hectic work schedule kicking off, training has been difficult to fit in but have managed some good sessions. Have been in the pool alot working on technique and doing some shorter sprint sessions and longer distance swims (which are really boring compared to in the lake at Little Marlow). Have also put in some runs, nothing of a huge distance but some good intensity. Enjoying running around Boston at night, some amazing views, photos to follow. Also cracked my first decent track session for a while, not a lot of speed knocking around in the chicken legs but did some solid 400m and 800m reps. Again the heat takes its toll abit but it's great to be enjoying tops off training. Need to look at some longer stuff in prep for half ironman on 30th July. Could be interesting!

Marlborough Tri 2011 - Podium finish!

Last Sunday I travelled to the town of Marlborough about an hour west of Boston to compete in the third annual Marlborough Sprint Tri. It was completely thrown together last minute and a big thanks to Pete for lending me a bike (about 10 sizes too small!) and for sorting late entry into the race. The event kicked off at 9:00am but it was still blazing hot. The swim was only around 500m but it was emotional as the first 200m were like a washing machine of bodies all colliding with each other for space. Great experience but not very nice to be literally fighting for position. Managed to find some clear water but exited the swim way down the field. The bike course was a 20km course split into 3 loops. This included some challeneging hills but also one kick ass decent that allowed you to seriously test your nerve and the size of your kahoona's!! Despite my riding position being aweful on the small bike, I left it all out on the cycle course but then paid the price on the run (felt terrible all the way round). Was all in all pretty chuffed with my time of 1hr 19mins given the type of training I've been doin. I was a whole 18mins behind Pete who won the event overall. Great effort. Looking at my splits I did give away nearly 3 mins to him in transisition! It was a great experience and great to race with Pete and in the same event as Olympians like Jarod Shoemaker and also Dick and Rick Hoyt. Dick Hoyt competed with his severely disabled son Rick towing him in a dingy on the swim, with him on the the front of his custom built and bike and in an adapted push chair for the run. Inspirational stuff. I was stoaked to come in 39th overall (including the elite men), In the top 10 of my wave and 2nd overall in my age catagory (25-29). You can't argue with a podium!! It was a shame Harrison and Hindley weren't there as I'm sure we could've sweeped the board! No wait, Stewey would be in the veterans section!!! Great day and great to say I've raced in the USA. Even a flat tyre on the freeway driving home couldn't damped the spirtis. Totally awesome dude!!!

First session stateside

For the next few weeks I've left Harrison and Hindley (and hopefully Mr Prior) to keep smashing the training hard in the UK while I'm away working, sunbathing and warm weather training in Boston. A good start has been made with a killer pool session yesterday. I'm lucky enough to be training with Pete Mallett, a former member of the US Tri team and experienced world cup racer. Pete and I completed some sprint work in the pool and looked at some drills working on the catch phase in the water and tunring more efficiently in the pool - not essential for ironman but essential for looking the business!!

Possible opportunity this weekend to race in a sprint tri just outside Boston - updates on this and future training to follow. Hoping the boys back in berkshire are training hard - no doubt of this! Half Ironman pencilled in the diary for July 30th - fingers crossed were ready!

Strange fish!!

With the sun in the sky the ironboys headed over to little Marlow lake for the first open water swim of the training program. Harrison, being an experienced lake dweller was chomping at the bit. AB and PH were a bit more sceptical, mainly because they can both only just about swim!!

It turned out to be an awesome session and a great atmosphere down at the lake. despite the initial worries, a total of 3KM was covered! Only 800 meters short of the full ironman distance. Confidance gained no doubt!

Photo (L-R) Phil 'the dolphin' Harrison, Stewart 'the stickleback' Harrison, Alex 'the mutated sea bass' Ballard.

They've won it four times!

Team BCA retained the Pharmalink Maidenhead Relay Marathon for the 4th consecutive year on a wet and windy Sunday in June.

The team of Si Neale, Alex Balalrd, Stewart Harrison, Phil Hindley and captain Jon Childs romped home in a collective time of 2:33:00 after all running two blistering legs each around the 2.6 mile course. Some awesome running was on dislay despite the harsh weather and PB's were logged by all the BCA athletes who were looking lean and hungry despite already taking the event title for the previous 3 years.

Check out the link below for the event video

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/leisure/article-21763-video-maidenhead-carnival-2011-sunday-highlights/

The BCA-B team were also on great form with some top runs from all the athletes.

As the trophy was presented the organsiers stated that a 5th win next year would net the BCA team the trophy for keeps! Let's have it then!!

Team Hulkamania Smash up the Green Belter!

Young Gary Clarke and myself SMASHED UP the legendary Green Belter Course in Hambeldon Estate on Saturday, we teamed up in silly rig as the famous wrestler Hulk Hogan. The Adventure course/competition consisted of a multi-sport mix of biking, running, kayak and a "Green Machine" obstacle course to finish on.

The opposition didn’t show too much fear in their eyes as they witness team Hulkamania pull up on their ill equipped bikes, the fellow competitors prepared well with their specialized tri boxes for, well equipped nutrition and bikes that cost more than my first car! Team Hulkamania attempted not to be phased by the big guns on show and muscled in on the front line for the start. We hit the first run hard and went into T1 in the top 10, entering the 20km bike section, we struggled and fell into the top 30, the bike was taxing, sheer sweat and determination ensured that we didn’t slip too far from the front. It’s not very often that Hulk Hogan has rubbery legs when competing but on this occasion we both had to run our rubbery legs for the first 2km of the second run (10km), by the time we completed this stage we edged our way back into the top 20, leaving too much to do top get in the top 10, but we were in the top 5 in the team competitors we gained strength from hearing this and picked up our pace taking over 1 team in T3, striding out towards the Thames for the kayak, hulkamania put some hustle behind their muscle to power their way into 3^rd position coming out of the Thames, with the second team in sight, we managed to overcome cramp to sprint ahead of the team before entering the ‘Green Machine’ obstacle course, team Hulkamania came 2^nd overall in the paired event and 14^th overall.

PB’s all-round in Marlow 5

Team BCA Smashed out Marlow 5 in first place as a company, after winning a £10 Waitrose voucher can we call ourselves professional athletes?

P.Hindley: 30:04 (PB)

J.Childs: 31:16 (PB)

A.Ballard: 31:26 (PB)

Birthday Swim in the River Thames.

To celebrate Stewarts 33^rd birthday the three of use decided to go for an open water swim, slipping into the Thames and trying our best to put the pool swimming into practice. As expected Stewart was strong and Alex once settled into the open water looked comfortable and applied his pool skills to good effective use, whereas I was lucky to survive, a serious wake up call and an extremely poor swim from me however I did manage to apply the front crawl technique 90% of the way whereas in comparison to my swim the same time last year I could only manage breaststroke. I know swimming for me is going to be a challenging discipline, one that needs serious work on!

Great Welsh Marathon

As the spring sun broke through the early morning Llanelli mist on Sunday 10^th April, six athletes lined up for the 9am start of the Llanelli Great Welsh Marathon.

The two lap, technically demanding, undulating course, was superbly organised, steered us through the length of the beautiful traffic-free coastal path / cycle-way, stretching from Machynys Golf Course in the east through to Burry Port Harbour in the west

As the temperatures raised to 21 degrees C the scenery was only of secondary importance to us all as our priority was to remain hydrated during the race. With this being the first marathon for Alex, Sarah, Si and I we were excited and somewhat anxious about the distance. Alex and both lined up on the start line with the thought of the iron man in the back of our minds, Simon lined up for his first competitive race in months as he he’s been laid off due to injuries, Jon striving for a PB, and 8 weeks ago Sarah and her Father Tony set themselves a challenge to complete a marathon before Tony turned 60 years of age.

Not knowing how to approach this race I settled in to my stride and sustained a comfortable pace, Alex, Jon and Si ran together for the early stage of the race and Sarah ran alongside Tony. On completion of our first marathon Alex and I were happy with our times, Jon smashed his PB, Si successfully ran a respectable marathon post injury, Sarah and her father was successful in what they set out to achieve. Well done to all!!

Times:

P.Hindley: 2:58:06 (PB)

J.Childs: 3:21:23 (PB)

A.Ballard: 3:23:40 (PB)

S. Neal: 4:05:34 (PB)

S. Lipscombe: 5:07;05 (PB)

T.Lipscombe: 5:59:51

Harrison and Hindley smash their P.B's on Reading Half

A stepping stone in the right direction in the quest to become an iron man, Harrison and myself clocked P.B’s in the recent Reading half marathon, this is an annual event for Harrison and for myself this race was run in the build up to get me prepared to run a marathon, the target for us both was to sub 1:30, however this looked bleak after Harrison suffered with stomach ache and I wasn’t feeling the best from a hard swim session on the Wednesday. Beside this we approach the race with a lot of spirit and enthusiasm, the energy drawn from the amazing crowd supported our race, whilst the beat of the drums running under the bridge gave us the drive to push on, beside the demoralising last mile, running into the Madejski Stadium was awesome. The picture above is of two wanna be elite athletes outside the elite tent with 2009 European cross country champion Hayley Higham.

Mr. S. Harrison position 346 Time: 1:25:31
Mr. P. Hindley position 302 Time: 1:24:39

Busy days ahead- Focus!!!

When things get tough, it doesn't just have to be the training. Life can throw some unexpected curve balls and it's down to us to deal with these. That's why we train. A good friend of mine uses this poem by Rudyard Kipling to help keep his focus. Not my usual approach to training, but in the current climate, more than appropriate. Have a read and let me know if you think its an appropriate training aid.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!