Category: Latest News

Teresa writes about her experience dealing with her ‘Demons’ as she trains and races.  She writes from a ladies perspective but many of these feelings live within both sexes.

I don’t know about you but despite watching what I eat and drink (well mostly) and exercising most of my life, I still cannot remove the nagging thoughts that I am fat.  I am not looking for sympathy, but what is it about us women that we rarely see our good points or see our achievements in a good light.  Is it in my genes or is it the fact that being in sport I am consistently surrounding myself with younger and more able bodies.  Read more

If you want to go faster you need to go lighter! This is a generalisation but in the vast majority of cases it is true.  Triathlon is a race of three parts, on both the bike and run lowering your weight will make significant improvements to your race times.

If you cast your mind back to your science lessons, the greater the mass (weight) the greater the force required to accelerate (move) it.  Sorry if you have just eaten that big bar of chocolate but it’s as simple as that.  This is why you spent a fortune on that lightweight bike frame, or covet those latest carbon bits and pieces.

Read more here.

 

Life throws many challenges in our path, some massive, some tiny and many others in between.  Teresa has been struggling with foot pain for a couple of years now and finally found the cause.  Its not great news for her sporting ambitions but its far from over.  Read about it here.

I regularly give blood and have on occasion met other athletes at the donor sessions.  Without doubt blood donation is a good thing to do, as we are cycling and running out on the roads we are at greater risk of accident and may one day need to draw on the blood donated by others.  We are also healthy individuals ideally suited to supply blood without a significant impact on our own lives, but how will it affect our training and athletic performance?  Read on.

Train Hard – Race Easy is an old saying but remains true today, get the work done in training and the race day will tend to look after itself.  For most of us the race season is still a few months away, an ideal time to think about your training and the race performances it produces.

‘Train Hard’, what does that really mean? Read Here

After a year of waiting and preparation Ironman Barcelona arrived.   Mark and Teresa travelled out to the race with friends from TriAnglia and Born2tri.

The story of the trip is here.

A TriHarman athlete Donald Barber also completed his first Ironman race in Barcelona.

He has written an account of his experiences here.

If you would like to talk with us about support with your ambitions for 2016 events use our contact us.

Not everything will go to plan when you set out to complete a race.  Sometimes things go wrong long before you even reach the start line.  This fact you cannot change but how you react to the challenge is up to you, can you salvage a success against the odds?

We holidayed in Salou, Spain with the children some years ago, a nice beach resort just south of Barcelona.  When Teresa saw Challenge were putting on a Half Ironman distance triathlon there in May it seemed an ideal early preparation for IM Barcelona.  Challenge organise good events in a similar style to Ironman but not quite as expensive.  The credit card came out and soon we had two entries and a week holiday in the sun arranged.

Time passed and the training was not really going as expected.  Teresa had an enduring foot pain which it seems stemmed from a lumbar disc pushing on a nerve.  This was not going to be a quick fix and a half marathon run was out of the question.  She would still start the race but at best walk the run leg.  My training was going better but work on the house was eating into my time and the bike miles had suffered.  A personal best was no longer an option so what would success look like?   To find out click here.

I know there are a few of you doing IM Barcelona this year, you may be interested in the piece I wrote for my old club after preparing for and racing Challenge Barcelona (same course) in 2011.

It is a bit of a long read but you may find it interesting, click here.

There is no substitute for good old fashioned coaching from and experienced coach, one 2 one or in a group of like minded people. However there is much to learn reading the experiences of the coaches as they race and train.  Mark and Teresa share these with you in their Coaches Corner.  These are updated regularly so it is worth checking back from time to time.

You  will find the first article dealing with the importance of bike set up posted here, just  to give you an idea what is coming.

Mark and Teresa