Archive for the ‘Ironman’ Category

Lucy Gossage in Hawaii with her prize a Kona wooden bowl.

Lucy Gossage is an exceptional athlete with successes under her belt ranging from winning the Outlaw Triathlon in a relay with her TFN teammates to an individual course record for the Vitruvian Triathlon. This season she trained harder than ever in preparation for the ultimate Ironman race: Kona, Hawaii. Tzero caught up with Lucy at the Cancer Research Institute in Cambridge where she is busy completing her Ph.D. and discovered how Lucy caught the Ironman bug, and what she would do in a parallel universe where triathlon doesn’t exist. She also shared some top advice for anyone undertaking an Ironman Triathlon.

When was your first race?

LG: 2005, The London Triathlon

Do you have a training philosophy?

LG: Train hard but clever.

What is your favourite diet component?

LG: Coffee and Chocolate

What music do you train to?

LG: Infinity by the Guru Josh Project is my number one motivating song.

If triathlon didn’t exist what would you do for kicks?

LG: I’d go walking in mountains or travel the world. Maybe some watersports too!

Team TFN Holding The Outlaw Triathlon's Finishing Tape (Picture Credits: Dave Tyrell)

Triumphant TFN Tear Up The Outlaw Triathlon.

 

 

 

 

A relay team comprised Helen Gorman, Lucy Gossage and Louise Collins won the Nottingham-based Irondistance race overall in 8:52:15. Two of the three TFN team members are currently preparing for Ironman Hawaii later in the year and were invited by sponsors to participate in the race in a relay format. Paul Hawkins from Manchester was the first individual to finish the race, his first ever win at Irondistance, coming in 9:11:44. James Doust, hailing from New Zealand, completed the course in 9:21:19 to come second whilst third place came from Yorkshireman Tom Williams in 9:24:28. First individual female across the finish line was Joanna Swallow, sister of team GBR’s Jodie Swallow. She led the women out of the swim and maintained this lead to win the women’s race in 10:45.50. Viv Clement from Cardiff was the second individual woman across the line in 11:03.24 and third was York’s Emma Rand in 11:06.03.

Source: www.triathlonmagazine.eu/home/2-news/475-hawkins-and-swallow-claim-outlaw-triathlon-wins

Following her relay team’s Outlaw Triathlon win last weekend, Tzero caught up with Lucy Gossage, an Ironman Triathlete who is currently gearing up for the Ironman Championships in Hawaii later this year.

We had just enough time to get the lowdown on the relay team who won the UK’s alternative to the official Ironman race and Lucy’s take on the race from an experienced competitor’s point of view.

Tzero: When and why did the TFN relay team come into being?

LG: TFN is an amazing triathlon club in Nottingham of which Helen, Lou and I are all members. We were invited to take part in the Outlaw as a relay team by the event sponsors, Total Fitness Nottingham, Bloc and CompresSport and obviously jumped at the chance! Both Lou and I are training for Hawaii so couldn’t really do the whole thing by ourselves. Instead we had a win-win situation – we all got some quality training in as well as having a really fun day and being part of Nottingham’s first ever Ironman! It’s great to have the opportunity to race with your friends rather than against them and being part of a team really makes you want to give 100%. Though none of us had tapered and we were all viewing it as a training day, I think when it came down to our bit, we all gave us much as we could – and that’s how Lou’s ‘jogging’ the marathon turned into a 2hr49 run. Just think what she could do if she was properly rested! One of the best bits of the day was seeing lots of TFN friends finish their first Ironman – it certainly made me realise what an amazing achievement it is to finish one!

Over the last few months T-Zero has followed Alex Hinton’s preparation for his first Ironman. Two weeks ago he completed Ironman France in a time of 11 hours, 36 minutes and 4 seconds. After allowing Alex some time to relax and reflect we quizzed him on his experience.

Having completed his training programme, tapered and arrived injury free on the start line we rightly expected Alex to do well. However, this is Ironman, it’s a long day and many things can go wrong from swallowing excessive water in the swim, mechanical problems on the bike to cramps, injury or plain exhaustion on the run.

To minimise risks on the bike, Alex had his steed checked over by the Shimano mechanics at race HQ, who were apparently “impressively slick.” After that, it was a case of keeping out of trouble on the swim, controlling his pace and keeping fuelled on the bike, and surviving the marathon.

The race started well. Alex’s work in the pool with Fiona from Triathlon Europe paid off and he exited the water three minutes ahead of his target time. With his weakest discipline behind him, Alex set off confidently on the bike, taking care to keep his heart rate within his target zones.

With Ironman St George, the World Triathlon Corporation has added a tremendously challenging race to their series that has the potential to become a classic destination event for overseas competitors. Fiona Ford of Triathlon Europe reports on the inaugural event.

Ironman St George brings one of the most challenging bike and run courses to the 25 global Ironman events run by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). While the race HQ is situated in the historic town centre of St George – which lends a leafy, colonial feel to the event – this is in sharp contrast to the tough swim, bike and run course routes in the red rock of Utah.

The 2.4 mile swim takes place 2750ft (838m) above sea level, in the chilly, clear water of the picturesque Sand Hollow Reservoir. The rugged surrounding landscape already hints at what will come next.

Pro athletes who had ridden the bike course in advance of the race described it as a “most challenging” two lap route, rising to 4700ft (1680m) as it climbs through the red sandstone and lava canyons of the Dixie National Forest. Kate Major nick-named one particularly gruelling sustained 10% climb as “the wall” following her course recon in late 2009.

Injury, frustration, doubt and resolution

An Ironman athlete once told me “completing an Ironman is not that hard; it’s doing the training that’s the real problem.”

Over the past few weeks, Alex Hinton has been finding out how true that is. Alex is signed up for Ironman France in June 2010. T-zero has been following his progress.

Firstly, Alex picked up an injury – tendonitis in one ankle – and has been unable to run for a fortnight. On top of that, he’s taken on new responsibilities at work (with added time commitments) and has a private building project to manage 200 miles away in Cornwall. Plus he came down with a cold.

“I reached a point where I began to wonder whether it was all worth the money and effort,” says Alex.

According to Alex’s coach, Fiona Ford of Triathlon Europe, it’s not uncommon for athletes to go through periods of self-doubt.

“It’s quite normal to expect most first-time Ironman athletes to have doubts, frustrations and worries, especially if they get ill or injured,” says Fiona. “We’re not machines and a race preparation rarely runs like clockwork for novice triathletes until they understand their individual adaptation to training and the importance of recovery, and until they’ve gained the experience to train at the optimal training intensities prescribed.”

Aspiration meets actuality

Tzero supported athlete Alex Hinton is preparing for Ironman France 2010 under the guidance of coach Fiona Ford of Triathlon Europe. Following their initial meeting (see Part 1), Fiona gave Alex a set of sessions to ease him into his Ironman training.

Initial objectives included rebalancing Alex’s training so that he would spend more time on his weaker disciplines (swimming and running), and to do some basic fitness testing including a 20 minute bike time trial and 12 minute run test. In fact, his total weekly training hours have reduced with the Ironman programme, as before he was focused primarily on cycling.

Alex wrapped for winter training

As with most changes, things didn’t happen quite as planned. A key factor for Alex is to fit training around work and to maximise the use of his journeys to and from central London. This means frequent bike rides and the occasional long run are relatively easy to fit in, but structured sessions more difficult.

Alex has spent part of his first weeks of his Ironman preparation experimenting with different options to find the best way to manage the training. Inevitably, this resulted in some skipped or altered sessions to those planned.

Alex Hinton decided he wanted a coach to help him prepare for his first Ironman: Ironman France, 27 June 2010. He approached Fiona Ford of Triathlon Europe. Fiona won her age-group at the race in 2007 and finished 9^th woman overall (see her race report here). The two invited Tzero to follow and report on Alex’s progress. Here is Part 1 of what will be a regular series over the next few months.

In the beginning

As a coach, Fiona believes the essential first step is for her to build a thorough understanding of her athletes’ aspirations, life-style and athletic history. She met Alex after a swimming training session. This is what she found out:

Profile

Alex has an endurance sport track record that makes Ironman look quite tame. He once completed a rowing race across the Atlantic (79 days) and a trek to the North Pole. On top of that, he cycles the 28 mile round trip to work every day (except when he runs in), he has a marathon PB of around 3 hours 30 minutes (and thinks he could have gone 20 minutes quicker if he didn’t have to stop to stretch out his cramped calf muscles) and is a keen surfer and kite surfer. He works with Royal Bank of Scotland in Central London, is married and has a one-year old daughter. He competes in the 35-40 age group.