Triathlete Progress – A Quick Look
This post contains a few snippets from our athletes – some race news and some great progress in training. Have a read and be inspired!
Strong Start To The Season
When you are 11th fastest female from a field of more than 260 runners, you know you’ve had a great race.
And Sara did have a great race.
Pushing hard from the start for the 7 mile trail run, running strong up and down hills, overtaking runners the whole way and finishing with a sprint finish.
Sara feeling strong, confident and powerful.
Sara took on the challenging seven mile route in the beauty of the world-renowned Coed y Brenin Forest Park in the Eryri National Park. The race featured such singletrack highlights as Goshawk, Ferndale, Slab climb, Karrimor descent and of course the wonderful Sting in the Tail!
This was the first race of a big, big season for Sara.
A super start!
Positivity In The Face Of Disappointment
One of our athletes, Graham, ran the Parbold Hill Race at the weekend. Feeling great from the gun, he was running strong, onto a really good performance … until he planted his foot into a particularly muddy section.
His foot came out, but his shoe didn’t.
The shoe was completely stuck in the mud. After a good few minutes of effort, the shoe came free, and after a couple more minutes of faffing and getting the shoe on securely again, he was off and running.
Undeterred, he flew, determined to salvage something from the race. Overtaking so many people on his way to the finish line.
“That was one of the best races I’ve ever ran. Not the course, but my running. I felt so strong.”
Kate – Barcelona Half Marathon
Kate ran really well at the Barcelona Half Marathon last week, despite being in the middle of some ultra-running training, logging long miles. She ran strong!
“Stuck to a comfortable pace the whole way through and was feeling strong at the end, so managed a faster finish. (Overall) much stronger than I was expecting.”
Matt Riding The Wave Of Progress!
“On the bike, what do you think are your limiters?”
A low FTP, was the answer from this athlete when we discussed the prospect of triathlon coaching in July last year.
Since then, this athlete has put a lot of time into his bike, with frequent Zwift sessions, working specifically on his bike strength.
He now has an FTP in excess of 300w.
At the same time, he is swimming quicker than ever (1.29/100m) and set a new half marathon personal best time (1.24) shortly before Christmas!
Some fantastic progress!
Blowing Up An FTP!
What about the athlete who improved her FTP by almost 25%?
An FTP test of 195w 14 months ago.
239w today.
Oooofff!
Loving the progress, Dani!
Another Big FTP Boost
Another athlete making big improvements on the bike. Carl, preparing for his first Ironman (Barcelona) later this year is progressing really well with his training. His latest FTP test saw him improve his output by 30 watts!
“Felt a lot stronger on the bike. My average 20 minute power was 30w higher than the one I did before Christmas!”
Zwift Racing
One of our athletes has been taking part in Zwift races over recent months – definitely enjoying the dynamics of racing, with the various pace surges, rather than controlled pacing.
Despite super high power numbers for the first few minutes of last week’s race, Sammie managed to hang on and maintain a really strong pace and power, recording her best ever 5 minute, 10 minute and 20 minute power during the race.
When we start thinking about pacing, and maintaining a constant output, I reckon we’re going to see those numbers go even higher!
We Need To Be Able To Laugh At Ourselves
Whilst not quite the single session / race performance achievements to match the athletes above, another of our athletes, Alan, has put in a lot of great work over the past few months. Usually an athlete who struggles for consistency due to ‘life’, he has put together week after week of great training.
So for his trunks to split at the back (all the way!) when climbing out of the pool after another solid swim session was a little unfair! Equally unfair was the fact it took place at lunchtime in front of a busy aqua aerobics class.
🙈
“Had to shuffle back to the changing rooms holding my pull buoy and paddles over my a**e as to not expose myself”
Eek!
(No pictures included for this one!)
This post only includes a few of the great training (and racing) performances that we’re seeing so far this year. Seven or eight weeks into 2024, and athletes have made a strong start.
Long may it continue!
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