WhittleFit Blog

New Year’s Trisolutions

Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope you all had a great 2016 and are starting to make plans for 2017......and with that in mind, our IRONMAN Certified Coach Lawrence Cronk has written a great article to help you plan your way through the pitfalls of January and New Years resolutions.

January is here! Let me guess, you’ve over indulged, have lost track of what day it is, feel unfit and are looking forward to getting back into a routine? So here is what you are probably thinking: ‘I want to eat less food, do more training and be awesome!’ With going back to work this is all going to be a bit of a shock to the system but it’s the new year and you are motivated to get results, so you layer on the new technical gear Santa brought you and head out for a run or ride! While the first few training sessions might feel sluggish the release of endorphins and satisfaction from making a new start will be highly motivating. This motivation might drive you to push harder or go further than is necessary. Then it hits you, the early starts, rapid increase in training volume and change in diet weakens your immune system and you get ill or injured. So here is my suggestion for a triathlete’s new year’s resolution:

‘Make it to February without illness or injury.’

Perhaps this doesn’t seem very ambitious, but unless you are racing abroad it is unlikely that your ‘A’ race is any time soon. If you make it through January without setback then it is likely that you have settled into a sustainable routine balancing work, family and training without over stressing your body. You have now laid a healthy foundation to move forward.

Ironman Austria race report - 2009

I was asked a while ago if I had old race reports and if I could pop them up on the blog, well here goes, this is the race report from my first Ironman race. It was Ironman Austria and it was 2009, enjoy!

So where do I start? Let’s try at the beginning. Why did I decide to do an Ironman? Well, last year the plan was to do the run part of an Ironman as a relay with a couple of club mates, but when push came to shove I decided I didn’t want to go all the way across Europe just to do a marathon when in fact I could possibly do the whole thing. What was I thinking?

So, long story short, my mate (Chris Tasker) and I decided to sign up for Ironman Austria 2009, Chris had already done Ironman Lanzarote twice (dubbed the hardest Ironman of the all) so I felt good knowing I could rely on his previous Ironman experience. After signing up we had 12 months to train, it seemed like an age away, needless to say the time flew by, interspersed with a few trials and tribulations along the way to test us (more on that later).

It was now December 2008 and I decided I needed a coach to help me on my Ironman journey so contacted Neill Gowans (a coach from our club) for some help. He’d already done Ironman Austria and was a respected coach in our club so seemed the perfect candidate (and he was free!). Many questions and emails later Neill took me on and so started 6 months of Ironman training. Ironman Top tip number one, get yourself a coach, they do the thinking for you, so you can just concentrate on the training and the race.

Training was going well, until a few months before the race my appendix burst! Not good! Whilst on the bed recovering from an emergency appendectomy I was working out how many weeks training I could squeeze in after recovering from the op. Fortunately I had already done a fair bit of base work and if I rested up for 3-4 weeks I could still get in about 8-9 weeks of training before the big day – tragedy averted!

WhittleFit coach Lawrence Cronk now an IRONMAN Certified Coach

Congratulations to WhittleFit coach Lawrence Cronk who successfully completed the Ironman University coaching course to become an IRONMAN Certified Coach!

The IRONMAN Certified Coach course is underwritten by some of the most respected coaches in the triathlon world, including Mark Allen, Matt Dixon, Troy Jacobson, Paula Newby-Fraser, Lance Watson and Dave Scott, and covers triathlon subjects including:

Coaching philosophy
Principles of exercise science
The science of swimming, cycling & running
Sports nutrition
Strength and conditioning
Triathlon training plan development
The art of triathlon coaching
Event preparation & execution

Well done Lawrence, a great way to end 2016!

WhittleFit Athlete Spotlight: Bethan Morgan

This month we focus the spotlight on Bethan Morgan, lets see what Beth has to say:

What got you started in endurance/ multisport?
- I used to run (slowly) quite a lot but had lots of injuries - physios banning me from running made me swim and bike more. As I slowly got back into running, triathlon seemed like a logical (if not quite scary!) way to go.
How long have you been with WhittleFit?
- Just over a year now and things are going really well, consistency is key!
Tell us about your home and work life?
- I work as a Military Nurse so life can be a little unpredictable at times. I'm lucky that my other half also does Triathlon and we live apart during the week so I don't have to feel guilty about spending (most of) my free time training. Next year I'm off to the Falklands but the turbo will be coming (wahoo!).
What was your first race?
- The Birmingham Triathlon at Arrow Valley, Redditch. It was a super sprint, I ended up leading a swim and I got lost as a result, luckily that's never happened again.
How many races have you done?
- Too many to count. Probably over 25 triathlons now including 3 full Ironman's. But I also like to time trial and do cross country races.
What advice would you give someone starting out in triathlon?
- Enjoy it! Don't be scared to ask for help in transition before the race if you need it. Race lots when you first start to gain experience and have fun!
What is the most rewarding part of your journey racing in endurance or multisport?
- Seeing other people do more exercise as a result of what I've done. I love it when people say they have been inspired by me.
What is your biggest accomplishment so far?
- In 2015 I won my age group at the European Middle Distance Championships (25-29 years) which was held in Rimini, Italy. It was a tough race, I knew I was in a fairly good position as there weren't many bike's in T2 so I just ran for my life and didn't even know where I'd finished till the results were posted later.

Thanks to Bethan for checking in with us! Beth has a few challenges lined up for 2017, watch this space for more news on that!

Two in Two!

It's been a long time coming, but here's Craig Burrows take on what it's like to do two Ironman triathlons in two weeks (Ironman Weymouth and Ironman Wales)!

The week following Ironman Weymouth was a typical recovery week. Copious amounts of refined sugar that I’d unwillingly avoided for the previous (feels like) millennia, zero exercise, and the self-scathing postmortem that accompanies every race. However, my recovery week culminated like no other, with an Ironman Wales medal. So I was in the unfamiliar predicament of having two ‘A races’ in two weeks. Two races, two different approaches, two comparatively similar outcomes.

I must begin by explaining that Ironman Weymouth wasn’t supposed to be my ‘A’ race of the year. The original plan was for James Grandfield and I to head out to Copenhagen to test ourselves at a flat, fast and iconic Ironman event. Lauren’s credit card signed up on the day it opened and the planning began…. Family Planning that is. Early in the new year James ‘Granny’ Grandfield ‘sat me down’ and informed me that he was having a baby (amazing news) and that baby Jesse was due to be born on the same weekend as Ironman Copenhagen (not such amazing news). In light of this, we transferred to Weymouth and the training began.

I set myself simple but ambiguous goals with coach, Mark Whittle. ‘Turn me into an uber biker’ and ‘run to my potential off the bike’ were my requests. Neither goal is particularly quantifiable and both are completely subjective, but they were goals all the same.