Team WhittleFit racing roundup - 3rd & 4th September 2016

We had some great racing and training this weekend from WhittleFit coached athletes, here's the highlights:

• Cotswolds Sprint Triathlon: Andrew Martin and Luke Pryce both raced the Cotswolds Sprint Triathlon this weekend and both had great results. Luke came 3^rd in his age group and Andrew won the event! Great work guys! 
• European Middle Distance Champs: Tom Foster raced the European Middle Distance Champs in Austria this weekend and havd a great race, finished 4^th in age group - well done Tom!
• 100 mile TT: Mark Binding raced a local 100 mile TT this weekend in preparation for the Barcelona Ironman in 4 weeks. Mark achieved a great time of 4 hours and 13 minutes, which bodes well for the Ironman!

Team WhittleFit racing and training roundup - 26th, 27th & 28th August 2016

We had some great racing and training this weekend from WhittleFit coached athletes, here's the highlights:

• Ironman Vichy 70.3: WhittleFit coached triathlete Craig Patterson (coached by WhittleFit coach Chris Tasker) raced the 70.3 in France this weekend and had an amazing race with a time of 4 hours and 43 minutes. A great result, backing up his great time at Challenge Roth a few months ago - well done Craig! 
• National Relays Triathlon: Bethan Morgan raced the National Relays as part of the Royal Air Force Team this weekend, and they only went and won the race!!! Great work Beth, nice little tune up before Ironman Wales in a few weeks! 
• Ironman Wales training weekend: WhittleFit coaches Mark and Lawrence hosted 2 days in Tenby doing some swim, bike & run training on the Ironman Wales course. Coached athletes had the opportunity to swim on the Ironman Wales course, cycle different sections of the bike course and run part of the run course. These 2 days will be invaluable for the athletes come race day!

Team WhittleFit racing roundup - 13th & 14th August 2016

Some great racing this weekend from WhittleFit coached athletes, here's the highlights: 

• Midnight Man Triathlon: Tom Foster raced the Midnight Man middle distance triathlon yesterday and had an amazing race; Tom won the race by almost 10 minutes! Great racing and perfect preparation for the European middle distance champs in Austria in a few weeks!  

• Porthcawl Round the Bay swim: Andrew Martin raced the Porthcawl Round the Bay open water swim this weekend and had a great race with a 2^nd place finish; excellent preparation for Andrew’s upcoming race in Mexico for Team GB.

• Dorney Lake Sprint Triathlon: Martin Davies raced at Dorney Lake this weekend and had a very solid race with 8^th place in his catergory, nice work Martin!

• Brutal Big Swim: Coach Mark and friend of WhittleFit Richie Bowen did a recce weekend in Llanberis this weekend which included the Brutal 5K Big Swim. Both survived the chilly waters of Lake Padarn, with them coming home in 7^th and 11^th place respectively.

• Ironman Dublin 70.3: Mathew Pritchard made the switch from ultra long triathlon to the 70.3 (half Ironman) distance this weekend and raced the Dublin 70.3. Mathew had a great race and smashed his PB, great work mate!

Challenge Roth Race Report - Craig Patterson

WhittleFit coached athlete Craig Patterson racing the iconic Challenge Roth triathlon a few weeks ago, here's his race report: 

11 Months nearly to the day since I last raced and nearly 12 months since race entry to Challenge Roth, my first Iron Distance race and I had been told that it will be an awesome event for your first ever one. As the WhittleFit Majorca team will know I was still not running in April so very worried that I would not even be able race. Achilles injury aside I felt in great shape and coach Chris had got me in a very good place. Running had resumed but I only had about 10 weeks proper injury free run training under my belt so I was a little short on run volume but hey I WAS RUNNING!

We got to Germany on the Thursday and started to take in the atmosphere around Roth when we checked in on Friday afternoon, the expo was huge so if you do the race clear your Credit Card; the pasta party on Friday was pretty decent and two days out from race day which was a nice change. Race brief was on Saturday was long, hot and a bit over kill, it was in English & German so forgetting water was a stupid move. Bikes had to be racked on Saturday afternoon with your helmet to remain on the bike, also deposit your run kit that was to be taken across to T2 in the town of Roth as the race start & T1 was in the next town down the road. Pretty straight forward as you would expect from organisers who have been doing this for 15 years.

RACE DAY:

Could I sleep? Not really, so the 0320 alarm call wasn’t as big a shock as expected. We were staying in Nuremburg so had a 40 min drive to get down to the start. Breakfast of two Tesco porridge pots, Banana, some seeds and a Beet-It shot went down surprisingly well at 0400 in the morning. As it was going to be a long day I had to make sure I kept sipping, so had two water bottles, one with Torq Energy (Pink Grapefruit – cheers Tom Foster, good choice) and one with water. Parking was well organised at the event and we were straight in and wandering across to transition, I was not due to start until 0725 so had a good 2 hour wait but then I was relaxed and taking everything in. Got the tyres pumped up, bottle on (Gels in one, Torq in the other) and it was time to find Lynz for a good luck kiss. Got a bit emotional when we said goodbye, she has been though it this winter with my Achilles Injury and the 2 relapses, the late nights, early mornings and grumpy Craig at times.