Joyce goes 11.08

Whilst the rest of us were sleeping on Saturday night, Joyce Wolfe was flying round her first Ironman in Western Australia. We haven't got a full report yet but Joyce's splits were 1.04, 5.56 and 4.01 - add in transitions and that gave her a fantastic 11.08 debut. Much deserved after many long hours of hard training over the last few cold winter months!

Thousands of miles away and in temperatures about 30 degrees colder Pete and Harry tackled the Devon Cross Country Championships at Exeter Arena. It turned into a slog through ankle deep mud on much of the course. Kev Heywood was in a class of his own and won by miles with Pete and Harry finishing just behind the 2nd group in 6th and 8th.

On a final note, places for the January swim camp and Big Weekend are going fast so get your entries in now if you plan on coming along.

"Guys, I'm totally f****d!"

When we first came up with the idea of the 'Big Weekenders' our aim was to give people the chance to break down barriers, train hard and meet like minded athletes. We know triathletes love a challenge and arrived in Bath on Friday looking forward to smashing 3 big days of training!

I would talk you through the whole weekend, but then I'd be giving away the secrets of Driven to Tri Domination. Suffice to say the athletes got between 12 and 16 hours of training under their belts and just for fun went up to Castle Coombe on Sunday afternoon and won the team event at the Duathlon.

A couple of interesting incidents. Javier's ride back from the race was a highlight. After his extra lap on the bike (although we suspect his 8 minute transition might actually have been due to a snooze) Leaving Castle Coombe he was 90% sure he was coming on the next camp but by the time he hit the youth hostel was 100% sure he'd be along next time, he was also and I quote "100% totally f*?"!d" It's fair to say that everyone mentioned the f word at some stage during the weekend (well except for Tash, incase her mum's reading she didn't swear at all!!)

Tash's face when she realised she'd just done the biggest days training in her life and was off to race the next day, she was infact so angry that she swam a sub 4.50 400m.

Pete attempting to ride between the groups to tell Harry at the front what was going on. He thought he was riding hard and well up the hill only to find Emma still on his wheel with a cheeky grin on her face shouting "Take me to the front!"

Kate dishing out tickets on the way back from Cheddar

Jill riding into Bath telling us she'd bonked 20 miles ago and was considering a quick nap by the roadside.

Oli trying to convince Pete we didn't have a tailwind on the bike despite leaves flying past us faster than we could ride! We turned round soon after and proceeded to halve our speed!

Nicola's face after racing the Duathlon when Harry informed her she should drive home quickly as he didn't want her to miss her swim session!

To be honest we could have written a book about Javier's weekend but we'll leave it at that for now!

All in all, a great weekend, if you missed it you missed out so get your forms in for the next Big Weekend in Tavistock on the 23rd-25th of January - we're planning ways of making it more crazy already!

Brooks Domination....

Brooks Brighton 10k Start!

Where is Lucky??

Julie's been dominating the headlines for the past month or so but now she's headed stateside it's time Harry and Pete got back on the D2T news page, so here goes.......

Harry, resplendent in pink Brooks gloves won our local race the Tavy 7. Tavistock Athletics club put on a great event each year which always attracts a decent field on 700 or so athletes. This year was no exception and Harry had company for the first couple of miles. He managed to gradually pull away on the tough course and went on to win by over a minute.

Pete meanwhile headed to Brighton for the Brooks Brighton 10k. Brooks have sponsored this event for the past couple of years and do a great job of supporting the event and turning up each year with some of there sponsored athletes which always makes the competition hot. Unlike last year it wasn't blowing a gale so there were some reasonably quick times recorded. Despite not being able to stick with the leaders, Pete ran a strong last 5k to come home in 4th place, just outside his PB in 31.12.

Away from racing we've got the 1st Driven to Tri big weekend coming up very soon in Bath. It will hopefully be a fun but hard weekend's training and if we're lucky we may even get some half decent weather. If you're racing the Chilly Duathlon at Castle Coombe watch out for the Big Weekend Crew!!

Oh, and if you were wondering about the blog post title it's because we're concerned about the Whereabouts of Julie's dog Lucky...... they've now moved to the US but we've had no news on whether Lucky has been allowed out with them.... we'll keep investigating!

Julie 4th at World 70.3 Champs

The title pretty much says it all, Well done Dibs, great end to a great season.

Julie Won.....AGAIN

Julie's World Xterra champ again! She was 3rd out of the water, moved into the lead early on in the bike then despite fading a little in the heat managed to hang on for the run to win by just over a minute. Good work Dibs.

Driven to Tri had a good day at the office, Daz was 5th in her age group as was Randy. Honary Driven to Tri member Jim McConnel was 23rd in the Elite race and unfortunatly Sam Gardener was a dnf.

Julie has jet setted onto Florida for the World Half IM champs this weekend (hence she isn't writing the update.) We are all hoping for the Driven to Tri Double!

Just as impressive as Julies win in Hawaii was Janes 11.45 IM Florida. Jane's 46, she works 40 hours a week and her previous IM P.B was 13.54, Well done Jane, amazing race.

Back in Blighty Kate made her debut in the Oxford League cross country, Pete was 3rd in the brooks Westward League and I made the top 10.

Xterra World Champs

Driven to tri has a small but select contingent out here in Maui preparing for this Sunday's World Xterra Championships. Obviously, I (Julie) am racing and looking to have another strong performance like last year. I am going into the race excited, and looking forward to the challenge of trying to retain the title I won last year. I still feel a little out of my depth on a mountain bike compared to some of these other Xterra chickies. But, I am looking for a strong personal performance all round, and will be looking to control the controllables and forget all the rest.

Also racing and in the hunt for a medal is Daz Parker (www.dazparker.com). Earlier in the year Daz dominated at the Age group World Champs in Vancouver. She is one tough cookie, and dealt with the extreme conditions the Vancouver summer threw at her. The conditions out here will be a little bit different, but certainly no easier and I am sure Daz will rise to the occasion and pull out a cracking performance.

Our third D2tri athlete, and a new addition to our team, is Canadian athlete Randy Walker. I met Randy out here in Maui this time last year. He had just raced the Hawaii Ironman, and was looking to double up by racing the Xterra 2 weeks later. He recently got back in touch and was keen to join forces in his build up for the race this year. He has been going really well in training, and again we are looking for a cracking performance from Randy on Sunday. He will be racing in the 50-54 age group.

And lastly, but my no means least, D2tri coach Mike "aka the fish" Dibens will also be racing on Sunday. He qualified for the race in Xterra UK with his 8th place age group finish....after the slot rolled down a few spots, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what all i have cracked it up to be! Mike will be looking to have a strong swim as per usual, hopefully messing with a few pros, and then will be looking to finish the race strongly with a smile.....rather than a grimace like in Wales!

Those interested can follow the coverage live online at www.xterra.tv And of course the results will be posted as soon as possible.

One Step Closer to World Domination...

That's the slogan for our new Brooks T-Shirts, it was Julie's idea so hopefully she's going to live up to it and dominate at the World Xterra Champs in Maui this weekend - no pressure!

Talking about Domination... Tash Diment did just that at the Wadebridge Triathlon. Recording the fastest swim of the day (male or female) she biked strongly and held it together well on the run to finish 1st by a couple of minutes. (some people would say Cornwall is a different world, so we could class that as world domination...)

Harry and I (Pete) managed to scrape the French Team into the top 10 at the Coupe De France - it wasn't the most stylish display of group riding and running but we got round well enough despite Harry nursing a chest infection and being informed he had to be drug tested after dragging himself round the run coughing and spluttering! The party out there was a good end to the season as always but as usual made the trip home rather less enjoyable!

Since then we've spent more time publicising and organising the Driven to Tri winter camps. The 1st swim camp of the winter ran smoothly at the weekend and the standard of swimming was pretty good. We're now just awaiting the reports of the time improvements everyone made.....

Next up is the Big Weekend in Bath - if you haven't booked your spot you're missing out big time - a fun filled weekend of hard training!

We Hate Punctures

Patrick made the trip to Rimini for the World Duathlon Champs.
After a solid first run and first half of the Bike it looked like a top 10 in hs age group was on the cards, then bang!

These things happen and Patrick has had a fantastic year making 3 g.b teams in his first full year of competition. Roll on the winter and the Swimming Lessons...

Lorne Having it Large in Studland (no not the nudist beach)

2nd for Lorne at the Steve Bird Memorial Triathlon held at Studland on Sunday, a great result to cap off a fantastic season that has sen Lorne make leaps forward with his training and racing. Not only that but he also passed his first year at Uni. Give it another 2 years and we might have a driven to tri nutritionalist!

Backing up at Bala and going up in France

Kate wanted to finish off her season with an Olympic distance time and get the triple of sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman in the same year. So a week after Monaco she backed up with a great result at Bala, 5th overall in the womes race after the bike and sub 2.30 in her first full season...great job.

Pete and I were at the last of our french grand prix races where we needed to win the team race and the other teams to mess up if we were going to get promoted. The three counters for our team were 4th 8th and 13th which gave us the win, but we thought the other teams had raced well enough for us to stay down. Lots of long faces until a maths man somewhere worked it out and we were up by a point. French very happy and fingers crossed a contract for next year...phew!

Not a whole lot of racing left now, a few Driven to tri stalwarts in action next weekend followed by some World Duathlon action, then its a couple of jetsetters with warm weather races, Julie dominating world 70.3s and xterra then time for turkey (the bird not the place).

Driven to Tri's Big Weekend

Lots going on this weekend, Julie decided not to take the trip to Monaco, but we still had plenty of athletes out spreading the Driven to Tri word.

First Up were Joyce and Jane at the Lost Sheep half Ironman in Kenmare. Joyce finsihed 2nd overall in the womens race whilst Jane took 10 minutes off last years bike time despite some horrendous weather conditions, full results once they are publised.

At the Cotswolds Tri Mike was really unlucky to puncture on the bike, so unfortunatly a Driven To Tri DNF, but he did have a really strong swim. I finished second after being given a lesson in how to ride a time trial by James Gillfillan. I have to say he was very impressive on his bike.

Out in Monaco Nathan, Kate, Brett and Kevin were all in action. Again i'll update with full results once I have them. Kate was 14th in her age group on her 1/2 iroman debut. Brett took a tumble coming down off one of the cols and is going to have a soar collar bone for a few weeks. Kevin and Natan both had solid races.

Lorne was our only Olympic distance racer this weekend, getting inside 2.10 with a 21minute swim and a 37 minute run. After a tough season with some big weeks lifeguarding down at Bournemouth i'm really glad that Lorne has managed to nail a result, as he says "bring on next season!"

That just leaves Pete who was supersprinting in Strathclyde. 14th overall after missing a wheel as the break went on the bike. Not the result he was looking for, but getting back to form after his crash and should be ready to dominate in France next weekend.

Probably one of our biggest weekends racing so far, well done everyone amazing to see everyone giving it beans and making the new kit look so good. "One Step Closer to World Domination!"

Julie Wins Xterra Austria

6 minutes clear of the second women and 33rd overall! Go on, you can say it...Dom..in..ate!!

Whilst Julie was in Austria Joyce and Fiona were in Dublin taking 5th and 6th overall in the womens race. Both Joyce and Fiona are coached by Pete and on this occasion Joyce came out on top, showing that her IM Australia preperation is going well.

Driven to Tri Kids tops....tres cool

Ben Says if we sell any I have to give him £50!
He also did the photograpy for the bike kit. If anyone wants any more kit drop us a mail.

Kate takes on the little woody

For her debut half Ironman distance race and in preperation for her head to head with Dibens at the Monaco 70.3 Kate took on the little woody. Despite taking a 6km detour on the bike Kate had a solid race and learnt alot about how pace the longer distance...bring on Monaco!!

Thank goodness for Jack, Julie and Philip!

First result of the weekend was Philip picking up the black T.Shirt finishing the Norseman in 16 hours and 20 minutes. He was first U.S.A home. This was an incredible achievement especially as it was Philips first attempt at long distance racing and he had to fit training around a very hectic work schedule.

Result two of the weekend was Jacks first win in the Swanage Sprint Triathlon. At London Julie led home the team winning the Womens race. Daz finished 7th in the womens sub 2.30 race. In the junior girls race Natasha lead out the swim but was unfortunatly involved in a bike crash whilst Nicola ran her way up through the field to finish 5th. Kevin raced for experience with a strong swim and bike but did not run due to an achillies injury. Nathan was unlucky to be involved in a bike crash. Patrick had a solid if not spectaucular race in the sub 2.30 catagory. Despite leading out onto the bike Pete and I were both very dissapointed with our runs and finished 17th and 18th in the mens race after the whole field came together. A few more weeks to get over our crash damage and I promise the running legs will be back and we will keep up our part of the Driven To Tri World Domination plan.

After the Race I headed up to Loughborough to help run the national talent camp. It was great to spend 3 days working with a small group of athletes who have been identified as the most talented in the country. I ran sessions on Open water swim technique bike racing skills and media training. It was alot of fun spending some time with a really motivated but layed back group of young athletes and great to be able to help them aquire some new skills.

Driven to Tri are going to London

Just a quick update, as not much racing has gone on this weekend. Kyle had a good hit out at Hayle to follow up a solid race at Plymouth. Everyone else seems to be in preperation mode. Philip is off to the Norseman (the toughest ironman in the world) this weekend whilst Pete Julie and I are all be up at London this weekend.

As theres not alot of news i thought i'd get around to adding a picture of pete's road rash and a shot of Barry's bike after his crash at the start of the season. Be careful out on your bikes folks!

6th for Julie in New York

Many thanks to Zui Hunafusa for sending us through this picture of Dibs in action

Another weekend another step towards D2T Domination

Julie kicked off the weekend with a very solid 5th place finish at the L.A Life Time Fitness Triathlon, after a slightly disrupted spell of training it looks like Dibs is finding form, she's racing the next round of the U.S big money series in New Your this weekend so Go Dibs!

On the home front Patrick won his age group at the Dorney Lake steelman to book a slot for next years European Championship team. Lorne also got back into racing giving almost Driven To Tri member Abbie Bayley a run for her money in the Portland Bill triathlon on the Sunday then backing it up on the wednesday with solid hit out at the Boscombe Beach Aquathlon.

Not quite Driven to Tri Business but some of the young South West athletes I have been helping out raced the European Youth Relay trials at Eton today clocking the fastest run splits in the boys and girls race. Also a mention for Rhys who trains with Pete and I down at Kelly and should have secured his slot on the european team, Good Work Rhys, the winter is paying off!!

Finally I got my level 3 certificate through this week so am now officially a British Triathlon Level 3 coach. That means that unless Pete of Julie read this update i'm going to refer to myself as "head coach" from now on!!

New Driven to Tri Bike kit is in The Country!

It was a little bit like Christmas in the Dibens household as all the kit arrived last week. Everyone should now have all the stuff they ordered. Apologies for the delays. As it's the first time we have done this we didn't quite realise that when the Italians say they are racing to get something done they are actually talking about snail racing! Still we think its awesome kit (apart from the arm warmers which Julie thinks are hideous) Don't worry, Pete and I have over ruled her on this one.
We will get photos of all the stuff up on the web as soon as possible, the Driven To Tri World Domination range now includes.

Bike: Long sleeve and short sleeve jerseys Gilet Shorts, leg warmers arm warmers over shoes gloves, vests.

Run: Vests Triathlon: Race Suits Casual: Hoodies, T.shirts and Beanies Kids: T.shirts

Unfortunatly I managed to rip the bum out of my kit on it's first outing!

Joyce Takes 10th in the Etape

Joyce went over to france to race the Etape de tour last weekend as part of her preperation for Ironman WA. Joyce had a fantastic ride to finish 10th in her catagory in a time of 7.34. That put her 10 minutes infront of Snugg and Driven to Tri Wetsuit making extrordinare Malcom Ball. There were over 75000 starters in the 169km stage from Pau to Hautacam.

Wacky, Wacky Races!

Triathlon World Cups….. Those are the things we normally watch on triathlon.org like all the other tri geeks to see how all the big boys are going in the lead up to the Olympics. So… we’re packing for the French Divvy 2 race, ready to leave when we check e-mails for the last time to see we can both have a start at Hamburg World Cup! An hour later and already late for our flight to France, we’ve booked flights from Paris to Hamburg and we’re off…. Accommodation will have to wait (we’ll come back to that).

The French Divvy 2 race finally worked out for us, we managed to stay away in a working group of 12 on the bike and come off with 20s on the main pack. At 35 degrees the run was HOT! I’d packed my legs and ran for 1st which was very pleasing. Harry, who pretty much had gimped for me on the bike decided to leave his legs ‘dans le velo’ and ended up 13th. We ended up 3rd in the team standings which left the team manager a bit pissed off! So pissed off in fact that we got dropped at Charles De Gaulle airport that night to sleep on the floor without any dinner. All for the love of sport of course!

After a ‘great’ nights sleep we jumped on the plane to Hamburg, got the bus to the city centre and set about the task of finding a hotel for the week. 1 hour later and we’ve found a 41 Euro a night hotel bang slap in the centre, bargain! It came with free cigarettes (half smoked of course) and a 6 light chandelier, 1 of the lights even worked! Easy access to the city centre and the race and even easier access to the girls who were standing on the corners outside……

We survived 5 nights and by race day were ready to go! Well, Harry was ready to go, I started racing after about 20 minutes by which time I’d missed the front two packs in the swim, not the ideal start. Harry performed his usual magic tricks with ‘the claw’ to appear at the front of the field after the swim. Deciding to give the big boys a chance he waited patiently on the bike and sat in the front group until the run.

Now, when you watch on the little screen on triathlon.org they don’t seem to be running that fast! They’re a little bit quicker in real life, or so Harry assures me. I was still somewhere out the bike course when they started running! Although not being spectacularly fast, Harry put in a solid run to finish 13th which was still a good result in only his 2nd World Cup. I managed to run ok but ended up 24th, minutes down on the winner and never really in the race. Still, great experience all the same.

Saturday night saw another sleep in an airport before a 1 hour BA flight, 1 hour underground, 2 hour South West train and a 2 hour car journey back to Tavi just in time to be tri geeks again and watch the girls race on triathlon.org. They didn’t look to be running that fast…. But I’ll never know, I’m too scared to check if they out ran me or not!

World Cup Wonders

Big CONGRATS to Harry, who looks like to have come 13th at the Hamburg World Cup earlier today. Truly an awesome performance, and a great reflection of how far Harry has come since he won the World University Championships. All that hard work and dedication is starting to pay off! Fingers crossed and the BTF should now put him on the "World Cup squad". Pete also looks to have had a good race, despite missing the front swim pack (i think?). He hung tough on the run posting another 32min 10km time, which again as i giant step in the right direction. He looks to have finished 24th....which ain't too shabby either.

No doubt the guys will give us there own reports soon too!...and hopefully some pics as well.

You can check out the results on the ITU website. www.triathlon.org

Xterra UK report

A small handful of the Driven to tri team put their road/TT bikes away, dusted off their mountain bikes, and hit the trails in Wales for Xterra UK on Saturday. We had all pre ridden the course a few times, so knew what to expect. What we hadn't counted on was the weather. It chucked it down and turned the course even nastier, and super muddy by the end. But hey, that's all part of Xterra right?

It was another dominant performance by all our team with Daz, Sharkie and Julie all winning their slots for the World Champs in Maui. Julie and Mike (who was making his Xterra Debut) officially had the 2 fastest swims of the day, after everyone else cut the course!!!! cheaters, cheaters, pumpkin eaters :).

There were also some fantastic performances from some of our Driven to Tri Xterra UK camp attendees. See, it is worth pre-riding the course after all!

Results can be found on Tri247 : http://www.tri247.com/results_5877.html

Another Weekend of Driven to Tri domination

Wow lots of racing this weekend, Julie struggled through a tough day at the office for 2nd at Half Ironman U.K while Kevin powered home with a sub 2 hour half Marathon to break 6 minutes inside the 6 hour mark. Thoughts are with Barry who i'm sure was going to fly around the course until he had an unfortunate incident with a car on the course last wednesday and won't be bending his knee for another week.

At Windsor Kate got the day rolling with an amazing 3rd overall in the womens sprint race, just a week after coming 7th at the Worlds in Vancouver, Fiona came 3rd in her age group and Nathan also had a good day finishing in 3.09.

On to the Elite race and Kyle did a great job of hanging tough to gain vital experience when things wern't all going his way. Pete and I new the pressure was on, with all our athletes dominating we HAD to do the same. I was third and Pete was second, thanks to everyone who cheered us around the course... I'm off to get our new t.shirts sorted "Driven To Tri, One Step Closer to World Domination" or should it be " I love it when a plan comes together"

Next weekend is Xterra U.K where Driven To Tri dark horse Mike Dibens will be making his first multisport appearance, rumour has it preperations have been going well...watch out Julie!!

HOT OFF THE PRESS - DAZ is WORLD CHAMP !

Driven to tri's very own Darrelle Parker has just been crowned World Champion in Vancouver. Daz's rise to the top has really been incredible, having only competed in her first triathlon last year. She joined Driven to tri shortly after she attended our Xterra training camp last year, and has been in dominating form all year. You're a total star Daz!

After some celebrating in Vancouver, Daz will then return to the UK and focus her efforts on qualifying for the XTERRA world champs this year in Maui. Can she do the double?

Kate was also representing in the Sprint Race leading her wave out of the water and around the first half of the bike course before finishing 7th in her age group only a year after her first run!!

70.3 Switzerland Win and mulitple lessons learnt!

It is great to be back on top of the podium again. 70.3's are never easy, and it was great to win my 3rd 70.3 title. 3 out of 5 ain't too bad.

Since my first two races of the year, i have been pretty focused on working on my biking by slowly introducing some top end stuff. This has included some TT efforts around Chew Valley lakes, and some dreaded 20min TT efforts on the computrainer. Even with only 3 weeks of this work i am already starting to feel my biking legs come back to me.

Back to the race itself - i learnt 2 things in this race (or was reminded of)
1. Focus on the process not the outcome - You just have to stay focused on what you are doing and how you are doing it - and you will get the job done. When i got passed on the bike, i wasn't really expecting it, and i could have paniced and tryed to stay with her, but i decided to stick to me original game plan, and focused on holding a certain power output. Even once out on the run, i never really allowed myself to think about going for the win or consolidating 2nd place - i just focused on running well and staying focused.
2. Deep water starts - They are never fun and it will always end up a bit of a dog fight....especially when racing with the men! I was reminded again here, that even though the referee tries to call people back to the line, as they are inching forward - eventually they will just start the gun (with people 5m in front of the line).....so just go with it. Don't be the lone person stuck on the offical line with 50 people in front.

Next up for me is the UK 70.3. If it is anything like last time, after the race we will all be sitting around in a big field hanging around for hours until the awards ceremony. If any of you are there, please come up and have a chat. Will be great to meet some of you D2tri'ers that i haven't yet met.....and hopefully the time will pass by quicker.

Also to those racing the world champs this weekend. Good luck. Time to put the smack down, and get one step closer to world domination.

Not to be out done....

We also had a few other Driven to Tri athletes competing amongst the masses at the Eton Supersprints last weekend. Sharkie (Mark Jaggard), had a great result coming 2nd, and Kyle finishing in 9th. Both have been in the wars a bit of late, with Sharkie twisting his ankle badly at the Hart Triathlon a couple of weeks ago (but still won his age group!), and Kyle suffering from Back pain! Way to tough it out guys!

Now that the race season is in full swing, i will be posting our early season results soon. I know there are at least a few outstanding performances that need mentioning. Unfortunately for now, none are mine.... but i am hoping to rectify that soon.

I'm at altitude, not enough air to think of a funny title!!

Another good weekend, Kate was 9th at the Eton Super Sprint on the Sunday whilst Fiona managed 8th on the Saturday. We thought there was going to be a big Harry's athlete Pete athlete show down, but with the racing over 2 days it wasn't to be.

Whilst Kate and Fiona where representing Driven toTri in England Pete and I thought we would spread the word in France. We raced the first of the French Grand Prix races and finished 3rd and 5th respectivley with only 4 seconds between us over the line. We have now set up the Driven to Tri Font Romeo office at 1800m. We will be based out here for the next three weeks, so any errors omissions or spelling mistakes will be blamed on the altitude!

Wow, it's summer!!

Lots of driven to triathletes in action this weekend. Pete kicked off his season using the Exe Valley Tri as a warm up for next weekends French Grand Prix, he won by over 3 minutes. As I've (Harry) been concentrating on my running I opted for the Devon County Track and field champs where I won the senior Mens 5km, (I won't talk about the time).

On international duty Patrick and Fiona travelled to Lisbon to represent GB and Ireland respectively at the European Championships in Portugal. Patrick's slip and banged head at the swim start made for an eventful first few hundred meters but once out of the water he set about tracking down the faster swimmers on his brand spanking new Planet X! Recording the 2nd fastest run split in his age, he dragged himself up to finish 16th in his age group.

Fiona had a great swim, coming out of the water in just under 28 mins which was much faster than expected. A strong bike followed by a very respectable run considering previous injuries, saw her finish 11th in her age group and most importantly the first Irish female home across all age groups.

On the domestic front, Lorne was in action at Stratford (the largest pool based Tri in the country). He managed to bag a top 25 finish, running more than 3 minutes faster than last year.

We have also been finalising our Driven to Tri camp dates for next winter, so check back soon to see details on the website!!

Zest

On Sunday morning Harry thought he had got the easy option in avoiding the Great West Half, but how wrong could he be.

The Zest squad put Harry through his paces with some through and off along with group riding practice, transition skills, cyclocross mounts and dismounts, the slowest bike race in the world a madison style duathlon and a last man standing run race.

Whilst rumor has it most of the zest athletes made it to Tavistock swimming club that evening Harry is still in bed!

Flying Doctor!

Barry went 1.21 at the Great West Half Marathon in Exeter Yesterday. A 5 minute improvement on last years time. Kevin was also in action and went 1.39. Kevin and Barry will be going head to head again at the U.K half in June.

Kate Wins in Hyde Park

I'm still waiting for the results, but Kate got her first win today in the Hyde Park Sprint Tri.... Come on Pete and Julie. Pull your socks up, your getting left behind!!

Driven To Tri Do Duathlon (in the April snow)

Last weekend saw Kate take 3rd Women at the Hungerford Duathlon (triathlon cancelled due to snow) whilst down the road at Swindon Barry managed to pull off 8th in his age group and 38th overall in the national series Duathlon. Barry had a cumulative run improvment of over 3 minutes from last years race despite being hit by a car and breaking his thumb whilst warming up teh day before hand. Barry went on to finish 9th in his age group and 46th overall at the National Championships in Milton Keynes today. Both Kate and Barry have been working hard on their swimming over the winter, so the competition had better watch out when the triathlons start!!

I had a go at 3km on the track last weekend and running in the snow without Pete for competiton managed to clock up my first track win of the year. There is even talk of a Driven To Tri apperance at the National Elite duathlon next weekend. We have got alot to live up to with the way our athletes are going!!

Lanzarote Training Camp

Hello, Julie here. So it's been a little while since I last wrote an update, but to be honest there wasn't much to report. Most of February and March were spent plugging away at home in bath, and dealing with a few niggles here and there. So to be honest I wasn't having the best of times. I needed to get away, get some sun on my back, and have a few consistent weeks of training to get my confidence back. For me there is nowhere better to do this than in Lanzarote. I have been going to Lanzarote at least once a year for the last 6 years, and I always seem to come away stronger and fitter.

So I booked my flights, persuaded some other eager beavers to join me and off we went to rack up some sunny miles. This included a number of Driven to Tri athletes as well as some of my training buddies (or friends of). I stayed out there for 3 weeks, and with the end of the trip falling over Easter it meant Mike could come and join in on the fun for the last 10 days. There was a great mix of people to train with - some more serious than others, but I think that's what helped make it such a successful trip. I even managed to get some good training done - despite Sam Gardner (fellow Xterra athlete) and Susan's best efforts!

Bring on 2008!

Driven to Tri....One step closer to World Domination

With the season getting closer we've had quite a few athletes in action recently so we're due a news update!

Nathan headed off to the Silverstone half and put in a great performance in his 1st half marathon of the year running 1.58 in pretty horrendous conditions. A good confidence booster for the Half Ironmans later in the year.

Barry decided a standard aquathlon wasn't enough so added a couple of lengths to the swim section, Harry's including maths lessons in the programme now! Despite this slight error he recorded the fastest run split of the day to register 5th in the Exmouth race. He'd also run 10.01 over 3k earlier in February so with the counting sorted he'll be well on the way to some decent results this season.

Patrick headed to Clumber Park for his 1st full distance duathlon and achieved his goal of qualifying for the World Duathlon Champs this year. This is a great achievement for someone who's been on a swim based programme all winter and sets him up well for the Tri season.

Lorne learnt a lot about what you can and can't eat before a race and unfortuantely this resulted in a slightly disapointing race and the Colehill triathlon, finishing 8th. We're sure he'll come back strong and get the results he deserves though!

The rest of our athletes are beginning racing soon so make sure you visit the website to stay updated with our world domination!

Serpentine Triathlon Camp

This weekend Driven to Tri hosted 20 of London's Serpentine lady triathletes in Bath. This was our first ’ladies only’ triathlon camp (except for the guy coaches) and we had a great time. We had a good mix of seasoned veterans and relative new comers. It is always a bit daunting when you get triathletes attending your camp when they have been competing in triathlon twice as long as you have!!! One of the attendees , a Serpentine coach(and triathlete), has 20 years in the sport.

We were very lucky with the weather and had two days of lovely sunshine and mild temperatures. This made our track and outdoor bike transition session an absolute pleasure.

On Saturday night the ladies organised a meal which was good fun. It was a nice way to wind down after a full-on day.

We hope everyone took away something and enjoyed the weekend end and are looking forward to some feedback to improve our next camp.

A special thanks to the Serpentine coaches Katie and Beate who helped organise things and a big thank you to Jenny Gowans, one of Serpentine's seriously fast chics, who sparked the idea of the Serpentine ladies only camp.

Good luck this year to everyone who attended. We hope each one of you reaches or exceeds your goals!

Winter Frollics!

Happy new year to everyone reading this! We hope you had a great Christmas and didn't eat too many mince pies. The last month has been a busy period for Driven to Tri. We ran our run camp in late November which was great fun and we hope all the athletes got what they wanted from the camp and went away looking forward to their winter run training!

Pete and Harry headed to Poole on boxing day for the annual 10k. The flattish course attracted some decent runners and pretty soon there were a group of 5 away including both the boys. Harry's tummy decided to play games with him and he dropped off after about 4k leaving Pete to fight it out with Nige Leighton and Huw Edwards. Halfway round the 3rd of 4 laps Pete opened up a small gap which gradually increased over the closing stages and resulted in a 10k PB (31.10) and a win showing the big miles are at least paying off! Harry finished, (and I quote 'like a busted arse') in 5th claiming the fancy dress impeeded his progress!

A couple of days later they made the short journey to Exeter for the 'Last Chance 10k'. The pace was on from the start with Kairn Stone pushing at the front. Harry blew at 2.5k and eventually decided to start racing after 4k by which time he'd lost contact. Pete spent most of the race with Kairn on his shoulder, but unfortunately his finishing speed was akin to that of a Sloth still recovering from the excesses of Christmas and he had to be content with 2nd. Harry had a much better 2nd half of the race and came home 4th.

Now it's back to the big miles and the cold weather to come!

Happy New Year!!