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.