An weekend in Dublin with Gav!

As quoted from Gav's website...i'm claiming i've invited him to help me, but lets not split hairs!

Alongside Harry Wiltshire I will be running a Swim Clinic in Dublin on the first weekend of December. The Clinic is now fully booked for Saturday but we are opening up a second day on Sunday December 5th.

I have invited Driven To Tri coach and ITU Professional Harry Wiltshire to assist me in delivering a TRIATHLON SPECIFIC swimming clinic to Irish Triathletes. Harry is widely regarded as one of the finest open water triathlon swimmers on the International Circuit as well as being a Level 3 British Triathlon Coach, Driven to Tri Head Coach and a Performance Development Manger for Triathlon England.

Starting at 10am the day long clinic will be limited to 20 Athletes and will include 2 pool based sessions and theory classes.

Unlike other Swim Clinics we are offering best practice for Triathletes and not Swimmers. Open to atlhetes of all abilities the clinic will have a strong empahsis on ‘triathlon swimming’ and the techniques and practices that athletes can employ to get the best out of their training and indeed racing in 2011.

For more information on attending the Sunday clinic please contact myself ga_v_v@hotmail.com
or Harry - harrywiltshire@hotmail.com
not just practice, Perect Practice

28th November Swim Clinic Wareham, Dorset

All the usual Swim Clinic Fun...
Above and Below water Video analysis
One to five coach athlete ratio
2 pool sessions plus classroom theory
£95 and we throw in Lunch!!
email harry@driventotri.com for an entry form

Early winter training weekend

Harry Wiltshire and Toby Jameson are running the first early winter coaching weekend on November 6/7th based at the superb facilities at the University of Bath.
This will be more like a sister of our normal Big Weekenders but will pack a great early winter punch that will focus on winter miles and intimate technical coaching.

I can't think of a better way to start your winter block!

Email interest to toby@driventotri.com or harry@driventotri.com
(limited places available)

Julie Dibens 3rd at Kona!

Huge news from the weekend: Julie managed to get her feet on the podium at the Ford World Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii with a spectacular third place in her first Ironman.

Dibs was slightly off the fastest pace on the swim following fellow Brit Rachel Joyce but once out on the bike she put the hammer down and pulled out a great lead over the 180km bike. She managed to hold on to the lead until mile 17 when the Rinsta (Mirinda Carfrae) managed to make up the 12minutes deficit and power to the win. Caroline Steffen was second with the Dibs holding on to third and straight to the medical tent!

Huge congratulations from all the Driventotri.com team, and enjoy your time on the Island with Mike!

In other news, Harry was competing Mexico in the latest ITU World Cup series and reported in that he finished top-30, a solid result!

Signing off,
(a very sick dog) Toby

Hawaii Calling!

Julie and Joyce are off to Kona next weekend, both are making their debut on the Island. Fingers crossed for some Driven To Tri Domination.

I've been staying in Tucson in preperation for a World Cup in Mexico next weekend. I'll do my best to add to the domination out there. Tucson is Ironman central so i've been training with a whole bunch of Hawaii hopefulls, best of luck to Sam Hilary, Maik, Reinard and TJ.

Back home most of the Driven To Tri crew are taking their end of Season break. Whilst others are chiiling out Piers has been racing in Dubai three days off the back of a trans pyrenees bike ride and Barry has been bike racing across Ireland.

Winter dates still in Progress, but currently looking at two days in Ireland on the 6th and 7th of November and a swim day in Dorset on the 28th November.

The First Big weekend will be an intimate affair this year so we'll offer places to Driven To Tri athletes and friends first. Email me harry@driventotri.com if your keen to come play.

Finally a couple of links, i've got a report on the px website http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/news/teams-and-riders/q/date/2010/09/27/tri-star-harry-wiltshire-season-so-far Also a big well done to the South West IRC team who finshed 3rd overall this year beating both Scotland and Wales for more info check out www.triathlonacademy.wordpress.com

Driven To Tri go AWOL

The Summer hits and we dissapear. Not great from a corporate marketing perspective, but in terms of getting stuck in and going fast plus making sure our athletes do the same it's probably a good thing. Once the races start, my priorities are training, recovering and looking after my 10 athletes. Then all of a sudden it's time to start thinking about winter camps, and we need some publicity so i'm back on the blog.

Quick update on the team.

Dibs is being elusive, probably because she's so busy winning everything and is a month off her Hawaii debut.

Pete: Has been sort of retired and rumour has it he's even been wearing a shirt and tie this week, it hasn't stopped him breaking 15 minutes for 5km on the track and finishing 3rd Brit in the mens elite race at the World Duathlon.

The Tobster: Finished 12th at the European 70.3 Champs, got married and is desperatly trying to persuade someone to give him a morgage.

Jim Bob finished 5th at the u.k off road tri champs in Scotland last month after spending most of the summer touring around Europe. He's also considering spending some time in a shirt and tie distributing bicycles.

I've spent most of the summer training in Morzine and racing European cups and french grand prix. I took a weekend off and went to Alp d'huez, where I had my beautiful baby blue planet x stolen and finished 5th in the long course race on a bike I was kindly lent 5 mins before the start. I had the fastest swim and run of the day. I finished off the European trip with the World Sprint Champs and World team champs. I spent 12k in the 3 man break at the sprints before exploding and finishing just outside the top 30. We had a young team for the relay, but it was a fantastic race to do and a great experience. I'm going to keep racing a bit longer and try and chase some ranking points.

Our athletes have also been dominating all over the u.k and abroad, so i'll do a seperate post with some updates on their performaces.

We'll get the provisional winter training dates up on the website in the next week.

below the swim start for the Mens race in Lausanne, I love it there.

Reutal Bike Fit

Harry went to see Andy at Bike Science in Bristol yesterday.
Lets see if it means he can break off the front of the french grand Prix on Sunday.
If it does then we might see if we can get Andy and his funky computer stystem along to a big weekend to offer some fits.

We are working on winter dates at the moment and should have camp plans sorted by the start of August. Until then we re all concentrating on racing fast!

Racing, Racing Everywhere!

Yes it’s been ages since we’ve updated the blog! Everyone seems to have been busy getting down to racing and flying the Driven to Tri flag. There have been some great early season performances and the past weekend saw a massive D2T turnout across the world including athletes at the European Champs, Ironman Austria and Frankfurt as well as plenty racing on the domestic scene.

We’ll start in Austria where the Irish contingent of Joyce, Katie and Sean were looking to post fast times. Austria is a relatively fast course but the substantial climbs on the bike make pacing even more important than normal. It was also reported to be up to 30 degrees on some parts of the course. Joyce had the 10 hour mark and Irish record in her sights and didn’t disappoint, putting together a perfectly paced race. Out of the swim in 1.02 followed by a solid 5.16 on the bike set her up to run through the field. Fortunately she’d brought her running legs with her and the 3rd fastest run of the day (3.20) saw her finish 7th overall (including Pro’s) and just 48 seconds outside the Irish record in 9.46.43. A massive PB, Hawaii slot in the bag and great reward for all the hard work.

Meanwhile Katie and Sean were both putting together very strong swim and bike legs with Sean riding over 30 minutes faster than last year and Katie coming off the bike in the top 20 women. The tough conditions began to take their toll but to both of their credit they stuck to the task on the run with Sean posting a PB of 10.25 and Katie coming home in 11.13 for 16th in her AG. Frankfurt hosted the 2nd big Ironman of the weekend with Jacqui heading over the Germany to race and finish in 13.38 with a very good swim and bike and what looks like a very painful run!

At the European champs in Athlone Abey, Nicci and Becki were representing Britain in the Olympic distance race. Nicci and Becki finished 10th and 12th in the most competitive of the female age groups whilst Abey put together a storming performance to cross the line 2nd in the 30-34 age group. Kyle was the sole male representative from D2T and finished in 2.07. Also a big congrats to Amy Wolfe who although not a D2T athlete finished 2nd overall and has shown great improvements this year and came to visit us on our Dulwich camp.

Closer to home Sonja had her best race of the season at the Cowman whilst Harry biked 1k at Bournemouth Tri before puncturing, returning to T1, grabbing a spare wheel from the car and heading off back on the bike!

We’ll hopefully update the blog with other race results later in the week. Now I'm off to watch the Tour kick off on the cobbles!

Pete

ooooo errrrrrr, Planet X Nanolight!!

The build has begun and as I'm bolting bits onto the super sexy 920g frame it doesn't seem to be getting much heavier....

Will update as we go .. but suffice to say for 2k this bike looks like a super deal .... and we'll find out tonite fingers crossed on the Oxford Chaingang (6pm Martson Ferry/Banbury Road)

Log onto www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk to see all the other nice new shiny stuff that the boys from Doncaster have in their shed.

Train hard, spend harder.

Coach Jim.

Jim's Merrell Tuffman Report.....

So, the sun rose on Saturday, and then stayed hidden for most of the day. Typical. The wind blew too... but at least the rain didn't pour, like it threatened. But it had rained before...a lot..into the crevasse in the East Sussex countryside that is Pippingford Park. A crease in the land, densely wooded (not forested as this would indicate some sort of order that is not present in the chaotic way the trees are assembled), and running with water off the heavily laden soil down to the network of lakes in the very pit of the Park.

The start line was buoyant with banter on Saturday. Two newcomers to the Merrell series graced us with their presence - legendary XTERRA Pro Sam Gardner, and newbie XTERRA hotshot Tim 'Macca' McDowell. Lot's of shiny new lycra was flashing, and comments like 'I didn't drive all this way to come second .. (Anon.) were heard as the one minute warning was uttered by the starter.

And then we were all away, galavanting like new born lambs across the field, streaming towards the first red arrow over the soft, off camber, grass. Turning sharp left, racers strode, skidded and slipped their way into the depths of Pippingford. Hearts in mouths, I saw racers around me struggle for balance on the uncertain surface, lugged offroad shoes working overtime to retain some sort of grip (should have been wearing Brooks Cascadia's!). Turning upwards and the series leader Colin Dixon started to pull away. Sam tried to go, and Tim and myself duked on in 3rd and 4th. By the end of two laps of the 5km course, we were all very muddy, and Colin was stubbornly away with a 1+ minute lead over me and then Sam in hot pursuit.

An interstellar transition left Sam powdering his nose, but within moments he was riding with me. (note to self: more riding required). Sam stormed off to open a five minute lead whilst Colin retired after crashing on the slippery treacherous course and Tim punctured irrepairbaly and was last seen throwing his bike at his girlfriend. Never mind Colin, three wins out of four is clearly enough... and Tim... I know you'll be back to show us all how it's done later in the season.
Back on the bike course, and I have to say, it was carnage. I'm sliding sideways down descents, past people walking bikes, under bikes, in trees... all that kind of hearty outdoor stuff. Conditions aren't good and I'm happy to see transition after 20km of hard mountain biking. As I squidge off for the final 5km run (21 something odd minutes!!) the small crowd around the finish shout encouragement at all the athletes appearing over the brow of the hill looking slightly perplexed and jaded from the the whole mud bath routine.

Soon enough and after a foot-safe final 5km, I'm home in second, and happy to be there. Today was a big lesson in putting the effort in when required, keeping calm on the bike, not looking at the big puddles in an effort to avoid them and closing my eyes when it all looked like it was going pear-shaped. Mainly, just hanging in there was the note for the day.

A big old gang made it to a local pub to regail stories of how good we all were and how much better we'll be next time, the excuse satchel was wide open with cries of "I would have been up with you ... BUT ...' and overall it was a great day. So, that's it for another spring of Merrell Off-Road races. Thanks to the Human Race team, look forward to seeing you all again in the Autumn.

We're coming to London! February 13th - Dulwich College

Pete Freedman and Harry Wiltshire of Driven to Tri have arranged a training day at Dulwich Sports Centre on 13th February. Pete and Harry have experience racing at World Level and in 2009 coached athletes to podium finishes at some of the UK’s biggest races. The aim will be to develop efficient swim and run technique. There will also be a classroom session on swim fundamentals and athletes will have the chance to discuss structuring their training and racing.

Schedule:

10am: Run session – Developing efficient run technique using drills.
11.15am: Talk on swim fundamentals
12.30pm: Swim Session - The first 75-90 minutes will focus on stroke technique. The last 30-45 minutes will work on a more substantial main set.
2.45pm-4pm: Chance to chat through training and ask Pete and Harry any questions.

Coaches:
Peter Freedman - Level 2 British Triathlon, British Swimming and UK Athletics Coach.
Harry Wiltshire – Level 3 British Triathlon Coach, South West Academy Coach, World Student Triathlon Champion

2009 Elite Coaching Results:
2nd – Windsor Elite Triathlon (Female)
3rd – British Super Series final standings (Female)
4th – National Junior Championships (Female)
Numerous top 20’s at UK and French elite race

2009 Age Group Coaching Results:
1st – British Triathlon Championships (Overall, Female)
2nd – Ironman Barcelona (Overall, Female)
Qualifiers for Sprint, Olympic and Long Distance World Championships

Cost: £55 – places strictly limited to 12 athletes.

Booking: If you would like to reserve a place on this course please contact Pete directly via e-mail (Pete@driventotri.com). Please include your name, DOB, contact number and approximate 400m swim time.

Snow, snow, snow!

Well it's been an interesting few weeks for most of our athletes and most Triathletes in the UK. Whilst full time athletes are able to book a flight to warmer climates like Lanzarote (Harry) and South Africa (Toby) the majority are forced to make the best of the current conditions. Races continue to be cancelled and running/biking outside has been very difficult. The question is, how to make the most of these conditions.

Adrian Marriott has posted an interesting blog (http://adrianmarriott.blogspot.com/) which I think sums it up quite well. They key is to alter your training to make the most of the conditions. It's virtually impossible to string together a consistent block of aerobic work in these conditions so how about switching your focus to speed development. Most athletes will have 1-2 months of aerobic work behind them now so this is an ideal opportunity to develop some speed, whether you are a sprint distance or Ironman athlete.

It's always possible to fins a field for run reps, the snow cushions your legs whilst developing your strength and stability. A speed session in the snow won't put as much stress on your joints and will give you the same aerobic benefits as normal. An alternative is to jump on the Treadmill and get your set done there. 4 weeks of speed work now will undoubtably see you improve your speed and strength and leave you plenty of time in March and April to go back to the longer work you need for strength and endurance development.

The key is to be proactive, don't sit back and wait for the weather to change, find new ways of doing things and make the most of the conditions. If it gets hard, just think of Julie in Boulder - she's been regularly doing 3 hour CompuTrainers due to the snow, and that won't clear for a few months yet.........

Cheers

Pete