Welcome to ITCH - the Ipswich triathlon club hand-out - for May 2008...

Well done everybody who competed at Waveney. I gather we had a HUGE turn-out, and the club's flags got their first airing.  We have two reports from Waveney below, and Julia Yelloly has put loads of photos on line at http://picasaweb.google.com/julia.yelloly/WaveneyTriMay08

Are you planning to enter an Ironman in 2009?  If you let me know I'll put together a mutual-support mailing list - if nothing else to make sure nobody forgets to go online when the entry registration systems open. The more popular events are filling within days - in some case hours - of opening.

Charlie Stannett - itch@ipswich-tri.org

Our men's captain is Steve de Boltz

Blimey, blink and the year will be gone. This year seems to be suddenly flying by, that must be because I’ve now raced three times this year and I’m wondering where all my spring pre race training went. Diss was freezing, Wattisham was windy, Waveney was enjoyable, (probably because it’s short). There has been a good turnout of club members at all the events I’ve been to and as I keep saying it’s a real boost to have fellow members cheering each other on.

If you’re doing Harwich this year, I’ll see you there as once again I’m doing what’s fondly become known as a double header i.e. the super sprint on the Saturday and the Olympic on the Sunday. ‘WHY’ I hear you ask, ‘WHY NOT’ I say. Normally I do the double at Clacton but this year it clashes with the Vitruvian which reminds me, I really ought to start training a bit longer distances, my 25 km flat terrain bike rides aren’t really going to prepare me for 85km of up and down hills in Leicestershire, followed by 20km of ironman shuffling (that’s very slow jogging) something I’m quite good at.

If anyone needs any kind of help, advice, information, etc then come up to Greshams (Tuddenham Road) on a Thursday night as there is a good bunch of seasoned athletes more than willing to help in any way they can, you don’t have to train, just come up for a drink after 8pm and there is nearly always a group of us there.

Well done to all winners and competitors at the various races so far this year and whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it.

dB
Steve can be contacted on 07795 564322 or steve@ipswich-tri.org

Our ladies' captain is Kate Stannett.

It was good to meet various members young and not so young at the recent club "social" event at the "Temptation Chinese".  Thanks to Emily for organising things - but you won't believe the effect it had on our bathroom scales!

Although we didn't field any competitors, Charlie and I went over to the Harwich invitational aquathon and ended up helping at the finish line. It looked like good fun, and we found an excellent fish & chip shop across the road. Charlie cycled over, hoping to hook up with the East Essex training peleton - their hardcore Ironman entrants cycled up the long way (via Sudbury) then did the aquathon to freshen up. Which I think is a brilliant idea, and one which maybe Ipswich ought to do next year...

Last month I mentioned the Friday Fives series, which I urge you to consider entering.  Since then we've found out that there is another Friday Five at Brantham on Friday 20th. It isn't part of the series but it does nicely fill the gap between Kirton and Stowmarket, and I expect to see dB doing it as a warm-up before his weekend "double".

If you want to be on a ring round list for notification of changes at short notice then let Steve dB have your number. Steve is on 07795 564322.

Ross in action...

So what is an Epic Camp?
The idea is based on the principle of training at least 1hour:4hours:1hour swim:bike:run for each of a minimum of three days and up to 10 days.
I made the decision that a three day trial was plenty at this stage!

Day One: "This is gonna be easy"

Mark Hannay, Tony Birt and I kicked things off on the Friday morning with an 8am swim at next generation, swimming around 3.5km. The first bike ride of the Camp was fairly dreary to say the least. The last 15 miles of the ride was in horrendous torrential rain, and it wasn’t exactly warm either. The route was peasant enough, heading out to Dedham and included two laps of the Ipswich duathlon course.  Back home for some food and rest before an early evening hour's run around Ipswich. So, day one complete, this is gonna be easy.....

Day Two: Dave saves the day; Swiss Tony goes long

The 7:40am train was the starting point for day two, where day one’s victims were joined by Dave Copland. So with our bikes onboard we headed for Norwich and the 50m pool. The pool truly is an excellent facility and makes swimming long distances dare I say enjoyable!! An hours swim, which was also attended by Club moaner Steve De Boltz. With the swim complete, a cheeky cup of coffee and slice of cake later, the four of us headed back to Ipswich by bike. Dave had prepared an excellent route back heading towards Bungay and then on through Framlingham and home. The ride ended up being 70 miles by the time I made it home. The wind was fairly relentless all the way home and I think its fair to say that without the sterling work from Dave, doing a huge amount of work on the front, the day could have been a lot lot tougher.

A special mention to Tony Birt who as part of day two completed his longest ever non-stop ride.

Day Three: the Hell of the East

The last day was always designed to be the pinnacle of the Camp. To those who don’t know Nick Collinson's "Hell of the East" route, it's about 110miles long taking in four counties and not for the faint-hearted. I awoke at 5am to prepare myself for the day ahead. I promise this is true, my knee struggled to take my weight (I know I don’t weigh much) after a quick test I was seriously doubting I would be able to do the ride... so I was out!! Mr Hannay made the decision not to go too, leaving Dave C, Steve dB and John Wankowski to take on the challenge. I understand the ride went well. The weather stayed good for the boys and the only real drama seemed to be a series of self-induced ‘coming togethers’!! The intrepid cyclists made it back in good time with an average speed of around 17mph so they weren’t hanging around.

As a test I think the exercise went well and I hope to run something similar again if people would be interested. It would be great to get a good number together to complete all three days, which wasn’t possible on this occasion. I have been doing a huge (in my opinion) amount of training of late, as I head of to Spain for the 27th April for the National Long Distance Champs, however, there is certainly nothing like the cumulative effects of working hard for consecutive days and, knee apart, I feel I have really gained from the benefits of overloading.

I look forward to seeing more on board next time around......

I

I didn't get a full race report in the end but Derek Daly dropped me a note:

Hi, I competed in the Wattisham Tri, my first ever event, wife thinks at 45 I should know better!!

I also competed with a cold which was not the brightest thing I could have done but I was so excited about my first tri.

I am not happy with my time for swimming, I am down as doing it in 8 mins flat, yet I competed in the sub 6 minute bracket and kept the chap behind me a full length away, my wife also timed me and made my swim 5min 40 secs, I can easily in training do 5 minutes.

So I wonder how they got it wrong?

The wind on the cycling leg was a killer, my bike disappointed me, so on the following Monday I went out and bought a new Trek 1.9!!

The run went well and the feeling of running after cycling was interesting!!

Anyway, I am signed up for Harwich and London both at Olympic distance.

I enjoy the newsletter and will get to one of the swims.

I cannot remember where the timing position was for the swim - does anybody else remember?

But I can remember lots of cold wind - so cold and windy that I stopped in transition to put on a jacket on top of my tri-suit.  I can also remember lots of immensely polite volunteers: "come on, Sir, you are doing fine." I can remember a fantastically clean pool. And I can vaguely remember a helicopter hovering overhead looking as though it didn't know whether to land on top of all the lunatics bombing up and down the runway on their bicycles - brilliant wind-assist in one direction; hitting a brick wall in the other.

I also remember a lot of club members going up to receive race trophies, category prizes - including John Wankowski winning top novice - and even loads of spot prizes. But that wind - the stuff of nightmares...
 

If you competed and can't see yourself here, then let me know a.s.a.p. - let me know your race number and time.

Please remember that club kit is ordered through Heather Collinson by e-mailing kit@ipswich-tri.org or by ringing 01473-620651 - not by e-mailing ITCH. You can confirm your order by sending a cheque (payable to "Ipswich triathlon club") to Heather at 14 Spindler Close, Kesgrave, Ipswich, IP5 2DA.

The Broomhill Pool Trust has announced that Ipswich Cricket Club will host a "Twenty20" game against a Suffolk County Cricket XI in aid of the Pool at 6.00 pm on Thursday 12 June at the Ipswich Ground at Clayhall, Copdock. See www.suffolkcricket.co.uk and www.ipswichcricketclub.co.uk/news.asp - on the other hand come to Greshams and do some training...

Elche – Spanish National Long Distance Championships - 27th April - Ross Welton

Some of you may remember that last year I went to Elche to tackle the Middle Distance Championships, the plan was to do the same this year, however they had decided that Long Distance was the order of the day. A 4km swim, 120km bike and 30km run seemed like a nice step up albeit perhaps a little early in the year!

As with last year I was competing as one of two Brits along with Mark Hannay. The event is incredibly well organised and the pre-race pack of goodies at the race briefing this year included: bag, hat, elastic laces, T shirt and even a pair of race inscribed crocs!! The race briefing is in Spanish (unsurprisingly) but we attend as they go through all the key points including a slide show of the important bike route elements, including the ‘mountain’!! Having listened intently for about an hour it was then pasta party time befre heading back to the flat for an early night.

As we arrived at T1 down by the beach for the sea swim, it became apart to me that we were quite clearly the only people with bikes! Standing in line to rack at T1 we were soon pulled out of the queue by an official looking senor, who spoke no English, which combined with our combined Spanish of Dos Cervecas wasn’t looking good. We managed to get a man out of the queue who spoke English. The verdict was that if you didn’t rack your bike the day before you couldn’t race!! Clearly they hadn’t explained that in slideshow format!! To keep a long story long, we had a nervous wait whilst many serious looking men from the Spanish Triathlon Federation decided what to do. My suggestion was let us poor little English boys take part with no number or timing chip….NO. Finally a misunderstanding arose, where the race referees thought that we were close personal friends of the race organiser!! Not true but we weren’t to disagree, we were in, and only 15 minutes til the off!!

The Swim is a lovely 2 lap 2km sea swim. The first lap went well and I was surprised to get out the water for the 50m beach jog before diving back in in 33minutes. The second lap seemed much tougher, I couldn’t find any consistent feet to draft and the tide strength had really picked up. A 500m run to transition, where I seemed to be for an eternity applying sun cream, eating and drinking etc, 6minutes later and I was out on the bike ready for a 3 lap 120km ride.

The conditions couldn’t have been better for the ride. My concerns focused around the mountain which had seemingly been discussed at length, which would be done 3 times. My plan was to keep the pace very steady as the thought of running 30km in 28degrees was not pleasant. I couldn’t believe the rather short sharp hill that constituted the ‘mountain’, it really was nothing to speak off. With the first lap tackled and now knowing the course the pace was uped a little but without pushing too hard. I was about 45 minutes ahead of schedule as I arrived in T2 in Elche City centre after around 4.5 hours on the bike, mainly due to favorable conditions and a fast route, averaging 18.7mph. The Elche police were out in force having closed the relevant roads in the town and ensuring that no cars could possibly get near you!

T2 was in a park in the centre of Elche, the run was a 4 lap course with a 200m climb at the end of each lap. To be honest it was a huge amount of fun. The first third of the route was well supported, but then it was the lonely trudge out and back. I was happy to run 2:35 in what felt seriously hot midday sun! 30 athletes dropped out on the run!!

My finishing time of 7:57 was well ahead of schedule, due to the bike. It is a great race, well organised and would be excellent as a steeping stone between half and ironman for those interested. I certainly plan to take part again next year. The event is televised in Spain and there is a short video on the website http://www.triatlondeelche.org/ which gives an idea of the race. It would be great to have a strong Ipswich presence, and look at it this way, I was first UK finisher…

After watching Waveney 2 last year, I knew I had to ‘Tri’ so I joined the club at the end of last year and soon after set about trying to get up to speed.

I had been taking part rather than competing in some local runs for two years , not seriously but just for general fitness and as a good excuse to get away from my two little monsters for an hour or so. Before that I had done few time trials. To be honest though my bike had just been getting in the way of the lawn mower and children’s toys for too long. Luckily for me, Adrian and Julia Green noticed that I was keen to have a go and guided me with weekend training and provided me with their wisdom to prepare me for my first event.

Unfortunately I had been suffering with a ‘man’s cold’ all week and was even thinking I might have to cancel and wait for the next one. Come the Sunday morning I was feeling good so decided to continue as planned. I had know idea what would happen when racing as the most strenuous thing I had done all week was walk to the chemist.

The morning started bright and early, signing in at 0700 and first wave starting at 0830. I was starting at 1030 so had plenty of time to relax, get nervous, relax and get nervous again. Met up with more ITC members, a really good turn out and some more first timers too I believe. Well done to all.

I joined Stradbroke Swimfit in October last year and soon realised that I cant swim! I never knew just how difficult it would be to swim properly and easily. I am still way behind nearly everybody else when it comes to the pool. I think I’m right in saying that there were only 5 people slower than me on the day. It was no surprise to me, I knew this was my weakest section and would just be so happy to get out and on the bike!

The swim was long and slow,10 minutes 39 seconds, how embarrassing but hey its my benchmark now for future events. I got out the pool safe in the knowledge that I will never swim that badly again!

My transition was good, no dramas and nothing to panic about, something I had managed to practice the week before. It was lovely to be riding fast in wet top and shorts with the sun so hot, no wind to speak of and not a cloud in the sky. Not that I was looking up much. Head was down and I was flying. I don’t have a computer or even a watch so I didn’t really know how quick I was or how slow I was in the pool. To be honest I didn’t care, I was just loving it! It felt quick so that was good enough for me. The previous weekend Adrian and I had ridden the course so I knew what was required and how hard I should push on the hills. The course is really nice and quiet, if a little narrow in places, so you have to keep checking for cars. Foot down stop was no problem, you really do need to stop there anyway. I decided to keep a little back for the run over the last half mile. Bike leg was 34:53.

The second I dismounted (nearly over the bars) I felt my left calf try and rip out of my skin! That was so painful, I obviously hadn’t done enough bricks! Trainers on, helmet off, out. The 2 mile run at Waveney is not nice, it is very hard. I felt so slow. Near the school road I had to tell myself to keep going, it felt like I was walking so I thought for a second that I might as well just walk anyway! No! No! No! keep going.

I couldn’t stride out properly until I had turned at the cone . Just 1 mile to go, I started to pick it up. Adrian had walked down the road to cheer me on, or was it to see where I had got to? Anyway last corner, last hill, sprint for it! Run was 15:29 minutes .

Total: 1hour 1minute 1second. A nice time to remember and great way to kill an hour! Loved every minute of it. Can still feel the calf and still buzzing off it!

I’m now officially a Triathlete, if only I could swim!

Graham Coulter.

Waveney sprint triathlon - 11th May - Jason Baillie

On an absolute glorious day we travelled to the village of Bungay for the Waveny Triathlon. Now I was told that this was a good training Triathlon, and consisted of a normal swim, fast bike, and short run.

Now I have done it I would like to amend this to: normal swim unless you count the two extra laps I felt like doing; Fast bike – Yeah right, when you are coming down the other side of the hill, and yes I agree a short run, but I am not sure they could cram any more hills into the 2 miles that tortured us.

Now I am writing from an aspiring Triathletes point of view. The likes of Ross, Steve, Anthony who all recorded excellent times, probably cycled home after having a quick bite to eat around Steve's Ipswich Triathlon flag (sorry if I don’t mention everybody, including the girls). This is one mammoth flag reaching to some dizzy heights. I think one of our team who decided to cycle home half way round the race, probably should have kept an eye out for it. Laura didn’t find the course challenging enough, so set about adding another six miles to the course. All credit though, she carried out and completed the run afterwards.

With the blistering heat pouring upon us, it made sense to stand in the shade of the pool area, where the temperatures were uhm even hotter. It was a no win situation. However this felt far better than the minus degree chill winds at Wattisham.

As we looked out at the other swimmers, Misses Whiplash called swimmers to get into the pool and warm up. Woe betide those that didn’t go into her baby pool and warm up. So like little children off we went into the pool, which must have been an Abyss depth of… half a meter. However new boy Jason Battle still needed to stand on tip toes. As I professionally put my cap on, I eyed the opposition.

I looked over at another Ipswich Tri member; Andy Green who was in our starting group, and observed his what looked like cycle top. Aha I thought a novice. How wrong was I. He swam like a fish, and came in with a really good time.

Miss Whiplash then scuttled us out of the training pool and we were ready. Off we went. Quite surprisingly the pool was not as hot as I expected, it was a good temperature for swimming. Plus we had an added bonus of some new swim caps that aid buoyancy of the head. They were rather thick.

Now as Laura enjoyed her cycle, I enjoyed the swim so decided to add an extra two laps for fun. Either I am the doughnut for relying on the swim marshals, or they need a telling off. Never mind mistakes happen. So out we ran grabbing bikes, helmet etc, and then out onto the course.

You barely have time to breath before you hit the first hill. Jason Battle thought it funny to pass me at this early point. I tried to congratulate him on his achievement, but was ignored. The rest of the cycle was truly great. There were lots of short sharp hills, a few twists, and a nice long slope on the way back. I am not sure if it is a bonus or a hindrance. With the five minute start break between groups, you don’t actually meet anybody on the bike. As you are coasting down the final long straight (at a swift 38mph, I wish) trying to work out if this is the correct way, boom… You are back in Bungay, and the end is within meters.

Now to the run. I for one am campaigning against running being part of Triathlon. As far as I can see it servers no purpose and hurts like hell. But will anybody listen. No.

So with legs feeling good, I cunningly decide it is revenge on Mr Battle for overtaking me. I fly along the first 300 meters of road, turn left, and then am hit by this great ruddy hill. Ach well I think, push my self up here, especially as the camera man is grabbing pictures. Got to look good. I tried my damndest to keep smiling as I went past. It was a case of belly in, remember the correct running posture, smile, then as you pass let it all out again.

After climbing the first hill there was relief. I was going down hill – Whoopee – Turn the corner, and bang, another great ruddy hill. However this one had the advantage of not being able to see the end. Ach well I thought I refuse to stop, no matter how slow I get. Although I am now convinced I would have been quicker walking. As I started trudging up, somebody had obviously left his wallet at the top as he sprinted by me. I was half congratulating him, half wish he would twist his bloody ankle. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my buddy on his way down. How far to the top I panted, to which he replied “About half a mile”. At this point I could have cried. Not only was this supposed to be a bit of training, but my calves were burning like hell. I took a quick look around, nobody there. Then I walked. Yes I walked. Those 9 or 10 steps were absolute bliss. However as I turned the corner I could see the marshals. At the point I was so excited knowing that was the end of the hill, but also thinking how sneaky Mr Battle was. It was in fact about 200 metres to the turn point not half a bloody mile. This spurned me on, well for at least 20 meters. Then it was back to the trudging.

I have got to say going over the finish line to the sound of the Ipswich Tri club guys is great. I don’t think I recall other clubs quite as vocal as us.

Quick mention to Ross, I think you need some new kit as your Ipswich kit seems to have faded to a Tri UK colour.

All in all this was a great day out, with the glorious weather, great spectators, and although short, a nice early season challenge.”

Jason Baillie

I was ridiculously nervous for this – only my 69th multi-sport race spread over the last 16 years, so why was I like a beginner?

I’d like to be able to say I wore the club colours and covered them with glory, but I would be lying. In fact, I made a bit of a “B*lls up” of this whole event.

400m swim in a 33.3m pool – I just couldn’t get going on this – maybe caused by doing Aqua circuits for THREE hours at a training day during the week or maybe it was the odd length pool. I swam a slow time and then since it finished at the deep end didn’t have the strength to drag myself out of the water. After an attempt where I didn’t even get close I decided to admit defeat and use the steps – some 10m away back along the side of the pool!

Shoes on outside pool since it was a fair run on tarmac to transition. Collect mountain bike and head out onto a course starting on tarmac park tracks but then on grass. I’d been warned about the horror hill by someone I knew at the start when he told me “NOBODY rides up – you can’t“ before adding in hushed and awed tones, “Only Dave Copland can cycle up it”! So I was surprised when I managed to climb it in my granny ring. Of course, that wasn’t the REAL McCoy, but only a warm-up. I don’t know where this steep slope came from in flat Basildon, but you really had no hope of cycling – even pushing the bike up was very hard work! I’m a total coward on the bike and so when everyone whizzed gleefully down the other side I crawled down it with my brakes on and my teeth grinding together! And we had to do this lap three times before heading back to transition.

As soon as I started running I realised my very wet trainers were not done up tightly enough and decided I would stop to tie them when I got very tired. I felt I was going quite well – I even overtook one of those fit looking men with hardly any body fat and was feeling pretty chuffed – this would make up for my slow bike ride! The course had been superbly well marked and marshalled (as you’d expect since it is organised by the police tri club) but suddenly I found myself at a junction with no marshal and no arrow. So I decided to go straight on. There was nobody in sight either behind or in front and as I ran longer alone with no sign of any officialdom I began to think I had gone wrong. When I reached the back of a car park I realised I definitely had! So I retraced my steps, adding about 3.5 minutes to my run time. When I got back to the last place that had been correct, I saw an enormous black arrow on a yellow fluorescent background indicating the way to go – obviously not the way I chose! And when I plucked up courage to take off my too-loose running shoes I had one of the worst blisters I had ever seen (and I’ve had some whoppers in my time!) What a day!

But once I got over my disappointment I realised I had still had a great run and it was a beautiful sunny day in a beautiful park. It was very well organised and had a great goody bag – a really smart long sleeved t-shirt in a choice of sizes plus either a towel or a water bottle!

And as for Karl? Not only had he decided not to do it due to yet another injury, but he managed to fall over and hurt himself as he helped my disabled mother down a slippery grass slope! My next triathlon is Braintree triathlon also organised by the Police Tri Club and being held in Halstead next month – I’ll try not to get stranded in the pool or terrified on the bike or lost on the run…

Jackie Chubb

PS - Jackie also took part in her first ever cycling time trial on May 1st:

It was organised by the West Suffolk Wheelers and was the Horringer 10 near Bury St Edmunds.  We cycled from our house to the start very slowly so as to conserve energy.  Or in Karl's case this served as his training as previous readers will recall that Karl regards training as a very low form of cheating!

It was all very serious when we got there and quips about us hoping to be back before dark and "Is it okay to stop in the pub en-route?" were met with stonily serious answers!  Karl had more fat on his little belly that the rest of the cyclists had in total and mine were the hairiest legs (and I'm female), it was all scary and intimidating.

But once we got going it was fine - I managed to get a long way round before anyone over took me and in the end broke both my 'realist time' of 45 minutes and my 'dream time' of 40 mins by clocking 34:59 !!!  To say I was pleased was an understatement!  I was 21st overall and 2nd woman (keep it quiet that there were only 22 entrants and two women!) Karl was a place and 51 secs ahead of me - how does he do that on practically no training - makes me sick!!

Definitely back for the next one!  Oh, and the winner, one Brian Phillips of West Suffolk Wheelers clocked 23:32, but that's just showing off!

Swiss ball sessions - Swiss Tony tells me that Becky, who helped set up the club's swiss ball sessions, is now running sessions in a number of village halls on week nights and is thinking of running a session locally on a Monday night. If anyone from the club is interested please email Becky at  butterflymagicpt@yahoo.co.uk

Garmin 205 - "Continuously monitors your speed, distance, pace and calories burned and tracks your every movement with GPS. Receive detailed post workout analysis on the PC with the included Training Centre. Multi Sport capability lets you switch between sports without having to reset the unit so can easily be used on the bike too."
Brand new in the box. Bargain at £90 o.n.o. Contact Laura on 01449 771274

New Balance W834GR "D width" UK size 7 - test-driven only, never even got hot let alone sweaty! Still in box. £20 or offer - Kate Stannett - e-mail shepherdess@btinternet.com or ring/text 07729 318844.

Massage - Jackie Chubb has a regular room at Rede near Bury St Edmunds, available any time.
Open to members & non-members but booking is essential on 01284-789576 or 07985-496918.

Race reports - thanks to everybody who has written items. Keep 'em coming!

The 2009 Flora London Marathon online entry ballot system is already closed - you can register to be told when the 2010 entry ballot opens. So it's not just Ironman events that sell out instantly...

A pretty good introduction & explanation about triathlon was in the Observer recently - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/may/04/triathlon.training - but note that, contrary to what it implies, you cannot use a mountain bike for all triathlons.

Extreme pool sessions - thanks to Simon Lockwood for alerting me to this one - see http://www.sanalfonso.cl/ and http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2008/jan/23/chile?picture=332207158

Dave Copland came third in the "the exceptionally tough" Blaenafon Triathlon - see the very short-URLed http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/sports/grassroots/blaenau-gwent-sport/2008/05/22/athletics-tough-task-for-racers-at-blaenafon-triathlon-91466-20932956/ - congratulations to Dave.

A new "online sports magazine for women" - see www.sportsister.com