With race season now back in full swing we wanted to highlight some brilliant performances over the past weekend from TTH athletes, coaches and staff.
The performances from this weekend show where the TTH racing community has grown to and we wanted share some of the achievements with you in this blog and hope to continue these Race Roundups over the course of the season.
The TTH community has grown into something we are all incredibly proud of and feel a huge sense of pride in sharing the achievements of our athletes. We now cannot wait to see how the rest of the season will unfold!
Paul Hayward
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| Paul enjoying that finish line elation |
Not wanting to just complete one race this weekend, Paul did two. Slateman sprint on the Saturday AND Slateman Full on the Sunday - making him a 'Savage' itself. Both went well with some open water demons being put to bed quite firmly and standing at the start line ready to race rather than being super nervous and worried about coming last! IM Austria is the goal....and it's all coming together very very well.
Paul also wrote a nice feature in TRI247 about his weekend if you would like to read more!
Paul also wrote a nice feature in TRI247 about his weekend if you would like to read more!
Chris Abbey
Outlaw Half....due to a number of work and University commitments, training for Chris has been a challenge to say the least, so when he pulled out a swim PB and beat his target by 10 mins and then came in off the bike in sub 3:30 hours, we are not sure who had the biggest smile, him or Coach Sorrel!! As a coach, we don't just look at time goals, there are process goals to be achieved and one of Chris' was to ensure he finished off his stroke in the swim....100% achieved. Follow the process and the time will come. The run was always going to be tough for a number of reasons but with a bit of grit and determination....boom, first half distance completed. We are pretty sure he is still buzzing because we sure are!
Dan Lubbock
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| A great time from Dan! |
Dan completed the Grafman Half Distance as a training race, absolutely smashed the bike leg with a sub 3 hour time....recently purchased a power meter and used this to huge effect, trusting the numbers and not his instinct (ie don't go off too hard) and ended up overtaking all the people who boosted past him at the beginning. When Dan and Coach Sorrel first spoke in October they set out a sub 3 hour ride as a target with an average power and speed in line with what he put out at the race being a dream rather than a reality. Little did he know! On to Ironman 70.3 Wimbleball......
Moral of the story? Have a plan and stick to it!
April Payne
April did Barcelona 70.3. Her time was 6:55:16 which considering she had major shoulder surgery earlier this year was very impressive!
Chris Ashford
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| Chris competing in the VLM earlier this year |
Previously we said Chris was one to watch in the running field and Chris, two weeks out from the Comrades Marathon achieved an incredible 7th in the English Ultra Championships. For 100km running event featuring four 25km out and backs, Chris finished in a brilliant time of 7hrs 33 mins, that’s an average pace of 4:31/km…100 times! (of course it is even faster if you take out the pauses for aid stations!)
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| Karl with partner Jude |
Karl White
Karl, a frequent guest of ours in Portugal came 18th in his age group at the Southport Triathlon (his home town) in a time of 1:16 after suffering a long standing Achillies injury. Having spent countless hours doing his exercises and building himself back up, he has got his competitive edge back. After a sub 20 min 5km run off the bike, we look forward to seeing what he can achieve when he competes again in a couple of weeks time.
Andy Cowen
Andy completed the Nuffield Eton Dorney sprint distance triathlon this weekend and came first in his age group in a time of 1:14:31. Andy took the title of 7th fastest bike overall.
Jon Halley
Outlaw Half.....tick, tick, tick...of the goals that Jon and Coach Sorrel had set for this race ALL of them were ticked off! Coach Sorrel had little else to say, this is also someone who has had to juggle work, travel and training to make sure they were ready for this race, again, keeping things steady and following the plan resulted in everything going to plan (maybe not use that brand of gel again though!). The next goal is to take those 18 seconds off for a sub 5:30 half distance.
Tim Matthews
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| Tim on the run course at the Outlaw Half |
Outlaw Half, Tim sent us a text before he embarked on his journey home to say his race was FAB. Tim changed a number of things nutritionally for this race. A large part of this was the huge light bulb moments he had on a recent training holiday in Portugal so this is an area that can still be improved on further!
Denise Tracey
Little did Denise know that she was heading for one of her best results ever......a solid swim in the pool and then one of the fastest bikes she has done and a proper negative split in the run which included a long hill in the last few kilometres. Denise is one of those athletes that ticks off the training throughout the block that has been set and the results just come rolling in. Having spent some time in Portugal, it's great to be able to see an athlete in training to give them some additional support and advice and this is one of those examples.
Coach James
Coach James completed the Grafman half. Using this race as a training race, James stuck to his planned power on the bike and then his planned run heart rate on the run. His finishing time was an impressive 4:33 but this did include a short swim leg of 950m.
Hannah Johnston & Coach Will Munday
Our head of Social Media, Hannah Johnston, and Coach Will Munday had an incredibly successful outing at the Slateman in North Wales. Hannah made her comeback (read more about her setbacks over the past eighteen months) and finished 5th Female overall. Meanwhile Will finished 1st U23 male and 12th Male overall.
Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend and we look forward to plenty more racing to come this season!