Newsletter – November 2003

Hi folks and welcome to the last newsletter of 2003. The tri season is ended and I presume that you've all been taking a well deserved rest – not too much though!! The accepted advise for this time of year is “Active Recovery” – so we are planning a winter training series which should be a bit of fun as well as building for next year. More later in this Newsletter.

Entries are now available for NYD triathlon – but make sure you are quick! A couple of members failed to get in last year due to procrastination….. I can forward an entry form to anyone who wants one.

Well done to Allister for his fantastic performance at Ironman Switzerland where a time of 10 hrs 14 mins was good enough to make him 6 th UK athlete!

Congratulations also to Charlie for winning the Edinburgh Multisport Series in his category! Charlie is like a good wine – improves with age! (doesn't taste as good though!)

Reports from Allister & Charlie later in the newsletter.

Kelso Triathlon

Our Club Triathlon took place at Kelso on 17 August and was a resounding success! A huge “Well Done” to all involved – but especially to Graham & Alison Easson. There is a phenomenal amount of work involved in organizing these events – and a huge amount of stress & worry that something will go wrong on the day. Well – it didn't!! We had nothing but positive feedback from all who competed – including STA coaches Martin Farrally and Fiona Lothian.

Thanks also to Jim & the pool staff (loads of help!), Simon Porteous (spot prizes), Jackie Laidlaw (scaffolding – the best I've ever seen at a tri event), Safeway's (goody bags), Johnny Rutherford (help towards towels), Keith Lyle (for bringing a posse of helpers) and all club members and their family & friend who marshaled, kept time, counted laps and helped out in any way they could on the day.

Although it seemed almost insignificant on the day, the event was won by Gavin May in a total time of 1:16:18, with Fiona Lothian first female in a time of 1:17:30. That's the time's to aim for at our next Kelso practice tri then……

Web Site

Our web site now features a message board as an easy way of communicating with the rest of the club. This will only be effective if members use it! Please check it out regularly (make it a once a week job at the same time!).

Our web site is at: www.steelbonnets.co.uk Thanks to George for the work he puts in on this.

Winter Training

Do you get as bored as I do banging in the miles on your Turbo trainer over the winter months? If so – why not try the spinning classes being held on Monday evenings both at Hawick & Kelso!

I tried my first spinning class on Monday past and was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the workout. You set your own resistance so you can make it as hard or as easy as you like! The equipment used is Tomahawk spinning bikes, which use a large braked flywheel, so the feel is quite natural. You can wear your own cycle shoes (SPD clips) or alternatively trainers (traps). The session lasts 45 mins – 1 hr and passes really quickly!

Anyone interested should contact Teviotdale Leisure Centre (01450 374440) or Abbey Fitness Centre (01573 228280)

We are planning a winter training schedule – this will be in the same format as last year alternating between Gala, Kelso & Hawick swimming pools with swim/run, swim/cycle and mountain bike being the order of the day. Dates and places will be e-mailed soon and for those of you not on e-mail these will be displayed on the web site.

In the meantime – here are some events for your diary:

Border Cross Country Series

23 Nov – Dunbar

7 Dec – Norham

18 Jan – Berwick

1 Feb – Gala

7 March – St Abbs

21 March – Lauder

Races start at 12.00. Entry on the day (£6 for whole series)

Glentress Duathlon Series – Mountain bike / run

30 November (Medium distance)

18 January (Short distance)

29 February (Long distance)

I have an entry forms for anyone interested.

Club Championships

We now have the final results for the 2003 Club Championship – and what a close finish! For the second year in a row the Mens Senior event has been decided on a count back – with myself just pipping Allister for first place. Neil took third spot in a very close championship race.

Iain took the Vet Mens title for the first time – moving up into this age group this season, with Charlie taking second place with some excellent results over the year, and I'm happy to report that Ronnie took third place ensuring at least one interesting speech at the Annual Dinner!

In the ladies section Suzanne again confirmed her dominance in the seniors with Patricia making it a clean sweep in the Vet's (although I think that we should be checking birth certificates here – there's some doubt about whether or not Tricia is old enough to qualify as a vet!)

John again picks up the vintage prize – superb stuff!

A full results / scoring sheet is attached to this newsletter – if you have been missed from an event please let me know & I shall rectify it immediately!

Annual General Meeting

Our Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 November at the Plough – Lilliesleaf. The meeting will be our usual informal affair starting at 7-30 – but feel free to make it a social event and arrive for a pub meal at 7.00! The committee would appreciate a big turnout – they put in a lot of effort on everyones behalf and it's nice to know that these efforts are appreciated.

Annual Dinner

Our annual bash & prize giving takes place on Friday 28 November at the Kings Arms in Melrose. For those of you who have not already done so, please book your place with Patricia. Partners / Friends welcome!

Allisters Ironman Adventure

Ironman Adventures

Standing on the shore of Lake Zurich at 7am on Sunday 27 July with 1,400 other competitors, it finally dawned on me that this was it. And to think, it all began with a swim session at the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh on 6 January (I done a 1,000 metres and was quite tired!).

I cobbled together a training plan that worked on the basis of increasing my training each week by one hour and then on the fourth week reducing it by 30%. For example, in March I was training 10, 11, 12 and 8 hours over a four-week period and by the time June arrived, I was on 13, 14, 15 and 10 hours. In terms of disciplines, my swimming accounted for about 25%, cycling 45% and running 30% of my training. A key piece of advice was from Roger who suggested a couple of ‘big' brick sessions, which consisted of a 5 hour cycle and 2 hour run – this was one of the best bits of advice I got (thanks Roger and for the bike bag).

Back to the lake. It was a warm morning and amazingly, the water temperature was 0.1 degrees cooler than the temperature for wetsuits to be prohibited. Which I think I was glad about. I do enjoy the mass start and felt that I swam on top of someone for the first few hundred metres – every little bit helps. Out of the water and feeling fresh, though I had no idea of my time as I had taken the decision not to race against the clock but to go as best as I could. My swim time was 62 minutes for 2.4 miles.

Onto the bike (112 miles), aiming to average about 30kph – my cycle computer was stuck on kilometres! – and as I headed up the side of the lake noticed I was doing closer to 50kph but decided to stick with it. Given that it was Switzerland, there was always going to be hills and these were fairly steep…quick slug on the energy drink, click into a small ring, put the head down and spin the pedals. There was also the opportunity to see the Alps in the distance and to have a chat with some of the other competitors – your name was on your race number, so we were all on first name terms. The bike route included a section called ‘Heartbreak Hill', which is as close to the Tour de France as you can get (names painted on the road, crowd standing in your way – it was excellent). The course was 3 laps and I went through the first lap in 1hr 44minutes, which was worryingly fast for me, lap 2 was 1hr 46 minutes and the final lap, as expected, was slower at 1hr 55minutes, giving an overall time of 5:26 (later worked this out at just over 20mph average speed!).

Started the run with quite a tender stomach and this didn't really improve that much for most of the marathon. It was another 3 lap course, which twisted and turned through the streets of Zurich, though fortunately there were no hills. The weather did take a turn for the worse and raindrops the size of golf balls started landing on my head. I kept my target pace of 8 minutes miles for the first 13 miles but then slowed and finished in a time of 3 hours 41minutes, which I was still delighted with.

I had no idea of my overall time but was aiming for sub 11hours, so when I turned into the finishing straight and saw the clock at 10:14 I was a very happy bunny. It was great to finish and felt really proud of my achievements. To be honest, I wasn't really emotional just glad that it was over.

An Ironman is an individual event but it can't be achieved on your own – my infinite gratitude goes to Dona for her support/understanding/patience and for kicking me out of the bed at 5.45am to go swimming or cycling and also to Jack and Eilidh who probably never saw me much during weekends. And finally to my big brother Kenny, who provided a listening ear each week, convinced me that I was doing enough training and made sure I had shiny new tyres for the event.

Charlie's Report

Edinburgh Multisport Series 2003

A number of events were included in the above series and although I did not compete in them all I was very surprised to receive a trophy as winner of the Super Vet category.

The events were organised by Bruce and Catriona Kidd who must have put enormous time and effort into them. Some of these were new and innovative.

The ever popular Midlothian Triathlon was one of the events and was well attended by Border Triathletes. One of the new events was the Edinburgh Triathlon which added a new concept to the swim element. Groups of 5 swimmers set off at a time and swam up and down the Commonwealth Pool , underneath the lane ropes and finishing at the other end of the pool. This was appreciated by the competitors as it meant that there were no long waits for swim heats.

The Portobello Open Water Triathlon was another new event and one of which I was a bit wary. The swim went well ( the North Sea being relatively calm) but the Cycle encompassed three circuits taking in Portobello High Street and other busy city streets. The organisers have since stated that they are trying to persuade Edinburgh Council to close the streets to traffic in the future. On the run along the promenade is was pleasant to be alongside the beach. There were about 120 competitors but I feel sure that if the event is repeated next year it will prove to be very popular.

That's it for this year! Don't forget to check the website for news on training, events and other messages!

All the best for next season!

Kenny.