First off a quick catch up.
The National Club Relays were held on the 25th August in Nottingham. It was a nice day, not too hot, not too cold and it was dry. Almost perfect conditions for a race. First of all I would like to say thank you to Keith for organising the teams for everyone. Our aim, as a team, was to place in the top 10 out of the 200 teams that were there. We finished in 5th which was great, we were all pleased with the finish result..!! thanks team: Chris Ritchie, Mick Lawrence and Ian Turner.
The National Club Relays were held on the 25th August in Nottingham. It was a nice day, not too hot, not too cold and it was dry. Almost perfect conditions for a race. First of all I would like to say thank you to Keith for organising the teams for everyone. Our aim, as a team, was to place in the top 10 out of the 200 teams that were there. We finished in 5th which was great, we were all pleased with the finish result..!! thanks team: Chris Ritchie, Mick Lawrence and Ian Turner.
Nicetri have a day out!
Sprint Quadrathlon World Champs...
On the 1st of September I competed in the Sprint Quadrathlon World Champs which were held at Bergsee Raschter, Germany. I am told that this years format was better then last years, and I can sort of see why because last year the Olympic Distance and the Sprint Distance were held at the same time therefore forcing athletes to choose one or the other, this resulted in the last few years with just a handful of people doing the Sprint. This year in the Sprint there were some 80 competitors, the largest field I have ever raced in a Quad. From 8 countries - from as far as New Zealand, Slovakia, Czech Republic, GB (me) and a large contingent from Germany. This meant that most of the top dogs were there and a large number of juniors.
The organisers picked a fantastic location. There was a campsite at the venue, which meant that we (Mum, Dad and me) took the opportunity of camping there a few days earlier, which meant I was able to check out the lake and the run and cycle route (which I believe has changed since last year). Compared to most triathlons in the UK this Quadrathlon started late in the day... this meant there was quite a lot waiting around, with 3 hours to go, I just wanted to get started...!!
The time came and I got myself in the water along with the other competitors. We were in the water for a while, before the buzzer went, but when it did go, we were off like a shot, fighting for positions before the first turn buoy. I think I had managed to scramble into about 12th place, with Stefan leading the swim. I finished strongly and was out the water with a PB in 10th place with the leader 1 minute ahead. I knew I had a lot to do on the bike. Moments before the race I found out that the roads were going to be closed, WOW... this would only be my second time on closed roads, it was great, I could attack the corners as fast as I dared...!!! I went out hard and managed to catch the chase groups, and a little later on, I took the lead... the only problem was, I seemed to drag everyone with me and I came in 3rd off the bike but in the leading group with 4 others all within a a few seconds of each other. Checking the stats later I was pleased to see I had the fastest bike split of the race.
Straight out onto my 'weakest' event, the kayak, although not as weak as it was. I have been training hard and what with the loan of a boat from Richard Crawford (thank you!) and paddle from Ivan (thank you!) I managed to come in in 5th place. After the kayak I was about 3 mins behind the leaders.
As I got out of the kayak my legs seemed to have frozen and were numb, weirdest feeling ever... This was the reason for my slow 3rd transition, the run didn't go smoothly, I did have to stretch out my calves on a few occasions and my right calf was killing me every time I took a step...!!
I made a mental note to myself to contact Tony at the Sports Injury Clinic on my return! It was Czech vs. German for 1st place...I slipped back 2 places in transition then once more on the run, eventually finishing 8th overall and 1st Youth. Really pleased with my performance overall and it was a great long weekend. So my thanks again to the organisers, it was a great event, it was also great to meet so many of the other athletes from across the world wide quad community, I hope to return next year.
On the 1st of September I competed in the Sprint Quadrathlon World Champs which were held at Bergsee Raschter, Germany. I am told that this years format was better then last years, and I can sort of see why because last year the Olympic Distance and the Sprint Distance were held at the same time therefore forcing athletes to choose one or the other, this resulted in the last few years with just a handful of people doing the Sprint. This year in the Sprint there were some 80 competitors, the largest field I have ever raced in a Quad. From 8 countries - from as far as New Zealand, Slovakia, Czech Republic, GB (me) and a large contingent from Germany. This meant that most of the top dogs were there and a large number of juniors.
The organisers picked a fantastic location. There was a campsite at the venue, which meant that we (Mum, Dad and me) took the opportunity of camping there a few days earlier, which meant I was able to check out the lake and the run and cycle route (which I believe has changed since last year). Compared to most triathlons in the UK this Quadrathlon started late in the day... this meant there was quite a lot waiting around, with 3 hours to go, I just wanted to get started...!!
The time came and I got myself in the water along with the other competitors. We were in the water for a while, before the buzzer went, but when it did go, we were off like a shot, fighting for positions before the first turn buoy. I think I had managed to scramble into about 12th place, with Stefan leading the swim. I finished strongly and was out the water with a PB in 10th place with the leader 1 minute ahead. I knew I had a lot to do on the bike. Moments before the race I found out that the roads were going to be closed, WOW... this would only be my second time on closed roads, it was great, I could attack the corners as fast as I dared...!!! I went out hard and managed to catch the chase groups, and a little later on, I took the lead... the only problem was, I seemed to drag everyone with me and I came in 3rd off the bike but in the leading group with 4 others all within a a few seconds of each other. Checking the stats later I was pleased to see I had the fastest bike split of the race.
Straight out onto my 'weakest' event, the kayak, although not as weak as it was. I have been training hard and what with the loan of a boat from Richard Crawford (thank you!) and paddle from Ivan (thank you!) I managed to come in in 5th place. After the kayak I was about 3 mins behind the leaders.
As I got out of the kayak my legs seemed to have frozen and were numb, weirdest feeling ever... This was the reason for my slow 3rd transition, the run didn't go smoothly, I did have to stretch out my calves on a few occasions and my right calf was killing me every time I took a step...!!
I made a mental note to myself to contact Tony at the Sports Injury Clinic on my return! It was Czech vs. German for 1st place...I slipped back 2 places in transition then once more on the run, eventually finishing 8th overall and 1st Youth. Really pleased with my performance overall and it was a great long weekend. So my thanks again to the organisers, it was a great event, it was also great to meet so many of the other athletes from across the world wide quad community, I hope to return next year.
Sprint Quadrathlon Youth World Champion
Full results here
http://www.quadrathlon-online.de/ergebnisse/2012/12-q-ratscher.pdf
Bit of physio never hurt anyone!
Getting my legs back into ‘working’ order!
A massive, huge thanks to Tony from The Sports Injury Clinic.
If you need that bit of help, like I did. You can find it here:-
http://www.thesportsinjuryclinic.org/index.htm
Getting my legs back into ‘working’ order!
A massive, huge thanks to Tony from The Sports Injury Clinic.
http://www.thesportsinjuryclinic.org/index.htm
New support and sponsor in Insight nutrition
I had hinted and am very pleased to confirm that I will be working with Alex and Michael from Insight Nutrition. We will be looking at the sports science behind my endeavours and with their help move me forward that extra notch with the right diet and nutrition. I will be posting the 'goings on' on my ProHelp page, as and when they happen.
We started off with taking some measurements with some kit that I recognised and some I didn't! they have an 'InBody analyser' a 'state of the art body composition analysis' thing.
So far I have been given some 'homework' a simple daily log of my food intake and my energy usage for 3 days.
I'm really excited to be working with the guys because I know just how important the 'sciencey' stuff is.
Throughout the last month I have been using booost, especially in training, it's helped me train harder, train longer and recover quicker, so my thanks to them, I had another batch of 'cans' delivered today and a Team booost technical shirt, bonus!!!
As always a big thank you to my sponsors
I had hinted and am very pleased to confirm that I will be working with Alex and Michael from Insight Nutrition. We will be looking at the sports science behind my endeavours and with their help move me forward that extra notch with the right diet and nutrition. I will be posting the 'goings on' on my ProHelp page, as and when they happen.
We started off with taking some measurements with some kit that I recognised and some I didn't! they have an 'InBody analyser' a 'state of the art body composition analysis' thing.
So far I have been given some 'homework' a simple daily log of my food intake and my energy usage for 3 days.
I'm really excited to be working with the guys because I know just how important the 'sciencey' stuff is.
Throughout the last month I have been using booost, especially in training, it's helped me train harder, train longer and recover quicker, so my thanks to them, I had another batch of 'cans' delivered today and a Team booost technical shirt, bonus!!!
As always a big thank you to my sponsors
Coming up
I have a new FB Page; ‘Tom stead multi me’ stop by and like it please, Thanks
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