Colin Brooke – reporting on the Ben Nevis Braveheart Triathlon 17 September 2016

Sustenance and support on the longer distance events

(Warning; the elite racers amongst us might find some parts of this report disturbing)

Obviously the greater the distance or time out on an event the greater will be the amount of fuel we need. I have my own my simplistic way of working out what food to take and calculating how much, which probably boils down to ‘varied and plenty’. As the distance events usually start very early in the morning, often having to prepare before sunrise when our appetites are unlikely to be good, I try to eat a substantial meal during the evening before.

I did try the pasta party type approach at the Kalmar ironman in Sweden but found the polystyrene dish of pasta strips, with no more flavour […]

Through Someone Else’s Eyes

It was in the autumn of 2015 and, like all triathletes at this time of year, my thoughts were starting to draw towards the next years events.  What race do I fancy doing? To which exciting locations might this next year take me? What can I do to challenge myself? Maybe this year I’ll do a 70.3.

Then I read a request from Chris, a blind athlete, who already enjoyed all three disciplines of bike and run and a very small bit of swim (the usual triathlete proportions) but wanted to tie it all together.  He had various people who had guided him on runs or steered his tandem, but wanted to do the full tri, so he had placed a few messages around and I happened to see one of them.

Immediately it sparked my interest.  Triathlon is a very […]

When did I become obsessed? (Diary of a ‘newish’ open water swimmer)

Jan 2014 – New Year’s Resolution – learn front crawl.

As I was already a fell runner and cyclist decided, along with two friends Anne (Johnson!) & Angela), to have a go at a sprint triathlon. After intensish training and a lot of discussion over coffees & cake during the summer, we committed and entered our first sprint tri.

Sept 2014 – Skipton Late Summer Tri   (me on the right)

Discussion followed re future tri’s – but what if the swim wasn’t in a pool??

Jan 2015 – Filled with enthusiasm I Googled
‘Open water swimming holidays’ Result – SwimTrek!! Booked on their ‘Intro to Open water in Mallorca’ 

Along with further sprint tri’s with pool based swims Anne, Angela […]