Stephen's Training

Ironman Hawaii 2008

2008-10-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

I ended up finishing 18th I was hoping for better but I gave it what I had on the day.
Warming up for the swim start there was a Turtle swimming infront of the start line close to the surface, I was a little worried for his safety but am sure he moved out of the way. I had a good start and was behind Potts and Sanson but couldn`t stay with them so had to move across to the main group and stayed in the midst of that till the end and came out in 9th a fine start.

Onto the bike and I had been told that the first 10km would be fast and it was. I lost the front group at about 15km and kind of slipped back throught the bike leg although did pick a few off who struggled in the 2nd half. Oh yeah, I also got stung by a bee that flew into my helmet and lost my sun glasses shaking it out of the helmet, that was fun:)

Coming off the bike I was probably in the mid 20’s position. I felt really bad, my back was very stiff and I was struggling to get any pace going, but after the first turn around I got going and tried to push on as best I could but I seeemed not to have much spring in my step. Then my elastic laces on one of my shoes snapped, (I do not know how this happened but it is a nightmere I have had a few times about my shoes falling off during the run, So I had to stop and tie a knot before they came fully out) it did not take long to fix. I got to 12km to go and was catching a few and there was about 3 or 4 guys in catchable distance, so I pushed as best I could and passed 2 and was withing touching distance of 2 more with 2mile to go but I must of used what energy I had as I started to lose ground on them and then was trying to hold off the guy behind who passed me with half a mile to go and I tried to go with him but he left me and I came in 18th.
It was a great race and I learnt alot about how I need to race here.

Then to see Bella finish in 7th was the best and has made this trip a great success. She has worked so hard and smart to achieve this result.

Well done to Chrissie, Erica, Bella, Belinda, Hillary, Donna and Steve.

Ironman UK Champion

2008-09-09T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well I have done this race 3 times since the first IMUK 4years ago and it has allways been a tough course but this year they managed to make it even tougher!

The swim was the same as allways with a 2 lap around the pretty Sherbourne castle lake in the very fresh (i mean cold) water, then the bike they made into a hilly 3 lap affair which is just short sharp hills all the way around and a nasty wind on Sunday made it double tough. Then the run course was also a 3 lapper with half the lap a fell run around the castle grounds then the other half of the lap a tricky run through the streets and alleyways of Sherbourne village. I thought the course was great and enjoyed it very much. I just hope the first time Ironmen and Women appreciate what a tough Ironman they have just done.

Anyway my race started well, I was smart at the start and knew from last year that we would get helpd in the 16degree water for a long time until all the athletes had entered the water and so I stayed warm on the lake side doing my land warm up then entered at the last min. This worked a treat and I was not too cold at the start and had a great start and swam on Fraser Cartmells feet the whole swim, I probably annoyed him by touching his feet everynow and then, sorry Fraser:) We had 3 others in our front group including Spencer Smith but through T1 Fraser and I went really fast and dropped them all and never saw anyone else for the whole ride.

We built up a 6min lead on Spencer and 10min lead on the rest. Great. But I was not over confident of the win. At the 70.3 earlier in the year I came off the bike with Fraser and thought I would be able to out run him but he was very strong that day and out ran me, so I headed out onto the run. Fraser came straight up to me and followed , I had been told to make it a true marathon, so I set off at a solid pace and thought if you can follow me then good on you. By the top of the first hill about 2.5mile in I had a small gap and so kept pushing. The gap kept opening up and by the last lap I had a good 10mins on last years winner Scott Neyedli after Fraser pulled out after 2 laps. I still felt pretty good although this course really was very strength sapping, but I was able to ease off and not run too hard, with the next 2 months ahead, I have The world IM Championships then the 70.3 World Champs so I wanted to save myself from too much fatigue.

The last couple of miles were fantastic I felt good I knew I had a big lead and I really enjoyed the moment and took it all in especially the final bit to the finish line, I stop to hug my mum and dad then crossed the finish line to win my 2nd Ironman and my home Ironman which was a really special moment.

The day then got even better as I knew Bella was winning, but I didn’t know by how much, in the end she crossed the line 36mins ahead of the next girl. She was pretty exhausted and emotional so I said to her “why did you push so hard, you are miles ahead” but I knew the answer, Bella only knows one way and that is to give everything she has.

It was a great day. I’d like to say a special thanks to our Homestay who were some welcoming of us into there home and so supportive during the whole weekend. Thank you.

And Well done to everyone who completed this Ironman It really is a tough one.

2nd at Embrunman

2008-08-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

In my opinion Embrunman is the hardest race of this distance in the world. The swim starts at 6am in the dark and so involves following a canoe with a light on.

I sprinted off the beach and started swimming hard. I found I was leading and led for the first lap with 2 on my feet, we stayed as 3 till the end of the swim, coming into transition I was pelased to see it was 2 athletes with high numbers and I had a good gap on the athletes I was worried about, so set about riding up the first mountain straight out of transition.
The boss told me to take it steady till the strong bikers caught me, Reboul caught me half way up then we rode together till about 60km when 3 others caught us including Le Floch and Zamora Perez, we rode to the bottom of the Col d'Izord then Perez went to the front and lifted the pace Reboul and I followed but I started to lose ground on them and ended up with Le Floch and 1 other to the top.

A quick stop at the top to put clothes on and get some food and drink, then I hammered it down to try to make up some ground, on the penultimate climb I could see Reboul and tried to close the gap, in hindsight I probably worked too hard on this climb and then suffered on the ride back in to Embrun and got caught by Le Floch at the bottom of the last climb, which is a beauty of a climb! So you've done 180km and your back to Embrun but they send you up another 5km climb.

Unfortunately I didn't listen to the boss and save something for this one and lost about 3mins to Le Floch.

Onto the run I was cold, wet and pretty knackered but knew I could run ok, so out I went with my bike jersey, arm warmers and rain jacket on, I quickly caught 4th but had some gaps to the top 3. I got some good encouragement from the boss, well it was kind of along the lines of "get a f in move on" so off came my rain jacket and bike jersey and I gave it what I had. There are 2 big climbs on this 2 lap run course and man they kill after that bike. At the half way mark I was still in 3rd but then saw the boss again and he was even more, expressive, and said "you can win this, get f in going" so I caught Reboul then Perez but Le Floch was running well, I kept pushing. In the end came in 2nd, 2mins 30sec down on Le Floch.

I am pleased with my race. To compete in any ironman you have to be very fit and prepared in all ways, but a race such as Embrunman, especially when the weather conditions are challenging, really is a true test. So I am very proud to finish 2nd in this race on Friday.

And for Bella to win and to break the course record is an incredible achievement and once again shows what hard work can achieve.

2nd at Ironman Austria

2008-07-23T01:14:00.000-07:00

Much like the rest of Europe last Sunday, Klagenfurt Austria was very wet, but I think we got slightly warmer temperatures than the other races.

The lake was certainly warm, too warm for wetsuits I think, but I got a good start and came out of the water in a group of 4, with my super fast transition I was 1st out onto the bike, but straight away did not seem to be feeling very strong, and after about 5km(he must be very slow at transitions) Loisel came flying past and I couldn’t stay with him, then Vanhoenacker came past and I really tried to stay with him as I knew that he was the favourite for this race, I couldn’t and so was riding along seeing him dissapear into the distance which is quite de motivating.

So I was riding with the two Storm brothers from South Africa and didn’t feel like we were really whizzing along and at about 70km on the long climb of the course, we got caught by a group of about 10 and they went flying past and I got dropped by them as well, so coming down the decent of the climb I was probably in about 13th place with a big gap to the group in front, I really didn’t feel great in the legs but knew that I had to at least stay with this group so after the decent, I hammered it and after a a bit of a chase caught them back up.

This seemed to bring my legs to life and I now seemed to be one of the stronger guys in this group, but I thought that we must be a long way down on the 2 in front. But after the 90km mark we saw Loisel had punctured and pulled out so we had a 8min gap to Vanhoenacker. On the other climp of the course we went hard and dropped alot of our group so we were a group of 6 and then onto the next climb I pushed the pace and we got rid of a couple more, but they came back on the flat after the decent.

So coming back into T2 we heard it was still only 8min to Vanhoenacker. I thought that it was probably to much but if I can run well and he has not such a great run, then it is possible, so out onto the run in 2nd just ahead of the rest of the group I was with. I started to run, the gap was coming down and I think by 15km it was 6mins, then at 21km it was still 6mins, I then started to tire a little and the gap then seemed to open back up a bit. I also had 2 guys not too far behind, but I pushed the last 10km and was secure in 2nd but 7mins down on the winner.

It was a good race for me, a good swim, and my best ever Ironman run of 2:44 and a British best time of 8hrs 13min.
My bike ride was not fantastic but that will come, so a very positive race.

I then didn’t have to wait long for Bella to come in as she had just done one of the fastest ever timnes by a women!

It Was a very pleasent week in Klagenfurt it is a very beautiful and tranquil place. It was also great to see so many familiar faces from GB, and great to get so many encouraging shouts from them on the coure. Thanks everyone.

Also a big thanks to the South Africa contingent who came out to race and support, you guys really are great:) Sorry I didn’t manage to do my winners dance at this race for you:)!

2nd IM UK 70.3

2008-06-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

The race is in a beautiful part of the English countryside, with lots of rolling hills which is a big feature of the race.

My race went well, I swam ok, The eventual Winner Fraser Cartmell had a 30sec lead on the rest of us at the end of the swim. Onto the bike and after T1 I was in 2nd and felt surprisingly spritely on the bike. Somehow my bike legs returned for this race (fastest bike split(not sure I have had that before:)). Luke bell and myself went about catching Fraser and just after the half way mark we caught him and I made a little break on a decent, they both eventually came back to me but seemed content to just follow till T2, I entered T2 in 1st and was onto the run with a small Gap to Fraser and a 30sec gap to Luke, I thought well lets push now and see if I can get away. But no on the the 2nd uphill Fraser came back to me an immediatly put in a strong surge which gapped me and I had to work very hard to coles back up to him.

The run continued in that fashion with Fraser pushing hard on all the uphills and then I trying to push on the downhills and flats, but we were not going to get rid of each other so it came to the last 500m which was a Grass uphill finish, Fraser went for it and I didn’t have enough in my legs to match him and he won by 13secs.

Well done Fraser, You were the best athlete on the day.

Both Fraser and I went faster than Chris McCormack’s course record from 2 years ago. I think we both felt it was great to have such a competetive race with each other. Next time I will work on reversing that result though:)

Bella was once again an inspiration, showing what grit and determination(everday) can achieve.

Ironman South Africa Champion!

2008-04-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, no 4th place this weekend.

I did my first Ironman 3years ago in Lanzarote and finished 14th over 45mins behind the winner. From that day I have been working so hard and have seen improvement, but it is certainly not easy to win an Ironman race. But yeaterday in South Africa I pulled it off.
I had a good swim coming out in 2nd and riding with 1 guy at the front. After 60km I was actually leading the race by over 1min after a puncture by a strong riding Austrian left me all alone up front, I was riding a bit to hard and when Chaboud and then Tissink came past I was unable to match there pace. But I limited the gap to a reasonable time.

Onto the run and I didn’t feel brilliant, but did as the Doc prescibed, got some food and drink in over the first 2km, then got going and gradually the gaps strated coming down, I moved to 4th then to 3rd then I could see 2nd, then with 8km to go I coaught Tissink and was in the lead. But he was tough and hung on with me for another 4km and then with 5km to go I gave it a surge and I was alll alone and then ran as hard as I could to the finish.

The sense of satisfaction and happiness I felt was incredible and only matched by when Bella(my hero) won a sprint. I neally killed her I was hugging her so hard as she crossed the line.
Well what a day for us both.

Thank you to everybody for all there congrats, it is very much appreciated. And thanks to Doc and my team mates.

I didn’t have to do a speech at the awards, but did a dance instead.

A really big thankyou to Craig and Leisel and there 3 wonderful kids for looking after us so well all week, you are very special people.

4th at Ironman NewZeland

2008-03-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well I ended up 4th, again! I am getting a bit fed up with finishing 4th all the time, but I promise you I am doing my very best to make it better than 4th and 4th is better than 5th so it’s not so bad.

It is the day after the race here in Taupo a beutiful place for an Ironman, and the weather in the days leading up to the race was beautiful and sunny, but race day decided to be overcast windy and wet:) It was fairly warm though!

My swim went ok, I didn’t quite manage to stay with the 3 leaders so came out with a group 2min 30sec down, I felt ok on the bike and we gradually caught 2nd and 3rd with the lone leader, Kieren Doe, doing a good job working hard alone up front.

At the end of the first lap, of 2, I had to work hard on a decent to stay with the group of; Bell, Brown and Van Lierde, and we hit a small uphill and I rolled to close behind and heard a whistle and was told I had a 4min drafting penalty, bugger! Oh well, I had to just accept it and stand at the side of the road and wait for 4mins.

So I ended up riding the last half of the bike all alone and was 7mins down on Brown and Van Lierde at the end of the bike and only a min behind Bell, as he also got a drafting penalty during the bike.

Onto the run and I was in 5th but quickly passed Bell, and tried to run as fast as I could to catch any of the 3 in front, in the end Brown and VanLierde ran well and I couldn’t catch either I was gaining fast on Doe but didn’t quite have enough in the legs to make up the 3mins 30sec I needed to get 3rd, which I would have been very happy with rather than another 4th.

Anyhow I am happy with my performance, I gave it what I had on the day. As always room for improvement.

So onwwards and upwards.
Stephen

The monkey man of Leysin!

2008-01-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

Since my last race of 2007 I have been concentrating mainly on growing my hair. Not just head hair but all over body hair, so everywhere from face to bum!

It has not caused to much distress to the general public as we have been in Leysin, Switzerland most of the time and I am wrapped up warm and so my bodily hair has been kept away from the general public. Unfortunately along with Bella, AJ, Lisbeth and Little Astrid they have had the tromour of seeing the hairy monkey man of Leysin when swimming with me in the mornings, so I must appologise for this.

Anyway Bella had finally had enough of living with a monkey man and so yesterday I was atacked with the hair clippers and rasors. I have survived to tell the tale and am now as smooth as a stubbly bum crack:(

Oh I was much faster in the pool this morning though, I must have been losing about 5sec per 100m with all that drag.

4th at Ironman Florida

2007-11-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in a bakery in Panama city beach the morning after Ironman Florida. I am fairly happy with my performance.

I had a good swim coming out in the front group then onto the bike and it took a while to get going but my legs came round and I was riding strongly, at about half distance I couldn’t quite go with some faster bikers who came past but I was happy to come off the bike only 5min 20sec behind the leader.
A great opportunity for a podium finish. Unfortunately I did not run how I had hoped to, something to work on.
I finished strongly to come in 4th.

With 4th place here I have qualified for Hawaii and that is the big aim, and I will be working extremely hard to try to put myself in the top 10 there in 2008.

Next race is Ironman Western Australia in 4weeks time. Where I will aim for another solid performance.

Waht I was doing 6years ago

2007-09-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post a blog today because I was reminded of what I was doing 6years ago, I was working as a bank clerk in Kingston, Surrey, UK(this was the biggest endurance test of my life, working fulltime in a job I pretty much hated and surrounded by people I had nothing in common with, well my next job as a call centre operative for a DIY store was possibly tougher!).

I was training in any spare time I had and dreaming of winning races and being a fulltime triathlete.

Now I’ll be honest, I was a long way from winning any money in any races, maybe the odd 10th place every now and then in a bigger race or a gift voucher for winning a local race.

So to now be a proffesional triathlete actually earning enough money to live on, and working towards achieving goals I have only dreamt of, which are now becoming realistic! Well that is a dream for me and to be doing this with Bella. Well live doesn’t actually get much better than that!

3rd at Singapore 70.3

2007-09-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

So this time I had a good swim. I was leading at the first turn bouy, which is always a good sign, I then sat on Reinaldos feet and annoyed him alot for the rest of the swim, sorry buddy:)

Onto the bike and I just wasn’t going anywhere, i felt a bit better on the bike towrads the end of the ride, but in total the bike ride was a bit crap!

Then onto the run and I was atleast 6mins down on the 4 guys ahead off me, so I thought I would have to run pretty good to just hold onto 5th and get some money.

I did what the boss said and enjoyed my run in the sun:) I went under the humidity for the first lap then tried to push a bit harder, with about 6km to go I could see 4th place, which gave me a boost, I went straight past him. Coming into the stadium with 1500m to go I thought I had 4th and was fairly pleased, but I heard that AJ wasn’t far ahead so I kep pushing, then I could see AJ, so I gave it all I had and just pipped AJ who I believe was seeing stars due to the heat.

So I cam in 3rd place overall. Not bad and a really great day all round for Team TBB with 1st and 3rd in both Mens and Womens races!

Now on to Bor Saen for 2months traing up to IM Florida.

2nd at Ironman UK

2007-09-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

A Cold and Windy day in the UK was what greeted us come race morning, but at least it wasn’t raining!

Well I had a crap swim, I am blaming the cold water for my poor start, but anyway my swim wasn’t so good and I ended up coming out in 4th but then with a super fast transition was onto the bike in 2nd and 2mins down on Bryan Rhodes!

On the bike I felt ok, and rode solid but knew I probably wouldn’t see Mr Rhodes again on the bike but hoped I may see him on the run!

I came off the bike as I started it in 2nd with 3 guys just behind me.
Another quick transition and I was out and running 12mins down on Rhodes. I was running with Scott Neyedli, and we were running quite well together, after about 6miles the gap was down to 8mins and we then knew there was a chance of chatching Bryan.

At this stage I thought I could out run Mr Neyedli, as I have in all races previously, he was to surprise me though, with some very strong running on the uphills, that really sapped my strength, I had a little blip with running out of fuel a bit and struggling for a couple of miles untill the gels I swallowed down kicked in, once they had the gap was over 2mins, bugger!
In the end I finished just over 2mins down, who knows with a bit better fueling I could have pipped mr Neyedli, but very well done to Scott, he really raced very strongly and took away a great win.

I am very happy with 2nd, and I know, with more time and hard work I can swim bike and run alot better.
Next race is Singapore 70.3 then some solid work towards IM Florida on 3rd November:)
Thanks for reading.StephenPosted in General Comments Off

3rd Alp d'Huez long distance triathlon

2007-08-08T10:34:00.001-07:00

Been training good, last week had a fun week with a trip to Alp d'Huez.

Reinaldo and I started the week by cycling from Leysin to Alp d’huez, about 300km over 2 days and over some great climbs to prepare us for our race on Wednesday!

We had a great ride, perfect weather and fantastic scenary. Arriving to the Alp on Monday evening.

Come race day I felt not to bad. I swam with a group of 5 at the front of the race, but the water was so cold that I could not feel my feet and also had that dizzy feeling from having a very cold brain! Which meant I struggled to get my wetsuit off and ended up falling on the floor and struggling with the legs of my wetsuit, which the TV camerman seemed very happy to film:)
Onto the bike and I had a little chase to catch up to the 3 guys I swam with. I then tried to pace the climbs and hammer the down hills, which worked well, as I was making up most of the time I lost on the ups on the downs:)

I lost some time to Reinaldo on the final climb up alp d’huez but felt I could have a good run. I think I had the fastest run and this secured 3rd place 4min 30sec down on Reinaldo.

Great race, I highly recommend this epic race to anyone wanting a fgreat triathlon experience.

Onto a bit more hard work before IMUK in a couple of weeks.

19th July 2007

2007-07-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

The World Long Distance Championships in Lorient, France was on 15th July. I won’t write too much about the race as, for me, it was a race to forget. I had a poor performance and finished in 20th.

I read on the www.britishtriathlon.org that I apparently blamed my performance on the shortened distance (this year it was a double Olympic distance instead of triple Olympic distance). I certainly don’t blame the distance for my poor performance, there are other reasons why I didn’t perform very well, but it was not because the distance was short!

My preparation was not as good as the French team in particular. The French team as a whole deserve congratulations for the very impressive way they have focused on this race and in so doing dominated the race last Sunday. This is something I will learn from and improve upon for myself in future.

Next up is IMUK.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

Bronze medal at European Long Distance Championship

2007-06-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

I came 3rd and I’m very happy with my performance. I felt a lot better than at IMUK 70.3 last weekend from the start. I made a few changes to my bike position including my saddle and it made a good difference too.
I swam good in the lead group but with a lone leader and eventual winner Fred Van Leired 40sec ahead. He then proceded to put 4 more mins into me on the bike.
It was then a matter of chasing him down as hard as I could on the run. Which I did with eventual 2nd place Jonas Colting, who ran great and just pulled away from me on the last lap. I ran as hard as I could and was really pleased to get a Bronze medal in a very strong European Championship field, with numerous IM champions and 70.3 Champions. So a really encouraging race for me.
Now for 3weeks training then the World Long Distance Championships in Lorient, France.
CheersStephen

5th at Ironman Brazil

2007-05-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

Just got back to the hotel after the race.

It went Ok, Í swam well, I led for about 400m then Carvalho took over and it was easy on his feet so I sat there the whole way, we had 1min on the next group at the end.
Carvalho and I rode kind of steady for 40km till Renaldo, Sturla and Pedazza cought us, they were riding really hard though, but I sat there, towards the end of the first 90km, my legs were going, then they really went, I lost all my strength and it took me another 40km of very slow riding to get some sort of strength back.

I then rode the best I could but paced it a bit to get ready for the run. I think I rode about 2:15 for the first 90km then 2:39 for the 2nd 90km! I really blew myself up. I definately had some pacing issues here on the bike today:)

I ran ok, I tried to hit 4min km pace and ended with a 2:53 which is my fastest marathon time but I´m not over the moon with it. I think I rode much to hard early on, and it affected my race quite alot. I was happy enough to be able to run ok after the bike, but I´´m looking for much better. I had the fastest run time of the day which is great.

Anyway onwards and upwards.

Bella did amazing, 3rd place in 9hrs 20min is great, she wasn´t happy with her swim but had a good race all round, I am as always very proud. Renaldo was very smart as always and took away a great 2nd place to the very impressive Oscar Galindez.Hillary did her best as always, I know not one of her best races, but good job Hillary as always hanging tough.

Thanks for readingStephen

Getting around the dreaded baggage alowance!

2007-05-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here are Bella and my tips on getting through checkin with the strict baggage alowance that most airlines apply these days:

1.Pack light. Great tip I here you say but really try to just take the essentials, you can always buy, when you get there, cheap Tshirts, underwear etc.
2.Use a cardboard bike box, they are the lightest bike carrying device and they actually protect the bike very well.
3.Pack heavy items in Hand luggage. I put the seat post and saddle in hand luggage.
4.Have a very big rucksack as hand luggage, it is usually possible to get through checkin without them saying anything about the size of your hand luggage.
5.Have a couple of extra bags(plastic bags are good as they look like things you have just bought) , Bum bags are good, get a massive one, people don’t usually notice the bum bag!
6.There is also the good old foot under the bag whilst on the scale trick! You need a very steady foot!

Bella and I are off to the airport tomorrow so will be employing this tips ourselves. We are off to Brazil for Ironman Brazil on Sunday.

We have had a great 2weeks training in Arizona after our last race Florida 101. We have been staying with Marcie, John and there fabulous daughter Madison. We have been look after so well, I believe that the whole family should be considered for Saint hood, or something equally as special!

We have 4 Team TBB athletes racing Ironman Brazil on Sunday: Hillary, Renaldo, Bella and Myself, 4 athletes in great shape so we hope to all be right in the mix on Sunday.
Hopefully I will have access to email on Sunday after the race and I can update you all on my race. You can follow all the team TBB athletes during the race on www.ironmanlive.com

Thanks for reading
Stephen.

2nd at Florida 101 Triathlon

2007-05-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a race report from my race today at the Inaugural Florida 101(101miles distance in total) triathlon.I had 3 full days before the race to get over the flight and loosen up, I felt better each day and was looking forward to the race today, I have to say I was quite nervous so it was good to get started.
I had a good swim start and lead to the first bouy about 300m, then a girl came past and I sat on her feet, she was swimming fast and we dropped everyone bar Leanda Cave, so 2 girls and me, but I was ahead of all the men so I was happy to follow this super fast lady. I did lose this girls feet towards the end but still emerged out of transition ahead of both the girls and with a healthy gap on most of the men. I rode pretty solid and lead the race for about 25miles before the eventual winner came past and I was unable to follow at his speed. In the end he put a big gap in to me, and also 5 others came past during the ride and I was feeling a little week towards the end and so not overly confident of a good run. However I got of the bike and felt good. I caught 3rd position quite quickly and still felt good so kept pushing on, 2nd place was Marino Vanhoenaker( he was 6th at Hawaii last year) he started to struggle a little so I caught him around half way, but I still had a big gap to the leader, he was running pretty strong. I took some time out of him but the gap was much to big and I was just under 9mins behind at the finish.
I am happy with my race, I swam and ran well. I was disapionted with my bike ride, but I will get faster here. This result is step in the right direction and another step toward world domination;) No seriously it is step closer to where I want to get, so a satisfying day.
A quick mention about Bella, I won’t say too much as she will put a report on herself. She really dug in, she was not on a great day for her but she plugged away and did great to finish with a solid performance. I’m very proud of her.
Congrats Hilary too, you looked great out there.
Next up is Ironman Brazil in 3weeks time. So some good training to get in before hand and then look to race well there.
Thanks for readingStephen

3 months in Thailand

2007-04-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

5 more days left in Thailand, what a fantastic 3months Bella and I have had here. Starting with 6 weeks in the Boat Lagoon in Phuket; It was like 2 "big brother" houses, all 15 althetes sharing 2 houses, it was great, we all got to know each other very well!
Then the 2nd half of our stay in Thailand was here at Bor Saen villa, this place is like a tranquil paradise, to be able to finish a days training and slip into our private pool, then sleep in a beautiful 4 poster bed!! Wow we have had quite time here in Thailand!
There have been a few races, we all had different experiences, most did great some not as well as hoped!
I managed a 6th place at IM Malaysia which was fine, but I am for sure looking for better, then my first Olympic distance race(ITU Points race in the Mekong river) was a disaster I had a big crash in the first 3km and it ruined my race, oh well we had a great after race party;)
From here Bella and I travel to Florida for the inaugural 101 race in Bradenton Florida, I feel good for this race, I will give it my best, you can see coverage on www.insidetri.com .
After this we have 3 weeks to train and get ready for Ironman Brazil, then we travel back to Europe for the European season.
We are so lucky to be able to travel to all these places and do these amazing races and stay in beautiful places like here in Thailand. It just gives me more motivation to train hard, a sort of guilt for that feels better if I really train really hard!! That way I feel as though I have deserved these luxuries a least a little!!
Please visit my website www.stephenbayliss.net and then visit my sponsors and buy some of their products, they will like me a lot if you do this;)
Thanks for reading and keeping up with my progress.
Stephen

Sorry for not posting for a while!

2007-04-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have been in Thailand and seem to have not had time!

Well my new triathlon team is Team TBB and they have a website: www.teamtbb.com please have a look around the site.

I am also doing a blog from this site so what I will do is post the same blog on here and on the team TBB blog,

You can visit the team TBB blog at www.teamtbb.com/stephenbayliss or got to the link on my page at www.teamtbb.com

I will stil be registered as a Fit-For member on my triathlon license but will have to race in my sposored kit in races!

Anyway all is good, next race is a long distance race in Florida on 6th May. Training has been good so I am looking forward to the race.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

More training in Switzerland.

2007-01-22T02:08:00.000-08:00

We have till the end of the week left here in Switzerland. These 6weeks training out here have been the best.

It is a beautiful place to live and train, and I may not earn much money as a professional triathlete, but to be able to afford the lifestyle that Bella and I lead is just priceless, I feel so lucky, I make a point of realising this everyday.

Training wise my swimming is going great, Brett has been working us all hard in the pool and I just feel my swimming is gradually improving all the time.

Bike wise, I am feeling really strong, I will wait till my first race at IM Malaysia to get real confirmation but I am happy with with where I am in Jan.

I have been running lots and hard, and I feel my run is coming along, I am very confident of bringing my IM marathon run time down alot this year.

So back to the UK for a few days at the end of this week, then on to Thailand for a good long camp out there. Can't wait.

A big well done to some team meates: Belinda, Justin, Luke and Hilary at Challenge Queenstown very good effort by all.
And also to Reinaldo winning the ITU points race in Argentina yesterday, good effort!

Thanks for reading.
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

Drugs in sport....

2007-01-12T01:11:00.000-08:00

I'm annoyed, very annoyed! I shouldn't let it get to me, as it does my own training and performance no benifit at all, I should be able to put my trust in WADA(World anti dopping agency) and our national and international govening bodies! But, what the hell is going on, please read this link to a letter from Les MacDonald(President of the ITU(International Triathlon Union)) to Dick Pound(WADA president) : http://www.slowtwitch.com/headings/olympics3.html

So, there are a few issues that really get my goat here:
There is a positive test from the Ironman World Championships 2006, why is this athlete not named and banned?
The politics of it all is very very frustrating, it seems that there are a few people who want to be the big daddy and so don't really care about the sport of triathlon or the athletes, and seem to only care about being "King of the jungle" of something.

Surely all events could sign up to a world anti doping policy! Infact there should be a world sporting police, who inforce that all events(maybe just professional sporting events) have dope testing.

For clean athletes trying to make it to the top, like myself, I should not have to worry that I will be racing doped athletes, and that they may very well get away with it!

I just really hope that the powers that be do EVERYTHING they can to stop doping and give proper bans to athletes caught doping.

Anyway, rant over, I off for my second training session of the day.

Thanks for reading
Stephen Bayliss(aka big legs)
www.stephenbayliss.net

Training in Switzerland

2007-01-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

I am currently training in Leysin, Switzerland. It is beautiful out here right now(well it is beautiful anytime of the year) snow on the mountains and quite alot of snow in the town at the moment, which is making the skiiers happy as they had very little snow up until 1st Jan!

I'm looking forward to 2007, my main aim is to keep improving and get closer to the best in the world, so as in a few more years I can challenge the best in Hawaii. For those of you who follow my results, this basically means a bit more power on the bike and keep getting my marathon off the bike, faster and faster.

I read in 220 magazine a few weeks ago that there is quite alot of doubt over a Brit ever winning in Hawaii! Well I can tell you, we already have 1 athlete who in 2007 is going to be challenging for the win, no other than my girlfriend Bella Comerford, other than that I can only talk for myself and I would put good money on Stephen Bayliss getting a podium in Hawaii in 3years!!

So why so confident? Well I know how hard I can work, I also know that being the best in the world is more of a choice than luck or destiny. I am chosing to work seriously hard, harder than the rest, and I put no limits on what any human body can achieve.

I hope to have great 2007 season starting in Feb with IM Malaysia, but my main aim is train, train, and train some more, until I get there:)

Happy New Year and I wish you all a succesfull 2007
Thanks for reading
Stephen Bayliss
www.stephenbayliss.net

20th ITU World Long Dist Champs!

2006-11-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

Not what I was hoping for, but I think It was a solid performance after IM Florida 2 weeks ago.

I had a good swim and bike and was right in touch for a medal, but I just was not able to run fast off the bike.

More months of hard work and I will be. I feel I am getting close even if 20th isn't very impressive. If you look at the field and look at the splits, I am not far away and am prepared to work harder than the rest of them so they better be scared;)

Bella was just incredible winning in fine style. So She is now a World Champion, which is just phenomenal! She has worked so hard and thoroughly deserves this success.

We haven't seen the Times but we know we had a article in the sports section on Sat. That is really great for us and for triathlon especially Long Distance triathlon. I believe Bella has a follow up piece in the Times today.

We will be recovering a little, small training for a bit. But still doing everything right so as we can keep improving as fast as possible.

Thank you for reading.
Have a great winters training.
Stephen
please visit my website:
www.stephenbayliss.net

4th at Ironman Florida.

2006-11-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'm happy with 4th. This is my 3rd 4th of the year in Ironman races(4th IM NZ, 4th IM Brazil, 4th IM Florida).

I'm getting closer to the podium, just some more hard work needed.

My race went kind of as planned, I had a great swim, coming out in second, then a fast transition put me in first for the first mile of the race which is always nice, but the plan was to ride a bit more sesibly so did not go with the eventual winner who came past pretty hard.

In the end I had a solid ride but lost much to much time to be in cotention for top 2.

Then I ran as planned, steady then tried to build the pace, I infact negative split the run(1:30 then 1:26) not sure if this suggests I took it to easy in the first half or got it right. Anyway I was happy to run under 3hrs(my run was 2hrs 56mins). I felt good throught the run.

So I was happy with 4th but looking for better in the future.

Bella was fantastic, she is the best I have seen her. She really dominated in the end.

Next stop World Long Dist Champs in Auz in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading
Cheers
Stephen.
www.stephenbayliss.net

Champion of Ibiza

2006-10-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

It turned out to be a fantastic trip all round. Bella won, with a very dominating performance, I won after a great swim and bike then a pretty poor run but just managed to pull it out of the bag on the last 10km. And also my Mum and Dad were there to see us both win, which makes me very proud, as they are so amazingly supportive of what I am doing, and they are one of the few people who I really care what they think. So to see them so happy makes me very very happy.

We are now in Brazil training for a few weeks before Ironman Florida then Worlds in Aus. Things are great, we are training in a beautiful farm in Brazil, it is another perfect training base. I have to say the flight from Ibiza to here was tough on the body, swollen ankles and feelling pretty rough. But it doesnt take long to get over it.

Anyone who checks my website will be pleased to know I will have some more pictures on there soon, just to keep things interesting.

Anyway thanks for reading.
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

Training Hard.

2006-09-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yes as always, I'm training hard and improving steadily.
Just a quick blog, I thought some might want to know the race schedule for the rest of the year.
8th Oct Ibiza Spanish Long Dist Champs.
Then no Hawaii this year!!
4th Nov Ironman Florida.
19th Nov World Long distance champs, I am currently ranked 4th in the ITU World rankings and a good result here should get me a high overall ranking. Also some good prize money ;)

I do get a few comments on the number of races I do a year. Here's my view. I believe I am not yet able to sit back and just race Hawaii(or something like that, I have concerns over athletes that do this anyway?:( ) I am trying to get fitter and stronger each year so as I can compete in the biggest races in the world and against the best triathletes in the world. I'm not there yet!

Thanks for reading
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

7th at Gerardmer

2006-09-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

I was happy with 7th, the field was strong and I felt I had a good race, I paced the run right this time and caught 3 guys in the last 7km. (Gerardmer was the French national Long Dist Champs and an international event)
Reinaldo won, he was pretty awesome, I aim to emulate what Reinaldo is doing at the moment, he is so strong in every race. He is also a thoroughly nice guy too!

Bella came 2nd and got beat by the disgraced 2004 Hawaii winner(she tested positive for EPO after this race, and I find it incredible she has only been banned for 1yr!)

How can she have the audacity to race again anyway and why is she allowed to? the ban should at least be enough to end her career, 10yrs say, or, I think a life ban. 1yr is so ridiculus, I mean what sort of message does that send out?! Is it not a bad offence? Does she not desserve to be punished? She has cheated in sport(the whole ethos of sport is for the best man or women to win, this should be the person that has worked the hardest, taking a performance enchancing substance is just plain cheating of the worst kind)

Anyone that says "well there is a fine line between diet, other supplements etc, and taking drugs" is just plain wrong, there is a massive divide between someone who trains their hardest and does everything they can, legally and morally correct, and someone who is prepared to take a drug they hope will improve there performance, it takes a concious decision to do this, it is pre meditated and so so wrong, if we want our sport to keep it's great image of a healthy and happy lifestyle, then any drug cheats should not be allowed back in, ban for life. Why not??

Thanks for reading
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

6th European Championships

2006-08-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well generally I'm feeling pretty; dissapointed, angry, gutted...... a few other adjectives too! I had a great swim and bike coming off at the front off a group of 5 in 2nd place just 3mins down on 1st.

To cut a long story short I tried to run with the Belgian who eventualy finished 2nd but was running too fast for me and for him (although he managed to hold on for 2nd), anyway my legs really started to give up, I lost touch with the Belgian at 15km, by 20km was really slowing, at 25km was in 4th then got passed by another 2 guys, And finished 6th, I could do nothing about it!! My legs were completely gone!

But I was running stupidly fast for the first 10km, stupid stupid! Really stupid because I know the race plan and it is to stay steady for at least the first 10k. I think I gave away a medal by trying to win the race. I got to within about 35secs of the leader at 15km but I'd ran too hard and I was wasted by then.

Well I have made another mistake, I suppose I learn from the mistakes and it makes me a better athlete in the long run. I just really knew this lesson before I made this mistake, which is why I feel really stupid!

Bella did fantastic she was just 1min off the win! Unfortunately 2 Italians were 2nd and 3rd, and they drafted the whole bike, and when I say drafted they weren't just a bit too close they were sitting on like it was a drafting race! Unbelievable! For the draft busters to do nothing(I think there was only 1 but still he was out there) is even more unbelievable! They seemed not even bothered, so Bella was out there on her own while these 2 Italians get off fresh legged(and closer to her than they should be) and run her down and out sprint her at the finish, well all I can say is she was and is very angry! Rightly so!

Drafting: Either it is non drafting or it is drafting, if non drafting then make it 10m and enforce it strictly, give out the penalties, or just make it drafting then we all know where we stand!

I could go on but come on, please, wether it is the BTA, ITU, WTC or any other organisation, if it is non drafting then enforce it!!

I can feel my fitness getting better but I will have to show it by being a bit smarter in the races!

Thanks for reading.
Stephen
Please have a look at my site and click through to some of the sponsors;)
www.stephenbayliss.net

Haven't Blogged for a while.

2006-08-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

I have done a fair bit of racing though since the last blog. Oh I haven't blogged for a couple of reasons; 1 have been training very hard, and 2 have not had internet in our apartment until now, so it has been a bit difficult with internet access.

So I', in Leysin Switzerland, training hard under the guidance of Brett Sutton, and with the great group of athletes he has here.

It has to be the best training enviroment I have been in ever! It really is what have wanted, I am completely focused on training and improving each and everyday, with as few distractions as possible, it is training heaven!

So race wise, I did an ITU LOng Distance race in Lorient about 4weeks ago, finished 2nd to a Brazilian lad I train with here, Renaldo Colucci. We both had a great trip. Renaldo, Bella and myself drove to the west of france and we did as well as we could, as Bella won the womens race too!

Then we had an epic training week to Alpe D'Huez we cycled there did the triathlon up the climb, then cycled home all over about 6days. I came 6th in the race, Renaldo won, and Bella was 2nd in the Womens.

Then last weekend was the big one, EmbrunMan, it is a mountanous bike ride 185km in total the big climb being the col D'Izoard, I was happy in the end with 8th, Renaldo again did great coming 2nd and Bella also was fantastic as she had some major wheel problems she finished 2nd, and poss would have won without the problems.

I recommend having a look at the race site, www.embrunman.com this race is a real challenge, if you think IM Lanzarote is hard, this race is doubly hard!!

Well that is all for now, thanks for reading, next race is Euro Long Dist champs on 26th Aug.
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

Olympic distance and Ironman

2006-06-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

I got sent a 220 magazine this week, it seems there is alot of discussion about drafting in ITU olympic dist races and also about the funding of world class performance plan athletes.

Ok here is the gig: While I maybe on the Long distance plan, I receive virtually nill funding, what I do recieve is my trips to World and European champs are paid for.

Whereas the Olympic dist funding, is very good, depending on what level you are on, but the funding is much better for these athletes(allthough only 6 senior athletes recieve funding). I undersatnd fully the reasons for this, the Lottery funding is primarily to gain Olympic medals. All great. And I am not complaining. My point is, it is very difficult to earn enough money to race fulltime weather it long dist or short dist. But shorely both distances have equally merits as sports. Anyway I could complain all day about not getting any lottery funding, so I'll move on.

My real point is, it's crazy to cut the funding to a sport that didn't achieve, how the hell is the sport supposed to try and win medals at the next olympics?? It will be down to shear hard work of that individual, and more likely be despite the system rather than because of the system.
Also who is to say which athletes are going to have the best chance of winning the olympics, maybe the guy or girl who is 26years old and just missed funding by 1or 2 places won't stick to there dream and keep training and surprise everyone and be the best in the world in a few years. It has happened and will happen again.

Here is what should happen:

There should be more money total, less individual funding, more performance centres, more athletes on the training schemes, accomodation should be free, coaching and training facilities should be free. And the only criteria to be on this scheme should be your ability to work hard, have one single aim(which is to be the best), and to keep improving.
I would not need any funding if; I was based at a performabce center, I had my equipment paid for, my training facilites paid for, accomodation paid for and food paid for and travel expenses to races.

The money I earn now, goes on food rent, servicing equipment and travel, we don't need money we need facilities and coaching.

If the government and the sport really wants to win medals, then they should fund these centers and fill them with athletes whose aim is to win medals/races and is purely performance related. I hear so many athletes, saying how they want to turn "Pro" or they are a "Pro triathlete". It's not about being a "Pro" it's about Elite performance, aiming to produce something outsatnding, not about wearing nice kit and looking cool!

I do not care about being a"PRO" I want to win races.

Oh I have rambled a bit, if you have read this I hope it makes sense!

I'll talk about drafting next time.

Thanks for reading.
Stephen
please have a look at my website: www.stephenbayliss.net click on the sponsors(make them happy!)

Short update.

2006-06-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Just having an easier day today, a short swim, food shopping and a massage.

Bella and I will be leaving beautiful Boulder in less than 2 weeks, I'll miss the hills, the people I have met and I will also miss the wildlife, there is wildlife everywhere, from Prairie dogs to Bears and mountain lions, there are animals everywhere and I really love seeing all the colourfull and interesting birds and animals while out cycling and running in the Boulder country side.

In fact I'd say more than the facilities, altitude, weather, or hills, that the thing I love about Boulder the most is the Wildlife!

Training is all good at the moment.

Thanks for reading
Stephen
Please have a look at my website: www.stephenbayliss.net click through to some of the sponsors too, they will be happy if you do!

4th Ironman Brazil

2006-06-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Very happy with this result, I did my best, I finished in my fastest time in IM so far, but their were 3 people quicker than me.

This is great for me, bit of money and it shows to sponsors and supporters that I am still improving.

Brazil was a great place to have a race, the race venue was a small island on the east side of Brazil caled Florianopolis, beautiful beaches and lovely friendly people.

I feel incredibly lucky to be travelling to these great places and seeing beautiful places and meeting interesting and inspirational people.

Both Bella and I are not earning much money , but are just scrapping by, our big aims are performace related not travel related, so although we love traveling to these places and seeing all these great places. This is a by product. we do not really care where the race is. If the world Ironman championsips were in Croydon and not Hawaii, we would not care (infact it would probably be better for our performance!).
Anyway my point is, I suppose, that we wish the sport was not so expensive, or maybe we were looked after (financially by the race) more. As we really put alot of effort into producing our best performance we can in the every race we enter.

Oh well, just a little rant;)

I suppose as the sport keeps growing and gets more and more TV coverage , then more companies will look to triathlon as a great advertising oppourtunity. As it is a great sport to promote any company through, compared to Football, whose players fight and argue and show little respect to the referees.

Opps I think I'm feeling a little jealous of footballers now. enough of that!

That's all for now.
Thanks for reading.
Please check out my website: www.stephenbayliss.net

Train hard and have fun.
Stephen.

Training in Boulder.

2006-04-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

Boulder is the best, we are at just over 5000feet, which is a great benifit for our bodies, it does make it tough to train hard the first 2weeks though. It;s probably best to do all training easy-steady, easier said than done when you go training with others, so I have had a coulpe of tough days riding running and swimming with some groups.

The set up here is the best though. Sunshine most days, great pools, great roads and great trails. Oh yeah and lots of great people.

Just a quick Blog, Bella is hurrying me up to get out on the bike, I'm a bit tiered so I may not last long today.

Thanks for reading.
Stephen.
website: www.stephenbayliss.net

14th Ironman Arizona

2006-04-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Not what I was looking for but I learnt some important lessons from this race and so I may well be pleased it happened some time in the future.

I had an ok swim coming out in the 2nd group 1min behind, then on the bike rode well coming off only 10mins down on the leader. I was confident in my run so felt a really good result was possible.

To cut a long story short. I started to slow, got bad diaroea and had an awful run. I finished in 14th place in 9hrs and a few seconds.

Basically I was severly dehydrated by the end of the bike and there is no way back from that.

I have had a really good chat with the Team Timex nutritionist , and have now got a much better understanding of my fluid and nutritional needs in all conditions.

Talking about Team Timex camp. It was a great 3days in a posh resurt in Arizona. I learnt alot, spoke to lots of new team mates and sponsors and enjoyed a great camp.

Bella and I are in Boulder now , getting used to the altitude and training everyday.

Thanks for reading
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

Ironman Arizona on Sunday.

2006-04-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well this was planned to be Ironman no:2 of the year but after the weather affected Ironman NewZealand this will be my first Ironman of the year.

At this time before the race I personally start to worry, about lots of things...... mainly because I have to much time on my hands...... I worry if I trained enough or hard enough, all fruitless time wasting thoughts, but hey.

I have to just accept the fitness I have and actually it should be pretty good as I have had 4 great months training in NZ, and some really promising races so I probably shouldn't worry so much, infact I no I shouldn't worry.

So only a few days to go, I did a good last 2 track sessions this week with Bella, who is also in great shape, I enjoyed these, they help me relax which is good.

We are staying in Arizona with a great family John and Marcie Edmonds and their daughter Madison, they are really looking after us and have been so welcoming and we are so so lucky to have their help for the week.

Anyways, Bella and I go down to the race site tomorrow to register and have the briefing.

I will probably blog again the day after the race.

Thanks for reading
Stephen (or SteBay as some Swedes have decided my name is)
New website: www.stephenbayliss.net

Does anyone still check my Blog??

2006-02-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged for so long that I will be very surprised if anybody reads this.

A quick update though. I have been in NewZealand with Bella since the beginning of December training hard for Ironman NewZealand. All has been going well, I have won a couple of small swim run races , the regional Olympic distance champs and got 2nd in the Auckland Half Ironman.

Bella and I travel down to Taupo for the Ironman this weekend. We both hope to do well.

I may not blog on here much but I will be updating a diary page on my New Website: www.stephenbayliss.net

Thanks for reading!!!! I wonder if anybody does read this!

Thanks
Stephen

Swimming, Cycling and Running!!!!!!!

2005-12-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

Bella and I had a little break after IM Florida, we are now in NewZealand training hard for IM NewZealand, we will race the Auckland Half at the end of Jan, give us an idea of how the training is going.

We are also doing Epic Camp in Jan. Mega milage for 12days.

I have started growing a beard again, only because I haven't found the time or energy to shave for a couple of weeks.

I have been Swimming Cycling and Running!!! Lots and Lots!!!

6th at Ironman Florida

2005-11-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well that was the last race of the year for me and I'm happy with 6th here at Florida and also with the season as a whole. I feel the whole year has been a big improvement on last year.

The race panned out kind of as I hoped, came out in the front group of 4 in the swim, steady bike so got caught by some of the stronger bikers (hope to change that for next year) then a solid run (not as fast as I planned but still 6th fastest) apart from a drfating penalty (4min sin bin in T2) I was very happy with my performance.

There were alot of good guys in this race with past Ironman champions and other top Ironman athletes.

I travel back to the UK next week , so hope to see some of you out on the roads, Fit-For Sunday rides are something not to miss!!

So a little break now with just some light training, see some friends and relax (no stressing about races for a while).

Thanks for reading and good luck with the winter training.

Stephen

8 Days till IMFlorida.

2005-10-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yep only 8days to go. Bella and I are feeling fit and ready and aim to do our best next Sat 5th Nov. There are 56 in the pro mens field and some very tough guys amoung them.

I'll be happy as long as I feel I have progressed again on my last IM (IMUK).

We fly down to Florida on 31st Oct and it should be a nice easy relaxing week pre the race. Furtunatley Panama City - which is the race site - missed the last hurracaine , so I'm looking forward to a nice hot calm week.

If done all my last long training, had some good long hard runs Sat and Sun and my last big bike session yesterday, all now is short fast sessions, to get my body in real race mode!! I hope!

You can follow the race Live on www.ironmanlive.com .

I'll be remembering my mantra on the bike especially "pace yourself" very easy to get carried away!!

I'll be thinking of Ibbo alot during the race.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

Ibbo's Funeral

2005-10-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

I arrived back in the UK on Thursday 6th flights and the journey was fine, I spent the whole time thinking about John and planning the words I was to read at his funeral - a pretty dauniting task - .

Friday 7th and Johns funeral was at St Peters Church in Walton on the hill at 3pm. It was a very sad day. It was extremely tough to get up in the church to speak about John but I was proud and honoured to do so.
The whole church was packed , literally full, every space being taken, standing room was taken as well.
It was a very emotional day, the tributes to John were very moving especially Sams.

After the burial, we went to a hall down the road for tea and cake. It was really great to chat to so many family and friends of John, everyone had great fun times and lovely stories to tell about their time with John.

Saturday was John's memorial ride. WOW! What a ride, over 100 people met at Dauphin bike shop for a ride down to Fanny's Farm for more tea and cake. It was a great celebration of John's life and after such a sad day on Friday, Saturday was a great fun day, and I know John would of loved this ride and, I was so pleased to see so many there. It really was great.

Onto Sunday and I'd got an entry into the Kingston Running Festival for the 16mile race. I ran with a Black ribbon pinned to my vest in memory of John, I thought of John alot during the run.
I was very pleased that I won.

I leave to go back to Boulder today (Monday) , I will take John's memory with me always and he will give me extra strength in my races to come.

I will miss you John.

Ibbo

2005-09-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

Sad news, my good good friend, John Ibbotson unexpectedly passed away this morning. There are so many good things to write about John and many already are, please read the tributes to him on www.londoncyclesport.com , http://www.addiscombe.org/members/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1890 , and our www.fit-for.com forum too.

He will be truly missed by many, not least by me.

7th at HIMUK

2005-09-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

I did beat Luc Van Lierde though (fastest Ironman ever!) I lost 1min 30secs to the leaders in the swim, mmmmm, wasn't over the moon about that, then I rode ok, but came in to transition off the bike 6-7mins down on the leaders then ran well but just as quick as the front guys so the gap stayed the same! I was pleased though, I had a good run, and the field was top quality.

Anyway off to train with Bella in Boulder then race Ironman Florida. Should be a fun 2 months.

More Hard work! I like it!

Blog soon.

Stephen

No race this weekend!

2005-09-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

I did race on Bank holiday Monday though. In the famous and fabulous Thames Turbo series it was race 4 and I was mighty pleased to win this last race and along with winning the other 3 races in the series I won the overall series, thanks must go to all the sponsors and a major big thank you to all at Thames Turbo who put on this fantastic race series which just gets better and better.

Next up is HIMUK on 11th Sept, a strong field is listed, but I'll give it my best and see how I do.

After that I leave to train in Boulder Colorado with my girlfriend Bella Comerford to prepare for Florida Ironman on 5th November.

I shall update from Boulder on all my training (always fascinating!!) and all the interesting people I'm sure to meet on my travel.

"Keep massaging that brain if you don't want a sore head" A quote by someone!

See some of you at HIMUK

Thanks for reading
Ciao.

ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!

2005-08-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

That's how I feel right now. Ironman UK yesterday and I finished 5th. Not a bad result and I'm pleased, however.......

It should of been 3rd I think probably 2nd (I know it's easy to say after the event but read on) . With 10mile to go of the bike after the last of the second laps I came to the turn for the 10mile back to Transition 2. I saw the sign saying "2laps right turn just ahead" I keep my eyes open, I see the next right turn (no sign or marshall) I ask the marshall on the other side of the road "is it this right turn?" I even say "I've done 2 laps" he says "no go straight on" so on I go looking for the right turn, I go all the way to the next T junction where I have a shout( I was angry) asking where this right was they say 2.5km back up the way I came(up hill). I was so angry. I get back to the original turning and carry on .

I'd lost 3 or 4 places and looking at the results 7mins to the guy I was just behind(he was out of site for this turning)

I got back to transition still angry but prepared to run hard.

I caught a few guys and got up to 5th but was 4mins down on 4th, 5mins down on 3rd and 8mins on 2nd!!!! If I had been in touch on the run I feel sure I could of got 2nd!

So frustrating but I know it's in the past now and I have to concentrate on the next race. Which is Ironman Florida in November.

Sorry to rant on, but when you put in so much effort in training and in the race and your performance is effected by the organisation, well lets just say I'm pissed off!!!

Ok i'ts def behind me now. On to the next challenge.

Also well done to anyone reading this who completed IMUK, tough course, be proud of yourselves!

13th at World Long Dist Champs.

2005-08-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Denmark and was greeted by 2 days of near constant rain so was expecting to get cold and wet during the race on Sunday. Luckily it turned out to be a clear sunny day, not too warm to start of with, with cold water in the swim and cold air on the beginning of the bike, but bearable.

A quick run down on how the race unfolded for me:

Swim:
I managed to line up at the front dead in line to the first buoy(shortest route!) and got a good start though there was quite a few guys around me and so I jumped on some feet, I saw a few guys were getting a gap but I was happy to stay where I was and as we got out for a run up the beach at half way I could see they only had a small gap so I was happy to save some energy and stay where I was. exiting the water the lead group of 3 had 1min on our group of 5.

Quick dash through transition (once again 3rd fastest in T1, fastest in T2).

Bike:
On the bike and felt good, the course was windy but I was happy to be in my new Rudy aero hat and glasses and on my aero Quintana Roo. So I kept a decent pace and we caught a few of the guys ahead and a few from behind caught us and this group stayed together which was fine until we came round for the end of the first 40k lap and the first age group athletes were coming out of the swim onto there 1st bike lap, this caused a few problems with drafting and there were a few penalties given out. I kept my distance and stayed out of trouble.

Coming of the bike we were 5mins down on Sindballe(reigning world champ) but I had already been told that he wasn't gonna run because of a knee injury, and so every one that mattered came off the bike together and I was right there feeling good and looking to have a good run.

I started well and moved into 7th on the first run lap (4 in total) unfortunately it wasn't my day on the run and I slipped down and missed 10th by 1min (GUTTING, argh, couldn't I off just pushed a little harder!!)

So I finished 13th.

The top 3 guys all came off the bike with or just behind me but they ran 10mins quicker!

This result is still another massive improvement on last year and with more hard work I gradually get quicker.

I haven't had the World rankings confirmed yet but It looks as though I will be the no:1 ranked long distance athlete in the World for 2005.

2 weeks to UK Ironman, couple more big names have entered so it'll be another tough race, hopefully I can pick up some much needed cash!

I am the Czechman!

2005-07-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Czech Republic where a small GB team raced in the Czechman triathlon, part of the ITU World Long Dist Series.

I had a great race coming out of the swim with a group in 4th and quickly catching everyone on the bike except 1st who had 45secs coming of the bike, I then had a great run, I new I was gonna catch the leader so I paced it and really dug in on the second half and won by 3 and a half mins!

This result is great for me, winning some very well needed money and also putting me in a very strong position (i think 1st) in the world rankings with 1 other race(World Champs) to go!!

3 weeks till World Champs in Denmark, the form is getting better, I've already beaten last years silver medalist and am hoping to keep improving the form!

I'll blog before the worlds to say how the training is going. I'm off swimming now then cycling to Fanny's Farm for a pot of tea with Bella

Thanks for reading
Stephen

web diary on: www.trisportnews.com

IMUK Course

2005-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

Anyone who's racing IMUK had better be prepared for a tough day!

I was training down there this weekend and the bike course is pretty tough, it's up and down all the way, very little flat, twisty roads and if it's hot like it was this weekend then it will be V tough.

I can't see any super fast bike times. So start training on those hills and on race day don't go killing yourself in the first half otherwise you may well be walking by the end.

Well I thought's I'd just cheer you all up with that news!

I had a great run down in Bournemouth while down there, 3hr 40mins and feeling really good towards the end. I hope I can keep this running going and have a great marathon at the end of IMUK!

I'm of to Czech Republic for Cechman race, good training and hopefully pick up some money.

3rd at European Long Distance Champs.

2005-07-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for a few weeks, I seem to of been extremely busy with training, coaching and life in general. It's good to be busy though.

Well I did the National Duathlon Champs a few weeks back, I wasn't expecting much as was just doing it as training so was very pleased to finish 7th and not to far behind Mr Don who won(he's quite fast!).
Then the week after I did the Windsor triathlon and although I'm not an Olympic distance athlete at the moment I still love this race.
I had a good swim for me and was only 50secs off the front group getting on to the bike, unfortunately our group didn't work to well together and we came off the bike still about 50secs down but in touch. I thought if I could just have a good run, like last week I'll get up there but it wasn't to be, my legs weren't quite firing on all cylinders. But still finished a respectable 11th in a super strong field.

Infact this result got me selected for the Salford World Cup race which I would love to do but unfortunately have to withdraw as I want to concentrate solely on the World Long Dist Champs the week after. Great to get selected though.

Well the European Champs. I knew I was in decent shape but have just been training as normal so no taper and so hoped to go ok.

Swim: Off nice and fast and led the whole swim with Jonas Colting(SWE) so was first onto the bike with team mate Duncan McKerracher who was in the front group as well.

Bike: Felt AWFUL! I tried to stay with a Belgian guy, Colting and Duncan(who looked in great shape) but decided to take it a bit steadier as I felt so rubbish. It was a 5lap bike so I could see all the field behind me and some of them looked really strong so I was a little worried that I'd just get passed by everyone. However after a lap I started to get my legs going and actually felt better and better, at the end of the bike I had caught the Belgian and Duncan and there was just Colting 2min 30 and a German 45secs ahead of myself and a big group of 10.

Run: I was first of our group out of transition and felt great running, I could feel I was running fast and contemplated holding back, but I've done the training and so hoped I could keep the pace for the whole 30km. I caught the German quickly and could hear over the tannoy I was catching Colting very quickly then on the 2nd lap of 4 I could see him and caught him, I was in the lead, wow what a feeling, and I was feeling good!! I knew that last years winner Gerrit Scheelens of Belgium wasn't far behind and he is a super fast runner, but I thought I'd see if I can do it.
Well he caught me so I ran with him but this was hard work and so at the end of the 2nd lap I had to let him go ahead and then suffered for the 3rd lap and got caught by Johnson, the German I picked it up again on the last lap and was extremely pleased with 3rd.

Got drug tested then had the presentation which was brilliant, on the podium spraying champagne, brilliant.

Next stop Czechman in a couple of weeks then the World Champs in 1 month.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

web page on http://www.trisportnews.com/articles/elite/sbayliss.php

National Champion

2005-06-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

I won my first national title this weekend, the National Middle Distance Championships in Bala North Wales.

The lake was very cold and my feet went numb but I had a good 2km swim coming out 2nd right behind Richard Jones, the 2 of us stayed together for the whole 78.5km bike with Andy Blow not far behind in 3rd. I got a bit of a gap on Richard through transition 2 but he soon caught me and went past at which point I thought, "hey he's running well!" and so was quite worried. I stuck with him and then took to the front after about 3miles of the run but Richard was right with me. At the turn around at half way I dug in and put a good gap between Richard and myself on the long downhill but I could see Andy was not far behind. I was running scared all the way back to the finish (last year I was winning until 2 miles to go so was worried about the same thing happening), I didn't look back and just kept running hard and was so pleased to see the finish and at last give a victory salute for a National Championship. What a great feeling. From Youth triathlons, duathlons, Junior Cyclo Cross races, road races and mountain bike races I've been close to a national championship including silver and bronze medals so it was really satisfying to win a Senior Elite National Championship.

In the end I ran 4mins quicker than anybody else, and broke the old course record by about 7mins! So was over the moon with how the race went in all.

I celebrated with a Sausage sandwich and a Mr whippy Ice cream, mmmm mmmmm mmmm!

I do know that to get up there in the World Champs I'm gonna have to get quicker on the bike but that will come with so more hard training.

Next weekend is the national Dualthlon Champs, then Windsor the weekend after.

2 wins this weekend.

2005-05-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

Raced the Crystal Palace triathlon on Sat, what a great venue for a triathlon, swim was in the 50m pool then 9 laps of the perimeter circuit(all closed roads) then 2 laps similar to the bike lap finishing with 700m on the track. I thought it was great. Lovely weather as well.

On Monday, today I did Thames Turbo race 3, I love this race. Today I had my fastest swim bike and run and broke the course record, I felt better today than yesterday which is a good sign. What is also good is that I have recovered really well from Lanzarote last Sat. I actually trained pretty normally from Tuesday, I have layed of the bike a bit though this week just a bit of Strength(big gear) work(maybe one day I'll have big legs!!).

Bala Middle Dist next Sunday, pretty strong field so we'll have to see how it goes, another great course, although I'm expecting the lake to be a bit nippy.

oh and to anybody reading this who I saw this weekend and said well done for Lanzarote, thanks so much, I do appreciate it.

2 days after Ironman Lanzarote..

2005-05-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well an Ironman certainly gives you plenty to think about. There is plenty of time for things to happen I suppose.

Straight to the point then; I was 14th, which I'm happy with.

Here's how things unfolded; Woke up in the morning at 1am for a wee, but unlike last year without nausea and diarrhea(food poisoning in 2004)!! So a good start, went back to bed for a few more hrs of z's.

Up at 4am to eat and get ready for the 7am start at sunrise. I went off like a rocket running off the beach into the sea and into the lead at the first buoy then got overtaken and tried to follow the feet(I really need to get better at following feet as I just seemed to slowly drift off from them and so swam most of the 3.8k on my own and came out in 5th, still a good start.

Onto the bike and felt ok, the first guy to come past was the eventual 2nd place Steffen Libetrau who looked super strong. Apart from him I caught a couple of guys and got caught by a couple more and so at half distance I was in 7th place and feeling quite good then at about 100k my back started to really ache and at the top of the last climb it was killing me. The next 60k were a bit uncomfortable especially on the aerobars so I lost a fair bit of time but thought maybe it would save my legs a little for the run.

Onto the run and I was in 9th place, another super quick transition ( note: I had the fastest transitions both T1 & T2(so was quickest in at least 1 of the triathlon disciplines).

I moved up to 8th on the first lap of the run(10k) and was on target for 3hr marathon,...

But I was worried about completely falling apart and having to really slow and so I took it at a comfortable pace I was passed by a few more guys in the intervening laps but I felt I was running at the right pace so stuck to it, I managed to pick up the pace in the last 5k and this is where my frustration starts...............

I only really examined the results the next day to see if I had any chance of a Hawaii spot, on the Hawaii list I was listed as 10th "Pro" because 1 had said no already to a spot and 3 ahead of me were age group winners. So with 7 spots available I had a slim chance it might roll down, well 1 pro didn't take his spot so they read out the next guys name on the list and he was there ready and extremely happy to get the spot, oh well I will get my chance and this being my first Ironman maybe this isn't the time to be racing Hawaii.

Also after studying the results I was only 6min 21secs off of qualifying out right in 7th, such a small margin over Ironman distance!! Infact between me and 5th was only 18min 53 secs! not huge amount. I would of only had to run 3hr 7min marathon, (little voices in my head are saying well if that's all you had to do then why didn't you), I suppose on the day you either run that fast or you don't.

Plenty of positives to take from the race, we move onwards and upwards, I know with more hard work I will keep improving and will gradually get closer to the top which is where i'm aiming.

If you have followed my progress towards Ironman Lanzarote then Thankyou.

Peace out and thanks for reading.

Next Major Target is the ITU World Long Dist Champs on 7th Aug.

3 days to go.

2005-05-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yep nearly there, I leave tomorrow afternoon for the extremely hot and windy Lanzarote. It's always at this point that your supposed to think of all the hard work and long hard training sessions you've put in, but all I can usually think is I don't know if I've done enough (thats really bad mentally, I must practice my posite mental imagery more).

Anyhow the race of truth is on Saturday so we will all know how I compare to some of the best tiathletes in the world come Saturday afternoon. You should be able to keep up with the results on www.ironmanlive.com if anybody wants to see the race in progress.

Got to finish packing now so,

Ciao for now.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

I haven't blogged for a while.

2005-05-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

I wasn't keen on writing all my excuses for a rubbish run at the London marathon, so all I'll say is I ran rubbish and I hope it is just a small blip in my preparation for Ironman Lanzarote 16days away now.

Apart from the marathon, training seems to be going well, I won the 2nd of the Thames Turbo sprint races and broke my own course record, all I have to do is keep that pace going for 8x the distance and I'm bound to win Lanzarote;)

I have had my new Quintana Roo Lucero for a few weeks now and have been riding it constantly to get completely comfortable on it, it feels good I have a 10mileTT on Saturday and a 50mileTT on Sunday these will be my last races pre Ironman, just some good quality training to do.

Out for a 90mile ride now down to Ditchling, we will have a cup of tea and a tea cake in the middle I think.

Long rides and long runs.

2005-04-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend 2nd and 3rd of April I decided against racing at the Swindon duathlon and got 2 good days training in, same Sat and Sunday; Cycled up to Crystal Palace 5km swim sess, cycle 1hr home then 3hr run to Boxhill and back,

Felt pretty recovered on Monday so did the same again on Tuesday, rest of the week was abit more swim bike and run with 100mile bike on Wed raining all ride then got home and the sun came out!

This weekend I arranged to visit my friend William and his wife Jo in Birmingham, so I decided to cycle up there, 135mile each way, head wind all the way there took 1hr longer there then coming back, few wrong turns on route but generally good ride and felt pretty good again, I felt as though I should have been getting some good hard runs in seeing as I have London marathon this coming Sunday, but I had to keep thinking of the long term goal-Lanzarote(less than 6weeks to go)- had a short run when I got to Birmingham, I thought I would save my legs abit for some good short speed work sessions this week.

Looks like the Fred Cowley RR was a tough one this year, Tony Gibb winning in Impressive style, Looking forward to mixing it in the road races after this weekend.

1st at Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon

2005-04-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

I had the fastest swim and bike and my friend Gavin Smith who finished 2nd had the fastest run. It was a cold morning at 7am when we started and I did get v cold and was cold for the whole run so I hope I can run faster than I did.

My calf was fine which is great, it just got really tight last week and I think the tendon was a little irritated. I am testing a new massage product at the moment as well which seems really good and and has helped my calfs especially. They should be on sale soon, the American website is www.tpmassageball.com , have a gander.

Only 8weeks to go tomorrow till Lanzarote, I sort of wish it was further away, although my winter training has gone well and whatever happens it a great race to start the season with. I have also just had confirmation of the Elite Teams for the World and European Long dist teams this year and I have been selected for both which is great, so I will be aiming for my main peak on 7th Aug in Denmark(World Champs).

I haven't eaten much cake this week but have eaten 2 dairy milk chocolate bars and a little bit of some Easter eggs, well it was Easter!

Pulled muscle in my calf.

2005-03-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

What a bugger did a 2hr steady run on Thursday with 15mins hard at the end and my calf went, I massaged and Iced it and didn't run on it till the Human Race 16mile Breakfast run on Sunday, I was fine for the first 8mile, could just feel it a little but it wasn't getting any worse so was happy, then on the bridge going over the Thames it went again, it wasn't excruciating but I had to slow up still managed 2nd but more worrying I'm having to rest from the running till it recovers! oh well lots of swimming and cycling. Had some good 5k swim sessions Tue and Wed getting lots of miles in on the bike.

Hopefully will be ok to run on it by Monday as I'm keen to race the Thames Turbo Triathlon.

20th in National Half marathon champs

2005-03-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

After taking it easy towards the end of last week , I felt fully recovered and had a nice steady 3hrs on the bike on Sat and a very short jog with a few strides. Then on Sunday I traveled down to Hastings for the National Half Marathon Champs , It's a very hilly course but with most of the climbing in the first 5miles, (I found the long 2mile climb from 3-5mile very tough) but after this got into my running again and felt strog towards the end, I finished 20th in 1hr 12min 12 secs and with the first 2 being Kenyon I think I was 18th in the national champs and also I was running for the Surrey team and we all finished in the top 20 so we managed to win the Inter Counties champs, very good day all round, mainly pleased that I recovered well after feeling so tiered last Wednesday.

My swimming has changed as traveling every morning to Isleworth and back 17mile away through traffic at 5 in the morning was becoming quite a stress so I am going back to swimming on my own, just have to make sure I keep up the intensity!

Well Just over 2months left to Lanzarote, Swimming and Running are definitely on track my cycling is going good but I will hope to really get the speed going on the bike with some TTs and road races after London marathon.

Cycling to the pool now so ciao for now.

My God I'm tiered!

2005-03-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

You know when you're a bit to tiered when you start getting so irritable that an offer of a lovely cup of tea is annoying, your eye lids start twitching and you can't even keep up with the postman that it's time to have a rest.

I ran the Inter County Cross Country Champs on Saturday and as a team Surrey came 3rd which was great unfortunately I was a non scorer as I finished 153rd(was not gonna mention this result as is not very impressive and quite embarrassing but hey) I felt rubbish but thought it was just the muddy course and a bad day but I did a 19miler with my friend Kev on Sunday and felt really tiered all day, strangely after an easy day on Monday I did an interval session on Tuesday evening and was running much better but was getting slower each interval- bad sign- then on Wed I felt good swimming in the morning but have rarely felt quite so tiered on the bike and so realized it was a necessity that I needed a good rest.
As you can gather I've overdone it a little. I've looked back at the training and it's quite clear that I was tiered last weekend and with no proper rest day I just haven't recovered properly and have accumulated a bit to much fatigue so am taking it easy for a few days. I feel much better today but am gonna still take it easy till the weekend.

Note to self: Take more proper rest days/periods!!!

March

2005-03-01T04:39:00.000-08:00

Well it's now March so only 81 days to go.

Thursday: was 1hr swim 1hr rollers then run 30min warm up 30min hill reps 20min warm down.
Friday: Swim 4.5km, Bike easy, Run 1hr with steady strides and 1min intervals.
Sat: Turbo warm up 2x10min 4x5min 2x10min all with last min flat out. Run 5mile cross country hard.
Sun:100mile fairly hard and lots of snow showers which is always fun, cup of Tea and a tea cake in the middle at Dollys Pantry in Ditchling. Run 1hr was gonna be a steady 2hrs but felt V tiered so cut short.
Monday: Really short easy swim bike and run at Gym.
Tuesady(today): Fell much fresher, good swim with Optima this morning in Putney, Bike and Mile reps running later.

New Zealand Ironman on Saturday, my moneys on Cameron Brown again will be his 100th win or something in this race. In the womens race look out for a friend of mine Bella Comerford a very dedicated young lady so I hope she has a great race.

I do hope this cold weather; snow,sleat and rain will end soon, I suppose it will so I'll try and enjoy it! while it lasts!

86 days to go!

2005-02-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

Blimey, that's not long to go. I'm still on track though, I've had a good week Sat was a coaching session over at Hillingdon so I cycled over there, did 1/2hr Jog 1/2hr intervals then bit more cycling with the guys on the circuit then cycled home, then straight into 1/2hr jog 1/2 hills 1/2hr jog. Sunday was 5.5hr bike then 1hr 10min run with hard 10km in middle.

Snow! Lots of it! I decide not to drive to swimming early Tue or Wed, the rds looked a bit dodgy, felt a bit guilty about this though as I found the rds weren't actually that bad and on Wed did 3.5hrs with Tony in the morning then another 3hrs on my own after a lovely cup of tea at Fanny's Farm. Had some food then ran 2hrs with 20min of hill reps in the middle. Quite tiered last night but feeling fairly recovered now.

Next weekend I hace the intercounties CC champs then weekend after Inter counties Half Marathon champs then Humanrace 16mile then first Triathlon; The fabulous Thames Turbo race series on Easter Monday. London marathon is then only 3 weeks later, I'm pretty sure I'm in better shape than when I ran 2hr 34min so I hope to get a good PB there, after that I have to really hit the cycling for a month and then I should be ready for Ironman Lanzarote- that's the plan -

Hope everybodys thraining is going well, remember a stiff body is a dead body, keep stretching to stay alive. "what?"

Standing up all day makes you tiered.

2005-02-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

As I discovered at the TCR show at Sandown pk last weekend. A really good show and great to meet some Fit-For members while we were there. As well as walking around the show and talking to lots of different people all day, I had to shoot off to Lloyd pk in Croydon for our last Surrey League cross country of the season, I finished 4th.
On Sunday it was back to the show and I had also entered the 10km run around the race course, it was freecing cold and the start was delayed so meant warming up twice, anyway there were near 800 runners, I went off fast and opened up a comfortably lead on my friend Roger Barr, then the lead stayed about the same for the rest of the race and I won in a time of 36mins!!! (either I was running slow(maybe) or the coures was tough(which it was) and possibly long(I hope).
I then went back to our Fit For stand, but didn't have much of a rest before Gary Palmer of Sportstest called me over for the Max Test on the treadmill that I agreed to do for him, mmmmmm, good idea with tiered legs, anyway started with a sub max test running 5mis at 13km/p/hr then 5mins at 15km/p/hr then 5 mins at 17km/p/hr this was not to tough but I knew the hard stuff was coming after a 10min rest. Started the test at 12km/p/hr and the speed increased 0.5km every 30secs until I couldn't get any faster, I made it to 22km/p/hr, not bad I thought with tiered legs and at 1% gradient.

The rest of the week has been good, much the same as usually swimming with Hounslow, and riding hard up hills.

My new bikes are arriving soon, can't wait!

Another good weeks training.

2005-02-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Well I said last week, I needed to up the swimming and so I have started swimming with Hounslow hurricanes in the mornings this means getting up at 4:45am but I don't mind, and the 90min sessions are really good.

This weekend was great it was our Fit-For training weekend, I cycled down to meet everyone at Merstham on Saturday morning, then from there 12 of us cycled down through the lanes, up "The Wall" and stopping off for a cup of tea in Ditchling on our way to Arundel, great weather and 95mile all told, then went straight out and had 1hr 45min run around the fields and roads of Arundel, I felt pretty good.
On Sunday, we cycled back a similar distance but a different route through the Surrey lanes, and I had another 1hr 15min run again felt good.

Monday up at 4:45am to drive to Isleworth for swimming, felt a little stiff and tiered but still had a good swim.
Tuesday: Swim in Putney, 1hr run steady, 1hr bike steady, then track run session at Croydon arena, 5lap,4lap,3lap,2lap,1lap with 1 lap jog between each, again felt good.
Wednesday: Swim in Isleworth, 3hr45min bike steady pace and hard on the hills, then 1hr steady run.

Good solid weeks training, I'm upping the intensity all round now, gonna be some tired Stephen!

First win of the year.

2005-01-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

It may only be alocal interclub cross country but hey a wins a win! I felt pretty good Saturday I swam for 1hr in the morning had a steady 2 hr cycle , then travelled down to Richmond pk for the 5.7mile race. I ran my own pace the whole way and finished in 31mins 15secs I think at least 2 mins clear of 2nd.
Then On Sunday got up early for swimming but forgot my wallet so had to go home(V clever!) so just did a few core exercises at home before leaving for our Fit-For ride, great ride , chilly weather but beautifull clear skies and a great route. I did about 100mile and had a bit of a blast up Boxhill at the end, I had to really dig in to Win the prime at the top though!!

Had a bit of food then did 1hr run with a hard 10k in the middle, felt really good!

Days like this make me feel everything is right on track for a great race in Lanzarote on 21st May! 117 days to go! (I think I added that up right)

I need to really up the swimming more now, I know I need to swim much faster as I want to also have a great race at the Elite Olympic dist champs to. (those guys swim seriously quick).

A Good Idea to take rest days!

2005-01-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yes I have taken a full day off, well nearly I went on the rollers for 10mins or so Thursday.

I felt tiered after the weekend so took it easy on Monday and ate quite a few Bourbon buscuits, mmmmmmm, tasty. Then Tuesday felt a bit sluggish but after Swim 4k, Run 3xhills, Bike 2hrs steady, then in the evening actually felt a bit better doing my 5x1200m reps on the track, very cold and windy though, so I blaimed this for the slow times, But then on Wed I woke up early for swimming but really felt VV tiered so went back to bed, felt V guilty about this, but got over the guilt by about 9am and went on the bike and felt ok did 4and a bit hrs hilly.

Then I was gonna do my 5km reps but on the first one kinda felt rubbish so called it a day and so took it easy Thursday and Friday. But will be back to a hard weekend all being well.

I'm having quite big cravings for cake, Ice cream and biscuits!! I think my body is trying to put back on the weight I lost over christmas, but "NO" I say to my inner deamons allthough sometimes I say yes and eat a few (well quite a few(usually at Johns)) custard creams, mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm. Bad though!

Well rest days can be bad for the mind so best to occupy my mind with other things so going to the cinema and started reading a new book, John Simpson's Autobiograpy on the Afgan war, good so far. I let you know how it goes.

Cross Country and a sore elbow.

2005-01-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Another good weeks training,
Mon:easy swim,bike and run.
Tue: 1hr Swim, 3hr bike, Test session at track 1km in 2:47 lap jog 800m in 2:15 lap jog 400m in 63secs.
Wed: 1hr swim, 4hr bike, 50min run with drills and strides.
Thur: 1hr Swim, bike rollers, 20min jog.
Fri: Easy swim and bike, run on treadmill 15mins getting up to race pace for a couple of mins.
Sat: Easy swim and bike on rollers, Surry Cross Country Champs, beautiful day sunny, dry but windy, I finished 10th which I was pleased with, this gets me seletcted for the Inter Counties cross country and half marathon champs both in March and will fit in well with my Ironman preperations.
Sun: Easy swim at Gym and 30min run tempo on treadmill. 6hrs on bike but fell off early on(slippery corner) and have a V sore elbow, hopefully it'll ease soon, I think it's just bruised, one fall in the winter is fine, lets hope this is it for the winter.

As long as the elbow is fine I'm doing a test session up a boxhill, basically the BallBuster(1lap run 3 lap bike and 1 lap run) I'll let you know if I would of won the BB.

Thanks for reading
Stephen.

Quite a few hours training in Cyprus..

2005-01-03T01:18:00.000-08:00

I hope you had a good Christmas period, I know most normal people don't use Christmas as the best time of year for a training camp but I think it's a great time to train, quiet roads, (good weather in Cyprus), and it avoids the Christmas excesses.

I was quite tiered after the weekend before Christmas when I ran 2 hard Cross country races in 2 days along with swimming and cycling as well and so I took it fairly easy up until I flew out to Cyprus on the Christmas eve.
My Christmas Day entailed, after breakfast; 1hr swim, 3.5hr Bike and 1.5hr run.
Basically the rest of the week was the same with 1hr swim, 3-4hr bike and 1-2hrs run every day for 6 days I did in total 36hrs training not including the core exercises and stretching in the gym. I managed to lose nearly 2kgs so I'm back to my racing weight of last year which is good.

Cyprus was a great place to train the roads around the national pk and game reserve were great, all in the hills and very quiet, the weather was between 17-22C and the sea was warm
enough with my wetsuit on, without a wetsuit, as my brother Mark found out it was a bit cold. Mark also managed to bump into a Russian pro water polo team and they invited him to train with them the following day, oh good fun I said, until I saw these Russians, they were massive, literally 7ft tall built like the proverbial outhouse and rather ugly too! He had a very tough session but survived and enjoyed it.

I'm pleased with my form at the moment I'm running better than last year, I'm picking up the cycling mileage from now and my swimming is still improving. I feel that every thing is on track for my first goal of top 7th at Ironman Lanzarote, 138 days to go.
I flew back on New years eve so just had an easy swim, bike and run in the gym. Then on New years day had 1hr easy bike, on Sunday I had a good day no fatigue in my legs and had 1hr swim, 5.5hr bike and 50min run including 1 lap TT of next Saturdays Surrey cross country champs - I'm looking for a good run here so am laying of the running distance this week.

Oh BTW, I have shaved my head and face and I feel like a new man, I'm sure it must be good for my Kama to have a shaved head. It seems to make me more focused on training, I think that's why some monks do it, to cut out as many distractions as possible (hair isn't much of a distraction!). Anyway I still feel very motivated for this coming season.

Thanks for reading
Stephen Cleanshaven Bayliss

A Good weeks training.

2004-12-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

All the weeks training goals were achieved. Apart from some soreness in my calve muscles I am in good shape.

Monday: Easy Swim, Bike and Run.
Tuesday: 4k swim, 30min run, 90min ride, run 4x800m with 15secs rest .
Wednesday: Swim 3k, bike 4.5hrs, run 3x5km.
Thursday: Swim 4k, bike 90min, run 45min hills legs very tiered.
Friday: Easy swim, bike and run.
Saturday: Swim 2km, Bike 2.5hrs, Run South of the Thames cross country champs, everyone seemed to turn up, very strong field I finished 13th happy with that.
Sunday: Swim 3km, bike 90mins, Run Holly Run in Reigate 7th today, pretty tiered. 15mins on rollers.

Also I have just come back from an appointment with a knee consultant and after examining my MRI results there is no damage in my knee which was what I expected. The annoying thing is that almost every physio or Doctor I have seen tells you something different and most don't say oh it might be this they say, "oh yes that's some damage on the knee cap there, we're going to have to go in and file that down"! or some such crap. I wish these so called experts would just admit they don't know what is wrong and say "but I'll do my best to find out what is the matter."
If you manage to find a good physio sick with them!

After my appearance in Cycling Weekly last week I'm extremely glad that I'm off training in Cyprus next week so as I can try and pick up a tan. Also that Asseos top will never be worn again, blame Hannah for that one!

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.
Stephen

Pretty much back to normal.

2004-12-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well a funny old week, foot infection on Monday so just a very uncomfortable cycle to work then my visit to the hosp for lots of antibiotics. The rest of the week wasn't a complete wipe out, i didn't feel to bad but took Tuesday completely off, just a little walk. Wednesday I thought I'd have a little spin on the bike. Thursday short swim and a Jog. Friday easy swim bike and Run. I was told to be careful because the penicillin lowers your white blood cell count and so making me more susceptible to catching a bug or something, so I made sure I ate well, lots vitamin C, and avoided anyone who looked to be harboring nasty germs (they're easy to spot, coughers and splutterers) however it's important to be careful of the stealth germ carriers, it's all in the eyes or so I'm told!

So Saturday I had a cycle in the morning and decided to run an Interclub cross country at Wimbledon common in the afternoon I felt a little weak but finished 2nd. Then on Sunday a 3km swim and a Hard 1hr Run, I felt a little better Sunday than Saturday, the Antibiotics finished on Saturday so I think any effects of them will soon disappear.

The plan is to train as normal this week. The "bifro" is coming along nicely.

Thanks for reading
Stephen

Always cover up open wounds!

2004-12-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Especially when running a wet muddy cross country. This is the lesson learnt this week as I have just come home from A&E at St Helier Hosp (where I got fantastic treatment from Dr Dan, who is a very accomplished Ironman himself, I think completing around 10!), he called me through and looked at my foot and said "how far up does that red line go?" I hadn't really noticed it, but it was about up to my knee traveling straight from the infected blister on my toe up, apparently this is the "lymphatic tract" I think and this isn't good, so I have been injected with high strength penicillin 2 enormous syringe fulls! He said"you'll be able to taste it" and I could, weird or what!
The other bad news is he said the antibiotics will really knock my immune system badly so I won't feel great and will need to take a rest, he said 2 weeks but I'm sure I can do some light training soon.

The rest of my weeks training was really good,
Monday: my friend Bella Comerford(2 time winner of Ironman Florida numerous other great results too) was visiting her Grandparents down this way so we went running and swimming together, great fun even though we got told off by the Breast strokers in the public pool for swimming to fast! Speed limits in pools!!
Tue: Swim, bike and Track run session, a little tired.
Wed: Fit-For ride and a run
Thurs: Swim bike and Hill run intervals at Epsom.
Fri: Work Christmas party, Dancing counts as some sort of training(I was doing "pose" drills as part of my dance moves.
Sat: 3hr bike. 10mile Cross country(picked up an infection!) finished 2nd in 56mins.
Sun: Swim, Bike and Run, but feel really rough in evening and sore foot.(I wonder why)

Well I've learnt a lesson this week. Always cover up open wounds!

Thanks for reading
Don't train to hard, I won't be the next few days!

Stephen only a light stubble Bayliss.

The Beard is back!

2004-11-28T23:58:00.000-08:00

Well most people probably wouldn't call it a beard but for me it's a beard, I'm also growing quite a mop of hair having not shaved my head for at least a couple of months, thing is my hair turns into a bit of a "bifro"(white mans "afro"). I'm liking it at the moment.

Well to the training:
Monday; Easy swim bike and run.
Tuesday; Putney swim session, 4km, lots of drills and a good main set of 400m 300m 200m hard. Easy bike, Good track session main set of 5x1km with 200m jog.
Wednesday: 4hrs on bike great ride around the lanes felt ok, Run; 5km warm up 5km hard warm down, then 3km swim with race pace Hungarian set, 50m,100m,200m,100m,50m.
Thursday: 3km swim set. 2hr steady bike. 1hr hill session in Epsom, my legs were quite tired but was running quite fast.
Fri: Short easy swim,bike and run.
Sat: 3hr Boxhill ride, Then 2nd round of the Surrey Cross Country league and had my best run so far, the race was at Richmond pk , 150 runners 3 of us ran together at the front but I just lost contact up the last hill and came in maybe 10seconds behind. My taem mate John McCullum won and he's good 3:39 for 1500m! so pleased with my race and aiming at a good race at the Surrey champs on 8th Jan, I'll let you know how it goes, plenty of Belgrave and Herne Hill runners who are fast so we'll see!
Sun: 4hr Bike, carrot cake and a rock cake at Fanny's, then 1hr run with a fastish 10km in the middle.

My ankle is not to bad, stretching and massaging seems to helping alot.

A week of good training, bad ankle and interesting cakes!

2004-11-22T13:05:00.000-08:00

Monday: Easy swim bike and run, this is interesting (to some) as a real recovery day is possibly doing nothing but if your in the middle of a training block as I am, then you feel so much better doing the 3 diciplines but the pace is VVV slow and time spent doing them is minimal, the aim is to keep the body in tune(nero muscular pathways) with the skills it needs to perform, also to keep the muscle in as good a condition as possible for the next days hard training. Anyway this goal was achieved, this session is also good as it takes place at my local gym and there are some extremely "fit" young ladies on a Mon evening!
Tuesday: Putney swim with a little extra after, then 0.5hr jog. Evening Track session of 5x1200m then drills and strides on the grass. Ankle is hurting! very frustrating but doing all I can to keep it under control(massage, stretching, ice).
Wednesday: 4hr bike good steady ride, 1hr jog quite tiered and ankle still not good,mmmmmm need extra work on it! Swim in eve but first time I have felt tiered for a bit so cut session short.
Thursday: Just did the hill session in Epsom, actually ran ok however a lot of fatique in my legs they were screaming on every interval and the head wind over the top of the hill was making it a tough session.
Took it easy on Friday: an easy swim and stretch.
Saturday and Sunday: Easy jog and feel much better feel no fatigue in my body and looking forward to a good days training on Tuesday.

As you can see, there was no trip to Fanny's which is V bad for the mental well being and so I made up for it today(Monday) with a trip to see Fanny and 2 bits of cake, tut tut I can hear, well it's still before Christmas that's my excuse. I had Coffee cake and a Caramel slice, mmmm mmmmmm mmmmm mmmmmm.

Chilly Autumnal Days

2004-11-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a chilly week, but that's no bad thing, it keeps things interesting, at least it means I can wear my lovely winter training outfits!

Friday: This involved swimming 2km in the morning, some gym work and some stretching.

Sat: Ride up to watch the BallBuster, very cold but nice and sunny, everyone looked to be enjoying the race! Well I think they were smiling behind the grimaces! Great to see lots of friends. I should also mention I had some coffee cake in Dauphin Sport, it was free so I hope some others of you took up the chance of free cake. I then cycled over to Richmond park for a 5mile cross country race, big field with lots of good runners, I finished 13th and beat some good guys. I felt as though my running is improving nicely.

Sun: 3.5hrs from Farthing downs, another glorious day finished at Fanny's Farm for another slice of Carrot cake(god this cake is the best, I love Sundays) maybe I will have to cut down a little on cake in the new year! and an Organic fizzy fruit juice, mmmm mmmmm mmmmmm. Short snooze at home then 1hr run, I was going to do 1.5hrs but my ankle was hurting a little so cut the run short. I fancy taking it very easy tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah the beard is coming back nicely, I'll post a picture when I think it is suitably impressive.

The Beard has Gone!

2004-11-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

But it's coming back, I think it is a must have for any endurance athlete in the winter. I can't see it coming into fashion with the sprinters, I don't (correct me if I'm wrong) think there has ever been a bearded 100m running world champ, however there is that Australian,track cycling sprinter with quite an impresive beard!!

Anyway I've just got back from a great run with a couple of FIT-FOR members at Epsom Downs(we will be meeting at Tattenham Corner BR station car pk from next week.) We had 15min warm up slow jog then on our 1k circuit, half up half down, we ran hard up easy down for 6 laps then a nice gentle jog to warm down. This is Thursday, but I'll start back at Monday: The day the beard came off(mum was pleased) Just a really short easy swim, bike and jog.
Tuesday: Good 3km swim in Putney, lots of Drills really good to do this time of the year. 1.5hr easy bike and Track run session in the evening main session 4x1mile then 4x200m fast( there was a bit of wind so I did the 200m where the wind was behind me).
Wednesday: # 4hr ride most with 9 other FIT-FOR members same route as last week and again a really beautiful early winter morning, Swim 1hr 3.1km with some hard intervals. 30min jog.
All the weekly goals are being attained so far and so all is still on track for Ironman Lanzarote. I can smell it already! Can't wait till Sunday and another trip to Fanny's!

# I received my new Hac 4 Ciclo Sport heart rate monitor today, this is a seriously impressive piece of kit, it has the most functions of any HR monitor on the market. I'm looking forward to getting all my training data from it and also calculating how high up Mont Ventux we would climb on our Sat ride on Boxhill!

Thanks for reading and enjoy your training.
Stephen CleanShaven Bayliss.

I'm Growing a Beard!

2004-11-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

I seem to be growing a beard, more of that later.
Thursday: Easy swim, easy bike then a really nice run from Tattenham Corner in Epsom, there was my mum, Ibbo and his fiance we had a great time but it'd be nice to get a few more so anyone reading this and is free on a Thursday evening then come and join us at 7:15. The beard is getting longer.
Friday: A nice easy day just a ride to work and back then a short jog.
Saturday: A great ride, 5 laps of boxhill with a good group at a steady pace. My brother and I headed straight down after to a relay running race at Priory Park in Reigate, I felt I ran well, the first time for a while that I felt I was running good. I still have the beard.
Sunday: 5hrs steady on the bike finished of at Fanny's Farm (life doesn't get any better) with a slice of carrot cake and a strange concotion "Fermented Mandarin and Orange Fizzy Drink" no more than 0.5% alcohol apparently! It was very tasty. The beard was gonna come off but I didn't get round to it, mother thinks I'm starting to look rather scruffy, I say it's the long distance athlete look. I'm planning on shaving in the morning, I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading
Stephen BeardyBayliss.

Training has started.

2004-11-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Been training since the 1st November preparing for the 2005 triathlon season and more specifically my first big aim of the year, Ironman Lanzarote. However I have been doing bits and bobs of training for the last couple of weeks. Everything is going to plan so far!

This weekend was fun:
Sat: 2.5hr Adisscombe club run, 5 mile crosscountry race I finished 7th.
Sun: FIT-FOR BallBuster training session, always tough running up the Zig Zag climb.

Training starts proper with one of those tough rest days!
Mon: Easy Bike and Swim.
Tue: 1hr Swim with Optima in Putney, 1hr easy Bike, Run Track session: long jog, 3x2km, long jog with strides.
Wed: 0.5hr Swim, 4hr Bike(FIT-FOR session) great fun steady ride, 1hr jog.

Only 197 days to go till Lanzarote.