As some of you may know, for the past decade I have been partaking in rowathlons, which instead of the swim involves rowing on a Concept 2 ergometer, which you can try in most gyms, and what Steve Redgrave was shown falling off in exhaustion in a BBC Olympic trailer. As the ‘erg’ requires little specialized skill to use, the BTF is currently promoting ‘dry tris’ in gyms based on it plus the stationary bike and treadmill. The trick is to stay within your anaerobic threshold on the row, as the temptation is to push hard in that head-to-head situation instead of investing the same energy more profitably in the bike and run.

Multisport and cross-training event organizer Will Whitmore of www.dbmax.co.uk does a very nice job keeping the coterie of about 40 rowathletes going with a national series sponsored by www.trybike.co.uk and the medical campaign and support group Prostate UK. The events show a good attention to detail, and are held on traffic-free circuits which make for good spectatorship and fewer hazards, with bouncy castles and catering to keep supporters happy. This year’s events were at Mallory Park in Leicestershire in May (which I didn’t attend because I was tapering for the European Tri Champs), Castle Combe in Wiltshire and Palmer Stadium, Reading on August 10^th and 16^th respectively. There is also a large annual rowathlon, the Rower’s Revenge, organized by Marlow Rowing Club on 5^th October this year <http://www.marlowrowingclub.org.uk/information.asp?page=344>, which is no longer part of the series.

This year I did both Castle Combe and Reading, and enjoyed myself. The events are no longer dominated by former world Ultrafit champion and current sub-nine-hour Ironmaner Hywel Davies and top duathlete Dan Staite, but Lee Rankin, certainly in the same class, is still a major presence. For the first of my rowathlons at Castle Combe, Lee opted for the duathlon at the same event instead. This allowed me to dash for the line and win by 8 seconds after equalling the second run time of the GB elite Wayne Smith in the duathlon (though he had just ridden 8% faster than me on the bike!). I also broke last year’s PB for the course, set in much better conditions, by some 6 seconds. There was a nice report in the Wiltshire Times: http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/display.var.2425598.0..php

At the Reading event last weekend, Lee was competing in both the rowathlon and the duathlon, and so was set to win the series, since it was two to count, and he had already won the Mallory Park event in May. We got off the rowers around the same moment, but he shot past me in T1, showing how many valuable seconds can be gained just by being organized, practised and sprinting your way through – those seconds would be more costly anywhere else. The bike was 14 laps around the 460m track: a mere hint of the excitement we’ve been witnessing from the Olympic velodrome. I overtook a few of the athletes, including rowers, who had dismounted the ergs ahead of me, before going into seven laps of the running track, where I passed the ever-sporting James Hart, whom I had pipped the previous week. Having done this event several times, I was pleased to record a PB by some 50 seconds, even though Lee stretched out his T1 lead to win by about the same margin, in a new course record (TBC). The first woman at Reading was Sue Regan-Watts, a veteran who cycles and runs very strongly, in 37:37, while at Castle Combe it was Louise Dobby who was 13th overall in 1.04:19.

Prostate UK Castle Combe Rowathlon 2008:

Prostate UK Reading Rowathlon 2008:

Welcome to the following club members who have recently joined the club :

• James Ashby
• Kevin O'Leary
• Jon Adams
• Charlie Davidson
• Andrew Boutflower
• Sue Dowd
• Jenny Trumble
  

From Jan Goble:

24th August sees this years Club Championships at Southampton (Applemore). 

Report by Nick Buis:

The latest round of the Mazda National Ranking Series took place on Sunday. Strong winds battered the Worthing Triathlon into semi-submission and despite waiting till the last minute the swim was cancelled due to south westerly winds exceeding force five and gusting six.

I was gutted that the sea -swim had been cancelled after having spent a couple of training session down at calshot in similar conditions I was looking forward to it. Instead a 5km prom run became the substitute along Worthing sea front, which was great going out with the tailwind only to be blown backwards heading back on the return leg. I came in to T1 in 16:30 as part of the lead pack.

This was followed by a 43k undulating bike which, in the unforgiving wind against coming home, almost made me want to start the 10k prom run, that and the fact that as one 4 strong pack of drafters formed in front of me and a second 6 strong passed me I hoped that I might see a draft buster! Coming in to transition for T2 I had lost a number of places and so knew that I would have a lot of work to do in order to gain some back. This time the run was two laps and at least by now the rain had stopped and the prom was drying out, I took it fairly easy for the first 2k using the tail wind to help run down a couple of people before working hard into the wind and slowly picking off more runners.

I finished in 2:06:51 just over 4 minutes behind the winner Colin Dixon and 12th overall despite posting a 36:45 second 10km in the conditions and clawing back over 15 places.

I was really disappointed that the swim was cancelled but understand the decisions given the waves, however I wasn’t impressed by the amount of drafting as so many people entered the bike together with only the 5km run to break things up. I was gutted to hear at the end that no one was given any time penalties or DQ as the draft busters were at the scene of an accident ( one of the riders drafting came off at a tight roundabout, the rider I believe is ok mainly bumps & cuts). When speaking to the race ref he said that one rider came in after the bike and handed his number over and said that he wasn’t doing the run as he knows he would have been DQ’d for drafting, at least one of the drafters had a conscience albeit that there were no penalties given! .

We have multiple reports this week for this race .. thanks everyone. Great to see Nick Austin at the top of the leader board !

From Esther Rousey:

I woke up at 415 am, already feeling very nervous and under-prepared for this triathlon, and we drove to Swanage through the night (at least, that's what it felt like!). On the plus side, the weather looked a million times better than it had been the night before which was a big relief!

The sea looked lovely and calm, and proved to be so - 750m then climb out (onto some rather tricky to get onto and slippery steps!) and re-enter and swim back to shore. It was a really nice swim though, quite warm, and very calm - I have to say a much more pleasant experience than I had at the Cotswold tri earlier in the year, purely because I've done a bit more open water swimming since then!

Then up to the run - for some reason I couldn't work out where I was supposed to go, despite several fluorescent-coated marshalls, but thankfully there were a lot of friendly spectators who pointed me in the right direction!

The first couple of miles on the bike was a bit of a pull, with it being hilly and a bit windy, but the views from the ride were spectacular, and I got into a rhythm, which admittedly seemed a lot slower than other peoples' rhythms as they tore past me, on the flat, as well as on winding downhill sections whilst I sat on my brakes! I found the roundabouts a little scary, trying to go round without losing too much speed but whilst also staying on my bike, but managed them without incident.

Coming into transition for the run I realised I was really enjoying the event, and I set out on the run watching out for the hill which everyone had warned me to walk up - not difficult to spot, since everyone else was also walking up it. From the top of the hill, there was a lovely view of the bay in sunlight. Reluctantly, I started running again, but then the downhill suddenly made it quite fun, and the rest of the run felt quite good, despite having some more hills to climb - I picked up a few people on the way to the finish, which was encouraging.

It was good to see a number of STC people there - we caught up for a quick synopsis of the race at the finish line.

The only downside of the event was the registration on the previous day, which meant a 2 hour drive in each direction on Saturday (traffic was awful!), just for them to look at our cycle helmets and give us our numbers, but I would still do this again as it's a beautiful race.

From Tim Wilks

After the wind and rain of Saturday evening several of us were considering the sense of competing on Sunday at the Swanage triathlon. Particularly myself, pitching a tent in what was probably the most exposed field on the South Coast, in monsoon conditions.

The event thankfully, enjoyed dry and sunny weather, albeit with a strong Westerly wind. Those not familiar with the Olympic distance course, its one of the toughest local events. The swim is a straightforward there-and-back across the bay but the cycle course is hard with a long climb north out of Swanage to Wareham and looping back and the wind and road conditions were not helpful. The run is harder still, climbing from sea level out to Ballard Down, with spectacular views East and West, up a footpath which is almost too steep to run (even if you wanted to), and down and up again home.

It was great to see a good turn out from the club and there were great performances from everyone. Personally, I was delighted to improve my PB on that course by over 15 minutes, and had I not lost the chain and gained another three minutes could at last have been competing well in my age group.

Best comment of the day was from Andy Robertson who overtook me on the run about a mile from end, so fast, that he could have been nicked for speeding...." sorry, I couldn't help it, my legs were out of control"

The difficult subject of club kit raised its head again. I saw four of the seven club members competing, had no club recognition. That’s not a poor reflection on them because of the availability and cost of club kit, but as club, we really must encourage our members to market the club’s name. Apart from which it would be great be able to recognise fellow competitors on the course and offer encouragement.

From Ian Wells

Saturday before the event was just rain and rain and wind, with a better forecast for the next day, although the wind was to stay. Preparation before an event is essential, but I was to learn the hard way on this one. I arrived in Swanage at 07:10 for a race wave that was to start at 07:10, I was late due to my car breaking down and still had to park the car. I little panicking and they let me into transition to prepare, put my wet suit on, got my hat and goggles: I could hear them calling for the 7:25 wave! Got down to the beach, and learnt they were running late, and I just managed to get into the 07:10 wave, said hello to Kevin Harding, did not have time to check anything, almost straight away into the swim, not taken my gel or any water, my goggles letting in water, had issues seeing where to go, ended up swimming head on into the returning swimmers and in all having a very poor swim, probably swam an extra 200m and did it in 47 mins.

Once out of the water and ready for the bike, I had difficulty finding it, my shoes were still in my bag, anyway got away and went onto a good bike race, in 1:12;10, this is a hilly course, especially on the return leg from Corfe. Then followed by a good and hilly run, in 46:18. Managed this time to get second place in my age group, although I had the fasted cycle and run legs, the fourteen minutes lost on the winner could not be made up! Goes to show one must arrive early, settle down and get ready for any race! However, I was lucky that the event was running 15 minutes behind schedule otherwise I could not have raced.

Updated to include:

• Final time trial
• London Triathlon Sprint
• London Triathlon Olympic
• Swanage Olympic
  

Here it is