Race report - Jekyll and Hyde Park Duathlon

There were some great results from the Jekyll and Hyde Park Duathlon a couple of weeks ago. Sorry about the delayed race report. This race is stacked every year with top London based athletes so these guys and girls from LFTC did incredibly well.

Joe Dale was our highest placed male with an 11th place overall. Next across the line were James Ralph, Andrew Finn and Stuart Hitchcock in 20th, 29th and 42nd respectively. Sarah Allen was 5th female across the line but more importantly she was the first one wearing fancy dress! Ellen Greaves was 10th female across the line. Well done Wendy Musique and Sebastian Arroyave and anyone else who raced that I have missed. Great photos of Sebastian in action here and here.

Bean counter Rob Boulding finds counting laps more challenging than counting beans obviously and he miscounted his bike laps resulting in a DNF. Earlier in the year he completed an extra lap in a race so it all evens out in the end. NOT! Perhaps we could chip in for a bar mounted abacus to present to Rob at the club awards to help get him through next season without any DNFs. I really hope he doesn't make the same mistake at the Ball Buster Duathlon this weekend. It might be a little more costly....hence the name! Sorry Rob, just taking the Brett Sutton approach to coaching, you'll be mentally tougher as a result I promise. Just look what he did for Chrissie.

Unfortunately Seb Balcombe was out with a toe injury. Doesn't sound like much but you should have seen the pictures. Actually knowing Seb you probably did! I could not make it as I was on a coaching conference which was a shame as this ws supposed to be my last race for the year. We didn't have a veteran racing either which is necessary to get maximum points from the race. That was a real shame given how well everyone did. Next year we must try to get a full team in every event we enter. We're going for a podium finish for sure!

Our swim session this Sunday is one of the toughest sessions I have ever put together just in case you were thinking of partying Saturday night at our end of year shin dig. Just joking. We will have the same technique focus as last week but with a little less of the drills and little more of the full stroke. Take a look at this link from Swim Smooth if you have not already. While our swim session is not about breath timing this blog entry from Paul Newsome at Swim Smooth is also well worth a read. You will need fins and pull buoys as usual. I wouldn't say the run is going to be easy but we will take into account the miles you put in on the dance floor on Saturday night.

See you Saturday night at the Pub on the Park. Tim (LFTC Coach).

It's been quite a year.

The Hackney Sports Awards were on Wednesday night. Sadly we didn't pick up any of the awards we were nominated for. It was a great night though. I've never seen such a big group of happy healthy children and young adults in Hackney in one place. I can't say that I wasn't disappointed though. While I was incredibly happy to be nominated for the Coach of the Year Award winning would have been very special indeed. It was however very humbling to see what other coaches in Hackney have achieved especially with young athletes and athletes with disabilities.

When I think about the past twelve months though I am amazed at what we have achieved as a club in only our second season. We have run our own very successful race. We have competed in the London League and done very well in our first year competing. We have had people complete their first triathlon across all distances from super sprint to Ironman. We have set course records. We have had age group winners in some of the biggest races in Europe. We have started a junior section in the club. We have run an overseas training camp with great success. We have had our first GB representative. We have had our first top ten placing at a World Championships and we have had great fun doing all of it!

This weeks technique session is all about the catch and pull phases of the stoke. You'll need both your pull buoy and fins so please don't forget them. We'll be looking at trying to improve your propulsion with each stroke while minimising the effort thus maximising efficiency. This requires a good hand entry, good extension (without over-gliding or 'putting the brakes on') followed by a good catch and pull through. Take a look at this link from Swim Smooth. Watch the videos, looks at the pictures and read the text. Soak it all up! The session will make much more sense and you will get more out of it if you do. In the run we will be slowing it down a little and hitting some longer intervals now that the race season is all over.

Interested in some free stuff? You can get three free digital copies of Triathlete Europe just by following this link! See you Sunday, Tim (LFTC Coach).