Viceroy Deon headed to Ely for the ECF Monster Middle Triathlon (1.9km swim; 83km bike; 21km run)- a tri with a great name, but did it live up to expectations? The fact that Deon came and amazing 24th over all, surely can’t have made it too terrible an experience…
‘A very nice course which I would recommend for beginners and seasoned veterans alike. The place is pretty and the event has a good vibe. The swim was lovely in the river and was super fast. I was very surprised with my swim split just under 24min for 1900m, then onto the bike course which was flat and would have been super fast but for the howling wind in every direction. Still, I aimed for a fairly conservative bike split of 2h30 as I hadn’t raced the distance before and hit it pretty much on target, but for the last bit with no signage or Marshall so a little delay. ]

Then onto the run which was advertised as flat and fast but flat she was not! With 2 decent hills on each lap of 4 it was a challenging but very scenic around Ely cathedral. I managed to tag onto the 2nd lady and we ran a good pace for the first 2.5 laps and then I developed stomach spasms, probably from the gel I used handed out on the course. I don’t think my stomach quite liked it but I had no alternative as my gel had gone missing in transition, so had to slow and walk a bit on the last lap but still managed to hit my split of 1h30 for the run. So well happy with that. All round a good result for me 4h27min total. With the body not feeling too bad. ‘

Viceroys Kate, Jon, Nicola and Em were lucky enough to be beneficiaries of a prize draw at Thorpe 3 Triathlon, which led to an informative and eye opening coached triathlon session and Wellness Profile with the inspirational Rick Kiddle. Rick,  former British Triathlon Champion and National Triathlon Coach has a mind boggling CV (20 years triathlon competition; 15 years coaching; BTF level 3 books; NOWCA founder; he brought spinning to the UK!) but was approachable, charismatic and engaging to listen to.

Although only uncovering the tip of the iceberg, we looked at heart rate zones in relation to effective training and then moved on to each being put onto the scales for some body composition readings… as we analysed weight, body fat %, muscle mass, physique, DCI/BMR, Metabolic Age, Bone Mass, Visceral Fat it became abundantly clear that there’s more to training than getting out for a few swims, runs and cycles! Continue reading →

Viceroy Julia Hawley raced IronMan UK last weekend, but the story of this immense achievement does not end there. Julia finished a staggering  2nd in the 50-54 age group in 11:41.44 and  was 21st female and 260th overall ( 1,602 competitors).Julia tells her awe inspiring story:

‘I had the race of my life! I was leading my age group until the last 7 miles of the run when Jo Gundle of GBR passed me to win the age group ( she ran an amazing 3:49 marathon to finish!).

There was only 1 Hawaii IM spot in my age group and the first place took it. Somehow the Kona gods were on my side though and I was allocated an untaken Hawaii spot from the 18-24 age group during the awards ceremony the next day. Needless to say I was a tad excited when I won the spot!!

This has been a four year endeavour to get back to Hawaii for a 2nd time and it has so been worth the sacrifice, hard work and disappointments along the way.

Hawaii is on October 12th and I plan to have an amazing race there too!!’

We’ll all be supporting you at Kona Julia.

Viceroys James, Jon, Adam, Alan, Matt J, Matt B, Carla, Charlotte, Lara, Helen, Fab, Kate helped to make sporting history on 4^th August as they were among the 20,000 riders to attempt the inaugural Prudential Ride London 100: a 100 mile route which took cyclists from the Olympic Park in Stratford, through London, out through the Surrey Hills and back to finish on The Mall, left even our most seasoned riders awestruck.

All riders agreed that the organisation was 1st class, from turning up first thing through the route and support stops and the finish. All was smooth and at no time was the number of people overwhelming. The closed roads and sheer number of like-minded cyclists throughout the route made this an amazing experience for all involved, and as Matt Bee explained, even pain was worth it to be part of such an awesome event: ‘ the last 20 miles I was struggling, but have never enjoyed suffering as much as I did during the Ride London-Surrey 100!’ Cycling on roads that we were all familiar with was new and exciting as we jumped red lights and cycled the wrong way down one way streets!

Riders found the first 45 miles sped by and Newlands Corner and the hilly part of the ride had started; time for 20 miles of pain and then a fast run back to London. James tells us, ‘Leith Hill made me hurt. I can’t remember it hurting quite so much other times I have ridden it. By Box Hill and the first cramp pains had settled in and once cresting it was a matter of digging in for the fast run back into London. Finished in a time of 5 hours 11 mins which really surprised me considering I had a good couple of chats at the food stops along the way.Highlight was turning onto the Mall with 5 other riders and all deciding to go for the sprint to the line. I won!’

Superfit Carla managed to hang on to one of the pelotons that sped past the rest of us at regular intervals in a race to the end: ‘before I knew it I was in a Peloton topping 22mph through Blackfriars, our club Tuesday dash set me up for this and meant I could latch on to some amazing Pelotons, absolutely brilliant.’

Viceroys LOVED Ride London 100, despite the early start and never quite managing to catch Mayor Boris; when do entries for next year open?

Viceroy ‘Ironman Andrew’ took the next staggering step towards his season’s goal of achieving the treble within a year as he headed to Bolton to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a 26.2 mile marathon… back to back.

It was a great race for him, as he took an hour off last year’s time. An exhausted Andrew tells us: ‘…swim was good but busy with arms and legs in faces… I smashed the bike which Viceroys training rides really helped…until I ran out of gels. Went into survival mode….got to T2, hoovered some gels and biscuits and the onto the marathon…started with ironman shuffle and then found some speed 12kph mid section until the end and came in to incredible crowds.

Body suffering today but looking ahead to Ironman Wales….bring on the treble.’

Viceroys Adel, James, Karl, Yann, Lara and Kate all headed to London Triathlon with very different expectations and experiences. Our most seasoned triathletes Adel and James competed alongside the likes of Yann, Karl, Lara and Kate all of who were attempting their first London and first Olympic too for the latter three.

Adel enjoyed the swim and the cycling but found running very hard, particularly lap1 and then in lap2 he ran into a traffic cone and fell over! Adel tells us:’But I rolled over straight back onto my feet. Pity there was no camera about, I am sure it looked good bear in mind I am not a stuntman…it was nice to hear the encouragements of the runners behind me. Last years race went slightly better, but I am pleased with my result and I achieved my race goal with 2.48h.

What a fantastic event and I am going sign up for next year!’ Continue reading →

Deon’s pink Viceroys tri suit, his little crowd of squealing Viceroys supporters and Viceroys’ very own professional photographer (Jon) asking Deon to pose for a photo at the start of the elite male race, certainly made him stand out from the rest – but how was the rest of his Olympic Tri?

‘It was brutal from the gun. With the temperatures over the last few days it was decided on a non-wetsuit swim. In the elite race this makes no difference to anyone as they can all swim just fine. So the pace was fast and physical with many a kick and arm pull under the water. The wind had picked up by the time we started so we swam back into a heavy chop which made it tough. Needless to say the swim times weren’t super fast. I managed to get into a nice swim bunch and had a fairly average swim. Coming out the water it was the long leg sapping run to the bike along one of the longest transitions in triathlon. By the time u get to the bike your legs are already finished at that pace. Continue reading →

Viceroy Tim Ferguson headed to the small North Eastern seaside town of Redcar which was hosting its second triathlon, a great looking event: sea swim, closed road cycle ride, on freshly surfaced roads, and a coastal run.

Tim reports: ‘Despite raining all the previous night the event started in warmer and drier conditions than expected. The swim was a beach start, very exciting, very professional. I had a reasonable start but swimming against the waves I held back intending to up the tempo at the first turn and I passed several swimmers in the next section, but alternate breathing was a bad idea and I swallowed large amounts of the North Sea. The last section was back to shore with the waves behind us and this felt fast and I passed a few more. My time incredibly was 10 minutes.

I started the bike leg well picking off one rider after another. The course was 6 laps up and down the esplanade, a roundabout at one end and a bollard at the other, by the time I’d reached the bollard I was in a strong position and feeling fast. However, I hadn’t noticed the rather wicked chicane and in an effort to catch the rider ahead took it at full pelt, boom. Not exactly sure what happened but I gave the crowd a spectacle, I quickly remounted, and continued on my way, very aware that I was bleeding profusely but not really in pain, importantly the bike was fine. I let common sense reign and slowed down heavily at the corners, although the straights were fun and fast. I had a great dismount and was quickly out on the run. Continue reading →

Viceroys welcomes Adam Buck, another of our new breed of ‘Super Cyclists’, to our ranks – you may have seen him pedalling off in to the distance in front of you on group rides, or even remember his friendly email inviting us all down to the coast… nice 2 hour drive? NO, nice cycle for Adam.

Adam always been into fitness and sport anything from playing ice hockey to dinghy sailing for Great Britain, but one thing he has never lost is a passion for  cycling. He claims only really to have got into road cycling about a year ago! Adam is currently more of a cyclist and a runner than a tri athlete and  states: ‘to be honest what I know about swimming probably isn’t worth knowing. Hopefully getting involved with the Viceroys with give me the training I need to enter my first tri and meet some like minded people, I look forward to meeting everyone.’

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Viceroys Simon T and Adel were among the 1061 crazy swimmers who started and 845 hardy swimmers who finished the 2.25 mile (3621 metres) swim from Hampton Court to Kingston. Simon spoke to MySmartCoach aka The Chairman aka Mark the Shark a month before the race and his instruction paid dividends.

Having got so used to swimming in a wetsuit Simon ditched it for his last 4 swims at the lake and pushed the distances – 4k in 2 sets then the following session 3.75 in one; he had done a 1 hour 16 on the last 3.75k and so was expecting a small improvement under race conditions wearing a wetsuit, possibly to 1 hour 10. Simon was delighed to finish in an impressive 1:01: 48, 131st overall (25/102 in AG) out of 845 finishers and 1061 starters – top 16% overall, with Adel close behind in 1:08:24 in 317th  place (27th in AG) Continue reading →