Hever Castle Middle Distance Triathlon. A good choice for a first, it being one of the hardest courses there is? Well actually YES! I LOVED it! Melly’s coaching and encouragement have helped me to achieve a bit of a silly idea, had after a glass of wine way back at the beginning of the second lockdown if I remember rightly. The Gauntlet, reputed to be one of the toughest middle distance triathlons out there was perhaps a bit of a biggie for an aged novice triathlete, but I did it and I wasn’t last! I was the oldest female competitor there, which was fun to know and I really appreciated the sho ..read more

This morning was grey and miserable looking outside and just as I was about to go out for my run it started to rain – hard! Normally I would have procrastinated and avoided the run, but knowing that it’s on my schedule for the day and that Melly would be checking it meant I just went out and ran – a fun but challenging up and overs session. Of course, as soon as I got home the rain stopped and now the sun is out! Accountability is just one thing I have training with Melly, knowing someone is going to check my progress really motivates me to get out and train, but also train to my best ability ..read more

What is FTP and how will a regular testing benefit my bike performance? Functional Threshold Power, also known as FTP, is the amount of maximum power you can sustain for an hour. Great, so how does that benefit my cycling? Well, it means that we can accurately work out the zones or power ranges you should be training in. You can perform an FTP test with a heart rate monitor or a power meter, the latter being preferably as heart rates can be affected by many external factors including fatigue, dehydration or race day adrenaline! How do I Perform a Functional Threshold Power Test? There are many ..read more

Race Report for Outlaw (ironman distance) triathlon 2018 Swim- Due to high winds the 1 long lap of the rowing lake was reduced to 3 laps each ending in a little run along the pontoon and then a dive (my fav bit) back in to start the next lap. This meant there was not much free water during the first 2 laps and it felt like a zombie attack with arms and legs trying to drag you down. I didn’t feel great in the swim but Jason and I swam pretty much side by side and we pushed each other on resulting in a good swim time of 1:04 for both although he just beat me out of the water. I was then strippe ..read more

“Thank you legs”… A phrase I read quite regularly in the comments of one of my athletes got me thinking about my own internal dialogue recently, especially with a lack of races to focus on and an ease in strict training structure. “I’m running sooo slowly today” or “I am sooo disappointed with that swim I thought I would be a minute quicker at least”. Well is it your body really letting you down or is it your negative self-talk? We all do it on a daily basis without realising often beating ourselves up about the smallest things. What if we were to flip this around and start talking ourselves u ..read more

On the day before this swim I did a couple of things – a practice swim at south end of the lake at dawn and a reccy of the start site for our swim the next morning (at the north end). The lake at dawn was just magic. The sky was clear, the sun was just over the top of the hill, a little mist still hugged the surface of the water. The air temperature was cold but the water was deliciously warm. A real treat. In the afternoon on my reccy, I dipped just my toes in the lake whilst I watched the marshals setting out the marker buoys for our swim the next morning. I was already excited but seeing th ..read more

  Fuel Your Training the Natural Way Ingredients:   150g Brown rice flour/175g Gluten free white flour (plus extra for dusting) 1 TBSP Baking Powder 2 TBSP chia seeds mixed with water to egg like consistency 125g Coconut sugar 125ml Coconut oil, melted (plus extra for greasing tin) 1 TBSP Fresh grated ginger 1 TSP ground cinnamon 1 Grated apple 200g Grated Carrots 1 Orange zest and juice 2 TBSP Apple puree 1 TSP Vanilla essence Handful of sultanas (optional) 50g Chopped walnuts (optional) Method: Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Grease a springform cake tin (roughly 20cm), lin ..read more

YES it’s Christmas! I can relax and eat and drink what the hell I like for a week until I pretty much explode! I’ve worked hard all year I deserve a few treats. (then just for added fun I’ll beat myself up for the next 2 weeks because I’ve put weight on and my CTL on Training peaks has dramatically plummeted) Sound like you? I really don’t understand the UK mindset towards food and drink. Inadvertently we grow up in this binge eating and drinking culture. Surrounded by food we have labelled as “bad”! Which by the way is only really bad if you eat bucket loads of it every day. Having spent more ..read more

Racing and training with power with Tri-Passion Coaching Why train with power • Power is Constant – a watt is a watt, 200 watts is 200 watts. • Power is Immediate – as soon as you push the pedal your power is generated and recorded. • Power is Accurate – most quality power meters are within 2% accuracy. • Power is Energy – watts produced relates exactly to calories burnt. • Power helps you race faster by being more efficient. A power meter gives you an immediate indication of how hard you are pushing the pedals there is no delay, there is no heart rate delay where the heart rises at a slower ..read more

After nearly a year of renovating our French Chalet in the south of France we finally had time to do some exploring. Having done the iconic and popular locals Col’s like Tourmalet (my fav by the way), Aspin and Aubisque, we wanted to ride, hike and run the local routes around the house.  The Baronnies, which are the rolling green hills surrounding the chalet were just as challenging and beautiful, one route took us up an unexpected 17% climb! You know the ones where you feel you could get off and walk faster and dare not stop for fear of never being able to start again! The colourful sc ..read more