TOBY RADCLIFFE

Professional Ironman Triathlete
http://tobyradcliffe.com

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Italy photos

Photos courtesy of Jono.... (just a selection from the hundreds posted!!)


Some happy campers out on a ride














Something was very funny... and Ian wasn't even singing!
That's what its all about

Kathleen's also having some time out from the office :)


Time in the pool... looks very strenuous


Tuesday 22 May 2007

Italian hills

Italy was awesome. Got some really solid training in, met some great folks and got a great tan :) The Nove Colli at the weekend was fun. I was trying to be disciplined by doing my long ride and long run mid-week so that I could just do the 140km ride as my hill ride... the aim was to be too tired to carry on to the 200km ride (9 hills instead of just 4), to keep my training more specific. Took the first few hours easy, letting the crowds of cyclists (11000 took part) dictate the pace so by the time i got to the turn off in a leisurely 4 hours, it was clear that I was going to carry on. The crowds cleared a bit so the pace could pick up a bit, but my slow descending (much improved on last year, but still not so hot) and a TT bike made the downhills long! Finished off the day in about 7:45 which was a nice solid training day, and importantly not feeling too wasted!!! The day after was a bit different... casual ride to a wine cellar for a long lunch. Somehow we covered 75kms (including another stop for ice cream!) ... the wine certainly helps!

Managed to get back to the UK thanks to some nifty flight rescheduling by Mr Trew to avoid the Italian air traffic controllers strikes!! Overall very good camp, got my motivation back post return to UK. Lots of great ideas for training and thinking it may be time to upgrade the bike....

Monday 14 May 2007

End of week 1

A week gone already... unbelievably quick. Weather's been beautiful hitting mid 30's every day so far. Camp is great fun, with emphasis on fun... this is not Epic!!! But that's exactly why I'm here... for a bit of consistency and moderate volume with nice weather to break the return to the UK. Motivation has definitely returned following the week of jet lag and feeling off the first week back to the UK. Good quality sessions being done, kept most of my key sessions in last week as well as trying out some of the speedwork and more interesting run workouts - I am hoping to pick up some session tips to drag back some top end on the run. Complete mix of abilities on the camp which makes it really nice and relaxed. Restday today acieved with great success by the pool :)

Wednesday 9 May 2007

Cesentico

Day one in Italy... man, its beautiful here. Got in late yesterday to some great food ... a very good sign. Early morning speedwork, followed by a gentle few km's (9km) to warm down preceded breakfast, then a technique swim (2.5km), lunch, short but well paced ride with a couple of decent climbs to ease us in (62km), topped off with a cool down technique swim (2.5km) and now off to dinner. Quite leisurely - and well appreciated. I'm feeling loads better than last week now... amazing what some sunshine (hit 32 degrees today) and some beautiful scenery can do for you. Will try to get some photos up soon. Ciao.

Friday 4 May 2007

hello UK!

I'm back, tho I think my brain caught a later flight. About 26 hours of flying, and very little sleep (I managed to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy back to back on the way from LA to London... ouch!). Jet lag has now been replaced by the inevitable cold that follows heavy training and a long international flight, so I've been suffering through man-flu all week and taking a few days off... replacing hours of training with hours wrapped in a duvet :( Finally today I think I've started to feel a bit better... fingers crossed I'm 100% before getting on the plane to Italy on Tuesday!!

New home is great - have found the local pool - a 33m which is great, but it seems to be rather full all the time! Also found a nearby athletics track - great as I wanted to get some track sessions done again, and a couple of parks which mean that my runs don't need more than 5-10 mins on the roads. There's a decent masseur round the corner in Carshalton, and bike is at the mechanics in Sutton getting some TLC. Plus living with my bro is pretty cool. He's more of a nut job than I am ;)