Best way to watch Triathlon at the Olympics for free at Hyde Park

 Guaranteed Entry Tickets are now available to reserve for BT London Live in Hyde Park on the triathlon event days of Saturday 4 August & Tuesday 7 August.

Due to the Women’s and Men’s Triathlon events taking place in Hyde Park, the BT London Live site will open at the earlier times of 7:00am on Saturday 4 August and 8:30am on Tuesday 7 August. Guaranteed Entry tickets will be valid from 7:00am – 9:00am on Saturday 4 August and 8:30am – 11:30am on Tuesday 7 August. If you don’t want to be out on the course then BT London Live is a great place to watch the event live on the big screens.

Tickets are available to reserve from 5:00pm GMT on Monday 28 May from http://www.btlondonlive.com/tickets

That’s a great site to check,  if you live in London, or if you will be there during Olympics and don’t want to spent a lot of money on entry tickets.

Triathlon tip: Stick to your coach’s prerace plan

In the week leading up to the race, follow your training plan. While you may feel that you are not doing enough or should be doing more, remember that there is not much you can do to improve your race performance but there is a lot you can do to hurt it. Sneaking in extra workouts because you do not feel prepared will only hurt you come race day.

Triathlon Training program 28.5.2012-10.6.2012

For the next 2 weeks  we will not be training with high intensity. Our body and mind needs a break from these tensions, since  last training cycles worked at high intensity corresponding to the anaerobic threshold and above (pulse Zones 4 and 5).

Even riding up a hill we must try to keep our pulses in the aerobic range (zone 3).

The aim of the next 2 weeks is to work our aerobic base at swimming, cycling and running, and begin a more systematic job with body weight exercises for strenth.

This time, instead of a detailed program, i will write the mileage we must fill in every sport for each week. Try to cover those kilometers within those limits. My personal goal for example is 5 km swim, 70 km running and cycling 200 km per week.

Swimming:

4 -6 km, one of the workouts should be 1 x 40 minutes free style non stop.

Bike:

160 to 200 kilometers, one of the workouts should be 80 + km.

Running:

50 to 70 kilometers, one of the workouts should be 18 + km

Strength:

2 to 3 times a week  cover the following  repetitions. Do as many sets you need to:

1) Several abdominal exercises 150 reps

2) Various exercises for the back 100 reps

3) pull ups at the horizontal bar with several handles 30 to 50 repetitions

4)  push ups 110 to 150 reps

5) Single leg squat  (without weights) from 40 to 50 reps each leg (for example 4 x 10 each foot).

This program normally takes about 40 minutes to do.

We will do the long runs together on Saturdays on the mountains and the long cycling rides on Sunday.

For the other days I’ll be on the pitch for a run around 5:45 – 6 am and i will leave on Wednesdays 5:30 am for about 2 hours cycling. I do not favor strict appointment (to rest a little from me) but if someone wants to go together, especially on Wednesday, please  send me a message.

Next workout with  intensity: Saturday 9.6.2012 mountain.
Next races that can run without changing something in our training, are:

1) the Olympic Day Run 5km, Saturday 16.6.2012,

2) the mountain run race in Troodos mountains 16 km Sunday 24.6.2012,

3) the race of our friend’s gym,  Sergi, Fit and Fun race 5 km Saturday 30.6.2012 and

4)at swim Bay to Bay swim1.9 km who is organised from English bases to the sea in my village Episkopi, usually the last Friday of July.
Also have in mind my plan for a really long mountain  cycling  before August’s holidays, having in mind the route Nicosia, Pareklisia, Kellaki, Eftagonia, Arakapas, Sykopetra, Palaichori and back in Nicosia, which is estimated at 150 to 170 km .To do this you must do at least 2  riding 100 + km.

Cyprus Triathlon: Galea too strong for Cypriot challengers

An article from Maltese newspaper Times of Malta , that describes the races of our Cyprus International Triathlon race last week, from the eyes of the Maltese winner, Keith Galea.

” Keith Galea carried the honours in the Volkswagen International Triathlon, organised by the Cyprus Triathlon Association in Limassol, on Sunday.

This was the Birkirkara St Joseph triathlete’s third success on the trot away from our shores following his previous successes in Israel and Sicily in the span of a few weeks.

In Limassol, Galea com-pleted the race in one hour, 57 minutes and 17 seconds, beating the rest of the field by over one minute.

On Sunday, he had to deal with the challenge coming from Cyprus national team members Marian Cosmos Costantin and Stavros Antoniou, both of the Famagusta Nautical Club.

Knowing beforehand that they were particularly good in the cycling segment, Galea surged into the lead from the very start of the race. His swim time of 19 minutes in the 1,500-metre course, was two minutes faster than that of his nearest rival.

He further improved his gap with an efficient swim-to-bike transition before starting the undulating 40-kilometre cycle that included four laps on a steep hill.

Galea pedalled at a relentless pace to sustain as wide a gap as possible over his nearest pursuers ahead of the 10km run.

His time in the bike was one hour, two minutes, 25 seconds, which reduced his provisional lead to just over one minute.

However, his performance in the run was second to none. He covered the distance in 35 minutes and 50 seconds to win the race in a personal best time.

Second place was a close affair between the two Cypriot internationals. In the end, Costantin edged past Antoniou in the final stages to register a time of 1:58.25, just 34 seconds faster than his compatriot.

Galea is sponsored by Starbene and is currently in the 20/20 Elite Scheme under the tutelage of the Kunsill Malti għall-Isport.”

Well done Keith, great race, waiting for you next year again! Good luck to your next races.

Elite Triathlete: A cry for help

Triathlete Hollie Avil reveals why she has decided to bring an end to her promising career

Read this, so you realized that not everything is perfect in the elite triathlon world. Hollie has been one of the best female triathletes in the world but too much pressure really cracked her. Here is what she wrote in an article, at Daily Telegraph 

I had finished the race and was sitting with team-mates, talking about the size of female triathletes. I was still swimming a lot and was joking that I still had my big swimmer arms and needed the body fat to be buoyant.

It’s important to note that I didn’t even know what a calorie was and, apart from thinking it was fuel, I had no funny thoughts about food.

That quickly changed when one of the coaches – not mine – said: “You’ll need to start thinking about your weight if you want to run quick, Hollie.” That comment planted a seed in my head that didn’t need to be planted.

From that day on I constantly thought about what went into my mouth. Food became my enemy. I developed an eating disorder.

At the time I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t until I heard other athletes discussing eating disorders that I realised I had one. I lived in denial. I was losing weight rapidly but I felt great and was running fast.

My life was governed by food. It was a nightmare. I’ll never forgive the coach who said those words to me.

This particular eating disorder came and went pretty quickly. My coach at the time, Ben Bright, had some harsh words, saying he would refuse to coach me unless I sorted myself out. That hit home. My parents also discovered what was going on.

Stopping wasn’t easy. I didn’t tell any friends, though I did have help from my psychologist, Joce Brooks, and a nutritionist called Jacqueline Birtwisle. I cannot put into words how grateful I was for their support.

After making my debut at the 2008 Olympics and winning the world under-23 title a year later, 2010 became very dark. The coaching and squad structure changed dramatically at my base in Loughborough and I hated it.

Ben and I drifted apart and I wanted to leave Loughborough, but British Triathlon wanted me to stay. I really had to battle for the right to move.

My lack of control and the endless fighting with my governing body saw me turn back to my old ways. My eating disorder returned. What I ate became the one thing I could control in my life. I kept everything secret. I lost a lot of weight but kept lying to people that it was just because I was running more.

The eating disorder followed me to my new training location in Leeds.

With new coaches, new athletes and new friends, I don’t think people realised what was going on. I was on my own and didn’t want to speak up. In February 2011, I finally made a cry for help, admitting everything to Joce and my parents. This time I was too far gone and we had to work so hard to get me better.

In June last year, I decided the only way to recover was to break the vicious cycle and leave Leeds. I called Michelle Dillon, a two-time Olympian in triathlon and now a successful coach.

Michelle guessed what had been going on. I asked her if she would coach me and she said yes. That was the day I put eating disorder round two to bed.

Over the past few months, Michelle has helped me so much with my thoughts around eating but in February this year a new problem emerged. I was diagnosed with stress fractures in each shin.

At first I just wanted to swim and cycle like mad because I was determined not to let the injury get the better of me. That determination lasted a month, and then I cracked.

I was in tears at training, I was tired and I was lost. Looking back, I was proud I didn’t turn back to old ways of controlling myself through food, but I ended up being diagnosed with depression.

This is the first time I’ve spoken about this publicly, and is the reason why I have to say goodbye to my elite sporting career. I don’t ever want to go back to those dark, lonely times.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had some amazing experiences in triathlon. I leave the sport as an Olympian, a double world champion, a national champion and also someone who was once ranked world No 1.

But those great times do not outweigh the miserable times. I don’t want to risk my health again, not just my mental health, but my physical health.

I want to be happy.

So what now? I am excited at what the future holds. I have learnt so much from my experiences in sport and want to use my knowledge to help others.

One day I would love to set up a charity to help young female athletes with eating disorders. I feel it’s rife in our sport and lots of girls suffer in silence.

It’s not just triathlon. There are many other sports where eating disorders develop. I want to encourage young females to strive for their dreams, just as I did, but I also want them to be helped when obstacles get in their way.

I believe life has chapters and this is the end of one of mine.

Although I am sad to be hanging up the race shoes, I’m proud of what I’ve overcome.

Cyprus Triathlon Olympic Distance Race 20.5.2012 Results

Congratulations to all athletes, organizers and volunteers for the nice Sunday’s race. I had a personal best, at the age of 44, 2 hours and 12 minutes. For the results of sprint triathlon you can visit Cyprus Triathlon Federation website.

NAME                                        TIME                  SWIM               BIKE              RUN

1 Keith GALEA                   01:57:17              00:19:02         01:02:25    00:35:50

2 Marian Cosmin              01:58:25             00:20:56             01:01:31   00:35:58

3 Stavros ANTONIOU      01:59:00            00:21:03            01:01:20   00:36:37

4 David SIMPSON             02:02:52            00:19:49            01:02:41       00:40:22

5 George SOFOCLEOUS    02:06:51          00:19:21            01:05:32     00:41:58

6 Klearhos PETKAKIS      02:09:35          00:19:47            01:05:39    00:44:09

7 Christos CHRISTOU      02:12:09          00:23:59             01:05:58    00:42:12

8 Pierre KERVENNAL     02:12:33          00:20:52             01:09:44    00:41:57

9 Carmen MACHERIOTOU  02:12:38     00:20:19              01:08:48    00:43:31

10 Emese MESZAROS         02:15:12        00:23:48             01:10:28    00:40:56

11 Jean-Philippe CROS      02:17:31        00:26:10             01:12:23     00:38:58

12 Kypros NICOLAOU        02:22:50       00:20:48              01:14:00  00:48:02

13 Andreas EFSTATHIOU   02:23:17      00:29:20             01:12:43    00:41:14

14 Michalis MICHAEL        02:25:36        00:25:53             01:15:16     00:44:27

15 Christos TSIAILIS          02:33:44       00:28:49             01:17:19    00:47:36

16 Constas NEOPHYTOU    02:34:32       00:25:37             01:17:15    00:51:40

17 Thales PANAGIDES       02:35:41         00:28:18              01:16:14     00:51:09

18 Stephen LEVEY               02:40:43         00:25:43             01:20:16    00:54:44

19 Pavel SHCHERBAKOV  02:50:52          00:29:42             01:26:17     00:54:53

20 Andri POYIATZI             02:53:40         00:29:38             01:31:18   00:52:44

Important training principle

Most of us know that if we want to improve, we must stress ourselves in some of our training sessions. Exercise stresses the muscles, stimulating them to grow stronger and work more efficiently. Without enough rest after the stress, however, the muscles are driven to exhaustion or injury. Stress must be balanced by rest in sufficient quantity and quality for adequate growth.

Hard or long runs must always be followed by several easy days in which the pace or distance is reduced. In addition, you must build rest weeks into your program: every second or third week, you should automatically reduce total mileage. This gives your muscles the extra time to “catch up.”

Improvement is based upon the quality of your speedwork and the length of your long run. By taking a day off and then running easily between these two “quality days” you will recover, rebuild stronger and reduce the chance of injury. Common mistakes that lead to injury are:

1) Trying to attain a high mileage level week after week
2) Running daily runs too fast
3) Not enough rest

Triathlon tip: Don’t rely on thirst for your daily fluids intake

Even though most humans rely on thirst to drink water or other fluids, triathletes and endurance athletes should not do that. They should develop  daily hydration habits in order to keep their body proper hydrated. By the time an endurance athlete becomes thirsty, his or her body has already experienced significant fluid losses.  That is very important during training and races. If an athlete start feeling thirsty during training or racing, his/her performance level would already have decreased.

Exercises: Single leg squat

One of the most commonly prescribed and most popular rehabilitation and injury prevention exercises to improve stability and functional strength is the Single Leg Squat. This exercise strongly develops the quadriceps and gluteals, with a complimentary boost to the hamstrings. It’s an excellent exercise for runners and triathletes because it stimulates the running movement.

Triathlon Training Program 14 – 20.12.2012

Last week of our racing cycle. Easy, refreshing program until Sunday’s race. Watch your body weight and not to become sick with flu (very common before major races, because our immune system is not that strong after all that hard training).

Monday:

A) 30 minute swim, preferably at at the sea, Zone 2,3

Tuesday:

6:30 English school 20 min. run warm up, 10 x 100, 3 x 1000 3:40 (Zone 4)

Wednesday:

A) 6:30 Agrotis parking, 15 easy cycling to Logos radio station, 3 x 2 laps (2 km each)  Time trial, Zone 4

B) 40 min. Swim Zone 2,3

Thursday:

50 min easy run, Zone 2,3

Friday:

A)40 min run with 5X200 race pace

B) 30 min swim continues zone 3

Saturday:

Off

Sunday:

Olympic Distance Triathlon Race. Good luck to all of us.