WELCOME TO NOTTS TRIATHLON 2018

We arrive again, for the 4th year running, at the beautiful University Park Campus for a second instalment of the now award winning Sandicliffe Fordstore Notts Triathlon. Although the Spring period has previously been kind to us, things should be heating up in Nottingham with this mid-Summer super sprint. 400m in a pool, 15km of some challenging cycling and 5km of running will now be enjoyed in the presence of a warm sun, gentle soothing music, mouth tingling food and a nice cool drink.

This was my first triathlon back in year 1 as a naïve fresher who didn’t understand the concept of non-chocolate aerobars, but I have risen from the pit of despair into triathlon royalty since becoming President of one of the biggest University clubs in the UK (and very recently winning a Tom Bishop signed trisuit.) As a 4th year student now, I have been lucky enough to have had this event throughout my time with the club and experienced everything that has happened from when the event first began.

The introduction of the tristars event for the second year was wonderfully fulfilling. Giving children the opportunity to experience their first race was very rewarding and having marshalled at that event in particular and seeing these future pros enjoying themselves so much makes me realise what a great event this really is. Also, it gives us a great excuse to hire a bouncy castle, we often make sure that gets picked up last…

In the past few years, we have had many incredible athletes joining us for this event, Beth Potter and Jimmy Kershaw to name just two and I hope we have those and more to follow in 2018. However, I like nothing better than to see first timers completing their very first triathlon where I completed mine.

After competing in the student run event for the first two years I have been at the front line of organization for our 2017 event and will be for our highly anticipated 2018 event. Tri and spot me on the 17th June and you’ll get a satisfactory high five.

“Tri Notts” to miss it,

Author: Matt Phillips  (University of Nottingham Triathlon Club President)

TRAINING

The most important part of any sport comes before race day: the early morning training sessions, the hours behind the scenes spent in the gym/on the road and the dedication that each athlete puts in days, weeks and months before the day of the big event. Today I want to tell you about my three favourite training sessions that I do each week with UoN triathlon club. 

1. Wednesday morning early swim, 6.30-8.30am

This is definitely my favourite session of the week, it's often hard to get out of bed for and I set many snooze alarms, starting from 5.15am to make sure I get out of bed and into the pool. But when I get there, even after a hard session, it's the best start to the day I could have.  In this two hour session, we do a range of different things - drills to improve our technique, timed sessions to help us pace and longer distance sessions to build up our stamina and mileage. We regularly swim over 4km in these sessions. I say 'we' as the swimmers are divided into lanes according to their speed and although it's an individual effort, we all help each other with counting lengths and remembering the set.

2. Wednesday afternoon Wattbikes, 3-4pm

Actually, I don't particularly like this session as it always tires me out and leaves me wanting to crawl straight into bed afterwards but I believe it's really beneficial to my training. For those of you who don't know (and don't worry, I didn't know either until a month after using them), a Wattbike is a brand of exercise bike that is very, very clever. The computer can tell you your power output, energy output, speed, pace and pedalling technique. After a test to gauge our individual zones last semester, we  now work in different 'zones' each week, building strength, resistance and pace. We usually listen to upbeat music and sometimes have disco lights on inside the training room.

3. Monday evening swim, 7.30-8.30pm

Although this swim session is only an hour long, it's a good start to the week and allows me to eat two dinners on a Monday (one before training and one after). Like in the Wednesday morning swim, we work on our technique, pace and strength in the water before 50 triathletes fight over the six showers afterwards! Swimming is my strongest discipline of the three, but from the beginning I was determined not to get complacent so attend both swimming sessions each week for personalised sets and advice from the coaches.

If you look at the training timetable, you will see there are over 14 hours of different training sessions each week that the club provides and I am just one of over a hundred members. Each triathlete has their own strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes when it comes to the three disciplines but there you have my top three training sessions each week (triathletes like to do things in threes).

The weekly training timetable includes swimming, cycling, running and yoga sessions across all UoN campuses.

Comment below with your favourite training session!

Author: Leona Hinds (10/03/2015)

WHY TRIATHLON? WHY NOW?

Leona's first multisport event was the BUCS Duathlon last November at Castle Combe. Here she is looking serious on the bike at that event.

Most people think I'm crazy for taking up triathlon in my final year of university. Sometimes I think I'm crazy too as there are simply not enough hours in the week to attend every lecture, training session and eat/sleep well in between. So why did I choose to join UoN Triathlon Club?

Doing a triathlon has been on my bucket list since secondary school, as one of my PE teachers was a triathlete. He was always fun of beams, wearing sports kit and just so enthusiastic about sports and life, I immediately started looking up to him. After hearing stories of his adventures around the world competing in triathlons, doing one was soon on my bucket list.

Why triathlon?
Besides the inspiration that my teacher was, one major reason for deciding on triathlon was that I'm not a team player. I prefer to compete against my own physical limitations rather than have to work with other people to score goals. I've been members of both swimming and running clubs previously, both allowing me to track my personal times and have targets to beat. Physical challenges excite me too, I learnt that last year when I was challenged to do a 10km cross country race.

Why now?
Shouldn't the question be why not? Admittedly, this year at university, the pressure is on with this year's average contributing to 80% of my degree but why wait until I'm 25, 30, 40 or later? I'm in good shape now and I definitely want to abuse my gym card to the max. Plus, picking up a sport at university is a lot cheaper than other local clubs as there is funding available to subsidise training fees.

I mentioned that doing a triathlon was on my bucket list, well I see bucket lists and to-do lists in very different lights. My bucket list includes big, challenging, expensive and/or difficult to achieve things, whereas the items on my to-do lists are necessary things I simply have to do. They're not always easy, but with preparation, perseverance and commitment they are achievable.

It's safe to say that through the support and training from the UoN Triathlon club, completing my first sprint Triathlon has become achievable. It's no longer the dream I once had as a teenager that may never be completed due to laziness or lack of interest, it's on my to-do list and I will make sure to tick it off alongside all the other things to do this March.

Author: Leona Hinds (26/02/2015)

Varsity Triathlon is Less than 1 Month Away!

It's hard to believe that Varsity Triathlon is less than one month away. We, as the Triathlon Club at the University of Nottingham, have dreamed for many years of hosting our own triathlon, but it wasn't until about a year ago that we thought it might be possible. Since we started seriously exploring the possibility, it's been an exciting if not sometimes daunting process to  turn those dreams into reality.

We're busy in the midst of race preparations with fewer than four weeks remaining until the first waves take off. Ensuring that the race is safe and well managed, spreading the word about entries and promoting the event, and working to make sure that everyone's race experience is as good as possible has many of us working hard, but I know that it will be all worth it come the morning of 22 of March. We do hope to see you then and hope that you have a fun and memorable time at Varsity Triathlon.

We aim to use this blog to keep you informed about the event. I will give you some general updates about the event and one of our new club members Leona will tell you about her own personal preparations for her race. Like many participants, Varsity Triathlon will be Leona's very first triathlon and, while we're sure she'll do incredibly well, it will be interesting to hear about her experience preparing along the way. Hopefully we'll hear from others on the blog along the way.

Keep training hard and we'll look forward to welcoming you onto the beautiful University Park campus for Varsity Triathlon soon.

Author: BENJAMIN BERANEK (24/02/2015)