Hi Guys,

Hope you all had a great Christmas & New Year.

I’ve only one thing to say about never ending January….thank God it’s all over! To say I’ve seen total carnage with my athletes during this period would be an understatement. The main cause of this has been the flu/covid/colds season which seems to have taken its fair share if victims this year.

I was feeling pretty damn smug with myself as I packed up my car with my bike (with half my house) for a glorious week of training & cycling in the Welsh Mountains. The reason I felt smug is I had avoided all the illness that was around me in London up until that point. No sooner had I got on the road I developed a little bit of a tickling cough, 4 hours later when I got back to Cardiff it was a hacking cough and I knew I picked something up. I then walked into my mum’s house to find both my Mum and sister had started to develop a bad case of the flu. My planned 7 days at home turned into just 4 as everyone felt so rough. I decided to come back to London early to lick my wounds and just be on my own which felt like the right thing to do. Luckily the worse symptom’s (dry cough, a tap like snotty nose, upset stomach with no appetite, feeling slightly drunk when I woke up) seems to pass and I was back onto gentle training the following week which felt good. I’m pretty sure this was covid.

Much as I love elements of Christmas, I’m starting to dread it every year because of this. Previous experiences like this might have warped my thinking somewhat because I frequently find myself asking the question…why can’t we have it in the summer?! Training hibernation and a reduction in socialising seems the best option to me, as it seems to follow a similar trend every year. If there’s one thing athletes in training crave it’s routine and stability, Christmas pretty much flips that on its head for many. If it’s not illness it’s the toxic effects over consumption of alcohol and food that makes you feel pretty awful. The resulting weight gain for many also compounds this. I had one athlete that chose not to drink alcohol this Christmas and he had the best training period of anyone during that time. He felt good, trained consistently and it all progressed very nicely indeed. It’s just a shame he had to go back to his stressful job as this is his biggest battle!

So, the message is clear, if the Christmas & New Year period was a tough time for you, it will take you about 3-4 weeks before you start to feel remotely normal again. Take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. I’m guessing most of you are at that stage right now and are starting to feel the tide starting to turn where you’ve started to build a little bit of training consistency. Hopefully you will have detoxified from the sugar & alcohol as well and your health has started to return. Cherish that for now as it’s a very good feeling that we should feel grateful for.

February is the month where the ball can really start to get rolling. So, stick two fingers up to January and look forward to reaping the rewards that are ahead of you. We might not be fully out of the ‘illness season’ but hopefully we are now through the worst of it. This next month should be all about sticking to your routines as much as possible. This is not just in training but also in eating well and making sure you are getting enough sleep each night. Once this is in place you will only start to go from strength to strength, then before you know it race season will be upon us and then the fun & games can really start to begin. Then all memories of a dark, cold, wet, illness ravaged Winter will seem like a distant memory of the past.

Race results

Half Ironman 70.3 World Champs – New Zealand

  • Hollie Strawson
  • Total Time: 5:06:17 (swim 35:11/ bike 2:24:16/ 1:40:35)
  • 50th/210 in the 25-29 age category

Huge congrats to our swim squader Hollie who managed to quality for & compete at her very first ever Half Ironman World Championships in Taupo New Zealand in December. And what an extraordinary experience it proved to be, locations and races don’t come much better than that. Seems like Hollie was inspired on the day as she managed to finish in the top 25% of her age category which for any first timer is an outstanding performance. Hope it’s the first of many young gun!

 

Wimbledon 10km

  • Toby Dean
  • Total Time: 43:01
  • 1st in the 50-54 age category

Lydiard Park 5k Run

  • Andrew Reardon
  • Total Time: 19:57
  • 3rd in the 45-49 age category/ 13th overall

 

What I’ve been reading & who I’ve been following this month…

Lucy Gossage: The Race for Closure

What more can I say about yet another amazing woman taking on one of toughest running races in the world and winning by 7 hours over her nearest female competitor! For those that don’t know the The Winter Spine Race is one of the toughest ultra running races in the World. The runners must cover 268 miles (431 km) from Edale, England, to Kirk Yetholm, Scotland, along the Pennine Way . If that wasn’t brutal enough it’s held in January every year in the midst of Winter on some of the toughest terrain our country has to offer.

What makes this win so special is Lucy did the race last year, only to find out through social media that her partner had been living a double life outside of their relationship for 3 years with another woman. What was even worse is she was only told about it when she finished the run. You can read all about it if you click on the link above, it’s well worth the read. This was her race for redemption and what a wonderful way to do it banish the awful memories of the past.

Just Add Water: Katie Ledecky

If anyone who loves swimming wants an enjoyable bedtime read that will make you want to get out of a warm bed on a cold dark winter morning to swim, then this is the book for you. Katie is without doubt the greatest female swimmer of all time, she’s also a self-proclaimed nerd and from what I read is probably the dream athlete any coach would want to coach. She’s as normal and balanced as any elite will come. What I loved most about this was her passion for the water and swimming is quite intoxicating. She made me feel like I just wanted to swim and swim and then swim some more. She’s also funny in a nerdy kinda way and is totally self-deprecating about this. From a coaching perspective the methodology in relation to her swim development over the years was quite fascinating too as she goes into great depth about the work she did with her coaches to keep improving. Definitely one for the water babies out there.

A lovely way to keep swimming in the family 

Many of you will know Sami Robertson, if you don’t he’s a bit of a legend in our swim squads. He’s a Channel swimmer and has completed many other big swims. I thought some of you would love to read to this wonderful tribute to his great Grandad Bill Lovely that was posted recently on the Serpentine Swimming Club website.  Seems like Sami has quite the swim heritage in his family…

Team out & about

From Scottish training vibes like this…

…to Finnish recovery vibes like this! Always good to see you going to great lengths to get the balance just right Andy

Coach said put on your best Christmas vibe this week and these two took the win!

Just a normal New Years Eve in St Ives in the Magyar household. Never sits still this one, always buzzing around!

Nick’s wife Bex asked for a home cooked Ottolenghi birthday feast for her birthday…I’d say he well and truly delivered! It’s my 50th this year Nick so expect another request in the post soon

Warm Indian summer swimming Christmas vibes…this gives me serious FOMO

I’ve seen some water bottles poolside but this one beats the lot. Sami takes his shaken, not stirred

New season, new colours…TN go faster swim hats in stock

Perhaps Christmas wasn’t so bad this year, especially when you have this little beauty as your sous chef/ mussel picker. Just a shame I couldn’t get her to clean my bike