One side effect I've observed is that not hydrating properly during exercise can lead to "post excercise forum irritability" (waves at crikey! :-))

I got my IM wetsuit 2nd hand from the classifieds on this 'ere website. Try a wanted…you might get lucky. IIRC mine was £90 for a wetsuit retailling at £250

Or loop back home after a few miles for a drinky then head back out again? Alternatively if you don't trust yourself not to give in, run to a mates house and grab a drink (beer maybe?)

I did a race once that was 2x5k laps. There was a drink station at 2.5k that was kind of intended to be at the 7.5k mark of the 10k race. Yep, there were people racing the 5k and taking drinks at 2.5k. FWIW it was about 15C so not exactly baking hot!

I don't take anything for under 10miles. I'm seriously tempted by the inov-8 packs here The bladders have internal baffles to stop the water sloshing about too much. Neat idea IMHO.

Perhaps someone else might like to get their post removed by doing my name for me….

Adam Titley

Could you rig up some kinda radar emission thingy that mimics what a mobile speed camera chucks out. This might trigger those road angel “safety” devices and slow people down a bit.

open water swimming is great. If you’re reading this thread and tempted then (with safety in mind) go for it. Pool swimming = turbo training (hot and boring), OW swimming is more like being in the hills. :D

Keva, I was one of the group of MTBers that was respectfully waiting 40m up the trail near the start. We did all shout some kind of encouragement. :D

Is the hemlock a horst link? I rode one the other day for all of 5mins as a mate just got one. Really responsive turning in and a nice ride. His is built fairly heavy duty. I must admit it did feel like it took a bit to get it going, but that could have been the chunky tyres and fork/shock setup (not at all setup for me). Once there it just ate the trail.

mine have been pretty good and have been ridden through some fairly nasty stuff over the winter.

kaffenback

Oooh tempting tho I see today was the last entry date without entry on the day…perhaps I’m too late?

LOL@alwyn, since you start ahead of me you’ll not get the chance to overtake until you lap me on the run course. (I split 1:10 inc T2 on the bike last year, just don’t ask about the other bits…I was injured OK)

Pic reminded me of another tip. You can stick gels on your top tube using electrical tape. I part open them to make it a little easier.

Not that gucci. It’s a an ali litespeed (spit) with carbon forks and back end.

IIRC there’s something a bit screwy with flickr linking, but here goes

M30-35 cat alwyn, I go off at 7:40….I’ll be the one in the black wetsuit! :-) More seriously, I’m number 1623. Possibly you might spot the silver Giro e2 in stealth roadie mode (peak removed). White & carbon litespeed with lo pro bars and old skewl alu cosmic wheels

Also, be wary of everyone during the bike leg. We all know triathletes can’t ride for sh1t. (one year at London a guy crashed into me whilst he was opening a gel riding no handed….was I pleased???) :evil:

Which event are you doing? I’m just getting my stuff together for windsor at the weekend which will be fun. There are quite a few little tips, but this one is useful and low risk to do for the first time in a race. Make sure you put a ton of oil or bodyglide on your ankles/feet. It helps get the wetsuit off quicker.

Am I the only one towing with a singlespeed? Great strength training!

could try inov-8s they mainly do fell shoes, but some are designed for climbing approach and walking. They’re a good alternative to full walking boots.

inov-8[/url]

I’ve done much more running this year than last year and a bit less biking. I’m quicker on my bike however. I’ve been run training for triathlon (10k) which is fairly short in time. Since it’s massivly CV related the run training has crossed over into my biking. I think someone above mentioned that for the elites it probably true that they need to do the specific stuff, but for your fairly average joe there are benefits. I seem to be able to maintain a fairly good bike speed on little riding but more running. (1:05 40k Time trial on about 2.5hrs riding a week ave).

Oh yeah, and we’re all different, so I don’t think you can generalise. :-)

vote for ralphs here

JD, Is your lap time so pleasing cos you beat mine by 55seconds? (git) Bet you didn’t think it’d be that close tho eh? Awaits ave lap time stat!

Firstly, don’t try anything in a race you’ve not tried out first. You should not underestimate your complete inability to do anything a bit tricky when you’re tired and in a hurry. :-) If someone had asked my my name after the swim at london last year I’d have looked at them funny.

If you REALLY want to go mental, you put laggy bands on the heel loops of your bike shoes and hook these over bits of your bike (f mech, rear skewer) this keeps the shoes level when you run with your bike out of T1. I do the “feet out before T2” thing and it does save me time. I have tri specific bike shoes tho, so this makes it easier as the velcro opens the other way.

Please practice all of this before a race. If you screw up, it might not be costing you time but costing other people due to crashes. I saw a nasty one at T2 in windsor last year, the person who came off worst was completely innocent but ended up with a nasty chainring gash and possibly withdrew.

I’ve got Windsor, London, Bananaman, poss vitruvian and some sprints this year so waves at any other STWers going to these events.

A

I think there’s a tendency to have longer cranks on mtbs. I ride 175 on the mtb and 170 on the TT bike. These bikes feel so different for too many other reasons to be able to say I can feel the difference in crank length.

flite saddles, fsa orbit xl2 headsets, sram chains

Could you have “ICE Im diabetic” in your phone? Would show up if searching for just “ICE”

xl2 here on a few of my bikes. I wouldn’t fit anything else now and they can pretty easily be had for £20.

most viewed. JamesD offa here on his bullit from a few years ago

I’d certainly give it a go when it trickles down to xt level. Perhaps it’s the latent roadie in me?

I’m with Spud

One of my mtb mates has recently moved to hampton and he tends to ride swinley. I regularly ride there and only in the evenings (family commitments) if you fancy coming along one night then give me a shout.

As a lapsed BOBer and freind to some Trolls I think it’d be funny to enter a Berkshire Tri Squad team. Please insert hilarious Triathlete mocking comments here:-

(since they’re usually true)

Could I suggest a “croggy”/”backie” race?
Egg and spoon could be quite funny too.

Don’t you look after the pennies then the ponds will look after themselves (sorry… it’s been a long day)

The last fsa orbit XLII I got was only £20

Cool, I didn’t see the implied ;-) For fear of getting slightly flamed, bells are really good. They seem to be so much less aggresive than even the most polite “excuse me please”.

Must look out for the red topped posts…never ever noticed them! (going too fast obvs)

I looked up this thread as I was interested in what the scaffolding might be….still don’t know. :-(

Anyhow, I think it’s a bit harsh to have a go at people walking the trails. I don’t think the trails are “waymarked” on the ground, so it’s not unreasonable to expect people to be there. I’ve biked swinley most weeks for 8 years and I didn’t know there was a “waymarked red mtb trail” perhaps I’m really unobservant?

One could easily meet another biker coming the other way since there’s no one way system. I’m not defending grumpy twonks who don’t let you by etc, but I think you should ride swinley with some sympathy for other users.

Adam, (a biker who trail-runs (but gets out of the way sharpish for mtbers))

expects some flaming! :-)