Budapest photos/report

It has again been ages since I put anything up here and so I have finally decided to put my race report from budapest. Overall im really happy with how the race went and for the first time in a triathlon I really didnt care where I finished overall as just being there was good experience. The weather wasnt great on the day and as you can see from the bike pics it was pretty wet although it did actually stop raining for the majority of the race! A brief description of the race pretty much follows my normal race reports- i.e a good swim, a strong bike and a rubbish run. The only difference is that for some reason my run was particluarly bad:( 20:50 for 5km is embarrassing and you have to go a long way down the rankings for find guys running as slow as that. Luckily I only lost 9 places on the run so after being in 7th off the bike I dropped down to 16th overall at the finish- would have obviously liked to be much higher but cant complain too much at a first attempt.

Some really good performances from local triathletes with an obvious mention to gemma scott who got a bronze medal in the 20-24 age group (after coming off her bike!). Also good performances from david suth. from WTC, lyndsey from STC and my new friends Gee and Kelly-Ann from Dundee. Good party on the saturday night/sunday morning was also a highlight of the trip:)

The weekend overall was amazing and getting to see the pro guys and girls race was something else. Budapest is a really nice city as well and would definately go back.

budapest results

wick photos

Catch up

Thought I had better put another post up as its been about three weeks since my last one!! First things first and I have put some photos up and the results from the wick sprint below and the results of the interclub competition (which caithness won:) Had a good race at wick and even though it was only a week after the Ironman I felt pretty good on the day and was even able to ease down on the run to make sure I didnt finish in a heap- back to back wins in 09 and 10 now. Good team entries on the day including two strong teams of good individuals who posted quick times. Also congrats to Rick, Chris and Phil for their first triathlon and im sure it'll be the first of many.
Training still coming along well, not done any racing (apart from thurso 10k which turned into 11.5k after a course change!) but was up in shetland with work so did some training with the triathlon club which was a good change- should be ready and raring to go for budapest. Flying out next thursday but ill put some more posts up before then.

Wick Sprint Results

Ironman Report

Well over a week since the ironman now and although havent really given myself much rest am starting to get back into a bit of training. Before I forget all about the event though I thought Id put down a quick report about how the day went.
After registering/racking bike and attending race briefing on the saturday I camped pretty close to the swim start on the saturday night although this still meant a 4am start and down to pennington flash for 5am. After checking over bike and getting into wetsuit I was in the water pretty early as I wanted to get a good start and prob had 20mins treading water before the gun went off. The swim itself went really well (apart from the manky water!) and after the first lap I checked my watch to see I had done it in 25mins, settled down a bit on the 2nd lap and eventually exited the water in 53mins- after the race most people thought the swim might have been a bit short but who cares.
After my usual slow transition it was out onto the bike and although I lost my water bottle about 2 miles in the first part of the cycle was fast with me making up quite a few places and probably getting into the top 20 before the first 30 mile lap was started. I didnt realise at the time but I absolutely blitzed this first lap and think I averaged about 22mph over a hilly course and was still up with the top guys. At the climb and the start of the 2nd lap however I realised I probably wouldnt be able to keep the same pace up and then run a marathon so eased off and slowly dropped back through the field. Pretty accidentally I found the lead female and she seemed to be doing a good pace so I cycled with her for the majority of the rest of the cycle. 3rd lap of the bike was pretty uneventful and just tried to keep eating and drinking at the feed stations. At the end of my bike I looked down to see 115 miles registering on my garmin (should be 112) and so although I had done the same time as france last year, 5hr45, the course was that bit longer and harder technically.
Legs were still feeling pretty good when I came into the final transition and everything went pretty smoothly as I set out for the marathon.......that is until they made us run up a massive hill right at the start and then through a 3 mile cross country section!! luckily after this we made our way out onto the roads and began the long run into bolton town centre. Although the run wasnt that scenic the crowds were good and that helped push you along. The most evil part of the run came when they made you turn right near the finish line and head back out the town for another 12 odd miles:( heard some people didnt know about this and thought they had finished!! Anyway on the way back out I probably had my only hard time in the race, maybe at about 16 miles where I had to walk for a few minutes and get myself together- not sure what was wrong but it passed and I was able to get back going. After the turn point to head back in I started to run smoothly again and the next hour seemed to speed in (wish it always felt like this) and before I knew it I was right at the finish line. Even got to do a sprint finish with what turned out to be the 3rd place female pro and just get her at the line:) finished in 10hr16 so although I didnt break 10hrs I was more than happy with the time on that course and to take 45mins off france time. The male pro won it in 8hr40 and the female pro in 10hr01. 38th out of the finishers overall and 10th in age group.
Overall a good day and didnt even feel that bad the next day, maybe I didnt go hard enough! With the easier bike course in austria and a good winters run training I know I can break 10hrs next time- oh yeah forgot to say on here that im already entered for IM Austria in july next year:)

Ironman photos

Done for another year!!

The Ironman is over for another year and although it hurts so much whilst doing it the feeling of completing it and knowing all the training was worth it more than makes up for it! Have put the results below and although a bit small can be seen if you click on them and zoom in.
Really busy this week so no time to put anything up in detail but will get round to writing a race report and will also put some of the event photos up when they are avaliable.
Helen also completed the course in 14hr29 which she was more than happy with as did terry gallagher (12hr10) from inverness but who races for wick tri club.
Lastly ive decided im not going to get any faster as im currently at the level of the female pro athletes which means I get to race round with them and believe me some of them are really fit:)

Ironman UK results

Ironman this wknd!

Now I remember how I felt last year in the week leading up to the ironman in france! The race is on sunday and for the next 6 days all I will think about is if I have done enough training, should I be doing more this week, what if this happens on the day etc and every slight strain or niggle will feel like a serious injury! Had a relatively easy wk last week and will be even more so this week, will just do a couple of easy swims, a short cycle and a couple of slow runs. Spent 6hrs on saturday sorting my bike out tho so at least that should be ok:)
On a slightly more worrying side helen (who is doing IM UK as well) has just sent me a text saying there are toxic algal blooms in the lake near bolton where we are meant to be swimming so hopefully something will get sorted with that- the marathon at the end is hard enough without dying half way through!

Stromness sprint

Just over a week now since the stromness sprint and have been waiting for the results to come out before I put a post up but they are still not around so Ill just put something down. Had a really good race and for the first time ever put the three events together solidly and on the day I dont think I could have gone any faster. Won the event in an hour and 13secs so bit gutted to not go under the hour but next time hopefully- guess the splits were about 10.30sec swim, 40min cycle and 18.30 run plus transitions. As you can see from the photo above it was a try out for the GB kit as well:) Good results for other caithness triathletes, including gemma scott (see pic!) who came 4th overall and 1st female in 1hr9, david spencer in 1hr12, brian and bruce from WTC and also graeme morgan in his comeback triathlon. Well done to orkney Tri as well for organising it.

Week 25- hard week 3

Monday:
1 HR Meduim turbo session- av 22mph/240Watts/700CAL.
1 HR Masters Swim- 12x75m w-up/ 400m s sprint/ 800m fc
Tuesday:
2 HR Run- 16 miles @ av 7:20min/miles. 6 miles fast in middle.
1 HR easy cycle- 20 miles @21mph av.
Wednesday:
1 HR Own swim - 4x (400m FC pull/100 FC kick)
3 HR Hard Turbo session. av 22mph/230W/2100 CAL.
1+ HR cross training- surfing at thurso east.
Thursday:
1HR Gym session- Easy weights and core exercises.
45min run- Easy 6 miles @7:30 min/miles.
1HR Masters Swim- 12x 75m/ 3x(2x200m) IM FC BRST. 300 easy
Friday:
Brick session
1.30 Easy Cycle- 30 miles. 20mph av.
1.30 Middle Run- 12 miles @ 7:30 min/miles.
Saturday:
4HR Cycle- 80 miles. 21mph av. Fast intervals on hills.
1HR Masters Swim - hard. 800 w-up/12x75m FC fast pull/12x50m FC fast swim/400 easy
Sunday:
45 min running -Brora 10k. 37:40 @ av 6:10 min/miles. plus w. down
1 HR easy Turbo session. av 20mph/200W/600 Cal.

Totals for week Swim = 9100m Bike = 230 miles Run = 41 miles

Totals for year Swim = 197,000m Bike = 2595 miles Run= 386 miles

Where have I been!

Realised I havent written in here for ages and so thought Id better put in a quick update of what Ive been doing. This is my hardest training time of the year so for the last 3 weeks ive been flat out either working, training eating or sleeping:)
Training is going really well at the moment and have been getting some good results both in races and in practice sessions. My time trial time has come down to 23:30 over the 10 miles and just yesterday in the Brora 10k I got my PB down to a 37min, wasnt that long ago I used to Run 45 mins for 10k! Long cycles are going well too with me averaging over 20mph and long runs are good too with me running at a consistent 7:30 min/miles.
Had some really hard weeks in the last three so going to put down what I did last week in terms of training in the next post.

Bala photos

Couple of photos from Bala- as you can see from my face at the end of the run I was really enjoying it at this point!

Bala Race report

Had a really good race at the weekend and still feeling happy about it now:) Its probably my best result ever considering the competition and the fact it was the british championships. Just checking through the results listings now and the top 20 in the senior division still stands with a 34th in the overall competition with the fast veterans (40+) included (and one female!!!... louise collins who came 2nd in ironman lanzarote last year and is one of the fastest girls around). Total entries was 700 with about 620 completing the distance.
The day started off with a pretty good swim with me doing the 2km in under 30min and prob coming out about 20th overall, next it was onto the bike and this is where I knew I was in good form. The whole cycle felt really quick and I posted a fast 2hrs20 for the tough 50 odd miles. Coming into transition though as always happens with me and triathlon I knew the run was going to be hard. Although I lost a good few places on the run I still managed a 1hr30 run on a hilly course which I was well pleased with. This is the only part of triathlon now where I really feel I can improve a lot and although the 1.30 run was good it was only the 90th fastest time on the day!!! Unbelievably I was probably sitting in the top 10-top 15 in the british champs after the bike until the run section.... at least I know where I need to improve:)
Special thanks go to colin moore (who completed the course in a credible 6hr30 after a puncture) who came back to inverness to pick me up after some travel problems on friday and to Tim and Katie who I stayed with in Chester and who ferried me round all weekend and had to put up with me dressed in lycra for the majority of it!
Will post some photos up soon

Bala Middle Distance Results

Interclub 2010

Last night saw the annual running of the interclub cycle race between Caithness CC and Wick Wheelers. In this race the top eight riders from each teams time is taken and cumulated and whoever has the lowest total time is the winner. This year the race was run between Wick and Thurso and although the night wasnt great in terms of weather, ie steady rain for the whole race at least there was a easterly tail wind which produced some quick times.
I gave myself the day off from training which is rare these days and it really paid off- did a 41minute and was quickest on the night- really scared myself a couple of times with how fast I was going on the new bike!! Caithness put together some good times and won by just over 30 minutes however this is a lot closer than last year and im sure with the younger riders Wick have coming through it'll be a much closer race next year.

assynt photos

Assynt triathlon

On Saturday a team of us from caithness headed over to the west coast for the Assynt triathlon. Based around Lochinver this adventure race consists of a 21 mile road run, 15 mile cycle, 5 mile kayak and 8 mile hill race. I travelled across on friday with friends roz and hamper and we camped on friday night.
Our team consisted of myself, roz and hamper splitting up the road run, coby from brora doing the cycle, mark cleminson doing the kayak and team captain colin earnshaw doing the hill run. It was a really hot day and everyone put loads of effort in with the result being we came out 2nd overall out of 7 teams. Next year were going to go for first place!!
Thanks to expert photographer hamper for the photo of me running with some pretty stunning backdrop:) going to put some more photos up soon.

Kirkwall Standard Photo

Left to right : Rod, Robin, yours truely, brian, david and gemma.

Check the glare of mine, brians and davids head. They should use us as a renewable energy source instead of all the turbines and tide machines on orkney!

Kirkwall Standard Triathlon

This was the first standard distance triathlon i've done in over 2 years and it was good to get back to racing at this distance. Six of us travelled over from caithness to orkney including myself and david from thurso, brian and robin from wick and gemma and her friend Rod from Dundee. Conditions on the day were sunny with quite a mild temperature (for orkney). For me the race went well and after a good swim (1min pb) it was out on the bike to find it was actually really windy- struggled quite a lot with my new bike and the race wheel on the front caused me a lot of bother. Managed to get round in a good enough time and it was onto the run. With a lead of about 2-3mins at this point I thought I could hold the two guys off who I knew were chasing me and although I ran a pb Adrian ran 10k in 35min (mental!!!) and Torquil in 38min and this took them past me. Not really that dissapointed as 2hrs7min is a massive pb for me on this course- just need to get running quicker:) All in all it was a really good day and thanks go to beccy and keith for sorting out the event- its good to have events this far north so we dont have to travel!

munro photos

Munro Madness!!!

On sunday morning 6 of us set off from thurso for the drive down to Dingwall and along the ullapool road to a small place called Aultguish....our aim for the day was to cycle our MTBs to the top of a munro called Am Faochagach (dont ask me how to pronounce it!). Our group leader Allan Sutherland had scoped out the OS map and it looked possible to follow a landrover track up to around 800m and then scramble/ride up to the summit at 950m. After parking up and a few easy miles along an access road we were met with our "landrover" track which turned out to be more of a sheep trail ridden over by a couple of quads:)
Anyway to cut a long story short after 3 hours of pushing, carrying and some riding we made it to the summit and bagged the munro to make it all worthwhile. After getting some evil looks from some hillwalkers we blasted back down the trails and after a few over the handlebar manoeuvres by myself we made it back down.
If anyones around that way cycling or walking you should def head for the aultguish inn, we had a couple of beers and some really good food before heading back up the road. All in all pretty eventful day!! Will get some photos up in the next day or two

Long cycle:)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/user?uid=108855160841753667988&hl=en&gl=uk



Cycled from durness to thurso this morning and feeling it in the legs now!!! Went out and camped last night with my friends and put my bike in my friend chris' transit van. Went fishing last night and had a few beers with them then was up this morning at 8 to set off, friends are all used to this behaviour these days! Had a good cycle but the road around Loch Eriboll and the Kyle of Tongue is very steep in places so it was a good test of the legs. Did the 70 miles in just over 4 hours which is about 17mph av- pleased with the average as its a tough cycle.
Was back in time for swim coaching at 2 and then decided to go swim training myself with masters at half 3- not a good idea as halfway through my hamstrings tried to give up:) just about managed to get finished though.
Off mountain biking tomorrow morn (if the legs are recovered!), more on that tomorrow.

time trials this week

Went to both the Thurso and Wick time trials this week and pretty happy with both times. Above are the results from the thurso time trial on tuesday night. Best performance of the night went to John falconer with a 2.30 improvement. Other good rides came from Graeme, Stuart and Phil- my ride of the night went to Allan Sutherland however with a PB of a munute and a half...goin to have to watch out for this guy!!!
Wicks time trial on thursday night was slightly windier but some good performances came from the younger riders and from Charlie Mackay who is getting his times down every week now. I was happy to go under 25 minutes again with a 24.55. Link to results from Wick below- follow 10 mile TT section.

http://www.wick-wheelers.co.uk/

Cycle and Sea Swim

Nice day again today up north. Started off my day by counting 2000 boxes of fish so guess it can only get better from then on:)

Cycled through to wick this evening (20 mile) then went swimming at reiss beach with the crew from wick tri club, nice calm evening but water temp still around 8-9 cel so its a bit chilly. Really good turnout of 10 swimmers and the wickers put us on the other side of the county to shame with their ethusiasm!!! good cycle home back to thurso too, wish the weather was always like this up here.

heres a picture of us venturing in- courtesy of kevin farmers tried and tested blog (see link).

GB qualification

Just found out this afternoon that I have qualified to represent GB at the world sprint triathlon championships in budapest in september!!!! well pleased as it means I dont have to do another qualification race this summer and can concentrate on the events ive already entered for.
Gemma Scott has also qualified from the grendon race and David Sutherland has already pre-qualified from competing at the worlds last year on the gold coast in australia.

Here is a link to the British Triathlon Website, scroll down to find the different age groups:

http://www.britishtriathlon.org/age/qualifiers.php?event=2010%20ITU%20Sprint%20Triathlon%20-%20Budapest,%20Hungary&category=/age/

Gemma is in 20-24, David is in 50-54 and im in 30-34:)

Cracking day in caithness today, went out for a run this morning and just about to head to the weekly 10mile time trial in thurso. Hopefully get a good turnout and some fast times, ill do a report when the results are in.

Castle of mey 10k

2nd year for this event and with a increased capacity it was always going to be a good race. Nice weather like last year and despite being nervous about my performance before the start I had a really good race to stop the clock at 38.33- over a minute faster than last year. Averaged 6:10 min/miles which I havent done before over that distance so well chuffed, heres the top 10:

Pos Name Race No Net Time
1 Andrew Douglas 212 00:31:51
2 Matthew Sutherland 183 00:34:55
3 Jack Trevelyan 326 00:36:01
4 Austin Hughes 167 00:37:26
5 Alan Wise 302 00:37:52
6 Ewen Mackay 227 00:37:59
7 Kevin Cormack 102 00:38:15
8 Peter Fenwick 195 00:38:33
9 Michael Sutherland 111 00:39:06
10 John Mackay 8 00:39:18

Andrew Douglas is something else!!! Good luck to him, reckon he can break the 30min barrier over a flat course.

Heres the link to results for anyone whos interested:

http://mey10k.co.uk/race2010.asp

Few mentions for notable runs : Jack T. (man has no idea how fast he is!), Dave Morrill, Graeme + Julie Morgan, Phil Cartwright, Rob Cormack, Cubby (I think!), Kevin farmer (tried and tested blog) and all the North Highland Harriers. Special mentions for Jenn Wallace, Roz Macleod and Tamara Hicks:)
It was really good to see everyone else out running too and hopefully there might be a few more local events.

Grendon Sprint Triathlon

This was my frist national triathlon and was held down near northhampton. It was also a qualifier to try and get a place for the GB age group team at the world championships later on in the year. Local triathletes Gemma Scott (Dundee Uni) and David Sutherland (Wick Tri club) were also down competing.
Pretty pleased with my performance but let myself down on the run a bit! here are the splits:

PETER FENWICK 30-34 MALE

OVERALL 01:12:13
SWIM 00:11:39
T1 00:01:25
BIKE 00:37:58
T2 00:00:51
RUN 00:20:18

This was enough to get me 5th in age group, and 37th overall. Unfortunately there was only 4 automatic qualifying places in each age group from this race for the team- more news on this to follow.
David finished in 1:20:31 to finish 12th in age group (although turns out the man has already qualified for the world champs!!!) good result anyway:)
Gemma finished in an impressive 1:22:43 to finish 5th in age group, a strong swim and bike followed up by a much improved run shows the potential she has for the future:)
Good day all round but the 2 months I had out from running have def set me back- only one thing to fix that!!!

First post!!!

This is my first post of the new blog. Decided to create one so that I can keep everything that im doing connected with triathlon (and maybe other stuff!) in one place.
More importantly however I think the blog would be good for advertising other less major events and also to keep track of all the sporting things that go on up in caithness.

Bit of background- been doing triathlon for 3-4 years now with the last year and a bit having most of my spare time dedicated to it- :( or sometimes :). Had a really good season last year with my first ironman in france and some good results in scotland which saw me get ranked #1 in the northern area for sprint distance. Decided to go even harder this year and apart from an injury at the start of the year from snowboarding things are going well.

Quick re-cap on things already done=

- training goin well march and april.
- wick mini triathlon- 1st place, 33mins dead. minute faster than last year
- grendon sprint triathlon- GB qualifier. 1:12:14. 5th age gp. see next post.