The beginning of September was an epic time for a few of my overseas athletes with podiums galore. At the Tugaloo Sprint Triathlon in Georgia (USA), husband and wife John and Lauren both came 2 nd  in their respective age groups and Hannah came 1 st  in her age group. Back in the UK, Toby and Oli both completed The Roc England – a tough format with a swim, a bike, a run up Scafell Pike, back on the bike and then finishing up with a run. Lee, back up to speed with his running

I’m not sure races could be further apart in both race distance and race location, but this August we had Julia racing at Ironman Tallinn in Estonia and then Pete and Liz racing a bit closer to home at the West Lancs Sprint Tri. Julia flew over to Estonia and gave Ironman Tallinn a good run for its money. Despite having heavy legs on the bike and a few other things not quite going to plan, she showed some real grit and got through to the end in 16 hours 13 minutes – well done

Rounding off July, Imogen took part in the Bristol Olympic Distance Triathlon finishing 3 rd  in her age group in a time of 3 hours and 14 minutes. Arron took part in the Shawnee Mission Sprint Triathlon in Kansas and his 7 th  fastest swim overall helped him to his finish time of 1 hour and 9 minutes. Chris took part in the Ripon Olympic Distance Triathlon and finished in 2 hours 53 minutes. Mike took part in the Salford Sprint Distance Triathlon and finished in 1 hour 35 mi

With so many different types of diet, fat jabs and everything else that’s trending in the world with regard to weight loss, I thought I’d share my own different spin on things. Several of my athletes have achieved amazing transformations from being big or overweight to fit. Their goal was never really weight loss, more just to get fitter, faster and healthier. The resulting weight loss and increase of lean muscle is a by-product of structured and consistent training over a pe

I’m not sure what happened to all the warm weather over here in the UK, and was hoping it would be a little warmer for everyone racing the Bolton Ironman 70.3, but it was bloody freezing, wet and windy come race day – I was cold wrapped up just watching from the sidelines! Barry – still on his come back from the Transcontinental bike race, managed a 45 minutes swim, a 3:32 bike and somehow dragged himself round the run in sub 3 hours finishing in 7 hours 30 minutes. Pete was

First timers to the 70.3 distance, Lauren and John (husband and wife team) both had a crack at the Chattanooga 70.3. Unfortunately, the swim was cancelled and the race was turned into a bike and run event. Lauren pulled off a 3 hour 19 minute bike and a 2 hour 42 minute run finishing in just under 6 hours 10 minutes and placing 81st in her age group. Laurens words afterwards: “I was really proud of my bike - the fastest I have ever rode!”. John also had a storming bike finish

And before we had time to turn around, more racing happened for Team PTC. Chris flew over to Mallorca for his first crack at the Ironman 70.3. Having battled with injury for the first part of this year, Chris had a great race finishing strong in just under 6 hour 15 minutes. Quite a few of us at PTC have all done Mallorca before and we're going to try and get everyone together there in 2026 for a great race in a great location. Chris managed to bring the sunshine back with hi

As the season (and the weather) hots up, the results are coming in thick and fast for Team PTC. Last weekend, Coach Pat and Dave took on the XTERRA UK Duathlon (5km off road run, 30km mountain bike, 5km off road run). Always close racing between these two with Dave taking the lead after the first run, then Coach Pat taking back time on the bike catching and overtaking Dave and then Dave coming back with a mile to go on the run to take the honours between them. Dave finished 5

Last weekend saw the start of the tri season with Barry racing at Kendal Tri and Chris and Coach Pat racing at the West Lancs Spring Tri. In his run up to Ironman Texas, Barry was not so convinced by racing a sprint tri a few weeks out from his big race, but some encouraging words from coach Pat with some mention of transition practice and sharpening up, Barry got himself on the start line. Not only did Barry sharpen himself up, he managed to win his age group and come 45th o

The Coniston 14 is a 14 mile road race around lake Coniston and is Coniston's largest annual community event organised by an enthusiastic committee of volunteers from Coniston village. This isn't the first time Liam has completed this race, but this year, he managed to get a 10km, 15km, 10 mile and 20k PB - all within the race. Way to go Liam. This bodes well for the rest of Liams season which includes the Fred Whitton Challenge and Ironman Bolton 70.3.

How to set your cleats up in a good neutral starting position. It's not as complicated as you might think! 1) Take note of your foot and it's two widest parts: 2) Stick masking tape on the outsides of your shoe in roughly the same place as these wide parts of your foot: 3) Put your shoe on and squeeze the side of your shoe – when you find those wide spots of your feet, draw a line on the masking tape where those wide spots are on the outside of the shoe: 4) Loosely bolt your

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog, but rest assured, PTC athletes were out in force throughout last year and it’s been hard to keep up, so I’ll start with this quick update. On Saturday night, Oli and Coach Pat headed off to Rivington Pike for the annual Petzl 10km night run – a tough little hilly (read uphill) run made much harder by the dark and often the weather, although this time around it was a still night, all be it bloody freezing! Oli, who’s well on his

May was a busy month for PTC athletes – here’s what they got up to: Karen (and partner Denis) successfully completed the gruelling hilly 112-mile Fred Whitton Challenge bike ride in the Lake District – her biggest event yet since her knee operation and just another step in her endurance journey. Ironman Wales will be her next big event and after that – who knows. Barry completed the hot, hilly and windy Ironman Lanzarote in a very respectable 15 hour and 21 minutes – sub 1 ho

In its final year, Barry (previous Ironman finisher), John (Ironman first timer) and Sam (previous Ironman finisher) all finished Ironman Bolton – one of the toughest Ironman races on the calendar made even tougher this year with the strong headwind that seemed to follow the athletes around on the bike course no matter what direction they were riding in.   Here’s a few words from each of the athletes about their experience on the day: Barry: “The week before the race I felt

Yvette did a great write up of her recent Ironman experience in Austria in June. If you’re getting a bit bored of domestic racing, then perhaps looking for a race abroad is the way to go. “So, I wanted to do an interesting Ironman and my main criteria was for it to be beautiful. IM Austria really didn’t disappoint. The swim is in Lake Worthersee – absolutely stunning at any time of the day – a huge body of clear water (so no silly laps or Australian exits) and stunning scener

It’s not often coaches talk about themselves and their own trials and tribulations, so I thought I’d break that trend in the hope that my journey over the last 18 months might help someone else. For those of you that don’t know, when I’m on the start line, I try to be competitive (often breaking 5 hours for Half Ironman distance races) but everything I did ended up on the line last year when a dodgy knee and a dodgy shoulder brought me to a standstill – literally. An MRI scan

When the monthly series of Zwift 10 mile TT races ended late last year, discounting myself, there were still two clear winners: Jackie B finished 2nd overall and 1st lady winning a £20 Wiggle voucher. Gary M finished 3rd overall and 1st gent winning a £20 Endurance Store Voucher. Well done guys. This years series will start again soon – keep an eye on my Facebook page for more info. Coach Pat.

So…it’s been a long time and a lot has happened, but more on that later. In the mean time, just a quick epic well done to Sam and Tom who both had amazing races at Kona last month. Well done boys – you did PTC proud.

Well it’s been a long time since I did a race report despite PTC athletes racing here there and everywhere, so a little update is better than none at all and I promise to do more in future. Someone suggested that a knarly fell race on New Years Eve would be fun, so a few of Team PTC entered the Mad Bull Trails and Ales Fell Race in Rivington Pike. At least the weather was good, unlike the course which was muddy, rocky, wet and seemed to go up forever and not come down. But we

Well, it’s been a busy month and now the dust has settled, it’s time to share what five brave Team PTC athletes got up to at Ironman UK. In typical Bolton fashion, the weather did not disappoint. Two hours of torrential rain during the bike leg played havoc with the roads and riding conditions with Ironman UK seeing its highest number of bike crashes and DNF’s. Barry, with a decent swim of 1 hour 27 minutes and Ian with a better than expected swim time of 1hour 50 minutes, bo