In Staffordshire, undertaking their very first ever 70.3 triathlon (half distance), Barry and Ian both proved that anything is possible when they both crossed the finishing line well inside the cut off times they were so worried about. Barry finished in 6 hours 55 minutes and 1 second (40 minute swim, 3 hours 24 minute bike, 2 hour 30 minute run) and Ian finished in 8 hours 8 minutes and 59 seconds (1 hour 1 minute swim, 3 hour 45 minute bike, 2 hour 59 minute run). Well done

I love it when it's time for a coached athletes performance review and the hard work and personalised specific training pays off. Well done Lynne on todays FTP test results! In 4 months, she's increased her FTP by 16% which is pretty impressive and her recent race results have reflected this increase. There are various protocols we can use to assess FTP and in this instance, we used a ramp test as this was the most relevant to give us the metrics we required for today's perfo

In preparation for IMUK this July, Stephen and Carl both competed in half iron distance events at the weekend with fabulous results: Stephen finished the Epicman Windemere ½ in 107th place overall and 33rd place in his age group in a solid time of 6 hours 16 minutes 56 seconds (39:52 swim, 3:23:31 bike, 2:07:07 run). Carl finished the Ultimate ½ in 73rd place overall and 7th place in age group in a great time of 5 hours 27 minutes 47 seconds (30:22 swim, 2:54:02 bike, 1:58:13

Last weekend saw five PTC athletes taking on the iconic Outlaw Half Triathlon. Gary had an amazing race and in his bid to break his previous 6-hour PB, absolutely nailed it finishing with an amazing time of 5 hours 27 minutes and 58 seconds (38:14 swim, 2:44:00 bike, 1:55:22 run). Lee H had a pretty good return to racing after having a few years off. Despite some schoolboy errors including leaving his bike shoes in his transition bag (which had then been placed in the bag dro

First up was Adam racing at Challenge Riccione in Italy. Adam managed a 34 minute swim despite choppy waters, followed by a 2 hour 56 minute bike beset by torrential rain and then finished up with a very solid 1 hour 39 minute run finishing in 188th place out of 884 athletes. Then Carl raced Ironman Mallorca 70.3 once again finishing his sea swim in an amazing 30 minutes 15 seconds, followed by a 2 hour 49 minute bike, and even though Carl suffered with some GI issues on the

It's been far too long since I updated my blog, so I'll try and make up for it with some great recent race results from PTC athletes. Firstly, we had Adam running at the Jackal 1/2 marathon who finished in a great time of 2 hours 21 minutes bringing him home in 15th place overall - great result for a tough race and then the following weekend he also finished the Parbold Duathlon in 36th place – great work Adam. Then Dave had yet another great race at the Ian Roberts Memorial

Well that was another tough but great swim session at the Stockport 50m pool under the watchful eyes of Coach H. Everyone who's been regularly coming (once a month) to these sessions has been making great improvements in their swimming and it's great to be able to share these sessions with like minded individuals. If this is something you'd like to join us with next month, then please get in touch. Coach Pat.

Here's the latest batch of team PTC kit waiting to be delivered to new and old members alike. All PTC coached athletes receive a free technical t-shirt (tried and tested during the run by several athletes at IMUK) as well as a free gift for use on race day. Please note, you don't need to be a coached athlete or even in team PTC to wear the kit - it's just great quality kit that's race proven so please get in touch if any of it floats your boat - Coach Pat. https://www.perform

Well done to Head Coach Pat who has been offered a highly sought-after place by British Triathlon on their Level 3 High Performance Coach Programme. There were very few places available, and they received an unprecedented number of high-quality applications. Whilst many coaches remain stagnant in their approach and methodology, Pat, ever on the quest for knowledge, continues to research all things triathlon, physiology, psychology and coaching related, both to improve his own

So, everyone keeps telling you that you need a heart rate monitor and how it will change the way you train and make you into a better athlete. So, you go ahead and buy one. Now what? Firstly, you will need to set up your personal heart rate training zones. To keep things simple, we will use 5 zones: Zone 1 (Recovery), Zone 2 (Endurance), Zone 3 (Tempo), Zone 4 (Threshold) and Zone 5 (VO2 Max). So how do you calculate your own personal heart rate training zones? Forget calcula

I often hear people talking about what cadence they should be running at (foot landings per minute) and what cadence they should be cycling at (revolutions of one foot per minute). Here’s what I’ve found out: Running: There seems to be an optimum cadence range that minimises injury by reducing over striding and this is between 180 and 200 steps per minute. This may sound a lot, but this will lead to a much more compact, quicker cadence that greatly reduces the impact of every

During my last five years of coaching, the only runners I’ve seen consistently improve their running times are the ones who train to pace, not heart rate. Most, if not all of our running is all about finishing a certain distance within a certain time and the most commonly used running metric is minutes per mile or minutes per kilometre. Pace is an external measure of how fast you are moving over the ground and has nothing to do with what colour your socks are or how well you

Well done to everyone who raced at the Petzl Rivington Night Runner tonight. Never an easy race and made tougher tonight by the howling wind and rain. As always, it was a very well organised race, and very satisfying to complete - good job Epic Events. I was really impressed too by my Alpkit Qark headtorch and how well it performed in the conditions, especially given it's £29 price tag (https://www.alpkit.com/products/qark). Team PTC managed to bag two top ten places with Dav

No better way to start the New Year than with a tough 50m pool swim session coached by Harry and Russell - cheers guys !!! Coach Pat.

VO2 max – we hear the term branded about a lot in sport, but what does it actually mean and how useful is it? VO2 max (or maximum aerobic capacity or maximal aerobic power) is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can actually use (not just inhale) within a single minute and is the best single measure of cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness. VO2 max is a good measurement to have for doing scientific research, but outside of the lab, it’s just a number and not

We all know what it is, yet why does no one ever deal with the actual problem? I regularly see people plastering their necks in Vaseline/Bodyglide/Baby Oil and all others manners of lotions, potions and plasters, yet they still get wetsuit neck rash. Why? Well if you actually look at what causes the rash, then you can solve this problem quite easily. The rough part of the Velcro tab is always the culprit. On wetsuits where the rough part of the Velcro is on the tab, make sure

People think sorting out a puncture is really easy and just a case of shoving in a new inner tube. Most of the time this is fine, but over the last few months, I’ve had several customers bring me wheels to sort out because they’ve had more than 3 punctures in a row and can’t figure out what’s going on. DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR PUNCTURED INNER TUBE – IT WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING !!!!!! IMPORTANT: WHEN YOU REMOVE THE INNER TUBE, NOTE WHERE THE PUNCTURE HOLE IN THE INNER TUBE APPEA