I was lucky enough to go and see the Kids of Steel team come to Newham a couple of weeks ago. This is the program run by British Triathlon in Conjunction with TATA steel, which introduces young children to triathlon for the first time. They do a short pool swim, followed by a short bike round on the track and then into a run to the finish line. None of the distances are very great
I have enjoyed the more normal daily timetable of the Easter recess. When Parliament sits our day is so chaotic that it is difficult to get regular patterned training times fitted in, other than the classic 5am sort (and I am not a fan of 5am). When on recess we spend our time working in the constituency, which means a more normal hourly working day. Few residents want to meet us at 10m at night
I have had a good couple of week training. I have managed a few brick sessions (run and bike) and also a couple of long runs. I have noticed the difference that my winter gym work has made, the core and flexibility work seems to have helped immensely. I have been using the MP3 recordings by Chrissie Wellington for my runs, from Audio Fuel. These have made it much easier to do interval work and
I took part today in the Sport Relief 1 mile run with colleagues and the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. It was good fun and made up for my missing an early morning run today. It also brought out the usual competitive spirit of Mps, with my normal 10 – 11 min mile speed being reduced to about 7.50, which I am very pleased with but also have taken a bit of
First off, if not already clear form these pages; my two sporting icons are Lance Armstrong and Chrissie Wellington. From the heavily informed position of having never met either of them I can even outline why it is these two and I think that it is because as an outsider with all the informed knowledge of never having met them, there seems to be, to me, a key similarity between them. Focus! They are unbelievably
I was among those who were astounded not that long ago by the BBC Sports personality of the Year Awards when there were no women on the shirt list. I wrote to the BBC Trust and the Chairman to ask them to outline how this could happen and how they can ensure it does not happen again. The reply I got was rather non-committal to be blunt, but the furore that surrounded their short
Not a bad week of training for me, especially when I bear in mind that I have not been near the gym and have been reliant on myself to get myself out of the front door on these cold days to train. I have managed a few swims this week, short ones but still first pool sessions of 2012 and all felt ok. Even the 500 mtr I did today was not fast but
What is it that drives us to take part in sport and what is it that motivates us to keep going when things do get tough? I doubt it is the thought of a Billy Ocean song, but it could be the desire to be fit, the desire to loose weight or simply the will to win. Though I would challenge any athlete to not admit that somewhere there is the thought of an athlete
A big day today, my first swim of 2012! I noted in my last entry that i have spent the winter working on core and flexibility training in the gym and have only done the rare 1 mile run with a single, lonely in fact, 5 mile run a week or two ago. So this week, with the House in recess I have a little more flexibility and have decided to get some triathlon specific
It has been some time since I posted a triathlon related Blog. I decided, as I noted late in 2011 to take a break and re focus my training over the winter. I have enjoyed working at a gym on core work and have found it very odd, with a fair period of time getting used to training very differently. Instead of fitting in so many miles in the pool each week, miles on the
Brandon Lewis