Louth Tri Agm and presentation night.

So another year passes by and once again its time for the infamous Louth tri agm and presentation.
Its good to hear that our club is moving from strength to strength,
now in its second year as a official club we are well and truly established in the tri community and a huge force to be reckoned with. with athletes competing in many of the age groups across the board its more often than not that a Louth tri member is near the top of in any event we grace with our present.

With most the committee saying the same the biggest change comes from one of our club founders and Chairman Simon Sharp stepping down and John sharp stepping up to the role, Simon assures this is so he can concentrate on his training and with steady steps and progress hopes to achieve his own self set targets and goals over the coming years.

As the night starts to get into full swing the clubs presentations take place
with awards going to ,

Best New commer         ; Luke Conway
Coaches athlete award   ; Oliver Welpton
Best Female                    ; Kerry Drury
Best Male                       ; Ross McGregor
Most improved athlete    ;Jackie Hall
Chairman's athlete award ; Martin Ball

all of the awards were deserved by each athlete who won there respective category, each of them putting in many hours of training and helping other members to achieve the recognition from the club for there hard work.

but alas there was only one real winner that night, as the raffle was drawn the star prize was a signed  and framed photo from the British triathlon national sprint relays silver medal team signed by star triathletes Glenn Bonner, Ross McGregor, Martin Ball and of course myself. Its only seemed a fitting end to the year that i won the photo and now have it in prize place in my shed next to my turbo trainer,

Team mates for now, friends for life

My first experiances  with the Louth triathlon club was seeing Ross McGregor in his tri suit
And thinking 'he looks like he means the business' I remember swopping places with him throughout the session with each of us not backing down for a full hour swim, little did I know at the time Ross was in the same situation as me and new to the sport, I had turned up to those first sessions expecting everybody to be seasoned athlete's .A early bond of respect  for each other was made and continues to grow to this day, Ross has achieved so much in those two years im in ore of him really and he keeps me strong through all the ups and the downs knowing hes dealing with all the same emotions.

Little did I realise what a Impact that swim would have on all of us two years down the line, a few weeks later and the club in its infancy the club held one of its first monthly meeting's, there sat a few faces I had yet to have trained with most of the faces there that day are still loyal members of our club and form a huge part it, one face in particular that sticks in my mind is that of Martin Ball, for duration of the meeting I kept seeing he was glancing across at me and I for one had no idea why, as the meeting drew to a end it became clear Martin and Ross had met previously to the meeting and had been organising a team for the national club relays later that year, They had both been Impressed with my performance and attitude so before I had even raced my first triathlon I had signed myself up to the national club relays with a open water swim.

Martin Balls attitude still hasnt changed to this day, if there is anyone to push the envelope its Martin, always asking what if? What if I go faster? What if I go for longer? What if I train more? What if I enter this event? What if I try to qualify for great Britain's national age group team at a distance ive never competed at before?
Martin showed me alot about the sport there are no closed doors, he took me for my first ever open water swim in 8deg water like it was normal, he taught me how to set my transition area up and challaged me if I can better it,  when im low Martin tells me to man up, when im high Martin tells me good job mate you've reached another step on the ladder but you aint at the top yet pal so keep bloody going. Also a family man with a 9 to 5 Martin understands the straints on life juggling Work triathlon and most importantly family together.

These aren't the only athletes that have helpped mr achieved my goals I would be nieve to think that I have lots help from friends and family, but these two also write top blogs along side all they do and if you have the time please follow them on the links bellow

Ross McGregor

http://www.swimbikeross.wordpress.com/

Martin Ball

http://www.workingclasstriathlete.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

Update comming soon

With a few sponsors close to final agreements it will soon be time to let the cat out the bag who they are! I will be updateing a few other items on my blog including;
A review of my 2014 season.

Which events I have entered for the up and comming 2015 season and why.

A short series on bike maintenance,  I enjoy maintaining all of my bikes and thought it may be of interest to some of you how I keep my training and racing bikes in tip top condition!

Follow me on facebook 'Jon Bromfield triathlete' for some big news comming at the end end of February-early March and how you can get involved.

Ross tiger 100

So fellow triathlete Scot, cyclist Ben and myself decided on taking on the Ross Tiger 100mile cyclosportive route at the weekend, we found the route on
http://www.sportivehq.com/ross-tiger-100.html
We downloaded the gpx file onto scots Garmin 310xt and set about organising times to head out.
We decided on half5am to set out, why so bloody early?  Its dark an cold?!. Well it frees up the rest of the day for family dutys for all of us so it keeps everyone happy,  if we had been real mean, Scot and myself would of set off at 5 but we gave ben half an hours grace as he had to drive in from grimsby. I will admit I wondered what the hell I was doing when the alarm went off.

Our first mistake was poor lighting, from myself and scot  as we headed out towards Yarbough it was soon apparent our front lights weren't up to scratch we had choosen some lightweight lights that would make us visible to other motorists but not enough to light the way, this decision was made as we knew that it would be light in a hours time and what we had with us we would have to carry for the entire journey.  Ben however had a decent enough light to light the way for all3 of us so problem averted.

The route would take us towards grimsby and Waltham then briefly through the wolds out of Caistor then back towards market raisen where the route would re enter the lincolnshire wolds where the route would eventually flatten out after Burwell and head into carlton manby and back to Alvingham. The official sportive route will start from Waltham however with the route circling our home town it seemed daft to start anywhere else! ,

Lincolnshire is rumoured to be flat but in the wolds we are quite lucky and have some nice climbs, some are rolling some are short but sharp some are a mix of both, this route managed to have both and fited in a good 2000ft of climbing all of which make for a good training ride, it is however a good 6000ft off our ride in Wales at the autumn epic.

All was going smoothly for the first 40 or so miles with the route keeping us away from the main roads we were tapping out a good rhythm and morale  quite high with everyones legs still feeling quite fresh, however we came across a few obstacles around North Kelsey and again at Waddingham, the route took us off road down a briddle path, we ummed an arred for a few breif seconds before we thought sod it and carried on, full road bikes with slicks down a gravel laiden pot holled dirt track alongside the river ancholme , nothing that the riders of paris-robaux don't encounter, We however didnt have a full support crew with spare wheels tagging along beside us.
To be fair we did take it pretty steady and had to walk over the wood lined bridge, with holes big enough to swallow tires it was hard enough walking over the bridge in cleats,  even if bikeing down the unkempt gravel bridle way was a bad idea walking over the bridge was certainly one of the few wise choices that day.

On our second encountering of yet another bridal path we took advantage of the full uk road mapping installed on Bens garmin 800, we took a few minutes and figured out how best to avoid the off road section and took a 3mile detour to miss the field trek out, technology wins once again, im sure if one of us had bought a map with us we could of figured it out but we have become so reliant on technology these days. Mile 60 saw our only puncture of the day which gave us some time for a bit of banter, surprisingly it was Ben and not myseld, mt tires have done a fair few miles this year and are probably due a change.

At around 70miles we hit Wragby,  we stopped at the local shops here to refuel for the final leg of our ride, I still felt fairly fresh at this point and the average speed was still fairly good but it was becoming apparent that legs were tiring at this point. With a last sneaky climb snuck in at Rowford we got our heads down for a fairly uneventful final 20miles.

With this probably being the last 100 of the year for myself I was soon planning on my first 100 of next year,  with Scot and Ben penciled in to accompany me once again its a toss up between trying the trent valley 100 or a revised Ross tiger 100 ears to the ground to see which one we deside on.

Finally a quick thanks to Scot and Ben for coming along on the ride, with Ben completing his first century ride of many, without them the ride would of never happened as individually we would of all struggled for motivation but collectively we worked as a team and had a good day.

A second thanks to Matt from sportive hq for making the gpx file for the rides readily avaliable and responding quickly to emails thanks all. Keep those miles rolling in!.

Alford wheelers presentation night

My first presentation night of the year was at the masonic hall in alford, a sit down meal and prize giving put on by the Alford wheelers,
With the club's founder still a active member and the club running for over 50years there is a lot of heritage with one of Lincolnshires most prestige clubs, as a triathlete surrounded by dedicated bikers I wondered if I was really welcome amongst them all but it soon became apparent we were all there for the same reason, our passion towards cycling. With a few speeches from long standing members the message of why we ride was universal, its for the freedom we sence when out on the bike,  our connection with nature and the challenges bought on by the change of seasons and the beautiful countryside that surrounds us there really isn't much point in trying to compete at a high level in any sport unless you are passionate about what you do, but for me cycling really does take the top spot, from time to time when everything comes right when your out on that bike there really is nothing quite like it.
With the meal out the way and entertainment provided by a few club members who are as competitive in there drinking as they are there cycling it was time for the presentation,
being new to the club and having to split my training time between 3 sports I was more than happy to walk away with a large shield for finishing 1st in the club's 18mile circuit handicap race and 3rd overall, It gave me a real sense of achievement that night and allowed me to reflect momentarily on the past season , it gave me a few more goals for the up and comming year,and I hope to be able to come back stronger next year and claim a few more trophies for my collection!.

It has to start somewhere

As another month passes by im now starting to get back into the full swing of training over winter, bit by bit upping distance, the aim of the game now is to build a good base of fitness that I can work on over spring and summer,
So what does that entail for me? A lot of miles and hours hopefully but no real desire for speed work at the moment so a lot of my training can be done at a sociable speed (although a lot of my training isn't always sociable hours)
Its at this time of year I also like to try and build on strength with some core work in the gym.
One change in my training plan for this year is to incorporate more stretching into my routines in a bid to stay more supple and hope to keep injury at bay. All was going well until one of my runs was cut short when I went over on my ankle with a misplaced step. As I lay on my back with my leg in the air, all I could think was 'well this ain't ideal', I rang home for a lift and began the process of rasing,  icing compressing and elevating (R.I.C.E) my left ankle a couple of days have passed and the swelling is starting to die down, If I was soley a runner this would ne very bad news for me as it would knock back my training quite a bit, however the big plus of triathlon is I still have two other sports to go at!
So as I rearrange my schedule for the next few weeks to cancel out my runs and up my swim and bike!

Recovery

After a long successful season i found it hard to stop training nearly every day. It became part of the routine, part of my life style. Im the first person to tell somebody else when I think there overtraining or to lay off when there injured yet I seldom listen to my own advice, in heign sight I should of had some time off at least a month earlier than I have done but my own stubbornness forced me to continue for a while longer. Finally I gave in and convinced myself a month off would allow my body to rest and be beneficial in the long run, hoping that it would leave me fresher and more motivated for the oncoming training and eventually racing.

During this month I also decided while the stresses and distractions of training were no longer present I would try shed a few lbs I had put on after my race season 'hair down' moment had come to a close. I did this by cutting out snacking and cutting meal portions down. Im a big snacker and stopped this my constantly telling myself  'im not missing out' by not eating and that I had no need for the extra food. I shrunk the size of my breakfast and lunch portions down but kept my dinner the same, dinner is a family time for me and it's unfair to change there eating habits just for my own gratification, we don't eat excessively and our meals are fairly healthy so this didnt cause a problem, In the month I managed to lose around 5/7lbs and hope now my training has started back up to lose another 5lbs over the following months to get closer to my racing weight.

My first session back to training was a slow steady, light weight session, with a aim of slowly building good form before moving onto heavier weights, I focus on my core muscles to make the most of my time in these sessions and if I have extra time I usually focus on specific areas ive had problems with injurys in the past to strengthen these areas up.

The next few months I will start with slow short training sessions building on both intensity and duration as time progresses, but for now its just nice to be back on the road to Geneva ! .