I am coming up to 4 weeks in Brazil, and am just starting to get settled into a routine. I am working hard on my bikers tan line and think I might even be developing some quads. Sorry it’s taken me this long to get the site updated. I am getting used to the 40 degree days, 90% humidity, and the rain storms in the afternoons’ I haven’t yet come to terms with the thousand and one insects all of whom think a little pale English flesh is particularly tasty. I got my University results through yesterday and am now the proud owner of a 2.1 Batchelor of Business Administration Degree. It’s a relief more than anything, training and studying is tough and by combining the two over the past four and a half years I have been doing neither to the best of my ability. Still it’s a box that is now ticked and I no longer have any distractions or excuses, with a degree in the bag I have brought myself a little time to see if I can make Triathlon work. The trip out to Brazil was a little emotional with Air France being kind enough to give me an unscheduled 15hrs to explore Charles de Gaul Airport and Brazilian customs deciding that they wanted 50% of the value of my bike by way of import tax (the backhander sorted that one out, I am told Brazil is the 3rd most corrupt country in the world but they paid the right person and got moved to the 5th!!) I am staying with Reinaldo Colucci another athlete from Brett’s Squad in a little farm workers cottage just outside Sao Carlos, 200km in land from Sao Paulo. The farm is the training base for a squad of 15 fulltime athletes ranging from some very talented 13 years old to Olympians and Pan American Games medallists. Brett was keen to get me racing so 6 days after arriving I did the “15th Triathlon Internacional de Santos” A non drafting Olympic distance race with some big prize money and some top athletes, I was expecting a tough time less than 2 weeks after finishing uni and not at my fittest. I was not to be disappointed and was handed a good kicking to finish 15th, still it got me back racing really quickly and gave me a starting point for the camp. The next weekend it was onto the first round of the Brazilian Olympic Distance drafting series in a little surfer’s town called Cioba. After some stern words with myself and a good weeks training things went a little better here, I swam hard to get a small gap for myself and Reinaldo. Reinaldo then showed me 10km of the biking that at 20 years old has made him first Brazilian finisher at Ironman Brazil 2 years in a row and 7th and the World Long course champs. I took my turn, but at 45km an hour I am not sure that I would have been able to keep it up for 40km. We got caught by a pack of around 10 who had been team time trialling to stop us getting away. Another of the guys from the squad that trains on the farm made a break just as the pack caught us, so team orders meant we tried to slow the pack down and let him get away. As we headed out onto the run he had managed to build a 2min lead. I felt real heavy to start but, picked up a little in the second 5km to finish 7th with a 33.30 10km, a long way from where I need to be, but a lot better than the previous weekend.

Not that the previous two weeks weren’t, but the last 7 days has been big training, I have not wanted to put my training on the site before, but I figure if anyone wants to copy this stuff then they deserve to succeed, so here is the last week. Brazil Training Camp Feb 19th to 26th

Mon: Run 1 hr solid (10miles) Swim 10x50m kick, 60x100s off 1.20 1-20 band only 21-40 swim 41-60 every 4th off 1.15. Bike 2hrs Spin

Tue: Swim 5k 10x200 hard every 4 then 16x50 hard every 4 off 45 12x50 hard every 3 off 50, 8x50 hard every 2 off 55, 4x50 hard every 1 off 60. 3 hr bike with 6x10mins big gear T.T in the middle, 3 mins between blocks. Run easy 45mins

Wed: 2hr Run solid tempo. Swim 4k easy. Ride 1 hr easy.

Thu: 5k swim with 800tt 400tt 200tt 100tt 50tt 300 easy between each 9.40 4.37 2.13 1.03 and 29. Treadmill 10x 1k at 18.5kmph with 1min in between. Ride 1hr easy

Fri: Swim 5k (6x 500m time trial with 5 mins easy between each). Run to track 30mins 10x400 on 1.45 followed by 3x10mins accelerate run back 30min. Bike 2.5 hrs with 1hr in 53-12.

Sat: Swim 5k with 2k time trial and 20x 100 on 1.20. Bike 2.5 hrs with 30x 2 min 53.12 hill reps. Run 1hr easy

Sun: Swim 4k 1,2 and 3 times through 100 off 1.30 100 off 1.25 100 off 1.20 100 off 1.15. Bike 4hrs last hour solid

As coach says, it’s all about being prepared to work harder and hurt more than other people consistently week in week out, not for 6 weeks but for 60 weeks. If I can do that I will at least be able to look back and say for sure that I did everything I could to make it as a pro, if I put myself on the line and do what I need to do and it doesn’t work I will know that I just didn’t have the natural talent but I’ve got the feeling that if I am single minded enough to stick to it then it will work. So that’s the aim, keep checking back to the site to see how I am getting on!! I am not sure what the next race will be, but the plan is to race lots, I will get some pictures onto the site as soon as possible, I am also writing a bit of a travel diary in a little more detail on life in Brazil, so if you want to know about Ostriches, Humming Birds, Owls that aren’t nocturnal, road workers who’s fulltime job is to wave a little red flag, all you can eat restaurants with a never ending supply of chicken hearts and other such goings on then send me an email and I will add you to my mailing list.

Farlow amigos p.s as a crash course in Portuguese I can highly recommend moving by yourself to a farm in the middle of Brazil.

Dec 27th

I’ve booked my flight, so will be heading to Brazil at the beginning of February for 3 months warm weather training before the season begins. 

Dec 24th

I’m back into winter training after cracking a rib in a bike crash last week.

With everyone a little excited before Christmas sign post sprints should really have been cancelled on Last Sundays ride. They weren’t and as a result I clipped wheels and went down at quite a speed. I’m told it looked rather spectacular. I landed on my head and luckily my helmet took most of the impact. A quick check over at casualty told me I had cracked a rib, but it’s not actually been too soar, I managed to get back out on my bike with the next day. My helmet was a mess and it’s quite an eye opener, had I not been wearing it my head would now be in a similar state…REMEMBER KIDS WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!  

Nov 20th

I have just signed to complete the 4 races of the 2006 French Grand Prix with Montpellier Triathlon Club. Sable my team from last season decided not to carry on racing in the Grand Prix.  Thanks to everyone at Sable particularly the team manager Sylvain Le Bris who helped me through my first seasons racing in France.   

18th October

ITU points race Palermo 15th Oct

I had not planned to race Palermo, having started back for my last ever semester of university I had thought that my season was over, but I was in good shape and a little disappointed that I had not shown what I had gained over the summer in La Bulle. Palermo looked like a good chance to really get in there against a strong field and put down a result that could turn some heads.  Unfortunately it was not to be. In my last session before the race I was running reps around playing fields in Bristol in the pouring rain, I fell over in a kind of splits type motion and tweaked my groin and hamstring. I decided that the flight was booked and a couple of days lost running shouldn’t be too much of a problem so headed out anyway. One of the drawbacks of training on a university campus is “freshers”, and the dreaded “freshers flu”. I had a bit of a sniffle on the Thursday morning and thought nothing of it; however by the time I arrived in Palermo on Friday night I had a good dose of the flu. Palermo is beautiful, golden beaches, blue sea and its 30 degrees plus in October (see the pictures) however I spent the day before the race lying in my hotel room shivering wondering if I should give it a crack or just go home. I hate missing a race and figured it was my last chance this season so gave it a go. The swim was non wetsuit and fast I came out in second just behind x world junior champion Andriy Glushchenko, we where still as a line heading onto the bike, but an attack went and the pack split with a front group of 12 getting away early. I made the group and felt more comfortable than I had expected. Out onto the run and I wasn’t feeling comfortable anymore, it was hot and it felt like I was breathing through a straw. Everyone seemed to be dragging themselves around the run, apart from Rasmus who looked in great shape and Xavier Gomez my iron tour team mate who finished second and was later mysteriously disqualified??? I finished in 11^th after a very poor run. Again disappointing to get sick and injured just before what could have been a great race, but you can talk all you like what I need to do is go out and prove that I can produce the results. I believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I can’t imagine a run being that tough again so another jelly bean in the jelly bean jar. I’ll go and get on with winter miles, finishing Uni and making sure next year is again full of major improvements.     

4th October

Visit Scotland Adventure Tri Falkirk 8th 1st Oct 

The adventure triathlon signalled my trip home from the summer in Leysin. I travelled via Bath to pick up A Specialized M5 Mountain Bike for the weekend from Total Fitness. The Adventure tri’s are always great fun, and Falkirk was no exception, the format is a little different with a break between the swim, bike and run.  The swim was in what can only be described as a pond and the water was 11 degrees. Richard Stannard and Benji Sanson where both racing, so it was a little surreal to be getting into a cold pond in Scotland with 2 of the best triathlon swimmers in the world. I had been swimming well and really wanted to have a go on the swim after spending most of the summer on Benji’s feet. I took it out hard  and lead the first lap, halfway around the second lap Benji came through and Stannard attacked on the other side. I decided to go with him and we got into a bit of a tangle around the final buoy, Benji had a little clear water and got away to win by photo finish, I just out sprinted Richard for second. I hadn’t been on a mountain bike all summer, and I was what can only be described as awful. I was fit and in good bike shape so was hoping to go well, but as I found out good road biking doesn’t necessarily transfer to the mountain bike.  The run was a tough cross country and I felt tired but despite this I was still running strong. I had the fourth fastest run split of the day behind some quick runners. All in all I was pleased with the weekend, with some very solid sessions to mark the end of my summer training camp in the week I still had a really solid swim and run….the bike, well lets not talk about that!!

27th September

La Bulle Grand Prix 25th 24th Sep

La Bulle was the final race of the 2006 French Grand Prix so the teams were all very keen for points, It was also televised live so those who weren’t in the hunt for points where searching for a bit of TV coverage. I had a bad start in the two lap sea swim and it took me most of the first lap to work my way to the front, I got on to Benji’s feet and came out of the water second to take the 2^nd place swim prime. The field had not split up during the swim and we headed out onto the bike as a long line. Charlie Loisel the top biker from the Poissy team had been tasked by his team to get on the front and keep the pace up to prevent any breakaways, the guy was incredible, despite some of the strongest bikers in the world being in the race no one could come through and Charlie just cranked the pace for 25 miles. We headed out onto the run as a group of 50, I didn’t have a great transition and just felt really tired at the start of the run; I picked up a little in the second five 5km and ran through around 10 people to finish 25^th. Not a great day at the office, but I think I can pin point some of the reasons and work on them.

15^th Sep

Triathlon d'Aubonne 1st 10th Sep

To make up for last weekends catastrophe I was sent to Aubonne about 2 hrs from Leysin so a good warm up on the bike. It was a crazy little race with a 200m swim in a 25 yard pool with wetsuits on. You had to get out at one end run for 20m then dive back in. As always a couple of good guys turned up so it was a very very hard race, The bike was about 45k up some very big climbs with a fantastic view down over lake Geneva (not that I was looking) I lead out of the swim and got into a bike group of three, after 20k I attacked and got away only to see the other guy come back at me on a steep decent 10k later, he got away on the downhill then found an extra gear to put a minute into me over the last 10k, running him down seemed a big task but I went out very hard and caught him at 6k, then I had to work out how to stay in front as I was completely blown. I managed it but the last few km where very emotional. I later found that there where primes for the first into each village on the bike course and I had won a lot of wine and a sac of potatoes along with some other great prizes, unfortunately I decided to forfeit as the though of riding back up the mountain with them was too much.  The organiser even made me make a short (well very short) speech in French before giving the bouquet of flowers to the organisers wife and starting the ride home. I made it half way before catching the last train of the evening completely trashed!!

1. Wiltshire Harry, 

2. Fayet Claude,                                                                                                                            3. Donovan Greg,

16ÈME TRIATHLON D AUXONNE VAL DE SAONE 11 September 2005 3rd 

So the next morning it was off to Auxonne in France, wondering where the hell I was going to find my legs,

The Olympic distance race with a long 1500m river swim in the Saone was actually quite a big event with some good athletes, I decided to pick a line close to the bank on the swim to try and avoid the strong current, this involved swimming an extra 100m or so, but I reckoned it would be worth it until a canoeist came and literally pushed me back into the middle of the river with his paddle. I lead out of the swim but with half the gap I had built up at the halfway point. The race was non drafting so we set off on the hilly 45km bike and kept our distance rotating the lead in a small group. Then Damien Felix turned up, this guy was a monster and the sound of his disk wheel was taunting us, it was his home race so he was wearing a had a huge afro wig under his helmet and a massive pair of top gun shades for the occasion. He had got out of the swim almost 2 minutes down and road past us like we were stood still. I’m told he was an x pro time trailer but still, he was riding quick to drop Mikael Bruker multiple German national champ.

Heading out on the run it quickly became Mikael and I chasing down Felix, I was feeling a little tired from the day before but much better than expected, the two of us took turn until about 5k when a referee started shouting at me that I was disqualified as my number had come off in the swim and that I should stop, there was no way I was stopping, but amid the confusion Mickeal attacked building  a gap of 10 secs that I just couldn’t close, we could see we were catching Felix with about 1km to go, and it was a case of who had what left, in the end Mikeal just got him on the line and I had to settle for third, I was disappointed as it was a race I could have won on the day had I been tactically better however it’s the first time I had doubled up over Olympic distance and I was very pleased that I was in shape to race at all, I put a little cash in my pocket so can’t complain.  

1. Mickaël Brucker (Allemagne) 1h50'36'';

2. Damien Favre Félix (Vesoul) 1h50'40'';

3. Harry Wiltshire (Suisse) 1h50'47'';

4. Nick Marland (Australie) 1h52'10'';

5. Cyril Viennot (Cesson) 1h52'28''

5th September

Triathlon BCV Riviera Vevey 12th (sent wrong way on bike) 3rd Sep

This was a local race just down the mountain from Leysin, it wasn’t a good weekend for me, I got locked out of my apartment with all my stuff inside on the morning of the race. I had my bike with me, so road over to the race and competed the wetsuit swim without my wetsuit, I was second out of the water to one of the strong athletes from the French grand prix, I was then sent the wrong way on the bike and ended up taking a 10 minute detour. I was there for a good workout so got back on the course, finished the bike and ran hard in a borrowed pair of trainers to claw may way back up the field before riding back up the mountain. Not a good days at the office, but lessons learned like don’t lock yourself out of your house on race morning and if you do stay calm don’t get flustered and know the race course.

30th August

The French Iron Tour (23^rd to 28^th August) 7^th

The Iron Tour was an awesome and a crazy experience, 6 races in 6 days across France, 3 sprints an Olympic distance and a team time trial. Locations Thonon les Bains, Chateauneuf sur Isère, Aigues-Mortes, Lac de Paladru, Allevard-les-Bains and Lac d’Aiguebelette. For full results you can go to www.220mag.com  and look in the Iron Tour section.

The Iron Tour is famous in triathlon history as a starting point for a number of great pros including Simon Lessing, Andrew Johns and Bevan Docherty. 

I turned up expecting to race with the Para Vendu team, but some quick negotiations had me moved to the Montpellier team with Xavier Gomez of Spain Mitch Dean of Australia, Crill Goldskij from Russia and  Cedric Amand from France. As you can imagine communication was a bit of a problem, and the week provided a crash course in French and at times frantic pointing and universal hand gestures.

There where some big names competing particularly in the Poissy team, World Champion Olympian Oliver Marceau, Olympic top 10 finisher Carl Blasco legendary biker Charlie Loisel and Benji Sanson French 1500m swimming record holder in under 15 minutes.  Each day the courses were tight, technical, multi lap affairs usually with some very steep climbs. Racing every day is strange, the nerves don’t go completely but their is a limit to how worked up I could get when I new I would be doing it all again the next morning, the tactic was just to recover as well as possible get out there and give it everything. I actually found that I got stronger during the week and the regular racing suited me. I had a couple of good results beating Oliver in a sprint finish on one day and running a very low 33 min 10k off the toughest bike of my life on the final day. It was great to get involved in some breakaways on the bike and to get to know swim legend Benji Sanson who just beat me for the Blue swimmers jersey.

Most of all it was incredible to spend time with the pros and to get involved in the French culture, even winning the team time trial race. On the final day Mulhouse where leading the Poissy team who see the race as their own I was the marked man in the front pack, the Poissy team new that they would win if they could drop me. They managed on the third time up a 20% climb that came after a km climb at over 10%. It seems unlikely that I’m going to get paid by my French team, but I learned a lot in that week, its an experience I’m not going to forget in a hurry.

28/07/05

Training has been going well out here in Switzerland, My knee hasn’t caused me any problems for the last 10 days and I am starting to get back to fitness. Whilst I was having problems with the knee I did some big swimming which has undoubtable kept me fit. Some notable sets included the 60 times 100s off 1.20 and the 5 times 1500m off 20 mins. On the bike its an hour climb between 6 and 15% gradient to get back up the mountain at the end of every ride and with the altitude run sets up here feel like they are being done breathing through a straw.

I fly into Liverpool on Friday then race Salford on Sunday.
I’m hoping to make it home to Dorset in time for the world famous Swanage carnival sea swim on Monday evening then it’s onto London the following weekend.
I will be taking part in the pairs competition at London (fastest combined time of a team comprising one male and one female athlete) with Helen Lawrence last years World Student Games Champion and winner of 2 ITU points races this season.

So roll on my first World Cup and lets see if I can beat last years national championship 6th!!
 

Harry finishes 10th at the royal Windsor triathlon after leading into and out of t1 and 3rd out of t2

19/06/05

Sorry its been a while!!

I made the trip to France to race for my French team "Le Sable" on the 27th of May, and had a nightmare. I was right in the middle of final exams but had promised to race for the team, I was 7th out of the water just in front of Rasmus Henning but panicked on a very wet, tight, technical and fast bike course to fall through the packs and finish just outside the top 50. The standard of racing in France is awesome and the pace on the bike was nothing like I have experienced racing anywhere else in the World. I hope to return to France for the La Bule grand prix race in the second week of August to try and improve on my debut.

I finished my final exams on Friday the 3rd of June then celebrated by racing the Weymouth middle distance triathlon on Sunday the 5th. The race was a great way to let down my hair after exams and i had a fantastic time making my debut over the distance. I lead out of the swim and off the bike, I was over 6 minutes up after 6 miles of the run then realised that jaffa cakes are not enough to get you through over four hours of racing. I experienced some serious blowedge to stumble crawl and fall my way to 2nd overall in 4 hours and 10 minutes. Congratulations to Jonathan Hotchkiss who had a storming run to come past me in the last km and a big thankyou to the Concept Sport team who helped get some carbs back into me after the race. The lesson to be learned here is that however disgusting energy gels taste you can race a half without them.

After Weymouth I headed down to Kelly College in Devon to spend two weeks with Robin Brew preparing for Windsor. Kelly is a great place with a squad of really talented and keen bunch of young athletes who gave me a solid kicking in the swimming pool. Unfortunately I picked up a knee injury from Weymouth and was unable to bike or run whilst I was down there. I am told I have an inflamed polika which is getting trapped under my right knee cap.

Whilst I was down at Kelly I made the trip over to Newquay to pick up my Snugg Wetsuit from Malcom. The suit a good couple of hours trial in the Fistral beech surf and it's fast!! Thanks to Snugg, I tested a number of different suits in the pool before asking Malcom to sponsor me and it is great to know that I am racing in the fastest suit on the market!!

Then onto the big one, this morning I raced in the Royal Windsor Triathlon, I was really concerned about this race, the field was possibly the strongest uk elite field ever and with final exams I knew that I was not in good shape, having not biked or run for two weeks with the knee deciding to race was a tough decision; but with national championship and world cup starts on offer I felt I had to give it a go. Matt Slater from Kelly took the swim out hard (its great to see that the standard of swimming in British triathlon keeps going up) I settled into 3rd place for the first 600m then moved through to second on Richard Stannard's feet. Richard led the swim out and I was second coming past him to be first into and out of transition. Out onto the bike we formed a pack of 11. My knee was really sore and I had to sit on the back of the pack whilst the other guys took turns. I felt really badly about not being able to work and never want to be in this position again. I hung on the back of the pack which stayed clear of the chasers I was 3rd into t2 and 3rd out on the run. The weather was HOT and people didn't seem to be dealing with the heat too well. I was struggling with the knee but was inside the top 10 so decided I had to keep running. I was really surprised that more people didn't come past me, but I hung on to finish 10th 3 seconds down on Richard Allen.

I was really please with my performance considering the build up to the race over the last couple of months of uni, I knew I wasn't fit, and that when I am there will be a lot more to come. Having just seen the results at www.humanrace.co.uk I am 10 seconds outside the 5% mark that was needed for a start at Salford, so it doesn't look like I will be allowed to start the World Cup, but I am still hoping that the selectors might take my preparation for the race into consideration and be a little bit flexible (maybe that's a long shot)

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Switzerland to begin the summers training with AJ and his coach, I'm really looking forward to getting my head down and concentrating on finding some form, I'll get my race schedule updated as soon as I have discussed things with the coach in Switzerland and know my plans, but I will definatly be back for the Adventure triathlon in Loch Lomond at the end of July and the London Triathlon at the start of August.

I promise to keep things updated a lot more regularly now that uni is over.....Bring on the mountains!!!

08/05/05

Today I took a break from revision to compete in the Dorchester Triathlon, This was my first ever race back in 1999 so It was a real pleasure to go back and see everyone from home. I won by just over 2 minutes from Peter Younghusband in 2nd and Chris Chamberlin in 3rd. Total Fitness Bath scooped the team prize with 1st, 3rd and 4th position overall. I am not really feeling in race mode yet but today certainly helped to blow away some cobwebs. Next stop finishing the year at uni then off to Le Sable for the French Grand Prix on May the 29th.

01/05/05

Welcome to my new website triharry.co.uk!! 

I am due to finish my degree in Business Administration at Bath University in the summer. I have realised that to chase my dream of making the Olympic triathlon team in 2008 or 2012 I must become a full time Triathlete. This season I am working hard to increase my profile. 

So I promise to keep the website up to date with results interesting articles for aspiring athletes and the inside story from elite races across the U.K and Europe, I am also planning to produce the results to back up this profile by mixing it with the established full timers.