John Newsom

Hey Bevo, Can't help noticing you haven't brought anything to the cookbook yourself yet? surely there's a 'Eyles love surprise' to be brought to the party??

And just to add to the one below you mentioned if they had changed the course, nope, the weather made it a pretty much perfect day, my age group was around 10-12 mins faster as well.

Hi guys, report on IM Wisconsin, I know its a week late but I only just heard the podcast regarding sending in brief reports. Swim. Perfect calm, 70 deg water, well marked, accurate course. In the speech afterwards Chris McDonald said he was over the moon to get out of the water first pro, never done it before and was so chuffed that if he had stopped right there, he would have been happy with his day. Bike. Weather was great for the first loop, sun shone but roads are on the whole not the best, in fact on a personal note I lost at least 3 bottles, also not impressed when courses hand out water and energy drink in manufacturers bottles instead of specific cycling drinks bottles, they don't fit into drinks cages properly and tend to fall out. Second lap, the wind picked up, the heat remained and was generally tougher coming home, lots of climbing on both laps made this a tough course to even split on. Run. Not a fast course but flattish with one major climb on each 13.1 mile loop, the best part of this run is you get to run through the famous Camp Randall College Football stadium twice, great experience. Was warm for the whole of the run, great support on the course and wonderful volunteers, they make this race stand out. Hilary was overtaken by the second lady with 2-3 miles to go as she had stopped to stretch and had to really dig in to retake the lead. She had a fairly long but emotional speech at the awards party, nice lady. Spoke to Hilary as we left the awards and spoke about IMT, she mentioned Bevan had emailed her after the race so I said she should give herself up for an interview, she said that she wouldn't 'ask' for one but if you guys came a'knocking ;-) Probably worth it now she has won her first. Overall, great course, very tough but fair, volunteers stand out, roads not the best but course very scenic, run is a good advert for Madison as it shows all that is best in the town.

Hi Guys, Just a quickie on Ironman UK yesterday. Damm it was windy on the bike, I know the pro times were down & I think that everybody suffered. Also are there any other IM runs with so much off road? The UK course is pretty much 50% tarmac & 50% trails/grass. Due to the recent very wet weather we have had, the 1st 4 miles of the run loop (3 laps) were quite heavy going. Also we were held in the water for about 10 mins at the start getting very cold, I'm pretty sure the organisers knew what time sunrise was? Apart form that, great day, superbly marshalled & supported, loved it!

While at the pre-race briefing for Ironman 70.3 Singapore on Friday night, the organizers said something that just floored me. The race had just over 1,400 starters (HUGE for a 70.3) - swim was a double loop, bike was a triple loop, and the run was also a triple loop (read: major congestion in both the swim and bike). Anyway, what they said was that if you completed the first lap of the swim and didn't feel you could complete the second, you could notify a race official who would then allow you to continue on with the bike and run (you'd obviously "officially" finish with a DNF).. My question to Slowtwich - has anyone ever heard of ANY Ironman sanctioned event allowing such a thing? As it was, there were way too many people for such a compact course. The way they explained it was that if you couldn't finish the entire swim, they still wanted you to be able to experience the bike, run and finish... Thoughts?

So just a quick review of the world long distance champs. Although a bit late. Well run and a great atmosphere - the Ironman distance event the day before was massive and seemd to be enjoyed by all. Race day - Very hot. Swim long. Chrissie said it was 4400! and very hard conditions - should have taken IMT advice and used shaded goggles. came out in 1:20 instead of 1:00. Great bike ! flat and fast - pretty windy - but it is holland! really enjoyed the bike and averaged way above what i expected. Run - 2 lap affair - storming first lap. Not so good second. Heat really got to me but again had a great time. I even ran with chrissie for 10 seconds! Finished in 7:13 and got 12th in my A/G! Very pleased. all in all a really great race.

I am still in stiches and laughing about the i-cream...I reckon that was John's best call ever!

Hi It sounds like you guys are struggling with content. A good idea would be to package up all your past interviews and load them up - kind of a "Best of" episode. I have only been listening in for a year so i probably missed some good stuff! Keep it up! Snowy ps: Other content ideas could include: - Interview some coaches in other countries. My coach Jason Metters in Dubai (knows John) could do one on training in the heat and some local Dubai knowledge. - Interview some NZ age groupers that have done well at Kona (like you did with the Kiwi girl (who was a legend) - Top cross training tips for off season? - Top 10 tips to on training for IM without letting your work slip (or letting it slip without work finding out :)) - Top 10 tips on getting through long swim sets, long bikes, long swims, prevent injuries etc. This could be a new segment and it could also be quite funny. Kia Kaha

Bev, mate! 

What are you doing to us!  Got up at 5am to listen in to our fav show and have a slog on the turbo trainer for an hour - and it won't download!  Is there a problem at your end, or is it an iTunes cock up ......

Cheers Bev.

Hi Guys - keep up the good work!!

I'm on John's two season strategy for getting to IM dist - started with sprints last year, this year have done 1 sprint, 1 Oly (last weekend) and have 2 middle dist races later this year in July and Sept.... all good stuff.  Ironman in 2009 - training is going well and I am slowly but surely extending the distances and increasing the speed of training and racing. 

My question, having bored you to death with my tri history, is who does Ironman races and why?  My wife was talking to one of the professional photographers at this weekends race and he cynically announced that there are two sorts of people who do short and long course multisport races.  There are the young fit guys/girls who may, with good training and luck, reach the top of their field and then there are 45+ year olds who are trying to prove something to themselves.  He ranted on apparently for ages on how, particularly in Ironman, there was a huge difference between the fit young things at the front of the field and the overweight under trained corporate types at the back of the field.  I took some offence at his cynicism, but this whole question has been raging in my mind and I wondered what you guys thought and what is the inspiration for all your other listeners - in fact which camp do they fall into!  Young and talented, or old and trying to achieve something later in life!!!  I'm 44, am nearly at racing wieght (70kgs at 5'6" so with a few KGs less I will be good) and certainly don't think I am a fat corporate type who under trains and has under achieved in my life!!!  I took up tri as a way of getting bloody fit, having a real laugh in an inclusive sport where there is no elitist cliquey behaviour, pushing myself physically and mentally and, finally,  doing something that wasn't going to get me injured like (just) running.  That feels like a half decent motivation to do this game, not to mention (being a married man and all that) getting to meet some of the pretty hot chicks running around!!!

What do you reckon - something to debate within Team IronmanTalk??

All the best, looking forward to Episode 111.

Gavin

PS - say hi to your Dad Bev - good name!...... :-)