Do as I say not as I do!

‘Do as I say not as I do’ – not the best coaching philosophy you might say but there is more to this story so read on. It had been a perfect Saturday starting with a dip in our beloved Lido, a tasty lunch at that great British institution that is the British pub, followed by a flat white and millionaire’s shortbread at one of London’s new cycle friendly cafes called Look Mum No Hands on Old Street.

We were riding home and I was behind Sarah (I often find myself behind Sarah when out for a ride!). An aggressive driver in a van pulled out to get past us as we approached a give way sign and then suddenly pulled back in narrowly missing Sarah. Having seen my girlfriend nearly taken out I hit the side of his van with a closed fist as I passed. Not enough to do damage of course but just enough to let him know what he did was unnecessary and dangerous. He proceeded to chase me down, blocked me with his car forcing me to stop, got out of his car hurling abuse and gave me a shove in the face. A passerby by, who saw the whole incident, stepped in and the guy got back into his van and took off just as aggressively.

In hindsight it was a silly move on my behalf. My actions were very unlikely to change the way this guy treats cyclists. A polite tap on the window and a ‘Please give cyclists a little more room sir’ might have been a better option. So next time I will take a more sensible approach and I urge you to do the same. There is little point in being an aggressive cyclist towards an aggressive driver. You will undoubtedly come off second best. It might earn you a punch in the face and sometimes punches do a lot more damage than is intended. In a similar situation a friend of mine was set upon by three guys who were in a van and ended up with his glasses embedded in his face.

Anyway, back to the good stuff. Some of you should definitely consider trying to qualify for Great Britain as age group triathletes to compete at the World or European Championships in both triathlon and duathlon. You can see the list of qualifying races by clicking here. There is more information from British Triathlon with regard to what you must do in order to qualify on their website. Just click here to have a read. Go on give it a go! We will do our best to help you get there.

This Sunday sees the return of the long aerobic swim session. You may have noticed a pattern to our Sunday swims. There is a three week cycle, technique session one week, a long aerobic session the next and a threshold session the following week. Hopefully you are completing one or two swims on your own as well. At this time of the year I suggest you use the technique and long aerobic sessions we give you when you are swimming on your own. A threshold session every second week will help maintain the speed endurance you developed over the spring and summer. We will still have one lane devoted to technique development and in particular body position, alignment and body roll.

Hopefully this will be the last blog in which I have to finish by saying ‘learn from my mistakes’. See you Sunday. Ride safely (and calmly)! Tim (LFTC Coach)

PS. Pull buoys, fins, Sunday. Enough said.