English
We ran a competition in December with ASCIS with three lucky Wiggle winners spending a day in London training with former World Triathlon Champion Tim Don. Last month myself and the 3 winners met up at Hampton Court Palace with Tim and Rebecca from ASCIS for an early breakfast before a ‘fresh’ run around Bushy Park, a wet cycle around Richmond Park and quite frankly a ridiculously wet and windy open air swim. All in all it was an amazing day and Tim was fantastic providing a wealth of knowledge for our small team of budding triathletes. The thoughts of the lucky winners are below…
Kate:
I got a call late in the afternoon at work from Wiggle telling me I’d won a competition. I didn’t remember entering a competition but apparently all I had to do was buy a pair of asics trainers – easy – I buy plenty of them. I’d won a day training with Tim Don and was I free on Monday? I booked some last minute leave saying I’d won a competition to run, cycle and swim out in the rain and the cold early on a Monday morning. The guys at work thought I’d obviously confused the word “prize” with “punishment”.
Meeting the other competition winners on the Monday morning was a bit worrying – I found out they were both match fit for a marathon in a couple of weeks and had both done Olympic distance triathlons. They were therefore much further into their tri careers than me – I only have a couple of sprint tris under my belt. My mind was soon put at rest though when I met Tim Don – he really put us at ease and was so keen to help us out, giving loads of tips and inspiration.
The asics rep gave us our goody bag of swanky new trainers and loads of great asics running kit. We got kitted up and out into the cold for a run round Bushy Park. A gentle(ish) jog followed by some sprints and training techniques from Tim, advice on the best places to train in London etc. Next up was a couple of laps of Richmond Park and some cycling tips before we were off to the pool. It was invaluable to have a pro triathlete watching me swim and giving advice on technique and great ideas for training.
The whole day was great and it’s definitely inspired me – I had planned to concentrate on sprint triathlons and a half marathon this year but I’ve just signed up for the Olympic Distance at the London Triathlon. Thanks Tim, Wiggle and Asics (I think!).
Michael:
Until late last year I had only bought cycling gear on Wiggle. So I was pretty chuffed to have had the Asics DS Trainers I ordered show up the next day – despite this being in the week before Christmas. The experience just got better in the new year when I got a call telling me I was lucky enough to have won a training day with Tim Don – nemisis of many Aussie triathletes.
Naturally I was keen to see how English triathletes stay motivated to train year round (by moving to the antipodes) and get some mid-winter motivation to get back into training for the fast approaching Boston marathon..
Not content with lining us up for a day with Tim, Asics kindly kitted us out head to toe in their latest line of running gear – bring on the rain… Lucky for me, and the other prize winners it was Tim’s rest day, the week before his 1/2 IM debut in South Africa so he went easy on us, with a light run around his former stamping ground of Bushy Park, some drills and a few laps of Richmond Park on the bike (before I shirked the offer of a swim in the open air…)
For an accomplished elite athlete, Tim’s a really down to earth guy – who shared various training tips, experiences and anecdotes from his decade competing in triathlons around the globe. Most memorable, get yourself a manager to change those pesky punctures.
A massive thanks to Wiggle, Asics and Tim for a great day out.
Brian
Much like my sporting achievements it seems I am behind the pace even when it comes to writing my blog.
What competition? When was it? Is this a wind up? What did I win? these were just some of the questions that I bombarded Steve with upon receipt of a phone call on a Thursday afternoon.
Having satisfied myself that it was not a wind up I managed to rearrange my work diary and spent the next 2 days worrying that the Tim Don day would be better suited to an elite athlete as opposed to someone who just likes wearing Asics trainers.
Monday morning at 7.00am met Tim for breakfast and immediately any apprehension was removed as he was really friendly and assured us it was going to be enjoyable as opposed to a painful introduction to the training world of a professional triathlete.
Rebbecca from Asics provided us with a goody bag with lots of great kit and we left the hotel as “team Asics” and ran a conversational paced 5 miles around the park. Monday morning normally stuck in an office but today ran amongst the deer and enjoyed the conversation and training advice that Tim freely gave.
Cycling round Richmond Park the 3 prizewinners decided to challenge Tim by gradually increasing the pace, then it came a despairing call from the back of the pack “oh no i have a puncture”, yes Tim we believed you……
By way of revenge for the cycling we were then taken to the “joys” of the outdoor pool in Hampton and whilst the water was very pleasant, the walk from changing room into pool left very much to be desired in terms of temperature. Tim gave some great tips to improve my swim technique and offered quality instruction throughout the entire day.
Everyone i “bored” at work thought it sounded like a nightmare, i thought the day was absolutely brilliant. Tim, Rebecca and Steve from Wiggle really looked after us.
Thanks to everyone for making it such a great experience and i look forward to August and participating in the London triathlon.
Brian
