Mission accomplished... Race completed and over £5,000 raised for Help for Heroes!!

We’re now back in the UK after an awesome trip, we both had amazing races last Sunday and we’ve spent the last week recovering in LA. If we include GiftAid, you have helped us raise well over £5,000 for Help for Heroes and the money is still coming in so a massive thank you to all of you!!

We thought we’d give you a report on our trip to San Francisco… Enjoy!

We arrived in San Francisco a few days before the race, just enough time to get over the jet lag. On Thursday morning we assembled our bikes and went out to ride the bike course, it was a slow ride and we took a few wrong turnings along the way, lots of hills but we felt good about it. In the evening we were lucky enough to swim in SF bay with Pedro Odones, he’s swam the Alcatraz crossing over 900 times and knows the water more than anyone else, it was a windy evening and the water was really choppy – thankfully we only swam the last 500 metres of the swim course.

At the Legion of Honour - a few miles into the bike course.

On Friday morning, we headed out to ride the bike course again but this time with a local cyclist called Mike who gave us a good tour of the course. In the early evening we drove out towards Baker beach to face up to the dreaded sand ladder on the run course, followed by a light run from Fisherman’s Wharf to Marina Green and back.

The dreaded Equinox sand ladder - sheer pain.

All in all, the course looked mighty challenging and befitting of the epic surroundings - Alcatraz island, the backdrop of hilly San Francisco, the Golden Gate bridge, Baker beach, Ocean drive… all breathtaking!

On Saturday we headed over to Marina Green to pick up our race packets, get our bodies marked and to listen to a race briefing.

Race day arrived, we were up at 4am and cycled through the dark city streets to rack our bikes at the transition area on Marina Green. As dawn broke, weather conditions were perfect, warm sunshine, blue skies, very little wind – it was going to be an awesome day to race!

Race morning...

At 8am, the elite athletes hung off the side of the boat, and through two swim caps we could hear the muffled sounds of The Star-Spangled banner being played, peering through the window we could see TV helicopters circling overhead and safety boats getting into position – we spotted a safety boat sail past waving a Union Jack flag, Luke (Josh’s brother) who had flown out to support had managed to blag his way onto one of the safety boats… what a boost!

The foghorn sounded, the elite athletes hurled themselves into the water, the exit doors swung open and we rushed towards the jump points, minutes later we were in, no time to waste we had to get away from the boat as fast as possible. The water wasn’t too bad, about the same as back home (12c), what really makes the swim different is that you don’t swim at the target, instead you have to use four different sighting points in the city to navigate you through the strong bay currents and land you safely on the beach – aim at the target and you risk being swept way off course towards the Golden Gate bridge and being picked up by a safety boat. We finished the 1.5mile swim in 29:54 (Josh) and 35:49 (Ramsey).

After a quick half mile run to transition it was straight out onto the hilly out and back 18 mile bike course that took us through The Presidio and towards the Golden Gate National park. We had trained hard in the previous months and got to know the course well in the days leading up to the race so we both felt strong on the bike and finished the course in 59:17 (Josh) and 01:01:42 (Ramsey).

The crowds cheered us on as we started the 8 mile run, the run course was hard, lots of climbing and tough terrain. The sand ladder was pure evil – 400ft of almost vertical sand steps. The crowds were awesome, supporting us all the way, we crossed the finish line in 02:42:43 (Josh) and 02:52:46 (Ramsey).

With Chief Supporter - Luke! You were awesome!

The organisers pushed out all the stops to make the 30^th anniversary Escape from Alcatraz a race to remember. This race has everything, from the moment you jump off the boat to the moment you cross the finish line, it’s absolutely epic, definitely one to race!

Thank you to all the great crowds of San Francisco for cheering us around the course!

Congratulations and big thanks to fellow RG Active athlete Marsha who had a brilliant race. Special thanks to family and friends who flew out from the UK to support us – Luke (ace photographer, flag waver & honorary triathlete), Tina (SF local knowledge) & Des (surprise supporter) – thanks for making our SF trip one to remember.

Special thanks must also go to our friends and sponsors for all their support, they are: iVitta, 2XU, Sigma Sport, MuleBar, RG Active & SwimSolutions.

Finally, a massive thank you to all of you for your generous sponsorship and support!

Josh & Ramsey

See here for more pics... (thanks to Luke for some great race pics), or click play below for a cool animation of all our photos.

We Escaped from Alcatraz!!!

We did it! We Escaped from Alcatraz!

We both had amazing races - finishing in times of 02:42:53 / 218th place (Josh) and 02:52:46 440th place (Ramsey) out of almost 2000 athletes. Every minute of the race was just as tough as we had imagined, punishing from start to finish! Race conditions for Sunday were superb, excellent race organisation, awesome support from friends and family and the crowds of San Francisco!

Thank you for all your support - with your generosity you have helped race over £4,750.00 (inc GiftAid) towards Help for Heroes and their current appeal to build personnel recovery centres to provide a "launchpad" to life for seriously wounded or long term sick service personnel, supporting them as they make the transition to a fulfilling future.

Full race results and photos to follow - watch this space... In the meantime, THANK YOU for all your support! www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

Josh & Ramsey

Race Ready...

We're here and ready to race! With your generous support we have raised a fantastic amount for Help for Heroes (£3,700.00 at last count...) and we're still seeing donations coming in - so thank you for helping us achieve that total. We hope to smash the £5,000 target in the coming days and weeks!

We arrived on Wednesday evening to a rainy SF, but woke up to blue skies on Thursday and left our hotel early to review the bike course. This is one hilly city and the bike course is challenging; twisting and climbing through the coastal routes towards the Golden Gate National Park In the evening we had a brief swim in the bay, it was seriously windy and choppy out there - all in all these two trips confirmed what we already knew - this race is going to be HARD!

We will be keeping the blog up to date with more photos and updated over the next few days - you can find it here: www.escapefromalcatraz2010.com

We will be racing at 8am pacific time on Sunday, so 4pm back in the UK... we believe the official website will be updating results in real time so keep a look out for our names... http://www.escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com

Thanks again for all your support!!

Bound for San Francisco!!

We're finally off, leaving on a jet plane - San Francisco here we come!

Bags and bikes are packed and we've got everything we need for the race this coming Sunday. On our first day in SF we will be riding the bike course and swimming the last half-mile of the swim - it's all about the preparation!!

We will be keeping the blog, twitter and facebook up to date as much as possible in the next few days - so keep on checking back to see how we're getting on.

Thank you to all those who have sponsored us so far - we've raised well over £3,000 for Help for Heroes and we're confident that there's still more to come in. If you haven't sponsored us yet, please help us towards our £5,000 target by sponsoring us what you can - www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

Massive Thank you!

Josh & Ramsey

This is Captain Ramdog speaking...

Ramdog at the controls of a BA 747... could this be the scariest photo ever?

Phewwww... Now that UK airspace has re-opened - fingers crossed we'll be onboard our flight to San Francisco next Wednesday (a week today!!). Just in case things go pear-shaped, Ramdog has been taking an instensive pilot's training course so that we can sneak ourselves on to a plane and fly there ourselves!!

One week to go... please help us Help our Heroes... www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

Thank you - you're all blimin' amazing!

Wish SF bay was this calm...

Great swim at the local lake the other night, another couple of 'nutter' triathletes joined in for an early season swim. The lake temperature was approx 12c - which is approximately what we are to expect in San Francisco Bay, just wish it was as calm! We're going to try and pack in as many open water swims as we can before we leave.

Train, train, train...

We both had a hard week's training last week, we'll have at least one more before we start to taper down, we leave for San Francisco two weeks today!!

Here's a quick look at last week's training:

Monday:

Bike: 4 laps of Richmond Park, maintained steady/hard pace throughout, fastest lap 00:19:47,

ride time 01:44:12, 37 miles.

Tuesday:

Run: Along the Thames, 5 min w/up, 5 x 3 min efforts @75/80% effort with 3 min active recovery, 5 min cool down, run time 00:40:38

Bike: 2 laps of Richmond Park, easy/med effort, ride time 01:10:16, 18.5 miles.

Wednesday: (recovery day)

Swim: Hampton Pool - 30 mins easy swim inc. drills/technique.

Thursday:

Brick training session - 15 min warm up on turbo, 3 x 5 min turbo / 5 min run @ 80% effort, 15 min cool down, total time 01:08:00

Friday:

Run: Richmond Park/Hill - Roehampton Gate to top of Richmond Hill, 5 hill reps of stairs w/active recovery between each, easy run - hard on stairs, run time 00:59:00

Saturday:

Run: St Margarets to Richmond Park - lap of park, easy relaxed run, keeping form on hills, approx 20km, run time 01:39:21.

Sunday:

Bike: Surrey Hills ride, ,med effort ride, spinning legs out, high cadence, 55.1 miles, ascent 1000m, ride time, 03:50:18.

Thank you for all the sponsorship to date - it makes this training easier!

You can sponsor/donate online - all proceeds to Help for Heroes!

www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

Josh & Ramsey

26 days and counting...

Nothing stopping us...

Yesterday, we headed out for a good 50+ mile ride into the Surrey Hills, pretty average weather and we were definitely back in the warm winter gear after the amazing weather in Majorca 2 weeks ago.

With race day fast approaching we had planned to put in some hill reps on the nasty Crocknorth Road hill climb - with an average gradient of 10% and a maximum of 16%, it's great training for the hills of San Francisco, however the road was closed, but we managed to ride up and squeeze under the barriers at the top! After a ride on to Leith Hill, then Box Hill where we put in some hill sprints, we were both suitably knackered!

Less than 34 days to go, please sponsor us what you can... www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

We'll be racing in 2XU...

The 2010 2XU Endurance Tri Suit

A big thanks to 2XU who are supporting us by providing 2 top of the range tri suits. We'll be racing in the 2XU Endurance suit shown above, it's perfect for races of this distance or longer. Next month we will be sending our suits to the printers to get the Help for Heroes logo and other sponsor's logos emblazoned on the front, you won't be able to miss us as we race through San Francisco!

Thanks again to Mike at Triathlon Consultants Ltd (2XU UK) and Jason at Sigma Sport for their support!

RGActive Majorca Training Camp 2010

We're back after an awesome week of training at the RGActive training camp in Majorca. We joined approx 15 other triathletes and our coaches for a week of riding, running and swimming - and what an island to do all that on... Majorca was made for cycling! We were so lucky with the weather - enjoying sunshine and blue skies all week!

Here's a re-cap of our training week, with a few pics! Enjoy...

Monday

AM: First ride of the week to find the legs, we rode out from Pollensa to Cap Formentor, only 27.5miles but it packs in lots of climbing. A small group of us turned off on the way back to ride further up the mountain to an old fort - epic views from there! Ride time - 02:08:00

Rating: Med/Hard.

PM: Wandered down to the beach in our wetsuits - 6 x 250m circuits around the buoys, water not too cold after the first few laps. Swim time 00:28:00.

View from the Fort... Amy, Dermott, Ramsey & Steve (L-R)

Sea swim day 1...

Tuesday

Long ride day - we left the hotel in a big group for a long day's ride with plenty of climbing. After the first climb of the day from Selva to Lluc we started to descend over 600m over 10km of road to the spectacular Sa Colobra, a small bay village surrounded by huge rock formations (or as Ramsey put it... Lower Mordor harbour!)

A view from Sa Colobra...

Dermott and Ramsey getting ready to ride up from Sa Colobra

After a quick coffee stop it was back on the bikes for the long climb back up - a decent ascent time is 1 hour, we both had a strong ride up with one of the coaches Dermott, taking it in turns at the front - total ascent time of 45 mins, hard, hard climb but pretty amazing at the same time. Ride time 05:00:36, Distance 65.3 miles, Approx ascent 2000m+.

The top of the climb from Sa Colobra - sea level to 682m...

Wednesday

AM - Transition training & brick session. 4km bike/400m run x 6 @ 80-90% (race pace).

PM - Sea swim 200m warm up, followed by 3 x 450 loops at steady pace

Thursday

AM - Ride from Pollensa to Cap Formentor, lots of hard climbing at tempo. Ride time 01:55:46, distance 24.8miles. Ride followed by steady 10km run on tired legs along the coast line towards Alcudia and back. Run time 00:50:00.

PM - Sea swim 3 x 500m circuits with 200m cool down. Steady pace.

Quick photo opp with our H4H banner at Cap Formentor

Friday

Long ride day - we headed out from Pollensa and climbed up to Lluc, we were put through our paces with some hill sprints and lactate threshold work all the way up the climb - hard work!! After a coffee at the top we raced down an awesome descent to Selva and enjoyed flat miles through sleepy countryside and vineyards, after stopping at Sineu for baguettes we split into 2 groups for the return ride to the hotel (long & short). Ride time 04:30:00 Distance 65 miles approx. See video below for some ramblings at the top of the first climb from Dermott (aka Judith Chalmers).

Saturday

RGActive Team Triathlons - all athletes and coaches were placed into teams of 3 for 2 relay races. Team members had to decide which discipline each person wanted to do on each race, (this is where team tactics came into play), athletes could choose which discipline they wanted to do in each race but weren't allowed to do the same discipline twice. The first race was there to seed each team and calculate handicapped start times for the 2nd race (which started an hour after the 1st race finished). The course comprised of 400m swim, 13km bike, 3km run - Team Tri Stars (Josh's team) won the first race by a clear 2 mins and came 5th in the last race, whilst Ramsey's team came home 3rd in both. A really great way to finish an awesome week of training. Chillout time by the pool and getting ready for last night and Dermott's birthday celebrations!

Sunday

Final sea swim of the week in a 'pond flat' sea - best swim of the week, distance approx 1km.

A very hungover Ramsey looked on from the beach!

Last swim of the week... Barbie, John, Marsha, Josh (L-R).

So good to get a solid week of training in the sunshine - less than 40 days to go until Escape from Alcatraz Tri 2010! Recovery week this week, but we'll be back training hard next week!

Thanks to RGActive coaches John, Dermott, Marsha & Dave for a great week!

www.rgactive.com

A sunny Surrey Rumble...

A chilly morning with piercing blue skies and bright sunshine greeted us for the first sportive of the year. Along with good mate and fellow triathlete Jules (aka Camel) and over 200 cyclists we tackled the long course of the Surrey Rumble - organised by Twickenham Cycling Club, it's an undulating 76 mile route through the scenic countryside of Surrey and West Sussex. We passed through sleepy, icy Surrey villages as we headed down towards Cranleigh and onto the first checkpoint at Wisborough Green (28 miles), then heading north we passed by Dunsfold (home of Top Gear), Milford and Puttenham until the second checkpoint at Seale (54 miles) where we found the most amazing cakes!



After a couple of photos for the blog - we set off into the headwinds for a fast, cake fuelled 22 miles back to the finish at race HQ in Cobham. We all rolled over the finish line together in approx 5 and a half hours - a great day to be out on the bikes!

Only one week to go before we fly out to Majorca for the RGActive Tri camp - so good to get some miles in the legs ready for some long rides on the island!

Letter in 220Triathlon Magazine

We've got a letter printed in this month's issue of 220Triathlon magazine... should hopefully get the word around and boost our sponsorship! Cheers 220!

The Hurt Locker

Great training session this morning with a friend, Gerry - he's a very good triathlete, and represents Great Britain for his age group. Gerry has a great set-up in his garage... aka 'The Hurt Locker', and Richmond Park is just around the corner.

We started off on the turbo trainer - 5 min warm up followed by 9 x 4 min efforts at 85% effort/over 95rpm with 1 min active recovery between each one. My legs were burning throughout! As soon as we finished the last set it was straight off the bikes, trainers on and an out and back run into Richmond Park. We ran for 10 mins at 75% effort level then turned around and ran back at 85% effort level - so all in all approx 20 mins of running on tired legs.

When I jumped off the bike and straight into the run, I got that feeling in my legs that I've only ever had whilst racing - complete jelly legs, struggling to keep good form etc... This type of session is great race preparation!

Less than 2 months to go now until race day - thank you to everyone for all the support so far but we're some way off our £5,000 target so please sponsor us what you can... click here to donate online. Thank you, Josh

Early morning interval training...

Here's an analysis of Ramsey's heart rate on an interval training run we did early this morning in Bushy Park. The training consisted of an easy 10 min warm up followed by 4 x 6 min intervals at 85% effort with a 2 min active recovery jog in between each, followed by a 5 min cool down at the end. This is a hard session and even harder when increased to x 6 intervals. The main trick is trying to maintain effort at 85% throughout all 4 intervals... A tough way to start your Tuesday!

In the endless pool...

Here's some brief footage of last night's swim training at the SwimSolutions endless pool in Old Windsor. I spent most of the session working on my balance with my swim coach - Tracey, managed to sneak in few minutes of freestyle at the end.

I start off swimming at a 25.00 min/1.5km pace with the speed increasing to 21.55 min/1.5km pace. I stopped swimming soon after the footage ends - couldn't keep to that pace! Working on it though! Josh

Triple Ironman World Champion - Chrissie Wellington

Yesterday, whilst at the Triathlon, Cycling & Running (TCR) show in Surrey - I met Chrissie Wellington, without doubt the BEST triathlete in the world and possibly the nicest triathlete in the sport too! Such a legend!

A newcomer to triathlon in 2004, Chrissie has achieved amazing success and has won the Ironman World Championship in Kona in 2007, 2008 & 2009 (setting a new world record in 2009 too). A truly remarkable feat!

Chrissie took some time to sign photos before a live Q&A session organised by 220Triathlon magazine... Lots of great tips from Chrissie including nutrition strategy, mental toughness, mind tricks to get you through the race, as well as sharing some of her toughest training sessions... 100 x 100m swim, crazy! Certainly lots of tips to help us on our journey to San Francisco!

Josh

ps... to learn more about Chrissie or to follow her this season, visit her website at www.chrissiewellington.org

Competitor Profiles...

Name: Ramsey Conyers (on the left)

Age: 28

Hometown: Twickenham

Triathlon history:
2008 London Sprint Distance Triathlon
2009 London Olympic Distance Triathlon

Favourite post training food: Dad's Sausage sandwich.

Favourite piece of kit: Toughie... in joint first place - Assos Cycling shorts and Super-Six Cannondale road bike.

Strongest discipline: None

Weakest discipline: Swimming

Best triathlon moment: Apart from the finish line...Seeing my girlfriend Ingrid jumping up and down holding her sign upside down while the others she made were all the right way up but being held by other people. As usual she won in terms of volume though!

Worst triathlon moment: Every minute I am in the water!

Most embarrassing triathlon moment: Being sick on someone whilst running next to them.

Lifetime Triathlon/Sporting Goal: Complete a full Ironman without drowning!


Name: Josh Roberts (on the right)

Age: 28

Hometown: Twickenham

Triathlon history:
2009 Dorney Lake Sprint Distance Triathlon
2009 London Olympic Distance Triathlon
2009 Worthing Olympic Distance Triathlon
2009 Ballbuster Duathlon

Favourite post training food: Tea and cake!

Favourite piece of kit: Without doubt my Rocky Mountain Solo ST Road bike - handbuilt in Canada...

Strongest discipline: Hmmmm... close call between swim or bike. At the moment, bike!

Weakest discipline: Running, but working on it.

Best triathlon moment: On the swim of London Triathlon last year - I managed to get into a good rhythm and at the half way point I looked ahead and saw no-one in front of me apart from the lead canoe - I thought - 'I'm in the lead', then I looked over to my left and realised I was most definitely not in the lead and had drifted way over to the side behind one of the marker canoes. It was an amazing feeling of leading the race... even just for that split second!

Worst triathlon moment: Worthing Triathlon 2009 - decided not to wear socks to help speed up transitions, not a problem on the bike leg, but my trainers were quite new and let's just say they properly cut my feet up on the 10km run. Not nice, wore flip flops for a week afterwards!

Most embarrassing triathlon moment: None as yet - sure there will be a few this year!

Lifetime Triathlon/Sporting Goal: Has to be a full Ironman in Kona, Hawaii!!

Launchpad to Life

The First Personnel Recovery Centre, Edinburgh - opened August 2009.

Help for Heroes have achieved so much in the short amount of time since the charity was founded; including the funding and construction of an £8m rehabilitation complex at Headley Court and awarded over £5m in grants to 10 vital projects and charities supporting our armed forces. However, H4H's work does not stop there, their current appeal for £10 million to build Personnel Recovery Centres that will provide a "launchpad to life" for seriously wounded or long term sick service personnel, supporting them as they make the transition to a fulfilling future. Your donations today will make these Personnel Recovery Centres possible!

Please sponsor us generously at: www.justgiving.com/escapefromalcatraz2010

Taking the plunge!

Here's some footage from last year's Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon! Two thousand competitors off the boat and into the water within SIX MINUTES!

Sunday training ride Brrrrrr!

Our fingers and toes have just about recovered after a very cold training ride into Berkshire and back yesterday. We started our reasonably early, having to tear ourselves away from a civilised Sunday breakfast watching Murray vs. Federer battle it out down under.

It was bitterly cold early-on with the sun struggling to shine through. We cycled out to Datchet, (we passed the lake we usually swim in - completely frozen over!!)then onto Windsor & Bray and back via Ascot and Windsor Castle (behind Ramsey above).

Total distance 55 miles, ride time 3hrs 20mins. Good training!

The Race

Escape from Alcatraz triathlon is rumoured to be one of the most gruelling triathlons in the world, it's ranked as one of the best and a must race event!

We're pretty lucky to have been selected to compete in this event; thousands of triathletes from all over the world either enter the random lottery or complete qualifying events in order to earn one of 2,000 coveted places. We took the first option, with both our names being picked from the 1st draw.



The Escape from Alcatraz may lack the distance when compared to longer Ironman events, but it certainly tries to make up for it with a ultra challenging course, starting with the swim!

Swim 1.5 miles/2.4km
We will make our way to the start line close to the shores of Alcatraz Island on a ferry with our 2,000 fellow triathletes. At 8am the triathlon begins - taking the plunge from the back of the ferry into the icy cold waters. It will be quite a rush - with all 2,000 triathletes making their escape from the boat within 6 minutes! The swim is 1.5 miles (yes, 96 lengths of a normal 25m pool), accompanied by the risk of strong currents, icy temperatures and not forgetting two-ton sea lions and sharks, yes SHARKS! The swim is so important on any triathlon - setting you up for the rest of the race - this swim sounds like it's just going chew you up and spit you out at the end! After exiting the water at the beach, there's an unusual 1 mile warm-up run in wetsuits to the transition area, this run is to help bring our core-temperatures back up to safe levels before heading straight onto the bikes.

Bike 18 miles/29km
Exiting transition we'll have a very hilly 18 mile out and back bike leg ahead of us. We will head out onto Marina Boulevard, then follow the shoreline towards Lincoln park and eventually to Golden Gate park before making our way back. The bike leg is non-drafting - which means competitors can't group together in bunches to shield from wind and generally make the ride easier, triathletes caught drafting by officials will usually be penalized with a time penalty.

Run 8 miles/12.8km
On tired legs we'll head west towards Crissy Field, under the Golden Gate Bridge and up on to the Coast Trail making a turn back at the 4 mile marker, over the deep sand of Baker Beach until the dreaded Sand Ladder at 4.5miles in. The Sand Ladder consists of 400 steps up the cliff, over the years it has drained the legs of even the most professional athletes and there is nothing quite like it in the world of triathlon. After reaching the top it's a 'grit your teeth' run back along the cliff tops to the finish line!!

Entries confirmed... we're escaping from Alcatraz!

Welcome to our official Escape from Alcatraz triathlon 2010 blog!

On 18th December 2009, we each received an email we had been eagerly awaiting with equal amounts of excitement and dread... an email informing us of our ballot selection to compete in the 30th Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on 2nd May 2010 in San Francisco.

Over 2 weeks into 2010 and with less than 15 weeks until race day, race registrations are complete, flights and hotel are booked and we're training hard and preparing ourselves as best we can for the gruelling race.

We aim to raise £5,000 for Help for Heroes along the way. Help for Heroes is an amazing charity, without arguing about the wrongs or rights of war, they truly go all out to make sure that our wounded servicemen and women get better as quickly as possible.

Over the next 15 weeks we will be keeping you up to date with our training and race preparations, fundraising progress as well as more about us, the race and the fantastic work of Help for Heroes.

Josh & Ramsey