I knew a chap who got himself near the Olympic 8, think he was in the last dozen or so but missed a seat.
Training he did was insane, not just the rowing but other stuff just to toughen up. Running barefoot through nettle fields for example.
Funny story was he got a written warning from work. Signed himself off sick with flu for a week but actually competed in Henley regatta. Only one of the partners was a former rower, spotted him on a podium and put 2 and 2 together.
So many rowers seem to end up on two wheels in their 30s - they’re always such powerhouses too. Units. The lot of them!
YUP!
Mentally tough, too.
So can absolutely bury themselves at will.
I hate them all.
A guy in my old club was an ex semi pro rower. He went from barely knowing how to ride to qualifying for Nat 50 TTs in about a year!
I think rowers are used to suffering, which means they can dig deep in other sports. You’ve got that collective responsibility in a crew and it is very obvious when someone has backed off, so nobody wants to be the guy who lets the rest of the crew down.
Single sculling is a whole different ball game because you’re not letting anyone else down if you give up, so you have to be a complete nut job
Hence my desire to get another full done next year that I’m proud of!
That was about the only thing I was good at. It’s a part of the sport where you really need to hate yourself.
Re: Henley - last time I got any decent results was 2011, was 33, and hit the finals of the PoW. Helps when you’ve got a mad Croatian Olympian stroking…
Last time I raced I got to Saturday in the Ladies. But there were only 3 entries. We got to the end of the Island, thinking we’d had a great start and saw the other crew out of the corner of our eyes. They were fit and most of all, sober. I slept the night before in a mate’s giant deckchair. I think I hit the deckchair at 0300. I was the most sober in the crew.
Dresden 70.3 cancelled 4 days before the race. Sounds like a dusagreement over needing to reroute the bike course
Utter utter fuckup on both sides
Read my rant post, I was halfway across Europe when I got the email! They’ve had problems with the bike course for weeks and left it this late to cancel. Quite a few people travelling to it that have lost hotel money etc
Hoping we get offered something other than deferrals but not optimistic
Jeez that’s pretty bad.
7 races from 5 events in the next 4 months, across two countries with combined population of 30 million. All pretty close to sold out. With a further 3x fulls and 5x half’s in the other 8 months of the year with similar uptake.
That’s population equivalent of UK running ~40 races a year!
Brand certainly seems very healthy here still! And seems a lot more enthusiasm for Kona.
Way bigger interest in tri here, clubs with good numbers of under 35 year olds.
Bigger history/culture of triathlon from pre-2000 it seems?
Also nowhere near the same cost of living crisis, but Ironmans decline in UK seemed to pre-date covid/this shiz.
Do the locals get as angry when the roads are closed?
I don’t know if there’s a decline (specific to Ironman) or just a lot of moaning, which is par for the British of course 
Everyone is Paddleboarding now.
Britain’s roads are shit, and congested, and yes NIMBYism. I think cycling is also declining. The main sports now, apart from SUPs are Gammoning & Striking.
Cycling is not declining.
Look at Zwift.
You’ve just got to redefine what “cycling” is 
(HINT: It ain’t Zwift )
RE: Roads.
Barely saw a car or pothole yesterday.
Bombing down hills at 47mph 
(And before @r0bh pipes up about the potholes on The Street into Goyt, I was going so damn fast, that everything was a blur and I just floated right over them … until I nearly hit the wall before the car park 
)
Fair point; but cycling on the roads is declining I think; there have been some press articles on it. ‘Casual’ cyclists are getting fed up of the ‘aggro’ on our roads.
Nein nein nein. Ve cannot lzet zem vin zee var!
I vill pedal tomorrow
What aggro?
I just give a cheery wave 
If a car wants to give me 2cm space, that’s 2cm where they’ve not hit me.
I should be thankful, not angry.
Happy happy happy.
No aggro.
Yes, I’m sure that’s what you’re thinking 
Anyway, what’s your next Ironman? You probably have a few more years left in you, before the decline.
Erm…I need to get my pay back to six figures so that I can afford the juice that everyone else in M40-44 is on.
