Written by Charlotte Carrivick

With this final event of the winter series, myself & my tri adventure partner – Nige were ready to tackle the muddy & windy conditions which the beautiful surrey hills were throwing at us.

The winter series had started off in Peaslake, where we had a terrible event, navigation was shocking, we bypassed a checkpoint on at least 3 occasions (partly due to looking for a fence post as it was written down, when it was actually on a tree!!) on the run leg & the bike leg proved to be even worse!  On a positive we had a blast on the bikes, getting caked in mud & exploring the woodland surroundings & with cake & tea on offer at the finish what’s not to love?

The second event started in Effingham & proved to be a huge turning point in regards to both navigation & our placing on the leader board.  Having been at the bottom of the first event, we went onto winning this event, steering us to a good place and hopefully in with a chance of winning the winter series.

The winter series has been a cold & wet one so far, however the final event was on a beautifully mild & sunny February morning taking place in Shere.

With our bikes ready in the transition area, it was time to study the maps, work out which hills/checkpoints were doable, plot the best route & drink tea.  With the run first, it was decided to spend the extra time on those checkpoints & only go for a couple on the bike.

As 10am approached, Adam (tri-adventure race director) gave us the event briefing & we all walked up the muddy bridleway to the start flags.  With the clackson sounding it was the off.  Being at the bottom of the surrey hills meant the only way was up and up and up!  The bridleway was chalky, wet & slippery, with a steep drop on one side.

Having found & dibbed in at our first checkpoint it was another steep climb up to our next one.  However, this didn’t go according plan, taking one wrong track turned out to be a costly error both in terms of time & checkpoints aimed for.  With time flying by, the course planned was changed & it was back down the hills to look for a different checkpoint before heading into transition.  With the new checkpoint being through the village of Shere, we set off greeting people out & about as we went.  With a turning off the beaten track & over the ford, our last checkpoint of the run leg for us proved to be elusive and with time ticking by we had to drop this one and return to transition, today was not going to be our day.

Back through the village, saying hello the same people & back up to transition to peel off layers (the weather was too mild for long sleeves), grab a drink, gulp down a gel, grab bikes & it was time to hit the road before heading back to the mud & going back up more hills for the checkpoints of the bike leg.  This leg of the event proved to be more successful & the plotted checkpoints were gathered & with the wind at times pushing us backwards we made our way back to the village & into the transition area where we dibbed in for the final time of the event & the winter series.

With all the trail & sprint participants back, the results were in & Adam took over the mic to announce today’s event winners & the overall series winners.

Missing out that checkpoint on the bridge & getting the navigation wrong proved to be our downfall & we missed out on being the sprint pairs winners by just 1 point!

Still, this has put fire in our bellies & fingers crossed we can come back stronger & tackle the autumn series with pure grit & determination.

Thank you to Adam & his team at Tri-Adventure for allowing me to use his photos.

Laura & Adam’s weekend of adventure!

We are both new runners who (foolishly) signed up to do the Great North Run in September, but quickly decided we prefer woods and trails to pounding the pavements. I can usually be found on a road bike and Laura is often found on horseback, however we’ve been enjoying getting into running and exploring, going off the beaten track. We like the idea of more “adventurous” trail running events and both thought an adventure race sounded like a fun (i.e. less boring) way of training for the half marathon. However, I had no idea how to use a compass and we were both pretty rusty on map reading… We decided to get some training before our lack of navigation skills turned a short trail run into an accidental ultra marathon.

Early (for us) on Saturday 27th June, we headed out from SW London to the Chiltern Hills, near Princes Risborough where we had arranged to meet Adam of Tri-Adventure to take one of his new navigation training courses. We found him sitting in the morning sunshine outside a lovely little tea room, and after grabbing some coffee our weekend of adventure racing began!

I had a compass but I could not remember how to use it or much about reading maps. Laura was better at all of this but the pace of the course was such that I was able to keep up and interrupt with extra questions. We learnt the theory behind everything we might need the next day to compete in the trail race without getting too lost. This included: how a compass works, different types of maps, taking grid references and locating places on the map, taking and applying bearings, understanding and reading contours, reading the map, rights of way and different types of paths and geography.

After an intense morning session, we had a sandwich and cake break. Straight after we headed out into the woods to put try out our new navigation skills. Mine were still pretty shaky and as soon as I looked away from the map and looked back I was completely lost. I’d like to blame Google Maps and GPS devices that most of us have become reliant on but I suppose I was just not used to reading and following maps. As throughout the morning, Laura was getting the hang of it much more quickly than me. After a number of “err, sorry guys, can you just show me where we are, again” moments it started to become clearer and the ideas of “thumbing the map” and orientating it were beginning to make sense and more importantly, working.

We stopped a few times to take some bearings, learn about pacing to measure distances and trying to locate ourselves based on the lay of the land and any landmarks. We then tried a map thumbing, orientation and pacing exercise. This seemed to be a bit too abstract for my brain but I muddled through and eventually managed to get from point to point in the correct order.

Following this we put our skills to the test by attempting to find a few of the checkpoints that were already laid out on the course (not the ones we’d need to find the next day!). This went surprisingly well, with Laura confidently leading and I following us on the map.

Successfully finding a checkpoint with a view!

After navigating successfully back to the car, we had reached the end of the navigation course and we were hopefully prepared for the navigation aspect of the race the next day. We were both mentally exhausted, and physically quite tired from hiking around the hills but it was a great day out and we, I especially, learnt a lot and felt much more comfortable out walking and navigating.

After a night at a nearby pub and hearty breakfast, we returned early the next morning to take part in the trail “taster” event. Initial nerves were soon eased when we arrived to meet the friendly Tri-Adventure team and competitors at the event HQ, and we were thrilled that the Adventure Racing community seemed to be encouraging to “newbies”.  We studied the map as we drank some coffee. It was already drizzling but nothing could dampen our spirits at this point. There were 10 checkpoints, and we had an hour to find as many as possible. Thinking back to what Adam had told us about contours and “running your own race”, we planned a route of about 9 KM, taking in 5 checkpoints. We contemplated trying to squeeze in a few more, but after working out timings as Adam had taught us, we decided they were just too far and to play it safe in order to try and make it back somewhere close to the time limit.

A touch of nerves at the route planning stage?

Adam briefed all of the competitors before we headed to line up on the start line. Everyone started the event on foot, regardless of race category, and at 10am sharp (just as the heavens opened!) we were off. There were clearly some experienced racers and runners amongst the group and everyone went off at quite a pace. Despite Adam’s warnings not to get carried away by the more experienced competitors, the mass start was fairly infectious and I suspect we set a PB for the first KM before we settled down into our own rhythm and route. It’s a fairly strange sensation to start a race only for everyone to scatter in different directions, and a little unnerving, but we stuck to the route we had chosen and ploughed on.

We had no problem following the course we had set, a testament to Adam’s great training the day previously, and had great fun running through fields, along roads, up hills and scavenging around woods looking for the checkpoints. Our distances and timings worked out perfectly and we were thrilled to realise we were on the home straight somewhere close to the time limit.

Actually the HQ was tauntingly further than it appeared (no running across the golf course sadly!) so we returned just over an hour after we started (4.5 mins late), tired and soaked through, but total exhilarated. We were greeted by smiles, cake and tea and we realised that no one else had returned from our race. Perhaps our route planning had been a success? We both scored 41 points, achieving 50 points for reaching the 5 checkpoints and sadly losing 9 points for our late arrival, but not bad for a first attempt. In the end we did win our respective categories as the other racers had gone for a more substantial and ambitious run. I’d like to say it’s the taking part that counts, which is what I had planned to tell myself, but I must admit to being rather proud of both of us.

Since then, we have already entered the next Trail event, in Peaslake this Sunday, to try 2hrs of navigation and I’m longing to add a mountain bike to my bike collection so I can give the Sprint category a go. All in all, we had a great time and couldn’t recommend it enough. If we – relatively fit but certainly not fast runners, with no experience of adventure racing or proper navigation – could do it, anyone can!

All smiles at the end of the race.

Sunday 31st May, saw the exciting return of Tri-Adventure events under new ownership with the Effingham Adventure Race in the Surrey Hills.

The full results with splits are available on the Tri-Adventure website here as well as the link to the  Race Report.
Photos taken at the event can be found and tagged in our Facebook album here.

The prospect of irreversible breast sag faces over 9 million women in the UK, exercising without an appropriate sports bra according to research at Portsmouth University*.  The study found that breasts move in a three dimensional figure of eight, going up and down, in and out and side to side.  With the average 36C breast weighing between 200-300 grams, this uncontrolled movement puts great strain on the breast’s support structure, which comprises only the outer skin and Cooper’s Ligaments.

The research found that each breast moves independently of the body by an average of nine centimetres during each step taken on a treadmill.  So while your legs run a metric mile, your breasts bounce up to 135 metres!  G cup breasts bounced 14 centimetres per stride or 210 metres per mile and even an A cup moved 4cm with every step!

There are two direct results of this breast movement:

– pain and discomfort which although temporary affects 56%** of women

– stretching of the Coopers’ ligaments which is permanent and can lead to an irreversible droop

So for running, be it on road, or trail, a sports bra is as important for ladies as their running shoes to help avoid injury and run in comfort.   Mountain biking over rougher terrain is also a high impact sport making a sports bra essential for all Tri-Adventure events.

So how do you find a well fitting sports bra and be confident it will reduce the bounce?

1. Don’t buy the first one you find!  There are far more sports bras available from specialist retailers than on the High Street so have a good look to make sure you are getting everything you want!  For example, if you want wires, or side fastenings all these variations are now available in virtually all sizes.

2. Your sports bra should be the correct size for you – there should be no bulges and no gaps and the fabric should sit smoothly across the bust.

3. The bra should give you enough so you to run in comfort.  To test this, run on the spot in your bra before taking the labels off.  It should significantly reduce the bounce – if it doesn’t, there will be a better bra out there for you so keep looking!

4. Your sports bra has a limited life, and should be replaced every 30-40 washes as the elasticity of the fabric is damaged through use and laundry.

For events with cycling and running we recommend the Shock Absorber RUN bra, we sold more of these at the London Marathon Expo than any other bra.  Unfortunately it does only go to an F cup, so if you need a fuller cup try the Lynx Sports Bra or the Panache Sports Bra.

So look after your assets whilst exercising!

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