Agegroup Multisport Podcast (Triathlon,Duathlon,Aquabike,Aquathlon)

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Currently a final year medical student at King's College London. Megan took up triathlon/duathlon in her first year.

She did her first degree in Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University- She has  been at uni for 8 years, At Newcastle she  used to row and won a few BUCS medals. A shoulder injury and a gruelling training schedule where she would fall asleep in most lectures led her to think about a change of sport. She played netball for a year (coached by Sarah Harding who was episode 6 on this podcast!) but wanted to move away from team sports to have more flexibility at medical school.

Her mum Maria Powell is an extremely successful AG multisport athlete (15 podiums and 7 wins at Euro/World Championships in all disciplines except duathlon). Her family holidays used to revolve around watching her mum race around the world and family training camps at Club La Santa, Lanzarote! Megan was always inspired to take up the sport but didn't want to tread on her Mums toes! She grew up doing quite a bit of running in her spare time as a stress release/mental wellbeing but only did team sports competitively. Megans decision to take up triathlon when she moved to London was very much supported by her Mum  (she bought Megan her  first road bike for her 21st!) and she has coached her for the last 4 years!

Swimming has always been Megans least favourite and weakest discipline. She has had a two year battle with shoulder impingements and even managed to partially dislocate her shoulder in her sleep! This frustration led Megan to focus more on duathlons. 

She did her first sprint duathlon qualifier event at Oulton Park in 2017 where she won her age group (6th overall) and her first standard distance duathlon qualifier in 2018 at Anglian water where she was first female overall. She enjoy both sprint and standard and have got into a cycle of doing sprint at Europeans and standard at worlds. Sprint distance draft-legal racing is really fun but standard distance non-drafting really tests you physically!

Megans boyfriend Hugh has been a big part of her journey into AG racing. Prior to her taking up the sport he had done 2 ironman triathlons and was doing a lot of cycle racing! She convinced him to come to the qualifiers with her and give it a go and he has also done tremendously well! They have shared the podium a few times at world and european events! 

Looking forwards

Megan will graduate and start work as a doctor next year in August 2021. She is hoping to get one big season in before life becomes a bit more hectic! She wants to become a GP eventually and is very passionate about getting the public active! There are several doctors who have been professional triathletes at points in their life and she is  very inspired by them!

Mental health awareness is very important to her. She has experienced both depression and disordered eating- probably RED-S in hindsight. She is very passionate about changing the idea in endurance sports that lighter= faster. Many athletes get sucked into not fuelling themselves well enough (sometimes voluntarily sometimes not) and it generally always leads to worse performances! She is a big fan of the Train Brave initiative and she volunteers with BEAT at university (the UK's largest eating disorder charity).

to find out about the charities that Megan supports you can findthem  at....


Train_Brave  on Instagram and their web page is trainbrave.org

BEAT is on Instagram beateatingdisorders_voice and their webpage is beateatingdisorders.org

and if you would like to send us an e mail you can send it to [email protected]

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Christina took up cycling late 2012 after climbing Kilimanjaro, when at a dinner party a friend said 'whats next?'. She had just got a lovely new Bianchi and Christina said, "oh I don't know, I may take up cycling".  With that she brought Christina a bike round and she fell on love with cycling. Christina did LEJOG in 2017 and has done a few big climbs in France.

Christina did the London Marathon for charity last year (purely for charity, almost from a standing start, she had run a 5k up to then) and thought it was a shame to waste the running legs so thought she would try duathlon. There was a fun event in Chichester in July last year so on she gave it a go. Was on such a high afterwards.

Christina was following a few age groupers on social and wondered if it was possible for her to qualify for GB.  She got in touch with Yiannis Christodoulou and he said 'go for it'. First job was to join BTF and enter a race. Her aim was to try and qualify in 2020 for 2021. Yiannis told Christina to enter Bedford last October. Once She had registered she did all kinds of research to see how fast she needed to be.

Christina turned up at Bedford on 13/10, awful conditions and only her second duathlon but managed to get a roll down place. The wait for the website to be updated was torture!

With that she got a coach (Yiannis had been doing me some run coaching but she felt she needed a cycling coach). They concentrated a lot on her running. She pitched up at Punta Umbria for her 3rd duathlon and came 11th in her AG, was delighted.

Christinas next goal is the world's but that's all a bit up in the air at the moment as sheI hasn't done any qualifiers or have a c/f.

Christina works 4 days week and has a pretty intense job and has just decided to drop to 3.5 days so she can fit training in.

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At school She hated games. She says she had flat feet and although not diagnosed asthma, so exercises hurt her feet and her chest. The only exercises she liked was dancing and so it stayed most of her working life with a weekly but was never that good. Jo did do a bit of cycling as she lived in Oxford and even completed the London to Brighton bike ride, spending a whole day pedalling sedately between cake stops.

A friend at a company she moved to in 2000 at the age of 46 suggested they go for a jog along the river tow path in Egham after work. She knew that Jo cycled so coaxed her Into having a go at triathlons.  Not being much of a swimmer, Jo took lessons and agreed to have a go at the Hart sprint triathlon. She says it took her weeks before she could manage a length of crawl and she hated putting my head under water and wearing goggles. Jo joined a gym, a trainer gave her exercises to build up her strength and she went to some spinning classes (that was a shock to the system!). Jo did her first race on her dutch shopping bike having removed the stand and basket but not the heavy integral lock. Jo states her friend Jill was shouting at her to get a move on as she dried herself in transition  but she did pass a couple of people as she pedalled as hard as she could round the course. The run was incredibly tough but a lovely course and everyone who passed her  (and there were a lot of them!) shouted encouragement and wonder of wonders everyone had not packed up and gone home by the time she finished - they cheered her loudly and she thought wow. she was hooked.

Jo had a go at more races, She bought a proper bike, eventually managed several lengths of crawl although it was a year before she did a whole race. She joined a club and made friends. Her fitness gradually improved but the path to improvement was not smooth - in 2006 she developed planatafasciitis in both feet, in 2009 she broke her ankle falling down a pothole in Madagascar. However in 2011 she entered a race and realised that if she had put her name down she would have qualified for the European Champs. The next year she had a go and in 2013 she was part of the GB team which went to Alanya. Since then she has continued to train hard and has competed in more European and World Championships but she  does seem to be accident prone. After Alanya she ruptured her cruciate ligament water skiing and had to have an operation to restructure her knee. She still made it to the European Champs in Kitzbuhel in 2014 and got round in spite of viscious gradients on the bike and run. Jo was regaining fitness well and just about to compete in the first race of 2017 when an alpaca fell on her and she broke two ribs. At the age of 62 things didn't repair quite as well as they used to but she  still competed in Glasgow at the European champs the same year, although several people in the 70 plus age group beat her!. 

Jo's list of accidents sadly continued and in 2019 when she broke her ankle again, this time turning her foot when running in the local country park just before the start of the season. Jo cycled to the X ray dept but was told not to cycle back and was given an inflatable boot. Thankfully she could start training in time to build her run up to compete in the European Champs in Kazan and took away a bronze medal. Sadly Malmo will not be happening but she has worked on building her core strength. Jo is fighting time with an arthritic hip and worn facet joints but the break from racing has meant she can focus on technique and strength so here's to 2021 and beyond.

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On episode 10 we go truly global. From across the world to the Gold coast Australia.

We chat to 80 year Old Alf Lakin. After years of being a runner starting at 40 concentrating on 800 and 1500m with half Marathons and Marathons thrown in,  at the age of 75 Alf decided to take up the multisport event of triathlon. Alf joined the newly formed tri school that had opened up in 2015  near his home on the Gold Coast. He learned to swim, completing his first triathlon in the same year. he became hooked and the following year he qualified for the world champs in Cozumel Mexico. This was the start of his adventure into Agegroup multisport racing and his journey into representing for Australiawhich has led him to compete at several world championships. Alf claims age is just a number and loves the training and racing, making new friends world wide. Truly inspirational for us all I hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for listening.

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In Episode 9 we chat to Multisport GB Age grouper Yiannis Christodoulou.
Inspired by watching the Triathlon at the  2012 Olympics Yiannis started out running and after learning to swim and not keen on the bike, eventually got into aquathons. 

Four years of hard work and dedicated training saw Yiannis qualify to represent GB successfully ending a bronze medal. Success breeds success and once he got the taste for it Yiannis wanted more. 

After several national Aquathon championships and a Gold at the 2019 European Aquathon Championships, Yiannis is tiring his hand at Triathlon. Hear his views on training and why he set up his own Youtube channel. 

His enthusiasm is apparent in this podcast as he talks about the thing he loves.

  

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On Episode 8 we chat to Agegroup Athlete Gold Medalist and creator of Age Group News David Pearson.

 David tells us how he moved from Modern Pentathlon to Triathlon and Duathlon with the unusual step of dropping 3 sports and introducing 1.

 David shares his training regime which has led him to several podium positions and several medals including two golds and how he came up with the idea of creating Instagrams Age group News, which covers all age group multi sport  races in Europe and around the world. 
A fascinating story and climaxing in a long term goal that is if he can pull it off will be a unique achievement. 

Check out age_group_news over on Instagram, thanks for listening, stay safe, keep training and love the process.

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On Episode 7 we chat to Lee Ross, a ridiculously sporty childhood, reaching the level of a semi pro footballer only to have his sporting world brought to an abrupt halt after suffering a broken back following a car crash. The injuries Lee suffered caused too much pain for him to continue sport, so he threw himself into his role as a sales person, driven to use his competitive streak in another direction Lee drove himself into the ground working 70 hour weeks and finally to burn out. what Lee calls a normal life working hard and partying hard saw him balloon to 18 and half stone. After a second honeymoon, Lee quit his job and started walking his dog and losing weight. Lee started park running and set a goal of a half marathon only to be struck down with injury in the final mile. Being told not to run for a few months, Lee turned to swimming and biking and finally joined his local Triathlon Club. Once back running Lee set out the goal to gain qualification as an Agegroup Athlete.

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On Episode 6 we chat to new Mum and AG Multisporter Sarah Harding. Considering herself as a complete novice listen to Sarahs fascinating journey from a non stop sporting childhood into adulthood, until a knee injury sidelined her sporting ambition.

 A long road to recovery and finally deciding to take on a triathlon, found out she was eight pregnant. Once again sporting ambition brought to a halt this time for a nicer reason. 

After giving birth to her daughter and struggling at the start, battling post natal depression, she found that running and training was essential to not only her mental wellbeing but giving her, her identity back. 

In just seven months and trying as many different multisport events as she could, Sarah found out about multisport age group racing, and qualified for both Triathlon and Duathlon, winning a silver medal in the latter, at the 2020 ETU Duathlon Championships in Punta Umbria.

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On Episode 5 I chat to Matt Baldock. GB Multisport Agegrouper. With the weight of being a West Ham fan and being told by his PE teacher that he would never amount to much in the sporting world, Matt set out to prove him wrong. 
With a solid background in swimming and running as a kid, he set himself a 5 year plan of qualifying for GB in his ageroup. 

Not one for conventionality, Matt came up with a format that few would ever think of.

After deciding to start off with Long Distance Triathlon and working his way down to his chosen distance and discipline of Standard Duathlon, with years of hard work and determination Matt created a solid foundation of discipline, consistency and endurance that would see him achieve his goals. 

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On Episode 4 I chat to Ashley de Lotz the Agegroup Multisport Athlete with the exotic name (that I just had to ask about) Tells us how he switched from road multisport to the world of off road including, cyclocross, mountain biking cross triathlon and duathlon. through that change feeling liberated he went on to win Gold at the 2019 cross tri european championships in Targu Mures Romania.

Ashley says, since making the switch he has never had so much fun on a bike, and encourages everyone to give it a go.

enjoy. 

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