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In Trigirl News

Winter Accessories – Review by Lizzy Brama

December 20, 2010 No Comments

“Looking for something to fill the gaps in you gear? The new Trigirl winter warmer set is just the ticket.
Including a Tubette scarf and a pair of wrist warmers it’s hard to find something better to give you that little bit of extra warmth on a cold winter’s day.

The versatile Tubette scarf can be worn as a hat or scarf or both. I love wearing it on the bike to extend my cycling top upward beyond my neck, and keeping the draught out. Take that chilly breeze from the North! In fact I like it so much that I’ve stopped wearing my scarf completely – it’s stylish enough that I can get away with wearing it outside of a sporting environment.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – Giving Back

October 21, 2010 No Comments

Fairly soon after starting triathlon I joined the Brighton Phoenix Tri club. Having been involved in a swimming club growing up I thought this the obvious next step. Over the coming months and years the club was to be a source of a wealth of information, helping me to find out about all aspects of triathlon. I made new friends, found training partners, and regularly found a helping hand when needed – I just remember the countless lifts to races that I and my bike benefited from! I love my club but it wouldn’t be the same without its members. So once I’d found my footing I started to think about how I could get more involved.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – End of Season Break

October 11, 2010 No Comments

Today I did my last triathlon of 2010, finishing the season on a high with a good second place at Hever castle.

I don’t know about you but I can feel with every part of my body that the end of the season is here. I noticed the first signs the day after the Bala standard distance triathlon. I was tired. The idea of putting my running shoes on for my usual Monday session made me think twice, and I took a rain check. I wasn’t even looking forward to the next race, just looking forward to getting it over with. But despite the tiredness there’s something deeply satisfying about this feeling. This year I have raced, raced, and raced until I truly had enough. And now I will have a break, because I want to, because I deserve it, but mostly because I need to. Everyone needs a time to recharge their batteries.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – The Importance of Having Fun

August 30, 2010 No Comments

Let’s start this post with two quotes:

“You are at the end of season so let’s enjoy ourselves eh !”

“I can’t do it if it makes me feel like that.”

The first quote is the answer I received from my coach in response to asking to enter yet more races for the remainder of the season. The second is from a friend during a discussion of a race that went very wrong after a terrible swim.

My reply to my friend was this: “There’s no point in doing it if it makes you feel bad.”

This sentence summarised what I only very recently had to remind myself of as well. When I started triathlon it was all shiny and new to me.

In Training and Race Tips

Lizzy Brama – Smoothies

August 22, 2010 No Comments

I’m probably preaching to the converted here, but a few weeks ago when I tidied up my room I discovered a box smoothie maker.

We should all eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, and I certainly never had a problem with this, but how much fun are smoothies! I’m having almost as much fun making them as consuming the product. Not only are they good for you, they also taste great. I’ve almost gone off the chocolate in favour of smoothies.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – The downside of cycling

August 11, 2010 No Comments

It was Tuesday morning and I had rolled out of bed to cycle over to one of the local 10 mile time trial courses to do a training TT. I was making my way out of the city and was just about to settle down on to my aerobars when I saw ahead a pedestrian crossing. I remember passing by a parked windowless white van, and then seemingly out of nowhere there was a pedestrian in the road!

This proves how much we rely on our hearing in traffic! It was 6am and he hadn’t heard me coming (obviously!) and must have thought it safe to step out into the road without looking. I remember him trying to shelter his face with his arms, bracing himself against the impact and then I was lying on the road. Ouch! There were a million things that went through my head. This hurts. Can I move all my limbs? Where’s my bike? Where is the man? This can’t be happening now! Thank goodness I still have my senses, I was incredibly lucky.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – Love the Hills

July 15, 2010 No Comments

Having grown up in the flat terrain of Northern Germany, I used to absolutely despise hills. If there’s one thing I really don’t like it’s slowness, and that applies to everything in life. I’m terribly impatient.

Cycling up hills doesn’t give you the excitement of going fast on a bike and quite frankly cycling up hills is hard work. I was also put off by the fact that as one of the bigger athletes ‘im always on the losing end against some of the slender running girls, as soon as we are faced with an incline.

In Training and Race Tips

Lizzy Brama – Ticking boxes

July 6, 2010 No Comments

Planning a block of training can really determine your goals. But to be of much use they have got to be SMART. Some of you may already be bored now – yeah, yeah, we all know this, S for specific, M for measurable, A for achievable, R for relevant, and T for time-bound. But do you actually do it? I was most recently reminded of this concept when flicking through my notes from the BTF level 2 coaching course.

So in practise, does this actually work? At the beginning of the year I wrote on a piece of paper – amongst other things – by the end of July I want to have improved my 10 mile time trial PB to sub 23 minutes. Why is this a much better goal than ‘I want to get faster on the bike’?

In Trigirl News

Team Trigirl reports from Germany

June 14, 2010 No Comments

Team Trigirl member Inga tells us about her middle-distance Challenge Kraichgau event in Germany which she completed in under 7 hours! Well done Inga!

“Hooray! I did my first ever half Ironman last Sunday at Challenge Kraichgau. It was really tough but amazingly fun too!

I really enjoyed the swim completing it in 45min, which is a good time for me. It also helped that the water was a temperate twenty degrees and surprisingly clean! I was really impressed that I wasn’t the last one out of my wave to exit the water!

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – I love triathlon

June 7, 2010 No Comments

I just love, love, love being a triathlete and living in Brighton. This morning I was woken up bright and early by the sun shining through the gap in my curtains. I had a short coffee, then quickly shoved my wetsuit, hat, goggles, and a towel in my bag, put my swimming costume and some clothes on, grabbed my helmet, and jumped on my bike to ride down the hill into town. The seafront promenade was already buzzing with life before 9am.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – Coping with Injury

May 24, 2010 1 Comment

There’s barely an athlete out there who has never had injury worries. Some more, some less. And while I used to look down on athletes who are ‘always injured’, I have changed my view over the years, mainly for my own benefit. I still think that injury should not be accepted as unavoidable. However, unless you are injured because you are making a crucial mistake in your training, like ramping up volume or intensity so your body reaches breaking point, thinking less of yourself because you have an injury is not going to help the situation.

In Trigirl News

Wetsuit Swimming

May 23, 2010 No Comments

Yippee! The open water swimming season is upon us! Even those of you extremely scared of cold water (like me!) could enjoy a lovely 17°C in lakes around London this morning. Fantastic! You have no excuse not to dive in and enjoy the lovely open water.

If you haven’t swum in a lake for a long time and prefer to get used to your wetsuit in a safe environment, you might want to start swimming in one of London’s lidos that welcome wetsuit swimmers. However, remember that chlorinated water will eventually damage the wetsuit neoprene material. Make sure you rinse your wetsuit well after you’ve been using it in chlorinated water. Best to leave it to soak in clear water in your bath tub before hanging it up to drip dry on a coat hanger.

In Training and Race Tips

Lizzy Brama – First Time Trials of the Season

May 4, 2010 No Comments

While I love being a triathlete I’m also very fond of time trialling. There are several reasons for this.

Cycling is my strength, so in the more local events I often stand a chance of winning. I know we always say it’s the taking part that counts, but winning is lots of fun, too.

Time trials are cheap. Open events are normally about £8, evening club events £2.50, and usually there’s tea and cake for a few pence donations afterwards.

They are good training. Try as you might, race intensity is always higher than training. Plus I love to race my bike and share my sport with others.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – Mallorca Training Camp

April 16, 2010 No Comments

On the 31^st of March myself and two friends flew to Mallorca for a 10 days of cycling, cycling, cycling, a little running, and even some swimming. We also did this 2 years ago, only I was significantly less fit then.

Mallorca is Spain’s largest island and is located in the Mediterranean Sea. It’s very popular with tourists, and especially Germans. In Germany people often refer to it as Germany’s 17^th state. In spring however, it’s not quite warm enough for a beach holiday and the island is taken over by cyclists and triathletes. With countless miles of quiet country roads, long but commonly not too steep climbs with breathtaking views in the mounaineous North, it really lends itself to getting the bike miles in. One is however served well, especially in March and early April, to pack arm and leg warmers.

In Lizzy Brama

Lizzy Brama – Trigirl Brand Ambassador

March 26, 2010 No Comments

I’m a 26-year-old triathlete, and I live and train in sunny Brighton. I was born and bred in Kiel, in Northern Germany. As a child I spent many hours counting the tiles on the bottom of the pool, and whizzing around town on my bike just as a means to get to places. Only running and Lizzy were never friends. In fact I remember many many excuses to get out of P.E./Games just because I disliked running so much.

You may wonder how I ended up in the UK. There is no other reason than that I found myself at boarding school in Devon when I was 16 for a year abroad rather accidentally. I say accidentally because I didn’t really want to go away. But as many of the other kids at my school were going away for a year, I thought I was missing out… However, when I left Kelly College a year later I felt like I had unfinished business in this country resulting in my return to attend university in Brighton. And I’m still there 6 ½ years later!