The Athletes

"It's only my second year competing in Triathlon and up to now my focus has been distance in particularly IM. After finishing my 2nd I decided my focus was going to shift to Olympic distance and quickly realised I was going to need to inject some pace into my training if I am going to compete next year.
I started with Natalie to improve the weakest of my three disciplines 'swimming' and after some discussions concerning my future goals decided to commit to a full time training plan covering all disciplines to help achieve my ambitions.
Since starting my understanding of technique, how I should be training to release my maximum potential and most importantly my times have all improved.
The weekly plans are easy to understand, tailored to my busy lifestyle and backed up with personal support and feedback. I genuinely can't wait to put all the hard work to the test next season."

Name: Jon Herd

Triathlon can be a complex sport and Natalie has been very proactive in giving out advice on nutrition, stressing the importance of hydration and rest intervals to ensure you peak at the right time.

Damo bike Name: Damien Pool

Age: 29 years old

Location; Surrey

Job: Key Account Manager

Background: Having regularly competed in a number of sports including skiing and football Damien decided to try his first Triathlon in 2008 after breaking his leg during a football match. Following this first Triathlon he was hooked and has been competing in Triathlons, Running, Mountain Bike and Adventure Races ever since.

Best result: 2 time winner of the Tri Adventure Trail races.

Testimonial

Having competed in Triathlons for a couple of years I found my results were beginning to plateau and I was continually having to pull out of my A races due to injury or illness. It became apparent that I was doing the wrong training at the wrong time and needed to look at a more structured training regime to avoid this happening in the future as I look to improve further.

In stepped Natalie who has been putting together my training plans on a weekly basis- not made easy for her by the fact that I travel a lot across Europe for my work and have to fit training in when I can (a few hair pulling out moments for Nat when I had to ask her to rearrange full week training plans due to last minute business trips).

The training plans she produces are always challenging but enjoyable and push me way beyond the levels I had previously been meeting.

The results came very quickly- after only a couple of months working with Natalie I won my first race and after 4 months I had improved my 20km (bike) time trial time by a staggering 6 min!

Looking to the future I get very excited- my results have improved significantly this year after working with Natalie and I am excited to see just how far she can push me!

Del with bike

Name: Del Wood

Age: n/a

Location; Hertfordshire

Achievements: 5km PB 22:34 // 10k PB 49:49 // Half Marathon 1:50:40 and Marathon 4:57:30

HSV Sprint Triathlon : 1:49:29

Testimonial

After 4 years of being your average runner I felt it was time to do something more: I have completed two marathons and over fifty half marathons and 10ks in my years of running but felt I needed to seek a new challenge.

Some one suggested I go for a triathlon: so I did: booked on to the HSV Sprint Pool Triathlon, bought a cheap bike and practiced the 400m swim. I completed the tri in a slow time but enjoyed it and it gave me the new challenge I was looking for. However, having just trained for everything on my own, reading a few plans in magazines and online I felt I needed to do this properly: get the techniques right, build on my confidence, endurance and skill.

A few people recommended Natalie: in two months of training with her I have learnt a huge amount that I never considered or had an idea about: I was very much the novice! Her plans are hard work but achievable and so far they have paid off, my swim times are improving, I am able to swim and cycle a lot further than I have done before.

With my running this has paid off to: as the year went on my times where getting slower, with a new injection of motivation I have already achieved a goal of a sub 50min 10k (I have never gone below this in 4years) and a new PB on my 5k time: knocking of minutes rather than seconds and it has only been two months into my training. I am very much looking forward to next year when I can enter duathlons and triathlons and put the training I have done in to practice.