UltraFit 2001
May 12-13 Stratford-On-Avon

Report by Hywel Davies - Mens Champion (also check out Ade's and Will's reports)

Well done to everyone who took part at the Ultrafit XTC this year. I am sure that everyone who took part this year had…, well, an experience at least. I think everyone will remember this year's competition for some excellent performances and some very quick times.

I would like to offer some general advice for competing to all readers of the newsletter as I feel that the competition will have a better atmosphere if more people try and think like me and Andrew Evans.

1) Jan the Ice Woman (Crunchie Judge)

Both days I had to overcome the crunch but those of you that watched will see that I budgeted time for this event. I do not try and do my crunches in 40 secs like in the gym but accept that I have to do 60 good ones rather than 100 crap ones and get 10 counted. Jan does the crunches to the letter and we have to train to do them properly and have to be fit enough to do 100 if required. It's the guy on the other lane the complaints should be with as he lets too much go. The rules are clearly stated and we must stick to them to make it fair. Jan enforces this and if we don't like it then we don't enter.
If I try to rush, I lose more reps and then blow my chances of winning. If I keep my head and realise that I still have another 5 minutes to catch up then I can still win.

2) Press ups

We can all do 50 press-ups can't we? Why do we try and get away with half reps. We can all do 50 full ones if we want and again, if we lose a few, we do more but slow then down and get them all counted. In previous years many competitors hardly moved their arms so it's about time they clamped down. Remember X Zone last year where I got onto the treadmill last as they made me do my 50 again. Shit happens but do you get up and walk off or realise that there is still time to catch up.

3) Bike

OK so it maxed out at 83 km/h and 110 rpm so we could only do 1.08. Andy did not go that fast but he caught me up. Too many people thought that they had to go flat out and fill their legs with pints of lactic acid. Of course you will not be able to do the press ups or run on the treadmill. I threw down a challenge that you had to go fast; there was no need to take it if it meant losing time on the press-ups.

4) Treadmill

If the treadmill increased my team event run time from 2.45 to 3.12 then that means that there was a difference of about 1.5 kmh. As far as I know, no one went any quicker than 3.10. I ran at 17 for 400, then 16 and 15 but I could not get the damn thing started. I don't think the fastest guy ran any faster but the point is I could hold 18 on the powerjog but this treadmill broke everyone. Therefore for individual races you have to just go by how you feel and then try increasing it. Me and Keith Marley ran at 13.5 kmh which on a powerjog is in excess of 14 kmh. Big respect to Keith for that. I felt gutted at first, as I knew this year I could run at 15. Not on this machine though. Just go by your legs rather than the reading on the machine.

I hope that this stuff helps a bit. Good luck with the future.