Robert Ferris - B-Fit Coaching

Pancho’s Story

Pancho is Uraguayan, his full name is Fransisco Gonzalez-Diaz. He originates from a town called Rocha which is on the west coast of Uruguay (fantastic beaches). Uraguay is the second smallest country in South America, Brazil to the north and Argentina to the west.. It gained its independance from Spain in 1825 and has a population of 3 million plus. Pancho and his wife Elena came to the UK to study at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester in October 2001 and he is in the final stages of completing his Phd in agribusiness. He joined Cirencester AC in 2004, where it quickly became apparent he could be a half-decent runner with correct training.

He started swimming during the winter of 2004/5, he was a far better runner than swimmer, in fact he could only manage 25 metres before announcing ‘I’m going to f****** drown’, but he is very persistent. Whether studying for his Phd or training, if he is going to do it, he would do it correctly. Having this attitude does make it easier to coach him even if he is a little impatient sometimes.

During this time Pancho said he would like to run the London Marathon in 2006. He had run a marathon before (3 hrs 23mins) in Blackpool but with a very poor training programme. I explained what he would need to do over the coming 12 months and that he was capable of running under 3 hours. I did revise this time during the build-up as his 10k times came down.

During the summer of 2005 I said I was going to enter Ironman Switzerland in July 2006. Pancho asked me if Triathlon training would benefit his running to which I said I believed it would. In the late summer of 2005, Pancho started cycling two or three times a week for about 1 to 2 hours per session. So it was a great surprise when in September 2005 he announced he would also enter Ironman Switzerland. To be honest, I did not think he would. Being a student, I thought the cost to enter Ironman would be too great, but like I said earlier, when he makes up his mind to do something, you’d better take him seriously.

So Panchos Goals for 2006 were:
The London marathon
Ironman Switzerland
Complete his Phd

Fairly easy year, really.

The London Marathon was going to be the easiest option because of Pancho’s running ability, the hard part was keeping him injury free and convincing him how fast he could run.
The Ironman was entirely different. There was a lot of work to do on his swimming - he had set himself a target of 1 hour 30 minutes for the swim. Pancho’s biking was OK, he lacked the confidence and endurance - he still screams when descending.The run would not be a problem if he could still stand up after the bike (his words not mine). Like a lot of first-time Ironmen, his goal was to finish but he did confess he would like to go under 12 hours.

So in November 2005 we started training towards pancho’s double header. It was decided he would train fairly hard from November 1st to December 22nd as he was going home for Christmas returning in mid January. Although he would continue to run, biking and swimming would prove difficult. In fact a three week break in the sunshine would do him good - I was so convinced by this that my wife and myself went with him.
On returning from Uruguay training began in earnest. It didn’t take long to return to full bike fitness and apart from the very cold weather all went well through the winter.

On one 5 hour ride, Pancho found it hard in the last hour, it was very windy and his confidence sufferred as a result, as I explained to him it was better to suffer when training than on race day - as I would later dicover.

Because Pancho had never competed in a Triathlon, I needed to find him an open water tri. I would have liked him to have done two or three Olympic distance races but because he was running London, I did not want him to race again until mid-May (it’s no good telling Pancho to go easy in a race - he can’t do it!)

This gave us a mid-May to mid-June window but for the first week of June Pancho flew to Argentina for a conference. Why he couldn’t go to Blackpool I don’t know but at least this was during his taper phase of his training. We ended up doing the Blenheim Triathlon which was an open water sprint event. This was Pancho’s first ever triathlon and he insisted I did it with him so I could show him where to go and what to do.

Race day was very wet and not very warm and I hate wet, cold weather. In twenty years of triathlon these were the worse conditions I have ever raced in. Will I ever allow Pancho to forget this? you bet I won’t and to add insult to injury, he beat me, the ba*****. I was very pleased with the way he coped with his first event, it did not seem to phase him at all. I put this down to all the expert coaching he received - no laughing now.

Two weeks before travelling to Switzerland we competed in a super sprint event, this was more about getting Pancho familiar with the triathlon procedure than anything else. This was a warm sunny day and I beat him. One-all
but, hey, who's keeping score!

So on to Switzerland. The course in Zurich is a two lap swim, followed by a three lap bike - three hills each lap. The first two hills are both about 5k in length, with Hill one at about an 8% gradient, Hill two at about 3-4% gradient and the third was only 900m long but at an 11% gradient, which I am sure had increased by the third lap. The remainder of the course was flat or down hill.

The run course was four flat laps, in and around Zurich, and mostly on the lake side which is very picturesque when you are not knackered. Pancho found the swim hard, it was very rough with a lot of kicking and punching, but he gave as good as he got, and he did emerge in one piece - just!

On to the bike and he felt a lot better, he did have some problem early on trying to ride at a consistant pace (going too fast) but he settled down and rode a good bike leg, he never did eat all his powerbars and gels.
Once on the run Pancho was in familiar territory, I had told him to walk the feed stations to ensure he took on sufficent fluids and gels, this seemed to pay off as he ran a 3hrs 23min marathon leg to finish in a very respectable time of 10hrs 38min 07secs, not bad for someone who would be pleased to go under 12hrs.

As for myself, remember I said about having a bad training day instead of a bad race day. Race day I felt flat from the gun and struggled the whole race, but I did finish though in a very slow time. On reflection I was pleased I had the grit to stay the course when the easy option would have been to pull out and if one of us had to have a bad day, I’d rather it was me, I have completed Ironman races before, Pancho had not. Gee I'm so good!

Panchos build up for London went well in February, he ran a p.b. for a 10k - 33.04 and in March he won a half marathon. Things looked good if he did not over do it, he still did not believe me when I told him he was capable of going under 2hrs 40mins if he was patient and apced himself sensibly, and full credit to him, he did just that and ran 2 hrs 37 mins 38 secs.

So for Pancho’s goals for 2006 it was two down and one to go. Unfortunately (or it may be good fortune from Pancho’s point of view) I have been of no help whatsoever with his Phd, which he has to complete by Christmas. Knowing him as I do, he will complete this with honours.

Interesting footnotes (I think)

1. Pancho’s mother is younger than my wife, Lynn, and myself - great when your friends could be your children.

2. When Pancho informed his friends in Uruguay of his achievement, they were more concerned about someone my age (I’m only 53) doing such a race, saying I would have a heart attack and he must make me stop (On race day I may have believed this).

3. Pancho could eat rice pudding for Uruguay

4. On average, Uruguayans eats 65kg of beef per person per year.

5. Pancho could probably go faster if he stopped posing for photographs!

6. Uruguay is a fantastic country to visit. I would reccommend it to anyone, and if you speak Spanish it would be even better as the people are so friendly. The beaches are incredible - running along a beach one day I asked pancho how far it went, the answer ‘all the way to Brazil’.

Posted at 3:58 pm on 29/11/06