Bryan Payne takes to the water

As some of you will know Bryan is a PFG (Previous Fat Guy) who qualified for the Ironman World Championships this year. Congratulations Bryan. Unfortunately Bryan has been hit by injury and since then just a few short days have passed and he's not doing so well. Last night he ate his entire Kegerator (home made beer on tap)!!!!! But the great news is that Bryan says he has got his head around it and has started swimming again today. He even sent a photo of himself before he drained the pool.

Authorities are still searching for three small children and they say they're soon going to move the search to Bryan's naval just as soon as the tunnelling equipment arrives from Chile.

Whhhaaahahahahahahahahahahaaaa

School Lunches: Part 3

(More excellent commentary from yourbestfitnesscoah.blogspot.com and written by Rick Copley)

OK, part three. Put your seat-belts on.

So in Part One I talked a little bit about the crap that I ate at lunch when I was a school boy. Part Two featured the crap that my son eats for lunch in 2010. Fantastic stuff. Neither one of us enjoyed simple nutrition at lunch time. No kidding.

Today I want to tell you how our kids CAN eat a healthy supportive meal at lunch time. It’s really pretty simple. Does it really matter… uhhhhh YEAH!!

Kids are fatter today than 5 – 10 – 20 – whatever, years ago. Is this fact open for argument?

Is it because of school lunches? Even I am not naive enough to believe that is the sole or even the main cause. I do, however, think that it matters and that it is a factor.

Let’s look at two ways that can help our kids to eat a lunch that enriches and nourishes their bodies.

Brown bag it. OK, you don’t send your kid with a brown bad anymore. Technology allows for more efficient lunch packing. They sell lunch boxes at Wal-mart and Target. You can get a simple ice pack there as well.

OK, so what do you put in their new shiny lunch box?

Drink: Water. NO THEY DO NOT NEED JUICE OR SODA OR MILK. Please. They need water to live. End of story.

Snacks: Fruit is AWESOME! Lots of energy and nutrients! An apple perhaps; or a banana. (If you send a banana make sure it is protected. Banana and ice packs do not go well together!!) Also you should include some veggies. What kid would not like a sliced up cucumber or green pepper in his lunch box? Fantastic! A few handfuls of nuts it GREAT as well! Good protein and fats to keep the energy up!

Lunch: Tupperware rules. Leftovers with brown rice, veggies and some meat will help them to have energy for the rest of the day! How about a salad with some beans? Mmmm. A sandwich is acceptable at long as it doesn’t involve mayo or white bread. A turkey sandwich with mustard, tomatoes and lettuce is a good option. Tasty and nutritious!

Dessert: NO DESSERT NEEDED! HA! We want to be nutritious not destructive!

Notices there are no pretzels or potato chips or pasties or candy? No soda! No juice! No white bread! No micro wave! Support their bodies with healthy food!

See Nick's Full article here

Simon says: -
Nick has described our strategy of packing the boys off to school with their lunch everyday. Only water to drink, fruit, veggies (although they don't thank us for this one) and all good wholesome food.

If they eat it all then they get a smiley face on the smiley face chart at home and a little treat - no we're not perfect, we still resort to bribery.

And no the boys don't yet throw the good stuff away as they still believe that we watch their every move with our "magic eyes" haha.

Of course that won't last and we will have our challenges but we've started well and most importantly we've started creating habits that we hope the boys will stick with for the rest of their lives.

Tinker, Tailor, Pilot, F1 Driver...

Seb and Sid had their "Book Character" dress up day at school last week. Their Nani and Nana (Grandma & Grandad - Shilpa's Mom and Dad) bought them the most amazing costumes from the US on their recent holiday. Pop even sent them by overnight express courier from Bangkok to make sure they arrived in time for the big day.

Seb, who is our budding F1 Driver didn't fit into the drivers costume and Sid who either wants to be a pilot or a train driver was too small for the pilot's outfit. Oh well ay! They happily swapped (I was amazed) and proceeded to be two of the coolest looking kids in school (too many pirates and fairies - although I thought the Chef looked really cool too).

The truth about pain!

I had some great debates over the past few days on Facebook about various topics including Total Immersion Swimming and pushing through pain so I thought I'd share some thoughts and parts of the debate with you.

One of the contributors wrote - "My race starts in T1", indeed that's how I used to race triathlons, my swimming was such a disaster and I'd cycle past hundreds of people repeating a little mantra to myself "If only I could swim, if only I could swim".

I tried everything including in a "Total Immersion" course to get better - but that just resulted in my spending three expensive training days floating a few centimetres below the surface and almost drowning. I learnt a lot about balance in the water but not much else.

In the end Brett Sutton (head coach of TBB) brought it home to me in a comment I read on TBB Forum - "Swimming hurts! If it's not hurting then you're not doing it right". What on earth is he talking about I thought, the good guys make it look effortless, just like TI. True but they are also hurting too, trust me THEY ARE HURTING. So where is this leading? Read on...

I believe that most people misunderstand pacing and back off to a pace in their comfort zone. Especially in swimming. I'm a terrible swimmer but I never swim in my comfort zone (anymore), I'm right up at the red line (it's very unpleasant) BUT ...I'm not in the red i.e. not anaerobic as that will guarantee I will crash and burn before the end.

If on the other hand you need to stay within your comfort zone just to survive the race then that's fine but you're participating not competing - you need to either settle for that and be happy with it (which is totally cool by me) or if you want to get better and compete then you need to push the limits without blowing up - a fine balance I know but a necessary one.

Whatever you "save" in the swim you'll never regain on the bike and whatever you "save" on the bike you'll never regain on the run. I read recently that the fastest way to race was hard on the swim, hard on the bike and if necessary hang on for the run rather than saving yourself in any particular discipline.

It seems to me that no matter how deep we dig there's always more to find. On the run there's always something there, always something extra - at the point where you were about to ease off on the run due to "exhaustion" or should I say "perceived exhaustion", imagine that a band of hungry cannibals were 200m behind you in hot pursuit. If it were real, would you carry on jogging or do you think you might be able to nail the rest of the run to the sanctuary of the finish line?

Exhaustion and pain are just tools the brain uses to protect the body but those protection mechanisms kick in very early. So the question is, how much do you want it? How much are you prepared to hurt?

I'm not talented (certainly not physically or athletically) I just have a bigger ego than most, I reckon I'm just prepared to hurt more and longer, nothing more. There are so many lean, muscular athletes I see, not just at races but every weekend training, I wish I had their bodies, but as it happens I usually beat most of them, but WOW, if I had their bodies with my ego and my willingness to go past the pain barrier in training as well as racing then I'd be unstoppable.

The real talented people on the other hand have the good fortune to have the physical talent AND the desire and the WILL to overcome pain and perceived exhaustion AND are willing to put the time and pain in during the many hours of training.

Never allow yourself to believe that an athletic looking guy or girl can beat you, they can't on looks alone however kind genetics have been to them. If you want to beat them though the race starts when the gun goes and finishes when you fall over that line. If your race starts in T1 then your race will never really start until you master the art of hurting in the swim and then on the bike and then on the run. ENJOY haha

POSTSCRIPT
One very valid point that one of the contributors made to the debate was that it's all very well pushing through the pain barriers if you're an experienced triathlete with years of experience under your belt but if you're a relative newbie and/or have potential injury problems then pushing the pain barriers will do nothing other than set you back months if not years. I COULDN'T AGREE MORE. MY COMMENTS ARE FIRMLY RESERVED FOR THOSE ATHLETES WHO DO HAVE THE EXPERIENCE AND DON'T HAVE LOOMING INJURY PROBLEMS.

Although you've got to identify the difference between potential injury pains or just an excuse to back off!!!

A final little point about the summary, I said the race starts when the gun goes off - in fact as we all know the race really starts months before the gun goes off in training but I'll take that as read!!!

School Lunches: Part 2

See yourbestfitnesscoah.blogspot.com and by Rick Copley's article Part 2 here

Simon says: - A stand out couple of paragraphs that hit me personally from Rick's latest article are these: -

"I mean THE most important thing. How about our health! Learning math and social studies is vital I do know. What good are they when you are dead at 50 from a heart attack?

I would argue that our health is the most important thing in the world. School is such a fantastic platform to teach our kids how to eat."

My 40 year old cousin died last year of a heart attack, as far as I know he has always been overweight and did little exercise as so many people these days. It broke my Aunt and Uncle's hearts and when my Auntie overheard me talking about the alarming obesity rates on the streets of the UK these days she quite rightly felt compelled to express another side to my somewhat one-sided view of "blame the parents".

She explained that they simply didn't know, they were never educated about nutrition and the right foods to eat or the consequences of not eating healthily and doing exercise.

When you think about it no one even knew about the dangers of smoking in those days (except the tobacco companies of course but don't let me get started on that one). Just to put things into perspective, my Aunt and Uncle are intelligent university graduates who became successful professionals but when they were young parents the knowledge simply wasn't generally available.

It is now of course, so parents of today's information age, you have no excuses, you are responsible and you're doing a rubbish job (certainly if you look at the UK and the USA).

However, as Rick clearly points out that health is the most important thing in our lives. I'd personally say happiness is but of course without health then there is no happiness. He also points out that school is a wonderful platform to teach our kids about healthy eating. Exercise too for that matter (so why is Physical education being reduced year on year in our schools? - MADNESS).

So ultimately schools carry their fair share of blame when our kids are being let down. Chips, pizza's and overly processed food should be removed from school canteens, choices should be increased but just healthy ones. We as a society get bombarded with so much crap food anyway the last place we want or need it is in our schools.

Adventure Race for kids

Click on Trikidz for more

Mizuno 11k

(Photos courtesy of Tey, Chuah & Jason Lee - thanks guys)

A race that I didn't intend to race but did anyway. Last year I was almost 2 months into my Ironman build up and getting very fit. I ended up 5th Junior Vet and actually got placed and prizes for the first time ever in a run race.

This year was a different story, I suspect I've been suffering from a mild dose of Chronic Fatigue thingy and have only had one week of proper training under my belt (6 days actually). I was 5kg (11 lbs) heavier than last year and I even ran to the race this year so I wasn't expecting much.





The plan was to run there, 4k, then 2k around the track, 11k (steady pace) race then a 4k run home = 21k. Normal Sunday training distance at this time of year. I rode 114k the day before and then got knocked off my bike by a truck (another story another post) a 4.4k brick run (I did the same last year (without the truck part) but the brick run was 8.8k).

The 4k run to the race was awful, I had NOTHING and I mean NOTHING. I can't say I arrived very happy or optimistic and it reinforced my plan to just use the day as a distance training day. I met up with my business partner, Ian and a friend from Country Heights, Sue, who were both running too. The ladies race went first so Ian and I did some laps around the track.










After that I felt much better and thought, ahhh, what the hell, I'll push and see what happens. I started a couple of rows back from the front while Ian was on the first row of the grid. It took me a good 300m to catch him up.

I was hurting from the get go but it's a race so that's the way it should be, experience has taught me the pace to go at, this is right on the red line, go into the red for more than a few seconds and the race will end before the finish line and turn into a painful disappointing jog. I felt the red line breached a few times as I started to go anaerobic so eased off a little. I knew I wasn't going anywhere near as fast as last year but I expected not to be more than a couple of minutes down.

The race wound on and I was pretty pleased with the way it unfolded although I was losing a little to similar paced runners on the up hills and gaining it back downhill - this never happens and is a reflection of my current fitness, strength and extra weight I'd imagine.

A Western guy was stalking me and I thought I'd long since dropped him when I had to re-tie my shoelace (rooky mistake - I still make em! What an ijut!), he was right on my heels and went past.

At some point I ran past Sue, she was looking good (a little red but good), then Juliana Ali shortly afterwards, she was running in a sarong and had Ngae's name on the back of her shirt and was dedicating this run to him. AWESOME. Big respect Julie. We miss you Ngae.


The beauty (read: sting in the tail) of this course is the hill at the finish. There's one just before it and you start thinking to yourself, "Is this the last hill? I remember it being harder than this last year" and then bang you realise that it's not the one and the big one hits you. As it turned out it felt infinitely harder than last year. I'd long since retaken the Western stalker but knew he would be on my heels. Sure enough he came by as did a few others.

At this point you'll see from the photo I was in a world of hurt.

I thought, good on him, he's run the perfect race, disciplined and intelligent, take me up the last hill and even if I came back he'd surely out sprint me with his giraffe legs.

Never have I ever wanted to walk so much so close to the end of a race - my body and mind were screaming, begging even negotiating surrender. Fortunately I had a great negotiator on my side, my EGO. He just wouldn't let go. His tiny and distant voice could just be heard over the internals screams, "Just try and stay in touch with the stalker, take him back on the down hill and see what happens on the sprint". Having a big ego hurts makes me hurt sometimes but he has his uses.


As it turns out the sprint never happened, I'd taken back so much on the downhill that I was miles a head by the finish and well pleased with my effort. No top 5 finish today but knew that before the race. Hopefully top ten but now having checked my time from last year I was a whole 4 minutes slower so I'm not holding out too much hope on that now.

A little footnote here - I'd like to apologise to the young guy (not in my age-group) who I shouted abuse at as we ran round the track to the finish - BUT I WON'T. I called you a cheating b*****d and a cheating b******d you are.

He ran 5 or 6 metres inside the line on the track and was sprinting against a couple of other guys in his category. Buddy we can all win races if we cut the corners. Not only were you cheating the people you were racing against but you were cheating yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself.

It was only a small shortcut but it was at a critical time in the race and anyway (as everyone who trains with me will know) a shortcut is a shortcut however small.

On a happier note - Sue finished in about 1hr 1min. We were chatting at the end and she said she's like to cheer Ian in. Me too I said but he won't be along for a while yet, he wasn't going that fast. AND HOW WRONG WAS I. "Here he comes she said" - amazing stuff, Ian knocked more than 4 minutes off his time last year and finished pretty much on the 1 hour mark.

Sue and Ian have been consistently training together around Country Heights and its clearly been paying off.

Apologies for doubting you Ian, great job I'm well impressed.

RESULTS: -
Just checked and the results have been posted. I am stoked to see that I was in 7th place out of 359 in the men's junior vets category in 48mins 40secs (38th/2911 overall).

Ian was 42nd place out of 183 in the men's senior vets category in 1hr 40secs (424/2911 overall)

Sue was 10th place out of 82 in the women's senior vets category in 1hr 1min 1sec (437/2911 overall)

School Lunches: Part 1

(Courtesy of yourbestfitnesscoah.blogspot.com and written by Rick Copley)

School Lunches: Part 1, Rick does lunch

I remember school lunch was as a time to be social and stuff my face with as much food as time would allow. I honestly have no idea what I ate for lunch was I was in elementary and middle school. I remember liking it though so it must have been bad for me. I do remember a teacher once telling me that pizza was the healthiest food in the world because it had the all the food groups. Oh boy…

I remember exactly what I ate in high school.

Of course I drank milk. Why in the world would they serve pasteurized cow milk to kids in school? Are we insane? Are out kids calfs? Do we really NEED to fatten them up?

The low grade milk that we serve our kids at lunch is ridiculously unhealthy.

OK, milk to drink. Then it was some sort of steakum type, thin mystery meat dealio with 2 packets of mayonnaise. I’m pretty sure I had two of those. Awesome. I believe I put pepper on it as well. Oh that is so gross. Yep. That is that I ate five days per week for 4 years.

But wait there is more.

That cost a buck twenty five. Oh what to do with my 3 quarters left over?

You know it. I bought three nutty bars.

Really? Are there nuts in those things?

OK, look at what I had for lunch. Any nutrition there? Nope. I was an athlete. You’d think I would have had a clue. Apparently not.

Lots of calories. Good for me as an athlete but what about people that weren’t athletes. I was in high school in the late 80’s and early 90’s. This is about the time that the obesity levels started to sky rocket.

Nutty bars or an apple. Hmmmm…

I wanted taste and quantity. I made horrific choices because I could. Do you think your kids are making better choices? You tell me. SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Simon Says: - Now this hits home with me. I was also the kid that stuffed his face without thought or concern. When you're a kid and are given a free range of food choices with few boundaries, little education/knowledge of what is healthy eating or why it's important; these things coupled with the all important maturity that only arrives later in life (usually brought on by the disastrous and self destructive choices we've made in our youth), then quite honestly kids haven't got much of a chance it would seem.

My parents did their best to make sure we ate healthily at home. However, then there was school lunch, my choice was always chips with something brown and meaty (before I became a vegetarian), not vegetables, why would I waste my money on those when I could get 3 desserts instead? (I think my record was 10 desserts - doh!!!)

My point is that kids are not great at making good choices for themselves, they simply haven't developed the tools (many adults too for that matter). So this is where parents need to take charge. They may not easily be able to control what their kids eat at school but they can ensure that they eat healthily at home.

They can see if their kids are getting fat and they can do something about it before it's too late. *YES I DO BLAME THE PARENTS, they're the ones in charge, they have the maturity and the experience to help guide their kids to a healthy lifestyle - isn't that what parenting is all about - good guidance?

*I'm adding a caveat here. On reflection I BLAME PARENTS OF THE CURRENT INFORMATION AGE. With knowledge and accessibility to knowledge there comes responsibility and if you fail to honour that responsibility then you deserve the blame. I accept that widespread knowledge of the damaging effects of such things as obesity and smoking are only recent developments - yes we can say with the benefit of hindsight "wasn't it obvious?". I say "No it wasn't, but now it is!"

My greatest fear is that this lost generation of obese children will become obese parents (if they live long enough) and then I can't blame them as they have already been let down themselves, they won't have the tools, the knowledge or the habits to guide their children.

Postscript: - There's probably nothing worse than a reformed smoker or a reformed Previous Fat Guy (PFG) - I was never a smoker but was a whale not so many years ago. I was a healthy kid who turned into a fat teenager and then an obese adult, now I'm bit of a healthy triathlete and Ironman but still enjoy my beers and life. What upsets me the most is I've seen it all, healthy, fat, obese and super fit and I can honestly say that I am infinitely happier, more engaged and get more out of life since I've been fit. I fear that much of today's McDonalds society will only ever have one sad, blobby lethargic perspective and will never realise there's another wonderful alternative.

The Captain - Ironman World Championships

I met Bryan Payne (aka @brybrarobry aka The Captain aka The Captoon aka Training Payne aka BryBaby) on twitter a year or two ago. It transpired that he was doing Ironman China as was I and we met up and got on like a house on fire.

He managed to get chronic food poisoning at the carbo party (as did many others - shame on you IMChina) and failed to finish the race. I doubted he would finish the swim (he was that sick) but somehow got through the swim, the bike and 20k of the run before he had to pull out.

He was devastated about not finishing, so to exorcise these demons he entered and completed Ironman Saint George - in the process he came very close to qualifying for Kona.

Onto Ironman Lake Placid and he did qualify and the rest is history.

I strongly urge you to read Bryan's race report, there are few reports as engaging and clearly he got the most out of his day in Hawaii. My final comments to him were "...never was there a guy that did the Hawaii Ironman with a better attitude to the whole experience and I doubt very few got as much out of it as you did. Bravo and congratulations."

Bryan's Official Race Report HERE

A Class Act

(Courtesy of Chrissie herself, taken from her website http://www.chrissiewellington.org/)

Chrissie Wellington's explanation on why she didn't race the Ironman World Championships: -


Looking forward…
11/10/10
On Saturday I had one of the hardest decisions to make of my life – whether or not to toe the start line of the World Ironman Championships. In the end I didn’t race. But before I try and explain the decision that I made I want to start off with a huge congratulations to the amazing Mirinda Carfrae. Her performance on Saturday was nothing short of remarkable. She truly is a worthy World Champion.

So many thoughts are going through my head at the moment, and it will take time to sift through them all. I’d like to quickly elaborate on how I felt leading into the race and why I took the decision that I did. I started feeling slightly ill on Friday lunchtime, with a sore head and throat. I did my usual three short sessions that day but, on the run particularly, I knew something wasn’t quite right. My legs were like jelly and I was sweating much more than usual. My tired head hit the pillow at 7pm and I woke up several times during the night literally drenched in sweat, my head pounding and feeling like my throat was closing. I got up at 3.45am, had a shower, and went through my pre race routine hoping that I would feel better. But nothing improved. I knew I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my life.

Like all the other athletes, I invest so much time, passion, energy into getting myself in the best possible shape for Kona. I have so much respect for this race, and the toll it can take on your body. It is demanding and brutal, and competing when ill risks greater health problems. Furthermore, I believe I owed it to myself and all the other competitors to be able to give the performance I had trained so hard for. I sought counsel from those closest to me, but mostly tried to listen to my body, and what it was telling me. I said to myself, if I woke up on an ordinary day feeling like this would I train? The honest answer was no. At around 5am the decision was made. There was no going back.

Those that know me will understand how incredibly difficult, frustrating and heart wrenching it was to make that call. Two days later, and although I am starting to feel physically better, I know I made the right decision for me at that particular time. Yes I could sit here feeling sorry for myself, reflecting on what might have been, but ultimately wallowing in self pity doesn’t help me, or anyone else. My heart (and head) are hurting but my spirit is not broken. I will look to the future and all the amazing opportunities it will bring – putting Saturday behind me and moving on to fight another day. This is sport. As I have always said, it has ups and downs. Highs and lows. Yes, i do have a mountain to climb. But it is no different from any other I have faced, and scaled, before.

I want to give my deepest thanks to my amazing family, friends, coach and sponsors who have been with me every step of the way and to everyone around the world who has sent me messages of support and encouragement. I really do appreciate it. And, once again, my heartfelt congratulations to the two incredibly worthy World Champions, Mirinda and Chris, to my fellow GBR ‘top ten’ girls Julie, Rachel and Leanda….and to everyone that crossed that finish line on Saturday.

I am so fortunate to be able to get up each day and swim, bike and run; to have been crowned triple World Champion; to represent this amazing sport and to have opportunities i never could have dreamed of a few years ago. So, no looking back. Only forward. I will spend the coming days with my family and friends, seeing some of this amazing island with a smile on my face and tomorrow will head back to Boulder.

The journey to Kona 2011 begins here and the fire in my belly is already burning.

Aloha


Simon says: -
I think Chrissie says it all but I felt compelled to send he a quick email to share with her just what I think. I don't have many heroes but she is definitely one and I'm not ashamed to say it!

Chrissie, you are a class act. I just read your explanation on not racing in Kona and I know that many in your position would have raced anyway, I know I would, I think that you showed tremendous strength of character and maturity and the decision must have been unbelievably difficult.

It was kind of fun to see someone else win in a way but I'm looking forward to you coming back and crushing it next year and for many years to come. You're a phenomenon, a great champion and most of all a true ambassador of our wonderful sport. You are a class act - huge respect.

GOTTA LOVE LITTLE BOYS

Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of tampons and proceeded to the checkout counter.

The man at the counter asked the older boy, 'Son, how old are you?'

'Eight', the boy replied.

The man continued, 'Do you know what these are used for?'

The boy replied, 'Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother and he's four.

We saw on TV that if you use these, you would be able to swim, play tennis and ride a bike. Right now, he can't do none of those'.

Josiah Ng wins Gold

(Courtesy of the BBC)

Malaysia's Josiah Ng won the keirin gold after his team-mate Azizulhasni Awang, who crossed the line first, was controversially disqualified.

England's David Daniell was promoted to silver after Awang was thrown out for nudging Simon van Velthooven in a race that is traditionally full of bumps.

Simon says: - Blimey it should have been a Malaysia 1-2. A harsh call by the sounds of it I hope Malaysia appeal. England were in silver but they'll have enough medals and can live with a bronze. I'd love to see Malaysia getting the Gold and Silver.

Happiness

This guy just did Louisville Ironman. I did too, I didn't meet him but came across this video and it'll either put a smile on your face or bring a tear to your eye - it did both for me.

I love his tag line at the end: - "If you want to do it, all you have to do is do it". Pretty simple ay? But how many people stop before they even begin? Yes there will be setbacks but the sooner you get back with the programme the sooner you'll be on the right road again.

This guy knows what it's all about, he says it again and again in his video - "to be HAPPY" - You got that right brother!

Here I am getting a little philosophical now but I've been reflecting and you know, weight loss, fitness, speed, distance, whatever your particular quantifiable goal may be, these are the things that you strive for and work hard to achieve but they take time, effort, blood sweat and tears.

Believe me they're worth having but the most important goal to aspire towards is HAPPINESS; And the beauty is that on the journey to achieve your particular dream, HAPPINESS can be found in the very first step you take down that road and will be with you, growing and blossoming, all the way. [Sermon over]

Team GB - ITU LOng Distance World Championships

I Just managed to get this from the Team Manager. You can see me squinting like a deranged man at the front in my Union Jack cycling Jersey.

Click to enlarge

Most awesome stuntman ever

(Courtesy of Ivie and Ivie's Dad)

F1 News and Magic Roundabout

(F1 courtesy of Ian Hay & Roundabout courtesy of Bryan Payne - both of these had me chortling out loud and after a stressful two days putting together a RFP and finally finishing it I needed a good chortle)

F1 NEWS

The Ferrari F1 team fired their entire pit crew yesterday.

This announcement followed Ferrari's decision to take advantage of the British government's 'Work for your Dole' scheme and employ some Liverpudlian youngsters.

The decision to hire them was brought about by a recent documentary on how unemployed youths from Toxteth were able to remove a set of wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment, whereas Ferrari's existing crew could only do it in 8 seconds with millions of pounds worth of high tech equipment.

It was thought to be an excellent, bold move by the Ferrari management team as most races are won and lost in the pits, giving Ferrari an advantage over every other team.

However, Ferrari got more than they bargained for! At the crew's first practice session, not only was the scouse pit crew able to change all four wheels in under 6 seconds but, within 12 seconds, they had re-sprayed, re-badged and sold the car to the McClaren team for 8 cases of Stella, a bag of weed and some photos of Lewis Hamilton's bird in the shower.

MAGIC ROUNDABOUT

Bryan Payne and John Barclay

(Courtesy of Mohan the Great)

Here's a picture of Bryan up to his old antics and embarrassing John Barclay again (although John seems to be laughing along). Not sure where this was taken but it might have been at the Lousville Ironman expo in 2008. In my opinion Bryan belongs in a zoo!