Six months ago, Team Blizard’s Karen Lynch teamed up with our GB age group triathlete and BTF level 3 coach, Jono Frary, with the goal of transforming herself from a fun runner into an Ironman by September.

Six months on, Karen has indeed transformed herself into a GB age group duathlete, competing on the world stage in Spain earlier this month, and is a regular feature on podiums at domestic events up and down the country.

How has this single mother of two young children, who works full time, made such incredible improvements in her fitness, confidence and mental attitude to training and competition, in such a short space of time?

Here we look at how this impressive athlete has been nurtured by Team Blizard elite’s Jono Frary to become one of the best duathletes in the region, with ambitions to become one of the best in the world.



Firstly, let’s hear from Karen about how she feels her coaching set up with Jono has helped her reach her current enviable position.

She explains: “I wouldn’t have achieved what I have done in the last six months without Jono’s coaching. He is a great support, is always at the end of the phone for training and racing advice, as well as just general chats about any concerns I might have.

“Because my confidence has grown immeasurably, I have moved on to fortnightly training plans, and have had several fitness test to keep tabs on my improvements in each discipline.”

So what improvements has Karen made in the last six months?

In January, Karen’s fitness for each of the three disciplines were measured by Jono.

• Running: Her threshold pace was 4.55min/km.
• Swimming: Her 400m TT was 9:21.
• Cycling: She produced 269 watts maximum minute power.

In May and June, Karen was re-tested in all three disciplines. Here are her astonishing results:

• Running: 35 second improvement to 4:20min/km threshold pace.
• Swimming: 400m TT now 8:02. Karen has knocked a massive 1:19 off her 400m time, helped by Jono teaching her to swim bilaterally and improve her leg movements.
• Cycling: Improved by 17%/44 watts to 316 watts max minute power.

Her second batch of fitness tests were set up to specifically replicate her race fitness for duathlons. This involved her completing a mini-duathlon on the day, allowing Jono to put together a controlled race strategy for the ITU Duathlon World Championships in Spain, where she finished 17th overall.



As is often the case, the pressure of training and competition can create a lot of unwanted anxiety, which ultimately wastes energy. Jono has helped Karen overcome potentially crippling panic attacks in the water, with a simple swimming technique involving her ‘singing’ her strokes, ‘1, 2, 3 and repeat, 1,2,3 and repeat’. To prove Karen has overcome the anxiety, she recently completed a 5k open water swim in Lake Windermere!



How have Karen’s training gains been reflected in race performances?

Impressively, Karen earned her first GB vest within just a few months of training under Coach Frary, when she competed in Aviles in the World Duathlon Championships in June, placing 17th in her 35-39 category.

“It was surreal, I spent most of my time thinking, am I really here?” she explains with a smile. “It was just a great experience to get my GB kit on and enjoy the experience. I raced to the best of my ability and gave it everything I could.”

On the domestic front, she has started to move up the placement rankings, claiming two overall third female positions recently, one in a standard distance duathlon and the other in an Olympic triathlon. In the latter she also won her age category! The busy working mum is also well on the way to winning the Scunthorpe summer duathlon series, having already claimed victory in five races so far, with only two more needed to clinch the overall title.



What’s next for Karen?

Typically for a high-achieving athlete, Karen is hungry for more, and, although she knows she has already done incredibly well in such a short space of time, she is using 2016 as a building block for even greater things for the coming years, adding poignantly: “All my hard work will come to fruition.”

Long term, her next race for GB will be at the European Duathlon Championships, but she is also keen to earn her place at the 2017 World Championships in Canada by finishing highly at the Clumber Park qualifying event next spring. Encouragingly, she is full of ambition to represent her country in triathlons too, adding that “I just need to work on my swim!”



In the short term, she is training hard for two Olympic triathlons in July and August, the Blizard’s and Curly’s Supermile on August 12, her club’s relays, and then she will take on the Blizard’s Team Sprint Duathlon at Normanby Hall in September before her main event of the year - the Ironman!

Karen is characteristically enthusiastic about the Blizard’s and Curly’s events, adding: “They are all exceptional value, meaning everyone can get involved. You get great cake at the end, good quality t-shirts, and because Jono himself competes, he knows what we all want from each race, including brilliant pre-event information, tips and the videos. I highly recommend them all!”



What does Karen’s average training week look like?

“My average week consists of two one hour training sessions most days, with a rest day every other Sunday. Recovery tends to be active, such as steady and easy runs or bike sessions.

Monday
AM: 1 hour-plus on the turbo trainer before work. This used to be either a Z5 interval bike strengthening set, a hard session, but now I have moved to Ironman this has been replaced by a Z3 session, which is all about endurance.
Lunch: A hard threshold run on big hills.

Tuesday
AM: Swim technique session before work, with lots of legs and arm drills followed by 100 or 200m threshold sets.
PM: Pilates in the evening. Every other week I join the Blizard gang for a hard running session.

Wednesday
AM: Threshold swim set starting with 20mins of drills to work on my technique, followed by threshold sets. Or a threshold/Z3 turbo set on the bike.
PM: I either compete in the duathlon series, or I do an hour’s open water swimming.

Thursday
AM: Some mornings I get a lie in, otherwise its back to the pool for threshold and leg drills.
Lunch: Hard threshold run around the mountains of Killamarsh.

Friday
AM: Endurance swim, continuously swimming for a hour. I used to dread this session and had to keep stopping, now I just get on with it, I don’t stop at all and I no longer have anxiety!
Lunch: Either a recovery run or a Z3 run.

Weekends
“My training varies on Saturday and Sunday, depending on whether I am racing. If I am not racing, I might do a three and a half hour Z3 endurance bike ride, or a bike/run brick session, or an open water swim. However, there will always be a a long threshold run, which might include a 10 minute warm up, 10x5 min threshold with 60 secs recovery, or 20 min threshold with 2 minutes recovery and then another 20 minutes. By the end, I am normally wiped out, but feel great!”



How does Karen fit it all in?

Highlighting how determined and focussed she is on improving and reaching her fitness potential, here’s how Karen juggles it all:

Cycling: Gets up a 5am to complete sessions when her children are still asleep.
Swimming: Does all her swim sets on the way to work.
Running: All bar her Blizard training sessions on Tuesday evenings or weekends are completed in her lunch break at work.
Pilates: One Tuesday evening for an hour.

Karen explains further: “As a single mummy I never stop. I work very hard to make sure that my time with my children is not encroached upon at all. I do have a nanny, Kayleigh, who is fantastic and is like my family as I have none where I live. The children go to their dad’s every other weekend and Wednesday nights, so the majority of my races are on my kid-free weekends!

“However, I have made a lot of personal sacrifices too. I don’t go out very often, and I live with a notebook in my bag so I don’t forgot simple things like ironing! It’s about good time management, but also assessing whether the world will end if I don’t clean the windows this week - but due to my OCD, my house is very clean!

“I do have periods when I am tired and just want to drink wine, but then I remember why I’m doing the training, and my children often tell me how proud of me they are.”



What is Karen aiming for in her A race of the year at the Weymouth Ironman in September?

A journey that started with a request from her son Derry for her to “get him his own Ironman medal” is now well on the way to being completed, despite her initial fears that it would be ‘impossible’.

She adds: “As I get closer to it, I know I can do it. It will be tough, but I do these distances most weeks. Although I have goals for each section, at this stage I just want to complete it within my own personal goals. However, what I have learnt through this journey is that I like to compete to win. After the Ironman, I will sit down with Jono and discuss 2017, when I would like to be competing at Team GB level more, and racing more competitively.”