Continuing our look at the athletes who took part in the Gym Ironman on Saturday 8^th March….

Male winner

Liam Florey rightly takes his place now into the Elite of Gym X – Training (although he has yet to achieve status in WGC) It is testament to his continued work effort that his results are influencing the outcomes of the leader boards and with his victory on Saturday, I think the name Liam Florey will be name on peoples lips that the male advance races leaders will be chasing.

Previous winners

Liam’s performance on Saturday was arguably one of the best ever. The link between Rich Vints performance in 2012 has striking similarities in place. With the removal of the Weight Carry there is just a three second differential in end times. Probably (and we will never know) one of the best performances ever , but still a bit off Hywel Davies performance in 2007.

Gym Ironman 2014

I caught up with Liam and asked him about training at Southampton Virgin Active and what makes that gym so special in producing outstanding athletes. Liam remarked “There’s a group of around 6 or 7 of us now who train together. I train mainly with Scott Parry who won the Intermediate today, doing lots of hill running, lactic tolerance sessions. And a session with Ty Whitlock who runs a X Training class once a week ” Does anybody else influence in the club I asked? “ Ben Williams” he added “ He  also runs a circuit class which is different to Ty’s,  probably more strength orientated to Ty’s which is probably more CV endurance”

Liam pushing out the 50 @ 50 kg

Taking on board Liam’s rise to the top of Gym X –Training I asked him how many times he trains a week “ Six times a week , and then on  Sunday we do a really tough session on St Catherine’s Hill in Winchester, it has something like 385 steps carved into a really steep incline and we do to sprints there which is great for the explosive work. When you get to the top, you recover for 30 seconds and then go again”

Looking around at Liam who at times seems almost oblivious to his incredible achievement of the day , I pushed him towards what the future holds “I’m just  really enjoying the races at the moment , I just want to establish myself and keep winning.  Id like to do what Rich Vint did for a number of years . I feel I have more to give and haven’t peaked yet” 

Looking towards potential sponsors I asked Liam if he has approached anyone or more importantly has anybody approached him? “ No not yet, I may approach innov8 trainers as I use them a lot and probably got around 60 or so people to switch to them from my friends and contacts ”

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To be honest there really should be some recognition from Virgin Active here. What Liam has achieved in such a short time is near on the incredible out of this world marker, for Virgin Active as a gym chain to not recognise this is a bit like Formula One not recognising Ferrari as a machine!

Scott Parry

Brief word with Scott parry Winner of the male Intermediate

I asked Scott was his plans were for the rest of the year. Scott replied “ I’m going to stay at Intermediate level to get more experience. It’s the path Liam took and I aim to follow. So possibly next year will be my introduction to the advanced races. The Gym Ironman at Intermediate is more or less and Advanced normal race so they become almost a good marker for an Intermediate to see what racing at the Advanced is like.

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Look out for Scott . Good athlete and very exciting prospect for future Advanced races.