News Sports

Our Community Health and Wellbeing Ambassador  ABL Health  have given us the low down on reading and understanding food labels. Food labels spark a lot of interest and questions. On the surface, reading a food label sounds like it would be straightforward as after all, by law, there are certain things which must appear. But on closer inspection, this may not always be the case. At first glance, what are the things that you notice? The product’s name, maybe its flavour, either a best before or use by date, the weight or amount in the packet, the brand. Looking closer, you should also be able to find an ingredients list (it might be in smaller print) with any allergens highlighted in bold and some nutrition information, some form of table or headline messages, for example ‘reduced fat’ or ‘gluten free’. All of these things must be on the label somewhere by law along with one or two others. When trying to determine if a food or drink is a healthier choice for you, the easiest way is t

We caught up with Alison Hamlett from London Marathon Events for her to explain the health benefits of open water swimming and why you should consider entering the Swim Serpentine event organised by London Marathon Events. When the health benefits of the Japanese practice of ‘forest bathing’ hit the headlines recently, we were reminded about the many health benefits of open water swimming. Forest bathing is proven to lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduce stress hormone production, boost the immune system and improve overall feelings of wellbeing. So if you’re wondering whether to take the plunge at Swim Serpentine, you might be interested to hear that swimming in open water promotes both physical and mental wellbeing in much the same way as a stroll through the trees. From enhancing your happiness to boosting your immune system, open water swimming offers a variety of health benefits. We’ve put together a magnificent seven reasons why you should go for a cold-water dip somet

Club La Santa is our place in the sun and it is the number one sports and active holiday resort in the world. We’re delighted to announce that Club La Santa has become an official partner of Swim Serpentine, the UK’s leading open water swimming festival. Through the partnership, Club La Santa will be offering activity holidays in its spectacular Lanzarote location including specialist swim training camps with open water swimming training, strokes and techniques. Swim Serpentine is a one-day open water swimming festival staged in the heart of London and the third edition takes place on Saturday 22 September. Organised by London Marathon Events, the festival is held in and around the beautiful Serpentine in Hyde Park, the venue for the open water swimming competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Club La Santa will feature in the Swim Serpentine festival in Hyde Park this year, promoting its activity holidays and offering yoga sessions, face painting and festival giveaways. Bre

Running has been recognised as one of the most beneficial forms of exercise.   Our Community Health and Wellbeing Ambassador ABL Health have given us a few reasons why you might want to consider lacing up a pair of running shoes! 1) The obvious benefits Running isn’t just a fantastic workout for your legs – it’s also been proven to offer amazing benefits for many other areas of the body – such as improving your bone density which will help prevent the development of osteoporosis and arthritis. Running will improve your cardiovascular fitness making your heart and your lungs stronger and don’t forget the effect it has on your appearance – the more you run, the more weight you’ll lose. 2) A new hobby Maybe you’re on the look-out for a new hobby which will help you get fit! Why not consider running? There’s no better way to spend your free time than doing something you enjoy and that will be beneficial to your health. 3) Social running Running is a great exercise to put in you

During my 50 plus years of running, I have ran in over 100 countries and as you can imagine many of them are really different climates, terrains and support from the crowds differ massively. What I am really pleased to say is that over the past few years, I believe the UKFast City of Salford 10k has grown in numbers of runners but also those supporters around the start and finish line and out on the course – this is so important for every single runner whether they are a 30 minute 10k runner or a fun runner. The course which myself and Graham the Sports Tours International Race Director have come up with is one we hope is pretty flat which will be welcome reading to many of you, but one which takes you past some of the areas biggest and best landmarks. With MediaCityUK’s transformation in recent years into the an international hub for technology, innovation and creativity – the impressive high rise glass fronted buildings of the BBC and ITV studios gives you the runner a really uniq

Team Sports Tours International ready to go! 101 Bees have been placed along a specially designed trail, running the length and breadth of the city, in one of the most spectacular public art events the city has ever seen. Each Bee has been designed by a different artist and celebrates the unique buzz of Manchester, from its industrial heritage to its vibrant music scene. Yesterday, all of the companies who have sponsored a Bee where invited to Manchester Central to compete in the Bee in the City sponsor challenge. The rules were that you had to have a minimum of 4 people in a team, to get as many of the Bees as possible in 2 hours 6 minutes, by any means possible, take a team photo with the Bee, tweet your picture using #bitcsponsorchallenge. Amazingly 30 teams entered the race so there was a lot of people ‘buzzing’ around Manchester to try get their photos taken. Obviously, given our sporting heritage, Team Sports Tours International’s way of getting around Manchester was to

We are asking everyone who has come across our brilliant bike mechanics on one of our trips to to vote for your favourite bike mechanics and then we will quiz your favourites before finally inviting them to a skills test final at the Manchester Velodrome to determine Britain’s Best Bike Mechanic. VOTE NOW FOR BRITAIN’S BEST MECHANIC To jog your memories, we would like to (re) introduce our mechanics to you. Have a look below and we look forward to your support of these great guys. Roy Pearson Roy built his experience servicing hundreds of bikes at Ribble Cycles and Dolan Bikes, building countless wheels at Hewitt Cycles and surviving Pro Cycling without much sleep at the Tour of Britain when working for the United Healthcare Pro Cycling Team. As well as working as a mechanic, Roy is also one of our expert guides and he has raced at an elite level. Not so long ago, he was in the same race as the Yates Brothers. So when Simon Yates rode away from the entire GC to the surprise of the