Sprint to Olympic

Krusty_Clown

Best of luck Ladytri. Hope the bike holds-up!

ladytri

July 12th
I'll start by getting my excuses out of the way...
Excuse 1: Not enough sleep
Wedding on Saturday night in Dublin. All very nice and managed to leave at 11.30 for the 2 hour drive home without too much drama. Hotel is right beside the RDS where "The Boss" was playing and managed to embed myself in the exodus that was the Country Fans leaving after the gig...took me over an hour to drive to Stephens Green. I could see my 5 hours sleep being reduced by the minute:eek:
Got about 3 hours sleep in the end.
Excuse 2: Gale Force winds
Got up on Sunday morning, weather looked nice...in Roscommon. Not so when I arrived in Rosses point, very windy, very very windy.

Headed to the beach for the swim start, was supposed to be a run from the beach...I was bloody terrified, i couldn't hear the person talking beside me it was that windy, the waves were ridiculous. I stupidly stayed right at the back and was last one into the water...I'm really annoyed with myself because I'm a strong enough swimmer and managed to move about half way through the field on the swim but never passed anyone on the bike or the run because it was so spread out.
Swallowed half the atlantic ocean and had a little dry wretching in T1, very slow transition because of it. Thought I was waaaay in the back of the pack and disgusted with myself, didn't take time to look around transition to see what bikes were left...Off on the bike and straight away had to have my little chat to myself about just try to finish, feck the times...1st olympic so just relax...bla bla bla...bike was tough coming back into a headwind, so bad I was actually looking forward to getting off and doing the run:eek: Tried eating a nutri grain bar which was hilarious, like eating bloody cardboard when your mouth is still full of salt water... but did take in a few sips of lucozade sport and almost 750mls of water, probably not enough.
T2 wasn't too bad, had a socks, no socks dilemma..faffed about a bit with my knee strap and went without both in the end.
Hill start for the run, legs felt surprisingly ok so re-consoled myself that i managed not to overcook it on the bike, stuck with a lovely man for pacing for the first few k then he slowly pulled away from me, I started to notice my calves cramp up but it was a managable pain...then an old knee injury reared its ugly head- I put it down to not being used to pounding on roads, all my runs are on forest trails. The nail in the coffin was the horrendous stitch about 3km from the finish, I was devastated-thought that was the end of it...
reduced to a snails pace I gave in and walked for 3 minutes. I can still feel the pain in my side now from it. I had planned on taking water on at the 2nd water station but f**kin' missed it!
Managed to run the last 2km to the finish and an overall time of 2.48 something, was told I finished in the top 10 females but haven't seen the results yet. The official photographer got me just as I crossed the line having my little fit of turrets.
All in all, a lot done, WAAAAAY more to do

MCOS

ladytri wrote: »

The official photographer got me just as I crossed the line having my little fit of turrets.

LOL Well done on first OD ladytri! Shame about missing teh 2nd water stop but you did very well so don't beat yourself up Top 10 ladies is smashing!

Abhainn

It seems that was a tough one. Bloody wind is a spoiler.
Happy now I did the Salmon run previous day .
Well done, funny report , and I'm sure you'll be back for more!

Seres

well done , sounds like it was really tough , which you were expecting however weather conditions and the stitch certainly seemed to add to the pain , great to get in the top ten for an OD , onwards and upwards

Krusty_Clown

You're very hard on yourself. Result-wise you did great, and you've listed 50 reasons (almost!) why you can go quicker (and improve on your fab result) the next time. From running, I know that you never learn anything from a race in which everything goes smoothly. You learn from the ones in which you make mistakes. Enough of the zen-moment. Celebrate, you did great.

ladytri

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

From running, I know that you never learn anything from a race in which everything goes smoothly. You learn from the ones in which you make mistakes.

Yes Sensai...how come you are so wise?? Never a truer word said!

Krusty_Clown

ladytri wrote: »

Yes Sensai...how come you are so wise??

From watching Mystery Men, and listening to Roy Keane.

ladytri

Still no results from metalman. looking forward to seeing the breakdown:rolleyes:

15th July
AM
20km(ish) cycle 38 min 30
this is a pretty easy out and back cycle from the house. Think my cycling might be back to where I was at the end of the year last year, I'm a bit concerned that I've been working on longer, hill cycles at the expense of speed.

MrCreosote

Nice report on the Metalman Ladytri. Sounds like a very tough day!

ladytri

Oh I love competing in a sport with not many women:)
Metalman results just in:
9th woman overall*
3rd in age group**
Great photos on the website too.
WED 15TH JULY
PM
OW swim; either I'm still fecked after sunday or I'm swimming backwards. 500m 9.45! Back 9.15 -was doing this in 8 a couple of weeks ago.

5km run: 23.45
Not sure what to do today and tomorrow before Athlone. Had intended on doing 1 more run but think I'm still wrecked from last week so tempted to rest...anyone any advice?


*out of 20!!
**out of 8!!

Abhainn

ladytri wrote: »

Not sure what to do today and tomorrow before Athlone. Had intended on doing 1 more run but think I'm still wrecked from last week so tempted to rest...anyone any advice?

Ohh.. not very wise racing twice in 7 days especially as the Metalman was tough and duration of race was long.
Sprint or Olympic in Athlone?
Rest today. Very easy stuff tomorrow, maybe short spin, then short jog.
Bed early tonight

Seres

well done great result , i wouldnt bother posting the unnecessaries .ie no in age group or no of ladies competing , remember once ran in all ireland , told everyone i came 6th , which was also last , everyone though i was fantastic
when i asked question re training race week i was adviced : if race sat , take thursday rest day and quick brick friday , 20min bike and 10min run at race pace just to keep the body fresh , this was advice for sprint tri
good luck sat or sunday (whichever ) , off to have a look at those metalman photos

MCOS

Good results for you there ladytri. Yep to echo what the guys said Rest or v v easy today (you raced OD last wknd) and a quick brick tomorrow. Lots of sleep tonight. I'll just be doing a recovery run this evening and maybe a short easy swim.. all to loosen me up after last nights session. Tomorrow I'll take the bike out for a quick spin. Its sitting at home with a puncture and a sad face right now

ladytri

Thanks Lads!
Abhainn, I know the 2 races together was a bit mental...was feeling very fit when I registered for both of them!
I'm only doing the sprint in Athlone so HOPING I'll be alright.
Going to go with the easy brick tomorrow so...

Tritrier

Well done on Metalman ladytri!

Where are the results and photos? Can't see them on the Sligo Tri Website.

ladytri

Hi Tritrier
there in the "Metalman" section of the site
heres the link to the photos, he has half a million of me making a balls of getting out of my wetsuit...:p
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=4928162&g=01&s=200

jb-ski

well done on Sun, Ladytri.

enjoy saturday, it's only a sprint:).

see ye soon.

ladytri

well done yourself jb-ski! you did a savage run, you're swim and cycle has really improved aswell

ladytri

17th July
On the advice of my trusty boards peers did a 25 minute cycle and a 12 minute run... is it wrong that these felt a bit tough?

Heading to Athlone tonight to register and check the bike into transition, it's only about an hours drive, takes a bit of pressure off tomorrow morning.
Good luck to anyone else who's doing it!

Seres

best of luck morro , will probably seem really quick & easy after last weeks OD
Anyone else doing it with ya?

ladytri

Just me and Padraig from the club, I know one of the girls who trains on and off with us is doing it too and I've also got a friend from Dublin coming down for it- its only her second tri and I know she's going to whip my ass in the swim:)

Seres

ladytri wrote: »

Just me and Padraig from the club, I know one of the girls who trains on and off with us is doing it too and I've also got a friend from Dublin coming down for it- its only her second tri and I know she's going to whip my ass in the swim:)

ya but she probably knows you'll be on her tail for the rest of it , enjoy !

MrCreosote

good luck tomorrow. Should be a great event with so many doing it.

MCOS

Good luck yourself girlie Would you believe that when I when I entered TriAthlone a while back I figured it would be a low key local Tri.. how wrong was I!

ladytri

So, decided to head down on Friday night to register and drop the bike off. Lovely evening, great atmosphere around the place. The current in the river looked pretty strong but not undo-able to be honest. Heard people had issues on the training swim on Thursday trying to mount the pontoon so presumed it's appearance was deceptive.
Headed for the dinner of champions, a hot Thai curry and a glass if wine;)
After a good nights sleep headed in for 8 to get the briefing, queued for ages for the loos which was a bit annoying but headed off on schedule for my wave start.
Swim start was a bit of a trek and decided unlike last week I was going to position myself near the front.
First 200 meters went great and kept in the front of the pack until a little disaster struck and my goggles completely fogged up. I kept thinking of the Irish swimmer in Beijing who stopped in the middle of a race to fix her goggles and decided to plough as best I could instead of sorting them out... Yes, I am comparing my mere mortal amateur dilemma to that of an Olympic athlete!!
Got really bad so I found someones feet to follow for the rest of the swim unfortunately her pace was a luttle slower than mine...anyway I swam full force into the pontoon, made a balls of getting out, most ungraceful...it took 2 or 3 marshalls to haul me out, I was completely blind and they had me by the arms so I couldn't get me goggles off- looked hilarious! I looked up to see all 2000 triathletes watching so managed to pull myself together... Here's where I shone, T1... My best position of the day was how quickly I got through the labyrinth that was transition, all that training on the bike, in the pool, in the park and my real talent lies in taking my wetsuit off:)
Cycle went well and played tag with a couple of girls on pretty serious looking bikes, pulled away from the after the turnaround, cycle clocked in over 22km...
Felt fine going out on the run but didn't push myself as much as I could've to be honest, felt too fresh at the end of it...
Overall 1.26, 55 overall position, 15th age group position, well happy with that. Now I'm not competitive or anything BUT the icing on the cake was coming in 3 minutes before a girl who came in a good 10 minutes before me in metalman...
Score!!
Good day, they really need more loos though!

MrCreosote

Good times! Especially with the metalman just done.

Seres

well done , seems to have been a fairly big field , was it really well organised ?

ladytri

Massive field so really pleased with it! Think there were about 150 in my age group and about 400 overall... although only about 340 finished.
Organised with military precision which it has to be with that many competitors. Wouldn't rush back to it to be honest, its just too big.

Seres

ladytri wrote: »

Massive field so really pleased with it! Think there were about 150 in my age group and about 400 overall... although only about 340 finished.
Organised with military precision which it has to be with that many competitors. Wouldn't rush back to it to be honest, its just too big.

thats funny , i was thinking of slotting it into my next year program
do you see any of the elite ?