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Quick Beat; Slow Feet
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I did all my swimming before Joey Hannon in a 20 metre pool, I found the 50m pool way tougher, I think you will find you have an advantage on saturday.
Good luck this weekend, as I said to myself when I first started reading your log that you are going to be fast straight away.
Lucky %^%%^*(%
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Firstly, Thanks for all the good wishes, the words of encouragement and the advice from all of you throughout this log, it's much appreciated. I don't know if others do the same, but during most, if not all, of my races I think about the people here on boards or about what I will write in the race report later - I'm a feckin' looney bin.:o
I got home after work yesterday evening and gave Mrs M a hand to get the kids sorted and into the car as they were having a sleepover in their grannies, which they were very excited about. I then hit the road and collected my bro in Belfast and headed out to Portglenone where himself and his wife live. It was good to catch up with them as I hadn't seen them in a good no. of weeks.
Got up at 7:30ish and had some porridge with honey, a boiled egg, tea and toast and a pancake! I also had a berocca and put a nuun tablet in some water for the trip in the car. I said goodbye, and headed on up the road to Limavady at 10ish. There were some lovely views on the way up, a nice part of the country. When I arrived at the leisure centre I drove out the cycle route to see what the lay of the land was - rolling hills - not my cup of tea! It was a general climb for most of the way out over the ups and downs, but at about 8km there was this serious decent - holy cow man that was going to be difficult on the way back. The only saving grace was that there was a climb out of it, so there would be a decent into it before the steep ascent on the way back. Stopped at a shop and had a cup of coffee, a breakfast bar, a banana and pear.
Back to the leisure centre and start to get set up - I have to get more organised with the set ups so that I'm not walking in and out to the transition area and the leisure centre about a dozen times, forgetting to bring or do this that or the other! I blame it on the nervous excitement that comes just before doing these triathlons. I had a Nuun tab in the water for the bike and two gels stuck in the straps of the saddlebag. I was chatting to a fair few heads here and there during the set up and met most of them again after. A great crowd it has to be said. One lad near my car was getting his bike ready and asked me how hard his tyres should be - they were practically flat. This was his first tri and he had borrowed the bike - a nice bike it was though, so I pumped them up with my standy uppy pump thing which I got with the bike - he was well chuffed then. I met him after and he had done sub 1:15. He had said his swim was his strong point.
This is getting very long winded - sorry. Before long it was time to get ready for our start at 13:15, so that I did, then went out for a quick stretch of the legs and a few stretches. I met another lad who was in the same heat and lane as me - hoping for a 18min swim. His first tri also. At the end of heat 3 we headed over to the side of the pool. I was able to wear my light blue hat as that didn't clash with other coloured hats in our lane. I had to go to the loo - again! Probably took too much water on board during the morning. Anyway, when I got back to the pool the others were all in the water ready for off, and one of the race referees was going through some rules - there had been no race briefing. I got into the water and happened to be in the 2nd place in our swim so I was asked predicted time by no.3 and I said aorund 17mins. He was the same so he told me to stay where I was - grand. I was fairly focussed at this point, was confident from my recent swimming and was determined to hold my position in the pool. The race director said he was going to tell the first in each lane to go and then wait for 2 secs for the next to go and so on. So no.1 goes and then 2 sec and away I went. I focussed on a good long smooth(ish) stroke, didn't worry too much what the legs were doing, but I was kicking fairly well, but not constantly. [I had watched the video on the flutter kick that interested posted a few days back (thanks again) but also flicked into a few other videos - one of which was about pushing off the wall - about putting your two feet on the wall and putting your whole body under the water and pushing off under the water, this way you cover a lot of meters at the start of each length - I had not usually done it his way.] So I did this on every single length. After 3 lengths I was hitting the feet of the bloke ahead of me. So he stopped at the wall to let me by. I then sprinted for a length or two too make sure he wasn't clipping my feet - he wasn't. So I settled back down too a more comfortable pace. I ended up lapping the last bloke (twice) and the no.3 lad once. Now, there was no rule in the race documentation about not passing mid lane or tapping feet to let people by, (but which we had agreed on before the off). But, when I got the tap on the head telling me I had 2 lengths left (I had counted them all and knew the tap was coming). Anyway I went hell for leather kicking the legs fast as per Bjorn's advice (the Thurs morn coach) and I caught up with and was ready to lap the bloke who had initially set off first. In the heat of the moment I swam right up beside him, but he put up a fight and was not letting me by - he was swinging hims arms like mad and we clipped our arms a few times. (Bjorn would be proud - he has spoke about just swimming over people once or twice). I backed down and fell in behind him and he let me past at the wall for my last length. Delighted with the swim, I was first out of lane 5. Half way through it I was thinking "this is what it feels like to lead out a group - as MCOS often writes about in his log"!
Got out of the pool, thanked the lane counters, and whipped off the hat and goggles and took out the earplugs as I made my way out the door and ran for the bike. Transition went well - onto the towel and give the feet a wipe whilst putting on my helmet, on with the shades and unrack the bike. No drying of hair or putting on a top or socks this time round (couldn't have catweazle laughing at me reading that again:p). Over the dismount and hop onto the bike. I got the feet into the shoes, but I could do with more practice at this as it took a fair bit longer than I know it should. I had remembered for once to start the watch at the start of the swim, but had forgotten to look at the watch at the end of the swim. So when I looked at it after a couple of hundred metres on the bike it read 17:xx. So I suspect its a 16 min ish swim - the results are not up yet, but I will post them when they are. I took the first gel in the first km. It is from actually doing a race that you know where the work is needed for next time - for me it's the bike. The legs were sore from the swim and didn't seem to have any power in them for the first 5 or 10 mins on the bike out up the first drag of hills. I need to do more swim/bike bricks. I was glancing at the computer fairly frequently and was disheartend to see avg speed of low 20s kph. On a training spin I could do more. The bike course was roughly north south and there was a SW wind so there was a fair cross/headwind also on the way out (there has to be an excuse!!) I was passed by 1 or 2 fairly soon and then later on by another 1 or 2. One of which was a bloke about 50ish who had been the no.3 guy in our swim lane. Another was a heavy set lad who seemed to have great power for the bike. I thanked the police and marshals at the junctions who were great at halting the traffic at the junctions until the bikes went by. Eventually I got to the steep decent and put it in to the high gears and ended up coming off the tri bars as at 56.7kph I was starting to get a bit wobbly. Got to the turn around and started back. The hill wasn't too bad as I was half way up it before I had to get off the saddle. I passed a bloke on this hill, and then later passed the heavy set lad but he passed me again later. The return leg was generally more downhill overall, and the wind was more on my back, but there was a savage crosswind every now and again which I felt in the front wheel. The return went by fairily quick. On the way back into the town I took the 2nd gel. On approaching the dismount line I discovered that I had forgotten to remove my feet from the shoes (I kept doing this also in my practice run last Wed evening - sh!t) so I had to unclip the shoes fairly lively and run in the shoes to rack the bike. Transition 2 went well enough, but not ideal. I racked the bike, removed the shoes and wiped the grit from my feet and put on my runners. The runners were laced up as I always do but they were difficult to get on and I had to stamp them on (maybe those elastic laces might'nt be a bad idea after all). Off with the helmet and shades and away I go. From the bike computer the stats are: Time 39:05, Dist 20.36km, Avg 31.3 km/h and Max 56.7km/h. Had aspired to a higher avg speed but that was before I saw the route or felt the legs after the swim. I'm happy enough with the avg speed, but it could be better (must pick a flatter course next time out)
I started out on the run from transiton concentrating on straightening up and keeping the legs ticking over until the feeling came back to them and then I would push on more. So the run went out the same road but we had to cross the and take a turn off it and out into a wooded park. A nice enough run but with a few kerbs to be hoped. I got to the turn around an gave it socks from there back. I had passed a few on the way out and one or two on the return and hadn't been passed. I picked it up again as I neared about a km to go. Around this point I spotted one of the marshals up ahead with a bottle of water and cups. I put out my hand when I caught his eye to signal that I was going for some water, but by the time I got to him he still hadn't the lid off the bottle, I let a sigh and motored on - it would have been nice but wasn't essential. We had to run in the gate of the leisure centre and do a 180 degree turn to the finish line which was about 25m away from the gate so I slowed down to turn and sprinted for the finish. I stuck the hands in the air as I passed under the finish line, chuffed knowing that I had PBed and that I had come in under 1:15. I stopped the watch a few moments later while talking to one or two heads and it read 1:14. So happy days man.
It was a well run race and the race director and marshals were relaxed throughout which was great to see. The results are still not up - meh!
I enjoyed this one more than the last as I knew what to expect and was more preparred for the pain! We were lucky with the weather - cloudy, but no rain, which had threatened earlier. I had a great day and had good banter with all that I spoke with, including the race director and 'Glen' the chip man who I initially met in the hotel before TriLaoise and met again at the Limerick Half.
Must try to be briefer in future race reports.
Results: 40th position out of 158.
Swim 14:56 (96th), T1 00:54, Cycle 38:28 (55th), T2 01:04, Run 18:26 (15th), Total 01:13:46
Goody bag contents: race belt, CD (Paddy Nash and the Happy Enchiladas - When we were Brave) (Don't know what happened the t-shirt as advertised!!)
Post race nosh: As much tea/coffee crisps and sandwiches of all sorts that you could eat.
The young bloke whos tyres I pumped up had a swim of 10:25 (3rd) and 44th Overall. I hope he keeps at the tris as I don't think he had done a whole lot of bike or run training, so he has great potential.0 -
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Great race Macanri, savage stuff in the pool, you may work on the aul elbows though I say that poor fella nearly sh!t himself when you appeared beside him like an animal.
Nice bike performance as well - did you take a chance on the leap of faith?? I got left behind by a bloke in his late fifties on the bike in a duathlon last year - never saw him again until the race was over :rolleyes:
Nice report too, fair play, you sound really chuffed, I'm delighted for you0 -
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Great race Macanri, savage stuff in the pool, you may work on the aul elbows though I say that poor fella nearly sh!t himself when you appeared beside him like an animal.
Nice bike performance as well - did you take a chance on the leap of faith?? I got left behind by a bloke in his late fifties on the bike in a duathlon last year - never saw him again until the race was over :rolleyes:
Nice report too, fair play, you sound really chuffed, I'm delighted for you
Cheers Dusty, Yea delighted with the race; CW linked the results - I was looking and didin't notice them. Will post them above.
Re the elbows in the pool, I don't think he shat himself one bit...he put up a valiant counter which made me back off. He was a big biker looking dude with earings and a big beard and was about twice my height:eek:, all he was missing was a Harley.
What has helped my swimming is spending plenty of time in the pool and also swimming in the group coached sessons on the Thurs morning. Stick with your swimming, I was in the exact same boat only a few months back, just keep up the swim sessions and it will all come together all of a sudden like.
I went out on the bike last Wed evening specifically to practice the mount and dismount. I didn't gather enough guts to try the leap of faith but what I do is close-ish, run with the bike, two hands onto handlebars, left foot onto peddle and swing over the right foot. I managed to catch the bloke in his 50s on the run.
Thanks for the link to the results CW - I was looking in the wrong place for them! Yea well happy with the time (my second tri, the 1st was TriLaoise (1:22:19)) so a fair few minute knocked off.Well done Macanri and a good report (Race reports are meant to be long winded). 1.15 for your first, great performance. Looks like from the results I am guessing you were inside top 50
http://www.triangletriathlon.org/
Whens your next tri?
Cheers Misty glad you enjoyed it. Really looking forward to the next one - it will be my first open water - it's a super sprint distance so odd distances 500m/16km/6km so will try hard but really going to focus on enjoying it first and foremost. It's in Blackrock, Dundalk my home county of Lovely Louth.misty floyd wrote: »Brilliant stuff Macanri. I really enjoyed that read, enjoy the buzz.
Cheers man whens your next race?Well done Macanri, great stuff.0 -
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