World AG Triathlon Champs, Budapest 2010

NeedsTraining

Well done El, great performance.
Enjoy the after party now.

S. Goodspeed

I hear a lot of the Irish guys ended up doing an extra lap on the run because they were given the wrong information by TI. Is that right? Unbelievable. I hate to say it but it is "typically Irish". :mad:

nomadic

S. Goodspeed wrote: »

I hear a lot of the Irish guys ended up doing an extra lap on the run because they were given the wrong information by TI. Is that right? Unbelievable. I hate to say it but it is "typically Irish". :mad:

Didn't hear that. I didn't go to any of the TI briefings but it's really up to each individual to know the route and no of laps.It was fairly clear if anyone bothered to look at the website. There seemed to be a bit of confusion at the finish for people from every country though. One of the U23 bike groups even went the wrong way on their first lap which was amusing to watch.

amyodo

There was a good bit of confusion about laps. Most people I met were asking if you understood the olympic run course. Race briefing said 5km + 2x2.5km in one place and then another place said 8.5km + 1.5km. And it wasn't just the irish that were confused!

Having the transition and finish line so far apart and the race centre so far from town was just hassle you could do with out.

Thought the organisation/information/goody bag/atmosphere/etc were far better in Athlone for the Europeans.

warp_speed

There certainly was confusion on the run for the Olympic distance. At least one Irish athlete went astray. It's the responsibility of athletes to know the the route, but if:
- the race information on the website and briefing is wrong
- the wrong information is given to the team managers

.......... then what chance do you have!

The description on race the website is:

After the second transition, athletes have to run 5 km into the downtown of Budapest along the embankment of the Danube. After arriving to the finish area, triathletes will complete 2 laps (2,5 km each, nearly same as elite’s running course) in the city centre.


This is not correct. It was get to the finish and then do 1.5 laps. You can't blame TI for the event organisers not bothering to get the information correct

shotgunmcos

Back to work.. boo! It was a cool trip, great event, super experience An up and down day for me finishing in 2:05:35. 65th out of about 120 in my AG aint bad though Niaivety cost me dear on 2 counts . Shame the bike was short! My day started with a guy jumping off the pontoon straight onto my head! I'll post a report in the log when I get a chance...

Bambaata

Im off home tomorrow and was wondering was anyone's luggage and/or bike box weighed on the way home with Ryanair? Im over on both counts but didnt get weighed coming out.

shotgunmcos

Bambaata wrote: »

Im off home tomorrow and was wondering was anyone's luggage and/or bike box weighed on the way home with Ryanair? Im over on both counts but didnt get weighed coming out.

Hey Bambatta, My bike box was a hefty 32kg and my checked bag 17kg and nothing was said. There were about 10 of us with bike boxes though and they were relaxed with us all.

El Director

Hey Bambatta. My bike box weighted 34kg! The girl informed me that the limit was 32kg. She then weighed it on another scale and it showed the same-34kg. She said that I wouldn't be allowed bring it....but....using the old irish charm I said pleased and I have a special look that never fails

My other luggage was 19.8kg!

Bambaata

cool. weighed it at home before coming out at 27/28kg so i should be fine

El Director

here is the pic guys.....I should have really renamed the file!

tunney

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Back to work.. boo! It was a cool trip, great event, super experience An up and down day for me finishing in 2:05:35. 65th out of about 120 in my AG aint bad though Niaivety cost me dear on 2 counts . Shame the bike was short! My day started with a guy jumping off the pontoon straight onto my head! I'll post a report in the log when I get a chance...

A 56:00 bike - how short was it?
Looks like the run was short too?

Anyone got readable results?

Bambaata

bike was about 5km short. some say 4.5, some say 5.5. the run was spot on. i had it at 10.21 on my garmin and that included the run of about 150/200m out of transition. I must do my report tonight!

Bambaata

Build Up
I flew out to Budapest on Tuesday so I had plenty of time to acclimatise. My girlfriend, sister and her boyfriend were coming out the Friday so I had no distractions or pressure to go out on the town! I woke Wednesday to find I had a sore left hamstring and this was a bit of a concern! I hadn’t suffered from anything all year and I’m still not sure why this happened. I just took it easy in the few bike/run sessions with some short pacey stuff to keep me in tune. Any hint of an ache and I backed off and I took 1 full day of no running/biking to give it a rest. Luckily this seemed to work and by Saturday I was fine. I also grabbed all the available swim course familiarisation sessions (bar the Saturday) so was happy with where I was at.

Goals
I had set goals for the three disciplines and was hoping I could crack all 3. Swim wise I was aiming at a 24:30 or so. I knew drafting was going to be hard as the Danube is a milky/concrete colour! I couldn’t see 2 inches in front of me and could even see my own hand extended! I have also had some issues panicking in some recent races so I took the decision to stay wide and not get involved in the battles going on in the first 100m. That would be as fast as I’d done all year. Knowing the bike was to be 1km short (more on this later!) I was fairly confident of breaking the hour for the 38.9km (as advertised) and run wise I was hoping against hope that I could scrape a 36:59. I hadn’t run anything like that all year and knew it would be a bit of an ask but if there’s big goals there’d be nothing pushing me along! Lastly I just wanted to be top half and hopefully beat some Brits ;-)

Race Day:
The weather in the build up had been fairly horrendous. The sprint guys had a seriously bad day on the Saturday but thankfully I was greeted to no rain as the alarm clock went at 4:30 the Sunday morning. I got the tram down and had everything setup in plenty of time.

Swim:
I was a bit disappointed that they literally let us in the water and had us going 5 seconds later! The water was very cold all week (about 15C) and it was a bit of a shock to be starting that soon after dunking in! Thankfully I had got a wide position on the pontoon and thus didn’t get involved in any of the tussles going on around. I went for clear water for the first 200m to ensure I was calm and this seemed to help a lot. No panicking which had been a concern. After this 200m I started grabbing some feet and stayed calm. I’m not so good at the swimming lark and was still trying to adjust my horrendous position. I think I’ve finally got some success with a new thing I hadn’t thought of before. One (of many) of my main issues is my feet drag down a lot no matter how much I push my chest/head down. This makes me drag along but in the build up I heard someone chatting to someone else at one of the swim practices that keeping the hips high can help and so I was doing this all week. I felt much better in the water keeping this in mind and somehow exited in 23:49 which is a pb by quite some margin! This left me 74th of the 107.

T1:
T1 wasn’t quite as quick as it should have been. It was a long run to the bike and I was quite dizzy so I lost 1 more spot in T1 exiting in 2:16 (52/107)

Bike:
I immediately got up close to a group of about 8 or 9 on lap 1 and began to realise what the bike was going to be like! They were sucking eachother’s wheels like no tomorrow. I made a conscious decision that I wouldn’t get involved in any drafting but was more pissed off to realise I had no route around them. I was faster than all these guys but couldn’t approach for fear of getting done so I held my distance behind, sitting up at stages until I got the attention of a motorbike ref. I pointed at the group and basically told him to do something about it. He did but it took him a few km to fully break them up. I also couldn’t pass while he did this as he was blocking the route around. Finally about 2/3 into lap1 I passed them all and got motoring. Then just at the very last corner before the end of lap 1 (of 3) almost all of this group came around me both sides. I was going mental, I didn’t know what they were thinking but 10 seconds later I realised why they did this. They all pulled into the penalty box so were obviously going hard knowing they’d have a 2 min rest. The ref came past me then and I gave him a big thumbs up. It was good to see him nab them. Lap 2 was uneventful as I passed may more, it was nice to finally get the speed up around 42/43km/hr on the flats and not encounter another group, until lap 3 that is. Again I got caught in some traffic but again made sure I was more than enough back until I spotted a gap and went for it. It’s very frustrating to have to break on a flat, time trialist’s wet dream course but I was being particularly careful not to get a 2 min penalty. Over the course of the laps I realised that the course was going to be very very short! In the end I clocked it at about 35km. This was awful, particularly for a “World Champ” race. The bike is consistently my strong point and there were some guys ahead I had hoped to catch before the end of it but it wasn’t to be. I posted a 53:05 for 48th of 107. Looking at this as solely a time/placing makes me quite disappointed. I was hoping it would have been much higher up but I also know I lost lots of time dealing with cheats so im not too disheartened. It lifted me 14 spots to 61st.

T2:
T2 went fine, again it was long and I got out in 2:19 (48th/107). I did manage to gain one more spot and exited onto the run in 60th.

Run:
The first 5km of the run was along the banks of the Danube up into the city centre. I was going very comfortably but was very mindful not to stitch! I knew if I did I’d have been very disappointed so I held a little back, in hindsight I held too much back. Eventhough I was passing people the whole way I let too much time slip if I wanted to get in under 37mins. Up and over the chain bridge was a great experience and then to be met by possibly the best supporters I’ve ever witnessed was a real motivator. I went from 3:50/55 pace right up to 3:30 when I met these Trilogy guys beating out the “Ole, ole, ole, ole!” I must actually send their club a thanks. I really enjoyed their support. Lap 2 of the city centre was no different as they sang away at every Irish competitor they saw. Into the last 3km I realised this was my last race for 2010 and also realised that I hadn’t paced it right. I knew I had been too conservative but decided I’d just enjoy the final parts and passed a few more in doing so. Only 1 guy passed me in the run and he did run a 34min 10km. At the finish I had too much left and so it was a lesson learned. I still really enjoyed it and managed to post a 37:51 10km. At least the course was the full 10km and surprisingly I was 39th on the run. In the end I gained more spots and finished in 52nd.

Throughout my 2 seasons the bike has been the strongest of the 3 disciplines. Posting a better run than bike in Budapest has taught me something. I have realised part of the reason for this may be that my training on the run hasn’t been correct up until the start of August. Only in the final 5 weeks I realised my interval pace wasn’t really interval pace and likewise my easy wasn’t easy etc etc. I had a 3 week build, 2 week taper to Budapest and in those first 3 weeks I was finally running as I should have been all along. I’m glad I’ve learned it but am also disappointed the season is over!

2010 has been a fabulous season again for me. Ive improved immensely but for some reason I don’t feel as though I’m finished! I can’t quite put my finger on it! Ive a sad feeling leavng 2010 with no more races to work towards! I’m eagerly awaiting 2011 and am trashing out lots of potential goals. To go long, or not to go long, maybe halfway! (Thinking a 70.3 might be the best option) To go for a “quick” marathon or to maybe do some adventure/endurance runs/cycles! Who knows, it’s a pity they can’t all be done at once and maybe next year I’ll put up that training log I promised last year! For now I’m taking 1 to 2 more weeks off and then it’s all about 2011!

shotgunmcos

You had a great race Bambatta and thanks for the report. I see you may have clinched the NS in your AG too wrapping up a super season for you! Yeah it would be cool to have your log up here even if it was just ramblings about your journey and how you felt about sessions etc.. AKA like interested.. interesting without giving the game away!

Enjoy the down time and treat yourself. Perhaps pick a goal that will entice you to empty out on the day

Bambaata

cheers. unfortunately Conor Murphy, and most likely a few others, will be passing me once the results are finalised.

I like the idea of a rambling log, i do that well ;P

tunney

Bambaata wrote: »

2010 has been a fabulous season again for me. Ive improved immensely but for some reason I don’t feel as though I’m finished! I can’t quite put my finger on it! Ive a sad feeling leavng 2010 with no more races to work towards! I’m eagerly awaiting 2011 and am trashing out lots of potential goals. To go long, or not to go long, maybe halfway! (Thinking a 70.3 might be the best option) To go for a “quick” marathon or to maybe do some adventure/endurance runs/cycles! Who knows, it’s a pity they can’t all be done at once and maybe next year I’ll put up that training log I promised last year! For now I’m taking 1 to 2 more weeks off and then it’s all about 2011!

You definitely improved in getting pacing right and realising recovery is just as important as training. You should have a good 2011!

Macanri

Just seeing the race report now. Very well done Bambatta.
+1 on the log - would love to see some of your training sessions and thoughts on them. Ramble away - it's what the rest of us here do