Fat and unfit to 2hr40min Hell of west in 1year

Trig1

Delighted with session today, swapped neighbours rear bike for mine and it did the job, no noise off the bike anymore, did 31k bike taking in the tt route I have done over the last few days, was a bit slow over the first few km as legs felt tired - hit 10k mark with dodgy speedo in 20mins, really started pushing from here and passed my house in 39.44mins- delighted with that, kept going for another 10k- did 31k in 57.58mins 32.1kph as per dodgy speedo.. straight into the house and on with the runners, onto treadmill for 3k racing pace, first km took handy 4.57mins, 2nd km 4.37mins 3rd km 4.12mins... felt great, looking forward to weekend

session..31km cycle 58mins,3k run <14mins

Trig1

Went out to twomilegate last night for my last openwater swim before Brianboru tri, spoke to a Lad out there who told me that the pier to the pontoon and back is 750m... so did this twice- felt fine and relaxed- last 375m back got a bit rough as water got very choppy, anyway I got through it in 31mins30secs..
session: 1500m o.w. swim, time:31mins30secs

Trig1

Starting to wind down now for race on sunday-- brought the bike out to Planet tri in killaloe last night as the gear cable snapped when i was trying to tweak the gears- disaster, anyway lads there were great- they had the bike fixed and the gears working perfectly for when I collected the bike at 4pm this evening and for only 25quid.. Wife dropped me out so cycled home taking a detour on my way- 33.5k at 60% max..1hr1min30secs..32.7kph... bike feels great thank god.. 1 more light run tmrw and thats it then before sunday..
session 33.5kcycle 1hr1min30secs 32.7kph

Dory Dory

Best of luck to you on Sunday.

Trig1

Thanks Dory, I'll need it, its supposed to be an extremely didfficult course. Anything under 3hrs and i'll be delighted

Trig1

Well this evening just did a nice light 5k on the treadmill..
just increased intensity from 10kph to 10.5kph with each km, finished with 2 mins at 12kph to stretch the legs, 5km in 29.30mins..
km 1 in 6mins, km 2 in 5min56, km 3 in 5mins52, km4 in 5mins47, km5 in <5mins30 felt very easy and legs feel fine.. fri and sat off so until my race report wish me luck :D

session 5k light on treadmill in 29mins30secs

Solobally8

Best of luck Trig1. I'm doing the Brou Sprint myself. Fingers crossed the wind and rain stays away.

BennyMul

Have a good race Trig,

Trig1

ok..after much deliberation and being told how hard this course was I was telling myself that I would be happy with sub 3hrs although sub 2hrs50mins and I would be delighted.. aiming for around 32mins swim, 1hr15cycle and around 55mins run as I heard it was very tough run, this plus transitions gives me sub 2.50 ....well morning of the race I was really nervous, got up around 7.30 (race wasn't starting until 11.30) and had breakfast, 4 weetabix,2 bananas and cup of coffee, checked bike (my last time racing my road bike- got a new tt bike but had no spins on it yet), last check on all my gear and suddenly dawned on me that I forgot to get my gels, got everything in the car and off I headed to planet tri in killaloe, got 6 gels as I knew this was supposed to be a tough race. drove down to the course and managed to get a parking space, got my bike and stuff out of the car and went over to setup at transition, looked out at the water and it looked very swelly and choppy.. anyway had everything ready, race briefing over and wave 1 of olympic set off, I was in wave 2,
swim.. our wave was called and off we went, it was very rough with large swells but I was going really well and surprisingly there was not many people ahead of me in my wave, I was waiting for loads to start passing me out but it never happened:) I could see about 10 people ahead of me, there were 2 right ahead of me so I tried to get on toes-which I did successfully, I then realized these 2 were swimming too slow for me so I left them to try find more toes but couldnt find any, kept sighting and felt I was going in a nice straight line, got round the furthest buoy and now headed home for the pier, noticed another 2 orange hats a bit ahead of me so tried to swim them down- they were heading in the wrong direction though, they were aiming back towards the swim start and not the pier so I knew I'd pass them out soon if I kept my straight line- got to the pier and was yanked out of the water by a guy who nearly pulled my arm out of its socket, looked down at my watch and was showing 30mins30secs- wow that was my fastest ever 1500m race split and I felt great coming out of water..official swim time actually came in as 30mins38secs..38/120
t1t1 was a long run from pier to bike and a long run with the bike to mount line- 2mins27secs- 40/120
bike looked at the watch and 33mins was showing..took my first gel straight away on the bike as I was gonna be climbing in 1.5km, anyway got to first climb -down into lowest gear and tried spinning as much as I could, legs started burning, lungs were screaming I was trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible- speedo was reading 20kph 18kph 16kph, eventually saw the church at the top of climb and was so relieved, into the downhill- glad I cycled this a few times as I knew there was 1 really bad bend towards the end of the downhill that you cannot come into at speed, so tucked down into aero position and free wheeled down the hill, some guys were flying past me but I knew i'd catch them again, just as we were coming towards the bad bend 2 guys went flying past me, I let out a roar at them to slow down but it was too late, both took the bend too wide and smashed into each other and the ground- it was horrible to see and a really bad crash- I didnt know what to do, stop or keep going- I slowed down and looked around and shouted at them were they ok, they both waved and said they were fine so I kept going- 1 of them even passed me out later so I didnt feel too bad about continuing on, I was flying now on the main road back towards killaloe, I was only being passed by the odd sprint racer and no olympic racers (could tell by the different colour numbers)took another gel now, got to the turn off for the olympic to do another circuit so I knew I had over half done, looked at the watch and it was showing 1hr12mins- 39mins for that 21k-still on target, started climbing again and surprisingly my legs felt really good on this climb- started passing out a lot of olympic racers from the first wave and what I assumed were sprint racers from the 4th wave, really pushed this climb as I had a bit of time to make up, legs were hurting hard but my speed was above 18kph which was good- nearly at the church and WTF.... a big crowd of cyclist were coming back towards me shouting turn around its called off...didnt know what to do here and legs were screaming at me, just stopped dead for a few minutes let the cyclists go ahead of me then followed them slowly down the hill, started talking to a few of them and they said there was a bad crash on the course and it was cancelled- was probably at same point where the lads crashed earlier.. free wheeled back down the 3-4k of the hill and pedalled lightly and chatted on the way back to the finish to be shouted at- the race is still on, dismount at the dismount line- you can still do the run..my head was all over the place now, didn't know what to do, saw the family there cheering me on so I supposed I had to go off on the run, looked at my watch and it was showing 1hr36mins- wasted 25mins on the 2nd climb up the hill (which I didnt need to do- found out later they had closed the road leading to the climb just after I went up it- so everyone else doing the olympic didn't do the second climb and just headed back to transition)so off I went on the run..
RUN..took another gel straight away and brought 2 with me on the run, started climbing straight away and it got steeper and steeper- then we got to the "rat run" a muddy very steep climb- my legs and lungs were exploding now as I was really feeling the 2nd climb on the bike.. all of a sudden I was walking.. it was too steep and I couldnt keep running, this continued all the way through the first 5k of the climb-- walk,jog,walk,jog- I was really pissed off with myself and was getting angrier and angrier, I wasn't able to run- the legs were dead, took another gel and some water at the split point for olympic and sprint, did another 10mins of walking and jogging and eventually reached the turnaround point of the olympic - some woman and kids shouting loads of encouragement at us- actually put a smile on my face- I knew I was over the worst now and it was all downhill from here- picked up a lot of speed now but could not go flat out as it was now too steep downhill and it was loose underfoot(this was a forest trail run)..took last gel and knew I only had around 20mins left of running, pushed to the finish line which was a welcome sight with the family cheering.. this was the toughest 10k i've ever done and the toughest triathlon I've ever done even though I did not complete the full cycle- did prob 30k of the 40k.. time for my run was 1hr6seconds...
when i stopped my watch after the full tri it read 2hrs38mins... this of course included around 20mins of sauntering and free wheeling back down the hill and back to transition on the bike, I think after 30min swim and 1hr run I probably would have broken the 3hrs but maybe not the 2hrs50mins.. it was an extremely tough race but a good experience

Dory Dory

Congrats on the race!! Super job in particular on the swim!!!

Solobally8

Well done trig1, great race. Such a pity about the bike leg- you were flying it. What's next on the agenda? Worlds End again or is a sprint too short for you now?

Trig1

Solobally8 wrote: »

Well done trig1, great race. Such a pity about the bike leg- you were flying it. What's next on the agenda? Worlds End again or is a sprint too short for you now?

ha ha, sprint will never be too short, yes worlds end is next on the agenda and more than likely the last for this season, well done you on getting through the swim, the conditions were not the best, are you doing worlds end?

Trig1

Tuesday 7th Aug
Got a new Dolan Aria tt bike at the weekend , didnt use it for Brian boru but was looking forward to getting out on it yesterday, wanted to see what this baby could do- legs were still very sore from Sunday's race but still wanted to give my 49.6k tt route a go and see what damage I could do..my pb for 40k on this route was 68mins30secs on the 15th june and my pb for the full 49.6k was 88mins43secs on 21st july.. so off I went on my new tt bike:D (still have to get wheels for it).. felt great but chain was slipping every now and then- noticed a kink in the chain before I went out- need to get that sorted..
first 10k in 15mins51secs..avg speed 37.8kph-- bike felt really light and found I was able to climb easier and when I was going downhill I was able to maintain the high speed coming off the downhill sections for longer..
20k..31.59mins.. 37.5kph- legs were sore especially between the legs as I didnt have a proper tt saddle either
30k...48.44mins.. 37kph.. good position on bike- back was bit tight but knees felt fine, arms were also bit sore- need to do a little tweaking with position....
really pushed for the last 10k as I knew I had a 65min 40k in sight..
hit 40k in 64mins41secs...37.1kph.. cannot believe I knocked just shy of 4mins off my p.b. on my first time out on the bike.. took a bit of a breather and a long drink of aldi's finest then pushed a bit more for home to see what time I could do the full route in- got home in 1hr22mins13secs..36.2kph..over 6mins faster than my pb..

session 40k tt on new bike 64mins41secs 37.1kph, full session 49.6k in 1hr22mins13secs 36.2kph

Wed 8th Aug plan today after the 50k tt was a nice long swim to loosen out the legs as they were in bits unfortunately some family issues came up which meant I couldn't go swimming this evening so I only had a window of about 1.5hrs in the afternoon to do some training so I said i'd do a light cycle on the new bike on my hilly 22.6k route..problem with me is I cannot go light.. In the back of my head I knew my p.b. for this route was 38.57mins done a few weeks back when I felt great and flew around on the road bike.. today my legs were in bits but I was on the new bike si I gace it a go..from the very first few meters I was gonna stop and just spin as my thighs cried out in agony straight away- lightened off a bit until they got warmed up- felt very tired but speed was actually decent.. hit 10k in just over 18mins was shocked that I was so close to my p.b. when the legs felt so sore and tired, tried to push a bit more on the back 10k but was really suffering now, I was sweating hard and gasping for breath, my legs were like rocks..was still close to the time though-pushed the last 2k really hard- long uphill drag up to the house- watching the seconds countdown- was so close to beating my time- would you believe I crossed the pole at my house (my finish line) in 38mins57secs- Identical time to my fastest road bike time- delighted with that as it was on a day I felt tired and legs were in bits..tried to keep going and do a bit more but turned back after 1 km down the road- my legs had enough and decided to go home whether I was coming or not..

might take a break from cycling tmrw..love the new bike though
session 22.6ktt 38mins57sec 35.1kph..

p.s. heres a pic of the new bike:D

catweazle

Trig1 wrote: »

p.s. heres a pic of the new bike:D

Schoolboy error Trig, turn it around the other way when you are taking the picture and we can get a better look at the specs

Trig1

oops, haha, never even dawned on me,will have to post another pic soon

Trig1

would have liked to get out on the road today due to the lovely weather but unfortunately wife was away for the weekend and I was on babysitting duty so went onto the treadmill for a 10k run- haven't done anything over half hour on the treadmill since may so was a bit cautious starting off.. started at 10kph and increased speed every Km for the 10k, did the 10k in 53mins finishing at 13kph- felt good and comfortable- hip was a little sore at the end but delighted to get it finished..
session 10k on treadmill...53mins

Solobally8

Trig1 wrote: »

ha ha, sprint will never be too short, yes worlds end is next on the agenda and more than likely the last for this season, well done you on getting through the swim, the conditions were not the best, are you doing worlds end?

Yip I'll be there. It will be the final one for me this year too. I must head out some evening and do the route. It seems a lot less challenging than Brian Boru anyway

Trig1

Saturday 11th aug, 20k tt flatout
Attempted flat out 20k tt yesterday, had it in the back of my mind to try do a 30min 20k (avg 40kph)- did this once on the road bike but had a huge tailwind for the whole 20k...
this 20k would be mostly flat with a few small climbs and a couple of long drags thrown in- newport to finnegans roundabout- around the roundabout and back to newport, tail wind for first 10k but unfortunately had a bad headwind for the 2nd 10k so my aspirations of doing 30min 20k were not gonna happen yesterday, anyway did a pretty fast first 10k in 15mins40sec...38.3kph.. the next 2k I was still travelling at 38-40kph as I had not turned around the roundabout yet- came around the roundabout and hit the stiff headwind straight away- my speed dropped to 34-35kph and my legs were suffering badly.. hit the 20k in 33mins13secs- dissapointed but I'll blame the headwind.... my 2nd 10k was 17mins23secs...34.5kph.... total speed for the 20k was 36.2kph...

session 20k tt 33.13mins 36.2kph

Sunday brick

Did a cycle swim brick session today but instead of doing swim followed by cycle did it the opposite was round this time.. wife and kids were gonna follow me in car out to killaloe for a swim but told them I wanted to take in the Worlds end cycle course on the way- probably 33-34k in total but was gonna time the 20k course and do it hard, then continue on to twomilegate and do 750m swim hard.. so my route was newport to birdhill on the back road warming up for the 20k.. hit birdhill after 7k, stopped to take off rain jacket and reset the speedo.. with the family in the car behind me shouting support I took off "all guns blazing" from birdhill to montpellier- was flying the first few km around 44-45kph then hit the hills and tried to keep cadence high and the speed up at 25kph+... got to montpelier and turned now onto the castleconnel bog road all the way to Daly's cross- small drag here and bit of headwind- speed around 34-35kph on this stretch- up to Dalys cross and left on the old dublin road all the way to birdhill again - speed here for first few km was around 34-35 again as had long hill to get over but after this is a good section and was delighted to be comfortably doing 39+kph most of the way to birdhill (very sore between legs though-need to get tt- gel nose saddle)... knew I would be a couple of km short as I didnt go into castleconnel and down to worlds end- 17k on the clock so continued powering towards killaloe still at 39kph-- hit the 20k mark at 32.40mins family behind in the car with the 2yr old shouting "go daddy faster".. stopped to chat for a minute and take a breather... 20k 32mins40secs..total avg speed 36.8kph.. started off again and told the family I'd race them to twomilegate- they had to give me a 2minute headstart-- they got stuck at the lights in ballina at the bridge for 5minutes:D:D .. I was flying it on the stretch out to twomilegate still at 39-40kph..just beat them into carpark.. I did 35k in total in just over 1hr including the 2 stops... got changed into the wetsuit and at this stage the 4 kids were already swimming in the water- went in and splashed around with them for few minutes then swam over to the pier started the stopwatch and swam hard to the blue pontoon- 375meters away- quick check of watch whilst swimming-7mins29secs at pontoon-turned around felt really good- seem to be rotating alot more in my swim and I can feel the speed increasing.. reached the pier in 15mins19secs-new 750m p.b. delighted with 2 quality sessions
session 35k bike in 1hr1min incl 20ktt in 32mins40secs 36.8kph, swim 750m in 15mins19sec..new p.b.

Trig1

missed a session monday so decided to do long session yesterday.. 70k cycle at around 65-70% pressure,, cycled from newport to finnegans the finnegans out through birdhill until I hit 35k on speedo- turned around then and same route home..
first 10k...17mins13secs..34.8kph- bit of headwind
hit 20k in 33mins30secs.. 2nd 10k in 16mins17secs..36.9kph-tailwind
hit 30k in 51mins45secs.. 3rd 10k in 18mins15secs..33kph..few long slow drags
hit turnaround point 35k in 59mins30secs...35.4kph for that 35k.. felt fine and relaxed(besides being very sore on saddle-still havent gotten a gel nose saddle yet)
next 20k would be mostly into headwind..
hit 40k in 1hr10mins 4th 10k in 18mins 15secs..33kph
hit 50k in 1hr28mins15secs, 5th 10k in 18mins15secs-33kph still felt fine
hit 60k in 1hr46mins5secs, 6th 10k in 17mins50secs..34.2kph
hit 70k in 2hrs4mins30secs, 7th 10k in 18mins25secs..32.8kph tired on lst 10k and few long drags made me suffer on way home...
70k avg speed was 33.8kph...felt fine and relaxed on this cycle- not pushing too hard..I was looking back at my logs and was a bit puzzled to compare it to 17/05 log- last time I did that cycle- have noticed that times with my new speedo on new bike are different to old speedo on old bike.. need to check these out to ensure they are reading right..

session 70k cycle in 2hrs4mins30secs...speed 33.8kph


after cycle went out to twomilegate for a swim with the kids, decided to do the 750m swim from pier to the blue pontoon and back but this time with no wetsuit to see if there was much difference- also did it a bit more relaxed due to sore body after swim-- was very weird- felt fresher,looser, more relaxed and more "free" than I do in the wetsuit- actually felt like I was going faster- loved it!!! until I looked at the watch when I finished--17min18secs- nearly 2 minutes slower than sunday- although it was notably rougher on the swim back... after this spent next hour messing with the kids diving and jumping off the pier felt like a child again ....

session 750m o.w. swim with no wetsuit- 17mins18secs

Trig1

wed 14th aug..
did a light half hour on the treadmill this afternoon with 4km light at 5min56sec per km pace..and last km hard at 4min26sec per km pace, felt good-- few weights after this- nothing major..

session 30min treadmill with 1km at 4min26 pace

Trig1

I'm now definitely of the opinion that maybe the speedo on my road bike is set wrong- I feel like I've been putting wrong data on this log for the last few months- which I suppose is cheating only myself!!, I must apologies to anyone reading this log thinking i'm uber fast on the road bike when i'm not, i've probably been 1 to 1.5kmph slower on all my spins that I have put up over the last few months.. wore my earphones today with my sports tracker on and had my new speedo on my tt bike- both told me that the hilly tt route from newport to murroe and back again is 21.6km and not 22.6km- so I suppose I was not as fast as I made myself out to be , on the positive side- the updates i've been putting up for my tt bike over the last 2 weeks have been right.. so it looks like I'm still faster now than what I thought I was (if that makes any sense). Anyway what I did know was that for that route my fastest time was 38.57mins -did the exact same time flying it on the road bike few weeks ago and feeling very tired on the tt bike on the 8th aug.. so today I thought I was gonna try beat this time until I started on the bike and realized how much of a headwind I had.. I found it very hard to maintain any highspeed on the first 10k to murroe- this included the 3 hills and long drag-I hit the 10k mark (which was a bit further along than what I thought) in 20min5secs- 29.9kph- I knew any chance of me hitting a new p.b. was blown so I just decided to do a decent sprint workout and push the last 11.6k at race pace with tail wind- the last 11.6k had few nice fast downhill sections but it did have a leg zapping hill and the long 2k drag back to my house.. so once I got through murroe I put the head down and pushed as hard as I could-- really felt the benefit of the tt bike here..was flying it here in sections and even posted a new 1km p.b. of 1min5secs- 54kmph , maintained a good few km's of 40+kph but still suffered on the hill and the long drag home although usually on the drag home i'm at 24-26kpm- I maintained 30+kph which I was delighted with- when I stopped the watch at the house and looked at it it read 39.05mins- averaged 36.6kph for that 11.6k-- I actually nearly beat my p.b with a very slow first 10k- cannot wait to get the perfect day so I can smash my p.b. on this course...

session 21.6k tt- hilly route- 39mins05secs- 33.2kph

Trig1

Nice light, sweaty 1hr session on the treadmill today at 6min/km pace- 10k in 1hr with few stretches and foam rolling afterwards- legs felt good

Trig1

Went down to Worlds end this evening and did the full Worlds end Tri course..
had a bit too much to eat too close to the start of swim but off I went anyway- the course was buoyed and I assumed this was for the tri next week so swam down the line of buoys but I'm not sure now if they were for course as swim felt very long- I was at nearly 9 mins before I turned so I'm hoping I did more than 750m* - swam back to transition... my Wife and kids with Bike ready got out of water at 17mins30sec- hope to knock 2mins off that next weekend if course is shorter.. off with wetsuit, on with helmet and shoes and onto bike- 18mins52sec- felt really bad and thought I was gonna puke-had eaten way too much 1hr before race (2 sandwiches, 4 biscuits and 2 glasses of milk)- couldn't get going on the bike for first few km's- legs were dead- struggling to hit 29kph- after around 5mins though I hit Daly's cross with a bit of tailwind on the dublin road and the switch was flipped -I started feeling better and legs started powering- did the stretch from Daly's cross to the birdhill turnaround at 43+kph for around 9km.. kept pushing hard on the back road with few hills- prob around 36kph- once I got to the turnaround at montpelier and onto the bog road I knew I was on the home stretch but bit of headwind kept me at around 35kph.. back to the playground where the wife was waiting with my runners and the kids:) quick transition and out on run at 52mins48secs- did cycle in 33mins40secs- 35.6kph- if i'm feeling better on the first few km's next week and with no headwind on the last few km I think I could knock hopefully 1.5 to 2mins off this.... so off I went on the run- my p.b. for 5km was 22mins20secs before today.. last year for my try a tri I did this exact run in 24mins23secs- haven't done it since so it would be interesting to see how I went-- felt great on run- I usually run awkward with my head up in the air but tried leaning a little forward and keeping the head down and it worked wonders--went really well on the run- got to the playground in 1hr14mins26secs- did the run in 21mins38secs- new p.b.- delighted with run- if I could knock 30secs off this next week I'd be thrilled...
so did full course in 1hr14mins26secs... this was my first ever tri last year- did the try a tri and won it- my time today would have put me 40th out of 160 last year- with a few mins knocked off in swim and cycle I am gonna try push for 1hr11mins and a top 20 finish- the bro is racing too so I am gonna kill myself to try get as close as possible to him

Aug 19th- Brick worlds end tri practise- 1hr14mins26secs

Solobally8

Great session there trig1. Must be really reassuring to know the course so well. I'm going to try get to worlds end some day this week to try the swim course so I dont freak out on the day. Im hoping to go for sub 1hr 30 mins. Is the run flat?

Dory Dory

There is a huge advantage to knowing the course...both from a boost to the confidence standpoint, and from a strategy standpoint. Get out there as much as you can and learn every nook and cranny to the swim, bike and run. It will serve you well on race day.

Trig1

Solobally8 wrote: »

Great session there trig1. Must be really reassuring to know the course so well. I'm going to try get to worlds end some day this week to try the swim course so I dont freak out on the day. Im hoping to go for sub 1hr 30 mins. Is the run flat?

yess Solobally, its a mainly flat course- bit of a long drag with a slight hill towards the end of the first km but all flat after that- its a fast course throughout- i would advise doing the cycle course before the race if you can- pretty severe bend at Montpellier- fast cycle course too with 3 short hills- 1 on Dublin road and 2 on Back road from Birdhill to Montpellier

Trig1

plan today was to do a 50k cycle but unfortunately didnt go as planned..
got a new chain for the bike yesterday as the chain that was on the Dolan kept slipping( didnt get new cassette as couldn't afford it)- anyway got the new chain and headed out and immediately the chain kept slipping everytime I applied any pressure- got 6k from the house and had to turnaround as it was so bad.. so that was 12 miserable km's done- got home and rang planet tri straight away and he said if I came over he would put a new rear cassette on as this was the problem.. so headed off on bike again over to planet tri- 13.5km tried to push again and when I was trying to push fairly hard uphill the chain went again and I bashed my knee pretty hard off the handlebars...so got to planet tri and he fitted the new cassette there and fixed gears- 30mins later and back on the bike for 13.5km home- chain was a lot better now- tried powering home and chain was fine for most- it slipped once on the way home when I was changing gear going uphill again- and unfortunately I bashed the knee in the exact same place- felt very tight and sore but continued on home for last few km- once I got home and stopped I noticed knee was all bruised and cut and really sore to bend..sitting here now with ice on it after taking few anti-inflammatorys- bike is fine now but hopefully the knee will be ok for weekend-- stupid session involving a 12k at around 25mins and 2 13.5k's at around 30mins each..:(
session 39k light cycle

Trig1

Wed 22nd Aug lovely 2k swim at worlds end - felt really nice and really long and comfortable...hit 1500m in a new p.b. of 29mins32secs....2k took 39mins13secs- delighted with that

2k o.w. swim 39mins13secs- went through 1500m in 29mins32secs

thursday 23rd Aug
handy 45mins on treadmill- 30mins at 6min km pace, 1km at racing pace and then light jog to wind down

session 45mins light treadmill

next post will be worlds end tri report

Dory Dory

Best of luck to you Trig. Have fun....and I'm looking forward to reading your report.

Trig1

Well this race was my anniversary race as this race last year was my very first triathlon- did the try a tri in 2011 and won it and was hooked ever since- my times for cycle and run on course last year were 34.45 for cycle and 24.23 for run.. it would be interesting to see how much I progressed- I also wanted to compare how far i've come from the first full sprint I did at the start of the year- nenagh sprint took me 1hr20mins for same distance although swim was in pool...so anyway my aim for race was to try finish in top 20, try for 15min swim, 32min bike and 22min run and 2x1min transitions- 1hr11mins.. registered night before race and was shocked to see some of the names racing and the fact that there was 210 people in for the sprint, there was only 170 last year, I was getting nervous and thought that i was never gonna finish top 20 out of 210 with a very high quality field.. (i thought they were all gonna race Dublin this weekend ) anyway went down and set up on the morning of the race with my brother (i had a side bet on with him that I would finish within 5mins of him- he has already had 2 podium finishes this year)- all he kept saying was - this guy is racing, that guy is racing this guy is racing- the bro was counting all the people that would beat him and all the top class athletes- which meant they were gonna beat me too- at this stage I was thinking to myself - top 40 and I'll be happy- it is my first season!!
swim
anyway everythig setup- my lovely new tt bike all ready, wetsuit on, race brief over and into water for mass start of 210 athletes- hooter went and all hell broke loose- I was 1 row back but still managed to swim right into the back of a woman doing breast stroke, got around her and then swam face first into a buoy that knocked off my goggles- goggles back on and head down again- few more kicks, thumps and elbows and then tried to get around the traffic jam at the turnaround buoy- actually had to breast stroke around this as there was so many people- had some space on the was back and felt like I was going nice and fast- got the the exit from water and looked at my watch- couldn't believe it- my watch read 13.45mins- a p.b. by 1min15secs- great start and delighted-got a big cheer from wife and kids, my official time was 13mins58secs- good start....

swim...13mins58secs 44/210

T1... went fine- had race belt on under wet suit- everything went ok 1min13secs

cycle...got on the bike and started motoring straight away- passing out loads and keeping speed at 37-38kph- dropped for hills to around 23kph but still going really well- only passed by 1 guy for the whole cycle and tred to keep him in my sights for the rest of spin- knew him as he works with me so didnt want to leave him get away.. found I was flying on the bike and noticed there were less and less people to pass out, also noticed that i was now only passing out people with decent tri bikes , some of these were people the bro was pointing out as very good athletes- knew I was going well now , got back to transition and watch was still under 50mins- great... cycle was done in 32mins47secs avg 36.6kph- even beat the bro by 1min20secs on the bike..another big cheer from family

cycle ...32mins47secs- 10/210

T2... uneventful again- quick transition- ran in cycling shoes as run into t2 was gravelly so off with helmet, rack bike, off with cycling shoes and on with runners- 55secs

Run... really felt the bike on the run- looked at the watch a few 100m into the run and 50mins were gone- i had 21mins to do 1hr11mins but I was suffering- didnt feel as fast as the training session last week when i did 21mins38secs... damn- had i left it all behind on the bike, first 2k of run my knee was also giving me trouble- there was a slight shower of rain then in the run which kinda woke me up and re-energised me, i remembered my run last week when I tilted my head down and i felt better- did this again and started moving straight away- 2k left now but watch showing 1hr3mins- would be a big struggle to try do last 2k in 8mins but try I did, I busted a gut and nearly puked a few times over last few hundred metres, was passed by probably 5 people in all on the run, 3 in the last 2mins, got to the line and ran over the line with 3 of the 4 kids holding my hand..in a time of 1hr11mins20secs- thrilled and beaming and totally spent- I knew I left everything out there, my run time was 22mins25secs- nearly 1min slower than last week but still very happy with it

Run... 22mins25secs.. 65/210
Full tri- 1hr11mins20secs
Eagerly awaited results until today-- when they came out I had a quick scan and the brother finished 9th- I finished 4mins and 30secs behind him:D (won bet) but in 21st position - gutted . 1 place and I would have got top 20.... went away and made dinner thinking of that 1 place- went back and had another look at the results and realized that 2 relay teams finished ahead of me ...I CAME 19th !!!!!:D:D:D , in 1 year to the day of doing tri i've come from 15 and 1/2 stone and unfit to 13 and 1/2 stone and actually competing and getting a top 20 finish in a very good field- I was over the moon...

Well that was my last race this season so now begins the winter training and try get weight down to sub 13stone- loved the season.. did my first sprint in April in Nenagh in 1hr20mins- knocked 9mins off that in 4 months whilst also taking in 2 olympic races... so next year my aim is to knock 2 more mins off all 3 disciplines and aim for 1 top 10 finish... the journey continues.....:D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80231207@N06/7873822318/in/set-72157631270082886

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80231207@N06/7873815742/in/set-72157631270082886/

Few pics of me coming to the line with the 3 kids in tow!