Trasna na dTonnta - the reluctant triathlete

earnyourturns

Right, figure I should start one of them aul' training logs to give myself some accountability.

In short, North County Dubliner who's been living in Dunedin, New Zealand for the past three years, where people do all sorts of strange things for fun like swim in the Dunedin harbour, run up and over mountains, and bike up very steep hills whenever they can.

My background is in running - was part of the first DCM novice thread back in 2009 under the helm of Amadeus, and when I went by the moniker of Goofygirl - and am a completely bog-standard runner, completely midpack and absolutely fine with that! Since coming to NZ have got into mountain running a bit over the past few years - Exhibit A: http://leithharriers.com/threepeaks/docs/JuneFix2012-Lisa.pdf - and this (NZ) summer did some openwater swims as well, as well as a few swim/run events as part of the Splash and Dash series (or as I kept calling it, the Splish and Splash series).

My housemates are keen (obsessive?) triathletes, have done Ironman and stuff and it was only a matter of time before I'd crack and be peer pressured into triathlon as well, despite my completely unfair and unwarranted prejudice against road bikers.

So! Coming back to Ireland this (Irish) summer for a few weddings, and the Skerries Triathlon is on three days after I get home. Skerries being my home town, there is absolutely no excuse for me not to bash out the sprint distance at least. (Housemates are subtly pushing for me to do the Olympic distance, we'll see...)

For training, I've put my life in my hands of my Ironman housemate, and basically just doing what she tells me to! So, with no further ado:

Friday 12 April: what a beautiful morning for a run! Head up Mt Cargill, one of my favourite runs in Dunedin. It goes up to about 700m, and the track is steady the whole way up, through beautiful forest, with a bit of rock-hopping and clambering up steps at the top. Fantastic view over this part of Otago from the top. As the weather has been so dry this summer/autumn, not even that muddy. Didn't take my watch, but usually takes me about 1 hr 20/25 minutes to do this.
Saturday 13 April: being made go out for my first road bike. Acting like a sullen teenager. As I'm slogging uphill on my Kona Dew commuter bike, no clip-in pedals or anything, a lycra-clad couple whizz past me. I make faces behind their back at their smug-coupleness. Must work on this. Have been instructed to do a hilly 15km circuit which takes me from sea-level to 234m and back again. Need to work on road confidence as do not trust (a) myself (b) my brakes (c) other road users. Back at the house 56 mins later, dump the bike and head off on a 5 minute jog around the block, just to get used to running off the bike. Knackered that afternoon, nap time!
Sunday 14 April: back to running, more comfortable territory here. Don't take watch with me, so not sure of distance covered, but it's about an hour's hilly trail run in the hills around Dunedin, from the Bull Pen over to Swampy Junction and back for anyone wot knows Dunedin. An old favourite. That afternoon, take myself into the bike shop to get a new helmet, two new sets of brake pads (turns out my old ones have been worn away to nothing) and a drink bottle cage thing. Pimp my bike, how-are-ya!
Monday 15 April: swim training it is. Am instructed not to do too much of a session today, as was pretty wrecked yesterday afternoon. 500m warm-up, followed by 5 x 100m with 10 seconds rest in between each set. First two sets at 2mins each, then last three at 2mins 12 each - sure there's something to be said for consistency, even if it's very slow consistency. Really must learn how to do kickturns, not that they'll be much good to me in a triathlon situation. Off to yoga this evening as well. Namaste!

Solobally8

Delighted to see you back round these parts. I used to love your posts back in the day- always very entertaining. Any bears in New Zeland? Also great to have another woman around here:) Best of luck with your training

earnyourturns

No bears in New Zealand [this refers to my previous exploits in Canada when doing early-morning LSRs through the forests, and having to be very mindful of bears]: actually, the only native mammals in New Zealand are bats, so can extremely at ease when running out in the wild here and don't have to be concerned about rustling in the undergrowth at all!

Tuesday 16 April [I'm not writing from the future - NZ is 11 hours ahead of GMT]
After last night's yoga, I was back at the yoga studio again this morning. Today's class was traditional hatha yoga, so was all very gentle and restorative and lots of lying on the floor and breathing gently. This I needed to de-stress me because....

... this afternoon I handed in my PhD thesis. No big deal. (Ha! No big deal! I've only been working towards this moment for past three years. Free at last, free at last, God almighty free at last)

For sure reason, rather than immediately drowning a bottle of vodka like any normal person, I hung around for interval training which I do every Tuesday with a local running club. Recently we've been doing a "Kenyan session", which involves running for 12 minutes, then a minute's recovery, then 10 minutes, then a minute's recovery, then 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 etc. However! Our coach didn't come along tonight because he was at a parent-teacher meeting, and the normally very focused and dedicated group was all over the place for various reasons, eg; I'd just handed in my thesis, it was another's guy's birthday, two people had just been offered new jobs the night before and were thinking about that. So the session just sort of dissipated. Our coach eventually came along and I did the 12 minute rep, then the 10 minute one, then thought "ah here now, today is just not the day". So came home and gorged myself on cheese and crackers and toasted end-of-thesis with my housemates with a nice gin and tonic instead.

pgibbo

Congrats on completing your PhD. :cool:

Best of luck with the training.

Solobally8

Well done on finishing the Phd! You must be so relieved!

earnyourturns

Thanks pgibbo and SoloBally8! Relieved is not the word. Completely fed up with academia by this stage; want to go get a job on a dairy farm or something no (no joke, I've become very fond of cows and livestock in general since moving to NZ).

Wednesday 17 April Anyway! No rest for the wicked, or indeed the gainfully unemployed. Despite binging on far too much chocolate and cheese last night, back out on the bike it was this morning. My housemate M (just giving him an initial to protect his anonymity, not because he is a character out of James Bond or anything) came out with me, and in light of the fact that I am just starting out biking, he took his mountainbike instead of his super whizzy road bike. What a star! We biked the same 15km hilly loop as last time; much more fun having company. Also having functional brakes, a new helmet and those pedal cage thingies (not ready to commit to full clip-in pedals yet) helped immeasurably in terms of functionality and confidence.

Now going to bake chocolate chip cookies as a thank you present for my graphic designer friend who helped me format my thesis, thereby saving me many hours and days of stress. I fear there may be much, eh, "natural wastage" of raw cookie dough which doesn't make it into the finished product...

earnyourturns

Thursday 18 April:
Another short, sharp training session today (I am going somewhere with this light week of training, which some in fact might call a taper, watch this space for details this weekend...). Swimming session, 500m warm-up, then thought I should do my first ever 400m TT if I'm to show my face with all you real, proper, grown-up triathletes . 8:27 (16 x 25m), really need to learn how to do kick-turns... Then 100m cool down and on my way.

racheljev

So here you are! Looking forward to reading of your triathlon exploits - maybe another book?

littlebug

nice to see you back eyt! Good luck with the new challenge:)

earnyourturns

Friday 19 April: day of rest
Saturday 20 April: day of rest

Watch this space for what's to come for Sunday 21 April. (If anyone can guess correctly in advance, I'll post them a chocolate fish - http://www.cadbury.co.nz/products/all-products/chocolate-fish.aspx?p=3423, chocolate fish are the universal "well done" reward throughout the NZ education system, to the point of even getting one when you hand in your PhD thesis!)

MrCreosote

Are you doing the Three Peaks run?? Tough way to spend a Sunday!

earnyourturns

Mr Creosote - correct! PM me your address and I'll post you a chocolate fish.

Sunday 21 April: Just in from the Three Peaks now, very tough race (involves running up and down three of the hills around Dunedin, each about 700m) in very tough conditions - wet, cold and windy, soaked to the skin by the end, blowing a gale up on the mountain tops. Finished about 15 mins slower than last year in 4 hrs 3 (or something? Left the watch at home today), which is grand considering the conditions. Also don't feel as completely bombed out of it as I did last year, which is great. And won a Buff headband at the spot prizes, woohoo. As everyone in Dunedin is a ridiculously hardcore endurance athlete, I am verrrrry much at the tail end of the pack. Came second last in my age group last year (or 10th out of 11, depending on how you look at it!) and imagine it was much the same again, if not in fact completely last.

Nap time now, methinks, followed by carbo-laden macaroni and cheese.

earnyourturns

Results just up online for the Three Peaks - yes! retained my position as second last in the Open Women . I put the "ultimate" in "penultimate athlete".

MrCreosote

I can't claim the choc fish- I knew the run was on today! You might have more need of the delicious marshmallow centre in a chocolate covering after today's run. I've been down in Dunners a good few times and run some of those hills (one at a time though!) It's a toughie I'd say.

(Nice to see an NZ training log up here. I'm up in Wellington myself.)

earnyourturns

Monday 22 April: Day. Of. Rest.

Oweeee I'm feeling the effects of yesterday (26km up and down over three mountains). Actually, was feeling the effects of it last night as well. Everything aching, particularly across my arms and lower back (note to self: increase core strength) and legs incredibly hot and heavy as well. I don't know about y'all, but I always find that despite being completely wrecked, I can never sleep very well the night after a big race. I think it's because my body is still in high-alert mode or something. So feeling pretty groggy this morning, all in. Heading away this afternoon for a week of dairy farming and tramping (as "hiking" is called in New Zealand, before you get the impression that I'm morally dissolute - perish the thought! Off to do this with some friends, http://bankstrack.co.nz/greentwoone.html, all about the cross-training, me), with today, tomorrow and Wednesday being days of complete rest. Well, apart from the dairy farming of course. Mooooo!

Mr Creosote - aha! That explains it! I should have said "Competition only open to residents of ROI & UK" in my terms and conditions . Tough is not the word for the Three Peaks, especially the final slog up Mt Cargill (the third of the peaks) through the driving wind and rain. I would say I was power-walking at that stage, except it was in fact more of a death-trudge.

Right! Better go pack!

earnyourturns

Well! Sorry about that, dropped off the planet there for a while. Anyway, back in Ireland now and took part in the Triathlon-That-Dare-Not-Speak-Its-Name-on-Boards yesterday.

Was hideously underprepared for it, as evinced by my training log disappearing as well (I won't go into details on a public internet forum, but let's just say that I wouldn't recommend scheduling a break-up for a week and a half after handing in a PhD thesis: it doesn't bode well for eating and sleeping, let alone concerted triathlon training). Also I only got back to Ireland on Thursday, was at a big family party on Saturday night, was on God only knows what time zone and the like.

So! How did it go? Was an overcast, windy morning - like I'd never left New Zealand...

Swim: mmm, pretty choppy out there. Unlike many newbie triathletes, I'm actually pretty comfortable in the water, but I'd say it was pretty nervewracking if you were a nervous swimmer though. Once we turned around the buoy and headed back to the South Beach, had to resort to a bit of breast stroke for a while. According to the (questionable?) results, cause I wasn't wearing a watch, 14:44.

T1: my housemates in New Zealand - the uber-experienced triathletes - had given me loads of tips for transition like baby oil to help whip off the wetsuit, talc in your shoes to slip them on and the like. Spent too long faffing around with my windproof jacket though, trying to fix it from inside out and the like. Learning curve! 2:43

Bike: strong headwinds and hills, which again brought back memories of Dunedin... I'd borrowed my cousin's bike which I'd ridden for the first time that morning down to the start line, and had pedal cages attached with cable ties. I have, however, been cycling around the Black Hills since I was a child, and have very clear memories of having a temper tantrum when I was eight or nine at my dad when he was making me bike up that hill by Ardgillan and I thought it was too hard. So no major surprises here! Didn't have a watch on, but think it took me 1 hr 1/2 mins.

T2: just racked the bike and off I was again. 45 seconds.

Run: ugh, bit of a death trudge here. Jetlag kicking in, legs feeling like the usual concrete off the bike. Again, couldn't even tell you the amount of times I've walked/run this course as a child/scowling teenager/visits home. Felt like I was shuffling along at snail's pace, thought it was going to be a 40m 5km or something. In fact, 27:12.

Hooray! Finished! Took off my runners and yup, my "time-saving" of not putting on socks in T1 was a bit of a false economy of time because my little toe was chafed raw and bleeding by this point. Still, nothing like a hometown event!

earnyourturns

Not sure what's up next: Dun Laoghaire, anyone? Just let me fasten up my cable ties first.