Some where to file my race reports.

hypersonic

so first up is the strawberry 5miler tomorrow. My plan is simple, go out at 3:40/km and hang on.
I haven't raced in more than 2 months so it I'm just guess at pacing. if I run the perfect race and squeeze every last drop out of my legs I might get close to 29mins. but if the clock says 29:30. or better I'll be a happy man.

fingers crossed,
hypersonic.

hypersonic

had a little time to spare so headed over to enniscorthy to take a peek at the course.
it's a little lumpier than I remember, there only one significant lump at about the half way point just after a left hander about 100m with what looks like about 5% gradient.

got to be up early for reg tomorrow closes at 9am!

hypersonic

so I've landed into the town, reg is done, number is in hand. I'm now sitting in the river restaurant having a sweet black coffee.
weather is 10 out of 10, I think this is the best day of the year so far.
I had a good look at the entry list for the 5mile and didn't spot any of the usually suspects from down these parts.
nerves, they've gone from "buzzing" yesterday to "just get it done" today.
my plan from here is to head down to the start of the half mara and give the guys a good cheer.

hypersonic

wasn't to be 30:30ish. more to follow later.

hypersonic

So I left the cafe and headed down to watch start of the 1/2 marathon, I had put at least 4 spoons of sugar in my coffee so I was feeling great.
Good size crowd with a lot of serious looking runners, the start came and the lads lauched like missiles down the quay. As the course loops around the town centre you get a secound bite at the cherry, so I walked up the town to see the guys/girls pass the 1 mile mark, here there was much idle chat about the keyan who was leading and that he had a PB of under 1:03 I'm not sure if that's true but he looks pretty fast, like a bicycle without the wheels.

With all this out of the way, we are left 45min to the start of the A race the 5miler :cool:. So i do my warm up on the hill on the east side of town, I was very suprised at how thumpy my heart was during the warm up but decide it was just pre race gitters.
Warm up done I decide to head to the start line, I spend 5-10 minutes milling around the start without a care in the world before I dawns on me that I was missing something, a bleeding race number, talk about being in the zone! So I scurry back to the car to fetch my number, not much point leaving it in the boot!

Drama averted I head for the start with 10mins still to spare, checking my watch my heart rate is stuck at 125 even will i'm standing still, this is a lot higher than normal for me, but there's nothing to be done but get on with the race.

The mats are placed we are lined up and the race announcer counts us in 3...2....1 and we are away. I'm in row two and the pace is brisk so I leave maybe 10-12 people pass me. after 400m at the first corner I'm in 15th or so.
My watch now says 3:40 and I quickly pass 8 runners, leaving 4 out in front. By 2km the race had split 1st and 2nd and then a gap to 3rd, a small gap to 4th and 5th. I'm 5th and have the 4th place man only a meter or so ahead, I move into 4th, the watch is showing 3:41 but I'm not overly concern as I am working hard and the course is up hill. What does concern me is the man in 3th, who now has 30m on me, which at that pace is to far to jump, so I resign myself to a seesaw battle on the hills. the gap waxes and wans from 20m out 30m, back to 20m out to 50m and so on. We carry on like this for 3km maybe for 4km. I leave myself some hope that I might catch him on the long down hill run to the finish.
However the course still has a steep climb (~5% grad), hills have always been my weakness, today is a little different I climb the hill without a problem, and mange to maintain the gap to 3rd. From here it should be easy, but slowly the pain arrives, that god aweful stitch, I try to manage it, but I'm sure I've slowed. The whole way to the line I wrestling this stitch, cursing the hill sessions that should have cured me but didn't. With 500m to go 3rd is 100m aheaad and I can hear footsteps behind me, with 200m to go and and the line in sight I'm caught, If I'd had 3rd I would have pushed all the way, but knowing that my race time was poor, my fight is gone and I slip to fifth.

My race time was 30:31 so 6:06 for the mile, which is disappointing, I've run 10km at under 6min/miles so I'd hoped to crack the 30mins for this 5miler.

The postmortum on the garmin shows the early pace was too fast, I'd hit my max hr by the end of the second km. which sums it up really, out too hard and home with a stitch!

Roll on the 5k

belcarra

I ran the HM myself and something similar happened. The hills were too much at 1:30 pace so by the time the second half of the race came about I was paying my dues. Not sure of the 5m course but I reckon if much of it was on our course than it's simply not a PB route.

I'd certainly settle for 5th and 30:31 today though!

blockic

Well done. That's a good time on that track. Done the half myself. Some hills around the town! Cracking weather this morning for it. Really showed enniscorthy well.

hypersonic

blockic wrote: »

Well done. That's a good time on that track. Done the half myself. Some hills around the town! Cracking weather this morning for it. Really showed enniscorthy well.

'corthy looked the part alright, I took a stroll down the river after reg and they're done a really nice job of it.

hypersonic

So here I go again, racing next Saturday the 6th in what will be my first full length Olympic distance Tri, I did this race (pikeman) last year but the swim was short.
Training would best be described as patchy, so my prediction on time would be somewhere around the 2:45hr mark. Long term weather is giving near perfect conditions.
I had planned a week of tapper (laziness) before this race but with training the way it is I feel quiet fresh so i'll probably keep ticking over until race day.
After this race, it's a month of speed work and a crack at a 10k pb. I am itching to get back to hard running.

hypersonic

I've been slowly stressing myself out about this race all week. I even started dreaming about missing the start.
for the record conditions are perfect, so good in fact I could easy end up setting a life time pb.
I never think like this about road races but with tri you only get a handful of chances in a year and conditions can make or break a race. if it goes well tomorrow I reckon I'll remember it for a long time.

prep was hard intervals Wednesday that left my legs stiff and sore until today. I took the bike out this evening to loosen the legs, but fell in with some good company and ended up doing 80+km in magic sunshine. Not very "A" game but I don't regret it for a minute.
so the plan for tomorrow is to get to transition nice and early, so I can have a relaxed breakfast.

hypersonic

2:29:00 left nothing behind, I'll be a while beating that. . more to follow later.

hypersonic

the high: 10th in the run
the low: 108th in t2

5 weeks of tri training and a pb. one race one pb not a bad return.

I don't live too far from roslare so I decided yesterday to leave the car in the drive. woke late so everything was a little rushed. pumped the tires and bolted down the n25. racked the bike and started pinning numbers to things. bought breakfast in centre a packet of Maryland double chock biscuits, classy I know!
got the wetsuit on and headed for the briefing, there was a father Ted moment with a spectator and his mobile phone, it went off 3 times with the world's loudest ringtone, the poor man must be stone deaf as he was screaming down the phone.
Conditions on the beach where as good as I've seen. the swim started with a houtter. and off we went, now I have to apologies to all the people I bumped into, and there where a lot, I can't swim straight to save my life, it was like bumper cars this is something I need to work on for next year. out of the water in 26mins which I thought was a pretty good time until I saw the results. but I reckon I swam close to 2k with all the weaving and meandering and swearving.
I love cycling. but I am cr@p at it, worked hard for the full 1:17, I'm not sure how to improve this, just pedal harder I suppose. actually I was pretty happy with the bike time as I'd expected something the wrong side of 1:20.
some how I spent 2min in t2 which bagged me 108th place for the segment. on to the run. legs where a little jelly for the first 1k but soon sorted them-self out. the run coarse was a surprise as I'd been expecting the course used for the roslare 10k. Should have read the course map. today's course would be 30sec slower. I'd a mini target of a sub 40min 10k but missed by a little over a minute, l did come 10th in the only segment that counts.
over all I'd a great day, this race is really well run and a big thanks to the organisers as I can only imagine the time and effort that was put in.

Thanks triathlon it's been fun, see you next year.

hypersonic

I’ve just signed up for the Oylegate 10km on the 25 Aug

Training Summary

Diet; This could definitely have been better, too much eating and drinking, I’ve lost 1 kg in 6 weeks and there is lots of room to improve.



Training Structure; Easy day, Easy day, Hard day, Rest day. I’ve added extra rest days where needed and I feel I’ve got the balance about right, “Build, not Break”.

Training Block; Approx 6 weeks,

Training Peak; Penultimate week before race. (so this week)

Mileage; Solid, vast majority have been in or around 5min/km.

Speed Work; Some done, more to do, 4 sessions in total, 2 interval sessions and 2 tempo sessions. Intervals have been done on feel, tempos have been gauged using my HRM.

Drills; generally done ‘on the go’ on easy days, step overs, kicks, high knees, “calf extensions”, “fast arms”. This is an area I feel I can gain more from and will continue to work on, but I need a more structured approach.

Strength Work; None, I need to investigate this.

Stretching; None, I need to investigate this.

Cross training; 1-2hr/wk commuting by bike.

Taper; Starting 7 days before race, only easy sessions depending mood/weather.
Race Pre; Not to go stuffing myself wit food on race day or the day before!

Injury Concerns; No injuries, but my ankles are very sore and stiff for the first 10mins of each run.

Mood; I’ve enjoyed the training and have kept it interesting with some new routes and drills.



Race Details; Terrain in rolling countryside, I’ll do my best to recky the course before the race, long term weather is mixed, light wind with rain.

Race strategy; Run to HR, as close to 175bpm (93% MHR) as possible, with the aim of hitting an even race splits. I have in the past run at MHR for pretty much the whole race. :rolleyes:

Race Expectation; 37:XX, this is roughly the shape I feel I’m in, hard to gauge as I no longer use any pacing’s in training.

Well that the story, time to go eat some tarmac.

hypersonic

so the good, the bad, the ugly.

I ran to the plan, a few blips at around 177.
I had planned to kick on with 2km to go, but there wasn't much more to give.
I ran a rolling course with out stitching which is a first.
I let the fast guys go early and didn't try to hang with the pace, despite my brain telling me to go. the win was sub 34. 3rd was sub 36.
well that's the good out of the way.

the bad and the ugly
my time was a genuine disappointment, 38:26 and 4th, over a minute outside my pb and I never felt like I was running well.
I was out off work during the week with a bug, I cycled to the race in some drizzling rain.
I had a mars bar for breakfast, not the worst but maybe not the best.

so where to from here, only 3 weeks of the season left so no point letting it get me down.
I will lower my mileage and concentrate on speed work. here's hoping this was just yet another blip.

despite all the thrills and spills we are very fortunate to be racing, so even terrible races are worth it.