Is there anything to be said for another mass?

zico10

RJM85 wrote: »

Run
Started well with the intention of aiming to hold 4:15 as long as possible and then hopefully upping the pace towards the end. All went to plan until about 6km before my pace started to drop off and I was passed again and again. Some, like Mariusz and Alan Kenny (zico?) would have left me for dead regardless, I'd like to think that others I could have held off.

That was me alright.

I usually try to grunt some form of greeting when I pass someone, but sorry I didn't know who you were when I passed.

Impressive bike split. Am I right in saying you are a member of Setanta? They seem to consistently produce strong bikers, what's the secret?

And for what it's worth I think the all or nothing approach to racing is sometimes a good race strategy. As you said this was only a B race for you. It was a demanding bike course, cycling 3km less in warmer weather, and on much smoother roads, you can expect to put in a much faster time, for much less effort, in Budapest. You'll be much fresher for the run. If your goal time is still sub 4:30, I'd say it's a bit soft based on how you did in Tri an Mhí.

RJM85

zico10 wrote: »

That was me alright.

I usually try to grunt some form of greeting when I pass someone, but sorry I didn't know who you were when I passed.

Impressive bike split. Am I right in saying you are a member of Setanta? They seem to consistently produce strong bikers, what's the secret?

And for what it's worth I think the all or nothing approach to racing is sometimes a good race strategy. As you said this was only a B race for you. It was a demanding bike course, cycling 3km less in warmer weather, and on much smoother roads, you can expect to put in a much faster time, for much less effort, in Budapest. You'll be much fresher for the run. If your goal time is still sub 4:30, I'd say it's a bit soft based on how you did in Tri an Mhí.

No worries at all - I wouldn't expect you to know me at all. I enjoy following your training on here and copped the tattoos after you passed.

Yeah, there seems to be a fair few strong bikers from round these parts. It's odd because I've never known any of the stronger guys to train together or anything. Setanta as a club does very little group training by comparison to other clubs as far as I can gather. Honestly, to have such a good bike split on Saturday was a pleasant surprise. I knew I was going well relatively for me, and cycling is probably my strongest - but I wasn't expecting that. I did have a bit of a wtf moment realising there were only 3 bikes in t2.

I think with a bit of luck you may be right. Budapest is almost completely flat for the bike and run as I understand it. The coach has also pointed out that while I thought I was pacing myself at 4:15 pace initially on the run, in the heat of the moment I was a lot closer to 4min pace which would have contributed to me fading as well. Going to work a bit on run endurance over the next while, and I've learned a bit about the distance now too. I may be a lot closer than I thought to getting a slot for the 70.3 WC which is something I had in the back of my mind as a medium / long term goal albeit I wasn't really sure how realistic that might be.

Dory Dory

Well done to you! If you didn't earn a slot outright, would you take a roll down slot if offered to you to Worlds?

RJM85

Dory Dory wrote: »

Well done to you! If you didn't earn a slot outright, would you take a roll down slot if offered to you to Worlds?

Short answer - I don't know! And I'd be afraid to tempt fate by thinking about it too much!

RJM85

Louth / Leinster TT Champs

I'm a little at a loss as to how to write a race report for a 10 mile TT and not have it be boring as f*ck, but at the same time I feel like I've had a relatively significant result that warrants logging.

After Tri an Mhi, the coach sent through a fairly thorough e-mail critique of how i'd done - the basics of which (good swim, very good bike, disappointing run; overall - a lot to be pleased with) I already knew - but with some interesting opinions and insights. Certainly plenty to mull over for the next while. I was prescribed an unstructured 'very easy week' focusing on recovery. The only bit of prescribed training was a turbo session for last night in advance of the TT. "What TT?" *checks training peaks* "ah, that TT. F*ck. I didn't think that one through at all...". I had totally forgotten that I put this in the calendar, and at the point that I was reminded of it any movement that didn't involve bringing food to my mouth felt beyond me.

Anyway. I got on with the week; a couple of very easy swims; a commute on the bike; the aforementioned turbo session. I took things pretty lazy and rationalised that I'm better starting the next 9 weeks to Budapest raring to go than any alternative. By last night I was feeling pretty good about the TT. I gathered up all my gear; checked over the bike etc. and started /half/ looking forward to it.

Sign on was at 6:30 at the gym beside my house. I signed on on my way back from work before getting changed in the house and carting my bike, gear and turbo over shortly after 7. I was happy with the spot I chose as it turned out I got to watch Colm Cassidy (2014 National TT Silver Medalist) prepare - it's always good to see what the guys who really know what they're doing do. I got a decent warm up and felt fresh and pretty ready with about 10 minutes to go. I think the timing of this - a week after Tri an Mhi meant that I didn't really have much nerves to contend with. Go out; go hard. Do my best and see where it got me. In the grand scheme of things this wasn't a target race by any stretch.

It had started a kind of misty rain on my way home from work, and that didn't really let up for the duration. I was off at 8:10, a minute before Cassidy so before I started I knew I'd get caught sooner rather than later. A desire to hold that point off as long as possible was a good motivator. I've mentioned before that I've recently got myself a power meter. We're still figuring out /my/ numbers so I didn't really have a target wattage. I had a max 20 minute power of 340-something from a short 20 minute FTP test I did when I got the meter, and knowing that I consistently test worse than I race I thought that might be a good ballpark to aim for (really, it was more a case of knowing that lower than say, 320 was too low, and higher than something like 370 was too high - after that it was done on feel.

The course is a straight out and back I've done numerous times. It's the local clubs go to TT route, and at least half of my training spins start and end on the stretch of road in some way. If you drive the course, it's pan flat. On a bike, at 40+ kmph, your legs burning, and your eyeballs millimeters from bursting out of their sockets however, there are some deceptive draggy sections. It invariably has a bit of a headwind on the way out. Regardless; 20+ minutes at absolute maximum isn't nice.

I settled into a rhythm fairly quick. I focused on holding my position as aero as possible. Move nothing but my legs unless absolutely possible. I think I managed a fairly decent pass at this - your field of vision during a TT always feels a bit unnatural, but sticking your head in the air too often to see down the road won't do great things for your time! Roughly 4 miles in, Cassidy passed me like a train. The guy is an absolute study in how to approach a TT. Low, narrow, barely moving other than his legs. I managed to sneak a glimpse at his Garmin afterwards - he held 412 watts for 19 minutes 36 seconds. Phenomenal.

At the turnaround, my Garmin showed 11 minutes. Given I had the tail wind on the way back, I figured I could be on for sub 22 if I could hold my power. With 1km to go, I could see I was on for a pretty big PB (previous best 23:28), and at 200m to go I got out of the saddle and sprinted as hard as I could muster. Crossed the line in an official time of 21:38, having held 355w for the full TT - a new 20 minute record. That was good enough for 3rd on the Louth podium, just 18 seconds behind the winner; and would have gotten me 1st on the A3 podium had I taken out a full competition license at the start of the year (not something that was clear when I signed up for the limited competition license so I was a little annoyed for a few moments, but not much I can do about it).

In my eyes, that's a fairly big step up to mixing it with some of the better local lads, and I'm chuffed with the podium.

Dory Dory

You are in incredible form. Well done on a fantastic result!

RJM85

Dory Dory wrote: »

You are in incredible form. Well done on a fantastic result!

Training works! Who knew?!

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Good time on that course, alas my TT bike is still in the attic

RJM85

I'm expecting to be a front of pack swimmer from here on in. That's how this stuff works, right?

joey100

I think to go really really fast you need a pair of these goggles,

Kurt_Godel

joey100 wrote: »

I think to go really really fast you need a pair of these goggles,

I have a pair of those babies!

Best worn in the pool with speedos and loads of chest hair:cool:

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

I think to go really really fast you need a pair of these goggles,

Good god, they're incredible.

RJM85

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

I have a pair of those babies!

Best worn in the pool with speedos and loads of chest hair:cool:

Medallion optional.

Dory Dory

joey100 wrote: »

I think to go really really fast you need a pair of these goggles,

Those are goggles!!!!???? Oooooooo.......

joey100

Yep TYR swim shades,

http://www.tyr.com/shop/goggles/swim-shades.html

Have seen them in a shop and they aren't that bad looking in person (this is coming from the person who has the new Oakley jawbreakers so taste may not be my strong point!), think you would have to be fast alright to pull them off so you would be grand Dory!

Kurt_Godel

joey100 wrote: »

Yep TYR swim shades,

http://www.tyr.com/shop/goggles/swim-shades.html

Have seen them in a shop and they aren't that bad looking in person (this is coming from the person who has the new Oakley jawbreakers so taste may not be my strong point!), think you would have to be fast alright to pull them off so you would be grand Dory!

They give good peripheral vision, are hydro in the water, but tend to leak a bit more than most. But they look f***ing awesome, and thats why we go to the pool in the first place

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

Yep TYR swim shades,

http://www.tyr.com/shop/goggles/swim-shades.html

Have seen them in a shop and they aren't that bad looking in person (this is coming from the person who has the new Oakley jawbreakers so taste may not be my strong point!), think you would have to be super fly alright to pull them off so you would be grand Dory!

FYP

Dory Dory

joey100 wrote: »

Yep TYR swim shades,

http://www.tyr.com/shop/goggles/swim-shades.html

Have seen them in a shop and they aren't that bad looking in person (this is coming from the person who has the new Oakley jawbreakers so taste may not be my strong point!), think you would have to be fast alright to pull them off so you would be grand Dory!

This is so funny - I tried furiously to find them last night, so thank you for posting the link. I worry about what Kurt said about them leaking :eek: but I figure for $20, I'm not sure I can resist trying them out. I see the link is for sales in the US only, so if they aren't available in Ireland and if anyone out there would like me to purchase them a pair as well, let me know and I will ship them over as soon as they arrive!

Dory Dory

Hmmm....just read the reviews - leaking, as Kurt said. And they don't seem to be for racing - ?? I guess they are a bit clunky - ? Still, curiosity has the best of me....may have to just dip the toe in and see what the fuss is about!

Dory Dory

Oh....:o.....and just now realized Joey said he's seen them in a shop over there, so that tells me they are accessible to you folks!

RJM85

First run focus week done. 'Only' 13.5 hours - but I can feel all that running in my legs at the minute...

RJM85

Took my new wetsuit to the pool to make sure I'm happy with the fit etc. world of difference between this and my old one. Did some very unscientific testing of the time differences between wetsuit and without - seemed to be getting up to 15 seconds faster for 100m which is mind boggling. No shoulder fatigue at all either. Looking forward to testing it out in open water now...

Dory Dory

What kind did you get? And is it sleeveless, or with sleeves?

RJM85

Dory Dory wrote: »

What kind did you get? And is it sleeveless, or with sleeves?

Roka Maverick Elite - it's a sleeved one. Took it out in open water yesterday - can't get over the difference in feel from my old one!

RJM85

Carlingford ‘Land of Legends’ Olympic Tri

Once I had the unstructured week over me after Tri an Mhi, we got back into some specific hard training for Budapest. The most disappointing thing (from a fairly positive overall) about Tri an Mhi was my run performance. The coach pointed out that I had actually done the first 5k of the run at a much faster pace than I thought at the time, plus the vast majority of my run sessions are limited to 45 minute lunch time sessions. With those two points in mind, we’re focussing on run endurance and the feel of running at specific paces. We’ve taken time from the bike and added double days, longer long runs, and a long run brick session to the week. Obviously this is additional impact and stress that I’m not used to so I’m trying to be very aware of how my body is feeling. We had planned 3 hard weeks, training through this race with an easier week this week. However, with the extra running, plus a 14 month old with throat infection, I was very fatigued at the end of last week and the plan was reshuffled a bit. While I didn’t know what to expect, I was keen to have a good showing, especially since I’ve had the benefit of an early recovery week.

This is our local race – it’s organised by my tri club, and it’s only about 15 minutes away from my parents’ house. It’s also a great setting. Swim in Carlingford Lough, cycle through the Cooley Mountains up to the Long Womans Grave, and a run with some pretty nice views of the water. That said, for a bunch of reasons (and I’m not going to get into that) it’s not as big a race as it could be. When I arrived on Sunday morning, from what I could see, there were 3 strong guys in the running for podium slots (or, with a bit of positive thinking – counting me, there were four). Bryan McCrystal, who I had beaten into 5th here last year, but who I knew has been doing a bit more Tri training of late; Barry Convery, who I hadn’t raced against recently, but who I remembered as having significantly faster run times than me at duathlons in the past, and who was 3rd (I think) in Crooked Lake this year; and Dessie Duffy, who I finished ahead of in Tri an Mhi, but I was tapered for that, and he did it as far as I’m aware off the back of a couple of hard races in a row. There was always the chance there was some other strong guy here I wasn’t aware of, but I was going into the water hoping that I would be racing the win, or at least for a good podium spot.

With the new wetsuit, I was also keen to have a good standalone swim. My Dad, who comes to almost every race I do (he stood on the side of the road for nearly 5 hours cheering me on at Tri an Mhi) insisted on helping me out with the upgrade after I mentioned in passing that I planned to buy a new suit over the winter. He, as usual was at the race, so it would be nice to see him get a bit of return on his investment! I also knew that in order to beat McCrystal, I would need to put as much time as possible into him on the swim and run – and hope that he’d get a puncture or something on the bike. The swim was two anti-clockwise laps of a “750m” course, which I was fairly certain was short just from looking at it. The water was fairly calm, with a bit of a current dragging you out to the right on the way out to the first buoy. I pushed fairly hard from the outset, and after 100m or so I was with the lead 4 / 5 swimmers. At the first buoy, I realised that one of them was McCrystal – “sh*t, I’ve no chance if he’s going to be getting out of the water with me!” – I pushed harder to the second buoy and reached it just off the feet of the lead swimmer. Once around it, I could see I had a bit of a gap to the next man. With the current helping me, I also managed to close the gap to the leader. Once the first lap was done, we had to get out of the water, round a cone, and hop back in – meaning that that horrible transition from swimming to standing had to be done twice. The second lap was fairly uneventful. I took the same line that had worked ok for me the first time, a bit wider than my companion. This time however, I had to check myself a little to round the first buoy. We swam together (with him doing the majority of the work) the rest of the way. While I was on his feet getting out of the water, he was a bit more leisurely about getting to the timing mat, so in the official results, I had the fastest swim. Something I’m pretty chuffed about, regardless of who was in the race.

Swim – 20.31 - based on my Garmin file, I have the actual swim distance (minus the run to T1) as 1.3k in 20.21 – or 1.32 per 100m which I’m pretty happy with. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first swim this year that seems to reflect the work I did in the pool over the winter is my first swim with the new wetsuit.

Because it’s a small local race struggling for entries, the club encouraged any potential relay participants and were happy for a bike / runner friend of mine from the cycling club to put his chip on my ankle along with my own for the swim portion. He was obviously delighted that he asked me, as it meant he was first out onto the bike course. That also meant that I had someone to chase from the go on the bike. I’m still figuring out my power for racing etc. but for this race, knowing that I had one big climb, followed by a long descent where I’d struggle to keep the power up, I had decided to aim for above 300w to the top of the climb, and on the flat while pushing as hard as I could manage on the descent. I caught and passed the leader after about 3 or 4k. However, within about a minute, McCrystal shot past me like I was standing still. It’s actually terrifying to think what power he’s able to put into those pedals - I may as well have been on a tricycle. I tried to hold him at legal distance for a bit, but there was no way that was going to happen. For the rest of the bike, I pushed hard, and saw nobody but marshals at the corners. The results have me down as 55:07 for what my Garmin says was 35.2km with 219m of climbing. NP was 293w, and I had the 2nd fastest bike – the best part of 2 minutes faster than the next guy, but McCrystal put 5 and a half minutes into me - he was on the main road when I was coming back into transition, meaning he was nearly a full kilometre into the run. I was fairly certain that closing that kind of gap would be beyond me, especially since I knew he’s been doing some run training recently, but I could try! And at this stage I didn’t know where 3rd place was, so I still had to make sure I held him off!

The run is a flat, out and back 10k. For tri’s in particular, it’s great to be able to get a sense of where your nearest competitors are, to look them in the eyes and assess their suffering as you put on your best game face. We had a slight tail wind on the way out, and it was pretty hot. I ran pretty strong and hard – nothing spectacular, but I’m pretty happy with it overall. In the last couple of km, I could see that nobody was catching me, so I probably cruised it a bit. I ran 38.20 for the 10k, which was the 4th fastest run overall. 1:55:42 finish time, good enough for 2nd place and a nice finish line podium shot and some cash! It’s a nice confidence boost to have everything I could control in the race go pretty much to plan. I’m fairly well on track for Budapest, albeit that I’m going to try and make extra effort with diet. If I’m honest, I’ve probably let that slip a bit, and I did notice from photo’s at Tri an Mhi, I was the fattest man in the top 10!

Onwards and upwards!

joey100

How are you finding the new wetsuit RJM?? Where did you buy from and did you just use the size chart or try it on?

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

How are you finding the new wetsuit RJM?? Where did you buy from and did you just use the size chart or try it on?

Very happy with it. I'll see how the next few races pan out, but there's a definite difference in comfort while swimming and the time I swam in carlingford was as good as I can realistically expect.

I bought it directly from ROKA on their online store. They say they expect you to have a couple of swims before deciding you're keeping it, and you have 30 days to return so long as there's no damage, or you haven't written your name on or something. I took it to the pool the evening I got it to make sure I was happy.

There's a world of difference between the this one and my old one (an Orca S5, I think). Even f I didn't see any improvement in times, I'm coming out of the water fresher as I'm not fighting the suit in any way. I used to feel my shoulders tying up regularly in longer than sprint swims.

MD1983

RJM85 wrote: »

There's a world of difference between the this one and my old one (an Orca S5, I think). .

the S5 is an absolute pig of a suit compared to the high end suit, i have one for training that i wear once or twice a year and compared to my race suit (orca 3.8) there is a massive difference i think

MD1983

RJM85 wrote: »

There's a world of difference between the this one and my old one (an Orca S5, I think). .

the S5 is an absolute pig of a suit compared to the high end suit, i have one for training that i wear once or twice a year and compared to my race suit (orca 3.8) there is a massive difference i think

RJM85

MD1983 wrote: »

the S5 is an absolute pig of a suit compared to the high end suit, i have one for training that i wear once or twice a year and compared to my race suit (orca 3.8) there is a massive difference i think

Yeah, the S5 was my only experience of a wetsuit up to now and a few people had rightly or wrongly told me that a good wetsuit didn't make that much of a difference. Even before getting in the water you can tell the difference.

RJM85

Lisburn Sprint Triathlon (pool swim)

Swim
I was in a lane with 2 other guys. We chatted beforehand to see who went where… as I was expecting the fastest swim of the three of us I led out. I went off far too fast on the first 100. Looks like from the Garmin file that it was about 1:19 which, yeah, was far too fast. About 150m in I could feel that familiar ‘going anaerobic’ burn in my muscles, but at that stage I had already checked my pace and just tried to keep it strong. The 2nd guy in the lane, who was expecting a 13-14 minute swim had obviously had a) a burst of adrenaline, and b) was enjoying the benefit of drafting me; about the 200m mark he made a surge past me to overtake. He stayed in front for maybe 50 / 100 before letting me pass again and then dropping off the pace. I’m told he looked like it was a huge effort to pass and stay there, so I expect he hadn’t fully realised the benefit of the drafting until he passed me. Unfortunately for these shorter events I don’t really seem to have that next gear that some people have. It seems to manifest itself mostly in swims I think, but I’m happy with how I swam overall. I swam strong and in control. It looks like Budapest may be a non-wetsuit swim, so notwithstanding that a pool is different to open water, it’s good to have a good swim in a race situation without the neoprene. Official time was 11:36 which includes hopping out of the pool, and 100m running or so; so 11:20ish. I’ve seen decent improvements with all the work over the winter – I did this race last year and had a 12:12 swim – so a 36 second improvement over 750m. If you add it up, it’s probably a lot of time invested vs the gains you might get elsewhere, but I’m fairly certain I’m also coming out of the water stronger and with less negative impact on my bike and run. 11:36 was good enough for 5th fastest swim.

Bike
The bike has been my strongest discipline this year; I’ve gotten very comfortable on the TT, and have put in some good training. The power meter is giving me good numbers to work off, and generally I look forward to getting onto the bike and riding some swimmers down! I lost a position in transition, so had someone just 10 or so seconds ahead coming onto the bike. I focussed on reeling him in, but it didn’t happen as quick as I would have liked. I caught and passed him after maybe 10 minutes. 5 minutes later at a junction I realised that he was still with me (at a legal distance, to be fair). He passed me again maybe 20 minutes into the bike, and I looked to just keep with him (at a legal distance). I actually lost a bit of ground on him over the next 10 minutes or so, and entered T2 roughly 30 seconds behind, still in 5th position.

Yesterday, for some reason the bike wasn’t great and I’m struggling to come up with a reason why. The course was one 20km loop with some dodgy road surfaces and a few tight bends (the marshalling at some of the turns was pretty poor too meaning that I spent more time than usual ensuring that I was 100% safe before proceeding). I can probably partially blame lower than expected power numbers on the more technical than usual course, but at the same time – I should have done better, and even on the longer stretches I wasn’t really putting out the power that I wanted, and relative to others, considering what I’ve done in other races this year, I had a bad bike. In Carlingford a couple of weeks ago I had an NP of 293 for 55 minutes, and I did a 2hr TT in training last weekend at 296 NP. NP yesterday was 297 for 31:26. I can point to a few things during the week that compromised my prep for this race (see: teething 1 year old, sick wife, no sleep), but I can’t see why they would affect my bike performance and not my swim and run. Either way, I’m not going to dwell on it too much – the 2hr TT I mentioned was the best of those that I’ve done, and that was only a week ago. I haven’t turned sh!te overnight (I hope).

Run
The run was an odd course. We headed out onto the road for 800m or so before hitting a trail section for a bit. That merged with the tow path by the canal for a kilometre, exited onto the main road, back past transition after 3.5k, and then 2 laps of a football field to finish. Obviously, my priority was to catch 4th. I ran hard and felt pretty dreadful for most of it. For a good while, I felt like I wasn’t making any inroads into his lead. Shortly into the trail section we had a turnaround at a cone. I took the opportunity to show my companion that this was easy… best poker face, couple of words of encouragement, back to the suffering. Shortly after we exited onto the main road it became clear that I was closing the gap. I caught and passed him at about 3k, and managed to put another almost 20 seconds into him over the last bit. As I was starting the first of my laps around the field, Harry Speers (2nd overall on the day, and one of the developments squad) was going onto his last lap. It was encouraging to see that I put a bit of time into him on the lap. My run was 18:40, which on its own for 5k I’d be slightly disappointed with, but it was 2nd fastest run by just 5 seconds, and the run course wasn’t a fast one.

4th overall, and a decent showing on swim and run. 2 weeks to Budapest!

RJM85

10 Mile TT last night. 21:17 - new PB with avg power 357 which is a slight PB also. Nice to confirm I haven't gotten crap overnight.

RJM85

10 mile TTs hurt. A lot.

mossym

RJM85 wrote: »

10 mile TTs hurt. A lot.

jay-sus. they must, wiped every bit of colour from your face

RJM85

mossym wrote: »

jay-sus. they must, wiped every bit of colour from your face

Good work.

joey100

All set for the weekend?? Any goals you want to put out there?

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

All set for the weekend?? Any goals you want to put out there?

More or less! Bit of packing to do tomorrow when the little fellas in creche, but otherwise well set I think!

Overall time will depend on how fast the bike course is I expect, and whether it's a wetsuit swim. Hoping for 30 minute swim, 270w avg on the bike, and 1.30 run. That /should/ see me in well under 4.30 and should be manageable based on what I did in Tri an Mhi. Bike is pan flat - 275 at tri an mhi got me 2:30, so hopefully it's fast!

joey100

Well achievable from looking at your training, hope everything goes your way over there. Best of Luck!

Dory Dory

Best of luck to you!!!

zico10

Sorry, meant to wish you luck before the race. Turns out you didn't need it. You smashed your target. Well done.

RJM85

zico10 wrote: »

Sorry, meant to wish you luck before the race. Turns out you didn't need it. You smashed your target. Well done.

Thanks. Chuffed. Sh!te lead up for various reasons , but the day went pretty perfectly. I'll do race report when I'm sober...

pgibbo

Cracking performance! :cool: Congrats

RJM85

Budapest 70.3 - Race Report

It can feel a bit disingenuous to write a race report where everything goes really well and the end result is good. A bit like 'I'm deadly and look what I did, yeah?'. Obviously, there's probably a bit of pride involved in sharing achievement publicly, but I'd like to think there's more to this report than just that. To save any attempt at a sense of suspense or anything I'll get the following out of the way; yesterday I did Budapest 70.3; I worked my ass off for the last 9 months specifically towards this race, and barring any kind of divine intervention or something I got the absolute best result I could have expected with my current body. I'll not say it was the race of my life because hopefully there's more in the future, but I done pretty good all things considered, and I'm pretty pleased with the result (4:19:59 and 3rd in the M30 AG).

For anyone that hasn't known me for more than a couple of years it's probably relevant for the purposes of this particular narrative to mention that 5 years ago I was morbidly obese, with chronic asthma, I regularly drank too much, and was generally as unhealthy as a person can be. I attempted a couch to 5k programme, but I couldn't run the requisite 1 minute continuously to complete the first week as prescribed. Long story short - I'm no longer that guy. Don't get me wrong - I'm not implying that 'I lost weight, therefore I am a happier and better person' or something. I really believe that the most important thing is for someone to be happy in their own skin - whatever shape that is. Suffice to say that I wasn't happy in /that/ skin - I changed things and I'm working on it!

Anyway , back to Budapest... My last race of 2014 was the Pulse Sprint Tri in Clogherhead. It was the last race of a pretty solid first year of triathlon (even if I do say so myself), and I was tired. I did some cross country running straight after and then did f*ck all for the month of November (see: attempted to make up for prolonged absences at home during the months of December to October). Midway through November, I got itchy. Travelling abroad to some big 'event' race sounded very appealing , and the step up to middle distance triathlons sounded like great craic. However, with a swimbikerun adverse spouse, the 'destination' part of the 'destination race' would need to be pretty good. Luckily, Lisa had more than once mentioned a desire to visit Hungary, and there just so happened to be a race in Budapest towards the end of August. Before long, entry fees were paid, flights booked and hotels arranged. Just the small matter of training to go.

With a circa two hour each way commute to work each day and a young family at home it can be hard to find the time to train. You need to be pretty flexible and a bit creative. On more than one occasion I've had the Gardai slow down passing me wondering what the hell this mental is doing running up and down a hill on the Ardee road at 1 o'clock on a Sunday morning - during the winter months this was regularly followed by a 4+ hour club spin on the bike at 9am. The commute to Dublin has become very handy to get consistent bike miles in and lunch time runs are a great use of otherwise wasted time. I try and fit training in as much as possible at times when I'm not missed at home, and fortunately I have a very understanding wife for those other times.

All the training and preparation races left me with a pretty decent idea of what I could and couldn't do on race day. I will confess to having a spreadsheet to help me calculate what might be reasonable expectations for various race conditions... In any event, the day before the race my wife was looking to figure out when to arrive at the finish line (with a 15 month old baby, any time spent standing around waiting is time spent looking for things to entertain said baby) my response included as you can imagine, a few variables - but best case scenario (and best case scenarios never happen we both acknowledged) was that I'd be done and dusted in 4hrs 20.

The race was billed as a fast one. A calm wetsuit swim in a protected bay off the Danube, a flat fast bike, and same for the run. A couple of weeks out from the race Budapest experienced a bit of a heatwave, putting in danger the wetsuit swim. It wasn't so much that a non wetsuit swim would bother me than not knowing which it would be. There was also the fact that money had been spent on a top dollar wetsuit - not getting to use it would be unthinkable (I got my wetsuit swim in the end)! Que panic stations! A certain local multiple (5?) time Kona qualifying athlete gave me some sage words of advice that would be far more relevant than he had any way of knowing. Basically - don't sweat the sh!t you can't control.

I finished up in work on the Friday before our flight to Budapest. On Monday it became clear that my son was coming down with an ear infection. We flew out on Wednesday with antibiotics in tow, but Connor picked up a vomiting bug on the flight. Speak the words vomiting, ear infection, and toddler in the same sentence and any parent will have sympathy. Combine it with the last days tapering for a race you've been working towards for 9 months and you have a recipe for disaster. I controlled the things that were in my control and let the rest go. (A bit of perspective is warranted here; ones sons health is a bit more important than any triathlon - obviously). I also managed to mess up my registration - the 20 minute easy jog to the race site for registration and a quick swim before getting a taxi back to the hotel became a 16k round trip by foot when I a) got lost and b) couldn't find a taxi.

By Friday night however, Connor was in much better shape and form and I got a bit of time to relax and prep myself for the race the next day. I even managed a relatively early night to bed!

Up at 6 for breakfast and last minute prep before a 7am taxi to the race site to set myself up in transition. Normally I'm a ball of nerves before a race, but this morning everything was pretty calm. I set up my transition bags, checked my bike, had a bit of a wander around the race site. At 9 I stuck on my wetsuit while watching the pros start. I had a short 10 minute swim in the practise area and was standing with the rest of the M30-34 age group at 9:30 waiting for our 9:35 start. From here on in the race report gets fairly uneventful unfortunately!

I started the swim 3 back from the front on a beach start. There was a little bit of the fighting for positions that normally happens once you're in the water, but I just kept swimming and soon enough I had pretty clear water. At the turnaround I stole a glance at my watch and saw 14:something - I was ahead of schedule already and feeling pretty decent too. Out of the water and through the timing mat in 29:11, 10th in my AG. Wetsuit in my transition bag and off to my bike... One swig from my bottle and I was into my favourite part of any race.

Having done one middle distance tri (tri an mhi) previously I had a power number to work off, and had hopefully learned from my mistakes on in that race. I aimed for an average of 270 watts - a little more conservative than tri an mhi, with no stupid sections of climbing at 400+ (whatever had I been thinking), and I aimed to keep everything below 340 as much as possible. I hadn't taken on enough liquids or calories at tri an mhi either so I concentrated on getting fluids in and had packed a few extra gels and things. By the first turnaround at 12ish km my heart rate had settled to below 160 and I was properly in the rhythm of the bike. I kept drinking, and took gels at regular intervals. I was constantly passing people, but wasn't seeing too many green bibs for my AG - I took that as a good sign. Aside from nearly knocking a pedestrian over at a zebra crossing and having another competitor just throw his bottle on the road in front of me 200m before the last aid station, the bike was pretty uneventful and I headed into T2 feeling pretty fresh. 2:17:51 for the bike, 3rd in AG and in 2nd heading into the run. I took a little time to put on compression socks, but got out running pretty sharpish.

The run had been the undoing of me at Tri an Mhi - I started out at a completely unrealistic pace and blew up after 5k turning the next 16.1k into a horrible suffer / slog. This time my aim was to run STEADY. After a fast first km or so I made a big effort to slow right down and bring the pace to 4:15/km. I settled into a nice rhythm that was only broken by taking sponges and coke at aid stations and fiddling with my hat if things started to hurt. I was only passed by three people on the run - 2 pros and the guy who came 2nd in my AG. Heading out to the turnaround on my third lap I heard a shout and turned to see my wife and son and friends who had travelled to give support. It gave a great boost, and I was also left with the earworm of the tune my son sings while playing 'de de dee, de de dee'. It wasn't long before I got my last arm band and basically spent everything I had getting to that red carpet. My arms went straight in the air (something I've never done before), and I was happy for about half a second before all the pain flooded in. My legs buckled, what felt like my whole left leg cramped, and I collapsed on the ground. One of the medical girls spoke to me and I asked her twice if she spoke English before realising that she /was/ speaking English (and quite well at that).

Once I had time to gather my breath I realised that I'd gotten 3rd in my AG, hit 4:20 which in my head was a dream time (it wasn't till that night that I saw the official time of 4:19:59 which was the icing on the cake!), and presumably qualified for the 70.3 world's for 2016. With the thought of all the hard work that went into getting myself to this point, and hugs from my family at the finish line I'm not ashamed to say I got a bit emotional. It's not that the IM brand has more significance or anything, but as I said at the start - I worked my ass off for the past nine months, and I've certainly come a long way since the couch 2 5k programme.

In the end I didn't take the worlds slot (or rather I didn't hang around to see whether I got one). Australia is a long way and many $$$$ away. Connor is still probably a bit young for the trip, and its not one I'd like to make without my family. With a bit of luck there will be better races in the future and other opportunities to take that slot.

RJM85

In other news - my coach has informed me today that he's taking a step back from coaching for a while. He has suggested a new coach that works for the same company (a guy I know, incidentally). I guess I have additional thinking to do. It'll be interesting to see how the next 12 months or so pans out.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Great race R, well deserved and executed.

joey100

Well done RJM, deserved after all the hard work you put in. Don't know how you fit all the training in with a 2 hour commute each way and a baby but fair play, nice to see a non eventful race report. Enjoy your time off before you get back into it.

rodneyr1981

Great read and well done. Always good to hear when hard work pays off.

pgibbo

Inspirational reading. Massive respect. Congrats!!! :cool:

RJM85

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rodneyr1981

RJM85 wrote: »

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And on a school night:eek::)