Is there anything to be said for another mass?

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

ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

rodneyr1981

RJM85 wrote: »

ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

And on a school night:eek::)

RJM85

I've not done much. Took about two weeks to admit to myself how tired I actually was. Feeling more like myself now, but taking it easy for another while yet. Lots of short swims, a little bit of running and if it's nice on Sunday I'm going to cycle to get a coffee somewhere.

Drinking too much beer and eating too much chocolate is nice while it lasts.

I'm surprised at how well I'm swimming - hopped in the pool today and did 400m 'steady' which came out 6:04. That would have been break neck pace this time last year. Tempted to do a 400 TT and see what I can do. I've never been under 6.

RJM85

5:46 for 400 this morning. Happy with that.

zico10

RJM85 wrote: »

5:46 for 400 this morning. Happy with that.

From a 7:22 in your opening post, that's fairly impressive progress. There must have been a lot of unexpectedly fast 100s along the way.

Kurt_Godel

RJM85 wrote: »

5:46 for 400 this morning. Happy with that.

Great going, fantastic time! What were your splits/pacing like?

RJM85

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Great going, fantastic time! What were your splits/pacing like?

Not sure yet - will have a look at the Garmin file when I get home.

RJM85

RJM85 wrote: »

Not sure yet - will have a look at the Garmin file when I get home.

I can tell you that I /did/ go off too fast, but not much else...

RJM85

1:22
1:29
1:28
1:27

Dory Dory

I'm just getting caught up on your log. Wow!!! Super congratulation on your Budapest performance. Impressive on so many levels, and you have every right to be proud of what you have accomplished. I suspect 2016 will be even better...which begs the question, when are you going long??

RJM85

Dory Dory wrote: »

I'm just getting caught up on your log. Wow!!! Super congratulation on your Budapest performance. Impressive on so many levels, and you have every right to be proud of what you have accomplished. I suspect 2016 will be even better...which begs the question, when are you going long??

Ha! It's on the radar, but it won't be happening till I'm confident I can put the time in to do myself justice. I have 2018 tentatively in my head, but at the same time if I have to wait until I have sulky teenagers in the house that want nothing to do with me then that's fine too.

RJM85

I appear, somewhat accidentally, to be on track for swimming 15k this week.