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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
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Friday evening was registration, picked up the number and goodie bag, signed in, grabbed some dinner, and came back for the briefing. Nothing really unexpected in it, Ditch giving his usual warnings about DQ’s. Finished up, home, put the numbers on the helmets and hit the bed.
Alarm went off at 5.15. Up, tri suit on, grabbed some porridge, couple of bananas and some coffee. Collected all the gear, and head off for the race. Lots of bikes heading quietly through the ever brightening morning. Not a lot of chat going on.
Through bike check, racked the bike. #10, which put me at the bike exit, but meant a very long run in bare feet from the swim exit. Neutralized transitions take into account running with the bike, but not running with bare feet after the swim.
Racked the bike, set up the gear. Quick run to get the legs moving. As transition closed I pulled on the wetsuit, and headed for the swim entry. Waiting around a while, lots of chat with a few others. BTH was looking calm and relaxed. Bennymul looked how I felt, little nervous, and trig looked like he didn’t know where he was
Finally, time to get in the water .Bouys looked a long way away. Really long. In, decent warm up, back to the start, waited for the usual attempts to get people to back up, then finally, as they always do, they give up and shout go, and we were off.
Swim started well, found water, stroke feeling good, moving well. That carried on for about 5 mins, when bang, got an elbow/kick/something in the eye. Enough to stop me dead, head ringing, couldn’t see for a second. Later realized it had actually been enough to cut, nice little cut under the eyebrow. Explains the pain. Anyway, got going again and headed for the first buoy. Came into it tight, and it was a real scrap, lot of people fighting to get around. Cleared it, headed for the second buoy. By the time I reached it felt like I had been in the water a long time.
We’d been told to sight on the white house on the way back in, but with the sun coming up I couldn’t see a thing, so sighting was a bit off, maybe didn’t take the fastest line back in, but eventually after what felt like an age made it back into shore, and up the slipway.
http://www.strava.com/activities/187506373
Out of the water in 32:33, 106th /305 overall, 24th /77in my AG
Did the long run through transition, passed BTH getting ready(thought he’d be long gone), feet getting battered from the run on cold wet feet. Decided to go with socks, pulled them and the shoes, meant to put on a jersey but don’t usually and forgot all about it. Out of t1 and onto the road
3:27, 159th overall, 45th in my AG
Bike started okay, kept the effort steady and under the planned level for the first couple of km then started to push a bit more. Was using the PM to keep the effort in check, and it was keeping me from driving too hard up the hills, but that didn’t help the frustration as people passed me, obviously pushing hard but still passing me out. BTH went past me early, after he finally got his hair fixed right and got pretty enough to head out on the bike
Up over the first climb, descended past a poor racer lying prone on the side of the road. Reminder to be careful. Hit healy, stuck to the planned power level, people passing again, but passing a good few at the same time. Knew I could go up it a lot faster, (and have, as Strava told me afterwards), but knew blowing everything on the bike wasn’t going to help later. My first half was a good lesson that just because you can go faster doesn’t mean you should..
Over healy, started the descent. Had contemplated racing on the road bike as I can descend much faster on it, well Saturday I don’t think there would have been much in it, nobody passed me going down the hill and I took a lot in front of me, fastest I have ever descended on the tri bike.
Pushed on into glengariff, up Caha . passed a few, then found myself behind someone who was keeping pace with where I wanted to be, so tucked in the right distance behind and got up to the top, started the descent and passed out the guy in front, next thing got a serious wobble from the bike, was sure I was about to loose it, was picking a part of the mostly rock ditch to crash into, but managed to keep it upright and stopped. Was sure it was a flat but after checking realized everything was fine, just a really bad speed wobble. 4 people passed me while stopped, but after getting moving I flew past them on the descent again, hit the flat into kenmare and like most took advantage of the tail wind to hold some nice speeds into Kenmare.
Was two negatives on the bike. First, the ankle niggle reared it’s head soon after starting, but seemed to clear up as I went on. I wasn’t too worried about that one as I knew I could run through it. Much more worryingly, on the run into kenmare, the knee niggle came back full force. That was a real worry, cause I knew it would seriously affect my run.
http://www.strava.com/activities/187512299
Bike: 2:52:42, 155th overall, 42nd in my AG
Long long run in t2, all the way down to the end of transition, then all the way back up. Runners on, gels grabbed, hat on to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Family were at the exit from t2, so after a quick kiss from my little girl I headed out on the run.
4:36, 186th overall, 47th in my ag
The run
Knee felt surprisingly okay as I headed out, but within a km the pain was back full force. Felt really good heading out. First km was holding 4:40 no problem, and was holding myself back at that. Hit the first of the hills then and with it the pain, and suddenly the run became everything but easy. As I got out to the turn around point at 7 or 8 km the knee pain had pushed me from a run into a shuffle, trying to keep the right leg as straight as possible. Long run plan is 19:30 run 30 sec walk, was using this get gels on board, but found starting to run again after the walk was killing the knee, it was tightening up even in the 30 sec break. Was walking the breaks and the water stops and feeling it every time I got going again
that's me and bennymul bitching about how tough this was.:)
At this stage I knew hitting 5:15, which was the goal, was gone. Still though, kept pushing as hard as I could, but there was little left in the tank. I’m not sure even if the knee hadn’t flared up I’d have hit the 5:15, but will never know. Held the best pace I could, and suffered up the hills. The last one though, the one everyone talks about, that did for me. I was forced down to a walk. Crested it, and knew I had to get running again, so off I went. Pretty much held a slow pace into kenmare, and was very grateful to see that finish line. As I got up to it a little ball of brown hair and big smiles appeared out of the crowd with hand raised. Rachel wasn’t going to miss her usual trick of crossing the line with me, so over we went. First half IM done.
http://www.strava.com/activities/187512219
Run: 1:53:52, 144 overall. 42nd in mg AG.
Overall: 5:27:11, 135th overall, 38th in my AG.
So top half in overall and in my AG, but that wasn’t the goal, and doesn’t really matter. I didn’t hit the goal time, but I crossed that line with nothing left, that was all I had in me, I might have got the execution/pacing wrong but that’s something to work on for another day. I’m happy with that time, given it was my first half, but I know it can be better. And that’s a good way to finish the season, as it sets up the hunger to work hard over the winter. I’m pretty confident with work I can take a solid chunk off that time,
Did I enjoy my first half? No, I loved it. Maybe not if you’d asked me in the last 30 minutes, or the first 10 after the finish, but all the way up to that, and afterwards, it was superb. I like that distance, it feels like a good days racing. Sprints are just a buzz of energy, lots of speed, but over so quick it’s like you hardly have time to settle in to anything before it is done. Oly and Half at least give you the chance to enjoy the race. After all the build up being out that that much longer just seems to make it more worthwhile.
and at the end of the day, some people think you win every race you are in no matter what
And so ends tri season 2014, which I’m chalking down in the win column. 4 races I am absolutely delighted with, Joey Hannon, Killaloe Boruman, HotW and Lost Sheep, one that was hit by illness in Cutra but still a good learning experience, and a lot of other smaller races. I hit levels this season I didn’t think I’d ever get to, which has validated in a huge huge way the decision to go with a coach, so cheers to Dave to all the work, advice and support over the year. When I picked the title for this log I don’t think how apt it really was, but it’s dawned on me now, and I’m sure after all the questions he’d agree. I see people start a different log for every year, but the title of this one remains more relevant now than when I started, so I’ll keep going with this one. Last year when Dave asked me what my goals were I hadn’t a clue other than be better. Goal achieved. I think the goals for next year will be a bit more specific, but the approach will be the same. A lot of learning and a lot of work to be done. Bring it on0 -
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