A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

mossym

It was the worst of races, it was the best of races.

Sunday was Lough Cutra Oly. Did this last year, didn’t enjoy it, wasn’t feeling well. Didn’t like the course. Didn’t like that it was slower than my previous race. Didn’t get a good buzz off it. Last years times were
Swim 00:28:27
T1 00:01:24
Cycle 01:23:45
T2 00:01:35
Run 00:43:30
2:38 overall.


For some reason, I decided to do it again this year. Not sure why. Partly because it was an early season race, and not a priority. Partly because it’s not that far from home. But given last years experience I wasn’t 100% committed, and even suggested to coach before it I’d not bother with it . suggested to do it for fun, and so it was

Lead in was awful. Not a lot of sleep the weekend before, than away all week in Germany with work, had one window to get my bike in on Saturday which was early, so when the alarm went off Sunday morning I could barely open my eyes. Why was I doing this again?

Up and had breakfast. Loaded the car, 50 minute drive up to cutra, registered, racked, shot the breeze with the transition neighbours. Felt pretty good. Relaxed, no pressure on this one. On the way over for the briefing met Kurt G, introduced myself and had a quick chat.

Race brief, same course as last year, knew what to expect. Being honest, in the back of my mind was a slight worry that I hadn’t been in the OW yet this year, but was now jumping into a race. Rational me said you’ve been swimming in OW your whole life, and never had an issue, why worry now.

Brief over. Into the water. Not as cold as I expected. Did feel cold with the face in, but it was 13C they said. So it should be.

Swam out to the start. Felt good. Took up a position not far from the front. Remembered holding way back last year, but swim is stronger now. No reason to avoid the front. The usual move back shouts, and we’re off. Bit of jostling for the first 100m, but nothing worse than other tri’s. doesn’t bother me, feeling good, just keep the arms and legs moving. Everything felt good.

Till then. Looking back, I’m still not sure what brought it on. Think I may have missed a breath, swallowed water. But all of a sudden, for no discernible reason, I got hit with a total panic attack. Hyperventilating but couldn’t breathe. Wetsuit felt like it was crushing me. Neoprene hat I had on under my swim hat had a loop for under the chin, felt like it was strangling me. Did not want to be in that water. Remembered the bit in the brief about putting your arm up. Knew if I did I was done. So tried to keep moving. No good. Couldn’t breathe enough to swim. Stopped, waited. Calmed down. Got things back under control. Wondered what the hell happened me. Started moving. Calmness kept coming back. Moving better. 10 minutes later I had gone from that water being the last place on earth to loving the swim. Rounding the half way buoy though I was thinking the swim felt long, and eh next buoy seemed to be way out of line, they had said they were having issues with them moving out of line but to keep them on our right. So off I went, rounded that one, and headed for home. Felt like I was moving reasonably well at this point, but that’s probably in the context of how the swim started, because my overall swim time was 35:54.

Now I’m convinced the swim was long for our wave by at least 200m, but still, that’s over 7 minutes slower than last year, when I would have expected a 200m longer swim would have had me close to last years times.

Not a lot to be said other than it was a disaster of a swim, but one that reflected the week before and my delinquency in getting in the water before this. On the positive though I toughed it out and got through it

Pretty decent T1, no real time lost, it’s messy one with a long run up a slope with your bike, but took advantage to get past 3 others here. mission for the rest of the day, especially the bike, was to chase down as many as I could.


Out on the bike, and started to push. Knew there were tons ahead of me after that swim, so drove hard. Pushed it hard up hills, knew it would be tough to keep the power up on the bad surface around the back of the lake, and pushed the rest. First Lap I was pretty sure I was passinig people from my own wave, by the second it was a mix of races, let alone waves, so just kept passing anyone I could. Only 2 people passed me on the bike, one of the English development squad guys doing the shorter race, and one guy from my own race, and I kept him in sight all the way back in to the gate. Turned into the gate though and had a really slow moving female ahead of me, constant stream of bikes coming the other way, couldn’t get past, kept thinking we were closer to the dismount line than we were so was a lot slower on this final section than I should have been, should just have gone for it.

Anyway, 1:17 for the bike, 6 minutes off last years time.

Long run for t2, but again went pretty well, no time wasted and was gone out.

Run was decided in the first 5 mins. Intended to adopt the same philopsohy, catch as many as I could, and I went of intending to try to hold close to 4:00min/km pace. First thing out of transition though is a hill which slowed me, and by the time I got to the top I knew I wasn’t holding that pace. Long week had caught up with me. Legs felt dead, no bounce in them. Settled into a pace around 4:20, and it pretty much stayed there for the rest of the time. HR was low, in my steady zone, may have been an issue with the garmin, but it may have been right, I felt like I could push harder but my legs just felt like dead weights. Normally it’s my cardio system is limiting me, not on Sunday, just couldn’t drive the legs.

Still managed to pass a good few, but some of the runners took me here as well. Really enjoyed the run though, just wish I could have done it faster. It was short as well, but the same as last year.

Run time 40:23, 3 minutes off from last time.

So 9 minutes made up from bike and run. But 7 minutes down on the swim. Final time of 2:36:33, 53rd overall. Those 7 minutes would have put me a lot further up the table, but I didn’t get them so no point thinking what if. Terrible terrible swim, decent bike, meah run. That’s the synopsis of the day.

Had a chat with Kurt and AKW after the race. Headed straight home then and was home for 2, race done and some quality time with the family.

Interesting day. Hopefully whatever it was is out of the system now

shotgunmcos

Fair play for the doggedness to see it through. I had a panic attack in the Warrior of the Sea swim out of the blue a couple of years ago. Happily swimming along then looked up and it enveloped me. Very unpleasant.

That aside your bike and run came along so something is working

For some reason I'm LMAO at you doing a run in te middle of nowehere while the pair were out on the kayak. Good use of time and good job finding your way back and supporting them onto the bikes in time too!

mossym

shotgunmcos wrote: »

For some reason I'm LMAO at you doing a run in te middle of nowehere while the pair were out on the kayak. Good use of time and good job finding your way back and supporting them onto the bikes in time too!

you and me both

i honestly had to zoom out on the map on strava when i got home to even see what part of the country i had been. i didn't even know what county it was. in fact, you could say country, as it could just have easily have been up north.


my geography is shocking though

joey100

Well done Mossy, from looking at the swim times everyone's was out so I wouldn't worry too much about the time for it.

because it was an early season race, and not a priority

that's why I think these early season races have a place, get back used to racing, up to speed, figure out what works and what doesn't and hopefully it all clicks on the day of the A race. Fair play for staying in the water, luckily it's never really happened me but it doesn't sound like a nice feeling. Especially out of no where, being dunked under and having it happen I can understand but must have been pretty unsettling happening like that.

woody1

Hyperventilating but couldn’t breathe. Wetsuit felt like it was crushing me. Neoprene hat I had on under my swim hat had a loop for under the chin

had first o/w swim of the year last night, same thing happened me, but recognised it coming on as it had happened me out of the blue last year as well, practice tri swim last year, was very chilled about it just taking it very handy in the river and had a bit of a freak out, same symptoms wetsuit too tight, neck of wetsuit choking me,starting to hyperventilate and getting freaked.. just had to work through it, last night i just rolled over onto my back for a bit and chilled out..in either instance i wasnt racing so that was easy for me to do, had neoprene hat on with chinstrap last night, it always bugs me but last night i thought it was gonna strangle me, 5 minutes later it was grand..
metalman swim at the weekend though, dont think il wear it, just to be safe..

mossym

aye, i've seen the advice to cut the chin loop which is an option, but i think i'll jsut forget it from now on. have only worn it for one other race, which was cutra last year. after that i figured it had warmed enough not to need it

Kurt_Godel

If you're going to have a panic attack, better to get it early season in a C race you're not bothered about. Hyperventilated myself at a Bray aquathlon one time, struggled for composure, race over. But a valuable lesson learned on how to deal with that restricted feeling. Hopefully you'll also take this valuable lesson from your Cutra swim.

Suggest you ditch the neoprene helmet anyway, can't be too good for your head position.

Nice to meet you down there.

mossym

What i neglected to say above was how much, apart from that one incident, i enjoyed the race. last year i didn't enjoy cutra at all. but suffice to say i really enjoyed the bike and run, and most of the swim, and will definitely be back next year. might even give the gauntlet a lash:)


so, back to training. June will be a busy month, so real focus on training

Monday Swim: 2200m, main as 4 *300p on 6. first in on 5:02, decided the next 3 would be sub 5, and so it was, 4:58, 4:56, 4:59. happy enough with these, was well in control and had loads left.

Lunchtime run: 9.1km in 45 mins, 5:02 pace. kept very easy, AVG HR in the mid 140's. legs felt tired, this was just a nice easy jog around

Tuesday: Hour of power. Did the 45 mins of power a couple of weeks ago and said i should have done the extras, so coach duly obliged. 15 min warm up and drills. then 20* (2:40 @90%, 0:20 @ > 120%). from the off this felt harder than the last time, but i'd brought this on myself so head down and get the work done. last few were a grind, tough, but never in danger of not hitting the numbers.

All of the intervals came in at the 250's low 260's average. 236 AP for the 80 minutes. good solid session

mossym

Wednesday Swim
Main as 12*100 on 1:55. Most came in @ 1:35 to 1:37. felt good in the water, moving well with more in the tank .
2400 total

Lunchtime run
Progression run. 20easy, 20 steady, 5 mod, 5 easy. best run in a while, flet like i was moving well, easy @ 4:37, steady@ 4:19, mod @ 4:13. That was the good news. the bad were the conditions, it was windy, raining, cold. absolutely miserable. hands numb coming back. it's may right?
11.23 in 50 mins 4:29 pace

Thursday:
turbo, 5 *(4@120%, 2 easy). 120% is 319. This was tougher than i thought it would be after the hour of power, but held all intervals, appear to have done an extra minute on the last one for some reason. all intervals mid 32x from the target of 319. funny how the ones that look okay are the ones that catch you .


Friday
Swim:main was 10*100PB hard off 1:45. plan said these could slip to 1:50, but me thinks coach may have me figured out. with that escape clause stubborness kicked in and wasn't letting it slip to 1:50.
came in as 1:29, 1:32, 1:31, 1:34, 1:39, 1:37, 1:39, 1:34,1:31, 1:31. big effort for the last 3 to get them faster as times were slipping, but more in terms of getting the stroke right than upping the stroke rate(not sure i could have )happy to have hit that
2300m total

Run
main as 6* (500m@ :59, 500m@4:30). nice little kick to this, shorter invtervals, but faster recovery than normal. thought i was moving well, fasts as 3:50,3:54 , 3:51, 3:53, 3:56, 3:49, recovery @ 4:27, 4:14, 4:27, 4:24, 4:29, 4:28. HR up to the high 170's low 180's. tough but good session

9.4km in 41 mins, 4:25 pace.


in other news got the bike fit looked at today, figured it was time. some significant changes, so will see how they go for a while. have to redo my cables though before i can use the tri bike again .

sconhome

Good stuff in the pool chief!

Kurt_Godel

mossym wrote: »

Friday
Swim:main was 10*100PB hard off 1:45. plan said these could slip to 1:50, but me thinks coach may have me figured out. with that escape clause stubborness kicked in and wasn't letting it slip to 1:50.
came in as 1:29, 1:32, 1:31, 1:34, 1:39, 1:37, 1:39, 1:34,1:31, 1:31. big effort for the last 3 to get them faster as times were slipping, but more in terms of getting the stroke right than upping the stroke rate(not sure i could have )happy to have hit that
2300m total

Huge variance in those 100's off 1:45. Going from 1:31 to 1:39 isn't slipping, it's collapsing. Getting back to 1:31 is also pretty significant. You should define exactly what you did to your stroke because whatever it is its got a large impact.

mossym

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Huge variance in those 100's off 1:45. Going from 1:31 to 1:39 isn't slipping, it's collapsing. Getting back to 1:31 is also pretty significant. You should define exactly what you did to your stroke because whatever it is its got a large impact.

yup. nornally wouldn't see anything like that, would typically all be within ~2 seconds of each other .


know exactly what i did to my stroke, and why it went out in time as well. easy to say just do it in future, but will take a bit more work than that.

mossym

Saturday
tri bike out of comission for a few days, dodgy o-ring on the bottom bracket that i've ordered replacements for means i don't want to take off the power meter, so todays ride had some targets to hit but i was winging it a little. so decided to take advantage and get some climbing in. easy hour to start. then pushed the hr to where it normally would be for 80% FTP for close to an hour. this got me to the bottom of woodcock hill, so headed up that from the cratloe side. nice steady climb. thought it felt slow, but was a couple of minutes faster than i've done it before so not too bad. cleared the top, stomach was screaming at me for food, single bottle of water i brought was gone, so i headed for home. legs pretty tired by the time i got there

92.3km in 3:16

Sunday
Long run, wife away on saturday night so was late afternoon heading out for this. headed off on a route i love, but only done twice before, due to 1) the high level of traffic on it, and 2) I've picked up an injuiry every time i do it. it's a nice triangle, lumpy for the first leg, downhill for the next pretty short leg, then pretty flat for the return home. decided that although this was mainly an easy run, i wanted to see how much ttime i took off the loop. the loop would be less than 2 thirrds of the total run, but still a nice guage

plan was for 3*20 easy/10 steady. first 30 along the first leg was easy, 4:41 pace with a good bit of up and down. next 10 was similar terrain, 4:17 pace. next 20 had the middle leg, which was straight into a wind which felt like being on a treadmill, running but going nowhere, and was 4:50, next 10 steady was 4:14. got back into town then, and did the last 10 minutes steady a bit earlier so i could push up the hill home, came in at 4:30 pace which was tough.

overall. 19.5km in 1:32. 4:42 pace. very happy with that run, finished strong, loads in the tank. took 3 minutes of my time for the loop. best non race long run i've done in a while

last few weeks have been a bit on/off with traning, this was a solid 12 hour effort so very happy with that


Monday
long easy bike, tri bike almost good to go again but not quite so road bike without pm again. headed for a long steady climb, out to dolla, over the hills to rearcross, newport and home. wind was terrible, where i should have been hitting 40km/hr downhill i was pedalling to hold 25. 2 hours in my avg speed was 25.5km/hr. by the time i hit home at just over 3 hours it was 28, thanks to some decent tail winds for a lot of the spin home. some difference.

overall, 84.7km in 3 hours.

mossym

Tuesday evening
Bike Intervals. 6* 4 Minutes @ 120%, so aiming for 319

Cables redone on the tribike, so normal service resumed. new position as well. need to get the bike out to see how it works though.

This was tough, feeling the weekends two spins a bit. made the targets though, intervals as 323, 322, 320, 323, 322, 324 .overall Ap of 217. tougher than last week but this had an extra interval, and long bike yesterday, so not worried about finding it hard and happy to hit the numbers.

hour overall. good session

mossym

Wednesday Morning Swim
euuughhh. one of those days when you feel like you're swimming in treacle. stroke felt strong, just felt like i was going nowhere, like i was trying to move through mud. most of this session was drills, fist, broom, thigh touch, which worked well given the mud .broom was 5*100, that's a lot of broom, struggled a bit to start, but it got better. my problem isn;t crossing over, grabbing the ends of the broom anyway, it's the lack of rhythm that comes with the broom, so the longer i go with it the better it gets

anyway, fast 50s to finish, real focus on the stroke rather than going flat out with poor form, fasts as 43, 43, 44, 44, nice and consistent.

2400m total

Lunchtime run
missus heading out for dinner, so really wanted to get this in at lunchtime if i got a shot between meetings, which luckily it turned out i got. plan for 10 easy, 30 steady, 5 mod, 5 easy. really happy with how this went. 10 easy @ 4:54, 30 easy : 4:18, 5 mod @ 4:10, and 5 easy @ 4:50. felt strong, moving well, more left at each interval. 5 mod had an uphill start so would have been quicker but for that. one of those decent runs that reinforces the training.

11.3km in 50:27, 4:27min/km pace .

mossym

Thursday
plan said nothing, or hour easy if anything. so easy hour it was, well relatively easy, kept the effort easy but hit the nice hilly route that used be the course for the boru triathlon. same course i had the flat/mechanical on a couple of weeks ago. Nice ride, cruised up the hill, a sweet 7% effort. down to tuamgraney and home. strange wind, seemed to pick up a nice tail wind at times, then without changing direction i'd be battling a head wind.

just over the hour, 1:11 and 33.5


Friday
Morning Swim. main as 5*200pb, 10*100 alt pb/sw . 200's on 3:04 to 3:06, with one at 3:02 that i knew was too hard. 100's on 1:34 to 1:36, effort harder for the swim than the pb to keep the time steady

was meant to finish with 200 fast 200 choice but was out of time with child drop duties so session cut a little short. sorry coach

still a good 2500m in 48 mins

Evening Run
Busy at lunchtime so out the door after getting home. 8 *(500m <4:00, 500m<4:30). similar to last week but a couple extra. again went well, hit the numbers, had to push but they were all within reach. garmin lost lock a couple of times, started reported some very slow time, ended up pushing harder than needed at times.

11.03km in 48 mins


Saturday Bike
Out with the family all day, bike was going to be late, by the time i got to it was going to be very late, was a nice evening out, but this ended up being on the turbo. wanted to take some pics of a new position on the tri bike anyway. it suited the session anyway, hour easy, then 3*30 @90%with 10 recovery. 30 minute intervals always hard, seem to go on forever, especially the closer to threshold you get. went well though, intervals @243 243 249 of a target of 240.


Sunday run

biggest training week in a while, knew legs were tired, been on them from 8am till i got out the door at 6pm didn't help. a lot of good sessions this week, this wasn't another though. legs were dead from the start, bounced around last weeks long run, today was just a slog. good bit slower than last week, so it was just head down and get it done.

18.5km in 1:32

good training week that, solid 13 hours of work.

joey100

Just going to leave this here for you Mossy, from the Escape from Alcatraz race briefing,

Sharks of any significant size do not generally come into the bay

woody1

:eek: what qualifies as significant i wonder

mossym

don't sweat the size, sweat the type, SF is great white territory, and they may not generally come in, but they've been spotted in there lots of times...

still on my bucket list joey:) if i could find a way of doing this and vineman 70.3 in one trip out there i'm sorted.

vineman 70.3 cause with the finish in wine country you wnat enough energy left to enjoy the vineyards, not be destroyed after a full IM

mossym

Monday Swim:
2500m, main as 5*300m alt swim/pb 5:30, 5:20, 5:29 for the SW, bit quicker with the PB (5:12, 5:;17) Not too worried about the times, body was veeeeerrrrryyyy tired and could feel every stroke. Decent enough swim given how I felt


Lunchtime Run:Beautiful Day, really felt like summer. Nice easy run, meant to be 30 minutes but came in as 35 by the time I got back. Legs tired and tight to start, loosened out nicely. Pace came in as 4:52 for 7.4km, not too shabby given the body was tired


Tuesday
Given the fiasco that the Cutra swim was, I really wanted to get back in the water before the race just to check it was the freak on-off incident I thought it was. Been swimming Ow since I was a kid, so Cutra had me puzzled and confused. Arranged for the brother to do overwatch for me just in case, he’s in the local coast guard so figured I was in good hands. Swam the upcoming race’s swim course and then a bit. As expected/hoped not an issue, comfortable straight away, effort probably bordered between steady and mod and got down the 750m in about 12 mins, or similar time to last years race, so will be hoping to take a small bit off that Saturday but will see. Turned, did a couple of hundred meters up stream, got an appreciation for the flow that was there, even in the canal that is sheltered from the main Shannon, and called it a day, happy out with myself. Swim sorted for Saturday, water felt lovely, and had no issues.

1000m in 16 mins including a few stops


Bike
Swim wasn’t in the plan, easy bike was, fitted the disc cover at the weekend and redid some stuff on the bike, so took it out for a spin with disc on to make sure all in working order. First thing I noticed as I flew down the hill was I forgot to reconnect the back brake, made the steep descent interesting, but once I was down that I didn’t need the brake for the rest of the spin so no issues. Disc, I like. Looking forward to seeing what I can do on Saturday with proper effort .

50 mins, 27.4km


Wednesday morning swim:
1600m, some drills, main as 100’s faster than race pace. These came in 1:33,1:33 1:31, 1:32, 1:33. About in line with what the plan called for in pace, so satisfied there.

mossym

Wednesday Evening:
Bike session: over race level efforts, felt good, biggest issue was not roling back the easy portions, few of the recovery intervals were pretty much at work level. good sign i guess. 50 mins, 27.3km

Run session
6*1 min faster than race pace, 20 mins total, again felt good.

Thursday was off, and nothing to report, or so i thought, until that night when i somehow managed to pull something in my back. regular problem of mine, but the timing couldnt be worse. awful nights sleep , lot of pain, very stiff and sore getting up.

Had to be up at 5.40 to head for dublin. Started the strong ibuprofen straight away. gave a talk in dublin, met the coach for lunch, and headed home. ibuprofen was starting to work, got some tiger balm and the heat helped as well. Knew the planned swim was a non runner, but was unsure about the bike and run warm up. decided to leave them, but then started worrying the legs would be flat, so both got done, 30 minutes on the bike with 10 *1 minutes over Race level, and then 10 minute run with 6*30secs at race pace. No ill effects from the back, well nothing more than i have been having all day. happy i did them now.


race today tomorrow. Bring it on.

sconhome

Good luck tomorrow M. Expecting updates post race.

#GotheWholeway

Solobally8

Well done today! Super result up at the pointy end of things!

tunney

The boy can bike.

mossym

Boruman Sprint 2015

Ah, the home town race. not even a km from my front door. can see the house from the swim start .bike goes past where i grow up. run is along my training routes. an afternoon start (3pm) meaning nice relaxed morning. what more could you ask for.

well for one, a field not stacked with the local big guns, but unfortunately that's now what showed up. got over to register at 12, quick look at the start list. Dunne, Richardson, Sexton, Higgins, Hayes, Clancy, STL, Grealish, more. . Last year had been one of my best results, 13th, but in what i knew was a weak enough field. with NS on elsewhere i thought it might be similar this year, and hoped to improve on that. a look around transition though showed this was a much stronger field. chatting with trig1 before the race and he was of the same mind. told him i thought a top 20 would be a decent result given what was there.

anyway, as coach said, you race what shows up. home, gear together, and back over to rack. split transition this year, so dropped my runners to t2 on way to t1. met trig, bit of a faux pas, (sorry Ross!!) and cycled back over to t1 with trig.

racked the bike and headed out for a warm up run. did my warm up, got back, gear all together, did my good deed for the day by donating a tube to get Rachel Clancy racing after a flat. chatted with a few. race brief was in t1, then we did the 10 minute walk down to the swim start.

zone 3 top, looking pensive.



got to start, into the water. took up a position front and center. Swim is in a narrow canal, so knew this was going to be a scrum of epic proportions. water felt brisk, but not cold. felt a lot nicer during the week. gun goes, and off we go. As expected, it's total carnage (me breathing to left beside guy in zoot site ):




jostling never seemed to end either. usually it opens up a bit, this never seemed to. was getting kicked, thumped, but knew i was hitting people as well so just kept going. felt like i was moving okay, even if things were a bit hectic. around the 40% done mark, it narrowed even further to go under the bridge


as we got close to this, i got a serious slap of something, really drove me under. i though someone must have pulled their stroke right down on top of me. drove me right under. had to come out of the water, googles were knocked off, breath had been driven out. got settled, got moving again, and next thing it happened again. decided better to move a bit right to get away from it.

was happy enough that i took this calmly, given the events in cutra. what i found out afterwards was that it was no accident. the push i got was from a fellow swimmer, but it had been a deliberate act. i guess they were annooyed at the jostling, and had been shouting F^%k off at myself and another swimmer a couple of times before he deliberately pushed me under twice (had to come out of water second time as well), then pushed the head of another swimmer under the water as well. My entire family, wife, kids, parents, in laws, brother, were on the shore watching this, as were several other witnesses who came up to me afterwards and said they had saw it. in the midst of the race i hadn't realised it was a deliberate act, but apparently those on shore who could see the action were shocked and very angry.

not going to say much more on that. after the race i went out trying to find out who it was, was quite interested in having a word or two with the guy. no-one could say for definite who it was though so got over it and left it. organising club are aware of it, but in fairness to them i can't even imagine what they could do. however, there is no place for that person in the sport .

anyway, back to the race. got to the swim end, still feeling like i had been moving well, but as i ran into t1 a glance at the watch said 13 mins, a full minute slower than last year. now given the scrum (and i got a very clean swim last year) i might have been slower over parts, but i thought i would have been faster. had hoped to take some time off, so wa sa little annoyed at this.

had a bit of an issue getting the wetsuit off, foot got caught. as i grabbed my bike i looked over and saw trig at his bike. balls. he always torches me on the bike, and that's normally with a couple of minutes head start after the swim. now he was right on my ass , balls.
Swim 13:37, includes T1.
out of t1, over mount line, pedal, nothing. chain off. could this day get any worse. off, chain back on, get on bike. trig goes past like a train. know i'm a mile behind a load after that swim. trig now up the road. decided in an instant i was going to cook that bike, and hope there was something left in the tank for the run. nothing to lose now anyway.

so got to work. knew there was a couple of km of really good surface, so drove hard. really hard. think i averaged around 290w for the first 5 or 6 km, avg speed well over 40km/hr. i started picking off loads. not just passing them, but roaring past them. and roaring at them too. some guys were very slow overtaking others. i was on a mission so i was roaring at them to pass or drop back. was f^%king them out of it once i went past, so apologies to anyone i shouted obscenities at, but i was in an angry place. must have passed 10/15 within the first 5km. and up the road i could see trig. and he wasn't getting away. he wasn't holding the gap. i was gaining. given the guy is a monster on the bike, and usually right up the top of the fastest bike splits, this kept me going. Getting to O'Briens Bridge i was right behind him. No overtaking zone coming through the town, and he pulled away again coming out of the town. started closing him in again as we passed a few more. took another turn, got out onto the main road, N7, and decided to make my move. pulled alongside trig, given the mood i was in shouted a very unnecessary "revenge" for all the times he had flown past me on the bike(sorry about that trig), and pushed past. have to say it felt good.



i knew exactly what trig would do though, so i kept the watts steady and headed for home. unsurprisingly as we came through birdhill past me he went again .at this stage there was no-one in front of us, we were moving way too fast for anyone to catch us, so it turned into a right old duel. back towards ballina i was back from him, well outside the draft zone, but i knew i wanted to make him burn the legs a bit more, so as we got close i passed again, and sure enough he pulled past me again. that was enough. i fancied if i came out of t2 with him my run would be strong enough.

shoes off, down the hill into t2, fast dismount at the line and in and racked bike. helmet off, dumped on ground, runners on, and went past trig still getting his shoes on.

bike: 38:10 for 24km. average speed just under 39km/hr. AP 500m out of t2 was > 270W, with the downhill and run in it dropped to 260.

6th fastest bike split, and fastest in my AG i think. no doubt my best bike leg in a race. left t2 happy that if nothing else i'd have something to take from the day.


out of t2, wanted to lay down a fast pace to make sure trig didn't tag on, stubborn fecker would have stuck with me if he had gotten close. as i took the run to head over hte bridge from Ballina to Killaloe, i got a roar from a marshall. "12th place"

12th. i thought after the swim i was looking at mid table. wasn't expecting that. bike was better than i thought. looked at the bridge, couldn't see anyone ahead of me though. really wanted someone to chase. ah well. kept pushing. Coach had said run till you puke, and i was on a mission .



across the bridge, through the town, great support here, both from family and friends and a rather good crowd that had built. out of the town, down to the sports park where we were to do a figure 8. as we did the first u turn i had a chance to look behind. crap. two guys, shoulder to shoulder, coming like trains. picked it up a little, determined to keep them off, but at the next turn it was obvious, they were catching. and fast. as we left the park, just over a km to go, they both went past me. tried to stick with them, but no good. too big a gap between the paces.

i could see no-one else coming though, so vowed that was it, no-one else getting past. kept the pace up, down the straight back into town. quick glance, no -one coming, but still pushed to get over the line. quick glance at the watch.had wanted to hold 4:00 min km or something under, had jsut managed to hold the 4, happy enough with a 20 min 5km off the bike.

overall 1:13:18. 14th overall. given the field, a drop of 1 place from last year was enough to make me quite happy. the expected few were at the top of the field, no surprises there. getting inside the top 20, especially given the start, and i was happy.

great atmosphere after the race, bunch of friends doing it so waited around to see them all come in, few of them doing their first tri's and i'd been answering questions and giving advice to them for the past few weeks. delighted when they all came in beaming. was great to share the post race buzz with such a nice group.

out that night for a few drinks and more discussions, a table of 15 had 9 that did the race, the really great thing about a smaller local race. lots of shared stories, and a lot of plans to do a lot more tris.

some ups. some downs(no pun intended). but overall a great day.

Trig1

Well done Mossy. Great report and great bike leg. You frightened the life out of me when you came up longside me on the bike. I never expect anyone to catch me! You had a great bike leg. Well done again

Kurt_Godel

Well done on a well-executed race. Sounds like you didn't let the lunatic in the swim affect the rest of your race. What an idiot. Great bike from you! Bet there's a few who wished they signed up for that disc cover group buy now

Whats next for you, are you doing Kilkee?

mossym

Trig1 wrote: »

Well done Mossy. Great report and great bike leg. You frightened the life out of me when you came up longside me on the bike. I never expect anyone to catch me! You had a great bike leg. Well done again

for all the slagging last year, that's the best duel we've had:) definitely helped keep the pace up back in the ballina road from birdhill.

for a lad with no swimming and not a lot of running you'd a hell of a race yourself. if you could get the running in you;d be flying

mossym

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Well done on a well-executed race. Sounds like you didn't let the lunatic in the swim affect the rest of your race. What an idiot. Great bike from you! Bet there's a few who wished they signed up for that disc cover group buy now

Whats next for you, are you doing Kilkee?

cheers Kurt. Aye, Kilkee up next. looking forward to that. love that race. this year with Hannah being so small we're not going foriegn over the summer, so the race marks the start of a family holiday, house booked in kilkee for the week, so looking forward in more than one sense

Neady83

Well done Mossy, I felt like I was racing with you, that was some bike leg and an excellent report. Such a pisser about the swim, that's just bad form on so many levels. Whoever he is, karma will bite him on the ass one of these days.

Looking forward to reading your Hell of the West report, I know the area so I'll be able to see the hills and bends in your report.

Make sure you put the bridges of Ross and the lighthouse in Kilbaha on your list of things to do in when your back Whest