Bliain Faoi Thrí

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Hey RMac just a quick observation and i hope you do not mind. Your cadence seems to be very low on the bike this to me would suggest you are pushing to big a gear which could leave you with problems when it comes to running off the bike. Work off a higher cadence in your next brick session and you should see a notable improvement in how the legs will feel fresher when it comes to running off the bike....well it worked for me!!

As always i would kill for a bit of your run speed:o

+1 on the Pgibbo log:)

ronanmac

Selah Early Seller wrote: »

Hey RMac just a quick observation and i hope you do not mind. Your cadence seems to be very low on the bike this to me would suggest you are pushing to big a gear which could leave you with problems when it comes to running off the bike. Work off a higher cadence in your next brick session and you should see a notable improvement in how the legs will feel fresher when it comes to running off the bike....well it worked for me!!

As always i would kill for a bit of your run speed:o

+1 on the Pgibbo log:)

That's a good point, Selah Early Seller. In my head, I pedal at over 90rpm, but my averages doesn't bear this out. I think that what is happening is that once I start getting tired, the cadence drops. Thanks for bringing it up, it's something to be conscious of while out on the bike.
As for my run speed, any man who ran a 3:30 marathon off an IM swim and bike has little reason to be envious!

ronanmac

I go through periods in my training where I'm just not motivated, and this week is one of those periods! I put off going out to train, I start eating crap food, it all starts to come apart until I cop myself on and start again.
This week is a recovery week in my training plan, with a race (Brian Boru Olympic) scheduled for the weekend. So far, I've cut a cycle short, missed a swim and have come up with every excuse in the book to successfully avoid doing an FTP test on the bike. Too much like hard work . I'm glad that the race is coming up as it should serve to refocus. I can't see the swim being anything but uncomfortable following my experience during the two sprints this year.
Anyway, enough moaning and back to training. It being a recovery week, I went with the prescribed plan's run yesterday as opposed to the Furman run. The runs in the Matt Fitzgerald plan are based on time as opposed to distance, so that was a bit of a change.
In other news, the one year old managed yesterday to split his chin off a window board, replicating exactly what the three year old did on Sunday!

Route: Work to Cor na Ron
Distance: 9.33km
Time: 40:25 (10 min easy, 20 min tempo, 10 min easy)
Average Pace: 4:19
Ave/Max HR: 158/174
Weather: Downpour!

pgibbo

ronanmac wrote: »

Ah, now! You have two distinct advantages over many of us
1. You know what you're talking about so that would make the log informative
2. You go for spins with Catweazle, so that would have to make it an entertaining log

LOL

1. Not really that informative but am eager to learn more
2. Unfortunately the summer is nearly over and that means CW will not be venturing outside again until next April or May!

Depending on what happens post Barcelona and what my targets are next year I may start a log.....Peer pressure is an awful thing!

ronanmac

No swim since Monday, perfect prep for tomorrow :rolleyes:
I'm in a bit of a lull that tomorrow's race will hopefully snap me out of. Realised last night that it's two week's full training followed by two week's taper left before Galway 70.3. Didn't realise it was so close. That should focus the mind come Monday .

Yesterday
First spin on the bike since the new fit. Interesting in that it was definitely easier to keep a higher cadence with the new fit, the higher seat post is a positive change (although it should make for a more challenging leap of faith tomorrow!). After the spin, however, I noticed that the seat post had slid down a bit, so I'll have to find a bit of that carbon non-slip compound.

Route: Work to Scrib and back
Distance: 36.82km
Time: 1:10:13
Ave/Max Speed: 31.5 kph/ 236kph! (I don't recall doing over 200kph, it must have been with a tailwind on one of the descents )
Ave/Max HR: 143/166
Ave Cadence: 91
Weather: Strongish breeze that helped me home

Today
A light 30 minute spin on the turbo
Done: 19km

Oryx

Just found your log now. Good luck in the race tomorrow and your prep for Galway. I was too scared of the sea swim to take on that one so fair play to ya

Macanri

All the best for the race tomorrow. Not swimming since Monday 'may' not be a bad thing.

littlebug

Best of luck tomorrow Ronan:)

BTH

See you tomorrow Ronan. Hope this course it's as tough as they are making it out to be!

El Director

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

See you tomorrow Ronan. Hope this course it's as tough as they are making it out to be!

See you both tomorrow lads!

pgibbo

Good luck tomorrow! I hear the run is a real joy! :cool:

Are you doing the Streets of Galway as a cooldown when you get back?

ronanmac

Oryx wrote: »

Just found your log now. Good luck in the race tomorrow and your prep for Galway. I was too scared of the sea swim to take on that one so fair play to ya

Yeah, another fool for Galway who decided to sign up to to a HIM in their first year of triathlon because it was "local"

Macanri wrote: »

All the best for the race tomorrow. Not swimming since Monday 'may' not be a bad thing.

'May'!

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

See you tomorrow Ronan. Hope this course it's as tough as they are making it out to be!

Have you left out the word "not" from that sentence, or are you a masochist?!

ronanmac

pgibbo wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow! I hear the run is a real joy! :cool:

Are you doing the Streets of Galway as a cooldown when you get back?

I think I might cool down with a pint instead! I've never done the Streets of Galway as there is always something else on that day for me. Would have loved to have done it this year as there's a big crowd from the club taking part. Are you doing it yourself?

BTH

ronanmac wrote: »

Have you left out the word "not" from that sentence, or are you a masochist?!

Masochist


Typo

El Director

ronanmac wrote: »

I think I might cool down with a pint instead! I've never done the Streets of Galway as there is always something else on that day for me. Would have loved to have done it this year as there's a big crowd from the club taking part. Are you doing it yourself?

Would love to do it too, two years in a row now that I missed it. A few of my mates from home doing it so I will go along for support. Look forward to it too!

RedB

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

See you tomorrow Ronan. Hope this course it's as tough as they are making it out to be!

Best of luck to all the Boardsies tomorrow. Can't wait to hear if its as tough as you think...................................or even tougher . Hope you like hills

pgmcpq

Best of luck. Look forward to the report.

ronanmac

I had been extremely irritable for the past week, and it’s only after this race that I discovered that it was anxiousness about doing an Olympic distance for the first time, not just the length of the swim, but how to pace the three distances. Sprints seemed more straight-forward, go for the clappers and hang on!

My wife and I managed to offload the kids for the night, and stayed down in Limerick the night before, and a nice late start to the race meant a lie-in followed by an unhurried breakfast. Luxury!

One of the lads from the club who works in Conamara happens to have his family home about 500 metres from the Brian Boru transition, so car parking and changing made for an even nicer start to the day (the shower and scones afterwards were greatly appreciated too!). I met our uber-club member, Joyce, on the way to transition, and also had a chat with DustyBin and El Director, who were doing the sprint. I had a chat with two of the lads from TriLakes who were also doing the Olympic. A big thing I’m enjoying about triathlon is meeting familiar faces in unfamiliar places, and being able to have a chat with them!

It had been really warm before the start of the race, but the rain started coming down heavily just as the swim waves were getting away. The Olympic was the last wave out, and I was regretting that I hadn’t taken anything with me to eat, not thinking of the length of time between breakfast and the start of the race.

Swim
This is the one I hadn’t been looking forward to. My two triathlon swims this year hadn’t gone well, with a feeling of tiredness and mental fatigue setting in very early on, and going double the distance had me a bit anxious, even though I had upped the swimming a bit since the last race. Lough Derg was surprisingly warm and unsurprisingly brown. I stayed off to the right of the pack for the start, and once the foghorn went, concentrated on taking it easy. “Just get home” was the mantra. Sure enough, it proved to be a much more comfortable swim than previously. A kick to the forehead and in the goggles didn’t put me off, whereas I had been much warier of the physical aspect of the swimming before this. At about the 800 metre mark, there was a final buoy before heading in for a straight line to shore. I took the wrong line, however, aiming for the wrong bunch of buildings onshore. This had the double impact of taking me a good bit off course, and also out of the group of people I was swimming with. This had been the first time I had noticed the benefit of swimming among other swimmers, despite the kicking etc.
Anyway, I finally got to shore in one piece, much more comfortably than in previous races.

Swim Time: 33:40 79/110 (71.8%)
My swim time is abysmal. I always knew it would be slow, but to be so far down in the field is an eye-opener. With four weeks to go to Galway, I’m not sure there is much I can do about it but plough on doing what I’m doing, and focus on technique over the winter. Disappointing but not really surprising.

T1
Transition was going fine until I was passing over a gravel path and onto the wet grass in bare feet. The feet went from under me, the bike then went, the left shoe came out of the pedal, the bottle flew off as well. F*ck! I picked up the bike, shoe and bottle and ran on, trying to figure out when I’d put the shoe on as it was a longish transition to the road. When the bottle fell out of the bottle holder a second time (I mustn’t have put it in right the first time), I put on the shoe, ran up to the mount line, and put the foot in the second shoe as normal. Not a graceful start to the cycle.

T1 Time: 2:00 12/110 (10.9%)
Felt infinitely longer

Bike
The heart beat was pretty high right from the off on the bike, and with a big climb ahead within the first 5km, there was no steadying off from over 170bpm until I started descending. The climb was tough but reassuringly, I was passing plenty and didn’t feel like I was working too hard. I abandoned all plans of following a HR plan for the day and just went by RPE on the bike, accepting that hills would be tough but not to work so hard as to start burning the glutes. I love descending and really tore into until I noticed that the rear wheel was very skittish after the heavy rain, and having to go into the grass margins on one bend made me cop on a bit!
Hitting the hill the second time, the incline inevitably felt longer but I was still feeling pretty good. As I hit the steeper section, the chain came off as I went down to the small ring but after remembering El D’s advice when the same thing happened to me in the Boyle Duathlon, I shifted back up, and lo and behold, a minor crisis was staved off!
As for nutrition, I had brought one large bottle of Powerbar Energize on the bike with me and two High5 Isotonic gels. It was plenty for the day.
Heading back towards transition, I had taken the feet out of the shoes way too early, about 2km out at a guess!

Bike Time: 40.95km in 1:21:31 (30.14kph) 10/110 (9.09%)
Delighted with the bike. Training has definitely paid off as the big fade that usually hits me at sprint distance didn’t come, despite it being a tough enough course. It’s also my highest bike finish.

T2
The runners were drenched from all the rain, and the tongue on the left shoe needed an extra tug as it didn’t come on cleanly. When I bent down, my left calf cramped up, but fortunately eased up pretty quickly after that.

T2 Time: 1:46 11/110 (10%)

Run
Leaving T2, my wife shouted that I was in 25th. The info was a great incentive so as to try and catch a few people and finish top twenty. The effort from the start brought on a stitch, which stayed for about the first 4km but disappeared then. The run was tough, a lot of uphill, but not as bad as the sprint run, from what I hear. I passed two early on, but it was pretty strung out after that and the guy who came out of transition with me was going from me as opposed to coming closer, as we turned up the bike hill road.
Eventually, a few people came into view, and I was feeling better as the run went on. I passed eight so presumed I finished 17th.

Run Time: 39:27 10/110 (9.09%)
Delighted with this run time. Not sure if the run was the full 10k, screwed up with the Garmin so I don’t have an accurate distance. If it was, it’s the first time I’ve run a 10k under 40 minutes, and an improvement on my standalone 10k PB of 47:32 from the Great Edinburgh Run of 2009!

Overall: 2:39:25 14/110 (12.72%)
2nd 35-39 AG

14th was final position, as opposed to 17th (my wife counted 25 coming into transition, so I must have gotten out earlier than three of them).
I was a very happy man to have this race over with it. I didn’t realise how much it was playing on my mind until I had it finished. The plus side is the swim in Galway is only another 400 metres, the minus side is it’s going to take me a long, long time!
There are plenty of positives to be taken from this race but I’ll start with the negative: the swim! Realistically, the swim is now what it is, and is unlikely to get any faster in the next four weeks. The best I can hope for in Galway is to keep a straight line. After that, it’s a case of improving my swimming over winter. It’s a real eye opener to be so far down in the swim order, and to realise that the guy who finished just ahead of me in 13th had over a ten minute lead coming out of the water!
I’m happy about the bike, I realise that the 70.3 will be a totally different kettle of fish to the Olympic, and that I haven’t huge miles in the legs, but it’s reassuring that the training program is working and that my biking is better (or that I’m less fatigued after it).
The run was tough but good.
Glad to have the first Olympic out of the way. Now for the first HIM!

Macanri

Aw man what a great race for you there - that's some moving through the field from 70s to top 15. Great stuff altogether. eek: on the run time too, fair feckin play.
On the swim, as you say you may not improve much, but keep the focus on it between now and then. The extra 400m will be no bother to you. And as you say try sight a bit better.
Well done.

Oryx

Your swim, run and bike are a damn sight faster than mine. Don't knock your achievement. Thats a great time. Well bloody done

catweazle

I was looking at the results last night and I almost (almost;)) spat my wine out. Not only a good few minutes on the bike ahead of my club mate Tommy who you met in Louisburgh on the bike but also ahead of Niall as well. A huge improvement

What a bike fitting!

Don't worry about the swim, the longer you go the less important the swim is!

On a point of interest you mentioned a pint earlier in the log, are you back having the odd one or hardly at all?

backspacer

Fair play dhuit Ronán, tá tú thar a bheith crua ort fhéin, fíor iarracht a bhí ansin.

BrokenMan

Jaysus Ronan thats a savage performance. You are on fire at the moment.

pgmcpq

Fantastic performance. Congrats on the overall and AG placing.

littlebug

Fantastic result and report Rónan!

ronanmac

catweazle wrote: »

What a bike fitting!

Don't worry about the swim, the longer you go the less important the swim is!

On a point of interest you mentioned a pint earlier in the log, are you back having the odd one or hardly at all?

The bike fitting is definitely a factor, much easier to keep a higher cadence, although with the saddle so high now, my back is feeling it a bit.

I'm back having the occasional pint alright after last year's teetolality! Not that many, I had three pints down in the local last Sunday week, and I felt tipsy afterwards :eek:. The pint staying power has evaporated!

BTH

ronanmac wrote: »

The bike fitting is definitely a factor, much easier to keep a higher cadence, although with the saddle so high now, my back is feeling it a bit.

I'm back having the occasional pint alright after last year's teetolality! Not that many, I had three pints down in the local last Sunday week, and I felt tipsy afterwards :eek:. The pint staying power has evaporated!

Great report and result, especially in your first olympic distance race. Was a miserable day for it alright. Rain started just as I was getting in the water (wave 3 sprint) and it didnt let up. I feel your pain RE the swimming. I matched El D on the bike and run but lost 2 minutes to him in the water.

As for the drinking, four pints after the race on Saturday and I slept like a baby. 2 more and I'd have had to spend Sunday in bed!

pgibbo

Well done at the weekend. Super result. Nice to get an AG podium too!
All that training is really paying off. :cool:

Ran the Streets on Saturday but did it as part of my long run. I paced a mate to a 35min finish - at least I would have if he didn't fade and missed out by 30secs.

Well done again.

ronanmac

pgibbo wrote: »

Ran the Streets on Saturday but did it as part of my long run. I paced a mate to a 35min finish - at least I would have if he didn't fade and missed out by 30secs.

I saw a pgibbo named in the results alright, was wondering if it was you as it wasn't the most pgibbo of times

pgibbo

ronanmac wrote: »

I saw a pgibbo named in the results alright, was wondering if it was you as it wasn't the most pgibbo of times

LOL...Thx, I'll take that as a compliment. My sister in law ran with my chip as I wasn't sure I'd make it as I was working. Her first ever race off little or no training. I was well impressed with her sub 39 finish.

Have you decided what you're doing about pacing the bike on the HIM? After your result at the weekend I'd be inclined to say if it's not broken don't fix it! :cool: