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Bliain Faoi Thrí

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭ronanmac


    With my resolution of five different types of races for 2018 being one off completion, I managed to get my 2018 (and first ever) bike race in on Sunday.

    My father and my eldest son came with me, the 10-year-old also having his CX racing debut in a field of young apple trees in mid-Tipperary. This was an entirely new experience for me (for all three of us), and we landed in Uppercross Drombane at around nine, having left the bowels of Conamara at 6am.

    The nice atmosphere and friendliness of everyone involved lessened the intimidation factor for me, but I was definitely out of my comfort zone on this one. After the young lad’s race (he’s still looking for a CX bike from Santy, so he must have been happy with his lot!), I set off to do a few exploratory laps of the course. Essentially, there were: two sections in the orchard, zig-zagging up and down grassy hills; a section where two barriers had to be jumped; two short climbs, one of them muddy, the other gravelly/muddy; some short flat road and grass sections interconnecting these; and a horrible descent through mud-covered tree roots opening into a deep hole of mud that was so wet that no rut formed through it for the entire day.

    On my third warmup lap, having successfully, if somewhat tentatively, descended the muck-fest twice, I confidently identified my racing line just before my front wheel decided otherwise and had my arse off the bike and into a mixture of brambles, nettles, mud, and temporary plastic fencing.

    Sheepishly, I made my way back to the startline, third row back, chatting with my son and father on the other side of the fence when, with the race announcer having declared that there were four minutes left to the start, I noticed that I had forgotten both my race chip and number. My father’s not a natural sprinter (!) but he made it down to the car and back with my jacket, with a minute left, and we had the number and chip on with a good twenty seconds to spare…

    I had seen enough YouTube videos to know the importance of a good CX start, but in my fluster with the race number, hadn’t noticed that I had left the bike in the 36 cog. It was a high-cadence, low-power dash for me!

    The first lap was about getting through the mud and not being completely distanced. I remember thinking to myself at some stage that this was the hardest thing I’d ever done (it wasn’t, but my brain isn’t big on context when my heart rate is over 180). For the second lap, the nice grass turns in the orchard had magically turned to ice, and I took a side-slide off the bike on an uphill hairpin. After that, every turn in the grass seemed to have been oiled, and I began to appreciate the importance of low, low tyre pressure.

    The third lap saw me come a cropper on the mud/root descent. This time, I fell onto the only grass patch on the section, so it was easier to jump up and throw the bike onto my shoulder until I had gotten through the worst of it.

    The barriers didn’t pose too much of a problem, bar one jump onto the saddle that caught me a bit more square that I had hoped. Other than that, it was fairly straightforward dismounting, lifting the bike over and jumping on again (this is possibly the only advantage that triathlon gives you in the sport of cyclocross). I had a bit of a disastrous practise session on the side of a local football pitch during the week, where I used concrete blocks as barriers, and as I got more confident, tried a last-minute dismount that saw me come down heavy on the bricks, with a sore hip and elbow still as a legacy to my stupidty.

    As the race went on, I managed to overtake a few lads, and put in enough of a distance between me and the lad behind me to be able to knock off the dicey cornering. In the end, I finished 7th. Overall, it was a great adventure, a great day out with my father and son, and a new experience with no downside other than the lingering smell of cow****e on my shoes.

    I’ll definitely do another one. My skills are woeful, and my fitness isn’t the greatest right now, but it doesn’t seem to matter when it’s so enjoyable!

    Overall: 42:07, 7th of 37 (19%)
    Distance: 9.64km
    Avg/Max Speed: 13.7/34.2kph
    Avg/Max HR: 177/188


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭ronanmac


    Connacht CX Championship (Enniscrone, Sligo), 9 December 2018
    Now as a hardened vet of the Irish cyclocross scene (one B race in deepest Tipperary!), myself and a friend from the club decided to give the Connacht Championship a lash in wind-swept Enniscrone.
    After two days of hard rain and gales in the west, it was a relief to wake up on Sunday morning to see that things had died down a little. My usual entourage (my father and eldest son) and I headed up for the Ballina CC-organised race, having bought a 2019 race license the night before after finding out that one-day licenses weren't available for Championship races.
    "We decided to toughen it up a bit, seeing as it's the race that's in it," said one of the course markers beforehand as we went for a walk around the place. Certainly, compared to the only other CX race I had done, there was a lot more walking and climbing, and the heavy rain over the previous days meant that the course was cutting up and changing in its nature with every lap.
    It was a frantic dash to the first corner once the race started, and while I managed to make the first turn before my club mate, there were many more in front of me. The course was a mix of flat grass, spirals, mud section, climbs that you could cycle and climbs that you couldn't (or at least, that I couldn't!).
    It's difficult to write a recap of the race as I only remember certain parts, so, in a nutshell:
    • My club mate took the diesel engine approach and overtook me a number of laps in
    • I overtook a few people and had a good tussle with one of the juniors
    • I fell twice, both due to momentary laps of concentration, one fall being a fairly heavy knock on one of the few tarmac stretches of the entire course... doh!
    • It felt long and tough, with lots of running
    In the end, I finished eighth overall and it turns out that I will be getting a silver Connacht Championship medal by post after finishing second in the O40s! An unexpected bonus, and my first Connacht medal since my debating team took a storming victory against a school from Roscommon back in 1990! My club mate finished in seventh, and took the gold in the O40s, so it was a good day out for his first CX race and my second.

    My overall assessement of things is that cyclocross is tough (like a 5k running race sensation in your chest for the first 3 laps, before turning into a 10k running race sensation... if that makes sense). Technique is key and youtube videos are no substitute for figuring it out on the fly. There was a steep descent with a turn near the base, and I think I was on the fourth or fifth lap before I had it figured out. 

    Nice day, well-organised by Ballina CC, I look forward to next year's season!

    7th Overall, 2nd O40


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,075 Mod ✭✭✭✭BTH


    Your posts are always very well written, have you ever thought of writing a book??


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭ronanmac


    BTH wrote: »
    Your posts are always very well written, have you ever thought of writing a book??

    If you bring your phone along to Charlie Byrne’s on Wednesday evening and open it on this page, I’ll sign it for you :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,902 ✭✭✭woody1


    Well done. I was there yesterday and it was tough going. We did that course a few weeks ago when it was dry and it was sooo much easier.. wasn't able for it yesterday . I was cooked by the third lap just held on after that. . Good craic though.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭pgibbo


    ronanmac wrote: »
    If you bring your phone along to Charlie Byrne’s on Wednesday evening and open it on this page, I’ll sign it for you :)


    Hope tonight goes well. I was hoping to make it but the boss lady is traveling with work so can't get in.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭ronanmac


    Land of the Giants Duathlon, 28 December 2018

    Expectations blunt enjoyment.
    I did this race the year previous, my first race in eight years with no expectation other than getting through. Last week, I did it with the worst kind of expectation of all... the expectation based on nothing.
    A mixture of cyclocross and late season lethargy had seen me ease off the bike mileage, and the running had been all but abandoned, other than a few panic runs coming up to the race. The duathlon itself was organised extremely well, great marshalling including a motorbike on the cycle leg.
    Run 1:
    I'm not sure how others are at the start of races, but I always set off too fast. Worse still, I do it knowingly, glancing at the Garmin knowing that my pace is nowhere near sustainable. And yet, the pace always seems so easy when you're surrounded by other eager racers, and with the downhill start through the town of Claremorris releasing any mental handbrake that might have been. With over 360 participants, it was a crowded, fast start and even as we got off the main road onto the Land of the Giants park, 500 metres into the race, all 360 still seemed to be ahead of me and it felt wrong to take the foot off the pedal.
    Physiology eventually intervened and my first 3:39 km tumbled into 4 minute + kms as the run went on. "Settle into it," said someone as they passed me 4k in, "you're doing grand." It's a measure of how I felt that I didn't tell him to f*ck off but rather appreciate the reassurance!
    Distance: 5:22km
    Time/Pace: 20:57 / 4:01km 
    Bike Leg:
    The bike course for last year's race was changed due to ice on the backroads, but with the weather so warm this time around that I was debating whether or not I would wear gloves, it was back to the regular looped course. My brother in law brought over an LG P-09 helmet for me from Canada at Christmas. LG had it on sale for about 90 euro in Canada, so it seemed silly not to buy it seeing as I had a purchaser in Montreal (one Rudy Project Wingspan now for sale, by the way!).
    The bike leg was going well until a small climb halfway through the course became much tougher than it should. The front tyre was rubbing against the side of the fork, and I had to get off and reset the QR. Basically, the 25 front tyre is too wide for that fork and leaves too little wiggle room, so I'll have to throw on a 23 for the next race.
    The readjustment didn't take long, it was frustrating, more than anything else, that it had to be done.
    Distance: 16.99km
    Time / Speed: 28:05 / 36.3kph
    Run 2:
    This leg was the real cause of annoyance for me arising from the race, and not because I ran out of T2 like an eejit with helmet still on (before throwing it into a field and hoping that it would be still there after the race!). There was nothing in my legs for this final 2km, being overtaken by four people and little mental or physical ability to react. In hindsight, my annoyance has no foundation in reality given the lack of running done, but as I said, expectation is a dangerous thing.
    Distance: 1.87km
    Time / Pace: 8:06 / 4:19

    Final Placing: 13th, 5th O40
    Hollymount Duathlon next, perhaps with some running done in the interim.
    Bliain nua faoi shona agus faoi mhaise!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭pgibbo


    How'd Hollymount go?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭ronanmac


    pgibbo wrote: »
    How'd Hollymount go?

    It didn’t! I went to sign up on Saturday, thinking it was next Sunday... I was a week off and registration was closed. Maybe just as well, given my running at the moment!


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