Tri the Lough Sprint Tri - Loughmacrory Tyrone, 13/08/2011

Bambaata

Tri The Lough - Website

Anyone doing this on Saturday or does anyone know the area? Its seems a decent course. Im heading up and looking forward to it, just wondering what surface of the road etc is like or any other information that might be of use. Nice start time too - 11am so might just drive up early cos accommodation seems to be limited in the area.

Bambaata

So was i alone on Saturday? Seeing as i dont have a training log i thought id stick this here:

Pre-Race
Got up early enough, registered and walked the bike out, lake and run exit areas to check them out. Brought bike out for a quick spin to check everything got back and headed down to rack it up. Didn't get out of there in time to head for a run as they kept announcing briefing was coming up! It got going at about 10:35/40 and ended at about 10:55 so I just had enough time for some quick sprints in the wetsuit and some high knees, bum flicks, fast feet and then into the water. In there I did 3 or 4 short 15s sprints, checked for sighting and made sure i was to the front. We ended up having to come back and get out as they were having an out of water start. Got a spot right on the tape though.

Swim 00:12:14 (10th/155)
Went hard for 50m to try get clear. I had some people then come from both sides and swamp me, tried to elbow them out to get some room but ended up having to go behind and come from the other side. Started getting a little panicky and then sussed why i think this happens. I can remember thinking the leaders are getting clear and I'm not with them kind of thoughts which combined with some argy bargy i started to get a little panicky. I then just said to myself its just a swim and it cleared. Felt ok from there. I almost forget to kick when OW swimming for some reason, at the start there were times when i noticed i was barely flicking my feet so by the first turn i turned that around a bit. Had plenty around at this stage. I didn't swim the straightest for the first 200m or so either. After sorting direction and kicking i went far better to the second buoy and passed a group out, I didn't really take any drafts as any feet i got to i felt were too slow. Turned the second and last buoy to see just a few ahead so knew i was going ok, the back of them had about 15m on me and i couldn't bridge it. I increased pace slightly trying to but stitched a very tiny bit so stopped that and just concentrated on a strong pull to bring me in all on my own.

T1 - 00:01:01 (4th/155)
Exited water well, no dizziness. Felt i was quick enough but don't know how Trevor Woods managed 46s!! Kicked feet out better than ever and got going. Loose gravel wasn't ideal for running across barefoot so had to be bit careful running out. I seemed to pass a few in T1 but with some relays there too i wasn't sure how many.

Bike - 00:32:48 (4th/155)
Power down straight away, feet were in quick and passed 1 or 2 within the first 1km. Got some great speed up after the first right turn and passed two more, 1 tried to sit behind me but he didnt last 5 seconds as i pushed a bit harder to make sure he couldn't keep up. Great surface here, nice rolling smalls hills that you could power over getting out of the saddle for just a few seconds. Was very mindful that the road was new and wet so I was slower than i probably could have been at some corners, i wasn't taking any risks. Passed another guy on the far straight leg at one of the corners and didn't see anyone else ahead. Got a shout that i was 3rd as i finished lap one but didnt know where 2nd was. Couldnt see him at all. Lap two of the bike was a little slower i think, I noticed HR was in and around LTHR for lap 1 but slightly lower for lap 2, possibly started a bit hard but was eager to run well so I didn't cook myself. Had some traffic to negotiate with people joining the bike course so this also had me free-wheeling at corners and a little slow at times getting through them. I got held up badly enough at 1 corner, lost at least 5-10 secs here as they had the line of the corner. Spinned in being pretty careful as it had started to rain again in lap 2 and roads were very greasy. I dont think my bike handling is fantastic as im generally quite nervous going around wet bends and these bends were all tight enough.

T2 - 00:00:50 (2nd/155)
Dismounted a little slower than normal as there was mud around the entry and there were two people coming out onto the bike who filled the road! A few shouts and i got my space in. Slowed me up a bit. For some reason i was headed the wrong entry route at first but adjusted quick so didnt really lose much, racked quick after being careful on the stones and was out after a few 180 and 90 twists and turns and was careful not to slip.

Run - 00:18:40 (3rd/155) - lap 1 09:22, lap 2 09:19
Before the race i kept telling myself not to run out too hard to hopefully prevent any stitches coming but still seemed fast enough, legs felt great. In truth i was still trying to push it and didn't really take my own advice at first hitting 03:2x/03:3x lap pace! Noticed a very vague hint of a stitch so slowed up immediately a little (still sub 4ks though) to stop it building and see what happened rather than risk it building. It went within the next 30s or so and didn't come back at all - it hadn't even been enough to actually slow me and nothing like Nenagh (i think at Nenagh i didn't pay it any respect and maintained running hard which as we know crippled me) but I wasn't taking any chances. Run was great, on forest paths/trail with some small sharp climbs/descents and up and over some small bridges, just before end of lap one we had to take a 90 turn up a very short but very sharp climb and around the GAA pitch, it was very slippy here but there was a small concrete verge at the railing so used it, meant almost stopping at the corners though so came off it for the next few turns to widen the turn and not lose momentum. Noticed Lian Dolan coming onto the start of the pitch the far side as i exited it so took it i had the guts of 1 min to hold onto 3rd. Knew i could do it but knowing his pedigree i didnt take it for granted so i ran lap two harder. I didn't really look at Hr at all but did notice it raised a bit as i went along. I had to shout a few times to get space to pass people on lap 2 as they joined the route. By the pitch for the second and last time i saw i had only lost about 10m on Liam so eased in as there was another sharp turn onto grass to the finish and i wasn't going to risk slipping! Just looking at the fact i came 3rd on the run is very surprising, i didnt feel i completely killed myself, ran hard but didnt empty the tank so delighted with that. Twas also slightly long at 5.1 so very happy with that

Overall 3rd 01:05:31


Overall impression:

Id strongly recommend this race. Its probably the best sprint course ive been on. Bike is bang on 20k with the best surface of roads ive seen around (about 1/3 was brand new silky smooth akin to the continent ) and run only marginally long but a really beautiful tree covered run. Showers after are always nice too. Then onto a serious spread of grub! I haven't seen that amount of cake/sandwiches in a long time and they had a load of spot prizes up for grabs. Despite a miserable rainy day it was a great event.

Macanri

Fair Play on another great race Bambaata. Sounds like a great race (if a little twisty turny!).

What's up next? Galway?