Reach for the sky...

woody1

tuesday 10th pool swim coached.. 2km
wednesday 11th lake swim ..2km. hoped to get the third loop in but it didnt happen, as everyone was getting out as i finished the second loop.. took somewhere round 40 mins.. arms were getting tired as i got to the end.. i did 1500m last week at my leisure but the extra 500 this week seemed to make all the difference.. that and the fact that it was an almost 100 percent pull bouy session on tuesday so the arms were due to be stiff anyway..

this is a deliberately very quiet week , me and o.h. are doing the boyne swim at the weekend, its a 2.7km river swim, downstream thank god, but the distance is still on the outer edge of my ability and im not going to do anything between now and saturday that would make it any tougher..
o.h. will swim it at her leisure and potentially even be competitive but im just in it to survive and get down the river without having to be fished out..

woody1

saturday 14th june
boyne swim 2.7km river swim.. ( downstream )

it says a lot for the coaching that ive got since november that i wasnt at all worried about the distance or the depth for this , i was more worried about water quality, and probably will be for the next few weeks hoping to not get sick..

ive done 4 sets of 7 week blocks twice a week since november and it has made a huge difference in terms of both speed and endurance.. im still slow , im just a lot less slow !

anyway this was really well organised and big congrats go to drogheda triathlon club on that front..

we all gathered at the finish, there was a marquee to get changed , which was split for male / female, there was the safety briefing which was short and sweet and then we were bussed to the start line 2.7k up river.. again not a lot of hanging around, counted into the water , about a minute of floating about , let other half move down a bit more towards the front, and off we go..

loads of kayaks for support and the river rescue boats and they had a few of their own guys swimming behind the race for moral support and help for anyone that was waning or in bother

they had said to keep left of the bouys so to the right hand side of the middle of the river.. grand.. i think there couldve been more bouys but better half doesnt think so, to give an idea there was 800m from the start to the first bridge and there were maybe 2 small bouys.. more of an issue for me with lots of people in front of me than for her i guess..anyway its a small complaint..

swim itself went fine, i probably held back too much and swam it within myself but i hadnt done that kind of distance before so i wanted to have a bit in reserve.. around halfway we started hitting on patches of seaweed and it was gross.. but sure what can you do.. thankfully it was just in patches.. there were 5 bridges in all to go under with the last one being the viaduct , i think it was still about 4 or 500 metres from the viaduct to the finish and around here i started coming up on the back of a lot of swimmers, ( a big group finished between 40 and 45 ) and i realised i had a lot in the tank and started trying to push on a bit but i wasnt really making ground on anyone apart from the one girl that had been swimming alongside for almost the whole race so i just chilled out back to regular pace and cruised in to the finish,

thinking about it, it would be nice to say it was really tough, but it wasnt because i didnt make it tough, but that was the idea, for me it was more about distance than speed, and im happy with myself to have covered that kind of distance and had loads in the tank at the end.. 2.7k in 44 mins.. ( 8 or 9th last )
yes there was a downstream flow but not to the degree that you could just lie there and be carried along, you had to swim, after the viaduct it was stronger, as in i could see i was getting a lot more length for each stroke, but that was the last few hundred metres.

better half came in in 35 mins or 34 something, was in the top ten ladies, and probably didnt overly push herself either, has given her a bit of a confidence boost and id say in the next one , whenever that is she'l really push it and do well..

food , drinks, big spread at the finish, car wash type shower for you and your wetsuit, again somewhere to dry off and change. really well done..

winner was 28 mins.. 20 something did it without wetsuit ! think the girls winner was no wetsuit.. !

woody1

mon 16th 5k run.. hot and sweaty, didnt have a watch with me but it felt like i was doing a decent pace, was trying out flats that i got on the cheap in tk maxx..puma faa something.. i overpronate badly on one foot but i reckoned id be ok for 5k .. odd twinges here and there but nothing serious

tuesday 17th.. o/w swimming night meant i was minding children on a lake beach whilst better half and brother in law and 20 something others were enjoying simulated race starts, getting lessons in sighting and doing a 700 tt.. boredom central.. but i brought the bike so i could cycle home from it.. tried out the second hand tt helmet that i bought during the week.. at a guess im at least 10km/hr faster with it and may in fact win the next triathlon i enter..:cool: if i ever get to enter one .. 30km bike roughly shoved it on a bit and got in a bit under the hour..
also it turns out im not in the giant headed category:) as this is a medium and even has a bit of room to manouver.. although typically a better one popped up on done deal the day after..the one i got is a louis garneau chrono legerra.. almost a semi aero helmet in that it still sits on top of your head like a conventional helmet rather than over your head like a normal tt helmet.. will hold on to it for a while and sell it to some gullible fool next year ..
wednesday 18th.. bog..turf .. sore hamstrings etc
thursday .. club swim in the pool, last one for the year as its now o/w swimming time.. still was tough enough.. legs wrecked from night before
friday 20th nothing
saturday.. o/h working all day..8 til 8.. so jumped out at 8 for a quick lash on the bike and a run.. 13k bike and 2k run.. legs felt sore and heavy and the run felt slow but turned out to be 2k in 8 mins.. had some cramp / stitch issues which bugged me last year too

went up to westport with the boys to watch the westport triathlon, transition and the swim were right beside a little playground so the kids were happy and i could watch it in peace..
club had winner , 4th and second lady.. great going altogether.. looked to be very well run by westport tri as well.. hopefully next year il get to have a lash at it ..

sunday..22nd
plan was to get up at 6 and do a local bike tour route thats on soon. 60k in total, the alarm didnt go off ( kids didnt wake ) and i got the first 9 hours sleep ive gotten in a long time.. kids woke just before 9, so i jumped out and did the same as the night before ,, 13k bike and 2k run.. o/h wanted to do a bit too so was under time pressure..
5k race .. sons school fun day and 5k race.. hamstrings and back still in a jock from the bog so i was just going to do this within my comfort zone. and i did, and ran it in 22 mins which is less than a minute off ( slower than ) my pb and now im a bit pissed that i didnt push on a bit.. anyway i enjoyed it and enjoyed making good headway without totally killing myself..

funny week.. no big cycles, only one swim and 2 runs really.. but still feels like there was progress made. this months cycling is looking completely shocking so something will have to be done during the week and more importantly at the weekend, there may actualy be a triathlon next weekend :eek: but more than likely there wont be as o/h wants to do one and unless someone volunteers for 2 hours of chasing my 3 year old around il have to do it, she covers for me plenty and will be later in the year so i have to take one for the team occasionally..

woody1

so , as usual forwards and backwards.

forwards..miracle of miracles a babysitter appeared..my sister wants to visit for a few days so shes been roped in to mind the boys on sunday.. so that both of us can do rosses point sprint..

backwards.. as part of the deal i have to climb croagh patrick with her on saturday.. shouldnt be too bad.. itl be slow..

further backwards.. entered rosses point and almost immediately was consumed with runny nose , sore eyes, stiff joints, and misery.. man flu !!

but.. forwards.. the bog is finished .. well at least for a while, with any luck until after the local triathlon.. i know i wont be going back there til then anyway

so after tonights river swim itl be an enforced taper.. i had hoped to do a short bike run tomorrow but common sense says to leave it and hope all is good for sunday


monday 23rd .. did the bike leg of the local tri , which is on saturday week, with bike phobic better half.. its a while since weve been cycling together and i forgot that when shes training she puts the nose to the grindstone for the full length of it.. no warm up , no chill out, go like a hammer the whole time and she can fairly push a bike on.. except on steep downhills, particularly if theres a turn or you cant see whats coming.. then its 80 year old granny on a bike time.. which is understandable given she took a nasty fall going downhill at speed.. anyway this was a better workout than i expected even if i did draft 90 percent of it.. 21k bike ..

tuesday 24th .. o/w coached swim.. our coached sessions have moved to the lake... so race starts, drafting and a couple of lengths of the 700 loop, grand..except im riddled with man-flu , and am stiff and sore and the wetsuit isnt on right
( grrr.. the more i think about how i was sold this and my own naivety the angrier i get, its a large womans wetsuit and yes i am narrow but im broad in the shoulders , or at least broader than a girl and its hugely tight there, anyway mostly my own fault for being in a panic to get one )
and im just not feeling it .. stuttered through, got out in awful form, went round the loop a nice bit slower than i should have and it left me annoyed for the rest of the evening..

probably didnt help to do 100 odd pressups an hour beforehand, im on week 4 of the 100 pressup challenge and id already skipped 2 days, so i kinda had to do them, shouldve left it til after maybe..

river swim tonight.. practice swim for triathlon.. i was planning a rest day but il go in and hopefully therel be a flow and il take it easy getting down the river.. this time last year i was having a freak out about this swim, now i can take it in my stride.. and am trying to convince those freaking out that it will be grand..

woody1

wed 25th.. river swim.. practice for next weeks triathlon.. 500m.. had been having man flu / hayfever / cold symptoms during the week, and took some hayfever medication earlier in the day, felt very on edge at times afterwards ( not like me at all ) and in the middle of this swim i had what i can only describe as a very mini panic attack.. cant breathe.. cant concentrate on where im going..cant think straight.. took a few minutes but got my head straight , mostly by breathing just on one side every 2 instead of every 3 and just cruised through the end of it.. weird.. i dunno if its just something that happened or if its down to the hayfever medicine.. better it happened there than in the middle of a race i guess..

took rest of week off , race on sunday and wanted to be right for it

sat 26th climbed croagh patrick with sister.. went very slow, legs still a bit stiff coming down at times but was grand lovely day

sun 27th.. rosses point sprint tri..

swim.. 15.50 ish.. 10 minute improvement on last similar race swim ( swinford sprint tri / lake swim ) so yeah im happy with that..2.30 down on wifey but i expected it to be more..

bike ..36.50 something.. 18.5k before anyone gets excited.. wouldve hoped for 34 something but i dunno , legs were shot early on ( possibly from swim, maybe from saturday )and it took a while for them to come back to life, elastic broke on shoes on the way to bike mount so there was time lost there, and like catweazle i was way down the road before i got into them.. i freewheeled a few times to stop from drafting when i couldve been a bit more agressive and probably passed but i was thinking it might be better for the run to not burn out the legs altogether.. passed o/h about 5k into bike.. she was 41 and a bit but as she gets less nervous this will improve a lot..

run..26 ish.. not happy with this at all, i didnt burn myself out on the bike , i shouldve run a lot better than this.. even 25 something would be progress.. think i have to be more agressive on the run.. i can run a 21 minute 5k ..but i just cant get up and going off the bike.. i had the soleus with me to give me my running pace but it had lost the signal and took about half the run to get it back, when i got it back i was running 5.30s and i was well able to get under 5s quick enough..so i think a lot of this is a mental problem..

transitions werent great but i dont tend to lose too much sleep over them,( i have too much time to make up elsewhere ) first one i had to go back for race belt..
second someone had taken my running hat ( essential for lads that are going thin on top on a day like yesterday )and i spent longer than i shouldve looking for it..

gorgeous day, i have a lovely v shaped burn down my back from opening my tri suit on the run.. all went off very well, well done to sligo tri club

sorry .. total time . 1.21.32.. 91st out of 164..

woody1

mon 30th june 6.5k run

6.5k run on this weekends tri route, trying to go as hard as possible on heavy legs,

tuesday 2km lake swim

seal on wetsuit neck not great, brought a lot of lake water around for a swim,
otherwise uneventful.. took it easy enough..

Oryx

Sounds like your wetsuit is too big.

woody1

hadnt considered that.. but its a possibility...
but first time ive had this problem with it.. itl do for the races that are left this year was thinking about changing it anyway ..

woody1

Wed 2nd July. 12 k bike and 2k run.. Heavy legs again but that's not entirely surprising given I haven't had a break yet since the race on Sunday.. I'm hoping the
last 2 runs with heavy legs will at least help with managing this weekends run mentally, we'll see..

Thoughts for Saturdays race.. Swim. Should be good bit faster than last year.. Be close to brother in law is the aim.. And not too far behind o/h
Bike. Before last weekend I wouldve been cocky and went for 39 and a bit for the 21k but now Im not so sure.. I'll be breaking my balls on the way out with the wind and with any luck will sneak 39.59

Run.. Get into a rhythm as quick as possible, will use the GPS again so I know what pace I'm running at, majority of course is flat, out and back 2 rises, be mentally stronger and try to force it and see whether there is more in the tank .. Ideally sub 24 but anything under 25 I'll take.. Could well be 27 again..

I know its only a sprint but I'm gonna take a gel round halfway on the bike , probably just a placebo but worth trying I think..

Swim alone will leave me with a pb, but I'd be more satisfied to run 2 mins faster than get it all from the swim ..

woody1

short version ballina tri 2014
swim faster, bike the same, run faster..
will do more detail later

woody1

slightly longer version..ballina salmon run 2014

swim .. started mid pack.. got stuck in a lot of traffic in first half, shouldve started either further forward or to one side of the pack.. 13.29 swim 2.45 faster than last year..

bike.. felt fast..passed a lot , wasnt passed.. caught up with brother in law who had about a minute start on me, thought i was faster than last year but was actually 40 seconds slower.. 41.10 for 21k

run.. got out and got a good rhythm going, had a bit of a stitch and calf muscles were cramping but that faded, went through 1k in 5 mins and held that pace through to about 4.5k and then kicked for the finish.. a few that i had passed on the bike got me back on the run.. but i was happy to hold the pace i had rather than trying to race someone.. 24.33 for the run.. which im chuffed with, moreso because i was holding back a bit from halfway on so theres more to come off that..


transitions.. first one slow enough 1.50 odd , second one 45 seconds..
this time the feckin elastics on the bike shoes wouldnt break..:o

edit .. sorry total 1.21 something.. 6 minutes off last year..

sole of foot is bruised and sore from standing on rock in river so that puts paid to my plans of doing a bit of running this week, its gonna be cycling and swimming for the foreseeable future..

better half was first woman ( non relay ) out of water ..and is understandably chuffed with that, if we can work on her cycling i may not be catching up to her any more..

brother in laws.. good swim ( 30 secs in front of me ), solid bike, great run ..

next up is swinford olympic which will be complete and not compete.. next sprint is looking like port beach in september which is nice as its 2 months away and there should be time to improve some things

Green&Red

Well done on Saturday, was good to meet up for a few Saturday evening, I had a sorry head on me in the bog on Sunday.

I'll see ye for the blood for life cycle at the end of September

woody1

yeah nice to meet up, head wasnt bad thank god, but there was several thinly veiled suggestions about the bog alright..
must check out that cycle so...

woody1

quiet week after tri at the weekend.. racing really messes up my training

sunday and monday off

tuesday.. 25k cycle , supposed to be o/w swimming , didnt feel like it, dropped brother in law down and then went for a spin for the hour..
wednesday 9th.. o/w swim in callow.. 1500 ish
thurdsay and friday off..
saturday 33k bike..
Sunday 13th 55k bike. Including 40k of swinford Olympic route

woody1

monday off
tuesday 1.5k o/w swim class
wednesday 5k run..painful
thursday off
friday 5k treadmill.. warm sweaty and hard
saturday ..52k bike ride.. enjoyed it
sunday.. nothing as yet..am looking after the boys today so im under house arrest til 8, considering setting up turbo outside but i know i wont get peace to use it.. might jump out at 8 for a run..

woody1

monday 21st.. 7k run

ran this morning at 7am.. i am not a good runner.. but my god ive gone seriously backwards this year.. a 7k trudge.. gaelforce is getting scary.. that first run is going to be murder..

woody1

tues 22nd . 2400 o/w swim.. drills, one arm stuff, catchup, 2 x 700 laps

wed 23rd, 1500 o/w , lap of the swinford olympic route, went ok, felt good at times and not great at others, pleasantly surprised at time of 34 mins considering i wasnt pushing hard at all.. took me 25 mins to do 750 here last year !!

weekend oly.. id like to swim around 30-32 prob wishful thinking.. bike around 1.25-1.30 ( its 44k ) and survive the run... run could take me an hour.. :eek:

theres a few clubmates / locals that id like to be ahead of, best chance is to get a lead on the bike and hope that they also die on the run

set up the turbo outside the window yesterday ( look after kids from 2 til 6 ) , was going to watch ironman cairns through the glass, it started shagging raining !! looking at this weeks efforts so far i may have to try again today..

woody1

sunday 27th swinford half oly
swim 35 50 something
bike 1.27 ( including god knows how long to put bike shoes on the right pedals as id put them on wrong way round )

so i had my lead on the bike .. but i died multiple deaths on the run.. no surprise , i havent run 10k this year ! locked up with cramp at 9k ..

overall.. thought id be 34 ish swimming , happy with bike, predicted that it would take me an hour to run 10k and it did ..

good experience, waaaaay tougher than sprint.. im still stiff and tired..

woody1

on saturday we went to wicklow to watch my brother in law take part in a special olympics open water swimming event.. he has been training with us all year and we wanted to go up and support him and see how he got on..
17 swimmers , i think , in all , with 2 distances going at the same time, 1000m and 1500m, some in wetsuits , some in skins, some with someone swimming with them to help with navigation / support, and some without .. great day for it, calm water, and a very laid back atmosphere with lots of parents and friends lined up on the pier cheering it on
our man got on well, finishing the 1500 in 31 mins, winning his category and finishing well up overall.. ( and no doubt will be delighted when he finds out i was 4 minutes slower over the same distance yesterday )
aside from that it was just great to watch , some really strong swimmers taking part as well ,

Dory Dory

Absolutely fantastic result for your brother in law!!!

woody1

friday 25th and sat 26th july

forgot that i had done some swimming of my own in wicklow.. 7-800 total at a guess over the 2 days ..skins, had no wetsuit with me , water was lovely on fruday but was somewhat chillier on saturday.. missed the wetsuit but it made me concentrate on stroke..and i noticed an improvement after a few minutes..

woody1

so
sunday 27th, humbert olympic.. 1500, 44 , 10.4

nothing til thursday, 8k run
fri off
sat 13k run.
today hopefully will bike run later..

gaelforce is next on the agenda, in 13 days time, so the job at the moment is to get as much running into the next week / 10 days as possible, earlier in the year i wanted to try to get in under 5 hours, immediately after the olympic last weekend i said i wasnt going to do it at all.. now im leaning towards doing it nice and easy and trying to enjoy it as i think 6 hours + in the wilderness running, kayaking, cycling and climbing with probably 1000 others is very enjoyable..
there is a 13k run to start though so i have to get some endurance back into my legs to make sure that its not gonna be torture from the start, if i can get as far as the bike leg comfortably then itl be handy enough from then on... hopefully

woody1

Mon off
Tuesday 5th ow swimming.
Wednesday 6th. 22k bike. 5.5k run
Thursday 5k run
Fri off
Sat. Club aquathon.. 750 swim. 5.7k run. Swim got a good start but tired a bit ,felt tough and slow for the last 200 ish .. Swimming is down to once a week lately and seems to have deteriorated , mind you the usual suspects were around me so it mightn't be that bad... Slow enough getting the wetsuit off , run went well apart from some messing with laces early on.. Felt strong all the way..probably paced it a bit too carefully
Swim 18.40. I think that includes transition, run 27.40. Fairly sure I could run it quicker .. Doing a little bit more running lately and can feel the good of it..
Hopefully will get out for bike run later,
Starting a block of wattbike sessions tomorrow, test tomorrow :-0 to see where I am, and then will get more detail after that..

woody1

sunday 10th 55k cycle, wanted to do this really easy but between and everlasting headwind no matter what direction i was going, boredom and just falling back into the usual rhythm i ended up doing it a bit harder than i wanted, sore quads later that day..

mon 11th august.. wattbike session 1.. test..i thought this would be way harder, i thought id be a drooling mess at the end of it, it was tough, not made any easier by the windy 55k that i did on sunday..but it was achievably tough ..

apparently i have an ok cycling technique so at least thats a positive, dont have a cadence meter on my bike so it took me a few minutes of the warm up to get a guage on what it took to hit whatever cadence he was looking for.. after that it was a mix of short and long intervals at certain cadences and certain resistances...to finish we did 3 x 3 minutes pushing a high resistance trying to keep the cadence at 65 .. quads were hurting by the end.. i thought i was grand until i got off the bike and had a touch of the jelly legs,

when i was signing up, he told me he'd put me in with another group , that there was a bike free,he said itd be a strong enough group but not to worry, just do your own thing, turns out to be 3 of the strongest in the club !!! :eek:

thankfully my numbers were down off the big screen at that stage..

woody1

tuesday 12th club o/w swim.. this is in a lake every tuesday, theres a 700 odd triangle marked out and we do different variations every time, you can stand for pretty much the whole lap , and for most of this year it has been calm and warm and at times almost Mediterranean.. not this week.. whatever way the wind was blowing there was a chop in it that wouldnt be out of place in the atlantic and we had to do 2 effin laps..!!
first one was ok.. in that it was terrible but no more terrible than anyone else , even the fish in the group were finding it hard..
second one was about the hardest swim ive ever done.. almost 2 minutes slower.. at times it was like swimming on a treadmill, just working and going nowhere.. and then it rained as we were getting changed.. in all the kind of workout that sucks when your doing it but your really glad that you did it when its over .. roughly 1800 all in including warm up

wednesday 13th wattbike session 2.. this was epic-ly , drooling mess, tough.. i may have naively mentioned that i thought this lark would be harder.. so they made it harder.. highlights were 3 minutes flat out and 1 minute flat out .. not to mention about 6 minutes going slightly down from flat out every minute and then back up to flat out .. but i got through it, there was mention of power and threshold and watts per kg but i was so shagged i didnt really take it in.. il ask the next day and try to remember it

thursday.. club aquathon 750 swim, 5.7 run, with gaelforce coming up on saturday, sensible people may have opted to sit this out but thats no fun.. and with better half doing it as well there was some in house competition going on, with elder one opting for mammy and younger opting for daddy.. so bragging rights were up for grabs..
swim for me went ok, the usual suspects that would normally be passing me around halfway didnt get me til the end, had a bad enough transition, was dizzy getting shoes on and had to stand up for a bit to clear my head..
run seemed to go well again.. only caught sight of o/h with about 1.5k to go, got right up on her heels by the finish but didnt have the kick to beat her to the line... couple of seconds in it tops.. not really sure on time but either just under or just over 45 mins..

gaelforce really starts tomorrow , with the best part of 3 1/2 hour round trip to register and leave the bike at t1, then up at 3am to be in westport for 5 for the bus to the start.. starts at 6.30 am !! im trying to get it into my head to treat this like a long training day, and not to worry about going at anything resembling a race speed at any stage but there are a few i know in my wave and i know i wont be happy when they are pulling away from me.. have to resist the urge to race..

after that a weeks holidays ... must mention that im bringing the bike :cool:

Dory Dory

Good luck at Gaelforce!!!

woody1

so was on a week away in no internet land or roscommon as it is otherwise known..

we went straight from gaelforce so i brought the bike and planned to do a bit, as usual didnt do as much as i wanted but got a bit done all the same.. had bikes with carriers for the kids and im counting that as cycling too

so saturday 16th gaelforce.. 21k running 45k cycling and 1k kayaking .. 5.43
will get back to it in a second
sunday .. nada.. stiff sore and incapable of movement
monday 18th 25k slow cycle
tuesday 19th 20 something k on the mountain bikes with the kids around the park
wednesday 26k ish a lot of this on the lough key tri route.. slow cycle .. was still stiff from the weekend
thursday 8k run with o/h .. parents arrived for the day and took the kids
friday.. 10k with the kids on the mountain bikes..
saturday ( today ) spent all day driving.. couldve got a run in but i need a break.. the kids are with my sister for 2 days and the 0/h is on a hen party for the weekend so ive the weekend to myself.. hoping if weather allows to get a good long cycle and a decent run in tomorrow

gaelforce went ok, theres 3 main sections in my mind
1.. run kayak run
2. bike
3 croagh patrick and the final bike run at the finish

the first run which is 13k mixed over road and cross country , up and down , boggy and stony, and hard on the legs.. i went out at the back of the first wave and took it handy.. came to the kayak section only marginally behind the last time i did it.. and a lot fresher..
kayak went very well , paired up with a girl and i could follow her rhythm and we flew across in a straight line, very little correcting required, 8 minute kayak ..
there is then another little run 4k ish to the bike transition, last time i had to walk bits of this, this year i could jog it.. so by the time i hit the bikes i was ahead of 2 years ago.. and i was pacing it easier
so onto the bike, took it easy for first 20 - 25 minutes , ate a bar and drank almost a full bottle, got passed by loads, didnt care, got to the only real hill on the course and got up it and passed most that had passed me.. i did seem to be grinding a bit rather than spinning ( and i was in my easiest gear ) but i got up it..
bike is handy enough after that.. sped up a bit and started catching and passing, tried to get a few groups going but most of the lads this far back in the wave dont really seem to be clued in or bothered.. so ended up doing most of it on my own.. turned back into the wind for the final few k on the off road bit and immediately slowed to a crawl.. even in the easiest gears i was grinding.. took an age to get through a few km and i lost all the time i had made up.. again i wasnt overly bothered, but there was a thought in the back of my head that it would be lovely to go faster whilst taking it easier.. :rolleyes:
dropped bike and started walking up croagh patrick , immediately i knew this was gonna be a disaster.. maybe the windy bit just tore my legs off, maybe 3 and a half hours is all i had in the tank, regardless it took 55 soul destroying minutes to get up to the top, i was literally seeing stars at some stages.. looking back i shouldve taken a gel .. i was eating a protein bar, maybe the gel woulve given me a sugar boost and just taken the edge off it.. took it easy going down as i wasnt in any shape to run down.. got down to the bike and was dreading the last bike.. 12k cycle in and run to the end.. but it actually went surprisingly well.. we were now out of the wind thank god..cycled all the rough sections way better than any time before, only got off the bike for one tiny bit, maybe 100 yards and flew into westport.. the last run was grand, normally i have trouble with my hip flexors running off the bike in these races but i was able to stride it out grand, i had an idea it was a good bit more than the 1km that the marshalls were telling people but i jogged it out and crossed the line in 5.43.. 23 or 4 minutes longer than before but with a much longer run at the end,

without looking at the splits in great detail all the time lost on the mountain was what made the big difference, over 15 minutes in comparison the previous year.. i was quicker over the final stage and over the run kayak run section..
so without overly trying to race it.. i only lost 15 minutes.. kind of :cool:
overall result 460th out of 1400 odd .. that 15 minutes wouldve put me up almost 200 places ,

i was in so much pain on sunday and monday it wasnt funny, i only really got back to proper flexibility on thursday.. as usual i did say never again..both during and after the race.. but as usual im curious again.. i think i can go sub 5 on it.. with a lot of race specific preparation.. sub 5 is still an hour and a half slower than the winner but it would do me nicely..

Dory Dory

Well done you! I've hiked up Croagh Patrick (and not before/after all that you had to do!), and that's no cake walk! I'm assuming you left your shoes on.

woody1

Dory Dory wrote: »

Well done you! I've hiked up Croagh Patrick (and not before/after all that you had to do!), and that's no cake walk! I'm assuming you left your shoes on.

Oh yeah shoes on, although I was in such a daze I probably wouldn't have noticed..

woody1

sunday 24th august.. 106k cycle.. had the whole day to myself, no time pressure so i took the opportunity to go for a big slow spin.. all of mayo were tied up with the all ireland semi final so i couldve cycled in the middle of the road for most of this.. over 5 hours maybe 20 cars !the last hour and 3/4 was into the wind and was even slower going than before.. 106k cycling time 4.45

tuesday 26th 20k on the greenway with the kids..

thursday 28th wattbike 3. have a cold / throaty thing, made this a bit harder , but struggled on through,

really tired lately.. combination of loads of driving in the last week and whatever bug i had, so tired that im sitting in work with odd runners on. put one of each on this morning without noticing.. club aquathon tonight but im gonna leave it, i think it might be time for a break..