I Am the Master of My Fate

Dory Dory

Massive gain on the bike!!! WOO HOO!!! 13 minutes faster than last year....and currently in 20th in his division. (I know, he had that wrong turn last year....but still, this was faster!) Let's take it on the run!!! Whoop whoop!!!

Dory Dory

Looks like he is currently predicted to finish somewhere in the 7th place range in his division. !!!!!! Halfway to go on the run, and Zico never gives up!!

Abhainn

Through half marathon in 1:29:33. Keep her steady lad

Dory Dory

With less than 10k, it looks to me like he's in the hunt for 5th place!!! Someone keep an eye on him! I have to go swim and will miss the photo finish!!!

Ryath

Ahh! The trackers stopped working come on Alan!

Ryath

Back up whew! Through 39.1k @8:57:44

career move

Finished in 9:12:23. Brilliant stuff zico. Well done

RacoonQueen

Alan, fab result.
Not sure how many Kona slots they give but looks like it was a lot more competitive this year than last in Mallorca. And he's moved up an AG!

Abhainn

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Alan, fab result.
Not sure how many Kona slots they give but looks like it was a lot more competitive this year than last in Mallorca. And he's moved up an AG!

Think its 4. He almost caught 6th, only 9 secs ahead
Fantastic result.

Edit correction: Slots = 6. Hopefully Alan will get one

Dory Dory

Fantastic job!!! You, zico, have much to be proud about!!!

RJM85

Nicely done. Hope you got the slot - you deserve it.

zico10

Thanks for following folks. To miss out by 10 seconds is a bummer, but I crossed the line happy I'd raced well. I was a lot more pissed off last year and maybe, just maybe I'll get a roll down or a transfer tomorrow.

Bambaata

Great racing Alan. Fingers crossed you get that slot.

Shell to Run

zico10 wrote: »

Thanks for following folks. To miss out by 10 seconds is a bummer, but I crossed the line happy I'd raced well. I was a lot more pissed off last year and maybe, just maybe I'll get a roll down or a transfer tomorrow.

Congrats, fantastic performance. Fingers crossed for you because you soooo deserve it.

Kurt_Godel

Well done zico. That swim performance is very impressive given the heat in a wetsuit. You might have suffered after on the bike but for your swim volume in 2015, be interested to read your report regarding swim efficiency on the day.

Neady83

Well done Zico, an unbelievable performance and well deserved. Fingers and toes crossed for that roll down, you deserve it.

zico10

Just back from the awards. As expected everybody ahead of me accepted their slots. There was one transfer, but it went to the age group above mine. I could feel sorry for myself, but the three main reasons I didn't qualify are; 1) I descend like a sissy, 2) I'm still a sh!t swimmer, and 3) I spent way too long in T1. These have been my failings in triathlon since day 1 and despite three years of big training volumes, I've done very little about reasons 1 and 3.

I said in my last post 'I was a lot more pissed off last year'. I've no right to be pissed off now and I'm not really. You win some, you lose some and on the day I just wasn't good enough. All triathletes have their own tales of woe and it'd be petty of me to whinge about the 9 seconds between me and 6th. The top three in my category were all under 9 hours and being realistic about everything that's the level I need to be performing at.

Kurt_Godel

Great attitude. Onwards and upwards.

Dory Dory

Work on 1 and 3....then remember, third time's a charm.

shotgunmcos

Awesome job well done. Sorry to hear you missed the slot but great foundation put down.

As for the 3 areas to work on

1) I'd suggest some MTB fun for a few weeks. Some technical descents off road will sort this. When you get back on road the descents will feel like they happen in slow motion

2) You have come on leaps and bounds. It all about technique now

3) What advice would you give yourself?!

zico10

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Awesome job well done. Sorry to hear you missed the slot but great foundation put down.

Thanks, but unfortunately an 'awesome job' just wasn't good enough on this occasion.

Also I've been laying down a foundation for years. The stubborn imbecile that I am probably means I'll keep banging on the door, but I think I'm at the point where my margins of improvement are only going to get smaller and smaller.

As for the 3 areas to work on

1) I'd suggest some MTB fun for a few weeks. Some technical descents off road will sort this. When you get back on road the descents will feel like they happen in slow motion

I've heard that over and over and I know what you say is true, I just need to grow half a testicle first. I went to Ballyhoura last November and I'm glad nobody was watching. If I had had a GoPro camera running, you probably would have thought it was stuck on slow-mo. Descending just seems to be something I'm not cut out for. I honestly think it's the same with swimming, and people for whom both things come naturally don't seem to understand. I could try from here until time immemorial to kick conversions with my left foot, but Johnny Sexton's position will never be in doubt. At the same, I know I don't need to to Sextonesque, I just need to be a slightly braver version of zico10. Now that I've saved a couple of grand on a Kona ticket, perhaps I should splash out on a mountain bike and just man up.

2) You have come on leaps and bounds. It all about technique now

Thanks and I recognise this. It's just a long and drawn out process for me. I've tried so hard to stay positive (and I intend to continue so), but the guy ahead of me was nearly 5 minutes quicker than me over the 3.8k swim. It's hard not to let it enter my mind, that maybe I'd be better off doing something else.

3) What advice would you give yourself?!

HURRY THE **** UP!!!

It might be an ironman, but it's still a race. I could search the four corners of the globe and I wouldn't find enough fncks to give to somebody who spent a second short of 5 minutes in T1. I genuinely appreciate anybody who has taken even the slightest interest in my log, but on this occasion I don't deserve or want any sympathy from anybody.

Kurt_Godel

zico10 wrote: »

but the guy ahead of me was nearly 5 minutes quicker than me over the 3.8k swim. It's hard not to let it enter my mind, that maybe I'd be better off doing something else.

Your swim times (pool, OW) are way too slow for the amount of swim volume you put in. Less than 8s/100m faster pace and there's your 5 mins. There is a lot of time to be taken off your cruising pace (to be blunt you should have addressed this over the past 6 months). 61 mins in a wetsuit is good but you should be capable of going a lot faster.

(apologies if this isn't the right time to bring that up, and I appreciate you've gotten good specific stroke analysis, but its the elephant in the room)

tunney

Great running.

What wheels do you run? Tubs or clinchers? Alu or carbon braking surfaces?

Whats next for you?

pgibbo

I was tracking on Saturday and that section with the climb really stood out. Then again you know that so no point stating the obvious.

Given the way you chased the last 6 weeks or so after the spill in Thailand, do you think it's time to look at working with a coach or mentor? You think your gains will be marginal at this stage. That's might be true if you stay self coached. Who knows what might be possible with a fresh pair of eyes? Might things have been different after the spill if there was a coach to talk with?

Cracking performance at the weekend. Given the injuries that run was superb. I was sorry to see that you missed the slot. Lots of takeaways and learnings though. I hope you go again and nail the KQ.

I wonder are Mallorca & Barcelona harder to qualify at given the slots are always for the following year or is it pure chance given most KQ AG'ers are headed for Kona already that year?

pgibbo

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Your swim times (pool, OW) are way too slow for the amount of swim volume you put in. Less than 8s/100m faster pace and there's your 5 mins. There is a lot of time to be taken off your cruising pace (to be blunt you should have addressed this over the past 6 months). 61 mins in a wetsuit is good but you should be capable of going a lot faster.

(apologies if this isn't the right time to bring that up, and I appreciate you've gotten good specific stroke analysis, but its the elephant in the room)

Perhaps just do enough swimming to maintain the 1:01 swim and look for extra gains on the bike & run. How many of the Irish KQ crew swim sub 60? I don't know the answer but looking at what LCD did and what people are predicting for BMC then maybe the bike should be the focus.

catweazle

Would it be a case of looking around and choosing another race around the same time. If the goal is to get to Kona - perhaps a less popular race with the Europeans might suit you better. I see the winner of the 35-39 age grade in Wales was 10.10 this year. Would Wales be almost an hour tougher than Mallorca?

Wales is a very rolling bike course as well - so it might suit you better then the big descent in Mallorca and with a tough run it will play to your strengths

RJM85

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

(Although without the failing again bit)

zico10

There's a lot of points people have made that I'll try to address over the next day or two.

But for the moment, I need to point out that drawing comparisons between this year's race and last's is not something people should be doing.

While I thought the swim must have been short last year. This year I thought it was long. Admittedly I didn't swim very straight. Due to the rolling start there was nothing like the drafting benefit in the water I had last year.

The pros had non wetsuit swims this year and last. Timo Bracht was 1 minute 51 seconds slower this year. I'm not sure how much effort Eimear Mullan put into the swim, but she was 5 minutes 16 seconds slower. My Garmin recorded it as over 4km.

That's one thing. The bike wasn't the same course either. I made it to be 4 to 4.5km short. This would make it about 6k shorter in total. We had a God awful headwind to face for a long stretch across a wide open highway. Conditions weren't the same. I realise this shows my bike wasn't as awesome as people might think, but I never claimed nor tried to pretend it was.

The run was the only thing that was the exact same and I took four seconds longer this year. I wasted a lot of angry energy during the first few k last year, but 4 seconds is as close as makes no difference.

Oryx

catweazle wrote: »

Would it be a case of looking around and choosing another race around the same time. If the goal is to get to Kona - perhaps a less popular race with the Europeans might suit you better. I see the winner of the 35-39 age grade in Wales was 10.10 this year. Would Wales be almost an hour tougher than Mallorca?

Wales is a very rolling bike course as well - so it might suit you better then the big descent in Mallorca and with a tough run it will play to your strengths

Ill stick my beak in here. Wales would definitely be a far slower course and the bike is technical requiring skilled and confident descending far more than majorca imo.

zico10

tunney wrote: »

Great running.

Thanks. I wasn't sure how I was going to fare on this leg. I was worried how my left calf/Achilles would hold up. Thankfully it wasn't an issue. Even apart from this, I didn't think I was going to run as well as last year. So pretty happy to finish only 4 seconds off last year's run time.

What wheels do you run? Tubs or clinchers? Alu or carbon braking surfaces?

Clinchers with aluminium rims. I rode with a disc, which I'm not sure I'd do again. They certainly weren't as plentiful in Mallorca as they normally are at races.

Whats next for you?

I don't know. I still want to go to Kona. If that's going to be October 2016, with my job, it'll mean picking a July or August race from which to qualify. I haven't looked into the practicalities of any of them, but July would strike me as the better choice.

Then part of me regrets not sticking with running after Connemarathon last year. It'd be nice to have a marathon PB under 2:30 and I think if I keep focussing on Ironman, my best running years are going to be wasted.

It also occurred to me this year that long distance duathlon might be where I'd find most success. But there's just something about Powerman that doesn't appeal to me as much as Ironman.

Whatever race I do, I'll want to do well in. I'll take a few weeks to think about things before rushing into any decision.