Getting to know... Basster

68 lost souls

Well my time has come to an end. Next up in the hot seat it's Basster.

How many years in Triathlon?
Favorite discipline?
Sporting background?
Favorite band and album?
Favorite race to date?

Let the questions begin, and may the odds forever be in your favor.

Chartsengrafs

Thanks Niall. Here goes..

How many years in Triathlon? Dabbling for 5 years now (though didn't race in year 3)
Favorite discipline? Running!
Sporting background? Nothing special, like most kids I played a bit of everything (badly). Gaelic football until age of 18 with a lot of soccer played too. Bit of a gap until I started doing a bit of jogging at 23.
Favorite band and album? That's tough. I'll say Radiohead overall. Album; a top ten would be easier but today I'd go for The Sophtware Slump (Grandaddy) and Songs for the Deaf (Queens of the Stone Age). OK Computer...
Favorite race to date? I love the Dunshaughlin 10k as it's my home race. Tri An Mhi in triathlon. Had a fondness for Kilkenny Tri too until they made a mess of it in recent years. Enjoy the swim in the middle of the town and the run.

joey100

Hey Basster,

What bike are you on now? Dream bike and set up?

Member of a tri club?

What's the plan for this season?

Kurt Godel

Hi Basster,

What does a routine training week look like this time of year?
Favourite OW place to swim?
Have you ever been involved in race committees and if so whats the best/worst things about organising a race?
Ever drafted on the bike? Opinion of drafters?
How many running shoes do you own?
How many goggles?
€1000 to spend in a Tri store, assume you already have a perfect bike/wheels- how would you spend it?

Green&Red

What would be ur superpower?
What's ur dream job?
Favourite smell?
Are you paying your water charges? (Or if you don't have a house would you?)
Top three dream girls?

Chartsengrafs

Hi Joey

What bike are you on now? Dream bike and set up? I'm on a Felt B14 when racing, Orbea Orca Silver otherwise.
Dream TT bike would be a Scott Plasma or a Cervelo of some description though I'm not sure I love the look of the current P5. Put a set of Zipps on the Scott and I'd be very happy.

Member of a tri club? Yes, third year in one

What's the plan for this season?
I'm going to do a few national series races for a change. Had a poor Spring in terms of training so hope to hit some form in August races.

Chartsengrafs

Hi Kurt

What does a routine training week look like this time of year?
That depends! Typically 2 swims of an hour duration, 3 runs (I'm doing mostly easy-ish runs at the moment), 2+hr bike at the weekend and a shorter bike during the week. If a session is missed it's often the shorter bike so I get out longer at the weekend.


Favourite OW place to swim?
I like Seapoint in Dublin, feels safe and it's easy to get to from the city.

Have you ever been involved in race committees and if so what's the best/worst things about organising a race?
I was run lead on the recent aquathon if that counts.
Best thing is just the buzz of the race, seeing people really pushing themselves. I remember a few years ago marshalling for the first time how uncomfortable those at the front of the pack were working. Some of them looked like they were about to collapse from the effort. I guess (at the time) it was good to see that even the fastest people suffer, and suffer more than anyone.

Worst thing.. people staying in bed instead of marshalling when you really fvcking need them. People taking a wrong turn is a real risk and things like that can ruin a race's reputation, and justifiably so.
And obviously the current bike situation is very frustrating.



Ever drafted on the bike? Opinion of drafters?
Sure, I did in my first triathlon. Not wheel-sucking but just being a dope and thinking sure, what harm. But I educated myself soon after and dozens of duathlons and tris since, and no drafting. I've given people real bollick1ngs for it on occasions in races, roaring at people on my wheel but that's a waste of energy. It's a real pet hate. Became very disillusioned recently seeing footage of an IM with bunches of cyclcists on the course. Used to really admire people TT-ing for 180km but it seems that's not always the way.



How many running shoes do you own?
5 pairs, though one's on the way out and one pair I just hate. So 3 in use really.

How many goggles?
Two; inside and outside goggles.

€1000 to spend in a Tri store, assume you already have a perfect bike/wheels- how would you spend it?
Ooh good question. I've accumulated plenty of things over the years (including a new Garmin recently which would've been top of the list) but assuming I was given the money to spend it would likely go on some nice bike gear: shorts (Assos) a decent jacket, and new bike shoes. Probably looking at €650 for that. The rest might go on a new wetsuit, and peanut butter with the change.

Chartsengrafs

What would be ur superpower? Teleportation would be a pretty tidy one. Good chance to see the world. My dislike of heights rules out flying

What's ur dream job? Owner of a books, wine and music emporium. Or a cycling-themed bar. It sounds better in my head.

Favourite smell? Fresh coffee

Are you paying your water charges? (Or if you don't have a house would you?) I haven't even looked into it. Fvck them, they can come to me.

Top three dream girls? A distant second, third and fourth after my wonderful girlfriend would be .. January Jones, Rachel Mc Adams, Rooney Mara.

Thanks G & R

Solobally8

Are you coming back to the Lough Derg Sprint? I'll bake you something

Chartsengrafs

Well then, how could I say no to that!

(I could well yet, really nice race).

tunney

You are alot a "list" of five people. Who is on it?

Chartsengrafs

tunney wrote: »

You are alot a "list" of five people. Who is on it?

I think I answered 60% of that three posts back

tunney

Basster wrote: »

I think I answered 60% of that three posts back

feck missed that.

catweazle

Not the normal girls you would expect on a wish list and wide ranging - a voluptuous blonde and two cute brunettes.

Favorite Movie?
Favorite Scene from a movie?
One race at the Olympics to attend - what would you pick?
3 Sports personalities that you admire and 3 that you don't and why?
Best music concert?
Should GAA county players be paid - your opinion?
Conor McGregor - your thoughts

Chartsengrafs

Hi CW, hope you're keeping well!


Favorite Movie? Another tough one but I'll go with The Royal Tenenbaums.

Favorite Scene from a movie? That 'Amelie Likes...' scene in Amelie is pretty magic. Or else the farm scene in the Bourne Identity - the shoot out with Clive Owen. Always loved it for some reason.


One race at the Olympics to attend - what would you pick?
I was initially going to say the 10,000m but really it's all about the men's 100m for me (just for the sheer spectacle).


3 Sports personalities that you admire and 3 that you don't and why?

Tough one. Maybe Dan Martin because he's doing things the right way and battles the greatest obstacle of them all .. hay fever!

John Urschel, a linebacker(!!) for the Baltimore Ravens who recently published a paper called "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians" in the Journal of Computational Mathematics. Come on!! (Kurt can give us an explanation I'm sure)

The Brownlees because they're great.

Don't admire? Viokourov, Basso, all those d1cks for obvious reasons, or anyone who wastes their talent. Such as Balotelli (I don't think he's a bad guy but could do so much more).


Best music concert?
Possibly Radiohead in the point years ago, or Interpol around the time Antics came out (Olympia). Seen both a few times so not sure of dates.

Should GAA county players be paid - your opinion?

I think too much is asked of them, and it's getting worse. There's a lot of control wielded over players, often young fellas. Many of them perhaps hinder their careers as training has to come first. All well and good if you're a Brogan and can earn sponsorship money but what if they play for Meath, Kildare? I'm not sure it'd be feasible to pay 20-odd players from 32 counties (for each code). It's something I've thought a lot about but I haven't really reached a conclusion. Except for if they're not going to get paid, limits have to be placed on training, and enforced.


Conor McGregor - your thoughts He has to sell himself and all that, I get it, it's all hype. But I don't like him and I ignore him as much as possible. Don't care for the sport either.

Thanks

zico10

Do you plan to run DCM in October?
Would/will you join 3D's marathon club again?
How did you juggle training for triathlon and DCM last year?

Any tris picked out for this year?

MD1983

how many years do you think you have ahead of you in triathlon?

toilet seat up or down?

trail mix or peanuts, which would you snack on?

do you buy the paper?

where do you buy most of your tri gear and why?

keysersoze1

toughest tri course you've done

Chartsengrafs

Do you plan to run DCM in October? I don't intend to. Possibly next year.

Would/will you join 3D's marathon club again? I possibly would, though I think if I could work with AK again. Learned a lot from him. A solid training group for the long runs would be of benefit though, it didn't really materialise last year

How did you juggle training for triathlon and DCM last year? I trained as normal up to late June and did a few sprints. From then on I only ran, with the occasional or recovery spin. DCM was the main aim last year so I figured I would make running the sole focus

Any tris picked out for this year? I've signed up for Carlow, Athy sprint, Hook or By Crook and Caroline Kearney. I may add one more.

Thanks Zico.

Chartsengrafs

Hi MD1983

how many years do you think you have ahead of you in triathlon? I can say at least 2 or 3 more. Will really depend on work and other unforseeable things. Training is very much a year round thing, it'd be a real shock to cease that.

toilet seat up or down? Up when I pee.

trail mix or peanuts, which would you snack on? I sometimes eat peanuts mixed with raisins. Which is probably the basis of a trail mix.

do you buy the paper? Used to, not now. Read bits of two papers online. Occasionally if I've time I'll buy the FT on a Saturday.

where do you buy most of your tri gear and why? Bought my most recent bike in Stagg's Lucan. Why? Decent price, excellent service. No bull. Otherwise Base2Race is where I buy all my tri stuff. Handy to get to, decent staff. Don't buy anything tri-related online really.

Chartsengrafs

keysersoze1 wrote: »

toughest tri course you've done

I've done a heap of races, but all nice flat easy ones in the Leinster region

Chartsengrafs

Looks like I'm off the hook tomorrow, if anyone would like to take my place (or make a suggestion) please send me a pm. I'll try to pick someone otherwise.