Kona - The Unexpected Journey

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If it is to be it is to be me

A phrase that has lived with me for years, it was the mantra of an old boss who always got the best out of people.
It is my mantra now also, as to achieve things in life, be it sport, work or anything else, there is only one person utterly responsible.

So what about this unexpected journey?
A lifelong (triathlon life that is) dream was realised on June 24th at the Ironman Cork award ceremony when I was offered a slot for the 2019 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. While it was the dream, it was a long term dream, a dream I was hoping to realise in years to come, realistically the 50-54 AG.

I’ve decided to keep this blog for the next couple of months training in the run up to Kona. There are two main purposes for this 1. To keep myself honest and 2. Hopefully some of you will read it and enjoy it.

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The Realisation

There have been many moments of realisation in the run to here. The initial one was not for me, but for Laura (my better half) when she realised that Ironman training was going to commence after a two year sabbatical.
The next was for me as I sat down to draw up the plan in January – what have I signed myself up to, especially on the back of an ‘easy’ year of just running. I hadn’t been on a bike or in the pool in over a year as I focussed on breaking the 3 hour marathon mark (which I achieved…Twice ��).

After an initial set back in January when I got a mild dose of pneumonia, the training went well, very well in fact. Thankfully no injuries, which always allows for a good consistent block of training.
Then came the realisation of the course, we went down and did a recce of the course in April after hearing about varying degrees of road conditions. The roads were poor, but aside from a few very hairy sections, no worse than the roads I train on around Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. On a return recce 3 weeks out from race day, there was significant improvement, woohoo.

The next realisation came 2 weeks out from race day, I knew I was in good condition. I had trained hard and consistent, I felt strong. I sat down and wrote out my final race day expectations and targets – Top 10 in AG. I emailed the target to myself and when I reread it the following day I thought ‘Jaysus, you are getting above your station’
Then came race morning and on the way to transition, the realisation that the swim would not be going ahead.

I’ll skip over details of the actual race itself, someday I may come back to write a race day report. All I’ll say about it at this stage is that it was the most challenging, wet, cold day I have ever raced in.
I enjoyed the bike but suffered on the run, never felt as cold on a run, I normally warm up on a run regardless of conditions, but not on this day. If you look at my race pictures, I look like I was enjoying it, but I didn’t enjoy one second of it.
When I race IM, I don’t necessarily race others, I race the clock, I race how I am feeling. I’m really only competing against myself. When I finished this race, I was disappointed, very disappointed, due to the cold I felt on the run, I believe I left 20+ minutes out there, so I was disheartened. I wasn’t really in the mood to discuss the race, all I could focus on was how was I going to get warm (and when I could get my hands on a pint of Guinness).
I only realised how well my race had gone when somebody showed me the results and there I was sitting in 6th in my AG, my A target achieved. Then I smiled and became less of a grump �� (well I think so anyway).

The dream then started becoming a real possibility – Is the App correct, will there be many places in my AG, will I get a roll down, will, how, what if …………..

Laura and I had a chat about the possibility that night and again on Monday morning. This was never discussed before, as I didn’t think I’d be in contention for a place.
The realistic questions had to be asked

Can we afford it? No
Is it a dream? Yes
Do we have annual leave from work? No
Who would mind the kids?

The questions kept on coming.

The end conclusion was if I was offered it, I’d take it. To paraphrase Laura – This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you may never get this chance again, so take it. But it is a once off opportunity and you won’t be going again ��

And so the dream became a reality.

I’ll end this post as I started, with Laura getting the last bit of realisation – I can’t believe you will be training for another Ironman this year’

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The Start

After Ironman Cork, family time and recovery were the focus. A weekend at Kaleidoscope music festival, the family friendly event in Russborough House (highly recommended by the way) was followed by a few weeks in France relaxing, eating and drinking wine. While away, I did some recovery runs and swims, but no records were broken. That was the plan and I rigidly stuck to it.
However, this is the week to kickstart the next block and build the training hours up again.

Someone asked me recently what did I do this year that was different to any other year and how did that help me get qualification. It was something I thought about for a while and the truth is I didn’t do anything drastically differently. While the training remained fairly much the same as my approach to previous Ironman races, I was ‘lucky’ the last 18 or so months as I remained injury free. I say lucky in inverted commas as while there is always an element of luck involved in avoiding injury, the key reason I was injury free was that I took responsibility and did something over the last 2 years about my previous injuries. In the past, I rocked up to a physio, lay on the table, got the treatment, listened to them prescribe my homework of exercises, skipped out of there and then proceeded to do the very same things that were causing the injuries. I wasn’t very good at doing my homework and therefore didn’t own my issue. I expected the physio to fix me in the 30 minute session on the table. I was more focused on getting quantity in over quality. A change in approach was brought about when I went to see Anthony in Anatomy in Motion and he explained what the issues were and what I needed to do to resolve them. It was a helping hand to self-resolving the issues. For anyone with long term issues, I would highly recommend him. https://www.anthonyclaffey.com/what-is-anatomy-in-motion . I continue to do my homework also, so you have to be willing to do that.
Another thing I have done is sorted out my nutrition, not just for race day, but in general. Over the last few years my nutrition was never brutal, but now I understand more about it and what works for me.
So injury prevention, nutrition and consistent training are key. No magic bullet there, just common sense.
I’ve also been asked a number of times ‘would you have qualified if the swim wasn’t cancelled?’. That, I’m afraid is anyone’s guess. All I can say is I raced the race that was put in front of me, same as everyone else, got the slot that was offered and grabbed it with both hands.

While putting together my plan for the next block of training (self coaching by the way, but leveraging off plans, experience and guidance from previous coaches), the only thing I felt I needed to do differently was train for the heat.
So I reached out to Altipeaks in J6, Blanchardstown, where they have cardio rooms that are 35 degs, 15% oxygen and simulate an altitude of 2800m, ideal for my training. I had trained there earlier in the year to kickstart my training and I felt it paid dividends. After a conversation with Chris, I was delighted that Altipeaks offered to support my training with full access to the facility in the run up to Kona. I’m looking forward to getting started and training in the heat.

Training plan is in place for the next month, that’s the easy bit, just need to get out and do it. Motivation is very high at the moment, so I can’t see it been an issue.

Training actually feels like the easy part, when you consider the logistics of planning a trip to Kona. #firstworldproblems

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Week 1

Tuesday – Back to work after the holidays today, I’d love to say I felt nice and refreshed and relaxed, but I’d be lying. Holidays were great but still feeling tired. Refreshed, yes but still tired.
13km run along the canal. There aren’t too many nicer places to run than along the Royal canal on a sunny summers evening and I really enjoyed this run. Legs felt ok so I decided to push the run a little, felt good at the time but on reflection, probably spent too much time in Z4.
Wednesday – First time out on the bike sine IM Cork. During most of my runs post IM, the legs felt recovered and ready, so I assumed that the bike legs would be the same. How wrong was I, on this spin they felt heavy and over worked and this spin was a struggle. Probably wasn’t helped by overdoing it on the run the previous day either.
Thursday – Oh I do hate swimming, this morning was drills drills and more drills. If it was an exam, I might have scrapped the 40% pass rate, but just barely. Enough about that.
Wattbike session of 3 x 10 min efforts in the evening. In stark contrast to swimming, I adore the Wattbike. It’s a good, honest, tough session. Thankfully the bike legs were a bit more cooperative today, even if they did fade on the 3rd set.
Friday – First Altipeaks session. In each session, your HR is displayed on a screen at the front of the room, so you can see your zones. Unfortunately, my monitor did not register this morning, so I couldn’t see the zones during the session. All I knew was that I was pushing my HR, but it wasn’t until I saw the stats afterwards, I realised how much, a tad long in Z5 (52% of the run). However, it was a great session and lots of work to be done in here to get ready for the environment in Kona. I have a feeling these are going to be love hate sessions. It took about 2 hours to cool down properly after this run.
Saturday – There really are some muppet motorists out on the road who have no regard for the safety of cyclists. The road is big enough for us all.
Nice 110km cycle with Mick through the usual hunting grounds of north Dublin and Meath. The first of many long spins in this block of training for the coming months. Other than the aforementioned muppets, nothing else of note on the spin, just good to be out and have a chat in the process.
Sunday – I was down home in Tipp and took part in the Sean Healy Memorial 10 mile road race in Ballynonty. This is a local race for me, yet it was only my fourth or fifth time doing it. It has a relatively small number of participants, but plenty of fast guys in the field too. The race itself has the potential to gather a much bigger field and I’d love to see it grow.
I raced this race last year and ran 65.05, which was a PB over the distance at the time for me. This year, I didn’t have any speed work in the legs, so I was just participating and ran 67.04, so I was happy with the time and even enjoyed the run under no pressure of hitting a time.
The majority of us that race road races, track, triathlons etc are always in the search for a PB, but it’s great to go out and enjoy a race, which is what I did in Ballynonty.
In summary, the weeks training went well, all planned sessions completed and relatively happy with how they went. It wasn’t a hard week by any means, but carrying a couple of extra kgs from holidays makes the body work that little bit more. Nutrition is back on track, motivation is high, sessions were executed, so yep a good week.
Current weight: 78.2kg. Target race weight: 72kg

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Week 2

Monday – You can’t beat a good rest day, so that’s what today was. I did a gentle 30 min stretching routine in the gym. This is a session I do regularly and feel it really benefits me. I focus the session on lower legs and back as these are where I get the most issues, or should I say used to get the most issues. Thankfully, nothing too serious in recent times. My back still gets tight out cycling after a few hours, but without this routine, it would be a lot worse.
If you are after a good laugh, then get yourself tickets to Coppers:The Musical. We went to it tonight and it is hilarious, it’s been a while since my jaws hurt from laughing. For anyone who has ever set foot inside the door of Coppers, this show is a must.
Who says it’s all training and no play?
Tuesday – Back to Altipeaks and thankfully my HR was on display this morning so I was able to gauge the session a bit closer. Still a tough session, but I spent the right amount of times in the right zones, so a better session overall. For the moment, I am focusing on running during these sessions, as opposed to the bike, as I feel I need more prep for the sufferfest that will be the marathon in Kona.
Today was a double run day, so I incorporated the second session with the club opening of the new 400m tartan track in Dunboyne. A great turnout by club members on what was a wet miserable night. The track is a huge credit to all committee members who worked so hard in planning and fundraising to get this in place.
It was great to run on the track for the first time and I couldn’t stop myself from doing the 400m club session (I had planned on doing an easy 8km). If it proved anything, it proved I have no speed in the legs.
Wednesday – It’s not very often I get to do a long spin mid week, but with the children spending quality time with their grandparents this week, I got to head out on the bike for good spin this evening. I mentioned in my previous post about some muppets on the road, but today really took the p*$$. Coming up to a roundabout, a truck overtook me in the right hand lane and immediately pulled left to take the first exit on the roundabout. First reactions first, I managed to bunny hop onto the footpath, so got out of the way of the trailer. Thankfully it was a sunny evening, so the driver heard me calling him a nice pleasant name as he drove with his elbow out the window. He proceeded to stop his truck and jump out of his cab to tell me that cyclists think they own the road and to get off it. He also tried to tell me that he was going to stop to let me through the roundabout, yeah of course you were. To cut a long story short, I stood, bike in hand in front of his door so he couldn’t get in, until he apologised (I don’t think he meant it but it was a moral victory for me ��). I might have caused a traffic jam in Dunshaughlin but I really don’t care. Joking aside, I actually think myself lucky after that incident, as he came damn close to sweeping me off the bike. Seriously stupid manoeuvre by him. There are too many of these incidents every day on our roads, just wish common sense would prevail, for cyclists and motorists alike.
Anyway, enough about that, the spin was great other than that, it was great to get out to the Hill of Tara on a summers day and rolling hills around Summerhill.
Thursday – The usual early morning rise for my beloved swim session. There is no denying that swimming is not my first love, but I do enjoy the sessions and get through them. It’s just the constant learning to be done (as a result of my sh%te technique).
This morning was drills followed by a 1900m TT. TT time was 33.30, no records broken but I am happy with time and the maintained pace throughout.
Friday – Altipeaks session #3, another good tough session, but it was made all the easier by having Shane suffer on the threadmill beside me. It’s always easier doing a session when you have some sharing your pain
An open water swim at Low Rock on Friday evening. The water was glorious and a beautiful evening for a swim. Damn wetsuit cut the back of my neck worse than ever before, so that hurts like hell. I think I’d have preferred to be stung by the jelly fish.
Saturday – An actual lie in was had before I went out for my long spin. The wind was sharp today on the bike, but far from the worst I’ve been out in. I ventured onto new routes today to mix it up a little and all was relatively uneventful, just got the work done. One section of the route that I don’t ever plan on doing again is the road from Kinnegad to Trim (at least the first 10km of it), it was like trying to cycle across a row of washing machines on spin cycle. Obviously, no money for roads in this neck of the woods.
Sunday – Very warm out for this morning’s run and I don’t carry water for any runs up to approx. 22/24km, as I just hate carrying anything. This mornings run was 20km through the bogs at home in Tipp, and I slightly underestimated the terrain (the hills/drags feel fine in the car) and felt it on the last 2km. Legs were tired after this run.
Sunday afternoon was my favourite session of the week, and probably favourite in a long while. It involved the bike, but this time for a family spin along the Waterford Greenway from Kilmacthomas to Durrow. A great spin and enjoyed by all. Highly recommended day/few hours out for the family.

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Week 3

This was a topsy turvy up and down kind of week. It started well with a bank holiday Monday and ended well with a decent run but in between there were all kinds of feelings, emotions, doubt, confidence, deliberation etc etc etc. I suppose you could call it a sh$t sandwich kinda week.
There was a lot on this week with a kids gaa blitz every night and soccer, so the main training sessions were all planned for early morning with the light/recovery sessions for late evening. While the key sessions were met, only one of the evening sessions were achieved, primarily due to lack of energy come the evening time.
I mentioned earlier in the blog about getting nutrition right, however I did get it wrong this week, very wrong, and on reflection of the week that’s what caused the lack of energy. In trying to drop some weight I went into too much of a calorie deficit. Let’s not let that happen again.

Monday: BBQ with the in-laws, so I used the travel there for my bike session for the day. A nice challenging head wind for the entire 82km which tested both the legs and the head, but enjoyed the spin. Soaked to the skin after one torrential downpour, then dried out again, well all bar the shoes, within 10km (great drying out today, if only the rain would stay away ��). Fuelled sufficiently for the rest of the evening (obviously no calorie deficit today, which in hindsight was probably the reason I dropped too many calories for the rest of the week, guilt is a horrible thing). I use these types of sessions to push the big gears and engage the larger muscle groups, trying to grind it out through all types of terrain without dropping gears. They are sessions that have worked for the last couple of years since introduced by a former coach and sessions that I feel benefit me greatly in building strength.

Tuesday: Altipeaks run session this morning. Legs felt tired upon hitting the floor first thing this morning but they felt good during this session. Felt I was adjusting to the heat more also and the HR was definitely more controlled.

Wednesday: Early morning bike session around the regular hunting grounds of Meath, felt very sluggish on the spin for the first 10km or so before the legs started to wake up. Just as the legs woke up, so did the rain drops and it proceeded to bucket down for the remainder of the cycle. Roads were very slippy, but I was feeling good and pushed on regardless. A decent spin on a typical Irish summer morning.
I had a light recovery run planned for this evening, but didn’t get it done. I’d like to say I was restricted by time, but no I was restricted by zero energy in the body so opted out.

Thursday: Club swim session this morning and similar to last night I had no energy in the body. The session was drills and 400’s, and while the first few 400’s went relatively ok, I soon felt like I was trying to swim through treacle. Stroke was all over the shop, times were dropping, then the head dropped so I finished the session and got out of the pool. Swimming is enough of an ordeal for me without crap like this happening, but at least this time I know it was down to not been sufficiently fuelled.
The replanned light jog was canned tonight also.

Friday: I got to bed relatively early on Thursday night and as I hadn’t run the planned sessions on Wed or Thursday, I had a pang of guilt and signed up to a second Altipeaks session for this morning. I was already in for the 6.30am class, but signed up for the 5.30am also. Out of bed early and thankfully feeling good, even at the ungodly hour of 5am (even managed to wake half the house, oops). The first 40 min class went well and I felt great during it, again HR was controlled (target was to stay in Z3 and out of Z4), pace was decent and energy levels good. The second session started off good, but soon the energy was drifting and the HR rising. I eased back a bit and got all under control again. Needless to say, the sweatfest was real during the second session. Recovered well after this and felt good for the day.
So good, I even managed to get the only evening session of the week in. While the energy levels were good, I once again felt like I was swimming through treacle and was very tempted to throw in the towel. I didn’t though, I forgot about times and tried to focus on my stroke and catching water in the third phase (something I don’t do). Relatively happy with the swim.

Saturday: Out and back to Virginia with efforts built. Another beautiful summers day of biblical rain showers for 90% of the near 5 hour spin. Felt great on the bike throughout the spin and was very happy with the session. 5km run off the bike, meant to be nice and easy but as usual I went out too hard. Pacing is something I have to control, because if I don’t it will kill me in Kona.

Sunday: Long steady run planned for this morning, it needed to be done early. I was very very tempted to knock the alarm off after one round of snooze, but I got up and got the runners on and out the door. Felt really tired, dehydrated (I was sure I recovered sufficiently after the bike on Sat, but the body said otherwise) and sorry for myself. I headed for the Phoenix Park as knew the R&R was on and said I’d see what the atmosphere was like. Thankfully, 6km into the run I bumped into one of the lads by chance and did the bulk of the rest of my LSR with him, can’t beat good company on a long run, especially when not feeling fresh. Alas, 25km completed, felt good, decent pace, energy good, so a good way to end the week.

Current weight: 76.9kg

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Week 4


A bit of an indifferent week this week, felt training was going well, but energy levels were lacking and didn’t really have a reason for it early in the week as sleep was ok and recovery was ok. On Wednesday, despite drinking plenty, I felt dehydrated which for me is a sure sign of sinus issues flaring up. Alas they did, and from Thursday onwards I had a full on power drip from the nose, very pleasant. Thankfully it didn’t stop me pushing on with training, just lowered the effort a little.

Monday – Altipeaks session. Fell the body really adjusting to the heat, so sessions going very well.

Tuesday – Plan was for a swim this morning, but when the alarm went off at 5.50, I just couldn’t muster the energy to get out of bed, so I ‘accidently’ hit the stop button instead of snooze and turned over for another hour. I know it’s not right, but it is so much easier for me to find an excuse for a swim session than any other session. I need to revert to evening swims when swimming alone as mornings just don’t work. I had a Wattbike session in the evening, tough session of 7 x 7 minute efforts with 3 mins recovery, legs were weary at the end but I do enjoy these sessions.



Wednesday – Steady run, legs feeling heavy but good to get the session done as energy and motivation were low today.

Thursday – Felt like crap this morning when I woke up, but I had a club session so out of bed I got as these are the sessions where I really push myself. Thankfully I did, as a great session it turned out to be. 4.5k in total and while I was wiped at the end of it, I was happy with the times. If the sinuses were starting to give issues before today, today clinched the deal for the full on dose.

Friday - Struggled out of bed, struggled through the session, struggled to the day. Felt crap all day long.

Saturday – Initial plan for today was 160km, with a few hours of Ironman effort, mixed in with half distance efforts and some easy spinning. Woke up early and felt horrendous, decided to go out for an hour and gauge it from there. I have a rule of thumb that if sickness or a dose is not down on the chest, I’ll go do it. Pushed through the first hour, felt ok, so pushed on through the next 4 hours also. A nice 160km in the legs for a Saturday morning felt great and I felt the legs were in good shape.

Sunday – Still feeling no better, the sinuses were getting worse, but legs were good, so went out for a long run. First 10km were tough and felt I was working too hard, was going to call it a day, but not sure if the sinuses decided to get with the program or whether it was my ignorance, but I pushed on and managed to complete the 32km planned session.

Later in the day I arrived at the conclusion it was my ignorance that got me through as the sinuses rebelled. However, Tipp beating the Cats in the All-Ireland final put everything else at ease.

While not the biggest training week I’ve had, I felt the legs really reacted well this week. Mid week they were heavy and I felt I was struggling, but they felt great for the big weekend sessions. I love been able to finish a long bike or a long run and have the feeling that the legs were capable of much more.

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Week 5

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, however I never thought I’d hear myself talking about swimming in this vain. Due to the sinus issues, I opted out of any swimming on a day to day basis, as in I’d make the right call each day. I had the swim gear in the car all week, hoping that the issues had cleared enough to get back into the water. Unfortunately, it just didn’t materialise. It’s hard to know if I had skipped last Thursdays swim session would the issues have passed quicker. Impossible to tell but one thing I knew was I wasn’t going risking the issues getting worse. I’ve tried numerous nose clips throughout the years to stop water getting in, but they invariably end up on the bottom of the pool floor, so I’ve given up trying them. If anyone is ware of any other devices to help, let me know. A full week off swimming is not good preparation, but neither is risking having to stop all training as a result of pushing through.

Monday – Altipeaks session, this was a recovery session after the previous days long run. Session felt great and very controlled, so really happy with this.
Plan was to hit the pool on the way home from work, but due to reasons mentioned above, this did not happen.

Tuesday – Wattbike session of 5 x 10 mins with 90 secs recovery. The first 2 10 minute intervals felt ok, but the third set went south and I thought the legs were done for, so I eased off and recovered during the 90 seconds rest. The legs came around and I pushed through the next two sets. The session felt tough but then again it wasn’t meant to be easy.
Pool time skipped again.

Wednesday – The planned session didn’t happen here, and the only reason it didn’t was I didn’t stick to the plan. It was meant to be a warm up then 5 x (1km hard, 1km steady). Instead I thought the legs felt good and I did it all as hard. I’m half blaming the weather here as it was beating down with rain and I just wanted to get the session done. Felt good during it and afterwards, but I should have known better than to push it.

Thursday – This is normally club swim session morning, but this morning I replaced the swim with a recovery Wattbike session. It was during this session that I really felt the effects of last nights run. During the session, the HR was in Z2 for the duration, but the legs were sore, tired and felt they were working hard. All because I pushed too much last night. Plan was for a recover run in the evening but the legs were shot and wouldn’t cooperate, even tried to bribe the kids to come out on the bikes with me to keep me company but they weren’t interested, so I packed in the session also.

Friday – What was meant to be a rest day was replaced with an easy recovery session on Altipeaks. Glad I did as the legs really loosened up and I felt great afterwards.

Saturday – Another long bike spin, 160km more in the legs. Session was kept interesting (not sure Thomas will agree with the choice of words), due to a double puncture for him after hitting a hole on the roadside, followed by valve extenders not been long enough and a closed bike shop after I doing my best effort 10km TT into it. Anyone can do a regular easy bike spin, right! Thankfully all was resolved in the end thanks to some passing cyclists, you do have to love the cycling community in your hour of need. The wind was very testing at times today, and that Trim to Batterstown road is very exposed so no hiding. These epic Kona winds do need preparing for I suppose.

Sunday – My longest training run in approx. a year and it felt great to get it done. The legs felt very heavy and labouring for the first 20km, but then they came to life. Very happy with today’s session.

griffin100

I’ve posted this before but I used to suffer badly with sinus issues after swimming in high chlorine pools (and still do occasionally when I use a different pool to my usual low chlorine one) and my tried and trusted technique was / is to fill a squeezy sports drinks bottle with clean water and after each swim squirt the water up each nostril until it’s running down the back of my throat - disgusting but it washes out the gunk - and then a squirt of flixonase into each nostril. Really makes a difference (for me anyway!).

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Week 6

A great start to the week, a rest day, first one in a few weeks.
When 7.30am is a big lie in, there is something wrong, or right depending on your view, with the schedule. I’ll go with right, but when a few different people tell you that you look wretched tired, then maybe it’s wrong. My sleep volume is not great, averaging 6 hours a night and not even great quality sleep at that. However, I am managing it and I can’t see anything changing in the near term. With the joys of managing training, work and family, early mornings are a necessity.

Tuesday – Sinuses cleared up and back in the pool today, but I have swapped the timings. When swimming on my own, early morning sessions are a real struggle, so I’ve moved my bike to the morning and swim to the evening.
Wattbike interval session of 3 mins on, a minute recovery, repeat 16 times. I love these sessions as you work hard and have sufficient recovery. It also translates well to on road performance.
Headed to the pool in the evening, not knowing how I’d feel during the swim session, but I was very pleasantly surprised and happy with the average times. When I swim on my own, I am more obsessed with how I feel than the times, but tonight both were good. For you fish out there, good is ‘relative’ and we were not designed for too long in the water ��

Wednesday – Wednesdays are a busy day, work starts at 6.30, then evenings are made up of soccer and GAA, so only true time for a run is lunchtime and that’s dependent on many factors – work, nutrition and motivation. Today was a decent day, did a tempo session at lunchtime and an easy run during GAA training, the split run session is the only way have of getting the required distance in. The runs themselves felt ok. Only issue tonight was a bloody thorn going through my runner and into the ball of my foot, that was damn sore, and blood stained my runner, not happy.

Thursday – This morning was fight club, some might call it OW swim practice but definitely fight club this morning. A kick in the jaw made me bite my tongue, which was fun talking and eating for the first half of the day. The culprit said it was an accident, but I don’t know. I’ll get revenge someday, if I can ever catch him. A decent swim none the less.
Late in work in the evening meant time was limited to get out on the bike, so I opted for an Altipeaks session on the bike instead. I suffered through this, while I thought I was ok on the bike in the heat, I proved to myself that pushing it in the heat will lead to a bad day. A good lesson learned.

Friday – Interval session on the treadmill in Altipeaks. Started too hard and faded towards the end, another lesson learned about pushing too hard.

Saturday – This was the first long bike ride in a while that I was heading out by myself. The alarm went off at 7, snooze was hit, went off again, told myself I was too tired, reset to 7.45, snooze hit again, off again, reset to 8.20, snooze hit, then I was nearly hit. Out of bed and on the bike for 9.10 as needed to be back by 1.30. So, my 5 hour bike was now down to just over 4 hours max. Then the wind was in my face, so the real self-pity came on, that lasted for an hour until I told myself to cop on and push on. I can’t say it was an enjoyable ride in the wind, but it was a productive one. Only gripe I have is the tail wind is never as strong as the headwind. Managed to get in 130km.
Legs were in a jock all evening after the spin, probably pushed too hard in the wind.
Sunday – Going to bed Saturday night, I was dreading the Sunday morning run as the legs were sore. Woke up feeling refreshed and legs felt good. Ran some of the DCM marathon course and around the Phoenix Park. 21 miles in total and really happy with how it went as the legs felt very strong.

NeedsTraining

Week 7

This was a bitter sweet week. Training sessions were all completed and in hindsight were completed to plan and to target. However, during most of the sessions I felt crap, felt I wasn’t delivering, felt like giving up. The motivation wasn’t there. I think what contributed to these thoughts was I started looking at some of the pro’s sessions on their Instagram stories, plus some of the top amateurs also and I think I may have got slightly overwhelmed at what they were doing and started doubting myself been on the same stage as them. That coupled with feeling exhausted all the time is not a good combination. I just need to refocus on doing what I can do and balancing training with everything else.

Monday – Recovery run in Altipeaks. Legs felt good, body felt rested. Left this session feeling very positive.

Tuesday – The beloved Wattbike. If there’s anybody with a few spare grand reading this, feel free to purchase a Wattbike for me, I’d be forever grateful �� I know I’ve said it lots, but I really enjoy these sessions, they are not easy but there is something about them that is very rewarding. Said I better get some bricks in the plan also, so did a short run off the bike.

Swam at Low Rock this evening with Thomas, who is fine tuning for the 70.3 World Championship (Go smash it pal. Update: He just did. Nice one). Weather on the way out to Malahide was miserable, wet and windy, but when we got there, it was like a micro climate, sun shining and calm sea. The water was glorious and made for a good swim, happy with how it went, even managed drafting practice. If I recollect correctly, that’s 3 good swims in a row. Breaking records here.

Wednesday – Another manic Wednesday. Got out at lunchtime to for 8 x 1km efforts. The wind was brutal, so didn’t enjoy this at all.

The Grant Thornton 5k race was on in the evening, and work had two teams entered. I lined up with the full intention of not racing this as I have done very little speedwork in the months gone by, plus I had done my main session at lunchtime. But, I’ll never change and once the start was signalled I hared off. Ran just behind David Gillick for the first 1.5km, then took the opportunity to overtake him, not everyday you get to pass an international athlete like that (even if he is retired and this is not his distance ��). Crossed the line in 18.33 which is my fastest 5k in years and was totally unexpected. I even felt there was a lot more in the tank. Not the best of sessions when training for long distance, but sometimes you need to deviate (just to keep the motivation going)

Thursday – Woke up this morning, feeling exhausted and first thought was to turn off the alarm, but I didn’t. Got up and headed to the pool, on the way all that I was thinking was ‘why the f&*$ am I doing this’. Got to the pool and two people told me I looked wrecked, so that’s never a good sign. Having said all that, this was a fourth good swim in a row, really felt good in the water this morning, felt the speed, the form, the positioning were all good.

The afternoon was another Wattbike session consisting of 40 x 45 secs with 15 secs recovery. Session was an absolute sweatfest. I don’t think the person on the bike next to mine was impressed with the water stream going under their bike.

Friday – Altipeak session this morning and I really felt the heat. Hoping it’s just a combination of tiredness and a relatively heavy week.

Saturday – Lucy’s birthday party today, so swapped the bike and run days. Headed out solo for this run as timings days etc weren’t matching up with anyone else. The first 2km of the run felt like running in quicksand, legs were heavy, breathing was heavy, everything felt heavy. I felt like pulling the plug with only 10 mins on the watch, but then copped on to myself. In the end, I really enjoyed the run, the legs opened up, they felt good and they got me around in my target time with relative ease in the end. The Phoenix Park was great this morning, hundreds out running, definitely a lot with DCM on the agenda.

Sunday – Felt sick this morning with tiredness, yesterday was a busy day but I was asleep early (not in bed but asleep on the couch). Today’s plan was a 5.5 hour bike with a short run off. The bike was completed with 166km on the clock, but the legs were too shattered (or maybe it was the head) to run, so I opted out. I say opted out, but I actually had justified it to myself for the last 2 hours of the bike, so it was definitely a case of mind over matter. I did walk around the zoo for a few hours, so that was a workout of sorts, even if I was refueling on ice cream.

NeedsTraining

Week 8

This was to be a front-loaded training week, as I had to sole parent for the weekend with Laura and Katie away exploring Harry Potter world. I know, this adulting lark can be tough.
The body was very tired after the previous weeks training and the legs felt very very heavy after the Sunday spin, so the ‘light’ training week was welcomed and required.
The parenting side of the weekend took an unexpected turn, when I had to go to Tipp for a family funeral. All too sudden and too young for uncle Michael. Really puts things into perspective and was a stark reminder to embrace everything we have. RIP Michael, a true gentleman.

Monday – Alarm went off at 05.45 as I was due to go to Altipeaks. I did get out of bed, but the legs were so sore and the body felt so fatigued that I turned on my heels, set the alarm for 7.15 and went back to sleep. I’d love to say that the extra hour and a bit helped but afraid not and the legs were sore all day long.

Tuesday – Wattbike session this morning. Initial plan was hard intervals, but the legs still weren’t cooperating and I didn’t see the point in unnecessarily pushing them so I compromised and agreed with myself to do a steady 90 min session on the bike. This felt much tougher than it should have, but I got through it. Did a 5km brick run and this felt good, so at least the run legs were working after all that.
Swim this evening of 4 x 1000m on 45 secs recovery between each. This session felt good and gave me the boost I needed following the feeling yesterday and this morning. For the first time in as long as I can remember I am enjoying my swimming. Now don’t confuse that with liking it ��

Wednesday – As the weekend was planned off, I moved this weeks ‘long’ run to today. It was never planned to be as long as previous weeks so I scheduled it around available time. I got out early after the first meeting of the day. It was miserable when I went out the door first, but then it turned into a beautiful morning. Running along the canal and through the phoenix park with the sun shining is a good start to any day.

Thursday – Club swim session and another good day in the pool. Definitely on a roll here. It really helps swimming with the group and getting pushed that little bit harder.
Afternoon was an interval run session of 10 x 800m with 200m recovery. This was a good, honest but tough session. The legs were like jelly afterwards. After 4 of the 800’s, I really didn’t think I would be able to get all 10 complete, but thankfully the legs won the battle with the mind. After 8 I was on the verge of pulling the plug, but there was a GAA training session on in the park and on my 8th interval I heard one of the parents say ‘look at the speed of your man’, now admit it who wouldn’t get a boost from that. It spurred me on for the last 2. Looking back now though I hope they weren’t referring to me been too slow ��

Friday – Bike session this morning in place of the long weekend cycle. Did a few laps of the park and like Wednesday morning, the sun was shining so a great start to the day. Pity the legs weren’t cooperating though. A bit of a blah session but got it done.

The biggest struggle, aside from the heavy legs this week, has been nutrition. Mid-week, I couldn’t get enough food into me and was constantly hungry. At the weekend, when I was out of routine, I didn’t take on the right foods (or fuel as I more commonly refer to it these days, as I just eat for the sake of sustaining energy, rather than enjoying food.) Weight is dropping rapidly, probably too much this week, which may account for the heavy/lethargic feeling also. Hydration is on key though.

BTH

How can you enjoy something you dont like?? I'm not buying it J.

And happy birthday

NeedsTraining

BTH wrote: »

How can you enjoy something you dont like?? I'm not buying it J.

And happy birthday

Cheers lad, another step closer to a new AG

I'll take the enjoying it, build myself up to the liking it. I can't see it been easy

EC1000

NeedsTraining wrote: »

Week 8

Weight is dropping rapidly, probably too much this week, which may account for the heavy/lethargic feeling also.

Do you mind sharing what you started at and where you are now weightwise? Just curious given the volumes you are doing at the moment.

BTH

EC1000 wrote: »

Do you mind sharing what you started at and where you are now weightwise? Just curious given the volumes you are doing at the moment.

START start, or start of this cycle start??

NeedsTraining

EC1000 wrote: »

Do you mind sharing what you started at and where you are now weightwise? Just curious given the volumes you are doing at the moment.

I'll not go back to the START start as suggested by BTH. Nobody wants that image in their head.

At the start of this year I was hitting the scales at 80kg, but that was after Christmas binge eating and drinking. In the training block to Cork IM, I found it hard enough to shed the weight, but still hit the start line at ~75kg, not where I wanted to be but not far off either.

At the start of this block I was just over 78kg, but on Friday last I hit 72.4kg on the scales. The lightest I have been since I was a teen I reckon.
Thankfully I feel the power is still there so no compromises. Target now is to lose no more.

NeedsTraining

Week 9

I found this week tough going, I just seemed to be on auto-pilot for the week, constant repeat of sleep, alarm, train, eat, work, eat, train, eat, lunches (yes the dreaded school lunch making), rest, sleep, multiply that by 7 and that’s the best summary of the week I can give.
There were times this week when I thought ‘why am I doing this’, ‘why did I accept the slot’, ‘what am I thinking’ etc etc etc.

Thankfully, there were other times when I was thinking ‘this is such a great honour to be going to Kona’. Either way, it didn’t make the load on the body any easier.

While I found the week tough going, the body did react well and I was relatively happy with all the sessions. I didn’t nail hydration this week, there wasn’t a huge variance than previous weeks, but for the first time in a long time, I cramped while swimming and biking. What it did teach me was the fine margins the body reaches as it peaks. A warning sign to mind it for the next few weeks.

Monday – The legs felt great this morning after no training the last two weeks. Did 7km on the threadmill in Altipeaks. HR was controlled, pace was controlled, even the mind was ��

Tuesday – Wattbike session of 3 times 20 minutes. Still no offers from anyone to buy me a Wattbike, but I’ll keep that channel open �� Brick run off the bike and both bike legs and run legs felt good today.

Evening swim, plan tonight was 10 times 500m on 45 sec recovery. This was my longest swim set in years, looking back I think the last 5k set I did was 2014 when I was just a young lad. The first 2000m went well, then the ever-reliable lane management logistics at the pool didn’t fail to disappoint with their inept approach to changing everything around. So, a quick change of lanes and off I went again, swimming itself was going well, but muppets practising their goggle retrieval dives on each turn coupled with the dude pretending he was on a lilo kinda disrupted rhythm for a while, until I decided to just swim over them and through them. I know, not very mannerly, but there were plenty of other lanes for them to mess around in if they wanted. Why did I share that, cause I blame them for cramping badly after 4500 (karma you may say). When swimming through and over them, I kicked like hell, so overdid the leg work, coupled with the earlier mentioned hydration issue I cramped badly, thankfully only about 5m from the pool wall. Finished the set using the pull buoy.
I had a massage booked for straight after the swim, so that relieved some of the cramping.

Wednesday – Tempo run, probably went out too hard at the start and slowed towards the end as a result. Nothing too much else to report from the session

Thursday – Morning swim session, 10 x 400m. I was very tired getting into the pool this morning and the arms were tired after Tuesday set, but I got it done and was happy with the progress.

Thursday PM was an interval session on the Wattbike of 30 times 2 mins with 45 sec recovery. The best description of this set is ‘Wow, Ouch, Yes’. On paper it looks an easy set, but if you work properly at this, it is a tough tough session. In a perverse way, a thoroughly enjoyable one. Go on, I know you want to try this.

Friday – I was very tired this morning and the legs did not cooperate at all during the Altipeak run session. I didn’t feel comfortable, legs were heavy, eyes just wanted to close.
Maybe it was because I turned another year older today. Or as Katie happily informed me ‘Dad, today is your double 21st’. Enough said with a comment like that.

Saturday – Long bike day today and while the tail wind on the road to Kinnegad was great, I got the sh*t beat out of me on the return leg and also from Trim home. A brutal headwind, which was amongst the worst I’ve experienced. I was near crying out for another cyclist to come alongside and offer to share a draft. Alas, nobody came to my rescue. But I did take solace in passing Avoca, as I promised myself a nice big cake from there later in the day, just had to get home firstly. The cake was delicious and felt deserved that evening

The best part of today's spin was the start of the day and the footage shot by Ross of @conversations.coffee.podcast . (Can be viewed on the blog at https://kona-theunexpectedjourney.blogspot.com/)


Sunday – Damn time difference with Japan and the early rugby kick off meant I had to be on the road nice and early to be home for kick off. However, one snooze too many meant I’d miss the first 20 mins. It was a miserable morning and lashed rain for all but the last 20 mins of the run, but good to get it done early and thankfully had company so the time passed quickly. Another 20 miler in the bag and the legs felt good and strong at the finish. The weather was a far cry from that expected in Kona.

Kevhog1988

Very interesting read. How many hrs are you training per week?.

NeedsTraining

theemigrant wrote: »

Very interesting read. How many hrs are you training per week?.

Average 13-15 hours per week.
In the last block I did a couple of 20 hour weeks. However, with a busy job and 3 kids, 15 is the max I can currently do.
It's good though as I think the sessions are all quality sessions

NeedsTraining

Week 10

Tiredness hit a whole new level this week and as a result, the doubt crept back in and I questioned if I was up to this at all. Even so, in my maturing years I listened to the body and eased off a lot on the training. I deemed at this stage that I was not going to increase the fitness a whole lot, but I sure could destroy all the good work done to date by pushing too far and getting sick. There were no planned rest days this week, but I ended up taking two.

Monday – Alarm went off, then was turned off and I rolled over and went back to sleep. Just could not face a session this morning as I felt physically sick with tiredness

Tuesday – Felt just as tired this morning, but couldn’t take two days off in a row, so out I hopped from bed. I didn’t even wait for the snooze to go as I knew this would be another option to opt out. I’m glad I did get up as I had a good solid session on the Wattbike of 6 x 10 minute sessions with 2 mins recovery between each. I jumped on the threadmill after the bike with a plan for 5kn, but the left calf didn’t feel quite right so I jumped off after 1km.

Swim plan was 4km this evening, but I only managed 3.2km. A combination of getting to the pool later than planned, been starving and just feeling tired in the water. The tiredness was brought on more by going out too hard in the first 1km of the swim and never really recovering.

Wednesday – Legs felt ok for the run, not great but ok. However, the motivation was low, in fact the lowest it has been for a while. The session was 4 x 2km intervals. Despite the legs only been ok and the motivation been low, the session was a successful one (in numbers terms anyway). This was only an afterwards realisation, as during the session itself I wasn’t looking at the watch and was running on feel. I did this as I thought if the numbers were not good, the motivation would be floored. Maybe I should have looked at the watch. Got bloody soaked again, should be getting used to this rain by now.

Thursday – Club swim session this morning and was probably my best swim set to date. Session was 6 x 400, then 6 x 300. The times I hit were the best I have ever hit, so massive thanks to the lads in the lane for dragging me along, as I definitely wouldn’t hit these numbers by myself. At times I felt I was just about hanging on for dear life, but I got the session done. I feel that the changes that the swim coach has enforced on me, some subtle but mostly brutally honest feedback on how crap my stroke was, is finally paying dividends. Thanks PK.

Thursday turbo was the beloved 40 times 45 sec session with 15 second recovery. This is a brutally tough but yet thoroughly enjoyable session.

Friday – Only a few weeks out from Kona and I got a massive kick in confidence with managing the heat this morning. It was like the heat in the room engulfed me, chewed me up and spat me out with no mercy. Really suffered on this session and I just couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. Uh oh, hope this was a once off. Jumped on the bike for the final 10 mins but that wasn’t any better.

Saturday – After a terrible nights sleep, I was up and out the door at 7 to try and get back for some of the rugby. The run from start to end was labour some and I didn’t enjoy it at all, even though the pace was relatively ok. Not much more to be said about it.

Sunday – Woke up this morning feeling like I was hit by a train, so I skipped the long bike ride. I said I’d hop on the turbo later in the morning but that never materialised either. A few months ago I would probably have suffered through and pushed on this session, but as mentioned earlier I have nothing to gain from putting the body under duress at this stage.

It was the best decision I made, especially as I got to see Katie debut for CFC U10 girls, with a resounding victory.

NeedsTraining

Week 11

Monday – Following the disaster of a session on Friday in Altipeaks and feeling like I’d been hit by a train yesterday, I got out of bed and headed to J6 this morning slightly concerned about how the body was and how it would react to the heat. Talk about a polar opposite of Friday, today I felt great, managed the longest run in a single session in Altipeaks and averaged the best pace of all the runs in their to date. Left the session this morning, near floating. A big confidence boost in what was the last session in their before I depart for the big island.

Tuesday – In a break from the norm, I swam this morning with a few lads from the club, confident in knowing they’d drag me along. Again, they didn’t fail to deliver. The next time I swim after today with be in Kona, so it’s great that the confidence is boosted in the swim in the last few weeks. Definitely the best decision I made from a swim perspective this year was to join the AMS swim group. It has delivered hugely for me. There is no way I would have done half the amount of swimming on my own. No matter how the swim goes in Kona, I know I put the work in, I just hope the rewards will be reaped.

Wednesday – Flight to New York. Straight from the plane to the hotel to the office, no hanging about. It wasn’t a bad afternoon looking out across Brooklyn bridge. However, in good Irish fashion, I seemed to bring the weather with me. It was 31 degs when I got off the plane and I was melting lugging the bike box and suitcase through the whole 500m from the subway to the hotel once I got into Manhattan. Then when I was leaving the office that evening, it was 15 degs and lashing rain. That put a stop to any sightseeing for a while.

Thursday – Set the alarm clock early so I could get a run in before work. It was lashing rain still, but it was a great morning running over Brooklyn bridge, back again and then around downtown Manhattan. There is something just magical about New York, but also something still very eerie when you are passing the North and South Pools where the WTC once stood. Alas, no better way to see the sights of the city than with a morning run.

Friday – The long haul to Kona, an 11 hour flight to Honolulu, a 2.5 hour layover and then a 45 min flight to the big Island. The flight passed very eventless, which is good. Managed to sleep a few hours, which always helps. Arrived into the apartment at 8pm after a total of 20 hours travelling from door to door.

Saturday – I slept well enough last night, but was awake early and couldn’t get back to sleep. So got up at 6, had breakfast, took a stroll to see the ocean and then decided I’d go for a run. Ali’i drive was just buzzing with dozens and dozens of people out running and cycling, then the PATH 5/10k race was on and that drew out hundreds more. It was hot hot, 27 deg at 7am when I hit the road. Thankfully the humidity was ok. The place here is magical, the atmosphere is great, the scenery is fantastic, the sound of the ocean is majestic. The excitement is now real.

I put my bike back together after the run. All went back together ok with little hassle, until I went to inflate the tyres. I had CO2 canisters to pump up the tyres but this here gobsite had the wrong nozzle top in the bag so the canisters wouldn’t fit. So, into the car I got and headed into a bike shop in town to borrow a track pump. Rather I found out now than for some disaster mid race.

In the afternoon, I headed out on the Queen K for a 3 hour spin. It was everything that I had read about and heard about with some more on top. It was hot, it was windy, the scenery was stunning, it genuinely had it all. Riding through lava fields with the ocean on your doorstep, surrounded everywhere you look by stunning views, the famous wind could nearly be forgotten about. That is until it whips up and reminds you who is boss around these parts. The return leg was definitely a lot tougher on the legs. I also didn’t have enough fluids on board, so that stung too. A thoroughly enjoyable spin. Hit the hay at 8.30, exhausted.

Sunday – Alarm went off at 5.20 after a relatively decent nights sleep. There was one period during the night spent catching up on progress of the Ironman Barcelona crew, but that was a necessity, maybe even more important than sleep.

Down to Kailua Bay then for the Ho’ala training swim, a 3.8k swim on mainly the race route. After registration, I was getting ready and realised I was in great company where I set myself up, Mirinda Carfrae, Tim O’Donnell and Tim Don were right next to me. It’s ok though, I didn’t let them affect my focus on the race ��.

Into the water and the gun went. The race start was surprisingly calm with not too many bodies around. That was until about 400m in and there was just hoards of people. No idea what caused that traffic jam. I was very happy with how I swam, but unfortunately, I swim in OW like I play golf, side to side. So instead of a 3.8km swim, I did a grand total of 4131m, nearly 10% more than I needed to. Sighting was obviously a problem for me. It was difficult on the way out with the sun in your eyes, but I found it nigh on impossible on the way back in. Need to correct that before next Saturday.

Met up with some of the Irish crew after the swim and went for breakfast, where most of the others already were. It was good to catch up and as most of the crew were in Kona previously, the snippets of information were great to get.

After a good nights sleep last night, I was surprisingly sleepy when I got back from the swim and breakfast, so I had an hour power nap.

In the afternoon, I drove out to the Natural Energy Lab, where the war of attrition will kick in on race day (if not already kicked in). It’s a weird type of place to describe, lots of industrial type units housing anything from cold lobsters to shrimp improvement systems (whatever that hell they are), with the ocean crashing against the shore line, and people picnicking and swimming. Not the general combination you’d get, but yet the place is insanely special. Maybe it’s because of the battles I have witnessed on this part of the course from following this race over the years, but it is a place I have wanted to see with my own eyes for years and it did not disappoint today. Now, I didn’t just go out to see it, I did go to run also. The heat was intense, 32 feels like 35, was the iPhone reading. It didn’t feel that hot for the first few kms and I was cruising along. Then I turned, the return leg was up a gradual climb, but I would have the wind at my back, so I thought it would be fine. But no, with no head wind, the heat felt 100x worse, there was no reprieve from it, there was no shelter, it was complete exposure. Oh, I really hope on race day I don’t have any tail wind, give me a head wind all day long. One of the lads that was out here previously told me that a headwind would be my friend and he was 110% correct.

Kevhog1988

Best of luck this weekend!!

ironmonkey

Best of luck - fantastic blog!

pgibbo

All the best this weekend. Race well & enjoy.

P

all the bais

Good luck! Will be tuning in

tunney

So?

NeedsTraining

The journey and the race were epic, really enjoyed it all.

The result was not what I wanted, but the heat destroyed me.

Long flight home tomorrow so will write a race report.

NeedsTraining

Race Report

Bike Check In
As usual for Ironman events, the bike check-in is done on the day prior to the race start. This bike check-in was very different though. Officials checked your wristband and helmet then under the Ironman banner you pass. On the right was a row of tables from a number of bike and bike parts brands, ENVE, Ventum, Cervelo, Shimano plus others each giving a free gift to athletes using their products. Unfortunately, I wasn’t using any of their kits, so no freebies secured by me. Then onto the next checkpoint, where officials again check over your bike before putting a Kona sticker on the frame, they even asked where I would like it placed. All along the walk in route, outside of the area, there were dozens of people with clipboards, each one recording the specific numbers of bike types, wheel selections and components used. It was nearly like you were been assessed and judged all in one. Next it was onto a mat for a photo of me and my bike, then they had the cheek to ask me to step aside as they wanted one of the bike by itself. I wondered were in love with my beauty as much as me, but no, it was just a security measure. Finally, it was into another line (they don’t do queues) and to wait for a chaperone to take you into transition. I was met by a lovely lady, who insisted on carrying my transition bags, before welcoming me to Kona and to the famous pier and also congratulating me on making it to the Worlds. She then walked me through transition, explained the flow of traffic on the day, she even made sure I had my markers for spotting my bike on exit for T1. As if things weren’t going well enough, she pointed out a pod of dolphins that were in the bay. I then racked my bags, I had to do this part myself, had a look around the transition area, soaked it all up and existed the area. Without a doubt, the best transition experience I’ve ever had. It’s going to be tough on the local race scene next year, been roared at by some fella in the midlands that you have 2 mins to leave transition.

Race Day
The alarm was set for 4am, but I woke at 3 and couldn’t get back asleep. I didn’t mind though as I had 6 hours sleep at that stage, relatively unbroken. As race days go, it was one of my better sleeps. In a break from the norm I didn’t have my usual porridge for breakfast, instead I had a bagel and eggs. The reason for this is the few mornings previously, the porridge didn’t agree with me for whatever reason, whether it was the milk I had or what I don’t know, but I wasn’t taking the chance today. Eggs are a mainstay in my diet anyway, so I wasn’t fearful of any side effects from those. Also had 750ml of water and Precision Hydration salts to ensure hydration was on point. We were staying just over 2km from the pier, so we hopped on the shuttle bus into town. Into transition, arms wiped down to ensure the body marking would be ok. Then onto the body marking, which was a waste of time as mine started peeling off straight away, then on to the weigh in station, up on the scales I stood, 164lbs, which is 74kg in real measurements. I’ll take that for race weight, as I had 2kg+ of clothing on. Although I don’t think they were there to give athletes an ego on achieving race weight. Somebody told me that they record your weight in the event you collapse on the side of the road so that they know how much fluid you’ve lost since the start. Oh, how nice. Then into transition proper, oh sorry only after getting lathered in sun screen, reef friendly sunscreen at that. Transition was a buzz, I was a bit awe struck at first when I stopped at the pro racks. Matt Russell, Heather Jackson, Tim O’Donnell, Jocelyn McAuley all setting up and all looking super relaxed. I could have stayed there for hours just looking, but said I best get on with my own set up. Got to the bike, drinks and food onto the bike, tyres pumped, soaked up the atmosphere again and existed out of transition to meet Laura once again. This was the first year that the swim start was by age group, so we all had to get into our pens nice and early. I left Laura and headed into my pen for 6.10, 50 mins before my race start, but I saw no point hanging around outside, plus the pros were starting at 6.25 so wanted to see that. No sooner was I in the pen that I realised I never put Vaseline on my chest where the trisuit zip rubs against. Thankfully the ever-reliable Laura was just across the way and hounded passerbys until she found someone who had Vaseline. Sorted.
There was an eerie nervousness in general in the swim start area, I was a ball of emotion, I could barely talk or look anyone in the eye, I felt like getting sick, I started to worry, not quite panic, about the swim but I don’t know what the worry was about as I had been in the water loads in the lead up to the race. I think the thoughts of the non-wetsuit started to play on my mind. At the same time I just wanted this to start. The Star Spangled Banner was played, a few words and a prayer from an indigenous Hawaiian, which made the hairs on the back of my next stand up , the canon went and the pro men were off. Where we were in the swim start area we couldn’t see the actual start, but we were able to watch it on a big screen, then it was the pro women off, followed by the para athletes, these individuals deserve the utmost respect for really showing there are no barriers in sport. Next up it was the 18-39 age group, before us auld lads were moved along and into the water. In the lead up to this race, many people told me to enjoy the moments and soak up the swim start. I swam out to the swim start line which was probably 200m out and then I took a good 360 look around. Wow wow wow, the bay wall was crowded with people, multiple helicopters overheard, paddle boards, surf boards everywhere you looked, it was a phenomenal view and one that will live with me for a long time. Thankfully I took the time to savour that, as generally it’s just a case of getting in and going.

Swim
Finally, the conch horn sounded and the race was on. The first 300m was a battle, bodies, feet, fists and elbows everywhere. Thankfully, I’ve swam many a fight club session with AMS on a Thursday morning, so I was relatively used to this. It was like having 300 Colm’s in the water together. I had my goggles embedded so far into my eyes that I initially thought I’d need them surgically removed in T1. That didn’t last too long, as a kick that Martin would be proud off lifted the goggles off my eyes completely. I did manage to get them back on with relative ease, but the rest of the swim was done with the right eye mainly closed as a result of the salt water getting in deep. I found good feet and drafted ok for the firt half of the swim and I felt good and strong in the water, sighting was decent enough too on that first half. When I caught a glimpse of the boat for the turnaround point, I was thinking this is not at all bad, but then it took what felt like forever to actually reach the boat. When I eventually did, I had a quick look at the watch, 35 mins on the button, and I thought to myself, not too shabby at all, I could be in with a chance of a 1.10 swim here. That’s when the forces of nature remind you who is boss around here, the swim on the way back in was choppy and while I felt I was working harder, I also knew I wasn’t making as good progress. This wasn’t helped by been swam over by the next wave of swimmers, those guys are fish, in fact I even had a quick check to ensure some of them weren’t wearing flippers. The rest of the swim was relatively eventless until the last 200m, when I came across some dude doing about 10 front crawl strokes, followed by a few breast strokes, nothing wrong with that and each to their own, but I bumped off him while passing him and the asshole decided that this was his space and caught my two legs and pulled me back. A swift sharp kick, rolled onto my back, told him he was a Richard ceann and off I went. Oh, I did flip the bird too for good measure. The joys of crystal clear water meant he must have seen that also. Out of the water in bang on 1:15:00. Not the time I was hoping for, but considering the conditions on the return leg, I was ok with it. First thought on the way into transition was ‘what will PK say’. Actually no, the first thought was I hope I get the salt cleared out of this right eye, then the thoughts turned to PK. Into T1, I drank plenty of water to try get the taste of salt out of the mouth, that Pacific sure is salty, nearly as salty as a good rural spud dinner.
To show that the walk through transition on the previous day was not a once off from a service perspective, I had a guy help with getting the shoes out of the bag, providing a towel to dry my feet, help putting the arm coolers on and putting my tailwind sachets in my rear packet. He even packed all the swim gear into the bag. I could really get used to this.

Bike
Out to the bike, despite the big pole marking where my bike was racked, I had a brain fart and I managed to run past it, quick turn on the heels, grabbed the bike and out onto the road. There were a lot of bikes exiting at the same time and it was quite crowded for the first 10km or so. I was afraid of my life of getting a drafting penalty so I kept out of harms way as much as possible. I passed Laura, gave a wave, down to the turnaround point, passed back, another wave and I could nearly see the smile that said ‘sucker, you are going out on your bike in this heat and I’m just going to lay by the pool’. Up Palani Road and onto the Queen K was as awesome (yeah I picked up the local slang) as everyone had described to me. I can see how you’d be tempted to burn all your matches pumping up Palani with the roars and the cheers that greeted you from the crowd, but I kept all under control. It was warm on the bike and in the first 30km I had gone through two bottles of fuel, one tailwind mix that I had in my aero bottle, and one that I had in my spare bottle. I had grabbed a bottle of Gatorade on the first aid stop also, to ensure that I always had fuel on board. I was wearing arm coolers to cover as much skin as possible to avoid sunburn, so at every aid station the routine was, grab water and pour it over the arms and legs as fast as possible, grab a bottle of Gatorade and put it into the holder, grab another bottle of water and spray it over the head, slug back the rest and discard before the end of the litter zone, military precision most of the time. There was one stop where I thought I was going to be cleaned out of it by a fellow cyclist, but I swerved right, roared at a volunteer to step back, apologised to him and managed to dink around the cyclists. If I had gone left, I would have taken others with me. The joys of a busy route. The crowds on the Queen K and the infamous draft fests that I have seen on TV watching this event for the last number of years didn’t appear as bad this year as a result of the wave swim start. However, you still got the odd group working together with about a 12mm, as opposed to 12m, gap between bikes. The referees were out in force though and I saw a number of penalties been handed out. I work to HR on the bike and after the first 30km or so, my HR elevated and wouldn’t come back down, I eased off on pace to see if that helped but it didn’t. To put it into perspective, I got my VO2 Max tested last February and my HR zones are as follows – Endurance 122-136, Tempo 136-155, Intervals 155-161. On this cycle, I spent 4.5 hours in the Tempo zone and I even maxed out at 160bpm for 11 mins. I’ve never seen HR readings like that on an endurance spin either racing or training previously. There were times during training when I struggled to get my HR above 140 on the Wattbike, but I averaged 146bpm for this cycle. The wind didn’t help either and it was as unpredictable and strong as I could have imagined. Prior to taking the turn off for the 20km climb to the turnaround at Hawi, the cross winds were crazy. After that turn, the cross became a tail wind and this was a reprieve, at one stage clocking 74km on a slight descent, Shane D would have been in his element. The climb to Hawi, while long, was a great cycle, probably best enjoyed out of a race scenario though. To the turnaround, into a head wind and it would remain windy, as either a head or cross wind, for the remaining 80km. It never let up and some of the gusts from the cross wind were hairy, at one stage I was regretting having 90mm rims on the rear, that combined with reaching target race weight meant there wasn’t much meat on the bones to keep that bike on the road. There were two notable occasions where I thought I was gone, the bike was practically at 45 deg but thankfully I stayed upright. There were a number of crashes out on the course, and it was a sobering sight to see one poor guy on a spinal board, surrounded by paramedics, on the side of the road. Fingers crossed that guy is ok. Nutrition on the bike went fairly much to plan, I had snickers in my bento box, which were frozen from the night before but weren’t long turning into squidgy chocolate melts, still food and still did the job though. The only issue with the nutrition was when I put my hand back at one stage to get my bottle of concentrated tailwind from the rear holder, only to discover it wasn’t there. No need to panic though as I had a few sachets of tailwind as a backup, fail to prepare and all that lark. In total, I drank 12 or 13 bottles on the course, this wasn’t including the water that was taken while passing through the aid stations, so the guts of 10 litres of liquid over the course of the 5.5 hours. Yet I still felt dehydrated and I knew I was in a tad of bother when I didn’t pee once on the bike. That’s just not right. The last 30km of the cycle was a slog, I felt all energy gone from the legs and it was a real sufferfest on the way home. It seemed lots around me were suffering the same faith, but that offered no solace for me. In off the bike in 5hrs 29mins and some change. My A goal for the bike was a 5.15, but considering the wind I was happy(ish) with the 5.29.
Off the bike and into T2, volunteers took the bike so no racking required, I could really get used to this. The run through transition was torture and the fear I had coming in those last 30kms was realised when the legs felt like jelly and had zilch zero nada energy in them. Again the service was exceptional. I was asked if I wanted an ice cold towel on my back, which I greatly accepted, then he offered me one for my head, again greatly accepted. On with the runners, the visor, the race belt and off I popped to a portaloo. I stood there for what felt like forever, pleading with my bladder to force something out to prove that things were still functioning. Eventually, a trickle came, it wasn’t of any significant volume, but at least I knew the system was working. The colour was like a glow stick, which proved I was dehydrated. Sorry if that’s too much information. Anyway, stopped at a table on the exist of T2 and drank a few cups of water, a cup of Gatorade and two cups of coke. In hindsight, I probably went through T2 too fast considering the elevated HR and the jelly like legs. Another couple of minutes might just have helped settle things down.

Run
Out onto the run, initial thoughts were that the legs weren’t actually too bad. That didn’t last long and I walked up the hill, on a normal day I’d call it a bump, then started running again once I reached a downhill section. The first km passed ok but once I got onto Ali’i drive, the legs were shot, there was nothing in them, I stopped at an aid station and poured ice down front and back, sponges everywhere sponges would go, water and coke down the hatch and I tried to run again, but it wasn’t to be. At that stage I knew it was going to be an extra long day, but I fought hard with myself to get running again. It was a very slow jog and it was in stops and starts, lots of stops and starts. Again, I walked up the hill to where we were staying, said hello to Laura, told her I was suffering (I don’t think I needed to say anything as the look on the face and the shuffle of the legs said it all). At that stage, my HR was still high and I was very tempted to take the approach of ‘if I throw the monitor off here, maybe I won’t notice it is so high’, I didn’t though. Out to the turnaround point and I passed by Laura again, running this time as it was downhill. All sorts of things were running through my head at this stage ‘how long will it take to walk a marathon’, ‘do I have reflective strips on my shoes or suit for after dark’, ‘ will the legs hold out’, ‘jaysus, I still haven’t gone to the loo’, ‘is it bad to drop out’. Basically, you name it and I was thinking it.
Not long after those thoughts, my mood changed drastically and I actually turned everything around, it was like I made peace with myself and I totally accepted I was going to be out there a long time and it didn’t bother me. I was on a course that many have dreamed about been on, I was there with the best of the best, more importantly I was there with the help, love and support of so many people. This was for them as much as it was for me. So what if I didn’t achieve my target time, let’s just get around this and savour the moment. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was still a sufferfest for the rest of the way around but at least it was a sufferfest I was mentally prepared for now and I wasn’t under any pressure. Back to the race (or from hereon in the event, as I sure wasn’t racing it). Up Palani Road again and the support here was phenomenal. I decided to walk up this hill as there was no way the legs were going to run up it. Half way up, another Irish participant, John, came along and once we got to the top, we ran together for a couple of km, before I started burning up again and told John to go on. Out the Queen K and I stopped at every aid station to restock on ice, sponges, cold water, coke and Gatorade. Still no pee. On the last aid station before heading into the Energy lab, I stopped and instead of putting ice down my tri top, I dived head first into the ice barrel down to my elbows. Some poor volunteer at the aid station thought I was after falling and ‘helped me’ out of the barrel, before I relaunched into it. I needed to get cool somehow I told him.
Considering how I felt to this point, I was dreading the Energy lab, but as I approached it, the sun went hiding behind the cloud and you could feel the temperature drop. As a result, it was nowhere near as warm as it is capable of reaching, oh how I loved this. The multiple tricolours flying around this section was very inspiring too, plus the Waterford flag for Emmet from the kids. I wouldn’t normally embrace the Waterford flag, but it was a great sight today. The one drawback from this section though was they had no ice or cold sponges at the aid station as I passed them. I did have a special needs bag though, with a banana in it, so that tasted great. One huge relief was I even managed to pee in the energy lab, so a win win for me in here. Out of the Energy lab and back onto the Queen K for the last stretch home. The approach I adopted here was run the downhills, push the uphills as much as possible, continue to take on as much ice and fluids as possible and come home happy. Taking on the ice on this section led to one of best memories of the run. At one aid station, I overdid it on the ice and not long after the station all the ice gathered just above the knee in the tri suit, one by one the cubes started to fall out. Just as I passed a few spectators, a lot of ice fell out and one of them shouted ‘look at this guy, he’s so cool he is sh1tting ice cubes’, it gave me a good laugh. This was the only section of the run that went to plan, not Plan A mind you, nor Plan B actually. Come to think of it, it only went to the plan that was formulated on the return to the Queen K. Nevertheless, it went. The final 2km was mostly downhill, so it was a relatively easy run in. Turning onto Ali’i drive towards the finish line was amazing, the wall of noise was immense, I high fived the whole way down, again I soaked up the atmosphere, I turned the hat around, I zipped up the tri top, I wiped away the tears (yes there were some), I made sure I was photo ready, because I was going to savour this moment, I was going to ensure that the photo memory was more reflective of the journey to here and not the race itself.
I loved crossing that line, it was the culmination of years of efforts. It was one of my proudest moments.
The time on the clock was 11.02, a long way off my A target (which was 10.08) and a good bit off my ‘happy with’ target of 10.37. However, I’m not going to consume myself in times or post mortems from this race. I know I put in the effort in training and preparation. The heat and the wind combined to test my every resolve, but they won out. It was the same conditions for everyone and while some succeeded, some of us suffered. Considering how I felt 8km into the run, I am happy with an 11.02. At one stage during the day, I had braced myself for a 12.30.

A quick synopsis
Ironman may not do everything well, but the treatment and care of athletes throughout the course of this week was exceptional. It is the closest I’ll ever come to been treated like a pro. The locals of Kona and all the volunteers come out in force to support this event.
It was an honour and a privilege to be part of the Ironman 2019 World Championship and the entire journey in getting to Kona and across the finish line. My experience from the moment I landed in Kona was amazing, it was fantastic and it was all that it was built up to be. The weeks event from the Hoal’a training swim, the Parade of Nations to the Underpants Run were thoroughly enjoyed. Walking behind the Tricolour with the other Team Ireland athletes and supporters was a very very proud moment.
It was a pleasure sharing the journey with friends and family. While I have thanked those who have supported me along the way, again I want you to know that I will be forever grateful and this wouldn’t have been possible without you.
In Cork, back in June, before I accepted a slot, Laura said ‘This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you may never get this chance again, so take it. But it is a once off opportunity and you won’t be going again’
In Kona, in October, I was asked multiple times about the event and would I return. I was adamant that this was a once off event for me, that the box was ticked. I had suffered too much in the heat and wind.
Now, five days later, somewhere in the skies over mainland USA as I write this report, all I’ll say is ‘I want to return’. There, I said it. Will I ever qualify again? I don’t know. Will I go out of my way to qualify? No. Will I take the opportunity in the future if it is presented to me? I’d like to think so. It will be a few years at least anyway, so don’t panic Laura.
For now, it’s home to family and to family time. The planning for next year will commence soon ��.
Alas, the unexpected journey comes to an end, but what a journey it has been.

Mahalo Hawai’i.

BTH

Well done Jason. Great performance in those conditions and a fantastic read.

Bambaata

Well done, great read, sounds epic!

carbonceiling

what a fantastic read, I really enjoyed that.

griffin100

Fantastic read, well done.

Now I want to race somewhere where I need to wear arm coolers!!

BTH

griffin100 wrote: »

Fantastic read, well done.

Now I want to race somewhere where I need to wear arm coolers!!

Is this just arm warmers turned inside-out??

BennyMul

congrats, a great read.
time to get the bike out of storage

Shell to Run

Thank you for an epic read.
Many congrats on your race, sounds like you learned loads which will come in very handy for next time!!

tunney

Great report, thanks for sharing.

Boardcore

Good man Jason, great report.
You forgot about the Mai Tai's at the after party.:)

Marty Bird

Congratulations great race and report well done.

peter kern

well written, but be honest you would get tired of it if you did not have this midland guy shouting ....going to Disney land is only bearable so often.




out if interest why would you want to go back ?for participating or racing for top 20 place or get your best there ?

NeedsTraining

peter kern wrote: »

well written, but be honest you would get tired of it if you did not have this midland guy shouting ....going to Disney land is only bearable so often.




out if interest why would you want to go back ?for participating or racing for top 20 place or get your best there ?

You are right, you'd definitely miss the local races and characters.

Why would I like to go back?
In the days after the race, I was adamant I would never return as the heat and wind broke me. However, as the days passed and it was time to leave the island, those feelings changed and I had a strong urge to return.
The whole experience was phenomenal, that's one key reason.
Can I compete into a top 20 position? Genuinely, no I can't. But to me it is all about getting the best out of myself and I think I can hit much better times out there. The heat and the wind may still be there but I'm in the wind most weekends here anyway (maybe just need to man up and not look for that turnoff to avail of a tailwind). The heat is the only real killer.

Boardcore said to me the night after the race that my urge to return would change and I told him he was mad. How right he was.

Realistically though, if I was lucky enough to qualify again, it would be years down the line.

NeedsTraining

Boardcore wrote: »

Good man Jason, great report.
You forgot about the Mai Tai's at the after party.:)

I'm trying to forget them, they remind me too much of been brushed aside by Jan