Tri related splish splash notes

20/05/10 LC

1000 f/s warm up
3 * 200 f/s pull with paddles on 3
100 easy
6 * 50's f/s on 60
200 swim down

2300

50's were the main set - focused on keeping stroke long whilst picking up the pace during the 50.

21/05/10 - Valentia - mainland/island/mainland recon - 1500 OW
22/05/10 - Valentia - mainland/island 750 OW - 9.41

I reckon a record number of entrants for this race got a treat on Saturday with clear blue skies, great organisation and the usual local support. A far cry from the driving rain, hail and muddy transition of 12 months ago.

Anyone reading this loose ramblings will know my background is swimming. Long distance stuff to be specific ... and one of the things I really liked/like about those events a life time ago was that there was no where to hide if you hadnt done the work. With 50's or 100's you could be unfit and only be off the pace by a second or two. Get in the water for a 1500 when you're not quite right and you'd have been served up a nice slice of your own a*s and never hear the end of it from friend and foe along you were competing against. You could suffer the ultimate humiliation of being lapped because you were sick or just simply hadnt done the work. Those at the pointy end have a duty to pile the suffering on. Live by the sword and die by the sword. An honest test imho.

And so ... in the shimmer of heat rising up off the road upwards on the outbound 2.5km ish run route all those evenings I missed running caught up with me Slowest run at Valentia yet, a snip under 24 mins, suffered wholesale ... maybe the course was long - it was definitely different than any other year in that it was a straight up and straight down route - but hey - it was the same run for everyone. The only good this was that it wasnt a 10km on a olympic distance .

Apart from a minor disaster getting my feet into my bike shoes at the top of the hill my bike split wasnt all that bad - took a little longer to recover from my swim than normal but this is Valentia where the first 5 mins of the bike is uphill and your heartrate is generally high after transition. Short bike distance (~18.5km) flattered the times a little but as usual second section of bike was faster and more comfortable that the first.

Swim and T1 were as good as I could have hoped for. Cant help thinking that there was more focus on coralling 250+ in each wave into a very small section of beach for the start than normal due to the presence of RTE cameras for some show or other.

One thing of note was that for the first time ever some tool decided to 'test' the start horn ... I made good my escape only to be recalled after about 150m ... needless to say I lay on my back recovering doing breastroke legs until I was good and ready and recovered and back in line. Never seen this occur before where they actually call people back.
Anyhow - when I did get away it was good and fast and to plan from a navigational point of view. Some recon with MCOS the day before certainly helped - what didnt was the lead lady swimming directly into me from my right ... thanfully I saw her coming but she was in a serious rush to get to my feet but missed and swam into my right elbow ... anyhow after some jostling I ended up on my favourite side and with a good view of the finish ... I was out on her shoulder and got a time 3 seconds slower for the swim so the mat must have been at the top of the slip.

So, there you have it, a report of sorts. My ITB blew half way through the marathon at Challenge Barcelona last Oct and Id been warned by my physio to take 3 months off running and get myself sorted stretching etc. With a whole heap of personal stuff going on I havent been able to make good on the plan of consistently working on my running. A national series race is fast and furious and there cant be many weaknesses if you want to finish in the top 10/20 etc. I finished my bike and t2 within 20 seconds of the leading lady so its abundantly clear I lost a stack of places on the run (I finished 39th). But thats the great thing about triathlon - over the 2.5km run uphill at valentia my weakness got exploited in a big way by those that had put in the work on the run. And this is why I really really like Triathlon as a sport. I knew I hadnt enough running done before the race but with the first half of the 5km uphill it made any hope of glossing over it alot harder.

Anyhow - I skipped my swim this morning and ran a 10km in the fog in the park instead. Im well aware it wont fix my running immediately but with some consistent running over the next while (some hill work and some fast intervals) and maybe not such a tough uphill run straight out of T2 I can get my runs back down closer to 21/20 mins over 5km again.

Anyhow - apologies for the rather long 'log update' this morning guys
BTW, An absolute pleasure to meet up with MCOS on Friday for a preamble 1500 across to the island and back. He must have been using one arm on Friday based on his swim time Saturday during the race - and he'd the juice to take it all the way to the line and a fantastic result from where I was. Im sure he'll be along soon with his own report of the weekend.

Onwards and upwards.

griffin100 wrote: »

A question on the swim, was there tidal assistance or was your time about right? I ask as for me I had my best sea swim by over 5mins (just under 14.30). Would be nice to think it was due to training as opposed to a helpful current.

I can assure you there was no tidal assistance out there on Saturday.
Straightest line between the start and finish is the shortest obviously but the wind and prevailing movement of the water was coming from the left so you HAD to aim left to get to the relative shelter of the pontoon/marina.

In 2008 I swam 9.42 for the same stretch and was 10th out of the water. I went 9.41 on Saturday. I can assure you Im swimming alot faster this season than 2008. The reason my time wasnt faster is that they pushed the start as close to the mainland as possible.

Anyhow - pat yourself on the back - you'd a great swim because you put int he work (or did enough work to get on a pair of feet and stay there )
Either way, well done !

25/05/10 SC

400 f/s warm up
10*100 f/s on 1.30
10 * 50 f/s on 50
2 * (4*100 f/s on 2min) with 2 min between the 2 sets @ 90% (~1.11)
200 easy
4 * 50 BF on 1.30 @ 90% (32,33,32,31)
100 easy

3200

Snappier set than normal. Fairly tired due to my new found zest (necessity) for running

31/05/10 OW

4000

Alot of OW swim - helping at club day plus - 4 laps of 600 loop following (at distance) an Mr. Open Water from 220 - Id his hip for the first 200 metres and then decided to let him off

Macanri wrote: »

I see you have hit 300,000m + on the SCR Challenge. I think MCOS needs to invest in some Titanium coloured ink. Well done Mr Fish.

yeah, maybe - but now that Im a (re-invented) runner these days ... struggled through a 5km 'race' in the park for my sins at the weekend. I would have preferred swimming it and it was wet enough that I could of