Catweazles Half-Ironman or Chicken challenge

Abhainn wrote: »

I even found Ireland's very own Stonehenge when I was driving around there one new years eve day:)

Never saw that around there, that could have been the locals recently, theres not much to do up there from what I can see. I used to be a country member of the golf course up there, "Carne". Its as good a course as I have played. Ferocious drive up though, probably over two hours from Galway so I let it lapse.

Bike is supposed to be very tough so it will suit me, not!

Cheers lads, ya I think the marathon and all the long runs brought me to a certain level of improvement but i think my running has stood still if not even gone a bit backwards from Connemara. So hopefully the new sessions will bring me forward a bit more.

I will admit there is an air of unease these days before some of the training runs as I know I am going to be out of my comfort zone for some of it.

pgibbo wrote: »

Get yourself some good leggings and wet gear to prepare for a good winter of cycling. Time to bite the bullet!

And I expecting you to be hassling Mrs C for any leftover goosefat from my Sunday Roast for swimming sessions in Annaghdown

Last triathlon of the year for me and after doing the maths all week I decided all going well on the day I could break 1.20. I was keen to do well in this one as it was the first race that I had done the previous year so I could see if I had improved.

Transition
Met a few boardies at the start, Ronanmac and Pgibbo (nice bike again Ronan). The school friend was there as well. Nice and relaxed and lined out with all the club members in the same area.

Swim
Choppy choppy choppy, I actually didn't mind this I had a lot of open water swims this year and I thought it would give me an advantage to the pool swimmers. It did not really work out like that in the swim, having practiced like a dervish with my bilateral breathing all week I was back to two stroke due to the waves. Sighting went arseways on the way back when I lazily followed a guy in front who was setting a good pace, till I realized he was going way off on the wrong route. Came out of the water and knew the sub 1.20 would be a struggle, I had hoped for sub 15 but would have needed perfect conditions for that time.

2010 Swim time 17.17 (140) 2009 18.46 (217)

Transition 1 (1.53)
Slightly quicker than usual owing to the fact that I at least wanted pgibbo to overtake me in the cycle rather than the transition area. Luckily he was wandering around transition like a headless chicken looking for his bike

Bike
Literally 10 seconds into it I was saying goodbye to pgibbo as he left me for dead. Struggling as usual here, it was hillier than I remembered and there was a nasty downpour for a minute or two. I got a wake up call when my school friend (my new arch nemesis) shot by me fairly soon into it, I wanted to beat him as he handed me my ass on a plate in Lough Key last weekend. Struggled on and got him down the fast section and eeked out maybe 10-15 seconds on him, hes a better biker so he nailed me on the next few hills and went off into the distance. Pushed on but found it tough, I was embarrased when a few people going by me seeing my Predator tri suit asked me how long to go, I had not a clue so lied to them, halfway there, 5k to go rolled out of my mouth. The times below are massaged by the chain coming off last year as well so very little improvement at all on last years bike

2010 Bike time 40.48 (140) 2009 43.09 (243)

Transition 2 (1.12)
Slow enough even though I thought I was going asap as I knew I was going to be up against it catching the friend, caught a cramp putting on the shoes

Run
Coming out of transition I heard an almighty roar of "come on John", Mrs C was around, I shuffled out complaining about my cramp to her where I got another roar of "stop complaining move it" :rolleyes:. Legged it away from her to another major cramp, started stretching twice more against a wall. I was fuming at this stage as I had hoped for a quick run time and I knew the school friend would be hard caught now. Finally got going and started to pass a few in front of me. Its an out and in route and I got encouragement when I saw the leader Mairtin Grealish coming for home. The winners are always home before I start my run so I mustn't be doing too bad. Just before I reached the half way point I saw the school friend on the way back, I can deffo catch him i thought so the grit was between the teeth at this stage (plus I saw a motoring Ronanmac coming up to the half way line behind me), caught him at the 3.5k mark. Slowed for maybe 30 seconds for a brief chat got the breath back and then went hard again for the last k or so. Had one last guy in my sights who I was catching all the time but he managed himself over the line faster than I could catch him. Happy enough with the run - I am at 21.30 level if I am not stretching cramps which is a good improvement on last year. My own fault for the cramps - those nuun tablets have worked the last few times I took them for my cramps. I forgot to take one yesterday, no excuses

2010 Run 22.10 (93) 2009 Run 23.08 (112)

2010 Time 1.23.20 (111) 2009 Time 1.27.53 (182)

Happy enough with this time although I would have loved a sub 1.20 and a top 100 finish but the swim killed my chances. Thats it for tris this year, Mrs C wont know what to do with me at weekends. All I have left at the moment is a 1/2 marathon in early October. I am going to take it easy for a while now after that, with the Connemarathon training last year I hardly took a training break at all

Resolutions for next year - Start a weights programme over the winter, I am told this will do wonders for my bike time. Diligent work on the turbo, while I have loads of time for swimming and running I need to find the love for the bike. I have ran more ks than cycled this year which is crazy. Lose weight next year, I had high hopes to be under 75 kilos this year, the best I was was around 78 at Craughwell 10 miles which was probably my best running performance this year. I am 82/83 now :mad:

pgibbo wrote: »

Bad and all as I was in T1, I was even worse in T2. DISASTER!!!!! What am I like?

Your woman was there so you were too busy trying to impress her, just goes to shows you your t1 was still better than mine and you went off to the wrong rack. Heres me talking about weights and turbos when if i went for the low hanging fruit like my slow transitions I would save more time.

Last week
Swim 7350
After reading a breathing article on some website i saw a lot of the problems I have were down to not breathing properly. A solid week of exhaling under water was called for before Loughrea, with the chop in Loughrea the week wasnt much use to me as it was more a case of catching a breath when I could and avoiding swallowing a mouthful of water. With the swimming season over for me now and my only potential gold star in the bag unless disaster strikes, I am going to cut down on the distances and junk kms and just concentrate on drills and techniques till next year. So away with you Macanri i fought the good fight for long enough

Cycle 30k
I have gone on enough about my cycling already

Run 18k
As little as i have done in a long time, going to concentrate on running till early October for the Galway Bay 1/2. It will be the first time that I am consciously out to get a pb in a 1/2 marathon. Sub 1.45 at a minimum to get me a potential 2.00 hour pacing slot from Amadeus or donothopandpop next year. It should also get me to 1000 miles this year before the year is out

Swimming 2250 - Probably as little as I have done in a long time, trying to focus on the running till after 1/2 marathon

Cycling 8k - A warm up before weights

Running 59k - Back on the wagon again

Did my first weights session of the year which involved looking at some of the machines and figuring out what they do - Did very little but will concentrate more on these after 1/2 marathon

Running well this week did some decent 5 mile times but it went pear shaped on the LSR on sunday. Did 12 miles at 8.30 place but was really feeling it at 10 miles, with the Galway Half in 2 weeks time I slowed right down and crawled home for the last 2. Doesnt auger well for the time i am targeting but I will put it down as a bad day.

Mrs C was out on saturday night so she had some good news when I came home on sunday morning that she was talking to the missus of the organiser of the Galway 70.3 who were out celebrating the confirmation of the 1/2 Ironman that night. Again I will hold off on next years planning till I see something on the Ironman site but it sounds promising

Last race of the year for me. Pre race down in the swamp was like a scene from Gotham city with all the arch nemesis's about the place.

The club mate who I had all the 5k battles with
The strong cyclist friend
An old football team mate
Another fit friend who was racing his first half
And finally my Triathlon arch nemesis shows up at the start line

I had optimistically targeted a sub 1.40 while secretly doubting my present endurance for this distance but there was no harm in trying. My previous best was for this distance was 1.49.04 and I was confident i would at least beat that.

Started out well, went through 5 miles in just over 38 minutes, bang on pace just under 7.40 min miles and no problems, it was breezy going up the prom but not too bad. Stayed at that pace and at 8 miles lo and behold I was bunched in with the club mate, the football team mate and surprisingly the fit friend all four of us targeting sub 1.40 at this stage. We all know each other well so the chat was flying, I was having trouble keeping up the conversation and could feel my legs failing, stepped off the group and tried to hang on behind them but I couldn't keep the pace up and cracked badly going back out to 8.30 miles. Heart rate was still in the 160's but legs were gone.

The next three miles were a struggle but I knew I was close to finishing and got mile 11 back to a 7.59. I was heading for home now and was moving better again but must have misheard the starter when I saw runners ahead of me heading back out to Mutton Island for a second time. This was the hardest section with the the wind and I had used up everything I had, I saw ahead the fit friend had shot his bolt and was in a bad way so this gave me a lift and I went by him, before the turn around I saw the football friend had forged ahead and the club mate was about a minute behind him, coming back down from Mutton Island you can get a bearing about where you stand, no sign of the arch nemesis or the cyclist at all so I wondered were they were ahead of me from the start.

I struggled out and back to Mutton Island but I knew sub 1.45 was still on if I could keep a strong pace up. Busted my ass, head lolling as I could see the 1.44.50 coming up on the screen, there were three timing mats in front of me, one was just ahead but the other two were a little further on. I think I went over the last one in over 1.45 so i was hoping the first mat was the one in use. My 10k pb is 45.01 so I didnt want a repeat of that, result came in later, yippee it was the first mat

1.44.49 Pos:189/872

Thought I would be faster but with discussion with the mates later none of them broke 1.40 either and they were all slower than their Galway City marathon time which was considered a tough half marathon, it was harder than we all thought it would be for some reason. The arch nemesis and cyclist finished behind in low 1.50s

Thats it for me now, I am going to take a break from rigid training for a month or so and am going to start with my first outing to the O2 arena tomorrow

littlebug wrote: »

No Athenry on 26th December?

AH there will be other road races no doubt but none I will be taking too seriously, would love to do Athenry some time but its one that would draw Mrs C's wrath if she saw me taking it easy on xmas day