The difficult second album

Apologies in advance for the long report, it's not that exciting but I keep this stuff myself too and easier to write one than to do a few, anyway here goes,


The Race

So we travelled over to Nottingham on the ferry on the Friday before the race. The drive took a lot longer than expected, planned was 3.5hours and took around 5.5hours because of traffic. We still got there with plenty of time and were set up with no hassle. It was very hot though at around 31 degrees and was playing on my mind a bit for the race on Sunday.

Saturday was spent with a quick spin on the bike in the morning to make sure everything was working and then a short run off it just to get the legs working. After this was off to the registration and then the briefing. Nothing major other than the fact that the wind had really picked up and there was a lot of hoarding and tents being blown over. Initial forecast said it wouldn’t be as bad on Sunday but this changed as the day went on. Bike went into Transition with the normal front wheel and deep back wheel, deep front and disc would be too much for me to control in the wind and I played on the safe side. I did a few walk throughs transition just to figure out where I would go after getting out of the water and when I came in on the bike. My 2 bags were racked in transition and again I walked through a few times just to figure it out in my head. All set and then spent pretty much the rest of the day sitting down and relaxing. We all got an email that evening to say that because of the forecast wind the swim would be changed from 1 big lap to a 3 lap swim which meant getting out at the end of each lap and a short run before getting back in. This didn’t bother me too much, it was going to be the same distance and would be easier to break down mentally because of the laps. I did have some worries about the bike though, parts of the course were very exposed and the wind would have a big impact on the day. Went to bed at the usual time, didn’t see any benefit of trying to go early, felt I was better sticking to my usual routine and it worked, pretty much straight to sleep and felt like I got a good nights sleep when I got up at 4.

A quick breakfast and grabbed my packed bag and down to the swim start. The day was awful, from 31 degrees on Friday to around 8 degrees on the morning of the race as well as 45kmph winds and rain. Wasn’t what I was expecting to be racing in but it would be the same for everyone, was still looking forward to it but in my head I was thinking that the 10 hour target I had set for myself was out the window, my bike time would be up in the air and had no idea how it would go. Changed with plenty of time and down into the sub 60 min pen for the swim. We weren’t held too long at 6 in the morning the race was off.



Swim 59.39 55th (Relays included in it)

Started up near the front, sure why not! Plan was to draft as much as I could for as long as I could. Got pushed around a bit at the start of the swim and was pushed out a bit from where I wanted to be, nothing to worry about though and worked my way back into a group and let myself settle a bit. Sighted every 2nd breath, mainly to look at other swimmers and see who I could jump onto. Worked my way through the groups on the first lap and by the end of the first lap I was leading a group out of the water, I could see the back end of the next group about 20m in front of me so I put a bit of a sprint on to catch them when we got out of the water to start lap 2. Worked well and I started lap 2 at the back of the group. Again swam smart and worked my way through, few sprints to catch faster feet and constantly looking around to see if there was anyone I could draft off. Out towards the front at the end of the second lap too. No one really in catching distance so took it a little handier this time. This was the turning point of my swim, when I got in I noticed a relay swimmer (different colour hats) to my left away from the main pack, he was really moving so I swum over and got on his feet, I was swimming hard enough and only just staying on his feet, judged the pace by comparing us to others around and we were constantly passing. Once or twice I pulled out to try and overtake and I realized how fast he was going! I stayed on these feet from the start of the 3rd lap to the very end of the swim. I have no doubt that this is what got me the sub 1hr swim. Delighted to pass the timing mat and see 59 mins on it. Probably a faster time than my training deserved but shows the benefit of swimming smart.

T1 4.32

Took it handy enough through transition, long enough but no rushing and felt it went well. Socks on and bike shoes carried out to the bike, pockets on the tri top stuffed with gels.

Bike 5.36.46 82nd

Start by saying the bike was around 5km long and 3km of that last 5km may as well have been cyclo cross. The route at the end goes through an old private country estate and the surface is awful, potholes, ramps and gravel all over the place. Not a huge impact on my time but I need my excuses! I stuck to the power target for my race (approx. 75% of FTP) so have no complaints with that but I felt I was fighting the bike for the whole time, I was constantly blown across the road and for one section of around 15km or so downhill into a headwind I averaged around 25kmph. A bit soul destroying but was the same for everyone. Some of the course was on open roads too and I had to come to a complete stop twice at roundabouts and lost a little time, nothing huge but gets in your head a little on the bike. There is only one real hill on the course about 800m long and steep enough for the last 200m and then a good long gradual descent off this, with the wind though we didn’t get any benefit of the descent, this was probably one of the more exposed parts of the course.

The bike started well but was freezing with driving rain and wind, I took it handy at the start to make sure I didn’t get carried away. It took me about 1.5hours to feel someway warm on the bike and at one stage was thinking that unless the weather improved I would have to stop the bike, luckily it started to get a bit brighter and a little warmer when the rain eased. Seen a few people on the ground at corners on the bike so made me take the corners even more sensible than I already was. If I look at the bike splits I lost around 20 places in the first ¾ of the bike but then gained nearly 40 over the last ¼ so I paced it well and I knew based on my numbers on the bike I could run well off the power and was looking forward to getting onto my feet, a long way from when I started in tri!

Normalised power was 175w@58kg on race day so nearly 3w/kg and exactly what I wanted to hold. Little disappointed getting off the bike as it now meant it looked like the sub 10 was off the cards but I didn’t let it get in my head and just stuck to my original plan and tried to make sure I enjoyed the run.

T2 2.03

Again in and out quick enough without rushing. Same socks left on, laces still in the shoes and ran in Nike Zoom fly. They had volunteers to take your bike off you and rack it so once that was passed off I was out of bike shoes and into the tent in my socks.

Run 3.13.41 (14th including relays and think top 5 run taking them out)

Legs felt good from the start, very conscious of pace but was still through the first km in just over 4min so far too fast. Settled well then and pace was averaging around 4.30min/km. Faster than race pace but I had decided that I was going to go for the sub 10, if I blew up I blew up, I decided to gamble on the run. I read a quote on Roman Bardet’s bike during the tour de France, ‘Take the risk or lose the chance’, this was what was going through my head, I had a great training block and couldn’t have asked for much more, now was the time to put it on the line and see if I could do it. I was feeling good so I went with it and would see where it got me. Aid station plan was to sip a gel over 2 stations, new gel every second aid station then. Water at every station, some to drink and some over head, and high 5 zero at every second one. Legs were feeling good and I was constantly passing people. Through the first half marathon in around 1.35 and passed the clock at the finish line seeing I had around 1.40 for the second half marathon to go under the 10 hour target, I knew then that the risk had hopefully paid off, I had a bit of a buffer to get through so I tried to be a bit more sensible and I pulled it back a little but still felt more comfortable around the 4.30min/km mark. Less km’s were coming in just under and usually around 4.33 or so. I knew I was banking time on each of these km’s so went with it. I started to feel like both quads were going to cramp at around 25km but it just stayed like this and never went any further, luckily!. Coming around onto the last lap of the run I knew I had it in the bag if I could keep going and not let the pace fall off. I decided to walk through the last 2 aid stations, these were the only walking breaks I took, to make sure the legs didn’t cramp and this worked well. Second half marathon was in around 1.38, taking into account the very fast first km and then walking the two aid stations there wasn’t a huge variance in pace across the race. Got onto the finish carpet and was delighted to see the time was under 10hours. Let a lad in front of me take his time and then followed him in. Had a little word with myself coming down the carpet and even let myself smile crossing the line. Found out after that the lad was in same age group as me and came 4th in the age group. Should have pushed passed him, I could have, but made no real difference, my number 1 goal since Jan has been sub 10hrs.

9hrs 56 mins 41 seconds. 23rd overall.

So I took a chance and it worked, I came in around 6 mins faster than my best estimated run time. Delighted was an understatement. I wasn’t passed once on the run, not by relays or people on other laps. A definite top 10 run and I think closer to 5th when you remove relays. A swim and run performance I can be really proud of, the bike was slower than I liked but I’m putting that down to conditions rather than effort, I held the power I was looking for.

I couldn’t have given any more and finished with my legs completely shot. I hobbled through to get a massage and then my food. Completely wrecked but delighted with how the race went overall.

My Mam and Dad made the journey over to watch the race as well as my brother and his wife who came up from Weymouth to watch. Laura came over too and acted as number one supporter as well as their guides for the day. It really helped having them on the run course, they even managed to have a new sign for every time I passed them. Laura and my Parents got a bus out to the bike course and surprised me when I seen them twice on the route. A big thanks has to go to Laura, she was great through the whole effort. Never moaned or gave out about my training and even helped as much as she could with my recovery and would help with my food and nutrition so that when I came back after a long bike and brick I could start the recovery straight away. This time was a team effort and I wouldn’t have got through it without Laura’s support, at times it was like living like a pro, having everything outside training taken care of and just having to do the work.

I’ve said I won’t be going long in 2019 and I’m still sticking to that. I really enjoyed the race and will be back to long distance racing, probably Roth or Barcelona in 2020 with a faster goal, but for next year I’m going to concentrate on short course racing. I couldn’t face the training required for the long distance again, mainly mentally, and am looking forward to a year of short course racing with less pressure on myself. The last 2 years I’ve set big goals and hit them so next year will be about having some fun while still hopefully picking up some good results.

The plan at the moment is to concentrate on my 5km and 10km running times up to Christmas and then start proper tri training then. I’ll still swim and bike but the emphasis will be on the run. I’m looking forward to lowering my PB’s, which will hopefully lead to better run times overall in the future or letting me hold higher power for the same run times.

The other thing I will be having a look at is the bike. I need to try and figure out what I can do, 3w/kg I would have hoped for a faster time than that, maybe I’m too light weight or might be something else entirely but it’s something I need to look into and see what I can come up with to tackle it. If anyone has any suggestions on the bike please let me know! I don’t know if it’s that my overall power number is relatively low but I need to look at ways of getting better return on my power or ways of increasing how much of my FTP I can comfortably cycle at and run well off.

And that is it for the time being, I might do a sprint depending on how I recover, I’m only walking comfortably today since the race. I’ll get out on the bike tomorrow for a little spin. Not really any sprints close to me and don’t really fancy a big journey to do one so that might be it for me. I’ll hopefully get back into a little bit of easy training by mid August and looking to kick into the 5 and 10km plans in September. Saying that though Tritanium have some club records I would like over the shorter distances so I might end up going for some before the end of the season!

Hey Neady, I was half writing that, half working when you replied!

Recovery went alright, few horrible days of DOMS and then the virus but all good now for the last week or two. Yep been catching up with friends, heading out with Laura on the bike and my Da too. Just enjoying the time off really. Unfortunately it doesn't matter if I'm swimming or not, I don't get many ly ins! That's what makes me skipping swimming all the more stupid, I'm up and in the car anyway, I just can't be arsed sometimes!

Definitely itching to get back doing something, have enjoyed my time off and until September it will be very unstructured and more doing what I enjoy rather than anything hard or 'training sessions', but need to get back moving and doing something again, it's mad how your body starts to miss it after a while!

Right so a bit of an update, started back towards start of September but wasn't feeling great and my heart wasn't in it so took another break. 1 week in and starting second week now, everything is very easy and not looking at pace or power, just keeping the hr capped. Plenty done though last week with around 3 short runs and 1 longer run and 5 turbos, longest at 1.5 hours. Bit like Kurt I'm messing around on Zwift, usually change to it at this stage of the year, bit of unstructured work, bit of a novelty but I'll move back to trainer road in Jan when the training starts properly. Enjoying the bit I'm doing at the moment and switching off the ego has been hard but it's making sure the easy stuff is easy. I'll keep at this until end of October and then maybe look at introducing some efforts. Am doing pacer at the gingerbread half marathon in November, will be pacing the 1.35 group. Bit off were I am at the moment but it's given me something to train for and I'm looking forward to it. No swimming yet and will be another 2 weeks before I'm back in the pool but the break has been nice and I'm half looking forward to it.

Original plan to concentrate on 5k and 10k has been shelved a bit, need just some easy running time but I'll use the winter to get a bit of a base and then done some specific sessions in the new year. Dublin marathon hopefully on the cards for next year too. But of course all that could change with the now traditional Norseman entry.

Another few weeks done, sticking to 3 turbos -- 2 x1hr during the week and a 2hr one on the weekend and 4x runs a week -- 3 during the week and longer at the weekend. Still no swimming but routine is being created again and I'm starting to figure out how I'll fit swimming into the new role. Some of the youth projects I'm looking after are close enough to pools that if I plan some of my days well enough I can get to the pool between visiting the projects.

Bit of a test 5km tomorrow. Had no plans to but might give me the kick up the arse I need and a bit of focus. Laura has started back running with Lusk athletic club and they are doing the donabate parkrun, will be going down anyway so may as well run it. Under 19 mins and I'd be delighted, weather looks cold and windy, every time I've done this one it's been windy. Bit of an exposed section along the back of the course but be good run out and get to see where I am. Last proper hard running was back in April/May so we see how it goes!

Plan for season is slowly taking shape. Norseman lottery first, if that happens well then that's the goal. If not and the calender stays similar next year I'll be looking at skerries sprint, pikeman olympic and maybe tri limits half. And then concentrate on the running with Dublin marathon as a goal. More races might be entered depending on fitness and form but thats a rough guide for now.

So nearly week and a half since the park run. Finally got a plan down on paper and gave me something to keep me concentrated and work towards. Bike has been going well, one or two harder sessions and feeling like some of the power is coming back. Done a 1hr 45 mins session there two days ago with around 90 mins of that spent at around 85% of FTP. Have done this session a few times and have found that it's normally ok until the last 20 mins or so when it gets tougher. Wasn't too bad at all this time so will re test FTP in the next week or two and see where I am. Other than that mainly endurance stuff but had 4 sessions on the turbo last week so the consistency is coming back. Run has been going well too, little jump in easy pace, the park run gave me the little kick I needed. 2 proper sessions since then, one was 5x800m at slightly faster than 5km pace, with 90 seconds recovery and then last night a 5x1.2km at 4min/km, 1 min recovery. Plenty of easy running too and a brick that had a 20 min tempo effort in it. Would like to be running faster and on paper at least these sessions don't look too bad but that's where I am right now. Already feeling stronger on the run and starting to feel a bit more natural and fluid again. Another test 5km just before christmas so will see how much I can improve. Swim has been ok, 2 swims last week and 1 this week. Nothing fast or too hard. Just getting back in the water. Been out of the office most of the week this week at a conference so haven't had a chance really. Next two weeks should be good for swimming, out in the projects and they have pools next door so will hopefully work out ok depending on their timetable.

Issue now is avoiding sickness, I've been lucky enough so far but Laura has been sick all week and few people in work haven't been the best either. Today is first day I feel a little ropey but all the hard work is done for the week and only short easy sessions for the rest, planned that way cos of busy weekend but might be lucky with the planning too. First goal coming up is the gingerbread half marathon pacing on Sunday week. Once that's done it will give me time to focus on more of my plan and let me get stuck into it too.

So another quick update. Done that training race with Portmarnock, nice to get out on the new bike and a good run out. Fitness not were I'd like it to be but on the other hand it's not too bad for this time of the year. Bike going well, starting to feel stronger and will look at raising the FTP. Done some sweet spot sessions (3x12, 3 rest) and didn't feel bad at all, held around 5% higher than target so will retest around Christmas. Run coming on too, easy pace dropping and starting to feel easy and like I'm running. Swim non existent really. New year, new me and all that. Hoping to race a 5km over Christmas just to see were I am, 19 min or so a month or two ago, hoping for mid 18's this time but we see. Normally end of Jan I'm running around 18,45 for it so be nice to be a little bit ahead of that this year.

End of another block. So back swimming, averaging 2 swims a week consistently, haven't done anything too hard yet, mainly short enough intervals with decent rest. Pace isn't too bad but work is needed, first hard-ish bit of swimming the other day, could feel form fall apart a bit towards the end of them. Good to be back though and the consistency has been there.

Bike has gone well too. Hitting decent sessions pretty well, sweet spot sessions working well and feeling strong. Have been lacking any real long stuff on the bike so this weekend to try and make up for it I loaded up the bike a bit. Saturday was a double day, 2.5hrs in morning and then 1.5 in evening, nothing too hard, all endurance based but felt strong and even the evening wasn't too bad. Sunday then started with a tough 45 that had 4x5mins@105%, 3ez. Pleased with how I held the power, never under any huge pressure and was well able. Bit of a confidence booster this session, done on tired legs. Straight after was into 75 mins between 55-65% of FTP. Again felt grand. a good week on the bike done.

Run has been decent too. Intervals have been done at 3.40min/km pace, done off short enough rests and have been ok at them, won't say they have been great but they have been done. Bit like the bike, probably lacking the proper long stuff but they are back in the plan and 3 have been done this block. At times I'm feeling like I'm running again. Done a lactate test with Emmett Dunleavy (perfectpacing.com). Found it very good, done it on the track at Irishtown stadium. I've been working off HR ranges that were set a few years ago, have lowered the easy one myself, just based on me always aiming for the top limit and it's been working well. So for the lactate test, I ran at set paces and then had my blood taken at the end. I'm not 100% sure of all the science and terms but found out that my easy range goes higher than I expected, but he did advise to keep the easy were it is now, good balance between training affect and recovery. Got a HR range for my Lactate threshold too so rather than running intervals to pace I'll base them off this hr zone instead. Looking at it after it matches very closely to what I done last year for the full, and by mistake rather than planning really. Wasn't able to do any really hard running because of a foot niggle so a lot was done steady and not quite flat out, turns out the not quite flat out HR is bang on lactate threshold (but I was running to pace, just happened to match up). Explains a bit, felt I recovered from running sessions very well last year and was running really well. Hoping that using this zones properly now will help with my training and give it a bit more focus.

Raheny 5mile this Sunday, no real plans or goals for it. Signed up cos Laura was doing it but now she's injured so just be myself. After that it's into the plan proper, looking forward to getting going and seeing what I can do. I hope to FTP test and 5km test towards end of Feb and with the way I'm feeling on the bike now I'd be hoping for a bit of a jump.

So another quick enough update. New bike position is going well, power is building in it and last night I done a good 3x20mins@210w, 5 ez. No issues at all and felt strong for this so will look at retesting FTP soon, was my third session in 3 days on the bike so was epxecting it to be tougher but very pleased with how it felt.

Swim coming on well too, most weeks it's the 2 sessions, some weeks it's been three but never less than 2. Times slowly coming down and feeling fitter and stronger. Done a test 100 and 200 the other day at the end of my session and was 1.30 for the 100 comfortably enough, and then 3.02 for the 200, but working a little harder. Pleased with where I am on both the swim and bike at the moment.

Run hasn't been great. I haven't run in about 7 days and will be another 5/6 before I run again. Few issues with the right leg so I've decided to just completely stay off it for a while and see how it goes. Already feels an awful lot better but I'd committed at the start to not running until next Wednesday so I'll stick to that, better coming back a few days late than a few days early.

Weight going the right direction, still around 61kg on average but the lack of running and no really long stuff on the bike means I'm happy with it at the moment, it will drop a little once the longer stuff comes into play.