Bliain Faoi Thrí

Not feeling well today, feels like the onset of a cold. Spent all day yesterday working outside in the rain in Achill, with my raingear back home in the shed (like every good Galwayman, I can somehow trace all my woes back to Mayo ). Seven a side soccer season started back last night as well, it was fine before Christmas when I needed something to keep me ticking over but am paranoid now that I will get injured!

Anyway, five mile tempo today, felt very tough. Drained after it

Distance: 5.5 miles
Surface: Road
Weather: Strong breeze carrying a whole lot of drizzle. Didn't look too bad going out, but was drenched by the time I had a mile done
Time: 39:54 (7:15 pace average)

Did the dry run of the Ras na Nollag duathlon (it's on Valentine's Day due to the cold snap over Christmas). I definitely need to give the hamstring a break, it felt tight from the off. I shouldn't have done the run but couldn't resist trying it out. The run is 4.3 miles, hilly, with one serious hill that you come across twice as it's a loop.

The cycle was grand. I've done damn all bike work this year, so I felt the effort but it was good to be out. Might do some work on the turbo this week and give the running a break, see how the hamstring is after a few days...

4.3 mile run, 14 mile cycle

Training put on hold as vomiting bug tears its way through more than our home... On the upside, it coincides nicely with injury so the break will probably be for the better.
Don't know if I will do a run tomorrow or put in a cycle on Sunday as prep for the duathlon next week. Will see how I feel in the morning.

RedB wrote: »

Spoken like a true athelete! Every cloud has a silver lining.

Yeah, usually the pattern is something like:
week 1: injured
week 2: working abroad, no training opportunitites
week 3: ill

Getting the injury and illness over at the same time is a rare 'bonus'!

Went to the physio last night for an agonising session, but the leg feels freer today. She said not to do anything until Thursday, so will give it a light tryout then and see how I'm set for Sunday's duathlon, by then it will be two weeks since I last went on a run .

Nothing more annoying than an injury that screws up your momentum. Yesterday morning, I went down to the canteen and had a fry for breakfast, first fry of 2010 but typical of me... When the momentum goes on one thing, it goes on everything! I really need to get back running!!!

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Tell me about it, I had a sh!te week last week physically and thus was consuming biscuits by the packet at the weekend

Hope you are back running soon. What Duathlon are you doing?

Yeah, all I need now is to scupper my thread title and go for a feed of pints :rolleyes:.

Doing Rás na Nollag, was postponed until 14 Feb due to the weather. It's not a traditional duathlon, in that it's run/cycle, rather than run/cycle/run. Am not that strong on the bike but am/was looking forward to it as it's a rare athletic event in my home village! The run is hilly, the cycling has a long drag in it and one hill.

After two weeks of being driven slowly insane by my hamstring, and getting increasingly grumpy due to a lack of exercise, Rás na Nollag finally arrived almost two months after its originally scheduled date. In a desperate effort to help along the hamstring, I was reduced to old school techniques and on Friday night, applied some "tús an phota", or the first distillation, which is usually thrown away because it's too strong and undrinkable.

Whether it worked or not, the hamstring felt tight but not too tight on race day. The weather was perfect, a cool, dry day with pretty much no breeze. The race started at one, and Ruairí Geraghty tore off from the start of the 7k run, and wouldn't be caught for the rest of the day. I'm not sure how many people participated (no results up yet), I would guess around the 70 mark. The pack was pretty much bunched together until the first hill, a real steep b*tch. It broke up the group straight away. By the time I came around to the hill the second time, I was really suffering. I hadn't run in a while and the pace felt hard. If I was on my own on a training run, I would definitely have stopped and taken a breather!

Into transition, eighth in the run, 48 seconds in transition, must look at trying to have the shoes on the bike. The cycle was 22k and I was sure I was going to be torn apart by club cyclists as I haven't done much on the bike so far. As it happened, I was overtaken twice, and I overtook twice, certainly not the slaughter I expected. I bought a cadence computer recently and it's definitely improving my cycling, giving me with a target of keeping rpm's at between 90 and 100.

I was 14th in the cycle, overall, I finished 9th, (8th if you discount relay teams, which I will ), and first in the over 35 category. That said, the winner of the over 50 category was well ahead of me!!

My first duathlon, I really enjoyed it, loved being able to give the bike loads despite being shagged from the run. Delighted with my performance, although I suspect my placings have more to do with the small crowd and the debut nature of the event, rather than any natural duathlon ability on my part .

Fair play to Padraic and Damien for organising, everything seemed to go smooth, nice race hat and texted chip timing. Looking forward to next year!

catweazle wrote: »

Well done Ronanmac, that was a good result. That Ruari Geraghty is a machine alright, if he could improve his swimming he would be unstoppable (not that his swimming is poor by any means but just compared to the top, top guys)

I looked at my watch a few minutes into the run, trying to follow the lead bunch, when I saw I was doing 5 something pace. Eased up straightaway, there was no way in hell I could keep with them at that pace. Ruaidhrí Geraghty did a short interview as Gaeilge at the prize-giving, said he was going to do the Rás this year :eek:

pgibbo wrote: »

Very easy to get pulled along at the fast pace alright. Need to be careful at the start of races. Fair play on pulling the handbrake!

There wasn't much choice on pulling the handbrake, it was either that or run out of lungs very quickly!

Went to the physio again on last Wednesday, she noted that the hamstring injury had left one leg slightly longer than another, and the kneecap slightly out of kilter. She put those right, and showed me some dynamic stretches for before my run (as I don't do any stretching, bar using The Stick, beforehand).

I was to do a turbo session on the bike this morning but didn't get up , so decided to chance the hamstring at lunchtime. I could definitely feel it during the run, but it didn't hold me back and, after stopping to stretch it after a mile and a half, I finished feeling good. Hopefully, that's the end of it. It's still tight but just a case now of keeping it stretched.

Being able to do a decent run today felt great, the day was gorgeous, it was great to be out again!


Distance: 5 miles
Surface: Road and shoreline
Weather: A beautiful day! Sunny, cool and not a puff of wind
Time: 38:08 (7:38 average pace)

First LSR in quite a while yesterday, and nothing but a series of niggles these days. Yesterday, it was the glute, a sharp pain, but at least it didn't seem to affect my running, and it was gone pretty much once I had stopped. Been a while since I ran anything over six miles, so ten miles felt like a struggle. I have fallen well behind schedule in my training... Lovely day, though. Was working so the run was a nice extended lunch break

Distance: 10 miles
Surface: Pavement and bog road
Weather: Nippy but nice
Time: 1:16:59 (7:42 pace)

Working again today, so went for a quick cycle at lunchtime. Nineteen miles, tried to keep the cadence up and put some work in on the hills. I sound like a broken record, but I really need to put more bike work in. Maybe when the clock changes/weather warms up/the council fits the potholes :rolleyes:.

A friend of mine, a former pro cyclist, fitted some aero bars for me during the week. Fortunately for the team he used to cycle for that he wasn't the mechanic as I wasn't too far into the cycle when one of the bars came loose! They do seem to make a difference though, but a pain in the ass to transport the bike in the car since I had them fitted. Considering doing the Predator Duathlon in Clarinbridge next weekend, dependent on injury and my wife not giving birth between now and then!!

I think my father has become a fan of multi-sport spectating after the Rás na Nollag duathlon at home, so he volunteered to drive me down to Clarinbridge on Sunday for the Predator Duathlon (4k/13k/4k). Putting the bike in the back of his estate makes a big difference to jamming it in the back of my car, and I think I need to get some sort of rack as I'll only end up damaging the bike if I keep trying to shoehorn it into my boot.

A cold morning in Kilcornan woods, until the breeze died away and the sun came out. I met up with three colleagues, competing under the trysport.ie name (a loose ensemble as opposed to any proper club as yet). This was my first Triathlon Ireland event, and the long race briefing beforehand seemed more like a series of threats than a briefing. There are an awful lot of rules to break, and an awful lot of punishments to go with the rule-breaking!

I decided to approach the start of the race with a "hell for leather" approach, seeing as the run was short enough. The race started about 20 minutes late, and the 136 participants had run about 200 metres, only to find ourselves in the driveway of a private house. An errant sign and a lack of marshals on the first corner made for the slightly farcical sight of a lot of runners looking for the right race route. Eventually, someone had the gumption to shout “restart”, and we made our way back to the start.

When things finally started, the run route passed through a tight forest path, a really nice and adventurous beginning to the race. We were led out onto a backroad then, and into the forest again, this time on a slightly muddy logging road. I was really feeling the run early on, definitely outside my comfort zone, and already dreading the second running leg! The run came out onto the road briefly and then onto a leg-sapping boggy grass area. I was glad to get to the bike...

For the bike section, I decided to experiment with the shoes being in the pedals beforehand, and so pulled off my runners, grabbed the bike and ran. I had only practised getting my feet into the shoes while the bike was on the turbo, but real life is a whole lot different and I fairly stuttered my way into the shoes. Once I got going, I was okay, although I notice, using aerobars, that I really need to concentrate more on keeping a straight line and not to be weaving all over the place like a drunk cyclist! I also need to be more aware of upcoming corners, as I only saw the third (of four) corner late and had to brake hard, killing a whole load of momentum. In a continuing theme of experimenting, as I was approaching T2, I decided to take my feet out of the shoes while on the bike, but came to a shuddering halt when one of the shoes rolled back and hit the road. Fortunately, I stayed on the bike but four people passed me almost immediately!

The only duathlon I had done previous to this was a run/bike duathlon, so I had no real idea of what was in store for the second run. It was definitely tougher than I expected. My father was at the transition area, yelling some sort of encouragement. Apparently, I swore back at him! Early into the run, I was suffering. I wanted to puke, “go to the toilet”, and really wanted just to stop. I don’t recall feeling as uncomfortable in a race before. Then, out of nowhere, I heard someone shout that they were looking forward to reading the race report on boards, “Catweazle”, he shouts as explanation! Apparently, my father was chatting to one of the stewarts, who turned out to be Catweazle! Anyway, cheers Catweazle, as wondering how the hell you recognised me distracted me from my pain, and about half a mile into the run, I found some rythym again. I overtook one guy in the forest, but hearing him on my shoulder for much of the rest of the run, there was no letup and I was fairly shattered by the time I finished.

I have no idea what time I did as I set the Garmin on Multisport and screwed it up in the first transition I think. All I know is that I definitely went out harder than I normally would and felt it. I wouldn’t be at the level that a lot of these lads were at and trying to mix it with them was a bit silly, considering my training volume (or lack of). That said, I felt great after and was on a bit of a high.

The bike section was a real education, and I have a lot of figuring out, practise and training to do there. According to the bike computer, I averaged 18.1 miles an hour and was all over the place, technique-wise. I definitely need to concentrate more when using aerobars! As for the second run, I would imagine some bike to run sessions would help there, but I really felt the pain yesterday.

No results online yet, so I don’t know where I finished, I think it was somewhere in the mid-teens. Where ever I finished, I was bumped up two places as the first two home were disqualified for taking the junior route instead of the senior route. I have to say that I felt very sorry for them (Ruaidhrí Geraghty and another lad), as they hardly took the wrong route intentionally. I don’t know the in’s and out’s of the story and would be reluctant to comment too much, therefore, but I think some better marshalling would have sorted out the chaotic start and the winners being disqualified.

I had a chat with Catweazle afterwards, it was nice to meet a fellow A/R/Tiste in the flesh. He’s going well in training, anyone who goes out for a twenty mile run and ends up almost running a marathon by mistake! I met up with my trysport cohorts afterwards, we all enjoyed the day, the running route was lovely, and generally a good day out! Fair play to Predator Tri Club for organising it. Craughwell 10 next Sunday, and then, I need to put a bit of mileage in place for the Connemara Half.