3.8km swim friday night didn’t exactly set me up for a great weekend but, having got up early Sat morning and headed out for a 6 hour bike ride things started to look up as the weather improved. After a quick hours kip I headed over to Harry’s for the game and what a game it was! delighted, the blue flags flying!! Had a couple of those Bulmers Pear ciders… warning, everyong drinking it in our group had the same problem..it cuts you guts to bits… Ferg Barry was hardest hit, but I heard Con also suffered. .. by the way, well done to Con and the team, great results !!
Sunday the sun was splitting the rocks so given that I had only got to do 2 hours on the bike Jan, Ollie and Ali and I headed off for a hike. Lovely day, nice long hike and when I got back got in the spin. Kipper has the BBQ going so down to him and Mel for grub.. Ate too much…….. Monday was an easy day, ran and swam but nothing too nuts. This weather is making matters alot easier!
Ran to Howth dart station and back last night, brought a couple of sweets to keep the energy levels up and stopped for an energy drink in Howth. Boring run, better I think to do laps of the park. Lads in work are up to 90 about the match tomorrow eve, blue flags everythere - in fact one fella got this flag made up for the event
. Will have to get 6 hour spin in tomorrow am so as to get to watch it over in Harrys…. but need to find time to run as well. In other news, Moody, who was taking at least 2 weeks off training after his race in Valentia went wrong, is back at it again.. that didn’t take long.. and Fitzy is now talking about racing in Kinsale and aiming high… he always was an ambitious fella….
Just saw a photo of me at the end of the run, looking tired cold and wet. Actually, thinking about it, it was an awful day! actually, thats just the start of the run now that i look at it….
Valentia Sprint was FREEZING!! It was reported that Steven Moody entered the water on all fours in reverse… in fairness I don’t blame him. Arrived down Friday night as a couple of Piranhas had rented the house and Fergus Barry and I booked a room… sadly it turned out to be a double room with a very small 4 foot double bed… Friday nights sleep was fraught with fear. Much tuning of bikes, talking race a quick spin around the bike course and it was off to bed. Anyway, up early for big breakfast followed by usual pre race nerves and many visits to trap 1 and 2… and indeed 3. The word on the street was that under the strict rules, the water temp was below the cut off for racing but given the distance most had come to do the race, it was go anyway.
it should be sunny for this lark
The swim was to be from the mainland over to the Island but due to the weather and the cold it was held inside the new marina area. I hated it all, I spent the entire swim in a state of total panic and considered giving up for a good while. I also deeply regretted signing up for IM Austria… anyway, out of the water things did improve but the weather was shocking. My bike wasn’t great but the panic had eased…It was a 300 meter dash up the road in the wetsuit to T1, where as usual i took too long getting the wet suit off. I must cut the legs a bit shorter. Onto the bike in a lovely new set of racing whips (thanks moody) and off for a 4km hill climb. My legs felt awful on the bike and my quads were burning like mad… (saddle too high by over 1.5 inchs), still managed to pass a good few people on the bike and caught sight of Conor barry in T2… feet blocks of ice and struggle to get into the racing flats but finally i was running and no matter what i did, i couldnt close the gap to catch him but finished 5 seconds behind him… Fair play to Conor, he left T1 still in the wet suit with his bike and went back to take it off! so he should have beaten me by much more! After the race there was none of your usual hanging about - it was still lashing down so straight back to the gaff for hot shower and feed. The usual banter started about who beat who etc and after a nap and a pint it was off to dinner… I hit the sack early as the Ironman plan was to get up in the am and cycle from Valentia towards Limerick and get picked up by the lads who were driving home when they passed me… I was woken by some drunken messers at 0530 am… i won’t name them or bother saying that there were demented and intent on some sort of ‘tea bag’ event.. however things settled down and i had my revenge at 0800hrs Sunday am. I hit the road and made an adjustment to saddle height which felt much better. The weather was also a lot nicer with a decent tail wind so it wasn’t until the dualer into Limerick that i was caught by Jay who brought me to Matt the Trasher for a feed and on home. Was pleased enought with the race (1hr 10min and 36th place out of c450) but even happier with the spin to Limerick the following day as getting off the Bike I really felt grand and I managed to stay in the tri position for almost all of the spin…. below bike route home…. slept very well Sunday night…
Headed out last night for my 2 hr run, all set to go to Howth and back or there abouts… about 25 min into it (running along the sea front) I spotted this fella coming towards me with the water belt, the skin tights etc… basically looking the total Iron Man. I had a sinking feeling at this stage and my worst fears were confirmed. It was indeed the Dark Lord ( Mark McCabe). I did try to keep running but was unable to and found myself running for the next 1h 45m with him. In all fairness, its much easier running long runs with others, and I did manage to cadge some sweets from him. I shortened my stride and did my tempo pieces… by the time I got home I was in bits and scoffed down a shake of recovery drink and then a large dinner. Did a decent gym today and heading down to West Wood early this eve for a quick 1000m before joining in with the swim session for another 2k ish.
This is the plan for the week..
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11-May
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RUN EASY AEROBIC 45 MIN hr < 145 / SWIM 45-60 MIN EASY DRILLING
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12-May
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RUN 2 HRS STEADY 1ST HR 135-145 THEN LAST HR 135-155 WITH 2 @ 10 MIN TEMPO 150-160 HR
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13-May
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GYM AND MASTER SWIM SESSION + 1000m aerobic
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14-May
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BIKE 2-3 HRS AEROBIC PACE 175-225W WITH 30 SEC SPIN UP EVERY 10 MIN (TO 350W)
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15-May
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GYM , SWIM 1.5K AEROBIC WITH DRILLS+
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16-May
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Valentia sprint
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17-May
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BIKE 6 HRS EASY PACE 180-220W
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………….Which isn’t too bad but the 6 hour ride on Sunday will be hard work I think! All the lads getting up to 90 about the sprint at the weekend.. personally i am undecided as to going with Zipp wheels or not. actually this isn’t a major issue, its hardly going to make much difference at the end of the day.
took weekend pretty easy, ran with fergus on saturday (see route below which was all done on that Garmin watch ferg got from his misses…. note it didn’t start working till a bit into the run.. still pretty cool bit of kit.. JAN???)
Went out on the new bike sunday in super weather to watch the racing.. all in all very chilled ahead of whats going to be a serious 3 week block. Getting closer now to IM and starting to get nervous when i think about it. have Valentia sprint to look forward to next saturday. I’m planning on racing hard on saturday and then getting up early on sunday and cycling for 6 hours back towards dublin, hopefully the lads can pick me up on the way home. I think i might just make it to Limerick which is about 180km… then I can kip in the car.
Conor Barry just bought a new tt bike for the race, Fergus is getting worried!
Went on Facebook the other night for the first time in ages to try to get this thing (fundraising) up and running… anyone reading this who hasn’t yet donated to a-z then get cracking..
photo of the new frame all built up below. delighted with it.. though not planning on naming the bike (moody!)
Valentia Tri is on in two weeks which is going to be a good laugh.. and on a more serious note it will be telling in relation to how much work people have done over the winter. I’m not sure what to expect as all my training is for IM, but I should still be faster than any sprint last year??? the real match up will be between the Barry bros with new to the scene Conor going head to head against Fergus.. in fairness to Ferg, it would be a big shock for Conor to beat him but still, look at Leinster Munster! I’ve heard on the grapevine that Conor is spending a lot of time with one of the Elite Athletes in the UK… and his swimming is very strong. anyway should be interesting…….
New bike
Back training hard again and neck nearly better .. still can’t look over my shoulder when pulling out in traffic which could be a problem. Ger Madden acted as my eyes for the last trip. can’t wait to get out on the new bike which looks fantastic. Gus is still thinking about a new bike … expect no decision soon…. dropped down to new lightweight… 76.8kg today.. dreaming about food all the time.. eating like a animal…
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