First real race of the season, and a week of exams before.

Well I've had an interesting week. We had two exams last week, day after day. Didn't think i'd studied enough for the second exam but it turned out i was ok. Got a little confused with the second section of the exam, questions sucked a bit, not much we can do about that though.

Got a decent amount of training even though i was studying. Most of it was just to keep the aul body ticking over to be honest. Training can move up a notch again next week cause then ill be out of exams. Still have one to do this week on Thursday, should be ok, nutrition exam, easy enough. Went for a swim session after the exam on wed, was quite tired but still cracked out a few 100's to work on my technique, hope to get a few decent sessions in over the next week, but i'll see how study go's.

Went for a n hour on the cyclocross bike on Saturday morning after work, needed to get the legs used to effort again before the race on Sunday. Only did about 18km but was nice to be out. Literally as i got home it started to rain, rained until late into the night. It seams to be the trend at the moment, dry in the morning, pisses all afternoon and evening. Went over to Andy's for the rest of the day, few of us met up an played Risk for a few hours, nice to just crash out with my mates and have a laugh. Good relaxing day before a race!

Then i woke up on sunday, i had hurt my shoulder (not the one i dislocated) on Sat evening. Dunno how, but it was tweeky on Sun morning. Said i would race so asked Mike to meet me rather than cycle to his. Drove out to the race, got there nice and early to see that most people had chickened out due to the weather. It looked like it was going to lash for the race but it stayed off until i got home after the race! Race was good. 3.2km run around Punchestown race course, nice rolling course, followed by a 20km ride, then the run again.

The bike section i had remembered from last year was tough, Quick 1km decent, followed by a 7.5km constant climb, quick decent then back. I decided to ride the road bike, mainly cause i want arsed building the TT bike for it to get dirty, and cause i wanted to work with power to see a few ideas ive been toying with. Decided that power would have to stay above 250W min on all the climbs, let it drop on the decents to get my rest. This is the plan i want to use for the Ironman, get my places on the climb, recover and eat on the descents. Pushed a little on the last decent cause i knew i could catch Sean after the turn around.

Power, cadence, and Speed for the cycle leg.

Both the run's went well, felt good on the first one but i had decided to take it easy. Felt good on the way out to the second run, couldn't push any speed but i was able to keep pushing the whole way. Workin on my Ironman shuffle! w00t! Did a 1:12:12 overall, much faster than last year, but hopefully i can get faster on the other two races in the set.

HR and Altitude for the whole race (smoothed too 1min)

5km road race, run, on in Raheny at the weekend. Might do it as its only down the road, see what happens and if my ankle ain't still sore.