Athlone Triathlon

Not bothered typing a separate report on the race; Here is what i wrote to Rich, my lovely coach type person. Anyone wants the powerfile i'll mail it to them.

Evenin monkey man,

Man Athlone is one well yet poorly orginised race... 2,500 people on some very very narrow roads. very very busy course on both bike and end of my run. Happy i can bike well or i'd have wanted to punch all the people who tried to draft on my wheel. I actually passed 3 guys from the same club doing up and over together. Pointless. Also shredded my feet on the roads for T1, lads, its pretty simple brush the ground and take up the glass FFS its not that complex.

Anyway...

49th Gregory May IRL - Belpark
Swim: 0:12:27 AG Pos:85 (load of horse shite this time is)
T1: 5:32 76
Bike: 0:37:56 AG Pos:31
T2: 5:09
Run: 0:20:02 AG Pos:104
Overall 1:21:05
Time from Leader: 0:17:04

Swim time is well wrong, everyone i talked to in my AG said the same thing, time on my watch was 11:18, not fast but at least it's coming down from earlier in the year. They changed the out and back to a down river swim, so i just sat in and relaxed, wasnt here to get thrashed wanted to do a hard bike/run so just chilled.

Transitions; no i did not stop and have a coffee, it was nearly a kilometer in and out on shite roadsurface and just a joke. Total disgrace in comparison to the 45 ITU racers, lets be honest 2,500 ppl, you'd expect a semi descent surface so you can actually run to your bike.

Bike was good, uphill and head wind out, then back at high speeds. Pushed hard ish, but well sub threshold on the way out, focused on steady, no spikes for a change. 244W avg way out, 238W back. Pushed hard on the way back on the hills. Constant gradual decrease in my HR which was odd, didnt pay attention to it, just kept power constant but no increase. May be time to re assess HR power in the lab again, if i get a chance i might try do it before i go to France. I'll stick up the .wko file later. (20km TT on Sat should give me an idea if FTP has changed)

Run: Another stupid transtion, then onto my legs. 20mins...watch said 18 something...but sure we wont argue. First off. Came onto my feet and felt strong, no jelly legs, nothing, hopped on a setanta lad and went for it. Felt good. about 3km in i started to not be able to breath (memories of childhood asthma) and started to panic, couldnt get a full breath in, so just eased off. Didnt go away but was bearable. First time i've been on for a fast run split and had to hold back, pissed off. I dont think i went to hard on the bike, but i have changed the position a bit and may not be used to it. Going to do some tweaking on the turbo tomorrow and see.

For a race that i kinda entered to go see my mate i'm happy enough, it was an experience, and good to get on the course just incase by some miracle i managed to qualify for it for next year. Saying that...if not i probs would avoid doing it again.

Anyway, enough typing, bored in work and just killing time.

Greg

Mid Season review and renew

Back into the grove this week, swim tonight, then back to it. If i train hard i can race hard. If i can think hard i can work hard. This is the plan, and this will happen. I've now resolved to do the following things:

• Bed by 10:30pm Sunday-Thursday - Fridays and Sat's i can go to 12 if a good film is on. Need to get my sleep cycle back in gear
• Up at 8am Monday - Friday - Sat and Sun depends on if i'm racing, or doing long sessions. Flexible but not stupid. Bed no later than 10am.
  
• Focus on my work and read 1 journal paper a day
• Reply to emails on the same day if they need doing
  
• Train with focus and dedication
• Make a little me time every week, but at the same time make time for others

Think that's it.... hopefully it'll actuall happen this time!

Overall not to happy with this summer so far, but things have been busy, and not everything has gone to plan. So i'll aim to rescue the season by turning out a PB in DCT (under 2:28) and 3 Peaks (under 4:45) so if i can do this i'll be happy. But more on that later :)

Feeling a little more motivated

The last 3 weeks have been hard. I've been about as motivated as a fish to leave water, i know i need to do it eventually, but lets be honest it takes allot of work.

Had a bit of a down week on training last week, just do what i wanted when i wanted to. Got some runs in, a few bike rides, even got out on my MTB. Hit the pool once, but should have done two anyway....

Saturday was spent standing around looking like a penguin at Andy and Aileen's wedding out in Celbridge. Great day for all, first time for me as part of the Bridal party and felt pretty important for the day. Nice chance to catch up with old friends, but didn't go to overboard with drinks, think i had less than 5 drinks in the whole day. Surprisingly easy to drink Coke and pretend there is something in it :)

Great day on Sunday, up late ish, off to a huge breakfast and then escape the hangover people and go to Wicklow for some trail running. Lashing rain, we first decided to go for a walk in our waterproofs...then i kinda cleared up...then just as we got changed it lashed. But we went out anyway. 6km run in 32mins on some very very wet rooty trails. Great day, nice easy pace but just loving being out with walkers clad head to toe in layers and us in shorts and t-shirts. Light is most definitly right.