My race preparation for this triathlon included spending the weekend before it in bed with some sort of chest infection (it’s still causing the odd cough three weeks later) and about two weeks with minimal exercise. On the plus side the lack of exercise meant my calves weren’t sore.

The event was organised by the Triangle Triathlon Club and based out of the Roe Valley leisure centre. Here’s the report:

Organisation / Route

I arrived at the centre about 15mins before the advertised registration time and the organisers were busy setting up the transition area / finish line. I went in to register, there were no signs but a few Triathletes who were helpful as always and pointed me in the right direction.

After I registered I headed outside, got my bike and went round to the transition area. It was well laid out considering the space available and partly on grass which is always nice when you’re going to be running in bare feet. Once set up I went inside and found a locker (the advantage of being based in a leisure centre). The organisation was a bit ropey here as lots of people were running round wondering if they and missed the briefing but it turns out they were doing it just before each wave at the poolside. As for the waves this is where the organisation shined, it went like clockwork and we started on time.

The bike ride was well signposted and marshalled/policed, it was a lot more hilly than I thought it would be and on the day very VERY windy. It was out and in so at least every hill we went up we knew we got to come down it. The return into T2 was well marshalled also, but there was quite a distance to do on very cold bare feet before I got on to the grass (the Portlouise Tri had carpet all the way).

The run was nice and flat with a slight incline out but again this meant we got to come down it on the way back. It was marshalled at every turn except one and I know I wasn’t the only one to miss this and be corrected by passers by / car drivers.

Competitors

A good mix of experience and novice people at this one. Once more there were plenty of the fitter competitors offering encouragement to this fat boy.

Supporters

There was lots of people round the pool and a good handful made it out to the entrance/exit of the transition area. Karys Wilson was there to see a few people she knew and was in great voice, hearing her in the pool, and transition was a much needed boost.

Freebies

We were promised a T-Shirt but got a CD of some local country singer instead I like free T-Shirts but I guess they didn’t get it organised in time.

My Race

Like I said I wasn’t feeling great and had through of pulling out but then realised I was actually a man so got on with it. Here’s the breakdown:

Swim - 14:47 (90th)
I didn’t feel great in the swim but was in a lane full of people faster than me so I just tried to not be over taken much.

T1 - 1:24
Once again I took too long to get my shirt on over my wet back.

Cycle - 44:11 (113th)
I crossed the mount line gingerly got on the bike and the chain came off, rather embarrassing. I didn’t feel strong on the bike either and the wind made for a tough ride. Only got over taken a few times and actually over took a few people myself.

T2 - 1:34
My dismount was much better than my mount but my feet were cold and it was very sore on the concrete (I know I’m a wouse). Got my shoes on quickly and I was away.

Me leaving T2

Run - 24:52 (122)
The first half of the run I was happy enough but not overly pushing myself, when I got to the half way stage I realised that I actually felt really good and had loads of energy left. So I picked up the pace a little and actually kept under 8min/mi for the last 2.5Km (that’s good for me).

Overall - 1:26:45 (114)
With 158 competitors I was once again in my 2/3 – 3/4 the way down the table position but I knocked 3mins off my time in the last triathlon, however I’m far from happy with it. I had been putting in good swim times and cycle times before this and would liked to have been much faster in both. After I finished I spent about 10minutes coughing but felt okay apart from that.

The next day my calves were still fine and in fact the sorest part of me was my back from the go-karting I did after the Triathlon.

The past two weeks….

Through Karys I’ve made two more Twitter friends who were doing the Triathlon @lisam75 (windymillar.posterous.com) & @austinslide (couchpotatotoironman.blogspot.com/) they are both newcomers to the sport so it’s interesting watching their training. They’ve put me to shame over the past few weeks, keep it up you two. It turns out as I was leaving I stopped to offer @lisam75 help to get her bike into the car, it’s nice to make a good first impression but the crowd at Triathlon’s are always offering each other help and encouragement, it’s a very friendly sport.

It’s been two weeks since this triathlon and my cough has cleared up but I’ve not been doing much training, I haven’t swam yet, and yesterday was my first cycle. I have ran a few times and it’s been good. I’ve done a 3.4mi @ 8.13min/mi and a 1.5mi @ 7.08min/mi.

I’m planning to hit it hard the next few weeks. I’ve the 100Km Coastal Challenge on the 20th June so I need to get a few miles in before that and I want to work on the running see if I can get the 7min/mi to last for the full 5Km or get up to 10Km without the calves going.

Journey South

I’m going to try and do a “race” report on each of the triathlons I do this year, partly to document how I do and partly to give you info on the event should you wish to try it for yourself.

For my first triathlon of the year I opted for the PortLoaise Try-Athlon organised by the Trilogy triathlon club. I basically picked this one because the date suited and I did my first triathlon there last August. Also I wanted to do one more as a 32 year old since I turned 33 today. The 170Mi journey down meant I needed to stay overnight in a hotel the night before but I enjoyed spending part of my evening flitting between the swimming pool and jacuzzi.

Organisation / Route

Trilogy opened the registration the night before which allowed me to find the leisure centre and get registration out of the way, letting me concentrate on the event and setting up my transition area on race day.

With 200 competitors for a pool based swim they needed to arrange 8 waves, with mine being the first to head out. This had the obvious problems with so many people but we started just after the planned time and my lane worked quite well. As for the groupings there’s wasn’t a huge difference in our swim speeds, therefore I was only overtaken twice and only had to over take twice so no one was particularity hindered, unlike one of the triathlons last year when I had to over take a guy 10 times in 20 laps. The counters were very clear and aided the overtaking process.

Transition Area

The transition area had plenty of space and operated on a first come first serve basis meaning I was able to pick an easy to remember spot to set up my bike. The pool exit was only a few meters from the transition area but the transition of the bike was about 300meters. They had plenty of mats down so running in your bare feet was comfortable.

The bike ride was well marshaled. It was a single loop which included some country roads with twist and turns as it rolled up and down some small hills. Not overly tough but not perfectly flat either.

The run was also well marshaled with some water handed to you at the half way stage. It was an out and in course that climbed on the way out leaving a comfortable downhill run in before a lap of the astroturf pitches round to the finish line.

The race was a sprint 750m swim, 19Km cycle and 5Km run.

Competitors
The people involved ranged from total beginners -> vets and as it was also the event for an inter-varsity competition there were lots of university Triathlon club competitors there. I was talking to some the QUB guys, they were very friendly and finished around 1h 10m. The winning time was 1:00:44 and no surprise it was one of the inter-varsity competitors.

Supporters

There was plenty of buzz around the pool but outside there wasn’t as many people, however I was in the first wave and wave 3 was still in the pool as I finished so maybe this picked up later on. The marshals all offered support as we passed and as always with triathlons the other more experienced and fitter competitors were full of encouragement.

Freebies

You get a nice running shirt.

My Race

The lead up to the event wasn’t great with the previous two weeks hindered by injury, bad weather and stupidly timed training change. 1) the week before the week preceeding the triathlon I did circuits in work and could hardly more for 4 days lol, 2) Very bad weather meant I didn’t get out on the bike that week either, 3) I was in a road race the Monday before the triathlon and my right calf went again about 2.5Km in, I ran another 2.5Km on it and stopped due to the pain. After a week of ice and rest the pain it had eased but was still sore on the morning of the Triathlon. Anyway excuses over….

Not looking my best (photo from http://www.trilaois.ie/Photos.html)

SWIM – 14:35 (52nd)
The swim went great I beat my PB by 30sec to finish it in 14m 5s , with the run to transition taking this to 14:25.

T1 – 1:09
This went well, since all I had to do was put on my t-shirt, gasses and helmet (the shoes were on the bike). However the t-shirt got stuck on my back and I put my arm through the neck at the start.

Cycle – 43:06 (111th)
My calves were sore when I tried to push too hard and on any other day this would have been  faster, so I’m a bit disappointing at this. The positive I can take is that getting into and out of my shoes on the bike worked well, even though I’d only practised it a sum total of two times. The run from the dismount to the transition area hurt really bad and I really did think about giving up here but just remembered Mark’s effort last year after he put his back out before the Triathlon and still finished (trying to forget that he’s still having problems) and Lance’s quote about failure. I averaged 16.7mph on the Garmin but definitly was holding back.

Starting run in some pain (photo from http://www.trilaois.ie/Photos.html)

T2 – 47sec
I was really limping through T2 so not the fastest. Also I had take off an extra shirt i had put on for the cycle but in hindsight I would have been fine without this.

Run – 30:33 (157th)
I forced myself through the run by taking small steps. It was sore and my time was about 5-6mins down on what it should have been.

Over all – 1:29:58 (116th)
My target was 1h 30m so I guess I should be happy I hit it, especially considering the injury but I’m really feeling the best I’ve done in every other way so it could have been much quicker.

It was a great day, great event and hopefully something to build on over the summer. Good one to use for your first triathlon or if like me you’ve only done a couple.

PortLaoise Try-Athlon 2010

Hopefully my sore leg from Monday’s running race has recovered by now and I’m about to set a sub 1h 30min time in this standard Sprint Triathlon (750m swim, 20Km cycle & 5Km run).

Last night I stayed in The Killeshin and hopefully after my pasta dinner I will have enjoyed a light swim, a sit in the sauna and jacuzzi before catching an early night.

This is the first Triathlon I’ll be doing using clip in pedals, this requires me to jump on the bike in my bare feet and pedal with my feet on to of the shoes until I reach a decent speed and safe area to slip my feet into the shoes and fasten the Velcro strap. Likewise at the end I need to slip my feet out on the approach to the transition area, pedal with my feet on top of the shoes and smoothly step of the bike when I enter the transition area. Wish me luck with that!!

The Triathlon has 8 waves, which basically means there are 8 different starts to the race. They have grouped people together with others who will complete the swim in the same time and I’m in the middle bracket (12-15minutes) as I will hopefully finish the 750m swim in 14m 40sec. If each wave takes between 15-20 mins this means that I could be finishing before some of the other have started, which will be a little weird.

The last time I did a race in PortLaoise I came 27th of 37 males, so here’s hoping I’m a little higher up the table here. There’s well over 100 males and about 1/3 of them are racing as part of the National Intervarsities Triathlon 2010 series. So lot of very fit 22 year olds to make me look bad. Unfortunately despite 8 months of (light) training since the last time I was here I’m the same weight but April, May, June are the months I best lose it.

Swim - Run - Cycle

With Easter almost upon us and hopefully some good weather on it’s way (they’ve promised a BBQ summer again) it’s time to ramp up the training. I’ve a couple of events next week, Monday a 5Mile running road race in Whitehead (I’m not sure if I’ll finish this let alone do well) and on Saturday 10th April just days before my 33rd birthday I’ll be taking part in the Portlaoise Sprint Try-athlon.

While I’m not overtly fund raising this year (since you were all so generous last year) I have asked for some sponsorship around work and will be doing next week’s event to raise money for a small charity called Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group if you would like to give money to this worthy cause you can do so on their donation’s page or see me before this Monday. Hopefully Dave R and Mark T will be joining me on Monday and also David Marshall , who’s wife got me into the run.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Run

For the triathlon I’m on my own so if anyone fancies a 4:30am start you’re welcome to come down with me. After that I’ve a about 6weeks before the Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon and then the next one I’m down for will be on 1st August in Lisburn. One week later I hope to do my first Olympic Triathlon in Castlewellan, (I’ve a feeling the cycle in this one might be a killer). Then I have the final and now annual trip to the Tri an Mhi Quarryman Triathlon hopefully Mart T, Dave R, Stephen A, Niall J and Ian C will be joining me for this one. I’ll be hoping to improve on last year’s 104th position.

All that only leaves July without an event so I’ll be joining Nev & co in the Coastal Challenge, 100Km round the Ards Peninsula.

Anyway as you can see my life and therefore Blog / Twitter / Facebook updates will continue to be pretty boring and nerdy sports updates but hey it’s better than your posts about coffee, traffic jams, Glee etc. (well to me anyway).

I really need to start being more careful with what I eat to get in shape as I’ll be booking my second triathlon of the year tonight, it’s another Sprint and is in Derry on 15th May.

A friend wanted updates so here we go with an update on the past month….

I passed semester one of my PCDFHE and am currently trying to get this semester’s assignment rolling. Life in the new school in work is good but I’m still spending most days helping the ICT guys set up and fix the new networks, I’m looking forward to the upcoming redesign of the school websites in my beautiful 27′ iMac.

I’ve tried to keep up exercising over the winter months but after a couple of weeks of slacking I decided I needed to set myself a focus so I’ve signed up for a Sprint Triathlon on April 10th 2010. Tomorrow I’m heading into work a little later to get the dawn light and cycle as I’m busy all day Saturday and wont get out on the bike for the third week running.

Tonight is Liverpool vrs Arsenal round at Shanky’s, tomorrow is the school formal, Friday is a fun night with my nephew and Saturday is band practise followed by some bag packing fund raising in Sainsbury’s. Then it’s Sunday and playing in church.

That’s all the exciting news from my life and I think you can see why I don’t update often these days.

I’m now rushing out the door so I’m not even going to proof read this for speeling mistooks.

Monday sees the first day in the new school with pupils. We will be working on setting up computers for the few weeks. I’ll probably not get to set up or use my new 27′ iMac for ages:-(

What I’m most looking forward to is the brighter mornings and being able to cycle to work and get a warm shower when I get in. I’m also hoping to use the gym in work. Not sure how it will work but it looks good.

The main focus is obviously going to be triathlons once again. I hope to shift 3 stone this year and compete in an Olympic Triathlon. I’ve an eye on a few but will confirm at a later stage. The one solid date we have is the Quarryman in September alongside Mark and Dave there are a few Sion men joining us for that one I think both married to women I once chased so obviously I would like to beat them but they are very fit. lol Glad you boys are joining us in the Tri world.

The next week however will be focused on finishing off my uni reports. I can’t wait to get this year over me. This will definately be the last university course I do. No masters and most certainly no doctorate regardless of what my course director (and ex employer) says.

I’m posting this on my iPhone using the wordpress app. It didn’t worklast time I tried but there have been updates since to WordPress and the App and it now appears to be working. So maybe there’ll be a few more blog posts to come.

Right now I’m round at Mark and Claire’s house so I’ll end the post here and get back to the craic of planning Sunday school lessons and PowerPoint.

I got a quick catch up with Dave Allen last night as he, Stacey and the family are over for a wee trip. Was good to see them and I hope we’ll see a little more of them over the holidays.

It’s that time of year when we reflect so here’s my reflections and targets for the next year. No resolutions just targets.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Three Amigos at the finish line

The past year has been an interesting one: I’ve lost (and kept off) 2.5stone, completed two triathlon sprints, passed the first half (PGCFHE) of my teaching qualification and seen the engagements of a few wonderful friends.

The plans for next year are:

1. Finish my PGDFHE
2. Find a teaching job
3. Read my Bible more
4. Lose at least another 2.5stone
5. Complete in an Olympic triathlon
6. Improve my time for the Quarryman Sprint Triathlon
7. Spend less money
8. Redesign the @TheCastle website

n.b. they are not necessarily in order of importance. As you can see Facebook and Twitter will once again be full of updates about running, cycling and swimming but hey it’s better than the stupid random updates seen on most pages.

I’ve been keeping up some training since the summer and have thankfully got out for a cycle most weekends, and until recently at least one run a week sometimes more. Unfortunately training over Christmas will be limited to swimming and biking as I’ve to take a break from running while I’m attending physio to sort out my calves. I’ll not be on the bike for the next few days either because my calves are very tender after taking a real bashing from the physio yesterday, there’s a few bruises and lot of pain. I’m such a wouse! LOL

The event was fantastically organised by Tri Ah Mhi. They had so many marshal’s out there was no way anybody could have taken a wrong turn (although one girl from Newry did manage to to over a roundabout when she should have turned right). The weather was fantastic sunny with no wind and the other great factor was the level of support all around the event.

To give some background this was the original event Mark suggest I enter to give me motivation to train over the summer. As it had an open water swim I needed a wetsuit so about 6 weeks ago I decided to order a wetsuit. I wanted to get a wet suit that would fit me once I lose all the weight I have to lose and was delighted to find the 2XU do a suit that is a medium solid for people my height weighing between 12s 4lb and 13st 12lb and since I was losing 2lb a week I figured I might be close in time for for the race. Unfortunately my weight lose slowed and I only got down to 14st 9lb and while my suit fitted me (with some help from Dave) there wasn’t any room for breathing.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Swim

Swim: 19:15.68 (91/160)
For the swim I couldn’t get enough air doing front crawl so I switched to back stoke (I’m probably only a little slower doing back stroke but it was hard to navigate in the open water and I ended up zigzagging back and forwards. On the plus side I got a bit of sun on my face.

Transition 1: 03:07.60 (117/160)
When I was getting out of the wetsuit I was light headed from lack of oxygen and nearly fainted twice. It took some time and with the help of the transition bars to stay upright and get my kit on I finally got out and on my bike.

Cycle: 58:22.97 (95/160)
The cycle was very enjoyable and it was nice to actually have people around me (although drafting wasn’t allowed). There were plenty of hills to test the legs and I think I worked hard enough with an average heart rate of 170bmp and max 187bpm, I guess I maybe could have put in more work on the downhill sections but hey there’s always next year.

Transition 2: 00:42:76 (64/160)
This was smoother, I had recovered from my dizziness and was actually complemented on my dismount (I had been practising). It takes me a wee second or two more than average because I need to put my knee support on.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Run

Run: 32:09:24 (97/160)
Ohhh man this was tough. Running is my worst discipline and when you throw in three laps with a big hill it gets tougher knowing what’s ahead but the noise from the finish line and all the supporters spurred me on. Again I worked hard on this with average heart rate of 174bpm and max 184bpm.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Finish Line

Over all: 1:53:38:25 (96/160)
Tough as it was I really enjoyed the race and can’t wait until next year to try it again, hopefully 2 or 3 stone lighter.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Three Amigos at the finish line

The downside to the day was for Mark who hurt his back putting on the wetsuit but still managed to to make it through the race and beat me by about 30 or 40secs (I don’t know his times yet), he’s one tough wee man.

Tri an Mhi 09 - Mark in pain

Dave having only trained for only about 4 or 5 weeks proved his super fitness again by beating me, finishing about 8mins ahead.

Tri an Mhi 09 - All the gang

We had a great weekend apart from the Triathlon with Elia, Claire, Cara, Noah, Luke and Leah all joining us for two night staying near the event. Since finishing I’ve had a break from training and diet but it all start again in the morning and to help keep the cycling going over the winter I’m going to get a mountain bike.

More pictures on my facebook page.

Thanks to everyone who donated money, texted, facebooked etc. to encourage us. It’s not to late to add to the sponsorship money for Cancer Research UK at http://www.justgiving.com/dermois/

Swim Cap First

Anyway it was today and here’s the report.

After eating pasta all day yesterday and drinking lots of water and electrolyte drinks on Friday Mark and I travelled down to Portlaoise and had an early night (kinda was warm and hard to sleep with excitement). We hot up early but faffed about a bit and were behind our timetable.

We set up the bikes, helped a few girls with their bike and getting the tires pumped up and then realise we didn’t know how to get to the next place. There was a distinct lack of Triathlon signs!! We followed a guy and arrived a bit late at the T2 area. After the briefing we got a bus back to the swimming pool and we were good to go.

The Race

Because of the pool swim there were three waves, I was in the first. The people in the lanes were meant to have guessed their time, as it happens they all all thought they were faster than they were and I was the opposite. The rules stated you could only over take at the end of the lane so I spent many laps just sculling water behind a slow person. I was ragin’ because the excitement of the race had me buzzing and I was swimming faster than I’ve ever done. In the end with all the hold ups I was second out of the pool at a time of 8mins 52sec but it could easily have been 7:30 – 8:00. Distance 440m

The Heritage Challenge Triathlon 2009 Mark Cycle

Even though I messed up the transition I passed the other guy as we got on the bikes and I started at the front of the race all the way to the start of the run. The bike ride was hard to keep focused but I managed to keep my average up a little on normal (17mph) at 17.83mph. Finishing in 36mins 36sec. Distance 19Km. http://connect.garmin.com/player/11701226

I messed up T2 a good bit. Was a little over excited and took my left shoe off to put my knee strap on my right knee. At this stage a girl and guy caught up with me. I then started the run and the first 400m are hard but after that it was not bad. However the guy with me pointed out that I still had my helmet and glasses on, so I threw them in the bushes to get later.

The run was quite hilly with an awful climb over the last half mile but thanks to my running mates I managed to keep a pace under 9m/mi and on the last hill left them both behind. Only to have the the guy sprint past me at the last minute. We were only passed by two people on the run so I ended up being the forth across the line. My time of the run was 30mins 43 sec. Distance 5.5km http://connect.garmin.com/player/11701225

However there were two other waves to come and the last one had all the big hitters in it.

By the end I finished 27th out of 37males in a time of 1h 19m 18sec I’m over the moon as at just under 15stone I’m still about 3.5stone over weight.

The Heritage Challenge Triathlon 2009 Mark Finish

I was doing it with Mark but he got a bad cramp on the bike which dogged him on the run and resulted in his time being a few second down on mine. I reckon he would have been about 5 or 6 minutes quicker otherwise. But being as over competitive as I am Ill take it as me beating him and overlook the injury. lol

Great day out the sun shone, we both finished and I think are both rather bitten by the Triathlon bug. The Next one is on the 12th September and is a longer open water swim of 750m, a longer cycle of 25K and the same distance of run at 5K, we heard today that the cycle is quite hilly but it will be fun regardless. My target for that one is 1h 30m.

You can sponsor me at: http://www.justgiving.com/dermois/

A big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me already.