Organisation / Route

The registration only had two lanes poorly marked out as to which one to use, transition wasn’t grouped or numbered and  briefing was was a little late. However. on the course there were plenty of marshals and a few police officers. The corners were coned off which was great as we got to go through a few red lights, however there was one set of lights that we went straight through and we had to stop if red.

Competitors

There were 126 competitors on the day and many were newbie as with most sprints. The most important ones were my friends, Dave, Niall and Rob. Niall raced in Wave 2, Dave & Rob wave 3 and I was in wave 4.

Supporters

Plenty of room at pool side and there was a good number although very quiet. On the bike leg it’s hard for supporters to get to see any racing and as a result my Jim and Lesley didn’t get any shots of my on the bike. The run was good for supporters as it was 6 laps of football pitches.

Freebies

We got a cotton t-shirt, it’s quite nice but I prefer to get one I can use for training in.

My Race

My neck affected my swim a bit, I found it a bit stiff when trying to breath and ended up lifting my head to far out as a result. I also felt a little short of breath at times but in the cycle I was feeling really good and had I kept my focus more I could have been quicker.

Poor Swim Technique

Swim - 14:58 (39th)

Like I said I struggled a bit with my neck but it wasn’t that bad, I probably dropped about 45seconds. Apart from one guy (with an Ironman tattoo) everyone in my lane was much quicker so I was lapped a few times and being the nice guy I am I went out of my way to make it easy for them, at times messing up my stroke as I went to close into the ropes. I didn’t manage to get in anyone’s slipstream for more than a few seconds so it was pretty much just me working as hard as I could.

T1 – 1:20 (17th)

I had taken my t-shirt to pool side and therefore putting it on as I ran to T1 cut my time down. I did take a few seconds to have a swig of water before I went, not sure why but hey. My mount was a cautious one after the past few failed attempts to do a flying mount on race day.

Cycle – 38:57 (58th)

I settled into the bike quickly and felt strong throughout. I passed about 6 people and got passed by 3 (one of whom I caught again). There was a longish hill that was into a headwind but I was able to get into the tri-bars and didn’t really feel the effect of the wind that much. However, at one stage I nearly went down as my front wheel got stuck in a grove on the road  while in the tr-bars and I only just manage to keep it upright. I think I could have given a bit more as I lost focus a few times and slowed up. Area’s of lost time: I got stopped at the red lights both times round, when I passed a guy with a puncture I slowed down and gave him a tube and at the end I went into the wrong carpark.

T2 – 1:06 (52nd)

With a good dismount I kept going through T2 and despite a slip when I overshot my place in the rack I was happy with T2

Run Fat Boy Run

Run – 28:00 (94th)

I was really struggling with the run, I’ve hardly ran in months and being the in the last few to finish (since I was in the last and fastest wave) was a bit of a physiology battle but the other guys had finished and Jim and Dave in particular were cheering me on. I averaged 9min/mi which is 30sec/mi quicker than last tri. My laps times were 04:53, 04:37, 04:38, 04:34, 04:40 & 04:39. Thoughts: I need to run more.

On the run I was really feeling the extra 4stone I’m carrying round with me. Thoughts: hurry up and just lose the weight fat boy!

Overall – 1:24:20 (58th / 126)

On the whole I’m happy enough. I took two minutes off my best time for a sprint triathlon and did it with very little training in the build up and with a sore neck and chesty cough, so I’m very happy. It was nice to beat Niall but it was all in the swim and he has really only started swimming in the past year, so come next year I think he’ll be much faster, he took about 8 minutes of his time from last year. The hero of the day was Dave who came 16th with a time of 1:15:14, well done Dave!

The next Triathlon is the Tri the Lough Sprint Triathlon on Saturday week. It’s an open water swim in Lough Macrory, with the cycle being two laps of a course and the run being two laps of the lough.

Browns Bay with Ian

Today was my third bike trip in the past few weeks, before which I hadn’t been on the bike since September. I’d like to say I have amazing residual fitness and muscle memory but sadly no the 32 miles were tough and as I came up the last wee hill my quads were starting to crap every time I got out of the saddle (which in itself was an effort to ease the pain cause by the saddle).

Over the past few weeks my Triathlon training has started in earnest. I’ve fitted in a good few swims and a few cycles but only the one run which didn’t go great as my calf, which has kept me from running for many weeks, went after only one mile.

I have signed up for my first two sprint triathlons of the year TriLaois, Portlaoise in April and the Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon, Limavady in May. Hopefully Dave and Ian will get into TriLois as they are 4th and 5th on the waiting list and they will both be at Roe Valley if all goes to plan, along with Niall. I also get to race to against my Twitter friend Lisa who has been training hard all winter and will be tough to beat. I did them both last and have the race reports online TriLaois & Roe Valley.

Bike in Bath

It was a wet and dirty road today so I had to give the bike a good clean and in an effort to ensure it dried in time I’m trying the bath method.

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).