Running up that hill !!

That glorious view my friends is an aerial shot of Killiney beach on the southside of Dublin, with Bray (more on that later) and the Sugarloaf ‘mountain’ in the background. This year I have elected to vary things by way of my training. Seven years into my triathlon journey, I feel i need to more than just regular training sessions and so like last year I have signed up with Leinster Open Sea, to swim purely swimming races. These are novel for me as a triathlete given once the swim is over, the race is run so to speak, theres no breathless running to transition to grab my bike. Its simply a swim. Now you might recall that I swam one Leinster Open Swim last year and promptly won it… well, I say ‘won’, technically I crossed the finish line first yes, but I was the only one wearing a westsuit while all the other swimmers weere swimming in togs. These races are also handicapped races to enable anyone to win the race, so my 4 minute handicap at the time was clearly not enough given I ws wearing a wetsuit. This time round things would be different as I was given a 12 minute handicap. So I would be starting my swim a full 12 minutes after the first swimmers took to the water. The great thing about these swim only races, is I am swimming against proper swimmers and thus given my lowly pedigree in the water there are zero exptectations of me.

And boy did I deliver on the no expectations front this time !! You see the moment the men entered the water for their race conditions turned much choppier than they had been for the womens race. In fact they were getting so choppy I started to have second thoughts about this race, a race that would be 1700 metres in total. However I was determined to face my fear of swimming in more turbulent waters, especially seeing as there were marshalls and kayakers keeping an eye on us as we made our way around, The waters in Killiney have a stronger current than in Seapoint where I usually swim, and it was for this reason I was wary of swmming to the furthest buoy about 650 m away from the swim entry position. But as I made my way slowly I got more and more confidence and before too log i was rounding the furthermost buoy. The challenge now was to swim parallel close to the beach all the way back. It was at this point that I felt like I was getting nowhere fast, I was being thrown from side to side, and ffinding it difficult to get into a rhythm and sight when I trued to see where I was going. Everytime I looked up to get my bearings The start line seemed the same distance away, but it couldnt be as I was making some progress when I looked right towards the beach. I simple thrashed away over and over again to the point where I was almost in a trance, it was a bit bizarre. Eventually the start / finish line came into view and I hauled myself out of the water after 40 minutes and over 1700m of swimming. One of the marshalls said to me that my handicap had been too high, as I came in 3rd last which to be honest didnt bother me. I felt my greatest achievement was just sticking it out and getting through my fear of rougher waters than Im used to.

A few days later I found myself on another beach, this time Bray beach even further south of Dublin again. This time for an aquathlon or aquathon, which involves a swim followed by a run. I had actually done this one before back in 2017 when I first entered the sport of triathlon. I had perfrmed quite well at the time getting 29th I recall. The sting in the tail of that race was the fact it left me with a stress injury in my shin because of the downhill part of the run. It was for this reason that I hadnt retirned since 2017, but thsi year I thought why not give it another go.

Thankfully there were a few from my club there too so i had some familiar faces to share the occasion with. The race involved a 750 m swim parallel to the beach, followed by a 5 km run which involved running along the seafront up Bray head hill to the car park and down to the pavillion twice. The swim was ok, the usual frenetic mass of bodies that you get in a mass swim start. The buoys werent easily visible so for much of the swim I just swam following others and not really knowing my direction, but it was ok in the end. Out of the water we got and off came the wetsuit and it was off on the run. Now for the seafront section of the run, its obviously very flat, so the key is to try to make up some time here, because you’re going to lose time running up Bray head, which as some points must be 10% gradient. I found myself behind two older runners who were runninga decent pace, so i stuck with them. I passed a couple but the third guy proved to be a bit harder to pass. It was in fact not until the second lap that i managed to pass him. The secret with passing is to do it convincingly as it prevents that person latching onto you as you pass. That strategy worked even though it was very tough, especially seeing as climbing the hill the second time had be completely gassed and almost at a crawl. Each time running down that hill I was careful not to pound the ground as I did so, and when i was back on flat terrain again I upped my speed. In the end, I crossed the line in 25th, although my run time was slower but Im not sure of the distance was exactly the same. It was great to get out there all the same, plus the sun shone which was fab.

Two in a row

Well these posts are like buses, wait for ages for one and two come along one after the other. So this week, I found myself in Kildare for the Athy Triathlon about an hour away from Dublin. Now I have raced here before, mostly recently being last year when I raced on a blisteringly hot day. prior to last year my last time racinig in Athy was in 2017 in my very first triathlon. Since then I must have done 40 triathlons give or take. This time round I was competing in the Olympic distance race which is double the distance I did last year. Now this isn’t my regular distance so I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get going with race but if I was going to rank officially in my age group again this season I had to comp;ete one Olympic distance race.

The day started out dull and quite cool. I lathered on the factor 50 though as I knew I’d be out on the course for 2.5 hours and even if there was a hint of sun, there would a chance to get burnt. I elected to avoid the melee of the swim that I experienced last week by starting at the front of the swim. When I say the front, I mean literally the front. It was a rolling start whoch meant we entered the water in pairs. I love this way to start the swim as its so calm relative to a mass start which pure chaos. Now I’m not the fastest swimmer but I planned to stay in at the bank away from the faster swimmers who would inevitably pass me quickly enough. All was going well till I had to readjust my goggles as they were letting in water. I had to do this three times which was annoying and robbed me of momentum as I was swimming upstream. But eventually the goggles decided to stay in place and I get into a good rhythm as I rounded the buoy to head back downstream. Remember this was a 1500m swim so I was careful not to go too hard at any stage, because it was going to be a long race.

Despite 3 stops to fix my goggles, I managed the swim in under 30 minutes, not too shabby at all. Out of the swim and then to transition which comprised of a long run which gave me ample time to take the top half of my wetsuit off. I chose to cycle in my runners and go barefoot, which meant running without socks. Having run without socks last week, I felt comfortable enough to attempt the 10km run sockless this week. But first I had to tackle the 40 km cycle.

When ever you’ve just swam any distance, transitioning to the bike is always a breathless experience. I had made up a small bottle of juice with 80 to 100 g of honey in it. I dont usually consume anything in a sprint distance race but this race would require some form of nutrition. I was breathing so hard that I nearly choked as I trued to down a couple fo mouthfuls of my sugar drink, but it was crucial to consume this liquid throughout the cycle as failure to do so meant I would be running on empty later in the race. The first 20km was fine but my back started to really hurt, and I was suffering quite a bit physically. It was frustrating being passed by so many on the bike but i had to remind myself of two things, one being the lack of training i had done at this distance and the fact that the people passing me all had bikes with fancy full disc back wheels, which help you bike faster and cost a fortune !! Finally after 1 hour 15 minutes the bike leg drew to a close and I was off on the run.

Again on the run I had another little bottle full of honey water. At this stage two things happened. I started to pass people whoch was a welcome change to my experience on the bike, and secondly the sun came out. The temperature started to rise quickly, but I felt ok. I had targeted running a 10km time quicker than my 10 km time of 44.44 albeit in a different race last year, but it gave me a target to aim for. It meant i had to run 4.25 per km which I was managing and indeed it was the case that I came home in 2 hours 33 which was enough for me to get 11 th in my age group. I was 149th out of 700+ triathetes. Again this isnt my preferred race distance so I was pleased enough. I actually ran 7th quickest in my age group so I feel if I can get more training in on the run, thats probably my best chance of improving in future, that is IF I ever do an Olympic race again !! There were a few times on the bike when I was swearing blind that I never would again !! We will see.

After the first race last week where I placed 9th in my age group, I was 16th in my age category overall in the rankings. No races now for a few weeks, thankfully, as 2 days later I’m still recovering from Saturdays !! I’m looking forward to doing a few Leinster open water swim races. Theres something very appealing about just doing one discipline instead of 3 in a row for a change !! 🙂