Bala Middle Distance 2010

Bala Middle Distance was to be my first race of the season and a practice run for my fast-approaching Ironman.

Despite placing towards the left of the swim course to give myself a chance at a fast start, as the left hand side of the course is the straightest route, I managed to get off to a pretty slow start.  I swam just behind Alvin Cooney who, I noticed, was getting bashed by people around him.  I didn’t fancy that sort of treatment so stayed well back, eventually moving to the right after a 150m or so to swim out of the congestion.  Apart from a couple more slight collisions with swimmers who were determined to zig zag their way to the finish, the swim up to the buoy was trouble free.  The disadvantage to this approach was that I didn’t draft off anybody’s feet.  As we approached the buoy, my goggles filled up with water in my left eye, making it difficult to sight.  I assumed the turnaround buoy was after the small boat in the water so I continued swimming past the turn!  Only when I stopped, cleared my goggles and looked up did I notice that I’d overshot the buoy by a couple of metres!  My clear vision was short lived, however, as Alvin came through the turn and kicked me in the face!  From the turn, I looked up to see a handful of people ahead of me in the swim, yet I seemed to be cruising – this race was going well!  I followed Alvin and a small group of other swimmers for the most part of the 800m or so swim to shore.

From about 50m from shore, the water level was really shallow and before I knew it, my hands were scraping against the stones on the bottom of the lake.  I could see people standing up to walk the last 20m towards shore, but I had decided to swim as far as I could in shallow waters to avoid hurting my feet on the stones!  With 5m to go it was time to stand up and head towards transition.  For the first time in my short triathlon history, I stood up and felt good – as usually I feel a little dizzy coming out of the water.  I had a really comfortable swim, feeling in control of my stroke and my breathing, and had come out of the water 19^th fastest of the day in 29.26.

From the photos I’ve since seen, my run to transition looked good, stripping off my wetsuit as I ran towards my bike.  Why it then took me another three and a half minutes to get out of transition is predominantly down to faffing!  In my transition spot I had laid out a yellow towel which I was able to spot easily – so no problems there.  Apart from removing the wetsuit, which came off surprisingly easily, transition consisted of putting on two pairs of socks (run socks underneath thicker socks to keep my feet comfortable and warm on the bike), two watches (one Garmin for pace and heart rate and one watch on timer to remind me to eat), heart rate monitor, number belt, shoes, helmet, glasses and then, following a quick drink of water I was away!

Starting the bike, my HR was very high.  My priority for the next couple of kilometres was to take it easy and get my HR down to a level I was happy with.  My strategy for the race, following my own training and the advice I have read in books and magazines on Ironman pacing, was to keep my HR in my aerobic zone – somewhere at or below 152.  By doing this, in theory I would have the energy to run well off the bike.  However, this was proving difficult.  Rather than slow down and wait for my HR to drop to this level, I decided to keep my pace steady, and my perceived effort moderate, and let my HR come back down when it was good and ready!

Usually, the bike leg is the most demoralising part of my race.  I tend to be out of the water relatively near the front, which means that all those uber-bikers who can’t swim (!) take their revenge and fly past.  The bike course is 82k long – 41k to the turnaround and then retrace your steps back to transition.  After the first 20k, when all the initial climbs were conquered, I was able to pick up a little speed and allow my HR to get back to normal during the descents.  The next 20k to the turnaround point were great (which consisted of some flat sections and some downhill sections).  I felt really good, spinning a nice gear, drinking and eating well and keeping pace with those ahead of me, only being overtaken by relatively few people.  A quick stop at the feed station to refill my aero bottle on the front of my bike saw me lose about 10 places as people zoomed by.  No matter.  I wasn’t comfortable refilling on the go so no point trying to do it on the move and dropping it – I’m sure that would cost me more than 10 places.  Water bottle topped up, I was away for the second half of the bike leg. 

I was really pleased with this section of the bike.  I had energy.  I was spinning up the slight (and not so slight) inclines nicely.  I was actually overtaking!  This bit of the bike is good because you can see people coming the other way – and I could see how many people I was still ahead of.  I have done this race twice before and each time I have felt that this is the worst section of the course.  It is mostly uphill so requires a bit of strength in the legs.  There is also a steep climb (10% gradient) to be tackled about 20k from home, which I really dread.  This time, when I got to the top of the hill, after overtaking lots of people on the way up, I remember thinking ‘is that it?’  Wow.  What a feeling!  That, I am sure, is the Ireland effect.  The week spent cycling with Mersey Tri in Ireland helped me enormously, particularly on the hills.  The last 20k of the bike is fast, as we retrace the climbs we tackled in the first 20k.  Feeling good, and having energy and strength on my legs, I pushed some big gears on the way back into town, again passing people as I went.

Obviously I had lost a lot of places on the bike leg, I expected that.  However, it was nice to see lots of empty spaces in transition, meaning that most people were still out on the bike course.  I managed to complete the bike leg in 2.44.29 (of the 628 competitors to finish I was 263^rd fastest of the day), averaging over 30k per hour – whilst feeling relatively fresh for the run – so I was pretty pleased with that.

For the run, I was going to adopt the same strategy – to try and keep my HR in the aerobic zone, which for running is below 158 for me.  The biggest problem on the run is starting to fast.  My legs were used to pedalling quite a high cadence on the bike and they wanted to do the same on the run.  Using my Garmin watch to monitor my pace and heart rate, I slowed my run right down to 5 minute per kilometre pace to start with, and this remained consistent until about 7k when the hill arrived.  The course is a rolling course, with very few flat sections, but the description of this part of the course definitely changes from rolling to hilly!  According to my Garmin stats, in one kilometre, the road rises 50 metres, making it a 5% gradient – but I’m sure it was steeper in parts!  In previous years, this has been the point where my run has fallen apart.  However, keeping an eye on my heart rate helped me and I was able to keep running through this section (albeit dropping the pace to 5.25k pace).  I passed a lot of people who struggled up this hill.

The second half of the run was fantastic.  I knew I ‘only’ had 10k to go, and with energy in reserve, I was able to up the pace a little.  I increased my pace to 4.40k pace and really started passing people!  I actually felt like I was racing a triathlon.  All other triathlons I’ve done (all four of them!), I’ve felt like my goal was to finish and I was only competing against myself.  This time, I was running to pass people, even checking out which age category they were in (the marker pen letter on their right calf)!

I finished the run clocking up 4.20k pace for the last kilometre or so, although I did have time to smile for the camera and wave to Lynn!  My run time was 1.39.29, which was 214^th fastest of the day.

My overall finish time was 4 hours, 58 minutes and 41 seconds.  This was a full 30 minutes better than my time last year!  Having not really expected a sub-5, my emotions took over and I had a little ‘moment’ to myself!  Overall, I came in 187^th place from the 628 finishers, 97^th in my age group (under 40’s).  As the race was being used as the British Middle Distance Championships, a high quality field was assembled.  With my time this year I would have been 50 places higher in 2009!

Anyway, what a day and what a race!  Roll on Ironman Lake Placid in 6 weeks time!

Eight Days in Ireland

EIGHT DAYS IN IRELAND

Sunday

It was 5.45am on a Sunday morning and I was getting ready to jump on my bike.  The reason?  In a moment of incredible enthusiasm, three of us (myself, Alvin and Gareth) had decided it would be a great idea to cycle the 200k from Liverpool to Holyhead to meet up with the rest of the Mersey Tri gang for our training camp / holiday in Ireland.  150k later, and still to reach Anglesey (never mind the port), the journey was starting to seem a little ambitious – particularly within the time limit we set ourselves.  The legs were weary but our spirits remained high, particularly after passing through some stunning scenery.  Anyway, the rest of the way was going to be easy as Anglesey, we were (unreliably) informed, was flat!

With our rendez-vous deadline been and gone, we made it to the port with minutes to spare to meet up with the rest of the team, who had expertly packed the transit van with bikes, bags and supplies for the week and made their way through the North Wales holiday traffic.  If the sight of eight eager triathletes didn’t register with the locals, the laminated Mersey Tri sign on the front of the van certainly announced our presence to the rest of the Anglesey population.

On the boat, the extent of the planning, preparation and organisation that went into this trip became clear.  Alvin, who conceived the idea of the trip and made it all possible, gave us a laminated booklet of our itinerary for the week, including route maps, elevation profiles, telephone numbers, emergency contacts – a brilliant resource that we would all come to value in the days ahead.  We were also presented with our commemorative blue Mersey Tri cycle jerseys.  During the boat trip the idea of a points competition was formed, with points being awarded for training sessions e.g. riding each day, running a minimum of 2k, swimming at least 100m and points being deducted e.g. for being last person ready each day, for having a negative attitude, for not being prepared etc.  The competition would evolve, taking some interesting twists and turns as the week progressed allowing us to earn bonus points e.g. most courageous team member, most enthusiastic, best quote and swimming without wetsuits.  Wearing our new cycle jerseys, the ‘blue train’ cycled in formation (!) through the streets of Dublin to our first destination in Bray, clocking up our first 25k on Irish roads.  How professional were we?!

Monday

After a little faffing around, we were on the bikes and cycling by 9am, our eagerness showing through.  We made the short journey to the best breakfast in the world – Avoca Handweavers – where 8 hungry triathletes made short work of the fresh fruit, museli and porridge that was on offer.  Today saw me take my turn of driving the luggage van to our next destination, Wicklow, and then cycle back to meet up with the group.  By the time I had reached them, they had already conquered the longest hill of the day.  After some pretty quick cycling back into town, we split – the girls headed along the coast road and the boys headed towards a local beauty of a hill.  Steep doesn’t describe it!  Lung busting and quad crunching is a better description.  Despite the added difficulty, and the girls supreme confidence, the boys made it to the meeting point first, much to the girls annoyance!

We had parked the van right on the coast – an ideal spot for a bit of sea swimming.  Before you could say ‘the water is freezing’, we were off to the beach, changing quickly into our wetsuits and into the water for a swim.  Wow ... was that water cold?!  From our beach cove we spotted another beach way off into the distance and set off for distant shores.  About 2k later, we exited the chilly water and headed for the lovely warm sand ... ah bliss!  Once out of the water, we cycled the short distance to our B&B, where we quickly changed and headed out for a run.  Out on the run, we all ran our own distances and speeds with some of us clocking up as much as 15k.

Tuesday

Our B&B was right on the coast and overlooked the sea.  With the sun beaming through our bedroom windows it was an inspiring start to the day.  When you are on a Mersey Tri trip away, the sun is shining and you are right next to the beach, what do you do first thing in the morning?  Go for a sea swim of course!

Once we had dried off and warmed up a little after our swim, we cycled the 80k from Wicklow to Woodenbridge.  With missing yesterdays climb due to driving duties, today was my first long climb of the trip, ascending 500 feet over 2 miles.  The following descent through the leafy, country lanes was fantastic!  The biggest danger on the descent was getting in the way of Alan as he zoomed past, reaching speeds of more than 65k per hour!  Alvin and Gareth arrived at the accommodation first and, as they had the van keys, were able to lock up their bikes and go for a run before the rest of us arrived.  So, once we all arrived, rather than sit there in the sunshine and do nothing while we waited for them, we abandoned our plans for a run and had a Guinness instead!

Wednesday

A tough day in the saddle awaited us today, taking in two long and steady hills.  We climbed more than 4,000 feet in 50 miles, with two hills that were each more than 2.5 miles long.  The breathtaking scenery around us, and the nice smooth roads, more than made up for any pain!  Delighted to reach our home for the next three days, most of us got off our bikes.  However, Alvin, who decided that he hadn’t done enough, set off to explore some of the Wicklow mountains, taking on an additional 50 hilly miles!  As for me, I tried to do some more miles on the bike, but got to the first (steep) hill and realised I was running on empty.  I returned home after 10k and then went for a 6k run instead!

Thursday

Today’s ride was a circular route from Glendalough, taking in Roundwood, Rathnew, Rathdrum and Laragh.  Although one of our shorter rides at ‘only’ 60k, this one was great fun!  For a good few miles we had a fast moving peloton with all eight of us zooming along the smooth, scenic route in a tight formation.  This was before we stopped for a punnet of strawberries!  Towards the end of the ride, we turned a corner to find an unexpected hill which, although less than 1 mile long, packed a punch with gradients reaching 15%!

Once again, some of us went for a run shortly after the ride (12k for me) whilst some relaxed at the cabin.  Gareth decided it was his turn to go for the long ride and covered an additional 45 miles.  The rest of us went for a swim in the nearby lake.  Alan showed he was keen to win the points competition by removing his wetsuit and swimming in his trunks, going for the all-important bonus points.  Not to be outdone, Andrew removed more than his wetsuit and took to the water, earning an additional bonus point!

Friday

Another glorious day in Ireland greeted us when we woke.  First of all we took on the Wicklow Gap – turning left out of our accommodation and climbing 1,000 feet in the first 3.5 miles!  The descent from the mountain made all of that climbing worthwhile as we went screaming downhill for the next 5 miles.  Rolling roads were the feature of the next 15 miles until we came to the bottom of the next mountain, Sally Gap.  We climbed for the next 10 miles, ascending more than 1,000 feet in the process.  There were lots of moans and groans to be heard as we got to the top of the climb, with one of the group announcing to us (and any passing locals within a ten mile radius) that her ‘bum cheeks were burning’!  Of course, what goes up ... 12 miles of descending followed taking in some stunning views of the mountains and valleys. 

After our lunch stop, five of the group finished cycling for the day.  Myself, Gareth and Alvin continued riding for a further 60k, following yesterday’s circular route.  Once we finished our additional bike loop, all eight of us ran to the lake and went for a swim, with most of us choosing not to wear wetsuits to gain more of those precious bonus points.

Saturday

This was to be our one and only day of rain on the whole trip, and even then it only lasted about an hour.  We left our cabin in the mountains and rode the short ride (30k) as a group at a relatively leisurely pace, reaching Enniskerry by lunchtime.  Once at our hotel, we all did our own thing.  Emily and Liz took the opportunity to visit the hotel spa, four of us (myself, Alvin, Andrew and Alan) went out for a hilly run whilst Gareth and Sif spent the time reading in the hotel lobby.

Following our last evening meal together, we took a short walk to the only pub in the village to reflect on the week, to thank Alvin for the considerable effort he had put in to make this trip such a success and to announce the winner of our points competition.  After careful calculation of the points earned (and deducted) during the week our winner emerged.  In a very tight, competitive and fun contest, only eight points separated the winner and 8^th place.  Our overall winner, deservedly so, was Andrew, who was a full two points clear of the runner up (me!).

Sunday

Once the Guinness fog cleared from our heads, we mounted our bikes for the last time and made the short trip from our hotel to the port (20k).  Parts of this route were stunning, taking in the views of the coastline along the way, even passing the house of U2’s Bono en route to the port.

Summary

In total, I managed to clock up 670k on the bike (including approximately 20,000 feet of ascending), 50k running and about 5k swimming in the open water.  Between us we must have clocked up more than 4,000k of cycling (yet we did not have one puncture!).  As a training week it was fantastic and has really given my training a boost.  However, what I’ll remember most about the week is not the training necessarily, but the fun we had.  Being among other tri enthusiasts was inspiring.  I was able to learn off other people and take inspiration from their efforts.  Despite the differences in our abilities, it was a fully inclusive trip.  We were a team from the start of the trip right until the end.

Eight individuals ... eight days in Ireland ... eight days of fun!