Triathlon for fun!
Disclaimer: The characters in this story are triathletes. Any relation to persons either alive or dead, or half-dead, is purely coincidental. Names may have been changed to protect identities. Or not.
The photos I’ve included here aren’t the ‘effortless’ ones I uploaded to Strava. What you’ll see is the true face of Ironman.
Continue reading “Ironman Barcelona 2022 – Stephen Maher”
I had a plan, it was a good plan, a simple plan. All the right things a plan should be, but as a famous boxer once said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Barcelona proved that to be very true…
Continue reading “IM Barcelona 2022 – Eoin O’Reilly”
IM Cork in 2019 was my first (and so far only) DNF. The swim had been cancelled and we spent 2.5 hrs standing beside our bikes in transition as a staggered bike start was arranged. I was cold and very wet. I managed to get 120kms into the bike leg before sense prevailed – I was wet and starting to get cold with little chance of either changing I decided to abandon the race. I still believe it was the worst best decision I ever made.
Continue reading “IronMan Cork 2022 Race Report – Eoin O’Reilly”
It has been a few weeks since the excitement of Cork 70.3 and hard to believe it is all over. Summer 2022 was my triathlon summer with Mallorca in May and finishing at home in Cork in August. I absolutely loved Mallorca and once all the hype settled down, I had one question for Coach Joe – how do we improve on that race.
Easy answer… train hard and push it harder on the day (that nugget was also shared with me by a few of the more honest club members!!)
Continue reading “Ironman 70.3 Cork – Caroline O’Mahony”
Lanzarote, May 2019. That’s when I watched my first Ironman event. I saw all kinds of people finishing that exhausting race. People that I thought that they would never be able to finish and people that I considered less fit than me. Seeing that changed everything for me. I decided that I wanted to challenge myself to do that but on the other hand I questioned if I would ever be able.
Continue reading “Ironman 70.3 Portugal 2021 Vitor Oliveira”
On Sunday 12th June 2022 I did something that I have never done before in my life.
I swam 750 metres in the open sea, out of my depth, without my feet touching the ground in Skerries, north County Dublin.
Continue reading “My first triathlon – Skerries – Brenda Kearns “
I joined the Tritanium New2Tri programme in July 2021 with a love for cycling and a couch to 5km and a variety of virtual races completed in lock down. I felt I needed more structure and a goal. With a lot of talk about triathlons I decided this was for me.
Continue reading “New to Tri update from a newbie – Liz Dunleavy”I must admit that writing my first race report on a non-triathlon event feels somewhat disloyal, however, our recent “Tour de Meath” was hands-down the toughest activity I have completed in my time racing endurance events. A quick who / what / why to provide some context –
Continue reading “Tritanium’s “Tour de Meath” – Ross Lacey”
Mallorca 70.3 was my first ever IM event back in 2015. The plan was always to go back but plans change. First the French air traffic controllers went on strike and then Covid hit. Finally we got word the 2022 version would go ahead – surely the worst was behind …not quite. As triathletes we like lists. Here’s a list of what happened before the race even started:
Continue reading “Mallorca 70.3 Race Report – Eoin O’Reilly”
In May 2019 I stood in the water in Alcudia cheering on the TTC crew and decided that I’d be back next year to race it for myself. Little did I know it would be a three year build up to my first 70.3 and boy did I let it build up in my head.
Continue reading “Mallorca 70.3 – Race Report Caroline O’Mahony”
I get lost. I get lost, a lot. I get lost so much it’s sort of a running joke in the club. See what I did there…
At the end of January 2022 I did the Hartstown parkrun in 19.19. I came 2nd out of 71 runners. They say it’s a park run, not a race. It’s definitely a park race. If I run beside you, yes, I’m racing you. In fact, many of the people who do parkrun are either trying to beat other runners, beat their own personal bests, or both. Mostly though, I’m racing and chasing myself.
It was my second time running that particular course. The first time I ran it I got lost, taking a wrong turn on the second lap. This was having warmed up doing several laps beforehand too. It’s a condition, probably diagnosable. Had I not gotten lost, I would have just managed to get under the 20-minute mark. Instead of finishing the not-race, I walked away, feeling somewhat defeated. A ridiculous feeling, considering the improvements I’d made over the previous weeks and months. I’d gone from a long-standing average of 22.30 5km to under 19.30. That’s an increase in pace from about 4.30 per km to roughly 3.50 per km. Now, I don’t look like a runner. I’m short, dumpy and heavy-footed. I also don’t particularly like running. Love swimming and the bike. But the running…meh.
So, how come in the past few weeks I’ve made such leaps and bounds. There are several theories. Having lost a bit of weight I’m now carrying less baggage with me. Perhaps I’m just lighter on my feet? I am assured, however, by people who are comfortable saying as much, that I’m still short, dumpy and heavy-footed, so, probability: low. Einstein’s theory of general relativity demonstrates that time slows down as you approach the speed of light. Is it possible that I had hit some sort of speed threshold and was now running fast enough that I was affecting the passage of time? Possibly, but probability: almost zero.
More likely, it’s the interval training I’ve been doing at the NIA with the club. No offence to Einstein, but we’ll stick with this theory for now. So, how does it work? Each week on a Wednesday I turn up to the NIA over on the National Sports Campus, where magic seems to happen. I’ve been following the club training plan, which involves running intervals, with recoveries in between, over various distances. These intervals usually take the form of running for a particular time or a particular distance, with a rest in between efforts. On two other days of the week, I do shorter, less intense longer runs, but it’s the intervals that seem to be making the difference. But how you may ask? Well, there are several likely reasons.
Running intervals on the track allows me to push out my threshold pace – the pace I can run at for about an hour. With interval training, you have to push hard. Run as fast as you can, but at a pace that’s just on the edge of being sustainable. Imagine a 90% effort. At 90% effort, your body has room to adapt. This is different to running close to 100% of maximal effort. The body can sustain this max effort for a short while, but it’s too hard for it to adapt to. The interval running allows you to begin learning what it feels like to run at a fast, but sustainable pace – to get a feel for how sustainably hard you can work and get used to the discomfort. Yes, interval training is hard. It’s meant to be. By the end of the interval, you should feel that the effort level is somewhere between OMG and WTF, and you’ll likely look like a hot mess. But if you’re doing it right, the pace and timing for the first interval and the last should be similar. Over time this will force your bodies’ systems to adapt; your leg muscles will strengthen and the running energy economy will improve (the energy and effort required will reduce). Your aerobic base will also increase, and you’ll find it progressively easier to run at a faster pace. Ultimately, your body will adapt, but you need to put the work in and force it to do it!
Top tips for a PB on your 5km parkrun:
(1) Get some regular interval training in! Couple this with regular run base training.
(2) Warm-up well beforehand – Personally, I run a slow 5km beforehand, keeping the heart rate under 130 bpm. This makes a massive difference to my actual race time.
(3) Remember your interval pace training. Don’t set off too fast. Your body will remember the intervals if you repeat them enough. Check your watch, the adrenaline rush can cause you to go out too hard.
(4) Don’t worry about anyone ahead of you. Keep the focus on maintaining your target pace. Over 5km, you’ll eventually pass people who went off too hard or are slower than you. Those you don’t pass are probably faster than you anyway, so don’t blow yourself up trying to catch them or keep up with them. Concentrate on yourself.
(5) The 3km mark is critical. At this point, your body will be asking you to slow down at the least, if not begging you to stop. Between kilometres 3 and 4 is as much a mental task as a physical task. You will have to concentrate hard on maintaining your pace. Keep moving those legs. It’ll feel hard, but you can do it. If you relax at this point it’s very hard to make up the time.
(6) After the 4km mark you’re on the home stretch. If you’ve kept pace you’ll definitely have a little left for the last 250m – and the adrenaline of being so close to the end will help. You can always run faster – give it everything you’ve got, but don’t injure yourself!
(7) Don’t forget to start your watch.
(8) Don’t get lost.
Well here it goes write a blog on the New2Tri programme at the midway point (I know I’m late with that too) As Jack Reacher would say “never volunteer for anything”.
Hoping to do a Triathlon for the first time with literally no swim or bike experience, follow a ten week programme then Portlaoise, and then pints and celebrations at the after party complete with a glorious sense of personal achievement and bonding with all the really impressive and successful group of Triathletes.
Continue reading “New2Tri: We’re half way there + a bit – by Gary Glennon”
Some Say Ignorance is bliss.
In 2017 around about the time of Tritanium Triathlon Club’s inception, I weighed 4 1/2 half stone heavier than I am today. I downloaded a couch to 5k app and I can still remember the pain of running for 60 seconds at (pre Strava and Garmin tracking) who knows what pace and how much quicker the 60 second resting walk flew by.
2019 was a weird year for me – big changes in my personal and work life along with the fact I decided to try out the sport of Triathlon.
Along with a a number of other newbies- I took part in the New to Tri programme from Feb to April. Now I have never been the best at sticking at one thing – I am currently re doing my new years resolution that has been renewed every year for the past severn –“ this year I will learn to play the guitar” .
Continue reading “New2Tri Report – Chris Walker”
Not something I planned on doing and definitely not something I planned on writing about but yet I find myself here writing. WHY?? There are a lot of whys in this one…
Firstly, Why enter Dun Laoighaire?? I had no plans to race here this year. Plan was Mallorca 70.3, 4x national series races (Hook or by Crook, Harbourman, Tyrone 70.3 and Pulse port Beach) and my A race Barcelona Full IM. Having returned from Mallorca slightly disappointed with how I ran off a tough bike in the heat I questioned whether the issue was the heat or the hard bike? I was unhappy with my placing and knew I am capable of better. As a reaction to this I booked IM DL. I then told my coach as it was obviously not in the plan and he, and others whom I trust, agreed this was a really stupid idea but not my first or last!
Continue reading “Race Report – IM Dun Laoighaire 70.3 Graham Dillon”How it began
In the 2018 season I watched from a safe distance as Ivan was convinced by Rich to join Lucan Cycling Club and give bike racing a go. For the first couple of weeks I got my giggles from Ivan’s short lived weekly blog where he spoke about being ‘thrown out the back’ and usually being last. However as I was training with Ivan for our upcoming IM events I could clearly see the improvement in him on the bike. On the spins he and Rich would regale me with tales of their adventures on Thursday nights about lads ‘off the front’, ‘closing breaks’ and ‘sprint finishes’. I couldn’t help but be a small bit jealous of the joy and laughter which accompanied these stories.
Continue reading “My first season in Inter Club League Bike Racing – the most fun you can have on a bike – Graham Dillon”
This was my 3rd triathlon ever and my first open water sea swim in a triathlon event. Confidence was high and was hoping for a sub 1:30 finish. I thought the first bit of training I completed in the N2T programme would stand to me but since the arrival of baby number 3 I haven’t been doing the required training but believed my base fitness was ok and surely this was only a sprint triathlon, it will be grand! How wrong was I, this ended up feeling like my Ironman. I scuttered over the line a broken man and questioning why I ever thought triathlon was for me.
Continue reading “Hook or by Crook 2019 – Rory Gleeson”
Where to
start…?
I entered this race in July 2018 so had 10 months to prepare myself. Early on I
set ambitious targets that I felt I were attainable as long as I got the training
in.
In October 2018 I competed Ironman Barcelona and then rested/did very little until Christmas/New Year after tearing my meniscus pacing a 5km in late October.
Continue reading “Ironman Mallorca Race Report – Richie”21st January 2019
I’m going to keep these weekly updates as brief as I can as it means they are easier for me to write and easier for people to read. People are reading yeah?
Week 1 into my training and things are already getting challenging. The week started and I managed to injure my knee, I’m just after coming back from a knee injury in the same leg and it has set me back a little bit. I’m still able to run but I am having to hold back and it meant that I only managed to get two run sessions in last week and one was cut short.
Monday nights club run was missed – I just coached. Knee was too painful and I had been to the gym to test it and was struggling to do a single leg extension >2.5kg.
14th January 2019
Ok. So I’m going to try and blog weekly about my season again and hopefully, this goes better than last season where it quickly fizzled out as a lack of training and injuries meant I lost interest in telling people how little I was doing…
Last season finished in October. I completed Ironman Barcelona in 13:10:42 and then pacing parkrun a couple of weeks later I tore my meniscus in my right knee. I’m just back training.
Last May I signed up for Tritainium TC New2Tri programme. A friend had convinced me to do a triathlon after I went to support them at Dublin City Triathlon in the Pheonix Park.
I had run 5k before and went to the gym, but I’d never done anything like a triathlon before and thought I wouldn’t be able for it. I couldn’t swim so I needed to learn, and I hadn’t been on a bike in years, so it was definitely one of my crazier ideas.
I remember “watching” the Ironman live tracker when club members Angela, Dave and Rich did Ironman Frankfurt in 2016 and swearing to myself that I’d never ever put myself through the hardship of a full distance race. It looked like a horrific ordeal.
I remember going away on a training camp last year and almost entering Ironman Lanzarote on a whim with 4 weeks to go to race day. I was a single click away from signing up. Luckily, sense prevailed and I put the phone away before I did something stupid.
Continue reading “Ivan – My Season Roundup and IM Barcelona”
This was my 5th time toeing the start line of an Ironman. My first was in 2015 in Mallorca where I struggled in the heat to a 14:08:11. I followed this up in 2016 with Frankfurt and another 14 hour effort just increasing my PB with a 14:06:43. 3 months later I was in Calella, Spain for Ironman Barcelona. I pulled out after 90km of the bike sick. 2017 I tried in Spain again, only to pull out 13km into the run. I’d been sick again and knew it wasn’t going to be fast and just wanted it to end. This was my 3rd time trying to conquer Ironman in Spain.
Some background. This is my 6th year doing triathlon and I have been lucky enough to tick all the boxes – tri-a-try all the way up to full Iron Man distance. I have also been in 3 triathlon clubs. I started in Fingal Triathlon club in 2013. I was there for 2 years and thinking of changing to a club closer to home when the coach told me my swimming was beyond help.
Continue reading “How I Spent My Weekend – IM Dun Laoghaire 70.3 Race Report – Eoin O’Reilly”
So the club asked me to put together a piece about my training for the outlaw triathlon and also the race itself. I suppose it’s best to break it down into 2 sections, the training and the race. I would normally write this for myself anyway so apologies in advance if it’s long and boring!
Continue reading “Outlaw Triathlon 2018 (Joe’s Race Report)”
Week 7 was another testing week. A chance to assess where I am, and to make sure that the training I am doing is working and making me either faster, able to endure more or more efficient… I was just testing bike this week. Wasn’t going to be able to make Park run and I wasn’t able to schedule the test swim in, but don’t think I am getting faster
Well, that was 4 weeks that flew by and I am not sure I feel like I achieved a lot.
After work and the degree course assignments, training was relegated to a distant 3rd.
This was the last of the base period training weeks and the 16 weeks of Ironman Training starts now (18th June).
I’m not a proper triathlete, someone who trains in three disciplines with an end goal in sight.
I’m a tryathlete, someone who has a random idea about doubling the furthest distance ever swum out of a pool or cycled on the same day and then throw in a half marathon at the end, just for the craic.
I knew I wanted to do a greater distance than Olympic as I had not died doing the last one, you will see a common thread of stupidity here……
We’re always grateful to receive race reports from our members. They’re real stories of real people doing triathlon. Here we have a story of blood, sweat and tears (or should that be blood, sweat and tyres?). A story of overcoming the odds, of bravery in the face adversary… Rachael’s race report!
I began writing this race report with “I’ve always wanted to do a 70.3” and deleted it because that’s a lie. I didn’t even know what a Triathlon was until 2 years ago. But I’m very easily influenced and thanks to Ivan Casey I’m here horizontal, stiff as a board in Lisbon.
Week 2 of 21
Week 2 was a testing week. By testing I don’t mean hard. Although it was. More that it was testing as I had tests to do to see where I was, and to reassess training zones.
I’m a big believer in the need to test and reassess in order to make sure you are always training in the zones that are optimal for improvement. It kind of a case of – “If you don’t know where you are, how do you know how to get where you are going?”. That kind of leads on to goal setting and Lewis Carroll – “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”. But that’s for another blog…
Week 1 of 21.
To paraphrase Robert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry”.
I use Training Peaks to organise and plan my training. One of the advantages of this is that I can put the sessions in and then drag them around to make sure they fit in with the week I have planned. So If I have a Thursday night cycle planned but have to organise the race (like this week), I can move it to a Friday instead and see if it still fits in. I can see what I must do for the week in advance and get an idea of the levels of training I have planned.
So it begins…
With 22 weeks to go until Ironman Barcelona, I’ve decided (after a little bit of prompting) to blog about the training I am doing to prepare for the race.
For those who don’t know an Ironman Triathlon consists of a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and a 42.2km run. It’s undertaken by people who are slightly mental.
This year is going to be a balancing act if I am to toe the line in Barcelona. I’m completing a degree course which is due to finish at the end of September and also trying to build a kit car, plus I need to do the required training for Ironman and hold down a full-time job.
Doing your first triathlon is a daunting prospect and what we have noticed from our collective experience and observations is that:
It was about this time 7 years ago that I made a resolution to do a triathlon. A few friends had decided to do one in 2011 and I decided I’d try to do one too.
I knew someone in my early 20’s who had started doing triathlons but the thoughts of putting three sports together back to back had at the time seemed way beyond my capabilities. Fast forward 15 years and it still seemed as though it was. I was sure that triathlons were only for super fit marathon runners, people who raced sharks for fun, and super skinny cyclists who cycled up the equivalent of Everest every weekend for the craic.
Welcome to Tritanium!
We’re bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away….