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HectorJelly Blog Updates: Triathlon II

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    HectorJelly Blog Updates: Triathlon II

    I've decided I'm going to start blogging again, I was speaking to a performance coach and he recommended it as part of a goal setting and achievement process, you are more likely to work hard for your goals if they are public. Anyway, more on that later; its quite fitting that I restart the blog with the results from my second triathlon, since thats where I left it last year.

    So I completed my second triathlon over the weekend. In between the two races I had two serious injuries, both from playing football. First I fell awkwardly and broke a metatarsal in my foot. I was in a cast for about 6 weeks, and unable to run for a further month. Then over christmas in a league match I got caught by someones trailing hand, his fingernail managed to scrape my cornea. This put me out of action for another month, and then a few weeks again after christmas when it reoccured. (The new cornea tissue failed to bond properly with the old one). So in some respects I was happy to just be able to compete again, with a full set of working limbs!

    For the last race I had concentrated on swimming, since that was my weakest section. This time around I concentrated on swimming again, mostly because I play football three times a week and its hard to fit in extra runs or cycles, whereas I find it easy to go swimming two or three times a week. This was definitely a mistake. Looking at it logically, the swim is actually the least important section, it takes up much less time than the other two. Also, im at a level where a lot of training is not going to have a huge effect. Last year was different, I probably cut off 5 minutes of what my time would have been without much training, but this year the effect would of been much less.

    Last year in the pool I was hindered by being in a lane with people who were mostly slower than I was. I had to constantly wait behind people so I could overtake them. This year the opposite occured, I started in the 2nd fastest wave, and there were two excellent swimmers who were both trying to break 12 minutes. They both overtook me a few times, which means stopping and waiting for them to pass. Also the third guy in my lane was slightly slower than me, but started ahead. I probably should of overtaken him near the start, but decided to conserve my energy for the later stages.
    If I did the race again tomorrow I would hope to break 14 minutes.

    The cycle was next. I managed to lose my bike and wasted a good 60 seconds looking for it. Then wheeling it out of the transition area I knocked the chain off. These are pretty stupid mistakes to make, had I not made them I could of broke into the top 100! The cycle was pretty uneventful. I overtook two people during it, and other than that did not see another competitor. I'm reasonably happy with my cycle time, I shaved a few minutes off last year without doing much training for it. I could of pushed myself harder, but I was conscious that the true test was about to come.

    Coming back into the transition area I was going a bit faster than I thought and had to stop sharpishly to not break the dismount line. My back wheel going flying up in the air brought ironic cheers from my friends who were yet to start racing. I jogged in with my bike, and then received a 1 minute stop and go penalty for taking my helmet off. Again, this was a stupid mistake for me to make, I remember hearing the rule before the race. That said, its a pretty stupid rule. Why do you need to wear a helmet whilst pushing a bike?

    The second transition went much better, I found my stuff, did a quick stretch, and was on my way. Last year the running section was a disaster for me. I have trouble with my calves, I basically get shin splints in them if they have to work too hard, and I ended up having to walk a section of the course last year, stopping to stretch them. This problem doesn't affect me too much at football, because of the stop start nature of the sport. What really gets them is constant running on a hard surface. This year I had spent a good bit of time working on them, doing different exercises to strengthen them. I also had better runnners, both of which made a huge difference. I was able to run the entire 5k only stopping briefly to stretch at the half way point. It still did hold me back, for the first half I could feel the burning sensation slowly growing, especially in my right leg and had to be careful to not overuse them. It started to go away after about 3k and I ran the last 2 at a good pace.

    So for next time I would like to cut at least 10 minutes off my final time. Apart from my calves my body felt fine after the race, definitely a sign I could of pushed myself harder. I need to concentrate more of my training on running, and especially running having just completed a long cycle. If I could strengthen my calves to the point where they aren't a concern, I think I could shave 4 minutes off the running relatively easily, and also push myself a lot harder in the earlier sections. So its back to the physio!


    Here are my times for the two races. After my name the columns are; Swim, 1st transition, Cycle, 2nd transition, Run, Final time. The number in brackets is my position for that secion. So I was the 66th fastest swimmer.

    143 99 Daragh Thomas 00:15:43(69) 00:02:24 00:44:15 (101) 00:00:48 00:38:13 (167) 01:41:22 (143)
    103 16 Daragh Thomas 00:14:47(66) 00:02:40 00:40:36 (83) 00:01:40 00:28:11 (133) 1:27:52 (103)

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