30 July 2010 (Fitness)

 

Finally I can buy one of those triathlon magazines without feeling like such a pretender. And, in fairness, having completed Wicklow Triathlon Club's annual Beast of the East Olympic distance triathlon this passing weekend, I can say I've done one of the toughest in Ireland. The hills on this course made my bike route going up and through Howth look like a series of speedbumps. I have not felt like vomiting from any form of exercise in a long time, but the bike section did that to me; hard as hell, but it made crossing the finish line all the more rewarding.

I expected the swim to be tough, but thanks to John Doyles' marvelous swim coaching, a slow and steady approach saw me complete the choppy Loch Dan course in under 40 minutes. My sighting wasn't great, and I'd never swam with more than one person before (unless you count people swimming into me at the pool in OneEscape as a certain kind of tri-specific training), so all things considered I was happy with that outcome. As i mentioned, though, the bike killed me; the first 2k of the cycle is completely up hill, followed by a few slight, but nonetheless challenging dips along the route. That was bad, but the final hill of the day - good god. As I turned the corner onto what looked like that scene from Inception where the ground falls back over, one of the (extremely encouraging) members of Wicklow Tri Club, who were marshalling the race and present at every corner, shouted "final hill, dig deep". The next twenty minutes or so involved me stand on the bike, doing about 7kph hour up some of the steepest hills I've ever seen. Because I was in the third and final wave of swimmers, and wasn't exactly quick on the swim, I wasn't passing too many people; but that final hill had a lot of victims, and there were a few that got off and walked their bikes to the top - or what they thought was the top.

The run, as expected, was fine; normally speaking a 54 minute 10k run for me is a bit of a joke, but given the circumstance of it being my first triathlon, and the same initial/sadistic opening 2k of the bike, I was happy enough. There were four aid stations along the route, and each one of those kept me going, with carb drinks, water, and brilliant support. I lost in and around 7 minutes in transitions, though, which taken away, would have left me with a finish in and around the 3 hour mark overall. But as John said to me before, Beast of the East was meant as a training session to figure out the intricacies of triathlon, transition and whatnot included. It also gave me a gauge for the Ironman in Germany; as I was essentially going into it blind, picking up what I could from magazines and books. The pragmatic experience of doing one before is paramount to what will hopefully be a finish in a hot triathlon, with over twice the bike and run distance and three times the hills. 

It was a great experience in Wicklow, regardless of my reasons for doing the triathlon there. The event was extremely well organised, with enthusiasm and encouragement prominent through-out the day. Now I'll continue to plough away at the pool and treadmill at the lovely OneEscape for the next couple of weeks, before hitting Germany on August 12th. If I die, I want the theme tune to The Littlest Hobo played at my funeral... I have my reasons.

 

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