With the season starting last week for some of my tri buddies at Abu Dhabi, comes the realisation that we are already in March! I’ve been organising my 2012 sponsors and of course there is the launch of our new team Emerald Racing (http://emeraldracing.net/ ). A great concept by world class duathlete and founder David Vaughan, the all Irish team was announced 2 weeks ago and already we are seeing a lot of hits and interest from the multisport community. All 10 members are at the top of their game and racing internationally for Ireland at various distances.
Triathlon is predominantly an individual sport and I haven’t played much team sport since my Gaelic football days. I wasn’t a great player but the Bellaghy team I played for was strong and we won everything in the county under age. I just made the team back then, and looking at the new Emerald Racing team, again I think I just made the cut! I see this as extra motivation to keep me moving on those cold rainy days. The sport is picking up at home and it’s exciting to be part of such a strong professional team.
On to sponsors for 2012, this list is not final and as we promote and progress through the season I expect this to expand/modify through the needs of the team, my sponsors and myself. This year I am proud to be backed by the following sponsors:
Last year I experienced a couple of good races and seen what I was capable of, working with Alan we also learned that I can lose fitness quickly and struggle to peak properly more than once in a season. However this could be more a mental issue than physical as I get distracted by various external interference. This coming season I was hoping to peak early for St Croix 70.3 as it is a Kona qualifier, and Roth, just because I want to be fast there. But Alan knows me well, he is technically brilliant and has the numbers to back up his theories, so he is only allowing me a minor peak for these races with the main aim being to race well in Kona.
Kona Hawaii is a race that has always intimidated me, but I love the challenge, this year will be my 3rd visit to the big island and I’m hoping to execute properly this time. My previous attempts of 9:48 and 9:38 were reasonable for the conditions, but I want to get much closer to 9hrs. Before planning Hawaii I first need to qualify, St Croix is one of very few remaining IM70.3s that are Kona qualifiers. It is subsequently very competitive and a tough course in conditions similar to Kona, which I do not have a good record with. There are just 2 qualifier slots that never roll down and already a handful of names in my age group mean I will need to have the race of my life. If I fail to qualify there the plan is to drop Roth and replace with a European full IM as a qualifier, a revisit to Germany or Austria are potential candidates. A risky strategy but we all like a challenge in life ;-) I’m also hoping to race a few more Irish races this season and use them as an excuse to get home more, my sisters are good at letting me know I don’t come home often enough!
My planned races for 2012 so far:
• Ironman 70.3 St Croix
• Roth Germany – Long Course (Ironman distance)
• Tri limits half Ironman, Co Tyrone
• Lough Neagh Tri
• Powerman Austria Duathlon**
• Ironman 70.3 Vegas *
• Ironman Hawaii *
*pending qualification
**thankfully Vaughan aint racing this one ;-)
Training has been going ok, I’ve been getting the sessions done but only just. This year has been very challenging at work as we try to close some highly stressful and technically difficult projects. My colleagues are very dedicated individuals and I often feel guilty when I leave work at 7pm to train for 3hrs while a lot of them are still there sweating over some foreign trading exchange who are losing traffic and giving them a hard time, but we’re all in it together and when I’m sitting on a conference call at 3am with a similar issue the guilt leaves and my priority becomes - fix the issue asap and get some sleep before that session tomorrow. I had a dream a few weeks back where I was in a race and so far behind that I was still in the swim but could see the finishers on the lake side drinking and celebrating their results, the referee was thumping me with a paddle from a boat, he turned out to be a senior director from my business and he was adamant that I finished. When I woke up sweating I realised it was time to start managing my work and training stress in a more structured way, I certainly was not going to give in to it.
Sometimes I wish the stress didn’t exist but the truth is I thrive on it, we all need challenges and I like the buzz of a frightening situation. It is similar to the pre race nerves and doubts, and if you’re reading this blog, then you probably know what I’m talking about already. It’s a buzz that we are all addicted to and we wouldn’t be happy without a hit every now and then. Key sessions in training have a similar effect.
A friend of mine told me recently that they did a 45km run, got lost and did an extra 10k, so just the 55km run then… on a Sunday. I asked if they listened to any music, they said they had only one album on there, on repeat, it was a Cher album… It made me laugh but also made me realise what a bunch of headers us long distance athletes are. It’s no secret we are all running away from stuff, but it also can be as simple as ‘it makes us feel good’. There are great endorphin highs abundant in this sport and many of my friends at home are getting in to running and cycling, it’s like a drug and we are all hooked, except this drug prolongs and improves the quality of our lives!
Later this year I plan to launch a small coaching setup with a training buddy Rowan O’Driscoll. A powerhouse from Cork with more organising and coaching skills than myself, Rowan is a good man to have around, together we work well and hope to make it a solid setup in the coming months. We train a lot together as Rowan’s biking is strong and some of my best race prep last year was spent trying to drop him on race SIMs (I didn’t drop him). We have started by trialing our methods on a small number of athletes with the plan of expanding as we see fit through the year.
That’s all for now folks, will be posting some updates and details from the team and sponsors as we progress through the year. Happy training and have a great season!
