After Kilkenny tri I decided I had enough of triathlon for a few weeks and wanted to chill for a bit.

But not completely chill. I decided I would see what was involved in getting into the liffey swim this year and added a post on my clubs forum. So with only 4 weeks to go, I had my checklist on hand:

1. Join OW Swim Club
2. Get SI (Swim Ireland) number
3. Complete 4 OW races without wetsuit
4. All of this by 27th August

So I found out about Half moon swimming club, contacted them, transferred 50 squids and got my SI number within the week. Armed with my SI number, I could now enter OW races. Time to find the races. The only 4 races between then and the closing date were below. I had to complete them all.

1. 7th August 2010 – High Rock, Portmarnock, Dublin
2. 9th August 2010 – Guinness SC Charity, Portmarnock Beach, Dublin
3. 13th August 2010 – Corrib Prom Swim, Salthill, Galway
4. 14th August 2010 – Lough Owel, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

Eep. So 4 races lined up all with in 1 week, and one of them on the other side of the country. Time to talk to the wife. Donna was more than happy for me to treat her to a fancy hotel in galway AND dinner AND a big breakfast AND shopping. What a nice person she is!!

The qualifying races themselves were very interesting. I learned:

• Open Water (read: Club) swimmers are fucking insanely good. Different class of swimmer to triathlon swimmers.
• All OW races are handicapped. This means that the good swimmer go off up to 15 minutes after the slower swimmers. This means everyone has a chance of winning. Cool!
• Distances are estimated, and mostly around 2k
• The only weather to stop an OW race, is when a small craft warning is in effect. These guys are hardcore.
• Everyone knows everyone, it’s like a secret society that everyone knows about.
• Getting stung by a jellyfish isn’t too bad initially. But fever does kick in after a few hours and that’s weird!

Now you’re up to date, and it’s now today, and I’m back chilling after the liffey swim. It was a great experience. Such a great thrill swimming underneath all the bridges Iwalk/drive over every day. And there are A LOT OF THEM. The swim was about 2300m and goes underneath 12 bridges, each one filled with onlookers and well wishers. My wife, her friends, my sister and her family all followed me down the banks of the liffey to cheer me on and welcome me at the IFSC, where we finally finished. It was LONG, but great.

Today was the 91st liffey swim, and my first. Of many many more I hope.

First Up: The Facts

Table below includes first place, and “friendly” rivals. As you can see I’m at the bottom, so the only way is up.

Pos.	No.	Time		Name
1	445	45.23		Martin Kirwan
6	498	47.46		Tadhg Cronin
13	394	50.21		Paul Ogle
26	412	52.22		Brendan Murphy
32	431	52.56		Aidan Bourke
42	408	53.41		Conor Blackett
77	407	57.22		Tomas Breen

Full results and report here.

The Opinion Dribble

The duathlon consisted of a 3k run, 16k bike and 3k run. Standard enough distance, and perfect for those getting into the sport. Although I raced last year, this was my first duathlon (have done triathlons and aquathons), so I was unsure what to expect. Running is my weakness currently, so 2 runs legs in 1 race is two too many for me. My goal this year is to improve my running speed and enjoyment, so bring on the challenge.

First run

3k being relatively short, I decided I wanted to push the pace to faster than I would do 5k. This meant trying to get down to 4:00/km which to some is slow, but I usually run around 5:00/km. I managed to keep focused on the first run and came in just under 12 minutes. Sweet. Happy out with that. Now onto the bike.

Bike

Last year I gained a lot of confidence on the bike, so knew what my limits were for 16k. Was full of energy coming out of T1 and passed a lot of people in the first k. Then slowly ate away at the pack for the first 8k. Started to meet people above my level at that stage so only passed 1 person on the second half of the bike. Didn’t catch Blackie, which is what I was hoping for, closed the gap on a lot of the better runners tho. Still feeling good coming into T2 (wait for it…). The bike was under 30 minutes, but not much under. The same bike route for the triathlon in Tramore last year was faster for me. I’ll have to blame the wind there.

2nd Run

Legs hits the ground off the bike. Jelly!! Bike racked, helmet off, trainers on. Jelly!! “Run through it mossy, get the rhythm going”. Jelly!! Experiencing jelly legs is normal enough, and in a Triathlon I can handle it. My swim is strong, and bike is good, so when coming onto the run in a good position I expect to lose a lot of places for the rest. The duathlon is different, first run is okay, and I need to catch up a lot on the bike, so the second run still feels like I should be trying to catch up.

No joy. Jelly!! I think it took about 1k to shake off the jelly legs and get the legs moving, but it wasn’t enough to get a good pace. The Second run was 14 minutes.

To summize

Happy with my running progress from training over the winter. A lot to do, but getting the early season races in is worthwhile to see how base training is going. Another duathlon this sunday in Naas.

The Casanova Wave on Bandcamp.

Yes

You’re welcome.

1. Complete at least 2 Triathlons
2. Become a stronger, better surfer
3. Direct my career and improve my professional visibility
4. Enjoy taking the risks, and earning the rewards.

How I’ve done so far:

1. I completed 3 Triathlons: Velvet Strand, Clogherhead & Tramore. Tramore being the highlight for me this year as I got to finish with a lot of cheers from family and friends, and felt like a bit of a ledge that day, as most of them had never seen me compete in a race before. Major ego boost resulted. I also completed 2 aquathons (Howth), a sea swim (Snamh Fada), a 10k run (Pheonix Park), 2 Runamuck challenges (4.5k obstacle and 9k obstacle course – more fun run than race really). My times for most of these were middle of the pack, and I learned I have a lot of work to do with my running. Mostly I have learned to enjoy training and competing and the buzz of finishing negates any pain while training or racing.
2. I have done a good bit of surfing this year, and spent some time becoming more confident on my shortboard (6’6″ fat boy flyer). Had some great sessions recently that have helped a lot, and winter will bring more of that.
3. I moved job in april. I am working with Dovetail and very happy in a small company where we can focus on building software and forget the politics that large organisations can get stuck in.
4. Every so often I watch Yes Man. It reminds me what is important and to say yes to more things. I believe I have done this a lot more this year.
5. Not on the original list, but I got engaged in August, so that was a nice bonus to top off a year of mixing it up. And I am still engaged, woot!

Overall it was great to write down some goals for the year, as it gave me motivation to achieve them. I have more for next year, but will leave them for another post.

The Social Network was a good movie, and quite inspirational. Cutting it down to the basic story, Mark Zuckerberg codes the beginnings of facebook in a few weeks, and it spreads quickly through major colleges. The initial idea was simple and he executed the basics and got it out there quickly. There was no long term plan, just an idea and the drive to build and launch quickly. This is a great way to look at any personal/professional projects.

Iterate

Iterate, the first iteration being launch, then iterate continuously. Forever. Evolve the product with the user-base, and make sure it stays relevant. An idea is just that until it’s real.

Anywho, after watching videos on Lance Armstrong I get an overwhelming urge to get on my bike and ride. Coming back from the social network, I want to crack open an IDE and start coding like a boss. Most of my ideas are (probably) shit, but I’ll never know unless I launch. 2011 goal #1, launch a site. There, it’s written down now. I have to do it.

BTW, my earlier post on goals for this year (written in January), there’s a post coming to see how I’ve done with that shortly. Stay tuned.

p.s. I promise I’m back blogging more consistently from here on in. At least for the winter months.

p.p.s. The blog is now on wordpress.

I already use WordPress on my technical blog, so I think that’s what I’ll go to. Now … how do I easily move over 250 posts, and their comments to a new platform?

• Complete at least 2 Triathlons
• Become a stronger, better surfer
• Direct my career and improve my professional visibility
• Enjoy taking the risks, and earning the rewards.

All the groundwork is done, and I need to follow through on these to achieve my goals. I have a triathlon Ireland membership, and I have joined 3dTri. I have created a professional blog for technical posts. I have a good bike, and am now swimming twice a week.

I need to run more, and I surf as many weekends as I can. Living in Dublin makes getting into the sea more of a challenge, but I enjoy taking trips west, and when I get to my hometown of Tramore, surfing takes top priority.

Right, off for a lunchtime cycle with Al.

Making the Firefox Logo

Went looking for it on gMaps. Here it is. This kind of community stuff is amazing, really shows the power the web has in bringing people together.

View Larger Map

We were going to head to Killiney Hill and check out the view, but we got lazy after a latte and couldn’t be arsed. Next time for sure. Although I think next good day will be out to Portmarnock for a swim.

Dun Laoghaire port is nice. The place was jammed with people, and traffic was bumper to bumper which make tearing through on bikes even more enjoyable.

After that we headed to the Ivy Gardens for Africa Day, which was also full of people out to enjoy the culture and infrequent sunny Irish day.

Paddy Casey played, and myself and the missus left before Republic of Loose came on.

Once more I have been amazed at how Ireland can be a great  place to be, when the conditions are right. Being away travelling last year has given me a renewed love for my own country. Click.