The first race on the Club Calendar has arrived! The TriAthy Sprint race also happens to be our Club Champs so the best of the best will be decided this Saturday! There will also be many Piranha’s racing across the other distances (Try-a-Tri, Olympic and Double Oympic). Saturday is what we train for so make sure to leave it all out there! At the same time, enjoy it, race with a smile and give as much support as you can to your fellow Piranhas.
This note has the following sections:
- Who’s racing?
- Pre race-day training and Race-Day warm-up advice
- Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift
- Getting there
- Club Champs Dinner and Drinks – Sunday 31st May
Who’s Racing?
Loads of us! The TriAthy site has a list of who’s racing and there are many names I recognise. The list doesn’t identify the club the participants are registered for but I am expecting between 50 and 70 Piranha’s have registered for the various distances.
Final schedule as published by organisers
http://my.triathy.ie/index.php/final-schedule
Pre-race-day training and Race-Day warm-up advice
Pre-race day drills:
Swimming: If swimming in open water:
- 10 minutes aerobic front crawl swimming- focus on open water skills- sighting/turning around buoy
- 4 x 20 seconds hard with 30 seconds recovery
- Another 5-10 minutes very easy swim (Mixture of front and back crawl)
- Stretch
or
If using pool, 20 minutes easy swim to include,
- Warm up: 200m as 50m front/50m back easy
- Main set: Include 4 x 25m at higher intensity with 30 seconds recovery between each 25.
- Cool down: 5-10 minutes easy front or back crawl
Bike: 30 minutes easy cycle, with 3 x15 seconds at zone 4 Hr (effort 8/10) in the middle of the session- separate each of these efforts with 90 seconds easy spinning. Keep to a flat route today, and focus on maintaining high cadence.
Run: 5 minutes easy run with 3 x 7 second strides at increased intensity at the end.
Tip 1: Particularly for the longer distances, do these sessions early on Friday, and then keep off your feet to get recovery before Saturday morning
Tip 2: Focus on hydrating by sipping water throughout day
Tip 3: If doing swim in open water (recommended if possible)- Hang your wetsuit out to dry early. A dry wetsuit will be a lot more comfortable in the 15 minutes before race start
Tip 4: Start packing now and check what you need to bring. There is no need to be stressing Friday evening that you can’t find your race belt or tri suit. It is important to be relaxed and get good rest in the days leading up to the race to maximize your performance. There are numerous checklists online for items you need to bring on race day. An example checklist and some advice on race day breakfast is here. One additional item not noted here is your TI card or one day licence. Do bring those too!
Race day warm up
Suggested times to meet-up for Group Run-Warm-up (provisional times below):
- Double Olympic: 7.30am (30 minutes before race briefing) Steven to help Will
- Olympic: 8.30am (30 minutes before race briefing) Leader to be confirmed
- Sprint: 3:00pm (25 minutes before race briefing) Bernard to lead
- Tri-a Tri: 2.15pm (35 minutes before race briefing) Bernard to lead
Cycle: Before you rack bike try to get 10-15 minutes easy cycle- this will give you a feel for you race position, changing gears and pedaling technique. Keep this cycle at easy intensity- This can be a couple of hours before the race start and the purpose is to give you a feel for the bike (Use run/swim as warm up before race)
When racking your bike: Do a couple of jogs through the transition and visualise where you have to enter and exit for T1 & T2. Know exactly where your bike is – memorise how to get to your bike quickly. Placing a ridiculously colourful towel on the ground by your bike is sometimes useful as it can be easy to spot as you run along a row of bikes. You can place your runners, gels, visor, sunglasses etc on the towel so you can grab them before you head out on the run.
Run: After racking your bike and setting up your transition completely- I’d recommend to do run warm up next – complete 10-15 minutes jog with 5x 10 strides seconds at intensity of 7/10 (see link below) – try to be finishing the run warm up approximately 20-25 minutes of starting your race- then get wetsuit on for swim warm up below.
Bernard Hanratty, Piranha Chairman, will lead a group run warm up for the Sprint race which most Piranha’s will be participating in. Provisional plan for a meet up is 3pm at the bike exit of transition.
Swim: I would recommend dynamic movements of your arms and shoulder e.g. circling your arms and practicing the swim motion then get into the water for at least 5-10 minutes if possible for swim. Start with some aerobic swimming and add 4 x20 seconds at race intensity, with 1 minute easy between each.
Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift
The spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EGpF5RnP-tYuD3nWWs7zRcFIQHnLf7_jAuPe7KDw9do/edit?usp=sharing can be used to offer or request lifts.
Getting There
Registration and race day parking will be outlined in the TriAthy Race Day Briefing. It should, like last year, be in the Athy Community College which is on the R417. If you google map it you will find it. Basic directions if you are coming from Dublin are to leave the M7 for Athy town. Drive down the main street to the centre of the town and take a right hand turn before the castle and bridge. Follow the road for 1.5K and there will be an entrance on your right hand side clearly marked as registration. As you will be cycling back into town and transition, make sure all your gear can be carried in a transition bag. Do not attempt or rely on getting parking closer to transition as it doesn’t exist. On a normal weekend, most people coming into the town will use the square to park but that whole area will be either used by residents or will be turned into race day transition. Please also ensure you leave Dublin in plenty of time to get to registration. Athy struggles with large volumes of traffic so expect delays getting through the town and to registration.
Club Champs Dinner and Drinks – Sunday 31st May
There are over 50 people signed up for the club champ dinner and drinks. The venue for dinner will be Hugo’s Restaurant, 6 Merrion Row, Dublin 2 (opposite O’Donoghues Pub) and will start at 7.30pm Sunday 31st May. Full details are available here
Any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best of luck all!
Will Owens
National Series Coordinator
M: 087 997 6190 | PM: Willo | Email: williamowens1@gmail.com
Leave a Reply
Please LOG IN to post a comment.
COMMENTS