Hardman 2015
Re: Hardman 2015
What a performance from Jarlath. To think he only joined us after open night last year an he now has an IM under his belt. Fair play.
Re: Hardman 2015
Well done Jarlath, Super stuff
Re: Hardman 2015
Fantastic Jarlath, that must be a killer of a bike course
Re: Hardman 2015
I apologise for being five months late with this report, but I wrote 95% of it last September and it recently came up in conversation with club members that it was never posted, so here goes -
Background.
For Christmas 2012 I received a present of Gerry Duffy’s book – 30 marathons in 30 days. While the marathons interested me and motivated me to complete my first marathon in Dublin in October 2013, it was his chapters on triathlon and particularly Iron distance that caught my imagination. So I joined Racing 795 in March 2014. As some of you are aware, in September 2014, Gerry attended the Riverbank Hotel, Wexford, and gave a motivational talk in advance of Marie Casey Breen’s participation at Ironman Kona. I suppose, I met one of my hero’s and following that night, I knew that Iron distance was something I wanted to complete.
So for 2015, I had initially thought of Ironman 70.3 in Dublin with a view to building towards 2016 and the full thing. However, job wise, I moved to a 9-5ish position in October 2014 and this allowed for better and more organised training opportunities. I felt I put in a good winter, especially in the pool each Tuesday morning with Liam and the 795’s putting me through my paces. With my confidence building, I began my research and picked the Hardman in Killarney on the 22nd August 2015.
Training
So where to start. Well having followed Gerry Duffy’s marathon training programme two years earlier, which seemed to work or at least get me to the finish line, I decided why not follow his twenty week Ironman plan (www.gerryduffyonline.come). So task one was sticking it up on the kitchen wall (just so my other half knew she wouldn’t be seeing me for the summer) and tick off the days as each session was done.
At the end of week 2, I was scheduled to run 10 miles so I took on the Hope & Dream 10 in Enniscorthy and suffered an injury to my soleus (calf). This curtailed by running for approx 6 weeks. but fortunately only my cycling for about 2 weeks. For weeks four to ten I focused on my bike and swim (Enniscorthy pool) and against the advice of my physio then jumped straight back into running at the half Iron distance at Lough Cutra on the 24th May 2015.
I completed a lot of the initial phase of training solo. I felt that the Hardman with its minor number participating, that I would have to face a lot of demons on the day– particularly during the bike stage where potentially I may go a few hours without seeing anybody. So what better way than doing a 160k on the bike solo.
However, by about week 13/14 I was beginning to find the going a bit tough and thanks to Frank and PJ who probably suspected same. From here on in they dragged me out on those long Saturday spins. I had also met up with some of the guys from SBR who were training for the Berlin Marathon for the long Sunday morning runs for which we got to 20 miles and that helped immensely as well. In the last few weeks runs were also completed between Clonegal – Shilelagh with Frank, PJ & Don. Many thanks also go to these three and Mike for dragging me out for open water swimming at Poulshone and Bagnalstown. They were hard but very worthwhile sessions.
In preparing for the event between the 1st April and 22nd August 2015 I undertook the following:-
Swim –
Pool 88.65k
Open Water 37.12k
Cycle –
Turbo 20hrs 21mins
Road 2425km
Run - 610km
The Race - preparation
For convenience sake, and thanks to the organisation of my wife, the Castle Rosse Hotel in Killarney was booked well in advance. This was handy because this hotel was the base for the event with T2 and Finish located in its car park.
Friday was a lazy day. Research told me to have the last big meal around lunchtime on the Friday, so that consisted of a carb loaded meat balls and Pasta. That evening was a light meal of soup and salad sandwiches.
I attended briefing for the event at 7.30pm on the Friday evening. The briefing took an hour, was quite informative and I suppose made the event very real.
Race Day
So I got up at 4.20am. Breakfast had been ordered from the previous evening and consisted of porridge with a pot of tea. Between 4.40am and 5.30am I had a banana and 500ml of energy drink.
We left the hotel at 5.35am and down to the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club. It was pitch black, so got my bike and items ready with the use of my head torch which was great for attracting midges. It was about a 400m walk to transition and I placed the bike there.
Swim
The lake was shallow for the start so we could all stand and talk while waiting and then it was off. The Swim went quite well by my standards. It’s a two lap course of 1.9k = 3.8k. While the distance between the buoys was quite long, sighting was made easier by the fact that they had placed a flashing beacon on the top of them. First lap went without incident, there were a few of other stragglers like myself that I could focus on, and I completed this lap in approx 45mins. I felt an awful lot more relaxed during the second lap and it seemed to pass quicker. I never felt under pressure during the swim, but then again, being a long day I was conscious of conserving energy so I swam in my normal one speed gear without really pushing myself. I got out of the water in 1hr 33.
Into, transition and I grabbed a flask (that had been prepared at breakfast) of porridge. Got a few spoons into me, another banana, off with the wetsuit and on with the bib shorts and cycling jersey. I had made a conscious decision to take my time in transitions, hoping that the few minutes lost here taking it easy would be made up elsewhere. T1 was around 9 mins.
Bike
The bike course is run the opposite way to the Ring of Kerry Cycle so it entailed leaving the Golf & Fishing Club and heading into Killarney and onto Kenmare over Molls Gap. This meant that one of the major climbs on this course was out of the way at 28.5k. Then a nice decent into Kenmare before turning right for Sneem. The section out of Kenmare (approx. 20k) is probably the only section that I can remember been flat and I got nice speed up for a little while. Then it was into hills, descents and more hills.
The Course was divided up into approx 30km sections for water / food stops – Molls Gap 28.5k, Sneem 66k, Waterville 98k (main food stop), Kells 120k and Killorglin 150k. I carried two bottles of energy drink loaded with High5 and devised the following nutrition for the bike:-
1st hr: Banana, Gel, High 5 bar,
2nd hr: gel, 3 x fig rolls, meal replacement bar,
3rd hr: gel, breakfast biscuit, high 5 bar.
As I expected the cycle to last 6 ½ hrs I planned to repeat the meal plan for the 2nd half of the cycle. I also carried a cheese sandwich to break the monotony if needed.
From Waterville (half way point) onwards, I was beginning to note that I was seeing a lot more bicycle traffic on road. In the first 100k I had passed 6 competitors and 6 had passed me. In the final 80 back to Killarney I could see a lot of cyclists in the distance and at one stage there were 5 of us on a straight stretch of road, each approx 100m apart.
I was very conscious throughout, particularly with the hills of keeping my heart rate low. I might have been over cautious because a check now indicates that I averaged 131bpm for the course. My bike was probably slower than what I had hoped for, coming in just under 6 ¾ hours. However, I felt I had a good marathon in me and wasn’t going to panic.
The roads aren’t closed and not alone do you have to compete with the hills and descents but also with tourists on foot and in cars.
Got into T2 at the Castle Rosse Hotel (split transitions). Again, like T1 I took my time.
Run
I remember leaving transition and I still hadn’t figured out how I was supposed to run a marathon after the swim & bike. However, I kept saying to myself to trust the training. So the run course is basically a three (8.5mile approx) lap circuit of Killarney National Park, passing the Castle Rosse Hotel on two occasions and finishing on the third lap. It’s relatively flat with only 279m of climbing. It is also quite scenic in that you pass a number of touristy sports including the castle, run by the lake, run into wooded areas, open areas and pavement. The surface was good, in that it was light chippings for large stretches and tarmacadam for the remainder. There were feed stations approx every 2 miles.
I started the run quite fast, to fast. My first KM was completed in a shade over 5 mins and I knew I’d have to ease back if I was to finish. I felt great though and it was hard holding back. At approximately 5miles into the course, I heard a bike approaching from behind and it turned out to be Zilpha. She accompanied me for the remainder of the marathon, offering words of encouragement, although not all was always welcome. However, it had the desired effect.
At approx 14 miles, I suddenly started to feel hungry… in fact starving. I had stopped at every feed station to that point and taken on water and energy drinks / gels but now I felt like a needed food. At every feed station from this point an energy bar taken on. Coke was in short supply but I managed to source some on the last lap.
Lap three was tough. It was a mixture of run / walk. On this lap, when I ran, I ran quite well but my body was going into pain and it was a matter of mind over matter. As the pain got worse my run turned into a walk. There was no stopping though as I knew I was on for a sub 13hr IM and that was now the target. I knew during this lap that the 4hr marathon was gone but that didn’t matter. For the final 3k, a man out for a jog offered to run with me. He turned out to be a Kerry man, but I’ll forgive him for that. As we ran we talked about the state of Mayo football and how 2016 was going to be the year!!!!. It took my mind off things and got me to the finish. Total time for marathon 4hr 15mins, and the event 12h 48mins.
Conclusion & Recovery.
What can I say, I was told before the event that it was a low key event and one that I probably should not consider as my first iron distance race. I can’t comment on that, but what I do know is that for the price of the event, the location of the event, the ease of travel, the friendly nature of the organisers and competitors, etc, it is certainly an event that I would highly recommend and one in which I hope to compete in again at some stage.
Recovery went well. Like my feelings at the start of the marathon, ‘trust the training’. I can honestly say that I have felt worse in the days following sprint and Olympic distance events.
By way of reaching this achievement, I must make particular reference to the members of R795 who supported me through the effort, thank you.
Background.
For Christmas 2012 I received a present of Gerry Duffy’s book – 30 marathons in 30 days. While the marathons interested me and motivated me to complete my first marathon in Dublin in October 2013, it was his chapters on triathlon and particularly Iron distance that caught my imagination. So I joined Racing 795 in March 2014. As some of you are aware, in September 2014, Gerry attended the Riverbank Hotel, Wexford, and gave a motivational talk in advance of Marie Casey Breen’s participation at Ironman Kona. I suppose, I met one of my hero’s and following that night, I knew that Iron distance was something I wanted to complete.
So for 2015, I had initially thought of Ironman 70.3 in Dublin with a view to building towards 2016 and the full thing. However, job wise, I moved to a 9-5ish position in October 2014 and this allowed for better and more organised training opportunities. I felt I put in a good winter, especially in the pool each Tuesday morning with Liam and the 795’s putting me through my paces. With my confidence building, I began my research and picked the Hardman in Killarney on the 22nd August 2015.
Training
So where to start. Well having followed Gerry Duffy’s marathon training programme two years earlier, which seemed to work or at least get me to the finish line, I decided why not follow his twenty week Ironman plan (www.gerryduffyonline.come). So task one was sticking it up on the kitchen wall (just so my other half knew she wouldn’t be seeing me for the summer) and tick off the days as each session was done.
At the end of week 2, I was scheduled to run 10 miles so I took on the Hope & Dream 10 in Enniscorthy and suffered an injury to my soleus (calf). This curtailed by running for approx 6 weeks. but fortunately only my cycling for about 2 weeks. For weeks four to ten I focused on my bike and swim (Enniscorthy pool) and against the advice of my physio then jumped straight back into running at the half Iron distance at Lough Cutra on the 24th May 2015.
I completed a lot of the initial phase of training solo. I felt that the Hardman with its minor number participating, that I would have to face a lot of demons on the day– particularly during the bike stage where potentially I may go a few hours without seeing anybody. So what better way than doing a 160k on the bike solo.
However, by about week 13/14 I was beginning to find the going a bit tough and thanks to Frank and PJ who probably suspected same. From here on in they dragged me out on those long Saturday spins. I had also met up with some of the guys from SBR who were training for the Berlin Marathon for the long Sunday morning runs for which we got to 20 miles and that helped immensely as well. In the last few weeks runs were also completed between Clonegal – Shilelagh with Frank, PJ & Don. Many thanks also go to these three and Mike for dragging me out for open water swimming at Poulshone and Bagnalstown. They were hard but very worthwhile sessions.
In preparing for the event between the 1st April and 22nd August 2015 I undertook the following:-
Swim –
Pool 88.65k
Open Water 37.12k
Cycle –
Turbo 20hrs 21mins
Road 2425km
Run - 610km
The Race - preparation
For convenience sake, and thanks to the organisation of my wife, the Castle Rosse Hotel in Killarney was booked well in advance. This was handy because this hotel was the base for the event with T2 and Finish located in its car park.
Friday was a lazy day. Research told me to have the last big meal around lunchtime on the Friday, so that consisted of a carb loaded meat balls and Pasta. That evening was a light meal of soup and salad sandwiches.
I attended briefing for the event at 7.30pm on the Friday evening. The briefing took an hour, was quite informative and I suppose made the event very real.
Race Day
So I got up at 4.20am. Breakfast had been ordered from the previous evening and consisted of porridge with a pot of tea. Between 4.40am and 5.30am I had a banana and 500ml of energy drink.
We left the hotel at 5.35am and down to the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club. It was pitch black, so got my bike and items ready with the use of my head torch which was great for attracting midges. It was about a 400m walk to transition and I placed the bike there.
Swim
The lake was shallow for the start so we could all stand and talk while waiting and then it was off. The Swim went quite well by my standards. It’s a two lap course of 1.9k = 3.8k. While the distance between the buoys was quite long, sighting was made easier by the fact that they had placed a flashing beacon on the top of them. First lap went without incident, there were a few of other stragglers like myself that I could focus on, and I completed this lap in approx 45mins. I felt an awful lot more relaxed during the second lap and it seemed to pass quicker. I never felt under pressure during the swim, but then again, being a long day I was conscious of conserving energy so I swam in my normal one speed gear without really pushing myself. I got out of the water in 1hr 33.
Into, transition and I grabbed a flask (that had been prepared at breakfast) of porridge. Got a few spoons into me, another banana, off with the wetsuit and on with the bib shorts and cycling jersey. I had made a conscious decision to take my time in transitions, hoping that the few minutes lost here taking it easy would be made up elsewhere. T1 was around 9 mins.
Bike
The bike course is run the opposite way to the Ring of Kerry Cycle so it entailed leaving the Golf & Fishing Club and heading into Killarney and onto Kenmare over Molls Gap. This meant that one of the major climbs on this course was out of the way at 28.5k. Then a nice decent into Kenmare before turning right for Sneem. The section out of Kenmare (approx. 20k) is probably the only section that I can remember been flat and I got nice speed up for a little while. Then it was into hills, descents and more hills.
The Course was divided up into approx 30km sections for water / food stops – Molls Gap 28.5k, Sneem 66k, Waterville 98k (main food stop), Kells 120k and Killorglin 150k. I carried two bottles of energy drink loaded with High5 and devised the following nutrition for the bike:-
1st hr: Banana, Gel, High 5 bar,
2nd hr: gel, 3 x fig rolls, meal replacement bar,
3rd hr: gel, breakfast biscuit, high 5 bar.
As I expected the cycle to last 6 ½ hrs I planned to repeat the meal plan for the 2nd half of the cycle. I also carried a cheese sandwich to break the monotony if needed.
From Waterville (half way point) onwards, I was beginning to note that I was seeing a lot more bicycle traffic on road. In the first 100k I had passed 6 competitors and 6 had passed me. In the final 80 back to Killarney I could see a lot of cyclists in the distance and at one stage there were 5 of us on a straight stretch of road, each approx 100m apart.
I was very conscious throughout, particularly with the hills of keeping my heart rate low. I might have been over cautious because a check now indicates that I averaged 131bpm for the course. My bike was probably slower than what I had hoped for, coming in just under 6 ¾ hours. However, I felt I had a good marathon in me and wasn’t going to panic.
The roads aren’t closed and not alone do you have to compete with the hills and descents but also with tourists on foot and in cars.
Got into T2 at the Castle Rosse Hotel (split transitions). Again, like T1 I took my time.
Run
I remember leaving transition and I still hadn’t figured out how I was supposed to run a marathon after the swim & bike. However, I kept saying to myself to trust the training. So the run course is basically a three (8.5mile approx) lap circuit of Killarney National Park, passing the Castle Rosse Hotel on two occasions and finishing on the third lap. It’s relatively flat with only 279m of climbing. It is also quite scenic in that you pass a number of touristy sports including the castle, run by the lake, run into wooded areas, open areas and pavement. The surface was good, in that it was light chippings for large stretches and tarmacadam for the remainder. There were feed stations approx every 2 miles.
I started the run quite fast, to fast. My first KM was completed in a shade over 5 mins and I knew I’d have to ease back if I was to finish. I felt great though and it was hard holding back. At approximately 5miles into the course, I heard a bike approaching from behind and it turned out to be Zilpha. She accompanied me for the remainder of the marathon, offering words of encouragement, although not all was always welcome. However, it had the desired effect.
At approx 14 miles, I suddenly started to feel hungry… in fact starving. I had stopped at every feed station to that point and taken on water and energy drinks / gels but now I felt like a needed food. At every feed station from this point an energy bar taken on. Coke was in short supply but I managed to source some on the last lap.
Lap three was tough. It was a mixture of run / walk. On this lap, when I ran, I ran quite well but my body was going into pain and it was a matter of mind over matter. As the pain got worse my run turned into a walk. There was no stopping though as I knew I was on for a sub 13hr IM and that was now the target. I knew during this lap that the 4hr marathon was gone but that didn’t matter. For the final 3k, a man out for a jog offered to run with me. He turned out to be a Kerry man, but I’ll forgive him for that. As we ran we talked about the state of Mayo football and how 2016 was going to be the year!!!!. It took my mind off things and got me to the finish. Total time for marathon 4hr 15mins, and the event 12h 48mins.
Conclusion & Recovery.
What can I say, I was told before the event that it was a low key event and one that I probably should not consider as my first iron distance race. I can’t comment on that, but what I do know is that for the price of the event, the location of the event, the ease of travel, the friendly nature of the organisers and competitors, etc, it is certainly an event that I would highly recommend and one in which I hope to compete in again at some stage.
Recovery went well. Like my feelings at the start of the marathon, ‘trust the training’. I can honestly say that I have felt worse in the days following sprint and Olympic distance events.
By way of reaching this achievement, I must make particular reference to the members of R795 who supported me through the effort, thank you.
Re: Hardman 2015
Great race and great report Jarlath
Better late than never, and for your own purely selfish reasons it will be great to have it all written down now so that you can read it again now and into the future
Super stuff
Better late than never, and for your own purely selfish reasons it will be great to have it all written down now so that you can read it again now and into the future
Super stuff
Re: Hardman 2015
Jarlath
Well done on your achievement and your report and thanks for putting the report up. It is a very useful resource not just for club members but for those thinking of doing the Hardman (from far and wide)
Well done on your achievement and your report and thanks for putting the report up. It is a very useful resource not just for club members but for those thinking of doing the Hardman (from far and wide)