Leo Hughes: Blog 3

Hey Everyone,

Its April already and the season is nearly upon us. I can’t wait to get going and do my first ever TRI. A big gang of us went to Naas for the last Duathlon of their series and what an eye opener it was. I was a bag of nerves which was odd considering I am used to competing on the mats but Tadhg sorted that fairly swiftly. Once we got to transition and got everything set up we were grand, but I noticed my front derailor cable was broken and decided to cycle around transition without my helmet on in an attempt to fix it. A big no no, and again enter Tadhg to the rescue. B2R were on site to fix the bike and I was ready to race. There was a great gang of us newbies there and there was great banter before the klaxon went. Rodrigo and mad “Jimmy the ocean” went off like two hares after the top guys which left us newbies to battle on through the course. We took it fairly easy on the first run and went hell for leather on the bike leg. I had a great battle with Ash on the bike and then she hit 2nd gear and left me for dead outside of T2 on the run and I could not match her pace. Coming out of T2, I kind of figured out why everyone was talking about bricking “Lesson learned”. I was about 4 mins slower on the second run but was glad to have done the lot without walking. All of us beginners were all fairly close time wise in the end which will make for a good season ahead, and it’s great to see how far we have all come as beginners. The more senior club members did well with some top ten finishes and Rodrigo and mad Jimmy were well up there so watch out everyone “these boys are beasts”. I’d like to say thanks to all the gang that came down to support us all. The girls were shouting us all up every time we passed through transition and it was much appreciated. I’d also like to thank Tadhg “who by the way” was the only coach we could see on the whole course encouraging his troops and stayed out til we were all back and finished. The camaraderie in this club is absolutely top class.

The Swim: My swim is getting gradually better. I’m not mad on speed to be honest as I think this will come once I nail the Technique. I’m definitely a little more streamlined in the water but have a long way to go. Were all doing really well in the beginner lane and the craic is good.

The Bike: I have no excuses left I’m afraid. I’m just bone lazy when it comes to the bike. I’m squeezing some Howth repeats in and doing the odd Turbo session but at this late stage I need to be more consistent on the bike. We were all out for the Sufferfest last Sunday and a load of the Piranhas did the 10 Howth hill repeats which was mammoth in my eyes. All of the newbies did 5 which is brilliant, but as usual I was late and only managed 3 so I’m gonna do another 3 this Wednesday evening. I’m went out with a few Piranhas over the Easter holidays and clocked up about 85K. I didn’t bring any fodder with me and suffered a bit on the way back so I’ll know in future as we did this after the swim.

The Run: I really noticed a big improvement in my running over the months. I ran 14k with Petrina, Ash, and Alva last Saturday after the swim and we were grand. The Tuesday and Thursday runs are where I see the improvements coming from. I read in Joe Freils book that training intensity as opposed to training volume is where a lot of fitness gains come from depending on the type of training you’re doing. It’s working for me anyway as I knocked 1:20 off my 4k TT. Connor and Mark are on my heels too and they attend the runs too so it’s well worth attending if you have not done so already.   I’m gonna try and add Strength/Core and brick work outs to my training from now on and do another Race before the race season kicks off and see if there’s an improvement in my times.

Take care and I’ll see you at Westwood for breakfast, Leo.