New To Triathlon Blog: Leo Hughes Blog 2

Hey Everyone,

Its that time of year again when all the club members ramp up the training dials to full pelt.

The atmosphere around the club sessions lately is brilliant. Some of the seasoned members are picking up PB’S on the bike, in the pool or on the runs. 

As a beginner it just seems everybody has hit 2nd gear and its infectious. People are talking up race strategies and what races their competing in and my nerves are nearly shot thinking about the 1st race.  

The Swim 

My head was melted with the swim for a few weeks as I seemed to just blow up on every session.  Tadhg & Lee picked up on some poor technique and im working on these on my own on Wednesday nights.  This has made the coached sessions a bit easier to complete now as im more streamlined in the water and not totally lost for breath.  Im no Popov by any stretch of the imagination but can see a big improvement. Last week the NEW TO TRI program worked on some flexibility drills and we did a swim in the trisuit. Im looking forward to practicing the T1 transitions soon and doing some open water swim training in may.   I hope armbands are an optional extra for open water swims on race day. 

The Bike 

Due to family/work commitments I have been a really poor show on the Sunday bike sessions.  I have been doing some Turbo sessions(thanks Moody) at home with Black Sabbath and Metallica full belt on the stereo.  Either my old neighbors are stone deaf or they love heavy metal as it doesn’t seem to bother them.  One of the cool things about being a Piranha is that there is a wealth of training/racing tips & info available from the coaches and the seasoned members and everyone is always willing to give a beginner a dig out when asked.  I have started commuting to work 40k round trip and doing Howth hill repeats too.  I did a 54k spin on bank holiday Monday which is mammoth by my standards but I feel im getting stronger on the bike due to the repeats and hope to be up to speed with the rest of the new to tri crew soon. 

 The Run 

I really started to work on my running over the last few weeks since my TT.  I have increased my run sessions to 10-12k slow to medium pace and I try to do a Tuesday or Thursday session with Elena too. The run drills are a great way to improve technique and the paced/hill sessions improve our strength and average speed even tho I was as sick as a plane to Lourdes after them. I always wondered if all this paced craic really worked and can officially say that !IT DOES!.  Im a heavy guy and went out after one of our groups on a Saturday run.  The group had a 4-5 min start on me as I tend to fart around the dressing room chatting.  I caught them at the 5k marker and dropped a gear and kicked home comfortable and felt strong. If I can do this there is hope for all us newbies. 

Some of us are competing in our first ever Duathlon this weekend in Naas and we’re doing a Transition session the day before in preparation for the race.  Hopefully we’ll come back from the race a bit wiser than when we went into it. 

Take care and we’ll chat soon, Leo.