Piranha NS Strategy – Race 3

Piranha National Series Strategy – Race 3

The third race on the Club Calendar has arrived!!   Saturday, 12^th July sees 42 Piranhas participate in the Two Provinces Triathlon hosted by Lanesboro Tri Club. The link below brings to you a very informative Race Website with details of the running order of the day:

Two Provinces Triathlon Website

I have two requests:

• Can Piranhas undertake the race-day warm-up in small groups. It has proved too difficult to arrange a single Piranha warm-up on the day of the races – but those who have followed Shannon’s guide below have found it very useful.
• Can Piranhas PLEASE, PLEASE, walk back the course once you are finished and cheer on the Piranhas coming in after you. This was a really great success in Dunmore East, as Piranhas finishing passed through two walls of club members chanting their name and giving encouragement.   It was a great experience for everybody.

This note has the following sections:

• Who’s racing?
• Getting there
• Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift
• Piranha Belpark Face Off Prize Giving
• Pre-race day training and race day warm-up

Who’s Racing?

Getting There

I recommend that Piranha’s should get to Lanesboro for 9.15am, leaving Dublin about 7.30am.  

The majority of the parking is immediately adjacent to transition and a short walk to registration.   Doors to registration will close at 10.00am sharp – hence the need to by in Lanesboro by 9.15am!

The link below will give you directions to Lanesboro (also known as Ballyleague – don’t panic!)  It assumes that you are leaving from O’Connell Street.   Essentially take the N4 or M50 to the N4 / M4 and follow the directions from there. 

Dublin to Lanesboro, Co. Longford

 Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift

 It is a 135 km, 1 hour 40 minute drive to Lanesboro – so it makes a lot of sense to car pool both for company and sharing of petrol costs.

The spreadsheet attached to the link below can be used to offer or request lifts. I have not pre-populated names in the spreadsheet, so if you have either a) a need for a lift or b) space in your car, can you please note that in the spreadsheet and add your contact details. The blue columns have pre-populated list of responses – the others are free-format.   If anybody is having difficult organizing a lift please contact me directly – details at the end of the post.

Two Provinces Car Pooling

 Piranha Belpark Face Off Prize Giving

We will co-host post race drinks with Belpark at a central Dublin venue on Saturday evening from 8.30pm. You will remember that the Face Off comprised of 7 prize categories. Preliminary results (calculated by yours truly) indicate that we suffered a hard defeat of 2:5 – but this will be validated before the prize giving.  The results sets us up nicely for a re-match before the end of the season!  Details of the venue will be posted on the site later next week.

In addition to the prize giving, we will of course celebrate the performances of the day – talk over all the things that didn’t go quite right and how we are going to improve before our next race :o))

 Pre race-day training and Race-Day warm-ups  

 (compliments of Dig Deep’s Shannon Connolly)

 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.

Race day warm up

 Suggested times to meet-up for Group Bike-Warm-up.   Watch-out for further posts to let you know who will lead the cycle warm-up and the rendezvous:

• Double Olympic: 7.30am (30 minutes before race briefing)
• Olympic: 9.00am (30 minutes before race briefing)
• Sprint / Tri-a Tri: 15.50 (40 / 30 minutes before race briefing) 

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 actually where your bike is – memorise how to get to your bike quickly.

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.

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.

Any questions then please contact me on the numbers below.

Happy racing,

Bernard Hanratty

National Series Coordinator

M: 087 231 5086 | PM: Bernard | Email:

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