Piranha NS Strategy – Race 4

The fourth race on the Club Calendar has arrived!!   Saturday, 26^th July sees 21 Piranhas participate in the King of the Hill Triathlon hosted by Cork Tri Club. The links below brings to you to the list of participants in the race and the race briefing. You will note that all the Piranhas are grouped together for race numbers and I imagine that we will be in transition together too – great for the pre-race atmosphere.

King of the Hill – Race Participants

King of the Hill – Race Briefing

I have the same two requests:

• 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 and at the Two Provinces, There are only two waves 10 minutes apart – so there will be no extended hanging around.  It has been a great experience for everybody.

• 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.   Also, if you have numbered transition slots, then you don’t have to worry about hanging onto the perfect one that you found in an open transition!

This note re King of the Hill has the following sections:

• Who’s racing?
• Getting there
• Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift
• Piranha accommodation
• Barbeque
• Pre-race day training and race day warm-up

 Who’s Racing?

 
Getting There

I am assuming that most people will have travelled to Kinsale (or close proximity thereof) on Friday.   Registration is open Friday from 7.00pm to 9.00pm.   Registration is in Hamlets, the bar of the hotel in which many of us are staying – so it couldn’t be easier!

On Saturday morning, registration is only open for a limited time between 8.00am and 9.00am. If you are staying locally and don’t manage to register on Friday night make sure to leave enough time for registration on Saturday morning.

The link below will give you directions to the Blue Haven Hotel, Kinsale. It assumes that you are leaving from O’Connell Street.   Essentially take the N7 or M50 to the N7 / M7 towards Naas and follow the directions from there. 

 Directions: Dublin to Blue Haven Hotel, Kinsale

 Car Pooling – how to arrange a lift

It is a 280km, 3 hour drive to Kinsale – and as many of us will be leaving Dublin mid-afternoon on Friday you can add an extra hour to that!

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. This has not been a popular tool to date – so I will eliminate it from future posts if it is not helpful to club members.

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.

King of the Hill, Kinsale – Car Pooling

Piranha Accommodation

Accommodation is in the Blue Haven hotel, the same venue as the registration on Friday night (Hamlets Bar) and the BBQ on Saturday evening.   They have confirmed that they have a secure location in which to store bikes, so please ask on arrival where your bike can be stored.

All accommodation costs should be settled directly by the room occupants.   I will confirm individually by email to all Piranha’s for whom accommodation is booked. If you don’t get an email and believe I have a room then please contact me immediately.

Directions directly to the Blue Haven Hotel are included in the Google Maps hyperlink above, and the link to their website is provided below:

Blue Haven Hotel

Barbeque

The barbeque is booked for 25 people from 7.30pm in Hamlets Bar in the Blue Haven Hotel.   The cost per person is €25.00 per person and this should be paid directly to me – preferably before BBQ itself so that I am not carrying a load of cash about with me!

Several people indicated that they may have some friends joining. If you have friends joining us (the more the merrier!) then please let me know by Thursday evening (July 24^th) so that I can make arrangements with the pub to increase the numbers.

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: 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

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: ber.hanratty@gmail.com