New to Tri: Week 4 &5 – John

There is no point in denying it for any longer. In recent days it has become clear that for the 25th year in a row I have fallen quite heavily from the Lenten wagon. Don’t judge me; I know that I am not alone. Go on and admit it, that sneaky Mars bar, a cigarette at the back door, nibbling your finger nails when nobody is looking, you know who you are and you will feel better for coming clean, I know I do!

Read on for more…

Lent started quite well, no chocolate, no crisps and definitely no cheesy chips from the lovely Ferrari’s in Irishtown. I hadn’t even felt the slightest craving for any junk before my cousin Andrew came over with a thoughtful housewarming gift, box of Ferrero Rocher, my big weakness. Once he had left I found myself home alone, and twenty minutes later I was rumbled in the midst of an eating frenzy, surrounded by gold wrappers. I swear the devil himself was in the room feeding me those charming little chocolates. I am a firm believer that if you break lent you may as well do it in style so the sweets were soon followed by pints in Whelans and the obligatory Smokestack in Eddie Rockets (sure it’s only across the road and it would be rude not to).

The strange thing about it is that amongst all the dietary recklessness there have been some very notable highlights of late. Tadhg and Elena recently arranged a newbie specific swim session, with particular attention to swimming as part of a pack, sighting markers and completing the 750m required for the sprint Triathlon. It was a great session which answered a lot of questions that I had about starting in waves and swimming
in open water. I was particularly satisfied with my swim in 17 minutes. Not a world record by any means, with plenty of room for improvement, but it is a good solid base nonetheless and reassuring to know that I can actually go the required distance.

Buoyed by my progress in the pool I felt it was time to step up the cycling, so on Sunday I took the bull by the horns and joined the Intermediate/Advanced group for the first time. I was expecting the cycling to be a lot tougher than anything that I had done to date
and I wasn’t wrong. Within 15 minutes I had dropped off the back of the group, feeling completely out of my depth and regretting my 12k run along the South Wall the day before, I found myself seriously wondering what I was doing. Fortunately Scott came back for a chat and a few words of encouragement and I got that all important second wind, before long I was back up with group were I managed to stay. Once the glorious
hill climbs at Ballysmuttan had been conquered we began to head back to Dublin, I was tired but happy.

As you may already know from my previous blogs, stupid here likes to keep things simple. But bearing in mind the undeniable correlation between my recent progress and foregoing dietary changes I think I may be on to something quite special with the
following formula:

17 pints of Heineken + 23 Ferrero Rocher + 6 Smokestacks + a little luck = podium finish.

It is a work in progress, but here’s hoping.

John