With the arrival of my darling daughter I have not had a chance to keep up my training. Surprise surprise! What I have had time to though is to see how much triathlon has consumed so many other things in recent months.
Despite having started doing a few triathlons last year my involvement in the sport has gone to a new level this year. While I obsessed over my results (much like Darren in his recent race report - http://www.piranhatri.com/news/reports/997-triathy-race-report), this year it is up again. Average time. Percentage location per discipline. Discipline splits. Any hope of a reverse split (I didn't even know what that meant 9 months ago). And all of this to try to find something positive out of very average results. That search for progress.
Then there has been the vocabulary. 2011 - wheels; 2012 - Clincher Vs tubular. 2011 - gears; 2012 - groupset. 2011 - bike; 2012 - TT. You know I could go on. Fartlek anyone? So between the nods, agreements and unknown approvals in the midst of a tri conversation, I have slowly begun to get some sort of understanding of what all this means. That, unfortunately does not mean that it has made me a better triathlete.
To further get involved with the sport I have been following various pro triathletes on twitter. Lance Armstrong is now on the IM (Sorry, that's Ironman) circuit, but who the hell are Craig Alexander, Simon Whitfield and Christ McCormack? As for these Brownlee brothers cracking the ITU circuit - I still don't know which is which! - it's also great to follow the Irish pro exploits of Gavin Noble and the ever improving Aileen Morrison. I even now have the ITU world series on series record...
As for the Irish scene, and the club scene, this is a truly new level. Mariusz Olejniczak, Bjorn Ludick, Russell White, Con Murphy are all names that are becoming more familiar. And over the weekend I was poring over TriAthy results to see how all from Piranha Tri Club got on. First timers, ever improvers and the top advanced girls and guys. With a few tris under my belt I now have people to compare myself against as well as trying to emulate in the coming months.
In the meantime, while I eagerly await the delivery of my next issue of 220 Triathlon magazine - that's normal, right? - and try to learn more about the insides, the outs and the transitions of triathlons, watching the sport from a slightly further distance than normal, I have a nappy to change.
1 comment:
Obsessed! Don't know what you are talking about!
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