So that's the season ended. Isn't it?

So that’s that then.  Season over.

And I managed to get it all finished in less than the 1 hour 20 minutes I had predicted.  I had quietly been aiming a 1:16, but a 1:17 is nothing to be disappointed by, and finished with a PB on the run.  Happy days.

Again I finished in the middle of the pack, just outside the top 50%, on a par with my other races this year. So again no overall complaints.

Time to wind down and take a break. 2012 was the year of the swim.   I spent more time in the pool than the combined amount of time on the or running.  And it has paid off, where I am now more confident than ever in the water.  There is still lots of room for improvement (isn’t there always), but the base is much stronger now!

So no better time than now to break down my swim stroke and build it back up again.  That’s what our coach intends doing over the next few months. ‘Off season’ deleted!  Today, we spent 45 minutes gliding up and down the pool.  In the coach we must trust.

But already my thoughts are moving to next year.  While my gear wish list has reached ridiculous proportions (doesn’t everyone’s?), it is more the times, races, national championship targets that have been on my mind ever since I finished the Pulse sprint a couple of weeks ago.

The CK triathlon earlier during the summer was my first national series race. The first time I was fully compared against other triathletes (besides on the clock), and it didn’t make for totally ridiculous reading.  After the Pulse tri a couple of weeks ago, I showed I was nothing if not consistent over both sprint and standard distance. And yes, ‘fast’ is not the word I can properly use. Yet.

Being a very competitive male (shock horror!), and now that I am on a league table, a finishing position higher, much higher next year is the basis for the targets.  All of this is of course based on improved times, which will have to be consistent, will have to be faster, and will have to be very competitive.

So while the sun has not yet fully set on the 2012 season, here are the targets for 2013. Set in stone.

1. Complete a national championship (min. 5 championship races.)
2. Break 1:10 for a sprint race. (PB 1:17)
3. Break 2:30 for a standard race. (PB 2:45)
4. Finish in the Top 30 of my age group (35 – 39. This year #238.)

These are quite lofty aims, but ones that I feel are competitive enough to make it a challenge to get there. And if nothing else, provide you with a stick to beat me with this time next year.

2012 is dead. Long live 2013.

Time for the Fat Lady to sing

“Two years,” Tadhg said. 

Two years. Those simple two words deflated my triathlon balloon for quite a while at the start of this season. 

The question posed by another of the newbies in Piranha triathlon club was, “how long does it take to get good at triathlons?”

Bloody hell was it disheartening. And chatting about it with other newbies afterwards they weren't overly enamoured either.

In 2011 I trained largely on my own and raced wit one of my mates. Badly. We had our usual head to heads over a few races (it ended 2-2) but no times were great and the main aim was survival. Each triathlon was an endurance race. Our main aim was the Ironman 70.3 in Galway last September, when survival really was the main aim.

So heading into 2012, with some races under my belt - I couldn’t quite say a year’s training, and I was carrying a few too many Christmas pound – I was hopeful to be able to make some serious inroads into the world of triathlons. And a few weeks training Tadhg’s kernel was put to the back of my mind.

The aim again this year was the Ironman 70.3 race, and this weekend I will race my fifth and last race of the season. Prior to this have been Galway, one sprint and two Olympic races.

Before each race I have set myself targets. Time targets. Something just that little bit out of reach but if everything went well, attainable. And to date I have managed to just get inside my target time bracket albeit at the wrong end. For each of the races, I have improved on my times.

Last year in my three Olympic races (it the two I finished) I didn't break three hours. This year I have been under 2:45 both times. My second race better than my first. And while my realistic target for the year was to try to get below 2:30, at least by knocking 24 minutes off my 2011 time I have to be happy.

My Ironman time this year didn't quite render the same difference on he clock. As you may have seen from my last post it was a mere 27 seconds. But with an improved swim (double last year's distance) and excellent bike times, I left Galway very heartened with my performance and it showed the work put in during the year really paid off.

Having only done one sprint, it was hard to properly give myself a target, but match one I did. But with the one under my belt (last May), I want to knock four or five minutes off that time tomorrow. Target time set.

So one last race, one hour 20 minutes before the fat lady sings, and the season can officially be called closed. So what have I learnt about this year? Stroke. Drafting. T1. Cadence. Power. T2. Nutrition. Reverse splits. Pacing. Endurance.

What can I improve on? Yes you guessed, all of it. And as for Tadhg’s two years? I’m going to need every single last day of it to become a better (hopefully good) triathlete. Target set for 2013.

What a difference a year makes.

One day makes such a difference. One year makes such a difference.  As I left registration on Saturday afternoon, Memories of last year's Ironman Ireland 70.3 were coming back to haunt me. The wind was picking up, the waves were high in Galway Bay, and the thoughts of another wind and rain swept cycle were causing me no end of angst. And judging by various threads online, I wasn't the only one.

This angst led to an in-depth search for good forecasts online. The first said it was to be warm with a slight breeze. As did the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

Angst reduced somewhat.

On leaving the house on Sunday morning there was a deathly calm. No wind. No rain. A calm that was most certainly not seen on the day before nor at IM 70.3 2011.

With a 'no excuses' forecast I started well and reached the first buoy in relatively good shape. With a 1km swim parallel to the beach and a supporting current, I managed to get into an excellent drafting position which maintained for almost the entire straight (Elena, Tadhg and Chris would have been very proud).  For the final 600 metres I was then able to push on. So having set myself a 40 minute, getting out of the water after 38 minutes have me a huge boost of confidence. (I have since found out that I made it into the top 20% of all swimmers! When I joined Piranha TC at the start of the year i was in the beginners lane. And while there have been some slight improvements, if at the start of the race if you had said I could get that time, I would have openly laughed in your face and booked you in for a psychiatric assessment!)

After a (very) long run to transition, I hopped on the bike for the 90km spin. Target: 3 hours. Last year on my road bike I lost count of the number of TT bikes that passed me. So this year on my own TT I was more confident. While I didn't pass a huge number of people, I was at least passed by a lot less than last year.  But the one person I most noticed passing me was fellow club-mate Jen Duffy. To say she passed me at the speed of a train would be an understatement. And she was cruising, while I was panting and just trying to maintain a rhythm.  But coming into the last 10kms I realised I was on track to beat my target. Happy days. I was even more surprised as I reached T2 and had clocked 2:52, putting me in an excellent position to meet or beat my target time.

Last year, with the gales and rough waters, the swim was shortened to 1000m and my finishing time was 5:44:40. This year, conscious of the likely longer swim, I set my target time as 5:30 - 5:45. Ambitious, but still something I felt was just about in reach to provide enough of a carrot for me throughout the race.

So leaving T2 my watch said 3:41:04, and I knew that if I matched last year's run time of 1:58 I would be a full seven minutes inside my target time. And having done some more running this year, I was very hopeful.

The course was a 7km loop, and I felt strong on lap one and hit my 5 minute kilometre target. But then the trouble started. A niggle I picked up 10 days ago cropped up just after the end of lap one. My Achilles and calf tightened up badly. Stretching, walking and stopping weren't helping. The encouragement of fellow competitors got me back trotting but at a struggle.

Mid-way through lap two my wife, Alice, shouted great encouragement at me, which gave me a boost I needed.  "It's mind over matter," she said. So that helped to clear my head and focus on finishing as well as I could.  But much as I tried, I continued to struggle for the rest of the second lap.

My target had now firmly changed. Just beat last year's time.  So I became obsessed with my stopwatch and guessing where each kilometre was, trying to up my tempo throughout the final painful lap. All was going okay until about 3 kilometres from the end my calf  cramped. After a few minutes stretching it passed, but time was very quickly ticking away.  I no longer heard any more cheers of encouragement from my fellow Piranhas - Anne, Petrina, Ciara, Frank or Tim - as the head was put down. Focus on finishing. Focus on finishing.

The final drinks station was ignored as I tried my hardest to push to the limit for the final kilometre, hoping my body would hold out.  A 2:03 run was not what I wanted but a finish time of 5:44:13 was very satisfactory. 27 seconds are even more satisfactory as I set the new IM 70.3 personal best.

So having been anxious on Saturday, and rain drenched in 2011, a day does indeed make a big difference. A year makes an even bigger difference.