Ironman Austria and Ironman Barcelona 2015
There is a quote out there about failure, I’m not going to look it up and quote it
here verbatim but essentially what is says is that failure does not define you
what defines you is how you react to it. The motto in the O’Reilly house that
myself and Aileen try to instill in Donnchadh and Niamh is that it is not about
winning and losing its about never giving up and refusing to accept any concept
of I cant do it.
Ironman Barcelona is now over and myself and the kids have been talking about
the finish line experience. I came across this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6O0BiILC-0 and it gives me goose bumps
and we discuss it. How proud must this mans family be of his refusal to bend, the
strength of character to keep going and the iron will he showed to succeed. For
me I believed I could complete an Ironman but in what time was the question.
Those people who complete the race and struggle to beat the timelines are
incredible in my eyes and their achievement is much more significant than
anything the best age groupers or professionals manage. I believe what
Donnchadh and Niamh experienced that day will live with them for a long time.
Of course partly because what there Daddy did but mostly for what they saw all
different types of people achieve. They have seen that impossible is not a word
you should accept. Boundaries are where you put them, so push them out.
What I am most proud of about Barcelona is the O’Reilly family’s refusal to give
up, refusal to believe it can’t be done and the belief they have in me and support
they gave me. After Austria I was not in a good place so the family discussed it
because it all affects them and they know me best and we said “Yes we can” So, to
have them all present in Barcelona when it has worked out is something very
precious to me and I have to thank Aileen for that.
A full Ironman truly came into my head after the half in Lisbon last year. I didn’t
really consider continuing to train I just wanted to do a couple of triathlons and
have some fun and I did that. Later in the summer when the registrations come
around it gets serious and there was a crew forming. I had settled on Austria, I
had spoken to Marc Butler and Adrian Dolan about this and I just liked the
sounds of it. The other crew were thinking Frankfurt but in the end settled on
Austria. There was some craic the night registration opened, I was getting texts
from surprising places and from what I could tell or was being told there were a
few people who were not going to answer a text from me no matter what.
From what I know Emmet Kelly was keeping an eye on all of this from the couch
while weighing up his options and with a bit of nimble persuasion of the Austrian
authorities he was on board. The squad for Austria was Aisling Seery, Des
Howlin, Nick Friel, Richard Ross, Emmet Kelly, Gary Quinn and my favourite Pole
Artur Kasperski.
Before any official training began we hooked up on Sundays for 2/3 hr spin and
the excitement and fun on those boded well for the future. Everybody was a first
timer but I had the advantage or having pretty much done an entire training
block for Barcelona back in 2011 so I had some idea that we would not be
smiling all the time. Unfortunately with different heart rate zones our training
paths very rarely crossed so I would only get to see the crew across the road and
they were always smiling.
Since 2010 I have learned by mistakes and I have had to learn that given that I
am in the car so much I need to train differently to what I had been doing. Now, I
was extremely happy with my result in Lisbon but the run part was eating away
at me. By that I meant that I should not feel that bad on the run and when you
look at other peoples times from around different clubs there run times are
better than ours in Athlone Triathlon Club. I contacted a couple of people
through facebook and got some insight into what they were doing. Based on this
I made the decision that I had to change what I did on the bike even though it got
me a decent time in Lisbon. I needed improved cadence. On the swim I wanted to
improve this and I felt that previously when it came to upping the distance of the
intervals my time fell off and this affected my confidence so this time round I was
going to make sure I was well used to distance in my intervals.
I can’t give you an idea of a typical week as there was not one. I had to work
around my work commitments and I also worked around how I felt. I would
always try to get three swims in with the third swim after the long bike on a
Saturday as a recovery aid even though it would be about 3km in distance. In the
early stages of the training for Austria I did two turbo sessions during the week.
In the early training blocks both were cadence based sessions but as I moved
into it the second turbo became a power session which I did at home but also
using the Wattbike in the Regional Sports Centre as a barometer of
improvement. I tried to run(conditions permitting) off every bike, 10 to 15
minutes of long bikes, 20-40 minutes of turbos and towards the end 1 hr run of
the speed work bike session at target race pace.
I had difficulty getting the brick sessions done for Barcelona as I was having
some shoulder issues but for Austria this had not been a problem and I found I
could get into a running rhythm very quickly and comfortably. I did not take a
traditional rest week as if I had a lot of work on and had to travel that became my
rest week. When my running needed attention I dropped one of the midweek
bikes and replaced that with a run. I did a long bike on a Saturday and on Sunday
a shorter session. The catch here was on Saturday I would be trying to make sure
the long session had a good speed average with good cadence and as I got deeper
into the training I would break the long bike into intervals with target speeds.
This is all fine and good in theory but doing it on your own is crap and for early
sessions for Austria I had lots of spins with Mick Murray who was training for
Malin to Mizen double and is strong out on a bike. When I was with him the
average was just up anyway so I didn’t worry about any pre conceived plan I had.
Mick would also out of nowhere want us to race from one point to another and I
think that the worst session I had was when Mick and myself were racing around
Tullamore on the dual carriageway trying to catch Adrian Dolan and Tom Kiely
going through the town. My legs just blew up on that session. Sunday session
would be all about getting an average speed. I would use the TT bike for this
session and it was time based. At the height of it, three weeks out from Austria I
did 3hrs at a target pace and 1hr run off that. The longest Saturday bike was
210km doing a Audax with Mick Murray(he added nearly 150 km to this). My
longest run session for either race was 2.5hrs but within that I would do various
intervals ranging from 1 minute to 1km depending on how close I was to the
race.
Throughout all the training for both races their was one constant person during
training who was a huge help to me and that is Tom Kiely, he was on the vast
majority of the runs with me, all the speed work sessions and the long sessions
and many of the bricks even when his season was over. In fact on many of those
sessions he was wrecking my head because he was getting stronger as the
intervals went on which meant I was still pushing as I was not going to be
dropped, no way. Tom’s approach to training is different to many peoples but I
can tell you I have not seen to many people who can keep going like he can when
the hurt comes on. Tom also joined in on many of the bike sessions and apart for
an early bike hiccup where he knocked me off the bike over in Cloughan it was
great. I remember one session where I was pushing hard into the wind heading
towards Kilbeggan and my HR fairly high and we were going up the drag in
Moate when Tom cruises up behind me and asks me “Was this break part of the
session”. I was pushing but after that I said I’m dropping you if it’s the last thing I
do. Thanks for all your help Tom, greatly appreciated.
I was in great shape for Austria, I was swimming well and holding good averages,
Tom Kiely and Aileen were the only people at that time that knew the details
from my “session of truth” on the bike I had held a very good average and I was
running well and comfortably after the bike. I was having the beginning of some
shoulder pain but I put it down to a slight change on front of TT bike. My target
for Austria was sub 10 hrs with a sub 5 bike and I wanted a 1hr swim. I was
hitting the numbers in training and I was feeling good about Austria. Towards
the end of the training myself and Artur managed to get some sessions in
together and I was very surprised about how strong he had become on the bike. I
knew that he was a great runner and the run in the Ironman would be a huge
strength of his. His swimming was coming on so I knew I now had someone to
race with which is always a good thing. We managed to get a couple of bikes in
together. A few swims and a brick session and these were very beneficial. I can
learn a huge amount from Artur as he is such a good racer. He seems to perform
better in the race than his training suggests. In Austria this just relates to the
swim but to be able to do that is awesome so its something I am going to talk to
him about. I know he is not finished with Ironman so I would say to watch this
space as we will be impressed yet again.
Once we all got to Austria the lake was amazing to swim in and we swam beside
our hotel. There was some chance that it might have been non wetsuit so I swam
in the lake without the wetsuit and after I experienced it I wasn’t bothered which
way it went. We went for a swim down at the start line as well to try and get a
sighting point for the start but made a big mistake in not getting a sighting point
for getting back into the canal and that is much more important. We all also went
for a drive on the bike course to find those hills. That was not hard at all as it is
much more hilly than the profile suggests but we found the Rupertiberg. It
wasn’t too bad and it certainly was not as bad as the Blooms and the views from
the top were awesome. The next important thing we did was get out onto the
course on the bikes, here you experience the speed that comes from the road and
the rolling hills that we had seen while driving don’t seem to affect your speed
unduly. Based on this cycle I decided on the Disc wheel on the back and the 4
spoke Xentis wheel on the front. I had a 11/26 cassette on the back which I
figured would be needed on the second lap. I had two rear wheels with me in
Austria which is one of the many benefits of using Ship My Tri Bike. David and
Ciara cannot do enough for you, they compete in these races themselves so they
understand the stress levels and anxiety involved and make sure they do
everything they can to remove it. To be honest, I don’t think I would do a race
where they are not travelling, its just not worth the effort. Unless of course it was
the Norseman, for the Norseman you would have to make exceptions.
I went off in the first wave and it was full on as you would expect. I got much
more people pulling my leg than usual for some reason. It took me until turning
back towards the canal to really get a rhythm going. This rhythm was ruined a bit
by sighting issues and going off course trying to find the canal but when I got to
the canal I was pushing and swimming well. Clock said 1:02 and change so I was
happy. Took my time in transition and then out onto the bike. I got into a flow
very quickly on the bike, heart rate was where I wanted it to be and the speed
average was lovely despite a couple of early hills. The only issues I had at this
stage was trying to figure out what to do in the lines of bikes where I was. When I
went past them your HR would surge as you had to pass them then you would
settle in and they would all pass you. I would then drop off the 10 meters but the
speed would be too low for me and I would have to go again. I knew I could not
keep that approach up and as it happened I did not need too . I have no idea what
happened but after 35km all of a sudden I was struggling on my pace, and to try
and get to my pace was pushing my HR way up. I have no idea what is going on
and I am saying to myself that I am not tired, it’s too early in the race and I am
not feeling unwell. Just push through it as it must be a bad patch. I keep going
and we come to a hill and I was half killed going up it and I am being passed
passed passed by people not even getting out of the saddle and I am out of the
saddle. I’m thinking I’m in trouble here but why. It’s at this stage I think is it the
bike? But it takes me another 40km to convince myself to get off the bike and
have a look. I do and to me it looks as if the brake is stuck to the wheel on the
right side. I release this and hey great all of a sudden I am back on the pace levels
I expect. I am delighted but also calling myself a fool for not getting of the bike
sooner. This was short lived as the problems came back. So, I kept getting off the
bike, trying to release the brake etc etc. It was only on the bottom on
Rupertisberg for the second time that I was getting nowhere with it and I had no
idea how I was getting up the hill that I noticed that it was the wheel rubbing the
frame and brake and not a brake issue. I have to say that every time I got on the
bike I could see the falling average and I was hopping mad first then devastated.
My legs were falling off me and at the bottom of Rupertisburg with about 50km
to go I really was not sure how I was going to finish the bike. I cycled on calling
out “toe the line, cross the line”. I did get a couple of looks but I didn’t care.
Got back to transition and had to compose myself and try to get my head in the
game. I came out of transition and luckily Aileen was there so I told her what
happened. She pointed out to me that it was gone and I had a marathon to do and
I should just focus on that and do what I set out to do on that section. That is
exactly what I did. I didn’t consider blowing up at all I just concentrated on my
watch and the time checks for each km. This kept me focused and I did this until
5km from the finish. My original plan was to lift the pace at this stage if I could
and to be honest when I got to 5km left I didn’t care anymore I was just annoyed
again and wanted it over. I was delighted to finish the race, time was not the
issue as I did not know how close I was to breaking 11hrs or not.
During the race it was great to see all of the crew, Nick was smiling broadly,
Aisling was looking very comfortable, Emmet seemed to be enjoying himself, Des
was battling the dark places you go to in a race(a battle that he won easily) Gary
had a smile as broad as the Shannon and Artur seemed to me to be on a flyer and
how I wanted to be there to challenge him. Richard Ross was really motoring
along at this stage and what was so great is that everyone finished the race. Artur
did a cracking time but special mention goes to Gary Quinn, he did not give up at
any stage. He talks a great game but he walks the walk and he is an Ironman
through and through.
Less than 1 hour after the race the dark clouds began to descend on me. That’s
me, that’s who I am. I was delighted for the others and there was some craic after
the race but my mind was elsewhere. It took three weeks to make the decision to
go again but I guess when I ran, swam and hired a bike on the holidays I suppose
I had virtually signed up. Barcelona and myself had history and this place would
be better than any for me to silence the demons. I spoke to a good number of
people before making the decision as this was totally going into the unknown.
So, off I went training again and I did spend more of this on my own. There were
more intense sessions this time round and I had to get some long bikes in as I
had stopped the real long bikes nearly 6 weeks out from Austria. Swimming was
not going well, I had a dead arm feeling all the time and it started to hurt bad
coming off the bike. A trip to Keith Fox and Action Physio was on the cards to see
what the story was. Story wasn’t great but I could stay training, Didn’t get much
swimming in for the last 4 weeks and I only managed one Sunday brick run in
the five weeks before hand. Not ideal, but on the other hand my bike speed
sessions were back to where I needed them to be, the wattbike sessions were
showing more power and in the run session on its own I was going well. Three
weeks out though I just hit the wall, could not get out of the bed to train, I just
wasn’t able so an entire week went to rest and the next week was reduced by
50%. I needed to nurse myself to the line and that I did. I was going to Barcelona
and I was after a sub 10 hr result.
All the family came to Barcelona as well as my sister Rachael and her friend
Donna and Tom Kiely came out as well to see what it was like. Aisling Seery was
the first name down on the team sheet to help us out in Barcelona and as Emmet
Kelly says I was traveling with two wives to look after me. This was huge for me,
not least the support on the course and having the kids there I needed to get my
nutrition given to me, as I wasn’t not going to use the brand that was supplied
during the race. This puts stress on everyone but it worked out brilliantly, thanks
to all the gang.
Morning of the race was uneventful until I was making last preparations before
heading to T1. Rachael asked me did I see the weather, and I hadn’t. It was
thunder and lightning, heavy rain and lots of wind. I was thinking I am totally
jinxed. Or words to that effect!! For anyone who did Galway 70.3 in 2011 it was
worse than that with wind etc. I had to walk the 2km to T1 in my wetsuit. I could
not get my gels onto the bike in the conditions nor did I put the shoes on the bike
as planned. The tent was pitch black with people scrambling around trying to
find their bags. There were some people with head torchs(they must be
Germans) but apart from that it was chaos. Then another 1.5 km walk in the
wetsuit to swim start where people have gathered to wait and hear what is
happening with the swim. We then get the news that it was going to be a full
Ironman but it would be delayed by 30 minutes. It had calmed down by the time
I started but it was still very rough out in the sea. I don’t get to practice sea
swimming so I found it difficult to get into a rhythm and thought I had reached
the turning point for the beach a couple of times before I actually did. I was
missing a lot of strokes but didn’t feel I swam too bad and I didn’t feel very tired.
It was starting to clear up at this stage but the first 3km out of the transition to
where the bike gets going was very dangerous with floods of water and bumps
and turns. At this point I was only doing 18-20km hour.
When I got to the main bike section I started to crank it up and I was watching
current speed/HR and cadence and the average speed would look after itself.
You had to be very careful on the roundabouts as they were still wet and Dave
Warby warned me about this so I didn’t take any chances even though it
scrubbed off speed all the time.
By the time I hit 40 km I think I had an average over 38kmh so I was pleased.
Wind was more against you on the way back and the rolling hills seem to be
slower on the way back to Callella so I gave back about 1km of my average.
Heading out on the second lap I was trying to decide what to do as I was going to
push a couple of times but I settled back into the 38kmh speed instead of getting
it to about 40km to have a higher average to protect on return leg. Settling back
brought my HR down and I was comfortable with an average above what it
would take to get sub 5 and I was happy. From about 110km into the bike I didn’t
so much as race but rather I raced as if I was in 1st place and defending a lead. I
wanted the 5hr bike and that was more important than pushing more. I never
felt in bad shape at any stage on the bike and was in control of what I was doing.
Got to interact with the crowd a lot which is something I made up my mind to do
this year and that helps and I saw the family on the bike which really lifts me.
Donnchadh and Niamh were ringing those cowbells.
Going into the last lap of 40km I only gave away .01 on my average before the
town section and in the town section I lost another .02 from my average. Very
annoying but better than crashing and people did that on the in section. This bike
course is fast without doubt and the extra numbers there certainly means there
is drafting and I saw plenty of groups down the field. But it is easy to marshal
with the laps and the roundabouts and where I was positioned we had marshals
pretty much all of the time after the first out section. My approach was to
interact with them and get a thumbs up on the distance between me and the
rider ahead. I was not getting caught surging like in Austria. This worked well
but I did find that when they came around everything got nervy and there were
some people who were drafting all the way. That being said I saw a huge amount
of black cards being given and even 2 red cards so they were trying but it was
disappointing to see groups coming against you as you started your last lap.
Whats the point of that, Ironman is a test of yourself so why cheat. My last gripe
on this is to say when you are passed you are supposed to pull back. I don’t think
our European friends get that concept so in these instances I use sign language.
Into T2, 4:55 bike in the bag and happy with that. I can start the run slower and
give back some of those 5 minutes as I settle into the run. My plan was to run
faster that Austria with a target pace of 4:50 km. I had this for first three kms and
was feeling good, then I settled back to 5:00km which I didn’t mind at all as that
would have been quicker than Austria also. I had dodgy moments on the run
from 5km to 13km and I had to visit the toilets. The run itself was four laps, with
one half of the lap having good support but the other was into the abyss. Mucky
puddles and paths, nobody there, turnaround points, underpasses to go down
and back up and all around you people suffering. What I did notice however was
the standard of the European runner, they were passing me at a rate of knots. I
remember one particular lad with thighs like tree trunks and he flying it. I also
noted how many of them were breathing heavy. I thought to myself that I really
am going easy on myself here. I saw Aileen about 13km in and at that stage she
told me my swim time which I was disappointed with but most importantly she
gave me a total time. This was something I hadn’t got in Austria. Then the maths
started, 13km done 30km to do more or less and X amount of time to do it to
break 10 hrs. From this point forward the whole race became about this and I
eased back in the run all the time working out what pace I could go and trying to
“save” as much time as possible for when something bad might happen. I have
seen the splits from Ironman and they are not correct at all, no way I did a 1:30
T2 transition at all and I was not running 5:45 average for one 5km split and
4:45 for the next. I cannot run like that and I had my Garmin with 1km splits
giving me the information and I had started this as soon as I crossed the run mat.
I was keeping them relatively consistent and my watch tells a different story to
Ironman timing. Anyway, the whole run was mentally draining as much as
anything else as I was trying to defend my sub 10hr goal as compared to Austria
where I ran and didn’t care if I blew up. When I got the start of cramps my calf at
25km it was a worry bigstyle. I didn’t stop at any aid station like I did in Austria, I
got a 33cl bottle of Powerbar drink from my support crew and just carried that. I
had four gels of the run, one at the turn point of the bad section for each lap and
after having some stomach issues early in the run I was weary of the gels.
With 5km to go and from what my maths was telling me(bear in mind I was in
the middle of a long day) I had 2 minutes to spare if I kept my averages but this
time I was going to lift the last 5km and I managed to do that for each km of the
last 5km. I saw Aisling with about 1.5km to go and I was starting to push at this
stage. In my head each marker from 10km out represented a point on the road in
a training run and I could remember how bad I had felt at points of a training run
but on this occasion it would be over and I would have achieved what I set out to
achieve so it made it much easier. I came into the finish line and gave the crowd
a bit of fist pumping, not Dave Seery style but some sort of an attempt. I saw the
family as I passed by and half stopped but was worried about time and so didn’t
collect the Irish flag. When I crossed the line I saw that it was under ten and 9:53
so I was regretting not spending time with the family at the finish line. It was
breaking 10hrs that was important to me and not a couple of minutes here or
there so I would like to have that moment back.
I got through recovery area as quick as I could reasonably do it and came out to
join Aileen and everybody. This was the very best part of everything for me. All
the disappointment that had gone before bubbled to the surface and it was in
this moment I realized that I had done it and I got to share it with everybody.
There are some pictures from this part of the day that I will treasure for ever.
This is what is important to me, all the struggles and disappointments that I had
and that Aileen, Donnchadh and Niamh knew about were gone. I didn’t give up. I
got a lovely card in advance of the race from Slyvia and Artur which had a quote
from Mark Allen. “Until you face your fears you don’t move to the other side
where you find your power” My fear was not achieving what I wanted again, and
in the race to a certain extent I gave into that in trying to protect my time but I
faced it down and got through it. That gives me confidence, because a huge part
of Ironman is having confidence in yourself and those around you having
confidence in you.
None of this is possible without the support of my family and in this regard I am
blessed. Thanks to Aileen, Niamh and Donnchadh. Thanks to everyone who
trained with me and supported me and listened to me throughout this journey,
you know who you are. Thanks to all who came out to give support in Barcelona
also, it really helps. What’s next, I don’t know at this stage but I am not finished
with Ironman but you just don’t know whether the circumstances will be aligned
to do another one. I would love to have some of the fellas that started me off on
this journey as well as the new crew gathered together for an adventure in 2016.