Ironman 70.3 Race Race Result

 Very happy with my race result. 20 minutes faster then my last 70.3 in Donegal mainly thanks to a very fast bike section, over 33.5kph average despite 730 vertical meters (14th in my age category, 451st overall)! Swim went better then expected  too in just over 39 minutes (my Garmin recorded less as someone managed to stop my watch with a kick).
The run was very tough as expected since I wasn't able to train more then 10K and the heat and slight hills didn't help. So I couldn't keep below 6m per km as I had hoped. 

It really helps, racing with a group from the club and I am proud that despite being the most senior by far (decades in some cases) I was still the fastest!
Having support from family and friend along the course helps too and finally, knowing many club members are tracking us from home ensures you keep giving it all you have got!

70.3 Ironman Cascais Video

Thanks to Aoife Mulry for most of the footage!

And here the official Video:

Race Preparation

Pre-race day checks

Collect bike☑️

Examine swim route☑️

Examine bike route☑️

Examine run route ☑️ 

Short pre-race bike trial spin with club mates☑️  

Pre-race pep talks☑️  

Put bike in transition☑️ 

Hang T2 bag☑️ 

Hang T1 bag☑️ 

Check name is on merchandise☑️ 

Arrived in Cascais

 Today we flew to Lisbon and took a taxi to Cascais where we quickly met up with the other club members and their supporters. In this picture we are just missing the relay couple:

Club Wellness Day

 The Tri-Club had organised a wellness day for us. Starting with short run in Shannon Bridge (I cycled to it) but the main event was cold water dips and Sauna. I was dreading it at first, the water in the river was pretty cold! But once the first dip followed by warming up in the sauna was done, it felt great and I repeated it many times!

Forest Run #2

 A great turn out for the 2nd forest run in this year series!

And of course, plenty of cakes and sweets afterwards!

Preparing for 70.3 Ironman Cascais Portugal

 Only 8 more days to go to my next 70.3 race in Cascais Portugal. Today my bike is being picked up by a company that brings them to the race and back. The same van is picking up bikes from 4 other club members so I soon hear they are way too late but eventually the came and got the bike including this bag with most of my racing gear. Hopefully it will all get there OK...

AI Experiment

 We are thinking about buying a new chair for the kitchen living area. To sea what it would look like I  use AI to virtually replace our existing chair. I am quiet impressed what you can do now with AI.
This first picture is the chair isolated from an image in a brochure.

The room as it is now

With the new chair (the foot seems to be missing)

View from behind, foot there now (but open instead of solid)

All and all these image convince us of the right choice and we will order the chair tomorrow. Be interesting to compare these AI generated pictures to the real one later (in 3 month time)

More Mushrooms

 Yet another run, yet more mushroom pictures. Particular like the first group:

 

Storm Amy & Forest Run #1

 Thanks to Amy, the first autumn storm we are yet again 24h without power. Despite that we go ahead with the first of my popular forest run series for the triathlon Club. And Brian, one of my club mates has an EV that you can plug into. So with some extension leads we can run the kettle and our fridge for a little while 😊
During the run we notice that yet again some more trees have come down but only one is really blocking our route and we need to climb around it...