https://www.bryankeane.com/triathlete/ Round two of my Asian adventure had me racing in Seoul Korea last Sunday. I was glad to get out of the Philippines and when I did and wasn’t sure of how my 18 days there would affect this race for me.
When away on races for extended periods it can be hard to keep a good training routine going, add in the fact that you are racing and having to bring your training loads up and down to maximise your chances of a good race and things can start to get a little messy. Knowing your body and what it is saying to you is very important. Some days you feel you should have volume in the program and I guess nearly everybody I race against would say if your not doing two sessions a day you feel like you are missing something. Training and traveling when you are away from your regular training environment can be hard, but in the space of a few weeks the reality is you will only loose or gain a small bit of fitness if you look after yourself carefully in those few weeks, it can effect your training long term with the drop in volume but that’s just a product of having to race.
I ended up 12th here in Seoul, again as with the last race there were good and bad points from my race. There was a start list of 75 – a nice decent sized field. The race took place in down town Seoul with the swim in the Han river, the dirtiest bit of water I have ever been in. It made the Liffey look like a health-spa. (We all know the River Lee is beautiful a not a bad word can be said against it.) Last year half the field in Seoul got sick after the race. The swim for me went well, again another front pack swim inside the top 20 which I was happy with, It was as usual a pretty violent affair, three kicks in the face, I even got told to F*?k off during the swim by Jamie, (cheers for that)
The bike course was like a under 12’s obstacle course and quite dangerous, I know we race triathlons and we are not cyclists per say, but if you said to a group of cyclist that you are holding a race on this course they would laugh and say ‘no way’ to racing on it. I would like to know who thinks it’s a good idea to race on footpaths, to race on paths not more the 3m wide with benches on them, to have Gavin’s favourite orange cones scattered throughout the course. To have a 90 degree turn at the bottom of a hill onto a chip board ramp over a footpath.
The bike course was a sham, but that’s just how it goes, you race what you are given and get on with it. For all its twists and dead turns it was a hard bloody course with lots of sprints, if you were up the front you were able to get on the back of the motor bike. That caused problems for the guys at the back of the group as the elastic stretched every time we came out of a dead turn. I held a good position in the top 5 until the end of the bike leg but then foolishly dropped back coming in T2. With my running not being in the best shape right now I need to give myself every advantage, so to give away free time on guys in T2 was foolish of me.
I managed to get a 15second time penalty from T1 for putting my wetsuit in the wrong box. I was so careful putting it in as well, as I grabbed by bike, Jens who was beside me and whose box I had used said it to me, I looked and knew that moving it would mean missing the front pack on the bike. I would deal with the consequences afterwards. As it turns out I would have gained about 2 places if not for the penalty. My run was much improved on the last race, again the first 5km was ugly but after that I was able to really get going and felt like the good old days of running quickly.
So that was Seoul ITU Asian Cup race for me, next up is China this Saturday. Had a bit of a food poisoning on Tuesday night which hasn’t helped but in a 6 day turn around not much can be done.
When away on races for extended periods it can be hard to keep a good training routine going, add in the fact that you are racing and having to bring your training loads up and down to maximise your chances of a good race and things can start to get a little messy. Knowing your body and what it is saying to you is very important. Some days you feel you should have volume in the program and I guess nearly everybody I race against would say if your not doing two sessions a day you feel like you are missing something. Training and traveling when you are away from your regular training environment can be hard, but in the space of a few weeks the reality is you will only loose or gain a small bit of fitness if you look after yourself carefully in those few weeks, it can effect your training long term with the drop in volume but that’s just a product of having to race.
I ended up 12th here in Seoul, again as with the last race there were good and bad points from my race. There was a start list of 75 – a nice decent sized field. The race took place in down town Seoul with the swim in the Han river, the dirtiest bit of water I have ever been in. It made the Liffey look like a health-spa. (We all know the River Lee is beautiful a not a bad word can be said against it.) Last year half the field in Seoul got sick after the race. The swim for me went well, again another front pack swim inside the top 20 which I was happy with, It was as usual a pretty violent affair, three kicks in the face, I even got told to F*?k off during the swim by Jamie, (cheers for that)
The bike course was like a under 12’s obstacle course and quite dangerous, I know we race triathlons and we are not cyclists per say, but if you said to a group of cyclist that you are holding a race on this course they would laugh and say ‘no way’ to racing on it. I would like to know who thinks it’s a good idea to race on footpaths, to race on paths not more the 3m wide with benches on them, to have Gavin’s favourite orange cones scattered throughout the course. To have a 90 degree turn at the bottom of a hill onto a chip board ramp over a footpath.
The bike course was a sham, but that’s just how it goes, you race what you are given and get on with it. For all its twists and dead turns it was a hard bloody course with lots of sprints, if you were up the front you were able to get on the back of the motor bike. That caused problems for the guys at the back of the group as the elastic stretched every time we came out of a dead turn. I held a good position in the top 5 until the end of the bike leg but then foolishly dropped back coming in T2. With my running not being in the best shape right now I need to give myself every advantage, so to give away free time on guys in T2 was foolish of me.
I managed to get a 15second time penalty from T1 for putting my wetsuit in the wrong box. I was so careful putting it in as well, as I grabbed by bike, Jens who was beside me and whose box I had used said it to me, I looked and knew that moving it would mean missing the front pack on the bike. I would deal with the consequences afterwards. As it turns out I would have gained about 2 places if not for the penalty. My run was much improved on the last race, again the first 5km was ugly but after that I was able to really get going and felt like the good old days of running quickly.
So that was Seoul ITU Asian Cup race for me, next up is China this Saturday. Had a bit of a food poisoning on Tuesday night which hasn’t helped but in a 6 day turn around not much can be done.
