Week IM – 6:The Wicklow 200;The IM Cycle

I’m writing this over a very, very large meal. It’s gone on for the last hour and shows no signs of abating.

Today, I did the Wicklow 200. It was a 200km cycle through the Wicklow Mountains and the towns that surround them. It started in Greystones . This was the first full IM cycle I have completed this year. Here’s how it went:

0km – 50km: (Sally Gap) (The race started in Greystones and climbed up to the Sally Gap before the long descent to Kilbride. The weather started off fine but out across the Sally Gap, it was strong winds and heavy rain. That’ll toughen us up! I started cycling with a fellow triathlete, Noel, and we set a very fast pace. We started a bit later then many others (you could start any time between 6:30 and 8:30). We both felt strong as we passed the 50km but Noel summed it up well by saying “Don’t get carried away.. this is still very much the honeymoon period”. The descent was fast and it really needed a lot of concentration in the rain and wind. I’m quite a fast descender but in rain, I tend to under steer on corners, so I was a bit more conservative than normal.

50km – 110km (Donard): We flew through the first water stop at the 50km mark without stopping. We continued to set a good pace on what were at times very difficult road surfaces. We stopped then for 20 minutes at the first main pit stop in Donard at 80km. We set a good pace after Donard and I tagged onto a group of strong cyclists for a fun 15km of fast, interesting ascents and descents between Donard and Brockna.

110km – 185km (Slieve Maan, Shay Elliet climbs): It was at some point during the ascent of the punishing Slieve Man climb that the honeymoon period ended. I struck out on my own soon after Donard to essentially simulate the Ironman as much as possible,  using the tri bars and pushing it hard. I passed many pentalons. Before Slieve Man, there was a smaller ascent and fast descent before the real thing. And it was obvious when it arrived. It’s a long ardius climb that reduced several people to walking with their bikes. I grinded up most of the climb with an American chap, passing a lot of people on the way up. And it was tough. It lasted a long time and seeing the tips of the big flags errected at the summit was like an oasis in the desert of pain. The descent from Slieve Maan is long and fast. My speedometer tells me the maximum speed I hit was 67Kmph, but it underestimated the race distance by about 30%, so I imagine it also underestimated that max speed.

At the bottom of Slieve Man, there was little mercy as the Shay Elliet Climb begins almost immediately. It was another tough one. It’s a shallower climb but almost as long. The Tour of Ireland King of the Mountains markings were on the road on the way up. 3km to the top.. 2km.. 1km.. 500 meters.. There were a group of people cheering on the last 100m of the ascent so it seemed apt to sprint it. It’s quite amazing how much better people cheering can make you feel. Or at least how much better you perform so you look like you feel better to them.

Between 150 and 175km, things got tough. I forwent the second sandwich stop at around 145km and in hindsight, it would have been a good idea. At that point, I was still pushing hard on the tri bars and averaging a good 32-33kmph. Around 155km, I felt my stomac beginning to reject food. It was probably sick of energy gels and salted isotonic (4:1). My cycling became more sparadic – pushing too hard for a while then needing to ease off a lot. I was passed by many pentalons.

After the climb just outside Avoca, I realised I was flagging a lot and it was really tough. When you’re on your own, when things are going badly, it seems your mind focuses every single neuron in your brain on the reasons you should stop. I reached for a HyperBoost bar that we had received in the race goody bag. It’s a dark chocolate covered brick of pure, caffinated energy. It could feel my tummy think about it for a while before deciding to moodily crank back into action. I was back over the bars and making good pace by about 175km.

175km – 200km: Having been through the somewhat of a wall (although still not out of the woods), I ran into a follow boards.ie person (Buffolo). I recognised the boards.ie top. He was a good cyclist and we did about 10km together before he went ahead. This really made things a lot easier for this period. Around 185km, things were getting tough again (although I knew I would finish at this stage regardless of whether I could eat any more or not). One thing I noticed as time went on was that the pentalons were getting bigger. These large globuals of cyclists were swallowing people up and they were sticking with them. I too suffered this sticky fate around 185km. I heard a whirring from behind and thought it was an electric car. It was actually a 25 man pentalon. It was travelling about 20% faster than I was and the first 6 or 7 riders went around and moved in front of me. At this point, they began breaking the wind and I sped up by exactly 20% so the rest of the riders filed in behind me. I had been subsumed by the pentalon.

If I was to put a figure on the effort needed to cycle inside a tight pentalon against cycling in wind alone, It’s probably about 50% of the effort. That’s a huge difference. After about 3km, as tired as I was, I thought to myself - “This is a good cycle, but it’s not an Ironman cycle”. I knew I had to finish this thing alone so I dropped off the end of the now very large group and faced the wind alone for the last 13km. I’m glad I did. These were those last few Km when I knew I had the course beaten and I hit the tri bars for the last jaunt back into Greystones.

Getting off the bike at the finish line was a strange affair. I couldn’t straighten up for about 30 seconds. I didn’t feel like I could run a marathon. Eventually I loosened up and had a plate of pasta, which went some way to settling my stomac. Once I had the bike in the car, I went for a short run. I was suprised that my legs were fine, they were tight but not tired at all. I think on race day, it’s going to come down to settling my stomac enough to eat sufficient calories to make the marathon possible. This may mean a large salty meal in T2. If this is what it takes, then that’s what I’ll have waiting there.

After I drove back to Dublin, I went for an 8km slow jog / fast walk. I felt good. Maybe I will be able to do a marathon after all.

Some stats:

• Distance: 200km
• TIme from start to finish: 7:59:58
• Time cycling: 7:32:30 (27:28 at stops)
• Calories burned: 4581
• Calories consumed: ~1900: 1 Chicken Sandwich, 2 caffeinated energy gels, 2.5 litres of isotonic, 2.5 litres of water, 2 Meusli bars, 1 jam sandwich, 1 HyperBoost cafinated energy bar.
• Max HR: 82%. Average HR: 66%
• Max speed: 67Kmph. Average speed: 26.5Kmph

The main lesson for Zurich is a lot more solid food is required. I’ll have several sandwiches, flap jacks, muesli bars and a pasta dinner at both transition and the bag drop at the half way point on the cycle. If I need them, they’ll be there.

On Monday, I did a tough 120km mountain cycle to get ready for the WW200. I went over the Sally Gap, through Laragh, Over the Wicklow Gap, through Blessington and back over the Sally Gap. The weather was really bad – driving rain and wind - and it took everything I had to make the last climb up to the Sally Gap into the wind. I also managed to leave my phone and keys in the coffee shop in Laragh (although I assumed I’d dropped them out of my pocket somewhere), and this didn’t add to the pleasure of the cycle! Luckily, someone handed them in and my kind girlfriend picked them up without me knowing. I was glad to be home, but also glad to have done such a tough cycle.

This cycle meant I broke 400km on the bike this week (and gave my biggest training week so far). A total which gives me a lot of confidence and I can feel myself getting stronger over long distances. Next week I will return to running and compete in Half Ironman UK.

Today’s IM cycle was the second of the boxes checked (Swim and Cycle) and I really feel like I achieved something today. As I’m frequently reminded, it’s not the destination that’s important but the journey. Amen.. But the destination is looming.