IM 70.3 Cycle route

Last Monday being a Bank Holiday  the opportunity to get out for a long spin was ripe for the picking. Having travelled back from the Sligo Sprint Triathlon on Sunday evening meant that I had time to get organised and try and round up a possee for a spin.

Here's Eoin

My regular LSB (Long Spin Buddy) Conor was out of commission due to having clocked 240k on the bike in the past couple of days so there was just myself and Eoin (a GTC'er) who decided to get out early do a recce on the bike route and follow it up with a small run off the bikes.



We left Salthill about 8.30 and headed out to Bearna before turning off the main Spiddal road and onto a pretty poor surface that dragged uphill for approx 3k before turning left on the main Galway to Clifden road. Even though we were on the main road the surface didn't really improve and to be honest I'm glad the roads will be closed on the day because the only place to be racing is in the middle of the road.


The route out and back is through some fantastic scenery and theweather was just perfect for the spin. It is something to be aware of that a wind out here can completely change your race plans and have the effect of breaking you. I know too well from the Croi Cycle earlier this summer.

For Rick, so you don't have to look :)

We got out to Maam Cross and turned about, did a little pit stop and rolled back to Galway. The pace definitely felt a bit higher on the way back. I was very comfortable and felt the need to drive on a little when we hit some inclines to stress the body a bit. There are a couple of testing spots on the route, I think on the day the plan will be to cycle the course, no lazy cycling (as my coach keeps telling me), use every opportunity that is available for 'free' speed and keep the power steady.


There are one or two drags on the way back to the city which have the potential to be akward energy sappers just before the run legs appear.


The low / high light of the spin had to be as we came to a set of traffic lights on the edge of an Industrial estate. . . ah, no I'll keep the story. . . don't want to upset anyone about dangerous cyclists and all that palaver. We got back to Salthill, incident free, and did a short run off the bikes to loosen out the legs.


All in all I was happy with the result. Definitely a long way off my planned race pace on the bike, I was going easy, but very comfortable on the run with an average pace of 5:13 being close to my planned race pace.

Beautiful Connemara

Training Result 01.08.2011 08:35