Tadhg Cronin

Majorca Training Camp

tadhgcronin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:55:32 +0000

Liz Blatchford Video

tadhgcronin — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:39:08 +0000

Great video from the recent world cup in Mooloolaba Australia.

Dear Mr Roadie

tadhgcronin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:43:44 +0000

Dear Mr Roadie,

Please wave to me … nod or bob your head.Even a finger wave will do. All I really want is an acknowledgement. Motorists hate me too you know! They beep and bully me too.

I too dream of sunny days, tailwinds and smooth tarmac. I too have carbon on my brain and lycra in my blood. Like you I worship at the alter of Schleck and Cancellara and fantasize about spring classics and Grand Tours.

I may giggle when you say rims, nipples and locknut but I understand the difference between hubs and tubs.Mr Rugger and Mr GAA head don’t appreciate your colour coordinated lycra and bar tape.They judge you for your shaven legs and tan lines. They laugh at me too!!

We are not so different you and I. Yes my tans lines have a different geography … and I am not so much much of a quad god or sprocket rocket. This body is not built like a billy goat. This body is built to swim, bike and run.

But we both crave the PAIN. The heroic break away and the sprint to the finish. We both happily smile at the sound of carbon on tarmac and the click of well tuned gears. We are relatives.

So Mr Roadie the next time you see me on the road or coffee stop. Don’t recoil in horror. Just tip your lid to a fellow road warrior. Your friend,

Mr Triathlete

PMS …

tadhgcronin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:21:57 +0000

Hi, My name is Tadhg, I’m a triathlete and I suffer from PMS (Post Massive Session). Its been 6 hours since my last Massive Session. Directly after my Massive Session I feel AWESOME!! I’m irritably happy. Then comes the onset of PMS. Bloating and tenderness is common. I can often be found wallowing in self pity craving my next MS. I sometimes sit and stare at my bike … resting against the wall … sullen and unused. Wearing my tri suit, goggles and swim hat around the house makes me feel a little bit better. Sharon won’t allow me sit in the bath with them on anymore.I think she reckons I Iook fat in my tri suit. She says I can be irrational … I just think she doesn’t like that I shave my legs better than she does!! PMS is no laughing matter. Have compassion and realise that its a genuine medical condition. Apparently its more acute in the male gender. I HATE women!!

2010 in review

tadhgcronin — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:39:23 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,400 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 9 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 24 posts. There were 27 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 36mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was August 15th with 111 views. The most popular post that day was Introducing Ellie Salthouse.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, smcgui.wordpress.com, google.ie, facebook.com, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for ellie salthouse, tadhg cronin, tadhg cronin blog, tadgh cronin, and full moon.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Introducing Ellie Salthouse February 2010

Lady boys, a full moon and me … October 2009

Queensland Sprint Championships February 2010
3 comments

About August 2009

Noooooooooooosa … November 2009
1 comment

TriAthy!!

tadhgcronin — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:05:52 +0000

Starting to get excited about my first race this season on Irish soil.

Time Warp!!

tadhgcronin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:54:51 +0000

Things have been a little bit hectic over the past few months. The arrival of Alan to Australia followed closely by Dad and Adrian left little time for anything else.

Heading out on Run 2 in Raby Bay Triathlon

Raby Bay went well. I managed to scrap into tenth place on the day and I was happy considering we ended up doing a duathlon. An earthquake in Chile and a subsequent tsunami warning had lead to the swim being cancelled.

After Raby Bay Sharon, Alan and I headed north for a few days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands.

Ben and I watch the Sun go down on the final night aboard the Ron of Argyle

No trip to Australia could be complete without jumping out of an airplane.

Coming in for landing after a 14,000 ft hop, skip and plummet

After our trip to Airlie and the Whitsunday Islands it was time to put the head down training once again. Mooloolaba was fast approaching and with much of the club racing it was a great weekend.

Happy to be finished!!

I’ll hopefully pop up a race report about Mooloolaba in the coming days. In short it was a tough but enjoyable day. I realised after that I hadn’t completed an Olympic distance race since 2008.

With Dad and Adrian in Australia the recovery days after Mooloolaba were spent in Palm Cove.

Good spirits despite the wet weather

Getting in some sneaky training in the lap pool! Life is tough!!

Back to Brisbane it was back to training … well with one final stop in Sydney. A club mate of mine Ron Darmon was racing his first World Championship Series race in Sydnye in April. Sharon, Dad, Adrian and I once again met up in Sydney to watch Ron race and take in the sights.

Out in Darling Harbour with Dad

As always most of the pictures you see above are from Sharon. Thanks Shaz!

Queensland Sprint Championships

tadhgcronin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:43:07 +0000

Ready to go on race morning!!

As part of my training I was racing in the Queensland Sprint Championships today. I’m building up to race in the open category in Raby Bay next week so I was hoping to take a little bit of confidence from this race. I’m nervous about racing next weekend. In all likelihood I’ll struggle to make the main pack in the swim next weekend so a good race was needed.

Multinational Club Contingent!

The course in Redcliffe for the Queensland Sprint Championships is a real mixed bag. A sea swim followed by five laps of a tight and twisty bike course, finishing with a fast flat run course out and back along Sutton’s beach seafront.

Race Morning Dawned Bright ... Pity it Didn't last!!

You can see the storm out at sea that soon engulfed the race course. As I made my way down to the swim start I was worrying about sighting the markers as I was wearing tinted goggles. I shouldn’t have worried because I had a terrible start to the swim. I had plenty of feet to follow from that point on. Thankfully I managed to get a bit of a surge going towards the end and exited somewhere in the top fifteen.

Running up the beach I was greeted by the enthusiastic announcer welcoming ‘Taddy Cronin’ all the way from ‘IIIIRRRrrreland’. Fantastic … Taddy … I’ll add that to the other names I’ve been called in the past, Trevor, Tyrone, Thomas and my favourite Tadj (true story). I didn’t like the bike course full stop. It was raining at this point and having to negotiate four roundabouts and two u-turns per lap just left me feeling uneasy.

Coming in off the bike feeling relieved!!

In to t2 and the announcer once again welcomed ‘Taddy Cronin’ back into transition. Apparently I looked like I was ‘full of beans’ heading out on the run … ‘magic beans’ came the shout from a spectator. I think it was a leprechaun reference but I didn’t stop to find out.

For the first time this year I felt pretty good running off the bike. I knew I was in the top six overall and felt good. I pushed all the way and managed to catch one chap just before the end. As I mentioned in a previous post I was trying to keep my cadence consistent and high. I probably could have caught another lad had I sprinted the final 60 meters or so but for some reason I didn’t. Not like me … Probably because I was pretty spent at that point.

I was happy with my race crossing the line. Granted I had a poor enough swim but the bike went OK and I felt like I ran well off the bike. Next it’s on to Raby Bay to race the final Gatorade Series race here in Queensland. Should be a cracker and I might even let Mr Cervelo have race wheels for the day.

As always thanks to my gorgeous girl Sharon for all her support and all the pictures you see on this post.

Sporting my medal for 2nd in my Age Group. Smile !!!

Battle of the Bulge

tadhgcronin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:44:02 +0000

I was recently reading Steven Moody’s Ironman blog and his battle with his waistline. Since my arrival in Australia the scales is reading about 8kg lighter than when I boarded the plan back in September.

http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/2010021419572225

Like a lot of people starting out in triathlon my sporting background is not in endurance sport. I played soccer, basketball and other team sports for most of my teenage years and early adult life. After almost twelve months of a lay off from my shoulder dislocation I had packed on 5 kg.

My love affair with chocolate and chocolate chip cookies is well documented. As a result of the years of playing team sports I’d also become accustomed to carrying an extra few kilo. Now finding myself competing in triathlon, based purely on physiology, those kilograms are denting my performance and making training tougher.

Recently I had a consultation with the head of Nutrition for Triathlon Australia Greg Cox.

http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/about_us/ais_dietitians/greg_cox

The plan at the moment is to shed a few kilo and hopefully not dent my training performance and recovery. Greg has helped me to plan my meals better. He has adjusted slightly what I eat and when I eat it. I guess for a person with my body type weight is always going to be an issue. I’m probably more suited to power sports having a body that lends itself to gaining muscle easily. Part of the reason I met with Greg was to advise my how to shed some of my mass or physical bulk safely.

The loss of weight should help my performance but it is only an element of the whole process to becoming a better athlete. The skills of swimming, biking and running will always be first. Improving recovery,transition skills, hydration … there are so many factors that make up a good performance. I guess I’m trying to explore each area and make improvements where I can.

In the past I have come across blogs like Mark’s Daily Apple.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Reading the blog of Simon Whitfield I came across Mark’s blog about the primal blueprint, health and life in general. While I don’t agree or subscribe to everything that Mark blogs about, he is always interesting and is worth a read when you have a few minutes. The funny thing about what Greg has helped me realise is that nothing is off-limits. It’s more about quantity and timing. I’ll still be having to odd sneaky cookie but maybe not everyday.

I’ll be returning to Greg in four weeks and I’ll hopefully put up an update on the results of that visit.

Introducing Ellie Salthouse

tadhgcronin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:44:07 +0000

Ellie Salthouse is one the Junior athletes that I train with on a daily basis here in Brisbane. To say that Ellie is dedicated is an understatement. Combing hard work, maturity and god given talent she has qualified for the youth olympics this August in Singapore and looks likely to clinch a spot on the Australian Junior team to race in Budapest this September.

Most days I find myself tired. The training can be brutal at times but I have yet to witness Ellie complain or fail to give her best. Behind the soft exterior lies a real competitor. Time and again she surpasses all expectations with her performance recently in Canberra nothing short of remarkable.

http://www.triathlon.org/news/article/australia_secures_spots_for_youth_olympics/

http://www.firstoffthebike.com/races/1167-juniors-swelter-as-they-try-to-qualify

For those who have watched her train over the past few months it doesn’t come as that much of a surprise. The year twelve athlete combines a hectic school life with a demanding training schdule. Following our early morning sessions all I can do is crawl home and fall straight into bed. Ellie goes to school for the day only to return to the squad that evening ready and willing to train again. I’m sure over the coming years we’ll see the name of Salthouse racing around the world with the likes of Snowsill and Moffatt.