Marc Molloy's Triathlete Blog

Marc has trained and been locally competitive in Triathlon for a long time. He thought I was pretty good, although he never really cracked the training thing; had poor diet, didn’t drink enough water, drank too much beer, trained too much or too little, had little concept of what his body was actually telling him it needed...basically he wasn’t giving himself the best chance to do well. That all changed last year.............

January 2013 

 

2012 was a busy year indeed!
 
Business booming, family growing and many other excuses led to a slow end to racing for 2012, with our first baby being born in December it also meant a pretty slow start to 2013 too!
2012 was fun, I was lucky enough to go to some great races in the year, Xterra France was one of the hardest but best races I have ever done and to follow that up a week later with the European Cross Triathlon Championships in Holland (All on the beach!) a week later may have been a bit ambitious in hindsight and spelt the end of the year really competitively speaking.
For anyone not up to speed on Xterra, it’s a worldwide series of cross triathlon races (Mountainbiking instead of road riding) which are absolutely great fun! They are hard too, Xterra France was over 5 hours long for me and showed me that my old injuries were still there!
I emplore anyone reading this to have a go at one, there are races all over the world and you don’t always have to do the full distance (generally speaking though most seem to be around 2-3 hours rather than 5) with children’s races and a shorter main race fairly standard.
Also have a look at the Xtri series of races taking part in the UK, a booming scene now with some of the races already selling out!
So to 2013, I am back into physio with the excellent James Ross Healthcare gang who are working on a conditioning programme and working hard to correct my lower back and hip flexor problems which slow me down after a couple of hours of running or cycling. The back care package that they have is excellent and is really helping me to stay strong and work towards being race ready for April/May time.
 
What is the plan for this year?
 
I would love to get to some European Xterra Races as well as the World Cross Tri Championships which are taking place on the same course as the euros last year in Holland…I reckon I owe that place a decent race so will be aiming to do well there. I think most of the Xtri Series if I can get there as well as a Half Ironman or two and a few local races.
I’m not a big fan of setting target times as its all dependant on course and conditions etc, but I would like to get my running back down to 39mins for a 10km with the help of James and the team and my team mates at Weston AC and would also like to see the swim times come down this year, I have spent a lot more time in the pool this year thanks to the shoulder rehab that James has been doing with me so I am feeling stronger with each swim.
To all the James Ross Healthcare massive, have fun this year whatever your aims are, make sure you look after your self and do all your physio exercises at home…for me the key to going fast is to be strong and get the body right first!
 
I will endeavour to keep you posted on my progress.
 
Marc Molloy
Sole Cycling
 

March 2012

I started training last year with James and the team and they started by making me do weights in conjunction with regular massage and treatments on various old injuries and misfiring muscles...I can’t tell you it was plain sailing as I wasn’t the easiest customer...I wanted to be going fast and I wanted to do it now! 

So James assessed me and set me up with a regular programme of weight training designed to get muscles firing that had gone to sleep, to get my body ready for the stresses of regular training and to try and address some of the imbalances within my body. At first it was all about listening to the body, understanding why things hurt, what I could do to make them better and getting a feel for movement. After that it was all about introducing dynamism into it, doing short circuit sessions without losing the form and working on things like explosive power and combining activities. At the same time James was teaching my body to work how it should, he cracked, pulled, probed and massaged, and gradually I started to listen, both to him and to myself...I started to understand what I needed to do, why things hurt and what I needed to do to put it right.

I am pleased to say that a year on I am really feeling the benefit, alright my first statement wasn’t true, I am not feeling any more attractive, but I have certainly lost the excess weight, my training is more consistent, I am stronger and less susceptible to injury, I am enjoying training and am starting to race at a much higher level. Towards the end of last year I raced twice at olympic distance and went just over 2.15hrs for the race...not a world beating time, but pain free and with quick recovery, a solid base for this year!

So this year I have decided to do two main races firstly Xterra France in July, for those unfamiliar with Xterra, it is an Olympic distance Triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) but all off road, so mountainbiking and trail running. It’s very competitive at the top and much more draining than normal triathlon due to the extra time involved and the extra dimension of having lots of hills and technical stuff...think Ashton Court before the new trails in the middle of winter and you are there!
Then I will be doing the Little Woody in August – A half Ironman distance race in the Forest of Dean. 

I have two secondary goals...if training goes well I hope to qualify for Great Britain to race at the European Championships at the Hague in Holland, and then to maybe, just maybe, if I’m feeling really good, have a go at an Ironman in September time...I tried one before and got my pacing and fuelling all wrong (I was young and fast and thought that would be enough!) so I would like to get the monkey off my back and get one finished at some point, so who knows, maybe this year!

 

May 2012

Well it happened!! Marc was selected for Team GB and will go to Holland for the European Champs.

So on Saturday evening (14th July) Marc will be racing. Good Luck and we wait for the news.............................................

20 Jan 2010
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20 January 2010 16:04 GMT+00:00   Posted By: Ed Ley
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