While many cyclists in Ireland are making do during the Covid19 lock-down with riding on the turbo trainer and doing laps within 2km of their home, Stephen Donnelly is taking it to the next level.
He’s ridden road races in his day but his speciality is triathlon and he’s planning a full distance Ironman at his home in Ballina, Co Mayo, in the coming days, with his partner Lyndsey and their new baby daughter Jessie cheering (and gurgling) him on.
He'll be using a commercial-size builders' skip filled with water to do the full length swim, which will take an hour.
The 33-year-old is a life guard and swimming teacher at Ballina swimming pool, and was 7th overall in Ironman Estonia last year while winning the Hardman Long Distance Triathlon in Killarney, Co Kerry, in a course record.
Advertisement
“I was meant to be racing Ironman Lanzarote at the end of May and The Norseman World XTRI Championship in August but obviously all of that is cancelled,” he told stickybottle while training on Zwift at home in Mayo.
He also qualified
for Kona last year but because his new daughter’s arrival into the world was at
the same time, he passed on Kona and now the next challenge is at home.
“I’m going to complete a full Ironman distance triathlon from my home on May 1st to fundraise for my local meals on wheels in Ballina and for the Mayo General Hospital Covid19 fund for patients and staff.”
He’ll ride his cycling leg on a home trainer and his
running leg on a treadmill. The swim is a bit trickier, unless you’ve got a
pool at home, which very few people in Ireland do.
Related News
However, Donnelly has sidestepped that logistical
challenge by securing back-up from his local skip company, Loftus Recycling.
They’re giving him a brand new commercial sized skip – like the big ones you’d normally see on construction sites – which will be filled with water.
He’ll then complete his Ironman swim in the pool using a
swimming band; akin to a bungee cord which Donnelly will attach to the side of the
skip and also onto his feet.
That effectively allows him to swim on the spot; the swim
band absorbing and canceling out the forward motion created by his swimming in
the water and will ensure he can swim on the spot in the skip.
Donnelly told stickybottle it will be impossible to
exactly measure how far he swims, as he’ll be swimming on the spot. However,
his slowest ever time for the 3.86km swim on Ironman is one hour, so he has
decided to swim for an hour during his home Ironman.
He’ll then get onto the home trainer and complete the
180.25km bike leg followed by the concluding marathon run on the treadmill;
42.2km.
When it comes to the bike leg, he plans to set up a
meet-up on Zwift at 8:10am on the day of his effort. It means anyone can join
him and ride the bike leg with him.
If for any reason his Zwift crashes or he suffers any
technical issues, he’ll ride for five hours, to ensure he completes the Ironman
cycling distance.
Stephen is doing this epic effort for charity so if you’re in a position to donate, you can do so by following this link.
Topics
