EAT MY DUST!!

DAVE_K

Yesterday - swim

1 k in 18 mins on the nose. Wasn't pushing the pace here - really concentrating on technique and stroke count.

10 * 100 m on 1:50. Felt strong enough for the first 8 - the last two were messy enough

Today - threadmill

8 k in 34 mins - this was good. Afterwards I wished I'd pushed on for another 2 k. On the threadmill Friday again so I'll do the 10 k then - i'm going to have to now cos I've written it in this log

DAVE_K

This morning - swim

1 k - don't even know the time - good technique though and kept the stroke count at 18, billateral breathing, tumble turns and as little splash as possible try to concentrate on the high elbow and pull
Lousy swim - started off well enough but motivation and enthusiasm for it soon left me. There was a few in the lane and everyone was moving at different paces - sometimes I can handle this - other times it drives me nuts. When I saw another 2 getting in the lane I said feck this and headed for the sauna.............genuine frustration or just looking for an excuse to get out - I couldn't be sure!!! Going to the gym in about 30 minutes to do some high rep weights to make up for it. Have 10 k to run on the threadmill in the morning.

DAVE_K

Friday 27th
Planned Threadmill 10 K time trial last Friday. Was going good at the 5 K mark (22 mins) and still plenty left in the tank. Reached down to grab my towel and hit the emergency stop button on the threadmill (not the first time this has happened to me - you'd think i'd learn) and feckin ruined the whole thing.
Gave myself 3 * 1 k as-fast-as-i-coulds after this.

Sunday 1 March
10 k down the track - 47.30. Had a few beers on Saturday and ate plenty of crap - this session was primarily a calorie-burner

Tuesday 3 March
AM
Went to see my uncle who is a swimming coach for some tips on my technique - he got an underwater camera and video-ed me from a number of angles and played it back for me afterwards pointing out little kinks I could iron-out for a more efficient stroke and a couple of drills to do...with the instruction to come back in a month for more of the same.
PM
Long run (well for me anyway) - 15k reasonable pace, not sure how long I took to do it or average heart rate or anything like that as my garmin is telling me it's low in batteries AND i've only had it a month!!!

Not getting much time on d boards at the moment so updating of this log is infrequent. I'll have to have a good look at myself if it drops down to the third page someday!!!

DAVE_K

Wednesday AM

Swim - wasn't much of session distance-wise. Did 1500 consecutive just paying attention to techique.

Thursday PM

Long Run - about 15 k, once again not sure of the time or stats but it felt good. I kept a good solid consistant pace throughout mostly but upped the tempo for the 5 - 10 k mark which involved a big hill half way - up one side of the hill, down the other, round a roundabout and then back up the hill and down the other side. Gave it socks for this bit and was lovin it (and loving being able for it) - wasn't far off giving it some "AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGHHHHH" it was that good.

Felt like I was on drugs when I got home.

Knee feels sound enough too - might have even been a good thing. I'm paying a lot more attention to the way I'm running now.

Joined a gym across from work today so the hour I spent strolling around at lunch time will be put to good use. I'm planning an overhaul of my training from next week. First tri is Athy. I missed the boat of the Joey Hannon so I've got the bones of 3 months til Athy. Connemara Half in two weeks. I'm not out to kill myself for this. I'm doing it for the occasion and the scenery and plan to run it with a friend.....mind that could change on the start line. I am looking forward to it.....It'll be the first real event I've done this year.

DAVE_K

I've worked out a program for training for TriAthy and have been on that this week. It's basically 3 swims, 4 runs and 2 cycles for now. It's a bit light on cycling but at the moment I've no real choice cos I'm down home weekends (where my bike is) and in Dublin weekdays. When it gets a bit brighter in the evenings i might start bringing my bike up with me weekdays and fit another cycle in and take a run out. There's two core and strength sessions in there too.

It's been going OK, using up lunchtime for training has left me with the evenings free mostly which suits me cos I much prefer training during the day and find it harder to get out and do it after work.

Monday:
LUNCH: 40 mins tempo run

Tuesday:
AM: Swim 750 m, 5 * 200 m, 500 m
LUNCH: Core and Strength

Wednesday:
AM: Swim 2000 m straight
LUNCH: Speed session run 2 k warm up, 5 * 1 k

Thursday:
LUNCH: Core and Strength
EVENING: 15 k run

Friday:
AM: Swim 500 m, 15 * 100 m (5 * 100 @ T1/5 * 100 @ T2/5 * 100 @T3), 500 m
LUNCH: Optional Short Run

Saturday:
AM: Cycle

Sunday:
Cycle
AM: Cycle

MCOS

Plenty of quality sessions in there DAVE_K, looks good And fair play to you getting into a routine with the job move and commuting etc.. If I can get within 15 minutes of you at TriAthy I'll be doing well! Just a couple of quick questions. Where are you building rest into your programme? Will you incorporate any brick sessions before TryAthy? Will there be a progression somewhere in the programme in April eg speed or distance or recovery? Is all the training done alone? Have you any training milestones to achieve between now and TriAthy?

Going through a bad patch in my training the last week so I have to re-evaluate where I'm at and get a new plan in place which won't be easy.

DAVE_K

Yeah I started to go through a really stagnant phase fitting in training where I could. A clean slate and a new schedule are in order. I've got an extension of 3 months with the contract I'm on at work and have a swimming pool on the way to work and a gym across the road at lunchtimes so have been able to build a training plan into my working life which works well.

Rest!!!!!!!.................well i hadn't thought of that..........no just joking!! I've a couple of options here

1) Leave the optional run out of Friday and stick to just a swim session - does a swim session qualify as a days rest? and if so possibly shift Wednesday's easy swim (2000 m straight - a long plod rather than tough) to Friday and that can be my rest day.
2) Drop Mondays run
3) Just follow the plan, listen to my body and take rest days when i think i need them

Any ideas?

I think what I'm going to do is stick to the plan this week, then at the end of the week re-assess and work out when in the week a rest day would have suited best.

Regarding brick sessions - i'll do a few of them off the bike on a couple of weekends coming up to TriAthy.

I can't see myself really upping the distances with the time (per session) I have available to me at the moment. I've plenty of opportunities for training but I'm on a tight schedule....so say in the morning, I'll be in the water at the pool for 7.20/25 and have to be out for bang on 8.10 - same story at lunch time - 40 minutes available for run....so i'll increase the speed i'm working at instead. The sort of distances I'll be competing at this year (sprint and olympic) are fairly short so I think training for speed will benefit me more here.

Yep all training is done alone these days. Once again I'm a slave to a timetable (of my own making) so finding anyone to train at exactly the same time as myself wouldn't be practical. I haven't formulated any training milestones really between now and then except to complete the schedule I've outlined for myself and up the pace for completing it between now and then (maybe I should though).

I also want to lose about 1/2 a stone and get my BF% down closer to 10 % - it's around 15 % at the moment.

Running Connemara Half Next week alright but more for the experience.

What about yourself - any ideas on your plan? Any suggestions towards mine?

Thanks for the questions above though - they're the sort of constructive questions I need to be asking myself when I actually sit down to make up a plan.....and attempting to answer them has got me thinking.

One would really need a little checklist to complete when structuring any plan....................does your plan satisfy all these criteria..................if so then it is A PLAN!!!!!!

MCOS

Hi DAVE_K.

Thanks for getting back on my questions. I've been having a good think about my own training and my plan won't be too different to yours actually. As for rest, if you are not taking a complete rest day, then have your active rest day nice an easy. So the 2k swim or recovery run may be options for a 'rest' day. My weekly rest day is going to be an early morning swim only. Other than that I'll incorporate a full rest day at the weekend every 2-3 weeks.

Do you need the tempo run AND the speed session?

DAVE_K

Monday:
LUNCH: 40 mins tempo run

Tuesday:
AM: Swim 750 m, 5 * 200 m, 500 m
LUNCH: Core and Strength

Wednesday:
AM: Swim 500 m, 15 * 100 m (5 * 100 @ T1/5 * 100 @ T2/5 * 100 @T3), 500 m
LUNCH: Speed session run 2 k warm up, 5 * 1 k

Thursday:
LUNCH: Core and Strength
EVENING: 15 k run

Friday:
AM: 2000 m straight swim

Saturday:
AM: Cycle

Sunday:
AM: Cycle

I've changed this slightly cos I've found myself wrecked after the long run and from the experience of the last month or so think I'd be still too tired at 7 am Friday morning for my biggest swim after having completed my longest run at about 9 pm the night before.

Speed and tempo - do i need to do the two (i'm not experienced enough as a runner to know)..........I'm not sure TBH but I could defo do with a bit more speed and better tempo!!!

MCOS

DAVE_K wrote: »

Speed and tempo - do i need to do the two (i'm not experienced enough as a runner to know)..........I'm not sure TBH but I could defo do with a bit more speed and better tempo!!!

I'm sure some of the guys on the main forum could give some insight to that one, I'm not so sure myself.

DAVE_K

I've been sticking to my plan of late so haven't really bothered writing it up. All is going well enough. Got a few tips about a month back on my swimming and have got my hundreds down to 1:45 for 10 which is a fair enough improvement (for me) in the course of a month.

Did Connemara 1/2 at the weekend as a training run and came in at 1:48 - not a great time but I wasn't pushing it at any point and ran strongly and at the same pace throughout...................I was back to feeling grand about 10 minutes after the race and was OK for training again on Monday. Really enjoyed the run though - it was a good slog and the hills were great.
Did a 10 mile LSR about a week before it as my final long one. Got the missus to drop me off 10 miles out the n5 on the side of the road (with a pressing appointment in town in 1 hour 30 minutes and had to run home from there, get showered and get to the appointment on time - the only way). It was well funny though, the kids were screaming "what about daddy" as they all drove off.

My van is getting serviced at the moment, so have added another couple of K running into my mornings - it's 3 K to the train station, and then another 3 K from the train station I get off at to the swimming pool so I've been running both these sections with my stuff in a handy little rucksack for running. I'd normally have drove to the station and then got another bus from the station to the swimming pool. I think I'm going to keep at this even when i do get my van in as the run to the swimming pool gets me there faster so I can get another 10 minutes in the pool. Hadn't factored tired shoulders from running with the rucksack on into my swimming but it should pass as they get used to it.

Diets gone to sh1t a bit as I felt like I deserved to eat what I wanted after the Connemara 1/2 and have done just that.

..............and thats about it