Run for your life.

Oryx

Made up for my off day yesterday. Did an 8 mile run, followed by a 1500m swim. 72 mins for the run, 40 for the swim. Both felt ok, and wasnt too tired after them. A delayed birthday booze up did write off the rest of the day tho, but at least got my training in beforehand!

Oryx

Got my new bike today. Lovely carbon Giant, far too good for these legs but by the end of the year I hope to be worthy of it!

Oryx

Circuits and kettlebell classes back to back this evening. Tiring but great fun.

metamorphosis

Im jealous of your new play toy. Iv been looking at upgrading (even though i have not yet the money!), looking at bikes out of my price range. Snap out of it ULstudent!

You enjoy the Kbells? I did a workshop in Dublin last October that went through the main lifts and technique and got to go away with your own kettlebell. I really enjoy the buzz after them. Don't use it enough though!

Oryx

Ive been doing kettlebells for ages, but had let it lapse for a while when I was struggling with stuff like learning to swim. I always tell people who are thinking of buying gym equipment to just buy a kettlebell and learn to use it, theyre really effective. And the bike only came about because I had a landmark birthday and got donations towards it. Still have my old one, but its just not good enough for the distances Ive got to put in this year. And now Ive got to master cleats which Ive struggled with. Cant ride a bling bike on flat pedals.

Oryx

Club swim session last night. Did 450m warm up (should have been 800m, but as I didnt have an outboard motor strapped to my back to do it in the ten minutes allotted, I had to do less. Then 2 x150 f/c legs. Wow. Very tiring by the end. The main set was supposed to be 10x 100m with set times 2.40m first descending by 5 secs every two sets. I only got 8 done, we ran out of time. Noone finished the set. Then 200m swim down.

Loved the set, it was easier to keep going continuously than its been before. Maybe I was slower or something but it didnt feel like it. Am working on my arm tech, particularly my lazy left arm.

Today I ache like buggery from the kettlebells on Monday. I knew I would, but had hoped the swim would help.

Few days off now, am away from tomorrow.

Oryx

My new baby. Sigh. *hugs frame*

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/tcr.advanced.4/4857/43141/

Oryx

Took a few days off, just did a short run on Saturday, half an hour, and 7.5 miles or so today in just under an hour. I feel so laaaazyyy.

Oryx

Swim session: 400m warm up. 900m front crawl arms. 10 x 25m sprints. 4 x 25m turn overs. (yuk), 50m breast stroke, 50m ssts, 300m swim down. Not the sort of thing that burns you out but just hard to get thru some of it. I sure know I havent swam since last weeks session.

Oryx

Yesterday: Turbo session. 5min warm up. 18min @70%, 15min @75%, 12min @80%. 5 min spin down. 55min total. Havent been on the bike in ages, so I need to wean myself back. Did the session on the old bike as its set up permanently on the turbo.

Oryx

Yesterday: 4.5 miles, easy. Legs felt tired, but loosened up after a bit. Still, kept the pace low, my IT band is playing up. Tempo training will begin in earnest after this weekend, once this horrible event is out of the way.

Tough Guy. 11am Sunday. I will need all the help I can get to make it around. Its longer... Im slower.. Ive done hardly any strength work... Im already cold here in my office.
Please dont let it snow.
Please dont let it snow.
Please dont let it snow.

Izoard

Oryx wrote: »

Tough Guy. 11am Sunday.

Best of luck with it...will be trying to figure out which one is you on the endless Setanta repeats:)

You'll find the HIM a gentle stroll after that...

Oryx

Izoard wrote: »

Best of luck with it...will be trying to figure out which one is you on the endless Setanta repeats:)

You'll find the HIM a gentle stroll after that...

In the thousands of pictures their photographers took last year, there wasnt one of me. People are beginning to think I just turn up and nick a medal. Havent the right head on for it this year, and you really need a good dose of PMA to get thru it. So Ill just have to use PMS.

DustyBin

Just jump off the feckin plank this time will ya??
best of luck Oryx, let the rage win out

jimbob25w

Oryx wrote: »

Right this is my brand new sparkly training log, for my brand new sparkly year of training.

I've already posted for a year over in Fitness, and am now moving to a new home for the next stage of whatever the heck I decide to do.

The original log is here

To recap on who I am, female, 38 (never gets easy saying that). Weight has become irrelevant, not too skinny, not too big. I go by my shape, these days. Mostly been running up to now, with some kettlebell and circuit training thrown in.

Completed various 10ks, with pb of 45.40 or so. 10 mile pb is 1.17, Half marathon pb is 1.41, and my only marathon, Dublin, just completed, 3.59.27. Tough guy winter 2009 in 2.38, (partial course closure) and TG Summer 3.01.

My aims this year are:
To learn to swim properly
To start to cycle for training
To add the above to running and do a sprint tri.
Continue with kettlebells and increase weight.
Will do TG Winter again.
At least one marathon, with a better time.
TG summer or Gaelforcewest.

In a nutshell, I want to see how much further (and faster) I can push this.

if u can RUN 10ks swimming wont be a problem for you, and good luck

Oryx

I jumped off the plank. Im finally done with Tough Guy Report will follow. Too sore now.

Oryx

For anyone who doesn’t know, Tough Guy is an event which runs on the last Sunday in January on Mr Mouse farm in Wolverhampton. See www.toughguy.co.uk . Mr Mouse, aka Billy ‘Mouser’ Wilson, and his every smiling team have dreamed up the ‘safest, most dangerous assault course in the world’. It challenges every fear; pain, endurance, severe cold, heights, water, claustrophobia, and even administers the odd electric shock. What’s not to like?

This was my third attempt at the challenge, on the last two, hypothermia was a problem, and I failed to complete the ‘death plunge’ walk the plank obstacle. So I had to give it a third go to beat that curse.

The temperature was hovering just above zero as the squads packed into the starting pits, and all the water obstacles were frozen over. For entertainment at the start, some unlucky souls were put inside tractor tyres and rolled down the hillside, while others were made to lie on the ground with planks on their bellies for the other 5000 entrants to trample on their way to the start. Mr Mouse has a very warped sense of fun.

At the gun (and smoke bomb, firework and cannon shot) start, we took off running the muddy paths, which at that point were still frozen solid. After a half a mile was a series of deep mud filled ditches and cut down trees to get through, then on to a rolling cross country run, where the faster runners could pick up speed to get to the front of the pack. I couldn’t, tho. Im not running well right now, and my legs were already heavy. Its hard to know the distance, as the route in interspersed with logs, brambles, ditches and the ‘slalom’ which is one steep hill you run up and down repeatedly until your legs feel like jelly. Less slaloms than other years, is the mouser getting soft??

On to the bear wood, with its hay bale vaulting and cargo net obstacles. I got severe chest cramp from running while bent over under the nets, and I think I frightened the people around me who thought I was having a heart attack, clutching my chest and gasping!

Then the real fun began, because now, I had to get properly wet. A series of water and ice filled ditches, with cargo net and fallen trees to get past. Then the water slalom, which is a channel you cross back and forth, climbing in and out of 15 times, through waist deep water full of broken ice. Everyone helped everyone else here, and the atmosphere was amazing. More ditches after that, getting deeper all the time, before the slippy trail brought us back towards the start of the legendary killing fields. I got knocked over when a very tall man slipped and fell on me in one of the swamps on the way, but he was so apologetic it made me laugh.

The killing fields are where the real torture happens. Its hard to describe it fully, but you’ve got to climb walls and 40 foot A frames, manage rope walks, run through fire, crawl through tyres, cross swamps that suck your shoes off, and get in and out of muddy pools so many times you lose count. On my way around I met Tigger, Scooby doo, and large men in women’s underwear. No, I wasn’t hallucinating, they were in fancy dress, the best of which had to be the almost-naked gimps in posing pouches. I never found out if those guys made it around alive.

The standout obstacles were the torture chamber, the fear tunnels, that accursed plank, and the gladiatough coliseum. The torture chamber is new this year, a pitch black underground pit you had to crawl through, while suspended logs hit you in the face and electrodes shocked any part of you they hit. The amount of yelling and swearing in there was incredible. I was very glad to get out, the shocks weren’t mild! The fear tunnels I had done before, and I knew I could handle it, but good old Mr Mouse had made it much harder by making us wade through a chest deep stream for about 200 yards before it. Then you had to dunk your head under four times to get through the tunnel. Not as bad as last year, but still a brain freeze. The swim to the far bank had me whimpering as I did a half blind, half frozen doggy paddle. Then out and running again to warm up, thank god. The plank which came after, is a simple thing. A six inch wide plank, hovering over a ten foot drop into a lake. Sounds easy till you’re up there, ten feet may as well have been a hundred, to me. But I had to do it, and my ungraceful bunny hop made me land on my back and get a nose full of water. But it was done, Id beaten my biggest tough guy issue. The coliseum, which was new, was a figure of eight loop around a newly dug lake, with various monkey bar climbs, swings and dips in the water, it was almost an event in itself. Horrible, cold and tiring. This was the only point where I really began to suffer, and was grunting loudly from cold, something you never think you’d do until it happens.

That over, all I had to do was climb on my belly under barbed wire, crawl over about a hundred tractor tyres, run another slippery mile to the last swim across a stinking lake, and up the hill to the finish. At that point I was going well, adrenaline had kicked in, I knew Id finish ok as all the hard stuff was over, and the movement got me warming up. But as I got my finishers medal not one but two medics asked if I was ok. I guess I looked a bit rough, and yeah, my legs were wobbly. You get a half filled cup of sweet tea in the warm up barn, and one of the funniest sights of the day is watching shivering muddy tough guys trying to get the cups to their mouths without shaking the tea all over themselves.

It was great, I loved the event, I came home smiling. But Ive conquered it now, and I am NEVER, EVER, doing it again!!

DustyBin

Delighted to hear you made the jump. That torture chamber sounds the worst of the lot to me, that and the way the cold water all the way around must have just sucked the energy out of you. Not on the horizon for me at any rate.
Fair play Oryx, tough girl indeed.

RubyK

Jebas, that was quite a read :eek: You are made of strong stuff!! I can't imagine how tough that must have been. Well done to you

Oryx

Back into the swing of things last night with the club swim session. Time trials which I wasnt really up for but did 1.59 for 100m, which is about 6 secs better than the last one. Other than that did a mix of technical stuff, about 1700m.

shotgunmcos

Loved that wicked report Oryx, thats a mad event by the sounds of it. Like its isn't hard enough, people doing it in the nip?! A big heart well done leaping off the plank this time. You are one tough cookie thats for sure

Oryx

Aw, gee thanks. I had to do that jump because otherwise Id have to go back and he makes it harder every year! I climbed up on it for a look before the event just to psyche myself into doing it. I dunno how people do it with nothing on, its totally crazy.

In case anyone wants a look, this captures the spirit of the craziness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCbCQaD0Hf4

Izoard

Brilliant!

There is even torture in choosing what to wear...what will help you in the water will kill you elsewhere and vice versa.

Maybe going in the buff, is the way to go:)

Well done on the plank...

Oryx

Have been pretty pooped this week so laid off much training. Last night I was feeling the need to do something so I spent 55 mins at 80 cad, moderate, on the turbo. Just to loosen up. Even that was hard on my legs.

Today I got out in the evening for a run. My head needed it more than my body. Did 4.5 miles at a very easy pace. The gale force wind and horizontal rain made it interesting. 45 mins meant training wise it didnt do much for me except give me something to write in the log. But it stops me feeling lazy at least. legs are aching now and badly need a foam roll.

Oryx

Turbo set today, 60 mins including 5 x 6 min @ 90% Then went to pool for 1500m, 6 x 250m taking 6 mins per set. A good days training all in all.

Oryx

Circuits. Usual stuff, skipping, burpees, crunches, weights. Passed on the kettlebells after. Think that was wise.

Oryx

Club swim session.
After a 300m warm up, coach broke the lovely news that next up was a 1500m time trial. My first long tt, great. So we all got dug in for 60 lengths. I decided no point trying to race as I would burn out, so I found a comfy pace for the first 30 lengths. Took a while to settle into a rhythm, the first half did feel ragged. Second 30 was better, I felt stronger, and picked up the pace a little, or at least worked on pushing the water through more. I kept getting caught behind the girl in front, but didnt have the oomph to pass her, and it did break my stride a little. Finished in 35.30, which isnt fast but gives me something to work on. I was ok at the finish, and could have kept going, so I need to work on increasing pace just a squeak to use that spare energy.

Oryx

Rested on Wednesday. Then yesterday did a short 25 min run. It should have been longer but I didnt plan the route properly. No harm really I was tired. Today I did turbo, the first session in a series of force sets which are new to me. Easy enough now but will get truly horrible in a few weeks.

Oryx

Early morning run. Havent done one of these in ages, it was lovely. Legs were heavy and tired at first because of the turbo last night but eased out after 2 miles. Usual kind of time, 33 or so. Not happy about my run times slipping but Im finding it hard to tackle that. I dont have enough time to train as it is so the quality runs are getting neglected. Have the my sport 10k tomorrow which will tell me exactly how slow I am, I can compare my time to the last two years!

Oryx

Did the My Sport 10k today, my third time doing it. Went into it thinking I would be slower, just hoped I wouldnt mess up too badly. As it turned out I did 45.25, a pb by 15 seconds and 50 seconds faster than the same race last year. I must be doing something right. Was a great day for running and as usual a brilliant event from Slaney Olympic. Having a beer tonight to celebrate.