How to Be a Morning Person..

mloc123

Diet is important alright, they say you can't out train a bad one. That said my current intake is far from perfect, not a big drinker anymore but I do enjoy chocolate and the occasional take away :pac:

mloc123

Friday:

Run(PM):

Dark, wet and windy 85min LSR. Emphasis on the S, HR nice and low throughout.

Saturday:

Swim(AM):

Short one again

1x520m - 2:00/100m
5x100m - 1:45,1:45,1:44,1:41,1:42 :eek:
3x100m+20m - 1:55/100m

Total: 1340m

Delighted with the 100s, If I can string them together into a 500m block I'd be sorted. The 1:55 felt so much easier afterwards too.

Bike(PM):

2hrs (zone1-zone2)

mloc123

Sunday:

Dundalk Duathlon

The OH is from Dundalk to I decided to do this as another training session, maybe I have raced too much in the last two weeks but I wanted to get a few in before North Tipp.

Run 1

Held back a bit at the start, unlike my usual. Slowly picked up the pace and made up quite a few places... alot of which were on the uphills. This is a big enough contrast to last year here I dropped places on hills. Messed up my lapping on the garmin but pace for the run was about 4:01/km.

Bike

As I mounted somebody ploughed into the back of me :rolleyes: but I still managed a clean runnin mount. The bike section was a straight road, roundabouts either end with 2 laps. Made up a good few places straight away and continued to pick away throughout. I was fairly pissed of with the blatent drafting, not a couple of people working together but peletons of riders (10-15)... a complete joke, more on that later.

Run 2

Transition went well and out on the second run, bit paranoid I might get a stitch again but luckily I didn't. Steady controlled run, picked up two places and lost two. Slowed up with a hundred meters or so to go when I realised I wouldn't make or lose any places. Avg. Pace about 4:17/km

Finished 37th out of 132, not too bad.



I will not be back for any more of this series, the drafting alone was enough to put me off.. complete joke. No races number meant no way to punish drafters. Its a pity because the course has potential but unless they sort that out.

mloc123

Recovery Week

Not much to report here, lots of short easy stuff all week. Wrapped up today with an easy 90 minutes on the bike.

Recovery weeks really mess with my head, all week felt bloated, slow, sore and tired.. doubting if I had done enough, if I could have made more improvements etc.. Yesterdays run and todays bike perked me up a bit.

Peak period starts tomorrow, all race simulation and recovery for the next two weeks.

mloc123

Pretty lazy keeping this updated. Peak has started now, so its all race simulation and recovery.

Monday:

Brick:

20 Minutes on the turbo to empty the legs followed by a 5km run at race pace, or as close as I could motivate myself on a wet cold Monday night.

Tuesday-Thursday:

Easy easy stuff.

mloc123

Friday

Alive Outside Aquathlon

I was nervous enough about this, not an important race.. just another sharpener but I was my first pool based race so I was not sure what to expect. I was in wave 2, so not too much hanging around. Into the lane with 3 other people for the warmup.. couple of lengths later the whistle went and it was a minute to start. I was in with a few sand bagers and ended up leading out...

Swim

I led out and straight away the second guy was scratching at my ankles. After four lengths I wasn't sure if he was tapping my ankles or not, I let him through. This happened two more times and I was at the back... I was held up quite a bit but did not have the confidence to stay out front to begin. Four of us swam in a pack for the entire distance. Out of the water in around 9:3x.

Transition

Nothing to note here, apart from how hard it is to get runners onto wet feet... cycling shoes are easier. Not enough talc on them either.

Run

After picking up a couple of places in transition I was on the run, had decided to start easy and build. Simple out and back, it was very much uphill on the way out and a good headwind. I spotted a group ahead, about four people and slowly realed them in and passed. I think I picked up another place or two before the turn around. Return was easier, I was caught and passed with about 500m to go..by one of the guys in my swim lane.. stuck with him. Sprint finish with 50m to go... untill an old lady that was out walking stepped in front of me as I was about to pass... a quick detour onto the grass and my sprint was over. Pull up and eased over the line. Not a full 5k, came in around 20:xx

Placed 23rd... not too bad.

My garmin locked up around one km into the run so I lost out on about 2km of data between turning it off and getting it going again.. :mad:

Some thoughts on the swim, I could have put in a faster time if I had stayed out front. I was held up quite a bit which was annoying at times but I guess its all part of pool based swims. I think the best for me would be to get into a lane with a few others that can maintain a good 5-10s/100m faster than me and hang on the back.

Macanri

Well done on the aquathon, a good result.

I am doing TriLaois this day week and had put my time down as 20 - 25 mins for the swim. I think I should be quicker than this, so I don't know what to expect now. It'll be a learning experience anyway.

mloc123

Saturday - Sunday:

More easy easy stuff...

Monday

Run:

Very windy out so I decided the 'local' track might be my best option for a 5k TT. Warm up, 5k race pace TT and then a short cool down. Another easy few days now and then a race pace swim/bike brick on Thursday.

mloc123

Tues - Wed:

More easy easy .

Thursday

Swim:

700m TT, quick warm up of 2x100m to mimic race day followed by a 700m TT at race pace or as close as I could stomach. Splits were even, was a second or so off pace for some of them... overall happy that I can hit my newly predicted time come race day barring any lane issues. 2 x 200m cool down afterwards.

Friday

Bike:

Nice easy 60 mins this morning, great day for it.

mloc123

Been a while...

More of the same for the last couple of days. Raced on Sunday in a Duathlon as my last race effort before nenagh. Finished 27th out of 128(I think), which was okay.

Its easy to get a little depressed when looking at results. The gulf between me and the winner seems huge, I had presumed I lost most time on the runs but turns out the biggest time lost was on the bike. I guess this is to be expected, I didn't give enough attention to biking over the winter as I was trying to improve my terrible running. The up side is that my running has improved a large amount but although my biking is better it could be much better.

Easy week this week, lots of short frequent easy stuff. Couple of race efforts thrown in.. 3x90seconds etc.. In the pool last night I threw in 3 x 100m between longer slow sets.. glad to be coming in on 1.40 for these.

Two days to Nenagh, everything up to now has all been for this :eek:

pgibbo

Best of luck at the weekend. No bother to you. Lots of good training done and some good performances in the duathlons. :cool:

griffin100

yeah best of luck in Neenagh. Training will stand to you.

mloc123

Swim this morning, a couple of easy 200s with one 'race pace' 100 in the middle. 1.40 for the 100m, again happy with this. In theory I could be out of water in under 13mins... in reality this won't happen.

Easy spin on the bike with a 10minute run off, 2x40 second race pace efforts during the run.

Now for the nerves to take over, up at 5.30 tomorrow to get down in time... hopefully I will get some sleep tonight.

mloc123

North Tipp Sprint

Short report... terrible race for me. Will stick a longer on later, maybe. :rolleyes:

mloc123

North Tipp Spint

Day began at 5.30am, up had my breakfast on on the road for 6. I had intended to stay down the night before but decided closer to the day that I would get a better nights sleep in my own bed. Arrived before 8am and registered, setup in transition and went for a short spin on the bike to make sure it was okay. Race briefing was about 9am, we needed to use our own swim caps... great, I had not bought one... so a short trip to the local Elverys. My wave was set to start at 12.30ish, so lots of waiting around. Second breakfast at 10am, mmmm cold porridge.

Swim

I got into the lane for the warm up and just didn't feel it, I told myself once the whistle went I would be fine... I wasn't. I was last off in my lane, just aswell. First length, missed the wall and ****ed up my push off...that would be the last I saw of their feet, until I was lapped. My swimming was ****, I sank, I slapped the water... it was like I hadn't been in the water in months. Swim split was 15:27... 2:03/100m a good 2minutes of my TT from last week

Getting out of the water I knew MY race was over.

T1

Dishearted I jogged out to T1, all went fine here.

Bike

At this stage I was last in my wave and was looking at calling it a day, saw a bike ahead which I passed soon enough followed by another a few minutes later. The turn around was on a slight downhill so I shifted to the 39 on the front, after turn around I realised that was not needed... shifted back to the big ring only to drop the chain. I was ready to throw the bike in the ditch, off the bike and got the chain back on. Didn't see another bike(ahead) untill 1k to go and got into T2 just behind them.

T2

Not much to report here, picked up one place I think.

Run

So nothing could go wrong now... I hoped. Out of T2 and picked up 3 places within the first 500m. I could see somebody a few hundred metres ahead and pushed on, passed them and saw somebody else ahead.... reapeated this a few times over passing 7 along the way. With 1km to go I spotted somebody ahead but didn't know if I could real them in, with 100m or so I was on his heals and went for the sprint... much to the joy of the crowd. I passed him and he didn't put up a fight.

82nd overall, not happy with that at all.


Long and rambling report, week off structured training now... hopefully I will be slightly more upbeat by next Monday.

mjth2004

Mloc123 – first off great log!

As for the North Tipp Sprint chalk it down to a bad day at the office! We all have them, plus for me, it’s better to get them out of the way earlier rather than later in the season!

griffin100

Put it down to a bad day. I think that a National Series race for your first tri of the year, especially one with a pool swim, is a tough place to test yourself, especially in the wave that you were in.

What's your next race?

mloc123

Cheers, bit more upbeat today... and will hopefully be looking forward to getting back at it next Monday.

Next race, running the Kildare HM in May... and had not intended to do another tri until Crooked Lake in June. I now think I will enter the Kilcock sprint in May, its a non TI race but I could do with an open water before crooked lake... if only to build confidence. HM isn't important, I will be going out at a hopeful pace and if it falls apart I don't care... that said I'd love to knock 30minutes off my current PB.

Macanri

Sorry to hear about your disappointing swim, at least you know you would have had a much better swim if you had have 'felt it' on the day.
30mins of your PB for the half would be some knocking! Enjoy the weeks rest.

DustyBin

Fair play on what sounds like really stonking bike & run legs
You were fairly eating up the field at that stage
Pity about the swim and the chain, but they're not likely to happen together again this year

When you say you're looking to knock 30 mins off you HM pb - what's that??
I'm doing Kildare too, looking for a sub 1:30 (a more modest 7 mins improvement), hopefully see you there

mloc123

Only ran one HM, Wexford last year and that was 2:04... pretty dismal time. I have done no specific training for it so god knows how it will go. Tempted to go out with the 90 pace group... could be suicide tho'

DustyBin

Well if you're not that pushed about the HM result, then why not give it a lash? You consistently post fast running race times from memory. No way will you get it if you don't try, and it's one of those times you'd bust a gut to get under. Trust village runner - the man's gonna get us there

mloc123

DustyBin wrote: »

Well if you're not that pushed about the HM result, then why not give it a lash? You consistently post fast running race times from memory. No way will you get it if you don't try, and it's one of those times you'd bust a gut to get under. Trust village runner - the man's gonna get us there

I dunno about face running race results but I'll give it a go. At least with a group I won't have to constantly think about my pace.