Tri a bit of everything

nomadic

Right I'm going start a log to keep me on my toe's and get some advice etc. I'm a 26 year old male. I'm planning on doing a few sprint tri's this year and concentrating on the marathon later in the summer. I'm also going to do some of the MTB XC NPS races and hopefully a few IMRA races.

I trained for the DCM last year and had a disaster of a race and finished in 4.15. I did the addidas half in 1.40.44 which I was happy with. Swimming wise I swam a bit as a child but haven't swam properly in the last 10 years. I started back in the pool about 2 months ago and its going ok. I've been into mountainbiking for a few years but have never raced or anything serious. I've yet to get a road bike so my bike "training" consists of MTB spins and commuting.
I'm in the enviable position of having lots of time to train. I'm in college and have every morning free. I don't think I'd do near as much training if I had to squeeze sessions in like most of you. I going to make the most of the time I have this year because i'll hopefully have a job to take up all of my time next year.

Today I did 2,000 in the pool. Up to now my swims have consisted of mainly 250 repeats and basically trying to swim properly. I've started doing some 100 repeats in the last couple of weeks. My breathing is awful and i'm trying to sort that out. I've been breathing every 4 strokes because my breathing technique is poor and my stroke goes to bits if i breath every 2 strokes. Today I did 200 breathing on the right(new side) followed by 200 breathing bilaterly. My left hand heads straight to the bottom when i breath right but I'll plug away at it. Oh and my 750m time at the minute is about 17.30.

I also ran 9.2K afterwards. No idea of the time, I've ditched the watch for the time being.

catweazle

Good man Nomadic I will be keeping an eye on your log, especially your swimming

nomadic

catweazle wrote: »

Good man Nomadic I will be keeping an eye on your log, especially your swimming

Cheers, I'll be doing lots in the pool anyway. I'm enjoying my morning swims.


About 17 miles on the MTB today in about 3 hours. Its a lot of quess work trying to figure out distances done on the MTB with mapmyrun. I should really get myself a bike computer. Broke lots of bits of the bike at the end so chain reaction has just taken even more of my cash.

DustyBin

Goodluck with the log Nomadic, was only having a look around the other day to see if you had one
Will enjoy keeping an eye on your training

nomadic

10.8 mile run this morning. Longest run since the marathon I think but i've been doing lots of 8ish milers so it wasn't too taxing. Trying to concentrate on the S bit of LSR as I tend to push myself on every run.

nomadic

2,100m in the pool this morning. Poor attempt at 100 repeats. I tried 4 and came in about 1.53 on the first and 2.10 on the last. Think I should do them earlier in the session as I already had 1,300 done before the 100's.

5.2 mile handy run after.

nomadic

2,000m in the pool this morning. Did 8 x 100's off 2.30. Better effort than yesterday. Came in at about 2.05 on the first and 2.12 on the last.

5.2 mile run this afternoon.
1 mile warm up followed by 7 intervals of random lenght and 1 mile warm down. Felt good on the intervals.

nomadic

2,100m swim this morning.
300m warm up then 2 x 750m , 200m concentrating on kicking hard then 100 warm down. I felt the most relaxed i've felt in the pool during the first 750. I usually grab a couple of seconds at the wall because i'm usually out of breath but this felt really relaxed. Came in at about 17.50 for the first 750 and pushed it a bit for the second 750 and came in at 16.45. My right shoulder was a bit sore today so I think i'll give the pool a miss tomorrow.

nomadic

Finally got one of my bikes fixed so got 29.7km in about 2 hours on the mtb in.

nomadic

2,400m in the pool this morning. 500m warm up , 2 x 750m , 200m focused on kicking and 200m warm down. Sore shoulder raised its head again towards the end so hopefully 2 days out of the pool will sort that out.

5.2 miles run after the swim.

nomadic

12.6 mile LSR yesterday. My knee was in fierce pain a couple of hours afterwards for some random reason but it was grand this morning.

Today was the first of the mountainbike developmental xc race series races in ballinastoe. It was my first mtb race and it was a great track. 5 laps of a 3km course. No idea where I came but it was fairly tough going but great crack. Lovely day for it aswell and it was good fun racing in snow.

nomadic

Rest day yesterday. Well apart from the 19k commute on the bike.

2000m in the pool this afternoon:
300m warm up
4 x 250m on 6 mins
4 x 100 on 2.30
200m kicking
100m warm down

Felt good after 3 days out of the pool. 250's all came in at 5.30 or quicker. 100's ranged from 2.00 - 2.03 . Happy with the consistancy.

catweazle

Fair play Nomadic your times are coming down in the pool, is it that you are just becoming more swimfit or is your stroke improving. How is the bi lateral breathing going it is worth perservering with.

Its a nice confidence boost in the open water that you can breathe either side so you dont have to worry about which way the waves are coming

nomadic

catweazle wrote: »

Fair play Nomadic your times are coming down in the pool, is it that you are just becoming more swimfit or is your stroke improving. How is the bi lateral breathing going it is worth perservering with.

Its a nice confidence boost in the open water that you can breathe either side so you dont have to worry about which way the waves are coming

I think its a bit of both. Being fitter means you can concentrate on a better stroke rather than struggling to stay afloat.

I've actually ditched the bi lateral breathing. Maybe i'm being a bit impatient with it. My breathing is a lot better now though. I'm breathing a bit all over the place 4 strokes, 2 strokes, 4 strokes, 2 strokes etc but its working for me so i'll stick with it for now.

nomadic

2,100m swim this morning.
250m warm up
6 x 250m off 6.00mins
200m kicking
150m warm down

and a 19k commute on the bike to college.

nomadic

2,200m swim this morning.
250m warm up
4 x 250m off 5.45
750m
100m kicking
100m warm down

I have reduced the time i'm doing the 250's by 15 seconds. I was coming in about 5.15-5.20 so 25-30 seconds is plenty rest. The 750 took 16.12 . In the last week i've stopped stopping at the wall when turning. I used to take a couple of breaths each length which was taking at least 1 second per 25m so thats the reason for the improved pace.

5.2 mile TT run afterwards in 36.58 mins. Took the watch out for the first time in months to see where i'm at with the running. Thats 7.02 min miles which i'm happy enough with. I'm doing my first 5k race on paddy's weekend so maybe sub 20 is possible!

nomadic

2,300m swim this morning.
250m warm up
4 x 250m 2 off 5.45, 2 off 6.00
750m
200m kicking
100m warm down

Similar session to yesterday. Wasn't feeling as good and had to drop back the last 2 x 250's off 6 mins. The 750 took nearly 17 mins.

5.2 mile run in 43.39 mins after the pool. Was meant to be an 8 miler but niggles in my knee and groin meant I cut it short. Handy enough at 8.20 min/mile pace.

nomadic

25k'ish spin on the mtb on saturday in about 2.30hrs. Got fairly hammered watching the rugby so sunday was a rest day although I had originally planned a 13 mile run. I will try an fit it in on wednesday I think.
1,900m swim this morning.
250m warm up
1,500m straight
150m warm down

19k on the bike to college this evening.

I came in at bang on 35 mins for the 1,500m. The longest I've swam continuously and felt I could go further.
I need to get some more running miles in this month.

nomadic

2,000m in the pool this morning.
250m warm up
10 x 100m off 2.15
2 x 250m
250 warm down

20k on the mtb around 3rock this afternoon.

nomadic

19k cycle in and out of town this morning followed by a 8.6 mile run in 70.55. 8.12 min mile pace. Dodgy groin reared its head again on the run. I'm gonna have to head to a physio I reckon.

nomadic

1,800m swim.
250m warm up
3 x 250m off 5.45
750m in 16.08
50m warm down

19k bike to work and college

nomadic

I got to the pool on friday morning and discovered I'd forgotten my membership card so went for 18 holes of par 3 golf with a few mates instead. I could feel my groin was tight and not happy after the golf and I can't afford to go to a physio so I'm just gonna leave the running for a week or 2. I hurt my groin fairly badly over christmas when I stupidly ran when it wasn't feeling great and it hasn't been right since. Hopefully a week or two's break will sort it.
Saturday I got out on the new mtb. I got into a bit of trouble with punctures and punctured spare tubes and glue and patches so I had to cut the spin a bit short of what I'd planned. Got 24k in.
Today I went for a couple of hours on the mtb in the phoenix park. Lovely day and got about 30k done. 10k spin to and from work.

nomadic

2,300m swim this morning.
250m warm up
6 x 250m off 5.45
500m bilateral breathing
50m warm down

19k bike commute this evening.
Bilateral breathing felt a bit better than last time I tried. Still fairly awful though. Left hand still heading straight for the bottom of the pool when breathing right. I'll keep at it though.

nomadic

34km mtb spin today. Its like summer out there. Todays spin was marley park to cloon then back on the road. More puncture and tube problems. Gotta go tubeless when I can afford it. Took a load of skin off my ankle but sure its not a propper mtb spin if your don't come home bleeding somewhere.

nomadic

Wednesday
2,100m swim. Can't remember what I did.Didn't feel great.

Today
2,100m in the pool
4 x 250m
10 x 50m off 1.05
200m kicking
300m bilateral breathing
100m warm down

19k to work and college on the bike.
I need to concentrate on kicking. I always seem to pretty much drag my legs on any distance over 100m. Doing the 50's with proper kicking felt really powerful. All the 50's came in about 53-57 seconds.

nomadic

2,400m in the pool this morning.
2 x 250m warm up
1,500m straight
200m kicking
200m bilateral breathing

Came in at 31.53 mins on the 1,500m which if I actually swam that distance is brilliant. 3 mins quicker than 2 weeks ago. I'll have to do it again next week to see was I counting properly. I think I was though, looked at the clock at 750m and it was bang on 16mins and I was able to push it a bit for the last 300m as I was feeling good. Hmmm we'll see.

Does anyone else have idiots who race them in the next lane? One bloke in the NAC likes to race me. I wasn't sure if he was or not but today I saw him waiting at the wall looking at me to turn at the wall so he could go hell for leather down the pool. It was while It was doing the 1,500m. He'd race me for 25m then hang on to the wall for 5 mins then do the same thing again. I think its good open water practice for me though. It's like there's a ship going down the lane beside me. Maybe i'm just being jealous because he always beats me.:o

nomadic

Saturday
23ish km mtb spin up and over djouce. 2.45 hrs

Sunday
30 km mtb in the phoenix park in ~2 hours.

Today
18 km mtb in the phoenix park in about an hour. Nice fast paced blast around.

I've now officially entered my first tri. Fingal on the 16th of may. I'm hoping I can get a road bike sorted by then if I can pay off the credit card in time. I had to enter my estimated swim time so I stuck 15.30 down although I really want to get the swim down to 15 mins by then.

nomadic

1,800m in the pool this morning.
2 x 250m
750m
250m easy
300m bilateral breathing.

Did the 750m in 15.32. I gave it everything and was knackered after it. Wouldn't think I'd manage much or a cycle or run if I was putting that much effort in to the swim.

37km mtb this afternoon in 3.40 hours. Marley park to Cloon and back via 3rock. Tough spin with lots or climbing.

nomadic

No training yesterday. I wish I could say it was because I was drinking all day but I was stuck doing thesis work all day.

27 km spin in and out of college on the commuter machine this morning. Took a detour around the park on the way home to test out my new lidl bike computer. Nice little machine full of useless facts. Avg speed for the commute was 28.4km/h. Noticed a slow puncture about a couple of k from home so tried to get home before I was running on the rim. It seems I can travel at 20km/h with the bike running on the front rim.
Probably get another 10 -15 km spin in later going to work.

nomadic

No training Friday.

30km mtb in the park on saturday.

8.4km run this evening.
First run in 2 and a half weeks. Felt good to be out again, well for the first mile anyway. Seems the rest hasn't done much for the groin. Still niggly. Stopped after a mile to stretch and took it a bit easier for the next 2 miles. Took the pace up a bit for the last 2 miles. Engaging my core seemed to help the groin a bit for the last 2 miles so i'll give that a go from the start of the next run.
A poor weeks training last week. Only 1 swim, 1 run and 2 rest days. 122km on the bike was ok I suppose.

nomadic

Monday
No training except for the 19k commute. Very busy day with work and college.

Tuesday
Set the alarm early to get a swim in before college but it never happened.
Got an 18k spin in on the mtb in the evening along with 22k of commuting.

Wednesday
First swim in over a week and felt sluggish as you'd expect.
1,800m
Not a lot of structured swimming apart from 5 x 100m with 15 seconds rest. Some bilateral breathing aswell.
19k commute aswell.

Today
1,900m swim
250m warm up
4 x 250m off 5.30
some 50's and 100's
and some bilateral breathing to finish

I'm going to have to visit a physio next week. My groin is still at me since sundays run. Hopefully they won't tell me to stop the biking and swimming aswell.