Leenane to Westport and Beyond

hardCopy

January Totals
Run: 31.13 km, 5 runs
Cycle: 64.69 km, 3 cycles

hardCopy

Thursday 02/02/2012
Swim: 1,000m

Wanted to get something done last night but didn't feel like a run before tomorrow's race.

Doing the Fingal Duathlon Series in Balbriggan in the morning.

hardCopy

Saturday 04/02/2012 - Fingal Duathlon Series - Race 1
First multi-sport event of the year. This went really well. The hill on the run was difficult, as predicted, and was a nice test. The bike course was relatively flat, great marshalling at the junctions too and didn't feel like the roads were open at all. The second run, up that hill again, was really tough on the legs, at the steepest point my 'run' was reduced to a weird looking shuffle, at least we got to run back down the steep bit on the way back.

Duathlon:
Overall - 1:23:59.23
Run 1 - 0:17:26.98
T1 - 0:01:49.86
Bike - 0:43:38.76
T2 - 0:01:59.33
Run 2 - 0:19:04.29

My transitions were POOR. I couldn't find my bike in T1, and there were only 80 bikes, then I couldn't find my shoes in T2! Will have to do a proper walkthrough before my next race.

Overall I was happy, I got both runs under 20 minutes each and dropped my mate on the hill in the first run and managed to finish ahead of him.

hardCopy

A messy week, another head-cold combined with moving house meant I didn't get out until Friday.
Friday 10/02/2012
Run
Run: Distance 10.51 km, Duration 55:03, Pace 5:14, Speed 11.46 km/h

Drove to Clare on Saturday for a week away.

Sunday 12/02/2012
Surfing - 2 Hours

Monday 13/02/2012
Cycle: Distance 75.1 km, Duration 4:45:00, Pace 3:47, Speed 15.8 km/h
My longest ever cycle. Went for a tour of the Burren with my GF. Took in the apparently famous Corkscrew Hill - my first experience with switch-back turns, fun.

Tuesday 14/02/2012
Run: Distance 6.0 km, Duration 31:33, Pace 5:15, Speed 11.4 km/h
Sent out to pick up a few bits for V-Day dinner so went for a 5k run, turns out we're slightly further from town than we thought.

Wednesday 15/02/2012
Had a nice walk through Dromore Woods.
Walk: Distance 5.88 km, Duration 1:16:08, Pace 12:57, Speed 4.6 km/h

hardCopy

Thursday 16/02/2012
Run: Distance 16.07 km, Duration 1:23:59, Pace 5:13, Speed 11.5 km/h
My longest run of the year so far. Felt great to get some decent mileage in and get back on track for Half Marathon training.

Friday 17/02/2012
Went swimming in Lahinch Seaworld. Nothing too strenuous just a splash around for an hour or so.

Sunday 19/02/2012
Run: Distance 10.41 km, Duration 1:00:11, Pace 5:46, Speed 10.4 km/h

A fantastic week all round. Really relaxing and I'd definitely be happy to spend a week's holiday in Ireland again.

hardCopy

Tuesday 21/02/2012
Run: Distance 8.0 km, Duration 47:00, Pace 5:52, Speed 10.2 km/h
Ran 1km warmup to meet my mate and then 7km on grass.

Friday 24/02/2012
Run: Distance 8.0 km, Duration 42:30, Pace 5:18, Speed 11.3 km/h
I had work stuff on Wednesday and Thursday so had to skip my Wednesday run and postpone Thursday.

Saturday 25/02/2012
Cycle: Distance 46.5 km, Duration 2:01:59, Pace 2:37, Speed 22.9 km/h
Had a nice spin out to Portrane, my first decent spin out into Fingal. Weather was nice and dry all day.

Sunday 26/02/2012
Run: Distance 16.47 km, Duration 1:46:31, Pace 6:28, Speed 9.3 km/h
Long slow trail run. Ran along the coast at Clontarf to Bull Island and then ran over the dunes for a couple of km. Really cool route, much more interesting than plodding along on concrete. Lots of short sprints up and down tall dunes.

hardCopy

Monday 27/02/2012
Bodypump class in my gym. Like an aerobics class mixed with a weights circuit. Hard going my quads a triceps are still sore on Thursday.

Tuesday 28/02/2012
Distance 7.69 km, Duration 45:00, Pace 5:51, Speed 10.3 km/h
I felt very sore on Tuesday after the class and after the tough weekend. Motivation was low but I convinced myself to run slow instead of skipping a session. Am glad now that I did.

Wednesday 29/02/2012
Interval running. I decided to use the treadmill for this since I don't have a measured track handy. 8 x 400m @ 5K pace, 13.5km/h with 200 metre recoveries @ 8.5 km/h. I was feeling it by the halfway mark but managed to up the pace a shade on the last two reps.
Ran to and from the gym, 1K each way as warm-up and cool-down.
Total run: Distance 7.0 km, Duration 38:56, Pace 05:56, Speed 10.79 km/h.

February Totals
Run: 103.15 km, 11 runs
Cycle: 141.6 km, 3 cycles
Swim: 1.5 km, 2 swims

I signed up for the Humbert Challenge Half Ironman in Swinford.

hardCopy

Thursday was supposed to be a 5 mile run but other stuff got in the way so I swapped my rest day and ran on Friday instead.

Friday 02/03/2012
This was a race pace effort. Had a horrific headwind on the way out but made most of my time up coming back. My last 2K were just over 4 min/km, a barrier I have yet to break. At least I know it's in touching distance now.

Run: Distance 8.2 km, Duration 40:10, Pace 4:54, Speed 12.2 km/h

Saturday 03/03/2012
Brick Session out in Howth. Cycled up to the summit on the graveyard side (passed another roadie on the way up for the first time) and down into the village. Trail run up the cliff path for 5K and then back up the steep side on the bike to the summit again and spun out to Malahide.

Cycle: Distance 18.76 km, Duration 46:35, Pace 2:29, Speed 24.2 km/h
Run: Distance 5.02 km, Duration 28:07, Pace 5:36, Speed 10.7 km/h
Cycle: Distance 28.58 km, Duration 1:25:06, Pace 2:58, Speed 20.1 km/h

Sunday 04/03/2012
My longest run so far this year.
Distance 20.2 km, Duration 1:55:59, Pace 5:44, Speed 10.4 km/h

I'm still feeling good on the long runs and last year's ITB troubles seem to be staying away. Should make a dent in last year's Half Marathon time in Connemara.

I bought a book on bodyweight exercises last week and start the program tonight. Book on Amazon, some of the spiel in the book is a bit OTT but the exercises look good. Each exercise in the program starts with basic moves and gradually build up the one-arm pressups, one-arm chins and the like.

hardCopy

Monday 05/03/2012
Started my Convict Conditioning program.
Strength
Wall Pushups - 2 x 15
Knee Tucks - 2 x 15

The wall pushups seemed very easy but the book recommends starting slow and not skipping any progression steps so I'll stick to the plan and work my way up.

The rest of the week was a disaster, I was away for work so didn't get out for a run until Saturday. Although at least I spent the whole trip walking around a massive trade fair.

Saturday 10/04/2012
Run: Distance 8.4 km, Duration 43:26, Pace 5:10, Speed 11.6 km/h
Kept this one short as I had tickets to the Ireland match and woke up late. Had a rotten stitch for most of the run after eating way too much stodgy rich food in Germany.

Sunday 11/04/2012
Cycle: Distance 9.59 km, Duration 41:22, Pace 4:18, Speed 13.9 km/h
Picked my bike up in Howth with a freshly serviced headset. Went for a spin up the hill with the GF, her first spin up Howth and went very well.

Got nabbed to fit a new dishwasher and printer for my parents so my long run got dropped.

A bad week.

Tuesday 13/04/2012
Run: Distance 10.01 km, Duration 46:50, Pace 4:40, Speed 12.8 km/h
After skipping the long run on Sunday my legs felt fresh, checked my time after 2K and realised I was flying. This was supposed to be 8K but I felt so good I decided to test my speed over 10K. My previous 10K PB was around 52 minutes so I had a serious Runner's High by the time I got home. Sub 50 Minutes for 10K was one of my goals for the year, so even though it's not an official time I need to pick more of a stretch target for 10K ahead of the Great Ireland Run.

Strength:
Wall Pushups - 2 x 25
Knee Tucks - 2 x 25

Wednesday 14/04/2012
My hip was quite sore on Wednesday after pushing hard the previous night so I skipped my tempo session.

Strength:
Vertical Pulls - 2 x 25
Shoulderstand Squats - 2 x 25

Thursday 15/04/2012
Still felt a bit tight so went for an easy 8K.
Run: Distance 8.49 km, Duration 47:19, Pace 5:34, Speed 10.8 km/h
Took it easy most of the way and threw in 1 fast K towards the end, not as structured or as tough as a proper tempo session but my hip felt better after it.

hardCopy

Just noticed my post from last week has all my runs dated in April! Too late to edit it now.

Friday 16/03/2012
Run: Distance 6.01 km, Duration 34:21, Pace 5:42, Speed 10.5 km/h

Saturday 17/03/2012 Paddy's Day
Run: Distance 22.58 km, Duration 2:20:09, Pace 6:12, Speed 9.7 km/h

Thoroughly hungover on Sunday after Paddy's night session so took a break until Tuesday. The only fitness related activity I did was buy a Garmin FR 310XT on Amazon.

Tuesday 20/03/2012
Run: Distance 8.32 km, Duration 47:11, Pace 5:40, Speed 10.6 km/h

Wednesday 21/03/2012 - First run with the Garmin
Interval session 10 x 400m:
Rep 1 - 1:42.9
Rep 2 - 1:37.5
Rep 3 - 1:46.3
Rep 4 - 1:40.2
Rep 5 - 1:37.3
Rep 6 - 1:37.3
Rep 7 - 1:41.2
Rep 8 - 1:36.2
Rep 9 - 1:47.1
Rep 10 - 1:34.1

Distance 7.01 km, Duration 41:02, Pace 5:51 min/km

I found the Garmin really easy to use and was able to set up my interval session on the watch as per the Higdon plan. I'll need to do a bit of research on HR training to really get the most out of it. My rep times are a bit all over the place, the last time I did intervals I used a treadmill so they were consistent, will have to work harder on getting some consistency there.

Thursday 22/03/2012
Run: Distance 5.23 km, Time 30:24, Avg Pace 5:49 min/km

Great to get out for a morning session, haven't done it in a while. Used the Virtual Partner this morning to try and control my pace as well.

hardCopy

Sunday 25/03/2012
Run: Distance 20.15 km, Time 1:50:57, Avg Pace 5:30 min/km

Last long run before Connemara.

hardCopy

Had to enforce a very strict taper last week as I hurt my ankle last Sunday and wanted to rest it for Conn. Just did one run on Wednesday.

Wednesday 28/03/2012
Run: Distance 5.01 km, Time 31:38, Avg Pace 6:19 min/km

Deliberately took it easy on this one, really didn't want to push my ankle.

Sunday 01/04/2012 - Connemara Half
Official Chip Time:
Distance 21.08 km, Time 1:42:04, Avg Pace 4:50 min/km

Big improvement on my 1:59 in Dublin last year but it hurt like hell. I had hoped to run a negative split but changed my mind on the bus from Maam Cross to Leenane when I realised how nasty the hill is. My target was 1:45 so I decided to just run as much of the first half as possible under 5:00 mins/km and then just try to hang on for the climbs. I managed to keep this up on the drags and then kept under 5:30 on the really hilly section.

It was great to finish knowing I left absolutely nothing out there. Luckily I was picked up in Galway after the race because I wouldn't have been safe behind the wheel yesterday evening.

catweazle

Nice time HC, thats a cracking time around that course

hardCopy

catweazle wrote: »

Nice time HC, thats a cracking time around that course

Thanks, ankle is very sore today and still have a pain in my gut from gels. The gels never give me trouble in training but I never seem to be able to stomach them in races.

Just rang the physio to get my ankle looked at, hopefully get an appointment for this evening.

hardCopy

Have apparently strained/torn a ligament on the outside of my right ankle. No running allowed this week. A few new stretches to add to the routine and have to take it easy on the Great Ireland 10K. A bit disappointed as I was looking forward to a new 10K PB (I actually set a new PB at 10K in Conn but only on my Garmin, no official splits).

hardCopy

Just a quick update. Have run a couple of races since I hurt my ankle but both were run at a slower than normal pace, I couldn't really train for a couple of weeks after Conn so paced my girlfriend at the Samsung Night Run and Great Ireland Run, she picked up new 10K PBs at both so happy days.

I was still able to cycle so kept at that as much as possible and had a great cycling holiday across Italy, covering about 450KM over about 7 days in the saddle.

My next race will be the Clontarf Half Marathon on the 7th of July followed by the Humbert Challenge Half Iron in Swinford.

I haven't done as much running as I'd like for either of these due to a few very unstructured weeks but I got back up to 16.5KM on my last long run and am happy with my swim and bike.

I got a recce done last weekend of the bike course as well as 60KM round trip to Croagh Patrick including the GaelForce route up the reek.

I started taking the bike into work last week (put it off for a long time since we have no showers) which should help find some extra kilometres each week.

Just got my wetsuit back from my parent's house so hope to get some open water swimming in over the next couple of weeks.

Hopefully as I get my training back on track I can get this log back on track too.

hardCopy

Got a decent spin out around Howth last Saturday, hit the steep route up to the right of the church.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194157015
Bike - Distance: 50.04 km, Time: 3:15:02, Avg Speed: 15.4 km/h, Elevation Gain: 620 m

Ran 18.5KM to my parent's house from work on the Monday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197582716
Run - Distance: 18.25 km, Time: 1:42:55, Avg Pace: 5:38 min/km

Took a longish commute home on Tuesday and got lost in an industrial estate and chased by a beast of an alsation. Very heavy legs on this one, the previous day's run and leaving work too long after eating I think. Had hoped to go longer but decided to head home rather than bonk in the middle of North County Dublin.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197582773
Bike - Distance: 31.60 km, Time: 1:33:41, Avg Speed: 20.2 km/h

Have also started taking the bike to work a couple of times each week. Not exactly hard KM's but I reckon every one counts.

Saturday was the Clontarf Half Marathon. I hadn't done as much running as I would have liked since Connemara so was nervous about this one. My buddy/arch-rival has been making great progress lately and beat my on the Raheny 5 a few months ago so I was feeling the pressure. We both headed off with the 1:45 pace group and I fully expected him to hang on and kick past me towards the end but he ended up slowing after about 4 KM and we dropped him. I had to dig in on the beach on the way back in but felt strong once we hit the promenade so went with a guy from Florida when he broke from the pacers with about 2KM to go. Finished in 1:44 and had a nice lie-down in the sun. Shattered.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197582829
Run - Distance: 21.18 km, Time: 1:44:02, Avg Pace: 4:55 min/km

Runways Duathlon tomorrow and then the Humbert Half Iron on the 22nd.

I'm feeling good about the Half Iron but a bit daunted by my previous prediction of 6:30. Clontarf was flat as a pancake so I don't really expect to run under 1:45 off the bike, my recce of the bike took 4 hours but I did take it easy to start and stopped for photos so will shave some time off here, swim will be a problem I think, hopefully I'll find some speed with the wetsuit and no stopping for breath between sets as I have done in the pool.

This year's A-Race is GaelForce West and I'm feeling very positive about that, I already feel stronger than I did last August so hopefully I can stay fit and built on this to knock serious lumps of last year's time.

centre back

great going hard copy, you seem well on you're way to smashing you're time from last year at gaelforce, hope the ankle holds up for you, best of luck!!

hardCopy

centre back wrote: »

great going hard copy, you seem well on you're way to smashing you're time from last year at gaelforce, hope the ankle holds up for you, best of luck!!

Thanks, just looked at your new log, best of luck in Canada, any race plans for over there?

hardCopy

Got out last night for this race. Felt strange heading off to race after work, especially as I had to be there early for on-the-spot registration. This was shorter than any race I've run before so it was interesting to see how hard I could push myself without having to worry too much about keeping anything in the tank.

As I hadn't pre-registered the middle wave was already full so I picked the fast wave.

The run was a triangular course with the middle section into the wind and very exposed, fairly tough going and the others in my wave were flyers. Lungs busting out of me by the time I got to T1.

Forgot to put on my helmet and had to re-rack the bike while I put it on.

The bike started on a nice downhill then a fairly steep climb back up, then down the S-Bends, which were great fun to come down at speed on closed roads. A couple of straight sections into the wind were hard work. Three laps of the bike route, hamstrings very sore by the end.

Bike racking in T2 was a free-for-all with no number markings, almost ran off with my helmet on. More transition practice needed!

Second run was very tough but I reeled in a few faster cyclists on the way around. The windy section was even worse the second time round but I was neck and neck with big tall guy so got some shelter whenever he got in front. My pace was down on the first run but still well inside my recent Half-Marathon pace.

Run 1 - 2.6KM - 00:10:52
T1 - 00:00:59
Bike - 12.2KM - 00:23:56
T2 - 00:00:47
Run 2 - 2.7KM - 00:12:25

This was my girlfriend's first multi-sport event and she had a great time too.

hardCopy

Humbert Challenge Half Iron - 22/07/2012

My first Half Iron attempt. Was quite nervous about this. I felt under trained for the event, I had covered all the required distances but felt I wasn't getting out often enough recently, trying to get by on one session a week of each discipline.

Although I like to call myself a triathlete, I hadn't actually done a triathlon since Chicago in 2008! Training went a bit off the rails after Chicago and in recent years I've been doing more running with Gaelforce being my big race last year. I did a couple of duathlons this year and hoped to do a couple of sprints/olympics but the scheduling didn't work out.

I got down to Swinford on Saturday afternoon and went for a swim in Callow, my first OW swim since Chicago. Thankfully I'm skinnier now than I was then so the wetsuit still fit.

I hardly slept a wink on Saturday night, I'm normally not that nervous before a race but this one got to me.

My goal time was 6:30, which I had roughly broken down to 0:45-1:00 swim, 3:30ish cycle and 2 hours for the run.

I had an awful time getting my breathing right on my practice swim on Saturday evening. I put this down to having no hat and my head being cold.

Sunday morning came and I woke bright and early dying for a pee. My girlfriend was up early too, almost as nervous as me and had brekkie laid out for me. We got to transition nice and early, got set up, did a walk through of transition. The briefing was quite amusing, with promises of imaginary sandwiches at the top of the Windy Gap.

I got in the water as early as I could to get used to the cold, the hat made a big difference, as I had hoped. I stayed near the back for the deep-water start so as to avoid being ducked. Again I found it very difficult to find a rhythm, my breathing is pretty consistent in the pool but I just couldn't get myself right and ended up doing some breast stroke to get my breath back every so often, it was also quite crowded so the first pair of feet I tried to follow ended up stopping and kicking me in the eye.

Eventually I figured out that I was just trying to swim too fast, once I slowed down I was able to get a rhythm going, albeit breathing more frequently than normal. By the time we reached the Island (maybe 600M) I was starting to pass a couple of people and after the turn I realised I was at the front of the bunch with no feet to follow, I had enough in me to make the jump to the next group and find some new feet. After the last turn (about 1500M) I felt great and was steadily passing people all the way in.

Swim: 39:51

T1 went pretty smoothly, I managed to get the suit off double quick and everything I needed for the bike was on the bike. My target was to hit 26km/h on average for the bike. The first stretch of road was flat, possibly even downhill and I was in the mid-thirties and feeling great. I had done the bike route before so I knew where the hills would be and where I could push hard. The road from Foxford to Pontoon is quite rough and the vibrations managed to loosen every bolt on my new Aero-bars. I tried to ignore the loose bars for as long as I could and was actually holding them in place as much as I was steering. Around Bofeenaun I noticed my new cleats also felt loose so I decided to stop and get everything right before I hit the days big climb. All fixed and was able to give it socks on the long drag up to the start of the Windy Gap. The Gap was just as bad as I remembered and I spent most of it in the granny ring.

The rest of the cycle was relatively uneventful bar a little bit of off-roading when I took a turn too wide at Parke and had to cycle in the ditch for a few metres. I also managed my first ever on-bike water station without crashing or spilling anything. I did have a hairy moment on Main Street in Swinford when some ass decided to ignore the marshal asking people not to turn right and parked in the middle of the road waiting for a gap in the tailback on the opposite side of the road, I had to jam on and squeeze round the inside.

Bike 3:14:41

Towards the end of the bike I started doing some calculations and realised that if I could do the run in under hours I'd finish in under 6. My half marathon PB is 1:42 and I had just done 1:44 a couple of weeks ago. I started running at 5 mins/km and felt OK for the first km. Then I hit the first hill, I expected this to be short so slowed down a bit but it just went on and on. I then started to get an awful in my nuts which hurt with every step. I ended up run/walking for a while, then I tried to just run 4K at a time and walk the water stations. This wasn't working, I was walking more than I should have and when I managed to run I was over 7mins/km. I hobbled around until about 13KM, at one point thinking I was going to puke. For some reason at 13KM things changed and the pain either went away or I blocked it out. I was able to up the pace and stay around 6mins/km and starting passing lots of people who had passed me when I was walking.

The run was strange in that it's a long course on quiet roads with a pretty small field so it's very lonely at times. The final stretch into Swinford was just as quiet, I had expected to approach the finish through town but even after the 20KM mark I still couldn't see any sign of a town. I was beginning to think the course was too long or my watch was wrong when suddenly I came round a bend and the line was only a few metres away.

Run 02:21:53


Swim - 0:39:51
T1 - 0:03:09
Bike - 3:14:41
T2 - 0:03:01
Run - 2:21:53
Total - 6:22:35

Overall I'm delighted with my time and delighted to have done a HIM, although a little disappointed with the run, I never really felt out of breath, just very much in pain.

Next up is Gaelforce West where I hope to smash my time from last year.

For next year, I think the Ironman idea is postponed, I want to get faster over shorter distances before I make that step. I'm sure I could do the distance but not sure I want to hobble around in agony on the run like that again. At the moment I'm thinking I'll join a tri club and do a proper season with another Half Iron and improve on my time before I try to go longer.

PS: The reason I've gotten so bad at updating this is that I now use a Garmin instead of mapmyrun. Mapmyrun instantly uploads everything onto the web and made it easier for me to copy and paste stuff into here. Now I sometimes go a week or two before I sync to Garmin Connect and Idon't usually have the Garmin in work to manually copy the data up here.

catweazle

Well done on the race - it was my third year doing it and I thought the conditions were the toughest yet. That should put you in good shape for Gaelforce endurance wise anyways

Harto45

Great stuff hardCopy, well done. Been following the log for a while now. What's your goal time in Gaelforce?

hardCopy

Harto45 wrote: »

Great stuff hardCopy, well done. Been following the log for a while now. What's your goal time in Gaelforce?

My goal at the start of the season was to go under 6 hours but I think at this stage I should be able to get under 5:30. I'm wary of goal inflation though all the same. I ended up a little disappointed after Swinford because I was still adjusting my goals 80KM into the cycle.

hardCopy

Another fantastic day out West.

The weather was great for Gaelforce this year, although the the course definitely seemed to be more muddy compared to last year.

I think I underestimated/misremembered how tough the run course was. I found it very difficult to nail the pace I was aiming for on the run, there was a lot more uphill than I remembered and it was more difficult to make progress in the bog than I remembered.

At one point I ended up stuck thigh deep in mud and had to use a fence to drag myself out.

All the same it was great to feel so much stronger than I had last year, I was able to cruise up the last hill into Killary where I was walking last year.

Run 1 - 01:20:38

I timed out and waited for my girlfriend as we wanted to do the kayak together. She can't swim so she was a bit nervous but she had a couple of kayaking lessons beforehand and we cruised across comfortably.

Kayak - 00:10:26

The second bog run felt great, I took a long timeout so lots of slower runners had gotten ahead of me, this meant I spent the whole run passing people by, I had one spectacular fall just after the first set of steps, resulting in a forward roll off the side of the 'trail'.

Run 2 - 00:23:17

The bike leg was great, again I was so much stronger than last year, at one point on Sheffry I was the only person still cycling. A bit of a pain when the walker/pushers were spread all across the road but very satisfying.

I got chatting to a couple of lads shortly after the hill and two of us ended up pacing each other the rest of the way, when some lad in a red jacket came past us like a train we managed to up the pace and draft off him for about ten minutes, I went in front when we hit the bog road but red jacket slowed right down on the rough stuff. The other lad I was with was a lunatic on the rough stuff and I really had to push hard to hang on, I never would have gone that fast in the rough if he hadn't led the way. He ended up throwing a chain and told me to carry on.

Bike 1 - 01:42:26

Last year I stupidly tried to go straight up the Reek. This is the quick way if your a strong climber but it was foolish for me. This year I knew better and went up the zig-zag, I had been down to visit earlier in the summer so knew I was able to keep on plodding and made steady progress, passed lots of people once we hit the cone.

CP Ascent - 00:47:53

Coming down, I decided to follow the trail to the bottom of the cone and then hit the heather. This was great fun, I seemed to have the whole mountain to myself. Due to my crap eyesight I ended up running towards a fence when I hit the flat, I could have been quicker if I had taken a more direct route here.

CP Descent - 00:38:10

The Skelp was just as bad as last year, although I managed to ride a bit more of it this time. My descending has improved also and I was more comfortable coming down the steep hills to the main road.

Bike 2/Final Run - 00:47:37

Smashing great day!

Outside of GFW, I've been down to Kerry for a cycling weekend and did the Sean Kelly Tour 100KM.

Time now to focus on running as I've signed up for the Dublin City Marathon and Half Marathon. My girlfriend has signed up for the Half and my buddy is signed up for the Half and Full as well. I'm hoping to go under 4 hours after doing 4:28 last year.

hardCopy

hardCopy wrote: »

My goals for the next year are as follows:

• 5K < 25 Mins
• 10K < 50 Mins
• Marathon < 4:15
• Half Ironman < 6:30
• GaelForceWest < 6:00

My key races will be:

• Connemara Marathon - April 1st
• Humbert Challenge Half Iron - July
• GaelForceWest - August 18th

I will try to update this as often as possible, at least every week.

Reflecting on the last year, I've now hit most of those goals:
5K = 22:01 - Rathfarnham 5K
10K = 46:50 - Training run (Hoping for a better chip time in the Reindeer Run 10K)
Marathon = 03:52:45
Half Ironman = 06:22:35
GaelForceWest = 05:50:27

I'm pretty happy with how the year has gone.

Time now to start planning for the coming year. I have a few non-sports things I need to sort out before I launch into a full on training plan but will start running again next week in preparation for the Reindeer Run 10K.

shotgunmcos

Well done hitting all your targets! My lineup next year is similar to your 2012. Looking forward to GFW

hardCopy

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Well done hitting all your targets! My lineup next year is similar to your 2012. Looking forward to GFW

Cheers. I just had a look at your new log, have you a goal in mind for GFW? Hit the hills and get over to Croagh Patrick a couple of times if you can.

My IM ambitions will wait until 2014 I think. I'd rather take another year and get faster before I go any longer.

I did my first Cycle Sportive this year as well in the Sean Kelly Tour 100KM. I'll try to include a few of the An Post Series events next year as I really enjoyed it. Swimming needs more work next year, I think I managed about 3 decent swimming sessions before Swinford.

I definitely think I need variety in my training, I like bouncing from one event to another across different disciplines, I think I'd get bored if I tried to concentrate on one.

shotgunmcos

hardCopy wrote: »

Cheers. I just had a look at your new log, have you a goal in mind for GFW? Hit the hills and get over to Croagh Patrick a couple of times if you can....

No, however by the time it comes around I hope to have improved the running. You never know who will show up and I'd imagine the AR scene is going to get more competitive next year. I'll know more when I do a training run on CP sometime!

I hear you on the boredom factor. It was one of the reasons I decided to try tri. Then I got bored of S/B/R .... Variety is certainly the spice of life

hardCopy

Had my first post-DCM run yesterday. GF was running a 16KM LSR so I went along on my bike to keep her company. I cycled the first 10K then put the bike away to jog 6KM. Felt pretty good most of the way around but my hamstrings were a bit sore on the hills at the end.

I also volunteered to help out at the Malahide parkrun this weekend. I met some of the team on Saturday. I'll be helping to marshal the finishing chute.