Too much too soon

Brick Session

So week 27 came and is now gone. Is it just me or are you meant to physically exhausted at this stage. I went for my biggest run yesterday of 3 hours as prescribed by Fink and while I completed the run I was wrecked before I even started. Perhaps that is the way I am meant to feel to get me in tune for the big day.

Looking forward to tapering and the race itself. Having said that, the only person I am racing against is myself.

Brick Session

I think my brain has switched off almost completely at this stage. Did a 45 min run this morning and all I wanted to do was walk. Have to force myself to do anything and am really wondering how in the name of Jesus I am going to pull off 140.6 next Saturday going on this kinda performance.

Maybe this is normal, the body needs to kinda shut down to an extent in order to get the recovery needed to cover the 140.6 on the day.

Any thoughts from the IM veterans please??

griffin100

Brick Session wrote: »

I think my brain has switched off almost completely at this stage. Did a 45 min run this morning and all I wanted to do was walk. Have to force myself to do anything and am really wondering how in the name of Jesus I am going to pull off 140.6 next Saturday going on this kinda performance.

Maybe this is normal, the body needs to kinda shut down to an extent in order to get the recovery needed to cover the 140.6 on the day.

Any thoughts from the IM veterans please??

It's par for the course at this stage. You need to keep telling yourself you've done the work and are well prepared. Right up until you pull on your wetsuit you'll feel like this..............and then you get to work

BennyMul

im struggling at the moment, and have not yet started to feel rested or ready, (hoping this is part of the course also)

still only a week to go, :eek:

Oryx

Brick Session wrote: »

I think my brain has switched off almost completely at this stage. Did a 45 min run this morning and all I wanted to do was walk. Have to force myself to do anything and am really wondering how in the name of Jesus I am going to pull off 140.6 next Saturday going on this kinda performance.

Maybe this is normal, the body needs to kinda shut down to an extent in order to get the recovery needed to cover the 140.6 on the day.

Any thoughts from the IM veterans please??

One time vet, I hope I still count.

If you read back on my log I was wrecked all through taper.
I felt like the minute I took my foot off the pedal, my body just shut down. Felt sick and everything. I would say dont stress about doing anything else on your plan, you have all the work done and it could be that you just need a different style of taper to that described in the plan. I know it didnt suit me.

So have confidence that on the day, it will all come right. (And it will)

griffin100

Oh and don't forget you'll probably have a phantom injury and a man cold between now and next week

Brick Session

griffin100 wrote: »

Oh and don't forget you'll probably have a phantom injury and a man cold between now and next week

Feck, I nearly forgot about the man flu.

Brick Session

So here it is, the time to get this on. Heading for the Kingdom in the morning. To all my fellow competitors taking on the Hardman, the best of luck and will see you there.

catweazle

Hope you go well Brick, fair play to you for making it to the day in one piece - thats half the battle!

griffin100

Hope it goes well for you. See you on the course.......

Dory Dory

Have a great day!!! Will be thinking of all you Hardmen on Saturday!

Brick Session

Brick Session wrote: »

Just want to get some feedback or opinion of those of you who may have undertaken the same plan as I have in my head at present.

Heres the deal, I am a 43 year old male, 15 stone, full time emplyoment, wife and 2 kids and all that comes with them. Last year was my first year in Triathlon and I did 7 sprint distance tri's and finished them all ok. .

I have this mad plan in my head to take on an ironman distance event this year, looking at the Hardman in Kerry. Swimming would be my worst, max I swam was probably close on 900m in 2011. I have cycled the Ring of Kerry in 2010 which is the route for the hardman and have done a half marathon in 2010 and a few 10 mile runs in 2011.

Has anyone else made such a big leap and how did you get on? I have the bones of 7.5 months to train for it so I feel that have the time.

So I did it, great feeling. If anyone reads who reads this is thinking about taking on the Iron distance then I would say "Go for it" Only you can make it Happen. Enjoy the experience and be sensible in your approach. Do plenty of research, speak to people who have done the distance, pick a training plan and stick to it. Train for what suits you, not someone else. And most of all stay positive and have fun along the way.

griffin100

Ah c'mon you have to give us a race report

Brick Session

griffin100 wrote: »

Ah c'mon you have to give us a race report

Just about to start it now Griff, might be the morning before I post it

Brick Session

Arrived in Killarney around lunchtime Friday and chilled out at the Castlerosse for the afternoon. Herself brought the kids to the leisure centre for the afternoon to give me the headspace needed to try and prepare myself for the challenge that lay ahead.

Walked across the road to the Fossa GAA club at about 6.30pm for registration and race briefing. Was kind of a confusing affair or maybe an Irish style affair but it soon sorted itself out. So we muddled our way through that and all crammed in to the upstairs room for the briefing. The briefing was relaxed enough, clear and precise in the fact that you were on your own out on the road and that if **** happened, then **** happened - game over. I didn't bring my phone with me to the briefing so I could not contact bennymul to say hello. I left the briefing fairly lively, as I wanted to get the dinner in and settle down for the night. I hit the bed around 9.45 but like most I tossed and turned until the alarm went off at 3.50am. :eek:

Got the porridge and toast in along with the green tea. I prepared all the race fuel and food and called my good wife just before 5am. Everyone seemed to be quite relaxed at the line up to check the bikes in and wait for race start. On with the body glide, wet suit and gave the family kisses and down to the jetty for the race safety briefing. A quick 2 minutes warm up and we called in for the start. 3-2-1 go! I am not a fast swimmer having only learned to swim in 2011 so I set off at my comfortable pace. Round the first 2 buoys not a problem. Was swimming around a few others so was feeling comfortable. When the organisers said the lake was black they were not joking, I could see my hand in the water but that was it. Around the second buoy it started to go a little hairy as my sighting went out the window, my long-range vision is poor anyway. After swimming around in a couple of circles a marshal pointed me in the right direction and told me that she would stay beside me in the kayak to steer me in the direction of the third buoy. The swim from the 2nd to the 3rd buoy seemed to take an eternity. Eventually I made the 3rd buoy, I was sure they were moving it further and further away for the craic. After the third buoy I felt like I was flying to the next 2 buoys and on to lap 2. I had my sighting and course direction sussed properly and even had a landmark sorted for the long bit of the swim out the back. Eventually, rounded the last buoy and headed in for the jetty again. Alan the race organiser was there to help me out of the water. I asked him was I inside the cut off and was told that I did the swim in 1:45. Brilliant, that was my predicted time so happy days.

Walked to T1, got the bike bag and into the changing tent. Felt good and relaxed so took the time to get fully dried, powdered and vaselined up. Took 15 minutes in T1 cos the chat was good and wished my fellow competitors well and out to get the bike. Posed for a picture or 2 and off out the gate. One small thing is that I forgot to pack my bike computer so that would come into play later on. Set the timer on my watch for a repeated countdown of 20mins to remind me to take on nutrition. Through town fairly handy, was a little bit cautious as the roads were very wet and I had a brand new tyre on the front that I only put on the bike Thursday morning and had not scrubbed in. Had to be very careful of anything shiny. I passed a few lads heading up the climb to Molls Gap and was feeling good. Didn’t stop at the top as I had plenty of nutrition to get me to Sneem to the next food stop. In the big ring on the front and smallest on the back and pedalled all the way down to Kenmare. All good until we turned right for Sneem, the wind hit me in the face so I went to change down to the smaller front ring to pedal into the wind for the next few hours but the bike decided it was staying up in the big ring. Right, I thought, no panic, it only needs a tap on the front derailleur and it will pop down to the small ring, sure I only had the bike fully serviced and all moving parts were lubed and checked 2 weeks previous so it should pop into place no bother. Gave it a little tap of the full water bottle but no budge. I then remembered that they told us at race briefing that the water stop in Sneem was opposite the bike shop. Ok, the plan then was to pedal in the big ring to Sneem and make an assault on the bike shop to get sorted. This for me was hard going, as I like my small ring especially into the wind so mentally things were not going to plan. I started to think about the hilly sections between Sneem and Waterville and onto Caherciveen. I said even if I could get into the small ring I would put up with that for the rest of the bike course. But there was no way that I would be able to climb some of the hills in the big ring. Eventually I made Sneem, at this stage the lactic acid was burning through my legs so I beamed with joy to see the bike shop. I nearly dived in the front door but the shop was empty. A young lad about 15 came across the road to ask me was I ok? Told him the craic and asked where the mechanic was. He told me it was him. Great, except for the fact he was only minding the shop and knew less about fixing bikes than me. With a bit of brute force and all that we got the bike into the small ring and off again. Happy Days I thought, I didn’t mind cycling back to Killarney in the small ring. I did find the headwinds a challenge but persevered and soon we were motoring again, the legs had settled along with the mind. One thing I did note is the lack of signs for Killarney detailing the distance home. This is where my bike pc would have been handy. The next few hours were quite uneventful, except for pedalling into the wind. I was quite lucky that I got virtually no rain, some of the fast lads got heavy downpours. Being slow does have its advantages sometimes I suppose. Just coming out of Caherciveen, I copped a road sign that said Killarney 60.4km, this was just about 2.30pm, not good as the bike cut-off was 4.30pm and that meant 40 miles in 2 hours. I kind of thought I was not going to make the cut off but I sent my wife a text saying that I would be in off the bike for 4.30pm and that all was going well. I was not going to panic the support crew as well. Half way between Glenbeigh and Killorglin the bike decided it wanted to go back into the big ring again. At this stage it was a case of just getting the head down and pedalling as hard as possible as I was worried about the cut off. I got to the last food stop in Killorglin and needed water, energy drink and a bar. I had no choice but to stop, as I had to start the marathon fuelled up. I asked how far to Killarney and was given 3 different answers. I had 45 mins to do 11 miles. I knew I could give it a lash. Went as hard as possible back to Killarney. Got into Killarney, around the roundabout and back to the Castlerosse to T2. It was a muck fest by the time I got in to the changing tent but I didn’t care as I had made the cut off. Got the bag, tried to change into the run gear and keep the muck off everything was not an easy feat.

Again took all day in transition. Out the gap, waved to the wife and kids on away onto the run. 4.30pm, legs felt good, stomach and head felt good so I was feeling good for the 4 x 10k loops that lay ahead. I knew that there was a dirty hill near the end of the loop (knockreer) so I decided to walk that when I got to it, other than that I ran for the first 2 loops at probably 12-13 min miles. I stopped at every aid station, drank 2 cups of water, took a gel in my hand and made friendly chat with all the volunteers. It was a long day for them too. Everyone I passed was in good enough form, asking what lap you were on, how were you feeling and wishing you the best of luck. On lap 3, my new friend Justin passed me on the run but a little bit later I passed him when he decided to walk to a bit. A few minutes later he was beside me and we decided to travel together for a while. We ran for a few km’s and then introduced a strategy of walking a km, then running a km. We kept this up for loop 3. We started loop 4 at 9.10pm and at this stage we had resorted to walking the last lap. Power walking at this stage was easier and faster we thought. Just about 1km into the final loop we were joined by Jimmy from Kilkenny. We were now 3 strong. Jimmy was worried about finishing and also finding his was around the Killarney National Park in the dark. We were like the 3 women out of Killinascully powering away. It must have been a funny sight to anyone who did not know what was going on. Anyway with sore feet, tired legs, bodies we headed up Knockreer for the last time. Thankfully, we had Michael the race organiser behind us on a bike or we might have taken a wrong turn in the Park at one stage. Turn right at the bottom of the hill and in for the finish line. We could not see the finish but we could definitely hear the people waiting for us. A van lit up the path for us as we headed up the path to the line. We had made a pact to cross the line together to that was what we did. We crossed the line to great cheers and applause at 16:13:47 on the clock at 11pm. This was the first Iron distance for the 3 of us so it was a great feeling to have completed it successfully. We did it. We had become Ironmen.

There were hugs and kisses all round. Handshakes and pats on the back and cups of tea and loads of food were on offer.

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my race day, even though it may have gone on longer than I planned. I will definitely do another IM distance, but not until the kids are a bit older and it will be at the start of the summer not the end. Now what’s next on the agenda? Oh yeah, that list of DIY that was handed to me after I crossed the finish line.

catweazle

I have enjoyed your log - no moaning about tiredness, times, technique etc etc, you seemed to have enjoyed the entire training and race day at all times which is rare for logs on this forum

So well done and take a bow!

Oryx

You certainly made that sound easy and doable though I doubt that it felt so easy on the day. Well done on your massive achievement, and enjoy your rest!

BennyMul

please accept my virtual hand shake sir.
great report, and +1 on taking a bow.

question are you still on a high or have you started to come down yet.

Izoard

Great report and best of luck with the DIY next tri endeavour...

Brick Session

catweazle wrote: »

I have enjoyed your log - no moaning about tiredness, times, technique etc etc, you seemed to have enjoyed the entire training and race day at all times which is rare for logs on this forum

So well done and take a bow!

Many Thanks catweazle, yes I suppose I did enjoy every minute of the whole process. I stayed very conservative during all of my training, tried zone 4 for a week and gave that up as a bad job. I was lucky I guess that because I was conservative I did not get any niggles or injuries, no colds or chest infections or the like. I followed Don Fink's intermediate programme to the letter except for the zone 4 stuff and it worked for me. My only technique was to keep moving and get to the line.

Brick Session

Oryx wrote: »

You certainly made that sound easy and doable though I doubt that it felt so easy on the day. Well done on your massive achievement, and enjoy your rest!

Thanks Oryx, but you see you forget that you and fellow boards people kept me going and were my inspiration. I only commented to a fellow competitor during our run in the cooling evening as to what it must have been like for you guys in Austria in 38 degrees. To be honest, on reflection it was not so bad on the day, pure stubborness got me to the line.

Brick Session

BennyMul wrote: »

please accept my virtual hand shake sir.
great report, and +1 on taking a bow.

question are you still on a high or have you started to come down yet.

Again Benny sorry I didn't get to hook up with you in Killarney. Thanks for handshake too. As the days go by the enormity of what we achieved is starting to sink in. Its a great feeling to be honest. I am itching to do it again. Just don't tell my wife. I have not even mentioned the DCM yet. :eek:

What about your performance. Hats off to you, what a time for your first IM distance. :cool:

Brick Session

Izoard wrote: »

Great report and best of luck with the DIY next tri endeavour...

Thanks Izoard. I thought when writing the report that it might waffle on a bit so I am glad that you enjoyed it. I had better try and earn some brownie points again with the old DIY before I drop any other bombshells.

griffin100

Feckin great report, you had me panicking when reading it that you'd miss the bike cut off. Well done on keeping going especially when you had problems on the bike, having mental demons so early in the race would have made many of us just stop but not you

Brick Session

griffin100 wrote: »

Feckin great report, you had me panicking when reading it that you'd miss the bike cut off. Well done on keeping going especially when you had problems on the bike, having mental demons so early in the race would have made many of us just stop but not you

Thanks Griffin100, my main focus on the day was to remain calm and relaxed. I could only control so much. Luckily it all stayed together on the day and I made it in with time to spare. Again, sorry I didn't get to meet you and well done on your performance. I have never done a big branded commercial IM or HIM but last Saturday for me was one of the best days of my life. I think it was a lovely intimate setting and very personal and would not have wanted it any other way for my first IM distance.

Kurt Godel

Great report, well done! I can only imagine your face when the 15 year old "mechanic" wasn't the Shimano-qualified expert you were hoping for! Very enjoyable read.

Dory Dory

Awesome report! Loved it so much that you were the dinnertime topic tonight. And well done on your smart training and brilliantly paced race. It's so nice to read about such a positive experience where the participant actually soaked in all that the moment was as it was happening.

Brick Session

Saturday 1st September

Firstly it was my wifes birthday so we had to do pre breakfast celebrations with the kids etc. Wine and Chocolates were exchanged but unfortunately there was no time for breakfast in bed as Rose (my wife) was taking on her first triathlon. The Mint Triathlon (women only) organised by Waterford Tri Club was the 1st running of this event and was a great success. This is the same course that is used for the Hook or by Crook so it is a hard course as you know, especially the run. She had a great day, crossing the line in 2:10 having only really trained for a few weeks and is only a recreational swimmer and can not breathe with her head in the water and does not cycle at all. She did a few 45 minute sessions on the turbo in advance of this event. She did the DCM lat year in a time of 4:30 for her first attempt and then broke her ankle and tore ligaments etc on the 2nd of January so she was out for about 4 months.

So to celebrate the birthday and her first triathlon and oh yeah my Hardman we headed out that night to get an early bird and a few bevvies. To our suprise we could not get a table in the local restuarant (lack of knowledge due to being a hermit while IM training) and ended up drinking on an empty stomach. My attempts to drink all of the Guinness in the pub fell foul after 6 pints so then came the obligatory trip to the chipper on the way home to tackle the complete menu but wisely decided to stop after a quarter pounder & large chips. Woke up kinda failry shook about 5am, uuugggghhh, never again. Back to bed and the little lady woke me at 9am looking for her breakfast so up I get, managed to get her sorted before retiring to the sofa in playroom to die until the mid afternoon.


Now to get back to the training :D:D

Got my post IM massage on Tuesday 4th Sept so I was ready for action on the 6th. Had a good chat with the physio who told me that I was in good shape and would have no issue taking on the DCM. However, after 2.5 miles of my first run on Thursday evening any thoughts of the DCM went completely out the window. Struggled to get 45 minutes in. Decided that the body needed more recovery time. Back to the couch

Tuesday 11th went out for a run for an hour to see how things were, could not believe the difference, ran 9.20 pace for 6 miles which is the fastest I think I have run in over a year, my normal pace is a 10 min mile mid week and probably 10.20 min mile to 10.30 min mile on my LSR. Decided that I will give the Cork to Cobh 15 miler a bash next month on the strength of that. Another 6 mile run today will confirm that. I also think I might leave the HR monitor off for a few runs and just run on feel as I am not training for an IM any more even though I am still eating for an IM.

Brick Session

Decided to try a swim last night, first time in the water since the big day, managed to complete a slow steady 1k swim before hitting the showers.

Met 2 other IM finishers from the Waterford Tri club in the pool for the first time since my race so there was a lot of post race chat and not too much focus on swimming.

Decided to make use of the hour lunch breaks again to keep the impact down at home so got in a 6 mile run today at my new FAST pace of 9.20 min mile. Going long has made me fast :D

Hopefully I will have my bike back tomorrow so I can get out for an hour or so tomorrow night. Still waiting on Shimano to replace the left gear change after it croked on the top of Molls Gap.

Brick Session

Has anyone seen my mojo?