Run Fat Boy Run - The lazy mans guide to Ironman and Marathon training.

Dory Dory

I will send good thoughts to you and your son tomorrow.

shotgunmcos

Fingers crossed for you and your son all went well today

Dory Dory

Still sending good thoughts......

griffin100

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Fingers crossed for you and your son all went well today

Still sending good thoughts.....

Thanks. All over and seems to have worked as planned. Looks like the issue has been resolved. It's amazing what can be done by sticking things up the femoral artery I think we suffered more than he did, he's home already with no problems.

Had a short stress relieving run this evening in the dark and cold. Did 4 x 1km repeats at 5km race pace. Tried for a 5th but was too tired.

Dory Dory

^^^ Woo hoo! Best news of the day!!!

griffin100

Finished off a poor week today with 23km LSR @ 5.08 pace. Other than that was way down on run volume this week but this was to be expected. Found the run today very difficult, the wind and hail (:eek:) didn't help and neither did the extra few kilos I'm carrying at the minute. My back and hips are also telling me I need new runners. I've two weeks off work over Christmas so there'll be little or no swimming done but I should have no excuses for not hitting the running targets. Heck I might even set the turbo up for some cross training

griffin100

Did a short swim set yesterday which included a 400mTT to give myself a December marker - 6.39 - a bit slower that November but I've done very little swimming over the last few weeks so it was to be expected (I also had just done 1,000m of drills with fins on ).

Nice 13km run today in Baltic conditions @ 5.08 pace. It was cold. Now that it's done I can concentrate on eating for the rest of the day

The presents are wrapped, the movies have been selected and the pizza has been ordered, it's time to do nothing. This will be a special Christmas, as it's probably going to be the only one where all 4 kids are waiting on Santa's arrival. The youngest one understands the concept for the first time, whilst the oldest two are on the cusp of non believing and by next year I suspect they will be non believers but for this year we are a family of Santa fans

It's hard today not to turn my thoughts to another family, that of Martin, a club mate and friend, who will be having their first Christmas without their Dad at home. It makes you appreciate what you have all the more.

Dory Dory

Merry Christmas, Griffin. Enjoy this very magical Christmas. I will think of you and your kids as they awake tomorrow morning and imagine the happy frenzy and crazy energy that will be about.

griffin100

8km at a nice slow pace on a glorious day; -2 degrees and fresh. A good way to build an appetite for the mountains of food that I ate afterwards. Kids just off to bed now after a day of excitement. A good bottle of Malbec awaits and I need it .

griffin100

16km on another lovely morning. Feeling last nights excesses in my guts. Did the first 12km at 5.10 pace, felt good so decided to see if I could make up time over the last 4km and finish the 16km in under 80 mins, which I did by covering the last 4km at HM pace. Total 16km @ 4.59 pace.

griffin100

I postponed yesterdays LSR until today. My legs felt tired and given that I have all week off I've plenty of time to play with. So today was 24km @ 5.08 pace, but jesus I suffered on the last 3-4km. Don't know why, I should be well able for this pace over this distance as my recent HM time shows but I was hurting for the last 20 minutes. My hamstrings were tight, my knees hurt and my feet were in agony. I'm hoping new runners will fix this and it's not a fitness thing (or a weight thing ) but I wont have them for a few days yet as I've had to order them online as none of the shops I've checked stock half sizes :rolleyes:. All in all not a bad week with my first 40+ mile run week in over a year .

griffin100

Tipping along this week. Legs are feeling tired and I'm glad next week is a recovery week. Runs this week to date were 14km with 8km @ HM pace; 8km recovery and 14km @ 5 min/km pace. This weeks LSR has 16km @ PMP which I'm dreading :rolleyes:

Back in work next week so hopefully will be able to get some decent pool time in then.

griffin100

Got up this morning, legs felt crap, lashing rain and horrendous winds outside. Decided not to do my LSR, convinced myself that there was no point being wet and miserable for two hours with sore legs and trying to hold PMP in 100kph winds. I shoulda HTFU and gotten out, I'm p!ssed off I didn't now. As this is an easy recovery week with reduced volume I'll slot it in early in the week but I need to my ass in gear if I'm serious about going under 3.20. Reading the logs of those who braved the winds and went out today has only made me more angry.

griffin100

Swim today and it hurt......a lot My plan for the early part of 2014 swim wise is two swims a week of at least 2,000m in the 50m pool plus Friday nights coaches session to give minimum three swims per week covering around 5,000m. I'll ramp up the distances after a while but at the minute it's back to basics and getting technique right. Today was 200m wu / 800m drills / 200m x 3 off 4 mins (in on 3.20-25) / 100m x 4 off 2 mins (in on 1.40-43). Total 2,000m. I did all of the drills whilst wearing fins and I find this is allowing me to concentrate on form, it also means that when I take them off for the main set my legs feel light and I seem to kick harder.

griffin100

First coached session of the year last night and a change in approach from the coach. After spending the few weeks before christmas concentrating on form work and drills he plans to introduce more quality swim sets into this block. Last night was a good mix of drills and timed kick and swim sets so that he can group similar swimmers together and work out interval times for going forward. We did 100m repeats last night at the end of the session and I was brining them in on 1.30-33 at a moderate to hard pace. God bless the 20m pool It's nice for once in my life to be the fastest swimmer in the group.

griffin100

A bad couple of weeks on the running front. Missed a key LSR last weekend and took the concept of a recovery week far too literally last week. If I don't stick to the plan for the next two weeks I can say goodbye to running a marathon in April. For some reason my legs seem to be really suffering this time around and I don't feel like I'm improving, perhaps my target is too ambitious and my runs are consequently too fast Maybe I should reassess my PMP. Anyhow, this week will tell a lot, it's supposed to be a 50 mile week :rolleyes:.

So inspired by Kurt and MCOS I did the 'how far can you swim in one hour challenge' (perhaps we should make this a thread on the main forum page like the 400m TT one?). I haven't done more than 2,000m in a session in months and the last time I did anything like this in the pool was 6 months ago, just before my the WOTS swim when I was in somewhat better condition. I set off today at a nice pace and felt very surprised at how comfortable I was for the whole hour. Real tiredness only started to set in over the last few hundred meters but it didn't feel too bad, although my splits suggest I was slowing rapidly.

Covered 3,125m in one hour, hitting the 3,000m at 57.25. 1,000m splits were 18.25 / 19.10 / 19.50. The last time I did a straight 3,000m last July my splits were 18.20 / 19.40 / 19.15 - so I'm happy with that. Maybe the current marathon training has improved overall fitness and helped make up for the extra buoyancy I'm currently carrying in the pool It's a target.

Kurt Godel

Nice one on the swim. Since yours was LC we are probably about equal ability at the moment. Should set up some nice summer head to heads;)

Unasked for advice here- ditch the marathon running and concentrate on long OW races. Your logs shows disdain and love for both, appropriately.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Unasked for advice here- ditch the marathon running and concentrate on long OW races. Your logs shows disdain and love for both, appropriately.

These logs are all about unasked for advice I think you may be right on the whole marathon thing, it's looking less and less likely :rolleyes:

Kurt Godel

From the swimming forum... OW calendar

mad m wrote: »

It's only a provisional but may be useful to someone.



31may Bob bushell ( but organiser stated last night this maybe moved)
1 June Glenalbyn ( sandy cove harbour)
2 June Sandycove SC( butt bridge swim down to new bridge like NAC, finish Jeannie Johnson)
7 June NAC ( Docklands )
8June Meath masters (loch lene)
14 June Garda Sc ( portmarnock)
15 June NDWS. ( bull wall)
20 June Templeogue sc ( sea point)
21 June. ( no one asked for this date, but bob bushell maybe on at this date not sure)
22 June Wexford masters ( curracloe beach)
28 June Eastern bay ( low rock)
29 June Wicklow masters ( Wicklow bay)
5 July Half moon ( Arthur dunne south wall)
6 July Dublin Sc ( Kiliney Beach)
12 July Garda Sc ( special Olympics)
13 July Sanycove Sc ( Eddie Heron)
20 July Aerlingus ( portmarnock)
26 July Thomond swim ( limerick)
2 August Guinness ( low rock)
3 August Wicklow Sc ( Wicklow harbor )
4 August Pheonix Sc ( Kiliney beach)
9 August Corrib Sc ( salt hill Galway)
10 August Halfmoon ( Kiliney beach)
16 August Clontarf ( island swim)
17 August Halfmoon ( kilmartin cup)
19 August Clontarf ( big shelter bull wall)
23 August Lough dan 5&10 k
24 August St Vincent's ( high rock)
30 August ( no schedule swim, may change)
31 August Dun Laoghaire swim
6 sept Carraig masters ( Wendy 3 k)
7 sept ( a new race, not sure who is running it )
13 sept Liffey swim....

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

From the swimming forum... OW calendar

I seen this but I think that these are wetsuit free races. I'd love to do some non wetsuit swims but not sure if I could, then again my current lack of training has given me a nice blubber suit to keep me warm and buoyant :rolleyes:

joey100

A lot of them will let you swim in a wetsuit but you won't be considered for the prizes, need to go skins for that. I used to do rescue at a few of these, think there might be some sort of licence system or open water swimming membership you might want to look into though.

The Liffey and Dun Laoghaire swims you need to do a number of qualifying swims too to get a entry. Think it's 5 by a certain date for each.

Kurt Godel

Greystones Tri was wetsuit optional last year, I chose to swim without one. While I certainly lost time to wetsuited swimmers, the experience was much better than racing with a suit, highly recommended. Sure we're both practically swaddled in blubber anyway, ya soft git:p

griffin100

So nearly two months since I posted any training......have gone off the rails a bit with little training and lots of eating. I decided to drop out of marathon training in mid January, I was finding it hard to get time to do a decent level of training and tbh I just wasn't enjoying the running anymore. I didn't want to go to Zurich and plod around in 4hrs, so I stopped training for it.

The SBR challenge will show a very low level of run and swim volume in January and especially in February where illness and work pressures kept to a very minimum. This lack of training has been supplemented by a weight increase of epic proportions, I've gained about 10lbs since the summer.

So I'll start posting again here to keep me honest. I've no definite plans for the season. Some tri's, some short run races and some swim events; maybe a HIM or an IM. Just once though I'd like to go into an IM with a decent level of training behind me and try and hit some goals.

So where am I fitness wise:
Run is poor. Last weekend was my first run over 10km in about two months. I did some 1km intervals at 5km race pace over the weekend - all came in under 4 mins so that's not too bad, but I suffered on each and every one.

Swimming is actually not too bad. Endurance has suffered but on the short stuff I'm going ok. Still getting a coached session every Friday night and it's starting to make a difference I think. Yesterdays swim session was 750m warm up - with the last 150m at a moderate to hard pace - came in 12.55 - that's a big improvement on this time last year when I was hoping to break 14mins for the 750m. Also in yesterdays session was 5 x 100m hard off 2 mins - all in in under 1.35. So I'm happy where I am with the swimming.

So the short term goals are to loose some weight, get my running back to sub 20min 5km, to keep improving on the swim times but to get some long sessions in and to actually sit on my bike for the first time in 8 months :rolleyes:

Dory Dory

Glad you're back, Griffin. I always enjoy reading your log.

griffin100

Dory Dory wrote: »

Glad you're back, Griffin. I always enjoy reading your log.

Thanks Dory, that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my tummy.......then again that could be the hunger pangs kicking in as I start the long slow process of shifting a few pounds :pac:

10km at lunch time @ 5min/km pace. Almost felt like summer with the sun in the sky for the first time in ages!!

griffin100

Simple enough swim today. 100-200-300-400-400-300-200-100 - off 2mins per 100m holding between 1.40 and 1.45 per 100m. Nice set. Total 2,000m

griffin100

Thursday was a long day in the hospital with junior but after eight years he got the all clear and was discharged from cardiac care following his surgery last December A slow 10km @ 5.30 min/km pace when I got home.

Tonight was a coached swim season.
400m wu steady
400 mix (40 free/40 catch up x 5 continuous)
20 x 10 kick
400 x 2 (80 easy / 80 hard / 80 easy / 80 hard / 80 easy)
400 mix (20 head up / 20 free x 10)
100 x 6 easy off 2mins in on 1.35-1.40
200m cd
Total 3,000m

The two 400's of mixed easy / fast 80's both came in at 6.33 despite some heavy traffic. That's the same as my 400tt in this pool a month ago. Hoping for good things for March's 400tt. Felt good in the water tonight with the stroke feeling long and smooth.

griffin100

Saturday did a nice run session of (500m flat out / 500m recovery) x 9. Hurt in a good way and my ass muscles felt the pain for a couple of days after.

Sunday was a simple 10km @ 5.20km pace.

Haven't been able to get anything done this week yet, work is mental, home life is mental and I've college assignments to do. My brain is fried with trying to understand nCr = n! / (n-r)!r! and the like I'm sure Kurt will get the reference and will laugh at my mathematical ignorance

Kurt Godel

griffin100 wrote: »

Haven't been able to get anything done this week yet, work is mental, home life is mental and I've college assignments to do. My brain is fried with trying to understand nCr = n! / (n-r)!r! and the like I'm sure Kurt will get the reference and will laugh at my mathematical ignorance

Sometimes life gets in the way. The video below from the brilliant Sal Khan helped my understanding of Combinatrics- for bonus points watch them on the turbo (that works surprizingly well!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCxMhncR7PU

griffin100

Last week was a disaster training wise. No swims and a total of 25kms run. I have yet to get on a bike and my first tri of 2014 is in two weeks :rolleyes:

This week was a bit better. Have managed 3 runs so far, two swims and will get to my coached session tonight to make it 3 swims for the week. In my mind less than 3 swims a week means you're going backward.

Last Saturday I was going to run a 5km road race but had to do family stuff so decided to do a 5km TT in the evening. If there was ever a session to show how much fitness I've lost over the last few months this was it. Last March I dipped under 20mins for the 5km, exactly a year later I struggled to hold what I would consider to be my half marathon pace for 5km. It was a real kick in the nuts and a warning to get my finger out. There was almost an identical percentage slowing in pace from last year to the percentage weight increase from the same time. I need to loose some flab :mad: