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

griffin100

Dory Dory wrote: »

Oh god! You've just made me choke on my orange juice! Romps?? That's not exactly the operative IM word that swirls in my mind when I'm running in my field on tired legs for nearly 3 hours all by my lonesome. I'm more thinking.....how the f*ck am I going to run a full marathon after being on the bike for 112 miles??? :eek:

When swimming think about getting to the next buoy..............

When cycling think about getting to the next gel or distance milestone......be a glass half full person.....45km hit, that's a quarter done........60km reached, one third done......and so on

On the run, think mile by mile, count up to 13, and down again to zero......

Just my 2c, don't get hung up on what's to come, deal with the present

griffin100

Izoard wrote: »

Any fool can do it when trained - the real test is when you are not;)

Roll on Kenmare for my effort with this approach!

I'm looking forward to seeing the results, feck it worked for you last Ultra

Izoard

griffin100 wrote: »

I'm looking forward to seeing the results, feck it worked for you last Ultra

Spectacular car crash....

griffin100

Gently back into some training. A few easy 100m repeats in the pool that had my lower back in spasm and a 30 minute 5km run that had my legs shaking at the end. I'll take the rest of the week easy and then start into a proper HM plan with the intention of a new HM PB in the Waterford Half in December.

Lex Luther

well done on toughing it out and finishing...the virtue of the thing is not any time or any result but rather the effort that was required to do it..so well done...in years to come it will be an epic story for one of the kids weddings or the grand kids.
lex

griffin100

Lex Luther wrote: »

well done on toughing it out and finishing...the virtue of the thing is not any time or any result but rather the effort that was required to do it..so well done...in years to come it will be an epic story for one of the kids weddings or the grand kids.
lex

Cheers, I got the the much wanted for photo of the kids crossing a finish line with me so it was worth it for that.

Easy double day yesterday.

1,500m swim as 200m wu / 100m x 4 kick with fins / 200 balance drill / 100 cu / 100 x 5 off 1.50 / 100 cd

5km run @ 5.30 km pace

griffin100

Ha it's been a long time since I posted in here, almost exactly 2 years :eek: Inspired by Catweazle's resurrection of his log to give an account of his Galway experiences I thought I'd do something similar for my 5th Ironman in Kerry over the weekend.

Before we get to that a catch-up on the last two years.......otherwise known as my tail of woe Get the violins out, you have been warned.

So after Hardman in August 2014 I vowed never to do another IM and started training for a Half Marathon in the December targeting a PB. However I started to get knee trouble before the race and ended up not doing the race and I stopped running for a few weeks. Early 2015 got back into running and was tipping along ok with a bit of swimming as well. I had planned to target a 10km swim in summer 2015 and was working towards that. Swim volume was going up nicely and running was ok. Then in May 2015 I started to get problems with my right shoulder and hand. I would loose feeling in my little finger and get shoulder pain. Diagnosed as cubital tunnel syndrome. Ended up not swimming for a couple of months so that put pay to my 10km swim plans. Turns out the cause of the problem was a trapped ulnar nerve in my trapezious muscle, whilst exacerbated by swimming we finally worked out that a major contributor to the issue was my running style and how I hold my shoulders. Now its pretty much cleared up, but I do occasionally get the numbness in the finger but nothing like I had been getting. Anyhow got back swimming in the summer of 2015. I hadn't raced all year and was itching to get back so I entered a couple of sprints. Then last August all my bikes got stolen from the garage and that was that. In the whole of 2015 I raced one 10km road race and one 1,900m swim - that was it. Then it got worse, in late 2015 I developed plantar faciitis in my left foot. I didn't run for almost 4 months. I was not running, barely cycling and barely swimming - I piled on the weight.

In March of this year I weighted almost 15 stone. Then I started to run again, a little at a time. I started off with 5 minute runs, then 10 minute and so on. I never ran two days in a row and in fact at the start left two full days between runs - the PF stayed away. I was swimming an average of 6km a week and I also started to do a bit of cycling again. My wife introduced me to MyFitnessPal and I started to use it. The weight began to come down. I entered TriLoais but had a mechanical before the race started so that was a disaster. I ended up doing my first tri in almost two years when I did HoTW. I did it in a solid if unspectacular 2.48. I started to enjoy triathlon again. I was averaging about 7hrs a week training but feeling fitter than I have in a good while, loosing almost two stone helped I started to think about giving Hardman 2016 a lash. My swimming was going well. I upped the bike distances and the run distances a bit. I never ran further than 15km in training as I was worried about the PF coming back and I did no speed work. My cycle training involved mostly 2-3hr rides but done at a hard effort. I did the Tour de KK 3 weeks ago which was 163km of a tough route with no bother.......so I entered Hardman.

griffin100

Hardman 2016 (otherwise known as IM no. 5)

This race almost killed me in 2014 so I had some demons to slay. I'm in much better shape this year, albeit I don't put in huge training hours. Most weeks I'd be hitting 7hrs or so.

I headed down to Killarney on Friday with a club mate. He's done Roth and Barcelona and was keen to see a smaller local race in action. Meant I had company for the weekend which was great.

Friday night the weather was awful. Strong winds and rain. Took a look at the swim course and it looked very rough. Were some mumblings about swim cancellation at the briefing and the course had been changed from two laps to three smaller laps keeping inside of the headlands.

Didn't sleep well Friday night, nerves and the wind and rain kept me awake. Up at 4am to eat - bananas and cold custard with a couple of slices of toast. Heading to the swim start the weather was brutal. I had visions of a cancelled swim. When we got to the start the lake looked surprisingly calm, no doubt about the swim going ahead. Race start was delayed until 7am due to a 'squall' on the lake.

I've done a reasonable amount of swimming this year (200,000m) and I was hoping to get close to a sub 1.10 swim. This course is always long so anything in the low teens would have been acceptable. At the start the water seemed calm enough, but within 100m or so it became apparent that this was not the case. On the approach to the first buoy there were extremely large waves coming in from the right hand side, tossing us about. When we turned the waves were behind us and we were surfing on the waves. They were close together and breaking heavily and this made sighting and keeping a good stroke almost impossible. Turning again brought us back into the incoming waves until we got back into the shelter of the bay again. There were three laps of this and it was some of the roughest conditions I've ever swam in. It was worse than HotW this year, and that was rough!! 7 of the 78 starters did not finish the swim. I was almost relieved to see 1.23 on the watch when I finished for 4.1km. I still managed 2nd in age group and was out of the water before last year's winner and runner up.

T1 took 9 mins which is about normal for me as I did a complete change into bib shorts and a jersey.

I haven't done a huge amount on the bike this year (about 1,500kms) and only a couple of 100km+ spins but I did the Tour KK three weeks ago and was comfortable enough over 163km so I wasn't too worried. I was targeting around the 6.40hrs for the bike. This was my first IM using a road bike. Conditions were dry and windy starting off but soon enough the rain began, and it rained pretty much for the rest of the bike apart from a few intervals. At some stages the rain was so heavy that my brakes didn't work and visibility was almost nil. Coming down of Molls Gap was genuinely scary - descending in the wet with useless brakes and heavy side winds. When I got the top of Coomichista the wind was so strong it blew me to a complete standstill. The wind was either in my face or coming from the side for 120km. It was only around the 120km mark that it began to be more of a tailwind than a side wind. For the last 60km or so the rain became torrential and just bucketed down. When I looked at the bike after the race every drop of oil had been washed off the chain and cassette. Despite all that I felt fine the whole way around on the bike. It helped having the club mate appear at random spots on the course to shout abuse at me. My nutrition plan worked well with no issues. I looked at the reports from the Valentia Island weather station for race day when I got home, average wind speed for the day was 35kph, with gusts of up to 76kph. Got back into T2 after 7.02.

T2 took a while (7 mins) as I couldn't get the wet bike gear off. Changed into dry clothes and set out on the run.

The run was going to be an unknown. I haven't run much this year (less than 800km) and no further than 15km in two years. I managed to shuffle along and got the first 21km done without walking in 2.20hrs. After that it began to hurt, and it became a mixture of slow shuffling and walking. Got a bit of a second wind towards the end and 'ran' the last 5km to come in in 5.08.

Overall time was 13.54. Given the conditions I'm happy enough with that. It's my slowest ever Ironman but the one I had to work hardest for given the swim and bike conditions. Of the 78 starters there were 22 DNF's. Some of the bike times were 8hrs plus.

No real niggles or problems afterwards, save for some chaffing and burns - 7hrs cycling in soaking wet shorts will do that to you. Looking forward to IM no. 6 already.

Kurt_Godel

Great read, sounds like a life-defining sort of day.

How come you're fitter with less training hours?

Izoard

Sounds brutal!

You have such an engine and bank of endurance that you should try #6 with zero training - I'll bet you would end up with a similar time!

Chapeau on getting through this one - definitely deserving of the "Hardman" moniker.

mossym

great read, saw your tweet friday night and couldn't imagine what you were heading for, well done on getting through in a very impressive effort

griffin100

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

How come you're fitter with less training hours?

I suppose fitness for someone like me is as much a feeling as something quantitative. I haven't done any speed work in a long time so it's hard to tell from running performances, but my resting HR was dipping into the late 40's in the last few weeks and that's a reasonable metric to use.

I think it's about the weight and training consistency. I'm lighter now than I've been in years at 82kgs and it makes a huge difference to fitness and performance, especially as I get older. Running is a hell of a lot easier at 82kgs compared to 90kgs, as is cycling up hills. That added to consistent training for the first time in a long time means I 'feel' fitter than I have done in years. Am I fit or light compared to the lads knocking out 10hr IM's over the weekend? No, absolutely not, but I reckon once I start to introduce a bit of speed work back in targeting new PB's between 5km and HM should hopefully come.

I still reckon I have a few more kgs (4-5) to shift with a bit of effort. If I could keep off the vino I'd have no problem doing that :rolleyes: Coming off the back of a weight loss opens your eyes to how you can earn speed through getting lighter, which is a lot cheaper than buying it wit €2k wheels.

rodneyr1981

griffin100 wrote: »

I suppose fitness for someone like me is as much a feeling as something quantitative. I haven't done any speed work in a long time so it's hard to tell from running performances, but my resting HR was dipping into the late 40's in the last few weeks and that's a reasonable metric to use.

I think it's about the weight and training consistency. I'm lighter now than I've been in years at 82kgs and it makes a huge difference to fitness and performance, especially as I get older. Running is a hell of a lot easier at 82kgs compared to 90kgs, as is cycling up hills. That added to consistent training for the first time in a long time means I 'feel' fitter than I have done in years. Am I fit or light compared to the lads knocking out 10hr IM's over the weekend? No, absolutely not, but I reckon once I start to introduce a bit of speed work back in targeting new PB's between 5km and HM should hopefully come.

I still reckon I have a few more kgs (4-5) to shift with a bit of effort. If I could keep off the vino I'd have no problem doing that :rolleyes: Coming off the back of a weight loss opens your eyes to how you can earn speed through getting lighter, which is a lot cheaper than buying it wit €2k wheels.

Well done at the weekend good read and sounds like a very tough day.
Regarding weight couldn't agree more. I raced at 78kg in CPH last weekend and felt and looked very heavy compared to those around me. Granted I'm lighter than before but next one I'll be 3-4kg lighter. When I was running well earlier in season I was closer to 76kg and felt a lot lighter and faster.

Kurt_Godel

Yeah wine is a killer, doesn't matter how well or how little you eat, if you booze at all the weight piles on. Dry whites are better than hearty reds in this regard, or making a spritzer is better still. There's some reasonable low-alcohol roses in tesco at the moment.
Realistic options before the nuclear option.

catweazle

griffin100 wrote: »

I did the Tour de KK 3 weeks ago which was 163km of a tough route with no bother.......so I entered Hardman.

I always enjoy your Ironman qualifications, you probably had three food stops along the way with a feed of pints if it was a good day. You will be justifying an IM soon after a tough days golf on a hilly course like Esker Hills or the like without having to use a buggy

griffin100

catweazle wrote: »

I always enjoy your Ironman qualifications, you probably had three food stops along the way with a feed of pints if it was a good day. You will be justifying an IM soon after a tough days golf on a hilly course like Esker Hills or the like without having to use a buggy

I did the no training thing 2 years ago and suffered like a dog. At least this year I had a smile on my face the whole way around. I'm sure at some stage I'll enter a big European IM and train properly for it, but not at the moment. I'm happy enough keeping an ok level of fitness and using an IM as a target race to keep me on track (I'm living proof anyone who can swim ok and has a reasonable level of fitness can plod around an IM in 13hrs ish).

griffin100

IM No. 6 - Ironman Cork

Seemed appropriate to stick a race report in here to keep the tradition going.

Hardman 2016 was my last triathlon until Cork last Sunday. After this race in 2016 I started marathon training and then developed a hamstring problem that kept me off running for 17 months, I probably could have gotten back sooner but I ended up spending a lot of time swimming so wasn't too bothered. I only started back running in May 2018, and only after I changed physio and got what may or may not have been a proper diagnosis of my injury. I did very little cycling.

I decided to enter IM Cork as it was nice and early in the year and would allow me to pick a second race to enter in late summer (Hardman 2019 possibly!).

As soon as I entered Cork and paid the huge amount of money I tore a rotator cuff tendon - not from over training, but from trying to rotate my shoulder more in the swim (that's what I get for trying to copy my kids). I didn't swim for 3 months and then only did light stuff for a couple more months so I only had about 120k swimming done this year.

Run wise I was going ok and I took the decision not to run longer than 21kms in training for Cork. I'm too much of a crock and I felt that running 30+kms would lead to injury. So in so far as I could I ran 2 x 20kms a week, one ‘hard’ and one easy, along with other bits and pieces so that was ok.

I actually did more on the bike for this race than I’ve done in a long time, albeit still way less than everyone else who trains for an IM. I did all my bike training over hilly ground, using Corrabutt Pass on Mt Leinster as my training for Cork’s Windmill Hill. My longest rides were 3 x 130kms. One thing I did this year was to consciously increase my cadence and move away from a tendency to mash a big gear. I was much quicker to drop out of the big ring on a climb and spin away. I think this served me well in Cork.

The thread on the main forum covers the swim cancellation in detail. It was a pain but was always a risk. I knew from the night before there would be no swim having reviewed the weather charts. As I’ve said elsewhere I didn’t have an issue with the swim cancellation but having to stand in p!ssing rain in transition from 5am until I finally got away at around 8.45am was not a great start. I was cold and wet before I started. I had however had the sense to pack a rain coat so started the bike with bib shorts, a base layer, long sleeve jersey, arm warmers and a light rain jacket, along with two pairs of gloves (thin full finger running gloves under fingerless cycling gloves). As a result I wasn’t cold on the bike at all (even with no shoe covers). Lots of people started the bike wearing Tesco shopping bags in an effort to keep dry!

I enjoyed the bike course, it was rolling but not what I would call very hilly. I was on a road bike. There were only two hills of note, one after Middleton at about 160kms and Windmill Hill in Cork. Having had a slow speed fall early this year when climbing Corrabut in the rain when I lost traction I decided to walk Windmill Hill on both laps. In the dry I would have climbed it but not in the rain. On both laps I spun about 2/3’s of the way up in the saddle and then got off an walked. The support on the bike was immense. There were people who stood out with their kids for both laps, everyone seemed to have cow bells, one aul lad was sitting in a tent at the end of his drive out of the rain cheering us on. There were signs and pictures all over the course made by local kids. It was a real pity that they couldn’t get out to see the race coz of the weather. The weather was brutal, it rained most of the day and the wind was a pain as it seemed to pick up on lap two. I felt great on lap 1, rough at the start of lap 2, but then was again after about 100kms. I was very slow out of Middleton on lap 2 due to the long drag into the wind. I was in the granny gear barely moving and was still overtaking people. I’m usually a crap descender but as the race went on I relaxed into the conditions and was flying past nervous riders especially on TT bikes, on the wet descents. I hit over 60kph on one descent which is fast for me! I also found that my tactic of spinning up any incline also had me passing lots of TT bikes (maybe people were over geared). I found the surface to be similar to what I train on so no issues there. I didn’t look at my watch once on the bike, the distance markers every 10kms told me where I was and I didn’t want to check my average speed as I knew I was going to be off target (I had hoped for a 7.15hr bike). In the end I checked the watch for the first time in T2 and had done a 7.45 bike. That’s dire, but it’s about what I would expect on a day like that with my training.

The changing tent in T2 was under water when I got there and it took me 18 minutes to get out of my wet cloths and change into dry run gear. I ran into a clubmate inside the tent who did the entire bike in a jersey and no jacket and he was blue and couldn’t stop shivering. In the end he took 45mins in T2. He wasn’t the only one, there were lots like him.

I put my rain coat from the bike back on for the run as the rain was torrential when I started. I did the first 10km of the run in 55mins but at about 18km started to suffer a bit. I ended up walking the aid stations for the 3rd and 4th lap and that bloody hill at the Lighthouse. Once I got into a rhythm it wasn’t too bad. Again the support in the run was just amazing. People were calling out our name constantly as it was printed on your race number. I made a point of high fiving every kid who stuck their hands out. On the last lap I thanked every volunteer I could see – they did an epic job. I ended up with a 4.52 marathon, which again given my training I can’t complain about.

Overall 13hrs. It was a tough day out but I think the experience of having done an IM in similar conditions in 2016 in Kerry really benefitted me. It was a pain not having a swim as I’m swimming well at the minute and it’s the only discipline I’m any good at! Despite the cancelled swim and the issues with weather and water temperature in June I would go back, purely for the support. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we had had good weather. I can’t thank the volunteers or the supporters enough.

Izoard

Fair play...sounded absolutely horrendous.


Loving that you can still rock up and bang out an IM, with eh, limited training.


Chapeau!

griffin100

Izoard wrote: »

Fair play...sounded absolutely horrendous.


Loving that you can still rock up and bang out an IM, with eh, limited training.


Chapeau!

As I’ve said before, anyone with a decent level of fitness can complete an IM and enjoy it at the same time without losing their life to training.

griffin100

IM No. 7 - Hardman 2019

So after IM Cork I didn't do a huge amount of training, some running up to 20km and a couple of 4hr bikes. I entered Hardman on the last day of entries but right up until race morning wasn't feeling the love and was contemplating pulling out (maybe the pain of Cork was all too recent).

Spent all last week watching the weather forecast and race morning met eireann were showing no rain and light winds for race day. At least it wouldn't be a repeat of IM Cork on the bike then.......

Started the swim well and was in the first group to reach the first turn buoy, then I went a bit of course and it took me a while to find the next buoy (I'm blind without my glasses) and I lost the lead group. Felt I was swimming well in pretty much perfect conditions and finished in 1.06 which was 6th out of the water. Probably lost a few seconds and a place or two due to my early sighting lapse but really happy with that, it's my quickest ever IM swim and on a course that usually reads long (after the race someone told me he clocked it at 4.2km but that's nuts, he must have detoured into a different time zone!).

Onto the bike and the Ring of Kerry. Really fast descent of Molls Gap and then into the wind which was surprisingly strong. Then heavy rain and hailstones started coming into Sneem, not at all expected. After Sneem it was dry for most of the rest of the bike but really windy with a strong headwind up until about 120km when the wind was at our backs. Took me 7.10 on the bike, but I did loose a few minutes stopping to help a French competitor who had a mechanical. I found the wind on the bike very challenging, as tough as my last Hardman in 2016 when we had the storm (at least it was dry for most of the bike this year). Compared to IM Cork I'd say the routes are of similar difficulty terrain wise. I had forgotten how epic the scenery on this route is. I wore no watch for the bike which I quite liked as no distractions checking time and worrying about pace, I knew roughly where I was from the road signage and that was enough for a plodder like me. Might do this in all future IM races.

Marathon in the National Park. Lap 1 at 4hr pace, start to struggle to eat after lap 1 (14km) and take in no foods for the rest of the race. Lap 2 a few minutes slower, Lap 3 a slog with almost 8kms from 32-40kms walked. The lack of training really showed me up. Finished run in 5.03 which was a bit disappointing, I would have liked to go closer to 4.45. Overall 13.40.

Overall happy with swim, satisfied with the bike but disappointed with the run. It's a much harder run course than IM Cork and the rough park track surfaces do lead to very sore feet.

Race organisation was as usual good, but the bike really is a self supported effort now with 5 water stops on the route but no food (but you do have your own feedbag at approx half way) and scant marshals so you're responsible for your own way finding. I did get the nicest race hoody I've received in 11 years of racing (IM Cork take note) and the biggest medal I've ever seen (the size of a plate!).

Next year is the races 10th edition, and seeing as I was there for the first year when there was only a few of us it makes sense that I turn up for the 10th

griffin100

IM No. 8 - Hardman 2020

My annual post in my 'training log'!!

I had hoped to do a couple of IM's this year. Lanza looked like it was on the cards until Covid hit, and then everything went nuts. At least you can always rely on Hardman!

I was probably in the best 'shape' I've been in a while going into this.

Swim fitness was poor due to no swimming during lockdown, and less swimming than usual in the early part of 2020, but my technique was probably the best it's ever been, with a new PB for 1,500m LC swam this year.

Bike wise I had done a good bit on the turbo during lockdown and even afterwards. I began to enjoy the 3hr turbo sessions, all done in the back garden irrespective of weather. I had a couple of 5hr rides over hilly ground done in the weeks leading up to Hardman.

I had run more this year than in a long time, regularly hitting 80-90km a week in the early Summer, which is a lot for me.

I had worried the race atmosphere might be different this year with almost 150 entrants compared to the usual intimate affair, but I needn't have. The vibe in T1 that morning and all through the day was amazing, I think people were intoxicated on the fact that they were just able to race (as opposed to later on when the intoxication on the run course was due to liquid refreshments - I'm looking at you here Kurt:p).

The swim went well and I felt like I was moving nicely. The conditions were amazing and the best I've ever had in a Hardman race. Went a bit of course on lap 2 as the buoy was in shadow and I couldn't see it but was grand. So I was disappointed to see 1.12 on exit. I had hoped for at least under 1.10 and felt like I was swimming a 1.06. Few people talking about a long swim in T1. No point in dwelling on it (although was talk later that swim was 4.2km).

On the bike my legs felt a bit heavy for the first couple of hours but I seemed to be moving well. I don't bother checking my watch on the bike anymore, it's not going to tell a plodder like me anything useful. The first 90km seemed to go by very fast and I went up the two 'big' climbs very comfortably. However after Waterville we had a significant headwind, and it was a long slog from about Caherciveen to Killorglin and Killarney. This is where my problems began.......due to a mix up with gels (long story) I ended up not eating enough on the bike and started to bonk at about 130km. I actually thought about not bothering with the run I felt so sick. I got it back by eating as much as I could as quickly as possible.......but then another issue arose, I was sweating more than I was drinking (too many layers) and during the entire bike I only peed once. So like a rookie, I didn't eat or drink enough on the bike.............I finished the bike in a surprising 6.40, 30 minutes quicker than last year despite the headwind and the bonk.

The run was 10 laps of a 4.2km course. On the first lap people around me were complaining about the big hill. I laughed as I sprinted up it, what hill? A few laps later I was crawling up it. I felt ok until about 25km in and was going grand (4.15hr pace) when at the start of lap 7 I faded. At that stage I hadn't eaten anything other than one gel since I got off the bike and I had only peed once more. I ended up walking the 8kms of laps 7 and 8, drinking as much water as I could. On lap 7 I struggled to walk straight and was puking. I managed to pull it back a bit and waddled around laps 9 and 10 at 7 min km pace. I drank a litre of water on each of the last 4 laps and still didn't pee until after the race. A stupid rookie mistake of allowing myself to get dehydrated and underfed on the bike destroyed my run which was 5.17hrs. 13.30hrs overall.

It took me a good 20 minutes at the end before I could get changed and cycle back to the car.

It was a fantastic day out, and I can't express enough thanks to Alan and his team for dealing with the challenges that arose and making this race happen, including a very last minute change to the run course due to flooding. I enjoyed it so much I've entered again for next year :cool:

Kurt_Godel.

Well done on gritting it out- the shorts laps on the run made for a cruel spectator sport.

You've been a great advertisement for Hardman over the years, delighted you are targeting next year as well. Just signed up myself- see you there!

griffin100

Kurt_Godel. wrote: »

Well done on gritting it out- the shorts laps on the run made for a cruel spectator sport.

You've been a great advertisement for Hardman over the years, delighted you are targeting next year as well. Just signed up myself- see you there!

Oh yes......every time I go to eat that extra slice of cake over the Winter I'm going to think of you