Pushing the envelope...

The_Scary_Man

Some Background;

For the past few years I have thought about pushing myself to see what I'm capable of. When I was younger I always played things pretty safe and never really tested my limits; I'd start to do something and then lose interest or struggle to maintain a level of motivation that would carry me through.6 Years ago I decided that I was sick of stumbling through my life and took some action. I wanted to see what I could achieve if I applied myself and took some risks.
I started and have since completed a degree by night and now I am almost finished a HDip.
Last year I began to think about my physical limits and how I could test myself with new challenges. A friend in work had done a couple of triathlons and they sounded like a lot of fun. I have never been sporty, I surf a little but I'm not a strong swimmer, any time I've tried running I got injured and I hadn't been on a bike since I was 12. Despite all this I set myself the challenge of completing a triathlon by the time I reach 40 (I'm 40 in October 2012).
I started running last August in earnest and was doing 5k in 28:30, I would cough and splutter my way to the end of the run. I started swim lessons in November and I feel a lot more confident in the water now. I've still to do any real bike work but I've done a few turbo sessions.
I want to use this log to track my progress, to reflect on what is happening for me as I progress and hopefully to get some advice from others on the boards.

Goals:

I've earmarked a few races for this year, I'm not too worried about times for the moment;

March - Ballycotton 10

May - Valentia Island Sprint

June - Athy Olympic

July - Tri the Burren

August - Hardman Olympic Distance Tri in Killarney

Training:

In the last week I've hit some significant milestones.

Last thursday I ran 8 miles for the first time, including a fair smattering of hills averaging 8:59 miles. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143006770

I ran my first road race last Sunday; a 4 miler in Little Island. I aimed for a time in or around 31 min and I came in at 29.02 covering the first 5k in 22:25. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143665256

Monday in swim class we swam 1500m straight, a huge milestone for me as I was struggling to swim a length of the pool when I started.

Tuesday I headed for the gym did a 10 min warm up on the bike and did a 45min Zone 2 session on the cross trainer as my ankle was a bit sore and I didn't want to aggravate it by running on the road.

I'll keep this log updated as best I can and look forward to any advice or feedback people are willing to share.

Ken.

The_Scary_Man

Struggled to get the sessions in this week so I may have over-compensated in terms of effort on the ones I did managed to get done.

Wednesday I wanted to get a 45 min pool session in between work and college but I was too tired after a poor night's sleep. Instead I got the head down for 30 mins at home before heading into college.

Thursday I was still feeling drained; I'm not sleeping very well lately, waking up four or five times a night. It was a manic day in work too and I didn't finish till 7pm so I decided to take it easy and rest up. I've been carrying an ankle sprain for around a week now and all the lifting and dragging in work caused it to flare up so I took a couple of Ibuprofen and iced it.

Friday I got into the pool. On Monday I swam the 1500m front crawl with the group in 48 mins but there were times when I was waiting to let the person in front of me in the lane to get ahead so that I'd have a bit of space. It did force me to slow down though so that was a good thing.

In this session I wanted to see if I could maintain a sustained effort over the 1500m with minimal breaks and I also wanted to see what kind of time I could do in an empty lane.

I did 6 x 250m reps with 30 sec breaks in between and finished up in 38 mins. I felt good at this stage so I carried on to do another two 250m reps to finish off the session and round it off to 2km

I'm delighted with the distance and time but even more happy that over the course of the long session I started to get a better feel for the water. I also had a moment where the push phase of my stroke clicked for me and I could feel the difference immediately especially in how my body rolled.

Saturday morning I headed out with my brother for a 9 mile run. It was cold and wet but calm and if it hadn't have been for the rain it would have been a perfect morning for a run.

My ankle felt a lot better so I strapped it up and we got going. We usually have another head with us but he couldn't make it so I was left alone with Speedy Mc Speedalot. I wanted to maintain a pace of around 8:40 - 8:50, similar to my time last time out over a similar course, but found that whenever I checked my watch we were hitting around 8:00 - 8:15.

Eventually I swallowed my pride and stopped trying to stick with my brother's pace. I took a gel at about 6 miles, more to get used to taking them on than anything but I did feel a little stronger over the last two miles. Maybe placebo effect, I'm not sure how long it takes a gel to be absorbed after it's taken but it got me through the 9 anyway and I ended up with an average moving pace of 8:22.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145127597

All day Saturday after the run I was wrecked! I watched Liverpool knock Utd out of the FA Cup and went back to bed for an hour. I had a friend's 40th last night so I called in and had a beer with her before heading off at an extremely sensible hour!

Sunday I got up early, registered for the Valentia Island sprint and did some cleaning around the house. My sink was like the scene from Withnail and I, it looked more like the botanic gardens than a pile of dishes.

I went for dinner with my family for my Dad's birthday, came home and watched The Long Green Line . Fantastic movie, really inspiring! I had a few 'fly in me eye' moments through the movie and was openly crying by the end. Leadership, teamwork and heart displayed in spades through the whole movie, shows how much of a difference one man can make.

Physio session tomorrow evening and a swim class afterwards so looking forward to starting the week off strong.

The_Scary_Man

Monday I had a session of physio on my ankle, I have a touch of tendonitis and I was limping a bit on Sunday and Monday. I'll need to cut down on the distance I'm running over the next couple of weeks and try to run more on grass.

I had a swim class after physio, we started off with some sculling, really trying to get a feel for the water. We followed that with catch up drills and concentrating on feeling the water through the whole stroke.

Finished up with 12 x 75m front crawl. The coach said that she can really see an improvement in my body position and reach so all good in the hood there

Short handy run on the treadmill planned for this evening, probably around 5k, followed by stretching and core work.

The_Scary_Man

Tuesday my ankle was still a bit tender so instead of the run I set up the bike on the trainer and did a steady z2/z3 effort maintaining an average cadence of 87.

The speed sensor on my Garmin GCS10 is snookered, the cadence sensor is working fine but the speed is only registering at 1.8mph. I tried reseting and re-pairing with my FR305 but it's just not happening. I only bought the unit in January so I'll be sending it back to Garmin to be repaired/replaced.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146222528

My arse didn't feel half as sore after this session as it did after the others so maybe I'm toughening up! I did a good session of stretches when I finished and my ankle felt a lot better after it.

There's a guy in work selling a full carbon Fuji road bike and I told him I'd buy it next month when I get the cash together. It's 4 months old and in perfect condition. I was going to buy a new bike on the cycle to work scheme in April but this looks like better value.

I was looking at a new KTM for around €1100 but I can get this one for €800 and keep the cycle to work option open if I want to use it later on.

College tonight so no session this evening. I have two new coaching clients tomorrow evening after work and I won't be finished up until around 8:30pm so it's going to be hard to get any training in.

I might set the bike up again this evening and I can just climb on and bang an hour out when I get home on Thursday evening.

The_Scary_Man

Wednesday no training, I got home from college at 10pm so I just had a quick snack of oatcakes with peanut butter and jam and watched some TV.

Thursday was a mad day in work, all go all day. After work I went up to see my two clients and finished up there to be home for 8:45pm. I set the bike up on the turbo and spun out 45 min with 35min at Z3 effort concentrating on trying to maintain a cadence of 90. I didn't quite manage it as I was feeling fairly tired but happy enough with the 87 average.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146222528

I got a one4all voucher in work for €150 so I think I'll invest it in a wetsuit.

Swim planned for this evening, hoping to be home earlyish and chill out for the night. It's been a long week!

The_Scary_Man

Friday I went for a swim after work. I just wanted to relax after the week and enjoy spending time in the water. I kept a count of the laps I was doing but there was no structure to the session. I tried a few tumble turns that didn't go so well!

Saturday I went for a run in Glanmire, my usual 4 miler. This was my first run since last Saturday and my ankle was still feeling a little tender. It loosened out over the course of the run but I was struggling to maintain any kind of pace. My HR was fairly high too.

I wore my new Mizuno Waveriders for the first time and I loved them, cushioned but firm enough that I get a sense of the road.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146969306

The_Scary_Man

Sunday I did an hour in the evening on the turbo. I got the speed sensor working on the GCS10 thanks to some help from Krusty_Clown. I was going to leave this session off as I was a bit tired but I was bored at home so I did it anyway. I'm glad I did, I felt great after it and it had the added benefit of charging me up for the late night watching the Super Bowl.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147475929

Monday I woke up at about 10 having gotten to bed at 3. I got my gear on and headed out for a 5k run. My pace is a bit slower than usual as the tendons in my ankle are still giving me hassle but I was happy with my effort over a hilly course.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147607957

Monday evening I had a swim class. It was the start of a new set of classes so the coach was just checking out what people's strokes looked like and giving some tips and advice. We did some catch up drills too so all in all about 10 sets of 50 of drills and straight front crawl.

We finished up with the coach talking to the new members of the class while the rest of us did 10 x 100 to finish up.

All in 1500m.

The_Scary_Man

I haven't been updating this log, primarily down to technical issues with my internet connection but I'm back on track now and ready to start updating

I did the Ballycotton 10 last Sunday and I really enjoyed it. It was a great day, the atmosphere was fantastic and the race was well organised.

This was the first race on my calendar for the year and I was a bit apprehensive. I had been knocked back a bit with a flu over the previous week so I hadn't been able to train properly. I managed to get an easy 4-mile run in on Thursday but I felt terrible again by that evening.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154437076

I took it handy for the rest of the week and besides a small niggle in my left hip flexor I was feeling good.

I set off with a target of 83 mins in mind based on the 9 mile training run I had done a couple of weeks earlier where I maintained a pace of 8:30 a mile. I thought if I could up the pace a little with the added distance I'd be oxo.

I finished the race in 1:17:41 which I was ecstatic with. I ran with my brother for the whole race and we pulled each other along all the way, admittedly he pulled me along for most of it!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154874654

Monday evening I went back to the swim class having been out of the water for two weeks. The coach put us straight out on a pyramid session.

25m 5s rest - 50m 10s Rest - 75m 15s rest - 100m 20s rest and back down

We did three reps of this and I was fairly goosed by the end of it.

Tuesday morning another 4 miles easy pace to work out the legs after Sunday. I'm looking forward to getting back in the groove again after a fairly sporadic couple of weeks in terms of training.

couerdelion

You running seems to be coming on leaps and bounds.

If you need inspiration for the indoor cycling try www.turbotraining.co.uk for turbo sessions. You need to create an account but then there's loads of them to choose from.

The_Scary_Man

Cheers couerdelion, I'll check that site out. All I've been doing so far is steady paced efforts. I could do with mixing it up a bit and building strength in my legs. I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm delighted with how the running is coming along, I'm contemplating doing the Mallow 10 Mile race Paddy's weekend but I'll see how it goes with college work.

couerdelion

There's a few I recommend if you have the time.

One would be to try the 8 week strength Builder which starts at 2 minutes hard 8 mins easy in week 1 leading to 9 minutes hard 1 minute easy by week 8. Search for (Week x - Strength builder) where x is the week (1-8).

Also have a search for plans by "training4cyclists.com" they're pretty good too.

I look forward to seeing your 10 miler report and no doubt another PB!

The_Scary_Man

Thanks again Coeurdelion, that strength one will be handy. I have about 9 weeks left till Valentia Island so I need to get cracking on my cycling and leg strength is going to be a big factor for me for the season. When I got my fitness test done on the kingcycle last Oct my power to weight ratio was pretty poor. I've lost about 6kg though so that should help with that.

I see you've done the Triathlon Ireland level 1 coaching course, that's something I've considered myself for next year but I didn't think I'd have the triathlon experience for it. I'm doing a Masters in Coaching Psychology and I'd love to get into training kids for triathlon at some stage.

How did you find it?

Back to training, this week was a bit of a balls. Work was tough going and my knee was pretty sore and my left quad was tight as fook after Ballycotton so I only got one easy run in on Tuesday.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155473119

I skipped my Thursday run because my knee was too sore and Friday I was just exhausted so I took it handy.

Saturday morning I hit the pool, again I was still pretty tired and every lap was a struggle. I managed;

1 x 200 WU
6 x 75 f/s 20s rest
2 x 100 20s rest
2 x 75 CD

All in 1000m

I had intended the session to be a bit more varied than that especially as I'm having a little trouble with my rotator cuff but it all went to pot when I got down there. I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. Knowing I had a mountain of course work waiting for me at home after a tough week wasn't helping. Still if I can get most of my assignments done this weekend I can have a lash at the Mallow 10 miler on the 19th so its all for a good cause

Sunday I headed out for a 4 mile run. I was feeling good so I thought I'd aim for a new 5km and 4mile PB while I was out.

Did a pretty fast (for me) first mile, two great miles after that and for the last mile my quad started to tighten right up and I had to ease off a little. Still I'm very pleased with two new PB's

5k - 21:55

4mi - 28:50

That's down from 22:24 and 29:02 in the BHAA 4 Mile race on Jan 22. Plus I ran it with a lower average heart rate than that race so my fitness is coming along too.

Split Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Avg Run Cadence
1 06:38.2 1 17 16 06:38 05:53 165 178 95
2 07:17.9 1 17 23 07:18 06:29 179 183 94
3 07:11.6 1 27 28 07:12 05:55 186 190 94
4 07:42.6 1 17 11 07:43 05:29 187 190 92
5 :05.6 0.01 0 0 09:45 07:25 188 188 91
Summary 28:55.9 4.01 78 77 07:13 05:29 180 190 94


Right! Back to the coursework :eek:

The_Scary_Man

Monday evening swim class was great. I felt a bit tired going in so I was relieved to hear that we were going to be doing drills. I did 200m to warm up before the class and then we started the drills.

All about the slide and glide with left and right skate positions (I think it's skate position anyway, one arm out in front, the other at my side kicking only) and then onto super slow front crawl transitioning between the two.

These drills really give me a sense of myself in the water and hammer home to me the amount of energy I waste at times thrashing about in the pool.

Finished up with 6 sets of

25m skate right arm
25m skate left arm
25m f/s breathing every 4 to the right
25m f/s breathing every 4 to the left

All in about 1200m and a powerful reminder of the importance of technique.

couerdelion

The_Scary_Man wrote: »

I see you've done the Triathlon Ireland level 1 coaching course, that's something I've considered myself for next year but I didn't think I'd have the triathlon experience for it. I'm doing a Masters in Coaching Psychology and I'd love to get into training kids for triathlon at some stage.

It was good. Very much focused on the delivery rather than the knowledge at level 1. But if you've done triathlons and read up the training it isn't that challenging. At level 1 the qualification is really just to allow you to deliver sessions under direction/mentorship of a level 2 coach. Unfortunately there are very few level 2 coaches around.