Toiler's Constant

Kurt Godel

I'm starting a training log primarily to keep track of progress in swims and bike. In a previous life I did a bit of jogging, but stress injuries have meant I have to wave goodbye to running for the moment. So the focus will be on a bit of Triathlon, primarily to keep fit, and for enjoyment. I've never done one before, but recently bought a bike and swim goggles, and have entered the Valentia Sprint Tri. No goals for it at all, but to get round, learn a bit about what's entailed in a Tri, and have a smile on my face that evening.

Mon

2.5k swim

2k was done in one stretch, trying to focus on breathing, and it took about 40 minutes. Then 10 sets of (breast-stroke 25m, fast FC 25m), concentrating on pulling the arm under the body for maximum stroke.

Kurt Godel

Mon PM 28.6k bike, 25 kph avg. 321 ascent

This started slow, on hilly backroads, with jarring broken tarmac surface. The second half was faster, flatter, and smoother roads, which brought all the average numbers tumbling downwards.

Kurt Godel

Tue 2 k swim

1.5k steady pace, followed by 500m concentrating on arm form. I've found a "slower", more correct arm technique can in fact be just as quick over "faster" and less disciplined.

Kurt Godel

Tue PM 14k run

Jogged a few kilometers round a field after dinner, to test my creaking joints out. No complaints, so I decided to join the local Tri club, who were doing a recce of the new Annacurra Trail race at 8pm. Didn't experience any leg pain on the initial ascent, and it felt very good to be running uphill again- sweaty, tough, painful; but rewarding. In fact, it felt too good, and when I found myself pushing the pace a bit with another lad, I copped myself on, and slowed right down. No point rushing things, this is my first run in about two weeks, and only probably my third run in a month.

From hitting the ascent, the dusk view of a damp Aughavannagh valley made it so worthwhile. Forest trail downhill: two lads in bright red shirts 100m ahead: all the old instincts came back, and I relished the thought of closing the gap with a quick turn of pace. Not tonight though, have to limit those jarring hardtrail downhills, so a slow jog back down to the finish.

Chat in the carpark, I asked "How do I join the Tri club?". Puzzled faces all round, then a smile- "You just have". My type of club!

Kurt Godel

Wed 1.5k swim

Woke up pleasantly surprized that the knee wasn't throbbing in pain. A little discomfort, that's to be expected. I should have walked downhill last night, even jogging down will produce too much impact. Anyway, an easy 1.5k in the pool, and any stiffness in the legs has been shaken out.

Lashing raining today; glad I could train inside and stay dry

Kurt Godel

Fri 2k swim

All in one go. The pool was fully divided into lanes, so I shared the middle with another lad, and proceded to churn out s solid session. Arm form was pretty good, there's a lot of strength there to call on after 1500m or so. Decent session.

Kurt Godel

Sat 5k run 22:55

There's been noticeable improvement in my knee since taking glucosamine supplements from about two weeks ago (I've given up on apple cider vinegar as a placebo effect). Running still has to be undertaken with caution- I did a walk/jog of the Circuit of Avonbeg a month back, that had me in severe pain from the descent from Lug. Today's run was another tester, loops of a flat football field. Thankfully, no pain. There was a second gear available if needed too, splits from 5:03 pace to a 4:12 for the last k. Fingers crossed.

Kurt Godel

Sun 12.6k bike 22.3kph

Slogger Jogger was hosting an extravaganza of trail running, so I took my ipad to catch a few pics. Their was a fierce headwind against me, as can be seen from the kph. Won't risk running downhills for some time yet, so I made sure I was solely soled in cycling shoes (on the sea shore). Got talking to a few Boards heads I hadn't seen in a while, watched a good race, and was all set for a few swift pints, when my chain snapped. Had to bag a lift from mountain rescue home.

Tue 5.7k run, 4:19 min/k pace

Feckin' awesome run. Its been bucketing down for days here, and the Tri club had a stage one recce of their upcoming Tinahely Duathlon. The iniital road was damp, but I felt great running in the wet evening air, without any knee pain. Down a bit of a hill, and then enter the forest for a river trail along the Railway Walk. This is where I do loads of my runs over the years, but its always special. Tonight it was pretty mucky and churned up in place. Splashing through puddles, leaping fallen trees, muck splashing everywhere... heaven! The pace was nothing special, but it was steady and constant, and there was more there. Great evening for a run. Think I'll keep them short and sharp for a while, seems to be working.

Dory Dory

He's baaaaack! Nice post.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Ah so this is where you are now, I was wondering what happened to you Valentia fast approaching!!

Kurt Godel

Celine Tall Molding wrote: »

Ah so this is where you are now, I was wondering what happened to you Valentia fast approaching!!

Really enjoying the swims and bikes right now JB. It's great to mix up the training a bit with new sports. Valentia will be all about enjoying the experience, and hopefully learning a trick or two for future races.

Kurt Godel

Wed 3k swim

Definite knee pain this morning, c'est la vie. Took my sexy physique and sexier shorts to stun an empty pool after lunchtime. Good and consistant, each kilometer a shade under 20 mins, and hit that plateau that could just go on forever. I was pushed for time, or would have done more.

Krusty_Clown

Any thoughts on doing the Lough Key tri? Supposed to be a superb race, particularly for those new to the sport (it's the one I had targeted a couple of years back, before I came to the realization that I couldn't swim).

Kurt Godel

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Any thoughts on doing the Lough Key tri? Supposed to be a superb race, particularly for those new to the sport (it's the one I had targeted a couple of years back, before I came to the realization that I couldn't swim).

Pints are on the loser?

Izoard

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Any thoughts on doing the Lough Key tri? Supposed to be a superb race, particularly for those new to the sport (it's the one I had targeted a couple of years back, before I came to the realization that I couldn't swim).

KC - I think you'll find most of the Boards tri community can't really swim* - that's why we have wetsuits.

*Some fine notable exceptions, obviously...

Izoard

Kurt Godel? I presumed a German '70s porn star...how wrong was that:)

Slogger Jogger

Izoard wrote: »

Kurt Godel? I presumed a German '70s porn star...how wrong was that:)

Yeah at night and mathematician by day

Krusty_Clown

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Pints are on the loser?

Only if you give me 3 months of swimmin' lessons first.

Dory Dory

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Yeah at night and mathematician by day

A boy's gotta know how to make change!

Dory Dory

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Only if you give me 3 months of swimmin' lessons first.

(pleeeze say yes.....)

Kurt Godel

Izoard wrote: »

Kurt Godel? I presumed a German '70s porn star...how wrong was that:)

Oh boy... <rubs hands>...:D

So, you are asking about Kurt Godel? Indulge me for a few minutes; your lives will be enriched for doing so!

Twenty years ago I travelled around Europe, chalk drawing Old Masters on the pavements to pay my way. I was fairly good at it, and usually gathered a big crowd. I spent a week doing this in Marseille, and met this old English hippy dude ("P.A." was his name, for "Progressive Artist"), doing the same thing, except his art was all these badly drawn spaced out cartoons. He'd been in Marseille for a few months, and said he had done ok (enough to pay for a bottle of Pastis each night) until I turned up with all my skills and overflowing cap. So the only guy who paid him any attention anymore was a penniless Swiss composer called Maurice Katz. Maurice was disgusted that I was drawing the light from real art, as he saw it, and since I've always loved a contrarian, the three of us struck up a few conversations, and arranged to meet for a few beers one night.

So fast forward to that night, lots of beers and joints in some Reggae bar on the Cours Julien, and Maurice starts complaining about the jukebox music. PA (who he idolised as a true artist), starts mocking him, and urges the bartender to "Crank it up, mate!". The two start fighting, the reggae guys who own this corner for selling hashish try to break them up, police get called, French paddywagons arrive, everyone scarpers...

After 15 minutes wandering round I meet Maurice again, who is elated. Best night of his life, apparently. Chaos where there should have been order. He holds me and kisses me (I as a naive 20 year old never knew he was gay; my girlfriend rolled her eyes after and said how could you miss it?:D), and hands me a book, saying this is my present to you: Godel Esher Bach.

I knew of Escher, I knew of Bach, but Godel was new to me. It turned out he was one of the most influential logicians and mathematicians of all time, he proved (using logical systems), that any logical system can only be proved (or defined) by a higher system. This turned the mathematical world on its head, and put an end to the efforts of Russell and Whitehead to formalise mathematics. Turns out it can't be, and any system, power, language; can only be described by using a higher system, power, language.

("Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.")

I'd urge anyone with a passing interest in order, or art, or music; to have a read of GEB, its a wonderful introduction into Godel. I've given this book away to people about 20 times or more, its my Gideon Bible!

(Einstein joined Princeton, and said he did so just to have the privilege of talking to Godel on their walks home. Of course, Godel went nuts in the end, thought bugs and germs were out to get him personally, stopped eating, and died from starvation. But don't let that put you off:D)

Anyway, thats why I'm called after Kurt Godel. Although I do a mean trick with lube, red lights, and lederhosen, if anyone's hiring;)

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

So what I am taking from above is this whole family man thing is all a front and this is your way of coming out to boards:)

Naive 20yr old my a$$:P

RayCun

Damn it, I've been waiting for a chance to post something like, "that may be true, but can't be proved given the rules of this forum" since you started using that username :mad:

Kurt Godel

RayCun wrote: »

Damn it, I've been waiting for a chance to post something like, "that may be true, but can't be proved given the rules of this forum" since you started using that username :mad:

The rules of this forum are hardly axiomic or complete! But, touché, I've been waiting for you to post "My thread, my rules" in the wimmins Big 10:D

Kurt Godel

Thurs 5k run including 10x140m fast strides

Managed 10 fast strides on grass, between training kids tonight. Loads of upper body strength (I guess a byproduct of swimming) which helped push the pace to a strain.

Kurt Godel

Sun Tinahely Duathlon DNF

This was well-attended, with some real speedsters making the journey, (alongside journeymen and -women). Fantastic organization, the Tinahely Tri club should take a bow, everything was seamless.

Oh, how I laughed when assigned number 13, sure I don't believe any of that bad luck witchypoo stuff! Set up the bike, and had a lesson is doing so from those around. This event was to be a learning experience for me, I've not had steady training for a while, and just wanted to see what a duathlon was all about. Chatted to a few other entrants, saw SJ there taking snaps, generally soaked in the whole vibe. About 120 at the start line, which was along a road before entering one of my favourite forest runs. Since I've not been running much, I've no idea of current fitness, besides which, I don't know how much should be left behind for each phase of the run-bike-run. Anyway, I was happy enough with how I ran, started off sharp enough, and sort of maintained the effort. Took a few places over the last couple of k, to finish the 5k run in about 21 mins or so.

T1: Awful, and all I can say is I can notch this one up to experience. Couldn't get my shoelaces undone, then put on my bike shoes before realising the bike had to be mounted outside the trans area, so wasted time there. All the while, other runners were coming in, grabbing their bike, and heading out before me. When I did get on the bike, I couldn't lock the shoes in. Rookie mistakes.

Bike: I've done this loop loads of time, so know well what to expect. Once going, I targeted the guy ahead, then the next, and so on. Since I was passing a good few, I was happy to be feeling fresh for this leg. Hit the steep hill at Tinahely, and went into a low gear. Immediately, the chain seized up. It had done this last week too, I thought I fixed it, obviously not. Tried to free the chain, start again, but it did the same thing. Race over.

I was fairly dejected heading back to collect my stuff, but I guess this is just part of the learning curve. My bike is new, maybe the gear cables have stretched a bit or something. Pity, because I was really looking forward to hammering the bike, and i think I had a good one in me. On the plus side, I can run 5k in 21 mins while unfit and not giving 100%, and my knee doesn't hurt, so I'll have to take something from that. I'm not doing Valentia next week- the hard road descent will play havoc with my injury. There's another run-bike-obstacle course local here in a fortnight, so that will be something to do. I'll certainly try some more Duo's and Tri's over the summer.

Woddle

When I saw the DNF at the top of your post I was thinking the worst with your old man knees glad it's only mechanical.

BeepBeep67

Woddle wrote: »

When I saw the DNF at the top of your post I was thinking the worst with your old man knees glad it's only mechanical.

The knee or the bike?
Nice to get the experience all the same.
Theres a good one in Ashford in September.

Kurt Godel

Mon 20k bike time trial

Well my knees held up today alright, the legs knew they had a run in them, but I've spent the whole day wondering "what if?". Think I fixed the bike- in the lowest gear, the chain was jamming between cog and sprocket, so I fiddled around a little and it seems ok now. Anyway, rather than feel sorry for myself, I took the bike out for a loop around yesterday's bike course, to see what might have been.

It was a bit blustery, but an otherwise perfect fresh evening to banish some demons in pain. Right from the get-go I pushed the pace, and flew up the cursed hill at Tinahely. Downhill mainly to Shillelagh, always with an effort to go faster. Jeez, I would have liked this yesterday, picking off a target, and then another... By the time I passed the clocktower at Shillelagh, I was fairly beat, but rode hard, panting up the hill to Coolattin. From there it was a matter of rolling round the big cogs in a race back to Coolboy (my start point) before the clock hit 40 mins. Came in 39:27, which is a record for me (I've not time trialed this before), and a pointer to build on.

Slogger Jogger

Great time. If you'd actual targets to pick off you'd no doubt have knocked some time off that too.

Now, while its still light out go back and do that last leg of the run.

Kurt Godel

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Great time. If you'd actual targets to pick off you'd no doubt have knocked some time off that too.

Now, while its still light out go back and do that last leg of the run.

Still working on my T2;)