Toiler's Constant

BTH

Bloody hippies.... :mad:

griffin100

BTH wrote: »

Bloody hippies.... :mad:

Next thing you know he'll be out tree hugging..........oh wait........:pac:

Kurt Godel

^ had a good laugh at that one!:D

Tue PM 10k steady run

Up in the forest, we had hail, rain, and then cool clear air, thrown at us. No speedsters tonight, which suited me fine as I just wanted to stretch the legs. About 45 minutes of splashy fun.

Kurt Godel

Wed 50 mins turbo

Thurs 2,800 coached swim

400 EZ
6*200 off 3:30 (in 3:07, 4*3:10, 3:15)
50 EZ
5*100 off 1:45 (in 1:34-1:40, last one in 1:45 with foot cramp)
50 EZ
12*50 off 60 (all in 44/45/46 except one 50)

I was knackered getting in, but felt rejuvenated in the water. Form was probably better than its ever been (in that it didn't disintegrate when tired). The new breathing technique is producing results. None of these felt too tough, instead a decent steady pace.

Abhainn

Kurt Godel wrote: »

2,800 coached swim

400 EZ
6*200 off 3:30 (in 3:07, 4*3:10, 3:15)
50 EZ
5*100 off 1:45 (in 1:34-1:40, last one in 1:45 with foot cramp)
50 EZ
12*50 off 60 (all in 44/45/46 except one 50)

I was knackered getting in, but felt rejuvenated in the water. Form was probably better than its ever been (in that it didn't disintegrate when tired). The new breathing technique is producing results. None of these felt too tough, instead a decent steady pace.

Nice session

I'll be hitting the OW in the harbour Sun avo if you are around

Kurt Godel

Abhainn wrote: »

I'll be hitting the OW in the harbour Sun avo if you are around

I'd like to say yes, but its probably a no. I'm RD'ing a hill race on Sunday from noon. Its just a short one, but finishes at a pub, and given the choice between a cold harbour, and a sunny pub and pint... actually I'd probably choose the harbour, but I still doubt it'll happen;) Enjoy it!

Kurt Godel

Fri 8k hill trot

I had to mark out the route for the Annagh hill race I'm directing tomorrow. Spent ages running back and forth finding and marking faint sheep trails through open mountain brambles and gorse, before deciding I could just make things far easier for myself and the runners by going up and down a more defined route. Fantastic views from the ridge, I love running across this section. I've no more legs for steep up or downs, however.

Sat 1:50 turbo

Sufferfest "The Hunted" for an hour, followed by 50 mins spinning.
I really like Sufferfest vids, I flog myself on them. I've no power or effort guage on my turbo but for the pool of sweat, but I trust that I'm doing decent effort on them. My times on recent bike races have been much better than I'd have thought, and I generally pass people rather than being passed. That could be a function of being too far down the pack at T1, so we'll see if that pass ratio continues once we have a heatwave and marble flat seas. I've nabbed one of the last Beast of the East entries today, that should be a good test of my abilities. I consider the Wicklow Tri label as a seal of quality, they seem to have a great set-up and ethos. I'm about 30k too far away from them, which is a pity, it'd be good to work with a bigger club (I'm thinking swims and spins here). Our Tri club is great in what it has achieved for its size and rural base though. I'd love if we had a facility like Wicklow harbour on our doorstep though!

Oryx

Didn't you get sunshine today? Where I am it was a day to get out on the bike not turbo.

See ya at BotE.

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

Didn't you get sunshine today? Where I am it was a day to get out on the bike not turbo.

See ya at BotE.

6:00 Wake, make coffee, try to prove formally that ∀x∀y((x'*y)+0)=((x'+0)*y)
9:30 Drive kids to swimming lesson, watch proudly as they cut through the pool water for an hour
11:45 Drive to office for work pick-up and general headaches
15:00 Buy spot prizes for race tomorrow
16:30 home and onto turbo
19:00 Open first beer for months. What's sunshine?

See ya at BotE;)

Oryx

X (y*g)/A(3z)=jeez man it's Saturday!

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

X (y*g)/A(3z)=jeez man it's Saturday!

Sooooo tempted to write that as my actual answer:D

BeepBeep67

Kurt Godel wrote: »

19:00 Open first beer for months.

Virtual cheers from Wickla

Kurt Godel

Mon 45k bike

I was helping out at the local Annagh Hill race yesterday. There's a terrific steep downhill for the final km, and I had a brilliant view of a classic race between four of Ireland's best descenders. Amazing spectacle to watch, the speed with which these lads were running downhill was amazing. A great race to observe, really enjoyed the spectacle.

Today was a morning 45k bike along roads from Wicklow town to home. I've been going well on the bike in recent (20k) duathlons, but I'm training for a couple of Oly races now, so I need to increase the distance and maintain the effort. In particular, I need to learn about fueling and bonking, for the longer distance (a Sprint is fine without taking on any carbs). Sure enough, I was coasting along at a nice clip for 30km, before a drastic and noticeable reduction in power. This happened much quicker than I'd be used to from running (my only comparative base), so I'll need to look into bike fueling for the Oly's.

Kurt Godel

Tue 12k run

Anyone with active kids knows that you often have to fit your training in around them. Sometimes thats no bad thing, as you end up doing something new and unexpected. Tonight, Junior was killing other cubs with lazer guns at Courttown, I got to run around the forest there. It was magic, a great place in the evening. Then onto the beach and off with the shoes, for a run along the shore, waves washing my feet. I really wanted to get in the sea, it looked so appealing on this balmy evening. Ireland's a great place when the sun is shining.:)

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Tue 12k run

Anyone with active kids knows that you often have to fit your training in around them. Sometimes thats no bad thing, as you end up doing something new and unexpected. Tonight, Junior was killing other cubs with lazer guns at Courttown, I got to run around the forest there. It was magic, a great place in the evening. Then onto the beach and off with the shoes, for a run along the shore, waves washing my feet. I really wanted to get in the sea, it looked so appealing on this balmy evening. Ireland's a great place when the sun is shining.:)

What a lovely, lovely passage full of fantastic imagery. Thank you.

Kurt Godel

Wed 55 mins turbo

SUFFERFEST'S A VERY DARK PLACE
5:00 warm-up
2x30 sprints
1:30 rest
5 x 4:00 intervals- with 3:00 rest between each interval.
5:00 warm down

This was HARD! I gave it 100% for both sprints and the heart was pumping sweat and blood. The 4:00 intervals are different enough to keep your mind off the pain (although there's one 30 sec sprint at the end that goes on for over a minute!). Tough little session, and wrecked now, good tempo effort throughout.

Kurt Godel

Thurs 10k bike, 5k run, 18k bike

Biked into some fierce gusts to the start of WWR leg 8, pulled on the shoes and started running up into the boreen. Straight away I felt my breathing go, I was off too hard up the hill. I dropped the pace until I felt comfortable, and continued up and along the boreen, then ran along some of the track towards the road. I'm doing this leg on Saturday, I think I'll resist temptation to go off hard. A better idea is to pace the first offroad section, to leave you full of running for the road parts. Plenty of km left to up the pace to the finish.

Ran back to the bike and looped around to follow the rest of the route to Shillelagh, and then home. I can taste those pints already;)

Kurt Godel

Thurs pm 30 min OW swim

Our first club OW session with da coach, and it was just brill. I nearly exploded with excitement when I drove towards the harbour and first saw the choppy waves breaking in the sea. The harbour was more sheltered, so we entered there, and got used to the water. It wasn't too bad at all, you got used to the cold pretty quickly. Some sprints and sighting practice, then a few hundred meters along the pier with Joe, and it was over all too soon. I love swimming in the sea, gonna make this my home for the summer.

BeepBeep67

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Thurs pm 30 min OW swim

Our first club OW session with da coach, and it was just brill. I nearly exploded with excitement when I drove towards the harbour and first saw the choppy waves breaking in the sea. The harbour was more sheltered, so we entered there, and got used to the water. It wasn't too bad at all, you got used to the cold pretty quickly. Some sprints and sighting practice, then a few hundred meters along the pier with Joe, and it was over all too soon. I love swimming in the sea, gonna make this my home for the summer.

Just seen your mugshot on Facebook, you missed an opportunity to warm down with a 5k :P

Kurt Godel

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Just seen your mugshot on Facebook, you missed an opportunity to warm down with a 5k :P

I drove past your lot pre-race, looked like a great atmosphere around. Thought I spotted Ian? Might be wrong, didn't think FFL was at that standard. Fair play to you though, there was a real buzz around Wicklow, great to see people of all abilities out and about on this fantastic evening.

Pity we didn't know each were doing there thing, you could have paced me to a sub 20... and then joined us for a swim. Another time perhaps

Kurt Godel

Sat WWR leg 8

(I'm a little pissed now, caveat emptor)

Ray from the Tri club was taking care of all logistics, allowing me to take my little fishies to their lesson this morning, and just turn up and run the final leg.

We had targeted <15, with a best case scenario of 10th, no better. On the day, everyone ran above their station, so we came 7th overall, and we are thrilled with that.

My leg.
I watched Stephen from afar, saw he was running the gates on leg 7 just ahead of another lad. It would be close on my leg, the job was to hold position. After 5 minutes he arrived, slapped hands after a great leg, and I was off. I'm not a good runner these days, and after a recce a couple of days ago (and a look at last years results), I had targeted 45 mins as my goal for this hilly 9.98km leg.
The first 3km are offroad, nothing too bad, but I knew I'd need to pace it well. So the object was to get over the offroad "hills" comfortably, pick up the pace on the downhill road section, contain things on the undulating section along the Dying Cow, and go for broke along the final 3km.
The offroad I ran well, never out of breath, and I hit the downhill road full of running. The TT lads said I had 2 minutes at this stage- never say this again if you're reading thi, its much more productive to think you're being chased;)
I ran well along by the Dying Cow section. this was all about pace. By the time I hit thew final 3km to go, I knew I wouldn't be caught, this would all be about maintaining position. I finished the last section building up to a stride finish, and we eventually finished 7th, much better than we had anticipated, but a result from everyone running to the best of their abilities. Came in 43:36 much better than predicted, can't complain about that

A great day out, best race of the year, and such great fun to meet so many friends back at the pub afterwards.

Kurt Godel

Sun 10k Ez bike

Had to get my parked car from Crossbridge, so biked there to help ease my aching legs.

Current state of play:
It's the start of the Tri season, so I'm going to take stock of where I am, compared to where I wanted to be at start of training last November.

Run
I'm happy with yesterday's run, it equates to a 40/41min flat 10k, and that's a decent place for me to be at. I've done limited run training, so I have to be content with that. More volume at the intensity I've been doing should see better gains.

Swim
Swimming is (way) beyond where I thought I'd be. There are stroke improvements to transfer into the OW, so that will be a focus over the next month or two. I'm delighted with swimming in general though, if I didn't enjoy it so much I'd not be training anymore. Enjoyment, achievement, and enjoyment of achievement, are what my goals are this year.

Bike
I never expected much from my bike, but it's probably stronger at the moment than my running. Can't complain about that, if I keep the standard where it currently is, I'll be happy enough. If I can extend my decent 20km pace to 40km I'll be more than happy.

Overall
I really enjoyed the apres-race yesterday, its like a yearly drinkathon chatting with many people I only see once a year. Fantastic fun, and not something I do very often. A bag of chips was purchased for the walk home, and several bags of crisps devoured once home. So my diet needs to be considered, and I aim to lose 5kg in the next month. That should be quite do-able.
I've a series of races from now to September, I'm in good shape training-wise, need to build on that. Once you move into the 40+ category you realise it's now or never. My shout-out goals are a good AG placing at the Dublin Tri, and a good showing at the Glendalough 3.8km OW in Sept. Besides that I have Pikeman, BOTE as build-up races. I hope to throw in a sub-40 10k race in between, and maybe a couple of Sprints. But for the moment, I couldn't be happier, I've a nice training platform to build on.

Kurt Godel

Mon 3,000m swim 57:33 (1:54 pace)

I'm walking like Robbie the Robot this morning, DOMS from the run on Saturday. Just goes to show how little running I've been doing, if a 10k is still in my legs days later. Anyhow, doing a long steady swim would help with that, so off I went. Stroke felt decent throughout, but I'm a little disappointed in the overall pace. Not that I was pushing it or anything, but it was a steady pace, and I'd have expected to see 1:50 overall pace or better, for the effort. That could be a result of tired legs, or not being in the pool as much recently, either way its no big deal, just something to note and move on.

Dory Dory

Tsk, tsk. Your overanalysis just fecked up the total mind and body therapeutic qualitites of a post-race long-easy-steady-recovery swim. You will check that attitude at the door if you ever venture into Dory's Aquatic Oasis.

menoscemo

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Run
I'm happy with yesterday's run, it equates to a 40/41min flat 10k, and that's a decent place for me to be at. I've done limited run training, so I have to be content with that. More volume at the intensity I've been doing should see better gains.

I was checking the results there and you were well up the field on your leg (8th I think??). Over a minute ahead of one person I know who is a regular 38:xx 10k runner...do you think that is down you being used to the terrain or are you possibly underestimating your fitness?

Either way, super running.

Kurt Godel

Tue 10k easy run

My legs are still very sore and tight, fast downhills will do that when you're not used to them. Feel better after a run in the forest.

menoscemo wrote: »

I was checking the results there and you were well up the field on your leg (8th I think??). Over a minute ahead of one person I know who is a regular 38:xx 10k runner...do you think that is down you being used to the terrain or are you possibly underestimating your fitness?

Either way, super running.

Cheers Meno. I'm not going to get carried away though, 8th faster out of only 35 runners, on a leg that is overpopulated by chicks and auld fellas (says the M40 who almost got caught by a chick;)). The only goal on the day, given where we were, was to hold position. I paced the leg well, aiming to run solidly and pick it up, rather than risk blowing up or overheating by going off too fast (I made up a couple of places, one from a girl who suffered heat exhaustion, one from a runner not paying attention to the turns). The terrain is almost all on road, so no real benefit there. Wouldn't read too much into beating a 38:xx road guy; I'll just have to see what a road 10km might bring. I've been running 42:xx in training, so would expect to see a minute or two off that in a race. My running volume is going to pick up now over the next couple of months, currently run fitness is down to one run tempo/fartlek/race a week, and turbo sessions on the bike. Never ran under 40 AFAIK, it'd be nice to hit it off Tri training.

menoscemo

It was a 38:xx road girl and she was a whole 90 seconds slower than you. She is also in good form at the minute knocking out low 18's over 5ks....I think you should give a 10k a blast soon as you might surprise yourself. Dunshaughlin 10k on 22nd june is highly recommended....

Kurt Godel

Thurs am 30k hilly bike ride.

Dropped Junior off at school (he's thrilled with his new bike which has gears, now he doesn't struggle up the hills) and continued on for some hill struggling of my own. Down a back road and begin the climb over Hillbrook, which I haven't done in a while. Its a lot shorter and less steep than I remember it, so that is a good measure of recent training. The descent into Monaseed is terrifying, I've clocked 60+ kph on it before. The rest of the route was rolling countryside, on the most gorgeous day of the year so far.

Thurs pm 1,500m OW swim

This evening was fantastic weather too, warm, sunny, and the water in the harbour felt warm after a couple of minutes. Warm enough for coach to spend the session skins! We did some good start, sighting, and draughting practice, got some really good tips. Interested can "read" the conditions like a pro. After the lesson, Abhainn, Griffin, and I did just one loop to finish off, great evening for the swim altogether.

Kurt Godel

Fri 50mins turbo

Sufferfest "A very dark place"

5*4mins hard effort, spinning in between. I think any recent fitness gains are coming from the turbo. I've been pouring myself into them, and today was more of the same, very hard tempo efforts, sweat dripping everywhere. In a strange way I like these sessions, they are good for targeting a specific effort, and are short enough not to get too bored. Very good reward ratio for the time expended, and hopping on a turbo is minimum fuss.

Kurt Godel

Sat 3km OW swim

Busy with drills, hammers, DIY stuff today, so I was more than happy to wash that workman's sweat off in the cool briney waters of Wicklow Harbour. It was warm and clammy getting in, but the water felt colder than Thursday night, and it took a while for the brain freeze to dissipate. Four laps of the boats (and a bit more), steady all the way until lap 4, where I started pretending I can kick my legs for propulsion.

Speaking of kicks, I was watching my kids in swim training this morning; both their kicks would put their old man to shame. Junior's trainer was in a working mood today, and gave them a lot more lengths than usual (about 30 or 40 in 45 mins). They are both coming on immensely, its great to see the frustration when they catch whoever is ahead of them, and then the quick scowls and arguments at the wall trying to overtake:D