Ironman 2013 - Frankfurt

delboyfagan

Having done a few ironman and with a PB of 11hrs 52m, I have always felt that I could have given each one more. Always had the excuses but in reality the reason for not training has always been down to me. Issues I have:

Never been at a decent weight. I just eat too much. Way too much. It's like raining has become a way of me negating the effects of eating too much. Just over 15st at moment.

Guilty Feeling. My wife has no issue with me doing tri's and is 100% supportive but at the back of mind there is this guilty feeling that going out for a bike on a Saturday morning is bad as its time I should be spending with kids. She has told me to get over it and I intend to.

Lazy and not consistent - 'nuff said.

Not giving Mr.T enough info to work with.

So was talking with Mr. T and asking his opinion of where to do one next year. I was thinking Lanza but have come to the conclusion that the timing is just wrong for me. Austria is booked out and I just don't like the hassle of getting there. Roth is sold out. Ironman Kalmar and Barca are just too late in the year (I want to enjoy July and August).

That leaves with with Frankfurt - I've done it and it's easy to get too.

I've had a bad year of ill health and have trained sporadically. 50 weeks out and signed up but now its time to get consistent and fit. It starts today.

Mr. T has giving me the plan for the week and I have to update it daily. There might be a few races along the way. Mr. T has been nothing but helpful and its time to repay his commitment to answering questions, helping out with a performance next year.

I have decided that next year is my last one for a while. My son Ben will be starting school the following September and then I want to be helping out with the GAA and Football which I hope he does.

I do have a time in mind - probably crazy considering 11h 52 is best time - but lets go with it.

Once more into the breech.....

delboyfagan

Well Day 1 finished and I got it all done. Swam in Belvedere this morning and used the 910 garmin with the swim app. Still not sure how it works. Set was as follows:

Warm up 250 as 10*25 with the main set of 1*200, 2*150, 3*100, 4*50 and a 50 recovery followed by 6*75. Cool down followed for a total of 2000 give or take a lap or two.

The garmin said average pace was 2.17 but in reality I was coming in at around 1 min 52 sec per 100. Not great but a start.

In the evening time the plan was for a 30 min run at easy pace. This is my weakness. I can't run. Apart from the first 3 mins where the satellite was giving an unrealistic pace per kilometer my splits were as follows:

1st km: 5.27
2nd km: 5.48
3rd km: 5.47
4th km 6.02
5th km: 5.56

Training done for day and I had to get home and spend 3 hrs cleaning house as family were in Achill for a week. Why do I always leave the clean up until very last minute.

Swim File: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202435801

Run File: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202435814

catweazle

delboyfagan wrote: »

Training done for day and I had to get home and spend 3 hrs cleaning house as family were in Achill for a week. Why do I always leave the clean up until very last minute.

I am as bad myself and end up missing a training session as the mess has just built up too much :mad:

Good luck with the training

pgibbo

Best of luck with it. Nice to see another IM log on here.

What do you think of the 910?

delboyfagan

Hi - seems ok but then I've gone through 3 garmins over the year. They don't seem very sturdy to me. The last one (610 I think) just lost satellite coverage and couldn't get it back - still ok for HR and Power though

The only issue is cost so this better last a while.

Have to sit down and work out the swim functionality.

delboyfagan

Tuesday was a 1 hr easy cycle. As I have had a number of operations this year most, if not all of my biking, has been on turbo. And as I only have one powertap whenever I got out on road I used HR as a tool for training. Whereas indoors I always used power.

Anyways put on new tyre and got out on road with powertap for first time. 20 minutes in the weather became bad with torrential rain and wind. But I loved it. Didn't realize how much I missed getting out on road. Observations:

1. I need to buy a bike mount for my garmin. Hard to keep on looking at watch on wrist to gauge power/hr.

2. I am able to get a much higher power on road with a lot less effort. Need to ask about this.

3. Hard to keep a consistent 30 sec rolling power number. Much easier on turbo.

Avg Speed 19 mph, avg power 216 and avg HR 132.

Garmin Link:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202743307

delboyfagan

Today started off with swim. Not in work today and had a day planned with wife as we had child-minder coming at 9am. Got up early and into Belvedere for swim. Whilst I have a swim set that I can do, I am just going into Belvedere to get the mojo back as easier to swim with others when not swim fit. Would be hard to motivate myself at moment if swimming solo. Another total of 2,000m done. Mr. T is ok with this for the time being.

Wednesday is speed day in Belvo with main set being 3*100, 4*75 and 8*25 all out with good recovery in between. Warm up, warm down and recoveries made the set 2k.

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203017972 - still not sure about times on garmin as in around 1 min 35 for 100s.

Came home from day shopping and straight out for 30 min easy run. Times for each km were:

1st km: 5.07
2nd km: 5.17
3rd km: 5.27
4th km: 5.15
5th km: 5.20
Remainder: 5.21

Avg Hr 150 which is at the top of my easy zone (easy Zone 139-150). Meant to be all easy but spent a portion of it at low steady pace. Must have been the Hossiers and Rudy music playing on ipod.

Garmin Link:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203017986

delboyfagan

Thursday was a day of positives and negatives.

Negative - Had hoped to get up at 6:00am to do my hours cycle before work. Alarm went at 5:50am, looked at clock and just went back to sleep. Need to start consistently getting up early as like to front load the day and have evenings free when possible.

Positive - I usually am a very affable guy, trying to please others rather than myself. Got a phonecall the other night asking would I go swimming in Belvedere on Thursday as the person was going drinking that night and didn't have a car. Automatically said yes. Then went home and said no this isn't in the plan. The plan is for a 1 hr cycle only today. I gotta be selfish and stick to MY plan. Phoned up and said wouldn't be going. This is the way its going to be - stick to the plan and not let others interfere by doing sessions that suit them.

Negative - Came home and went to get out on the bike. Noticed that both garmins were powered off. Put on runkeeper on iphone and my iphone only had 10% battery life, so that wasn't gonna work. Need to be more prepared!!

Positive - Got the bike in. Not 1 hr but 55 mins. Left house straight up Ardgillan, over to Bog of Ring and back home, again over the hills. Had company in a friend called Eugene. It was a good steady cycle.

Postive - 4 days and no missed sessions. A good start.

delboyfagan

Again couldn't get up early. Alarm went off at 5.50am but eventually out of bed at 7.50am and a dash into work. Had planned swim in morning so that was gone.

Had aslo planned a run at lunchtime, but a phone call from a buddy for coffee meant a chat replaced the planned run.

Nevertheless got the swim and run done immediately after work and before I got home.

Into Belvedere at 5.30pm and the pool all to myself. I love going here for the evening sessions as usually only a max of 5 people at most in the pool, and each with a lane to themselves. Two thousand metres done with the main set being 3*300.

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203670724

Drive home and striaght into 30 min run with 6 20 sec strides towards the end.

Splits were:

1st km: 5.23
2nd km: 5.38
3rd km: 5.43
4th km: 5.44
5th km: 5.28
Remainder: 5.30

All the run was at an easy heart rate.

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203670745

delboyfagan

2 hr easy cycle today. Nothing much to write about. Windy conditions. Long run tomorrow will finish a consistent week of training.

Garmin Link:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203895985

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Best of luck with FF, will follow this with interest. See you at the start line.

delboyfagan

Cheers - heard u are doing it. is that correct?

delboyfagan

Oops - just read see u at start line part which I missed first time

delboyfagan

Missed long run on Sunday. Why? Probably laziness if being honest. Tired in the morning time. With family stuff being doing during the day and birthday parties on, I just didn't have the enthusiasm to run that evening.

I just need to be more organized.

Did 8 out of 9 planned sessions, with totals being:

Run: 1.5 hrs (3 runs)

Bike: 4 hrs (3 bikes)

Swim: 2 hrs 15 mins (3 swims)

Overall: 7.5 hrs

Asked about doing long run today and told a missed session is a missed session...just move on. Thats what I did.

delboyfagan

Week 2

Meant to do a 30 min easy run. Met buddy and turned into a fast run, for a total time of just over 37 mins. Should have gone by myself. Let me state that when I mean fast I mean fast in my terms. HR to high I think.

1st km: 5.09
2nd km: 5.00
3rd km: 4.54
4th km: 5.00
5th km: 5.02
6th km: 4.38
7th km: 5.05
Remainder: 5.05

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204874204

Swam in Belvedere again. Got in 2,500m but garmin said 2,900m. Just using it as a tool whereby i can prove to Mr.T that I have gone swimming rather than actually studying data. Need to understand it more. Won't mention this again!!

Garmin Link:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205159538

Got home after work tonight. Meant to do a hardish set on bike but didn't fancy it in wet weather. So changed Tuesday cycle with Thursday cycle. That meant I did a 1hr easy cycle. Average speed 28.2kmph, average power 203, average hr 131.

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205159569

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Do you have a turbo?

delboyfagan

I do and used it a lot earlier in year.

Want to try and get out and as only have own powermeter (wheel based), I didn't want the hassle of changing tyres as my turbo is hard on tyres.

Anyways want to get out more on road. Thursday should be good weather for the.

Will be using turbo a lot over late autumn/winter so trying to make the most of outdoors.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Yeah that would be a pain having to change over to your training tyre everytime, it's one of the very reasons I opted for a crank based system last year.

tunney

delboyfagan wrote: »

I do and used it a lot earlier in year.

Want to try and get out and as only have own powermeter (wheel based), I didn't want the hassle of changing tyres as my turbo is hard on tyres.

Anyways want to get out more on road. Thursday should be good weather for the.

Will be using turbo a lot over late autumn/winter so trying to make the most of outdoors.

Tacx flow isn't it?

Welcome to try my own one - not as fancy as a tacx flow but with a PM do you really need that?

It is an Elite Hydroforce - very quiet as its a fluid trainer, decent resistance but most importantly has a gel covering on the rolling - makes it even more quiet and super easy on tyres. I used to do 4-5 hour turbos on it and then use the same tyre on the road.

delboyfagan

Cheers Dave will take u up on that, after hols.

mloc123

delboyfagan wrote: »

I do and used it a lot earlier in year.

Want to try and get out and as only have own powermeter (wheel based), I didn't want the hassle of changing tyres as my turbo is hard on tyres.

Anyways want to get out more on road. Thursday should be good weather for the.

Will be using turbo a lot over late autumn/winter so trying to make the most of outdoors.

I never found the Flow hard on tyres. I use Mitch Pro Race 3 on the road and trainer and only retired my last tyre after 18months as I felt it might be prone to punctures even tho it hadn't yet... *touches wood*

delboyfagan

Just a chicken - don't want to risk it!!! Although there was a bit of wear and tear on last one.

delboyfagan

Wednesday was just a 30 min easy run. Another long day in wok and just about managed run.

1st km: 5.20
2nd km: 5.34
3rd km: 5.38
4th km: 5.45
5th km: 5.43
Remainder: 5.57

Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205880434

Thursday morning was a swim in Belvedere of exactly 2,000m. (I had garmin set for 50m pool rather than 25m pool - hence difference in metres done between actual and garmin). The main set was 3 times 200, 150, 100 & 50 with 50 recovery between each set. Feeling comfortable in pool at moment and coming in at 3mins 30 secs for 200s, so I'm happy with that.

Garmin link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205880437

Thursday evening was a struggle. Home late and just about managed 30 min run. All easy and slow.

1st km: 5.41
2nd km: 5.52
3rd km: 6.02
4th km: 5.58
5th km: 5.57
Remainder: 5.38

Felt slow during run, which I obviously was but so happy that am getting out even when don't want to.

Garmin link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205880448

Had to mix plan a bit so far this week with work being busy and a few days hols coming up.

delboyfagan

No garmin uploads as on Holidays and just accessing boards via iPad. Will put up garmin stats later on, if only for D to have a look at them.

Had planned Thursday as second and last cycle of week but work got in way so swapped Fridays plan with Thursday. Got in 30 min run and 45 min swim in Belvedere (2,000m).

Went on holidays on Friday and just missed bike as too busy getting things done. Should have got up earlier.

Away for next 12 days and have agreed to not got searching for bike to rent and putting myself under pressure. Have agreed a light plan with Mr.T but his philosophy is enjoy holidays first so will do what I can.

Got out for 40 min run Saturday and 30 min run Sunday. Very warm and hilly where I am and hard to run in humidity - couldn't imagine running in Austria this years at 37 degrees celcius.

So time for week was 5 hrs 20 min. Got in:

2 swims
5 runs
1 bike

sorry for any spelling mistakes as still haven't go hang of this iPad thing.

delboyfagan

Monday and Wednesday were exactly the same. Both consisted of a 30 min run and 20 min open water swim. Struggling with hills and heat. Basically just need to lose weight, which is on the agenda after holidays.

Sea is very choppy and swims are basically made up of 2/3 min intervals with 15 secs rest. Staying close to shore.

Working it all around family time, so swims are done while kids are eating snacks on beach and runs are done while they are having a bath.

Tuesday I was just lazy.

Again getting up early would help, but just haven't mastered that yet. One step at a time. I am focused on getting sessions in on a daily basis which is a start in itself.

delboyfagan

Back from holidays late Tuesday night and whilst enjoyable I ate way too much.

Anyways Thursday 9th August consisted of a 30 min run and 30 min open water sea swim.

The next day was a measly 20 min open water sea swim, whilst on Saturday I did two swims, consisting of a 20 min swim and a 30 min swim.

Sunday again was just a 20 min swim.

Had planned to do more running but just couldn't motivate myself to do it. Nevertheless I did get 5 runs in the space of 9 days, so not too bad even if the duration of each run was in and around the 30 min mark.

Total for the week was 4hrs and 10 mins, averaging out at just 35 mins per day of exercise.

delboyfagan

Week 4

With the travel back from the holidays occurring midweek, training was obviously curtailed. The fact that I arrived in the early morning on Wednesday made me tired the whole day.Wife had to make a visit to her mother at weekend, so with three kids in tow it was hard to get out. Okay, enough excuses.

Pretty pathetic week overall.

2 swims and 3 runs making up the week.

The first swim was in Belvo on Thursday, totalling 2,000m. The other swim was a local open water handicapped swim of over 1,000m. The race was won by Alan Ryan, the ex Irish Ironman record holder. He had nearly a 5 min head start on me so I knew I hadn't a chance at the start of the race as my handicap was obviously based on previous years time when I was swim fit.

The runs were a 37 min run on Monday in Nerja, a 52 min run on Thursday (averaging 5min 19 sec pace) and a 45 min run yesterday.

Total for week was 3hrs 10 mins.

Average total was 5hrs 3 mins for the first 4 weeks. Time to up it.

So holidays over and back to structured training now with plan in place for week. The hours, if all done, should be about 11.

delboyfagan

Week 5

So hopefully this is the start of the 'regular' training weeks and building up fitness and consistency until Christams time.

Monday morning was a 45 minute swim in Belvedere, where I got 2,050m of swimming in. The main set was 5*100, 6*75, 7*50 and 8*25. Starting to feel comfortable in the water. Not fast, but comfortable.

That evening was meant to be a 30 minute run and I ended up doing 28mins. I ran with my 9 year old daughter who kept up with me for most of the run. Not sure if that proves she's okay for her age or I'm just brutal. I think the latter. The breakdown was:

1st km: 5.03
2nd km: 5.05
3rd km: 5.23
4th km: 5.31
5th km: 5.42
Remainder: 5.56

Slowed down at end to stay with Emma, and all the run was in the easy zone.

Tuesday was my first turbo in a while. The plan was for 45 minutes, broken down as:

First 10 mins: Easy pace and get average wattage (188w avgerage)
Next 10 mins: Avg watts +20 (207w average)
Next 10 mins: Avg watts +30 (216w average)
Next 10 mins: Avg watts +40 (226w average)
Last 5 mins: Easy (warm down and 157w average)

I pretty much did the workout to perfection and happy out. I am watching Season 1 of Leverage so that passed the 45 mins on turbo.

That evening I did a weights workout. Full body workout and did 3 sets of 12 for following workouts:

Bench Press 30kg
Incline Bench Press 20kg
Shoulder Press 15kg
Lat Pulldown 40kg
Lat Pull-in 35kg
Leg Press 100kg
Leg Curl 35kg
Leg Extension 30kg
Bicep Curl 7.5kg
Triceps 7.5kg

Yes I'm weak but just putting workout and numbers down so I can check progress in a few months. Will just casually mention it as weights workout in future.

At the end of the session I weighed myself. I have used 3 different scales and went with highest number. I weight 100kgs. Not good!!!!!!

So at lesast I know where I stand and what I have to do.

Garmin Links:

Monday Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213142416

Tuesday Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213336487

delboyfagan

Got out for a 44 min run during lunchtime on Wednesday, average pace of 5 mins 21 secs. The end part of the run was 5*20 seconds of strides. HR probably a bit to high with avg of 155 and split was:

1st km: 5.25
2nd km: 5.16
3rd km: 5.18
4th km: 5.18
5th km: 5.24
6th km: 5.27
7th km: 5.26
8th km: 5.13
Remainder: 5.34

Thursday morning was a swim in Belvedere and whilst I had the opportunity to move up to the second fastest lane, I felt leading my lane out was a better workout than being 4th/5th in the 2nd lane and drafting the whole way. Got in 2,250 metres. Main set was 1*200, 2*150, 3*100, 4*75 and 5*50 with warm up, cool down and recoveries making up the rest of the swim.

So far so good and week going as planned.

delboyfagan

Wednesday Run Garmin link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215124510

Thursday evening was another run, totaling 54 mins. Went way too hard as ran with two other guys. Sorry!! Nuff said

Thursday Run Garmin link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215124478

Friday morning was a swim again in Belvedere, totaling 1,800m. The main set was 8*75 and then 5*(100,50,50). As I arrived a little bit late I missed a bit of the warm up hence the lower yardage.

Had planned to do a 1hr easy cycle but tired, not from training but from being up all night with our next door neighbours alarm going off.

Saturday long run was 1hr 6 mins, average pace of 5min 47 km. Really really easy and felt very comfortable. Although slow for some I must stress that I was happy to be at this pace in relation to how easy it felt.

Saturday Run Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215124465

Was meant to do 2.5 hr easy cycle, but ended up being 1hr 40 mins at average pace of 27.5km. No excuses just passed by house and opted to come in. Need to avoid house until end of spin. The garmin says 1 hr 32 mins but I had about 8 mins cycling at end which was not recorded.

So during the week I got 3 swims, 4 runs and 2 bikes. I missed my ihr easy bike and long bike should have been 50 mins more. However happy out as slowly building there and also managed 1 weight session.

Thought for the week - I need to be tougher towards back of end of week or else get all long and tough sessions done earlier during week.

Sunday Bike Garmin Link:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215124939

delboyfagan

Total hrs for week 5:

Swim: 2hrs 15 mins

Bike: 2 hrs 25 mins

Run: 3 hrs 12 mins

Weights : 35 mins

Overall: 7 hrs 52 mins aerobic and 8 hrs 27 mins including weights