Ironman 2013 - Frankfurt

delboyfagan

Monday started off with a test for the bike, focusng on avg watts for 5 mins and then for a 20 min period. Held 301 and 271 watts respectively, but was unevenly paced. Nevertheless a starting point. Was provided with zones in which to train going fwd.

Bike Test Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215761294

Tuesday morning was the usual swim in Belvedere and got in 2,025m. Moved up a lane this time and the 100s were off 1min 45 sec, coming in around 1 min 40sec. I can see the improvement in swimming in such a short space of time, considering I could hardly hold 2mins a few weeks ago.

Tuesday evening was a 30 min easy run, average pace 9 min miles at an average HR of 143.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216139742

Was tired last night and slept well!!!!

delboyfagan

An easy 45 min cycle, average watts 170 and all in the small ring was the workout for Wednesday. Watched an episode of Law and Order SVU to pass the time. Didn't get out till nearly 9.35pm as I was constantly putting it off with one excuse after the other, until I just HTFU and went out to the shed and did it.

Garmin Bike Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216838555

Had a run test today, which after a warm up was an evenly paced all out 30 min TT. Came in at an average HR of 169, with a corresponding avg speed of 7 min 37 sec per mile pace. Not great but an improvement on my average pace at the recent Fingal 10Km race. Again a reference point to come back to in the months ahead.

Garmin Run Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216838562

delboyfagan

Total hrs trained for Week 6 was 7hrs 15 mins. Finished the week off with a 2hr 30 min bike and a 70 min long run. Both easy paced.

So so week, and again missed 1 session from the plan (a swim) but getting there.

Bike Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218506564

The one thing that struck me about the graph is how I lowered my cadence as cycle went on. Wasn't conscious of this when doing workout

Run Garmin Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218506582

At least I finished the full bike - decided on turbo option and watched the usual TV stuff - Law and Order SVu is current fav and finished it off with some Rocky 3 montage for last 20 mins. Each to their own I suppose!

delboyfagan

Forgot to post the last few days and was gently reminded to do it.

Quick recap by discipline.

Bike

Did two turbos so far. First was a 50 min session where the main focus was 5*4 mins at FTP (256). Was there or thereabouts, but probably could have given a few more percent on efforts.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/218506604

Second turbo was 45 mins with main set being 20 mins at 205w. Hit it bang on. Found this easy.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/219906970

Swim

Swam twice in belvo coming in over the 2,000m mark each time. The main focus of the first session was 12*75, followed by 3*(4*25 fast and 100 easy).

The other sessions mains set was 5*100, 6*75, 7*50 and 8*25.

Swimming ok and starting to get the feel back.

Run

Ran twice during lunch hour so far, with runs of 40 mins and 30 mins (this should have been 40 mins but a call from work forced me to cut it short). Was a little bit slower than normal. The garmin links were:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/219906982

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/219906985

So far so good and wife away early tomorrow so an early rise is needed to get the big sessions done.

delboyfagan

My wife had to go to Sligo to see her mother, who is not well at all, for the weekend. This meant a bit of juggling re the training schedule.

Put my son to bed at 7pm and put a dvd on for the girls and got on turbo for 2.5 hrs. Meant to do 30 mins of this in steady zone, but was all done in the easy zone. No fluids could have been the reason for this lacklustre performance on turbo. Schoolboy error as they say!!

Garmin Link to be added.

My wife was due back Sunday evening and planned to do long run of 70 mins when she came home. But with her being delayed, and tiredness on my part, I didn't do it.

I have been eating really well (not gonna say diet) and losing weight fast and I think this is part of the reason why I was tired on both Saturday and Sunday.

Overall hrs for the week was 6hrs 45 mins.

Also did about 1hrs 15 mins of weights during week.

delboyfagan

Week started off well.

Had to do two turbos - one on Monday and one on Wednesday. First turbos main set was 20 mins at 230 watts, which was done without too much pain. Not too easy, not too hard.

The second turbo main set was 6*4 mins with the intervals being at 256w, 283w, 256w, 283w, 256w & 283w - thought this was gonna be a killer but felt good doing it. Had to stay alert for 283 intervals but found the 256 intervals ok.

Got a run (40 mins easy) and a swim in on Tuesday, with the total for the three days amounting to just under 4 hrs.

Thursday and Friday were just write offs with work and got nothing done. What can u do - nuff said.

Race Report - Saturday Clogherhead Sprint Triathlon

This was my only race of the year. Have had a rough patch health wise during 2012, with my first hospital visit being 4th January and subseqiuently have been under the knife 4 times so far. Hopefully 28th September will be last operation!! Felling good now and the illness has no effect on me at moment and am allowed train. The last 3 ops were just one day cases and take nothing out of me usually.

So have had to put off quite a few races that I planned to do - basically just didnt have time/energy/health to do them in manner/time I wanted to do them.

Took out wetsuit thursday and found a big tear in it. Immediately made a few calls and got hold of a sleveless wetsuit. Apart from that I was well organized and Saturday just get in the car and drove 35 mins to the race venue.

Felt very relaxed and free of tension. This isn't usually case with me. Had a top 10 finish in two sprints last year (albeit not national series races) and I usually know a few guys in or around my ability and whom I look forward to racing. I was free of this mindset.

Was in over 40s age group and in 3rd wave. Gun went and off we swam. Swim was uneventful and into T1 and off on bike. Passed by a lot of people and put a target down that no one would pass me on bike. Usually if in an age group wave I am one of the stonger bikers and I can count on one hand the numbers of guys that pass me. Going good and then one guys passes me, then another and this happened again and again. Felt bit delated but popped along for a 34 min bike. I went hard I think but just haven't raced.

Onto run and just ran - I knew I coud run faster but just didn't do it. Didnt go into pain zone. Came home in 1 hr 15 mins/1 hr 16 mins. Haven't seen official results.

At end of race I just got thinking. Had a few decent weeks behind me, although nothing of great note. Just thought how far I have let myself go - weight/fitness etc. and a decent time in Frankfurt seems like a long way away.

Was meant to do 2 hr cycle today but tired, very tired and skipped it. Probably get bollocking.

Just the light at the end of the tunnel seems a long way away and I know this weight issue is gonna be a real fight.

Hope Im not depressing u!!

BUACHAILL

Keep the chin up. I am in a similar position to yourself in regards weight, previous injuries etc. I am new to the world of triathlon but would be very competitive and know whats it like to have to dig deep and regardless of the sport the simple facts remain, Everyone lets it slip, lets the head drop, hits the bottom, losses interest etc but its the people who bounce back and dig deep seem to get the best results and all the luck!!

Start some new goals / targets and draw a line behind whats done. Have it achievable but a challenge that you need to push yourself. One they are hit reflect and reset newer targets !! only way forward IMO

Good luck

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

delboyfagan wrote: »

At end of race I just got thinking. Had a few decent weeks behind me, although nothing of great note. Just thought how far I have let myself go - weight/fitness etc. and a decent time in Frankfurt seems like a long way away.

Was meant to do 2 hr cycle today but tired, very tired and skipped it. Probably get bollocking.

Just the light at the end of the tunnel seems a long way away and I know this weight issue is gonna be a real fight.

Hope Im not depressing u!!

Re bolded bit, it is a long way away. Get a solid Winter works in and you will feel different about things and the weight will look after itself. Re missed cycle Sunday, were you really tired or not bothered? Sometimes its better to at least start a session than skip it completely.
Well done at the weekend, its a nice course and i often cycle around there.

delboyfagan

Cheers for positive comments Fran & Buachaill - sorry for not replying sooner. Fran I think u were probably right about bike.

Anyways as was pointed out to me - I complain about a poor bike split and then miss 2 hr bike on Sunday!!!!

Back in the swing of things and so far this week have done following:

Two Turbos.

First was 1 hr easy and nothing much to say except did the job.

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224469872

Second was a 40 min tubo with main set being 20 mins at 240 - again hit 243 and found it quite comfortable with HR in mid 140s for most of it.

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224996166

Swim

Only one swim as work has been a disaster this week and in early most of the week so couldn't get swims in. Did it this morning in belvo and 2,000m were completed with main set being 3*150,5*100 and 10*50.

Runs

Got out most days and have done 2 extra easy lunchtime runs on top of the 2 planned runs. Felt I needed to clear the head during lunch as work was busy.

So all runs were easy with the runs being 2*40 min runs and 2*30 mins runs.

Tues: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224469867

Wed:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224996158

Thurs: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224996169

Thurs Evening: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224996173

delboyfagan

I'm back - started training again on 8th October

Had an operation on my arse (5th one this year) on the last Friday of September and took the 9 days off afterwards. Was tired and obviously ahd a sore bum.

Hard to get back on track re this blog once u stop for a while.

So far this week have done 3 easy runs, 3 swims and 1 bike. Easy runs all 40 minutes and bike was 1 hr easy. The swims were all around 1900/2000m mark.

Back on track.

Food diary started so see if that will help.

Weighing myself at lunchtime to see how I am doing. Have a few good days followed by few bad days. This seems current trend.

Now I just need to start uploading the garmin links again!!