Putting down the spoon

Solobally8

Congrats on your very early surprise!

Trig1

Congrats Catweazle...hope baby and mother are both doing fine...I can give you some advice on that vasc if your interested :eek::cool:

griffin100

A blessing in the form of a daughter. Wishing you and your wife and baby the very best. This is real life, training is nothing but a hobby!!!!!

shotgunmcos

Congrats CW, wishing you, the misses and the wee one the very best

Kurt Godel

12m behind the garda bikes at all times? Congratulations on your new arrival!

c07

Oh wow, huge, huge congrats catweazle. Going out on a high this year so!!
Well done to you and the wife... And Anna too. I'm sure she'll be home causing chaos in no time, whilst having you ABSOLUTELY wrapped around her teeny, tiny finger.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Congrats on the news, i hope mother and child are doing well.

Abhainn

Congrats CW. Trilled for you.

Don't bother with that vasc thing.
A repeated discussion was held many times regarding doing the same thing with our horny golden retriever. The little bollocks was always escaping either by digging under the fence or through the bull wire in the hedge.
How I didn't cut his balls off, but I didn't and he still has them and my system is still in tact too.

BennyMul

Congrats CW, all the best to the family hope all is well

sconhome

Abhainn wrote: »

Congrats CW. Trilled for you.

Don't bother with that vasc thing.
A repeated discussion was held many times regarding doing the same thing with our horny golden retriever. The little bollocks was always escaping either by digging under the fence or through the bull wire in the hedge.
How I didn't cut his balls off, but I didn't and he still has them and my system is still in tact too.

Here you go boys

catweazle

^^^^^^ He looks delighted with his decision ^^^^^^

Its been a while since I was likened to a horny golden retriever, perhaps 20 years ago when I hit Boston with the J1 for the summer

American girls were wicked tight Dory - You would spend the night filling them with ****e and paying for everything for the hope of getting a phone number at the end of it - where you then had to get around the father on the phone.

Far easier to go local and head down to the Kells bar (although we were always told to head down south where the Irish brogue would come into its own)

Dory Dory

catweazle wrote: »

^^^^^^ He looks delighted with his decision ^^^^^^

Its been a while since I was likened to a horny golden retriever, perhaps 20 years ago when I hit Boston with the J1 for the summer

American girls were wicked tight Dory - You would spend the night filling them with ****e and paying for everything for the hope of getting a phone number at the end of it - where you then had to get around the father on the phone.

Far easier to go local and head down to the Kells bar (although we were always told to head down south where the Irish brogue would come into its own)

So much unintended innuendo and double entendre....my head is spinning.... :eek:;):D

But more to the point - you were probably too much horny golden retriever, and that makes you an easy target for wicked tight American girls. It's called leverage, cw....and we know how to work it.

Green&Red

John congrats, hope all is going well

RedB

Holy Moley!:eek:

Only catching up on your news now after being on hols. Huge Congratulations to all. Love the name Great Result Best Wishes.

Dory Dory

Merry Christmas, catweazle.

catweazle

Well the young one is beginning to sleep the night through so its time to get back on the wagon properly again. A little bit of training here and there and a week or two of food discipline over the last 6 months has kept the weight reasonable, hovering around 80kgs which is ok for me at this time of year. The fitness I am afraid is another matter.

The plan this year is too focus on an A race towards the end of the season and with Kenmare on the week of my 40th, it doubly serves as a way of getting out of the wife organising a surprise party up in Galway. I wont be doing too much else, probably Kilkee as well if I get in and a sprint a week or two before that.

So the plan is to set a precedent of early mornings and lunchtime training during the week while the wife is still on maternity and leave the evenings for playtime. With such a late start it will be base training for the forseeable future

Where I am at

Swimming - Non existant since July besides having the young lad with me, I went for my first swim on Jan 2nd and I struggled to get through 1000m easy, the next few weeks will be just about increasing the volume to get some type of fitness back before I try a programme.

Biking - Surprisingly not too bad. I scored a high end Exetondo jacket for the birthday and its magnificent, whether its 3 degrees or 15 degrees its just a baselayer and the jacket, it never feels too warm or too cold. So since I started back cycling in November I have done very little turbo and have got outside as much as I can - distances have been poor though with 50k being the most so far

Running - The plantar is still there but it doesnt really seem to bother my running anymore. From running in the 4.40s in zone 2 last year I am up in the 5.15s for the same heart rate this year but that will go down soon hopefully

So we will start from January 1st

Wednesday: I bumped into a lad from the old triathlon club so I ran with him, a little slower than I had planned but I enjoyed the chinwag and ended up running 11k which was as far as I have ran in months. 11k at 5.43 AHR - 132

Thursday: I struggled to 1000ms in the pool with a few drills and some pullbouy work - up to the gym for a little weights session that I am going to try and do - I was the only person in the gym - where were all the New Year Warriors?

Friday: An 8k run - bit of a pain these days as its a bit all over the place with some of the route flooded. Found this hard probably legs were shagged from the weights the previous day. 5.12 pace for 150 AHR

Saturday - Lashing rain in Galway again so I decided to ring the boss up in Castlebar to see if he wanted to go out as I had to go up to the house up there anyways. He hadnt been out in months so once puncture fixed and he found his shoes we only had just over an hour to spend. Great route up and around the booster station, I was disgusted to not be biking back when I lived up here - they have far better routes than down in Galway

My first time out with him and while he has done a few 150/200k sessions with his mates I quickly realised this may well be the first time ever I was out biking with someone that I was stronger then. I was merciless, it was a hilly route so I made sure to be chatting about the view beside him as he laboured up a couple of sharp 12% rises (Wife got me a Garmin 500 for xmas). Towards the end coming back into castlebar I went pgibbo on him and suggested we finish on ten minutes.......STEADY!

It was like a puppet on a string with him chewing the handlebars behind me trying to hang on to my wheel - savour this Catweazle while I can. It only ended up being just over 25k in the end of it all

Sunday: I missed a slight weather window to go out in and Mrs C finally had some action with a car she is trying to sell so a poor day - 50 minutes or so on the turbo. AHR - 122

catweazle

The start of the early morning sessions have begun, if I don't do these now I will find it a lot harder to justify being given these when the maternity leave finishes. I am actually enjoying them now but I have always been a night owl so even with 6am alarm calls I still struggle to get to bed before 1am most nights.

Monday am - An awful swim, literally just muscling my way through the water, my theory is that I need some sort of swim fitness before I start doing some drills. So 800ms straight dogged out with the pull buoy. Mixing things up a little as I have loads of time I am doing some weights after, literally just pricking around though to be honest up there. I would worry about the place there is no one in there but me every morning

Monday evening - I had hoped to do a run at lunch but work messed me up, 50 minutes on the turbo with breaking bad season 2 as the boxset of choice these days AHR 132

Tuesday am - a little better 1000m straight

Tuesday lunch - my first run in a while and felt very strong - strap on 310 is broken so just the hrm for company, a little bit Undisciplined and went out too hard and had to slow right down towards the end to get some type of heart rate close to zone 2 AHR -156

Wednesday am - 1200m straight and things are starting to get easier, a little glide and a better pull was noticeable.

Wednesday lunch - forgot the hrm for the turbo session but this was a decent effort, definitely was uncomfortable for the last 15 to 20 minutes - 50 minutes

Green&Red

Where are you gyming CW?

catweazle

Core Fitness - its attached to the Claregalway hotel these days. Perhaps its better attended in the evening

sconhome

Not to knock your confidence, you are man enough to be outside, while I'm only starting to warmup the turbo at the moment. But. I really enjoyed this post.

catweazle wrote: »

My first time out with him and while he has done a few 150/200k sessions with his mates I quickly realised this may well be the first time ever I was out biking with someone that I was stronger then. I was merciless, it was a hilly route so I made sure to be chatting about the view beside him as he laboured up a couple of sharp 12% rises (Wife got me a Garmin 500 for xmas). Towards the end coming back into castlebar I went pgibbo on him and suggested we finish on ten minutes.......STEADY!

You should become a writer, a modern day Dickins cos I really felt the build up to something really, really epic here.

A real Tour de Conamara epic attack off the front and staying away. Cat and mouse stuff all the way. I'd say you could hear the crowds roars ringing in your ears as you swiped away the droplets stinging your eyes; is it sweat? or your eyes watering with anticipation or tears of triumph?

catweazle wrote: »

It was like a puppet on a string with him chewing the handlebars behind me trying to hang on to my wheel - savour this Catweazle while I can.

And then ...

The anticlimax...

catweazle wrote: »

It only ended up being just over 25k in the end of it all

catweazle

Ha very good - in retrospect I should have perhaps left the distance to your imagination

You will notice however I didn't mention the average speed or time elapsed for those 25 hard earned kilometers

sconhome

catweazle wrote: »

You will notice however I didn't mention the average speed or time elapsed for those 25 hard earned kilometers

Some things are better off not being said.

catweazle

Thursday am: 1500m straight with pull buoy

Thursday lunch: An 8k run, the strap is broken on the 310 and I couldn't find the Polar, I probably can get close to approximate zone anyways at this stage.

Friday Am 2000m in the pool, the shoulders were stiff and I wasn't in the mood so shortly into it I decided to split it into 5 x 400 instead, this broke the back of it mentally and it wasn't too bad in the end

Friday lunch Not a bad turbo session, still can't find where I left the polar but I was reduced to grinding the last 5 minutes or so, although I am still enjoying box sets on the turbo I do seem to be pushing a bit harder than normal, 50"minutes or so

Saturday am Having watched the weather forecast the night before I decided to do the bike today instead. I nearly went over twice on the driveway and was very twitchy going up the home road as I could see plenty of ice. however I had hoped that the main N17 route would be in better shape and in fairness it was although I tried to avoid the hard shoulder as much as I could.

It was freezing and a rare decision to sprint up the drag beside Corinthians rugby pitch to try and get some warmth going

Cycled out to salthill and had a quick coffee outside Cafe Coco to warm up, not too much wrong with salthill from the little I saw of it after the storm. On the way back once I got through town I pushed it for the last 15k or so, only 45k but I was pretty shagged after it

Sunday evening Lashing all day but in fairness the weather was due to clear late afternoon and it did, a big feed of scrambled egg didn't help matters but started to come around at around the 8k mark. felt good towards the end and after a lot of slow kilometres I treated myself to a 2k push at the end. 13k at 5.20 AHR - 144 max - 167 max

More of the same for next week hopefully and I might start some swim sessions the following week

catweazle

Monday AM: Need to be getting up earlier I am getting lazy again - 1500m with pull bouy

Monday Lunch: Turbo - Beginning to be able to hold the 130 heart rate a little better. 50 minutes at 136hr

Tuesday AM: 2000m straight with pull bouy

Tuesday Night: Had the young lad over in the grannies for lunch today so got a run in before dinner. Its getting easier, 5.08 pace for 8k at 145 average heart rate. Theres a lovely long downhill drag coming back into Claregalway and I treated myself to a couple of low 4 minute kilometres. Great feeling to be running at a decent clip for a change

Wednesday AM: First session missed, it must have looked weird to the other regulars in the pool as I jumped into the lane and almost immediately jumped out again. I had completely forgotten about a conference call I had arranged for 8am. Rushed home to wonder why I bothered, it was a lad from Namibia and while his first language was English neither of us had a clue what each other was saying. He wasnt familiar with doing these calls and forgot about the webcam so I did suppress a laugh after my opening pitch as I watched him turn to his partner, raise his arms in supplication and mouth could he understand a f-ing word this guy is saying. We were both relieved when we agreed to continue the conversation by email

Wednesday Lunch: 50 minute turbo - Legs were very tired and I really struggled to get the heart rate high AHR - 125

Thursday AM: 1500ms straight I am hoping to some time trials tomorrow and start the programme next week. I am beginning to start coasting with these sessions and perhaps some swim sets will get the motivation going again.

Thursday Lunch: 8k @ 5.10 pace. I am often asked by my townie mates do I not get sick of running the same route day after day - although I like a nice run down the prom like any other red blooded male I have always loved the local route out here as well. Loose aggressive dogs have stopped me from running other ones nearby but the local one is nearly always in the route somewhere

Heres one I took today while I had stopped for a whizz, flooding finally come back from the road

pgibbo

Nice view :cool:

catweazle

pgibbo wrote: »

Nice view :cool:

Ya must be nice to say you have a lakeside view every now and then

Dory Dory

We need to work on your ability to suffer on the turbo. If only you lived closer to Tunney and his shed. Hmmm, does pgibbo have a shed?

catweazle

Dory Dory wrote: »

We need to work on your ability to suffer on the turbo.

Its not the suffering Dory - We don't all quite have your powerful thighs



Anyways 125 is just about acceptable for zone 2 for me, although I prefer it in the 130's as I find that more uncomfortable. Suffering doesn't start till next month I am afraid

pgibbo

I do have a shed and I have no problem roaring abuse while CW does a LTHR test on the turbo

Dory Dory

pgibbo wrote: »

I do have a shed and I have no problem roaring abuse while CW does a LTHR test on the turbo

Can you setup a "shed-cam" too? I'd like to shout abuse encouragement at him as you put him through the ringer. You know, you and I could be good cop, bad cop. :D