Reach for the sky...

woody1

29th april.. last club swim of this block.. did it all with pull bouy because of twinge in hamstring / quad / not sure but i think its improving.. coach did a bit of a critique on everones technique .. didnt get too many negatives.. ive gone from not rotating to over rotating .. !! you cant win !

did some tumble turns and diving in last thursday in preparation for gala on sunday. didnt really enjoy the diving as i hit the water flat a few times and wasnt getting it,despite all the swimming ive done in the last 18 months im still not hugely comfortable jumping in.. didnt do the gala in the end as i had to mind kids but i was sorry i didnt... was good craic...

feck all done in last 10 days and its starting to make me twitchy.. really want to get up on the turbo tonight to get back going again and to make the months numbers a tiny bit more respectable..but it makes more sense to do nothing and get a fresh start tomorrow or at the weekend.. better half working friday sunday monday doesnt help as there will be limited opportunities to do something..

first triathlon of the season that i was aiming for is now cancelled, so im now considering lough cutra.. problem being that whilst all of us could do the local one ( granny bring kids to watch, its 10 minutes from the house ) more than likely only one of us will get to do cutra.. unless we relay it which i wouldnt be keen on..still with all the different distances on the same day there should be a good crowd and a bit of craic around, must have a look at the web and see if theres even a duathlon on..just need something as a target and to feel like im getting going..

woody1

1st may 20k bike ..
2nd may 5k run
3rd may 33k bike .
4th off
5th hour turbo bike slow and easy
6th club swims ..start of block 3

tried a few yoga sessions from the t-internet in there as well.. hip/knee injury is improving .. probably take it easy enough this week whilst still doing a bit ..better half working again this weekend so its a matter of trying to crowbar in something if i get a free hour on any particular day ..

woody1

7th may.. turbo / treadmill brick.. 15 min long scream.. 7.5 min run x 2 + 3 min run to finish

went thru the calendar last night..

looks like cong / rosses point, ballina, swinford oly, gaelforce,lough key are the races for this year ..
lough cutra ,westport , mullaghmore all clash with work but i think theres enough in the list anyway..

port beach in september is also likely but with it being national series race it might sell out.. might try to relay blacksod if this doesnt work out..

id take or leave gaelforce but better half thinks i should do it, will see closer to the time.. id be much stronger on the bike leg, but conversely i havent ran beyond 6 or 7 k this year and hadnt really planned to do much longer distance stuff..

boyne swim is also a maybe but depends on how much o/w swimming i get done in next month.. 2.7k swim albeit downstream.. need to get up to that distance on my own before committing

so 7 weeks to first tri !!! might be time to get out of the build phase and start doing some actual hard training

woody1

9/10th may up at 3am for darkness into light ballina.. 5k jog.. great athmosphere and brilliantly organised.. thousands of tea lights lining both sides of the track in the forest, floating candles on the duck pond and a choir singing in the middle of the woods along with a big attendance and a very positive vibe.. i took a lot more from this than i expected to

sat 10th .. nada.. super crummy day , better half recovering after working night, kids need minding..guest room occupied so no turbo.. etc etc

sun 11th unexpected 1 hour window opened ..so jumped out into a crummy morning for an hour on the bike ,
changed it back to tt position during the week, fast forward seatpost, and dropped the handlebars right down but this was first time on it, .. handlebars bit too low, hard on shoulders to stay in tri bars, so i'll be adjusting them up a bit... but on the plus side got a few 5 minute blasts in the tt position at full tilt to blow off the cobwebs and had more in the tank than i thought i would,
got 4 seasons in an hour..too cold, too wet, too warm ( too much gear on ) and too windy ..

quiet weekend given that i was hoping to get a lot more cycling done and get to a 5k race today ( cant, no one to take kids ) but it worked out better than i thought it was going to at the same time..

Oryx

Gah! I feel your frustration, kids wrecking training! Hopefully you get a better run at it next week.

woody1

wifey has worked last 3 weekends including the bank holiday on top of the full mon to friday 9 to 5 week so i cant really complain about not getting out to play :cool:

i thought there was someone to take the kids for the 5k as it turned out there wasnt, it couldve been a total zero weekend but for my sister came to stay last minute , only for her i couldnt have done darkness into light or got out this morning on the bike.. so its not all that bad.. unfortunately her train time home clashed with the 5k :mad: ... you just have to take what you can get and get on with it..

next week will be better .. my parents are visiting next weekend so il have loads of cover for long cycles and runs

woody1

tuesday 13th club swim 2.1k
thursday 14th club swim 1.8k
sunday 18th 47k bike , 23k of it very slow, company for someone doing long slow run for marathon
monday 19th 5k run early morning.. 21 minutes ish..

so thats the 2nd of 2 fairly poor weeks, circumstances have conspired against me to a degree, my car blew the cylinder head and ive been looking for a new one and thats taken a fair amount of time over the last 2 weeks , i had 2 nieces for communion this weekend and all the associated time that goes with that.. visitors last weekend and this weekend and while they actually freed me up to get out, i couldnt get out as much as i wouldve liked...cant just abandon them to the kids on their own all day..

having said all that i couldve made more of an effort , i rolled over on saturday morning when the alarm went off at 6 to go cycling, and i generaly dont do a lot on mondays and wednesdays because i want to be fresh for swimming but i think thats going to have to change..

made an effort this morning to get out for a quick run at 7 and it was grand.. surprisingly a nice quick pace too which is unusual for me..

more early starts are beckoning in order to get things back on track.. i dont like chasing sessions but the last 2 weeks have been so ridiculous that i think i need to do more this week to get things back on track

woody1

tuesday 20th 6k run .. 1.9k club swim
wednesday 21st 600m swim
thursday 22nd 5k treadmill run , 2.1k club swim
friday 23rd off
saturday 24th .. 54k bike.. including a first ascent of THE GAP...only at the top did i realise id no drinks with me !!! Serious hill.. should have a defibrulator on it .. thought i was going to die..

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/424273072

sunday 25th.. 61k bike..again no shaggin bottles.. warmer today and couldve done with them.. too early in the morning for anywhere to be open to buy anything either..

much better weeks training thank god.. with any luck we are going to chance getting in the lake later :eek: cant say im looking forward to it..

edit.. sun 25th evening.. 30 mins o/w lake swim.. wasnt too bad at all. certainly wouldnt be what id call cold.. no idea of distance..

woody1

mon 26th 5k run
tues 27th 2km club swim
wed 28th 1.25k pool swim..
thurs 29th 2.5k club swim
friday.. zilch
saturday .. 35k bike.. was supposed to be 60k but this was done at 6 in the morning and i just wasnt feeling any love for it so i turned around early on and headed back home
saturday afternoon 600m o/w lake swim..
sunday .. day off.. very tired.was going to run.. couldnt be arsed .. always a sign that a rest is needed..
monday 2nd june.. plan for today is some kind of brick..and maybe another lake swim depending on what babysitters can be found.. will see what happens.
monday ended up being neither a bike run nor a lake swim, just a 6k trot around the woods which felt free and easy and was probably enough realistically..

woody1

tuesday 3rd june 2400 club swim
wed 4th.. 1500 ish o/w lake swim
thursday 5th 1700 club swim
friday off
saturday 6th.. 38k cycle including 16k of the local tri bike route.. did 4 mins hard 4 mins recovery and was pleasantly surprised at the effort i could put in and hold.. think it ended up at 6 hard efforts with 4 of them being on the tri route..
went for 2k run straight off the bike..
sunday 7th local 5k race.. cycled in 11.5k, ran 5k in 21.40 something, came 7th, still looking for that elusive 20.59 , was never going to happen today, legs were cooked from early on, ... and cycled back a different route as i wanted to take in the one decent hill on that tri route..14.5k

woody1

tuesday 10th pool swim coached.. 2km
wednesday 11th lake swim ..2km. hoped to get the third loop in but it didnt happen, as everyone was getting out as i finished the second loop.. took somewhere round 40 mins.. arms were getting tired as i got to the end.. i did 1500m last week at my leisure but the extra 500 this week seemed to make all the difference.. that and the fact that it was an almost 100 percent pull bouy session on tuesday so the arms were due to be stiff anyway..

this is a deliberately very quiet week , me and o.h. are doing the boyne swim at the weekend, its a 2.7km river swim, downstream thank god, but the distance is still on the outer edge of my ability and im not going to do anything between now and saturday that would make it any tougher..
o.h. will swim it at her leisure and potentially even be competitive but im just in it to survive and get down the river without having to be fished out..

woody1

saturday 14th june
boyne swim 2.7km river swim.. ( downstream )

it says a lot for the coaching that ive got since november that i wasnt at all worried about the distance or the depth for this , i was more worried about water quality, and probably will be for the next few weeks hoping to not get sick..

ive done 4 sets of 7 week blocks twice a week since november and it has made a huge difference in terms of both speed and endurance.. im still slow , im just a lot less slow !

anyway this was really well organised and big congrats go to drogheda triathlon club on that front..

we all gathered at the finish, there was a marquee to get changed , which was split for male / female, there was the safety briefing which was short and sweet and then we were bussed to the start line 2.7k up river.. again not a lot of hanging around, counted into the water , about a minute of floating about , let other half move down a bit more towards the front, and off we go..

loads of kayaks for support and the river rescue boats and they had a few of their own guys swimming behind the race for moral support and help for anyone that was waning or in bother

they had said to keep left of the bouys so to the right hand side of the middle of the river.. grand.. i think there couldve been more bouys but better half doesnt think so, to give an idea there was 800m from the start to the first bridge and there were maybe 2 small bouys.. more of an issue for me with lots of people in front of me than for her i guess..anyway its a small complaint..

swim itself went fine, i probably held back too much and swam it within myself but i hadnt done that kind of distance before so i wanted to have a bit in reserve.. around halfway we started hitting on patches of seaweed and it was gross.. but sure what can you do.. thankfully it was just in patches.. there were 5 bridges in all to go under with the last one being the viaduct , i think it was still about 4 or 500 metres from the viaduct to the finish and around here i started coming up on the back of a lot of swimmers, ( a big group finished between 40 and 45 ) and i realised i had a lot in the tank and started trying to push on a bit but i wasnt really making ground on anyone apart from the one girl that had been swimming alongside for almost the whole race so i just chilled out back to regular pace and cruised in to the finish,

thinking about it, it would be nice to say it was really tough, but it wasnt because i didnt make it tough, but that was the idea, for me it was more about distance than speed, and im happy with myself to have covered that kind of distance and had loads in the tank at the end.. 2.7k in 44 mins.. ( 8 or 9th last )
yes there was a downstream flow but not to the degree that you could just lie there and be carried along, you had to swim, after the viaduct it was stronger, as in i could see i was getting a lot more length for each stroke, but that was the last few hundred metres.

better half came in in 35 mins or 34 something, was in the top ten ladies, and probably didnt overly push herself either, has given her a bit of a confidence boost and id say in the next one , whenever that is she'l really push it and do well..

food , drinks, big spread at the finish, car wash type shower for you and your wetsuit, again somewhere to dry off and change. really well done..

winner was 28 mins.. 20 something did it without wetsuit ! think the girls winner was no wetsuit.. !

woody1

mon 16th 5k run.. hot and sweaty, didnt have a watch with me but it felt like i was doing a decent pace, was trying out flats that i got on the cheap in tk maxx..puma faa something.. i overpronate badly on one foot but i reckoned id be ok for 5k .. odd twinges here and there but nothing serious

tuesday 17th.. o/w swimming night meant i was minding children on a lake beach whilst better half and brother in law and 20 something others were enjoying simulated race starts, getting lessons in sighting and doing a 700 tt.. boredom central.. but i brought the bike so i could cycle home from it.. tried out the second hand tt helmet that i bought during the week.. at a guess im at least 10km/hr faster with it and may in fact win the next triathlon i enter..:cool: if i ever get to enter one .. 30km bike roughly shoved it on a bit and got in a bit under the hour..
also it turns out im not in the giant headed category:) as this is a medium and even has a bit of room to manouver.. although typically a better one popped up on done deal the day after..the one i got is a louis garneau chrono legerra.. almost a semi aero helmet in that it still sits on top of your head like a conventional helmet rather than over your head like a normal tt helmet.. will hold on to it for a while and sell it to some gullible fool next year ..
wednesday 18th.. bog..turf .. sore hamstrings etc
thursday .. club swim in the pool, last one for the year as its now o/w swimming time.. still was tough enough.. legs wrecked from night before
friday 20th nothing
saturday.. o/h working all day..8 til 8.. so jumped out at 8 for a quick lash on the bike and a run.. 13k bike and 2k run.. legs felt sore and heavy and the run felt slow but turned out to be 2k in 8 mins.. had some cramp / stitch issues which bugged me last year too

went up to westport with the boys to watch the westport triathlon, transition and the swim were right beside a little playground so the kids were happy and i could watch it in peace..
club had winner , 4th and second lady.. great going altogether.. looked to be very well run by westport tri as well.. hopefully next year il get to have a lash at it ..

sunday..22nd
plan was to get up at 6 and do a local bike tour route thats on soon. 60k in total, the alarm didnt go off ( kids didnt wake ) and i got the first 9 hours sleep ive gotten in a long time.. kids woke just before 9, so i jumped out and did the same as the night before ,, 13k bike and 2k run.. o/h wanted to do a bit too so was under time pressure..
5k race .. sons school fun day and 5k race.. hamstrings and back still in a jock from the bog so i was just going to do this within my comfort zone. and i did, and ran it in 22 mins which is less than a minute off ( slower than ) my pb and now im a bit pissed that i didnt push on a bit.. anyway i enjoyed it and enjoyed making good headway without totally killing myself..

funny week.. no big cycles, only one swim and 2 runs really.. but still feels like there was progress made. this months cycling is looking completely shocking so something will have to be done during the week and more importantly at the weekend, there may actualy be a triathlon next weekend :eek: but more than likely there wont be as o/h wants to do one and unless someone volunteers for 2 hours of chasing my 3 year old around il have to do it, she covers for me plenty and will be later in the year so i have to take one for the team occasionally..

woody1

so , as usual forwards and backwards.

forwards..miracle of miracles a babysitter appeared..my sister wants to visit for a few days so shes been roped in to mind the boys on sunday.. so that both of us can do rosses point sprint..

backwards.. as part of the deal i have to climb croagh patrick with her on saturday.. shouldnt be too bad.. itl be slow..

further backwards.. entered rosses point and almost immediately was consumed with runny nose , sore eyes, stiff joints, and misery.. man flu !!

but.. forwards.. the bog is finished .. well at least for a while, with any luck until after the local triathlon.. i know i wont be going back there til then anyway

so after tonights river swim itl be an enforced taper.. i had hoped to do a short bike run tomorrow but common sense says to leave it and hope all is good for sunday


monday 23rd .. did the bike leg of the local tri , which is on saturday week, with bike phobic better half.. its a while since weve been cycling together and i forgot that when shes training she puts the nose to the grindstone for the full length of it.. no warm up , no chill out, go like a hammer the whole time and she can fairly push a bike on.. except on steep downhills, particularly if theres a turn or you cant see whats coming.. then its 80 year old granny on a bike time.. which is understandable given she took a nasty fall going downhill at speed.. anyway this was a better workout than i expected even if i did draft 90 percent of it.. 21k bike ..

tuesday 24th .. o/w coached swim.. our coached sessions have moved to the lake... so race starts, drafting and a couple of lengths of the 700 loop, grand..except im riddled with man-flu , and am stiff and sore and the wetsuit isnt on right
( grrr.. the more i think about how i was sold this and my own naivety the angrier i get, its a large womans wetsuit and yes i am narrow but im broad in the shoulders , or at least broader than a girl and its hugely tight there, anyway mostly my own fault for being in a panic to get one )
and im just not feeling it .. stuttered through, got out in awful form, went round the loop a nice bit slower than i should have and it left me annoyed for the rest of the evening..

probably didnt help to do 100 odd pressups an hour beforehand, im on week 4 of the 100 pressup challenge and id already skipped 2 days, so i kinda had to do them, shouldve left it til after maybe..

river swim tonight.. practice swim for triathlon.. i was planning a rest day but il go in and hopefully therel be a flow and il take it easy getting down the river.. this time last year i was having a freak out about this swim, now i can take it in my stride.. and am trying to convince those freaking out that it will be grand..

woody1

wed 25th.. river swim.. practice for next weeks triathlon.. 500m.. had been having man flu / hayfever / cold symptoms during the week, and took some hayfever medication earlier in the day, felt very on edge at times afterwards ( not like me at all ) and in the middle of this swim i had what i can only describe as a very mini panic attack.. cant breathe.. cant concentrate on where im going..cant think straight.. took a few minutes but got my head straight , mostly by breathing just on one side every 2 instead of every 3 and just cruised through the end of it.. weird.. i dunno if its just something that happened or if its down to the hayfever medicine.. better it happened there than in the middle of a race i guess..

took rest of week off , race on sunday and wanted to be right for it

sat 26th climbed croagh patrick with sister.. went very slow, legs still a bit stiff coming down at times but was grand lovely day

sun 27th.. rosses point sprint tri..

swim.. 15.50 ish.. 10 minute improvement on last similar race swim ( swinford sprint tri / lake swim ) so yeah im happy with that..2.30 down on wifey but i expected it to be more..

bike ..36.50 something.. 18.5k before anyone gets excited.. wouldve hoped for 34 something but i dunno , legs were shot early on ( possibly from swim, maybe from saturday )and it took a while for them to come back to life, elastic broke on shoes on the way to bike mount so there was time lost there, and like catweazle i was way down the road before i got into them.. i freewheeled a few times to stop from drafting when i couldve been a bit more agressive and probably passed but i was thinking it might be better for the run to not burn out the legs altogether.. passed o/h about 5k into bike.. she was 41 and a bit but as she gets less nervous this will improve a lot..

run..26 ish.. not happy with this at all, i didnt burn myself out on the bike , i shouldve run a lot better than this.. even 25 something would be progress.. think i have to be more agressive on the run.. i can run a 21 minute 5k ..but i just cant get up and going off the bike.. i had the soleus with me to give me my running pace but it had lost the signal and took about half the run to get it back, when i got it back i was running 5.30s and i was well able to get under 5s quick enough..so i think a lot of this is a mental problem..

transitions werent great but i dont tend to lose too much sleep over them,( i have too much time to make up elsewhere ) first one i had to go back for race belt..
second someone had taken my running hat ( essential for lads that are going thin on top on a day like yesterday )and i spent longer than i shouldve looking for it..

gorgeous day, i have a lovely v shaped burn down my back from opening my tri suit on the run.. all went off very well, well done to sligo tri club

sorry .. total time . 1.21.32.. 91st out of 164..

woody1

mon 30th june 6.5k run

6.5k run on this weekends tri route, trying to go as hard as possible on heavy legs,

tuesday 2km lake swim

seal on wetsuit neck not great, brought a lot of lake water around for a swim,
otherwise uneventful.. took it easy enough..

Oryx

Sounds like your wetsuit is too big.

woody1

hadnt considered that.. but its a possibility...
but first time ive had this problem with it.. itl do for the races that are left this year was thinking about changing it anyway ..

woody1

Wed 2nd July. 12 k bike and 2k run.. Heavy legs again but that's not entirely surprising given I haven't had a break yet since the race on Sunday.. I'm hoping the
last 2 runs with heavy legs will at least help with managing this weekends run mentally, we'll see..

Thoughts for Saturdays race.. Swim. Should be good bit faster than last year.. Be close to brother in law is the aim.. And not too far behind o/h
Bike. Before last weekend I wouldve been cocky and went for 39 and a bit for the 21k but now Im not so sure.. I'll be breaking my balls on the way out with the wind and with any luck will sneak 39.59

Run.. Get into a rhythm as quick as possible, will use the GPS again so I know what pace I'm running at, majority of course is flat, out and back 2 rises, be mentally stronger and try to force it and see whether there is more in the tank .. Ideally sub 24 but anything under 25 I'll take.. Could well be 27 again..

I know its only a sprint but I'm gonna take a gel round halfway on the bike , probably just a placebo but worth trying I think..

Swim alone will leave me with a pb, but I'd be more satisfied to run 2 mins faster than get it all from the swim ..

woody1

short version ballina tri 2014
swim faster, bike the same, run faster..
will do more detail later

woody1

slightly longer version..ballina salmon run 2014

swim .. started mid pack.. got stuck in a lot of traffic in first half, shouldve started either further forward or to one side of the pack.. 13.29 swim 2.45 faster than last year..

bike.. felt fast..passed a lot , wasnt passed.. caught up with brother in law who had about a minute start on me, thought i was faster than last year but was actually 40 seconds slower.. 41.10 for 21k

run.. got out and got a good rhythm going, had a bit of a stitch and calf muscles were cramping but that faded, went through 1k in 5 mins and held that pace through to about 4.5k and then kicked for the finish.. a few that i had passed on the bike got me back on the run.. but i was happy to hold the pace i had rather than trying to race someone.. 24.33 for the run.. which im chuffed with, moreso because i was holding back a bit from halfway on so theres more to come off that..


transitions.. first one slow enough 1.50 odd , second one 45 seconds..
this time the feckin elastics on the bike shoes wouldnt break..:o

edit .. sorry total 1.21 something.. 6 minutes off last year..

sole of foot is bruised and sore from standing on rock in river so that puts paid to my plans of doing a bit of running this week, its gonna be cycling and swimming for the foreseeable future..

better half was first woman ( non relay ) out of water ..and is understandably chuffed with that, if we can work on her cycling i may not be catching up to her any more..

brother in laws.. good swim ( 30 secs in front of me ), solid bike, great run ..

next up is swinford olympic which will be complete and not compete.. next sprint is looking like port beach in september which is nice as its 2 months away and there should be time to improve some things

Green&Red

Well done on Saturday, was good to meet up for a few Saturday evening, I had a sorry head on me in the bog on Sunday.

I'll see ye for the blood for life cycle at the end of September

woody1

yeah nice to meet up, head wasnt bad thank god, but there was several thinly veiled suggestions about the bog alright..
must check out that cycle so...

woody1

quiet week after tri at the weekend.. racing really messes up my training

sunday and monday off

tuesday.. 25k cycle , supposed to be o/w swimming , didnt feel like it, dropped brother in law down and then went for a spin for the hour..
wednesday 9th.. o/w swim in callow.. 1500 ish
thurdsay and friday off..
saturday 33k bike..
Sunday 13th 55k bike. Including 40k of swinford Olympic route

woody1

monday off
tuesday 1.5k o/w swim class
wednesday 5k run..painful
thursday off
friday 5k treadmill.. warm sweaty and hard
saturday ..52k bike ride.. enjoyed it
sunday.. nothing as yet..am looking after the boys today so im under house arrest til 8, considering setting up turbo outside but i know i wont get peace to use it.. might jump out at 8 for a run..

woody1

monday 21st.. 7k run

ran this morning at 7am.. i am not a good runner.. but my god ive gone seriously backwards this year.. a 7k trudge.. gaelforce is getting scary.. that first run is going to be murder..

woody1

tues 22nd . 2400 o/w swim.. drills, one arm stuff, catchup, 2 x 700 laps

wed 23rd, 1500 o/w , lap of the swinford olympic route, went ok, felt good at times and not great at others, pleasantly surprised at time of 34 mins considering i wasnt pushing hard at all.. took me 25 mins to do 750 here last year !!

weekend oly.. id like to swim around 30-32 prob wishful thinking.. bike around 1.25-1.30 ( its 44k ) and survive the run... run could take me an hour.. :eek:

theres a few clubmates / locals that id like to be ahead of, best chance is to get a lead on the bike and hope that they also die on the run

set up the turbo outside the window yesterday ( look after kids from 2 til 6 ) , was going to watch ironman cairns through the glass, it started shagging raining !! looking at this weeks efforts so far i may have to try again today..

woody1

sunday 27th swinford half oly
swim 35 50 something
bike 1.27 ( including god knows how long to put bike shoes on the right pedals as id put them on wrong way round )

so i had my lead on the bike .. but i died multiple deaths on the run.. no surprise , i havent run 10k this year ! locked up with cramp at 9k ..

overall.. thought id be 34 ish swimming , happy with bike, predicted that it would take me an hour to run 10k and it did ..

good experience, waaaaay tougher than sprint.. im still stiff and tired..

woody1

on saturday we went to wicklow to watch my brother in law take part in a special olympics open water swimming event.. he has been training with us all year and we wanted to go up and support him and see how he got on..
17 swimmers , i think , in all , with 2 distances going at the same time, 1000m and 1500m, some in wetsuits , some in skins, some with someone swimming with them to help with navigation / support, and some without .. great day for it, calm water, and a very laid back atmosphere with lots of parents and friends lined up on the pier cheering it on
our man got on well, finishing the 1500 in 31 mins, winning his category and finishing well up overall.. ( and no doubt will be delighted when he finds out i was 4 minutes slower over the same distance yesterday )
aside from that it was just great to watch , some really strong swimmers taking part as well ,

Dory Dory

Absolutely fantastic result for your brother in law!!!

woody1

friday 25th and sat 26th july

forgot that i had done some swimming of my own in wicklow.. 7-800 total at a guess over the 2 days ..skins, had no wetsuit with me , water was lovely on fruday but was somewhat chillier on saturday.. missed the wetsuit but it made me concentrate on stroke..and i noticed an improvement after a few minutes..

woody1

so
sunday 27th, humbert olympic.. 1500, 44 , 10.4

nothing til thursday, 8k run
fri off
sat 13k run.
today hopefully will bike run later..

gaelforce is next on the agenda, in 13 days time, so the job at the moment is to get as much running into the next week / 10 days as possible, earlier in the year i wanted to try to get in under 5 hours, immediately after the olympic last weekend i said i wasnt going to do it at all.. now im leaning towards doing it nice and easy and trying to enjoy it as i think 6 hours + in the wilderness running, kayaking, cycling and climbing with probably 1000 others is very enjoyable..
there is a 13k run to start though so i have to get some endurance back into my legs to make sure that its not gonna be torture from the start, if i can get as far as the bike leg comfortably then itl be handy enough from then on... hopefully

woody1

Mon off
Tuesday 5th ow swimming.
Wednesday 6th. 22k bike. 5.5k run
Thursday 5k run
Fri off
Sat. Club aquathon.. 750 swim. 5.7k run. Swim got a good start but tired a bit ,felt tough and slow for the last 200 ish .. Swimming is down to once a week lately and seems to have deteriorated , mind you the usual suspects were around me so it mightn't be that bad... Slow enough getting the wetsuit off , run went well apart from some messing with laces early on.. Felt strong all the way..probably paced it a bit too carefully
Swim 18.40. I think that includes transition, run 27.40. Fairly sure I could run it quicker .. Doing a little bit more running lately and can feel the good of it..
Hopefully will get out for bike run later,
Starting a block of wattbike sessions tomorrow, test tomorrow :-0 to see where I am, and then will get more detail after that..

woody1

sunday 10th 55k cycle, wanted to do this really easy but between and everlasting headwind no matter what direction i was going, boredom and just falling back into the usual rhythm i ended up doing it a bit harder than i wanted, sore quads later that day..

mon 11th august.. wattbike session 1.. test..i thought this would be way harder, i thought id be a drooling mess at the end of it, it was tough, not made any easier by the windy 55k that i did on sunday..but it was achievably tough ..

apparently i have an ok cycling technique so at least thats a positive, dont have a cadence meter on my bike so it took me a few minutes of the warm up to get a guage on what it took to hit whatever cadence he was looking for.. after that it was a mix of short and long intervals at certain cadences and certain resistances...to finish we did 3 x 3 minutes pushing a high resistance trying to keep the cadence at 65 .. quads were hurting by the end.. i thought i was grand until i got off the bike and had a touch of the jelly legs,

when i was signing up, he told me he'd put me in with another group , that there was a bike free,he said itd be a strong enough group but not to worry, just do your own thing, turns out to be 3 of the strongest in the club !!! :eek:

thankfully my numbers were down off the big screen at that stage..

woody1

tuesday 12th club o/w swim.. this is in a lake every tuesday, theres a 700 odd triangle marked out and we do different variations every time, you can stand for pretty much the whole lap , and for most of this year it has been calm and warm and at times almost Mediterranean.. not this week.. whatever way the wind was blowing there was a chop in it that wouldnt be out of place in the atlantic and we had to do 2 effin laps..!!
first one was ok.. in that it was terrible but no more terrible than anyone else , even the fish in the group were finding it hard..
second one was about the hardest swim ive ever done.. almost 2 minutes slower.. at times it was like swimming on a treadmill, just working and going nowhere.. and then it rained as we were getting changed.. in all the kind of workout that sucks when your doing it but your really glad that you did it when its over .. roughly 1800 all in including warm up

wednesday 13th wattbike session 2.. this was epic-ly , drooling mess, tough.. i may have naively mentioned that i thought this lark would be harder.. so they made it harder.. highlights were 3 minutes flat out and 1 minute flat out .. not to mention about 6 minutes going slightly down from flat out every minute and then back up to flat out .. but i got through it, there was mention of power and threshold and watts per kg but i was so shagged i didnt really take it in.. il ask the next day and try to remember it

thursday.. club aquathon 750 swim, 5.7 run, with gaelforce coming up on saturday, sensible people may have opted to sit this out but thats no fun.. and with better half doing it as well there was some in house competition going on, with elder one opting for mammy and younger opting for daddy.. so bragging rights were up for grabs..
swim for me went ok, the usual suspects that would normally be passing me around halfway didnt get me til the end, had a bad enough transition, was dizzy getting shoes on and had to stand up for a bit to clear my head..
run seemed to go well again.. only caught sight of o/h with about 1.5k to go, got right up on her heels by the finish but didnt have the kick to beat her to the line... couple of seconds in it tops.. not really sure on time but either just under or just over 45 mins..

gaelforce really starts tomorrow , with the best part of 3 1/2 hour round trip to register and leave the bike at t1, then up at 3am to be in westport for 5 for the bus to the start.. starts at 6.30 am !! im trying to get it into my head to treat this like a long training day, and not to worry about going at anything resembling a race speed at any stage but there are a few i know in my wave and i know i wont be happy when they are pulling away from me.. have to resist the urge to race..

after that a weeks holidays ... must mention that im bringing the bike :cool:

Dory Dory

Good luck at Gaelforce!!!

woody1

so was on a week away in no internet land or roscommon as it is otherwise known..

we went straight from gaelforce so i brought the bike and planned to do a bit, as usual didnt do as much as i wanted but got a bit done all the same.. had bikes with carriers for the kids and im counting that as cycling too

so saturday 16th gaelforce.. 21k running 45k cycling and 1k kayaking .. 5.43
will get back to it in a second
sunday .. nada.. stiff sore and incapable of movement
monday 18th 25k slow cycle
tuesday 19th 20 something k on the mountain bikes with the kids around the park
wednesday 26k ish a lot of this on the lough key tri route.. slow cycle .. was still stiff from the weekend
thursday 8k run with o/h .. parents arrived for the day and took the kids
friday.. 10k with the kids on the mountain bikes..
saturday ( today ) spent all day driving.. couldve got a run in but i need a break.. the kids are with my sister for 2 days and the 0/h is on a hen party for the weekend so ive the weekend to myself.. hoping if weather allows to get a good long cycle and a decent run in tomorrow

gaelforce went ok, theres 3 main sections in my mind
1.. run kayak run
2. bike
3 croagh patrick and the final bike run at the finish

the first run which is 13k mixed over road and cross country , up and down , boggy and stony, and hard on the legs.. i went out at the back of the first wave and took it handy.. came to the kayak section only marginally behind the last time i did it.. and a lot fresher..
kayak went very well , paired up with a girl and i could follow her rhythm and we flew across in a straight line, very little correcting required, 8 minute kayak ..
there is then another little run 4k ish to the bike transition, last time i had to walk bits of this, this year i could jog it.. so by the time i hit the bikes i was ahead of 2 years ago.. and i was pacing it easier
so onto the bike, took it easy for first 20 - 25 minutes , ate a bar and drank almost a full bottle, got passed by loads, didnt care, got to the only real hill on the course and got up it and passed most that had passed me.. i did seem to be grinding a bit rather than spinning ( and i was in my easiest gear ) but i got up it..
bike is handy enough after that.. sped up a bit and started catching and passing, tried to get a few groups going but most of the lads this far back in the wave dont really seem to be clued in or bothered.. so ended up doing most of it on my own.. turned back into the wind for the final few k on the off road bit and immediately slowed to a crawl.. even in the easiest gears i was grinding.. took an age to get through a few km and i lost all the time i had made up.. again i wasnt overly bothered, but there was a thought in the back of my head that it would be lovely to go faster whilst taking it easier.. :rolleyes:
dropped bike and started walking up croagh patrick , immediately i knew this was gonna be a disaster.. maybe the windy bit just tore my legs off, maybe 3 and a half hours is all i had in the tank, regardless it took 55 soul destroying minutes to get up to the top, i was literally seeing stars at some stages.. looking back i shouldve taken a gel .. i was eating a protein bar, maybe the gel woulve given me a sugar boost and just taken the edge off it.. took it easy going down as i wasnt in any shape to run down.. got down to the bike and was dreading the last bike.. 12k cycle in and run to the end.. but it actually went surprisingly well.. we were now out of the wind thank god..cycled all the rough sections way better than any time before, only got off the bike for one tiny bit, maybe 100 yards and flew into westport.. the last run was grand, normally i have trouble with my hip flexors running off the bike in these races but i was able to stride it out grand, i had an idea it was a good bit more than the 1km that the marshalls were telling people but i jogged it out and crossed the line in 5.43.. 23 or 4 minutes longer than before but with a much longer run at the end,

without looking at the splits in great detail all the time lost on the mountain was what made the big difference, over 15 minutes in comparison the previous year.. i was quicker over the final stage and over the run kayak run section..
so without overly trying to race it.. i only lost 15 minutes.. kind of :cool:
overall result 460th out of 1400 odd .. that 15 minutes wouldve put me up almost 200 places ,

i was in so much pain on sunday and monday it wasnt funny, i only really got back to proper flexibility on thursday.. as usual i did say never again..both during and after the race.. but as usual im curious again.. i think i can go sub 5 on it.. with a lot of race specific preparation.. sub 5 is still an hour and a half slower than the winner but it would do me nicely..

Dory Dory

Well done you! I've hiked up Croagh Patrick (and not before/after all that you had to do!), and that's no cake walk! I'm assuming you left your shoes on.

woody1

Dory Dory wrote: »

Well done you! I've hiked up Croagh Patrick (and not before/after all that you had to do!), and that's no cake walk! I'm assuming you left your shoes on.

Oh yeah shoes on, although I was in such a daze I probably wouldn't have noticed..

woody1

sunday 24th august.. 106k cycle.. had the whole day to myself, no time pressure so i took the opportunity to go for a big slow spin.. all of mayo were tied up with the all ireland semi final so i couldve cycled in the middle of the road for most of this.. over 5 hours maybe 20 cars !the last hour and 3/4 was into the wind and was even slower going than before.. 106k cycling time 4.45

tuesday 26th 20k on the greenway with the kids..

thursday 28th wattbike 3. have a cold / throaty thing, made this a bit harder , but struggled on through,

really tired lately.. combination of loads of driving in the last week and whatever bug i had, so tired that im sitting in work with odd runners on. put one of each on this morning without noticing.. club aquathon tonight but im gonna leave it, i think it might be time for a break..

Oryx

I love the odd runners thing! Brilliantly absentminded.

woody1

my 5 year old is a bit scattered to say the least.. regularly puts trousers and even tops on backwards, shoes on wrong feet etc.. hes imaginative and creative and is thinking about so many things at the same time that he cant be concentrating on mundane things like putting clothes on right..
i have no such excuses.. im just tired
he took great joy in bringing in the right runners to me ..

woody1

fri 29th 5k fun run / race.. predict your time , closest to predicted time wins,
couldve won this , as in been first , shouldve won it, in the end was 2nd by 6 seconds, ran out of gas in the final stages, but ended up with third prize for time prediction ( which was 1 min 30 out ) a trophy and a voucher .. and a new 5k pb.. finally got into the 20s.. 20.54

sun 31st august..had no plans to do anything, i have this chesty throaty bug that half the country seems to have, brother in law offers to go for a run and better half will cover , this is the sole training run for a half marathon we are both doing in edinburgh next weekend .. so off we trot.. 18k loop at a slower pace than he would run at but probably a tiny bit fast for me..
glad we did it , was hoping to get through edinburgh half on experience alone, not sure it was the best plan

was supposed to be doing wattbike today but i cancelled it, still a tiny bit chesty and i want to clear it totally before the weekend, also i discovered today that the planned last triathlon for the year is closed for registrations so we missed out on it.. so thats it for tri's for the year..:( bit of an anti-climax to say the least..

will have to trawl d'internet and see what else is out there between now and november ( sea to summit ) to keep me motivated..

woody1

tuesday 2nd sept 5.5k run, shouldv been swimming, couldnt be bothered, went running

so when i thought that what wouldve been my last tri of the year was full i was a bit depressed at the thoughts of a years training for 3 triathlons, but the joys of having a log mean i can go back through what i did this year
so

7 5ks
2 aquathons
1 2.7k swim
1 adventure race
3 triathlons

and yet to come there are, a half marathon, another adventure race, a duathlon and at least 1 if not 2 swim events.. and there was me thinking i raced less this year .. :rolleyes:

woody1

saturday 7th sep
scottish half marathon, edinburgh 21.1k

ideal weather, an easy and fast course, well organised from start to finish, ran 1.47.40 something.. which isnt amazing but i wasnt aiming to break any records, just to run around and enjoy it ,
did a total of one training run for it , so was pleasantly surprised to be within touching distance of my pb,

woody1

few days off ..to recharge from a hectic weekend, not so much socially hectic , just a lot of different things going on..

10th Sep wattbike 4 , grand, got tougher as it went on,

13th Sep bike run bike run bike run, 8k, 6 hill repeats, 10k , 4 hill repeats, 10k, then 8k home again, 1k run to finish.. sea to summit training.. steep hill on each bike loop , so 3 times up the hill.. a session il be looking to do weekly for a while , or at least variations on it..

quiet week , feel fresh though, will be trying to get a shape on things from here to november .. would like to have a decent crack at sea to summit this year..wattbike sessions have put a bit of a structure on cycling, thinking about an end of year 5k pb to motivate me to get running more structured too.. will have to dust off run less run faster and actualy read it

blacksod by all accounts was warm sunny and relatively calm.. mustve been judging by swim times of those that would normally be around me in the swim.. couldnt go, o/h working and not fair to ask someone to take kids at that hour in the morning.. hopefully next year !

woody1

15th sep 5.5k run, 3 x 400m hard

17th Sep wattbike 5, followed by 5k run

19th Sep 5k run , 1 mile w/up, 1 mile hard , 1 mile warm down

20th Sep 8k bike, run 6 x 300 hill repeats (3600 ) , 30k bike , 1k run..4 x hill climb on bike loops

21st Sep 46k slooooow bike..

woody1

24th sep 6k treadmill, 3 x 400 fast
25th wattbike 6..
26th 20k bike .. 750 night swim
27th 5k run

tricky week, lots going on, did well to get these 4 days done, the night swim was a highlight, 22 tri club members in the bay in kilalla with glow sticks on our hats and wrists, couldnt have got a better night for it and it worked really well, although it was very obvious that i hadnt swam in over a month..

had a wedding on saturday in galway, so we went home via ballinrobe to watch the lough mask swim challenge, 1500 and 3k race, was kind of sorry we didnt have any gear with us as it went off a bit late and hadnt started by the time we got there, probably better in the end that we didnt

thats the wattbike sessions finished, i think theyve made a difference, il give it a week or 2 rest and then see about starting another block, duathlon next weekend might give and idea whether they have really made any difference at all

turns out that scottish half marathon was ( allegedly ! ) up to 500m long ! trying to look at my splits afterward
i managed to clear all the data off my watch so i have no idea myself, but so many people are querying the distance
now that the organisers have said that they are re-checking it, anyway 500m less and id have been under my pb, just
by seconds but still,

woody1

wed 1st 5k , 2 x 1km hard

thurs 2nd . turbo, first one using cadence sensor, was a bit tougher than usual

sat 4th 5k run , 8k bike, 1k run. limited time , couple of fast efforts in the first 5k run, tried to keep the bike speed at 30k for the few minutes but strangely enough found it tough, despite lack of any wind..

jumped on the scales after and got a serious shock with weight at 11 st 9 , im normally pretty good to keep an eye on it with an eye on not letting it drop too much, i aim to keep it around the 12 stone mark, recent running has had more intensity to it than my normal plodding so im guessing thats what did it, in any case ate all around me at my sons birthday party yesterday and we have lots of leftovers from it in the house so shouldnt be too hard to get it back up

sun 5th local 5k race, technically first man, in reality beaten into third by 2 under 14s , new p.b. though . 20.17 down from 20 50 something so thats a nice chunk too.. getting closer to the sub 20.. should be on track to get it stephens day, so long as theres not too much indulging the day before..

as usual went off far too fast, it was a 5 and a 10 mixed together , so one loop for 5s and 2 for 10, robert malseed was in the 10k and shot off like a rocket as usual but i was next behind him so i was leading the 5, i knew it wouldnt last and i was caught by 2 at about 1.5k, i knew one was a 10k runner but wasnt sure about the other, numbers were different but i couldnt get a look at it, at about 4k there was maybe 4 or 5 of us together with 1st and 2nd in the 10k out of sight ,another 2 had caught up, still didnt know who was running what but it made little difference as i was out of gas by then, one young fella breezed by with 6 or 700 to go and like all kids that age looked like he was just at his ease and this wasnt pushing him at all, i was mid coronary and wasnt able to go with him , finished in 3rd, happy with the pb, nice to get another chunk off it...

might try to pace the next one a bit better and see if that makes it any easier or is it just better to go completely balls out and hang on for dear life ,

woody1

more running,

did nothing til thursday ,

thursday 9th, evening, i met up with a new meet and train running group in a small village close to me, did 5k in the fast group, was a little bit on the fast side for me but as part of the run less run faster approach i need one fast 5k a week so this group will probably do nicely for that

friday 10th, treadmill 5k, boring, overheating, couldnt get finished fast enough

saturday 11th oct , evening 6k , nice run, 2 x 400 and 1 x 800 @ 4 min / km,

sunday 12th oct, foggy morning 6k, 1.5 miles @ 6.5 min mile pace , rest easy