GODZone...

career_move

shotgunmcos wrote: »

MTB
Back training again after a week off. May was basically about swimming so bike and run fitness priority now. 3 hours on the MTB including the Ballyhoura white loop in 2hrs38, my best by a long shot. Alone so I pushed it on a bit. A couple of quick stops for pics and a fall. Ripped my shorts to bits and got foot stuck in spokes.

You were hoping Kim would be there weren't you

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Very warm and lots of climbing meant core body temp was molten. I had to ration water. I had spent as many hours sheering ditches in the morning so my hands and wrists just about held on for the rocky ride. Didn't eat after the gardening too so I also bonked at about 2 hours and had to swallow an emergency gel. 43km total

My first ever bike race in 2 weeks, the aim will be to finish. Bike fitness is back somewhere in 2012

Tut tut tut what happened to always being prepared??? I'd have got some lecture if I did that :D

shotgunmcos

May Done. The Numbers

• 92km swimming
• 307km cycling
• 97km running
• 7km rowing
• 40 push ups
• 20 pull ups
• 51hours total

May done. Best Key Session hit.

• 10km swim
• only 2 bike sessions to note, road and trail but both hard
• Mountain marathon was good for Beast but bad for knee

May Done. Most Satisfying/Enjoyable Sessions.

Sub3 at Eton Dorney
Hanging onto a hard group cycle despite zero training

May done. Biggest disappointments

• No rowing or core
• Taking 5.5 hours to complete first IMRA run
• Falling on right knee twice - damaged knee cap

June General Focus.
Biking and running for 2 long races this month
European Marathon Mountain Bike Championships
Mizuno Endure 24 hour trail relay run with Mr & Mrs AKW

June 3x3 Specific Training Benchmarks

• Running: 3x8km session
• Rowing: build fitness to 90 mins
• Swimming: no focus, mission accomplished - just enjoy swimming
• Biking: Lots of mtb'ing
• Race: 2 new territory events!

Oryx

You are a monster. An offroad marathon and a 10k swim in the one month. Which of the x men are you again?

shotgunmcos

MTB
2.5 hours on the mtb with career_move including the Ballyhoura brown loop and a couple of laps of the new little training loop. Felt good. Easy spin letting loose a little on some sweeping single track descents. Love it!

Row & Yoga
Simple 20 minute row to kick start the quest for the next sub 3. Held 204 watts which is the about power I need to hold to hit the sub3. Felt th e20 minutes at 18spm and I need to hold this for nearly 3 hours :eek:

20 minutes easy yoga afterwards. Been way too long. Felt as stretchy and bendy as the rowing machine I just hopped off

Oryx wrote: »

You are a monster. An offroad marathon and a 10k swim in the one month. Which of the x men are you again?

Dunno but hey I'll be your wolverine if you'll be my Jean Gray

shotgunmcos

Swim, Bike & Run
Day off so did a wee Tri brick session. Swim was the morning swim group. Shoulder feeling better. Main set consisted of 2x(300/2x200/2x100) off various RTs and all swam at about 1:30 pace. On some pretty painted toenails in a busy shark lane the whole session Felt good after the break, 3,000m total

Quick rinse and bike gear on for a roadie spin. It was chilly and breezy but sunny. 68.25km with backpack on my back in 2hrs13, avg 30.8kmh. Spun along steady and worked hills. Might not constitute a long spin but its my longest since September 2012 :eek: 75km MTB next week will be my longest ever time on a saddle I feel.

Chucked the bike in the door, swapped shoes and trotted easy around the block a few times. 8.32km in 44 minutes. Legs were heavy and lower back stiff but happy to finish off a good 4 hour 3k/68k/8k brick with nothing but hunger as my only gripe

career_move

I feel guilty now after reading that. I sat at home yesterday feeling sorry for myself because I can't run and eating my bodyweight in chocolate D'oh

nerraw1111

I did a 5km run. This log is a great motivator. "What would Mike do?" has become the motto in order to get out the door.

Mountaineering Ireland uploaded some excellent videos recently on all things nav. How to self locate, in the extremely unlikely event that we get lost, ahem, pace, how to plot your progress etc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteaeDJAiGUfORG8CB8vuyQ/videos

sconhome

nerraw1111 wrote: »

I did a 5km run. This log is a great motivator. "What would Mike do?" has become the motto in order to get out the door.

Mountaineering Ireland uploaded some excellent videos recently on all things nav. How to self locate, in the extremely unlikely event that we get lost, ahem, pace, how to plot your progress etc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteaeDJAiGUfORG8CB8vuyQ/videos

Along with that I ordered this for some light reading on holidays



oh, and this one too



just in case.

shotgunmcos

Reading this one myself.. although some actual practice might help too :rolleyes:

shotgunmcos

Run
5am 8km pace 5:02. Felt OK to start but wooden for a finish. LI've the feeling of running while most of the world still sleeps. Menu for running for this month will basically be a bag of 8km laps. I took the last couple of days off reluctantly to finish a 2.5 week course of steroids to shift the chesty cough. Felt OK after the run.

Row
30 minutes at 204w, 7,535m pace 1:59.4/500m. Steady row but cardiac drift up to 170 he to complete it. Lots of consistent work needed to get a simple half hour at sub3 pace back inside base hr zone. The downside to this session was an onset of the chest problem. I can't win with it :rolleyes::mad:

shotgunmcos

Same as yesterday but pushing the tiniest bit..

Row
40 minutes at 204 watts, 10,044m at 1:59.4/500m. Found this tough. Its supposed to be "aerobic" pace but I'm simply unfit. For the sub3 I need to be in shape to get an hour done comfortably at 204 watts without my heart rate hitting 145. Measured the heart rate today. Suffice to say I'm a million miles off
At 10min 155bpm
At 20min 161bmp
At 30min 168bpm
At 40min 175bpm... red zone!

Run
Same course as yesterday morning but a little quicker. 8.3km at 4:27 pace. Mild and very humid out there. I was sweating in minutes. A few runners outs about and we all greeted each other

shotgunmcos

No training last few days, giving my chest a chance to recover. 75km marathon mountain bike tomorrow with 1950m climbing. Aim is to finish. 9 weeks to Beast. Stupid chest :mad:

career_move

shotgunmcos wrote: »

No training last few days, giving my chest a chance to recover. 75km marathon mountain bike tomorrow with 1950m climbing. Aim is to finish. 9 weeks to Beast. Stupid chest :mad:

No 7 weeks to Beast Have fun tomorrow. I'm only a small bit jealous I swear

shotgunmcos

Well European Marathon Mountain Bike Championship came and went. 65 out of 84 in my cat and barely made the cut off (59k within 1 hour of winner finishing) to finish in 5hrs44mins. Real experience. MTB is for proper bikers. Went so far over the handlebars at 19km that I landed, softly thankfully, 5ft from my bike. 1,925m of climbing in 75km. It was warm and relentless. 2 climbs involved hiking the bike for the last few minutes, energy sapping stuff. Grand for first half, even attached myself to a group with one of the lead women and 2 guys. Stayed on their tail at the limit of my ability, although I held my own on single track descents.

Warren caught up with me around 40km and we stayed together for a bit. It was 3 hours in and I was starting to suffer. Cramps :mad: I fell off Warren around 50km and crawled to the start of the final loop. I was cramping badly in my quads on hills or soft mud. I could only granny gear hills. I was expected food at 'feed' stations but there was none. I lasted on a diet of mushed fig rolls and zipvit gels. I was worried I wouldn't make the cutoff when I stopped at 59km to swallow a few cups of warm coke. The last section was effectively the Ballyhoura brown loop. I had to get off the bike every 10 minutes to straighten my leg. The cramps were starting to spasm.

A mate of mine caught me with 10km to go. We stayed together for a bit, then I lost him on single track. I hit a climb and my right quad soon began to bulge like there was an alien pushing to burst through. It was painful and I had to dismount. My mate was a 30secs back after the single track and he grimaced himself when he saw the next cramp. My quad was in spasm so I couldn't straighten my leg. I figured I had to stretch it. So, standing on my left leg I grabbed my right ankle and BOOM! My hamstring locked in a sudden violent vice like cramp. I roared. It felt like I had been shot in the leg. It took over a minute for me to lower my foot back to the ground. Epic cramp and up there with the worst I've had. The next hour was pure survival. One of the toughest things I've done and my longest ever time on the saddle! Next time I'll bloody train for it!!

Today I started running again. Its been over 3 weeks. 2x8km easy runs in the glorious sunshine. It was laboured, panting, sweaty stuff but I ain't complaining. Next event is in 10 days. A 24 hour trail relay. I'll get the bones of a dozen runs in prep assuming my legs hold up. Gulp!

shotgunmcos

...and I miss swimming :cool:

Kurt Godel

shotgunmcos wrote: »

...and I miss swimming :cool:

~If only there was some way to remedy this ailment...

mossym

this swimming stuff is over rated mike, more running and biking, if you;re not too tired to care about swimming then you're not training hard enough...

nerraw1111

Good stuff mike. Those cramps sound mental. It was a great event. Really enjoyable up until the last loop of 20km or so where everything went out the window.

shotgunmcos

2x8km runs again today. Same two routes as yesterday. 37:44 and 39:16 compared to 37:14 and 38:34 yesterday. Warm and sticky again. Nearly got run over by a foul rotten toothed smoking woman breaking a yield line. Ended up thumping her bonnet. Otherwise uneventful. Right calf is straining, the usual...

Dory Dory

Hey there Stud Muffin. Just checking in to see how you are doing and to tell you I think of you and your rowing each time I have an awful pull buoy set to do in the pool as I tend to think of my arms as oars - digging and pushing/pulling - with each miserable stroke. Hope the bun in the oven is progressing well. !!!

sconhome

shotgunmcos wrote: »

2x8km runs again today. Same two routes as yesterday. 37:44 and 39:16 compared to 37:14 and 38:34 yesterday. Warm and sticky again. Nearly got run over by a foul rotten toothed smoking woman breaking a yield line. Ended up thumping her bonnet. Otherwise uneventful. Right calf is straining, the usual...

At least watching you run and trying to figure out what is wrong will keep me occupied through the witching hours of Saturday night / Sunday morning

mossym

good luck at the weekend to the two of ye. i'm sure your name will pop up as we enjoy the post kilkee pints:)

pgibbo

Congrats on the weekend. How's the body after it? Good prep for August I assume.

shotgunmcos

Right the Mizuno Endure 24 event came and went and was a laugh

We laughed getting there. Lost at the airport, lost en route to Reading with Sean winging it on directions. We laughed though. Noel had signed up for it literally the previous day. He walked into Sean's shop and after a chin wag we had the ultra runner/cage fighter (:eek:) on our team. We even lost each other for a bit splitting up to find drugs and food supplies in a little weird town.

We arrived at the event, which was a massive field with hundreds of very impressive tents. We got momentarily lost looking for our parking lot and laughed at that of course The conditions were perfect for a 24 hours race start. Thunder, lightning and incessant heavy rain :rolleyes: Still, we blagged some free ponchos from the Mizuno VIP tent thanks to Sean's connections and were the envy of every drowned singlet clad skinny mini and their soaked support.

We had about 4 minutes to get ourself sorted before the gun went. The pop up tent erected itself in about 3 seconds and we laughed at that. Our little tent would have been the dog's tent under the impressive camping set ups of most others.

The plan, based on our collective 5 minutes training, was to aim for a lap each hour. Allowing for a gentle approach and walk breaks. Sean was first off and arrived back 40 minutes later covered in mud and panting. A stern talk to Noel who repeated same in 45 minutes. Then I vowed to take it handy and did a 39 and 38 first couple of laps. The course was a 8km undulating loop with some proper muddy bits and very little traction all round. We were each wearing brand new shoes too, what a way to break them in!

The goal was to basically repeat the relay handover for as long as we could go. We discussed strategy back at the tent with faces stuffed with fig rolls and other mushy goodies. We decided on 3 individual laps each followed by a double. That got us up to a shade before midnight and 120km between us. That was our initial goal. I had the last pitch dark shift of that section and arrived back at the tent to find 3 bottles of beer waiting for a mini celebration of completing the jist of a marathon each. We laughed. The rain had stopped and we were in good spirits still. The course was in tatters after the rain and soaked muddy socks were strewn around the perimeter of the tent.

While each of us did the double lap the other 2 were supposed to get some kip. Sean decided to fetch some meatball pasts thingy and walk around instead. I attempted a kip in the tent in the middle of the contents of Seans 20kg luggage, however a camping sing song next door and flash runner lights every few seconds made that difficult.

At this stage, almost midnight, the 3 of us had a real collective respect for the solo runners. Nothing short of lunatics and soldiers they were. Non stop for 24 hours as the rest of the teams of up to 8 lounged about, snoozing and eating.

From 12 to 3am we put in another weary lap each bring us up to 144km. We thought we could get to 200 between us within the 24 hours until the sleep monsters took over. Sean was convinced his latest 71 minute 8km was his fastest lap, Noel had embraced the latest downpour like a man possessed and I took to grabbing random people thinking they were trees as I plodded through the mud.

I arrived back to the tent about 3am and Noel awoke. He gave Sean a tug and he stirred. I wanted to pull the sleeping bag off his feet but I elected to curl up in the back seat of the car instead. I woke up nearly 3 hours later as day was breaking. The sleep had brought my sum total of sleep to 7 hours over the previous 3 nights. I was exhausted. Everything was covered in mud.

The first thing I noticed was the simple plodding of feet on the course just outside the car. People were still running. Some clean and fresh from teams of 8 bounding passed and other solo heroes with camelbacks shuffling steadily in a trance. I looked into the tent and the boys were missing. I assumed running and my turn was soon approaching. I dozed off off again only to be woken by the lads almost straight away. The only running they had done since was down to the food tent to swallow some bacon butties. Sean had washed his down with coffee and was hyper all set to run again until I angrily stated I was going for a bacon butty. The lads opted to ditch the running and head for seconds. It was about 8am by the time we had swallowed heaven in a bap.

I was done. I had zero interest in more running and my cage fighting side kick felt likewise. Sean however was on a high and set off to amble through 2 more laps to round our total to 160km while we packed up the stuff. The folding of the pop up tent proved to be a 5 man job! We laughed easily. Even though we didn't go for the full 24 hours there was pride collecting the medals. We had been as under prepared as you get and the metal discs were thus hard earned.

Great experience and doing this as a relay was the way to go. I don't know how the solo guys n gals did it.. madness! We stopped off for pizza en route to the airport and laughed about everything.

The plane home was uneventful until Sean decided to launch some poisonous gel and bacon flavoured gas at the woman sitting in front of him. She nearly clawed her way out of the plane window to escape the smell as Sean practically wet himself laughing. He shot a second mischievously at her 10 minutes later and I thought she was going to kill us both. Apart from that I managed to get lost on the motorway driving home :rolleyes::D Work the next day was the real test of endurance...

sconhome

http://www.ultra12.com/

Solo

shotgunmcos

Its hard to put this race into mere words but here goes..

Happy Reading. My fingers are about all that were working properly and now they too have cramped up :cool:

Trig1

Great report...some tough race!!

shotgunmcos

Thanks Trig. Unfortunately that is likely to be the last one of the year.

Baby is 9 weeks away and huge work projects coming up so I'll knock the idea of Dublin on the head. Instead I plan to build into my first proper winter training in years. Build base fitness without rushing the run mileage and lots of skills work.

I promise some tasty reports in 2015 ðŸ˜

MrCreosote

Godzone is on in Wanaka next year!

Just saying, you know...

pgibbo

Sounds epic Mike!!! :cool: Fair play to the 4 of you. Congrats.

It sounds like the experience will stand you in good stead for 9 weeks time :pac: