The difficult second album

mossym

RJM85 wrote: »

Feck comfort. When I finally have the money together to splurge on a serious TT bike my main requirements are going to be that it's a) flash as f### and b) ridiculous as f###. Custom paint job, the works.

when you're on it for as short a time as you that's a reasonable approach..;)

peter kern

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]to conider if a good 11 speed deal comes up.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/FLO_DISC_with_11_speed_P4905413



[/FONT]

joey100

Thanks for that Peter, just had a quick look online and seems to be that I could put a 11 speed campagnolo cassette on my disc (once I get the freehub for campagnolo) and then run a 11 speed groupset on it. Good to know, but you might just have cost me more money!

joey100

Mon 8th Feb

Early morning swim. Mix of fast and slow stuff today. Felt decent enough in the water, still feel like I'm fighting it a bit sometimes but overall a decent enough session.

Afternoon run. Heart rate a lot more settled for this run, legs felt pretty good too, heart rate still a little quick to rise once the road goes up but overall it wasn't too bad. Wind was mad out, hit me from a side road at one stage and brought me to a stop. One of my better recent runs.

Tues 9th Feb

Evening turbo. Similar to last week, this week was 5 x (5@280w,2 rec). These were tough, were going to be tough anyway but the legs were still feeling Saturdays long cycle. Pleased I held it across them all though, last 2 were very close but just held it above the power. Equalled my 30min and 1hr power records too and the recoveries and easy parts were a fair bit lower than usual today.

Wed 10th Feb

Early morning swim. Bit of a mix of stuff today, drills during 50's and then 10 x 100m alt sw/pull. Swim times starting to come down a little bit, averaged around 1.35 today, would usually be around 1.37. Pull times are still high 1.40's. Feeling better about my swim.

Afternoon run. Same route as Monday and was probably a little faster today but that was more because of the lack of wind. Legs felt good, heart rate very similar to Monday's but felt a bit more in control of it today. Lovely day for a run, not too cold, not too warm and no real wind.

Evening club run. Club has nearly doubled it's numbers this year so from what used to be around 8 running on a Wednesday night we are getting close to 20 now. Lot's of mixes of abilities so no one really left behind. Session was 10 x 400m with 90 second recoveries. Done these with Laura, held around 1.52 for each of the 400's so pleased with how consistent she was. nice run session, good craic and enough of an effort without killing my legs.

joey100

Thurs 11th Feb

Evening turbo. Nothing fancy, 1 hr easy. Legs felt decent enough and average power was around 189w.

Fri 12th Feb

Early morning swim. Bit of a different one this morning, bit longer than usual. Arms feeling it by the end but felt alright in the water, starting to get to the stage again when I will put in a good length or 100m, just need to start stringing these together now.

Evening run. 6 x 1 min on, 1 min off. I remember around November doing a similar session to this and I ran the 1 min hard at around 3.25 pace, with the wind behind me. Even though the easy runs haven't been feeling great recently the hard runs have been good so pushed this one on a bit. Averaged around 3.15 pace for the 1 mins. PLeased with this, nice improvement since November and I was in decent enough shape back then too.

Sat 13th Feb

Bike spin. Cold enough leaving the house so stuck to the main roads as much as possible. Good spin on the bike, power was good and body felt good. Averaging a decent speed too, even when I had to go through a few towns and villages. Got to 3hrs done and around 86km and met Laura for lunch. SPin home then from there and added abit extra to get to the 100km mark. It was on the little extra bit I added that my back tyre exploded. Tube burst and put a nice big hole in the sidewall of the tyre. Bit of limp home after this but around 3.35 for the 100km and legs felt good for the whole way. Normalised power was around 165w so right in middle of easy zone.

Sun 14th Feb

Long run. Done later in the day than I would have liked and one of them days were you are very tempted to skip it. A strange run, at times was moving well and other times it felt like I had never run before. Glad I done it though and felt better for doing it. Probably didn't eat enough during the day before it though and around half an hour in I start to feel hungry, something to remember if I'm running late again. Just under 19km done in 1hr 30 mins.

joey100

Mon 15th Feb

Rest Day. nice to have the whole day off, didn't miss getting up early for a morning swim.

Tues 16th Feb

Evening turbo. Keeping it nice and easy for 45 mins. Legs feeling good.

Wed 17th Feb

Early morning swim. Main set being 8 x 100m coming in around 1.35 average and then 16 x 50m alt sw/pull. Pace decent enough for these. Good session in the pool and even though the times weren't great I felt decent enough.

Lunch time run. 30 mins nice and easy. Took the watch ages to get satellites but got them eventually. Around 6.5km done and the legs felt great. Nice and rested.

Hoping to have an entry to the Naas duathlon race this weekend. Should be confirmed in the next day or two. Good timing at the end of a recovery week so no real taper needed for it and shouldn't impact on training at all really. Be nice to get the first race of the season out of the way.

joey100

Thurs 18th Feb

Evening turbo. 1hr easy, not really got going or felt fully comfortable for this. No problem holding the power just felt a little bit off on the bike. Like I was always stuck in 1st gear or something.

Fri 19th Feb

Early morning swim. Main set being 8 X 200m off around 3.40 aiming to hold around 3.20 pace. Tried to pace these as consistently as possible and had a quick look at the pool clock every hundred, usually holding around 1.40 per 100 and keeping it consistent across the 200 and then all the 200's. At times it felt ok and other times a bit of an effort to keep it there but all in it wasn't too bad. held around 3.19-3.21 for them so a good session. There are 2 clocks on the wall around half way down the pool, was using these as a rough guess at what a 25m pool would be, have Laois sprint in April in a 25m pool. I would get a lot more breaks! And I reckon it would be another 150-200m before the effort really started to show because of this. Be interesting to see how I transfer across.

Lunch time run. Got this done at lunch time to try and give as much easy time as I can between the session and the race on Sunday. Timing of the race works well, it's at the end of an easy week anyway so no tapering needed so shouldn't miss any training really to fit it in. 40 mins easy with 5 X 45 @ race pace and 1.15 easy. legs felt alright for this, easy was no problem at all and was nice and comfortable. Bit like the bike on Thursday struggled to get going at times, especially on the race pace bits but was still able to hold the pace fairly handy. Missed it on the first one because a bus emptied onto the path in front of me but other than that was comfortable enough, didn't judge the pace great at times and pushed on a bit but overall a good run.

MD1983

best of luck - i see the weather is supposed to be crap on sunday;)

joey100

Cheers MD, you must be looking at a different forecast to me! Looks like it will be cool with a bit of wind, under strict orders that if there is any ice or its cold enough for Ice I'm not to race. Too close to outlaw. Feeling like I do before every race, like I could do with another training block!

MD1983

ah thats always the way, i also think that b4 every race. from met.ie:

Saturday night will be dull and breezy with outbreaks of rain continuing. The rain will be heaviest over the southern half of the country with temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees. It will be lighter further north, where it will be colder with lowest temperatures of 3 to 6 degrees.

Sunday will start off dull with rain in many areas. The rain will gradually clear southwards through the afternoon. Scattered showers will follow from the northwest. Temperatures will reach between 8 and 11 degrees in Munster and south Leinster, but will range from just 4 to 7 degrees further north with moderate to fresh westerly breezes.

i hope it turns out well as duathlons are miserable in the wet

RJM85

Best of luck. Full gas!

Dory Dory

Best of luck with it! Enjoy the race!

RJM85

Looks like a solid result in a strong field today. Well done.

joey100

Sat 20th Feb

Turbo session. 2 hrs easy with 5 x 1mins @ race watts. Aiming for around 255w for this and no real problem holding them, wasn't great at judging the effort though and was a bit jumpy. Kept the average power a little lower than normal around 178w and legs felt good.

Sun 21st Feb

I only seem to race in horrible weather. Since the start of 2015 in every race I have done except for 1 it's been cold, windy or wet or all three. Today was all 3. Disc's were banned, didn't have mine with me anyway but just to give an idea of wind. Bike were being constantly blown over in transition and my helmet came off the bike and cracked the ear piece, think it had a small crack anyway but a big proper chunk now so probably need a new helmet. Anyway down nice and early, racked and registered. Didn't put the shoes on the bike, with the wind being across us for the majority of the bike course I didn't fancy trying to sort them out and deal with the wind so played it safe. Run warm up done, heart rate a little high but nothing out of the normal and overall body felt good.

Run 1 -- 11.36

First run is shorter than the second, around 300-400m. Didn't push myself up far enough and ended up boxed in a good bit. Bit of pushing around and finally after around 600m got away from that group. The smaller group in front with a few lads I was trying to match got a better start but never really pulled away from me, managed to hold the distance but couldn't really close. The back 1.5km of the course was into a horrible headwind but picked off person to person and worked my way up through the field. Finished strongly enough, never pushed too hard cos knew I would be running again. Average pace around 3.41.

Transition 1.17

Bit of fumbling to get helmet strap closed, cost me a few easy seconds but nothing major.

Bike 33.16

I had given the bike the once over before the race, except for one thing, the front wheel. It's been on the turbo since my last race so never bothered checking it. There was serious front wheel wobble at the start, enough to convince me that there was something up with the wheel so a quick pull over and loosen and then re tighten the wheel and all was good. Stupid mistake by me and one I won't be making again. Cost me around 20-30 seconds I reckon. Other than that I flew the bike course, except for my cornering. Need more time on the TT bike. Think I had 12th fastest time on the course including my stop and dodgy bike handling. Average power was around 215 with NP around 230 so I probably left a bit on the course. Was conscious on the uphills not too push too much, to try and keep power spiking to a minimum, and try and keep the power steady. Also found it a bit easier on the flat to put out the power compared to normal. So even though my FTP is staying similar the ability to put out the power seems to be getting better. Got out of my shoes on an uphill with a headwind when I knew it would be a little easier, a bit early but I knew the finish straight would have a crosswind and make it difficult so came out a bit early. Worked well, the few lads in front of me stayed in but didn't pull away on the hill and I passed 3/4 of them while they were struggling to get out with the winds. Decent enough dismount and into T2 with no real problems.

T2 1.03

Nothing really happened here, in and out in decent time.

Run 2 12.54

I knew this run was a bit longer so didn't set out too fast. A bit of a twinge in my left calf, never fully cramped but just enough to know something was there. Passed fairly early on by 2 lads (all came out of T2 together) and they caught another not long after. Tried to close the gap to them for the back straight but couldn't get close enough and was very exposed on the straight. Worked hard and was feeling it. Passed by another towards the end but passed one or two myself too. Nothing left when I crossed the line and was pleased overall. 3.50 average pace for 2nd run so not too big a drop off.

Overall 1.00.03. 17th Place

Was aiming for 1hr before the race and really I should have got it. A stupid bike mistake and poor handling on the corners cost me. Legs felt decent for the runs and suffered well on the second one. Pleased with the power on the bike, normally takes me a few spins on the TT bike to get going properly but today was good. Tough conditions so happy with the bike time and a 12th place bike with the stop was good. Looking back maybe left a little on the bike course, but nothing major. Legs feeling ok today, maybe I could have gone harder on the run?

Last time I done the race it was cold but no real wind and was 2014, today I was 30 seconds faster on the first run, 2mins faster on the bike and 1 min faster on the second run today in tough conditions so a good improvement. A few of the lads who finished close to me (within 30-45 seconds) would normally run away from me in a duathlon so to be that close to them is good. More work needed but definitely moving in the right direction. Need to get out more on the TT bike too. Plenty of easy time to be made up. The lads I was trying to catch on the first run and who I wanted to start with kept pretty much the same distance from me the whole race. Bad start probably cost me more than the stopping on the bike. Good to get first race done and make the silly mistakes I seem to make a lot!

mossym

nicely done joe. these early season races are useful for pointing out what needs work. i bet you'll check the wheels before every race from now on..:)

joey100

I definitely will! Just a silly mistake and if it wasn't as windy I might have got away with it, not in that wind though. Well done on your result, just think how short that will compare to Copenhagen!

mossym

joey100 wrote: »

I definitely will! Just a silly mistake and if it wasn't as windy I might have got away with it, not in that wind though. Well done on your result, just think how short that will compare to Copenhagen!

guy on the mike yesterday was a friend of mine, was in college with him. post race i jogged back down to the road to both warm up and to collect my keys from someone who was holding them for me. guy on mike announces to everyone i was heading off to do it again, one of the marshalls starts joking with me that i must be a glutton for punishment, told him given what was ahead of me in august i probably should be heading out to do it again

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Good racing J

Neady83

Great way to kick the year off Joey, well done and great report too

pgibbo

Nice going Joey.

Given the pace you've been running for some of your speed work I'd have thought you'd have been running in the low 3:4x or high 3:3x. Are you holding back a bit on the run?

joey100

Would have hoped for a bit faster myself alright P, I definitely felt I held a little back on the first run, not a huge amount, was probably too conscious of the second run. Here come the excuses now, the course has about 1.5km into the headwind along the exposed part at the back of the race course. First km was controlled and was around 3.30 and felt ok, plan was to pull it back a bit, had to adjust on the go and pull back a bit more, heart rate was rising too high. Never really had the full effect of the wind behind us and when we did it was for the last 400m ish. I have ran that pace for around 10km (the 3.41 I averaged over the 3.2km) so would have hoped for maybe a bit faster alright, hard to know if I didn't have it in me or the wind was a bigger factor but I'd like to think I could go faster on a better day.

joey100

Mon 22nd Feb

Early morning swim. Legs heavy today in the water and could feel them dragging a bit when I wasn't using the pull buoy. Tired this morning and it showed in the times. 10 x 100m alt sw/pull, swims were around 1.36-1.38 and pull were the usual 1.49-1.51.

Afternoon run. Not as tired for this but even though the legs felt alright during the morning they were heavy for this. Still though a fairly decent pace and heart rate seemed nice and controlled. Around 6.8km ran.

Evening run with Laura. More of a recovery run than anything. Around 5km done at 6 min kilometre pace, run feels a bit off this slow but legs felt better at the end and was a nice evening to be out. Decent run day.

Tues 23rd Feb

Evening turbo. Nothing fancy, 1hr easy with 5 x 20 second sprints thrown in. Never really sure what gear to sprint in so for the first 3 used the normal gear and then for the last 2 went 1 gear harder. More power in the last 2 so will try and use this one from now on. Legs were ok for the easy stuff but felt the sprints.

Wed 24th Feb

Early morning swim. Not as bad as Monday but legs still a little heavy. Lots of sculling, I'm still very slow, mixed with some 50's. Nothing too long and was glad of it. Busy pool this morning, must be the Dublin Ironman effect.


I've seen a video of my T2 and run out since the race on Sunday. Apart from nearly covering an innocent child spectator in snot on the way in the other thing that stood out to me was the lead I had out on the other 2/3 fellas. Made up a good bit of time in T2 and was the first out of the group of 4 of us. I know it's easy to say now but if I had of realised the lead I had I would/should have pushed on more at the start. Looking at the video I was able to see the effort the other lads had to put in to try and catch me early so I reckon if I had of pushed on I might have been able to stay away a bit longer or at least forced them to work harder. Race tactics though, something you can't learn in training!

rodneyr1981

joey100 wrote:

Early morning swim. Legs heavy today in the water and could feel them dragging a bit when I wasn't using the pull buoy. Tired this morning and it showed in the times. 10 x 100m alt sw/pull, swims were around 1.36-1.38 and pull were the usual 1.49-1.51.

Big difference with use of pb. How does your pool and open water times compare?

joey100

Usually race a bit faster in open water than my swim or pull buoy times from the pool. Strange because you would think it would be similar to my pb times. I know last year my PB over 400m was around 6.10, Kurt went under 6 a few times in the pool. But in the two races we done together I was on his toes in Caroline Kearney getting out and I beat him in Dublin (Sorry Kurt, only using your times as an example because I chase them ). Ck time was 22.10 and Dublin was 24.42 (Dublin times were slower than normal for the majority of people). So averaging around 1.33 per 100 (very rough calculation). I do think though that open water is a different type of swimming and I've tried to be a bit smarter in how I race outside. Constantly looking for people to draft off and try and pick people off and work my way up.

zico10

joey100 wrote: »

Would have hoped for a bit faster myself alright P, I definitely felt I held a little back on the first run, not a huge amount, was probably too conscious of the second run. Here come the excuses now, the course has about 1.5km into the headwind along the exposed part at the back of the race course. First km was controlled and was around 3.30 and felt ok, plan was to pull it back a bit, had to adjust on the go and pull back a bit more, heart rate was rising too high. Never really had the full effect of the wind behind us and when we did it was for the last 400m ish. I have ran that pace for around 10km (the 3.41 I averaged over the 3.2km) so would have hoped for maybe a bit faster alright, hard to know if I didn't have it in me or the wind was a bigger factor but I'd like to think I could go faster on a better day.

I think you might also have gone faster if you left your HRM at home. In an event lasting an hour, what's the worst that could have happened?

joey100

Probably some truth in that alright zico, on the bike I tend to use the power meter as a way of pushing, so I can see how far off my target I am where on the run I probably use HR a bit more as an excuse to back off the pace.

Kurt_Godel

FWIW like rodneyr1981 my jaw dropped when I saw the big difference in your swim and pb 100's. You outperform in OW in a wetsuit (compared to pool), so I would have expected your pb times to be a lot closer to your swim times, given heightened legs etc. This would suggest you race very well, and can hitch a lift during Tri swims at will, so any advice on how you switch from toe to faster toe would be much appreciated!

zico10

Your kick is obviously a huge asset to you. It's taken out of the equation when you use a pull bouy, but not when you're in a wetsuit. It should hardly be a surprise you perform so much better in a wetsuit. Also one huge advantage to a wetsuit, that I very seldom hear people mention, is how much more sleek it makes you in the water.

joey100

My kick would be pretty decent, I remember when I was swimming with my tri club I could do 100's with kick board coming in around 2 mins, when I was at my fittest, wouldn't have been too many of these back to back though.

Probably what Zico says Kurt, Pull buoy completely takes kick out and for me I find it throws out my balance and timing a bit, probably try and glide too much and arm turnover can be a bit slower with the pull. I've cut the legs right up to the knees pretty much on my old wetsuit to try and keep my feet in the water and it seemed to work well.

Not much advice really on open water swimming, I think I mentioned it to you before at a race Kurt but I'll have a good look around when I'm in the race. If there is someone matching my pace I'll always let them lead, I'll pull in behind and daft them for a bit while I have a look around to see if I can catch anyone ahead of them. If I can I'll throw in a sprint to try catch their toes and then draft them, regroup a bit and go again. I've done a few open water swim sessions with Peter Kern and he really pushes the benefits of drafting in open water. Why kill yourself and get out maybe 15 - 30 seconds quicker when you can draft the whole way and save a huge amount of energy. Think the thing I really lack is a good sprint off the line, the lead group always manages to get away from me and I find myself working my way up through the rest the whole swim. Unless I'm sure I can pass someone and put distance between us I'll normally choose to draft until I have the energy to.

joey100

Thurs 25th Feb

Run at lunch time in work. 30 mins easy, kept it nice and easy and legs felt good. Heart rate really starting to get settled and what ever was up with me for the last while seems to be finally disappearing. Around 6.6km done.

Evening splash and dash. Had to hang around the southside for a bit after work so got a quick swim in. How ever bad the pool is in the morning it's not half as bad as it is in the evening. 4 lanes, 2 slow, 1 medium and 1 fast. Fast was busiest and seemed to attract all the breast and back strokers. Got a bit done but it was a bit stop start and was more about getting into the water than doing any fantastic sets.

Fri 26th Feb

Slept it out for the early morning swim. Slept it out that much that I missed work! Don't like missing sessions but it wasn't that I even turned off the alarm for this I just slept right through.

Lunch time run. 20 easy, 20 steady and 5 easy. easy pace a good bit better than recently and steady pace was around 10 seconds per km faster than last time I ran at this effort for largely the same course. Bit of a confidence builder. Around 10km done.

Sat 27th Feb

The club was doing a 5km park run and Laura was going to give it a go to see how well her training has been. I reckoned she was on for a 25 min, she thought closer to 26 mins so I said I would pace her a bit and we could see how she got on as we went. Bit of a warm up done and started the run. 1st km was prob a little fast and I had to actually had to grab her arm to pull her back at one stage. 2nd and 3rd km were bang on time and then it started to bite. 4th was a bit slower but the pace was upped for the last one and we crossed the line in 24.33. A huge PB for her, over 2 mins off her last time and for the last 3 weeks she has been struggling with an ear infection so a bit of time there if she was fit and healthy too. Bit of a cool down for around 7.5km ran.

Home then and out on the bike. Plan was for 3hrs. Power meter died fairly early on but I was half expecting it and am just waiting on batteries to be delivered. Little or no wind and pace was decent for the whole thing. Legs felt good, bit dead at higher efforts but steady and easy was no problem. Just over 3hrs done for around 92km.

Sun 28th Feb

Long run done nice and early. 1hr 15 mins easy. Picked the hilly route and headed out. 16km done in just over the time. Legs were a bit heavy from the cycle on Saturday, probably pushed a bit too hard at times to keep the average speed up but overall a pretty comfortable run. Average heart rate 148 so right in the middle of easy zone and not a particularly fast route either.

Sun evening for the first time in a long time I done some core work. No harm in it and hopefully it will help me hold my form better in the swim and run. Plenty of core work, didn't push too hard or long, ease myself into it and hopefully won't suffer from any tightness during the week. Some stretching and foam rolling done too. Good few days training and finally starting to feel like I'm getting back to 100%. Still a bit to go but the signs are there.


And I have entered Dublin. Got a Tri club entry last week so decided I'd give it a go. Outlaw half will be my first race at the distance so hopefully I can learn a bit from it and use it in Dublin. Timing actually works well too and will be my last race of the season. An expensive one but hopefully it will be a good day out.