The difficult second album

joey100

So first week into taper done. Mainly a run taper, plenty of work still done on the bike.

Swim 2 sessions. One with another lad and working hard for it, main set of 10x100m off 1.45 aiming for sub 1.30. Drafted half of these and led the other half. Pleased with how I held the pace, under for them all and felt strong. Done after around 1000m warm up too and then another good bit added at the end. Working hard and a good session. Next was 15x200m alt swim/pull all steady paced. Busy lane so was trying my best to work around others and sort of settled into this session. At times would have to push to pass others mid lane but overall a more steady effort than hard.

Run. 4 sessions. Long run Done on a Sat evening instead of usual Sunday morning, 90 mins done. Took first 2km or so to settle in but once I did was moving well, first 55 mins or so was a lumpy route and once it flattened out my easy pace wasn't far off the planned race pace. Friday was 45 mins easy, similar enough to Saturday in that it took a bit to get going but again good pace for effort. Wednesday was 50 mins with 2x(10 steady, 2 mins faster than 3.55min/km 6 ez). These were done on the new lap near the village. Pleased with these, it's not a complete flat loop but steady effort was around 4.05min/km and no issues going faster then the 3.55 at all. Legs felt good for this. Sunday was a brick run of 30@ planned race pace, 10 steady, 5 easy. Settled well into planned race pace, had to pull it back a bit to get it closer, felt very easy though, nice rhythm and wasn't really working. Steady was again around 4.05min/km and felt strong for this. Still a bit of fatigue in the legs but only 1 week since a 3hr run so to be expected.

Hours on the bike down this week but the intensity was there! Sunday was my longer spin, meant to be 3 hrs outside but with the rain and slippy roads I took no chances and done this on the turbo. 2.5hours with around half of that spent close to HIM watts, and the other half pretty much at planned race watts. No issues here at all and ran well off this session. Sat was 1.5hours spent around 65-75% of FTP. Easy enough session really. Tuesday and Thursday were 2 of the hardest sessions I have done in a long time. Tuesday was 60 mins with 2x7@105%,2x5@108%,3@115%,2@121%, 3 mins recovery between each. Probably found the longer intervals @ 107% the hardest, combination of length and I found it hard to settle around the target, was usually too high or just under. A tough session and set new 40,45,50 and 60 min power records during this. Did feel pretty short though @ 1hr. Thursday then was 90 mins with 16 min intervals starting at 60% and going up to 100% in 10% jumps. Didn't feel too bad until near the end of the 90% interval and then it started to catch up a bit with me. Working hard again and new power records from 40-60 mins set 2 days after just setting the older ones. Really pleased with the bike this week, time overall down but the effort was really there.

So overall a short enough week around 12.5hours. Run has been pulled back a fair bit and into a type of run taper. Overall bike hours down too but the intensity was really there, this will ease off a bit now this week too. Into the proper taper now really, hours will be a bit lower this week again but still keeping some intensity there. Had hoped to get out on the bike yesterday with full race kit but skipped it because of the weather, Thurs turbo will probably be swapped for a spin outside to check on the gear and Saturdays spin should be done outside with it too. Have settled on a castelli free aero tri top and just bought a pair of compressport tri shorts that I have found really comfortable. Some repairs and preventative work done on the wetsuit over the weekend as well as changing the power meter battery and Hr strap battery too. Plan is to bring 4 wheels with me to the race, deep front and back along with disc and shallow front. Should be covered for all weather conditions there and all tyres have been changed recently enough. Going to be going with my evade 2 helmet over a full aero helmet, nottingham has been very warm the last while (averaging above 26 degrees) and I think it will be safer bet to use the evade, it's not as hot or as heavy as the full aero helmet so I think in the overall plan for the race it's worth giving up the extra time. Didn't feel great at all last week, just felt a bit crappy but got all the sessions done and feeling a good bit better now. Still 2 weeks to go but feeling good about the work I have done, again I'm looking at other people's results and wondering am I being too ambitious with my time but we will find out that on the day!

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

I'm looking at other people's results and wondering am I being too ambitious with my time but we will find out that on the day!

Go for it Joe. Guaranteed you won't get the result you want if you don't roll the dice. Unfortunately little mistakes in IM really get magnified so a *nearly* race can seem like a miss on paper if that makes sense.

joey100

Ah it wasn't your result I was looking at really, You were in a strange situation of a shortened bike and how that would impact the run, more a few other people I have seen the last few weeks in Austria and places like that, but I'll go out to plan and see what happens! How are you after the race anyway?

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

Ah it wasn't your result I was looking at really, You were in a strange situation of a shortened bike and how that would impact the run, more a few other people I have seen the last few weeks in Austria and places like that, but I'll go out to plan and see what happens! How are you after the race anyway?

Sorry - that could have come across a bit defensive which isn't what I intended. I think you're capable of what you've set out to do and the training I've seen supports that. Whether everything goes right on the day depends on a host of factors but to my mind you're better to have gone for it and learn than hold back and wonder.

joey100

one of the disadvantages of text, hard to tell how people are saying something! Didn't think you were being defensive at all, thought it was good advice really, but didn't want you to think I was only talking about your result, been a few people the last few weeks who have suffered on the run. It's great way to look at a race that might not go to plan and how to approach it.


I'll be sticking to the plan for the race, and the plan is to go out at 4.40min/km, how far I will get I don't know but it would be worse if I didn't try, seen a quote about 20 mins ago on Bardet's top tube from the tour de France, 'take the risk or lose the chance' and that sums it up really! I've had a pretty good run up to this race, can't really complain to be honest apart from 1 or 2 little niggles I've been grand and the numbers in training have been going the right way. I've said from the start sub 10 is the goal, that's the big target, it's a little scary, my first full distance and no idea how it will go but I'd be more annoyed if I didn't try. I'm probably not going to get as good a run up as this, if I blow up I blow up but at least I've stuck to the plan and given it a proper go. The session that's given me the most confidence is a recent 205km on the bike and then a half marathon, feeling somewhat comfortable, in 1.35,s o faster than needed on race day. Will be a different ball game on race day and it will that second half of that marathon that will be the real test but if I don't try I won't know.

rooneyjm

You can hold 4.40 and experienced enough not to push beyond that when you’re feeling good early on. 3.16 will be a fine run off the bike, you can do it.

I heard of people pulling up with cramp, hydration/dehydration.

MD1983

the last part of the marathon i found the hardest, last 14km took me c90 mins whereas the first 14km took 68 mins and the middle 14km 70 mins.

best of luck with it and you are right to go for your target

joey100

2nd week of taper. Another step back, around 10 hours done and felt like I done nothing!

Swim. 2 shorter swims this week, not a whole lot done to be honest, there in body rather than effort. Still tho, keeping my run of 2 swims a week going.

Bike. 4 bikes. Hard turbo on Tuesday, 2x7mins@105%, 5@108%, 3@115%,2@121%. 2ez in between. Held fairly well, died for the last 30 seconds of the 3 min effort but held well for the 2. New 35,40,45,50 min power records set. Thursday was out on the road on the TT bike with disc and deep front wheel. Finding the front a bit twitchy, and then less likely to drink because I want to keep my hands on the bars. moving well though and an easy hour done with a 5km Olympic effort in it. Sat was 2.5 hours easy outside, again with full race set up. Stopped after a little bit to mess with the front wheel, it's like it doesn't sit flush in the frame and sort of sits out to an angle. Got it sorted and a lot more comfortable then. Moving pretty well and pleased with the effort. 45 mins on the turbo then last night and the opposite legs to Sat. Taper legs are in full effect now, slow, heavy legs. No problem holding the power but never felt easy or 100% comfortable.

Run. 4 runs this week. 1 hour easy yesterday. Felt clunky and uncomfortable the whole way around, wasn't happy with it, but pleased then when I got home to see the pace was only a second or two over planned race pace and HR was still in easy zone. Sat was a 30 min brick off the bike, all around 15 seconds a km quicker than planned race pace, this felt so easy, like I wasn't even trying. Friday was an easy 40 min run. Wed was 40 mins with 4@4min/km, 3@3.55min/km, 2@3.50min/km and 1@3.40min/km, recoveries were the same time as the efforts and were ran at planned race pace. Felt very comfortable for this.

So overall a decent week, every planned session done and little bit of intensity still there. I need to make a decision on the deep front wheel, I'll bring it with me and decide closer to the day based on the wind. Other than that everything is sorted. Packing has begun and have thrown in a few spares of most things just in case.

So a bit of a review now of how training has gone in the lead up. I can't complain really, I had one niggle with my foot that meant skipping about 9 days running, these were all swapped for bike sessions so I don't feel I missed out too much. The only real impact from this was a lack of hard running in my training. I would have liked to do some more fast stuff but it wasn't worth the risk and I was still able to run around 4min/km in training so a fair bit faster than planned race pace. The last hard session I done though gave me a good bit of confidence (800's), I was running a faster pace than 400's I done last year and holding it. I've done plenty of distance and my weekly mileage was pretty consistent and high, with a fair few 80km + weeks included. Easy pace in training based on HR is now pretty much the planned race pace, most of my brick sessions have been done faster than this and have been ok, with the last big one being a half marathon in 1.35 off a 200km bike, this is a good bit faster than the plan on the day and was no issues at all with it, I settled in and ran well. Furthest I ran was about 37km and 3hours of running. So the marathon on the day will be an unknown but not a huge amount further that what I have done in the lead up.

The bike went really well. I upped my hours a good bit, even without the longer spin on the weekends, 3 turbos every week and was working hard for some of these. Bike FTP went from a 5min of 287 and 20 min of 257 at the start to a 5min of 316 and a 20min of 279 in June. Weight dropped across the 2 tests from 60kg to 58kg too so a nice jump in power. Plenty of long weekend spins included too and 2x200km + spins. All the training done in aero position and felt the benefits of it when I was out on the road. I didn't really miss any bike session, and only 2/3 were altered due to fatigue or soreness. Plenty of positives and I think pretty much all my power records from 1 min up now are from Feb to know. Plenty of confidence to be gained there.

The swim. This is were I know I could have done more work. I could look back and make excuses but I was just lazy and preferred staying in bed to going to the pool. I'll be ok on the day and won't be aiming for a crazy fast time but this is the one place were I have left time behind. I'm hoping it won't have a huge impact on my day, I averaged around 2 swims a week with at least one of these swimming with others and working hard. I know comparatively to these lads I have got faster and I know my times have come down too, probably not as much as I would have liked when I set out but a fair reflection on the training I have done.

So Friday morning I get the boat to Holyhead and drive from there to Nottingham. It's not too bad a drive and should arrive around Friday lunch time. I'm hoping to register and get to a briefing on Friday and then just have the Saturday easy before the race. Meeting my brother up there and my Mam and Dad are going over too. Will be camping about 400m from the race start so that makes all the logistics a lot easier and the morning of the race will be very easy too. All that's left to do now is finish out the training for this week and rest up!

9Crimes

Best of luck!

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

You will go well Joey, enjoy it.

shotgunmcos

Best of luck Joey! Great consistent training and good taper. Now to execute the plan!

MojoMaker

Good luck Joe. I have a good feeling about this one.

RJM85

Best of luck Joe. Word of advice - don't drink as many cans as I did on the ferry to holyhead last friday. I would not have done well in a triathlon this weekend.

MalDoc

Best of luck over. Some work put in the last few years.

griffin100

Best of luck Joey, the hard work has been put in so don't forget to enjoy the experience.

pgibbo

Hey Joey,
Playing catch up on the log. Congrats on the new job.

Safe travels tomorrow and best wishes for the weekend. Have a great race. Go reap the rewards of the great work you've put in.

P.

Pmaldini

Best of luck at the weekend Joey, i've enjoyed following your training all year, you have put in some serious work, i really hope you get the result you deserve,

enjoy the day, P.

Neady83

Best of luck this weekend Joey. You've a seriously consistent and solid training block behind you. Make it count. Really looking forward to reading your report.

Shell to Run

Every best wish at the weekend. Hard work pays off. Smile and enjoy the race.

zico10

Best of luck, Joe. Race hard, but sensibly.

Kurt.Godel

Good luck on Sunday Joe! Stay cool :cool: and have a great race.

RacoonQueen

Best of luck Joey!

rodneyr1981

59.35 swim. Cracking start to the day

rodneyr1981

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

59.35 swim. Cracking start to the day

5.35 bike. Still on for target time.

Looks wet and very windy

rodneyr1981

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

5.35 bike. Still on for target time.

Looks wet and very windy

A very impressive 3.13 run to round off a great performance with a 9.56.

Nicely done sir

Shell to Run

Delighted for you Joey, a cracking time in what looks like tough conditions.

rooneyjm

You took it fairly handy on the bike, you’ll have to go back

RacoonQueen

Nice work Joey.

Pmaldini

Superb time in those conditions Joey, very welldone, look forward to the report
P.

Kurt.Godel

Great swim joey,well done! Hope you are happy with the whole day, looks like a great time in tough conditions