I have no idea what I'm du-ing

career move

Even when you do all that ***** the stupid garmin website doesn't work most of the time

pointer28

Almost forgot, entered a race this morning, the Blackstairs Adventure Race 7 Steps, know very little about it but sure may as well give it a lash anyway. Running, biking and some paddling in the middle, what else is there to know really? Not quite Zofingen but as close as I'm getting for now.

Also, where the hell has she hidden the easter eggs? There was two of them unopened and I can't find them anywhere, serious case of the post long run munchies and an apple just ain't doing the job.

pointer28

Thursday 9/4/15

Bike - 100k

Today should have been an easy/recovery day with my long bike later in the week, but I'm away tomorrow and Saturday and unsure about Sunday so if I wanted to be sure to get it done, then it would have to be today. The fact that I missed a long ride last week also made me more anxious to get it done.

Legs were tired and lifeless after yesterday's tough run, no pain but they just weren't on for any hard work. It's only after today's ride that I really appreciate how flat it was in Westmeath, the middle 50k was just constant up, down, up, down. Not a single decent climb among them but impossible to get into a rhythm and just completely different to what I'm used to. Lovely scenic route though and I'm looking forward to exploring more of the roads around here.

The thread on junk sessions has me in two minds as to whether today's ride was a good or a bad session. On one hand it may have been a good thing to spend 4 hours cycling on tired legs and forcing an adaptation or on the other hand, maybe I would have been better served running easy for 30 mins today and having a better bike ride tomorrow. Who knows?

Four hard days in a row does go against my new training philosophy of no more than 3 hard days without a recovery day and maybe if I'd sat down and thought about it on Monday I could have planned it better but you have to roll with the punches and do what you can, when you can. I'll just have to pay better attention in future and with the house move now complete it should be easier to plan ahead.

career move

Nice work Did you find the eggs?

pointer28

career move wrote: »

Nice work Did you find the eggs?

Not quite!

She wouldn't tell me where they are but she did let me have a piece :rolleyes:

career move

pointer28 wrote: »

Not quite!

She wouldn't tell me where they are but she did let me have a piece :rolleyes:

Haha. You need to think creatively when you're hunting for chocolate

pointer28

Friday 10/4/15

Run - 6.4k + 6 strides

Recovery run and needed it to be honest, legs weren't up to much and while I had intended to do a larger loop I thought the better of it and decided that the point of this session was just a short run to loosen out the legs and not to log mileage, so I took the shorter loop instead.

While my legs took a long time to warm up they improved a lot after the strides and I was moving nicely by the end.

pointer28

Monday 13/4/15

Run - 8k + 6 strides

Bike - Trainer Road Gould - 60 mins - IF .92 TSS 84

Saturday and Sunday were blanks I'm afraid. Was in Galway over the weekend and had planned on getting out for my tempo intervals in the afternoon but teething twin 9 month old boys had different ideas so that idea had to be scrapped. Sunday I felt like crap in the morning and was freezing all day sitting on top of the fire

This morning's run was lovely, nice and floaty feeling, the way you'd love every run to feel. Had hoped to do a trail run this morning but the GF had to go somewhere in the car at short notice so I had to stay local instead. Found a local hill and did an out and back so I ran it from both directions and then threw in a few strides at the end.

Turbo session was another that I've done in the past and a tough one too.

Gould is 8 intervals lasting 3-4 minutes each beginning with 1-2 minutes above FTP between 105-125% FTP and concluding with 2-3 minutes closer to FTP between 95-105% FTP. Recoveries between intervals are 2 minutes each.

More V02 Max work and I'm staying to enjoy them more than I ever did in the past, I think I'm just learning to embrace the suckiness. First time using the new fan and it worked far better than I thought it might have done considering the price point.

pointer28

Tuesday 14/4/15

Run - 24.5k @ 5:36 mins/km

Another long easy one, never really enjoy these purely because of the monotony and boredom but I can't be doing my long runs with quality every week so every second week easy it is for now, unless someone tells me otherwise.

Even though I didn't enjoy it, these long ones are definitely feeling easier and requiring less recovery than they did in the past so I must be doing something right.

pointer28

Wednesday 15/4/15

Run - 8.2k + 6 strides

Would have preferred a bike ride today but in Wexford again so short run was what it was whether I liked it or not.


Thursday 16/4/15

Bike - 134 kms

GF was working in Tullamore today so I planned a roundabout route through the Slieve Blooms that would have me finishing in Tullamore at the same time as her and then get a lift home. The best thing about this was I could take completely new roads and not worry about re-tracing my steps on the way back. Timing was perfect, she finished her work about ten minutes before I met her in the car park. I think in future I should do it the other way around i.e. go to work with her and cycle home as we were chatting in the car and if I had got a soaking or she was held up in work it would have been very awkward as I never thought of throwing a change bag in the car.

As well as being the longest spin by about a third, it was also the first proper climbing I've done this year. Probably not a great idea to do both on the same day but "what doesn't kill you" etc.

The longest I've ever cycled in the last 3 years has been 140 kms and it took me until July to work up to it and I was near dead at the end of it. This year I've hit near enough that distance by mid April with a lot more climbing thrown in and my legs felt great and while they were obviously tired, it was a healthy kind of tired and I'm sure I could have kept going if I wanted to. My rear was a different story though, the chamois in my former best bibshorts seems to have somehow gone flat and lost their cushioning. Something else for the shopping list! Also a hot spot in my left foot that I tend to get on longer spins, I'll have to do a bit of research on that one and see if my cleat positioning is funny.

Oh yeah, almost forgot! Decided to service my brakes that morning before leaving, pulled the rear cable through the outer, frayed the end and couldn't get it back through the outer again. So, 134 kms in the mountains with only a front brake. Descending at 40 km/s while hanging out of the front brake lever and praying that Bambi doesn't step out in front of me was probably not my finest moment.

Other than that and a sore arse, a good day though.


Friday 17/4/15

Bike - 38 kms

Spent the morning replacing the brake cables and outers on the bike, should have been done years ago! I'm a complete mechanophobe if there is such a thing and hate working on any kind of machinery or cars, but really enjoying fettling with the bike and learning as I go, so much so that the credit card took a hammering this weekend and I ordered a bike stand and a mobile tool chest. I had a creak last week that I though was the headset but I fixed it by removing, cleaning and re-greasing all the chainrings and the previous weekend I did the same with the bottom bracket, next project is the wheel bearings.

Nice leisurely spin just to get the legs moving. Felt a little tired, as to be expected, but no big thing and even set a KOM on a local Strava segment (1.5k climb) on the way home. Cold and windy though, and glad I wasn't out for any longer as underdressed for the conditions.

pointer28

Saturday 18/4/15

Nada...Nothing...Zilch...Sweet F#ck All

Had intended to do a decent multi brick sessions (2.5 hours) but ended up being electrician, carpenter, farmer, TV installer etc etc etc. Put it this way, the curtains I hung a fortnight ago are no longer the proper colour and needed to be replaced. Anything for an easy life.


Sunday 19/4/15

See Saturday above.......

Time and permission to do as much training as I liked today but felt like crap all day, freezing cold for no good reason and couldn't get any motivation to move. Seemed to be a touch of a virus.


Monday 20/4/15

Bike - 36k

An easy spin this morning to get back into it for the week. Picked up another Strava KOM on the way home, knew where it was and targeted it intentionally, not the hottest segment going but feck it, I'll take what I can get. According to Strava I was hitting about 480 watts at the top but I don't know how that's calculated or how realistic it may be. It most definitely felt like a hard VO2 Max interval and I was done for at the top.


Run - 13.6k with 2 x 1k Hill Climbs

Found a lovely 1k hill just down the road and set up a Strava segment for myself, no idea what it's called but christened it Piggery Hill as there's a piggery at the bottom. Did the two reps in 4:44 and 4:47 and I would say they felt like a Threshold effort. A nice local benchmark that should come in handy for testing fitness in future. The hill is on a 4k loop so I ran hard up the hill, fast down the hill and then easy for the next 2.5k until the hill came around again. I think if I did this 4/5 times with a WU/CD it would make a decent long run.

Compared to my last house, this new place has it's pros and cons, no nice long, flat canal paths for speed work but a multitude of short, sharp hills for building strength which was sorely lacking in the last place.

pointer28

Tuesday 21/4/15

Bike - 141k

A beautifully scenic route through Leitrim and Roscommon on surprisingly good roads. Lots of up and down but no real climbs. Flying along until 115k and then had a 15k headwind which knocked the stuffing out of me and the foot pain set in around the same. Forgot to re-adjust my cleats after last week so my cycling shoes are now sitting on my desk until they're sorted or the smell gets to me. So while I'm happy with my fitness things were uncomfortable for the last hour.

One short stop for coffee and another toilet break but other than pretty much non-stop. The total non-moving time for the session was 20 minutes over all breaks.

While I was busy at the weekend doing manly stuff with power tools, the GF made me a batch of homemade energy bars based on peanut butter, honey and oats with some dark chocolate chips and sultanas thrown in. I had one every 40 minutes and I think they really helped. They pack a lot of calories into a small portion, easy to digest, not too messy, cheap and easy to make and I'd say they're somewhat healthier than shop bought energy bars, although they could be improved further by using organic almond/cashew butter and manuka honey. They only issue I had was that the tinfoil they were wrapped in was crap and tore into small pieces rather than unwrapping but that's easily solved by using heavier tinfoil.

They probably need a little fine tuning as they are very sweet, so maybe a pinch of salt or some cinnamon or ginger to counteract the sweetness. I was also thinking of adding caffeine but I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad idea. Could I just stir in some ground coffee or would that be daft?

career move

They sound better than your rice cakes anyway

pointer28

career move wrote: »

They sound better than your rice cakes anyway

Ouch :eek::eek::eek:

Good thing I'm not easily offended

I like the idea of the rice cakes I just need to work on the flavour combinations ie not Chocolate & Nutmeg. They're very easy on the stomach and have loads of carbs, be nice to mix them chop and change between them and the peanut butter bars.

Dory Dory

pointer28 wrote: »

I was also thinking of adding caffeine but I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad idea. Could I just stir in some ground coffee or would that be daft?

I would use Espresso Powder - here's what I use in oodles of yummy baked goods and confections I make.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/espresso-powder-3-oz

If the recipe calls for any liquids, I'd probably dissolve the Espresso Powder in that....but if there are no liquids, then I might try and combine it with the peanut butter and/or honey (or melted chocolate )....and if that doesn't work, then just make sure the powder gets distributed evenly throughout the mixture.

If you get this concoction fine tuned, would you mind passing on the recipe? As my training/cycling starts to amp up over the next few months, I'll be looking for tasty nutrition to take with me.

pointer28

Hi Dory,

The base recipe is:

1 Cup Honey
1 Cup Peanut Butter
3 Cups uncooked Oatmeal

Warm the honey and peanut butter in a saucepan, don't cook it, just make it soft and easier to stir in the oats. Press firmly into a tray and leave to cool in the fridge.

While you could go ahead and eat them like that, I added some sultanas and dark chocolate chips but I think the espresso powder might do a better job to counteract the sweetness. A pinch of salt might also help if we're using it for sports nutrition. Basically add anything you like, the bodybuilder types add heaps of protein powder. Ideally it would be nice to have 2/3 flavours and alternate them throughout llong ride.

Be warned though, they're very high in calories! I divided mine into 16 portions (2 bites) and they worked out at over 200 calories each. While the calories don't bother me on the bike, I wouldn't get into the habit of having them with my afternoon coffee. In saying that, I found them very easy on my stomach and they caused me zero issues.

Dory Dory

Wow! That is a lot of calories in such a small space...but in a race, that could be a really good thing! Thanks for the recipe. I may give this a whirl myself this weekend. Do you know, can you freeze what you don't use??

pointer28

Mine have been in the fridge since Sunday and they're still perfectly fine today but I don't know how long they'd last.

I'd say they should be fine in the freezer.

pointer28

Wednesday 22/4/15

Run - 7.6k + 6 strides

Another quick one along the main road in Wexford, dull as anything but served a purpose.


Thursday 23/4/15

Brick Session

The general idea of this was 90 minutes on the turbo holding a steadyish power with 2 x 5k runs @ HM Pace (4:30 mins/km)

Bike 1 - 30 mins

10 Mins warm up, increasing 10% every 2 mins, then into 18 mins @ 80 - 83% with a 2 min ramp to 95% before the run.

Run 1 - 5k @ 4:24 mins/km

Target pace was 4:30 mins/km and while I hit the pace handy enough, legs felt a bit funny for the first few minutes. Quickly settled into though and even though the pace was a bit hotter than planned, the effort felt good so I just went with it.

Bike 2 - 30 mins

2 min ramp from 50 - 80% to start with then, into 12 mins @ 80-83%, 1 min rec, 12 mins @ 80-83% and another 2 min ramp to 95% before transitioning to the run.

Run 2 - 5k @ 4:24 mins/km

While the first run went well I was afraid that this would be the run to show up any weaknesses. Luckily it all went well, jelly legs at the start as expected but quickly settled into a rhythm again and hit the exact same pace as the first run.

Bike 3 - 30 mins

Exactly the same as Bike 2 but I pushed on a bit more for the final 2 min ramp and I think in future I should probably increase this to 105 or 110%. While I had no problems hitting the effort my legs felt heavy coming towards the end, not Vo2 Max kind of pain but a dull ache.


All in all, I'm over the moon with this workout. There was nothing too majorly intense but there was still 145 minutes of steady effort. I did it as a kind of race specific session with next weekends Blackstairs AR in mind and I should have done one last week as well but that just wasn't to be.

Maybe I was a little soft on myself and I could have gone harder on the bike, maybe 85-90% with ramp to 100%+ but I haven't got a coach to tell me otherwise and I'll only find out by doing these things myself. Better go a little easy than go to hard and ruin my race.

Dory Dory

Okay, so you've now got me interested in making my own bars, and after a little investigation I have found you might want to add a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract into your mixture. It might be the flavor you are looking for. You add it to the softened peanut butter/honey mixture (that you can heat in the microwave if you don't want to use a saucepan) before you combine with the dry ingredients. And some of the dry ingredients that have been recommended to add to your base mixture are: chopped dates or raisins, unsweetened coconut, almonds, walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, ground flax, Goji berries, and chocolate, to name a few. And as you note, you can have it firm up on a cookie tray in the refrigerator, or you can bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. I'm definitely going to start working on my own Dory-Bar at the weekend! Thanks pointer!!!

mossym

i'll leave this here:

http://greatist.com/eat/recipes/fruit-and-nut-bars

chocolate / peanut butter to be added as desired:)

mossym

this is them on the right/in middle with a covering of chocolate



on the left are bliss balls, dates, nuts, cocoa power, chilli powder

pointer28

Dory,

I think you can add just about anything you want, coconut was next on my list and I bought a packet of dried mango yesterday which I'll try as well.

Mossym,

Those bliss balls sound lovely, chocolate and chilli is a great combo, similar to a nakd bar I'd say.

pointer28

Friday 24/4/15

Trainer Road - Troubadour - 45 mins - TSS 53 IF .85

3 x 5 min stepped ramps done as 45 secs @ 90%,15 secs @ 105% then each pair of steps rising by 5% so the last pair was 110% and 125%.

Didn't expect to get anything done at all today with visitors coming today but a window of opportunity arose which gave me an hour total to get something done and showered so dived straight into this one.

Warming up I thought that my legs felt surprisingly good after yesterday's brick session but by the end they were well tired.


Sunday 26/4/15

Run - 10.3k with 2 x Piggery Hill and 2k @ HM Pace

1st Hill Rep - 4:45 (not properly warmed up)
2nd Hill Rep - 4:29
2k Interval - 4:23 mins/km

Saturday fell apart on me and got nothing done. Today was meant to be a recovery ride and yesterday a run so I dumped the recovery ride and went for a run today instead as my run has been neglected lately and mileage has been dreadful.

With some specificity in mind for next weekend's race I decided to do 2 reps up my local 1k hill and set a new PB, I also keep the pace up on the downhill section, obviously not for the aerobic gains but for leg speed and to get the quads used to the pounding. Cooled down for another few minutes then threw in another 2k at better than HM Pace just to add a little more quality to the workout. Granted, not a very scientific workout out but intensity is intensity. No full recoveries just constant easy running between the intervals.

Dory Dory

What race have you got next weekend??

pointer28

Dory Dory wrote: »

What race have you got next weekend??

http://www.blackstairsadventurerace.com/Home/SevenBlackSteps

Nothing too serious, was a bit peed off a few weeks ago when my plans for The Pig were scuppered so just entered something to keep me interested. Haven't raced anything since the Ferrycarrig 5 Mile in early January and I feel that I need something to focus on otherwise the training seems a bit pointless.

If this goes well and I enjoy it, I'll probably enter the Killarney AR in October.

I suppose these types of AR are about the closest I'm going to get to LD duathlon in Ireland at the moment. Plus, it's close to the parents house so accommodation sorted and I'll stay on for an extra day or two afterwards.

catweazle

pointer28 wrote: »

http://www.blackstairsadventurerace.com/Home/SevenBlackSteps

Nothing too serious, was a bit peed off a few weeks ago when my plans for The Pig were scuppered so just entered something to keep me interested. Haven't raced anything since the Ferrycarrig 5 Mile in early January and I feel that I need something to focus on otherwise the training seems a bit pointless.

If this goes well and I enjoy it, I'll probably enter the Killarney AR in October.

I suppose these types of AR are about the closest I'm going to get to LD duathlon in Ireland at the moment. Plus, it's close to the parents house so accommodation sorted and I'll stay on for an extra day or two afterwards.

Why don't you sign up for the Hardman - they would probably have a swimmer for you if you asked for it - although their wouldn't be much entrants for you to race against. You could do similar I expect with any of the 1/2 Ironman races - The Lost Sheep bike and run course would be a fine duathlon race for you with plenty of numbers

pointer28

catweazle wrote: »

Why don't you sign up for the Hardman - they would probably have a swimmer for you if you asked for it - although their wouldn't be much entrants for you to race against. You could do similar I expect with any of the 1/2 Ironman races - The Lost Sheep bike and run course would be a fine duathlon race for you with plenty of numbers

As in enter the relay and do two parts myself?

Or I might make an enquiry and see could I enter as an individual, DNS the swim and still be allowed to complete the rest of the race or would I be pulled off the course.

catweazle

I know Swinford when they did the 1/2 Ironman a few years back were more than happy to provide swimmers for entrants who wanted to do the other two legs, I am unsure whether they charged as a relay or individual for this.

Perhaps Lost Sheep might be less inclined to be as accommodating as they will sell out but the others might have no issue doing this, Tri an Mhi, Athlone. Whether they provide a swimmer or not you might be able to rustle one up from on here that will help out out for the swim

mossym

i know someone that might swim the Lost Sheep for you if you were interested. has done it alla few times, but not able to run any more and i'd say he might be interested