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Thursday - Long Run
plong run was planned for thursay,normally would have no problem fitting this in but for some reason a ready slot never presented itself. so forced a slot at 6.30, meaning a delayed dinner at the parents so i told them to go ahead without me.
legs felt tired for this from the off. plan was 60 easy, 20 steady, 10 easy. first 20 minutes were all uphill at 5:05 pace, next 20 @ 4:50 pace, next 20 @ 4:57 pace, then into the steady @ 4:27 for the 20, last 10 were easy at 5:04. the steady felt good, moving well, was happy until i started getting a bit of knee pain which got worse as i went on. felt better when i knocked back to the easy, but needs watching
Friday:
Swim, trying to put what i learnt into practise. as a result, the warm up lengths were much slower initially as i struggled with it. in addition, the focus on stroke meant i wasn't counting right, and my garmin picked this morning to be way offf, so i ended up doing way longer for a bunch of the intervlas, First 300sw was 340 on 6:12, 200p was 238 on 4:06, then 100k on 2:00.
some drill work then, and into the main sets of 400's. in order to get the stroke right i decided to do these with the pb. first was way over, 476 on 7:31. next was 442 on 7:00, then an actual 400 (well 408 in the 17m) on 6:26. that's not too bad, pretty happy with that, will take a bit of getting used to. good news is times were pretty okay for a decent reduction in strokes/length. fast 50's were done without the PB and came in as 42/45/44/44.
overall, 3000m in 58 mins.
Saturday, Long Bike
Family were down in Clonmel for the week, so saturday i went down to meet them for an inlaw get together. Planned it with coach to set the plan up to get me a long cycle on Saturday and Monday. so Saturday morning i loaded up the tri bike and off i went. Straight route is 90km, usually jsut under 3 hours .so i went a longer route, going pretty much south through bruff, kilmallock, into mitchelstown before turning east and heading to cahir and onto clonmel.
firswt hour was easy, then 5 20 minutes @ 80 to 85% with 10 recovery. 85 should have been 226. the 5 intervals came in as 233, 240, 250, 189, 237. it's a fairly lumpy course, and the 4th was bang on target until the last 5 minutes were a steep downhill so killed the AP, as a result i made the last one 5 minutes longer to make up for it. one stop at Kilbeheny where there was a beast of Ballyhoura stop to see if Team #TriHarder were there, and then i went on.
Overall, 4:01 time, 125.74km, 140avhg HR, 198w AP, 31.4 Average speed.
Knee was a little sore that evening.
Sunday: Out and about with the family all day, so late afternoon i got a window for the 50 minute run planned. was debating skipping it to give the knee a day, but it felt okay, so went for it, kept things nice and easy. 4:50 average pace, 155 avg hr, 50 mins, 10.35km. knee was fine all the way around, maybe starting to twinge a bit right at the very end.
Monday: the return. well with the car fully loaded with 3 womens gear after a week away, even if i had wanted i couldn;t have fit the bike in, so right after breakfast i headed off. different route back, clonmel, new inn, golden, dundrum, cappawhite, cappamore, newport, birdhill, nenagh, and the back road through portroe to home. pretty much just cruised all the way, as best you can on back country roads, but i didn't fancy the smoother main road with more traffic.
got to cappamore in 2 hours. knew the direct route home would get me there in under 3, so 5km from home instead of taking the left home i went straight, up to nenagh and back by portroe, and it's f&^king hill. at this stage the legs were feeling the last couple of days. and the climb up portroe was , admittedly, a real struggle. heavens opened on me at the top, got a chance to test my waterproof jacket. it wors, beautifully
was pretty glad to get home after this one, was feeling it.
4:00 (different route, bang on planned time), 181w AP, 30.1avg speed, 132 avg HR0 -
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How is your heel and your knee Mossy? Do you'll be 100% for the run this weekend?
You've put in a savage year of training and had s**te luck in some of your races, I really hope it comes together this weekend for you, you deserve a good race 0 -
How is your heel and your knee Mossy? Do you'll be 100% for the run this weekend?
You've put in a savage year of training and had s**te luck in some of your races, I really hope it comes together this weekend for you, you deserve a good race
not 100% Neady, but good enough there are no concerns that i'll be running and shouldn't affect the target pace, it's this god damn cold i can't shake is pi$$ing me off now!!
thanks for the message. been an up and down year race wise alright, but have to shoulder some of that myself, some poor choices/execution. important this was the lessons were learnt, and hopefully not to be repeated. Longer race this weekend hopefully means small mistakes aren't as costly0 -
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Kurt_Godel wrote: »What were the 100's off?
Good luck at the weekend, tape your gels to the transition rack this time
off 2. confident could have held that pace off less though
funny thing is, i always swim first thing in the morning, no food, 20 minutes after i fall out of bed. in the last 2 weeks have done a couple of afternoon swims/evening swims, and my times are much quicker. must be getting some extra bouyancy from the days food.
cheers. might need the gels a bit more frequent as it's a half, but they won't be taped to the tube and i'll be bit more selective about where i take them on saturday 0 -
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The Lost Sheep 2015.
A race for the year. Last year this had been my first Half. and more than that, been an eye opener. Times had been
32 min swim
2:52 bike
1:53 run
with transitions left me at 5:27. Part of me thought i should have gone faster. Aim for this year was pretty straight forward, i wanted to go sub 5. 27+ minute improvement was a big ask, especially on that course, but no point aiming small. Given i've been slower in the OW every race this year, i figured it meant i'n need to make up 30+ minutes between run and bike, and the closer it got the more difficult that seemed. Nothing for it but give it a lash and see what happened.
So alarm goes race morning. Still feeling nervous, knot in my stomach. have breakfast, grab my gear, quick chat with BTH who is staying in the same place and i head for transition. Something really cool about heading to race start at lost sheep. it's always dark, and you can see all these lights on bike heading down the road, pure silent, pretty surreal. so by the time i got to transition, got the bike checked and racked, i had game face on. Nerves were pretty much gone, felt much better. Bike racked, my odd shoes with socks left beside it. runners with gels for the run behind them. helmet on top .
quick warm up.visited the portaloos. with transition closing i closed up the wetsuit, dropped the bag to the drop point, and headed for the swim start
Swim Brief. they had mentioned the night before the tide was coming in so we'd have it pushing us back in . The buoys seemed a long way away. triangular course, out, right, parallel to shore, then right again and back in. brief done. counted in, after an age finally let into the water. met trig as we went down the ramp. quick joke that i'd see himon the bike given we've been within 100 feet of each other every bike this year, and into the water. warmed up as much as possible, trying to find space between everyone doing the same. finally they pull us back, count down, and gun goes. hit start on the watch, and off we go.
By 10 strokes in last of the nerves were washed away. The usual scrum at the start, but stayed calm, kept swimming, and it opened up. real focus on the stroke, wanted a calm relaxed stroke, matching what i've been doing in the pool for the last while. and that's what i got. was happy enough, more than that, was enjoying, no loving this swim. This was definitely my most comfortable swim of the year. the effort was right, i was enjoying it, and the pace would be what it was.
that happy feeling lasted a while. was passinga few so knew was moving well. could see a group up ahead i was holding pace with. but a realisation that we had been swimming what felt like half the morning and still hadn't reached the first buoy. back of my head i was thinking either this swim was long, or the tide was stronger than they had let on, or both. but nothing to do but plod on. finally, see the buoy slowly getting closer. make it, take it wide to avoid the carnage, and as i rounded it glanced at the watch. 18 minutes. bloody hell. i;ve been slow this year but that shocked me, thought i was moving better than that. hoped one of the guess had been right.
shorter run over to the second bouy, reached it easily enough, turned for home. as always at lost sheep you swim back into the sun. could see the group up ahead .used the middle of them as my reference and motored on. in fairness the swim back in didn't feel near as long, could see the white house before too long, and came up on the slip soon afterwards. almost lost the footing on the slip, was very slippy, but got up it. as always forgot to look at my watch out of the water, too focused on getting the suit off. given i'd a few hundred meters to run to my bike i could have had a look.
as it turns out, the swim was, according to everyone i spoke to, long .i also think the tide was a lot stronger than expected. based on multiple inputs, the swim was 2.1 or 2.2km. i measured 2.2, but probably didn't swim the exact fastest line(although i reckon i did pretty well). With trying to minimise lost time on the swim, a long swim was the last thing i needed. as it turned out, it was far from my worst swim of the year, may even have been my best, but still slower than last year.
Swim:36:06, 111th overall, 27th in my AG
T1: Long run to the bike, usually helmet on and go, but with my odd shoes had to sit down, socks on, shoes on, helmet on, then off. 2:52, 109th overall, 29th in AG
The Bike
Big question all week had been whether or not to use the disc. having had a word with TMWTP, and seeing the wind at the top of the caha on the drive around, the disc stayed in the car, and i had the 50mm on front and back.
As soon as we cleared the initial no race zone, started to push. decided to wait a while to start eating, wanted to make some time over the first few kms while i had a chance. Target Watts were 220 to 230, but wanted to hold higher over the initial easier climbs. pushed 250ish for the first few kms, and as we hit the first proper climb at lauragh i popped the first gel. was passing lots all the way along, no-one going past either. climbed Lauragh keeping power under 330, and as i crested the top a promise to take the descents easy came to mind, to the point that the female i had been closing on pulled well away from me on the descent. couple i had passed on the way up took me on the way down, but i figured as we'd be heading straight up healy next i'd get them back.
and i did. same strategy up healy, nothign over 330, less for most of it. again passing a good few on the way up. hit the top feeling strong, loving didi and the drummers. over the top, and again a reasonably cautious descent. got passed by a good few on teh descent, especially at the bottom where it straighten out. As it turns out i didn't descent that much slower than last year, but still lost a lot of places with people scooting past.
Reached the bottom at adrigole, and headed for glengariff. anyone who knows the race knows this drag, it's a long souls destrpying steady climb, made worse today by the wind blowing in our faces. the good news was i passed almost all that had taken me on the descent, the bad news was i wanted/expected to be fast over this section, and wasn't happy. its tough enough without the wind, but i felt like i pushed hard but didn't make up as much time as i wanted.
got to glengariff, had enough fluid on board so skipped the water stop and headed up caha. paced myself off a guy ahead, after a while he slowed so i closed the gap and overtook. kept pushing to the top and finally reached the tunnel. bit of a panic when i entered, the tinted lens on the aero helmet meant i couldn't see much at all, i did see some guys with a camera on the ground(more on this later), and finally came out the far side. Huge thanks to the marshall on the far side, screaming to watch the wind on the first turn. slowed a little coming into it, and was glad i did, got really really rocked by it, and was glad the disc was in the car boot. down caha, usual routine now of guys rolling past.
into the no race zone, glad to get over the surface there which was terrrible, and out the far side. i knew there was serious time to be made up on the run from bohane to kenmare, so i pushed hard. speed in the high 30's all the way in. sailed across the bridge back into Kenmare, didn't even want to risk trying to get the road shoe off on the bike so clipped out and got off with shoes on.
Bike 2:41:33. 57th overall, 18th in AG.
to be honest i was a little disappointed with the bike. Not with the effort, it had been right where it should have been, AP at the top of Caha was just over 220W, bang on where i wanted. More so that the conditions meant the effort didn't pay off more, i'd hoped for 2:30 on the bike. but you can only race the condition .
Off the bike, long run down to the end of the pier due to the neutralised transition, turned, and started heading back. was happy enough, there wasn't a huge amount of bikes there. Was looking for 1 in particular, had been surprised not to see Trig at some point on the bike. was looking for his Dolan. no sign. had i beaten him back?
Back to my spot, bike racked, helmet off. shoes off, trainers on, visor on, gels grabbed and off i went.
T2: 3:17 107th overall, 32 in AG
my wife was watching from the exit of T2. i know she was well relieved to see me come back in off the bike having seen the course. gave her a smile, then a shout, "where's trig?" just came in she said. off the bike before him, happy with that.
felt really strong heading out. too strong. first few mins were at sub 4:10 pace, too fast. slowed a little, started passing a few, felt like i was moving well. at 3km in i passed BTH standing by a marshall, quick shout to make sure it wasn't too serious, and kept moving.
at this stage the thoughts started to turn to goal time. i knew it was close, too close. the couple of niggles in the run up had meant i missed key long runs, and my last real effort at a HM had come a bit unstuck at 16/17km in. i couldn't afford to let the pace drop off, but didn't dare push it any harder out of fear of blowing up completely. current pace would have gotten me there, so held that.
got to the turn around at 8km, headed back. met trig coming against me a lot closer than i expected. kept the pace up, still felt like i was moving well. was passing then targeting the next up the road, had a couple go past but not very many at all.
as i reached the end of hte out and back and turned for the last 8km, the struggle really started. just before the hill up the stretch along the main road, the pace dropped dramatically. was really fighting to keep moving at this point. hit the water stop, started on the coke. helped a bit. at this stage got to the famous hill at 17km. had made myself a promise that wherever i was in relation to goal times, i wasn't giving in and walking it like last year. so ran it i did, fairly well too in fairness. why they put the bloody waterstop half way up that hill though i will never know, means you have to break stride to get fluids in .
Anyway crested the top. looked at watch. knew i'd have to haul ass over the last 3km to make it under the 5. pushed with what was left, but wasn't making up enough time. wanted to keep the effort honest to the end, so emptied the tank. down the hill into town. just before the end, one of the guys i had passed came past me again, had opened up a small gap before i realised he had gone past, (silly head down running), and didn't think i had anything left to close the gap. turns out i should have found something, as we went across the line the race announcer said the names and i realised it was briangiggsy who had beaten me by a few seconds
run time 1:38:03, not sure where overall, or in AG.
Overall: 5:01:53, 51 out of 315, 17th in AG.
Close, but no cigar. on a different day that might royally pi$$ me off, and it does grate. but that's probably my strongest race to date, left it all out there. and i'm pretty sure that effort on another day would have delivered the sub 5. shorter swim, less current, right shoes, proper transitions, less headwind, who knows. you race what you get on the day, and all you can do is give your best effort and see what happens. did that, and happy i got the result it deserved. Just means i've a bit more work to do for the sub 5 at Lost Sheep .
few random thoughts .
1) i mentioned i thought i was faster than 5:27 last year. not so sure now. No question i'm a hell of a lot stronger this year, felt like i raced the course this year, last year i got around.
2) Once again Lost Sheep proved itself as one epic race. I really struggle to decide which i like more, Kilkee or Kenmare. on a given day i change my mind. well done Cork tri club, great race, great after race, great weekend in Kenmare.
3) Cheers to BTH (shame about the result), Trig (well done on the result given you couldn't run a week before, again ), and their collective families for the crack, pints, and chat afterwards
Season 2015 is done. bit up and down, (some downs harder than others), but hell i enjoyed it, got better, and learned a lot . next year will be much different. only question i have right now is:
is it nuts to think about doing lsot sheep 2 weeks after a full? 0 -
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