A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Neady83

Great racing Mossy, nice to see all the hard work pay off and a top class end to the season Super report too

BennyMul

all that needs to be said is "Fair play Mossy ya savage"

rodneyr1981

Nice report Mossym and well done on season.

BTH

mossym wrote: »

is it nuts to think about doing lsot sheep 2 weeks after a full?

13 days after. Would be rough.

You could always just DNF, it's all the rage these days.

mossym

BTH wrote: »

13 days after. Would be rough.

You could always just DNF, it's all the rage these days.

ah here. i'm not going all the way to copenhagen to dnf, no matter how much i love the lost sheep tri

Trig1

BTH wrote: »

13 days after. Would be rough.

You could always just DNF, it's all the rage these days.

You could think of it as a wind down race, ( I might beat u then )

I'll be there next year again- love the race.

mossym

yup.its time

pgibbo

Keen as mustard. Fair play :cool:

mossym

so the restart was a false start. Last tuesday night went for an 8km run while the little one was at athletics. 8 laps of the 1km track at the boundary of where she was training. felt awful, HR way too high for the pace which was way too slow. but not having run for a couple of weeks i didn't expect gazelle like status.

the other thing i didn;t expect was the cold that came on. had been fighting to hold off one pre lost sheep, which i managed, but seems like it never went away properly, and i woke wednesday with equal measures of blocked up, ached up, and running eyes and nose. no real cough thankfully, but felt like crap. the bad had been packed for swimming, but it was thrown back under the bed.

as hadn't really got going again decided to let the body get over it rather than try to train through. got worse from there, Friday/Saturday was the worst, and doses of lemsip/hot whiskey and manuka weren't having any visible affect. by saturday evening i was feeling a lot better though,and was planning an easy spin Sunday. woke to lashing rain though so that was curtailed.

Monday Morning though was proper start again. Back in the pool, the inverse pyramid (100Sw, 200pb, 300 sw, 400pb, 400sw, 300pb, 200sw, 100pb) which i hadn't done in a while. it was slow, felt bad, pace was way down, but that was the swim itself. from a training point of view it felt good to be doing something

Tuesday Evening: Athletics again, so i ran while Rachel was at the u8 session. 8km again, 8 laps. same pace as last week, same HR elevation. but if only running once a week not surprising, will get another couple of runs in this week and i expect it'll start feeling better pretty quickly

tonight will see the return of the last leg, will give the legs a spin on the bike

mossym

right, time to get this going again. been meaning to get back to it for ages, but kept putting it off.

Not going to cover everything i have done. been training away, pretty much back into a proper schedule. few highlights worth mentioning

Clare Novice Cross Country: Having never run XC before in my life i got roped into running on the local AC's team. Suffice to say i've never run as hard in my life, no watching pace, no idea of distance, just focused on trying to catch the guy in front. higher avg HR than i have ever recorded for a race. and these guys were proper runners. Happy enough to finish steady mid pack. even happier when my placing was good enough to contribute to two team silver medals, novice silver and masters(>35) silver. two county silver medals sitting at home

Clare Intermediate Cross Country: a week later, despite saying that the novice was as hard as i wanted to face, i got roped into filling out the numbers for the club at the intermediates. much tougher race, 50% longer, 9 laps, fastest guys lapping after 3 or 4 laps. ended up towards the end of the field, but mainly cause the *reliable* guy counting the laps waved a good third of the field into the finishing chute a lap early. surprised to get some encouragement from the sidelines, cheers neady for the support!!! Good news was another country silver team medal. So having run a total of 2 XC races i've 3 county medals to show for it. not too bad

last thing worth mentioning is jsut back from a week in lanzarote, 3 days of cycling, 1 long spin out to tabayesco and back in the worst wind i've ever cycled in (12km/hr into it, 40km/hr without pedalling the other way), but that climb is worth every minute. couple of shorter spins with some decent climbing. good bit of ocean swimming, plus some lovely runs along the coast in puerto del carmen. the down side was lots of food, and lots of drink, so a few extra lbs to lose now.

That will do to get me to start of this week. so the log kicks off again.

mossym

Monday
Early Swim: wu, 100’s alternating sw/pb, Wd. Swim feels slow and rhythm-less at the moment, lack of consistent swimming on my part. These were much slower than I was holding during the summer, swim 100's on 1:41/1:42, pb on 1:36 to 1:38. Need a decent block of steady swimming to get the form back before I start making any progress, which I should get between now and xmas hopefully.

2100m in 42 mins


Lunchtime run: easy 30 minute run, legs felt tired. One of my usual routes, nothing to report except some really awful rain, the real heavy downpour stuff, but it was nice and warm so it actually didn’t feel that bad, it did strike me that if it were cold this would have been truly miserable. 6.1km, 5:01 pace, 31 mins


Tuesday
Ah, the FTP test. Not done one since January. Given it had been a while, I’d fears of not getting it right, and to be honest, if you do them right, then you should learn they are something to dread a little. Last test 5 min power came in at 318. 20 minute power at 280, giving 95% at 266,


It was also my little one’s first birthday, so while I would have liked to do this early evening, it had to wait till the little ones went to bed, which meant post dinner, when I’d rather have done it without a full belly. But anyway, fan on max, towels and fluid on standby, and off we went. WU, then into the 5 mins. 5 mins came in as 333, was glad of the 10 mins recovery. Then into the 20 mins. Given the gap I wasn;t sure what I could hold, so went by feel, with half an eye on the power level. Settled into what I thought I could hold at around 310w, but a few minutes in this dropped off a little, but wanted to keep it around the 300 mark, which I did mostly. As always found the third 5 minutes hardest, into the final 5 I could see the finish line, managed to kick it up to 340/350 in the last minute to empty the tank, pretty happy as there wasn’t much left at the end. 20 min power came in as 299, so an ftp of 284 assuming a 0.95 multiplier.

Happy with that, reckon I was probably a bit higher during the summer peak, but given I was at 245 this time last year that’s a nice increase, and it’s close enough to put getting to 300 as a target. Once I drop weight back down to race weight that will put me over 4w/kg, which I’ll be happy to get to.


Wednesday morning swim:
Tried body in the pool, coach had guessed as much and the swim wasn’t too harsh, lots of fist drills and Pb work, similar to Monday, struggling to get the form back but it will come.

2100m in 41 mins

mossym

False start in getting this going again. lot going on. Am finishing up at my current job end of next week, on to new adventures. will type up a summary of the last few weeks, and get this moving again.

gofasterdad

Nice improvement in FTP, It takes a lot of consistent work to see improvements like that, well done.

mossym

Xmas was a write off. Finished work on the 18th. Littlest one was already coming down with a cold. Felt it coming on by the Saturday myself. Struggled through a 2 hour turbo and did the 30 min run to keep the streak going. Work night out that night, unofficially also my leaving drinks. Stayed off the grog, woke Sunday hangover free but really feeling the cold coming on. Kept the run to 30 mins.

Bit longer on Monday. Tuesday did a 120% interval session on the turbo. And another 30 min run. From then on though really felt crap. Kept the 30 min runs going all over xmas but the cold was never getting better. By Tuesday I finally decided to bin the streak. Should have happened a week earlier. Minute I did the flu hit full force. Worst dose I have ever had. From start to finish it was 2 weeks, extended by my stubborn refusal to not run. New Year's Eve and day were particularly bad. Nothing done at all, I was curled in a ball on the couch. The whole family was sick for the whole 2 weeks.

Sunday I finally felt better. Almost could have done something but played it safe.

Started new job Monday. Commute has gone from 25 mins each way to 70 mins each way. Also start time is 30 minutes earlier, finish time the same, so pre work swimming is no more, for now at least. No lunch run either.

So Monday's run was done late in the evening . Easy 40 minutes. Started well, was half asleep with the two little ones on the couch just before so was happy with the pace. 20 mins in I could feel I'm still recovering , all the energy was gone. Backed it off and cruised around. Happy to be back. 8km in 41 mins, 5:12 pace

Dory Dory

So sorry you've been sick!! Glad you're back, but go easy with it for a bit!

joey100

Best of luck in the new job mossy and glad to hear your over the worst of the sickness. What's the plan for swimming now that the early morning ones are gone?

mossym

joey100 wrote: »

Best of luck in the new job mossy and glad to hear your over the worst of the sickness. What's the plan for swimming now that the early morning ones are gone?

cheers Joey. been an awful two weeks.

the daily commute is only short term as i get up to speed in the new place. Already agreed i'll be able to work from home 3 to 4 days a week once i settle in which will make the training easier, not harder. be back to morning swims then hopefully.

until then, it's fit in what i can, swim in the evening after the kids go to bed, the pool is only 10 minutes from me luckily. . running at lunchtime with baby wipe cleaning afterwards might have to be looked at too. either that or very early morning runs pre leaving the house at 7am

joey100

Good stuff, thought you might be going down the BTH route of training for an ironman and pushing it out and out

I've started the lunch time runs in work, they are great. Get the training done nice and early, means more time for recovery too. Find it great for clearing the head from work too and the day seems to go much quicker when I have the lunch time run to look forward to.

BTH

joey100 wrote: »

Good stuff, thought you might be going down the BTH route of training for an ironman and pushing it out and out

Hang on, what am I doing ???

mossym

joey100 wrote: »

Good stuff, thought you might be going down the BTH route of training for an ironman and pushing it out and out

I've started the lunch time runs in work, they are great. Get the training done nice and early, means more time for recovery too. Find it great for clearing the head from work too and the day seems to go much quicker when I have the lunch time run to look forward to.

lunchtime runs are great. don't think i appreciated the hot showers and changing rooms i had at my last place, had my run done most days at lunch, my swim before work and was getting home with the evening ahead of me and no training to do

joey100

@BTH Ironman Copenhagen! Ah I'm only winding you up, you have been unlucky with injuries, plenty of time to get training done for it.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Are runmutes (probably too long) or bikemutes an option? Could get your long bike done midweek to free up a weekend day?

Good luck with the new job

BTH

joey100 wrote: »

@BTH Ironman Copenhagen! Ah I'm only winding you up, you have been unlucky with injuries, plenty of time to get training done for it.

Pushing it out and out though? sure we have over 32 weeks to race day. That should be enough time to get fit enough to break 6 hours on the bike

Neady83

Hope you're back to 100% soon Mossy, great to see you back logging. Don't rush the recovery from the flu, I had it once and it absolutely knocks the stuffing out of you.

Congratulations on the new job, everyone on here seems to be switching it up at the moment.

mossym

Leo Chilly Sarsaparilla wrote: »

Are runmutes (probably too long) or bikemutes an option? Could get your long bike done midweek to free up a weekend day?

Good luck with the new job

cheers JB

the 2+ hours driving daily is only short term. once i get up to speed i'll only be doing it two days a week, working from home the other 3. so rather than having an hour less time i'll have an extra hour over what i had before. will be able to do the pool mornings, lunchtime, straight after work. getting the long run , or bike for that matter, done midweek becomes totally feasible

it's 80km each way at the moment, bad roads. too long for a run, roads are too bad to be cycling in the dark.

it's a short term (couple of months hopefully) difficulty i just need to work through

Neady83 wrote: »

Hope you're back to 100% soon Mossy, great to see you back logging. Don't rush the recovery from the flu, I had it once and it absolutely knocks the stuffing out of you.

Congratulations on the new job, everyone on here seems to be switching it up at the moment.

cheers Neady. aye, being careful this week, can tell the energy levels nowhere near where they should be. don't want to end up taking 3 steps back just by pushing too hard.

mossym

Tuesday 5th

Easy turbo, just spinning for an hour. Still coughing and spluttering so this was pretty handy. AP only 156W, thought it would be higher than this. felt like more. Body still recovering though so won't beat myself up

1 hour, 156W AP,


Wednesday 6th
Early morning run, up and at them early as the day was going to be long. Very frosty this morning, temperature was jsut below freezing. was nice, cold and crisp rather than the wet damp warm rubbish we've had lately. pace was slow, and the effort felt way too high for the pace. lot of work to be done, dropping some weight after xmas a high priority.

7.8km, 40 mins. 150bpm avg hr which is low as was reaing 90bpm for first 10 minutes

mossym

Got a little alarmed on Wednesday evening. Found myself beside a big hole in the ground. 18m long and full of water. wondered had the local floods caused this, when i spotted the roof over it, which made me think it was intentional. asking someone who looked like they knew what it might be they said it was something called a "pool"? that seemed to ring a bell, i'm pretty sure i've seen one at some time in the past. given that'd i'd seen it, i then went home to think about it.


all joking aside, after my biggest gap in a long time i finally made it back to the pool last night. expected this to be hideous, and to be honest it wasn't as bad as i expected, but coach had given me a nice straight forward session due to still recovering and the gap since last swim. WU, 10*100pb, some fat 50's then wd.

despite promising myself i'd start easy, i flew into the warm up too hard. calmed down and focused on keeping the stroke even and steady. the 10*100 actually went pretty well. not fast, but consistent. first 5 were all 1:38.xx, pushed on a bit for the next few so they came in at 1:35 to 1:37. was starting to feel them a bit by the end, not having swum in almost 3 weeks was showing.

Fast 50's on 45 secs each. that'll get better again .

overall 2000m in 39 minutes. happpy enough with that, everything was steady at best and not as ugly as it could have been.

mossym

update time. meant to get to this last week but boards being down didn't help

Thursday 7th
Turbo, 2 min hard intervals, with some 30 sec on/off to finish. Still wheezing this evening. but got this done. Ap for the intervals was 325, 317, 297, 309, 303. bit lower than i would have liked. flat outs were all 400ish, were very tough by end.
215W avg for the hour


Friday 8th
Found out at the end of the first week at the new job we finish early on a friday, which is nice. so progression run done as soon as i got home. 20 easy, 15 steady, 5 mod, 5 easy. paces as 5:05(easy), 4:29 (steady), 4:21 (mod) 5:27 (easy, up the hill home). happy enough with this, the steady felt good. overall 9.91 in 48 mins @ 4:53 overall avg pace

Saturday 9th
Long spin, 3 hours with a friend, nothing to say other than it was cold so there was no stopping, out and back route alone the N7, easy pace. but how nice was it to be out again in the fresh air. overall 75km in the 3 hours.

Sunday 10th
Long run. given i hadn't run long in a while, i thought this might be ugly. but it turned out a lot better than i thought, was still feeling strong towards the end, enough that i pushed it out a bit to get to the 10mile mark. pace was steady across it as well, which was good to see.
overall 16km in 1:21, 5:06 pace.

Monday 11th to Friday 15th
travelling with work, dublin, liverpool, poland. got a run in every day though, all on the treadmill. most of them done with some sort of progression, a couple getting into mod zone .


Saturday 16th
icy roads forecast, so swapped the bike and run and did the run saturday evening. nothing special, 13.03km in 1:06 @ 5:08min pace

Sunday 17th
Was apprehensive about icy roads, so was on the turbo first thing. 3 hours, done as 20 mins easy, 15 tempo, then 5 just below ftp. or at least managed that for a couple of turns, then found it tough so kept it as 20 easy 20 tempo.

overall 174w avg for the 3 hours, thought it would be higher, but one 20 mins easy measured very low due to an interruption


Monday 18th
First day running from work. got some very strange looks. no showers so baby wipe wash afterwards. nice and cool outside though so not a lot of sweat to worry about. found a nice out and back route with only the fact it has a tough uphill at the very start as a downside. 4:57 pace, no hr strap but felt easy, high side of easy probably. felt like i was moving well.
8.73km, 4:57 pace

Tuesday 19th.
110% intervals, 5*4, and then 30 seconds on and off to finish.these started in the right zone but dropped off, 317, 312, 296, 294, 287. legs just didn't have it. cadence was in the right zone though, sickness over xmas/lack of training taking it's toll i think, i was holding these steadily pre xmas.
218w avg for the hour

Wednesday
worked from home, so got to run at lunchtime. 8.26km, 4:51 pace, this felt good, HR strap still on the missing list so no HR but kept this in the right zone and still happy with pace .

Evening Swim: i'm always faster in the evening than first thing in the morning .main set as 5*300 alt sw/pb .given the lack of swimming this wasn't too bad. swim 300's on 5:15, 5:31, 5:51, pb on 5:03, 5:28. was tiring as it went on and pool was very busy so had a few interruptions, some of the later ones were a bit quicker. lots of room for improvement though!!

Thursday: easy hour spinning. this didn't go great, legs had nothing,no push in them, this was a struggle. only 154w avg power

Friday:
Fast intervals Run. 5*3 targetting 3:45 pace after WU and some 39 sec builds. been a while since I pushed the pace this hard(for me!!). nice day but savage headwind on way out for first half. no HR strap either. builds were okay, kept them under control into the wind which i was fighting hard against.

first two intervals were into the wind, second was uphill as well so really was pushing to even hold what i did. last 3 were with wind at back, last one uphill again. splits came in as 3:54, 4:13, 3:51, 3:42, 3:52.
happy with that, given lack of pace work recently. second one was hardest effort despite the slower time. 3:45 pace is well into hurt zone for me, and i've failed to hit this session more times than I've come close, so this was positive, especially given the lack of fast pace running recently

overall 4:35 pace for 9.71km in 45 mins

Saturday
3 hour spin, 90 easy, 60 tempo, 30 easy. well that was the plan. fighting a strong headwind for the first 90 minutes killed the easy bit really, but the plan was hit overall, maybe not in the right order. 82km in 3 hours


Sunday
had only managed one swim all week so headed for the pool to make up friday's session. original session had 5*200 swim, i didn't want the legs fried for the long run later so i changed this to PB but that was the only change. if i had been lulled into a false sense of security by the recent couple of swims not being too bad, this fixed that. awful. no rhythm. no pace. no stamina. splashing my way through the water. awful. lets leave it at that .



Long run
was exhausted, to the point that i almost went to bed rather than doing this, but do it i did, and went okay. no energy, but what pace i had stayed strong throughout and form and stamina were good. 14.7 in 1:15, with some pretty strong headwinds to deal with for second half.


so some decent training going on, with swim the obvious exception. hopefully it's a short term thing. the bigger impact is a house struggling to come to terms with major changes. new creche for the little ones after they had been at a childminders for years with lots of attention. new job for me which means gone early in the morning, before they wake, and home barely in time to put them to bed. it's short term, but the knock on effect is the bigger waking every night at 2am panicked that she is on her own in the room, and soon after we settle her the smaller one is waking and not going back to sleep. the last 2 weeks training has been done on 4 hours sleep a night, which is killing it. obvious enough there were sessions above with no energy, and not hard to understand why. hopefully it's just a phase. but right now i'm burning candle at both ends with a blowtorch.

mossym

update time. meant to get to this last week but boards being down didn't help

Thursday 7th
Turbo, 2 min hard intervals, with some 30 sec on/off to finish. Still wheezing this evening. but got this done. Ap for the intervals was 325, 317, 297, 309, 303. bit lower than i would have liked. flat outs were all 400ish, were very tough by end.
215W avg for the hour


Friday 8th
Found out at the end of the first week at the new job we finish early on a friday, which is nice. so progression run done as soon as i got home. 20 easy, 15 steady, 5 mod, 5 easy. paces as 5:05(easy), 4:29 (steady), 4:21 (mod) 5:27 (easy, up the hill home). happy enough with this, the steady felt good. overall 9.91 in 48 mins @ 4:53 overall avg pace

Saturday 9th
Long spin, 3 hours with a friend, nothing to say other than it was cold so there was no stopping, out and back route alone the N7, easy pace. but how nice was it to be out again in the fresh air. overall 75km in the 3 hours.

Sunday 10th
Long run. given i hadn't run long in a while, i thought this might be ugly. but it turned out a lot better than i thought, was still feeling strong towards the end, enough that i pushed it out a bit to get to the 10mile mark. pace was steady across it as well, which was good to see.
overall 16km in 1:21, 5:06 pace.

Monday 11th to Friday 15th
travelling with work, dublin, liverpool, poland. got a run in every day though, all on the treadmill. most of them done with some sort of progression, a couple getting into mod zone .


Saturday 16th
icy roads forecast, so swapped the bike and run and did the run saturday evening. nothing special, 13.03km in 1:06 @ 5:08min pace

Sunday 17th
Was apprehensive about icy roads, so was on the turbo first thing. 3 hours, done as 20 mins easy, 15 tempo, then 5 just below ftp. or at least managed that for a couple of turns, then found it tough so kept it as 20 easy 20 tempo.

overall 174w avg for the 3 hours, thought it would be higher, but one 20 mins easy measured very low due to an interruption


Monday 18th
First day running from work. got some very strange looks. no showers so baby wipe wash afterwards. nice and cool outside though so not a lot of sweat to worry about. found a nice out and back route with only the fact it has a tough uphill at the very start as a downside. 4:57 pace, no hr strap but felt easy, high side of easy probably. felt like i was moving well.
8.73km, 4:57 pace

Tuesday 19th.
110% intervals, 5*4, and then 30 seconds on and off to finish.these started in the right zone but dropped off, 317, 312, 296, 294, 287. legs just didn't have it. cadence was in the right zone though, sickness over xmas/lack of training taking it's toll i think, i was holding these steadily pre xmas.
218w avg for the hour

Wednesday
worked from home, so got to run at lunchtime. 8.26km, 4:51 pace, this felt good, HR strap still on the missing list so no HR but kept this in the right zone and still happy with pace .

Evening Swim: i'm always faster in the evening than first thing in the morning .main set as 5*300 alt sw/pb .given the lack of swimming this wasn't too bad. swim 300's on 5:15, 5:31, 5:51, pb on 5:03, 5:28. was tiring as it went on and pool was very busy so had a few interruptions, some of the later ones were a bit quicker. lots of room for improvement though!!

Thursday: easy hour spinning. this didn't go great, legs had nothing,no push in them, this was a struggle. only 154w avg power

Friday:
Fast intervals Run. 5*3 targetting 3:45 pace after WU and some 39 sec builds. been a while since I pushed the pace this hard(for me!!). nice day but savage headwind on way out for first half. no HR strap either. builds were okay, kept them under control into the wind which i was fighting hard against.

first two intervals were into the wind, second was uphill as well so really was pushing to even hold what i did. last 3 were with wind at back, last one uphill again. splits came in as 3:54, 4:13, 3:51, 3:42, 3:52.
happy with that, given lack of pace work recently. second one was hardest effort despite the slower time. 3:45 pace is well into hurt zone for me, and i've failed to hit this session more times than I've come close, so this was positive, especially given the lack of fast pace running recently

overall 4:35 pace for 9.71km in 45 mins

Saturday
3 hour spin, 90 easy, 60 tempo, 30 easy. well that was the plan. fighting a strong headwind for the first 90 minutes killed the easy bit really, but the plan was hit overall, maybe not in the right order. 82km in 3 hours


Sunday
had only managed one swim all week so headed for the pool to make up friday's session. original session had 5*200 swim, i didn't want the legs fried for the long run later so i changed this to PB but that was the only change. if i had been lulled into a false sense of security by the recent couple of swims not being too bad, this fixed that. awful. no rhythm. no pace. no stamina. splashing my way through the water. awful. lets leave it at that .



Long run
was exhausted, to the point that i almost went to bed rather than doing this, but do it i did, and went okay. no energy, but what pace i had stayed strong throughout and form and stamina were good. 14.7 in 1:15, with some pretty strong headwinds to deal with for second half.


so some decent training going on, with swim the obvious exception. hopefully it's a short term thing. the bigger impact is a house struggling to come to terms with major changes. new creche for the little ones after they had been at a childminders for years with lots of attention. new job for me which means gone early in the morning, before they wake, and home barely in time to put them to bed. it's short term, but the knock on effect is the bigger waking every night at 2am panicked that she is on her own in the room, and soon after we settle her the smaller one is waking and not going back to sleep. the last 2 weeks training has been done on 4 hours sleep a night, which is killing it. obvious enough there were sessions above with no energy, and not hard to understand why. hopefully it's just a phase. but right now i'm burning candle at both ends with a blowtorch.

ray o

mossym wrote: »

the last 2 weeks training has been done on 4 hours sleep a night, which is killing it. obvious enough there were sessions above with no energy, and not hard to understand why. hopefully it's just a phase. but right now i'm burning candle at both ends with a blowtorch.

Mind your health Mossy - This tri lark does not pay the bills.