A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

mossym

Dory Dory wrote: »

Good luck with the half tomorrow!!!!

thanks dory. not chasing any times on this one. doing it for fun. AKW is pacing the 1.50 half, so i;m going to trot around with him. So i expect, barring anything going wrong, that 1.50 will be my time, give or take a minute. Anything else is going to be slower and means something went wrong

mossym

Saturday Morning Bike
out the door just after 9 for a spin on the tri bike.plan was 30 minutes easy, then 4*(15 at threshold - 5,15 easy).
Almost started in disaster, the hill from my house down to the village has just been resurfaced. beautiful smooth surface now.still worried about loose chippings after the work, so was going a bit faster than normal but nothing mad. Next thing a dog walks out between two cars straight in front of me. old sheepdog, probably couldn;t hear a thing, but that didn't help me. Luckily wasn't tucked, so brakes went on straight away. Smooth road, back kicked completely out on me, so that the back was almost perpdendicular to my direction of travel. managed to hold it, got it straightened and kept upright.Have commented before that the mountain biking i've done before road biking has saved me a few times. another one for that account

Anyway, rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Had the training wheels back on the bike, and the deep rims make such a difference. wasn't a very nice day, windy, misty and wet.First three intervals went well, holding the heart rate/pace against the gusty wind anf up and down road a bit of a challenge but the graph looks pretty good. Last one was more of a challenge, lot of messing around with gears trying to hold the right level. The effects of the day can be seen in the graph, same HR levels on all 4 intervals had similar speeds on interval 1 and 3, but down a lot for 2 and 4. Still, got gone. bike was a little shorter than the 3 hours it was meant to be, but wife wasn't feeling well so i didn't want to be out too long.

2:40, 76.8km
http://www.strava.com/activities/136810272

Supposed to be a quick run off the bike, but wanted to take the little one out to give the wife a break. Also, achilles has been a little sore after last couple of runs, and given i haven't run a half distance in 9 months i figured i'd give it a rest till tomorrow

mossym

Great Limerick Run Half Marathon

I'm a big fan of doing races you enjoy, even if they're not really a target or fit well with the training plan. There are a few races i will always do if possible, the Birdhill Turkey Run 10km in december, the castleconnell Tri, and the great Limerick run. Loved the GLR when i ran it last year, it goes right past my old school, and this year stepping up to the half meant it also went past my office, and my usual trainng runs. Great atmosphere last year, and i expected nothing else this year.

That said, had agreed with coach that this would just be treated as my long run. There had been no targeted prep work done, my longest long run in the last few months had been 17km, and i'd raced last weekend. So my plan was to go around near my usual long run pace and just enjoy the day. That pace would have me close to the 1:50 mark, which just happened to be what AKW was pacing. So my loose plan was to tag along with him for the duration

Arrived at the race bit early, as is my norm. Nice thing about this race, i know loads doing it, so enjoyed meeting up with a few i haven't seen in a while. then we got to race time. hit the go button on the garmin as we crossed the line, and trotted off at a nice easy pace. Tagged along with AKW for about the first 4km, bit of banter back and forth about trusting pacing duties to a polar. Got into a nice comfortable rhythm then, which was a small bit faster than the pacers were moving, so just decided to keep trotting on while it felt good. Headed back into the city, and out onto the second half which was the 6 mile route as well, so this was well supported. Enjoyed seeing some people i knew along the route(did i spot mrs AKW with a bell at one stage?), and not chasing any times meant i could jsut chug along enjoying myself. KM's 18/19 were a little tough, was getting to the point where i haven't done many runs at that distance recently. As always seemd to happen me though got a burst coming into the last km, pace came up a bit.

few hundred meters from the end grabbed the little one for her customary trot over the line with me, and crossed the line in 1:46:41. Can probably take a minute off that for the company i had for the end, but doesn't matter this time. I know i've a much faster half in me at some stage, but today was just about the fun.

(that said, my last/only other HM was a 1:57 in Killarney in 30+ heat last summer so it's still an 11min PB )

Met up with the family, and as they were parked a km or two away i decided to jog easy out to the car, adding another 1.3km onto the day's total but at a very easy pace. All in all a good day
21.1km in 1:45:54(strava)/1:46:41 chip. 5:04min/km pace
1.3km in 7:46
http://www.strava.com/activities/137292605/overview
http://www.strava.com/activities/137292579#kudos

Happy with that, had plan and stuck to it. Given how tough the sessions have felt over the last few days today wasn't the day to be chasing times. GLR again turned out to be a great day out. Will be back next year

Heading out for Japanese with the wife. Sushi will be a nice reward for a good few days of training

mossym

Can highly recommend the japanese restaurant in limerick if anyone wants to try it:)


Monday Spin

Easy 2 hour spin, just what the legs needed. cadence high, resistance low, didn't worry about speed and jsut spun around for 55km. Only downside was getting hit by the worst rain shower i've had on the bike, couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. went from dry roads to pedalling through an inch of water in spots in a couple of minutes. got home wet but happy

55km in 2:03, avg hr 132

http://www.strava.com/activities/137787812

mossym

Tuesday Evening
The tuesday evening sweat fest is becoming a bit of a ritual at this stage. unsurprisingly it's a real Jekyll and hyde session. never looking forward to it before, delighted to have it done afterwards. last night was a real struggle to get motivated for it. was on work calls till almost 9pm, and was tired and mentally drained by the time it got off. the idea of just forgetting it for the night wasn't far from winning, but i pulled on the gear, stuck the bike on the turbo and hit into it

warm up, high cadence, builds, then 3*8 at threshold + 5 with 2 off. Crimson Tide on Netflix for company. First interval tough but fine. second got harder, last 2 mins were a real effort, then the last 4 mins of the last interval were tough. hopped off glad i had gotten it done, with that good tiredness you get from a good workout.

55mins 24km approx.


Wednesday Morning Swim
Decent 2400m set, was meant to be 2700m but i took down the session wrong and did 3*100 in the middle when it should have been 6*100. still a good session though.
2400m in 52 min.


Lunchtime run
easy 44 mins at lunch, met Bennymul for a small portion of it, the rest was an easy paced 8km or so. Definite negative split to it, very easy to start, picked up a little by the end. felt good though
8.2km in 44 mins

sconhome

That was Mrs AKW with the IM cow bells and camera down on Henry (?) Street. Possibly a couple of photos of you on Facebook...

mossym

AKW wrote: »

That was Mrs AKW with the IM cow bells and camera down on Henry (?) Street. Possibly a couple of photos of you on Facebook...

thought that was her alright. think she was bell ringing when i came past, she must have known you were on the way and was ringing the bell cause she assumed you'd only have another 400m in you..:)

mossym

Thursday night was meant to be an easy cycle. However didn;t get done(:(), was very windy down near us, but man reason was had a good friend back home for a couple of days, who doesn;t cycle, but does run, so switched over to an easy 45 mins run with him. very easy pace, having a chat as we went along, but a nice enjoyable run.

not too bothered about the missed bike as already got an extra spin in this week with the bank holiday.

This mornings swim got replaced by a 7am work call with Japan as well. need to try and get it in after work

mossym

Friday Lunch Run - Interval time
This one the week previous was as tough a workout as i've done, but i could already tell this week i was feeling better, even after the HM on Sunday. So was hoping it wouldn't be as bad as the week before, and while it was very tough, it wasn't. Few easy minutes, then some builds, then into 5*4 @ threshold +10, with 1 min recovery. First couple went fine, tough as i expected them to be, but the pace was good, roughly 4min/km. Next few were much tougher, was on the way back now and fighting a savage head wind. by the last interval had the wind and a bit of an uphill drag to fight and was down to 4:20, but the HR was where it was meant to be.
http://www.strava.com/activities/140083970
9km, 41:06. 4:33min/km average

Saturday
plan was for a 3 hours brick, 20 mins run. However, a family mass at 10am, and my wife being gone for the rest of the day, had me scratching my head how to get any portion of this done. So, only thing for it, 6.30 found me on the turbo knowing out a 2:15 turbo session, done as 45 easy, 45 tempo, 30 threshold, 15 easy.

Got a new car on Friday, and had left my gear bag in the back of my old car at work, so had no garmin, no HR strap, so this was done to trainer road, using my old ftp setting and trying to hit 105 to 100% of that for the threshold 30 mins. given how toasted my legs felt at the end i reckon i got it right. no time for a run, got an extra run in during the week, but this was more about the legs off the bike, so doesn't really make up for it.

2:15 turbo session


Sunday Long run
nearly all my long runs to date have been at the 5:20 to 5:30 pace, but been thinking for a while now this might be a bit too easy. So went out for a 90 min run yesterday with a view to pushing the pace a little bit more while still staying in the easy zone. legs felt a little tired but okay. I had picked a relatively hilly course with a few nice uphill drags. HR strap had a few issues on the way around, pretty sure i didn't hit 242bpm for an extended period, but otherwise HR looked okay, if a little high at times but not enough to worry about(4/5 bpm above my target). The hills meant the pace wasn't where i was targeting, was trying to keep it around the 5 to 5:05min/km. managed that on the flat sections, but not on the hills as i backed off the effort to keep the HR under control.

17.4km, 1:30, 5:11min/km avg

http://www.strava.com/activities/140083966/overview

mossym

Monday Evening Swim

Plan was a usual pool session, but opportunity arose to get the first OW swim of 2014 in. Wasn't sure if MCOS and Trig1 would be there, but headed for castelconnell for 6 as they had been there last week. No sign of either of them at 6, but a guy from Limerick tri club was there on his own and we decided we'd pair up and go for a swim anyway. Then it turns out we knew who each other were,we've a mutual friend, and have spoken on email. Small word.

Then the Limerick Tri club guys started to arrive, en masse. Turns out about 30 of them showed up, impressive. MCOS was there as well, was a bit of chatting as we waited for everyone to get ready, gentle reminder of why solo training is more straight forward.

They decided there were going to be 3 groups. first group out would be those used to OW swimming, so MCOS jumped in, and braving the cold i hopped in to tag along. the freeze i expected never really materialised, it wasn't warm, and when i dropped my face in for the first time there was a cold flush, but not the pain i thought would come. With that, we headed upstream. Only 3 of us braved the longer trip, turned out to be roughly 860 up, same back down. think it would have gotten cold if we stopped, but we never really did,hit the top,swung around, and straight back down, with the current pushing us back. Met a few more coming against us and they turned to go back with us. Reached the pier, quck change and was gone.

not half as cold as i thought it would be, although feet are still thawing out a little. nice introuction to OW for 2014

1700m, 32ish minutes, 30minutes moving
http://www.strava.com/activities/140372631

mossym

Tuesday Evening Turbo
Awakened after 2 hours sleep Monday night to a sick child. After finally getting her back to sleep i think i got one more hour sleep in with her waking up again, then in our bed kicking the cr%p out of me. a very tired mossym put down a tough day at work, then came home to a family dinner. so by 9pm the last thing i wanted to do was a tough interval session. However, i climbed on the bike on the turbo and lashed into it. last weeks session was 3*8 @ threshold + 5, this weeks was 4*8. i knew two things, the extra one would hurt, but also that given teh lack of sleep the whole thing was going to hurt anyway. With Robocop on netlfix for company i kicked in, and was proven right. wanted to give up half way through and crawl into bed, but kicked on and got through it. last one was tough, really tough. but it got done.
1:13, 30km approx.
http://www.strava.com/activities/141174287

Crawled off to bed, but the bug wasn't gone. another 3 hours of sleep followed. Wednesday was going to be tough. Should have been in the pool at 7, but one of the hours sleep i got was 6 to 7, so was 7.30 getting to the pool. Had to be in work for 9, so the 2800m coach had set was going to be very tight. builds, some fist/swim work, some descending 50's, then into 8 *(200 with last 50 fast). got through these but they were tough, no energy. good nights sleep needed. anyway, was supposed to do 4*50 fast then 4*50 cool down, but had to drop the fasts to get to work. Still though, a good 2600m

2600m, 50 min


Had to get to work as i had visitors in from the US. That meant dinner straight after work, but i managed to get home by 8. i knew if i sit down at all i;d never get up and would likely be asleep in ten minutes. So only 40 mins after finishing dinner i was pulling on the running shoes, and heading out the door. Meant to be 45 mins easy, but i hit easy pace and it was an effort. HR was high, body felt dead, and a full belly of food were all combining in a negative way. Put in the builds that were in the plan, and kept up what felt like my easy pace. home, some work to do because of all the meetings today, but hopefully a proper nights sleep tonight as little one seems fully recovered.

http://www.strava.com/activities/141174277
8.7km in 43:02, 5:02 average


Easy bike tomorrow, but a work dinner tomorrow night might make it tough. will have to see if i can fit it in

pointer28

Fair dues for getting stuck in with everything working against you.

Do you think having a coach to be accountable to motivates you to get the sessions done when it would be far easier to miss one?

mossym

pointer28 wrote: »

Fair dues for getting stuck in with everything working against you.

Do you think having a coach to be accountable to motivates you to get the sessions done when it would be far easier to miss one?

it does, but not in the "he'll give out to me if it doesn't get done" way. He has a family, he knows i have a family, and both of us put them first. As much as we love the sport i won't prioritise it over family time. one of the talks we had that sticks in my head most was a comment that missing sessions for family time was one thing, but not to miss sessions cause you got lazy or tired was another. that's stuck with me.

so rather than be worried I'll get a bashing for missing a session, the accountability comes through in a different way. i want to improve, and wanted to improve faster than i was managing myself. it was the whole reason for going down this path in the first place. in that regard, i signed up to a partnership of sorts. he brings the know how i didn't have, in return i'll put in the effort, and hopefully the results will come. any of the two inputs goes missing, the results are unlikely to happen. so if i'm unwilling to make the effort to put in the effort from my side, why am i doing this in the first place.

i'm getting used to working with a coach now, and enjoying it. haven't being doing it very long so others may not agree, but in my eyes if you're scared of telling your coach you missed a session, or only doing them because the coach may be angry, that's not a good thing.

mossym

I had a feeling work would mean no session on thursday, and that's how it turned out. then it got worse. wife came down with same bug as little one had. stuck in bed, so me and the little one had a lot of quality time together. it also meant getting to the pool this morning like i usually do was out, as i had to do the childminder run. My normal lunchtime run was already off,had a meeting scheduled, so my double workout was going to be a single at best. was going to be tough to get it in, but after missing yesterdays another missed day wasn't an option.

luckily, wife was pretty much recovered by this evening, so i got out to the local sports park to do some laps with the two of them in tow to enjoy some sun. friday is interval day.legs felt fresh after doing nothing yesterday, but this was a tough week work wise, coupled with a few nights of little sleep, and i was feeling it a little. warmup and some builds done, hit into the intervals. this isn't a bad place to do circuits, it's almost a perfect 1km loop, so my target was to hit one loop in each 4 min interval. First was under, 3:54. then it just got tougher and slower. 4:03, 4:09. 4:12. last one was a real struggle and a 4:15. knew it was a tough week catching up with me but this was tougher than it should have been. At this stage my little one was sick of watching me run past so she had to run with me for a bit, so i didn't get a warm down of any note done, save a 5 min walk back to the car. not my best workout by a long shot, but they can't all be positive.

http://www.strava.com/activities/141920090/overview
8.1km, 36:59. 4:33min/km avg

mossym

Saturday-Bike and Run
3 Hour Bike,finished off wth a 30 min run.

Saturday morning was smashing, wheeled out the tri bike and went for a spin. despite the sunshine it was quite windy. first 90 minutes were meant to be easy, fighting the wind HR was a bit higher than it should have been . Legs felt tired as well, was at the end of a 3 week training block and i'm realising now this week from a non training POV took a lot more out of me than i thought . Ended up one a really bad road from Toomevara through Dolla/Silvermines which shook the hell out of me and the bike, and prevented any sort of rhythm. got back on the N7 though and the pace went up, held a nice speed back to O'Briens Bridge then spun home easy

83km, 2:52, 30.2km/hr average http://www.strava.com/activities/142265633/overview


Off the bike onto a 10 min steady, 20 min easy. This was tough from the very off. Went off too quick, steady was 4:30ish pace, and legs were feeling it by time i got to easy portion legs were feeling it. got through it but it wasn't easy and wasn't pretty.

30 mins, 6.3km, 4:44min/k http://www.strava.com/activities/142265598

Probably would have helped to take it easy for the rest of the day, but picked up a new to me motor last week and spent 5 hours on my feet detailing it. probably not the best recovery in fairness

Sunday morning i swung the legs out of bed and knew straight away the long run was going to be tough. legs were tired and dead. 4 hours then of stripping a bathroom ceiling, before heading out on the run and i knew it was going to be rough. forgot HR, other than a brief glance, and focused on keeping the effort steady. Not a lot to report, other than this was a very tired 17km in 90 minutes.

1:30:00, 17km, 5:18min/km http://www.strava.com/activities/142796711

Tired now. feel like i've done a lot. Heading into another race week, Lough Cutra Olympic next sunday. Decent bit of foam rolling done tonight to loosen the legs out.

Pmaldini

great weekends training there Mossym, with those numbers I'd say you have an IM race in mind at the end of the summer?

mossym

Pmaldini wrote: »

great weekends training there Mossym, with those numbers I'd say you have an IM race in mind at the end of the summer?

Nope, no plans to go long for the next couple of years. will take on lost sheep as my first half in August, then hopefully do a few half distance races next year. would love to get back to lanzarote in November 2015 to do the half distance of the Ocean lava i did last year, did the quarter then.

but a full IM is not on my radar at this stage

Solobally8

mossym wrote: »

Ended up one a really bad road from Toomevara through Dolla/Silvermines which shook the hell out of me and the bike, and prevented any sort of rhythm. got back on the N7 though and the pace went up, held a nice speed back to O'Briens Bridge then spun home easy
.

Oh I know that road well, especially the descent out of the silvermines, bone rattling stuff!

mossym

Solobally8 wrote: »

Oh I know that road well, especially the descent out of the silvermines, bone rattling stuff!

i figured you and trig would know it well. i've done it plenty of times on the road bike with company, and never found it as bad. on the tri bike trying to keep an effort going though it was sheer hell

mossym

Bit behind on this

Monday
Body was tired. rest day needed and monday was it

Tuesday
Nothing more than an easy hour on the turbo. spinning easy
1:05. 25km

Wednesday
AM: Swim. main set of 10*50fist, 10*50pb. Nice steady session
PM Easy 40 minutes. enjoyed this run. Pace a little fast for easy maybe,but felt good, strong on the run. 8.2km @ 4:47min/km
http://www.strava.com/activities/144059759

Thursday
Tune up on the bike. some high cadence work, builds, then some race pace efforts, was enjoying it and was finished all the efforts when it dumped a serious downfall on me. enough that i got soaked, got cold, and stopped at my parents, dropped the bike in their garage, and got a lift home. wussed out a bit, but i had fully done the session, and didn't want to risk a cold ahead of the race on sunday.
26.2km, 50mins, http://www.strava.com/activities/144408644

Friday
Am Swim in the UL 50m. Had hoped after Joey Hannon the pool would be quieter, but no hope. Was supposed to get some race efforts in, but kept getting held up by traffic. Still though, useful 1600m

Pm: Easy 40 min run, no HR again, just kept the pace easy. 8.6km in 42 mins, 4:58min/km
http://www.strava.com/activities/144631852


Training going well, two things not happy with this week, diet not been the best, not been bad but not as focused as i usually am, and need to start getting to sleep earlier. energy levels need as much help as they can get

mossym

Saturday Bike
things changed up in terms of pre race prep a bit this time.Saturday saw me on the road for an easy 2 hour spin, left the HRM at home, went by feel. tried to keep it very easy. got lucky in that it was probably the only dry 2 hours of the day. off the bike onto 15 mins run as 5 steady, 10 easy. got the pacing right on this one, hit the levels i was supposed to

http://www.strava.com/activities/145070689 55km in 2 hours
http://www.strava.com/activities/145070661 3,2km in 15 minutes

mossym

Race Report - Lough Cutra Olympic Distance
Had been looking forward to this one for a while. Had entered it many months ago, as it was heavily discounted. for me in the past this normally meant i'd miss it as i'd pick up some knock, but things going well at the moment on that front.

in addition, there were a few from here meant to be doing the oly, plus a few more in the half. figured that would bring a bit of fun to it. On the run up though the numbers started to drop, until i knew it was just me in the oly, but jackyback, AKW and BTH were lining up in the half. figured i'd travel up early to see them start before getting going myself

Already discussing this with coach, but the race prep week this week didn't have the same effect as pre joey hannon. before that race, i was bouncing off the walls by the middle of the week. this week, i never seemed to get the benefit of the reduced workload, didn't feel bad, just not as strong as i thought i would. i suspect this is down to 2 tough weeks at home, family sick, not great sleep, and my bed time has been getting later and later. all things easily enough addressed, within reason(can't stop the family getting sick!!), so will look at that for Hotw

Anyway, still felt strong heading for this. Alarm went off at 5.45, Up, had my usual pre race/workout breakfast, some weetabix, muesli and some sugar. has always served me well in the past. Not this morning. Within 10 minutes my stomach was queasy and cramping. Ball$. Hoping it would sort itself out i headed for Cutra, just under an hour away

Registered, and met AKW and BTH. Was taking fluids as much as possible, but stomach wasn't coming around. THen found out that everyone from the half was out, JB was sick, AKW was working, BTH not feeling the best either. made me question whether starting was the right idea, but decided i was going to go. Closer i got to the start though the worse i was feeling.

after insulting BTH by suggesting he might only be in the top 10 in the half, i racked the bike. It was open racks, but you were told where to rack based on when you arrived by the event crew. this really annoyed a female from predator who took high annoyance that i racked beside her, curtly informing me i couldn't just rack whereever i wanted. after informing here i had been told to rack here, she gave me a look like i had killed her dog. the longer i was there the more annoyed she got, lighten up love, it's meant to be fun

Anyway. bike racked. Did a bit of a run warmup, but stomach started doing carthwheels while i did. got as much done as i could, threw on the wetsuit, and went for the brief. At this stage i almost teethered to the side of giving up and helping AKW sell tri gear for the morning. decided to keep going, with a vow to stop at the end of whatever leg i eventually vomited on.

Got through the race brief, and hopped in the water

The Swim
Someone claimed the water was 14c. be very surprised if it was. it was cold. very cold. cold enough to make me forget stomach issues. i had my neoprene hat on under the race one and i was glad i did. kept moving while everyone else got in the water. lined up and finally we were off.
First few minutes were the expected carnage, took one solid heel to the side of the head which had me shaking my head for a few seconds. Things calmed then, and got into a rhythm, which was good, but also bad as the stomach decided that was the time to really act up. tried to calm my way through it, which seemed to work, but in doing so i'd gone into autopilot on swimming and got a shout from one of the canoeists i had crossed to the wrong side of the buoys. balls. longer distance than needed so. got to the turnaround point, swung for home. 700m done, 800 left .and whatever i had gone off course on. way back seemed to be taking forever, but finally got past the start marker, 100m to the exit. Out of the water, LONG run to T1, got the wetsuit off to the waist, caps in the sleeve, easily by the time i reached T1.
http://www.strava.com/activities/145393423
Swim time 28:xx

Wetsuit off, helmet on, and began what was another long run with the bike. T1 time was 1: so a lot of the run must be included in the bike time

T1 time 1:3x

The Bike
Disaster from the off, got moving, got left foot into shoe but could not get the right foot in. what the hell. eventually had to pull over, strap was bent inside the shoe and the velcro struck to the shoe. hmm, had checked on racking both straps were wide open. anyway, problem solved, back on bike, got moving. long drag out to the main gate, then a left turn and onto the road. Stomach grumbling away at me, i put down whatever i could. course was tough .After a km or two of decent road, it started to go uphill on a main road, then a left onto a boundary road around the lake, which was in awful knick, and was a lot of up and down. really tough to put down any decent speed on it. finally got back on main roads near gort and the speed came back up. Coming up to a left turn, car overtakes me, starts to slow down for the stop sign, then stops in front me of, i slow to avoid a collision and a female athlete overtakes the car on the right, pulls left right across in front of it, and keeps going. if the car had pulled off she was hit. and that athlete was the winner of the womens race.

anyway, second lap was more of the same, although i felt i did a better job of keeping the speed up on this lap. by this stage though the later waves were hitting the bike course, so a lot of traffic to battle through(legally i should add). anyway, got back to the castle gates, turned in, and got slowed completely by traffic ahead of me. very slow. was a km or two into the castle and this took a lot of time. anyway, off at the dismount line and into t2.
http://www.strava.com/activities/145393438/overview
Bike time: 1:24

T2
quick dump of the bike, on with the trail shoes (and socks for a change given mud and water were expected). quick feelign of satisfaction that snotty girl wasn't to be seen, bike still missing, should have been more worried about her own race than mine. out onto the run
1.3x or so

The run
Boru tri in Killaloe had the toughest run course i've done, this was second. Very uneven surface, up and down, running through fields of long grass, muddy slopes, the works. glad i wore the inov8's, never worried about grip, but the toll on the legs was high. i thought the stomach would be at ti's worst on the run with the bouncing, but it was no worse than the bike. was steadily moving along at 4:45min/km or so, maybe a touch faster, that was all i had in me. at one point stomach did a major cartwheel, and i reckoned this was it, but got to the end intact. was pretty glad to get over the line. this was a tough day at the office.

run must have been short, according to their timing clocked a 43 mins run which means it was short based on those paces. i reckon it was half a km short or so.
http://www.strava.com/activities/145397759
run time, 43.xx
total time 2:38.xx

time above are rough, i did get a print out of my time but can't find it now. will update once official results are posted. Doesn't really matter, it's a good 14 mins slower than Joey Hannon. reasons are a longer bike by 5 to 6km (i'm estimating a 43.5km bike based on strava), a tougher run, long transitions run, and, well, a body that would rather not have been doing what i put it through. Not the best day at the office, but i'm happy i pushed through it. paces were down a little, but given how i felt i'm happy enough. few positives to take away, good bit of learning, and most importantly it happened today rather than at Kilkee

Cheers to BTH and AKW for the company before and after the race. it's 7 hours later now and my stomach is still no better, got some food down so hoping a good nights rest will sort it.

Lets just leave it at "it got done"

pointer28

Wasn't what you wanted but you "got it done" when you weren't feeling good, which deserves huge kudos.

We can all go well when everything works in our favour but when everything goes against you and you still turn in a decent performance, that's deserves real respect.

mossym

Run 00:43:30 | T2 00:01:35 | Cycle 01:23:45 | T1 00:01:24 | Swim 00:28:27

Official times. 111 out of 277. Even the winner didn't break 2 hours

mossym

not the face of a well man.

mossym

Been a week of getting over whatever hit me last week. After talking to coach, even though i should probably have been heading into a build week, an easy week to get over whatever hit me was agreed. So monday was off .

Tuesday Evening Spin
Went for an easy spin with my usual crew. Did one of the local circuits, kept it nice and easy except for one dig going up one of the local climbs as i wanted to see how the body would react. Ended up being my fastest time up it, so that felt good. overall though i knew i was still not right, even though the spin went well overall

2:30. 68.3km http://www.strava.com/activities/146301409

Wednesday Morning Swim
2300m, main set being 5*300 done as swim/pb. Felt good. think i;ve come to relaise i am never going to be a fast swimmer so focused on what i can do

Wednesday Evening Run

Nothing more than an easy run, or that's what it was supposed to be. More proof something was up though, didn't feel too bad, but FR was 10+ BPM higher than it should have been. Still suffering with whatever hit me. Also had a run in with a drunk who decided he wanted to take a swing at me, changed course to let the cops know this lunatic was on the road as i saw cars skidding trying to avoid him, met them on the way out to arrest him anyway
8.6km in 44min
http://www.strava.com/activities/146651956

Thursday evening Run
Similar run again, eyes on HR to see if still high. Went a bit easier, and was rewarded as HR was pretty close to where it was meant to be. No violent incidents this run either. 9km in 47:33

http://www.strava.com/activities/147797012


Friday Morning Swim
in the 50m in UL. Main set as 12*100 swim/pb. Felt good again, but garmin was battery dead when i got there so no spits.
2300m in 0:45

Friday evening spin
Real rushed effort on this. Were going out for dinner, needed to be going out the door by 7.30. Got home at 5.55. Threw on some gear, flew out the door, and headed off for an hour. twenty minutes in i scratched my head and realised in the rush i had forgotten to put on my helmet!!

Anyway, given the short time, headed out to go over Portroe hill, and then hit it again on the way back. To add a bit to the session, i decided to do the hill in 6th or 7th gear, rather than the usual 1st or second. this got a decent effort out of the legs, and was happy with how i felt, energy levels were good. was using my phone to record it, so no readout, and as a result was late home, bad books for that. nice dinner though, some lovely thai:)
31.4km in 1:08, http://www.strava.com/activities/147352463

Saturday Evening Run
done after being up early, driving to dublin, walking around a garden show with kid on my shoulders all day, then driving home, so safe to say more than a little tired. first half felt awful, struggled to keep HR under control, stride felt heavy, energy wasn't there. At half way point i increased the foot strike turnover, not sure if it was intentional or accidental, but stride got lighter, hr came down, and felt like i had energy again. much better second half, felt like i was running again

9.2km in 46:44


Sunday Morning Spin

Plan was for 2:30 just ride. Cycle today started out much the same as run yesterday, first 30 mins were awful, couldn't get a rhythm going, hr was high(even allowing for the fact garmin was all over the place for first 30 mins), felt awful on the bike. 30 mins in was like a switch been thrown, everything back to norm, hr right for the efforts. Headed though Meelick out to Cratloe, and did one of the bigger climbs around up woodcock/gallows hill, and was climbing well. at the end of the ride was holding high 30's low 40s for extended periods with hr nicely in check, so happy with that
69.5 in 2:30
http://www.strava.com/activities/148073560/analysis


So a solid week of training, but all low intensity, which was the plan and a good one at that. Feel myself coming around, energy levels are coming back up, so hopefully that continues and the HotW prep can get back on track!! Even for a quite week that was the bones of 10 Hours training, so the time was still there.

mossym

Monday Cycle
Taking full advantage of the extra day off I did another longish spin on Monday morning. Was supposed to meet up with my usual crew, but there was a light mist so sent a text to make sure they weren’t wimping out. Got a reply that they were, so headed out alone, only to find out the following day they went out anyway 30 mins later. Gits.

Anyway, pretty steady cycle, from killaloe, up through ogonolloe to bodyke, left down to broadford and on to limerick, took the shortcut through the blocked road at the back of UL, then over to Murroe, back to Newport and home. Got a good draft from a tractor pulling a wide mower at one stage, until one of the branches it kicked off the ditch lodged in my spokes so I backed off

Pace was steady throughout, HR was well under control, whatever was affecting me last week seems to have passed. Avg HR of 143, and that was even inflated as my garmin did its usual trick of saying I was at over 200bpm for extended periods. Reckon it was under 140 .

Anyway, 87.2km in 3:06, avg 28.1km/hr
http://www.strava.com/activities/148552467


Tuesday Run
Easy 45 mins in the plan, so headed out. Straight away this felt better than any run last week, easy pace was back where I expected it to be, felt much better running and it felt fun again, rather than feeling like an effort like last week. Almost threw the Garmin HR strap in the river though. According to it I was at 185+bpm for most of the run. This is with the new strap which had been working fine until the last week. That aside, a nice 9.1km in 45 mins, 4:57 pace
http://www.strava.com/activities/149040011/overview



Wednesday Swim
In the pool this morning, the recovery continued, enjoyed this swim, fast splits felt faster than they have for a while. Mix of 150’s and 100’s with some fast 50’s mixed in. one of those swims where I would have had no issues going for a while longer, even though I was pushing, not always the case with me.

2100m in 45 mins

mossym

Saturday week is next race up, in my home town, which holds a lot more meaning when you're from a small town than it does saying you're doing the dublin tri i'd imagine. the run section is along the paths i do most of my running on, the bike leg goes twice past my parents house, the swim is where i swam as a kid. Hadn't thought too much about it to be honest, but the closer it gets the more i'm looking forward to it. should be a blast.

mossym

Wednesday Run
Easy 45 minutes at lunch, headed out with one of the guys i worked with, kept very easy for the first 35 minutes. At that stage i think my company was feeling the pace, so i pushed on and gotin the prescribed builds, then saw out the 45 mins. Run is definitely coming back to where it should be.
9.1km in 45 min, 4:58 min/km pace
http://www.strava.com/activities/149872405


Thursday Bike Intervals.
Not done any threshold intervals in a couple of weeks, and felt it. Coach had this down as 5*4 mins threshold rpe, but was feeling good so did it as threholdhr +5bpm. Was good to be pushing hard again. sweat fueled session, but a good one

45 mins, ~20km http://www.strava.com/activities/149872383

mossym

Friday Morning Swim
Turned out to be the first of two swims today, which wasn't planned. This one was a main set of 10*50 fist, 10*50 pull buoy fast. Was happy with this swim, felt strong, was moving well.

2000km in 43 mins


Friday Evening: Dooneen AC 6km Road Race
Most of the running club members where i work are members of Dooneen, and during the week we got a site wide email to say Dooneen were running a 6km road race on Friday evening with one of our buildings as Race HQ. As a result, we got entry for a fiver if we wanted. Was supposed to be doing a faster run anyway on Friday, and the run was going to be around the industrial estate where i work, so decided to make the race a training run so stuck in an entry.

Race was at 7.30, so at round 7.10 i did a warm up of 2k at 4:50 pace. Lined up for the start, with a plan to go out at a hard but comfortable pace, something where i knew there was more left. Was running with one of the guys i work with and was in college with, we said we'd see how the pace went and stick together as long as it made sense. I actually thought he'd be a bit quicker than me, so i was determined to stick to my plan and let him off if he was pulling away

Anyway, race started, i thought it being an AC race it would be a bit better in not having slow walkers at the front, but no such look. The usual skipping around slower runners at the start, then we settled into a nice steady pace. Got the pace right by feel, then looked at the watch, round 4:23 mins/km. Fine, that'll do. We stayed at that pace for the first couple of laps, which brought us over the 3km mark. At that point i started to suspect my companion was starting to struggle, i was feeling great, was having no problem holding the pace. we then set off on a different lap which made up the rest of the 6km. i knew the first km was downhill, then there was a decent uphill drag for the next 700m, then a pretty flat run in of just over a km to the finish. the downhill went fine, we got to the bottom of the hill and i knew i was going the rest alone. put down a bit more effort to hold the pace up the hill, still feeling fine, got to the top, and with just over a km left i decided to push a bit. sped up to about 4:00 min/km, held that comfortably till aout 200mout then kicked a bit more and finished strong. 25:39 offical time
http://www.strava.com/activities/150283048/overview
Delighted with the run, nothing amazing time wise but more with how i felt, was a lot more in the tank, could easily have held that for a 10km at least. Happy with that as was feeling flat last week after cutra so this was a nice reminder that lots of work has been done and the fitness is there

Anyway, did a 5 min warm down run of another km, and that brought me close to the run i was meant to do anyway. Was thinking that was a good day done and was thinking of home, but a couple of the lads i cycle with who do tri's were heading to UL for a late swim, and with the Family away for the weekend i said what the hell and headed to the pool for the second swim of the day.


They were doing 100's of 20 rest, and the three of us took turns leading off. One of the guys here beat me out of the water at boru olympic last year by a couple of minutes(i'd beaten him out of castleconnell sprint the week before), and he has spent the winter focusing on his swim, getting 1:1 coaching, and swimming 4 times a week, as he can't run at the moment. Was interested to see how i stacked up.

Pretty well it turns out. First two 100's i went out last, and was having to crawl along behind them. then i lead off, at what i thought was easy enough, and was sitting on the wall a good 20 to 30 seconds before either of them came in. Now i was using my PB as i wanted to leave the legs after the run, but was still happy with that. Was feeling really strong in the water, was gliding. My next lead out i left the PB behind, and swam easy, and was still in 20 secs ahead. Did an easy 1.2km, and it was easy, but the slow lenghts let me focus on the stroke, and i was pleased with how well (for me) i was moving in the water

so a triple workout day, two swims and a run.