Year Four

Fazz

Sunday 2nd March

Turbo - easy 50mins with few intervals



Monday 3rd March

Run - morning 45min run easy

Turbo - 90min easy on the roadie again with some tabata style intervals near end (20 secs on, 10 secs off x 10).


Still coughing a bit, out of manuka honey. Off to shop tomorrow.
Higher HR efforts still affecting the cough so lungs still feeling it a bit.
Keeping at lower levels for most of this week as a result, Sweet spot will prob be the highlight until the weekend.


Breaking Bad Finished. Epic.

House of Cards next up... Also this Walking Dead an option...

Fazz

Monday 2nd March

Early "PJ" run as my former coach would call it.
PJ referring to up out of bed and easy run as you feel in your pyjamas.
don't take the last bit literally... :pac::D

Run - 45mins easy am


Turbo - 90mins easy with a few tabata intervals thrown in for good measure.



Tuesday 3rd March:

Swim - 2.5k easy, swimming like a brick as no feel for the water back yet.
400's in comfortable pace around the 6:50 mark. even stretched out to 7 too :rolleyes:

Core/Conditioning - 20 mins done.


Used up all the Strong Manuka Honey on Sunday... Said feck it I'm almost better.
Coughed a bit Monday. Coughed a bit more Tuesday.
Popped into shop and forked out €35 blips for more strong stuff.
Gonna be a hunnymonster for the week and hope it's gone by Friday.
Training is continuing but not at a HR stressful level.

Fazz

Wednesday 4th March.

Long run with trinewbie.
23 odd km in 1:50. Avg 4:37/km pace for 133 ahr.

Calves a little tight and need to be strengthened and just some SIU.

Bit more coughing yesterday, 35 yoyo honey dolloped in and feeling bit better today.
Some load of bugs about it seems.
Calves feel grand today.

Fazz

Thurs 6th Mar:

Swim - 3.2km as 10 x 100 off 2ish (in 1:38 or so), 5 x 200 off 4ish (in 3:30 or so), 12 x 100 off 2ish - in 1:40 2 or so. Noticeable lack of fitness. Abysmal feel for water and fitness after not swimming much last couple weeks.
More time in water will see it return in next 10 days or so hopefully.

Bike - easy turbo 1hr


Fri 7th Mar:

Mini sweet spot but still not 100% so reduced half way through.
wu
2 x 10 @ 270w
1 x 5m @ 260w
1 x 3min @ 210w
1 x 2min @ 230w
cd


Sat 8th Mar:

Got an email from Eanna and popped along with some of the B2R crew for a fixed pace run in the Phoenix Park.
I had 4:10/km pace in mind knowing anything more would be too hard at present and I'd cough up a lung again.
I did 8 miles at 4:10/km pace so got exactly what I wanted out of it.

Charlie is running well. I believe he's in for a duathlon (Fingal?) tomorrow and I reckon he'd have a great chance of winning it if COD isn't present.


Sun 9th Mar:

Out for long bike with Mark Horan.
Easy pace was the plan, but Mark is in a different cycle and decided to give it a little on any incline. I had nothing to answer with and proceeded to get dropped at will!
Great to see him in great shape all round, having ran the half mara in 1:14 recently he will do very well in ICAN Malaga in April all going well.

Eye opener to my lack of endurance and strength at present.
Lack of outdoor long bikes, lack of hills, lack of overall volume, lack of consistency and bit of bug all factors but that's where I am.
Conscious decision to up everything and get on with it.

4hrs 15min, 109km with a good bit of hills via wicklow gap etc.

Weekly summary - 15hrs, 8 on bike. A bit better but not enough.

Cough still present. Mainly on efforts or in morning. No effects of illness so hopefully be gone in a week and back to 100%.



Mon 10th Mar:

Off. Looking back through my plan, I was quite consistent when taking 1 day off per week. Be it mental, physical or both. Not always ideal but will schedule this for a bit and see how it goes.


Tues 11th Mar:

Swim - 2.5km easy mainly 200's or so. Working on technique.

Run - 10km easy on treadmill. Feels beneficial for cadence and also foot strike.

Core/conditioning - 20mins


Wed 12th Mar:

Swim - 3,050 as 400's mainly off 7:30 ish.
This wasn't too bad. First 5 were mainly 6:40 pace but died a bit thereafter.

Run - treadmill run after again - 8km easy.


Thurs 13th Mar:

Bike - morning short turbo - 35mins with a little at sweet spot. Again difficult and struggled a little.

Bike 2 - evening short turbo - conclusion of above, but mainly set around 230w as feels a real weak spot. Felt a bit better here.

Run - 9.7km run off bike - easy.



Fri 14th Mar:

Bike - 3hrs with couple climbs involved. Easy pace and windy. 62km.

Run - 25mins run off bike. 5km. Felt utter rubbish. Tired legs. Real sign of biking being weak imo and lack of endurance/strength.


Swim - 2.5km as 25 x 100m off 1:50. First 15 in sub 1:34, next 10 in sub 1:39. Feel for water returning. Fitness still to follow. Best swim in a while.



Decent weekend planned ahead and formula 1 kicks off to help the recovery on the couch in between!

Note - Canned idea of doing the Duathlon Champs.
I've been too inconsistent the last 2 months, I'm not in great shape and I still have a cough particularly on efforts.
I'd still like to race some duathlons, but know the standard distance will set me back too much training time that I need to catch up on.
Plus, I'm not fit enough to pull out any sort of performance.

Naas sprint duathlon next weekend is a 50/50 shot. Will only do if feeling better and use it as a bit of speed work.

Fazz

Sat 15th Mar

Long, hilly ish bike. 4hrs 45min, 113km,

Core - 15 mins and stretch/foam roll.


Sun 16th Mar

Run - 75min depleted trail run easy in late afternoon.
- wasn't planned, but wanted to see how I felt on nothing. Also stimulate a bit of fat burning. Result - felt utter crap. Ran crap. Not a great feeling! :pac::rolleyes:

15 mins conditioning

Turbo - 55mins spinning legs.


Weekly total - 17.5hrs - one of my better weeks of late, not up to the required levels yet but getting there.




Mon 17th Mar

Bike - out on the TT bike for a 90min spin with a recce of the Pulse Hill Climb TT route in. This is on at the end of the month and Neil Bolger is defending champ.
I happened to see that the route takes in a popular Strava segment it appears. Bohernabreena climb to Stocking lane by Firhouse/Tallaght area.
Solid climb, Cat 2, 6km and relentless. Keeps on giving.
The Pulse TT is just short starting by the island and stopping maybe 20m from the top - so takes in 5.8-5.9km or so of the strava segment.

Done on the TT bike as it is 1kg lighter than my heavy roadie, and it has the power meter on so handy to gauge what I could sustain.

I started off the route thinking ok, solid effort but not flat out, maybe even do 2 or 3 reps. Well, as I was climbing pushing 300watts I backed off a bit but decided hell, just give it some beans a bit and see how it goes.

Kept the pace consistent, didn't sprint the end but will do next time.
Happy with my effort, maybe have another 5% or so in an all out TT effort. Maybe 30seconds, maybe more.

Home to upload and see how I faired. Gotta love Strava.

Climb done in 19:05, which puts me 10th on the leaderboard and a full 2mins+ behind Ryan Sherlock. No shame in that but I'd like to get a little closer come all out effort hopefully.

http://www.strava.com/activities/121471847/segments/2710874377

So fellow locals - get out there and attack this bad boy she's a beaut!
Bambaata - I know you want to....!

Home then and out for a run.

Run - Easy 60min run - 13.4km and felt much better than Sunday. Had some food beforehand maybe the reason!



Tuesday - Off


Wednesday

Swim - easy drills/technique work - 2.2km, man I suck at kicking :rolleyes:

Run - Treadmill for a few intervals for a change. Had planned 5 x 1km at 18.5kph to try feel the pain and decide if doing Naas duathlon.
Well, turns out the treadmill only goes up to 18kph (3:20/km pace).
I did 3 of these, then switched it to intervals of 30/60secs on 30 off.
Actually felt good, pace not too bad considering, hard to see me running that for the duathlon but then I had no speed work in December before 5k and 5mile pb's either.
Not quite the consistency this time round so wouldn't be expecting much. We shall see.



So Sunday is the Naas Duathlon. Last in the series - I enjoyed this race a lot last year but was in better fitness.
Will I race this knowing I'm not in great shape?
Quite possibly, I love racing, and I'm comfortable with my later than norm start with a focus on a late peak so I am where I am for a reason.
Still a slight cough but not bad at all so no issue there really.
Paul Carroll is in and in good form so would like to go up against him, but realistically I'm not as fast as I was this time last year yet, so can't expect much of a showing!
Anyway, racing is fun so I probably will do. no point in training to miss out on the fun of racing in my opinion. Not really any duathlons left after this bar Sportsman in 2 weeks and the NC which I won't race.
See how next few days go.

Bambaata

Fazz wrote: »

So fellow locals - get out there and attack this bad boy she's a beaut!
Bambaata - I know you want to....!

Me and hills wouldnt be the best mix! Id probably need over 450W to make any inroads there. A steady 304W ave (not pushing mind) only managed me 04:56 there!

Dory Dory

HI Fazz. You mention that you were pushing 300 watts when you started climbing (what would that be for you - w/kg?), so I'm wondering what wattage you were pushing before the climb started? When training on the road, what kind of power do you like to hold for various sections and various training efforts?

Fazz

Dory Dory wrote: »

HI Fazz. You mention that you were pushing 300 watts when you started climbing (what would that be for you - w/kg?), so I'm wondering what wattage you were pushing before the climb started? When training on the road, what kind of power do you like to hold for various sections and various training efforts?

My training weight is typically 65-67kg depending on strictness of diet and overall training load.
For that ride I was 65.5 and maintained 294w for the climb just under 20mins.
So thats 4.49 w/kg.

I warmed up with a few bits around the 200-240w mark but nothing special.

Compare this to 4 weeks ago, the 20k TT on a flat/rolling course was only 278w for 30 mins.

I don't think I've improved much so this kinda shows how it is easier to maintain higher watts on a climb, all be it for a shorter period.

I don't think a 20mins climb would give a fair reflection of a 20min test to extrapolate ftp at ~95%.
May have another 20k effort on Sunday to compare if I do the duathlon.
In fact I likely will as could give a good comparison all be it a short fast run beforehand.

Regarding training on road and what power I like to hold for various pieces.
- hill reps of say 3-6 x 10mins (depending on fitness/gradient) at threshold or just under power (ftp)
- climbs over medium rides just push based on feel that day - often mini sprints etc
- sprints on hills upwards of VO2 for 1-2mins tops or max efforts.
- flat rolling pieces depend on duration and session.

Typically, a lot of my power sessions are indoors.
Outdoor bikes would be for tt efforts or sessions near threshold or above.

This will alter in the next couple months as I plan on more outdoor power based sessions primarily pieces at threshold, sweet spot (90% ftp), 70.3 (85%) and IM (75ish%) efforts.
Longer rides then could be anything from 50-65%.

I do find it easier to maintain slightly higher watts outside.
Ive never done an outdoor ftp test to compare as races give an indication and are all that matter really.

Will post these up once I start into them.
Need more base first i'm afraid!

Fazz

Thursday 20th March

Swim - mainly easy 400's of 7 or so - in around 6:40-6:50 odd bar traffic.
Feel for water still slow to come back as is fitness.

2.8k done - 57mins


Core/conditioning - 20 mins


Felt very tired in evening so shut it down and rested, early night and an epic sleep.


Friday 21st March

Woke up feeling great, best sleep in a long time, much needed.

Turbo - Mediums into zone 2
wu 20
3 x 8mins @ 255-260w (90-95% FTP) R3-5
10 mins @ 210w
30mins @ 180w
cd

Run - Brick run off bike - kept easy l1 - time on feet, focus on form/technique/efficiency.

65mins - 12.7km done.

Core/conditioning - 20 mins


Saturday 22nd

Up early - easy swim 50mins 2.4k mainly drills/skills.

Turbo - easy 60mins cadence/single leg/spinning legs

Conditioning/core/stretch/foam roll - 40mins done - v tight quads, massage due soon.


I've decided I'm going to race the duathlon tomorrow.
I'm not in great shape, and know the run will hurt me a lot but still want to do it as I love racing. I don't have anything planned in Apr/May at all so it will be a long time till another one.
April see's me kick off a fairly substantial block of volume so I may as well have a bit of fun first.
Also be useful to compare my 20k bike watts compared to a month ago and also to my recent hill climb.
Sorry legs.

Fazz

Sunday 23rd



Naas duathlon

In no shape for this, but it was the last in the series and is a good race so I went for a bit of speed work.

Run 1 - 11:10 - a shocking 25 secs slower than last year, but totally fair on current fitness.
Came into T1 around 15th/20th at a guess.

Bike - 30:41 - 3rd. again slower than last year as expected, but not too bad considering I was expecting my legs to fall apart from the run beforehand.
Avg watts - 273w. Not too bad.
I held 278 watts for the 20k club tt a month ago so I'm pretty happy to drop off only 5, in what has been a mediocre month of training.

Into T2 in 3rd, being chased down by some gazelle's and knowing my run was in shocking form!

Run - 12:39 - again shocking and slowest of the top 13 or so.

Running and determined to not look back. Through first km and no footsteps... I'm holding form but it's not fast.
Through 2nd km and I think I hear some feet....
Sure enough I get passed with ease and knowing you're in 4th with no legs is not pretty. Slightly demoralised I drop another place to 5th.
I try to push on as they are only 10-20m ahead, but I'm running slower than them and unable to push it for more.

Cross the line in 5th, 56:17 which must be around 2 mins slower than last year I'd say.

Run was poor today. Bike was also sub par but not a bad day considering lack of real work.

Ended up 4th in the results due to someone getting penalised for drafting I suspect, as there was a bit of it out on the course but there was some good bike marshals out there so fair play to them and Naas tri club.


Only when I got home did I realise my Quarq magnet has disappeared and no power being read now. Must have lost it on bumpy roads after finishing as power seems to be read in full for the race.
Doh! Not a great day out all in all!

Other than enjoying the buzz of racing again at least!
Also made a schoolboy error of forgetting to put watch on multisport mode.



Monday 24th March

Legs a little tight - so easy 90mins turbo spinning mainly and in Zone 1-2.

30mins core/conditioning/stretching.


Tuesday 25th

Swim - easy 400's - 3.1km done all easy - best maybe a 6:45 or so, most around the 7 mark.
I do see some value in having real easy swim's from time to time.
Just focus on technique, not care about times and enjoy the water.

Run - 45mins treadmill run after swim - easy pace - 9km.
Treadmill nice and low impact on legs.

Core - 25mins/conditioning done.


Wednesday 26th


Swim - Been some time since I made a swim before work, but I have been working on my sleep lately and got up feeling refreshed.
Left a little late (7:20am) and man the difference in traffic is unreal.
I'm barely 6km from UCD, but it was 8:10 before I was in the pool!

Anyway, lane to myself was the benefit at least, and in for 20 x 100's off 1:50.
I would normally be off 1:45, or pushing 1:40 when fitter but fitness is a few consistent weeks away yet.
I still wanted to go at a reasonable effort so started at 1:35's and brought down to 1:32-1:33's mainly.
I took the full rest, which was plenty and held pace well.

2km - avg 1:33/100m off 1:50.

Feel for water returning, fitness will take another couple weeks.
I'll aim to repeat this set, hopefully do an extra 10 reps and go off 1:45 next week all going well.



So I'm rested, sleeping well and swim is returning.

I've Friday off work so a nice training day planned there.
Saturday see's the club hill tt on, and I hope to have a cadence magnet fitted for then so I can track watts and compare to last time.
Magnet ordered (2 of them) and should be in tomorrow I hope.
Fitting won't be so easy - must get a crank tool so I can remove mine when needed!

Cough is pretty much all gone now at least.
Lats still get tight frequently but being foam rolled and managed.

Yep, I'm now ready for proper training to recommence.
It's time for some volume and fitness to return.

Dory Dory

Power? Watts? Two words: Garmin Vector.

And yes, to just enjoy being in water and swimming for the feel of it is brilliant.

Fazz

Thursday 27th March:



Bike - 90mins Turbo - hard set but done off feel as hadn't sorted cadence magnet yet for Quarq.
Enjoyed doing it off feel for a change. Nice to have a break from the numbers.
Set was a set of intervals basically - circa 70.3 effort for 9/7/5/3 mins resting 1min between each, then into circa olympic effort for 2mins and back to 70.3 for 3mins, 3 of those resting between each - 2-3mins
Then into sprint effort for 90secs and 30secs maxing out, again resting between each done 3 times.

Run - 45mins run off bike - easy, ironically garmin satellites wouldn't load so also done without the numbers. Nice.



Friday 28th March

Long bike planned but shortened so I could ensure cadence magnet sorted for Saturday's hill climb.
Just over 2 hours done on the roadie - few hills but mainly easy work.

Core/Conditioning - 20 mins

Swim - Nice set of 3 x 50 at 95% with short rest, followed straight into 3 x 300 as 95%, 90%, 85% efforts.
Did this twice through = basically a race practice set going out hard and trying to buffer the lactate.
Enjoyed this session a lot. Hadn't tried to swim fast in a while.
the 300's were coming in on 4:35-4:50 depending on effort. I will do this session again it's a very nice 2k of work.


Into B2R to sort cadence magnet.
I had tried to fit an ordinary rare earth magnet but it wasn't reading.
I figured I couldn't get it right and didn't have a crank removal tool so had hoped to get a dig out in B2R.
Peter gladly assisted and sorted in 1min flat, temporary fix done and will book it in for fitting inside the frame soon for a permanent fix.


Saturday 29th March

Pulse Hill Climb TT

Warm up from the gaff to bohernabreena.
It was misty but holding off on rain at least, but only a matter of time.
No biggie, out on the Shiv (with roadie helmet, I'm not that bad!) and off we went.
You may be wondering why the TT bike for a 5.8km hill climb.
Well, my roadie is an oldie - just about made the carbon frame spec with 105 gear but it's not exactly light and is over 1kg heavier than my shiv.
That, and the fact I had the power meter on the shiv and wanted to gauge effort saw me happily use the TT bike. Disc wheel and all :pac::o:rolleyes:

Warm up just under 14km done - nothing special but bit around the 220-250w mark just to open the legs.


10 am was kick off, a well organised event and organiser was setting the faster guys off first to ensure clear roads as hill is relentless and lots of weaving likely!
Hell maybe even walking in parts!

I was booked in as 2nd off, but unfortunately Neil Bolger didn't show so I became the rabbit off first in 15sec intervals.

So my training effort 2 weeks previous saw me hold 294watts for the climb.
I wanted to push for over 300-310 but go on feel also.

Took off too hard as always, 360 watts for the first 2mins and think still 340 odd into 4 mins.
Copped on and backed off, the hill keeps on asking so didn't want to blow and start walking!

Backed off to around the 300 mark and was feeling controlled.
A few peakier climbs saw me go above this and around the half way mark I was averaging 320 odd but legs felt good.
I wasn't in trouble, and decided I could try hold this for the remainder and see how it went.

I wasn't looking back that's for sure, cadence around the 80rpm on my 53/39 and only out of the saddle on the steeper climbs.
Power meter really comes into it's own here, I would have gone out too hard for too long, and spiked too much without it I feel.
Anyway, on I go and with 2km to go the wind picks up.
Not a fast day unfortunately, which mean any hopes of improving my strava time were unlikely!
Wind really picked up for the last 1km and into face so it was slow, but I held power well and kept climbingpast the finish line to the top of the strava point.
I had started at the bottom (strava point) and paused garmin at the start of pulse line. This meant strava wouldn't recognise it as elapsed time counts but I wanted to see if any better anyway.

Training effort - 18:30 ish 2 weeks ago holding 294 watts.

Race effort - 18:17 holding 320 watts - 324 normalised.

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/E2CGFMWASTXMG5XZOYT2PCT3JE
- not sure why this has me at 46 watts/kg :pac::D TP has my weight tracked correctly but anyway who cares.


A decent 30 watts jump and unexpected.
Would have been sub 18 but for the wind but no biggie.
Managed to come first home and with around 90secs advantage so delved into the delicious cakes at the finish line, once I got my breath back.

Bohernabreena is an epic climb, fantastic training hill I will do it more hopefully.


Regarding power - I'm sitting at 65kg so just under the 5 watts/kg held for the 18 odd min climb.

Not a chance is this reflective of 95% FTP values. That would put me around the 4.7 watts/kg and I'm nowhere near that at the moment that's for certain.

Hills are defo easier to push bigger watts as you've no choice or you're off the bike.
I guess in theory if you can do it on the hills then why not on the flat? But it's defo easier on the hills, relatively speaking.

I may have improved my 20min power figures going on the above, but don't have the base or endurance to back it up over longer distances yet - that's what April and May will be all about hopefully!

So not a true reflection of 20 min power in my opinion and won't be using as updated figures.


Cool down of 18km done home.


Run - 9km easy at around the 4:40 mark. Into town then for trinewbie's cake celebrations.




Sunday 30th March

Run - LSD - just over 20km done as patience first 10km, then upping a bit for second 10km. 4:40'km pace.

Swim - easy 1.8km drills/splash.

Core/Conditioning - 30mins done

Bike - easy 90mins spinning, no computers just fun.


16 hours odd but reasonable quality so happy.
Need to prioritise longer bike work over the next few weeks to increase base.
Similar with runs - long runs planned also.

Fazz

Monday 31st March

Didn't quite manage an early start so it was in to the pool at lunch for a short splash.

Straight in, straight out - barely had 20mins but wanted to do it anyway.

Swim - 18mins - 1.1km straight - 1:39/100 avg pace.


Turbo - Quality Rolling set:
15min wu
2 x ATP R2
5min Standing @ 260w
R5
40mins straight as 4min @ 210w, 3min @ 240w, 2min @ 265w

CD

Decent set, hot inside and lot of water lost to replenish.
Enjoyed it.

Core/Conditioning - 20mins core/stretch/mobility done.

Fazz

Wow, nearly 2 months since I updated this bad boy!

Training has been medium up to end of April, a little issue in early May again and has picked up since mid May now with better consistency and lessons learned.

3 Main issues curbed my consistency in the base period of training from Jan-early May as follows:

Jan - Back locked up, spasmed muscles and took 2 weeks to address properly. Very low training and easy during this period - 6-8 hours per week.
Ongoing maintenance in the form of foam rolling since this - mainly lats that get tight so hoping it's from better swim form.

Feb - Had a bug that was doing the rounds and trained through for a bit and delayed recovery as a result. Prob 2-3 weeks of mediocre training again during this period.

May - Having some fun Go Karting at a stag do, came around a hairpin to have guy in front turn and lose it too late for either of us to change racing line. Resulted in him spinning and me going straight into him sideways.
I took the brunt of the crash and my back whacked sideways against the seat.
Fortunately, just bruising and again further spasmed muscles.
Another 10 days of easy/mediocre training until sorted.


There was a 4th issue during this period, which I'm still getting right and that is the self-coached application of training stimulus.
I could have mirrored what worked before, in terms of intensity and days etc. But have experimented and lost the most important element - consistency.
At least, consistency in terms of the overall load I know I need to be training at in order to improve this season.

Nothing ground breaking, and not like I've tried to increase the load massively yet more a simple few errors of what has felt like too much middle ground or intensity levels without sufficient recovery or days in between.
It resulted in a combination of reduced motivation and overall fitness and energy to tackle better sessions or more sessions.

This is part of the learning process, finding out what works for me and in many ways its a case of reflecting back on the B2R program because Eanna really seemed to get it right in terms of overall load and stimulus.
That's the coach's job and now my role also so hopefully I can take better steps from here.

Others are able to sustain better training intensity, and we are all different.
Part of it is looking at what others do, part of it is looking at what worked previously and then only taking minor adjustments at a time, whilst ensuring the overall consistency remains there.

So I'm prob on average of 12-14 hours per week up to early May, whereas this time last year I was nearer 16.
That's the difference and I feel I am not as fit or strong, but that I have improved in other areas so given another couple blocks of better consistency and load I should be able to regain last years levels hopefully with improvements on top.

Short Summary catch up:
April
Week 1 - 12 hours (s - 2.25, B - 6, R - 3)
Week 2 - 13.25 hours (S - 2.75, B - 6.5, R - 3)
Week 3 - 11.75 hours (s - 2.25, b - 6.25, r - 2.25)
Week 4 - 12 hours (s 1, b - 7, r - 3)

May
Week 1 - 18.25 hours (s - 2.5, b - 11.25, r - 3.75)
Week 2 - 8.25 hours (s - 2.5, b - 3.25, r - 2)
Week 3 - 17.75 hours (s - 3, b - 10, r - 4)
Week 4 - 19.75 hours (s - 4, b - 10.75, r - 4)


So May has finally seen me apply some of my learnings, as well as get training right for me and ensure consistency.

I noted it before in my log, that the polarisation model seems to work best for me in that 20% tops of intensity per week with 80% in easy zones.
I didn't apply this too well but also had some issues but seem to be on the right track from May at least.

So what's next.

I race Tri an Mhi in 2 weeks, it's not really a race I can afford to taper much for so a reasonable load again this week and a few easy days next week so a 1 week taper really to try freshen the legs.

Being honest, I really don't think I can match up to last year's level just yet, so it may be a case of damage limitation or more likely get stuck in and find out where I breakdown if I do.

Swim - my swimming is ok, but I lack the endurance and overall volume/fitness that I had last year. I think my technique is slightly improved, but we shall see come race day.

Bike - lack of strength endurance which may prove a problem over the full 94km bike leg. I am considering an FTP test this/next week ahead of the race so I've an indication of levels, but a 20min test is not going to reflect accurately on a 2+ hr bike TT so it may not help completely.
Basically, I haven't done enough long bikes, nor been consistent enough with overall training load to make sufficient gains I feel.
May has salvaged some of that but will a 94km bike find me out or can I hold out?

Run - funny one. I seem to have good and bad days so who knows what legs turn up come race day. More to the point what legs will be left after the bike.
Again a lack of strength endurance at this point in the season so won't be pretty.


I'm not at last year's level of fitness at this part of my season, which is fine at the moment so I am going to race as best I can and see what happens.


Will try keep more updated here.

After Tri an Mhi, I will be doing more speedwork at threshold levels combined with easy but hopefully good volume. I see this as my best approach to try and put in a reasonable Kilkee at the end of the month whilst maintaining overall training load hopefully.

Fazz

May Week 5

Swim - 2.5hrs
Bike - 7.5hrs
Run - 4 hours

Had the weekend away so loaded up in the first 4 days to maintain the effort.
Just a short bike the Friday before taking Sat and Sun off.
Legs quite fatigued, massage booked for Wed before race and will need to hope easy work flushes legs as well as a couple short sharpeners to see if they come around.

Swim feel returning, did a 1.9k straight when cold with the pullbuoy.
Effort was medium to strong and just ensure pacing was there.
Came in at 30:20 so pretty happy with that considering.
I've been doing more pb work lately and then swapping out to normal swim and it seems to be helping my kick/leg position - aka remove some drag as I'm not much of a propulsive kicker.
400's now coming back down to normal fitness - 6:20-6:30 without too much effort past medium so will slowly build it up for the late season aims.

Bike - decent volume and a good session on the TT at IM efforts start to suggest that 225w is likely to be achievable for planned IM wattage.
I don't think I've improved my FTP much lately as haven't done enough sweet spot or threshold work so that's ahead of me.
But I do feel my base is a bit more in line now and I have a bit of strength to start working on more power for the month of June.

Run - still a couple kilo's overweight compared to proper race weight but may be able to shift a bit ahead of tri an mhi.
Will aim to drop weight for Kilkee to see if much of a diff. Something I want to try and see if I can get below 64kg for race weight - would defo help on the kilkee run.


Finally feeling like I'm ready for some proper strength and threshold work now.

Saturday's race will be a case of pushing myself to see what I can do.
Whilst I feel I'm down on last year's fitness, I also just love racing and can't wait to get out there.

It won't be pretty and a good placing will be hard fought as I think a competitive field is in store.

Now I'm off for a leg massage to try flush out this fatigue!

Fazz

June Week 1:

Swim - 3hrs 50min
Bike - 6hrs
Run - 3.5 hrs
S & C - 45mins
14hrs inc race

Race report over in race thread.

Learnings:
Swim - went wide, didn't push enough, didn't draft enough.
Bike - Better than expected, held similar watts to last year off less fitness. Didn't die at end.
Run - suffered from over-biking. Not enough running at race pace done.

Need to race more and train more at race paces. Suffering was alien.


June Week 2

Started off with an easy swim and bike, then died a death.
As I was about to start the swim at Tri an Mhi, I felt something on the back of my foot. I lifted my foot out of the water a couple times but didn't see any nick or cut.
Didn't feel anything again till end of race. Getting massage and told my sock is bloody at back of heel. Ah, so I did cut my foot in the water.
Just a slice not too deep, prob from a rock or something but honestly don't remember anything.
Anyway, my week descended from here. bacterial infection knocked me out. Fever, severe stomach cramps, fatigue, etc etc.
Tried a couple swims during week and bailed on both. In bits.
Rested up, managed to recover by Saturday/Sunday but the week was a write off training wise/taken as all recovery.

Highly likely I picked up a bacteria infection into my cut foot and it was all systems down from there. One of those things.


June Week 3

Going good this week, decent track session banked but head is currently arguing with heart on racing Kilkee.
Need to properly look at overall plan between now and Aug to see.
Not in ideal fitness, but love racing and always feel I learn from racing.
Need to get proper training banked now and start build work, an element of racing into fitness also could be done so will see.
Will make the call later next week.

Fazz

So training has gone quite well the last week or so and hitting better numbers on the Power meter and feeling better in the water.
Run is a little behind but July see's planned increases there for my plan.

I love racing, and other than Kilkee my next race is Lost Sheep so I'm going to race Kilkee and try use it as a race into fitness improvements day.
I don't need to taper as had a week off 2 weeks ago from infection, and want to improve my open water swimming and try suffer a bit more over bike and run.

So key sessions since last week have been:

Wednesday - 3.25 hour bike on the TT, found a nice stretch of road and did some efforts at 70.3 and above pace. Felt good on this and just over 200w ap for the 3 hours with a lot of recovery.

Thursday - track session with Mark. He's in great run shape and was doing 10 x 1km reps. This was my first speed session of note so I decided I'd try hold onto his pace for the first 400m, then rest and go with him for the last 200m. Alternated this with second rep going the 600 straight. Also did a hard 1km effort in this too. Most splits were around the 3-3:20/km pace but recoveries were long at 1min or so. The 1km effort was 3:13 and finished the session happy with it banked.

Thurs Swim was 30 x 100 off 1:45. First 15 in 1:35/36 before I upped the effort and dropped reps to 1:32 or so for the next 15. Felt like I was actually starting to hurt more in the water which is something I clearly don't do enough of.

Sat Bike was a turbo with 5 x 5min at Z4 with 5min recovery between.
Happy to hold 282w, 285w, 290w, 292w, 292w for these and again felt strong on the bike - like a bit of improved fitness has landed.

Monday:

I did an easy 2km in the pool with paddles etc. Finding the Paddles are helping me to hurt my arms more and when removing them I'm hurting a bit more. Kinda feels like I've been going too easy up to now but hey, happy to be swimming a bit faster and hurting a bit more now.

Run - did a progression pyramid descending km reps then finishing with easy increasing reps. Basically started at 4:45/km pace or so and dropped to 3:50/km and then back up. Just a medium run but felt good.

Swim - back in the water to Killiney for Pulse 1.5km Swim TT.
As I said, I need to hurt more in the water and this was a perfect chance to see if any improvements.
Came 4th in 22:50 for 1.54km so 1:29/100m pace.
Perfectly calm waters, had no feet to draft but felt I swam better than I have to date so happy enough.
Neil Bolger the fish was 4.5mins ahead in 1st for this.

Tues - Swim - 8 x 400m off 7mins - couple reps with paddles/pull buoy, couple on own, couple with pull buoy. All trying to swim a bit stronger so to speak.
Decent enough - 6:20-6:30 being the slowest pace, and dropped to 5:40 for a strong effort with paddles and pull buoy to cheat.

Turbo - 2 x 20mins Sweet Spot. Up to recently this has been around the 252w mark which was 90% of my original ftp test at the start of the year.
No test done recently, but wanted to target 260w at least or 265 if poss to see how it felt.
First one went a bit strong in 272w, and second felt fine at 266w. So signs of improved strength are there.

Last year's Kilkee bike was a poor 268w. I was an indicated 300w or so FTP at the time so held just under 90% FTP.
At Tri an Mhi, I held 262watts for the 2.5 hours. This kinda has me hoping I can hold 270+ for Kilkee bike this year and is a reason I want to race it - use it as a solid 1 hour effort to track differences.
I've been feeling strong on the bike the last 2 weeks, and will be going to Kilkee with notions of hurting myself to a new level.

peter kern

Anyway, my week descended from here. bacterial infection knocked me out. Fever, severe stomach cramps, fatigue, etc etc.
Tried a couple swims during week and bailed on both. In bits.
Rested up, managed to recover by Saturday/Sunday but the week was a write off training wise/taken as all recovery.

not sure if it was from the cut, as most likely I cought the same virus on wed before tri an mhi race and it seems like it was something going around. ( worst stomach cramps I ever had)
I orignally thought is was something wrong i had eaten but you are the 4th person i know now who had the same issue.

Fazz

peter kern wrote: »

Anyway, my week descended from here. bacterial infection knocked me out. Fever, severe stomach cramps, fatigue, etc etc.
Tried a couple swims during week and bailed on both. In bits.
Rested up, managed to recover by Saturday/Sunday but the week was a write off training wise/taken as all recovery.

not sure if it was from the cut, as most likely I cought the same virus on wed before tri an mhi race and it seems like it was something going around. ( worst stomach cramps I ever had)
I orignally thought is was something wrong i had eaten but you are the 4th person i know now who had the same issue.

Interesting - trinewbie had a similar type bug but not quite the stomach cramps.
May just be a nasty virus/bacteria doing the rounds so. Good to get out of the way early season then :pac::D

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Fazz wrote: »

Interesting - trinewbie had a similar type bug but not quite the stomach cramps.
May just be a nasty virus/bacteria doing the rounds so. Good to get out of the way early season then :pac::D

I had the same for a few days with severe bloating/stomach cramps and feeling like crap. Did not race Cutra as a result.

mossym

same deal for me at cutra, raced, but died a slow death. took me the bones of two weeks to get back 100% after it.

Fazz

Training has been going well so headed down to this to track progress via race.

Knew my run wasn't there, but wanted to try swim better and see where bike is at in a tough field.

Swim - 22:46 (1.4km in water, short run up beach).

I didn't have the speed to hand onto the front group in the first 3-400m and was dropped.
It's a constant battle for me, but there are signs of progress there so upping volume and proper quality to try bank more.

T1 - tad slow as took my time trying to turn on mini rear video camera (failed) and front camera (achieved).

Bike - 1:07:22

My biking legs have been feeling good the last couple weeks, so set out strong and tried to hold power between 280-300.
It was a head wind heading out, didn't feel too strong though.
Usual 50 or 60 ahead for me to chase down, passed a lot of drafters and folks who just ignore the 10metre rule, the 5 sec drop back rule, etc etc yada yada.

Thought I was doing well when I caught Dave Richardson but turns out he was on a bad day and I was still a few mins behind the top 10.
Bit more progress and a decent split.

On the way back I came into Doonbeg and that narrow bridge to the misfortune of a tractor stopped ahead of me and cyclists coming through against me on their side of road.
Marshal is blowing whistle to stop.
I know it's a DQ to cross white line and pass on other side of road esp as other competitors coming against me so I'm stopped behind tractor cussing away at my bad luck.
2 others come up behind me before 1 decides he didn't need to stop, flies onto other side of road and across bridge close to wall just as tractor is going through.
Yes, he nearly got squashed. No chance could the farmer see him.
Another athlete followed closely and had another near escape.
Me and 2 others passed the tractor then when safely across the bridge and set about chasing again.

So I'm thinking that's a DQ right. For the first guy and possibly the second?
A bike marshal passes me straight away and heads up to the first offender.
He must have been behind us or else the bridge marshal told him I'm guessing.
Anyway, he goes to the offender, has words with him and they both slow as I'm trying to pass. I end up shouting some nonsense about "I'm still in a race here come on" and the bike marshal moves on.
I pass and thing the offender is likely DQ'd or penalised or something.
Maybe lost 5 seconds stopped, and another 20 in slowing down and speeding back up I'd guess so circa 20-30 seconds gone.

Held 10 watts more (np) than last year which was a pleasant surprise.
286w for the split and felt pretty good throughout.

Think I came into T2 around about 10th - 12th or so.

T2 - standard, gambled on the sockless approach despite knowing the race was gone.

Run - headed off at an alright pace, felt good and was holding gap to 2 others ahead.
Passed the penalty box to see 2 numbers there, then I got passed by the first offender who it appears had no penalty or dq for dangerous cycling.
Anyway, a few km in and I can feel a hot spot rubbing against inside of my foot. Should have worn socks. Saw the top 10 coming against me and they are all faster runners at the mo so I backed off and tried to cruise home without rubbing the hotspot too much.
Lost a few places, meant nothing, happy not to hurt the legs.

Finished the race feeling great, no sore legs, good to train straight away and should be fast recovery so happy with that. Cut also isn't too bad so grand.

Run - 40:34

Finish - 2:12:26 - 18th place


Great race, I love that course and it's honest for all disciplines so quite fair.
Into July I go for some swim and run focus.
Next race isn't for 8 weeks at Lost Sheep, so I'm into build block of solid work and looking forward to it.

mossym

seems like you got what you wanted out of the race fazz. Gave you a shout on the run, you were probably wondering who the hell it was.

the marshalling was the only downside to the day. didn't see anything as bad as yours but some instand dq's that i'm sure were seen by marshalls and let go. it'll keep getting worse as long as people keep getting away with it

Fazz

Nursing a badly bruised heel section of my left foot.
I can only think it came from when I jumped off the bike in t2 at the race, I land on my right foot first but guessing my left foot took a hit.
I don't think it's anything worse than bad bruising but taking it easy a couple days and off run feet in case.
IT's not swolen, but is sore to walk on.
I know from experience if I go running I'll be compensating with other muscles/tendons and may aggravate them. So will hold off on running till Thurs or so if feeling ok then.


Monday:

Just a recovery 90min bike - no computers just easy time on the roady.


Tuesday:

Swim - 50mins as 400's off 7min, alternating some toys of paddles/pb.
some drills at end. - 2.4km

Wednesday:

Bike - Out on the TT bike for 3 hours at Ironman effort.
In theory, my current IM pace would be around 225watts so used this as a guide.
Brought out full nutrition and kept on top of it to get the body used to it - historically long bikes would barely see a banana and 1-2 bottles but it's now race specific work.

Had a head wind for most of the bike, but lovely weather all the same and enjoyed this.

3hrs 5mins - 101km done at 211AP, 227NP.
Bit of climbing done at threshold etc hence the high VI.
Legs felt good for this. Will extend in duration and hope the same then followed by adding in brick runs.

Thursday:

AM - Swim - 100's off 1:45, came in comfortably on 1:29-1:31 mainly.
Only 2.7km done with drills at end.
I'll do a couple more of these swims extending to 35 and 40 x 100's, and assuming not too much drop off in pace will then bring down the off time to 1:40's.


Turbo and chancing an easy short run off it planned for this evening to see how heel is.

Bambaata

Sorry to hear about the heel, prob a bruised fatty pad which can take a few days to heal alright. Ive had it happen and rest is the only way! I got it from running fast downhill

bopperr

what IF you thinking for the IM?

Fazz

bopperr wrote: »

what IF you thinking for the IM?

Currently .75 till training suggests otherwise.

70.3 generally around .85-.87 so hoping to go closer to .78 if training goes well and proves I can hold and still run off it.

Mallorca has 1300m or so of climbing so I'll use normalised as my guide.

pgibbo

Out of curiosity Ian, what do you display on your head unit? If working off IF then you must be displaying NP in some form. What else do you show?

My current display settings are on the 500 are:

Time
Power 3s
HR | Cadence

How's your heel? Hope it's on the mend.

Fazz

pgibbo wrote: »

Out of curiosity Ian, what do you display on your head unit? If working off IF then you must be displaying NP in some form. What else do you show?

My current display settings are on the 500 are:

Time
Power 3s
HR | Cadence

How's your heel? Hope it's on the mend.

Yes NP used on couple of my screens.
I use 3 screens, but the main one would be:

Power 3s
Current Lap (time)
Cadence & Lap Power

In general I have it set to auto lap every 5km, and so by monitoring my lap time and lap power I know where I'm at or if targetting a push at certain times etc.

Other screens:

Power 3s
Avg Power
Time elapsed
Normalised Power

So this keeps me on track for the longer bikes and is one I use in 70.3 and plan on using in Ironman.

And then the overall summary view when tracking what's left etc:

Time elapsed
Distance
Normalised Power
Cadence
Avg Speed

Fazz

Thursday PM

Just an easy 2hour turbo done - heel was still acting up so didn't run on it just yet.

Core/Conditioning - 20 mins done.


Friday

AM - Easy run tester - 40mins at easy pace testing foot.
Went fine, if anything I'm compensating on my midfoot more and running with a better gait. Go figure.

PM - Swim - 3.8km straight TT at 7-7.5 RPE.

Just wanted to see if I could do the volume at easy pace without too much drop off. Happily swam well and enjoyed it.
1:01:30 for the 3.8km so a decent pace and happy with that.

PM - Bike - Turbo - Aerobic Intervals of 230w (9min, 7min, 5min, 3min all with 1min recovery), then some short 300 and 400w surges for 2, 1 and 30secs.

Conditioning - 20mins


Saturday:

Easy 50min run, again compensating gait and more midfoot running but defo feels better form and like pace comes easier, all be it at the cost of my calves which are being used much more as a result.
Heel is getting better and doesn't appear to be anything more than bad bruising thankfully.

Turbo - Easy 1hour turbo spinning legs loosening calves ahead of bigger day on Sunday.


Sunday

Long Brick - out with Kevin Thornton and Trinewbie for a long TT bike spin.
Kevin was on a shorter plan but I ended with just over 5 hours at 65% ish so nice volume bike done - 160km @ 203watts Normalised.

Run - short run off it, not looking at pace and thinking more about form and running at a little effort pace wise to see what legs could handle.
Surprisingly too hard and just the 6km done at 4:05/km pace so harder than planned. Again calves feeling it but managing it. Defo want to continue this gait if possible nurturing calves along the way.


Weekly Total - Swim 9km, Bike 436km, Run 24km. Just under 19 hours with the conditioning and notably low run work but heel seems near better so managing well. And calves still haven't given up.


Monday

1 hour Swim with Trinewbie - 100's off 1:45 taking it handy at 1:35 pace. No heroics. 3.2km.

Run - easy 50min run again gait good but calves suffering. Pace is easier though so will fight on.

Turbo - 1 hour easy again try loosen calves.


Tuesday

Run - easy recovery treadmill before swim. 30 mins.

Core - 15mins

Swim - easy drills/form/technique work. 1.8km

Into TMB to get jabs for Thailand (fly out in 1 week woo hoo). One in each arm, dull ache/like a sore muscle. No swim planned for Wednesday and just easy on Thursday to see how it is. Seems grand.


Bike - 6 x 5mins Z4 (255-260watts) with 1 x 10mins Z3 at end. 1.5hr


Wednesday

Double Run Day

Run 1 - Long run with elevation trying to maintain form/gait.
The important part here was to maintain gait, stop if it was failing and also try maintain pace or negative split.
Seemed to have a head wind no matter which way, and no tail wind when turned as ever.

1hr 36min, 21.1km 4:35/km pace and held gait well but started failing a bit near end. Calves sore. Massage will be needed soon.

Run 2 - Short faster run mostly downhill - 5.5km @ 4:10/km pace.


Bike - 1hr easy spinning.


Running feels a bit better, weight is a bit down and calves are screaming basically. Stretching and rolling. Will get massage soon but a couple more hard runs first hopefully.