For Real This Time.

lopesc

Hi.

I am a 23 year old student in Dublin. I took up triathlon in 2012 and love it.
I've taken part in Athy, Athlone, DCT at the super-sprint distance and Clogherhead at the sprint distance. I've also taken part in the Pulse Aquathlons in Bull island.


I really enjoyed them and in 2013 I am aiming to be more competitive over a sprint sprint distance. I'm a member of Pulse Tri Club (holla any boards Pulsers!) and Trinity Cycling Club (ditto!).

/Intro.


Stay tuned.

Izoard

Best of luck - dunno if you train in the Trinity pool, but it has my vote as the "cleanest pool in Dublin"!

lopesc

Izoard wrote: »

Best of luck - dunno if you train in the Trinity pool, but it has my vote as the "cleanest pool in Dublin"!

Thanks! I've done all of my swim training there over the summer. Over the winter, I want to take part in some of the club's group training sessions though to help with endurance and technique!

BTH

lopesc wrote: »

Thanks! I've done all of my swim training there over the summer. Over the winter, I want to take part in some of the club's group training sessions though to help with endurance and technique!

Also swim down in trinity so you'll like see me there a couple of mornings a week. Nice pool alright. Best of luck with the log and your winter training.

Izoard

BTH wrote: »

Also swim down in trinity so you'll like see me there a couple of mornings a week. Nice pool alright. Best of luck with the log and your winter training.

Thanks for the warning, I'll get the tinted goggles out, if I'm in there in the am...:)

lopesc

OK so here's my update for what I've done in 2013.

Swiming.
I've started a 8-week swimming course run by Pulse in balrothery. Currently on week 4 of 8. They're a tough 1.5 hours and I can really feel the extra effort I am putting in to these session. Last year I'd have been doing maybe an hour max in the pool covering just over 1000m on a good day. Now it's in excess of 2000m every Tuesday.


Running.
Finally managed to get out on a club run two weeks ago. And as it happens, my first run of 2013 . Had hoped to get out from the first week of January but I wasn't able to for one reason or another. Been out twice so far and will be out again this Sunday. Running around 10K at an easy pace - roughly 1 hour.

Last year I never ran for more than 30-40 mins on my own and running has been an uncomfortable least favourite for me. I went to Runways a few weeks ago for gait analysis and some new shoes. Can't fault them thus far, I haven't had any complaints form the legs after either run. I am taking it easy before upping the amount of running I do. I'm planning on fitting in a mid-week session on my own from next week or the week after.


Cycling.

I've been pretty consistent on the bike. I've been going to spin class every week since it started getting cold in the evenings and I've been on most of the Saturday spins with the club. I cycle on my commute most days as well (5K each way).


The club has run some time trials recently and these are what I will use as my base for the year:

3K Run: 14m 15s.
20K Bike: 40m.
200m swim: I've forgotten,(will ask one of the guys that was in my lane when we timed this. )


My Training plan:

| Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednsday | Thursday | Friday
am| Long Cycle | 1hr Run | Rest | | | 30m Run, 1hr Gym/Swim| Rest |

pm| | | | 1.5hr Swim | 1hr Spinning | | |

lopesc

Right, I'm feeling motivated and have being doing some training. Stay tuned!

lopesc

Edit: New Thread.

lopesc

Old thread.


Had a good year in 2013 in terms of willingness to get up and go training, even if it was a little bit unstructured.

In summary:

• IT band trouble since march coupled with college work meant I had to abandon plans to race in early part of the season, including TriAthy.
• Took up more cycling (since i wasn't running much), and saw a decent boost there.
• Raced in Killkee as part of a relay team - 01:24 for the bike
• Completed my first Olympic tri (DCT) with a time of 2:41 (33:36, 1:14:35, 51:43).

I was really happy with DCT, since I was aiming for a finger-in-the-air time of sub-three hours. Given how little running I had done up to then, I didn't think I could run 10k under 1 hour.

The end of last season, I did some cycling events and took some time off during September/October and had some appointments with a physio to sort my knee out. I also joined a gym and started a strength/conditioning program while I was planning on my goals/races for this year.


I've had a good look at the TI calender, and I'm hoping to do 5 NS races, sticking to Sprint and Olympic Distance:

18th May: 3DTri Sprint Triathlon
7th June: Crooked Lake Triathlon
28th June: Hell of the West
26th July: King of the Hill
24th August: Dublin City Triathlon.

I'm aiming to smash my DCT time by about 10 mins, maybe get to sub 2:30. So I've factored in some time to do specific training for DCT after Kilkee. My mind is only half made up on the King of the Hill sprint on 26th July. I'm considering doing Two Provinces Triathlon on 12th July in order to get 6 weeks of training for DCT in. I'm not sure if 2 weeks after kilkee will be enough recovery time though. I'm in uncharted territory when it comes to recovery times between races. I have plenty of time between races up to Kilkee, and will hopefully have good form for that.

Anyway, I'm finding that I am way more organised this year so if anyone's interested, I'll keep this updated!

lopesc

Right so.

Did some steady training in November and December, building up the mileage in the legs. Mostly cross trainer and short sessions on the treadmill, along with spinning class and strength and conditioning a few times per week. Managed to stick to 3 weeks with increase, and one easy week and hope to do same going forward. Took it handy during Christmas week, managed to get out for 2 runs and a spin out to Howth.

Jumping ahead to this week, I've started to break up my workouts to AM and PM, rather than doing a double session in the evenings. Reason being is that I want to go to the early morning spin class on Tues instead of the late one on Wednesday (I've found the late one was too late in the evening). So I have decided that it would be easier to get up at 6 every day than to struggle to get up at 6 on Tuesdays. Hopefully this will give me more time to relax in the evening too.

Monday

• Warm up on the cross trainer.
• Long run on treadmill - 46 mins, covering about 6.5km.
• Swimming class @ Westpark gym. Some drills and technique work.

Tuesday

• AM :Spinning Class. First time going to the early morning class @ 6.45. Skipped breakfast and started off pretty tired, but got in to it after about 10 mins.
• PM: Weights & Core work.

Wednesday

• AM: 15 x 100m swim off 2:15. Came in under 2mins on average. Started off too fast, first lap was 1:43, then gradually increased to 1:58/59ish. Going to try pace myself better from the start and hopefully get in at 1:55 in a few weeks.
• PM: Foam Rolling. Want to go for an easy run or a bike but I was ready for bed by 18:30 yesterday. The early mornings are taking their toll and I need some catch up sleep.

Thursday

• AM: Hill Run on the treadmill. Kept it handy enough, 25 mins. Aiming to build on the intensity here gradually.

lopesc

Thursday PM

Went to gym and did some activation exercises + resistance training.

Bed early again since I didn't sleep well on Wednesday night. No workout planned for friday morning so in bed by 9, alarm set for 7.30.

lopesc

Friday

20 mins on the cross trainer at Zone 1 HR. Wanted to do an easy jog on the treadmill today to loosen up the legs a bit, but I'm still cautious of too much impact on my knee so opted for the CT instead.

Then straight in to the pool for a 4 x 400 meter set. I didn't have a time to go off on. I've been building up to a 5 x 400 set, so i'm really just focusing on getting through each set in whatever time i can and taking about 2 min recovery between sets. Once I get up to 5, I'll start reducing the recover time. The first set was awful today. Arms felt tired and heavy after 100 meters, possibly from the weights last night. Wanted to quit, thought I was going to have to cancel the session, Made it and gave the second set ago, and began to loosen up. Very happy with my times, I don't think I have seen a sub-8 minute 400 yet. (Still haven't but I was close today!!)

Laps:
8:37, 8:03, 8:06, 8:10. Short cool down at the end for 1,760m total.

lopesc

Saturday

Club Cycle. Absolute carnage on the roads today. Black ice en route, 4 went down in our group and at 10 more went down in the other groups. We had to abandon the cycle after about 40 mins in and cycled back to westpark. I was unscaved and had covered ~40Km up to then, so decided to head out to Howth to to hit my target of 3hrs+.

75.63 km in 3:21:43.

lopesc

Sunday.

Day off. Weather was meh so caught up on some sleep. Icing the knee while watching football and a bit of foam rolling tonight before upping the volume a touch this week. Aiming for 10 hours:

Monday | Tuesday | Wednsday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Long Run + Swim | Spinning Class + S&C | Swim + Run | 1hr Bike + S & C | Hill Run + Swim | Long bike | Off

Using Sunday as contingency in case something comes up! Aiming do do a session before and after work on Tues, Wed and Thurs; Monday and Friday will be after work.

lopesc

Monday

• Long run. Longest run since August at 50 minutes. Covered about 7.5Km on the treadmill. I started off easy and gradually increase pace to get HR into Zone 2. Was able to keep a higher pace this week for the stint in the middle, while keeping the HR steady. Not sure what that is about but I am happy. Looking forward to knocking it back next week as the legs felt a little drained last night. Might move this session to Monday morning do I have more recovery before swiming.
  
• Swimming. Some drills and technique work to start followed by 10 *100's off 2:30. Came in under 2 mins for all of them, so plenty of rest inbetween but I wasn't complaining after that run! Around 1500m covered total.

Tuesday AM

• Spin class. Tough class this morning at 6.45. Had small breakfast at 6 as I was worried that I wouldn't have too much energy after Monday evening's session (another reason to run on Monday morning). Thankfully, breakfast stayed down during the class. I can't remember the sets but there was plenty of intervals above FTP and above threshold HR and I felt quite strong throughout. Some of the climbs at high power and low cadence were tough on the knees. Followed this class with some stretching for 10 mins.

lopesc

Tuesday PM

Strength and Condition set in the gym. Focused on glutes, hamstrings, core and back. Felt tired going to the gym and was tired throughout. Possibly not fully recovered form the tough spin class that morning. Cut session short by 10 mins so I could go home, have dinner and relax for the eve.

Wednesday AM

• 15 x 100 meter swim off 2:15. Tried to pace myself a bit better form the start, Aiming for low-mid 1:50's instead of 1:45's. Did that and kept it at around 1:55-1:57 for first half of set. After the 8th I started drifting in to 2 minutes. Felt the pressure towards the end, and overall, my avg pace was 1:59/100m, about the same as last week (2:00/100m).

Wednesday PM

• Easy Run to warm-up the legs and do a bit of stretch. Kept pace low as hamstrings were a bit tender. 3.5Km in 27mins. Avg HR was top of zone 1.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I'm gonna do some cycling in the morning in the gym. This is my first time adding a second mid-week cycle this year, so probably going to take it handy (base work). Currently looking at 1 hr turbo workouts to see if there is anything smarter I could be doing with that hour.

lopesc

Thursday AM

• 1 hour easy spin. Kept the intensity of this session fairly low, and did some work on the cadence. 2 mins at >90, 2 mins >105 by 6 or 7. Followed this session with some stretching.

Thursday PM

• Wasn't able to hit the gym today so did my strength and conditioning at home. Activation exercises followed by single leg lifts, sumo squats, single arm row, calf raises and core work. 30 mins.

Friday AM
5 x 400 meter set.

lopesc

Right so, going to skip ahead a couple of weeks. Training log derailed due to a few long days and nights in work, didn't have the time to keep it up. Training has been steady. Just back from a training weekend, feeling good. Rested yesterday and back today with spin class and some weights later.