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pgibbo

Nice revision to have to make

rooneyjm

Stroke rate looks fine to me

El Director

rooneyjm wrote: »

Stroke rate looks fine to me

Well it's not too bad when doing a TT, I tend to up the turnover - I assume that is common. Even still I have a load of room for improvement.

This chart is from swim smooth, this is where I am if I take my 400TT pace





...and my 200TT...





The idea is to be in that white zone, the more top right as you look, the better.

Also taken from swim smooth (in case people re wondering what a low stroke rate is)



This is what one needs to avoid, slowing down the stroke rate



Wednesday 12th April - Evening

Tempo session on the turbo, easy warm up then 3 x {10 min @ 76-90%, 2 min recovery}, then CD. Satisfying session.

Time 1hr; Dist 29.5km; AHR 123; AP 133; Cad 90rpm; NP 145; IF 0.72;

El Director

Thursday 13th April

Gym

Lower body, core and some yoga

Bike

Big gear session

10 easy
4x(1 HC, 30sec easy)
4x(30sec build, 30sec easy)
5x(4 BG, 1 easy)
5x(15sec sprint, 45 sec easy)
5 easy

Had a tempo the day before but this had no impact on this session, went well and felt strong.

Friday 14th April

Swim

100m CSS + 6s
200m CSS + 6s
300m CSS + 6s
400m CSS +6s
500m CSS +6s
400m Buoyancy shorts, CSS + 3s
300m Buoyancy shorts, CSS + 3s
200m Buoyancy shorts, CSS+ 3s
100m Buoyancy shorts, CSS + 3s

Working off a new CSS of 1:47 today and I was much better at keeping to the pace plan. Having a timing alert for each lap helped a lot, 28 seconds for the CSS +6 and 27 seconds for the + 3.

Run

10 WU
{4 min tempo, 1 min recovery} X 5
5 min easy

I was in Galway today so at the last minute I had the bright idea of contacting Paul (P Gibbo) just on the off chance he'd be up for a run or even be around. He was. Happy days. I'd planned 40 minutes of running with 5 x {4 minutes tempo, 1 recovery} and Paul was happy to go along with whatever. The 4 minute tempo's came in on average 4:45/km. Despite no tempo for two weeks and 12 days of no running this pace was an improvement on my last tempo session, those efforts were all over 5/km. this session could easily have been binned but for meeting up with Paul. Good session. Great company.

El Director

Saturday 15th April

Brick

The first race of the season has really crept up on me, the duathlon in the park on Saturday the 22nd so I thought I'd better run off the bike to see what my run legs after a bike would be like, after all it has been over 3 years. Lovely day for it, again I just stuck to the park and did laps.

Time 2:02:56; Dist 50.7km; Speed 24.8kph; Cad 87; AHR 138; AP 161; NP 190;

Slow transition and out the door, 5 minutes steady, 5 minutes easy. I actually felt okay and I'm confident that I'll be grand for the race. Nothing spectacular but I must remember the gains made in a short period of time and be proud of that.

First 5 minutes: Dist 1.14km; Pace 4:27; HR 165; Cad 168spm;
Overall: Time 10:35; Dist 2.17km; Pace 4:52/km; HR 163; Cad 162spm;

Good day for the confidence box. Went out Sat night and got very drunk and wasn't able to pull myself together for the LER that was planned for Sunday. Annoyed as I was so close to a perfect week, anyway onward and upward.

Tuesday 18th April - Recovery Week

I'm not able for a 4 week cycle (3 up, 1 down/recovery) so I'm currently employing a 3 week cycle. So this week is a recovery one.

Run

30 minutes easy this morning/afternoon. Felt good and enjoyed it. Strava conveniently tells me that I am running this course a lot more efficiently now.

Comparison:
March 15th: Time 32:38; Dist 5.8km; Pace 5:38/km; HR 151bpm; Cad 158spm;
Today: Time 30:01; Dist 5.75km; Pace 5:13/km; HR 144bpm; Cad 160spm;

EDIT: Just noticed that the March 15th one was a tempo session.

El Director

Tuesday 18th April - Evening/Afternoon

Did my first Trainer Road in a while, I used to build my own but TR seems to have improved a lot, loads more workouts and the filters are handy. So I decided to do Carter, a nice 45 min endurance session.

Time 45min; Dist 19.1km; Speed 25.4kph; Cad 85; HR 113; AP 130; NP 133;

El Director

Wednesday 19th April

Swim Threshold

Just a swim today. There was an aqua fit class on which was a bit annoying as these lovely old ladies just kept drifting across the lane without looking. Annoying too that my poor time keeping meant I had to cut the session short by 1000m. Not to worry I felt really good and this is a recovery week so the focus is to find some freshness. I paced the CSS parts pretty well, so that's good.

Time 32min; Dist 1750m; Pace 1:52/100;

Actually started yesterday morning and this morning with some mindfulness and gentle yoga with my favourite yoga teacher

25 minute gentle yoga
22 minute gentle morning sequence

MojoMaker

I think I could follow that program

El Director

MojoMaker wrote: »

I think I could follow that program

Well here's her cycling one and running one too!

Thursday 20th April

Bike

Very enjoyable mid-week 90 minutes. I did a few laps of the duathlon course. Getting a real buzz just being outdoors these days. Watched this before I headed out - inspirational, love it.

Time 1:30:00; Dist 38km; Speed 25kph; HR 132; AP 153; NP 179; Cad 88rpm;

El Director

Did a 8 X 300m endurance swim this morning, by the end I wasn't feeling great, I just felt kind of weak. Later in the afternoon we received bad news, a sudden bereavement on Linda's side, a young cousin of hers. We are heading west in the morning to be with the family. Feeling under the weather this evening too so will take a few days off training too.

El Director

Took yesterday off and got in an extra 2 hours sleep and felt so much better for it. After the removal for Linda's cousin yesterday it put things in real perspective. I got out for my LER this morning with my usual home running buddy because I will sleep long enough and running has a way of making you feel alive, much like OW swimming. We took to the suck valley way trail and did the Glinsk/Creggs section. I don't know what it is about the trails but once some I ran significantly longer than planned and I didn't really struggle. I walked a numbe of times and this helps to keep the effort easy and also to take some pics and take a look around

Time 1hr 20min; Dist 13.85km; Pace 5:49/km; AHR 150; Cad 158spm;

Neady83

Very sorry for your loss ED, I hope everything went peacefully for ye.

Trail running is a tonic isn't it, much easier on the body Glad it helped clear the head.

El Director

Neady83 wrote: »

Very sorry for your loss ED, I hope everything went peacefully for ye.

Trail running is a tonic isn't it, much easier on the body Glad it helped clear the head.

Thanks Neady, a tonic - that's exactly what it is and was exactly what the doctor ordered this weekend. Well done on the PB on THAT course! :eek:

El Director

I only did a swim last week, last Tuesday, I wasn't feeling well, low on energy and later that day I was getting sick. Some sort of bug, so I cleared the rest of the week's sessions and took it off. Did nothing for 6 days. That would have had the old me freaking out but after 3.5 years of zero exercise I'm just happy to be moving again! I've also came so far so quickly that I know a week off won't put me back too far. Metal and physical health first and foremost.

Tuesday 2nd May

Swim

Technique based session. Really felt fresh after the week off. Never feel bad for taking days off - it brings freshness.

Bike

Tempo session, 1 hour in total included 3 x 12 minutes at 80 - 90% of FTP, 3 minutes easy spin recovery. It felt good. Always like tempo/sub threshold Sessions.

Wednesday May 3rd

Swim

Longest swim in years and I was feeling it by the end but it wasn't so much that the quality fell off too much, I got out of the session the main aim. Threshold/CSS based session.

Run

Hill rep session. Did a good bit with Linda, good bit of walking but got 9 hill reps in a short steep hill. Good thing about doing some runs with Linda is that I go much slower which is no harm at all and ensures a quicker recovery. I mean I really hit the hills hard, sprinted up them. Did the WU and CD with Linda, nice and slow.

Beautiful day out there in the park, we even had a picnic and did some mindfulness. Good day today :cool:

pgibbo

Mindfulness? WTF??? Far from that you were reared

El Director

pgibbo wrote: »

Mindfulness? WTF??? Far from that you were reared

:D:D

Thursday 4th May

Bike

First big gear session in a while and it was tough going! But it was no problem. 25min in all at about 108%. Broke up into 5 x 5 min BG with just 1 minute recovery, cadence at about 50. Finished off with 5 x 15 sec sprint 45 easy. I'll only do one more BG session before the racing starts then I will continue with tempo and endurance rides and replace BG sessions with sweet spot/sub threshold building to threshold in build 2 phase.

Gym

1 hour of upper body and core/stability work.

El Director

Friday 5th May

Swim

9 x 300m at CSS pace + 3. 1 to 5 went to plan, perfectly, 1:50/100. 6-9 drifted out to 1:52/100. Swim endurance lacking but I knew this. Another few weeks of consistency and I'll nail 9 or 10 of these I'm sure.

Run

Tempo pace is so slow. I'd probably be better off just doing easy runs for a few weeks, no hills, speed work or tempo. Just build a base as I don't have any. Problem is I find easy running a bit boring, no fun! I'll think it over.

Sat 6th May

Long Bike

I was late getting out for this but I got out which was the main thing. Beautiful day too although windly as hell. I felt fairly weak actually after 30 or so minutes, usually I wouldn't pop a gel until the 1 hour mark and every 30 minutes there after but I felt i better have one after 30 minutes. However as the ride went on I felt stronger and better - good sign. I've missed the winter miles obviously so I don't have a great base, however I am only doing sprint and olympic (2 max) this year so I'll probobly get away with it. The thing I need to be careful about is injuries as this is my firat year back and I am doing some challenging sessions. I've decided to do another FTP as I feel my zones are not correct, despite the inconsistent nature of my training I feel I've upped my FTP.

I upgraded my wheel for the road bike, long overdue, god bless the cycle to work scheme (also got a hitch mounted Thule bike rack and other bits). I went with the widely recommended mavic ksyrium elites, bulletproof I hear. At fvirst I noticed no difference but then I got out of the saddle and noticed how responsive they were. They really rolled well on rough to smooth surfaces so I am very, very pleased. My average speed was up by 2kph too which I was amazed by as it was very windy out.

Time 2:16; Dist 62.4km; Speed 27.4kph; AP 182; NP 203; AHR 146; Cad 91;

El Director

Sunday 7th May

LER SVW

Hot out there today! Beautiful though and even more so on the Suck Valley Way, did the Creggs to Ballygar section. Plenty of vertical metres! It was slow but no matter, did 11:30 run, 0:30 walk.

Time 1:06:39; Dist 11.1km; AHR 150; Cad 156spm; Pace 6:02min/km;

El Director

Rest and Test Week

My plan was 2 weeks up one week easy/recovery but it's been 1 week of 10 - 12 hours followed by easy/recovery week of 6/7 hours. I'm just being careful as the body isn't used to all this training! It's been a while and I don't want injuries or any more illnesses. This approach is definitely working for me.

Mon 8th May

Run

Just an easy recovery run with Linda

Time 28:36; Dist 3.9km;

Tues 9th May

Bike FTP Test 2 2017

7 weeks since the last one and I felt gains were made and needed more accurate zones for training. Felt the usual nervousness before but I always secretly look forward to it too!

5 min TT: AP 290; AHR 155; Cad 91;
20 min TT: AP 265; AHR 163; Cad 90;

My HR should have been higher for both but particularly the 5 min TT, it's 10 beats off at least and 2 or 3 for the 20 TT. Now I felt like I was on the limit through out and HR can be misleading and can differ from day to day. But in general it shouldn't.

Going by those numbers my FTP is 252, 50 watts up on 7 weeks ago. I'll go with that because it is far more accurate than the 202 from 7 weeks ago. There was always going to be big gains early on as I am coming from such a low base.

Wed 10th May

Swim - Open Water pool session

100s
100p
100k
4 x 300 as
1) fins, long and smooth
2) fins, sighting, take 6 strokes - nose over water then breathe to strong side
3) PB breathing to weaker side - left
4) normal f/s
100s
100p
100k

Really nice session. Haven't practiced sighting in years! Need to get 2 or 3 OW swims in before Lough Cutra if I can, or one at least and another before Salthill.

Run Easy

Lovely run on a sunny afternoon in the park. First 10 and last 10 done with Linda so nice and easy. Middle section done on my own around the Munich lap a few times. Forgot the HR monitor, nice to forget it sometimes.

Time 40 min; Dist 7.11km; Pace 5:38/km; Cad 162;

My 2017 objective for biking was to improve my FTP by 25%...24.7% is close enough! :cool: So I need to revise that objective. I've decided to try and improve my FTP by a further 15% and guess what? That will give me an ALL TIME high FTP of 289! I'd hope to reach this by CK2017.

I can't believe how quickly I am progressing after 3.5 years of zero training. Even talking about an FTP of 289 sounds crazy after only 3 months of (hit and miss) training. Get consistent and who knows what's possible!

While swimming and biking are progressing well and fast running is much slower progress but to date there has been no consistency there so to be expected. Really determined not to miss a run session now.

rodneyr1981

El Director wrote: »

I can't believe how quickly I am progressing after 3.5 years of zero training. Even talking about an FTP of 289 sounds crazy after only 3 months of (hit and miss) training. Get consistent and who knows what's possible!

Expecting big things on the 4th so..:P

mossym

on that point, where are you on W/kg? are you similar weight? if you;re bigger now you may be putting out more power but might lose some as the weight comes off

if you are similar weight, well then chapeau sir !!

El Director

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

Expecting big things on the 4th so..:P

Ha It's only talk though and I have no base miles I'm afraid so endurance/muscular endurance will be lacking which is very important even for a sprint! I'll do fine and I will definitely enjoy it but I expect better results later in the summer if training goes well. How's the injury Rob??

El Director

mossym wrote: »

on that point, where are you on W/kg? are you similar weight? if you;re bigger now you may be putting out more power but might lose some as the weight comes off

if you are similar weight, well then chapeau sir !!

Hey dude. Well at my best I was 74kg and FTP was 287 so W/kg was 3.9. Currently FTP is c.252 and weight 80kg so W/kg of 3.15.

In Sept I was 104kg and the rate at which I lost the weight was bloody scary so I purposely put a halt to it when I got to 78kg. I really don't see myself getting to or wanting to get to 74kg again. I think a race weight of 77kg or so for me will suit me best.

rodneyr1981

Hope to be out to watch it normally good buzz around.
Injury - Hope to have turned corner. Short run last night and no ill-effects. Chance a 6km trot later - longest in a month but that's life.

El Director

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

Hope to be out to watch it normally good buzz around.
Injury - Hope to have turned corner. Short run last night and no ill-effects. Chance a 6km trot later - longest in a month but that's life.

Fingers crossed! Once you are clear to get back at it you won't be long getting that speed back!

Thursday 11th May

Bike - Easy

Nice spin, easy but I couldn't help myself at times and pushed itTime 1:05; Dist 29.3km; AP 172; NP 199; Speed 26.8kph; HR 131; Cad 86;

El Director

Friday 12th May

Swim Morning

Second test of the week, CSS. After a WU and build it was straight into the 400m TT. No miscounting laps this time!

400m:
Time 6:22; Pace 1:36/100; SPM 54;
100 splits: 1:31; 1:37; 1:38; 1:37

200m:
Time 3:03; Pace 1:32; SPM 60;
100 splits: 1:29; 1:35;

Pacing could certainly improve, the first 25m in both trials were very fast.

Very steady improvement over the last 3 months since I got back training. Once again smashing my (revised) objective for the year. I need to be better at setting objectives but it's really hard to know what is attainable after such a long time away from the game. That doesn't matter, progress and enjoyment is what matters most.

So another revision means that the next logical objective is an all time best of sub 6:10 400 and try to get my fist sub 3 200. That should stretch me!

Run Afternoon

Easy 30 minutes. First time in an age that easy felt easy enough.

Time 30min; Dist 5.78km; Pace 5:12/km; AHR 146bpm; Cad 82;

Saturday 13th May

Bike Long/easy

Easy 2hours around Linda's home place. My god the road are rough as fvck around there. Got a serious rattling! Nice climb at the end up Redmount Hill too.

Time 2:04; Dist 57.8km; AP 179; NP 196; Cad 87; AHR 136; Speed 27.8kph

Good week so far, 1 hour LER tomorrow. Can every week be a rest/test week?! :rolleyes:

El Director

CSS comparison table for the 3 tests this year...I like tables and graphs in case people reading this forgot or never knew

rooneyjm

Like you were never away. Reassuring for anyone who fears taking a few weeks or months out

MojoMaker

Nice progression alright. Shows what can be done with a bit of focus - congrats. Giving me some hope

El Director

rooneyjm wrote: »

Like you were never away. Reassuring for anyone who fears taking a few weeks or months out

I hope so dude. I think people today are very hard on themselves, we need to be more gentle and forgiving. Especially when it comes to our hobbies. That's my plan anyway.