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Swim
3 sessions, the usual, technique, CSS and endurance.
Total Dist 6800m
Bike
2 sessions this week, a BG one and a long one, again felt really good on the long session.
Total Time: 3hr 16min; Total Dist 89km;
Run
3 sessions including a hill repeat session and long slow run. On Monday's easy run a strange thing happened, my pace was much faster for the same effort/HR. I guess some run progress finally!
Total Time 2hr 50min; Total Dist 30km;
Compliance Watch
10 out of 10 sessions. 4 weeks in a row all sessions hit. 40 in a row - hard to believe that, I was so flakey for so long.
Weight Watch
UP a little this week unfortunately, I really cant afford slip ups in my die
Notes
Entered my first race of 2018, the Mourne Mountain Skyline 35km on the 20th October, it sold out in 4 hours, I must have been one of the last in! Really looking forward to this, never ran more than 22km in my life but my attention is on endurance stuff this year and that will be a great test for me and the end of the year. To prepare for it I will get my mileage up and do a few IMRA runs (including the half marathon in Ballyhoura on the May BH weekend) and also just do my own mountain runs too.
My next race though will be the April Setanta duathlon on the 14th I think.
Recovery week this week, body was very sore going into yesterdays LSR but held up well and feels great today.0 -
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Lonan has been raving about the Mourne Skyline race since last year. Sounds like a great race and very well organised - the Mournes are steep. Check out his blog on the race from last year.
The Connemara loop will be a good one to add in to the training diary.
Good lord, what have I done! Must reach out to him for some advise. Thanks Neady
Ballyhoura Half entered now too. 0 -
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El Director wrote: »Good lord, what have I done! Must reach out to him for some advise. Thanks Neady Ballyhoura Half entered now too.
If Lonan found it tough you'd better start some race specific prep for it
One for 2019 for me.0 -
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If Lonan found it tough you'd better start some race specific prep for it
One for 2019 for me.
A big overall goal for me this year is to improve my aerobic endurance by doing more volume (easy stuff) and to support that I need to improve muscular endurance too, big gear work, hill reps, mountain running etc... So my hope is that as a byproduct of this focus I will be able for such a venture. That is the reason I picked the event, it's supposed to be really tough and it's towards the end of the year - so it's a test really, did I improve my endurance/robustness?
I also will have no target in my head regarding placing or time, I just want the test. In saying that I do not want to be out there for over 7 hours like many last year, 4 hours for the winner so anywhere between 5 and 6 will be good enough for me.
So hopefully the mountain running I have planned will help anyway and I will try to find very steep slopes to practice the hands on thighs hiking technique, I think the Warrior Run in Sligo is very steep so I may put that on the calendar in Aug.0 -
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Pre-race
It was an early start on Saturday for me. I had my usual breakfast and it was a glorious sun rise, you could feel it was going to be a warm one. The journey to Kilfinane took 1.75 hours. I got registered and had an hour until the buses were leaving taking us to the start line so I graciously accepted a cup of tea and half a scone. I then headed back to the car and got ready.
Nutrition was going to be important today especially in the heat. I decided on having a gel every 20 minutes but none for the first hour and I aimed to drink 1L (water) per hour or so with dioralyte mixed in after the first hour as I know I loose a lot of salt on hot days. I recently bought a nutrition vest - Salomon S Lab Sense Ultra 5L (they need a new, snappier name!) and while it was expensive it really did the job nicely. Easily carried all the nutrition I needed and the mandatory rain cape/jacket and mobile phone with loads of room for more. I started with arm warmers which I peeled off and stuffed into a pocket on the first climb. For water/drink there are two 500ml soft flask bottles up front. Everything is accessible without taking the vest off and after a while you even forget that you are wearing a vest. On my feet were Inov8 Roclite 305 and they were a good choice. Running on road with trail runners isn't the nicest experience...in my experience and there was 4km or so of road but these are not so bad on the road and were great on the muddy/slippery parts, not once did I slip. The vest and shoes were the most important things, apart from that it was a t-shirt, shorts, calf sleeves (I hoped they offered some protection for my achilles) and a baseball cap. I also but on sun cream but forgot my neck, ears and upper arms :rolleyes:
I headed for the bus and realised two things, (1) I had not gone to get my mandatory gear checked and (2) I had not applied vaseline to known chaffing areas. Decisions had to be made quick...I ran back to the car and got vaselined up to the max! I almost didn't but I was so glad that I did as I ended up chaffing early on even with the vaseline but without it it would have been absolute agony, next time I must bring a little with me. Then I dashed back and got the gear checked and on the second bus.
The Race
We had about 30 minutes to kill until we were off. No need for a warm up I figured but ended up doing a short one out of boredom and stretched a little, I also made an effort to chat to some folk I started towards to back of the pack and once the gun went off I just settled into a very easy pace. The first 3km is flat and on a road/through fields. There are a number of styles to negotiate and the first one is after about 1km which meant there was quite a lengthy queue to get over it. That was fine by me and I suspect those wanting a really good time knew about it and rushed to the front to get there first. That first 3km was so nice through the fields and woodland, meandering along a river bank and nice and flat. I was at the back of a nice pace line and the 6 min/km suited me just fine.
After 3.2km we faced the first of the major climbs which lasted 2km and, according to Strava, had an average grade of 14% and a max section of 32%. All that means it was tough...but not as tough as the second major climb
It was all hiking for this section as best I could but I don't hike and I don't practice moving up a climb like this at pace. There was supposed to be an aid station at 4km but either there was none or I missed it some how. It was fine as I had enough with me thankfully.
The downhill section was a little hairy but I made up some places, not that I cared but I just didn't want putting the brakes on too much as that would kill my quads.
From 10km to 14km we had the next big climb, 38% in parts...this took the life out of me. Really need to practice this stuff more, my glutes were on fire! It was slow, so slow but I got there! There were some more ups and downs until 17.5km and it was pretty much down hill into town then but I was so trashed at that point that I could only average 6:16/km.
When I got to the end I was so happy to have finished. It was really hot at that stage and free craft beer went down a treat As did the chicken curry...so tasty I had seconds!
I really enjoyed the event, it was so well organised and everyone was so friendly. I cannot fault the event at all, the people manning the stations were so helpful too, filling up your bottles for you etc... I have pictures on instagram, @eldirector365
My main aims were not to get injured, not to push myself so the DOMS wouldn't be too bad and enjoy myself. All achieved I am very happy to say. If I wanted to improve at this lark I'd have to loose about 10kg and practice moving swiftly up the steeper sections. Maybe I will, maybe I won't but I will do more IRMA mid-week runs during the summer as I really love just being in the mountains and the Leinster branch of IRMA is very active, every week during the summer.
First I need to get back to some consistent training.0 -
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Just a quick update this week. Hit 70% of the planned sessions this week, 3 swim, 3 bike and 1 run. The bike sessions were all on the training including a 1.5 hour endurance session and some sweet spot.
Swimming was interesting this week. On Thursday morning I got myself to a club swim session (my old club Activ Multisport) and I really enjoyed it. Peter was is deck for this. I had to get used to other people in the pool never mind my lane I also had to get used to the education/feedback bit. At first I was anxious about all the talking, thinking "shouldn't we be swimming?!" But then I realised that this is feedback and it was awesome to have that. It's been years since I had any feedback and there is loads of opportunity for me to improve. Apparently I've a very poor third phase in my stroke so I need to concentrate on that over the next view weeks, some back sculling, swim chords and tricep exercises should help me there. The front end of my stroke needs work too so some front sculling I guess.
Peter asked us to do a 400 TT before January so I did that this morning as I most likely won't get to a pool next week. I was tempted to just use my time from two and a half weeks ago minus maybe 4 seconds but I'm so glad I didn't! I've knocked off 17 seconds in those two and a half week! 6:40 is what I clocked and I said I may as well do a 200 too and I clocked 3:11 which is 7 seconds faster. So a new CSS of 1:45/100 and a great way to finish swimming for 2018.
A decent week but I need to hit my run sessions. I am very happy where swimming is and happy enough with biking. I gained a kg so that is to be welcomed also. The next two weeks will only be lightly structured, I plan on enjoying the holidays. Happy Christmas all :cool:0 -
since my last post...
- swam 5200m
- biked 3.5 hours
- ran 4 hours
- got an ear infection (from different pool to normal...I believe)
Swim
I had no access to a pool over christmas but got in two sessions last week. Enjoying the club session very much and I have a couple of things to focus on
1. developing a back end to my stroke, some back sculling, tricep exercises, swim chords should all help here
2. improving my kick and/or developing a higher stroke rate, some kick sets and some intervals with a quicker cadence (might look for my tempo trainer now!)
3. try to keep my fingers pointing down to the bottom of the pool
Great to have so much to work on as it means there is loads of room for improvement. My swim fitness isn't great either but this will come with more swimming. I have been instructed not to swim this week however by the doctor and I'm on a second round of antibiotics to try and clear up the ear infection, I still cannot hear out of my right ear but the pain has lessened a lot thankfully.
Bike
No outdoor spins yet but I am determined to get out soon for a nice endurance spin. What I am doing is quality sweet spot sessions on the trainer. They have become a bit easier than they should be so I upped my FTP a little bit, I'll test again within the next two weeks. Feeling pretty strong on the bike a actually and I look forward to the sessions.
Run
I am still very slow but I'm enjoying these zone 1 runs with some pick ups. The weather was so mild over christmas that I had the shorts out again. My favourite type of run is a run in the bog at night. No noise pollution, no light pollution just me and the sound of a nearby stream and my breath Sometimes a fox stops and stares at the mad mad man with the headlight too. I actually found myself waiting to do my run when darkness fell. I'll do a park run this month for the fun of it and to check where I am.
The doctor want to do bloods so I have to go back next week, she feels I am run down (I believe I am hitting a lot of the diabetes markers ). I don't feel run down and my power on the bike is increasing with a pretty low RPE but I am glad to be getting my bloods done anyway. So no swimming for a bit now but besides that things are going well and I'm enjoying training.
Two more posts to come soon, a summary of 2018 and one on my hopes for 2019.0 -
2018
2018 started off well enough but was ultimately a disappointment. From Jan to April things were going well and my training was consistent then...the wheels came off. No training at all from from June to September...when I'm off work. Go figure. I won't get into the why here but there are reasons and I prefer to keep them to myself. There was a big positive though and that's where I am now and how I am feeling now. A really good last 3 months has given me a great chance to succeed this year My highlight was running the half marathon ion Ballyhoura, at that stage I had all but stopped training but I was determined to go and do it anyway. Despite the pain I really, really enjoyed it.
2018 - The Numbers
Swim - 107,118m
Bike - 65 hours, 1637km
Run - 50 hours, 498km
Ave Training hours per week - 3 hours 21 minutes
Starting weight - 92.3kg
Finishing weight - 75.4kg
Time in zones - bike and run were both 70% in Z2 or below, 30% above.
This year I will aim for more of a 80/20 time in zones (although it's debatable if it matters for a low volume athlete), but about aims and objectives for 2019 in my next post.
My goals for 2018 were very, very simple ones - volumes ones. The idea was just to have simple goals to focus on that would get me out the door and moving again. It worked up to a point and I was on track. These were the goals:
Swim
Target for this year is 208,000m, averaging about 4,000 a week.
Bike
Target for this year 110 hours, averaging just over 2 hours a week.
Run
Target for this year is 600km, averaging about 12km a week
So they were not overly ambitious I believe.
Anyway, I am really looking forward to 2019, I'm feeling good and most important of all positive about the year ahead and motivated.
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This year I am more hopeful than I have been in a long time about the year ahead. I've decent fitness and my weight is down, so it really feels like a head start already! This is thanks to me cleaning up the diet, starting to do some regular enough training since October and a high metabolism...or some other health issue perhaps. As I said in the last post I am getting my bloods done next week to see if there is anything up, perhaps a deficiency of some sort. No harm getting the bloods done at this time of the year anyway.
So this year I will have volume targets, some goal races and training objectives. Above all of these though is the aim of having fun and meeting up with people when I can. Doing more races hits both of those, I always find racing enjoyable and I love meeting friends at them for a chat and/or coffee. I do not care about getting optimum performance that will come in time anyway as I’m a competitive person anyway - time enough for that. So with all that in mind:
My 2019 Aims
- Be more active than last year. Do something every week.
- swim 150,000m (2885m per week)
- bike 120 hours (2.3 hours per week)
- run 90 hours (1.7 hours per week)
- Do 1 or more sessions each week with someone else/a group
The last one is important. I read somewhere before that having a group/community or even just one more person is the top reason that keeps people active or involved in a sport. I have already put some sessions in place for this and really enjoy them so far.
My Main Races
- Kilkee, The Hell of The West. It’s been too long
- Kenmare, The Lost Sheep Middle Distance. I’ve threatened to do this one for years!
- Clonakilty or Valentia (Spain) Marathon in Dec. I want to cover 42.2km on foot in one go this year.
In order to keep me motivated and give me some stepping stones towards those goal races I think some training objectives will help.
2019 Training Objectives
- Swim a pb for 400m, I’m currently at 6:40 and my current PB is 6:22.
Secret bonus objective: I’ve always wanted to do a sub 6 400TT
- Bike 265 watts for 20 min TT, indoors or out. This would represent a 4 year best. I’ve bikes many times over that but one thing at a time.
Secret bonus objective: My all time 20min TT is 302 watts, so...
- Run a sub 20 5k. Again, I’ve done it many times in the past but not for years! Secret bonus objective: my 5k PB is 18:13, so...
- Do a 10k. I don’t have a 10k PB really which is mad. Training Peaks has my 2013 Kilkee/HoTW time down (39:3x) for that but I’d like a stand alone PB.
Again I don’t care about hitting these so long as I continue to be active and healthy throughout the year, that’s the main thing. The objectives are secondary and the second objectives are thirdly! 😂 The reason I put in secondary objectives is because my primary ones have been too soft in the past so now I’ve achievable ones and stretchy ones.
So, fast forward to 31st Dec 2019 what would look like success for me?
- Looking at my training peaks or Strava account and seeing that I was active every week. That there are no huge gaps!
- That I’m healthy and happy
That’s about it. So good luck to everyone else in their journey this year, the triathlon forum may be quite these days but there are still a few around, a few good people, many I’d consider friends and I always appreciated comments, developmental feedback and suggestions but most of all the craic I stuck around for a reason I guess!
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shotgunmcos wrote: »Wow that is some drop and must feel good to have that head start this year! I hear you on the health, friends and taking things as they come approach. The journey is the main thing, hitting objectives great, knocking on the door of old PBs the cherry on top. I have a pic of you, me and Eddie in Budapest on my fridge door. Special times but no point in chasing that, its in the past. I'll follow this log, always liked your openness.
The drop is great Mike, really just means running, cycling and tbh everything that bit easier. Things can be hard enough as is already so any help is welcome. That said I was very concerned before Christmas as the weight just kept falling off and I was feeling weak, thankfully it has stablised now and I feel better/stronger.
You are right about the journey, sure what is the point otherwise? I have that picture on my old laptop, I must print it off, pretty cool picture, good times too Mike Great memories :cool: Thanks for dropping in Mike, hopefully see you over the course of the year and good luck with everything. 0 -
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A great week. It was a little frustrating at first because I was fatigued and my quads were cramping at the sight of a bike! I told myself that it was just the combination of ear infection and the antibiotics still in the system, I think I was right as I finished the week strong.
Week in Number
Swim: 2 hours 13 minutes, 7200m
Bike: 3 hours 15 minutes, 76.4km
Run: 2 hours 53 minutes, 29.5km
Yoga: 30 minutes
S&C: 30 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours 51 minutes
Compliance Watch: 100%
Intensity watch (Z1+Z2/Z3 up)
Run: 93%/7%
Bike: 94%/4%
Key Sessions
Swim: Club session - Before Thursday's swim session my biggest swim ever was 3,300m...it's now 4,100m :cool: There was plenty of intensity too but I held up well. I was thrilled, really enjoying the club sessions actually. Peter wants me to concentrate on the 3rd phase of my stroke, it would seem I have none so it's the lowest hanging fruit. I will work on that but it will take a few weeks. Aiming for 4 swims this week and for the next 4 months or so.
Bike: Endurance - simple aim, do 1.5 hours if on the turbo or 2 hours if outside. So Saturday morning I did a turbo and capped the power at zone 2, enjoyable and gave me confidence as the quads held up really well. Also enjoying Super League triathlon while training indoors.
Run: Endurance - same as above, get out and do a zone 1 60 minute run. I did that today, btw zone 1 running is actually enjoyable.
So my biggest week since I started this latest comeback in Oct and biggest week in all 3 disciplines too. This week will be much the same except for more intensity on the bike and more S&C.
Also this may interest the boardies crew in the west, myself and Rónán Mac Con and whoever else wants in are planning a gran fondo on Sunday next. I've no business doing such distance (only ever done over 100k 3 times in my life and not since Aug '17) but I'm up for trying all going well this week.0 -
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Friday 25th of Jan I went to the doctor about an ear infection and came away with diabetes :rolleyes: A few months ago I was concerned that I was showing symptoms of diabetes :
- blurred vision
- cramping in my hands and feet
- rapid weight loss
- excessive thirst/peeing a lot.
But then I started back training in Oct and those symptoms went away and I pretty much forgot about it. When I had to go to the doctor with my ear Linda reminded me and said why don't you get checked for diabetes, it's a good idea to get ones bloods done from time to time anyway so I said I would.
When the results came came back my doctor was pretty shocked as I don't fit the typical diabetic profile and my glucose levels were through the roof! She was very concerned. So for the last week and this week I have to take a blood glucose measurement 3 times a day and this Thursday I will be getting my bloods re-done and sit down with my doctor on Friday to see where we go from there.
I am on medication now a week and I switched to a low carb high fat diet (not that the doctor told me) and my blood glucose levels are now normal. I don't know if I am insulin resistant or just not producing it, as my BG are so high it could well be the later. The only other thing to show up was high iron levels which can suppress the function of the pancreas so I could have hemochromotosis which may have caused the diabetes.
This is obviously going to affect training and racing and that's why I think it is imported to post about it here. I am also stunned at the number of people that do not know the symptoms of diabetes (as mentioned above) and I think it is so important that people do know because if it goes undiagnosed then the end game can be heart disease/attack, stroke as well as blindness and amputations among other nasty things! I'd also encourage people just to get their blood checked every year or so especially as you get older because, well...you never know.
In terms of training I was actually a bit worried as to how I'd train if I had to cut down on carbs drastically so I did nothing for 3 days except for some wallowing. Last Monday I decided to just get on with things and eased back with a swim. I did nothing Tuesday, another swim on Wednesday and then on Thursday I decided to try my normal day - club swim and a tempo turbo (2 x 15 minutes at 85%). The swim turned out to be the longest (4,600m) and possibly most challenging of my life and the turbo was tough too but I came through both really well. Actually I felt great by the end of the week which was surprising considering the reduction in calories. Or is it? I mean I was basically poisoning my body for god knows how long! The change to fat for fuel seems to really suit me.
It seems I'm fairly well fat adapted, the early morning sessions on nothing but a bulletproof coffee seem to have done the trick. So the diet has been eggs, bacon, avacados, nuts, cheese, chicken, salmon, lamb, cauliflower rice/mash, some greens, mushrooms etc...
Okay so that's the craic, that's my new reality and in terms of training I haven't really missed a beat and when it comes to racing I will have to find a new fueling strategy. Fingers crossed that I won't have to go down the insulin injection route and that I will be able to manage this with food/diet.
I'd appreciate any advise you good folk may have Thanks for reading.
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Always some drama on EL Ds log. The work I have to do to just lose a kilo - to see you dropping down 20kgs in a few months always had me astonished. Glad to see it hasn't effected your training so far and you will be ready for me this year in Westport
Ronanmac wrote the book on chia seeds - probably plenty of recipes in his back pocket0 -
Always some drama on EL Ds log. The work I have to do to just lose a kilo - to see you dropping down 20kgs in a few months always had me astonished. Glad to see it hasn't effected your training so far and you will be ready for me this year in Westport
Ronanmac wrote the book on chia seeds - probably plenty of recipes in his back pocket
Hope all going well with you John, good to hear from you. Well much as I'd like to do Westport I will be rocking in Slane at Matellica :cool: But we will surely renew the rivalry somewhere at some stage!0 -
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