(Half) Iron Maiden

rainbow kirby

2 days off for the weekend, shockingly enough! Headed up to Liverpool with himself for the Merseyside derby, match wasn't great in the end (bloody 0-0 draw but at least Liverpool didn't win!) but we had good craic anyway. Area around the hotel wasn't really running-friendly.

Back on the wagon this morning though, 40 minute turbo before work, with either 1 minute out of the saddle or 1 min sprint every 5 minutes. I am now at my desk and currently in an awkward situation where I can't quite justify a rasher sambo but know I'm going to be ravenous by lunchtime...

rainbow kirby

Monday PM - 6km run @ 6:16/km average pace. Was an ok run but it felt at times a bit like I was moving through treacle! Not quite as cold as it's been recently, which made for quite pleasant running conditions thankfully.

rainbow kirby

Tuesday AM - pre work swim - 240 swim, 240 pull, 240 kick, 3 * (60 pull, 60 finger trail, 60 catch-up, 60 fists, 60 swim), 180 swim = 1,800m total. Apart from the incredibly slow guy in my lane who bore a striking resemblance to a walrus this was quite a nice swim. Someone asked him to go to a different lane because he was so out of kilter speed-wise with the rest of the lane, he went to the fast lane for a couple of minutes before the lifeguards basically told him "slow lane or gtfo"...

rainbow kirby

Tuesday PM - circuits at the gym with himself - similar to last week, 3 mins row, 3 * (8 medicine ball twists, 16 jumping lunges, 10 press-ups, 10 one legged squats each side, 10 dips, 10 OHP with 6kg dumbbells, 60 sec front plank, right side plank, left side plank) followed by a good stretchout.

rainbow kirby

Haven't done much for the rest of the week. Wednesday morning I fainted while I was on my train to work, ended up in the local urgent care getting checked out, got told I was coming down with something, and said thing has been around since then. Thought I was ok to go back swimming on Friday - got through the coached session pretty much only because we were focusing on a lot of technique work and drills, and as one of the faster ones in the group it meant I had very long rest intervals! I chanced a run yesterday morning, it was 4km of absolute horribleness, and at that point my OH made the executive decision for me that I was to do nothing more intensive than the walk to the Emirates for the Arsenal match today. Lovely day so I was jealous of all the runners and cyclists out, but realised that he was probably right when I started coughing like a banshee after a couple of rounds of "What do we think of Tottenham... SH!T!".

rainbow kirby

Monday - 1,200m swim. Still blocked up, and my left hamstring tendon decided it wanted to join the party which made just about everything uncomfortable so cut this swim quite short.

Tuesday - 7km run @ 6:10/km average pace. Two lap route for this, if I felt like **** I'd drop after one otherwise the full distance was getting done. Hammer was niggling a bit but was fine in the end. Some little scrote tried to grab my leg (!) while I ran past him at the end of the first lap... WTF.

Wednesday - circuits at the gym with himself. 3 mins rower followed by 3 * (10 twists with 5kg medicine ball, 16 jumping lunges, 10 pressups, 10 hamstring curls on swiss ball, 10 supermans on ball, 10 OHP with 7kg dumbbells, 60 seconds front/right side/left side plank). Felt great after, bit rougher in the morning but it was fine.

Thursday - missed being able to run to work due to getting fcuked around a bit, weather had turned crapulent by the time I got home so I decided that a turbo session while watching track cycling highlights on one TV and Everton on the other was a good plan. 45 minutes with alternating out of the saddle and sprint efforts for one minute every 5.

Friday - 1,500m swim (240 swim/240 kick/240 swim/240 pull/240 swim/300 easy swim). Running later than I intended here so didn't have time to get more done. There was a bit of a "lunatics running the asylum" thing this morning - someone suggested that I move to the fast lane so there would be more space for head-up breaststrokers in the medium lane. My brain twitched a bit at that one.

Booked our honeymoon flights yesterday. Heading to California on May 26th for 12 days

rainbow kirby

Saturday - rest day. We went to Birmingham indoor grand prix, great craic

Sunday - long run, 17.6km @ 6:08/km average pace. Archway - Hampstead Heath - Kentish Town - Camden Town - Regent's Park - back to Camden and get the bus the rest of the way home. Glad to get it done, but it's showing me just how much I've slacked regarding running recently. Reading half will not be pretty in 4 weeks time. More hills on this route though than there is during the race.

rainbow kirby

Monday - Kurt Godel's day 2 session from last week, modified for a 30m pool. 240 swim, 240 kick, 240 swim, 240 pull, 240 swim, 240 fists, 240 swim, 240 finger trail drill, 240 swim, 240 catch-up drill, 300 swim = 2,700m total. Couldn't just leave it on the 2,640m that it would have been if I hadn't done an extra 2 lengths at the end! :pac: Felt pretty good throughout, despite a little bit of whinge from the legs during the kick part due to being a bit doms-y!

rainbow kirby

Tuesday - run to work, 5.8km @ 6:10/km average pace. Legs still a little unimpressed and this felt like a slog because I didn't eat anything before it. Done though, and that's the important bit! Lovely morning for a run, sun shining and cold and crisp.

rainbow kirby

Tuesday PM - circuits at the gym with himself - 3 min row, 3 * (10 twists with 5kg medicine ball, 16 jumping lunges, 10 pushups, 10 hamstring curls on ball, 10 supermans on ball, 10 one-legged squats each side, 10 tricep dips using the gimpy power plate machine for support, 60 secs front plank, 60 secs left side plank, 60 secs right side plank). Stretch out and foam roll after, the foam roller to my quads was not pretty!

Wednesday - 1,500m swim. Felt tired throughout, and when I tried to pick up the pace a bit it just felt like it wasn't happening. 240 swim, 240 kick, 2 * 120 steady, 240 swim, 2 * 120 steady, 300 swim.

rainbow kirby

Was sitting down last night having a look at the race calendar for this year, still trying to plan things out because I haven't pulled the trigger on much for this summer yet, I haven't pulled the trigger on a HIM yet. I have been fairly set on Challenge Weymouth half on 13 September because the timing is good and Dorset is a really pretty part of the world, but am open to change. The main alternative for me is Hever Castle two weeks later.

They cost roughly the same - neither is cheap! I am fairly set on September because I effectively lose 3 weeks in late May/early June due to our wedding and honeymoon, we leave London on 20 May and only get back on 8 June and this would be a disaster if I pick a June/July race. Both of them are down south (Hever Castle is in Kent, around an hour's drive from us) so water temperatures should hold up well - 18-19c water/23-24c air when I raced at Eton Dorney the last week in September 2014.

Apart from that... I've entered the three Capital Tri swims at Stoke Newington reservoir centre, one in May, one in July and one in September. Got a good early bird deal, £37.50 for the lot! Also considering Run Hackney half marathon on 10 May and the London Triathlon olympic distance the second weekend in August. I may also add the Eton Dorney sprint in June that I did last year (usually 3rd weekend in June).

Anyone got any suggestions/input?

rainbow kirby

Thursday - 7km run @ 6:02/km average pace. Felt pretty decent through the run, right hip a little stiff afterwards though for some reason.

RacoonQueen

Is London tri not ridiculously expensive?!

rainbow kirby

It's around £90 for Olympic distance. That's not unusual for bigger events in the south-east - the Hever Castle olympic and the mass start Olympic at the ITU race are about the same.

It's a convenience option too - get himself to drive me and my stuff down, the women only wave is at 1pm on the Sunday. A nice but potentially very hot start time.

I got reminded last night of two things - (a) we have Ireland v Romania tickets for Wembley on 27 September, and (b) he really likes a good Dorset cream tea. Looks like Weymouth is going to be the winner there :pac:

MojoMaker

Nice calendar RK. I am considering the London Oly at the moment as well, couple of folks from our club made a weekend of it last year and had good feedback. We had a lad at Weymouth last year, he was delighted with the swim being cut in half as he's a handy runner. Think he's going for the full IM again this year. Logistically easier than winging it out to other spots in Europe in his opinion.

What about the AG version of the UK super series? Racing at Blenheim Castle and Windsor etc? Those races look fab and are often televised I think.

rainbow kirby

Blenheim and Windsor are on the same day unfortunately - and it's only 6 days after I get back from my honeymoon. A bit too soon to perform in any way decently!

rainbow kirby

Friday evening - coached swim session. Quite a lot of sprinting tonight and then some tumble turn practice at the end. First tumble turn I tried I pushed away from the wall and my two calves cramped HARD. One of those true FML moments.

rainbow kirby

Saturday - 22km cycle @ 22km/h average speed. Calves still a little unhappy after last night so I decided an easy spin was the better option compared with doing a long run. Couldn't face the turbo so got out on a drizzly morning to head down to Regent's Park. Felt rather nice to be outside again, haven't cycled outdoors since somewhere around November!

rainbow kirby

Sunday - hung over from London forum beers, had to get my long run in before the epic afternoon of sport. Intended to do around 16-18km, ended up only doing around 13.5. Was trying a new route and it turned out that part of my route was not runnable (for me) due to the sheer volume of sticky mud. Decided to head home at that point rather than try and find an alternative. Average pace for the run was very slow too due to general hungoverness and muck. 6:47/km average pace is pretty glacial.

rainbow kirby

Monday evening - swim, did 2,100m as 180 swim, 180 kick, 180 pull with paddles, pyramid 120-180-300-360-300-180-120. Nice session but was ready to kill by the end of it. If every single other person that was in my lane tonight could be nuked from orbit that would be fantastic. Between lads hanging on the wall of the deep end chatting and checking out the women in the various lanes, girls not looking at all when they get in to see if anyone is turning before they kick off, at least three people blatantly in the wrong lane speed-wise and getting consistently lapped by the other three people in the lane, lifeguards doing absolutely nothing to enforce lane etiquette including refusing to move a morbidly obese breaststroker from the fast lane... Argh. I have got to find a better time to swim than peak time after work.

rainbow kirby

Tuesday - circuits at the gym with himself/treadmill run - 3 min row, 3 * (10 twists with 5kg medicine ball, 16 jumping lunges, 10 pushups, 10 hamstring curls on ball, 10 supermans on ball, 10 one-legged squats each side, 10 OHP with 7kg dumbbells, 60 secs front plank, 60 secs left side plank, 60 secs right side plank). Followed this up with a 5k run on the treadmill in 28 minutes. Started at 10 km/h pace and slowly cranked it up to 11.5km/h pace a bit at a time - Rammstein have a lot to answer for! :pac:

rainbow kirby

Wednesday - 7km run @ 6:00/km average pace. Felt like crap for the first lap, felt great on the second. Weird one! Glad to get it done anyway, got home and crashed out and watched Man U limp over the line against Newcastle.

Thursday AM - swim. Did 1,620m - forgot what I was planning to do and just made it up as I went along. 300 swim, 240 kick, 240 swim, 240 pull/paddles, 240 swim, 120 finger trail, 120 catch-up, 120 swim. Happy enough with that, wish I had more time though because I was enjoying it!

rainbow kirby

Got some really bad news regarding a family member on Thursday night, and things have been quite rough since then. I'm trying to keep up training (coached swim Friday, turbo Saturday, run yesterday) but it's been pretty bad overall (and a little fall while running did not help matters). Frustrating because I was kinda hoping that it would take my mind off things. Heading back home on Thursday and it cannot come soon enough.

Dory Dory

Best wishes to you and your family.

RacoonQueen

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Got some really bad news regarding a family member on Thursday night, and things have been quite rough since then. I'm trying to keep up training (coached swim Friday, turbo Saturday, run yesterday) but it's been pretty bad overall (and a little fall while running did not help matters). Frustrating because I was kinda hoping that it would take my mind off things. Heading back home on Thursday and it cannot come soon enough.

Take it easy J, so easy to overdo things at times like his too. Training can help, but if you fell like curling up on the couch with a bar of chocolate instead of doing that turbo session or going out for that run,do it. Do what you need to do and let everything else take a back seat. Hope you're all doing OK today.

ToTriOrNot

So sorry to hear about your family member. Just take it easy, and mind yourself and your loved ones. It's hard when you are not there.

rainbow kirby

Monday - short run, 6km @ 6:24/km average pace. Felt a bit better than I did on Sunday, but still not wonderful. Stomach still doing cartwheels a bit but it eased off as the run went on.

Tuesday - swim, 1,800m as 180m of each of swim, kick, pb/paddles, swim, finger trail, pb/paddles, swim, fists, pb/paddles, swim. Felt pretty good in the water and this was alright in general apart from the fact that I was lapping the same frizzy-haired breaststroking lady every 4-6 lengths!

rainbow kirby

Wednesday - 7km @ 6:07/km, not too bad but rapidly approaching the need for a rest day!

Thursday - fly to Shannon straight after work, rest day

Friday - short hangover-blasting swim in the boiling hot hotel pool, I appeared to be disturbing the fiefdom of a few oul lads breaststroking up and down the pool. Did around 1,000m.

Saturday - rest day, drive to Dublin and spend the rest of the day with the family, playing with my adorable niece

Sunday - this was the tough one. Off to James' with my mum and gran to visit my granddad. He doesn't have long left at all and this was probably the last time I'll see him alive 8km run in the evening to try and process it all.

Monday - 2km swim at lunchtime (250 warmup, 2 * (4 * 100 off 2:30 holding 1:58-2:02, 250 easy swim), 450 easy swim). Really should have snook in a time trial there, but should the fact that I was doing 1:57 as a time trial 3-4 months ago and I can hold almost that for reps now be considered a sign of improvement? Back to London this evening on the quietest Aer Lingus flight I have ever been on.

rainbow kirby

Tuesday - unplanned rest day, meant to run when I got home but fell asleep at around 6, woke up 8 ish and didn't have the energy to do much beyond helping himsefl to cook the dinner and watch the Arsenal match.

Wednesday - pre work swim, did around 1,500 and it was ****e. Body felt leaden in the water but ploughed through it anyway.

rainbow kirby

Thursday - 7km run @ 6:16/km average pace, this was awful crap. Lady reasons :pac:

Not looking forward to Sunday (Reading half) at this stage. I haven't been running anywhere near enough lately and even when I am it doesn't feel good.

Really tempted to just jog around this one and enter the Run Hackney half in May instead.