project 40/41

peter kern

Summery
Very simple i am turning 40 next year and the world 70.3 world champs are for the first time in europe and i need some intermediate goal to get ready for the real goal.... i want to go to hawaii 2016 (and certainly not just to fill up the numbers for both events other wise i am not going to wast my money)

Reality

When i started to train a bit more serious last april - apart from staying fit and keep the weight down - It was maninly becasue teat there is still a little matter... I one day decided to break 9 hour in an ironman when i had not even done a swim bike or run race . To cut a long story short despite many travel interuptions cycling around the world. in 2005 i did break the 9 hours but I never got any satisfaction from it as it wasnt a good race . So I would like to rectify this and be happy about the perofmance with a good race .
Since then i have realiced that times and ironman really dont matter much, so it would be about placing in copmetetive races but much more importantly as I said i want to be happy about my performance.

ANyway, to be fair I do not know if I will be able to push myself CONSISTANTLY and while 'back inthe day' I was happy to train on my own ,its a fact that i dodnt have this motivation anymore. So i will have to built a structure to recognize that. At the same time I have much more experience...
So the CONSISTENCY will be my biggest struggle and there is a very high chance that it will fail. At the same time in the last few weeks I have started to become a bit more serious ( its tough really tough right now) and last nights run i giess for the first time in 3 years a serious run session ,and loved it .
I also have to admit I loved every second this year the hour before and during the race at the hell of the west. Its was absolute torcher but I was totally in the Zone and under the race day circumstances I could not have gone faster ( bare a small lapsus of coencetration for 1 min or so at the 4 k mark in the run) .
I wasnt really in shape ( dodnt get me wrong i wasnt unfit either but I have done one swim and bike and run session in the last 2 weeks that i rate the best quality sessions of the year and they were not that great either )


Fortunately I do understand that I dodnt really want to train its more I want to fisnish something I started long time ago i am not to sure if thats enough at the same time but I aslo know i can take more rest than i did back then . So there is pors and cons as always in live ;-)

the other issue....
a few weeks ago i was on a race entry side and i could not get myslef to enter. i mean i spend about the same ammount of money including the flight for travelling 3,5 weeks in turkey than 1 race wants me to charge jsut for the entry ) ........So that will be something i need to work on ;-)

The structure ( a very lose one as it will change anyways)

1 i will have to suround myslef with a few people to train with.
the swim I have already kind of sorted out by swiming with tango friday morning.
for the run iam planning to run every 2nd week with one of my athletes and find a lunch time running session ( is trintiy still on ?) .
the bike intervals will be in a way the hardest as i have to do them during the day and it will be the hardest to set up .At the same time the most crucial session as this is were i feel short 10 years ago
(up to here its non negotiable if i dont get that done it will not work)

I selfcoached myself to sub 9 ironman and i have always said if i was to do it again I would want to work with a coach or the very least with an advisor for a 2nd opinion . (when one gets motivated than one makes mistakes and while most of the times i wont be motivated enough, there will be key blocks i have to be in the zone and for those I will need an smart advisor ( one of my ex atheltes would be brilliant for it and i losely asked a while ago) or an coach. Anyway its something that I should have in place by now ...


At the same time right now the most impotant thing is to get myself into the right frame of mind to train again and built a routine and a set up to do that. as it would not be fair on coach/ advisor to start only to realice that I dodnt have it what it takes. (its bllod frustrating whne that happens and ii would not prefer it to somebody else )

Apart from one small niggle I do think that i could get myself in the best overall shape ever for october 2016.

I tend to train best in places i dodnt know by heart ( travelling was always my no 1 passion so this is something i have to try to incorparate into this i and will want to do 2 weeks abroad to keep me stimulated .

RACES
As for races I would like to qualfiy for the 70.3 world in an early 70.3 race than do tri an mhi, built in 8 or so local races mostly wednesday races as training sessions like last year
i love the the fact i can do a duathlon in the phoenix park where i arrive 15-20 min before race start warm up done cycling there and then race ) FIngal was also a great race and the wicklow aquathon are supperbly orgniced and so was belparks new aquathon.
kilkee and tri an mhi as a serious races. than 70.3 worlds or the lost sheep and an fall ironman most likely barcelona to qualify for hawaai. this year for the first time ever thought i want to go to hawaii. my exceitment for the 70.3 worlds went already a bit back as expaliand earlier so we will see

conclusion

I have never written a blog and i am sure there is people better suited to write blogs than myslef . Part of the reason i would like as i want to show beginner atheltes what is really important to become good.
It not an unkonw fact that i think that most boarides focus too much on the noise and not enough on what really matters to actually train.
please dodnt be offended if this goes against your principles you dodnt have to read this .....

its not that much about talent ( of cours it helps)
its not so much aobut gear ( and of course that can help too)
and to be fair its not even so much aobut training (dodnt get me wrong here structure of training is important, but what i really try to say here , when i had no idea about training but had my heart in it , i was faster than now)

why
first its aobut being willing to start being hungry to improve and challenge yourself there has to be a mission.
and you do not get into this if you feel a new gamrin 920 will make you train ( that usually works for a few weeks and then ....)

its important to set up a structure that is challenging yet manageble ( iam totaly ok that i chant even train the way i want right now i just dont have it but every week it will get a bit better )
then do it again and again and again . of course vary it but ironman racing is boring so you need to be able to deal with boring training.


and later on it will be aobut the icing of the cake ( in my case a power meter i consider to use 3 times a fornight ) and potentially a new (2nd hand ) bike. and ther e might be a few other things i might try.


though even though iam not sure if I will be able to do what I say I will at least try and by march i have to make a decison where iam am and how i feel when the training will really start .
so maybe this blog will 'shame' me a bit more into training and maybe some people can learn something and if somebody has constructive feed back than I could learn something.
or maybe it will be very soon stopped... but at least i will have given it a shot.

sconhome

Excellent Peter, best of luck and a blog I'll be following with interest.

pgibbo

Love your honesty Peter. Best of luck and stay motivated! :cool:

Bambaata

Best of luck Peter, will certainly be adding this to the followed threads ;-)

tunney

Could be an enjoyable thread!

Dory Dory

I would love to see Tunney coach you.

Seriously, bravo to you for tossing yourself in here. If you have heart and desire, then anything's possible.

zico10

This should be an interesting thread, Peter.

You should do Mallorca though, and if you wanted a running buddy I'd go slow enough to allow you catch up.:D

peter kern

did not want to get to the pool this morning....
anyway arrived at the same time as tango and with a speedy transiton ,before he entered the pool, i had already done 200m ;-) ( just to make sure the girl that complained that i let tango to all the work would not give out again )

love those sessions no bull **** went straight into the set when tango arrived ( same as usual but faster and less rest)

after each set we had a quick chat how it went and and how much faster when can go next week and after 60 maybe 61 min in the pool I had done 3.8 k ( which is about right 1600 in 23.45 min including rest and 10 x200 off 3.10 and maybe 2 min between the sets )
then we had a chat with another triathlete who might join in next week and then a bit off a cool down ( 300) .
arms fell seriously off in the last 2x200 ... grit my theath and was holding on for dear live and for last one i had to use paddle and pb to not get dropped. ( defo character building )
arms where so tired after session i found it hard to get dressed ( apart form effort , a bit dehydration played part into this as i did not drink before the session and enough after work last night. ( my key point for next friday)
but i guess there is nothing nicer than when you see progress so left the pool a happy camper.

MojoMaker

Subscribed

Best of luck with this Peter. You could develop a really positive network on the way to these goals.

Should be interesting to follow.

When are you getting the power meter

peter kern

Jared Fluffy Sorcery wrote: »

Should be interesting to follow.

When are you getting the power meter

i have 2 powermeter ... they are not very important to me but i have them.

ps and i also have a garmin 610 ....

Dory Dory

peter kern wrote: »

i have 2 powermeter ... they are not very important to me but i have them.

ps and i also have a garmin 610 ....

Looks like I am in good company then.

peter kern

sat
21 k run 10 k 38 min flat (rpe and brathing suprisingly low) 2 k easy 5k at 3.45 pace the rest easy home ( well easy home.... hr low ,muscular not so easy , longest run of the year but a good test to see were iam 21 k in 1.24 would should have stuck to my plan to only run 7 solid at the begining but it was nice to run with other people
I d like to run 1.14 for an half in march depending on weight ( weight costs me approx 4 min right now ) .... but overall looking more for 5 miler races


pm approx 3.2 k swim legs were very happy in water and it was enjoyable i have no idea what i was swimmig to be honest could have been 2.5 or 3.5 k of decent long 600 -800 intervals .

sunday nada 2 hour bike planned but mind and body said no ( but had to promise myslef to do a good turbo session this week )

mon am brill session mind defo improving and i pushed myself in the water the first time alone since since the hell of the west , starting to enjoy swimming and for the first time this year decent times on my own no idea about distance ( but the less idea i have usualy the better the session as it means i enjoy it and i got in a groove . and when i get totally lost in my thoughts time passes by faster . only time i focused on time was 2 sets of 10 fast 50s and making sure that the easy bits around that are really easy so i could push myself for the faster stuf ( i was seriously pleased with my times and effort )

a was asked to do the bike leg in a relay for the 70 3 race (mtl nobody is going to miss you ;-) .i have to say iam getting briliant value from this race 50 euro from tunney and a free t shirt.

peter kern

mon pm finally forced my self onto the turbo after setting it up on friday...
its was 10 pm so just did an nice consitent our on it getting used to it listening to the news. was actually quite enjoyable and specially for me living kind of city cetre there is nothing better than a turbo trainer (its just honest training )

decided that my newly accuired pink coob saddle has to go and i want to get back the same 35 euro bbb saddle that just worked perfectly . SInce it wore out 2013 i have tried 4 different sadlles some of them almost 5 times the retail value of the bbb and all i dodnt like)


tue missed the planned turbo session
only did an easy run .

wed am tried to copy the session this morning . epic fail . did actually try hard but could not even get close to the times of the boys ,this morning. adapted the session so i could get something out of it ( easy fastish mix ) . Its still some miles and few fair efforts in the bank and its my least important swim of the week prop 2,8-3.2 k and i have done a few good sessions lately so now need to kill myself on a day like this and i have a run session plande this evening that is more important .
will need a good warm up for it but i hope it will work and i have to make a call weather it will be ok before i start intervals and if in doubt just do an easy run . the main run this week will be a hard 5 k session on sat jingel bells run ( to support the donnor harriers as they are a running club I really like ,and also have to make sure i win my 50 euro bet )

should have had my weigh in this morning but totally forgot it ;-0 ( i know why but that cheese fondue was delicious ;-)

peter kern

peter kern wrote: »

there is nothing better than a turbo trainer (its just honest training)

+1, I was out on the road this morning doing threshold efforts and it's just not the same as the turbo, you need a wider power range to work within with dodging cars, freewheeling etc.

What sort of turbo sessions will you be doing?

zico10

I didn't realise you were doing the Jingle Bells on Saturday. I'm sorry now I was gloating earlier in the thread.

peter kern

zico10 wrote: »

I didn't realise you were doing the Jingle Bells on Saturday. I'm sorry now I was gloating earlier in the thread.

dont worry i am on strict orders not to go sub 17.30
and i dont think you can jog slower than last year ;-)
what your time goal? 16.30 i guess.

shotgunmcos

peter kern wrote: »

there is nothing better than a turbo trainer (its just honest training )

+1 although the Concept 2 Rower trumps it for an overall workout. Same kinda honest training though. I'm a fan

zico10

peter kern wrote: »

dont worry i am on strict orders not to go sub 17.30
and i dont think you can jog slower than last year ;-)
what your time goal? 16.30 i guess.

Like your athlete I too am wracked with fear and full of irrational excuses; too heavy, haven't been doing any speed work, etc., etc. I've no reason to believe I'll beat last year's slow jog time, but hopefully I will.

peter kern

wed run did not really work but still some 7 k done

thyrsday 43min am on the bike at good solid effort
2 hours later 50 min easy followed fartlek turbo mixing easy and fast intervals
listing to joe filliol podcast at im talk ( good stuff ) tough session and got out what i wanted.

pm 15 k run some bits bit faster ie 3.50 k pace some a bit slower still feling a bit tight but its getting better

friday swim
a bit late and jumped straight into the set
my Fuhrer was a bit tired today so times a bit slower , decided to lead out 3 x400 s after first one was 5.48 and felt a bit too easy .
first 105m in 1.19 ( what a clown i am ) slowed it a bit down and then i had no idea how far in i was into the 400 m fortuantley worked it out with the pacing clock . times were 5.38 5.41 5.40 off 6min went back to my place and found it much esasier to finish session then last week .
we went a bit slower than last week for the 200 s (2 sec slower per 100) but effectively i swam 3x400s some 15 sec faster than last as i did not draft
600 cd and out .
seems like x mas time has started as pool was less busy.

peter kern

shotgunmcos wrote: »

+1 although the Concept 2 Rower trumps it for an overall workout. Same kinda honest training though. I'm a fan

at this time of the year not a bad idea

peter kern

friday pm late night short turbo with a bit of short speed work ( again no watch ) nothing serious but an attempt to improve my realationship with the turbo trainer approx 45 min


sat am only 4 hour sleep which is not great but woke up the first time this week with no pain going down the stairs .watched challenge baharain which is think was a ground breaking race that will ( at least i do hope so ) make a few people think about current triathlon issues, we got accustomed to , namely drafting and males getting in the way of female races, and how long disstance triathlon can be a sport peope actually may want to watch ( ie good coverage ,frodeno and macca were quite good and also gave sposors of atheltes a shout out and not racing for peanuts Some issues one can attribute to oil money other aspects are free and just require ,to actually care about racing ,My respect to the organizer

Anyway bit of cycling some drills with the guys and the jingle bells run,
goal was not to go faster than 17.30 and with 17.20 that was achieved quite nicely, With the half marathon under the belt this felt relatively easy and was defo not the shock to the system last week was. would be confident to run close 10 k at this pace and feel like iam at sub 35.30 and given that the mirror test still comes back as fat is not so bad as there is about 12 sec per k to be saved losing weight.
main goal of the run was to win the 50 euro bet and that was even more fool proof than the bet with tunney re sell out of dublin 70.3 ironman .

some easy cycling pm and once again not enough maintemance work something that will be - beside focusing more on hydration and become friends with the turbo - the third big goal for next week.

sunday pm 4 hour or so bike ride nothing to serious , good fun and ending with champaign salmon and chease tasting besides a hot chocolate.

overall a decent week I have no idea how much i did and to be honest dont really care.and dodnt really want to start counting hours etc as i would either get to competetive or break thinking how much training i have to do next week and i take it from session ( like the run in an ironman race)
i hit the swimming fairly well this week , made a start on the bike and kind of managed the damage ( which was an execution error from my side ) well in terms of run training not well in body maintenance .
At the same time mentally it was great to have an half marathon under the belt,I should be ready to improve my run speed a good bit in next few week have to say massively enjoyed the sat race , and while there is loads to be done, the last 2 weeks have had a good impact on my run training and while i will still do runs at 5.30 k pace i am certainly starting to enjoy to run fast again and should bring the 10 k pace down by 90 sec in the next 10 weeks.(provided i train ..) pretty sure i lost half kg this week .

hope to get in a 40 min run this evening and stretch in the sauna but we will see.

pgibbo

What are your thoughts on stretching Peter? Your mention of stretching in the sauna has me drawing my own conclusions but curious all the same.

peter kern

pgibbo wrote: »

What are your thoughts on stretching Peter? Your mention of stretching in the sauna has me drawing my own conclusions but curious all the same.

just a very general outline andin no particular order.
if you dont need it dont do it ( i could just stop there )

at the same time last week i watched the drylnd warm up of aer lingus swiming club and its good stuff but they also did not give up and pool swim time and started 15 min before the sesion and a lot of people arrived just in time for the session )

i never really streched ( and I think an easy swim after a hard session is the best one can do to losen up ) and really only have muscle and tendom group that causes problems and the older I get to more problems i causes but this is more becasue those days I sit more but also its is casued by a strenght issue ....
i also see certain atheltes that even when they have done a 10 min warm up pick up injuries from very simple stretches adn scientifically this is proven that this can happen )

if you need it do it ie each sport has some requirements for range of motion if you dont meet them than its good to try to meet them .
if you overreach those requirelents you could spend your time more effectively on training .

why in the sauna ? its very simple its a proven fact that streching while cold can cause micro tears and i mean if i see the need to strech than it means iam tight and a warm environment is better to losen up a( of course that means to warm up first and most of my streching i do when i leave the sauna)
anyway just my 2 cents and i do not get caought up to much on it and gernally think that if you need to strecht you also need to look at the way you train or you sit at work etc etc.

anyway no need to discuss this here and i respect many opinions on this subject but since i think you ask because you like suttons opinion ...
Now since he has become more commercial and popular i think he needs to change the way he talks and writes aobut things as people think he says no streching means no streching and this is certainly wrong as nowadays with so many people sitting all day many muscles and tendoms shorten too much and its going to cause issues if not adressed ( and of course its better to find the cause than to treat the symptons) .

I like it that many sports have started to do flexibilty tests before sessions
and i think this is a very good way on profiling what is needed to do on specific days ( at the same time you also could just lsiten to your body during the warm up .... )

pgibbo

Personally I do stretch. I know what stretches I need and work on them. Not as much as I should but do. I find it interesting that Matt Dixon and others say not to.

In relation to Sutton, you make a valid point. He throws out a lot of statements but if you dig deeper you find they can never be taken at face value. A prime example is strength training. He has a minimum standard from what I can gather. When you hit that, then he stops his athletes doing strength and it's all sport specific thereafter.

shansey

i see your not afraid of intervals in the winter.. do you change your training up much as the season gets closer??

peter kern

good post paul

funny its Matt dixons almost associate or whatever you want to called it gary rodriuez that once said it very nicely

there is things i would disagree with sometimes what certain good people do . but overall what we see is that many good people do get the basics right and its totally fine to do a few things diferently as long you get the basics right and the results follow.

it was aobut that he is not that keen on paddles and sutton is .
in itslef not a game changer as we see both produce very good open water swimmer .....
same would be, dixon produces great atheltes with powermeter sutton great atheltes without using one .
to keep going , dixon very strong on strenght work sutton very strong on sport specific strenght...
so many of those aspects dont matter too much or are game changer . what all 3 seem to get right is to produce world class atheltes .
and some things work for some and dont work for others.

here we always worry about the details without getting the basics right.
(you cant be good if you dont do this.
using this or that is the only way to be good etc etc. )

peter kern

shansey wrote: »

i see your not afraid of intervals in the winter.. do you change your training up much as the season gets closer??

note to myslef from now on only 2 liner answers...

yes i change my training at the same time i dont change that much its more the emphasis changes at certain times.

bellow just came out ignore it but Idont want to delete it.


I would be a strong believer ( as many good coaches ) that you train all zones the whole year and roughly go from less specifc to more race specific.

for myslef I am using a more reversed periodisation , at least for bike and run this year ( this is mainly based on my weaknesses ie i have a good base cycling (slow) and despite the fact that last week 21 k was my longest run in 2014 i still have a decent base but as i am always ploting along , but i have done very little sub 4 min ks in the least few years and sub 3.30 pace i can almost count on 1 hand .
swimming iam actually working the other way around as i have no base anymore and focus a bit more on that .

overall what matters is that you have an understanding that you know how something will affect your training and find your way .not so much what training philosophy you follow ( in a way they all work if done proper) . I do not work in the clasical 12 weeks blocks (and in fact to say that i would use peridisation is a bit of a stretch anyways ) i look at certain markers so i dont even have fixed rest weeks, I dont let the plan rule me . i decide the plan on how i feel . i do not think this is the best or only way its just how iam as a person.

I would be happy to swim the friday swim session another 30 weeks in a row playing around a bit with speed and rest )

at the same time in germany they produce decent triatheltes with a more traditional periodisation system which is certainly something I would like for a beginner and intermedite athelte that have not many miles in their leg . ie base and technique first and then speed later ( at least for sprint and oly distance)

anyway to answer your question if i survive I will be working more on race specifc pace closer to main races , i will not be interested to improve my 5 k run stand alone time after march after february . well at least not purposely . i do think that this year i might improve it later on as i still will regain fitness but that does not mean i will not do fast stuff later on either.

peter kern

Sunday pm run never happened but went to the gym did some exercises and a few lounges and squads

Monday am. Solid enough swim approx 75 min not that great of a seasion but better than nothing and some good strength work done.

Pm 45 min run outside and some short speed stuff on the treadmill . Treadmil totally finishe me of (as planed) but lasted a good bit less than I was hoping for some stretching in the sauna. After it I sat at reception aere with the stare. Wondering how Iam going to make it home (nutrition a total fail today breakfast at 2 pm is just not good at all)

Tue am nothing
Pm meant to do turbo before evening turbo session something got in the way so I started season 9.30 pm session went really well some short max efforts and some approx 45 sec efforts . All in all 60 min work. Very happy 1 that I still did the session 2 worked really hard


Wed woke up feeling totally brill it's early days but the right glut and hammer aerea is getting better.

Good swim session 70 min of an session audi Ron pmed me recently adapted to suit my speed and even did 8x50 sprints at the end well calling that sprints would be a bit optimistic but it came close .

Looking forward to this evenings run and that's something new . Also really liked the turbo last night so overall there is progress.

zico10

peter kern wrote: »

anyway to answer your question if i survive I will be working more on race specifc pace closer to main races , i will not be interested to improve my 5 k run stand alone time after march after february . well at least not purposely . i do think that this year i might improve it later on as i still will regain fitness but that does not mean i will not do fast stuff later on either.

When you say this do you mean coming up to your Ironman, you won't be running any faster than 4.15/km? Assuming a sub 3 marathon, which I imagine you would take. Apologies if I am underestimating you.

peter kern

( since i told you this morning for the rest
no it dosnt mean that
and also my A race is not the ironman
also for the full ironman I would do v little exact IM pace apart from the end of a long run but you will see me do very few balls out vo2 intervals with a long rest
especially for me its not aobut speed its about strenght. and this will be the main focus and i plan 2 phases where the focus will be very much on strenght. I do actually plan to run less miles ( as high milage running works well for me fo r marathon but not for the IM as i said in another thread the Im run is very much strenght focused and in my case even for the half i have to very much focus on that.