project 40/41

zico10

the real goal.... i want to go to hawaii 2016

Is this still on your agenda?

peter kern

zico10 wrote: »

Is this still on your agenda?

if the brain gets foggy it might get back on the agenda ...

peter kern

so I tried 6 things at the hardman race with a fantastic failure percentage of 66% . and the coffin in the nail was a running shoe i wanted to use in the hope i would protect the legs a bit ...

i had 3 goals for that race
1 not too use more energy than for poznan in june ( achieved )
2 i had to finish as i do not do 2 dnfs in a row.( achieved)
3 enjoy the bike. ( achieved)
4 with goal 1 in mind try to go sub 10 ( failled)

I had done thursday and friday as easy days and the other faster session of the week a bit shorter as usual. and a good swim week total swim was 20 k .

the swim I had plannd to really push but i realised very quickly after 200 m that there was nothing and it was pointless to try to push and i better work of the swimmer that was with me.

the bike was fantastic and I took the scenery in and it was a fab day for it . only the last 20 k did I push .
unfortunately half way into the downhill into kenmare after 30 or so k my left tri pad snapped ( i had already deccided that last weeks 80k tt was the last around the airport loop as it gets wors and worse and i would guess the pad incident is the cause of airoport loop) and 20 k later the double bottle cage behind the saddle -i tried out fell into 2 pieces and swang behind me on a piece of string ( after 100k at an aiidstaion i fixed it a bit with a plastic bag and it was a bit less annoying )
Still an enjoyable bike ride and on a day like saturday I see no issue doing a 4.45h bike split on this course. i was really surprised how good the surface was in parts of the course .
the first 100k are hilly and protecdd a good bit from the wind the 2nd half is pretty flat and you have the wind predomintaly with you.
It was a great enjoable day on the bike.

run was fun initially and i had to force myself to slow down , but after 5 k the calves tightened up. Not a big suprise given the moronic shoe choice i made (or the lack of miles i have run in them)

the rest is a long story of run walk run walk . and many times counting up to 20 to run and 20 to walk.
iam glad I finished and for the first time ever i was proud to finish a race.
of course my plan had been to try to scrape bellow 10 hours, and being reduced to walking was a thing that was hard to take , at the same time one of the things i tried seemed to work and that was the issue that caused the dnf in poznan,
i have now a bike part from the late 80s on my bike and this seems to work
so its not all so bad.

overall I really enjoyed the race for its simplicity
"nature" races like the norseman are en vogue theses days and i guess this goes in hand with the bull**** this entails and status smybols promoting black t shirts ( and can a race be an xtreme race where you have support vehicles ... ? dont get e wrong i loved watcing the race but i do shake my head at times ) at the hardman its just all plain simple and relaxed, with a positive vibe ,just the way triathlon was meant to be . certainly not for everybody , ie the razzmatzz seeker but if you like races like caroline kearney or the lost sheep I cant see how one would not like that race. I am glad i did the race and I am looking forward doing it again .


last week was all easy apart from 20 k swimming I did tighten the screws a bit and swam a 15 sec 400 m season pb and pushed a pretty tough appox 3.6 -3.8 swim in the sea.
sat 90 min turbo 90 min run
sunday I did my first fasthish run and bike leg dublin city tri relay 30 min flat for the bike
not a great time but still a solid exercise.
mon turbo with 16 sort fast intervals
tomorrow bike paced tempo run and a fast swim

sunday is my A race for the season in cologne. the external goal is sub 8.40 but the real goal is to be the best i can be , and just race as well as I can. ( i wont be using a watch etc for the race)
i havent been that excited to race for many years and by the looks of it there is a good chance that i will be for the first time really nervous before a race since 2005.
there is always stuff one can do better but overall iam pleased with where iam ,
the one thing i would change this year is to taper for 1 or 2 races more
but since it took me really long this year to get in a solid shape it wasnt wrong what i did
at the same time now the season depends on one race ... it was a bit frustrating so far that there was not one race where i felt i was close to where i could be , at the same time in a way this lowers expectations, we all think when we train hard we should improve a lot but the closer you are at your limit the harder it gets and that elusive perfect day dosnt happen often ...
but with everything when you do it seriously you get away with something one always learns something new when going out of the comfort zone. for instance i would never have imagined i would be so happy when i finished the hardman and in a way I pushed the boundary of one of my limitations , and that alone is a good thing! its not the iceing of the cake , but its the cake ...

Pmaldini

Hi Peter,
nice to meet you at the race, i was speaking to a good few people after the race and at the breakfast on sunday and everyone was more impressed that you walked and finished the race and didnt DNF than go on and go sub 10 and win easily, everyone knew you were favorite to win but the fact that we saw you walking and not giving up inspired a lot more people to keep going, you may not have realized it at the time but i think you walking helped a few people to keep going and finish, Kudos for that and respect for not giving up.

regards,

P.

peter kern

cologne 226
the one thing I really enjoyed was getting as massage with a view at the cologne cathedral . Pretty cool I have to say.
passing that yoke on the bike and run was not bad either ...
race report
for every hour of racing i was going 2 min , slow its as simple as that.
realisitcally i did have a bit more in me but the reality is sub 8.40 completly on my own on the bike is unlikely to happen.

people tell me it was not a fast day, thats not how i see it as i think it was a fast day, a bit too many dead turns and tight roundabouts maybe but they had to change the course .

conclusion
the number 1 goal of the year of sub 8.40 clearly failed, by 15 min the 2nd goal not to lose money with racing this year was pretty much achieved since i get 1250 for the joined win.

not much to say about race day -maybe i write something in a week or so it was all quite intersting and there was a few positives -but i dont even want to see my splits right now ...
the race was pretty much from the start about damage control ( i wanted to cramp as late as possible as it was only question whenit would happen ) and to finish the race I made the right decisions.and it was a good race as such , but thats a great thing and if it had not been an A race i would have said that was a very good race ...
who knows I might try again next year

other
its another race for the shorlist if you have swim or sighting issues as the swim is in a rowing lake and basically a 1900 m long pool. and for closed roads and a race n a bg city the early bird entry is good value
for students they have 30% discount and for unemployed 50% which is great i think
and something thats very rare those days , you can sell your race entry or buy one form somebody till the day before the race as they do a 15 euro charge for changing names. that gets 2 thumbs up from my side and i think this is something more races should do.

pgibbo

Congrats on the win Peter. Sorry to hear it didn't go as hoped. I hope you enjoy a bit of downtime after the race.

P

peter kern

pgibbo wrote: »

Congrats on the win Peter. Sorry to hear it didn't go as hoped. I hope you enjoy a bit of downtime after the race.

P

maybe wrong time at the wrong place lol
the joined winner on sat did sub 8.30 this year completly on his own.

http://marfanta.com/noticia/Robert_Karas_i_Cristina_Prat_Dot_els_mes_rapids_de_lIroncat_2017/9176



and yes i had one day downtime in amsterdam on monday I had never been there before

peter kern

i havent really thought about 2018 . initially i had plans to do israman
end of january . but body said no to that ,and wanted a longer rest than what would have worked.

the only 2 goals i have at the moment are to swim faster. I had decent frequency swiming last season but it was all much more recovery swims
with that mindset change and not realy doing any hard bike or run session right now. I did already beat my 2017 50 m pb y'day and i pretty much swam more sub 1.30s for 100 m in the pool this year in the last 8 days than the whole 2017.
always nice to swim in a little group and have some fun. but today i also really enjoyed that feeling between intervals today where i could not talk as i was so out of breath and just totally focusing how to get through the next interval, ie the feeling when you really hate swimming but love it at the same time.


the 2nd goal is to put on at least 1 kg less and idally 1.5k less over the winter. havent been on a scale since mid august but i think so far i think iam at least on the 1kg target.


the rest we will see and so far only neagh , joey hanon and tri an mhi and the hardman half are penciled in as those are races i really like.
the rest I will see end of february.

Kurt.Godel

Well done on the 50 pb (whats your time?

Do you ever do any galas over the winter? I see a lot of triathletes at them, all levels.

peter kern

so my 2017 is 34 high my all time pb is 31 but ( i dont think i broke 40 sec before august in 2017 )
the thing is i put very little importance on that, with a bit of adrenaline it has never been an issue for me in the race , its rare that i see the 50 m time as an issue with triathletes in age group racing.
in 12 years coaching zico lcd ,baldinger , and wolfe ( for Itu making the first pack ) are the only 4 where this is / was an issue , ( iam sure there is one or 2 more i forgot in fact ther is anohter athelte i coach currently , i call her the female lcd )
but even there you could say there are other factors that had as much o an impact . positoning and mental agressivnes for instance.(not for wolfe as she was excellent in those aspects )
this year i hardly ever broke 40 sec for 50s and it was not real an issue for me (it wasnt ideal either as there is of course somewhat an correlation between 50 m and 1.9 km ) but by far my bigger issue was with not enough serious swiming ( ie hardly a session over 3 k and hardly a proper main set, i did cramp up much more and could not swim at the same intensty.and it also had an impact on bike.


no i dont swim galas , in fact i have never done a swim race in my whole life. but I do recommend them for people with Itu draft legal aspirations.
neither would i discourage somebody doing them if they are not time restricted

joey100

Interesting about the 50m swim times, I was reading recently, can't remember who or where! (must be old age!) and they were suggesting that the ability to recover after a hard opening effort is important along with your 200/300m swim time. so you go hard at the start and then after 200/300m the group settles and if you have a strong start you can put yourself in a good position. This was from a pro race point of view so not sure how well it transfers across.

peter kern

joey100 wrote: »

Interesting about the 50m swim times, I was reading recently, can't remember who or where! (must be old age!) and they were suggesting that the ability to recover after a hard opening effort is important along with your 200/300m swim time. so you go hard at the start and then after 200/300m the group settles and if you have a strong start you can put yourself in a good position. This was from a pro race point of view so not sure how well it transfers across.

the start at Itu is brutal ( and brutally fast) but gernally
its a lot about brains too (speed and power obiously helps but as always its a mix off many components)

at the end of the day most Itu guys swim much higher volume than most ironman guys ....

MojoMaker

That 50m time short course or long course Peter, and push start or dive?

peter kern

SC PoW

peter kern

did my first park run ever . great fun and its definitley a labour of love what the volunteers are doing , making everybody welcome and it was the best marked out course i have ever seen. I set the slowest 5 k time ever in my life but it was great fun

peter kern

every year the same struggle....
it takes me bloody ages to get going , dublin bikes pass me even more frequently than usual.
I dont mind being slow but this is the time i totally hate as running is such a struggle.
Anway I decided on sunday to stop complaining and start running
and unfortunately for me that means many double runs.but it does get easier when the brain is switched on ( at the same time iam a strong beliver there is a time when the brain needs to be switched off , its the ones that never switch of that burn out early )

I would like to say that i am in slightly better shape than last year but its a tough call. at least i enjoy the pool more this year as grumpy and happy push me and i have set quite a few 2017 pbs in the last few weeks.
weight wise i guess i reached the red zone last week and i should defo not put more weight on as i dont want to struggle as much as in the last couple of years

peter kern

good week
first proper running week and another park run was only 13 sec faster but it was a good bit easier (need to look for a faster park run where i have faster runners around me)
treadmill session did not work at all mentally explodesd the first tome after 5 min or so...
another solid swim week wed with the grumpy german and happy joe. not a great swim but i was in the water , and friday the first almost proper swim on my own and another 2017 100m pb.
solid bike week with a good bit intensity
and I did not put on weight.
Have to say i really did enjoy a few sessions.
have no idea aobut time and mileage
approx
14 k swim
65 70 k run
6.5 hour bike

peter kern

i guess its never to late and i did my first 5x200 4x400 pull and 5x 200 i guess i was motivated as i altrady did dryland exercises while i was boiling water and and drinking my tea I died in the end but there was a few 2.50s and 5.35s .

the problem in ireland is that december in my mind should be a key month if you want to improve your swiming yet the pool is empty as most people seem to fight about useless stuff ( how to train lol )


peole alwyas say but you have it easy ... bla bla bla . fact is despite having done a good bit of training this year if iam 83 kg its very hard for me to go sub 19 for 5 k and runing feels horrible. so far i have done 19.01 and 18.50 so of course for somebody that dosnt train as much being 1 stone over raves weight and often 2 or 3 you not going to run. of course weight is not everyhthing but iam sure had i not put on one kg between the first and 2nd park run i would have run 15 sec faster ( only when i go below 78 does the return of weight lose start to dimmish.
at the same time for swiming the weight is good lol but thats is not really my concern .

i guess iam on track to be at least a kilo lighter than last year end of the year prob almost 2.

peter kern

an enjoyable week
19k swimming 2 hard sessions friday i did lie a few min on the pool deck as i was spent after the set but i was pleased.
75 k running one interval session 8x1000 no watch I enjoyed that a lot and another park run. didnt made it to st annes park so i did sandymount its a slighly faster course than fairview park and i was 5 sec a k faster despite not working ( i was still tired from fridays swim and unortunately nobody was pushing me anyway good training session .
cycling 5 hours and 2 fast sessions.

good weight loss this week. and diet getting healthy again.

peter kern

last week was okish
solid swimming ( my key session wasnt good )
bike pretty ok 1 fast sesion including 4 hour spin in the wicklows on a fantastic mild and quiet days in the mountains . this is the stuff i love and i thank x mas for the peaceful session i could enjoy
run ok first half of week little niggle in the knee on thursday and i decided to take a few days off running.

nothing special but another weeks training under the belt .

RacoonQueen

You might have already mentioned...but whats the race goal for next year?

peter kern

win as many parkruns as possible and make it look like iam a fantastic athlete ...
live blogging ( **** i dont even know where the hashtag is on my keyboard but hashtag from smokertoparkrunwinner, nopainogain road2kona etc etc )

RacoonQueen

You could get a parkrun tattoo then

https://www.google.ie/search?q=parkrun+tattoo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz_9qJj7fYAhUDZlAKHS2QAPoQsAQIKA&biw=1383&bih=732

EC1000

RacoonQueen wrote: »

You could get a parkrun tattoo then

https://www.google.ie/search?q=parkrun+tattoo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz_9qJj7fYAhUDZlAKHS2QAPoQsAQIKA&biw=1383&bih=732

OMG! At least the barcode is practical I suppose....

peter kern

EC1000 wrote: »

OMG! At least the barcode is practical I suppose....

no !! i clicked on it ( as for my purpose its really important that i never forget my barcode) and they used it as a demonstration that you cant use it ...

peter kern

what a great start for my 2018 campaign... i missed not only one park run but 2 on the first of january. I would like to say it wasnt my fault and for the first miss that would be correct but for the one at 11 am i just got lost on the way to it.... anyway I still got a nice bike ride out of it and a run a stormey bull island.

otherwise
pretty good swim week 3 swims got me 24 k so at least i can say i had one decent swim week in 2017 lol.
bike 21 hours a lot on the easy side 2 fast sessions
run i am actually not to sure but aprox 45k and of course a glorious win at the last park run 2017 to end the year with 3 wins in a row now and for 4 park run pbs in 4 races.
Nothing really to complain about last week and i feel like that finally its slowly starting to flow again . it seems every year to get a harder and takes longer to get the cylinders firing. but i guess that seperates park run champs from the wanna be park run champs lol the really champs keep going lol
hashtag the road to parkrun

peter kern

Not often really interested in times but today I was
10 min bike as warm up straight into swim
5 x200 2.56 2.55 2.54 2.51 2.52 off 3.15
4x400 pull 5.28 5.30 5.33 5.43 ( fell abit asleep in last one) of 6
5x200 2.54 2.55 2.56 2.54 2.55
3600 k in high 58 min
500 cd
I am approx 54 min for Im swim and iam happy where I am what is interesting I tried a few new things for my coaching in autumn and pretty much prepared all the sessions before in the water myself and I do feel i have more water pressure on my hands and iam consequently 1-2 sec faster per hundred than where I should be . And while paddle and pull is not so great iam pretty happy with fs. plan is to improve swimming till end of February and then maintain March and April. And then repeat a similar x mas week 2 nd week of may. # parkruncrosstraining

peter kern

anther solid week overall the only 2 slight negatives are I did not sleep to well for a couple of days and the knee is still forcing me to be a bit carefull on he run . on the upsite its by far the best it has been on the bike for a a year.

overall 5 swims
3 good turbos ( especially the friday one) and 2 easy ones
running 6 runs ,one steady interval session and parkrun 2 sec per k ( well actually 3 but at least one was due to somewhat better weather) quicker than last week
so for my parkrun branding i have set a new park run pb in every park run i have done now. hasthag it does only get better and what ever BS you can think off.

on sat for the parkrun i was the clown i usually smile at . wore a watch and it acted up a bit after the start and rather than just totally ignoring it i fiddelt around with it a few times until i had totally lost focus on what i was supposed to do ( run smart) Very poorly executed run. ( reminder must repair my 10 euro casio )

peter kern

interesting week
bit of an easeir week as the mind wanted a bit of a rest
still 1ok swim 2 turbos and 100k today
and 50 k runing
friday swim was fast without paddles but i did not feel great and was way more out of breath than i should have been for the effort , started to feel a bit cold and headache and did just easy turob pm and nothing sat as i felt really off.
slept 12 hours and today i felt much better and decided to do the duathlon as i kind of thought while i might only feel 95% i halso had and eseir week and that should compensate as i always do a full weeks training for the duathlon races.
the only issue I had to change a stem sunday morning as i had broken one screw the holds stem at fork in the ironman in cologne and had totaly forgoten about it and broke the 2nd one on thursday .
i only had a 2 cm shorter stem so a quick dash in the morning changing the setup and of we were to cycle to naas.

naas duathlon , nothing special i achieved my goal ( at least 2.30 faster than last year) and was 2.4o min faster than last year ( and today the run would have been 100 m per lap longer due due building works so abut 45 sec slower for the 2 runs ) so its more like 3.20 and maybe 5 sec off of the best case scenario i thought i would have today.
i seriously need to work on my leg turnover the next 8 weeks but otherwise no complaints ,i was exactly were i want to be at this stage. and the good thing i did not feel the knee complaining once. I should have pushed the 2 runs a bit more but the plan is to be recovered completley by tuesday and the next 7-12 secs faster per lap, they would have hurt, i do think my run was was a tiny bit of today but my speed is poor . anyway i need to get my 5 k time down a min over the next 8 weeks, otherwise there is no point showing up at the dua nats. .wont be easy but every second helps for the long term.

peter kern

SO this week to change things a bit i following alans advice
you need to offer some gimmick that no one else offers. Play soothing music. Play hard rock. Play a nature video. Have cats crawling over the customers. (Google goat yoga. Yep. It's a thing.) Paint the equipment pink. Run hot classes. Run freezing classes. Hook up real time data monitoring with power output graphs etc... guaranteed the crowds you want has never seen that. Yep it is complete crap but that's how it works.

SO monday deep freeze turbo 2 hours with some good efforts
i had x mas song monday swim ( ok just honest 5 k of swim nothing to crazy more to recover from race and a freezing 40 m run

tue i had cocktail swim (ok no cocktails ) and mixed up 5 ks with easy and fast stuff . kyper pass pain tuesday

wed sweet spot dr coggan turbo for 2 hours 10 k run

thursday sutto treadmil and 5 k grinding in the water 22 k ice run at night.
friday just another friday swim ( the worst i ever did as greame said and he was right ) speed turbo ( very good session) and 40 min ice run

sat another 5 k session my best session of the week 5 k treadmil park run at 3.28 pace 11 k run

bloody sunday 4 hour turbo 15 k heat run

approx weeks stats
swim 23 k on the dot ( mental not a bit short on fast 50s and 100s but quite a few sub 15 min k s with speed changes)
12 hours on the bike very good week
90-95 k running ( found a treadmil that goes 23 kmh and i guess we will try to become friends till march but defo not longer.

its such a pleasure to cycle those days as the knee is getting better and dosnt really bother me at the moment ,its just so much nicer and its such a nice feeling . my first over 20 k run in one go since september . and someting that happens to be once in a blue moon, i was so good with my diet that friday i was a bit low on energy woke up twice this week because i was hungry so friday night i had a huge pizza and 2 garlic breads... but still a bit hungry on sat .

i guess time to take a rest here with the blog as every week is pretty much the same