Tri Hard: With a vengance

68 lost souls

Die hard 1 was great, Die hard 2 was ok but not the best, Die hard 3 was a return to form. Hopefully a bit like my triathlon to date.

First year I went from Crutch to 5K and beyond, completed my first 3 races and went form a box ticker to catching the bug.

Second year started with great intentions and a lot of winter training, signed up for 6 NS races knowing I needed surgery on a torn minuscus I planned it all around a 6 week recovery. One infection and 2 operations later 6 weeks turned into 8 months and I am still going through the recovery.

Year three, recovery has started to go well. Back swimming and back on the bike although down a lot of power and fitness. Running wont be happening until probably March at the earliest but I will be pushing the other two.

Goals this year are to get my legs back to better then they were before injury. Concentrate on balancing out the muscles and prevent any further injuries as well fix the imbalance between by two legs. After that I want to push the swim and get to perhaps around 6:30 for a 400TT and push the bike a lot.

I have my eyes set on a few races;

Crooked Lake (Sprint)
Belfast (Olympic)
Dublin City (Olympic/ A Race)
Pulse (Sprint)

I have picked races towards the end of the year for the most part in order to allow me to get to where I need to be physically for them.

Also moved in the past year so need to meet new people in the area so I started to train with a new club as well. My first bits of trianing of the new year have mostly been with them

Monday 5th January - Swim

First time training with a new club it's hard to know what to expect but it went really well. Found a pretty good fit in terms of standard with the lane I went into and did a decent set for the first day back of the new year. A series of 200m swims working on different aspects including kicking and stroke. 400m main block and then a test to check where our fittness is 35 slow then 25m fast x 4. HR got up to about 150ish which was on the high end of the group but to be expected.

Going off memory so cant remember all the exact details, will do better next time.

Thursday 8th January - Turbo

I was trying to gauge whether or not I would be able for a group cycle on Saturday so setup the turbo in the house which had had the heating on for a while, bad idea.

Very quickly started getting warm and out of breath. Tried concentrating on my cadence and getting my legs working at 90 rpm again a range of gears. Sorry to say I only lasted about 15 minutes before having to stop. I didn't think I'd be able for Saturday but put it down to how hot the room was and how much of a wuss I am.

Saturday 11th January - Cycle

Wanting to prove myself after a pathetic turbo session I decided to through caution to the wind and go out for a group spin.



Was a small enough group of 5 of us and headed out for 30k in about hour and a half. Slow enough pace which was perfect for what I needed. Averaged about 21kph and certainly the hills brought that down. Nags head averaged 10kph and around 28 kph at Rathbeele.

Really struggled on the hills to keep the legs going but enjoyed having done it. Hoping with training and a spoonful of HTFU they will get easier and I will bring up my average speed. Last year before surgery I probably would have been able for an average of around 27/28kph.

Plans for this quarter are;

Monday - Coached swim
Tuesday - Coached Turbo
Wednesday - Swim and Strength training
Thursday - Yoga
Friday - Strength and conditioning and swim
Saturday - Group Cycle
Sunday - Rest

Solobally8

Best of luck with the recovery. It's great to have a plan and some goals to work towards.

68 lost souls

Solobally8 wrote: »

Best of luck with the recovery. It's great to have a plan and some goals to work towards.

Thanks. I think I need the goals otherwise I'll just keep putting things off. Putting them down in writing helps even more cause if you tell people your plans you have to follow through.

68 lost souls

Monday January 12th

Swim session

400m warmup

3x 100m - 25 fists 75 swim 10 second rest

3x 100m - 25 kick 75 swim 10 second rest

4x 100m - 100 easy 100 fast repeat 15 seconds rest

400m swim

4x 25m sprint full recovery

Really felt it today. Cramped up on the 4x100s but eased off a bit and worked through it.

68 lost souls

Tuesday January 13th - turbo

Was a great session. Tough but made me feel a lot more confident. Made up for last weeks abomination.

15 minutes warm up
6 x 2 minutes at 75% with finishing hard for 10
Recover
4 x 5 minutes at 85% finishing hard for 20
Recover
3 x 7 minutes at 85% finishing hard for 20
Cool down

I'm going off HR rather than power and my max is around 205bpm. Estimated From my Flow I reckon I put out about an average of 100 watts. The 3 x 7 minutes I was holding 140.

Not too bad all things considered.

68 lost souls

Wednesday January 14th - Strength and Swim

Arrived late last night to the gym so only had about 45 minutes which meant no swimming for me and just stuck with strength training.

5 minutes cardio on the cross trainer to get the HR rate up to optimum.

Leg curls to work on the quads
Bicep and tricep work
Core work
Delts, pecs and lats

Cool down on the bike

Shower time.

Short but sweet, hope to make up for the lack of swim tonight and fit one in after tonights session.

Don't think I'll be able to make the yoga class and will probably swap it for another strength set. Just getting used to the new gym so going to try out a few new techniques.

68 lost souls

Thursday January 15th - Strength and Swim

Again Thursday night was a short enough one. Did a quick 20 minutes weights session to build up my legs and core. Felt like I was getting somewhere with my quads and starting to notice at least a small difference. Still a way off where I need to be or at least where I was last year but going the right way.

After that it was a quick change and into the pool without much of a plan. Ended up doing;

400m warm up (with pull buoy)
100m with paddles
2 x 100m hard
100m practicing deep water starts

Spent about 15 minutes then working on my tumble turns coming in from about 10m out, turning and 3 strokes. Repeated this till I was blue in the face. Again like the legs I've made improvements but still not perfect.

I'd like to get turns right as I believe it will improve cardio work in the pool if I can tumbleturn and have it not effect my stride or my first few strokes. I enjoy stopping and turning as I get a breather in a long set but in my head I know I shouldn't be doing this as there are no wall sin the sea.

Friday January 16th - Strength

Longer strength set then before with a 10 minute warm up on the cross trainer followed by a series of ab and back exercises. (Mason twists, inclined weighted sit ups/reverse sit ups, ball work etc.)

Finished up with some squats trying to concentrate on form and uniformity. One big problem my physio noted last time was that I was still favouring my good leg so I need to even it out.

On the bike to cool down and then hit the shower.

Saturday January 17th - Group cycle Turbo

With the icy roads it was decided to call off the group cycle and instead go indoors for a turbo session.

Was a very tough 2 hour session and my legs are still feeling it.

15 minutes warm up

15 minutes at 75%
2:30 recover
15 minutes at 90 %
2:30 Recover
10x1 minute flat out
Repeat

Finish with a cool down.

Sunday January 18th - Rest day

Well I did just that. Enjoyed having a day off and felt the body looking for one too. Did a lot of core work this week and my sides are letting me know. Hoping the body will be rested enough for what I'm expecting to be a tough swim session tomorrow night.

Looking back at my first week back to full training I can see where my schedule might change a little over the next while as I find the rhythm and fit it into my everyday schedule. Its been a good week and perhaps I need to ease myself in a little more gradually then I though.

Ramping up the training quickly probably isn't the key so for now I will do short but concentrated efforts in strength sessions and perhaps just squeeze in the 2 swim sessions in a week for now and closer to race season swap some of the strength training for more time in the pool and at that stage on the road.

68 lost souls

Monday January 19th - Swim

An interesting session, mixed bag really felt really good starting off but then half way through my leg cramped up again, this is the second session in a row when it's happened me. I am trying to correct my kick at the moment and I put it down to that. It is taking my legs a bit of time to get used to it.

Got going again though and finished off the session with some sprints that showed me I still have the speed if I can get the cardio up.

Tuesday January 20th - Turbo

A tough group session with a lot of time spent in around threshold. Legs were really starting to feel it and was worried a few times about the knee a little but it held out. Spent a lot of this session trying to concentrate on even power distribution both between my two legs and on the full rotation. Trying to train my feet to stay in the correct plane in order to utilize my quads and hamstring correctly.

I am convinced I would benefit from a proper fitting so this is moving up on my wish list. Was thinking Bace2Race but if anyone has any other suggestions or feedback on this it would be great.

Wednesday January 21st - Strength work Meetings

I have hoped to make the gym but a last minute rescheduling meant I was preparing for a meeting when I got home from work and then was on a Skype conference till midnight so unfortunately got nothing done. My body is thanking me today for it though I think.

68 lost souls

Thursday January 22nd/ Friday January 23rd - Foam rolling

A few aching muscles have been slowly niggling me this week so I took a step back to try and loosen things up a little. Left calf has been tight and my knee has been a bit painful on a daily basis even when just sitting at my desk which I think is related to an overly tight IT band. Spent some time both evenings just trying to loosen things out a little.

Saturday January 23th - Cycle



Was a nice cycle today. Could have upped the pace at the start a little but ended up doing just shy of 44km in 2hours 10. We squeezed in 3 hill repeats at Ardgillin, tough climb for me average about 7% but parts are 10%. I'm just getting used to hills again and HR peaked over 95%, felt as though I was going to puke after the first one.

Knee was paining me after again so ice and ibuprofen were the order of the day. Going to ring up Monday and book a bike fitting and perhaps another session with the physio. Almost positive its the chondromalaica that's causing the pain. Need to balance out the muscles.

68 lost souls

Sunday January 24th - Strength session

Starting to see some progress in the legs, was able to up the weight on the leg press, single leg still only at about 20% on the right but that is an improvement for me. Able to complete the motion of the leg extension which I couldn't before. Weight on the leg curl is coming close to level. Felt a bit stronger in the upper body as well.

Best news from this session is my Christmas weight is officially gone. 2kg down 8kg to go.

Monday January 25th - Swim

Nice 2k session with 10 sets of 200. Every second set was threshold or drills. Enjoyed the session and for the first week didnt cramp up at all.

Tuesday January 26th - Turbo

1hour 20 session. Really worked myself into a serious sweat. Concentrated on a few things;

cadence was between 90 and 95 at all times except when going flat out and upped it to 120 and when it slipped down once or twice while changing hand positions.

Knee positioning - Tried to ensure my knee was tracking in the correct position as shown below



HR zones - Was finding the correct gearing and speed to keep me at different levels.

Coach really put us through our paces but enjoyed it.

68 lost souls

Very busy week in our house with things going on in work, and trying to get paperwork and study done at home so was not very motivated and frankly exhausted most nights so I didnt get a whole lot done but did squeeze in some good sessions, and some fat fat fatty food.

Wednesday January 27th - Nothing to note

Thursday January 28th - Swim

Partly to hit the bronze goal in the Boards Challenge I dragged myself to the pool for a short a session. It actually helped clear my head and made me feel better for a while.

200 warm up
100 kick with fins - found it helped get me pointing my toes the right way and encouraged me to keep them there
100 pull buoy concentrating on not crossing my arms and high elbow catch.

400m TT - Target was to break 7 minutes and with a digital watch I may have :P with the wall clock I looked up and was just striking 7 minutes so I wont count this one but happy as I thought it felt slow and was not going to hit it.

100m recovery - back crawl

100m - 25 fast 25 slow repeat.

Friday January 29th - Big dirty Chinese

It was a stressful week and I had a day of weakness, circumcised to the lack of energy and frustration and had 2 beers and a big Chinese. I felt I deserved it and needed a break form watching everything I put in to my body.

Saturday January 30th - Cycle

Coach asked me to repeat last weeks route but with 4 repeats instead of 3. Was on my own for this cycle which meant it was all me. Very strong headwind going out especially around Skerries made it very tough on the way out.

There is a lovely section of the route out that I really pushed on and enjoy, on the Skerries road.

Repeats were tough, I did one in the big ring and the rest in the granny ring but was working on putting in more power, keeping the legs spinning and trying to stay in as high a gear as I could without blowing up.

The spin home was great and really pushed it. Had the wind behind me for most of it and kept the legs spinning almost all the way. Really enjoyed it. Was faster the whole way back this week. Looks like I averaged close to 30kph on the way back, hope I can keep up the improvements all season. Just need to improve the hills a lot.

Looking at Strava I can see what I already know my hills need a lot of work. Going on my positions compared to others this week it looks like I was top third on most sections but the hills I was still way back near the bottom. Must pick some races with no hills so keep practicing hills


Overall I did further than last year and in a shorter time so great news.

45.5km in 2:06:51. Very happy with the day today.

68 lost souls

First week of February was a no go in terms of training. Due to family reasons I didnt get to swimming or turbo training and then was traveling the rest of the week. Did get in a swim session on Friday morning in the hotel though. It was nice to take my mind off things that were going on and enjoyed training with some one I hadn't trained with in a long time.

Was good to stretch the limbs after being in a car so much lately as well. 2x1100, 2x200, 1x400 (was supposed to be 300 but I lost count), 2x200, 2x100 with a warmup and cool down.


Back on track now this week.

Monday, February 9th - Swim

400m Warm up drills and swim

Main set - [50 as hard as possible, 100 at 85%, 150 at 80% 100 recovery drill]x4

Felt great after getting out of the pool. My knee felt far better after this. Had been in a lot of pain during the day so glad I went to the pool tonight.

Tuesday, February 10th - Turbo training

1 hour 20 set. Warmup spin, HIT intervals, 2 x 20 minute threshold sets and a cool down. Spent a lot of time up at 80% and 87%max heart rate. Struggled to keep the cadence up for the entirety of the set especially the second threshold set. Each set contained 2 x 1 minute all out which made me almost faint and/or puke so I know I was working hard.

Calf has been a little tight since, nothing painful but trying to stretch it out today.

Wednesday, February 11th - Leg work

Spent the duration of operation transformation on the telly working through physio routines on my leg. Squats, stretches and balance work was the main content. Stretching out with the band helped loosen it a bit which feels good. Really want to get back to full strength soon. Getting frustrated not being able to run and knowing the season is getting closer.

68 lost souls

Thursday, February 12th - Swim and Yoga

Wanted to see how I would handle longer sustained swimming having felt tired after my last TT I wanted to double it and did a 800m continous swim with a warm up and cool down. Short 20 minutes session 1km total.

Been feeling a little stiffer this wether when training compared to this time last year and looking at the difference between my training the big thing missing is yoga so made it back to a class for the first time. Didn't enjoy it as much as my previous experiences but I guess that's the difference between a proper yoga studio and a big gym. Also the difference between hot yoga and normal yoga. Still felt a little better though not 100%.

Friday, February 13th - Rest

Took it easy today. Still feeling tightness in my back/shoulder. Had some help work out a few knots and some tiger balm. Hoping I'll be right for the bike fit tomorrow.

68 lost souls

Saturday, February 14th - bike fit

First off I must say Dominic at Velo Motion is a great guy. First time meeting him and he knows his stuff. Has been through similar injuries as me and was full of great advice and ideas not just on the bike but also training and targets.

He was pretty straight up with me on a few things I was afraid I'd be told. Namely I should have gone for a 56 instead of a 58 when I bought my bike. The 58 will get me a great road setup but need to change a lot if i want a TT position in it.

We went through my history and plans for the year. Then a bit of a test on flexibility and sizes.

A lot of good news in terms of angles and biomechanics. I seem to be doing a lot right. A few small changes made, moved from a 110stem to a 90mm stem. Higher education the saddle a little and levelled it out.

Looking at the video footage Dom showed me a few mistakes I was making and when I concentrated on relaxing my shoulders and bending from the hips I had a lot less pressure on my spine and shoulders.

He recommended I take a few spins to get comfortable with this position and then possibly consider changing the cranks to 170 instead of 175 to take some pressure off my knees and raise the saddle to compensate for the shorter reach. Might try and see if any one is looking to go the other way.

Also possibly change he bars from a 44 to a 42. But I have a much less reaching fit now which should help the numbness I was gettin in my shoulders. Also a lot happier about not stressing my knees too much now that I have a good fit.

If I want a TT position I think I have a few options now to think about. First is get a forward offset seat post and TT saddle te shorter cranks and take out a few spacers on the bars. Second is sell this bike which I have kept pretty immaculate as I clean it after almost every ride and it doesn't have a huge mileage on it anyway. Third is by a TT bike and have this as a road and winter bike.

Currently the third option is out due o lack of space. Second option is a possibility but I don't know if I want to part with my current bike as there is a lot I like about it. Now back to the first option I might keep an eye out over the next while on adverts and here for bits an pieces and put them together over a few months. Keep the current setup until I get the rest of the bits and if needs be ride in a road setup for races this season which would probably be better on my knee anyway. If things go well this year then look at getting a TT bike next year or the year after.

A lot to think about and work on after this but happy with how it went.

Sunday, February 15th - knee rehab and foam roller

Rolled out my muscles and did a good bit if exercises to work on my knee rehab.

68 lost souls

Monday, February 16th - Swim

Was a nice session, pretty interesting. 3oom warm up, 300m pull+100 max (1:35), 300m kick+100 hard, 300m paddles + 100m hard, 4 x 100m threshold (1:42).

Tuesday, February 17th - Turbo

15 minute warm up bit of a drill and a recovery and a 20min TT to test heart rate. Held 95 cadence throughout, held 180watts for the first 5 minutes then 164 for the rest. HR started at 126, jumped to 179 in the first minute and steadily rose to 192 at the end. Fecked after it.

Wednesday, February 18th - Swim

Repeated Monday session without the 100 max in the main sets then did a 100m recovery and a 400m TT followed by a 100m recovery.

TT time was 6:52 and I think I had a little more in the tank so headed the right way. On track for my 6:30 target by June I think.

68 lost souls

Thursday, February 19th - Leg work

Did some band work on the legs to work on the knee and loosen it up as well as some poses to try and stretch out my hips.

Friday, February 20th - Leg work

Bridges, squats, leg raises to strengthen the knee and glutes.

Saturday, February 21st - Cycle

Big group out yesterday, 11 of us as opposed to previous weeks with 2 or 3. With the bigger grouper there was a greater range of abilities so we went at a bit shorter and were back to the first group spin I did of the year. 30km at 20kph.

Was nice to see the progress I made as the hills were a lot easier this time around and had a couple of sprints with 2 of the guys during it.



The new setup helped as well I think, when I made sure to keep my back flat and the arms relaxed I could feel a noticeable power increase and when I finished the spin I had no shoulder pain as I had before.

68 lost souls

So apparently I was far more tired on Saturday than I thought. Went for a nap at 7PM after dinner and woke up at 10am on Sunday. Felt better for it but felt like I can do the same thing last night. Wondering now if maybe I'm over tranining and need to cut back for a couple of weeks.

Sunday was a rest day anyway to make up for how tired I was.

Monday, February 23rd - Swim

1850m set with 1x400m @75% 2x200m @85% and 4x100m @ max (127,132,132,135)

Was really struggeling with my breathing on the last 2 100m's, went from breathing every 5 to almost having to breath every stroke on the last length.

Enjoyed the session though.

Tuesday, February 24rd - Turbo

A good tough session. Sent a good bit of time holding a high output. Had to pull up in the last 5 minutes though. Was trying to hold 90% for 5 and could feel my knee about to go so spun it backwards to help ease off. Feel like my bike is making some progress though so happy with it.

Wednesday, February 25th - Strength and conditioning/first run

Well here is the big news, I ran for a whole 2 minutes! Yep that's right logged my first few meters in almost 12 months. Started to feel a little wobbly towards the end but happy I did it.

Then an hour and a half of strength work concentrating on legs and core.

Thursday, February 26th - Strength and conditioning/second run

Today's warmup I slowed down the run a little but did 3 minutes and felt good about it. Didn't want to push it too much so left it there. Need not to rush it. Will slowly build it up over the next few weeks.

Concentrated on arms and upper body, then a little work on legs and a cool down on the bike.

Friday, February 27th - Foam roller

Legs are feeling the work outs this week, feeling pretty tender and tense so spent Fridays workout rolling out my muscles and taking it easy to be sure I'd be up for the cycle in the AM.

Saturday, February 28th - Cycle

Was a nice 45km spin today. Longer but flatter. We concentrated on speed work, did a few laps of a nice TT section. (I set it up a strava segment now as it is supposed ot be pretty popular and aleady a few people doing it, Murtaghs TT loop) Its a 5 KM out and back with an up and over flyover section. Key was to keep consistancy and my times were 9:37, 9:46, 9:59.

I know I'm capable of faster but as with Friday I could really feel all the gym work and my quads were not playing ball. Planning on using this loop going forward as a measuring stick.

Here is the full spin



And the TT loop

68 lost souls

Little behind on my updates. Needed an easy week last week as I decided to listen to my body. So I took Thursday, Friday, Saturday off training and concentrate don my studies instead. Here are the update son the rest of the dats.


Monday, March 2nd - Swim

Long sessions this week. 1000m steady and 10x100 at threshold plus the warm-up. Was tough going but nice to put in a solid long swim.

Tuesday, March 3rd - Turbo

Warmups and then 5min at hardest resistance and hardest gear, 5 minutes at 87% and 10 minutes at 75%, repeat. Recovery nad then 10 times 30 on 30 off.

Again a tough sessio nand lots of strength work this time round.

Wednesday, March 4th - VO2 and metabolic testing

I want to do a full report on this but don't have my data in front of me at the moment. I hope I will do this at a later stage. Basically I can eat a lot, 18% above normal metabolic rate. This puts me at eating about 3200 calories a day with my training schedule to still lose weight.

VO2 results were a 49.9 with an FTP of 2.8w/kg. My recovery was above normal with 27% in the first minute and 54% in the second minute. Happy to get my training zones as they are a little under where I thought so perhaps I have actually been pushing too hard and staying in the anebolic range too much. Will adjust for tonight turbo.

A caved at about 411watts.

Sunday, March 8th - Cycle

Nice big group again of 13. Took the back routes and did 6 hill repeats. Totaled 52KM in about 2 and a half hours. Pushing up 4% gradient over 1km in the big ring, a few weeks ago I would have had to have been in the granny ring so improvements are coming. Total climbing of 487m in the day.

Getting used to going up as well as oging down. Feeling more confident descending now. Felt a bit of pain in the knee after as I didnt tape this week like I had the last. Will tape it next weekend.

Monday, March 9th - Swim

Nice session this week. 300m warmup, 300 stead 6 x 50m sprint, 200m steady, 4x50m sprint, 100m, 2x50m sprint, 300m pull.

Felt good after this. Was keeping the 50m sprints under 40 seconds which I was happy with.

68 lost souls

Tuesday, March 10th - Turbo

Was not feeling this session at all. 15 minute warm up, a few intervals and then 40 minutes ramping from 75% up to flat out. I couldn't hold the sustained effort and felt sluggish. Tried to stick with it as much as possible but found myself going off pace a good bit and dropping back to 70% for sections of it.

Run off the bike, first outdoor run in almost a year. Just a short 1km or so. Felt ok but calves were tight and legs were a little heavy.

Wednesday, March 11th - Run

Yep, its taken 11 months but I did my first run session since surgery. Was kept short enough still as I want to ease into it but came up just shy of 2km in 10 minutes. RIght calf locked up on me though and knee started feeling a bit of pain later that night. Will bring it back a little further even next session. Perhaps the same loop but at a slower pace.

Thursday, March 12 - Swim

Did the full session more or less with the pull just to rest the leg as my calf was still tight. Did 300m of drills and a straight 1500m swim followed by dropping the pull for 4x50m sprints.

Felt a little loser after this. Was a nice set.

Friday, March 13th - X-Fit class

Wanted to try something different in the gym so did their X-Fit class, was more of a circuit training class but was tough.

Started with 2 loops of 6 stations, TRX running, moving plank, prowler push and heavy ropes, balance ball reverse situps, kettle bells, dumbbell boxing.

Then 10 minutes of sprint, prowler, firemans carry, prowler with cardio in the middle of jogging on the spot, starjumps, high knees and lunges.

Then floor work of various situps, side planks and planks.

Was spent at the end. Very good session.

Saturday, March 14th - Cycle

Did a 43km out and back with 3 hill repeats of the black hills from post #9. I've done about 15-20 ascents and descents of this hill now and set a couple of PBs on both the climb and descent so showing improvements. In January I was getting up in around 6:50 average. I was 4:57, 5:32, 5:34 on these 3. If I could get htem all under 5 minutes I would be happy.

Sunday, March 15th - Rest

Mothers day gave me a bit of an excuse to pig out so my mum didn't have to do it on her own :P

Monday, March 16th - Swim

3oom warmup and goal was to fit in 25x100m with 20 seconds rest but a mixture of too much rest and a little too late getting in the water meant it was 19x100m by the time we were getting kicked out of the pool.

Was happy with how the set went and felt like I could hav emanaged to finish it out if the pool was open longer.

Solobally8

68 lost souls wrote: »

Sunday, March 15th - Rest

Mothers day gave me a bit of an excuse to pig out so my mum didn't have to do it on her own :P

You are so thoughtful

Must be great to be back running.

68 lost souls

Yeah it feels great. Did another run last night but wore a knee support and felt great after it. Had planned on doing the same route but slower and ended up matching the time almost exactly, 1 second in the difference and that could have been taking a little longer to stop the clock. My phone dropped its signal so couldn't compare.

I have a few progressively longer routes mapped out and since I moved to a new area a year ago there is still a lot of unexplored parts for me to run around and get lost in. Only discovered a few weeks ago there is a big park about less than 500m from the front door for example so will definitely be getting to know the place better with running back on the cards.

68 lost souls

Due to travel with work an other commitments training took a backseat last week.

Tuesday, March 17th - Run

Did the same loop on the run tried to slow it down but came in at exactly the same time as previously. Glad to get it done.

Wednesday - Sunday - SFA.

Dropped the bike in last Sunday for a service and to change the crankset to a shorter arm 170mm vs 175mm as suggested in my bike fitting. Had hoped to collect it on Saturday to go for a cycle on Sunday but didn't get a chance to collect until lat eon Sunday.

Monday, March 23rd - Swim

Nice set, really enjoyed it. 300m WU, 300m steady but the 4th length of each 100m hard. 100m Drill, 300m paddles, 100m drill, 300m pull, 100m drill 300m swim 199m drill 100m cool down.

Tuesday, March 24th - Turbo

15 min WU
10 min Intervals, 40 off 20 on
7 minutes at 75% 3 minutes at race pace x 2
2 minutes easy
6 minutes at 75%, 4 minutes at race pace x 2
2 minutes recovery
6 minutes of 30 second intervals
10 minutes cool down.




Planned on taking today off for my birthday unless I could squeeze in a run, then last night I started getting hit with what feels like the onset of tonsillitis so definitely nothing doing tonight.

Hope to swim tomorrow but obviously if I'm sick I'll be off training for a few days.

mossym

are you still considering a TT saddle? i have one, practically new,i'd let go for a good price.

happy birthday by the way

68 lost souls

Considering it alright. Spend a bit of the session last night on the tri bars to get used to it but in the new setup my saddle is putting pressure on. Send me a PM with some info on the saddle and I'll have a think about it.

Cheers for the birthday wishes. Another step closer to the next age group :P

68 lost souls

The last few weeks have been a bit mental. Adding to the tonsillitis have been weddings and funerals. Throat is now feeling better but chest has decided it felt left out and has been causing me issues. Another round of antibiotics and lots of rest.

Been struggling keeping a healthy diet with so much traveling, eating out at family events, motivation to cook (the two of us are sick now) and also been very bad at taking my vitamins etc due to so many other tablets I'm taking. Its a pain because I felt I was progressing well.

Have just under 10 weeks until my first event so hoping I'm almost over the worst of it.

Anyway today I was really feeling the cabin fever and lack of training and decided to go for a walk to clear the head. Needed it as I Was getting nothing done while staring at my screen all day. Walked the 5km route I had planned out for training. Never been around that part of town and it seems nice enough. Glad to start exploring. Dunno if you guys count going for a walk as training but I'm going to count this one. 5km in 45 minutes.

68 lost souls

Got back in the pool on Wednesday night as I was feeling pain in my knee form not training. wasnt ready for a tough session yet as still a bit chesty. Worked on breathing and control.

200m warmup
100m x 9 breathing 3,4,5,6,7,6,5,4,3
2x200m sprint.

1500m 45minutes.

68 lost souls

Getting over the breathing issues now for the most part. Slowly building up training again.

Saturday , April 11th - Run

Moved up the distance a small bit to the 2K loop I found. Its got a fair amount of hills so good workout. 2.2KM in 13:04 happy enough with it despite feeling a little stiff in the hips.

Sunday, April 12th - Bike

The usual trip to the Mothers house was a good excuse to get back on the bike after a layoff of a couple of weeks. Just looking back on it the last spin was a turbo on the 24th of March. 29km pushing it as much as I could while being weary of Dublin city traffic. Lovely weather for it, first time in shorts this year.

Monday, April 13th - Run and Swim

Repeated the same loop, bit faster this time. 12:21 this time around

Good training session with the club pushing it at threshold for a lot of it. 2.1km targeting progressively faster times. Coming in around 1.25 for 100 at the end.

Tuesday, April 14th - Rest

Wednesday, April 15th - Planned run but rested


Was feeling fairly light headed on Wednesday. Possibly over caffeinated at work.Kept starting to get ready to run and felt the wiser choice was to rest. Ended up going to be early and sleeping it off. Happy I did cause I felt much better for it.

Thursday, April 16th - Run and S&C

Third time doing the 2K loop, little slower again but happy with how it was, again a smashing day weather wise so was nice to be out. Having done this 3 times I'm going to step up next run and do the 1.5k loop twice. Slowly growing the distance in the runs and hope to be back up to 5K soon enough.

Hit the gym then after dinner. 15 minutes on the bike, then hit the heavy bag for a boxing workout, rounded off with a few sets on the back and abs machines.

Plan on getting back in the sea for the first time after work today and then cycle in the AM. Should get a run in on Sunday and then I have a work trip next week and there's no pool or gym in the hotel (visitng a few small towns and staying in local hotels) so wont get much training done. Gonna try make sure I get a couple of runs in though.

68 lost souls

Overdue an update. Been hectic lately.

Friday, April 17th - Sea Swim

Was a rough day with waves throwing me about but was good to get back in the big pool. Wasn't looking for speed but more an acclimatization to the sea again. First of the year. was about 1.2-1.3 km total, swam to the rocks and back in Clogherhead.

Saturday, April 18th - Cycle session

Club cycle started with some bike skills and then a steady spin from Swords to Skerries and back with a run off the bike. Not too taxing but a nice spin and making it a bit of a brick session was good for the legs. Will need to get more of these in. 34km total

Sunday, April 19th - Run session

Brought up the distance a little more to 3km. 17:10 total time and felt good. Got quicker each km. Starting at 6:00 and then picking up each time.

Was traveling for work then and only go tone run in the following week.

Tuesday, 21st April - Running tour of Germany

3km in 17:29. Steadier/more consistent pace then Sundays run. between 5:30 and 5:40 pace.

Sunday, 26th April Educating myself

Went to the Base2Race event which I thought was great. Went to some interesting talks and picked up some good info from a few people, mainly on running technique.

Monday, 27th April - Swimming

Session was good and tough. 300m warmup 5x200m with 25m drill and 175 swim, 10x100m off 2:00, 200m cool down.

Enjoyed the session despite feeling bad about a notable decline in performance. Not doing enough swimming the past few weeks to maintain improvements. It balances out though as my running is coming along nicely.


Tuesday, 28th April - Run

3km in 16:03. Put into practice some of the tips I picked up and also switched shoes to my racing pair to get comfortable in them. Wasn't happy with them last time I wore them and wanted to see if they felt any better. Pushed to see how I would feel going fast and to see how the knee was holding up.

Ran between 85% and 90% of max HR.

Splits 1.) 5:24 2.) 5:01 3.) 5:27

All great but my knee was not happy afterward. Think it might be the shoes. Either way I took 2 days off to rest it.

Friday, 1st May - Run

Upped the distance again. Slowed it down and reverted back to my training shoes. 3.7km in 22:01. I wanted to make sure I didn't push it before a cycle in the morning so kept it at about 5:55 pace.

Felt a bit of pain in my shins towards the end and also could feel my right foot was landing inside first and then rolling flat while my left leg was landing mid foot perfectly even. This was putting a but more pressure on my weaker knee. Tried to concentrate on correcting this, not sure how much of it was slope of the path and how much was poor posture. Something to work on.

Plan on getting up to 5km in about 2-3 weeks giving me 3 weeks to work on brick sessions and prepare for my first race of the year.

68 lost souls

Saturday, 2nd May - Bike Rest day

Went to meet up for a group spin but when we got to the meeting point it was just 2 of us and our coach. With the weather that was there we decided it was safer to stay indoors and do a turbo session so our coach gave us a good session which I decided to do on Sunday and make Saturday my rest day.

Sunday, 3rd May - Turbo

Nice session to make up for yesterday.

10 minutes warm up
3x (5minutes 70%, 5 minutes 75%, 5 minutes 80%, 5 minutes 65%)
3 minutes recovery
5 x 1 minute interval (20 hard 40 easy)
5 minutes recovery/cool down.

Really enjoyed this session.

Monday, 4th May - Run

3.7km consisting of 2km loop and 1.5km like before. A little up on speed this time. Feeling a bit of pain in my shins today after it. Not sure if its just because I didnt warm down properly or something else. Will watch it over the next little while and may need to ease off a little for a week or so.

68 lost souls

Tuesday, 5th May - OW Swim and Run

Day started off pretty wet but glad it cleared up by the evening as was able to get out for an OW Swim. Ran through some drills and practiced sighting. Water was cold but refused this time to wear gloves and boots like last time. Need to get used to the cold with a lake swim in June. Appox 600m and 20 minutes but the important thing was not distance in this session but rather getting used to swimming in a group in OW and sighting.

Ran back down the beach and took the opportunity to transition to running. Then proceeded on a 3.5km run. Felt like I hadnt put my socks on properly about half way around and my run was put off. Was feeling very soar for the second half on my knees, shins and hips so slowed it down. I would have stopped if there was a quick way back but as it was one big loop I kept going. Got back to the car and realized I had blisters on feet. Tough tough run and my body is giving out to me now. Definitely need to lay off for a few days and I'm going to try and arrange a Sports massage this week.

68 lost souls

Been really suffering since Tuesday with my left shin. Forcing myself to stop training but its hard as I want to get back out. With Crooked Lake looming the last thing I want is an injury.

Icing it every few hours and rolling my legs, especially the calfs. Trying to get a physio appointment still. 2 phone calls and an email with no response though. Think I may look elsewhere.

Might chance swimming on Monday and Tuesday but staying away from running and biking for now.