Underachievers Please Try Harder

RJM85

Some catching up to do! Starting with the week ending 3rd April...

Monday
Swim - 1hr - 3.8k - main set of 30 x 100 alternating between fast and easier.
Bike - 75min - easy spinning

Tuesday
Swim - 1hr 10 - 3.8k - main set of 3 x 1k descending pace - good swimming. Happy how 'standard' a ~ 4k set now feels.

Run - 45 mins easy recovery walk / jog

Bike - 2 hrs - BG stuff.

Wednesday
Swim - 30 mins easy
Run - 40 mins - hill reps. I hate this session.
Bike - 1hr 45 - short hard intervals
Run - 20 mins off the bike planned but couldn't get out as Lisa was out with friends and I was in the house by myself.

Thursday
Run - 90mins - progressive pace increases. Good run. Done early morning by the sea front out towards Clontarf and back to the office. Enjoyed this and happy with how I'm moving.

S&C - 45 mins - mixed bag of weights, bodyweight stuff, sit ups etc.

Run - 20 mins easy to and from the gym

Friday
S&C - 35 mins - "aerobic strength" circuit. Bit of a crazy day - finishing up in work for 3 weeks as Lisa was heading in to be induced the following sunday. Had hoped to also get a swim in, but it didn't happen.

Saturday
Long Run - 2hrs - long hill repeats - done on a 20 minute drag not far from Mam and Dads house while they looked after Connor. Enjoyed the run and great to have breakfast waiting for me when I got back to the parents house. You can't beat mammy's cooking!

Sunday
Long bike was in the plan, but as Lisa was being brought into hospital that evening I binned it in favour of a relaxed family day.

Totals:
Swim: 2hrs 40
Bike: 5hrs
Run: 5hrs 20
S&C: 1hr 20
Total: 14hrs 20

RJM85

Week ending 10th of April:

Baby Aidan arrived late Monday evening weighing 8lbs 9oz much to our delight. No training was done for the week.

Totals:
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 0
S&C: 0
Total: 0

RJM85

Back into the swing of things this week...

Kurt_Godel

RJM85 wrote: »

Week ending 10th of April:

Baby Aidan arrived late Monday evening weighing 8lbs 9oz much to our delight. No training was done for the week.

Totals:
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 0
S&C: 0
Total: 0

Great numbers Congratulations on the new arrival!

rodneyr1981

RJM85 wrote:

Baby Aidan arrived late Monday evening weighing 8lbs 9oz much to our delight. No training was done for the week.

Congrats on new arrive.

joey100

Congrats RJM, hopefully he's a sleeper!

zico10

RJM85 wrote: »

Week ending 10th of April:

Baby Aidan arrived late Monday evening weighing 8lbs 9oz much to our delight. No training was done for the week.

Totals:
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 0
S&C: 0
Total: 0

I'm getting broody reading this.:pac:

Congratulations on the new arrival.

Bambaata

Congrats

pgibbo

Fab news. Congrats!!! :cool:

RJM85

Monday
Bike - 75 mins easy spinning
Swim - 1hr 10 - 4k of pads band and buoy work

Tuesday
Run - 45 min easy - jog / walk
Bike - 2hrs simulated short hill reps with target watts. Tough. Good session.

Wednesday
Swim - 40 mins - 2k - 50s
Bike - 10 Mile TT - 21:42 @ 330w. Decent time and effort all things considered. Fast night so a bit of a pity I'm not in better shape. There was a PB there for the taking otherwise.
1hr - warm up and cool down.

Thursday
Bike - 1hr 45 - BG work
Run - 30 mins easy off the bike

Friday
Run - 2hrs 15 - took the opportunity to do this from my parents house and got a few hills in. Good run. Feeling the distance a little near the end but to be expected all things considered.

S&C - 45 mins - lunges and things.

Swim planned but didn't happen.

Saturday
Weights - 45 mins - dumbbell stuff - kind of an improvised session as I didn't make it to the gym so had to make do with the limited resources at home.

Had hoped to catch up on yesterdays swim but didn't happen either

Sunday
Bike - 4hrs 45 - 152k. Steady / easy on TT bike. Good spin. Few nutrition issues, but now is the time to have them.

Totals:
Swim: 1hr 45
Bike: 11hrs
Run: 3hrs 30
S&C: 1hr 30

Total: 17hrs 50

Decent week all things considered. Couple of missed sessions - the swim noted above, along with an optional post long bike swim and a bike originally planned as pre and post a half marathon which I binned in favour of being at home when needed. Coach appeared happy that I actually binned it and favoured the long run actually done.

Still figuring out how training can be fit around the new family dynamic, but based on this week it's certainly not an insurmountable task.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Congrats on the new arrival.

mossym

congrats. is this your first?

RJM85

mossym wrote: »

congrats. is this your first?

2nd. We have a 23 month old boy as well.

mossym

RJM85 wrote: »

2nd. We have a 23 month old boy as well.

ah right. best of luck. i found the second a bigger impact than the first. with one at least the parents still have the majority.

Dory Dory

Super congrats!!!

RJM85

Monday

Bike – Easy spinning – 40mins



Tuesday

Swim – 30 mins – 1.5k – nice aerobic swimming



Wednesday

Bike – 1hr – Short intervals – done on the road as I had the time and the weather was good.

Run – Easy 20 mins / 5k off the bikw.



Thursday

Swim TT – 2k total done. 5:58 for 400, and 2:58 for 200. Similar to last months 400, but a bit of a drop off on the 200. To be expected.



Friday

Run Test – crap. Really bad. HR wouldn’t stay where it should be, pace was way slower than last month. Again, probably to be expected.

Swim – 35 mins – 2k – 50’s – hard. Swimming pretty ok.



Saturday.

Bike test – similar to run test. Crap.

Run – long run – 1hr negative pace. Run feeling good, but paces a bit slow.



Sunday

Bike – Long bike – 2hrs easy. Took the opportunity to look like a tw*t and test out my new TT helmet. All went well. Speed (35km/hr) higher than expected for the avg power (220w).

Run – 20 mins easy off the bike.

S&C – 45 mins – mixed bag.

joey100

New gear and no picture or telling us what it is?! Lack of sleep must be getting to you!

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

New gear and no picture or telling us what it is?! Lack of sleep must be getting to you!

Ha! Fair point. I've actually gone a bit mad on the new gear front lately between treating myself from a work bonus and gifts from my birthday. I might do a little post about it of I get the time. New purchases in the last two months include:
- Met Drone TT Helmet
- Oakley Jawbreakers
- Jaybird X2 Headphones
- HUUB Varga Goggles
- Roka R1 Goggles
- Fizik Tri saddle
- Skechers Go Run Ride 5 shoes
- Profile Design Aero Drinks thingy

RJM85

Monday
Swim - 1hr 10 - 3.8k. 1k intervals, descending. Having trouble with my new goggles (HUUB Varga) fogging up. That's not the first time and they'll have to be replaced.

Bike - 75min - easy spinning

Tuesday
Connor (the eldest) woke during the night vomiting. I had to take a day off work so we could keep the two separated - last thing we wanted was to have the baby pick up a vomiting bug at 3 weeks old. By lunch Connor was on the mend and in the evening I snuck out for my long run (which would otherwise have happened on Saturday.

2 hrs up and down (20ish minutes each way) on a steady drag. Focusing on cadence / turnover. Pace still a little off, but the running felt good. Which is a positive start.

Wednesday
Run - 90 mins with 5k at IM, 70.3, and 10k paces. Didn't go down well with my legs when I started to up the pace for 70.3 pace never mind 10k. Only afterwards that I realised the reshuffle had me running 45k in the space of 12/3 hours.

Thursday
Swim - 2.8k (3.8k planned). Was kicked out of the pool after 50 minutes. They seem to have reshuffled their opening hours since I last swam in Dublin. Bit miffed.

S&C - 35 mins circuits with ~20 mins running to and from the gym

Bike - 1hr 45 - short hard intervals.

Had a short run off the bike planned but wasn't able to get out due to Connor waking and needing to be settled just as I finished up.

Friday
Bike - 2hrs 40 planned turbo of 2hrs moved to a morning commute on the road to make sure it, and the planned swim got done.

Run - 40 mins - hill reps.

Swim - 1hr 10. 3.8k.

Saturday
Gym - 45 mins - mixed
Run / walk - recovery - 45 mins

Sunday
Long bike - 4hrs 30 with a focus on cadence. Not hitting the power I should, but things are still improving.

Run - 35 mins off the bike. Good run and pace better than expected.

All in all, while I'm still behind on where I want to be, things went well this week, and I'm confident I can get myself to a respectable level in the not too distant future.

Totals.
Swim - 3hrs 10
Bike - 10hrs
Run - 6hrs
S&C - 1hr 20

Total - 20hrs 30

joey100

Fair play on the training RJM, don't know how you do it with 2 very young kids. I visited a friend who has 2 over the weekend, I was wrecked leaving and was only there for an hour to two.

Is that the really wide MET helmet you picked up? Be interested to hear how you get on with it.

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

Is that the really wide MET helmet you picked up? Be interested to hear how you get on with it.

Yes - the wider one. I've had one spin with it on. Ventilation is great once you're above 30kph or so (actually could be better than my giro air attack), can get a bit stuffy on climbs. I find it a bit of a fiddle to get it on over my ears, but not having owned a full TT lid before I'm not sure if that's par for the course or I have big ears or what.

RJM85

Oh, and here's a pic...

RJM85

Monday

75 mins - bike - easy spinning.

Tuesday

Swim - 4k longer intervals concentrating on negative split.

Bike - 1hr 45 - BG intervals

Run - 20 mins off the bike.

Wednesday

Run - 90 mins - 15 * 800. Good session. Enjoyed this and running decently.

Thursday

Swim - 3.5k - pads, band, buoy. cut short as the pool closed early.

Bike - 1hr 45 - LT intervals 25min at 270w, & 2 x 25min @ 300w. 2.5 hrs was in the plan for this but a) it went badly and I blew up during the last interval, and Connor woke during it and needed to be settled. By the time I got back to the bike , the sensible thing was to knock it on the head and go to bed.

Run of 20 mins easy planned afterwards but not done.

Friday

S&C - 45 mins - dumbell circuit.

Run - 40 mins - 8 * 1 minute @ 10k pace.

Swim - 4k - 22 * 100 w band buoy and pads on 1.33 - not swimming well, and not managing to hit the times which should come relatively easy.

Saturday

Run - 20 min warm up, and then a local 10k. 38:19 - 4th place. Ok run overall little bit disappointed by the time and some of those who finished ahead of me but it is what it is. Might do a full report later if i have the time.

Bike - 75 mins - easy spinning.

Sunday

Bike - 4hrs 40 - long bike. Good session in the lovely sun. My power meter is acting up and cutting out meaining that the readings were low. But the feelings were good. The optimist in me would like to think that this also effected Thursdays turbo. I'll have to look into getting the problem fixed, whatever is causing it.

Run - 20 mins with HR capped - off the bike. Happy with the pace for this again - 4:30 per km with some fairly steep inclines included. If I could run 4:30's off the bike in Maastricht come July I'd be very, very happy.

Totals:
Swim: 3hrs 26
Bike: 10hrs 40
Run: 3hrs 53
S&C: 45 mins
Total: 18hrs 40

Overall I'm happy with how the week went. We had a busy time with Connors birthday on Wednesday (and party on Monday). Things are moving in the right direction, and I'm absorbing the training fairly well I think. Big week in the plans for next week.

RJM85

Monday

Swim – 90 minutes – 5k. Longest swim I’ve ever done. Went well, and happy to have covered the distance.

Bike – 90 minutes – easy spinning.



Tuesday

Swim – 80 minutes – 4.2k. 200’s. 4.5k was in the plan, but I needed to hop out of the pool early to make work on time. Shoulders a little tired from the day before.

Run – 30 mins – easy. Was planned as an off the bike run, but my wife had plans Tuesday evening and I wasn’t confident of getting out.

Bike – 2hrs – short hard intervals on the turbo- 30s. Happy with the numbers. 400w being hit and held consistently – will aim for 410w on each of these next time.



Wednesday

Run / Jog – 45mis easy recovery walking, jogging, just general movement.

Swim – 30mins – 1.5k – easy, straight swim.

Bike – 90 mins. Warm up, warm down and 10mile TT. TT went well – 21:37, which is the 2nd fastest I’ve ever done a 10. Power numbers a bit off as I’m having trouble with the PM once out on the road.



Thursday

Run – 45 mins – 200’s. Horrible.

S&C – 45 mins – dumbbell and upper body stuff.



Friday

Bike – 2.5hrs – BG intervals. PM really acting up. Have contacted stages, and after a bit of back and forth to rule out a few quick fixes they’ve started a warranty process for me.

Run – 40 mins – easy. Again, this was planned as an off the bike run on Sunday, but due to time constraints it wasn’t possible to do as planned. I preferred to get a standalone run in rather than none.

Swim – 4.5k swim planned for the evening, but wasn’t able to get it done as my wifes plans changed last minute and I was needed at home.



Saturday

Run – 2.5hrs – long run with repeats of a long drag / hill, focussing on run cadence. Happy with how the body held up for this. Tried Hi-5 gels as they’re the on course nutrition at Maastricht. While they didn’t disagree with me per se, I’m not a fan and won’t be planning on using the on course nutrition. I’ve asked a friend whether he’d be happy to hand me stuff at the special needs station on the run, so that I can use exactly what I’m used to.



Sunday

Bike – 5.5hrs – long aerobic bike. Nothing fancy, just pedalling for 5+ hours. Covered 176k at a comfy ~32.5km/hr. Apart from a little rough patch around the 3.5hr mark, I felt good throughout, and was very happy with how fresh I felt getting off the bike. No power meter as it’s been sent for repairs, but I would guess that the power was in or around 220w, which seems to be my comfortable easy cruising pace. I’ve been messing around with Best Bike Split, matching my known time and power on the Budapest course to get a rough CDA. Based on that, it has me coming in at 5:06 on the Maastricht bike course with 220w avg. I think that’s likely a little optimistic, but if it was in the ball park, and I was feeling as fresh as I did on Sunday heading into the run, I’d be pretty happy.



Totals

Swim: 3hrs 10

Bike: 13hrs

Run: 5hrs 17

S&C: 45 mins

Total: 22hrs 12



That’s the biggest training week I’ve ever done, even with the missed swim. Overall I feel like I’ve made a big jump forward this block in fitness terms, mentality, and diet (which, as usual I’ve been struggling with). I’m a lot more confident of doing myself justice come July now than I was a month ago. This week is a recovery week with the usual tests. The bike test will have to be foregone due to lack of PM, but I’ll go through the motions anyway. 11 weeks and counting to go!

zico10

You seem to be coping well with the increase in training hours. Just like last year, in advance of Budapest, there seems to be a lot of positive signs from where I'm standing.

Have you any races on Irish soil planned before Mastricht?

RJM85

zico10 wrote: »

You seem to be coping well with the increase in training hours. Just like last year, in advance of Budapest, there seems to be a lot of positive signs from where I'm standing.

Have you any races on Irish soil planned before Mastricht?

So far so good. Coach seems to be happy with where I'm at at least.

I have Blackrock Sprint and Tri an Mhi Olympic in the calendar - not paid for my entries yet as I've not explicitly asked my wife whether they're ok with her. I've also been told to expect at least 2 sim days between now and then.

RJM85

After a chat with coach during the week I'm scrapping plans to do Blackrock Sprint. The logistics of reshuffling training don't work for me and we're prioritising the key sessions - long run and long bike.

I've signed up for Tri an Mhi Olympic though. It will come at the end of a rest week so I'm hoping I'll go pretty well on the day.

RJM85

Monday

Bike - 40mins turbo – easy spinning. Left the TT bike in to the shop to be serviced and sent off the power meter to Stages to be looked at, so this was done like they would have in the old days on a road bike with no power readings. Super easy.



Tuesday

Swim - 1.5k - 30mins – as usual, the second day of the rest week is the worst. Felt like cr@p and really just going through the motions here. Had planned on doing a run test Tuesday afternoon but binned it and elected to have a very easy night on the sofa before heading to bed early.



Wednesday

Run test – 40mins – Feeling much better for the easy day yesterday and had a good run through the usual protocol of 10mins w/u, 10 mins @161bpm (avg 4:19/km) and 10mins @ 170bpm (avg 3:59/km) before 10 mins c/d. Improvements on the run are coming in fairly small increments, but they’re coming month on month, and it’s good to be able to look back and see the pace for these increase slightly each time.

Bike test - 40mins – no PM so this was just going to be a run through. Couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to hold the heart rates required if I was going to do this properly. It also didn’t really matter as I wasn’t going to get any results so after a half-hearted attempt at doing it properly, I settled on some easy spinning.



Thursday

Swim – 2k – straight forward swim with a few efforts.



Friday

Long run – 1hr – negative split run with 35mins @ 140/145bpm and 25mins @ 155/160bpm. Decent run, done early morning down towards Sandymount. I’ve said it before, but I really enjoy early morning runs. There’s something nice about being out and active at that time of the morning, and while it may just be in my head, there’s a sense that I can feel my body gradually waking up as the morning goes on. Paces weren’t anything to write home about, but everything was fine. Allowed myself a Friday morning treat of a milky coffee and a bun afterwards which made the whole experience even better.

Bike – 1hr – turbo with 8 * 30seconds HARD efforts. Again, no power here so just on feel.

Run – 20mins – off the bike planned but didn’t get done. An important part of all this IM training is keeping the other half happy, so I arranged a baby sitter, some flowers and booked a table for a nice meal. The turbo session was done at midnight, post dinner and it was my night with the baby so I wasn’t going to disturb herself to mind him for 20 minutes and undo all those good brownie points I got with the dinner and flowers.



Saturday

Bike - 2hrs – another late turbo to make things work for a family thing in the in laws on Sunday.

Run - 20mins – off the bike, easy. Spent most of the time admiring the lovely big moon and a very visible star (planet, I think – must find out which one).



Sunday

Swim – 40mins – swim test. 400m – 6:01, 200m – 2:55. Could have done better on the 400m I think. I tried to really focus on turnover more than I might normally, but I likely ended up getting sloppy and didn’t have the desired effect.

S&C – 45 mins – mixed bag again.



Totals

Swim – 1hr 35

Bike – 4hrs 20

Run – 2hrs 15

S&C – 45mins



Total – 9hrs

RJM85

Monday

Swim - ~90 mins - 4.6k – 5k in the plan, but had to get out of the pool to get to work on time.

Bike - 90mins – turbo, easy spinning



Tuesday

Mod Run 90mins – 10 x 1.5k, with 100m walking after each. Done at 4.30/km pace. Good run.

Walk 1hr – easy, recovery session.

Bike 2hrs – short hard intervals. Horrible, as usual.



Wednesday

Swim ~90 mins - 4.2k – 5k in the plan, but had to get out of the pool to get to work on time.

Run 40mins – easy HR capped run. Didn’t feel great for this and walked part of it.

S&C 45mins – mixed, bodyweight and other things.



Thursday

Bike 2.5hrs – BG session. Done as a commute to work.

Run 40mins - easy HR capped run. Very happy with how this felt – especially after yesterday.



Friday

S&C 45mins – More mixed stuff

Run 1hr – speed run with main set of 25 x 100m.

Swim 5k – full swim done! I’ve agreed with coach that he’s putting in the full 5k swims and I can tailor the WU and CD to suit other commitments. Some days I’ll get the full 5k done, others (like this morning) I might only get 4k done. This will depend on the set, how early the bus leaves me at the pool, and how well my body is cooperating with the swim.



Saturday

Run 2.5hrs – long run. 1hr off road, steady; followed by 90 mins at 162-170HR. Tough session, but went well for the most part. Practised my IM nutrition, with 1 gel every 20 mins for the 90 min segment, and carried a bottle with some electrolytes. No issues. The more I think about the run nutrition, my inclination is to use my own gels and drinks. My friend who I’m staying with in Maas is happy to pass me bottles in the *whatever the area of the run is called where people can hand you stuff* area.



Sunday

Bike 5hrs 40 - Long bike. This was in the plan as 3*2hrs with increasing pwr from easy, IM effort and just below HIM. Unfortunately my legs didn’t cooperate fully with the last 2hrs so the full ride really just averaged out at pretty much (or slightly below) IM effort (I’m guessing), of 220NP. I was late getting out the door to do this, and had promised Connor I’d take him out on his bike when I got home, so I cut it a little short. In any event, he changed his mind, and had football in mind as opposed to his bike (I’m using a very loose meaning for the word here – he is only 2 and plays football about as well as you might expect a 2 year old to…). In any event, the bike, while not to plan, I’m happy with. I averaged 32.5km/hr for 183k with a number of segments through towns where I had to slow right down to filter through traffic. From my GPS, I did roughly the same amount of climbing (a little less) as I’ll have to do in Maas. I’m guessing that 33.5km/hr would be an honest evaluation of speed without the towns etc. slowing me down. Again, this was done with full IM nutrition, and aside from my aero bottle slowly covering my legs in a thin (actually, fairly thick) layer of sticky cr@p, that went pretty well. Most importantly, we had an excellent game of “football”, which included the use of a slide and some sand. Successful day in all.



9 weeks left!



Totals

Swim 4hrs 5

Bike 11hrs 46

Run 7hrs 17

S&C 90mins

Total 24hrs 39

joey100

Seen a good few lads with your helmet over at Outlaw, wasn't as space balls as I thought it would be. Looked pretty nice. And they were all very fast, I'm putting that down to the helmet.