Underachievers Please Try Harder

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

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.

Yeah, its not a POC Tempor or something just a little wider than the average. I'll be trying it out at the weekend for a bit of a race sim in hopefully continued warm weather which should be relatively close to what I'll be dealing with in Maastricht

RJM85

Monday

Swim – 4k. Bit slow and sluggish, but probably to be expected after the bigger sessions over the weekend.

Bike – 2hrs, easy spinning, recovery.



Tuesday

Run – 40mins – easy with HR cap.

S&C – 45mins – this ended up being a bit of a makeshift session. I had planned to do a turbo tonight, however Aidan didn’t cooperate and by the time I had him settled I really didn’t fancy facing into a 2hr turbo, getting to bed after midnight and digging an unnecessary hole for myself.



Wednesday

Swim – 4k. Buoy and pads work.

Run – 1hr easy. Jog / walk. Recovery session.

Bike – 2hrs – Short, standing hill reps. Went well.



Thursday

S&C – 45 minutes. Mixed body weight, barbell etc.

Run – 1hr 50 – 18 x 800m on 3:30, going off 4:30. Focussed on form rather than pace, and these all came in about 3:20 for each 800. Sometimes the fact that you’re able to enjoy a session like this is the best way of showing yourself that you’re in pretty decent shape.



Friday

Swim – 4k.

Run – 1hr – 25 x 100m with 1 min recovery in between. I really hate this session. Give me steady work any day.

Bike – 2hrs 40. Not done. Between Aidan having a little bit of a cold, his christening on Saturday, and then the training and all of the other normal life stuff this week was a pretty hectic week. Text coach on Friday evening. Feeling very tired and really didn’t see how I was going to get the necessary recovery between sessions over the weekend. I could have forced the session (I have before), but with the Christening on Sunday I needed to be up at 5 to get the planned Saturday session in, and would be doing it off 5hrs of likely broken sleep. I was told to just skip this session and get back to it tomorrow. This was definitely the right call.



Saturday

Bike – 3hrs – easy / steady, early morning, sunshine, feeling half rested… lovely stuff.



Sunday

IM Sim session consisting of 3hrs bike @ between 230/60w and 16 mile run straight off the bike. Full IM gear, nutrition etc.

Bike went well – NP of 243w, with avg speed ~35km/hr. TT helmet is great, comfortable, and definitely better ventilated than the Giro Air Attack I’ve used in Tri’s previously. I wore my new short sleeved VeloRevolution tri suit, which I’m quite happy with, and had all my nutrition as I would expect on IM day.

Run started great. Started out chewing on a bar to help keep me from going off too hard – I’m in mixed minds about whether this was, on balance a good idea. I’ll do the next sim without it and make up my mind then. I used 1 gel every 20 mins and had water with electrolytes with me. The first 10 miles came in at a breezy 4:20/km feeling very comfortable and possibly getting a little excited. I started to suffer a little at this stage and allowed myself 20 second walk breaks once per mile for the next 3 miles. I’m glad I did this, as I was managing each mile at 04:30/km pace, something to bear in mind for the aid stations etc. on race day. After this, the wheels kind of came off. I started to feel ill and ended up cutting the run slightly short at 15miles. I was sick for an hour or so afterwards.



My initial thoughts are that a combination of the heat and sun on Sunday, along with probably too little fluids (I can’t see that I didn’t have sufficient calories) contributed to me being dehydrated starting the run. All the symptoms I experienced afterwards were fairly consistent with dehydration as opposed to bonking. For the next sim, I’ll plan to stash extra water bottles on my bike route and see how I get on with that. Otherwise, I’m very happy with the majority of things. I’ll be buying myself a new run visor as the one I have is a little thick, and I’m going to try out wearing gloves on the bike as the combination of sweaty hands and bar tape for some climbs isn’t perfect.



Overall, a good week. The fatigue levels are being managed fairly well I think, and while I’m certainly getting enough training stress to cause all that necessary fatigue, I feel like we’ve managed so far not to dig a hole that I’ll have trouble getting out of during one recovery week. I’m not a huge follower of the PMC chart, however I do keep an eye on it I’ve hit my highest CTL ever of 117, and also my lowest TSB of -54. I’m seeing some good signs overall that I’m in pretty decent shape. One more big week next week before an easy week leading up to Tri an Mhi Olympic. At the risk of putting myself under unnecessary pressure, I’ll be hoping to have a pretty decent performance if all goes to plan. It would certainly be nice to feel at the very least like I got a solid race under my belt heading into the last block before Maastricht.



8 weeks to go!



Totals

Swim: 3hrs 40

Bike: 9hrs 56

Run: 6hrs 15

S&C: 90mins

Total: 21hrs 20

RJM85

Monday

Run (Walk) – 1hr - easy recovery.



Tuesday

Swim – 1.25hrs – 4k Swimming well (for me). pool was a little colder than usual (usually feels like you're being cooked) so was more pleasant than usual.

Run – 40 mins – easy with HR cap

Bike – 2hrs – Short, hard 30 second intervals. Good session and enjoyed the work out. All intervals done @ 450w until the last couple where I just went full bore to test the legs.


Wednesday

Swim – 1.25hrs – 4k - Shoulders a little tired after yesterday, but swimming ok.

Run – 40 mins – easy with HR cap

Bike – 2hrs – easy spinning



Thursday

Run – 90 mins. Short warm up then 3 x 5k @ IM, 70.3, 10k pace. I’ve said it before, but I really love these early morning runs by the sea front. Headed out towards Clontarf from the IFSC and then turned into St Ann’s park. Lovely misty morning and really enjoyed this. Paces were maybe 5-10 secs per km slower than ideal, but form and effort levels were good.

Run – 40 mins – easy with HR cap.



Friday

Bike – 2.5hrs – main set of 3 x 25 mins at approaching HIM effort. Good spin, done as a commute to work and enjoyed it.

Run – 40 mins – hill reps. Was told beforehand to treat this as a maintenance session as opposed to really going mad on the intervals. Controlled effort with good form.

Swim – 3k done. Tiredness catching up on me here. Struggled from the get go and eventually bailed after 3k. First time I’ve felt like I could sleep in the middle of a session!



Saturday

With yesterday’s tiredness I was hoping for a decent night’s sleep on Friday night. Instead we ended up with an unhappy toddler in the bed after he woke numerous times. There seems to be a bit of a respiratory virus / infection going round – all of the kids in the extended family seem to have it – Aidan (baby) has been on steroids and an inhaler, and Connor (toddler) appears to have picked it up as well. As a result of all this, not much sleep was done on Friday night. The plan was for a 2hr run in the morning, with an easier 1hr run in the evening. In the end I only managed the 2hr run, much later in the day than planned. It all went fairly well until about mile 12 (of 16), Putting it down to tiredness.



Sunday

Bike – 5.5hrs. Decent spin. Wheels came off a bit after about 4.5 hrs which was down to insufficient calories (I didn’t realise I was pretty much out of mix until Sunday morning). 186k @ 34km/hr with NP of 220w. Low 5 hrs with a decent run afterwards in Maastricht is seeming much more realistic now than it was even a couple of weeks ago.



All things considered, I’m happy with that week. Obviously there’s signs of tiredness (to be expected in the last week of a block), and not everything went to plan, but the overall trend is still going in the right direction. I mentioned the PMC in my post last week – this morning it’s confirming what I already know – with a TSB of -57.9, I’m tired!



Totals

Swim: 3hrs 20

Bike: 11hrs 50

Run: 7hrs 15

S&C: 0

Total: 22hrs 25

joey100

What's the plan for Tri an Mhi? Will you ease off this week or train as normal??

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

What's the plan for Tri an Mhi? Will you ease off this week or train as normal??

It's actually a scheduled rec week, so it's easy this week regardless of the race. I've a day off training today - first since Aidan was born, and apart from a 10TT on Wednesday and the race on Saturday it looks like a very easy week.

In terms of what I'm expecting from the race - that'll all depend on how well the recovery goes I guess! It's usually tomorrow that I realise the full extent of any tiredness.

joey100

Good stuff, sounds like a nicely timed race for you so!

Hopefully you can catch up on some sleep this week and have a good performance on Saturday.

RJM85

21:16 last night for the 10 Mile TT. New PB by 1 second and would have been better only for an overly cautious lady in a silver fiesta slowing me down going into the last roundabout. Bodes well!

MD1983

RJM85 wrote: »

21:16 last night for the 10 Mile TT. New PB by 1 second and would have been better only for an overly cautious lady in a silver fiesta slowing me down going into the last roundabout. Bodes well!

was that fiesta providing a draft ;-) thats a good time for 10 miles, nice to be able to test a few times on the same course but with environmental factors its hard to be sure when time differences are marginal whether you were stronger than the last day out

RJM85

MD1983 wrote: »

was that fiesta providing a draft ;-) thats a good time for 10 miles, nice to be able to test a few times on the same course but with environmental factors its hard to be sure when time differences are marginal whether you were stronger than the last day out

came to a full fecking stop at a yield with no oncoming traffic and two lads waving her on... Had to slam on the brakes and then get back up to speed in far to big a gear - was livid at the time.

Yeah, the time isn't really indicative of anything other than the speed on the night. I'm still not hitting the power numbers I hit last year for these shorter events, but the focus is different and the training load is a fair bit more so I'm going into the events more tired. What's nice is that each one this year has been an improvement on the last, and last night's was the best 20 minute power (332avg) for the year.

peter kern

RJM85 wrote: »

came to a full fecking stop at a yield with no oncoming traffic and two lads waving her on... Had to slam on the brakes and then get back up to speed in far to big a gear - was livid at the time.

Yeah, the time isn't really indicative of anything other than the speed on the night. I'm still not hitting the power numbers I hit last year for these shorter events, but the focus is different and the training load is a fair bit more so I'm going into the events more tired. What's nice is that each one this year has been an improvement on the last, and last night's was the best 20 minute power (332avg) for the year.

only when gebreselasie learned that he had to give up 10 k speed did he get really good at the marathon ;-)
well done

joey100

Best of luck tomorrow RJM, all the work is done now so only the race left to do!

joey100

Great result today, some brilliant times there. All the work is paying off. Well done.

RJM85

joey100 wrote: »

Great result today, some brilliant times there. All the work is paying off. Well done.

Thanks. Yeah, I'm fairly happy overall.

Swim went great, and was delighted realising I was coming out of the water so close to someone like Peter. I had started right behind him at the start and had half thought to try get on his feet, but he opened up a 20m gap or so very quickly. He never got much further away, but I couldn't really close the gap. That kind of tactical stuff might he of benefit to me in the future and help avoid wasting energy. I'm not sure to what extent peter was having a good / bad day though, so my proximity to him out of the water might be flattering. That said, I'll take 3rd out of the water any day, and I'm pretty certain that was my best ever race swim.

I biked a lot cleverer than I have in the past and the effort was that bit more measured. Part of me would like to have really killed the bike, but I think on balance, I biked strong rather than full gas and that was the smarter move.

I was expecting to be caught and passed on the run given the calibre of people that appeared to be behind me, but I'm very happy with how well the legs held up, and I actually felt like I ran myself into the run if that makes sense. 38:10 on that kind of terrain - while it's not the fastest olympic run I've done, I'm fairly certain it's my best by a good distance.

Definitley the kind of confidence boosting result I was looking for, and as an aside - getting to stand on a physical old fashioned 2,1,3 podium was a nice novelty.

RJM85

No full race report, but here's my notes from Tri An Mhi Olympic at the weekend. 3rd place overall - 2:02:14

I’m very happy overall and it was exactly the performance / result I was hoping to have going into the last block. It’s much easier to keep the focus on when you have solid proof you’re heading in the right direction!

Swim - 22:03 (3rd fastest)

· Very happy – felt good and strong in the water and felt like I sighted well. I’m fairly certain that’s my best ever Olympic swim – it’s a similar time to Carlingford last year, but that was 100m or so short (I hadn’t the GPS right on the swim, so can’t be certain that the length was correct this time, but based on everyone elses swim times it looks like it was about right).

· Similar to the bike and the run, while I couldn’t really have gone any faster I felt like I could have continued swimming at that pace – probably a good sign for the main goal.

· Peter Kern was out of the water ~10 seconds ahead of me – I’m fairly certain he made that 10 seconds difference in the first 100m of the swim as I could see someone dangling in front of me the whole way round. Being prepared for a bigger effort in the first 100-200m might be something that would save energy overall if I was able to get a draft.

· The course was a triangle – out to a yellow buoy, across to another and then back to shore. There were red buoys half way between the shore and the yellow ones. On the way back, I’m told I swam to the red buoy first before going to shore, and that I would have been quicker swimming a straight line to shore. Obviously this might not be relevant in half the courses I swim, but just something to keep in mind.

· Happy with the tri suit in the water zipped down and happy with how comfortable it was elsewhere so I know what I’ll be wearing in Maastricht.

· I was a little slow in transition and took a bit too long getting my feet out of the wetsuit. At this stage I might look at cutting a bit off the legs to help speed things up.



Bike - 1:00:10 (4th fastest)

· Again, I’m happy with this. I’ve had a tendency in the past to go out all guns blazing on the bike doing the first 10k at 300w+ before having to ease off a little on the back half. Power was consistently at the high end of the range planned and it felt like a strong hard pace as opposed to full gas.

· Broke the loop at the back of my cycling shoes getting them on. I’d say it’s an easy fix with super glue, but just something I want sorted before Maastricht.

· I ended up getting a bit of practise with riding legally in a group as myself and the lad who came second seemed to be riding at a similar pace. He was passing me on hills while I would pass on the flats and downhills. Any time he passed I was conscious to keep him close without drafting.



Run - 38:10 (7th fastest)

· Very happy again. Felt strong and ran with good form for the full 10k. I’ve run similar times in an Olympic before, but not on nearly as challenging a run course so I feel like that’s probably the best tri run I’ve done, especially given that the swim and the bike beforehand went so well too.

· I had a little issue with my insoles on my shoes. They must have moved when I was putting the shoes on and were a bit crumpled under my feet. Initially I put the feeling down to the usual jelly legs etc. running off the bike but realised what had happened about 1k down the road. I didn’t stop to fix it (and have the blisters to prove it!), and in the circumstances I think that was correct, but it’s something I’ll have to try ensure doesn’t happen in Maastricht as it would be fairly uncomfortable for 26 miles!



I’m really happy overall. I feel like it’s the best all round triathlon I’ve done as opposed to in the past I’ve either had a really good bike (most races last year), or a good run off a decent bike (most races the year before!).

RJM85

Monday

Swim – 4k

Bike – recovery spinning 75 minutes.



Tuesday

Swim – 4k.

Run / walk – 45mins recovery.

Bike – 90 mins threshold intervals. Two longer intervals; first went fine, but blew up on the second and didn’t feel great. Not feeling great all day to be honest and putting it down to tiredness from the race on Saturday.



Wednesday

Run – 40 mins – easy.

S&C – 45 mins – mixed, bodyweight, core etc.

Not feeling great today, so reshuffled things a little to make for an easier day and got to bed early.



Thursday

Run – 90 mins – 18 x 800m. Went well, running well and glad of having taken yesterday easier.

Run – 40 mins – easy.



Friday

Swim (morning) – 2k. Not feeling great during the warm up and bailed after 2k. Felt better after breakfast and coffee and the rest of the days training went pretty well.

Run – 1hr – speed session in lashing rain. Really enjoyed this.

Swim (evening) – 2k. Straight 2k swim at a mod / hard to make up for the missed swim this morning.

Bike – 2hrs – main set of 10 x 1 minute standing hill reps at 400w +. Went well.



Saturday

Long run – 2hrs. Fairly straight forward. Feeling decent, nutrition seems to be working for me, and happy with how the legs felt.

Walk – 1hr. This was intended to be a second easy run. We had lunch out after taking the kids swimming this afternoon - seems like Lisa inadvertently ate some gluten (she's coeliac) she wasn't well for the evening. My intention had been to get out once connor was in bed, but given the circumstances it wasn't fair to leave Lisa with Aidan, so the best compromise was that I took him with me for a walk. If I could figure out where to put it in the house, a treadmill would be a great investment at some stage. Might look into upgrading the shed.



Sunday

Long bike – 5hrs 20 – miserable, sh!tty weather, legs not cooperating, and wishing I was at home watching the match. Good mental training.



Swim – 3hrs 40

Bike – 10hrs 4

Run – 7hrs 26

S&C – 45 mins



Total 21hrs 55.



Mixed week. Some tiredness that I’m not overly happy to see at this stage in the last block (I’ve another two big weeks to go), but I’m happy with how I managed that tiredness. There were some positive signs during some sessions, and I got some good mental training in with a couple of the harder sessions like the long bike and speed runs in the miserable weather.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I was thinking whilst out doing my long run on Sunday that I was glad I got my long bike in on Saturday with the better weather. 2hr run in the rain beats 6hrs cycling in it every time

2 weeks and you are more or less home & hosed.

zico10

Atticus Famous Salt wrote: »

2 weeks and you are more or less home & hosed.

It wouldn't surprise me if he finds himself with another big race in October he has to get ready for.

RJM85

zico10 wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me if he finds himself with another big race in October he has to get ready for.

Aye, I'm doing Dublin Marathon!

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

zico10 wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me if he finds himself with another big race in October he has to get ready for.

I am sure that "other" race has been considered. Which begs the question, would you R?

RJM85

Atticus Famous Salt wrote: »

I am sure that "other" race has been considered. Which begs the question, would you R?

There’s a whole lot of ifs and buts involved in this answer…



Firstly, in all honesty I don’t think that it’s something I’m going to have to give serious consideration to this year. Based on my best estimates (and assuming the same strength AG field as last year), I would be there or there abouts for the last slot for 30-34 if, and only if I had a perfect day. While training is / has gone really well, I’m not expecting that I’ll get everything right first time. On a good day, my expectation is that I should be near the front of my race coming off the bike, but I wouldn’t be confident that my run is strong enough just yet to be able to back up the swim and bike with the kind of run needed to guarantee KQ – and that’s irrespective of getting pacing and nutrition right. Without meaning to sound in any way conceited (and please forgive my cringy phrasing here), I am fairly confident that I have the “engine” to qualify at some stage in the future, but I don’t think the chassis is there yet – I’m closer to it this year than last, but just not there yet. Even if sim days and the like have gone pretty well, I’ve still not done any training sessions over 6.5 hours and won’t until Maastricht. There’s a lot can happen in those last 3-3.5 hours.



If a slot was on offer, I would obviously have to give serious consideration whether I could take it – as anyone with an interest in IM knows it’s (for want of a better phrase) a once in a lifetime opportunity. The immediate considerations (probably in order) would be:

· Money – by October, we’ll have two kids in crèche, which isn’t a second mortgage – it’s actually a couple of €100 more than we’re paying on the mortgage each month. Realistically I’m not sure where I’d find and or justify the funds to make the trip on relatively short notice – and by all accounts a trip to Hawaii can be pretty expensive (who knew)

· Time – I’d have to have a conversation with my wife around whether another ~12 weeks of the kind of commitment I’ve been giving this is feasible this year. She’s incredibly tolerant, and left the decision entirely up to me last year re the 70.3 champs, but at this stage in the year, two young kids, and with her due to return to work in October also I’m not sure it would be fair to pile this on. I’m not even certain whether the carrot of “we’ll both go” would even be feasible given she’s a teacher and will be just back to work at that stage in October. I’d also have to give consideration to whether I’m mentally able to do it. Being 100% honest, the finish line I have in my head is in Maastricht, and it’s taking a bit of mental energy at the minute to make sure that I’m focussing on getting there and not to the end of this block and into the taper where I can take my foot off the gas and undo half the good work that’s come before.

· Annual leave – I took the majority of my available annual leave when Aidan was born. I’ve not looked at the logistics of it, but I would likely need to make arrangements with work.



With all of that said, there are ways around everything, and if I had my heart set on doing it this year I’m sure we could make it work. I have kicked myself a couple of times for not taking the 70.3 slot last year, and undoubtedly, no matter how well thought out any reason to decline a slot would be, the kicking I’d be giving myself would be 10 times worse.



When I signed up for the IM this year the plan I had in my head was that I would be seeking KQ in a couple of years (say 2020), when funds are more readily available and the kids might be old enough to appreciate a once in a lifetime trip. In the ideal scenario, I would qualify a year in advance at a late season race and then spend the following year focusing on one race (and also splitting the cost over 2 years). If it were to be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I’d also like to do my best to make it a once in a lifetime performance and go to Kona to race rather than as a holiday with an IM tagged on, which is kind of how I feel it would go if I ended up there this year.

joey100

I'd agree with you about the mental side of it RJM, big lead up to a big race, the few days after it always seem a bit flat for me, can find it hard to get mentally going agaub. A lot of time for me it's the mental motivation that makes me skip sessions rather than being physically tired. Looking at yours and Zico's log it's how yous stay mentally able for all the training that is really impressive. Physical side is impressive too but it's that mental drive and focus that, for me, is why you two are having the results yous are having.

RJM85

Monday

Swim – 1hr 15 - 4k

Bike – 2hr recovery spin – not done. Took an age to get Aidan settled this evening and I was tired after yesterdays long bike. Coach has advised me to err on the side of caution at this stage and be careful not to dig a hole in the lead up – bed time!



Tuesday

Swim – 1hr 15 - 4k

Run (walk) – 1hr

Bike – 2hrs – 15 x 1 minute standing hill reps @ 360w.



Wednesday

Swim – 1hr 15 - 4k – I’ve had to put all the swims into the start of the week this week in order to ensure they’re done. Tired arms this morning.

Run (walk) – 45 mins

Bike – 2hr recovery spin – cut short at 90 mins – same logic as above.



Thursday

Run – 1hr – main set of 25 x 100m sprints horrible.

Bike – 2.5hrs – 3 x 25 mins at just below threshold. This session is always a lot tougher than I think it looks on paper.



Friday

Run – 90mins – 16 x 800m done. 18 were prescribed with longer WU and CD but I had a meeting in the office at 9am and needed to make sure I was on time, and not sweating through my shirt (I can usually get away with 5 minutes here or there on other days). While it was a shortened session, it was a good run, and I’m relatively happy with where my run is at. I’m still not the runner I want to be, but I’m getting there.



Saturday

Long run – 2.5hrs – 32km - picked a hilly route with a few off road sections. Beautiful views over Dundalk bay in the evening sun at one stage. Really enjoyed this run and happy with how it went. Comfortable and strong. There was more climbing in this 2.5hrs than there will be in the full marathon in Maastricht.



Sunday

Sim day – 2k swim, 3hr bike and 2hr / 16 mile run.

I messed up my nutrition on the last one of these and was keen to have everything 100% today leading into Maastricht. I was a bit concerned first thing in the morning given how heavy my legs were after the 20 miles on Saturday evening. Everything went fairly spot on. Swim as good and / or bad as my usual pool swims, bike at 237NP and 34.5km/hr for the 3hrs, and a steady 4:38/km pace on the run. A quick look over the GPS file shows I didn’t really slow down over the 16 miles, and while it got pretty hard from about the 12 mile on mark (that’s an understatement – I was *this* close to crying at one stage), I dealt with it pretty well and it was definitely a confidence boost for Maastricht.



Totals:

Swim: 4hrs 12

Bike: 9hrs 3

Run: 8hrs 46

Total: 22hrs 1

pgibbo

Just catching up on your log. Been a while. Well done in Athy. Savage training going on. Being able to do race sim after a week like that and a long run the day before is impressive. Do you do much maintenance (massage, strength work, foam rolling or the likes) to keep hitting such good sessions? I'm assuming there's no such thing as a full nights sleep with 2 young kids in the house. :eek:

I'm very impressed with how you manage to fit it all in. Kudos.

RJM85

pgibbo wrote: »

Just catching up on your log. Been a while. Well done in Athy. Savage training going on. Being able to do race sim after a week like that and a long run the day before is impressive. Do you do much maintenance (massage, strength work, foam rolling or the likes) to keep hitting such good sessions? I'm assuming there's no such thing as a full nights sleep with 2 young kids in the house. :eek:

I'm very impressed with how you manage to fit it all in. Kudos.

Ideally I like to get 45 minutes once a week for stretching / foam rolling / whatever. In reality it doesn't happen unless it becomes necessary (I.e. I have an injury or pain). Luckily *touch wood* the body is holding up well so far

RJM85

And yeah, last time I had a proper full nights sleep was around April.

That said, luckily, the kids are relatively good sleepers. Aidan (the baby) went down at 9:30 last night and wasn't up this morning when I was leaving the house at 5:30

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Its good to see i was not the only eejit out training at stupid o clock yesterday morning!

RJM85

Atticus Famous Salt wrote: »

Its good to see i was not the only eejit out training at stupid o clock yesterday morning!

I was glad of the couple of minutes chat! Snapped me out of feeling sorry for myself for a bit! Looks like you'll be in good shape for IMMT.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

RJM85 wrote: »

I was glad of the couple of minutes chat! Snapped me out of feeling sorry for myself for a bit! Looks like you'll be in good shape for IMMT.

With your IM 3 weeks away you are allowed feel a little sorry for yourself, if you were not then you have not worked hard enough:)

RJM85

Monday

Swim – 3k – feeling very tired and sore after the sim day yesterday

Run (walk) – 50 mins – recovery

Bike – 2hrs – recovery spinning – not done. Coach advised more than once that at this stage I should be prioritising sessions and not digging any unnecessary holes. I went to bed.



Tuesday

Swim – 2k – feeling better for the sleep last night.

Bike – 90mins – easy recovery spinning – this was a late addition to the plan in place of a TT I had planned to do Wednesday evening. On advice from the coach we dropped the TT in favour of hopefully nailing 3 key sessions for the week – Mod Run on Thursday morning, Long run Saturday, and Long bike Sunday.



Wednesday

Bike – 2.5hrs – done as a commute to work. Feeling sorry for myself for the most part, but got through it fine.

Swim – 3.5k – still a little tired and happy that dropping the TT was the right call.



Thursday

Run – 1 hr 40. WU, then 2 x 10k @ 155/62HR which is upper Z2 for me. Went really well. Ran from the IFSC out as far as Sutton and back. Roughly 4:15 pace for both (slightly faster on the way out with a tail wind and slower on the way back with a headwind). Another enjoyable morning run.



Bike – 2hrs – recovery spinning – not done. Same logic as Monday.



Friday

Run – 1hr with 10 x 1 minute fast. Decent run.

Swim – 3.5k – decent swim, nothing too fancy.



Saturday

Morning Run – 16 mile aerobic running. Took a little while to warm up and get into this, but the legs came around nicely and I was running 4:15 pace on the stretch home. 4:30 pace avg.



Evening Run – 10k really easy.



Sunday

Long bike – 5hrs – first 3 hours had some efforts which I was happy to hit the numbers on the last two hours were just a long cool down and became a little bit of a slog with the constant headwind and intermittent showers.

Run off bike – 40 mins easy. Came in 4:38 pace feeling super easy and comfortable. Lashed rain for the most part but I was loving it. Good end to the last tough week of training before the taper for Maastricht starts.



Totals

Swim: 3hrs 36

Bike: 9hrs 3

Run: 7hrs 17

Total: 19hrs 56

RJM85

Monday

Lunch time walk – 50 odd minutes. Feeling quite tired and sore. Happy to be into the taper!

Bike – 2hrs easy spinning – not done. The kids didn’t cooperate and I was shattered so I went to bed as early as possible.



Tuesday

Jog – 40minutes – slow and tired.

Bike – 1hr 45 turbo with BG intervals. Feeling decent enough.



Wednesday

Run – 40 minutes with 10 x 30 seconds at 10k pace. Starting to feel normal again!

Swim – 2.7k – I can’t remember even doing this and I didn’t take any notes. Can’t have been terrible (or wonderful for that matter).



Thursday

Run – 40 minutes – little more spring in my step than earlier in the week.



Friday – 2hrs – walk.



Saturday – there was a 1hr 45 turbo in the plan but it didn’t get done. I probably should have known nothing would get done. Wedding anniversary and family photo shoot with the kids. Both were up unusually early for good measure. Just couldn't fit this in anywhere.



Sunday

Bike – 2.5hrs easy. Battery on pwr meter dead and wasn't bothered changing it before heading out as I'd already been delayed beforehand. Good spin and legs feeling good - all that training tiredness has definitely lifted in the last couple of days. HR jumping around a good bit - I think that can be a sign of freshness? Had an incident with a car coming through Blackrock, but the car came off worse than I did, and the bike is fine. Small bit of bruising on my left leg but appears to be nothing.



Run – 20 minutes easy off the bike.



Swim – 3.5k – swimming strong.



Busy week with non-triathlon stuff (some of it noted above, and some of it not) and it impacted some of the planned sessions. Happy though that I’m feeling significantly fresher at this stage than I was at the same point last week.



Totals:

Swim: 1hr 54

Bike: 4hrs 4

Run / walk: 5hrs 15

Total: 11hrs 13