swim, bike, run ... it'l be fun!

I WILL master tumble turns in the pool.

I've got my hands on a power meter for a month to play with, so I suspect I'll also discover just how crap I am on the bike over the next week as I play with it. On the upside, the worse I am... the more gains I have to make

No swimming for another 3-4 weeks . I need to find something to fill in my time, I guess I should take the chance and get in some extra work on the bike... already dreading the return to the pool, I remember last time I took a break for a few weeks it took a couple of months to get back swimming properly

RacoonQueen wrote: »

What have you done to yourself? Shoulder injury?

Think of all that running you can get done!

Nothing nearly as exciting, i burst my eardrum :rolleyes:

I tried a few types of earplugs thinking I could ignore the doctors advice to stay out of the pool... but they all fall out or leak, so the best I can do is kicking with a board with my head out of the water at the moment. Perhaps my kick will improve as a result of it

6 weeks on from my FTP test and it was time to repeat it yesterday. I've improved power by 8.5% at the same HR. Again power just seemed to steadily drop over the course of the 20min section while HR stayed the same... need to do some more reading to find out what that means. Improving cycling is hard work, I'd of been gutted if I hadnt gotten an improvement after the last six weeks of bike training!

hey jackyback how's the form? yeah, cheapest powertap i could get my hands on in the end.. i was looking at the power2max ones but it would have involved a bit of effort on my part to get it working (wrong bb etc.), and swopping the wheel between bikes is more in line with my mechanic abilities anyway, and easy enough for turbo sessions too

It seems like a good enough improvement for six weeks, but you can always seem to pick up gains like that once you get some structure into your training if you're kicking off from a relatively weak starting point. It will be interesting to see how those improvements drop off in the next 6 months. Bet i'll struggle for 1% improvements this time next year! One thing that's great is that I have some base values to compare against things I'm reading about, so the various articles about training are much less abstract now. Makes intervals and steady temo efforts on the turbo a lot easier to pace and get value out of too!

Nice run thismorning, was in the gym on a treadmill which was a nice change from the cold and dark mornings

10min warmup then 5x4min at 6min/mile (and max speed on last one) with 60 seconds rest and a 10min cooldown

then an easy 1k swim.

fun

4k swim tonight, it's been a long time since doing that! slowly technique is coming back, but there's still a long way to go. long runs are back up to 1.5hrs which is just about long enough to get somewhere interesting during a run again, and im quite enjoying any/all cycling at the moment. hills are fun, flats are fun, group rides are fun, solo cycles are fun, and intervals are fun. i think im finding swimming/running hard at the moment because i know how well i can do it, and am enjoying cycling because its the one im making improvements in where i never have before. that said, each session is improving things, so ive stopped comparing to how well i can go, and only look at the difference from one session to the next with the blinkers on

for the first time in my life i got some michael jackson music, and its been on the ipod for running lately. its incredibly well suited to some of my runs, thriller came on when i was running through a deserted ery estate late one night last week. its time to stock up on some other tunes though, im a bit sick of tiesto and sunlounger, which were my staple tunes lastyear

Dragged my ass out of bed late, and jumped onto the turbo trainer anyway. A plan is a plan. Nailed the interval session, cut the warmdown short, and still ended up late into the office. Did a great impression of a zoned out zombie all day, huray for coffee Morning training just doesnt work for me.

Made the pool session and put in a good effort; I'd agreed with myself lastnight that if i got both sessions today and didn't just give them a half assed attempt that there was a steak dinner in it for me.

Noym. I'm full of waffles and steak now (yes i would ruin a nice steak by having it with waffles. i even considered having a tin of baked beans with it, but couldn't bring myself to do it).



Long slow run tomorrow and a day off on thursday!

A day off on thursday would have been needed, even if it wasn't scheduled. Woke up tired and with a sore throat; think I picked up something in the office. Strepsils, vit c, paracetamol, and manuka honey in my tea all day, and in bed early instead of going for the planned curry with some mates. Less groggy thismorning, but still have a sore throat and swolen glands in my neck so taking the day easy... plan was a second tempo run, and long swim tonight. Skipped the run, might go to the pool and do a 30min easy technique swim tonight though. Was looking forward to a solid weekend of cycling too, but looks like I'll be taking that easy even if I do go out. Last year I managed to stay pretty healthy through the year, but I've already been out of action on three occasions so far in the past three months. Anyone got any silver bullet magic for keeping the immune system strong?

Another day off today, and a pretty easy week planned with no double sessions this week. Spent a bit more time reading up on sports science stuff and came across a nice article about lactate curves for ironman triathletes on the endurance corner site. It's hard not to be sucked in by the fun science, but all the knowledge in the world isn't going to make you fast... feck off cold so that I can get back training!

http://www.endurancecorner.com/node/317

RacoonQueen wrote: »

I can recommend some inspiring music for you if you like.

It's allright, I've got "stronger" on my ipod right now

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Thought you'd be talking about that Gary Barlow song. You had me a bit worried there. :eek:

lol, just looked that up on youtube.... even my taste in music isnt that bad!

It's been 5 months since I've updated this.. new race report coming monday

No nerves this year; I kept expecting them to kick in, and even on race morning I only got the jitters getting into the water for the swim start. Having done Austria last year took away a lot of the fear of the unknown.

Frankfurt is a bit of a logistical effort, the expo and registration are in town, the briefing is in a different part of town you need to take a train to, the swim is pretty much inaccessible by public transport except for when you head down to check in your kit for T1, and then T2 is back in town near the finish line. The volunteers are amazing, there were lots of them, and at check in they helped rack your bike, get your bags organized etc. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the busses that bring you from town down to the lake with your bikes; huge queues and a total mosh once you get on.

The swim starts very wide, but gets a bit squashed at the first proper turn. I got a few slaps and kicks at the start, and at times it was unavoidable to swim over people as things crushed in a bit, but some fecker grabbed my leg, then my arm, and then my shoulder to try and pass me coming into the first turn. I was having none of it, I grabbed his leg with both hands as he went past me and thought he was going to punch me when he stopped and looked up at me. He apologized and kept swimming. That put me on guard for the rest of the swim, but once we were past the first turn everything settled down a lot and the rest of it went well.

Coming out of the swim and into transition you run up a big sandy hill which is a shock to the system after being flat for so long; into transition and got changed at the bike, much quicker than in austria where I wasted a lot of time. Exiting T1 and past the mount line everything was moving fairly fast, I had one option: a flying mount. They say you need to do something new on race day, right? Worked perfectly and no, er, issues.

Onto the bike and the heavens opened. Poured rain for the next 100k, solid irish weather. Im a crap cyclist and taking turns in the rain was a pain, nearly skidded off into a hay bail on one turn so had to take a bit more care after that. Saw several people crash out. Theres a few hills on the course, but nothing too bad; given the rain there wasnt much support during the first lap. Onto the second lap and things started to dry out a bit, unfortunately now was when I was due to put in a bit more effort on the bike and my left knee started to seize up, like during the run in austria last year. I backed off to the effort I used on the first lap knowing I'd have a bad day if I came off the bike into the marathon with that sort of pain to begin with. Ultimately led to just under 6hrs for the bike; disappointing given how much effort I'd put into cycling this year, but couldn't have done much better with the day that was in it. A lot of people pulled out and became DNFs during the bike given how cold it was.

T2 was a painless setup; volunteers to take and rack your bike so none of the faffing that we had in Austria. Onto the run and the plan was to take the first lap slow, the second lap a little faster, steady for the third lap and then push for the fourth. I spent myself too early in the run in Austria and I wanted to pace this run properly; spent the first 5k talking to someone that was going at a lot slower pace than me to force me to stick to the plan, and then spent the next 5k going just a little faster. Lap 2 and I had to really pay attention to keep my pace down but this worked out well when I fell in step with a guy aiming for a sub 10 who had a nice steady run going, and then on the 3rd lap I finally got to settle into my planned speed. It was pretty comfortable at this point, and I could feel my knees starting to tighten up, so took the chance to make my only toilet stop on the run to avoid any of the mess in Austria (where I was unable to start running after stopping for a toilet break at 30k last year). Collecting the bands that mark how many laps you've done is a great motivator on the day, it gives a nice little sense of achievement each time you get the next one, and after getting the 3rd it was time to push on a little. Pace finally came to something comfortably hard but it was a great feeling to know that pain was coming, and to have planned for it mentally; it was totally unexpected in Austria, here I knew I could just push through it. I used gels for my first 3 laps, and on the 4th I swopped over to coke for a reward.. but it meant I needed to power walk the aid stations I stopped at which must have looked ridiculous as I shuffled through them spilling coke all over my face. In the last 5k I passed a lot of people who were on their fourth lap who were walking and had blown up; Finally I was close enough to the finish line to properly pick up some running form and was running along at a nice clip, feeling stronger than I should at this point. Overall the support on the entire run course was brilliant, really much better than Austria given its smaller laps.

I didn't see much in the finishing chute, I wasn't exactly sure what time I was at now but knew it was close to 11 and was going to be damned if I missed it this year. In the end it was 10'53, not a massive improvement on last year in terms of time -- but positioning was a lot better, and it was a much better executed day, so all round I can't complain.

Overall I improved everything except the bike split (which disimproved), didnt break the hour for the swim but getting closer, knocked a good bit off the transitions (with lots more to go), and ran a steady marathon. Need to bike more.

The finish line party is a bit of a non-event in frankfurt; which is a real disappointment. Things wrap up at 10pm, and there's no really big finale like in Austria where they had a great atmosphere going and a huge fireworks display.

griffin100 wrote: »

Well done KQ. The swim sounded a bit rough, was it this race that HM had her nose broken in the swim (or Austria, can't remember which)?

Dont think it was austria.. didnt think it was germany either though, im getting forgetful in my old age

Havent done much since frankfurt, sat on my ass for a week and then got back swimming, went for a nice 90k spin at the weekend and have been running twice. Knackered my leg on a sprint the other evening to avoid missing something (a boat to alcatraz for a swim! so was worth running for).. feels like ive strained some tendons or something running down the outside of my lower leg, so im going to stick with swimming and the bike for another week. I've discovered how great those sports tapes are for adding a bit of support to your leg, picked up a role of Rock Tape for $15 and have been messing about with it.. youtube is a wealth of information on how to tape things!

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Tell us more!!

They have non-competitive swims once a month from the rock back to the mainland in SF that you can sign up for, figured while im here it would be a bit of fun. Unfortunately I missed the boat despite the all out sprint (possibly the fastest I;ve run all year too). Ah well, that will learn me to run faster (or not rely on getting a cab next time) right?

In training news.. I still haven't been back running, tendons or something in the top of my foot are still sore to walk with, really don't know what's going on. Why I didn't think about that, and the fact my bike wheels are still banjaxed from the flight back from frankfurt, before taking a transfer for caroline kerney i just don't know. Not sure if ill be able to get everything sorted in time to make the start line next week.

I was swimming in the sf bay again a few times last week; and took my first proper non-wetsuit sea swim lastnight. Was blue when I got out and it took about an hour to shop shivering, but was great fun and a real sense of achievement from it.