run Zico10 run is who we are getting to know

Hey Zico, you do a serious amount of running and from what I can see (since you started the log anyway) don't really suffer many injuries. What do you put this down to? How do you recover after some of the longer harder runs?

peter kern wrote: »

So here is my question how can a triathlete not do any bike training
or are you a swimmer that just runs a lot ;-)

I'm not doing any bike training as Connemarathon is my focus for the moment. I'm following a high mileage programme and don't want to be doing anything else that taxes the legs. It's seven days a week running, so there isn't any room or need for cross training.
I decided last November that running would be my focus and that was that. I doubt there's too many serious runners doing much in the way of cycling, so I have to adopt that mindset.
I'll pick a tri later in the season as another target, but right now my A-goal is Connemara. If the lack of bike training right now leads to a good time in Connemara, but a mediocre tri season, then it's just the price I have to pay.
To be honest though, I'm not overly concerned about all this running having any long term effect on my biking. I'll still have the necessary aerobic fitness, and I won't be doing anything longer than Olympic distance tris up until Autumn at the very earliest. 40km or just over an hour on the bike is not something I find particularly daunting. Despite extended breaks here and there, I've still cycled a lot over the last couple of years, and in terms of endurance or speed I hope it won't take too long to build back up to 40km.
Perhaps you'd disagree, but my mind is made up.

peter kern wrote: »

why the handle Zico10 ?

In an indirect way it's after the Brazilian soccer player. In a previous life I was more fanatical about soccer than I am now. All my brothers were, and once upon a time we got a dog. We all wanted to name it after a soccer player, but our mother didn't want to own a dog named Maradona. She was agreeable to Zico though, so that's what we called it.
Then when the Internet Age came, whenever necessary I'd use the dog's name as my username. When I went first registered for boards, I found to my dismay that 'zico' was taken, so I just I put the number 10 after the moniker and used that.

peter kern wrote: »

and what was living in thailand like.

Living in Thailand was great. I absolutely loved it. Don't think there'd be much of a market for tri coaches, but I'd highly recommend it. The people are so relaxed and laid back it makes for a great lifestyle. I never felt any stress or pressure in the job over there.
There's no real security in it though and he money I made was fine for living in Thailand, but you'd be a long time saving to have any substantial sum built up. If I could find a more secure and better paid job, I'd go back, but as it is I'd either be foolish or very brave to walk away from the job I have here.
I'd only planned on staying one year, but liked it so much I stayed on for an extra year. That became a year and a half as I wasn't going to be in a position to make money in Ireland until September 2013, so there was no point coming back any earlier. I didn't have enough funds to travel, so I sort of got stuck in Thailand.

joey100 wrote: »

Hey Zico, you do a serious amount of running and from what I can see (since you started the log anyway) don't really suffer many injuries. What do you put this down to? How do you recover after some of the longer harder runs?

To begin answering your question, I think you should know that I didn't just suddenly decide to start off on an 18 week marathon training plan from scratch. Even for regular tri races, I think I run more than most. My body is used to high mileage. After The Lost Sheep, I didn't really take much time off and come October was pretty much running everyday. Even though a lot of it was steady paced stuff, I think it all served to galvanise my body for the hard work that the P & D plan serves up. I'd ran four three hour runs in the two weeks before beginning the plan, so it was sort of an easing back when I started the plan proper.
I never got them checked out, but I've had what felt like stress fractures before. I don't know why, but I seemed to recover from them quickly. It's not been for a few years though, so maybe my body has become more resilient.
It would take a lot to make me skip a run, but if I thought something was seriously wrong, I would. Other than that I'm willing to run with slight niggles. Whether that's an ability or stupidity, I generally just get on with it.
When I get home after a long run, I'll have a Yazzoo or some such thing. If I feel stiff, I'll put on compression tights, but I don't always. That's honestly about it. I seldom stretch and even though my flatmate has a foam roller, I never use it.

pgibbo wrote: »

Hey Zico,
Given the title of you log, is Kona a long term goal or where does it sit in your plans?

I won't be trying this year anyway. It'll take a lot of work, but I'd like to be able to turn out a good enough performance to qualify in 2015. I know it's far from certain, but whether I'd actually travel that October or not, I'm not sure. I think I'd be better travelling to Kona with more experience racing iron distance than I'll have in October 2015.

pgibbo wrote: »

What do you think you'd need to do to get to Kona?

I guess just go on the Internet, google flights, and pay the fare.:)

I think as close to sub 1 on the swim, as close to sub 5 on the bike, and as close to sub 3 on the run as possible. I haven't really looked at qualifying times, but I don't think I would be too far away if I could manage those three combined.

pgibbo wrote: »

Have you a particular qualifying course in mind that may suit you better than others?

Because of my job it'd probably have to be a race in July or August. Unless I got very lucky and a Ironman conveniently coincided with the Easter holidays. As regards type of course, I haven't given it any thought.

pgibbo wrote: »

What's your sporting background?

I don't really have any. There wasn't much options for me outside of team sports growing up and I was never good enough at any of them to persist with them.

pgibbo wrote: »

How did you get in to triathlon?

I remember hearing about it way back and thinking it would be a interesting sport to do, but never did anything further about it. I wasn't aware there was a tri scene in Ireland until a random punter moved into a room my brother and I were renting out in Dublin in 2005. He happened to do triathlon, and through him I found out a bit about the sport. The following year I bought a road bike, joined TI, and here I am

pgibbo wrote: »

You like to travel, what has been your favourite trip?

There's been a lot. I guess if you count three months backpacking around South America as one single trip it'd be that.
If you don't, then apart from having the biggest piece of sh!t of a bike in all of Asia, it'd be a motorbike trip I did in Vietnam.

pgibbo wrote: »

Any trips that you'd like to do and if so, what's top of the list and why?

I'd like to cycle round the world some day. 'Why?' To see the world I guess.

pgibbo wrote: »

What do you do for crust?

I'm a primary school teacher.

interested wrote: »

- favourite thai beer ?

Leo

It's the power of advertising

interested wrote: »

- strangest place you slept on bike tour of Europe and further afield ?

There were a few, but the strangest was probably a police station in the north of Thailand. It was a bizarre series of events that led to me ending up there. Then all the police on duty took off for the night and as far as I could tell I was left there all alone.

interested wrote: »

- who turbo's more ... you or kg

At the moment I'm not doing any cycling, so it'd be him. When I get back on the bike though I reckon it'll be me. I don't know how he's going to deal with me wanting to turbo at 6 in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Hi Zico!

You mention the possibility of Kona being your 2015 target, but then you also imply that you might not go if you qualify due lack of IM experience. I can't help but think of this in terms of your statement regarding walking away from your current job to go back to Thailand - it'd either be foolish or very brave. So, if you qualified for Kona and boldly turned it down, would you have any regrets if you never qualified again, or would you be content for the rest of your days that you made the right decision?

How many marathons have you completed? And what year and race was your first marathon?

Since your target race this year is Connemara marathon, do you tend to seek out hilly events? And if so, why?

Whether it be in triathlon or marathon, what is your secret weapon or strength in a race?

Have you any pre-race/race rituals or superstitions?

What is your 400 freestyle time? You can give that to me in either meters or yards - I know how to do the conversion.

How many tattoos have you got, and what and where are they?

Used to wonder when reading the log, did it take time to adjust to warm weather training in Thailand? Particularly considering the run miles involved.

What's your typical lunch & dinner?

Any idea who is covering swimming tomorrow evening?!

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Why did you pick Conn?

I wanted a marathon that fell nicely before the tri season got into full swing. I was too late to register for London. I'd done Connemara before and I liked it. I suffered on the second half though, and feel I lost a bit of time here. I'd like to go back and put that right.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

What sort of hill specific work (if any) will you do?

I've been trying to run the hillier parts of the Phoenix Park on my medium and long runs. It's not perfect, but I'm making the best of it. I do hope to meet up with some boardsies to run hills in South Dublin a few times between now and April 6th, but it just hasn't happened yet.
I'm toying with the idea of doing my intervals up the Khyber in the Park. It's not exactly what I understand my training is meant to be, but it could be useful.
Same with strides, instead of doing them on flat ground, like I have been, I might run a few uphill as well.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Would you like to run any more IMRA races?

I enjoyed all of the ones I have done, and they are by and large held in nice locations.
I think in isolation though they are not of much benefit to somebody in the middle of a training cycle, which is where I have been all winter. As an occasional blow out in the middle of a base build, I think the IMRA races are great, but I think in the middle of summer they interfere too much with a triathlete's training.
Depending where I find myself next January, I might do some more, but I'd be fairly certain it won't before the 2014 tri season is over.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Training: is volume+morevolume better than intensity+littlevolume? (talking across the disciplines here)

I don't really know. I'm amazed Bambaata can do so well on what I think are so little hours. He's obviously got more ability than me, as I place huge store on volume. Intensity is very subjective I find, but to answer your question as best I can, I would consider my training to be volume, + more volume, + intensity.
I did a Total Immersion course before and one of my big issues with it was that you could teach yourself to swim fast by swimming slowly. I just don't see how that works, same with biking and running. If you want to race fast, you've got to train fast.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

How far can you swim in an hour?

Just a straight out TT? I'd probably be somewhere around 3,300m mark.
Most recent barometer for this would be a 20 minute TT two weeks ago, where I did 1,200m. Then last Monday I did a session consisting of an 800m warm-up, 10 x 200m off 3.50 & 150m cool down within an hour, so just shy of 3,000m.

Though I hope to be faster come summer time.

And I still haven't mastered the 400m TT yet.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

What attributes of your character would you hope to impart to your young primary charges?

I'm not going to turn everybody into an Einstein, but I hope I'm teaching them the value of hard work.

Dory Dory wrote: »

You mention the possibility of Kona being your 2015 target, but then you also imply that you might not go if you qualify due lack of IM experience. I can't help but think of this in terms of your statement regarding walking away from your current job to go back to Thailand - it'd either be foolish or very brave. So, if you qualified for Kona and boldly turned it down, would you have any regrets if you never qualified again, or would you be content for the rest of your days that you made the right decision?

If I were to go to Kona, I'd want to go there and do well. I think it would be a big ask of someone with my experience to expect to qualify in July/August and then be back up to peak fitness just 2 or 3 months later. If i were to turn it down, that would be my reasoning behind it. It's all hypothetical and a long way off, so I might feel differently if I were to qualify. But spending an awful lot of money just to go to Hawaii and get round the course is not something that really appeals to me.
If I qualify next year and never qualified again, I'm sure I would regret turning it down, but I think if I were good enough to qualify in 2015, I should be good enough to qualify in 2016. Although I would have moved up an age group, so I'd have to look further into it.

Dory Dory wrote: »

How many marathons have you completed? And what year and race was your first marathon?

I've completed five, six if you include my ironman marathon. My first was in Dublin in the year of 2008.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Since your target race this year is Connemara marathon, do you tend to seek out hilly events? And if so, why?

I haven't so far. I tried to enter the Ballycotton 10, but it was sold out. If I can find conveniently located hilly events that fit nicely in with the plan I'm following I'll enter them, but I won't travel too far jut to do one. As to the why, Connemara is a hilly course, so I think it'd best to do races as similar
in profile to this as I can.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Whether it be in triathlon or marathon, what is your secret weapon or strength in a race?

I honestly don't know.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Have you any pre-race/race rituals or superstitions?

I'm not superstitious. I'm such a procrastinator that I'm usually frantically rushing about in the few minutes before the gun goes off. So I don't really have time for pre-race rituals. I try to visit the portaloo before any race no matter how I'm feeling, if you want to count that.
For tris I like to walk, jog, run then sprint through transitions before a race, rehearsing T1 and T2, but guess that's more practice than a ritual.

Dory Dory wrote: »

What is your 400 freestyle time? You can give that to me in either meters or yards - I know how to do the conversion.

It'll be metres, of course. :)I don't do them a lot. The most recent was last Thursday, 7.0?, but I just wasn't on form that night. It's easy talk, but I know I could do better. Since coming back to Ireland I've swam 4 x 100 off 1.45 a few times, so 7.0? doesn't make sense. I guess I just need to keep at it.

By the way, do they have pools that are 50 yards long in America? Or why do you keep referring to swim distances in yards?:)

Dory Dory wrote: »

How many tattoos have you got, and what and where are they?

Three, you can almost see them all in the photos I posted along with my race report from Phuket. I remember you commenting on them.

I've a Celtic band on my left arm that I got when I was 18.
A snake which wraps around my upper right arm that I got when I was 21. I don't particularly like this one, and will probably get it covered up some day. When/If I get another tattoo, that's what I'll get done.
Lastly I've a Maori tribal tribal tattoo around my left thigh that I got when I was 29.

pgibbo wrote: »

Will you be putting manners on BTH this season and knocking him off his perch? :pac:

I never knew he was on a perch.:pac:
Ah no, to be fair to him he's done very well over the last few years. I haven't raced properly in Ireland for a few years. Even in the year before I left (2010) my focus was Challenge Copenhagen. I only raced in Ireland three times that year and didn't take much notice of who was finishing around me. If I do a few races this year, I expect I'll find out who my main adversaries are. It could be that it's BTH with a target on his back, or he could be so far ahead of me I'll have to aim lower.

pgibbo wrote: »

What tri races are you targeting?

I've pre-registered for Kilkee, so hopefully I'll be doing that. Other than that, I've no particular race in mind. I'm toying with the idea of going long in either September or October. I'll have to make up my mind for definite on that shortly after finishing Connemara. If I don't go long, then it'll be down to Kenmare for another crack at The Lost Sheep.

pgibbo wrote: »

I think your post above proves that training adaptations are very different for different people. SOme people perform well off low volume and high intensity and others require volume. Determining that on an individual basis is key. Did it take you long to twig that?

At the same time, I still think what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Their approaches might be different, but I doubt there's much difference between the hours the ITU guys train.

pgibbo wrote: »

Sounds like you swimming is improving since you returned from Thailand too. :cool:

I'm swimming at lot more, and it definitely pays off. I'm going to three coached sessions a week, whereas in Thailand I didn't have any. One of these is with interested, and like a lot of people on here I have to give some credit to him. Peter Kern is also coaching me for one of these sessions, he's helping a little bit as well.:)

pgibbo wrote: »

Forgot to ask above

Favourite meal - all courses
5 dinner guests you'd have around and why
Favourite book
Favourite movie

1) I'm not a connoisseur when it comes to food, whatever is on the menu for starters, something with prawns, wouldn't know the names of any exquisite dishes, steak and chips with veg for the main course, and something chocolatey & nutty for desert.

2) I wouldn't enjoy myself in the company of 5 strangers, so it would just be people I'd know. Sorry of that disappoints, but it's the truth.

3) The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe

4) The Big Lebowski - It's like the Michelangelo's David, it could not be more perfect.

Oryx wrote: »

How many hours sleep do you get?

I get up at 6 a.m. all week day mornings and find it hard to sleep much beyond that on the weekends. I'm doing well if I'm in bed before 11, sometimes it's after midnight. 6½ - 7 hours has probably been typical so far this week. But if I feel training is becoming a drag I'll make bigger efforts to get to bed earlier.

Oryx wrote: »

Spiciest food you ever ate?

Probably som tam (papaya salad) in Thailand. All the ingredients are just mixed and pounded in a mortar, so how spicy it is depends on how much chillies are put in. You could request no chillies if you wanted, but when in Rome...

Oryx wrote: »

If your house was on fire, and you could only save one item, what would it be? (pets and people are safe, okay?)

Well it depends which house you are talking about. If it's my apartment in Dublin, is my car in the underground car park safe? Assuming it is, it'd be my Dawes Galaxy. If it was my family home down in Roscrea it'd be my TT bike, (and we'll just assume the Zipp wheels are conveniently on it). If both bikes were in the same house, it'd be the TT bike.

Oryx wrote: »

What physical attribute would you change about yourself and why?

I'd like a heart the size of a coconut. I shouldn't think I have to explain why.

Oryx wrote: »

What are your personal training/racing demons and how do they try and stop you?

I know I'm not a super swimmer, but I think my ability in the water weighs on mind more than it should. I often make excuses for myself when it comes to swimming, and before a race even starts I'm expecting to be well down the field by the start of the bike. This probably doesn't help, but I find it very hard to convince myself I'm going to have a strong swim. During training I haven't learnt to suffer as much in the water as I do on the land. This probably doesn't help either. I'm not intimidated by swim starts, but I don't see the point in starting near the front, when I know I don't have the ability to stay there.