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Me Against The World...
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I hate March. :mad:
So, after doing nothing for four days, and next to nothing for 8 days, I came back from Brussels, hungover and hungry.
Friday morning I headed up to the NAC for a 3k swim before hitting the road home for the long weekend. Knew there'd be no swimming at home, pool hours aren't great on bank holiday weekends.
Also squeezed in a 45min jog on Friday early evening. Neither felt particularly good.
Saturday I was up early and joined the local tri club for their spin. Very leisurely 2.5 hours and roughly 65k, including a trip up the local wall
I was always mindful of plans later in the day so took it handy enough.....
Granard Easter Festival 5k
Thats right folks, the big race of the year took place on Saturday. Knew the field would be small, so was expecting a podium at least. Arrived about 45min before that start and it looked like the field would be 20 strong, but numbers increased rapidly after that with roughly 100 taking to the start line. I had Michelle and her sister along as well. Looking round at the startline there was a few guys from Longford who I know and I knew I'd beat them, plenty of GAA shorts about, one guy who looked vaguely familiar but I couldnt figure out why or from where (he was wearing yellow and black fastwitches so he looked the part anyway), and a few 16year olds in casual runners right at the front.
Anyway, the 16year olds shot off, then the gun went and the rest of us followed :rolleyes: Mr fastwitch and 4 young fellas tore off at the start setting a ridiculous pace. I was confident a few of them would fade, particularly on the hill. Oh, the hill, I never mentioned the hill
. Well, according to my ride up this hill on Christmas day the first km averages 5%. That only tells half the story. Its massively steep in sections and was going to be the main factor in this race. Even when my dad was cycling regularly in his 30s hes never made it up this hill on the bike. Anyway, so I let the kids go, with my lack of any activity, and recent illness both on my mind. My first km was a 3:09 (slight down hill at the start followed by flat as far as the 3k marker), and I'd lost 100m on the leaders :eek:. I caught and passed the first young fella at about 1k. He was making that much noise he sounded like we was slapping the ground very hard with his feet. At 2km I caught another two young guys, one of them was going backwards very very quickly. Kids and pacing, hey :rolleyes:. As I turned off toward the hill Fastwitch had about 80m on me with a young fella half way inbetween. My second and third kms were close to 3:30 from memory (havent uploaded it and dont have the watch with me). On the lower slopes the gaps between the three of us remained constant. I had a quick glance behind but there was no one in sight. I just kept plugging away at it, until eventually the guy in second stopped to walk. He only walked two steps before jogging again, but we were only half way up, I knew I had him. 30seconds later he was walking again (I would say 75% of the field had to walk at some stage), this time for longer, and that was that. I moved into second but made no inroads into the gap to the leader. My 4th km was a 4:30, over the top of the hill it first levels off before a short sharp descent to the finish, over the line in 2nd in 19:06. All I could hear when I was approaching the finish line was the screeches from my mother!!
Michelles sister followed a few minutes later as first lady with Michelle about 90sec further back.
In the local after I asked the organiser who won. James Horan I was told. He's not James Horan, but I knew exactly who he was. Not sure why Piranha Tri guys are hanging around Granard on Easter weekends :rolleyes: :mad:, but his podium place in the first Naas duathlon tells me he can run anyway. I'll get him when theres more than one discipline :cool:
On Sunday I went out for a "long" run but I knew early on that this wasnt going to go well, so I finished up with 11k.
So that was March. My second crap March in a row. Both years have started with massive biking weekend, both have had run PBs, and both have had illness and lethargy and serious lack of motivation. Last year I was rushing into the Ashford & Burnfoot Duathlons (and getting engaged) followed by Joey Hannon, so at least this year I have until the end of May to get myself back together.
Swim Total 27.125/42.425/43.425/44.200/38.150/27.775 Rubbish, not one session this month that I would be happy with. I feel I've regressed massively.
Bike Total 659.5/1045.36/1003.02/837.35/665.14/713.65 with 45% of this in the first weekend, thats crap.
Run Total 0/17.70/102.54/171.27/167.75/111.86 Awful0 -
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interested wrote: »"Anyway, the 16year olds shot off, then the gun went and the rest of us followed"
The stench of irony ...
I have no idea what you mean......... 0 -
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I hate March. :mad:
So, after doing nothing for four days, and next to nothing for 8 days, I came back from Brussels, hungover and hungry.
Friday morning I headed up to the NAC for a 3k swim before hitting the road home for the long weekend. Knew there'd be no swimming at home, pool hours aren't great on bank holiday weekends.
Also squeezed in a 45min jog on Friday early evening. Neither felt particularly good.
Saturday I was up early and joined the local tri club for their spin. Very leisurely 2.5 hours and roughly 65k, including a trip up the local wall I was always mindful of plans later in the day so took it handy enough.....
Granard Easter Festival 5k
Thats right folks, the big race of the year took place on Saturday. Knew the field would be small, so was expecting a podium at least. Arrived about 45min before that start and it looked like the field would be 20 strong, but numbers increased rapidly after that with roughly 100 taking to the start line. I had Michelle and her sister along as well. Looking round at the startline there was a few guys from Longford who I know and I knew I'd beat them, plenty of GAA shorts about, one guy who looked vaguely familiar but I couldnt figure out why or from where (he was wearing yellow and black fastwitches so he looked the part anyway), and a few 16year olds in casual runners right at the front.
Anyway, the 16year olds shot off, then the gun went and the rest of us followed :rolleyes: Mr fastwitch and 4 young fellas tore off at the start setting a ridiculous pace. I was confident a few of them would fade, particularly on the hill. Oh, the hill, I never mentioned the hill. Well, according to my ride up this hill on Christmas day the first km averages 5%. That only tells half the story. Its massively steep in sections and was going to be the main factor in this race. Even when my dad was cycling regularly in his 30s hes never made it up this hill on the bike. Anyway, so I let the kids go, with my lack of any activity, and recent illness both on my mind. My first km was a 3:09 (slight down hill at the start followed by flat as far as the 3k marker), and I'd lost 100m on the leaders :eek:. I caught and passed the first young fella at about 1k. He was making that much noise he sounded like we was slapping the ground very hard with his feet. At 2km I caught another two young guys, one of them was going backwards very very quickly. Kids and pacing, hey :rolleyes:. As I turned off toward the hill Fastwitch had about 80m on me with a young fella half way inbetween. My second and third kms were close to 3:30 from memory (havent uploaded it and dont have the watch with me). On the lower slopes the gaps between the three of us remained constant. I had a quick glance behind but there was no one in sight. I just kept plugging away at it, until eventually the guy in second stopped to walk. He only walked two steps before jogging again, but we were only half way up, I knew I had him. 30seconds later he was walking again (I would say 75% of the field had to walk at some stage), this time for longer, and that was that. I moved into second but made no inroads into the gap to the leader. My 4th km was a 4:30, over the top of the hill it first levels off before a short sharp descent to the finish, over the line in 2nd in 19:06. All I could hear when I was approaching the finish line was the screeches from my mother!!
Michelles sister followed a few minutes later as first lady with Michelle about 90sec further back.
In the local after I asked the organiser who won. James Horan I was told. He's not James Horan, but I knew exactly who he was. Not sure why Piranha Tri guys are hanging around Granard on Easter weekends :rolleyes: :mad:, but his podium place in the first Naas duathlon tells me he can run anyway. I'll get him when theres more than one discipline :cool:
On Sunday I went out for a "long" run but I knew early on that this wasnt going to go well, so I finished up with 11k.
So that was March. My second crap March in a row. Both years have started with massive biking weekend, both have had run PBs, and both have had illness and lethargy and serious lack of motivation. Last year I was rushing into the Ashford & Burnfoot Duathlons (and getting engaged) followed by Joey Hannon, so at least this year I have until the end of May to get myself back together.
Swim Total 27.125/42.425/43.425/44.200/38.150/27.775 Rubbish, not one session this month that I would be happy with. I feel I've regressed massively.
Bike Total 659.5/1045.36/1003.02/837.35/665.14/713.65 with 45% of this in the first weekend, thats crap.
Run Total 0/17.70/102.54/171.27/167.75/111.86 Awful
Is that James "Hoare"? I swim with him, he's pretty handy in the pool too0 -
littlemsfickle wrote: »Is that James "Hoare"? I swim with him, he's pretty handy in the pool too
Yeah, that was him. Can you ask him what the hell hes doing on my turf 0 -
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My run coach (and good mate) told me recently that the body will follow the mind, so negative thinking will affect training and performance. Hence the happy clappy, no bs nature of my new log. Seriously, focus on the positives. It helps.
That, and good drugs.(kidding kids....just kidding!!) 0 -
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littlemsfickle wrote: »Yeah you came second like. My Easter racing involved a bike pile-up....:rolleyes:
I hope the good bike is ok? And you, obviously although facebook tells me you're fine anywayThat, and good drugs.(kidding kids....just kidding!!)
What would you prescribe??My run coach (and good mate) told me recently that the body will follow the mind, so negative thinking will affect training and performance. Hence the happy clappy, no bs nature of my new log. Seriously, focus on the positives. It helps.
Ok, positives......
New month, new leaf, I got out on Monday morning for a long spin. The first hour felt tougher than it should have. HR was jumping around quite a bit and wouldn't come down. The first hour was very lumpy and wind-swept though, and once I got through that the effort levels settled a bit, even on the return leg directly into the wind. Solid solo 90km @~28kmph 134hr 94cadence. A decent outing in those conditions.
I had hoped to get back to Dublin in time for a swim in the NAC before closing, but an oil leak put pay to that :rolleyes:
Tuesday evening in trinity instead, and I picked another session from the master spreadsheet.
200wu,
6*400 on 7:00. The first 4 came in under 6:20, the last two 6:15 on the button. This was looking much much better. The massive amount of rest certainly helped tho.
3*200 on 3:25. Again, under 3:10 for the lot, and feeling pretty good for the first time in ages.
100 recovery
100 max. Didn't get my 50 split, but I reckon I faded massively. In for 1:22, first 50 was more than likely sub 40.
200cd.
So 3k holding sub 1:35 pace in long reps. Thats easily my best swim in about 5 weeks. Too soon to say I'm back???? 0 -
Wednesday evening I got out for what I hoped would be a 70-75min run, however 30/35 min into this I started to struggle. HR became more difficult to control, cadence started to drop, and form difficult to maintain. Felt like I was tripping over myself at times. Managed to keep going for the 60minutes, but I was all over the place by the end. 4:59 pace 62min 141HR 90cadence.
Thursday morning was supposed to be a swim, but my phone died during the night so the alarm never went off and I had to re-arrange things a little. Lunchtime jog instead, not ideal so soon after Wed night, but just roll with it. 40min easy and again things starting to fall apart from 30min onward. 7 weeks to my first tri, so plenty of time to get back on form.
Moved the swim to the evening, was supposed to be 25*100 on CSS 15sec recoveries. Given my form lately I broke it down to 5 sets of 5 with an extra 45sec rest between sets. This was a good idea and I there or thereabouts on most of the reps. Aiming for 1:30 (CSS supposed to be 1:29 :rolleyes: ) swimming off on 1:45. It was more work that it really should have been, but progress none the less. At times I felt like I was darting through the water (usually the first 30m of the first rep ), other times I felt like my arms were made of haribo!! Pool is closed today so some students can get drunk so I'll have to do my third swim of the week over the weekend . 0 -
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From what you were saying last night the running seems to be frustrating you. I was the very same for the last 6 weeks. The chest infection competely threw me so I missed 2 weeks training and the last 4 weeks were awful. I struggled on every run. But I knew it was going to be like that so I completely ignored pace, speed, heart rate, cadence, etc and just took it easy.
Stick with it but don't worry about the technicalities. Just get some basic running done. Leave the watch at home. When you get over whatever ails you you'll bounce back. Over the last 4 weeks every single run was about 30 seconds per kilometer slower than where I wanted to be but I didn't push myself knowing I'd find form once the infection or virus or whatever I have cleared. Last night, out of nowhere, I finally managed a decent run almost hitting normal training pace.
I'm still suffering a bit and I've lost loads of speed so I'm pulling out of the national road champs now (Great Ireland Run) but there'll be other races. The fitness is still there, I just need to sharpen up. You'll be the same....although going by those recent races I don't think you've lost too much speed.
Cheers Clum, its just frustrating when you are going great guns to be knocked back a little. I ignore the watch for the most part, only have HR displayed as I train by HR, so I ignore cadence and pace until after I'm done, and I have a good idea of what the efforts I should be at feel like anyway so even this doesn't get too much attention.
I expect to be slower than I was a month ago and thats fine, that'll come round fairly soon I know that. What is annoying me is this awkwardness that seems to set in after about 30min. I'm running at nothing more than a jog so I really shouldn't be fading like that. Again, I know it'll come round, but its taking its sweet time about it!!
I actually wouldn't be worrying about my speed. Thats never been a problem (you should have seen me on a 5-a-side pitch in my hey-day) my problem is converting that raw speed into longer distance races which I've started to do a little better with recently. I don't have the mileage that proper runners have, nor anything close to it, but I don't need it just yet anyway 0 -
Wednesday evening I got out for what I hoped would be a 70-75min run, however 30/35 min into this I started to struggle. HR became more difficult to control, cadence started to drop, and form difficult to maintain. Felt like I was tripping over myself at times. Managed to keep going for the 60minutes, but I was all over the place by the end. 4:59 pace 62min 141HR 90cadence.
Thursday morning was supposed to be a swim, but my phone died during the night so the alarm never went off and I had to re-arrange things a little. Lunchtime jog instead, not ideal so soon after Wed night, but just roll with it. 40min easy and again things starting to fall apart from 30min onward. 7 weeks to my first tri, so plenty of time to get back on form.
Moved the swim to the evening, was supposed to be 25*100 on CSS 15sec recoveries. Given my form lately I broke it down to 5 sets of 5 with an extra 45sec rest between sets. This was a good idea and I there or thereabouts on most of the reps. Aiming for 1:30 (CSS supposed to be 1:29 :rolleyes: ) swimming off on 1:45. It was more work that it really should have been, but progress none the less. At times I felt like I was darting through the water (usually the first 30m of the first rep ), other times I felt like my arms were made of haribo!! Pool is closed today so some students can get drunk so I'll have to do my third swim of the week over the weekend .
TRINITY BALL WOOT!
posted from my desk where I came home to study so I could avoid it...0 -
Friday evening I got a 70min turbo in with 2*20min steady. Not overly taxing but felt good.
Saturday morning I was out on the bike at 9 for a long day in Wicklow. Punctured early on which had me missing the start of the duathlon in Ashford but hung around there for over 2 hours watching the race. Unbelievable performance from the winner. Incredible winning margin. I was getting cold so I was glad to get moving again. 140k in 5 hours 10 or thereabouts but on the road for well over 7 hours.
Last night I added some essential specificity to my training with my stag coming up next weekend. Paying a price for it today but not actually feeling that crap, just very very tired. It was a late one 0 -
Monday lunchtime I squeezed in a 7k jog. Started really well, but I knew I had a tailwind. Usual increase in effort/fall in form for the return leg. Bit of a dash back to the office at the end too, the beers from Saturday still working their way through
Monday eve was back to chasing the fish in the washing machine. A long WU followed by 8*200 on 3:15, and I struggled early on, having gotten used to swimming in a lane on my own most days in Trinity, the spray from other swimmers was annoying me. Settled a bit after some words of encouragement from the swim master :rolleyes: but it was still bloody hard work.
Tuesday lunchtime, another 9k jog. 4:47/km for 140avg HR sounds like it aint too bad, but this is probably 5 beats higher than 6 weeks, ago, and HR is still drifting up despite the minimal effort. Cadence seems to have held together this time @90 so a little sign of improvement.
Tuesday eve 75min on the turbo with 3*15min efforts. Holding 300watts per trainerroad (make of that what you wish) is getting to the point where my HR barely goes above easy. My target is HR based but lately I've been reluctant to push too hard for fear of blowing up given recent illness, but I really now need to start pushing these sessions harder. On these reps I only hit target HR for the last 3min of rep1, 5min of rep 2 and 7.5min of rep3, when I did eventually push that bit harder.
Wednesday Morning. Swim in trinity and a lane all to myself for 75minutes
2 sets of 500,400,300,200,100 and some kick drills. Faded on the second 1500m set, and didn't quite hit times, but I'm definitely seeing progress back towards where I was in late Feb. A lot more to do though..0 -
Wednesday evening was a "long" run. My longest run since Paddys weekend at 15.5km, as 9.5km easy easy and 5km a little harder. Decent, although my legs got away from me a little and I pushed the 5k just a little harder than intended.
Thursday Morning swim session with 3*(5*150
descending with reducing repeat times). Almost hit 2:15(1:30 pace) for the last rep in each set. Also threw in some kick and band and buoy work to bring the session up to 3800. Starting to feel good in the water again.
Thursday evening 90min turbo. Obviously won't get a long bike in this weekend so this was going to have to do instead. Did 20min/20min/10min/10min reps of increasing effort with the last 10min being where I should have been doing the 3*15min reps on Tuesday. Trainerroads incredibly accurate figures (:rolleyes:) told me this was 327watts and it wasn't too bad other than some ass discomfort so I'll just have to HTFU a little next time
Friday morning, another 6:30 start to get in a hard run session. Now, I'm not a big fan or running early in the morning, and less so of running fast at that hour, but this was the only way I could fit the training in this week. Session called for 5*4min at xHR with 1min recoveries. x being a number scientifically picked out of my coaches head which resulted in average rep pace of 3:43/km pace.
So so tired...... Stag time 0 -
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What a weekend. I think I'm almost caught up on sleep now. Those of you luck enough to be privy to my facebook page were kept up to date with the early evening shenanigans (no I won't be reproducing any of it here). So much for what goes on tour stays on tour, damn social media. Thankfully the worst of it has thus far avoided any public forum (yes, there is much much worse)....
Tuesday evening I decided to do something, anything, so I went for an easy 30min jog. Actually went reasonably well.
Wednesday evening I got back in the pool. 8*200 on 3:25, 8*100 on 1:45 8*50 on 50. Actually swam fairly well, with the 200s comfortably under 3:10, 100s under 1:35, and 50s around 42/43. The depressing thing is a number of times I had to make way for Littlemsfickle who was also in the lane, and swimming faster than me despite the fact she was only doing drills.
Went out for another easy jog today at lunch time. 40min this time, and it was crap. Stupid weather.0 -
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I am not privy to your facebook page, however your comments here have made my imagination go into overdrive.
For that I thank you.
You're welcome... i thinkRacoonQueen wrote: »Think pink
Behave.....And not just your own FB page either BTH! Must say, it's a great colour on you.
Thankfully the person behind that felt that that type of information should stay on tour and removed it. Not until half the club had seen it though... :mad:Margaret Important Cupcake wrote: »He looks good in a mini skirt.
Some of us have the legs for it alright 0 -
Thursday evening I took on the 3*15min turbo session that I've been too soft on myself with of late. No sandbagging this time, and I only faded a little on the last 4min of the last rep. Good work and averaged about 320watts* (:rolleyes:) for the reps.
*I realise that trainerroad is not as exact as having a proper powermeter, but it is consistent (as far as I can tell), and it means I can post a somewhat meaningful number here as opposed to saying my HR target was 152 for the reps. Oh, and 320 would be 4.5w/kg
Swim this morning and I took another one from the master spreadsheet 400wu, 12*25kick which are now down damn close to 30sec and the main set was to be 6*(4*50 on 50, 2*100 on 100), but I bailed after three sets. I was starting to fade quite a bit, arms and shoulders in bits. I blame the 5minutes I spent trying to move Dorys pink (theres that colour again ) dumbbells the other evening :eek:. Didn't let the session go completely to waste so did 500m of drills to finish. 0 -
What a weekend. I think I'm almost caught up on sleep now. Those of you luck enough to be privy to my facebook page were kept up to date with the early evening shenanigans (no I won't be reproducing any of it here). So much for what goes on tour stays on tour, damn social media. Thankfully the worst of it has thus far avoided any public forum (yes, there is much much worse)....
Tuesday evening I decided to do something, anything, so I went for an easy 30min jog. Actually went reasonably well.
Wednesday evening I got back in the pool. 8*200 on 3:25, 8*100 on 1:45 8*50 on 50. Actually swam fairly well, with the 200s comfortably under 3:10, 100s under 1:35, and 50s around 42/43. The depressing thing is a number of times I had to make way for Littlemsfickle who was also in the lane, and swimming faster than me despite the fact she was only doing drills.
Went out for another easy jog today at lunch time. 40min this time, and it was crap. Stupid weather.
Yeah first time I've ever lapped someone while swimming banded with only one arm......
Just kidding, I was only doing a couple of drills at the start. Most of the time I was working on 400s descending.0 -
Friday afternoon/evening was spent at haggis_mcclouds wedding. A great evening, even though I was on the water all night.
Unfortunately, staying off the beer didn't work as I woke on Saturday with a bit of a sore dry throat. Didn't think it was too bad so I headed off to the NAC at midday for a 3k dip. This was ok, not brilliant, but I was fairly tired from the late night.
Got out for an easy jog later in the day, which was cut shorter than intended due to a nature call. 11km I think.
Woke up Sunday morning with a much worse throat and pains in my stomach (similar to the symptoms I had in early March) so a day of rest on Sunday, and I'll not be doing anything today either.
Fed up0 -
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