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

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Hmm... trying to juggle 3 different sports is hard, I'm always neglecting one! My status in the 1000mile thread hasnt budged much since the edinburgh marathon :) For the 10k tri run I think I need to start doing some work again. I'm contemplating entering the Dublin 10mile race (A friend is doing it at 8min 30sec/mile, so would fit in as a nice LSR), just to force me not to forget about running entirely.

    RUN: 5.2miles (38mins, 7min 18sec/mile. average hr 144, max 164).


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Cycling is hard work. 'nuff said.

    BIKE: 40k. 1hr52mins. Work is needed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    No sooner than training finally starts to go well than I end up sick again. Argh! Yesterday was a scheduled day off, today I've a sore throat and the makings of a flu, so looks like I'll be taking it easy for the rest of the week. :o


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Still not over the flu/sore throat, and spent most of the weekend in work -- and will be in till 10/11pm (at least) every evening this week. Love my job, but its a killer when you cant call it a day at 6.30.

    I'm starting to wonder if there's a plan B to replace Dublin if I don't get sorted in time for the tri... all this down time at the moment and sudden deadlines in work wasnt part of the plan. Ill not be happy if I miss my 'A' goal for the year of an olympic tri;

    In other news, after months of toying with the idea of whether I'm mad for thinking I can do it... its become obvious that my next goal *has* to be a 1/2IM next year when I've gotten some proper time in on the bike. I'm already getting excited about the training :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Was in with the doctor yesterday; should be sorted to be back training by mid week. Should have gone to see them sooner! I'm worried that 2-3 weeks isnt really enough to get me in good shape for an olympic tri now though :/

    Plan B isnt looking good.. I was looking for another olympic race in mid september, but theres none.. so then I was looking to see if I could substitute it for a couple of sprint tris before the year is out, but the only one that I liked the look of is lough-key and is already sold out. Starting to wonder if I should continue training for tris but maybe swop training over and see if I can get sorted for the DM instead....


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,320 ✭✭✭MrCreosote


    What about the Blacksod point tri in September? Or would it be too close to the DCM.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Hey MrCreosote, thanks for the suggestion -- not too sure what counts as a 'all terrain run', so ill need to look into it a bit more ;), but its definitely an option!

    I've come round to the idea of seeing what I can do in the next three weeks... I set out with the goal to *finish* an olympic tri; ive already paid for the dublin tri, so there's no harm in waiting to call the final decision a few days before I guess. I lightened up on things after I finally got out for a run...

    RUN: 5.2miles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Cycled to work today (10k each way), and got out for a short run (3miles). Feeling very unfit compared with two weeks ago!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Finally got to the pool yesterday for a stretch, and thankfully I could still swim (unlike the last time I was off sick for a few weeks).

    Was meant to be doing an OW swim this evening but it was cancelled so I headed to the pool to see if I could cover the 1500m distance. I was planning to attempt+time it next week, but brought it forward as I had no other plans for today.

    I had to swop lanes after a few lengths as the lane I was in was swimming a little bit too slow for me, and I did stop after 750m for 6-7 seconds to check the time and grab a few mouthfulls of water.. I'm still considering it to be a continuous swim though ;) Total time was 38mins. Reasonably evenly spaced as the clock had 20mins on it at the halfway point. I 'sprinted' the final 100m, breathing to one side only, to see if I could sustain a bit of a stronger swim at the end and it was fun to finish strong.

    Its about the speed I reconed I'd be at when I had to estimate the time a few months back when I registered for the race.. I think I can go faster in a pool (I wanted to go at a pace I was happy I could sustain), but I'd say the swim upstream and other conditions in OW would counter that and maybe slow me down a bit again. Still, I think I can do the distance now inside the cutoff :)

    SWIM: 1200m. 6x50m, 6x100m, 6x50m
    SWIM: 2000m. 5x50m, 1500m in 38mins, 5x50m


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Got out to the 40ft today for a splash. Not sure how far I swum exactly, but it was intended just for an easy swim with a bit of sighting practice.

    SWIM: maybe 700m?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Moment of madness.. Im registered for the dublin 1/2 marathon :D. Its been way too long since I've been for a decent run. The sensible side of me says I didn't plan on entering the dublin marathon so I should skip it (I haven't been running much lately at all), but I can fit in the training for a decent 1/2 before the end of next month.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Cycled to/from work again. I know its too late to do any real bike training, but i might as well do some milage to at least get my legs a little bit adapted to it. Thinking of doing the bike course in the park this weekend, and doing one brick session before then. That's it for my training; I'll do some easy swims etc., but nothing with any intensity. Fingers crossed everything will come together in two weeks time then.

    Did my first+last long hard run before the tri tonight. Its a new PB (I've only ever gone under 7min miles on 3mile runs before now). It will be a while before I set my sights on a sub 3! ;)

    RUN: 6miles. 41mins 26seconds (6mins 54/mile). Max HR 182, average 161.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Was a bit tired+sore after the run (!duh, shouldnt be making new PBs during a training run!). Went to the pool two days later and splashed out a messy 300m before calling it a day, and opted for a few days of stretching+core strenght stuff instead. Rested up and went for a cycle to checkout the route in the park yesterday and turned it into a bit of a brick session. Running off 20k was OK... running off 40k felt like i was running backwards!

    CYCLE: 40k (1hr45, including time stopped at traffic lights en route to the park), average HR 139.
    RUN: 1.5miles (10mins 38sec), average HR 153, max 161.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Squashed in a swim today at lunchtime. Not the best of ideas.. I ended up rushing it a bit in the quest to make it back to the office inside the hour, and as a result the little technique I think I have entirely went to the wall towards the end.

    SWIM: 1k. 2x50, 2x100, 2x200, 2x100, 2x50.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Another lunchtime swim today. Technique was still a bit off, but a lot better than yesterday; I'll aim to do one more short easy swim between now and the weekend and hopefully things will come back. Brought my watch with me today to see how I was doing at an easy continuous pace in the pool.. 50m splits in seconds were 63, 68, 65, 67, 66, 67, 64, 66, 71, 64, 66, 67, 66, 70, 71. Not very consistent at all. Ran out of time so had to call it a day at 750m. Need to start swimming in a group session/take more lessons or something.

    SWIM: 950m: 4x50m warmup, 1x750m (16mins 41sec).


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Very easy run today... need to make sure I dont break anything between now and the Dublin City Triathlon on sunday! I've a bit of a niggle in my right leg, so back stretching the gracilis + his friends. Really enjoyed the run, its been ages since ive gone for an easy run and been happy to stick to that plan.

    RUN: 3.2miles (29mins, 9mins 3sec/mile).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,051 ✭✭✭MCOS


    Best of Luck in Dublin this weekend. Good running progress too... closing in on sub 40 pace


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Thanks for the wishes MCOS, but it's going to be a did-not-start for me as I'm being shipped out of the country on sunday with work for a week :( (I found out today)

    After setting out to finish an OD race this year I can't let it slip. I'm away the weekend of the Erris Beo Blacksod point triathlon, but have scoped out a race in the UK at the end of september. I'm due some holidays, so I'll turn it into a long weekend and catchup with some friends over there. Still a bit gutted that Im missing this sunday though, even if training hasnt been great the past few weeks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Done nothing for the past two weeks.. runners never made it out of the bag during the roadtrip for work, and I picked up a cold on the flight back. Jetlagged+sick for first 1/2 of the week, and just tired now.

    I am however signedup for my replacement triathlon :) 3 weeks to go! Cant wait to get back training after this weekend.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Brick session today.. definitely felt like I havent been out training for a few weeks. Outside of right knee was sore towards the end of the cycle; time to tell the IT band whos the boss again I think. Worrying how high average HR was for a 7min/mile pace.

    BIKE: 26k in 1hr5mins; max hr 164, average 139
    RUN: 2.85miles in 20mins (7mins/mile); max hr 170, average 159


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Managed to drag myself out of bed early thismorning for a swim, and out for a run in the vening then too. Was planning to run a bit longer but just wasnt feeling the love so turned back early. Was feeling very jealouse of all the people out training for the marathon (at least I assume thats what the masses were up to!).

    SWIM: 1k. (4x50,2x100,1x200,2x100,4x50).
    RUN: 4.6miles, 37mins (8min 2sec/mile). Average hr 137, max 157.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Wednesday 16th:
    SWIM: 1300m as a mix of 50s, 100s and 200s. I actually lost count so it was somewhere above 1300.. just not sure how far above :)

    Thursday 17th:
    CROSS: Gave underwater hockey a go with a friend's team.. good fun! Swimming with fins is hard work on your legs...
    (If you havent seen it before.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozVGOJLBkjY&feature=related)

    Sunday 20th:
    RUN: Im not sure I believe mapmyrun.com for the distance... its giving it back to me at 7.4miles, when I was expecting it to be about 6 (based on how I felt). Time was 47mins11sec, max hr 161, average 145... which would have me at 6min23sec/mile (just under a 40min 10k!), which I find a bit hard to believe (See stats for the 13th/14th this month, though I was still slightly under the weather on those days). I was fairly well rested having been on holidays for a few days, and calfs are a little stretched.. but.. hmm.. not sure it all adds up:confused:

    Today:
    SWIM: 1k. 2x100,200,500,2x50.


    The rest of this week is all about ticking over. Tomorrow is off. Planning to cycle to work wednesday, run 2miles+swim 800m (3x50,5x100,3x50) on thursday. Friday is off. Saturday will scope the route with bike/car combo, and race is sunday! Worried I havent done enough on the Bike, but its too late now :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    I didn't drown and had a great day out on Sunday :D

    Scoped out the course on Saturday: seeing the swim course as a single continuous setup in a lake (rather than just 60 lengths of the pool) didn't scare me as much as I expected, probably because it was all reasonably close to a shoreline. At least there wouldn't be currents to worry about. The run course mostly looked OK, until I saw 'Hill 60', the evilest hill I have ever seen in my life. Aparantly it's notorious in all the xc-races in the area. There would be three laps of the run course, and my calfs were tired when I walked up the hill fresh. Promptly blocked that from my mind ;). Drove the bike route and was quite happy until I saw all the hills at the north end of the course where you do two laps. Any notions I had of doing a fast run were gone. Still; nothing like a challenge, and I had set out to finish.

    On sunday got up at crack-of-dawn-o-clock and off to setup transition. I upgraded from duct tape to elastic bands for attaching the bike shoes to the bike this time round.. and found it much more practical than the hackerey I'd come up with for athlone! The route from the side of the lake into the transition zone was much nicer on bare feet than in athlone too, so my backup plan of using compeed plasters wasnt needed.

    Swim went well; I was in the first wave with all the other people with swim times of 38mins+. First half went well, but for the second half my goggles had fogged up enough that I had to stop and pull them up to sight occasionally. Got out at the end and nearly fell over during the first 5m of running towards T1.. didn't expect to be quite that light headed :rolleyes:!

    T1 went great, in+out in about 44seconds.

    Cycle: Settled into it and enjoyed the first flat sections.. got to the hills faster than I expected and just kept on them at a comfortable pace. Nearly hit a drain at speed going down a steep downhill bendy section of the course, which gave me a bit of a fright. On the next lap round someone had ended up on the opposite side of the road there and ended up getting medical attention (I slowed to see if he needed help, but two other cyclists had already dropped out to help out). Quads did feel the burn during the hills, but the weather out was great so at least I didn't get cold during my slow crawls uphill in my lowest gear. Overall the cycle wasn't as bad as I was expecting; I took a gel at 25k and again at 35k, using about 500ml water over the entire route (I think). Very impressed with the lack of drafting during the entire course.

    T2 again went well, although I arrived at my spot with a little too much speed and almost went on my ass on the damp grass. Recovered nicely and didn't take out anyone which was good. Minor faffing as someone else had racked their bike in my place, ending up with a t2 of about 1min 30.

    Out onto the run and for the first few mins my legs just weren't there. They eventually kicked in, but just before Hill60 -- which instantly took them back out of action for the next 1/2 lap. Every time round the course the hill creamed my legs for 1/2 the course, and then I made up time on the second 1/2 which was relatively flat before coming back downhill gradually again. My only gripe was there was no waterstations during the run. The pre-race info had one advertized on the run course, so I didnt bring a bottle with me for the run expecting there to be some available on the course.

    So. That's that. Delighted to have finished a standard-distance triathlon, pretty much hit all my expected times (40min swim, 1hr40min bike, 40min run.. give or take half a minute here or there -- Ill pull down the full times later), ending up with a time of 3hrs25seconds. A bit disappointed I didn't go under 40mins on the run (which I think wasn't a full 10k, making it all the more disappointing), and would have liked to come in under 3hrs. Not feeling the same glory as with the marathons, but thoroughly enjoyed it!

    Oh, and someone nicked (possibly by accident) my goggles and swim hat from transition :rolleyes:

    Cheers to everyone that's answered all my triathlon questions during the year -- I've now hit all my goals for the year, thanks for all the help! :D


    SWIM: 1500m, 0:39:04, average hr 157 max 211 (so presumably it messed up logging).
    BIKE: 40k, 1:39:08, average hr 155, max 175
    RUN: 10k, 0:42:10, average hr 168, max 178


  • Registered Users Posts: 3 Bleebucannon


    Well done on the Tri! Just came across the blog for the first time today and read most of it. Very helpful as I'm now starting to train with a Triathalon in April / May in mind. Made for v good reading, Thanks!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    I've been thinking of updating this log for a long time now. I'll fill in some information on what I did last year for continuity; the log kicked off from me learning to swim, and in 9 weeks time I'll hopefully have my first Ironman under my belt. My OCD tendencies cant let me skip the 2010 year of updates without filling in some info on what I was doing.

    My 2010 goal was to finish a half ironman in <6hrs, and do a good few olympic distance races (ideally getting under 2hrs30 in one of them).

    My biggest limiter was still swimming, as I never really felt confident in the water in 2009 (or had any sort of speed). I joined a tri club and spent the winter in the pool; after the initial shock of actually working during a swim session I improved a lot. In retrospect I shouldn't of waited to join a tri club; I thought you'd need to be ridiculously fit and pretty dedicated to the sport before you'd want to, but its a great way to meet folk and really enjoy some of the training sessions.

    The middle distance tri I did was in wales (Bala), my first race of the year, and I finished it in under 6hrs. That was what I was training towards, and was pretty happy with the result. I think my swim was about 36mins for 2k (i was really happy with this), the bike was slow (i'd done a good few long cycles, but never improved my speed), and I had an ok run (1'50 for 20k).

    The weekly hours I put into training from jan 2010 until the race were:
    2,3,4.5,2,5,5,7,4,5,7,7,6.5,5,6,7.5,7.5,5,8,4,10,11,(taper - i didnt track this).
    I'd various niggles during training and had to do a lot of running on grass. The longest bike session I did was 100k. Overall I trained more consistently than the previous year, but the structure was pretty erratic. Looking at the weekly totals now makes me cringe a little, they seem really low -- but thats what I was able to manage at the time, and I managed to (mostly) hit my goals off them.

    I did a few olympic trathlons then too (hell of the west, beast of the east, dublin city, blacksod point) but missed my goal of < 2.30 by a couple of seconds. The other fun event I did was the escape from ireland swim, where they drop you to Ireland's eye on a boat and you swim back to howth.

    It was a fun year and I really enjoyed both training and racing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    So, this years A goal is to finish IM Austria. I've been fascinated with the ironman since I first heard of it (when training for the dublin marathon back in 2008), and couldn't believe a person wouldn't die doing that much exercise in one day. When I saw Chrissie Wellington win Kona her third time I was in total awe of her and the event (until then I'd only read about it). I wanted to do a HIM last year, with the goal of doing a full distance one this year. The choices were Austria (if i got in) or Challenge Roth otherwise.

    The main things I'd like to get out of this year are:
    • a sub 40min 10k (which has eluded me the past two years)
    • finish IM Austria in a respectable time (to be determined ;))
    • and ideally clock a good olympic distance time depending on recovery from Austria.
    My bike time is the biggest limiter I've got for the IM. In the races last year I was pretty well placed in the swim/run relative to eachother, but dropped to the bottom of the field on the bike split. To put this in context, last year it took me 5hrs to do 100k over the sally gap (via laragh and blessington) and I needed a week to recover from it. Things have improved a lot since then, and I did the same cycle recently and have it under 4hrs without killing myself as part of a regular training week's brick session. Obviously there's still massive room for improvement here, but clearly better as a result from work over the winter.

    I've been reluctant to keep this log up to date because I didn't know how training for the IM would go. So far its been pretty consistent (25 weeks in with 5 until taper time), but there's still a lot that can go wrong. For a long time I was fearful of having to chase the bike cut off in the race (even with a good swim). I know there's lots of experience amongst the boardsies, but sometimes it can manifest itself in quite a negative way. I have enough gremlins telling me this is a bad idea, and don't really want my training plan shredded to bits--so I'm probably going to be a bit vague on some of the grand-plan details on any updates I post. I figured coming from the non-pointy end of things, if im successful with this, the log might be of interest to other folk considering giving the IM a go so kicked it off again. I've been lurking on boards for a while and its time to get involved again!

    At some point in the past few years I became a glass is half-full person, and the half-empty folk just kill the buzz. I'm prone to being critical and constructively-negative, so try to avoid anyone that might encourage me to question whether I can do this, and instead assume I can if I keep the training ticking along and survive some of the hardest sessions.

    Let's see how it goes :D

    Sub 40min 10k
    I ticked the 10k goal back in january at the fields of athenry. I'd signed up for the race because I was struggling with running in training, I hadnt been out in months and wasnt enjoying it--so I decided to sign up for a race to go through the motions and just have a fun day. It seems spending a lot of time in the pool had improved my cardio fitness, and after another month of running I was back on track. I initially thought my garmin was giving me dud data in training when I did a few intervals (the hrs are way off -- so i wasnt trusting the pace), and was quite surprized on the day that it had been telling the truth. After the first km which was slow and a bit of a warmup, the next 8 were run in lockstep with another guy--at 1k to go i'd been told it was all downhill so I kicked off and ran hard. The PB was a little bittersweet, it took me about three weeks to fully recover from the race so training wasn't brilliant after, but I'm still happy I managed to finally bag it. Great race--will certainly be going back there next year! I had paced myself a little conservatively during it, and the new 10k goal is 36'xx (another time).


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Run: (missed an interval session, plan was 8x4mins @10k pace)

    Swim: 900m warmup, 2x(2x200m sprint, 400m sprint, 2x100m sprint, 100m easy). With good rest between each. Badly paced this lot and suffered at the end, 200s between 2'50/3'15, 400s were 6'15/6'35, 100s between 1'25/1'35.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,454 ✭✭✭ Anton Glamorous Repression


    Best of luck with the race and training. You look to have some great speed in the swim.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Thanks jackyback; fingers crossed some of it transfers to the open water and I havent just improved my kick off the wall! :D

    LSR: 2hrs, 25k. 4'49/k. Average HR 129. Normally find the LSR nice and easy but legs just weren't happy tonight, calfs quads it-band and glutes all complained during it.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭Izoard


    Don't worry about the bike - I'm painfully slow (8.5-9hours for W200), but still managed 6.25 for the bike at IM CH, without killing myself.

    You'll be grand!


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