Is it Now?

Abhainn wrote: »

Ah comon now pop. Where I'm from the farmers let the cows and cattle out this time of year to eat down the plenty juicy grass on the road sides.
You farmer basher;)

"I say, you there in the huge Massey Ferguson, take down that fence on your land at once! The public have a right to roam, do you hear me, a RIGHT TO ROAM! I'll set the authorities on you!"

Day one when I moved down here, with an American accent. It's been downhill ever since

Mon 27th Feb 5000m swim

I had a good morning at work, so "celebrated" by taking a long lunch in the pool. The cough is still here, but didn't seem to bother me. First 2k went by easy enough, I got into a good rhythm. Kept it up until 3k, in about an hour.

I realized that my kick isn't all it could be; I'm kicking from the knees, and that's very inefficient, so I tried moving my calfs, and getting the power from them. Phenomenal, there was an instant difference in speed. I did about 500m working on this, before doing a set of 1 length slow, 1 length kick and pull hard. I'm going to have to work more on this technique, but there's a huge amount of extra force to be utilized. For someone bred on running, I should be getting more bang from my legs than I have been.

Did a few sets of slow Breast stroke, fast pull, that went well. Continued on to go past my previous 4.1k distance record, thought briefly about Yelena Isinbayeva, but kept going to 4.25k, then 4.5k. By this stage I was getting a few cramps etc., but had a quick stretch, and made up the 5k, in about 1:50 total time. No real rest, but "steady as she goes" meant none were needed. I'm going to start a bit more dedicated pool intervals from now.

Dory Dory wrote: »

You're giving me a run for my money, dayglo boy.

Have to admit, I wasn't just thinking about Yelena Isinbayeva. You keep upping the stakes

Mon pm 7k steady run

First run in a fortnight, and a good test for the knee. This started out quick, and stayed quick- I couldn't hold back after two weeks on the dry, no sirree. The route was along the flat and forgiving surface of the Railway Walk, where all gravel has been swallowed by firm mud and grass, a treat to run on. The legs and knee felt good, no issues at all in fact, although I'm expecting to get pain later. In fact, I expect to just have to deal with knee pain from here on in, until the pain-free slumber of the grave. But for the moment, I'm reveling in a-bit-of-pain-but-alivedness. I'll keep up the running this week, allied with swims and bikes, and will hopefully start into a structured 10k program next week.

Wed 22k bike

Local loop, giving it wellie on the hills. Nothing much to say except biking uphill really hurts the quads, hurts so good.

Sat 14k bike, 6.5k run, 19k bike

I figured I'd try a run off the bike, so cycled a hilly 14k to Little Sliabh Bui, and had a scout of what I think is the route. The last bike climb to the start was tough, I was in my highest gear and straining to stay in the saddle.

The run was a learning experience- absolutely no power in the legs at all. I was climbing initially, and couldn't manage faster than a jog. Very strange, as my breathing seemed normal, and there was no muscle pain per se. I've seen a few Tri guys talk of "jelly legs" off the bike- maybe this is what they are referring to? Anyway, over the brow, off the fireroad, into proper, gorse laden, grassy, mucky, trail, which skirts a forest and affords a wonderful view all the way to Lug. Magical, this is where I like to be running. The return is along fireroad, pace was nothing to write home about; but a decent run.

Back on the bike along some new backroads, for a steady 19k.

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Really feel you are not making the effort dp and you should add 1 or 2 more sports in there. I caught a bit of skiiing biathlon earlier. Can you carry a sniper rifle on your bike and take down some targets? Or do some hurdling.. wasn't that your 1st choice growing up?

Seriously though, fair play on your multi-faceted dedication. Going well.

Might carry a rifle in the Tonlagee race and take out some M40 targets all right:D

I'm very happy to be running pain free this week. Will up the tempo a bit on the runs, won't extend the distances too much for a few weeks. Recce leg 7 in a month or so, great time of year to be running the trails. Oddly enough, I was contemplating Cushbawn this morning (kidsitting though). Don't like the sound of that new gravel path.

Mon 5th March 2.3k swim

First 1000m I tried to keep the pace up a little bit, came in 16:xx (lane clock broken, so going by 12hr clock), which is faster than I've gone before. This is the pace I'll be doing the longer sets at, a bit more at a time. It feels like a comparison decent running pace.

Next was 250m backstroke,
250m breast stroke,
500m alternating pull and kick,
300m alternating freestyle sprint, slow breast.

No idea of the sprint times, but there was speed there. Legs and arms were working well, without me overthinking it, which I believe is a result of the drills.

Tue 1.1k swim

Pushed for time, this was more like recovery pace, and sure enough. legs etc. felt good after it.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Don't know if you ever do much core/strength/flexibility/balance work...but if not, keep yoga (or something similar) in mind.

Hmm, that's not a bad idea. I'll bear yoga in mind, could do with more flexibility (and less crankiness!).

Dory Dory wrote: »

Oh, and way to crush Krusty in that race. The clown totally ate your dust.

Thanks:D He's been a changed man ever since, I think that race is the last thing he thinks of before sleep; first thing upon rising. Everyone knows all his training is just leading up to the rematch he so desperately needs to fulfill himself. Sad really, that these grudges can take over body and mind- he's even taken to wearing ball-crushing shorts in races, in an effort to enhance his pain threshold :eek:

Wed 7.5k bike, 7k run, 7.5k bike.

This one was hilly and windy. I took the mountain bike up Annagh Hill, cycling to the start of my steep "tester" hill. Legs were jellyish off the bike, but I tried the small steps/higher cadence as recommended by jackyback, and it seemed to work. By the top of the steep part, my legs had loosened a bit, and I stretched into a bit of trail running. The view from the ridge was magnificent, a fresh and bright day to blow away any cobwebs. Back down again, and onto the bike for the spin home.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Thanks for posting your observations about climbing technique on Bally8's log. Useful tidbit of information that I will take with me on my next hill session.

There's a very steep part of my local Annagh Hill that we sometimes train on- I've never managed to run the whole thing, even though its only 700m long, its a hell of a gradient. PositiveNegativ, my sometimes training partner, is one of the best climbers around (as in he was probably the best in Ireland, in his day), and he just chug-chug-chugs his way all the way up, very small steps, arms moving all the time, cadence ticking over, breathing and heart rate kept under control. I've tried following him a few times, and although I can never keep up for too long, I can stay close for a lot longer if I mimic the baby steps action.

Once you lose your breathing going uphill, you're finished- lactate hell.

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Plus one on losing your breathing going uphill. Absolute misery.

What’s your thinking on walking, hands on legs tactic? I find it works for me in that I can keep pace with some lads doing the baby steps shuffle. But does walking/striding likely to cost you later in the race?

It can be a bit of a battle to get going again.

Hands on knees, walking (and jogging in bursts), often works for me too- I like the way it can get you a "breather". But I've tried both methods against the ascending metronome that is PN, and conclude that "baby steps/high cadence" is the more efficient use of energy. As you suggest, bursts tend to hurt you more later on.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

it's the mental aspect of giving in as you slow from a run to a walk that is the killer. Once I've given in once, it's easy enough to succumb again.

Very good point. Sucks mental juice from you, gives a mental boost to your opponents.

Thurs pm 22k bike

Today was very busy with work, by 5pm I was wound up tighter than a camel's sphincter, grabbed the opportunity at 5:30 to catch the end of the evening light on the roads. Decent spin, went hard on all the uphills, and kept the cadence up right the way round. It certainly helped ease the stress, as will the bottle of wine I'm going to murder tonight.

Mon 12th March 3050m swim

I was standing by a cold and damp rugby pitch for three hours yesterday, and never managed to warm up for the rest of the day, so didn't do any training. Today I got 3050m in the pool, 62 mins total. First k 18 mins, then mainly concentrating on upper body for the rest of the stuff.

Tue 2k wu, 8x400m, 2k wd

Right, its time to bring a bit of structure to base training. I'm following a Furman Institute 10k plan, which has 3 key sessions a week, which I can supplement with swims, bikes, and trail funruns. Today was 8x400m, which I did at the Arklow track. I last did 400's five weeks back, averaging about 83 secs each, so I was interested to see what sort of shape I'd be in, having done little running and introduced swims and bikes. More than interested in fact, as this would be the first test of how multisport will feed into my running times.

First one, felt nice and strong all the way round, came in 78 secs... holy crap! That didn't even feel too hard! I was really surprized at that. Jogged 100m, did another, repeat 8 times. Started to feel the hurt after 3, but thats the way they should be. Number 6 I "paced" more evenly, which just meant the foot was off the gas too much, and the time suffered. 7&8, I imagined an opponent on my shoulder for the last 150m, that worked. I'd say 95% effort, but there was another gear there had the opponent been real (there's always another gear!). Splits:

78, 81, 81, 82, 81, 85, 80, 79.

ocnoc wrote: »

I heard a story of these two awesome hill runners that were racing in Wicklow once. Neither wanted to lose. It was a real grudge match - they were sh!t talking for months about it.
What one of them did (a complete scumbag move) was to walk to recover on the final hill and kept the other guy in touching distance. Once it vaguely levelled off, he sprinted away as he was saving his legs while the other guy was keeping constant pressure on his.

It all depends on the type of climb, but more importantly, the time of race.

That's a sneaky move all right! There's another lad who slaps you on the back for "encouragement" when you pass him, urging you "go on, keep going, catch the next lad"; nine times out of ten he'll pass you again before race end:D

Whatever about tactics and terrain, the "walk/run" versus "baby steps" debate is more about whats generally best for most hills, but I'd lean towards the baby steps. I'm not a good climber, and tend to "break" if I start walking once.