Swimming, cycling and plodding my way to Las Vegas

griffin100 · 15-06-2011 1:01pm

Well done in Wicklow.

I didn't do Wickow, I was safely tucked up in bed when the real Iron Men JB and Izoard where doing it.

The Good News: Got a pass from the Mrs to do the Swinford HIM. I get to race against the great CW; I might even get a cryptic name - something like fat bald hairy legged pasty bloke

The Bad News: Its the day after the baby's christening and I wont be able to get down to Mayo on the Saturday and I don't know if a 3-4hr drive down on the race morning is a doable

Feck.

Woddle · 15-06-2011 2:28pm

griffin100 wrote: »

I didn't do Wickow, I was safely tucked up in bed when the real Iron Men JB and Izoard where doing it.

The Good News: Got a pass from the Mrs to do the Swinford HIM. I get to race against the great CW; I might even get a cryptic name - something like fat bald hairy legged pasty bloke

The Bad News: Its the day after the baby's christening and I wont be able to get down to Mayo on the Saturday and I don't know if a 3-4hr drive down on the race morning is a doable Feck.

Sorry bout that, it was Izoards I had read.

I wouldn't recommend the 3/4 hour drive, I did sth similar for Cork and it was a disaster but if you've done sth similar before and don't mind it...

griffin100 · 16-06-2011 10:41am

Got home from work last night and mentioned to the missus that I had ordered one of these - a nice cheap bike computer. She responded with curses and a rolling of eyes - she had just reserved one of these for me in the LBS as a fathers day present :eek:

Now I'm not a gadget person, I'm still using my Argos €40 HRM and have never had anything as fancy as a GPS watch. My question is, is it worth getting the Garmin? She has reserved the watch from an order due to today or tomorrow so cancelling the order is no big deal. Do people actually use these yokes in races or are they just for training? Any advice appreciated.

ronanmac · 16-06-2011 11:05am

griffin100 wrote: »

My question is, is it worth getting the Garmin? She has reserved the watch from an order due to today or tomorrow so cancelling the order is no big deal. Do people actually use these yokes in races or are they just for training? Any advice appreciated.

Yes! Get a cadence sensor for it and a quick release strap, and you have your bike computer and run watch in one. Plus, when she buys you a power meter for next year's father's day, it will work as the head unit for that as well!
Personally, I'm a big fan, but perhaps a bit of a slave to it (can't run without constantly glancing down to see what pace I'm doing!).

A great present.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi · 16-06-2011 11:50am

They are a great job although i love stats and can spend ages after a session looking at all the various stats garmin spits out. Handy for the bike and run.

That is a nice Fathers Day present!!

kennyb3 · 16-06-2011 12:18pm

+1, get the garmin. I use the cateye and its pretty basic and the back light is rubbish for the winter. I have a 305 also which i ve been using recently and is much more fun

pgibbo · 16-06-2011 12:24pm

+1 on the Garmin. It might even convert you to the dark "techie" side!

Sweet present! :cool:

catweazle · 16-06-2011 1:01pm

Unless things have improved on the HRM that come with it, I would go the extra distance and get the polar strap to accompany it. I will fish out the link if interested. I have a cateye and it seems to be very hit or miss on when it gives me info or not - every time I hit a bump it is in danger of switching off and wont go back on till you hit another bump

I think the 310 is great.

I don't use it for the sprints at all but for Olympic and the 1/2 Ironman I will have it under the wet suit.

I will be listening for that tell tale beep when you are behind me in Swinford

griffin100 · 16-06-2011 1:11pm

Feck it I've told her to get it for me.

Sweet present!

That is a nice Fathers Day present!!

A great present.

I suppose she aint that bad after all

I'm waiting on the quid pro quo though, she did mention she'd like a new car when the baby was born

I will be listening for that tell tale beep when you are behind me in Swinford

......as I come up to lap you.....:pac:

griffin100 · 20-06-2011 2:21pm

After one run I'm a Garmin convert:D Did a 13.1 miles (its great to be so accurate) run last night using the 310 for the first time and found it actually quite helpful in pacing. The plan is to cycle up Mt Leinster again soon and see what the elevation profile looks like on that - hours of fun:D

Still having problems getting a proper long bike done, should hopefully improve after next week when the kids athletics, swimming, violin and guitar activities stop or slow down for the summer months.

Starting to see some improvements in the swim times. Did a 3,000m set last Thursday with a 5 x 200m off 4.30 in the middle. 400's came in at 3.56, 3.50, 3.47:eek:, 3.50, 3.56 - nicely symmetrical. Not fast by any stretch of the imagination but probably the best swim set I've ever swam.

I'm soooo tempted to do Swinford but don't know if I could afford the week taper from IM training given the way training to date has been going and I don't want to travel all that way after a hard weeks training and not do myself justice:rolleyes:

griffin100 · 27-06-2011 12:31pm

Still plodding on but with my new toy to kick me up the ass when needed:)

Last Friday tried to do my first 3,800m since IMUK in the pool - had to stop after 3,200m as both pace and technique had gone to pot. Was heading for a 1.27/28hr swim so that has been a bit of return to earth for me. The way I died over the last 1,000m or so was a good indication of how poor my long distance swim fitness has become.

Finally finally got a first proper long bike in yesterday - 105kms in 4.15hrs:eek: WTF? Last year I'd be doing 105kms in around 3.20hrs. I am blaming my slow ride on the very hilly route (>1,000m of climbing according to the Garmin) which included Mt Leinster; the ****e road surface over most of the route and the head wind for a lot of the ride. That said, that's still shockingly slow - 7.30ish IM pace:o I am seriously going to have to reconsider my use of a TT bike for the Kerry race; or else put a cassette of dinner plates on the back.

However things improved dramatically in the afternoon as we headed to the final of the Carlow Community Games. My 5 year old chap had qualified for the finals of the Under 6 60m sprint and 4 x 60m sprint relay on Saturday by winning both his individual races and the relay qualifier. Obviously brimming with confidence having crossed the line 3 times in a winning position the day before he asked me on the way to the finals where he would go to collect his medal when he won his races:D However his confidence was not misplaced as he romped home in the 60m individual sprint and then ran the last leg of the relay to take another gold

Was a great day out altogether. I think I was more excited than he was. An under 6 relay race has to be seen to be believed, the carnage at the baton changeovers is hilarious, especially when they have 4 years old kids on the 'B' teams. I think the best thing about me getting into triathlon has been the interest in sport and athletics it has given my kids - his older sister swam in the Under 8 25m FS a couple of weeks ago but whilst not winning a medal did it in a faster time than I've seen some triathletes do a length in:D.

A quick comment on the Community Games setup; on Saturday over 1,000 kids from Carlow ran, jumped and threw their hearts out. Its great to think that there are still people out there who give up their free time to organise event such as these and train these kids. Its also great to see the playstation generation engaging in sport.

griffin100 · 04-07-2011 2:09pm

Good weekend put in. Finally felt like I was training for an IM. Friday did 8 mile run; Saturday did a 15 miles LSR in the morning and that evening did a 1,500m OW sea swim race; Sunday did 128kms on the bike at an average speed of 29kph. All good. Swim showed just how bad my sighting is, especially when there is only one course marker and I'm without my glasses and have leaking goggles. Bike was a very flat route after last weeks 1,000m of climbing so this helped with the higher average speed. Also kept an average HR of 130 and felt very fresh coming off the bike which is good.

One downside of the flat route is the 4hrs plus in a TT position with my body resting on the front half inch of saddle resulting in epic knob numbness today - the first time I've ever had this but I'm hoping it'll pass soon (it fecking better:eek:). My wife doesn't believe me when I tell her I've no feeling in the big fella and thinks its just an excuse to get her to rub some life back into him.

Izoard · 04-07-2011 2:32pm

griffin100 wrote: »

My wife doesn't believe me when I tell her I've no feeling in the big fella and thinks its just an excuse to get her to rub some life back into him.

Does that excuse work...? A beneficial side effect of IM training that I haven't really taken advantage of.

Maybe I'll knock out 140km tomorrow (taper? what?) and test out your thesis...

griffin100 · 04-07-2011 2:43pm

Does that excuse work...? A beneficial side effect of IM training that I haven't really taken advantage of.

I'm still trying to get her to help shave my legs so that was a step too far for her:)

Maybe I'll knock out 140km tomorrow (taper? what?) and test out your thesis...

On a serious note I'm going to avoid the standard Fink 3 week taper this year. On the basis of what I learned last year and this was backed up in a link posted in another log (MCOS?) given my relatively low level of training a long taper is not needed (except perhaps on the running as per a standard marathon plan). I plan to train long on the bike and swim up until maybe 10 days out and then slack off.

shotgunmcos · 04-07-2011 2:51pm

Yep, 2 week taper, back off the running earlier than the rest, cycling a week out and keep swimming! Its what I'll do next time no doubt! Obviously a bit more if you have rounded your IM phase off with some mammoth weeks

catweazle · 04-07-2011 3:31pm

I was going to start asking this myself on my own log - i am happy enough with my swim and run and am prepared to bring them down but I would like to get a few more long bike rides in before the 24th.

I am not a huge fan of the taper so I was going to start cutting down from ten days beforehand but would like a weekend long bike until the saturday before which is 8 days out. I assume the bike is less hard on the legs than the run

Would this be ok

pgibbo · 04-07-2011 3:53pm

catweazle wrote: »

I was going to start asking this myself on my own log - i am happy enough with my swim and run and am prepared to bring them down but I would like to get a few more long bike rides in before the 24th.

I am not a huge fan of the taper so I was going to start cutting down from ten days beforehand but would like a weekend long bike until the saturday before which is 8 days out. I assume the bike is less hard on the legs than the run

Would this be ok

Once it's a percentage (75% or so I'd guess) of the long bikes you've been doing and not over a crazy hilly route then I'd imagine it would be fine. Maybe do half to three quarters of it at HIM pace? I'll let the experts tear my advice apart now!

griffin100 · 08-07-2011 12:09pm

Taper.....hhmmm.....I'm not an expert by any means but for a HIM I reckon 10 days taper would be fine. For me its not about the amount of training done coming up to a race but the intensity of the work; certainly a 3hr bike ride over flat surfaces 10 days out from an IM / HIM would be preferably to a 3hr ride over a tough route. As I said I wont be putting in the monster hours of training that are going to require a full 3 week taper.

After my first disastrous attempt at a full 3,800m swim this year I tried again this week. Ended up swimming the full distance at a very comfortable pace and came in at exactly 1.19 - that's over two minutes faster than I've ever done it in the pool before. Whats perhaps more important is that I felt fine at the end and my pace didn't drop over the distance, in fact I got slighter faster - my 100m pace was 2.04 for the first 1,000; 2.05 for the second and third 1,000m's; 2.03 for the last 800m:). Not fast by the standards of some of the fish on here but I was very happy.

Back in the pool last night and the improvements were still coming - I did a 100m x 5 off 2.00 coming in at 1.47; 1.47; 1.50; 1.50; 1.52 - again a significant improvement for me. I might be getting a handle on this swimming lark at last;) It's nice to see that the complete reworking of my stroke has borne some fruit.

griffin100 · 25-07-2011 1:25pm

Its getting closer and closer now (5 weeks to Hardman) and I'm starting to prepare myself mentally for the pain of doing an IM off minimal training, especially the bike

Did a second full 3.8km swim this week in 1.20hr which I was very happy with as I swam the first 1500m very slowly at a 'warm up' pace - it was supposed to be my warm up but the pool was packed and I knew if I stopped before starting my main set I'd have some fat pasty breast stroking pensioner cutting in front of me so I kept going. Finished the last 800m at a faster pace than the first 3,000m and felt great at the end with no real fatigue.

I'm up to 5hrs / 140kms on the bike now. Plan is to try and get 2 or 3 more 5-6hr rides done over a hilly route.

Run is going ok and I'm up to 20 miles LSR. I've done the last few LSR's completely on HR trying to stay around 150bpm with no reference to pace. Did the 20 mile LSR on Saturday with an average of 150bpm at 9.14 pace so slightly outside 4 hr marathon pace; but I felt fine the whole time and could have kept going.

For the last few weeks the plan is to get in as much swimming as possible; to do a 3hr/2hr brick and a 5-6hr bike ride over this bank holiday weekend; do a 22 miles LSR and another 5-6hr bike ride over the following week and then taper off the run with one more long 5hr bike tapering off the bike about 12-14 days out.

I'm actually looking forward to it:)

griffin100 · 10-08-2011 3:16pm

Time for an update........

Still doing a bit without putting in any monster weeks.

Swim is going well. Have done another couple of 3.8km swims all around 1.21 ish so happy with that. My short stuff is getting better. Last week did a 100 x 4 off 2 mins with a 100 x 4 off 2 mins repeat starting at 9 mins. The 100's came in at 1.40 (pb) / 1.45 / 1.45 / 1.50 - 1.50 / 1.55 / 1.55 / 2.00 - tired on the last 100m. Did a 400 x 3 off 8 minutes the weekend coming in at 7.30 / 7.45 / 7.45 - not a fish by any imagination but a hell on improvement for me this year. I must be doing something right, another swimmer referred to me as a 'swim smooth' swimmer - she was a 'total immersion' swimmer. Apparently she could tell from my stroke.

Bike is as usual the big limiter. I'll have around 800kms less done for Hardman than I did for IMUK last year (and I didn't do nearly enough for IMUK). However a lot of this years stuff has been done on hillier routes so I'm hoping that will make a difference. Mapmyride puts the Hardman route down as around 1,150m of climbing so that's not too bad. My repeats of the 9 stones on Mt Leinster will help I think. I did however cross over to the dark side last week and I put a compact chainset on the TT bike. Oh the shame...........I went from a 53/39-11/25 to a 50/34-12/26. It doesn't make getting up the big hills any easier, but it does make the middle size hills a lot easier as I can stay in the saddle for longer.

My running is going well. I did my final LSR the weekend and got up to 22 miles. I held the HR as close to 148-150 as possible and averaged 9.05 miles (I actually got quicker as the distance increased). So that's a 20 and a 22 mile run in the weeks leading up to the race. The weekend in between these two long runs I did a 60kms / 21kms brick. I held 30kph on the bike (flat course) and then ran off the bike keeping the HR at around 155 or less for the half marathon distance and was comfortable the whole time coming in at 1.55hrs for the run.

I'm not making any predictions for a time but I do have a couple of best case scenario goals within the individual disciplines - match my 1.15.xx from last year on the swim; come in under 7 hrs on the bike; break 4 hrs on the run; do not spend 15 mins in both T1 and T2:).

Las Vegas is getting closer and I've got to make a decision on whether to travel or not in the few days. It looks like my wife wont be able to go now and I don't think going on my own would be ideal. I'm sorting out flights and accommodation at the minute so a firm decision is needed very soon. According to TI there are only 10 or so Irish athletes travelling. This video really makes me want to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZlbjOo-2yk

Abhainn · 10-08-2011 11:39pm

Looks epic.

interested · 11-08-2011 8:04am

griffin100 wrote: »

Swim is going well. Have done another couple of 3.8km swims all around 1.21 ish so happy with that. My short stuff is getting better. Last week did a 100 x 4 off 2 mins with a 100 x 4 off 2 mins repeat starting at 9 mins. The 100's came in at 1.40 (pb) / 1.45 / 1.45 / 1.50 - 1.50 / 1.55 / 1.55 / 2.00 - tired on the last 100m. Did a 400 x 3 off 8 minutes the weekend coming in at 7.30 / 7.45 / 7.45 - not a fish by any imagination but a hell on improvement for me this year. I must be doing something right, another swimmer referred to me as a 'swim smooth' swimmer - she was a 'total immersion' swimmer. Apparently she could tell from my stroke.

All sounds very positive - the 1.40 pb for the 100 would suggest the stroke is going well - the drop in times as the repeats went on suggest swim fitness might be a limiter. Absolutely nothing to worry about right now - but rather than go a 1.40 pb for the 1st 100 - doing a set where you do 4 @ 1.45 or 1.50 instead of letting it slip slower and slower is how you'll improve on that fitness over time.

re: hardman - havent seen the swim map / course or not sure if there is one but from my own experiences in the lake Id strongly suggest being very careful when sighting before and during the swim. Its encompassed by trees which can be disorientating and make sighting difficult - if the buoys are large and obvious you'll be grand. Hope the weathers kind to you for this spin.

Izoard · 11-08-2011 9:22am

The Vegas gig looks great...hope you make it.

Any ideas on the expected numbers for Hardman?

griffin100 · 11-08-2011 2:29pm

@ Interested: Thanks for the advice, as ever useful. Doing 'fast' sets is still quite new to me so need to work on the pacing. Funny you should mention the sighting thing, I am worried about that myself as I'm blind without my glasses and if its a small field I may have no one to follow in the swim!

@ Izoard: Not sure of field size. When I spoke to the organizers a couple of months ago they were hoping for around 75 but no update since then. I emailed the organisers last week to make sure that the event was still going ahead before I booked accommodation as there has been no communication from them at all since registration and they came back immediately but the lack of updates is a bit worrying. It looks like it'll be a long and lonely day out:rolleyes:

Izoard · 22-08-2011 10:55am

All the best for the weekend.

A tough course with a select group of participants, will certainly qualify you as a Hardman at the finish.

Enjoy!

catweazle · 22-08-2011 11:07am

I hope this one goes well for you too - It would be great to have a low cost alternative to a foreign Ironman. Although Killarney wouldn't be a place to spring to mind when I think of low cost.

interested · 25-08-2011 9:21am

Good luck with the long day out down south this weekend chief ! Hope the sun comes out and the tail wind follows you guys around the ring.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi · 25-08-2011 9:37am

Best of luck for the weekend P have a god day out.

griffin100 · 25-08-2011 10:14am

Haven't had a chance to update log in a while so thanks for the well wishes.

Last couple of weeks of training went ok. Did a 12hr bike week 3 weeks out including a 6.30hr ride. This long ride only covered 150km but I spent it doing as much climbing as possible so hopefully that will stand to me. Swim wise my last few sessions have all been about technique rather than stamina so I hope I don't regret that on Saturday. Run wise I've been having a nice 3 week taper as per standard marathon plans.

Really looking forward to this. I have driven most of the bike course at this stage and it's epic. Nothing too steep that I can see but then again I haven't seen the last climb of the day which is Molls Gap. Some really fast looking descents. I did the climb out of Waterville yesterday and flew up it so either the taper has me full of energy or the endless hill repeats of Mt Leinster have helped. Saturday will tell

So far organisation seems ok. Some issues around race manual and race rules contradicting each other but I'm sure the briefing will clear that up.

30 individuals and 11 relay teams taking part so it'll be fun sighting in the swim with no pack to follow and the bike will be very lonely! At least the run course has changed to laps rather than an out and back so I may have some company on that! With only 41 places I think my hippie training puts me in with a good chance of coming last..........watch this space.......

pgibbo · 25-08-2011 10:19am

Best of luck this weekend dude!

Swimming, cycling and plodding my way to Las Vegas

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