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

Forget sharks... you'd want to see the sea lions!

Wrapped up the year with CK and Blacksod. Both great races that I really enjoyed. I planned to go to CK and swim/bike, then see how my foot felt on the run.. it had continued to feel a bit painful in the run up to the race, as a niggle rather than an injury. I had it taped up on the day and it felt ok, but was sore after the race. I'd been off running until race day to avoid agrivating it. Pretty much did the same in the run up to Blacksod a few weeks later, trained in the pool and cycling but kept off running.. did the race, and was sore again the next day. Finally gave in and went to get it looked at, had my calf and plantar battered by a PT... but saw no real improvement. On to physio who's had me off running since and doing a load of strength work instead. Tried to get me back on a cross trainer a few weeks ago but the pain came back the next day.

It's killing me not to be running at the moment... I had so much envy cheering at the dublin marathon last week. Of all the exercises the physio has me doing I now hate push ups the most.. plain old push ups... push ups on a medball.. push ups rotating onto your side and raising a leg into an advanced side plank... push ups on dumbells rotating into a T... push ups with your feet on a swiss ball... all evil exercises. If I had any courage I'd of singed up for the forum challenge and used my newfound knowledge to set a torturous 15min session for someone

Still, in the grand scheme of things it could be worse.. I can still cycle and swim, and I'd wanted to have a go at some strength+conditioning for a while anyway. The S&C work has added a nice bit of variety into the usual week which has kept training fun lately!

Miserable 5.5hr brick session today; been running OK lately, but that was just messy and slow. 7 weeks to go (I count weeks as over after the long brick is done).

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Are you running completely pain free now?

Pretty much. Have to do a bit of maintenance work to keep it that way. MTW is a legend, one visit and he told me what was wrong and how to sort it.

Got my first blister in ages today... stupid really, haven't been sorting calluses as they appear. You forget all these things when you dont go running. Time for surgery

Solid weekend of cycling, better training that I've pulled off before. I think the improved weather had something to do with it. Running is up over 2hrs now too, which im thankful for. Swimming not going so well, don't think I've disimproved but inconsistency of training in the pool the last month is obvious.. no improvements, and obvious mess of technique. Need to get some long sessions in with more than 2k main sets now in the next few weeks.

Training for an ironman, but dreaming of a mile

Not a great weekend of cycling given we're only a few weeks out from taper time, good spin on saturday but sunday's was only just over 100k in 4h45.. managed 1700m of climbing but it was stupidly windy, had to abandon an attempt at sally gap when I realized it was just a stupid place to be. 10k run off the bike was grand. Long run this week was grand too, nothing amazing. Swimming is pants, not going to have any OW sessions done before heading over there at this rate.. given the mad mass start and that it's a sea swim I think I might have to sit back and accept I wont be taking a swim PB if it means it sets me up for a better overall race. I dont think after a winter in the pool I'll take well to getting battered at the start. Both bikes currently in need of mechanical fixing/servicing, but have limited time to sort it out.

Crikey, I just re-read that and it does sound a bit negative doesn't it? I didn't mean for it to come across that bad; with just two more weeks till taper I'm starting to worry though. Long run tomorrow before work, I'm hoping met.ie is wrong

tick.. tock.. taper.

This was my final build week before the taper, had a gym session monday, three pool swims during the week, 35k run on wednesday, an hour run friday, short spin yesterday and a long brick session today. I had another bike session scheduled during the week too, but that had to be abandoned due to lack of time. I really dont know where the time comes from to fit all these sessions in, its kinda amazing how it appears just as the increase is needed each week.

The brick session today was a hilly 6hr spin but without as much mileage as would be nice to see on the garmin; it's hard to get a feel for what sort of time I'm looking at for the bike in lanzarote. I had my first disastrous run off the bike in a long time too (bonked at 3k and had a jog/walk to make it up to 45mins.. it was meant to be a 1hr run). Lesson learned; dont slack off eating on the last leg home on the bike, and dont go for the run without a gel in your pocket. My powertap gave up the ghost half way through the cycle, I hope its just the battery wanting to be replaced.

So many aspects of this race have unknowns for me; the swim is going to be challenging (sea swim, running mass start, not much OW swimming before race day), the cycle is going to be tough and depending on the wind could still have me chasing the cut offs, the run should be ok to 20k but after that I'm not sure.. After being injured I seem to have come back ok, but haven't had many really good long runs, they've all mostly been about just hitting the target distance. So let the taper madness begin where I second guess all my training

Oh, and if there's hailstones in lanzarote I'm not doing it

what the hell was i thinking, this time two weeks ill be in lanzarote :eek:

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Anyone else going over?

Think of how great it'll be to be back and recovered while everyone else is just stepping it up. Then you can start training for Challenge Barca...:pac:

Nope, this time it's just myself. Some family were meant to be going over, but they defected for a longer trip to mallorca instead. There's a gang of irish folk so will recognize a few faces. I need to get some study done so probably going to use the few days to sort that out.

Barca... you're having a laugh!

Also, the 14day outlook is now in range. http://www.holiday-weather.com/lanzarote/forecast/fourteen-day/ . Looks to be 22deg with 27kmph winds. Not sure if this is good or bad.. ignorance is bliss

Just did a lap of the swim course. No chance of that swim being cancelled... beautiful. Hope they have big buoys on it for the race though, there's very little to sight off on the outward bound leg. Must remember on race day not to stop and stare at the shoals of fish swimming around and under you either!

For my next trick, I shall build a bike!