Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
If the tri suit fits, wear it?
Options
-
07-11-2011 10:52pm#1My own arguably feeble attempt at a witty thread title, but everyone else was doing it. (Hope nobody else has this title, or similar)
If I had to pick one of the three sports as a trade, it would be cycling. Started cycling properly in the summer, and racked up a little over 2000km before college started getting in the way. It was the fitness I got from cycling that led me to doing a bit of running, and eventually, working on my swimming(needs a LOT of work).
Im quite confident in my cycling abilities, but I do need to shed some weight (6"4, 100kg) to go faster up the hills. I reckon I would be comfortable just hovering below 90kg, but that can be assessed as I lose the weight. At the moment I'm riding a Canyon Roadlite 7.0
As for running, I can hold 5:00m/km on a hillyish loop for just under 6k. Not sure If I can hold it for longer. Im starting Hal Higdon's marathon training plan tomorrow morning. I run in a pair of Nike Pegasus 27's at the moment.
Swimming is my real issue. Was at the pool today. Swam 250m I think, with breaks between lengths. My breathing technique is absolute pants, so unless any of the regulars here have any insights, I will need to get lessons in about 3 weeks(once the funds permit it).
Other than that, my overall goal for the year is the Crosshaven Challenge triathlon in Crosshaven, Cork next year. That is quite short though (500m swim, 10k bike 5k run), and is late in the year, so I'd like to get something in earlier in the year. Open to suggestions on what though.
That's pretty much it, feel free to criticise or help me in anyway ye see fit
4
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
Saturday
Went on the LSR before work. Happy with the pace (considering the pace of the other runs, myself, I probably could have pushed it a little faster?). Some of the splits vary by over a minute though, I understand hills can get in the way, but is this bad?
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/59581142
Sunday
Went for a cycle. Happy with how it went. Climbed Patrick's Hill in Cork twice. 54.8km overall, plus a few bits that I never recorded, so I would imagine we totaled closer to 56/57km.
http://app.strava.com/rides/2313236
Monday
Run this morning, a little slower than last week, but I was just keeping pace with my GF, but even as i went off by myself, I was a little slower than normal, so maybe my legs were feeling Sunday, I'm not sure. Beginning of week 2 of Hal Higdon's novice marathon plan.
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/59833620
Went for a swim. Felt tired in my legs tbh. Forgot to use the pull buoy. Breathing still not good. Hopefully starting lessons this week.
Dory Dory: Like I said there, forgot to get the pull buoy, but I tried slowing down dramatically and I think it helped at times, and other times, It made it harder
. I'm a bit of basket case :P 0 -
-
Should be going for a swim tomorrow, so I'll definitely have a go with the pull buoy.
I have a one-to-one lesson booked for next Monday at 7. It's €25 for a half hour, including use of the pool (as I'm not a member of the pool she teaches in). I'm happy enough to pay that.. It was pretty much on the lower scale of what I was expecting. 0 -
-
Unfortunately, I had a rather quiet week, and from the looks of it, with college, I'm gonna have another one this week, at least till the weekend.. Might try a brick session cycle run at the weekend to make up for the week..
Anyway, since my last post...
Wednesday:
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60078767
Can't remember exactly how I felt, but I think its our fastest time yet for that particular loop. 4.89km 5:46km, with the last 890m (my finishing sprint) done at 4:36
Went for a cycle later in the morning
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60105001
Happy with how it went. 32.55m, 27.8kmh average. Gonna use this loop I think for the brick session I'm planning next weekend
Thursday:
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60188931
Morning run as perscribed by Mr.Hal Higdon. Not a great time, but we left at 6.30 and I had been in the library till 2am the night before :]. Went back to bed after we got in :pac:
Saturday:
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60444669
LSR. A tad faster, and a tad shorter than last week. Nothing much else to say about it.
I had all sorts of plans to be up and out on Friday and Sunday, but work and college got in the way. Fingers crossed for a better week next week 0 -
Another quiet week. Things have calmed down though, so will be back on track next week.
Monday
Run: GF arrived outside my house as per usual, but was obviously in absolutely no form for running. I convinced her that we can just go tomorrow instead, so we both returned to our respective warm beds. Felt guilty, but it was great :pac:
Swim: Was all geared up to have my first swimming lesson, but the instructor cancelled last minute as her voice was gone. Rescheduled to the following Monday (tomorrow)
Tuesday
Run Absolutely freezing. gf text me to say that she would be a couple of minutes late as she had to de-ice her windscreen. Never has it been tougher to get out of bed for a run after seeing that text. Run itself was good. To the best of my knowledge, our fastest time on that route so far. 5:29/6:22/6:15/5:21/4:20, 5:34 avg As usual, sprinted off by myself at the end. 3miles.
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60725758
Wednesday
Run The longer of the mid week runs, pace took a big hit compared to yesterday. http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/60835221. 4miles.
Thursday & Friday Nothing. We missed our first ever HH training plan run. Leaving a college project to last minute, mean that I managed to spend somewhere in the region of 55hrs in college this week (on top of work), and I subsisted on chocolate and hot chicken rolls. As a result, even after it was submitted on the Friday, I was in no condition to go for a run.
Saturday. LSR. Ended up being cut short due to gf's really tight calf. Not sure what caused it. On a side note, her left(i think) foot goes numb(to the point that she needs to stop and shake it out)every so often while running. She maintains her shoes aren't too tight, anything else that would cause this? Was supposed to 5 miles, ended up being a smidgen over 4. http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/61178728
Sunday.
Brick Session Was looking forward to this during the week, as I new I needed to get out on the bike, two buddies were supposed to come with me, and we had planned on racing it, plus I was looking forward to a bit of craic timing my transition. End Result: Had to battle to get myself out of bed, friends bailed on me, and I cut the cycle short. I still went out though, and am absolutely delighted that I did.
18.24k Cycle - http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/61278930. 43m05s
T1 (I even get a kick out of writing that :pac: ) 2m34s
5.62k Run - http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/61271177 27m44s
Total = 1h12m44s
I imagine it doesn't compare to any of you machines out there, but I am delighted with myself!
Cycle left a little to be desired to be honest. Can usually do it at least 2minutes faster. That said though, I havent been on the bike in 11 days, and even before that it was pretty sporadic I guess.
Transition could have been a lot faster. I found myself doing things that I could have sorted before hand, or whilst on the bike.
The Run went great! It was my second best time for this loop, which is substantially hillier(still probably not hilly by other's standards though :P ) than anything I have run in the last 3 weeks with my gf. My legs felt really strange getting off the bike, I expected it, but I was still kind of caught off guard by it. Anyway, held pace at 4:56m/km. I found myself at times slowing down on the flat, pretty much for no reason. Once I copped on to my speed, I was like, hang on, I can go faster, and upped it with little consequence, only to find myself drifting back again. Weird, but nice to know i wasn't slowing through lack of ability.Will just have to concentrate more as I run I guess. I suppose it would help to maybe have an armband for my phone, so I can see my current pace, rather than clipping it to my shorts. Last split was the fastest, as my update at the 5k mark put me at 5:02 average, so I ran like a crazed man to finish under the 5m/km mark.
Looking forward to the swim lesson, and getting back on track in general (with college and training) next week. 0 -
Had planned to go for a run this morning but left it off so I could study for a test I had this afternoon. (All the good it did me, should have just gone for the run )
So I suppose if this will be of any interest to anyone, it'll be Dory Dory.
Had my first swimming lesson today. Pretty tired after it actually, as I did a lot more lengths than what I would normally do, and I didn't take as many breaks either. Basically what she had me do was: (I was pretty awful at everything really)
Do a length by myself so she could see. Then she had me do 2/3 lengths of drills where I wasn't allowed to take my hands out of the water, but instead just glide through the stroke and practice rolling my shoulders (which I now have a much better understanding of what people mean by it).
Then I spent a couple of lengths practicing my stroke with my arms coming out of the water, practicing pulling my elbows back as far as I could and then at the other end, stretching my arm out, and rolling my shoulder to get the extra reach. It was quite tough, but I reckon with some of my own time during the week in my regular pool I can get some good practice of this in. The I did the same thing, just with the pull buoy between my legs. Really weird swimming without my legs btw.
Then she had me sort of swim on my side for a few lengths with a swim board, to practice my head position and turning for breathing. Needless to say I was horrendous at this. Then to finish up I did one length of the backstroke (the technique is the same apparently), which I thought I did pretty well (I didnt :pac: ), and one length of sculling(with no legs, not sure if this is the norm). (Have never felt more inadequate in water in my entire life).
Definitely the most lengths I have done in the pool in one go I feel. Not sure about the size of the pool (maybe 20m?).
Pretty tired after it anyway. Still in college, supposedly doing a project, but not making much headway tbh.
Tomorrow beckons the start of HH novice marathon plan week 4. 3 mile run at 6.30am. Can't wait :rolleyes: Have a short core and weights session lined up with a friend afterwards too, once I make it to the gym. Looking forward to getting back to the pool to work on what I picked up in the swimming lesson, will probably have to wait until Wednesday though.
Taking a leaf out of shotgunmcos 's log, my DQS for today (assuming I don't eat anything else today) comes in at an absolutely astounding +1. I'll try and work on that for the rest of the week :cool: :pac:0 -
Hey! Good job on the water work! Sounds like you are definitely on the road to becoming a swimmer....and so glad you understand the meaning of rolling your shoulders. You defnitely needed one-on-one attention to be able to grasp that concept....a concept that is crucial to getting the stroke (and eventually the breathing) down. One question - when you say you were not allowed to have your hands come out of the water, do you mean you had to have your fingertips drag the surface of the water on the way forward through the stroke? We would do this drill to get used to the elbow being high. Just curious. Oh, and I'm a lover of the pull buoy - especially if you are going to do triathlons as you will need to rely mainly on your upper body strength for that leg of the event.
Well done grasshopper. Keep us posted!! 0 -
Advertisement
-
-
Hey! Good job on the water work! Sounds like you are definitely on the road to becoming a swimmer....and so glad you understand the meaning of rolling your shoulders. You defnitely needed one-on-one attention to be able to grasp that concept....a concept that is crucial to getting the stroke (and eventually the breathing) down. One question - when you say you were not allowed to have your hands come out of the water, do you mean you had to have your fingertips drag the surface of the water on the way forward through the stroke? We would do this drill to get used to the elbow being high. Just curious. Oh, and I'm a lover of the pull buoy - especially if you are going to do triathlons as you will need to rely mainly on your upper body strength for that leg of the event.
Well done grasshopper. Keep us posted!!
Yeah it's nice to finally grasp it (the concept, not so much in practice :pac: ). Re the hands in the water, I'm not sure what you mean by drag the surface of the water, I wasn't to have them surface at all. I think it was mainly just to get my hand angle right, as the water would provide more resistance than moving it through the air or something. I'm not sure tbh. I'll practice it anyway, and hopefully by next week I'll be challenging Michael Phelps 
.
The pull buoy was a really weird sensation, but now that I've used it once, I'll have no qualms about using it again, because I know how and all that. Thanks for taking an interest though, it provide great motivationNot sure if you're already doing this but make sure you've fully exhaled by the time you take a breath in the swim. Also maybe GF foot problem due to laces too tight?
Yeah, as silly as it sounds, I know I should, but I forget to a lot. I'll have to work on that I guess! I asked her if her shoes were too tight, and she said they weren't. We'll see how tomorrow goes I guess! Thanks for the help:)0 -
Wow. Arms couldn't come out of the water at all? Cool. Got It. The drill I was speaking of is to train proper arm position through exaggeration of high elbow placement that is forced by dragging your fingertips across the surface of the water after you have finished your under water stroke and are rotating your arm forward. You've got some mileage to put in before you need to worry about this particular drill.
Again, good job....and practice makes perfect.0 -
Had a pretty poor week to be honest.
Swam 3 times I think, not sure how I'm feeling about it. I certainly feel a lot more comfortable with the pull buoy(can go for longer distances etc), but my breathing still isn't great, and I find it hard to control my kicking without the pull buoy. (I know I shouldn't be kicking at all with the buoy, but I kick for a couple of seconds out of reflex/habit every so often)
Cycling: Nothing
:(. Had meant to get out Sunday morning, but all sorts of other crap got in the way.
Running wise, missed one session of the plan, and had to cut short the long run. Gf was getting bad pains in her calf, and her foot was gone numb, so we packed it in at 7k, rather than the 14.5. After chatting to her about it, turns out she had been in pain for a lot longer on the run (after the first km or so), and has also been having pains on the other runs, but just didn't want to say it.:eek:. Turns out her shoes, she had for about 2 and a half years, and even at that, her mother had given them to her, after she had gotten a new pair! They were falling apart practically :eek:. So, lucky to avoid an injury there I feel, and I took her out first thing the next day to get a new pair. So now a proud owner of size 6 Nike Pegasus 28s (mine are only 27s :mad: :P ). Her old pair were Saucony something or other, and had a very narrow fit, which was probably contributing to the numbness.
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/61475218
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/61582751
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/62050617
Went out this morning and she reported the run pain free, which is great. Got a nice 5:03 split, albeit mostly downhill, so I feel with the new shoes things are gonna pick up for us.
http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/62051835
Been monitoring my weight over the past few weeks, and have seen little to no change, although to be fair, my diet is pretty terrible. I have some good days, and then one really bad day which will just wipe out all the good work. All projects and stuff are handed in now though, and only two small exams today and tomorrow to get through, and I'm off for Christmas. If I manage to keep steady over the festive period weight wise I'll be happy, and I'm definitely going to get out on the bike this week.
Another swimming lesson this evening. Hopefully she will notice some improvement, but to be honest, I'm not expecting anything major this early on.
Other than tha, I guess I can only improve on last week 0 -
So im feeling pretty good about myself atm. Went to the swimming lesson, and the instructor firstly seemed surprised by my commitment to practice when I told her I had been in the pool three times since I was with her last.
When I started with her first last monday, my first length, I did in 23 or 28 strokes I can't remember, but today I was down to 17! She said I have made a huge improvement with my stroke, but I still need to work on my breathing, and loosening out in the water.
She told me to practice freestyle "catch up strokes" for a small bit, and what would be a real indicator of how I'm doing is when I swim on my side (im pretty awful at it at the moment), but the better I get at that, the better I get after all.
Anyway, she said that she doesn't like to take money from people when she doesn't need to, and she said that my practice has obviously been paying off, and that I have the right approach to do some good work by myself. So I told her I would keep at it by myself until after Christmas, and then come back to her for a progress update of sorts.. 0 -
-
Excellent work!! I admire your commitment that is evident via your willingness to hire an instructor and then follow through with practice. You are a model! Bally8, slap on that Speedo and hop in the pool - progress is right around the corner for you too! 0
-
insinkerator wrote: »
Brick Session Was looking forward to this during the week...
T1 (I even get a kick out of writing that :pac: ) 2m34s
.
Love it Not even Jackyback goes into detail on training transitions.. classic. Well done on the swim progress you are making great strides. I always found going back to the pool the day after a technical sessiona and picking one drill to think about on an easy swim really helped to reinforce what I learn. Its not the lessons that will improve you, its the practice and application of learning between them that will. I reckon Crosshaven will be doddle to you by the time you get to it. I'd suggest Valentia Island for one. One of my Favs. Nice course, well run and great fun 0 -
Wow that's brilliant insinkerator, you really must have been working hard. I'm struggling so much with my swimming, its actually put me off going to the pool regularly. Obviously I should go more often- even if I saw half the improvement you've achieved I would be happy.
Well, to be fair, the base that I had to improve on wasn't much, so any improvement at all would have been a good thing
. Practice is really what made the difference though, like I spent a large amount of my time in the pool last week, with the pull buoy, practicing my stroke and rolling my body and being loose and all the other stuff the instructor told me to do, and that's where she saw my biggest improvement:)Excellent work!! I admire your commitment that is evident via your willingness to hire an instructor and then follow through with practice. You are a model! Bally8, slap on that Speedo and hop in the pool - progress is right around the corner for you too!
Well part of the reasoning behind having an instructor, was the financial commitment i.e I've paid, so I better get my bloody money's worth! :pac:shotgunmcos wrote: »Love it Not even Jackyback goes into detail on training transitions.. classic. Well done on the swim progress you are making great strides. I always found going back to the pool the day after a technical sessiona and picking one drill to think about on an easy swim really helped to reinforce what I learn. Its not the lessons that will improve you, its the practice and application of learning between them that will. I reckon Crosshaven will be doddle to you by the time you get to it. I'd suggest Valentia Island for one. One of my Favs. Nice course, well run and great fun
Haha, it was my first attempt, so I reckoned it would be a bit of craic at least :pac:. Had a look at the Valentia one, but I can't seem to find any details on the distances, also the provisional date for next year is May19th, which could be smack in the middle of my college exams BTW, I read your log from start to finish over the weekend, inspirational stuff!! :eek:
Was planning on heading out and helping with the search for the missing UCC student this evening, after my exam, but from the looks of it, that might not be necessary anymore
Think I might head to the pool instead and get some more practice in. Went for a run this morning, an awful lot slower than the last few mornings, but to be fair, we had to take it pretty handy at times, there was ice on the footpaths!:eek: http://runkeeper.com/user/killian1/activity/621454470 -
Advertisement
-
So I was thinking I never went public on my timing goals for next year and stuff.
Basically, the two main events I'm going for are the Cork City Marathon (Sub 3:30), and the Crosshaven Challenge Tri(500m/10k/5k)(Sub 0:50). Big enough asks I'm sure, for a first timer to both, but as the quote says :"It is better to shoot for the stars and miss than aim at the gutter and hit it."
Tuesday
So went to the pool in the end yesterday evening. Didnt count lengths or anything, but I possibly did 500m, not too sure, nor am I too bothered about distance, more worried about the quality of the swimming. In that respect though, had some moments that felt absolutely great! (other moments,not so much ) We'll keep at it though.
Wednesday
This morning, I told a friend of mine I'd go to the gym and do some weight training with him, however we both pretty much slept in, and possibly it might make more sense to leave weights be and not tire my arms while trying to concentrate on swimming?
Instead I went for a short brick session. Exactly the same course as the last one.
Cycle went very well. Shaved a couple minutes off my time from the last day. http://app.strava.com/rides/2607535 Strava says 41:03. But strava includes the time spent moving on my driveway. I include that in my transition as we have electric gates so I have to come to a full stop and key in a code to get in. So actual time was 40:17 I think. Almost two minutes faster!
Transition 2m32s. Still a bit off Dory, but 2 seconds off the last day :pac:
Run. Sort of fell apart here
. Started the runkeeper app a couple of seconds too soon, so it was going as I typed in the gate code, and waited an absolute age for the gates to open. Tried to get my headphones in whilst running which slowed me down a bit, and got thoroughly confused. They have the around ear support yokes, and for some reason I just couldnt figure it out :rolleyes:. So about 500m in I just full on stopped and took about 20 seconds to get it together. Couple that with the first 1k or so was ran with a bad stitch/cramp/whatever just under my right ribs, and on the second time round I was absolutely wrecked, and practically crawled up the hill. So yeah, not great.. All things considered though,I was less than two minutes off my last time, and I was happy to come in under 30 mins for the 5.62k. 29m 31s to be exact. So in summary:
Cycle: 40:17
T1: 2:32
Run: 29:31.
Brick Total: 1h12m20s. 24s improvement on the last time. Felt I was gonna improve based on the cycle, but as soon as I went out for the run, those hopes fell apart really, and I was just urging myself to attempt damage limitation. So quite happy in the end
Forced myself to a bit of stretching afterwards, but I don't know too many so that was rather shortlived :pac:.
Just on a sidenote to all this.. whilst typing out this post, by chance I glanced at my knee, to find it covered in blood!:eek: Took a closer look at found a shard of glass stuck in there :S. Dunno how it got there, because I definitely don't remember seeing blood there during the transition, or stretching. Maybe it got into my room on a shoe and I kneeled on it or something.. gave me a fright though. 0
Advertisement