Catweazles Half-Ironman or Chicken challenge

catweazle

Early bedtime did the trick, almost unheard of for me to have lights off before 11. Felt fine today, easy 5 mile in gym at 43 minutes.

Did 30 minutes on the turbo tonight, found this site below, its not bad at all for programmes gives you a siren noise and all when its time to change resistance, although you will need to set the laptop up beside you

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/turbo_trainer_sessions.php

Had finally got around to pumping up my lidl beach ball so a few squats and sit ups to test it out after

catweazle

Had the oncoming feeling of a cold today, did 5k at lunch 26 minutes and went into steam room for the other 20 minutes. Didnt work, I am now just waiting to upgrade it up to an official man flu status.

Hummed and hawwed about whether I would do a short turbo session but nah I will give it a miss. Downing the lemsips away so hopefully I will feel a bit better tomorrow

catweazle

Feel much better today but I decided to just do as the programme says and take a rest day, no point pushing in a swim if you arent 100%. Hopefully it should be all systems go for running this weekend.

Going into watch the swimming on BBC later and shake my head and give out to the wife that they look like they are hardly even trying its so easy to them

catweazle

Saturday 5 miles 43 minutes

Sunday 11 miles 1 hour 32 minutes

Whilst digesting my breakfast this morning and scanning the papers I was not expecting to run so fast, however Mrs C arrives down in full running gear, asks me how far I am running and nods approvingly at my answer of 11. So away we go!

My wife whether she is running 5k or half marathons stays at the same pace around 8.20 and sticks at it. So all thoughts of me running my LSR at 45 seconds outside my marathon pace went out the window and i had to grit the teeth. Watching her run in front of me I still think she would make a great triathlete if she was bothered, she is a strong swimmer and a relentless runner over the longer distances, she doesnt like the bike though. My mind wonders as she had also comandeered the ipod that i had set up with a new playlist last night to mcos's quest to change his running stride, of course my wife seems to have that down to pat as well, running on the balls of her feet all the way. She could be back in marathon mode yet, she makes me laugh, never streatchs, never takes a rest day unless social life intervenes and she has never had an injury yet, i gave up lecturing her years ago

So anyways i am back in the house and she has gone off shopping, was thinking about the quicker run, cardio was great - average 135, the pace was comfortable but I started to feel stiffness in my knees in the last mile or so. Will that improve as i get more milage in my legs, will it get worse?? Still dont know what time I should run at, on my lsr's I have been aiming to run sub 4 as I would be thrilled with that if i did it. I am wary of the McMillan as I saw such diverse returns for the Dublin Marathon from the board members. I suppose stuff will come clearer later on into this.

catweazle

Swim today, didnt do a huge amount as got away late from lunch.

800 metres of drills and finished with 6*100m with 10ish seconds break was in between 1.50 and 1.53 for all of them

catweazle

Worked from home today, Ice was too bad to drive. Snuck out for 3 miles at around 3.30, careful going but fine, 28 minutes.

Dragged myself up to turbo later, tried a power workout I found on Internet. I have noticed my legs go before my breathing when it comes to cycling. Really struggled with it but found it worthwhile, will try and do a few more of them over the xmas.

Got holidays today and I am back to my old ways, typing this up with a not far off empty bottle of red beside me, easy week in my marathon plan though. Didnt time it like that but was delighted when i realised it

catweazle

6 miles today with Mrs C, 55 minutes, still very icy but manageable if you use some common sense, going for some pints tomorrow during the day so i hope weather eases off a bit tonight so i can get run in early

catweazle

Shag all done over the xmas, I am glad it was a down week in the marathon plan. I did have a good late night drunken chat with Mrs C though and was told that I should make 2010 my Ironman year and not 2011. I think she wants her husband back a year early, it probably makes sense though as due again to potential surprises 2011 could be a poor year for training. So havent done anything yet but over a few pints on xmas eve i have one of the superfit mates interested in doing Barcelona Challenge in October. The guy can't swim but that didnt even come into consideration in his deliberations, so it looks like I might have a partner in crime for it, if not two as I have lined up another friend that I will hit tonight.

It probably suits as well, its one of the last ones of the year so i have some time + my mate lives over there so I will take a few days off after. We will see....no real rush in it yet, it will still be mainly running till after Connemara!

Training wise, weather was too bad for running up in Mayo, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill yesterday and I got out for 7.2 miles today but some of it was very hairy with the black ice

catweazle

Nothing again yesterday, I was supposed to cross train but was a little hungover and couldnt face the turbo......it really doesnt take much for me to dodge the turbo anyways.

Messed up today weather had thawed a little bit and I could have gone out early but it started to sleet then, has been coming down all day since.

Went with wife to her gym but didnt really do much, 5k run and did 1000 metres in the pool mostly drill work

catweazle

Worst weather I ever ran in but perversely after the first mile I started to enjoy it, I had enough clothes on so I was warm enough for most of it, was more or less home when the hailstones really started to come down hard.

6 miles in 53 minutes Average heart rate 148.

I am hoping I might be able to juggle my runs this weekend to get out on the Athenry 10k on the 3rd so I will keep an eye on the Athenry site. Mrs C is interested as well so thats a bonus, she would never admit it but I would guess she will be eyeing up a sub 50 if we can get out.

catweazle

3 miles today 27 minutes

Thats it for me now, rest day for me tomorrow, so onwards and upwards for tonight

Happy new year to ye all!

catweazle

6 miles in 53.30, average heart rate 152

Struggled out there - Almost looking forward to getting back to work, routine should hopefully get me back to eating normally, too many late night mince pies and custard

catweazle

Freezing today out there, went out with Mrs C. Not a good day for organisation, battery going on Garmin almost as soon as we left so switched off the GPS. Got to the half way point and I had forgotten to leave the Nutrigrain bar, spent two minutes looking through the bushes for it. Thought I had synched my other ipod properly but mustnt have as I had only the one song on it, so no music either for me.

Mrs C left me on the 9 mile mark telling me to take second right and then 3rd left and it would bring me back on to the main road, I am a blow-in so wasnt sure if i was going right and I had no landmarks or how much distance was left. At this stage I was starving and I could really feel the energy going, eventually I saw the local pub and I thanked god.

Plugged in Garmin before I connected to the net so the HRM isnt showing, so not much detail really 13.5 miles it is telling me on mapmyrun, ran in 2 hours 12 minutes

Just down from my first bath in this house (living here 18 months) well deserved but now I cant get the water to drain from it. Not a good day for me so far

catweazle

Second cold in less than a few weeks, dont think I even got one cold last year, I hope this marathon training isnt getting too much for me I am only starting week 5. Felt very run down this morning, had a few lemsips and some type of vitamin C blast from the health shop, which made me feel a little better.

Went to the gym anyways though as I have been looking forward to a swim for ages. Felt ok in the pool, did 1000 metres drill and then 500m pace.

Felt I was going well but at the finish I clocked 10.28, I was fairly confident I was under 10 pace so I will blame the cold! Sweated a bit in the sauna then for a while

Was going to do a double session on turbo tonight but I am going to leave it at that, again takes very little for me to talk myself out of the turbo. Will see how I feel tomorrow for the running but at least it will be treadmill and realitivly low milage until saturday at the earliest.

catweazle

Feeling better today - am going to keep it to single workouts all the same for the week. If I get one more cold or am feeling run down in the next few weeks I am going to reduce my training plan to Intermediate 1

My new years plans to start swimming workouts in the morning are gone to pot already.

5k today 29 minutes
500m swim in 10.02

catweazle

7 miles due today so too long for lunchtime session, debated for a short while and decided to go swimming at lunchtime, so decision to not do double sessions this week broken already. Nothing to do at lunchtime anyways so I will nearly always head to the gym I think. So swimming session drills which I will post for a change, its more or less the same drills every time anyways

200m warm up
200m Kickboard (Fins)
200m gliding on side with 3 stroke rotation
100m Catchup (Fins)
100m swimming with fists (Fins)
100m swimming 1 hand
100m swimming 1 hand

5* 100m off 2.10
200m warm down Total = 1700m

Evening did 7 miles run in 1.07

RedB

Well done on a good days training yesterday. You must have slept like a log after it .

Have you firmed up on a particular HIM event yet?

catweazle

I had a look at your Friel training plan meant to thank you for it, dont think our paths will cross to often at the moment. Wedding season is beginning to get up and running so two I was planning to do Mullaghmore and HOTW are out already.

At the moment I am hoping to do two, The Humbert Challenge on July 25th, mainly as its close to me, I am fed up of getting up at all hours of the morning travelling to them. Its the first year of it so I dont know how it will go but it is certainly going to be a hard course + plus the scenery is great around there so I am keen to do it

http://www.swinfordtrisports.com/humbert.html

Second one I havent decided upon yet, but likely to be the Lost Sheep, I think Mrs C would suffer the HIM to enjoy an all expenses weekend in Kenmare ( this is the most expensive part of triathlons having to treat the other half to get the green light)

Besides that will do a few Olympics and sprints and maybe one adventure race, I would like to the North Tipp sprint again as it was my first ever one last year and see how much I can improve on my time. The Brian Boru as well as that was my favourite from last year.

Then maybe Blacksod, Galway and one more Olympic, I was thinking Joey Hannon but all going well in Connemara I wouldnt mind having a go at a PB in Limerick half either. Usually the summer holidays in in late July early August so I will be quiet around then (in saying that I see Brian Boru is on August 7th) :mad:

RedB

So a quiet year ahead then !

I'll be doing the half Connemarathon and the full Limerick one, so that might be the reverse of your plan. I'm trying to get my running endurance up so I'll be concentrating on that for most of the year and also hopefully getting some bike time during the summer. Maybe even build up to a Limerick to Kerry and return spin when heading down there at the weekends if the weather ever turns decent again. It'll probably just be the HOTW and the Lost Sheep on the Tri front for me as the other training will eat up enough of my limited brownie points .

Looking forward bigtime to both of them though!

Happy training.

catweazle

We will see I might be totally optimistic as well, I generally perfer racing to training though so if there is something near to me I find it hard to say no. I am in the same boat as you loads of running planned for me as well until after Connemarathon, and then I really have to start going out on the bike. They guys in my club are all far better cyclists than me so I felt I was holding them back whenever I did venture out with them.

Swimming I find it easy enough to get out, the pool is beside me so I can easily enough get 45/50 minutes at lunchtimes. There is a decent lake on my way to work as well so I have great intentions of early mornings there too when the water warms up. I swim along the shore to a rock, I reckon it is 500m out and back going by my times but I will get the sellotape out and tape my garmin to my swimming hat one of the days and get a proper measurement

Cycling to Kerry wow......will the missus and the kids drive down with the packed car and you head off earlier on the bike, I can imagine the excitement in the car when they catch up and see Daddy pedalling away in front of them, packed lunch ready to be passed out the window

RedB

catweazle wrote: »

Cycling to Kerry wow......will the missus and the kids drive down with the packed car and you head off earlier on the bike, I can imagine the excitement in the car when they catch up and see Daddy pedalling away in front of them, packed lunch ready to be passed out the window

They'd be gone earlier Fri afternoon and I'll probably arrive by the time its getting dark! Did a few spins last summer where I drove halfway after work, parked up and cycled the rest of the way (55Km?). Its the return leg back on the Sunday that's actually tougher because its uphill a bit and probably raining! Into the car and shiver home . Hoping to extend the range in stages over the summer from half to full trip.
Its when I then announce that I'll be cycling up the Conor Pass on the Saturday that it can get a bit chilly . I might try to get my hill work done locally here before I pull that one again . There's a few local lads around me that cycle at the weekends and I'd be usually able to tag along there if I was organised enough so I'm hoping to do that in the meantime.

Wow - that lake swim sounds great. LOL at the image of sellotaping the garmin to the swim hat . It might be better to put it under the hat and in a sealed ziplock plastic bag!

catweazle

Ya I would agree but I dont know if the garmin will work under that, no need for the ziplock though as its the 310 so its waterproof. Maybe if I am smart that day and if I remember I will test it under the hat first. Its fairly shallow anyways so I will be able to get it back as long as I can feel it falling off

catweazle

Running rest day today so went for a swim at lunch, trying to keep it real easy today so no watch and slow pace, 500m of drill and 1000m with a pull buoy total 1500m.

catweazle

1600m in the pool at lunch, again taking it slow.

Can't run sunday so went out today for 7 miles done in an hour and long run tomorrow. I dont know if I will be too keen on doing it this way again, I am exhausted, too long a week in work to be busting your balls on the friday. Give me a rest day as per usual on fridays any day

Think I will head to bed soon

MCOS

Good work going in there all the same. Plan a rest day next week for yourself! On a rest day myself today and all I'm doing is eating non stop... and not exactly all green beans either! Feicin Roses tin opened in work and another in front of me Where are you based? When is your first race? Right up there towards the top of the tri challenge overall by the way too good man

catweazle

I should be if I am planning to do HIM's this year, there are some serious OLY guys in there, yourself and Bambatta are putting in some major work. I have decided to take today off, so I am sitting eating with a fry typing (my first in months). Mrs C is delighted as she knew I was shook coming home last night, going to bed before 10 on a friday is unheard of for me. So shopping in town is what I am doing I have been told

I am Based in Galway, running 1st Marathon in Connemara so April is more or less out but I am tempted to squeeze in the North Tipp Sprint at the end of that month, mainly because it was my first tri last year and I did everything wrong. I thought my swim time would have gone down by the time I raced so put in too fast a time and was getting lapped, took over 5 minutes in transitition 1 (4 in transition 2 fighting cramp), the whole wave was ahead of me at this stage so it was a lonely race, chain came off three times on bike (borrowed the night before), never experienced brick running before so had to walk for first 1km on run. Basically I wasnt far off last and I thought I had done some decent training for it so want to do better this year.

Beside thats depending on holidays, i will do Brian Boru and Loughrea if I can then a couple of olympic, some road races and then Swinford HIM as it is close enough to me and maybe the Lost Sheep as well depending on what type of shape I come out of Swinford in. I need to sit down and plan really, I tend to enjoy racing so I entered a lot last year but its a nightmare on the pocket so I might be a bit more selective this year

catweazle

Another easy day for me today, just went easy in all three, no watch so no times

1500m swim
12k on bike
5k run

catweazle

A good day overall I suppose, felt great after a few days off. Did the lunchtime swim but got caught out in the evening session, forgot to bring shorts for the treadmill. Was pretty brassed off about that as I am way behind in running in the plan already and only for I was in the buff before I realised said shorts were missing I would have called it a day and went home. So I ended up going for another swim session.

I did 2000m at lunch, 1200 drills + 6*100ms off 2.10 + 1*200 off 4.00 . I was swimming well today for me, all of them came in at around 1.50 so the 20 second break between them would have interested Tut-tutting but I needed it .

In the evening I did 800m drills + 3*200m off 4.15 + 100m warm down, again the pace was good for me, I was holding steady at 3.50 for all three. I think all the kickboard drills I have been doing are beginning to pay off, I feel more streamlined in the water. I dont know much about whether it was at 2-1, 4-1 or 6-1 pace suffice to say I was kicking like a madman all through.

Total 3,500m

interested

catweazle wrote: »

A good day overall I suppose, felt great after a few days off. Did the lunchtime swim but got caught out in the evening session, forgot to bring shorts for the treadmill. Was pretty brassed off about that as I am way behind in running in the plan already and only for I was in the buff before I realised said shorts were missing I would have called it a day and went home. So I ended up going for another swim session.

Good man ! much better than running on that pesky threadmill or heading home Was the additional swim session in any way motivated by you looking to close the gap on MCOS in the table ?

I did 2000m at lunch, 1200 drills + 6*100ms off 2.10 + 1*200 off 4.00 . I was swimming well today for me, all of them came in at around 1.50 so the 20 second break between them would have interested Tut-tutting but I needed it .
In the evening I did 800m drills + 3*200m off 4.15 + 100m warm down, again the pace was good for me, I was holding steady at 3.50 for all three. I think all the kickboard drills I have been doing are beginning to pay off, I feel more streamlined in the water. I dont know much about whether it was at 2-1, 4-1 or 6-1 pace suffice to say I was kicking like a madman all through.

Total 3,500m

Lots of distance doing drills but by the sound of 'I feel more streamlined in the water' its all going in the right direction. Consistent pacing for the 100's and 200's looks good - dont worry about getting more rest than expected between individual 100's or 200's - if you're doing stroke work and then doing a set the main thing is trying to maintain good stroke whilst doing your set of 100's and 200's - keeping good body position and your stroke as you move through a set is much more important than worrying about getting too much rest at this time of anyones season imho.

The 'kicking like a madman' is one to watch - no harm increasing the kick frequency on 100's or 200's for that matter but dont go crazy - if your standing at the wall on a second 100 of 4 and your quads have their own pulse you are probably kicking too hard. Fast shallow kicks to keep your hips up and kicking hard and still concentrating on a long stroke.

IMHO , its better during an open water swim to briefly increase arm stroke to switch groups or catch a set of feet or drop someone at a turn point ... rather than start kicking like crazy (in fact its sometimes useful to stop kicking briefly and take a radical change in direction before resuming your kick to drop someone). There's definitely some merit to increasing your kick frequency closer to the end of a swim to get the blood flowing through em again so that you can run to T1 etc ... but you will ... DEFINITELY ... pay for going too hard too soon with the legs in distance swimming -- you probably know all this yourself so apologies - just me musing over a coffee

BTW
The fact that you elected to throw on the togs for a second swim session instead of heading home shows theres every chance you already have it in you to finish your HIM. Just up to you with regard to how fast it gets done.

Good luck.

catweazle

Cheers Interested......not really motivated to catch MCOS, just having a bit of fun.

I would never be able to keep up with MCOS long term on the swimming, I would be in a body bag. I need to start planning some more cycling soon anyways as I do nothing at the moment.

I will keep an eye on the kicking like a madman, but the odd class I had with a coach tells me what I think is kicking hard isnt really as much as I think (as in I wasnt even kicking at 4-1) so its all relative, then you seem to get the school of thought that during the race try not kicking as much at all to conserve the legs.

I am enjoying it though which is the main thing, the swimming isnt becoming a slog at all yet, I suppose as long as i still see some progress it will keep me motivated.

Again thanks for the musing, I appreciate the feedback