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Bliain Faoi Thrí
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I went for a run yesterday. 5.5km. I was shattered afterwards. An improvement, however, on the 4.2km I managed on Tuesday!
I'd never been so primed and looking forward to a season as I had been coming into 2012. I'd set some lofty goals, looking forward to great times and challenges. It hasn't turned out that way, however!
Basically, I've been hit by a series of recurring kidney infections, and other infections arising from that, since the end of November. In hindsight, a series of changes in my life conspired against me, and not realising that, I failed to give my body the opportunity to recover.
I'm now at the stage where I've finally managed to clear up the illnesses, without them constant reoccurring (this was my big worry!), but I don't think I've been this unfit since I've started logging on boards. I've put on a bit of weight, not much though, and have lost an awful lot of cardiovascular and muscular strength, from what I can gather from my limited outings on the bike and run so far.
My biggest problem at the moment is motivation. Going for a run is no longer going for a run, but a short and challenging crawl! I went for a club bike spin last Sunday for the first time since, I think, November. I cycled home from our meet-up spot in Doire an Fhéich at the end of the spin, and was barely advancing past basic forward propulsion for some of that final 3 miles (nine km an hour at one stage on a shallow incline).
What I need is a target but I haven't figured it out yet. I'm signed up to do Galway 70.3 but am strongly considering deferring it. At the moment, I feel like it's hanging over me. I had a 20 week training plan that was to start at the beginning of this month, but at this stage, I know that I won't do better than I did last year, and therein lies the lack of motivation.
Trying to figure out any race target is difficult at the moment, as I can't imagine racing when I can barely finish a 5k training run. Perhaps I just need to focus firstly on getting fit, and then on a target.
Whatever about a race motivation, I certainly have no triathlon motivation. Work changes mean that it's going to be extremely difficult to fit in pool swims, I really don't think I can afford to take the guts of three hours out of my day for a trip to the pool and back.
Maybe a marathon at the end of the year, maybe an adventure race or two? I've no idea yet.
If anyone has any good ideas regarding getting one's fitness (and training mojo!) back, I'd be delighted to hear from you
Rónán
PS I've read no-one elses' logs, I've stayed away from boards totally. In a fantastically selfish outlook on life, I don't think I could read up on everyone elses' advancements, when I was going backwards! (I look forward to tuning in again though!)0 -
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And heres me deliberately fueling my efforts into the red zone by thinking the man is training so much he hasn't even got time to update his log
Welcome back!
Thanks (belatedly!). I laughed when I read your post, I think you could start tapering now until the end of the year and still destroy me at any given race!0 -
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I transferred my Galway 70.3 entry today to Austria St Polten 70.3 next May (hopefully, I'll have started back training by then
).
It's been another week of no training due to illness. I went to the doc on Saturday (this whole saga has turned me into a hypochondriac, no doubt), and we established that it wasn't the return of the previous problem, more likely a virus and that I just had to let it pass through the system. My immune system is in bits, any decent effort has the end result of some sort of illness
.
Anyway, a 16 week marathon programme would have me starting next week, I was going to start tomorrow to give myself a week's emergency leeway. Will give it a shot tomorrow, but am not going to enter DCM until the last minute just in case. I hadn't planned on attempting another marathon until I was reasonably confident of at least attempting a sub-3 effort. There will be no sub-3 effort in October, indeed difficult to see myself PBing at this stage.
In a sense, I wonder if there's a point to it, should I just focus on upping 10k speed and coming back to longer distances at another time, but I sense that the focus of marathon training (immune system allowing) will help me get back into shape.
The worst thing about all of this is that there is still a set of lovely race wheels on my tri bike that haven't even been tried out yet!0 -
After the repeated illnesses, I decided I'd start the Furman marathon programme this week, but without any other activity on the non-running days so as to give the immune system a chance to recover. I had planned to give myself a week's flexability, starting the marathon programme a week early, but after the way the week went, I think I'll do the first week over again, starting tomorrow.
Tuesday
Intervals on Páirc an Chathanaigh
A mile down to the pitch, 3 x 1 mile intervals, and a mile home. I felt like an old man after this run, and like an even older man the following day. So as to judge where I was fitness-wise, I started off with a sub-6 min/mile pace attempt, that quickly fell apart after the first .5 mile so it was a case of keep on keeping on, and with ever-lengthening stopwatch pauses between intervals
Distance: 8.13km
Time: 38:26
Pace: 4:44 min/km (3:56, 4:11, 4:09)
HR(ave/max): 171/191
Thursday
Tempo to Cladhnach and back
Two miles warmup, two cooldown, with a two miles tempo in the middle. Again, a stopwatch pause in the middle to get my heart/lungs/head into a manageable position before turning for home. The second tempo mile felt easier than the second.
Distance: 9.65km
Time: 45:32
Pace: 4:43 min/km (4:12, 4:00)
HR(ave/max): 169/186
Sunday
LSR to Ros an Mhíl and back
Saturday's LSR was postponed to Sunday due to the eldest lad's fourth birthday party. We bought him a bike, and he spent a large chunk of Sunday doing run/bike/run races around the house (more races, so, than this father this weather!). They say you can learn something from everybody, and certainly, not removing your helmet all day speeds up transitions no end!
This was the longest run I've done in quite a while, and although the distance was doable, there was a predictably long fade as the run went on. I'll try it again next weekend!
Distance: 20.92km
Time: 1:45:45
Pace: 5:03 min/km
HR(ave/max): 157/1720 -
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Bastard - thats one I had an eye on as well but not till 2014!
You know, at your age, you really shouldn't be putting things off another year
When I saw this race being announced last year, I kept a close eye on how it would turn out as there are not many Ironman races where you can be reasonably sure of sub-30 degree temperatures and I prefer my skin tone to not match my hair colour! (I know there's Bolton and Wales, but I hadn't a notion of doing them...)
Anyway, I was bounced into signing up on Monday through a matrix of fear. Fear of it being sold out (which it did later that evening) and fear of signing up to something I swore a number of years ago that I would never be stupid enough to do. Here's to stupid!
I suspect they'll reopen some slots later on if you change your mind about a 2013 Scandinavian holiday, catweazle!0 -
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I suspect they'll reopen some slots later on if you change your mind about a 2013 Scandinavian holiday, catweazle!
Hmmm we shall see, perhaps if family circumstances change before xmas
But the current plan is to go back to focusing on sprint and Olympic and do a good few of the local ones.
I am also waiting on pgibbo to get the green card which could be between 2013 and 2020
Certainly the no going over 150 bpm for the next while will do you no harm for Sweden as base training, impressive selling out already although i suspect that they do that on all of them for optics and release more entries liberally throughout the year0 -
I realised on New Year's Day that 2013 was the first year in 11 years in which I hadn't raced (and that followed a 2012 in which I only raced once). Today, to make sure 2014 wasn't going to turn out the same, I headed up to Westport for the 5k Parkrun.
It was very wheezy, very ungraceful at the end but it got done. It's a lovely race but the second half is a b*tch. The second half of any 5k tends to be nasty but this particulary one is starts out with a nice slope before turning back on itself for the second half. That said, it was a beautiful day for racing, no wind, cool temperature and dry.
Time: 20:28
Position: 8th from 49
After a few crappy years of illness and busyness and stress, I've decided that I don't have the time at the moment for dedicated triathlon training. My mornings are spent writings, work can be all-consuming and I've two great kids and a great wife whom I like coming home to and staying home with. I also miss racing and my triathlon experience was lots of training with not too much racing payoff.
For 2014, I'm returning to running and the Furman FIRST training plan. This gives me the opportunity to keep ticking over with the cycling and if I stick in the occasional swimming session (!), I'll give a sprint triathlon or two a shot over the summer.
For now, I start a 10k training programme on Monday to try and get some speed back in the legs. That brings me to the end of March and after that, I'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind going back to Westport, though, and taking 29 seconds off that time. 0 -
I realised on New Year's Day that 2013 was the first year in 11 years in which I hadn't raced (and that followed a 2012 in which I only raced once). Today, to make sure 2014 wasn't going to turn out the same, I headed up to Westport for the 5k Parkrun.
It was very wheezy, very ungraceful at the end but it got done. It's a lovely race but the second half is a b*tch. The second half of any 5k tends to be nasty but this particulary one is starts out with a nice slope before turning back on itself for the second half. That said, it was a beautiful day for racing, no wind, cool temperature and dry.
Time: 20:28
Position: 8th from 49
After a few crappy years of illness and busyness and stress, I've decided that I don't have the time at the moment for dedicated triathlon training. My mornings are spent writings, work can be all-consuming and I've two great kids and a great wife whom I like coming home to and staying home with. I also miss racing and my triathlon experience was lots of training with not too much racing payoff.
For 2014, I'm returning to running and the Furman FIRST training plan. This gives me the opportunity to keep ticking over with the cycling and if I stick in the occasional swimming session (!), I'll give a sprint triathlon or two a shot over the summer.
For now, I start a 10k training programme on Monday to try and get some speed back in the legs. That brings me to the end of March and after that, I'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind going back to Westport, though, and taking 29 seconds off that time.
Good man Ronan, delighted to see you back. The very best of luck with 2014, you certainly deserve a good break. There is a nice, fairly flat 10k in Kilmovee, Co. Mayo on April the 18/19th BTW....wouldn't mind a go at myself indeed!0 -
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