140.6 deep breaths...

shotgunmcos

Turbo HOP
I had to rein myself back from gunning this session after reading ecoli's spotlight about not leaving your race performance back in your training sessions. I had to blow off steam. The hour of power is a tough enough session in its own right to do that anyway.
10 minutes warm up
60 minutes work as 12*(4:30 at approx 285w, 0:30 at 340w)
5 minutes cool down
It took some concentration to not let it drop under the 285w between surges for the last 15 minutes. I used a trick of dropping a gear to boost my cadence and then shifting up straight away to keep the rhythm. Good set.
Overall 1:15 at 289w, average heart rate 153, max 166

Transition Run
A short run off the bike after I put a dry top on. I don't know why I bothered. It was lashing and I just got resoaked immediately. My legs were burning a little but the rain cooled them down and I had a good easy half hour.
Overall 0:30 at 4:41 pace, average heart rate 146, distance 6.4km

One shot
I withdrew from IM Austria reluctantly today. A combination of LIFE things just meant it had to be. It sucks completely as there is a great posse form the club travelling over The sub 10 is still my A goal this year but I'm down to just one shot at it. I'll be sure to have the craic with the other boardies travelling to Barcelona, however even that hangs in the balance. I just have more time to organise things for that one. So, I must prop up the drawing board and run plan B by the Coach.

Bambaata

Sorry t hear about Austria MCOS! Hope things perk up and the other long distance race isnt put in jeopardy

catweazle

Austria's loss might be Swinfords gain - perfect timing for Barca

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Bad news Re Austria as you say sometimes LIFE stuff just dictates what can/cannot be done.
I hope to see you on the start line in Barca all going well.

pgibbo

Sorry to hear that Mike. Here's hoping things pick up for you and you can give Barcelona a good crack. I have every confidence you'll eat that course up and smash sub 10.

shotgunmcos

Cheers guys maybe it will work out for the better. I found that I got very demotivated after Roth last year and not racing for the rest of the year didn't help. Berlin was ending the season on a low. So the loose plan for this year is to enjoy some racing and finish the year on a high at Barcelona and then take that confidence to a Marathon. The silver lining in all of this is that I can now do Kilkee ... and improve on the 110th place I got there in my rookie year :rolleyes: I've marshalled the last 2 years and each time wished that I was doing it.

Swim this morning: I wasn't bothered. Junk kms. I need to get plan B together soon to rescue the mojo. I had a swim event lined up as part of plan A that I was all excited about but that too became extremely tentative amongst it all.

handangeo

Mike :eek: Sorry to hear that, crikey thats disappointing

Izoard

Pity about AT, but it looks like Barca is shaping up to be a good Boards gig...looking forward to the live tracker on that one!

kingQuez

Sorry to hear you're off the startlist for austria, great news that you're now in for kilkee though! Was gutted to miss that race lastyear, and will be missing it again this year because of the timing.

BTH

Sh1t news on Austria. Frustrating when life gets in the way, but none of us are Pros and thats just the way it has to be sometimes..

shotgunmcos

Hill Run
I arrived at the entrance to Cratloe woods a little early. I figured I'd change and do a warm up jog rather than sit in the car listening to the rain on the window. It was pitch dark. When I turned around to go a cop car had pulled up and rolled down the window. I was quizzed about my intention to head into the woods running, my sanity and if my mobile phone had reception. I was wondering if people actually did this or was that just a generic automated email disribution each week? I warmed up down the road that ran along side the wood for a km and back. It was a hill which explains the sub 4 initial km. When I turned after a km to run back to entrance I got a feel for the gradient I would be facing in the woods. It was the first shock to the system. By the time I made it back up to the car park of sorts there were over a dozen head torches and lots of chatter. The group swelled to 20+ as I debated runners over trail shoes. I went with the innov8's in the end.

Once the group lead had given a pep talk, he showed us the can he used to spray arrows on the trail "they are the colour of this lid", he proclaimed as if it would be obvious. It wasn't. I saw 3 of them over the 6.5km route.

We all set off from the barrier and plunged into the woods. I worked my way into some space ahead of the main group and found a comfortable pace. There were about 5 up ahead of me initiallly but they pulled away and their lights disappeared around the turns. There were quite a few turns on the course and lots of branching trails. After 5 minutes I was in no man's land. The fast guys had vanished and the next torch behind me was darting between the shadows of the trees maybe a 100m away. I decided to hold up and hook up with it as I was suddenly worried about getting lost. A lad rocked up beside me and it turned out he was a local. Excellent. We climbed the next hill together but I lost him on the descent. I didn't know he had stopped to tie a lace. I was also too focused on where I was landing. The Innov8's came to life here and I definitely felt the grip on the softer stuff. I almost lost it at one point as my ankle turned slightly and I was glad to not be wearing runners. My heart rate was beating through my chest when I was alone. It was exhilerating and scary. I had to change the angle of the torch to pick out what was coming up 10 feet ahead. I pre-empted one fallen tree and hurdled easily but the next one almost got me. It was suspended about 4 feet above the trail and since I was focused on the terrain under my feet I nearly closelined myself on it. I just saw it at the last second and it required a duck with the skill of a featherweight boxer to keep my head intact.

A girl caught up with me on the next climb, she looked like a powerful runner but again I lost her on the descent. I definitely took a wrong turn too as I was passed by 3 of the fast lads that has run ahead at the start. There was no one else in sight behind me so I did my best to hang onto the 3rd guy on the final descent. It was on fireroad again now so you could open the legs. I had to do so just to keep him in sight. I glanced at my watch to see I was running 3:20 pace and he was pulling away! I had to run hard just to keep his light in sight as there was no holding up now. Thankfully we were back at the barrier after just 2 minutes of this furious pace. The lads were shaking each others hands and shook mine too. I felt like a phoney though as I had made a wrong turn and cut a few hunders meters off. Still, I loved it. I felt my weight going up the steep hills and I felt I was a bit cautious descending. Overall it was about the hardest and most enjoyable run I've done in ages
Overall 8.49km at 4:26 pace, avg heart rate 165, max 178! Climbing 205m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140912148

pgibbo

Now that sounds CLASS! :cool: Dance like a butterfly......

RedB

Sorry to see you're off the IMAT list Mike but good to see you're still in cracking form. Keep up the good work.

Dory Dory

Awsome sounding run this morning!! Makes me a bit jealous.

BennyMul

Sorry t hear about Austria sir,

shotgunmcos

Aerobic lunchtime run capped HR (155), Route A
I'm using these capped runs to keep an eye on the easy aerobic pace. The idea is to run the same route with the same 155 HR cap. Route A is straightforward with 3 little hills. I felt good today. Quite lighter and bouncier than usual. The conditions were calm and mild. I was determined this time not to go over 155 even on the crest of the short hills. This I did and generally enjoyed it. I didn't concern myself with cadence or pace. I just ran comfortably. Doing it once a week I'd like to have the easy run pace for this capped short run down to 4:10/km by April.
Last week: 8.3km in 37:43, pace 4:32, HR avg 151 max 157, mild and windy
This week: 8.3km in 36:28, pace 4:23, HR avg 147 max 155, mild and calm

Dory Dory wrote: »

Awsome sounding run this morning!! Makes me a bit jealous.

It was last night actually but yeah it felt awesome too.

shotgunmcos

Its almost time to take the PX out of hibernation and give it some attention. I may even pop it on the turbo and use the 53/12 for the test next week instead of the compact on the roadie. With the first event of the year, a duathlon and just 5 weeks away, I must get a few spins on it too. I may even get my set up done on it since I have it almost 2 years now :rolleyes: Its about 2 years since I last did a duathlon so I must practice the art of running off the yolk...

Turbo
An hour at a steady aerobic tempo. Just below sweet spot. I held 85% of FTP for 50 minutes and then pushed onto 90% for the last 10 minutes. The session included 12*30 second bursts at 120% FTP. I had the house to myself so I blared the toons. I felt strong and was tempted to hold the surges longer. Going overboard is one of my main weaknesses though and I need to exercise discipline when the ego appears. It was a good solid workout and although it burned through plenty of juice, I felt I had plenty in the tank afterwards.
Overall 1:00 at 284w, average heart rate 146, max 167

shotgunmcos

Squad Swim
No snoozing this morning. I hopped out of it and even got a half a banana with peanut butter pasted on and honey drizzled over it, into me before leaving. As such I was that bit more awake and early for the warm up for a change. I felt good too, but then I needed to as the fish were not hanging about. The set:
900m various warm up
5*200m off 3:20 in on 3:00
4*100m hard/50m backstroke
6*100 easy
300m straight kick with fins
Total 3,400m

I felt better than usual starting the main set as I got a good long warm up in. The 200s blasted off at a mad pace. There were about 10 in the lane and I went off 4th behind 2 uber swimmers and on the tecnician's feet. Even she couldn't hold onto the lead pair. I managed to stay on her feet for the first 4 reps despite losing a couple of meters to her snappy tumble turns each time we hit the wall. I faded a little on the 5th. We were coming in on 3 minutes dead too so the pace was CSS-2 seconds. I'm pretty pleased to put down 1km of work at that effort and still be in control of my stroke. I was working fairly hard though.

The next bit was a bit of new ground for me. Swimming backstroke during a set, without fins! During the winter I stopped doing frontcrawl for easy 50s. The coach calls them 'choice' 50s and the fish usually take the opportunity to display how other strokes should be done. The easy 50s are usally off 1:15-1:30 so I had to be coming in on a minute. I was just too slow at Fly and breaststroke to make it so I started using fins for backstroke and that worked. It was good to break up the frontcrawl too and my shoulders thanked me for it. This morning I took a step out of my comfort zone and did the backstroke choice 50s without fins, and came in on 58-59 seconds for each Flippin' delighted with that I am.

shotgunmcos

Right since I have to keep myself occupied until Challenge Barcelona training starts I thought I'd enter a few races to give me a bit of adrenalin to ride on...

The A goal for the Year is still sub10

February
19. Limerick TC Duathlon
26. Adare 10k

March
19. Mallow 10mile

April
14. North Tipp Sprint
29. Joey Hannon Olympic (NS)

May
6. Great Limerick Run - Half Marathon with--amadeus-- for company
19. Valentia Island Sprint (NS+NC) one of my favs

June
2. Triathy Double Olympic (NS)
23. Kilkee Hell of the West (NS)

July
28. Kinsale King of the Hill Sprint (NS)
TBC. An IMRA Race

August
5. Brian Boru Olympic (NS)

September
TBC i3 5k Lough Derg Swim
30. Challenge Barcelona

October
9. Killarney Adventure Race fun with mates

The idea is to race myself into condition to give both Athy and Kilkee a good lash with the latter being the priority. Along the way I expect to PB at the 10k, 10 mile and half marathon and run sub 40 off the bike at Joey. Sub 40 off the bike is an outstanding unachieved target from 2010. My runs in the last 3 years have been 41:39, 40:18, 40:01 so surely I can do it this time! I've entered mainly National Series Races as the standard is higher so I get a proper sense of form. I also have half an eye on AG Representation next year, either at London or the LD Champs and I'd need to be hitting good AG results to bank them. Once Kilkee is done I'm onto Ironman Focus again with about 12 weeks to build the endurance for Barcelona.

BTH

Strong possibility you'll have the pleasure of racing me regularly this season so. A good few of them are on my provisional list.

shotgunmcos wrote: »

February
26. Adare 10k

Tell me, you that would be a local, whats this course like?

Dory Dory

Wow...nice and ambitious, but I was hoping I'd see the Achill half marathon on there...July 7th. Do any boardies run in that race? I'll probably be there with bells on!!

shotgunmcos

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Strong possibility you'll have the pleasure of racing me regularly this season so. A good few of them are on my provisional list.

Tell me, you that would be a local, whats this course like?

Adare is alovely race. You start in town and the first 2-3km are quick and then you are in the country side over somer rollers for 5km. The last 2k again are quick with a 90 degree left hander 150m from the line. A mate of mine did 33 there last year and he would describe it as a fair course. Its sheltered from the wind mainly too. Gramin link below
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72857775

We might be in the same AG too. I'm 30-34, although I'll move up an AG for next year.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Wow...nice and ambitious, but I was hoping I'd see the Achill half marathon on there...July 7th. Do any boardies run in that race? I'll probably be there with bells on!!

Stangely enough, I have it on my provisional list but may not be free for it

BTH

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Adare is alovely race. You start in town and the first 2-3km are quick and then you are in the country side over somer rollers for 5km. The last 2k again are quick with a 90 degree left hander 150m from the line. A mate of mine did 33 there last year and he would describe it as a fair course. Its sheltered from the wind mainly too. Gramin link below
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72857775

We might be in the same AG too. I'm 30-34, although I'll move up an AG for next year.

Cheers for that. It's either Adare or Tubbercurry Sligo on Paddy's day. Sligo is a little easier for me to get to but I do like Adare. Lovely little village. Doesn't seem to be much difference between the courses either. Rolling hills everywhere..

Moved up to the 30-34 AG last year, so thats quite a few of us on here.

nerraw1111

Nice list.

There's a gap in August. Would you consider Gaelforce on 18th of August? Given Killarney AR is down? I reckon you could do some damage in GF and give those innov8's a good outing.

Bally8

Nice plan there mcos. I might bump into you at the Limerikc Duathlon, in Adare (will be my 5th time doing it), North Tipp Sprint and Try Athy (although I'm doing the try a tri :oso I think its the day before your race)

Fazz

Nice.

And both a solid craic at National Series and finish with Barcelona.
That's the way to do it. And looks evenly spread so makes sense.

I'll see you at a number of races, and also same Age Group as well, there will be some battles this year so!

Looking at Adare 10k - your friend Mike by any chance? 33:48!

Joey Hannon Olympic
Valentia Sprint
Kilkee Olympic


Best of luck with your plans.

shotgunmcos

nerraw1111 wrote: »

There's a gap in August. Would you consider Gaelforce on 18th of August? .

I'd like to do it but the weekend doesn't suit. Outside chance of it only. I've entered the Keeper Challenge in Tipp to give me a flavour of something more gnarly than tri http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76525578

Bally8 wrote: »

Nice plan there mcos. I might bump into you at the Limerikc Duathlon, in Adare (will be my 5th time doing it), North Tipp Sprint and Try Athy (although I'm doing the try a tri :oso I think its the day before your race)

Cheers, be sure to say hi if you see me pottering around. Chit chat relaxes the nerves for me before a race

Fazz wrote: »

Nice.

And both a solid craic at National Series and finish with Barcelona.
That's the way to do it. And looks evenly spread so makes sense.

I'll see you at a number of races, and also same Age Group as well, there will be some battles this year so!

Looking at Adare 10k - your friend Mike by any chance? 33:48!

Joey Hannon Olympic
Valentia Sprint
Kilkee Olympic


Best of luck with your plans.

Thanks. The will be some good boards battles alright I'd imagine. Yeah thats Mike. He is currently training like a T2000 machine en route to destroy IMAT. The NS was not even on my mind for this year and if I were really going for that I'd do the Olympic National Champs in Athlone too. I'm just getting in a quota of NS races to keep the AG scenario in the picture if I decide to go that route next year.

Fazz

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Thanks. The will be some good boards battles alright I'd imagine. Yeah thats Mike. He is currently training like a T2000 machine en route to destroy IMAT. The NS was not even on my mind for this year and if I were really going for that I'd do the Olympic National Champs in Athlone too. I'm just getting in a quota of NS races to keep the AG scenario in the picture if I decide to go that route next year.

Mike Yelverton is going for Ironman Austria?
Wow thought he'd stick to the shorter stuff a bit more or even 70.3.
Big jump so, he's sure fast enough though that's for sure!
I'm sure he'll do a couple NS races in the process also then or do you know?

shotgunmcos

Weekend sessions

Turbo
It was as shame to be on the thing indoors when the weather was so good for being out on the road. The session called for 4*12 minutes at FTP with 3 minutes easy between them. I suppose I could have done them on the road but I don't have a power meter and with a T5+T20+T20 looming I wanted to get a feel for the current FTP effort. It was a dogged session with my heart rate in the low 170s for the last rep. I had to grasp the rope and hang on for it too. It was the longest turbo session done since last spring and I was pretty wrecked for a finish. The numbers didn't suggest an improvement is on for the testing this week but I'm a few lbs lighter so the w/kg result may be positive.
Overall 1:40 at 281watts, heart rate average 154, max 173.

Long Run
It was just a long steady aerobic run but I had a hangover to run off and thus I dreaded it. It was chilly and breezy but otherwise a nice afternoon for running. I wore my old sleeveless rowing wind proof gillet over a long sleeve base layer and it was spot on what was needed. Shield from the cold breeze but free arm movement. I jogged down to the start of the GLR half marathon route and ran the course steady with a Paul Oakenfold essential mix for company. I ignored the pace and just focused on keeping the heart rate around 155-160. I also reined it back a little for the first half as I know now the second half is tougher. I felt good and even enjoyed the first hour for a change. My legs had some juice too. The long drag at 17km beside the Gaelic Grounds was into the wind and broke the rhythm I had going on. By 21km my hammers started tightening up and these were joined by the calves at 22km. I finished the run in much better shape than last week's long run though. I was thirsty for the last few kms which didn't help but overall I was pleased with this run. It felt like progress of sorts
Overall 24.09km at average 4:26 pace, heart rate avg 156, max 164
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141940814

Core/Yoga
60 minutes incorporating some planks, ab work, push ups, 8 sun salutation sequences and some rolling. All good stuff to round off another decent week of training.

shotgunmcos

Fazz wrote: »

Mike Yelverton is going for Ironman Austria?
Wow thought he'd stick to the shorter stuff a bit more or even 70.3.
Big jump so, he's sure fast enough though that's for sure!
I'm sure he'll do a couple NS races in the process also then or do you know?

Oops no, Mike O'Brien. Check out his run split at Galway 70.3 :eek: He is going like a train at the moment. One to watch. Mike Y has other plans and yeah I reckon he will top a couple of NS podiums this summer.