Shin splints to long sprints (triathlon training)

adamski8

Very casual gym goer for years.
Never did any running until this year (partially due to shin splints, runners from amphibian king have sorted this).
Self taught swimmer for about 3 years.
Using a road bike for the first time this year too.
Liked the sound of triathlons, as training for nothing is boring.
Hopefully this thread will serve as motivation to me.

My first ever race:
Fingal duathlon Saturday February 19th 2011:
Position: 83rd
Time: 01:16:35
Run 2.5km: 00:12:54
Cycle 20km: 00:48:45
Run 2.5km: 00:14:54

Just starting timing myself now for PB's:
5km run: 25.20mins
750m pool swim: 25mins (two 30sec breaks)
Cycle: Havent timed a known distance consistently yet (working on getting my own bike atm)

Finding open water swimming difficult at the moment (its cold and salty!!!)
Have registered for the valentia sprint tri on the 21st of May.
I hope to just be able to finish without stopping.
Aiming for below 1hr45min time.

catweazle

Is that your 5k pb or is a typo :eek:

Good luck with the log

adamski8

catweazle wrote: »

Is that your 5k pb or is a typo :eek:

Good luck with the log

haha yes that is a terrible typo! cheers

adamski8

Well it was a week before my first sceduled triathlon in valentia and I got scared of the open water swim and decided to register for this pool based tri as well as practice.

Saturday may 14th times:
750m pool swim- 18.30mins
T1- 2.19
20km bike- 46.07
T2- 0.48
5km run- 26.09
Total- 1.33.52
Placed- 257/365

Had my estimated swim time as 24mins! Very bad call on my behalf, made the swim harder than it should have. Also I realised mid-swim that I didnt have my timing braclet thing and had to go back to the changing room to find it :eek: defo lost a minute searching for it. I was really happy with the swim.

Cycle was quite windy and I wasnt very happy with my speed, got passed alot.

Run wasnt so hard and felt like I could have pushed it a little more.

This was the perfect introduction to a triathlon I think. Well organised I thought.

adamski8

The big day, my first open water triathlon. Heard good things about this one, seems really popular.

Terrible, terrible weather!
Swim route was altered due to the weather and instead of going from the mainland to the island it was moved to the more sheltered side of the island, there was no way I was going to do it if it wasnt changed!!

Times:
750m swim- 22.58
T1- 4.45
20km cycle- 50.36
T2- 1.10
5km run- 26.59
Total- 1.46.27
Placed- 398/459

After the first 5mins of the swim which I was panicking a bit and thinking I wouldnt finish it was fine and I just kept plugging away.

Getting out of the water my hands and feet were totally numb and the wind and rain didnt help, this can explain my huge T1 time!

The cycle was a diaster, I was freezing, I had put on a soaking wet t-shirt and the wind chill was horrible. The big hill at the start wasnt a problem but once at the top the wet roads coupled with the rain/hail and the wind made for a scary cycle. Wind was blowing me everywhere and I didnt feel comfortable going hard so I just gave up basically and just played it safe. My gears werent changing either which made it hard. Numb fingers didnt help!

The run was a relief to get off the bike, I wasnt numb anymore. The cycle had demoralised me and I probably should have ran faster.

The sun came out at the finish and I wasnt feeling tired as I had rested alot on the cycle.

Pretty dissapointed apart from the swim but I knew I couldnt have gotten worse conditions, I'll be more prepared in future as it thought me alot of lessons.

catweazle

Nice report - great to see a transition time slower than mine. Have you any more planned, would be nice to try one i great weather - far more enjoyable

adamski8

catweazle wrote: »

Nice report - great to see a transition time slower than mine. Have you any more planned, would be nice to try one i great weather - far more enjoyable

I think I will really enjoy some nice weather, i deserve it! I'm addicted to the racing already.

To change it up I did the connemara rough diamond adventure race last week (I will report on that next) had a bit of a diaster on that one too!

I'm planning on doing the the hook pensinsula tri on aug 20th http://www.hooktourism.com/news/article/tri_the_hook_peninsula/ and the velvet strand in september http://velvetstrandtri.wordpress.com/
but i feel like i should be training more and doing less races + the wallet is very light.

Macanri

Check out last years thread in the events section for the Velvet Strand Tri. The roads were not closed and was supposedly very dangerous. I didn't do it last year, but would do it this year, only if the roads are closed.

adamski8

Macanri wrote: »

Check out last years thread in the events section for the Velvet Strand Tri. The roads were not closed and was supposedly very dangerous. I didn't do it last year, but would do it this year, only if the roads are closed.

i heard this too, i hear they are looking into getting the roads closed so maybe ill only do it if that happens

adamski8

Did this a few days after being sick but I felt really good getting ready to do it.
The steeplechase at the start was good fun but there were a lot of people in the way and people stopping at the hay bails which cost me time.
Disaster struck coming out of the transition on a gravel road after which i hopped on my bike and discovered a flat. I didn't have a spare tube only a repair kit but no pump. A terrible let down but a nice guy brought me to the obstacle course in his car and fixed my flat.
I got on with the race but it never felt like I actually did it.
Times:
1km steeple chase- 6:43
Cycle 1 12 km- 1:06:35* didn't do this section
Obstacle course 1 km- 11:36
Cycle 2 8 km- 18:34
Mountain run 4 km- 27:58
Cycle 3 13 km- 38:58
Total- 2:50:24
Placed- 217/268

I think I'll be sticking to the triathlons from now on (and invest in a cycle pump and spare tubes)

adamski8

750m swim- 21:00
T1- 3:17
20km cycle- 52:42
T2- 1:20
5km run- 28:27
Total- 1:46:46
Placed- 112/163

Nice well organised Tri. Cycle was a bit slow as the roads were pretty bad.

Strangely enough now that I look back my 3 tri's my times are getting worse :eek:
But I think I'm not too bad when looking at where I'm finishing in the field in each race.
Blanch- 70% down the field
Valentia- 86%
Wexford- 68%

Might do one more this season

adamski8

This year I'm not going to do many events, will focus more on training and cost reasons.

Plan:
1st April - Half marathon at Connemarathon (http://www.connemarathon.com/)
22nd April - 10km at the Wexford half marathon (http://www.wexfordhalfmarathon.com/)
12th May - Sprint triathlon at Valentia (http://valentiaislandtriathlonclub.com/arachas-valentia-island-triathlon/)
29th October - Full marathon in the Dublin marathon (http://dublinmarathon.ie/index.php)

I don't have gym membership this year so no pool for me to train in. I will try to train in open water every second week I hope.

I'm focusing more on the running with the aim of completing my first marathon in Dublin. Obviously its good to get some longer than 5k races done before that so that's why I'm doing the half marathon and 10k races before that and get into longer training during the summer.

I've registered to repeat the Valentia Tri that I did last year as I felt it thoroughly beat me last year and I am determined to be ready to kick its ass this year!

So far this year its been mainly running, I've did the operation transformation fun run on 19th Feb, after arriving late though it was a bit of a mess trying to pass through the field. I ran ~26.30 wasn't feeling good though.

So far this year I've ran a 26:00 5k feeling much better than running 5k than last year that's for certain. I have also been running longer distances a few times with 10k coming in around the 1 hour mark. I've also completed my first 15k which timed at 1:33 which I was pleased to be able to do without being out of breath.

My first goal being the half marathon would be to get a time of 2:00h With my 15k pace it would work out at 2:10h so I'm not sure how possible it is for me to gain 10mins in less than a month.

adamski8

I was a bit optimistic thinking i would do a time of 2hr earlier but i had revised my goal to less than 2.15 for the last few weeks when I realised this was a hilly course and i had missed training for two weeks before 1 week of training race week (sick and then neck seized up). Race week saw me struggle to do 6.5k in really hot weather, managed a 10k a few days before the race which I ran a PB of 58.30min when i was taking it easy :eek:
Race day I felt great as I got lots of rest and fluids etc, had everything planned down to a tee. Great weather for it and me and a friend got to the start area two hours before the race began which was a bit crapp but the scenery and weather meant it wasnt too bad.
I remembered just before the race that I forgot to put on my vaseline on my thighs and i was going to get chaffed big time. I also didnt put any sun cream on!
Started off the first 10k no problem with the field maybe a bit too crowded but good atmosphere, wanted to hold a steady pace of 5.50min/km and passed a lot of people between 3-8km that had clearly started way to fast, I was proud I hadnt. After 10k I flirted with a stitch but soon overcame it. The water stops were perfectly placed and felt like a pro throwing my empty water bottles everywhere (which was allowed). "The hill" at the 10th mile mark was "fun", i was determined not to stop, kept the head down and just kept going. It was great to reach the top and look back at what I climbed. The last stretch downhill was good but i could really feel my legs getting stiff seeing as my previous longest run was 15k.
Finshed in a time of 2.09.42 and ran all the way with my friend who was very surprised and pleased with her time too. Apart from the chaffing and sunburn I received it couldnt have went much better and I learned a lot.

A full marathon seems quite daunting at this stage now. I will be concentrating on my swimming and cycling over the next few weeks but my 10km in wexford is coming up, I hope that will seem easy in comparision.

I didnt mean to write so much there but I guess I really enjoyed that one

adamski8

Not really a goal for me but in my home town so it was convenient and a few friends and family joined in. My first 10k race all the same. Very changeable weather through out, torrential rain followed by bright sunshine all day. Course was meant to be a PBer and so it was for me as I finished in 52.31 (previous PB was 26.30). It wasn't very eventful as it was only 10k.

During the race:
First couple of k were handy enough. There was a a big of a gradient going from 4-5k followed by some steep downhill section at 5-6k. I had it in my head that I would run down this section hard as a sort of bonus and so i did pass out ~15 people on that section but a stitch hit me hard at the 6k mark which lasted until near 8k where the 15 people past me and got quite far ahead of me. I got a second wind and picked up the pace big time and passed back ~5 people at the finish and rued my mid run silliness as I felt quite fresh at that stage. Lesson learned again.

Forgot my garmin which didn't help me as I usually rely heavily on that. I also didn't do much in the way of eating healthy and had a few drinks in the week so it was surprising I did so well in a way. Got absolutely soaked by the rain which poured down around midway too. Not a huge atmosphere at the race but it was well organized and I would do it again.

I am now a member of the piranha tri club for the last two weeks, I'm using them for my swim training which is 3 times a week. A few open water swims in the next few weeks and I should be ready for the next challenge of the valentia tri which I'm looking forward to a lot.

adamski8

My second year doing the race and it was the polar opposite weather wise. Perfect conditions.
I have a new long sleeve wetsuit this year

Swim
I started the swim in the middle of the pack and even though I tried to push ahead i was surrounded in front, left and right and could pass people out! quite frustrating, maybe i have to get more aggressive and push through people. I did try that once and got a kick to the face.

Cycle
I got passed by about 25 people on the bike, i know where i have to train harder anyway

Run
I passed about 15 people on the run and was pleased with how it went.

Times: (last years times in brackets)
750m swim- 15.20 (22.58)
T1- 3.47 (4.45)
20km cycle- 43.33 (50.36)
T2- 1.25 (1.10)
5km run- 24.59 (26.59)
Total- 1.29.04 (1.46.27)
Placed- 407/516=78% down the field (398/459=87%)

So an overall improvement of 16.31mins. Im pleased with that and also 3 pb's! Obviously the drastically better weather this year than last would have caused me to improve but I felt much better racing this year and made it further up the race field.

No more races planned, maybe the wexford tri again.

adamski8

Well I only did one tri this season but I'm happy with that. As a piranha member now I did marshall the DUblin City Triathlon, good to see some of the behind the scenes of the organisation of these events, makes you appreciate it more.

Anyway did this race as I am still on course to do the DCM this year. Just decided I would do this as I havnet been very good with training, only twice have I gone over 10k in the last few months and then it was only 12-14k. Wasnt thinking Id be able to better my connemara half time by much which was 2:09:42.

Race day
Actually went to bed early the night before and woke up quite early feeling the best I ever had, great breakfast of eggs and porridge (finally found my best pre exercise breakfast). Got buses to phoneix park and actually took me a good while to 30mins to walk to the start. A little chilly and overcast cast day, seemed perfect for a run. Had a 500ml bottle with me for the race as ive been going through one every 45mins in training.

As there was pacers at this race I was eager to try them out! The slowest was 2hr so I said Id go for that. I started out in the last wave and was approx 30 after the pacers at the line. A lot of people in the first half of this wave were clearly not 2 or even 2.30 racers which was quite annoying having to run on the grass at the sides to pass them for the first 2k or so.

I thought I wouldnt be ale to keep up with the pacers but I did actually gradually catch up with them by 5km. I felt really good, better than an other race or run but I thought better not get ahead of myself (and the pacers) but after a few more k I thought screw this and pushed on, kinda got annoyed by the pacer crew for various reasons :P and I knew I needed to piss. I got about 1-2mins ahead of the pacers but then the bathroom break at 11k caused me to go about 30secs behind them. had to pass the same people again out of a sense of vengence!

Again I went a few mins ahead of the pacers but this time a water stop where I had to fill my bottle took ages (water stations were a bit of a mess!) and again a repeat of falling behind them and re overtaking took place. I though I was again quite a few mins ahead of them and looked set to amazingly finish at 1.55 mark according to my tired brain at the 16k mark.

Unfortunatly things unravelled abit, I seemed to be constantly overtaking peope, throughout the whole race and wondering how the hell these slow people were ahead of me in the first place! Then I turned into a slow person!!!! kept going but a good 1min/k slower (the last 5k was mainly hills).

Suddenly out of nowhere a 2hr pacer ran really quick in front of me, I couldnt believe I had fallen behind, and off he skipped ahead with a possy of people. Only 2k left and I was going to miss out on 2hrs!!! But after 1k the pacer dropped way back, think he was only encouraging people to push as the other two pacers were a little behind too. Last 500m I was able to put a little dash together to try get under 1.59 and I did.

done in 1:58:44 a 10min improvement on my last half marathon. Now awaits the full!



Swimming is going well, learning more than I ever knew could possibly to learn about swimming and Im nowhere close to mastering it.
Cycling is near non existant, will really have to work on this post marathon

Solobally8

Well done on the sub 2 half. Hoping to do the same myself in Charleville this Sunday. Also well done on that brilliant improvement in Valentia. Imagine with all your swimming and some bike work how fast you will be next year!

adamski8

Well a bit late logging this but it wasnt one to remember.
Got an knee injury 2 weeks before the race (ITB it turns out) and tried to just not run and rest it before the big day.

Got there pretty early on a cold morning and froze waiting in the 4.20 section for 30mins before the race (defo bring a discardable jumper in future).

About 1km into the race my mysterious injury returned, quite painful but I struggled on where it would come and go with pain. I stopped in the phoneix park around 5km for a piss and as soon as i started running the pain was very bad. When I heard a spectator say "oh he has an injury" i thought to myself it pretty wise to pull out. I stopped at the order of malta and they gave me some deep heat and i foolishly decided to carry on.

I was plodding along so slow it was embarrassing and I was barely keeping warm as I never got fast enough to break a sweat. I decided to call it a day at the 10km mark. Stopped at the next marshall/malta point and had to wait 45mins or so to get a free lift back to the start. Really messed up meeting up with people as I had no phone and they were trying to track me on the app.

Been to the physio a lot and barley any running done since. Signed up for and deferred my entry to connamarthon but I dont think i will try to race another marathon again.

adamski8

2013 training update:
Cycling 24km round trip to and from work for most of this year but no long cycles

Running has been non existance with ITB problems

Swimming has been good, moved to intermediate lane in the club along with attending nearly all sessions


Decided this year is my year of Olympic distance tris:
TriAthy - 01/06/2013 - Olympic
Rosslare Pikeman Triathlon - 06/07/2013 - Olympic
Beast of the East - 21/07/2013 - Olympic
Tri the Hook - 17/08/2013 - Sprint

adamski8

My first Olympic race and river swim.

I had done the Swimathy a week before and did it in 33mins, I felt like I could have went a good bit faster but hadnt swum that distance none stop before and thought I shouldnt be breaking myself for race day as well.

Swim
I started at the back of wave 3, as the waves werent done on est time I had no idea how good the rest were so choose to hang back. The water was much cloudier than the week before but it wasnt so cold. I got a bit of a rythem going but never really felt like I was swimming well, I had a lot of people pass me out from the next waves. Had a few issues with googles steaming up and leaking but luckily you can actually stand up anywhere in that river!

T1
Got out of the water and ran to my bike but as soon as I got there I got very dizzy and couldnt stand, knelt on my towel for a few mins and felt terrible, I didnt know about this dizziness and never got it before, luckily I heard fellow racers mention they had it too so calmed me down

Cycle
Struggled the first few Km as I had a hard time putting my cleats on while I cycled (more practice needed there) and also still felt light headed. I was constantly passed by most of the field during the cycle and found it quite tough as my body gave out. I also felt I injured my achilles tendon early in the cycle but I dont think that was an excuse.

Run
My ankle was really hurting but I kept pluggin away, body was quite tired but my ITB held up, passed many times on a silly run course

Times:

1500m swim- 31.09
T1- 5.59
40km cycle- 01:36:28
T2- 01:04:32
10km run- 01:04:32
Total- 03:20:42
Placed- 675/704= 96% down the field

Another big learning experience, 1 month to the next one