The Road Less Traveled: IM 2012

donothoponpop

Oryx wrote: »

Thank you for your concern, I know you mean well. Now please, stop trying to make me quit.

Feck them all Oryx. It's part of a particular mindset in this country that people drag others down, rather than aspire to better themselves. Don't see it in other countries, where success is celebrated.

Suck their brains out through their eyeballs and convert that protein to muscle and get even faster. That'll show 'em.

Oryx

Jeez dpop, youre harsh!

Another thing I've learned is that when people ask 'how is the training going?' they are being polite - they DO NOT ACTUALLY WANT TO KNOW.

griffin100

Oryx wrote: »

Jeez dpop, youre harsh!

Another thing I've learned is that when people ask 'how is the training going?' they are being polite - they DO NOT ACTUALLY WANT TO KNOW.

So very true. Most people have no idea what training is or entails. It's one of the reasons I don't discuss marathons or tri's with non runners and I don't advertise the fact I do tri's (unlike some of my work colleagues ) I always find it funny that people think a marathon at any pace is no big deal but a 3.8km swim is something special (I know which is harder and takes more training)

Oryx

Interval sets this morning. God they hurt. The route gets longer every week but I seem to do the same number of reps. My run nemesis was there today which gave me someone to push against, and eventually he burnt out and I got away. Little pleasures There were points during the sets when I thought I would puke. Means I worked.

RacoonQueen

Oryx wrote: »

To my friends and family:

No, I am not run down.
No, I am not lacking in anything.
Yes, I am eating enough.
Yes, I am sleeping enough.
No, I am not overdoing it.
Yes, the kids are getting plenty of my time.
Yes, I really do want to do this.
Yes, I am sure that running in the rain is an ok thing to do.
Of course I will be careful on the bike.
I am doing this because it is important to me.

Thank you for your concern, I know you mean well. Now please, stop trying to make me quit.

Love it. I used to get all this crap (well most of it I have no kids :pac: )when I worked in the hospital. Physiotherapists, trained health professionals who are supposed to ENCOURAGE activity used to give me a lot of this crap. One insisted it was unnatural and my long descriptions of how our ancestors used to trek for days to find food etc always shut him up, he was fat though so of course it was unnatural to him. The fat mess.

Went in a couple of months ago for a visit and got a veiled apology from my ex-manager for the crap she used to give me for calling in sick when I was there since I was actually um quite sick. She'd always make dickhead comments like them.

People would rather sit on their arse in front of the tv than go out and actually move, then they wonder why they're fat. Pure jealousy, you make them feel bad because they're lazy so they try to drag you down. Irish mentality. :rolleyes:

Oryx

Long bike today, which I didn't enjoy even though I had been looking forward to getting out and doing it. It was a struggle, I relied on the gearing a bit too much and cursed the wind, which always seemed to be in my face. Not the most inspiring day. If it takes me nearly four hours to cover 80k how the hell will I manage 180k in under 7? Something miraculous is going to have to occur between now and July. I better start praying...

Dory Dory

Let the wind be your friend in training....let it make you stronger.....then pray there is no wind on race day.

(but if there is wind on race day, you've got the Ace in your pocket from training in it)

Oryx

I've never struggled in wind like I did in antwerp. (A race I picked as dead flat to suit my novice ability) I take consolation from the knowledge that nothing I do will ever be as hard as that again.

Oryx

Just writing up the diary for the week and I realise this is the halfway point. Fifteen weeks down, fifteen to go. Kind of a scary thought when I realise what I still have to do, and I find the high intensity stuff hard, that builds from here on in. I don't feel much different from when I started but I hope I am.

This week went pretty well. Hit my bike and swim targets, and just a bit under on the run. Just over thirteen hours including kb session, a half hour over planned hours.
Over the next few weeks I want to get my long swim over the 3k mark, get some intensity and high cad bike work done. The running I'm happy with so just maintain and hit my hours there.

big mce

you'll be grand girlsha

Dory Dory

Oryx wrote: »

Just writing up the diary for the week and I realise this is the halfway point. Fifteen weeks down, fifteen to go. Kind of a scary thought when I realise what I still have to do, and I find the high intensity stuff hard, that builds from here on in. I don't feel much different from when I started but I hope I am.

This week went pretty well. Hit my bike and swim targets, and just a bit under on the run. Just over thirteen hours including kb session, a half hour over planned hours.
Over the next few weeks I want to get my long swim over the 3k mark, get some intensity and high cad bike work done. The running I'm happy with so just maintain and hit my hours there.

I've sort of seen your training plan and it blows my mind. You are one tough lady!!

Oryx

Woulda ya gwan I'm just plugging away. Its not been tough just time consuming so far. I'll consider myself tough if I finish the plan. Or when I can run twenty miles at your pace.

Dory Dory

Oryx wrote: »

Woulda ya gwan I'm just plugging away. Its not been tough just time consuming so far. I'll consider myself tough if I finish the plan. Or when I can run twenty miles at your pace.

We'll do 20 miles together when I come to Ireland. Some of it may be pub crawling!!

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Oryx if you were to rank each discipline as your weakest how would you rate them? Most of these plans take it that you are equally competent in each discipline and are structured in such a way but sometimes some areas need more attention and a bit more focus.
The bike work is one which can gain a lot of time not only on the actual bike split but being fresh coming off it to enable a good run. Perhaps a bike focus for your next block of training?

Oryx

Yeah the bike is definitely my weakest discipline. But the swim isn't a whole lot better . So if anything gives timewise it has to be the running. What I had planned to do once the mornings are bright (from now on) is one session of actual hill reps rather than the turbo. You reckon I should swap a run session to a bike to get extra time in?

The reason I've been sticking closely to the plan is my lack of experience. Any structure at all is better than the way I trained before. Its been good for confidence if nothing else.

griffin100

It's not so much about the time on the bike as the quality of the training. For my first IM I did poorly on the bike despite doing a reasonable amount in training for the event. For my second IM I didn't have the time to do as much training (i did about 60% of the previous year but was almost an hr quicker) but what I did was to make each session count - hills, hills and more hills (Mt Leinster became my friend ) I always made sure that my route had hills and drags - I used the Tri 795 bike route a lot in training. Extra time on swim training may get you a few more minutes in the big day, the bike is where much bigger gains can be found.

Oryx

I live a good bit away from mt leinster. But worth a drive up I guess. Around here its short sharp hills I can only do reps on. Anyone want to drag a pleb around the wicklow hills some Sunday?

Oryx

Managed to get out for a swim today, and hit the target thats been a mental barrier for a while. 3k in 90 mins. 400 w/u, 1600 mixed drills and 1k straight, trying not to lose form at any stage. It felt good. I had moments when it felt like it was all working well and effortless but they were brief. Still. Tis done. Next hurdle is 3.8, so I can tick off that number (and know how I feel after it).

Oryx

Kettlebells. Which I felt good for. This was a high energy day which I may pay for later Kbs were as they always are, but we did a crazy core session finishing with a 3 minute plank. Hellish.

Oryx

Turbo this morning. High cad, pain cave session. 60min, w/u of 10 c/d maybe 3 mins. You gotta love the feeling of sweat trickling down your back.

Oryx

Club swim this evening. The core session was led by a nice enough looking chap but he turned out to be an evil little bugger who crammed lots of pain into ten minutes. Its like a competition to see who can invent the worst session.

We never know what the swim will involve till after the warm up, which gives less time to dread it I suppose. Tonight was 200 w/up and then as many 400s as you could do till the end of the class. With 20 secs rest. I managed five. A 200 s/d made the total 2400. I'm a happy camper because I felt good and not tired after yesterday, and while I did tire and cramp at the end, I've often been worse off less effort.

Oryx

For the record, today, after that wonderful swim last night, I feel like sh!t. Thank god today is a rest day, my body feels like Ive been mugged.

Dory Dory

I know how you feel. I was wrecked yesterday but felt grand after my spin last night. Today I'm popping ibuprofen and stretching every chance I get here at work. You'd think I was almost as old as dpop by the way I'm moving!!

donothoponpop

Dory Dory wrote: »

You'd think I was almost as old as dpop by the way I'm moving!!

Hey, I whipped a bronchitral geriatric in the pool today, I feel as young as Ava Gardner's two step jitterbug.

Dory Dory

donothoponpop wrote: »

Hey, I whipped a bronchitral geriatric in the pool today, I feel as young as Ava Gardner's two step jitterbug.

Did you just ask me to dance?

Oryx

I think you scared dpop off with talk of dancing...

Woke this morning feeling less than perfect. Sore throat, aches, yadda yadda. So still got on the turbo but brought the intensity down a notch. Force session. Still worked and sweated. Just kept the hr in z2. Will skip a run later, have to do something for a friend anyway, so it suits. Its a step back week this week so can afford to cut some time.

Oryx

Managed a very unenthusiastic swim this morning. I didn't feel great and told myself I would stop at 20 lengths, then 30 and so on. But once I got to 60 I thought sod it I'll finish out to 2k. Bit of a junk session but good for mental resilience. Or at least thats what I'm telling myself.

Oryx

My body is currently staging one of its regular protests at the amount of training I'm making it do. GI issues and general malaise made for a very unpleasant interval session this morning. Even my run nemesis asked if I was mistaking the fast bits for the easy bits. I still left him behind, the sod. Had to cut the set short to get home just as I was getting into it but its probably just as well. Something really isn't right this week.

Dory Dory

Listen to your body...and get creative with training if you need to. Perhaps swap out one session for another if one might suit your "condition" better than another.

Oryx

I turned a deaf ear to my body today, which was screaming 'let me sleep!' Out earlyish (8.30) for my long bike. Planned a three hour out and back on the same route as last week. Unusually, the prevailing wind wasn't. This meant an easy cycle out, but a horrid cycle back, the reverse of normal, so the return leg was hard, but good. Made me work. 73k in 3hrs 10. I wasn't going to do the planned run, but some harsh words from my oh ('youre training. This is what youve got to do. Do it and then youll feel that youve achieved something) got me back out the door. A slow plod of 6k on very tired legs. But he was right. I was glad I'd done it.

Just scraped in 5 mins under the required hours if I include my kb session. An off colour week, where I had to drop two sessions, both of which happened to be runs. So my swim and bike were up, but my run was seriously down. But I'll take that. Some weeks you win. Some you lose. Better luck and health next week I hope.