The Road Less Traveled: IM 2012

Oryx

Ran today. Very blustery out. Not quite a marathon, 12.3k. But just one minute slower than my shorter run on Saturday. Hope the weather is better in Dublin for those doing nearly four times the distance.

Oryx

I'm reading everyone elses IM logs, and I realise that like everything else I do, this log lacks structure. I'm tending to roll from day to day and week to week, no wonder I can't see any gains, I'm not training properly for them, because I never properly look at what I'm doing.

For the last while I've been settling back into the winter programme, 7 or 8 sessions a week, just enjoying it. Over the last few weeks I've focussed on running with some good bike sessions in prep for the upcoming duathlon. Once that is done, I'm going to set out a structure for 3 swims, 3 bikes, at least two runs, and a strength session up into January. The aim will be to build base and technique.

Tonight was a low distance but very hard club swim. Some new, difficult drills. But I did surprise myself by managing a 25m sprint without taking a breath.

Bally8

Oryx wrote: »

But I did surprise myself by managing a 25m sprint without taking a breath.

:eek:Wow that's brilliant!

Im following your log with great interest Oryx, would love to be at your level someday:)

Oryx

Bally8 wrote: »

:eek:Wow that's brilliant!

Im following your log with great interest Oryx, would love to be at your level someday:)

If one of us had failed EVERYONE there had to do it again. Great incentive And I fell apart completely on the second 25m when we had one breath, couldn't do it!

I'm not all that. Slow as feck

Oryx

Second run session of the week. 6k or so. Took it handy but it was tough because the wind is strong enough to knock you sideways.

Oryx

Just got this:

Thank you very much for your registration.You are confirmed for IRONMAN Austria 2012.

No going back now! I hope I managed to register as F40 and not M, as the whole thing was in German, which required a bit of google/guesswork.

elvis jones

Oryx wrote: »

Just got this:No going back now! I hope I managed to register as F40 and not M, as the whole thing was in German, which required a bit of google/guesswork.

Congrats from your Jewish son;)

Oryx

elvis jones wrote: »

Congrats from your Jewish son;)

Oi, vey, Bubelah, you make your mamma very happy.

Cheers. Flipping expensive though €615. Start saving now, man!

Oryx

Club turbo set. 60 mins spinning and out of the saddle first then a hard set where you go till you blow.. Cad over 100, building higher, then harder and harder gears. Managed 5 and a half mins. Hr pretty much maxed. Loved it Am really getting to enjoy these sets and I'm told I'm def getting stronger. Which is great. This next race will be proof of that pudding though.

Oryx

Swim session. Was tired getting in and I hadn't planned a long set but we had a coach on hand and I thought I shouldn't waste that Did the full hour and got some really good advice, my main problem is a poor kick, so thats what I need to work on. Very hard set with arm and speed drills. Also got us to fly kick which I was hopeless at. 2100m.

Oryx

Ran this morning and guess what? NO RAIN. God it was nice to run in sunshine for a change. Slow 11k, legs are heavy.

Oryx

Biked on Sunday. 47k. Kettlebells last night. Tough session. But life is screwing with me right now, a lot of pressure and family issues have me worn out. So Im skipping my swim and probably everything else for the rest of this week. If I can get away, I will try and do the race at the weekend, but otherwise Ive got to shift focus to some non training stuff for a bit, if I try to do both Ill fall apart. Better to do this now than try to do it all and find Im too tired to start an IM plan in spring.

Oryx

Well. After a week of no training I went and did ballbuster. Holy cow it hurt. And still does right now. But 5 mins faster than last time in march. So am glad I hurt.

Izoard

Oryx wrote: »

Well. After a week of no training I went and did ballbuster. Holy cow it hurt. And still does right now. But 5 mins faster than last time in march. So am glad I hurt.

Congrats again, on another crazy event, but just wondering who is actually hurting...

The Urban dictionary defines "Ballbuster" as....

1) A female who gains power over a male by causing pain to his testicles (commonly "nuts"). Although it can include any kind of "nut" attack. The female most often employs her legs for the task, because of their relative proximity to the groin, and because the legs of a female have the needed stregnth to hurt a male without injuring him.
2) A female who humiliates, belittles, injures, chastises, dihabilitates, or otherwise causes distress to a man through non-physical means.

Jaysus, what sort of event were you doing?

Should you even be posting in A/R/T?

Oryx

Izoard wrote: »

Congrats again, on another crazy event, but just wondering who is actually hurting...

The Urban dictionary defines "" as....

1) A female who gains power over a male by causing pain to his testicles (commonly "nuts"). Although it can include any kind of "nut" attack. The female most often employs her legs for the task, because of their relative proximity to the groin, and because the legs of a female have the needed stregnth to hurt a male without injuring him.
2) A female who humiliates, belittles, injures, chastises, dihabilitates, or otherwise causes distress to a man through non-physical means.

Jaysus, what sort of event were you doing?

Should you even be posting in A/R/T?

Well I am mod of sex & sexuality. But dont worry, no balls were injured in the making of this event or at least if they were, I wasnt responsible.

Oryx

I'm not going to do a report on this race because, well, I've done two before. As normal with me this one had terrible preparation apart from four sensible days of rest beforehand. I'm happy with how it went. Fairly equal run splits of 1.04/1.06 almost the same as last time. A bike split of 1.40, 6 mins faster than last time and 8 mins faster than this time last year. Which is an improvement, however small. It is encouraging me to do more work on the bike and to improve my skills which are shockingly bad. The roads were narrow, wet and covered in leaves and on some of the downhills it was just a bit lunatic. For the sake of myself and everyone around me, I need to be better.

For anyone who hasn't a clue what this was and thinks I like cracking nuts, its an 8 mile/24 mile/8 mile duathlon with a beeatch of a hill you got to get up five times. www.humanrace.co.uk and look for winter BallBuster.

Oryx

Went swimming tonight, I didn't want to miss another session. Missed two last week. Well it bloody killed me. Sure of course this would be the night coach decided my legs weren't high enough and regardless of the drill I had to break the water fully when kicking ALL the time. My quads were not happy. Otherwise though it was a good session but I was definitely tired compared to a normal week, and I had to adjust the effort to compensate. In other words, I was slow Story of my life...

Oryx

For the record, I am fed up today. So if my training looks totally pants for a few days, its mood based, not that I've lost interest.

Rested Wednesday, partly because I was wrecked and couldnt get my ass off the couch. Put my bike back together though, so something beneficial out of the evening. Turboed on it last night, and nothing rattled loose, so all seems good. The session was ok, 11 mins out of the saddle spinning, which felt ok, even on tired quads. The longer it went on, the easier it got and I found myself clicking onto harder gears. Total session was about 50 mins, with another 10 mins of strength work afterwards. Pleasant, and I needed that.

Getting up at 6am to swim this morning was a drag, but I made myself. Its one thing to be fed up over stuff going on in your life, but if you're kicking your own arse for not training as well it all gets too much. So I did a 50 min session, some of the assigned set, f/c arms doing 'lungbuster' sets 100m x8 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 breaths, but I didnt get it finished before I had to get out and go home for the school run. Head-on-the-desk tired up till about an hour ago, but finally the coffee has hit the system and I feel better.

RedB

+1

At least you got your session in Well done. I've still got it hanging over me . Not firing the last few days, eating junk and lifeless . HAVE TO BREAK THE CYCLE!!! Had the gear laid out for a morning brick but tired and a crap nights sleep resulted in a DNS this morning. Got any of those HTFU pills left over?

Oryx

RedB wrote: »

+1

At least you got your session in Well done. I've still got it hanging over me . Not firing the last few days, eating junk and lifeless . HAVE TO BREAK THE CYCLE!!! Had the gear laid out for a morning brick but tired and a crap nights sleep resulted in a DNS this morning. Got any of those HTFU pills left over?

I just got a copy of Don Finks 'Be Iron Fit' and in one of the early chapters he talks about a 21 day challenge where you get up and train early every day, no excuses. It's to get you used to training in the morning. I had just read that bit on Wednesday so I suppose thats what got me up. Am eating junk to beat the band too -chilli coated nuts are a favourite right now- terrible stuff. Why do we love the cr*p so much?

RedB

Oryx wrote: »

he talks about a 21 day challenge where you get up and train early every day, no excuses. It's to get you used to training in the morning.

Half the battle would be won if I could just get to bed early / on time :rolleyes:

OK - my 21 day challange starts tonight / tomorrow! (do I still have to get up early on rest days )

Oryx

RedB wrote: »

Half the battle would be won if I could just get to bed early / on time :rolleyes:

OK - my 21 day challange starts tonight / tomorrow! (do I still have to get up early on rest days )

I got the impression you Ironmen didnt do rest days....:p I think the idea is to get up every day for the 21. Sorry about that!

RacoonQueen

Oryx wrote: »

I just got a copy of Don Finks 'Be Iron Fit' and in one of the early chapters he talks about a 21 day challenge where you get up and train early every day, no excuses. It's to get you used to training in the morning. I had just read that bit on Wednesday so I suppose thats what got me up. Am eating junk to beat the band too -chilli coated nuts are a favourite right now- terrible stuff. Why do we love the cr*p so much?

Chilli coated nut are still nuts. They have all the health benefits of nuts and are therefore healthy.

That 21 day challenge sounds like the sort of thing I need to get my body clock back into sync. Ever since I changed jobs and have working hours all over the shop I'm a disgrace. I used to get up at 5am on weekdays to get a run in before work and still have my cooked brekkie. :eek:

Oryx

Not much to report. Ran yesterday. Ran today. Tho just for fun went out for an 8am training session with a gang of other mad yokes. As well as sprinting up and down dunes, crawling and doing crunches and pushups, we ended up waist deep in the sea twice. Was fun and got my proper run in afterwards. Didn't feel like a proper Sunday session but it has meant I had a bit of time and energy left over to get other things done.

Oryx

Monday:
Kettlebell session, tired going to it, tired during it, tired afterwards.

Tuesday:
No coach, (sick) so we did a session as emailed by him. 1900m with c/u, one arm, timed, IM sets. Should have been 2400 but I had to cut short the w/u and the IM sets (cant do butterfly). I am really not on form this week, it felt like swimming through treacle and my times were way down. Wouldnt be at all surprised if Im coming down with something.

According to Don Fink I should be starting a 30 week plan next week. I'm choosing his intermediate plan, because thats the one I think I can cope with best, timewise. His training suits me best because its time based rather than mileage. Sure lets see how it goes! Starts off very easy by the looks of it, the biggest issue is fitting it around the organised sessions Im doing, I need to see where they fit.

couerdelion

Is the Don Fink plan online or from a book?

How many hours a week is it?

Oryx

couerdelion wrote: »

Is the Don Fink plan online or from a book?

How many hours a week is it?

Its from the book Be Iron Fit I havent examined it in detail but 6 hours up to 15 approx.

Oryx

Wednesday:
Rest. I really felt like I needed it.

Thursday:
Turbo. Beeatch of a session run by a *very nice woman* of a coach who screamed at us, I mean really screamed, to PUSH IT PUSH IT PUSH IT. And then proceeded to tell us that winter sessions shouldnt max out the heart rate when thats what she just made us do. Go figure. Anyway I worked hard, and that cant hurt in small doses. Can it?

Friday:
Up so early the crack of dawn was still in bed. Into the pool, but didnt do the set session, I had promised myself I would just swim, because I havent done that in weeks and weeks, its been all drills. 1500m almost continuous, easy, which I think was a good thing for me. Though I did feel guilty as all around me were doing catch ups and fly kicking. Dont think Ill drop the session again, might as well do the hard work when its offered.

Oryx

Saturday:
Horrible day. Set out to run, but my heart wasnt in it. Came back after half an hour. Bad day, all in all, for reasons unrelated to training.

Sunday:
Early xc training session. Just what I needed to distract me. Nice bunch of people, and I loved the session. Total of 7 or 8 miles for me, including hill reps, and wading through deep pools and mud. REALLY cold. Took ages to warm up. Am neglecting bike, but that will be remedied once the HM is over.

Monday:
More running. 15k straightforward road run. Kept pace easy, averaged just over 5min kms. 81 mins. Two long drags with the wind in my face were much slower. Enjoyed it though, and happy with pace as it just felt like a handy plod.

No kbs this week, had something else on.

Oryx

Tuesday
Swim session. 450 warm up where I felt like an epileptic swimming through glue. This malarkey seems to be getting worse instead of better. My main problem is body position. Need to work on that. Did a 750 tt. 17.14. Ten seconds slower than April. I can only take small consolation in the fact that I was wrecked tonight and in April I know I was drafting half the time... But in reality I know I've just got to work much, much harder.