a log with no name

RedB

BennyMul wrote: »

All done and dusted.

11:23 ish dont have offical time. 5th overall.

happy days.

Wow! Amazing. Well done

Izoard

BennyMul wrote: »

All done and dusted.

11:23 ish dont have offical time. 5th overall.

happy days.

Some serious latent talent there - chapeau!

shotgunmcos

Well done Chief, great result on debut season and debut IM!! Can't wait to hear your take on it

BennyMul

griffin100 wrote: »

Great result Benny. You looked really strong when you passed me going up Molls Gap, how did you know it was me?

Results are up via the Hardman website.

Hey nice meeting you, when passing I noticed the Racing 795 shorts so guessed it twas you,

BennyMul

To start with thanks to everyone on here for help, encouragement to get me to this point.
I knew I had some work done, but there is always the niggle of doubt; was there enough, was it hard enough, was it too hard
Anyway the plan that I was telling people was sub 13 hours, with an secret time of 12:30.

The weekend started off nicely getting to Killarney Friday night later than we hoped, went to drop some stuff off the self-catering, and started to panic a bit when I noticed it was 6:30 and the traffic was brutal. so turn the car around and headed to the registration,
The prerace meeting was a bit of a laugh, felt very informal and comfortable. I did look around for Griffin100 and Brick Session but as I hadn’t the foggiest what they looked like I was on to a losing battle.

anyway off to the apartments, got bags ready and sat, finally went to bed but was wide awake worrying do I have XY packed, what if this happens. finally dosed off but still kept wakening fearing I slept through the alarm.

this went off at 4:30 up and had breakfast. went woke the better half and off to the start.
got the bike setup transition bag in place and off the toilet, and nothing this had me worried a bit so I left it for a while and got into the wet suit. and we were called to the water. In a way it was good as I had stopped worrying about what was ahead but once I in the water it hit me. "sh1t what the feck was I doing".
All the boards logs from the year where the day went bad came flooding in, (Did I have prawns, and we are all still wondering if RedB ever finished ).

The count down and off we set.

the Swim.
I had done some OW swimming in the local river so was happy with my prep, was I wrong my sighting was brutal and was all over the place,
With so few racing I never got into a group so just kept trying to spot the buoys and head to them and went majorly off course once or twice.
Still felt comfortable didn’t push the swim at all wanted to make sure I don’t exit the water tired. On to the second lap and the watch vibrated for the 3k complete. this confused me as I looked and still had a bit of a swim left, aghh it looks longer than it is. A while later it vibrated again that’s 4K done and I had to go around the last 2 buoys .
out of the water 1:23:49
30\57 21 excluding relay.
Hardman Swim
the Garmin had the swim measured at 4.5k so I did go a tad off course.(even accounting for the 10%)

T1 was pretty much uneventful 7min, well apart from mentally traumatising a few kids for life. They were looking at the man with scars (a common thing) getting changed and I did notice them so did try and use a towel to take off swimming togs and get on cycling shorts, well I have 1 hand too little and the towel fell, poor kids so I apologies to their parents.

the Bike:
Was looking forward to and dreading this section. I wanted badly to do a good ride. felt 6:30 was possible with a slow time of 7.
out of T1 and relaxed straight away, took it easy got the hr down. kept an eye on power. flew through town and past my first 2 cyclists.
On to the first climbs of the day and felt savage strong. trying not to push it as there was still a bit to go. Started to pass more riders on the climb, up over Molls Gap, only at one point did I need to drop to the small ring, once that piece was over back to the 53 and powered up the climb,
Near the top saw a rider in "racing 795" shorts so after will I\wont I, I did ask was it Griffin and introduced myself, a quick chat and I went on, felt bad going on would have liked to be properly acquainted.
Over the top of the climb and a lovely decent, problem #1
I had a mount for a bottle between the tri bars and it broke, so for the decent I was holding a full bottle in place and trying to descend I could not drive the bike in to the corners like I wanted to.
on to the Kenmare road and $hit no power, or speed. wtf the power meter just stopped working. balls. riding along trying to do anything to get it working but nothing.
So now I have HR (which stupidly I never paid much attention to as I was planning on power as my gauge) so I set my HR ranges.
This left me with a dilemma in a few points was I going slow, why was the HR high etc.
The next few K flew past and I have no idea what happened, but as a result of problem #1 I had only 1 bottle cage so I had to stop every 30K for a refill, not a problem only losing a few seconds.
Around 90K in and there was no one on the road, hadn’t seen anyone in ages, the wind was really picking up and it started to rain, I had a rain jacket with me but with the wind never bothered putting it on, it would only be a sail. At the top of the last major climb I was almost stopped with the wind it was brutal but the views were amazing.
Then on the decent my mind called me a fool, while tucking in another powerbar I passed a pub and you could smell the dinner coming from it, I started to drool it was lovely. I would have loved to stop.
At this point I started to meet traffic in towns and a tractor run which slowed me down, not majorly. the worst was a narrow bridge which had a Right of Way, the traffic coming towards us held me up for what felt like ages.
I started to feel tired around the 150k and then worried if I had pushed it too much, would I be able to run. I tried to calm myself down and relax.
The problem compounded itself when I tried to take on more drink, it started to repeat, at the last aid station I grabbed a small bottle of water and tried to sip that but the same eventually getting sick after which I
tried to sip very very small amounts which seemed to work. Coming into Killarney a parked car give me a time check of 3 min to 2 riders up the road but there was only 5K left. Which was an out and back section, so at least I could see them. It was Hugh Barberry and someone else, WTF am I doing here, was the first thing that entered my mind, then am I really in third.
Off the bike into T2 and Im looking around trying to count bikes, 3rd or 4th. WTF
At this point I was a very happy camper, and forgive me if this seems like bragging but it was the best I felt on bike in years or possible ever, I felt savage strong and even had more in the tank but was mindful of the run.

Hardman Bike
Time 5:42 (175K) 4/53, or 2nd removing the relay.

the Run
leaving T2 I was told I was 3rd individual. so I had never pictured this so what to do, first thing remove the arm warmers and a top, I thought it was going to be colder on the run so had two layers, then tried to keep myself calm and not run too hard at the end of the 10k loop I had the gap to Hugh and his companion (a relay runner) down to approx. a min when a gurgle was felt this was not good; held myself together till the aid station and enquired on the location of a portaloo. There was none :eek:, and was pointed to the closest forest. Which after T1 I spent time looking to make sure there were no kids and ran deep deep in to the forest and I will not go into detail, but Im sure most of ye have been here before.
So back on to the run and I have lost sight of the two I was chasing and my pace slowly started to fall off. I tried to pick up the pace but there was nothing, by the end of the second lap the pace had dropped to 6min/km slower than I hoped, but I had nothing. I was also starting to meet other runners and could not tell if they were relay or what lap. So every time I was passed or passing I tried to look for the elastic to count the lap they were on,
It was during the second lap that I had my lowest moment, looking at the arm I saw three elastics so I tried to do maths, Im on the third lap yippee it’s over, then like hitting a wall my brain kicked into gear and I realised that I was halfway through the run (1 elastic was on the start of lap 1), felt like lying down and crying, feck it only 20k to go. Cop the feck on what would the boardsies say, HTFU.
At this point I picked up my fuel belt which had two bottles of coke, never used it in training so not sure how it would go down, what’s worst that could happen. Kept plodding away passing and been passed, I was trying to use the out and back section to gauge my position I kept meeting the two I was chasing here and the was growing ever so slightly. The hills on the 3rd lap were mountains and I was quicker walking than running. Well onto lap 4 and there was slight warning of cramp, I was also waiting on the so called felling of ecstasy and flying, maybe that’s later.
Had a runner in the distance so dug deep and slowly hobbled after him, it was someone who passed me earlier, A quick chat and asked was it his last lap, “nope he had 1 more”. I felt sorry for him, he truly was suffering. I pushed on caught one of the relay runners which I was chasing from the start and even managed to run the last mountain sorry hill.

Stopped for a drink at the last aid station and nearly feel over, the place started to spin, threw the water over me and set off no fecking way am I stopping now.
Hit the 1k to go and there it was no pain, no tiredness a beautiful feeling. Even had a nice smile on my face when I refused the elastic for another lap.
The last few hundred meters were lovely. Crossed the finish line and was dead. Didn’t recognise the wife for a bit. Brought to a chair and sat for a min,
Was told I was 5th didn’t picture that at all starting the day. Sitting there and the organisers were great, anything you needed and they went out of the way for you.

The run was the only disappointment of the day had hoped to run a sub 4, more like sub 3:45, but there was nothing I could do to pick up the pace.

Hardman Run
Time 4:05 15/53 or 10 removing relay.

Total Time of 11:23 – 8th overall, 5th individual.

So am I happy $hit yes, over an hour off what I was aiming for.
Would I go again - would love to, even a few days later and I am on a bit of a high. but I put in so much time and effort I have been warned that to mention it again was grounds for divorce. So I have to give it some time, a sub 11 is to be aimed for:o

My thoughts on “the hardman” –
some points of it need improving, a lack of portaloo on the run for one,
signage for supports,
The small size of the race meant that there were ages when you saw no one on the bike, over 40min at one time.
But the route for the bike is amazing, some fantastic roads and scenery. The run was lovely the route was perfect loads of room to run and every helper on the day was happy and cheerful and made sure you were ok.


Would I go back, in a heartbeat. I can’t compare it to an official IM branded event or Challenge series but I liked it.

Again thanks to all on here for the encouragement over the year.
And to Claire for her support on the day, and though out the year

Respect to Griffin and Brick Sessions on a hard day at the office.

Izoard

Great report and well done again - cracking bike leg!

Sub 11 is easily within your compass...

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Excellent stuff and great bike split. As if the 3.8km swim was not enough you had to go swim some more. Enjoy the downtime.

catweazle

Well done Benny great report, if I had heard anything less than a sub 12 in the run up I would have been badgering you again for sandbagging. Great bike split for what I can only imagine is a tough route!

griffin100

Once again a great result Benny. I assumed it was the shorts that have me away

I think I was starting my first run lap when you were finishing yours, a runner in a black tri suit came through the feed station asking about toilets and was told 'nearest ditch on the left' or words to that effect, he didn't look happy

On the swim how accurate is the Garmin, if I thought I'd swum close to 4km with the time I got I'd be very happy. Certainly I think Hugh C.'s time was a lot slower than he had been hoping for judging on what was mentioned in the main Hardman thread.

Anyone know how Bricksession got on?

Dory Dory

Super report! Two things really standout for me - the swim graph :eek: and scars .

Very well done!! You should be very proud.

Brick Session

Anyone know how Bricksession got on?[/QUOTE]

I had a great day Griff, I finished. I had the honour of being last home, even though 3 of us crossed the line together, the last place went to me. I will do a report later on but I had a great day.

BennyMul

Dory Dory wrote: »

Super report! Two things really standout for me - the swim graph :eek: and scars .

Very well done!! You should be very proud.

Thanks I am proud, I will have to start nit picking the day now to look to see where I can improve.

Yes the swim was brutal, something I will have to work on. Never thought it would be as hard to swim in a straight line.

Re the scars, I had an accident many many moons ago and was left with a few tiny marks (ok more than a few) When in short or a tee shirt kids will stare, as any child would do.

catweazle - you were the reason I didnt say a time , was not confident in myself that I would go sub 12:30, but thankfully I race faster than I train.

JB - Done time, what down time, I have to get ready for DCM.

Again Respect to Brick, a great day sorry we didnt meet.

Dory Dory

Regarding your swim sight line- how often did you breathe, how often did you sight, and what kind of peripheral vision do your goggles afford you? I took an open water swim clinic a few weeks back and the instructor stressed that it is much easier to sight as often as possible than to take extra strokes to get back on course. She advocated breathing every stroke in distance swimming (such is the trend among successful swimmers), and advocated sighting every time you breathe. I tried this method in my tri a few weeks ago and my swim line was dead on. Oh, and I have a pair of Speedo goggles made for open water swimming that max peripheral vision, which is brilliant in open water because I barely had to lift my head to sight.

And scars are sexy.

BennyMul

Dory Dory wrote: »

Regarding your swim sight line- how often did you breathe, how often did you sight, and what kind of peripheral vision do your goggles afford you? I took an open water swim clinic a few weeks back and the instructor stressed that it is much easier to sight as often as possible than to take extra strokes to get back on course. She advocated breathing every stroke in distance swimming (such is the trend among successful swimmers), and advocated sighting every time you breathe. I tried this method in my tri a few weeks ago and my swim line was dead on. Oh, and I have a pair of Speedo goggles made for open water swimming that max peripheral vision, which is brilliant in open water because I barely had to lift my head to sight.

And scars are sexy.

thanks

the berating was mixed when I relax I breath every 3 strokes and do bilateral, however most of the time it was every stroke, sighting was done every 5\6th but when "lost" was every stroke until I got on line.

I did look at my goggles and in hindsight they didn’t help, a kinda small grey glass which in the pool and evenings are fine, but on the dull morning with limited visibility made it hard to see in the distance.
I did swim a length in the pool with closed eyes and kept pulling left. So it may be a matter of working on balance and many many other things.

BennyMul

Friday 31st
first session back and hit the pool, just did 2k of drills,

Saturday 1st:
2 hours on the bike, had no power\speed today just rode easy spun the legs and made sure the hr was low took time to look around.

Sunday 2nd:
An hour run, was meant to be another easy day but my body was off, there pace was brutal slow (5:30ish min/km) and my Hr was way too high, so i slowed the pace down and tried to get it undercontrol, at which point the battery died so just jogged.

approx 12k
time 1hour

Monday 3rd:
was meant to swim but work was manic and it just never happened.

Tuesday 4th:
evening run, plan was 3-x 800m;400 recovery
starting off the HR was sky high again (approx 20-30 beats higher than normal) so called the session off and ran 10k easy.

time 51min
dist 10k.

BennyMul

wow getting lazy, without the main goal its getting very easy to skip a session.

Wednesday 5th:
Nothing helping the eldest with math study, this went on late as I had to relearn sets and stuff, been too many years since I looked at it,

Thursday 6th:
planned to do the 800's and this time I was determined to go them.
simple warmup and started off, the sets were good planning to do 3-x with 400 recovery walking to bring the HR down to <135 then jog.
felt good for most of the sets. HR not as high.
sets came in on 3:43; 3:53; 4:05; 4:00; 4:08; 4:14
Call it quits after the 6th, possibly had a few more in the tank.
800s

Friday 7th:
2.5K swim mainly drills, - I have to get back to a structured session as its a bit ad hoc

Saturday 8th:
up early and out for another short spin, felt good this morning, pushed the effort on the drags and never felt under pressure.

Sunday 9th:
The youngest has started to play Rugby so planned to get up early, but slept through the alarm. So changed to run back from his training.
a nice run, ran at PM (4:30) hr again high in places and most of the way felt good and relaxed, pace did drop after 10k a few drags and the bit of heat left me feeling thirsty, happy with the run, called it quits with 2k to go and ran slowly to warm down. (approx 4:35 for the 18k)
PMP

Tuesday 11th:
the planned 800's session was called off as working late, so this lead to my first dark run in an age.
session was changed to volume repeats, 3*3K @4k pace and 1k @ 4:45 pace.
Felt good, the dark meant I could not see the pace,hr on the watch so just ran and hit the numbers nicely.
(3:59;4:00 and 4:07 - was 4:01 until the drag at the end :mad:)
happy with this run, there is something nice and peaceful running in the dark.
3 x 3k

BennyMul

Wednesday
nothing, I have got into a rut and feeling lazy, I have to get myself out of it.

Thursday 13th:
still peed from yesterday hit the road late again for a session, the plan was 6-x 800's with 400 rec. so thats what I did,
happy with the session, due to the dark was unable to see the screen so ran this on feeling, times between 3:08 and 2:59
17:41.3 1.26 6:06 23:04.3 0.80 3:50 32:30.3 0.40 6:16 43:00.0 0.80 3:45 52:36.9 0.40 6:32 63:08.3 0.80 3:55 72:40.7 0.40 6:42 82:59.0 0.80 3:44 92:45.5 0.40 6:54 103:05.4 0.80 3:52 113:03.0 0.40 7:37 122:59.9 0.80 3:45 132:59.4 0.40 7:28 143:05.8 0.80 3:52 152:52.3 0.40 7:11 163:03.7 0.80 3:50 173:04.7 0.40 7:42 1816:04.0 2.87 5:36
800s

sunday 16:
plan was some mp efforts, woke up to rain and did not want to get out, so lay there for a while and it did clear up slightly. so off I went
the first K was a struggle mentally, I simply did not want to run, did consider turning around and leaving it will later. but feck it I was out
so plan was do a ladder PMP, 1 - 5K with 1k rec
the first one was ok, slightly slower than mp, the rest fell into place nicely.
(pace 4:34, 4:14, 4:21, 4:23, 4:27 - hill at the end ruined the last k)
happy enough, have to keep an eye on the hr as while I was comfortable it was slightly high, but I tried to run on feeling and where I started to noticed deep breatHing I eased back slightly.

pmp

RedB

Good running on a crappy enough morning BM, I wimped out until the evening when I heard the rain and it hung over me all day as a result

I haven't seen that ladder PMP session before. Is that your own or from another plan?

BennyMul

believe me I was very close to wimping out, as for the ladder it is the same as the pyramid except you don't come back down:D.

Not sure where I saw it, but it breaks up the effort nicely. Will repeat it next weEk, but will go 500m recovery and add 6k to the end bring it up to a 30ish K run.

how is your training progressing.

RedB

BennyMul wrote: »

believe me I was very close to wimping out, as for the ladder it is the same as the pyramid except you don't come back down:D.

Not sure where I saw it, but it breaks up the effort nicely. Will repeat it next weEk, but will go 500m recovery and add 6k to the end bring it up to a 30ish K run.

how is your training progressing.

Good stuff.

My training is going well enough. I'm on the P+D 18 week plan after missing the first few weeks and then playing very hard catchup for a couple of weeks. Got a PB in a 10km race on Sat and then had a 27km LSR yesterday. I've been making all the sessions for a change (1 discipline is sooooo much easier than 3 ) so I've two 32km runs done so far and am generally feeling on top of it for endurance. Not sure about my ability to maintain pace on the day though but will be trusting the plan to deliver

Brick Session

BennyMul wrote: »

believe me I was very close to wimping out, as for the ladder it is the same as the pyramid except you don't come back down:D.

Not sure where I saw it, but it breaks up the effort nicely. Will repeat it next weEk, but will go 500m recovery and add 6k to the end bring it up to a 30ish K run.

how is your training progressing.

Are you heading for DCM Benny?

Brick Session

BennyMul wrote: »

Wednesday
nothing, I have got into a rut and feeling lazy, I have to get myself out of it.

Can you advise how it is that you do that? I can't get motivated at all since the big one. Was palnning on the Cork to Cobh 15 mil run in a few weeks buit now can't be arsed about that. Went home Thursday to go for a run and made a pot of coffee instead.

BennyMul

Brick Session wrote: »

Can you advise how it is that you do that? I can't get motivated at all since the big one. Was palnning on the Cork to Cobh 15 mil run in a few weeks buit now can't be arsed about that. Went home Thursday to go for a run and made a pot of coffee instead.

It is hard to get motivated after the A race, I have planned to do DCM the training is a bit of a stuggle, as the head is not in it, almost a year of training for the hardman does take a lot out of you.
I find as long as I dont hate the training I will get out, as soon as I hate it I stop and dont go back until I want to.

Do you have any plans for next season?

Brick Session

BennyMul wrote: »

It is hard to get motivated after the A race, I have planned to do DCM the training is a bit of a stuggle, as the head is not in it, almost a year of training for the hardman does take a lot out of you.
I find as long as I dont hate the training I will get out, as soon as I hate it I stop and dont go back until I want to.

Do you have any plans for next season?

I would love to do maybe IM Uk or Wales due to the closeness of them and the lower cost compared to the whole family going to Europe but I have a communion at home and as the Hardman took up all of this summer, the mere suggestion of going long again next year might start divorce proceedings.

I will probably concentrate on a few Olympics, maybe the double in Athy, the Waterford marathon and the Lost Sheep definitely for next year and hopefully the DCM too.

I had planned to tackle the DCM this year but when it came down to it, my head was not in it. I am only now starting to get itchy to get back into regular structured training. I want to fit into these size 34 jeans for a while yet.

BennyMul

I know that that conversation, was warned not to mention one again for a while or be divorced dont want to chance my arm,
But to be honest I am missing the training feel like I am doing nothing with only 1 session a day.
Plan is to get DCM under the belt and then look to next year, plan on aiming for a few time based goals.

and you are right if your head is not in it, no point in it, you would not do it justice, get the head right and plan next season,

Brick Session

Yeah you are right there Benny. I am hoping to get back into it again with a trip to the pool tonight. I am going to try and take a week from around the middle if the Fink plan and use that as my winter training, probably about 8 hours per week or thereabouts. Hopefully that plan might just work. Or I might just order in Pizza and beer.

BennyMul

RedB wrote: »

Good stuff.

My training is going well enough. I'm on the P+D 18 week plan after missing the first few weeks and then playing very hard catchup for a couple of weeks. Got a PB in a 10km race on Sat and then had a 27km LSR yesterday. I've been making all the sessions for a change (1 discipline is sooooo much easier than 3 ) so I've two 32km runs done so far and am generally feeling on top of it for endurance. Not sure about my ability to maintain pace on the day though but will be trusting the plan to deliver

trust the plan, you managed a marathon after a hard day in the saddle and a splash in the local watering hole, a single marathon will be no problems to you.
And yes a single sport is soo easy, :rolleyes:

BennyMul

Tuesday 18th:
Thanks to JB for his plan,
based on his reading, I should be doing a tempo run of 60min, then 10min harder.
I was really stuck from time and as this is the first tempo run in an age, I questioned my ability to run for 70min, modified plan was a min of 30min at tempo and keep going if able.

10min warm up, and got stuck into it, aim was 4:10-4:15 pace, felt ok and quickly got into it, the 30min were perfect spot on the 4:10 pace, avg hr 156, at this point I was into a stiff breeze and a few little drags that are not hard but you feel them, and the pace fell off slightly, the next 15min avg pace 4:16 hr 164.

total 46min @ 4:14min/km & avg hr 158.
Tempo

I possibly may have went too hard at the start and should have held something back. but at the start I doubted I could do 30min, so Im a happy little camper.

catweazle

BennyMul wrote: »

Tuesday 18th:
Thanks to JB for his plan,

Lol all we need is Oryx on JB's gold plated plan and poor Red will be convinced their is a conspiracy against him.

Red I would be interested to hear what that 10k pb was, I would expect you to be going very well at this stage, judging by your 1/2 marathon pb on tired legs

BennyMul

catweazle wrote: »

Lol all we need is Oryx on JB's gold plated plan and poor Red will be convinced their is a conspiracy against him.

Red I would be interested to hear what that 10k pb was, I would expect you to be going very well at this stage, judging by your 1/2 marathon pb on tired legs

schhhh say nothing to Reb

I was curious myself on his 10K PB, well Reb?