Half Iron Elvis

elvis jones

I took yesterday off training. I spent it looking at where i was is Oct 09 when i started all this and where i am now.

I was tipping 18 stone of fat and couldn't run 5 metres. Now i am 15.5 stone and a lot of that is muscle ( with a little belly still to go ).

I've completed 5 half marathons, a full marathon, a few duathlons, a few triathlons and hours and hours of training. I could have done more, i could be a lot further down the road but i'm not. The only one who has been stopping me, is ME.

I can stay at this level plodding along and just being happy to move up a level every so often or i can take a step back and decide to move up and achieve something great.

In 3 years i can go from 19 stone and unable to move 5 metres to someone who has lost 5 stone, done a half ironman and an ultra marathon. Only i can make that decision and only i can follow it through.

Its time to take a step forward and up. The next 11 weeks could define the last 3 yrs and where i want to be in my life going forward.

Oryx

For the next 11 weeks, picture how you will feel the day after your HIM, when you can think to yourself, 'I did it'. Thats what will push you through the hard weeks. There is always time to train, and excuses are just that. Youve come a long way, this will just crown your achievement. I wish you lots of luck, and sweat (but no blood and tears ).

elvis jones

Oh there will be tears, i'm a soppy yoke:D

Neck is in bits so going to try and swim this evening and if i can't i'll hit the sauna to get some heat into it.

Tomorrow is my 1st mountain session, in total about 75k.

Sunday 9 mile LSR.

RacoonQueen

What ultra are you planning on doing?

elvis jones

RacoonQueen wrote: »

What ultra are you planning on doing?

Eddie Brennan in Nov, just the 30 mile to wet my toe in the water.

menoscemo

elvis jones wrote: »

Eddie Brennan in Nov, just the 30 mile to wet my toe in the water.

Sixmilebridge? That's a fantastic race, but it is the Eddie Murphy;) (named after the great sarsfieldrock previous poster from these boards.)

elvis jones

menoscemo wrote: »

elvis jones wrote: »

Eddie Brennan in Nov, just the 30 mile to wet my toe in the water.

Sixmilebridge? That's a fantastic race, but it is the Eddie Murphy;) (named after the great sarsfieldrock previous poster from these boards.)

Would you believe that's the 3rd time I've done that today !!!! Anyway yeah I wish I hadnt done DCM last year and done it as my 1st with the cause it's for !

Anyone know the date yet ?

BTH

elvis jones wrote: »

Would you believe that's the 3rd time I've done that today !!!! Anyway yeah I wish I hadnt done DCM last year and done it as my 1st with the cause it's for !

Anyone know the date yet ?

Looks like someone has a bit of a man crush on Bambatta!! :rolleyes::D

RacoonQueen

elvis jones wrote: »

Anyone know the date yet ?

November 18th. Forgot about this one actually. Not sure I'll get out of cross country season this year but if I can I might do the 30 myself.

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Looks like someone has a bit of a man crush on Bambatta!! :rolleyes::D

He's doing Bambatta for 30 miles in November? Is 30 miles a kinky move I haven't heard of?!

Chinese whispers strike again.

elvis jones

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Looks like someone has a bit of a man crush on Bambatta!! :rolleyes::D

My love must be known:p

Nov 18th suits me perfectly !

elvis jones

72.5k done with my 1st climbing !

You should be able to view it here

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/105762873

Happy enough and lots left in the tank.

14k LSR in the morning !

elvis jones

Life got in the way so no LSR, swim instead and run tomorrow:)

elvis jones

Daddy time with the kids in the pool today, i only got 10 lengths done but they stretched out the legs nicely.

Going to do turbo in the morning before work instead of run and long swim session in the evening. I hope this week will be the hardest so far and i have club tri at the weekend so looking forward to that !

elvis jones

Jaysus be diabetic is great craic !

As i'm upping my training i have to up my food intake. I have a nice carb loaded dinner yesterday and got up this morning feeling worse than if i had 2 bottles of wine:o

Its trail and error and sreak sambo with baby potatos doesn't work for me, neither does rice.

Pasta/pizza i can take with no problems so my carb loading options are small enough:(

6k run at lunch and long swim session this evening.

I got all the sufferfest videos for the turbo so doing one of them in the morning:)

elvis jones

5.2k done at lunch, time was tight so i couldn't do the 6k i wanted.

i did it in 26:58 which works out at 5:11 per km, i'm getting a little faster as the weeks go by. I have to say i'm happy seeing as how sluggish i felt this morning.

Swim this evening and it will be about 1k with warm op, pull buoy, core 540m ( 30 lengths 0, pull buoy and warm down !

elvis jones

I changed my mind last night and went to bed early. Sleep is so important and i never get enough with kids, work etc.

I was in bed asleep after 9 and wasn't up until 7 this morning:)

Finally got news that my mam has ovarian cancer, its very treatable and the doctors seem very positive so i'm happy with all that.

Tough times ahead but we'll get through them and i can already see myself doing something big for charity in 2013.

Anyway swim this evening, long session.

Meant to be going to a meeting big i think i'll skip it.

elvis jones

Swim last night.

As you know i am a rather crap swimmer. The idea of swimming 750m in a pool non stop is still some way off.

So.........i did 180m of a warm up. I had a little trouble getting my nose clip to sit right but i got it !

Then i put the pull buoy between my legs and took off ! Length after length working on my breathing and stroke ( which might i say is really improving ). I got to 750m and kept going. Finally i stopped at 900m and was really happy to have gone that distance without stopping.

i did another 4 slow lengths just to warm down and off to the sauna i went.

Now i know that distance is nothing really and with the pull buoy its even easier but i needed to do it non stop to see how my arms would feel and what energy i'd have after it. Well i felt fine.

I've said it before, if the wetsuit is anything like the pull buoy i'll be fine as have no bother keeping going while using it.

Another swim tonight late so Mrs Jones can get out on the bike.

elvis jones

Oh and i went to the post Athy meeting last night............lessons learned we'll be back next year even better !

Oryx

I think youve cracked that swim! Well done!

elvis jones

Oryx wrote: »

I think youve cracked that swim! Well done!

Ya think, i can still only do it with the pull buoy. Is it as easy with the wetsuit ?

Oryx

elvis jones wrote: »

Ya think, i can still only do it with the pull buoy. Is it as easy with the wetsuit ?

please note numpty swimmer here*

A wetsuit holds your body in a good position, similar to a pull buoy, so in that regard yes, its easier than swimming without a suit. But the thing Ive always struggled with, and still need to master, is my kick rhythm and kick rate. My concentration does not allow for my feet and arms to do different things, one constantly switches off, leaving me with either a good kick or a good stroke, but neither match.

I know the theory, that your swim stroke should be a full body thing, your kick timed to balance your body, keeping you in a streamlined position in the water. But I have yet to get it right, so my feet do kick but its an ineffective flutter, and I tend to fishtail. Next winters' training season is all about correcting that.

So, the reason I say that, is to remind you not to neglect the kick. The longer you do, the longer it will take to integrate it into your stroke properly.

*for proper swim advice, please consult our resident sharks, Dory and interested.

elvis jones

Cheers,

I've been told i have a strong kick and try to do a bit on it every session.

I found with the buoy i that extra half sec to work my left arm correctly and turn to breath. I just don't seem to get that normally.

elvis jones

Bum on the saddle last night, i didn't get out until 8pm and drove over towards The Cut ( a mountain in the sleeve blooms ). I parked about 7k from the start of the climbing and off i went. That 7k was done in 13 odd min so i was gaining time and staying below the 2min mark per km.

I took the turn and the climbing begun, it was much easier that saturday as the wind wasn't as strong until i got up further and i wasn't eating crisps and choc the night before:o

Anyway i got down into the aero bars, bum in the saddle and turned over the pedals. I felt strong the whole way up and i passed point on sat where i turned with wase.

I got to the top the see the big sign "The Cut" and i knew i had reached antoher level in my training and done something that was beyond me this time last year.

I don't like coming down the cut, the road surface is awful and i was very worried about getting a flat so didn't go mad fast. This showed in my finish time of 30k in 1:08. Last night wasn't about time, it was about getting to the top and proving to myself that those climbs won't be a problem on Sept 8th.

I think it worked out at about 4.3% gradiant. There is a much tougher climb i'm going to start working on in July and fingers crossed by the end of next month i'll be doing both as part of weekend 90k long cycle.

Swim this evening early so i can see the match:)

pointer28

Have to agree with you here, you surface on The Cut is atrocious. I wish the relevant county council with do something with it as it would be worth a lot to them in terms of cyclo tourism.

I did The Cut and the Wolftrap a few weeks ago and as dreadfully slow as I am going up them I'd swear I was nearly as slow going down them. Scarily rough in places and very easy to end up having a bad slap and not a great place for it to happen either.

elvis jones

Your so right, i spent my time on the way up looking for loose stones etc so i knew where to place the bike on the way down. On a good surface i could have got down 90 sec or more quicker than i did !

elvis jones

Swim tonight.

Just a 850m split into sets of front crawl and front crawl with pull buoy. As i said earlier i feel my stroke is coming along well so that was my main focus again this evening. Its my left arm and the push back with my right that needed work and the attention to them is paying off.

Doing a long session in the morning of warm up, as long as i can keep going with the pull buoy and warm down.

I might do a slow 10k tomorrow evening as i haven't ran since Monday.

elvis jones

Nothing yesterday, i was in the hospital with my mam and got a last minute gig so didn't get out at all.

Club test tri this morning.

220m swim
14.8k cycle
3.6k run

Working til 2 and up just after 7 isn't great for a race. Struggled out of bed and had some porridge, in the jeep with mr jones ( she was racing as well ) and grabbed a coffee on the way.

Got my gear set up and headed in to get changed.

We were in the pool with 4 per lane ( 22m pool so 10 lengths ).

I did a rookie mistake and started with my goggles on top og my head:o i had to stop to fix them and i lost it for the rest of the swim, it was slow and awful and i HATED every second of it. No time yet but it was sllllllow !

Out of the pool and headed towards the bike, stopped for 10 sec to let out a very very big burp:(

Socks on ( can't go without them because of insoles ), helmet on and off i went.

I forgot to turn on my garmin so i didn't get a reading for the 1st 4ish km. I felt strong on the bike and stayed on the aero bars where i could. The wind was awful for the final 5k and slowed down my pace big time. From what i can see my average speed was 31.5k so i stayed above the magic 30k mark and think i did a good time overall on the bike ( i don't have the full times yet )

Back in and i lost a bit of time trying to get out of my shoes on the bike to jump off. Dismount, rack, helmet off, garmin off the bike and off i went.

I thought my run would be slow as i've only really done one brick this year but it was actually quick ( for me ). I felt strong from the start but was breathing hard and working hard. There is some uphill to about the 2k mark and i was still running just under 5min km which was good. Slight downhill and that saved me a bit. I kept the legs turning over and pushing it. Came in with a time of 17:49 for 3.6k. My average pace was 4:58 so thats an improvement.

Overall i'm so let down by the swim as one again i made a mistake, let it get to me and it didn't go well. Cycle was good and so was run.

Back to the pool on Monday after a run tomorrow:(

elvis jones

It was family time yesterday so off to the pool with the kids, i did a few lengths and tried to think what went wrong on sat. Here is what i've come up with.

1. no goggles on messed up my start
2. from there on i did my usual and paniced
3. when i panic i don't focus on my breathing
4. my stroke was fine but i didn't stop for 10 sec, tell myself to relax and breath properly.

Run this lunch time, about 10k.

I have to go see my mam in the hospital this evening so no pool until the morning and turbo tomorrow evening so focus on sprint intervals.

elvis jones

I've been trying to think of something big to do for cancer in 2013 and i think i've come up with a very crazy idea.

It would take a month but its Ireland's longest triathlon..............

A swim of some sort at Malin head.

Cycle Malin to Mizen head

Run back Mizen to Malin

Or i know its been done before to cycle 400k and run the remaining 200 odd.

Any thoughts or feedback would be great, i'm looking at taking 12 months to put all this together.

pointer28

I like your idea!

I'd imagine that it all boils down to your running fitness. You didn't say how long the swim was going to be but 400km on the bike would probably be a lot easier than running the 200km.

You could probably manage the 400km over two days without killing yourself if you took it slowly and kept well fuelled but I think running 5 marathons afterwards would be a far bigger issue.

You mentioned earlier in your logs that you knew Gerry Duffy. No better man to ask for advice on something like this.