Reach for the sky...

woody1

mossym wrote: »

nice meeting you at the weekend. be sure and talk to sean before you sign up next year, he can give you the lowdown:)


really really impressed with that practise half your club is putting on after seeing the conditions at the weekend, will be reading your prep closely, best of luck with it, not allowing non club members are ye:)

Nice meeting you too
Its not the club putting it on but some members on their own back, check out strandman on facebook, taking all comers, unsupported though.. So dont know what the score will be with kayaks or directions etc .. Open water swimming tomorrow !! Hoping its not quite so choppy on the day..

woody1

week 3 of 11, recovery week, in reality recovery week should be on the 4th week but i started on week 2 and i want to keep the plan in the right order to the end, so its a recovery week

mon 18th 5k run , club went open water swimming but it was just to effin cold looking for me.. maybe tomorrow

wednesday 20th pool swim , 60 lengths 1500m

Friday 22nd swim for a mile, 64 lengths straight 1600m , 42 mins

sat 23rd,went for a spin around the half iron course , 91k tough tough course, 2 big hills, lots of lumps and bumps and drags, but should be manageable, 91k in around 3.40 , last 20k was tough but still fast enough, quads were in bits, but it was mostly downhill thank god,

garmin of the course
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/782284866


back to normal next week, need to get some swimming done asap

mossym

woody1 wrote: »

s

sat 23rd,went for a spin around the half iron course , 91k tough tough course, 2 big hills, lots of lumps and bumps and drags, but should be manageable, 91k in around 3.40 , last 20k was tough but still fast enough, quads were in bits, but it was mostly downhill thank god,

garmin of the course
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/782284866

if it makes you feel any better, lost sheep is a wee bit more climbing:)
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/536599558

woody1

mossym wrote: »

if it makes you feel any better, lost sheep is a wee bit more climbing:)
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/536599558

just a bit ! that last one has to be a killer, be leaving that for a year or 2 so..

woody1

just getting to the middle of this plan and the wheels are starting to come off a bit

monday 25th , lake swim, guess about 700m, a few did a loop but i was starting to get seriously cold, went for a run after about 5k, didnt get feeling back in my feet til the end of it..

o/h working wednesday night so usual pool swim / run was cut,

thursday 28th, half marathon with few running club heads, 1.50 odd, last 2-3 km were tough on the legs, pace was fine,

saturday metalman swim, sprint , 500m , finished about a third of the way down in the pack, didnt kill myself, had a bit of minding to do with brother in law and didnt really start swimming til i was happy he was ok, ( the plan was to swim beside him but he got split from me and i had to leave him with the very sound kayaker who said he'd shadow him for me ) so after about 150m i got a nice rhythm and got going, didnt really run in from the shallow water and a few got by me here, in the overall scheme of things im happy enough with how it went, more about getting wet and cold than anything, next week at the 750 will try to actually race it and see what happens.. brother in law was 30 seconds behind me, what was i worrying about !

registration was at 10, swim at 11.30 , shouldve had running gear with me and gone for a run, will do next weekend hopefully.. anyway o/h working again so home , pick up kids and nothing till sunday


sunday 30th 2.hr 50 bike ride ,

that means for this week i have missed a 1.40 bike 20 min run,the swimming isnt strictly as its meant to be but im not hugely panicked about it, bike ride might happen today , or it just might have to get ditched, o/h working midweek and the weekend hasnt helped but thats just the way things are..
starting to appreciate how hard it is to stick to the plan and get it done..
shes working next weekend as well so likely something will get cut there too.. anyway , what am i moaning about, i havent had to work the last 3 weekends !
crappy day here , talk of a lake swim but itl most likely be, get in, slobber a bit, get out, dont know how much use that is.. with any luck will get an hour bike 20 min run later at least , and go from there ..

woody1

monday 1st june, bank hol, no swimming, 40 min run

wednesday 3rd , swimming . o/w 1000m , for some reason this year im having trouble with the cold, feet mostly , but didnt want to hang out and do any more

thursday 16.2k run, started off tough, got tougher, legs loosened eventually

saturday metalmanround 2, 750 o/w sea swim, was windy and choppy and swelly, got to about 600m in within 25m of a bouy that if i got to it , id be turning out of crappy choppy water that seemed to be breaking across both sides of me, towards the beach, just couldnt get to it, absolutely baked.. i presume the previous 600m of 2 breaths, 3 breaths, no breaths and choppy stroke just wrecked me, i dunno, anyway lay on my back put my hand up and kayaker came over, all very calm and rational, after a minute or 2 of hanging onto the kayak i had another go, minute later i was on my back again, just frigged, out of gas, so got into the safety boat and got brought in and did the walk of shame..
out of 150 ish only 5 got pulled out, and i was the only bloke and i was in and around the top 20 at the time ! anyway , cant dwell on it, never liked sea swimming, like it less now, but gotta get back in next weekend, ah sure,

We learn from failure, not from success , bram stoker apparently

on the plus side better half was second lady in the 1500 swim, fish ! and the brother in law was in the top 20 men again..

peed off all day, so when better half got home from work at 8, i was ready with the bike, got a good hard hour in, felt good, did 20 min run after that

so 600m ish swimming, 25k bike, 4k run

sunday 7th june, few from the triathlon club were going for a spin before a local 5,10,15 k race that was on, cycled in to them, cycled with them, did the 10k, cycled home
10k went well enough, ran first 5 in 25mins and 2nd 5 in 22, was having a bit of a chat for the first 5 but happy with the 2nd 5 , cycled home thinking i was under pressure to get the kids to a party but turns out it was at 4 and not 2, so i prob couldve done another hour, but it was probably enough in the end...

so 60k bike 10k run

2 swims, 2 bikes ( albeit both a little bit short ), 4 runs.. better week than it looked like being, weekend messed up next week as well, and midweek, gonna have to double up or combine again..

mossym

woody1 wrote: »

out of gas, so got into the safety boat and got brought in and did the walk of shame..
out of 150 ish only 5 got pulled out, and i was the only bloke and i was in and around the top 20 at the time ! anyway , cant dwell on it, never liked sea swimming, like it less now, but gotta get back in next weekend, ah sure,

We learn from failure, not from success , bram stoker apparently

seems to be happening a few at the moment, including me. taking the right approach there, take it a reminder/lesson, and use it to make the next one better:) That's my approach anyway.

woody1

yeah, i dunno if it was a freak out or if ive just over estimated my own ability, thinking about it, i havent done much sea swimming at all , all lakes , couple of river swims, only 2 maybe that could be described as rough-ish at all..

theres a sense of being out in the big wide open on certain sea swims particularly on swelly days, that im not keen on at all..( control freak ) im just over 2 years swimming having been scared of it for a long time before that , im swimming in the sea later today with a group and probably a kayak or a board or some kind of safety and im nervous about it,im nervous thinking about the metalman at the weekend, so i have taken a couple of steps back in those terms, just a matter of doing what i can about it.. did 2 laps of the lake on monday,so 1500m, both more nervy than id like but improving all the way round.. all i can do is keep at it,

as for the half ironman swim.. if conditions dont suit me itl be a relay !
il let the better half swim.

woody1

monday 8th o/w swim, 1500 ish, bit shook at this after the weekend, uncomfortable probably better word than nervy but got around, improved as i went.

5k run after

tuesday 17.5k run.. started on the slow ish side , through 10k in 50 mins or thereabouts, but ran the other 7.5k in the low 4s,

thursday , o/w sea practice, beginner session with the club, felt given last weekends events it would be a good idea to go to this, sea was fairly swelly too, so that was good / bad .. it suited what i needed it for, bit of paddling in around the quay and then out to a bouy, once we got past the quay wall the swell kicked in and we were being raised and lowered a good bit, freaked a bit and turned and headed back for shelter.. the group came back and then we all headed out again, managed it the second time, with help /a shadow, cant say im cured but its an improvement..definitely the conditions i needed to be out in to help with tomorrows swim,
need to get out there more often..

woody1

friday 12th. 1.30 bike. 30 run.. first bike ride since got bike fit for the tt bike, saddle at least 2 inches higher, wasnt too bad though,

saturday.. metalman 1000m. found this very easy. didnt do it, got to rosses point, wind blowing across, choppy looking, ( to my eyes ) didnt fancy it, chickened out ! from what the others said it was tough going to the first bouy and ok after that..but chickened out anyway, no other excuses..
better half was third in the womens distance and third overall so she got a prize for that, brother in law got round the 1000m to finish the series just outside the top 20, and fair play to the organisers they made a presentation to him as well.. in fairness all the kayakers, marshalls , everyone was very accomodating, funny i was more worried about him than me and he got around the 3 races fine ! i think too much, he just gets on with it,

sunday 14th ,morning 75k cycle on tt bike. afternoon, 670m swim / race as part of ballina quay regatta. river swim, thank god, felt good, enjoyed it , ended up 2nd out of 8 , by a few feet, has zero impact on my sea issues but at least its a swim that went well..

lake swim tonight .. need to get in the sea as much as possible, hopefully tomorrow..
wasnt gonna enter humbert , but might now, as at least its a swim i can handle, also in for the club sprint after being told they have plenty of help, go ahead and race !

woody1

16th june monday, lake swim 1500 i think 750 loop and then 750 made up of short bursts group starts turns etc
5k run.. nice and easy

tues,wed, thurs , friday off, wasnt the plan but forgot that o/h was busy friday night so made a balls of things a bit but it was a recovery week anyway

saturday openwater swim series lough key 750, lake was mirror calm, sunny, couldnt ask for better, got in, found it small bit chilly, paddled about, did a decent warm up for a change , got in line, counted down and off we went, was in a funny place for about 200m, mentally, not freaking, not uncomfortable, not unhappy, i dunno, hard to describe, anyway spent that 5 minutes moving arms but not really swimming, not much catch going on, got round the first bouy and woke up a bit, and got going, got round the next and back in to the finish, 16.30 for 750, not overly happy, cant say i know whats going on..other than i think too much.. anyway i think for rest of the year the focus will be on what time i can get on the bike / run than worrying about the minute or 2 im giving away swimming.. better half went in the womens race, was 8th woman, 3 in the top 5 , including first and second, both 15/ 16 year old girls, both first and second in the 750 as well..

round 3 o clock i went for a 6k run in lough key ,helped my bad form a bit..

sunday 21st june
100km charity cycle
easy going small set up charity thing that our village ( townland ) does a variation on every year.

got about 10k in and punctured, nothing with me, broom wagon pulled up and a guy that had decided he'd had enough gave me his bike, flat pedals, so i had to get his runners too, after a few efforts at getting the saddle height right i got on the go properly, bike way to big for me, anyway 102k mostly into a headwind, no serious hills but a lot of not so serious ones, got there in the first group, im discounting the ! that decided to break for it with about 3-4 k to go after cycling 50k with a group, just so he could be billy big balls and be first man in..
oh had a bit of a fall, rummaging in jersey for grub and looking back for the last man in the group i touched wheels with the man in front and ended up on the road, thankfully he didnt, and i was grand and the borrowed bike was fine too more importantly, thank god no cars on the road though.. dont do much/ any group cycling, looking at everyone else i seem to cycle very close to the wheel in front as in inches,

anyway got in, got changed into running gear and ran 7k on the beach in keel, legs ok, heat got to me a bit..

monday 22nd . last night lake swim 1500, feckin lake is getting colder !! felt tough, arms / shoulders stiff after sunday. just plodded around, most did 2 more loops but i was freezing and tired so i got out, got changed and went for a 5k run

looking in the mirror and judging by the waist of my trousers lately i thought id lost a bit of weight, got a bit of a shock to see 11 stone 8 on the scales ( normally 12 1 or 2 ) , so have to make a bit of an effort to look after myself a bit better.. on the see-food diet for a couple of weeks in order to get back up to 12.. where i am at the moment is probably a good " racing weight " in that it fulfills Tunneys look like your sick description but id rather get back to 12, than lose any more..

woody1

wed 24th 1500 lake swim, humbert oly practice swim, nice and calm hard to see some of the bouys with the sun behind them but got around, not my best swim ever, last year i swam faster on the practice than on the day, concentrated on taking it handy

thursday was meant to run 19k, work, kids, o/h work , it just didnt happen

friday 26th up at 05.45 to salvage some bit of last nights run . 9k run

saturday 27th, have changed jobs, and had a night out with old job on friday night, o/h working til 3, was ready with the bike, the plan said 3 hours easy.. got about half hour in and started having bad stomach issues , suffered it for another bit then round the hour turned for home, 1hr 30 something bike all in

sunday..humbert oly.. still had stomach trouble, 3 visits to the loo before the race started, but figured i might as well start and see what happened

swim.. lake was as choppy as it gets , which is not particularly but still when your used to it being like a mirror it does make it bit tougher, anyway, got started, got around, felt good at times, thought it might be on the quick side for me, it wasnt , low 35s , about a minute faster than last year but given the swimming issues ive been having this year i'm content enough, not happy, just content

really slow transition, my head was a bit fried all morning and my bike looked like a market stall with all the crap hanging out of it, best part of 3 minutes

off on the bike, some initial fiddling with shoes and were off, headwind for about 3-4 miles, turned out of it after that, mostly crosswinds and small bits of headwind, as i was so far back in the swim i had a lot to pick off on the bike, and i reeled in a good few, all the way in, 2 passed me early on and then another 1 much later but i think that was it, about halfway we turned onto a main road with hard shoulder and more importantly a tailwind, head down and drilled it from here, coming to the end i was getting a sore hip, and sore balls , so i was fairly sick of the bike and was happy to see the end of it, bike 1.27 for 44.? k, same as last year on the crappy bike but this year conditions much harder

transition less faffing about but still close to 2 mins

run.. last year run was 59 minutes of torture from start to finish, i wanted this years run to at least be comfortable, so the plan was to do the first half around 25 minutes , no matter if i felt that i could go faster, stick to that and stretch on the way back, so thankfully when i got out of transition i felt loose enough and i kept myself in check and got to the turnaround at 24 50 something, short run downhill and then get going on the way back, slowed a bit on one hill was afraid of blowing up, got it a bit hard to get going again, around the 9k mark i loosened out a bit and got going, but the run is 10.5 so that was fun ! run was 10.5k in 52..

total 2.59.14 48th from 82
last year 3.06.50 something

being honest i wouldve liked to swim under 35, bike at least under 1.25 and run much the same as i did, but i also gave away at least 2 minutes if not 2.30 in transition.. so for a race that i wasnt going to do 2 weeks ago, il take it.. and at the least it was a good hard training session..

woody1

monday tuesday 29th and 30th off

wednesday 1st july practice swim in river in town, 850 m in all, nice and handy,
21k on the bike route then with better half

thursday 10k run

friday. off . sick kids in house, better half not great either,

saturday 4th salmon run triathlon ( ballina )

too braindead to do a proper in depth report

swim , seemed like there would be a good flow in it as we were having trouble not floating downstream before the start but once we were started the flow seemed to weaken a good bit , no nerves on this swim, straight line swim , can sight off both banks and the bridges, tried to work hard, felt like i was working hard, seemed to be in a pack which is strange for me, got thru the second bridge and spotted the brother in laws wetsuit to one side of me, going ok so, head down and push on, round the last bouys and towards the bank, in in 14 .32 .. not amazed with that by any stretch , down a minute on last year, but out with all the usual suspects so its not just me, having looked at both sets of results for this year and last, everyone is around a minute down, including my better half, the fish.

reasonable transition, bit better than last week ,and were off running out of transition, on the way i realise ive left the straps on the bike shoes closed , doh ! , mount on top of the shoes and do about 4k on top of the shoes as there isnt a place to gain momentum and get it done reasonably cleanly, eventualy get out on the main road and get sorted, ive passed a good few on the way and now i can get going properly, start driving it out the road, theres a funny cross wind, its partially with us so i want to take advantage of it, passing big groups all the way out, driving up the few small hills, turnaround and back out, strangely i dont find the wind on the way back too bad, keep driving, not as fast as on the way out but still taking people and better still legs and lungs are good, turn off the main road and nail it all the way back to the finish
39.45, sub 40 for that course ! been trying to do that for years, figure but for the dicking around with shoes id have been another bit faster.. i know there are people here thatl cycle 20k in low/mid 30s and fair play to them but sub 40 , particularly on this course is a big thing for me

nice clean dismount and rack , bit slow getting into runners but not too bad, start running, oh feck ive left the watch behind, i want the watch to mind my pace, well im not going back for it, go on feel, theres a guy behind me thats quick enough, if he comes by il try and follow him, if not im going ok, small cramps in right calf but nothing major, just keep it going, lungs and legs are ok, bit wary of going too hard, count out 1,2,3,4,again and again and again, up the little hill and down to the water station, fast guy comes by , fecker, half choke on the water i have and try to get after him, he goes back up the hill a bit quicker than me but doesnt get away from me either, passing plenty now and legs are loose, but running into a headwind so still being careful, turn out of the headwind with a km to go , theres a pub on the course about 500 from the finish and im going for it from there, get there put the pedal down and theres loads in the tank, across the bridge down the last few yards and across the line in . 1.19.45
run 23.03

so swim slower, bike 2 mins faster, run 1 minute faster, 60th position from 150 something and a 2 minute improvement on last year ..

overall im fairly happy, im a bit meh about the swim.. a lot of swimming done this year without much improvement, a change of approach may be needed, i may have to get over my fear of hard work.. bike and run wise i think i can go a fair bit faster, i had more in the tank on both, and particulalry on the bike ive done feck all hard / speed training..

another sprint in august sometime, i may look into more bike and run and less swimming , more gains to be made than time lost swimming..

woody1

monday 6th july lake swim 1000m ish, run 5k

tuesday local 10k race, hilly tough 10k course, reminded me why i dont do many 10ks, theres no hiding, paced it well, tough between 8 and 9k yet another hill, but was able to make it up between 9 and 10 with a 4 min km, happy to have that bit of endurance.. 43.49, which is a 1.20 pb and first sub 45 min 10k

wed and thurs off

friday 35k bike ride , 1hr 30

sat off

sunday 53k bike ride, round the lake, after some short rain showers it turned out to be a lovely day, i must have met every idiot driver in mayo in one day, got passed far too close at least 10 times, there were plenty of normal , good mannerred drivers, just seemed to be extra helping of idiots out there yesterday..

rest week - ish this week..

mossym

nice work on the 10k pb sounds like a tough course and takign 80 seconds off is pretty impressive. the training obviously going in the right direction

woody1

thanks, given its 2 years since i ran a 10k it was probably a bit soft but then again according to mcmillan i should be closer to 42 ,
im more happy with the fact that it was more or less even splits for 5k and 10k and that there was a bit in the tank at the end, physically and mentally..

i dont follow plans too often, i find it hard to focus and stick them out to the end, and even this one in the past few weeks has been modified and cut a bit to fit in races and just to allow for the everyday stuff that happens to all of us but i got the bulk of the first 8-10 weeks of it done and i can feel the good of it now..

woody1

well the rest-ish week turned out to be a complete rest week
2.2k swam in the lake on monday and nothing then til sunday wasnt the plan but for a few reasons thats what happened and if i was going to have a clear week then the week before the race was the time to do it

race.. strandman half iron

2.1k swim - 91k cycle, 21 ( not sure ) k run

we had been in ennniscrone a few times last week and every time we were there the sea was flat and calm and it was looking like i was going to be having a go at the swim, better half was lined up to swim with me or swim for me depending on conditions, the sea conditions and my mental condition !

so got into enniscrone at 6 am sunday morning and first things first i drove to the pier to check out sea conditions, feck , change in wind direction and its bumpier than id like it to be, again most people here would say it was fine, nice even , but i want it mirror calm, better half isnt with me as last minute change of plans meant she couldnt do back up, so i dont want to swim and i have no swimmer to make it a relay .. looked at it for a while, went up to reg, came back did all the set-up, bike, gear, gels everything else and then had another look, said feck it, not doing it,

had a chat with the organiser, in fairness he didnt push to hard, so i was now doing a duathlon,

let them off swimming they went out along the line of bouys that are always in the bay and then back, so out 1km and back 1k, 30 something odd swimmers, i decided to wait until the ones that were normally out ahead of me were out and then give it 5 minutes to be fair and get going.

got on the bike and got away, we had a tailwind for the best part of 30k and it shoved us on, i probably didnt take enough advantage of it , i had the big picture in my mind and didnt want to blow the legs early on but probably couldve went faster here, caught up with 2 early on, and then soon enough we were coming into the base of the first climb, the ladies brae in sligo, climb went surprisingly well, just span up it nice and handy, down the far side , halfway done and then on the 20km drag to the base of the next climb, not much to report, nobody on the road, only sign that there was anyone about were discarded banana skins and wrappers, we were into a headwind now, not very strong thankfully but strong enough to make you work, base of the next climb which i had been dreading, but i was suprisingly quick up it ( for me ) no great fatigue or pain in legs just a slow spin up, first time i went up it was seriously hard work, got to the top , got off for a quick wee, and then down the hill and in the last 15k to enniscrone again, this is flat enough, out of the headwind but into a crosswind that was no help, if your legs were good you could hammer this but mine were tiring, i was still up around 30kph but i was taking every chance i could to freewheel,quads were starting to sting a bit and i had the run to think about, i figured if it took 30 mins or 35 mins to do this bit it didnt really make that much difference,eventually got into enniscrone racked the bike and started a slow transition..

bike time approx 3-42 to 3-45 i didnt really look at the watch when i was getting off the bike so its a best guess..

off to work, the rest il do later

mossym

having seen the water up there the day we met i can understand the caution. sometimes you got to go with your gut.

woody1

sea was no-where near as bad as that day mossy, it was rough enough friday evening, but like a mirror on saturday, wind direction changed overnight, and made it small bit bumpy but nothing dramatic, physically id have been able for it, based only on swimmers of a similar ability getting through it fine but mentally ? thats the question, the plan when i entered the race was that it would force me to get in the sea a few times and make some progress, but that didnt happen, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because i was avoiding it..

anyway onwards ..

as i was coming in on the bike i was crossing the start of the run course and everyone seemed to be running already, it was laps too so i had no idea where they were i just had to guess using my own evaluation of their ability, i was hoping to run one or two down if things went well but id no idea how the legs were gonna react to running

racked the bike, and had a good slow transition, put gels etc into top, socks and shoes on, had a drink, went to the loo again ( there was one right beside transition ) and eventually after some words of encouragement from ex mayo manager john maughan.. a bit of funny sarcasm as i think he was somewhat surprised at my lack of urgency .. got running.. and thank jesus the legs were fine, loose even, run was 5 laps , first k flatt-ish , little kicks in it, 2nd k had some tough hills and then 2k downhill more or less, back to the transition, so every lap you had the hills to face into but also the downhill to look forward to.. 5 laps was mentally tough too, anyway legs are loose and i get through the first lap, pass a few that are on their 2nd or 3rd lap and hoping il get up to them again, 2nd lap goes well , still sub 5 min kms and 3rd lap on the hills it starts to slip a bit, hilly section is in the 5.30s but make it back going downhill, starting to slow and stiffen up a bit, 4th lap i make a concious decision to slow because i want to have a reasonable last lap , i dont want to crawl over the line, so the 4th lap was mostly 6 min km average, more on the uphills and less on the downs, walked about 50 yards of one really tough little incline but was able to get going again, the last lap i started off strong, hit the hilly section and really stiffened up, ended up walking about 3-400 yards, but got running again and was able to stretch it for the last 2k , got over the line good and strong, in around a 1.50 half marathon,

which im more than happy with, thats a best guess as i just have a total time on my watch but its within a minute or 2 ,

no i didnt run anyone down.. another few minutes faster and maybe, but the margins are so big at this distance, if you give someone 10 minutes on a swim , or 20 in some cases and 10 on a bike well then your going to have to be some runner to make it up.. i think a bit of thought needs to go into where the line is on cycling slower to run faster but that will come with experience i guess..

so 3.40 something bike .. meh.. 1.50 run no swim but i can live with that,

nutrition, i went with gels and bars, i had great plans to make stuff and bring it but it didnt happen, ate 2 bars , couldve done with another 1 at least, went through maybe 7 gels on the bike, 4 in the water bottles and 3 otherwise, and the 2 bars, on the run i had 1gel and then the powerbar gel shots which i thought were nice, thats a lot of sugar and caffeine for me, and i was sure i would have some stomach problems at some stage but i had no issues all day or even afterwards..

thanks. better half and the boys for cheering me on on the run, a sprint is boring enough to watch never mind and hour and a bit of your daddy running round in ever slowing circles, all the club members that took part , the organisers, the helpers, fellas that went above and beyond, i heard that a marshall went and got a wheel for someone that punctured in the middle of no-where to get them back on the road, and another one went and found a pump for someone else , guys that werent taking part hanging round from 6 in the morning til 7 hours later, lots of people,

a half for 20 quid, with a goody bag, that had a bottle of beer in it ! and a bike bottle , water stops at the top of a hill in the arse hole of no-where , marshalls , epic route , tough in all 3 disciplines, and a massive local feel good feeling about it.. get on it next year if ye are looking for one youl get it hard to beat it

now.. im off to find a half iron with a lake swim , somewhere

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/788812273 run route

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/706965455 bike route

https://www.facebook.com/pages/StrandMan/820403071368302?sk=photos_stream photos

Green&Red

You were as well off giving the swim a miss, imagine starting it and then panicking and having to be pulled out? It would put the frightners on u completely.
Sounds like a great event

woody1

Green&Red wrote: »

You were as well off giving the swim a miss, imagine starting it and then panicking and having to be pulled out? It would put the frightners on u completely.
Sounds like a great event

getting into the boat in the metalman did that, had i been able to get round the last 150m most likely id have gotten huge confidence from it, instead its had the opposite effect, looking back on it , i shouldve breaststroked or backstroked or doggy paddled or anything to get to that bouy..

got in at the pier in enniscrone on tuesday in similar conditions and didnt like it at all so it confirmed that i was probably right not to, its just gonna take a lot of baby steps to fix it, i dont mind, took me 20 odd years to get over complete fear of swimming, taking another while to get past this doesnt worry me, just making sure i dont avoid it altogether is the big thing, weather being crap and water freezing doesnt help..

great event, low key, easy going, loads of support, will we see you there next year ?

woody1

recovery week
took monday off, didnt feel too bad but thought it was better to do nothing, had to drive kids to meath and then come back, was fairly stiff getting out of the car after 6 hours

tuesday bike and splash with o/h, no regard had for sore/tired legs, the o/h tore round the back roads of sligo with me desperately trying to catch a draft, 30k in an hour,

then into the pier in enniscrone for a dip, similar conditions to sunday, swelly, bumby, didnt like it, and frickin cold, still had the shakes half and hour later..

thursday 6k run with o/h, easy enough jog, although legs still very heavy

sunday same 6k run on my own, legs waking up, felt loose ,

4 weeks til next goal race, muckno tri in ballybay , want to get as organised as i can for it, some kind of a plan..

woody1

havent been here for a while
27th july 650 lake swim rough,

28th 1 hour bike hill reps

30th 1.20 bike hill reps

1st sep aquathon 750 swim on glorious flat water, 5.7k run
parkrun 5k, 20.50 something pb on that course , tough going

on holidays last week , stayed in a pod in a forest park in northern ireland, lots of trails , ran 3 times , 5k, 6k and 6k ish,
cycled a lot, had the older boy on a bike that attached to mine so there was a fair bit of work to it, my quads were like granite at the end of the week. at a guess 50k of cycling at least

did an hour and a half of kayaking as well, nothing strenuous just bringing the boys around for a spin..

sunday 9th august 20k cycle, 5k race, came third, 20.47 , 20k cycle home

woody1

not much to report, feels like the year is on the wind down already,
last week after having very heavy legs during the 5k and the spin home i decided that the previous week of towing the eldest round on the tag along bike and the 3 fast-ish runs had probably been tougher than i thought and seeing as i have no major targets at the moment , an easy week would be a good idea.. really didnt do much but it was more circumstances than planning

monday off ..
tuesday .. 62k cycle.. easy
wednesday thursday off .. no excuse really
friday.. driving kids to granny house
saturday. stag party..
sunday. recover from saturday

monday 17th.. 1100 swim.. mirror calm lake, still cold, 33k cycle early in the day.. seem to be brewing some kind of chesty thing.. the weekend saw me going looking for an inhaler for the first time in years , need to do a little bit this week just to loosen the legs for muckno, hopefully it clears off , kids are away with grandparents all week so it should be a good week to do a bit, dont want to overdo it and not get better either ..

woody1

muckno tomorrow,

originally this was a goal race, flat-ish bike and run, potential to put in a decent time, lake swim so should have been ok could still be, depends

realisticaly its now a social race, since strand man really the focus has gone a bit, already thinking about next year.. swimming since before christmas, biking and running since february at least .. touch of boredom with it all has set in.. need a goal, change of focus, no idea what that is yet, i could do achill roar or sea to summit but itd be " for the craic " thats not doing it for me at the moment..

anyway tomorrows goals are..swim .. try to get a draft ( will be a first ) and conserve energy.. dont have a time goal, could be anything low 15 to mid 17s .. bike idealy sub 40, more idealy sub 39 , ive no idea where my bike fitness is so will have to see..
run.. im gonna floor the run from the start and see what happens.. probably explode after 1k would love to run 22 ?? but thats just dreaming , but its more fun than jogging around.. big crew from tri club going, should be good craic..

oh yeah no training all week, just starting to feel better after a week of chesty sniffly crappy man-flu miserableness..

woody1

well, when you dont train you cant expect results..
havent swam in ages havent ran worth talking about in about 2 weeks
ive pretended to cycle a bit i suppose.. and thats how it went

muckno tri.. 19 min + swim .. there is no explanation.. i thought i was working hard, i thought i was getting a good pull, i wasnt particularly freaked or uncomfortable.. i just dont know.. for context on monday in an equaly calm lake i swam 17.30 slowly ( as in we were told to swim slowly ) i have no idea, there are no explanations.. i was expecting to be slow but thats ridiculous..

bike 38.20.. enjoyed the bike, always fun coming up from the back of the field, drilled most of it, got caught up behind some cars that were caught behind cyclists for a nice bit, couldnt go inside and didnt want to go round, this was uphill and round bends so i wasnt getting a draft i was slowed down a nice bit, caught again at the turnaround, reckon i couldve been a nice bit faster.. but overall im happy

run..24.20 something.. run felt hard, halfway point just didnt seem to be getting any closer, the guys from my own club that i wouldve liked to be closer to were way up the road so at halfway i stopped at the water stop had a proper drink and got going again had to stop again to sort out a stitch ..not overly impressed with 24 mins.. but didnt want it enough to go quicker or try harder..

so a genuinely terrible swim, a good cycle for me , and a poor enough run..

otherwise we got good weather, nice swim and run course wouldnt be cracked on the bike course myself ,

good weekend was had in general though..

woody1

sunday monday recovering

tuesday 25th aug , treadmill 6k ish, not as boring as normal

thursday 8k / 5 mile race, set off hard but behind a guy that i know paces fairly consistently, after about 2.5k the pace was too much for me and i had blown whatever energy i had, legs were very heavy, even aerobically i wasnt great, slowed back a bit, recovered for a couple of km uphill and tried to get going again after that, finished in 34.59 i think, which is about a min slower than what i would have been expecting..

saturday. parkrun - ish. slow 4.2k with eldest..

35 bike .. start easy, did some decent hill work in the middle and pushed home with the wind ..

aquathon.. short swim.. 6k run. have no idea of time but legs felt a lot better than thursday so that was good at least.. swim ? well im not sorry its almost time to go back to the pool

sunday 30th aug
30k bike after the football match.. backroads of north mayo deserted, very slow and easy..

4 runs, 2 bikes and a bit of splash.. starting to go in the right direction again.

woody1

Tuesday 1st September , 35 mins on treadmill , somehow still not as boring as last year where I couldn't do 20 mins without losing the will to live

Thursday 3rd 40 mins treadmill

Saturday Achill Roar.

I won an entry to this on Friday afternoon on akws facebook page, I was the only one that entered , suited me, I live in mayo so its not a big operation to go to achill at the last minute,

up early and over the backroads of north mayo and arrived in keel just after 9, very quiet, not many about, got in and registered, felt a bit bad getting a buff and a fleece see-ing as I already had a free entry, anyway after a small bit of explaining that id won the entry and I had been told my race number we worked it out between us and got sorted..

my wave wasn't off till 11, so I took my time racking bikes and changing, chatting to a few heads I know that do this kind of race a bit and a few ballina people as well, watched the long race start, ran over to the kayak to watch and ran back as a warm up, chatted another bit and got ready to go, with 30 mins between the waves there was a bit of a quiet feeling about it all but about 5 minutes before go time it was a lot busier,

so ive gotten a free entry, im stood here in a tri-suit, ive a tt bike and a pointy helmet with me, I guess I better perform..

race starts and its a flat out sprint for 600m across a bit of sandy stuff onto the golf course and across the road to the kayaks, the start catches me out a bit, I can run ( a bit ) certainly I can run as fast as anyone here but im being left , put the hammer down and catch up with the top group of 15-20 that are all together , we all hit the kayaks more or less together , theres a bit of fumbling getting vests on and kayaks into the water, but I pair up with someone and soon enough were in the water, main group all hit the lake within a minute of each other but those that have brough their own kayaks are already away into the lead, I count 9 or 10 in their own boats as we go around, about 6 double kayaks make up the rest of the lead group and we are right up with them, I struck it luck with someone that seems to know what they are doing and ive done it a few times at this stage, so we work well toghether and manage to get out of the kayak in the 20s, flat out back to the transition and im feeling better about the running at this stage,

thru transition heading for the run, ive a gel on the bike and I detour to grab it, fiddling costs me few seconds but nothing major, get out over the dunes and onto the beach and into my stride, pass a few here all the way down the beach heading for the flag on the hillside, the tide is well in and we are forced to run on the bank of stones on the side of the beach, its all rounded stones and its flat yet uneven and tiring to run on, thankfully there isn't much of it and soon enough were off it, over a bit of the golf course , laces to be tied, and onto the hill, this is proper off road, peat hags and holes and swampy ditches and all the time going up, I run / shuffle as much as I can and then im into a walk, years of hillwalking stand to me and I gain on the guy in front but too soon we hit the flag and are running down again, and he can run down, he puts 500 yards into me on the way back to transition, wisely everyone chooses to run the full stretch on the golf course on the way back and avoid the stones,had to tie laces again, soon enough back into transition, helmet on , glasses on and away

the bike shoes were set up with elastics the same as any triathlon but the initial 200m was on grass so it was hard to get up enough momentum to get into them , got it done eventually , got down on the bars and let rip, felt good and strong, passed a couple more, got to the hill, which is about 6km of a drag out to a left turn, nothing madly steep just ongoing and it gets to be a pain after a bit, by the time we hit the left turn I was glad to have it behind me, and let rip going downhill and on the bit of flat on the back of the loop, the lead lady had passed me on the top of the long hill and there was no one behind and one had just come into sight in front of me , gained a lot of ground going uphill and was just a few yards behind him when we had to dib again, he did it quicker than me and got a fair bit of momentum going downhill and pulled out another bit of a lead, I caught up to him on the next hill but kept losing on the downhills,we made the last left hand turn to go back to transition , with the wind and about 3km to go, gave it everything I had but he was driving it on too and I couldn't get too him, dismounted well, racked and ran across the line in 1.59.40 something,

there weren't many finished at that stage so I had a feeling id done ok, inside the top 20 I thought, and I was right at that stage, I was 18th but 2 others from later waves snuck in ahead of me ( just ) to put me out to 20th,4 of us finished on 1.59 something so tying laces, fiddling with gels in transition and messing with bike shoes probably cost me 16th , but I guess the other guys all lost time similarly

on Friday after I found out I was going I had a look at previous times , my own and others, and decided that sub 2 would be a good time, to be honest I thought id run faster, kayak slower and maybe bike in around what I did ,
turned out slightly different but with the same end result, im not fooling myself , I know any moderately good triathlete would challenge the top 5 ,and that the standard beyond the top 10 isn't amazing , but I don't care , its a big improvement on before, and 20th out of 270 odd isn't going to happen to me too often..

in terms of bettering that, id have to do a lot of cycling between now and next year and a fair bit of off road running, I think theres a few minutes in it, 2 -4 maybe.. which is a lot..

a few years ago I did a good few of these races, since I got into tri they've been on the back burner but the weekend has re-awakened an interest..

happy out

edit.. sunday 6th 32k slow slow slow spin, creaking road bike, needs new wheels im told, need new bike I think, anyway thatl take a while..

2 bikes , 3 runs, 1 kayak.. not a bad week.

woody1

not much to report from last week, recovery from achill and a 3 day wedding made it a quiet week

tues 8th sep 6k run

thurs 10th treadmill 25 mins

friday 11th hotel 20m pool 400m ish

sat 12th hotel pool 1000m treadmill 15 mins

sunday 13th pool 1400m ish including some races with better half which was good craic if nothing else

meant to get in on monday but sunday night turned out to be a later night than imagined and just couldnt get out of bed in time to use it before kick out..

monday spent 6.5 hours driving cork to mayo so that ruled anything out, today has been a washout too..hopefully later in the week will get wattbike organised and can start to put some structure on the winters training

woody1

a decent weekend to make up for a terrible week

after the wedding last weekend it took me until friday to get my arse into gear again

friday 40 mins treadmill ,5 repeats with t/mill as steep as it will go

saturday cycled into parkrun 10k warm up-parkrun - warmdown bout 8k
cycle home 15k , eldest ran the parkrun for the first time and was delighted to finish the full 5k, realistically its a bit too far for him though, will keep it to around the 3k mark from here on.

sunday morning 40mins on t/mill, 3 x steep repeats
afternoon hour on the turbo.

made some headway on a new pain cave out in the shed, after years of talking, finally got it cleared out and got bikes in, bit more to do, treadmill, and other bits and pieces to go out but its a start ..