Reach for the sky...

woody1

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

Nice bike. What's the spec?!

I think you did Gaelforce a few times. What's the aim this year?

Cube peloton race Alu frame carbon fork 105 group fulcrum wheels its going well so far big upgrade on what I had

Yeah did gaelforce twice and a few of the others sea to summit achill roar etc a few times I've a half iron in lough cutra in May after that I'll assess things could drop swimming and be in good shape to concentrate on gf again might just run and maybe go for marathon Humbert half iron local to me so would hate to miss out on that either so the answer is I don't really know try to keep everything tipping over and see what happens hoping to do Clare island race end of April is next main target

woody1

29th jan to 6th feb
3 turbos.
2 runs .

no swimming this week

woody1

im almost sure i treadmilled twice last week 29th - 6th its like a dream to me that i did, so that would be 3 runs..

anyway last week much easier to re-cap swam once ! busy week / weekend with a family wedding rather than bring gear with me and spend the weekend trying to find a gap to get a run in i decided on a clean break do nothing weekend that was very enjoyable until i had to drive across the country yesterday and every cyclist in the country was out or driving back from somewhere with bikes on their cars and i was stuck in the car with a hangover..

anyway spring has sprung no rain predicted for over a week, brighter mornings and evenings no excuses !

woody1

13th to 20th march
mon 5k run
tuesday swim 2k
wednesday 8k ish run
thurs paddys day
friday bike 27k
saturday sligo parkrun with brother in law for world down syndrome day 5k
colour run with the kids later on 2k
sunday 440k drive across and back the country in glorious sunshine everyone that has a bike seemed to be out on it, i was stuck in the car ! on the plus side kids are on hols for a week with granny so should get a bit done this week

woody1

20th to 27th march
kids away for easter training week !
as soon as i got back on sunday evening the better half was waiting for me at the door so we could go out ! pub i mean , not training , so by 6 o clock on a sunday i was in a nice comfy pub drinking pints and didnt hit the leaba til all hours plus side being i work half days so i only had to struggle through til 1.30 and she wasnt working
monday
met up in the pool at lunchtime and did an hour together , by that i mean she swam and i hung around in the water with a mother of a hangover..swimming and hangovers dont go together ..in the end got 1km done
had the bikes with us so changed and did an hour spin around the outskirts of town..
so 1km swim , 26k bike

tuesday 5k run , 1800 coached swim.. swimming a bit hit and miss so far this year, we havent gotten into any long stuff yet and i havent gotten in enough in my own time, wouldnt like to have to do anything over 400 at the moment

wednesday 32k bike, warm enough day , was gonna make it longer but was afraid of running out of daylight, cut for home instead of adding another 90 mins to it.. ran into a hedgecutting machine on my normal route and the road was covered in thorns and splinters, had to take a detour on roads i didnt know, learned a new route at least ..

thursday 6k run , 1400 coached swim , another short-ish swim !

friday .. pick up kids..480k over and back the country..again the sun was shining, again the whole country was out on bikes.. was home in time to get a run in but was a bit stiff after 7 hours in the car

saturday .5k parkrun ballina, its november 2015 since i ran local parkrun, it being easter hoidays there were a good few around , did about 2k warm up, 5k parkrun, started easy, built into it, wasnt flat out at any stage but getting there , easy enough last 500m, finish in 22.30, did about 3k cool down jog, to round it out to 10k for the morning

sunday.. one of those mixed mornings where sunshine looked like it could give way to torrential rain at any time , i came downstairs ready to run took a look outside and changed my mind, few minutes later i remembered the treadmill .. so 6.5k ish on the treadmill, last 15 minutes fairly hard..

monday ( today) sun is shining gloriously in the windows right now, blue skies with no sign of rain.. but its only 5 degrees, when / if it warms up a bit il head off for a 2 hr spin on the bike ..

woody1

monday 28th may 22k cycle to enniscrone with the wind to meet up with kids and better half in waterpoint, after a leisurely 90 mins in the pool elected not to cycle back against the wind

tuesday swim 1800 ..
wednesday - not sure but dont think i did anything
thursday another 1800 swim
friday & saturday kids / garden / life
sunday - junior parkrun trial run. meant i was up and about early , all finished by 10 , hopped on bike did 25k with a few bursts , went for a 5k run after..

2 swims 2 bikes 1 run, given my lack of motivation lately, thats not too bad..

woody1

wont be doing a lot over the weekend have a kids athletics coaching course will hopefully learn a bit but wont get anything else done

tuesday 5th swim 15 x 100 pull bouy and paddles heaven.. whatever it is about my stroke when i have a set of hand paddles i can keep up with most of the faster guys in the pool, their lane is beside mine, i couldnt do it over more than 100m but i enjoy racing them for 100m ..

wednesday local athletic club 5k series race 1 of 7, went better than expected , 21 mins clean, usual story , start too fast, faded much earlier than usual but thats to be expected.. good last km.. happy with it legs still sore 2 days later

thursday 6k slow recovery jog..

woody1

did more over the weekend than i thought - ish

saturday kids coaching course turned out to be interactive so we had to do all the drills we were learning .. about 4 hours of short sharp burst and balance and core stuff and a lot of fun good workout

sunday 5k run and about 6 hill repeats

tuesday swim 1800 odd .. a lot of kicking, 800m straight at the end.. no idea what time but felt good and easier to get through than i thought

wednesday 5k series race 2, flatter course, nicer day, no wind, same time 21 and a bit.. not thrilled with that .. seems to be where i am at the moment

friday out of work early just by luck, had a free hour, quick 6k run.. easy enough

saturday 16th 5k run before parkrun 5k parkrun 22 something ran first half easy enough second half at about 90 percent good workout

finding running the easiest thing to motivate myself at lately , will start lengthening out the runs a bit and see how the body reacts ,

woody1

sun 17th april 12.4k run
monday -
tuesday swimming 1600
wednesday 5k series race 3. had head coldy thing, ran it at 80% , 22.40 but it was couple of hundred yards long, so 21 something
thursday . skipped swimming head cold
friday ditto
saturday parkrun easy 5k 6k after, first few km were heavy and horrible. never really got going but got through it
sunday 24th junior parkrun, volunteering, had to do lead runner, so 2k run , then went back down to the tail of the course to do tail runner, 3k altogether

later in the day 10k race, finding runners hard lately,i wouldnt have thought the mileage was up on them but must be ! , sore joints ,especially knees, so the warm up was slow and painfull but loosened up after a bit, felt a bit tender , so decided just to run it for fun and enjoy it, went through the first 5k just under 25, legs had woken up a bit so i let the handbrake off and ran in the 2nd half in 21 mins, ended up just under 46, last km just over 4 mins.. happy to see theres something in the tank, despite the fact that at times i feel like an old man, hobbling around with sore knees..
so about 14.5k in total for the day

ordered a change of shoes from sean.. hopefully will solve / alleviate the problem..

woody1

tuesday 26th april swim 2km
wednesay 27th run. 5k race series hilly 5k 21.15 .. not amazing but given the hills that were in it, im happy enough
thursday swim 2km
friday run. 6km treadmill
saturday wedding recovery !
sundayrun. 8k on the road, breaking in new shoes, think theyl be ok for shorter to mid lenght runs not sure on longer stuff ..
monday 2nd may. 11.4km run.

Neady83

Wedding recovery

New shoes? What did you go for?

woody1

saucony guide 9, great cushioning in fairness , might be a tiny bit lacking in support in comparison to adrenalines, will probably do for short to middle length runs.. if and when im going again il go to the next most supportive one up the saucony range ,

woody1

thurs 5th 9.6k 6k easy run , 400 lap 1k hard 400 easy 1k hard 800 easy

friday / sat darkness into light drogheda 5k around 25 mins

sunday slane castle 5k, hilly, probably hilliest 5k yet, downhill start, went off far too fast, first k in 3 mins, 2nd in 4, exploded from there, 15 mins for next 3k .. tough 5k dont know the winning time but id be surprised if its under 20..

for a week/weekend that had a lot going on it wasnt great training wise but it couldve been worse.. still have foot / runner issues.. not sure on solution just yet..

woody1

tuesday 10th 6k run 1850 swim
wed 11th race series 6k 25.58 cruising first 3k about 12 mins second 14 half marathon later in the week so didnt want to shred the legs
thursday no babysitter no swimming
friday weather just too good, 45k on the bike very easy except for a few spots where i had a tailwind and drilled it for fun.. saddle on cube not quite right sore arse later

saturday
river moy half mara

basic report didnt know what to aim for 1.35-37 seemed achievable if unrealistic given lack of distance running done.. 1.40 whilst still a decent pb seemed a little unambitious in the end i settled on 1.40 , tailed the 1.40 pacer all the way, snailsong from boards, comfortably, legs started to complain at 19k at 19.5 i realised that unless i made a kick for it it was gonna be over 1.40 so had to put a push on and that hurt a bit but that was just down to daydreaming a bit earlier on couldve put a burst on from further out and done it comfortably finished in 1.39.55 think previous pb was 1.42 or 43 not sure.. think with a bit more ambition i couldve got another minute off it but then again lots of people made a run for it from about 10k on and we reeled them back in as they exploded .. in the end it was probably the right pace for me at the moment.. need to start doing a bit of decent mileage and seeing where i stand for another one later in the summer

race excellently run water everywhere pacers cars and bikes to keep manners on the traffic on the one stretch of road that its needed, 30 euro entry isnt over the top at all, massive spread after , times up an hour later, photos up last night, all small stuff but all combines to make a good event ..

today junior parkrun just done in a slow shuffle, think the youngest has sympathy stiffness, but we got round, be nice to get in a slow jog later better half working will have to see what happens later

woody1

monday 16th may 5k recovery slow jog
tuesday 17th 2600 swim, all paddles and pullbouy,
wednesday foxford 5k, last of the race series, i had been told this was flat and a pb course, its not flat ! it climbs a bit for first half, up and down and then is either flat or downhill for 2nd half, and wind is mostly behind at this stage.
anyway heavy legs from the weekend, set off , paced well, got to 2.5k about 12 seconds up, unusually held on at 4 min pace then til the end, so sub 20, ive done it once before but i wanted to back it up, realistically i want to be running sub 20 all the time, thats gonna take a bit of work, 5k 19 58.
thursday swim about 1600, tired
friday saturday nothing
sunday 30 something k cycle with new group.. worked out ok

woody1

tuesday 24th
2400 pool swim
wed
tri club running session , w/u intervals etc about 8k
thurs
swim 1800 ish
fri
tri club tt
20k bike tt , ideal conditions, went into this not having been on tt bike since september and without much cycling done at all so didnt expect much, made vague promises to myself to pace it but the minute it started i was going at it hammer n tongs, few times i was seeing stars, which is new for me to go to that level of effort , ended up doing 20k in 35.25, which is a huge drop from where i was last year conditions were perfect , may never go as fast on that course again

saturday
westport parkrun, with very heavy legs, 20.54
lake swim paddle splash practice, didnt do much wasnt overly cold getting to really dislike ( as opposed to being scared of ) open water swimming
but it was grand from a getting wet /cold / treading water / doing what i needed to in advance of race next week

sunday
new bike club spin 45k,
climbed knocknarea on the new boardwalk / path from strandhill with the kids lovely day for it

woody1

2 weeks since last update ,after tt sessions and intervals and knocknarea i was quite stiff so i took it easy for a few days, then had the bog to go to, so was tied up with that

in last 2 weeks i have run twice, quite tough interval set with tri club, and a 6k race yesterday where i was 8th or 9th in what i would consider a reasonable - ish time , reasonable in that i didnt really fade and i wasnt as slow as i thought i would be,

but
i had 5 days in albufeira eating drinking sleeping in and an occasional splash so i cant complain

heading back to the bog shortly :mad: to try and get it finished so i can get something done this week

Neady83

In my haste I read that as 5 days on ibuprofen Glad to see that it was quite the opposite.

Nice running yesterday.

Do you not consider turning or footing turf training? Surely that's core work?

Will you be keeping an eye on the WAW Audax event? Rachel and Linda would welcome some pacing, company or any help at all I'd imagine. They should be hitting Mayo on Wednesday next week, all things going well. Tracking is here : http://live.primaltracking.com/wildatlanticwayaudax/. I'm hoping to catch them and do a bit with them in Clare or Galway Sunday or Monday.

woody1

tis core work but it also wrecks your hamstrings , or at least mine maybe im not flexible enough

the audax thing was kind of half on my radar, i wouldnt be doing it so i didnt look any more into it, il have a look at dates and times later and see..

woody1

13th to 20th june
4 runs kind of 3 5ks ish, a 5k kind of half run half walked/trudged with one of the boys

10k ran later in the day

21k on the bike, got a flat just as was coming to the house.

the marathons been on my mind for a while now, im not getting the training / variety of training done to do justice to even a sprint tri , i could probably run 4 days most weeks and 5 days if i bother to use the treadmill some weeks, but i dunno either .. the time is coming to bite the bullet one way or another though..

woody1

wednesday 22nd june 5k race 20.08, thought in the middle of this that i was going fairly badly , i had garmin on so i dont know where i got that idea, pace was ok, at the start of the last km a clubmate came by, decided i wasnt getting beaten and found a bit more gas to overtake him, first and last km at 3.45 pace in the end.. so i probably had a bit more than i thought in the middle section. still a bit annoyed that i havent gotten to the stage where 19 50 something is the standard time rather than 20 0 whatever

friday 6.5k run around the woods trying out marathon pace christ its slow
gonna be hard to stick to it

sunday local 8k race, fundraiser for very rural school , thought there would be a few at it but turns out there were 3 runners,as in including me 3 people that do some running, about 20 others made up of teenagers, small kids and their parents, about 20 more on bikes and a few walkers, so from the start i had an idea it was winnable unless one of the teenagers was a runner, in the end there was me and another guy from the tri club in first and second and nobody behind us for about another 5 minutes, he would be more a swimmer than a runner and was about 500 yards behind me the whole way, the 3rd runner was a woman, and she won the ladies ..
its funny running these little races,youd nearly feel guilty, you get great praise for running what is a very average time, i could pick 20 guys locally that wouldve beaten me by a good bit, including the organisers husband who wouldve easily been 3-4 minutes in front of me, but he elected to help out rather than run
i dunno, i suppose you can only race whoever is there..

anyway thats the last little local race il be doing for a while, marathon training starts this week and i cant be doing every 5 n 10k thats on, warriors in sligo , the 3/4 marathon and the duleek 10k aside , thats it for races for a while..

i think there was another run in there last week somewhere but i cant remember and strangely enough i didnt write it in the diary..

Neady83

Well done on the podium finish Woody, a win is a win and you hit the nail on the head. You can only race who turns up on the take. Take the win and forget the guilt

I had to set my watch to vibrate at me when I went faster than my marathon LSR pace last year. It takes a while to get used to but keep in mind just how hard and fast marathon pace will feel after 22 miles

woody1

Neady83 wrote: »

Well done on the podium finish Woody, a win is a win and you hit the nail on the head. You can only race who turns up on the take. Take the win and forget the guilt

I had to set my watch to vibrate at me when I went faster than my marathon LSR pace last year. It takes a while to get used to but keep in mind just how hard and fast marathon pace will feel after 22 miles

thats an idea must see can i do that with the one i have

woody1

26th june to 3rd july

hal higdon 2 week 1 2 5ks 1 8k and 1 12k
all slow slow slow

1 30k cycle with the old codgers cycling club

bit stiff from holding the pace back but hopefully will get used to it
enjoying just having the 4 runs a week and not trying to crowbar anything else in

woody1

4th to 10th july

hal higdon week 2

4 runs finishing with 14.5k easy enough, getting more used
to the pace

woody1

11th to 17th july
hh week 3, all 4 runs done ok, last 2 a bit on the fast side, a lot on the fast side actually, longer stuff this week so will have to slow down a bit

club team relay yesterday had a bit of a shocker swimming was shocking anyway it was a lovely day and a bit of fun really, kids got to do a little aquathon and they really enjoyed it so that was good

woody1

18th to 24th
hh week 4 4 more runs done, some a bit too fast, got the 19k run done and it was grand bit slow at times, so had to stretch legs but otherwise grand

bike spin yesterday got soaked and turned for home after about 90 mins

woody1

25th june to 1st july
hh week 5, all done, 21k long run ended up being laps of belleek woods which has a few steep little rises on one section so 3 times over them left the legs a bit stiff otherwise all good

recovery on sunday was the 60k giro de baile, good craic, lot of people i know out and about, nice dry day , meself and better half span around, took it very handy and enjoyed it

woody1

1st to 7th august

week 6 done , 4 runs, 15k long run, interrupted by a bit of a coming together with an angry mastiff, off a lead, in a public park, no harm done, i think i startled it and it backed down quick enough, still put my heart rate through the roof

our own little club charity cycle went off without a hitch yesterday , so 55k on the bike and 55k the day before spinning round with better half as she was working yesterday

woody1

week 7 and 8 of hal higdon marathon plan both done, culminating in 24k yesterday with no major niggles or pains to report

also did the bike leg of the ballina salmon run tri for my brother in law on saturday
wasnt over worried about time but as usual got on the bike and gave it socks
ended up with a pb for the course of 38.30, course is 21.5k long, nice to know all this long slow running isnt slowing me down too much

warriors at the weekend !! first race in a long time .. :eek: