Reach for the sky...

woody1

11th to 18th june
monday .. lake swim 1200 ish.. water was cold ! came out with blue fingers .. swim itself went ok

tuesday 5k run.. tough at the start.. built into it

wednesday 7.5k run.. twisted my ankle badly enough in the middle of this.. was ok as long as the foot went down straight so kept running back to the car.. by thursday morning it was bruised but not especially sore

thursday / friday did 2 very quick spins on the bike with the new ( new to me ) wheels on.. it was blustery enough so i wanted to see what they were like in the wind and if id be better off to leave them for the next race.. anyway didnt find them too bad and westport was due to be calm enough so i left them on

saturday .. westport tri ..
swim .. with everyone lined out across the start line max about 2 deep , i knew this was gonna be bedlam as everyone tapered in towards the bouy .. as far as the first bouy it was a total boxing match .. at one stage i tried to back out and over a bit to get some clearer water but there really was nowhere to go.. wasnt quite as bad by the second bouy and from there in had a bit of peace .. 15.14 or something like that.. content , in and around others of my level..

t1.. was dizzy .had to stand up for about 30 seconds to get sorted.. 1.30 something

bike .. took a km or 2 to get the heart rate sorted and the legs going but i still seemed to be moving ok.. got moving and passed loads.. in the mid 30s or above most of the way out.. high 30s low 40s most of the way back .. didnt feel like i was pushing it coming back .. road was jammed with bikes cars and tourists .. probably held a little back
got to the turn in to the controlled area.. noticed that a friend had fallen and got off the bike to check.. waited a bit.. went back to the bike started running to transition, then figured it was worth cycling and jumped onto the bike and cycled up with my helmet in my hand.. the marshall , rightly, made me put the helmet on and close the straps.. which took a good few seconds as i had to take it off and put it on again.. and then i got into transition..

t2 .. mentally i had checked out of the race.. so i wasnt rushing .. around a minute i think

run.. just ran it easy.. stopped to take a stone out of my shoe.. stopped to fix anoying laces.. and stopped at the water stop to get a proper drink.. ran it in 22. 20 something..

happy enough with how it went . my swim can be terrible some days and ok other days .. it was ok.. at best in those conditions it might have been 30 seconds faster .. t1 was shocking, bike was going well.. didnt start the garmin, i was just watching the speed so i dont have a time.. and ive no idea how long i was stopped for but even just guestimating, it was a fast
bike
run .. its almost 2 years since i did a sprint tri, the run took me 23 something and that was flat out.. happy to be running under that at easy pace.. having a few minutes of a break off the bike probably made a difference though..

all in though im happy to take it as a good day out and take the lessons from it into the next one..

sunday 15k trail run.. letterkeen / bangor trail.. turned the ankle a good few times.. its black and blue today.. still not especially sore , but a rest from running for the week might be an idea

woody1

monday 2.1k lake swim
tuesday ballinrobe 5k, legs in ribbons from the weekend, ran hard as i could for about 2.5k but realised that it was pointless and jogged in the second half
wednesday off
thursday turbo.. new ftp. much harder workout.. but achievably hard
friday off
saturday started a turbo, got a puncture.. went for a run with the 2 boys on their bikes.. 5k
sunday.. finished turbo.. ..

did a running total of everything so far this year , swimming is up on last year, cycling is well up.. and running is well down.. it doesnt overly matter .. i think consistency brings the improvements rather than volume..i just like to keep an eye on whats getting done..

woody1

monday .. drove to lake for swimming, had pretty bad stomach cramps and decided at last minute not to bother.. spent the night shivering in bed.. so it was a good decision

tuesday ..afternoon turbo .. an hour on trainerroad.. night .. got bored watching kids crap so.. 6k run up the road from the house.. very easy. stomach still not great
wednesday.. usual run while the kids in karate .. felt a lot better
thursday.. swam 1km in pool, very easy.. run 6k evening
friday.. not sure .. need to check .. day off.. if you count taking 150 bags of turf off a trailer and then putting them into a shed as a day off
Saturday.. 8k run.. nothing amazing .. legs still heavy
Sunday.. 35k bike ride..again very easy..

woody1

monday lake swim 3 loops 1890.. kinda slow
tuesday 1500 lunchtime swim.. hour on the turbo later in the evening
wednesday 7k run with the missus
thursday 1500 lunchtime swim .
friday ..
saturday .. carlingford green bouy swim .. 1000m in 19.44 .. 6k run later in the day
sunday ..

woody1

last week was a quiet week , deliberately, didnt want to do any heavy bikes or hard running, wanted to get a bit of swimming done ..

monday . lake swim. cold. got out before it was finished, blue fingers ..
tuesday.. had won some s&c sessions in a facebook comp.. did the first on tuesday.. we did an assesment of where i needed work.. which was where i thought .. core.. arse to armpits ..
tuesday evening.. festival 5k in town.. wasnt going to .. decided to at the last minute.. had a terrible run.. blowing up at halfway.. about 3k had enough and jogged it in.. 22 mins +
wed off
thurs almost off... went swimming in a hotel pool whilst one of the boys was at a party .. really was just f*cking around killing time
friday off

saturday.. lanesborough triathlon

wanted to use this as a benchmark.. westport was going well but ive no realistic idea of how i went seeing as i had a 5 minute break in the middle

so long story short , i got into the water.. got in a nice warm up.. was comfortable.. started swimming and was comfortable for about 100m and then just took a second to get my bearings ..and decided i didnt want to do it.. after a few seconds of treading a kayak came over .. at this stage the pack was well up the lake... took a few more seconds.. wasnt freaking out or panicking , i was treading water fine.. i wasnt afraid of drowning or not being able to do it , i just didnt want to ..and once i saw the pack way up the lake it probably gave me an excuse..

there was a bit of wind and slobbery messy lake chop but nothing too bad.. i couldve got through it, it wouldnt have been a fast swim or the swim i wanted but ... im a bit lost for explanations ..

other than sometimes i expect too much.. i expect that im gonna swim 14/15 mins with no problems and forget that i have issues with swimming that have to be worked through every time i get in .. my best swims have always been where ive been expecting the freak out.. my worst have been where i havent.. where ive been expecting to push on and do well... as im starting to get a bit faster overall im forgetting that i still have to survive the swim or at least that portion of it where im trying to get mt head straight , wherever that comes..

anyway at 150m of a 750 swim , i got into the boat !?.. and seconds later i wanted to be out of it.. had to hang around for the other waves to go and get around.. watching the try a tri guys slogging through and staying at it was a sobering experience .. as was going through the post mortems with club mates after..

so on the plus side, the better half went well .. coped well with the bike.. which is her kryptonite .. and ran well .. as did everyone else ..

Sunday .. yesterday.. local 5k that i wasnt going to do.. but my mind needed a distraction, after 24 hours of constant replaying of a 30 second loop of time..
started off hard. ran freely enough to about 3k, had a big enough cushion built up but used it all and more over the last 2k , ended up in 20.13 .. which improved my humour no end, after tuesdays disaster..

earlier in the year i seemed to have more endurance to last to the end or at least the last 500m .. it seems to have slipped away, but im sure if i looked into it i was just doing more running and more hard work then, than now ..

woody1

17th july
2.3k lake swim .. 3 laps and a bit

18th
15k trail run, park letterkeen loop, part bangor trail, all great for the soul..

19th
afternoon
2nd gym session.. 1 hour
evening..
hour swim
late evening
hour and a bit track session

21st
tri club tt session.. 20k in 36 mins on road bike..

22nd
hodson mile swim in athlone... did the half mile.. had a mini freakout.. but stayed in the water.. calmed down and swam on.. 25 minutes though

family holiday in sweden frmo 25th to 1st august .. ran 3 times in mid 20s temps.. did about 10 minutes of skins open water swimming..

back home now.. all back to normal.. next few days will be a bit hit and miss, family around and then a wedding at the weekend.. will hopefully get a bit done and get back to some kind of schedule next week.. must look at the race calendar but i think lough key and one other depending on dates..

woody1

didnt get back to doing anything til the 4th august

4th august interval run session.. coached session with gary o hanlon, technique mostly, good session

5th 35k bike ride with o/h , 850 lake swim

6th and 7th off
8th 10k mountain bike, 10k run, 500m swim ish
9th track interval session 8k ish, 10 x 400 hard
10th 25k bike ride with other half
11th lake swim 1k ish
12th Cavan kayak Run .. done as part of a weekend away with herself
5 and a bit k run, 1k kayak , 15k bike ride
went well enough, was aiming at 21 mins for the run but ended up at 22, didnt know what hills were in store for me , so i dont mind losing the minute ..

got to the kayak in 4th in my wave, picked a sit on top ( like an idiot ) and was passed fairly quickly by 4 in sit ins .. doh !

did the best i could would it , got to the bike a bit down on some of them but thought id catch them all. caught and passed maybe 2, lumpy bike ride as well but gave it all i had, .. finished in 1.08 and in the end ended up in 25th. 5th over 40, there was about a minute between 2nd and 5th over 40,and only a few seconds between 3rd and 5th, so the kayak decision made the difference.. 1st over 40 was way ahead, there wasnt a hope of catching him, and thats what i was aiming at before the race.. bit more to do, im not where i thought i was in terms of fitness..

triathlon season is winding up, starting to look at adventure races , duathlons and trail runs to see the year out.. was considering quest achill , even with the 80 euro price, but this year theres a ban on tt bikes ( health and safety , next year maybe theyl put a speed limit on it !!! ) so i dunno.. need to have another look at the calendar and see whats around.. aiming to have a decent crack at duathlon season next year but i need something to keep me going until november december to have a proper shot at it ..

woody1

so a months worth of not much to update on

did a kind of half hearted week from the 14th to the 21st ran 3 times , biked twice , one was an attempt to go sub 35 on the bike for 20k but conditions werent ideal for it and i missed it by a bit

took the following week off .. felt a bit burned out, strangely not by training but by all the running around involved in the few weeks the kids had off , long days travelling, lots of driving ,

28th to 4th was a full week
3 runs , 2 gym sessions, 2 bikes, one run was on the cuilcagh boardwalk trail in fermanagh .. strongly reccomend it

4th to the 11th was a mixed bag again
2 runs and a turbo and 4 days doing nothing
one run was a 12k charity thing, which went surprisingly ok.. hilly as hell but time was ok

12th to 19th
decided to have a decent crack at a local half marathon thats on in november
and subconciously once the decision was made i gave myself permission to cut back the cycling and cut the swimming.. so for the foreseeable its going to be 3 - 4 days a week .. following a 3 day week half marathon plan.. might throw a 4th day in there every now and again, and il prob do more than the mileage on it , certainly at the the weekends .. but itl provide a structure , which is no harm considering im a bit aimless at the moment ..
also in for a half iron next june, i have broad targets in mind for it, and itl certainly require a decent amount of cycling, but il use the next 2 months to keep the running ticking over
3 runs this week, 40 mins, 40 mins and 50 mins

19th to 21st
2 out of 3 runs done, last 2 days , 7k both days, both at about 4-30 / 35 ish
considering doing the louisburgh / clew bay half at the weekend .. lot of driving but i need something to motivate.. if the weather isnt too shocking im sure itl be good

woody1

23rd sep,, clew bay / louisburgh half.. very windy day and a testing course.. first 8k into the wind and hills .. middle 8 ok, downhill and more sheltered, last 5 caught up to me a bit with lack of mileage.. started out around the 1.40 group and just wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible, felt strong all the way round and at about 16 or 17k i thought id stretch the legs a bit , and try to buy a minute or 2 off my pb,, but around 19 i started to tire and tie up a bit.. so the group caught me back and passed me.. made a burst down the last hill and got in just sub 1.40 and maybe a few seconds under my pb.. just happy to get round it in that kind of time without the mileage done ..

25th to 1st oct was 4 runs , 1 treadmill, 1 6k , 1 11k made up of a parkrun and another loop, and a 6k race on the sunday.. 6k came in at 24 . 12 .. felt good all the way round.. paced it very steadily and had a good finish

2nd to 8th was another 4 runs , 2 x 9k in the woods, 14k around about my home village in meath, and a 5k race around bellewstown race course on sunday.. race went well, lovely conditions, no cars to worry about, almost 3 laps so mentally it was a bit harder. knowing what was coming again each lap..
thought at one stage i was on for under 19.30 but didnt push hard enough for it in the last km..

2 good weeks ,

woody1

9th oct to 22nd oct

9th to 15th was 3 runs , 2 9ks in the woods, up the hills, and then the ceide coast half marathon on the weekend,

the half started at the top of a long hill more or less 7k downhill .. so i decided to take advantage , run down as fast and easy as possible and see what happened, id either blow up later in the race or not.. there was still a few hills in the second half, despite the 7k down it still works out at 150m overall of climbing so a lot of it is made back up.. with that though its a nice enough , flowy course.. race started.. went down as fast and loose as i could, spent the first 8k of the race in third place, but was passed at about 8k by a very strong runner and she passed and pulled away quite quickly, as we got onto the more normal part of the course.. flats and gradual uphills , i was surprised by how fast i was still going and made a few concious efforts to slow the pace a bit.. at about 15k the race went up onto downpatrick head and around the blowhole, which was very steep for about 500m and that was very hard on the legs and hip flexors and quads were feeling it but once we got downhill again everything was fine, ran well enough up to about 20k, slowing a bit all the time but nothing too dramatic, just running out of legs a bit, at about 20k i noticed that 5th place was catching me.. the finish was a steep uphill for about a km , he passed more or less at the bottom of it and i didnt have any response .. in the end he finished 20 seconds ahead.. anyhow up the hill and over the line in 5th place.. 3rd man.. 2nd and 3rd were 2 very strong local women, in 1.33.30 something..
previous pb was 1.39.. which was a bit soft , i ran 1.39 in clew bay a month ago but into a gale on a tough course and it was a run out to see where i was..

taking the big downhill out of it i think the reality is 1.35 / 36 is probably a more realistic mark of where im at at the moment.. we will see in a few weeks on a more normal course ..

last week
15th to 22nd was 3 runs .. 5k , 6k and 12k, the 12k in particular was tough, hip / glute / back issues.. just very tight and i didnt feel i had a lot of power in that leg.. made everything much harder.. spent the weekend doing yoga with youtube .. trying to loosed everything out.. booked into a yoga course now so that will help..

hip / back trouble always shows up in the autumn / winter .. when ive cut out cycling and swimming.. beginning to think that the different movements keep everything a bit more balanced than just running all the time.. had no plans to swim until the new year but may have to get back in once a week to see does it help ..

woody1

23rd to the 30th

got into yoga eventually. had done a bit over the weekend on my own, following ekhart yoga on youtube.. did a few 20 minute sessions ,
changed my chair at work, brought in a cushion for my back.. by the time i got to yoga i was much improved.. but as always i found it great, for the few days afterwards i was sitting bolt upright in the chair at work and in the car.. wears off before the week is over but it makes a difference to me..

running wise it was 3 runs .. 2 X 10k and a 16k .. the 16k i found tough, just a long slog, right knee was folding in something shocking.. stopped a few times to try to get posture sorted.. in the end i just had to go with it.. turned out to be 16k in 1.15 or something.. so the pace was a bit too high.. even though at the time it felt like a trudge..

31st to the 5th ..

yoga wasnt on for the bank holiday, did a few bits on my own..
3 runs again .. think the same as the week before 2 x 10 and 1 x 16..
the 10s were ok, ran them in the woods, and found them ok, hips knees and back all improved, 16k ended up on the treadmill, daylight savings and bad weather left me a bit unprepared and when i went to go outside it was gloomy and lashing hailstones..
an hour and 15 minutes on the treadmill .. which is probably a record for me..

6th to the 9th

into physio monday afternoon, just felt i needed a general loosening out.. nothing overly hurts, just a lot of tightness in different spots twisting me round a bit.. hips and back both were in need of some help

yoga monday night.. went well, felt good afterwards..

6k run tuesday ..running bolt upright after yoga .. good pace but by no means a race pace.. felt well puffed out in parts.. hard to see how to sustain a faster pace over a longer distance but it always seems to happen .. on the plus side hip / back has improved hugely

one more training run this week and then the target run .. well the target that ive been following this particular plan for , is at the weekend.. itl be interesting to see how it goes..

woody1

9th nov.. 6k run in the woods.. felt good..

11th nov.. belleek trail half marathon, 4 x 5.3k twisty up and down laps in the woods..
followed an 8 week plan for this, so was hoping to get something decent out of it

it was starting at 9 so got up before 7 and had breakfast, made too much porridge but ate it all , like an eejit , a decision that came back to bite me later on

drove into town , registered, warmed up, had a chat with a few and got started, after about 10 minutes i started to get bad stomach cramps, we were going at a fair clip, i was in around 3rd or 4th at the time and the pace was a bit higher than i had planned on settling in to, but when the cramps didnt subside after a few minutes i decided to hold as fast a pace as i could and get back to the start of the loop where there was water and toilets and make a decision there..
got round the first loop in 22.30 something.. stood at the water table for about 30 seconds getting a proper drink and trying to let stomach settle, decided to do a second lap and see what happened.. after about a km of the second lap the cramps stopped , id lost a place at the end of the first lap and i lost another one somewhere along here.. but i was starting to feel stronger, not perfect but a lot better than earlier, pushed on through the hilly section , got back to the start/end of the loop and stopped for another 30 seconds for a drink,
third lap is the deceptive one, your over half way done but not yet close enough to the finish to be feeling the pain.. went out well on the third lap, there was someone a few steps behind me all the way and i was expecting them to come past but they didnt,
stopped again at the water stop, got a proper drink, and on the way again.. felt suprisingly good on the 2k flat before the hills , but had still slowed a lot in comparison to the first lap.. had lost a place at the turnaround each time so was in 6th or 7th at this stage, i didnt know at the time, but i knew the guy behind, and i figured he would be coming strong at the end.. slogged up the hills and was really falling apart by the last km.. on the last hill on the last lap the guy behind passed and pulled away, i found legs to try to go with him but couldnt make up the gap..
finished out in 1.37 40 something and 8th place.. not unhappy but not delighted either.. its a tough course, and with a wet surface in the woods, a lot of turns and hills it was never going to be fast, but i think i couldve been a minute or more faster with better decisions.. including not eating such a big breakfast before hand and an old failing, pacing it a bit more evenly.. i fell off on each lap.. each kilometre on each lap is slower than the previous .. ie 1,6,11 and 16 .. and that pattern holds for 2,7,12 and 17 and each km the whole way round.. just badly paced.. better pace couldve saved me a lot at the end.. i probably lost 30 seconds 3 times at the water stops and i lost a place each time but i think i got at least half of that back or more , its hard to quantify, but i think it works on this race to even get a mental break before going out for another lap..

but it gave me a focus and i stuck to a training plan .. which is not something im good at, the miles are in the bank and can be put to use again... dunno what the plan is now.. stephens day 5k possibly, itd be nice to finish out the year on a pb.. havent ran a decent time at this race in years..

woody1

ok so 13th nov to 4th dec..
going from memory here .. started into a 5k plan the week after the half
so thats 5 runs , usual craic , 1 tempo, 1 intervals , 1 long-ish and 2 kinda normal paced runs .

so 13th to 20th nov were , 2 6ks, an interval session on the track , 8 x 200, which ended up around 6k all in, a 7k on the road, and about 12k trail mountain, hilly boggy run..

20th to 27th was much the same, 2 x 6ks in the woods, intervals , 8 x 400 ended up around 7k , head torch run friday night 7k, and trail run , flatter and more solid this time around 12k ..

27th to the 3rd
developed a few niggles this week so cut it back to 3 runs , ran on tuesday on the treadmill for about 30 mins, ran friday in the woods with a few of the tri gang with head torches, and ran sunday with the trail running gang, 14k loop about half trail and half road, had a few niggly twinges , particularly a sore foot on friday, it stood up to the 14k ok on sunday,

started the december run streak on fridy but had to pull out on saturday, foot wont stand up to 30 days continuous battering..

doing yoga as well every monday evening, just to keep the usual twinges at bay and its making a huge difference ..

3 weeks until the last 5k of the year, will take a while off after it , let the mind and body chill out for a while

woody1

well thats probably a wrap for 2017..
on anti biotics for a bit of a bug and one of the side
effects is potential to damage tendons so no running

they also making me feel like sh*t .. so any thoughts i had
of getting back to it before the end of the year have been shelved
in favour of having a rest.. im sure plenty would argue that i do
so little training that thats all i do all year anyway

this years numbers were
swimming 58.4 same as last year .. fell away completely after june
cycling 870.. about 100k more than last year but with a bigger block at start the
year and nothing in the last 4 months
running 1005, more or less the same as last year.. more spread out..

ran pbs for 5, 10, half marathon, had a feeling theres a decent improvement to come at all of those. but wont get to find out til 2018..

cycled, pb'd for 20k but didnt get to sub 35.. training almost completely turbo based this year .. will be the same next year

swimming.. went as well as swimming does for me, ok days and bad days , never gonna be a sea or even a choppy lake swimmer.. just have to pick my battles.. next year only one race, and the lake its in is 10 minutes from my house.. will do enough training to make it through the distance without being terribly slow.. which will be far less than other years..

woody1

very quick new years .. feb :-) update

the shorthand version is , got a bug, took anti biotics, reacted, stopped taking them but am still having some effects, nothing life changing .. tinnitis, joints clicking ..there was some other small stuff but that has resolved, 2 months later still have tinnitis, and joints are still clicky and for lack of a better description dont feel 100%

for that reason ive been taking it very handy, but i realised quickly enough that some bit of activity was helping me sleep.. so i guessed swimming and cycling wouldnt be too hard on joints and did a bit of that for a while .. have run maybe once a week, no pain, just some strange pulls and tweaks from muscles and tendons, still wouldnt have 100% faith that i could start doing any real running ..

so since jan 1st
4 swims around 1500 each , 2 last week
4 or 5 runs, 2 treadmills, 2 of these were last week too
4 bikes .. all turbo.. mostly and hour, 2 last week
got back out with the trail running crew last weekend, did my own shortened loop with one of the guys as 20k is too far for me at the moment

did an athletics ireland coaching course as well, was very well ran, would be interested in doing the next one up as well..

so last week was the most active ive been since middle of december... feel very fragile / delicate immediately after running and the morning of the next day.. other than that no major effects.. will probably try to concentrate on cycling and swimming for a bit .. half iron in june and need to build up a base anyway..

woody1

so 2 months later not much to udpate gonna do the shorthand version
swam 5 times most around 1500m
cycled 3 times ..
ran 15 times .. most around 5k , most very slow, one out on the bangor trail, which was the best of them

joints acting up, popping and cracking and grinding, sleep affected too, either very broken or just no sleep at all occasionally,
saw a specialist lately and he confirmed that it was the anti biotics that i got in dec that did it and that while theres no damage done all the tendons and connective tissues are very tight and i need to do a load of flexibility work to improve it .. before i can get into any more aerobic stuff...
so will be doing a few weeks of yoga and stretching and flexibility stuff and will see where it goes from there, will leave me with only 8 or 9 weeks to train for the half iron, will have to see what happens with that .. do as much as i can and if i can just toodle round the course then that will do me fine.. dont want to set things back over one race either...

Neady83

Really sorry to hear that you've been suffering so much. I shocked that anti-biotics have had this effect. Were they particularly strong ones or were you sensitive to the one you were prescribed?

If you can avoid injury, get stronger and can enjoy some training, getting to the start line will be a bonus

woody1

suffering is a bit too strong for it, no real pain, if you took the lack of sleep out of it , it wouldnt be too bad at all, apart from not really knowing whether or not to be active or not.. possibly going from being really active to not has affected sleep patterns but its hard to know, it could also be the medication.. but im told if it is that it will settle down..

so at least i have clarity on that and hopefully everything will start settling down ..

antibiotics were flouroquinalones.. theres a few of them.. anything with flox in the name seems to cover most of them

they have known side effects of messing with tendons and connective tissue .. and loads of other effects like all medication.. but i was just unlucky in being one of the 1 in 1000 or 10000 or whatever that gets affected.. plenty of people have much worse reactions than me, to an extent ive gotten off easy.. ruptured tendons and ligaments can happen too.. as well as a list of other things ..

the doctor prescribing them did warn me that they could have an effect on tendons etc but it was more along the lines of dont do anything while your on them, he wasnt to know that i would react to them...

but thats where we are with them, loads of stretching and see where it leads too.. if i can get back half way active at all in the short term il be happy out

woody1

so basic update

have done bits and pieces , building it up week by week ,

havent ran a lot really and i guess its 5 months since i ran at any kind of speed or with any definite intention or direction, and consequently im running like im filled with wet sand, heavy and lumpy and uncoordinated, no rhytm or flow to it.. or speed.. but that will come back

havent swam much either, but getting back in the pool a bit now and timing and rhythm is coming back, no speed yet, but im not really worried about that

mostly cycling , have started cycling to work on dry days, which obviously hasnt been too often, but 10k in and 20k out , so 30k a day twice a week for last 3 weeks and then an odd weekend bit as well.. so more bike mileage than anything

last week was a big week, cycled 3 times, ran twice, swam twice, with no big effects,

this week cycled on monday, rested tuesday, swam wednesday, was going to cycle into work yesterday but it was wet ish and im brewing a head cold so just couldnt bring myself to.. so it ended up as a day doing nothing. theres a chance of a window of an hour or 2 round lunchtime today, might do a handy spin on the bike and see does the fresh air do anything for my head cold..

busy weekend with family stuff coming up.. going to be hard to get anything done .. but at least the motivation is coming back to some degree and the body so far is standing up to it ..


was out on the bangor trail a few weeks ago.. id say running but a lot of it was too wet for that .. about 6k running and 4k slogging .. brought the camera i got for xmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCDKXB6LZ7Y&t=8s

Neady83

Love the video Woody, thanks for sharing. I was on that trail earlier this year in miserable conditions and I really didn't enjoy it. That video makes me think that I should go back for more

woody1

the letterkeen side of it is much drier than the bangor side .. from what i heard of the trail loopers excursion on the bangor side it was fairly shocking.. theres about 8k of decent dry-ish stuff and then it gets hard to run on as you get closer to the halfway point on the trail.. someday im hoping to run / jog it all but it would want to be in august or september id imagine to give it the best chance possible

woody1

so without getting overly into the details , strava tells me i have done 33 hours in may and 16 hours so far in june ..allowing for a day off every week.. and 2 this week, thats more volume than ive done in a while, admittedly its mostly cycling..

swimming 4.5 hours both months, with mostly open water in june and some decent distances.. i think realistically there is probably more than this , i have 21k distance recorded manually that sounds more right.

cycling 23 hours in may and 8.5 hours in june, cycling in to work twice a week and then doing either 30 or 40k on the way home . built up the distances at the weekends 70k to 80k, to 100k last weekend on the race route... 585km

running has been the poor relation.. 5hours in may and 3 hours in june, mainly because im not running well and therefore unmotivated, also because it seems to affect my joints etc the worst.. ..59km

but overall im delighted to have gotten this kind of mileage in so far, there have been double days and even some triple days .. i have done more bike mileage in may june than all of last year and with luck i will keep that up and itl stand to next year

the actual race has been called off due to insurance problems , there is still a chance that a few will do it as a training day, it is close to where we all live, its not quite the same.. i would like to prove to myself that i can do it, even today the motivation to go and run wasnt really there.. went anyway and actually had a decent run..

woody1

race back on.. :eek:

Neady83

woody1 wrote: »

race back on.. :eek:

What race is this Woody? unusual to hear of such uncertainty about a race. Will you take part?

woody1

a local guy , clubmate and friend , put on a half iron 2 years ago in enniscrone, doing it again this year in crossmolina, small event , itl be mostly our club, anyway last time he had no hassle getting insurance, this time it was very difficult, and he cancelled last week as it was looking like it wasnt going happen, but few days later he got cover.. from what i hear on the grapevine its getting very difficult to insure events...

yes i'm going to start.. i've had a couple of decent runs in the last week, so the heart is telling me that i can semi-race it.. but the head knows that its all about survival.. get thru the swim.. pace the bike properly and just ease around the run.. thatl do me nicely

woody1

so 18th to the 23rd
lake swim on monday, shallow lake but there was a nasty enough wind chop in it, did 3 x 500m loops .. was happy to have it done..good for confidence

tues off
wed yoga
thursday ran in the woods , pace is slowly coming back, nothing properly fast but to be able to hold sub 5 min kms is nice , considering 3 months ago i couldnt run 2k at 6 min kms
friday ive a feeling i ran the run loop for the triathlon.. well i know i did im just not sure what day.. just over 4k at somewhere round 4.45 pace ..
swam in lough conn .which is where the race was going to be 1200m nice and easy
saturday.. was away with o/h who swam warrior of the sea, on the way home called down to the lake to help put out bouys to mark the swim course. was surprised how big the loop looked, had to go as eldest had his own sea swimming course to do.. but called back later and went round the loop once for 1km ..in calm ish conditions

woody1

Strandman 2018

up early 5am ! woke at 4 !! couldnt get back to sleep, on top of late night early moring for warrior of the sea the night before where i got max 5 hours sleep,
4 hours on saturday night wasnt ideal

got breakfast, toodled around as quietly as i could, and left the house round 5.45 to arrive at lough conn around 6..

the lake was mirror calm.. sun rising at the back of it and fog just lifting off it.. stillest lake ive seen ever..

with all my usual faffing around hanging bikes and organising bits and pieces it didnt take long for the hour to pass.


bit of craic with everyone there , there were 20 something doing it and 90% of us all knew each other so there was plenty of chat going on

into the water about 6.50 ish .. shallow water start about hip height so water

so 7 am swim start. as usual i stood at the back and let everyone have a stroke or 2 before i started. settled in caught up to the other 2 around my pace and we more or less went round the 2 loops together, one of the bouys was in line with the sun so it was tricky to sight , even with polarised goggles , so we had to follow those in front of us, from what i can see on strava , most of us swam an arc rather than a straight line on the first lap.. coming to the end of lap one my shoulders were getting sore , so i knew i had to slow down a bit, couldnt see the first bouy again as i started lap 2 so i had to tread for a bit to find it and fix goggles , went round again, better sighting this time , as there was no one in front of us .. they were all finishing , got out at the end in 52 mins. 25 first lap, 27 second lap .. 2.1k, the loop was 2k so i swam an extra hundred over.. fairly happy with that.. 2.30 pace is what i was looking for ..

in transition i was slow and disorganised but got thru it, got on the bike after a bit of messing with shoes and pedals ( lesson learned , shoes on first , this is not a sprint ) and set out to catch a few.. i was third last out of the lake ..

100k bike .. roughly 30k to bangor erris, went well , flying without pushing , passed 2 , caught onother just coming into bangor, bangor to ballinaboy went ok , at ballinaboy we turned back the direction we had come out and i got a shock, whilst there wasnt much wind at all, i thought we had a headwind coming to bangor and would have a tailwind from here for a bit at least, only a slight cross headwind at times but enough to take a bit of the fun out of it, from there which is about 40k to ballycastle at 70k ish went by quick enough,
caught another one and passed eventually, only to be held up behind a herd of cows and caught again, but once we got clear of that i pulled away a bit again.. theres a few climbs coming up to ceide at ballycaslte and i was missing the road bike , the tt bike and the cassette on it are not for hill climbing and the quads were starting to complain. big downhill from ceide down to ballycastle to get the speed back up and then a little steep climb from there into the village which was where the fun really started .. legs got pulled off on about 500m of a climb and never really recovered, this is about 80km in, from 80 to 90k the road is a shambles.. bad surface , patches of road on bog that have dips and cracks and bumps in them.. legs were already bad but got shot to pieces here,had to stop for a wee as well, which is where the last guy that i passed caught back to me. pulled away again and managed to pull it togehter for 2 mins when i passed the better half taking photos but the last 10k in was just a slog.. couldnt raise any speed just had to go with it..
third or fourth time on a tt bike this year , first over an hour, my neck and shoulders were screaming from about 20mins in, even now i cant turn my neck properly.. prob wouldve been just as quick on the road bike..
got in in 3.40 .. did it on a training spin on the roadie in 3.45 a few weeks back, but obviously i hadnt a swim done beforehand ..
from speaking to some of the other guys i didnt eat even half enough, had one bar and three gels over the length of it .. so thats a big lesson learned.. cycle the tt bike occasionally is the other one ..lesson 3 is dont stop for a wee.. im told just do it on the bike.. not sure about this one :rolleyes:

run 4 laps 20k ish
had about 3 mins in transition and got out on the run, legs were surprisingly loose , to the point where i was trying to slow down.. running sub 5 min kms , trying to run 5.15 and it was feeling slow.. 2 stops on each loop and i stopped at both of them and got thru the first loop at around 5 min km pace.. second loop started ok again trying to slow but the pace was dropping, the heat was serious at this point, 1 o clock in the day yesterday im sure was 23 or 24 degrees, second lap prob closer to 5.30 pace, which i was happy enough with and thought that i could hold,stopped for another wee at the start of the third lap. so at least i wasnt dehydrated.. third lap was an absolute slog, legs were lead, brain was fried, i knew i was going to get thru it but any thoughts about times went way out the window, trudged at around 6 min pace to each water stop, mercifully my mother in law and brother in law had appeared on the course right between the 2 water stops with more water and cola bottles so that gave me a third stop to break the run up.. was getting caught by the terminator behind me.. he just kept coming.. and on the third lap about 1 km out from the end of the loop he caught me and we ran it in together, i stopped a bit longer than him, throwing water over my head as i was starting to feel a bit fuzzy and he got out before me.. fourth lap after a slow-ish start actually wasnt too bad, got back up to 5.30 pace and below at times.. which says a lot about psycology ! and finished it out.. run was 2.06 ..

overall time 6.54.. a good half hour at least from where i would like to be
thougts , happy with the swim, wouldve been happier and thought i wouldve managed a 3.25-3.30 bike
was hopeful to gut out a sub 2 preferably 1.50 run but it wasnt in the legs..

given everything thats gone on since december,
i havent done anything december to april, at the end of march i was meeting a consultant rheumatologist to try and get a grip of what was or wasnt wrong with me..

so zero base .. 8 weeks training, more swimming than i'd normally do but with no pace, just distance, 1000km of cycling and less running that i'd do in a good fortnight .. i have to be content with it.. like most of us i struggle to be satisfied but i can be content..

i'l have a look for some photos .. race will be on next year around first or second week of july, i strongly recommend it ..

woody1

three weeks on from strandman ,
immediate week after took a few days off but then got itchy feet and had to get out and going again, have stuck at the o/w swimming on mondays and generally in the pool friday mornings, also did the Moy swim, which has been resurrected as part of the ballina salmon festival..

better half has been off work all last week and until today so took the opportunity to get a hard week done, cycled into and out of work 4 days out of 5 and got a long spin in on saturday, ran 4 times including 3 races, 5k, 10k, 5k in 5 days , was surprised at how close i was to decent times, but can still feel lack of running and endurance, particularly in the 10k ..

swam again last night and ran after it , 2.2k swim and almost a 10k hilly run, thats 8 days in a row, so now its time for a break, will take today and or tomorrow off,

kids are in my parents for a week next week so that will be another heavy week and then a rest week before mullingar... if i enter it ..

woody1

celtic warrior at the weekend
half iron distance

swam 43 mins. 10 mins faster than previous race

bike 3.10..for 91k, last race 3.46 for 100k .. allowing for 10k shorter course .., 29km/hr average , wouldve liked 30, but i wasnt going to burst myself to get it.. i was a bit too careful on the first lap, wasnt sure where fitness was and wanted to see what the lap was like without going flat out..

run 1.52 - 20.5k previous race 2.06 ( for 19.5k ).. had legs, was able to run. had to stop to wee twice .. apart from that and very quick stops at the end of each lap at the water station i didnt waste any time .. possibly couldve gone tiny bit quicker but finding the line between a decent pace and a sustainable pace is something im still working on..

total 5.55.. previous race was 6.53 and left me a bit underwhelmed , i didnt think it was a good marker of where i was at and so i entered celtic warrior pretty quickly after.. i looked into nutrition and i think that made a decent difference, obviously another 6 weeks training made a difference, and it being the second time, a little experience made a difference too..

still not as aerobically fit as i was last year, if i could get a bit more running in i could possibly knock a bit off the run.. i dont see much coming off the swim or bike.. will pre-reg for the outlaw in england for next year and then see what a decent few months of training can do..

joey100

If you need any info about Outlaw (full or half in Nottingham) let me know.