Reach for the sky...

woody1

so bit more than a month since celtic warrior

have done bits and pieces , probably 4-5 days a week doing something, not much intensity , just keeping occupied ,
september so far has been 276km cycling , 3.3k swimming and 15,4k running, according to strava ..
august was 212k cycling , 64k running and 8.4k swimming

did the athlone sprint on saturday
had a poor enough swim , similar to a sprint i did a few years ago, i thought i was going well but actually was going pretty bad.. swim plus the 100 or so yards to transition was 19 minutes ! , swim about 17 ish i think..

bike.. funny bike course.. a 2.2k straight then 3 times round a 4k ish square so 4 turns each time and then back up the straight, brought the road bike becuase of this. and i think it was the right decision, bike went well enough, i took a bit too long to get into it properly and it probably cost me about a minute but other than that , i passed a lot and made up a lot of places.. bike was 17.5k in 33.30 something

run. 4.4k .. 2.2k out and back .. havent really ran much lately and it showed, never got going really , took until the turn around for me to settle in, and event then didnt really get any faster .. 4.4k in 20 minutes

not gonna over analyse it, myself and better half signed up for it as it was the one race that we could both do.. and it went well from that point of view, few others from the club at it and it was a good laugh..

both of us and some friends are in for sea to summit in november and il treat it the same, do it as a bit of fun and not get caught up too much in times and places.

woody1

in the office waiting for software to download, so ive time to kill
2 weeks since athlone

cycling 267k .
running 22.7k
no swimming since athlone tri

did the castlebar cyclocross race , on the mountain bike, think i was last, probably the hardest thing ive ever done aerobically, heart rate just went straight to max and didnt come down for 45 minutes .. but was good craic

did newport wild to wild on sat. run, bike, run, bike, run, 2.5k, 11k, 6.7k . 11k and 2.5k. the middle run was a killer , and my lack of running lately caught up with me. lost a lot of places here, bike went well though, and the first and last run were short enough to get thru, nice race, good local chilled out vibe to it,

westport cyclocross is next, and maybe curranne challenge,
need to find a way to do a little bit more running,

ronanmac

woody1 wrote: »

in the office waiting for software to download, so ive time to kill
2 weeks since athlone

cycling  267k .
running 22.7k
no swimming since athlone tri

did the castlebar  cyclocross race , on the mountain bike, think i was last, probably the hardest thing ive ever done aerobically, heart rate just went straight to max and didnt come down for 45 minutes .. but was good craic

did newport wild to wild on sat. run, bike, run, bike, run,  2.5k, 11k, 6.7k . 11k and 2.5k.  the middle run was a killer , and my lack of running lately caught up with me. lost a lot of places here, bike went well though, and the first and last run were short enough to get thru,   nice race, good local chilled out vibe to it,

westport cyclocross is next, and maybe curranne challenge,  
need to find a way to do a little bit more running,

Interesting... Have toyed with the idea of trying out cyclocross. Seems like good, yet painful, craic!

woody1

ronanmac wrote: »

Interesting... Have toyed with the idea of trying out cyclocross. Seems like good, yet painful, craic!

i found the castlebar race do-able for someone at my level.. limited bike handling skills and no experience, there wasnt many doing it, maybe 20, and the course was short with plenty of room for lads to get round, and the ground fairly solid , i did my best to stay out of the way and let the faster lads through,

came off the bike fairly hard on the second corner of the first lap, front wheel locked up and slid out, fired me off the bike, landed about 6 ft in front of it, other than that it was good craic, i was looking at second hand cx bikes and almost bought one until i checked out the local bike shop and realised i could get a new bike for less on bike to work.. so i'm committed to it now..


if your around the west there are more races in westport , ballina ( prob enniscrone ) and sligo ..

woody1

oct 2018

300k cycled, semi pissed about this, the target was 400 a month, but starting back on trainerroad has dropped the mileage, but increased the effort , so instead of 30+k in and out of work cruising its 20k odd in an hour but with more effort in the intervals.. so more work but less distance, have picked up 2 koms on strava lately, 2 sides of the same hill :-) , so must be doing something right.. just waiting for the local decent riders to spot it and put me back in my place :-)

2 cx races, westport and enniscrone, might be marginally better but so is everyone else.. same crew going to most races, was on course to be third last !!! not second last or last as in last 2 races but got caught on the last lap in enniscrone.. position doesnt really bother me, its a good workout , going to do the one in oldcastle this weekend.. fully expect to be last there too.. but will have some fun doing it

31k ran.. running is really falling away..and then its a chicken and egg situation.. i dont want to run because im getting worse at it ..and im getting worse at it because im not running.. did a halloween 5k at the weekend , admittedly i had a head cold.. ran just over 22 mins and i was wrecked at the end of it.. have to find a way to run regularly , not neccesarily big mileage just maybe 3 small runs a week every week for a while..

no swimming ! and there wont be for a while

woody1

first week in november , didnt do a whole lot last week, had the remnants of a head cold, and legs were trashed after the 5k and felt like i needed a rest .. so took tuesday to saturday off completely
was in meath over the weekend so took the opportunity to do the oldcastle cyclocross b race..
the aim of the game was to not be last , and that was a success
actually 13 behind me ! and if i had a bit more technical ability thered be one or 2 more
very well run race on a good course and i learned a lot over the course of the race

didnt do anything yesterday, sea to summit at the weekend and i better get a bit done between now and then without getting too excited and burning the legs out but need to do some running at least to remind the body what its like

bike mileage has fallen away last 2 weeks , need to get back to 300km a month realistically if not 400.. at 3000km for the year .. would like to get to 3500 anyway if not a bit more

snailsong

Best of luck in S2S, Woody. I'll be there myself but won't be setting any records. Say hello if you remember what I look like. Not sure I'd recognise you.
You keep saying you need to run more. Are you a parkrunner? You don't have to race it every week, just keep showing up. You have a good one in Ballina.

woody1

yeah i used to do the parkrun and volunteer fairly regularly, and then i fell away from it ...

i finish work at 1.30 the kids arent home til 3.15 .. i could run in the woods every day if i could motivate myself.. at the moment the motivation to run isnt there..

there is an underlying issue that at the moment seems to be stopping me from running hard or training hard and that doesnt help..but it doesnt seem to affect cycling as badly

but mostly there is a large element of cant be bothered ness.. until a race starts getting close and then theres a panic to at least re introduce the legs to it a bit

snailsong

Do you do all your training by yourself? I can completely identify with the can't be bothered ness but this evening there will be a few lads gathering at 7:30 to run 8k. If I don't show up I'll need an excuse. So I'll go. A lot of the people I run with I met through parkrun. Another positive.

woody1

sea to summit 2018
first run surprisingly good.. 16 and a bit for 4k ish

transition 1 not great.. i have little plastic clips that change clip in pedals to flats but i forgot to put them on the bike on friday, meaning i had to carry them with me and do it in transition, so what shouldve been a one minute transition was nearer to 3..

bike 1 , 8k sub 16 mins.. happy with that , nice not to have a headwind to battle for a change

transition 2, grand , forgot to take bike helmet off but hadnt gone far, a few yards, went back with it then got going

croagh patrick up.. not bad..31 mins. think the fastest ive done it is 29. havent been on the mountain this year at all so im happy enough with it

down. 17 mins, again not bad, couldnt expect much better ,

bike 2 10k ish just under 20 mins, happy , there were a few groups forming on the way back but none of them were moving fast enough so i did most of it on my own, nice to see extra bike mileage is doing something ..

transition 3, in and out quick enough

run back to finish,22 mins for 4k .. torture , as it usually is, lack of run mileage eventually caught up to me, i ran it all but just very slowly

overall 2.08 and a bit
about 90 slower than my fastest time, this is my 6th time and its probably the one i enjoyed the most, nice to be strong on the bike, but getting a nice day for it helped hugely ..

legs from hips down are completely trashed, quads particularly, as bad as the 2 marathons ive done, my downhill running isnt great , and i always suffer because of it, wont be doing a lot this week, certainly today tuesday and wednesday are gone.. next week will start back into building bike mileage until the end of the year again..

snailsong i saw you there at the start but you were chatting away to someone so i left you alone, we werent far apart on the run but i didnt see you after that,

Baby75

Well done nothing like a bit of downhill running to smash the quads hopefully they recover quickly

snailsong

Just catching up on logs now.
Well done.on s2s. Our splits were similar, I'm very poor on the mountain too. Came in 2:05 same as last year. Anything I gained on you was in transition and that last tortuous run.

woody1

ok so last 3 weeks ,
9 runs , mostly 5-6k but with an odd 8 or 9 thrown in there as well,
legs are coming back ,

cycling is falling back a bit
only 4 rides, 72, 52 and a couple of 20 somethings , i need to do 150k to get me to 3000k for the year, 3 weeks to do it so no major panic

some of the issues ive been having during the year with trouble sleeping, tinnitis , joint trouble has resurfaced with the increase in running, possibly a coincidence but i had been sleeping relatively well and the other issues had calmed considerably .. and now they are creeping back in .. doesnt make a whole lot of sense but then none of it has, will take a few days easy and see what happens ..

griffin100

My tinnitus, which I have on a continuous basis, is really exacerbated by dehydration, alcohol and lack of sleep. When training volumes go up I really have to make sure I drink enough (water that is).

woody1

griffin100 wrote: »

My tinnitus, which I have on a continuous basis, is really exacerbated by dehydration, alcohol and lack of sleep. When training volumes go up I really have to make sure I drink enough (water that is).

Cheers.I'll try that and see does it make a difference.

woody1

cheers griffin, drinking a bit before and a lot after is making a difference , not getting rid of it, but turning down the volume a lot,

since the 7th,
connacht cyclocross in enniscrone,
hadnt been on any bike in almost 2 weeks, hadnt been on the cx bike since oldcastle a month ago, thats the excuses out of the way, i was hopeful that the little bit of running ive done in the last month would help me out a bit aerobically at least but i was exhausted after the warm up lap, legs were just heavy from the start and got heavier as it went on, the aim for me is to not be last , there was one guy behind me for about 3 laps but he was getting incrementally closer on each lap and on the third he passed me, stuck with him for a lap and a bit, id catch him on the twists and turns and he'd pull away on the downhills, but eventually he got away properly, combination of me getting tangled in the tape, stopping out of the way to let a few lads that were lapping me get past, and then just not giving a f*ck any more.. or not being able to..
just cruised it in for the last 3 laps, tried to do the technical bits a bit better but in the end it just turned out to be a hard training session..

will try to do a few more races in the east next year, dedicated b races where there are a few more of my level are more craic, the race within a race that happens with the people around you is more craic than flogging yourself around for 30 mins with no hope of catching anyone .. but in general im glad i did the series this year and it will help my cycling ..

2 runs since the 7th, the 11th and the 16th , 6k and 10k, the 10k yesterday was with the trail loopers crew, over a year since i managed to get out with them last, most of these lads are sub 20 5k runners and some are 16 / 17 min guys so the standard is high, too high for me at the moment but i was happy enough to meet up , have a chat and then run on my own around the loop and meet them at the end, as it turned out there was another guy about my level, and we tipped around at our pace, which was still harder than i wouldve done on my own, wasnt going to get out of bed to do it, but glad i did, discovered a lovely loop 20 mins from the house, worth it for that alone,

anyone in the west should check it out ..

www.mayo.me/time-out-at-drumleen-lake-loop-walk

theres a 3k loop around the lake but also another that uses forestry roads that connect to it so you can make a 10k loop..

aiming for local stephens day 5k again, not for a particular time but just to see where i am, so will keep up the running to the end of the year and hopefully i can squeeze in 150 k to bring the cycling up to 3000 for the year ,

okane1

woody1 wrote: »

c
anyone in the west should check it out ..

www.mayo.me/time-out-at-drumleen-lake-loop-walk

theres a 3k loop around the lake but also another that uses forestry roads that connect to it so you can make a 10k loop..

aiming for local stephens day 5k again, not for a particular time but just to see where i am, so will keep up the running to the end of the year and hopefully i can squeeze in 150 k to bring the cycling up to 3000 for the year ,

I'm in Castlebar for Christmas, could you cycle the Drumleen lake loop on a CX bike?

woody1

you could do sections of it , theres a connecting section between the lake loop which is only 3k and the forestry loop which is the other 6, the connecting bit is only about 500 yards but youl be walking up it with your bike but otherwise youd be grand

i would head for here

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Letterkeen+Loop+Trail+Head/@53.9923015,-9.5681822,1521m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48596db87fcbcec5:0xf5e2a274d453d1c8!8m2!3d53.9891818!4d-9.5729223

forestry roads, and a good long section of the western way , so theres a few options to go with

https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/2345140399

rough map just for an idea , the bit from 5 to 6.5 is a spur down the bangor trail, one of the most isolated and open parts of the country
its worth going down to the little mountain meitheal shelter here for a look at the trail and you get a good idea of the expanse of the park

the spur ive shown at 9k is just to show you where the western way goes, it follows out that direction a fair distance and you could just do a handy out and back on it

from 7.5 to 8 youl have to walk a bit, maybe 2 or 300 metres ..

or you could try the booster in castlebar.. itl test your legs going up and your brakes going down.. ive jogged it a few times, i dont even know if its cycle-able ..

https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1446799177

woody1

so all done for 2018,
did a few more runs between the 18th and the 31st, nothing earth shattering , just a few 5ks

ran the local stephens day 5k, 21 mins , had a fairly heavy extended christmas, my folks were down the weekend of the 14th so it started there, work xmas party, house family christmas thing on the 23rd, xmas day itself which is eating and drinking all day, was in galway for whats turning out to be an annual thing on the 29th.. long story short i'm a stone heavier than i was at this point last year.. 12.5 stone odd.. 12 stone is probably a normal weight, 11.5 is a good racing weight.. anyway trying to carry that extra stone around 5k was tough going, last km was a killer.. just didnt have the training in the legs..

got enough cycles in the get the 150km and get up to 3000 for the year

end totals are
3000 km cycled
68.85km swam
500 + ran

running is way down, ran a lot in december, didnt sleep very well in december .. its not a simple 1+1 =2 , but ive noticed it before, gonna take a break for a while and see what happens.. i know bike fitness will carry me through whatever i have to run in 2019, i got through 3 half marathons on very little actual running in 2018..

cycling way up 900 odd last year , 3000 this year ,
swimming is a little up but not majorly

plan is cycle more again this year, aiming for 5000, swim about the same and run very little,

races, possibly the longer duathlon at lough cutra. and then the celtic warrior half again, after that im not sure, hoping to go to spain / canaries in the summer so would like to rent a bike and do a nice bit that week..
do a bit more on the cx bike and do better at it next winter ...

finally to try to get to the bottom of a few issues .. sleep being the main one, and get going again properly ..

woody1

Jan 2019

415km cycled , mostly outdoors, although a few turbos in the last week with the increasingly crappy weather

no running, no swimming,

february will probably be much the same, might throw in an odd swim or run here or there but the priority at the moment is cycling, no races planned any time soon, maybe lough cutra duathlon in may, so il have to start running more seriously in march/april .. but for now the plan is bike mileage ..

woody1

Feb 2019
400.8km cycled ,

26km ran

3.4k swam

did one duathlon, which went ok, neither run was great but they werent as bad as they could have been, but the bike went well

couple of parkruns

and got the friday morning swimming back on the go.

health wise, sleeping ok, have only really had one or two really bad nights this month which is great, thats without taking any medication, so hopefully can do that for another month..

no big targets for march, another 400k on the bike, try to run twice a week and swim once a week, club duathlon towards the end of the month, and get a few more parkruns done

woody1

march 2019

cycled 380 ish according to strava, i thought it was closer to 395 ish , maybe theres one not recorded somewhere, doesnt matter , other than for the 5000km in a year target, couple of duathlons in there, good burn outs over 14k , i cant say that i feel particularly stronger for all the bike mileage done so far this year ( 1200km ) but its not really the point to be peaking at this stage anyway

ran 55km ,

with most of that being in the last 2 weeks, still carrying a bit too much weight to feel comfortable running, im not overweight , ive always been very lean just now im carrying a bit more and i guess with age its not so easy to get rid of it as it used to be, few other niggles , bit of a chicken and egg situation,niggles are from a lack of regular running.. but running causes niggles.. will stick to trying to run twice a week and just build up the distance nice and easy,and see what happens ..

ran the dunboyne 10k at the weekend, decided to aim for 45 mins which if i was fit would be a comfortable pace but im not fit ( for running at least ) so thought it would be a good test, managed to hold 4.30 pace or a bit quicker up to about 7.5k when lack of running started to catch up to me and the legs started to complain, slipped off the pace for the last 2k but still squeezed in at 45.08.. its possible that had i been braver i may have done 44.. something but im not really worried about that right now, now is just about being happy to go out and race my current self and not worry about matching up to 2 or 3 years ago.. edit.. dunboyne is a definite pb course, in 2017 i ran 43 something in tubbercurry on a hilly killer of a course, in that shape i think i wouldve been closer to 41 in dunboyne, no real hills in it, slowly gains elevation over the first 4k and the loses it over the next 5 or 6 .. there is only the slightest downhill but its a help.. good course for a pb if your in good shape

did the oldbridge park run the day before, funny course , any individual part of it doesnt seem too bad but the overall is a tough-ish 5k, ive never set a decent time on it .. anyway ran 21.40 with the body well in the red for the last 1.5 to 2k..

the duathlon runs went ok, first duathlon both of the runs were average, first run maybe marginally better than the second but built into the second and felt good at the end, second duathlon, first run was 8 mins for 2k so pretty much maxed out but second run never really got going, by halfway through it was pretty much a jog.. so basically no endurance,

swimming, i managed to get in twice, about an hour and a half in total, not panicked about it yet , may will be more the time to get going..

health wise, month went mostly fine, last 2 nights sleep have been a bit broken, more than usual , waking up a lot, whether this correlates with doing more intense / race type efforts in the last 2 weeks i cant really say.. no races on the cards for a while so i will be toning things down again for a little while anyway

woody1

april 2019

cycling 455km, no races / duathlons or anything, mostly just mileage, a couple of bursts within some of those spins but nothing major

running 85 km, thought it was more but its still an improvement on previous months ,

did the nephin up and over race on a last minute whim , literally entered the night before, 5km road section to the mountain, 5k ish up and down and then 6 and a bit back to the finish , went reasonably well, having to pace it a bit easier meant i had a bit more in the tank going up the mountain and was on the top more or less in the same time as the last time i did it, went down very easy/slowly this time as i didnt want to trash my legs , when i got to the road again i was able to run because of this, so the run back to the finish wasnt as miserable as it was the last time either, finished up 8 minutes slower but i was happy enough with that, was far fitter 2 years ago ,

considering doing the river moy half, just have to see over the next week or 2 how much running i can get in and how well the body takes to it, im miles away from getting even close to a good time for me, but if i think i can get around in 1.50 ish without going to hard then il probably do it for the craic, need to start getting longer runs in for the half ironman anyway..

swimming still fairly low at 5.0km ish, 300m of that in the sea though, freezing, will be trying to get in a bit more from now on,

woody1

may 2019

swim 8.575 km, 4 friday mornings basically

bike 384km havent cycled at all this week, wet miserable weather, couldnt motivate myself to get out , so what was looking like being a good month mileage wise just kinda petered out ..

run 115.9km

races, river moy half marathon . 1.41.40 something, it went well on the day, ran it all even paced and there might have even been potential to be a bit quicker but i didnt really have an idea of where i was at, so i just went as strong as i could without going overboard, worked out well.. was expecting 1.45 to 1.55 kind of time.

kings aquathon glencar, did the run section as part of a team, didnt fancy swimming, very hilly middle section to the run, so flat for a km and a half ish , straight up for a km, straight down again, and then flat for 1.5 k back to finish,
enjoyed it , more speed in the legs than i thought,

main race, celtic warrior , is in just over 2 months so i have to get swimming going again properly , twice a week at least and get an odd open water in as well , running wise i should be ok but il be looking at a half marathon somewhere end of june / start of july just to keep me honest , bike, hopefully the friday night bike sessions that the tri club used to do will be back, they are just over an hour but they are eyeballs out and i think they are good for sharpening things up..

woody1

June 19

8.5k swimming ish, no open water, pretty bad, race in a month :eek:

running i think it was 60 something km, not great but i can live with it

cycling , 540km odd, 260 of that was in mallorca during the week, thought i might get in a bit more but it was hot as feck and getting up at 6 am when your on holidays gets old fairly quickly, but it was good, was staying in the south of the island so couldnt get to the big climbs in the north, did 2 of the smaller ones in the middle of the island, san salvador twice, and castell di santueri, and then did a long spin around between some of the towns,

could take or leave the race in august, getting back to lake swimming later tonight , not looking forward to it, just have to put a burst on over the last few weeks and see what happens

woody1

july 19

swim 15.23 , including a couple of really rough times in the lake, an aquathon which went ok time wise, and a super sprint , which went surprisingly well..
swam 2.5 on monday continuously in around 2.15 pace, would be aiming for a bit faster at the weekend.

bike 350k. 100km in westport with the irondad charity thing, couple of 75s and mostly in and out to work then

run 82.6km a half marathon that wasnt great , 1.50 something i think, a 10k that wasnt bad at all but prob couldve been better, and a 5k that went well at 19.50 odd,

race tomorrow . celtic warrior half in mullingar,
what i'd like / expect .. swim marginally quicker or much the same as last year .. havent done half as much swimming as last year but still seem to be around the same pace, so hopefully will be at least the same...

bike.. 3 hours , or less, but ideally 3 hours at the most, 3.10 last year, have done the guts of 5000km in the last 12 months, most years would be 2-3000.. be interesting to see how it works out

run.. 3-5 minutes faster.. similar to swimming , but probably have more long runs done this year , so should be ok to be around the same but hopefully faster..

was 5.50 something last year, would love to be under 5.40..

woody1

celtic warrior 2019 report -ish

drove up to meath friday evening, got there around 6 ish, bed around 11 but not asleep til 12, up at 5.30 ! didnt sleep too bad, was very broken but slept between .. if that makes sense

got out of the house round 6 and got to mullingar bit after 7, having been stopped by the guards for tax.. i had it, but it was a print out, they saw it while passing on the other side of the road and spun around and put the flashers on and pulled me in.. i was impressed by their eyesight, and then my gps on my phone decided not to work, thankfully i knew how to get to bloomfield and followed the course markers from there,

as i was registering the ultra marathoners were starting, 15-20 of them, about 10 minutes later a few bike riders were heading out.. im guessing they couldve been doing 180k going out that early but i really dont know

got signed in, gear sorted, walked down to look at the lake and it seems fairly ok, not as calm as last year when it was a mirror but a lot better than the lake we train in, which every monday this summer has had some kind of chop in it,

back up, wetsuit on, looking around it looks like theres 50 or 60 odd in for the half, we get a bit of a briefing, a very brief briefing, theres not much too it to be honest, 3 times round the lake, 3 times round the bike course and 4 times round the run.. and then we all head down to the lake to start,

swim

this year we get in at the jetty and walk out to first bouy, im a bit further up than i'd like to be and im starting to walk backwards to get out of the crowd when i hear 3-2-1 go and just have to start where i am, i dont really like being boxed in and although in general its grand, theres loads of room, i still take it very easy for the first few minutes and let the stronger ones away from me, first lap passes quick enough, just trying to flow and get a feel for it, have to stop for a second to fix goggles, and going again on the second, both laps go fine, i try to speed up a bit but after a few minutes start to feel a bit gassed and so bring it back down again, so i go round at whats a comfortably tough-ish pace for me..conditions are tougher than last year ,no real chop but theres a little wave in it, wouldnt bother real swimmers but poor ones like me notice it, a few of us go round those 2 laps more of less together but never close enough together to get a draft .. swim all the way in to the jetty at the end , whilst some are standing and walking in, get out , look at the watch 2k in 46 mins..

transition is shorter this year , run up the carpet, suit off, socks and shoes on, helmet and off we go..2 min and a bit

bike.
straight into it , and then 500 yards later stop, front brake is rubbing, half fix it, fix it properly a couple of ks later without stopping, the plan was to push the bike, obviously without burning out, but i wanted to do it sub 3 and that meant 30km/hr or over average speed, so i got the speed up and held it for the 3 laps, looking at results i was passed by 2 guys on the bike, they were out in front of me in the swim but took longer transitions and they were cycling together, race is draft legal, in as much as it is a race, as there are no prizes, .. i didnt and dont mind, odd times they were behind each other, odd times they were beside each other, doesnt matter to me, i was doing my own thing.. anyhow the bike was quiet enough, came in a 2.59. something on the official results , i have it a small bit quicker, but the aim was sub 3 and that worked out.. took on loads of water with tailwind and a couple of lidl protein bars

transition 2. 3 mins, getting runners on, seems on the slow side, i dont remember it being so bad.

run. 4 laps
first lap was to get a feel for pace, but apart from a sore right knee for the first km i knew it would be ok, and although i wasnt running freely , it was more of a shuffle , i was running at an ok pace, 5.15 / km , and i stayed feeling ok until about 8 or 9k and then the wheels came off, quads just started to get really dead and heavy and the pace just got progressively slower, stops at water stations went from 30 seconds to minutes and it just became a matter of running it out. .. i wanted to be quicker than last year and i had 10 minutes in the bank to do , but by the end i didnt really give a f*ck.. last year i was able to run, and was holding back at times, this year i just couldnt get any flow going at all.. anyway kept shuffling around and got to the end of the run in 1.57.56..

which leaves me with a total of 5.51 and a bit more than 4 minutes quicker than last year,

thoughts ..

im a bit annoyed with myself, although i did a load of cycling, almost 5000k in the 12 months since this race last year , and that worked as i wanted it to with a 12 min faster bike time, i half-arsed the rest of it, actualy in terms of any kind of real -focused- targeted training i probably half arsed all of it, and i was still thinking i was going to get away with it right up to the middle of the run..

running was going okay, given the limited running i did this year , i ran 1.40 for a half in may, ran a reasonable 10k and 5k, did ok in the nephin mountain race,..even when i did the 1k, 100k , 10k in westport lately i ran 10k and barely felt it, i thought id be able to wing it it worked last year ..

swimming i knew would be touch and go, could be the same or a little worse, in the end i swam 2.18 / 100 as opposed to 2.15 last year, given that ive only really swam since june i think, i cant really complain, in fact im quite happy with not being much worse..

i had what was probably the worst week before a race in terms of nutrition and just being sensible that ive ever had, relations were around the first weekend, then different ones for the rest of the week, too many beers, big dinners, crisps and sweets and rubbish foods, i had 3 frys in the 2 days before the race, its not anyone elses fault, im normally pretty good at being focused on that stuff, just had a touch of cant be bothered and ate all the rubbish available, was it a huge deal, probably not, but it wouldnt be optimal fuel to be putting in the tank either..

a few realities dawned upon me during the run, firstly i am nowhere near a full distance, i am so far away its not funny, the thought had been creeping in to my mind, but it has been firmly put back in its box .. second, the imaginary times i had for said full have been revised way back , as they werent based on any kind of reality.. third.. i need to start following a plan

i took a look at an old plan i have from a few years ago, and i was surprised by the number of runs and the mileage of those runs. i didnt do a single brick run , .. i more or less just did a **** load of mileage on the bike without any real direction to it..

the positive is, i still did ok, for me , so next year . probably another go and maybe even a couple of halfs, its a long year with only one target , with a bit of direction added and try to get to 5.40 something ..

i cannot reccomend celtic warrior enough, apart from the no prizes , which isnt ever going to be a problem for me , it just has really cool atmosphere, like a club race, its just all really easy going, people are doing fulls, halfs , sprints and olympics, ultras, marathons, half marathons, 10ks and 5ks , swims of all the distances , some mad people doing back to back, a couple of tri-clubs there with big crews, people camping, peoples kids running with them or cycling while they run, burgers and salad afterwards, tea and coffee, showers , i really recomend it, and im hoping to convince a few of our club to go next year for the weekend ..

whats next.. no idea, well ive an adventure race in cork in a few weeks for the craic, and therel be the usual runs and swims that are on all round me this time of year, theres a decent adventure race in donegal, 12 hour cut off , that interests me, and if id realised it was on a bit sooner id be a bit more definite about it, obviously in donegal there will be hills, mamore gap is on one of the bike loops, and theres a half marathon to finish it , so how much i feel like doing a 3 hour trudge of misery will be a factor but i'll let the idea percolate for a week or 2, do a bit of hill training on the bike and see what i think then.. and if all else fails cyclocross will be back soon..

woody1

Aug 19

swim 2 km
bike 132.4 km
run 90k

august was a bit of a chill out month once the main race for the year was over , wasnt on the bike much at all, ran a bit more than usual and didnt really swim ,

did an adventure race in geesala, wild west country, 5k beach run, 14k cycle, 2k obstacle course, only about 50 odd in it, came 5th .. was happy enough, faster than i thought on run, gave the bike a good lash, and the last run was ok too

club aquathon with the wife in a relay , we won the relay , she gave me a decent lead and all i had to do was not lose the lead

few parkruns, and a local 5k where i was unoficially sub 20, but the course was short, more like 20. 30 something, which even so is as quick as ive been in a while,

cyclocross is back so will be doing some of that, possibly a half marathon or 2 , and looking to get up to 50 parkruns before xmas.. no other plans really

woody1

september / october
all fairly quiet
cross season has started , have done one race, died a death, forgot how hard it was, but il stick at it for the craic , and it gives me a bit of focus ,

did a half marathon, on kinda half assed preparation, finished in 1.45 , after looking on for maybe 1.40 ish but blew up massively in the last 5k, quads and hip flexors just locked up.. ennjoyed the race though

september
run 84.2k
bike 120.2k

october
so far
run 63.4k
bike 82.6k

bike is hugely down, but not commuting at all since august really so that would take out almost 200k a month, and no big weekend spins either, mostly hard hours at cyclocross, running a bit up, want to run 800k this year, just to bring it up a bit from previous 2 years which have been down round 600, mostly for health/wellbeing reasons,

sleep has been a bit hit and miss lately, after a reasonably decent few months , its starting to get very broken again, tinnitus had also backed down hugely but is now back,

the decision has been made ( kinda ) to go for full distance next year, august , in mullingar, celtic warrior ,
so with that in mind ive started to train with a local strength and conditioning guy , thats probably not a great description but you get the idea,
ive never been hugely strong in any area and im aware particulalry that my core is ****e and glutes, so im aiming at using from now to january to get a start at improving things and then after that just maintaining,
so itl be twice a week for a while and then once a week and il have my own stuff to do during the week as well,

the full distance thing will be a bit of a flexible thing, il start the training and follow it but if the body/mind/sleep/inflamation gets worse/affected then il have to reassess , and cut back and maybe go for having a crack at a half in a decent time ,

really hard efforts, like race efforts or just intense physical training seem to produce an inflammation effect that sets off tinnitus / lack of sleep / joint trouble so i have to keep things in check a bit,

i can do long cycles and long runs and swims and even decent pace kinda race efforts every now and again but anything like regular interval training or anything intense like that is out the window , or any kind of training after about 5 in the evening,

anyway itl be mostly easy stuff to wind down to the end of the year and then il start in earnest in january and see how it goes

woody1

November

november has been a building back into things month
s and c has been going well, twice a week and have 10 done
i can feel and see the difference from it, going to do another
block of 10 and see then where i am with it

the last 2 weeks have been along the lines of the first weeks
of the ironman plan, just to see where i can fit things in logistically
and i think that at least the first 10 weeks will be ok, getting the third
swim in after a few weeks will be difficult, but the rest should be managable

been running with the hr monitor on too, learning to run in zone 2, for most of this month and im starting to get there, learning not to let the ego get the better of you is interesting, getting passed in the parkrun by aul ones is tough but theres a bigger picture

havent done any cyclocross at all this month, missed some races with weather/kids/life and have fallen away from it a bit,

swimming is back on the go, i thought there would be now way id get 2.5k done in an hour but i got a lot closer than i thought i would so thats encouraging,

so just to keep it all ticking over for december and be ready to get stuck into it in january..