Will I keep this updated?

MD1983

why start this blog? motivation to keep going and a means of tracking what training i am doing week to week.

2/12/13 - Monday
45 minute swim, focus on technique pointers from coached sessions and just to be able to swim without following a timed schedule and the pressure of a group. allows technique focus

1 hour turbo
10 minutes warm up, 1 minutes at 450-500 watts then 4 minutes easy and repeat this work until 1 hour is up. later repeats felt hard.

40 minute run with wife after turbo, start easy and pick it up and then finish easy. distance circa 8k

Drink recovery shake and pretend to do core strenght

3/12/13 - Tuesday
Turbo -
10 min warm up,
10 minutes of 1 minute at PE of 7.5 then at 1 minutes at PE of 6.
3 mins easy
8 minutes at PE of 7/8/9 so 320 watts, 350 watts, 370 watts
4 mins easy
8 minutes at PE of 7/8/9 so 320 watts, 350 watts, 370 watts
4 mins easy
8 minutes at PE of 7/8/9 so 320 watts, 350 watts, 370 watts
and cool down

legs heavy after yesterdays turbo so no run today. Tomorrow is a big day with main swim set and also interval running so today is supposed to be a moderate day so i want to be fresh.

Drink recovery shake and do core strenght

MD1983

Wednesday 4 December

AM
Swim 1hr 35mins, not sure on total distance, something less than 5k more than 4.5k

main set was pyramid, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m, 200m, 400m, 600m and only did another 600m rather than 800m as session was over. mixture of normal swim and pull bouy & paddles and even some fins for the sets.

some decent swimmers in the group so the pace was quite high and spent my time either drafting or doing a pull for the mid tier swimmers from time to time when the faster swimmers drop the slower ones in a longer set.

group has decent work dynamic and there is not much messing about but still it is good fun at times

PM
myself and wife did about an hour run, warm up then four 1 mile repeats and then a cool down. left hamstring tight so not full on for the miles coming in about 6 mins 10secs-15secs.

last week was in around 5mins 55secs - 6 mins 5secs during the Thursday night club session but there are a few guys there and its a bit more of a quasi race for the 1 mile repeat within reason

Thursday

lunch, 1 hour turbo with intervals http://connect.garmin.com/activity/412445029

legs not the best after yesterday but gave it a go and its better than doing nothing even though work is busy today

MD1983

Friday

swim- club session Rathmines 25m pool. 1 hour 15 mins, total distance unknown, something above 3k but less than 4k, roughly as follows:

400m warm up
4*50m sculling
4*50m one arm drill with pull bouy
4*50m one arm drill no pull bouy
6*50m with bands
3*100m hard
5*200m, 50 hard, 100 steady 50 hard with 15 seconds rest
3*100m hard 20 seconds rest
and cool down

there was another set but i cant remember it now, just happy to get it done. drove from donegal to dublin prior to session and that actually takes your energy away...

MD1983

Saturday 7 Dec

Turbo - 2hrs 10 mins
Run - 1 hour

MD1983

Sunday

Half an hour on turbo then out with wife for 2 hours 15 on the road. Purpose of the weekend rides is not to go hard as I pretty much go hard all week and just build up overall fitness.

Total time on bike 2 hrs 45 mins

Swim - 40 mins working on technique with 5*100m after the arm-up to rid the lactate from my legs from the cycle. Used my Finis Forearm Fulcrum to work on high elbow, i find this tool good but you need patience with it as its a bit awkward at first.

total training time for the day 3hrs 25mins

Total bike hours for the week - circa 8 hours
Total swim time for the week - circa 3 hours 40 mins
Total run time for the week - circa 2 hours 40 mins
Total hours for week excluding core work - 14 hours 20 mins, not too bad considering i was travelling for large parts of Thursday and Friday

Observations: Bike some real power improvements over the last few months. Swim - much fitter than I was now I am doing two coached sessions a week, hopefully this will translate to speed. Run, surprised at how little running i am doing yet still seeing some decent improvements...!

MD1983

Monday 9 December

turbo 1 hour 10 mins - recovery work
Easy run - 35 mins
Core strength and flexibility 20 mins

MD1983

Tuesday 10 Dec

very easy run 1 hour 13 mins focus on some base building in low HR zones. Probably went too easy but I was actually enjoying myself so thats all part of it...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/414393003

almost hard in technique terms to run this easy but felt like I had a load of energy which is surprising as yesterday I was dead tired. Resting up today for main swim of the week in the morning and some more biking hopefully.

main focus of running for me right now is trying to get my running form right and getting over my tweaked hamstring. Main run of the week is on Thursday night with an interval session.

swim tomorrow is supposedly a 1 hour TT which will be hell so I hope the coach forgets about that and does something else. swimming in the morning does not really suit me as I always get a sore back. swimming in the evening is fine and my back is never sore. I think it gets stiff overnight as I sleep.....off now to do some core strength stuff

shotgunmcos

1 hour swim TT :eek: purpose ?? 400m TT followed by a 200m TT will determine your CSS (sweet spot) with some sums. Hurts but short! An hour is sadistic :eek:

MD1983

Wednesday

Swim Westwood - 15mins warm up then 1 hour swim TT and then quick cool down. 1 hour distance 3.4k. Got stiff in shoulder and back after say 2k and died a death in the last 15 mins of the session. Very hard thing to do physically and mentally. Overall happy enough with that as pool swimming is far from my forte as i have a sh*t leg kick and poor body position which is helped big time by a wetsuit.

next week its a 1000m TT followed by a 5 min steady swim and an all out 200m TT. This is to be done on my own and apparently this 1 hour swim session and the TT next week will give me a measurable score (cant remember exactly what it this is supposed to tell me). Apparently we will repeat this in March to test progress.

this mornings swim http://connect.garmin.com/activity/414601143

turbo - 1 hour 20 mins, intervals. some messing setting up new Kurt Kinetic turbo so some blank minutes!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/414601150

evening - 38 minute run - easy ahead of intervals tomorrow

total day training time - circa 3 hours 30 mins

MD1983

Thursday

Run - 30 mins of warm-up/drills/stretching

1 hour 500m at 4.10 per k then 500m at 4.50 per k to average out at about 4.30 per k. felt crap, got headache and stomach pain, could have been hangover from some big efforts yesterday. moan over. happy to be done for the day now.

tomorrow may bring a recovery bike effort and coached swim session which is supposedly going to be a 1.5k TT as if i havent done enough swim TT this week..! not really bothered as its a 25m pool and should be over quickly enough

going now for lie down on couch

MD1983

Friday
Fcuk me, yesterdays/Wednesdays efforts are still there and feeling nausea and just dead tired with headache.

Recovery bike got shelved and went for work Christmas lunch. 1 hour swim on Friday evening comprised of;

200m w/up
1.5k TT
200m sprints 4*50m
100m cool down

took 1 hour waiting for the other guys to finish their TT and general faffing around. No energy, no drive, no willingness to hurt

Saturday

still not feeling the best, very sluggish and headache/nausea still lingering

1 hour easy on turbo followed by 1 hour of Sufferfest "The Hunted". Bike power was still ok despite tiredness but kept effort moderate to not make myself feel worse.

Short run 35 mins, again kept short in the hope of not making myself worse

MD1983

Sunday

1 hour 30 mins on turbo
30 mins run
1 hour 6 mins on turbo

feeling much better today

weekly totals
swim 2.5 hours approx
Run 5 hours approx
bike 7 hours approx

total of swim/cycle/run hours for the week - 14.5 hours. Not the greatest week training with some illness mixed in. Next week the coached club sessions are not on due to Christmas and neither is my Wednesday morning swim so that and a wedding tomorrow is likely to result in a lower overall volume, definitely will end up swimming less simply due to having poor pool access.

MD1983

Monday
Day off - at wedding

Tuesday
back from wedding, late night. circa 1 hour 20 min long run, slowly extending the "long" run trying to keep good technique

40 minute swim, Bluepool in Monkstown, hate that pool. slow swimmers in fast lane, cant get much done etc moan moan

Wednesday
Cycle - outdoors 40 mins no Garmin, meant to go longer but got dark and no lights on bike

Turbo - 1 hour. 5*4 min intervals looking for circa 350 watts or so was the main work following short w/up and followed by long cool down. Garmin file:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/417170446

MD1983

Thursday

45 minute swim, pool only opens for 45min swim so short one. main set 10*100m coming in on about 1.35 off on 2 mins. easy enough. 1*400m with PB & paddles, medium effort circa 1.36 per 100m pace.

40 minute medium paced run

25 minute turbo

Friday
45 minute outdoor cycle, pushing good and hard

1 hour 15 min turbo. long intervals, circa 8 minutes in lenght, power on last 2 intervals better than expected given earlier big efforts on outdoor cycle. good long cool down.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/417732414

MD1983

Saturday

Turbo - base building 1 hr 35 mins

Run - 1 hour 40 mins

MD1983

Sunday 22 Dec

Turbo 1 hour 40 mins. Base building

Run 40 mins - slow to begin with and a tempo run to bring it home

Swim 40 mins. Poor swim week for me this week with coaching over and pools closing and Christmas social life taking over!

Weekly totals

Swim - circa 2 hours

Cycle - circa 6 hours 20 mins

Run - 4 hours 20 mins

total 12 hours 40 mins

MD1983

Monday

Swim
1 hour 35 mins - main set as follows

600m
550m PB
500m fins
450m PB & P
400m
350m PB
300m fins
250m PB & P
200m
150m PB
150m

Christmas week and poor weather for cycling and running for the next few days. Hard to know what training I will get done this week, not going to get hung up on it. Stephens day may bring a bike FTP power test and the next few days when pool opens again may bring a 400m swim TT...!

MD1983

Tuesday 24 Dec
Swim 40 minutes. Technique focus work on right arm. Always find swimming is a great barometer of how fresh i am, yesterday was a slog and the times were slow. Today i was a lot fresher and felt good enough but still slightly fatigued. If my 100m hard repeat efforts are not under 1min 30s per 100m i am not fully fresh.

Bike - spin class 1 hour, low cadence high resistance, nice to change away from Turbo for a bit. Not a fan of spinning but it makes for a change to have a different master setting the session.

run - 30 mins easy enough, focusing on knee drive and run form

as expected diet has gone to absolute crap but its hard to eat well when there is so much temptation

MD1983

Wed 25th & Thurs 26th

two 1 hour runs down the canal path - nice frosty mornings.

MD1983

Friday, Saturday & Sunday
I originally thought on Christmas morning that i had bad hangover (which i probably had) but it turns out that i seem to have had some form of flu type illness, i am blaming the nephews who are always coughing and spluttering.... Training has being pretty limited so not much to report:

Friday - 1 hour turbo - really no energy pretty poor effort. Self and wife took night away in the Ferrycarrig hotel which had a nice enough pool so - 40 mins in the pool trying to warm up and some time in the Sauna and jacuzzi.

Saturday - 40 mins in the pool, no energy again and coughing up a lung, canned any idea of doing any hard work. 30 minute run down the canal path when got back to Athy

Sunday - feeling a little better but still coughing when i breath hard so that puts a stop to anything other than an easy effort. 30 mins on treadmill 15 minutes on exercise bike and 30 minute swim. Hopefully i can shake this cough and get back to some proper training tomorrow.

pretty pissed off that i have got this illness and its the 3rd time in the last few months and it seems to be the same thing revisiting me every few weeks

MD1983

Monday 30 Dec
A return to near normality following 5 days under the weather.

Turbo 1 hour 15 mins - Sufferfest Angels followed by longer cool down. Power meter says i am not back to normal just yet, perhaps 30-40 watts away but that will come back in the next few days i hope

Run - 40 minutes, again near normal feeling but effort level moderate

MD1983

Tuesday

One hour twenty mins of hill repeats on Killiney hill on road bike. Home then and due to heavy rain fourty mins on turbo on tt bike. Power on tt bike good even after hill repeats so maybe its time for a new ftp test in the next week or so....

MD1983

Wednesday - new years day
stayed indoors at the in-laws looking at rain like a pussy wishing i was at home with my turbo

Thursday
1 hour 45 mins on bike - out around by Enniskerry and back with wife

30 minute swim

1 hour 20 minutes or so of running with club, mixture of warm-up, drills, then 4*10 mins at various different paces with 4 mins rest between, not an enjoyable session as the rain and wind made it miserable

MD1983

Friday

Club swim session one hour ten minutes. Mixture of drills and plenty of paddles and pull bouy. Good session and happy to be back with club and decent swimming again

MD1983

Saturday

Bike with plenty of hills, icy in spots so mainly down by the coast until Greystones where it got too icy and then back to Enniskerry, up towards Glencree turned back when got icy, back down then around to The Wall and back via Killiney Hill.

total bike time something like 3 hours 35 mins

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/424426445

45 minute run - low HR effort

MD1983

2 hour turbo - 1 hour at low HR, 1 hour interval training

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/425011533

MD1983

Half hour swim and fourty five minute run. Easy day

MD1983

Monday 7 Jan

FTP test - details in post below. 5 min power 383 watts. 20 minute power 329 watts.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057076997&page=8

Fourty minute run

MD1983

Wednesday 8 Jan

1.5 hour swim - strain of right pectoral muscle meant this was an easy enough session for me just long

45 minute run

MD1983

Thursday

Running - 5mins at:
3.50 per k,
3.55 per k,
4.00 per k all the way through to 4.35 per k.

Between w/up and c/down round about an hour run

Friday
40 minute recovery run

1 hour 40 minute swim

Main swim set

2*4*100m off 1.45, 1.40, 1.35, 1,30
3*5*100m off 1.50, 1.45, 1.40, 1.35, 1.30

Also 6*50m sprints, copious drills and other swim work. Long swim session pretty tired at the end of it

Saturday

2 hours turbo
2 hours hill repeats on Killiney Hill. Tough day on the bike overall

45 minute run

MD1983

Sunday

2 hour recovery turbo after a tiring day yesterday

Weekly totals

Swim 3 hours 40 mins
Cycle 7 hours
Run 4 hours 35 mins

Total hours for week - 15 hours 15 mins

Weeks highlights - new bike FTP, swim coming back and run improving

MD1983

Monday 13 Jan

Today I am on for an easy day so:

Lunch time 45 minute swim working on various technique pointers from previous coached sessions

MD1983

Tuesday
Lunch time - 1 hour on turbo

Warm-up
1 minute over threshold followed by 1 minute under *5 - watts = some at 360-380 watts one effort at 440 watts
3*8 minutes at just below/at/just above threshold so below 330 watts, at 330 watts and above 330 watts
cool down

Problem - pushed to hard in warm room = thumping headache

40 minute run - decent tempo

Wed
Swim - 1 hour 20 mins

Main set:
6*50m bands
5*400m alternating pull bouy and paddles/normal swim
5*300m as above

Headache still at me from yesterdays turbo so 300m of the above swim so i dont overdo it again

Turbo - 1 hour again a pretty easy effort

MD1983

Thursday

Interval running with club. about 1 hour 15 mins total. Main set:

5 mins on circa 3.50min per k - 1 min rest,
4 mins on 3.50 per k - 1 min rest
3 mins on below 3.50 per k - 1 min rest
2 mins on ""
1 min on ""

This was repeated * 3

Found this a difficult set, not running as smoothly as I was before Christmas but hopefully as weeks go on it will get easier!

MD1983

Friday
1 hour on turbo no hard efforts as legs tired from Thursday run

1 hour 40 min swim. Main set was:

250m with 25m easy, 25m sprint 25m kick
4*400m alternating with 50m fast 50m slow and every second 400m with paddles
3*300m same as above
6*50m sprints
10*50m with 50m sprint 50m easy

Also some other stuff that i cant remember now. have to say i find these Friday sessions harder than the wednesday mornings. on fridays i am on the front the whole time whereas on wednesdays i am maybe 6 people back from the front in a draft and although the times are quicker the swimming is easier

Saturday
Planned big outdoor cycle didnt happen because of rain. So 3 hours on the turbo and i think this was the hardest turbo effort i have had so far.

First hour and 40 mins or so was spent mainly on 20 minute intervals where i built up from low 200 watts to FTP efforts of circa 320 watts by the end.

Next hour or so was spent doing about four or so 7 minute or so efforts where i built up to 300 watts over about 4 minutes and then spent about 2 and a half minutes above FTP >330 watts if i could. This was followed by a cool down of about 15 minutes

Most pleasing aspect was that after 2 hours or so on the bike my power was still good and efforts of circa 300 watts very sustainable - big improvements over the last 6 months.


Sunday
Went hill/off road running in Stradbally woods with wife - 1 hour 30 mins or so. Nice variation and i could tell that it had been a few weeks since i have been running up a hill

Swim - circa 40 minutes, not too much to say about this. Did a few 200m efforts and a few 100m efforts and some PB and paddles work. Legs were gone so not the best swimming i have ever done but still i think swim frequency is important so good to get in the pool

Weekly totals

Swim 4 hours 25 mins
Cycle 6 hours on turbo
Run 3 hours 25 mins

total - 13 hours 50 mins or so

Not the biggest training week in terms of volume and certainly i feel like it was an easier week overall

MD1983

Monday

1 hour run - recovery effort

Tuesday
1.5 hours on turbo, again legs not recovered from weekend so modest efforts

0.5 hour run again at modest effort level

Wednesday
1.5 hour swim. Main set:

6*400m alternating PB and paddles and normal swim, first 50m at sprint pace rest at steady
6*300m as above off on 5 mins
a few fast efforts at the end

Not sure of the total distance overall but something about 4.5k i suspect. Including warm-up it was on the board as 5k but i missed about 2 100s of the warm up and 2 100s at the end of the set.

I think about this session all week and it really hangs over me on a Tuesday, happy to have it done. I think it is the early start that gets me.

Half hour run and half hour turbo

MD1983

Thursday
Club run session - approx 1 hour 15 mins total

Main session was to be:

5 mins at 3.45 mins per k pace
5 mins 3.50 per k
90 seconds break
5 min 3.55 per k
5 mins 4.00 per k
5 mins 4.05 per k
90 seconds break
5 mins 4.10 per k all the way out to 5 mins for 4.25 per k

MD1983

Friday

1 hour turbo - some hard intervals included

1 hour 15 mins swim. Felt the hard turbo and Thursdays run session so out of gas and not my greatest day in the pool

Saturday

2 hour turbo - some pretty tough intervals and quite the hard session. 31st birthday today so loads of cake and out and about etc so not much training in hours but plenty of intensity

Sunday

2 hour turbo

35 minute run - legs felt like moving in treacle, called an end to the suffering and ate more cake....

MD1983

Monday
Turbo - 1 hour of recovery type work as legs felt crap yesterday

MD1983

Tuesday
Swim - 30 mins at lunch - no Garmin so no idea what i did in terms of times/distance. Just focused on technique

run - club session approx 1 hour in total. Main set

5 mins easy
5 mins hard which for me would be circa 3.45mins per k
2 mins easy
5 mins hard
5 mins easy
5 mins hard
2 mins easy and so on

Wednesday

main swim - approx 1 hour 30 mins total time. Main set

40*100m off 1 min 45 secs.

MD1983

Thursday
turbo 1 hour 20 mins in total, interval work

45 minute easy enough run.

May have a bike-run (40k TT - 5k run) club race on Sunday and would like to give it a good effort to compare my times to last year so i want to be reasonably fresh so hence the easy running and low volume this week so far.

MD1983

Friday

Easy day today. 30 mins turbo + 30 mins run

Swim

200m w/up
6*50m build
100m sprint
100m with 75m sprint 25m easy
100m with 50m sprint 50m easy
100m sprint
100m with 75m sprint 25m easy
100m with 50m sprint 50m easy
400m pull bouy and paddles - steady pace
200m cool down

Like i said an easy day!

MD1983

Saturday
45 mins on bike - easy rest for Sunday morning

Swim
200m w/up
4*300m pull bouy & paddles each one quicker than the last from easy to hard
100m sprint
100m cool down and out.

Sunday
Club bike TT and 5k run

40k - 2 mins quicker than last year and it was a much windier day so overall i was happy with that. Course is 2 loops of Roundwood to Calgary Hill and back, very undulating course and its hard to get consistent power output with big efforts followed by descents where the power drops away. Need to work more on this sort of course as only a few courses are flat TT type courses for actual races and i think i never get to my real potential on that type of course.

About 15 people there for the TT, started last in 30 second staggers. Rode well for first 20k and passed all and had 4 min lead at turn for 2nd 20k loop. Finished i think about 8 mins faster than the rest so cant have been too bad.

Did the 5k run off the bike at a moderate effort as i want to put in some good hours next week. Not a bad first outing for the year.

MD1983

Monday

Lunch - turbo 1 hour - easy work, left calf?! tight, tried to work it out a bit

Evening - 50 mins of intervals. Main set:

5*4 mins at 330-340 watts with 3 mins rest in between

legs not quite as powerful as i would like but yesterdays TT is still in them

40 minute run with wife - easy effort as calf still tight

start of what i hope to be a decent week of work

MD1983

Tuesday
woke up with calf still tight and hamstring now tight..hum...

1 hour in the morning 8am-9am on my turbo spinning out the leg while stretching it, foam rolled it after and felt the world better

lunchtime - 30 minute swim in Monkstown Bluepool, might as well be in the kiddies pool for all the work i get done, lane packed and slooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww swimmers. 30 minutes of slow swimming and looking at the plasters float by me in the pool and i had enough and called it a day

Evening - saw the storm coming in and decided to go out for my run before it got really sh*t, 1 hour, leg still tight but improving - kept the pace easy not that the wind and rain encouraged me to do anything else

Tomorrow AM is swimming, 400m TT is lined up as well as some wetsuit swimming which is a change

MD1983

Wednesday
Swimming - about an hour in total, not sure on distance swam but it would be small as it was a testing set. highlights are a new 400m PB of 6.16 and a new 100m PB of 1.22. Progress is steady.

Thursday
Run - about an hour or maybe a bit more in total. warm up, main set and cool down. Main set was 6*1k with 2 mins 30 secs rest. Running is still improving but still its not great:

1k - 3.50 per k - easy on the first one as i was making sure my calf that was tight was not going to give in
2k - 3.32 per k
3k - 3.41 per k
4k - 3.48 per k
5k - 3.49 per k
6k - 3.49 per k

bit disappointed for the pace to fall off but I havent done 1k repeats in a long time so hopefully i will get stronger at maintaining a higher pace, as it was i suffered a fair bit to even do the later kms. Running rhythm was poor and i think this made it harder, also lactate building in the upper body and arms which is a first for me

MD1983

Friday

Turbo 1 hour - some moderate efforts legs felt ok after the Thursday run for a change

Swim - 80 minutes. main set:

40*50m, 1 50 fast 1 50 easy off 1 minute
20*50m Pull bouy and paddles
6*50m sprint

Saturday
50 minute run with wife - easy enough

4 hour turbo - going easy mostly. must be the most tedious session i have ever done....

MD1983

Sunday

easy 2 hour turbo

30 mins easy pace run

weekly totals:

swim - circa 3 hours or so
bike - 9 hours
run - 4 hours

weekly totals - approx 16 hours

MD1983

Monday

Recovery day - 30 min swim

40 min run

Tuesday

Busy work day and main swim set tomorrow so only turbo, just over the hour of intervals. have to say that i am happy at how comfortable i was during this, feel much more comfortable at above 330 watts than i have in the past - good to think that improvements are happening

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/443913482

MD1983

Wednesday

AM - swim 1 hour 30 mins

main set

(200m*3 fast + 100m recovery) * 4 very second one with pull bouy and paddles - also some other random stuff, like one fin on right leg with one paddle in left arm

PM turbo - hard intervals for about an hour

10 min warm up
5 mins max power test - 398 watts
10 mins recovery
about 30 mins of other intervals looking for 330 + watts
2 mins max power test - 415 watts
10 mins cool down

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/444355308

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/444355322

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/444355328

MD1983

Thursday 13 Feb
Run with club - about 1 hour 15 mins in total i would say

warm-up - main set - cool down

Main set 6*(500m at 5k pace 30 secs rest, 250m at 3k pace 20 secs rest, 250m at 3k pace 20 secs rest)