My God, it's full of stars!

tunney

Plan for this week was the Dublin staff relay (5x5km) and then Carlow Sprint.

About 1.5 weeks ago I noticed something up, that got ignored as "it will go away" and then when it didn't a visit to doctor on call last saturday. A months set of one type of pill, three weeks of anti-inflammatories and a fortnight of anti-botics. The cure is *almost* as bad as the illness and between the two I was fvcked all week. Saturday, Sunday and Monday in bed. Back into work Tuesday still dying, (but not contagious).Sitting on a saddle is sore, very.

I wanted out of the 5km as I was/am fvcked. However it was a work commitment and these all need to be honoured! Team bonding and all that. Tango was doing it too for his company.

So fvcked I found myself as the first runner. About 500m my vision went for a bit and I struggled to breath and was very dizzy.. Not the smartest thing I've done but I bulled on.
I made ground on the downhills, lost it massively on the uphills, and on the flats was fvcked. Tango went past me at 3.5km, I lost time to him for the finish and managed a 19:42. All things considered happy. The other four girls and guys in the team all ran about 20 minutes too so our team finished 21st/514. Unfortunately we neglected to bring cans with us for after.

Today my legs are mildly sore. My chest and head are in ribbons. My wife was volunteering sympathy this morning so I must look like sh1te. The kit is ready to go for Carlow but somehow I doubt I am.

tunney

Turns out the specific antibiotics increase risk of tendon rupture and generally make you feel sh1te. So nothing done in the last two weeks. Now it is time to rebuild!

Return on Investment is the goal. I don't have the time to spend training 20-25 hours with wooly or no roi. Three kids, a job with lots of demands (but intellectually rewarding and enjoyable), and a wife that I would rather not neglect.

Lets see what happens

sconhome

Balance is what it is all about.

Recognizing the stresses that family & commitments place on you and the freedom earned through exercising is the result.

mloc123

What do you reckon hours per week you could complete IM on? 10-12 seems doable, maybe a few 15hr weeks 10-12 weeks out?

tunney

sconhome wrote: »

Balance is what it is all about.

Recognizing the stresses that family & commitments place on you and the freedom earned through exercising is the result.

Yup. Off work today as the mother in law having brain surgery - perspective.

Although seeing all the cyclists out in this weather does sometimes make me wish I didn't have a proper job.

mloc123 wrote: »

What do you reckon hours per week you could complete IM on? 10-12 seems doable, maybe a few 15hr weeks 10-12 weeks out?

You could do it on less, its about the quality not the quantity. Some very visible examples on why more is not better, more is more and better is better. Complete that is. Complete and be properly satisfied more what you said. Some very good examples of where race execution can trump preparation as well.

peter kern

your progress since you started the blog is just a bit short of a miracle.
More seriuosly why do you think you dont come even close to your previous level I dodnt think youeven do 5 hours an average weeks without getting injured. It should be very simole to get to your old run level with 6 hours of training a week
do you think you overdid it when you were more serious or ...???

mloc123

peter kern wrote: »

your progress since you started the blog is just a bit short of a miracle.
More seriuosly why do you think you dont come even close to your previous level I dodnt think youeven do 5 hours an average weeks without getting injured. It should be very simole to get to your old run level with 6 hours of training a week
do you think you overdid it when you were more serious or ...???

Speaking as a parent of only one child I can say that in the last 10 months my ability to recover has been restricted quite a bit. I cycle a little again with people at the weekend, they get home from a 4hr spin and sit on the couch with their feet up for the afternoon before getting a solid 8hrs sleep that night... as I did a couple of years ago.

If I was to make a guess I would say... continued training when tired, and I mean actually sleep deprived tired, probably goes hand in hand with injury?

peter kern

mloc123 wrote: »

Speaking as a parent of only one child I can say that in the last 10 months my ability to recover has been restricted quite a bit. I cycle a little again with people at the weekend, they get home from a 4hr spin and sit on the couch with their feet up for the afternoon before getting a solid 8hrs sleep that night... as I did a couple of years ago.

If I was to make a guess I would say... continued training when tired, and I mean actually sleep deprived tired, probably goes hand in hand with injury?

not disagreeing at all !!! and of course if thats the case entering an ironman is not a good idea ( especially if one never fails to mock people that enter 70,3 and dont do the training ) .
at the same time BMC ( 2 kids i think ) and especially matt malloy (3 kids) got better in sport with kids.
of course different circumstances.

sconhome

mloc123 wrote: »

I cycle a little again with people at the weekend, they get home from a 4hr spin and sit on the couch with their feet up for the afternoon before getting a solid 8hrs sleep that night... as I did a couple of years ago.

I was only chatting with Mossy about this at the weekend.

I count myself very lucky with 2 kids, a business and a wife who also looks to train to actually have gotten the amount of training and racing that I have got.

There were lads who I did get to train regularly with 3-4 years ago who laughed at my inability to hit every Sunday club spin. Look who's laughing now

My point above about balance is balance across everything. Work / life and before and after kids. We can only have what we had before kids once. You never un-become a parent so take every opportunity you can.

mossym

sconhome wrote: »

I was only chatting with Mossy about this at the weekend.

I count myself very lucky with 2 kids, a business and a wife who also looks to train to actually have gotten the amount of training and racing that I have got.

There were lads who I did get to train regularly with 3-4 years ago who laughed at my inability to hit every Sunday club spin. Look who's laughing now

My point above about balance is balance across everything. Work / life and before and after kids. We can only have what we had before kids once. You never un-become a parent so take every opportunity you can.

indeed we were. unlike others, i had kids before the training started. so i've no idea what it is to have a free hand at training. at the same time, it set reasonable expectations on what i cold achieve, and i've never gotten annoyed cause i can't do a level of training i could previously.

what gets done gets done, and it delivers what it does. and i'd take kids over 20 hour training weeks any time

mloc123

One other observation having 'trained' before and after being a parent... I wasted so much time previously, I am not sure what I wasted it on but I did. These days I still manage to get up to 10hrs a week in but everything is scheduled down to the last minute.

From combining a cycle with a commute to work to using the 2-3 hours between my boy going to bed and us going to bed as best we can... cook dinner, get out on the turbo while my wife goes for a run or I get out on the road and she treadmills.. shower, 30mins relaxing couch/TV and then bed..

But part of that balance is knowing the day to just not train... not the one that you are a tired after a long day but the one that will actually be a step backwards. Get out for a walk with family instead, feed the ducks etc..

All this chat probably isn't suited to a training log however

tunney

My work in the news....

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0602/792714-datalex-jobs-dublin/

tunney

mloc123 wrote: »

Speaking as a parent of only one child I can say that in the last 10 months my ability to recover has been restricted quite a bit. I cycle a little again with people at the weekend, they get home from a 4hr spin and sit on the couch with their feet up for the afternoon before getting a solid 8hrs sleep that night... as I did a couple of years ago.

If I was to make a guess I would say... continued training when tired, and I mean actually sleep deprived tired, probably goes hand in hand with injury?

6 and a half years of kids later (6.5, 4.5 and 1.75) I'm used to feck all sleep. Does it harm my recovery, possibly. However I cannot blame kids at all. The issues that stopped me training were my own and mine alone.

peter kern wrote: »

not disagreeing at all !!! and of course if thats the case entering an ironman is not a good idea ( especially if one never fails to mock people that enter 70,3 and dont do the training ) .
at the same time BMC ( 2 kids i think ) and especially matt malloy (3 kids) got better in sport with kids.
of course different circumstances.

Having kids and spending time with kids are two different things. I know nothing about the two people mentioned above, just commenting on what I have seen in other people.

Training is great, racing is great, I love cycling, I love running, I love swimming. But there are two things that I will always remember people saying to me. One was Eoin Lambert before #1 was born when talking about getting out on the bike and how I would swing it with herself when #1 arrived. He said "But maybe you won't want to spend all day away from the child?" I laughed and dismissed him. The other thing was from Eamonn Horgan. He rang me after #1 was born and said "remember this Dave, you can do triathlon again when you are older, you cannot go back to this time again".

Two things that stuck with me. That all being said I think you can balance training and family. I think I know how, but for certain specific reasons I never really tried. I am trying now and I think I can hit the balance. Balance being family, sport and work.

tunney

mloc123 wrote: »

One other observation having 'trained' before and after being a parent... I wasted so much time previously, I am not sure what I wasted it on but I did. These days I still manage to get up to 10hrs a week in but everything is scheduled down to the last minute.

From combining a cycle with a commute to work to using the 2-3 hours between my boy going to bed and us going to bed as best we can... cook dinner, get out on the turbo while my wife goes for a run or I get out on the road and she treadmills.. shower, 30mins relaxing couch/TV and then bed..

But part of that balance is knowing the day to just not train... not the one that you are a tired after a long day but the one that will actually be a step backwards. Get out for a walk with family instead, feed the ducks etc..

All this chat probably isn't suited to a training log however

Why not? Its the reality of the situation.

One of the reason our club has gotten all those new members this year is people getting wind of the 5-6am starts for the weekend cycles. Home at 0900-1000 with 4-5 hours in the legs.. Training and spending time with kids needs a different approach.

mloc123

tunney wrote: »

Why not? Its the reality of the situation.

One of the reason our club has gotten all those new members this year is people getting wind of the 5-6am starts for the weekend cycles. Home at 0900-1000 with 4-5 hours in the legs.. Training and spending time with kids needs a different approach.

Yeah, 2-3 years ago I hated 6am club spins... now I see the benefit and even on solo spins at the weekend I prefer to get out by 7 and home for 10.

RacoonQueen

mloc123 wrote: »

Yeah, 2-3 years ago I hated 6am club spins... now I see the benefit and even on solo spins at the weekend I prefer to get out by 7 and home for 10.

Even without kids, I prefer early morning spins. It's nice being home for breakfast and doing the things normal people do at 9am/10am

tunney

tunney

Frankfurt 2014 ended in medical treatment after the race. Barcelona 2016 is a DNS as my taxi to the airport to meet tango and Jacky was t-boned boned at speed. Flipped us on our side and 45 minutes to be get cut out. Won't be doing anything for a while.

joey100

You don't have any luck, hope your alright and nothing is broken.

Kurt.Godel

If it weren't for bad luck... Glad you're OK that's the main thing.
Bike to the aeroport next time!

Chartsengrafs

Saw the pic, sorry to see that. Truly rotten luck. Recover well.

MojoMaker

How are you feeling? Hope nothing serious Tunney.

EC1000

Rest up and recover. Hope no serious damage done.

tunney

I asked the lads to get me a souvenir from barca. They came up trumps.

mossym

So, after years of you slagging him, all that pic really tells us is that you and jb wear the same size.

tunney

mossym wrote: »

So, after years of you slagging him, all that pic really tells us is that you and jb wear the same size.

And taking that argument to its logical extension that he is as fat as me too.

tunney

As the hours pass since the crash I feel worse and worse. more aches and more pains and I just get more and more tired. Not a happy camper at all.

tunney

Acta est fabula! Plaudite!

tunney

The last week and a half has been a blur of pain killers, pain and more pain. I'd been advised by the hospital physio and by TheManWithTheTan to try some exercise.

Hospital physio had said "do anything, the more you do the better - swim, run, cycle - whatever you can tolerate, pay attention to how you feel after and not just during". The last bit made sense but the running and swimming would kill me with my knee, back and shoulder injuries, not a runner - pardon the bun. TheManWithTheTan suggested sticking to cycling so I tried an easy turbo today to see how it felt.

https://www.strava.com/activities/739346584

Thirty minutes of increasing pain. My right shoulder could support my body weight, my lower back was in agony, and my head got too heavy for my head by the end. My back is now very very tired and sore. I'm not sure how the **** I am going to get to work, I think I had massively underestimated how bad things are.

TheManWithTheTan worked on me last Friday, a week and a day after the crash, he could't touch my lower back because of the heat and inflammation still there, he was going soooo gentle and sooo shallow that I knew things were bad. Then he told me "things are bad, its going to take you a while to get over this". Got fairly down after that, I had, at some level, hoped he'd just be able to just fix everything in one session. Completely unrealistic.

Basically my upper and lower back, and the middle as well are fvcked. My neck is fvcked. My right shoulder is fvcked, both elbows are fvcked - in different ways, one from the impact and one from the bang, my left knee obviously took a bang as its sore to pedal as well. The fingers in my right hand alternate between numb and sore and tingly.

I cannot sit in a car without having a little sh1t fit if I see a car moving towards me on on the passenger side.

Basically I am a mess. And I need this like a hole in the head at any time of my life, but particularly a few weeks into my new expanded role in work. So much to do and I miss a week and a half and will have to go back to work while still munching pain killers like tic tacs and with my concentration fvcked as well - sorta an important thing for me in my job.

All because some knobend thought it was appropriate to speed in the airport and sail through a red light.

RacoonQueen

That sounds rough Dave...also sounds like you need more time off work. Other driver must have been going at some speed - though not surprising since most Irish motorists seem to think amber meeds speed up and red means pedal to the metal.

Hope the other guy is in a world of pain and then some.

Sounds like you were all lucky to escape with your lives.