nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

project 40/41

peter kern

Summery
Very simple i am turning 40 next year and the world 70.3 world champs are for the first time in europe and i need some intermediate goal to get ready for the real goal.... i want to go to hawaii 2016 (and certainly not just to fill up the numbers for both events other wise i am not going to wast my money)

Reality

When i started to train a bit more serious last april - apart from staying fit and keep the weight down - It was maninly becasue teat there is still a little matter... I one day decided to break 9 hour in an ironman when i had not even done a swim bike or run race . To cut a long story short despite many travel interuptions cycling around the world. in 2005 i did break the 9 hours but I never got any satisfaction from it as it wasnt a good race . So I would like to rectify this and be happy about the perofmance with a good race .
Since then i have realiced that times and ironman really dont matter much, so it would be about placing in copmetetive races but much more importantly as I said i want to be happy about my performance.

ANyway, to be fair I do not know if I will be able to push myself CONSISTANTLY and while 'back inthe day' I was happy to train on my own ,its a fact that i dodnt have this motivation anymore. So i will have to built a structure to recognize that. At the same time I have much more experience...
So the CONSISTENCY will be my biggest struggle and there is a very high chance that it will fail. At the same time in the last few weeks I have started to become a bit more serious ( its tough really tough right now) and last nights run i giess for the first time in 3 years a serious run session ,and loved it .
I also have to admit I loved every second this year the hour before and during the race at the hell of the west. Its was absolute torcher but I was totally in the Zone and under the race day circumstances I could not have gone faster ( bare a small lapsus of coencetration for 1 min or so at the 4 k mark in the run) .
I wasnt really in shape ( dodnt get me wrong i wasnt unfit either but I have done one swim and bike and run session in the last 2 weeks that i rate the best quality sessions of the year and they were not that great either )

Fortunately I do understand that I dodnt really want to train its more I want to fisnish something I started long time ago i am not to sure if thats enough at the same time but I aslo know i can take more rest than i did back then . So there is pors and cons as always in live ;-)

the other issue....
a few weeks ago i was on a race entry side and i could not get myslef to enter. i mean i spend about the same ammount of money including the flight for travelling 3,5 weeks in turkey than 1 race wants me to charge jsut for the entry ) ........So that will be something i need to work on ;-)

The structure ( a very lose one as it will change anyways)

1 i will have to suround myslef with a few people to train with.
the swim I have already kind of sorted out by swiming with tango friday morning.
for the run iam planning to run every 2nd week with one of my athletes and find a lunch time running session ( is trintiy still on ?) .
the bike intervals will be in a way the hardest as i have to do them during the day and it will be the hardest to set up .At the same time the most crucial session as this is were i feel short 10 years ago
(up to here its non negotiable if i dont get that done it will not work)

I selfcoached myself to sub 9 ironman and i have always said if i was to do it again I would want to work with a coach or the very least with an advisor for a 2nd opinion . (when one gets motivated than one makes mistakes and while most of the times i wont be motivated enough, there will be key blocks i have to be in the zone and for those I will need an smart advisor ( one of my ex atheltes would be brilliant for it and i losely asked a while ago) or an coach. Anyway its something that I should have in place by now ...

At the same time right now the most impotant thing is to get myself into the right frame of mind to train again and built a routine and a set up to do that. as it would not be fair on coach/ advisor to start only to realice that I dodnt have it what it takes. (its bllod frustrating whne that happens and ii would not prefer it to somebody else )

Apart from one small niggle I do think that i could get myself in the best overall shape ever for october 2016.

I tend to train best in places i dodnt know by heart ( travelling was always my no 1 passion so this is something i have to try to incorparate into this i and will want to do 2 weeks abroad to keep me stimulated .

RACES
As for races I would like to qualfiy for the 70.3 world in an early 70.3 race than do tri an mhi, built in 8 or so local races mostly wednesday races as training sessions like last year
i love the the fact i can do a duathlon in the phoenix park where i arrive 15-20 min before race start warm up done cycling there and then race ) FIngal was also a great race and the wicklow aquathon are supperbly orgniced and so was belparks new aquathon.
kilkee and tri an mhi as a serious races. than 70.3 worlds or the lost sheep and an fall ironman most likely barcelona to qualify for hawaai. this year for the first time ever thought i want to go to hawaii. my exceitment for the 70.3 worlds went already a bit back as expaliand earlier so we will see

conclusion

I have never written a blog and i am sure there is people better suited to write blogs than myslef . Part of the reason i would like as i want to show beginner atheltes what is really important to become good.
It not an unkonw fact that i think that most boarides focus too much on the noise and not enough on what really matters to actually train.
please dodnt be offended if this goes against your principles you dodnt have to read this .....

its not that much about talent ( of cours it helps)
its not so much aobut gear ( and of course that can help too)
and to be fair its not even so much aobut training (dodnt get me wrong here structure of training is important, but what i really try to say here , when i had no idea about training but had my heart in it , i was faster than now)

why
first its aobut being willing to start being hungry to improve and challenge yourself there has to be a mission.
and you do not get into this if you feel a new gamrin 920 will make you train ( that usually works for a few weeks and then ....)

its important to set up a structure that is challenging yet manageble ( iam totaly ok that i chant even train the way i want right now i just dont have it but every week it will get a bit better )
then do it again and again and again . of course vary it but ironman racing is boring so you need to be able to deal with boring training.

and later on it will be aobut the icing of the cake ( in my case a power meter i consider to use 3 times a fornight ) and potentially a new (2nd hand ) bike. and ther e might be a few other things i might try.

though even though iam not sure if I will be able to do what I say I will at least try and by march i have to make a decison where iam am and how i feel when the training will really start .
so maybe this blog will 'shame' me a bit more into training and maybe some people can learn something and if somebody has constructive feed back than I could learn something.
or maybe it will be very soon stopped... but at least i will have given it a shot.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

peter kern

EC1000 wrote: »

OMG! At least the barcode is practical I suppose....

no !! i clicked on it ( as for my purpose its really important that i never forget my barcode) and they used it as a demonstration that you cant use it ...

EC1000

RacoonQueen wrote: »

You could get a parkrun tattoo then

https://www.google.ie/search?q=parkrun+tattoo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz_9qJj7fYAhUDZlAKHS2QAPoQsAQIKA&biw=1383&bih=732

OMG! At least the barcode is practical I suppose....

RacoonQueen

You could get a parkrun tattoo then

https://www.google.ie/search?q=parkrun+tattoo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz_9qJj7fYAhUDZlAKHS2QAPoQsAQIKA&biw=1383&bih=732

peter kern

win as many parkruns as possible and make it look like iam a fantastic athlete ...
live blogging ( **** i dont even know where the hashtag is on my keyboard but hashtag from smokertoparkrunwinner, nopainogain road2kona etc etc )

RacoonQueen

You might have already mentioned...but whats the race goal for next year?

peter kern

last week was okish
solid swimming ( my key session wasnt good )
bike pretty ok 1 fast sesion including 4 hour spin in the wicklows on a fantastic mild and quiet days in the mountains . this is the stuff i love and i thank x mas for the peaceful session i could enjoy
run ok first half of week little niggle in the knee on thursday and i decided to take a few days off running.

nothing special but another weeks training under the belt .

peter kern

an enjoyable week
19k swimming 2 hard sessions friday i did lie a few min on the pool deck as i was spent after the set but i was pleased.
75 k running one interval session 8x1000 no watch I enjoyed that a lot and another park run. didnt made it to st annes park so i did sandymount its a slighly faster course than fairview park and i was 5 sec a k faster despite not working ( i was still tired from fridays swim and unortunately nobody was pushing me anyway good training session .
cycling 5 hours and 2 fast sessions.

good weight loss this week. and diet getting healthy again.

peter kern

i guess its never to late and i did my first 5x200 4x400 pull and 5x 200 i guess i was motivated as i altrady did dryland exercises while i was boiling water and and drinking my tea I died in the end but there was a few 2.50s and 5.35s .

the problem in ireland is that december in my mind should be a key month if you want to improve your swiming yet the pool is empty as most people seem to fight about useless stuff ( how to train lol )

peole alwyas say but you have it easy ... bla bla bla . fact is despite having done a good bit of training this year if iam 83 kg its very hard for me to go sub 19 for 5 k and runing feels horrible. so far i have done 19.01 and 18.50 so of course for somebody that dosnt train as much being 1 stone over raves weight and often 2 or 3 you not going to run. of course weight is not everyhthing but iam sure had i not put on one kg between the first and 2nd park run i would have run 15 sec faster ( only when i go below 78 does the return of weight lose start to dimmish.
at the same time for swiming the weight is good lol but thats is not really my concern .

i guess iam on track to be at least a kilo lighter than last year end of the year prob almost 2.

peter kern

good week
first proper running week and another park run was only 13 sec faster but it was a good bit easier (need to look for a faster park run where i have faster runners around me)
treadmill session did not work at all mentally explodesd the first tome after 5 min or so...
another solid swim week wed with the grumpy german and happy joe. not a great swim but i was in the water , and friday the first almost proper swim on my own and another 2017 100m pb.
solid bike week with a good bit intensity
and I did not put on weight.
Have to say i really did enjoy a few sessions.
have no idea aobut time and mileage
approx
14 k swim
65 70 k run
6.5 hour bike

peter kern

every year the same struggle....
it takes me bloody ages to get going , dublin bikes pass me even more frequently than usual.
I dont mind being slow but this is the time i totally hate as running is such a struggle.
Anway I decided on sunday to stop complaining and start running
and unfortunately for me that means many double runs.but it does get easier when the brain is switched on ( at the same time iam a strong beliver there is a time when the brain needs to be switched off , its the ones that never switch of that burn out early )

I would like to say that i am in slightly better shape than last year but its a tough call. at least i enjoy the pool more this year as grumpy and happy push me and i have set quite a few 2017 pbs in the last few weeks.
weight wise i guess i reached the red zone last week and i should defo not put more weight on as i dont want to struggle as much as in the last couple of years

peter kern

did my first park run ever . great fun and its definitley a labour of love what the volunteers are doing , making everybody welcome and it was the best marked out course i have ever seen. I set the slowest 5 k time ever in my life but it was great fun

peter kern

SC PoW

MojoMaker

That 50m time short course or long course Peter, and push start or dive?

peter kern

joey100 wrote: »

Interesting about the 50m swim times, I was reading recently, can't remember who or where! (must be old age!) and they were suggesting that the ability to recover after a hard opening effort is important along with your 200/300m swim time. so you go hard at the start and then after 200/300m the group settles and if you have a strong start you can put yourself in a good position. This was from a pro race point of view so not sure how well it transfers across.

the start at Itu is brutal ( and brutally fast) but gernally
its a lot about brains too (speed and power obiously helps but as always its a mix off many components)

at the end of the day most Itu guys swim much higher volume than most ironman guys ....

joey100

Interesting about the 50m swim times, I was reading recently, can't remember who or where! (must be old age!) and they were suggesting that the ability to recover after a hard opening effort is important along with your 200/300m swim time. so you go hard at the start and then after 200/300m the group settles and if you have a strong start you can put yourself in a good position. This was from a pro race point of view so not sure how well it transfers across.

peter kern

so my 2017 is 34 high my all time pb is 31 but ( i dont think i broke 40 sec before august in 2017 )
the thing is i put very little importance on that, with a bit of adrenaline it has never been an issue for me in the race , its rare that i see the 50 m time as an issue with triathletes in age group racing.
in 12 years coaching zico lcd ,baldinger , and wolfe ( for Itu making the first pack ) are the only 4 where this is / was an issue , ( iam sure there is one or 2 more i forgot in fact ther is anohter athelte i coach currently , i call her the female lcd )
but even there you could say there are other factors that had as much o an impact . positoning and mental agressivnes for instance.(not for wolfe as she was excellent in those aspects )
this year i hardly ever broke 40 sec for 50s and it was not real an issue for me (it wasnt ideal either as there is of course somewhat an correlation between 50 m and 1.9 km ) but by far my bigger issue was with not enough serious swiming ( ie hardly a session over 3 k and hardly a proper main set, i did cramp up much more and could not swim at the same intensty.and it also had an impact on bike.

no i dont swim galas , in fact i have never done a swim race in my whole life. but I do recommend them for people with Itu draft legal aspirations.
neither would i discourage somebody doing them if they are not time restricted

Kurt.Godel

Well done on the 50 pb (whats your time?

Do you ever do any galas over the winter? I see a lot of triathletes at them, all levels.

peter kern

i havent really thought about 2018 . initially i had plans to do israman
end of january . but body said no to that ,and wanted a longer rest than what would have worked.

the only 2 goals i have at the moment are to swim faster. I had decent frequency swiming last season but it was all much more recovery swims
with that mindset change and not realy doing any hard bike or run session right now. I did already beat my 2017 50 m pb y'day and i pretty much swam more sub 1.30s for 100 m in the pool this year in the last 8 days than the whole 2017.
always nice to swim in a little group and have some fun. but today i also really enjoyed that feeling between intervals today where i could not talk as i was so out of breath and just totally focusing how to get through the next interval, ie the feeling when you really hate swimming but love it at the same time.

the 2nd goal is to put on at least 1 kg less and idally 1.5k less over the winter. havent been on a scale since mid august but i think so far i think iam at least on the 1kg target.

the rest we will see and so far only neagh , joey hanon and tri an mhi and the hardman half are penciled in as those are races i really like.
the rest I will see end of february.

peter kern

pgibbo wrote: »

Congrats on the win Peter. Sorry to hear it didn't go as hoped. I hope you enjoy a bit of downtime after the race.

P

maybe wrong time at the wrong place lol
the joined winner on sat did sub 8.30 this year completly on his own.

http://marfanta.com/noticia/Robert_Karas_i_Cristina_Prat_Dot_els_mes_rapids_de_lIroncat_2017/9176

9176

and yes i had one day downtime in amsterdam on monday I had never been there before

pgibbo

Congrats on the win Peter. Sorry to hear it didn't go as hoped. I hope you enjoy a bit of downtime after the race.

P

peter kern

cologne 226
the one thing I really enjoyed was getting as massage with a view at the cologne cathedral . Pretty cool I have to say.
passing that yoke on the bike and run was not bad either ...
race report
for every hour of racing i was going 2 min , slow its as simple as that.
realisitcally i did have a bit more in me but the reality is sub 8.40 completly on my own on the bike is unlikely to happen.

people tell me it was not a fast day, thats not how i see it as i think it was a fast day, a bit too many dead turns and tight roundabouts maybe but they had to change the course .

conclusion
the number 1 goal of the year of sub 8.40 clearly failed, by 15 min the 2nd goal not to lose money with racing this year was pretty much achieved since i get 1250 for the joined win.

not much to say about race day -maybe i write something in a week or so it was all quite intersting and there was a few positives -but i dont even want to see my splits right now ...
the race was pretty much from the start about damage control ( i wanted to cramp as late as possible as it was only question whenit would happen ) and to finish the race I made the right decisions.and it was a good race as such , but thats a great thing and if it had not been an A race i would have said that was a very good race ...
who knows I might try again next year

other
its another race for the shorlist if you have swim or sighting issues as the swim is in a rowing lake and basically a 1900 m long pool. and for closed roads and a race n a bg city the early bird entry is good value
for students they have 30% discount and for unemployed 50% which is great i think
and something thats very rare those days , you can sell your race entry or buy one form somebody till the day before the race as they do a 15 euro charge for changing names. that gets 2 thumbs up from my side and i think this is something more races should do.

Pmaldini

Hi Peter,
nice to meet you at the race, i was speaking to a good few people after the race and at the breakfast on sunday and everyone was more impressed that you walked and finished the race and didnt DNF than go on and go sub 10 and win easily, everyone knew you were favorite to win but the fact that we saw you walking and not giving up inspired a lot more people to keep going, you may not have realized it at the time but i think you walking helped a few people to keep going and finish, Kudos for that and respect for not giving up.

regards,

P.

peter kern

so I tried 6 things at the hardman race with a fantastic failure percentage of 66% . and the coffin in the nail was a running shoe i wanted to use in the hope i would protect the legs a bit ...

i had 3 goals for that race
1 not too use more energy than for poznan in june ( achieved )
2 i had to finish as i do not do 2 dnfs in a row.( achieved)
3 enjoy the bike. ( achieved)
4 with goal 1 in mind try to go sub 10 ( failled)

I had done thursday and friday as easy days and the other faster session of the week a bit shorter as usual. and a good swim week total swim was 20 k .

the swim I had plannd to really push but i realised very quickly after 200 m that there was nothing and it was pointless to try to push and i better work of the swimmer that was with me.

the bike was fantastic and I took the scenery in and it was a fab day for it . only the last 20 k did I push .
unfortunately half way into the downhill into kenmare after 30 or so k my left tri pad snapped ( i had already deccided that last weeks 80k tt was the last around the airport loop as it gets wors and worse and i would guess the pad incident is the cause of airoport loop) and 20 k later the double bottle cage behind the saddle -i tried out fell into 2 pieces and swang behind me on a piece of string ( after 100k at an aiidstaion i fixed it a bit with a plastic bag and it was a bit less annoying )
Still an enjoyable bike ride and on a day like saturday I see no issue doing a 4.45h bike split on this course. i was really surprised how good the surface was in parts of the course .
the first 100k are hilly and protecdd a good bit from the wind the 2nd half is pretty flat and you have the wind predomintaly with you.
It was a great enjoable day on the bike.

run was fun initially and i had to force myself to slow down , but after 5 k the calves tightened up. Not a big suprise given the moronic shoe choice i made (or the lack of miles i have run in them)

the rest is a long story of run walk run walk . and many times counting up to 20 to run and 20 to walk.
iam glad I finished and for the first time ever i was proud to finish a race.
of course my plan had been to try to scrape bellow 10 hours, and being reduced to walking was a thing that was hard to take , at the same time one of the things i tried seemed to work and that was the issue that caused the dnf in poznan,
i have now a bike part from the late 80s on my bike and this seems to work
so its not all so bad.

overall I really enjoyed the race for its simplicity
"nature" races like the norseman are en vogue theses days and i guess this goes in hand with the bull**** this entails and status smybols promoting black t shirts ( and can a race be an xtreme race where you have support vehicles ... ? dont get e wrong i loved watcing the race but i do shake my head at times ) at the hardman its just all plain simple and relaxed, with a positive vibe ,just the way triathlon was meant to be . certainly not for everybody , ie the razzmatzz seeker but if you like races like caroline kearney or the lost sheep I cant see how one would not like that race. I am glad i did the race and I am looking forward doing it again .

last week was all easy apart from 20 k swimming I did tighten the screws a bit and swam a 15 sec 400 m season pb and pushed a pretty tough appox 3.6 -3.8 swim in the sea.
sat 90 min turbo 90 min run
sunday I did my first fasthish run and bike leg dublin city tri relay 30 min flat for the bike
not a great time but still a solid exercise.
mon turbo with 16 sort fast intervals
tomorrow bike paced tempo run and a fast swim

sunday is my A race for the season in cologne. the external goal is sub 8.40 but the real goal is to be the best i can be , and just race as well as I can. ( i wont be using a watch etc for the race)
i havent been that excited to race for many years and by the looks of it there is a good chance that i will be for the first time really nervous before a race since 2005.
there is always stuff one can do better but overall iam pleased with where iam ,
the one thing i would change this year is to taper for 1 or 2 races more
but since it took me really long this year to get in a solid shape it wasnt wrong what i did
at the same time now the season depends on one race ... it was a bit frustrating so far that there was not one race where i felt i was close to where i could be , at the same time in a way this lowers expectations, we all think when we train hard we should improve a lot but the closer you are at your limit the harder it gets and that elusive perfect day dosnt happen often ...
but with everything when you do it seriously you get away with something one always learns something new when going out of the comfort zone. for instance i would never have imagined i would be so happy when i finished the hardman and in a way I pushed the boundary of one of my limitations , and that alone is a good thing! its not the iceing of the cake , but its the cake ...

peter kern

zico10 wrote: »

Is this still on your agenda?

if the brain gets foggy it might get back on the agenda ...

zico10

the real goal.... i want to go to hawaii 2016

Is this still on your agenda?

peter kern

it never pays off ... at the same time what does ;-)
plan is hardman ( really looking forward as i really like the course ) and then podersdorf 2nd of september, where i will try to go sub 8.40

MD1983

thats very committed training peter i hope it all pays off for you - whats the goal race?

peter kern

to coninue from last post
friday fast turbo
sat 180k
sunday 1.40 run 150k bike

monday nothing
tue bad swim bad run pm another uninspired swim and easy run
wed 50 min turbo pain as main set pm 12 k run
thursday session with zico swim and pm run swim
friday dub city intervals on bike swim

monday and tue was the first real struggle this year to train so i just did nothing monday ( i guess i have less than 5 days of nothing this year so no problem at all )
the wed thur and friday hard sessions were good but i struggled to motivate myself for the easy stuff
i guess it would be strange if that didnt happen its 8 month of training now and not that much more to go . and in a way i did nail pretty much all sessions bare one

started to focus again on eating less. was quite hungry the last 2 weeks ( which is a sign that i need to be careful not overdoing it and i did not mind to put on a bit of weight and did take monday off)

another solid bank holiday weekend
92 k running
220k bike
8 k swim

tue easy swim easy bike easy run
wed short brick session
thursday test run the last serious full tempo session this year
and 3 surprises . for first time ever i run longer than the session was planned (4 mim more ) . i smashed my all time record on this course by just a bit over 40 sec in 40min and it was not that hard ( thats the good thing doing 3 sessions with zico over last 3 weeks those sessions were a bit short for my liking but running with him is a nice push and one just does push a bit harder when there is soebody else that suffers with you)
I know i had 2 easish days before but at the same time by tonight at 10.30 pm i will have done 200 k running in the last 10 days with some big days so its not like i went into the session too fresh either.

peter kern

good week last week the most intensive 9 day block of the year done and i was pleased with the results.
took tuesday off after morning session and did 1.5 k swim 180k solid bike 2 hours rest and then pulse aquathon. tough day but happy with it and the first time this year i was really tired at the finish line.
the other 2 key days were sat 180 k all big chainring , would have been arond 5.30h for uk course ( since the course i do with 2000 m climbing has roughtly the same climbing as im uk course ,going twice over sally gap)
after 90 min rest 9 k run at hardman pace so approx 3.55 min k, really enjoyed that run
sunday cycle to glendalough 2.40 h run and cycle home.
total for 9 days
approx 900k cycling ( the 2 weekends and tuesday 780k) 135 k runing and 13 k swimming
pleased with the cycling as its coming on , there was a lot of running a good pace and 2 long run days .
swimming so so
this week 3, 5 days easy and y day v fast treadmil run.

El Director

zico10 wrote: »

That's a very touching compliment, Peter. I'll be back next Thursday, same place, trying to hold the same pace for 20 minutes straight. If my "crappy technique" proves to be a limiter, I might dial it back a bit. Once again, you're welcome to join me. You blocking the wind was much appreciated last week, but I guess you owed me that from the duathlon in Dunboyne.

El Director, we were running on the XC track in the NSC.

Ah, perfect. Thanks Zico. I was looking online for information on the XC track up there but couldn't find anything really. Will just rock up this week some stage and see what it's like.