Keen to see what the future may hold!

Macanri wrote: »

All the best for tomorrow man.

Great weeks training by the way, and super 3km and bike TT times.

Thanks dude, it was a good week for me

Registered the night before for the race which I think really has its advantages. It meant I had a very relaxed morning before the race. Stayed at a mates house and for some reason I didn't sleep till 2am, up at 6am (need 3 hours between breakie and race time). The sleepless night wasn't due to nerves, just the way its been for a few nights. Anyway, headed for transition at 8 and got a good position in transition (more advantages here to be near top end of transition). For once I got in a decent warm up, 2k including strides.

Race Report

Swim

The sea seemed a bit 'swelly' but to be honest, I am delighted to say, the water does not un-nerve me anymore. This race had an extra bit of spice in it for me, my 'carrot on a stick' mate (as mentioned in my first post) was there. Our first head to head this year. So when the horn went I found myself sprinting into the water. Kept out of trouble mostly, it was packed and bunched but I got away and got in behind a lead group and drafted. First time I actually got on someone's toes and felt it made a big difference. Googles fogged big time so I was swimming blind and just had to trust the guys in front. Thankfully there line of swimming was really straight and in turn mine was too. Then coming back into shore I ran aground. Found myself standing up and clambering over jagged rocks :mad: I wan't the only one and wasted a good minute until I saw the better/smarter swimmers gliding over the rocks breaststroke style, I followed suit and before I knew it I was sprinting towards T1, long enough run. Swim 12:44 (50/193) (Last year 20:12 41/190) Swim was sorter this year.

T1 Couldn't believe the change in weather when I eventually emerged from the water. It was teeming and the wind had picked up big time. In and out of T1 in 1:08.

Bike

No Macarni/MCOS like incidents mounting the horse My confidence on the bike is back now for sure. Windy and wet conditions would have made me twitchy up until recently but yesterday I didn't even think about that. I was gritting my teeth and going for it. I knew my mate would be out of the water before me so I had a lot of work ahead of me (in fact he was 2:31 ahead of me heading out on the bikes). Strong head wind as expected on the way out. Passed many and nobody passed me. Saw two crashes, both seemed really sore :eek: Then I saw CB, he was well ahead of the field and held out for the win. After spotting my mate coming back I knew he was roughly 2 mins ahead, my running is better and right then I knew it would be a sprint finish The tail wind certainly helped on the way back and I picked a few more off. Got sick in my mouth twice on the bike, I think my drink is too sugary, my Nuun's came today so I will try them in training this week. Bike 35:32 (8/193) Last year 38:11 (24/190)

T2 Came flying in off the bike and sprinted into what I thought was transition, but I noticed no mat! I had gone the wrong side of the barrier. Dropped my bike on the ground picked it up lifted up and sped around to the right side and over the mat. I then noticed I was still carrying my bike so I let the wheels hit the ground again and off I go. 0:54

Run

Coming out of T2 my HR spiked as usual, but it was much higher this time what with the urgency in transition. There was a Spanish guy about 3/400m ahead of me and beyond that I could see nobody, game over in my personal battle? Stitch was now my immediate concern. Deep breath...deep breath, sound. So at about 3k I spotted a small figure in the distance, it was him I know his style. But first the Spaniard had to be reeled in. Was chatting to him after, he is a tough competitor and won his age group. Anyway I got him with about 1.5k left. Now it was on. I was wondering if I knew I was coming (he did as it happened as he saw me when he was rounding South Park). The distance was now only 300m. I was closing and with 500m to go he glanced over his shoulder, I now knew he knew! I got to within 40m or so but I just couldn't reel him in. Finished 13 sec behind. He was 8th and myself 9th. Run 20:02 (10/193) last year 22:54 (54/190)

Overall Time 1h10m21s new (PB)(9/193) Last year 1h25m15s (32/190)

Meet Catweazle and his better half, very friendly gent even after getting a chipped tooth!

Delighted overall, I gave it everything. I was particularly happy with the way I attacked the transitions. This is only possible I now know when you have that extra bit of fitness. Ok so to another tough week of training.

Monday Morning 5:30 Coached Swim Session

3 x 200m "SKPS" 50 swim/50 kick/50 Pull/50 swim x 3 descending

1) 4:33
2) 4:20
3) 4:00

8 x 50 Pull off 1:30 keeping as close as possible to ave; Range 42sec - 45sec

8 x 50 Kick off 1:30 keeping as close as possible to ave; Range 1:07 - 1:13

8 x 50 FS off 1:30 keeping as close as possible to ave; Range 40sec - 45sec

Cool down 250m

Coach pointed out that the best swimmers have a long stroke with a high tempo. Short stroke, fast tempo == slow; long stroke, low tempo (me) == slow. So need to concentrate on faster and long. He also pointed out that I am putting a lot of effort into each stroke, this leads to me fatiguing. I shouldn't be treating each pull separately, instead keep it as the continuous cycle. As I tried this it actually helped me to pick up the tempo and it wasn't half as tiring. mmmmm.....food for thought. Long run later this afternoon after nap of course

Monday Afternoon 14th June

Core workout this afternoon then run.

Distance 14.04km; Time 1:03:24; Ave Pace 4:30/km; HR Ave/Max 151/170

Key session no. 1 of the week. Decided to run this at desired 10k pace off the bike in an olympic distance tri. Should be able to do this, although legs were heavy and tired enough from yesterday and this morning swim session (the kick sets killed me).

Key session 2 and 3 will be combined this week, the Bray Aquathon on Wednesday evening (OW swim/Tempo run combined). Loved these aquas last year, an invaluable quality quality brick.

Tomorrow morning I am doing hill repeats x 3 on the TT bike (in prep for Kilkee, anyone know the hill out of Chapelizod toward Castleknock?) It will replace my scheduled weights session, and I will prob shelf the weight sessions until after summer, best cycle, run and swim plus I have my core sessions.

kruger73 wrote: »

I wouldn't make too much out of the bike at Kilkee. It is not a tough bike course, as is made out by many. Times are pretty consistent with the fact that it's 45k, but apart from a few small short drags there are no hills to speak of.
Laps of the park taking in the Kyber on the TT bike would be probably more suited, rather than Knockmaroon which is steep and short, in my opinion.

I hear you kruger re Kilkee and the hill route. Did it this morning 3 times and continued up past Mount Sackville Convent all the way up to the traffic lights and then right into the park and repeat. So that makes it a nice drag but you've given me an idea, it would be very easy to include the Kyber in my hill training over the next few week, I could easily do a figure of 8 and include both hills!

Tuesday Morn 15th June

After many months wondering what it would be like to tackle Knockmaroon hill I finally did it 3 times this morning, early before traffic build up. Traffic wasn't a problem in the direction I was going. It is a tough SOAB but doable. I continued up past Mount Sackville Convent and swung a right at right lights and back into the park to repeat. As per post above I am now also going to include the kyber in my hill training on Tuesday mornings, that will mix it up nicely.

Distance 28.33km; Time 1:09:31; HR Ave/Max 119/167

Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36946794

Tests to correct, nap and club run session this eve

Wednesday 16th June

So instead of a coached sim session (I would have been made do a lot of kicking and I have the Aquathon this eve), I did an easy session.

Warm Up 100m 1:50

100/200/300/300/200/100 Times:

100m 1:50
200m 3:48
300m 5:40
300m 5:40
200m 3:48
100m 1:48

Cool Down 100m

After that did a core and stretch session. Relaxed in the jacuzzi after.

So Bray Aqua this eve, 3 good mates of mine doing this tonight so plenty tough tough competition (including my mate, from here on referred to as PB, got close to him last year in these but no cigar).

pgibbo wrote: »

Savage going in the Cope tri on Sunday dude. Awesome performance. Well done! :cool: I didn't make it out myself as we were babysitting my wifes nephew and I got stuck watching Madagascar 2 with him while the OH had a lie on. Oh well, what can you do?

BTW, all these afternoon naps of yours are really making me jealous. Train, power nap & train again. Sounds perfect, once you're getting paid for doing it that is.

Best of luck this evening.

Thanks P I was delighted with Sunday, felt really good. Teaching has it's advantages if you are a triathlete. But....if you are not cut out for the job then it would not be worth it. I am lucky.

Race Report

The lads laugh when they see me come with my big gear bag but it is just my way of preparing, I bring everything that I could possibly need, just my way. As usual love the DART ride out.

Swim

For the most part against the current and it had to have been longer than 750m. Got dudcked half way and got angry :mad: calmed down though and instead f exacting revenge I got in behind him and drafted goodo After a bit he started going way off course so I kept going straight. Actually prob the straightest I have ever swum! Came out of water at about 13 min, ahead of my mate (a friend in the crowd told me so) who is the much better swimmer, I had him this time

Transition Not that efficient, about 2 mins.

Run

First lap was a struggle, got a stitch despite warming up hard to get it out of the way before the race. Anyway it went after 2/300m. Concentrated on a high cadence till I felt I could open up. Anyone who knows this race knows that there is a killer of a hill that must be done twice and this year they extended it by about 20m....mean! Anyway felt way stronger on the second lap and powered on. My 3 mates a couple of minutes behind. Final time 33:30 or so. Will post position once I know it.

These Aqua's really are the business in terms of high quality brick sessions. Already looking forward to next months even if I will be just back from Cyprus.

Just had a feed of chips, onion rings and ketchup.....soooo hungry mmmmmm:D

Went with the club this morning on a most enjoyable spin. Starting in Swords we headed to Balbriggen then onto Drogheda with a tea and scone stop in the Battle of the Boyne Heritage Centre. Never been there so what a pleasant surprise that was. Really concentrated on a high cadence, 90% of the time in the small cog, here are the stats:

Distance 83.8km; Time 2:33:00; Speed Ave/Max 29.6km/h/55km/h; % HR 67%/90%; Cadence Ave/Max 84/132;

So the running track this evening and tday is my last double sessions day. Tapering starts I suppose tomorrow really.

PS. Finished 26th in last nights Aquathon out of 176 so very pleased with that.

Warm Up 200m

Swim/Golf 12 x 50m - aim of the game is to get the lowest score! So here is what I had to do: swim 50m counting the strokes down and back up the pool. Then add them together and add your time to this. Really good swimmers would get a score of 65 and lower, 70 and lower also excellent. The target set for me was 90 and lower. So here was my best one;

first 25m strokes - 17; second 25m strokes 21 (strong jet in the lane which makes coming up the pool harder in that lane); Time 46 sec; So total 17 + 21 + 49 = 87.

My worst score was 97!!

8 x 200m sighting practise off 4 min. Struggled here, missed the 4 mins 5 times.

It was a very tired physically and even mentally El D that took to the pool this morning. Just went through the motions. Good job I am tapering now.

So only one session per day from now on. What I do I will do well and at target race pace. All about quality now.

The 40k TT from last week results are up now. Annoyed to see they got my time totally wrong. 71 min 37 sec :eek: which put me 14th out of 18th. Reality is I did 66 min 10 sec which would have put me in 8th. Anyway not going to say anything as it doesn't matter.

here is link for that TT http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36469588 Time says on that 66 min 45 sec (forgot to stop the watch for a bit after i finished.)

Mullaghmore Triathlon in the morning, points on offer and I am hungry for points after missing Valentia

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Well done in the Aquathon El D and best of luck tomorrow. Give it socks dude. Taper time then (apart from the small matter of Kilkee) I'm already tapering

Cheers dude, tapering after tomorrow alright, will be nice and fresh for Kilkee and Athlone. All the hard work done now so won't be pushing it. Enjoy the weekend!

Very good, 18 sec between us! I see I've moved down two spots to 28th

interested wrote: »

maybe at next months event, give me a shout before hand, and Ill help lead you out into clearer waters for the swim since it sounds like thats where you lost a bit of time.

Dude that sounds like a seriously good plan to me! cheers!